Dex Kim poses for the lens. *Photo by Sofia Savchenko*

By Tom Victoria

Dex Kim brings others along his self-improvement journey. He posts about fitness, looksmaxxing and productivity.

The content creator explained why he enjoys posting on those topics.

“I would say sharing my own experiences,” he said. “I went through different things, especially accepting my own body, understanding that I am okay the way I am, but I can also improve and I can work on things that I'm maybe not happy with. And if there's something that I am maybe not happy with but I can't change it, then I just have to accept it and learn to live with that, so that it doesn't stop me from living my life. That's one of the most enjoyable things.”

Dex, a Kazakhstan native who relocated to Austria, also finds interaction with his followers rewarding.

“The second thing is, of course, community,” he said. “I can talk to them, see what they're going through. I get a lot of messages from people that are trying to, for example, lose weight, to get in shape. They share their struggles and I can give them feedback, or they just tell me that they feel motivated from my videos, from my posts. That's also very nice to hear.”

Dex, 28, started focusing on self-improvement nearly a decade ago.

“It started a little bit earlier than Covid,” he said. “It was in 2019, but the COVID season basically gave me the push to start working on my body specifically. In 2019, I started to read a lot of self-help books. Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod was one of them. It actually changed the way I approached my life and also the beginning of the day. All those habits that are written in that book helped me a lot. One of the things was moving your body, and then I started to stretch. And during Covid, you're locked in. I was in a very small studio apartment where I lived by myself. I was thinking, okay, I can't go outside, so I gotta do something. I started to do home workouts. So it would be just using the things that you actually can find in your own apartment. But it was very small. I used the chair, I used the bed, I used the table, I used the bands and just my body weight. This is how I actually started to work out. Later on when the quarantine ended and you could actually go outside, I started to go to the gym.”

Dex, who is ethnically Korean, explained how his family ended up in Central Asia.

“If we talk about my father's line, the Korean line, it happened that they had to flee from the war with Japan when Japan invaded Korea,” he said. “They landed in Vladivostok, which is the east part of Russia. A little bit before the Second World War, they were deported by Joseph Stalin to Central Asia.”

Dex said Stalin claimed it was too difficult to distinguish Koreans from Japanese.

“They were brought to Central Asia,” he said. “This is how they end up being in Kazakhstan.”

As an adult, Dex relocated to Austria.

“Eight years ago, I moved to Austria for studying,” he said. “When I was about to finish high school, I was thinking, where I'm going to study. A daughter of my mother's friend, she came to my hometown and she said you can actually think about Europe because it's not as expensive as people think it is. The studies themselves were not actually more expensive than studying in a good university in Kazakhstan. It was actually cheaper at that time, but the main struggle would be to learn a new language, which is German for me, and then to get the visa because you have to go through all bureaucracy and all the processes of getting the visa. But my family and I thought, let's try it out. I believed in myself that I can learn German, and I did. The whole process took around two years. I started studying a little bit later on, but it was so worth it. I really like to live here in Austria, specifically Vienna.”

Dex, who is studying Communication Science at the University of Vienna, pointed out knowing German helps in several European countries, including Switzerland.

“It's convenient that at least a few countries speak it,” he said.

Dex added one can find Germans in other areas of the continent, too.

“They are everywhere,” he said. “You go to Spain, you hear German speaking. You go to Italy or Greece, you hear Germans. They're across Europe as well.”

Dex has the option of becoming an Austrian citizen someday.

“I've been a resident here for the last eight years,” he said. “It's not like I'm a tourist because I have a job here. I'm studying here. The first step would be to get a permanent residency for me. Probably after finishing university, I can get that. With citizenship, yes, that would be one of my goals. One of the things, though, they don't allow dual citizenships. So basically I would have to give up my Kazakh one, which I am open to do so. But let's see how everything works out first because it is a whole process.”

Dex has the ability to travel throughout most of Europe.

“Since I'm a resident here within European Union, it's not a problem for me at all,” he said. “There are no border controls. You can just travel as you want. If I go outside of Europe, then it is basically only my passport that I have now, and my passport is not a strong one. There are plenty of countries that I can't just visit. For example, the U.S., I can't just come to the U.S. I have to get a visa. It's a real process. I have to book everything in advance, then I have to go to the embassy, then I have to go through the interviews and hoping that they give me a visa. This is why I love traveling within Europe, because I have an easy access to it. Once I'm outside of it with my passport, there are some countries that I can visit, but not all of them.”

