Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
7x Mr. Olympia 212 Champion Flex Lewis presents Straight Outta The Lair, the podcast that aims to bring you vital information for your life's ambitions, providing valuable insight from interviews of the many many different faces that walk through our doors at The Dragon's Lair Las Vegas and a few from the man himself.
Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
Wrestling With Greatness | Jimmy House | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast Ep 90
Stepping into the ring with none other than the indomitable Jimmy House, our latest episode unravels the tale of an athlete who's conquering the independent wrestling scene with a fervor that's as inspiring as it is electrifying. With a narrative that spans from his early martial arts days to the powerlifting platforms and now the wrestling spotlight, Jimmy embodies the essence of a real-life superhero, drawing on personal truths to sculpt a persona that resonates deeply with fans and youngsters alike. His heartfelt recollections of moments that crystallize his passion, alongside the work ethic his father instilled, make for a story rich with dedication, grit, and an unwavering drive to succeed against all odds.
Transitioning from the mat to the ring, our conversation with Jimmy House takes a front-row seat to the spectacle of blending athleticism with performance, where every slam and hold tells a story. We navigate the intricate process of crafting an authentic wrestling character, a journey punctuated by recovery from knee injury and training milestones like winning MVP at Rhodes Wrestling Academy. Jimmy's insight into the psychological warfare of embodying an in-ring persona captivates, as does his reflection on how past sports experiences have sharpened his approach to pro wrestling's unique demands.
Wrapping up this power-packed session, we confront the behind-the-scenes challenges faced by athletes, from the whispers of steroid use to the humility needed to remain grounded amidst rising fame. Jimmy House, with his eyes set on future coaching and opening a gym that mirrors his personal ethos, leaves us with a candid look at the resilience required to bounce back from setbacks and the gratitude for the support system that propels careers forward. His story isn't just a testament to chasing dreams; it's a masterclass in the persistence and hard work it takes to transform those dreams into reality.
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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:09:50 - From Powerlifting to Wrestling
00:21:53 - Discovering My Wrestling Persona
00:26:38 - Transitioning to Wrestling
00:32:14 - Legends of Wrestling
00:35:10 - Building Durability Through Proper Training
00:38:08 - Overcoming Knee Injury and Mental Struggles
00:45:50 - Chasing Dreams Through Persistence
00:50:06 - Overcoming Self-Doubt and Pursuing Dreams
01:01:01 - Navigating Fame, Steroids, and Humility
01:08:15 - Success, Gratitude, and Future Ambitions
01:16:08 - Exciting Future Ahead for House Strong
knowing that there's a chance that I can do something really big with my life, and I just had this feeling that I needed to Straight Out the Lead. Straight Out the Lead.
Speaker 2:Straight Out the Lead. Joined today by the most requested guest in my last Q&A. I don't even know how many people told me.
Speaker 1:Jimmy House, jimmy House.
Speaker 2:I screenshot it and send it to you A guy who we have had here in the gym many times, blown so many wild numbers off the floor, squatted wild stuff. This podcast can go in many different directions, but firstly Jimmy House welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's a huge honor to be here. For sure. My friends and I have been huge fans for such a long time, so thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Well, the shoe is now on the other foot, on my foot, shall I say. Well, I'm now looking at you and so impressed, thank you, just by how many feathers and a hat you have. Thank you so much. You've ticked so many boxes, powerlifting, jiu Jitsu and no wrestling. I think for this podcast, we should talk about what you're currently doing right now, and that is the wrestling scene, and you're taking the indie scene by storm. It.
Speaker 1:Well, one match through. I train under Dustin Rose and Austin. He's formerly known as Gold Desk. He's part of the famous wrestling family, Dusty Rhodes, cody Rhodes, who's obviously really huge right now. Yeah, it's a huge honor to be able to train under him. And one match in I have a really big match in Arizona coming up May 18th against Devon Reno under my former coach back in Arizona. That's going to be really good. And then I'm excited just to get a lot of experience and continue to pursue my dream of being a superhero to millions of kids.
Speaker 2:And listen. You're on that path right.
Speaker 1:And again.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned, you've done so many things, but at such a high level you're just like an athlete for athletes an athlete athlete, thank you. Have you always been somebody that just can do things exceptionally well? Is that a talent that you have where you put your foot into whatever sport you've done, and truly taken it with both hands?
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. I think, yes, I've found that I've been able to get into that spotlight a lot during the different things that I've done in my life, whether it's karate as a kid or baseball as a kid, football as a kid, leading into wrestling in high school, then powerlifting and then bodybuilding and then wrestling and jujitsu. And I accredit a lot of that to my dad. I grew up an only child, so he spent a lot of time with me when I was young and I first started lifting weights at the age of five, just basically sitting in the garage watching him lift in our little garage gym set up and he started teaching me the basics and he and I really spent a lot of time together growing up and he really kind of dialed in to me at least what the concept of work ethic really really means in regards to being able to accumulate a lot of hours into one given thing and then be able to kind of reap the fruits of that labor. And for me, I guess maybe the thing that has played to my advantage in regards to building a skill set but in a disadvantage in regards to being able to be really, really, really good at one thing as opposed to really good at multiple things is I tend to like kind of switch every few years, even from starting karate as a kid, a few years of that baseball, a few years of that football, a few years of that wrestling and you know, I'm doing wrestling now and pro wrestling but it's it's always been like spend five to six years in each individual thing, get as much as I can out of that, almost like parlay those same skills and to the next endeavor. And I'm hoping now, being almost 28, that I've found very close to what is going to kind of continue to lead me towards my life purpose, which is the pro wrestling. And that starts at age three from me just idolizing Bill Goldberg and we'll get into that. But it's cool because things have come full circle and I wouldn't be where I'm at now had it not been for my dad, had it not been for Goldberg and had it not been for all the different skills that I've developed athletically to be able to parlay and do something like pro wrestling, where you have the athletic side but then you also have the intellectual side and the charismatic side and and everything kind of goes together and that's actually why I love pro wrestling a lot, even though I'm still very green, is because you just do. You have the grappling. You know you have some aspects of conditioning, of strength, bodybuilding. Obviously you have the aesthetic. Powerlifting is the literal raw strength. So I feel like pro wrestling.
Speaker 1:My character specifically, which is literally myself is, is almost my way of putting all that together, and I also like to think that, although I'm soft spoken at times, in the right environment, like a lifting environment or what have you, I can be one of the most intense in individuals you've ever met, and so being able to display that in the ring, amongst everything else, is something where, after I did my first match a handful of months ago, I was like, wow, I get why, this is cool, and even I haven't even done the the match yet in Arizona. But there is an incident that happened, let's call it, where I was able to jump the fence again, the ring and give my future opponent a spear, and all the kids in the front row went crazy. And you know they're, they're taking pictures with me and they're asking, like you know, get it, can you kick his butt? Please come in. You know that's when I was just like this is where I'm meant to be, and and so I'm just so inspired and driven to be able to have that same impact on kids everywhere and I'm just gonna keep talking but when I was coaching at my previous gym and Phoenix TNT MMA training center.
Speaker 1:I've done a lot of things as a coach and moving to Austin has allowed a lot of really cool opportunities, being able to coach Nicholas Marigali, the best hybrid jujitsu athlete in the world for strength training.
Speaker 1:I've coached Satoshi Ishii, multiple ADCC champions, multiple AEW wrestlers, multiple division athletes and amongst all that, my proudest coaching accolade, in my opinion, is the kids class that I had for about eight months before I moved and before I moved, you know, the last day that I was there is one of the most impactful days of my life where I had seen the impact that I had on these kids and the parents are crying.
Speaker 1:The kids are crying and you know they want me to stay, but they understand why I have to go, and that was when I was like you know the impact that Goldberg had on me. This is ultimately what my life needs to amount to like being able to pay that forward, like Goldberg has done so much for me that he doesn't even really know about. I try to tell him, but I don't even know if I can put into words. All I know is that he's allowed me to see all of these skills through to now be like, okay, well, what am I going to use this for? A couple years ago just kind of hit me like well, maybe this is all full circle so that you can be the next Goldberg for the next Jimmy house wow, how long have you had a relationship with Goldberg?
