Vlogger makes his mark

Chris Trang takes his viewers along for a ride. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Chris Trang not only lives life to the fullest, but takes others along for the ride. He posts videos about his hectic schedule, diet and thoughts about his lifestyle.

The Texan vlogger known as Chris Ikuta on social media described his YouTube content.

“I would definitely describe it as a slice-of-life YouTube channel,” he said. “You're seeing a real insight into how I'm living day to day. I wouldn't say the glamour or focusing on the ups and downs, but rather more like a streamlined process of how someone's day could go.”

Chris’ daily activities have proven interesting to viewers as he builds a strong following.

“I feel like there's a lot more idols in life now who are unrealistic,” he said. “It definitely strikes a chord with people, just going day-to-day life and being content with that.”

Chris, 20, works three jobs.

“You are going to get a good bit of how I'm living,” he said. “But you're not going to get really deep level personal things or things that you should keep to yourself, things that are private to you and your family or friends. People definitely can portray whatever they want to portray and I think that's okay.”

Chris said some personal experiences can be shared.

“At times, you can because that shows vulnerability, maybe that shows growth,” he said. “It’s definitely case by case in which you choose and pick. How do you expect to be perceived by sharing that information? Branding is everything nowadays in this world where you can be digital wherever you want. You should think about how it influences others and how it influences you whenever you put out information.”

Chris’ intent precludes him from doing something solely for the purpose of recording it.

“It defeats the purpose,” he said. “I want to document my day-to-day life without the glamour, showing the hardship, showing the growth and looking back on it in years ahead or having other people see that and maybe be inspired or making a difference in someone's life. I don't really plan out, hey, I think I'm going to do this just because I'm shooting content. I made the YouTube a part of my life in a way where it doesn't affect my personal life as much and it definitely doesn't affect my work life.”

Chris doesn’t embellish his life trying to score views.

“It’s just a whole separate entity that I've built for myself,” he said. “Since it's that separate entity, I can focus my mind on it without having to worry I'm not getting these amount of views, I'm not getting X amount of likes or subscribers because it's driven internally by my values rather than some external validation. That was important for me to nail down very early whenever I started making content because for me, it's a very personal level of fulfillment to where it doesn't need to have external validation.”

Chris takes the time to edit his videos, so they’re not too dull or too abrupt.

“I definitely take a little bit of care into editing,” he said. “I still want to be able to watch it in the future. I don't want it to be too short because I don't think anyone who has an extremely short attention span is my audience for sure. It's more catered to an audience that is able to sit through, maybe take a coffee and relax, eat a meal and relax. It's not a drive-thru. You're gonna take your time, relax and chill.”

Chris likes putting the videos together.

“I do enjoy the process because I get to see my life in full and then cut it in bits and pieces,” he said. “But I still keep the essence of that clip. I keep the point of it, but I try to make it not too redundant or too long to where it'd be unsavory to watch.”

Chris hopes his followers get at least one point from his content.

“Life is what you make of it,” he said. “Everyone believes different things. Everyone has different values. Everyone has a different upbringing and background and that's okay. You should take from my videos that you can live however you want to live if you wanted to make it happen.”

Chris said life doesn’t have to be overcomplicated.

“It goes into a deeper insight of why I make videos in the first place,” he said. “Life can be simple. If you want to make it simple, if you have things that you know matter to you, if you figure that out and you don't have to ponder why I want to chase this aimless goal. If I get to that point, why am I even like chasing that goal? Do you like the journey or are you just reaching for that goal? Live life how you want to live it and make sure you're happy, healthy and it's sustainable for you. That's how I portray my life and how people get that message whenever they watch my videos.”

Chris was partially inspired by how some cultures outside America view life.

“Take for example, Europe, Australia and maybe some Asian countries,” he said. “Their lifestyle is completely different from America. America is very work-heavy, very glamour-heavy, very if you have a dream, you can make it happen kind of thing. But Australia, Europe and such, they slow down a bit. They take their time. They learn to enjoy the moment and savor what is there rather than what's not there and what can be attained.”

“It helps people get through the day and inspires people to do what they want to do and not what they don’t want to do.”

Chris was inspired by other content creators taking that approach.

“There's definitely other YouTubers or people that make content similar to me that I've been inspired from that kind of do the same thing,” he said. “They just showcase their lives, live day to day. It helps people get through the day and inspires people to do what they want to do and not what they don't want to do.”

