036 Chris Ducker | Building Your Personal Brand with 3 Facets

Becoming known in today’s marketplace requires you to be crystal clear on who you are and who you serve. This is all about creating a personal brand. When you think of virtual assistants, you likely think of today’s guest, Chris Ducker.

Chris has positioned himself as an authority in the area of outsourcing (which includes virtual assistants) and that has led him “out of the trenches”. Chris has gone through burnouts where he hit the wall within his business which was when he decided to make a major shift in his life and businesses. Discover new insights about Chris and his journey in this episode.

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Chris’ Target Audience: Chris’ target market is compromised of two avatars: The first is 9 to 5ers tired of working for someone else who has a side hustle that they are working on in the evenings and weekends. Within the next 6-12 months they will leave their jobs and go full-time doing whatever it is they want to do.The second avatar is more experienced, slightly older (mid 30s to mid-40s), 70% are male, successful business owners, some are millionaires. This group is struggling to come to terms with the new media approach and the new way of doing business in today’s market. They are struggling with social media, blogging, podcasting, video, ebooks and the like.

Today Chris Ducker may be known as the King of Virtual Staffing, but that wasn’t always the case. Just a few short years ago, Chris was burned out, stressed out and overworked. He was managing a business of about 130 employees, a large call center operation, and he was a self-professed micro-manager. He had grown his business to seven figures, but the business largely depended on him.

Around the same time, his youngest child turned one year old and Chris realized he hadn’t spent much time with him in that one year. Something needed to shift, Chris knew it in his gut.

He and his wife took a “stay-cation” in their lovely town of Sabo in the Phillippines. They took the time to sort out what could be delegated and how to structure the business and a team so the company would continue to grow and thrive, without needing all of Chris’ time and attention. They came up with a plan and implemented the changes.

Outsourcing and hiring virtual assistants was a large part of these changes and Chris decided to blog about his experiences. Quickly his Inbox began to fill up with questions about hiring VAs: people wanted to know how he was doing it and how he was having success. A light bulb went off for Chris and he saw the immense need for a reputable, reliable and solid virtual assistant outsourcing company. From there, Virtual Staff Finder was born.Since then, Virtual Staff Finder has grown to be THE leader in virtual staffing. He has springboarded off those successes to grow his personal brand through content creation, speaking and writing a book on virtual staffing called Virtual Freedom.

Always being one for seizing opportunities, Chris recently opened his third business: the first co-working space in Sabu. Throughout every stage of growing these three businesses, Chris has leaned on his teams. He knows firsthand the power of creating a superstar support team and a solid system of delegation. He’s succeeded at being a virtual CEO so he now enjoys lego time and bedtime stories with his kids!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• One of the ways to fall in love with your business again.
• What does he rely most on? Here’s a hint: it’s NOT one of his three businesses.
• The value he has found in being honest and transparent with his audience.
• Why he focused and still focuses on speaking in the US, primarily.
• What he believes a personal brand comes down to today: the 3 things.
• Your online content must do one of these two things to build your brand.
• Why did Chris turn down an offer to write a book on virtual teams a few years ago?
• How much money do you need to make before you hire a VA?

Practical & Actionable (at [30:55]):

Chris’ most practical and actionable advice is to stop using your email Inbox as a to-do list. He says to get your emails out of your inbox and into your calendar or your project management software.

He also recommends keeping your emails brief: all of his are 3 sentences or less.

Another suggestion? Use his 3 click rule with emails.  That rule is to either reply, forward it or archive it.  Never open the same email twice. Doing so allows him to spend less than an hour a day on his Inbox.

RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS SESSION INCLUDE:

• Chris’ web site
• Chris on Twitter
  
• Virtual Staff Finder
• Chris’ book: Virtual Freedom
• Chris’ Branding Program: My Branding Bootcamp
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To give Chris a shout out for being on the show, follow him and send him a message: Chris Ducker. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter at @genehammett and let me know what you liked about the episode!

Do you have questions about today’s episode!?!

Did you know that you can apply to chat with me by phone? This is a limited time offer to help anyone that is serious about refining their business as well as developing a clear & compelling strategy that will drive them forward. Complete the questions and our team will follow up with you to schedule time for your “Business Breakthrough Session”. These are limited to 30 minutes, completely free and oh, so valuable.  Apply Now!

A QUICK FAVOR

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