Masterclass is one of those things I signed up for a couple of months into the pandemic, when it finally dawned on me that we were going to be in this for the long haul. There was an offer running, two memberships for $180 a year, so I signed Kate up and dove into everything Masterclass has to offer. I’m sharing how I go about choosing a Masterclass.
Bobbi Brown
At the beginning of the pandemic, when (I laugh about it now!) I felt the need to “keep up appearances,” the Bobbi Brown masterclass was at the top of my list.
I did enjoy it, and I might have sported her famous smokey eye for a couple of Zoom calls. But when she announced her new makeup company, with its very minimalist approach, I felt like her Masterclass was a bit of a fraud. If I only need two products, why did she use 15 in the class?? Plus, by July, beyond some sunscreen, I had given up on the whole makeup thing.
Chris Voss
Chris Voss’ Masterclass on the Art of Negotiation has been by far my favorite. There’s something about his voice, his style, that really resonated with me. And as I was watching the various negotiations, I was excited to try all my new techniques out. Alas, six months later, I’ve forgotten most of them, except for one. And that tip is: just repeat back what the other person says in question form…”I can only pay you $200 for it.” “You can only pay me $200 for it?” Apparently this is very effective. We shall see.
Anna Wintour
As I watched Anna Wintour teach Creativity and Leadership, two things occurred to me. First, she would be a very tough person to work for (no news there), but you’d probably emerge from the experience being a lot better at what you do. And second, how much is Masterclass paying her to do this? What exactly is the business model of Masterclass?
My hypothesis is that they are really heavily relying on subscribers forgetting to cancel. (And I’d advise you, if you sign up, to cancel the auto renewal function right off the bat- don’t wait until the year is up. Unless you really want to help out Masterclass’ profitability.)
Alice Waters, Massimo Bottura, Apollonia Poilâne
I’ve really enjoyed the cooking classes- maybe because I’m very accustomed to watching cooking shows. And I love to cook, so these classes were right up my alley. So choosing a Masterclass on cooking is a sure bet… and Masterclass has a fair amount of them on offer.
But I’m just not sure I need as many hours of content that Masterclass provides. A good example of this is Aaron Franklin teaching ~6 hours of Texas BBQ. That’s about 5 1/2 too many hours of BBQ lessons for me.
The Alice Waters series is really wonderful… we’re not too far at all from Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and I grew up as a cook with her mantra of highest quality, seasonal ingredients prepared simply- it really is the ethos underpinning Californian cuisine.
In summary
I think one year of Masterclass is probably enough for me. I do get a chuckle now when I get the emails from Masterclass announcing their newest instructors. There’s no question that they are signing up the top talent in a particular subject matter. But I do wonder about the broad appeal of some of these instructors. Not to denigrate the abilities of any of the below…but do you want to spend hours on these topics?
- Ru-Paul on Self-Expression and Authenticity
- Nancy Cartwright on Voice Acting
- Alicia Keys on Songwriting
- Parris Goebel on Choreography
Maybe I am an uncurious (or untalented!) person- but I just don’t see myself becoming even an amateur voice actor, singer/songwriter, choreographer/dancer (if you could see me in Zumba, you would understand!)
I did take ukulele in 1st grade… maybe I can rekindle those skills with Jake Shimabukuro 🙂
Maybe we’re all just tired right now… the end of a long year, maybe the longest year. And those April/May/June dreams of using this time with maximum productivity seem to have faded. That said, I’m going to take a new approach to choosing a Masterclass and with myself. Just enjoy watching some amazingly talented people pass on some nuggets of info… and ease up a bit on expectations.
