Chris Strub's Academy

The live-streaming revolution isn't coming soon – it's already here. Meerkat made its debut to the world at South by Southwest (#SXSW) 2015 in Austin, Texas.

Shortly thereafter, Twitter revealed a subsidiary app of its own – Periscope – and the modern era of the live-streaming revolution was born.

Live-streaming video itself is far from a novel concept – people have been watching live television for generations, dating as far back as the 1930's. People love watching live video, and by 2019, 80% of internet traffic will be video (!).

It's no surprise, though, that the idea of anyone actually broadcasting a live-stream is taking a few years to fully catch on – it's a power and a privilege historically reserved for 'celebrities,' news personalities, athletes and the like.

But when Ben Rubin launched Meerkat, and Kayvon Beykpour founded Periscope in early 2015, it marked a new beginning for the concept of broadcasting around the world.

Suddenly, we're all newscasters. Suddenly, we're all celebrities.

As 2018 winds down, we're all still living in the early stages of this experimental era.

The dust is far from settling on the maelstrom that Rubin and Beykpour set off three-plus years ago – but a new generation of video stars, business leaders and, yes … 'celebrities' … is quickly emerging.

The movement began with the earliest of early adopters, like Geoff Golberg, who earned an audience of tens of thousands on both Meerkat and Periscope by providing live walking tours of New York City.

Both Meerkat and Periscope thrived through deep integration with Twitter, which opened up the intrigue of live-streaming video to an audience accustomed to 140 characters of text and imagery.

The summer-long honeymoon for Meerkat and Periscope ended in August of 2015, when news broke that Facebook would be introducing the ability to go 'live.'

The roll-out of Facebook Live was gradual, but by the following spring, all of Facebook's billion-plus users now had the ability to 'Go Live.'

Facebook's adoption of live-streaming led to a blossoming of hundreds of different apps, all looking to profit from this newfound social media phenomenon. Some, like YouNow, BeLive and Live.Me, continue to thrive today … while others, including Blab, Firetalk, and even Meerkat, have since fizzled out.

But it's not the specific app that should matter to you – it's the principle: communicating, live, on video, with a potentially global audience, in a fashion that allows them to be part of the conversation along with you. That principle won't change, whether it's Periscope, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or any apps that jump into the live-streaming arena in the future. It's all the same product, just with different colors and logos. :)

And so regardless of your preferred app, this guide will help you overcome your fears of live-streaming for the first time, and help you work toward developing a long-term plan that will ultimately benefit your brand, your business and your bottom line.

I've followed this formula to speak on stages around America and (very soon) internationally, partnered with a Fortune 60 company and worked directly with more than 100 nonprofits in all 50 U.S. states. We hosted the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America national conference on Facebook Live in 2017, and I co-hosted a 'Giving Day' in Kentucky that raised in excess of $4.6 million in just 24 hours.

And we're just scratching the surface.

Ready to dive on in?

THIS COURSE INCLUDES

PDF: Prepare for Live-Streaming Liftoff - 4945 Words

Audio: Prepare for Live-Streaming Liftoff - 32:18

Video: Live-Streaming Training Part 1 (26:20), Live-Streaming Training Part 2 (35:27)