Speaker 1:in person, I want to say about four or five years. It was the 2019 Mr Olympia. He had done like an appearance and prior to that he had followed me on Instagram thanks to CT. Actually, ct, ct and CT is like my lifting dad and then Goldberg's like my Texas dad, ct Fletcher, ct, fletcher, yep and I had been doing CT's iron wars events for a handful years. I still do them and after getting to know CT, I basically just told him because I saw that he was friends with Goldberg and I told him that you know, I thought it was the coolest thing ever that he was friends with Goldberg and I remember tagging Goldberg, I think, in a lifting post of me deadlifting in a shirt and he had like reposted it or something, and then he had asked CT about me and I remember CT telling me about this conversation but CT just basically put in a really good word for me and through that conversation, goldberg, I think, was able to see that was more than just a fan like this. This individual like had the type of impact on me that you've had on millions of people and so like being able to then create the opportunity to go meet him at the Olympia, wait in line and then meet him for the first time.
Speaker 1:It's like I'm watching TV, my mom's there with me, my best friends are with me, mom, my mom's crying, I'm crying. It was. It was like by far the best day of my life thus far, and those five years leading up to where I'm at now were I've taken my life from Arizona to move to Austin to make myself available, to get to hang out with my childhood hero every weekend, get to train his son. What an honor that is, be able to have dinner with his family. He took me to one of the pfl fights.
Speaker 1:You know when? Uh, he was in front row and it was just, I don't know. I live a very blessed life and I'm very thankful to God and everybody around me that has allowed me to get to where I'm at and being able to call Goldberg, whether it's a friend or a father figure. It really hones in on why these different things that have happened in my life, including this podcast, are not a coincidence, and so that's even more motivation for me to continue striving for these goals, no matter how long that they take and no matter how much doubt that scroops through my head, because I think Goldberg alone, being able to manifest that relationship that took about 20 years. That's all I need to know, to know that I'm on the right path, to be able to pay it forward in the way that he did for me isn't it crazy now that guys that you know we idealized they're on the posters in the wall we watched.
Speaker 2:We were kids, I know I can obviously say my stories as he can say yours. We're friends now literally with these people that were once kind of so untouchable to us. They were just gods if anything right. We looked them with just you know big eyes wow, you're just so amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, many of these guys that I mentioned train at my gym and I get to see that circle very regularly and have that relationship. But to your point, I manifested it just like you have. So, and for you to have that relationship with Goldberg from that first meeting, obviously you made that impact that day for him to keep in connection, obviously you said prior you're following you, right.
Speaker 2:And then now to have a true relationship which extends far from Instagram where it's more of a family thing, is is a testament to you and where you're going, because I got to say also on the podcast when we mentioned who should we bring on next. Goldberg is one of the guys that messaged me. I said yeah, I need, you need to get him on the podcast bro he actually DM me and said yeah, I will pull him. That's awesome, so you need to get him on. The podcast was like holy shit Goldberg, yeah me asking me to put something on the podcast regardless what a legend.
Speaker 2:I mean, we both grown up watching Goldberg dominant is that somebody that you model, your your character around?
Speaker 1:no, I think I've been modeling myself around that character since the first time I saw him, even going to these fake wrestling matches I had with my friends, like you know, fighting on the bed and they would hit me in the face. I would shake my head and register pain, the same way that Goldberg did in his matches. And, you know, even leading into, like some of my powerlifting years, where wherever I hit the PR, it was just like the same, the same intensity and charisma. Where Goldberg hits a spear and just like losing it and I don't know. I just feel like I've just basically repetitively done this on my head so many times and even though you know I'm not hitting a spear on a WWE or WCW stage, that spear that just hit in front of a crowd and then going crazy and me getting to fire up, wow, like it's, it's, it's amazing and you know it's funny because the reason why Goldberg resonates with me is back when I was three years old, wwe television was not necessarily super appropriate for, like your average toddler I guess it was at three o'clock in the morning that you care. Oh, really, yeah, he was staying up past bedtime. I was. Yeah, I'm coming back down when I feel, oh yeah. So my parents were very protective over me.
Speaker 1:I was the only child like I said, so they never let me watch WWE, but they did let me watch WCW and specifically let me watch, like, all of Goldberg's matches and you know, in today's world of wrestling, goldberg catches a lot of flak because of you know, his, his shooting to the top and and that whole story. But I think what is not really touched on is how he was literally a superhero to so many kids because he filled in that role of somebody that was invincible, of somebody that displayed humility and and also just true, genuine care for those that were fans of him and like being able to see that to where you have like this epitome of what a man should be like from a physique standpoint, from all that stuff, and then see that he has a heart and be able to like pick up a kid or do the make a wish and stuff like that. To me, watching that as a kid, I'm like that's, that's what I should be like, that's what I should try to be like. So that's where I started lifting as a kid.
Speaker 1:I remember my dad saying you want to get traps like Goldberg, you better start shrugging, you know, and so I've been shrugging since I was like five years old, you know, and I remember the first time I went to a commercial gym I think I was 16 or something and so somebody was like yeah, great chats man. You know, you remind me of that one wrestler, what's his name? And like Goldberg, he's like yeah.
Speaker 1:Goldberg, I'm like yes, you know, but anyways, and yeah, so he's. He's had impact on me well before I ever met him, and the more that I get to know him, the more that continues to grow.
Speaker 2:So now, as a wrestler, what is your typical training week compared to you know, your powerlifting days, your BJJ days. What does that look like?
Speaker 1:so I would say I guess the only the only bad part about my new wrestling schedule is the fact that I can't train jiu-jitsu, or I haven't been training jiu-jitsu as much as I once did. Especially now being in Austin and having the luxury of being able to train under John and Gordon at New Wave and and all that. I still try to make it in once or twice every couple weeks. It's kind of hard because of all the clients I have during the day, but we train two to three times a week wrestling wise, and then I try to get a one or two private private sessions in to try to just really dial in on the fine details of what my character is. And outside of that then my training in the gym coincides with wrestling.
Speaker 1:From the standpoint of I was once very much about numbers in the gym, powerlifting, all that stuff. Thankfully I was able to hit some of my powerlifting goals, hit a hundred this year and you know, after that and like I'm good now let's kind of focus on bodybuilding again, almost like I was doing in high school. So I've been focusing a little bit more on my physique, trying to dial in my diet even more cardio conditioning and then adding in elements of athletic training and on top of that, like flexibility and mobility, because the fact of the matter is I am not Goldberg's height and I'm not very tall as is. But if I can add a couple inches to my height by being able to do the splits or being able to backflip, or being able to do these things that most people with my stature cannot, then I think I make a good case for myself as to why I have potential to reach a higher level yeah, you definitely break the perceptions of what people think you can do.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate when you look at your physique, you can tell that you're strong. You got a very you know, a great foundational strength. You can tell you're an athlete. All right, I couldn't even put you into a bucket, though, if I looked at your physique of okay, is he a powerlifter body? Because you've kind of got this hybrid physique, thank you, and you also, uh, a hybrid athlete strength, flexibility. You know you've taken so many different strength, so many different sports, thank you, um, but obviously the BJJ was a massive part of your world, and that transition into wrestling, I'm sure, as it was all encompassing getting your black belt, must mean incredibly difficult, and then for you now to focus from that world to then go all in on wrestling. How long did it take you to get your black belt? Five years, five years, that's short, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that brings up a whole topic that could be in a whole another podcast, but yeah, it's a short amount of time. I always talk about belts and such being always being a byproduct of the ecosystem that you're within. So my black belt I earned it and I can compete with a lot of really good black belts. However, my black belt at New Wave is that of like maybe a purple belt or a blue belt, depending upon who you're comparing me to Like realistically, because those people under John, they know a lot of stuff because of John and they chain with the best in the world. So being a black belt is, to me, the representation of the work that you put in the people that you impacted, your ability to teach, your ability to kind of be a leader in whatever ecosystem that you're within, and then you earned that belt in that given environment. I'm still very proud of having that black belt.
Speaker 2:I'm thankful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm definitely thankful for the gym that I earned that in, but at the same time too, you know like, especially nowadays I'm sure you followed you just soon enough to know you got blue belts and purple belts, qualifying for ADCC and like all these crazy things that I've been doing it for maybe like a handful of years, and so belts from a skill standpoint, definitely don't matter as much as they once did, but there's still some justice to be said about it in regards to like what it took for said individual to get to that point for sure.
