Famous for his on-demand cooking videos with a humorous and quick-to-follow trending voice, Mr. Tran Duc Hieu (born in 1996), living in Hanoi, has found an unexpected job and income from being "unemployed".
Unemployed father cooks meat, unexpectedly finds a way to make a lot of money from TikTok (Video: Thuong Huyen - Hung Anh).
Followers know Mr. Hieu as “Unemployed Dad” on TikTok thanks to his cooking tutorial videos and humorous way of talking. Few people know that Mr. Hieu used to be the owner of aneducation company.
The pot of braised meat started the career.
In mid-2024, Tran Duc Hieu was forced to announce the dissolution of the education company he founded. With no income and no backup plan, Hieu entered a series of unpredictable unemployment days.
“Thinking about being both a husband and a father of two young children, the feeling of pressure and failure overwhelmed me for a long time,” he said about the time he was unemployed.
Many sleepless nights passed, Mr. Hieu tossed and turned looking for a new direction.
Tran Duc Hieu is the owner of the channel "Unemployed Dad".
“You can’t stay at home forever. Without capital or strength, you can work part-time to earn some extra money,” he confided. “But at the age of 29, 30, and in 3 to 5 years, when you think back, do you have anything of your own? That’s what makes me think about whether I should work for someone else or be my own boss.”
Regaining his spirits, he found a new direction for himself. The young father decided to choose to build a TikTok channel to start a new “career” with the phone in hand.
“I chose TikTok first of all because I can control my channel, then control my time; then I can reach many people in a short time,” he shared about his choice.
Hieu built a channel with content revolving around family meals.
Initially, Hieu wanted to open a channel about content related to his old job, but a surprise came and made him change his decision.
At first, it was just a simple moment of cooking a pot of braised pork for a family meal. Hieu posted a video with a humorous voiceover, telling the story as if talking to a close friend.
But after just a few days, the video suddenly "went viral", attracting thousands of views and interactions.
Reading viewers' comments, plus observing many other content on TikTok, Mr. Hieu decided to switch to creating content about cuisine , sharing cooking skills and family stories.
“The way I dub my videos is the same voice I use when talking to my friends. I think my followers and fans probably like me because of my friendly and humorous way of telling stories, like when talking to friends,” Hieu shared, further analyzing his content style: Just enough humor to make people laugh, and cleverly incorporating trending stories on social networks.
So since the beginning of the year, Mr. Hieu has decided to treat his audience with a series of cooking on demand.
Let viewers choose channel content
Giving the audience the power to choose content, Hieu has more ideas to make videos.
It’s no coincidence that a normal cooking video went viral. Behind that success lies a complex operating mechanism of the TikTok algorithm – the short-form video platform that is reshaping global content consumption habits.
TikTok prioritizes short videos with catchy openings to keep viewers engaged from the first second. The more authentic and relatable the content is, the easier it is to receive the favor of the distribution algorithm. From this perspective, what Hieu did seemed instinctive but turned out to be perfectly in line with the platform's criteria.
“Giving the power to choose the content to the audience, I have more ideas to make videos. For dishes I don’t know how to make, I have to learn first through Youtube, refer to many different ways of making and recipes,” Hieu said.
From simple dishes like braised pork, chicken with mushroom sauce to more elaborate dishes like Western-style vermicelli with fish sauce, he will make them as long as the audience requests them.
At first, Hieu's videos were very simple: natural light, filmed with a phone, edited with the default app. But as the number of viewers increased, he realized he needed to upgrade the quality of the content to go further.
Hieu invested in a separate microphone to record clearer voice and a projector to improve lighting. He also learned professional video editing software to cut and edit more smoothly, add effects and beautiful subtitles.
"I watch other TikTokers' videos to learn composition, camera angles, and transitions. I learn and experiment, and each video must be more polished than the previous one," Hieu shared.
These changes quickly paid off: average watch time per video increased, viewer retention improved significantly - the "golden" metrics that help videos be prioritized by the algorithm for increased distribution.
At first, Hieu tried to release products every day, but not all videos had the expected interaction. But after researching the platform, plus now having a loyal audience, he reduced the time to post videos to 2-3 videos/week.
“It’s like cooking, I will learn what I don’t know. I refer to the experiences of those who have gone before me, see how they guide me to edit beautifully, how to place the camera and light to create harmony…”, Hieu said.
The kitchen becomes the office
For Hieu, the kitchen is not only a place to light the fire for family meals, but also a real office. A place where he can create a source of income for himself like a full-time job.
After a while of building the channel "Unemployed Dad", the first opportunities to make money came to him.
“Once I read the news that if the non-stick coating of a pan peels off, microplastics can enter the body. Taking advantage of this information, I made my first affiliate marketing video, calling on viewers to replace the pan when the surface is scratched,” Hieu shared.
Affiliate marketing allows creators to promote products through affiliate links; each product sold will bring a commission from 5% to 30% of the order value.
Right from the first time, the number of pans sold was up to 400-500", even he was surprised by the effectiveness of content marketing.
Affiliate became the young father’s first source of income. Each product sold through the link in the video description brought him a small commission, but when accumulated large enough, it became a significant source of income.
“Since choosing to do content full-time, I have known and believed that this will be an attractive source of income, no less than my original job. Content creators can rely on their strengths and learn about the platform to choose whether affiliate or advertising booking is more suitable for them,” Hieu shared his perspective.
Affiliate is still not the direction the young father wants. He wants to take advantage of the way of building content, and directly experience the product before introducing it to customers.
So he produced another series: Lou Paid - to review products sent by brands.
“In fact, taking advantage is one thing, but evaluating so that the audience does not lose faith in your channel is another. Nowadays, the audience is very sophisticated, they lose sympathy for 'exaggerated' reviews, perhaps that is why many channels have lost their appeal and original nature,” Hieu analyzed.
As a man who spends a lot of time on housework, Hieu puts himself in the position of a consumer when evaluating products.
“After researching the form of advertising booking, I gradually switched to this direction because it is suitable for the channel's content development orientation. I will experience the product first, if the product is effective and the brand has good policies and incentives, then I will accept bookings and integrate the product into cooking videos,” Hieu shared about the channel's development orientation.
Thanks to his authenticity and approachability, his videos regularly achieve high conversion rates, bringing in a steady income and even growing steadily every month.
Love your wife more when doing cooking
“Thanks to this job, I have more time to spend with my wife and children. Most of all, when I work, I find myself again,” Hieu laughed.
"Half a year of unemployment is precious time. I understand my wife's job better, the pressure of being a mother and a wife," Hieu confided.
Despite receiving many malicious comments like "what kind of man is he to stay in the kitchen," Hieu did not hesitate to share his choice. For him, being a housewife does not reduce his self-worth, on the contrary, it helps him understand more about family values.
“Being a wife or a husband has its own pressures. I have time to stay home, help my wife take care of the children, ensure meals for the family, and that makes me happy to share with my wife during difficult times,” Hieu affectionately said about his wife.
Besides his content and financial success, what Hieu is most proud of is being able to spend more time with his family.
“Thanks to this job, I have more time to spend with my wife and children. Most of all, when I work, I find myself again,” Hieu laughed.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/ong-bo-that-nghiep-kho-noi-thit-bat-ngo-mo-loi-kiem-bon-tien-tu-tiktok-20250530195940416.htm
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