What if the real reason you’re not hitting your money goals has nothing to do with how hard you’re working?
In this millionaire mindset episode, I’m introducing you to the Lever Theory, the framework that completely changed the way I run my $7.5 million dollar business and manage my own finances. Ever felt like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill and getting nowhere? Well this episode is going to reframe everything. We’re talking about why hustle culture is lying to you, why you have to know your numbers before anything else works, and how to find the one single move that closes the gap between where you are and where you want to be. No grinding required.
Key takeaways:
Hustle culture has sold you a lie, and it’s costing you more than you think
The cultural equation we’ve been sold is that more hours = more output = more worth. And it is simply not true. Women are especially vulnerable to this because we’ve spent our entire lives having to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. Overworking starts to feel like survival, not a choice. But past a certain point, grinding is just expensive noise. The problem is rarely that you’re not working hard enough. The problem is almost always that you’re working hard on the wrong things. Effort is not the metric. Results are.
You cannot pull a lever you can’t see, which means your numbers come first
Before the Lever Theory can work for you, you have to actually know what’s going on with your money. Not a vague sense of it. Not a feeling. The actual numbers. What are you spending each month? What is your net worth? What is the exact number you’d need to quit your job, leave a relationship, or weather a bad month? If you can’t answer those questions, you’re managing your entire financial life on vibes and hope, and that is what’s keeping you stuck and stressed. The anxiety most people feel about money isn’t because their situation is hopeless. It’s because they’re operating in the dark. You can’t fix what you can’t see.
Every goal has a gap, and every gap has a lever
The core idea of the Lever Theory is this: a lever is a single, disproportionately effective move that closes the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Not a 10-step plan. Not an entire new strategy. One move. When you’re staring at a gap, whether that’s a savings milestone, a debt payoff target, or a revenue number, the three questions to ask yourself are: What is already working that I can do more of? What is the smallest ask I can make that will give me the biggest potential return? And what can I do in 48 hours or less? Those three questions will almost always surface your lever.
The Lever Theory works for debt, savings, and income goals, not just business
This framework isn’t just for entrepreneurs. If you’re $2,000 away from paying off a credit card, the lever probably isn’t cutting your coffee budget. It might be one bill negotiation call, selling something you don’t use, or picking up one shift of overtime. If you’re $500 away from a fully funded emergency fund, the lever might be pausing one subscription category for 60 days. If you’re $10,000 away from a salary goal, the lever might be one well-timed negotiation conversation, not an entire job search. The through line is always the same: you don’t need a new plan. You don’t need to reinvent yourself. You just need the right move at the right time.
There are real mindset blocks that will try to stop you from pulling the lever
Even when you know the lever exists, a few things will try to get in the way. The first is guilt, the feeling that strategy and rest are cheating and that it should be harder. It shouldn’t. Nobody gets extra points for making their goals more difficult than they need to be. The second is the all or nothing mindset, the belief that if you’re not going all in, you’re not serious. That mindset will sabotage you every time. The third is analysis paralysis, trying to find the perfect lever instead of just picking one and testing it. Done is better than perfect. And the fourth is the fear that simplicity means you’re missing something. You’re not. Simplicity is the whole point.
The five steps to finding and pulling your lever
Step one: name the gap. Get specific. Not “I want to save more money” but “I am $800 away from my emergency fund target.” Step two: audit what’s already working. What has driven results before? What do you have that you’re underusing? Step three: ask the lever question. What is the single move that will close this gap with the least amount of effort? Step four: set the 48-hour constraint. Urgency without burnout. If you had to act today, what would you do? Step five: do the one thing first. Pull the lever. Not the whole plan. Just the lever.
Notable quotes
“Past a certain point, grinding is just expensive noise.”
“You’re not anxious because your situation is hopeless. You’re anxious because you’re operating in the dark.”
“Strategy is what separates millionaires from people who burn out three-quarters of the way there.”
Questions to ponder from this episode:
- Where are you confusing effort with strategy?
- What lever do you already have access to that you haven’t pulled yet?
- Where is the all or nothing mindset showing up in your financial life?
- What would you do if you only had 48 hours to close the gap?
