Kiersti Torok: Queen of Couponing

Our interview of Kiersti Torok for “The Creative Influencer” podcast is available today for download on iTunes, Spotify, and premier platforms everywhere. Kiersti is known as the queen of couponing. She tells us how she grew her TikTok channel from 15 family members to over 2.4 million followers in two years.

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A transcript of the episode follows:

Jon Pfeiffer:
I am joined today by Kiersti Torok. Welcome to the podcast.

Kiersti Torok:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You have 2.4 million TikTok followers, almost 170,000 Instagram followers, but your main platform is TikTok. So I want to ask you about how you grew your TikTok channel, and then I have a whole bunch of questions about couponing because-

Kiersti Torok:
Okay, awesome.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I did a deep dive and now I know a lot more about couponing than I did.

Kiersti Torok:
Right.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And I hope I learn a lot more than that. Okay. So how did you pick TikTok? What made you start with TikTok videos?

Kiersti Torok:
So, I mean, this all started essentially during the pandemic. My husband and I both lost our jobs and I had a bunch of family members, close friends. They were all getting laid off or furloughed because pandemic had everybody secluded and they were all trying to make ends meet. And so I picked couponing back up and was couponing for our family to try to make the pieces fit between being laid off and finding a job again, hopefully. And family members, same thing. They knew that I coupon, they'd seen my stockpile, and they were like, "Can you help us at all?" And so I sat down every Sunday morning and I was texting out deals and writing things down and trying to help a bunch of different people. And I'd hopped on Instagram because I was like, okay, maybe I'll just try an Instagram where I can take a picture and show everybody.

And so I'm not sitting there on Sundays texting out 15, 20 people all of these deals. And then people were having questions like, "Hey, what does it look like in the store? How do I do it on my phone? When I get into the store, my store doesn't look like yours? Where could I find these things?" And so I was like, oh, it would be great if I could just FaceTime everybody at the same time and take them through the store. Then my husband was like, "TikTok is there, they got videos." I'm like, "Oh no, TikTok is for teenagers, TikTok is for the kids that are just dancing." But no, sure enough, I was looking and people were posting deals, and I was like, "You know what? Let's try it." I had no intention of anybody other than my 15 family members seeing my TikTok videos, but I think it just resonated with people during that time. And so that's how I picked it. It was an accident and it's been crazy ever since.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When you started, how long did it take for it to grow? From your original 15 family members, when did you realize that you were onto something?

Kiersti Torok:
So a couple weeks, I had a couple hundred followers. I was like, "Oh man, there's people, others in my family seeing this. This is crazy." And then I started in, I think it was September, October of, I can't remember if it was 2019 or 2020, but by that March of the following year, I had a video go viral and it was a video where I was stitching someone. So that essentially means someone had a video and they were asking a question, and then I responded with a video. And so I stitched a video and the person in this video said, "As someone who comes from poverty, what's the number one tip you have for saving money and making money work for you?" And I got on there and stitched that video and I just said, "Follow me." That's my number one tip.

Because I came from poverty, my husband and I had to make ends meet. We've had things go on my whole life with coupons. And I said, "If you follow me, I break down the deals for you. I show you how to do this. We get things for cheap all the time," and it spread like wildfire. I think it ended up having 8 million views. And I went from, I think I at that time had 20 to 30,000 followers, and by the next week I had over 500,000 followers. And it was nuts. It was striking a cord with people. I've never been in this situation. Pandemic has made us lose our jobs, inflation, things are going up, scarcity. How do I do what you're doing? How can you help me? So it was nuts. I never had anything happen like that in my entire life. It was crazy.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So when the pandemic happened, had you already pre-hoarded? With lack of a better way to put it.

Kiersti Torok:
Stop it. Yeah. So I've been doing this for 12 years. I mean, 13 years now, I guess.

Jon Pfeiffer:
No, I don't mean to cast any of-

Kiersti Torok:
No, no, I get it. I get what you're saying. No, so I've been doing this for 12 years, and so I always have a six-month supply for my family. That's what my ground rule of thumb was. So during the pandemic, I was actually passing out toilet paper to neighbors and stuff like that because I was like, "Oh my gosh, I have this stuff here, let me help you, let me give you stuff to get you from A to B." So this has been years in the making, but always have had a stockpile.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How much space does it take?

Kiersti Torok:
I can take you around if you want. So there's my basement, there's that, there's my coffee. So that's pretty much what I got here. And then I have food stockpile stuff that's up in our kitchen, but that stays in the pantry. So I mean, it's not a crazy amount of space. We have a decent sized basement area, and so it's just enough where it tucks away to the side and got a couple shelves full of things. My kids love it if they run out on a toothpaste, they know that they run downstairs to the stockpile and grab the next tube. It's nice.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Have you ever taken videos down?

