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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
Welcome to the Strong as F#ck podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci and join us for some strong conversations.
All right, here we go. Another episode of the strongest podcast. I'm your host Kenny Santucci and today I have a friend of mine I'm glad to be calling him a friend because Years ago, I hit him up on social media and at the time, Instagram wasn't even a thing. The only, uh, social media was Facebook and Twitter.
Uh, I'm sitting home one night, I'm watching Real Sports with Brian Gumbel, it's like 2011 2012, somewhere around there. And I watched this incredible inspirational video about a man who gets a New York City firefighter gets hit by a bus and then proceeds to run the New York City Marathon and then the Lake Placid Ironman all within about a year span of that happening.
I was totally inspired. I hit him up on Twitter and I said, you just inspired me to run an iron man. And he goes, go get it a couple more times. I slid into his DMS, asking him to speak at strong fell short. But this year, 2014, we reached out to him. A friend of mine had known him in New York city and we made it happen.
And he spoke at a little retreat that we did. And then he spoke at this year's 20. 24 strong new york and people were absolutely in love with him. I still am inspired by this guy It's hard not to uh to cry when you hear the whole story and watch this you guys should definitely check it out But without further ado matt long Kenny, thanks for having me buddy.
Yeah, that was great intro. Thank you. All right Um, so we got a lot in common, you know, we were both endurance athletes. Uh, you were a gym owner new yorker um You What are you doing now? What does your day look like?
Um, well, right now I'm really focusing on my speaking engagements. Okay. So I'm trying to really get out there, put myself out there and go for some more, um, engagements for 2025.
Mm hmm. Uh, I've divested of all the gyms that I owned, so I'm spending some more time playing golf. Mm hmm. And, um, and being a dad. What made you sell the gyms? You know what, um, going into any business, I think especially when you have a friend that sort of sees what you're doing and you're successful, great, everybody thinks they want to do it.
They don't realize what goes on behind the scenes. So, I had a piece of two, uh, Three Orange Theory Fitnesses in Connecticut, living in Rockaway Beach. I didn't like the commute, so I opened my own in Rockaway Beach, figured I better own closer. Then I moved to Florida, thinking, ah, it's a franchise, I could just run it from afar.
And, when the first call comes in, the toilet's not working, or you know, one of your favorite customers has an issue, and now they want to talk to you, and you're not there. I didn't like that at all. So I said, you know, fuck this. I told my wife and the kids, I said, I'm selling everything. I said, I'll figure out what I'm going to do next down the road, but I'm getting out.
I'm not, I'm not, I don't want to move back to New York and I don't want to operate here from afar.
If you had to rank them, all the rehab after the accident, being a firefighter or being a gym owner, what's the hardest, what's the least hard?
The rehab. You know, being a firefighter is not easy, uh, when shit hits the fan.
There's a lot of time where you're just sitting around the kitchen bullshitting with the guys like we're doing right now. And that's great. Um, and that's probably my most favorite thing I've ever done in my life. Uh, but owning a business. It's hard. It is hard. You know, going for rehab is, it's like hiring a personal trainer and I have to work out today, but you don't think about anything.
So they're gonna, it's easy. Rehab was easy.
Yeah. The business side of things, and that's a large portion of what we talk about being a business owner, especially here in New York city, how hard all the red tape, all the bullshit you have to go through and the people pleasing, you know, a friend of mine just opened up a restaurant.
We went down there last night, checked it out. He's like, we've been booming since we opened the doors. It's been going great. The margins are made, or you can make some real money off the alcohol and things like that. When it comes to gyms, it's very hard. When I see people opening these five, 10 million gyms, I'm like, the economics don't make any sense.
You know, if you're dumping that much money into it and then what it costs to run the place. An orange theory. How? What's the buy in? What does
that look like? So I bought my first license in Orange Theory, um, in 2016 and they were going for 35, 000 a pop
just for the franchise,
just for the franchise license, just to get started.
Yep. Um, Now they're going for 68, maybe 72. Wow. Um, so I bought my fourth one, even though I was already in, they did give me a discount, but I paid her in the sixties for the fourth one by myself. Uh, you, you, you're probably all independent on your location, New York. You're, you're not in for less than a million.
And you know, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a cookie cutter, uh, operation. Everything's in a box. Do they
send you everything? Like all the, um, The flyers and, you know, stickers and shit that you need as POS
apps. Absolutely. Yeah. So they, they set you up with your marketing team, your online marketing team, everything you're paying into the brand fund.
So they do all your advertising. Now, if you're in a local community, like if I was in Manhattan, open an Irish theory, I probably wouldn't worry about anything else. Let them do my Facebook, let them do my Instagram, all you do is once a quarter you sit down and pick out your post, what picture you want, and say it underneath, um, you have a little say in that.
But when I opened mine in Rockaway Beach, it's a community, it's a neighborhood. Plus you know
everybody
there. Plus I know everyone there, right. Which was a detriment to owning a business there. I don't think I'd ever own a business. where I live. Yeah. Yeah. Um, because that's hard. And but Rockaway Beach never had a franchise outside of Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's.
So bringing this to market in Rockaway was a huge risk. It probably cost me about 800 to open in Rockaway. Oh, my God. I had a decent list. Um, and I guess
what's costing so much, like, what would you say, like the big ticket items are
there? So, okay, so they're there, it's the build out, it's the build out and it's not the material because that's all there and, you know, piecemeal, whatever, you know, your audio, your audio video systems by 30 grand, you speak his system, all that stuff, then you have your equipments about 130, 000 package, right, but it's the contract to come in and put together, you know, it's, that's the contract.
It
is
the age old story, right? I went on a rant the other day on social media about how I fucking hate dealing with contractors. It's absolutely got to be the worst part of opening a business. I had a guy, so I fired one electrician, hire a second guy. Second guy's like, Hey, I can knock all this out in three days.
