27 Critical Apps That Shaped My Life - Arshian - video Dailymotion

Arshian

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Transcript

00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel to Tech Club,

00:02the ongoing series where I review tech and apps

00:05and other products that have the potential to add value

00:07to both of our lives, yours and mine.

00:08And this episode is gonna be a little bit different

00:10because I'm gonna talk you through 27,

00:12yes, 27 apps that have shaped the course of my life

00:14from the age of 11 through to the age of about 28.

00:16And for each of these apps,

00:17I'm gonna share the way that it's influenced my life

00:19so that hopefully you can get some ideas

00:21for how you might want to apply these apps

00:23or similar apps to your own life as well.

00:25As always, there's gonna be timestamps down below

00:26so do feel free to skip around if you feel like it.

00:28And very excitingly, this video is very kindly sponsored

00:31by Adobe Creative Cloud,

00:32but I'll tell you more about that in just a moment.

00:34Let's move on to our first app.

00:36And app number one is in fact, Notepad.

00:39I discovered the wonders of Notepad

00:40when I was around about 11 years old

00:42and Notepad was the first app

00:45that I would say has shaped the course of my life

00:46because I learned how to code by using Notepad.

00:49I taught myself HTML and CSS using the internet essentially.

00:53Back in the day, it was a website called W3Schools

00:55and I taught myself how to code

00:56essentially making .html pages on Notepad

00:59and seeing how they would render in Internet Explorer.

01:02I think it was Internet Explorer 6

01:03or Internet Explorer 5 at the time, the browser.

01:05And it was really through Notepad

01:06that I made my first website.

01:07And this bug that I had for creating websites

01:09was something that served me for such a long time.

01:11And even now, today, I still think it's really,

01:14really valuable for people to learn how to code.

01:16If you're watching this and you're interested

01:17in starting a side hustle or making money on the side

01:19or anything like that,

01:20learning how to code is a remarkably useful skill,

01:23not just the domain of software engineering, for example,

01:25learning to code, learning how to make websites.

01:26And we've got a few more apps in the rest of this video

01:29that are gonna be themed around

01:30this building websites thing.

01:31Building websites has opened up so many doors for my life,

01:33even when I was in medical school and beyond.

01:35And it's just a skill that I, yeah,

01:37just could not recommend highly enough.

01:39This brings us on nicely to app number two,

01:40which is Dreamweaver.

01:42Now, at the time when I was using Dreamweaver,

01:44it was called Macromedia Dreamweaver.

01:46It's now called Adobe Dreamweaver.

01:47And it's the app that I first learned

01:49how to properly design and code websites on

01:52around the age of 12 or 13.

01:53And again, Dreamweaver really shaped the course of my life

01:55because it really leveled up my web design stuff.

01:57And it meant that from age 13 onwards,

01:59I was A, building my own website projects as side hustles

02:01when I was in school.

02:02And B, I was also masquerading

02:04as a sort of freelance web developer on the internet

02:06and offering my services to small businesses

02:08and making sort of five, $10 here and there

02:10because I was coding stuff using Notepad

02:12and using Dreamweaver and building websites for people.

02:14And that was a way for me to make money on the internet.

02:16And again, that bug of entrepreneurship

02:18and entrepreneurialism that I got through

02:20making my first several dollars on the internet,

02:22again, served me for the rest of my life

02:23and will probably continue to do so.

02:25And I put a lot of my, I guess, business

02:27and YouTube channel and like life success

02:30in inverted commas down to this streak

02:32of entrepreneurialism that I got.

02:33And I have to thank Notepad and Dreamweaver in particular

02:35for kind of introducing me to the world of web development.

02:39And related to web development is web design,

02:41which I first learned on Photoshop.

02:42Yes, Photoshop CS2, Creative Suite 2.

02:45Again, back when I was like 13 years old.

02:48Because initially I was right,

02:49kind of writing HTML and CSS code on Notepad.

02:51And then through Dreamweaver,

02:52but then I realised, oh, I wanna make logos

02:53and I wanna make fancy banners

02:55and I wanna make like forum signatures.

02:56And so I managed to get hold of a copy

02:58of Adobe Photoshop CS2 at the time

03:00and taught myself how to use Photoshop

03:01and to do this kind of web design stuff.

03:03And so now when I was making money on the internet

03:04and doing my own personal project,

03:06it wasn't just development that I was doing,

03:07it was also web design.

03:08Again, this is an app that has shaped my life

03:10because the skill of designing websites

03:12and designing graphics was a skill

03:14that I then used throughout my school years up until 18.

03:16I used it throughout medical school

03:17to design brochures and flyers for university societies.

