Mastering Reels, Digital Products & Balance: Insights from Kenna Marie

In this episode of She Is Unstoppable, I'm sitting down with the inspiring Kenna Marie Silvestri, a photographer turned digital entrepreneur. Kenna shares her journey from growing her photography business to creating successful digital products and leveraging Instagram Reels to engage her audience and boost sales. Discover actionable tips on using trending audio, crafting compelling content, and balancing entrepreneurship with family life. Whether you're a creative or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is packed with inspiration and strategies to help you thrive.

Transcript

[00:00:00.230] - Kenna Silvestri

We doubt ourselves when we take the leap to do something new, like raise my prices. We doubt ourselves even when we take that first real and post it. And even when I started getting all of those notifications and 200,000 is still a lot of people when I have 2600 followers. And I wasn't expecting it. So when I started getting those notifications, I was doubting myself again, even though it was happening right in front of my eyes. And I was like, me, they're commenting on my reel, they're sharing my reel, they're saving my reel. And so I was like, okay, this is really great. This must be resonating with people. And that just, you know, sparked a new realm of creativity and motivation in me.

[00:00:42.650] - Deanna Hinsz

Welcome to She Is Unstoppable, the podcast for ambitious women ready to break free from the 9 to 5 and build a life and business they love. I'm your host, Deanna Hinsz, digital marketing strategist, entrepreneur, mentor, and a woman who took the leap from corporate life to full time entrepreneurship and never looked back. I've been where you are, and now I'm passionate about showing you how to build and scale a business that works for you. In each episode, we dive into actionable tips, inspiring stories, and real strategies to help you grow your business, boost your confidence, and create unstoppable momentum. Whether you're just starting out or ready to elevate to the next level. You're in the right place. Let's get started.

[00:01:31.080] - Deanna Hinsz

Well. Hello, Kenna. I am so excited to have you back on I. You are one of my favorite guests. I might be biased.

[00:01:38.730] - Kenna Silvestri

Thank you. I'm excited to be back on. I love talking about this stuff.

[00:01:42.330] - Deanna Hinsz

I know it is so exciting and so cool. And I've been watching you and I am just blown away by everything that's happening in your life right now and on social media. It's just really cool to sit back and watch and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I want to be like, Kenna Marie, stop?

[00:02:02.040] - Kenna Silvestri

I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just winging it every day.

[00:02:05.610] - Deanna Hinsz

Isn't that what we all do as entrepreneurs? But.

[00:02:09.000] - Kenna Silvestri

But thank.

[00:02:09.510] - Deanna Hinsz

You every. Oh. You're welcome. Before we dig into everything, can you just introduce yourself and exactly what you do?

[00:02:16.230] - Kenna Silvestri

Yes. So I'm Kenna. Most of my accounts, you'll see Kenna. Marie, which is my middle name. I have a photography business, so I promote that a lot on social media, and I'm mainly a family motherhood photographer. I consider myself so that's kind of my target audience, the people I market to. Um, and I've been doing that for eight years. So after so much time, I kind of just wanted more in my business. I wanted I knew that I knew a lot, and I knew that there were other photographers out there that were just starting or wanted to start. Um, and so I actually had some local friends who were wanting to be photographers come and ask me questions. I had just a few people through social media DM me and ask me questions. So I was like, I think I could put information out there that could help other people. And I kept seeing all these posts on online, on social media about digital products. And so I bought this course and I learned how to create and sell a digital product.

[00:03:12.040] - Kenna Silvestri

So I started doing that on my photography business page and it was pretty successful. Not like overly successful, but for I sold a low ticket product and it made me a little over $500 in just a couple of months. So I was like, okay, this works. And so the course that I bought was actually a course that you could resell to other people. It's what they call MRR. So then I decided after a few months of sitting on it, researching to start an account for that course, and now I sell that course and some other low ticket items, and then I give away some free guides as well that teach you how to, like, monetize social media through your reels and stuff like that.

