How Excel Dictionary Turned Viral Excel Tips into a 150,000-Person Sales Machine
Meet Emma Chieppor, founder of Excel Dictionary, a creator who's somehow convinced more than 9 million people that spreadsheets are...actually kind of sexy.
Her videos are fast. Nerdy. Weirdly addictive. They teach office workers how to shave hours off their workweek with 30 seconds of Excel wizardry. (Yes, "DM me WIZARD" is an actual CTA. Yes, people absolutely do it.)
Emma didn't set out to become one of the biggest education creators on the internet. She certainly didn't expect to create a seven-figure-adjacent education business.
But here we are.
Today, her business is selling Excel courses, templates, guides, and AI education to professionals around the world. Her Instagram alone reaches more than 4 million followers. Her email list has crossed 150,000 subscribers. Some months generate six figures in revenue. And every month, another 5,000–10,000 new people enter her funnel through Manychat.
The funny part? It all started because she couldn't figure out Excel on her own.
The Origin Story: COVID, Confusion, and a Laptop She Wanted to Throw out the Window
When COVID hit, Emma had just graduated from Ohio State with a degree in actuarial science. Instead of walking into her first office job, she found herself sitting alone in her apartment, starting remotely at a new insurance company she'd never set foot inside.
Then the Excel assignments started. Those spreadsheets were kicking her ass.
"I had never used Excel before," she told us. "I had no idea who to ask for help because I didn't know anyone at the company other than my boss... I just remember really struggling and feeling really alone in my room, dreading work because I would have to try to figure out how to use Excel all day."
There wasn't a friendly colleague sitting next to her. No one to lean over and ask, "Hey...what the hell is a VLOOKUP?"
So she did what millions of office workers have done before her. She opened YouTube. Blogs. Forums. Anything she could find.
Within a year, she'd taught herself Excel well enough that work no longer felt miserable.
Then another thought hit her. What if someone else never had to feel this lost?
The Internet apparently needed an Excel girlfriend
Emma started posting 30-second Excel tips in 2021, and not because she'd mapped out some genius creator economy strategy, or because she spotted a billion-dollar niche.
She was bored. Insurance wasn't exactly setting her soul on fire.
"I wanted to be the coworker that I didn't have."
Her content was nearly instantly successful. Within one week, a video went viral. Within three months, she had one million TikTok followers. Within nine months, she'd hit one million on Instagram.
"I would never have thought that posting Excel tips could turn into the business it is today."
Morning Brew acquired Excel Dictionary after its first year. Today, she's back to running the company independently, but somewhere along the way she discovered something almost every creator eventually learns: attention doesn't automatically translate into income.
Millions of Followers, but Surprisingly Hard to Sell
This one puzzles people. Emma has millions of followers. Her videos rack up hundreds of thousands, even millions, of views.
But views aren't customers.
"Social media is great for getting eyes on stuff and growing an audience," she said. "But it is really hard to actually convert sales from social."
She had already experienced the biggest pain point.
The classic creator funnel looked like this:
- Watch video
- Click link in bio
- Leave Instagram
- Find the right page
- Enter your email
Hope they don't get distracted somewhere between step two and four. (Spoiler: they usually did.)
"Before, it was such a struggle to get people to actually go to the link in my bio and enter their email address,” Emma said. “Manychat made that whole process seamless."
She knew email was where customers actually bought. She just needed a better bridge.
The comment that became a customer
Today, almost every Excel Dictionary Reel ends the same way. Comment a keyword. That's it.
If someone watches a Pivot Table tip, Emma offers a free Pivot Table guide. If it's keyboard shortcuts, she offers her shortcut guide. If it's formulas, they get a formulas guide.
Every freebie matches the content they just watched.
"The person is hopefully going to want that guide related to that tip," Emma explained. "If you're making it the whole way through the video, you're clearly interested in that topic."
Here's what happens next:
- Comment the keyword
- Manychat opens a DM
- Collects their name
- Collects their email
- Sends the guide
- Invites them to the weekly newsletter
And six hours later, offers them a related free class.
Then begins a six-to-eight-week educational nurture sequence filled with Excel tips, YouTube videos, courses, and product recommendations. One comment becomes a long-term relationship.
Three Thousand Emails in One Week
Emma doesn't remember the very first automation she built. She remembers the feeling of relief, though.
"I don't really know what I would do without Manychat at this point,” she said. “I wish Manychat were everywhere.”