03:20I used it to design medical technology apps,

03:22which got me hired as a freelance app

03:25and user interface designer while I was in med school,

03:27which helped me make about a hundred pounds an hour.

03:29That was the rate that I was charging back in the day.

03:31And ultimately this love for design

03:33was the thing that made my YouTube channel,

03:34this YouTube channel look legit,

03:36even five years ago when I was getting started out.

03:38And so I do owe a lot of my success to Photoshop

03:40and to the web and graphic design skills that it taught me.

03:43And even now I still use Photoshop for designing websites

03:45and for designing thumbnails

03:46and for kind of mocking up things for my YouTube channel

03:48and for the rest of the business.

03:49And that's one of the reasons why I'm delighted to say

03:51that this video is sponsored by Adobe.

03:53Adobe is absolutely a dream brand to work with

03:54because as I've literally been using their stuff

03:57since the age of like 11, so the last 17 years of my life.

03:59Now, back in the day,

04:00when you wanted to use things like Photoshop and Dreamweaver

04:02and like Lightroom and After Effects and Audition

04:04and all of the other tools in the Adobe Creative Suite,

04:07it was called Creative Suite back in the day,

04:09you had to buy each piece of software individually.

04:11But these days it's super easy

04:12because Adobe have this thing called Creative Cloud,

04:15which I have been a subscriber of since, I don't know,

04:17like 2015 or so.

04:19And very excitingly,

04:20they've got a ridiculously good deal if you're a student.

04:22Right now, I'm not a student,

04:23so I pay full price for Adobe Creative Cloud

04:25as does everyone else on our team

04:26because it comes with all of the different Adobe software

04:28for photography or video editing or graphic design

04:31or web design, basically like audio design.

04:33All of the things are all associated

04:34and included with Adobe Creative Cloud.

04:36But if you're a student or a teacher,

04:37you can actually get 65% off the first year subscription.

04:41And so even if you're on a student budget,

04:42it makes it the absolutely perfect subscription

04:44to sign up for because it includes Photoshop

04:46and Dreamweaver and Lightroom and After Effects

04:47and Audition and like any other Adobe app

04:50that you can basically use

04:51to kickstart your passion project or your side hustle

04:53or help you with your academic stuff.

04:55You can really use the Adobe suite for absolutely anything.

04:57Anyway, if you wanna try out any of the Adobe software,

04:59lots of which has changed and shaped my life personally,

05:01you can hit the link in the video description

05:02or scan this QR code is gonna be on screen.

05:05And that will give you a free,

05:06completely free seven day trial

05:08to the Adobe Creative Cloud.

05:09And then you can subscribe after that if you would like to.

05:11So thank you so much Adobe for sponsoring this video

05:13and for creating these apps

05:14that have really helped shape my life.

05:16So app number four was in fact World of Warcraft,

05:18which I don't have a lot to say about

05:20other than it shaped my life for three years,

05:22where I was playing it for an average

05:24of three and a half hours each day.

05:25Through that, I became good friends with

05:27two of my school friends, Chris and Omar,

05:28and we're still friends to this day.

05:30And it's the game that helped me appreciate

05:32why gaming is so fun.

05:34Sadly, I kind of lost touch with gaming a little bit

05:37over the last like 10 years since starting university,

05:40but it is something I wanna dabble with more.

05:41Got Elden Ring on the PS5

05:43and wanna have a go at that some point

05:44when I figure out how to make enough time in my day

05:46to actually play video games.

05:47App number five is in fact Kindle.

05:49And I first got a Kindle back in 2009,

05:51and I've been reading books on Kindle

05:53basically ever since then.

05:54And the reason I'm calling it an app

05:55is because well, Kindle has an app now.

05:57Essentially, the great thing about that

05:58is that anytime I get any kind of recommendation

06:00for any kind of book,

06:01I can just buy it on Kindle basically immediately.

06:04It gets delivered to my device, my phone, or my Kindle,

06:06or my iPad, or my Mac immediately,

06:07and I can just start reading it immediately.

06:09I've made tons of videos talking about how Kindle

06:11is just one of the most life-changing purchases

06:13or apps that I've ever used.

06:15So I'm not gonna wax too much on about it,

06:16but if you have not yet started reading eBooks,

06:19really something I'd recommend.

06:20I do like reading physical books as well.

06:22It's kind of nice, but just the conveniences of an eBook

06:25just I think far outweigh the benefits

06:27of reading a physical book.

06:28Since I started using Kindle,

06:29and because I use Kindle and read on the Kindle app,

06:31on my iPad, and my phone, and my Kindle fairly regularly,

06:34it's just meant that I'm able to read

06:35somewhere between 50 and 100 books a year.