Episode at-a-glance
00:00 Intro
00:47 Why working harder is almost never the answer
01:10 What millionaire mindset is about
03:19 Why hustle culture disproportionately traps women
04:07 The lie: more hours = more output = more worth
06:05 Grinding past a certain point is just expensive noise
08:45 You can’t set goals if you don’t know your numbers
10:05 The ostrich effect: putting your head in the sand
11:36 You cannot pull a lever you can’t see
13:06 The Lever Theory explained
14:28 Finding the gap: a revenue example
15:43 The three questions to find your lever
18:35 Implementing the Lever Theory beyond business
20:49 Working smarter, not harder
22:09 Saving Sprint announcement
24:09 Why we resist finding the lever
26:14 The all-or-nothing mindset sabotaging your goals
27:10 Analysis paralysis and the fear of simplicity
29:21 How to find your lever (5 steps)
33:29 Your homework: find the lever this week
Thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring this episode!
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Mentioned in this episode:
The #1 Mindset Holding You Back podcast episode
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
I run a seven and a half million-dollar business and I will be the first person to tell you that working harder is almost never the answer. So today I want to talk to you about what the answer actually is. Hustle culture has sold you a lie, not a little white lie, but a big gaslighty lie that hustle and burnout are the only way to get to your big goals, whether financial, career or otherwise. And today we’re blowing that up because what if I told you that the real reason you’re not hitting your money goals has nothing to do with how hard you’re working? What if the problem is actually that you’re working too hard on the wrong things?
If you have a financial or career goal right now, a savings milestone, a debt payoff target, a revenue number, and you feel like the only way to hit it is by pushing a boulder up a hill, I need you to keep listening because I promise you there is a better, more effective way that no one is talking about. Hi, I’m Tori. I’m a money expert, a multimillion-dollar business owner, and I’ve helped five million women be better with money. And today on millionaire mindset, we invite you back to do the mindset work to turn you into a millionaire.
This show is by a millionaire for people who want to be millionaires, but more specifically talks you through all of the really necessary mindset and goal setting work you need to do to get you to where you want to be. Because frankly, I hate that so many people on the internet tell you to dream your big dreams, but they don’t tell you how to get there. But first, a word from our sponsors. So when we talk about hustle culture, of course it’s been demonized. Of course, because we’re all burnt out and tired. And unfortunately, hustle culture and grind culture, which is this commitment that you need to be working constantly with no breaks, no rest, no balance, it disproportionately traps women.
This narrative unfortunately feels very appealing because we’ve been told largely as Americans specifically, but just generally that if you want something, you’re going to have to work hard. And I agree with that. I think if you want anything, you’re going to have to work your ass off. But we have believed the lie that hard work equals success 100% of the time and we know that’s not true. And we’ve also learned that if we’re not getting to where we need to be, that we should just put more effort in. We should grit our teeth and grind harder.
But the cultural equation we’ve been sold that more hours equals more output, equals more worth is just not working. And I would be the first to tell you if it is, but it’s not. It’s not working for us and our sustainability of our lives, but it’s also not even effective for achieving our goals. And women are especially susceptible to hustle culture because we’ve had to work twice as hard our entire lives. We’ve been having to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously and overworking just feels like survival. It doesn’t feel like a choice at this point.
But the little dirty secret is that past a certain point, grinding is just expensive noise. And I have had to learn this over and over and over again in my own life. Yes, in the pursuit of my 100K and beyond that into financial independence, but really I’ve had to learn this in becoming a business owner. There are so many moments in our business where if we’re not achieving our goals, we’re not hitting revenue or we’re not where we want to be, traditional business advice is, “Well, then you’re not working hard enough,” or, “You’re not pushing yourself or your team hard enough.”
And it’s one of those things that is so easy to get caught up in because you see other people working really hard. You believe that, “Okay, maybe this should be difficult in order to work. I know that results are not going to come easy, so maybe I just need to keep pushing.” The problem is when you push harder, things actually get more difficult. I know that sounds really like maybe, “No duh.” But if you have not yet been in a situation, whether in your personal finance journey or in your entrepreneurship journey or in your career where you feel truly like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill and you’re making no progress, it’s just the most frustrating thing.
And it’s so easy to then say to yourself, “Well, I must not be working hard enough. I must not be pushing hard enough.” When really I want to teach you the system that is absolutely going to change the way that boulder gets up a hill and it’s not through growing bigger muscles and it’s not through more effort. Before we get to the Lever Theory, which is what we’re talking about today, the system that radically when implemented my life changed everything for me.
