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ChrisDucker.com

Summary: Helping Entrepreneurs Become More Productive & Profitable

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  • Artist: Chris C. Ducker - Serial Entrepreneur, Outsourcing and Small Business Marketing Expert

Podcasts:

 VBL041 – Unleashing the Video Marketer Within You, with Gideon Shalwick! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 49:50

I first came across my guest today, Gideon Shalwick, when looking for info on improving my videos for this blog. As you know, I like to use video a lot here. I feel its more intimate and definitely more effective when wanting to get personal opinions across - which is kinda what blogging is all about, right!? Anyway, shortly after subscribing to his newsletter and blog, I was a little taken aback when he signed up for my Virtual Staff Finder service. So, as part of the service, we jumped on the phone and have become good online buddies since. FACT: Gideon is my 'Yoda' when it comes to online video! In this audio-only podcast you will hear Gideon and I discuss a number of super interesting topics related to the online video space. Including, but not limited to: Why video is so powerful and why you shouldn't leave it off your online agenda! What Gideon has been doing lately to take his OWN business to the next level. Making sure that your passive income outweighs your expenses to escape the rat-race. The phenomenal success behind his Rapid Video Blogging course. Different types of cameras to shoot high quality online video clips. Tons more 'insider' tips on the different type of equipment you'll need to get started with video blogging and producing online videos for marketing, etc. So, so much more...!   You'll easily see that Gideon really does know what he's talking about when it comes to creating great online videos to help promote and market your blog or business. Also, as an internet marketer himself, he knows how to do things the RIGHT way for the search engines and to make sure you pop up in YouTube results properly, too. Rapid Video Blogging In this personal course which offers step-by-step coaching, Gideon teaches you how to really get going with online video. Whether you're wanting to simply incorporate video into your blog, build a personal brand using video, market your business, build your email lists fast, or even produce an entire video course yourself, RVB is without a doubt the BEST online video course out there. Hands down. If you haven't already done so, you should certainly pop over to Gideon's site and download your free copy of his RVB eBook. At almost 100-pages, it offers a monster amount of content and will easily get your started on your video making mission! Then, when you're ready to take it to the next level check out the Rapid Video Blogging course itself. Trust me. It's bloody brilliant. (Yes, that's an affiliate link, and you know you don't see them very often on this blog. So, please use it if you're serious. I'll buy you a beer when we meet face to face!) I've had great success with my online video and I do, genuinely, owe a certain amount of that to Gideon. Don't get me wrong, my videos are nowhere near as awesome looking as his - but, they work. The techniques I've learnt from my Yoda have proved to be spot-on. Now go learn something from him, yourself... 

 VBL040 – Shaping the New Media Landscape, with BlogWorld’s Rick Calvert! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:41

Last year, as many of you know I attended BlogWorld, where I got to meet up with many of my online buddies, as well as interview a ton of great people for this blog and its sister-podcast. One of the people I met, albeit briefly, was BlogWorld's founder, Rick Calvert.  I contacted Rick as I wanted to get inside his head a little on why he set this badboy-of-an-expo up (easily the best expo I've been to in many, many years), and what his and his team have got set-up in terms of plans for the future, in the even-changing landscape that is now simply referred to as 'New Media' (blogging, podcasting, social media, online video, etc.). Since last years expo in Vegas, the BlogWorld crew (phenomenally well put-together and orchestrated team of professionals, I was sincerely impressed!) put on an East-coast outing (in NY) of sorts, which was incredibly successful, with the West-coast conference now being held in LA, this coming November. I have actually submitted a proposal to speak at the LA event, and hope to share good news in regards to that with you soon. However, even if my proposal is not accepted, I will STILL be going to LA to spend time with friends, network like a dynamo and soak up the atmosphere. During my conversation with Rick, we discuss, amongst other things: How Rick got started in blogging himself. Why he set up BlogWorld after finding a huge gap in the market place! The difference between traditional media and new media. How Rick is heading up a revolution in the media world through his expo. Why Rick is going to put in a good word with Gary Vaynerchuk (the ONE GUEST that has eluded this podcast, but will hopefully succumb to my invites, too!). So much more golden stuff! I always talk about my biggest take-away from my interviews in the post version here on the blog. In this case it was that Rick is quite obviously a fountain of knowledge on the subject of everything 'media', not just online. His understanding of traditional media, coupled together with the 'new media' approach to marketing, promotion, networking, building relationships and doing business in general is about as second-to-none as I have seen from anyone online. Not much of a shocker, I know, as the man responsible for creating without a doubt the premier related event, but nonetheless, impressive! As the next round of BlogWorld fun is now under heavy preparation, if you're interested in attending the expo in LA in early November, simply check out their website and sign on up! You might want to follow Rick on Twitter, too. Like I said, I'll be there, and I look forward to meeting any of the VBL Tribe that come along! As always, if you enjoyed this chat, all I ask is that you please mention to your friends and followers. 

