Confessions of An Asian Influencer ft. HeyCarmen

how do you become a successful Asian-American female influencer in 2024 and how do you survive the criticism let's talk about it oh here to break it down for us today all the ups and downs pros and cons we've got Carmen Lou AKA hey Carmen hey Carmen tell us about what you do because probably a lot of people watching our podcast are not familiar with your career as an influencer youve got over 200,000 subscribers on various platforms right I do what do you do you are a self-described NYC luxury girly big personality I am a corporate girly at heart so that is the main grind 9 to5 believe it or not and then 5 to n I'm an influencer okay what do you do for your influencing because we're going to pop up some of the clips right here oh my God okay what do you do what do you do oh I do a lot I do everything I do dog training I do Luxury I do vlogs I do reviews I do um experience reviews New York City food I do it all cuz I have ADD right and who is your audience is it primarily young Asian-American females or females 92% female audience shout out shout so I want to talk so you have a whole bunch of different type of content but uh let's back it up real quick to how you got there how did I get there and how you started influencing and how someone starts in I guessed influencing I started on YouTube I grew up on YouTube I'm born and raised Flushing Queens represent Queens native [ __ ] Manhattan I'm sorry I love you that's all good um but what just post I grew up on YouTube so David outside of this David told me that I seem like a girl from Irvine which is like totally dope I grew up on the internet I grew up in front of aing TV because I was a latch key kid right because I guess what what is your family background where your parents from are you an Asian immigrant yourself your parents are immigrants what is it my parents are immigrants my mom is in massuse she works at physical therapy and my dad works at a car park so they are blue collar but I love them to death next year I'm going to retire my dad and I'm really excited actually you know what by the time you guys watch this he will have been retired thanks to me hey you know what we got clap it up for that you know what no no let me say something because I think a lot of when you first said I'm a luxury girly like a lot of people say that Davis said that all right sorry a corporate girl a lot of people are like oh like influencers all they want to do is just sell you things but at the end of the day I mean selling is part of it obviously we sell things as well but I think that you even saying like hey you're about to help retire your dad and he's not going to have to work anymore and that's because of your corporate grind and your influencer grind combined I'm a two I'm a dual income household of one right and you are your parents from Malaysia right yeah they're from Malaysia so we're Malaysian Chinese I know a lot of Malaysian stuff I know a lot of Chinese stuff I guess speak canones Neo Leo what do you think about was what was your journey like coming up like you said you're from flushing Blue Collar family now you're holding down the influence in career and the corporate job job yeah what gave you that type of motivation to like just go so hard um I we grew up poor like I had a birthday in McDonald's and I was like never again I'm gonna grind so hard that like my parents get to sit on their ass and like get to feed them Abalone like that's my goal bro for feed my parents Abalone that's when I know I've made it you know right right right so I guess I love Abalone Abalone companies please sponsor do you feel like that's where you got your big personality from because you came up so hard in your life from your family background and it's different from like other influencer girls who might have been born into a rich family I have a big personality because of my upbringing because my parents just let me be me you know you're saying in a way that a lot of Asian parents don't let their kids my parents are pretty non-traditional like like they talk about sex in front of me I had the sex talk I my mom sex with each other what no I'm saying no I had the birds and the Beast talk honey oh okay like hey this is but they don't talk about sex with each other to you no but they both of my parents both of my parents have more than 10 siblings so you know sometimes over dinner they're like in Malaysia in the Farmland there's nothing to do but [ __ ] like my dad has said that you want to have my dad on the podcast he's [ __ ] more interesting than me right that's where I get my personality is from my dad yo I will say this Malaysian Chinese I know this other girl from actually Queens who's also Malaysian Chinese who has a crazy personality and then also people like Ronnie changen Michelle yo yeah I I think a lot of malayi yeah not to get into like all geopolitics and history but Malian people are pretty open-minded they're very westernized to Bri what it is oh my God Chinese Southeast ASI's got a lot of personality I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't expect your personality I don't look it to be developed from like a Mainland Chinese family do you know what I'm talking about your your expressiveness your oxytocin your