Chris has been vlogging for roughly two years.

“I started vlogging my senior year in high school,” he said. “I've been doing it on and off for a couple years. I was in high school and now I've moved to Austin. This past year I was in Dallas, Texas. I took a break from it coming off of senior year to figure these things out for myself, internalize what I value out of life and what I put meaning into and what matters to me. I thought about that more. I've come to this conclusion of you can make it however you want to make it.”

Chris, who is of Vietnamese descent, relocated nearly 200 miles to take advantage of a business opportunity after not being able to access student aid.

“But my parents from overseas didn't know much about finances for how college works like the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid),” he said. “I would not be able to get any funding for college, so the only options for me were either go to community college or my brothers. I grew up 10 to 12 years younger than both my brothers. They're already both established in their careers. One of them reached out and was like, hey, I'm starting a company and would you like to move to Austin and work on it?”

“You go against the grain. Maybe I can try out this path and see if it works. And if it doesn't work, I'm sure I'll learn something from it.”

Chris opted to take the leap.

“It's a completely different lifestyle change and you always grow when you change,” he said. “I took that opportunity to move out of my parents’ house, learn how to live basically outside of a shell. That's why I made the decision because I could grow my career and life outside of college. The idea is fun. You go against the grain. Maybe I can try out this path and see if it works. And if it doesn't work, I'm sure I'll learn something from it. It's not uncharted territory, but it's the lesser taken road.”

Chris’ brother is trying to fill a niche.

“It's a startup based on the music scene,” he said. “The music scene is very old-fashioned. A lot of things go by word-of-mouth. Say you're a musician, you get event details and such through a long email. It's not a younger crowd here. It's a very outdated system. It's very hard to coordinate between whether it's a wedding or a gig or a corporate event. The solution is to build a more integratable system that'll work for the older generation, be simple and be easy to adopt for companies or musicians alike.”

Chris works on the software.

“AI can definitely lessen the workload so you don't need as many people to start something,” he said. “Software as a service is so powerful nowadays that if you wanted to build something, you can very easily without needing so many people. You just need the right people. And that's basically my role as a developer in the company is to leverage all the tools that are available and build something with that.”

“Life changes. A lot of things you don’t expect happen. Do I want to be ambitious and strive for something I don’t even want and just have that as my goal or do I focus on what I have and I can grow with that?”

Chris doesn’t plan for the long term.

“I definitely do think it's important to have long-range goals, but for me, I've always found more value in having shorter term goals,” he said. “How do I measure where I can be in six months and be satisfied with it or measure what I could have done better. I measure it in that way of in six months, I want to learn a bit more piano, I want to be proficient and learn Grade 2 pieces.  I want to be proficient in coding to where I can land a job elsewhere in six months.”

Chris set short-term goals, but long-term habits.

“It's more consistent goals and consistent milestones like keep healthy, make sure to cook often and sleep eight hours, call your loved ones and make sure you don't really have regrets in your day-to-day life,” he said. “Life changes. A lot of things you don't expect happen. Do I want to be ambitious and strive for something I don't even want and just have that as my goal or do I focus on what I have and I can grow with that? A life goal of mine would just be to have no regrets.”

Chris stays fit.

“I started working out as young as sixth grade,” he said. “I was extremely skinny. I grew up with a very high metabolism. I started going to the gym at around 6 a.m. I slowly transitioned into what I found to be more meaningful to me, which was rock climbing and calisthenics. Working out is very mundane. You push weight and you push numbers to a higher number. You see your fitness and you're like, oh, I'm bigger, more toned, more fit.”

Chris is content to not be the next David Laid.

“That doesn't mean that much to me,” he said. “I'm at a level where I'm comfortable with my body and how fit it is or how attractive it is. Right now, I'm more focused on how can I apply that strength and how can I have fun with it. I found rock climbing. It's an individual sport. There's so much variance and there's so much fun. You can do rock climbing, testing your limits, pushing your body to its limits, and it achieves all the checkboxes that working out for me did.”

Chris works with coffee in one job.

Chris prefers bodyweight exercises to hitting the gym.

“It's in the realms of your own body,” he said. “You're testing your own self rather than against something external. It's more internalized what you're seeing and what you're doing rather than I need this barbell to have my worth.”

Chris also is learning how to play the keys.

