137: How to Make Money on TikTok: 5 Revenue Streams You’re Probably Missing with Keenya Kelly
I am sitting down with Keenya Kelly, a video and social media strategist who turned short-form video marketing into a seven-figure business. Keenya has helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs build brands on TikTok and Instagram, she has spoken on stages at Fortune 500 events and entrepreneurial summits, and she is one of the most energetic and knowledgeable people I know when it comes to making real money from short-form video content. Today we are talking specifically about TikTok: what the platform is doing right now in 2026, how small business owners can finally start treating it as a revenue stream instead of just a content channel, and the five ways Keenya sees entrepreneurs leaving money on the table every single week.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
04:18 How Keenya turned TikTok into a seven-figure business and what she sees most entrepreneurs getting wrong about the platform
09:45 Why TikTok is a discovery engine and Instagram is a nurturing platform and why you need both working together
14:32 Revenue stream 1: TikTok Shop and how small business owners are generating passive income directly inside the app
20:11 Revenue stream 2: TikTok Live and the underrated power of live selling for coaches, product sellers, and service providers
26:44 Revenue stream 3: brand partnerships and creator programs and what you actually need to qualify
31:08 Revenue stream 4: driving traffic to your own offers through strategic content and DM automation
37:22 Revenue stream 5: repurposing TikTok content across platforms to multiply your reach without multiplying your effort
ABOUT OUR GUEST: KEENYA KELLY
Keenya Kelly is a video and social media strategist, keynote speaker, and the woman who turned short-form video marketing into a seven-figure business. She has helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs build brands on TikTok, Instagram, and beyond, and is known for her high-energy teaching style and practical, results-driven approach. She is a sought-after keynote speaker who has presented to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial summits, and hosts The Download, her weekly newsletter on what is actually turning content into clients and cash.
Keenya on Instagram @keenyakelly
Keenya on TikTok @keenyakelly
A Truth You Need to Hear:
"TikTok is where people discover you. Instagram is where they decide to trust you. You need both."
Keenya Kelly
LINKS MENTIONED
DMs to Dollars Course Use code BIRTHDAY at checkout to get $200 off through Sunday, October 4th at 11:59pm MT
Free DM Automation Guide + 1 Month of ManyChat Free DM me the word LEADS on Instagram @elizabethmarberry
Hot Reels My 12-month Instagram content lab
S3 Ep137 Transcript - How to Make Money on TikTok: 5 Revenue Streams You’re Probably Missing with Keenya Kelly
00:00
I think a lot of business owners are looking at TikTok completely wrong. They're treating it like a visibility platform when it might actually be one of the best revenue platforms available today. And that's exactly why I wanted to bring on today's guest, Keenya Kelly. Kenya has built an audience of more than 700,000 followers and generated over $4 million in revenue through content.
00:25
In this conversation, she breaks down five revenue streams on TikTok that many business owners don't even know exist. We talk about TikTok shop, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, digital products, and one feature that coaches and service providers should absolutely have on their radar. If TikTok has been sitting on the back burner because you assumed it wasn't the right platform for your business, this episode might surprise you. Are you ready? Let's go.
00:56
Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies. I'm Elizabeth Marbury, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work,
01:24
You're in the right place. Let's dive in.
01:36
Welcome back to the show. I'm so excited that you have joined me for today's episode. We are gonna be digging into the five hidden revenue streams on TikTok that most business owners are missing out on. And I am so thrilled to be inviting a special guest on to talk about TikTok. She is a TikTok queen. She has built a combined social media audience of over 700,000 followers.
02:05
She's generated $4 million plus in revenue through content alone. And she's trained so many small business owners and entrepreneurs on short form video and how to make money on TikTok. So I wanna roll out the red carpet and say, welcome to the show. Yeah, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, you're so welcome. Keenya and I got to meet at Social Media Marketing World, a few.
02:33
weeks ago and it was so incredible to connect in person and then reconnect again online. And that's what I love about our industry is we can build these bridges through screens and of course through in-person events. So Kina, I would love to hear how did you get into TikTok and creating videos online for your business? Yeah, so my journey actually started back in 2016. In 2016, I was actually working a corporate job.
03:02
but I had a lot of entrepreneur background. I had been in network marketing for a long time, but at the time I had a corporate job and people were starting to get on this app called Periscope. Periscope was this live streaming platform through Twitter. And I was like, I don't really know what they're doing, but I want to play around too. So I get onto this app and I realized that people are actually making money from Periscope. And I'm like, I don't even know what I would be making.
03:27
So I just keep talking and teaching and people eventually wanted me to start coaching them, but that was new to me, the coaching and consulting world. But I ended up investing in a coach for like an hour and that got some consulting. And I decided to just do some little bit of part-time consulting, like $25 an hour, just giving people branding and marketing strategies. Fast forward, I ended up quitting my job. I launched an agency called If You Brand It, where we were doing brand design.
03:51
and I built my audience, I got all of my clients from Facebook, Instagram, and livestream, and then Periscope. At the beginning of 2020, we knew something was happening in the world. We just didn't know what was happening. And I'm somebody who prays about everything. Like I always pray, I mean about everything. So I was praying like, you know, I don't want to go out of business. Like, can you give me a strategy? And I heard God tell me to get onto TikTok.
04:16
At the time, nobody was talking about TikTok, not Gary Vee, not nobody. And I was like, this has got to be the devil. There is no way that I am hearing this correctly, but I kept hearing it over and over and over again. And I just decided, okay, everybody's fighting on Facebook about everything. Maybe I can just get on TikTok and then just start having fun. So I was having fun on TikTok. A video went viral, had nothing to do with my business. And that's when I was like, oh.
