This is the start of a new regular monthly report, where I’ll be sharing exactly what I’ve experienced in the previous month. I’m sincerely going to share the good, the bad and the ugly – warts and all, and with a promise of no BS.

This all came about following a post I published in December, where I shared the fact that I’d experienced burnout for the second time in my career. It seemed to strike quite a chord with many entrepreneurs and when I mentioned I intended to start sharing a monthly ‘entrepreneur report’, detailing what I was doing to run, support and grow my businesses, many seemed excited.

I’ll be focusing on three key areas:

• Important Happenings This Month
• Lessons Learned This Month
• Plans for Next Month

So, without further ado, let’s start breaking it down.

Important Happenings This Month

There are some months where I am busier than others, of course. This month was a very busy one – but, also an exciting one, too.

New Media Expo – Right out of the gate, I got to present at New Media Expo, one of the biggest conferences of the year for the online business world. It was great to present here, for the third time in as many years and to also have a packed, standing room only crowd for my session on ‘The Business of YOU!’ (standby for a podcast version of this presentation, soon!). If you came along and supported me, thank you.

Along with co-hosting a brilliant meetup for over 100 people with Pat Flynn and Cliff Ravenscraft, I also had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of gentleman that I respect immensely. First up, Michael Hyatt, who I had an early morning meeting with in his suite at the Rio. We chatted up a real storm (just as we did on Episode 28) and said several times that we should have been recording the conversation for our respective audiences – maybe we’ll get around to doing that in the future.

On the last evening of the conference I had the chance to go on my highly anticipated ‘man-date’ with Scott Stratten. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about here, you’ll have to listen to Episode 40 for the scoop. Scott absolutely killed the opening keynote a day before, and I was looking forward to our time together (along with the wives!) – which turned out to be a brilliant evening out in Vegas.

1-Day Business Breakthrough – From Vegas, I traveled to San Diego with my good friend, Pat Flynn, where we held another one of our popular one day mastermind events. It was a real pleasure to once again spend an entire day with other business owners and to help them find clarity, get focused, come up with great new ideas and enable them to have that one big breakthrough for their business – all in the presence of lots of other likeminded entrepreneurs.

These type of events are among my most favorite to host and attend.

If you’d like to be notified when Pat and I do another (most likely June), please hop on my mailing list at the bottom of this post – my subscribers are always the first to know about any live events, etc.

Hanging Out with Gary Vaynerchuk – I finally had the chance to meet with Gary on my trip to San Diego. He was in town on a speaking engagement and was cool enough to have his PA arrange a time for us to meet together, as we were both in town at the same time.

Having spoken with Gary on and off all year via email and Twitter, as well as on the podcast, twice, I was so happy to discover that he was just as easy to get on with as I anticipated he would be. We sat and chatted for a while and I can tell ya, that dude has some serious plans for this year!!!

Visit to My Publishers – Following San Diego, I flew to Dallas to meet with my publishers, BenBella Books for the first time. It was a great meeting, and if you’re in the process of writing a traditionally published book (or thinking about it), I thoroughly suggest you visit your publisher in person. The ability to be able to brainstorm over marketing, and just break a little bread together was well worth the trip.

Launch of My Book Minisite – This is something that has been in the works since before Christmas. We teamed up with a brilliant designer and developer from Australia to put together what I believe has become the best minisite devoted to a book I’ve ever come across. Currently, there’s info on the book itself, the official animated book trailer (below), along with some testimonials and of course, an order page.

We are going to be adding a Press page, to highlight (hopefully) all of the reviews, write-up’s etc., we’ll be getting, along with a Tour page, too (dates being finalized now). There is also going to be another page added, for a very secret little project I’ve been working on for a while – can’t wait to launch it!

I’d love for you to check out the minisite when you get a chance, and of course pick up a copy (or five!), of the book, too – we’ve put together some amazing bundles, with massive value.

Click HERE to view video on YouTube!

Lessons Learned This Month

This is the section in which I will lay down a few home-truths from the last month. Generally speaking they will be from lessons that I learned myself, through personal experiences, but from time to time, I might just share lessons I’ve heard from other people I admire, too. Here’s this months:

Business Cards are Becoming Over-Rated – I’m a pretty old school type of business guy – still. And I love giving out business cards to those that I meet in person for the first time (when needed, not forcing them down peoples throats!). But, this trip I was a little shocked. I had 300 cards with me, and came back with probably 250 or so remaining.

