Thanks for the file, Btrombley82.
I have attached three images. Two are based on the hierarchy in the tutorial file and one that I took from your scene file. Please compare them, you will see that the order is a critical point here.
Secondly, the Plain effector might work here nicely as well, but the fall off was not oriented (See the top view image). Compare for the Effector the Coordinates as well the Falloff direction (X or Z, + or -).
Some people like to rotate the effector instead of setting up the x,y,z (+/-) direction. Both works, as long as you keep the animation under control. My tip try both versions, but before you animate, get the direction right.
As a minor point, the size of the falloff is pretty small, which is OK, but it will lead to a different behavior of the letters, explore different length here, if you like to see the influence. The Falloff of the Effector was also left to 50% (default), the tutorial has it on 100% in the file, which will set the effective length of the falloff to half in you scene, which means even shorter.
As a little side note, the less keyframes you use per track, the more influence each keyframe has. As an result of this, each adjustment of a key, especially in the F-Curve, will have a greater effect. This results in lees work normally and enables a faster workflow. It is like in Illustrator, the lower the point-amount, the faster the shape can be adjusted, and mostly, the result is cleaner. Just my two cents.
Good luck
Sassi