“I learned starting when I first moved in, just based off books and YouTube,” he said. “And then I bought a piano, the stand and then a book. I did my research. It was the highest rated book for piano adult beginners. I do play a bit, but I'm definitely going to invest more time into it.”

Chris also expresses his ideas in print.

“I actually write a little bit,” he said. “That is one of my hobbies.”

Chris wrote about his views on life via Substack. 

“I read a lot of manga growing up,” he said. “I had a lot of external influences outside of the U.S. because that's the beauty of the Internet. I feel that changed the way I see life as well just because people in Japan live differently. They figured out a lot of how they value life and what they want out of life. A lot of my inspiration comes from slice of life manga and shows that portray daily simple life because that is what Japan is. People there, they might work 12 hours a day, but they're happy.”

Chris wrote about knowing what you want.

“Everyone's standards are so different,” he said. “How do you find your own standard? I wrote about that in that post: how I viewed life being simple. You can make it as complicated as you want to make it and you can make it as simple as you want it. Do you want to be a millionaire? Okay, well, there’s a lot of steps that you got to take to be a millionaire. A lot of it is internalizing the thoughts you have and what makes you happy and what doesn't make you happy.”

“It’s a snapshot of my life. The beauty of it is because that I don’t seek revenue from it and I don’t seek anything from it to gain. Therefore, I can be my most authentic self in that form. ”

Chris stays motivated to create content.

“I want to portray how I'm living at the time,” he said. “It's a snapshot of my life. The beauty of it is because that I don't seek revenue from it and I don't seek anything from it to gain. Therefore, I can be my most authentic self in that form. It's like an art to me. It's beautiful in the way that I can look back at the past and I know that there's no fluff, there's no flare. It's a time capsule, preservation of what I've learned, how I've changed throughout the years.”

Chris recommended others do something similar.

“You should document your life in some way,” he said. “You should show your work, show how you're living, show how you're doing. Not to make some digital mark, but to make a personal mark to yourself. I can stay motivated because I don't seek anything from it and knowing what I want out of it. It's not like I want a certain target of revenue, certain target of viewers. It's all internalized. My foundation of where I'm drawing the motivation and energy from is really internal.”

Chris dispensed advice to aspiring YouTubers.

“It goes back to you got to pin down why you want to do it,” he said. “Why do you want to start a YouTube channel? After you pin that goal down, maybe I want to reach a certain audience. You have to think about do you want a certain amount of viewership, do you want a certain amount of subscribers or are you posting the content for you and friends or family? A lot of it is just doing it.”

Chris said producing content is the only way to know what works.

“You can brainstorm all you want, but as soon as you put your video out, that's when you know you can get feedback,” he said. “You can know what people like, what people don't like, what you thought of it. You can look back on it a month or two later and you'll have a different perspective on it. Just doing it gets a lot more done than not doing it. You'll learn from it either way and you'll grow from it.”

Chris’ content includes food.

Chris pointed out a person doesn’t need expensive equipment to be a vlogger.

“I don't use anything grand equipment-wise,” he said. “I record on my phone. I bought tripods from Amazon. I don't have any technical expertise in cameras and what angles are good, what people want to see. I just do it based off what's convenient for me. And that's what works for me. You don't need fancy equipment. You can just use your camera. You could just use your phone and you can literally set it on a water bottle or anything you have. It's very easy to start.”

Chris values authenticity in vlogging.

“It's a little important to keep it a bit authentic because you have to know as a content creator that you do have some influence on people,” he said. “You have some influence on how people think or perceive you or what they want because they saw your video. It's important to be conscious of that. You can do what you will with that information, but some people do good with that. They spread positive messages. And then some people maybe want to sell you a product or sell you this course because they showed you the glamour in their life.”

Chris said not everyone is going to refrain from embellishment or glamorizing.

“It's definitely important to be authentic, but then it also depends on what type of channel you are and what your goal is,” he said. “Maybe that persona is what you value out of life, so it's different for everybody. Some level of authenticity would be nice, but it's not realistic.”

Chris said the keys to vlogging are consistency and convenience.

“A difficult thing with vlogging or any YouTube is just staying consistent,” he said. “It's just keeping up what you're doing. But it's building a system or a lifestyle that's convenient for the person to be sustained by that specific person. It is case by case. No one size fits all. It's something you have to figure out for yourself. Getting your foot in the door figures, makes you figure out what you don't like and what you do like and how you can keep it up or if you don't want to vlog anymore.”

Chris’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisikuta