After subscribing to Master Class for more than one year, I can vouch for the quality and depth of the courses that they offer. So I’m writing this MasterClass review to share my experience and to help my readers decide if it is something they want to try.
(Quick Note: There are more than 80 articles here on this blog and very few of them are product reviews. I only review things that have actually made my life better in some substantial way, or to provide information that my readers will find useful. This post contains affiliate links and I receive an affiliate payment if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. These small payments help to cover my hosting costs and to justify the time and energy I spend writing this blog.)
June 2022 Update: It’s time to dive into Master Class again! This time around I will share reviews of individual Master Classes.
Right now I’m working my way through MasterClass sessions about streaming and creating video content. I’ll post those reviews here as I complete each class. In the meantime, keep reading for my review of MasterClasses that I’ve already done.
MasterClass: Is it worth the money? At $15 per month, the short version is YES.
The app is really easy to use. It has a great feature of turning off video if you are the kind of person who likes to multitask while learning. I listen while driving or doing chores, so turning off video makes sense.
Which MasterClass is the best?
That really depends on what you are interested in, of course. One of the best things about MasterClass is that there are so many classes to choose from. There really is something for everyone. You can browse the course library to see all the choices before you commit to a subscription. Here are my reviews of the ones I’ve done so far:
Review of Chris Voss MasterClass: Art of Negotiation
My absolute favorite course (and the one that really inspired me to write this Master Class review) is Chris Voss’ Class on Negotiation. This class is seriously bad ass. I recommend it for anyone who wants to have the upper hand in business negotiations.
With over a decade of experience selling real estate, I’m not a newbie to negotiating for large amounts of money. But we all negotiate in our lives. And if you have children, you might negotiate several hundred times a day (I wish I was joking). What really works about this negotiation class is that the strategies can easily be applied to parenting and resolving conflicts (to your liking) in many spheres of life.
I also think that the ideas are powerful enough that there is some ethics involved in how you use them. Really, it’s that spooky. This class alone is worth the price of a year subscription to Master Class.
Review of Neil Gaiman Master Class: Art of Storytelling
What lured me to Master Class was Neil Gaiman’s course on the Art of Storytelling. He is one of my favorite authors, and every time I read his work I am in awe of his creativity. I get lost in the stories, but I also wonder what it takes to come up with such fabulous material. Full disclosure: I’m writing a novel. I even feel a bit nervous admitting that out loud, but it’s true. I’m one of those people who is working on a book . . . for the past year . . . or two . . . ok, four . . .and I do not have any formal training in writing. My double major in sociology and psychology didn’t prepare me for crafting gripping, page-turning fiction.
Gaiman’s course on writing fiction was easy to digest and inspiring beyond my expectations. It gave me some practical tools for shaping my novel and moving the story forward. And I appreciate that I can download all the supplemental PDFs and revisit the material at a later time.
I also zipped through Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers, which was also helpful, and offered a different perspective than Gaiman’s course.
Review of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivery Master Classes on Poker
Shortly after starting my year of Master Class, I was delighted to discover that Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu both offered courses on poker strategy. Before the world shut down from COVID, I was deep down the poker rabbit hole, exploring how to master live cash games. This Master Class review would not be complete without me taking a moment to rave about how awesome both of these classes are. As someone who has played poker for over 16 years, even semi-professionally, I think the information is definitely at the pro level, but still easy for a recreational player to understand and apply. For any poker player, the master classes on poker are well worth the small price of the subscription.
Review of Ru Paul’s MasterClass on Authenticity
Ru Paul’s course on self expression and authenticity was one of the simpler lectures to listen to. The ideas in it are fairly deep, but his delivery is direct and heartfelt. It felt playful and fun to think about how we present ourselves to the world and the power we have to manipulate that. I’m a huge advocate of authentic living. I suspect it’s as important as breathing.
The last few videos are about drag make up, which isn’t applicable to me, but it as interesting to see what effort is made in such a transformation.
After a year of exploring the offerings, I think Master Class is worth the money. (I just resubscribed to take more classes!)
I find the app really easy to use. I often listen to an episode while exercising, and then download any PDF material to my laptop at another time. I’m not that great at reviewing the supplemental PDFs, but I feel that most of the value is in the class videos anyways. The app always works great, and I love the option of being able to download videos so that I can watch them without using data, which comes in handy on road trips.
I dabbled in several more classes, such as cooking, singing, etc but to really get the most out of a class does require a little time management. There are only so many spare hours in my life for personal development. I decided to end my subscription after a year because at that time there weren’t more courses that I wanted to take. But Master Class is always adding new teachers and material, so now I’m back for another year.
(Next on my list is taking Sara Blakely’s Master Class on Entrepreneurship. Once upon a time she sold fax machines. Then she invented a line of shapewear and made Forbes’ list of billionaires in 2019. I’m confident she can teach me something.)