How to make money through TikTok and Instagram with Keenya Kelly

Keenya Kelly: TikTok literally changed the way that advertising works. If you look at more commercials on television or online, they all feel like a TikTok type of video because it’s recognising the fact that people are always on their phones, they have a very short attention span, and there’s a way to market to people in a way that is entertaining slash educating, but also advertising.

Rachel: Hello and welcome to The Content Byte, a podcast for freelancers who use their words to make money. I’m Rachel Smith, a freelance journalist, copywriter, and content producer. I’m also the founder of Rachel’s List, a jobs board and community for Australian writers and other creatives.

Lynne: I’m Lynne Testoni! I’m a journalist and content writer as well. Rachel and I are your weekly co-hosts, and every week we bring you all kinds of tips, tricks, and some fabulous guests to help you make the most of your freelance business.

Hey Rachel, I want to ask a question. What are your thoughts on Instagram and TikTok as a way of making money and securing some new clients?

Rachel: That’s a leading question.

Lynne: I know. I think it’s good. I think it’s something we haven’t talked about.

Rachel: I know. Well, I spend a lot of time on Instagram. I am quite strategic about Instagram and I am on TikTok, but I’m more of a lurker. I don’t post videos or anything, I just watch what other people do and go, oh, that’s interesting and then I leave again. So, it’s a whole new world I haven’t explored.

Lynne: It is a whole new world. I know. I’m the same. I know TikTok is big, especially with younger people and I haven’t looked at it at all. I’ve just avoided it. So, there you are. I’m being honest here and I’m probably a little intimidated by it. To be honest, I feel like I’ve learned so many social media platforms over the years and I’m just a bit tired of learning another one.

Rachel: I know. It’s interesting though, isn’t it, because I am so keen to see how freelancers can leverage it, and so we really wanted to get an expert in this area, so we’ve asked Keenya Kelly to talk about it with us today. She’s a social media strategist, entrepreneur, and the go-to expert for building brands and generating revenue through short form video, which is essentially TikTok in a nutshell.

Lynne: So good.  Keenya is known as the “TikTok Queen”, so obviously it’s her thing. She’s got over 500,000 followers on TikTok, and she’s generated more than $4 million in revenue through strategic content, which is so interesting.

Rachel: Wow.

Lynne: She’s speaking to us from Texas and so, she really knows this area.

Rachel: So, given TikTok in particular has really grown in the past few years, we’re going to chat to her about what writers need to learn about these platforms right now, so you can earn more and raise your profile. And if you haven’t tried it, this is really worth listening to.

So, hello Keenya and welcome to The Content Byte!

Lynne: Welcome!

Keenya: I’m so excited to be here! I love hearing you guys, y’all’s thoughts about TikTok. Y’all going to be blown away.

Lynne: We’re tight.

Keenya: It’s hilarious. 

Lynne: Well, okay, so that’s where we should start because I’m new to it and I’m a bit ignorant about it. My kids use it but tell us about the platform and how it can help you secure revenue.

Keenya:  So can I just say that I love how y’all say – so we say hello and y’all say harlo. You have like an r – love it. I love it.

Rachel: It’s like on The Real Housewives, they say thank yoou.

Keenya: Thank you. It’s so funny, like we all have our different accents. It’s just funny to hear and I completely forgot what the question was. Sorry.

Lynne: Tell us, start from the basics with TikTok, how it works, how you can make money.

Keenya: TikTok is very much, very similar to all the other platforms. The thing is, is that it just completely changed the culture of marketing. It changed the culture of video marketing. It changed the culture of social media. When we think about, if you go back and look at what YouTube and Facebook and LinkedIn and what they all Instagram were like in 2020. They were all their own thing. You knew that when you came there, you had to do different things there.

But TikTok came in and basically just blew everybody away. It took a lot of market share and because they realised people are on their phones, they only have a short amount of time that their attention span. And so TikTok literally changed the way that advertising works. If you look at more commercials on television or online, they all feel like a TikTok type of video because it’s recognising the fact that people are always on their phones, they have a very, very short attention span, and there’s a way to market to people in a way that is entertaining slash educating but also advertising.

Lynne: Interesting.

Rachel: You are really big across two social platforms, in particular, Instagram and TikTok. So, what are some of the biggest shifts you’ve seen on those platforms in the past few years?

