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Born
and raised
in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Jimmy began
his active lifestyle at a very young age;
from neighborhood sports of football,
street & roller-blade hockey, to 2
years on a local soccer team as their team
goalie. Jimmy then joined his
school's cross-country track team, and
also ventured on to the wrestling mat.
With all the sports and activities he
participated in, he found his biggest
liking in weight-training. Along
with his high school friend Dave, Jimmy
vigorously worked out almost every day
during his final years of high school...
which led the beginning of who Jimmy
Thomas is today. |
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a home-gym above a friend's garage, to
down in his own basement of barbells &
dumbbells, Jimmy stuck with his workouts
even throughout his college time in Boston
where he followed his high school studies
of Architecture. Once moving to
Tampa, Florida, he continued his
weight-training from his backyard to a local gym while pushing his
limits. With
his love for weight-training, Jimmy sought
out another active & disciplined
interest... martial arts.
Jimmy joined a Kenpo Karate school where
he lived every waking, non-working moment; his love for the arts began to
overtake him. |
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As
his time spent in the gym reduced, his
concentration on his Kenpo studies grew.
He progressed quickly in his ranks and
soon began teaching the children's &
adult classes.
From self-defense demonstrations, to
entertainment for fitness competitions
aired on ESPN, Jimmy found his way to
every karate tournament in the F.L.M.A.
(Florida League of Martial Arts) circuit.
Trophy after trophy, Jimmy never left a tournament without a 1st, 2nd, or
3rd place title. He was
"Student of the Year" in 1994
and the icon role model for all the
children & under-ranks in his classes. |
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Being out
of the gym for many years due to his
martial arts devotion, he found his way
back to add on lost size & strength.
In 1998
modeling came into Jimmy's life. He
began photo-shooting with various
photographers
and quickly picked up representation
by 13 modeling agencies throughout Florida alone.
From commercial print, retail ads,
catalogs & magazines, Jimmy worked
with company's such as Tommy Hilfiger,
Dillard's, Disney, Sports Authority,
Hallmark and has been published in many fitness magazines,
as well as starring in many music videos.
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Through
modeling, Jimmy has had the chance to
travel the world and be presented with
many opportunities that has built his
modeling resume, and increased his
exposure and recognition to began branding
himself, including being a finalist in a
best-body, dance-off contest in Hedonism,
Jamaica,
and a Featured
Entertainer for an elite male revue
group. Aside from modeling &
martial arts, Jimmy enjoyed helping others
in health & body sculpting so he got certified through NASM the
'National Academy of Sports Medicine' and
began his Personal Training career.
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Throughout
his many years of bodybuilding, self-defense
and kickboxing studies and teachings, karate
competitions, personal training, modeling
and website designing, Jimmy still
kept with his backbone career that he went
to college for, Architecture.
He started at an engineering firm, then
onto working for the largest architecture
firm in the state of Florida, for 4 years,
where he custom designed up to 4-story,
multi-million dollar homes, and leaving
the firm as a Senior Designer, and with 2
"Designer of the Quarter"
awards.
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Jimmy
felt he needed a location change to
further his many interests, so he moved to
Los Angeles in the Spring of 2001 and
brought along all of his
careers. While still designing
upper-scale homes, training clients
independently & for CBS Television
Studio's to train their cast and crew, continuing modeling and teaching
self- defense & kickboxing, Jimmy still
found time to add
action-adventure screenplay writing,
writing a self-help book, developing 7
inventions, an organic retail product, an
animal abuse prevention organization, and
a new fitness concept DVD.
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However,
with
so many careers and interests, Jimmy found
little time to put towards them, so he
took an offer given to him to temporarily
relocate to Europe in the spring of 2003
to entertain as an Extreme
Bartender and stage performer.
This allowed Jimmy the freedom to
temporarily retire from his architecture
and personal training work, and
concentrate on his passions; body
sculpting, martial arts, and screenplay
writing. With this time away, he traveled all over
Europe and Egypt before returning back to Los
Angeles 2 years later in January of 2005.
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While back
in the States, Jimmy would teach health
& fitness locally and globally through
his Personal
Training Website he
designed, where he would
teach you the proper use of free weights,
machines, and/or rubber tubing (at home or
office) while using the proper resistance
that is right for you and your goals,
along with teaching you angle of
resistance, range of motion and proper
breathing throughout your exercises, how
to lose weight/fat and gain lean muscle mass while toning
your body through your workouts and diets
he would provide you. |
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He also
gave private lessons in kickboxing and
self-defense where he would teach you
balance and secure
defensive and offensive stances, how to
properly throw all types of punches,
kicks, and other hand, elbow and knee strikes, how to cover
your vital target points, block attacks
and strikes, dodge and
distract your opponent, self-defense
techniques against hand, foot, club, knife
or gun attacks, as well as teach you many
different knockout combinations, and how
to increase
your speed, concentration and confidence
while improving your cardiovascular
abilities.
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Expanding
on his architectural design field, Jimmy
joined a few design teams, one being an
Eco friendly design firm focused on
self-sustainability. Here Jimmy helped
make history with his SCIP (Structural
Concrete Insulated Panels) Design &
Engineering Integration to create the Hi'ilani
House, the first Platinum
LEED Certified, self-sustainable, fully
off-the-grid home in America, located in
Hawaii. His designs also include patented
designs for low-income housing, built out
of retired shipping containers, for the
'Afghanistan World Foundation' for their 'Rebuilding
Afghanistan Project'.
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| Then
came the romance novel world into Jimmy's
life, which he took by storm! From being a
contestant in a "Mr.
Romance Cover Model"
contest in 2002, Jimmy figured a way to make use of his various talents and
secure a niche for himself within this industry, brand himself
there, and get on more covers than
anyone in history (over 5,000 so far; Fabio
is on about 230). To do so, he not only created
the first Romance
Novel Cover
stock image website specific to the
romance novel industry, but also the first Romance
Novel Center
profession database website! |
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Jimmy's
passion, enthusiasm and drive didn't stop
there. His stock image website provides
the industry with cover images it
needs. His profession database website
provides a place for the romance novel industry
to find all the fields they're in need of
in one central location. His classes he
teaches at romance novel events all over
the country help educate and inspire those
who attend, as well as his monthly RNC
Articles he writes, but to help the
industry the most he needed to go bigger!
So Jimmy created his largest RNC business
yet, his own 5-day Romance
Novel Convention!
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