Hello, friends! For those who’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to, here’s the scoop.

Last fall I joined BlueFuego, moved to Indianapolis, and so far, it’s been a blast. We’re a growing digital marketing agency specializing in Higher Education. My role? I’m the Ignition Officer. I do a little bit of everything. Consult, help with research, build strategies, come up with crazy ideas, and more. I’ll also be hitting the conference trail to speak as well.

The official announcement was made on our blog here:

http://bluefuego.com/index.php/2010/01/bluefuego-is-growing/

Feel free to click through and check out my introduction and learn more about BlueFuego (I’ll put it again at the bottom in-case you forget). Thank you to everyone who’s given me a warm welcome so far.

There’s also going to be a few changes here. First, they’ll be some design changes; new landing page and a few minor tweaks, nothing too major. Second, I’ll be blogging more frequently here and on the BlueFuego Blog. I’ll be doing so thanks to all the people I’ve met at conferences, online, friends, co-workers, etc. who have encouraged me to share my thoughts and reminded me I have good stuff to share! (Also, Brad has been twisting my arm about getting my ideas out there .)

Thanks so much for being a part of my life and reading. Hope your 2010 has been great so far!

BlueFuego Introduction Post: http://bluefuego.com/index.php/2010/01/bluefuego-is-growing/

In this video I talk about what I’ve been up to and an explanation for my intentional time being less active in social media.

Again, thanks for being such a great community! I’m excited to come back in full force with some great content.

I’ve been inspired by the great Todd Sanders (@tsand) and am going to be participating in the Springfield Polar Plunge. I didn’t know it was even going to happen in Springfield until yesterday. If you don’t know what the Springfield Polar Plunge is, it’s basically a benefit for the Special Olympics. Plungers like me will jump into Lake Springfield (and hopefully be sponsored) and then hangout afterwards. Some other students wanted to join in and voila, our Polar Plunge team was assembled.

The event is coming up quickly (actually it’s this Saturday at 12:00 PM), so the time to support raise is fairly short. Please join with us to help out!

Here are some of my team’s fundraising goals:

• $25 per plunger. They made a HUGE exception from the normal $75 so our students could be involved at the last minute.
• At $75 – I will wear something like this to my plunge: http://tinyurl.com/aeofmd (Goal reached…shopping for outfit soon)
  

• At $150 – I will shave my hair into anyway you want (by vote). I’ll even write a word into my head as long as it isn’t vulgar! (Donating to others on team counts towards the total!)
• VOTE FOR MY HAIR HERE: Howard Hair Poll

LOCATION (Google Map): http://bit.ly/qsNH0

There will definitely be a photo and video blog post follow-up and I’ll make sure to give you a shoutout somehow in the video. I’ll get creative.

So please join me and sponsor us & come watch us!
I really appreciate you helping out, reading, and being a part of my life!

Team UIS Volunteer (So Far):

UIS Students:
Craig Rebou – http://www.firstgiving.com/craigjasonrebou
Justin Bournes – http://www.firstgiving.com/justinbournes
Andrew Nicol – http://www.firstgiving.com/andrewnicol
Steve Gifford – http://www.firstgiving.com/stephengifford
Howard Kang – http://www.firstgiving.com/howardkang
Jak Kern- No URL

UIS Staff:
Jeremy Wilburn – https://www.firstgiving.com/jeremywilburn
Ralph Shank – http://www.firstgiving.com/ralphshank

About an hour ago I read a great post by Kami Huyse that spoke my heart.

A topic that has been coming up quite a bit in conversations with my friends lately has been centered around the idea of interdependence. It started when my friend Nick Millar talked to me about his positive impression of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Two chapters in, the idea of interdependence spoke to him the most. That excited me. It actually amped me to the point of being unable to sleep because another person started to believe what I want to shout on the rooftops. We’re nothing without community! It’s the belief that has shaped my life.

Kami said something great in her post I want to highlight: “If we are completely honest with ourselves we will readily admit that we need others to succeed.”

I hope you believe that. Some people can be successful alone, it’s true, but I believe it’s those that lean on others and give back that make up the exceptional people in this world. Michael Phelps has talent, but he didn’t win eight golds solely because he worked hard by himself. His work ethic and talent could’ve gotten him far, but not as far as he got with his coaches pushing him to his limits and a community challenging him, believing in him to be great, and encouraging him.

I’ll take an example from my own life. All my life I skidded by on natural talent and going to one of the most prestigious and academically challenging schools in my area, it finally bit me in the butt. I didn’t even graduate in the top 50% of my class. The Vice Principal of Academics even had a meeting with me my Senior year to tell that he was disappointed, explaining that upon admittance it was expected that I would graduate within the top 10% and that I had the lowest GPA among those taking honors classes. One of my biggest fears coming to college was that my lack of work ethic would carry over and it did. Even with all the “Survive Your Freshman Year” college books or me getting down on myself about finally shaping up and trying in school, I got nowhere. I ended up with a 3.0 while only taking 8 hours. I believed that I had the aptitude and vision to be successful, but I began to doubt it more and more. I needed help and my community responded. When I didn’t believe in myself, they did. When I needed to hear the truth, they told me. When I wanted to give up, they made sure I didn’t quit. I could’ve continued to underachieve, but they didn’t let me. I’ll never forget an e-mail I received from one of my favorite high school teachers, Dr. Gorman. Mark Twain has a quote that says he can “live on a compliment for two months,” but his has been in my heart for four years. It’s been a huge learning process and I’m still learning, but I’m proud to say that last semester I got a 3.78 and on Dean’s List because of my community.

I surround myself with passionate people because I love learning from them. Whether it’s Jeremy Wilburn inspiring me to pursue photography while sharing his heart with me and teaching me everything he knows or Aaron Valentine taking a moment when I was in Louisiana to teach me guitar or John Kelly who introduced me to what true community looks like, my community has made me who I am.

Kami concluded her post by challenging anybody reading to say thanks to their mentors, so here is a video thanks to some of my mentors and my community (twitter community shout-out included):

Let’s make the choice to “do it” this year. Believe in yourself and make it happen.

I like quotes, so here are some to hopefully pump you up:

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
- Leonardo Da Vinci

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
- The Talmud