To Whom and HOW You Should be Selling Your Online Products!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYwE5bugAFs

When it comes to embracing the Virtual Business Lifestyle, there are a number of core concepts involved. If you’ve not been visiting the blog for too long, they are listed at the top of the site – namely Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Outsourcing and Super Mobility (click on one to see the archive for the category – after finishing today’s post, obviously!). One of the main focuses on creating a lifestyle that revolves around being a mobile entrepreneur is creating products or services that can ultimately become Passive Income streams. I say ‘ultimately’ because even ‘passive income’ products have to come from a lot of hard work and time spent on them to get them to ‘market’, or launch, as they are more commonly known as online.

It’s NOT as Easy as 1, 2, 3

Producing a product to sell online is not as simple as just coming up with an idea, getting a domain name registered and a landing page created! Like most things in life, you’ll get out of your product, what you put into it. As I’ve spent a bit of time going into finding a niche before (my quick-fix approach to it, anyway), today I wanted to take you through some ideas on two very important aspects of product, or ‘muse’ creation. Namely, who you should be selling ‘as’, and more importantly whom you should be selling ‘to’… as well as a few ideas on ‘how’ to sell to them.

I hope you enjoy today’s post, and I look forward to your comments, as always.

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 3 of 3)

Here we are with the final installment to this 3-part series on how to be able to create an eBook to give away for free to help build your brand, promote your blog, market a product or service, or simply just to get the word ‘out there’ about what you’re doing online.

In part one we went over the eBook itself. The concept, the importance of quality and the way to lay your eBook out and design ideas. In part two we discussed the importance of building your list through partnering with someone like AWeber, for your list management purposes, and utilizing a great WP plugin tool called PopUp Domination, to be able to super-charge the growth of your subscriber list. We also discussed the importance of utilizing the PDF format of an eBook, by including relevant links and the ability to make a little money (never a bad thing) through using affiliate links relevant to your topic, too.

Nothing comes to those who sit on their ass waiting for the riches they dream about to just land in their laps. Building a solid, profitable email marketing list is no different. With this in mind, today I present to you my Top 10 List of additional things you can do to help promote and market your eBook to make sure that as many people as possible sign-up, by opting into your list and downloading your eBook to devour all its creative splender!

So, lets not waste any time at all, and get going!

1. Share it with Other Cool People!

You’ve worked hard on your eBook, now get it out there. Email a copy of it to other bloggers, particularly those within your niche, and ask for their feedback and if they would like to let their audience know about it. Any good blogger will be happy to point their subscribers in the direction of additional helpful content. You should be that insecure, people. Really.

2. Becoming ‘Social’ on the Subject!

Not using social media to get the word out about your free eBook is like literally going to an awesome water park in the middle of the summer and not jumping into one of the pools! Tweet and Facebook the hell out of it for a few days, and then stop being irritating and calm down, sending the odd-tweet out here and there throughout the course of the week (note to self, Chris – tweet about your free eBook… NOW!)

Tweet sent!

3. Create a Press Release for Online Distribution!

Online press releases are awesome. Why? Because they rank – FAST – in the SERPs. Create a press release, and be sure to stick in the title of your eBook, plus a couple of other related keywords (note: your eBook title does not have to be keyword heavy. Thinking branding FIRST, ranking second!) and you’ll see that it gets listed on Google very quickly. The reason behind this is that the search engines love new, relevant content, PR submission sites are great for that stuff. Better yet – have your virtual assistant do it for you – it can be a little timely, theres a lot of PR sites online!

4. Get Vocal!

If you have a podcast, or get the opportunity to be interviewed, or become a guest on other peoples podcasts, be sure to mention your free eBook. I do this regularly, and it always brings in a spike of sign-up’s. In fact, I went one step further and purchased an additional domain name, VirtualAssistanteBook.com, specifically for mentioning it in podcasts and videos – its a lot easier than saying “Download my eBook by going to my blog and finding the sign-up form to the top of the site and then entering your name and email to get it!”. Instead, its simply… “Click over to VirtualAssistanteBook.com to get my free eBook!”. Much easier.

5. Get Visual!

Shooting a quick promo video for your eBook is a great idea. You can start by showing a front cover image and then cutting to you talking about the contents and why people should download it. Putting yourself ‘out there’ on video is also a massive branding exercise, too (perhaps I should do a post on that – what you think?!)