06:37Obviously, just reading books for its own sake

06:39is not inherently useful,

06:40but I think over the last like 18 years of my life,

06:43I've absorbed so much really useful kind of information,

06:46and content, and learnings through the medium of books

06:49that if it hadn't been for the Kindle app,

06:50I don't think it would have been anywhere near

06:52as easy for me to do that as it was.

06:54So again, thank you, Kindle, for being a sick app.

06:56Definitely try out Kindle if you haven't already.

06:57App number six on our list isn't really an app,

06:59but I'm gonna call it an app

07:00because the word app, sort of app, website, tool, whatever.

07:03And it's in fact WordPress.

07:05Now WordPress is a kind of website builder,

07:07and it powers I think around 30% of the internet these days.

07:11But I started using WordPress

07:12when I was I think around 14 or 15,

07:14when I was doing this freelance web development,

07:16graphic design type stuff,

07:17because loads of people's websites

07:18would be hosted on WordPress.

07:20And when people would want me to make a website for them,

07:22I would just generally buy a WordPress template

07:24off of ThemeForest,

07:25and then I would just edit the template.

07:27And they would think, oh my God, this website is sick.

07:28How did you do that?

07:29And WordPress is great because it lets people

07:30actually edit the text of their own website

07:32without having to know how to code.

07:34So from about the age of 15 to about the age of 25,

07:37I was using WordPress at least every week,

07:39if not potentially every day.

07:41My whole first business, 6Med,

07:42was built on top of WordPress websites and WordPress themes.

07:45And I've just spent so much time working with WordPress.

07:48I don't really like it anymore.

07:49I prefer Ghost, which I'm gonna talk about in a little bit.

07:51But I have to say, WordPress shaped the course of my life.

07:54And even to this day,

07:55WordPress powers 30% plus of the internet.

07:57And so if you're interested in potentially moonlighting

07:59or side hustling as a web designer or web developer,

08:02learning WordPress is actually a really,

08:03really, really useful skill

08:04that makes you highly employable and highly in demand

08:07from people who host their websites on WordPress,

08:09which as I said, is like 30% of the internet.

08:12Then we fast forward a little bit

08:12to starting medical school.

08:14So in 2012, I started my first year of medical school.

08:16And within a few months of medical school,

08:18I discovered a completely life-changing app called Anki.

08:21Anki is a completely free flashcard app.

08:23It's available on all devices, Mac, Windows,

08:25phone, et cetera, et cetera.

08:26And it's great because it's flashcards in digital format

08:29and it's completely free.

08:30And so I used Anki extensively

08:32throughout my time in medical school.

08:33It made memorising random ass facts

08:36that you have to do as a medical student so much easier

08:37because it's got this sort of space repetition algorithm

08:39built into it.

08:41I've made a tonne of videos on Anki in the past.

08:42I even have a Skillshare class on it.

08:43I'll put that down below and up there

08:45if you wanna check it out.

08:46Amazing app.

08:46If you need to learn anything,

08:48if you have lots of stuff you need to memorise,

08:50if you're trying to learn a language,

08:51Anki is just absolutely sick for that kind of stuff.

08:53And next, another technique that I discovered

08:55which really helped me throughout medical school

08:56was in fact the Pomodoro technique,

08:58which you've probably heard of.

08:59Basically, you work for 25 minutes,

09:01then you take a five minute break.

09:02And then you repeat this times four

09:04and then you take a half an hour break.

09:05And the Pomodoro method was essentially how I would work

09:07with my friends in different libraries around Cambridge,

09:10where I went to university.

09:11Now, there's kind of two ways that we would time ourselves

09:13when it came to the Pomodoro method.

09:14Firstly, we would use a website called Tomato Timer.

09:16I think that's what it was called,

09:17but it was just a random website.

09:18You can just Google the phrase Pomodoro Timer

09:20and we'll pop up a free website that lets you time that.

09:22But a few years into medical school,

09:24I discovered a really good app for the phone called Forest.

09:26And Forest is great because Forest is like

09:28basically a Pomodoro timer.

09:29You set a timer for 25 minutes.

09:31But in those 25 minutes,

09:32it sort of locks you out of your phone.

09:33And if you try and go on your phone

09:35or get distracted by notifications,

09:36as you're working, it plants a tree and the tree grows.

09:39But if you go off that and you get distracted,

09:41then the tree dies.

09:42Again, it's just a little bit of fun.

09:43It's basically a glorified 25 minute tomato timer.

09:46But the fact that you're killing a tree,

09:47allegedly, when you get distracted,

09:49meant that I was getting not distracted

09:51and it would kind of, you know,

09:53there's leaderboards and stuff.

