Living The Red Life - 3x Ms. Olympia Champion on Winning While Broken w/Whitney Jones

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Whitney Jones is a trailblazer in the fitness world, best known for winning the prestigious Ms. Olympia title three times—a feat made even more remarkable by her unconventional start at age 34. As the first mother to ever win an Olympia title, Whitney redefines what's possible in competitive bodybuilding. Her journey includes overcoming 18 surgeries, including a broken neck, while building a thriving career as an athlete, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author, and dedicated mom. Through it all, she’s remained focused on empowering others with her mindset of grit, purpose, and possibility.Whitney opens up about the mental and physical resilience it takes to succeed after severe injuries, why competing against yourself is more powerful than seeking validation, and how motherhood became a superpower—not a setback. She also shares how she transitioned from the advertising world to owning a gym, building a brand, and inspiring youth through fitness and self-belief.Key TakeawaysWinning While Broken: Whitney shares how resilience and mindset—not physical perfection—are what separate champions.Motherhood & Muscle: As the first mom to win an Olympia title, Whitney proves motherhood can fuel, not hinder, greatness.From Corporate to Coach: Her leap from ad agency life to gym ownership highlights the power of following passion over comfort.Inspiring the Next Generation: Whitney is committed to empowering youth, helping them break past limitations and rewrite their own stories.The Power of Visualization: Learn how visual learning and inner dialogue have been essential tools in Whitney’s evolution as both an athlete and person.Notable Quotes"If you look at everything on paper, I should have never been a pro athlete. I should have never qualified for Olympia.""I didn’t compete to impress the judges—I competed to conquer myself.""What sets champions apart is that they’ve learned how to win even when broken.""At the end of the day, I had to answer to myself. That’s what pushed me harder.""Why not be everything you dream to be—without limits?"Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

I was 34 getting into this sport and at 34, that is not normal. Most of the people I'm competing against are in their 20s. This is not normal. I'm a mom, so I ended up being the first mom to ever win the Olympia title in any division, which I didn't know until after it happened. And that was really cool. But again, it's like if you look at everything on paper, I should have never been a pro athlete.

I should have never qualified for Olympia. I've broken almost every bone in my body. I've had 18 surgeries. Even before I won my first world championship title, I broke my neck. Everything's so crazy that it should have never happened. But the only reason why is,

I competed not to impress the judges. I did it to compete against myself, truly. At the end of the day, when you're looking at and judging your level of success, that's on you. But that's what pushed me harder. It wasn't what anyone else thought, it's like, what do I think? And can I give more?

Let's be honest, we're all a little broken. There's so much that we can't control. Like, there's those people who really just survive, barely, and there's those people who really just survive barely and there's those people who thrive in life no matter what chaos is going on. So what sets them apart? My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast. I'm here to change the way you see your life

in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland, and change your life. Welcome back to Living the Red Life podcast. I am your host, Ray Gutierrez, with the Inside Success Network. Joining me today is an entrepreneur,

an amazing energy, and a three-time Miss Olympian, Whitney Jones. How are ya? I'm doing great, how are you? Fantastic, thank you for asking. Why are you here? You know great. How are you? Fantastic. Thank you for asking. Why are you here? You know, I'm here for a good time. Everything's about having fun.

And this is such a cool experience to meet you and go through this huge interview to really kind of share stories, empower others. And as much as you want to interview me, I kind of want to interview you and learn more about what all you guys are doing too. Oh, you're awesome. Well, I enjoy this part of your Legacy Makers filming because we're on to a new project

with More Capital and Rudy Moore. We're about to film your episode. Yeah. You and I are going to sit down. I'll be Barbara Walters. You'll be Whitney Jones. Nice. That's going to be tough.

I got to be playing myself? Yeah. Okay. You can play Reggie Tierra's. I'll play Whitney Jones. Now this is getting exciting. I'm going to be playing a little bit of a little bit of a I am the in the ultimate space of pivoting, honestly. So my life as it is now is nothing that it was ever set out to be, which I think is great. And I think growing up, so many people think this is what I want in life. And if that direction is ever kind of just thrown off its tracks, it's like, oh my gosh, what do I do? How do I change?