6. Use Your Other Websites!

If you have other websites, or blogs, produce a quick post on the launch of the eBook, and link to the site you are wanting to promote/market with the free eBook, so that people can sign-up and download the eBook. You’ll be surprised how many people might check out your sites regularly, but dont actually subscribe to any of them. I find this happening more and more, as the Virtual Business Lifestyle blog gets more and more popular.

7. Create Some Additional Awesome Content!

Creating some additional awesome content, related to the content in your eBook and then posting it on other peoples blogs as a guest post, or on article submission sites, such as eZineArticles.com is another great way to drive traffic to your landing page. Just be sure to write well, and dont just do it for the link. People will see ‘link bait’ a mile away nowadays!

8. Blog Commenting (The RIGHT Way!)

Commenting on other, likeminded blogs to your own is another great way to help build traffic to your landing page. Again, just make sure the comment is a good one, with a genuine ‘let me help you’ approach – otherwise it will either a) probably get deleted by the blogger, or b) not get any clicks. I used to do this a LOT when I first started blogging, but nowadays I dont have as much time. I can tell you, however, it does work!

9. Start a Facebook Page for your eBook!

Not a lot of people think of this. They might prefer to just create a Facebook Page for their blog in general, which is okay, and something you should certainly do, but having two pages that you can cross-promote and mention whilst surfing around Facebook is better than one. Disclaimer: I have not done this with ‘Saving the Day’, but I have with other projects and although you have to do a little legwork in getting people to ‘Like’ the page, etc., it can really help to spread the word quickly. Try it, and let me know how you go with it. Again, this is something a virtual assistant is perfect for!

10. Mention your Free eBook in Your Email Signature!

Such a simply thing to do, along with a direct link to your landing page – yet, so, so many people forget to do this one very easy thing. Go for it!

11. Over to You!

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed this series, and that its perhaps answered a few questions and solved a few problems for you, in case you’ve been thinking of putting together a free eBook, or perhaps have been stuck in the middle of finishing one up! Let me know of any other ideas and ingenius ways that you have seen free eBooks marketed and promoted online. I’m sure that there are tons I haven’t mentioned here… And we can all help each other with something like this. Just comment below!

In Closing… I will be getting this 3-part series put together in – you got it – a downloadable free eBook format next week. I will drop you guys an email when it is available. So, be sure to sign-up for my free eBook now (Below!), to get it via email, as soon as its available!

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 2 of 3)

Welcome back to the second part of this 3-part series. So, in the first part, I went over the importance of creating a solid concept for your eBook, focusing on quality, rather than quantity and then wrapped things up by going over some important stuff on the design and layout of your eBook.

Today we’re going to be focusing on the reason behind WHY we have created an eBook to give away for free in the first place (above and beyond helping people with our awesome content, obviously!). In other words, to help build our brand, promote our mission online and to market ourselves, our products, or our services (or perhaps all of the above!). We’re going to look at our email list provider, a simple tool that will increase our sign-up’s by over 200% on average, as well as a technique that will actually allow you to make money from your ‘free’ eBook, after all.

But, First!

The best way to distribute your eBook is in the format of a PDF document. PDF’s are great, because they are low on size, they are quick to download and cant be edited, so you know your content is going to be seen and enjoyed the way you want it to be!

Also, you can include links in PDF documents that when clicked on, automatically open up in a browser. Which we’ll go into a little more in a while.

Converting your eBook, regardless of how, or in what software package you’ve created it, is easy. In fact a lot of programs will now have a built-in function to do it automatically. If not, don’t fret – click here for a ton of freebie options.

It’s All in The List, Baby…!

Personal branding to one side, the main reason why most people giveaway free eBooks online nowadays comes down to one thing and one reason only – to build a list. This list is more than just a collection of email addresses of people that want to read your free eBook and subscribe to your blog (although for some people thats enough!). As an online marketer – its your most powerful tool. The better the list, the better your earnings online.

See how I said better, and not BIGGER!? Personally, I’d rather have 1,000 people that really enjoyed what I did, loved everything that I put out online and genuinely would have no problems putting their hands in their pockets (or Paypal accounts!) when I came to them with a product I had created to sell, or an affiliate offer of some kind, than having 10,000 people on my list that either rarely opened my emails, or did open them and never took any action!

So, below are, in my humble opinion, the three most important things you’re going to need to be able to benefit from all that hard work you put into creating your labor of love, before giving it away for absolutely nothing. Enjoy.

Dependable Email List / Auto-Responder Provider

This is your lifeblood. This is what controls your entire email list set-up. Utilizing the services of a solid, dependable email list auto-responder provider is probably the most important investment you’re going to make as an internet marketer / web entrepreneur.