 VBL039 – How to Build Relationships with Influence and Trust, with Chris Brogan! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 29:01

In this edition of the Virtual Business Lifestyle Podcast I sit down to talk with one of my all-time favorite authors, bloggers and entrepreneurs. Chris Brogan is easily known to most people doing any type of business online worth talking about! He is also a highly sought-after speaker, extremely well-known web personality, successful business owner, the brains behind Kitchen Table Companies and the popular paid-for weekly newsletter 'Blog Topics', as well as being a best selling author. I reached out to Chris with the idea to talk to him about beginning, building, growing and capitalizing on relationships. What I got was a full-blown, hands-down business lesson that I will never forget - and niether will you, when you're done listening / watching. Amongst other things, myself and Chris discuss: How to create loyalty through online relationships. How to 'follow up' on potential business without becoming a pain! Why understanding the relationship 'dating cycle' is so important. How to be seen as 'useful' to your followers and online fans. The concept behind 'Whats in it for me..?' in business. Why Chris is a little 'touchy feely' when he meets someone for the first time!!! Plus much, much more… Relationship talk to one side, my conversation with Chris (which took place a while ago... I've been waiting for the right time to put it live!) led me to think about so many different aspects of my business - which I knew it would. On the back of this chat I've hired more management staff to take care of clients, put in place a COO at my company to be sure that the day-to-day operations are better than ever before, reached out and met not one, but TWO groups of VBL fans in two different cities in the world (San Francisco and London) and decided I'm finally going to write a book - which I am in pre-production on right now! Inspiring, entertaining and thought-provoking, Chris Brogan is the real deal when it comes to knowing people, and how to win them over in the world of business and life. Spend some more time with Chris over at his blog, and tell him that I sent you over to him. If he doesn't sound impressed, let me know!!! I'd love to hear from you on this, the latest installment of the VBL Podcast. Are they getting better? Boring? More entertaining, or rewarding? I'd love to hear your thoughts... If you enjoyed, please share by clicking the cute little buttons below!

 VBL038 – PR & Marketing Moves to Sky-Rocket Your Biz, with Peter Shankman! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 30:55