Keenya: So, the first, the biggest shift was going to short form video because the longest time we were all doing focused on live streams or prerecorded content that was longer, and then now it is, it’s way more videos that are one minute or less and it is fine. People are making buying decisions a whole lot faster now because they can consume, if you’ve got twenty, fifteen second videos, they can literally consume like ten or fifteen videos really quickly and decide that you are their person. And if your message is convincing enough, you’re going to be making sales like crazy over and over and over again, just from this short content. It really speeds up that like, know and trust factor a lot faster.

Lynne: Ah, interesting. Oh wow. So, do you find the same with Instagram? Because I do love Instagram and I spend a lot of time, but I’m not sure if I make money from it. I think it does raise my profile, but it does that work as well.

Keenya: For sure, because the average person, they’re either focused on Instagram, focused on TikTok, doing whatever they’re doing and consuming based, based upon whatever platform that they love. And if you as the marketer, the business owner – if you’re learning the creative ways to sell your product or service to that person, and you learn how to create content that makes them stop scrolling from their entertainment, you’re going to make a significant amount of money. Most of my money comes from Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and it’s 99% short videos. And it’s me educating, sharing who I am, sharing what I’ve done, sharing what they can do, and then making an offer. And I’m watching them come through my system.

So, it’s like on Instagram, we have a tracking link on TikTok, we have a tracking link on all the platforms. We have a tracking link, and we can see where all the sales are coming from and we can see they opted in from this and we can see that it’s like it’s really happening on all the platforms.

Rachel: Oh, wow.

Lynne: Wow.

Rachel: You’ve got it going on. I don’t have it going on. Google’s tracking link. Okay. So, you know something I think that everybody is confused about continually, because they’re always changing the goalpost is how often to post. Let’s start with that – if you’re on TikTok or Instagram, how often do you really need to be posting these short videos?

Keenya: I always tell people, you at least want to be posting once a week, right?

Rachel: Oh, wow.

Keenya: There are the rules that like, oh, you have to be every single day. Well, the average person, they are busy with their life, and you have to do something that is consistently that you’re doing right. Once you’re getting consistent at that one, the algorithms are also learning, okay, so Rachel’s going to be here and she’s going to post on this day – great. Then they’re like, we’re going to reward Rachel for her consistency of her once a week.

Eventually what’ll start happening is that you’ll see the amount of traction you’re getting from that once a week. Then you’ll go to twice a week. But the perfect scenario would be every day. If you can have a piece of content that goes out every day, you have an opportunity to grow an audience every day, to make sales every day – similar to a coffee shop. If the coffee shop is open, they make money. If it’s closed, they don’t make any money and so it’s just an opportunity for constant exposure, lead generation, and conversion of sales.

Lynne: So do you think it’s more about the consistency rather than the actual time, like being consistent once a week is better than doing every day here and there and then being a bit all over the shop.

Keenya: For sure, because the more you have a consistent cadence of anything, the better you’re going to do. It’s kind of like working out. You can say, I’m going to workout five days a week, but if you crush it and that two hours on Monday and that’s all you got, and you come back that Monday, in six months, you’re going to have a different body because you’re consistent. Versus you’re here this week and you’re gone for three weeks and you’re here. Your body’s just not going to have that consistency thing going. But it’s also not just the showing up – the content – it is the actual content as well. Because if you put out bad content, you just put out bad content once a week.

Rachel: Wow.

Lynne: I’ve got to admit that I do get a bit exhausted keeping up with all the changes to social media, which is one of the thing reasons I don’t offer it to clients because I feel you’ve got to be really into it and be up to date because the algorithms keep moving. The trends are always changing.

How do you stay on top of it?

Keenya:  Well, first it’s definitely my job to stay on top of it. But also, I follow accounts of people who are just like me, who are social media teachers. And so, when I’m scrolling to see my entertaining things, I can see the things that they’re teaching and I’m like, oh, that’s really good.

But I also subscribe to different newsletters that are like big, big brands that teach what’s happening with social media. Great. I see their announcements. When TikTok makes an announcement or Instagram makes an announcement, I read the announcement and go, okay. And so, I pay attention to what those things.

