Ep. 122/ 100k Email Subscribers in a Week: How to Build a Funnel with HerFirst100K Tori Dunlap


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How do you get people to actually sign up to get your newsletter? And keep them there? Tori Dunlap of the platform Her First $100K and hit podcast and book Financial Feminist shares some incredible insights on how she amassed a whopping 100,000 subscribers to her email list in just one week.

You know, as someone who’s built my own business through content marketing, I'm always eager to learn new strategies to enhance and grow my audience. And let me tell you, it’s all about building a robust funnel. If you’ve been confused about how to transition your social media followers into email subscribers, you definitely don’t want to miss this episode.

We dove into the nitty-gritty of what a funnel actually is and why relying solely on social media can be so risky. It's like “building your business on borrowed land” - the algorithms can change, the platform can go down, and suddenly all those followers you’ve worked so hard to gain could disappear. Tori’s approach to creating a money personality quiz was such an eye-opener for me. Not only does it engage your audience in a fun and meaningful way, but it also provides them with immediate value. It's all about serving before you sell, folks! So, whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, these tips can seriously help you take your business to the next level. Let’s exit the grind and enter success on our own terms!

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to address client needs through content creation - 12:28

  • Embracing imperfection and improve through consistent practice - 19:51

  • How to move your audience to platforms you control for long-term success - 23:33


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Host Kim Rittberg is joined by Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K and the renowned Financial Feminist podcast, to break down the essentials of creating a successful marketing funnel. With over 5 million followers across social media platforms, Tori shares her strategic approach to transitioning followers into email subscribers. She reveals the secrets behind growing an email list by 100,000 subscribers in just one week and offers actionable steps for leveraging social media to build a funnel that converts. Tori discusses using a personality quiz to engage her audience and retain subscribers by providing tailored content. Learn tips on serving your audience before selling, creating valuable digital downloads, and optimizing your email marketing strategy. Don’t miss this episode if you’re looking to supercharge your business growth through effective content marketing and funnel-building techniques. Subscribe now and get expert advice on moving your audience from social media to an email list you control!

In this episode you will learn:

  • How to address client needs through content creation - 12:28

  • Embracing imperfection and improve through consistent practice - 19:51

  • How to move your audience to platforms you control for long-term success - 23:33

Quotes from our guest: 

  • You don't control when their algorithm changes and how that affects you and if your account gets taken down, which is a real thing that's happened to me many times, or if the platform just to exist, which is not likely with something like Instagram, but we're seeing with TikTok, people want to ban it all the time. You've built a majority of your business on borrowed land, you've built a lot of dependency on this one particular platform that you do not control.” - 4:55

  • "The way that you build trust with your audience starts way before they've ever given you their email."- 10:32

  • “It's only cringey before you make it. It only feels ridiculous until you're the one who's raking in millions of dollars and you're the one who's getting a book deal and speaking engagements and the life that you actually want and the business that you actually want.” - 21:48

BIO: 

Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert, bestselling author, and podcast host. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over four million women negotiate salary, pay off debt, build savings, and invest. She is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling book “Financial Feminist”; host of the #1 Business Podcast, Financial Feminist; a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree; and co-creator of Treasury, an investing education platform that has over $60M invested (featured on New York Times Business front page), Tori's work has been featured on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, BBC and more. 

Tori now travels the world writing and speaking about personal finance, online businesses, and confidence for women.

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TORI’S LINKS:

Tori’s Website 

Tori’s Instagram

Tori’s TikTok


Kim (00:01):

If you've ever been advised not to just rely on social media, but to build up your email list and you're like, how do I do that? We are talking about that today with Tori Dunlap, founder of her first 100 K and Financial Feminist. She has over 5 million followers. She'll give specific actions on what you need to do, share how she gained 100,000 subscribers in just one week to her email list, and the three things you need to do to build a great funnel. Welcome to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards, an in-demand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself, and I want to help you win Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.

(01:32):

I'm really excited about today's episode with Tori Dunlap. I had her on before of her first 100 K, and when she had mentioned something about a funnel about building up your email list, I was like, yes. So I have built my own business through content marketing. So that means content, right? Video articles, blogs, social posts that acts as marketing. So being a former journalist and a TV producer, I always come from how do I actually make content people want to watch, but I also have to sell services. Obviously I run a business and it's been going amazing. I am so happy my business is thriving. I have clients I love and clients who are thriving because I've helped them with their messaging, with their content creation, with their podcast creation. But one thing I'm always looking to learn more about is building up the email list and Tori Dunlap had mentioned about building that funnel.

