A U.S. Marine and YouTube Success: An Interview with Joey Nguyen

Meet today's guest, Joey Nguyen, a Marine, YouTuber, and Positive Influencer who started his career as a Personal Assistant and is now the COO of Charlie Chang's thriving YouTube channel.

He shares his inspiring journey, emphasizing the importance of persistence and consistency that led to the channel's success, which now has a follower count of over 60,000 subscribers. Joey's openness about his first-ever interview experience, the nerve-wracking excitement that it entails, and his dedication to educating people about interesting topics like life in the military and finance, are sure to inspire you.

But his most priceless advice? Having a vision and the courage to act on it. So, join us as we unpack Joey's journey and share crucial tips to help you kickstart or boost your YouTube career.

➡Watch on YouTube: htteps://youtu.be/glYiHUil4I8

Joey's Links:
➡https://linktr.ee/joey_nguyen

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue pleased to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is a awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck. Just look in a show notes or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access To my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and Watch all of the previous episodes on my youtube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is Dot parade, that calm or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to unarmor talk podcast again. It's good to see you if you're on YouTube. If you're an audio, I can't hear you, but you can hear me. But a two weeks have gone past that fast and we have a another guest who's willing to remove their armor to help people and I believe this one's going to be a fun, fast and furious episode with Joey Nguyen. But before we get into our amazing guests, you guys know how to do it. Here it comes. Thank you to powerful words. Thank you again.

Speaker 1: 1:30

We're rapidly approaching three years. Over 700 cities, 36 countries and territories and they have been. You know, unarmor talk podcast have been downloaded on audio in almost 80,000 views on the YouTube playlist. Again, can't do it without you guys. The feedback has been amazing. Continue giving me the feedback on Apple podcast homepage or get on my youtube channel and even if you just drop it, what's up? Mario? You guys know I am going to reply within 24 To 72 hours. If I reply to you in 72 hours, you guys can go. Sorry, major, you know, get Mario, get on your face and give me 10, right, and I worked that out until 2025. But let's get right into the show. Joey Nguyen he is a Marine, he is a youtuber, he's got over 17,000 subscribers, he's interviewed a ton of people, he's a positive Influencer and he does more behind the scenes and we're going to get into that. Joey, welcome to unarmor talk podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Thank you. So, our major, I'm honored to be here today.

Speaker 1: 2:39

No, thank you. I've been, I've been watch you. I love what you're doing, I love your energy. Now say you know what? I'm glad we connected through the parade deck and you know so. Can you tell the listeners, viewers, just a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2: 2:52

Yeah, so my name is Joey. I make educational content, I want to say, but also, like on my you know interview videos, I like to just, you know, shed some light on you know military stuff that isn't usually talked about. When Civilians talk with recruiters and stuff like that, like a lot of information is left out, like how much money you make, what it's really like in the Marine Corps. So, yeah, I just wanted to sort of entertain, educate and inform People that are in the military but also looking to join the military.

Speaker 1: 3:31

No, I like it. And also Joey, from my memory you aren't you a the COO or something?

Speaker 2: 3:38

Oh yeah, so I I in. So I'm a reservist and on the civilian side I work as a you know COO. I started off as a creative director. Actually, I started off as a personal assistant, then I moved to creative director and then now I'm the COO of a you know Entrepreneurship and personal finance youtuber. His name is Charlie Chang, so you just search up on YouTube Charlie Chang and you'll you'll see him.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Yeah, right, right. And then how many subscribers, roughly, does Charlie Chang have?

Speaker 2: 4:11

all he has like.

Speaker 1: 4:12

I think he just hit 900k like a couple days ago 900,000 ladies, everyone right just hit 900,000 and Joey Neuwin, the Marine, is, is the COO of this online, just a YouTube platform. You're going yeah, mariel, you know, thanks, I'm going. You start off as a personal assistant and now you're the CO. That's amazing. I mean, that is YouTube industry, if you guys know, if you're a YouTuber out there, you guys know this is not an easy industry. You just don't create a YouTube channel and you have a thousand subscribers, like overnight. Yeah, am I?

