Nam Den, The Host of Afro Viet TV is BACK!

"Your life like 80 years, 90 years max, you are old sickly if you get to 90. So if you are 30, you are 1 third there. What have you done with that 30?"

Niall Mackay reconnects with Nam Den, a Nigerian YouTuber and content creator based in Vietnam. Nam reflects on his journey since their last conversation, sharing how the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped his perspective on life and work-life balance.

Nam discusses the challenges of maintaining his YouTube channel while juggling multiple responsibilities, including running a business, teaching, and participating in various TV productions. He offers insights into the intricacies of creating multilingual content and the technical hurdles of video editing and subtitling. The conversation also touches on the financial aspects of being a YouTuber in Vietnam and the quest for social media verification.

Key Takeaways:

• COVID-19 taught Nam to appreciate life more and prioritize self-care [05:50]
• Creating multilingual content presents unique challenges in editing and subtitling [17:10]
• YouTube revenue in Vietnam is significantly lower compared to Western countries [20:40]
• Nam balances his YouTube channel with other professional commitments [14:30]
• The importance of consistency in content creation and maintaining audience engagement [11:00]

This Season is sponsored by Premier Dental.

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Transcript

Nam Den: 1:49

COVID actually opened my eyes to tell me like,"Bro listen, take it easy, now look at you. You are shut down. What can you do? You can't even manage things, you can't even control it." That is exactly how this life is. Like, things you think make sense, actually makes no sense. think about all these things and you start to realize that all this hustle, all this busy, all the stress, do they actually worth it? You just leave. Like, I always tell people,"Don't live to work. Work to live."

Niall: 2:37

Welcome to another episode of A Vietnam Podcast with me, your host, Niall Mackay. I came to Vietnam on a vacation nine years ago and then came back for another six weeks, fell in love with the place so much that I decided to stay for one more year with my wife. One more year became two, two became four and four became eight. Uh, I think Vietnam's an awesome place and I started this podcast back in 2019 just as a hobby to talk to people who lived in Saigon. Then I talked to people all around the world, all connected to Vietnam. This is season 10, which is absolutely incredible to say. And for season 10, we're interviewing previous guests. Uh, my guest today was on the show, Not too long ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago. Back in 2021, he's from Nigeria originally, and he has his own YouTube channel called Afro Viet TV. And he is one of those rare, rare creatures. Who can speak Vietnamese. Welcome back to a Vietnam podcast, Nam Den.

Nam Den: 3:42

That was an interesting introduction to one of the race species. I see Vietnam is like, uh, is like a scientific, uh, something. I don't even know what to describe it as. But thank you. Thank you for the introduction. Thank you for having me back on your show. It's been a minute.

4:00

For the fact that I don't understand the language, it pisses me off the more, because I couldn't understand what they were saying. But, when I read the facial expression, I understand that they were not making fun of me. growing up, I was, um, not privileged to have a lot of things. Oh, I always, in fact, let me rephrase that. I didn't have anything.

Nam Den: 4:26

It's

Niall: 4:26

a minute. We had a pandemic

Nam Den: 4:28

Yeah, we've had a pandemic since then. Um, we've had. So much. I've like added a whole lot of countries to my travels list, to my travel list. And then, um, I've, um, grown a little, my beards have grown a little longer though. A little a little gray as well. Yeah. You noticed that. Then my hair got a little, a little rough, like more than the last time. So a little things have changed since then. But, um, Good to see you

Niall: 4:54

good to see you too. I, we've seen each other a few times since then, but it's not been, it's been a minute, like you said, you, you came to the si, the 7 million Bucks birthday party a few years ago. You came to see me, came to see me do comedy, the Hard Rock Cafe, which I really appreciated. That was awesome. Um, the last time we did an episode, I was thinking back, we were in Kim's closet, weren't we? Yeah, so we've, we've grown since then. Back then, if you go back and listen to previous episodes, I started out with just one microphone in my front room and then Lewis Wright would help me edit episodes. And then over time we moved into his wife's closet. So we called the studio back then, Kim's Closet cause Lewis had a lot of equipment and helped me with editing and whatnot. And now we're in our own studio. We're getting close, so don't count us

Nam Den: 5:51

Come on, come on, get over yourself. It doesn't matter. My love for Arsenal will never, never wane. It's, it's the club of my heart. So we're getting close. So don't count us out. We are getting close. We are going to knock Manchester City out of the

Niall: 6:09

long as somebody does, so I'm a Liverpool fan, but I'm also anyone but City, ABC, I cannot stand

Nam Den: 6:16

But you guys shouldn't even be talking to us now because you, you are, you are the, you are the top of the table, the longest for the, for the, for the rest, for the whole season. And then the way you fell off the, it's, it's, it's, so shameless, man.

