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Podcasting is kind of fun to be honest with you!

I say that podcasts are fun because, from a typical standpoint, when someone launches a podcast, it is usually just an audio podcast. 

One of the things that I have loved about having a podcast all these years is that people just get to listen to my voice. And I don’t have to show up on video. 

So if I look completely homeless, like I just got out of a trash can with the cookie monster, you guys would not know about that from the sound of my voice. 

Now that we have a video podcast on YouTube, things are very different. 

And when I think about if you should start a podcast, I would say absolutely! 

I have a couple of reasons why I feel like that you should. 

But first of all, I just want to say thank you so much for listening and watching my podcast because there are so many people that you could listen to. 

And every single time somebody sends me a message and says, “Keenya, I like your podcast” or “I listened to your podcasts”

I don’t know, it just does something to me!

I love it when people enjoy my content on TikTok or when they find my courses and live classes helpful. It makes me feel good knowing that I’m helping others in some way. 

But there’s something about someone who listens to my podcast because it’s like something that I didn’t feel competent in doing when I started it. 

I used to hate the sound of my voice, I felt like I sounded like Kermit the Frog. 

And so when a person chooses to play me. When they’re playing me in their car, at the gym, or whatever. It’s really humbling. 

It’s also very life-giving because I remember when I didn’t believe in myself when I didn’t know what I was doing with podcasting. I almost gave up because I didn’t know what I was doing. 

I’m so grateful to those who are always listening and watching. Thank you for being there with me.

It means a lot to me!

But as it pertains to you starting a podcast, yes, I think you should. But it also depends on where you are in your business and in your ability to be consistent because that’s important. 

A couple of things when I think about Podcasts. One, I see it as an opportunity to get out whatever you’re thinking. 

Now, you don’t want to have a podcast where you’re just talking about anything random; you want to have a genre and be clear about who you are and what people can expect when they come to your podcast.

And so, once you choose whatever that is, now you get an opportunity to talk about however you see things like people are listening to you uninterrupted. 

I am thinking about some of the podcasts that I know of, and I am aware that there are two people on Netflix who have podcasts called “We Have the Receipts.”

These are people who review Netflix shows and enjoy reality television programming and other content available on the streaming service. 

One of them is Lauren Speed Hamilton, who appeared on an episode of the dating show Love Is Blind. 

When I think about them in their podcasts, she always wanted to be a podcaster. And now, she has this huge opportunity to watch reality TV and talk about it. 

And so when I think about myself, I love business. I love marketing. I love empowering people and encouraging people. 

Every single week, I get to have a topic where I can do all of them. I can talk about myself, how I think, how I do what I do. 

I can talk about the things I’ve gone through, what I’m learning and what I’m going through. And I could also talk about business and other things. 

But from a business standpoint, it’s an opportunity to reach a whole different group of people in a different way. 

If you’re on social media, then you’re scrolling through and constantly seeing different people’s messages.

But when someone is dialed into your podcasts, they are not listening to multiple people at the same time. 

They’re focused on one person and their message, and they can either be really into them or decide that they’re not interested.

While not everyone may be interested in what you have to say, there will always be those that are Subscribing to your content and ensuring that they never miss a thing. 

And so it’s like every time you have a new episode, it tells them you have a new episode and they can listen as they work out. They can listen as they do the dishes, as they clean and their kids can listen to you as they drive them to school. 

And so you have this opportunity to empower or encourage or uplift or teach or whatever it is you do to a person and potentially to a group of people in a car. 

I know people like Amy Porterfield who have built successful businesses from podcasting. 

I know she does video marketing now, but for a long time, it was just her and her podcasts. 

You don’t need much to get started podcasting – just a microphone. You’ll only need a microphone, which can be plugged into your computer. 

When I first got started on podcasting, I used a software called Audacity because somebody taught me how to use it. 

And then my Mac and Audacity were no longer compatible. So I had to learn via YouTube how to use the app GarageBand that was already on my Mac, which was so hard to figure out how to use it. 

But once I figured it out, I got it. 

And so I didn’t have to buy a new piece of software, because it was already on my computer. Even though I wasn’t very good at it, I was still able to use it for what I needed.

Now we have a Podcast Producer, but for the longest time, it was just me putting the intro and outro on the episode, and then uploading it to Libsyn. 

We now use Buzzsprout. And I have used the ATR 2100 microphone for like forever. 

I think that the reason our podcast was so successful is that it was relatable. We didn’t have great production value, like many other podcasts out there. We just had a decent microphone and software. 

If you’re thinking about launching a podcast, it’s really important to understand that you’ll have to promote it. 

You’ll have to tell people on your email list, on social media, and everywhere else that you have a podcast. You can’t just expect that everyone will find your podcast because you launched it. Everything we do has to be promoted.

You need to be intentional in your effort to get people to find and listen to your podcast each week.

You will need to be consistent with your content and release new episodes regularly if you want people to keep coming back.

I have liked people who have failed with their podcasts, and it has just fallen off. I know how it feels when people just stop abruptly, especially when something important happens to them. I went dark for a while when my grandmother passed away. 

But then I picked myself back up again. I have a ministry podcast called the You, Me and Jesus podcast.

I’ve had some experiences where I haven’t been consistent with my podcast and I’ve told my listeners that I’m sorry. I realized that if I’m not being loyal to the podcast then my listeners can’t be expected to be loyal either. 

If you’re going to launch a podcast, make sure you learn about podcasting. 

Learn some of the skills necessary for creating and editing podcasts if you’re not gonna hire somebody to produce it for you.  

Learn ways to talk to your audience when you’re there. Because the last thing they want is that you’re bouncing around from this to there. 

Learning how to be concise and focus on your topic while still providing your audience with what they need is essential in keeping people engaged.

My podcast episodes are usually around 10 to 12 minutes long. I do this because I want my listeners to be able to get what they need and then move on. If I’m interviewing someone, the episode might be a little longer. But for the most part, I want my listeners to be able to listen and learn, get inspired, or get equipped, and then move on to something else.

If you’re going to start a podcast, make sure you decide what your rhythm is going to be, whether that’s once a week or a couple times a week. 

Also, determine what your podcast will be about. For example, mine is called the Keenya Kelly Podcast, and for the most part it’s all about Keenya Kelly and it also covers all things related to business and marketing. 

I remember one of the first tips somebody gave me when I started my podcast was to release my first five episodes all at once.

They said that recording and then releasing five episodes right away would help get more listeners. I thought it was a great idea, so I did it. 

We had quite a few people download and listen to all five episodes, and they enjoyed it. They wrote reviews on iTunes, which was awesome.

This really helped me in terms of becoming more confident and competent so that people would actually want to listen to what I had to say. 

I would encourage you to look into some kind of podcasting course – Pat Flynn’s ‘Power Up Podcasting’ is a great place to start. His brand, ‘Smart Passive Income’, is also a great resource for learning more about podcasting.

You can tell him that I sent you to get the power of podcasting course. 

I recommend you do something like that. That way, if you are going to launch it, then you’re launching it with tools, you’re launching it with strategy and not just throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping that it sticks.  

But you actually need a plan. 

And that’s what I would say if you are thinking about launching a podcast in 2023, I encourage you to do it. 

I think it would be a good idea for you to get a microphone and learn how to produce and host your own podcast on your computer. Alternatively, you could hire someone to do it for you. 

There are plenty of freelancers on Upwork who could do the basics for you if you don’t want to do it yourself. 

If you do decide to start a podcast, please let me know by sending me a DM on Instagram.

I’m really excited to hear about your new podcast! Once you have it launched, please DM me your first episode on Instagram and I’ll be sure to listen. 

I’m really looking forward to hearing about it! 

In addition, if you’re ready to market your business on the TikTok platform, but need some guidance on how to do it, be sure to check our Create on TikTok course HERE. 

In Create On TikTok, you will learn all of the basics when it comes to not only navigating the TikTok platform, but being able to create content that reaches your target audience. Click here to learn more about this course. 

      

EP: 179 Should you start a podcast?

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 22, 2022

Podcasting is kind of fun to be honest with you! I say that podcasts are fun because, from a typical standpoint, when someone launches a podcast, it is usually

I know that when you come on the TikTok platform and you see all the different buttons, it can feel absolutely overwhelming and you might even feel old. 

But in this article, I’m gonna show you how to create your very first TikTok video. 

Now, first things first, you have to download the app and set up your profile so that way you can go ahead and take care of that. 

And so now when you have already downloaded the app, I’m gonna show you how to create your very first video.

Go ahead and tap the TikTok app then you’ll proceed to the home screen that’s gonna allow you to do a couple different things. 

Now, you can create a TikTok video on two different pages. 

One, you can create it on the TikTok for you page. 

And you can also create a video by going to your profile.

And so going to your profile means just click on profile in the lower right portion of the for you page and now you can create a video on that screen. 

Doesn’t really matter where you created, but just know that you can create it. 

So how do you do it? 

First, you wanna go ahead and click on the plus sign down. And this is gonna bring us to the screen where you create a TikTok video.

There are some different options on TikTok, and what that means is that you are able to record up to three minutes on TikTok. 

Now, you can upload videos up to 10 minutes, but today we’re gonna discuss recording content. 

So as you can see here where it says 15 seconds, this means you are able to record a TikTok video up to 15 seconds.

If you wanna record longer than that, you have to go ahead and click on where it says 60 seconds. And this means you can record a video up to 60 seconds. Or we click on three minutes then you can record up to three minutes. 

What does that mean? That means if you have a video that is 16 seconds, 17, or 18 seconds, you cannot record it in 15 seconds.

You have to go to the 60 second mark. So just note that. 

Now you don’t have to go all the way up to 60 seconds, but you can do your 16 second video there. 

So let’s just say we’re gonna do a seven second video. We’ve got this highlighted thing, and now you can just click on the camera. 

So you have two different options as it pertains to the recording. 

You can just hold your finger down and do it that way or you can use TikTok’s timer feature, which allows it to be more hands free.

But then there is another option. 

You can also click on the three seconds icon, and then this is gonna give us a countdown. We can do a three second countdown, or we can do a ten second countdown. 

And so either way, this is gonna give you the hands free option. So when you click on start countdown, you can now have your hand free option, which allows you to record TikTok videos, and we don’t have to be holding our finger down on the screen.

So there’s a lot of different other features you could use on TikTok to make your videos better. 

But all you have to do is go to my YouTube Channel and you will have access to some other things that we talk about on TikTok, like TikTok stories and a lot of different other features.

But if you wanna have me as your coach, I have a course which is called Create on TikTok, and it has been designed to give you every single thing you need to create content on the TikTok platform.

I’ll walk you through the culture of a platform. I’ll walk you through every single button. 

We create videos together. We use text on screen, the disappearing, and all the different things

you can think about as it pertains to creating content on TikTok. 

Also, in Create on TikTok, I teach you how to get to your first 1000 followers on TikTok so you can unlock that link in bio feature and the ability to go live on TikTok. 

Click HERE  to get all the details about that course. 

      

How To Create A TikTok Video

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 19, 2022

I know that when you come on the TikTok platform and you see all the different buttons, it can feel absolutely overwhelming and you might even feel old.  But

It’s almost Christmas. I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas. I love this time of year. 

I’ve been going around San Diego just seeing all the lights and all the things.

I don’t drink eggnog, but I’ve been doing just all these things because it’s almost Christmas. 

And so today, I just wanna say Merry Christmas to you.

If you’re reading this, we also have a YouTube channel and it is called You, Me and Jesus. That way you can see and hear me and all of my shenanigans when I am doing a podcast. 

