Navigating New York with Daniel Yankee

Welcome back to Navigating New York! 

On this week’s episode I chat to Peloton’s first ever Irish fitness instructor, Daniel McKenna aka Daniel Yankee.

Daniel is 29 and has been living in New York for almost 5 years. Known by his friends and clients as Daniel Yankee, he was born here in the Bronx, but raised in his beloved County Monaghan. 

Growing up Daniel says his Mum was his biggest inspiration and is still his greatest supporter. As a PE teacher, she encouraged Daniel to try every sport he could.  However Daniel’s talent on the Gaelic Football field is what brought him to some of the highest levels of the sport in Ireland, playing at all levels for his County and winning an All-Ireland Championship with his Club Truagh Gaels in Croke Park in 2014 - putting away 1.7 from play on the day himself. His talent in GAA brought him to Boston and Chicago and Daniel eventually followed his aspiration to move to New York in 2017 where he had been recruited to play for Sligo GAA. The day after he landed at JFK, he started laboring as an electrician in Lower Manhattan, and his new adventure began.

Daniel did what he could to make ends meet while he pursued his dream of becoming a fitness instructor on the side. Early mornings and late nights working 2 jobs, travelling the length of Manhattan every day took a toll on Daniel but he never stopped hustling. After he got one lucky break in a chain of gyms he kept his eyes on the prize and developed as a personal trainer with various certifications and built experience taking as many clients and group classes as he possibly could. During the pandemic, Daniel started his own fitness group, the Irish Yank Society, that started out as virtual kettle bell class people could do from home but as restrictions eased, transformed into a very popular outdoor class down the street from his apartment in Greenwich Village. 

In late 2020 Daniel got approached by Peloton to audition to become a fitness instructor for what he describes as his absolute dream job. For anyone unfamiliar, Peloton is the world’s largest interactive fitness platform with almost 6 million members. Peloton peaked during the pandemic because they had already developed a new concept in Fitness using technology, content and best-in-class instructors to empower people to reach their fitness goals at home. Peloton are known for their sleek treadmill and stationary bike you can buy and have delivered and set up in your home, as well as their App for equipment free workouts. It’s well known that peloton instructors are handpicked and become like celebrities within the peloton community! In our chat Daniel talks about the struggles he faced on his way to this huge success and I hope you take as much from his story as I did!

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