← Follow The Yellow Brick Road
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- [00:00]
A
In 2020, everybody was home and bored and we're doing dance challenges.
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B
And what were you doing?
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I was dancing and teaching. Nobody was teaching TikTok for business.
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B
What if someone says, hey, I just don't have the personality to be on video?
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A
A lot of times we think we have to have this personality, but that's not the case. I have a client of mine, she showed up in her expertise. Her video went viral. She gained 2 million views, 50,000 followers in 24 hours. She just had to be her muted self.
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B
There's a bazillion people on social media. What makes some people's reels work, others don't.
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A
So the truth is.
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B
Welcome to another episode of Special Ops podcast where we give actionable insights to direct response marketers, e commerce sellers, and online sellers. Today, I got my girl, Kenya Kelly here with me. The queen of Tik Tok is hanging out with the wizard of Ops. Not a usual topic, I'll say for us here at Special Ops, but Kenya was in town and I thought it'd be really cool to talk about how social media can increase your profitability. Kenya has been teaching businesses, freelancers, brands to utilize TikTok, Instagram, all the social things to increase their profits. Welcome.
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A
Yay. Thanks for having me. So excited to be here.
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B
I'm so excited to have you here. You're driven faculty. We've become really close friends.
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A
Yes. Really quickly. Really quickly. Yeah.
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B
Not the norm for me, but I've loved getting to know you. Just for purposes of people who don't know you, would you just kind of, who are you? How you became the queen of TikTok.
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A
Yeah. So I'm Keania Kelly. So I am a video marketing and social media strategist. And basically I started my business in 2016 using Facebook Live and Periscope because that was the live streaming platform everybody was using. And then I got to Instagram and was just building my design agency. We built websites, logos, and did personal brand coaching. And at the beginning of 2020, you know, we knew something was happening in the world. We just didn't know what was happening. And I'm somebody who always prays about everything, tries to get creative strategies. And while I was praying, I felt like I heard get onto Tik Tok, which I thought it was the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire life.
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B
God told you to get on a Tik Tok? Yes. I didn't know he was so fluent in today's social media platform.
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A
He knows everything. He created everything.
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B
Yeah, of course.
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A
But I thought it was crazy, just to be honest, because everybody was. We're all sheltered in place. At the beginning of 2020, I said the worst thing that could happen is that I get on this app and that I heard wrong. But after my first six videos, my video went viral. And I had never gone viral on social media ever.
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B
What was the video about?
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A
It was a white girl who had gone to a black church. And I did a reaction video to her because she was like, she was acting out what she saw at a black church. And it wasn't racist. It was very wholesome and I just reacted to it and it was very funny. But my reaction to her reaction and it went vi. And I realized something is happening here on this app. What if I take it seriously and figure out how to talk about my business here? So then I did a video that was like seven seconds long talking about overcoming divorce and how I wrote this book and how I made all this money and it went viral and my book started selling like crazy on Amazon. And then I said, I'm doubling down. Wow. Yeah.
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B
Okay, so listen to God's word.
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A
Go on.
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B
Tick tock.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Blow up on your book.
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A
Yeah.
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B
How long had your book been out?
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It had been out for like two.
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Years and didn't do no much and then blew up.
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And it blew up Amazon, Kindle, my website. It was, it was nuts.
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B
And so now you're hooked on TikTok. How do you go from that to the queen of TikTok?
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A
Yeah. So what ended up happening was I kept creating content on TikTok and then I wasn't really telling people on Facebook or Instagram what I was doing. Cause I was so ashamed because I was like, I'm this 40 year old lady and like I'm on this like kit app. And so I said, I'm just going to be brave and I'm going to take one of my TikTok videos and I'm going to post it to Facebook. And people on Facebook, the comment section were like, you're not going to make any money. You're wasting your time. But I got way more DMS for my design agency services because I was marketing in a different way than everybody else, right? And so from there I was like asking myself the question of do I want to keep doing my design agency or do I want to do something different? And I was like, I love video. This is how I built my business, built my brand. I'm gonna go all in on TikTok marketing. And I put down the agency at the end of 2020 and picked up TikTok marketing and everything just exploded. Because I think that the digital marketing world, Nobody was teaching TikTok for business and no one understood. Right.