It’s kind of like how people pay attention to the news. I don’t watch the news, right? The thing is going to help me grow my business and with my clients, I pay attention to them. But I’m also reminded that even though platforms change, the person’s still the same. So, Instagram may be pushing more images, but I know that we are still watching video, right? I still know that my customer is watching video when I talk about this, this, and this in this way, she is still going to watch my content. I just get an opportunity to also add this new feature that they’ve said. But if I am just consistently doing my same thing in a way that I can see that grows my audience, I don’t have to keep changing every time the platform changes.

Lynne: That makes sense.

Rachel: Well, before we get onto strategy, I’d love to just ask you how are you batching your content for the week or the month and what are you using to kind of keep it all rolling, I suppose? Do you have a specific content plan system?

Keenya: For sure. Yes. I used to be all over the place.

When I first got started in 2020 with the short video, I was filming every day, multiple videos every single day. But as my business grew, I couldn’t keep doing that because I had to focus on the business. And so, I started learning the art of batching, creating on the weekends, creating a lot of pieces of content.

But one strategy thing that I do once a month is I’ll take like an hour once a month and I’ll go to like one of the little – I live in an apartment complex that has really pretty events, places or whatever. And I’ll go down to the event place where everybody’s at work and I’ll film a bunch of B-roll, meaning that I’ll bring down like five different shirts and I’ll film myself doing a bunch of things five different times, and I’ll probably get like seventy or eighty short ten second videos in that hour, right?  And I just have the footage. If I’m going through the airport, I’ll film footage. Everything that I’m doing, I just film footage that I could use later, and I just put it into a B-roll folder, and I just put it there. I do that once a month. Now I’ve got enough content for months because it’s all B-roll.

But when it comes to actually like speaking content, I will do that probably once every other week. I’ll take like a Saturday, and I’ll do some on Saturday, and I’ll do some on Sunday, and I just film it out all at once. And so, when I’m really going hard to grow my accounts, I may post like three times a day.

So, I’ll have a plan that I know, okay, for the next four weeks, here are the three pieces of content I’m putting out every single day, right? I’ll have a theme. My first content of the day is about this, is this type. My second content is this type, and third is this type. And so, then I go, okay, today I am filming all for the first content of the day, and I’ll wear one shirt and I’ll film every single video for the next three weeks with that 5 am content.

Then the next day I’ll change the shirt and I’ll go, okay, now I’m filming all the content for the second video of the day, for the whole month. And then the last day, I’ll do that. That way I’m not wearing the same shirt back-to-back. But it’s like this shirt, this shirt, this shirt. Then again, it’s this shirt, this shirt, this shirt and that lets me like just get it all out, but I make sure my scripts, and all that stuff is done first. So that way film it is easy and I edit later.

Rachel:  That is awesome. I love it. So, when you said you take all those little videos and that footage and the B-roll and put it in a folder, are you doing that on Google Drive? Are you doing it on your computer or are you putting it into a scheduling tool?

Keenya: I’m putting it into a tool that we call, it’s called Playbook. It’s like a Google Drive, but it’s better. So, Google Drive typically will compress your videos.  So, you don’t get the same quality.

There’s a tool called Playbook. It’s like $12 a month and we have a social media 2025 folder and then it’ll say April 2026. And then I’ll dump all the videos in April 2026 and then our team, they’ll take each video and go, this is Keenya walking, Keenya in stripe shirt, Keenya doing this, Keenya doing that? And that way it’s all like labelled of this is what this is. And so, when I want to use it, I come in and go – me typing, me walking, me laughing, and I can find what I’m looking for because it’s all organised.

Rachel: So clever.

Lynne: So good.

Rachel: And then so then you sort of track the metrics to show how you’re growing based on the videos you’re posting.

Keenya:  Because we’re not just tracking the metrics of, because we’ll track the metrics of views of course, but you’re tracking the metrics of followers. But we really use like automated chat bots to really get our audience to either join our email list or buy our products and so we can see that if this video had this many views and this many people commented, of those people that commented, how many of them actually became a sale? And if we see that we got the views, but those sales, that’s okay to get the views, but what actually made me get sales, we will do more of that and less of just the views.

Rachel: So interesting. I’ve heard about those. So, the chatbots you mean is like when you say, comment this word and I’ll give you, my thing. Is that sort of how those work?

Keenya: Yes, exactly. 

Rachel: I hear really mixed reports about people who love and loathe those.

Keenya: I love them.

Rachel: You do?