You can come and listen to us on any podcast station too and you can just go and type You, Me and Jesus on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or Stitcher.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and get into today’s topic. The reason why I decided to choose this topic is because I meet people all the time that are not Christians. 

And sometimes when I’m around my Christian friends and we’re having these kinds of conversations about Christ that sometimes I experience where people are feeling like, because we’re Christians, we should be in this like Christian bubble. 

We shouldn’t be mixing amongst people that are not Christians or whatever.

But I’m always having to remind myself and remind people that the Bible says that we are the light set on a hill. So it’s like, if we are amongst all Christians, that means everybody is, for the most part, lit. 

But we need to be around people that are not lit so we can light their candles. 

So we can draw them closer to Jesus and not just always being around everybody that we are comfortable with. 

And so I’m always just having those conversations with people and sometimes people kind of really challenge me. And sometimes people just don’t understand. 

So I just wanted to make this article to just really give you my perspective on how to love people that are non Christian. 

I go back to the Bible. 

I remember, in the Bible it talks about how there was a woman at the well. She went to draw water. Jesus was there. He asked if she was married. He knew she wasn’t married, and she went on to tell how she was sleeping with all the men. 

But instead of Jesus going more and more, after that, He loved on that lady. 

You know what I mean?

Jesus loved on her so much that she was amazed that she met Jesus and started telling everybody about him. 

And then when I think of that someone that was caught in adultery and they were gonna stone the woman to death.

And Jesus showed up and He said, “He who is without sin cast the first stone” 

And everybody’s like, “Oh, I think I need to leave” 

It could have been easy for Him to be like, whatever he could have said about her and He didn’t. 

He just loved on her. Right? 

And then I also remember how Jesus had dinner with all the tax collectors and all the different people.

And people are saying, “How is He with this person and this person?”

It’s all because of Love. 

I was raised in church, but I wasn’t always a good Christian by any means. 

And I didn’t always have a relationship with Jesus. 

I’m 41 years old and I would say I’ve had less of a relationship with Jesus my whole life than I have. 

So if you just take half, which is 21 years old, I was a Christian all that time but I didn’t have a relationship with Him. 

And probably until I was 25 or 26 is when I really started going after my relationship with Jesus. 

And so when I just think about how I was back then, how I was about four years ago, how I am healing, progressing and maturing today. 

What was it that caused me to go from this version of Keenya to this version of Keenya?

And it was Love.  

I didn’t really know that I needed love. I didn’t know. I just knew that people were loving on me. 

I remember I went to this church and everybody would just hug on me and kiss on me. 

And I was just like, “Why do they keep hugging me? What is going on with these people? What is wrong with these people?”

I felt like I was the Grinch that stole Christmas. 

And the more that these people loved on me, I was irritated because I just wasn’t used to being loved. 

And then over time, I received the love. 

I started to kind of melt and start having this journey and process of letting love in because I was not used to receiving it at all.

And so when I think about non-Christians. They’re the same. They’re the same as us. 

We’ve just accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and now we’re on a journey. 

They’re still on a journey, but just haven’t accepted Him. And they need the same thing that we need.

So if you believe that there’s someone who is not married and they’re pregnant or sleeping with somebody. You can 100% talk to them about what it is that they’re doing. Or you can love on them.

When I think about a lot of what’s going on in the world right now. When there’s a rover’s way and all that type of stuff, you’ve got two groups of people for the most part. 

One that’s just like, “My body, my choice” and then other one that’s just like, “Yeah, abortion should be illegal” 

But there’s also a middle. There’s not like one or the other. 

Before you go and cancel me, just read through. 

There’s a middle, right? Let’s just say a woman gets pregnant. She didn’t do it by herself.

It was a man. It was a boy. Somebody was involved in that process. 

Oftentimes what we do when we find out a woman gets pregnant, nobody’s really looking at the boy, nobody’s really looking at the man. 

Our job is to go and love on those men or that boy and help him understand how to be supportive of this young lady or woman that is now pregnant. 

Because one of the reasons, not all one of the reasons why women get abortions, because they’re not gonna have support from that other significant other. 

I’m not just saying hold him accountable. 

I’m saying what if we loved on him and helped him to understand, saying “You may not know what you’re doing, but I’m gonna be here with you. I can help you” 

And then the same thing goes for the woman. You actually loved on her at church versus being like, “Oh, there she is” 

What if we actually did those things? 

So I’m just giving you one example and my whole point in this article is love.  

Love doesn’t judge all the things that people do or don’t do. Say or don’t say. Show up or don’t show up. 

I had a friend who wanted to get an abortion. That was my friend, and I told her years ago, “I’ll give you the money” 

And then once I hung up, I was saying to myself, “That’s abortion, and that would be me participating in an abortion” 

I can’t do that because of my own conviction and my beliefs. 

And so I called her and said, “I’m not gonna be able to do it” 

She cried and I also cried with her. 

I was like, “I’m really sorry. I’m not gonna be able to do it because of that. I just can’t do it” 

She went off and she had the baby. And so now her son is all the things. I’m sure she’s so glad that she didn’t do it at that time. 

During that moment, even when I said, “Hey, I, I’m not gonna be able to give you the money” I still chose in with her whether she was gonna do it or not. 

I remember I drove hours to her hometown and I think I saw her for five minutes.

She wasn’t really kind of speaking to me because somebody was lying about something else or whatever. But still, I was like I’m still gonna love you, you’re my friend and no matter what you decide to do, I love you, period.

I know a lot of people that are atheists or that are agnostic and I’m like, “I just love on people” 

I know what I believe and I know you know what I believe, but here’s what I’m also going to do.

I’m also going to love you because I can believe something and I can still love a person. 

Just because I believe something doesn’t mean I can’t love a person. 

I remember my friend from high school when Chick-fil-A had Chick-fil-A Day. 

The whole thing where they were against same sex marriage because the Chick-fil-a’s a Christian business.

And I celebrated Chick-Fil-A Day and my friend messaged me and said, “How dare you? I thought we were friends. And you know what Chick-fil-a stands for” 

And I said, “Yes, we are friends. Well, you know that I’m a Christian. You know that I love Jesus. You know that I believe the Bible and that is in the bible, right?”

My friend said, “Yes, but I thought we were friends” 

I said, “We are friends and just because I don’t agree with this doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Doesn’t mean you and I can’t be friends” 

And my friend was, “I never thought about it that way” 

And I replied, “Yeah, because you see some of these crazy Christians on the street corner saying, everybody go to hell. And I’m just not one of them” 

I don’t think that Jesus is really like that. I think He’s like, “Here’s what I’m saying and everybody gets an invitation to follow my manual, which is the Bible” 

And all of us get to be loved into heaven, period!

All of us get to be loved into eternity. 

And so if you’re trying to figure out how to love non-Christians and or even how to love people that are in sin, that’s how you do it. 

You can let them know, I don’t agree, but I love you. You are my friend. 

It’s fine. 

I remember one day when one of my mentees came to my house and we were outside.  

I walked up and my neighbor was out there doing a photoshoot. 

She was half naked and she starts talking about engaging in sexual activity and she’s just going on and on. The way that she always does.

And my mentee was just standing there and she didn’t know what to do. 

And I was just engaging in that conversation. I did not say go and do it or anything like that. I was just listening and when she told me that when she wanted to engage in some sexual activity and she ended up getting her cycle.

And I was like, “Girl, that’s just your cycle helping you out, making sure that you don’t get in, caught up in nothing. That’s the universe helping you out, girl” 

She goes, “Yeah, I guess so” 

And I could easily have been like, whatever, but No! Because she and I we’re able to talk about all types of stuff and when she is ready for what the rock is cooking then she’ll get it.

But she knows me. She knows how I am, she follows me on social media. Everybody knows, you know what I mean? 

But I can love her into the kingdom versus judging her. 

So if you’re trying to figure out how to do it, that’s how you do it.

In addition, if you need holy spirit-led guidance?

Want to know what God wants you to focus on in your life or business this year? Then a Creative Consult is for you.

Click here to find out more about Creative Consulting. 

      

How to love non Christians

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 18, 2022

It’s almost Christmas. I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas. I love this time of year. I’ve been going around San Diego just seeing all the lights

I’m going on a vacation and I am so excited about it. 

But the thing is, at this very moment, I’m not technically going anywhere. I’m just not gonna be working in my business for 30 days. 

And today I wanna share with you all about how I plan for my 30 day vacation and why in the world do I do it? 

Now, at the time of me recording this, I do not have a trip plan. I don’t have plans to go anywhere. 

I have been toying with the idea of going to London. I’ve been going back and forth but as of the moment I wrote this article, I don’t have anywhere to go.

I’m not planning on going anywhere, but I wanna talk to you about what I do, why I do it, and more importantly, how I plan for a 30 day vacation. 

First, it’s just really important to know that a couple years ago I was listening to a podcast, Rachel Hollis. 

And she was talking about how she takes three weeks off. And she gives her team off during the time of December. 

And it makes sense to me when I hear it because it’s the holidays. People can spend time with their families and all that type of stuff. 

I had never done something like that before.

Maybe a couple days off or a week off as an entrepreneur, but it was like, “I’ve gotta keep on”

And I just felt like God was talking to me about learning to allow Him to be my provider and not me working in order to make money. 

Now, granted I was not used to that, but I was just like, “Let me just try this”

The worst thing that could happen is during this quote unquote vacation, I need to go back to work. 

And so three years ago I tried it and I was watching more sales come. I wasn’t doing anything and I was just like, “This is really interesting”. So I did it again last year, but I did it for the whole month of December.

I actually went to Mexico for two and a half weeks and I had a great time. 

I did not know any Spanish. I was screwed a little bit, to be honest with you. But I was glad that I did it. 

And so this year I said, we’re gonna do the same thing again. Except this time I don’t really have a trip planned because I just hadn’t planned it yet.

But I’m just definitely not gonna be doing anything. 

I want to share with you how I plan for that. 

So here’s how I look at things. 

First of all, our team hasn’t been with me for a very long time. The longest person on my team has been our website tech person, and then the second person is my assistant.

Now, this will be her very first time of me being gone for a long period of time. 

So, because I know that the last thing I wanna do is stress her out or the whole entire team out, and so I have to prepare for this. 

One of the things that I did was to ask myself “What are their regular duties? What do they do every single day, even when I’m working? And what is it that I, as the owner or content creator have to give them in order for them to be able to do their? 

I had to have all of my podcast episodes written out. 

I had to have all of my podcast episodes recorded, the video podcasts and the audio podcasts at four the month of December, and then for the month of January. 

In that way in December when they’re editing things for December and editing things for January, they can have something to do during that time.

But also, I’m not like scrambling when I come back and not making them scramble to come back for the things that we need to get done for January. 

In addition to that, I have set all the topics for my podcast episodes and so now, the graphic person knows all the graphic images that she has to create for all of these particular things.

But then, I had to foresee that we will open up the doors to my mastermind course called Monetize the Tok in February, and so all the different things that we need for that, they can be working on in December too.

They can work on all the graphics, all the updates from the website, and write emails in December. 

And then all the different things that go along with launching a product or service is what they could be doing in January. 

So what I had to do is to make sure that we were already putting systems and processes in place. Like having everything kind of put in ClickUp showing all the things that have to be done. 

I’m sure my graphic designer is like, “Oh my God” 

But I made sure that we had these systems and processes every time we launched a product. 

We have to have all of these things over here so then when I went to my assistant and said, “Okay, for the month of December, you guys are gonna focus really heavily on getting everything ready for the launch”

She wasn’t asking me, “Well, what do we need for the launch?” She already knows because I already had made sure that we had a process of here’s everything that needs to be in place for a launch. 

So for me, it was really more so about giving them the things that they need to do on a regular basis that they already do when I’m present. 

