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Every entrepreneur makes mistakes—but these five are the reason most side hustles never take off.
Building a business on the side isn’t easy—I’ve been there, hustling before and after my 9–5, wondering if I’d ever make enough to quit. In this episode, I’m joined once again by my friend and fellow entrepreneur, Mallory Rowan, to break down the five biggest mistakes side hustlers make that keep them stuck, burnt out, and broke. From struggling to define your audience to falling into the “do it all” trap, we’ll share the exact shifts you need to make if you want your side hustle to actually become a sustainable business. It’s time to stop spinning your wheels, lowering your prices, and wondering how to grow beyond those first few “friends and family” sales. We’re going to give you the clarity you need to finally move forward.
The 5 side-hustle mistakes you might be making:
- Not redefining your customer as you grow. Many side hustlers start with “friends and family” sales or broad audiences, but fail to refine their target customer over time. Mallory emphasizes that demographics aren’t enough—you need to think about personality, values, and aesthetic fit. Getting hyper-specific about who you serve allows you to stand out and grow sustainably.
- Avoiding quick wins and focusing only on big projects. A major mistake is waiting months to launch something huge instead of testing small, quick-win offers. Mallory explains that live workshops, presales, or flash sales not only validate your idea but also generate cash flow and immediate feedback. Quick wins help side hustlers build momentum and confidence.
- Treating money like a rigid forecast instead of a creative challenge Side hustlers often get stuck because they only think in terms of lowering prices or “hoping” for sales. Mallory suggests reframing money-making as a game—using the “six solution theory” to brainstorm multiple ways to hit your income goal. This playful mindset sparks creativity and opens doors to better, more profitable strategies.
- Setting unrealistic timelines and burning out. Many people crash because they try to do too much, too soon—posting daily, working late, or overcommitting. Mallory advises building realistic schedules, following your energy, and starting small (like one consistent post per week). Progress compounds, and consistency beats unrealistic intensity every time.
- Trying to do it alone instead of finding community. The most isolating mistake is believing you have to figure it all out on your own. Mallory stresses that entrepreneurship is lonely without peers, mentors, or accountability partners. Surrounding yourself with other builders creates validation, support, and small but powerful shortcuts that save you time and energy.
Notable quotes
“Ready is not a feeling. It’s a decision.”
“There’s at least six solutions to any problem you’re facing, especially the ones where it feels like there’s only one answer.”
“It’s feeling like sometimes that one wrong move is going to end everything. And instead, you could probably make a hundred more mistakes and you would be fine.”
Mallory’s Links:
Website: https://malloryrowan.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malloryrowan/?hl=en
Business Bootcamp: herfirst100k.com/business-bootcamp
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Meet Mallory
Serial entrepreneur, educator, and queen of no-BS strategy. Find her stalking the latest Zillow listings. Mallory helps creators, coaches, and founders build smart businesses that don’t sacrifice their mental health or their weekends.
Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
We were both running our businesses as side hustles.
Mallory Rowan:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
What did that feel like?
Mallory Rowan:
Not great. My hair loss, my chronic pneumonia, all those things would probably agree that it was not fun.
Tori Dunlap:
I mean, I didn’t have that dramatic of a situation, but I think mine was just, there was not enough time in the day. And I also just kept being like, when can I quit my job? I’m not ready to quit my job yet. The business isn’t there. And then I would have people ask me, “How’s the business doing? Are you ready to quit?” And I’m like, emotionally, yes, I’ve been ready to quit emotionally since day two of corporate. But I’m not there yet.
So in this episode, we are breaking down the five shifts to get unstuck, that you’re going to be practical, they’re going to be actionable, and they’re really, really important if you feel like you’ve hit a wall with the side hustle. It’s not growing. You’re not seeing the amount of money you need to be making.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, maybe you got those initial sales from friends and family, but how do we move into that next category?
Tori Dunlap:
So before we get into those five shifts, let’s talk about the traps that we see from coaching thousands of entrepreneurs. So the first one is they don’t know what to do next. What’s happening there?
Mallory Rowan:
A little decision fatigue. It’s feeling like sometimes that one wrong move is going to end everything. And instead, you could probably make a hundred more mistakes and you would be fine.