Keenya:  Oh, we get hundreds of leads every single month. Now some people don’t like it because it’s an AI, it’s like chatbots talking, it’s not a real person. But the person who really runs a business and is using social media to help them generate leads and sales looks at it and goes, if I can get as much stuff done, audit through automation and less as me or a person, then oh my goodness. You know what I mean? That’s like we have a social media person that helps us. But I would rather have a hundred people comment that word and she doesn’t have to respond to a hundred people.

But she may have to respond to twenty people who actually ask the question. But all those people still get exactly what they need and that’s a huge benefit because at any point in time your video could go viral and you have to prepare for that viral moment. And the worst thing you want to have happen is you don’t have any kind of automation for that viral moment. One of my clients, she went viral for her very first video working with us and she made $20,000 in seven days, but she didn’t have to do anything because we already had automation and things were set up to where when that thing popped off, all she got to do was go and just watch the sales come in.

Rachel: Interesting. Interesting. So, you’re obviously at the vanguard of everything that’s working right now. So, what are you seeing really working for yourself on TikTok and Instagram,

Keenya: It’s still going to be relatable content. So, people are not necessarily looking for highly polished, highly edited content. We shipped it to that in 2025, and nobody cared about my edited content. They were like, just show up, right?  And so, they really want unpolished content, right? They want to feel like because they know you’re selling, but they want to feel like you are a real person, right? Even if you have a chatbot.

Lynne: That’s even more important, isn’t it?

Keenya: Yes, because we’re always used to being sold to, and it’s okay, we know ads are coming up there, but people are becoming even more in tune with the fact that they want to do business with a human being that can touch or something like that and the more authentic you are, the more people enjoy it and they consume it. They may not buy immediately or they buy it, but they’re really looking for the authenticity of a thing. It reminds me of like when the US has a Super Bowl Sunday and there’s that brand Budweiser every single year, we knew that Budweiser beer commercial was going to have an advertisement.

Well, every year Budweiser has gotten more in tune with the emotions of their customer. And so now we’re not just looking for the funny Budweiser ad anymore. We’re looking for the emotional connection that Budweiser is making to their customer. And like every year we’re now looking forward to how is Budweiser going to knock it out the park.

And it’s making, you want to be more connected and more with that brand, and people are looking for that and who we are and what it is that we do. Every time I talk about the fact that I went through a divorce and instead of me just being mad, I went to therapy and I made a million dollars. People are like, oh – they can connect with me even more because they want to work with you. I look unattainable. I don’t seem like I have nothing, like everything’s perfect. It’s like, nah, I got problems like everybody else. And it makes me feel more relatable to them.

Lynne:  So interesting.

Rachel: Interesting.

Lynne: So, do you think a bit of it’s about visibility? How do you increase your visibility on these platforms?

Keenya: So, it’s really about learning how to create content that makes your audience stop. They call it scroll stopping content. The algorithms on all the platforms are your friend, they’re not the enemy, right?  And the algorithm is a matchmaker is looking for. What kind of content do you put out? Who is interested in that type of content? And they’re trying to match that person with content. So, if they’re going to keep you, Lynne on the platform, they know that you want to see what kind of content do you watch?

Lynne: Oh, a lot of interiors because I write about houses and interiors. 

Keenya: Exactly. Right. So, you love – a love of interior, right? So, the algorithm is learning that every single time they serve you up certain things, you’re staying there and you’re watching. So then if I create interior design content, they are looking to see like, okay, I’m going to send your content to Lynne. If Lynne doesn’t like it and ten other people, I send it to, don’t like it, there’s something wrong with your content.  Because they’re supposed to like it. So, our job is to create content in a way where our audience that it’s sending to says, what is this? And it makes them want to stop and watch and engage with the content.

A lot of times we just film something and we just put it up. But we are digital marketers, right? Even though we have our businesses, if you’re on social media, you are a digital marketer. And you’ve got to learn the art of digital marketing, which is get somebody to stop and watch this video within a second and get them to keep watching and take an action.

Rachel: This is so enlightening. I did a B-roll, like you say. It was just me walking across a park. So, it was literally just the view of the park and then overlaid with, I think it was, five things that happen every time I write a story. But it was funny. It was kind of like for journalists that went absolutely nuts. And I thought, wow, okay, that’s interesting. But then of course I ran out of time and didn’t do any others. But it’s making me think I really need to plan, look at what really works and be more strategic about planning it because it’s interesting. I mean, a lot of our listeners are freelance copywriters, journalists, content pros, editors, that sort of thing. So, say that they want to use some of these ideas you’re giving us, maybe dip a toe into TikTok or – can you give us or give them a couple of angles or ideas that they could try this week?

