03/29/2026
Hey gang, it's time to finally take the time to tell you who I am, what my journey has been, and why I'm still obsessed with what I've made my livelihood for the last 11 years. (notice the clutch photo by Rael Focusd)
Long ago, when the earth was young, I made my way as a professional actor (predominantly stage, but I've done some marginally popular YouTube series, VO for video games, and was in a nation-wide theatrical release called Freedom's Path (still watchable on Paramount+, I believe)). I pursued this dream for well over 20 years and got pretty damn intrenched, thinking this is what I'd do with my time on this planet, even touring Italy and performing across the United States).
Through my career as an actor, I determined that I needed to take better care of what I would call the "actor's instrument," so I began taking the gym very seriously (running around the stage, singing, dancing, etc. night after night after night is pretty taxing work).
Shortly after, when I began to see some pretty quick and exceptional results, my training and education on fitness grew immensely and became a secondary (and sometimes primary) focus.
In and around 2014 I was living in LA doing the LA thing that all aspiring actors do, getting my SAG eligibility and an agent in the process (mega shout-out to Zachary Lindsey for that), when I received a call from TheatreSquared to fly in and be a part of their new play festival (with the immense talents of Kieran Cronin, Jamie McGaugh and Sean Patrick Riley, working on an excellent little number called B-Side Myself, and utilizing Clubhaus Fitness Fayetteville as my go-to training spot.
At this time I already had a possible career as a personal trainer on my mind, especially after noticing how it made me feel not only physically, but also mentally, so I approached the indefatigably lovable Stu Walker (I can't tag him here for some reason, somebody tag him!) and inquired about what it might look like to become a trainer for him. He set me on the path to find a certifying group (AFAA at the time) and I started studying the material diligently, falling even deeper into the depths of the human body and movement mechanics. I loved it. It felt fresh and exciting.
I had the pleasure of learning the ropes from Stu over 5 amazing years at Clubhaus, and then the 2020 happened.
Gyms were some of the first targets of the shutdown. And Stu did absolutely everything he could to ensure people still had a way to train but, ultimately, he had to shut the doors and I found myself out of work. (Thankfully, he was able to shift locations to the top of Mt. Sequoyah where Clubhaus still thrives)
At this point, I knew I needed to stay committed to the clients that still wanted to train, so I purchased some TRX Training straps, battle ropes, kettlebells, sand bags, medicine balls and a host of other easily transportable equipment (including fans and extension cords) and started meeting my faithful clients at Veterans Memorial Park at Lake Fayetteville and the parking deck of the Presbyterian church.
We worked out for a solid year and a half, through the brutal heat of the summer and ice-cold winters; through rainstorms and crazy homeless people antagonizing us.
Eventually, I had saved up enough capital to get a brick-and-mortar location (my people deserved a climate-controlled space to work out in after all they'd been through with me).
Thanks in NO small part to my good buddy Mike, I was able to find a small (and I mean SMALL) 900sqft hallway to call Jim's Gym "home". I quickly snatched up an inexpensive yet functional Titan Fitness power rack along with their functional cable trainer, bought up some DB's where I could (keep in mind, this was still at the tail-end of Covid so fitness equipment, even the cheap stuff, was selling at a premium assuming you could even find it), a small DB rack and some Kettlebells and started advertising my services to friends and family, alike. Shoutout to Donny Pitre for being my Brother in Wrenches and devoting his time to ensure Jim's Gym was strapped together and ready to rock.
Thanks to some VERY generous word of mouth from my epic and amazing clients (Abby, Jamie, Monica, Branden, to name a few), my client roster began to grow. I found myself with more and more capital to throw back into the business.
About a year and a half later, I discovered that the 1800sqft corner space in my business park was coming available and, having expansion already on my mind, leapt at the chance to transition into double the initial square footage. Shoutout to Donny AGAIN for helping me move and do some serious upgrade work to that location.
I continued to put every dime I could toward expansion and new equipment purchase (to this day, I'm fully self-funded and take great pride in grinding as hard as I can to provide the very best equipment and experience for my clients and members), and made agreements with some very generous, kind and trusting clients to expedite the equipment delivery (people that I will forever be in debt to for their trust in me and my vision).
In the last year and a half of consistent work and focused effort, I was able to bring on four incredible Personal Trainers(and I mean it. Genuinely. INCREDIBLE trainers (shout out Ashlyn Powell, Colton Stull, Jodi Stengle and Tucker Russell) whose work ethic, talent, expertise and drive dwarfs mine daily).
Thanks to our combined efforts, we were recently able to expand AGAIN (please note the incredible work done by Aiden Harp in previous posts for the video of the new space), adding another 1000sqft FULL of equipment (a shower and red light sauna are quickly in the works for all Jim's Gym members).
Present day - Jim's Gym has a thriving community of kind, compassionate, dedicated members, clients and trainers who call this space their gym home. It's probably obvious from this post, but it took so many more people than just myself to make my vision what is has become. I owe so much to so many (still so many folks I could name in this post) and I have made it my life's mission to continue to grow Jim's Gym into one of the most unique and special places I've ever had the daily pleasure to walk in to.
TLDR: I started this post talking about me and realized very quickly this post is not about me at all, but the amazing people that I'm blessed to call my community.