Niall: 6:29

Well, let's not bore people about football chat. But what, what I want to know is what have you been doing in the last three years since we

Nam Den: 6:36

three years since we spoke? Ah mate, it's been, it's been a whirlwind though. It's been like a rollercoaster kind of like vibe for me. It's been ups and downs, like, like, like you rightly said. It's been COVID since the last time and it changed a whole lot of things for not just myself, but everyone else. So if you had five years plan in 2020, you are probably in a different direction. So it changed a whole lot of things, uh, for, for me, for my, my job, my business, and so many things, and for everyone else. Travels, uh, all the travels that I was supposed to have done before or during the COVID year. I packed all of them in one and I've been doing a lot of, um, traveling, but one thing I, I really discovered that it's, uh, inspiring me positive, positively since the COVID is the way I've, um, kind of like, uh, taking some time to learn to live. it's the COVID actually opened my eyes to tell me like, bro listen, take it easy, now look at you, you've been like crazy, oh I gotta get to this place, I gotta do this, I gotta achieve this, I gotta be here before this time, before da da da da da da da da. Now you are shut down, what can you do? You can't even, you can't even manage things, you can't even control it. That is exactly how this life is, like, things you think make sense, actually makes no sense. Like I usually tell everyone like we only got a bit like Your your life like 80 years, 90 years max, you are old sickly if you get to 90. So if you are 30, you are 1 third there. What have you done with that 30? if you are getting to 40, 45, you are like halfway there. Seriously, like you should think about all these things and you start to realize that all this hustle, all this busy, all the stress, do they actually worth it? You just, leave. You're just spending more time. Like I, I always tell people don't. don't walk, don't live to work, work to live So it's been, it's something that I learned. Um, I read a lot of books during the year, during the COVID time. So. it changed a whole lot of things. My perspective about life, it changed it a lot and I appreciate that. I appreciate life more and you look at me, I look younger. I look like 15 years younger from the last time we met and that's coming to appreciate, learn and treat myself better. That I deserve more, that I'm giving myself. So all the things that used to stress me out, I cut them off. All the things that brings me, I mean. Sadness and sorrow. I was like, F with them. I'm done with them. I can't, I can't keep leaving like that. So I, uh, if there's one thing I, I received the massive, the most beautiful gift from that COVID time. was this one thing to appreciate myself more. So I'm very, very happy about that. But business wise, my business is growing. And most importantly, my YouTube channel has actually, um, been growing since then, but not, um, as much as I would have wanted. but partly because I've, it's like a kid. If you don't feed your kid properly.

Niall: 10:46

What an analogy, if you don't feed, most people would say like, you don't feed a plant properly or something like if you don't feed your kid properly, they will die.

Nam Den: 10:55

that no, they wouldn't die. They wouldn't die. But, but you see it, they will grow, they will become stale and they will look malnourished. So that's exactly my YouTube channel is like my kid. Yeah. It's my not, it's malnourished. So, so I've, I haven't had, I haven't been filming as consistently as I, as I had COVID. And, uh, you know, partly because, um, The COVID. took a lot of things away. Your incomes, your, your means of income, your businesses, everything went downhill. So you got to figure out another way to survive. You got to get extra jobs. You got to devise new means of, uh, working to earn more money to support yourself and your family and your loved ones. So I thought about it, making YouTube videos in Vietnam is not the same as making them in the U S or, you know, the country. So. The, the revenue is just, it's, it's making YouTube video here, like, like we do, is just to, it is just a platform for us and it's a passion for me, you know, so wasn't making a lot of, um, money from it. So I just leave it the way it is as a passion for me. So I make YouTube videos. I still make YouTube videos, but not as often as I, as I would want. And I went back to take some extra. Postgraduate courses as well. So even I'm still, I still have one more course that I have to, one more course that I have to finish. I have the final exam, I think, uh, this September or something. So I need to get that over. And once I'm over, I'm over with that exam, I'm going to probably go back to making consistent YouTube videos. So my YouTube videos has been active, but I make videos like once every two weeks or three weeks. Just to keep my channel going and a lot of my fans actually got mad They got really pissed like bro, if you don't want to make YouTube video just shut it down Yeah, a lot of people actually some actually subscribe unsubscribed from my channel