04:45
something's happening on this platform and God has given me some insight into it. So I decided to double down on it and my business exploded. So then at the end of 2020, I said, I'm putting down my design agency, I'm focusing on video and then everything exploded from there. Ooh, how awesome that you had that down. I call it a divine download. Yeah. But you have the divine download to get on TikTok and you were one of those early adapters of the platform. I always say like, if you can be an early adapter, like that is
05:15
so huge. And I remember at that time, 2020, because I also got on TikTok kind of toward the end of it for my dance studio business, which was a great choice. But I remember everyone at that time was kind of like poo-pooing it, like, oh, it's just teenagers like dancing in their basements, like, you know, grown ass women don't get on there, business owners don't get on there, like all of that, right? And I remember being like from the very beginning, because I was so into Instagram, like,
05:43
No, this is a huge opportunity for small businesses. So fast forward to 2026, tell us and tell our listeners, like, why should a small business owner or creative entrepreneur care about TikTok? Like, is it still possible to grow on there? Like, why is it still relevant today? For sure. So one of the things I like to first tell people is this. So you've had teenagers, 20 year olds, from 2020 to 2025,
06:12
make millions, millions of dollars, right? You had businesses make millions of dollars while the US government was saying TikTok is bad, right? So the US government has never said that about a platform, but still people made millions and millions of dollars with the US government saying TikTok is bad, don't go there. Fast forward, TikTok has now been officially purchased combined with the US. So the US is now saying TikTok is good.
06:37
So first thing, if people were able to make millions with the government saying TikTok is bad, imagine what's happening for people as they're saying TikTok is good. That's the first thing. Second thing is you still have majority of businesses are not on TikTok, right? People are consuming, but it's kind of like Facebook in the early stages where people weren't running their businesses on Facebook. They were just consuming and reconnecting with high school friends. A lot of businesses aren't seeing the impact of what TikTok has had over the course of social media.
07:07
but they will see in a year or two years, but there's still this infancy stages of getting your business out there because majority of people still just consume, they don't post on TikTok. Wow, I love that. So I hope you are perking up beloved listener because there's so much opportunity for you on this platform. I know that so many of my clients, when they first come to work with me, they feel that sense of like, I'm behind, you know, like I feel like I'm behind. And I just want you all to hear,
07:36
Kenya telling you, you're not too late to the party. It is so true. People consume so much more than they're creating. And there's so much market share that is still available. So I love hearing that from you because you're definitely the TikTok expert. So that is absolutely huge. And I know in our pre-interview, you shared with me that you have 11 different revenue streams. When Kenya told me that, I'm like, okay, wow, that is...
08:06
So bananas in the best way possible, like tell me all about it. But today, because we don't have all day, I'm gonna have Kenya teach us five revenue streams that she is leveraging on TikTok. And the first one is TikTok Shop. So number one, like what is TikTok Shop and who is it best for? Yeah, so TikTok Shop is quite the thing right now on TikTok and just in the world.
08:35
And there's two aspects of TikTok Shop. First is the small business or the business in general that has physical products. You're able to upload your, you'll create a shop on TikTok and put how many of a particular product you have via your Shopify store or what have you. And you're able to sell your products there on TikTok Shop. So it's kind of like Amazon for TikTok. So if someone is looking for mascara, they may go in a TikTok Shop and search mascara.
09:01
well, your product will come up in TikTok shop and is constantly being recommended to people. Like TikTok is trying to get people to purchase from TikTok shop. And so the other aspect of that as a business owner is you have an opportunity to work with content creators that will promote your products. And there's layers to it. The first layer is you don't even have to do anything. You literally can have your products listed in TikTok shop. And then you will say on the backend how much a person will earn.
09:30
each time they sell one of your products. And so it's just there. Now you can always inbox creators and pitch them to work with you as well. But for the most part, you literally can just list your products. Okay. And what happens is that creators come along and they find your product and then they either can order it and buy it, or you can send them a free sample, or you can send them a refundable sample, meaning they buy the product. Once they sell X amount of products, then you give them a refund.
09:58
It's like a surefire way of like doing business with people on TikTok. But the second aspect of TikTok shop is for the creator. And that's the person who doesn't have their own physical products, but finds products online on TikTok. They either order them, get the free sample or the refundable sample. And they create videos promoting those particular products. And they make whatever the percentages that you've offered or the dollar amount per sales. And for me personally,
10:26
Anytime I'm doing anything these days, I'm like, okay, I need this new oil. I need this new thing. Let me go and get it. Let me see. First, let's see if I can get it as a free sample from TikTok, right? Then let me see if I can get it as a refundable sample from TikTok. And then once I get it, I will create videos about it and I'll make money from that product, even though I was going to buy it anyway. Now I can buy it and make money from it. Wow. And so I'm curious with your content strategy, because I know that you have so many different things that you are
10:55
promoting in so many different ways you make money within your own business. What percentage of effort and energy do you kind of put into TikTok shop? Or is it the type of thing where you're like, it's blowing up right now, so you're leveraging it more heavily? Or I'm just kind of curious about that mix because I know that every business owner that's listening is kind of like, oh my gosh, so now I have to create more content about like products and like, which by the way, darling, if you're listening to this,
11:21
you know, we have so many different ways that you're going to be able to make money on TikTok. You don't have to do all of the things that Kenya is going to teach you. So that's number one. But I am curious about like how you think about it, because I know that you create so much content. Yeah. So one of the things, my main account on TikTok, I don't really do anything with TikTok Shop there because on that account, I'm the coach and consultant. People come there to buy my course or my membership or buy me one-on-one. So I don't do
11:50
anything TikTok shop over there. Last year, I decided that I wanted to have more fun with TikTok. So I created a new account on TikTok, which is called King and Kelly Brand. And that's just me being myself, talking about my weight loss journey, all the things, right? And so on that account, that is where like, I would say once a week, I may post two videos around TikTok shop, because I'm like, that's not the main way that I make money, but I'm like, if I can make something passively, I will. But if a person is saying,
12:19
I want to dominate on TikTok in one area, I wouldn't tell them do a bunch of things. I would say, what's going to be your main focus? That could be TikTok shop, and you can make a lot of money with that way. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, I'm thinking of one of my private clients right now. She owns a boutique permanent jewelry store. I actually have two permanent jewelers clients right now. And the client I'm thinking of, she has this boutique and she has lots of different product and they're just gorgeous.