Give me 2, 500. Three weeks goes by. Still not done. I hire another guy. He comes in. He was a dream. This guy comes in, knocks it all out, does it in two days and charges me 2, 000. I give him the 2, 000 right away. I got the other guy now calling me. Being like, Hey, you still owe me 2, 500. I go, let me explain something to you.
I go, you told me this whole thing would cost 2, 500. I gave the guy who actually finished the job two grand to do what you said you would do. He knocked it out in two days. So now you want me to pay 4, 500 for something that you told me was going to cost 2, 500 four weeks later. I go, put yourself in my shoes.
How much money would you give you? I haven't heard back from the guy, but it's like, it's insane. I don't understand. I don't know if it's, they bite off more than they could chew. They want the work. Like, I don't get what it is. It's like, hire more guys, do something. It's as if I, I mean, you ran a gym. If I have private trainers, if I'm overbooking people, I'll be like, Hey, let's put you guys together or I'll get another trainer to train you guys.
This is like, they just. Aloof, it's like they don't even give a shit, text, I felt like a fucking high school girl chasing after this guy, texting him, calling him, being like, hey man, what's going on, are we gonna do this, I'm waiting at the gym, two weekends in a row, I'm sitting there like a jerk off, waiting for this guy to show up, and it's like, how long did it take you to actually, oh, from the day you signed the lease, To when you opened up
the Rockaway Beach studio was a nightmare.
And I'll tell you why it was one permit that no longer exists. Red tape. So I signed the lease, uh, in 2021 and we opened in 2020. I've signed it in 2020. We opened in 22. So almost two years of a little maybe, maybe like 18 months. Did it, were they charging you rent for it? No, no. Okay. It was a brand new construction building.
And. So what happened was, there was a little known permit that has been on the books in New York City since the 70s, and it was on the books to prevent brothels from opening up. Oh
yeah, yeah, yeah.
If it's a
PSA. Yeah,
the color, the, I know what you're talking about. Special zone, and the name will come to me.
Yeah. So the building. It was like a culture license. Yeah, a culture license. Yeah. So, um, the building wasn't zoned to get that license. So I sat down with the landlord and we were already down the road of like, there was nowhere else to go in Rockaway. This was it. So he goes, we're going to apply to change our zoning so we can get this permit.
So I said, okay, I'm in, I'm not leaving, I'm staying. So we go through the motions, file the paperwork. We went through hearings down at the DOB. Everything's going and going and going. The end of 2021. We started construction, like, on the sneak. The guy was okay with it, the landlord. And he was, he was still building his building.
So he started putting things in place for us. He was doing his landlord duties, right? End of the year, the mayor gets ready to permit. Wow. He, the landlord himself, Spent probably a hundred grand on lawyers to change the zoning. I bet. Going through zoning commissions with all the local, uh, I had to sit with, uh, the local community boards and beg them, here I am trying to bring this something good to Rockaway.
And it was over and over and over. Finally, they get rid of it. And now I
don't need it. And it's only as of recently because when I had my first gym in New York, uh, we were dealing with that. Yeah.
So, and I paid the lawyers to get it. So no matter what you call the lawyer that does it, I think it's PCA or PSA, whatever the firm was called.
So there's lawyers that just did that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, Oh, seven grand. I'm like, Oh, so I gave him the seven grand. I'm like, Hey, you didn't get me the permit. Don't matter. Can I get some of that money back? He's like, Oh, but we did all, Matthew and I, I fought with him for a bit and I said, almost the same thing.
You put yourself in my shoes. I said, here I am knee deep in, in debt now opening this business and you're going to bang me seven grand for a permit that you didn't get me. So he goes, how about I send you two grand back? And I said, I'll take it. Yeah, I'll take the two. Yeah, I'll take whatever I can get at that point.
Uh, did you have, you had some partners in the other ones? The other ones, it was partners with two women. Okay. Um, and, and they kind of were the hands on group in Connecticut, which is another reason why I want to do my own. Um, I always had partners, whether I was in the bar and restaurant business, whatever, and I was like, ah, I really want to try this by myself to see if, cause here's what happened.
I would come up with an idea. Now, you don't have to come up with too many ideas when you have a franchise, but still, I would come up with different, Hey, I like this person to coach or, or let's put this person on staff or, Hey, let's have this promotional night in a local restaurant. I would come up with ideas and they were always, Hey, nice idea, but no.
I was like, all right. Yeah. So I wanted to see if any of my ideas would work. And, um, and I brought it home to Rockaway and it worked. I opened up, I opened my studio with 609 members. Holy shit. Yeah. I said, I want you to have the COVID. Yeah. From my kitchen table, I was slowly hiring staff, but the pre sale, I would say I did 60 percent of it, 70 percent of it by myself, right on my kitchen table.
As the leads came into social media, I just was on the phone. Boom. So you were
closing. Boom. Sold.
And now
you were using online marketing.
Yeah.
Instagram and Facebook. Instagram, Facebook. To open up. Did they set you up with that or you had?
They set
me up. They had, yeah, they had a whole drive media. That's one of the things that we try to do It's like, all right, what's what's catching people's attention?
What do people relate to? What do they want to see? And it's so funny to me. How many people I was at a party Christmas party the other night and everything. Oh, I love seeing because I was asking them. I'm like, well, what drives you to purchase on a gym or, you know, membership of sorts? And they were saying when I see other people change.
When they see that side by side testimonials, people, that side by side picture, no matter who it is, no matter what, people still are like, Oh, I want to do that. It could be me sticking my gut out and then, you know, flexing my abs in the next picture and they'll be like, I want to look like that. It's the same fucking picture.
Yep, yep.
Now that was the beauty of Orange Series, that there was already a thousand studios in the country and they had all that stuff. So they would just, you know, Pulled whatever, whoever gave him permission, whatever, you know, that information they had. That's what they used. So I didn't have to do any of that, anything until later.