Tori Dunlap:
And you probably need to make some more mistakes too.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. And sometimes it’s just maybe you’ve done those initial first scary steps and you just don’t know what’s next.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. I think that second one is what got you here is not going to get you there.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Kind of what we were talking about with those friends and family sales, maybe you get what we call those lucky sales, those first few of people being supportive. And then you might have to change things up for how you want to continue to grow.
Tori Dunlap:
So I’ll tell you a quick story with that. I was doing one-on-one money coaching in 2019, when Her First $100K had rebranded, and we were starting to get some traction. And I was sitting down with people one-on-one at a coffee shop to review their money and do audits, and teach them what a Roth IRA was. And it was starting to become pretty profitable.
But I was running out of time because I was meeting for an hour, or you could do a three hour package with me. I was running out of time to do that one-on-one with people. And I killed my bestselling product. Now, that was temporarily a very stupid decision because it immediately squashed the amount of money I was making. But I realized, oh, in order for this business to scale and to make enough money in a sustainable way, I have to kill my bestselling product because what got me here will not get me there. I had to reinvent that as a workshop. So I went from coaching to a workshop where I could teach everything I was teaching and coaching, but virtually to 50 people, and then charge them for that. And then that became a course, and that became the book later too. So I think that that’s one of those places where for me, very definitively, oh, I was getting stuck even though it felt like, oh, I’m making good money. It’s not going to be sustainable though long term.
Mallory Rowan:
And on the flip, I feel like one of the other reasons people feel stuck in their side hustle is they’re not making money. They may be continuing to push up against that wall, and it just feels like, no matter what they’re trying, it’s not landing, and they can’t really solve why that’s happening.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, it’s the confusion of what to sell definitively. I think, again, when you first start a business, you’re like, I need to make money so I’m going to be everything to everybody, and I’m going to give everything. So I’m going to give money coaching and I’m going to give career coaching, and I’m going to give, I don’t know, business coaching and lifestyle coaching.
Mallory Rowan:
And then it’s not selling. So I’m just going to lower all the prices.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes. I’m going to put everything on sale. I’m going to do everything on sale. Everything’s going to be fine.
Mallory Rowan:
I must be charging too much because I’m not getting anyone reaching out.
Tori Dunlap:
I’m not getting any dogs to walk, and I’m a dog walker, so I’m going to do it for free, or two cents.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Tori Dunlap:
Okay, so let’s talk about the shifts to get unstuck. Let’s talk about that first one. So we need to do a refresh of our audience, our brand, our customer. What does this look like?
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, I think there’s often a disconnect happening there where we’ve got that initial branding, we figured out, we’ve done a launch, maybe we’ve even been in business for six months, eight months, whatever it might be. But at this point, you’ve probably gotten more clear on exactly who you want to serve. Maybe there’s a sub-community that’s actually a fraction of who you thought you wanted to serve. I think for me, I talk a lot about personality being a factor for a customer. We talk so much about demographics, and people will be like, I don’t care if they’re 18 or 24.
But thinking about who’s the type of person. Especially if you’re going to have an online business where we do make marketing content, you need to connect with those people. So I think doing that refresh of, can I get even more connected with who my customer is?
Tori Dunlap:
Specific.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. I was going to say inside my customer. So I had to quickly change the word coming out of my mouth.
Tori Dunlap:
Can I get inside my customer?
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Could I get further inside my customer?
Tori Dunlap:
No, I mean, it’s what happened to me. So 2018, I was making a couple thousand dollars a year. It was nothing to write home about. It was not getting me closer to my 100K goal. It was a lot of strife and stress because I was trying to do too many things. So when I rebranded to Her First $100K, it was very obvious who that was for. And that single handedly changed the entire business. Because, okay, we have men in the community, but it’s very clearly for women. Her. And then First $100K. I wasn’t teaching people how to get their first million or their first 200K. Okay, we’re doing basic starter personal finance largely. And so I think that that helped so much both for me to define what the vision of the company was. I’m talking about money, it’s inherently feminist, it’s for women plus. And also customers immediately understood, this is for me, or actually, no, it’s not. And that positioning, that repositioning, was the most helpful thing I did when I was still side hustling.
Mallory Rowan:
Oh, absolutely. Even our first business, being in powerlifting, we could have been just another fitness brand. But by focusing on powerlifters, that really differentiated us. And then we went one step further of, okay, well we want powerlifters who have minimalist sense of style. Because a lot of the powerlifting brands were a bit more like skull and heavy metal vibes. And so we had a specific design aesthetic that our audience connected with. And then on top of that, we had a socially conscious aspect. So it was like you could say we were a powerlifting brand, but once you looked at it, we were getting more and more refined on who that really was for, and that’s what really gave us the growth that it did.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. So one of the easiest things you can do if you’re feeling stuck is redefine who your customer is and specifically how you serve them.