[00:03:52.570] - Deanna Hinsz

It's so cool to hear that whole journey, right? You started off as a photographer, which you're still a photographer, and You started to learn how to market your business better, and you took some courses and you really were you were nailing it. In fact, I remember a year ago, you. It appeared to be a year ago. You can correct me if I'm wrong. It looked as if you leveled up. You you were like, okay, it's time to increase my prices. It's time to maybe lose clients. Not that you want to, but you were prepared to in order to serve your ideal client and your whole marketing strategy completely changed. Yep. And and then I look like a whole year later. Right now we're at the the end of 2024, beginning of 2025. And it looks so different for you. It looks so different.

[00:04:47.860] - Kenna Silvestri

And it was so scary to take that leap. I was so scared. I really thought I would lose a lot of people. But now like my bookings are consistent. So I mean they were always consistent, but they're consistent with like, more of my target market. I guess you could say. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:06.080] - Deanna Hinsz

So you do a lot of reels, and I'm really curious what inspired you to focus on reels as part of your content strategy?

[00:05:15.530] - Kenna Silvestri

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know if I was prepared for that. I think just seeing everybody, I think just seeing how much other successful entrepreneurs on social media created reels and they were finding success. I just kind of thought, well, maybe this is what I have to do to in order to get my content seen. And so I started creating, creating a few reels for my photography business, and I think they were more so just geared towards my clients. At first I was just creating reels for like my, like my portfolio of products basically. So the pictures that I was taking marketing purposes to get more clients, it wasn't for my digital products, and I saw a decent amount of engagement with those reels. So then, of course, when I came out with my first digital product for my photography business. I just started creating reels around that product to get even more engagement and views on my page, and it ended up working. So then after you see that when it works, you kind of just go full force and you're like, well, I'm just going to keep doing this.

[00:06:19.000] - Deanna Hinsz

Right. Why change it if it's working for you?

[00:06:21.850] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. Yep. And then you, you know, once you do that and you learn a little bit more, you start to learn. Okay, now I'm creating reels, which is what I have to be doing. But then what keywords do I have to be putting in there. Where do I have to have my text on screen? Like, what do my captions have to look like? Like and then it just goes deeper and deeper. So as you're creating, you're just learning and your reels are getting better and better. And yeah, it's a cycle. Okay.

[00:06:46.180] - Deanna Hinsz

You just you just touched on some really good questions that I'm going to ask you. But before I get into asking you about that whole strategy and how to format it and what those keywords look like when you're first video hit 200,000 and it was the first time you were experiencing that.

[00:07:04.440] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah.

[00:07:05.010] - Deanna Hinsz

What was what did that feel like?

[00:07:07.440] - Kenna Silvestri

I was like, I mean, this is so, you know, we doubt ourselves when we take the leap to do something new, like raise my prices. We doubt ourselves even when we take that first real and post it. And even when I started getting all of those notifications and don't get me wrong, like I wouldn't, that's not a viral real. I think viral reels are like when it hits a million or more. So I have not had a viral real yet, which I would love, but 200,000 is still a lot of people when I have 2600 followers and I wasn't expecting it. So when I started getting those notifications, I was doubting myself again, even though it was happening right in front of my eyes. And I was like, me, they're commenting on my reel, they're sharing my reel, they're saving my reel. Like I had like over 20 saves. And I was like, what? Someone's going to come back, someone likes this enough that they're going to come back.

[00:07:55.470] - Kenna Silvestri

And so I was like, okay, this is really great. This must be resonating with people and that just, you know, sparked a new realm of creativity and motivation in me.

[00:08:07.490] - Deanna Hinsz

So it obviously I agree with you, right? Like it had to resonate with people in some way in order for it to go viral. But let's be honest, right? We are all, as content creators, are always trying to create that real, that carousel, that post, that story, something that resonates. And it's hard to get them to pay attention because it's just so quick. Right? Yes. So but I know that you've implemented a few things to really boost those reels and to really grow your audience and not so much grow your audience, because I don't I don't think it's so much about the number of followers you have. It's more about like the revenue you're making, the impact you're making on people. I'd rather have 500 followers that are my ideal client. Yeah. and 5000 followers that are my ideal client. But that's. Yes.

