It’s been a while since I’ve posted but it’s the new year so I want to let you know my plans for this site over 2011. Many of you know I keep a few blogs including TheDADvocateProject.com, Metzgerbusiness.com and now RoadToThin.com and Kevin-Metzger.com. Technically Kevin-Metzger.com isn’t a blog as I don’t post anything to that site and RoadToThin.com is a partnership with three other men. I also write at 5minutesForSpecialNeeds.com, DadRevolution.com, DadOMatic.com and soon the EastCobber.com. so you can see I’m quite busy. This site has lost focus over time and I had to think about how it fit into the other work I’m doing. Really this site and my work at 5MinutesForSpecialNeeds.com is very complimentary and I’ll be refocusing on issues related to ADD, Dyslexia and Cerebral Palsy specifically on this site. I’ll promise a weekly article to be published on Tuesdays and a reference to the article I write at 5 minutes for special needs on Thursdays. If my audience would like I’ll also point to any other articles I’ve published that week.

The one thing that I think many in this audience will miss is the Dad/family focus that many of the stories I write have. If you are among one of those readers please go over to TheDADvocateProject.com and choose to sigh up for the news letter. Most to all of my dad/family articles will be posted on that site moving forward.

Regards,
Kevin

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The other thing that is pretty neat and I didn’t realize is The DADvocate Project is starting to crawl too. We have hit some major goals this week and we are going to put on a big push in July with the intention of doubling the survey participants but I want to take a moment to reflect on the project time line.

March – My son is conceived and I decide to start a blog. The two are not related. The blog doesn’t actually get started until April.

Last year Father’s Day – I had no idea there was a daddy blogging industry I had simply started a blog about my ADD and Dyslexia and my Daughters CP. I was just getting into social media, and I was enjoying writing. I wrote an article for which I was awarded father of the year. My Son is Incubating.

July – Last July I wrote 11 posts and published 10 of them. I still have one in draft form. I hadn’t yet thought of The DADvocate Project but I did write a post on breaking down goals. In another post I wrote about telling people to be happy and how my then two-year old had just figured out how to change my mood by smiling. It’s funny the project I worked on last July and blogged about in my last post of the month gave me the basis for conducting this project. The interesting thing about that post is me asking myself if I could pay someone to do the data crunching. I couldn’t for that project. I tried to pay someone to do some data crunching on this project but they gave me crap results back so I’m hesitant to try again but it may happen. My Son is Incubating.

August – The idea for this project began to fester on my way home from Home Depot. I thought about the term DADvocate and formed a definition in my head. DADvocate – someone who is a dad first, who cares about their family and works to make it strong. A man. – Mind you I still have no idea there is such a thing as daddy blogging. My Son is incubating.

September – I’m really playing with the idea of The DADvocate Project. I’m starting to float it to others and see what they think. I tell my chiropractor about the idea. My son is getting closer.

October – Issac is born. I write this prayer for his bris. A few weeks later I receive the card below in the mail. It’s from my chiropractor.

November – I decide I have to go for it and plan a soft launch of the DADvocate project for Thanks Giving. I initially reach out to all my friend on Facebook and begin to use twitter like a tool to reach people. I also attend my second and third tweet ups where I begin to tell people I’m doing this project. The DADvocate Project is born and I don’t sleep at night because the new baby.

December – I meet my graphic artists @havanatweets and one of the worlds best networkers @TarynP. Taryn is interested in my project and tells me about Dad-O-Matic. I decide to go for it and reach out to Chris Brogan to see if I can join his site. Chris kindly re-directs me to @Paisano and I become a contributor.

Jan – I have some problems with the survey in the first couple of months and switch from a Google Docs form to Surveygizmo. The switch was a good idea but I still have problems with merging the data. Isaac is beginning to sleep longer.

Feb – I engage Havana to do my graphics work for the DADvocate project. She is awesome to work with and together we come up with a great brand. I get thesis and start to put the site together. I also migrate a ton of posts and data. At this point I had gathered around 100 survey participants. I had also started to become friendly with Drew from benspark.com and had to interview him multiple times because of technical glitches. Luckily Drew is great guy and good sport and I consider him a friend today.

