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Zach Rosenberg

Get To Know Zach Rosenberg!

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Do you know Zach Rosenberg? I recently realized that I spend an awful lot of time talking about me and my family on this blog and wanted to get back to featuring the great works of some of my dad blogging counterparts. So, today, I wanted to just write a couple lines about my friend, Zach Rosenberg, who writes a blog called 8 Bit Dad. I have written about Zach Rosenberg and 8 Bit Dad in the past but have since become friends with Zach and Brian and wanted to share a couple of the cool things they have been up to since.

As big advocates for the equal portrayal of fathers in the media, Zach recently put together one of my favourite posts to date entitled, “Observations on Dad-Bias in 140 Commercials from 2013”, where he watched and scored 140 commercials that featured fathers. The research, and findings, were amazing and were even featured on Adage.com!

If you are looking for a fun site that is a strong advocate for fathers, I urge you to stop by 8 Bit Dad to check it out!

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Ask Your Dad

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Welcome back to another exciting episode of Dad Blogs Exposed! This week I am talking to blogger extraordinaire and funny man, John Kinnear, from the blog Ask Your Dad. Here’s what John had to say about blogging and fatherhood.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

JK: I started blogging at the urging of my wife. I have been writing since before I can remember, but most of it was filed in various shoe boxes and stored in the garage. After I got married and had a kid, my wife urged me to share some of the writing I had done with our friends and family through a blog. It grew from there.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

JK: I hope that people can always expect a laugh. I try and stay funny whenever possible. My kids make that pretty easy. I don’t really have an agenda per se. I do have a rule that I try and follow. I try not to give advice. I just talk about what has and hasn’t worked for me, and if people can laugh at it while finding pieces here and there that help them through their own parenting journey, then I think that is awesome.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

JK: Two things. Putting my phone away. Letting go of fear.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

JK: Decide what kind of dad you want to be before your kid arrives, and then work every day to fail less. I fall short of being the dad I want to be every single day, but my kids don’t see that. They don’t see the ideal dad that I see in my head. They see me. They see me trying. And that matters more than what I see.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

JK: Not really. I have long term goals for my writing, but not necessarily my site. I’d like to write a book or five. Not necessarily short form or memoir like I am doing now, but something with a bigger story to it. I haven’t found that story yet, but I am toying with one that revolves around teenage Frankensteins that fall in love and then get to go to a magical wizard school where they are selected to fight other classic movie monsters in an arena death match. You know, something simple that will relate to a larger audience.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

JK: I enjoy Facebook Pages a lot. I’m on Twitter and I dabble on Google+, but most of the conversation outside of my blog takes place on the Ask Your Dad Facebook Page.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

JK: Ha. Someone actually recognized me the other day. This really pretty lady and ran up, gave me a hug, and thanked me for a post I wrote. That will probably never happen again, but I felt pretty good about it as soon as I was able to get my wife to stop punching her in the face. Kidding… Stevie, my wife, thought it was just as cool as I did. Speaking of my wife, I think that is the other strange, and a little unfortunate way that blogging has affected my life. I get way to much credit and she doesn’t get enough. (My opinion, not hers.) The truth is, out of the two of us, Stevie is the parenting rock star. I’m an active and engaged dad, but she is a freaking jedi-ninja-parent. If I am a practitioner of good parenting, then she is the alter at which I worship. But even with her level 99 mom skills, at the end of the day, we both just try and fail less.

I would like to thank John for his time and hope you will take some time to check out the Ask Your Dad Blog. You can also find John on Twitter and Facebook. Later!

john-and-stevie

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ The Daddy Complex

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This week, I’m excited to welcome the creator of the mega viral “Calm The F*ck Down” parenting method, The Daddy Complex master and very funny, Mr. David Vienna! I had the chance to meet David in Houston last January for the Dad 2.0 Summit and he is exactly as he is on his site, which is a great thing. I had the chance to ask him a few questions about his blog and fatherhood and hope you enjoy what he had to say.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

David: To maintain my sanity. I was a work-at-home dad and had what psychologists would probably classify as a nervous breakdown about twice a week. Both my dad and my wife suggested I start the blog. I was so frazzled, they could’ve told me to start building a rocket ship and I’d have done it.

