The School of Greatness - 11 Jamie Eason: The World's Fittest Model on Healthy Living and Persistence

Episode Date: March 28, 2013

The World's Fittest Model visits The School of Greatness podcast to discuss fitness, faith and perseverance. Despite being pregnant during the interview, our guest is still a sought after model for magazine covers. Not only is she continuing to find success as a model, she is maintaining that passion for all the opportunities that the future holds in […]

Welcome to episode number 11 with Jamie Eason on the School of Greatness. Hello everyone and welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes. I'm an author, lifestyle entrepreneur, former pro athlete, and world record holder in football. My goal with the School of Greatness is to share with you stories from the most inspiring business minds, world-class athletes, and influential celebrities on the planet to find out what makes great people great. So please leave us a review on iTunes and join us on the web at schoolofgreatness.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out.

Now let's get after it. Hey greats, thanks so much for hanging with me today. I'm super pumped about this episode. Now I know many of you have requested that I bring on some female voices. And it's taken me to the 11th episode to bring on my first female guest, but I think you're going to appreciate this one. Her name's Jamie Eason. She's one of the top fitness models in the world and she's a super sweetheart. She's got an amazing story and I'm going to introduce her more in just a second, but I wanted to just say a few things really quick about this podcast in general. I'm actually in Venice

right now, Venice, just outside of LA, right near the beach. So you might hear some cars and some airplanes in the background right now while I'm talking, but it's a beautiful day out. And I just wanted to show my appreciation for all of you. We're about to hit a hundred thousand downloads on this podcast. We were featured on the homepage of Stitcher and iTunes. So it's been a huge bump over the last few weeks since that's happened. And it's just been a lot of fun for me. So I'm excited to keep bringing you amazing guests, ideas, and inspiration for you each and every week. The goal is to continue doing this at least once a week. And you guys have been leaving me some super amazing and inspiring reviews over on iTunes. If you haven't left a review yet, please go ahead and leave me a five-star review.

One, I just saw one today, says, Simply the Best from Ken91737 says, Whether you're an athlete, an entrepreneur, a salesperson, or a parent waiting to inspire and motivate yourself, your team, or your kids, you must listen to Lewis and the School of Greatness. Every day, I listen to the podcast at the gym and on the road, and I'm inspired to reach higher and go farther. So I'm excited about that. Thanks so much for leaving that review. Another one by Chris. Looks like Chris the Grump is the name. That's a pretty interesting name. Says outstanding. He says the show is

helping me construct a map to building success, not only career rise, but mentally and physically. Great advice, great guests, a must listen if you're seeking enlightenment in life. So I appreciate that. There's a bunch of great reviews. I appreciate all of you who are leaving one. Again, feel free to go over to iTunes and leave a five-star review with some of your thoughts. And go ahead and shoot a message over on Twitter, at Lewis Howes. Let me know what you're thinking about the show,

what type of guests you'd like to have me bring on, what type of topics you'd like me to cover, and I'm happy to be doing more of that in the future. So this is all about you guys. I want to make it about you and give you some of the best inspiring content and guests as possible. With that, I'm going to introduce now Jamie Eason.

Hey, everyone, and thanks again for coming on The School of Greatness. I've got my good friend Jamie Eason here. And if you guys don't know who Jamie is, she is a superstar in the fitness world. She's also an amazing writer. And I want you guys to check out some of her work because her writing is really amazing. But brief bio on Jamie. She's an American fitness model and writer. She's also a former NFL cheerleader and winner of the World's Fittest Model competition.

Pretty much every time I go into a Barnes & Noble or an airport, I see her on the cover of every other magazine in the fitness world. So she's all over the covers of magazines, and she is a full-time spokesperson for Bodybuilding.com. So, Jamie, thanks so much for coming on and hanging out today. It's my pleasure. Thanks for asking me. And we met actually, it was about two years ago, I think, at Summit Series back in Miami. We took a cruise. A big group of us took a cruise to the Bahamas for a day.

We had a fun time jet skiing. I think we saw a bunch of stingrays one day and a whole lot of good times. I remember that. Yeah, that was awesome. That was a really good memory. That was good times. But now Jamie is married and she's pregnant. I think you're about halfway through your pregnancy.

Is that right? I am. I'm at 21 weeks. So she's got a little belly now. Five months. That helps people, I am. I'm at 21 weeks. So she's got a little belly now. Five months. That helps people, I think. We do it by weeks. Everybody else is probably months. So a little over five months. Okay. So you've got

a little belly now, so you can't do cover shoots anymore for a while. Is that right? That's true, but I actually got to have to do a few little pregnancy fitness things. They haven't happened yet. I think they want me to show a little bit more so that, you know, I guess it's real obvious when I'm doing the workout, but that should be interesting. Nice. Even when you're, even when you got a big belly, they still want you for the cover.

That's great. I love it. I'm grateful for it. That's for sure. So tell us really quickly about how you got involved in the world of fitness and were you always a fit person um actually i was never a super fit person i've always been kind of athletic you know i had a brother growing up so i was trying to do what he did an older brother but and i played sports a little bit in school and was a cheerleader in high school. But as I got older, I really neglected my health, especially when I went to college. I mean, I did freshman 15 like

everybody. I was eating two burgers and two fries for two bucks like every single night at burgers. Not good. Yeah, not good. But I was never seriously overweight. I was just what you would call skinny fat. I had no muscle tone to speak of. I was in my 20s and already getting cellulite, and I just cursed my mom for that. I just figured that was part of it, you know. But I never really looked at my eating as that bad because I thought, you know, like lean pockets and all these diet foods. I thought, well, I'm doing the best I can. I'm eating pretty good. I only do the two burgers, two fries late at night on the weekend.

But I had a really weird awakening when I got out of college and my first job, I actually had to go to work for my grandfather. He had a health condition, and the doctor required him to kind of take off and rest for a while. And I had to run the family roofing business. So while I was running this roofing business, a girlfriend of mine, because I grew up dancing, my grandmother had a dance school with Patrick's baby mom. So growing up in that, she said, well, come listen to these auditions. I didn't know what I was getting into. I showed up, there were 1,600 girls,

and by some miracle, I made it, and I became a captain on a team. Well, before the season ended, unfortunately, I found a lump in my breast, and I went in to the doctor and found out that it was, in fact, cancer. It was very early stage, so I was extremely fortunate. It was superficial, so I could feel it.