We first have to figure out what’s actually going on and you’ve heard me say this over and over and over again, but I can’t even apply the Lever Theory to you or your life or your business until I know what’s going on in your business or your life or your money because the thing nobody talks about when we talk about financial stress is that most women don’t actually know what’s going on and that might be you. You might tell me, “Oh yeah, I vaguely know what’s going on.”
But if you can’t tell me what your monthly spending is, if you can’t tell me what your net worth is, if you can’t tell me the exact number you would need to quit your job or to leave the relationship or to weather a bad month, you don’t actually know what’s going on and you are still in a place where you are asking yourself to push that boulder up a hill because you can’t set intentions, you can’t set goals, you can’t actually make progress unless you know what the fuck is going on. I know that there’s so many of you listening who are like, “I’m working really hard, Tori, and I’m really trying.” And I see that, but work that is aimless, work that is just running on a treadmill does not get you where you want to be.
So if you don’t actually know what’s going on, if you don’t actually know your numbers, then how do you expect to make progress? I’m realizing this in my own life. I’m on a fitness journey this year. I’m working with a coach. I am taking measurements. I am doing progress photos. I am doing check-ins every week with her to see what my progress is like. And of course, the reason she’s having me do that is not just so we can tweak and optimize and figure out what’s not working, but also so that I maintain momentum and motivation because motivation doesn’t just come on a whim. Motivation comes from us putting in the work and seeing progress.
So if you don’t know your numbers, you’re just managing your entire life right now off of vibes and hope. You’re just like, “Well, maybe things will be fine, maybe they won’t.” Of course, you feel stressed about money and the irony is that you’re not actually stressed because of your financial situation. The money’s not stressing you out. You’re stressed because you have no idea what the hell’s going on. We call this the ostrich effect at Her First $100K. You put your head in the sand, you act like your problems don’t exist because if you don’t look, you don’t have to feel the feelings, right? It’s just easier.
But you’re listening to millionaire mindset. You’re listening to millionaire mindset on Financial Feminist. You know better. You know that in order to get to where you want to be, you have to un-ostrich yourself and I get it looking is scary, but ostriching is costing you so much. It’s keeping you stressed about something you can’t fix because you can’t see it clearly enough to fix it. You’re not anxious because your situation is hopeless. You’re anxious because you’re operating in the dark. It is the monster you can’t see right now. You’re scared of the monster under your bed or in your closet because you have no idea what it looks like.
What if it looks like Sulley? I would love a monster in my closet that looks like James P. Sullivan, okay? Your monster in your closet could look like Randall. Okay? That would be a little scary, but at least you know what Randall looks like or it could be James P. Sullivan. Monsters, Inc. daddy. And yes, you can quote me on that, but ultimately you cannot pull a lever you can’t see. The entire Lever Theory, everything I’m about to teach you, it runs on data. The reason I can look at my life and my business and my money and actually start making change is because I know what’s going on.
I know my numbers. I know what works. I know where the margin is. I know where the gap is. I know all of these things. So if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t have a gap, you just have a feeling. You just have a, “Oh, I think.” I need you to know. You cannot actually figure out how to be better with money, how to get to where you want to be in your career or in your business or in your finances until you know what the hell is going on. So before we go any further and I know you’re like, “Okay, Tori, what’s the Lever Theory? The title of this episode is The Lever Theory. What’s going on?” The reason I haven’t told you yet is because it does not work unless you actually look at your money.
I will get there. I promise I’m going to get there in a second, but I don’t want you in my DMs being like, “This didn’t work for me.” If it’s not working for you, it’s because you don’t know your numbers. This is your moment right here. Before I tell you how to implement this, it does not work unless you know your numbers. So this is your moment. You’re going to pull up your bank account. You’re going to check your budget. You’re going to actually know what’s in there because the lever is absolutely useless without the data to actually aim the lever properly. So we’re going to do that first. Go look at your numbers. Feel free to pause this episode, come back when you’re done.
Okay. Here’s the Lever Theory. When I was running my business and especially as it was getting traction, 2021, 2022, 2023, there was a lot of things happening at once. 2021, we were going crazy viral on TikTok and getting like 50,000 followers a week. It was wild. 2022, I was in the process of writing and then releasing my book. I went on a book tour. 2023, we had a lot of transitions with our team. We had a lot of periods of growth. There was a lot going on in about a three-year span and I was frankly burning out pretty hard, especially around the book launch. I remember getting to 2023 and feeling absolutely exhausted because we were all working hard. I was out here grinding and working really, really, really, really long hours. And I remember thinking, “There’s got to be an easier way. There’s got to be an easier way to hit our revenue goals, to become a New York Times bestseller.” All of these things.
