We were lucky to catch up with Julie Mai Tran recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Julie Mai thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
The purpose behind my food blog, Share My Roots, is to preserve Vietnamese culture, heritage, and stories for future generations through the beauty of food while helping people learn how to cook Vietnamese cuisine. Food is a powerful way of bringing communities together to appreciate the culture, people, and stories behind each dish.
When I turned 30 years old, I was at what I thought was the peak of my career and yet, I felt lost and unfulfilled. I was a workaholic. I had spent most of my 20s laser-focused on advancing professionally, to be successful and to be in position to give back to my parents. Yet, they wanted nothing but for their children to invest in ourselves.
As I tried to tell my 10-year old nephew Ethan stories about his grandparents, I didn’t know enough to tell their experiences with justice. It made me sad to think that my parents’ stories may end with me. We read history books, but sometimes we forget WE are history in the making. I realized it is such a missed opportunity if I didn’t ask more questions and try to learn and hear stories from my parents, directly. I felt an obligation and a desire to carry on their legacy.
Reflecting, I felt like I lost precious time I could have spent with my folks that was more meaningful than the casual visit, small talk, quick bite, and “I love you”. My folks were getting older, and for once in my life, I “slowed down” as Dad often encouraged me to do. I decided to reset my priorities and make a conscious effort to spend quality time with them. It was no surprise that our time together revolved around Mom’s cooking and telling stories around the dining table.
Initially, I embarked on this journey for my nieces and nephews, and then my work was to honor my parents. But, in the process I learned more than I could have ever imagined about myself which has been so fulfilling. This led to the creation of @sharemyroots as a platform to inspire others to learn and share stories about their own roots.
I’m really blessed to have a great relationship with my parents where they are open to sharing their past and show me support. To my surprise, many people have connected with me because I share about them. For some it is the nostalgia living away from home, or having lost their parent. In other cases, some people don’t have a great relationship with their parents, but can experience the love from mine and/or understand their own better. Somehow, I’ve been able to help people connect with their culture and their parents through my own. I get really beautiful messages and that’s been my motivation for continuing to share about my roots.
Regardless if anyone who follows my journey is Vietnamese or not, I hope my channel can make someone feel or learn something.
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.
I am the creator of Share My Roots, a food blog on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook that focuses on preserving Vietnamese heritage, and the refugee and immigrant experience through the beauty of food and the stories behind them. This is a passion project of mine, purely to share my love of culture and food.
In 2019, I launched my Share My Roots social media channel and on October 17, 2023, I launched my debut cookbook called Ăn Chưa? This translates to “Did you eat, yet?” in Vietnamese. It is a common greeting and phrase that holds a deep meaning showing one’s care and love through food. It’s also a question my parents will ask me every time I visit.
Ăn Chưa? is more than just a cookbook. It was intended to capture stories and cultural traditions that I hope resonate with refugee and immigrant communities around the world.
Through my blog, I capture everyday moments that may seem mundane or ordinary to some, but hold so much value and connection to others . I plan to continue capturing stories, memories, and culture through food on my blog and social media channels and look forward to what the future holds.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I think of the word resilience, I often think of having to overcome a major atrocity or devastation such as the events that my parents endured during the Vietnam war. But resilience is also showing up for yourself in the day to day stresses, disappointments, or unforeseen circumstances. It’s about getting up when you’re down and having the grit and confidence to shake it off. Its being able to keep functioning even when you don’t want to and moving forward. It’s pivoting vs. giving up. It’s easy to be hard on ourselves with all the pressure of today’s society.
In regards to the realm of social media, it can be easy to feel down through negative comments or lack of engagement after spending several hours working on creating content. Sometimes it is also a vulnerable position to be in, to be so open with your life – sharing aspects of it that feels like it goes into a black hole. People are also much more liberal on social media since they don’t have to say things to your face. You open yourself up to be attacked, subjected to ignorance, hate, racism, sexism, or bullying. It is also frustrating that people feel entitled to recipes or think that they can tell you how to run your posts, or criticize your cooking when I’m taking my own personal time to share.
Many people will say that it should be expected putting yourself in that position. But, that’s the wrong way to think about it. It’s really easy to say that this is the type of world we should expect and to harden ourselves and grow thick skin. However, no one should really be put in a position to feel bullied or attacked in the first place and it starts by holding people accountable and being kind to each other. Thankfully, I have a life outside of social media. My resilience comes from knowing that I have a great support system, through all the beautiful messages and encouraging words from the majority of my followers, family and friends. Most importantly, I give myself grace and know who I am at my core.
However, I wanted to take this as an opportunity to share this glimpse into the social media world for people to rethink the way they interact digitally, and for those who can relate to know it isn’t them. It is difficult to unread something.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The other day, my best friend Jess reminded me that 4 years ago I told her my goals in a casual catch up over dinner, to share stories about my parents through cooking. Years later, I made it happen. That’s pretty incredible to reflect on that journey and see an idea come to fruition —one that came and went and boomeranged back to me.
Within that journey, I let go of that goal because my platform wasn’t going in the direction I had envisioned anymore. But that strong feeling came back and I knew my calling was to try again.
I decided to start over and create a new account purely focused on this concept again. My audience on social media unexpectedly grew when I posted about things that I loved and created a community who resonated with my content.
My advice to those who are building their presence is to stay true to your authentic self because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if other people like your content, you have to do it do it for yourself. People come and go and that’s okay. There is no way to satisfy all the wants of everyone and there is no obligation to. Your people will find you.
Those who truly “get” and understand you will be the ones who gravitate towards you and who will ultimately stay and be the community that is worth having.
The process doesn’t happen overnight, but being consistent and allowing people a window into who you are, behind the camera can set you apart from others. And, a lesson my mom taught me when I was a kid is that “Not everyone will like you, and that’s not your fault. They just decided not to like you before they even got to know you.”
Be clear on who you are. Don’t try to make viral content. You may get viewers that loved a random trend, but don’t really get who you are nor your art. Making videos for the sake of going viral doesn’t build a community that your channel may resonate with.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sharemyroots.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sharemyroots
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sharemyroots
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimV6PZRVpihslWYMevkNbQ
Image Credits
Julie Mai Tran