[00:09:03.460] - Kenna Silvestri

But they're not your ideal client.

[00:09:05.500] - Deanna Hinsz

Exactly right. This is not my ideal client. Yes. So hold on. I don't think the number matters, but you're creating content that resonates, and. And I'm laughing because I can, I can hear. Yeah, I can hear your. The boys and the doorknob. The doorknob. Yeah. And and if you're watching this on video, the the mom look over like what? Yeah.

[00:09:30.640] - Kenna Silvestri

They might come back. I'm not sure.

[00:09:32.410] - Deanna Hinsz

That's okay. That's. You know what? That's what, being an entrepreneur. And you're doing this right? Because you're you're a mom and you're working. And why are you doing. Let me ask you, like, why did you start creating these digital videos?

[00:09:47.500] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. Why did I create my my reels or my.

[00:09:49.750] - Deanna Hinsz

The digital the digital products. Yeah.

[00:09:51.790] - Kenna Silvestri

To create extra revenue and semi-passive income. While I could spend more time with my family, I think that's, you know why most of us get into digital products or making money online, because it is so much of a semi-passive income thing. And I say semi-passive because it's you have to put in the work to like market yourself or market your product. So you're still putting in work, but it's the the amount of work you put in to market that product on social media. If you were to compare it to like a 9 to 5 and the amount of time you like sit at a desk, it's like really not comparable. It's truly semi-passive. And that allows me to have an income coming in, whether it's big or small, whether it's, you know, filling up my gas tank or paying my mortgage for the month, it allows me to make that income while I'm spending time with my family, and it just takes a little bit of weight and stress off my shoulders to not be so paycheck to paycheck.

[00:10:46.250] - Kenna Silvestri

You know? Not that I'm rolling in the dough, but I don't feel stressed living paycheck to paycheck anymore because I have this extra income.

[00:10:53.840] - Deanna Hinsz

Yeah, I love it. And that's so important to have that extra stream of revenue coming in that's, you know, supplementing what you're making normally. So I think that's really cool. So let's get back to these reels. And the when you're doing this right. And I want to know exactly how you do it. Like your strategy behind it. Because creating reels takes a lot of time. Yeah. But you make it look so easy. So how do you find the time?

[00:11:21.150] - Kenna Silvestri

I know that's so funny because I think that about other creators, too, and it does take a lot of time. But I found that if I one take B-roll whenever I can. So I bought a tripod, which is a game changer because just to have your phone somewhere, you don't have to set it up, you don't have to hold it. You could just be hands free, put it on the tripod, press record and do what you are normally doing, whether that's like, I should be recording myself right now, but I didn't.

[00:11:50.190] - Deanna Hinsz

But we should be, right.

[00:11:51.750] - Kenna Silvestri

When you're doing a podcast with somebody, record yourself. If you're cleaning up your kitchen, record yourself. If you're like, I recorded myself picking up the boy's toys, putting the coats away, washing my face like anything that I could take B-roll doing. I do it and I save it in my library. And I kind of look at making reels as, like, steps. So like that way I'm not overwhelmed with doing everything at once, you know, make creating, recording the video, creating the video, making the caption, making sure my keywords are in there, all that stuff. I kind of do that in steps. So I'll take B-roll and then at some point I'll put that together into a video form when I find an audio that I like. And then if I have time right then and there, I'll write the caption, I'll put my text on my video. If I don't, then I save it as a draft. I come back to it maybe a few hours later the next morning, and I finish it up, and then I either schedule it or I post it right then and there.

[00:12:41.610] - Kenna Silvestri

So I found that like creating in steps helps me a lot with easing the stress of oh my gosh, this takes so much time because it does.

[00:12:49.890] - Deanna Hinsz

That makes so much sense. Just building that library of short little clips, video clips of what you're doing anyhow. Like that's a huge game changer. Yeah, but now you're ready to create this reel, right? And you said you were looking for different audios. Yeah. So do you look for what's trending or do you just create your own. What do you do.

[00:13:10.510] - Kenna Silvestri

Both. Well I don't create my own. I have in the past, but that also adds on more time. So I would love to do that.

