Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tommy “Tee” Chanthavong . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tommy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I entertained the idea that I wanted to be a Food Blogger on New Years Eve. At first, it was taken as a joke and I wasn’t going to take it seriously since I didn’t know what the outcome would be. I realized when I first started my Instagram page, it was going to be a long term investment/project that I would need to keep working on. Once the initial start of buying my own food, and posting on my feed consistently, doors slowly started opening and opportunities presented itself for me. Looking back at it, there are certain things I would have done better, but I realized slow and steady wins the race to be honest.

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?

This started off as a hobby, which turned into a passion and now a career. It was around the time when Instagram didn’t have many features and everyone was using filters to take photos of themselves or food. I was following a few food bloggers during that era and I was like hmm… this seems simple enough, and it sounds fun like who doesn’t love posting food on their page right (I posted food pics on my personal account too so why not create a food page for it?). I’m very unique in a sense where I’m still growing in following (I haven’t reach a threshold of 10k following), I started my own foodie group (currently the only active Houston foodie group), being on different platforms and working with other businesses not only in Houston, but in other cities and countries as well (Thailand to be added into that).

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Don’t go chasing for followers, if people love you for who you are, then they will support you no matter what. I personally like to let me peers decide if they want to follow me because I don’t want to force them to follow my page if they don’t want to (free will). I love getting followers from around the world especially when I focus on my Thailand brand. I love seeing on my insights that Bangkok, Thailand is in my insights. Not only am I getting recognized nationally, but on an international level, that is a goal I’ve always wanted to achieve~

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love interacting with business owners and getting to know how their business is doing. If they invite me back out for another collaboration, I always ask what have been some minor improvements they’ve done with their business, any new menu items they’ve added, etc. etc. I love connecting with them because to see them better than my last visit!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/TastewithTee
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/tastewithtee

Image Credits
www.instagram.com/tastewithtee