Is Skillshare Truly Worth It? The Only 3 Classes I Recommend — dreamlikediana (2024)

Have you been seeing Skillshare ads everywhere? Almost every YouTuber is sponsored by Skillshare at one point or another. Ever wonder if Skillshare is worth it, or where would you even start? What classes do they have? How does this all work?

Well, I was right where you were. I was getting sick of people promoting Skillshare, and I just wanted to know what was so great?!

So I dived in and watched over 100+ classes. I won’t say videos, because each class can have multiple videos. Think of them as sections or chapters in a book.

Each class starts with an introduction about what the class is about, as well as, a project for you to work on. Not all classes have projects, but most do. I actually really enjoyed this portion because it’s hands-on learning. But that isn’t to say I am 100% for Skillshare. The true answer to that you’ll find out at the very end, so you have to keep reading.

That being said, I did find a few handful of classes I took away a lesson or two away from. Some of which I highly recommend! Let’s dive right in and take a look at the 3 Skillshare classes I highly recommend first, then I’ll tell you if Skillshare is indeed worth it or not.

Kate Arends, Founder, Wit & Delight

Social Media Links: Website | Instagram

Link to Skillshare Class: https://skl.sh/3cpTAUv

Who is this class good for:

• For someone who may want to know how to brand yourself or your business better

• For someone who wants to understand their purpose for why they work or what work they do better, but also understanding yourself better

• For someone who wants to reinvent themselves and create a social currency, having a digital presence is the new resume, that type of progressive outlook

• For someone who wants to brush up on social media strategy and is trying to apply for the social media role at your dream company

What I really liked about the class:

• It wasn’t all just lectures, there was a worksheet involved.

• The worksheet was worked on with you and gave you examples of what you may put down to help you stimulate your brain.

• The length of the class was appropriate, but the pacing of the video was perfect.

• Overall, I enjoyed how interactive the class was. Which doesn’t happen often.

Some key takeaways:

• "Have confidence in your personal brand and get clear on your purpose statement, who you are, what you do, how it makes you different from everyone else, and what you want to do for people. Because if you talk about it like, doing a little of this or that, it makes it sound like you're embarrassed of your brand and it makes it sound more like it's a side project or you're not serious about it."

• "Have an open mind when it comes to thinking about where your personal brand can take you."

• "If you work hard and put yourself out there, opportunity happens. I haven't met one person who has done that and hasn't found work that's fulfilling."

• "If you really are about creating organizational structures and making things sort of easier for people to work or you're a facilitator, oftentimes that signals that you would do really well in a corporate environment."

• "If you are about creating things for people to experience or sort of making something that is around producing an event, that to me says that you are someone who can juggle a million different things at once and entrepreneurship is probably a path that would be really fulfilling for you."

In-Depth Review:

It's safe to say, up until this class, I wasn’t having a good experience with SkillShare. Kate really turned things around for me. I'd say this class exceeded my expectations, and I actually came to enjoy it.

Quick Tip: you can work on the worksheet in GoodNotes, Evernote, Notability, etc. in your iPad or another app on a digital tablet.

I was able to write down notes on the worksheet on my iPad in GoodNotes, to better understand what each portion was about, but I also had the captions turned on so I could come back to key takeaways later.

In general, I found that this class isn't just for people who want to brand themselves a social presence, but for someone who wants to brush up on their marketing skills and is applying for the social media role in their dream company. Or for a person who wants to know about themselves a little better. Furthermore, it could also be for someone who wants to have a bit of social currency and believes in the progressive outlook that having a website or Instagram is the new resume; the portfolio people are looking for nowadays.

I know when I book a hair salon, for example, I am checking to make sure they have a social media presence at least on Instagram. That each of their hairstylists has their own Instagram and uses it as a portfolio. I make sure I can hear their own voice through their posts, to see if I can relate with them.

