TRUNG T PHAN: FROM FAILED SCRIPTWRITER TO WRITING FOR MILLIONS

Morning!

I’ve written this newsletter in some places over the years. Today, I’m writing it from 10,000 metres in the air on a flight from Porto to Madrid.

I hate planes, anyone else feel the same way?

Anyway, today I’m going to breakdown how a man went from:

- “Failed” comedy scriptwriter
- Living out in Vietnam
- Not quite sure what to do with his life

To:

- A man with 600,000+ Twitter followers
- Writing for Bloomberg
- And founding a rocketing AI company

His name is Trung T Phan and here’s how he grew viral:

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Breaking Down The Strategy

At 22, Trung Phan was completely unknown. He was just a lad who struggled growing up in Canada and had decided to move back to Vietnam (where his parents were from).

He had aspirations to become a comedy scriptwriter, but at the time things weren’t playing out.

He was writing scripts, working with an agent, he even sold a script to Fox - yet still, nothing came to fruition like he had thought it would.

As his dreams of being a comedy scriptwriter faded, Trung did what most people would do and finally succumbed to corporate life.

He took a job as a researcher at Kensho Technologies and started working the classic 9-5.

At this point, it looked like his dreams of being a writer were over.

Until one day a friend of a friend recommended he join The Hustle.

Trung had extensive knowledge of the business world (from his time working in the corporate world), whilst also having a knack for comedy (from his scriptwriting days). And with The Hustle being a business newsletter with a comedic tone…

It was the perfect match.

So Trung applied for the job, got it, and was now one of The Hustle’s newest writers.

This is where everything changed for Trung.

Because for all of his life, Trung had been gatekeeping his writing. He was a scriptwriter. The last thing he wanted was for everyone to be able to see his work before he was able to sell it.

So instead he was:

- Spending years on his scripts
- Showing them to a few interested prospects
- And if they didn’t buy he was hiding them away

But when he joined The Hustle he was finally pushed to write “online” - even if it was for work.

When talking about first posting online in a recent podcast, Trung said:

It opened up a whole new world for Trung. Over the next few months, he began taking writing online more seriously and began posting across different personal mediums that he enjoyed - Twitter and Reddit being his main channels.

And that is when the Trung Phan rocket ship began to take off.

But it wasn’t what Trung did that rocketed him to where he is today.

Millions of people post on Twitter and Reddit just like Trung did.

What he did wasn’t special at all.

But how he did it….

Well, THAT is what has made him successful.

And there are 3 key aspects to that how:

1) His Comedic Tone

Do you know how many people write about tech and business on Twitter?

Me neither, but from the look of my feed, it’s every man and their dog.

It’s a hugely saturated space and widely dominated by people who’ve been in the space forever.

When Trung started out most people would’ve told him it made no sense to talk on those topics.

I mean, he was literally a nobody at this point.

But, Trung noticed that everyone had the same “What” (posting about tech and business) and also had the same “How” (quite formal and detailed).

So Trung attacked his content in the same we he attacks all his writing – with comedy.

He subbed out the corporate jargon, boring advice, and yawn-worthy updates. And replaced them with memes, hilarious disses, and pure comedy.

People still got the same news/info from Trung’s content as they would with anyone who talked about tech and business.

The difference is they were entertained by Trung’s posts. He was different, and that difference came from his “How”.

2) Threads and memes

Although some people might know Trung for his memes or jokes, that’s not what I or many others know him for.

I actually follow him for his unbelievable deep-dive threads.

Seems pretty contradictory to his usual comedic “shit posting” - and it is, but that’s what makes it so great.

Trung essentially has a two-prong approach to his content:

Prong 1) Memes and shit posting

Prong 2) Deep dive threads

On the surface, this seems like two very different types of content, surely that would confuse his audience?

Maybe.

But these 2 prongs can be easily reframed from a marketing perspective as:

Memes = Top of funnel content (awareness)

Threads = Middle of funnel content (nurture)

Not everyone is going to read Trung’s threads. They’re deep dives that often take 2-3 minutes to read.

But his memes, well, they can be shared/liked/read by pretty much anyone who even comes close to the realm of business.

• Marketing managers

• CEOs

• Social media interns

• Finance departments

Which means he gets huge amounts of exposure from the memes (see stats on some of his memes below).

But then he still gets his “1000 true fans” from his threads (although in this case, it’s probably more like 10,000 true fans).

3) Always has an angle

Arguably Trung’s best attribute is his ability to find a unique angle with everything that he writes.

Put the comedy to the side for a second.

Because honestly, if you took the comedy out of Trung’s strategy – he wouldn’t be as big, but I’m confident he’d still have a large following.

And that’s because of the angle he takes on things.

So many people fall into the trap of just “Telling” with their content. They become like a Wikipedia page just regurgitating information.

It’s all the same shit, just said in a slightly different way.

But Trung takes a completely different angle that no one has ever talked about before.

The perfect example of this is his recent thread on Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ painting:

The painting is the third most visited painting in the world. It’s infamous and millions have people have written about it.

But Trung didn’t:

- Give an art lesson on how it was painted (been done before)
- Give a history lesson on how it came to be (been done before)
- Or give a critical analysis of what it represents (been done before)

Instead, he took the angle of its effect on the development of photography (definitely NOT been done before).

It’s these unique angles on well-known things that make Trung’s writing so interesting to read.

He makes you see things in a way you’ve never seen them before.

4) * BONUS * Statement piece

Okay, so this point honestly doesn’t quite fit in with how Trung grew viral, but it was an awesome point he made in a recent podcast appearance and I thought I should share it.

He said that everyone should have a piece of content that he calls a “Statement piece”.

By Trung’s definition, this is a piece of content that takes you 20-30 hours to put together that gives people a great gist of who you are and what you care about.

A piece that you’d be proud to have at the top of your website, pinned to your Twitter, or linked on your Wikipedia.

But your statement piece doesn’t have to be a long-form written article, it could be:

- A YouTube video
- A LinkedIn carousel
- A list of things

But whatever it is, it should be your best work.

(Like I said, not really tied in with his growth strategy, but I thought it was an awesome tip!)

If there is anything you take from this breakdown, let it be that the best way to differentiate yourself (especially when it comes to your content) isn’t through WHAT you’re doing, it’s by HOW you do it.

Millions of people have YouTube channels.
But how can you approach it differently?

Millions of people have newsletters.
But how can you take a different angle than them?

Millions of people run marketing agencies.
But HOW can you market differently?

You don’t need to be a trailblazer to stand out. You just need to differentiate with your how.

Right, that’s all from me today.

A little bit of a different one than usual, but I hope it was just as valuable.

Until next time,

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of how Trung Phan grew viral. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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