infusive news I just wouldn't expect it I'm it's just not as common it's not as common thank you what what what uh so you you want you wanted to do influencing that's why I'm so interesting like that's why people watch my YouTube like all every girl almost every girl that DMS me 99% they're like I I found you from a YouTube video and then I like they went on to my Instagram and they followed me what's that called when you like convert I converted people crossplatform crossplatform conversion does anybody ever say you act kind of act like a rapper like a female rapper or like a [ __ ] no but like Lil Tay I'm not saying like little T oh my God little Tay you do sound you do sound like little Tay look at my watch how old I am how old I am how old are you up guess wait give a moment to guess what everybody write in the comment section how old you think is I'm 28 who oh I didn't do the um it's okay whatever I'm 28 everybody I won't keep you waiting everyone has a short attention span so you were saying that your personality may have been developed by watching a lot of media growing up oh yeah that's how it works how much of your personality is also being too my older brother has shaped me that's why I'm kind of doish I got a bro what kind of uh what do you have what do you have on right now just talk about you got some yo let's add it up let's add it up for the lovers and the ha all right all right Carmen how much that fit cost all right Carmen how much that fit cost oh how much does My Fit cost no no just so you said go go to 12 what is that cier cardier tank Lou rose gold alligator strap shout out to my sales my wa shout out to my watch guy Hudson yards okay um like you shout out like I fresh seven seven okay 14 two three two and I just want to be clear this is all self-made from your corporate job and influen wait this is not being a sugar baby this was a gift this one was a gift this one was a gift but I bought it back post breakup cuz oh it was a from a person you were in a relationship in my closure I'm in my closure error it came out a little but I'm in my closure error versus what what what what have been your errors you know the stages of a breakup like it's like sad depression and then it's like anger and then it the fire flames quiet and then it's closure what is something I have like one little flame you know there's a lot of people that are like in someone's friend group right and every somebody know everybody know somebody who tried to do influencing and it didn't fully work what differentiates somebody like yourself who's like made it work but then also held down your corporate job versus don't know oh oh I have a friend her name is Julia Fay yeah she does the same thing I look up to her a lot but she just does YouTube so she's more successful than me because she has more subscribers on YouTube so she focused on one platform that's what I'm trying to do next year I'm just trying to focus on one platform what uh platform are you picking YouTube oh okay YouTube Oh sub I guess what do you hope to convey cuz you were saying it it is about you you loving luxury things you're from a family background that didn't have those things growing up and you want to all I want to share is information so you know about what what what are the things that you share about what are the information birth control I share about birth control I would love to talk about sex one day I just I'm not ready I don't know how to introduce it but maybe like a a guy's perspective and a girl's perspective like maybe this is the right platform for us to talk about sex and um just whatever experience I go through I love to share so like I do I do Botox and injectables I have something really exciting coming stay tuned subscribe sign up for post notifications so it's I feel like a lot of like particularly women could take something away from your videos because you're being very honest and very very straight up about the things you're going through you're not you're not apologetic about liking nice things and getting like botox done and getting lip fillers or I don't even know what else lashes I mean lashes is everybody gets that uh can I tell you did you get your eyes done your eye no I'm my eyes are natural okay so your eyes are natural and then so I'm saying I think that Al can I tell them can I tell them what I did okay sorry go to a lot of people it's like why do I need to hear this but actually any girl who's interested in this because it's going to be you're not ugly you're broke please elaborate elaborate okay okay if this is the model you're standing for sorry what go ahead go ahead explain syringes lip filler 2600 chin filler 1,000 jaw Botox 500 every time I just finished my third session so you know have a little text adding it so 500 time 3 oh I have a math degree I'll do it, 1500 2500 5,100 5,100 you know why because I graduated from Bingington University with an Actuarial science degree and I do underwriting for my corporate job mhm so B I mean I guess you're being very lucid and you're being very honest about something like you're just being very clear but I'm saying that a lot of girls even if they did that ugly broke they wouldn't want to talk about it right also you know you can have 5,000 in the bank but you also can't be a [ __ ] like