Bonnie Christine, Surface Pattern Designer + Artist

Social media links: Website | Instagram

Link to Skillshare Class: https://skl.sh/36z0Coj

Who is this class good for:

• For the creative

• For the non-creative or for someone who wants their own business or product(s) one day

• For someone in high school or college right now. This class is pure gold things that you won’t get taught in an actual class, but have great lessons and examples to really help you focus on a direction in life.

What I really liked about the class:

• Short class, then again, not really much of a class but like a short lecture, but with captivating examples.

• Great visuals to support her speech.

• Great examples of big words, as well as examples to add to her story. She didn’t just mouth off big words without an ending or telling the viewer about this transformation from dreamer to doer. She really revealed personal moments that happened that led her to this point in her life that she is now a successful surface pattern designer. It didn’t happen overnight, and she really hones in on that.

Some key takeaways:

• “The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling." - Fabienne Fredrickson

• "Learning and exploring your dream can't be rushed, but it's a great time to build your platform in which you will be able to leap from. You'll be able to find yourself in your work. Establish a signature style for yourself."

• “If you ever find yourself having an itch to teach, it has been an incredible way to constantly push yourself and help other people learn what they wanna learn.”

• “There are many of us who are multi-passionate that lead us to run multi-faceted businesses.”

• "Creating a diversified income will allow you to have an income that ebbs and flows.

• Residual Income - when you continue to get paid after you've done the work.

  • Examples: digital items (eBooks and downloadables), teaching online courses, licensing your work

• Residual Revenue - highly likely to continue in the future, money that is predictable, stable, and can be counted on in the future of a high degree of certainty makes money while you sleep basically.

  • Example: a membership

• “Think about the one thing you need to do today in order to start moving forward into your goal. it's through long term consistency that you'll see progress. Long term consistency makes the difference. Long term consistency weeds out the weak. You won't have followers or money within the first few months. Every overnight success actually has years of hard work that you just don't see.”

In-Depth Review:

I feel like the reason I was able to really connect with this SkillShare video was that it hits really close to home. If you watch it, and really listen to it, you’ll be able to better understand why I created a website. Why this was so important to me. Why I started a blog. Things may be pretty bleak in the beginning, or for the first few years, but I’m doing something I believe in whether people I know believe in me or not. Which I find a lot of people do, and a lot of people are skeptical. But they were also hella skeptical when I said I was going to do my 4-year bachelor’s degree in 2 years, and when I did that they asked things like, “How?” Or tried to diminish my hard work and say, “So you finished your associates?” Nope, I finished my bachelor’s in 2 years.

No one saw the amount of work I put in besides my parents, some of my friends, and bosses. I would sleep in my car, literally, I still have a pillow and blanket in there, because I put in a lot of work. I didn’t complain, and it wasn’t an overnight success. I knew what I was getting myself into.

Back to the video, I felt like, when I was watching this, I actually felt like I was back in college and in a class with a guest speaker. And it felt personal, I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, she wasn’t rich, she struggled, she finished a degree in business, and she wanted to be a designer. She didn’t even know how to design or where to begin, but yet she was able to transform."

And her journey of getting there is the same journey I’m making now. I created a website so in the future when I do make my product, I can leap from my website. I don’t expect this to work out overnight, but this is a passion project. For me, I like to think of it as not putting all my eggs in one basket. That’s super important to me because I’m doing something to make money, I’m going after other things as well, but I want this website to be around to share what I learn as I continue to go through life.

So if you’ve ever had a passion, the one thing I believe you should really take away from this class is, “Your passion is your calling.”