They cut it out. I had very minimal treatment, and so everything was good. And it didn't even wake me up enough to realize then that I was kind of still being unhealthy. I continued to eat the crud I was eating, and I thought I was exercising enough to mature eating, that kind of still being unhealthy. I continued to eat the cut I was eating, and I thought I was exercising enough to mature eating, that kind of thing. Well, because of the treatment, so I had to go a few times, I ended up actually having to quit the squad. And going back to a regular desk job, it really took its toll on my body. So I went from college and being really active and then cheerleading and being active,

and then desk job, and it was like nothing. So the need was to say, I didn't look, I just didn't look the same unless I was getting older. And oddly enough, the cancer stuff returned again at 28. So that's a big stretch of time that came there. And it wasn't bad again. It was the same, same spot. I actually had been going to my regular checkout. This time they were a little more aggressive with it and gave me a little more harsh treatment. And that was really my epiphany, my moment of, you know, why did this come back? I really need to figure this out and quit treating my body, you know, the way I've been treating it. I wasn't a big drinker.

I never took drugs or anything like that. But I just, I was always eating without any thought of what I was eating. I ate't a big drinker. I never did drugs or anything like that, but I was always eating without any thought of what I was eating. I ate whatever I want. So anyway, long story short, I ended up going to a nutritionist who recommended a trainer. She was a bodybuilder who I, scared the crap out of me, and I was taught in a million years I should train with a bodybuilder, but she was incredible, incredible and just what i needed because if there's anybody that knows how to take your body to like the highest level possible those people aesthetically know what they're doing and they will push you and push you so and most people are afraid they're going to look like some big huge monster type person

especially the female but um you you use the mirror as your judge. You can always stop. You can always stop. And most of us don't have enough testosterone or enough perseverance to really be in the gym like some of these people are. They're really dedicated. So anyway, in just a short little while, I went from nearly 30% body fat. Again, I was skinny, but I was just flabby um oh and I used to wear two pairs of tights whenever I was a texting cheerleader so that people didn't know

that my legs jiggled a lot of the girls do I it was really weird I always thought that was in shape when I saw all those girls and then I got into the world of fitness and I found out what being really in shape was about so no no more double-paired toes. I need them right now while I'm pregnant. But no more other than that. I try really hard to keep the food clean and stay in shape. Anyway, I ended up, after seeing that nutritionist in Houston, his name is Keith Klein. He's just unbelievable.

The guy is full of knowledge. I mean, as long as I've been in the industry, probably almost nine years now, I learn more from him and I still continue to than anyone else. So he's just great. But he pushed me to do a little local competition. There was probably 10 people in the whole show, so it really wasn't hard to win. And I was actually in the best shape of my life.

And I ended up walking away with the trophy. They asked me to come back the next day, and I competed with the higher class, the pros, and I won that, too. So immediately, it was like, who's this tiny little petite girl with all this muscle? And I looked a little different. I had really short hair. All the girls had really long hair. And people just were kind of talking about it. They were like, where did she come from? Who is this? Some people knew my story and this lady saw me in the audience and wanted me to do a local little workout kind of ad and I didn't know

what I was doing but I just said, okay, I'll do it. So I showed up the next day to do a little workout. I was constipated in the whole shoot. I was terrified and horrible. But I made it through. And that's when the rifle went on. I made money doing that. And here I spent all this money to try to get up on stage

and have a goal to just compete and buying suits and painting and all this stuff. And I made some money back. And so I thought, hey, maybe there's a job somewhere in here. So I started researching, you know, what's your fitness model about? And with the Barnes & Noble, sat down with a pen and pad one day. And I'm glad I was almost 30 when I started this because I was smart enough to know,

okay, I don't have a lot of money. I don't really know about modeling and going to a model school or if it was really even feasible. I mean, I'm 5'2 and I was 100 pounds soaking right at the time. You say 5'2, 100 pounds? I was tiny. Yeah, when I competed, I was 98 pounds. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, and I walked around at about 108, and right now, halfway through my pregnancy, I'm about 122. So this is a big shock for me.

But even at my heaviest in college, which was about 114, I looked completely different. Now I can have muscle at maybe 110. That's always my goal is to have muscle at 110. I actually try to get a little heavier because I look fuller and better. Right. And I don't get as gaunt. I'm a little narcissistic.

I'm in my 30s. I'm late 30s, actually. I'll be 37 when the baby's born. And I don't like when my face looks really withdrawn. I want everything to look healthy, head to toe. Right. So anyway, I was a really tiny little peanut when I first started. And that's all part of my story, too,

because I started off really just in the competition mode, and I was a little extreme. And I found out really quickly that the competition stuff, it's really hard for one. And I commend those people that can do it all the time because I certainly couldn't. But it really wasn't the look that was going to work for fitness modeling. I found that out quickly because I went to New York thinking after a few people, you know, I had gone to Barnes & Noble and looked up all those photographers shooting for magazines.

That's what I was saying earlier. And when I, when I did that, I just Googled them all, found them online and just said, hey, you know, my name is Jamie Eason. You know, I'm new to all this. I sent them this little pitiful picture, you know, me in a sports car and shorts on that side, you know. And I just said, if I come to you, can I test shoot with you, you know. And they were pitiful. And I mean, the pictures were awful. But I got really lucky because after waiting a couple months, now it didn't happen automatically, but one of

them answered me and said, hey, you know, if you can come to LA and shoot, I'll test shoot you and submit you to the magazine. And so I did that. The very first shoot I did with a professional photographer that already works with the people I want to work with, I got a 17-page roll-up. Oh, my gosh. And shortly after, I got the cover of that magazine.