12:48
we've talked about her leveraging TikTok Shop. And so for someone like that, that seems like, oh my gosh, that is the strategy. Oh yeah. And if you're a creator who gets excited about like, oh yeah, I just got this thing, why not talk about it and include the link to TikTok Shop and get paid for it? Why not do that? Right? Yeah, exactly. That's like, I'm in my menopause era. And so in the menopause era, you start losing some of your hair. And so I was talking about it on that account on TikTok.
13:18
and this African-American woman with hair just like mine, she said, well, I've been using this product and I use it for a year and my edges and everything is back. Okay, so I went to TikTok shop, I ordered it myself and when it came in, I said, I'ma film me trying this on camera, because normally I hate the taste of everything, but it's liquid collagen. And so I was like, I'm gonna do this on camera, I'm gonna film it, whatever. I filmed it, it was actually really good. So then I posted the video and the product is selling.
13:45
like crazy and the brand keeps reaching out to me. So I'm like, yes, please. Yeah, exactly. You're solving your own problem and you're making money doing it. Yeah, exactly. Like I had this, the craziest thing that's happened to me right now is I've lost 50 pounds and Sheen got a hold of me. Sheen or Sheen. And they invited me into their creator program. Well, they've given me $450 to buy clothes from Sheen.
14:10
And I've got all these packages keep coming in. So I just try to close on, I put them videos out and all these, like I've got all this amazing clothes that fit this new body and I didn't have to do anything. I just was creating content. I'm like, thanks Sheen for giving me a new wardrobe. Yeah, no, that is so cool. I absolutely love that. Okay, let's transition into the second revenue stream, which is affiliate marketing. How does affiliate marketing work on TikTok?
14:38
Yeah, so affiliate marketing is very similar to the same way we do it on any other platform, right? It's basically where you have something that you like or something that someone has and you're making a percentage, right? So there's some people, there's a lady who has a course teaching social media or something, and she has all of the affiliates and they do live streams, they create videos, they do all this stuff and they're selling her course, right? And they're making like, I 30 % on the sale of her course, but all they're having to do is create content.
15:07
and they're making the sales per the link in their bio. Very similar to Amazon. know, whatever it is we buy from Amazon, you have a link there. Like all the products that I use in terms of like software, like my favorite tripod, I have all of that listed from Amazon as an Amazon influencer. I just have it in my little bio link, right? And every time I go somewhere, people say, where'd you get that dress from? Where's the headband from? Right? And so instead of me just saying it came from this company,
15:36
I just put the link in my little tree there and then you just make a little bit, you know, like even if you're only making $10 per month, that's more than you were making in general because you don't have a product, right? But some people are making a significant amount of money just selling other people's products because they found a niche. like affiliate is kind of like TikTok shop, but it could be digital products. It could be courses. It could be consulting. It could be whatever you sell that you have affiliate program. Yeah. Yeah.
16:05
So when you say you put the link in your bio on TikTok, you have to have a thousand followers to have a link in your bio, is that correct? Yes. Okay, great. Before I move on, ask this next part of that question. When you're saying that you're dropping affiliate links, you're talking about like you have like one link in your bio, we click on it, and then you have your Amazon favorites, you know.
16:30
button in your link tree and then I click on that and I see where you got your address or something like that. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So very, you know, exactly the same way it would work on Instagram, except on Instagram, what I would say is if affiliate marketing is a huge thing for you, then you could start to use many chat, right? You could use the DM automation of like,
16:52
Oh, here's this dress and I know I'm, you everyone keeps asking me for it. So I could even create like an actual many chat automation about that one product. And it would be that direct a link to that product too. I wish TikTok had DM automation. that's what do for business accounts. They've been beta testing it for business accounts with many chat, but not those of us that have personal accounts, but I'm like, I'm not willing to switch yet. Yeah. Yeah. No, same, same. So in terms of.
17:21
just going back, because I'm sure there's going be people listening who are like, oh my gosh, I just want to have that link in my bio. How do we get them to a thousand followers? Like what, how many videos should they be creating? Like just, you know, I know that that could be a whole episode in and of itself, but what are some of those top tips to help people if they feel like they're stuck and they're not getting to those a thousand followers? Yeah. So one of the first things I always tell people is that we want a thousand people to follow us.