Speaker 2:You're still at the you know again, I don't know the structure of how you receive that next belt, but obviously that you get put through some sort of well, how would you get progressed? Tell the viewers how would you go from? You know different color belts. Is it like a system or is it through training, or is it through competition?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I always say that every single gym has a little bit different taste. At the end of the day it should be represented by your skill, based upon what your instructor deems your potential to be. So if you're a 56 year old guy, your black belt potential might be different than the division one 20 year old wrestler that comes in for his first time, right? But at the same time, you know, a school like where I came from has some sort of a testing system where they put a little bit more emphasis on like testing for said belt with a certain amount of techniques and amongst that you know, competing and teaching hours and stuff to where, like when you're receiving that belt, you kind of show that you have not just the actual skills in Jiu Jitsu but the ability to pass on knowledge and I do like that a lot.
Speaker 1:Other schools you know, especially the guys under John I would say that that's predominantly competition based. You know, when you're doing really well in competitions, that's generally what merits getting to a next level and you know that and that's awesome because you see that they're the best in the world because of it. And you know I would say other schools maybe have a mixture where they have a really strong competition team and those people are graded a little bit differently than, say, their, you know, three day a week, hobbyist that has a family and kids and everything like that. So I would say that ultimately you want to make sure that a black belt is competent, but at the same time too, not everybody can realistically be graded on the same scale. Otherwise you'll just have, you know, a bunch of people that are white belts because they can't beat the 20 year old white belt that's been doing it for a week. You know it's hard to gauge.
Speaker 2:The fastest black belt I've ever heard is two years. I think, yeah, I think it was two or three years, something like that, really quick, and this was actually the black belt was given I'm not gonna say who, but it was given by somebody that is very respected and this person that I'm speaking about in particular kind of went into this gym and dedicated his life to this Two years just flew through the. You know again getting the. What is it white? What's the kind of what.
Speaker 2:White, blue, purple, brown, black and, in most cases, from the friends that I know have been doing it like 10, 15 years depending on who you're under right. But that doesn't mean to say that your skill being under somebody again, knowledge is power right being under. You just mentioned John right New Wave with Gordon Ryan and all them savages are over there. You've got his B team also in Austin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're awesome too.
Speaker 2:And all them guys that you know that are in and around each other. They've all sharpened each other's swords. Being around the best. So having the ability to get a black belt anywhere in the country such incredible honor and it was earned right. So, regardless of it, five years, 15 years, whatever else, it's all what you're putting into it day to day.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest.
Speaker 2:It's not just because you've been here and they're trying to keep you like. Some kids in the UK will get black belts in karate after being there for a year.
Speaker 1:Like what the hell's going on here?
Speaker 2:But nonetheless, bro, and again, not to keep on the black belt subject, just for me it's just goes back to what I was saying originally, where you muster that craft and now you've ticked that box and then you go on to something else. And also I can relate to that With me in bodybuilding. I was all-encompassing in bodybuilding. I ticked that box and now I'm kind of looking at what next I can get into, what skills I can learn from these new endeavors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's incredible and soaking up and starting from the beginning, and I can see a lot of myself in you Because you have a lot of humility to yourself, thank you. And yes, you've got a great. You've got a lot of several different skills in several different sports and genres. We're also prepared to start from the bottom, peg one, and learn and be humble about it. Hence why you moved to Austin to put yourself in Dusty Rhodes' school and just start from the bottom. Let's go back to wrestling, because it's so fascinating for me and that's obviously why I got blown up right With all the fans there.
Speaker 2:Talk us about that move to Austin and the first time you walked into that gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So basically, the move to Austin came from just knowing that there's a chance that I can do something really big with my life and I just had this feeling that I needed to respectfully, mom and dad, get out of my parents' house, get out of my childhood situation and go and find that for myself.
Speaker 1:Now, with that said, I have a group of three best friends that have all dedicated their lives to moving to Austin with me to help build my business how Strong, the coaching business that I run. My best friend in particular, matt Olson behind me, moved with me before we had a house, before we had the coaching business set up, like we just took a leap of faith and so we knew that, based upon some of the things that have happened leading up to that point Goldberg even being able to say that I know Flex Lewis, like these little things that have happened to where I don't consider them coincidences to where I could stay in Arizona, be happy about it, but I could also see where I could take this, and so I go to Austin and I know that New Wave's there. That was a huge thing from a Jujutsu standpoint. I was just coming back from my knee injury, so I remember the third day being in Austin. We're still in Airbnb's and Big Dan at Texas like come to practice now. I'm like all right, first practice back in seven months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in seven months I'm just gonna go practice with the New Wave, but those guys are amazing just an amazing group, and whatever negativity that they get online because of how online is, it's just not the case. I'll just say that right here.
Speaker 2:I couldn't attest that. Yeah, you know what I'm personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know how it is, those guys are really yes, those guys have really taken me in and even though I'm not as present as I once was, their support for me is I couldn't ask for anything more. Then after that, brian had a show for AEW in Austin and we worked out that morning Brian Cage, brian Cage, yep, and I actually had no idea that Dustin was in Austin and I remember him saying oh, dustin has a school out here. Oh, really, I had no idea For a minute. I was considering maybe going to Booker T School in Houston, but that's like three hours away, and so he had told Dustin about me. That night I kind of talked to Dustin a little bit, signed up for the camp, did basically what's considered I would consider like a beginner crash course type of camp, basically that then allows you to start training as a actual wrestler for the school and then start working the ND scene and such and then going through the camp.
Speaker 1:I had the honor of winning MVP of the camp and I remember the first thing that Brian said. I told him that I got into the camp. He's like, nice, don't let me down. I was like, okay, so appreciate it, I know. So then I was happy that you know the coaches there had seen improvement of me enough to give me that honor and ultimately that match that I did.
Speaker 1:Were it was honest. It's just called a student showcase and you go against another student at the camp and it's not a live audience, it's just basically all the people at that school, rhodes Wrestling Academy. But even just that is when I was like, oh man, I really enjoy this and I got a lot of great compliments on the match and you know, again, just being able to be into that Goldberg-esque type of character for my first time, it was really cool. It was really cool and I had just been working on a lot of those skills to try to further pinpoint what my specific character is, to where I have those Goldberg elements. But I also start to kind of branch off and be more of whoever Jimmy House is in the ring.
Speaker 2:So the promoter allows you to create your own character.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So they kind of asked like what the ideas for ourselves were and I think ultimately for myself, what makes the most sense having the audience from powerlifting and jujitsu and stuff like that it makes sense to enter as my name because it keeps it very real and it almost allows my current audience to be integrated or invested in this new journey that I'm doing because there's not too much of a change versus, like me, wearing a mask and, you know, doing a bunch of crazy talking or flipping or whatever. I think it changes.
Speaker 1:Changing your accent yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. So I think what makes the most sense right now is to be my name be the best good guy I can. You know all my friends joke about like trying to turn me into a bad guy. They're like you think you could be a bad guy. I was like I guess I could try, you know. But I think what makes the most sense right now is just to do what I know best, which is do what Goldberg showed me and then just add my jujitsu elements and my athletic elements and stuff like that to further get into who I am as a wrestler.
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned you being yourself. Obviously there's theatrics that come with wrestling. How did you train yourself for that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's a great question. I would say that wrestling and this would be the opinion of a lot of my coaches now too is wrestling is basically just amplifying who you are and being able to display that, even if you're a quiet guy. Like, how do you take that quiet guy and make it entertaining or make the crowd want to be invested into this quiet guy that isn't as out there? You know, there's a way to do it, I believe.
Speaker 1:So for me, what I would say is relatively soft spoken, you know, I keep my mouth shut and less spoken to, but then in those moments where I get to shine and be in the spotlight, then I just open up and I become this Goldberg-esque type of character in my head that I've been playing through for 20 plus years.
Speaker 1:So for me it's just okay. You are a jujitsu guy, you have some strength, you have a decent physique, you have some athleticism, some mobility, and then you have that really, really, really intense side that not many people have gotten to see. So now it's just a matter of getting over some of the nerves that comes with screaming in an empty warehouse from time to time and then just being able to display that and just have it come from the heart. I think once I started really feeling those emotions from the heart and just doing whatever my body felt was right in that moment such as like this last thing where I speared the guy and I was going crazy that's when wrestling started to make more sense and then started to feel much more natural to me, when I just started just to do what I've been doing my whole life really. I remember with PRs you know it's very extra, but I remember before Della PRs I would like go to the bathroom of whatever gym I was in, go to my phone, play Goldberg's theme song.
Speaker 1:Holy shit Goldberg plays a Masseponio life bro 100%. Actually my first, no, my only two bodybuilding shows. I did my posing routine to Goldberg's music.
