Life is short. Taking trips on "vacation days" alone won't help you see the world and those 14 annual days certainly won’t have a better understanding of your place in it. My solution? Work while I travel. By fusing personal interests into my work, I’ve found a way to grow my business and pursue my travel dreams. And I won’t lie: There are some pretty savvy skills at play. But this post isn’t about travel tips. (Although if you’re interested, you can find those here.) Instead, this is about the business value you can get from combining business with pleasure. I love vacations, but I obviously need to work. And because of this I think a lot about the crossover between my personal goals and my business goals. For every trip I take, there is business value in it. I’ve been to Japan three times in the last year. Every time I vacationed and also did work. In December I spoke at the iMedia Brand Summit and also had an awesome vacation adventure. I figured I wouldn’t be going back for a while, but fate kicked in and I found an amazing flight deal to Tokyo and I booked! Lauren Moore, my amazing work partner, came with me we had an amazing time. Better yet, we used the trip as an opportunity to visit a client in Hong Kong. So business intersected with vacay. While there, we got some perspective and inspiration for our innovative brand work, and you can’t put a dollar sign on that experience. Obviously when I travel I keep my clients in mind. I’m always looking to introduce my clients to international contacts. In fact, one of my clients, Judy Stakee , will speak at New Media Europe this month and use it as an opportunity to do more workshops of her own while she’s across the pond. So whether it is building workshops in a new city, finding exciting contacts, taking photos, and just gathering inspiration for branding, traveling can bring you so much business value and a whole lot of fun! For more info on how to get a great travel deal, listen to episode 10 of my podcast No Philter: Bursting Your Bubble .