Today we’d like to introduce you to Yen Pham.
Yen, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
This is sort of lengthy but I feel like it might help some people who are interested in pursuing their creative passion projects, so here goes!
During the end of my senior year in high school, I decided to create a food Instagram to post all the food pictures I kept on my camera roll that weren’t really being put anywhere. I loved trying different food places in my area back in Houston and used my Instagram as a medium to share recommendations and places where people should eat. My friends from my high school were super supportive of my account and would cheer me on. It honestly just started off as something fun and a way for me to be creative in a way.
I moved to UT Dallas for college back in August 2018 and from that, was able to get more content to post. Dallas was such a cool city with a unique and incredible culture, and I was excited to explore what was out there in a city that was entirely new to me. All the different cities were close to one another and close to campus, so it was a lot easier for me to explore and see more of DFW.
I explored a lot of great food places around the Dallas area with my friends. My family from UTD Filipino Student Association and I would eat and talk about life pretty often and they showed me some great places! I would always bring my good friends along with me to explore the different restaurants put on around DFW. One of my good friends Wilbur had lived in Dallas for some time now, and as a Yelp Elite, he knows A LOT about what’s cool in Dallas (I think hanging out with him really showed me a lot of the DFW Metroplex and where the best places to eat and visit are). He also took me to several of his Yelp Elite events my first year that got me interested in the Yelp community!
At that point, I was now uploading a lot to where I grew a pretty consistent and supportive following around second semester! Beginning of my second semester, too, I started to grow an interest in filming the behind the scenes of different foods after having seen some cool videos online, as well as getting feedback from my audience on what they would like to see.
With that goal, I began to reach out to businesses I was interested in partnering with to film and take photos of. One of the quotes that’s really motivating to me is “If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no,” and that I told myself when I reached out to some businesses that seemed really cool to get to know. This way of living has led me to some of the coolest opportunities. Each message helped me work with some of the most awesome people, and the worst thing I could’ve really dealt with was just flat out rejection (which is never really bad at all). I would go to different restaurants or pop-ups, talk to the business owners or managers, learn about their business journeys, and how the food can be made.
For example, I was able to reach out to Momo Shack Dumplings sometime last year. They’re a pop-up business selling momos started by a group of students at UTD. It was so awesome getting to meet people who were just students like I am, and they were the most down-to-earth and caring people! Momo Shack is also another supportive group of people to my page; they still continue to like and comment on my posts to this day. About a month ago, I went to another pop-up and got to see them again and we hung out and talked! It’s connections I’ve made that have stayed to this day that are really meaningful to me.
Along with that, conversations where I get to dig deeper into the stories and journeys of different people that I would have never met otherwise, made all the work so fulfilling. I believe the human heart desires to know and be known; that I really try to apply that into everything I do in life. I want to get to know others deeper and help people along the way in whatever way I can.
Through talking to many business owners, I grew an even greater understanding of how local businesses appreciate all the word-of-mouth and online posts they can get! With that, I then grew a greater interest in sharing the various businesses’ stories and how they each came to be. I’m working on focusing my work on that at the moment too. I think sharing these stories can help people see that these local starters are not that far off than us than we’d think. It takes A LOT of hard work to start a business from the ground up and plan things to help it continue thriving. Marketing is just a part of that, and if I’m able to help them in that way with my resources, then I should!
Just recently during the summer, I thought of using rebranding my platform for not just sharing what there is to eat around the area, but also add on what there is to do in Dallas to: 1) help people see that there are cool things to do in Dallas besides just eating; 2) people who host events and pop-ups are also just as hard-working individuals and deserve just as much promotion and recognition.
People that I’ve met in college have also been very supportive of this passion project of mine, and I always think about how grateful I am for that. For example, my good friend Bella worked as an orientation leader for my university over the summer, and whenever incoming UTD students or people heading to Dallas would ask her for recommendations on what to do/eat in Dallas, she would point them to my Instagram. Little things like that have helped me grow and work harder. I’m truly grateful.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve been really fortunate to not have dealt with harsh or unsupportive people in the time I’ve done my Instagram page, so that has been really smooth.
More so, getting the hang of managing social media in a way that is appealing to my main audience and executing creative ideas were both things I had to learn steadily. I wanted to carry out a lot of the creative visions I had for Instagram content. I wanted to learn how to do sliding collages on a carousel post, do cool graphic designs over my photos, and learn to master taking photos in whichever lighting or environment I’m given.
Learning and practicing those new skills were some challenges I faced in my passion project but also things that made me grow as a creative person. I jumped into Instagram blogging without any prior experience in graphic design and photo editing, and though all of my visions were not easy to take on, I learned by doing a lot of googling and asking my brother who was Adobe Photoshop trained. I love that I’m being creatively challenged in my work. I think though my tasks are really taking photos and sharing them if I’m at the point where I’m just doing the same old, it gets old. I want to learn how to edit photos better, adhere to what the audience is interested in on my account, act on constructive criticism to grow, learn new graphic design projects, meet and talk to business owners, and film videos.
If you’re someone looking to find inspiration and expand your creativity, I suggest looking at good accounts that you love. I believe if you look at good content, you produce good content. What helps me a lot is watching YouTube and Instagram food videos I enjoy, looking at cool photos on Instagram, there, inspiration and ideas come easier. If you have a creative vision you want to follow through, asking people who understand your softwares and using Google to learn are great ways to go about that!
We’d love to hear more about Yen There Done That.
I have an Instagram page featuring fun things to do and places to eat in the DFW Metroplex and near UTD. In my posts, I share details on what different places offer, what you can get, how you can support, as well as startup stories, and fun videos and graphics at times.
What sets me apart is that I believe I do more than just take photos. I like to maintain a nice feed, apply cool graphic designs, give people in-depth information about shared places and cuisines, tell business journeys and stories of people, film videos among other things. I want to be creative in my work and for my content to be a reflection of me.
I also think another thing that sets me apart from the majority of my food blogger friends is that I’m in college right now and I adhere to mainly students at UTD! I like to share about what great places there are near my college campus (putting how many miles the places are away from UTD in my captions), and I think my account can be a great resource for UTD students who are interested!
Finding a mentor and building a network are often cited in studies as a major factor impacting one’s success. Do you have any advice or lessons to share regarding finding a mentor or networking in general?
I love reaching out to online accounts that I admire. A simple compliment on people’s work and content truly goes a long way. Content creating is no easy task and I think little affirmations like that are really meaningful! In spreading that love around, you can too receive the support back. Everyone in the community that I’ve seen is supportive of one another and their projects, never competitive or tearing one another down.
Going to local events is also a great way to network with other creators! Asking people what they do, sharing your story, and asking about people’s page and content are also great ways to meet new people and bring them along with you on your journey. Special connections can make your work that much more exciting and meaningful, so I think it’s really important that you connect with others who share similar passions as you!
Contact Info:
- Email: imyenpham@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/yentheredonethat
Image Credit:
Headshot: Masha Dyachok, Content: Yen Pham
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