Speaker 2:Yeah for God, we did not in the bodybuilding room. I guess another fair that your body had, man. My apologies, I should have thrown open the show with that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, yeah, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Goldberg's entry was your posing routine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the posing routine and then, like I said for PRs, I would go to the bathroom, I would play the music and I would kind of stare myself in the mirror and do my whole little thing and then walk out with that same kind of aura that he would do with walking out with a security guard.
Speaker 2:He blows smoke out of your nose too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I cursed up some smarties and snorted it, I love walking out that's not true, by the way and then, yeah, go for the PR and anyways.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things where I was almost embarrassed to do it back then and talk about it, but now it's just like, yeah, that's what I did.
Speaker 1:But doing all that before makes this transition to wrestling so much easier for me, Because when I think about it like I've really been kind of doing this my whole life, even though I'm still very, very new All the mental and getting into character I remember before my first match and I'm trying to get into character I thought about how I warmed up for wrestling in high school. I thought about how I've warmed up for Jiu-Jitsu matches and I thought like, okay, well, your character is about to really like blow up and get super, super intense. So I started to think about how Goldberg started doing his warm-ups and I didn't have a door to bash my head into at the time, but I did a few little like ha ha ha, trying to really get myself into character. And that's where I can see where actors talk about doing certain things to allow them to get into character, and it was on a much lower scale, very similar.
Speaker 2:Is that harder for you than actually wrestling, getting into character, the theatrics, or is it two different monsters?
Speaker 1:That's where wrestling to me at the highest level is probably the most impressive thing. That has an athletic base that you can do, and not even myself fully understand what that means. But obviously your average fan is hard to really see. You just see these guys doing really, really cool things but you don't know like everything that goes into it. You know, some of the things that I pick up on are that the theatrics, the charisma, also how you maintain a certain level of psychology and storytelling throughout the match and while you're 20, 30 minutes in, been slammed 20, 30 times already, you're still trying to maintain this story that you're telling and then also be able to do it just on the fly with the fans and how they're reacting. It's probably the most impressive thing I've ever seen.
Speaker 1:And when you look at people like John Cena or the Rock, I compare the Rock to like the Gordon Ryan of charisma. It's insane, like everybody knows the Rock. He's famous and he has all these different accolades. But to understand, like how good he is to have such control over any audience that he's in front of, whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, that's a skill that honestly, the best in the world and most professional wrestlers would agree. But yeah, I think the hardest part. For me the moves come relatively easy because a lot of them are relative to wrestling or Jiu Jitsu, but everything in between is where I'm trying to. It really increased my knowledge on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'll mention in the Rock, right, that's somebody that both you and I can say such an example of being just a good fucking dude. Success hasn't got to that to his head. He's very involved, just like John Cena, with the Make-A-Wish. You obviously mentioned that about Goldberg too. They're very aware of where they are in life and how much they want to give back to life, Plus still making sure that that level of what they're at is the bar is moved. You know. Look at the Rock now making his return back to wrestling.
Speaker 2:I for one am excited, Obviously. You know I have a personal relationship with him. He told me something was happening. He didn't even tell me what, but he goes watch Saturday night, something's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:I was like okay, bro.
Speaker 2:But obviously they mentioned it to WrestleMania and there was so much stuff going on here. Being in WrestleMania was your in town as well, and we have a lot of wrestlers here at the gym as well as myself being personal friends of these guys, so I know a lot of their journey and where they've come from. But they were so unwavering with their mindset of where they wanted to go, just like yourself. You kind of talk it into existence. If you look at all some of these, you know some of the old clips of some of these guys from their indie days. They were again acting in different formats Maybe they were a character acts and changes, but they adapted to that brand. Like you said, they kept it consistent and then they've moved up. They got noticed. Their skill sets talked for themselves. They've had the opportunities in the WWE, uh AEW, where'd you see yourself going? What's the plan for you?
Speaker 1:So ultimately, I want to be on the biggest platform I can to have that impact and really start adding to those amount of kids that I can impact an adult obviously too, but they're just something about being able to impact a kid to where I just see myself when I was little and looking up to that superhero type of figure. So, ultimately, obviously WWE is a bigger platform, but AEW I have so many friends in there and obviously Dustin is an AEW and I think AEW is great, like there's. There's some amazing people there and their product is also very, very good and they've done a good job of separating themselves from WWE to where your average fan should be able to appreciate the differences in both.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see it being like the WWF part of the day. Yeah, yeah, actually.
Speaker 1:She's some of the stunts that they're pulling off. Did you see Sting's last match by chance? Oh man, that was amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hate to see him go, but also I'm happy to see him go as well, because what a career. Let's just be honest, it was so cool.
Speaker 1:And I actually had the honor of helping one of his sons that did the like, the interest with him with his diet, to prepare for that Garrett Gared Borden, yeah, yes, and so we kind of basically put him in a bodybuilding diet. Basically he did phenomenal, like flawlessly, just suffer through it and it was so cool to kind of see that. And then him and his other brother, stephen, enjoy that moment with his dad. They're doing the Stinger Splash on everybody. But yeah, the reason why I bring that up is because you know, you see Sting still throwing himself into glass. He's 60 something years old, just a legend, like what it's. It's incredible. But then also his partner, darby Allen, doing like the stun off of the ladder and then landing through glass. I remember watching it with my friend and we're like holy shit, dude, that's insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's here reminds me so much of the old school that what got me in the wrestling because I was that kid like you mentioned with your friends yeah, that's awesome. Jumping off the top rope yeah, the sofa onto my brother was a younger than me. That's funny. Who's completely different in like with two different brothers? You know he's very quiet and I was a fuck of mad man. Yeah, you know so. He was always Hulk Hogan and I was always Ultimate Warrior. Ultimate Warrior is my number one.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:I love Ultimate Warrior just because of all the theatrics and the fucking energy and stuff like that. Is it easy to? That's what really on the physical course. That's what really gravitated me to wrestling back then was the fact that you had incredible physics doing some impressive feats of strength.
Speaker 2:And these guys were doing it four or five times a week on the road and they still had to train and keep the physique and they still had to eat their nutrition. And of course we all hear the stories now where these guys were kind of booting the candle at both ends but obviously performing every single night. But that world back then was crazy, you know, and everybody speaks about it. How, how these guys kind of? You see that some of these guys know that they're not in good health. Yeah, how would you know, consciously know that, having had injuries yourself? How do you make it through, get into your goal without putting yourself in jeopardy? No, claiming the ladder in wrestling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. So the first thing I would say is that, thankfully, the culture of wrestling seems to be a little bit different than what it once was. Now, obviously, you have to pay credit to those guys that made this now culture of wrestling possible, because, yeah, this wouldn't be here had it not been for those road trips and those everything that they did right, and that's why they're truly like legends. The wrestling wouldn't be where it's at without them.
Speaker 2:And money wasn't even there back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Like just hearing about some of the pay or lack of pay that they would get just for traveling like state to state. It's insane. And yeah, these people just basically live in their car because they didn't have any place to live, because they just believed in their dream that much. And so, to answer your question, I think a lot of it comes from the preparation that I've been doing for a long, long time. I think a lot of the agility and mobility and just general strength training has allowed me to be pretty durable.
Speaker 1:We talk about that knee injury where really freak accident with one of my best friends from back home, fully torn PCL, partially torn ACL, three partial tears in my MCL and a fractured femur all in the same go Could you add it, anymore fucking shit than even. Yeah, no, thank God the meniscus and everything else was okay. I guess that happened. I thought for sure I was going to collapse, but I I accredit a lot of the training that I did leading up to that in regards to mobility and specific knee, hip and ankle strength things, stuff that I started really diving into. That, I believe allowed me to walk away from that injury for one and then, for two, actually heal it without surgery. Now you can't repair a fully torn PCL, but I'm able to actually function and do things that I did before, and to some degree better, with a lot of the training that I had done prior to that. So I think there's something to say about being very diligent and proper and regimented in your training that allows you to be much more durable and then, in result, require technically a little less recovery because you've built up durability in your body so much.
Speaker 1:Now, along with that too, I think there's there's I mean, in today's world there's so so much great free information out there, and I think that's the main difference from now, one of the main differences versus back then, where the guy's back then like it's hard to know, like how to take care of yourself or what you should be doing in the gym, or I think a lot of the training styles in the gym back then were counterproductive for wrestling, when you're training super heavy and hard for a physique but you're not necessarily trying to take care of the joints and ligaments that keep everything together, which is where you know now I put so much emphasis on the mobility and trying to strengthen those connective muscles and tendons and such, because that's what allows me to do jujitsu and lift and then go get thrown around in wrestling and come out okay right, and I pulled that 800 at 200 in the middle of that wrestling camp that I was doing at Dustin.