CD: How would you describe your blogging style?

David: Like scat. Both the jazz singing style and the poo style.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

David: Convincing my kids they need to find jobs. I tried explaining the value of a hard day’s work, but they just want to play with Legos, the freeloaders.

CD: What one piece of advice would you give to a new Dad?

David: Designate a place in your home to be your “Weeping Area.” Closets work well, as does the cupboard under the kitchen sink.

CD: Your post about the “CTFD” parenting method went mega viral. Can you talk a little about what that was like and what, if anything, came from that exposure?

David: It was cray-cray, man. So many people have — and still do — find use for it. There’s even a clinic in Michigan that offers classes in how to implement the CTFD Method. I like that it’s become a sort of battle cry for parents. And the exposure/success of the post opened a bunch of doors. I got a book deal, appeared on the Today show (not to talk about CTFD, but that’s how I ended up on their radar) and my name keeps getting mentioned alongside Amy Chua. I guess I’m like the anti-Tiger Mother.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

David: Tumblr. Because my site is a Tumblr blog and the built-in community there helped me hone my blogging voice and achieve a shit-load of goals. There’s a huge parenting contingent there and we all support each other. Plus, we have cat gifs.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

David: It gave me the audience and interaction I previously tried to achieve with my epic monkey vs. robot rock opera.

Thanks a million to David for taking the time to answer my questions! You can check him out on twitter @TheDaddyComplex or at The Daddy Complex blog.

A Gift From David at Dad 2.0 Summit. Chewbacca vs. Iron Man

A Gift From David at Dad 2.0 Summit. Chewbacca vs. Iron Man

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Out With The Kids

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This week on Dad Blogs Exposed, I am talking to Jeff Bogle from the blog, Out With The Kids. I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff this past January in Houston for Dad Summit and immediately appreciated him for his sense of kindness. I have also been finding inspiration in his journey to live a healthier lifestyle and have even started my own regimen because of it. He is a great dude and I hope you enjoy his answers and his website!

CD: Why did you start blogging?

Jeff: I began blogging in the late 18th century, to document the early stage development of our fair nation to your south, but didn’t backup anything (Carbonite wouldn’t be invented for centuries, unfortunately) so there’s no record of any of those dazzling quill-typed blog entries. My modern day blog, Out With The Kids, was launched in May of 2006, when my oldest was still a toddler, to document the early-stage development of her and also myself as a first time parent. The idea was to document the ways in which my wife and I were parenting on the edge of the mainstream. I wasn’t going for pompous, but fear I achieved it often. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t have a content strategy or SEO keyword plan to attract readers – still don’t, really. I simply felt and continue to feel a need to put things down, to record them without having to ever read back my gnarly handwriting.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

Jeff: Readers can expect to discover a number of new media goodies — music, books, apps and more — that will hopefully assist them in elongating and enhancing childhood for their kids, and parenting/life reflections that are a mixed bag of wistful, funny, and heartbreaking. In any given week, a reader might cry, laugh, find their kid’s new favorite song and discover a killer new recipe for tomorrow night’s dinner.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

Jeff: Managing my perfectionist tendencies and expectations. I struggle, less now than before, but still, with remembering that my children are just that, and that despite being bright, thoughtful, and cultured, they are young kids…young kids who I’m not in a rush to have grow up. Because they, and I, only get one shot to enjoy their childhood.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

Jeff: To share your passions with your children, without force feeding them, but not ever at the expense of their right to experience a pure, innocent and long childhood. Don’t rush them or yourself as a parent through it! So if you love Pulp Fiction, like hard core love it, maybe give it a few more years, or decades, before you sit down aside your boy to watch it together. That’s an extreme example, but the point remains: children deserve experiences and media that honor their viewpoint and has context that doesn’t force them to grow up faster than they want to.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

Jeff: On one hand, I’d like OWTK to become the Rolling Stone Magazine of kid culture, but that would involve covering media and characters that disgust me and seem to operate with a mission to soil childhood for both my kids and me, retroactively. My only real goal is to get better at storytelling, at finding a narrative thread in everything we see and do together as a family. And to get one of my children’s books published someday!