Mallory Rowan:
Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
When we come back from a word with our sponsors, we’re talking about the second shift to get unstuck in your side hustle.
So number two, we need to find your quickest win offer. So what we mean by this, this is not a big launch. This is not your full suite. This is not spend six, nine, 12 months on something huge and brand new. This is just start with something that is fast to deliver and testable.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. And that first shift, it might be the positioning, when we’re talking brand and customer, whereas in the second shift, it might be more actually about the offer, and it might be time to test a little bit of a shift to your offer. And that’s what we’re really looking at here.
Tori Dunlap:
So yeah, like a one hour workshop or a session, a five day challenge. Something like that.
Mallory Rowan:
I love anything live, whether that’s a live workshop or doing something one-on-one where you can really collect feedback from people, especially this is more on the service side. But if you can get that live feedback, if I’m teaching something, and you look confused on Zoom, I’m getting that feedback. Sometimes it’s not just asking them after the fact. If I had sent you an ebook, and I was Like, “How was that?” And you’re like, “It was great,” and you’re crying and sweating because it was so overwhelming, I wouldn’t know. But having that live feedback, that’s why we really like these quick, what can you put together, and what’s a little revamp to test maybe that new direction you’re feeling?
Tori Dunlap:
So if you’re a product-based business, would that look like, I don’t know, a flash sale, or something like that?
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, it could look like a pre-sale actually.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. Smart.
Mallory Rowan:
So if you were thinking, okay, we make t-shirts, we’re thinking about doing a water bottle. We did this a lot with even colors of products. Because we’re like, do people want bright pink things, or no? And instead of ordering 500 units, you can either pre-sell them, if you want to really verify and guarantee that.
Tori Dunlap:
Get them on a wait list even.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Or alternatively just surveying your audience would be another way with that. But I definitely think having a presale of something is really great way to also make sure if you have cash flow issues, or just you’re early on and you don’t necessarily have that cash flow, it allows you to secure those sales, which is really exciting too.
Tori Dunlap:
Okay. Number three is something that I think you and I are really good at that we see successful entrepreneurs, like you have this trait, which is seeing business and making money almost as a game. Which is like, if I can pull this lever, what happens? And I do this a lot with my team even now, and I especially did it when I was side hustling, which is I would just set mini challenges for myself. So I would say, okay, it’s a week until the end of the month, how much money can I make in that week? Or next month, in 30 days, I’m going to try to make 500 bucks or $1,000 dollars.
Mallory Rowan:
Especially if you’re early in a business, people talk about forecasting or projections. And for me that felt all so [inaudible 00:09:47].
Tori Dunlap:
You’re like, how the fuck am I going to do that? Yeah, totally.
Mallory Rowan:
I was like, I’m just pulling numbers out of a hat. But then I decided, well, why don’t I actually pull numbers out of a hat? So it would be like, maybe there’s a week left of the month, and let’s say we’ve done 20K in sales in that whole month, we might go, could we do 30 or 40?
Tori Dunlap:
And for side hustlers, it might be, I’ve made 200, how do I make 500?
Mallory Rowan:
Totally. And so it really pushes you into this territory of going, ooh, well, I can’t do what I’ve been doing, because that won’t magically make an extra big amount appear. So it really forces you to start thinking more creatively. There’s a really great exercise I’ll throw in for you, where I call it the six solution theory, where there’s at least six solutions to any problem you’re facing, especially the ones where it feels like there’s only one answer.
And so this is something my partner and I actually learned through real estate, and then basically said, double it. With real estate property, some people look at having three different exits, if they’re buying a property. So that was something we learned. And I’m like, I kind of love that because it really would force us to go like, oh, well, what’s the third? And so in my business, I always look at what’s the sixth solution? So if you said, I want to make 1,000 in my business this month, and I’ve only made 200, if you looked at what are six different ways to make that 1,000?
Tori Dunlap:
Well, the first one, somebody’s going to go, I’m going to discount my stuff.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, I’m going to do a sale.
