Humans of Communication: Joe Boughner
Updated: Apr 27, 2020
By: Reagan Bradley
Joe Boughner teaches third year Social Marketing and he’s a pretty awesome instructor. He’s both funny, engaging and teaches you the content of the class that isn’t ‘text-book’ per se. I left my Wednesday 6:00 – 9:00 class thinking “wow,” this guy really knows his stuff about Marketing and you know what, Marketing might even be the pathway for me. So I took initiative and decided to learn more. What drove Joe’s passion towards Communication and Marketing? How did he get there?
So here it is my friends: Joe Boughner, Human of Communication.
My initial question was this: What fascinates you about Communication?
“I love the challenge of understanding your client’s or organization’s important messages and knowing how portray these messages in a tone that resonates with their audience. I find it interesting putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.”
As a Journalism student at Carleton University, Joe had no clue he could land a career in the Communication field. He did know, however, is that he loved writing and enjoyed the intellectual challenge of writing for other people. He left University and after a few years of meandering found a sweet gig with an agency that did government relations, working as a researcher and then moving on to various contract jobs in Grant Writing, Media Relations and Corporate Writing to build up his resume. In the middle of his so far career, he decided to switch it up and worked for a digital agency, first doing digital strategy work for clients, then taking over as the firm’s Director of Marketing. This was work he loved to do – story telling on behalf of other people’s voice and style. Four years later, bringing us up to Joe’s present career, he is now the Director of Communication and Government Relations, working hard to bring the measurability of Marketing, back into Communication.
Needless to say, Joe didn’t know where he would end up after completing his degree. Instead, he followed his passion for writing which eventually lead to a job that couldn’t better match his interest – something I believe is something we can all learn from.