17:49
but we have to give a thousand people a reason to follow us, right? We have to remember that on the other side of the screen that they choose to follow an account because they see something, they see more of what we have and then something in them says, I want to experience more from this account every single day. So when we're trying to get that 1000 followers, you got to remember you're trying to appeal to 1000 people that want to see what you have every single day. That's the first thing.
18:15
The second thing is that you've got to figure out what exactly is your audience searching for? What do they enjoy consuming as it pertains to your content style or your niche on the TikTok platform? So one of my clients, she came to me, she joined my course and she said, successful to me is that at the end of this eight weeks, I have a thousand followers. I said, okay, well we got her a thousand followers in six days, right? Because what we had her do was I said, all right, what is your niche? Her niche is menopause.
18:43
And I said, okay, go to TikTok and do a quick search and just type the word menopause and look and find the top topic within menopause that everybody is watching currently that they're commenting on. And what she found, it was menopause periods, right? And so she thought that was a topic. So then she created a video talking about your period during menopause. Boom, a thousand followers from that one video. One, because her audience had already told her.
19:08
that this is what we wanna learn. And then when they found her video, they went to the rest of her content and said, oh, this is my new menopause lady. And they followed her account. So you want to one, create content that your audience is searching for, but also you have to make sure that that profile on TikTok, when they get there, that it tells them exactly the same thing that they watched. For example, if I have a video go viral because of my lipstick,
19:33
but then they go to my profile and I'm talking about cats. They're not gonna follow me because they came to me because of the lipstick. And then now this platform is all about cats, right? So you have to make sure that your platform is niched down into who you are and what you do, that your bio is optimized about who you are and what you do and who you do it for. And you have enough content there that makes people, they can consume and they wanna follow you. Does that mean you have to post multiple times a day? No, but you wanna at minimum have nine videos on your account.
20:03
that's three in each row, right? So if you have videos that are like 10 years old, you got to upload some new stuff because nobody's going to follow you knowing that you're not normally there. But you at least want to have three, three and three on in each row. That's within your niche that they would want to binge watch and say, yeah, I want to see more from this person.
20:20
And this is what I love about doing interviews with experts of different social platforms is that there's so much crossover between what you just shared with Instagram. And of course, my audience is used to me talking about Instagram to death, but it's the same thing in terms of, you know, sometimes people say, Elizabeth, I had this video pop off, but I didn't get any followers.
20:42
or it was just not the amount I expected. And it's usually because the video doesn't totally correlate with the niche or the audience. And sometimes that's OK. Like for me, I did a video a couple of weeks ago that went pretty big. It got over 200,000 views on Instagram. I think I got almost 70 followers from it. So it was good, but it wasn't. I've had videos with less views get me thousands of followers, right? So it wasn't like a huge like wow.
21:12
But the context was around like Chad GPT and Claude. Now, I talk about AI and leveraging AI and Instagram marketing, but that's not what the page is for. Like it's not positioned around AI. So if that video had gone viral for someone who literally teaches Claude co-work in every single video, I could have gotten probably thousands of followers from that video. that's just a good example of what Kenya just described,
21:40
You want to be mindful of how you're positioning your content. And for me, it was still very successful and it's okay for me to kind of push the edges of my content. And I play with that. And just like Kenya does, like, I love how you play with your stuff too. It's like, if we're going to be on here, we have to have some fun. We get tired of talking about the same things all the time. Right. So.
21:58
You can totally test things, but it is so much easier when you are really clear on your audience and your niche and it all adds up like a beautiful math equation, right? Like what you just described, the video, the nine posts, the bio, it all needs to tell the same story. Otherwise I'm confused and I'm leaving and I'm not going to follow you. Yep. That's exactly amazing. So we talked about TikTok shop as a revenue stream, affiliate marketing.
22:25
Let's talk about digital products, which you touched on a little bit. What kinds of digital products sell well or what have you seen? And then I think another question around this is like, do you have to have a massive following? You know, that's always a thing that people tell me is like, oh, I just don't have a big enough audience, right? So talk me through like, how do we know how to position our content for digital product sales and how does that even work? Yeah.
22:54
So in any platform, you don't have to have a large following to make a lot of money. It's like I always say, you don't have to have a million followers to make a million dollars. You have to sell a million dollars. You don't have to have a hundred thousand followers on TikTok to sell digital products. It's all about creating content that resonates with its particular audience that is looking for what it is that you have, right? So I watched this girl, she has this beginner's guide to Paris and it's $27 and she sold 4,000 of them. Now we don't even know she's ever been to Paris before.
23:23
We have no idea, right? But the way that she talks about it in her content makes you want to buy this beginner's guide to Paris, right? So I feel like it's the same selling a digital product on TikTok as it is on Instagram. You're creating content and you are calling out your audience, calling out the problem that they have. And you're saying, here's a solution, right? Or I didn't have this until I created that. Or my client was doing this until she had that, right? You're literally just.
23:51
calling out to your audience and sharing that you recognize they have a problem and what you have to offer is a solution. So it's the exact same where you are driving people to the link in your bio, of course, without saying link in bio because of content suppression. But in addition to that, and we'll talk about this a little bit later too, but livestream, I have watched so many people profit from their digital courses utilizing livestream, right? Because of...
24:18
you know, what you can do on live stream, which we'll talk about in a minute. But I always tell people when it comes to TikTok, I recognize that I'm going to get way more views on all of my content on TikTok than I am on, I'm going to get on any other platform. So I use TikTok as a lead generator. I'm not trying to sell my product right there on TikTok. And that's me on any social platform. I'm trying to make you aware that I exist and come into the funnel, right? So I'm trying to drive you to that link in bio somehow.