Tori Dunlap:
Which you can do, but when you discount something, then you have to sell a higher quantity. And I know that sounds obvious, but a lot of people don’t realize that.
Mallory Rowan:
Well, and what would be a great flip is I’m going to throw in a bonus for the same price. Or I’m going to do a bundle.
Tori Dunlap:
That has a limited time.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, I’m going to do a bundle where I’m putting together three of my things, but maybe the cost is okay on the back end and it’s going to up those sales.
Tori Dunlap:
I think, I don’t know, in my head, it’s like a dog walker, but it’s like I’m going to give you, if you pay upfront now for three months of my services, I’ll give you a discount or I’ll give you-
Mallory Rowan:
If you lock in six months instead of the month by month, we’re on. So when you do those, think of those six solutions, it really forces you to get more creative. Maybe talk it out with a friend, look at other business models.
Tori Dunlap:
ChatGPT actually is a great solution here.
Mallory Rowan:
Find those options of how could I look at this problem differently? And also the nice thing is, maybe with the six, you’re like, wait, I love three of these ideas, and now you have three tools that you could use for the next launch and the next launch and the next launch.
Tori Dunlap:
So you need to ask, what’s the easiest way I could make this money with what I know right now?
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. And then how would you execute that?
Tori Dunlap:
Totally. Okay. So number four, speaking of actually how we execute.
Mallory Rowan:
I was trying to segue.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, it’s perfect. The thing we hear for side hustlers, the thing we both experience is like, but Tori, I don’t have enough time, Mallory, I have children. I have a really demanding job. I’m trying to make this work. So we have to create a timeline we can actually stick to, and we have to get honest with ourselves about what that timeline actually looks like.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. I’d rather it be long for you than to make it I’m going to start a business in the next-
Tori Dunlap:
Two seconds.
Mallory Rowan:
… seven days. I use social media as an example for this a lot too. It’s like if you don’t have capacity to post five times a week, but you want to post five times a week, what most people do is they start posting five times a week, and they maybe make it through two weeks at most, and then they crash out.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, it’s like working out or anything else. It’s like, cool, I’m going to go to the gym and I’m going to try to run a half marathon every time I’m at the gym.
Mallory Rowan:
Exactly. You got to start smaller. So after that crash out, then people don’t post anything for three months. And now we’ve lost all of that time. Where-
Tori Dunlap:
And the momentum.
Mallory Rowan:
… yeah, if we were realistic and said I have capacity right now for one good post a week, and then you did that for the next six weeks, and then you felt like you could do that in your sleep, then you’re going to go two posts a month. So I think if you can learn that timeline and actually respect it. When you say the gym, I love this example in James Clear’s Atomic Habits, but he says, if we went to the gym once a week and we weren’t going last year, that’s 52 times more. And if you told somebody you could get a 52x, you’d be like, that’s amazing. But then for some reason we go, well, that’s not good enough because other people are going three times a week. So I think just looking at your current situation as you’re someone who doesn’t work out right now, once a week for you would be incredible. It would be a 52x. Look at that for your business too. If you’re not posting on social at all, if you are not landing any clients.
Tori Dunlap:
Or if you have only one hour to spend this week on getting that website up or doing whatever you need to do to build a business.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Exactly.
Tori Dunlap:
I think my bonus tip here too, when I was trying to manage my time as a side hustler, everybody told me, block your calendar. Block a specific amount of time. And there were some times I’d get home from work and I’m like, I had a really shitty day. Boss made me feel like shit, the train got canceled. So my commute was triple the amount of time. And I just want to watch Netflix and eat my dinner and go to bed at 9:00. And the time block I had for the three hours I was supposed to work on my business, that didn’t happen. But there were some times where I’d be trying to get ready for bed at 10:00, 10:30, and I’d get this little boost of energy. And I started realizing I had to follow my energy when I was trying to build my business.
Now, there were certain times I had to get things done on a timeline, but there were other times I could be like, okay, I don’t have the energy to do that now, but I know I’m going to feel better tomorrow if I go to bed now, and I’m going to figure it out. And I think following your energy was something that was really, really helpful for me when I was trying to juggle all the balls I wanted to juggle as opposed to actually very strict boundaries with myself because I knew I would still keep my commitments.
