When scrolling through Instagram, there’s a chance to come across a familiar face under the account name michael.mygoals. With the rising trend of online creators sharing motivational and academic advice, senior Michael Chung was inspired to create videos following his high school journey. Chung began posting short-form videos in June and has since accumulated over 1,800 followers and 500,000 views.
“The person who inspired me is this [creator] named Jun Yuh. His credibility as a person and his story is very inspiring because he got his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the same time while running and building his personal brand. That inspired me to also try to share my knowledge and what I learned,” Chung said. “Initially, I was doing very intense, motivational content mirroring a lot of Yuh’s videos, but more recently, I’ve been showing my journey as a high schooler applying to college.”
Before Chung committed to creating videos, he had to overcome the obstacles that came with documenting his personal life to users across the world.
“I went into this with a mindset that I’ll probably become the subject of jokes at family gatherings and that people are going to call me cringe,” Chung said. “I’ve actually gotten a lot more positive feedback than I expected—people [are] saying these videos are really helpful and motivates them to [be productive].”
After some time posting videos and gaining a following, Chung began diversifying his content: daily vlogs, academic resources for high schoolers, Q&A sessions and challenges on his Instagram stories.
“I’ve committed to doing the ‘Juns4wins’ challenge, which is basically having a physical win like exercising; a mental win, which is learning something or developing a skill; a spiritual win like meditation or praying; and then accountability, which is just journaling and making sure that I post my wins on my account,” Chung said.
Though he began making videos to inspire others, Chung found himself being motivated through running the account.
“It has been super beneficial for me because it encourages me to push myself when I don’t feel like doing anything,” Chung said. “For example, last night, I didn’t have a physical win yet. If I didn’t have the account, I probably would have been like ‘whatever’ but because [I had] the account, I went on a run outside.”
With the luck of the Instagram algorithm, Chung’s videos appear on the screens of McLean students.
“Especially since I’m a senior applying to college as well, his reels are more relatable to me. It’s sort of motivation but more a daily reminder that I’m not alone in the process,” senior Youngchan Kim said. “I don’t think there’s a big difference between his Instagram character and his real life character. There’s a lot of big influencers who have a completely different personality when they are in front of the camera and behind it. Michael in real life is genuinely a humble guy with a great personality and it shows through his content.”
Beyond a platform to post videos, his account establishes his personal brand.
“My main goal is to build my personal brand [which] is basically an online presence that exhibits who you are. It’s also a point of accountability for myself in terms of committing myself to something and then doing it every single day,” Chung said. “If I post every day for a year, then it’ll show a lot of progress and I’ll be able to gain quite a big following, which is very beneficial long term. If I want to, say, launch a digital product or business, I would already have an audience.”
In the future, Chung plans to continue posting after high school.
“I hope to continue posting every day. As long as I post every day, then I consider that successful,” Chung said. “After I graduate, I would assume I’ll probably just continue doing either motivational content, tips, or just continuing to post like journey content.”
Chung hopes that his viewers are inspired to also take a chance and build a personal brand themselves.
“For people who don’t like showing their face on camera, I would say, seriously consider it, because there’s a lot of long term benefits. Let’s say you’re going for a job, and your employer sees your personal brand, that’s another aspect to your personality that they can account for, and it could help you stand out among other people,” Chung said. “ You can just take whatever you’re passionate about and start talking about it. The only thing that will stop you from achieving that kind of success is if you stop yourself.”