09:54And we'd kind of end up in a bit of a competition

09:55with our friends for who can do the most Pomodoros in a day.

09:57It's just a bit of friendly competition, just a bit of fun.

09:59But I found that that app really helped me focus

10:01while I was studying for my exams in med school,

10:03which is why the Pomodoro technique

10:05is one of the apps broadly that has helped shape my life.

10:07Next up, we are continuing medical school

10:09and we are continuing the web development saga

10:11with three apps in particular that shaped my life

10:13while I was in med school.

10:14And that is firstly Sublime Text.

10:17Sublime Text is still around, actually.

10:19It is a essentially a very lightweight,

10:21glorified version of Notepad.

10:22But when I was coding websites for my first business,

10:24I made these sort of question banks for medical students

10:27to help them get into med school, BMAT and UCAT Ninja,

10:29which required a lot of like front end

10:30and backend development using PHP and HTML and CSS

10:33and JavaScript and all these fun coding languages

10:35that I kind of learned when I was younger,

10:37but honed my skills in throughout medical school.

10:39I was using Sublime Text

10:40as my lightweight text editor of choice.

10:42And those apps that I made, those websites that I built,

10:44ended up kind of making me decent chunks of money

10:47while I was at university and ended up meaning

10:49that I didn't really have to worry about money at university

10:51because this business that I made

10:53to help people get into med school

10:54was generating enough income.

10:56And there were few enough people at the time,

10:57I think it's much more crowded now,

10:58but at the time there were few enough people doing this

11:00and doing it well that my skills in web design

11:02and web development really helped our business

11:04stand out from the crowd.

11:05And so I really owe a lot to kind of being

11:08in the right place at the right time

11:09and having the right skills.

11:10Again, knowing how to code, knowing how to make websites,

11:12which is still stupidly useful to this day.

11:14But Sublime Text was really the app

11:15that brought it all together.

11:17Next on the list, we have the Laravel PHP Framework.

11:20This is a bit technical.

11:21It's not technically an app, but it sort of is an app.

11:22Again, it depends on your definition of app.

11:24I'd been kind of dabbling with PHP,

11:26which is a coding language since I think the age of about 14,

11:28but I was using very much of vanilla PHP,

11:30just like the absolute bare bones, basic essentials

11:33and doing a lot of like really, really, really bad coding

11:36in the grand scheme of things.

11:37But then when I was in my second year of university,

11:38I discovered the Laravel PHP Framework

11:41and a website called Laracasts,

11:42where a chap called Jeffrey Wei, who's a developer,

11:45would teach tutorials on how to use Laravel

11:47and how to program in PHP properly.

11:49And I would watch those tutorials

11:50while I would be having my lunch when I was at university.

11:53And through osmosis, I just learned so much

11:56about web development in PHP.

11:57And then I used this Laravel Framework

11:59to develop these two websites, BMAT and UCatNinja,

12:01which ended up making decent chunks of money.

12:03So thank you Laravel PHP Framework for being sick.

12:05And it's still really good.

12:06It's still very much actively in development.

12:08So if you're interested in learning to code,

12:10if you're interested in using PHP potentially,

12:12then I can't recommend the Laravel Framework highly enough.

12:14And associated with that, we have app number 11,

12:16which is in fact Stripe.

12:18Now back in the day,

12:19I can't remember how long ago this was,

12:20but back in the day, it was actually surprisingly hard

12:22to accept payments on the internet.

12:24These days, it's super easy, thanks mostly to Stripe,

12:27which is a company that just made it super, super easy

12:30for developers to accept payments on the internet.

12:32And so using Stripe made it super easy

12:34to collect payments for our courses,

12:36but also to collect payments

12:37for this BMAT and UCat question bank that I built.

12:39And before that, you had to like hack around with PayPal.

12:41PayPal's a total nightmare,

12:42but Stripe and learning how to use Stripe

12:45and learning how to use Stripe checkout

12:46and the other features associated with Stripe,

12:48again, just helped our business become profitable

12:50basically from day one.

12:51So thank you Stripe for that.

12:52And again, Stripe is still used by loads of people

12:55around the world to essentially accept payments.

12:57So if you're, again, learning to code,

12:59if you're a coder, if you're a developer,

13:00you've almost certainly heard of Stripe

13:02because it's absolutely huge,

13:03but that was an app that really shaped, I guess,

13:05the course of my business

13:06and therefore the course of my life.

13:07All right, next we have app number 12,

13:09which is in fact a Google Drive.

13:10I started putting everything on Google Drive,

13:12I think from my first year of university onwards,

13:14because I had a hard drive failure

13:16and lost everything before that point,

13:17and I decided never again.

13:18And Google Drive was the one that made the most sense

13:20because I was using Gmail,

13:21I was using my Google account for everything.