Mallory Rowan:
I love to use my to-do list to support that. So for me, it’s like a daily to-do list. There’s one thing on the top, and I have to start with that thing. So if my energy or my time runs out, at least that one thing’s covered. And I’ve also started, where I just have a task dump, which is separate from my to-do list. Because the to-do list is only things that I tackle today. And if I don’t get to something, it has to be tackled by the end of the week. And that doesn’t mean I’m working over time. It’s actually means I’m really filtering the to-do list.
Tori Dunlap:
You’re focused.
Mallory Rowan:
So I have this [inaudible 00:15:53] over here of all the great things because sometimes when we’re working, we’re like, oh, I’d love to do this cool campaign on social media. We have all these fun ideas.
Tori Dunlap:
And It also taking up brain space too where it’s stressing you out.
Mallory Rowan:
So you’re trying to get it down, and then every week you’re feeling bad because you’re like, I haven’t done that idea yet. But if you just put it over in the dump, some people call it like a parking lot. But I think keep your to-do list really focused on what’s going to move the needle the most. And then that’s going to really help you just naturally find that timeline you were talking about.
Tori Dunlap:
So I need everybody to answer, what’s your next right step in the time you’ve allotted. So whether that’s the next hour, the next three hours, the next week, I think that’s great. So when we come back from a word with our sponsors, we’re talking about how to get unstuck from the traps that often pop up for new business owners. So stay tuned.
Okay. Our last place people get stuck. Entrepreneurship is very isolating. It’s a very lonely experience to build a business. And especially when there might not be people around you who are in the same stage of life or who want the same things. And then I think the nice thing about working in a corporate environment and having co-workers, hopefully at least one that you like, is you can go to their desk, or Slack huddle them and be like, “Hey-
Mallory Rowan:
The water cooler, if you will.
Tori Dunlap:
… can you give feedback on…” Yeah, the water cooler. “Can you give me feedback on this thing?” Or, “I’m stuck here, can you just talk this through with me?”
Mallory Rowan:
Can I talk this out?
Tori Dunlap:
And that doesn’t really exist when you’re an entrepreneur. So I think our fifth one is you have to surround yourself with people who are also trying to be business owners, who are also side hustling, who are also building. The fastest way to get unstuck is not to consume more content and try to learn more. It’s to actually connect with people and to get support and answers.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. I think a lot of things happen when you connect, it validates and normalizes your experience.
Tori Dunlap:
You feel seen and we all want to feel seen.
Mallory Rowan:
Absolutely. You can just directly ask. We talk a lot about how much things are just Googleable. But it’s also very helpful to ask someone, “Hey, you have a business, which website did you land on? Which email platform?” I mean, I love if someone else has done the research, go ahead and tell me your favorite things you want to tell me. You know what I mean?
Tori Dunlap:
I’m in a podcast mastermind. The amount of conversations that are just like, hey, what course platform is everybody on? What does everybody use? For lawyers? It’s like-
Mallory Rowan:
What do you use for this USB thing?
Tori Dunlap:
Literally that’s half the conversations in this community.
Mallory Rowan:
It can be the smallest things. But it’s like you just lean on each other and you can ask those questions. And those are the small ways you can, there’s no real shortcut when it comes to actually building those things, but sometimes those small shortcuts can be really helpful if you don’t have to spend the time researching the email platform because your friend has a similar business and you guys are open to chatting.
Tori Dunlap:
And I think for me too, I didn’t have any mentors at the beginning of the business, again, who were in my life, who I could call. It was a lot of watching people online build businesses. And even the reason you and I got connected is I DM-ed Mal on Instagram. I literally slid into your DMs, and was like, “Hi, do you have a mastermind that you like?” And what I meant by that question was, will you join a mastermind with me?
Mallory Rowan:
You said, “I heard you’re in a mastermind. I have some questions about it.” And I said, “Yeah, if one of the questions is if I’ll be in one with you, it’s yes.”
Tori Dunlap:
And I was like, oh, great, because that was my real question that I didn’t ask. But I think that that part is the most isolating is like, okay, I don’t feel seen or validated. I don’t feel like, there’s no support of the community around me, but also who’s the person who’s a little ahead of me who can tell me what to do? I’m at a fork in the road trying to decide, yeah, do I put things on sale? Do I take on new clients, even if I don’t have time? How do I find more time? And it’s like, this is why we created Business Bootcamp. This is why we created a thing, because I want everybody taking the escalator and not the stairs. I want everybody learning from all of our mistakes.