Niall: 13:07

Did you notice subscribers

Nam Den: 13:08

know know a lot. The thing is Because I still get like new fans watching my video. So if five thousand You subscribers unsubscribed from my channel, I get like 6, 000 more. So it balances out. So it keeps my channel in the same level that you won't even notice that it's not growing. It's not going down. So if people are unsubscribing, I'm getting new fans that are subscribing to maintain the same followers that I've always had. So, um, but the ones I'm telling you that it's a little funny, like there were some that were hardcore. Hardcore fan, fans that I've had to interact with and during the time I was like having this recession from YouTube. So they got a little pissed and they actually unsubscribed first time and then I publish a video again, they subscribe again. And, and then after two weeks, I didn't publish, Hey, now you're pissing me off. Now, if you don't want to make the video stop and then they unsubscribe. I didn't even, because I get a lot of fan mails and, and, uh, Instagram messages and all these comments. So I don't really respond to all of them. But then there's this particular one, yeah, unsubscribed. No, she, she unsubscribed. I didn't notice that she unsubscribed as she would, as she would rightly know. And then, um, she had to come back to my Instagram. Unfollowed me on Instagram and then sent me this long message to let me know that Nam, I've loved you for a long time, but I just unsubscribed from your YouTube channel and I am unfollowing your Instagram. Not because I don't like you anymore. but I don't like the way you making your content anymore. You are not, you're not as consistent. I used to come back from work looking to watch your videos so I could relax, but now you just make everything a mess. I don't like it. So I'm unsubscribing until I see you are serious with this. I had to respond. Because for someone to take this time to unsubscribe from YouTube and then from your Instagram, from your all your pages, they must have really felt hurt by my actions, by my actions. So I had to apologize. I said, listen, I have noticed your name has been very consistent. She comments on all my videos. She, she's, uh, like one of those that if I cough, she will, she will watch it. She will, she will listen to it. She just a very loyal fan. So I call them friends though. So she, after I responded, I was like, I appreciate your support over the years, but Just like I haven't explained to all the people that follow me the reason why I've been in and out of videos recently. One, I have a business to run. Two, I'm a teacher. I teach, I have an extra work. Three, I make a lot of um, TV shows now. I've, sometimes I make two, three TV shows in a week. So you can imagine sometimes I'm, I'm in Hanoi on Tuesday. And then on Saturday, I'm in Da Nang, and then on Monday, I'm in Dalat or Can Tho or just all over the place making videos for either a TV station or a massive YouTube channel or trying to, you know, I feature in so many other, um, productions as well that are not mine at the moment. So, how do I even cope?

Niall: 17:21

And it takes so long just to make one video, right?

Nam Den: 17:24

takes so long to make one video.

Niall: 17:27

I made a, we went to India recently and so I made a video of our trip just for ourselves, like, like a holiday video. I put it on my personal YouTube channel. I have five followers and like one video. I didn't do it to my personal YouTube channel. I have five followers and like one video. I didn't do it to get watched on YouTube. Like, I just did it to share with friends and family. One of those ones, you know, probably like, you know, we asked people when you, I remember being younger, like my uncle would come back from holiday and he would literally have like a slideshow. You know, like those like little photos called and then project them on the wall. I'm probably like that annoying person. It's like, Hey, look at my holiday video. But my point is that, um, the first 30 seconds of that video took me three hours to make. and I, cause I was doing it for fun. So it was one Sunday afternoon, not doing it for money, not doing it for work, just doing it for fun. And I'd be working away, making it, you know, doing all the transitions and all this stuff. And then I looked at the time. Um, And I looked at how much I'd done of this video and I was like, I've done 30 seconds in 3 hours. And people don't, I mean, I didn't realize that, people watching don't realize that, so for you to put out

Nam Den: 19:00

10, 12 minutes, 15 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes video. And guess what? That's not even the difficult part. The editing is even the easier part. The subtitles.