Speaker 1:So not to say that's the smartest thing to do, but to show that through a 28 next month so 23 years of lifting I come out with very minimal injuries from lifting in particular, and and I'm able to do very athletic hard things on the body and I'm still young, I understand that, but I have a lot of time under my belt too at the same time, and so I think a lot of it has to do with the years, as a kid and then also now, how I treat my training, where the physique is important, but just as important is how I take care of the joints and ligaments that surround so that injury, though, that you mentioned with your knee many, many athletes were looked at that and said it.
Speaker 2:I really said it's done. Did you ever have doubts that? That creeped into your head when you were going through that injury rehab stages, that you were never going to get back to where you were?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So my the first doubts were like, literally as it happened, where it happens, and I hear one, two, three pop, and then in my head the first thought was that was it. That was an knee injury, that was a knee injury that every athlete talks about like that's it, I'm done.
Speaker 2:And how do you do it? Sorry, just to build the story and for the fans listening. As far as like how did you injure yourself?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's a video on my Instagram. If you want to play it somewhere, it's much better just to watch. But basically we're wrestling take downs and he went for like an outside trip which you would come down towards my ankle. But the thing that I kind of talk about is, like he's much taller than me, I'm a little bit lower, so he went down for my ankle but, like I was already in a low stance and he came into the side of my knee accidentally my friend Austin. He's 260-270, like very large human, so he, with momentum and weight and gravity, came into my knee this way and then both of us landed on the ground at the same time.
Speaker 1:Now, in regards to not completely obliterating my knee, I accredited that to a lot of the hip internal rotation drill that I had been doing leading up to that, being able to actually go with some of that pressure and internally rotate my hip so that by the time we landed, it popped when we hit the ground versus, like him, just basically going through my leg, you know. So I credit that. That's where, like hip mobility, even though it may not directly make the knee stronger, it does allow yourself to be able to adopt some load if you're faced to a situation like that. But I'm sorry. The question, the question how, how to happen? Yeah, that's basically what happened in that moment for that.
Speaker 2:And then the other question I'm built in was your mindset during that time. Oh yes, how did you? How did you manage to go through that traumatic period of time? Because there's a lot of shit going on for you, right? There was a lot of great stuff, whether you knew you were going to be a wrestler at that point in time or not. There's a lot of other great things that you were chasing. So how did you get through that time and talk? Tell us about that mental state? Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:I at the beginning had a very odd sense of calmness and confidence in that I had done my due diligence to prepare to at least set me up well enough to try to do it without surgery. And then, after the first couple weeks implementing a lot of the things that I was actually doing for a lot of my clients at the time, I started to see progress pretty fast. The first couple days are pretty rough. I remember having to like basically like get helped out of the gym because my leg just kind of started giving out, like my build muscles were so fatigued. Remember one day I had to cancel teaching the kids because I couldn't make it down my stairs just because the leg was so fatigued from compensating. But then after I got through that, then knees over toes guy paid a huge role in implementing a lot of his very easy to follow exercises to where I could start getting movement and blood flow into that knee with something as basic as taking what's called voodoo floss, wrapping it. I would do squats in the pool, some split squats in the pool and just backwards walking, all that simple stuff, and it allowed me to kind of build this base that then allowed me to kind of venture down a few different routes, which is where your brother comes into play, because I remember when A he first messaged me and then we met up here during Olympia Weekend and he took me through what he would do for his athletes from the knee recovery standpoint. So that's where I picked up and started adding in a lot of the banded isometric type stuff that he does and I noticed that rejuvenated a lot of progress for myself when I started to hit a plateau. And then my good friend that your friends with Phil Derue I went to Florida. We did a lot of training and he also took me through a lot of the stuff that he does for knee rehab as well. So I was basically put in a position to where, when I started to encounter some gout, I was able to kind of break through plateaus, because I'm blessed to have a lot of very knowledgeable individuals from very different fields to add to my total knowledge and how to repair injuries such as that. And then soon enough, you know, I'm able to teach the kids and wrestle around with them again, and that was awesome. And then being able to like, take, like an actual double egg, and not have to hesitate and then, like I said you take the move to Austin, I'm able to actually kind of wrestle, it was still holding me back a little bit.
Speaker 1:I think the thing more most recently that got into my head was there's some random pop or shift that occurs in my MCL. It hasn't happened in months, knock on wood, but it happened during Dustin's camp and it actually affected how I was preparing for my match. I didn't actually get to run through it all that much because I was training at New Wave and I was rolling with Luke Griffith amazing, amazing competitor and he was mounted on me and I had his ankle and he just like used his foot to pry my leg off and he did nothing wrong at all and then it just like popped, like yeah, you know, and it and it affected me for the next like three, four weeks and that was really discouraging because I thought I got into a point to where it was, it was fine. So then I healed it. I competed at the American pro for powerlifting that next week I was able to next week yeah, yeah, I, I remember being unsure if I was going to be able to do it and then I was able to heal it enough to squat and deadlift and get through that. So that was good.
Speaker 1:And then I had to get back to wrestling practice the next day and then I was a dumbass and try to backflip out of a single leg. So then I backflip out of the single leg but then when I landed my foot kind of turned out a little bit. So then I re popped it again. So then for the next month after that I was dealing with rehabbing the injury that was caused from the initial injury. I got through the match but I wasn't able to do all the things that I wanted to do, and since then thankfully nothing has happened. I've been even more diligent on stepping away from powerlifting and putting a lot of emphasis on building up the stability in my knee in all the various directions and all the various muscles that coincide with knee help. That that's also been huge, and thankfully it hasn't, but it does linger in my head I'd be lying to you if it doesn't for sure, but thankfully I have enough confidence now in my training and and how to alter the training in jiu-jitsu or in wrestling to where it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's done well good so, yeah, I'm very fascinated by mindsets in general and for the most part of the guests that I've had on the show, they're great. This has truly been powered by trauma. There's a lot of times where they've had something that's happening they're upbringing or something that's happened where you know it affected them so much so that it's allowed them to take heed in what could have happened and powered them through. You know, there's a lot of people that have been on this podcast that have talked for the first time that they were going to commit suicide and unfortunately, greatness. You realize the more more or should I say I've realized, the more more my own people who are kind of wired differently. Trauma plays a massive part, for sure. Trauma play a part in your success.
Speaker 1:I'd be lying if I said I didn't. But out of respect for the situations that led up to that, normally I choose to not talk about it as much. But yes, 100% yeah, I understand.
Speaker 2:I'm not trying to pry any stories out of you. There's no problem from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah no, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I'm saying mentality wise, yeah, and you know it's. It's funny because I try to be strong and stable, and my emotions and everything else, but I've cried I don't know, like five, six, seven times in the last couple months because I'm I'm honestly afraid that I won't live up to the these expectations that I put up for myself. I won't, that I won't be able to build my business enough to take care of my three best friends. I won't be able to show my parents that everything they did for me amounted to something that I won't be able to to really impact those kids like I. Like I really want to.
Speaker 1:Like all these doubts and fears come up in my head and I have to thank you because the random opportunity to come on to the podcast was a very positive reassurance for me that the perfect time will happen at the perfect time and you just need to continue, like keeping yourself going forward and almost ignorantly. So it's like at this point in time, like why don't you just quit and get a job because you know you can? Like you went to college, you got a degree, you know that would probably make your parents happy to some degree, but like I have to keep going and whether I'm 40 and I'm still doing this shit I haven't got. I have to keep going, or it talk about suicide not that I have suicidal thoughts, but at the same time, I am willing to die for this dream, in the sense that I will go to whatever length that I have to to make sure that I accomplish this. Or death stops me, but nothing else will, and that in itself, from a mindset perspective, allows me just to be so stupid and cut my knee and then be like all right, well, let's get back to the thing that fucked up my knee and then let's do something even more dangerous, because getting through all those things allows me to do what I believe my purpose is to do.
