A Passion Hit has found a way to take a simple passion and turn it into something so much more. In many cases it becomes their life, work and what they get up every morning for.

I wanted to share these stories with you and that is why today I’m psyched to announce Passion Hit TV.

All of us want to be Passion Hits. We’d love to find a way to do what we love every day. I believe everyone can make this happen with a lot of hard work and determination, but it is never an easy road.

My goal with Passion Hit TV is to allow you to hear from the  people who have found a way. I want them to share their stories, advice given to them by mentors that made a difference and have them give you advice on where to start.

I’m excited about this because it means I get to sit down with amazing people and share their stories to motivate others. Whenever possible my only rule is that I want to do these interviews in person.

To make this happen I’m hoping to find a sponsor for the show, but they’ve got to be a Passion Hit as well so it might be hard to find the right match. If you are interested I’d love to hear from you.

I’m kicking off the show with Baratunde Thurston. I was really happy we got to sit down with him in my hotel room in Louisville while we were both attending IdeaFestival. We talked so long we ended up being late to dinner. Whoops!

I hope you enjoy the show and I hope that the passion these people share will inspire you to do amazing things.

Later I found out that my piece would be part of something much bigger and include writings from other buddies like Joe Pulizzi and my very own Ann Handley. Nothing like getting hired to be part of something that involves such a great group of people. And with that we present you…

This is a business relationship, but even if it wasn’t I’d still be excited to tell you about the contest they’ve just launched.

All you need for a chance to win is create a 30-60 second commercial telling people why a .tv domain is a great idea.

First prize is $10,000 cash and second and third prize are some pretty nice cameras as shown below. I of course can’t win, but I hope some eager filmmaker does win so that they can take the prize and make even more great videos.

You can find out more at @WatchDotTV or on Facebook.

The official announcement is on their blog and of course here is a silly video that my friend (and fellow .tv Advocate) Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff made to raise awareness about the contest. I’m really hoping we get some highly creative and fun videos to judge!

Movember is a cause started to raise awareness and money for Mens Cancer. Men around the world start the month clean shaven and then grow a Mo (Australian slang for a mustache) for the whole month. No beards. No goatees. The ruling is still out on soul patches. All the while raising money and awareness for the horrible cancers that affect Men.

I want you to donate. Laura hates me growing facial hair, but I know it is a worthwhile cause. I’ve lost too many people to cancer and I do this in memory of my Grandfather who I’m still pissed at cancer for taking from me way to young.

As an added bonus, for every $250 you donate to my cause, I’ll send you a personally autographed copy of my book Content Rules. It’ll make a great holiday gift for your boss, coworker or favorite local small business. I know money is tight this time of year, but every bit helps, so please take a moment and donate towards a worthwhile cause.

Want to know more? Today’s whole Digital Dads TV is dedicated to Movember with Team Boston in the studio and the founder of Movember live via skype! Watch from 2-3 pm today on The Pulse Network.

Three years ago when I set out on my own and ended up launching a marketing agency with good friend Steve Coulson, I had no idea that I’d be here today writing this note. I’ve certainly been taking my own advice and following the road less traveled throughout my career, so why stop now? *grin*

It has been twelve months since The Advance Guard was acquired by Campfire and I’m writing this note to announce that I’m moving on to my next adventure at the end of this month.

I’ve enjoyed my time with Campfire and I’ll remain on as a silent partner and look forward to all their future success.

We continue to do amazing work for a variety of clients (including one that will launch shortly and I can’t wait for you to see), but I’ve decided to pursue new and exciting opportunities. I’ve learned a lot working with the team here and I know we’ll be doing more great work together in the future.

So what will I be doing?

I’ve got some new things brewing that I’ll talk about soon, but I can say that I’ll be focusing on finishing and promoting my first book Content Rules, pursuing more speaking engagements and turning Digital Dads into the media property I always wanted it to be.

Finally, I’m available for specialist freelance jobs as they come in and am excited to work with agencies and brands who are truly ready to embrace change and take things to the next level.

I’m very excited about the road ahead and continuing to blaze my own path. It is the only way I know how to live and am surrounded by friends and family who support me fully.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you! I’m only an e-mail away.