I think this is a combination of me knowing a lot of people that I met in person for the first time already, from online interactions and people just not asking for them as much. Don’t get me wrong, Im fine with it – but, I certainly won’t bother bringing that many with me on my next trip.

Avoid the Booze at Conferences – I like to party. Everyone that knows me, knows this. However, because of the burnout I went through towards the end of last year, I decided to keep my senses about me a little more than usual in Vegas (which is bloody hard most of the time!) and basically avoided partying like a madman. Don’t get me wrong, I still attended lots of parties and get-togethers, I just decided to limit myself to only two alcoholic beverages each night.

It worked. I was more focused than ever. I was up early every morning, had lots of meetings, met and conversed with everyone I sat out to do so with (plus more!), and generally felt awesome the whole time – except for a small bout of jetlag the day after we arrived. I’ll certainly be following this mantra at conferences going forward.

Eating ‘Clean’ on The Road – Coinciding with my decision to pretty much stay away from the booze, I also made an incredibly hard decision to eat super clean on this trip – again, because of the health issues I experienced last in the year. I knew that eating a good balanced diet was going to be a major contributor to me staying fit and healthy on this trip – and I was right. Except for a complete blowout at a family-run Italian restaurant in San Diego, I really watched what I ate, and felt way better for it.

This was a tough one for me, as I love eating out and there is just so much selection in the US (compared to the Philippines), so being a good boy in regards to this was an extra special feeling as we headed home!

Health is a focus this year for me. I aint burnin’ out again, baby!

Plans for Next Month

Branding Bootcamp Launch – I’m happy to be officially launching this mini-course finally. I pre-sold the course and had an original launch date of December 16th, but I had to postpone because of my burnout issues and travel. It’s a great course, and with over 100 initial sign-up’s, I was ecstatic to be able to put it together knowing that it was going to help so many people in their personal branding aspirations.

The course will be launched early in February – and I’ll be telling you all about it when the time is right.

Interviews for Virtual Freedom – I’ve begun my podcast and press ‘tour’ for the upcoming book. Already been interviewed a handful of times, and have lots of planned in February. I want to spread the word of Virtual Freedom to as many hard-working, stressed out entrepreneurs as possible, and try to bring as much calm to the entrepreneurial storm as possible. I’m more of a talker, than a typer, so picking podcasts as my main focal point to do this was a natural move.

Finalize Planning for Tropical Think Tank – As many of you know, I am holding my first big event in the Philippines this coming March. I’ve been unbelievably blessed with having seven amazing speakers commit to coming over and blowing the minds of our 25 exclusive attendees for what will I hope turn out to be one of the best weeks of their lives. We’ve got so much cool stuff planned, but I cant tell you about it all now, as it’ll spoil the surprise for everyone.

We’ll be working hard this month, finalizing all the arrangements and you can expect a full report (probably including a little video, too) in the March Ducker Digest!

Overall Marketing Plan for Virtual Freedom Begins – The marketing plan for Virtual Freedom is now officially in full swing. But, February is gonna be a biggie. There is so much stuff planned, that I thought I might just write an entire post about it, detailing everything we’re doing to promote and market the book, from top to bottom. It’ll serve as a good guide for anyone else that’s in the process of writing a book, too – and wants a bit of a ‘swipe file’ to follow in their marketing efforts.

If you would like to be part of the Virtual Freedom Tribe and help spread the word of the book, please click here to join. It’s free and we’ll be holding lots of fun activities for everyone to help promote the book. Plus, there’ll be a couple of special little ‘somethings’ for those that jump on board and do their part! Hope to see you there.

Now it’s Your Turn!

I’d like for you to tell me what you have planned for the coming month.

Writing it in the comment section below will make it way more likely to happen, and you’ll be holding yourself accountable in front of the rest of my ‘New Business Tribe’.

Remember, being a productive entrepreneur is about taking action. Start now by sharing your proposed next 30-days worth of business goals, and lets all cheer each other along towards achieving them!

Until next month…