ChrisDucker.com

Helping Entrepreneurs Go The Distance In Business… And Life!

For Blog Readers ONLY: ‘Virtual Freedom’ AudioBook Bonuses Unleashed!

virtual freedom audibleToday is a special day for me, as I’m excited to announce that Virtual Freedom is now available on in both AudioCD and Audible Download versions, via Amazon!

The on-going success of the book continues to put a smile on my face, and when my publishers told me that the audio rights had been snapped up, I was over the moon.

To celebrate the launch of the audio version of the book (which I know a lot of you have been waiting for!), I’ve put together a handful of bonuses, if you go ahead and purchase your copy by the end of August – so, no rush, you’ve got the whole month to act.

…

READ POST

3 Cities, 400+ Guests & Plenty of Memories – The ‘Virtual Freedom’ USA Book Tour

cd signingWhen I finished writing my book, Virtual Freedom, I was happy with the outcome. I’d worked hard on the manuscript, and even though I learned a fair few lessons along the way, overall, I knew that I had produced the absolute best book that I had inside of me on the subject of working with virtual staff.

I also knew that following its release, many people would buy it. Read it. Review it and (hopefully) tell others about it. All this has happened and I’ve been floating on cloud nine since its launch in April, as I continue to ride the wave that its initial launch has created.

However, nothing could prepare me for what I would experience as I came face-to-face with the readers of the book, as I went on my US Book Tour. I was excited to speak at events and do signings at three different US cities this past month.

…

READ POST

10 Social Media Tools That Make Everything Easier!

social media tools

While social media is definitely a huge part of many small business marketing plans, it is still one facet of a much bigger picture and many entrepreneurs find themselves wishing there were more hours in the day to focus on the other aspects of their business.

To help give you a little more time in your day, yet continue to promote your social media presence, here’s a list of ten of my favourite social media tools that I use (some more regularly than others) with my team, that can help your business top on top of things a little more.

If you’re wanting to get your social media to even higher heights without being involved every step of the way, you should also check out my guide on How to Work with a Virtual Assistant to Manage Your Social Media – #justsaying 🙂

…

READ POST

The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Team Building Tools, Services and Resources

virtual team tools

When you’re getting started building a virtual team of staff one of the biggest hurdles that a lot of people have is knowing what tools to use to help you do everything as efficiently and as effectively as possible. 

With the internet (and all the goodness that it brings our way!) changing rapidly and consistently, it’s sometimes tough to know what the best option is for this, or that job / process. There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t receive countless emails and tweets on this subject from business owners that are wanting to either start their team building journey as proactively as possible, or (if they’ve been on that journey for a while already) take it to the next level.

…

READ POST

3 Software Platforms to Help Manage Your Virtual Business

obile managementIf you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you know that I constantly talk about the leverage created by employing virtual staff.  In fact, there’s a team of people behind almost every successful person I’ve met in my many years doing business.

A great example would be James Schramko.  If you listen to the Podcast that I did with him you’ll hear how he takes the concept of “leverage” to the next level (30-60 minutes of work per day for a multi-million dollar business).  He’s currently got a team of almost 50 virtual assistants and they’re responsible for running his entire business.

I think we can all agree that in order to get to 50 assistants, you’ve got to build serious processes and systems into your business.  That’s what today’s post is all about… how to use software to create a lot of get rid of a lot of the dirty work you’re used to doing.

Even if you don’t have the goals of ever employing 50 assistants, systems in your business will still help your life become more enjoyable.  Getting more done in less time is always the goal, and the software currently exists that really help you streamline your business – no matter where you happen to be running it from!

…

READ POST

10 Online Influencers That Will Affect Positive Change in Your Business!

online influencers

Even the best leaders need to follow, in order to continue to grow. [Tweet This!]

At the end of each year I pick three influencers that I will follow throughout the course of the next year to learn from. I keep these secret (so don’t ask!) and quietly study how they do what they do. I reach out to them, converse with them, become friends with them (if we don’t know each other already!), perhaps get them on my podcast and generally soak up as much knowledge and experience from them as possible.

It’s a great growth strategy which I’ve followed for the last 4-years now, and I strongly suggest you start doing likewise.

In order to help you, I’ve put together the following list (which is presented in no particular order) of all-star influencers that are currently serving up plenty of brilliant content and know-how tips and tactics. You might fancy following some on the list (in full, or part) to learn from.

Let’s get to it!

…

READ POST

Thought of the (Fri)Day – It’s NOT Just About Me, or YOU!

its-friday

It’s Friday. 

Generally, I don’t work Friday’s. However, today is a little different…

I’ve just clearing my inbox to ZERO. Prior to that I shot a couple of quick videos, had a 15-minute meeting with my VA team via Skype to discuss a new project and was interviewed for a podcast.

The time, as I hit publish on this post (which took me around 20-minutes to write) is 11am. I’m done for the day.

I’m now off to spend the afternoon with my youngest and then it’s date night for me and my wife… dinner and a movie.

Why am I telling you all this?

…

READ POST

Ducker Digest: April, 2014 – My Monthly Entrepreneur Report

April 2014

Welcome to my monthly report for April 2014. I’m a little late getting this one out (I like to put them together in the first week of each month), but following the launch of Virtual Freedom, I treated myself to a little downtime, and a short vacation with the family to unwind and recharge after a month of non-stop book madness!

