How Rohit got over 100k subscribers in under 2 years by creating Apple nostalgia

This is an original Creator Story by Strivehouse. Creator Stories dive into the origin story and growth strategies of real creators. If you’re a creator who wants to accelerate your creator journey, turn your passion into a business, and/or land brand deals alongside Rohit, please visit his Strivehouse profile page here.

Who are you?

My name is Rohit and I’m mostly known as the the creator of the iClassic YouTube channel (100k+ subs). Before iClassic, I also created 6topics, a YouTube channel that accrued over 5M views, and I recently graduated from the Schulich School of Business.

What is your personal backstory that led you to start your creator journey?

When I was 10 years old, I got my first iPod Touch 2nd generation, and I used to jailbreak devices back in the day. I loved jailbreaking because I was able to play around with unique capabilities of the phone (since Apple was pretty restrictive). Then college came and life got a lot more busy, so I paused a lot of my passion projects with Apple products. When COVID came around though, I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands, which allowed me to devote more time towards iClassic. When I first started iClassic, I was strictly focused on making the best content possible. For example, one of my early video ideas was to recreate old Apple ads using copyrighted music. The only risk to this approach was that copyrighted music couldn’t earn any revenue. However, I still chose to use copyrighted music because I knew that my subscribers would like good music with good video, so I prioritized viewing enjoyment over monetary gains in the early days. Once I got monetized via YouTube’s partner program, I then focused on making revenue (and therefore stopped using copyrighted music), but my early YouTube days was strictly focused on making the best videos possible without any compromise.

When you first started as a creator, what were some of your early challenges?

When I first started, I only had a $10 tripod and my iPhone. So I struggled with basic things, like finding the best lighting — I literally had to move my desk closer to the window during the daytime to create my own lighting. I was also filming on an iPhone 6s camera, which was pretty bad. So even though my equipment was basic, I was only focused on validating whether people would truly watch my videos and whether there was a market here. If I validated the idea, then I would be more comfortable investing money to get better equipment. And every creator should know that results do not come overnight. You’ll have to take time to figure out what your viewers want, even if you only have a very small budget to work with.

What were your strategies to get from 0 to 1k subscribers

It took me about 4–5 months to get to 1k subscribers. I tried out so many different types of content — from phone reviews to unboxings, Apple ads, and more. I found that the iPhone ad videos performed the best. I monitored this via the YouTube studio app — which showed me what videos performed best. I also learned that YouTube is very cyclical. In other words, if views went down one month, it will probably go up the following month. So my strategy was rather simple — I figured out which videos performed the best and doubled down on them. For example, I made a video called “It’s 2012 and you just bought an iPhone 5” — this video performed really well in the first 5 months, so I later created a similar video called “It’s 2011 and you just bought the iPhone 4s”. Both of these videos performed well so I kept making these types of videos. Put simply, I tested out a ton of different content ideas, listened to my audience in terms of which videos performed best, and doubled down.

When you were finally able to monetize your YouTube videos, did that change anything?

It definitely changed a big part of how I made my videos. For example, once I was monetized, I stopped using copyrighted music, and I had to therefore shift my overall strategy. I ended up making less ad-style content, since those hinged strongly on copyrighted music, and instead focused more on iPhone reviews, unboxing videos, and other content types. So to recap, I started off with 0 subscribers and tried to garner an audience by doing these Apple-styled ads with copyrighted music. Once I got that audience, I was able to pivot to longer-form content beyond just ads.

What was the single most important driver to your growth as a content creator?

Consistency is the most important thing. At some point, I was posting every Saturday or Sunday at a completely random time. And ever since, I kept this schedule every week. I didn’t have much of a marketing strategy — I mainly relied on quality content with catchy titles. I did have an Instagram and Twitter, but they only had like 20 followers, so it didn’t really help with marketing. At some point, I also figured out this interesting trend with my videos — if I posted a viral video, the next video would likely flop. The video after that would again perform well — so on and so forth. Despite this weird cyclical trend, I realized that consistency is the only solution to break through the noise. Every content creator will probably experience similar ebbs and flows, but only those who post consistently will ride those waves in the right direction.

How did you market yourself as you grew as a creator?

Outside of YouTube, I only focused on 2 platforms — Twitter and Instagram. For Instagram, I usually did about one photo every two weeks, so nothing crazy. The photos notified my followers that a new video just came out and encouraged them to check it out. Besides posting about my videos, I also posted photos of my iPhone collection. Twitter, on the other hand, took time. I have about 7.5k followers today, which may seem like a decent amount, but this took a long, long time. It was all about posting consistently, doubling down on the content that my followers resonated with, and never getting discouraged.

What has been the biggest challenge throughout your creator journey so far?

For me, the biggest challenge has been running out of ideas. There are only so many iPhones and so many Apple products — and it’s difficult to make consistently unique content sometimes. Some content creators get over this challenge by simply recycling content. Instead of solely relying on recycling ideas, I try to maximize the content I can get out of any given Apple device. For example, I have this prototype iPhone that I got for $20 (which is crazy), and I might do one video covering how this is a prototype device, another video about its software, and so on. In other words, creators should always try to maximize the amount of content they can get out of a single idea.

If you were to give advice to yourself when you first started creating content, what would you say?

If you’ve had this idea that you’ve always wanted to start, it’s better to take action than to wait it out. Many people like to give excuses on why they haven’t started yet. “I don’t have the equipment yet”, “I’m waiting for the right time in my career”, “I want to sit on the idea to make sure it’s really worth doing,” and so on. But my advice would be to just get started, and time will tell whether the idea can be validated. The other dimension of this advice, though, is that results don’t come overnight. When you first start something, many people expect instant validation because their idea is so great. But no matter how great your idea might be, you will never get instant validation. It will take months upon months — maybe even years — before you see results. So you have to do what you love, persistent every day, and you will see the results come naturally.

What tools or SaaS products do you use in your daily creator life?

When I first started out, I used the standard Notes app on iOS. These days, I use Notion (which every creator pretty much uses). I’ve also used Final Cut Pro, which is kind of advanced, but I had prior experience using it in classes. That said, any creator can get along just fine with iMovie.

What’s in store for your future?

I’m going to build a legit studio in the near future — with new cameras, lighting, etc. — which is very exciting. I also want to work with bigger brands in my videos. My approach with brands is to integrate them seamlessly into my videos. For example, I recently did a collab with FlexiSpot (a standing desk company), and I used their desk to make an iPhone ad in 24 hours. I was able to showcase their amazing table, along with its unique features, while using it to make my own video better. I always believe that ads are better when they are integrated smoothly into a video, and that’s what I strive to do with any brand I work with.

If you’re a creator who wants to work with Rohit to scale your creator business, expand your personal brand, and turn your passions into a business — see Rohit’s Strivehouse profile here.

And if you’re a creator who wants to learn how to land brand deals alongside Rohit, get started here.