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B
People were only teaching TikTok shops. That's all you could really find was.
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A
Shop wasn't even out then. They were just teaching TikTok dancing. Know. Because everybody was dancing all the challenges.
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B
I guess I didn't know Tik Tok was around though.
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A
Yeah. Oh, yeah. All the dance challenges in 2020 because everybody was home and bored and they were just doing dance challenges.
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B
And what were you doing?
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A
I was dancing and teaching. So I was finding ways to dance and teach in my content. So I would.
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B
You would teach branding or teach Tik Tok?
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A
Initially in 2020, I was teaching branding building a personal brand on TikTok in 2020. But in 21, I started to teach people video marketing strategies and how to make money using video. Because people were on Tik creating content, but they weren't making any money. So I was like, let me teach them what I know about personal branding. Create a product online and sell it. And then, because I knew, like everybody was watching. So people who had online businesses were on TikTok watching content. So I was like, let me reach them so they can hire me to coach them for video marketing. And I got my first four 10K clients.
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B
Wow.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And now you're. Now you're.
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A
Oh, yeah. So now with like, my TikTok is at like 516,000. I have a second one that's at 53,000. And I've just been teaching people. Well, Instagram reels came out and so I started teaching people short video marketing, not just how to market on TikTok, but how to really create great short videos that get your audience's attention, grow a following and then generate leads organically.
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B
Because that's just important, right?
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A
Not exactly.
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B
So you had a course for marketers and it was something to do with profits. Talk about that.
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A
Yes. So I created a course called Monetize the Talk because people wanted to know how to create on TikTok. But I knew that people don't really care about growing a following. They want to make money. So I created a course teaching people, here's how to create great short videos, here's how to get people's attention, and then here's how to get them from being a follower to actually to the link in your bio to purchase. Right. And then I had to revise the course because now Tik Tok offered all of these Ways that you can monetize. Kind of like with YouTube, you're able to get money through views and ads and all that. Well, TikTok launched all of these monetization ways and so I had to update the course to go, okay, if you want to make money through views, do this accidentally. I became an influencer because I had never had 100,000, 200,000 followers. So all the brands started coming along wanting to pay me to create content. Like TikTok came and paid me like a lot of Money to create 10 videos to be the face of their holiday campaign. And I was like, I'm an influencer, but I didn't know that I was. So I then I had to start teaching coaches. Hey, you've got a following, you are an influencer. Here's how to monetize that in addition to your coaching business.
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B
Wow.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So average run of the mill client of yours, they're a business and they're selling what?
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A
Yeah, so the average client, they're two people. One, they're usually selling some type of coaching services. Right. They're trying to reach people who want to buy either their mastermind, their digital course or their consulting. And then the second person is someone that says, I want to become a full time content creator. I work a full time job and I want to create content about my life, me and my kids and whatever. And we want to monetize our lives and turn our lives into content and it's into money. And so I'm teaching both people how to monetize.
- [08:05]
B
So average business, let's say, say a business that has like a Shopify e commerce store with a bunch of different gadgets, should they be on TikTok?
- [08:15]
A
Oh, absolutely. Because TikTok shop is like the number one way to sell any physical products right now. Because the way that TikTok shop works is multiple things. One, if you have a physical product, you're able to upload your inventory to TikTok and you can sell it through your own videos. But also there's the opportunity for the affiliates. So let's just say you sell water bottles. You put your water bottles on TikTok shop and you said, yes, we want creators to be sell it. I will pay them $1, $2, whatever per item that they sell. And now a creator can come along and go into shop and say, ooh, I want to sell that. And then they can either buy the product or they can request the product as a free sample. You ship it to them and then now this creator creates content for you. And they're making money through their shop affiliate link. And you're making a ton of money because they're doing all the work. But then you also then can reach out to those same creators and say, hey, what? We want to partner with you more. We'll actually boost your videos even more so that you make more and we make more. And so they'll also will increase your percentage. If you're really crushing it with a video, a company will reach out and say, hey, you're our number one seller. We want to increase your percentage of how much you make per item and we're going to boost your videos. You know, so some people are just 100% Tik Tok shop creators. That's their sole job.