Speaker 2: 4:52

right. Yeah, no, definitely. It took Charlie like over like 10 years to really see success on YouTube. He created multiple channels, multiple videos, and it really comes down to just consistency and not giving up.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Wow. Well, let's get to you, joey, you interview a lot of people. I love how you use your platform to just bring right information to people. Let them decide what they want to do with the information and you interview. I love the way you interview people, but you have I haven't seen you get interviewed. Have you ever been interviewed before?

Speaker 2: 5:31

No, no, sorry, Major, so I haven't. This is gonna be. This is my first time, so, yeah, I'm a little nervous, yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Well, you know what they say to come on Unarmored Talk podcast, first of all, you gotta have some courage, and so I applaud you because you, you'll be our 75th episode and that's a milestone, by the way, for Unarmored Talk so you'll be part of our 75th episode and achievement, and you have the courage to do it, and you're a Marine, so let's get into it. What is it about, joy? Like what? How did this all begin? What made you go? I'm gonna create a YouTube channel and I'm just going to start interviewing people. Like, how did that begin?

Speaker 2: 6:13

So I actually got the inspiration to do interview content from Charlie. So for Charlie's stuff we started to do interviews like maybe like a year ago, and so I've been like sort of experimenting on that side of the online world for quite a while. So I kind of understood how that worked before doing that for my own social media.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Right. And so when you first started doing your own, when you started your YouTube channel and you said I'm gonna take this skill I learned from Charlie and I'm gonna try it out Were there any times you were like I don't think I'm as good as this is not working the way I think it should.

Speaker 2: 6:56

Yeah, I mean, obviously you have like doubts, because that's how social media kind of works you always kind of doubt yourself until you do it, and then you see like how people respond to it. But I think I had like a pretty good idea of what I could bring to the industry, because nobody was doing like military interviews at the time, and so that's the thing about like entrepreneurship and just standing out in the market is you see like what kind of demand is there in the market and what's the supply? Right? So there was no supply for any military interviews, and so I was kind of like I guess the first one to start doing military interviews and yeah, so that's pretty much all I did. I just got lucky.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Nah, well, you mentioned it, you thought through it, you did some research, you identified opportunities. I mean, that was a choice, you didn't have to do that and so you took a thoughtful approach to it and you identified kind of a niche and then you created a platform. I think it's again my belief. I believe it's amazing Did you ever create an interview, or did you ever do an interview? You did some self-reflection and you were like, man, I could ask some better questions, or here's some areas I think I need to improve on. How did that work?

Speaker 2: 8:20

Um, yeah, I'm always like thinking of like new questions and new videos to create from these interviews. Like I've only done like one long form interview video on YouTube and it did really well, and I have like a bunch of other ones that I have to edit. But once I get those out, I'll be able to see like what the like popularity is in terms of like which subjects are like good. Like, for example, my previous one was asking Marines what they think about other branches and it was kind of like a. It was kind of like a controversial topic, I guess. So I guess that's that's what I think made it perform well. But yeah, we'll see. I'm still like experimenting with, with some of the content that that I have in the future, right, now.

Speaker 1: 9:11

Now when you, I know, I know for me, joey, I don't like watching myself, like, if I record a video, any, create any content and then and then watching me. I don't like that. Do you share the same emotion? Like you know? Do you enjoy watching your content and analyzing yourself after you create it?

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah, it's definitely something that I learned from, you know, analyzing Charlie's content, because I would just see, you know, footage after footage, hours of footage of him interviewing people and talking in the on on, you know, in front of a camera, and so that really got me used to analyzing things without the emotional side of it, just objectively, like what sounds good and what doesn't look good and you know all the other things that you notice that make a good video versus a bad video. So, yeah, I definitely do struggle sometimes where it's like, oh, like I look so stupid or I sound so stupid, but I just really try to, like, you know, look at it objectively and it's like okay, what, what is the best for the viewer?

Speaker 1: 10:19

Yeah, yeah. And have you ever had an experience where Marine said you know what I was having a bad day and when you just came up and asked me to do this interview, you know that really, really made my day positive. Have you ever had one of those experiences?