(02:29):

So I am excited to have her come on and talk about specifically what you could do to grow your funnel and if you are looking to grow in terms of content marketing, again, that social media can get you people into your world like social media really as we talk about top of the funnel, it's the first touch people might have with you and it is really important to show up confidently to have content that's interesting and not salesy and not boring. So I have some very exciting new courses coming up, live coaching courses where you'll work directly with me on your messaging and your content. So drop me a line if you're interested in that. It is Kim Rittberg at K-I-M-R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. I help you get your message super clear so people fall in love with you, and then make really good content that reaches people way out of your orbit or brings people who are in your orbit but turns them into clients.

(03:21):

And I love that. Past students of my video bootcamp, which is a new live coaching course I'm doing. The past clients are really so thrilled that they have a clear message on their business and they understand how to talk to their ideal clients online through content that's actually fun and interesting for people that is not cringey, never cringey. Alright, so if you're interested in leveling up your social media marketing, make sure to message me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim Rittenberg. Tory Dunlap is an internationally recognized money and career expert, New York Times bestselling author and podcast host. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded her first 100 K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over 5 million women negotiate salary, pay off debt, build savings, and invest. Author of the Instant New York Times bestselling book, financial feminist host of the number one business podcast Financial Feminist, a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree and co-creator of treasury, an investing education platform that has over $80 million million dollars invested featured on New York Times business Front page. Tori's work has been featured on GMA today, the New York Times, C-N-N-B-B-C, and More. She now travels the world writing and speaking about personal finance, online businesses, and confidence for women. Tori, thank you so much for joining me again on the show and for Fast Company. Very excited to have you.

Tori (04:43):

Thank you for having me.

Kim (04:44):

So I would love to talk to you about the funnel and before we dive into it, I'd love for you to explain to our listeners when we talk about a funnel, what is a funnel for a business?

Tori (04:55):

Yeah, it depends on the platform, but for what we're going to talk about today, a funnel is just getting people down the customer journey. So a lot of people will use social media to get business, right? They'll go on Instagram, they'll go on TikTok or Facebook or LinkedIn, and they will use those platforms to try to sell their products, sell their services. The good thing and the bad thing about that, the good thing is that if you do it organically and you do it smart, it's basically free marketing. You can use these platforms to get a bunch of consumers and a bunch of eyes on your company, on you, on what you're trying to sell. The con, however, is that you are not controlling these platforms at all. You don't control how their algorithm works. You don't control when their algorithm changes and how that affects you and if your account gets taken down, which is a real thing that's happened to me many times, or if the platform just to exist, which is not likely with something like Instagram, but we're seeing with TikTok, people want to ban it all the time. You've built a majority of your business on borrowed land, you've built a lot of dependency on this one particular platform that you do not control. So the logic behind a funnel is for me, using social media at the very top of the funnel to get people into the experience, to use social media, to get people exposed to our brand, and then moving people throughout the customer journey and hopefully getting them off one of those platforms and onto something that we have more control over.

Kim (06:38):

Do you consider different, because I feel like there's the idea of the funnel being the larger marketing funnel and then there's the funnel sign up for my newsletter, but you're really offering something a little more appealing than just like, Hey, I'm going to just email you a couple times a month. I feel like that's not as enticing as an actual product or a download. Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Tori (06:59):

Yeah, so I mean, funnels are the things that you're building to get somebody further down the journey. And for us and for many marketers, it's about getting people again off of social media and onto something like your email list or subscribe to your podcast where you have a lot more control. So the thing that you just described is probably the first attempt at funnel building by someone who hasn't ever built a funnel before. And that's my first tip for somebody is just in general, you always need to think about serving before you sell. And if you are trying to get somebody subscribed to an email list, you are trying to sell them on you landing in their inbox once a week, twice a week, maybe even every day. And in order for somebody to want to do that and want to participate, you need to give them a reason to care.

(07:49):

And it can't just be, I'm going to wax poetic in my newsletter and don't you want to hear all of my great ideas. It has to be something that's actually valuable to their life, to their experience. And I think you can start that with your social media content as well. You can build that trust, you can showcase that you have something very valuable to offer them. You can serve them in a way that maybe nobody else can, and of course they're going to give you their email. The best way to do that is to your point, not just saying sign up for my newsletter, but giving them something in return. So maybe that is a digital download, maybe that is a free workshop for us. And I think the big one we're going to talk about today, we have what's called a money personality quiz, and you can see how this works.