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

Jeff: I’ve grown to love Instagram the most mainly because it feels the most artistic or at least the platform with the most artistic possibilities, without being spammy (Twitter) or overtly sexual (Vine). I’ve got a bit of a filter fetish.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

Jeff: Since starting the blog, I now process every occurrence through a narrative viewfinder. I see stories where before I saw only facts and dates and happenings. Oh, and I also got to race a Ferrari in Las Vegas thanks to this crazy profession. The saying ‘Only in America’ has seemingly been replaced with ‘Only on the Internet!’

Huge thanks to Jeff for taking the time out of his schedule to answer the questions! Please feel free to leave a comment for Jeff and ask him any other questions you think I missed. See you next week with a new Dad and a new Blog!

My Blogging Story: From Hobby To Business

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Business Blog

I figured I would write this sooner or later, so when the folks at InNetwork asked me to share my story as part of their #influencemktg campaign, I figured now was as good time as any. So, yeah, this post is sponsored by them, but I’ll be doing the story telling from here on out.

Oddly enough, my blog kind of fell into my lap. I have always had an interest in writing and while frantically entering domain names into GoDaddy’s search bar, I stumbled upon CanadianDad.com. Being that this was only a year and a half ago, I was shocked to see the domain name still available, so I scooped it up and began planning my new endeavour. Now I had never intended for this to be a business. I just thought it would make for a great place for me to share my stories and to practice my writing, until one day I signed a huge book deal and became wildly famous, like Bill Cosby! I definitely got the sharing and writing stuff down to an art form. The book? It’s going to have to wait.

A funny thing happened along the way though. I started receiving emails from marketing firms, asking if I wanted to write about their products and services. For a while, I would basically say yes to everything, and eventually I got so tied down with all the free press I was handing out, that I barely had time to do any writing of my own. That’s when I started learning about the business of blogging and how I could maximize my own potential in order to create a space I could be proud of.

In the year and a half that I have been running my site, I have narrowed down my focus to a few key elements. First and foremost, my goal is to encourage an active and engaged fatherhood, and to buck the media’s portrayal of father’s as lazy imbeciles. Next, I want to encourage kindness and the use of our voices to do social good. We spend all this time cultivating our followings on the social media networks, but what good are they if we don’t use them to give back to our communities and global networks. Finally, I want to help educate brands, PR firms and marketers understand that blogging itself, is a business, and if you want me to spend three hours coming up with a creative way to talk about and promote your company, that I will need to be compensated accordingly.

What started as a hobby for me has now turned into an amazing part time job, where I get the chance to attend conferences, consult with brands and bloggers alike, speak at events, raise money for charity and most importantly, give my kids experiences that I would have never imagined possible. I have been inspired on more than one occasion and I hope that I have inspired a few along the way as well. Blogging is more than just throwing a few words on the internet and walking away. It is a growing form of communication that covers everything from raising global awareness to talking about that new Eco-Store down the street. It’s a fast growing trend and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Just in the short time that I have been blogging, I have seen tremendous growth in the personality and quality of the marketing pitches I receive. There seem to be a few companies on the cutting edge, who completely understand that not only is my time worth money, but also that the more creative your idea, the more likely I am to want to participate. I still get the mass mailings that address me as a Mom, but where I used to get upset and write about my displeasure, I now take it as an opportunity to politely write back and educate the company or firm on how I like to operate. It doesn’t always pan out, but it’s definitely better than acting like an angry maniac and I’ve made some really great connections with this approach. I’m looking forward to what the future brings for Canadian Dad and maybe someday I’ll get that Bill Cosby book deal.