Making sure that our YouTube videos go out, our podcasts and other stuff go out, by giving them all of those types of things.

Also, more importantly, I need to foresee where the business is going? What are we doing in January, February, March, April in 2023. And instead of my team working on that stuff in January, they can work on everything in December. 

What did that look like on my end? It has been extremely busy. 

Very, very busy on my end because I have to be the one that records the podcast records, the YouTube videos, and develops the plan. You know what I mean?

It’s like giving my assistant opportunities to fail and to succeed. 

There was this one thing where we sent an email out on every Thursday of a review. 

All the things that have happened that we’ve talked about on social media and all the type of stuff that we feel like our audience could benefit from, and it’s called “The Review”

And so I had to let her send a review without my input. 

 

I was just like, “We’re gonna let her send it without my review” 

And I knew that there was potential that it would not look the way that I wanted to look, but I let it go out and it went out. 

It looked great. There were some errors or whatever, but I said, “I didn’t even give them feedback on it”

I just said, “Okay, great” 

And that empowered her like, “Okay, I didn’t know what I was doing there” 

And then, every Friday we send a text message for the TikTok Trend of the Week. 

And so I gave her the video of what’s the trend of the week without giving her what to put on the page.

And I said, “Now I want you to look at what I normally do every single week, and I want you to take this video and I want you to write what you think I would write for this particular page” 

So she wrote it and I only gave her one or two feedback and that empowered her to go, “Oh, I’m kind of doing this”

And so then she just did the new trend of the week for the other week. And it only required a tweak or two. 

So I gave her two tweaks and I’m just empowering her to make decisions and do things without my input.

We have our video editor who does long form content and short content, and I have allowed my assistant to go like, “You’re gonna approve this moving forward. I’m not approving them. If all she’s doing is putting captions and all that, you need to look at that. You need to approve it.

And again, that’s just empowerment. 

When all this stuff comes across her plate in December, she feels empowered to do so. The way that I prepare for vacation is knowing what all in the world has to be done before I’m able to go on vacation December 1st. 

So it’s like back in September, “I’m going, “Okay, what all needs to be done for September, October, November in order for me to really be on vacation in December?” 

And so I wrote out this really long list for myself. I mean, it’s very long. 

I have been just chugging along when there have been videos I have to record. 

Sometimes I’ll come in on a Saturday or Sunday just to record the videos and then I leave because I’m like, “Nobody’s calling, nobody’s texting, nothing’s happening in Slack”

I can record all this stuff uninterrupted. 

And then when the team comes in on Monday, all of this stuff that I’ve recorded over the weekend are ready.  

And so that way during weekdays, I’m able to be present with them answering the questions and not necessarily them quote unquote interrupting me while I’m creating a video content.

It’s really important that if you’re gonna take a vacation, that you have to be preparing your whole team well in advance. 

Like teaching them how to be independent by themselves. 

Letting them make decisions by themselves, empowering them and saying, “Hey, what do you think about this? How do you think we can enhance this? How can we make this better?”

And then that way they’re constantly gonna be giving you feedback on different things. 

And when I am not there and they have to make decisions, they don’t feel deathly afraid about making a decision because I have been empowering them the entire time. 

If you are gonna take a one week vacation, two weeks, three weeks or a month, you really have to think about all the things months in advance. 

Preparing your team for what’s gonna happen months in advance. 

Empowering them to make decisions with and without you months in advance. And then having the bulk of different things that they need to do while you’re gone. 

Having the things set up for automation that way, from a business standpoint, you’re still making money. 

Making sure that your ads person is still running ads, and so that you’re still making money and making sure that you batch recorded content and all that type of stuff. 

If I don’t go anywhere, obviously, I’ll have my ring light and I can shoot TikTok videos if I want to. 

But if I am not gonna be here, I’m gonna travel. 

I can batch record 20 or 30 videos and then just hit posts on them while I’m in London or wherever it is.

So, when I choose to go on vacation, that’s kind of how I do it. To think as far ahead as I can in advance, plan in advance, empower my team, giving them permission to succeed and fail all at the same time. 

And then just telling them, “Hey, listen, everything’s not gonna be perfect, and it’s okay if mistakes get made, but let’s try to make some mistakes right now while I’m here so we can avoid really big mistakes”

Does that make sense? 

And so if you’re gonna do this, I want you to think as far in advance as you can, prepare your team and set things up in automation, especially so that you could still make money while you are on vacation. 

If I go to London, then I’ll probably shoot some different things while I’m in London and share with you in another article some of my experiences there. 

And if you are ready to use TikTok for your business, but need some guidance on getting started? If so, be sure to grab the Create on TikTok Course to learn the secrets of TikTok and how I’ve leveraged the platform to gain almost half a million fans and amassed $500,000 in revenue. 

This course will show you EXACTLY how you can too!

      

EP : 178 How I prep for a month long vacation from my business

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 15, 2022

I’m going on a vacation and I am so excited about it. But the thing is, at this very moment, I’m not technically going anywhere. I’m just not gonna

$150,000!!! That is how much money I’ve made extra on top of my business working with brands. 

And in this article, I’m gonna tackle how to get your first brand deal so you can start becoming an influencer like the Kardashians. 

I’ll discuss more about being very intentional with creating your online brand and then attracting brands to you that will wanna work with you. 

Now, one of the first things is that you’re gonna have to make sure that you have a very pleasant online presence. 

Here’s a deal about a brand. So let’s just say they sell lipstick, and then you want to partner with a lipstick brand. 

Well, they have a product. It costs whatever it costs, and then their goal is to be able to sell more of these products. 

And so then they’re gonna be looking for someone that can showcase their products to an audience of people that are likely to buy.

So what does that mean? That means that if I have a personal brand online and most of my audience is masculine men that don’t wear lipstick, then a brand is not gonna wanna partner with me selling lipstick because they have their goal in mind. 

Now I wanna make money, but so do they. 

And so you have to make sure that if you’re saying to yourself, “I want to market lipstick” ,then you have to be building an online brand that makes sense for a brand to come to you and say, “We wanna pay you X amount of dollars to market our product”

Does that make sense? 

So I’ve worked with a lot of brands, including TikTok. 

And one of the reasons why TikTok chose to work with me is because I have an online brand that teaches TikTok to business owners. 

And so once I was able to create content, marketing TikTok, I was marketing it to the audience that TikTok is trying to reach, which is more business people.

So first thing is you have to make sure that you have an attractive online brand. 

I’m not saying you have to have a hundred thousand or a million followers. But you have to be attractive to a brand. Not your face or your hair, but your brand. 

Now, if you want to get the attention of these brands, the easiest thing to do is to go after them yourself.

Yes, they can find you on Instagram and they can find you on TikTok and all of that, but the easiest and fastest way is for you to contact them. 

For example, I hire a lot of people from the website, upwork.com, where you are able to hire people all over the world for different types of jobs. 

And so because I give so much money to Upwork and I’m always telling everybody to use Upwork. I want to work with Upwork.

But they don’t know me, so I decided to go and send UpWork an inbox. 

Message tip number one. I sent them a message on Instagram and said, “Hey, I’m Keenya Kelly. I have an audience of over 490,000 followers on TikTok, and I push all of my audience to Upwork to work with you guys when it comes to hiring. Who can I talk to about collaborations with?”

I didn’t pitch. I said, this is who I am. This is what I do. Who can I talk to? Immediately! 

The person said, “This is who you need to talk to.” 

Now I have the contact person to talk to about what it is that I want to do. 

You don’t have to sit around waiting on brands. Some of them are gonna come and get you, but if you wanna make money right now, why would you not just go after them?

Now, the moment I went after Upwork, Upwork came for me. 

What does that mean? Upwork came and looked at my Instagram and said, “Who is this?” They looked at my TikTok and said, “Who is this? Is this someone that we would be attracted to for our business?” 

Another example is that I had a podcast I wanted to be featured on, and so I created an Instagram reel and pitched them in the reel. 

The said reel was promoting them, telling them what I do before they ever reached out to me.

They looked at me. 

How do I know? It’s when they sent me an inbox inviting me for a pre-interview, and they said, “I saw that you pitched us. It was great, but we get pitched all the time. But what we did was we looked at you, we looked at your website, and you had everything we were looking for” 

And now I have been on this podcast 10 plus times because of that initial pitch. 

So the easiest way to get your very first brand deal on TikTok or anywhere is reaching out to the brand yourself.

You may not have the email address, but now TikTok has direct messaging open. 

You could send them a DM on TikTok. 

Most people aren’t using DMs, so if you’re sending DMs, they’re gonna get it because most people aren’t using it, right? 

Or you can send them a DM on Twitter, you can add them on Twitter or you can send them a DM on Instagram.

You just gotta be very polished and just aggressive about going and getting it. 

Don’t get me wrong, you can subscribe to influence marketing agencies and put your profile in and all those things.

We’ll discuss influence marketing agencies at another time. 

But specifically to get your first one, choose the brand(s), in plural, that you wanna talk to and go and inbox them. 

Tell them who you are. 

Tell them who’s in your audience, where you’ve got your biggest following, and ask them who’s the right person to talk to about collaborations? 

Not to get paid as an influencer, but for collaboration. 

The average person that is managing a social media account, is their social media manager.

So when I reach out to Upwork, it’s not the CEO, it’s not the person that handles influencer collaborations, but the social media manager can connect me to the right person. 

So that’s what you wanna do. 

If you wanna get your very first brand deal this year or next year, my strongest encouragement, make a list of the brands that you wanna work with.

Send them a DM and then get ready for them to reach back out. 

If you’re interested in learning how to market your business on the TikTok platform, but need some guidance on how to do it. Be sure to check out the TikTok Marketing Bundle to learn the secrets of TikTok and how I’ve leveraged the platform to gain almost half a million of followers and amassed $1,000,000 in revenue. 

This course will show you EXACTLY how you can too! 

      

How To Get Your First Brand Deal From TikTok

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 12, 2022

$150,000!!! That is how much money I’ve made extra on top of my business working with brands.  And in this article, I’m gonna tackle how to get your first

Did you know that the promises of God require you too. I know it sounds kind of funny, but it’s for real. 

So it’s like God could have all the plans and all the things for your life, but we gotta participate. 

So today we’re talking about the promises of God. 

Is that a scripture in the Bible?

I’ve always heard this phrase, the promises. 

So have y’all ever looked up to see if that’s an actual scripture? I think so. Pretty sure it is. 

Y’all like, “Is she even saved?”

Okay, so in the scripture it says, “2nd Corinthians 1:20. For all of God’s promises have fulfilled in Christ with the resounding yes”

So, the promises of God require us, right? So, let’s kind of dive into what all that looks like. 

Now, the Bible says that He knew us before He formed us. That he had a purpose and a plan for our life before we were ever in our mother’s womb.

He just knew it. 

But the one thing that I don’t think that we really understand is that God can’t make us do anything. I mean he can but he doesn’t typically make us do anything. 

He invites us on a journey. He invites us into this invitation to have all of what he says and we can have and be who he’s called us to be.

All the things, it’s all an opportunity. You know what I mean? 

Let’s talk about marriage.

So one of the things in my life is, as y’all know, I’ve been married and got divorced. 

And I remember when me and my ex were dating, everywhere we would go, the prophet would find us and would prophecy. 

I mean, just prophecy so much. 

I remember one guy when we were in this church full of people and at the end of the service he makes a beeline for me and looks into my eyes and starts prophesying.

And then we go to dinner and then they start prophesying about us as a couple. 

We would go to the Sunday service at our old church and they had a prophetic night and we were in this back room and they prophesied so many things about myself, my ex-husband and our marriage. 

