I’ve gotten clear on something recently; I want to make geography irrelevant for my work. I like to travel and enjoy different places around the US and abroad and I really want to be able to spend more time traveling without having to take a lot of time off from my work. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, but I want the freedom to do it from anywhere I choose to be.

I learned that this is possible last summer when we were doing a lot of traveling around the US to do interviews for this project. But I was really in the learning phase of it and not doing it very well at the time. I’m happy to say that recently I’ve talked to all of my clients about doing “virtual” work and coming into the office for necessary meetings. It’s working out really well. I recently started working with a client who is in Chile and we work quite well over the phone.

More and more people are looking for options for combining what they love to do with their work. I’ve learned that when you’re working virtually the key is clear, regular communication with your clients and over-delivering as much as possible. When you do those things they don’t seem care where you are when you do your work and it makes where you are irrelevant. Last week we left on Thursday afternoon for a trip to the beach and I did 3 hours of work from the car and no one had any idea where I was.

The other great thing about this is I get a lot of inspiration from traveling and seeing new things. It gets me out of my comfort zone and gives me opportunities to expand my thinking.

Although, I’m going to the Caribbean next month for a vacation and I plan to be totally offline for that week!

We’re leaving tomorrow to go to the beach with some friends for a long weekend. I’m excited about the trip and at the same time I’m stressed about how much I need to get done before leaving town. I do this every time we go on a trip…it seems like several days before I leave I try to get in all of the work that needs to get done in order to take the time off. That’s crazy!

It seems like it’s in our DNA to feel guilty about taking time off. Even though I know intellectually I should be able to take time off, for some reason that guilty feeling goes off and I try to compensate by working 14 hour days before I leave. I’ve had discussions with other entrepreneurs who feel this way. Definitely something to think about and get over!

Last year I had the opportunity to do a short interview with Brian Kurth, the founder of VocationVacations. Brian is originally from Chicago and developed the concept during a long commute on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway. He was feeling an intense lack of passion for what he did for a living wondered what it would be like to be a wine maker, a tour guide or a dog trainer.

He continued to work in a dot-com job, but was laid off in 2001. After the lay-off, he took a six-month road trip across the United States and parts of Canada. At the end of the trip, he packed his things and made the move from Chicago to Portland, Oregon. After first test-driving a dream job in the wine industry, he created his ultimate dream job by launching VocationVacations in January, 2004.

VocationVacations lets people test-drive their dream jobs. They match you up with an expert mentor in the field of your dreams for a one to three day total immersion. They have have a nice menu of career options to choose from and it’s a great way to try out something you’re interested in, meet people in the industry and get expert advice.

Some of the options to try are chef, bed & breakfast owner, architect, caterer, ice cream store retailer and TV producer. I really like this idea because it’s hard to know sometimes what you really want to do until you know more about it. You can also give a vocation vacation as a gift to someone, pretty cool idea!

I’ve had a lot of people ask me recently, “What is an intrapraneur?” An intrapraneur is someone in a corporate position who develops new services and/or products or blazes new trails within the corporation. I was an intrapraneur before I was an entrapraneur; being an intrapraneur actually gave me the confidence to take the leap and make a go of it on my own.

I was working for Sapient managing part of the recruiting function in North America. I had this business idea and was communicating it to my colleague who had also had the same idea. We decided to explore it in detail and developed a business plan for a Talent Acquisition Services company over the course of a few months. We also pitched the idea to some potential customers and got great feedback, so our confidence was high.

Stuart Moore was the CEO at Sapient at the time and he asked to see a presentation of our business model. We were very nervous about this because we knew at any point we could be out on our own, ready or not! We presented the idea to him and over the course of a few months he decided to champion it and allowed us to create our own business unit. We were excited and relieved because it reduced our personal risk significantly.

After six months of building the business it was determined it wasn’t the right direction to go. At the time there were many other focus areas for Sapient that were a much higher priority and critical to the business success. I decided to take the opportunity and make a go of it on my own because I now had the confidence I could do it. I learned so much from that experience and I’m so grateful for it!

There are many ways to be an intrapraneur in my view, it doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own business unit or taking a huge risk. It can be about championing new ideas and products and taking ownership of your career within the company. Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone and blazing a new trail inside a corporation can be just as challenging and rewarding.

I’m very excited about the re-launch of our website, this has been in the works for a long time and it’s wonderful to see it all come together. I’m not a detail-oriented person, (much to the dismay of people who know me well) I tend to be a big picture and an idea person. I realized that for something like this to come together I needed some great people to work with who can help me take my ideas and make them real. Hannah Bower of Bower Communications has been an absolute godsend, she’s helped me in more ways than I imagined. She helped to create the vision for this website and has helped drive the completion of it and continues to help me explore all the possibilities that exist. I honestly don’t know what I would do without her.

I’ve learned how important it is to work with or hire people who are really good at the things I’m not. I’ve had to honestly assess my limitations and weaknesses and decide where I want to focus my energy. I realized that focusing on my weaknesses is probably not the best use of my time, it depletes my energy to do things I’m not particularly good at or enjoy. When I’m focused on what I love to do and bring on people who bridge the gap of my limitations, I’ve learned that the end product is much better than what I originally imagined.

We’re continuing to build on the platform we’ve just created for this website, and I hope you’ll love it and get a lot of value from it. There will be an editorial calendar for each month and we’ll host webinars and podcasts that are focused on that month’s theme. We’re also building an online community and we’ll have fresh content from entrepreneurial experts, everyday people and partner organizations that are ready to help you take your entrepreneur and intrapreneur ambitions from concept to reality. The website is also much more interactive and the goal is to help foster your entrepreneurial spirit –we’re really excited about it!

Jeremy and Tamara Kitchen from Kitchco built this site for us. I have to say this is absolutely the best experience I’ve had working with a website development company. They have been wonderful to work with and I’m so happy because it turned out better than I had imagined. I love it when that happens!

We would love to hear your feedback on the new site and ideas for what you’d like to see in the future, so feel free to email me or post a response.

Normally over the holidays, we have “Tropical Christmas” either by taking a cruise or renting a house in Mexico with the family. This year we didn’t do that for several reasons and I really missed it!

This year we drove to Raleigh, NC to spend the holidays with Joe’s family. We decided to take the Airstream with us and the day after Christmas we drove to Hunting Island, SC to stay at the beach. We had never been there but the State Park looked nice online.

The entire island is a State Park so there is nothing commercial, it’s absolutely beautiful. The campground is right on the ocean and is full of palm trees and lots of foliage. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, just hanging out and making nice dinners with local seafood.

We also took long walks on the beach and saw quite a few dolphins swimming close to the shore. The beach is picturesque with natural driftwood and lots of trees and very few people!

We had nice weather, but not quite like the Caribbean! We’ve come to love the Airstream and trying out new places like this. It’s really great to be able to take our dog everywhere we go as well. Our dog, Eifis, is such a big part of our family and we love having him with us.

I do think we we will have to head back to the Caribbean or Mexico this year though. There’s nothing quite like “Tropical Christmas”!