Once we opened, then we did it for local people.
So coming back, uh, we'll rewind the tape a little bit here and go back to you graduate high school. You went, you went to college here.
I went to Iona university. It was college, but now it's university. And then you went to, and then you
got onto the fire department.
Yep. This was 1993. Okay. So this is. Kind of what most guys do. I mean, I I'm from Jersey. It's kind of like the blue collar, like, all right, you're either going to be a cop, fireman, sanitation, or like a high school football coach or something. You said it was the best time of your life.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I did a stint down on wall street.
I worked in an accounting firm. I sold some computers. That wasn't for me. Um, like. I, then I got into, I was bartending on the side. That's where I was making my money and having fun. So I did open a bar before I became a firefighter, but only like six months before I, my brother and I opened together. Where was the bar?
35th and 3rd in Manhattan called 3rd and Long. So um, yep. And it wasn't even a sports bar. It was there for a while. 26 years. We had it. Holy shit. Yeah. 26
years. I used to, I, when I first moved into the city, I was dating a girl and we lived on 35th and 3rd. Oh, all right. And I remember that was the, I mean, when did you get, it.
As of recently, it's not. We closed it in 2012, 2013. Yeah. Cause that was, this has got to be 2009.
Yeah. The last like five or six years, it was just, it was just the fact that we're like, Hey, we had this thing for 20 years. No one said we could do it.
Yeah. It's
not making anyone who worked there was making money, but we weren't putting anything in our pocket.
Really? It was just, the rent was just way, way too out of control. And whoever worked there was making money, but that was it. Yeah.
So, but at one point it was doing really well. At one point it was banging. And now what. At the, at the time, right? Because it's always kind of been like a very Murray Hill type crowd.
It's the young professionals.
When we opened up, it was only us and the Jackson hall. There was nothing else on the street. By the time we closed on that part of third Avenue from 35th to 34th, every store was a bar. And now, but was
that was the same as the clientele? The same like young professionals,
young professionals.
And I look, I look, I had some, it was a beer bar, right? It was a beer bar. Yeah. 18 beers on tap. We sold more Budweiser than anybody on the east side of Manhattan. We were the number one account on tap. And
what do you attribute that to just because you guys were the only show in town like at that point?
Well, it was it was you know Listen when I opened up upper east side was destination place for bars and restaurants Or if you worked downtown you did happy hour on wall street. So murray hill wasn't banging wasn't popping. Nothing really was happening there Just 90 Early 91. We opened up this this New year's eve 1991 and um, so I attributed to what I like to talk about my life about I Equate my circles of life and my friendships to the Olympic rings And I try to teach this to my kids to him like listen It's okay to have friends in different circles and some of those circles will cross each other just like this Olympic logo
Yeah,
and these people out here They're only going to be friends in the circle.
You don't mix them. But the ones across, they mixed. So your circle gets stronger. And my one daughter, she's too young to understand, but she's like, no dad, I keep my friends here, my school friends here, my dancer. I go, one day, you gotta get them to mix. You never know who you're introducing. So that's what I equate our success to.
My brother and I, Two different colleges, both played basketball, so we had a network, we had a network in the city. I worked in the city for a little while, I had the accountant network. I had a core group of the guys that I was friendly with. I own a college. Boom, we put a guy behind the bar from Manhattan College, put a guy behind the bar from Fordham University.
Two guys from Iona. And, little by little, they just started coming, and after like six months, there was a line to get in. No shit. We can only hold like 75 people. How good of a feeling was that? Oh, it was great. It was such a good feeling. And how old are you at this time? Early 20s? Right? 26. You know what I used to do, Kenny, on Friday night when there was a line?
What?
I tell the guy, we only had a chute to go down to the basement. It was a small spot. And it was just a chute that dropped down. I would tell the ball back to go downstairs. Pop me a cold case of Coors Light, pop all the lids off the bottles, and pass me the case up, and I go out to the line. Beer? Beer?
And I get them out for free. I say, well, you didn't get it from me. And they're like, okay, and they're just waiting in line. My brother's like, what are you doing? It's going to work. Don't worry about it. It's okay. Give it away.
So you haven't been in the city for a while and I was, I've been noticing, I don't know if it's because I'm older, but I think society has changed.
I think New York's changed a lot and drinking cultures change a lot. Like people aren't drinking as much as they used to.
No. Yeah, I agree. I think that's why you see when you go out, it's 18, you know, for a mixed cocktail.
Yeah. And well, I, and I don't know necessarily if it's a price. I think we're just like hip to the game.
I kind of feel bad for younger, the younger generation, because as much as I know what a detriment drinking alcohol is, it's kind of, we all grew up doing it. It's not terrible for you. It's okay to drink. Um, I don't do it as much as I used to anymore, but I, those were some of the best times, right?
I, I, I should have wrote my first book and I have a title for it.
Three Feet of Mahogany. So, all the stories from behind the bar. And uh, I like that theme. It really, don't steal it. No one can steal it. I'll write a copy or whatever. Um, but yeah, no, it was a, it was a fun time. Uh, sometimes a little out of control. Sometimes you woke up in the morning like, Holy shit, I really, Did I really take my pants off and go out in the snow?
And they're like, yeah, you did. I'm like, oh,
I feel like there there's a certain as much as it is You know, kind of detrimental to you. I think there's a level of innocence there where we're all just, everybody's just looking to have a good time.
Yeah. And I think that was the, in the, the, the period in New York city that, uh, when we opened, everything was pretty good.
So kids graduating college, they were, and look, I think the kids graduating college now are still roaming the city like there's no problem. But as you get older, you're like, shit, you know, I got to look over my shoulder. It's not as safe as it used to be. So when I was growing up, when I owned the bar, you bar hopped.
