In Episode 5 of the Man Vs. Debt Podcast, I get back in the swing of this podcasting thing by talking about “Regrets of the Dying” and the lessons I learned while filming our documentary.

I’ve been away from the podcasting mic for way too long!

I’m back this week with a more transparent and shorter podcasting format (recorded at our temporary house out here in San Francisco).

I knew my past (heavily structured) format was holding me back from getting back in front of the mic and sharing an update – so I took my own advice and just TOOK ACTION in the face of the problem.

In this shorter podcast, I start by talking about an article I found this some time ago via Kelly Oxford, and its original source is from a nurse who worked with terminally ill patients.

Read it here: Nurse revels top 5 regrets of the dying

In this episode I talk about these five regrets – including “I wish I didn’t work so hard,” which really resonated for me right now!

Next, I share the 3 core takeaways I learned while on the road filming “I’m Fine, Thanks,” our documentary project about the danger of complacency and living a scripted life.

Over the last 2-3 months filming this movie I’ve realized:

1. Complacency is an incredibly universal problem. We talked to dozens of people from all ages, races and backgrounds, and everyone had experienced it at some point in their lives. Most people experienced it multiple times.
2. Complacency is challenging to quantify. It’s vague – there are these pop-culture phrases like “keeping up with the Jones” or whatever that dance around the idea, but there aren’t a lot of books and movies that really point to this specific issue. That’s kind of good for us – I mean, we have an opportunity to really tell this story and shine a light on this issue in a new way.
3. Most people who combat complacency have a specific “AHA” moment. Not everyone, but many, many people we talked to – they had a moment, a very specific question or event, that led them to change their thinking and move away from complacency.

Your challenge this week:

One concept I absolutely believe in is the power of writing down what I call your V.N.S. That’s just a fancy way of saying your Very Next Step, the action you have to take next to move forward.

I want you to, first, pick your one big idea – the thing that sits in the back of your mind that you truly wish you could bring into being. And second, I want you to write down your specific, actionable Very Next Step that moves you toward that goal.

Just write it down. My very next step is: ________________________. That alone is hugely powerful, and I believe you’ll be surprised at how the action of writing it brings it about in your life.

You’ll hear my thoughts and tips on how to make this brief exercise even more powerful at the end of the podcast.

How you can help the podcast explode:

As I’ve been traveling, I’ve had the chance to listen to quite a few really great podcasts, and one thing I heard that I wanted to start in this episode was that the hosts sometimes took the time to thank the community members who had reviewed or rated the show in iTunes.

I gave a shoutout to a few special reviews so far, but mostly, I’m just thrilled with ALL the feedback, because it’s really a large part of what motivated me to really commit to my own VNS - to sit down, record my thoughts on these topics, and get this podcast published.

So thank you VERY much for that. And if you’ve listened and enjoyed any of the podcasts so far, would you consider leaving a quick, passionate review in iTunes?

Click here to view and/or subscribe inside of  iTunes!

(The newest episode may take a few hours to show in iTunes, but it WILL download if you subscribe.)

It feels great to be back on the podcast!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

Three and a half years ago, I registered the domain SlowSimpleWealth.com.

That domain cost me $12 to register. (It’s actually available again now.)

For the two months that followed, I hee-hawed around thinking about learning how to install a blog and start sharing my personal finance journey with the world.

At the time, Courtney and I were already aggressively tearing through our debt, selling waves of our excess crap, and preparing to try and meet our goal of backpacking Australia with a newborn Milligan.

We had set this goal for ourselves. Not for an online community, not for a business, not for a blog. In fact, I didn’t even really know about those things.

It was only after we set our personal goal – and started researching websites to help us achieve it – that I was turned on to the power of the blogging community.

After benefiting from several months of following hundreds of personal finance blogs (I was kind of obsessive – go figure), I desperately wanted to join the community that had helped me so much.

“You know what, I could share my own journey, based on my own experience, and it would likely really help hold us accountable…”

That’s the thought process I had when I registered the domain.

But I put it off starting things for months, because I was scared.

I thought it would be too hard. I thought it would cost too much. I thought nobody would care.

So nothing happened.

But a few months later, Courtney and I received a $150 windfall. I forget the source, but I remember it was *exactly* $150 dollars.

We were so uptight, frugal, and aggressive with our money during this period of our “war” on debt – that we decided to reward ourselves by splitting this money and buying whatever we wanted with our parts.

I had $75 that I could spend on anything I wanted in the world.

So I pledged to use that money to start my little personal finance blog.

I wasn’t happy with SlowSimpleWealth.com – it just didn’t shout “THIS IS IT!” to me. It was a little too passive, it didn’t represent how we viewed our journey at that time.

Then, it hit me.

Nah, it’s probably taken. Nah, there is a show called Man Vs. Wild – they will sue me for everything (at the time that was the only Google result for Man Vs. brands or shows).

Oh well, let’s just see if it’s available…

ManVsDebt.com was born a few minutes later.

$24 into my business, I had only $51 left for expenses. I turned to a friend at the time who was pretty handy at Photoshop and graphic design (he had taken a course or two in college). I offered Dustin $50 to design me a banner to go at the top of my blog.

It was a hideous brown-and-white-based design and logo, but it worked. My blog was live and ready for the world to see. (Bonus points for anyone reading this that remembers the brown and white design!)

My hosting came free with the domain name.

I didn’t know about email providers, hiring employees, fancy stat trackers, customer service platforms, merchant fees, or anything else yet… but I just remember being shocked at how cheap it was to get started.

I honestly didn’t know personal finance blogs could make money.

I certainly didn’t know they could make ridiculous amounts of life-changing money (they can and do all the time).

All I knew was I wanted to quickly become part of the community that has inspired Courtney and me so much in our journey. And I wanted to be held accountable.

I wrote down a couple notes about how I would approach the blog:

• I’ll share everything out in the open.
• I’ll write more passionately than anyone else.
• I’ll act like I belong here.

That was my launch strategy. Share everything, be passionate, be confident.

And, frankly, it worked really well.

I was just hoping to recoup my $74 investment at some point.

*****

You all know how much this site has changed my life in the past three and a half years.

But it all started on just $74 and countless hours of learning, sharing, and growing in front of the warm glow of a computer screen.

We’ve done hundreds of thousands in revenue since then – and invested hundreds of thousands back into expenses, training, team members, and new projects.

But it all started on $74. That’s it.

You see, life-changing ideas no longer cost tens of thousands of dollars to get off the ground. They used to, but they don’t anymore.

You can start a profitable business that fundamentally helps people for a few dollars. It may not be for everyone, but it’s insanely doable – on a level we’ve never seen before.

There are lots of limiting factors that can and will hold you back when you try to start a business.

But I just don’t believe lack of funds has to be an excuse anymore.

You may *decide* it’s not worth it to start a business venture if you don’t have enough funds, but the far majority of ventures don’t *require* those funds to be successful.

If you’re hungry, passionate, and willing to bleed and sweat – you can launch something amazing for less than price of a fancy dinner.

The birth of Only72.com…

Flash forward a year and a half or so, and I stumbled upon another potential business idea.

A great friend of mine from the online world had run a sale where he packaged together several dozen of the best “minimalist” books online and sold them together for a super cheap price for a short time.

I put my first book, “Unautomate Your Finances,” in the package and it was a wonderful experience. I got a lot of new exposure, readers emailed me to thank me, and I even made a little money from the sale. Nice!

So I approached Karol to ask him about doing something similar in another area I was passionate about… genuine online business training. I bought many of these resources anyway, so I thought it would be amazing if we could bring together several of the people and courses we knew for a community sale.

We had about three weeks to put together the idea – and it would cost a bit more than MvD did:

• $10 for a domain name (we called it Only72.com).
• $15 for hosting.
• $100 for a spiffy logo and several affiliate graphics.
• $5 for e-junkie to sell the package.

$130 total to get everything up and running.

The website was super simple, the package of courses was amazing, and we decided to give 10% of every order to our favorite cause at the time, Charity: Water.

We sold $1,000 worth of courses for $97 for a three-day period in late November, 2010.

Almost 1,900 people bought and downloaded the training in three days. That’s just shy of $200,000 in revenue in 72 hours.

We sent tens of thousands of dollars to contributors and affiliates. We raised $30,000 for charity. We collected hundreds of thank-you emails. And, yes, we each profited $30,000 or so from the sale (I’ve shared the specifics several times here).

It showed the power of an idea, when money wasn’t used as an excuse NOT to do it.

We could have easily delayed the project to design a website worth several thousand dollars. We could have easily delayed the project until we had the right sales cart, affiliate program, or email list. There were lots of “better times” to start this.

But we didn’t wait.

We invested $130 ($65 each) and dedicated three weeks of our time to making it happen.

*****

Look, I’m not telling you that you should start trying to sell online business training. That was a passion of Karol’s and mine.

I’m not telling you to invest $75 into starting a blog. That was a passion of mine.

What I’m encouraging is to not let “lack of funds” be an excuse for you anymore.

If you want it – I firmly believe there is a way to make it happen for cheap. The timing for launching your business has never ever been better (even if just on the side).

It doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think.

*****

The Next Only72.com Sale Showed Our Commitment to That Idea…

Karol and I have run a few more sales since the first one, large and small. We run one or two a year max.

We’re incredibly fortunate to now have over 5,000 happy customers, over $50,000 raised for different charities, and to have worked with dozens and dozens of brilliant contributors and courses.