Mar – The new site launches. I join Dad Revolution. CC Chapman mentions the project and I get 25 survey participants in one day. We are now sleeping through the night and getting some smiles from the little guy.

April – In April the word began to spread and I was interviewed on CoachRadio.Tv – Isaac can sit up now.

May – We do an interview with High Velocity Radio. The DADvocate podcasts get in to full gear but I take a vacation in early may at the beach, and we Have Haley’s operation at the end of may. We are trying to push hard on the project but we also have a life and work outside of the project. I feel the project slow a little at the end of May. Isaac is on his hands and knees. He is trying very hard to crawl but not there yet.

June – Isaac is beginning to push him self forward but you really can’t call it crawling. It’s more of thrust and fall forward until you get what you want. I kind of feel The DADvocate project is doing the same thing. It’s moving forward one thrust at a time but I just haven’t quite gotten to the crawling stage. The Podcasts are going well and I’m invited to speak at the Modern Media Man Summit. I was highlighted by @tessasdad on SAHDinLansing.com. Things are going in the right direction and I’m thrusting and falling forward but I’m not quite sure that I’m crawling yet. Then the last week of June arrives and Isaac begins to crawl . I interview Dad of Diva’s and he suggests an all out daddy blogger approach. I decide that July will be my month to really start crawling.

July – Today is July 1st. Your reading this on my blog, received it as a news letter, read it on Facebook, or Linked In. Saw a tweet and fond the article. At this point we have reached 202 survey participants and the 12th DADvocate Podcast will be posted tomorrow. If you’re a dad blogger, It’s likely I’ll be reaching out to you and asking if I can post a guest blog this month. If you are someone who has taken part in the survey I’m asking you to leave a comment on this post about what you like about participating in this project. Finally I’m upping the ante. I have an ongoing contest that when I reach 1000 participants I’m giving away an iPad. Well I think an end date is necessary to encourage participation. I’m going to give the iPad away on August First assuming we reach at least 100 more survey participants this month.

If anyone has any ideas for promoting this project I’m all ears. I’d love to be interviewed on any podcast, radio, or tv show. I’m happy to participate in any blog, newspaper, or magazine interview. I want to spread the word as I feel that the work we are doing is going to help change how people look at fathers. This work, you, your answers and interviews will show exactly how Dads are active and participating in their lives of their children.

Finally if you have not participated in the Survey yet and you’re a dad Then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR. GO DO IT NOW! Participate and leave your contact information at the end if you want to be included in the drawing for the iPad.

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I was really excited to do this Podcast because Chris Jordan has quickly become a friend over the last few months. Chris is a local insurance agent and provides internet marketing consulting for the insurance industry. Chris is “Atlanta’s Only Live Insurance Agent” and you can find his consulting firm at The Agency Edge

Oh by the way did I mention that Chris is also a stay at home dad. What an incredible guy. He was even featured on INC.com as a work from home DAD.

It was an honor to interview Chris I enjoyed it and I hope you do to. As always I’m interested to see what you thought about the interview both good and bad. Do you have suggestions for other questions? Let me know and I’ll do my best to include them in future interviews.

You can find the podcast via iTunes and don’t forget to leave us a rating.

Oh Yeah one last thing. This post is brought to you by Fatherhood Friday. Click on the badge below to visit other Fatherhood Friday stories.

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In all honesty the weekend started out kind of sucky, I had some kind of stomach virus accompanied by fever and chills on Friday night. It lasted for about 8 hours and then I basically felt better. Saturday was Haley’s birthday party. We celebrated it at a brand new local yogurt shop called Yougli-Mogli and they did an awesome job and the kids had a great time dancing, singing and making their own yogurt Sundays.

After the party my wife and I celebrated our ninth anaversary. We didn’t have any specific plans but it was a wonderful date. We drove over to the movies but didn’t see anything we wante to watch so I suggested we head over to the park. At the park we went for short walk and then sat down in the grass. in the sun. It was supprisingly relaxing and neither of us could remeber the last time we sat down and relxed in the grass. It’s absolutely amazing how much life has changed in the last nigh years. After sitting in the park, neither of us were hungry so we headed over to Big Lots and walked around. For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse. It was a nice meal and we enjoyed eachother’s company. We had finished dinner by seven and were trying to think of something else to do so I suggested roller-skating. I went last weekend with Haley and thought it might be fun. It was, although we are debating how cheesey it may have been to go roller skating on an anniversay date. Regardless we had a blast and it was a fun date.