There was no beep. There was no cell phones, no nothing. So if you were in third and long, like you were in third and long, you weren't like, hey, this place is dead. Let's go to McFadden's. It's crowded. I heard you didn't know. So you stayed put where you are and if you told people you were going to meet them there, that's where you are for the night.
So it was a, it was a great time. No regrets with that business. So you get on the fire department. Get on the fire department in 1993. And now where was, where were you stationed? Up in Spanish Harlem, uh, El Barrio's Bravest, 53 and 43. And now were you there the whole time you were 17 years? Yeah.
Wow. Okay.
I left, I left and did some, um, some details.
So, uh, one detail, my captain kind of sent me on, uh, the, the academy was a hard place to get instructors. No one really wants to go offline. You can't, you can't teach and eat while you couldn't teach in the academy and work in your firehouse because it was a five day a week job. So a lot of firefighters didn't like that.
They want to go to fire. Yeah. So there was a point in time where the city said, or the chief of department said, Hey, we need, um, X amount of guys from these companies. Now, my truck company was considered an a company, a really busy house, well trained guys, a lot of experience. So my captain sent, I was what they called the senior junior man.
I had more than five years on a job. But not enough just to hell hold any weight with the guys in the house, so captains like you so I did my first stint I taught for six months at the fire Academy and I taught Ladder operations rescue search stuff like that Which is what I was doing at the job and I actually liked it But I do like to speak in public and I like to talk so I think that prepared you for all the speaking you're doing now.
Yeah, absolutely. I was shocked. And you know, we had to take a little test. It was funny. We had, we had to do a, like a little, um, we had to get like a, a certificate for teaching. So we had to go through a week training and in the end you had to teach people something, you know, come up with who's your audience, what's the subject, what, how are they going to benefit from this?
So 28 years old, uh, you know, I'm a, I'm a single fireman. So I taught all of these other instructors that were older than me. Lieutenants, captains, whatever. Uh, I said they're newly single men and I'm teaching them how to accept a bottle of wine on their first date. Properly. Rub the, I had cranberry juice in the bottles.
My chief was like, hey, I'm like, it's cranberry juice, chief. It's cranberry juice. So I taught them how to receive the bottle of wine, got my certificate to teach and I loved it. Uh, went back to the firehouse and then when my life changed a little bit after 9 11 and I wanted to get more serious about my health.
And I started training for those endurance events, marathon and, and Ironman. I took a spot at the academy where I was actually in the health and fitness unit. So now I'm not teaching anything, but I'm training, physically training all the new probies. So if there's 300 people in the class, you know, I would, I would talk about running a group fitness class.
I'd be on a platform with 150 of them ready down, you know, pushups up, jumping jacks, hit the floor, more pushups, you know, and take them became a drill sergeant, basically came a drill sergeant. And I love that. That was fabulous.
So I, when I was about 30 years old, My dad, well, rewind a little bit at a college and during college, my dad's like, take the fire exam.
Take the police exam in the state of New Jersey. So I took it and I was like top five in New Jersey at the time. Now, one of the things I talk about all the time was at there, they had to hire a certain level of minorities. So I went from five to 15. So they had to hire all these other guys. I got put on a wait list.
I took the test. I was probably 22, 23 years old. That's probably when I would have got hired, right? Maybe a year in around there. I didn't get called back till I was 30. So now I'm like 30 years old I get it. I get picked up by a fire department in New Jersey and I'm going through it now I own a gym at the time.
Right? So now I'm trying to juggle the gym and The academy the academy the academy didn't want me having another job and it was a problem So I had to like kind of hide it one thing led to another I ended up dropping out but The two guys who were, uh, the drill sergeants were like the guys who were running the class, they were like, Hey, listen, you're pretty fit.
Why don't you be the lead guy here? So I would take everybody for runs in the morning pushup and the camaraderie like when we, I was there for like three, four weeks, we'd go through the burn houses and stuff. I loved it. It was such an awesome job and like having that camaraderie with other guys like there were like four or five guys who got hired who should not have been firefighters.
I'm just overweight. Every class they're off. So I'm like calling these guys at night, making sure they're eating right, doing what I could because they were like, you're in charge here. So I'm like, fuck, okay. And. But the other guys who were in shape like rallied behind me and it was so cool because they're like, yo, we're going to be working together.
You're going to go into.
Yeah, exactly. It's pretty bad situations together. If now, did you graduate? Did you leave before I left before graduation? If you had graduated. That would have been your first fire department family. Those guys in that academy class you would have met every year for anniversaries.
You would have loved to see them on a fire truck working with them once in a while. If you got detailed wherever you went, they would, they would become lifelong friends.
There's part of me that I'm like, shit, I wish I would have seen it through, but it's like I had to make a decision at that point. There was a bunch of shit going on.
But anyway, um, being a firefighter in New York, now I was in Jersey in a small town. I think the cat out of a tree is still admirable. Yeah, but I'm saying like you must have seen some crazy shit 17 years. Like what's something where you're like,
yeah. So yeah, I did see a lot of crazy shit. Um, I'll tell two, two quick stories, both a little funny.
One of my first days in the, so when you're, when you're the new guy, you're getting, you know, if there's a cat in the tree, the new guy's going to get the cat. Did I have to do that once? Yes.
Yeah.
Um, one of my early on calls, right? So back in the day now, now it's a, um, Now it's all computerized. Everything comes out, boom.
It's on the computer, on the firetrucks, on the desk, where you're going. But when I was there, it would come out of a printer, a teleprinter. Oh, wow. And there'd be, everything would be abbreviated, right? So the box, the address. Whether it was a phone alarm, whatever. Um, so we get a call and it's abbreviated, it said, Food on the stove, woman stuck in tub door.
So I'm like, I have to get on and read it out, like that's my job. I read it out so everybody knows where we're going. Everybody's like, what, what the fuck are we going to? I'm like, it says woman stuck in tub door. So we get to the apartment in Harlem and there's a woman in the hallway. She's locked out. Of the apartment.