One in a while you get the opportunity to have a free-for-all type of conversation with someone you've never met before, that you KNOW full-well, you will NEVER forget! This was the case when I got the chance to interview Peter Shankman, founder of HARO, author of two successful books and highly sought-after speaker. Peter is highly regarded as one of major worldwide innovators when it comes to Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, and customer service. He changes the way that people look at very simple, yet highly important business tasks, and his mindset to entrepreneurism in general is absolutely second-to-none. I thoroughly enjoyed my chat with him, and look forward to meeting with him face-to-face the next time I'm in New York! Throughout our conversation, we discuss amongst other things: How to be interviewed for an awesome podcast and make a cup of coffee at the same time!!! How to be innovative and a game-changer when branding yourself. What its like to be a sought-after speaker, and get paid to do things he got yelled at for at school! Why 'cool' sucks, if you're not making any money... How companies are taking their eyes off customer service, and why its hurting them bigtime. How he turns his ADHD into a weapon, and why he doesn't take medication. Plus so much more awesome stuff! A lot of people are unaware that Peter has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, this hasn't slowed him down as an entrepreneur, and as someone with massive amounts of energy, creativity and passion he has made all of this work to his advantage in creating successful businesses, an awesome person brand as well as becoming a successful author. Following this interview, I was pumped!!! I got out my iPad and jotted down a ton of ideas for a new project that I've been devising for a while, on-and-off. I'm happy to say that Peter gave me that push I needed to finalize the plans for that project and I am now already in the first stages of actually 'creating' for it. Thanks, Peter! :-) Spend some time getting to know Peter Shankman more, everyone - you won't regret it, and check out his Facebook page, too. Any questions or comments on this session of the VBL Podcast? Awesome... Jot them down below. Cheers!

 VBL037 – How to Use ‘Design’ to Build a Personal Brand, with James Chartrand! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 37:33

When it comes to designing a personal brand online it does, a lot of the time, come down to the real DESIGN aspects of the entire process, as to whether or not you get a good start. James Chartrand (pen name) of Men With Pens is one of the web's foremost respected experts on this subject and I thought it would be awesome to have her on the podcast to share her wealth of knowledge with the VBL Community! As we discussed on Monday, making sure you have a great logo is important, but building your brand through snazzy design goes a lot further than just creating a kick-ass logo. In this audio-only conversation with James we discuss, among other things: The importance of creating clear, simple goals when starting out. How to make your website look credible and professional for first-time visitors. Why branding yourself with an eBook can help you get great social 'proof'. Why people don't focus on real-world marketing and being 'personal', and why YOU should! Why you should take your time in planning your branding for the ultimate success. Much more... One thing is for sure when it comes to branding and the visual nature of web design - originality is by far the best route to take. Just look at James' website for evidence on that. There is no other website out there that looks like that one! Its awesome. My thanks to James for taking the time to do this interview, and for more details on what she's all about check out her site, where you'll find a bunch of awesome information on everything related to web design and copy writing, as well as great additional resources such as eBook's. I'll be seeing you on Friday again, when I'll be announcing what niche I've decided to get involved in for the 'VBL Niche Community Challenge', as well as more details on my aspirations for my niche site and how you can personally get involved, too! In the meantime, if you have questions about designing an online presence, please feel free to comment below, I'm sure James would be happy to pop over and answer them for you.

 VBL036 – How to Make Money on the Internet, with Chris Guthrie! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 28:40

Following on from Wednesday's popular post, where we were discussing niche sites - where it became apparent that a lot of you wanted me to turn my personal Niche Challenge into a full-blown competition (which I'll do, somehow!), this podcast is VERY relevant, indeed! In this audio-only session of the VBL Podcast, I speak with renowned internet marketer, Chris Guthrie about his various successes online, and how to be able to get started in the 'make money online' space, a subject that I have started to receive more and more emails and questions about over the last few months. As someone that has only really been online for the last 18-months, in regards to being 'vocal', and 'active' on the internet, its discussions like this that I really get into, mainly because I know how much content they produce and how many questions they answer for you guys - my loyal subscribers and followers. In this conversation with Chris, we discuss, amongst other things: How he went from playing video games and making videos, to launching his own web forum - and what he learnt from picking the wrong domain name for it! How he started to come up with high-profit niches, one after another. How he sold a website for a 6-figure deal after working on it for less than two years. Why is advises against building a 'make money online' blog! Why focusing on your passion and something that you genuinely enjoy talking about is what you should be focusing on. Chris' 3 golden rules that he keeps in mind when building niche sites. So much more great stuff! This interview was actually recorded a short while ago, but I held off on publishing it because I wanted to time it well with my own Niche Challenge (call my selfish, if you like!), so that it would be more relevant for you all. I hope it worked... :-) I'd like to send a huge 'thank you' to Chris for taking the time to do this podcast session with me - be sure to click over to his excellent blog for more info from him. It was a real eye-opener, and I must say that I learned more on this call than I have done for quite some time from one individual. Chris really, REALLY knows his stuff! It's All About Passion! I guess my biggest takeaway was that Chris emphasized one thing that so many experts in this field are talking about. PASSION. Or, more importantly, working on something that surrounds your passion. What is YOUR passion? Are you working on it now? If not, why not? And if you are, whats working for you? Let us all know below. Thanks for the support!