There are a few good, solid providers out there in this space. However, I use AWeber for a number of reasons:

  • Cost Effective
  • Very Easy to Use
  • Great Sign-Up Form and Email Templates
  • Flawless Auto-Responder Set-Up (if I can do it, anyone can!)
  • Brilliant Reports and Analytics
  • Awesome Customer Service
  • Lots More!

Check out these screenshots from one of the lists I have built for a niche site I have… Great info!

I did a hell of a lot of research on this subject before I actually put my free eBook live online and starting promoting it. Since I’ve been with AWeber, they have never let me down and have even updated their API and other customer service side of things several times since being with them. I’m impressed and suggest you use them and no one else. Simple.

Powerful, Cool Sign-Up Partner!

A lot of people hate ’em. I used to be one of them. However, pop-up’s, lightboxes, or whatever you want to call them, WORK! Plain and simple.

When I first came across PopUp Domination I was a little concerned as to how it was going to work for me. After all, I had been using my AWeber form to capture my new eBook subscribers, and it was working well. However, I went ahead with it because of my relationship with its creator, Michael Dunlop (be sure to catch my interview with Michael on the VBL Podcast!) and was absolutely BLOWN AWAY with how many more sign-up’s I was getting daily.

That was months and months ago, and I am still surprised when I check my sign-up’s from time to time now. Before, I was averaging around 4-5 sign-up’ a day, which I was happy with. Nowadays, I average around 15-20. And the number one source is the PopUp Domination plugin.

The other really cool thing about this plugin is that it works with any website set-up, and any email list provider, too. And… this is super-cool… you get all of the original PSD source files, too. Meaning you can even play around with the design! Above you’ll see that I’ve had my designer tweak the template a little to ‘funk up’ (careful if you’re reading that aloud!) the design a little – it really makes a difference.

Adding Links to Your eBook to Make a Little $$$

As I mentioned at the top of this post, the best way to distribute your free eBook is in the form of a PDF document. There are a ton of reason behind this, but one of the main reasons why I like it is because it allows you to include hyperlinks. This is good because you can send people to other useful resources, such as different blog posts, or websites – to help them in their continued efforts to learn more on whatever subject your eBook is focused on.

However, one of the most under-utilized type of links in free eBook’s are links that send people to products and services that you are an affiliate of. They click. They buy. You make money. Simple as that.

Seriously. Think about it. No matter what subject you’re writing about there MUST be at least a couple of products or services out there that you can help promote and make money from, whenever anyone clicks on your links. Even an Amazon Affiliate can do that for books related to your topic – and there’s tons of books related to EVERY topic!!!

I know of one marketer that gives away an 18-page eBook on the subject of travel for teenagers. He makes around $600 a month on affiliate commissions from that eBook! Links to shoe stores, apparel stores, Amazon, and a couple of additional online resources / guides. He doesn’t lift a finger and is making $600 a month, month-in-month out.

That’s a beautiful thing!

So, that wraps up the second part of this series. In Friday’s final installment I’ll be breaking down my Top 5 ways to ‘get the word out there’ about your eBook and what it stands for, to enable more sign-up’s, downloads and followers! See you then.

Creating a Kick-Ass Free eBook to Build Your Brand (Part 1 of 3)

On Monday last week I announced this series of three posts that begins today. I was blown away by all the awesome comments and emails I received. Seriously – you lot are a seriously smart, demanding bunch! Just joking… After digesting everything and going back to my original mindmap for this series, then adding in your suggestions to hopefully fulfill your ‘needs’, here we go…

So, today we start the series on how to create a kick-ass free eBook which you can use to help build your brand, as well as help promote and market your blog, product, service, with taking a look at Creating the Concept of your eBook, the time-honored question of ‘Quality, or Quantity’ and how important the Design and Layout of your eBook is.

Initial Housekeeping Notes

Although I have tried to make this series of posts as informative and as easy-to-follow as possible, you might still see the odd crack in the ‘process’ being presented here. This is because, quite frankly, I wanted this to be a simple to follow series, with practical advice and tips, and not go into too much detail on any one subject matter – saying that, there is still plenty of meat on the bones, and if you have any particular questions, feel free to let me know.

Kindly note, this series is about creating a FREE eBook. One that you will give away for absolutely no profit. If you want a more in-depth guide to creating an eBook that you can sell, I strongly suggest you check out Pat Flynn’s eBookstheSmartWay.com (free), and Dave and Naomi’s HowtoSellYoureBook.com (paid) – I’ve read and used BOTH in my eBook marketing, and they’re great.