Now, everyone in Harlem knew, if you want the fire department to come and get you in, rather than pay a locksmith, you say there's food on the stove. So now there's a possible danger in there. We have to either pick the lock or break the door. Kick it open. So the, the aide is out, this, this, someone's a woman's aide, health aide was out, locked out and the woman was in the tub.
So that was the abbreviation. I'm locked out and the woman is in the tub, and I'm like, so my boss is like, well, we're going in, we break the door down. And the boss goes, you, Johnny? That's what nickname for a new guy. Go check the tub and I'm like, Whoa, I mean, she's here. The aid's here. Like, she's got it.
She's like, no, no, no. We now it's our job. We took the door down. Yeah, we have to make sure she's okay, man. There was this massive woman. No, you're laying in the tub. And I'm like, holy shit. I go. Yeah, she's in the tub. She's okay. She's like, I gotta get down. She's got a little washcloth trying to gather her boobs.
And she's naked. This lady was giving her a bath or something. And we're about to get the mail. So we have to get her out. So I had a six foot hook is what I was carrying and I'm giving it a hook, trying to yank her out. Yes. Swear to God. I'm yanking around. The boss is like, no, no, no, that's not happening.
Get behind those armpits. Oh God. Okay, boss. Thank you. Yeah. I'm the new guy. And what year, how long were you on at that point? Oh, I was on for like months, not even maybe, maybe two months. Uh, then, uh, then later on in life, my captain, 40 years on the job. Great, great experience, great firefighter, great firefighter, great boss.
I'm an excitable guy. I can get really excited at a fire. I can get all jacked up. Oh my God, this, but if you're a boss, you have to go in there with, uh, with a calm demeanor. If you're a screamer, you're just going to lose everyone and everyone's just not going to get their shit done. My captain was very nonchalant about fires.
So we go to a big fire in Harlem top floor and we would a second do truck. But on the top floor, we go to the apartment next door. And the first two truckers going in the fire apartment. So, can't see anything, we're laying on the floor in this project, or a tenement actually, so it was a really good fire.
We're laying on the floor, the boss is by the door, he's like, here's the door. He's like, Matty, and the other guy, he's like, you guys gotta crank this door open, we'll go in and do a search in this apartment. Was it like
a metal door or something?
Uh, this was a wooden door because this was a tenement. So this was one of those old tenements, wooden door, easy to pop open.
Okay. Um, so we get that open and we start crawling in that apartment. But it's right next to the, so it's bang, you can't see shit. So you're, you're, what we would say sucking nails out of the floorboard. Like your lips are on the floor. That's the only place you're going to get clean air. And we're crawling around the apartment and the captain says, Hey, just meet us here.
Meet back here. Three of us go in, divide up the apartment, meet back here. Me and the, the irons guy, Billy Duffy, we get back to the spot and the captain's not there. I'm like, oh, taking breath from my mask and everything like what are we gonna do? He's like, I don't know. Let's let's go back and find him.
Maybe something's wrong So we crawl back a little bit. We make a turn down a little hallway and we push open the door He's standing up Taking a piss He's like, what are you doing? I'm taking
a piss And i'm like Okay, like this this shit's blowing out the window here. People are yelling and screaming I had to go.
It's three o'clock in the morning. I'm sorry. I'm 60 years old I'm like, okay cap. No problem. How the hell do you do that? I just piss myself.
Yeah Yeah, I would have just went in my pants home and change it after so now you're Training for ironmans. You're getting into shape. I ride a bike around the city all the time and I think about it I don't think there's a time that I jump on a bike that I don't think about your story And I'm like, how the fuck did this happen?
What was going on that day? Kind of rewind the tape of what you remember and then the next step.
Yeah. So, you know, it's 19 years ago in two days, um, December 22nd. Uh, so four days, December 22nd, um, 2005, right before Christmas, the transit authority goes on strike. This is day three of the strike. And I was teaching at the fire Academy, but part of our health and fitness unit was to teach water rescue training.
So we were teaching it at the police Academy on 19th street.
Okay,
so I I did my stint at 19th Street. I had one more day left I had to go back to the Academy and then I was gonna be on like a Christmas break and then go back to my Firehouse, so this is my last day at the Academy. Mm hmm. Trans is already still on strike.
No buses No trains nothing if I drove my car out of Manhattan Above 96th Street, I wouldn't be able to come back. So, I got on a bike. 19
degrees. But you were training and stuff at this time?
Yeah, so I was going up to the academy to go for a long swim with the guys before work. We'd meet at 530 in the morning.
But I was not a foul weather cyclist. If it rained or it was too cold, I was on a spin bike indoors. I'd rather sit on that or on my trainer for 3 4 hours than be outside. So you could move? Like you're hitting me. Pretty good speed. Yeah, I was doing pretty good. I was doing pretty good. I don't think I was pushing it that morning just because how cold and windy it was.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, most times I'm in 19 to 21 miles per hour when I was in shape. Okay. Um, so I just got on my bike and put my backpack on and, uh,
For those that don't know, I think most people probably pedal, like even if they're trying, probably 15
miles per hour is an average, just pedaling around unless you're on a beach cruiser.
So you're fucking moving. I'm moving.
Yeah.
And I didn't mind riding my bike in the city. I wasn't like those messenger guys. I mean, it was some talented cyclists or bike handling skills. I was just, if I had the green lights, I said, let me keep going. Push as hard as I could. I got two blocks, two blocks from my apartment.
And I just saw this bus. He was like two, three lanes over to the left. And I'm like, Holy shit. He's, he's getting closer. Like he's, I'm like, he's turning. I'm like, holy shit. And I, at this point, I couldn't stop. And I have one hand on the brake and my left hand up in the air as the bus gets closer and I'm punching the window and then in a nanosecond I'm underneath the bus.
