TIM HA

My first taste of media wasn’t in a studio or an agency. It was on TikTok. My content lived in my own point of view: pulling out moments from my daily life, calling them out, making fun of them. Tons of people found it relatable, and the audience kept growing.

The account racked up more than 20 million views, 1.8M likes, and 20K+ followers. That period taught me something most marketers spend years trying to learn: a viral sense. I learned how attention actually moves, what makes someone stop scrolling, and how fast a piece of content can either land or die.

After two years of creating, I hit a wall. The content was performing, but the value I was delivering didn’t line up with what I actually cared about. So I stepped back. If I was going to keep working in media, it needed to mean something. I needed to grow into more than just a content guy.

After 7 Gà, I started Aftertaste Media: my own agency in Melbourne, specialising in F&B social media management and content creation. It was my move from doing the work to building something that delivers it: dealing with clients directly, owning the conversations, scoping projects, and running production end to end.

The communication side was as important as the cameras. I had to pitch, listen, translate a chef’s instinct into a shot list, and earn trust meeting by meeting. That’s how Hakata Gensuke eventually came on as a client.

The thesis is in the name. Food content is easy to make pretty and hard to make mean something. Aftertaste exists to do the second. Cinematic visuals that make you feel the dish, not just see it. The aftertaste is the part that lingers.

With LJS Constructions, a Sydney builder across childcare, commercial, and residential, my responsibilities widened. I came on as the sole marketing coordinator after they dropped their marketing agency, owning brand strategy, content, paid media, SEO, and every piece of print collateral end to end.

The founder had one goal: generate more leads and position LJS as a solid expert in childcare construction. I started with market research and a proper strategy. LJS already had a strong brand identity, but the communication, advertising and SEO weren’t carrying it. I also pinned down their real USP: a contemporary builder against a category of traditional competitors.

To match that positioning, I rolled out a comprehensive content and digital strategy to build awareness: industry conferences, content creation, paid search, SEO, and website work.

Beyond strategy, I led campaigns end-to-end and sharpened my project management chops along the way. Scoping shoots, building timelines, briefing site managers and external creatives, and keeping every moving piece on schedule while juggling paid media, SEO and print collateral. That’s how I helped LJS land their ISO 9001 certification in March 2026 and the 2026 Local Business Award win for New Business of the Year. I was also nominated by LJS for the Youth of the Year finalist nod at the same awards.

Here’s the pain point I keep seeing. Vietnamese food has huge potential and it’s genuinely loved by people all over the world. Yet on the global stage it still sits behind Thai, Korean and Japanese cuisine, all of which have been elevated and properly told over the last decade.

That gap is the reason I started this. I’m putting my strength in media and my passion for cooking into one project: high-quality Vietnamese food content, sharing the dishes, the stories, and the culture I grew up with.

The mission is bigger than the recipes. I want to help push Vietnamese cuisine onto the bigger map, the way other Asian cuisines already have been.

Personal voice, deliberate cadence. Building a steady audience around food I actually care about.