Speaker 2: 10:36

Um, I haven't had any Marines tell me that the interview, like just on the spot, made their day, but I have gotten messages where, like, for example, my sergeant, I was like I was doing some music on the side and so one of the tick tocks that I made from you know, interviewing him, I was able to. You know, there was this guy in the Air Force or something like that that ended up checking out his music and then sent him a DM like, hey, I love your music. So, yeah, just like provide being able to provide a platform to you know, give to the Marines in my unit that you know need that exposure online. Maybe they do music, maybe they do fitness, maybe they do something and they just need more, I guess, online marketing to it. And so, yeah, that's that's like sort of, I guess, similar to to them.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Yeah, it would make that pretty cool because you know, you know I I'm a department labor contractor facilitator so I facilitate employment workshops for transitioning service men and women and part of part of the workshop is personal branding and how to build those strategies to write to get your brand in the digital space and improve your brand, establish your brand and then network and increase your brand through networking. So that's pretty cool to hear you know that that your platform is creating opportunities for service members right and in this case a Marine Sergeant, to improve his personal branding and establish connections in the in the digital space. Have you have you ever had a time when you create some content and you saved it and then all of a sudden, something happened and you lost it? Maybe you know it got deleted, maybe maybe the digital space something happened. Have you ever had that man when you just lost the content?

Speaker 2: 12:27

Lost content. Thank you. There are times when it's just like you maybe forgot to record audio or you forgot to frame it right like in the camera. But I think I'm like naturally like just a problem solver, so I'll just try to, you know, make the best out of it as I can. But no, I've never, I've never like accidentally deleted footage or anything like that. Yeah, I haven't. I haven't done it yet, but probably in the future I might mess up.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Hey, I hope I joined. I hope I didn't jinx you. You called you, sent me a text after this podcast, this interview, be like hey, you know, mario, since you asked me that question, I just actually accidentally deleted something, so that's cool. Have you ever had a time, you know, where you were so passionate about what you're doing that you didn't realize what time it was? Maybe you forgot to eat, or someone was like hey, you need you, what are you doing? You've been in there for hours, for days. Talk to me about that.

Speaker 2: 13:38

I think so.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Like over the past year, I've like reflected on this kind of topic of like being obsessed over things and like having like an obsessive personality.

Speaker 2: 13:50

And you know, back when I first met Charlie, he asked me. He was like hey, like, do you do you think you have like an obsessive personality? I think he asked me like like two or three times, and all times I said no, because in my mind I thought that it was like a bad thing and, you know, since you know I didn't want to, you know, make it seem like I was obsessive over like bad things, and I was like, oh no, no, I'm not obsessive or anything. I have self control because, you know, I didn't want it to seem like a bad thing. But now I'm starting to realize that I do have an obsessive personality over certain things, and like with YouTube, with business and entrepreneurship and finance and stuff like that, that is what I'm like obsessed about, and so that's where I'll, you know, be able to spend hours and hours and and not worry about like other things. So, yeah, there, there have been definitely like nights where I just stay up editing, and yeah, though, that's one of the things that I'll definitely obsess over.

Speaker 1: 14:52

And I think that's necessary for you to succeed. I enjoy just to just just the time getting to know you. I think it's your passion, right? I believe it. You're passionate. I mean, you see, I'm smiling because I just I enjoy what you're doing, your energy and and and I believe I do I believe that that you're you're so passionate in doing what you're doing and I think you stay knowing. Four days have gone by and you're like I need to stop editing and go eat.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Yeah, no, like in the past, I would like play like a lot of video games and I would forget to eat, and so I pretty much just replaced video games with like creating content and YouTube and stuff like that. So it's just moving from one obsession, from one productive, to another obsession that was, I guess, more productive and, you know, was able to make me money.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Well, speaking of money, you know, I know I've run into a lot of people who who want to gain a better understanding of the YouTube industry and to become a YouTuber and to essentially monetize their channels. So any advice for anyone out there that's considering doing that.

Speaker 2: 16:09

For anybody that wants to do like YouTube.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Yeah, they want to become a YouTuber and essentially one of their long term or short term goals is to monetize get their channel monetized.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Yeah, like with YouTube, it's a very, very like you. You can't really learn how to do YouTube from like. You know places like school, like traditional, like school, like college or whatever they don't teach you like about YouTube and stuff like that. Youtube you kind of just have to learn by doing it, and so I recommend just just do it, just because, like, most people don't even get started, most people are afraid of like the very first video that they make. They don't want it to be you know bad data. They're afraid of like what their friends will think of them or you know what other people online will say.