Keenya: So, my number one thing for content creation is do you guys have access to Claude.ai?

Okay. All right. So, my number one thing that I do now is I go to Claude.ai – I connect Claude to my Gmail, my Google Drive, everything that related to me, right? And I’m now using Claude as my content strategist. Okay. And so what I do is I find my top competitors, the ones that are crushing it on social media in my particular niche, and I’ll have a full conversation with Claude and I’ll say, my direct competitor is this person, this person, this person, and they’re doing this on Instagram, dah, dah, dah, dah, whatever.

What are the top things that you are seeing that it’s really working with them and for their audience, based on their social media. And then what is the difference between what they’re doing versus what I’m doing? And that way you can get an unbiased assessment of your competitor versus you, right?

Once you get all that then you’re going to go, okay, all right. So, this month, this quarter, we are focused on selling this, this, and this to this person, and based upon what it is that they’re doing is working extremely well, what do you feel like we could do in our content? And let it just start talking to you.

Then once you agree with it, then you want to say, now give me twenty detailed content ideas for my next twenty videos. Give me my text hook. Give me my text on screen, give me my caption, and if you want me to speak in the video, give me the bullet points. I want this content to be so good that my audience is salivating for what it is that I have to offer.

You’re going to find where Claude.ai is going to give you the most fantastic idea, specifically for you, your niche, which your audience is already responding to. Most of it you already agreed to because you’ve already been talking to it and when you film and edit this, you’re going to be like, why didn’t I do this sooner? It’s typically because we think that we need to do this grandiose stuff, but we really need to do this thing down here and we’re just so big in our minds of what we do. And Claude.ai is going to be your best, best, best, best, best friend.

All of my clients, when I’m working with them now on live calls, I go, all right, let’s go to Claude. And we do screen share and then we talk to Claude and they’re able to see what they can start with. Then once you’ve done that like four or five times – the videos, then you are able to gauge, oh wow. I never would’ve thought they’d respond to that. I never thought they’d respond to that. That’s like you with walking in the park – that is a clue that you should do more videos of you walking except for view and then just have lots of different footage of you walking, whether you’re walking away, you’re walking towards walking, left, walking right. It’s a big clue for you that like do more of that and then just changing your text or voiceovers.

Rachel:  Claude is definitely way more sophisticated than ChatGPT.

Keenya: Oh, for sure. I like Chat. It’s just something, but Claude’s a much better writer and strategist.

Lynne:  Oh, interesting, interesting. So how can freelancers use TikTok and Instagram to get clients, not just views?

Keenya: Yes. So, tell me what would you say the freelancers are selling.

Rachel: Say, copywriting? They want to find clients who need copy or need content, or need clients to say, edit an annual report or a book manuscript or something like that.

Lynne: Sometimes it’s about establishing your expertise in a particular niche too.

Keenya: For sure. One of the things that I always tell people is that if you’re a thought leader, right?  Then you have to create – first you’ve got to create your own content pillars. And so, what that means is that what do you actually create content about? Right. And so, if you are a writer, it’s like, what are the five things – this is what I create content about, or what I would create content about that can lead to the thing that I’m selling, right?

So, your thing, let’s just say as a writer could be – if you’re going to use AI, here’s the things to do when it comes to using AI or, here’s how to train your AI or whatever. Or if they’re not going to say, AI is like, here’s why you’ve got to be writing and using AI in 2026 or whatever. Right? And you basically have to position yourself as the expert, as the guru that people can connect to and relate to and when they want to buy what you’re selling, they’ll buy.

Now that could be you’re doing talking head videos where you’re literally talking head. Two, it could be where you’re doing a reaction video where you see somebody has written some copy and you’re reacting to it, saying, this is what you should do and this is what you should not do, and here’s why you shouldn’t do this, why you shouldn’t do that, here is why, well, my client wrote this, this, and this. This is why that turned into X amount of dollars, right? And you’re positioning yourself as what have you, right? Or that person could be answering questions and doing what’s called a reply video where they’re actually coaching people in their content.

