Behind Phuong's Vlog - Our Millions Dollar Year (Episode 0)
Hi, I'm Minh Nguyen, Phuong's husband. We’ve just reflected on how last year went. After discussing our plans for this year, I started writing blogs. Here are some of the passions I discovered throughout the year living with Phuong Le. I want to share how this year is going as a partner of Phuong Le, what we’ve learned, and what it’s like to have an artist wife. Through this series, you’ll get to know the story behind Phuong’s vlog.
Last year ended with a lot of growth in awareness, mindset, healing, spirituality, financial understanding, self-growth, marriage, pain capacity, and wisdom.
Let’s start with how it all began, how we met, and our shared mission, shaped by everything happening in Phuong’s space.
Following in Phuong’s footsteps, you may know her as a Vietnamese artist who has come a long way to reach the global stage. It took her four years without any response to the seeds she planted.
As for myself, I was a hopeless guy. I was trapped in escapism and depression, even attempting suicide.
During the pandemic, I discovered her through an article she wrote called "Why Did You Feed Emptiness?" It struck me because I didn’t expect something like that to exist in Vietnamese. That night, I commented on her post at 4 AM, thinking I’d delete it in the morning.
I found myself scrolling through her Facebook page, Mai Ly Viết Cho Những Tâm Hồn Cô Độc (translated as Writing for Your Loneliness). I read all the poetry and poems she had written. I thought to myself, “Oh, there really is someone like this, of course, huh.” Her poetry spoke to my soul, revealing emotions I had buried. Even though I’d never followed poetry before, her words made me read everything she had written.
And then came her reply. At the time, Phuong was still working on her project, starting her day early with intense focus. We started talking, and I fell in love with the political side of her art and how it touched people’s souls.
Her art encouraged me to live again and try something new. At the time, I began following a critical political voice in my country (ironically, this led me to the next stage of depression) and connected with her perspective. It may sound strange, but that’s how we started—through a shared political ideology.
Over the years, I’ve listened to and admired Phuong for her determination to leave a legacy in this world. Eventually, we dated and became a couple.
2023 marked our very first start together. After failing again at my restaurant job, I was at rock bottom, completely devoid of self-awareness. I thought I was useless and skill-less due to my history. I spent my time jumping from game to game, with no passion or direction.
Phuong invited me to join one of her projects at AE Phuong Le, where the job involved inviting others to join her platform. For the first time, I realized I could do something meaningful. I helped her with the job, and that’s when she discovered my data analysis skills. It was also my first time joining a healthy global community. I was even shocked to realize I could get paid for my work—lol.
Later, she asked me to go to Vung Tau, a place we had dreamed about for years. It was my biggest dream back then (I had a weird image of an old man angrily hanging a cat while sitting by the beach). It was also Phuong’s dream destination to live in.
All the mentors and news pointed to the economy heading toward a downturn, but we had nothing to lose. We needed to leave our comfort zone to grow.
When I left, I had nothing to say to my mom except, “I have to leave to grow up.” We headed to Vung Tau, and after paying for the room with our entire budget...
See ya next time,
Minh Lionaire