Speaker 1:Whenever I found my purpose. I've never I've never seen so much success manifest for myself. I've never seen so many good things happen for the friends that support me around me, and it's a feeling that I'm just so addicted to. At this point, I have to see the very, the very max potential to where I can take it and again, to express gratitude to you for allowing me to allow me to manifest that on this podcast number one, thank you, and be being a fan of you for so long, it's very a surreal moment for me in my journey to be able to take a pit stop here, talk about it and look back at this podcast in a couple years and and knew that I was on the right track off from my standpoint, sitting here, I see where you're going, thank you.
Speaker 2:And and I was just saying to my producer before you jumped on there's a lot of people that come in here that you know Tyus doesn't really know until they sat on us on on that seat and they start talking and you realize soon enough, every speaks the same language, right, everybody who is great, as I mentioned earlier, speaks the same language of doing everything possible. There's no quit, even if you have the doubt and the tears and stuff. That's part of the fucking journey. Yeah, many times I fucking looked at myself in the mirror and I had nothing in my bank account, right? I was sleeping on the sofa and I look around just like what am I doing? Mm-hmm. And then I reassure myself I'm doing what I want to do. I'm chasing whatever this dream is right now and I can say, obviously I'm, thankfully I stuck it through.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but you have to be unrealistic, fucking delusional to chase anything in life. Because if you look at Any top of the mountain and it's just you, with the analogy of a mountain, right, the first person to climb to Everest and said I'm going to do it, get to the top, put that flag up there and come back down. That was like nobody knew. Nobody knew what that journey was going to be like a lot of dead bodies on the way up right now. Right, a lot of people are tempted to do that and they know when they sign that piece of paper on that climb, it's do or die, truly do or die. And it's the same thing you have to have in terms of mentality to anything you do in life. You're all in a nothing.
Speaker 2:The guys who are all in In Monday to Tuesday and all out Saturday to Sunday. Yeah, they never become great. They become conversations of guys that Would I, should have, could I. And that's why I wanted you on the podcast because, yes, you're in the early stages of this new chapter of wrestling, but we could speak about all these other Accolades. You've already got the bodybuilding, the powerlifting, the, the BJJ.
Speaker 2:But right now, as I said, I truly see just by what you're doing, your energy, your actions, humility, where you're going. Truly, from my standpoint and and Listen, nobody knows what the future is, but from what you're talking about right now and everything that you put out there into into the fucking atmosphere Through your own Verbiage and thoughts, let's be honest come fucking true, right, yeah, the chase. So I just wanted to get you on the podcast because I think that you are going to become something. Thank you, whatever, whatever that Lansing, whatever federation that lands in, because you're determined not to give up. Because I can go back to the stories of me. See me when you got that injury and I Just remember you posting about that injury, but then you will load your funds, your followers, to follow you on that journey in rehab and you documented the whole process. I thought myself even I was like bro.
Speaker 2:This guy's pushing away too fast, too hard because you were doing some crazy banded stuff Bill Gary and squats and I was like man, that knee is still in a state, unstable position. But who am I to sit back and tell you what to do? Because if the shoe is on the other foot I'll be fucking doing the same thing too. Right, it's a mentality thing and we're very blessed whatever, whatever, whatever it comes from, whether it's powered by trauma, where it is powered by, whatever reason. You just add to that and the trauma you always bring up, because that is kind of one of them things where it's that guy in the shoulder that's telling you you can't do it, or you know you're never gonna do it, and you've got that guy on the shoulder saying you got a fucking every reason to do it. You know it's the back and forth, it's just ten that guy to shut up. Yeah, just get on the fucking. You know, get on the game plan, because you can be happening my year, but I'm not gonna listen. I might have them days where I wake up and you know it might be anxiety, or you start, like I said, doubt or you've got an injury that you have to train around or whatever else, but it's not going to derail you from the ultimate goal and, as you know, we're getting into the wrestling world and that ultimate goal is to become this icon.
Speaker 2:No once have you mentioned being a champion in this podcast. You know I mentioned. You've said many times you want to be a superhero for kids. So that to me, listening to these, you know Things that you've said come out of your own mouth, not not anyone. Be the best, because I went in this fucking sport to be the best, right, and everything else came secondary and my I kind of uh, different things get added to the pile of why I was doing it in the end. You know I had kids.
Speaker 2:I was doing it for my family was, but first when I came to this country was for me. I wanted to be the best body in the world and as that climb started, then I was like, wow, my fans are sore behind me and the reason why I mentioned in that is is why were you? Is because if it wasn't for your fans Believing in you, we wouldn't have probably been on the podcast as fast as we are. Because and when I tell the guys and the viewers and the guys and girls who are listening on Spotify, I Done this Q&A and I know I mentioned this the beginning of the show, but when I tell you, I Thought this guy paid bots to go into my fucking Q&A because there were so many people saying Jimmy house, jimmy house and, by the way, fucking some people spelt your your last name terribly well so you could see that they're from all over the world to do that.
Speaker 2:So that shows to me the impact that you've made in in these people's lives. Where there's come over from powerlifting, where there's come over from the BJJ world, they're following you. They're following Jimmy house, and it's got to be exciting, though, for you to see that support, because a lot of these guys you know that you're wrestling with don't even have really a following right. They're coming in with green grass, they want to become famous, they want their Instagram to blow up. You're already coming in with a lot of accolades, and you're also coming into this new endeavor with a fan following, and that is a dangerous thing, very dangerous, because now you are kind of in the beautiful situation when you've got people cheering your name. You've already made the impact from your first wrestling event, and now you're you just had that first wrestling match of yours. For me, it's exciting to sit here and see what now is going to unfold, but not to make this all about me, if I can talk, and you're like it's a good interview with me, but.
Speaker 2:I just want to let you know that it's it's. You're here for a reason, thank you. And I want to look back on this. When we get you back down in part two and I don't know, fucking big ball of shit, okay, when you're five years time like a bro, let's do a part two on the podcast. I do it. I am no time. You know it goes. I'm on the jet, bro. I have no time. You know, don't be that guy to me.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't think I will they know about listening to say testament to you. What, what, um I. What advice would you give young fans the little Jimmy house that's screaming their favorite wrestlers name, holding up the sign that wants to become the next wrestler what advice would you give them?
Speaker 1:I think that the the biggest thing for me getting to the position where I'm at now, being able to articulate myself on such a big podcast in front of a hero of mine is Overcoming myself doubt and then overcoming the the fear of what others think about me. Pursuing my goals, whether that's the closest loved ones I have, whether that's my peers, whether that's the people on Instagram or wherever these people are coming from. There's a long time where I kind of knew that I wanted to do something a little bit different with my life, when I was going through college and I hated every second of it and I just wasn't sure what that was. But I knew, in order to kind of get to that point, I would have to put myself out there more. And that's where you know, as a kid, my dad had just really instilled in me what humility is and how to be humble and loyalty and all these amazing qualities. But I'm extremely obedient and so, with that said, I took the term humble I think, in my opinion, a little bit too literally to where Any bit of self marketing or what have you is is vain, or it looks bad, or people will think such a way of me. I understand that right and so, and obviously in today's age is a lot different than it even was in 2014.
Speaker 1:But at the same time I had to kind of overcome that. I remember the first time I started trying to put myself out there. People that I had started becoming friends with at my commercial gym Just all of a sudden like unfollow or stop talking me or whatever just is like wow, damn, you know, and it would get to me. And then, as I go through my career now you know it's whether it's people talking shit about my natural status or whatever the case may be it's like At one point in time that really affected me and I would try to like get in these bickering contests with some troll that's probably 15 or whatever. But now I'm at a point to where I just genuinely am so confident and a who I am as a person and what my purpose is and how to pursue that purpose, to where I'm able to talk about the things that I've done and the things that I'm pursuing, so tying that back to the young fan that wants to do something like this or wants to do something bigger for themselves. It's it's being able to dictate what your doubt is, where it's coming from and Go through the process of understanding whether it's as big as you really think or not, such as the opinion of other people. If I didn't get over that, I 100% you would not even know who I am, because I'd still be in Arizona and I'd probably just fill into a job somewhere and just kind of be content with that and go to the gym to look healthy, and that's that's all I would have ever amounted to.
