The funnel gap: why good content isn’t enough

This is the third time I’ve had the chance to chat with Marelys Garcia, co-founder of Mindslines, and each time the conversation reveals something powerful.

In our first article, “Why companies ignore first-time managers (and what it costs them)”, we uncovered the invisible gap in leadership development, and how it quietly sabotages team performance and culture.

In our second piece, “Beyond the First Message: How One Founder Is Rebuilding Outreach With Intention“ we zoomed in on lead generation and saw that it’s not just about sending more messages. It’s about what happens after someone responds.

And now, in this latest conversation, we hit something deeper still: the hidden cost of disconnected marketing efforts. Marelys has content. She has leads. She has tools. But without a system to connect them, they’re not working together to grow the business.

That’s what this article is about: how good assets, without strategy, become ghosts in the machine.

Disconnection is the default, until you fight it

When we started mapping out the inner workings of Mindslines, a pattern became clear: they have everything most companies dream of having. A thoughtful website. A sharp podcast. Webinars with lead lists. A newsletter. Social media content. Even a proprietary learning impact tool.

And yet, the results don’t match the effort.

“We keep creating things, webinars, posts, podcast episodes, and even when they get interest, the follow-up stops. We don’t have a rhythm for reconnecting with the people who engage.”

That quote stopped me. Because it’s such a common trap.

On paper, Mindslines is rich in assets. Their podcast is unique, inviting guests to share leadership mistakes in a human, light-hearted format. Their webinars are insightful. Their newsletter, at one point, reached hundreds of engaged professionals. They even have a diagnostic tool that uses AI to measure behavioural change. But here’s the issue: each of these things is happening in its own lane.

I’ve seen it in many businesses: you spend months building content and campaigns, but without a strategy that links them, you end up with disconnected islands of effort. A beautiful newsletter no one follows up on. A podcast that gets likes but not leads. Webinars that fill up but don’t feed into anything. Lead lists that go cold because there’s no follow-up system.

And it doesn’t help when each channel is managed separately, outsourced social posts, internally run webinars, and no clear strategy on how they feed into a common path to conversion.

It’s not just a Mindslines issue, it’s a business-wide epidemic. According to a Harvard Business Review Analytics Services survey, 67% of collaboration failures are caused by silos. Even more striking, 83% of executives admit their organisations are siloed, and 97% say it negatively impacts the business.

That data made Marelys’ situation even more relatable. She’s not an outlier, she’s operating in a system where disconnection is the norm.

And let’s be honest: the walls between our marketing efforts might be invisible, but they’re as real as the walls between departments.

“There’s no real funnel that is using all these different things and piecing them together to a single objective.”

Here’s the hard truth: most marketing assets die in isolation. And that’s not a tech problem, it’s a design problem. A business can have great parts and still fail to create movement if those parts don’t work together. The key isn’t producing more content. It’s making sure the content is part of a cohesive journey.

The founder’s dilemma: doing it all, but not all connected

One of the most inspiring takeaways from our chat was just how much intention and care Marelys brings to every part of Mindslines. She’s deeply involved in shaping content, engaging with clients, and steering the direction of the business, all while keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

“Most of the functions I own in the company… because I’m the one that has the highest time dedication.”

That kind of ownership is powerful. It means every strategy, every program, and every touchpoint reflects a clear purpose. And in today’s fast-paced digital landscape, that level of presence is rare.

What we explored together was how to turn that presence into even more momentum, by creating systems that amplify what’s already working.

“We have four or five different lists… that we don’t touch at all.”

It’s a familiar scenario for many founders: you create meaningful content, attract attention, build relationships, and then the rhythm breaks because there’s no clear structure to carry things forward.

But here’s the exciting part. The foundation is already there. When we looked at how return on investment is shaped, primarily through lead-to-customer conversion rate and average sales price, it became clear that the next big move isn’t starting something new. It’s unlocking the potential of what already exists.

That’s where clarity and sequencing make all the difference. With a clearer path, even small shifts in how those relationships are nurtured can lead to significant gains.

So the focus isn’t on overhauling but it’s on energising. When every touchpoint works together, that’s when things really start to move.

A powerful tool waiting to be activated

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was learning more about Ascent, the proprietary app Mindslines developed to measure learning transformation.

“It’s an application to measure the impact of the learning program… meant to understand the transformative effects of that journey and the person.”

It uses before-and-after assessments to map growth, capturing behavioural changes, and even uses AI to suggest where individuals and teams should focus next. In a world of vague training outcomes, this kind of concrete measurement is gold. It’s an incredibly valuable asset, not just as a product, but as a lead magnet, a differentiator, a conversation starter, and a long-term data engine.

Here’s where it gets frustrating: Ascent has the potential to anchor Mindslines’ offer in results. It could turn passive curiosity into measurable ROI. It could even become a self-standing subscription product. But right now, it’s mostly idle.

“I’ve considered offering it for free to generate data… but haven’t figured out the best way to do that yet.”

This is something I see often, especially in founder-led businesses. You build something brilliant. But the energy required to market, test, distribute, and refine it in the wild is a different game entirely.

Marelys is aware of this challenge. She’s thought about running pilot programs. She’s aware of its value as a differentiator. But without the surrounding infrastructure, clear campaigns, funnel integration, feedback loops, it sits on the digital shelf.

And that’s a shame. Because Ascent could do more than serve Mindslines clients. It could provide long-term behavioural data, segment audiences, fuel newsletter content, and even power case studies.  Strategy is about weaving your product into the way your business grows, so that every interaction, every campaign, and every message contributes to how it’s discovered, understood, and valued.

