Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ser Andy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ser Andy, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

All my life I’ve been in school. I went to law school a year after college. With such an intense curriculum in law school, I had no opportunity to really travel and be free. I was trying to be the best student with the best grades and striving for the best job opportunities I could get my hands on. It wasn’t until after my law school graduation that I had time for myself. But then COVID-19 hit. The world turned up-side-down and everyone suffered. I stayed inside and learned to adapt to the new normal. When the disease subsided quite a bit and travel reopened, I took my first trip as an adult to Mexico. And I fell in love with it. I landed in Mexico City and fell in love with the city. The stereotypes that I had heard of every day regarding this beautiful country and its friendly people quickly disappeared. The Mexican people are some of the happiest folks I have encountered. They’re cheerful and have a deep sense of their own heritage. The locals took me to tour places that are popular attractions and we had an amazing time sharing our cultures. I spent two weeks in Mexico driving around the country and checking out its beaches on both sides of the country. During the trip, I knew I wanted to share my experience with other people online. Not everyone has been to the hidden gems I’d been to. Not everyone gets the opportunity to leave their jobs and family for days, let alone weeks, to experience this. So I started experimenting with and learning about vlogging. A decision that would forever change my life.

Ser Andy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Cuong Cao, which means strong in Vietnamese. I am a proud Vietnamese currently living in the U.S.. I had the opportunity to come to the U.S. to study when I was 15 years old and I took it. I flew halfway across the world to Los Angeles to start a new life, all alone. I thought I was going to be staying for a few years for my studies. Little did I know, I would fall in love with this country and decided to make it my home. I attended college at Santa Monica College and California State University, Northridge. After that, I went to Loyola Chicago School of Law and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles for my Juris Doctor Degree. I graduated law school in 2021.

I see my role on my Youtube channel and on other social media as a presenter. I travel to show people all the best and juicy parts of traveling as well as all the bad. Viewers may not agree with certain cultural practices or condone certain foods to be eaten in places I go to, but that is part of the experience. The world is not perfect and it’s our differences that make us unique. My job is to document those moments and let the viewers decide for themselves.

I want my viewers to know me as the vlogger who travels deep and willing to go an extra mile to capture the undiscovered. I want them to always feel young and hungry about their goals and passions. I also want to serve as an ambassador for presenting Vietnamese culture to the world. During my most recent trip to Vietnam, my home country, I strongly felt I had a unique opportunity to spread Vietnamese culture to people around the world. I am perfectly positioned to do so. I have a deep understanding of both Vietnamese and Western culture. My wish is to act as a bridge to connect the two, hoping to put Vietnam on the world stage as a great budget-friendly travel destination.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building an audience on social media is not easy. I am constantly learning about new techniques every day. But there are 5 principles that I follow every day to give my viewers and followers the best value for their time.

1. Be Consistent Despite Failures: Being consistent is incredibly easy to say but it’s one of the hardest principles to follow. It’s easy to be consistent when everything goes well, you can’t wait to put out more and more content for the views. But when you upload a video and it flops, it starts to sting a little. Now the second one flops and the next one. The sting turns into pain. What do we do? When you see your friends who start this journey with you getting results and you don’t? It gets challenging. If you believe firmly in what you do and the quality of your content, stick with it. Improve, adapt, and stick with it.

2. Be Nice: Unless you’re in a room shooting open-box and review content, you’re going to need to be nice. And I am not talking about faking it, be genuinely nice to people. Make it a habit in your life to be nice. The reward is often many folds. If one is planning on becoming a travel vlogger, he or she must be nice. If not, nobody will want to film with you or support what you do. More importantly, viewers can sense the negative energy through the screen and that is not good at all for you and your channel.

3. Be Genuine: If you’re faking it, people will know. We are evolutionarily trained to point out deception. We are not always great at it but that ability is still with us. Don’t fake enjoying a food that you’re obviously disliking. Often than not, new vloggers can’t even pretend that well on camera. So just be yourself, give an honest review of your experiences.

4. Put Out Your Best Products ONLY: This has been my motto since college. If you put out anything less than your best, you’re cheating yourself of opportunities. At the same time, you’re wasting other people’s time and letting them down.  Also, as a food and travel vlogger, I am very aware what my presence with the camera at a street vendor’s stall can provide. I can provide coverage and free advertising for them and they know this. Such street vendors struggle to make ends meet so they welcome and are thankful for any help to put their names out there. So I put my best in capturing those moments and edit them to my absolute best. Because I owe it to my viewers and above all, I owe it to the poor street vendor who was excited to have me at his or her stall.

5. Enjoy The Grind: Making travel vlogs is not all fun and exciting. On average, each of my videos takes about 10-15 hours to edit. That’s just the edit only. It’s tough to be sitting in front of a computer all day but it’s part of the fun. Or make it so. To combat the boredom, I always try new editing techniques and new tricks in my videos. That means I’m always growing as a video editor and at the same time being creative.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Besides presenting unique cultures and exotic foods around the world on my channel, I feel a deep sense of obligation to presenting my own Vietnamese cultures to the world. To many, a mentioning of Vietnam evokes harrowing images of the Vietnam War. I want to change that. I want it known to every one that Vietnam is a great travel destination with amazing foods, ancient history, and diverse cultures. But above all, I want to inspire. I want everyone to chase their dreams, live their lives to the fullest, and above all, always stay young and hungry.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serandycao/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRRSJxqa2y7ka08Ee_mx_iA
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serandycao?lang=en