We just finished our most recent Only72 sale.

We teamed up with Chris Guillebeau to coordinate what we called “The $100 Startup” package.

The $100 Startup is Chris’ new amazing book, which we shipped anywhere in the world (at no additional charge!) with every package this time (the first time we’ve had a physical product as part of our sales).

In the book, Chris makes an even more brilliant case, including dozens of examples, of why your world-changing idea doesn’t need thousands of dollars to get started.

Though this Only72 sale is over, we would still love to see you check out Chris’s book here.

If you’re in the market for training to help you start or ramp up your business or income from creative sources, I firmly believe this is a great book. (And I also believe you should stay in the loop about our future Only72 packages!

If you aren’t starting or running a business… Or don’t have interest in leveraging your creative talents to produce side income… then don’t be silly and buy either the book or our future Only72 sales.

At the end of the day, if you never actually apply the training? You help no one.

*****

That’s it for now.

Remember, you don’t need thousands of dollars to start a business that can literally change the world. People are starting these micro-businesses every single day.

What’s holding you back?

Hey everyone! Today I’ve got another “update” post for you.

Two weeks ago, I made a commitment to run an experiment where we’d feature five posts a week here on the blog. That was a big leap – as the last few years you can find months with only one post for the whole month!

My main goal – was to release the unnecessary pressure that was on the writing process for myself (and that I put on contributors like Joan). And, in that vein, we were successful.

I was more fulfilled writing a couple more posts, Joan’s writing was well received, and interaction seemed up across the community.

My question those of you that have been following the past week is simple…

• Did you enjoy the more frequent posting schedule?

• Do you feel like it took away from content? Do you feel like it resulted in better content?

• Did any posts help inspire you to take a small action in your finances, clutter, or work?

Please leave a comment (or send me an email) and let me know. Your feedback will gauge if we try to stretch the test – or revert to once or twice a week. Give us your opinion!

Sharing your story or guest post on Man Vs. Debt…

Also, Joan has worked hard to create a set of Guest Posting Guidelines for anyone wanting to share their story with the community. We’re looking for:

• Experienced bloggers to share stories or specific strategies that will change the lives of our community members.
• Community members with success stories (generated from this site or not – doesn’t matter) that are willing to share in-depth details of their struggle, experience, or success.

If you’re submitting a traditional guest post, click here to see the specifics of what we require.

If you’re simply wanting to share your story, you can email us directly with the details of that story (you don’t have to submit a full guest post in order to submit your story to be shared).

In either case, email Baker(at)ManVsDebt(dot)com.

Joan or I will respond to the guest post or story submission quickly – and let you know if we can fit it into the current schedule.

We’re *very* interested in featuring more members of this community and more great voices that can benefit us all.

What to look forward to next week!….

Next week, will be another big week around the headquarters here.

We launch the next Only72.com niche sale for entrepreneurs on Monday. We’ll be shipping a physical book and packaging a boatload of online training for a short period of time. Always fun!

On Tuesday, I fly out to San Francisco where I’ll spend the next two months. Courtney, Milli, and Charlie will join me in a week or two for the time in San Fran. We’re cutting, editing, and piecing together the final parts of the documentary film!

I’ll also be returning to the podcast (for all you Man Vs. Debt podcast fans)… I finally have my podcasting gear back in my hands and am excited to step back behind the mic!

Like I said, should be a crazy week!

*****

Before you leave, let Joan and me know what you thought about the posting frequency the past two weeks!

Should we keep it up?

Or focus on posting less frequently, but potentially more intensely?

Let us know!

The Man Vs. Debt team grows stronger!

Saturday morning, at about 6:20 a.m., Charlotte “Charlie” Rose Baker joined the growing MvD team.

Charlie weighs in at 8′ 10″ and measures about 21 inches. Pretty impressive.

Courtney went all natural for this one (something I would NOT do after watching – NO WAY), but she survived like a champ – and was walking around and ready to go a few hours later.

Charlie currently enjoys sleeping, being swaddled, and eating.

She’ll be handling the complaints department of the site effective immediately.

Welcome to the team, Charlie!

Xoxoxo,

-Daddy

]]> http://manvsdebt.com/welcome-charlie/feed/ 69 http://manvsdebt.com/the-making-of-im-fine-thanks-part-two/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-making-of-im-fine-thanks-part-two http://manvsdebt.com/the-making-of-im-fine-thanks-part-two/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:00:49 +0000 Baker http://manvsdebt.com/?p=7085

As you likely know, I spent most of February and March producing and filming a documentary on why we, as a culture, default into a life of complacency, instead of chasing our dreams.

I wrote an update from the road on our progress, what we had seen, and what I was feeling about the importance of the project.

Check out part one of “The Making Of” series if you missed it to get caught up!

I left that story with us in middle-of-nowhere Texas at 3 a.m. filming the untouched, starry night skies.

After catching only a few hours of sleep each that night, we continued to plow our way toward Phoenix, Arizona.

For anyone that’s driven across the entire state of Texas – you know firsthand how disheartening that can be. It takes a crazy number of man-hours to traverse that ridiculously large piece of land. And frankly, New Mexico isn’t much of a reward for succeeding.

Nevertheless, we pulled into Phoenix in the evening to my friend Pam Slim‘s beautiful house. (Pam, her husband, her kids, and her dogs graciously hosted a smelly, worn-out group of 5 guys for several days… can’t thank her enough!)

Not only was Pam’s family open and accepting of us for days, she also took time out to drop wisdom bomb after wisdom bomb into the camera in our interview for the documentary.

Afterward, we packed the set up and headed off to MMA class with Pam.

That’s right. I said we went to an MMA training class with Pam Slim. It was as fun to be a part of as it sounds. (Thanks to East West MMA for allowing us to film and being such great hosts!)

After watching Pam get slammed, tackled, knifed, strangled, and kicked – we decided to call it a night.

The next day brought insightful interviews with Joshua Becker (minimalist family man) and MJ DeMarco (against-the-grain financial advice for entrepreneurs), before we set off for the wonderful city of San Diego.

In San Diego we spent most of our time with the ever-so-lovable Pat Flynn and his family.

Pat broke down the painful details of how he got fired from his job after pouring every ounce of himself into the career for years and doing everything “by the book.” But even more importantly, he shared his remarkable journey to build himself back up to a transparent income of over $50,000/month now.

Pat’s realization that geting fired may have been one of the best things to ever happen to him and his family was amazing to listen to and capture on film.

We then spent time filming Pat playing with his (incredibly smart for his age) young son – and following him and his wife on one of their “Thursday Date Nights” in downtown San Diego.

After much fun with the Flynn family, we continue our trek about an hour north to a small music studio between San Diego and Los Angeles.

There we met Craig Zarkos and Kevin Page. Two musicians with different life paths (and professional music paths), but who are now partners in bringing to life a shared dream.

After squeezing what we could out of Craig and Kevin, we got to stay around to film a band come in, setup, rehearse, and then record live in their studio. Pretty cool experience (especially for Dustin, Bryan, and John – who are all huge fans of all kinds of music).

The road wasn’t waiting for us, though, and after a long day we still had to finish the drive to Los Angeles.

Let me take a brief moment here to be honest with you: I hate Los Angeles. In fact, of all the cities in the world we’ve visited (not too many, but a decent chunk)… I hate Los Angeles the most.

There’s just something about it that doesn’t vibe with me. I can’t stand the traffic, the layout, most of the buildings, much of the culture. It’s the only city where the majority of people I know that live there – don’t want to.

Okay, okay. I’ll lay off L.A. for a while. But I figured you’re reading this for my opinion and experience on the road – so I might as well be honest!

Our director of photography, Bryan, calls L.A. home (and likes it, strangely enough) so we had a blast filming from some of the best locations in the city – and everyone got a little rest as we had an extra day or so in the city.

One of the special personalities we got to talk to in L.A. was Josh Orem. Josh and I grew up together in a small town in Indiana and have known each other since we were just a few years old.

Josh has spent his last few years after college volunteering, despite the cultural pressure to “get a real job” and “settle down.” Josh spent a year in Africa (which he detailed in depth during our interview), before volunteering with People Assisting The Homeless (or P.A.T.H.) in Los Angeles. After a year volunteering, he now works in a more full-time role for the organization.

Josh had great experience on the cultural differences of Africa and the U.S. and on society’s view of what we “should” do and what is “safe” vs. “dangerous.”

Our next stop took us to a track outside of Los Angeles where Lewis Howes was working out with a gold medal decathlete. Lewis is currently recording a video series where he challenges the world’s best athletes at different events – and while we were there we got to snap Lewis and Brian training for the long jump event.

They can both jump about 10 times farther than I can (that’s not much of an exaggeration - it’s remarkable to watch)!

And finally, we wrapped up L.A. by paying a visit to Eric Handler who runs Positively Positive community (over a million strong on Facebook). Eric spoke about the power of positive thinking, affirmations (which I was skeptical of before we spoke), and of removing negative influences from your life.

And don’t let me forget my friends Neal Frankle (a wicked smart CFP) and Amy Clover (who shared her emotional story of finding her passion after hitting rock bottom). Simply put, there were too many amazing people to chronicle!

And, no, we aren’t even close to done.

Next came San Francisco for a few days, where our most memorable time was spent on… boats!

First a houseboat with Vanda Marlow, whose story is essentially the British version of “Eat Pray Love” before it was a book or movie! Vanda left behind a high-powered job and scripted lifestyle decades ago to find herself around the world.

