James Hurst

One of the most trusted leading voices in the HighLevel community.

The Short Version

I'm an entrepreneur, marketer, and content creator. I run multiple businesses, coach agency owners on HighLevel, and create content about marketing automation. I'm also a husband, a dad of five, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I've been building things online since before most people had broadband—QBasic in high school, eBay in 1999, lead gen for my window cleaning company in 2004.

Where I Come From

My full name is Oliver James Hurst, and I was born in June of 1982 in Salem, Oregon. I lived there for the first 19 years of my life, so I'm an Oregonian through and through. I grew up in a big family — three brothers and one sister — and we were raised in the LDS church. I was baptized when I was eight, and that faith has shaped pretty much everything about who I am today.

I started working young. At twelve, I was out in the fields picking blueberries. By sixteen, I had my first "real" job cleaning windows for AAA Window Cleaning. Along the way I worked at Dairy Queen, Taco Bell, and spent time on onion farms. None of it was glamorous, but it taught me how to show up and work hard — and that's something that never left me.

For school, I went to Brooks Elementary, then Gervais High School and McNary High School. After that I did some time at Chemeketa Community College before eventually making my way to BYU, where I studied Information Systems. That's where the tech side of my brain really started to develop.

The Mission

At 19, like a lot of young men in my faith, I served a two-year mission for the Church. I got assigned to Poland, which meant learning Polish from scratch and spending two years knocking on doors, talking to strangers, and learning how to handle rejection gracefully. That experience shaped everything that came after — the discipline, the communication skills, the ability to keep going when things aren't working. If you can do missionary work in Poland, you can do cold outreach for your business.

Faith and Family

Family comes first for me. Always has, always will.

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that's a big part of who I am. Sundays are for family and faith, not work. If you see me at a conference happy hour, I'm the guy with the Sprite while everyone else has something stronger. I don't hide it, and I don't push it on anyone — it's just who I am.

I'm married with five kids. They're the reason I build businesses. Not to get rich, but to create something that gives us freedom and options. The flexibility to be there for a school play, to take a family trip, to not have to ask permission to live my life. That's what all of this is really about.

How I Got Here

The Window Cleaning Years

After BYU, I started a business called Cascade Window Cleaning. It was honest work — physical, outdoors, good money. But I always knew I wanted to do something with technology. I just didn't know what that looked like yet.

Discovering ClickFunnels

In 2017, I discovered ClickFunnels, and that's when everything changed. I dove into the world of online marketing — funnels, copywriting, automation, all of it. This was the first time I realized you could build something online that actually worked while you slept.

I got serious about it. Serious enough that I won the ClickFunnels Dream Car award twice. That's the program where ClickFunnels pays for your car if you refer enough customers to the platform. I did it two times. I'm not saying that to brag — I'm saying it because it shows I actually put in the work. I didn't just watch the tutorials; I implemented.

That era is also where I met a lot of the people who are still in my circle today. The marketing world is smaller than you'd think once you've been in it for a while.

Getting Technical

Along the way, I got serious about the technical side too. I became an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, which gave me a real foundation in cloud infrastructure, APIs, and system architecture. That's why I can talk about webhooks and integrations without faking it — I actually understand what's happening under the hood.

The HighLevel Era

I discovered HighLevel in 2018 or 2019, back when it was still pretty early. I could tell immediately that this platform was going to change the game for agencies. It consolidated so many tools into one place, and the white-label SaaS model meant you could actually build a business on top of it. I went all in.

Since then, I've become deeply embedded in the HighLevel ecosystem. I've been recognized as a HighLevel Community Leader, speaking at events and training people in the community. I earned the HighLevel Affiliates Bronze Award for bringing people into the platform. I coach agency owners on HighLevel implementation through Josh Nelson's Seven Figure Agency program. I created training content for Extendly, one of the biggest HighLevel support companies. I even worked as a chat support agent for HL Pro Tools, which gave me a behind-the-scenes look at how a real support operation runs at scale.

The point is: I've been in the trenches. I've done the support tickets. I've built the automations. I've helped the clients. That's why people trust what I teach — because I've actually done it.

What I've Accomplished

Here's the recognition I've earned along the way:

• HighLevel Community Leader — Speaking and training in the community
• HighLevel Affiliates Bronze Award — For bringing people into the platform
• Two-Time ClickFunnels Dream Car Winner — Twice qualified for the affiliate car program
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Real technical credentials, not just marketing fluff

The Businesses I Run

I don't just teach marketing — I run real businesses. Here's what I'm building:

MyTechSupport.com is a tech support and virtual assistant company. We help businesses get the technical help they need without having to hire someone full-time.

TheMarketingShow.com is what you're looking at right now. It's my knowledge base — everything I've learned about marketing, automation, and building businesses, all interconnected. I don't write blog posts in the traditional sense. I rewrite my entire body of work every time I publish something new.

GoKartPark.com is an entertainment venue. Yes, I own a go-kart park. Not everything has to be digital.

FifteenYearMortgage.com is in the real estate and mortgage space. Diversification matters.

JamesHurst.com is where you can book a call with me directly for consulting and coaching.

The Marketing Show

The Marketing Show is my YouTube channel and this website. It's where I create content about HighLevel, marketing automation, AI tools, and the people building interesting things in this space. Tutorials, interviews, deep dives — I've published hundreds of videos at this point.

The philosophy behind this site is simple: I don't write isolated blog posts. Every piece of content I create connects to everything else. When I publish something new, I go back and update the old stuff to link to it. New content makes old content smarter. It's all one interconnected knowledge base, not a blog with a bunch of disconnected articles.

If you want to see the video content, check out the YouTube channel.

What I Actually Know

Here's what I understand well enough to teach:

HighLevel is my bread and butter. I know the platform deeply — automations, workflows, funnels, SMS, email, white-labeling, SaaS mode, all of it.

Marketing automation more broadly is something I've spent years studying and implementing. Building systems that run without you is the whole game.

Agency operations is another area where I have real experience. I know what it takes to deliver results for clients at scale.

AI tools are increasingly part of everything I do. I focus on practical applications — how to actually use AI in your marketing workflows, not just hype.

Funnel building is something I've done hundreds of times, going back to the ClickFunnels days.

Technical integration — APIs, webhooks, Zapier, Make, N8N — connecting systems that don't naturally want to talk to each other. This is where the AWS background really helps.

What I Don't Know

I'm not a Facebook Ads expert. I'm not a Google Ads expert. I know enough to be dangerous, but if you need deep expertise in paid traffic, I'll send you to a specialist. My focus is on the systems and automation side — what happens after someone clicks.

Connect With Me

If you want to follow along or reach out:

• Facebook is where I hang out most
• LinkedIn for professional stuff
• YouTube for The Marketing Show channel
• JamesHurst.com to book a call

Work With Me

If you want help with HighLevel, automation, or building systems for your business, I'd love to chat.

Book a call →

See also: HighLevel Who's Who — The 50+ people shaping the HighLevel ecosystem