Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Downey
Hi Jay, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I lost my biological father when I was 7 years old — this directly ties to how my gym/fitness journey got started. With him not being around, I kind of subconsciously developed a belief about myself at a young age, that I carried with me for a lot of my life so far (not so much anymore) that I was not good enough for anybody.
Growing up, I was always pretty quiet, introverted, and kind of kept to myself & stayed in my own lane. My sister was probably the opposite of me– the life of the party, super extroverted with an animated personality, and really popular in school. Because of these two contrasting personality traits, I was picked on in middle and high school because I was not like her. I was just her boring brother to a lot of people; I’d always get compared to her by people in negative ways. This was also something that, for a long time, just reinforced the negative belief that I already had about myself that I was not good enough for anybody.
I played soccer growing up, all throughout my life. Towards the end of high school was when I started to discover the gym, realizing that my goal at the time of going pro in soccer was probably slim. One of my friends at the time, told me that after soccer practice he’d go to the gym sometimes. One day I decided to go with him, and although at first i actually didn’t enjoy working out, after going with him a few more times, I really started to love it.
For my first year, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I didn’t know anything about the gym, working out, or the science behind putting on muscle, changing your physique for the better, or living a healthy lifestyle. I saw someone on Youtube, who I still watch today (I’ve been working out/training for 5 years now), who inspired me to dive deeper into bodybuilding. He had a a physique, where at the time, I told myself I wanted to look like. I remember watching his same videos late at night after school and all my other responsibilities, and doing pushups and situps in my room at 1 or 2 AM because of my newfound motivation to put on muscle and build a nice physique, as well as newborn passion for working out and bodybuilding. This was around the time that I started learning, and educating myself about the science and processes that go with that endeavor.
With the combinations of my father leaving us at a young age, going to school; a place where I did not feel comfortable because I was picked on somewhat often, and going to a home where I also did not feel comfortable at the time because of a lot of familial traumas that I won’t get into, I soon came to realize that the gym was the first place where I felt like I belonged somewhere. Where I felt accepted, embraced, and was a place that seemed like it welcomed me with open arms every single time I stepped foot in there. It was a place where I could unleash all the negative feelings I used to have in my mind and in my heart, and allows my mind to slow down. It gives me a sense of moving forward and mental clarity, knowing that you get out exactly what you put in while you’re in there and with your diet– a lesson that you can also apply to basically every aspect of your life. Without the gym, I truly don’t think I would be here right now. It has helped me mentally, physically, and spiritually in more ways than one, and I’ll always be grateful for it, every time I get to step in there and train at my 100% capacity. I absolutely love it and it’s something I plan on continuing to do for the rest of my life.
Fast forward 2.5 years into my gym /fitness journey, I knew a couple of people who I had met, who told me they were posting videos on tiktok. We’d work out together sometimes or I’d see them around the gym, and they told me that I should start posting too– that I had the physique and look for it, and that It’d just be a fun thing to do together while we were in the gym. I agreed, and started posting. Creating videos, was another newborn passion , hobby, and love that was formed because of the gym. Since creating my very first video for tiktok, I knew making videos was something I truly had such a strong joy doing. I had so much fun in the process, and after a little while, I had some videos go viral, and my tiktok platform started to grow. One thing I really enjoy about content creation and being a creative, is that in my opinion, it is a form of creative expression. If you have an idea or vision in your mind, you can make it come to life through film, which I think is so awesome. Creativity is also something that I’ve always believed I’ve had naturally, and ideas a lot of the times, just flow and/or come to me naturally without really thinking too hard about it. I really started to develop a love for making videos, and once my tiktok started gaining some traction, it was something I began to take a bit more seriously. I developed, and still have, a dream of inspiring, helping as many people as I can with their own fitness and physique goals, motivating, and touching the lives of as many people as I can through fitness and my content that I make. I want to continue growing my platforms where I could motivate, inspire, be a good example for others, and one of the leaders in the fitness industry through my fitness, motivation, lifestyle, and creative content.
I don’t really like to put a label on myself and place myself in a box when it comes to my content though. My main love and thing is fitness and bodybuilding, but I like creating lifestyle and motivational content too– I believe I am multidimensional when it comes to making videos, and really feel like I am walking in my purpose when I am making videos, and working towards the things I’m working towards with my social media right now. Looking back, content creation is actually something that I’ve been into way before I ever discovered the gym– I used to make youtube videos about a videogame I played when I was around 12 or 13 years old. I feel like making videos is something I’ve always had a knack and an eye for, and was something that I was reminded of even more when i first started making gym/fitness videos for tiktok, It’s always been fun, has came pretty easy to me, and has felt like something I was naturally good at and enjoyed.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, but it’s definitely been smooth(er) as of the past few months. I think the belief that I carried with me for a long time about not being good enough for anybody as mentioned earlier, due to my upbringing and things that happened to me, effected my journey and manifested itself in different ways throughout it. Self-belief was something that I struggled with for a long time when it came to making videos, and growing my platform. It caused me to be inconsistent, and go through depressive periods where I would get in my head about it, not think I’d be able to do it, etc, and this would cause me to go weeks, months without posting. I’d pick it back up again, and the cycle would repeat.. I’ve been posting content on and off for about 2 years on tiktok because of this, but I honestly haven’t been posting CONSISTENTLY until the middle of this year.