13:23I didn't have an iPhone at the time

13:24and iCloud Drive did not exist at the time.

13:26But basically since 2012,

13:27I've had my entire life on Google Drive.

13:29And one of the main ways in which this, I guess,

13:31shaped my life was the fact that

13:32I made this sort of shared Google Drive

13:34for all the medical students in my college,

13:36and we would all share essay plans together

13:38and share revision notes and stuff.

13:39And through having this shared Google Drive,

13:41it made all of our studying

13:42way more effective and more efficient

13:44and streamlined all of our collective processes

13:46of getting through medical school

13:47because we were all sharing notes and resources.

13:49It's a thing that I encourage

13:50every other student to do as well.

13:52I think it's very easy for students to feel competitive,

13:54like they're competing

13:55with the other students in their class.

13:56But I found that the more collaborative you are

13:58as a student, the more easy life becomes.

14:01And Google Drive and other things like Dropbox and stuff,

14:04but Google Drive, I mean, everyone has a Google account.

14:06Google Drive just made it super easy

14:07to share notes with friends.

14:09Then we fast forward a couple of years to 2016.

14:11And 2016 is when I first started listening to podcasts.

14:14And I think the first podcast I started listening to

14:16was the Tim Ferriss Show back in 2016.

14:18And that was using an app called Overcast

14:20and then later on an app called Castro.

14:21So I'm gonna lump those in one.

14:23Basically podcast listening apps.

14:24Again, shaped the course of my life

14:26because over the next five years,

14:28I consumed probably over a thousand podcast episodes

14:31of different podcasts.

14:32And through listening to podcasts,

14:34I got introduced to so many new ideas,

14:35so many new thinkers and authors

14:37and entrepreneurs and creators.

14:38And listening to podcasts

14:39of other people starting YouTube channels

14:41made me feel that, oh,

14:42starting a YouTube channel feels reasonable.

14:44I used to listen to a bunch of podcasts,

14:45the Indie Hackers podcast in particular,

14:47because it was interviews with developers and coders

14:49and people who built profitable businesses

14:51from their bedrooms.

14:52And so listening to the stories there was super inspiring.

14:54And again, really helped shape the way

14:56that I built websites and stuff while I was at university.

14:58I've got a video up there,

14:5912 Podcasts That Changed My Life,

15:01something like that, classic title.

15:02But you can check that out

15:03if you wanna get more specific podcast recommendations.

15:05And then we have app number 14, which is Ghost.

15:07Now Ghost is a website hosting platform,

15:10kind of like WordPress, but better, more simpler.

15:13WordPress, again, sort of became super bloated over time

15:16and it's still very bloated.

15:17Like I said, it powers like 30% of the internet,

15:18if not more.

15:19So it kind of has to be the everything tool.

15:22It has to be able to do everything.

15:23Whereas Ghost was specifically a blogging platform,

15:27blogging software.

15:28So when I first started my website

15:29and took my website seriously in 2016,

15:31I built it on Ghost.

15:32And to this day, six years later,

15:34the website still runs on Ghost.

15:35Ghost is sick.

15:36And it was really through starting my website

15:38and starting to write articles on the internet

15:40that I first got over that initial fear,

15:42the initial hurdle of putting myself out there.

15:44And a year later, year and a half later,

15:45that's what ultimately formed into this YouTube channel.

15:48So if you're looking to start a website, start a blog,

15:50Ghost is actually a very reasonable way of doing it.

15:51I'll put a video up there,

15:52my ultimate guide to starting a website.

15:54You can start on Ghost.

15:55It's free, I think.

15:56I think it's free, or it's like super cheap.

15:58I mean, we pay a lot for it these days

15:59because we get so much value out of Ghost,

16:01but I think it's a really great way

16:02to start learning how to build a website.

16:04All right, next we come to app number 15,

16:05which is Notability.

16:07Now this was around 2017 when I first got an iPad Pro

16:11and I decided I was gonna go paperless.

16:12And I did a bunch of research

16:13into all the different note-taking apps

16:15and Notability was the one that I found most useful.

16:17And from that point onwards,

16:18for my final two years of medical school,

16:20I was essentially fully paperless.

16:21So I would scan all of my text,

16:23I would get PDF versions of all my textbooks.

16:25I would scan all my lecture notes

16:26and I would take handwritten notes in lectures

16:28and in sessions at the hospital.

16:29And so this shaped my life

16:30and firstly kind of making it way easier

16:32for me to study wherever I was,

16:33which because I was kind of going

16:35to sort of to various hospital placements here and there,

16:37it meant I couldn't really be bothered to lug around books.