Kiersti Torok:
Yes, I've taken videos down. Sometimes it's because I make a mistake. So the one most recently, I actually had a video that auto-correct, the automated generated captions were not so pleasant to me that came on the screen, so I had to take that video down. And then I took a video down once because I just didn't feel like it was getting the traction and that it deserved. And a lot of the algorithm stuff was happening and there was a lot of people getting banned and taken off TikTok. And so I took the video down because I was like, "Maybe this just isn't the right time." But other than that, I try to stay pretty careful when I post stuff. And I try to be pretty thorough when I post stuff that it always reflects what I feel is a good representation of me and who I am.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you shoot for a certain length of your videos?

Kiersti Torok:
So if I'm doing a funny video, so if I'm doing a trend or I'm doing something funny or I'm trying to be more engaging, I try to keep that under 50 seconds because I feel like that's the attention span of something funny. But if I'm doing a TikTok breakdown, I try to keep it under a minute 30. And the only reason that's my goal is under minute 30 is because to upload to Instagram Reels is that's the 90 seconds is the max that they allow you for an Instagram Reel before it becomes a longer format video and the algorithm hates it. So I aim for a minute 30, but sometimes I have a lot of words. It might not always get that way.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I read where you liken couponing to a video game for adults.

Kiersti Torok:
Yes.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Why?

Kiersti Torok:
Absolutely. So if you think about it, you're in the store and it's like, okay, I'm in here and I need this paper towel, but let me see if there's a coupon for this paper towel. But then on top of that, let me see if there's a rebate, and better yet, what if there's a manufacturer's rebate that I can stack too? And it's like this weird game of Jenga where you've got this tower, and if I pull out this dollar and save it, and if I pull out this dollar and save it, how many can I pull out before it tumbles? And I eventually can't get the deal. But a lot of millennials are really loving it. It's a video game, but it's a video game for real life. You're able to score things and get things cheap. And the winner is the person who ultimately comes out with things that they're getting paid to take out of the store. So it's definitely a video game.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah. Just as an aside, I read where there's an estimated 91 billion dollars in coupons used every year.

Kiersti Torok:
Yep, yep. Absolutely. And so popular.

Jon Pfeiffer:
You're walking into a store for the first time. Where do your eyes go? What do you look for first? And you've had no chance to pre-prepare for this trip?

Kiersti Torok:
So it depends on which store that I'm going into. So like I said, I've been doing this for a really long time. So for me, it's like you get this laser focus, back to the video game, like you've got glasses on and you're just scanning the store. So if I go into, let's say for instance, Target, if I'm going into Target, first thing I'm looking for is those signs that they put up, like buy X, get a gift card. I'm looking for those. I'm looking for the yellow clearance tags that they put underneath the products. And then I'm looking for anything new that might have a new discount, because new products are the things that manufacturers put out the highest value coupons for. Places like CVS where they have the same thing, they have those yellow tags that are off to the side, like X amount of extra bucks back when you buy this product.

And then that's what I'm on the hunt for so I can scan in my app and find coupons that match up. The name of the game with couponing is something called stacking. So the goal is to get an item at its rock-bottom sale price, match it with a coupon, and then match that with a rebate. And all of those things stack together are what are going to give you things for free or have you make money on things. That's the name of the game. So when you're in a store, you're looking for rock-bottom sale prices on things to start out with.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How do you find out if there's a rebate? Is it all on the stores' app?

Kiersti Torok:
It's all on rebate apps. So there's apps like Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, Shopkicks, Swagbucks, there's a million of them. So you pick the rebate app that you're looking at and you can scan the product in the app and then it'll let you know whether or not that item qualifies for a rebate.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And then when you're checking out, mechanically how does this work? Is it you check your phone and they scan the phone?

Kiersti Torok:
Yeah, so different stores have different ways that they do it. So Target and Dollar General, you can just type in your phone number at the keypad and all the coupons will come off that you've clipped. But places like CVS, you have a barcode scanner. So you go in your app, you scan all the products, you clip your coupons, and then you get up to the register and they just scan your phone and all of them automatically deduct. It's a huge misconception with people because all of the people in their minds, they always go back to the Extreme Couponing, TLC or people have those massive stacks of coupons and that's not what it is anymore. Paper coupons are probably going to be extinct. They're going to be gone within the next year, mark my words. And you're all going to have digital coupons. You just scan one barcode and they all come off automatically. We're not holding anybody up at the line. It's real easy and straightforward.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And whenever I bring a paper coupon to the store, I always leave it in my pocket because I forgot.

Kiersti Torok:
Yeah, exactly. Or they expire and you're like, "What the heck? It's all gone."

Jon Pfeiffer:
So how do you discover deals? I mean, I saw where different clubs you could get the membership was really cheap and this is on one of your TikTok videos. How do you discover that?

