Page 3 of The Funnel to You

Frank is my boss at work. And he is the epitome of misogynistic, boys do it better, Home Depot is for guys, why is a girl running this department – you get the idea. It took him forever to promote me to department supervisor. The last two times I went in to interview for supervisor roles, a guy was chosen instead. And I’ve been working there longer and doing more. He made a side comment about how ‘men trust men more in a hardware store’ and ‘it was a better decision in the long run.’ It took everything in me to smile and thank him for the opportunity and not totally lose it on him for the unfairness and inequality. He finally promoted me about eight months ago, and guess what, sales are up, customer and employee metrics are up, and I’ve even managed to grow some of our contractor accounts.

Yep, me. Take that, Frank.

“Okay, I’ll tackle this more tomorrow. Thanks for listening, Kylie. Can you ask Carter to grab me an extra salad for lunch tomorrow if he hasn’t left work yet? I can Venmo him some dollars for it.”

“I already asked him to pick up a Ceasar for you.” She blows me a kiss from the end of the hall before ducking into her room.

Kylie and Carter have the master bedroom at the end of the hall and I have the “extra” one. Luckily, we each have our own bathrooms – that definitely makes our mornings easier. And I need my own space for all my makeup. The huge window in my bedroom looking out at the field behind the apartment complex gives me perfect lighting to do my content and lots to look at when I just need to think.

I sit back against the couch for another minute. I just need to figure out a starting point for what to begin working on. I grab my laptop and start Googling.

Thirty minutes later, Carter is walking in the door and I am more overwhelmed than I was when I lost that video. Why are there so many sites that talk about social media growth, being an influencer, starting a website, running a social media campaign, and which foundations will be trending this fall? Okay, that last one was a slight bunny trail on my part, but really, where do I even start with this?

I slam my laptop closed in frustration and put the rest of my things on the coffee table.

“Okay…what did I miss?” Carter asks tentatively as he sets the bags down on the counter. “Do I need to pop back out and grab you some ice cream?” He’s been living here long enough to know that I need ice cream right before my cycle starts – it’s also when I usually get a bit on the restless side.

“No. I’m good. Thanks for grabbing food. Kylie should be out here soon. I’m just working on a problem and so overwhelmed with how to tackle it.” I take a deep breath and make my way over to the bags to help him unpack everything.

“Boy problem, work problem, or makeup problem?”

“When was the last time I had a boy problem, Carter?” I ask him with a bit of a laugh in my voice. It seriously has been way too long. When was the last time I even had a coffee date with someone, much less took someone home? I don’t have an answer for that. You have to actually be comfortable going out and meeting people for that. And I don’t tend to do that outside of work and I have no desire to pick someone up at Depot.

Internal facepalm.

“No, I’m just trying to figure out how to map out what I need in order to grow my makeup channel into an actual income. I don’t even know what I need to do first. I need to take a break from those online searches or I’m going to go crazy. What did you bring home for dinner tonight?” I grab plates and utensils so we can eat as soon as Kylie gets out here. It’s approaching nine and I need to get to bed soon. I have to be at work at six tomorrow morning which means up at 4:30. Gross. Yes, I am that girl that tries to do a full face of makeup every day – even at Home Depot.

“I kept it simple tonight – chicken parm, spaghetti, and some of the garlic broccoli you girls love. And your salad, of course.”

“Perfect. How much do I owe you for that salad?”

“I really don’t know why you keep asking – don’t worry about it. I don’t have to pay for salads at the end of the night.” Carter gives me an amused look and continues setting the containers on the counter.

“I know. I just don’t want to assume. You know what they say about ‘those people.’” I stage whisper the last two words and he laughs a little under his breath, shaking his head as he starts walking to his room.

Kylie comes out of the room just then and walks over to give Carter a kiss on the cheek and thank him for dinner. She smells like strawberries from her shower and I see the instant Carter smells it too – his eyes zero in on her and he wraps his arms around her. They are just too cute.

“Okay you two. Keep the shenanigans for the bedroom, I’m hungry.”

They both laugh at me and we grab our food then sit at the table to eat. We instituted family dinner nights about six months ago. With all the work we do, them dating, family obligations – we still wanted time together. We may not be family by blood, but I see Kylie as my sister. And Carter as my brother. Which makes it weird that they are dating – I can’t think about that too deeply. A few nights a week, we have dinner together at the table. No TV, no devices, just us together.

Once we finish eating, we head to the living room and sprawl out a bit – none of us quite ready for bed.

“So, I know you don’t want to talk about this a ton tonight, but I wanted to ask while all those Google searches are still fresh.” Carter starts then grabs out a notebook. “What do you think is the first thing you need in order to make this turn into money for you? Just start talking and I’ll make some notes for you.”

He really is the best. We’ve done this a few times whenever one of us is working through something. Someone is the note taker and we just all talk it out until we have enough to make a game plan.

I get up from my seat and pace a bit then move to the kitchen to get a cup of tea. I need to do something with my hands. And I may be a coffee addict, but even I know that I have to switch to tea at some point if I want to get any sleep. I’m not twenty-one anymore. Unfortunately.

“Well, nothing can happen until I get more visibility. I know my content is good. I love what I do and the feedback I get is good. There just isn’t enough of it. I don’t know how to get more people seeing my content without posting twenty times a day or spending an hour just on commenting and networking and I don’t have the time or energy for that. I am NOT paying for followers or engagement. I looked at hiring someone to help me map things out, but the rates are insane. I just need to get more people seeing what I have…” The kettle starts boiling so I add hot water to my mug where my tea bag is already hanging out and then come sit back down. I already have a little tea bag holder on my side table so I can put the tea bag on there when it’s done steeping.

“So, you need a funnel?” Kylie asks from the floor. She’s on her phone looking at stuff. “This website says that one way to get more people seeing your online content is to create a funnel – a reason for them to get to your content and an easy way to do that.”

“But how do I do that?” I ask her.

“I don’t know, but that does make sense. Maybe talking to someone who does this all the time will help you know where to start.” She continues scrolling through on her phone for a few minutes while I play with my tea bag and Carter doodles in his notebook. I really lucked out with these two. It’s not just my problem to deal with. They are taking on part of it for themselves too.

“When you two decide to get married and get your own place, I vote we still have family dinners at least once a week.” I say very matter of factly then take the tea bag out of my tea and blow off the steam.

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