And yes, I put a ton of hard work in and all of your goals that you have, you’re going to have to put the hard work in. But when I instituted the Lever Theory in my own life, but also in our business, things radically changed. So the core idea of the Lever Theory is that every goal has a gap and every gap has a lever. And in this case, I would define lever as a single disproportionately effective move that closes that gap. So let me give you an example. If we are coming up to the end of the month, maybe in the last couple days or the last week, and let’s say we are a short gap away from a specific revenue goal. So I’ll give you an example. If we’re at 450K or maybe $472,000 for the month, I will then ask myself, “How do I get to 500?”
And it’s maybe not even because I absolutely need to get to 500. It’s more the fact that this might be fun. And when I say this might be fun, I don’t mean that in a frivolous way. I take my business very seriously, but I also view business and goals as a fun little game, like a problem to solve. So if I’m trying to bridge that gap from 450 or 470 to 500, what is the one lever that I can pull to get me there? How do I find that lever? So for us in our business, it might be sending one email or even sending a couple emails to one targeted group of people. It might be doing a 48-hour offer or a flash sale. It might be doing one Instagram post for us. Now we’re at the level of business where it might just be one thing for us as our lever or even a handful of things.
For you and your business or your finances or your life, it might mean pulling a way bigger lever or pulling a bunch of little tiny mini levers, but the goal is not, “How do I create an entire new product to launch?” Or, “How do I put in 15 hours of overtime this week?” It is simply, “How can I find one specific lever to pull that will be disproportionately effective?” And this is not luck. This is not me being a genius. This is a learnable, teachable skill. So the three questions I’m asking myself when I’m staring at a gap, and this might be if you’re an entrepreneur, revenue absolutely. But it might be, “Oh, I want to get to this amount of money saved by the end of this month. How do I get there?” Or, “How do I pay off this amount of debt? I am paying off $450 worth of debt this month. How do I get to 500?”
The three questions I ask myself. One, what is already working that I can do more of? I don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. If the wheel is already operational and it’s effective, why would I reinvent it? How do I just make that wheel even more effective? How do I grease that wheel even more? The second question, what is the smallest ask I can make that will give me the biggest potential return? Because yeah, I could say, “Oh, we’re going to grind for the last week and do an entirely new offer and we’re going to put it out.” And that’s a lot of work for me and it’s a lot of work for our team. So if I have a limited amount of time and that’s on purpose, right? We’re giving parameters, we’re giving barriers to work in. What is the smallest ask I can make that will have the biggest potential return? What is the smallest thing we can do that will have exponential results? And finally, what can I do in 48 hours or less?
And if you want to expand this to be a couple days, fine, but I do think constraints are good here. 48 hours is a great constraint to get you to where you want to be. So the Lever Theory has absolutely transformed the way we think about our business, the way we think about our goals and it’s something we’re actively implementing across channels and across our teams to be able to say, “Hey, if we are X amount away from a particular revenue goal or from a particular internal goal of like certain amount of partners or downloads for the podcast rate, how can we use this one lever pull it for disproportionate results?”
You can do this with your teams if you are managing a team either at a company that you own or at a company you don’t, or if you’re not a manager, if you’re not a leader in your company, you can do this for yourself. You can make this a game for yourself. “Ugh, I want to pay off $500 a debt. I’m only at 425. What is the one lever I can pull?” Maybe that’s negotiating a bill. Maybe that is cutting back temporarily on something so that you can get to where you want to be. Because here’s the other fun thing that happens once you start pulling levers is, one, you hit your goals way faster and way easier, but also two, it starts to become just a habit you’re thinking about all of the time. And it’s so effective for not just this goal or this situation right now, but every single month, every single year for the rest of your career, for the rest of your business, for the rest of your financial life.
Because it’s like, “Ooh…” You start seeing levers everywhere and you start even in times where you don’t need the lever asking yourself, “Oh, that would be a great lever for later. How do I log that to make sure I can go back?” I know what levers work in my business. I know what levers work in my financial life. I also know what levers don’t work. I tried them. I pulled them, they didn’t work. That’s great data. But ultimately this requires slowing down to actually consider your levers before acting. This is not me out here pressing a bunch of buttons like I’m trying to fly a plane, right? This is very intentionally going, “Okay, this I think is a lever and I believe this can work for this particular situation.”