[00:13:18.040] - Deanna Hinsz

Be honest.

[00:13:18.700] - Kenna Silvestri

No, I would love that is a goal one day, but right now I don't have that kind of time. So I use trending audios or so if you I'm learning this as well. But a few things that I'm learning is if you have like a business creator account, this is a little a little trick of the trade that I just learned, which you might many people might know. You could go to your professional dashboard. So if you're on your profile, you have that little button that says Professional Dashboard. It shows you all your insights. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, there's a little line that says trending audio. And Instagram gives you trending audio as a business as a creator account that you could use so you don't have to go searching for it now.

[00:13:54.850] - Deanna Hinsz

Oh that's awesome.

[00:13:55.720] - Kenna Silvestri

Sometimes they're really great. Sometimes they don't fit you. You don't use them. You do. You know, you just have to sift through them. But another thing that I found was also following people that I'm kind of in the same niche as, and going through their reels and seeing which one of their reels have gone viral and using that audio and almost like the same messaging that they have, um, to help my reels kind of get the same engagement. Um, and then another thing that I found with the audio is you want to find trending audio, find the ones that have been used like 7000 times or less. And when you click on those trending audios, it'll pull up like all the reels that have been made with that audio. And so you can see on the reels like if they went viral or not, if they hit a million views. So a tip that I learned, somebody told me was that you want to use reels that have like 7000 or less views and that have 2 to 3 viral hits and then use that.

[00:14:51.380] - Deanna Hinsz

Okay.

[00:14:51.920] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. So I've been trying. It's kind of hard though. Like it's hard to find that. But you can find it. They are out there. And so I've been trying to focus on that. But also I do want to get content out there. So I don't do that every day. I probably do it like two times a week that I actually find a real like an audio like that. But yeah, that's a tip that I try to use for my audios.

[00:15:15.320] - Deanna Hinsz

I love that tip. I mean, yeah, even if you put aside like an hour or whatever a week and just kind of look, research, label it, then, you know, when you go back and you're creating them, I love that. Like that's like another huge time saver is just kind of like when you've got downtime prepare. Yep. Save it up and then build it all together. So now we're going to build this right. You've got your audio and you've got your video that you created. And now you're actually putting the reel together. Do you typically always put text over your reel.

[00:15:48.500] - Kenna Silvestri

Yes. Because I always want I know I get pulled in by what reels normally by what they say. Occasionally I'll get pulled in by the vision of the video of the reel with no text. But normally, like if I'm looking for something, I get pulled in by the text that I see on the reel, and I know many other people do too. So I try to create a hook right then and there on my reel or something. That will just hit an emotional point in somebody where they will want to keep watching to find out more. So yeah, I almost always I think I always put text over reels.

[00:16:24.900] - Deanna Hinsz

And is there any key like where to put it or how to.

[00:16:29.400] - Kenna Silvestri

Put it? So this is another thing that I recently learned, which was interesting because before I was kind of creating my reels and putting my text wherever on the screen. But once you're about to post your reel on Instagram, there's a little tab at the top. It says profile. It's either Profile view or profile Grid, and if you click on that, it'll show you what your reel looks like on your profile. When you click on that, you want to make sure that your text is within view of whoever's coming to your profile. You want to make sure that it's not too high. It's not too low. You know it's not over to the left, to the right, too small. When people go to your profile, you want them to be able to see that little snippet and see the text that's on your reel. And that way it can maybe pull them in and they'll click on it if they resonate with what it says.

[00:17:12.870] - Deanna Hinsz

That's so important to do, because the worst thing, I cannot stand it as if I'm I'm scrolling and something gets my attention. And their words are actually at the very bottom where when you're watching it, the the words from the post is over, the words on the video, and then you can't read what they wrote on the video. It's like, why do you put it there? Yes. So yeah, so that's such a good tip to make sure that it's in the center and that that tool is available for you to look at it and view it. Yeah. You do something. You take your reels a step further, which I personally love, but you use email also to just keep that momentum going with your reel. How do you do that?