- [09:33]
B
That's pretty interesting.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Yo, we interrupt this pod to tell you like and subscribe. What are you doing? Why haven't you liked? Why haven't you subscribed? Just subscribe. What's the problem? In all seriousness, subscribe so that you get notifications every time we drop new content. Additionally, if you have not signed up for our visionary vault, what the hell? Www.specialopspodcast.com Go sign up. It's free. We never try and sell you and we're putting all kinds of stuff in there to help you with the operations of your business because we're passionate about it and we want to share operational excellence with our direct response, e commerce and online selling. Family, can you talk about some of your clients and like, some of the success that they've found following your strategy?
- [10:12]
A
So one of my clients, her name is Mercedes. She's a mystery shopper. Initially, she had a mystery shopping business, and I think she had made like $20,000 period. And she didn't really understand how to market her business. And so we taught her just how to create short videos. Going into a store and acting like a mystery shopper, but filming it, there was a sound that was called super spy or whatever. So she filmed herself walking target like a spy, right? And she put text on screen about being a mystery shopper. She had a link in her bio to buy her mystery shopper course. She posted the video, put her phone down. The next day she had 1.5 million views. And she made $20,000 in seven days from the one short video. $20,000 in 24 hours. And she kept doing it. So now she's made over $3 million in her business. But she started doing it on Tik Tok and on Facebook. Facebook. She started growing her Facebook reels and started really, really Turning that around to being like a massive success. And it's just these short videos that's leading her people to her bio. It's crazy, right?
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B
Crazy.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So what if someone says, like, hey, I just don't have the personality to be on video.
- [11:23]
A
Yeah. So the truth is, is that like a lot of people when they meet me, they think that you have to have my personality. Like, it's very outgoing and all that, but. But that's not the case, you know? Marshmallow. Exactly. Like Mercedes. Her personality isn't quite like mine, but I have a client of mine and her name is Kathleen. She's very introverted, very muted, very chill. And she teaches people about medicinal mushrooms. And so we were like, okay, just show up in your expertise. And so she showed up in her expertise, in her quiet way teaching. Her video went viral. She gained, I think it was like 2 million views. 50,000 followers in 24 hours. 20,000 people joined her email list from one video. But she just had to be her. Her muted self. Another one of my clients, she's an immigration attorneys. You know, for most part, attorneys are very professional. And so she wanted to be very professional. And her goal was she wanted to get 10,000 followers and she wanted to go viral. And I was like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna do this, right? We had to figure it out. And so we did this video. It did not go viral. But over the weekend, she got 121 calls to her law office and got 10 paid clients. And so she realized she didn't need to go viral. She didn't need 10,000 followers. She needed to just reach her target audience. And she did. Right. And she doesn't have a big personality at all.
- [12:39]
B
Your lawyers are usually pretty dry on. There's like, there's a couple that do really well. Mostly they're pretty dry on social media.
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A
Because it doesn't require like that. We, a lot of times we think on social media, on video, we have to have this personality, but it's. That's not the case. You're trying to connect with a human being in whatever way they want to be communicated with. You know, like there's a gynecologist that talks all about like perimenopause and menopause. Well, there's no personality there with her. It's just like, it's just Dr. Mary and she's just talking and she's teaching, but she has exploded all over the world. And she's the number one lady everybody calls on for perimenopause. And menopause. Oprah, her book is on a New York Times bestsellers list for like four months. And she's just a doctor with doctor speak. But speaking to women about what we're all dealing with.
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B
So there's a bazillion people on social media.
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A
Yeah.
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B
What makes some people's real reels work or, or social media platforms work when others don't? Because you see a ton of people out there posting stuff all the time and it just doesn't do anything. And then you see people posting and it blows up and it doesn't even matter the content, I think.