But ultimately, everything that you do should be telling people to opt into something or to buy something, right? So, when I’m teaching people about here’s viral hooks you want to have for your videos, I’m teaching them that, but also saying, but if you join me inside of my content intensive, we’re going to help you with this, this, this, this and that. So, not just this, but this, this and that and the person that had that got had success from that one video may say, Ooh, well if that was, she gave us that for free, imagine what it’s going to be like when we work with her.

Lynne:  So interesting.

Rachel: Amazing. I would love to know, because you probably say this a lot and you’re rolling your eyes, but what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see content creators, professionals making on TikTok and Instagram?

Keenya: The first thing is not being on TikTok.

Lynne: Oops.

Keenya: People still think it’s just kids there. They still think it’s just young people there. And I’m like, I’m forty-four years old and I’ve been there six years. The people who are making the most money right now are not just the young people, it’s the people who have, who see the audience.

So that’s the number one thing is not being there. The second thing is, just posting anything and trying to be like everybody else, like you’re trying to do a trend, you’re trying to do something goofy or you’re trying to post your kids or whatever. It’s like, no, you got to treat this like real estate, like in the US on every major highway or corner there is a Walgreens or a CVS, it’s just like that’s what’s always there, right? They have the best real estate, and so you have to look at your social media platforms as real estate, like as your golden ticket, that if you put this out and it’s the lottery, this could be your moment.

And you have to look at that as, this could be my lottery every time you put that out, because you never know what people are going to respond to or what the algorithm just says overdrive to that content. The third thing I would say is doing Zoom classes. It’s like, we’re here on Zoom and they’re just taking a Zoom and just trying to turn it into a short video and just uploading it. Letting a software just chop up the video. If you’re going to take repurposed content, you have to make sure that the content feels like it’s a short. For example, I was telling somebody earlier today who has a podcast and she was like, how do I get people to come back to my podcast? And I said, well, you can’t just clip anything from a podcast.

You got to take this moment, this moment, and this moment, and you got to put it together and let those moments like build on each other and you leave a person on a cliffhanger. Now all they want to do is, where do I find the episode? Now they’re going to go and find your episode. So, if you’re going to clip things in, you’ve got to add extreme value in those clips and then it can be it but also try to lead them to the next thing.

Rachel: That is such a great tip. I think a lot of it, for a lot of us, it comes down to time, doesn’t it? It’s like finding those clips. It’s something we could do, we have those skills, but finding those clips, putting them together in like Descript or one of those, or CapCut or something. It’s just, its time, isn’t it?

Lynne: I don’t know that it’s time actually, it’s priorities. We do other things. You have to say, this is something I really want to do, and you give priorities. I mean, we all have the same amount of time.

Rachel: I suppose you’re prioritising what’s going to make you money, and is it going to make you money – bringing people back to your podcast, maybe? Or is it just a visibility thing.

Keenya:  I think that if a person is not using social media, it is because they really don’t understand what they’re missing. That’s kind of like a person who doesn’t eat certain foods or drink enough water. They don’t really realise the benefit of, if they drink water with electrolytes, what it will give them. They’re just like, it’s fine. I’ve been drinking water my whole life. I’m fine. But once they start drinking electrolytes, it’s like, this just changed my life, right?  And so, I think that if a person really knew the power of what social media could do, because like they’re visible and they’re doing their message, but it’s like pouring gasoline on what you were doing.

I was on live stream for years, Facebook and Instagram live stream. But it wasn’t until I took that same message and put it on TikTok and it was like overnight, what I had been building all these years just exploded and it was because here’s a place people are spending all their time and it’s Super Bowl Sunday every single time I post a piece of content because, what happens the way people are consuming on this app, you know what I mean?

Rachel: So, I’d love to know at what point you had one type of business and then went on TikTok and then it exploded. I mean, what were you seeing in that moment and what kind of transformed your business? How long did it take?

Keenya: I was building a brand design agency for many years and at the beginning of 2020 when we knew something was happening in the world, I was just kind of praying for a strategy because I was like, I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know what’s going to happen. And I just heard, I heard God tell me to get on TikTok and I thought it was the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard because nobody was talking about TikTok. And I’m like, why is he talking about TikTok? I don’t understand. And he just kept talking to me. I just kept hearing get on TikTok. And so initially I was there just creating funny videos because I didn’t understand what was happening.