Most Importantly: Create something that you feel is good enough to sell, but then give it away for free! This will ensure that the quality of your eBook is high, that its incredibly informative and will genuinely make a difference to the reader once they have finished reading it. I did this with ‘Saving the Day, the Virtual Way’, and have had so many awesome emails from people, that it was certainly worth all the effort.

Creating the Concept

First and foremost, don’t write about anything that you know nothing about. It’ll be so obvious that you’re bluffing and simply not worth your time! Secondly, here’s probably the biggest, most important tip you will get from this entire series – write your eBook for your audience, not for yourself. Look into solving problems for other people. If this comes about by taking care of a problem YOU have to start off with, thats fine. Solving problems for people is the oldest and most powerful ‘sales’ strategy out there.

You might have a very clear picture of what you want to write about. If so, and you know it’ll benefit your audience, then go for it! One thing that you should also consider is doing a survey with your current readership first. I did this a while ago when we re-designed the VBL Blog, and I can tell you, the feedback I got was priceless – worth more than any amount of sales, as it allowed me to tweak the design of the site to help people navigate it properly and enjoy their experience on the blog more. I also did something similar when trying to find my ‘core’ readership, and when when asking for feedback on an upcoming product I’m putting together.

Among the most successful digital products out there, almost all of them are ‘How To’ types of products. Your giveaway eBook should be no different. Not only are ‘How To’ guides really simple to put together, but they are easy to read and generally get downloaded more than the other types of freebie eBooks out there.

Every good story has a beginning, middle and an end. Your eBook should be no different. So, break your contents down into three main sections. It’s a good idea to sit down and plan this part of your eBook out very clearly. I’m a big fan of mindmaps. I use them, literally, every day. Now I use my iPad to do most of them, but, back in the beginning of 2010 when I produced ‘Saving the Day’, I mapped things out on a small whiteboard I have in my home office.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the original mindmap… You’ll see I already intended to add additional content to it, and make an audio version, even back in those earlier days. Although I did it nearer 3000 downloads, not the 1000 noted here!

Firstly, I presented the problem. I talked about how busy entrepreneurs are, and that if only they had solid, dependable help they could get so much more done on a daily basis. Then, I went into the solution side of things. Again, by way of example, in my free eBook I talk about virtual assistants, what they do, how they do it, etc. Then finally, I wrapped everything up with the ending – what the solution can mean to the person reading. In my case the solution is finding, hiring and working with a VA to enable the busy business owner to gain more time in his/her day-to-day life, create more business ideas, strategize for growth, spend more time with family and ultimately become more successful, all by utilizing a VA.

Quality, or Quantity?

This is a highly debated topic when it comes to giving away a freebie eBook. Fact is, if the eBook has lots of pages, then it looks as if people are getting a lot more for their ‘download’ buck. However, what if all the content on those pages is a load of old rubbish..!?!!

A while ago, when I was discussing how often I was going to be updating this blog, and the struggles I was having in keeping up with the schedule I had put in place, the most commented-on topic was over the fact that quality matters more than anything else. Visitors were very clear that they would rather come to the blog twice a week, or three times a week for QUALITY posts, than five times a week, for soft or ‘weak’ quality posts.

So, bottom line here – quality – every time. The fact is that I’ve downloaded some eBooks that are just a handful of pages long (personally, I wouldn’t call these ‘eBooks’, but rather ‘Special Reports’, or something similar), and they have been great. However, I’ve downloaded 100+ page eBooks for free and they’ve been mediocre at the best of times.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. Namely, Jonathan Mead and Colin Wright – their free eBooks are nothing short of spectacular, and both great in length and content. I’m sure there are more, but these gentlemen really stand out for me, personally. Note: You’ll see interviews with both these guys on the VBL Podcast soon. They are in being edited, as we speak!

Things Not to Forget

There’s a few things that you certainly do not want to forget to include in your eBook. Firstly, make sure you have some kind of disclaimer / copyright page set-up. In my eBook’s I dont go too heavy on this, but I do make sure to tell everyone that they should feel free to distribute the eBook further afield, however, not to remove or edit anything in anyway, shape or form – that just aint cool, baby!

You should also be sure to include some links to other valuable sources, either on your own blog, and other peoples, too. You can also link to relevant products and services that might help people further, too (we’ll go into this a little more on Wednesday) – just be sure not to link-stuff, too much!

And lastly, be sure to hype yourself a little, at least. A simply ‘About the Author’ page is certainly needed, with a nice image.

