James Phuong is the Community & Content Coordinator at MySGV Podcast, where he brings together a background in graphic and product design with a lifelong pull toward creativity.

Before joining MySGV, James spent years honing his eye across design disciplines, learning by doing, building skills from the ground up, and discovering that the best work always starts with genuine curiosity. That drive to create led him here, to a role where storytelling, community, and craft all meet.

His story:

This isn’t what I went to school for. I came up through Graphic Design and Product Design, and stepping into a community and content role was equal parts terrifying and exciting. Doing something outside your lane has a way of making you feel alive. And it turns out I was never in love with design specifically. I’m in love with anything that lets me be creative.
That realization changed how I see the work. The UX thinking, the systems-building, the instinct to figure out how pieces connect. None of that got left behind. It just found a new home. I have full ownership of MySGV’s Instagram account, which is wild when you sit with it, because this is the community I actually live in. The stories I’m helping tell belong to my neighbors.

Sitting in on live podcast sessions, hearing SGV residents open up about their lives. It pulls you in fast. I bring that same attentiveness to every community interaction, from reading the room, to matching my energy to what someone needs, to responding warmly whether it’s a great moment or a frustrating one. Design taught me to see what’s really there. This role asks me to respond to it with care.