Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Santiago.
Hi Matthew, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born August 1st, 1994, in a small town called Lompoc in California. From what I remember from ages 4 – 6, my mom worked a lot which meant my grandma watched me a lot of the time. My dad was in & out until one day he just was never around anymore. My mom then met someone when I was about 5 or 6 years old which then became my stepdad. Him & my mom had 2 daughters which I always called my sisters (not half sisters, never). He had a lot of problems himself which then affected his marriage with my mom and my life along with my sisters.
At age 11 we moved to Arizona where I went to Jr high & high school at. I graduated high school in 2012 but my last two years were probably the hardest years as a teen. I’ve dealt with seeing my mom get abused from my stepdad in ways that no one should see. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure my mom had some fault in it too because she was very hot-headed. Almost every day they would yell, throw things, and then the marriage started to slowly break. Along with this, my last year in high school my grandma was diagnosed with cancer and died very shortly after. She died in our home and we all saw this happen. One year later my stepdad texts me when I was work saying to grab my things and leave cause he didn’t want to see me for a few days. I decided to do one better and grab my things and never come back. 1 year later I enlisted into the Army, jumped out of planes 37 times, met incredible people, and finally began to find myself and my purpose in this world. I finished my enlistment in 2017 and moved to Houston to pursue my dreams in health & fitness as a coach. This was a struggle in itself because I am new here and had no idea how to run a company. I lost about $10,000 and then went into $6,000 in debt. There were a lot of times where I felt like I didn’t belong in this world.
In this moment of my life, I hadn’t talked to my family in over six years. I never wanted help or would ever ask for it. As I continued to push, one day everything just came together. I started getting clients, opened a bootcamp, then a clothing line, then a top-rated podcast, and just the past few months I launched my media company. My media company is actually a funny story because I never thought I’d ever be doing this, let alone grow it 5x faster than my coaching company. I did all my videos for my coaching until one-day people noticed and asked who did them. “Well, I do them” I told everyone, and one day someone asked me to do their videos & photos and this started the fire that now has made my media company grow as it has today.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I grew up without a strong father figure in my life. Which for a young man to not have kind of sets us up for failure growing up. From not having a strong male role model to watching my grandma die from cancer in our house, to joining the military and losing close friends to suicide, I would say my road has not been smooth or easy, but in life, what is right? It would have been easy for me to do drugs, drink alcohol, or even commit suicide like my friends did, but I knew I needed to make a statement for me. I knew I was made for a reason. To think I had a purpose in this life took me a long time and those horrible lows I was in were for a reason. Without these, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
My media company, Matt’s Media 94, is on the up and rising. We specialize in fitness/athletic films and gym/fitness facility promotional films. Videography is our biggest specialty but we also do plenty of photography as well. What sets us apart from other media companies is, for one, we are veteran-owned, and two, even tho we specialize in fitness, bodybuilding, athletics, etc, we are able to take our skills and implement it into commercial videography, property, real estate, events, birthdays, weddings, etc. We might specialize, but we are skilled in the art of videography & photography.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I am an Army veteran and Texas in general is very caring to their veterans so one big thing I love about Houston is the love to vets that we receive. I also love how fast this city is growing. The amount of unbelievable talent, connections, friends, networking, and opportunities that are within Houston are incredible. I’m from California, and the weather there is incredible. One thing I would say I don’t like about Houston is this Houston heat!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MattsMedia94.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattsmedia94/
Image Credits
All Photo Credit to Matt’s Media 94.