24:45
and get you to opt in either free or low ticket and then get you to the funnel. So my number one focus when I'm trying to sell any of my digital products is I'm not trying to sell my $1,500 course in these pieces of content. I'm trying to sell my $7 viral hooks, right? And then once you get that and get results, then I'll offer you the next level of things. And so I always tell people when you come to TikTok, don't make your main offer that big thing. You can, but get the leads and then you can nurture them from there.
25:14
Oh, that advice, that strategy is gold. So thank you so much for highlighting that for our audience, for our listeners, because I talk about this a lot too, is like the customer journey. And it's always one of those things where people get kind of stuck creating a lot of content. And then I'm like, what is the funnel, right? Like, let's say you create this piece of content and I'm your ideal person. Now what do you want me to do?
25:41
And if it's just jumping to the end of the line and buying a $3,000 offer or something, that's going to be tough. Like one of my private clients had a diamond jewelry store and it's like, you're not going to sell a $70,000 necklace in the DMs. Like you're not going to do that. But to your point, this content brings brand awareness and the key is lead generation. Like how do we get people into the funnel?
26:07
And that's where a digital product can be a great solution. So if you're listening and you're like, what is a digital product? What we're talking about is it could be a course, it could be a checklist, it could be an audio, like a private podcast. Do you want to give them some other examples of like digital products that work well? Yeah, so templates are great. When you've already created something and you're showing them how to do something and it's in like a template form, some people will call it an ebook. We used to think ebooks are dead, but ebooks are like starting to pop off again, just FYI.
26:37
Again, like you said, it could be like a quick audio, could be a quick video. What else is there? And you can package it. So sometimes I'll have a PDF guide, like my 400 hooks or whatever. And so when they get that, they also get like this little video training that goes along with it. Why? Because one, I want them to utilize what they've got, but I also want them to get used to seeing me talk and teach about what it is they just bought. And at the end of the video, I'm gonna sell them the next product. You know what I mean? So it could be a lot of different things.
27:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So thinking about the different ways you can get people off of these social platforms and into an ecosystem that you own. And another thought that just came through to me is some people who maybe don't have a digital product, maybe your next step is they book a free consult with you, right? Like a free breakthrough session or discovery call or something like that. So you just want to think about like, how do I get people's information so I can follow up with them?
27:31
nurture and drive conversions off of these platforms. Yeah. The one thing I will say is that like, it sounds kind of bad, but like, look at your competitors, compare what are their offers? What are their digital products? Don't recreate exactly what they got. But if you see they're selling something, look at it and determine like, what can you do similar to it? But also you literally can go to AI and you can say, I do X, Y, and Z. I'm trying to create my customer journey funnel.
27:57
Can you give me some examples of what I can create as a digital product? And AI is gonna give you a slew of things. That way you don't have to be a creative genius. You can just go, oh, I could do that, bam. Exactly, oh my gosh, that is brilliant. I love that, I love that. So we talked about revenue stream number one, TikTok shop. Number two, affiliate marketing. Number three, digital products. Let's transition and talk about TikTok Live and Service Plus. When you mentioned this in our pre-interview,
28:26
the whole service plus thing, was like, what the heck are you even talking about? So yes, bring us up to speed on TikTok Live to drive sales. When they first launched, as I said, I told y'all it was coming. So for the last years, TikTok and all the other platforms have never focused on coaches or consultants or helping us like get, generate leads for coaching and consulting. And so I knew that TikTok would do it at some point in time. And so they just launched the tool, I think it's been a year now.
28:54
and it's called Service Plus. And there's two sides of Service Plus. One, if you have a business account, most people do not, but I just want to highlight it. If you have a business account on TikTok, when you're live on TikTok, a little box will pop up during the live stream where they can fill out a form, their name, email address, and it's like right there in TikTok. Now, because TikTok already has your information, it pops up and it's already filled out. All you have to do is hit submit. So you can generate a ton of leads on a TikTok live stream, right? Right then and there.
29:23
Now, if you have a business account on TikTok as well, you can literally put a clickable link to like a product in your live stream, but most of us don't do that. But Service Plus lets you generate the leads. Now, most of us have a personal account on TikTok. And so once you use the Service Plus button on TikTok, a couple of things happen. One, when people come into your live stream, they'll immediately get an introduction. It'll say, to da da da da. And you can put in there to join me for this course, DM me the word.
29:52
whatever, right? The moment they come in, right? Then you can set up this little feature. like a little, they call it the service plus feature. It's like a little orange, like arrow or whatever. So if you're watching me on a live stream and you click on that little orange arrow, a box is going to pop up and it's going to say, if you want to join my three day challenge, type the word challenge here. And you immediately type the word challenge and it sends me a DM. Now it's not going to give you an automation like Manichat, but you'll at least have it right there.
30:17
inside your DM and you can see when people are actually inside of that DM, like they're, typing that where you can literally see how many people are doing it. And everybody on screen can see it as well. But in addition to that, TikTok lets you pin that for 30 seconds every five minutes it is. So every five minutes you can click on that little button and the box will pop up and then you can say, Hey, click here if you guys want to join me for XYZ course and so on, so on, so on, right?
30:43
And what I've experienced on a live stream, I'll get 20, 30, 40, a hundred leads on a live stream just from teaching and all that. And one, I can have my VA in my DMs immediately messaging these people back, right? You also can have what they call a moderator where someone has access to your TikTok live, where they can actually comment back to people during the live stream through Service Plus. And at the end of the live stream, Service Plus is gonna tell you, here's how many leads you got from this, right?
