It isn’t Mad Men.

Advertising in 2016 is a hard, competitive and sometimes brutal business. There are no martinis.

We work hard to do great work for our clients across the country and to win new accounts. New business is our lifeblood. 60-70-80 hour work weeks are the rule and not the exception. Metaphorically, the light is always on. There are rewards and disappointments. Thick skin and good humor are prerequisites for working in this business. But what we do is rarely boring. And often times it’s exhilarating. And sometimes it’s perfect and deeply rewarding.

At RDW we are involved in many things that change lives for the better. I am so proud to be a partner in a company that cares about the community – and especially for those who simply can’t advocate for themselves.

We are involved in transformative projects and initiatives that are changing lives. Saving lives. Raising people up.

We are blessed to work on issues of epic proportion like global malnutrition and cancer – as well as on a smaller, local level with programs like educating Moms-to-be about good health practices. There is the HIV “Get Tested” campaigns to projects we lead in getting impaired drivers to change behavior and off the road. We’ve gone beyond making standard ADA compliant websites and actually created (I am so proud of our team) a customized, easy-to-use website for people who are blind and deafblind. We reach out and teach nonviolence to hardened criminals and simultaneously show an entire state that Special Olympians are indeed tremendously special.

We are always doing things that matter. We will even run in the Boston Marathon so that wounded vet families have a place to stay in Boston.

Doing good is in our DNA, here. It’s something we deeply and genuinely love doing.

In my case, I have the pleasure to hang out with great kids on a fairly regular basis. Kids, who on the outside appear very different from one another. But there is one essential truth I have found over many years of being involved in both our inner-city and more affluent suburbs and it is this – that most kids just want the same things. Love. Happiness. Acceptance. Connection.

We, at RDW, are often at the table in helping with research, crafting strategies and talking to folks on the front line of these issues and crises. It is not uncommon that we are in “the field” seeing and learning things first hand. My colleagues aren’t afraid of gritty and the dirty. They are not afraid of being vulnerable. These are the very things, in fact, that open our eyes wide to the infinite universe of possibilities and literally connect us to that place inside us all where our essential goodness lives.

Yes, I’m one lucky guy because I work with a team of human beings committed to making the world a little better. And to me, that trumps a three-martini lunch any day.