Wow. So it just kind of snowballed from there because I figured out really quickly that the best way to get into the industry was going to have the right looks, the right hair, the right makeup, the right clothing, lighting, you name it. And it's the photographers that know that stuff.

They shoot it all the time. But I'm one of the ones that were currently being published, not just anybody else with a camera or photographers that are aspiring and give you a great portfolio. Social media is huge and the internet is massive. You get lost in all that stuff. So I just went directly to the source and it seemed to work for me and it's worked for

me for years. But anyway, I could go on and on and on, but I'll let you help me regroup. Yeah, that's amazing. A couple of things I want to talk about. One, I hear a lot of women, especially women in their 20s and early 30s talking about who are probably 5'2 to 5'7, 110 to 135 pounds, who are that skinny fat. They look okay on the outside. They look okay from the out, you know, on the outside, they look okay. They look skinny. They look, you know, somewhat healthy or fit, but really they're 25, 35% body fat and they're not healthy because they're really not eating that well. They just

seem to have, they seem to stay skinny for whatever reason, but they're not fit. They don't have muscle tone. And a lot of those women talk about, I don't want to lift weights because I don't want to look good, good, bulky and big. And you have been doing bodybuilding style workouts for a number of years. And I wouldn't say that you are bulky or big in any way. You're still 110 pounds. You look, I mean, you look fitter than you've ever looked. You said you used to be an NFL cheerleader which is like you know people would think is a top fit woman and you look way better now than you did then and uh it's it's because of the way you've been eating and training at the same time

is it correct it's very true you know I I put out a trainer online that was free through my company called the Whip It Trainer. And before I did that, it was actually the real and true way that I train and I eat. And I just condensed it into a 12-week program so that people would have kind of a beginning and an end goal. But I put my family through it before I actually put anybody else through it. And one of the people was my mom. Now, my mom's almost 60 years old. I'll be 37 soon. So she, it's funny, when I first brought her the whole concept of everything, it was only on a couple sheets of paper, and I just said,

look, I wrote down everything that I do. I gave you all these exercises. And my mom, I must get it from her. She's a hardhead. Immediately she was like, ooh, I don't like this kind of food. And I don't, can I trade this for that? And I was like, mother, just eat what's on the paper. And so also, because that's the clean food.

That's really what I wanted her to have. And I wanted her to have the right portions. And that's another thing. I'm not a stickler on calories and macros and all that kind of stuff. I get crazy when I read all that stuff online because unless you hook somebody up to machines and you know what their body fat to muscle ratio is, how their thyroid functions, what the resting metabolic rate is, I mean, it's always a best guess anyway. So when somebody hands you a 1,200-calorie diet, you know, that's bogus.

That might be a starting off point, but that's not really exactly the number that you need. How do you figure that out? Well, that's what bodybuilding is about. For years and years and years, these people train and they tweak their diet ever so slightly to get better and better results. So you really just have to have a really good-based diet with really good, simple portions and really, really great consistency. That's the key is the consistency.

So anyway, I convinced my mom to eat the food, but it was so funny because she was like, well, I don't want to do all this weight training because I don't want to get big and bulky like you. And I was like, mother, not even on the best day of your life are you going to look like me. But y'all are hard for this. walk you like you and i was like mother not even on the best day of your life for you to look at me but anyway she she was a little stinker she didn't she did the whole program without anything except for getting her food and walking around the block and she went from an 8 10 to a size 2 in three months just with the food and walking. Wow. But when she got done, she was not happy with the way she looked because even though she was a lot smaller, she was still pretty soft and flabby.

Yeah. So she wanted to do it again and do it the right way. And that's the thing that I think a lot of people miss is, you know, from the moment we're born, gravity is pulling us down the rest of our life. So unless you do something to resist that and lift it up and put it in a better place, I mean, nobody wants to keep getting flat, but everybody wants a tight tongue butt. So you have to do something. You have to lift some weight to actually build that up.

And that's one of the big things I'm always trying to convince women is it takes a lot of work to really, really seriously build muscle. It takes testosterone. It takes the balance of the hormones. It takes the proper food. You know, there's a formula for it. So don't expect you just going in with a whole bunch of weights and suddenly you're going to be some big bulky, you know, muscular girl.

It just doesn't happen. Yeah. And I mean, I think in most guys' opinion, a woman who is physically fit and has some muscle tone is much sexier than a skinny fat girl. It's just a girl who's skinny. So that's just my general overview on what men think. But maybe it's different for each guy. But I definitely think… I think your opinion matters.

I think that's a good one. Exactly. Now, let me ask you a question. What did it take for you to become the world's fittest model? So you talked briefly about how you won a couple of these competitions, you started training, you started changing your diet, your habits, you worked really hard for your body. But what did it really take for you to become the world's fittest model? What was that contest like? And talk a little bit about that. Okay. Well, um, that all, my whole competition portion of my career actually happened in the first year and a half of all the fitness that I've ever been involved in. And so I've been in this now about nine years. And, um, my first couple of years were were probably the most modeling and the most

competing and um i i shifted gears after that because i really wanted some longevity i wanted to do it the healthy way i wanted to let people know how to brain you know there was there's a whole lot involved a really you know big backstory there but but initially um I had done a couple of competitions, and I was winning. You know, I was the phenomenon out there. I just looked really different, really tiny. There weren't as many, there's not as many categories, or rather, there's a bunch of new categories now. There weren't as many back then, so it was either bodybuilding or figure, and that's

really all you did. And suddenly, right in the midst of everything that I was doing, these little kind of fitness model things were popping up. And I was in Vegas where we had an Olympia here, and Muscle and Fitness Magazine and Hardbody Entertainment, which was a new kind of TV kind of entity, they got together and decided they were going to do a male and female fitness competition and televise it.

But it was only locally televised. But I didn't even plan to enter. I went and got a swimsuit at the last minute. I was totally goofy about the whole thing, not prepared. And when I say goofy, if you look at any of the pictures from the competition, I was giggling my head off and laughing because I was so uncomfortable and didn't know what I was doing. But I got up there just because I thought, you know, I'm still in shape from the last thing I did. This will be fun.