31:11
And the more people you get to get leads in that live stream, TikTok is going to push out your live stream even the more because they want more people utilizing the Service Plus feature and seeing it. So it's a really cool thing for coaches and consultants because we've never been able to like capture leads like that on TikTok, but Service Plus you can. Wow.
31:30
And I wanted to ask about, know that in the past when I would DM someone a link, it wasn't like a hyperlink. It wasn't like an alive link. It was like they would have to copy and paste it for it to work. Are the links now actually like clickable? Yes. So for the longest time it was not. And now I think it was a couple of weeks ago, I gave someone a link and I was like, this is a clickable link. Does that mean that everybody has access to it? I don't know. But I know that recently when I did it, I was like,
32:00
This link is clickable. Oh my God. And so there we go. Okay, cool. And so if you're a coaching consultant and you are doing a live stream, is the idea that it's kind of like a long form piece of content of education on your topic that would lead into your funnel or like if someone's listening, they're like, well, what would I go live about? Or what would I talk about? If they're feeling a disconnect between those two things, can you give them some structure about how to do a live?
32:30
So I do different things. So one, if I am just trying to get the lead to get into the funnel, then I'll choose a topic that I know is hot and then I'll teach on it and I'll tell them at the end, I'm gonna answer your questions. And so then throughout that whole, it's like I did a YouTube video, right? But I'm doing it live and I'm teaching and I'm answering questions and all that. But the whole time during it, I'm telling everybody, click here to get the, to do this and do that, so on and so on.
32:53
But I also have the green screen behind me that says click service plus that, that, that, that what they can see on screen to click this little button to get a DM or whatever. So when it comes to a live stream, one of the things that I do is a series. One is like, I may choose a topic and I teach and then I'll do Q and a second one. I may teach a little bit. And then I may do some live consulting where someone who asks a question, I can bring them up on, a video stream, or I can just literally consult with them right then and there on live. Now I do two things.
33:22
Right? If I am in a launch of a course, oh, you best believe I am selling that course on live. Right? But I typically do a series. So I made a beginning starting with like, for, cause if I'm in a launch of like 10 days, I'm going to be live for 10 days. And initially I'm teaching and teaching and I'm mentioning my course or I'm getting them into my funnel. But once I'm really into that launch, I am literally selling that course, like right there live with them. I'm not just trying to get them into the funnel. I am literally selling their live.
33:50
And then also I have an Apple Watch. And so the only notifications I get on my Apple Watch are calls, text messages, and PayPal, right? So that when I'm live, when somebody buys a product, it'll ding me and I can see their name and I'll say, this person just purchased da da da da. And I announced it on my live stream. That way it feels like QVC and live shopping. And it really helps because they can see, people are buying this. And I use that as like my kind of selling point. That is so fun. I love that.
34:18
So this is bringing up another question, which is there's been so much talk lately that like courses are dead. This idea of, know, we're in this trust recession and people aren't buying courses anymore, that there has to be some sort of like live element or live coaching with the coach or consultant. So I'm curious your take on that and kind of like where we're at in the market with that. I agree that what happened in 2020, everybody decided to become a coach.
34:48
And so people were making really bum courses or people were investing in lot of courses they actually never did anything or didn't have any success with it. So what I experienced was that most of my automated digital courses, they do okay. But when I give the course and a live experience with my community, I am getting way better results from that. But also my clients are getting better results when they have some type of aspect of me and
35:14
Honestly, it doesn't really take a whole lot because I'm doing a one hour a week with them and I want them to have success. I don't want to just make money. I want them to have success and I get to just really coach them along. Do I think people are still buying automated courses? Yeah, I think people are still buying automated courses. I still buy them like all the time, right? Especially from the right person, you know, I just think that if you're going to have a course, it's got to be good.
35:37
It just has to be good. You got to get results and you got to sell it because people aren't just going to buy just because you say so anymore. Yes. And what I loved about your live streaming strategy is that, I always say people buy people, not products or services. So if I'm watching you live stream every day and you're teaching me and I'm getting these little wins, I'm much more likely to know and trust you, of course, and want to easily just pay you for the course. Exactly.
36:05
Yeah, because I'm the same way. Like, I'm not going to buy somebody's anything, especially if they're coaching me, if I don't experience them. Like, I want to know, do you know your stuff? Is this regurgitated? You know, and people love that experience of like, this is a real person. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Question about because we're talking about coaches and consultants. So the service plus that is specifically for coaches and consultants. Is that something that can be leveraged for a product based business or that's not the right platform? I think that they have been
36:35
pushing it for coaches and consultants. But I think at this point, if anybody, think it's like 20,000 followers that I think anybody that has 20,000 followers can actually get that feature because they added me to a discord group and they keep pushing service plus for coaches and consultants. So I'm not a hundred percent sure about a product person. If I had to guess, I would say it's for coaches and consultants. But do I think that it would open up if not already to product base? Yes.
37:02
Got it. And right now you have to have 20,000 followers to access that platform. But sometimes they give it to you sooner. And also I forgot like the feature for people to be able to get a lead started with product based. that years ago, it's always been a thing for product based businesses. The service plus is new for the coaches. So I think that products are already always had it. It's just not called service plus. I think it's called something else. Yeah.
