We were lucky to catch up with Keely R. recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Keely thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
From as long as I could remember, I’ve always wanted to be a dancer. But it wasn’t until I discovered Kpop/The Kpop dance community on Instagram, that I really found a new love and meaning for dance. It was also at a Kpop dance competition. My first time performing something by myself. When I got done dancing, I felt “I should really find a way to make a living out of this” it’s a dream of mine.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
It all started in highschool. Freshmen year. I got into Kpop (Korean Pop). I would always teach myself dances I saw on YouTube or the TV show dance moms when I was younger because I loved to dance. But when I saw how they danced in Kpop, I was instantly hooked. One day in gym class, I was telling an old friend of mine that I saw normal people like me, on Instagram doing covers of the dances that these K-idols did. Later that week I decided to make my own Instagram page. After many trial and errors, I finally decided to come up with the username Keokly. I made covers of all my favorite songs all in the comfort of my sunroom,and I was really loving it. I remember getting my first follower, I was so happy! As time went on, I would constantly challenge myself by learning harder dances and it definitely made a difference I was getting better at dancing. Fast forward I hit my first 10K then 20K etc. I was getting sponsorships and free gifts to promote things on my page, I even got to take dance lessons from some K-idols and choreographers at one point through a program called EDKPOP (now Keens Academy). I’d say, 2019-2022 was my prime! Instagram started to pay creators that posted reels at some point and those were the best years ever! Although that has retired, it is still fun to post reels. Till this day, I’m still making content on my sunroom and I hope to someday make a living out of dancing.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
People enjoying my content! Whether it be my dance covers or my comedy bits, I love making people laugh and inspiring them to want to dance or learn how to dance!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Consistency, hard work, dedication and patience. That is the recipe for a successful social media page, Amongst other niche specific things, like for me would be, dancing to songs that are trending at the moment, using the right hashtags, dressing like the idols for your covers, which I love to do! Dressing up is so much fun and adds life to your videos! Plus having a nice spacious area to dance in with good lighting. Make friends on there who have the same interests as you, interact with your followers and most importantly, Be.Your.Self. If you pretend to be something you’re not, it’ll only become exhausting and you’ll burn out.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keokly/