(08:32):

You can go to her first hundred k.com, which is my company, and you will see a big button that says, take our quiz, learn your Money personality, get a free personalized money plan. We walk you through a couple questions, and then in exchange for your email, we deliver you your results. And then we also send you emails with follow up information, follow up guides, follow up episodes. So if you're a debt defeater, that's your money personality because we know that your primary focus is paying off debt. We're going to send you our resources around paying off your student loans or negotiating down bills or figuring out what the differences between principal and interest and how to pay those off faster. So that's the funnel that I began and really launched in 2021, and we still use it to this day

Kim (09:21):

When we're talking about the resources you're giving them after, obviously that's to build that relationship so someone's feeling really connected to your brand and you're serving them to your point, I come from editorial land where I actually think, I feel like people fall into two buckets. You're a business person and you're kind of spammy and all you do is sell. And so it becomes hard to build up social and a newsletter. Then the other people, I think when you're serving so much, but then you're not really selling enough and then you end up finding like, oh, great, I have this audience, but I'm not monetizing. Well, okay. I mean, that's not a hobby. How are you serving your business?

Tori (09:57):

You got to find the happy medium, I think, between the two.

Kim (10:00):

Right. And then what would you say in terms of, I mean, I feel like I've heard mixed things about this in terms of the newsletter unsubscribe rate when you're having people download new things and then they get added to your newsletter, which some people are glad about and some people aren't. How do you manage that? How do you sort of edge off kick away the unsubscribe rate?

Tori (10:24):

Yeah, there's going to be some people who just come and they want the thing, and as soon as they get the thing they leave, that's to be expected. I think that, again, the way that you build trust with your audience starts way before they've ever given you their email. Because if you can build a relationship with them, if they know that you are going to give them value, and especially for us with the quiz, if we have determined they've told us what they need most, then it makes sense that they're going to stick around because they want more information about that thing. And I think that is what makes it one of the better ways to acquire their email and to nurture them because they've given us information about themselves in our attempts to serve them best. So I think that's one way you can help mitigate that quick churn to unsubscribes is figure out what are they here for?

(11:19):

Are they just here to get that coupon code? If so, well, you made a sale. How do you make them buy again potentially someday versus how do you nurture them for a long, long time? And I think that that starts with building trust way before you've even acquired their email. And that was something very intentional when we were building the quiz, is determining, well, we have all of these resources for people. We have resources around saving money and paying up debt and investing in the stock market. How do we best deliver those resources to people? Because people are asking all the time, they're asking, Hey, how do I do this? I know you have resources, but I don't want to go find them, so how can you deliver them to me? And so the quiz that we launched in 2021 that we're still using today is not only our way that we have gotten over 700,000 email subscribers, and I think it's actually been a million with churn over the past couple of years. So we're at 700,000 or seven 50 I think right now. But it's also the way that we're able to deliver value to our audience because they want it, they're asking for it. So we're like, here, we built you a thing so you don't have to parse through years and years and years of content.

Kim (12:28):

I love the idea, and obviously I think your business is robust, so depending on who's listening and who's reading the article that we're talking about, it depends on how robust they have in terms of the material they provided for people, the questions they've answered, the speeches they've given and all that stuff. But I love the idea of instead of, because I see a lot of people in their businesses, I talk to a lot of self-employed people around the world in different genres and industries is instead of what can I create that will get people to join my newsletter or what can I create that will make people eventually buy from me? It's kind of asking in a different way, what are my people already asking? I sometimes feel like people ask me something and I'm like, oh, that's in that video. I would never say that because obviously there's so much content in the world, obviously they don't notice in that video. That's not them, that's on me. But I do like the idea of, okay, what are my clients, potential clients leads humans? What are they needing and asking for, where do I have that? And then how do I serve it to them in a way that is easier for them? I like the twist on that, that it's kind of what do I get asked a lot, which is something I always tell people for content. I'm like, well, what do you get asked all the time? That's what you should make content about.

Tori (13:40):

And I think too many people create their products or their services in the wrong way where they're not asking, to your point, what are people asking me about? What do people think I'm an expert on? And they're just like, well, I want to do this, or they need this. And it's like if they don't know they need that, it's going to be a lot harder to sell it to them versus if someone's asking you repeatedly, Hey, where is this? I need this. I want the answers to this question. Provide them the answers to that question.

Kim (14:10):

Right, right, right. Talk to me about the quiz. How did you land on deciding it would be a quiz versus a PDF versus a video? I feel like quizzes are really, really fun, but maybe it's just made me feel daunting to create. How did you decide that you would make your main funnel a quiz?