 VBL035 – How to Understand Your Business Like Never Before, with Jonathan Fields! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 31:56

Great people do great things. It's a simple way of looking at life. Todays guest is Jonathan Fields. Dad, New Yorker, Entrepreneur, ex-Wall Street Lawyer, Professional Speaker, and amongst other things, a very nice gentleman who went from working 80-hour weeks to starting one successful business after another! When I contacted Jonathan to be on the podcast we had only shared a couple of tweets together. Never met, never spoke before. But, I knew of him alright, like thousands of other 'hungry' entrepreneurs worldwide through the pages of his blog and his excellent book, Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love! Throughout the course of our chat, Jonathan and I discuss, amongst other things: The mistakes people make when starting their own businesses. How to understand the psychology of your business model. His thoughts on passive income, and why its a little misleading. How he went from working as a consultant 25% of the time to virtually doing none now, and WHY! His thoughts on SEO for bloggers. The power behind social media for sharing content online and why its more important than SEO. Plus much, much more! Going from a New York, Wall St lawyer to personal trainer, to fitness club owner, to speaker, consultant, author and a whole bunch of other achievements was probably not the easiest path! But, here's Jonathan, doing what he LOVES to do for a 'living', and spreading the importance of that exact concept better than anyone else out there, as far as I'm concerned. FYI, Jonathan is also speaking at Chris Guillebeau's 'World Domination Summit' in Portland in a few days... So, if you're close by, you might wanna check it out. I sincerely wish I was going, I know that much! If you've not got to know Jonathan yet, spend some time with him, and be sure to mention you're part of the VBL Community. He is a walking, talking business class act! Are you in the process of just starting a business? Got questions or ideas you want to share with the VBL Tribe? Let us all know below in the comment section, and perhaps we can help out!

 VBL034 – Taking Control and Living a Minimalistic Lifestyle, with Adam Baker! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:12

In this session of the Virtual Business Lifestyle Podcast I sit down and chat with Adam Baker, or 'Baker' as he is more affectionately known as online, from ManvsDebt.com - a phenomenally successful personal finance and lifestyle design blog. FYI, this was a video interview, but the connection wasn't great, so I have turned it into audio only. I've followed Baker online on-and-off for well over a year. It was the image that you see on this page (which is the header for his blog) that got my attention straight off the bat. His little girl peering over his shoulder as they obviously had lots of fun together slammed home with me immediately, being a Dad myself. Baker's story is unbelievable. He was ridiculously in debt - to the tune of well over $70,000. He and his wife literally sold everything, paid off their consumer debt (leaving just student loans) and moved to Australia with his family for a year to start getting their lives in order. On this call myself and Baker discuss, amongst other things, the following: How he got into debt, and what he's doing to get out of debt. Choosing where he invests his emotions and time. My ridiculously old CompuServe email address! His tour of the US in an RV which has been sponsored for the entire trip! His entrepreneurial drive and how he stays productive on the road. The love and affection he has for his family, and why everything he does is for them. Much, much more... Baker and his 'get debt free' exploits have been featured on high-end press outlets such as USA Today, CNN, Fox Business and MSN to name, but a few. There's a reason for this as far as I'm concerned... He aint the only one in this situation! There are people in debt all over the world, and in the US particularly, where Baker is from and lives - and because of that people can relate with his situation. Check out Baker's blog, ManvsDebt and be sure to also see what he's up to at YouvsDebt.com and his latest online 'movement' with VBL friend Corbett Barr, over at The Hustle Project (be sure to view the interview I did with Corbett on this exciting project, too!). What about you guys? Are you in debt? What are you doing to get out of it? Have you already removed debt from your life? As aspiring, and hard working entrepreneurs, focusing on this type of thing is important. I'd be interested to hear some fo your own personal stories (you don't have to get too personal if you don't want to!), in the comment section below - perhaps we can help each other out a little, too!