[00:17:58.060] - Kenna Silvestri

Listen, Andy, you've inspired me in this area because I didn't always do this. And I just recently started implementing this in the last two. Well, last month, I would say honestly or two months, it probably going on two months, but I have already seen sales from it on my photography business side with my digital products. So I know that it works, but I basically, um, you know, I have a call to action to my free product when people download my free product, of course, that gets them on my email list. And then from there, if they didn't purchase my paid product, because in my free product, I always have a link to my paid product as well in case they're going through and they want more, they could automatically get it, but if they don't automatically get it, I have an email sequence that sends out, and right now I think I'm only at like three emails for one of my products, two email follow ups for another product. But I'm getting there.

[00:18:51.460] - Kenna Silvestri

Um, yeah. So yeah, I'll send email follow ups after that. I'll kind of throw in like asking how they liked it, giving more tips, talking about my paid product.

[00:19:02.180] - Deanna Hinsz

So yeah, I love hearing that because, you know, I'm a huge advocate for email. Yeah, yeah, email is so important. And you know, right now we we kind of hear what's going on with TikTok. And in January they're going to find out if they're going to be banned or not banned. And I mean, this is so perfect to make sure that you've got your email list. Because just say TikTok does get banned or Facebook or Instagram goes down or whatever. How are you going to reach that audience? Yeah. So it's like, do the work now and build that email. So I love hearing that. Not only that, you are using email on there, but that you've seen a return. You you recognize that. Oh my gosh. Yes. This is this is so cool.

[00:19:46.400] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah yeah. And I totally attribute that to the real like for my photography account at least I totally attribute that to my reels reaching the right people for them to download my free product. And that's exactly how I built my email list for my photography account. It's really like no other way other than my reels on Instagram.

[00:20:09.690] - Deanna Hinsz

Yeah, I love it though. But that's perfect, right? Yeah, because I love that. And it's so important that you're doing to do that. So that's super cool. And those reels are getting it. Now you have a guide also right about reels that it's free. So you're going into even more tips than what we talked about today. Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:20:31.860] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. So it's called the Ultimate Reels Guide. And I sell it on my business page where I promote like my digital marketing, digital products, how to make money online. I sell a course on there called Digital Wealth Academy. But my free product on that page is the Ultimate Reels guide, which actually some create, like content creators will sell a product really similar to this, but I was giving this away for free to kind of bring people in, to just show them like how good the content, like my paid content is. But also, I totally believe in reels, like, I'm a very big advocate for using reels to reach people for whatever you want to draw them in for. And so I just am giving this away. It's one of my free products, but it's called the Ultimate Reels Guide, and it just goes into more detail of what you need to do to create those reels that will then convert into engagement on your page, people signing up to your email list and even convert into sales.

[00:21:32.560] - Deanna Hinsz

Yeah, I need to get that. Yeah. Anyway, to simplify, I'll be signing up. So yeah, one question before I let you go. But if somebody is listening right now and they're like, okay, I haven't really done reels, I'm listening to Kenna and I should probably do it. Like, what's one thing they should focus on to make it effective?

[00:21:56.010] - Kenna Silvestri

This is like you hear this once you get into like the digital, like the social media real world, you hear this a lot. But a lot of creators say, put your blinders on. And this has helped me a lot because like I said in the beginning, like it's intimidating to put yourself out there to post a video of your face on your reels. And so I would just say to put your blinders on, keep your goal as your like end point, your vision point, and why you're doing it in the first place. And just like run towards that. Don't worry about like what your mom is going to think because your mom doesn't understand the day. You know, she might not understand the digital age that we live in and how impactful creating a reel could be. Your grandma, whoever it is your dad who thinks social media is like the worst. Like, I'm just saying, I'm just like.

[00:22:45.570] - Deanna Hinsz

You're not speaking from personal, right? Really? Like your family.

[00:22:50.640] - Kenna Silvestri

Or like your loved ones know I understand, influence you a.