Tori (14:27):

I stole it. My biggest hack for anybody is no one taught me how to build a business. I didn't go to get my MBA, and I would argue a lot of MBA programs actually don't teach you how to run a business. In this day and age, I don't have any entrepreneurs in my family. So my MBA is watching people I admire and whose business I want to emulate and figuring out what works for them. And a bunch of business owners who are now my friends and colleagues, including folks like Ramit Satie and Jenna Kutcher, they all had quizzes and I took them, I was the person on the other side who went through their whole flow because I wanted whatever they were giving me. And then I realized, oh, I have to put in my email before, and I know enough, I have enough entrepreneurial online business literacy to know, oh, you built this to get my email, but also to serve me, but to get my email.

(15:22):

And I was like, okay, how do we make a version of this for our audience? So I sat down with my team, which at the time was two people in addition to myself, and we spent two weeks sprinting to build the quiz because you're not just building the technology, which I had help with, but you're also building the landing pages and writing the copy and building the email flows after that that they're going to receive. So one of my biggest, biggest tips, and I think what I'm so happy to be on talking with you about, and I think why this conversation started is that I see so many people who are my friends and people I see online who build these huge audiences. They have millions and millions and millions of followers on Instagram or TikTok or pick a place. We were starting to do that.

(16:11):

We were starting to have hundreds of thousands and we now have 5 million people on these social platforms. But what I see is that somebody will have this viral moment, somebody will have what they really have hoped for, which is a video pop off and a bunch of views and people wanting to learn more, but they have no place to send them to. They do not capitalize on that opportunity. And I was seeing this with my own business. I was having videos in 2020 go crazy viral, multiple millions of views on TikTok while we were getting maybe more Instagram followers or more traffic to our website, nothing was happening beyond that. So the quiz was an attempt to stop building on borrowed land and to be able to give somebody a place to go. That was again really, really valuable. So I couldn't have timed it better.

(17:05):

We built the quiz in February, March of 2021. I had my most viral video ever to date in April of 2021 in a week. We had had multiple millions of views. I got featured in a bunch of different media outlets. And the coolest thing about it, which is something I did very intentionally, is in the caption for the video, I said, take the quiz in our bio for a free personalized money plan in that one week with an organic TikTok that I created in sweats and no makeup. And in less than 10 minutes, we got a hundred thousand email subscribers in that one week did not pay a dime for that. It was not a sponsored TikTok. It was not me putting any money behind it. And that again, is the same quiz we use to this day. We still have a lot of those a hundred thousand original email subscribers. And so this is what I'm so focused on for business owners, stop building a borrowed land or at least use your borrowed land to build your own house on land that you own. Give them someplace to go, and if you want to build an actual business that monetizes all of the work you've done to get those millions of followers, you need to give them a place to go.

Kim (18:30):

I love that. I listened to a podcast episode on, I forget, it was about quizzes, and I was like, I emailed my virtual assistant, got to get the quiz, and I haven't gotten the quiz yet.

Tori (18:42):

No, it doesn't work for every business, but it really, really worked well for ours, and I think that it makes it more fun, right? Because it's not just like, here's this resource, here's this digital download. It's like, I want to know about me. We're all selfish in that way. We want to know our personality type. We want to know what you're trying to offer me. We want to be able to, it kind of feels like a fun mystery that's solved at the very, very end. And so I think that helps gamify it in a fun way versus just a churn and burn.

Kim (19:14):

Yeah, totally. I was thinking, I think to your point earlier, for me as a business owner, I actually, I believe so much. I came of age in the digital media era of Buzzfeed quizzes, and so I'm like gamify. Yes, absolutely. And I think I had been thinking about, all right, for my own business, I'm like, okay, what kind of video should you make? Is it, what kind of creator are you? And then I help you figure out what you should make. I was still in the thinking process and then I got busy with other stuff.

Tori (19:42):

Yeah. Well, can I give you some advice around that? Because I imagine somebody else is stuck too. Biggest advice for business owners about this and about everything done is better than perfect.

