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YouTube is an amazing resource to use for personal and business gain - but setting it up can be a bit tough. Today, I walk you through getting the basics started to prep your channel to live stream - this can serve for the basis of webinars, meetings, coaching calls, and much more. And, once active, you can use the YouTube App to go live as well - should that be your thing. 

To start off, you first have to go to YouTube and in the top right corner is your image avatar -click this:

In the drop down menu, select CREATOR STUDIO. 

From there, you will have a lot of options on your left hand side menu. While we will explore all that YouTube has to offer in coming posts, for now, lets just click on the menu that says "Live Streaming".

If this is your first time (and I assume it is if you are here) there is a nice button that says, "GET STARTED".  Go on ahead and click that. From there, YouTube needs about 24 hours to set things up. 

Now, once this has been set up, you can broadcast live from your computer or your phone. 
When you return to do your first live broadcast - how you access the platform will be exactly as we did in the steps, however, the screen will look different - something like this: 

If you want to go really deep and install an encoder to go live from this screen, you can, but its a little more work and for me, because I'm using a ChromeBook, the encoders can't download properly. No big deal as I can go live using the Hangouts on Air. To access that, go the the 'Events' section on the left hand side under 'Live Streaming'

The screen will now look something like the picture below. You're going to input the title, tags, and information just like you would your regular YouTube uploads.  Important here is that you can choose when you want this to happen - typically Today, Now - but you do have the possibility of scheduling it. Also, if you're not so sure how it will turn out, or maybe you only want to invite a select few, there is a drop down menu you can choose the visibility options just like any other YouTube video (Private, Unlisted, or Public). When you're ready to go, on the right hand side there are options for Quick or Custom - for our intents and purposes you're going to choose 'Quick'. 

You're almost to greatness! All that is left is to punch the GO LIVE NOW Button! (Don't worry, you won't be live until the application launches and you hit Broadcast). You'll see something like this pop up:

You just launched your First YouTube Live Video! Once you're in the application you will see a screen that looks like the one below. We will discuss all the features in a blog post in the near future!

If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me and fire away!
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Eric is a working physical therapy business owner and full time therapist and clinician. He's been through it all. If you're looking for realistic tips, tricks, support, and a community of like-minded professionals and students to help grow with- this is for you.
It is my goal with this group to pass on my knowledge of business, clinical skills, marketing (Facebook, Adwords, and more!) and life stories to help those wanting to grow their self skills, their business, or simply be part of a community of learners and leaders. Welcome to Sockdolager Wellness Company. ​

There is no better price than free. It's true, many a bargain can be had on the internet these days, and lots of them come with a free price tag. I've used many of these things to help grow my  business very successfully - and quickly to boot. Below is a rundown (in no particular order) of the top 5 FREE services I've used to help grow my business. 

1. Practice Fusion - This FREE EMR is what I used for many years before switching to WebPT (more on the in the future). This has a pretty interactive layout and is easy to learn to use. It is based more around an MD rather than a PT, but the basic note format is still SOAP note. Templates are provided, but you can build your own (I recommend that) and once you learn how to work it, it's pretty straightforward. You can fax from the application, the patients have access to a portal, and you can have edocs scanned right in! If you're just starting out and pinching pennies, I highly recommend Practice Fusion. 

2. Pixlr - this is a free online photo editing app- it works across all platforms (Windows, Mac, Chromebook) and is pretty powerful for the lay user. I created a book cover (or free report cover) using this very easily. You can check out the video HERE. You can edit, distort, layer images the way you want them. Think of it like a lightweight adobe image editor. If you have any need to modify images this is a great free option. 

3. Mailchimp. If you aren't emailing your current list, you should be. Mailchimp is a great option to keep in touch, and it recently rolled out some limited automation features, even for the free user, so that you can help generate personalized emails on the fly based off user action, rather than you having to set everything in motion manually. The free Happy Birthday automation is worth it alone (patients love to be recognized on their birthday). I recently got a little wrist slap because I had recommended the next step up, Infusionsoft, (click the link for a demo)  but for some it is cost prohibitive - Mailchimp is a great way to start out for those looking to spend their money on other business necessities. 

4. Thinkific - This is a fantastic online course creator! This is the next step for both my physical therapy business and business development company- we now live in an age of information. Folks want to learn more before they ever commit to purchasing. Online courses (free or paid) are a great way to educate folks on what you can offer and some solutions before they ever even speak to you. This generates trust, authority, and expertise - all for free. The free program is great, and you can host an unlimited amount of courses, all for free- if you decide to offer a paid course, they take a little bigger piece of the pie than if you used the paid version.  

5. Buffer - this is an online social media tool that allows you to post simultaneously to multiple accounts (for example: Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus). You can post immediately or put things in a queue to schedule out - you get to decide the frequency for each account. Now the free version has a limit to how many accounts you can connect. And it can only schedule Instagram posts, not post them for you (something in Instagram bylaws I believe). But to get a message out without have to copy paste into multiple applications is great and a wonderful place to start. Others out there, like Hootsuite, can do similar (and also have a free version) but they have a dashboard where you can manage all your accounts directly - you choose your destiny!

6. Lucidpress - my design suite. I've recently upgraded to a paid version to allow more users to access my account, but this fantastic suite is my design studio. It's where I designed my book, make all my free reports, handouts, trifolds etc (you can even order from them to print, and it's pretty affordable for most products). You can even offer link to access the information online and make it interactive if that is your thing. 

6.5 - All the rest. Too many great options out there not to include more- here is a smorgasbord of options that I use everyday as well- maybe not my flagship accounts, but ones I find very useful!
Retype - inspirational message customizer.
Youtube- I don't need to explain this, do I?
Google Docs - a whole suite of document editing for free? Yes Please!
HEP2Go - Home exercise creation software- for free - and the paid version? only 5$ a month and you can brand it with your  company info (hint, I use the print outs as a way to give a download to a potential client in exchange for their information). 

Eric is a working physical therapy business owner and full time therapist and clinician. He's been through it all. If you're looking for realistic tips, tricks, support, and a community of like-minded professionals and students to help grow with- this is for you.
It is my goal with this group to pass on my knowledge of business, clinical skills, marketing (Facebook, Adwords, and more!) and life stories to help those wanting to grow their self skills, their business, or simply be part of a community of learners and leaders. Welcome to Sockdolager Wellness Company.
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