Information, inspiration and interviews on writing, self-publishing, book marketing and making a living with your writing. If you need help with writing your book, or you want to learn how to navigate the new world of publishing and book marketing, then join Joanna Penn and her guests every Monday. Also covers the business of being a writer and how to make money with your books.
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Overwhelmed As An Author? How To Work With Virtual Assistants With Chris Ducker
OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna PennAs you move from just being an author to running a business as an author, you will need to find people to work with you and take things off your shoulders.
You're a writer, so you need to offload some of the other tasks, even if you can do it all yourself. I know how hard this outsourcing is, but also how critical it is if you don't want to burn out. Today, I talk to Chris Ducker about the concept of Virtual Freedom.
In the introduction I give an update on my own writing and speaking events, as well as talking about Mark Coker's post on ebooks as annuity and the podcast I have just discovered, On Being with Krista Tippett which I recommend.
This podcast episode is sponsored by 99 Designs, where you can get all kinds of designs for your author business including book covers, merchandising, branding and business cards, illustrations and artwork and much more. You can get a Powerpack upgrade which gives your project more chance of getting noticed by going to: 99Designs.com/joanna
Chris Ducker is a serial entrepreneur, virtual staffing expert, blogger, podcaster and author of Virtual Freedom: How to work with virtual staff to buy more time, become more productive and build your dream business.
You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher, watch the interview on YouTube here or read the notes and links below.
* How Chris got started in business and how he now lives in Cebu running an outsourcing company serving global businesses.
* What is Superhero Syndrome and how do we stop it? All entrepreneurs hit this. It comes down to doing everything yourself to save a few $ and learning new skills rather than hiring the work out. It's the inability to let go so you can focus on what you should be focusing on.
* What is a Virtual Assistant anyway? A time saver and can be a life saver. You have to stop the burnout that will eventually happen if you keep doing everything yourself. A VA can help you run your business in different ways. It's not about finding a ‘me-clone,' or a replicant of yourself. You have to break things down into roles and outsource those, and using multiple people is often better than one.
* If you break your work down into the various tasks, you can then find people to take those off your hands. This can be things from sorting out your file formatting and social media, to triaging your email. The ‘super-VA' doesn't exist. You