Caliber Senior Account Executive Josh Eichenbaum, a sneakerhead, former college sports radio host, and passionate storyteller, recently sat down with Kate Forster, Caliber’s culture manager, to talk about his career in fintech and financial services public relations. Read on to learn more about Josh, who joined Caliber in 2021, in this Staff Spotlight interview.

Kate: Where do you consider “home”? What is special about it?

Josh: Home for me is in Oxford, Connecticut, a small town where I grew up that’s… not really close to anything. After graduating college, I lived in New York City for several years. I came back to Oxford at the outset of the pandemic, figuring I would stay for a few weeks, or maybe a month. Fast forward more than three years later and I’m still here. Oxford will always have a special place in my heart thanks to the lifelong friends I made growing up here.

Kate: What non-work activities inspire you?

Josh: Most of my time outside of work is spent watching or reading about sports, although I wouldn’t call the performance of my favorite teams – Boston College, the (football) Giants, and the Mets – inspiring. On the contrary, I’m impressed every season by the new, inventive ways they find to let me down. At least the Celtics look good!

I’m also a big sneakerhead – I love collecting sneakers and studying up on new releases. I currently own between 50-60 pairs, but I’ve had to “slow down” (I’m using that term pretty liberally) on buying them in recent months because a.) I’m running out of storage space and b.) it’s impossible to rotate through wearing 60 pairs of sneakers on a regular basis. My current favorite pair in my collection is the Nike x Tom Sachs General Purpose Shoe. As the name implies, they’re perfect for everyday wear.

Kate: If you had to include one ingredient in every meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Josh: Pasta. I’m not even sure if that technically counts as an ingredient, but I could eat pasta for every meal and be perfectly happy – and sometimes I do!. I enjoy making different kinds of sauces and preparations for pasta; I recently took a cooking class where we learned how to make bolognese. 

Kate: What’s your favorite movie and/or book?

Josh: This is a hard one, I have so many favorites! If I had to pick a favorite movie it would probably be Goodfellas – I love the way the story is paced and the scene where Ray Liotta is leading Lorraine Bracco through the Copacabana is one of my favorite shots of all time.   

My two favorite books are The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt and The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien. The Goldfinch is a beautifully written, thrilling coming of age story, and The Things They Carried is a collection of stories about the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The stories are fictional, but based on the author’s own experience serving in the war; I find them very moving and they challenge our preconceived notions of what it’s like to serve your country.

Kate: What’s something your colleagues don’t know about you?

Josh: Most of the Caliber team knows that when I was in college, I hosted a jazz radio show on WZBC 90.3FM, the Boston College student-run radio station. I don’t think as many of my colleagues know that I also did sports radio for WZBC. I did play-by-play and color commentary for a wide range of BC sports, including basketball, hockey, soccer, baseball, and lacrosse. One of my friends and I even had a short-lived AM radio sports talk show. (We discovered that doing a sports debate show is pretty hard when you agree on everything!) I gained a lot of respect for Stephen A. Smith when I realized how hard it is to do a two-minute monologue on the sports topic of the day, much less the five or ten-minute soliloquies he does regularly. 

Kate: When you think about your time at Caliber, what career accomplishment or milestone makes you feel most proud?

Josh: I’m most proud of the work I’ve done to forge valuable media relationships and secure coverage for my clients in leading business, fintech, and financial services publications. I’ve been able to own the media planning and outreach process on a wide range of announcements, spanning from funding to partnerships to product launches and everything in between. The reason I started doing PR was to be part of the storytelling process, so I always find it gratifying to read a story that I helped to place. 

Kate: Name one thing that amazes you about fintech or innovation in financial services.

Josh: Fintech is so ubiquitous – I don’t think I realized how integrated it is into our daily lives until I started working in the industry. Every time we pay for something online, check our credit card balance on our phones, or Venmo a friend for lunch, we’re using some form of fintech. Even if you’re not totally familiar with the term “fintech,” chances are you’re using it way more than you realize!

Kate: What’s your favorite thing about working at Caliber?

Josh: Our culture, which I think is particularly impressive considering we all work remotely. I love the convenience of remote work and we do a great job of making sure that everyone stays connected and supported from disparate locations. I feel very lucky to work at an agency where everyone has mutual respect for one another and we encourage each other to try new strategies and approaches to our work. 

Kate: What historical figure do you most admire?

Josh: The four historical figures that I most admire are my grandparents. They each taught me so many life lessons and I’m inspired every day to try to live and present myself in a way that would make them proud. If I can live a life that is half as interesting, successful, and fulfilling as my grandparents’, I’ll have done very well for myself.