Holy shit. And you know. Whatever happened to him? The bus? I don't know. Um, I think he got a summons, it was kind of a ticket, um, but I, he came to the hospital once and my parents told him, uh, now's not the time because I was in really bad shape for quite a long time. Um, But all I do know I hope that he's seen my story and and because I can't imagine how he felt Oh, yeah, so I hope he knows that I'm good All I do know is why he was turning and these these the consequences of decisions we make in life So this this transit strike right now He's hired by Bass Stearns to pick up all their employees at a like a carpool like car and meet place up in 125th Street
Mm hmm
and drive to, I keep doing that to you, sorry, and drive them down to Wall Street And he took his girlfriend with him and his girlfriend had to walk from First Avenue, not Third So rather than him going straight up Third Avenue, which he probably should have done with the 52 passenger bus He made a right turn down 52nd Street to get her to First Avenue And
I think about that all the time like The butterfly effect of like just simple everyday, you know, conversations and choices that we make and how it affects and ripple effects.
Everything
else.
That's crazy.
I think, you know, and that changed your life forever. Changed my life forever. And in the short term, in probably the most awful way possible. Knowing what I know now, I would never make it not happen. Yeah. So my life is good. I have a purpose. I love telling my story. Um, and if it's just from, you know, the last event I did with you guys, you know, I've gotten email from that, you know.
How was that for you? It was great. Yeah. I gotta be very honest, um, Being in the industry and everything else, I was a naysayer, like I would tell my wife, like I got through this strong event, you know, I don't know what this guy's thinking, like what's it gonna be like? And I was like, Wow.
Yeah,
like I was blown away.
The guys I met, the pe, the people I met, the, all the speakers, all the vendors. It, it's, I use a couple of the products from there now still. Nice. And, um, no, it was, it, I hats off to you and Kristy. It was, it was a phenomenal event. Cool.
I love
that.
Um, yeah, no, I had something pretty shitty happen to me. You know, more than 10 years ago.
And when I think back, you know, my mother always used to say, she's always like, Oh, everything happens for a reason. I'm like, shut up with that stupid shit. But when you think about it, like kind of set me on a different trajectory and I think you make the best of whatever situation you have. Right. And I think you've really turned it around.
And I think that's what people find so inspiring. It's like, dude, there was probably so many dark times. And I think I asked you that when we were out in Rockaway. It's like there had to be so many times that you're like, fuck this. It's you're just in such a dark place and you want to break.
Yeah.
And I always think about that picture of the, uh, the guy, the minor going through the The cave and there's the gold on the other side and he's like so close to it And it's like you can either turn around and miss it or you just keep going But for you, it's it's been it's been so impressive and I'm so glad we got to connect and we got to You know, become friends.
Oh my. And then with the event, you know, I think you were such an, like, I had so many people be like, dude, that one guy, nobody even knew who the hell you were.
Yeah, I know.
There, there were so many people were like, I came for this person, but this guy, Matt, was amazing. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate
that. Does
that ever get old?
No, no. I, I've, I've always liked that even before my accident, um, but, uh, no, it doesn't get old. And, and I, I'll tell you what. What changed the accident from a negative to a positive and this is one of the things I try to hammer home when I'm, when I'm talking to people and if you, you don't overcome adversity, okay, you learn to live with it, you learn to accept it.
So if it wasn't for a couple people that were, you know, really hard on me with my recovery and, you know, with not letting me give up, I wouldn't have done that. And once I said, okay, all right, I got hit by a bus. You know, I, I have paralyzation on my right side. I have one leg shorter than the other. I, I can only move my right arm 105 degrees.
Not, not all the way up. What are we gonna do? Mm-hmm . And once I accepted it all, I figured things out and, and I, I, I trained harder and, and, and I got myself stronger. And I said, oh, I wanted to close the chapter on that bus story in my life. So I wanted to go back and. And finish up who I was. And I was a marathon runner, not only a marathon runner, but I qualified for Boston.
And that's huge in that world. Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's in any running world. They, you, you qualified Boston, where'd you do that?
Yeah.
And then I wanted to go back and do the Ironman. You know, I had goals of getting to Hawaii and if I didn't get hurt, maybe I would've, I was an 11 hour Ironman finishing my first time.
So At Placid. At Placid, which I could have got that down to a 10 30. Yeah. I go
to Hawaii. Wow. In 2006. And just so for everybody out there who doesn't get it? I did an Ironman and it took me 15 hours and it's the course is in half as hard as Placid. Placid
is hilly, it's the hardest ones. Yeah, Placid's probably one of the harder ones.
It could snow, rain, and sun on you in the same day.
Oh, and it's a lot of hills. Yeah.
Yeah.
Whereas I was in Louisville and it's pretty flat. I mean, they call it rolling hills, it wasn't much. No. I mean, the worst part of that race is like, The Ohio River. Yeah, because it's just like you got to go 800 meters or 900 meters upstream Which like you feel like a fucking guppy and this is and then you turn back around and the current takes it But you know, do you ever think about getting back involved in the that world?
No No, not at all. I do miss of all the physical activities. I do miss running.
Yeah,
running was so easy It's like if you had shit on your mind, you know lace up the sneakers put on a pair of shorts Maybe a shirt depend on the weather.
Yeah
and go
and
I Think I did my best thinking While I was running, I never listened to music when I was running.
Never. Really? I'd like to hear what was around me. You
started running when there was just fucking Walkman and shit.
That's right, I did. Kenny, I'm not that old. Come on. Yeah, no, but even
for me when I, like when I started running, I got into it. I just, it was natural for me. Right. I was really heavy as a kid.
And then 15, 16 years or 14, 15 years old, we'd have to run in the off season for wrestling. Right. And we went for a run, me and like three other guys from my team, and we end up running 12 miles that day. And I never thought, especially at that age and being out of shape and overweight, I never thought I could do this.