If you want to know what I’m up to subscribe to my newsletter or connect on Facebook. That is where things will be shared first.

I never knew if it would be fiction, business or something else, but I’ve always wanted to have a printed stack of binded paper on a shelf with my name on it. I’m happy to announce that in the very near future this is going to be a reality.

Slated for release in December, Content Rules, is the book I’m co-writing with the amazingly talented Ann Handley. It will be coming out from the good folks at Wiley and will have a forward from my buddy David Meerman Scott.

I could ramble on about what the book is about, but how I boil it down is that no matter what the latest and greatest shiny new online tool is that comes out, at the end of the day you need to have quality content of all types to be successful. We not only lay out our rules for successful content, but also tell you how to create it, what to think about and how to integrate it into all of your initiatives.

This isn’t a book about blogging, Facebook or Twitter, but they are all in there for sure. We wanted to write this book for the preacher who wants to grow their congregation, the small shop owner down the street or the Fortune 500 CMO who really wants to take their online marketing to the next level. The goal was to provide an educational, but also entertaining read that won’t bore you to sleep.

You can pre-order the book now and really make me smile or wait until it hits shelves and pick up a copy then.

If you need a final giggle before you order the book watch this little video announcement we made. We decided after this one, off the cuff take, that it was too much fun NOT to use. Plus, it illustrates one of our rules about having fun with the content you create.

But, honestly I was also thinking big picture and way beyond this.

While I didn’t know that the Apple iPad was exactly what was coming, we all knew that some form of larger iPhone like tablet would be coming. This is why I hired a developer to make me an application. When that device came out I wanted to make sure that I had an easy one click way for anyone to get at all my content.

I think the iPad is going to usher in a whole new wave of people consuming online content. Let’s face it. While you and I understand RSS readers and their power, most people still surf the web by going through their bookmarks and surfing from one site to another.

Devices like the iPad and applications on it are the next generation of this. Instead of going through bookmarks you are going to be clicking through applications and I wanted to make sure my content was there as well. I believe there is going to be a rush of people wanting to be there and while you should make sure your web content is optimized for that sort of browsing, I wanted to go a step further and make it even easier.

I’m very happy to announce my involvement in the new parenting show Cast of Dads.

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood.  The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

While a lot of thinking has gone into this, none of us have a ton of time right now to really set things up fully so please pardon our temporary graphics and website.

Episode 1 covers a variety of topics including a debate about real vs. fake Christmas trees, what our kids are asking for and how much we all love Lego.

If you like what you hear and want more subscribe to our feed.

Today, I’m happy to announce that The Advance Guard, the company that I helped found in 2007, has been acquired by New York based Campfire!

You can read our post on our website about the deal and of course there is a social media press release with tons more details as well if you want to get to the nitty gritty.

So why did we do it? I can only speak for myself, but we’ve worked with the Campfire team since our very first project. We lease our office space from them and know them all very well. If any other agency had come to us with an offer to buy us, I’m sure we would have laughed and told them to take a hike. It just wasn’t something we wanted to do.

But, I’m excited about this opportunity because now we have a larger team, to go after larger clients. While we had a lot of success, we always wanted more. Now in Campfire I know that we are going to make a difference and develop some truly unique and kick ass campaigns for our clients. We are already working on some new stuff that I can’t wait for everyone to see.

You’ve seen me talk about passion and digital story telling for a while now. It is something I truly believe in and so does the entire Campfire team. That is another reason that made this decision easier. These guys and girls are some of the most brightest and creative people I’ve ever met and now I’m one of them. I can’t think of another team I’d be more excited playing for.

As a Creative Director and partner at Campfire I’m going to be wearing a lot of hats. I’m also going to be the one you see out there speaking and evangelizing on behalf of the company. I can finally do more speaking gigs and attend the conferences that I just didn’t have the time when also running my own company. That excites me to no end!

I’m so glad this news is finally out. If you can’t tell I’m VERY excited about it.