My consistency has been a byproduct of my healing journey from everything I mentioned previously plus more, as well as finally, truly believing in myself fully, stepping outside of my comfort zone, realizing that I need to go after my dream with everything I have, and diving deeper into my faith and God. I didn’t grow up religious or anything because my family wasn’t at all, and I was never really exposed to it. It was after hitting rock bottom towards the end of 2022 that I discovered it, embarked on, and started diving deeper into a healing, and self-improvement journey. There have been so many struggles, periods of doubt and discouragement, hate and discouragement from other people and some people around me when it came to my dream and what I am trying to achieve with my social media platforms, depressive and sad episodes, and periods of struggle along the way that have effected my consistency with this journey up until a few months ago. What flipped the switch for me was leaning more and more into my faith, spirituality, and God, as well as rewiring my thoughts and beliefs that I have about my own self. I believe a lot of people operate on autopilot without even having the awareness of it, me being included in that group previously. Once you start to pay attention to your thoughts and perspectives, you come to realize the same energy you put into bringing yourself down, you can easily pour into lifting yourself up, and rewiring your thought processes. I realized that because of my upbringing, I had a lot of rewiring to do, and once I started diving deeper into healing, I started to believe in myself, and I’ve just been enjoying the process of making videos, and having fun doing it!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Like I said before, I don’t like to put a label on myself, or place myself in a box when it comes to my creativity and my content. But, to answer this question, I am a content creator, mainly with the niche in the fitness industry, online fitness coach, and aspiring entrepreneur. I’m known for my fitness/boydbuilding and lifestyle content on Tiktok, with my Instagram growing steadily as well.
What I am most proud of is the impact I’ve been able to have on people through the content that I put out, and the videos I create. Like I mentioned before, my dream is to impact, help, inspire, motivate, and touch the lives of millions through the fitness and creative content that I put out. There have been many times where I get a random DM, comment, or message on instagram or tiktok and from someone, saying how I helped them either with their fitness journey’s or just with some struggle or mental health issue they may have had in their own lives. Getting compliments on your physique are cool, but what always means the most to me is when people tell me that my videos have helped them in their own lives, or with their own fitness journey’s, and is something that I never take for granted, as it’s one of the foundations of why I create content in the first place. I always screenshot those messages whenever I get them, and if and when I am ever feeling down, I’ll go back and read some of them. They help to remind me of why I do what I do, other than just the joy and fun that I have creating videos and making content. I actually had someone dm me one time saying that my videos saved them– that they were going through an incredibly tough time in their own life and were thinking about ending it all, and that after watching a lot of my content, they were inspired to get in the gym and start their own fitness and self improvement journey. This again, was a reminder to me of why I do what I do and that I am on the right path, but also told me that you never know who’s watching, or most importantly, who I can impact or help through simply putting out content.
I think something that sets me apart from others is my energy and kindness, and I’m trying to showcase this lately by experimenting with different kinds of content where I am more transparent, vulnerable, and showing my personality more in the content that I put out, and combining this with fitness. I’ve always been a caring, generous, compassionate person since I was little, and I am trying to embody this energy every single day. Energy is contagious, and I think kindness, compassion, and love for others is truly what makes the world a better place, and I like making other people feel good. These are all things I am trying to figure out how to infuse into my fitness and creative content that I put out, while trying to grow my platforms organically. I like that question “what sets you apart from others”, because, it’s a question that I ask myself often (and sometimes get in my head about) when it comes to putting out videos, what I’m trying to achieve, and the impact I want to have. “What could make me different from everyone else doing this?” An answer that i think I am still figuring out along the way, but I am starting to think that it’s just being genuine and authentic and myself. For example, something I see 90% of creators do in the fitness industry is just post the same posing videos and that’s all they put out. For me, again I feel like i am multidimensional, and really want to post all kinds of things within the fitness realm, while showing my authentic personality that people can resonate and be personable with, since one of my goals is to build a platform of a community of people where we all just feed off one another’s energy and improve physically and mentally.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was a pretty quiet, introverted, and shy kid. I didn’t really start coming out of my shell until the start of college a couple of years ago. I honestly always believed that mentally, I was more mature and thought different from a lot of the people around me, and I feel like this is part of the reason I kind of just stayed in my own lane and did my own thing growing up. I feel like I had a hard time making friends when I was a kid because of this, as well as my own confidence issues I used to have back then. I always enjoyed playing soccer with the friends I had, and was big into videogames, and in high school I became a huge fan of anime (and still am). I was always a (day) dreamer, and observer growing up. I feel like I’ve always wanted to shoot for the stars and have had a big ambitious, entrepreneurial, dreamer spirit and mind, Family was not something I don’t think I really valued as much as I do now when I was little, due to a lot of pent up anger and resentment (that I no longer have), due to the things I mentioned before, as well as a lot more familial traumas. I always liked hanging out with them as a kid, even though back then I didn’t really show it or know how to because of trauma as mentioned. Now, i’m opening up more about it, and really love my mom and the rest of my family. My family is a bit dysfunctional, and maybe a little broken LOL, but a good family nonetheless, and I couldn’t ask for better.
Pricing:
- $200 monthly for online coaching
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaydowney_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JayDowneyOfficial
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jaydowney_