I don't know what to expect. And somehow, I guess just the fact that I was relaxed and having a great time, they chose me. And I actually beat out a whole bunch of really great-looking guys and girls. Come to find out later, they did really look at personality a lot. And we had a question portion. And I was just real casual and had fun with it. But I ended up winning a $72,000 custom chopper, and I won a couple thousand dollars, which I needed to get that bike out of there and back to Texas. I also won a cruise, and I won two cover opportunities. So it was a pretty big prize. To give you perspective,

the Olympia winner for the females won $60,000. So more prizes are even more valuable than that. So that was a pretty big, big prize. And that was one of the last competitions I did. I'm kind of like a boxer. I'm like, I'm going to go out on a high note. So wait, this was in the first year and a half. You did all this in a year and a half, basically. I did. I did. Well, you know, the first year of doing this, I really didn't know what I was doing. I mean, modeling was not something, the first year of doing this, I really didn't know what I was doing. I mean, modeling was not something I ever dreamed of doing in a million years.

I never even thought I'd be doing the cheerleading thing. So when I started and I really got involved and everybody kept calling me and calling me, I really didn't have that many role models to look at back then. There was a couple of girls who I thought were pretty successful. Monica Brandt and Himeya Mayarova. She's from another country. They were gorgeous and in phenomenal shape. I could never even be as good a shape as either one of them. So I looked up to them. They were shooting these kind of sexier Maxim style kind of fitness things. And so I started shooting that kind of stuff. And I was extremely awkward

doing it, but somehow the photographers worked their magic and made me look better and better. And I found out really quickly in that very first year that it really wasn't adding up to any money or much sponsorship. I was getting a lot of attention, a lot, lots of covers. I was getting a lot of attention, a lot, lots of covers. I think in the first two years, I had amassed like 40 covers alone in just two years. Oh, my gosh. So it was pretty crazy. I mean, I was working constantly.

I was shooting three and four times a month, flying all over the place. And it was tough, but it was exciting, too. And then suddenly, like, you know, all the social networking stuff was kind of growing. And how it turned into, like, a real viable career for me was that I really and truly, underneath all the, you know, all the sparkle and the glamour going on and all the fun stuff, my heart was in the fact that I loved telling people how I accomplished, you know, the body that I got because I came from a scary situation of potentially having cancer forever change my life to taking control of that and really changing my life. And so there's so many women that, I mean, I had body image issues.

I had all kinds of stuff, you know, growing up. But I never really thought that there was a way to take control of that. I did every diet, fad, add, you can, anything you can name. My mom did it too. And so, um, so anyway, I just realized that I really had a lot of really great things to share. And so I got on MySpace at the time of blowing up and I got about 80,000 people like really quickly you know

friending me and then then that grew to you know over 100,000 and I was you know virtually a nobody

except for this picture on a page and people started talking to me I typed into my fingers but I had no relationships

with speakers none but there this right to be strangers constantly. It endeared a lot of people to me. They really appreciated it. It took the time. And I started just creating this really big following.

And from that following, a lot of sponsors started looking at me and thinking, okay, wait a minute. If she's got all these people following her, if she tells people to take this certain thing, I bet you they'll all take it. So that's when a lot of integrity stuff started creeping in too. So I thought, okay, some of these people really want me, but they're all wanting all the people I'm talking to. How do I navigate through this?

Right. So that first year was really, really challenging. I was doing sexier pictures, attracting some really speedy people, for lack of a better description. I was attracting sponsors who really just wanted to use me and not really pay me much. And it was just a really, really rough road.

Well, this little girl, she was probably about 16 years old, convicted me on my face. That was my turning point with my career. She wrote me a letter, a little message on there and said privately, I want to be sexy like you. And I thought, oh my gosh, you know, she's 16. You know, I thought, this is all I'm putting out there is this image. And she has no idea that I'm really miserable sitting at home alone, typing

to all these strangers, not getting paid much money, being exploited all over the place, and nobody's really paying me for sexy photos. And you don't get paid for covers. A lot of people think that you do. I've got tons of covers, and I think I've been paid for one, and that's because they were a star at a magazine and really desperate. Wow. But we don't get paid for covers, and the reason is celebrities don't even get paid for covers, because they make sure to do a cover when it coincides with some publicity that they need,

whether it's a mini-d or whatever else. So they're not going to pay me if they're not going to pay, you know, Brookburg or, you know, The Rock or something like that. So anyway, so it's all of this, like, false, I guess, like, people look at you and think one thing, and they just really don't know the reality. So I told this little girl, I thought, you know, just wait, you know, you don't want to be sexy at 16.

And, you know, God really worked on me right at that moment because I really felt, I really felt ashamed of where I ended up. You know, I felt like the devil had me right where he wanted me because everybody was telling me how awesome I was and that I looked, you I looked great all the time and how cool it was to be on a magazine and all this stuff. But nobody ever really knew that I was pretty miserable. And I left a really great job. Between that stand of a nursing company, I started looking for a home builder. And I was their technical trainer.

I trained people on how to use software. I had a really great job, great paying job, great job security and I left that and told my parents, you know, I'm going to do this fitness thing. That's me in a thong. Aren't you just so proud of me? So that's not one of the greatest

most proud moments of my life but, you know, that's been changed. I took that moment with that little girl and decided then and there that I wasn't going to take any more of those jobs. And I was going to make sure that people knew that I had a brain, I was college educated, that this really

all the glitz and glamour that they see was really not an attractive doctor in my life. I had serious, serious thoughts. So, anyway, I started trying to write and only write. I started submitting queries to magazines. A query is basically when you start a story, you kind of summarize how you're,

or you start at how it's supposed to sound, and then you kind of summarize the rest and you shop them around. And I just looked up online how I write a query so i wanted to learn what to do and um and i i just started doing it and because of the notoriety i i achieved so that i didn't know that that's a big part of it the fact that i had an audience that was a captive audience and kept coming back right um that these people were more apt to look at what I was writing because, of course, they were getting, you know, a two-for-one deal, somebody who has attention and somebody

who can write. So, fortunately, people started looking at that. Bodybuilding.com found me. They reached out to me and said, you know, we'd really like to work with you. There's a whole other back story to that because when they told me what I was worth, that really didn't sit well with me. So I had to work with them on that. And I mean, it's now you get paid more than any other girl that has ever in the history of what we do. So with that, it was really hard. I was sitting down with like a room full of, you know, all men. It's a good old boys company. But my values align with the CEO.