you have to walk yourself into the Dermatology office and be like shoot me up I want to be beautiful I guess what do you think about cuz that takes balls is there a debate going on right now about are women doing that to fit the male gaze or is it because the women's value in societ is based off the look yeah yeah yeah yeah I did this to be more attractive to men but I want to look myself in the mirror and be like she's [ __ ] pretty and that's why I did it I did it for me you know no man paid for this this was all me and a little bit of sponsorship shout out to mju Chic Beauty RN yes so what advice do you have for help me what advice do you have for young girls and obviously they don't have to do it like you they don't necessarily have to have their personality based off you know like how your personality is you don't have to be just like me all I want is like I'm like a audio I'm like a audio book you know a YouTube video If you're looking for someone's experience on Botox it's on my page if you're looking for someone's experience with birth control it's on my page also um you know when you're having sex and stuff like I totally recommend if you get anything from this video get laser hair removal on your hoo-ha that will give you the confidence going Beyond that's how it started no no so so I know started some people are like oh I don't need to hear this but actually these are kind of taboo things that a lot of girls don't like to talk about but you're saying Hey listen I know a lot of women out there think about this stuff they do but they don't want to talk about about yeah you get wax but waxing will not make you bald okay also boys like it bald so like if you want to be hot commodity high value woman keep the puss bald and get some laser hair removal get a Groupon I go to bared monkey Spa Beed monkey Spa okay so so hold on Sor before you any more plugs I'm an ambassador I'm an ambassador no that's helpful but it's like I guess David the equivalent conversation for guys would be like hey fellas grow a beard take this type of protein grow the beard get the little Solution on here shaving down there too would be oh get this trimmer shave this cuz like girls girls girls girls if you want if you want to feel sexy and you want to get eaten out okay I don't you know what I don't know if that part's going to make it in maybe maybe no okay let me elaborate because you know when it's time to have the underwear off like you could be like yeah it's beautiful down there is it interesting that a lot of Asians are scared to talk about it and Carmen you are not scared to talk about it yeah cuz of my upbringing cuz my parents talk about it with me but a lot of girls I seen my mom naked she see me naked all would you agree would you agree that a lot of girls from flushing from a traditional immigrant family would not talk how you talk sure I mean I don't know that many girls from flushing I meet a lot of people but yeah you're right so so not every girl should strive to be like you because it'd be hard too right it's you just being you right hard are you being you to the max like are you being B yes um but yeah that's why I'm so happy like every day I'm more and more developing who I want to be and I'm so happy and that's why I'm here and I just want to share my tips and tricks so you know everyone is a little insecure about their pubic hair so that's why I wanted to share about the laser hair removal got a little excited insecure about my PE care I got a little I got a little excited so I got a little loud I'm sorry but please try out laser hair removal if you're ready for it it feels like a rubber band snap and then it's over I guess it's like one minute M no you know what one minute valid advice that seldom gets discussed but it's real advice I guess when you when you have young girls like watch your material and all this stuff is real like this is taboo stuff to talk about but it's real to real yeah I started my laser hair removal video like four years ago I'll probably do an update now oh so you're saying you've been not scared I did my underarms look oh is there deodorant stain it's okay deodorant they look good they look fine oh why they look fine because I got laser oh that's my point is a lot of your also I lasered my sideburns cuz I was insecure about my sideburns look how pretty you didn't want the Ashanti sideburns yeah look how pretty I guess like do a lot of girls who message you are they Asian or are they non-asian or is um like 75% Asian do do they love how like unafraid you are to Broach these topics cuz you know obviously a lot of people in the Asian Community they are kind of like oh don't don't talk they come to me oh yeah yeah yeah that's I think that's why they love me you're not scared I'm not that's why my engagement is so good all right so I guess to end off we're talking about engagement Here andw Andrew I know that you don't know as much as I did because I did the Reddit searching like you you have all these different aspects to your career that are so non-traditional as far as being an asan influencer I'm very traditional in my corporate job okay so I have both right cuz you have the math degree actuary side and then you have this crazy life where people even on Reddit examine your personal life and they talk