 VBL033 – How to Get Traffic for Your Blog & Crush It Online, with Corbett Barr! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 16:04

Corbett Barr has fast become one of my closest buddies online. There's a few reasons for this... Firstly, he is a super-nice guy with a genuine friendly, helpful demeanor. Secondly, he is a very, VERY smart entrepreneur that came from a corporate background, like myself (so we have plenty in common!), and lastly because he makes a great cocktail..!!! As the founder of Think Traffic, a blog dedicated to helping people get more traffic to their blog and websites, he's had marvelous success with his most recent online venture 'Traffic School', and talks about that, and many other things in this interview. Subject matters such as the following are also discussed: How Corbett went from corporate guy, to start-up dude to self-employed, pro-blogger. Why you should be focusing on creating epic content to attract traffic and keep it. How Corbett escaped the 9-5 grind and went out on his own. The excitement of working on his latest product for 4 months and launching it to a huge list of potential buyers - selling out in just 36 hours. How he convinced big names like Gary Vaynerchuk, Leo Babauta and others to be involved! Much, much more great stuff..! Corbett is as solid of an online entrepreneur as you'll ever get. He knows his niche very well. He focuses on putting out the absolute best content. And most importantly, he always delivers. There's a lot to be said for that online nowadays. Find out more about Corbett and his online exploits at ThinkTraffic.net and his more 'personal' and quite frank blog over at CorbettBarr.com.

 VBL032 – Extreme Lifestyle Design and Long-Term Travel, with Colin Wright! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 27:25

When it comes to living a seriously extreme lifestyle, on your own terms and making the most of every second available to you, and a travel schedule, there aren't many people out there that does it better than todays guest (or is it latest victim!) - Colin Wright from ExileLifestyle.com. Colin and I only really just recently 'met' online, but I've been a fan for ages and ages. His freebie eBook's are what caught my attention first. Cracking quality, spectacular design and solid message put them all at the top of every lifestyle designer's 'download or die' list! My favorite being his 'Personal Branding' publication. Although the video side of Colin's connection let us down a little on this, I decided to post our video (instead of just audio, which I've done on occasion when the video has been poor in quality) just because of the interaction we had. You can see that we genuinely got on well, and that the entrepreneurial 'bounce' is there in our conversation. In todays podcast episode myself and Colin discuss, amongst other things: How and why Colin allows his readers and followers pick where he's going to travel to, and live for short bursts of time. How Colin switched up his business philosophies when he wanted to 'hit the road'. How he visited 25 different cities in 6 weeks, with two other bloggers. The difference between focusing on one niche and spreading your focus and diversifying your income. How he focuses on work, even though he's consistently traveling, and the tools he uses to do so. His focus on creating great free content in his fantastic eBooks. Much, much more...! Another thing worth noting about Colin his is incredible sense of humor. Light, fun and always up for a laugh, I encourage you to check out his great blog, and his musings via Twitter, too. Stay tuned at Colin's online spaces. Great things are coming his way, for sure... If you liked this interview, please give it a quick mention on Facebook and Twitter, by clicking the buttons below, and feel free to leave your comments below, too. Thanks for the support!