Design & Layout

Most people I have spoken to on this subject believe that you can have the most amazing design in the world, but if the content is crappy then you won’t get very far, in the overall scope of things. I agree. However, the importance of standing out, and making sure that the design of your eBook is nice, clean, professional and helps to build your brand is, as far as I’m concerned, just as important as the content.

Although I have a flare for creativeness (my father was an architect, my mother an interior designer), I do not know how to use Photoshop, and quite frankly, when I have such phenomenal support around me, there is no real reason for me to learn how to, either. I come up with the concept, sit with my designer and then he will put it all together. We’ll work as a team, finalize the layout template and then he’ll simply dump the rest of the content into the approved layout. Viola! Your eBook will be finished in no time.

Firstly, having a rockin’ cover will certainly help gain attention. Be sure to spend time on the title. Be original here, guys! Innovative, don’t follow… And the internal pages should be on a white background and a dark covered text, just in case the person that downloads your labor of love wants to print it out. I like to keep images to a minimum in my eBooks, this gets the reader to focus on my content, rather than pretty pictures and colors. See some examples from ‘Saving the Day’, below:

Front Cover, Internal Content Page and the ‘About the Author’ Page in “Saving the Day!”

You’ll see with this eBook, I came up with a superhero theme. Hence the title and the colors, and front cover Superman-style logo. I loved this when my designer finished it up – but, I will say, the ‘concept’ was ALL ME!!! 🙂

You’ll also see that we continued to brand the eBook with the logo internally, too (my designers idea, not mine!) and it worked out great! I highly recommend going with a landscape style layout, as its easier to read on a computer screen – the way eBooks should be read – on a monitor. When you’re done with the layout and the design aspects of the eBook get to focusing on the editing of your content.

Go back through what you’ve written. Focus on just the MEAT of the content itself. Any ‘prettying’ of sentences, etc., lose them. As I always say, sometimes less is more. Remember that. This will enable you to create content that is easy to read, keeps people turning (or clicking) the page and ultimately means that the reader experience is top quality all the way to the end of the eBook.

So, that just about wraps up this first installment of this weeks 3-part series. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and in case you have any additional questions on anything that you feel I might have left out on this part part.

If you’d like to see my entire eBook, including the additional content and the AudioBook version, you can download it here.

See you on Wednesday with Part 2 of the series where I go into how you can now use your eBook to start gaining more subscribers, building your email list, and the tools you can use to make this important activity easier and more successful than you can possibly imagine and… how you can STILL make money with your eBook, even though you’re giving it away for free!

If you liked this first installment – Please share on Twitter, or Facebook!

3 Success Traits Underrepresented in the Business Blogosphere!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAWPfUzdbq0

Chris: Today I am very excited to feature the first of hopefully a long, long line of posts here at the VBL Blog by our first ever ‘Regular Contributor’, Dan Andrews. Dan and I have been friends for a while and have many things in common. The strongest trait for me, by far, is our mutual love for entrepreneurship. So, over to you, Dan!

Along with todays video, which focuses on the 3 success traits for entrepreneurs that I feel are underrepresented in the business blogosphere, I’ve included some further reading if you are interested in some of these ideas:

Ambition

Discipline

Teaming Building

  • Maverick by Ricardo Semler. I won’t suggest another because you need to read this book. Seriously.

Chris: If you feel you could contribute 2-3 quality posts to the VBL Community each month and would like to be considered as a ‘Regular Contributor’, please contact me with your proposal. Please note, that there are no more ‘guest post’ spots open, and that all Regular Contributor content MUST be related to the VBL Core4 concepts of Entrepreneurship, Passive Income, Outsourcing and Mobility.

Comments below for Dan, as mentioned in his video…!

Ask the Readers: What is an Entrepreneur Out For, More Than Anything Else..!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr3E6Z9ynm0

What is an entrepreneur, exactly? I’ve said it lots of times – we’re a strange breed. We are the masters of our own domains (both online and off!) and bring a lot to the table of life, thats for sure. Crafting ideas and marketing like mad. We all want different things. But, the big question here is what are we really out for..?

Asking the question ‘What is an Entrepreneur’ might be easy enough to answer, you can check out the dictionary definition, if you like! However, as individuals, there are a lot of different things that come into play in regards to what we really want out of being the king of our own castles, such as:

  • Money
  • Fame
  • Power
  • Recognition
  • To build things
  • To promote our OWN things

The list is, literally, endless. What is an entrepreneur thinking when he/she starts his first company? Why do they aspire to make the jump from 9-5 robot to ‘own boss’ status. What is an entrepreneur striving for with each and every idea that they come up with, manifest into something awesome, and then unleash it upon the world..?