Niall: 19:14

in Vietnamese?

Nam Den: 19:16

Sometimes, I do both, both actually, but I do in Vietnamese and in English, both of them, because I have fans from different countries and Sometimes I make videos in English, my Vietnamese fans, they get upset. They say, you're in Vietnam, you make video in Vietnam, now we watch you because we see you speak Vietnamese. If I make videos in Vietnamese, the foreign fans will be like, bruh. The Vietnamese fans already, they know you are Vietnam, so we need to understand what you're doing. So, so I have to balance it. Sometimes I make videos, I just, and I like to be myself. I don't like to do things because people said I have to do it. So I just, sometimes I make videos, I speak English, Vietnamese, all the languages I know, French, whatever. I just speak and have fun with my videos. And then when we get back to the studio to edit them, that's when I realize how much damage I've done to myself. Because you have to, you have to always switch the editing every time. So recently I got like, um, some, some like, uh, editing, um, not subtitle captioning apps. So it's, if I'm speaking only in English, Oh, it's easy. It's only write them out and then I'll just have to convert them to A and to Vietnamese. by myself, maybe by words or by Google or whatever. But if I was mixing up the, it's impossible. So it now drags me back. I have to edit them word by word by word.

Niall: 21:00

do you know what is uh, really impossible is for a transcription program to transcribe a Scottish accent.

Nam Den: 21:07

Oh!

Niall: 21:08

So if you're watching this on YouTube right now, or even now Spotify, Apple Podcasts, they all add automatic transcriptions. Go look at the transcription when I'm talking and see how accurate it is. I have quite a soft Scottish accent, like people don't think I do, but I do. It's not thick. I've lived, not lived it for 20 years. Had to write, uh, something recently for a website and it said, tell us something you don't, many people don't, most people don't know about you. I had to think and I was like, Oh, most people don't realize I used to have the thickest Scottish accent. Like when I went to university, people told me I had the strongest Glaswegian accent. And if you've ever met anyone from Glasgow, that is a strong accent. And then I left, went to America, learned to speak slowly. Now I live in Vietnam. The last time I was home in Scotland, said this guy was like, why are you talking to me? Like I'm an idiot. And I was like, I'm not. And he's like, why are you talking so slowly? Because I was just, I'm so used to speaking slowly and properly, you know? Um, but yeah, so when I, when I transcribe episodes or when I'm speaking, and then the program I use to edit automatically transcribes it, some of the words, it just cannot pick up what I'm saying. And the funny thing is, so my business is called Seven Million Bikes. B. I. The transcription every single time says Bakes, B A K E, B A K E S. Seven million bakes every time. I'm like, how do you not know that? I don't know how to say it any differently. Bikes. That sounds like bike to me, but apparently transcript

Nam Den: 22:32

Bikes.

Niall: 22:34

That sounds like the way I'm saying it, but the transcription every time. Seven million

Nam Den: 22:39

I can understand from the transcription, um, soft work

Niall: 22:43

You agree with the transcription software?

Nam Den: 22:45

Sometimes they say, when you say it, it sounds like bakes actually. Seven million bakes.

Niall: 22:51

can, I can hear it now when you put my accent on. Yeah. But what, another thing I learned, I don't know, maybe from you or from someone else is you were talking about the money that you make when your video was viewed in Vietnam. You get, I think it's one seventh of the amount if it was viewed in the U S is that

Nam Den: 23:08

right? Yeah. Yeah. No, even less.