And now a word from our sponsor. I took on this sponsored post because the pitch I received from InNetwork.Net was incredibly well laid out, with all the details of the post, a specific idea (that I was totally into) and a proposed rate attached. My dealings with their staff were all incredible and they gave me very little option but to accept. Part of me doesn’t want you to go to their site to sign up as an influencer because then there will be fewer jobs for me. I guess there’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition though, right?

Thanks for listening to my story. Hopefully you’ll stick around to see where this thing goes next.

My Social Capital Conference Experience; Or, How To Earn Klout About Sheep

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Social Capital Conference

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 3rd Annual Social Capital Conference, right here in my hometown of Ottawa. Due to financial reasons, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it out this year, but then out of nowhere, my knights in shining armour from Chevrolet Canada stepped in and offered to pay my way to the conference. I have no idea why they did this but I am grateful beyond words for the experience.

While I enjoy going to conferences for the content they provide, the real reason I love them is for the networking and social interaction, and SoCap certainly did not disappoint in that regard. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with some of my favourite online personalities and got the chance to meet some amazing new people that I hadn’t interacted with before. I tend to ramble on and on, so I thought it would be best to bullet point my highlights from the conference for you:

* Not five minutes into my time at SoCap, I had the pleasure of meeting someone I really respect in the social media space, in Susan Murphy. You might remember her from such twitter handles as, @SuzeMuse and @icanhazpodcast, and she was even nicer in person than I had imagined.

* Gini Dietrich’s opening keynote was excellent and I especially appreciated that she went through her whole blog writing and publishing process, as it’s something I have been struggling with lately. Also, I’ve been lurking on her, Spin Sucks, website and the community engagement is incredible. They welcomed me in group form after my first comment and I will definitely be spending more time there.

* Danny Brown was incredible during his closing keynote, doing everything but performing a rap number for us. Although he was informative and witty, I think my favourite part was the video with Dino Dogan and him, which spoofed on Danny’s unusually high Klout influence on the topic of “sheep”. That video alone gave me a ton of ideas and was well worth the price of admission.

* One of my main goals at the conference was to learn more about how to shoot and create proper videos for my blog. Both roundtable sessions I attended provided more information than I was prepared for and the conversations have continued to this day. For that, I have to say special thank you’s to a few people. First, to Kat Inokai, whose passion and energy for what she does make you want to jump right in and get started. Next to Heath Horejda for his expertise and amazing tips on how to properly conduct an interview. Finally, to Anthony Wong at Do More Video, not only for helping me find the tools I need, but also for offering and providing guidance outside of the conference walls. You were all brilliant in your own ways and I learned a lot from you collectively.

* The first time I met the Cocktail Deeva, Dee Brun, I was a shy, red faced newbie at Blissdom Canada. She made me feel welcome and even wiped the nervous sweat from my brow before posing for a picture that I would use to brag to my bloggy friends back home. Fast Forward 7 months later and I am a smart mouthed Dad blogger who isn’t afraid to jokingly mix it up with her during her presentation. Honestly, this was my favourite part of the conference. The engagement and laughs during her session is what I am all about and I’m glad I chose that one. Also, for those looking for my nude Google+ Hangouts, I’m working on it…

*Finally, just getting to spend time with my friends, to talk about our lives, our blogs and our causes, is what made this an amazing weekend. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Engagement with our peers. This was my third conference this year and the value I have gained outside of the conference walls has easily been worth the price of admission by itself.

In closing, I just wanted to thank the organizers for putting on an amazing show. Also, a very special thank you to Chevrolet Canada for allowing me to take part in this incredible experience. I will absolutely be back next year! Also, if you are reading this, please follow all the wonderful twitter accounts I have tagged in this post. They are all amazing and insightful.

Canadian Spotlight: When Children Inspire – Earth Hour Edition

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Earth Hour Pledge

I’ll cut right to the chase here, I am no environmentalist. I know about Earth Hour but I really don’t know anything ABOUT Earth Hour, if you catch my drift. I try to be conscious about the usual things, such as turning off lights, not littering and conserving energy where possible but overall I am pretty clueless about the process. To my credit, I am interested in learning more about Earth Hour and began to do some research. That research quickly brought me to a 10 year old girl named Hannah Alper.

