Chris Ducker

Expert Business Growth, Virtual Staffing & Personal Branding

One Week in my Virtual Business Lifestyle – Searching, Stressing (a little!) and Producing!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyU-l8t_EVg

Location: Company HQ – Reading / Viewing Time: 4mins

Last Friday I shot this quick video (with my webcam, so quality is a little lower than usual), in regards to last week’s going-on’s. I originally thought I might just slam this up on our Facebook Fan Page, but then figured a post would get it to a larger audience – so, here you go.

It was a bit of a topsy-turvy week, and I can report that I am STILL looking for that Operation’s Manager – so, if you fancy it and have previous, relevant experience, let me know. I will bring you a little more up to date on everything this coming Friday, when my latest Monthly Report (for July) will go live.

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How to Become a Digital Crusader

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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 6mins

This is a Guest Post by Mars Dorian of Mars Dorian’s ‘The World Needs You‘. A digital entrepreneur, Mars is dedicated to changing the online world through personal branding and creative marketing, check out his excellent blog for more info!

What the heck is this? Some new marketing scam? No, my friends, it’s your ultimate potential!

Instead of just making money online (boo-ring!), aim a little higher. Much higher. Become a web warrior and illuminate the world around you.

Make a promise to yourself: As long as you are alive, you will have your own digital business and inspire others to do the same. You are a Digital Crusader!

Now you ask, what the hell defines a DC? I’m glad you ask.

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Virtual Staff Teams Are On The Increase – Ready to Join In…?

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virtual staff

Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 4mins

Its seems as if there are more and more companies ‘going global’ and merging / reorganizing than ever before right now. A lot of this hustle includes getting virtual staff involved, sometimes for the first time ever in the history of the company. A lot of the staff that will work for companies that are now taking a more virtual approach to doing business may never actually meet face-to-face, or at least not on a regular schedule – unless its via the web.

One question that I’m starting to get asked more and more regularly at the moment is can these virtual staff / teams perform to the same standard of their more ‘local’ counterparts. You know, the more bog-standard office set-up – conference rooms, water cooler, etc..!

One thing that I’ve found in talking with several businesses and entrepreneurs that are already engaging a virtual business set-up in some way, is that they all have one common, and quite surprising point to throw into the mix. They believe that their virtual staff actually have a better collection of skills, both individually and collectively, as a ‘group’, so to speak.

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4 Ways to Manage Your Healthy Lifestyle Like a Virtual CEO

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Location: Company HQ – Reading Time: 5mins

I’m very happy to post this excellent Guest Post by Matt Gartland of HealthyLifestyleDesign.com. Matt comes to the VBL table with some great concepts and ideas on embracing lifestyle design, with the focus on health, more then anything else.

Many people believe that business is boring. These are the same folks that work gloomy 9-5 jobs, believe that meetings are sacred, and are addicted to bureaucratic procedures. Haunting images of Dilbert, Office Space, and The Office come to mind.

These same people believe that health is boring. They are apathetic about their food choices, believe that exercise is stressful, and are surprisingly “too busy” to get healthy. Of course, they think that “healthy” is a straight-jacket restraining personal freedom, indulgence, and fun.

But that’s not you. That’s not me. We don’t settle for conventional wisdom’s. We think and act differently. We design our lives the way we want them. And in so doing, we’ve come to learn that one aspect of our life profoundly influences the next.

And so it is with business and health. The same mindset applies to optimizing both. This may not be obvious on the surface. But half-truths live at the surface. True meaning lies deeper. So let’s dive in and discover the ways you can manage your healthy life just like your virtual business.

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I’m a Businessman FIRST, a Blogger Second – But, Wait for it…!

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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 3-4mins

It’s Sunday evening, my youngest is quietly in bed already, I’m done with dinner and my wife is watching TV. As I normally do on a Sunday evening, I turned on my computer to catch up on reading the handful of blogs that I subscribe to (there are not that many I read religiously, but the ones I do, I really do!). And one thing hit me… The quality of content is getting better and better.

Last week, I sat down and put together FIVE posts, for this blog, and planned around 10 guest posts which will all be out and about in the next few weeks. And from working on these posts, I realized something… I am getting more and more turned-on to blogging. So much so, that I even enrolled myself to Leo and Mary’s A-List Blogging Bootcamps Club to learn more. Cool, community of people, actually!

Now, I class my self as a businessman and entrepreneur first, before anything else. However, as this blog has started to become more popular, and more people have subscribed to the blog,  I have been fortunate to meet some great people. I have also been offered many Joint Ventures. I’ve declined almost all of them. Although in regards to two particular bloggers who I subscribe too, and thoroughly enjoy their work, I have decided to work with on two completely separate projects….

