We recently connected with James Crutcher and have shared our conversation below.

James, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Moving from Idaho to Utah was one of the biggest risks I’ve taken. I practically left my entire life behind just to move out. I used to work at a Mercedes and Porsche dealership as my first job and my second job was a parkour and gymnastics coach in the evening. I enjoyed both jobs I had but one of the other coaches I worked with told me about this place opening up in park city called Woodward and he said he applied for a job there, he then gave me the idea of applying for the job as well. I ended up going home that night and sending in an application not thinking I would be hired. Two months later we both got emails telling us we got the job and our first day would be Nov. 22nd 2019. I remember reading that email Nov. 12th 2019. I was both excited and scared because I had to somehow move to Utah in less than 10 days with another coach at my work that I didn’t know very well. We somehow managed to find and get an apartment that weekend and begin the move in process for our new lives. This was the biggest risk I’ve taken because I left behind a really good and fun life back in Idaho, not knowing if I would enjoy working in Park City, not knowing if I would enjoy living with my new roommate, and mostly not know if I would even make enough money to support myself here. Luckily for me I’ve loved every moment of my new life, my roommate Rickie is one of my best friends and like a brother to me, I love the place I work so much that it never feels like I’m going to work, we’ve had four of our other friends from Idaho move to Utah with us because they saw how much we loved it, and if it wasn’t for this move I wouldn’t have become the athlete that I am today. Going to event and creating monetized content on Instagram wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t taken this risk.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Hi I’m James Crutcher, soon to be 22 year old tricking athlete living in Salt Lake City Utah. I’ve been tricking for over 6 years now and most of you might be thinking “what is tricking?”. Martial Arts Tricking is a combination of the traditional gymnastics and cheer style flips & twists along with the taekwondo kicks and spins. A lot of people think of parkour when they see tricking but parkour is more obstacle course stuff where as tricking is performed on flat surfaces. I got hooked on this sport when I saw some people from my home gym tricking. They were doing flips that I didn’t even know were possible, and I thought they looked like ninjas. Ever since then I’ve been practicing to become the best athlete I can be. A lot of what I think sets me apart from other people/ content creators in my sport is my personality and attitude. When I’m filming or even performing I look like I’m having fun even if I mess up and fall. Things that I’ve been told people like about me is how I’m very easy to talk to and polite with everyone at events or through social media. A lot of people who are in the same skills division as me seem to not care about the people who are beginners or they tend to have an ego that discourages people from talking to them. I personally don’t feel like I’m that good at what I do but other people always congratulate me or hype me up which is always a good feeling. As far as an online presence goes I’ve heard from people that they like how much personality I put in my videos and how I carry myself. It’s hard for me to say what really sets me apart from people because I’ve just been having fun posting videos of my progression and somehow other people enjoyed watching it too! I’m most proud about how far I’ve come, some of the skills I’ve accomplished, and mainly how many unforgettable people and friends I’ve made through this sport!

How did you build your audience on social media?

It mainly started in the spring of 2020 when Covid-19 was spreading and people were encouraged to stay indoors. I ended up moving back to Idaho for this period of time since I temporarily lost mg job and didn’t want to stay in Utah. I had no responsibilities and was living at my parents house again. Since I had so much free time I decided to go to cool parks and unique spots for hours on end during the day just to film for Instagram and TikTok (at the time I had around 3,000 followers on both apps). I began posting once everyday and making fun flipping related content and since everyone was inside on their phones at this time I saw my view counter and followers go up more than I thought it would. I ended up hitting 10k a few months later and hitting 20k a while after that. I just spent a lot of time trying to film the type of content that I would want to see on social media rather than trying to guess what other people want to see, and overall I make sure I’m not being fake for videos, I’m always the same person on and off a screen. But overall I make sure I’m having fun doing what I love.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My overall goal with creating content for Instagram (I don’t post on TikTok anymore) is creating inspiration to the new generation of trickers just starting out. I of course would love to get to a point where I earn enough passive income that I no longer need to work a traditional job and I can go travel, explore, and have fun with the one life I was given.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Jamezboyy
• Youtube: James Crutcher

Image Credits
Zac Brannen