Of course this is 150% tongue and cheek and I had a blast with the photo shoot. I’m a bit disappointed that so many of the other guys taking part in this went with a stock photo of them rather then having a lot of fun with it. I know we are all busy, but finding a couple of minutes to be a goofball with a camera can be done by anyone.

The money is going to DonorsChoose.org which provides students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. Teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn and this charity gives them money to execute them. I love the concept behind it all.

Two things I need you to do for me.

1. Buy a copy of the calendar (they make great gifts)

2. Tell everyone you know to buy a copy of the calendar.

The calendar is only going to be available for 30 days and I really want to raise a nice chunk of change to help out the kids. Plus, you get to laugh at all of us goofballs who took part in the calendar.

I talked about the reasons in detail in this post on the site. But, the long and the short of it is that I wasn’t finding the type of content I wanted on the site about being a guy in today’s world with kids. While there are a lot of amazing fathers out there online and other great father focused sites like Dad-O-Matic I didn’t see enough to make me happy and wanted to get my voice out there.

I couldn’t do all the writing myself, so I asked two good friends who I knew could deliver great writing and insights to join me as well. If your not familiar with [munk] or Dan Gorgone then please get to know them. Great guys and awesome Dads.

And a special thanks to Mitch Canter for the awesome design work he did on the site!

With the announcement last week of the new fan pages on Facebook we figured there would be a lot of mixed reactions. We went in and investigated the new options to update our company fan page and then started wondering how we were going to be able to fully utilize these updates for our clients.

In sharing our thoughts and notes with each other, we figured it would be best to share this information with everyone so that more people could take what we had learned and put it into practice for themselves.

The whitepaper can be downloaded for free from http://aboutface.theadvanceguard.com and we truly believe in this as a living document that will evolve over time and are hoping the community can let us know about other companies doing great things in Facebook so that we can add them to the document. Also, we’ve started a Facebook discussion about things that could be improved, added or questions that didn’t get answered.

Looking forward to hearing what you think.

When we launched the company, we knew we needed a web site. To think otherwise is a very naive thought. But, we also knew that we were extremely busy right out of the gate and being a startup meant that we had to spend every dollar and hour of the day as wisely as possible.

So, we put up a place holder page to let people know we existed and directed them to Facebook to find out more about us. We started with a group and eventually transitioned to a Fan page. What we liked about this was that it allowed us to get a firm understanding of the differences between the two and how brands could leverage this space.

I’ve always believed that reading about something never teaches you as much as actually doing it. By dealing with the features (and limitations) that Facebook gave us allowed us to be able to advise more then one client on how to leverage the space. It was a great learning experience and one that I’m glad we went through.

We had wanted to get a full web site up, but whenever we got the urge we were usually balls to the walls busy with client work and that always comes first. But, as the end of 2008 began to come into focus we took time to really make sure it would happen. We had the goal of going live with the new year, but ended up pushing that off to make sure we got it right.

The idea was not to build the standard site that everyone would expect, but to take more of a magazine feel for the site with big images and detailed stories. The writing on the site posed problems for me personally since I tend to write in a much more conversational nature then what we were striving for. It was good to stretch my writing though even if I did pull my hair out more then once. *grin*

One piece in particular on our site that makes me smile is the case story titled “The Advance Guard Takes to the Field.” Rather then the standard about us page we wanted to have some fun with the magazine vibe and treat it as if someone had written a piece about us. Steve is extremely creative when he gets into the groove and it was fun to watch him write this.

The site is certainly a work in progress, so let us know your ideas.

We’ll continue to use it to showcase the variety of work we are doing for clients. Of course we are looking for more clients to add to that roster as well and our doors are always open so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

I’m proud of the site and our entire team. I’m excited for where we go from here.

But, when the chance to share the microphone with such a great variety of people such as Mitch Joel, Julien Smith, Hugh McGuire, Chris Penn and Chris Brogan how could I say no?

This will a semi-ish weekly podcast where we get together to discuss the variety of things happening in the media space. It will not focus on just marketing. It will not swim exclusively in the social media fishbowl. We wanted to do something different. Something where we can have conflicting opinions, but always be working towards sharing our thoughts with you the listeners.

The site, feed and all those things will be coming soon. I made this graphic from pictures I’ve taken of all the hosts and I hope they don’t mind.