And I'm like, wow, this came so natural and so easy for me, I'm going to keep doing this. And that's what got me falling in love with running. And at the time it was, iPods weren't a thing, like none of that shit. You had a Discman, right? Yeah, I had a Discman, so that's what I used to run with, and the CD would skip if you ran too fast with it.
Um, so nowadays it's like, yeah, and then anytime you do an Ironman or anything, they don't let you run with music. Yeah,
they don't. And technically you're not supposed to do a New York City Marathon either, but everyone does. Oh, really? Yeah, technically.
Yeah. Um. So for me, it's like, yeah, I just fell in love with the sport and I'm kind of torn right now.
And I want to get your opinion on this of like the craze of running, you know, an endurance sports right now. Like, it seems like out of nowhere. I used to do running clubs. You know, New York City Roadrunners, only thing now you have all these huge bandit running club, all these club
bridge runners. Yeah, I did a gig with the bridge runners.
What do you think of all these? Yeah, I love it. It's great that people are out there doing it. Um, you know, if I didn't get hurt, it's still be running. Like I said, it's a great social aspect. You could do it all different, uh, paces and times.
What I was torn about when I tell people is like. Everything's disguised as a run club now, like they have these dating things and they have these parties and stuff and everything's like, Oh, we'll run and then we're, or, or, you know, people just want to say that I went to this run, but I, I think it's great.
I, I love that across the country people are falling in love with it. Um, you know, I wish I, I'm kind of at the point where I'm like, I rather focus on, you know, bodybuilding and strength training and doing other stuff. Um, but I wish this was around like 10 years ago. I feel like I'm, I miss the,
yeah, we might've both books.
I tell you, and, and maybe you'll know, maybe you won't, but they did a big thing. I saw this on the news about the running club and if you wear black, you're single or whatever. It was like, I was like, all right, well, first of all, it's awesome, but it's not new. There was a group in New York city called the Hash Harriers and that was a social running club.
Really? Every Wednesday night in Manhattan. Whoever, like the, the, the board of the hash HARs would go out and set the course and they would put two different colored chalks on the, on the street corner, so they didn't tell you the course if you were gonna run seven miles. Or you were going to run three miles, you followed the pink chalk or the blue chalk.
Right? And, you went through the city and it always ended at a bar. You, but they never told you. They just, you had to follow, if, if you went too far down the street, there'd be a big ax, oh god, I missed the turn. Yeah. So you wind up running a little more. But between three and seven miles, and it always ended on Wednesday night at a bar.
That's cool. So they would take all your stuff from the meet the meeting spot, throw him in a taxi, throw him in a car, drive him to the bar, and you had to find the bar. And then it was a big social drink up. It was great. That's awesome, man. It was great meeting girls. That way was awesome.
One of the coolest things I've ever done when it comes to running was a few years back before covid under armor had put together this run and they had.
Four or five different teams, and we all started at different places in the city. So one team started in Queens, one team started in Brooklyn, another team started in Manhattan. Um, and basically, you had to get to, um, Randall's Island. Okay. And whatever team had the most members get to Randall's Island first was the winning team.
Super cool event. I loved it. And this was like, I mean, I was running all the time at this point. So I, there was like two other people who had actually beat me, but I was like the third one in. I was like, this was such a cool event. And it was like, it started at like six, seven o'clock at night. So by the time you got there and they had like drinks and food and stuff.
I, I think, I wish it was like, cause now it's just like meet up, you know, and you go for a run up the West side highway or something and it becomes too many people. I think this was like very well organized. I'd love to see more running stuff.
Well, you're going to do a strong New York, strong New Jersey run from gym to gym.
Yeah,
I'd love to have your Jersey people run to New York. Have your New York people run to Jersey.
Yeah. Someone's clocking in the bridge. Yeah. Yeah. Meet at the bridge or something. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I, I, I love it. I, I love seeing, uh, I love seeing people get more fit,
you know, you get bit by the running bug when you start running to races.
Mm-hmm . .
So when I was, yeah. Top of my game and I'm now, now I'm, now I'm. Not just running 5Ks, I'm trying to break 18 minutes or something like that, you know, and I'm in my thirties. So I remember me and my buddy, me and my buddy Noel Flynn, he lived on 64th and 1st, I lived on 48th and 3rd. He would run from 68th, meet me on 1st and 48th, and then we'd run to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, do a 5K, and run back.
I'm like, like, we're those people now.
Yeah.
Like, we're nuts. You're obsessed with it.
Um, you've gotten to do a lot of cool speaking events. I have, yeah. What, uh, which one were you like, oh shit, I can't believe I'm doing this? Like, what was that? Cause I, I had that moment, I used to do a lot of hosting back in the day, and there was a point where I was hosting like the Jersey Shore After Show, and they were like, hey, we're going to do a live.
From times square and it's going to be on one of the big monitors. I'm like, holy shit Like I brought my mom. I brought my friends. I was like, dude, i've made it. This is sick. This is amazing So what was that point for you when you're like you went from doing speaking engagements to this point? What was it?
I think the coolest and uh, and the aha speaking engagement was when I worked for nascar. Okay um So I did something for NASCAR, uh, corporate down in Daytona. And from there, and that was great. It was a great stage. It was good people. And from there I got to go and speak to two teams. So I actually got behind the scenes at Michael Waltrip racing.
And I got behind the scenes at, uh, the Petty team, Richard Penny. And, uh, wow, like. You know, I wasn't, and I'm still not a NASCAR guy, I don't sit down and watch the 500 on TV, it's like a little bizarre, but anyway, there's, you know, more people go to that than football games in America. To see what goes on behind the scenes, to have that guy and that car go around that track for that long, the tryouts to become a pit crew guy.