37:27
Got it. And of course, TikTok shop is very much positioned for products. So they probably are like, we've scratched that itch. Now we're trying to optimize for those service based business owners. That's really cool. Okay, fantastic. So moving on to our fifth revenue stream here, let's talk about brand partnerships. So you mentioned that you've made over $250,000 working with brands. How did that even start for you?
37:55
Yeah, so that was so new to me. Like when I first got started on TikTok, I got reached out to by Sugar Bear Hair Vitamins. I had no idea who they were, but everybody was like, Kim Kardashian uses them, whatever. So they offered me to send me the vitamins and they wanted me to create like a series of videos. It was like very, like $25. It wasn't very much at all, but I was like so excited. That was just like, whatever. But then once I made my first one, then they kept coming back and other brands kept coming back. And I've worked with so many people since then, but
38:24
One of the things I want companies I wanted to work for was TikTok. I was like, I'm teaching TikTok. I want to work with you guys. So I kept creating content and creating content and tagging them and tagging them. And they just never responded to me. Well, one October in 2021, I got an email from TikTok and they said, we're looking for the face of our holiday campaign and you're it. We'll pay you all these zeros to create 10 videos. I was like, what? Sold. And I was like,
38:52
everywhere, you know, and then since then I've worked with Vista Print and QuickBooks and Google and all these companies that they want a series of things. One, a company may want UGC, which is user generated content where they pay you to create the content. You don't have to post it. You give it to them and they get a set amount of time where they can run it as an ad. Well, I had a video, it took me 30 minutes and I made $12,000 from the video. I was like...
39:20
Okay, and then they ran it for a period of time. That was UGC. Then other times a brand like Vistaprint will say, well, you create the video, we'll pay you X amount of dollars and you have to post it and leave it there for this amount of time, right? Other times they may say, you do that and we want to run it as an ad. Or they'll also will say, do that, it as an ad and the link in bio for X amount of time. And the more that they ask for, the more you can increase the price of your ads from them.
39:47
And I have just found over the years where it's just like, I mean, people reach out to me on both of my accounts now for like, just for creating content and I get to choose what that price is. And one of the things I always tell creators is that if a brand wants to pay you to create content and they want to run it as an ad for extended period of time, you got to charge enough. Because for example, if PayPal comes to you and they say, want to run it as an ad, you're the face of PayPal.
40:13
for X amount of time. You can't work with Stripe or Visa or anybody else because you've been the face of PayPal. So you got to make sure that you make enough money to where if Visa comes along, you're not feeling some type of way that you can't get that deal. Yeah. So, okay. What I'm hearing you say for like all the beginner newbies out there who are curious about brand partnerships is that you started off small, right? Like you started off with just experimenting. Do I even like to create content for other companies?
40:41
I know a lot of people start with like an exchange of product, right? Like, we're going to give you this product in exchange for one video or something like that, or a small payment like $25 or whatever. And then I would imagine from there, you kind of decide if you enjoy creating that kind of content or if you want to do that. The more you do, essentially you're building your resume and then you start to attract bigger fish. Is that kind of like a simple way of describing how you did it?
41:11
Yeah, exactly. That's kind of like the account that I started last year to just be myself and not a social media strategist. I said, I want to be a beauty influencer. I'm not a beauty girl, but I was like, I'm going to be a beauty influencer. And so I recognize that nobody knew me on that account. Like that people know me as social media strategist, not for that. And so I started looking for like influencer marketing agencies where I could put my creative profile in there and then hopes that they will begin to send me like PR. I started to like pitch brands to get PR.
41:40
And my first one was like Good Molecules. And then it was L'Oreal. And then it was Maybelline. And they all started sending me these PR packages in exchange for me to just create a video. Well, as a result of that, that got me in front of other brands that wanted to actually pay me. And if my video did well from that PR, I could then go back to them and say, hey, this campaign was da-da-da-da, would love to work with you further, right? Because some of them are now like, hey, we want to send you free products and we want to run your video as an ad. And I'm like, well.
42:09
I'll take the free products and there is a rate for me to post so you can use this as an ad. So once you kind of get the end with them, then you can ask for more. Yeah, that's amazing. And do you have an agent or do you figure out like all of your own pricing and all of that yourself? So I do my own pricing. One of the things I always tell people about agents is that agents are good if you're making so much money from a collaboration or you have so many coming in that you can't handle it, right?
42:36
because if you're not making enough, one, they won't take you, right? Because they have to make a certain amount of money. And then if they do take you and they're getting a lot of money from you, then you're not actually getting the biggest benefit. So I haven't had an agent like ever, right? When the deals come in, I ask questions, I ask them what their budget is, and then I go from there with them. But also if I feel like I really don't know what to charge, I won't ask a friend and say, hey, what do you know about this particular brand or whatever.
43:04
But agents, it's not necessarily until you really have like way too many inquiries. Okay, that's good to know. That's good to know. Okay. And so I know we've done our five revenue streams. I want to quickly review those for our listeners. I know I'm a big fan of lists, so let's just go through them real quick. So we got TikTok Shop, Affiliate Marketing, Digital Products, TikTok Live and Service Plus, and finally Brand Partnerships.
43:31
So to kind of wrap this up, I know so many people are listening and their number one focus is on selling what's in their own business, right? So whether they're a coaching consultant or maybe one of my clients is a kombucha company owner and he's selling kombucha or an Etsy shop owner, a permanent jeweler, like where people are, their number one job is to increase revenue in their business. So I know we talked about in our pre-interview,
43:59
My husband has a roast to order coffee company called Duality Coffee, right? So he does whole bean coffee for those coffee nerds who actually care about where the beans came from and how the beans are sourced and they want the absolute freshest coffee, you know, that was roasted two days ago versus it's sitting on the shelf for weeks, okay? So with these people who are so focused on selling their own stuff, right?