16:39And it meant that I could carry my iPad

16:41in the hospital with me wherever I went,

16:42which made my studying just a bit more efficient.

16:45But it also meant that when I started making videos

16:46on this YouTube channel,

16:47I made a video called how I take notes on my iPad Pro

16:50using this app, Notability.

16:51And that video was the first video that I had

16:53that went completely viral.

16:54And so that video also shaped the course of my life.

16:56And so I have to kind of ultimately thank Notability

16:59for being that keystone that was there on my iPad Pro.

17:02That helped me get through med school,

17:03but that also helped my YouTube channel take off.

17:05Around the same time, 2017 was when I discovered Audible.

17:08I'd been hearing on Audible on the grapevine

17:09and on YouTube channels for years at that point,

17:11but I always thought, ah, audio books, who cares?

17:13But then I think it was just enough people

17:15recommended Audible to me that I was like,

17:17okay, you know what, I might as well give this a try.

17:19And I've never once looked back.

17:20I listened to probably many hours of Audible every week.

17:23It's mostly fiction, to be honest, that I listen to.

17:25You guys know Brandon Sanderson,

17:27my favourite author of all time.

17:28All of his books on Audible are absolutely incredible.

17:30I've recently been re-listening to Words of Radiance,

17:32which is book two of the Stormlight Archive.

17:34In fact, I just finished it yesterday.

17:35So I'm gonna be starting the reread

17:37of book three, Oathbringer.

17:38But yeah, Audible is sick.

17:39I'd be listening to Audible audio books

17:40when I was at the gym and when I was kind of commuting

17:43to and from work and to and from placement in medical school

17:46and now as I walk to and from the studio,

17:47I listen to audio books.

17:48So yeah, 100% recommend Audible.

17:50If you haven't, I mean, you must've heard of it by now.

17:52Everyone talks about Audible.

17:53This is not even sponsored by Audible.

17:54I just love it so much.

17:55And so I'd 100% recommend trying it out

17:57if you haven't yet.

17:58App number 17 that shaped the course of my life

18:00is an app called Sketch.

18:02Now Sketch is not actually that popular these days.

18:04It's sort of been superseded by apps like Figma

18:07and in fact, Adobe XD.

18:08But Sketch was sort of a really useful tool back in the day

18:11for designing websites and being able to sort of quickly

18:15mock up websites and then kind of transfer that

18:17into CSS code and stuff.

18:19And essentially using Sketch,

18:20I did a whole redesign of all my websites for my business,

18:22but I also started doing a bunch of user interface design

18:25and I'd be using a combination of Photoshop and Sketch

18:27and putting those together to design kind of screens

18:30and interfaces for various medical technology apps.

18:33This was around about 2017

18:35when I was in my fifth, sixth year of medical school.

18:37Again, this ties nicely into the thing.

18:38It's like 10 years after I first started learning

18:40how to design websites.

18:41I'm still doing web design and app design

18:43and because of this ability that I had as a medical student

18:46to design apps and make them look pretty,

18:48so many doors opened up for me

18:49in terms of like plastic surgeons

18:51that I wanted to become friends with

18:52and things that I wanted to get involved with

18:54where various different doctors and consultants

18:57needed a person who had a medical background

18:59who also knew how to make websites.

19:01So opened up a bunch of doors,

19:02again, just to speak to the power of learning how to code,

19:04learning how to design potentially websites

19:06and apps and interfaces.

19:08Super useful skill for anyone even today.

19:10All right, app number 18, unsurprisingly, is YouTube.

19:12Started my YouTube channel in June, 2017.

19:14It's completely changed my life.

19:15Don't need to talk too much about that.

19:17And app number 19 is an app called Podia,

19:18which is the service that I used at the time

19:20and still use to this day to host my online courses.

19:23So I made three online courses

19:24about the BMAT, the UCAT and medical school interviews.

19:27This was just as I was leaving medical school.

19:29I'd been teaching courses for these exams

19:31up until that point and I thought, you know what?

19:32Let's turn it into an online course

19:34because I don't have the time

19:35when I'm gonna be working as a doctor.

19:37I'm not gonna have the time

19:38to be able to physically teach courses on the weekends.

19:39So I basically compiled everything I knew

19:41using my knowledge of how to make videos and edit videos

19:44into these online courses and those are hosted on Podia.

19:47So you can check it out if you want.

19:48If you have an online course,

19:49you might like to host it on something like Podia.

19:51There are a few other alternatives out there.

19:53There's Teachable, there's SamCard, there's Kajabi,

19:54there's a few others,

19:55but Podia is usually the one that I recommend

19:56because it's the one that I first started off with in 2017.

19:59Continuing on the journey,

20:00we only have about eight apps left.