So much stuff. 

And I remember when we were going through something like separating or whatever. I was so confused.

I was so hurt and so confused. 

Like, I don’t understand. 

If God says that this and this, how could this be happening? 

God is a fraud. He’s a fraud. 

I was so angry and it took a while, but I finally got the revelation of, “Hey, wait a minute. I am not a fraud. Here’s what I wanted to have happen. Here’s what I invited you and your husband to do. I invited y’all into this, but you all got a decision. You all got to decide if you are gonna go down the path that I predestined for you” 

It’s like he said to me, “Your husband had to be faithful or not. He had a choice of submitting his desires to God or falling prey to them and acting them out”

He had a choice and he made the decision that he was not gonna honor God with his body or honor our marriage. 

So when he makes his own choice, God doesn’t make him go and do anything. 

And then God reminded me of something else. 

There was this guy that I knew for a long time and he was just like, “I love him for you and I love you for him”

And for whatever reason this guy never pursued me. 

And so I didn’t know he was interested. 

So I felt like I was caught in a rock in a hard place. 

And years later when I went to divorce, God reminded me of him and I reached out to him and was just talking to him about everything and we’re just talking and I realize now that, “You liked me all this time, but you never said anything”

And he just kind of said, “Well, I was really shy” And I said, “Well, I understand that, but that’s not my problem to make you not be shy. If you wanted me, you should’ve…” 

And so we never dated and all that because even though I was then single, he was caught up in some stuff.  

So, here was this opportunity again where he and I had an opportunity to be together, but he decided that he wanted to stay all up in his stuff. 

And I’m like, “You go right ahead cuz I’m not doing a second round of what happened with me and my ex-husband” 

So here were these plans and these promises, right?

And then when I think about now how God is like showing me all these dreams and these visions and all this stuff. 

He goes, this is you. This is the purpose and plan for half of your life. 

For example, when he asked me to get on TikTok back in 2020, I had a choice. 

I could say, no, I’m not getting on that app with all those kids dancing. Or I could say, I don’t understand what is going on here, but I’ll do it because you have a better understanding than I do. 

And here’s what happened. 

I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I know you. I trust you. I’m gonna go and do this. 

My whole life has changed from 2019 to now 2022.

They are drastically different. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how different they are. And it’s because I got an invitation to go on this journey with God, and I chose to say yes to that invitation. Right? 

And so, today’s article we’re talking about, how God’s promises require us is like here’s the promise. 

We get an opportunity to obey Him.

Let’s just say we want to get married since we’re talking about marriage. 

We get an opportunity to go, “Okay, what is it you want me to focus on right now in this season? Where do you have me? What do you want me working on?” 

And if we’re constantly just on this journey with God, then when that time comes, we meet him. 

It happens because we’ve been on this journey with God. 

Versus a person who is on their own journey where they’re not seeking God or they’re going and doing this and that and they meet somebody along the way that has nothing to do with their calling and purpose or whatever.

Then it takes them of course from meeting potentially the one God wants them to meet. 

I don’t think there is a perfect one, but you know what I’m saying here, right? 

And so I’ve just realized that God has plans.

And the only way that that thing comes to pass is if we are aligned with God. 

So let’s just say when a man wants to play football. And let’s just say God says he’s gonna be the next Tom Brady NFL quarterback.

Well, he can have that prophecy over his life while he’s in little league but he has to choose right to go to school. He has to choose to eat well. He has to choose to exercise and be disciplined. 

So that he can eventually go to play college ball. And so he eventually can get drafted. 

He has to do all this stuff first.

If he’s in little league and he just starts doing ballet and then he’s a rapper and then he is an engineer, and then he just goes and does all over here. But God told him he wanted him to do this. 

He could be a very successful engineer. Hands down. 

But the promises of God require us and it requires us to have this relationship with him to where he can speak to us. Where we can hear him, and where we choose to obey him. 

Does that make sense? 

And so one of the things I tell people about is how I talk to God about everything and they think I’m crazy.

I’m like, “I don’t think you understand the benefits of talking to God.” 

One of the benefits of talking to God is that the one that knows everything, the one that can open every door, close every door, the one that can do all the things is talking to us. 

He’s giving us wisdom and strategy and all that for our life.

And if we will just talk to Him and we’ll let him talk to us and then us saying yes to what he’s doing and where he’s going. 

If we just continue to say yes to the one who created everything then we’re always gonna be on the right path.

But it’s when we get on our own path that we get off key.

There’s so many things I wish I never would’ve done or people I’ve never been friends with.

There’s just so much stuff that I just got my own self into because I wasn’t seeking the Lord about it. 

I’m not condemning myself or condemning anybody else.

I’m just saying that there’s just a lot of stuff that I would not have gotten into and situations that I had to come out of. Had I not been on course with God.

I’m glad now that I’m like, “Okay, God, I’m with you”

So, let me share about something that just happened recently. 

This is so funny but it’s not funny.

So I don’t think God really enjoys me being on dating apps. 

Sometimes He doesn’t say anything, and other times he is like the clearest day.

Well, the other day I decided to sign up for Facebook dating. 

I’m there and I’m just talking to different people, not doing anything bad or anything like that.

And, one night I had a dream. The dream wasn’t a bad dream, but I couldn’t decipher the dream. 

I could not figure out what the dream was saying. 

So then the next night I had another dream and I was like, “What is going on?” 

And I’m writing all these dreams down, trying to interpret them.

Typically I’m able to interpret somewhat. And I was just, I couldn’t get it. 

So then the third night I had a dream and I was like, “What is going on again?” 

He is really persistent about something. 

I just said, “Are you trying to talk to me about something?” and He said yes. 

And I’m just not hearing Him clearly about what He was trying to say. 

So then I told my best friend, and I don’t typically ask her to interpret my dreams, but I just shared this to her just so she can hear it. 

And so I read to her the three dreams.

And she said, “Well, I just feel like that the recurring theme is that there’s distractions, that you’re distracted by something. That there’s something in your past. You just keep people in your past, just keep showing up in your future and you just seem so distracted” 

 

And so I said, “Is this a distraction?”

So then the next morning I was talking to God. I was like, “God, are you saying that? Are these dreams showing me that I’m being distracted?” And he said, yes. 

And I said, “Well, what’s distracting me?” 

There’s this guy that I know and I said, “Is this guy distracting me?”

He’s like, “No”. 

I also said, “Is my work distracting me?” He said, “No” 

“Is it the Facebook dating app?” And then I heard him say yes. 

And then I just started to laugh, but I was like,”So this is why you sent me three dreams back to back”

But, “Why is it distracting me?” And He said, “Because I have a promise for you. I have a plan for you. I have somebody for you, and this app is gonna distract you. These people are gonna distract you and detract and all this stuff” 

He was very persistent, so I deleted the Facebook dating app and I haven’t had a dream about that since.

Now we’ll see what happens in a couple days in case I heard wrong, but I was like, “Oh, wow. He’s really, really persistent because of his promises. He’s telling me that my promise is not there. And if you stay there, you’re gonna get off track from what I actually have for you” 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m like, “Jesus, it has been seven year” 

But He’s saying, “Yeah, I understand, but don’t get distracted. As you wait for me, just keep focused on what I have you focused on” 

This is God’s promise. 

He’s so kind. I’m glad that we’re friends and that He can talk to me. That He will be persistent and I’m alert and I’m aware that something is happening. And in that way I can ask and go, what is going on?

So, I just wanna share this with you today, that God has many promises. He has plans for your life, but you have to be with Him.  

You’ve gotta be seeking Him, talking to Him, engaging with Him.

Not with the prophet or not with the pastor. 

Those people are great, but with God, He is the greatest.

He is the one that will talk to you more clearly about you. 

That He will talk to others about you. 

The prophet can hear whatever they hear, but God wants to talk to you, to you about you. 

Okay? 

So now I want you to have a conversation with God and go, “Okay, Jesus, in what way am I off track? How am I on track? What is it you want me to know right now that I don’t know?” 

I ask him that question all the time. What is something you want me to know that I don’t? 

I’m always pleasantly surprised by that. He always says, “I love you” 

I embrace that every time I hear Him say that. 

I want you to do that because I want you to get everything that God has for you, every single promise. And so that if you are off track and you, my friend could get back on track.

Going on a journey with God can prove to me one of the most amazing experiences of your life, but it can also prove to be a little confusing. I want to walk alongside you and help you to not only fall more in love with Jesus than you are today, but truly discover all that lies within you. 

The bible identifies 25 different spiritual gifts that are still in operation today, and it may be surprising to you, but one or some may also lie within YOU!

We have created this simple quiz that is designed to be a guide for you. 

I’ll share this with you. Today, your results may say one thing, but in six months as you grow, it may reveal something else. 

Take the quiz and be sure to share it with your friends. 

      

The promises of God require us too

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 11, 2022

Did you know that the promises of God require you too. I know it sounds kind of funny, but it’s for real.  So it’s like God could have all

The holidays are here, and so are all the toxic people. 

We’ve all been toxic here and there. 

Like when you go home to your family and you’re just like, “Oh my God, what is happening?” 

It’s like going into Charles Manson’s house. It’s like the holidays can feel really hard for some people, myself included.

And so in this article, I really wanna share about some of the things you can do to help yourself during this holiday season in case you are finding yourself getting around toxic people.

I love the holidays. 

I don’t love driving in the snow, but I like being in snowy areas where I don’t have to drive.

I love Christmas lights and the smell of everything. I love how cheerful people are. A little bit more during the holiday season. 

And so, I’m super excited that this is one of the first episodes into our holiday season. 

And so today, I decided to share about what are some of the things you can do during the holiday season?

You’re gonna be around toxic people or have the potential of being around toxic people. 

And of course, as always, I’m gonna share from my own personal experiences. And just some of the things that I have been doing and am doing. 

I know we’ve all seen those movies where a person comes home and there is somebody that’s always asking them maybe some of the following questions:

“How come they’re not married?” 

“Why are they getting divorced?”

“Where is their spouse?”

“Why don’t they have kids?”

“Why have they gained weight?”

We’ve all seen those movies where people are just going into these toxic situations or you’re going into the situations where somebody’s an alcoholic and that the person can possibly ruin Thanksgiving, Christmas celebration or whatever gathering you might have.

That’s why I feel like movies always come from somewhere or from somebody’s real life scenario. 

At some point in time, whether it’s ourselves, our friends, or loved ones, these experiences really happen.

I think that one of the things that a lot of us have learned as a result of 2020, 2021 and 2022 has been that our mental health is really the most important thing.

WE are the most important part of every single situation. And that everybody’s comfort is no longer our problem. 

I saw a TikTok the other day where they were just like, “When did kids become so toxic?” It’s like how come 2022 became the year of the kids getting back at their parents? 

And I saw somebody say, “Well, it’s not the year of kids getting back at their parents. It’s the year where kids really realize how their parents are treating them is not how they’re supposed to be treated” 

Now, I’m not saying that’s the case for all situations but it has been very interesting to see these scenarios take hold and that people are just finally saying, “Enough is enough. We’re not doing this anymore” 

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years. 

One, I’m not perfect. I got my own levels of toxicity. 

There was a book I listened to a couple years ago and it’s called, Safe people. And as I was listening to this book, there were parts of it where I said, “Oh, I’m kind of toxic”

And I had to deal with my own levels of toxicity. 

It took a while to finally see all those things. 

I love Christmas and I always used to put it on myself that I always go home to my family.

So, I wrap up my business, take the time off of my business, spend the money to go fly, get a rental car and budget all the things I need to spend while I’m there 

I would always just kind of do that for years. I mean, ever since I left home at 17, so every year it was like I would always do this thing.

