He’s rubbed elbows with Terry Crews, Steve Harvey and P90X creator Tony Horton. His YouTube channel has more than 3 million subscribers and his fitness videos have surpassed 430 million views. Apart from being a YouTube sensation, he’s also the CEO of one the Internet’s most popular training sites, sixpackshortcuts.com. But ascending the fitness industry ladder wasn’t always so easy for UH alumnus Mike Chang.
Chang began his fitness journey when he was 12, following along to exercise videos and forming a hobby that would turn into a life-long passion. In college, Chang sold gym memberships in a handful of local gyms to make ends meet and eventually became a certified personal trainer. In 2009, he moved to Austin with hopes of starting his own business, which proved its individual challenges.
When UH marketing alumnus Mike Chang’s first YouTube video got several thousand views, he knew he’d found his niche. | Courtesy of Mike Chang
“I had to give up everything,” Chang said. “Money, credit, my house in Houston. I came to (Austin) and lived (like) a bum.”
That same year, Chang and his business partner bought their first domain name and began developing his workout program. Chang used the skills he earned on the way to his marketing and invested heavily in building trust with his customers. Not sure of which traffic source would work, he tried different marketing channels. In 2010, he uploaded his first video on YouTube.
“The video actually did very well,” Chang said. “It was surprisingly well. It got 10,000 views in the first month and half, which is — I guess — a lot of views with no subscribers.”
Surprised with the results and the amount of exposure, Chang decided that YouTube would be one of the platforms to help launch his business. Chang’s company has 50 employees and continues to grow. For Chang, maintaining and growing his business has been the biggest challenges.
“It’s becoming pretty big. There’s a lot of moving parts,” Chang said. “It was a lot simpler when we first started. There were only one or two revenue streams and the sales model was very basic.”
Though the challenges are consistent, Chang relies on his team and knows he can count on his business partners. They pride themselves on employing an inclusive company culture.
“There’s a lot of other guys on our team that are really smart,” Chang said. “So we bounce (ideas) off a lot of other people.”
As a company, their goal is to help transform lives through fitness and mentorship. The end product is a lifestyle, not a routine, with lessons that can be used in other areas of life.
“I’m passionate about what I do because I love fitness,” Chang said. “I would train every day and help others (whether) I had a fitness business or not.”