This is deeply uncomfortable for people who are high achievers because it requires you to actually be methodical and intentional as opposed to just, “Let’s try a bunch of shit and see if it works.” That is not what a millionaire does. A millionaire makes thoughtful, intentional decisions and finds hacks along the way to make this easier. The Lever Theory has changed the way I run my business, has changed the way I think about my personal finances. It’s also changed my mindset because it is so intentional. It’s not me out here testing a bunch of shit and throwing a bunch of spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks. It’s throwing one noodle at a time. So let’s talk about how you can implement the Lever Theory beyond your business.
So this framework I presented of my profit and loss statement or my revenue goals for my business, you can do this too if you’re a business owner or if you’re someone who is in charge of revenue at your company, but beyond running a business or beyond entrepreneurship, the Lever Theory can look different for you. Debt payoff. We talked about this already, but let’s say you’re 2K away from paying off a credit card. The lever is probably not going to be spend less on coffee because $2,000 divided by seven is a lot of coffees, okay? But it could be a single bill negotiation call. It could be selling something you don’t use or it could be one shift of overtime, that one lever.
Maybe you have a savings milestone you’re trying to hit. You’re $500 away from a fully funded emergency fund. That one lever might be pausing a subscription category for 60 days or it might be, again, negotiating a bill. It’s not a full budget overhaul. It’s not, “Oh, I’m going to just completely quit my job so I can start this other thing.” It’s the on specific lever. If you have an income gap, if you’re 10K away from a salary goal, the lever might be one really well-timed negotiation conversation, not an entire huge job search, especially in this economy.
The through line of this is you don’t need a new plan. You don’t need to completely reinvent yourself. You don’t need to push harder. You just need the right move at the right time. And you need to know what that right move is so that you’re not wasting that time. The reframe here ultimately is that we are working smarter, not harder. Finding the lever is not lazy. In fact, it’s the most strategic thing you can do. It allows you to make smart use of your time, energy, and the resources at your disposal rather than trying to reinvent the wheel or invent new resources. And ultimately, strategy is what separates people who hit their goals from people who burn out three quarters of the way there. This is what separates millionaires from everyday people.
Okay, quick pause because I want to tell you about something that is literally built for everything we just talked about. We are running a savings sprint and before you roll your eyes at the word sprint or challenge, this is not a restriction thing. This is not give up your coffee. You know me. We don’t do that shit. It is a week of daily money lessons delivered to your inbox every single morning with short, actionable things designed to help you find where your money’s actually going and build the kind of habits that stick after the week is over.
The saving sprint is literally helping you find and pull the levers because your goal is your goal, whether you’re saving $50 or 500 or 5,000. The point isn’t the number, it’s the momentum. And this is where it’s so crucial because we’ve been talking about it this whole episode. You don’t need a perfect plan. You just need the right move at the right time and this sprint is the move. Okay, the number one action step you’re going to take right now at this moment, herfirst100k.com/ffpod to sign up for that free saving sprint. It’s free. I expect you to do it. There’s no reason not to. I know you’re listening to this episode. I know you want to change your life. I know you want the easiest path possible. Great. I’ve created it for you. Herfirst100K.com/ffpod.
Okay. So with the Lever Theory, let’s be honest about why we resist finding the lever even when we know it exists. There are a couple things that are going to get in the way here as you start implementing this theory into your life. The first one is you’re going to immediately have guilt for not pushing the boulder up the hill. You’re going to have guilt for not doing enough because rest and strategy feel like cheating because we’re like, “We should be working harder. It should feel really difficult.” It’s the same way that we go to the gym and if we’re not walking out a sweaty mess, it didn’t count. It’s like, “I have to do the hardest thing possible to get my gold star.”
No, you fucking don’t. You don’t. Nobody gets more gold stars for making it hard. You don’t get additional kudos because you’ve made this harder on yourself. In fact, I can tell then you’re not a strategic thinker. I can tell them that this is not something that is actually going to pay off in your life and it is actually going to get implemented because you just want to feel like you’ve done something as opposed to actually doing something. And that’s not your fault. You’ve been told by a society that rest, strategy, all of these things feel like cheating. They’re not cheating. They’re smart. They’re strategic.