She ended up in a houseboat in Marin Bay outside of San Francisco (a houseboat she still keeps for a creative writing space). Did I mention she volunteered for 8 years at the San Francisco Zen Center with the dying?

Vanda was one of my favorite interviews due to her wisdom, cultural reflection, and life experiences. We could’ve talked to her for hours.

Next, we jumped ship (literally) down to a sailboat owned by Jeff Mendelsohn. Jeff’s a Sustainable Entrepreneur. Actually, I’m not sure that’s a term he’d use – probably he wouldn’t. But he’s an entrepreneur who focuses on green businesses and sustainability. So I coined that term for him (maybe).

Jeff spoke about never having really fallen into the “traditional life script” – a circumstance he fully credits to how his parents raised him and his siblings. Jeff now lives on a sailboat where he kayaks over an hour to work on many days. (How cool is that?)

As a side note, our interview with Jeff was interrupted by cannon fire from a pirate ship. True story.

After dodging the pirate ship, the crew would return to dry land and start the long haul to Portland, Oregon.

Portland was a blur, mostly due to the fact that so many brilliant people call it home.

Among them, we spoke to Chris Guillebeau, J.D. Roth, Charlie Gilkey, Tammy Strobel (and her Tiny House), Jonathan Mead, Mark Silver, and Shane Ketterman. Each contributed a very different life story, world view, and perspective into the issue of dreams vs. complacency. It was a brilliant two days!

Our trip then became international (at least for 24 hours or so), as we crossed the border to visit Danielle LaPorte in Vancouver.

On the way into Canada, we were selected as one of the vehicles to have to pull over and walk inside of Customs. I can’t possibly see why. A huge van, full of $30,000 in customized equipment, five random Americans, three with brand new passports, only visiting for a few hours, with wires and random machines thrown all over the place… what’s suspicious about that?

After a few normal, everyday conversations (“Says here you’ve been charged with a felony before…” “Yeah, that was *charged* not *convicted*”…), and maybe 20 minutes of waiting – we were free to explore mighty Canada.

Vancouver seemed cool enough for the hour or two we were in it – but most importantly, Danielle herself did not disappoint one single bit. Danielle has an uncanny ability to speak in what I call “tweetables” or “quotables” or “knowledge bombs.” I think we got enough sound bites in an hour to make a separate short film!

Sleep?

There wasn’t a whole lot of it at this point. After our eventful border crossing, and long setup and interview, we had an all-nighter of driving to get us to Boise, Idaho, by the morning.

It was rough, but we made it in one piece.

We were in Boise to visit “Family on Bikes” – better known as Nancy Sathre-Vogel and her husband (John) and two sons.

Talk about opting out of the traditional life; Nancy and John quit two teaching jobs to bike from Alaska to Argentina with their two sons! Yikes!

Technically, they biked much longer (and on several different trips), but the most impressive of those was down the entire west coast of the Americas. Nancy and John shared the story of how they decided to undertake the ride, how they feel education has changed, and how they view their lives differently now.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without getting some great footage of the family riding down to a local park. Hanging out the back of the bus, in a slight drizzling rain at times, we got some really fun footage!

Exhausted, but seeing the homestretch, we continued on to Jackson, Wyoming – a beautiful town nestled in the mountains.

We spent the morning with a local friend (who ended up being a guide to the best spots) shooting the relentlessly beautiful landscape.

But we weren’t just there for pretty scenic pictures (as tempting as they were). We had caught news of a family of 8 (that’s 6 kids for those counting) that lived for 18 months in a converted bus.

As it turned out, the story was even more remarkable then that.

We met Joe and Yvette and their six vibrant, energetic kids at a small patch of land in a rural part of Wyoming. Years earlier, Joe was working a six-figure job that had him traveling the far majority of the working week. Away from home for long stretches from his 6 kids, Joe and Yvette finally decided that no job was worth that commitment.

They hatched the idea to quit the high-paying and prestigious job, convert a bus to fit all 8 of them, and move out to a ranch in Wyoming where they would live and eat in exchange for working the land and helping with the animals.

They still have the bus, but have now moved into a small rural home where they keep their own chickens, chop their own firewood, and are stockpiling resources (since they are now debt-free) for their next big adventure. After working minimum wage, basic labor jobs at first, Joe has now found another great-paying job where he routinely turns DOWN promotion that would require too much of his time away from his family.

We packed up the bus (with all the warm bodies) and headed down the road to a river campground where all the kids could run crazy and play. It was an inspiring sight to see a family choose this path – and the kids were amazing sports at being filmed (movie stars in the making)!

It was nearly midnight before we let the family get to bed and said farewell – and once again we found ourselves driving the majority of the night toward Madison, Wisconsin (it’s a long, long way across this country).

In Madison, we spent quality time with another great family, Kim & Jason Kotecki.

Kim and Jason teach the world to fight against “Adultitis,” which they describe as a disease that infects the far majority of our current adult population. They are wonderful examples of how to keep the spirit of a child around in your everyday life.

After diving deep into a multitude of topics, we spent the evening having a dance party and baking chocolate-chip cookies with their two kids. (You know, the typical “official duty” tasks that someone has to do.)

Saying goodbye to the Kotecki family was hard, but by now we were experts at saying goodbye to amazing people!

Next up was Chicago, where we met with another remarkable woman named Karen Putz.

Karen is a sponsored barefoot water skier, mother, writer, speaker, and positive ball of energy. She’s also deaf.

Karen’s family has a gene that makes them all hard of hearing. However as a young girl and teenager, Karen was able to hear with the assistance of a hearing aid. That was, until she tripped and smacked the water as a young adult while barefoot water skiing (her favorite passion).

The accident left her deaf. And for the next two decades she gave up her favorite passion.

A few years ago, after decades off, she finally got the will to take back up the mostly male-dominated sport. She now skies, speaks, writes, and encourages everyone she meets to chase their passions now – while they still have the chance.

Listening to Karen talk about how rediscovering her passion has changed her marriage, how she parents, her health, and her happiness was a wonderful experience. And to think she lip-read me for the entire hour-long interview (incredible)!

The next morning, the crew would spend time barefoot skiing with Karen, her friends, and even trying it themselves (I was sent some funny iPhone picture of some epic crashes).

Notice, that I said “I was sent pictures.”

Well, this was because the night after finishing Karen’s interview, the boys drove me to the airport, where I caught a flight down to Asheville.

The entire trip we were playing it close – with Courtney being just a few weeks away from her due date. Toward the end of the trip, Courtney was having a hard time sleeping through the night, was incredibly sore, and having to handle Milligan, the house, and all our other life responsibilities herself.

After talking with the team, we knew the right decision was for me to fly home – and for them to finish the last day and a half without me.

Courtney’s doing great – and happily – we still have no early news of the baby yet (but expect her any day now).

The guys finished the last shoot and successfully made the 6-hour drive back to Wilmington, Ohio – where the adventure started 6 weeks earlier.

We made a complete loop around the United States, some 12,000 miles, on an average of maybe 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

We met so many incredible, life-changing people – and had to pass up meeting many times the number we did simply because of timing issues.

I’ve said this before, but I know at the end of the day none of our lives will be the same.

And now we have the wonderful excitement of condensing this amazing journey – and the thousands of hours of knowledge into an experience we can share with you this summer.

That specific job looks like it’ll take us to San Francisco.

It’s about 95% confirmed, but Courtney, Milli, Charlie (new baby girl), and I will likely spend May and June in San Francisco finalizing the film with an amazing studio there.

The other day, after coming home, I saw a note I had forgotten about hanging in my office.

It read “Freedom 2.0″.

It was written on a sticky note, back in August, as a reminder to consider the idea of making a documentary (that was our codename for it). It sat in the way for months and months as a reminder before we took any action.

But when we took action… we REALLY took action.

I’m proud we finished what we set out to do (record this puppy) and excited for the even bigger challenge of producing a story from it in the coming months.

Last August, I put that sticky note up on my wall.

By this August, you’ll have a chance to see the movie yourself.

If you’re still reading at this moment, do me a favor…

Take a Sharpie and a sticky note and write a big, hairy, audacious goal. Stick it on your wall, your mirror, or your ceiling above your bed.

And between now and this time next year… Make. It. Happen.

I can’t wait to share the first clips of the movie with you in the coming months!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

Today I turn 28 years old.

Many times on my birthday, I reflect about my life, my meaning, and my goals for the next few years.

I’ve done a little of that today, but not as much as I have in the past. (For example, you can read these 26 life lessons I wrote exactly 2 years ago.)

I have thought about a few simple things – a few goals, if you will – by the time I hit 30:

• I want to only work on projects I deeply love and care about – that combine to positively impact millions of people’s lives.
• I want to have a million in positive monetary worth (and no debt). That’s right, nothing wrong with saying that. It’s the *why* you want it that matters. I want it for flexibility and the opportunity to work on amazing projects when I see them enter my family’s life.
• I want to spend the majority of my post-afternoon-ish day with Courtney, Milli, Charlie, and any future additions to the family.
• I want to remain healthy and active (for me: under 15% body fat, 95% whole foods diet, under 200 pounds).

You know, the same things we all think about on our birthdays.

And speaking of working on projects I deeply love… I’ve loved Man Vs. Debt for 4 years now. Sure, sometimes it’s been a love-hate relationship, but I’ve deeply enjoyed building this community. It’s changed and continues to change my life.

In fact, sometimes I feel I’m too in love with it. 