If that name sounds familiar it is because I just wrote about her Mom, Candace, on this very site last week. Hannah has decided to start an Earth Hour pledge, called the “Stop, Start and Continue Pledge“, that stretches out far beyond the one hour allotted for the Earth Hour event. Hannah is asking people to fill out one of her pledge forms, where you will commit to stop, start and continue doing something that is good for the environment.

It’s an incredibly smart initiative for a 10 year old and when I saw this interview she did on CTV, I was blown away by how comfortable she was with being on camera and explaining what her pledge was all about. After reading through her blog a little, I can now say unequivocally, that Hannah is an amazing young lady and her parents should be extremely proud.

Now, all that said, I never did get around to reading more about Earth Hour because I got sidetracked by all this awesomeness! I did, however, find a great article on Earth Hour from Yummy Mummy Club writer, Gwen Leron, and will be checking that out later this evening. I have also started filling out my Stop, Start and Continue Pledge, which includes the following:

1. I will stop throwing out what can be donated or reused (clothes, toys, books).
2. I will start using my voice, as young Hannah has demonstrated.
3. I will continue to read up and share amazing stories of people who are going out of their way to make a difference in the world.

I want to close by saying thank you to kids like Hannah and the charity group kids I have previously featured, for being the young voices that are going to lead the next generation. Your work does not go unnoticed and I commend you for everything you have done and I’m sure will continue to do. You have inspired at least guy to take a more active look at what I contribute to the earth, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I encourage you all to stop by Hannah’s website and take her pledge. It only takes a minute and it may even inspire you to take action for yourself.

Texas Here I Come! #Dad2Summit

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DAD-Dove-logo-options2

You may notice the blog is going to be a little quiet over the next few days. That’s because I am leaving this cold, snowy home I call Canada, for the warm, sunny land known as Houston, Texas! I’m headed to Houston to attend the Dad 2.0 Summit, which is an annual conference where marketers, social media leaders, and blogging parents connect to discuss the changing voice and perception of modern fatherhood.

I thought I had shaken off the conference jitters when I attended Blissdom Canada last year but I am finding that I am way more nervous this time around. The funny thing is that the nerves have nothing to do with meeting the other Dads. It has to do with the fact that I don’t travel. Like, ever. The thought of having to figure out checking in at an airport and transferring planes makes me sick to my stomach. Then there’s the actual flying part of the trip… I am not the cling to the seat kind of flyer but that’s how I’ll feel inside for the entire trip.

All I can do to not think about the traveling is to think about what it’s going to be like when I get there. I have a seemingly cool roommate in Andy Herald from How To Be A Dad. Of course, he’s traveling with Honda on a 31 hour road trip, so he may not be the best smelling roommate upon arrival but I’m sure we’ll work it out. I’ve also heard that there may be some karaoke at some point and anyone who knows me, knows that I may have a slight case of weekend rockstar!

The other cool thing about this conference is that it will be my first opportunity to be featured as a speaker. No, seriously, it’s true. I’ve been asked to take part in the Dad 2.0 Blogger Spotlight feature, along with Whit Honea, Kevin McKeever, Black Hockey Jesus & Carter Gaddis. I know it sounds cliche but I am truly honoured to be included in a group with these guys and just to be speaking in general.

I also want to say a big Thank You to my friends at Parent Tested, Parent Approved for helping to sponsor my way to this conference. I wouldn’t have been able to go without their help and I will be forever grateful. This isn’t the last you’ll hear of them on this blog and I look forward to whatever the future has in store for us.

I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m anxious to meet the great people I interact with every day. I can’t wait to get there and I know it’s going to be a blast! So, although I may be quiet for the next few days, I am hoping to bring home a wealth of knowledge and connections that will keep me going for years to come! Here’s a cool Dad 2.0 video that was put together by Clay Nichols from the site, Dad Labs. If you are interested in following along on Twitter, I will be tweeting with the hashtag #Dad2Summit throughout the weekend. Cheers!