Speaker 1:As soon as I got over that and as soon as I started being able to speak about that, I Accumulate haters. I accumulate people that really, really support me, and those people that really, really support me would not be here had I stayed in that show and To the point of the amount of people that definitely helped me out, get to this seat right here, yeah, I'm just so lucky and so blessed because those people in particular Know me well enough or see my message enough to know that or think that I'm deserving of being in a position like this and then, on top of that, being able to support me through Everything that I do. I'm just so lucky like. I'm not coming in here with a million followers or hundreds of thousands of likes or whatever, but I have a very, very strong foundation of support that's coming from a lot of cool places and on top of that, I'm very, very blessed to say that I have a lot of people in your position that have Accomplished the best in your said sport or whatever. You, goldberg, ct, all these different people that know who I am, and I Couldn't ask for anything more in this moment. And that's why, like you said, like I Don't know if my purpose is it be the best in the world. I think I think I'm the best Jimmy house in the world, but I don't think necessarily my purpose is to be Gordon Ryan or or you and bodybuilding or anything like that.
Speaker 1:I think my purpose, yes, is to have that impact on those kids and be the best at that, and so losing my train of thought here.
Speaker 1:But ultimately, yeah, it doesn't come down to for me what the followers will allow me to gain is more so what that's continued success will allow me to continue to pave and make An outreach to the people that I can't impact.
Speaker 1:I tell this to my friends or people to ask me the same question as it's you doing this or me doing what I'm doing now. I'm going to accumulate people that disagree, that think I'm a liar, that hate on me or whatever the case may be. But past all that, you're gonna gain a lot of support and and on top of that, you're gonna be able to impact people that would have not have been impacted by you had you not taken that leap of faith and just put all your trust into your purpose. So I'll take a million people talking shit about my natural status if it means that I get to have the impact on that group of People that really need me for whatever reason. In the same way where, as a kid before even knew it, I needed a Goldberg or I needed my dad, I needed my parents and and to be in a position like that it's, it's an honor. So thank you, of course, and I Don't ask you a question about.
Speaker 2:You know the haters. Obviously you have been accused you know the of taking PEDs. You've stayed true to your word and your natural status is a prideful flag of honor for you right, and you've gone through a lot of again challenges where people have called you out and and did that ever mess with your abilities? Where it affected your whatever genre of style or training you were in at that point in time, by by having all this hit.
Speaker 1:Not literally, but it's interesting because you know I started lifting so young. So I'm lifting my dad and I remember being 13 and seeing my first little like tricep poke out and stuff like that. And I remember doing my first like cut for the first time when I was 16 and seeing veins for the first time. And you know you do something for 23 years. I'd hope you look better than me. To be honest, like shit, I look at my physique and I wish I did better, but yeah, like it was very, it was very strange because I I feel as though, that I try to maintain this, this sort of moral compass. That Doesn't say that I'm against steroids, that's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is when I was a kid and I was training with my dad and you know, you know he wanted me to stay a certain path, my natural status is me giving back to my dad and not going against his word, because that's one of the few things that I have control over, like complete control over Now.
Speaker 1:At this point in time, having lifted for so long and having gotten to this point of strength and having the physique that I do, I don't really feel like I need to add anything else right now, especially if I'm recovering well and all those different variables when something like that comes into play. I do think that realistically, there's a time Hopefully in my later 30s or what have you where like a TRT thing would be realistic right To like do the normal stuff. But as far as like adding in an element like that right now, after I've done so much without it, it's almost like a an addictive pursuit to see how much more or how much more I can gain Without it, and so it's like less of like. It's interesting because in the fitness industry now Back maybe 2014, 2015, it was like it was like damn, everyone that takes steroids.
Speaker 2:Damn, everybody takes that.
Speaker 1:Now it's fucking everybody's taking them, right, exactly, damn it all. So now it's like the opposite where, damn what a guy to be able to talk about his steroid use. You for saying that you don't take steroids and I can't for one. I agree, like it's very good to have that transparency, but then also, at the same time, too, to balance things out, I feel like not that it has to be me, but there should be those people that shows what can be done without it, like, if you so choose, to want to know what that looks like. Genetics, the amount of time that I've been lifting, the way I've been lifting, all plays a role into that. But this is what I have to show. And it's funny because some of those comments would be like you know, you don't have to fucking lie about it, everyone else is honest, like blah, blah, blah. It's like at this point in time, saying that you're natural and lying about it is more risky than saying that you're on steroids back in the day.
Speaker 1:That's the best I can say anything in some cases right, exactly so, like and if you get called out or if somebody proves that you're not, then it's just you're done. So like for me to come on a podcast like this and say that I'm taking a pretty big risk, but at the same time, too, again going to the point of like accepting that people are gonna think and say whatever they want and you just have to kind of keep chugging forward. That's where I feel like I've made some growth for myself in the last year or so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of like a long hanging fruit of attack. Right when you know, mike Ohurn is probably the poster boy in terms of how many people will talk about him, but him being talked about is also business. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:So whether Mike is or isn't, I'm not subject to that, and this is not what the conversation is. I've been friends with Mike for many, many a year and I just remember seeing Mike way back in the day when I first met him, and seeing him Now. He's never had any fluctuations of weight. He's always been lean, always been hella strong.
Speaker 2:But again his algorithm gets spiked because there's so many people talking good and bad. So when people come to me and say Flaks, you know how would you handle all the negativity when you were competing, cause I used to get my own fair shit stuff. It's like at first I'm not gonna like you. It did mentally affect me because I want to be liked. Who doesn't?
Speaker 1:You want to be liked by everybody.
Speaker 2:But then when I started getting the hate comments and whatever that was right, Post to post is different Whether I beat one of the champions of their countries or whatever else. One of my friends said to me it's like dude, who cares, it's algorithm. The more they type and comment, the more they on your page, the more that you're gonna get pushed, and you're gonna get pushed to the people who you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to have us following you too.
Speaker 2:So you know, sometimes good, sometimes bad is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a beautiful point and that's like, ultimately, where you have to kind of remind yourself because if you're in this business of promoting yourself, yeah, yeah, the bad is good to some degree. It's hard to see, and even for myself right now it's hard to see. But, yeah, you're 100% right for sure, even like I mean I guess all the people that like Tristan Lee is a great example, like phenomenal physique and I've never met him, but also seems like a phenomenal guy. But you have all the people that want to say that he's lying and but look where he's at because of it. So he's not putting a second thought into the people saying whatever, he's just focusing on what he's accomplished because of the people that support him.
Speaker 2:I tell you Tristan Lee's doing. He's coming in fucking cash Every time someone talks shit. It spikes his fucking posts and spikes his YouTube videos and he just receives a check. So what these guys are doing by talking shit is actually putting you more into the space of who you need to be seen by. So I only wanted to bring that up because you mentioned it and it just adds into the mental turmoil of you being focused to be great by adding in all these unnecessary things that you never even thought about. To the point of when I got into bodybuilding and then social media started coming to the forefront over print because I was signed by Weedon and social media kicked in, I got so much shit for my nickname Flax. Really what, flax? It's already a Flax Flax Wheeler.
Speaker 1:So I was like how dare you, how dare you?
Speaker 2:And then it went to I'm overhyped. I read it all.
Speaker 2:And I load myself to get caught up in the sauce, but then I load myself to get pissed off for greatness, as Raleigh Whist would say, and I let it fuel my fire because all them comments turned into funds and I've had many a fan that stood in line for me for two hours that I said, hey, listen, when I first seen you and you came on the scene I'm not going to lie, I talk shit. That's awesome, but that's what you want right, you want to turn your haters into funds.
Speaker 2:And that's the fun part of doing these new endeavors. If people who are watching me now don't think I don't get shit already because I was this 20 year bodybuilder and now I've gone into doing another endeavors and again in the podcast I say well, shut the fuck up, get in the gym and shoot some workouts, stop talking. Podcast.
Speaker 1:Dr Phil. I got them all I love them.
Speaker 2:I fucked a screen shot of them, but again it's part of the journey, anything that you get into new, that people are uncomfortable in their own hearts and egos and in their own minds. They can't accept the fact that you're trying to battle your life and put yourself into new situations that are just as fucking hard as the old situations you left. And that's what I see in you, as I said, because I see myself in you and these new endeavors that I'm getting into are scary, just as the last ones.
Speaker 2:I left but a completely different chapter where I've got to humble myself and truly learn these new nuances and how I go about things, the skills. That's exciting. Life's all a fucking journey, right? You're all about learning and being around the best, the best, and that's what I had to do. I was around the best of the best. I moved from Wales to be around the greatest bodybuilders and that chapter has ended on top and now I'm putting myself around the best speakers and the best business guys and I'm absorbed in this knowledge that I wasn't able to do when I was focused on bodybuilding. So I think a lot of people for me personally, going back around in this whole half, they were a little upset that I'm not as much a bodybuilder as I used to be. I'm fucking bodybuilder till the day I die.