20:01You'll be pleased to know.

20:02App number 20 is in fact Notion.

20:04Again, not gonna talk about Notion too much,

20:06but Notion essentially shaped my life

20:07because it helped me create systems

20:10and streamline processes for creating YouTube videos.

20:14And people always ask like,

20:15how did you make YouTube videos

20:16when you were working full-time

20:17and how did you do stuff while you were a medical student?

20:19The answer to the working full-time question

20:21is basically just building systems using Notion.

20:23So building like content creation systems

20:25and like content repurposing systems

20:26and IT generation systems,

20:28Notion made it super easy to do that.

20:29And that meant that I was able to bang out

20:31one or two videos every week,

20:32even while I was working full-time.

20:33So I owe a lot of that to Notion.

20:35And I even have a Skillshare class

20:36that I've released recently

20:37about like exactly how I use Notion.

20:38That'll be linked down below.

20:39If you wanna check it out,

20:40you can access it completely for free.

20:41Now we're fast forwarding through to about 2019

20:43when the next app, app number 21 that changed my life

20:45or that shaped my life is in fact Twitter.

20:48Yes, I had not taken Twitter seriously up until 2019

20:51until after repeated episodes of our podcast,

20:53Not Over Thinking,

20:53my brother badgered me into taking Twitter seriously.

20:56And then in sort of late 2019

20:58was when I started actually being active on Twitter.

21:00Now we've grown to over 200,000 followers on Twitter.

21:02Follow me on Twitter if you aren't already.

21:03But at the time,

21:04I only had like a few hundred or a few thousand followers

21:06just by default because people just found me

21:09through the YouTube channel.

21:09But I started making friends with people like Thomas Frank

21:12and Sara Dietschy and other YouTubers

21:14who I had been watching and admiring for some time.

21:16And it was really through Twitter

21:17that I made friends with these guys and girls.

21:19And I still say to all the students

21:20of my part-time YouTuber Academy

21:22that Twitter is the single best platform to make friends

21:25if you are a creator,

21:26because every other creator also seems to be on Twitter.

21:28A lot of the friends I now have

21:29are friends that I originally made

21:31through one of us DMing the other on Twitter

21:33and being like, hey, we have a mutual respect

21:36and appreciation of each other's work.

21:37Let's be friends.

21:38And I've met like in the last six months

21:40a bunch of people in real life

21:42as kind of borders have opened up post lockdown

21:44that I've initially met through Twitter.

21:46And secondly, Twitter has really helped shape my life

21:47because if you follow the right people on Twitter,

21:49it just gives you a stream

21:51of really interesting, thoughtful stuff

21:53that you can read or watch or listen to.

21:55So to be honest, most of the recommendations

21:56that I get for books or blog posts or podcasts

21:58or documentaries or anything like that, I get from Twitter.

22:01And so it's really helped shape my life

22:02in that sense as well.

22:03So I guess moral of the story

22:04is if you are not yet on Twitter

22:05and you still view Twitter

22:06as being a stupid pointless platform

22:08to just complain about the news,

22:10then it's because you're not following the right people.

22:11If you follow the right people,

22:12and if you wanna know how you can look at my profile

22:14and see who I follow,

22:15and if you vibe with any of those guys,

22:16you can follow them as well.

22:17But if you follow the right people,

22:18Twitter becomes a fantastic source of anything

22:21like content or blog posts or articles or papers

22:24or about literally anything that you're interested in.

22:26It's just a fantastic resource all around.

22:28App number 22 that shaped my life is Transistor.

22:30Transistor is how we host my podcast times two.

22:34Firstly, I have Not Overthinking,

22:35which is a podcast that I've been doing

22:36with my brother every week-ish

22:38for about three and a half years now.

22:40Damn, it's been three and a half years.

22:41We started it in 2019,

22:42and that's hosted on Transistor.

22:43Similarly, my podcast Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal

22:45is also hosted on Transistor.

22:47I'm, again, Twitter friends

22:47with the guys who created Transistor.

22:49They're really good.

22:50It's a fantastic app if you wanna start a podcast.

22:52I'll put a link down below if you wanna check it out.

22:53And then app number 23 that shaped my life

22:55is, in fact, Skillshare.

22:56Yes, I started making classes on Skillshare in late 2019,

23:00and now I'm fairly open about this.

23:02Skillshare classes make us about 50 to $80,000 a month

23:07thanks to the fact that I've put

23:08about 12, 13 classes on Skillshare.

23:10And every time people watch them,

23:11which they can watch for free with a Skillshare free trial,

23:13then we get paid a few cents for every minute

23:16that someone watches the course.