Today I demonstrated that it was okay to pick up worms and I convinced my younger daughter to touch one. I probably should have done this eariler so my older daughter wouldn’t think they are too discusting to touch. My recommendation to dad’s is show your daughters worms when there young so they won’t think there discusting when they’re older. We also watched movies, played on the swing set, picked up sticks and had a great family day.

FYI for all the DADvocats – The new site is starting to come along. You may have seen the web site actually changed over the weeked but I’m very much experimenting and changing things right now. I’ll ask for your thoughts as I move it along. I’d still like to get some feed back on the braning.

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This weeks’ podcast was awesome. I got to meet Chris Singer a Stay At Home Dad (SAHD) by choice. Chris is a great guy and in this podcast we learn about his volunteer work with kids even prior to becoming a dad. Chris has a consulting business helping non-profits and even brings his daughter Tessa to meetings on occasion. During the interview Chris and I find out that we grew-up about 15 minutes away from each other and I went to school with his step-brother.

If after listing to the podcast you want to know more about Chris you find out all you want to know at his blog sahdinlansinge.com. Shortly after starting this blog Chris was recognized as an attachment parenting expert. Find out why he thought this was so funny in the podcast. You can listen via iTunes.

You definitely should follow Chris on twitter @tessasdad

And if you want to find out more about Chris’ work check out Hambree Consulting.

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As I mentioned the first episode Drew owns BenSpark.com, Read To Me Dad, and started I’m not a Famous Blogger.

There are a few posts mentioned in the episode. You can check out Gods Promise and Faith is in our hands.

I hope you enjoy the podcast DADvocate Project Episode 1- Drew’s Interview

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I apparently have set some pretty hefty goals for myself this year and at the beginning of March I’m feeling the pressure. If you read this blog you know I’m dedicated to the DADvocate project and while it’s going well I really thought I would have many more responses to the survey by now. As is I’m 10% of my way to the goal of 1000 participants. I feel like I probably should have had many more responses but the initial survey design which I pushed out to all my old friends was designed poorly and many of them thought they completed the entire survey even though they only answered the first page of questions. I suppose it’s time to reach out again and ask one more time. I’m just hesitant to appear as if I’m being too pushy.

My daughters book is being published. We are working with Publish America to bring “I’m Not Weird” to market and I’m very excited that the book should be available by the end of the month. However that book should be the biggest thing on this blog right now and because I started the DADvocate Project here I’m afraid that it will lose some of it’s impact. I’m working on designing a new blog for the The DADvocate Project but it seems to be taking a long time and I don’t seem to have all the time I need to get it done. I also want to do a strong media drive on Haley’s book but that takes time as well and I just don’t know where the time is coming from.

Finally I have been training hard for a 1/2 marathon that is scheduled for the end of April. This past week I’ve run a total of 14.5 miles. That is more than I’ve run in a single week ever but i’m still pretty far off schedule and to say I ran 14.5 miles is probably a bit of an untruth. Maybe it’s better to say I’ve traversed 14.5 miles this week most of it running, all of it breathing hard and hurting. I do feel good about the distance but my left leg hurts pretty badly after my runs and I just don’t see the end in sight.

Oh yeah some how I’m trying to maintain my relationship with my wife and kids, do well at work, pay bills, participate in a number of communities, and blogs, occasionally attend services, see my family, maintain friend ships and sometimes get a break and watch tv. Oh did I mention that I maintain another blog and guest post on DADomatic. I also have two dogs that are being neglected but still love me because I feed them. I wonder if I’m crazy?