One recent post generated:
- 4,500+ comments on Instagram
- 2,000 more on Facebook
- Around 3,000 new email subscribers in a single week
Another automation, the Excel Shortcut Guide, has now moved more than:
- 32,000 people through Instagram
- 35,000 people through Facebook
The Facebook number still surprises her. Facebook has one-tenth the audience size of Instagram. But the engagement doesn’t lie.
Twenty-five lead magnets later...
What started as one free guide has become an entire ecosystem.
Today Emma has:
- 25 active lead magnets
- Webinar automations that have processed more than 80,000 people
- Thousands of Story responses
- 150,000+ email subscribers
- 5,000–10,000 new subscribers arriving every month through Manychat
Whenever a new topic performs well, she builds another lead magnet.
Check out this recent post with more than 4,000 comments!
Content stopped being content
One of the biggest mindset shifts was strategic.
Emma admitted she now delays publishing certain content until the business infrastructure is ready. She's building an extensive library of AI for Excel courses. And she's intentionally waiting before posting lots of AI content.
"I've been kind of holding off... because I want to set up a bunch of really cool Manychat flows and have everything connected through the content."
That's a completely different way to think about social media. Instead of asking: “Will this go viral?” She's asking: “What happens after it goes viral?”
Behind the scenes, she’s been building an entire AI education ecosystem, including courses for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and AI workflows inside Excel. She’s recorded roughly 180 course videos in just four months, with plans to launch a full AI learning suite before expanding into more live training and workshops.
Even sponsors win
The automations don't just help Emma, though. They've become part of her sponsorship strategy. Rather than sending followers to a generic sponsored link, Emma builds Manychat flows around sponsored posts.
- Followers comment
- They receive the product directly in their DMs
- Sponsors see stronger engagement
- Better conversions
- And many return for repeat campaigns
"We've had a lot of sponsors do recurring campaigns," Emma said. "It has helped so many of them with actually converting people from social."
Related: How to Land Your First Brand Deal (And Keep ‘em Coming)
The business behind the business
Most people assume creators make their money from views. Emma knows better.
"People think all the money comes from social media platforms," she said. "I'm like, no... that's actually the least amount."
The real business comes from:
- Courses
- Templates
- Guides
- Affiliate partnerships
- Brand sponsorships
She's had multiple six-figure months. Her business has generated multiple 7-figure months since she started it. And she credits Manychat with helping make many of those months possible by improving conversions across products, affiliate offers, and sponsorship campaigns.
Her Advice to Every Course Creator
Emma spent her first year working a full-time actuarial job while creating content at night. Weekends. Sundays. Evenings. For almost no money.
"I was literally working all the time," she said. "I didn't start ever really making money until one to two years in."
That's why her advice is about building something that lasts.
"As soon as you're creating content," she said, "start collecting emails and getting a freebie set up... because that's where the majority of your customers do come from."
The followers are great, and the views are fun, but they’re rented. An email list? That's yours to keep.
And for Emma Chieppor, it became the foundation underneath a business that started with one frustrated graduate and a decision to become the tutor she wished she'd had.
Ask Emma what she'd change if she could restart Excel Dictionary tomorrow. She'd start collecting emails on day one.
"I didn't have that set up for like one to two years," she said. "That was during my peak growth period... I don't really want to think about it."
That's advice she now gives every creator. No matter how small. No matter how early. Build the email list.
Immediately.
Emma still teaches. But she's no longer trying to do everything herself.
She has:
- A full-time content producer creating short-form videos in her style
- A newsletter writer
- A graphic designer
- A long-form YouTube editor
- Someone managing customer support, sponsorships, and the ever-growing inbox
"I didn't realize you should hire help for a couple years," she admitted. "If you have the revenue to get help and are feeling burnout, definitely get help."
It's a lesson plenty of creators learn the hard way. Being the bottleneck feels productive until it isn't.
Could this be you?
Emma isn't a Silicon Valley founder or a marketer by trade. She's someone who got frustrated trying to use Excel, decided to help other people skip the pain, and kept solving the next problem as her audience grew.
Today, those solutions include 25 lead magnets, 150,000+ email subscribers, automations bringing in 5,000–10,000 new contacts every month, a growing team, and a business that's expanding into AI education, live trainings, and new courses.
Her biggest regret? Waiting.
Don't wait until you have millions of followers to start building your business. Start with one free resource. Capture one email. Build one relationship. Then let the system do what algorithms never will: keep working after the Reel stops getting views.
Ready to turn comments into customers? Start free with Manychat today!