I’ve wrapped so much of my identity up into this site, that every single word I write – and every single post that gets published – reflects intensely on me.

That’s a double-edged sword.

On the positive side, it means I only publish content that I think is the best of the best of what’s on my mind. This makes me feel good. It’s a bit more impressive. I know the far majority of posts will help at least some people.

But on the downside, it means that my ability to help people is based purely on my motivation to write. And the pressure to write – and write every post so it’s amazingly complete and epic – is intense.

So in turn, I don’t write very much. And when I do, I only write what’s on my mind in that particular moment in time (instead of what I believe will truly help people).

And thus, I severely limit the impact this community can have on the world.

I limit the potential of how I can help people through this medium I’ve devoted nearly half a decade to.

And I limit the potential of how I can help people through new mediums, projects, and arenas.

At my very core, I want this site to help a whole crap-ton of people overcome debt, ditch the clutter, and do more work they love. It’s really not that complex of a vision.

But the current system I use to write, publish, and help people is a bit broken. It’s completely reliant on my in-the-moment motivation, my current place in life, and my immediately-in-front-of-my-face experiences.

*****

Jonathan Fields once told me his journey was to build a “body of work” he could be proud of.

That phrase really sank home.

Life is a journey to build a “body of work” you are proud of.

So what if you’ve been an accountant for the last 30 years. That’s just part of your body of work. What’s next?

So what if you’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the last 10 years. That’s just part of your body of work (an important part… but a part nonetheless).

So what if you’ve been a ______________ for the last _____ years…

Man Vs. Debt has been – and continues to be – a life-changing part of my body of work.

However, I’ve realized that if I continue to let every word that posts to the blog define me as a person, I’m going to continue to limit the potential impact this community can really have.

That’s why, for my birthday, I’m giving myself a present.

I’m going to allow myself to let go – as an experiment.

For the next two weeks, we’re going to switch things up. We’re going to post much more frequently on a wide variety of smaller topics.

Anywhere from 3 times a week to 5 times a week. Myself, Joan, and maybe even Courtney will be chipping in.

We’ve brainstormed dozens and dozens of topics – and the whole team is excited to try out the experiment.

I’ll write a couple times, Joan will write a couple (she’s great), and we’ll share more stories, links, and news from the community itself. (Want to share your story on the blog – or post about something specific? Now’s a good time to reach out!)

I’m going to allow myself to let go of my perfectionism, my intense control, and letting the blog define me as a person – for at least the next two weeks.

Don’t worry, while the posts may not be 4,000 words – they will continue to have the same vision, values, spunk, and attitude that you enjoy.

I’m excited to hear your feedback after the next couple of weeks. Don’t hesitate to voice your opinion! You matter to us.

*****

My question for you is… what does your “body of work” look like?

Are you letting any one aspect of your work – no matter how amazing it is – define you as a person?

I’m truly interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

With great power, comes great responsibility.

Cliche?

You bet.

But honestly, three weeks and some odd days into our documentary-filming road trip, it’s how I feel.

You see, we’ve interviewed at least 30 people so far, from a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, and opinions. We’ve interviewed them on life, work, complacency, fear, social pressure, society, security, commitment, and a whole bunch of less serious topics.

The process has been exhausting, but extremely rewarding. We’ve been blown away from the powerful responses during many of the interviews and humbled by the challenge we have to mold them all into a coherent story and purpose.

We’ve had some people cry, some laugh uncontrollably, and some nearly jump out of their chairs in excitement when answering our questions.

I’ve cried twice during interviews, and I’m the one ASKING the questions…

I’ll be honest, many days I wish our interviewees just gave us unpassionate, crappy responses. Without good material, we could always fall back and say “well, it just wasn’t that great of an issue” or “well, we tried, but couldn’t get any good responses.”

Unfortunately for the scared part of my brain, people have poured themselves into the camera. They’ve really opened up. They’ve given us everything we had thought and more.

And now the burden is on us. We’ve got no excuse. We have the material – even now at our halfway point – to create a documentary that will radically inspire and change people’s lives.

Whether or not we do that… is now solely up to us.

If you’re new, our crew of 5 dudes left several weeks ago on a cross-country trip across America to film a documentary on “complacency” in everyday life.

That’s us, in the picture above. On the left is Grant Peelle (Director), followed by me (for my good looks – or “Producer” as they say), John Cropper (Camera Op), Dustin Koester (Sound), and Bryan Olinger (Director of Photography).

Behind us? That’s Karl Malone. He’s our 15-passenger van that has become the mobile locker room for the 6-week voyage. Karl is no RV, but is a straight-up beast in his own right.

Click here to “Like” Crank Tank Studios on Facebook. The crew occasionally posts pictures, updates, and random notes from the road there.

As I write this post, we’re currently bunked in not-so-beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our remaining stops are:

• Los Angeles (a few more days)
• San Francisco
• Northern California
• Portland
• Seattle (maybe)
• Vancouver (quick stop)
• Boise, Idaho
• Jackson Hole, Wyoming (maybe)
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Illinois (maybe)
• Indiana (maybe)
• and back to Ohio

We’re still actively looking for people who want to be considered for an interview!

We don’t bite (hard), and we’re a super-fun group (most of the time).

We’re especially looking for:

• Older generations of people whose lives have been affected by complacency.
• A wider variety of cultures, heritages, and belief systems.
• People who believe complacency isn’t all that bad. Who live life on the “scripted life” path by choice.
• People who are stuck, exhausted, and fed up with their current choices, but haven’t changed yet.
• Anyone else who feels compelled to share their work-life journey with us.

Click here to fill out our form to nominate yourself.

Remember, we can only entertain people from the cities and states still left on our tour!

Where have we been?…

It’s been a whirlwind, but I’ll give you the short version of what we’ve been up to the past few weeks.

Our journey started in Wilmington, Ohio, hometown of Grant, John, and Bryan (although Bryan lives in L.A. now). For a week and a half leading up to the launch of the road trip, Grant and I set up shop in a converted office in downtown Wilmington.

We stacked together about 10, 16+ hour days of all-out planning, organizing, and decision-making.

Here’s what I learned during that time… we have a certain skill set that helps, and a passion that fills in any gaps, but honestly… we have no freakin’ idea what we are doing.

I’ve never produced anything in my life, let alone what we are doing on this scale.

We’re shooting what most people do in two to three years in 45 days.

We’re editing what most people edit in another year or two in 90 days (after the tour).

We’ve bitten off way more than we can chew, which is a weird combination of exhausting and exhilarating.

*****

We started our journey with several test interviews in Wilmington, Ohio, in the days before we left. We tried half a dozen different styles on different people (thanks to several great friends and community members in Ohio who were willing to be test subjects!).

We shot interviews all day and reviewed the footage all night.

We ended up scrapping our first half-dozen style choices in favor of a new direction only a day before the trip actually began. While none of the interviews we shot in Wilmington, Ohio, before we left will make the documentary – they were the most important interviews of the entire process for us!

With a few days of experience under our belt, we left for the greater Buffalo, NY, area, where a Man Vs. Debt community member had organized a couple dozen people for us to interview. Once again, this experience proved to be an amazing experience for the team.

We set up an interviewing area and cycled through all these amazing people for the next 3 hours. Deb and Joe (our amazing hosts) were patient and invaluable to us as we went through the process. During the interviews, one particular woman really stood out to the team.

Her name was Paula.

It was at least 11 p.m. by the time we arrived back to Deb and Joe’s home, but we couldn’t resist the urge to film more footage with Paula. So we did what any rational person would do… we phoned her up around midnight to ask if we could come to the horse farm she worked at around 5 a.m. – the next morning – to film her with the horses at sunrise.

Sure enough, she was game.

The next morning, on a few hours of sleep, the team rolled into a rural horse farm to film Paula’s morning routine. It was an absolutely stunning backdrop. I’ve never been a huge fan of horses, but it was hard not to be charmed by the environment and the animals.

After filming for most of the morning, it was time to move on. We filmed the story of our host family in the afternoon and left for the Big Apple that night.

The next three days were spent navigating the maze that is New York City in a series of amazing interviews.

We started with Nik Tarascio, the young CEO of a family-owned charter flight company outside of the city itself. Nik was an absolute blast to spend time with – and was amazing enough to take part of the crew on a flight up and down the Hudson River to get unbelievably cool footage of NYC from the sky.

Over the next few days, we interviewed 7 people in two days (including 5 in one single day). Each one with a different set-up, and each person bringing a totally different perspective to the film.

Grant and Nik flying the friendly skies over NYC.

The sun sets over Manhattan… beautiful.

Me interviewing Jonathan Fields, one of the 7 people we interviewed in New York!

With little time to rest, we woke up the final morning in NYC to repack Karl and head toward Washington, D.C.

In D.C., we spent the morning filming another Wilmington, Ohio, personality named Sam. Sam has worked in and around Washington politics for decades and had an amazing perspective on complacency in both personal life and government. It was one of my favorite (and one of our most unique) interviews up to that point.

The rest of the day was spent shooting the city itself until the sun went down once again. With our natural light all but gone, it was time for another 8-hour night drive to Asheville, N.C.

Of course, as many of you know, Asheville is my home for now – so the drive went quickly for me as I sped to get back to Courtney and Milli.

But Asheville wasn’t all rest and family time. We interviewed our friends Matt and Betsy Jabs (who recently moved down close to Asheville) about their experiencing breaking free from two unrewarding jobs and an upside-down house.