And so finally, one year when I was scheduled to go home and everybody knew that I was coming. I think it was like two or three days right before I was scheduled to go, I found out that the place I normally stay was no longer available because a person didn’t have that place to stay anymore.

And I was like, “Why didn’t you tell me? You know I’m flying in, where am I supposed to sleep?” 

They said, “Well, you could get a hotel”

And I’m like, “I just spent the money to fly”. I was like, “No, I’m not doing this” and so I canceled the flight. 

I was very sad about it. But then one year, I finally decided to surprise my family.

And when I get there at night. I have the feeling that they weren’t excited to see me. 

I was like, “Okay, maybe, it’s unexpected or whatever” I get it. 

But as the night kind of went on, I realized, “Oh, this is actually not healthy for me.” I can’t sleep on the couch for the next 12 days because I have neck and back issues. 

And so I ended up rebooking my flight to leave the next day at two o’clock. 

Now, that was eight o’clock at night and I’m leaving at two o’clock the next day. So the next day I ended up going to see my mom and my grandma.

I said to them, “I’m here right now and I’m flying back out” And then I flew back out. 

I was very sad about that. But once I got home and God started talking to me. He said, “Hey, listen, you’ve got some options here. You have the option of continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result or doing something different”

And I said, “Well, what do you mean?” And he said, “Well, you love your family and they love you too, but when you go home, you’re never met with this expectation. This experience that you wanna have when you go home. You’re never ever gonna have that experience” 

And I was like, “Well, why not?” He said, “Because your family situation is not like the situation that you’re trying to create”

What?! 

He goes, “So you’re wanting everybody to get dressed and wear matching clothing and take photos. You’re wanting everybody to cook and  have presents for each other. Even if it’s just one gift or whatever. That’s never going to happen” 

That was the hardest conversation with God I’ve ever had, and it was, “Well, why not?”

He goes, “Has it ever happened?” No. “So are you trying to make something happen that everybody does not wanna have?” And I started to realize that I was trying to make something happen that was never gonna happen, and that it was also toxic for me. 

It doesn’t make my family toxic, it just means that was toxic for me because here is who I am and what I’m doing and expecting and going into, and always being met with disappointment. 

And so I started to realize that I was my own toxic person. 

That I was like putting this expectation on this. And when I was met with the disappointment or whatever of it, it just kept hurting me.

So it’s kinda like something that’s trash or like literal trash. And me saying it’s trash, I’m gonna eat it. And I’m gonna eat it anyway. It’s like paper. It’s like plastic. I’m gonna eat it anyway. 

And if I continue to eat plastic, it’s gonna be awful for me. But if I continue to choose to eat plastic, then that’s my choice.

And so what God was basically telling me was that you can continue to do this cycle of going through and expecting this thing and then hurting yourself.  

Or you can choose to go, “Okay, we’re not gonna do that. That’s not how my family’s situation is ever gonna be”

So that year I decided to get just a little bit of decorations and decorate my little bedroom. 

Because I was renting a house at the time and I had rented out some rooms to like the girls at the ministry school. And then I decided to cook and just watch tv all day. 

And then last year I decided that I was gonna spend a whole December just doing whatever I wanted to do.

And so this year, same scenario. I haven’t decided what I’m gonna do for Christmas but what I am not going to do is that I’m not gonna do the same thing. 

Expecting a different result doesn’t mean that anything’s wrong with my family. It just means that my expectation of going to see them is not ever gonna be met and so I have to decide what that looks like. 

And so for you, you are headed right now into the holiday season. 

We just had Thanksgiving, now we are headed into Christmas and New Years’ eve. 

You get this opportunity right now to say to yourself, “Am I gonna continue allowing these potentially toxic people or situations or environments to affect me?”

I’m not saying you should not go to your mama’s house for Christmas. 

What I am saying is that you have to go, “Okay, what is happening? What is happening to me? What are the scenarios that continue to happen over and over again, and how do they impact me positively or negatively if it’s me and my spouse and me and my children?”

If we are continuously going to these environments and people are saying certain things, or we’re allowing people to act a certain way, or do certain things. 

Why don’t we change that? Meaning, if you know that the one person that is gonna ruin Christmas then don’t invite them, disinvite them.

I know it sounds harsh, but it’s like, if everybody else is kumbaya and this person is toxic, stop allowing them to come. 

Does that make sense? 

If there’s certain people that come into my life and they make me feel bad. Like me, I have shut the door to somebody recently and every time that person would call me or text me or whatever, I never felt good about myself, but I kept allowing them and I think I’m being like a Martyr for Christ.

It’s like people see God’s love through me and it will change them. No, God, don’t need me to do that. He will talk to that person himself. 

But I’m allowing them to hurt me by allowing them to be in my life. 

And so I closed the door to that opportunity with that person. We’re still connected, but I just basically was like, “Hey, we’re not, we can’t do this.The way this has been, this is not healthy for me. I don’t treat you like that, and I’m not gonna let you treat me like that” 

That person realize, “Hey, this was me loving on me and you not loving on me” 

Then another person, I had to close the door to them and say, “Hey, I love you. I want us to stay connected, but A, B and C do not work for me anymore and I’ve gotta choose this”

And then this person was shocked.

But they would have to respect it because I’m saying nice things. I’m just saying the way that this is going or has been, does not work for me anymore. 

After my grandma passed, I had so many conversations with so many people, specifically my aunt. God bless her, I haven’t talked to her in years, probably will never talk to her ever again.

But I had to challenge her when she finally came down to visit her mama who was passing in the hospital. 

And I had to go, “Uh uh, this is not what we are doing here. You’re not gonna come here and do this, or whatever you think you can do here. We’re not doing that anymore” 

My sister just sat there in shock and I’m like “It’s true and so if you’re gonna be toxic, you can go be toxic wherever you want, but you ain’t gonna do it in my presence” 

And so I know this sounds kind of mean, kind of harsh, but the whole point of what I’m saying is that if you are one that want to have these amazing holidays with your spouse, with your kids, with yourself or whatever, and every time you go in a certain environment, it’s toxic to you, you’ve gotta say, “Okay, how do I love me?” 

And loving you sometimes means being by yourself, means being you can’t go home to your family or you can’t go to your friend’s house that you normally go to, that you gonna skip that house this year.

Does that make sense? 

It’s like, for me, for Thanksgiving, I don’t know what I’ll do for Thanksgiving. I’d rather be alone than miserable. But somebody invited me and I said, “Oh, this is gonna be a good experience, I’m gonna go with them” 

Somebody else invited me to a Friendsgiving. I said, “Oh, this is gonna be a good experience, I’m gonna go with them” 

And then hopefully somebody invites me to Christmas parties and Christmas day or whatever, and I’ll judge which ones I wanna go to and go.

Prayerfully, one day if I get remarried. If he has kids, if we choose to have kids, then we will choose which environments we go into.

But if we don’t go into any of them, we’ll create our own so that way we can have the experience that we want to have during the holidays, however we choose to have them. 

And so this is, big sister Keenya right now, just kind of giving you the permission to choose you this holiday. 

And whatever, what it looks like.

If everybody’s gonna be mad at you, they’re gonna be mad at you. But you have to choose to not allow toxic things to hurt you, to not serve you. 

If they are always talking about your divorce or talking about your weight, or talking about your whatever. If those people gonna always allowed in that environment, don’t go, go somewhere else. 

You don’t have to. You just don’t have to do that. 

You know, I love my sister and last year she was like, “Well come here for Christmas instead of going to Mexico” And I said, “No, because I want the Christmas that I want to have and I’m not gonna have it by coming to visit you guys”

“I love you guys, but I’m not gonna have the Christmas that I want by going there” 

Listen, I know it sounds kind of mean, kind of harsh, but this is how you deal with toxic people. 

You don’t have to be mean to them but you have to be honest and strong, and you gotta choose YOU first. 

Talk to your counselor, get the right words to say to these people during this season but your number one priority is taking care of you. 

If you’re ready to market your business on the TikTok platform this holiday season, but need some guidance on how to do it, be sure to check Create on TikTok course HERE. 

In Create On TikTok, you will learn all of the basics when it comes to not only navigating the TikTok platform, but being able to create content that reaches your target audience. Click here to learn more about this course. 

      

EP: 177 Holidays Around Toxic People

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 8, 2022

The holidays are here, and so are all the toxic people. We’ve all been toxic here and there. Like when you go home to your family and you’re just

Do you wanna go viral on Tiktok? And you wanna learn how to use 5 and 7 Second videos to do so?

In this article, I’m gonna show you how to use 5 and 7 Second videos on the TikTok platform and how we have gained so many followers as a result but more importantly, I’m gonna share on how to reach your audience in those videos so that you can make money in your business.

So, what in the world are 5 and 7 second videos? 

Now, first of all, I want to say that you do not always have to do 5 and 7 Second videos to have success on the TikTok platform or to go viral. 

But here’s one of the reasons why this strategy works. 

Well, one of the metrics on Tiktok analytics is Watch Time.

If you are having these short videos, and people are not only watching them all the way through, but also moving them, then you are sending a signal to TikTok of, “Hey, people liked this video, we should send this out to more people” Because Tiktok cares so much about T.O.P. which means Time On Platform. 

And if they’re noticing that people are loving the video, they’re staying there, they’re rewatching it.

Then they’re gonna send it out to more people that they think will be interested in the content.

And so this is why it’s working so well. 

One of the other things you want to know about these short videos, is that they still have to be good, they can’t just be five and seven-second videos. 

They legit have to be good videos. 

You can’t just be standing there looking at the screen expecting a video to go viral. 

Nobody cares. 

A video goes viral because people liked the content not because you’re just standing there. 

So if you’re gonna do this five and seven-second strategy, it is really important for you to have good content in the video. 

Now, I recently did a video where I was actually getting ready to take a shower. 

In the said video, I have my clothes on and I’m kind of going into the shower to turn the water on. 

But what I did was on top of the video, I had text on screen. The text was actually really good and helping them with their businesses. 

As a result, they had to not only watch the entire video but they had to loop the video in order to rewatch the entire video. 

And so that video performed extremely well on TikTok because it was so short and because people had to stop and watch it to read the text. 

Now that’s a big tip there. 

Second, you want to have movement in the video. 

So whether that is you typing, and you’re looking away, or that was me turning on the water in the shower. 

And the third thing that I said was I had text on screen that they had to stop in order to read it. 

But here’s the deal. 

You don’t want to just have any text or just like so much text that people are just like, “Really?”

You wanna make sure that it’s a good text. Right? 

Well that caused people to watch the video, loop the video, and it actually caused a lot of people to comment, save it and share it with their friends.

You can give a business strategy, a marketing strategy or you can say whatever that you want to say. 

But if you’re gonna use this strategy, and you’re going to write the text on screen, you want to make it relevant, you want to make it relatable. 

And you want to give people some type of information whether it’s a resource, it’s a tip, or it’s something that they feel as a result of watching your particular video.

Sometimes you’ll see me do a five or seven-second video, and I’ll actually be here in my office and you’ll see me typing, but you will also see my stand up desk, moving up. 

So it is where I’m already standing and I hit the button and they can see my desk moving and then I started typing. 

People often say, “Oh, I love that outfit” or “Oh, I love that desk.” 

And they’re also responding to what I’m saying on text on screen. 

So, there’s a lot of things that happened in that video, and it was just six or seven seconds long. 

If you’re gonna use this strategy. 

Again, you want to keep in mind the following: 

  1. First of all, you have to have some type of movement happening in your video. 
  2. Second, you want to make sure that it’s actually a good video. 
  3. Third, you want to make sure you have some text on screen that causes them to loop the video in order to watch this and to read all of the text. 
  4. Finally, you want to make them feel something, think something, do something with the text that’s actually on screen.