He's a really great guy. I love the company. I love what they stand for. And it just works. Things were just starting to click. You don't get things unless you ask for them. I was nice but bold. That's great.

And direct. Before we get into the bodybuilding.com stuff, I wanted to talk briefly because you mentioned a little bit about your faith. And I know you're very open about it because you talk about it on Twitter and Facebook. And you've talked about it to me in person before. Now, can you talk a little bit about if you get criticized at all for putting this out there online? Because you talk about your faith, but you're also in a very physical industry. It's very, you know, somewhat, it can be surface level for a lot of people depending on how they look at it or how it's portrayed, portrayed and things like that.

So do you get criticized a lot? And if so, how do you overcome those critics or that negative attention? Well, and I do, you know, unfortunately in that first year and a half, when I'm taking all those sexier photos, they spread like wildfire. So I now get an opportunity to speak to a lot of kids at church, and we're all on the internet, so I really warned them about the fact that that's going to be there forever. And I'm fortunate that I had enough common sense to never do any nudity or anything. But, you know, some of my swimsuits, some of mine as well, they're really embarrassing.

But oddly enough, I'm married to a worship pastor who comes from, you know, a family of his father is a pastor of pastors. So it's like, you know, talking about a scary situation to walk into with that one. But anyway, you know, people are very, very forgiving when you're really honest about what you've been through in your life. I have not met a single person yet that has an unblemished past. And really, I want to share exactly what happened in my life with my fitness career because there's so many girls that want to do it. It looks really glamorous. Guys, too.

I get to talk to tons of fitness model guys. And I really want them to have a true, real look at it. Now, faith aside, there's a lot of integrity issues, a lot of things that are going to challenge your values. There's a lot of creepy, shady people. And it's really hard. You have to find some strength somewhere, somehow, to say, this is who I am, this is what I'm going to be, and this is how I'm going to stay.

And for me, that was God. And when that little girl that was 16 said to me that she wanted to be sexy too, and I realized then and there how shallow I had approached everything. I knew that I needed, if I wanted to stay where I was and if God wanted me there, that I needed to work really hard to make this something that he could use me for and make a way that, you know, it was going to be a good thing that I jumped from this awesome job into the fitness world. Right.

So, but I can't turn this awesome job into the fitness world. Right. So I wasn't happy. I was really, really miserable and I know so many people. I've worked with lots of celebrities. I've worked with people that are extremely successful. They have all the money in the world. They're beautiful or handsome but there's a lot of people that are still

really empty and I've been there and for me, you know, working on my faith and really diving into. And for me, you know, working on my faith and really diving into that and finding, and you know, it was a real epiphany for me one day, and I didn't learn this until I was older. It's crazy to me that

it took me forever to figure this out, but, you know, when we pray, we're speaking to God, but God speaks to us through the Bible, through His Word, and I've never read the Bible. And so I have gone to church a million times. I went to a Catholic high school. I took four years of theology and never read the Bible. So I started reading. I started really pouring into all that stuff. And, you know, it's amazing what it will do to your self-esteem and to direction in your life.

It's extremely confusing, my word. Right. But when you find a lot of religious devotionals, there's so many great theologists and historians and all sorts of people of faith out there that are awesome. And that's one reason you go to tons of different churches until you find a church that's really comfortable for you because different people will deliver it and speak it a different way.

And so I found those things, and I just felt really empowered before I was, even though I was all by myself. I suddenly didn't feel by myself. I felt like I had purpose. And so anyway, I don't mind that people ridicule me for it because I feel like it's my cross to bear. I welcome when somebody goes online and says, hey, well, how can you be a Christian if you've got all these sexy photos? And I'm like, well, let me tell you. Because it's my opportunity to share my testimony.

And I think it's awesome now. You know, my husband, he was leaving at the church I walked into. And I went there to go meet a friend that wasn't at the church I went to. He saw me walk in because it was kind of a grandstand sort of thing. He was shaming me, so he was so, he said he was distracted, but he didn't know who I was at all, and through talking to him, he was getting familiar with me, so one day he decided to go home and Google me.

That was not a good move. So all these things just started to pop up. And he's like, you know, grew up in a Baptist home, you know, worship pastor, pastor's kid. He's like, what in the world? Because this girl he's been talking to, my heart didn't really match what he was seeing on his pages. So I'm really blessed and grateful that he didn't judge me at all by that. He was actually really intrigued because he figured there's got to be a story here. Right. And I tell you, too, my husband and I dated for about a year before we got married, and he never once spent the night at my house.

And so it was a very different courtship for me, something different than I'd ever experienced in my life. He didn't look at me at all in a sexual way. sexual way. I've never felt more loved either than I did by him, you know, than by anyone than I did by him because he had to find ways other than physical to make me feel special and let me know that he loved me. And so God did all sorts of amazing things in my life when I really started pursuing him first. And all the fitness stores opened. My personal life got amazing. I wasn't supposed to be able to have a baby, and three months after we got married, I'm pregnant.

That's awesome. I think when you just persevere through the hard stuff and all the ritual and things like that, the Bible says to expect it when you're going to follow him. If you do, he'll bless you. Right. Now, this is interesting because I just did a recent episode on this podcast where I call it The Power of Belief.

And a lot of the great athletes in the world, the way I see it, the best in the world believe in one of two things. They either have a really strong belief in their faith or God or the religion, or they have a strong belief in themselves. They're extremely egotistical and very selfish and just believing that they are the ones who have the talents and the athletic ability and things like that. And you notice this when you hear interviews after a big game. The superstar comes on, ESPN does an interview, and they either are the Tim Tebow's of the world who are like, you know, first want to thank God and my savior. Or they're talking about their faith right away and throughout the entire interview.

