Free Playbook · The Advantage № 004

The Santucci Playbook

From nine seasons of MTV to two gyms and a Forbes-ranked festival.

Kenny Santucci came off MTV's The Challenge famous and owning nothing, because the network owned the audience. Today he trains Bon Jovi and players from the Knicks out of two gyms he built himself, and runs a festival Forbes named one of the best in the country. This playbook breaks the rebuild into six moves — with verbatim quotes from the episode, what actually happened at each step, and a run-this-week checklist.

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Cover of The Santucci Playbook

What’s Inside

The six moves — plus the question he uses to decide what is worth doing at all.

  • №01

    Pay your way in — the unpaid years that priced his competence.

  • №02

    Bank ten before you launch one — remove the failure mode before you start.

  • №03

    Make winning contagious — why the 5:30am class packed out for years.

  • №04

    Say you don't know — the admission that ends up being the advantage.

  • №05

    Spend on what people photograph — a graffiti wall instead of drywall.

  • №06

    Become the media, not the ad buy — MTV kept the audience. Never again.

  • №07

    Without a purpose, there's a problem — the filter behind every move above.

About the Author

Mike Wystrach

Mike built and sold Freshly, a direct-to-consumer food brand, to Nestlé for over $1.5 billion. He is the co-founder of Petfolk and managing partner at Cutting Horse Ventures, where he invests in early-stage consumer brands. He writes weekly in The Advantage on what it actually takes to build — beyond the highlight reel.

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