Next came Steve Kamb – another good friend – who flew into Asheville after leaving a cruise ship just to spend a day filming with us.

The team once again woke up early to film Steve exercising on the side of an Asheville mountain as the sun rose (at 3,000 feet). But we weren’t done with Steve yet!

Next came trail-running off the Blue Ridge Parkway (complete with Grant chasing Steve with a camera through the woods as he ran). And finally, kayaking down the icy French Broad River.

It was certainly one of the most physically exhausting days, but one of the most fun for the crew. Steve’s philosophy on making exercise and fitness fun – and making use of nature – was in full swing.

It was midnight, after our packed day with Steve… and once again it was time to hit the road. 20+ hours to Austin, TX, to make it in time for SxSw.

It wasn’t a fun drive – and it did include a 3 a.m. nap at a rest stop – but we made it.

Tired, smelly, and moving slow, we pulled in around midnight (that’s 24 hours in a van for those counting) to our host family’s house outside of Austin.

SxSw was a blur (as it usually is), but what stands out for me was another half-dozen great interviews, a couple amazing parties with great conversation, and the beautiful and kind nature of Victoria (our host) and her husband and daughter.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Austin as a city, especially in the early spring. It’s got a wonderful culture, welcoming people, and plays host to an amazing conference once a year. If I could manage the heat in the summer (I can’t), we would definitely consider a base of operations here!

One of our many SxSw interview setups (this one with Max Spiker).

After our amazing time in Austin, the crew reluctantly set off for another all-night 18+ hour drive to Phoenix.

This time, however we stopped in the middle-of-nowhere western Texas for a special 3-hour shoot. As it turns out, when you get into western Texas there isn’t a lot of… anything. Which means you can actually SEE the stars in the sky when you pull off the interstate for a mile or so.

As I napped in the van, the other men set up time-lapse footage of one of the most beautiful night skies I’ve ever seen. It won’t be a big part of the documentary, but the few seconds of footage we use will make the 3+ hours of filming in the middle of the night all worth it!

For now, I’ll leave the story here… on an abandoned Texas road looking up at the sky.  But trust me, there is a lot more to our adventure. I’ll do my best to update you again in a week or so!

Until then, my apologies for being all consumed by this project. It’s the most difficult and challenging creative project I’ve ever taken on. But that’s a good thing.

We’ve unlocked a deep, deep issue here. A universal struggle with our culture right now. One that deserves to be explored and shared with the world.

We’ve unlocked something powerful. And now it’s our responsibility to complete the journey and share the story with the world.

I’m convinced that none of the 5 crew members’ lives will be the same when we return. I know mine won’t.

I only hope that we can share this experience with millions of other people – and affect the same change in them (and you).

Until the next time!

Follow the documentary crew on Facebook for more of the play-by-play!

Xoxoxoxo,

-Baker

That’s right, folks. It’s time to announce the next big project around here.

I’m partnering with my good friend and amazing storyteller Grant Peelle to film, create, and distribute a full-length documentary.

The working title is I’m Fine, Thanks and we’re exploring the plague of complacency in everyday life.

In laymen’s terms, we want to dig into why so many of us WILLINGLY compromise our dreams and passions as we get older in exchange for a routine, scripted life. AND, we want to feature why it’s never been more important to make those dreams more of a priority in our lives moving forward.

We’ve alluded to this struggle dozens of times on Man Vs. Debt and it played a huge role in my recent TEDx Talk. I’m completely stoked to take this to the next level with the documentary.

How are we going to pull this off?

We’ve compiled a documentary team of 5 to tour the country for 6 weeks.

We’ll have Grant (director and lead), me (for my good looks), two cameramen, and a sound professional. I’ll introduce the other members of the crew more in a later post.

Our new production company is called Crank Tank Studios, and we’ll be updating various aspects of the documentary and project on the Crank Tank Facebook page (I’ll do some big updates here, but that Facebook page is the best place to follow all the updates of the filming process).

We’re going coast-to-coast starting later this month from:

• Ohio (starting next week)
• NYC (2/27-3/1)
• Washington D.C. (3/2)
• Asheville (3/5)
• Austin, TX (SxSw)
• Grand Canyon (3/12)
• Phoenix (3/13)
• San Diego (3/15)
• L.A. (3/16-3/17)
• San Francisco (3/19-3/20)
• Portland (3/22-3/23)
• Seattle (3/26)
• Vancouver (3/29)
• Yellowstone (3/31)
• Back to the midwest

Sound familiar?

That’s because it just so happens to be almost exactly the route we followed in the RV!

Only issue is this time Courtney and Milli won’t be joining us (I’m sorry to let everyone down!).

Who is going to be in the film (maybe you)?

We’ll be sitting down with experts, bloggers, authors – as well as everyday families and people we meet along the way. Here are some of the personalities we have confirmed:

• Chris Guillebeau
• Jonathan Fields
• Nik Tarascio
• Danielle LaPorte
• Steve Kamb
• Pam Slim
• Pat Flynn
• L.A. Homeless Program
• Hundreds of people at SxSw
• Dozens of families and individuals along the way

And these are only the people we’ve confirmed dates for. We’re still emailing people this week to schedule times!

But here’s the most important thing…

We want your input!

Leave a comment here or email me at Baker@ManVsDebt.com and let me know your suggestions. We’re still finalizing the list and would love your input.

We’re looking for experts and personalities to provide perspective, but we’re also looking for everyday people.

We’re especially interested in people who feel trapped from years of putting off their dreams. People who’ve built a decent life, but feel they’ve sold out their passions for a scripted life.

Is that you? Let us know, we’d love to talk with you!

The Kickstarter Campaign…

We’re planning on running a Kickstarter campaign for the film in early April.

For those of you who don’t know, Kickstarter is a website and community that helps fund creative projects. You set a goal for funds needed to complete a project, outline the details, and set different creative rewards for people who pledge specific amounts to help accomplish the goal.

Kickstarter is absolutely exploding and is a perfect fit for a documentary project like this.

In fact, a couple weeks ago, Grant and I filmed a sample Kickstarter video we were considering launching BEFORE the road trip. After consideration, we decided that most people would really enjoy seeing the actual footage from the personalities in the film and the road trip itself.

For that reason, we decided we’d wait until at least the halfway point of the trip to create a trailer for the film and launch our Kickstarter campaign. This meant we had to assemble a team to help with the upfront cost of travel, tons of gear, and paying a staff of professionals… but the trade-off is well worth it.

Trust me, you’ll know when our Kickstarter goes live in early April – but in the meantime you can check out a fun video Grant and I shot about the topic for a potential campaign (we won’t be using this, but I knew many of you would really enjoy it):

10 ways you can help bring the documentary to life…

In order to make this happen, we need YOUR help.

1. Nominate a person or family for us to interview for the documentary.
2. Nominate YOURSELF as available to talk to us for the documentary (don’t be shy, do it!).
3. Help us find lodging in New York City from February 27th through March 1st… Yikes!
4. Help us find lodging in Austin, TX during SxSw… Double Yikes!
5. Host a documentary crew of 5 really nice guys for a night in a city we’re filming in.
6. Help us find a unique and creative place to film while in your city.
7. Help us schedule a fun event, attraction, or experience while in your city (or along our route).
8. Submit your music or work for use in the movie soundtrack.
9. Like Crank Tank Studios on Facebook (we’ll be sharing updates from the road).
10. Join the Crank Tank Street Team (by email) here.

We’re going to need a lot of connections to make this documentary shine.

Here’s how to reach us:

• Email me here:  Baker@ManVsDebt.com
• Fill out this form if you think you can help the trip along the way.
• Here’s the form for musicians and artists who might be interested in contributing to the soundtrack.

As always, I’ll owe you guys a lot for your help with the project.

No idea is too big or small. Reach out, we’d love to hear from you!

Premiere in July!…

With an intense production schedule (from the full crew), we plan to premiere this in early July.

We’ll be using a very open, low-cost model for distribution. A digital, HD download of the film will be only $5.

We really want as many people as possible to have their eyes opened by this message.

I plan on things being normal around here, even while I’m on the road. I’m taking my podcast gear, will continue to write posts and updates, and am excited to meet up with as many of you as possible again.

This is a big undertaking for Man Vs. Debt (and for me), but I’m super excited.

Special thanks to Courtney, whom is fully supporting me leaving for more than a month, missing our anniversary and her birthday, all while she’s 7 months pregnant. When I say that having a supportive family and spouse is one of the most important factors for success… I mean it.

More updates soon, but buckle your seat belts… this is going to be a fun ride!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

For the last three years, I’ve been sharing our income report in some manner or another.

It started with a detailed breakdown of our household budget, debt, and where every dollar was being allocated. A year into this community, I began to consider the possibility of monetizing the website. When we made that decision, we started sharing monthly reports on any income generated along the way.

Recently, we’ve gotten away from the monthly reports for several reasons.

First, it’s a ton of work to publish the monthly reports. It takes away from other creative work that might be able to affect a wider percentage of the people who come to the blog in a much deeper way (not everyone benefits from these reports).

Second, there are half a dozen people involved in different ways behind the scenes. Some small, and now, some large. While I don’t mind disclosing my income, should I disclose theirs? I’ve not decided my position on this yet.

However, sharing the report in some way is still an important principle of this community.

Each and every one of you makes this journey possible. As a result, you deserve to know the inner working if you want to (in my opinion). Also, having a profitable community allows us to spread the core values and message in a way that we simply wouldn’t be able to do under any other scenario.