Or the other person who isn't as strong on their faith is talking about themselves. You can just tell their ego is very in the way. And I feel like obviously you're the one who you're, you're, you're the type who is beliefs in their faith. And that's really pushed you to become the best in the world of what you do. Being the face of bodybuilding.com being on more covers than any other fitness model in the world. And really being the leader in your industry looked at as the go-to person. So I think it's something interesting to think about for people. If you want to really excel in something and be at the top of your game of what you do, you've got to have a belief in something. And I'm not saying one way or the other way is the right way.

I'm saying you want to believe in something. If you have faith and you want to really strongly believe in that, and that's your support system, then you should believe in that if you want it to help you get to the next level. Or believe in yourself. And it might be a combination of both. Maybe you believe in yourself a lot as well, and that's really what helps you take it to the next level. But the people that I see who aren't reaching the type

of success or getting where they want to be, they usually have a lack of belief in everything. So that's just something that I'm noticing from what you're talking about. And I think it's really interesting that you have such a strong belief and you put it out there like that. So I'm excited for what's the futures that will hold there. I want to go on to something about supplements really quickly. And I want to ask you about goal setting and a few other things as well. But I want to talk about supplements. I just had another vegan expert on the most recent episode. His name is Rich Roll.

His name is Rich Roll. He's an ultra marathoner, ultra Ironman runner and competitor and runs 50 he went to completely vegan plant-based diet. And I want to talk about your views on healthy eating and supplements. So what should we be eating in general and what supplements are good for us to achieve greatness mentally and physically? All right. Well, my views on things is, first and foremost, livability and is it realistic. You know, the guy you were just speaking to sounds like an uber-amazing athlete. That's not me. I get winded going to the mailbox.

I'm not a cardio nut. I like lifting weights. I like dancing. You know, I have different hobbies and stuff that I like to do. And I eat to support those hobbies. He likely eats to support his running and all the activity that he does too. We all do. So the first thing I always tell people when they ask me about eating is I like to figure out what they're doing. I want to know what they're doing so I can recommend the right kind of thing to help them support those goals.

You know, if somebody's trying to be stronger, I'm going to have them eat differently than somebody who's just trying to lean out or somebody who's running. So anyway, for me, because my life's about balance, I want to be, there's a difference. I always try to tell people there's a difference between eating to be healthy and eating to be lean. And when you bridge that gap, that's when you've found a good place to be. Because I want to be lean, but I also want to be healthy. And you go over to the too lean side, you're suddenly unhealthy. There's anemia to worry about. There's a lot of people overtraining over exercise, and you actually, you know, you

hurt your body doing that sort of stuff. Sure. So anyway, so for me, I do, you know, there's all sorts of diets out there. And here's the first thing I tell people is if you want to be vegan, that's awesome. If you want to be gluten-free, that's awesome. If you want to be paleo, that's awesome. But I always have people at least start with the lean proteins, complex carbs, and the healthy fats. And the first thing I want them to do is just get rid of the chemicals.

That's all I care about. If you just get rid of the chemicals, that in itself will make you start dropping weight because most of the things that have chemicals in it are terrible for us. I'm not an awesome cook. I'm Ethan. I get published in some of my little quirky recipes but

I enjoy cooking at least a little bit. And so if I have people that say, hey, I just don't like cooking, well, you're probably looking at a nut pill battle. You've got to learn to actually prepare some of your food because it's the stuff made with love at home that's going to be better for our bodies. Sure. And so all these whole foods is really what you need. And then once you start eating like that, the next thing I want people to do is say, okay, well, you know what? I've been exercising.

I've been eating this clean and healthy diet, and my gut's still distended, or I still feel like I'm not making the progress I need to make. Well, then you switch to a gluten-free or a paleo or something like that. And until you have a starting point, you really are just jumping into sort of a fad and trying it. Now, if you're vegan, vegan is different, which is a lot of the best for ethical reasons because they don't, you know, of course, they love animals, which I do too. I tried to be vegan. I was terrible at it because I just was always hungry and I could never feel satisfied.

And I was tired. So I've tried several of these diets, but nothing seems to support, again, the activity that I do so better than what I currently do, which is just lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. So for me, I just tell people, hey, let's start there, and then if you're running, you're going to need a lot more carbohydrates. If you're trying to build strength, you're going to need, again, a lot more carbohydrates.

And then if you're somebody who's just trying to lean out, there's several different approaches you can take for that. Sure. So there's no one right answer. That's why a lot of times getting a professional involved really helps kind of demystify the whole thing. Yep. to demystify the whole thing. But doing it on your own, the very first step to do is just get out all the chemicals and eat proper portions and eat some lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats. Nice.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm always talking about how people should be hiring coaches for every aspect of their life, whether it be fitness or business or relationships. I think having a coach and a support system is the best thing you can do to really excel in anything. And you mentioned somewhere that setting small goals and staying connected to peers is a source of motivation for you. Can you tell me more about how you use those sources of motivation to help you, especially

through maybe a rough patch that you may be having in your life? Sure. Yeah, you know what? Accountability is huge when you're trying to reach a goal. And unless you put it out there and you say, hey, this is the goal I want to reach, you're really not being held accountable for anything. Like when I mentioned earlier that my mom was going to do my diet that I gave her in the workout, I walked away that day really frustrated because she had so many questions

and she wanted to change a ton of things. Well, guess what? She didn't tell me she started because she didn't want the accountability. She had fear of failure. And she didn't do the whole program the right way. She lost some weight, which I'm really proud of her because she was able to do that. But she didn't do it right, so she had to go back and wanted to do it again. And so I really find when you put something out there, you're holding yourself accountable.

You have people that will, you know, share it with you. They'll cheer you on. I often get asked by people, well, there's all these people that are all trying to derail you, too. Well, I get clever, and I just try to enlist them. I challenge them, and I say, okay, if you see me grab for this thing or whatever get on to me you know instead I recruit them instead of let them

try to derail me by tempting me and stuff like that but also another thing of accountability is when you do get coached or trainer life is just crazy I mean we all live in like fast forward constantly and there's always a million things piling

up on your plate. It's really, really easy to get distracted by things, whether you're working on business goals, fitness goals, anything. Right. So a coach is their job. I mean, they're supposed to bring you back to, okay, what's the next step, next step and keep you on track. They watch, they push you through, you know, each stage so that you continue to, okay, what's the next step, next step, and keep you on track. They watch.