Now I’m not saying that every single video that you do is gonna go viral, but this is gonna give you more of an opportunity for that to actually happen. 

It happens all the time for me, it happens all the time for my clients. 

So, if you’re someone who’s building a business and you want to learn how to use Tiktok for your business, we have a recent client who just made a million dollars this year in 2022. 

And 2022 isn’t even over yet. Right?

If you want some help and are wishing there was an easy way to create videos on TikTok to help your brand or business? Be sure to check out these FREE TikTok templates here. 

      

How To Use 5- 7 Second Videos To Go Viral

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 5, 2022

Do you wanna go viral on Tiktok? And you wanna learn how to use 5 and 7 Second videos to do so? In this article, I’m gonna show you

Today, we are talking about what does forgiveness looks like? 

And I feel like forgiveness is like the F word that Christians don’t enjoy using. 

That’s just like some women don’t enjoy using the S word, which is submission, but me today knows that the F word and the S word are beautiful blessings. 

But it is until you really understand it or you need forgiveness yourself or you are submitting to someone who you’re like “Yes, they can lead. This is amazing” 

Until you have that experience, then you don’t really know. 

It just looks bad. 

But when I talk about the S word, we’re talking about the F word Forgiveness. 

I went to Dr. Google and then the dictionary says, forgiveness is a noun and it means the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. 

Here’s a sentence. She is quick to ask forgiveness when she has overstepped in the line.

I clicked on a question from Google that said, “What is forgiveness?”

It says, Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.

What a definition! Two snaps for Dr. Google. 

You know what I think about forgiveness. It’s like a person has done something or we have done something and whether they ask for forgiveness or not, we choose to forgive them.

Why in the world would a person choose to forgive? 

I searched on Google again about forgiveness in the Bible context. 

Here’s the first thing that comes up, “Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone”

So when you read that, in contrast to what the psychologist says is that, we forgive people because God has asked us to do so. 

But He also says that if you forgive other people when they sin against us, then God will also forgive us. 

First of all, the bare minimum principle is God says, “Hey, when somebody sins against you, I want you to forgive and also, I will forgive you” 

So I’ve been like going, “Well, wait a minute” Does that mean until I ask them for forgiveness, he doesn’t forgive me? Like, what does that say? 

So I have searched on the topic, “What did Jesus say about forgiveness?”

It says, “Jesus taught if you forgive others, there’s transgressions, you’re heavenly Father will forgive you. Peter asked Jesus how often it is necessary to forgive? And Jesus replied, Seventy-seven times, a number to be taken symbolically, not literally for the never-ending way that we ought to forgive” 

If I’m reading this correctly, and we’ve all heard it in church. If I want to be forgiven, I have to first forgive.

I was with a friend the other day and something crazy had happened. And as my friend is going through this healing, like physical healing process, she goes to the hospital and she hears God say, “So are you willing to forgive A, B, and C?”

And she said, NO! She was honest, right? She was like, “No, I don’t know” 

But she knew that He was asking her that because He was also inviting her to forgive. 

I remember when I found out that my ex was cheating, and early on he never asked for forgiveness. He honestly never even admitted it. 

I remember early on when I was sitting at my couch, I was like, I have to forgive him.

I literally have to forgive him. 

I have to forgive him because if I’m gonna be able to reconcile, if he chooses to ask forgiveness or whatever, I have to figure out how to forgive him.

But I also knew that one of the ways I was gonna be able to make it was, if I forgave him, I didn’t know exactly what that looked like. 

What that was gonna feel like. It was just knowing of, “I’ve gotta forgive him for all these different reasons”

And it was so hard. It was so painful because my ex was not apologizing. 

He was actually more mean than apologetic.

And I remember, I had my little notebook and it was so hard to forgive him. And so I started writing lines in my notebook and the lines I said was, “God, help me to forgive even if he never apologizes”

Because I was like, he might not ever apologize. 

I still have that journal. Because there’s no way I’m gonna be able to do this on my own strength. I just know it. I just can’t. And I just wrote it and I would recite it every day.

Because I was aware that if I did not forgive him, then I would be hurting myself. 

I didn’t know the depth of it, but I just knew that. 

I also remember years later, I had a session with someone who was mentoring me, and we were talking to God, and God was like, “Keenya, you gotta forgive the women he cheated on you with”

And I was like, “No, What?” 

Then it smacked me in the face. It was like, “Hey, guess what? You are harboring unforgiveness towards them too” 

“You’re harboring unforgiveness to the people who didn’t come try to help you or call you or see how you were doing” 

Just all this stuff. And I started to realize that when I think about forgiveness like, here’s this beautiful life that we can live. It’s beautiful. It’s magical. It’s not perfect, but it’s beautiful.

And as people start hurting us or we get into situations, then it can start getting dark and then it gets a little cloudy, then it’s like rainy outside and then just dark as if it’s like midnight.

As I started thinking about my life when all that was going on with my ex and all that type of stuff. Life was okay. It wasn’t awesome, but it was okay. 

And I was trying to live this great life, just heal and all this type of stuff. And one of the things I realized was that life wasn’t getting as beautiful as I wanted it to get until I was allowing myself to have the walls being broken down again. Like just letting light back in.

One of the ways I let light back in was through forgiveness, but also having to forgive myself and having to also ask for forgiveness for my ex-husband. 

Y’all gonna be like, “What?” 

I don’t remember how many years later this was. Let us just say it was four years later. 

I heard God say, “I want you to write him a letter and I want you to ask him for forgiveness” 

“Forgiveness for what? I didn’t cheat on him. He cheated on me repeatedly” and I just was like, “Okay”

So I had my little notebook and was like, all right, for what? He goes, “I want you to ask for forgiveness for everything you did against him. You did not cause him to cheat. That’s not what happened here. I’m not talking about that, but it was all the things that you did. And when you were dating him. What’s all the stuff?”

And I said, “Oh, this is gonna be a long  letter” And I had like a legal pad. I think it was two pages. I can’t remember how long. It was pretty long for me.

And I just started to write, I wrote his name and I said, “Hey, I just, I was talking with the Lord and he told me that I needed to apologize to you for some things”

I was like, “I don’t want anything from you. I’m not trying to get back with you. I wanna do what God has invited me to do”

And I just started writing, “I’m sorry, when the times when I said this, I’m sorry, when I did this” And I was just writing lines and I just wrote it all out.

It was very detailed, like only he would understand all the stuff. 

And I just wrote it and wrote it and wrote it and I put it in a sealed envelope and then I put that envelope in another envelope and sent it to a friend and I just said, “Hey, can you get this to such and such?” 

I was like, “It’s not a mean thing or anything like that. God has just asked me to write this to him. 

Can you get this to him” 

I don’t know when he got it. 

I just remember I had a dream one night and in that dream I was with my ex. We were at a church or something and at first he was sitting next to me and then he got up and he’s wearing this really huge suit. It was like he was so little. It just looks like it swallowed him.

And I was just like, “God, what does that mean?” 

He goes, “You released him. That burden that he was carrying, you released him when you wrote him that letter” 

And I was just shocked. 

But also, I think it was like a couple days later after I had written that letter out. I had a dream about me getting a bunch of money.

He was with me and I had to go into a locker. And it was a bunch of money and a locker. And then when I grabbed the money out of a locker, I put it into a bag and he was there. So I handed him the bag and he walked me to my car, put it in my trunk, and then I drove off.

And I was like, “What does this mean?”

And the next day, I got like $8,000 that came to me. 

For me, when I think about forgiveness, it’s something God asks us to do, period. And it’s something that heals and frees us. And forgiveness also heals and releases the other person whether they know it or not. 

And more than anything, less about us or them, when I think about forgiveness, it’s like this is just something that God just asked me to do. 

And as much as this might be painful and something I don’t want to do, that love and relationship with God looks like sacrifice. 

It looks like, here’s this thing I don’t want to do, but I will do it because I love you and I also am learning the benefits of forgiving.

When I think about what God did. Jesus did die on the cross. And I wouldn’t wanna die on the cross for anybody, but he did that for us. Right? 

And so because he sacrificially did that thing, we got something. 

And so because we sacrificially forgive people, whether they apologize or not, they get something and we get something.

And we get to stand with God and our love walk and all the other things.

I don’t want it to sound kind of deep, but if God invites us to forgive, like He’s saying, this is the way to this. If we choose not to do this, then I’m pretty sure we’re walking in disobedience.

I’m pretty sure that means that if we’re walking in disobedience and the enemy could be like, “Okay, well she’s not walking with him, so I can get in through” 

Not saying that a hundred percent. I don’t know that, I can’t say that’s like written out in the Bible that way, but it reminds me of when you have sex outside of marriage.

Sex is awesome, we enjoy it. But when you have it outside of marriage, then you’re just not walking in purity and holiness and what God asks you to do. 

And then, it opens you up to other things, right? It opens you up to potentially having a baby out of wedlock. It opens you up to soul ties and all this stuff. 

And it’s like, “I don’t wanna have a baby with a man, not my husband. I don’t wanna have soul ties to a man that’s not my husband” or whatever. 

And so, that’s disobedience, then that can happen when you have sex outside of marriage.

I’m like, if I choose not to forgive, then that means I’m walking on disobedience that’s gonna open me up to all this other stuff over here. And I’m like, “Huh, I think it would probably behoove me to try to do it God’s way” 

Does that mean it’s easy? No, not whatsoever. It does not mean this thing is easy by any means.

But it means that we can do it because if God can do it, Jesus can do it, then we can do it too. 

So, if you have anybody that you need to forgive, then my strong encouragement is to make that list of who that is. 

And start your journey of forgiving those people. 

Have a conversation with God about what that does look like?

Ask Him, does he want you to reach out to them? He may not want you to do that, so you gotta obey what he’s telling you to do. 

Me, he told me to do that. I wouldn’t have done that without him. So I’m just saying. 

I wouldn’t do anything without Him. 

So it’s really important for you to go, “Okay, God, Jesus, What do you want me to do? Who do you want me to forgive? Do I need to forgive myself?”

I want to share that I’ve been on that journey for a while, that “Is there somebody that I need to ask for forgiveness from?” Because I guarantee you wanna have somebody where you actually need to reach out to such and such.

Like there was a girl, I owed her like $180 from like 10 years ago. And God was like, “I need you to go send her that $180 and write her” 

I sent her a message on Facebook and said, “Hey, I owe you $180 back in the day. Can I have your address?” And she replied, “What?” I was like, “I need your address” 

And so I sent her the check, but I also wrote her a letter.The letter says “I’m really sorry it’s taking me so long and so on….” 

Before that, God was saying, “You owe your daddy $1,800” 

I was like, “Jesus, that’s a lot of money” He goes, “Yeah, but you borrowed that. You owe him $1,800” 

And so I wrote him a long letter and I said, “Daddy, I’m really sorry it’s taking me so long to give you this money. Thank you so much for giving it to me….”

My father texted me, “Oh my God, I needed that money so much to fix some things around my house because I’m trying to sell my house” 

And so it’s just not easy doing these things but there’s so many benefits to it.

There’s just so many benefits to it.

So make a list of people that you need to forgive, including yourself, and then ask Jesus if there’s anybody that you need to ask for forgiveness from.

      

What does forgiveness look like

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 4, 2022

Today, we are talking about what does forgiveness looks like?  And I feel like forgiveness is like the F word that Christians don’t enjoy using.  That’s just like some

Recently, someone asked me the question of which one was harder. Was it harder for me to bounce back after a devastating divorce? Or was it harder to build my business? 