Check out my thoughts in the quick video clip above, and then I’d like to hand this one over to you guys. As you know, I value your input, insights and feedback more than anything else (even a good Starbucks!).

What is an entrepreneur out for, in your eyes?

Ask the Readers: Do you Work 9-5, or are you Your Own Boss already?

Short, sweet and to the point today, guys…

I’m on my way to Singapore over the weekend for a little mini-vacation and a few days of decompression with my wife. We like to get away regularly. In the meantime, I wanted to ask one very simple question to get a clear understanding as to the type of people I now have visiting this site.

It’s going to take you exactly TWO CLICKS to give me all the info I need to continue on the right path, and make this site Number One in its niche, going forward into the rest of the year and beyond, so please click below…

The main reason behind this little poll is that I want to start making the content here on the VBL Blog a hell of a lot more focused. Niching it down, baby! I want to continue to help, inspire, educate and support everyones dreams and aspirations. But need to know WHO I am doing this for the most, to fine-tune things a little.

If you have more to say on this subject, along with any ideas – thats awesome!!! Comment section below – you know the deal…!

Replace Yourself Like a Ninja: How I’ve Disappeared from Another Business!

Ninja

Replace yourself, Chris!!! What? Again?! Fair comment, but, over the last six weeks I have seen an incredible boost to the sales numbers over at Virtual Staff Finder. Since we launched the service back in September this year, we’ve done good, steady business – but, since the beginning of the year we’ve experienced roughly a 30% increase in sign-up’s.

This has done two things. One – made me happy, obviously, as we’ve been able to help tons of great entrepreneurs find solid virtual employees. And, two – made me VERY busy. Let me explain why…

Virtual Staff Finder helps business owners and entrepreneurs, both online and off, to find good quality, reliable virtual staff. Simple enough for us to do – we’re here in the Philippines, I own and operate an outsourcing company and have years of experience in the field, I have great support staff and a clear marketing vision locally – so we attract GREAT home-based VA’s that want to be involved in what we’re doing and get work with awesome overseas employers, that have ‘Replace yourself, Mike!’ written all over their thought process!

However, part of the process of the VSF service includes a 30min consultation with yours truly. Do you see where I’m going with this now..? You got it – the busier we get, the more people that sign-up to utilize the service, the more consultation calls I have to do.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I absolutely LOVE doing these calls. It allows me to connect with great entrepreneurs and likeminded people, and I’ve actually become good buddies with a few of the VSF clients. But, and for me as a Virtual CEO, its a BIG but… It’s taking massive chunks of my time away from me. My entrepreneurial clock was being slowed done because of the step – regardless of how much I was enjoying interacting with the clients.

So, last week the decision was made to fundamentally take me out of the process. In fact it was my VSF project manager that actually came right out and said, “Boss, you need to replace yourself to be able to focus on other things, too”. She’s awesome! Thinking about it, if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to be able to continue to grow my core business, the Live2Sell Group, as well as the Virtual Staff Finder service – plus, launch all the other projects I am working on for this year, such as the first ever VBL Product – more news on this next week!

The Problem

With this decision, however, came a problem. I had noticed that on pretty much all of these calls I was coaching and helping the clients through vital decision making steps in working with VA’s. How to train them. How to pay them. How MUCH to pay their VA. How to keep them motivated, and so on.

Surely the success of the people that signed-up for the service, in regards to working with the VA’s, must have something to do with all those tips, tools and tactics I was giving them on the call. But, if the call wasn’t part of the VSF equation any more, how would I be able to help the clients?

The Solution

After much deliberation, and several trips to Starbucks, myself and a select few staff at the Live2Sell Group decided that I was going to shoot a series of exclusive videos that would help coach the clients through the entire process, just as if they were on the phone with me. The content of the videos would be pretty much identical to the calls I had been making for the last almost-six-months, but, it was a one-time deal. Once they were shot, edited and uploaded, I would never have to do it again. “Talk about literally, replace yourself!”, I thought to myself… The tick-tock of my entrepreneurial clock was sounding again!

So, Monday last week, I worked on Powerpoint presentations – just simple white screen, black typeface, to be able to follow when I was filming, so that the information was concise and to the point and so I wouldn’t just waffle on… Then, the next day, we shot the videos in one sitting, back to back – surprisingly fast, with no do-overs, thanks to the Powerpoint slides. Then, on Wednesday, they were edited and finalized.

