When asked about a formative experience he had as a student, Josh Weaver (B.A.’10, Public Relations) quipped, “What wasn’t?” The sentiment behind his response is sincere though. 
“Most of the skills that separate me as an employee or entertainer have roots in my time at Western,” he continued.
The exuberant alum has seen plenty, done plenty and had plenty of fun along the way, including traveling to Atlanta to take part in season 1 of the game show “We Are Family,” which aired on FOX earlier this year. “Being in front of the camera reinvigorated my love of working in the industry and I truly can’t wait to see what happens next,” he said. “Maybe a book to screenplay to movie to Broadway finish? We’ll see.”
Today, the curtain on Josh’s story is far from closed. Residing in West Hollywood, he’s now the Sr. Brand & Social Marketing Manager for the ad agency Ad Leverage.
Before finding a home in the Golden State, Josh gained a wealth of experience across the country. In Las Vegas, he worked for the eCommerce startup 6pm.com (an Amazon company) and Zappos. He then returned to Michigan to serve as the marketing manager and convention lead for a collective of webcomic artists in Ann Arbor. Next, he moved to Chicago, joining the ad agency The Designory.
“Just as I settled in, I got an email from my friend Matthew Inman, creator of the Oatmeal and Exploding Kittens, asking for help building a tabletop convention,” he said. “I joined Exploding Kittens under the title ‘Dark Lord of Fun’ to develop the event Burning Cat in Portland, OR.”
While the event was cancelled due to Covid, Josh was able to stay on the team, lending his talents as marketing lead for the company. That position gave him the opportunity to work on the development and release of 18 tabletop games sold on Amazon and at major retailers like Walmart and Target, three digital game releases, a mobile app called Kitty Letter, and an Exploding Kittens app for Meta and Netflix. 
“Introducing a completely new product into a crowded market requires a certain level of crazy ambition,” he said. “That comes natural to some, but I needed to learn the process. At Exploding Kittens I was able to shadow and learn from every single department, experiencing everything from ideation to delivery to seeing the finished product on the shelves at Target.”
This experience led Josh to one of his proudest career accomplishments: launching what he described as a fiercely competitive, magnet-powered, highly addicting, pinball-ish game. “A Game of Cat & Mouth” went on to win the Toy of the Year Award in 2022.
Pivot to PR
After his acceptance at WMU, Josh had hoped to pursue a career in theater.
“I drove to Kalamazoo to audition for the theater program,” he said. “While there, I chatted with people who would later become close friends and realized my talents lay in helping promote others and their talents and events. This really clicked around the time my ‘thanks, but no thanks’ letter came from the Department of Theatre.”
Pivoting to the WMU School of Communication to apply and “audition” for a spot in the public relations program proved to be the right move. “There was a cap on the number of students who were accepted into the program,” Josh said, “and I was happy to get one of the spots.”
He bolstered his studies with steady campus engagement, holding leadership roles such as President of the Public Relations Organization and Political Science Chair for the Western Student Organization. “Being involved on campus felt like 50% of the reason and benefit of being here,” he said.
These roles taught him about teamwork, leadership and the value of surrounding yourself with people of various specializations. “It took some doing to teach myself the responsibilities that come with participating in and running an organization,” Josh admitted. “I am WAY better at it now but wouldn’t be without the lessons I learned at Western.”
Several staff and faculty members also shaped Josh’s educational narrative. One standout was Mark Orbe from the School of Communication, whose “Taboo Topics” class provided an open and safe space for students to have difficult conversations. The class helped Josh embrace taboo topics with a level of radical transparency, a skill that’s been instrumental in his career.
Working with the stage crew at Miller Auditorium also left an indelible mark. Alongside Beau Hartlerode, Tallis Kleinbergs, Jeff Khaled and others, Josh had the chance to interact with a wide range of performers, from Billy Bob Thorton to Willie Nelson.
“I learned to leave my expectations of others out of my work and focus on delivering 110% of what was needed from me,” he said. “I couldn’t have done that without the support of my coworkers who I’ve been thankful to be able to watch do cool things of their own since!”
Regarding any advice he’d give to current Broncos, Josh emphasized the importance of gaining wisdom from setbacks. “Fail fast,” he said. “There’s no use in wallowing in the pain of failure unless you’re taking time to learn from it. Only a single truth is learned through success; so many more are learned in failure.”
It’s clear he’d recommend making every moment count as a student at Western Michigan University, too. Reflecting on his favorite campus memory, Josh shared this vision of a “Perfect Bronco Day”:
Alarm rings at 10 a.m. It’s Saturday—there’s no line at the Henry Hall Cafeteria and the sun is shining. After some Home Improvement, a show that played on repeat on one of the WMU dorm channels, it’s lunchtime and we head to Menna’s. After lunch, it’s a movie at Celebration followed by dinner with a study/project group. We get a little work done and then head to Frat Village for beer pong and dancing before we finish the night with a trip to the Den and Campus Kitchen for some orange chicken. 
“The best days on campus are the ones where you get work done while having fun,” he said.
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