In short, I firmly believe that this *should* be public information. That there’s nothing wrong with it being public information. And the pursuit of a sustainable business ultimately means we help thousands and thousands more people.

Investing, Building, and Testing…

As I talked about throughout 2011, this year was all about investing and building.

I invested tens of thousands of dollars into creating courses and products (like You Vs. Debt), which haven’t yet returned the investment.

I also invested tens of thousands of dollars into building a team. A real, living, breathing team. With people I can trust… people who care about the business and the message themselves.

It’s far cheaper and less stressful to contract everything out – or to outsource recurring tasks to VAs based somewhere in Asia. For some businesses, this is an amazing route, but for mine I didn’t think it was a good fit.

I enjoy working with people, especially people who really do care about the business. And to accomplish our long-term vision, I’ll need to develop these relationships and learn to run a team (something I’m learning comes with lots of practice).

I’ve had several missteps. A couple of the first employees I thought would be a part of the team haven’t worked out in one way or another (much of the time this was my fault!). But I’ve learned an incredible amount and am starting to find the sweet spot.

The team in place today is the strongest, most passionate version we’ve had. I’m pumped.

2011 was also defined by testing.

We tested email services, shopping carts, affiliate systems, productivity systems, different team members, working on the road, working from an office, working as a team in person, working as a team remotely.

We spent a lot of time testing. We spent a TON of money testing.

Some of this was purely for business strategy. But most of it was for me personally.

Personally, I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what system I would enjoy. I didn’t know what environment I worked best in. I didn’t know what project management software I’d actually use.

I didn’t really even know what I wanted to be doing.

I didn’t know what my daily work would look like. I didn’t know what I wanted the hour-by-hour vision of my typical workflow to be.

Obviously, work isn’t going to be exactly replicated from day to day, but you’d be surprised how much your work routine, combined with the systems you use, can dramatically affect your creativity and productivity.

In 2011, we used the shotgun approach. We blasted a bunch of shrapnel and then went to see what actually hit.

I’m not suggesting this as an ultimate business strategy for you. I’m giving you an honest breakdown of what defined our 2011.

2011 By The Numbers…

All numbers are rounded. Income is rounded down. Expenses are rounded up.

This is how we teach people to budget, because it makes it easier to project, analyze, and envision what needs to be done (without needing an accounting degree).

Income from Products ($28,000)

• You Vs. Debt — $14,000
• Sell Your Crap – $12,500
• Unautomate Your Finances – $1,500

These are the products that I’ve produced, filmed and written and that we sell as part of the community here to help people with specific problems.

Unautomate Your Finances was our very first premium project and isn’t for sale any more. It’s been upgraded and replaced by the much more in-depth and impactful You Vs. Debt 6-week course.

Many online business people have a business model that relies on publishing a NEW product or course on a DIFFERENT topic every 6 months or so. While this may work for some, it’s not at all what our team wants.

We know there are a couple, very specific, and deeply tangible problems our community faces. We need to obliterate debt and we need to ditch our excess clutter and crap.

That’s not changing. Those issues affect almost everyone. There’s no reason for us to release new products from a slightly different angle every 6 months. We’ve got the solution right here.

So instead, we’re focusing on making the You Vs. Debt and Sell Your Crap courses the best available premium resources on those problems. It’s a 10-year product, not a 6-month product. Sure, we’ll improve them every few months – but most of what we do is focusing on how we can get amazing results for the people who get these resources in the future.

In 2011, we planned, shot, and edited You Vs. Debt TWICE. The first time was decent, but it wasn’t mind-blowing for people. We had our pioneers take the course and provide us with feedback needed to improve it.

We then completely went back to the drawing board and came up with a new approach (mostly the same content, just broken down more, and presented much better). We released the first version of this new course in the fall.

The second YvD version clicked! We had more than 100 people go through the course and in just the first few months, they’ve paid off more than $300,000 in combined debt; those that finished the course averaged nearly $1,400 in debt paid off in just those 6 weeks!

We didn’t take the shortest path, but ultimately our time and money invested paid off with amazing results. Our strategy in 2012 is to relaunch You Vs. Debt 3 to 4 times, improving and adding content each time.

We’ll ruthlessly track each and every individual to be able to analyze what makes the people who actually complete and succeed different from those who drop out at one point or another. It’s a huge project, but a worthwhile cause, and what I believe will be an amazing business venture as well.

Sell Your Crap was completely and utterly ignored in 2011. It continues to sell every week, but in the next few months will get an impressive overhaul. We’re strongly considering releasing a shorter, compact version of the “Main Guide” as a Kindle eBook.

This would allow us to move the more specific strategies (and technical tips) for eBay, Craigslist, garage sales, and Amazon to a new video course structure. We’ll be featuring more live examples and case studies than we did with the first version.

In summary, You Vs. Debt will continue to be a flagship product. We’ve found the right setup now and will have several classes in 2012. Sell Your Crap will receive a huge facelift, but will continue to help solve the same important issues.

*****

Income from Side Projects ($35,500)

• Only72.com — $29,000
• Hustle Project — $6,500

Many of you know that my friend Karol Gajda and I run a large sale twice per month over at Only72.com. We bring together online eBooks, courses, and apps and sell them for a short time at a large discount. We organize the sale, build the infrastructure, and take good care of the customers.

The sales really are a fantastic deal (if you are in the market for that training) and generated a large amount of sales. There are a whole host of income and expenses that are associated with just that side business; it would be too confusing to break this all down inside of the MvD income/expenses breakdown.

Once again, we did do more than $200,000 in revenue in 2011 (as we had the year before). After all was said and done, the portion the Man Vs. Debt team saw come in was around $29,000. Some of that will pay some of our expenses listed below, but much of that is profit from hosting the sales.

Overall, Only72 had another great year and two useful sales. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I expected it to do even larger numbers, though. Karol and I learned a lot from our most recent sale. As is the theme, we tested several new features and strategies that didn’t work as well as our initial one.

I feel blessed that I can experiment with different strategies and still have success with that side project. We have our own passionate community of people the enjoy those rare sales when they pop up.

The Hustle Project was another side project I took on with my good friend Corbett Barr. It was an attempt to offer something for those of you on the “Do What You Love” part of our journey here.

My favorite part of this whole process was getting to work alongside Corbett. He’s a fantastic guy with brilliant business savvy.

While I really enjoyed the webinars and the community of hustlers, I don’t think the format of bi-monthly webinars is a long-term solution for this particular problem. It would require a much more robust backend for users and several added features to be completely viable. Talking about business is profitable, but not quite where my heart is fully right now.

I want to focus on solving the debt and clutter issues first, before turning my focus to building and growing a business based on a cause you really love.

*****

 Income from Affiliated Resources ($8,650)

• Travel Hacking Cartel — $5,200
• Unconventional Guides — $1,600
• Amazon.com — $450
• Thesis (My Theme) — $350
• HostGator — $300
• Nerd Fitness — $300
• PocketSmith — $180
• Aweber — $160
• Benny Lewis — $60
• FireStarter Sessions — $50

For those of you that don’t know, affiliate marketing is a huge source of income for many online websites and communities. What happens is instead of paying for traditional advertising, many product or service creators pay a certain amount of the price to trusted allies who refer sales.

In some cases, it’s extremely small. For example, Amazon pays me 4% of a sale if I link to a book I enjoy and you end up purchasing. In my case, that relationship made me $400 last year (linking books or gear I use, etc…)

In other cases, you may get something like 50-80% of the sale. If you click my recommendation for Chris Guillebeau’s great Unconventional Guide books, I get roughly 50% of that sale (in this particular case).

That said, I do almost no active affiliate marketing.

There was only one post I did in 2011 that was a direct recommendation to check out a specific product or resource that wasn’t my own (Travel Hacking Cartel). As it turns out, that was a pretty good choice as many of our community members here have decided to join and stayed as customers.

In this case (as you’ll see), Courtney and I are also customers of that program. In fact, we don’t affiliate with anything we don’t either use or have used extensively in the past. This is why I’ve never pushed affiliated resources that much.

Some of the other income is from tools I use to run my business. I list them for people, but don’t actively push Man Vs. Debt readers to buy hosting or web themes. This simply isn’t the concern of most of the readers. Those who do want to start websites can find the resources very easily.

However, in 2012, I do think we could actually do a better job of affiliate marketing.

For example, there are many services and products I simply can’t offer, don’t want to offer, or have no freakin’ idea what I’m talking about around.

I’ve been searching for a good online bank account to recommend for two years, but haven’t found one yet. I may try harder to test a few out.

I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to investing strategy. I simply haven’t studied (nor do I want to right now) that arena. However, there are some readers and fans on that part of their journey. What should they do? Once again, I could try harder to find a resource I trust and recommend.

Overall, I’m much more concerned with knocking our own solutions and products out of the park. After all, these are the topics I study and talk to people about every single day.

But there’s certainly room, from a business perspective, to increase the type of people we partner with to help a wider variety of people (with problems we can’t help them with ourselves).

We’ll keep our eyes open for genuine matches for this style of marketing.

*****

Sponsorship Income ($20,800)

Most of you know that at the beginning of 2011, we kicked off a 6-month RV tour of the U.S. We had a blast and met thousands of people along the way (by far the most rewarding part)!

Along the way we got to host many meetups, parties, and events in various cities. The intensity of our schedule and the hosting of these gathering was only made possible through a partnership with Adaptu on the tour.