Countries Dex can visit without dealing with the swath of red tape include Kazakhstan.

“To Central Asia, I just can enter,” he said. “If we talk about East Asia, I can come to Korea with my e-visa, but to Japan, it's a whole process again. It really depends where you want to go.”

As a teen, Dex started making social media content with handmade, do-it-yourself and other creative videos.

“I started when I was 16,” he said. “I started in Russian since it's my first language, and I did YouTube. I did it for four, five years, and it was very successful. I got 100,000 followers that time. I was invited to Moscow multiple times to do advertisements and work with other YouTubers and influencers. That was my starting point.”

Dex then switched gears upon relocating.

“Then I moved to Austria, and my priorities changed a little bit because I started to speak German and English,” he said. “I thought, well, I'm in Europe now. I want to work differently. I switched to Instagram, but still did it in my first language, Russian. I was talking about how we can build a community, so basically mentoring people how to grow social media. In 2022, when the war in Ukraine and Russia started, I realized it doesn't make sense for me to work in Russian anymore. I switched to working in German and English completely. I would say 80 percent. This is why I switched to working with clients internationally. And then this year, I decided to do my own account.”

Dex creates social media content for others and a nongovernmental organization working with victims of human trafficking.

“That happened in 2022,” he said. “When I started to work in German, I wanted to find a job here in Austria, in Vienna, something that is right here, a little bit more stable. I was looking for jobs and a friend of mine, she was already working on that NGO, but she was leaving. She said we're looking for someone to replace me, and I know you understand social media. I applied. During the interview, I realized it's something that I want to do. So the NGO, what we do there, we are not the first contact with victims of human trafficking. We're working with other NGOs that do that. Once they already have at least accommodations, they have been rescued and have a little bit more stability, they want to get integrated into the work world. This is what we help with. For example, we offer German classes or if they can't read Latin letters, reading classes. We have a social worker. We also do sewing workshops where we do handmade bags.”

Dex said the people who are helped need to learn how to reacclimate into society.

“The reality is that we just need something for them to learn to be punctual again, to work with people together, to understand what the time concept is,” he said. “Because if you're locked in somewhere, you don't really understand even the timeline anymore. That's what we basically do. We help them with passing the German exam, applying to the job. Sometimes our social worker goes to the interviews with them. We also work with the hotel that offers us positions in that hotel for the clients. This is what our NGO does. And I'm responsible for the content. I'm doing Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube as well as newsletters to talk to people that support us and all the graphic work.”

Among the content Dex does for the NGO is covering the people helped.

“We have success stories,” he said. “And I'm always happy to post those.”

Dex especially likes working for a noble cause.

“It has purpose,” he said. “That's what brings me joy. As the work itself, it is something where it's pretty much the same skills, and I could apply it for a brand or a bigger company. But here, I understand it's something good and it has a purpose. I feel like I make a difference in a certain way. So that's the main reason.”

Dex also posts content for freelance clients.

“It's still the same field and very similar to the YouTube that I did,” he said. “The topic that time on YouTube was do-it-yourself since I love to paint. I was doing paintings and then craftings, but the whole idea of how you can catch people's attention and then give them value and motivate them is pretty much the same concept that I use now.”

Dex would like to pursue his painting.

“This is what I really want to do,” he said. “I don't have so many pieces at the time. I have around 10. But one of the things that I would really like to do is an art exhibition in Vienna first, and then see if someone wants to buy it. If not, I can also do it online with my account. I really enjoy painting, but I also don't do it as often. It's more of an impulse when I feel like I want to detach from the world to concentrate on something else. It's kind of like meditation, but I really enjoy it.”

Dex hopes to inspire his social media followers.

“One of the things is motivation to start working on themselves,” he said. “I don't always think about only the body and the looksmaxxing even though it's a very trendy topic. I always like when I chat with my audience. I always say it's also about wholemaxxing. It's basically working on yourself. And it really motivates me when people say, hey, you motivate me. But besides the motivation, practical tips, how you can actually start because motivation only lives this long. If you don't put it in practice, it doesn't change that much in reality. So I'm always trying to put some practical tips in my posts, in my videos that they can implement. I understand that I can put seven tips in one post, and most probably they will try at least maybe one or two. But if they worked, this is great.”