It took me a second, I had to pause and hold clutch my pearls, because I was like, which one was harder? 

I think that they’re both very different. 

But honestly, I think that building my business was the hardest. 

And when I was writing down those 3 things I wish I knew before I launched my business, I said, “Oh, man, let’s be honest.” 

I was like, “Oh, these are 3 really, really, really hard things.” 

And so I want to get into that today. 

My prayer is that when you read what my 3 things are, they don’t scare you away from entrepreneurship. Because they could.

But my hope is that it actually gives you some encouragement in whatever places you are in. And so it gives you the permission to be learning, growing, and evolving. 

So these three are not in any particular order, but they are where they are. 

These are the 3 things I Wish I Knew before I Started my Business

  • Launch Fatigue

Have you ever heard the phrase launch fatigue? 

I had never heard of it.

To put it in basic terms is that when you are launching a product or service, and the launch is over with, a lot of times people just crash after a launch because of launch fatigue. 

And I remember the first time I ever did a launch was when I launched my brand, my website and that I was having the goal of making $10,000 in my first month.. 

And I was doing all the things. 

I was waking up early, I was staying up late. 

I was working with all the people, working nonstop, and doing live streams, and growing my email list, connecting, just doing all the things.

And I remember after our launch week was over with. I felt incredibly depressed. 

Now, I’m not talking about the regular, like you know, we say, “Oh, I feel depressed.” And I’m not making fun of people that battle with depression. 

I have overcome depression. 

So this is not me saying, making light of it. Okay? But how sometimes we’ll say, “Oh, I feel depressed”

And we actually just feel sad. 

This wasn’t one of those things. 

This was like, I could barely get out of bed. 

This was one of those things where I was just like no matter what I listen to, even if it’s a happy dance song, I could not get out of it.

I remember, I think it was day 2 or day 3 of this when I said, “Maybe I should just chill.” 

So, I just took 2 days off and did nothing.

Then the weekend came and I did nothing over the weekend. 

And I just felt better. And I was just like, “Hmm, that’s really interesting.” 

It took me a couple of years when I watched a bunch of other people launch and somebody girl named Courtney had posted in a Facebook group about launch fatigue. 

And I was like, What? And it hit me that I don’t know a whole lot about the body. 

But it’s like you’re building all this energy, all this stuff and then when it’s over with, it’s just like a crash. 

So it’s kind of like when someone’s doing something like a Tour de France or they’re doing this big marathon. And then when it’s all over with, if they don’t get back into their routine and some facet that they just crashed.

And so that’s what happens to people when they have a launch.

You can literally crash if you’re not doing things in between the time of your launch and if you’re just going too hard. 

And it took me a while to realize this. That’s why we have our self-paced course Monetize the Tok, and I started to learn healthier ways to offer that to our audience, because I was really exhausted.

At the end of my challenges, it was just so exhausting.

And I just said, “I can’t do this to my team and I can’t even imagine how they feel at the end of a launch.” 

I don’t want that for me. And I don’t want that for them. 

And so if you’re somebody and you do live launches. If you do challenges, webinars, or leading up to a product launch or whatever.

It’s really important for you to build in time during that launch to do nothing, to go get a massage and to sleep a little bit extra. And give time after that to do nothing. 

A lot of my friends go on vacation.

And I’m like, “Oh, they take these 3 day vacations to like Mexico or whatever.” 

Where they just take time off and they give their team time off so that everybody can recuperate. 

And I think that that’s awesome. I think it’s brilliant. 

You know, I’m in a place now where I’m asking myself. “How can I give my team a day after a launch?” 

How do people do it? How can I give that to them, too? Because if I feel that way, I can only imagine how they feel because they’ve gotta give me all the things that I need. 

  • How Scary it is to Grow in your Business 

I always thought that “Okay, I’m at $250,000, $300,000, $400,000 in my business, it’s gonna be easy to go from $400,000 to over a million in a year” 

I don’t mean cumulative over the years. But like from zero to a million cumulative in a 12-month timeframe.

I thought that would just be easy. 

Oh my god, that is not easy. 

When you really want to grow your business, you’re hiring people like the regular part-time, regular full time. 

You bring on a full-time assistant or you bring on a full-time graphic designer. 

And there’s a lot of pressure.

I didn’t realize how scary I was gonna feel when it was time to grow. 

It took me a while to do this. 

But one day, I finally said, “What are my regular monthly expenses?”

I made a list of all the things that I paid for on a monthly basis.

And I look at that number. I was in shock of how much money comes out of my business account every single month.

And I had this moment where I said, “Stop everything, fire everybody, let go of everything”

Because I said I could be out of business at some point in time. You know what I’m saying? 

I was like, this could be the end of me. 

It was so scary to see that number. And there was no way around the fact that here is this number and here’s how much money is coming out every single month. 

Here’s how much money has to come in every single month just to break even. But here’s how much money has to come in every single month and we’re going to constantly make more money to add to what we already have into the bank. 

Even now when I think about it. I’m just like, “Wow, that’s so scary” 

And I remember I had a conversation with my sister. She never really understood what I do in my business. 

And finally one day she said, “So tell me about your business. How’s everything going?” 

I said, “Well, it’s really scary right now.” 

She said, “Why?” And I was like, “Well, I have these many expenses coming out every single month, and people are relying on me to help them pay their bills.” 

Now we have money, but it’s still very scary when you have that on your shoulders versus just you having a job or you having your own expenses. 

But when other people are relying on you. It’s a whole different ball game. And she was just like, “I never even thought about that, that you have people relying on you that can pay their bills.“

And I’m like, “Yeah, that’s my life.” 

And it just hit me over and over again, of how scary that is. 

But don’t get me wrong, it’s still a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful experience to have to be able to have people that work with you and all the things but it’s very scary. And it’s something that I want you to understand.

It’s something that I want you to prepare for, knowing how much money needs to come into your business right now, how much money is going out and then all the other things on top of it. 

Okay? And then I also want you to think about if you bring on another person, how much is that coming out of your bottom line every month, every quarter or every year.

Recently I was like, “Okay, what if I did 4 brand deals a month and I got this much money per brand deal? Okay, that’s gonna pay for those expenses” 

And so that’s just another way of going like “I got these mega expenses, and here’s how I can cover that” 

That’s just me and my strategic mind trying to make sure that I don’t feel certain pressure because it’s a lot when you have the pressure on you to build your business. 

  • How much I needed to grow in order to lead people and in order to lead my company.

When I think about how much I need to grow. I can’t say that it’s overwhelming. But it has been like, “Oh my, I’m not as awesome as I think that I am” 

“I’m not as great a leader as I think that I am”

Because not only do I have to run my business, sell my products and services, and serve my clients, but I’ve got to mentor the people that work for me.

I’ve got to learn their love languages. 

And to add people as employees, I’ve got to understand their cultures and what’s happening in their countries.

I’ve got to learn their encouragement style, if they want praise privately or public praise? Is it words, gifts, or what is their thing?

I have to learn how to manage my emotions, especially when I’m hormonal.

Catch myself like, “I should not have meetings with people, not text people or send messages on slack when I’m feeling upset.” 

There’s just so much stuff when it pertains to me having to learn and grow as a person. 

I just want to throw the whole business away because it’s so much.

It was so much when I looked at myself and my ability to communicate how I was feeling, communicate what I needed in a way that each person could receive it.

Like one graphic designer needs this, a video editor needs this, a chatbot person needs this. 

Everybody is different. 

My capacity has been stretched by 45 million times and I wish that I knew the level of stretching that I was gonna have to go through.

I wish that I knew more as an employee. 

I wish that I spent more time learning when I was in school. 

When I was working for bosses, I wish that I just knew so much more than I know now. 

Now, I don’t regret it, I’m not gonna throw my business away, I am gonna always keep going.

But this is just how I felt, you know what I mean? 

It’s been beautiful and awful all at the same time, if I could be honest.

But when I look back at my ability to watch a person go from deflated to encouraged. 

When I watch a team member go from on the brink of losing their jobs to rocking it. 

Because, “I learned how to encourage them, I learned how to motivate them, I learned how to help them mature in their position” 

It’s everything. 

This is not the last time I’m gonna manage people. If and when I choose to have kids, it’s like, I’m gonna be coming into this person’s life wherever they are. And I’ve gotta learn to navigate that.

Not to mention, my desire to get remarried. And so I’m gonna have to navigate getting to know this dude. 

Getting to know this man. Like when he’s having his positive and not so positive moments. When I’m having my positive and not so positive moments. When we’re having what the Church calls heated fellowship. 

You know? When I mend those moments, having to learn how to handle myself and all those types of things, is crucial. 

I honestly wish that I knew all this before I started my business, but I’m proud of myself that I’m on a journey. 

And then I’m figuring it out. 

And I’m glad that I have people on my team and in my company and communities that I’m in that are like, “Okay, we’re gonna be here with you, we’re gonna encourage you, we’re gonna tell us what you need, how can we support you?”

I’m glad that I have those people around me because it could get very lonely, it could get overwhelming and it could just cause the person to quit. 

But I’m learning that if I am honest and vulnerable with the people around me then I can get more of what it is that I need and I can learn better how to support my people. 

I posted on Facebook and said, “You guys are leading companies, leading teams in different countries. How are you keeping up morale and doing all this stuff when they’re on Zoom?” 

And the fact that I was so honest and transparent with my question, I got so many people that gave me so many good responses.

And these things are what I never would have thought of but because I was aware that I did not know what I was doing in certain regards and was honest and transparent enough to ask it on social media. 

I was able to get those answers. 

I want that for everybody else. 

I want everybody else to have those experiences. 

I want you to go, “Okay, I’m just like Keenya. I don’t know what I’m doing either in some regard but I can figure it out and I can go to people. I can be public or private about it and I can go and get the things that I need. And I can become better and I can grow and all the things” 

So, I hope you have enjoyed outing myself in this article.

I hope that, me, sharing my experiences, my decade of growing moments with you, hope you appreciate them. 

And if you’re ready to start growing your business on the TikTok platform but need some guidance on how to do it, be sure to grab our Create on TikTok course and learn all of the basics when it comes to not only navigating the TikTok platform, but being able to create content that reaches your target audience.

      

EP: 176 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Launched My Business

by Keenya Kelly

, on December 1, 2022

Recently, someone asked me the question of which one was harder. Was it harder for me to bounce back after a devastating divorce? Or was it harder to build

Having someone binge watch your content is one of the fastest ways to not only gain a new follower but to also generate a lead into your business. 

And in this article, I’m going to talk about how to get people to binge watch your content on the TikTok platform so that they can be leading to your business and ultimately become a customer. 

I will also be talking about how we helped Kayla gain over 100,000 people to her email list and Mercedes to make over a million dollars US using a TikTok platform this year alone.

So, one of the things to know about TikTok is that we all know that it is short form video.  

And short form video, by definition, is a video that is one minute or less, but a lot of content on TikTok is about 30 seconds or less. 

If you’re going to want to get people to binge watch your content, then you’re going to want to do a couple of things.

First of all, you want to make sure that your content is consistent. 

If you are teaching people how to market on TikTok, then you have to make sure that on a regular basis that most of your content is about just that. 

So if I’m teaching people how to use TikTok to generate leads. Then I have to make sure that I’m not like repeating myself all the time. 

But that my content, it’s so valuable that after a person watched one video, they want to watch the next video, the next video and the next video. 

So you want to be very clear on that. 

And as you’re creating content, make sure you’re thinking about that and the experience for other people, otherwise, if you’re all over the place that a person is like they’re not gonna want to binge watch you because they really don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. 

We know somebody’s a comedian on TikTok, that all of their videos are gonna be funny to a degree. 