 VBL031 – How to Launch a Blog, Build a Brand and Make $1M in a Year, with Timothy Sykes! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:52

Every now and then you get the chance to meet and converse with an entrepreneur that kinda blows your socks off. My guest today, Timothy Sykes, is one of those guys! Tim exudes confidence, you have to love him for that alone. But, if you couple that together with the fact that he turned $12,000 of gift money into over $2,000,000 trading stocks and that last year he made well over $1,000,000 (yes, thats 6 zeros there!) with his blog, and affiliated products and services online - its easy to see that this guy is more than just confident. He's plain SMART!!! I've stressed, time and time again, on the importance of building a personal brand online, and what it can mean to an entrepreneur for the long-term a lot on this blog. Tim's dedication to his brand and his loyal followers/subscribers is testament to the fact that if you put in the effort, the rewards will come. Throughout the course of chat we discuss, amongst other things: How he got started as an entrepreneur, whilst still a freshman. What keeps him fired-up and ready to get to work everyday (he average 16-17 hours a day!). How he positioned himself, through pure personality, in a market niche with lots of 'gurus'. How he genuinely takes time for his clients, to help them - and make more money! The things he does to create a crazy amount of email sign-up's - all amounting to more click-thru sales. The reason why he drops the odd f-bomb in interviews, and especially in online video. Plus lots of great stuff... Trust me, this is a great interview! I always talk about my biggest takeaway from these interviews that I do, from a personal perspective. In this case it was the 'balls to the wall' attitude that Tim possess. I mean, the guy has made more than $50,000 in a day - one more than just a few occasions. The reason behind this is because he hustles. Plain and simple. He gets up early, works his ass off and does a phenomenal job on making things happen. Even if you're not into the stock market, or trading in any way, there is still a lot to be learned from Timothy Sykes. So, make sure you visit his blog, follow him on Twitter and stay tuned on what he's up to. I have a sneaky feeling he's positioned for even more success than he has already encountered, and probably with a lot more zero's attached to it! If you liked this interview, please give it a quick mention on Facebook and Twitter, by clicking the buttons below, and feel free to leave your comment below, as always. I'll try my best to entice Tim across to answer anything you might want to fire at him!

 VBL030 – How to Become a Dot Com Superstar, with John Chow! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:01

Anyone that knows anything about the online and affiliate marketing world will already be very familiar with the name of today's special guest - blogger, author and speaker, John Chow. With over 126,000 subscribers at his blog (121,000 when we recorded our chat!) he is a guy that has many, many people listening when he talks. I first came across John when I fumbled over his 'Dot Com Lifestyle' video on YouTube quite a while back and was then lucky enough to meet him personally last year. We kept in touch via Twitter and recently I was able to corner him for this freakin' fantastic talk on the subject of internet marketing, getting started as an affiliate rockstar and basically everything and anything else 'making money online'. Throughout our conversation, we discuss, amongst other things: How to grow your blogs subscriber numbers over time. How to get yourself to the point of taking your first 'making money online'. How to find the perfect affiliate products to promote on your blog. Understanding the importance of building a mailing list for your online marketing. How to set up an entire auto-responder series to keep your audience engaged. The importance of promoting products with built-in continuity for on-going passive income. How John averages income of $45,000 a month by blogging full-time and working 2-3 hours a day. So many more golden pieces of advice! One of the biggest takeaways for me from this conversation is that it is all down to the individual, and how they are alloting their time and energy when it comes to focusing on their online money making activities. Sure, John makes it look pretty easy, but, don't forget he's been doing this stuff a long time, and I'm sure he's made plenty of mistakes along the way. Stay focused, hone in on the skills you already posses - whether that be techie skill based, your passion, your experience in business, or simply your drive and ambition and exploit the living daylights out of it. To find out more on John and what he's all about, be sure to visit his blog at JohnChow.com, as well as follow him on Twitter, too. You'll also be smart to download a copy of his 'Make Money Online' eBook, too, which you can get for free at his blog. If you enjoyed this interview, and even got just a tiny little bit out of it, I'd be very thankful of a quick ReTweet, or Facebook 'Like'. Go on... Hit the buttons below, and thanks for the support!