about your purchases they talk about your love life I did lie I'm sorry I did lie a little like I said I was a homeowner before the clickbait but I didn't own the home I'm sorry my ex's family owned the home it's my formal apology everybody I own it please forgive me I I lied one time you won't hold my hand hold my hand I can't I can't it's my formal apology why is uh what you're doing good for for women to hear like why is it a good why are you a good influence or are you a good influence and why I'm I don't know if I'm good or bad I'm just an influence I just live my life very honestly and all I ever want to do is share what I learned so I learned that I became more confident getting laser hair removal so I tell all my friends my bestie actually is like in her fifth session um and and uh Botox and filler same thing I feel more beautiful I am more beautiful like I pull I can pull I pull probably high more high value men than I ever have in my life and that's because I invested $5,000 into my face and that's all that I wanted to say how did I get the $5,000 W you know what it is you're very honest and mathematical in a sense you're like hey I got to jump up a couple levels in my for looks and I was able to meet different types of guys and meet different types of people because I invested in myself yeah you meet just different types of people period because you invested in yourself that's invest in yourself how did I invest in myself because I grinded from the day that I graduated 2017 I worked my group underwriting job shout out to everybody at my job hello guys and yeah you just need to save you got to be smart I paid off my college Loan in nine months like you just oh I lived at home the hack live at home for as long as you can right because you save a lot of money you can deploy that money to grow even more money and live somewhere close to Transportation because it connects you to the world do good do you think your math degree allows you to have this sort of like blunt logic that that is rare for I guess for anybody but a female in math in math one solution is right and you need to solve it with a lot of different techniques and equations and theorems and you'll get there but you need to know you need to know a lot of [ __ ] you got to have a lot of tools wow so know your math it comes back to math math is life girl math all right last but not least the people who are talking about your micro life who you're dating who you're not dating on RD what do you like it you don't like it or it is what it is or or at least they're engaged at least they're engaged it is what it is um you guys can talk about me obviously you have your own Forum um I don't read it um people close to me read it it's just not healthy for me to read but you know I really hope you guys find your peace and you know I don't know why you're so obsessed with me maybe because it's I'm beautiful and I'm successful but you know I would love for you guys to follow me and support me instead but if you want to hate on me that's cool too because it's an attention economy baby right and they're still following at the end of the day it's not like you're keeping up with their you know when they screenshot like they screenshot my stories like I can't tell if they're following me can you guys let me know if you're following me they probably don't follow me because like they don't want me to win so they don't follow me but you can I say something I'm sorry if it was like I opened your DM and I never responded and that's why you're mad at me like just DM me again and I'll give me another chance please well ultimately I guess uh what do you want people to take away from like your being is it just do you think more people in the Asian Community could look at the way you live your life so not even asan just commun anybody cuz I have a lot of followers from different walks of life my whole part my whole point of my platform is just to share information be it on how to curl your hair how to like what eyelash extensions I have like it's just to share information because that's all that I do on the Internet is just to get information it's attention economy and I guess information economy all right guys well economy thank you for joining us today Carmen uh anything any last words like comment and subscribe so I can come back can you guys comment down below so I can come back let us know if you like Carmen yeah comment down below if you guys are a fan or if you found what she said was interesting I do think Carmen you have a personality that is different tell me if I Unapologetic you're super Unapologetic you have ADD or no I have ADD yes I think it's you know what it kind you know who do you know who jiaoyang Summers is no she's aind me that let me know if this should be longer let me know if this should be longer oh I touched it if you if you want to go on a 20-minute rant right now we'll we will film it no next time I'm tired okay I need a nap all right she got to go to dinner and she got to go eat Omas I think anyways guys corporate girly teaching you how to invest in yourself check out smas sauce.com thank you shout out to Carmen check out her links down below thank you shout out to Andrew shout out to the fun Bros all right all right everybody until next time we out peace