Zooming out: understanding the buying clock

At one point in the discussion, we explored the “Buying Clock”, a framework that shows where a potential lead is in their decision-making journey.

“Many of the people you’re trying to reach aren’t ready to buy, they’re still figuring things out, reading, comparing, or learning how to name their problem. That’s the moment to educate, not sell.”

Why is this important? Because if you don’t know what time it is on your buyer’s clock, you’ll say the wrong thing. You’ll talk about pricing when they need reassurance. You’ll pitch your features when they’re still trying to name their problem. Timing is just as important as outreach.

The Buying Clock helps us zoom out. At any given time, the vast majority of your audience isn’t ready to buy. They’re learning. Observing. Comparing. Or just lurking in the background, waiting for the right signal. If you engage everyone with the same message, you alienate most of them.

It’s important to understand where your audience is today, and where they’re heading, so you can meet them with the right message at each step of the journey.  

The journey typically moves through five core stages: awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. At the awareness stage, for example, buyers might sense a challenge or opportunity but aren’t actively looking for a solution yet. 

This is where your content marketing, SEO, social media posts, and even partnerships with influencers can quietly place you on their radar, without shouting.

Think of it like dating, you wouldn’t propose marriage before knowing someone’s last name. Yet businesses do this every day, jumping straight to “buy now” before they’ve even said a proper hello.

That’s why we focused on mapping not just assets, but flow. What happens from the moment someone sees a LinkedIn post to the moment they book a call? Are you sending information that helps people learn, or just telling them to buy? From first touchpoint to trust, every interaction needs to match where someone is in their decision process.

This is where strategy comes alive, not in isolated campaigns, but in journeys. Because when you understand the rhythm of your buyers, you can meet them with what they need, when they need it. That’s how relationships and revenue start to compound.

From noise to narrative: making marketing cohesive again

At Serenichron, we always start with the same principle: don’t add more tools. Connect the ones you have.

That’s what we began doing in our session together, mapping out how the various parts of Mindslines could work as a unified system, not just a list of activities.

“We would start to describe ways in which we connect these things… so you move people steadily through the buying clock.”

This isn’t about flashy tools or next-gen platforms. It’s about building flow. We looked at how someone might come across a LinkedIn post from Mindslines, click through to a podcast episode, register for a webinar, and then… nothing. No follow-up. No nurturing. Just silence. The asset did its job, but without a system behind it, the momentum just stopped. And that’s where potential turns to waste.

So we began examining each interaction: Where does a lead come from? What do they see next? What encourages them to stick around? What helps them trust? What makes them act? The key was to build connective tissue between channels and create a natural journey, not a marketing funnel in the abstract, but a living system that adapts to how real people move.

And most importantly: what’s the smallest action that could generate the biggest return?

“We need to unlock revenue opportunities so that we can continue… and grow to that point.”

We identified practical, immediate wins. Like re-engaging dormant webinar leads with segmented follow-up emails. Repackaging podcast highlights into nurture content. Using newsletter segmentation to reintroduce Mindslines to different audience personas in relevant ways.

By looking for these low-hanging fruits, we weren’t trying to do more, we were trying to align what’s already there. When systems work in harmony, even a small change can create exponential results.

And there’s real data behind that. The average conversion rate for a typical landing page is 2.35%, but the best-performing funnels see rates of 5.31% or more. That’s more than double the results, just by improving the structure around the same content and touchpoints.

The content Marelys and her team create,podcasts, webinars, and posts, is full of insight and intention. What we explored together was how to give that content a clearer path to keep the conversation going. We focused on giving the strong elements already in place more direction and connection, so they could go further and do more, without starting from scratch. That’s the quiet strength of a connected system.

Beyond assets: building the system that sustains you

It’s easy to assume that more activity = more results. But in reality, disconnected activity just creates noise. And as Marelys put it:

“I have to see that the end result, is business will be generated just by virtue of going through this process.”

She’s not wrong to ask that. As entrepreneurs, we don’t have the luxury of experimenting endlessly. We need clarity on effort, investment, and return.

So instead of selling a funnel or a playbook, we’re working on building what Marelys called a “launchpad.” A system that can actually be used. Something real, not theoretical.

Clarity tends to surface when you give yourself a moment to zoom out, when you take a breath, step back, and see how the pieces actually fit together. Sometimes, the biggest shift happens when we pause long enough to see the full picture. As Marelys said:

“As my professor used to say, stay away from the blackboard… if you’re too close to it, you’re going to miss some pieces of it.”

It’s a striking image, and a helpful one. When you’re knee-deep in day-to-day tasks, it’s almost impossible to see the full picture. That’s when you start solving symptoms instead of systems. 

Taking a step back gives you the space to notice what’s working, what’s missing, and what’s worth fixing. It’s a moment to reorient, not retreat. Strategy is often less about intensity and more about perspective. When you understand the whole picture, you start to make decisions that move things forward with purpose and clarity.

Conclusion: from chaos to clarity

Here’s what this latest conversation with Marelys reminded me:

Having the right content doesn’t matter if you don’t have the right connection points. Marketing works best when the different pieces support each other and move in the same direction.

When everything is disconnected, even great assets underperform. But when you build a system that ties them together, one that moves leads through the stages of awareness, interest, trust, and decision, you start seeing results without burning out.

The funnel isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a map. And without it, even the best intentions get lost.

So if you’re a founder juggling priorities, or a team trying to do more with less, maybe the next move isn’t to create something new. Maybe it’s to connect what you already have.