Speaker 2: 17:02

But you know, I say just just get started and make like 100 bad videos and then, after those 100 bad videos, then you'll be able to you know just each video improved by 1%.

Speaker 2: 17:15

And you know, if you can find yourself a group of individuals that also do social media, like things that you want to do, like like minded, you know people that are into business and entrepreneurship, then that'll like speed up your growth by a ton, because then you guys can like talk about your videos and like kind of roast each other's videos and then be able to nitpick and be like Okay, this is what I didn't like about the YouTube video. This is what I didn't like about the thumbnail, the title, what you did at five minutes and 43 seconds made me want to click off the video. Like it gets like really, really in depth. But yeah, just just getting started and, you know, surrounding yourself with the right type of, and even on YouTube, like just watch videos and surround your, like make your algorithm on YouTube. Take talking Instagram about YouTube if you want to do YouTube, like just surround your entire world with YouTube and like, I guess, kind of obsess over it.

Speaker 1: 18:13

Yeah, I've got, I've gotten in trouble with that, but you know everyone, you guys heard it. You know Joey said it, do it, just do it. You know, if you have a vision, just do it. If you want to be a YouTuber, you don't have to do it or not, or your marine veteran or any veteran and you got it in. You just just do it. And then be deliberate and intentional. Surround yourself around folks who are in a digital space, who are in, you know, in the YouTube industry to YouTubers. And again, like Joey said, don't be afraid. I mean I remember you know I went back to lead a product 20 videos, guys, like what was I doing? But I remember when I first did mine is like I only got like one view in like four days, like what the like? Was it that bad? So I mean, have you ever, have you ever experienced that joy like is? Is it that bad?

Speaker 2: 19:06

Yeah, yeah, I mean, my very first videos on YouTube was like I think I did like a like a Minecraft video where I was just playing and making jokes and I think that video probably got like five or six views and but that was like in like middle school or high school or something like that. And yeah, even even now, like you know, I basically just make content to try and just give value. I don't really like try to focus as much on like the numbers, I just want it to be the best as possible, and then, by focusing on making it the best as possible, that's where the views will come.

Speaker 1: 19:46

So, wow, no, great, great, great, joey, great advice. Well, I know you're busy and I wouldn't even say busy. I'm not going to say that you know an armor talks about accurate thinking. I'm going to remove the term busy. You're having fun, you're doing things that you love doing and so I'm not going to take up too much more of your time. If you had to give the listeners and viewers one tip, what tip? With what you give them in regards to going into the YouTube industry or improving their personal brand, and more would you give them?

Speaker 2: 20:24

Oh man, one tip, just one. I mean, besides get started, I would say, just, you know, take, take like massive action, and like, don't ever hesitate, because like hesitate is like hesitating is. I guess this is the same as just get started, but it just really comes down to being able to do things super fast, like being able to go from a thought that you have in your head to executing it and making it a reality. And so, just you know, it's a, it's kind of like a muscle that you have to train, where if it's an idea, you just immediately have to act upon it and you can't be stuck in that sort of thinking mindset. You just have to think and then do.

Speaker 1: 21:17

I love it. I love it, joey. Think and then take the next step and do it. Make it become a reality, everyone, thank you. Thank you for again listening and tuning in. Joey, thank you for appearing on Armital Podcast. How can people find you If you guys aren't subscribed to his channel yet you got to subscribe? How can they find you, joey?

Speaker 2: 21:40

Oh, I mean, they could just find me on a YouTube, TikTok, instagram, by my name. It's just Joey Wynn, so J-O-E-Y, and then my last name is kind of spelled like a little bit difficult it's N-G-U-Y-E-N. And yeah, so that's where they can find me.

Speaker 1: 21:59

Nice, Well, I again. I appreciate you being on the show, and everyone until next time a couple of weeks from now. Be safe, God bless. See you soon.

Speaker 2: 22:10

Thank you so much for having me, Sergeant Major. Bye everyone.

Speaker 1: 22:13

No, you're welcome. Super 5, my friend.

Speaker 2: 22:15

Super 5, Sergeant Major.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the Parade Deck. That is wwwparadedeckcom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.