And one of my funny videos went viral and I was like, I think I’m onto something. So, then I was like, let me try to promote something else. And so, I wrote a book called, Before You Quit Your Job. And I was like, I’m going to use one of these trends and I’m going to be petty about my divorce and say, I think it was like a seven second video and it said I was depressed after my ex-husband cheated on me, but I wrote a book and I made $4 million or something like that. It was really petty. It was really fast, but it went super viral and the book was sound like crazy and I was like – there’s a creative way to do marketing here, right?  So, then I started selling like website design and logo design through the creativity on the app.

But then from there I was like, I don’t really like this design business anymore. I love social media more and so, I just said, I’m going to put down design and focus on social, but everything that I knew about email marketing, list building, live streaming, content creation, I just started teaching it versus just doing it in my business. I started teaching it and it just went, whew.

Lynne: Interesting.

Rachel: Amazing. It’s really making me want to look at TikTok. 

Keenya: I told you.

Rachel: You’re inspiring me for sure. I want to talk to you about like something that we see on social a lot, and that is this whole vulnerability thing and being authentic. We see a lot of people crying or posting a video of themselves in distress, and they go, this is a good time to video myself and put that on social. I mean, what are your thoughts on vulnerability and where do you draw the line on that sort of stuff?

Keenya: I think that everybody has their way of whatever. When I’m crying, my instinct isn’t to film myself, but it may be for somebody else. I am not going to do it. I’m not going to encourage my clients to do it. I feel like it does feel a little icky at times when you see people crying online, but I get that some people, that’s how they want to express themselves.

Do I think that that’s what you should do as a business? Eh, maybe, maybe not. Is that my style? No. Does that style work for some other people? Yes. But I feel like when I think about vulnerability, I don’t think about you telling the world everything that’s going on with you or everything that has happened, but that you’re using a part of something that has happened and here’s how I’ve overcame and here’s how you can overcome.

I don’t want to dig people while I’m down. I want to tell them how I overcame.

Lynne: So interesting.

Rachel: There was something on Threads last night actually. It was this guy and he posted a picture of himself, and his wife and he said, hey, tonight we are trying for baby number two and then the comments – I love threads just for the comments.

You go on there for one minute and you’re there for two hours. And the comments were all like, they should really bring back journaling and tell this guy that he should be journaling instead of posting this stuff. It was just hilarious. But it got me really thinking like you say, you don’t need to post every thought. Everything that comes into your head, everything you’re going through.  

Keenya:  Everybody has their limit. They have their boundary of what that kind of looks like and I just go, okay, these people do that – that’s not my thing. But I’m glad you’re posting that because now I can see it. But that’s just not me, you know?

Lynne: Interesting. What about newsjacking? And that’s sort of when there’s some sort of news item or something and you put your own spin on it, or you take it? Does that work? Or should you stay in your own lane?

Keenya: It works extremely well, especially if it’s within your niche. Like you can ride the, you can ride the coat tails on that. So, like when the US kept trying to ban TikTok, every time something came out, I was always talking about it and it ended up getting me on CNN Business, News Nation. I ended up being everywhere because every time a story would come out, I was making announcements about the story. And so, it’s a huge opportunity to be able to jump in on something like if someone’s in marketing or whatever. And there’s some big event that’s happening. Look for the, look for the angle that you can utilise, that you can jump on.

I’ve been watching this lady, she’s a PR, I guess strategist for like when the crazy things go on. And so, she’s been taking little episodes and she just highlights, she breaks down why this is a PR nightmare or why this is good or what’s the PR person, what’s a lawyer, and like it really like showcases her expertise and I think that that’s a really great way to do a thing, or even, like you said, you guys work with a lot of writers, they could literally take stories of where someone has said something or read some type of statement and they can break down what is being said there and what’s not being said, what’s being hinted at and what’s not being hinted at. Because it’s good things for people to under to understand, you know.

Lynne: So interesting.

Rachel: We have a lot of PRs who listen, so they’ll be like taking that little tip of yours and going, oh, I didn’t think of that.

Keenya: Everything is an opportunity.

Rachel: Oh, it is. It is. Take us through a usual, a typical week for you. What are you doing for your Monday to Friday?