We designed a bright orange wrap for the RV (many of you got to see it live!) and negotiated a very genuine, light-touch way to partner for the road trip.

Adaptu was a fantastic partner to have. Honestly, we couldn’t have asked for anything more. Even when we decided to come off the road (for reasons many of you know), Adaptu understood and allowed us the flexibility to do so. That meant a lot to us.

At the same time, I’m not sure I want to throw my hat into a “sponsorship” ring again. This particular RV tour was a perfect fit, but those kinds of arrangements are few and far between. Working with a large company presents its own challenges – and anything more than the tour itself could have easily caused a conflict of interest.

I don’t mind partnering, affiliating, or developing relationships with companies. Not at all. But there’s a fine line between finding a great match (which we did this time) and compromising your values or message for money reasons.

*****

Consulting Income ($9,800)

Consulting was something I offered more in the beginning of 2011. I worked with some larger companies and some individual entrepreneurs.

Within the first few months I phased this out though (at least actively having it offered). While extremely profitable and enjoyable, it still involves me actively trading my time for money.

I’m much more passionate about scaling our solutions to much bigger problems. And, in retrospect, I get much of the same personal fulfillment from speaking that I do from consulting with clients.

I don’t mind working with one or two people per month. In particular, I enjoy the deep friendship that is formed after working several months with a person. But I don’t foresee this being a public offering again, nor a huge part of our projected 2012 revenue.

*****

Other Income ($1,800)

This include a small amount of freelance writing I did earlier in the year (more than $1,000 of this), as well as some random income such a returned purchases, banking rewards, unclaimed affiliate payments, etc…

*****

TOTAL INCOME — $104,550

*****

Expenses Related to Sales (-$6,650)

• Man Vs. Debt Affiliates — $4,300
• Processing Fees — $1,400
• Refunds — $950

Overall, I’d love these expenses to be MUCH HIGHER in 2012 (these all go up with more sales).

We need to do a much better job of giving our own affiliates the tools to successfully recommend You Vs. Debt and Sell Your Crap. (By comparison, we paid out more than $100,000 this year to Only72.com affiliates.)

We know what needs to be done to help others share our message, we just need to step up and organize this better.

Processing fees are what they are. You pay them and move on.

Refunds are still only happening on a very small percentage of our sales. The far majority of these refunds are for “my personal situation has changed and I need the money” reasons.

Because we offer 100% lifetime guarantees (for any reason), sometimes that does pop back up to backfire on you. But the percentages are so low, and the trust we gain with customers is so high, that it’s not even a question of whether it’s worth it or not.

I wouldn’t feel right if people weren’t allowed to get refunded at any point for any reason. So we won’t be switching this any time soon.

*****

Team Member Expenses (-$49,880)

• Permanent Team Members — $41,200
• You Vs. Debt Film Crew — $6,400
• External Tech Help — $1,300
• External Design Help — $520
• Transcripts — $460

And BOOM, here comes the big whammy.

As I suggested, we tested a lot of different setups with team members in 2011. We’ve rotated among four different “permanent” team members, at different times for different purposes. Ultimately, we’ve settled on two moving forward for 2012 (we’re a three-person team now).

This small team can handle most of the operations – design, filming, editing and content production – we want to have in 2012. We’ll still need to contract out a few technical issues and smaller things like transcripts, etc.

We didn’t even come close to using our money efficiently in this area in 2011, but I was more than happy to invest (or even lose) money in trying to figure this out. The next few years will be so much better because of this investment.

I’ll introduce our current team more in the coming weeks!

*****

Operation Expenses (-$8,460)

• InfusionSoft — $2,750
• Email marketing, shopping cart, affiliate program, etc.
• PremiumWebCart — $375
• Former shopping cart, replaced by InfusionSoft
• Optimizely — $500
• Used for split-testing different version of a shopping cart or sales page
• Clothing — $475
• Purchased for filming You Vs Debt or public speaking events
• Aweber — $300
• Former primary email provider, replaced by InfusionSoft; might go back
• SnapEngage — $275
• Allows for live chat during launches or sales period (with potential customers)
• AppSumo — $275
• A “bundle package” that offered discounts on some different design packages, icons, etc.
• Employee Gifts — $350
• Self-explanatory
• Wufoo — $250
• Software we use to survey in You Vs. Debt (and Man Vs. Debt) and sort responses
• Travel Hacking Cartel — $300
• Program we use to earn miles and find discounts for business travel
• GoDaddy — $300
• Domain names. Some necessary. Many not!
• Wishlist — $300
• One-time plugin that we use to manage You Vs. Debt community membership
• Amazon s3 — $200
• Fast, easy hosting for many of our videos and our course content
• Wrike — $300
• Project management software we tested; replaced by free option
• Mailchimp — $200
• Another email option we tested; easy to use, but replaced by InfusionSoft
• iDev Affiliate — $250
• Old affiliate program, replaced by InfusionSoft
• HostGator — $180
• Hosting for Man Vs. Debt and You Vs. Debt communities
• Lynda.com — $150
• Training on editing, design, software for team
• iStockPhoto — $120
• Various images bought for Man Vs. Debt
• Dropbox — $120
• How we share and back up our files
• E-junkie — $120
• How we formerly sold Unautomate Your Finances
• Bank Fees — $100
• Fee to make 1-day ACH payments to contractors and employees; also, some wire fees
• Shipping — $90
• Mostly books we have given away to readers
• Misc. — $90
• Everything random that didn’t fit or was unknown
• Spotify — $50
• Listened to and used every single day in our at-home office
• GetClicky — $40
• Tested for use in real-time analytics and tracking; not used any more
• JewelBeat — $5
• Music for podcasting and programs

Whew.

First and foremost, as you can tell, we learned a lot about what DIDN’T work in 2011.

Of this entire list, fewer than half are things we’ll be using moving forward in 2012. Many of the moving parts were condensed as we started using InfusionSoft to do multiple things.

That said, InfusionSoft is expensive – and I’m not sure we’ll keep it long-term. In theory, it treats each person as a real person (instead of just a name on another list). It allows you to segment people very specifically; you can customize the way you reach out to those who’ve clicked but didn’t buy in a different way than you might for people who are brand new, etc.

Ultimately, this would allow us to offer better solutions to different people. It would keep people from seeing messages that don’t apply to them. It would make for a better experience overall!

But in practice, it’s a clunky software and requires a ton of training to be able to properly use. We aren’t leveraging it anywhere NEAR its potential.

We’re sticking with it for now, because we’re slowly starting to squeeze our value out of it. But the bottom line is there is no “best” option for email marketing, shopping carts, sales, and customer management yet.

In fact, I know dozens and dozens of bloggers making their livings online – and not a single one of them is ecstatic about this part of the industry. I hope someone figures this out (and soon) to the benefit of everyone!

At the end of 2011, our team sat down and evaluated each expense and whether or not we were fully utilizing it. We cut 75% of them (even ones we were sort-of-kind-of using). Armed with our knowledge of the different options, we’re starting from a clean slate.

If you have any more specific questions about all these apps and software, ask in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them.

*****

Hardware Expenses (-$10,350)

• Laptop Gear — $4,700
• Camera Gear — $3,900
• Podcasting Gear — $1,300
• Books/Courses — $450

In 2011, we invested in a wide variety of equipment that we’ll get years of use out of (but which cost us up front, out of pocket).

First and foremost, we bought two laptops. The first was purchased for as an “advance” for a team member who’ll be handling all the video editing, audio editing, and design work.

The second, unfortunately, was my own.

Why buy a new laptop, you ask?

Because mine was stolen from the dressing room of TEDx Asheville while I was giving my talk on stage.

Talk about a good way to ruin an otherwise amazing day!

I’ve traveled around the world and around the U.S. – I’ve worked in HUNDREDS of coffee shops and public spaces (not all the nicest of places) and never had anything stolen (at all). The one time I do get my laptop jacked is in Asheville, NC, at a TEDx conference. Oh, the irony.

TEDx didn’t have insurance. The theater didn’t have insurance. All right, whatever. Buy a new one and move on. I didn’t have to replace my MacBook with a MacBook, but I did. I love my MacBook (as expensive as they are) and work on it every day.

On the camera front, we invested in a Canon 5D Mark II to film the videos for the You Vs. Debt course, as well as the upcoming MvDTV Youtube videos. Along with tripod, lenses, bag, etc… it was a big investment.

Courtney is a photographer herself, so we are able to get dual business use from this. But for Man Vs. Debt, we’ll also use it to record speeches, events, and publish amazing video. It’s not even close to a necessity for what we need, but it does give us an amazing level of professionalism to live up to.

In December, we also invested in a professional podcasting microphone, mixer, and recorder to produce our new Man Vs. Debt podcast. In addition, I hired Cliff Ravenscraft of Podcast Answer Man for an hour of his valuable consulting time.

Cliff’s time and expertise saved me countless hours getting everything set-up, configured, and working. Essentially, we were able to focus right away on the content and the approach, which let us get the podcast out the door with almost no friction (a really big deal around here).

Once again, the professional microphone and setup will allow us to shoot better video, better interviews for different blogs, radio shows and other outlets – in addition to helping us to produce a great sounding podcast.

The podcast is going extremely well (off to a fast start) and we’re really excited about its potential in 2012!

*****

Communication Expenses (-$1,260)

• Cell Phone — $610
• Internet — $390
• Mobile Wifi — $200
• Coworking — $60

Not sure why I separate out this category, but I always have.