Movember Update And A Birthday Wish!

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I’m struggling with writing today’s post for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to attempt to accurately capture how proud I am of the Movember team I am Captain of. I’m guessing typed words won’t begin to show my passion for this cause or how excited I am that we have already raised $4,836 towards our goal of $5,000, with 16 days left to go.

The other issue is that today is also my Birthday, and while I realize the poor etiquette in pointing that out to everyone, I can assure you that my motives in doing so are pure. I wanted to share my Birthday wish with you all. If you’ve been reading this blog at all, you’ll know that I don’t believe in a lot of superstitions, so sharing my wish with you all shouldn’t be a big deal.

There are a million things I could wish for, with most of them being things that you would never see come true. Wishing for health and prosperity is nice but those are things that you can’t really control, except for following a healthy diet and going after your dreams. My wish today is a little simpler and a lot easier to obtain.

My wish, on my 34th birthday, is for our Movember Team to reach its goal of $5,000! That’s it. We’re $164 away and I know that this is an attainable wish for today, so let’s make it happen!

PS – Thank You for all the birthday wishes today! It’s only 8am and I already feel more spoiled than I deserve to be.

PPS – A special thanks to our Movember Corporate donors: Tag Along Toys, Play It Again Sports & Logs End Flooring! We couldn’t have gotten to this point without your support!

Cheers!!

I Saw A Million Faces; Well, You Know The Rest! #BlissDomCA

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Where do you even start in formulating a proper recap of the weekend that was Blissdom Canada? I could write about all the great people I met, but listing only a few would be unfair and listing them all would be way too much! I want to write about the experience but speaking about the experience would pay it far more justice. That way, you could see my smile and my arms flailing wildly as I describe each session, interaction and excursion.

That still brings me back to my original question, “How do I accurately describe my time at Blissdom Canada?”

I guess I’ll start from the top. Being of the male persuasion, the thought of heading to a 500 person conference, where the ratio of women to men is 490:10, was a little overwhelming. Nightmarish thoughts of walking into the room and everyone glaring at me with disapproving eyes, filled my head in the days leading up to the event.

Once I arrived on site, it took about 30 seconds for those fears to disappear. That’s because 30 seconds is all it took for me to get my first warm welcome. The next one came at 45 seconds; and then at 60 seconds, it happened again. In fact, every single interaction I had the entire weekend was positive and welcoming.

Not one time did I feel out of place, as a blogger or as a man. I got nervous; and anxious; and overwhelmed at times, but that wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own. It’s a lot easier to say you’re going to go up to someone you idolize, than it is to actually do it. I was lucky to have some people watching out for me and making sure that I felt included in the fun and for that I am eternally grateful.

I went to Blissdom Canada to learn how to become a better blogger but I left with so much more than that. I left with a sense of belonging. I left with great connections. I left with a new found confidence in my abilities as a writer. Most importantly, I left with new friends. Not “friends” in the Facebook sense either, but real friends who are willing to help you when you have questions and who genuinely want to see you do well, as I do for them.

I could write a book about how fulfilling this conference was. I won’t, but I could! I sang, I learned, I laughed, I cried (Let’s not get into that, I am a man after all and I was watching a family video), I gangnam styled, I interpretive danced (see above), I connected, At Blissdom Canada, I saw a million faces…

And I rocked them all!

Thank you so much to the organizers, community leaders, sponsors and attendees. You made this experience one I will never forget and I am going to make it my goal to let the other male bloggers know that this is a conference that will accept them for who they are and not judge them based on their gender.

I’d also like to say a special Thank You to my wife, who was nothing but supportive of my time away and never made me feel like I was doing something wrong by being there. She is a great woman and my family is incredibly lucky to have her!

Cheers!

Oh yeah, I also got to spend an afternoon with Canadian Family Magazine’s Editor-In-Chief, Jennifer Reynolds. It was incredibly rewarding!