Rizwan Rabbani, 35, bRadfoRd
His YouTube success has earned him enough money for a million-dollar home and two luxury cars
in april 2015, I was working as a personal trainer, with my own private gym in Brampton. Around that time, I began training Rupan Bal, a local Indian-Canadian YouTuber. He gave me the idea of starting my own YouTube channel. I decided to film in English, Hindi and Punjabi so I could reach a larger audience. At first, I only put out a few videos a month. That summer, I went to a picnic for the South Asian community. A group of guys came up to me and wanted to take photos. It hit me so hard, like, Oh my god, I can make this work.
The following November, I posted a video about fat-loss workouts for women at home. Within weeks, it had a million views. That video blew up so much that I started getting sponsorship contracts. By December, we hit 100,000 subscribers. Six months later, we were at 500,000. A couple of months after we hit one million subscribers, I opened my own 10,000-square-foot gym, Muscle Mecca by My Bollywood Body, in Brampton. It was a $1.2-million project. We sold out of memberships within six weeks.
All the videos we produce now are sponsored. I charge around $4,700 to speak for 45 to 60 seconds and shout-out a product. In one video, I mentioned that I offer online coaching via text and email. We received 56,000 inquiries about it in the next week. I charge $110 a month to provide clients with customized biweekly nutrition and workout programs, and they can reach out to me with their questions. I now have 3,300 active clients worldwide.
I work 100 hours a week, and I love it. I wake up at 4:30 every morning and I’m in my gym by 5:30. I film at the gym once or twice a week for two hours, and we can produce five to 10 videos from that. We don’t rehearse. Everything is raw and unscripted, and the videos get posted as-is.
I spend $17,000 per month on social media promotion. I also have a video editor, videographer, PR manager and publicists in Toronto, Dubai and Mumbai. I have a huge following in India, Pakistan, the Emirates. I understand their culture, I understand their diet, so it’s easy for me to connect with them. I travel at least twice a month to meet with sponsors or to judge fitness competitions. I get stopped so often that it gets tiring. I’m frequently recognized by border services officers, police officers, security guys. They’re like, “Are you the guy from YouTube?” And I’m like, “No, no, no, I drive a cab.”
I’m so happy I can support my wife and three kids with my YouTube career. We just moved into a brand-new house in Bradford that cost a million dollars. We spent over $300,000 on finishes and furnishings. I also have another income property and four cars. I’m getting my latest acquisition next summer: a $250,000 McLaren.