Keenya: So normally I am creating content of course, once a week at least for my YouTube channel or for my shorts. I edit my own videos because it’s just a lot easier for me to do that, and it’s cheaper to do that. I get a lot of emails, whether that is from our clients or that’s from brands that are reaching out for collaborations, but I’m also doing a lot of live streams. I do live streams on my own. I’m teaching my community. I have a private mastermind that I coach, and then it’s typically, I guess the strategy side of things are for my own marketing.

So, I’m also actually changing up me for 2026 and for the future, because I’m single and I’m trying to get married to somebody someday. And so, I am actually shifting my business and giving more responsibility to my online business manager for them to run more of the business so that all I can focus on is sales, content creation, sales, content creation and I can be outside dating and stuff, so I’m like, I want more time. So, I’m simplifying my business, making more, but putting more responsibility on other people in the team because I’m forty-four years old, I want to go outside.

Rachel: Live your life.

Keenya: Exactly that.

Lynne: Sounds like it’s a good balance. Is it a good balance for you?

Keenya: I’m working on it now because I moved back to Houston, Texas a year ago and every time I’m out, I’m like, wow, look at all these men. I’ll never see them. I’m like, because you always in the house.

Lynne: Get out of the house.

Rachel: Absolutely.

Lynne: Fair enough. We are now ending the podcast with Fast Three questions. Okay. So, are you ready?

Keenya: Yay. 

Rachel: Okay. I’m interested in this one because you’ve mentioned a couple of things, but I’d like to know more. First question – favourite tools of the trade that you absolutely cannot live without.

Keenya: I cannot live without CapCut because CapCut is the greatest editing tool I cannot live without. I can’t live without TikTok. I just cannot. It is a place I make money. It’s a place I get all of my humour. It’s just everything to me. And I cannot live without my cell phone, obviously. Is that it? My cell phone.

Lynne: So, question two is one habit that genuinely saves you time.

Keenya: Ooh. Having an executive assistant. We hired my assistant from the Philippines four years ago and when I was hiring her, they told me, make a list of things you don’t like to do and give it to her. They were like make it as a job posting and I was like, well, that’s kind of mean. They said, well just do it. And I put the job posting up and she is amazing at all the things that I’m bad at and so, it’s like I don’t have to focus on that because I literally give it all to her.

Lynne:  Oh, that’s awesome.

Rachel: Makes a difference. Virtual assistance. I’ve got two, so I know what you mean.

Keenya: Exactly. 

Rachel: Okay. Final question. One thing that you wish you’d done sooner in your career.

Keenya: It would probably be having a YouTube channel because I realised how much money I’ve lost if ten years ago I was creating one video a week and had affiliate links in those videos, they would be paying me forever. But I wasn’t – I didn’t really do much with a YouTube channel, or with affiliate links ten years ago, and I can’t even imagine where my affiliate revenue would be.

Lynne: Oh, so interesting.

Rachel: YouTube is a whole other episode, isn’t it? We’ve got a YouTube channel, and I’ve got one for Rachel’s List and you’ve got to get on there and leverage it – TikTok, YouTube, whatever.

Lynne: Wow.

Rachel: Wow. This has just blown my mind.

Lynne: I’m going straight to; it’s such an inspiring conversation.

Rachel: Yes.

Lynne: So, I am sure it’s quite a lot of our listeners exciting. Tell us where they can find you.

Keenya: I’m on all the socials. My name K-E-E-N-Y-A-K-E-L-L-Y, Keenya Kelly. My website is keenyakelly.com and I’m pretty much everywhere, like literally type in Keenya Kelly, there’ll be pages and pages in Google, because I’ve been around for so long because it’s all there.

Lynne: Amazing.

Rachel: Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much, Keenya. We’ll put all of that in the show notes and we look forward to seeing what our audience does on TikTok.

Lynne: We love you over here. It’s so good. Thank you.

Rachel: Amazing and good luck.

Keenya: Y’all going to be on TikTok.

Rachel: I know. I am going to; I’m going to watch you like watching me.

Keenya: There. She’s there.

Rachel: Well, thank you again and good luck with the second husband hunt.

Keenya: Thank you so much. I’m calling them in. I’m calling them in.

Rachel: Ask the universe. Get that man. 

Lynne: Oh wow. Thank you. Thanks for listening and we’ll see everybody next week. That’s great. Bye.

Credits:

Connect with Keenya via her website: https://www.keenyakelly.com/ 

Or on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@keenyakelly 

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel’s List www.rachelslist.com.au

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Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co