 VBL029 – Traveling the World and Staying Healthy, with Karol Gajda & Matt Gartland! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:45

SPECIAL NOTICE: I am currently in San Francisco and we'll be doing the first ever VBL Meet-Up here, this coming Saturday, in the Union Square area. If you'd like more info on the location / time, just email me. Here's the deal - as some of you might know, I filmed a whole bunch of great interviews when I was at BlogWorld in Vegas in October last year. Almost all of those interviews have now gone live, except a few. These are not 'late' being released by any stretch of the imagination, I've simply held them back for the right time. And, as I am now starting my travels for the next few weeks, this one with Karol Gajda from RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com and Matt Gartland from MattGartland.com hits home perfectly. Throughout our conversation, we discuss the finer points of world travel, making money on the go, and staying healthy to maximize the benefits of a nomadic lifestyle, plus much more, such as: Why Karol enjoys traveling so much, and why having freedom by being his own boss allows him to be a digital nomad. How Matt keeps an open mind whilst on the road, when it comes to eating healthy. Why its important to stay fit throughout multi-city trips and travels. How being healthy keeps you motivated across all aspects of your life. Much, much more! These guys are doing the 'do', as they say. Health conscious and eager to get out there and experience life to the fullest, Karol and Matt are the digital nomad personified. I think they're both great! Both have great online offerings, which you should absolutely check out. SO be sure to spend some time with with Karol over at his blog RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com and then hop over to Matt's online home, which just recently experienced a great makeover at MattGartland.com. What secrets can you share to staying healthy, as a busy entrepreneur on the go...?!

 VBL028 – Utilizing Technology to Grow a Small Business, with Phil Simon! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 28:50

As any small business owner will know, especially when starting out, there is a lot to consider when it comes to starting up a new business idea, and then focusing on that 'idea' to turn it into a full-blown business, with clients and prospects and strategies and costs, etc., involved. Nowadays, technology plays such a huge part in the way that businesses, especially smaller business (both online and off, for that matter, too!) can position themselves in their market space, and most importantly utilize it to enjoy growth. Phil Simon is no stranger to this side of the entrepreneurial world, and as a expert speaker and author on the subject of small business, particularly with a tech slant on the whole thing, I figured cornering Phil for a chat on this subject would do us all a world of good. I wasn't wrong... Throughout the course of our chat, we discuss among other things: How social media plays a massive role in customer service. The reasons behind why small business owners shy away from technology. Why, as new-age entrepreneurs we must embrace a more tech-savvy mindset. The main game changers when it comes to utilizing online technology for customer service. Lots more awesome content! One of the things that I really enjoyed about this podcast episode was that Phil generally tells it as it is. There is no bullshit here. No fluff. And in todays online marketing world of so-called 'experts', REAL experts, like Phil really do stand out..! Be sure to dig into Phil's new book, too. Entitled 'The New Small' it goes very deep into the subject of utilizing technology and social media, amongst other topics to enable the 'small acorn' that your business begins as, to turn into a 'mighty oak' of a company!

 VBL027 – How to Manage Your Time Like a Ninja, with Craig Jarrow! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 31:28

When I first met Craig Jarrow, otherwise known as the Time Management Ninja, he came across to me as someone very sure of what he wanted out of life. That sort of thing sticks with you. We ate lunch, spoke for a couple of hours and have become good buddies since that initial meeting at BlogWorld in Vegas last year. Throughout the course of our chat, we discuss, among other topics: Why you have to stay out of email, and not 'live inside' it! Why you shouldn't be using your inbox as a project management system or to-do list. Craig's favorite tools for productivity on the go. How to work at airport lounges to achieve great entrepreneurial time management. How to use your iPad for maximum mobile productivity! Lots, lots more... Entrepreneurs the world over struggle with saving time, and getting more time - no matter what industry they are in. This conversation with Craig certainly sheds a lot of light on a topic that, as an entrepreneur myself, I see never becoming boring to discuss with likeminded souls! To find out more on Craig's philosophies and approach to time management in general, check out TimeManagementNinja.com, and tell him the VBL Ninja Clan sent you his way!

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