At 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, most students would be fast asleep in their beds. But rather than resting, sophomore Bruce Rosenfeld can be found driving to his local gym, camera in-hand, getting ready to film workout content for his new hobby: a fitness-influence and personal training account by the name of “bruceliftzz”. 

“I usually try to wake up pretty early, even on the weekends.” Rosenfeld said “I like getting the day started early. I bring my camera and I record and have fun with it and then I spend about three to four hours doing coaching calls and editing videos.”

Surrounded by social media content of fitness influencers sharing their journey and driven by the possibility of being compensated for providing coaching services, Rosenfeld felt inspired to start his channel and share his own lifting story. 

“I saw all these fitness influencers making pretty good money from coaching people and doing personal training online, and I just wanted to start doing it,” Rosenfeld said. “I’ve been working out for a couple years. So I thought I might as well start my own thing.”

The channel began solely as a way for Rosenfeld to share his progress on his weightlifting journey. Originally, he did not want to grow or be noticed; the account was only a way for him to share his growth, without being judged. 

“At first, I was definitely just doing it for fun.” Rosenfeld said “I didn’t really see much potential, and I just wanted to share my progress. And, at first, I actually blocked everyone from St. Mark’s because I didn’t really want anyone finding out about it. But then, I realized if I really want to take this big, I might as well let everyone know that I’m doing it.”

Upon that realization, Rosenfeld shifted to posting publicly and received support from the community. And while the initial phase of trying to build out a channel was difficult, the hardest part is over, and Rosenfeld is happy to keep going. 

“I think, at first, people were kind of laughing about it in some ways. But then, once I got my first couple of viral videos, I feel like everyone’s kind of liking it now.” Rosenfeld said. “It definitely was pretty hard to get views and bring attraction to it, and I wasn’t making any money. But now, since it’s starting to kind of ramp up, I’m meeting all these fun people and really getting more value out of it.”

Rosenfeld’s work into the channel hasn’t been in vain, with it gaining 2,000 followers on Instagram since August of 2025 and having multiple viral videos, the most popular of which has gained over four million views. However, Rosenfeld realized that content creation was not the final step in his channel’s story. 

“Initially, I just wanted to be like one of these gym influencers.” Rosenfeld said. “And I thought that I could make money from things like sponsorships, but I figured out that the real money and the real value is from coaching people, and I feel I also benefit from helping out people, instead of going just for the money. I think helping people grow is a really fun part.”