4 Ways to Work with Virtual Assistants to Build Your Online Personal Brand

chris-ducker-tbex-speakerA couple of days ago I presented at TBEX, the worlds largest Travel Blogging Conference, in Toronto, on the subject of working with virtual assistants to make the transition from ‘blogger to business owner’ as easy and productive as possible.

One of the talking points was the importance of building a personal brand.

Building a personal brand online with the help of a virtual assistant is a start way to add value to your online presence. In fact, it’s needed into today’s business landscape, more than ever in the history of business and entrepreneurship.

A ‘personal brand’ is synonymous with your reputation, and refers to the way other people see you. Ask yourself what you want people to say about you when you’re not around – the answer is directly related to your personal brand.

It takes time to build up a reputation and become a trusted authority, or expert in your field – which is necessary when building any type of successful brand. However, there are certainly a few simple first steps to building a personable image, creating rapport and gaining trust as an online entrepreneur that you can have virtual staff handle for you.

…

READ POST

By Demand: Private USA Mastermind Sessions Coming this July! (Limited Seats)

usa-flagAt the beginning of May, I ran the 1st and 2nd Chris Ducker Dot Com Mastermind Sessions in London, comprising of 20 people in total, which sold out in less than 48-hours.

For many of those that attended, it was their first mastermind ever.

Being in an exclusive setting with other likeminded entrepreneurs to discuss business for an entire day was memorable enough, but once you add-on the time spent enjoying drinks together afterwards, the experience turned into something completely different.

Friendships were formed. Alliances were created. Joint ventures entered into and even businesses have been started-up. Here are some of the actions that London attendees have taken in the last few weeks, post Mastermind:

…

READ POST

Join Me and Pat Flynn for Our 1-Day “Business Breakthrough” Event in July!

chris & patAs some of you may know I’ll be in the States for the entire month of July, firstly for Chris Guillebeau’s ‘World Domination Summit’, and then later on in the month for my speaking slot at the National Speakers Association’s Annual Convention in Philadelphia.

This is actually going to be the longest period I’ve spent in the US for the last 6-years, so I wanted to make the most out of it. Whilst thinking of things to do with my time while I’m there, the first thing that popped into my head was my buddy, Pat Flynn.

Myself and Pat met initially online, in early 2010. We then got to hang out in person for the first time in November of that year at BlogWorld Expo – and an instant friendship was formed.

Since then we’ve become closer, both as friends, but also as one another’s sounding board for anything related to business, marketing, parenting, and pretty much anything else! There isn’t a week that goes by where we don’t hop onto Skype together at least a couple of times!

We’ve often said how much fun it would be to do ‘something’ together, but have waited for the right something to come along.

…

READ POST

Why Co-Working Spaces are Invaluable for the ‘New-Age’ Entrepreneur

natalie-coworking-chatAt the beginning of the year I launched a new business – the first ever co-working space here in Cebu City, Philippines, called Location63.

It’s been a remarkable experience, as I’ve seen the resident head count grow steadily since opening our doors. However, one of the best things about the business so far is the people that have dropped in to work there. Everyone from permanent virtual assistants and freelancers, to traveling entrepreneurs and full-blown digital nomads.

It’s been great meeting them all. One of the people that I’ve connected with the most, however, is a true-blue Suitcase Entrepreneur, Natalie Sisson – who I’m introducing you to today.

…

READ POST

How to Buy More Time, Re-Focus on Growth and Boost Business Success!

great-business-projectI’ve said it time and time again. As entrepreneurs, time is our most valuable commodity.

It’s true.

This week the latest issue of the ‘Great Business Project’ magazine was published. Yours-truly graced the cover, and there is also a feature article, as well as an exclusive video interview with myself and the magazine’s publisher and good friend Ralph Quintero, too.

In the interview I talk about time, and more importantly BUYING TIME to become a more productive entrepreneur and a more successful business owner.

Reading the feature reminded me of my session at New Media Expo earlier on this year, where I talked specifically about this topic in relation to building a virtual team to help you build a content marketing empire. The session was incredibly well received, with several bloggers pin-pointing it as one of their fave’s from the event, including successful online entrepreneur and good friend, Pat Flynn.