- [13:46]
A
So one of the things to know about all the platforms is they have what they want. Their algorith want something specific and you have to make sure that you're working with the platforms and not against it. The algorithm on any platform doesn't want you making people leave. So they don't want you saying click the link in bio link anything. They don't want you putting links on screen.
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B
So no link in comments.
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A
You can't say click the link in.
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B
Bio so you can type the text link in comments.
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A
No. So if, if I have a, a short video, I have to tell them, check the comments for details. I can't say link in comments. Okay.
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B
Because I see link in comments all the time. So that's.
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A
Well, you can write link in comments on a Facebook post, but you should not put that in a Facebook reel.
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B
Got it.
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A
Right. So then if I do a reel and I put a caption, I will say link in comments and then put the comments there. But it will not be in the actual video and I will never say it. You've got to work with the platform. Right. Number two is if you can get people to engage in your content, that is key killer. Right. That's why a lot of us use those chat bots and telling people to comment this word or type this or whatever. Because if you can get 20 people to comment, right. First of all, you just got 20 people to engage with that post and the algorithm says more people like this, let me send it out. And then if your chat bots talking back and forth to it and if they end up going into the DMs, that's even more engagement that you made happen on the platform. Right? But another reason why some people's content works well and others don't is because you've got two seconds to get people's attention. Just two. Right. Because people, we are, they don't come on social media to watch us. They're not there for us. They're there for entertainment. And so we have to learn the. The fact that we are people's commercial to their entertainment. So if they're going to be entertained and then we're going to stop them, we can't be doing this boring stuff that's gonna. No, they're not gonna watch us just because we want them to. So if you're gonna create amazing short videos, as someone who's teaching, ask yourself, okay, what text can I put on screen that makes this person go, wait, what, what is the visual thing that can happen in that video the moment that they land on that video? You're not as hyper as you are online. I'm like, I know, because I'm just trying to get your attention. So you'll see certain text pops on screen for me, or you'll see my expression, or I'll have like something random in the video getting your attention. Because I'm just trying to make you stop and watch the video. Right? But then the third thing is that you really want to get people to watch the entire video, right? So if your video doesn't need to be a minute long, make it 30 seconds. Get to the point, right? Because people are. They're short attention span squirrel, you know, and then two, the algorithm is like, can. Are people watching 80 of this video? So if you're talking for a minute and it needs to be a minute, great. But if it just needs to be 30 seconds, make it 30 seconds so that people can watch it. And then it sends the signal to algorithm. They watched this almost all the way through and they engaged on it, keep sending it to more people.
- [16:42]
B
Wow, it's incredible. All right, last question. If I just want to get started, where do I begin? Do I create business accounts? Personal accounts? Where do I begin?
- [16:52]
A
Yeah. So first thing, you got to ask yourself, what is the goal? Right? Because you can create a corporate account, you can create a personal account, but you got to know what is the goal you're trying to achieve, right? So for me, when I started my business, I knew mine was going to be Kenya Kelly is going to be a brand new, right? Because I knew I have big dreams for who she's going to be. So then I said, okay, I'm going to start an account with my name, Kenya Kelly, right? If someone is coming to TikTok and they want to have the greatest success on TikTok, whether you're a business or not, you want to have a personal account on TikTok. Business accounts do not grow as fast as we would want them to. Unless if you are a product based business and you want to have a TikTok account that's connected to TikTok Shop, you have to have a business account. Right. So on Instagram, I have a creator account and I've always had creator accounts on Instagram and Tik Tok and I have haven't had any problems with that. You just have to, if you're on TikTok with a creator, a personal account, you have to get a thousand followers to have a clickable link. But we try to do that within your first week.
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B
Thank you, Kenya. Where, where do people find you?
- [17:56]
A
Yes, I'm Kenya Kelly. Everything. That's Ken Kelly.com Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn. I'm everywhere.
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B
Awesome. Thank you, Kenny.
- [18:03]
A
Yeah, thanks for having. Me.