So for me, it was I was working this 9:00 to 5:00 that I didn’t really love and enjoy, and then trying to build HFK on the side. I did all of the five things we just talked about, which was like, okay, I was gaining more support from people. It was defining who my audience was. I was very quick to test new things and figure out what worked and what didn’t. And those were the reasons I scaled. I quit my job in October of 2019, so just before the pandemic. Started running HFK full time. And I think in January, I made $20,000. And I was like, oh my God, this is more money than I’ve ever seen in my entire life in this short period of time. And now it is what it is. It’s a multi-million dollar business that affords me all of, not only financial freedom, but time freedom and the ability to do work that is actually impactful.
Mallory Rowan:
I love that.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, and for you, it was burned out, hated your corporate life.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Well, I burnt out from my business.
Tori Dunlap:
Business, yes.
Mallory Rowan:
I mean from doing all the things from-
Tori Dunlap:
From doing all the things because you didn’t have-
Mallory Rowan:
… competing-
Tori Dunlap:
… a mentor, shameless plug, but it was trying to do too much.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think for me also, going from that first business to the next ones, and really navigating how I wanted to build differently and asking a lot of questions around that and finding the right resources. We talk about this too, of there’s a lot of advice out there that probably won’t fit who you are and how you want to run your business.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, the amount of bros. But even we get people who are like, “Have you heard this?” And we’re like, “Yeah, we’ve heard it.”
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, exactly.
Tori Dunlap:
I don’t want to listen to this dude.
Mallory Rowan:
Sourcing the right people that you aspire to be similar to. Or even just exploring different paths and really gaining that information from people you trust.
Tori Dunlap:
So let’s talk about Business Bootcamp, because we did it a couple years ago. It was so cool because we had a couple hundred people who joined who either didn’t have an idea, literally started their businesses, or who were side hustlers who just made those tweaks and those optimizations to get where they wanted to be.
Mallory Rowan:
A lot of those people kind of had one foot in, one foot out, not sure, doing it a bit in the background, but decided they wanted to take it more seriously.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. So it’s a two part workshop series plus a bunch of other goodies. So the first workshop we’re calling Build the Thing, which is like refine-
Mallory Rowan:
We got really fancy, Build the Thing and Sell the Thing.
Tori Dunlap:
Build the Thing and Sell the Thing. So Build the Thing is refine and validate your idea. So everything you need to both focus in on that idea, make sure you’re talking to the audience you want to talk to, spending your time where it’s actually useful, and not wasting time where it’s not.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. I would say those first three shifts we talked about actually, so the brand and customer, refining that. Really looking at what is a offer, whether that’s your first offer or coming up with a tweak to a current offer. And even things like the money goals. We talk about things like revenue, costs, pricing, and how to navigate that, how to navigate those sales goals we talked about.
Tori Dunlap:
And that’s a question we hear all the time, how do I price myself? So we’re answering that. Okay. So workshop two is Sell the Thing. So how do you market and sell your offer without feeling slimy and icky, which is another question we get.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, we’re going to talk about social media, we’re going to talk about email, refining that messaging, all of the elements that you really need to get it done.
Tori Dunlap:
So this idea with Business Bootcamp is that we’re getting you from idea to offer in less than 90 days. So we also have a 90 day roadmap. So you’re not guess working, you’re not trying to figure out what to do in what order. We’re giving you a very specific launch plan.
Mallory Rowan:
We don’t like it to be overwhelming if you’re just sitting processing the information. So you’ll have access to the replay if you ever want to go back to the workshops. But also you have a workbook that you can complete, partially as you’re listening, but also after when you walk away. It’s going to make sure that you can really take steps with each piece of that. And that 90 day plan is going to make sure that you have that realistic timeline. Obviously you can edit a bit for yourself if you want to go longer, but we really positioned it in a way that should feel comfy for you.
Tori Dunlap:
So all of that is included in our general admission ticket. So we’ve got the two workshops, the replays, the 90 day roadmap. We also have a VIP option for folks who are like I am serious. I want to start making good money. I want to actually get my shit together. So the first one is we have coaching after both workshops with Mal and I. It’s going to be an exclusive group. We only have a certain amount of VIP slots. And so we’re doing a mixture of kind of business/marketing audits with answering some questions.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Deep dive into a few more topics that I think people who are a little further along might like to hear.