What am I going to be now? What is my life gonna become? And so for me, that was kind of the direction I was going and life through a ton of curve falls all at one point. And at that point I said, you know what? I'm rewriting my script. I'm going to just be and do whatever I want without limitations, which is who I am today. I'm a pro athlete, I'm an entrepreneur,

I'm a speaker, I'm an author, I'm a mom, and why not be all the different things that you dream to be without limitations. Would you say you were born with all these qualities or did you essentially start downloading all these amazing qualities that you just listed out? Is this something that's earned or something that's birthed with

and then there's a self discovery? It was all a path of self discovery. Because again, I grew up in an amazing home of two incredible parents, two older brothers. So we were stereotypical. I was born in Mississippi, but we moved out to Arizona when I was really young. So great southern roots.

Now, very humble surroundings, beginnings for my life. You know, we didn't have a lot of money, but the best thing was, my dad used to have this saying that we were so rich. And when you grow up, you equate rich to money. And so I did not realize that we weren't actually financially rich, but we were rich in love and that we

had all the basic necessities in life. We had a loving family. We had a roof over our heads. I had two amazing older brothers. So all of that is what my dad always said is what made us rich. And it literally wasn't until high school. And it sounds really naive to admit that, that I didn't realize we didn't have money. So either way, I just knew I wanted to get married one day,

graduate college, have kids, just kind of do the stereotypical path. The simple life. The simple life. Like that's what was shown to me and that was what was normal. But things shifted and not totally unexpected. But then it became this aspect of I need to figure out what I'm truly capable of.

How am I going to handle life setbacks? How am I going to dictate what I want in life and really kind of just forge this path? And it wasn't until that point in my life where it was figuring out who I truly was, what is my self discovery, and having to face fears, having to face challenges, to really understand I'm actually pretty tough, but it wasn't just something I was born with.

It really wasn't. You know, there are struggles in life and I equate so much to two older brothers who really made me work for everything, from their attention to their time of, like, hanging out with me to showing that I could run with them and, like, hang at their level. So I was taught that early on,

and deep down, I know that's what gave me that strength to battle through some of these hardships, was taught that early on. And deep down, I know that's what gave me that strength to battle through some of these hardships, but it wasn't something that just was super easy. It was something I had to learn and train and still to this day, work on accepting the bad stuff that happens in life and going, that's cool. I'll accept that challenge.

Watch what I do with it. Yeah, I love this path that you're carving out for yourself for the story that you're kind of highlighting. I kind of see the yellow brick road. Well, let's make it the red brick road on this one. Yeah, totally. So let's rewind. When did you become a person that enjoyed sports

and then became an athlete? And then you became a pro athlete. And then you became an Olympian. Walk me through that ascension. Where did that begin? So when I was growing up, my brothers and I played any and every sport that we were allowed to. Right on.

And like I said, I was the youngest, so they never wanted me to hang. They were like, I'm that nagging, annoying little sister. So I attribute a lot of my athletic abilities to them. So for example, both my parents have worked, and we were out for school in the summertime. And I just wanted to hang with them and their friends. And their way of telling me, you can't hang with us

was to challenge me to do things. So it was do a cartwheel with no hands, which is an aerial. But I don't have any formal training. So it's like, we had a neighbor who did gymnastics and that's where they would come up with these things. Wow. So I would spend days trying to learn this skill and just eating it and like face plant

and just literally kind of destroying myself. And eventually if you don't give up, you get the skill. As soon as I would get it, they would let me hang out with them for 24 hours. So that day I got to Hank. And then the next day it was, all right, now learn some other random skill. That was their way of kind of pushing me off.

But honestly, it allowed me to figure things out on my own. Your Jedi training. Yeah, you know, and it's like, okay, cool. I'm gonna develop some skills, some talent. And more importantly, it made me a visual learner. Ever since then, I could do things if I could see a visual description of it. Like if you taught me how to do a aerial

and you verbalized it, my brain would not conceptualize things that way. But if you showed me someone doing an aerial, I would then close my eyes and I can visualize me doing it. And then over time, it was like, I got it. And there would be days, like as I got older, with skills like that, I would never be able to try. I didn't practice, I didn't like do things.