At the beginning of this week we made several very fine adjustments to the VSF Website, that changed certain wording in regards to the consultation call, and everything is now set. For me – this service now becomes a brand new 100% passive income product. As my good friend, Pat Flynn would say “Awesome..!” (in only the way that Pat could say it..!!). Well… Almost.

What Do You Mean ‘Almost’…?!!

As some of you may know, I also offer consultation services on this website – in case you’ve never checked out that section, you can do so for information on personal branding coaching, VA support services and general entrepreneurial brainstorming, amongst other things. So, I still DO a certain amount of consulting – why? Because I enjoy it, plain and simple.

So, what I decided to do, right at the last moment, was to include the ability for people to still have that VSF consultation call with me, however, for a slightly increased price point. Instead of the $350 usual fee, we’re pricing it up at $500.

Ultimately, I don’t expect a lot of people to sign-up using this option. At the end of the day they are using the service to find a qualified, experienced virtual assistant, not to talk to me. However, giving them the opportunity to do so, I believe shows that although I am not part of the ‘normal’ process any more, it doesn’t mean that I don’t care about my clients. And they ARE my clients. It’s my company, after all.

So, that is the tale of how I went about the mission to replace myself from a day-to-day business model, for the second time in 3 months! 🙂 – Getting good at it, aren’t I..?!!

Why I Wrote This Post

Simple. I wanted to illustrate that although sometimes you start a business in one way, it doesn’t mean that the business has to remain that way. Stagnant. Unmovable. Unchangeable. Especially when the success of that business stops you from doing other things that you want to!

This type of move is commonly called an ‘entrepreneurial pivot’. Much like the pivot in basketball, where you plant one of your feet in one particular position, and although you cant then move that foot (its superglued to the floor!), you can still rotate and reposition it to give you more options of a pass, or shot. The entrepreneurial pivot is a powerful weapon, and one that I have used countless times to great success.  And, I’m also planning one for this blog to happen soon, too!

What Says The Crowd…?!

I’m curious to know what you guys think of this plan, and whether you think it will affect the service in general and – ultimately, its sales. Personally, I think I’ve covered pretty much all the bases in those videos and my support staff on the service are all AWESOME, and take great care of all our clients.

The concept to replace yourself as a business owner might not always be your first choice. However, like I said… Hearing from you guys (as you’re such a smart bunch!), would be great… So, please let me know what you think.

Capturing Entrepreneurial Ideas to Boost Productivity… and Sleep!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6MnDz2Gr2c

It’s been a while since I recorded one of these quick videos. It’s not because I havent had the questions – believe me, I’ve HAD the questions, but mainly because I’ve been getting back to people a lot more via the VBL Facebook page – the community there is really starting to grow – thanks to everyone who has ‘Liked’ us, and if you haven’t – what are you waiting for, seriously…?!

Today’s Question

So today I answer a question from Michael in New Zealand on the subject of capturing entrepreneurial ideas so he can, amongst other things, get a better nights sleep..! I actually went into this a little a while back in a post, but the question pops up quite regularly, so I figured a little video might not hurt…

It’s tough being an entrepreneur – but, stick with it Mike, and the rest of you – it’s one of the  the only way to create a great ‘New Rules’ of Lifestyle Design, as I discussed on Monday.

I’ll be doing more of these in the future, and might not necessarily put them all on the blog, so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, VirtualCEO.tv (which is now also available in the sidebar of the blog, too!).

Please leave your own ideas on the subject below, as we can all learn a little from each other! See you Monday.

Lifestyle Design: The NEW Rules!

Lifestyle Design: The New Rules!

Before Tim Ferriss authored his first bestselling book (I’m not even going to quote the title, everyone knows what book I’m talking about!), the term ‘Lifestyle Design’ was barely searched for on Google. Even though the concept of designing a lifestyle against the ‘norm’, one that gave it’s exponents the ability to live life on their own terms, was being practiced by a select few, it wasn’t until Tim started promoting and marketing his book online, and it’s subsequent launch, that the term itself became one of the most searched for phrases online.

However, a lot has changed since the release of the book, and the concept of Lifestyle Design isn’t so foreign to the masses anymore. Its mainstream. It’s ‘out there’ and there are hundreds of blogs you can read that give you all the info you need to start designing your own dream life.

What actually is Lifestyle Design, anyway..?

Lifestyle Design is fundamentally working towards designing a life that is against the norm. Its about sticking it to ‘the man’, being your boss, and living life on your terms.