Tori Dunlap:
Especially one that I think side hustlers care about, which is how do I know how much money I need to be making? How do I actually get to the point where I know how much money I need to be making and can get there so I can quit my job and run this full time, if that’s what you choose? The second thing that I’m really excited about is this extra session that we’re doing with our teams where you can get questions answered. It’s like an accountability session. So if you get stuck as you’re going through it, we’re going to help you come back, refine what you’re doing.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. And it’s spaced out after those workshops too. So it’s that nice accountability piece of you have time in between to dive a little bit deeper. So you probably will have some of those other questions come up.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep. I’m also throwing in my How to Grow Your Instagram workshop. I normally price this at $400.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, we have a lot of cool-
Tori Dunlap:
Freebies.
Mallory Rowan:
… marketing tools for the VIP. So like you said, your workshop. We’ve got the viral content checklist. We have a five day email funnel. So if you want a launch template, it’s like a template and script, whether that’s for launching a new product, launching maybe this offer that you’re testing out. That’s a really, really great resource too.
Tori Dunlap:
We also have my media pitch template I’m throwing in of how to get podcast interviews, how to land big press so that you both can build your credibility, but also get the word out. So the media pitch template, this incredible community member named Melissa bought it. I actually still follow her. She creates candles that are like, she is Latina, and so it’s focused on, they’re just really cool-
Mallory Rowan:
Like sayings.
Tori Dunlap:
… names and stuff. And so she said, “If you don’t already know about Tori’s media kit template, you should. My business and I just got featured on every local ABC station in the country.” She said, “I was able to pitch my local community journalist and highlight my small Latina candle business during Hispanic Heritage Month.”
Mallory Rowan:
Love that.
Tori Dunlap:
Which is so cool. And then Michelle, who’s another entrepreneur that I have worked with, she took the How to Grow Your Instagram Workshop, and she said, “I went from averaging 2,000 views on my Instagram to getting 80 to 160,000 views.” And then she also applied it to TikTok. And so she was like, “I was getting two million views on TikTok too,” which is so cool.
Mallory Rowan:
Amazing. Yeah, really great resources packed into that VIP.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. And you have somebody who launched an offer on Instagram without a sales page as well, which was so cool.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. So some of the marketing stuff that we’re going to teach you, she used those social media tips to just do her launch exclusively through Instagram with a smaller page. She was able to test and validate the offer that she wanted to do. She was able to have a wait list so that the next time she offered it, she would already have people signing up, and it was all without doing sales page or anything like that. So especially for the people who maybe what’s getting them stuck is a lot of the tech side, it’s a really great example that you don’t have to dive into all that stuff.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, I think you told me she had eight spots. She sold 10.
Mallory Rowan:
Oh, she sold 16 or something like that.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, really?
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. Yeah. I think she had eight spots. She ended up welcoming 10 people, but she had 17 people-
Tori Dunlap:
On the wait list.
Mallory Rowan:
… total with the wait list.
Tori Dunlap:
So cool. That’s so cool. Okay.
Mallory Rowan:
Oh, and recently did a TED talk actually.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, casual.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, real casual.
Tori Dunlap:
So my lawyers are not going to like, so come to Business Bootcamp, you will get a TED Talk. Just kidding. Results not guaranteed. Okay. So when we talk about everything Business Bootcamp, we’re going to do a rapid fire like FAQ of like, is this for me? Okay. So what if I don’t have time, Mallory?
Mallory Rowan:
I’m going to be real with you. If you don’t have time for the workshops-
Tori Dunlap:
You don’t have time to be a side hustler. You don’t have time to be an entrepreneur. Which I think you do. So I kind of just don’t believe you.
Mallory Rowan:
I also, if you can’t make it to the workshops, you get-
Tori Dunlap:
There’s replays.
Mallory Rowan:
… a replay. Yeah.
Tori Dunlap:
Okay, cool. What if I’ve never sold anything?
Mallory Rowan:
You can only learn by doing. Yeah. You don’t have to be a salesperson. I had never sold things before.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, and you’re a side hustler.
Mallory Rowan:
Actually I shouldn’t say that. I’ve probably sold things.
Tori Dunlap:
I’ve sold my soul many times.
Mallory Rowan:
I was immediately doing an inventory in my head, I was like I planned prom and stuff, so I shouldn’t say that. I sold prom tickets.
Tori Dunlap:
I sold a lot of things. And if you don’t have time as a side hustler, this is something that’s going to help you figure out are you wasting time on things that you shouldn’t be wasting time on?