(19:51):

So getting something up and testing it and figure out what's working and what's not is going to make way more of a difference for your business and for you than having the perfect thing before you launch it. And I see this for a lot of want to be entrepreneurs. I think that we get caught up in the perfect logo, the perfect brand color, the perfect whatever, and it's like you just need to start her first or K, this now multimillion dollar business. This was not a thing when I first launched the company, I didn't even have this name, the name changed, the focus changed. And only through doing that work did I figure it out. It's the same thing with launching anything like a quiz or trying to get an email funnel. My first email funnel was terrible. It was really, really bad. But did it learned more? Did version 2.0 learned more and kept learning? So I think get it out, even if it's kind of messy and imperfect and then optimize as you go,

Kim (20:50):

Oh, I am so in agreement with you on that. Actually done is better than perfect. I feel like especially from TV and video running teams, I would have people be like, I'm just fixing. I'm like, Nope, the deadline's now, it was a minute ago. Put it out. So I think you're right, and I am more like I got busy

Tori (21:04):

Using your use case to talk to, I think well, who, yeah, that is their reality, which is like, I need it to be absolutely perfect. And I'm like, babe, it's not going to be. So may as well just launch the thing.

Kim (21:16):

And I think it's interesting. There's such a corollary or an analog or metaphor, whatever, similarly, whatever, probably analog between the idea of not needing it to be perfect, but just putting it out there with people. Also showing up on camera and public speaking, which is what I coach people on, is like, everyone's like, what do you think of this video? I'm like, it's a video, so put it out there. It's like your first 5, 10, 20 videos you're going to hate and cringe and that's okay. The next 20 are not as bad. The next 20 year might be almost good. And then you'll feel like, okay, I'm doing this. Here I am. This is fine.

Tori (21:48):

If you're not cringing too, you're not growing. I look at my videos from 2020 that I posted when I was first on TikTok and I'm getting them all back because I started in July of 2020, so I'm getting the, like you posted this video four years ago and I'm looking at these and I'm like, oh boy, wow, okay, we were doing that. Okay, alright. And I don't have any shame or embarrassment for her because she was making money, she was doing things, she was growing your confidence. And I'm just like, okay, I would not make that same video today, but we've learned and it's okay. It's all right as everybody's saying on social now, which I think is so true. It's only cringey before you make it. It only feels ridiculous until you're the one who's raking in millions of dollars and you're the one who's getting a book deal and speaking engagements and the life that you actually want and the business that you actually want.

Kim (22:42):

Absolutely, and I think that that's probably actually the hardest part for people is that you have to say, I don't care. I'm going to keep going before you really get the positive feedback. But it's only doing it kind of blind and being confident to actually make it happen. I feel like, I mean, please, I used to train people to be on camera when I got on social. I look back, I'm like, wow, slightly wooden robotic. I'm a terrible dancer. I shouldn't dance and not, I shouldn't dance and not, I shouldn't dance because everyone should dance, but I am particularly really don't enjoy dancing on camera. That is not for me, but it's finding your own energy that makes sense for you. And I'm like, now I'll dance because I'll make a joke. I'm dancing. I don't dance and this is my thing. But I love that. Any last tips for people as they consider how to build their funnel? Anything they shouldn't do before we wrap up?

Tori (23:33):

Yeah, my quick tips for everybody, one, you need one. Even if you don't think you need one, you need one. And especially again, if you have a bigger audience somewhere else that you don't control, start getting that audience to a place that you can control. Use that audience that you've built as the top of the funnel to convert them down the line. Second thing, steal from me. Steal from other people who you love. And again, I say steal, but really what we're talking about is watch what other people are doing. Watch what you do as a user, what makes you click on that thing? What makes you give your email, what makes you like a post, right? All of these things can inform how another user is going to behave and also what is working. I follow the people that I admire and that I like how their business is running, and I watch, I watch and learn from those folks.

(24:27):

And I would say the final thing is when you're thinking about funnels, again, start small. It doesn't have to be this big robust thing. You can build that over time, but you just at least need somebody to go somewhere that again, you control and that you own, and that you're giving value in exchange. You just expecting them to drop their email. It is just not going to work just in the same way that it takes usually a little bit for somebody to follow you on Instagram or to buy your book or to subscribe to your podcast, or even to not only subscribe, but then to listen to more than one episode, right? All of these things take a little bit of time and they start with trust, and you just have to start small in order to get going. Don't overthink it.

Kim (25:12):

Amazing. Tori, thank you so much. This was great.

Tori (25:14):

Thanks for having me.

Kim (25:19):

Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. This is the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Don't forget to grab my free download, how to Grow Your Business with Amazing video at kimrittberg.com and linked out in the show notes. I love to hear your feedback. Make sure to submit to me what you learned from the show and how you are crushing it on your own terms. Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim Rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. And this show is edited by Jillian Grover and produced by Henry Street Media. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rittberg.

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