It was like, I'd visualize it. And then there was one day, I'm gonna learn this back flip. And it was like, I would wake up and there was this, you just knew today's the day, it's gonna happen. And knowing that you believed in yourself, to know that you could land it safely, it would happen. But it was always a visual learning experience because I didn't have any of that teaching growing up.

So as an athlete, any sport I played, if I could visually watch it track, you know, I did hurdles, I did visually watch it track, you know, I did hurdles. I did the four by one relay. It wasn't teach me how to hand the baton or grab it and stick. It was show it to me. Let me watch it. And then I got it, you know, proper form with hurdles. I would have coaches teach me. I couldn't grasp it. Just let me watch and visualize it. And then I would mimic it instantly. So same way into becoming a pro athlete,

I got into the sport of competing in fitness competitions out of a dare, complete dare. I had no idea what it was that I was even agreeing to get into. Who dared you by the way? It was a guy I had worked with that I had said, you know, I kept seeing all these women in the gym, getting fit, getting toned. And I thought, what are they doing? So I knew it was something

in regards to exercise and fitness. And people were talking, they said, oh, there's a competition coming up. And I was like, no way. And he said, you could never do it. You can never there. All I knew is it was a competition that had something to do with fitness. I thought, hmm, okay, I couldn't do this. I go, yeah, I can. And right then and there, I was like, well, then do it. There's a show coming up, done, I'm in. Wow.

And then I turned to my friend and thought, what did I just agree to? What am I doing? And I learned about this sport. And it was just, it was physique competitions where they judge what your body looks like on stage. It's like a beauty pageant with muscles, honestly. So I don't get on stage, I don't flex,

I don't do any of that. They judge your physique, but then my portion, the fitness division, you have to do a two minute routine. It's choreographed, it's dancing, it's gymnastics, it's plyometric pushups. And then as I developed in my pro career, my niche was break dancing. Break dancing?

Break dancing, yeah. What? I was not expecting that. No, no one is. I was not expecting it. Let me grab my bingo card here, sorry. Yeah, so totally random, but it's because I got into the sport out of a dare.

So I had no idea what I was doing. I had no desire to be a pro athlete. It was just like, oh, this is a new, cool challenge. Anything active, I'm down. But yeah, then I did a show, and I was hooked, and I thought, this is awesome for a creative outlet. And then, of course, as part of that, everything in my life changed,

and being in a sport and as an athlete allowed me to have an element of control. So when your entire life is chaos and you're unsure of your future and you're scared, we all crave something that we can control. And so when I couldn't control anything in my life, I could control the aspect of, let's put some of my energy into competing

and stepping on stage. So I was like, sweet, I'm gonna do this. So it allowed me to focus on something positive where each day I could feel accomplished, I could feel good about the efforts that I put in to nourish my body, to train, to get in the gym, to work on my routine, to learn new skills. Those were all things that were positive attributes.

So when I'm spinning out with all this chaos in my life, this allowed me daily something that was a win. So I loved it and started pouring into it, ended up turning pro and then went, okay, what does that mean? Now I'm a pro athlete. Then I heard about Olympia and I remember attending my first Olympia,

and you and I had spoke about some greats, Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler. Some of these people are people who now I am very close with. And so, yeah, I attended my first Olympia and thought, this is so cool to be in the audience. And I thought, I wonder if one day I could ever make it on that stage.

The very next year I had qualified and I thought the judges got it wrong. This is one and done. I am soaking this experience up. I'll probably never qualify again. Long story short, a couple of years later I ended up placing and then the very next year I ended up winning. And it very next year I ended up winning and it was just like what is happening