Mallory Rowan:
Yes. If you have limited time, this is going to give you the roadmap and the things that are worth spending your time on.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep. If somebody’s going, I don’t know if I’m ready to take my side hustle full time. I don’t know if I have the right resources.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. We were just talking about a really great quote for ourselves too. That ready is not a feeling.
Tori Dunlap:
It’s not. It’s a decision.
Mallory Rowan:
It’s a decision. I think our realization that if it’s not a feeling in Inside Out, then it can’t be a feeling. And I think I’m going to use that now as my touch place.
Tori Dunlap:
Ready is not a little icon in Inside Out.
Mallory Rowan:
No, it doesn’t have a job in that little office they have.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s just the button. That’s just the button.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. It’s actually those other feelings coming together and making that decision.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. You’re worried about failing, your worried about maybe you won’t be perfect. It’s like, okay, maybe you won’t be. You probably won’t be.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. And if you’ve already been dabbling with your side hustle, maybe you’re that one foot in, one foot out, I think you kind of owe it to yourself to actually give it a real shot.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. And also you’re listening to this episode because you’re stuck.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, exactly.
Tori Dunlap:
Let’s help you get unstuck. As we’re wrapping up, to reiterate, you are not behind. You are not missing some secret sauce that somebody else has that you don’t.
Mallory Rowan:
Yes. Unfortunately, we would sell it and we would sell it for a lot of money if we had it.
Tori Dunlap:
We would sell it for a lot of money. You’re thinking somebody else has the degree, somebody else knows something. Like, okay, I’m listening to Mal and Tori. They know something I don’t know.
Mallory Rowan:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
The only reason we know things that you don’t know is because we went for it.
Mallory Rowan:
We tried.
Tori Dunlap:
And we’ve been running this for 10 years. We’ve been doing entrepreneurship for 10 years.
Mallory Rowan:
I just watched a TikTok of this person who sold their company for 54 million.
Tori Dunlap:
Jeez.
Mallory Rowan:
Which obviously’s not going to be all of us, but I absolutely love they made a video, and it was like the 40 ideas I built and failed at before getting there. And what I loved about it was all over the place. It was an app for this thing, and then we’re making phone cases. And then we tried this wellness thing, and then I went back to the phone cases.
Tori Dunlap:
And then I started a coffee shop.
Mallory Rowan:
And I think it’s such a good testament. Oh, there’s a really great quote I love too, that’s like sometimes we’re judging our success as failure, but we’re just in the middle of succeeding.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh yeah.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. If you looked at, Josh is going to kill me, I always forget which basketball player it is.
Tori Dunlap:
LeBron James.
Mallory Rowan:
One of them.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s the one I can name. Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu. I’ll name the women. I can keep doing that.
Mallory Rowan:
No, it’s not them.
Tori Dunlap:
Okay. Angel Reese.
Mallory Rowan:
I do this every time, but one of them wasn’t doing so great at college ball, now icon.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s a great… And more in Business Bootcamp just like that.
Mallory Rowan:
The short version.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh God. So my TL;DR, you just need a plan. You need some support, and you need to take imperfect action. Imperfect action beats inaction every single fucking time. So we would love to see you in Business Bootcamp. It is incredibly accessibly priced. We are actually nervous that it’s too cheap. And that sounds like a marketing… We had four one-hour conversations about how we’re worried it might be too cheap. But it’s because we see so many people want to be entrepreneurs. I think we did a survey. Over half of our five million people in our community want to be entrepreneurs someday.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah. We wanted to take out that element of the hurdle.
Tori Dunlap:
We want to make it an easy yes. We want to be like, yep, you’re going to come. You’re going to learn a lot. We’ve tested this. Mal has private coaching clients. She’s been doing this for years. We’ve ran Business Bootcamp together. We just had somebody come up to us on the street the other day, and was like, “I’m thinking about doing this.” And we’re like, we literally sold her. We were like, here’s all of the things, everything we just told you in this episode. So we would love to see you there. We’ve got the link in the description. It’s going to be a fun time.
Mallory Rowan:
Yeah, it’s going to be great. I can’t wait.
Tori Dunlap:
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist a Her First $100K podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First $100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you’re confused about your personal finances and you’re wondering where to start, go to herfirst100k.com/quiz for a free personalized money plan.
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.