There’s nothing especially wonderful or helpful for me to explain here!

*****

Food / Eating Out Expenses (-$4,700)

No, that’s not a typo. We really did spend $4,700 on food in various business-related expenses in 2011.

Keep in mind that for the first half of 2011, we were traveling the country on a daily basis hosting meetups. Our sponsor helped pay for some of this cost, but not all of it. Several times, we bought the food for dozens and dozens of people at the meetup.

We also defaulted to connecting with people over food (we still do, although certainly not as much). In my mind, there are few things more powerful than sharing conversation and a meal.

This also accounts for all food bought or purchased during traveling for conference or speaking engagements, etc… Once again, this should go down in 2012 as we’re on a much slower travel schedule.

*****

Travel-Related Expenses (-$3,010)

• Airfare — $1,650
• Other Transportation — $690
• Hotels — $520
• Parking — $150

None of “these” travel expenses are related directly to the RV tour. Meaning, for example, that lodging isn’t counting campground fees. These expenses were related to non-RV travels to conferences (mostly).

2012 will likely see some of these go up, but hopefully so will the compensation for attending and speaking at various conferences.

*****

TOTAL EXPENSES — (-$84,310)

*****

Net Profit From Business in 2012…

$20,240.

Unfortunately, I’m not missing a zero.

After all the work, sweat, and tears I put into Man Vs. Debt this year, we took home around $20,000.

And even more sadly, this doesn’t account for ANY expenses we incurred as part of the RV tour (other than meetup food). So our taxes this year might even show a loss (or a break-even year)… we’ll leave that to the professional accountant.

But, it’s important to note, I’m not at all down about this number.

In fact, I’m proud.

Sure, we were wasteful in many parts. We focused too much on testing software and systems. I made mistakes in my initial team-building attempts. We bought equipment that wasn’t a bare necessity to deliver value.

On the flip side, look at everything we’ve accomplished:

1. I’ve found a great team and a fantastic set-up for 2012 (one of my biggest goals). It cost me, but I’m happy with the result.
2. We invested in a wide variety of gear that’ll help us increase our professionalism for years to come (on many projects).
3. We’ve honed You Vs. Debt to the point where it’s delivering results we’ve never been able to get (from anything else) before.
4. I’ve learned more about business this year than in all my previous years combined. School of hard knocks, anyone?
5. We prioritized making an impact and delivering long-term value over a quest for sheer dollars. It takes both to survive through the long haul, but I’m glad we didn’t give up to chase more money right away.

Trust me, folks. I want to make more than $20,000 a year when I’m dedicating this much of my life and effort to something. (If anyone tells you that this is *easy*, run the other way quickly!)

Courtney and I will have to net more than that in 2012 in order to live!

But I’m not discouraged. Nowhere close.

I’m excited for 2012.

I talked about this just a few weeks ago, but here’s the short summary of our agenda:

• Launch You Vs. Debt 3 to 4 more times. Make it the best course on attacking debt anywhere.
• Revisit Sell Your Crap and give it a nice facelift. Potentially create a Kindle eBook.
• Record 35 episodes of the new Man Vs. Debt podcast.
• Launch and routinely film MvDTV on YouTube.
• Redesign Man Vs. Debt.
• Record a documentary.
• Analyze the problems of our audience that we can’t solve and partner with genuine, trustworthy solutions.
• Explore developing our own budgeting software and app.
• Speak 12 times this year. Have travel expenses compensated (at minimum) for most of these appearances.

Our choice to invest so much this year was a conscious one.

This doesn’t mean we didn’t make plenty of mistakes, but we chose to go down that path consciously.

Now it’s time to show off what that investment can do.

And, for that, I’m honored to have you along for the ride.

Ask any questions in the comments. I’ll do my best to respond!

Xoxoxoxo,

-Baker

2011 was a crazy, crazy year for us.

It was full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and big lifestyle swings.

In case you’ve forgotten (or haven’t been around that long), here’s a short list of some of best, most intense, or most controversial posts of 2011.

Most Popular:  24 Quick Actions You Can Do Today That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever

The competition wasn’t even close this year for most popular post. In fact, the above “24 Action” post *nearly* beat out all other posts in 2011 combined. It was shared a staggering amount of times on Facebook and Twitter and inspired several other posts around the blogosphere. It’s one of the best places to start if you are new!

Most Important:  Thoughts on Losing an Unborn Child…

Within three days, this became the most commented post (300+) in Man Vs. Debt history. That meant a lot to us (still does). Writing the post was more therapeutic than anything else, but I’m really happy at the personal emails I’ve received from people it’s deeply helped through their own tough situations.

Most Pride Generated:  My TEDx Talk: “What Does Freedom Mean to You?”

I’m extremely proud of my recent TEDx Talk (I know I just posted it), because it sums up the experience we’ve been on over the last three years so well. If you are new to the community and haven’t invested the 19 minutes, please do. I think you’ll find it a fantastic overview of our message!

Most Discussed:  Do You Give to Panhandlers?

This generated over 230 comments on what turned out to be a fantastic discussion on principles, perception, and charity. The comments section contains great points made by both sides. The jury is still out for me!

Most Controversial:  The Cost of a Dead Osama Bin Laden

This is a short post that a few people provided some extremely harsh feedback on. The topic is obviously a bit polarizing, but I didn’t set out to make it controversial at all. Still goes to prove that you have to be very careful when navigating waters like these!

Most Facebook Likes:  [Infographic] Why Student Loans Suck…

Three posts this year broke the 1,000 Facebook Like mark, but this infographic I shared earlier in the year beat out even the “Most Popular” overall post with 1,300+ likes on facebook. Turns out everyone hates student loans!

Most Reminiscing:  10 Truths I’ve Learned on the Open Road… 

As most of you know, Courtney, Milli, and I spent the first 2/3 of the year traveling around the U.S. in our R.V. We met so many amazing people, learned so much about ourselves, and had a lot of fun. Of all the posts in 2011, this post made me smile the most as I reread it recently.

Most Bang For Your Buck:  It’s O.K. to Change Your Course

An extremely short and punchy post that cracked the top 5 this year in most metrics. If you are looking for the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time, this is likely your favorite of the year!

*****

Overall, Man Vs. Debt had close to 600,000 unique visitors to the site in 2011. These visitors viewed just under 1.4 million pages.

We didn’t quite hit all our “benchmarks” I had set early in the year (for goals like subscribers, pageviews, Facebook fans, etc…), but that’s OK. We made great progress toward all of them on what averaged out to be about 2 posts per month only!

What to Expect in 2012!…

I’m going to take a slightly different approach to goal-setting this year. Instead of measuring many of the traditional, larger metrics – I want to measure our creative output as a community.

One of my biggest goals for last year was to build a small team to help magnify what is possible for the community. It wasn’t easy or simple, but I believe I’ve found that mix now. Starting this month, you’ll get to know them more.

GOAL #1: Find a fun way to consistently produce valuable content.

My desire to consistently produce content went down in 2011. I actually don’t think I produced any LESS overall, but much of it was invested in to products like “You Vs. Debt”, speeches, etc… In other words, I didn’t produce as much free-to-the-masses value as I had wanted!

As a team, we want to up that to 8-10 creative content pieces per month! This involves me getting more into podcasting, video production, and other ways to deliver inspiring and impactful content without getting burned out (which happens when I write all the time).

For years, I’ve been the only voice on the website with only a couple guest posts per year. I may bring on an occasional fresh voice from time to time this year to spice things up and provide another unique perspective. We won’t do anything crazy, but in moderation this will really help our first goal.

GOAL #2: Be everywhere (inspired by Pat).

We just launched the new podcast and have set up the studio here at the house for regular video productions. My goal for 2012 is to finally expand into audio and video to complement the writing we do around here.

Specifically:

• Reach Episode 35 of the Man Vs. Debt Podcast.
• Reach Episode 26 of MvDTV (new).
• Get Youtube channel to 1,000,000 views (this includes other videos outside of MvDTV alone).
• Film and produce a documentary (this won’t be about MvD, but will be on a topic related to our message).

GOAL #3: Generate $250,000 in revenue

This is a purely business goal, but one that means we can pay for all our expenses, support our small team, and still have fantastic money left over. I firmly believe a healthy business side to the community will ensure that we can spread out message for many more years to come.

GOAL #4: 1,000 new You Vs. Debt alumni

In 2011, I invested tens of thousands of dollars (and what seemed like that many man hours) recording one of our two flagship courses. After completely scrapping the first version, we’ve finally struck gold with our second attempt. Students from the Fall 2011 class are doing phenomenal on average – and we plan to have 3-4 different classes in 2012.

Having 1,000 new people go through the course and graduate will make a huge impact, make the course even better than it is, and give our community hundreds of new success stories for inspiration.

What are your 2012 Goals?…

As you can see, I’ve moved away from tracking the “big” numbers as it pertains to the website (and even my personal life). But I’m interested to see how you approach reflecting on past years and planning for the new one.

In my personal life, I’m attempting to dedicate this year to fitness (and nearly fitness alone). Instead of having 10 different categories and 10 different sub-goals. I’m going to channel focus into fitness.

Last year was up and down in this area. Some good progress and then some setbacks. But I’ve never fully dedicated myself to this (I’ve always prioritized other commitments and projects over my health).

So this year is about prioritizing the habit of fitness over any other (even this community).

One focus. One vision.

We’ll see how it goes!

What are your goals for your business and life in 2012?