But had zero expectations and I truly believe my success in this specific area of my life as an athlete I was successful because I had zero expectations. I didn't care without convo. Isn't that insane how that works? No expectations and you're kind of just designing it as you go Yeah, I was doing it for me. Going down the tracks, there's a train. It's like, ch-ch-ch-ch, right behind you. Totally. So as a pro athlete, you're surrounded by folks

that see the human body and see the science and the data. It's almost like a Formula One car, really. Yeah. Take a shot every time I drop F1. Or PlayStation. Anyways, what is happening? You saw you mimic. We're Stardust, just to

quote the famous David Bowie. Do you really feel like you're watching something visually and the brain and the soul is telling the rest of the body, here's the data, and the body is going, boop, do-do-do-do-do-do. And it just happens. Do you think that's what's happening? Yeah, I really do. Because there's no other

way to really explain. There really isn't happening. Yeah, I really do. Because there's no other way to really explain. There really isn't. I mean, I was 34 getting into this sport. And at 34, that is not normal. Most of the people I'm competing against are in their 20s. Most of this is not normal. I'm a mom, so I ended up being the first mom to ever win the Olympia title in any division, which I didn't

know until after it happened. And that was really cool. But again, it's like, if you look at everything on paper, I should have never been a pro athlete. I should have never qualified for Olympia. I've broken almost every bone in my body. I've had 18 surgeries. Even before I won my first world championship title,

I broke my neck. So I have a 12 piece metal cage that they had to put my neck back together. I should have never won. People write colored books about people like you. They do, yes. It was everything's so crazy that it should have never happened.

But the only reason why is I feel like if you're pouring in and doing something for the right reasons, without expectations, there was nothing that was required. I competed not to impress the judges, I did it to compete against myself, truly. And for me, it was like, okay, at the end of the day, I wanna be able to say, did I win? Not with the judges, this is a subjective sport.

But the judges thought I won, cool. But at the end of the day, I had to answer to myself. So I had this path before I ever hit the stage for any Olympia or any Arnold I Validated to me where you know is this evaluation and validation for myself Did I win before I ever competed and there are plenty of times I said to myself I sure as hell did not win. I failed myself in this area They say I could have given more here. But then there were plenty of times that I went,

yeah, nailed this. This is in mine. I've got this. Not always did the judges agree. So sometimes when I thought I won, I didn't in their book. And sometimes when I thought I failed myself, I ended up winning.

So, but I didn't ever worry about that. I didn't care. I had to answer to myself. And so at the end of the day, when you're looking at and judging your level of success, that's on you, but that's what pushed me harder. It wasn't what anyone else thought. It's like, what do I think?

And can I give more? For sure. That's what's pushed me as an entrepreneur, as a mom, as a friend, show up, be your best, do your best. And it's served me well in my adult years. So what's harder, being on stage or being an entrepreneur? Definitely an entrepreneur. Really? Cool.

Oh yeah. Walk us through your entrepreneur journey. Well, growing up, again, we didn't come from money, so I was always just hustling, doing any type of a job. Like, I had a car washing business when I was younger, then it was babysitting. It was anything that I could, obviously, the standard lemonade stand.

I would rake leaves during certain seasons where they fell, always trying to hustle and create a new business idea. So as I got older, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I didn't know how. And my parents, both my brothers are entrepreneurs now, but that's not where my parents were. So there wasn't any true guidance in that area,

but I always just knew I wasn't nine to five, work at a desk, I needed to do something active, fun, energetic. That's my personality. Oh yeah, for sure. And I wanted to be able to be my own boss and dictate my own success. So not knowing what I wanted to do, I felt there's going to be something at some point

where I go, that's it, I'm in. I'd written business plans for different opportunities and ideas in my head, but going through that process, I always had the light just kind of die. And I thought, okay, if it's fizzling while I'm writing the business plan, I'm not gonna enjoy it. And then I had an opportunity to open up a gym.

And that was not my background. I came from the ad agency world. I had just had my second child, which that is a whole different story. I was on bed rest for three and a half months. Yep, I saw that in our notes. Yeah, and that's what propelled me to go. People take the ability to move and be active for granted.

Yes. So at that point, after I was fortunate enough to have my second baby, I said, I'm completely going to pivot my career, not in the ad agency world, and I'm going to do something in regards to fitness. And I want to make sure that people realize you have this ability to move, you have this ability to be healthy. Take advantage of it, because at some point you're going to have to address healthy. Take advantage of it, because at some point, you're going to have to address it.