Niall: 23:11

Even less? Yes. So it's

Nam Den: 23:13

Like one tenth. Wow. Yeah. So it's much more difficult to survive by YouTube payment except you making videos every freaking day. Yeah. a lot of my friends that are Vietnamese YouTubers and even I filmed one recently, I think last week. So I asked him, he was like, bro, I got like this how many hundred thousand subscribers and I make videos every day. I say, Oh, well, good luck to you. You know why? You can make videos every day. You don't have to do nothing. You just sit down, eat your food and speak all three in Vietnamese and you're fine. Finish, upload straight. You could even publish two or three in a day. No problem. I can't do that. because I have to edit the videos. The videos I, people already know my transition, my color grading, though I don't have to do too much of that. Lately I can edit one video in one day, but then the subtitles take the whole week. So that's where I get problem. The subtitles kill me. Sometimes I even had to like outsource the editing to um, an editor and then they will edit and then send back to me when I asked them to do the subtitles.

Niall: 24:31

No, so what happened with me is really, really similar. I was working with a client because we make podcasts now for people in Vietnam and all around the world. And they're a non native speaker. So the transcription that I use is a program called Descript. So anytime, I mean, I'm a native speaker and it still can't get me. But anytime there's a non native speaker, there's a few things that it doesn't pick up accurately. And that's fine. You know, there's a little mistranslation or whatnot. But, And I hadn't offered transcription services, it just, it transcribes automatically, it helps with the editing process, and then they were like, Oh, can you fix the transcription? And I was like, Oh, like, no. Well, I can, but you have to pay extra for it because that's going to take me like, Owls or I was going to take my team owls to fix the transcription, uh, so in the end they had to do it themselves, which I felt bad about, but I was like, it's an, it's an extra service. It's not so simple to just fix the transcription.

Nam Den: 25:29

For me, if I, if I, like, the easiest videos, that's why you see most of my recent videos, I, I made them in English. Then I'll just, it's so much easier for me, so. When I make them in English, the, the, the transcription are very crisp. It, it, it, it just maybe one or two mistakes were here and there. So, um, the, the Vietnamese now becomes easier, but then when I'm making videos in, in both languages, it's the craziest, most difficult videos to make. But then if I, if I'm making videos, that was why I had to go back and start, um, like. Getting better to practice my internet, even though I know my Vietnamese was already good, but not great. So I had to go back and, you know, relearn the pronunciation so that when I'm speaking in Vietnamese, transcription, the Vietnamese transcription software, does not misunderstand them. And I, I, recently the video I edited or I, I transcribed is, is a whole lot better when I use the Vietnamese. I was even surprised that, oh, my Vietnamese has gotten that good that even Google can understand perfectly without any mistakes, like what I say.

Niall: 26:46

is that good that even Google can understand perfectly without any mistakes, like what I said. I used to do this when I was on stage and I think we may have done this on the last episode and I haven't performed comedy now for well over a year so I forget a lot of stuff but this came back to me recently and I had somebody do it. So translate this sentence. I'll give you the English sentence if you can remember it, and then do it in Vietnamese.

Nam Den: 27:15

nom nom.

Niall: 27:16

There was a man called Nam laying in bed with five mushrooms for five years.

Nam Den: 27:22

we did it exactly the same, the same, the same thing. It's, it's just the same. Nom, It just, you just have to change the, the, the essence only. And then it's, uh, if I remember correctly, I think I, I, I missed one the last time. There's a man, but if you, if I translate it. The way you said it, it wouldn't sound, it wouldn't rhyme like you want it to rhyme. So, uh, but I, I understand what you, so the man named Nam, what is, what else?

Niall: 27:52

A man called Nam, laying in bed, holding five mushrooms, for five years.

Nam Den: 28:00

Nan, Nam, Nam, Nam, Nam, Nam,

Niall: 28:08

This is why I don't speak Vietnamese. So, one word, three letters, and it has, I think,

Nam Den: 28:13

six different meanings. seven different meanings. yes.

Niall: 28:15

on the accent.

Nam Den: 28:16

That's exactly how crazy Vietnamese is.