[00:22:53.430] - Kenna Silvestri

Lot, and they could almost scare you out of, like, advancing to a place where you could just, like, thrive in. And that kind of held me back a while. But like I would just say, put your blinders on and start recording yourself and anything that you're doing that's, you know, worthy to put on the internet that you'd be fine putting on the internet. Make a decision if you want to show your kids faces or not and stuff like that, and then just start creating little by little. Like I said, take it step by step. Take the videos. Save them in an album on your phone so you have all your content right there. Then when you have time, maybe find a trending audio and put your video to that audio, see if you like it. If you like it, put some text over the screen. Make your caption. Either that save it as a draft. If you can make your caption right then and there, do it. If not, make it the next morning and like, don't put pressure on yourself.

[00:23:41.350] - Kenna Silvestri

Just put one reel out there to start and see how it does. And I shouldn't even say that, because even if it doesn't do good, like you need to give it a little bit of time. I heard somebody say one time, like, if you're starting a new account, give yourself till you get to 100 posts to then decide like if you need to make drastic changes or I don't want to say the word quit, but like either quit or pivot your marketing strategies or something like that. 100 posts is a lot, so but don't put pressure on it. Like my my posts that I had 200,000 views on was probably only like the ten or less like within the 10th post of me actually promoting my digital products with my reels. So you never know when something's going to take off, but you're never going to advance if you don't start and start practicing.

[00:24:35.780] - Deanna Hinsz

Yeah, that's such good advice. All those different pieces of advice are just so good, and I can absolutely relate to put the blinders on because yeah, Jason is anti social media.

[00:24:46.610] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah.

[00:24:47.270] - Deanna Hinsz

And I am like well that's what's kind of bringing extra money. Yeah.

[00:24:51.800] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. Which I get which I get even.

[00:24:54.800] - Deanna Hinsz

I do get.

[00:24:55.310] - Speaker 4

Even as.

[00:24:55.790] - Kenna Silvestri

Creators, it could suck us in and we could play the comparison game and it could, you know, alter our mood. And so you really have to make sure you're level headed every day when you're posting, making sure you're confident in what you post, confident in what you're selling. That way, if somebody that you love comes up to you and is questioning you about it, you could talk about it with passion. So and also like be yourself because people could kind of see when you're being phony, you know. So which is also hard to do. It's easy to post a video that isn't really like you just to get that content out there. So it takes a lot of intentionality to be yourself and make sure you're posting videos that are like you, right?

[00:25:36.380] - Deanna Hinsz

Yeah. You know, and it sounds so simple and so common sense, but it's so not. Yeah. So I'm glad you shared that because it's really hard when you're on social media to not be influenced by everything else that you're seeing. So I am super grateful that you just said that, because I know somebody's feeling that. But it is like I didn't realize that's what I was feeling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Finally. How can our where can our listeners follow you to learn more about Ken Emory?

[00:26:05.640] - Kenna Silvestri

Yeah. So if you're a photographer, you could follow me on Ken Emery Photography on Instagram. And there's two Ys at the end because the other username was taken. So it's Emery Photography with two eyes. And then if you want to get my Ultimate Reals guide, which I highly recommend, it's on my other account which is at hello Ken Emery. So pretty simple. And then you could just go to that link in my bio, download the Reals guide. And I tell people all the time that I'm always available in the DMs for further support or guidance because we're all on this journey together. So I'm happy to share what I've learned. And you know, it's great to just have a community where you can bounce ideas off of.

[00:26:42.630] - Deanna Hinsz

Oh my gosh, yes it is. It absolutely is. And I know I'm always sending you stuff, text and email going review this. Look at this same thing. And it is it's so important to have that. Well Ken, thank you so much for coming on. I love obviously talking to you. Yes, but you're just I just see everything you're doing, and it's amazing. So. Thank you.

[00:27:05.140] - Speaker 4

Yeah. You're welcome.

[00:27:06.160] - Kenna Silvestri

Thanks for having me on. It's always fun being here and talking even more than we do.

[00:27:10.510] - Deanna Hinsz

Oh, and at the very end, we get a little surprise.

[00:27:12.910] - Speaker 4

We get a visitor, we get a shout out, everybody. We'll see you next week. Bye bye.