This can mean different things for different people, of course. But, ultimately, I strongly believe that the most important factor of designing your dream lifestyle is to be your own boss, first and foremost. Some might disagree with this, and thats okay – it’s just my opinion, I’m sure you have yours.

The reason behind this is that by becoming your own boss you are the master of your own universe. You call the shots. You make the decisions. Worked 14 hours today, been crazy productive and want to take a day off tomorrow to spend more time relaxing and decompressing – do it. Want to travel to the other side of the country to spend more time with your number one client – do it. And all on your own terms, and at the speed that makes you happy.

New Rule #1 – What if you have lots of employees..? Delegate.

Fast forward. Let’s say you have your own business, and it’s got to the point where you have several people ( or several hundred people, like myself!) working for you. The idea of leaving the office, and becoming a mobile entrepreneur might scare the crap out of you. But, that’s what Lifestyle design is all about.

The first step to freeing yourself of the responsibility of not having to ‘be there’ all the time for your staff is to start delegating. Fast. The more delegating you do, the less ‘work’ you’ll be doing, and more strategizing, marketing and planning you’re going to be able to focus on. Which is exactly what every business owner should be working on… Not packaging the orders to customers. And certainly not answering the phone, sending invoices to clients, or other admin related tasks.

You’ll find that the more you delegate to your staff, the better they will become at what they’re doing for you, and the more they will enjoy their jobs because of it. People get bored, and stagnant in their roles as employees. Mix things up a little, and give them some more responsibility. The act of delegation alone plays a big role in the design of your overall preferred lifestyle.

And if employees put up resistance, and prefer for you to not delegate task to them, replace them ASAP. These types of employees will bring your business down eventually, not help you grow it.

New Rule #2 – What if you have kids…? Plan.

Having children is probably the best feeling in the world. For me, it doesn’t get any better than being woken up in the morning to the word… ‘Daddy!’.

Some parents that practice their own lifestyle design concepts will travel seamlessly around the world, home schooling their kids. If that works for them, then that’s great. For me, however, because of my other responsibilities, both personal and business related, that is not a possibility. And I’m not the only one in that boat, too.

The fact is that you can still design an awesome lifestyle with kids in tow. First things first, the kids should always be the most important factor in your lifestyle design equation. If you don’t agree with me on that one, as a fellow parent, I’d prefer it if you go read another blog. Seriously.

The great thing about being a kid is the school holidays. They are huge, compared to what they used to be! And by being a self employed parent you can enjoy those holidays and the immanent travel that comes with them. All schools will give you a calendar at the beginning of the school year, listing all the holiday dates. So, start planning your travel and trips immediately.

Book your flights and hotels/resorts early, and then start planning what the mice will be doing in the office (see New Rule #1, above!), when the cat is away on vacation, living the lifestyle he/she is designing for their family.

New Rule #3 – Laptops on Beaches is soooo yesterday! Get Mobile.

Right, first up… I’ve never been able to figure this one out. Who wants to actually WORK on a beach in the first place…? Seriously! Firstly, going to the beach is supposed to get you away from the office and work, and computers, so you can de-stress and switch off. Secondly, getting sand inside your laptop isn’t ideal..!

But, seriously… The idea of working on the beach is very much the ‘yesteryear’ of lifestyle design. That’s your down time. That’s your rebooting time. Use it properly.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t escape to a beach resort, or go stay at a beach location, or apartment for a period of time, and work whilst you’re there. It simply means – leave your laptop in your room whilst enjoying yourself on the beach!

Last year, I spent a whole week at a beach resort in amazing Boracay. I worked an average of 5 hours a day, inside my air-conditioned apartment, shot a great series of VA video tips and enjoyed the rest of my time with my wife, as we decompressed, relaxed, enjoyed happy hour cocktails, and generally created lots of fond memories.

I conversed with my management team via Skype and email, and things flowed nicely. Not only this, but the entire time I was away, I was speaking with clients consistently and none of them figured out I was not in the office. Now, THAT is what I call the Virtual Business Lifestyle!

The new rules of lifestyle design are not black and white. They are not for everyone. Some of you might agree with these rules, some might not. The most important thing is that you recognize that the concept of designing a life that you and your family will really enjoy and appreciate living, is ‘out there’ for you all to discover.

I have, and continue to. And you can, too.

Some of you might have your OWN new rules of lifestyle design, and I would love to hear them from you. Please feel free to comment below, at will, so we can ALL learn from each other on our relentless journey’s to creating lifestyles we love to live!