So reap the benefits now versus being in your 70s, 80s, whatever, and you have to focus on it. So that's what got me into the personal training world. Totally quit my amazing job at an ad agency. I believe it. And went and asked for a job as a personal trainer at the gym across the street, and got hired for minimum wage.

So that first paycheck was like, what the hell was I thinking? But I just knew in my bones, like there is a purpose. I don't know what the path is or why I'm going this direction. And within a year and a half was the opportunity to open up my own gym. Totally don't have any experience, but the fire was there and I went home that first night after the conversation came up and wrote a 35 page business plan in one night.

Now this was before chat GPT, you know? So it's like I had designed everything and thought through the marketing, the operation costs, startup, payroll, everything. And I thought, oh my gosh, I've never made it through the entire process where I am more energized. This is it. And so that was my first business,

was opening up a gym in Arizona. Very cool. So we are here today filming your Legacy Makers episode. What are we speaking about today? What are you currently working on today, your passion projects? So I've exited a few businesses. I was in for several years a serial entrepreneurial phase

and realized at the end of the day, it doesn't matter everything you're doing. If you're spread too thin, you're not doing anything well. So I wanted to simplify and really focus on what is my priority. My priority is I have two boys. I was a single mom for raising them from three and five. So they have been my focus.

I do love businesses. I love startups. I love growing it. But I wanted to zero in on things. So right now I've exited, like I said, several. My focus is I own Whitney Jones Productions, which we put on huge fitness competitions in Arizona. So I have three of those now, and it's focused on the amateurs

because I remember how awesome it was to start and offer that stage for you to learn about the sport, to learn about yourself, and have that opportunity to step on stage as a rookie and do something that is completely out of most people's comfort zone. So there are three MPC shows, so Whitney Jones Productions, and this year my focus was on youth.

There's so much that we as adults can do to help our next generation. Oh yeah, especially now. Right, and I have two boys, 16 and 19. So they're in this demographic that it's like, OK, I want to focus on youth. Now, as part of that, in January of this year, I ended up writing and finally publishing my book.

It was four years in the process. Congratulations. It's called Wind Broken. Thank you. And it's really about empowerment and inspiration and taking any of the victim mentality out and knowing whatever obstacles you're facing, you have the option to be a victim or to overcome

and be a sense of motivation to go, okay, this stuff is happening. Let's be honest, we're all a little broken. There's so much that we can't control, but what sets people apart? Like there's those people who really just survive, barely, and there's those people who thrive in life, no matter what chaos is going on.

So what sets them apart? It's that they've mastered the ability to win broken. And this started resonating in the four year process of writing the book. I realized that there were some people that it resonated with, and a lot of it was athletes because of my story with competing on stage and winning the Olympia with a broken leg

or coming back from a broken neck and competing with a torn ACL and still winning my first world championship title. How is that happening? So a lot of athletes in the next generation were responding to this. And I thought, okay, I gotta get my story out. Now, as I did that, I focused this year, I said,

I see what my two boys are experiencing. I know what all their friends are going through, not knowing, you know, what am I gonna do? What is my future? Why do I have to have it all figured out now? The, you know, what am I gonna do, what is my future, why do I have to have it all figured out now, the syndrome of comparison, and it's like, oh my gosh, their life is so amazing where mine isn't. So all of this kinda came about to say,

here's an opportunity to use my voice, to use my platform and my story as a mom, as an entrepreneur, as a world champion, to really say, I should have never been any of these things, but I was because I believed in myself and I knew I could do it, and I did not let life's circumstances dictate who I was going to be.

I dictated who I was gonna be. And as a legacy maker, you gotta write your own script. I will be creating my own legacy, which is to be determined because there's so many things I still want to accomplish. I am so eager to see you continue to ascend. What an amazing prequel to your Legacy Makers filming session. Yeah. Kind of bummed we're not doing the post sequel.

So I can be like, how do you feel now? I know, right? Going through your entire journey and being like, holy holy moly I am a superhero. Yeah. Well high five. Thank you so much for a great way to start our Thursday morning. Yeah. What is today? What is today? Who cares? Yeah. That concludes yet another amazing episode of Living the Red Life podcast. I am Ray Gutierrez for Inside Success. Thanks for watching guys!