Listen to Media Hacks #1.

Let us know what you think.

The book goes on sale this morning through LuLu and ALL of the money is going to charity. Authors don’t get a free copy, no one gets paid and everyone wins. That is another reason I was psyched to be part of it.

It feels like forever since I wrote my chapter for the book and so much has changed in my life since then. I can’t wait to see what everyone else wrote.

We were asked not to post our piece (or why would you read the book right?) and knowing the caliber of the people who contributed I know it is going to be rock solid read from start to finish. Pick your favorite blogger who writes about new marketing and social media and I’m betting they were a contributor.

Please spread the word and order a copy today. Hell, order a couple of them and help us raise money and awareness all at once.

If you want the latest news then start following the AOC2 Twitter or join the Facebook group.

I’ve known about this for a while and have been itching to let everyone know. I love music. Always have and there are few things as fun as rocking outside listening to music.

The mix of artists for this festival is going to make for a good time. I’m not much of a Bob Dylan fan, but you’ve got to appreciate the guy for what he has done for music. Add people like The Roots and Spoon into the mix and it is sure to be a good time. Plus, I can’t imagine what Gnarls Barkley is like on stage.

I had the chance recently to walk around and see where the festival is being held in the SouthSide Works of Pittsburgh and I honestly can’t wait till August 8&9 to be part of this. The location is certainly going to add to the vibe of the whole thing.

Tickets go on sale this morning through TicketMaster and I was psyched to see a student price of $25 for the whole festival. I hate how much some concert prices have gotten lately. Drives me nuts.

If you are thinking of going to the festival let me know. It would be great to see some old friends and new ones. If you want to read more information about the event and to help spread the word go here for all the details.

On Tuesday, December 11th at 7 pm the premiere of Will Smith’s new movie I Am Legend will be happening at Madison Square Garden.

Do you want to go? It should be an amazing time and the film looks pretty good to me.

I have a few sets of tickets to give away and I want to make it as easy as possible for you to win them. All I’m asking is you to answer a simple question about the film.

In what city does the movie I Am Legend take place?

Send me your answers via e-mail. Tomorrow I’ll put all the names in a hat and pick out some winners to attend the premiere.

Hint: Watch the trailer if you need help answering the question.

Update - This contest is closed and the winners have been notified. Thank you to everyone who entered. The answer of course was New York City.

Steve Coulson and I started getting calls to hire us shortly after our change in jobs. Both of us had every intention of staying strictly freelance, but after a couple of contracts got signed we realized that we should perhaps make this more formal for numerous reasons. Over breakfast at a diner in New Jersey we came up with company and made it formal.

We haven’t focused on marketing materials, spin or a web site yet because we’re too busy executing. But, to sum up what we do is fairly simple. We want to help brands and companies utilize new media to the fullest. The Advance Guard can come in and develop creative strategies that will leverage social media to reach those alpha adopters that everyone wants to get to. On top of creating these ideas we also bring the ability to take those ideas all the way through execution.

We’ve also worked in the capacity as a sort of black-ops creative team as well. Behind the scenes helping other companies pitch and win business. We have no problem being behind the scenes doing fun, creative and compelling work. We also don’t focus on one technology over the other. Every engagement is different and we make sure to only suggest solutions that fit this time around for the particular campaign or initiative before us.

One thing both Steve and I firmly believe is that the only way you truly learn in this space is to do it. I love coming up with creative ideas, but I want to make them happen so I can figure out if they work or not and how they could be done better. Campaigns today have to be more organic and flexible so that they can change and evolve as necessary. THAT is a key in our book and is something we are building our company on.

To date we’ve worked with clients in multiple areas including motion pictures, publishing, consumer goods and the beverage industry. We’re currently leveraging our Facebook Group as a living, breathing social media showing of what we’ve worked on. If you are interested in what we are up to, consider joining that group as it is going to be one of our outreach mechanisms.

We are always looking to work with anyone interested in leveraging this space appropriately and effectively. Drop me an e-mail and we’ll see where it goes from there.