Dex stressed the importance of feeling good about oneself.

“This is something that helped me out a lot because we can use different energies,” he said. “Being angry and being hateful is also very strong energy and you can use it to achieve something in life. People do something because they want to prove something to someone or because they're angry at someone. But I don't always think that it's a very good motivation and a very good cause. I did try for a while to improve myself because I hated the way I looked because I didn't like how my body looked. And it never lasted long. You just feel terrible because you do it because you don't like yourself. I realized I needed a different approach. I need an approach of: I accept myself, I love my body, and I love who I am. And because of that, I also want to get better, I want to improve, I want to do nice things for myself. You can love yourself and be proud of yourself, then you can also improve. It's the perfect combination and the perfect source of your motivation.”

Dex also has done modeling.

“I did model for a few hotels here in Vienna, a few restaurants here and also working with photographers that take amazing pictures,” he said. “It is something that I actually would like to go into more, also working with brands. Of course, brands can come to me and I can do advertisements on my account. It's one of the goals where I say here I am. I could be on the pictures for your website or for a poster. That would be a thing that I would really like to go into. I would say I'm not a standard size for Europe because I'm Asian. I'm pretty small. But let's see, people go into diversity more now. Let's see how it turns out.”

Dex said some emotions are harder to depict than others for the lens.

“I would say typical negative emotions are a little bit harder to portray, for example, to be very arrogant in the pictures,” he said. “I'm trying my best in front of the camera, but it doesn't always work to look pissed or like you don't care. But I'm not bad at being happy, smiling. Being sad also works with me. Neutral face expressions. But arrogance, being pissed or angry is a little bit harder for me.”

The expressions Dex employs vary with the job.

“It really depends with which photographers you work,” he said. “A lot of times, it's just a very model face, sometimes a little bit like this sadder look with the eyes. I have a very good photographer here in Vienna and he also became my friend. So when we do the shootings, I'm like, let's do the typical model photos and then something where I'm smiling and then where I'm happy. I like to see the pictures of myself where I smile and I'm genuinely happy even though I also like the editorial looks, too. It really depends on who you work with and what the purpose of the shooting is.”

Dex said modeling requires patience for lengthier shoots and the ability to work rapidly for others.

“There are different types of modeling,” he said. “Sometimes the time is short and you have to take a lot of different pictures. So you would have to move very quickly with your poses. This is something that I'm not good at yet because I didn't have enough practice for that. But I also didn't have so many shootings where the time is so limited. You have to do so many poses and so many pictures. But I am pretty good at holding a position for a few minutes, but if you have to stand in a specific pose and you just have to hold it, it can be actually exhausting. But I'm pretty good at it.”

Dex is motivated to keep making content.

“The key is you do the things when you don't actually wanna do them today,” he said. “That's the thing. For me, it is the pressure of I said it's going to be done on this day and it has to be done on this day. I have a need to prove to myself or to others that I'm good at this. But it keeps me moving forward, keeps me working hard. And with my own account, I don't feel the pressure so much. I feel this where I'm in euphoria a little bit where I really want to do the things. If it comes to content and marketing, there are so many theories in your head. I could make this video, let's see how the audience will respond. I have this certain hook or this certain visual if it's gonna be received well or not. And I have so many different topics that I still want to test, and there's so much to post actually. I just have to find the time to do that. So I'm very excited to test them all and see how it works.”

Dex dispensed advice to aspiring models.

“If you are at the very beginning, one of the tools that helped me, and it sounds super weird, but you just stand in front of the mirror completely naked until you hear the first negative thought about yourself,” he said. “When I first tried it, it lasted three seconds, and then I immediately saw something in the mirror where I thought, hmmm, I would like to change that. But the more you do it, the longer it takes you to get to those negative thoughts. At some point, you understand that you can stay there longer, a few minutes already, and you're quite happy with how you look like. This is very important because as a model, it doesn't matter how pretty you are, how skinny you are, people will see things. People will say he's not muscular enough, he's not skinny enough, he's not tall enough. So you have to be very confident in yourself. That's what I believe in. So I think this exercise helps a lot.”