…

READ POST

How to Organize and Run a Mastermind Session for the First Time

brian-mastermindHow did you spend your weekend? I took a break from the usual family time, and hosted a private mastermind session at my facility, here in Cebu, Philippines – and it was awesome!

I’ve been part of many mastermind sessions before, both one-off’s and regular sessions, however, I’ve never actually run one myself – ie. I’m the host.

After posting a few images on my Instagram account, as well as Facebook and Twitter, I started to get comments and questions on how to be part of such a group, or how to actually start one from scratch.

So, I thought it might be useful for you to put down a few tips on how I went about hosting my first session, including finalizing the mastermind group format and rules, so that if you decide to do it yourself you’ll have something to refer back to when the time comes around.

…

READ POST

Mission Statement: I’m Gonna Change the Mindset of a Generation of Entrepreneurs!

cd-australia13In the last 7-days I’ve put on a keynote presentation and a private workshop in Australia where I had the pleasure to personally speak to, and with, hundreds of entrepreneurs on the subject of outsourcing, working with VA’s and building virtual teams.

I figure about only 30% of those that I met and got to converse with on the subject are already working with virtual assistants.

The rest are either about to pull the trigger, or probably never will, for one reason or another – hey, I’m not a mind reader, but I DO know that us entrepreneurs can be a strange breed from time to time!

Throughout the course of the entire week I kept asking myself one question:

Why haven’t they got started yet?

…

READ POST

Why You Need to Start Using the Telephone Again!

telephone in business

This is a short one…

But, an important one.

I was on the phone with a client earlier this afternoon, from my hotel room here in Sydney (I’m in Australia for a couple of speaking gigs). We were discussing the expansion of his calling campaign with my call center. He’s been with us for almost 2-years and we know each other well – however, this is his first expansion.

It was a short, sharp and to-the-point conversation where we discussed price breaks, set-up, start up time as well as training of new recruits.

The entire call took no more than 20-minutes. The result was additional income for our company, extra support and lead generation capabilities for his business, and we both left the ‘table’ happy.

After the call, I sat and asked myself how long the decision to expand would’ve taken if we had of handled it like so many other people do nowadays with important business decisions – via email.

This drives me nuts – really. I even get emails from people that work for me, in my office, when I’m in the office – instead of them just popping their head around my door to answer a quick question!

Email is for Confirming Details, Not Having Discussions

Hours, if not DAYS would have gone by, taking into consideration time-zone differences, and everything else that would have reared it’s head. And the chances of the ‘deal’ dropping off the table would have been very high.

He had a couple of concerns that I took care of quickly and effectively, right there on the call, which enabled the decision from his end to happen – and happen faster.

The moral of the story, children – pick up the damn phone.

It’s been used in business for decades, and will still be, for decades to come. Don’t hide behind emails – especially in a sales related situation – it’ll get you nowhere.

Emails (or any other type of ‘virtual’ communication) don’t close sales.

People do.

How to Boost Online Audience Engagement: 3 Quick, Effective Tips! (Video)

Screen Shot 2013-01-28 at 5.05.31 PMAs new-age entrepreneurs, doing business in today’s economy, we instantly become content creators.

Whether our chosen medium is written blog posts or eBook’s, online video or podcasting, infographics or tweetables, the fact is that we are ALL in the business of creating and marketing helpful, original content to help grow our brand, our business and our audience.

But, what happens after we’ve done all the hard work needed to create the content and market it online?

All too often I see people create great content and build an audience, or platform, only to not pay that audience enough attention, or even worse – completely ignore it!

…

READ POST

Ask the Tribe: How Do You Handle Entrepreneurial Loneliness?

At very regular intervals, as an entrepreneur, I certainly suffer from one kind of loneliness, or another. I know for a FACT that I’m not alone in this situation.

The difference between those of us that ‘handle’ it, get over it in a timely fashion and focus on our goals, and those that don’t – is usually all-out success (in whatever form you’re shooting for), or simply put… failure.

In today’s short impromptu video clip, which was filmed at my new co-working space, Location63 – the first ever to open here in Cebu, Philippines – I pose a question to you all. How do YOU handle the feeling of being on your own in your entrepreneurial pursuits?

…

READ POST