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How to Work with Virtual Staff to Build a Business Empire (Tips from the Trenches – via Manila!)

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Location: At the Beach (Literally!) – Reading / Viewing Time: 9-10mins

A real treat for you guys today. A couple of weeks ago I flew up from Cebu (where I live full time) to Manila (the capital of the Philippines) to do a little business, and whilst I was there I met up with Dan Andrews from the quickly growing TropicalMBA.com and OutsourcetothePhilippines.com blogs.We chewed the fat for quite a few hours, and eventually figured it would be cool to shoot a couple of video clips.

In fact, Dan actually interviewed me for his Podcast, too, which you can check out by clicking here. It’s safe to say we had a lot of fun doing all this stuff for our respective audiences.

For those of you who don’t know Dan, he is a twenty-something guy from the USA originally, who now lives in the Philippines full-time, where he works with several virtual staff throughout the country, that help run and build businesses based back in the USA, California to be exact….

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I’m Too Busy for Bullshit – The Things I’m Doing to Stay Productive!

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Location: Home Office – Reading Time: 4-5mins

2010 is shaping up to be an incredible year for me, business wise so far. As you’ll know by reading my Monthly Reports, by the end of the year I sincerely believe I will be a Full Time Virtual CEO, working from wherever I like, whenever I like, doing whatever I like – but, still growing my businesses. For the time-being (and realistically for the very long foreseeable future, because I just love doing it so much!) my focus will remain on my parent company – the Live2Sell Group – however, there is a hell of a lot of other opportunities coming my way, too.

The whole thing here is that as I begin to warm-up the furnace that will be ‘2010’, it’s hitting me very hard – I am getting convincingly more and more busy. In itself, this isn’t an issue, as long as I maximize my time every day. Because, lets face it – wasting time is bullshit, plain and simple! …

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Embracing Cloud Computing for a Virtual Business Lifestyle

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Location: Home Office – Viewing / Reading Time: 6-7mins

In the true spirit of virtualness (is that actually a real word – if not, it IS NOW!) and mobility in generally, this is a Guest Post by Phil Montero of TheAnywhereOffice.com.

Phil and I have been talking for a while now, ever since we met via Twitter. And it was quite obvious from the get-go that we had a lot in common in regards to the lifestyles we both wanted to lead and the way we wanted to work as business owners and entrepreneurs in general. So, after I did a guest post for Phil on Multitasking I was quick to ask him to do the same, and I must say he totally outdid himself with this excellent 6min video.

The thing I personally love about this subject matter is that it is ever-evolving. Although there is the regular diet of Gmail, Google Docs and the like, the fact of the matter is that there is always something new cropping up here and there. …

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How to Develop a ‘Virtual Business’ Mentality and Create a Lifestyle Design Strategy of Your Own!

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Location: Company Offices – Viewing / Reading Time: 7-8mins

Today we have a Guest Post by Greg over at music marketing blog GenYRockstars, who also runs www.rockstarlifestyledesign.com, too! Check out his sites if you are an entrepreneur or a musician – if you’re both, you’ll be spoiled rotten, trust me!

Myself and Greg were literally hours away from hooking up on my trip to the US in February, planning to do some video posts together on growing businesses and general entrepreneur stuff – but, alas, it didn’t quite happen! Next time for sure. Since then I’ve been interviewed by him for his blog, and I asked him to do this post to offer you guys the usual, great insightful stuff that he puts together….

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Mobility Tips for the Traveling Entrepreneur – Handling Email, Phone Calls & More!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMyXeR4UdfY

Okay, so, here is the final installment (from the AT&T Ball Park!) from the 3-part video series that I shot whilst I was in San Francisco back in February (it’s a little windy in the clip, FYI!). A lot of people have asked for this one, out-right, saying that they enjoyed the other clips I did with Sanjay, especially the one on How to Make Your Small Business Look Bigger. I must say sorry to those that have waited for this one, as there has been a lot going on – even though the clip has been ready for weeks and weeks!

In this clip myself and Sanjay give you a handful of simple tips for when you’re traveling. It’s amazing how simple these tips actually are, but so often its the simple stuff that gets forgotten, and I must say, even Sanjay’s tips on Laptop Batteries got me thinking!

As an entrepreneur that does do a certain amount of traveling, these type of tips (and the tons of others available online) are paramount to creating an easier traveling experience and working experience when on the road.

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