44:27
Like how do we leverage TikTok to do that? And I know you've talked a lot about, okay, you need to know your niche, you need to know your customer. I'm wondering from more of like a content strategy, because I know that TikTok has a kind of a different vibe than Instagram. And I feel like Instagram is actually catching up to TikTok, I always tell people when they're like, oh, Instagram, it just has to be so perfectly curated. And I'm like, no, that was Instagram five years ago, right?
44:55
The raw, real, authentic, behind the scenes content is doing really well. But I would love for you to kind of like speak to that person who's like, okay, I wanna go on TikTok, but I get that question a lot of like, what goes over there versus like what goes on Instagram or like what is the crossover in terms of like the actual content that I should be creating to sell more of my own products and services? For me, I think it's pretty much the same.
45:20
Right? So all the content that I create, I created in my phone, I edit in CapCut, and then they all go on all the platforms. I'm not necessarily creating anything specific for Instagram, unless if I'm teaching something about Instagram, then I'll create it for Instagram and I'll post it on Instagram. If I'm creating something about TikTok, I'll create it on TikTok and I'll post it for TikTok. But if it's general video marketing monetization, it's filmed in my phone, it's edited in CapCut, and it's posted in the same place.
45:45
because I tell people that you got the same people. It's like, it's just humans who are watching, either they're choosing Instagram to watch content or they're choosing TikTok to watch content, right? It's just that a lot of times when we go to TikTok, we see so much comedy or the creativeness of things that we think that we have to be that. And you can if you want to, but you literally can be the same person that you are on Instagram, on TikTok. I just feel like TikTok gives people this unconscious permission to...
46:13
be a little bit more raw and real because they're like, well, my friends aren't here and my this and here and nobody's really checking for me here. So people feel like, oh, I can just be more loose here. But I feel like what happens with most people, most businesses is that once they find themselves being a little bit more loose on TikTok, then they become more loose on Instagram, right? That's like the girl who just did $1.2 million in her yap challenge. Most people do yapping on TikTok and now she just promoted it where she promoted it at.
46:42
And everybody knows about this $1.2 million yap challenge. You know what I mean? But the yapping was happening on TikTok first. So it's like, you don't have to do anything different. You just feel like it needs to be different, but it doesn't need to be different. But it's important to know that people on TikTok are not necessarily wanting this polished person. And on Instagram, they don't want it polished either. We just think they do because of how it was for a long time, but that's not necessarily.
47:11
what everybody's looking for anymore. They're looking for a real human being, being honest and genuine. And yeah, like I'm watching somebody make millions of dollars from their car, just literally from their car on Instagram and TikTok. We have to just reprogram ourselves of what we think it needs to be. But I would tell somebody if they're just getting started on TikTok to give them some permission. Like I always say there's this personality. We have this nine to five personality. Here's how we have to be.
47:38
whatever, whatever. And people think that that's how they have to be on Instagram or social media. Fine. If that's how you are on Instagram, fine. But TikTok says, who are you at 501? When you clock out, who are you? You're a lot more relaxed. You're talking to your friends. And TikTok is like, give us that person. Once you start being that person, that's going to end up translating everywhere else. And you're going to be amazed how it resonates with people. Oh, that is gold. That is gold. And it's so refreshing. It's like, guess what? You get to be...
48:06
yourself. You know, like that's what I love also about content creation is once you can start to feel less precious about each individual piece of content needing to mean so much to you and your business, once you can be in that energy of creative expression and just speaking to the camera and like I'm going to record myself speaking to the camera in my car every day for the next 10 days straight and I'm going to post it even if it's imperfect or I have filler words.
48:35
But just to get in motion, you guys, these platforms are so leveraged for us to show up as our authentic selves. And I find that the more I do that, the more I attract the right people into my sphere. So I hope that Kenia is like filling you up and you're feeling so excited about how you're gonna move forward with your TikTok, with your Instagram, with all of that.
48:58
Kenya, I know that our listeners are gonna wanna follow you on TikTok, on Instagram, all the places. And I know you also have a killer newsletter that you share every Thursday. So tell us about how they can follow you, how they can dive deeper with you. Yeah, so every Thursday I have a newsletter, it's called The Download, which I'm telling you, here's what's happening on social media today. So Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all the things. And so you can subscribe there. I think it'll be in the show notes, but it's like kengakelli.com slash newsletter, it's free.
49:25
but you can connect with me on TikTok, it's Kinga Kelly. That's my main account. The new fun account is Kinga Kelly Brand. And then I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, everywhere under my name, Kinga Kelly. I love it. And we will absolutely link all of your goods down in the show notes. So everyone go check that out. And Kinga, thank you so much for sharing your brilliance with our audience today. I so appreciate you, your time, your energy, and I appreciate you so much for being here.
49:54
Yay, thanks for having me. It was great. I hope you loved my conversation with Kenya Kelly today. Make sure you go give her some love on her social platforms. And if you learn something new from today's episode, do me a solid and share it with a business bestie or colleague who is also trying to understand TikTok, Instagram and haul all these different pieces, how they work together to help you monetize and grow your brand.
50:22
Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today. I'm sending you love and I can't wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to strut it. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're gonna wanna grab my free monetize your IG guide where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at Elizabethmarberry.com.
50:51
That's elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.
