We had the good fortune of connecting with Christy Nguyen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christy, what do you attribute your success to?

It was 2020 and my sister in law who is a social media influencer convinced me to create a TikTok account and share my recipes. She has been an influencer for the past decade and I’ve seen how much success she has had, but I wasn’t confident that I could follow in her footsteps. I gave myself a 2-3 month timeline to get my page up and that if I didn’t gain traction in that timeframe, I would give up. I already had a full time job and this was going to consume more time from my family that I didn’t have to give. The most important factor behind my success was determination and consistency. I filmed 8-10 recipe videos every weekend for 3 months and stayed up late nights editing my videos in order to post twice a day for the first 30 days. This was my strategy to grow my page. I had a lot of support from my family during the first 3 months. It’s important to have people in your life that support you and believe in you.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Aside from creating recipe videos, I still work full time as Manager of a medical manufacturing company. I’ve been a my current job for the past 20 years and I’m also married with 3 kids. I have always worked full time and the one thing I wanted was to be a stay at home mom and raise my kids but that was very difficult to live off one income in Southern California. My plan was to continue to work so that my husband and I could provide for the family and give our kids the childhood we didn’t have. Our parents were refugees from Vietnam and Laos so we didn’t have much growing up. We wanted to give them what we didn’t get growing up, such as playing sports, joining boy scouts, dance class, etc. These small things that seem so normal today is something that we didn’t experience because our parents didn’t know how to get us involved and wouldn’t have been able to afford.

When I decided to start social media, I knew that time was not something that I had but I knew that I had a goal. The goal was to work really hard for the next few years in hopes to not have to work as much in the years after. I knew what I wanted my future to look like but I also knew that I would reach it faster if I worked harder. My friends and family encouraged me to share my recipes online because I was already doing it on my personal page so I took a chance and listened to their suggestion. When I first started, I had put in so much time that I was dreaming about work! I went in with 110% and gave myself a timeline of what I hoped to accomplish. Fast forward and I’ve been doing social media now for almost 3 years and I am still working my full time job. The journey has been long but it’s also been rewarding. I’ve learned to put myself out of my comfort zone and opened up to being vulnerable. The lessons I’ve learned is that if you work hard and don’t give up, you will eventually find something that works for you. I’ve also met some really great people through social media that have become some of my closest friends. It’s extremely important to surround yourself with people who support you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am homebody. I love low key restaurants, walking around shopping with my friends with no agenda. My idea of having fun with my close friends is meeting up for dinner and Din Tai Fung and chatting for 2 hours. Run to Starbucks after for our favorite drinks and then walk around the mall or shopping center just catching up. I enjoy the time being together and not the activities we do. This may sound boring to some people but it’s perfect for someone like me who already had a hectic week working and shuffling my kids from school and sports.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success was not something I achieved alone. I had the ongoing support from my family, friends and my sister in law who believed in me. My sister in law provided a lot of guidance since she is an influencer herself. She shared a lot of tips, ideas and helped me through my first collaborations. She taught me how to edit, when to strategically post videos and answered a lot of questions that I had! I also became close friends with a few new influencers which helped so much because we were able to give each other support and learn things along the way together as new creators.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christycooks_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077726531986

Other: TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@christy.cooks

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.