And so, if you’re a business person you’re saying you teach business or marketing or whatever it is you do, then you’re gonna want to make sure that your stuff is consistent. 

All right? 

Now, one of my biggest tricks on TikTok, to do this is I make sure that I do something in all of my particular videos. 

And TikTok actually makes this easy for us.

They actually want us to use the feature, but I think that some people don’t use it or don’t use it well. 

And what is it? It is the cover for your TikTok video. 

I’m not talking about having a graphic design, the thing that you would do on an Instagram reel for cover.

But it’s something that is specific to TikTok that you can use on all of your videos. 

Let me show you what that looks like. 

So once you have created a TikTok video and you go to the screen where it’s going to show you, you can put in your description and hashtags.

Well now you’re going to see your video on the upper right hand side of the screen. 

When you see your video there and really small letters it says cover so what you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to click in that area.

And what happens is that you’ll see your video which is here on screen. And then you’ll also see the covers below.

I recommend choosing a cover and being consistent with it. 

You’re always using the same cover. 

So I use the one called Text glitch.

I usually click on that and I will write a short phrase that will give people a glimpse of what they can expect from that particular video. 

And so what’s the point of doing that? 

Not because that image is gonna show up on the for you feed but because when they visit my profile and all of my videos have that cover on it, they can know what to expect with each particular video.

If they’ve watched the video on How to Use Email to Sell Customer or whatever, right? 

And then I choose to click on my page, where they begin to scroll on my page and they are going to see all the other videos that I’ve posted. 

And they see how I made a million dollars after divorce, how I got $10,000 for one TikTok video through a UGC content.

If I have those little phrases on the covers of my videos, people can see what they should watch. 

Oftentimes, people will come to my TikTok account from a video they’ve seen, on the for you feed and they begin to binge watch the content that is on my page because of the cover that is on my video. 

So often people will not only binge watch me they end up clicking on a link in my bio they opt in or they make a purchase. 

I had someone who saw me on the for you feed, binge watch me, click the link in my bio, opted for something free, bought something and then, bought something else came back and said, “Hey, I want to join your mastermind” as a result of what I did here with making my content binge worthy.

And so if that’s what you’re gonna want to do, that you want to be very intentional again with your content, with your bio, your link and then also with the cover. 

Now if you’re looking for more assistance with being able to market your business on TikTok.

 I would be honored to work with you, we have a digital course.  

And we also have some DIY services where we actually do some of the work for you and you will work with me one on one for 90 days. 

But again if you want to have incredible success on TikTok even when you’re not there, right?

Even when TikTok shows a video from like eight, nine months ago and it hit the for you feed again.

If you’re doing these little things in your bio.

Then you’re gonna have people that are constantly binge watching your content, opting in, buying things, even when you’re on vacation doing your own thing. 

So wherever you are in your TikTok journey, if you’re looking for a consultant or coach to help you grow, I definitely would encourage you to reach out to us at [email protected].

      

How To Get Viewers To Binge Watch Your Content

by Keenya Kelly

, on November 28, 2022

Having someone binge watch your content is one of the fastest ways to not only gain a new follower but to also generate a lead into your business. And

One of the things that I love to do in my business is write emails but one of the things that I don’t like to do is write emails. 

I love writing emails, because it’s my voice. It’s me talking directly to my amazing community of people. 

But the thing I don’t love about is how much time that it takes. And me with my creative brain, I just want to do fun and creative things. 

And so sometimes I just find myself in this tension with my love for writing emails, and then my hate for writing emails.

And so over the last year so I have been really, really toying with the idea of if I should hire a copywriter.

So we’re starting a conversation today talking all about all things copywriting. 

And I can’t say that it’s like a sexy subject.

It’s a fun subject.

But it is something that, you know, we have to think about as it pertains to our businesses, scaling our businesses.

Meaning, being able to generate more money in our business, growing the company, your team and all that type of stuff.

It’s things that we really have to consider is if we should be adding additional people, to our teams, and one of the people potentially is a copywriter. 

And so I want to just talk to you about my experience. So I was sharing in the intro how I really enjoy talking to my people. 

I know my people, they know me, you know me, and I know my own voice. 

And so it’s so easy for me to be able to just write and just, you know, open up a document and just write something and send an email to my community. 

The downside is that, from a business standpoint, that does not let me be in my main lane of genius, like I am really good on video, talking and teaching. 

I’m good at sales. 

I’m good at strategizing with my clients and all the things. 

And I can’t say that that is something that I could give to somebody else because that’s what I’m really good at doing. 

And so I kind of found myself in this space and time of hiring a copywriter. 

And we have hired different copywriters. I’ll give you an example. 

One time when we were launching my course Monetize the Tok. 

I invested in a copywriter and the person charged $150 per email. 

Whoah! yeah, you know, and so she learned a lot about our business. And then we let her write the emails. 

And so we plugged them into our funnel and all the things and I cannot say that we made more money by hiring her as a copywriter. 

Honestly, we made less as a result of it.

And so the next time we opened up our course, I wrote all the emails, and they performed better. 

So we did this again, we hired a copywriter for our sales page for one of our products, I can’t remember what it was. 

And they wrote the copy and all that. 

And when we got the copy back, it actually didn’t really even sound like me, it didn’t sound like my audience, it really didn’t sound like anything or what I thought it was gonna be.

And we spent a lot of money to have that person write the copy on our sales page.

And so I was, of course, very frustrated with that. 

But I learned a very valuable lesson, one that it takes time for a person to learn your voice, learn your audience, and be right for you. 

But even after they learn and all that, they’re still not you, right?

And so it’s really important that like when you’re working with copywriters.

What I’m learning is that when they write the thing, you still should read it and revise it for your own voice.

You know, so I had a friend who had a launch recently, and someone pitched her to write emails.

And when they pitched her and wrote the emails, she was raving about them. 

She was so amazed at the success of what happened with that particular person’s emails. 

And so she was talking about them and just sharing them with the whole world or what have you. 

But she’s still sad, like, it’s still our responsibility to read every single email and make the tweaks that need to be made in this email before it goes up to a particular audience because we know our audience better than anybody. 

Now, does that mean that that’s going to happen all the time? 

No. So what I mean by that, if you are in the market to hire a copywriter, you have to like play the long game, in a sense. 

Because that person is going to write and you’re going to read their emails, and you’re going to revise them.

They’re gonna make it easier for you because they wrote majority of it, and then now you’re gonna revise it. 

And so you’re gonna have to do that, you know, consistently over a period of time. 

And also giving them back the emails so that way they can see the difference between what they wrote and what you wrote. 

So that way they can continue to learn your voice and all the things. 

It’s not going to be something that’s instant.

If you are in the process of scaling your business where you’re like, “Okay, I’m trying to outsource this so that I can get to the point to where I’m not on this anymore”

Then what’s going to have to happen is that.

There still is gonna to need to be a you, there is still gonna need to be a person that wants this copyrighted whether their contract or their full time with you, that is rereading some things to like some checks and balances and all that type of stuff because nobody’s perfect. 

Nobody knows your voice, the way that your voice is. 

Nobody knows exactly what you’re thinking or what has changed in your market or area or whatever, like you do. 

And so you still have to spend time like, you know, rereading over things and changing things. 

When I thought about today’s article, I said, “Should you hire a copywriter? “

It depends on where you are in your business, okay?

But if you’re at this place where you’re like, your time will be best spent doing other things, then my answer is yes. 

But you still have to prepare yourself that you’re gonna have to reread this person’s emails, you’re gonna have to revise their emails.

And you can’t just fully just give it to them, you know, so I have had a lot of like, uncomfortable experiences where, you know, like, recently, we hired a copywriter.

I think I read this person’s best work and didn’t really see all of their work or given enough time to see more of their work. 

And as time was going on, I was just like, What is going on? 

And this actually has happened multiple times where we have hired somebody and we’re just like, what is happening? 

Well, what we were experiencing is that people were just writing the way that they write, you know, when they were writing for us as it pertains to TikTok. 

They’re writing for TikTok as a creator and entertainer, not as a person like me, who teaches TikTok to business owners having to constantly pull this person back and go. 

Why are you doing it that way, please stop doing this, please do it this way. 

And like trying to really help them like giving them access to all of our emails and all of our blogs and how I did things, trying to like help this person.

I started to realize that this person and people actually wanted to just write the way that they write. 

And that’s just what they wanted to do. 

They didn’t want to learn my voice and they didn’t want to do it my way. And I’m not talking about me being a micromanager. 

I’m more talking about teaching TikTok for business owners, not TikTok for creators. And so there is a way that I’m teaching. 

And so that person didn’t want write in my way or teach my way in blogs.

They wanted to just do what was easy for them, which doesn’t make sense for me because it’s not going to actually translate to my audience or to our particular offers or what have you. 

So we’ve had multiple people, we had to let them go. 

And so I started to learn my own lesson of “Hey, you gotta take your time hiring people that you know”

And I say this all the time, you know that you have to hire slow and fire fast.

Meaning that you like take your time before you hire people get to know them, have them write a couple things, like multiple things.

Pay them to write these things, but have them write and write and write and write. 

But also, my friend taught me she said, when she hires people, she actually hires multiple people to do the same job for 30 days.

They don’t know about each other, but they’re both doing the same job for 30 days. 

So she can determine if this is actually who’s the right person versus one person. 

And then now 30 days later, you let them go, you have nobody, but you have multiple people that are doing the jobs. 

So at the end of the 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or whatever, now you’ve got the perfect person that you’ve trained and cultivated for the particular job. 

So if you’re thinking about hiring a copywriter, I definitely think you should really consider it, especially if writing copy is not your lane of genius.

But it is really, really, really important for you to understand that it’s gonna take time.

But a person to get to know you, your voice talk like you, right like you.

And you’re still gonna have to spend time reading their emails, reading every single piece of copy, giving them feedback. 

And so you got to make the space you know, in your life, and then your day to actually work with them to help them to nurture them to be a good copywriter for you.

Because even though they may charge you $100 an email, $200 an email, it doesn’t mean that they know you, know your voice, know your industry or write the way that you write. 

For me, I typically write the way that I talk. And so, I’m always telling people when they come on board, “You gotta watch my videos and listen to me”

“You’ve got to listen to my podcasts so you can really understand how do I talk, you’ve got to read my emails”

“You’ve got to read my blogs, you’ve got to read my social media posts, because otherwise you’re going to be talking in a language that makes sense for you but doesn’t make sense for me and my tone, my brand and my particular my target audience” 

So if you’re thinking about doing this, I encourage you to do so but make sure that you spend some time hiring slow and firing fast. 

I’m not saying like just like on a dime or whatever, you know, like just firing them so fast that they’re like what is happening.

But just taking them through a process before you fire them but just like knowing in your head,

okay telling them in advance, “Hey, this is a 30 day thing. We’re going to evaluate this after 30 days”

That way they know that this is not permanent.

That their job is to do a good job with the job before you know before you make a final decision on if you’re going to be with them for the long haul. 

Okay, I hope you have found this valuable and I’m curious if you are a copywriter and you’re interested and writing for us. I would love to hear from you. 

Just send me a DM on Instagram at Keenya Kelly and just let me know what it is you do as a copywriter or pitch me do your writing. I would love to hear from you because we are still looking for a copywriter. 

And if you’re a course creator wishing there was an easy way to create videos on TikTok to help your brand or business? Be sure to check out these FREE TikTok templates here.. 

      

Should you Hire a Copywriter?

by Keenya Kelly

, on November 23, 2022

One of the things that I love to do in my business is write emails but one of the things that I don’t like to do is write emails. 

Blog

by Keenya Kelly

, on January 6, 2018

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