Kiersti Torok:
So a lot of it is, I have a very long email subscription list, so I subscribe to a lot of stores. I get their emails, I look through a lot of that. But the other part of it is time. So I've been doing it for 12, 13 years. Deals are cyclical, so every deal that I post is probably a deal that's going to come back around in another three to four months. So you'll see the same deals all the time with the same coupons. Now there are some caveats like you did a new item or there's a clearance price, whatever. Those are one-offs, but cyclical deals are things that you just know are going to come about. And so I've just trained my brain to look for the corresponding coupons for each of those deals. Other part of it is just getting really good at knowing which store, what their ad looks like. So you can scan and look around and see what the store's offering may be different that week, but a lot of it is just practice. I teach people when they look for-

Jon Pfeiffer:
Do you only buy things that you use or do you try new things for this?

Kiersti Torok:
Yes and no. So I'll buy new things if it's something that I feel like my family would use. If I have an item and it's going to be dirt cheap or I'll make money, I'll get it and then I'll donate it. So yes and no, but I try to just stick with the things that my family's going to use just so we keep it. I mean, this would be overwhelming if I had too many things that we wouldn't use.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And I'm going to tell the story on myself, we bought a bunch of toothpaste and now it is getting too old. You think you've got to use that much toothpaste, then you don't. Do you ever have that happen where some of the items expire because you had too much in bulk?

Kiersti Torok:
So I don't. For me, this is something that I've learned over time. So this is not something that the average person would know, but it's a first in, first out system in my stockpile. So everything in my stockpile, I put the newest item that I get from the store in the very back, and then the one in the front is the item that I bought the longest to go. So I'm always cycling through the items that I'm using. And like I said, it's a six-month supply, so these things usually don't expire within six months. If they do, I'll try to reevaluate the expiration dates and if it's getting close to expiration, I donate it. I have a women's shelter, a foster care shelter that I donate a lot of this stuff to, and it's a great way to keep the rotation going in the stockpile.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I'm going to shift gears and ask you some personal questions, not personal, but personal. Okay. So what question would you most like to know the answer to?

Kiersti Torok:
In general?

Jon Pfeiffer:
In general.

Kiersti Torok:
In general.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah.

Kiersti Torok:
I mean, think the biggest question that I always grapple with is like, why am I here? I think that's what I ask myself every day when I make content and when I'm interacting with people, how do I want to be remembered? Why am I here? What mark am I going to leave? That's the thing that I grapple with because no one knows that question, and I think that's what I grapple with every day. That I would like to know, what am I doing here? What am I here for? What's my purpose?

Jon Pfeiffer:
Where do you see yourself in three years?

Kiersti Torok:
In three years, doing the same thing. I mean, I really love my family and my kids and my husband. My husband's my high school sweetheart. We had kids really young and our kids are going to be, in three years, our kids would be, oh my gosh, 11 and nine. So just being a mom, being a wife, enjoying life. I'd love to get more involved in nonprofit, I think maybe that's a good answer. I'd love to be more involved in nonprofits, teaching... There's a women's shelter, the pregnancy shelter in our area, and they want me to teach a couponing class. I'd love to be able to do that. I think that would be awesome.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's your favorite movie?

Kiersti Torok:
Oh my gosh, that's a good question. Dang.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I was going to bounce around a little bit.

Kiersti Torok:
Dang. My favorite movie. Okay, this is the movie that I think I would just watch nonstop on repeat. Maybe it's not like the most classically good movie or whatever, but if I had to watch a movie nonstop on repeat, I would probably watch Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley. I love that movie. It's so good.

Jon Pfeiffer:
What's your guilty pleasure?

Kiersti Torok:
I love a good bottle of wine. I do. My husband's like, "You save so much money and then you buy a $25 bottle of wine." Yeah, that's my guilty pleasure. I like it. At the end of the night, a glass is good for me.

Jon Pfeiffer:
When was the first time you were recognized out in public?

Kiersti Torok:
I was shopping with my daughter after I had picked her up from school and we were at Target and I had a mom come up to me and she was buying diapers and she said, "I just wanted to let you know that you're the reason I'm able to afford these today. That your couponing hall, we weren't sure how we were going to get diapers and you're the reason I'm able to afford these today." And made me cry in the middle of Target. It was awesome. I've never experienced anything like that.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yeah, that's a very nice first time.

Kiersti Torok:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was so nice.

Jon Pfeiffer:
If you could make one rule that everyone had to follow, what would that rule be?

Kiersti Torok:
Never pay for toothpaste, never pay for toothpaste. That's my rule.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How did you develop your style?

Kiersti Torok:
I never grew up. I like classic fun things. I like Disney, I like Star Wars. I'm unapologetically okay with still being a little childlike at heart.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Let's talk about your creative process. How do you get your ideas for videos?

