Rachel Friedmann

AMA Spring Mix - Donte, Erika, Shana, and Rachel

It has been a few days and I’ve been dying to write multiple blog posts, but for now I’ll start with one. My last few days have been enlightening. This past week, I graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in marketing, listened to Chuck Porter discuss effective marketing, met some incredible people, interviewed, went to events, and most importantly reconfirmed my path.

Sometimes it takes being presented with a good opportunity, to realize it’s the wrong one for you. My heart has always been in the world of nonprofits and associations. My father still jokes that my brother and I should have tattooed on our foreheads “will work for nonprofits.” I repeat that comment often, because I am proud of it.

I have purposely acquired the experience and education to make myself competent in multiple areas, so that I can be good at whatever I do. I have often been asked do you want to be a designer? a museum director? work for an agency? My answer is simple: I want to work for something I believe in. So what do I believe in? I believe that the arts are one of the most important things to expose not only our children to, but to adults as well. I believe in not eating processed food and food made so cheaply at the expense of nutrition and health standards. I believe that the government should take a stronger stance in helping those less fortunate — will stop with politics now. I could go on, but hopefully this gives you an idea.

Bottom line, wherever my next gig takes me it will be for something that I truly believe in and am passionate for.

Today is graduation day, but I am not going. I made the difficult decision to forgo going to my second masters graduation (up in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins) to go to an event I have been working on for months and that will continue to propell me forward professionally. As a friend recently put it, isn’t that the point of my getting the marketing masters in the first place?

Tonight the American Marketing Association presents Chuck Porter of Crispin Porter + Bogusky who will be talking about effective marketing. I could go on about how his agency has been named the agency of the decade, won numerous awards, and are behind campaigns we are all familiar with – Gap, Best Buy, American Express, Windows 7, Burger King…Instead, I am going to discuss what his presence means in DC. When I moved up to DC almost 6 years ago, I had no idea that there was a marketing and advertising community flourishing here, I don’t think most people do today. That is changing. Having Chuck Porter and Mark Bisnow (the AMA Hall of Fame recipient this year) share a stage shows that DC is changing.

People are starting to take note of DC in a different light. More reality shows are coming here – Top Chef, Real Housewives, Real World…DC is becoming its own scene, no longer “New York lite.” I am excited to watch the continuing transformation and hope to be a part of it in some way.