Speaker 2:But, I'm not in the gym throwing around stupid amount of weights because I've been there. What is the end goal? To say, hey, I'm in shape, or is the end goal to now take the sport with me on my back and show that a bodybuilder can actually speak on stage? Or a bodybuilder can do this and that? And you're a testament to that? Because, again, you're doing these new endeavors whilst having all these skill sets that you've acquired. You've ticked the boxes on and now going into these new endeavors. But, tyus, I know we're coming to the end of the show. Is there anything that you want to ask, Mr Jimmy House, since you've been sitting in silence back there?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm kind of surprised by your humility in all of this You've accomplished quite a bit and you seem just like a really approachable nice guy, thank you. How do you stay grounded? I had this talk with my girlfriend last night. Claire Bays, love you.
Speaker 1:But I think about being a three, two three-year-old kid with my dad and just having me around the dogs and just talking about loyalty and humility and being humble and not bragging and not bringing unneeded attention to yourself and all these different things.
Speaker 1:And I think over time I've been able to redefine that and make that more specific to myself, to where I can let loose and own who I am in whatever moment. But at the same time too, I'm OK with not making myself the center of attention that I don't necessarily need to, because I'm very confident. I very much appreciate somebody in your position being able to compliment and recognize the things that I do well and that's enough for me and I figure if anyone's actually genuinely curious about what I'm doing then I can talk about it, but they'll ask. So that's just kind of how I approach things and I have the Instagram now so they want to know things. They have that. I do very much appreciate the acknowledgement and the compliment I have to credit my dad for instilling that into me at such a young age and I appreciate it because it allows me to know that through 28 years of life I've been able to maintain some of that foundation, despite the things that I'm doing now. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Shout out to dad. Yeah, thank you, dad. The molding that he's given you to certainly has created such a great and inspirational son. I guess right Did your dad see you wrestling?
Speaker 1:it? No, because it was in Austin. So in Arizona, though, I'm excited for my mom and my dad to come watch.
Speaker 2:Which kind of segues into the next chapter. Let's talk about an end in the show on what's about to happen, what you like to happen and anything you want to push and promote. The floor is yours, thank, you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. Yeah, ultimately, first off, thank you so much for it. It's funny because, remember, coming here for the first time a couple years ago and I'm very particular on supporting people's brands that I know and have met personally and have that connection and respect for, and I go into the clothing section I'm like, damn, these clothes are really fucking sick. I better become BFS with Flex, I cop like $200 worth of stuff. But then I remember a couple days later you had seen a video that I posted at the gym and you followed me and that was amazing and my parents were just like so my dad's a fan of bodybuilding, so he's just impressed by it and also Shout out to dad again, yeah, thanks, thank you, dad.
Speaker 1:My mom is just the most charismatic Filipino lady that you ever met and is always just so hyper and ecstatic and supportive of me, so whenever somebody like yourself is showing me support, she just it really almost makes her cry, like the Goldberg moment, anyways. So ultimately, thank you for this opportunity. I've been watching your podcast for a long time and I wanted to get to the point where I earned the opportunity myself to do so, but also not necessarily chase you to do it and I appreciate it. It's very much, again, reassuring to me in a time to where doubt and confidence oftentimes mix. So thank you for that.
Speaker 1:If anyone listening is interested in any sort of coaching, I do have my own coaching business. I do online and in person in Austin Texas. Online coaching for weight loss, fitness, strength, mobility, jujitsu, athletes, anything of that. You can apply for that on JimmyHousecom. Follow me at Coach Jimmy House on Instagram. Jimmy House on YouTube. We'd love to connect with any of your listeners. So, thank you. And the future, the future, the future. I hope by the next time that there's a part two, I will be able to talk about a little bit more clearly about where I'm going and maybe have a few more things that I'm pursuing and have a hand have done.
Speaker 2:I would say no, you would have done when we got part two. Yes, sir, you would already done it.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, have done and yeah, just one kid at a time. One kid at a time, I think. So, anyways, I'm going to bring up my girlfriend. I'm not that good with girls. I'm historically known for getting friendzone quite a bit but the one thing that actually helped me score what I believe to be the most phenomenal woman for me, she asked me so what do you do all this for? And just with confidence and at the center of the finger, I want to be a superhero to millions of kids. And she's like whoa OK, and I knew I had her at that point and anyways, and just so, this thing.
Speaker 1:It sounds repetitive and it might be annoying or cheesy to some people, but this is like manifestation for me, being able to manifest that to thousands of listeners and allow me to get a little bit closer.
Speaker 1:I experienced the same kind of thing when I did Mark Bell's podcast for the first time and that sets so much momentum for myself and my career. So again, gratitude towards you and this platform. I've been a fan for a long time and you've done a lot of amazing things for a lot of people and it's super inspiring to see where you're at. I had also once said very much into the future, I want to be able to do something like this for Arizona, open up my own gym that represents myself and the things that I've done for Arizona, because there's a lot of great gyms in Arizona, but I don't necessarily think that there's a gym in Arizona that's represented by a single face, and I want to be able to bring that. And, being here, every time I visit here, I think about what I can do for Arizona at some point farther down the line, after I've done what I needed to do. So, thank you.
Speaker 2:Of course, and for me to hear that and still recognize and see what you've done, do it and soon to do is the most exciting thing, right? Because every time I do jump on your Instagram I see something. There's always some sort of elevation, because the reason why just to mention something and kind of recap on something you said about me falling you I came aware of you I think you were training at the gym a couple of times once or twice and you were doing some crazy feets of strength or something.
Speaker 1:I think, specifically it was behind the back shoulder press.
Speaker 2:That's it, and I was like jeez with two-toned shoulders. It's like who is that crazy guy?
Speaker 1:that is doing this. That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what would you have on the bar?
Speaker 1:The most I've ever done in that movement was 200. Yeah, that's no joke. From a low bar position.
Speaker 2:And you were going low. It was the bar was on the back, your freaking neck Right, and I'd just seen this. And then my brother was aware of you and then I kind of found out that we've got several mutual friends and every speak so highly of you, thank you. The word freak comes up very often, thank you, but suffice to say right, you earned your stripes by doing the work. You're not loud, you're not. Look at me, check me out. We've always distinguished that and the viewers at this point in time now ending this podcast, can all realize that you're a true athlete's athlete.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:And you're already kind of a superhero to so many already Now, with you knowing your true motivation and where you want to go with this. It's just a matter of time and it's just a matter of just aligning yourself with the right people, which you've already done. You've moved to be around the best of the best. You're training in one of the best wrestling schools in the entire nation and Dusty has got his sons now wrestling too right. I've seen Dusty Rose's cousins at Nephils or something like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Nephils just started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've just seen all that, but that is like when them wrestling families, the lineage that goes from Dusty all the way down and with, oh my gosh, the fucking main fist.
Speaker 1:He's in wrestling right now Cody Rhodes Cody Rhodes.
Speaker 2:Cody, my goodness, Thank you, Cody. I've seen his elevation in this sport. He's truly clawed his way to the top. Seriously, and to see that when you're around them guys who have not been given an easy path, what a mentor right. It's like, hey, I've achieved this. I come from a different era and now you've got Cody in the new era. Yeah, and you've got all these young guys that are coming through. When you're around that and I am Chapman's Iron what a great place to be and you're in exactly where you should be.
Speaker 2:Thank you and in ending this podcast, may as I just want to say congratulations on what you've done, doing and soon to do, and I'm excited to get you back on part two when you have achieved all these things and much more, because the future is very exciting, jimmy House, and it's exciting not just for me but all the fucking fans that have blown me up over the last several months to get you on this chair. So a pleasure to have you. We've kind of run a little bit over time, but I think it's all for the best version of this podcast. So again for me, thank you very much, matt. Anything to end the podcast with, you want to say shout-out to anybody else other than you go.
Speaker 1:Damn it. That's what I was going to do. Well, got my dad, got Goldberg. Matt Olson, irvin Dominguez, jacob Hayes my three co-owners for House Strong. Thank you guys so much. I told Irvin going into this, I'm like when I go into these conversations you three are on my mind. I have to maximize these moments to be able to build the business up for them. So any support for our business, for the coaching side of things programs, coaching, any of that would be more than happy to help anybody that's interested. So thank you, ma-ma-man.
Speaker 2:Straight out the land. Jimmy House, we are out.