Before I get stuck into the in’s and out’s of what took place last month, I want to make it clear that I don’t publish these reports to ‘show off’ in any way. There are lots of other entrepreneurs that are out there that are way more successful than me. I publish them because they help ME stay on track, and because I know people love the ‘fly on the wall’ experience – and lastly, because I simply love looking back on the month that just was!

Without further ado, let’s rock it!

…

READ POST

How to Use a ‘Nano Podcast’ to Successfully Launch Your Next Big Thing!

virtual freedom podcastI recently launched my first ever traditionally published book to the world.

It quickly became a #1 Bestseller in three separate business categories and climbed into the Top 150 Rank (hitting 133) of ALL books on Amazon.com – woot!

In short, the launch was a big success, selling thousands and thousands of copies in it’s launch week alone.

I did many things to skyrocket the initial (and on-going) success of Virtual Freedom, such as being a guest on every major entrepreneurial podcast, guest posting on some of the biggest blogs online, running a private Facebook group, mailing finished copies to major influencers (both on and offline), speaking engagements, building out a dedicated website for the book, and much, much more.

However, the one thing that I’m most proud of is deciding to publish podcast episodes directly and exclusively dedicated to the book, it’s message and the type of people that would be buying it, via a brand new, limited release podcast.

In this post I’m going to let you in on why I decided to do this, how I put it together, the execution involved to make it happen the right way, and results on how the podcast affected the initial launch success of the book itself.

…

READ POST

How to Put Your Podcast on Auto Pilot

podcast auto pilot

I’ve been podcasting since April 2010 and I can directly relate additional business, more profits, more connections, better community building and a host of other opportunities to that sheer fact that I’m actively engaging in this brilliant medium.

Just like a blog, I believe that every entrepreneur today should be podcasting. Truly, I do.

One of the main reasons a lot of people don’t pull the trigger on this, however, is because of the time it takes to produce regular podcast content. Today, I want to try and change that!

The following is the EXACT process I follow to put my podcast on auto pilot.

It’s so simple, anyone can follow it.

Step #1 – Creating Your Podcast Content

This is the one part of the process that you cannot hand off to anyone else. This is why people are going to tune in. They are going to tune in because of you.

podcast set-up

People want to hear your stories. Your experiences. They want / need your expertise. They want you. So, give it to ’em, okay!

And a quick note on equipment – you don’t need a pro set-up like the one I use, above. Just a simple mic and a quiet environment is all you need to get started.

Step #2 – Editing Your Podcast

Once I’ve created the raw content of my podcast, I dump the files into a Dropbox folder which is shared with my Podcast Editor VA. Typically there are two files:

  1. The bulk of the show – either an interview recording, or my solo presentation for that episode.
  2. My spoken intro – this is where I mention any special events, masterminds I might be doing, etc., it’s also where I read out recent reviews for the show, too.

My editor will then get to work splicing these files together with my pre-recorded intro and outro, and export everything as the final .mp3 file.

Step #3 – Tagging & Uploading Your Podcast File

As soon as my editor has finished the editing of the show he will upload the file into another Dropbox folder I share with my General VA (GVA).

podcast tagging

She will then tag the .mp3 file with the show’s artwork, and the episode information (image above), before uploading it to my audio server – I currently use Libsyn for the New Business Podcast and Soundcloud for the Virtual Freedom Podcast.

She’ll then forward on the URL of the uploaded file to my Show Note Editor VA.

Step #4 – Create Your Podcast’s Show Notes

Once my show note editor gets the URL, she’ll download the file and listen to it. At the same time she’ll be taking down notes on important parts of the show, as well as any mentionables, such as websites, videos, etc.

She’ll then use the file’s URL to embed the audio file into the show post (I use the BluBurry Powerpress plugin), select an image to go along with the podcast topic (image of the guest, for example), write intro and outro paragraphs, select a few main talking points from the session and list them down, embed any videos, list down all the websites, etc., and finally hit ‘Save Draft’.

She will then drop me an email letting me know that the post is ready for my approval.

Step #5 – Publishing Your Podcast

I’ll then log into WordPress, open the draft post and check it out. Once I’ve spent 10-minutes going over it, making any final tweaks, etc., I’ll either schedule it to go live at some point in the future (I currently have podcast content scheduled until June!), or simply hit publish.

Step #6 – Promoting Your Podcast

At this point my General VA will put together a quick ‘social image’ (pictured below), and post the image, along wit a quick description to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to spread the word.

NBP-Episode21

She will then log into my Aweber account and with a pre-written email that I’ve already given her, schedule a broadcast to go out to my subscriber list to alert them of the new content, too.

That’s it.

That’s my entire process for producing (and promoting) podcast material on a regular basis.

About The Team That Gets it Done!

I want to state very clearly that only one person in this entire process is employed with a full-time salary – my General VA – as she does plenty more for me, too.

Everyone involved has a copy of this process flow and follows it time and time again. It’s not broken, so nobody tries to fix it – it’s the process we simply follow to run the podcast on auto pilot.

It simply works.

I hope you’ve found this quick guide helpful, and I’d like to do more of these simple process posts for you, if you’d like to see them, of course?

Question: If there was ONE process you’d like to offload to virtual staff with the help of a simple post like this one, what would it be?