We were lucky to catch up with James Huntley recently and have shared our conversation below.
James, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
For me, the easiest way to kill my creativity was to put me behind a desk for 50+ hours a week and give me work that had many standards and boundaries. After graduating from college, I worked as a civil engineer and although the money was great I had trouble finding ways to be creative. After 3 years I discovered the power of social media. For many years I watched and was entertained by content creation but by year 3 I decided that I wanted to create content and share my passion with others. My passion is helping individuals make more income and improve their financial situation by paying attention to their daily habits. It literally blew my mind that I could write my ideas out on paper and then create the video that I had imagined. At first I would create videos with my phone. The videos were mostly talking head videos and very educational. As I look back at them now they were not great and were somewhat boring. I wanted to make them more fun and interactive so I learned how to use special effects. Special effects made the videos more interesting but after a while I still felt like my creativity was limited. This is when I decided to purchase a drone. With the drone, I could record low to the ground and hundreds of feet in the air. I was able to record beautiful beaches and some of the tallest mountains in the world. The scenery and beautiful footage got more viewers engaged with the videos I created. I didn’t stop there though. I got more creative and used AI voices to convey my passion in a different tone. Content creation has allowed me to keep my creativity alive but has also inspired millions of people. In 2023 my content reached over 5 million views and has been shared over 500k times. Regardless of the views or shares I enjoy using videos and content to help others and stay creative.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
What I noticed early on as a kid growing up in Walkertown, NC was that to get anything worth having it took education and working extremely hard work to get it. Growing up, my ultimate dream was to become a civil engineer. By becoming a civil engineer I envisioned that it would allow me to make the impact that I desired to make along with a nice income. I found out shortly after graduating from UNC Charlotte with my Civil Engineering degree that the engineering skills were extremely valuable but the impact that I wanted to make in this world was much bigger. I found that I had a strong desire to help people achieve their goals. I loved seeing people that were hungry for success but did not have someone in there ear to tell them that their goals were achievable. Normally the answer to achieving big goals was figuring out how to gain acquire more skills, more resources, and more income.
Today I am focused on creating resources for individuals to help them make more income and to go after their goals. While making more income and achieving goals sound exciting, it is my mission to share the truth with others in my content. The truth is that making more income & achieving your personal goals is not easy and requires a change in a persons habits and identity.
I help individuals make more income in a few different ways.
The first is through budget coaching. With private one on one budget coaching I work with individuals to help them get organized with their money. They are able to identify where there money currently goes and what they can change/adjust to align it with the financial goals that they have. Sometimes they are challenged with breaking bad spending habits or learning higher income skills so that they can make there goals become reality. I enjoy working with individuals one on one because it allows for individuals to have a safe space to share what is going on without being judged. The most exciting part about the work that I do is seeing the transformation in each of the individuals. Individuals transform their spending habits and overcome limiting beliefs that they had around money. They have larger bank accounts and a solid plan to execute on to grow their money. Their confidence and attitude towards money is beautiful to see after just 3 months.
For more details on the coaching program go here:
https://www.coachjamesbudgeting.com/private1on1coaching
The second is though civil engineering. I help individuals obtain their engineer-in-training license. This license is challenging to obtain because it has over 80 different topics that you must fully understand. I work with individuals one on one to help them pass the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam so that they can receive the engineering-in-training license. The cool thing about working in this space is that I get to use my creative side through content creation. I have created a community of over 1,500 subscribers on Youtube where I share valuable information to help individuals pass the exam. The best part about the job is creating success stories. I love to receive emails and text saying that after watching my content, or downloading my study materials, or working with me one on one that they passed the exam. I love knowing that I have helped someone make more income and have the necessary paperwork to become a professional engineer.
Checkout the Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DpRHlXbV7N6SHNH3AaO-A
As my mission to create resources for individuals to make more income spreads, I am very excited about a workbook that has been recently released called F.L.O.W. (Financial Lessons On Wellness). I have partnered with Rahkim Sabree to create a workbook that brings attention to the importance of financial wellness. The workbook combines budgeting/money management and financial wellness to help individuals feel fully confident about their finances. The exercises are very interactive and encourage you to take action. There are sections where you create a budget that fits your lifestyle. There are financial goal worksheets and challenges you to find areas where you could increase your income or decrease your expenses. There are parts in the workbook that educate about different budgeting systems to ensure you don’t live paycheck to paycheck. My favorite section by far though is the journaling exercises. The workbook dives into how you behave with money, past childhood financial trauma with money, and what you believe about money. There is a physical and digital version of the workbook which makes it accessible to everyone.
You can checkout the workbook here: https://flow-workbook.com/
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Self Discipline: This one has made the most impact in my life. I have noticed that those who are skillfull but lack self-discipline never reach their full potential. To become excellent at anything you must have self discipline to do the activities that get the result that you desire. I have also noticed that those who have self discipline but do not see immediate results yet keep going will win in the end. Self discipline mean doing things when you dont feel like doing them and cutting out all distractions. I am literally a product of self discipline. I created over 300 videos and nearly 3 years before one video reached over 1 million views. Even though I did not see much results from my actions I knew that I self disciplined and was doing that activities that would get me the results that I desired in the end.
Think for yourself: Wisdom is being able to identify when to follow the crowd and when not to. You do not have to follow what everyone else is doing unless you want the same results that they are getting.
High Level Math: This skill has come naturally to me but I appreciate the power of it. Not only is math important to understand personal finance and making sure that you receive the right amount of change when you make a purchase but it is used in so many other things. Math is used in most high paying professions. Engineers use math. Doctors use math to calculate dosage. Video editors use math to speed up and slow down videos to create an amazing experience for the viewer.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
If you are a civil engineering company or university seeking to promote financial wellness within your organization, I am actively looking to partner with entities that recognize the importance of not only possessing the licenses and education necessary for engineering tasks but also fostering financial education and well-being among their members.
The goal is to create an environment where individuals not only excel professionally but also feel confident and empowered in managing their finances. This initiative aims to contribute to a positive workplace culture, fostering a community that finds increased purpose and value in their daily work.
If you are interested in connecting or supporting this mission, please feel free to reach out to me via email at jhuntley@coachjames.co. I welcome the opportunity to discuss potential collaborations and how we can work together to promote financial wellness within your organization.
Contact Info:
- Website: coachjames.co
- Instagram: __coachjames
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DpRHlXbV7N6SHNH3AaO-A
Image Credits
Mike Byrd (professional headshots)