They push you through, you know, each stage so that you continue to make progress. That first year of competing, I would have never been able to do it without the help of my trainer and my nutritionist because I was totally, like, flying blind. I didn't know what I was doing, first of all. And second of all, I was trying to be a fitness model. I was all over the place, you know. So having that sort of thing allowed me to do all the fun stuff because i had them doing all the hard work for me i just had to go through the motions so um and then another thing bodybuilding.com is one of the largest websites you know online their their forum is larger than oprah lindsey's

forum i mean that's how he is but um they created a site's form. I mean, that's how huge it is. But they created a site on there called Body Space, and it's got, you know, well over a million. I think there's a couple million on there now. They just started it like a couple years ago, and it's basically just a site for people to share their fitness goals, to say this is my before, you know, this is what I'm trying to do. Maybe they're competing.

Maybe they're just starting their journey. Maybe they're morbidly obese and need help. I mean, all walks of life on there. And it's really for accountability because even a company of that size realizes that we can give you all the information in the world. That's what bodybuilding.com is. It's just tons of information. You have to sell supplements, but that's not what their first goal is. If we give you supplements, if you don't know how to use them or what you're supposed to do with anything, they're really kind of moot. You're never going to buy another one.

Right. So the CEO is smart. He gives you all the information. And then they also built that accountability aspect with body space because it's willpower that a lot of people lack with stuff. And I am not immune to that. I mean, life will get me. like, I'll be feeling good, and then suddenly I've got, like, you know, two weeks I have to take off, and it's just sad how fast you lose stuff. And then I have no drive to get back into it.

I'm not immune to that, and I don't know a fitness person that is. So having people encourage you, push you along, and say, hey, you've got this nice thing coming up, get back to it, That's what keeps me going. Right. Interesting. Now, you've had the opportunity to meet and train and hang out with some incredible people, some incredible business minds, celebrities, athletes, people who've accomplished some amazing goals.

What are the few, I guess, common themes you see behind the success of all these people? You know, probably consistency and determination are two big things. Because I think, you know, all of us are going to experience setbacks. And we're all going to fail, you know, at some point. And it's how you handle that and if you're going to keep going or keep trying. You know, a lot of the celebrities and stuff that I know, most of them didn't become that famous actor or that athlete overnight. You know, there was a lot of rejection involved. Even myself with Bodybuilding.com, that first year when I was experiencing all that popularity I emailed them and I just

wanted to be their amateur athlete of the week and they said okay you know we'll make you an amateur athlete of the week I filled out my little bio I was so excited and now every year at the Christmas party I give this guy grief but guess what I never ended up on the site and I'm happy so and it was a blow to my ego because you you know, there was quite a few, you know, areas of rejection. I went to New York to find out if I could be, you know, like an Adidas-type fitness model, which I'm not. I found out really fast that this little Asian guy thought that I was a little too androgynous looking. That's manly, if you will. And I was anything but at the time.

I was teeny tiny. He thought my face was too square, my hair was too short, all this stuff. And I said, well, your teeth are too rotten. And I just laughed. No, I didn't really. He was pretty harsh. But I walked out of there thinking, you know, well, I tried it. And, you know, that's not really what I'm going to focus on. I'm going to focus on using my mind and, you know, what's in my heart and we'll just see what happens. Well, nothing he said really stuck because I got to do all that and more. But had I given up at that point when he told me all of that

and just said I'm not going to take any more pictures or do anything like that because he, you know, made me feel like the ugly death queen, I wouldn't have had the awesome career that I have. So I think it's really perseverance and just keep going, even when they're in the face of rejection. Right. What do you think are the biggest obstacles that make people quit on their goals or their dreams in business and life and sports?

What do you think are those big obstacles? Some of the big obstacles are probably family, time. You know, your, your priorities change as life changes. You know, even with me right now having a baby, there's a lot of questions of, well, she keeps doing fitness, you know, what's going to happen? Well, you know, for me, I just get excited about the prospect of now I can do anti-aging, I can do baby fitness, mommy fitness. You're not stopping me.

I'm just going. But I think a lot of times your priorities change in life and time really kind of gets in the way. And you decide, okay, I like doing this business thing or this fitness thing, but I also would like know have the awesome family and the great marriage and the love of my life and all these other things and so the priorities suddenly are tugging at each other and I've seen that happen quite a few times if you get somebody in your life that changes the dynamic and maybe they don't agree with what your goals are and so you really really have to stay focused on what matters to you most. And that's, again, where my faith came in.

I was prepared to lose this in a heartbeat just to have Michael. You know, I wanted a husband. I would walk away from fitness in an instant. I told him that early on, and I meant it with all my heart. And he is an amazing person because he, you know, he wanted me to do what was, what made me happy. And he saw that I could have a positive impact where I was and that I was vocal about my faith and our values lined up. And so, you know, it worked. I was, I had good support in my life, but not everybody had that. So I think a lot of times that that's kind of what will,

will make people falter. So they have to really know what they want. Right. Okay, cool. I got a couple of questions left for you. Now, a lot of times that's kind of what will make people falter. They have to really know what they want. Right. Okay, cool. I got a couple questions left for you. Now, a lot of people are on the hunt for quick fixes, especially in fitness with all the different diets and the different type of workouts. Everyone wants a quick fix to get fit or healthy within a month or less or a couple of months. The same thing happens in business. People want to learn how to make money really fast.

They want to just have a quick fix so they can increase their business without putting in the real work. So what should people really be doing if they want to have something that they create gains long term as opposed to quick fixes? What are the things they should be focusing on as opposed to the quick fix? Well, there's a reason that the saying, easy come, easy go, is popular because it's true. And, you know, especially in the sense of fitness, it's not easy to fix it year-round.