Yeah. And these guys all played college football. They just didn't make the NFL, so now they're online trying to, trying to move a tire in 2.2 seconds and I'm like, wow. And they have full gyms. So I, I spoke to those two teams and that was, that was great. That's awesome. Yeah,
I think back. Sometimes there was a point when I was sleeping in my car and I was trying to get the gyms open and I was doing all this stuff.
And I remember and I have a video on my phone and I'm sitting in the car and I'm like, this will be the last night that I sleep in the car because I never want to do this again. And I was like, from here on out, I'm going to fucking work my ass off and do whatever I have to do to get to this point. Can you think back to one night or one day when you're alone in that bed recovering?
Like, was there one point where you were like, fuck this, I need to turn around?
Yeah. So I'm in my apartment, 48th street, my brother, Eddie, I have eight brothers and sisters, so I affectionately call him number nine. He's also a young firefighter at this time, but he came to live with me. And, um, and I remember a bunch of nights where I had my pity party.
It's always started with a couple of tears and thinking of the things I can't do anymore. And, uh, I'm in the bed. And I start to cry. And I can hear him kind of go like, oh shit. Like again, like I, I can, hey Matt, you alright? And I'm crying. But, he walks into the bedroom and, and I start to laugh as I'm crying.
And he's like, what's so funny? And I said, this. I said this, Moment right here, Eddie. I said I'm thinking about all the shit that I can't do anymore. I said I played a lotto every day. I'm not gonna fucking win that either, right? I said so I have a choice and tomorrow it starts. I said from now on fucking I will he's like what?
I'm like tomorrow i'm going to therapy and i'm gonna take it up a notch I'm going to go to the gym, there's an old timer in the gym that told me he'd help me whenever I needed it. I enlisted him to get me in and out of the machines, you know, I was only moving whatever plate was on the line, which is like five pounds, right?
If you don't put a pin in, it's all I was moving in all the Nautilus machines, but he got me in and out of those machines. But it was that moment that night when I realized, fuck, I'm not going to win the lotto. And if I sit here saying I'm not going to ski again, not going to golf again, not going to play basketball again, not going to run again, then I'm never going to do anything.
So I stopped and that's when I, I, I will, it just every morning I woke up with those two words. I will do this again. And I, and then it became, I will run again. I wanted to run one more time and, and I haven't run since the marathon and, well, the Ironman too. Hardly call it running when you're going 18 minute miles, but it felt like running to me.
Yeah. Awesome. That was the moment. That was the moment. And my brother, even his eyes lit up, everything lit up and I'll tell you, it took me a week. They would take me to the hospital. My therapy for outpatient was on the 18th floor. And I, I'd get into the stairwell, put both my crutches on my wrist, one hand on the railing, and I'd walk 18 stories.
No shit. Yep. I was dead. I was sweaty. The staff was like, what are you doing? I go, I'm not taking the elevator anymore.
When you hear stories like this, and I, I, I watched your story and I learned at a very young age because of that. There are so many people who deal with chronic pain and issues and they're like, well, I I deal with scoliosis or I'm dealing with this injury that I've had or whatever it may be.
And they're like, I shouldn't do this or I shouldn't do that. And I think the only way is through. I think the only thing you can do is go through and deal with it and deal with the pain and because I had chronic back pain and I had injuries and I've dealt with shit. And the only thing you could do is keep going forward.
Absolutely. That's the moment where I say, accept the adversity.
Yeah.
Okay. You know, it's going to hurt. You know what you have to do to get, get better. And you have the option. Take the road to the right and stop. And get fat and you know what's gonna happen your back still gonna hurt. Yeah, so go through the door accept the challenges and Work around it.
All right, so I so I can't swim properly anymore because this arm goes up high, but I still swim Yeah,
you can still do it. Right? Yeah, it's amazing. Well, where could uh, where could everybody check out? All your info and keep in touch with you. And
the best place to find me is LinkedIn. Now, um, I get too political sometimes on my, my Instagram, so I'm gonna, I'm going to try to fix that up a little bit in
my professional life.
I was just down in Mar a Lago on, I saw those pictures and everybody's like, You're a trumper. I'm like, I wish, I wish I was part of this crew. I go, it looks like these guys are all living a good life. But I just had, I'm, I have a friend who is a member there. So he invited us down for a Christmas party.
But the
amount of shit I've been taking for it. I'm like, Oh, whatever.
It's okay.
Yeah. I
wouldn't pass up an opportunity to meet, to meet a president of the United States. No matter who he is. Yeah.
Me either. Like I was never like a huge Obama guy. Right. But like I always thought, I'm like, what an honor it would be to meet this guy.
I mean, he was the leader of the free world. He was first black president. I go, he's so well spoken. Super smart guy. I would love to meet Obama. Yeah, I agree. And it, I was in like even, I mean, there'd be no point in meeting Biden now the fucking guy's a vegetable. Yeah, it's, yeah. But back in the day, I mean, yeah, the guy's a fucking career politician.
He's seen a lot
of shit. To be able to shake the president of the free world, the leader of the free world's hand, male or female, whoever, it'd be great. Without a doubt. I would never pass that up. I have the ultimate respect for the office. For sure. Then I could chisel away at policy. Yeah, yeah. Um, but uh, yeah, so I'm gonna clean out of those.
LinkedIn or mattlongspeaker. com, my website.
Guys, I highly encourage you, if you, if you've never heard of Matt, if you haven't seen the story before, I know everybody who came to Strong and everybody who's a part of like my little circle knows who he is and loves him and loves the story. And you can check it out on youtube, right?
The uh, yeah, my my
TEDx sport talk is on youtube Okay, a bunch of real sports stuff on youtube. Yeah, there's a lot on
youtube. Yeah, the real the real sports story is Unreal. It's so well done. Obviously hats off to hbl for always crushing, uh those stories and stuff, but uh, Check them out matt long and thank you guys for tuning in like subscribe send it to a friend Share the uh, share the love and wisdom and i'll see you guys soon