Someone asked us if we were an advertising agency, a consultancy, a creative shop, a buzz marketing company or something different. My answer was we are a little bit of all of them and we adapt to the customer. On one project we did nothing but influencer outreach. For another we are providing feedback on how to take existing programs to the next level in new media. For another we are coming up with full blown strategies and now working towards executing them. Why get so specific with titles and definitions in today’s ever changing landscape?

It has been a whirlwind couple of months and looking to 2008, I can’t even begin to imagine what it holds for us. I’m very excited and proud all around.

When the organization was first formed I wasn’t sure what the purpose was. It seemed like a lot of the big companies getting together to talk a lot and not do a whole bunch. But, as I got to know the members more and talked to them I realized that it could be very beneficial to the industry to have an organization like this out there and I wanted to be part of it.

My main reason for running was I wanted to make sure that the community voice was heard. I was very happy to see Kent Nichols and Tim Street on there as well. The three of us are the only ones not directly working for a major podcast related company as our full time gigs. I know Tim pretty well and look forward to getting to know Kent. I know between the three of us we’ll be sure that the individual voice is heard as much as the company voice.

I’m also psyched to be part of this because I really hope that the research, metrics and other outreaching information that will be generated is going to help raise to profile of podcasting and new media in general to more people. Specifically I’m looking forward to advertisers, brands and big corporations waking up to it being a viable platform.

There is certainly a lot of work ahead and it will be interesting to see how far the organization has come at next years New Media Expo in Las Vegas. I say this since the first real kick off meeting was at this years.

If you have ideas, criticisms, input of any form, please don’t ever hesitate to contact me.

If you are in any of the following markets consider having a family movie night and go and see I’ll Believe You this weekend. Then let the world know what you thought of it. If you don’t have a blog yourself, leave your reviews here or better yet leave them on someplace like Yahoo Movies so the world can see.

The movie will be playing this weekend in the following markets:

• LA
• Orange County
• Detroit Suburbs
• St. Louis Suburbs
• Louisville
• Buffalo
• Connecticut
• Phoenix/Scottsdale AZ
• Melbourne, FL
• Monterey, CA

If you haven’t seen the movie trailer yet or the Ed Helm’s outtake reel they both will give you a good feel for the vibe of the movie.

Stand Up Films are a client of mine, but I also enjoyed the movie or I wouldn’t have taken the work in the first place.

During the closing of PodCamp Boston 2 it was announced that Rule #4 of PodCamp is now gone. That was the rule that said “must be free.”

A certain level of commitment needs to be put in place. When you book venues, food and people book flights from around the globe to attend something it is important that everyone is commited. When seven speakers just don’t show up for an event it’s obvious that there is not the level of commitment that needs to be there.

This isn’t about making money. It’s about making sure that people who register will in fact be there. I’m sure Chris and Chris will be talking more about this, but I wanted to help get the news out there.

It was a year of learning for me. It certainly has not been an easy year, but it was a good one. We’ve shared some great times and I’ve worked on some amazing projects, but it became clear to me that I needed to leave in order to grow personally and professionally. It wasn’t something I decided on quickly, but I know that it is the right decision. Of that I am sure.

So what am I going to do now?

That I’m still figuring out, but I do know that I’m excited to spread my wings and get out there and help a lot of great people and companies. I’m going to go it alone for a while and embrace the freelancer lifestyle. If you or your company are looking for someone to come in and help out let me know. Need a new media strategy developed for you? Need a facilitated brainstorm full of creative ideas? Just want someone to advise on how to engage the social media community? All of those and more I can handle. Just drop me an e-mail and we can figure it out from there.

Also, when I announced to the company that I was leaving, Steve Coulson made a similar decision. I very much respect Steve and we’ve gotten to be good friends with him so I’m hoping that I will get the chance to work with him again. Hell, I’d love to work with most any of the crayonistas again if the opportunity presented itself.

This also means I’ll finally be able to get some focused time writing my book. I’ve been neglecting it for way to long and I look forward to some time locked away writing.

I’ve also got some great speaking opportunities happening before the end of the year and I hope to pick up some more as well. Public speaking is something I’ve always loved doing. Must be from my years on stage in the theater.

