TheBridge profile: Joshua Habursky
Name: Joshua Habursky
Current city: Washington, DC
Current job: Director of Advocacy Independent Community Bankers of America & Chairman, Grassroots Professional Network
Past job: Senior Manager of Grassroots & Internal Engagement American Diabetes Association
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting: Shelley's Backroom with a Mint Java Cigar
Q. Describe one way how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your new job: I worked in grassroots at both the American Motorcyclist Association and the American Diabetes Association before coming to the Independent Community Bankers of America. Both of these previous jobs taught me universal communications skills that are applicable across issues areas from transportation to healthcare to financial services and anything else. In working in modern advocacy, I have learned how to communicate to different audiences on different platforms both online and offline.
Q. Job advice in three words? Limitless with Persistence
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between politics and tech? With the Grassroots Professional Networking most of our events and written content have to do with an angle of both politics and tech. We are going to showcase 40 organizations in either of the two areas at the Agora, which is our outdoor marketplace for the government relations and public affairs community that we put together with The Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and The Hill on August 31st. A few months back we did an event focused on tech in advocacy in downtown LA and we are working with Campaigns & Elections to launch a conference called AdvocacyTech in Chicago on September 20th.
Q. What is your morning routine? It is a running joke that I do not actually sleep because of my "morning routine". During the week I will normally sleep from 10pm to about 2am then wake up have a cup of coffee... run three to five miles... and then prep all of my emails for the next day. I will then sleep for another two hours or so before actually heading out for the next day. For a while, I would actually send the emails at 3am or 4am especially for GPN projects. Enough people commented about getting the emails at that time so I put them in draft mode and send out 20 or 30 literally on the Metro during my morning commute.
Q. Name a living person you admire. Thomas Wesley Pence aka "Diplo". He is a true character that is a creative type entrepreneur that is both successful and at times controversial. I admire his hustle and style. We actually rock the same Dior sunglasses. Gordon Ramsey gets an honorable mention in my book too.
Q. What is an embarrassing work moment you remember? At ICBA we started doing these advocacy updates using Facebook live. I was very excited that we were able to put these together quickly and use something besides email to communicate with our advocates. I was very pleased to find out that a lot of people actually view the videos and people we even posting comments. When I actually read the comments it became embarrassing because most of them were from my mom and her friends writing about how handsome I looked and how much I grew up. It came up in office conversation and I turned red.
Q. How do you unwind after work? I have had to make a concerted effort to unwind. In addition to my work at ICBA and Chairing the Grassroots Professional Network, I taught courses at Heidelburg University and West Virginia University and probably publish 3 to 4 articles a month on thought leadership and best practices articles related to advocacy for different publications. I really unwind through electronic music whether it be going to a live show on the weekend or listening to hard trap at full volume while grading papers. I find the music to be motivational and a release from the thought of working even if I may be working while listening to it. Traveling would also be a standard answer. Combing the two, I went to Miami Music Week this year and that is something that I would highly recommend to truly unwind.