You've got to make a conscious decision every single day about what you're eating, about how you're exercising. Now, when it becomes a lifestyle, that decision becomes commonplace, and you enjoy what you're eating. I, you know, even being pregnant, I started eating a bunch of junk, and boy, could I feel it. And so I had to get back to eating normal like I was eating before, because to me now that's the new normal.

Right. So I had to get back to eating normal like I was eating before because to me now that's the new normal. But I think – I'm kind of off my train of thought. What was your question again? What should people really be doing to develop – Oh. Yeah, go ahead. I get off on a tangent. It's all good. It excites me.

anyway um you know to to really take uh to to be able to stick to something you know like fitness long term or make it you know a lifelong change or anything like that or your um whether it's business and all that kind of stuff to me it's it's making it realistically fit into your life like in what you're you're to me it all goes back to heart, I guess, too, because it's like if it's something you really, really want, you've got to make time for it every day, you've got to fit it into your life every single day to where it realistically makes sense, because if you go all in on that business thing really quick, you can crash and burn really quick. If you go all in on that fitness thing really quick, you're going to get burnout and crash and burn really quick. If you go all in on that fitness thing really quick, you're going to get burned out and crash and burn really quick. So to me, the realistic, you

know, balance of life is going to help you have more longevity because ultimately you'll be happy. So take those baby steps to really get started or to really get acclimated rather, you know, from and learn about whether it's fitness, business, whatever it is you're doing, master those things and then you progress as you go and you become an expert in whatever it is you're doing, expert in fitness, expert in, and those things will translate into longevity in all sorts of ways. Maybe it's not, maybe it's not even the original vision that you had, the business plan that you had morphed into something new and the fitness goal that you had, the business plan that you had, morphed into something new.

And the fitness goal that you had to be the fitness model, now suddenly you're a mommy rider. Right. You never know. Right. Interesting. Very cool. Okay, last question. This is important.

What is your definition of greatness and how does someone achieve that? Oh, that's a hard one. Okay. You should have told me this early. All right. Definition of greatness. Well, I think I'd have to say, you know, my mom thinks I'm pretty great. So I think whatever your mom thinks.

No. You know, I think anybody who's great, somebody who's great is someone who just doesn't, they don't give up. In the face of adversity, they don't give up. They begin the perseverance. It also comes to character for me. Somebody who's great has a lot of humility. They want to be successful. I mean,'re um they want to be successful i mean who doesn't want to be successful but at the same time um success has a greater meaning it's not just financial it's

you know in relationships in life and so it's this well-balanced well-rounded life to me and i think if you jump into one whole area of your life even fitness and it all can it's all consuming and that's all you do, that's a really poor approach. I think you'll end up a very unhappy person. So that's why the spiritual thing matters to me and my family matters to me and I like the business stuff too and I like the fitness stuff. And so I haven't mastered it at all. But even working toward having a balance makes me a calmer, better person.

So hopefully, you know, eventually I can be great too. Interesting. Very interesting. So where is the best place for people to find you online or connect with you online? Well, I've been pitiful lately. I've been hibernating with this pregnancy. You've got to make a baby. You've got to make a baby. I'm on Facebook. What's that? You've got to make a baby. I'm on Facebook with that.

You've got to make a baby. That's a lot of energy. I know. It really is. I've never done this before. I'm amazed at how much energy it takes. You can find me on Facebook. It's facebook.com slash official Damien Ethan. My last

name, by the way, is Middleton now. I did take his last name. It's just these goofy social networks don't let you change things once you have a certain number of people. So I feel bad because I've waited my whole life to have a man, you know, my husband's last name, and now I can't even have it online. But you can find me at Official Jamie Ethan on Facebook. And my husband and I are going to be launching a blog soon called, like, PeanutButterAndJelly.com. And the tagline is, and that's, Made in Heaven, because we both have very parallel lives, even though a worship pastor and a fitness model seem extremely different.

It's amazing how much we get to do together. And he supports my career, and I support his. So we like sharing kind of that duality with each other online. So that'll be up soon too. So I hope you guys will check it out. Nice. Very cool. And are you going to be writing a book sometime in the future as well?

No, I've had a few opportunities. I've been working on a cookbook thing for a while and I've recently been asked to write the spiritual side of stuff which I was really surprised about but there's a lot of really crazy things about my life including you know like my real father and a bunch of things that a lot of people don't know so I might have to do that. I don't know I've been thinking about doing it more and more. I've written a lot of little notes and stuff on it so so that might come out. But I think right now my biggest thing is going to be focusing on the pregnancy side of stuff.

I have some fun things that I'm trying to do with video. I'm realizing there's not enough out there for women when they get pregnant about staying fit because there's so many questions with it. And then, of course, post-pregnancy, getting in shape. I'm going to be able to put something together for that. And there's a lot of women that still haven't lost the baby weight and now I've never done this before. So I'm being very bold and saying that I can, I think I can do it.

But, um, but I've done fitness for so many years now that I'm just going to have the confidence that I can, I can put together the right programs to help us all get that weight off. So that's going to be my epic goal. Very cool. When you come out with some of that stuff, we're going to have to have you come back on and talk more about that if that's cool. Cool.

Yeah, of course. I appreciate it. Awesome. Well, Jamie, thanks so much for coming on and we'll talk to you guys next time. Sounds good. Thanks, Luke. And there you have it. I really appreciate Jamie coming on. What an inspiring message and story for all of you out there.

I hope you enjoyed this as well. Feel free to hit up Jamie over on Facebook. I know she'll love your support and your comments and make sure to follow all the stuff she's working on right now. She's a gem and I hope you guys really enjoy connecting with her. Again, make sure to check out schoolofgreatness.com

and to learn about all the other podcasts and episodes we have on here. We've got a lot of great episodes in the past and more to come in the future. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by leaving a five-star review over on iTunes and share this with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. It's at Lewis Howes, pretty much anywhere online. I love you guys. Hope you have a great one.

And I'll see you next week. I'll make you blind and shut up I'll make you blind and shut up Outro Music