I wish nothing but success to the gang at crayon. They’ve got an interesting thing going on and it’ll be fun to watch from the sidelines to see where they go from here.

I’m going to be at Tech Cocktail Boston tonight and then off to PodCamp Philly for the weekend tomorrow so I might a bit slower then usual responding to e-mails, but you know that is the best way to reach me.

If you don’t know Greg, check out his blog or read the write up in AdWeek about the move.

They just let me know that the new album from RaykoKRB drops on July 4th and that they are now taking pre-orders. They even made this fun little video to promote it.

[quicktime width="320" height="240"]http://www.raykokrb.com/media/video/RSP_Promo_01small.mov[/quicktime]

I’m certainly going to order a copy. I know the guys would send me one for free, but I want to support them and the artists so I’ll give away the one they send me and buy my own copy.

I’ve played a lot of the songs from this on Accident Hash so I know what I’m in for. Pure adrenaline fueled good times summer music. Th type where you pop open the sun roof and try not to get speeding tickets listening to! *grin*

But, this post doesn’t have to do with the honey barbecue variety, but rather the virtual variety.

Read all about Matthew Ebel’s new CD Virtual Hot Wings that is now available for order and instant download via vending machines in Second Life. This album was recorded, arranged and assembled 100% by the fans. When you have fans like Christopher S. Penn and Michelle Wolverton on the case the sky is the limit on what can be done.

I’m very proud to be part of this and to be having crayon assist in getting the word out and supporting this effort.

Don’t forget that Matthew will be playing tomorrow, Friday May 25th in the Coke Pavilion from 11am – 1 pm SLT (2-4 pm EST) and you can buy a copy then.

Oh and if you are so inclined don’t be afraid to Digg the news.

I arrive in the city on Thursday morning and will be leaving early Saturday night. In between I’ve got meetings, hangouts and of course presentations.

So some vitals for me and what is going on:

• I will be posting to Twitter, but I doubt I’ll be reading it much
• I am speaking at 1 pm in the Grand Ballroom: Floor 2
• The name of my presentation is “The New Media Playground”
• I will have my mobile with me so if you know the number feel free to use it.
• Make sure you download the Unofficial Guide to PodCamp NYC. I just printed out a copy to have with me at all times.
• I will be at the gathering Friday night, but won’t be at the one on Saturday.
• If you see me, PLEASE come and say hello! I hate hearing after the fact from people saying, “Oh I wanted to say hi but you looked busy.” I’m never too busy to socialize with people. That’s the point of these events!

I think those are the details I needed to share. You’ll know me because I’ll be the guy with a camera of some sort in my hands at all times!

And yes there is still time to get pictures of YOU playing on playground equipment in. E-mail them to me or post on Flickr and send me the URL. The more I have the more slides I’ve got to add to put them in. *grin*

Can’t wait to see a lot of you there!

Buy the track “Mine Again” from Black Lab in the iTunes Music Store.

That’s all you have to do today.

Spend 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to help a good cause.

PLEASE share this with everyone and let’s make this a success!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Matthew Ebel and I thought it would be fun to do it on April Fool’s Day. The name as you’ll see says “FOO” for the reason that the day before Random Foo Pictures will be filming again and the following day is the 11th anniversary of Random Foo. Makes for a nice action packed weekend.

Should be fun and another cool thing to add to the ever growing list of “things I never thought I’d do.” I love that list! Every time I add something to it I get a big smile!

Neville has the details.

Well, they haven’t found a cure yet so we are doing the walk again on April 22, 2007 and we are looking to raise double what we did last year.

I’ve set up a URL at http://www.helpingthecause.com so that people can easily share the URL and make a donation. I’ll be posting more soon and you’ll be hearing about it all throughout the podosphere and blogosphere so no worries.

Every bit helps and no donation is too small. I’m just hoping we don’t get the HUGE rainstorm again like we did last year. The above picture is before we even started.

Hope you can make it. Dirty U-Turn.com to come on over and check it all out. Oh and SLT = PST so if your on the East Coast like me the fun starts at 9 pm. Thanks to Mark / Chill for setting this up.