On Saturday I did my first video interview of the DADvocate project. It was with the founder of “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” crew and BenSpark.com blog, Drew Bennett. The interview was great and I really look forward to the day I have the chance to meet Drew in person. As for the video I’ve had a space issue on my computer. I’ve spent a large part of yesterday and much of this afternoon and evening trying to get files moved to the correct places so I can actually edit the movie. It turns out I’ll probably have to use much of tomorrow evening to finish moving files, formatting drives, and making everything work the way it should. I’m hoping to have an edited video by Wednesday for publishing but it may be Friday depending on how tomorrow goes.

Now looking back at my complaining I’m going to re-write this post:

Wow! We are already 2 months into this year and things are going great. I’m finally getting into the swing of things at work after having been there for 9 months. I’ve been doing a good job of bringing my wife flowers regularly and the flow with 5 people in the family is starting to feel right. As you know I have a few huge goals this year and I’m really on target for achieving them.

First and most exciting – Haley’s book “I’m Not Weird” should be going to print this week! It’s extremely exciting. I’ll post a button for sale on the blog as soon as I have firm dates. I’m also excited b/c she is already lined up for an interview with Deb Ingino from MyWiredStyle.com who has created a wonderful program that helps families learn all the personalities and how to interact. We also have some hopeful meetings set up to publicize the book which really is a must read for every 4-8 year old. The book helps children understand Cerebral Palsy specifically and differences in general. I’m very excited for where this book will go. I’m creating a mailing list for when the book is finally launched. If your interested in joining please complete the following form.

Secondly, I can’t believe I’ve run 14.5 miles this past week. I ran 6 miles last Saturday, 3 miles on Wednesday and then 5.5 miles on Sunday. That’s 14.5 miles in a week. I still have a long way to go before my 1/2 marathon at the end of April but I just might be able to make it there. By the way you can read about my training on the comments at Intrepid Runner.

Finally the DADvocate Project! What an exciting project. We’ve had 100 people complete the survey which means we are 10% of the way there on the survey. This weekend I completed my first video interview. The interview was with Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com and founder of “I’m Not a Famous Blogger” fame. Drew is truly awesome and I really enjoyed the interview. I hope I have the opportunity to meet him in person some time soon. On top of this exciting news I will also be interviewed by the Geek Dads Weekly and Cast of Dad’s pod casts in the next few weeks. Things are going awesomely and after completing The DADvocate Project blog redesign I’ll be making my next moves reaching out for sponsors, and trying to do some traditional PR. I’m also thinking about asking the mommy blogger’s to mention my work in their circles.

I have had a technical set back this week which will hopefully be fully resolved by tomorrow. In the meantime it is pushing back my ability to publish the interview with Drew. Look for it sometime between Wednesday and Friday. Sorry I can’t be more exact but I’m not out of the woods yet with my tech issue.

Thanks for reading this blog and following our progress on the DADvocate project. We appreciate your input and feedback and love your comments. Feel free to post here or on any article on this blog. I do my best to respond to all comments so thanks again for reading and participating.

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The design process starts with the interview:

Havana Interview – The DADvocate Project Branding from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

After the interview Havana spent some time drawling and brainstorming with me so she could be sure we were thinking along the same lines.

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

One of neatest things about this process was her introduction of children into the design during her creative process. It was something I would never have thought of but I really like how she worked it in. What do you think?

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

There is a third page of work shown here which i hav not posted video for.

All this work resulted in the four following ideas. What do you like about them? what would you change?

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It feels like there is never enough time to spend with your kids. I imagine that’s true even for stay at home dads, but I know it’s true for most working fathers. We work hard to provide for the family, go to work, do our best to do a great job, and then come home and enjoy the kids for a few hours before we sit down and go back to work for the night, play on the internet, exercise, watch tv or hang out with the wife or even all the above. The weeks fly by and the weekends are even faster. As you can see from the above data we by a large majority are spending 1 -3 hours or less on weekdays with our kids, but it looks like we try to do our best to make up for it on the weekends.

Despite what these numbers indicate I still think we are tying to find ways to be more engaged with our children during the week. I know I try to be diligent about spend time with each of the kids at night, talk about there day and be present. I also try to find some fun game to play like hide and seek or something of that nature. What do you do during the week to deepen your involvement with your kids?

Have you taken the DADvocate survey yet? If not click here and participate now!

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