Dex said the key to creating content is to delve deeper than the surface.

“One of the things is to try to understand people on a deeper level, not just something that is floating on the surface,” he said. “So if we talk about looksmaxxing and fitness, the typical thing would be people want to get in shape. That's simple. You can write something, three tips how to get in shape before September. Not a bad hook, not a bad post or video. But in reality, people do it for different reasons. Some people do it because they want to prove something to their parents, that they're good enough, that they are strong enough and they're fit enough. Some people want to do it because they want to get attention. They want to have more partners and have more attention and get compliments. And so for that, you write something completely different. You understand why people want to do certain things and then you package it and then you give them value. You understand what drives people.”

Dex said creating content for others depends on the type of people involved.

“Some of the clients, they don't want to know how smart you are, they want to hear how smart they are,” he said. “You just have to put your ideas into their heads and they'll believe that that's what they came up with. Some people say you do what you think is the best and I'm gonna accept it. There's a different type of client where you then actually go into research and do the work. So the first step would be understanding what type of client it is, and then you can move from there. Because I did make mistakes thinking like, I'm gonna start with this client and they'll trust me 100 percent because I'm an expert in my field. Oftentimes, it's not the case. They just want a person who would do something what they think is the best.”

Dex said those relocating to another country should consider what they are seeking.

“It really depends on the reasons you move,” he said. “But my reasons, I wanted something different. I love the country where I'm from, and it's a great country, but there are certain things that I felt like if it was different, it would fit me a little bit better. This is why I was always looking to the more of the Western approach in the Western world. It's very important that once you moved somewhere, you try to see how you fit in and how you can keep the best of the two worlds. I don't believe that one culture is way better than the other one. You can still take some good things from your own culture and then keep it as your values. But then you also adapt to where you are because that was the whole reason why you moved somewhere, because you wanted something different and you also accept that.”

Dex cited how he fits in with the mindset of Austrians.

“There are a lot of things where I am very Austrian now,” he said. “For example, the appointments. You have to make them months in advance or weeks in advance most of the time. Even if you want to meet friends, most of the time you have to make an appointment in advance, where back in my home country, that's not usually the case. Sometimes it's just on the whim. Some people just show up on your door and you will welcome them. This is not part of the Austrian culture. Here, I'm more like the Austrian one. There are also other things where I feel like I still kept from my home country and I still like it. And that makes me a little bit more of a complex person. So my advice would be keep the best of both worlds.”

Dex also offered advice to new content creators.

“You have to remember that you will have to play the game a little bit,” he said. “There is how algorithms work. There is how people think. You can do your thing and this is great, but if nobody sees it and nobody watches it, it doesn't bring you anything. You can be a good painter, but if your videos don't get the attention and the views, it doesn't matter how beautiful the painting is, nobody's going to ever see it. So in this case, you'll have to remember that you are going into the field and this field is playing a certain game and you have to understand the rules and how it's done. Once you crack that, you can do whatever you want because you're very good at it. But at first, learn the rules, try to understand how it works.”

Dex said folks wanting to start self-improvement shouldn’t wait.

“Stop waiting for the perfect moment or the Monday or the beginning of the month or the beginning of the year because it always gets postponed,” he said. “You always think it's going to be on Monday, then something comes up, then it's going to be at the beginning of the month. If you have an impulse right now, you can even do it right now. If you have an impulse to do a workout and you think about it and you have the time, do a 15, 30-minute workout and that's going to be the beginning. This is how it's going to start for you.”

Dex said the same rule applies to other areas.

“If we talk about looks, if there is something you can change and it doesn't cost you too much of who you are, your time and your money, go for it,” he said. “Because you can work on your appearance, you can work on your style, you can work on even as a human, on your personality. If you think you're not punctual, you can work on that and become punctual. If there is something that you can't change, or you think it was gonna cost you a fortune and it's not worth it, or it's gonna cost you too much of who you are, then don't change it. But then learn to live with that. Stop thinking about it all the time. Stop thinking how not great it is or how bad it is and learn to accept it and then move forward.”

Dex’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dexkimlife/

Dex’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@dexkimlife

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