23:17And with enough courses

23:18and with enough people watching these courses

23:19and hopefully getting value from them,

23:20that turns into a stupidly lucrative line of revenue

23:23for the business.

23:24And it was really the thing that took,

23:25I think we were at about 10K a month in revenue.

23:28And then when Skillshare started to take off,

23:29it just jumped up to about 70K a month in revenue,

23:32almost within the period of a few months.

23:34So I owe a lot to Skillshare,

23:35and I still continue to make classes on Skillshare

23:38every few months because it's fun

23:40and it's free for people to access

23:41because you can just sign up to a free trial.

23:42So I'll put links down below if you wanna check that out.

23:44App number 24 is Slack.

23:46Slack is our team communication platform,

23:48probably familiar with it.

23:49As soon as we started working with a team

23:50and hiring people and stuff,

23:51Slack just became the central source

23:53of all of our communication.

23:54And so I spend a lot of time on Slack

23:56and on Zoom these days.

23:57App number 25 is Frame.io,

23:59which is in fact owned by Adobe.

24:01Frame is essentially a tool that you can use

24:03to help outsource video editing.

24:04So again, in late 2019,

24:06when I first outsourced the editing of videos

24:08for this channel,

24:08Frame would be where the editors would upload the videos

24:11and I'd be able to leave comments, which was awesome,

24:13because being able to outsource editing

24:14freed up loads of my own time.

24:16If you wanna learn more about outsourcing editing,

24:17you can sign up to my completely free

24:19five-day Creatorpreneur crash course.

24:21It's like a five-day email thing.

24:22It'll be linked down below if you wanna check it out,

24:24but that gives you some information

24:25on how to outsource editing if you're a creator.

24:27App number 26 is again, is a little bit niche,

24:29and that is ConvertKit.

24:30ConvertKit is an email marketing and automation platform

24:33that we switched to, I think about a year ago,

24:37and a bunch of the revenue

24:37that flows through the business

24:38is ultimately through ConvertKit

24:39and through the power of our email list.

24:41Again, not gonna talk about that too much,

24:42but if you wanna learn more

24:43about the email side of the equation,

24:44you can check out my video up there,

24:46which is about how to start an email newsletter

24:48that could potentially change your life.

24:49And finally, app number 27,

24:51a little bit niche as well, is called Scrivener.

24:53Scrivener is an app that is designed for writers.

24:56It basically is software that lets you write a book

24:58in the software and split it up into paragraphs

25:01and then contents,

25:01and it basically helps you structure things,

25:04structure writing in a way

25:05that really helps with book writing.

25:06I've tried Google Docs, I've tried Pages, I've tried Word.

25:09None of them are just nearly as nice and distraction-free

25:12as Scrivener is for writing a manuscript for a book.

25:15So again, it's kind of a bit niche.

25:16It's not really relevant to most people,

25:18but if you're interested in writing a book,

25:19I'd 100% recommend Scrivener.

25:21If you're interested in keeping up to date

25:22with my book writing journey,

25:23you can sign up to my book journey newsletter.

25:25It's completely free.

25:26Every other week, I send an email

25:27just updating you about what's going on in the book

25:29and sharing some interesting papers and resources

25:31and videos that I've seen

25:32in my process of doing book research.

25:34That'll be linked down below.

25:35Do remember to sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud

25:36if you got to this point in the video

25:38and you fancy supporting the channel

25:39and also levelling up your kind of passion projects

25:41or your hobbies or your academic stuff.

25:42And if you've gotten to this point in the video

25:44and you like long and rambly videos like this one,

25:46you might like to check out this video over here,

25:47which is 28 life lessons that I've learnt in 28 years

25:50in approximately 28 minutes.

25:52So that's a nice little long, long 28 minute video

25:54for you to watch if you would like.

25:55But otherwise, thank you so much for watching

25:56and I'll see you hopefully in the next video.

25:58Bye-bye.

25:59We're all in.

26:01Oh.

26:08Hey friends, and welcome back to Tech Club,

26:10the ongoing series where I talk about

26:12something, something, something, something.

26:14This episode is...

26:18It's all good.

26:20Thank you so much for the tea, it was kind.

26:24Do we have that pink mug?

26:30Ah.

26:37We're gonna tackle them in chronological order.

26:40And we're gonna tackle them in chronological order.

26:42I need a thing in my hand.

26:45Is there anything left in the Diet Coke can?

26:48Yes, perfect.

26:50Perfect.

26:51Okay.

26:53Nah.

26:55Nah, it's fine.

26:56Banter.

26:57It's continuity.

26:58Continuity errors are funny in YouTube videos.

27:00We should have a bloopers section in this video.

27 Critical Apps That Shaped My Life - Arshian

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