Kiersti Torok:
So I actually got my degree in creative writing. I was an English major and was writing children's young adult books. And so I think about when I make a move or a video, how would I want this to be conveyed in a way that's engaging for me? If I was watching this video, what would get me to watch to the end? And so I think about the 30-year-old mom who's shopping, who's going out for her family and doing the grocery shopping and she's trying to think of, man, how can I save money? Or the mom who's like, "I'm so tired of these prices increasing." Or the wife who's shopping and the husband's like, "What are you doing out here at Target?" All the things that I feel like resonate with me as an individual, I try to think about that when I create content.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Can you predict the success of a video when you post it?

Kiersti Torok:
I would say with about 70% success maybe. There are some videos where I'm like, "This is hilarious, I love this." And then... the algorithm goes. So maybe 70%. There are some videos that I make that are just for me and I know they're not going to do good, but they're just for me because I think they're fun.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How often do you try to post?

Kiersti Torok:
Once a day at minimum. Unless I'm on vacation or doing something really important with my family, I try to post at least once a day. If I can't do it on TikTok, then I'll go on Instagram Stories at least once a day.

Jon Pfeiffer:
How long does it take you to create a video?

Kiersti Torok:
At minimum, probably a half hour. The longest it's probably ever taken me to record a video, well, I did one where it was a whole day, but I would say a half hour to an hour on average.

Jon Pfeiffer:
On a typical day, is that about the amount of... How much time do you devote to this process? Because you're also going to be looking at coupons, you're going to be looking at other things, how much time does this take during a day?

Kiersti Torok:
I mean, for me it's a little bit different because I've been doing this for so long. On average, I would say each day it's about three hours dedicated to just content creation, which is getting the video, the sound that I want to use, getting the film in the store, getting the deal broken down, stuff like that. But then there's lots of stuff in addition to that that I do like responding to comments and researching things in the future and ads or brand deals and stuff like that.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Which is a perfect segue. Let's talk about comments. On a scale of one to 10, one meaning that comments, no matter what's said, they don't bother you at all, to 10, a negative comment really bothers you, where are you on that scale?

Kiersti Torok:
A nine, and I'm working on it.

Jon Pfeiffer:
That's what I was going to ask. How do you deal with it?

Kiersti Torok:
I think I talk to my husband about it a lot. I think for me, talking about it and working through my emotions is the biggest thing that I have to figure out. I got to develop thicker skin. But I think the reason it hurts so much is because I go on the app and I try not to be a fake influencer. I try to be a content creator. When you see me on the screen, it's the most genuine form of myself that I can share with anyone. And so I think that's why it hurts, because I really do pour my heart and soul into what I do, and I love what I do and I really want to help people. So I think that's why it hurts so much. But I talk to my husband, we try to just decompress and then I block the person and move on.

Jon Pfeiffer:
I mean, in preparing for this interview, I watched a ton of your videos. They're entertaining. They're just entertaining. So don't listen to the haters.

Kiersti Torok:
Thank you. I'll try not to.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So what has been your family's reaction to this sudden fame, TikTok fame?

Kiersti Torok:
It's kind of crazy. So my dad was in media. He was a talk show host for a really long time, and before that he was a sports broadcaster. So we come from a family of media. So my dad was like, "Oh, you're taken after your dad in a sense." But I think for my family, it was just funny to see... Okay, my mom's a school teacher, so my mom teaches kindergarten, and one of her parents came up and she's like, "I just saw you in Kiersti's video. I had no idea you were Kiersti's mom." And so my parents, they think it's funny because you never really think that TikTok couponing is going to be the thing that gets your kid on the map but here we are.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Hey, it is. I mean, that's one thing I'll share is that the areas where creators are going now in the sense of couponing, I have another client that's in homeschooling that it's a platform that is resonating with a lot of people.

Kiersti Torok:
Yep, absolutely. And it's so easy to access.

Jon Pfeiffer:
Yes. So what's next for you? What are you working on right now?

Kiersti Torok:
So we're actually working on a website. So what we're hoping to do is compete with the likes of Krazy Coupon Lady. We're trying to do a website where you can go and you can search the deals and you can have it on your phone and make it really easy when you're in the store and have it be where you can go and learn how to do something on the website and take it with you mobilely. We're also working on some merch and some fun stuff for people to have to express the love of not paying for toothpaste. That's something that we want to do. So we're just working on that kind of stuff, branching out that way because if TikTok decides to go away anytime soon, we probably need to have other platforms, people to find coupon deals.

Jon Pfeiffer:
So I have one final question for you. Where can people find you on the internet?

Kiersti Torok:
They can find me on TikTok and Instagram, @@torok.coupon.hunter. You can find me on Facebook, Torok Coupon Hunter. And then website is just a temporary one, but if you search torokcouponhunter.com, it'll bring you to that.

Jon Pfeiffer:
And it's up on my screen right now.

Kiersti Torok:
Perfect. Thank you.