Niall: 28:18

I know I already have an accent so my I don't even understand like I inflect stuff things go up down all the time So this is my excuse like I haven't really tried to learn Vietnamese But it is my excuse why it's so difficult and why it's so impressive that someone like yourself can speak it So well done. Now. I do have another question for you before we wrap up I remember I asked you this question the last time and I felt like it hurt your soul a little bit when I asked you This question I'm scared to ask again because I haven't checked but Do you have a blue tick yet on Facebook? There was

Nam Den: 28:50

I mean like, I mean, I've, I think, um, for my, there was a time where I wanted to do the blue tick on my, my brand or my personal Facebook page. So. Because one of my friends actually, he, he made a mistake, he actually brand, um, got the blue tick on his personal Facebook page instead of his brand page. So I, I actually initially went with my personal Facebook page and there were almost, almost, that were going through the series of questions, then my friend got that and said, bro, If it's easy, please do it on your official brand YouTube because that's your brand. That's what you want to put out there. Your personal Facebook page. Do you, do you really want it to like to tick that? I think it would have been good, but I haven't got anywhere to answer your question. I haven't, I haven't been verified yet, but on my TikTok, but on my TikTok Facebook and Instagram and YouTube. I understand my YouTube is like 76, 77, 000 or something. So I know 20, 000 more. I think if I get to 100, 000, it will be easier to verify my YouTube channel, but then my, my Facebook and, uh, This thing because all the requirements I've met, the newspaper publications and all the interviews and all the TVs, I've done so many shows that you don't even need to question if it was me or not. So I don't know their reasons. Sometimes, you know, people say they pay like in all the countries you pay, you get it in a week.

Niall: 30:29

Right, well now on Twitter you can just pay and you

Nam Den: 30:31

you get it. Immediately. Immediately. I, I don't know. The thing is, if I wanted to go that route, I would have got verified a long time ago. But I was, I asked myself, why the hell would I have to do that? Why would I have to pay?

Niall: 30:45

Sounds like a lot of excuses you're making for not having the blue dot. I'm kidding. No, of course I've not. I got like 10%, 1 percent of the followers that you have. now. I'm not even close. I'm just

Nam Den: 30:55

it. No, I know. to it. I know, but I, I mean like, I've done, I only tried it one time and I submitted. I haven't even checked, except now you asked me. I'll have to go back and check if they, maybe they sent me a mail and required something or requested for something that I haven't. Okay. So submitted yet. I'll, I'll go back and check it again because I just submitted it recently.

Niall: 31:18

and check it again because I just submitted it recently. Nah, yeah, But make sure you search for MrNamden, Afroviet TV, all of that stuff. So you can follow him. Make sure that if you do enjoy this video, please share it with somebody else so we can build this channel as well. Make sure you follow, subscribe, turn on the notifications, do all that amazing stuff. Mr. Namden, thank you so much for joining me again.

Nam Den: 31:49

Thank you. so much. And one more thing. I think I've, um, recently I saw so many things. You've done an amazing job. The, the people you've trained, the lives you've changed with your podcasts. That's one thing that I said, whenever I meet you again, I'm going to tell you how proud I am. And I'm so happy to be your friend. I could know that you've actually changed a lot of people's lives by teaching your coaching. It just started in Kim's closet, as you said. I remember the day we, I came there, it was just a tiny little closet. And then we had to, so I didn't even, I remember I was, I advised you to start filming your, your podcast because that day I was actually my, I was one that filmed it and published. I'm probably, yeah, I filmed it and published it on my YouTube channel. And it got, it got almost 100, 000

Niall: 32:40

views, actually. Wow.

Nam Den: 32:41

people, because people, yeah. That was, yeah.

Niall: 32:44

I checked just after you published it

Nam Den: 32:46

Yeah, I published, I published the first interview. I edited it and, and published them. And I published it on my YouTube channel. And that was the only video we have of the interview. Then I, I said, you should be filming the podcast. And it doesn't matter if you publish it or not, but just keep it like, uh, on the archives. Yeah.

Niall: 33:04

Awesome. Thank you so much. That means a lot. Thank you so

Nam Den: 33:06

I'm so happy with the progress you've made and I'm super duper happy. I'm like, that's happy sibling for you, man.

Niall: 33:13

you so much. Yeah.

Nam Den: 33:14

And finally,

Niall: 33:15

I wish you luck Alright, let's

Nam Den: 33:16

That's it. Thanks very much. Cheers! Xin chào và hn gp li.