One of the other mindset things that’s going to get in the way is that all or nothing mindset? “If I don’t go all in, then I’m not really serious about it and I may as well just ignore it.” Or the, “Oh, I’m already in this this far. I may as well just keep grinding even though the grinding’s not working.” The all or nothing mindset will sabotage you every single time. In fact, we’ve done before an entire episode on the all or nothing mindset and how it’s actively killing your goals. So please, if you have not listened to that one, add it to the queue. Make that the next episode you listen to or watch.
The analysis paralysis is also going to start creeping in because when there’s too many potential levers, we freeze instead of just picking one. You’re going to try to find the perfect lever because I know you. You think that being perfect is how you succeed in your goals when in fact done is just better than perfect. I know. I know you. It’s crazy. Stop trying to find the perfect lever, find one, see if it works. If it works, great. You can use it again. If it doesn’t work, you know now.
An additional fear that’s going to crop up is fearing that simplicity somehow means we’re missing something. If it’s not complicated, then it must not work. If the answer was this obvious, everybody would be doing it. Yeah, you’d think. But the Lever Theory is something I’ve literally never heard discussed anywhere else. I’m sure somebody else has talked about it. I don’t know if I’ve come up with this concept, but I will say that as soon as I posted about this for the first time on LinkedIn, it went viral. There was so many posts about it. I’m still getting messages about it because I feel like this simplicity is the thing that we’re missing. Is the working smarter, not harder. But the fear of the simplicity being something that you were somehow missing or the reason it’s so simple is that it’s not effective. We have to let that go.
And finally, I do still have to fight the urge to grind a little bit and to push harder. I am not a hundred percent effective user of the Lever Theory 100% of the time because that still creeps in sometimes. I still wonder, “Should this be harder?” Or, “Wow, is it really this hard?” And I’m going to be honest with you, there’s some situations where, yeah, there is no lever. There is no thing we can pull. It’s just going to be hard for a little bit. But that being said, I always am trying to find, “Is there a lever I can pull? Is there one big thing I can do or a couple small things that will make a massive difference?”
So how do we find our lever? First, you need to name the gap. You need to get specific, not, “I want to save more money,” or, “I want to be better with money this year.” I need you to be so specific. “I’m $800 away from my emergency fund target.” Okay. I’ve just done two things. I know how much money I’m away from and I know what my emergency fund is. This is back to the original point. You can’t actually find your lever if you don’t know what’s going on. So step one, you got to name that gap. You got to know it and you’ve got to name it.
Step number two, I need you to audit what’s already working. What has driven results for you before? What do you have that you’re underusing? What might give you a temporary level of discomfort with disproportionate results? That might be, “I don’t really want to cancel HBO Max, but if I cancel it for a temporary period of time, I can catch up on my shows later and I can actually get to where I want to be financially.” Or, “Yep, I do have to do an extra Instagram post to get us where we want to be for this launch. It’s not the most convenient thing, but it’s going to make my life so much easier in the long term.”
And finally, step number three, I need you to ask the lever question. What is the single move? Not the 10 step plan. What is the single move I can make that will close this gap? Where is that one lever I can pull that will give me disproportionate results without so much effort? Step number four, we need to set that 48 hour constraint. This is urgency without burnout. If you have to act today, what would you do? The gap is there and time is getting short. This forces us to make a decision. This is good. It forces us into action as opposed to getting caught in the analysis paralysis trap. And finally, step number five, do the one thing first. Pull the lever. Oh, how have I not made an Emperor’s New Groove reference this entire fucking episode? It is actually crazy to me that it’s just happening now. I will give it to you at the end. That’s really what I should have done to get you to stay through the whole episode, is told you I will do my easement at the end.
Okay. But step number five, you’re going to do the one thing first. The lever, not the whole plan. You’re just going to pull the lever crunk. So your homework, you are going to find the lever. You are going to pick one financial goal right now. You’re going to name the gap, you’re going to find the lever. You’re going to do it this week. We’re making it really, really easy for you with that saving sprint. Again, herfirst100k.com/ffpod. We are giving you five mini levers to pull every single day. So ultimately grinding isn’t virtue. Strategy is. If you want to get to where you want to be, be strategic. And the moment you start treating effort as the metric and start treating results as the metric, everything changes. Pull the lever crunk. See you back here soon, financial feminists.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist produced by Her First $100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you’re looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirst100k.com/ffpod.
Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant. Research by Sarah Sciortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and Operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew. Special thanks to our team at Her First 100K, Kailyn Sprinkle, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Sasha Bonar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Meghan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