Michael Chernow, Co-founder: The Meatball Shop | Founder: Seamore's

Social media links: Seamore's Website | Michael's Website | Seamore's Instagram | Michael's Instagram

Link to Skillshare Class: https://skl.sh/2TPfhqi

Who is this class good for:

• Anyone who wants or is thinking about owning their own business one day

• Anyone who is curious about what it takes to create your own business

• Anyone in college that is taking a course on organizational communication, business, or an English class that focuses on business writing

What I really liked about the class:

• A lot of people will not tell you how you should go about creating a business. It’s one of the secrets of the world. People always say, “There’s no secret to success,” but the truth is many people don’t want to divulge what they had to put in to get the outcome they wanted. They don’t want to talk about all the sh*t that they had to go through to figure out on their own. I get where they’re coming from, it’s from the side of if they really want this you’ll figure it out yourself or not wanting to have competition, but honestly, I think there should be more people giving you a general idea. You’ll still have to put in a lot of work, but usually, when someone wants to start something the answers aren’t really all that there or clear. So I really liked how he went into depth about it.

• Honestly, I wish I had this type of knowledge when I was taking my business writing class and my organizational communication class in college. Both times, we had to work “in the zone” to create a company and a corporate culture. This kind of helps you with that in figuring out what people are looking for. Plus it gives you real-life examples of how it did work and that this is possible and not some far off dream into the future.

• We’re always being taught from a young age that we can be anything we want to be, but once we reach teenage years and adulthood there are these blocks that other people put in place for us. And then start saying, “You can’t do that.” When you watch this video, and it’s very much so like, well it’s not impossible. It’s certainly being done, and it really starts to feel like the people who are blocking you never had the passion or guts to go after it themselves. So I very much like that Michael came out into the open and was like, “this is what I did.” It just helps put things into perspective.

Some key takeaways:

• “Investors will read the executive summary. If interested they will go straight to the numbers.”

• “Investors actually invest in you. The way you carry yourself is instrumental in raising capital.”

• “Great entrepreneurs are friendly and kind because you don't know who you're talking to. Take business cards, network, get out there to meet people.”

• “Put in your own money also.”

• “Define the core values early on because they are gonna help design the mission. Go around with the team and lay out the list, have each person say a value, go around a few times, and talk about it. Then eventually get it down to four or five. This process takes time and an ongoing thing.”

• “Culture is who you are. Brand is what you are. Brand is physical; culture is not. Philosophy behind the culture: guests are second. The staff is number one. If the staff is excited and good, the guests will be taken care of incredibly well. So know how to motivate the staff.”

• “It's a people business.”

• “Implementing culture: the best way is through training. A training packet that talks about core values and mission. You talk about all the things that you do as a company, the days off, what you do as a team. For example, fitness every day at 8. Creating a culture of being good and feeling good. Create good deals with local businesses for your team. Feel the core values and execute on it. Create incentives.”

• “What does it take to be a great entrepreneur: Self-awareness is important. Trying to be good at everything is a mistake. A huge part of success is to be self-aware. A good entrepreneur knows what he/she is good at and not good at. It's a huge part of success. Instead, find people to help with the weaknesses, and focus on your strengths.”

In-Depth Review:

It honestly took me over 100 classes before I found this one. I have watched so many on personal development, creativity, filming, marketing, branding, and so on and so forth. This was a needle in a haystack. It was literally only on about one Skillshare recommended playlist. And I didn’t even find it through that, I actually found it through Google searching what other people recommended to take on Skillshare.

I’m not 100% for Skillshare, I won’t lie about that, but there are some decent videos that you won’t find anywhere else.

That being said, I was literally giving up hope on finding my third class to recommend on Skillshare. I wanted it to be something I felt passionate about, relatable, and current. It couldn’t be something that was a momentary feeling. It had to be something I felt I would come back weeks from now or months from now, looking back on my notes regarding this topic.

So yeah, I went through over 100+ classes before I found this last gem. I’m really happy I did keep looking and being persistent.

Personally, for me, my family is not rich. Both my parents come from farmland from when Poland was still communist. They both worked multiple jobs to send my sisters and I to good schools, and have decently good luxuries that they didn’t have. I pretty much raised myself because I was used to being home alone a lot after school because my mom would come home from one job, make me food, and then go to another job. Same with my dad. A lot of people think we’re rich and well-off, but we just worked very hard to own the things we have now and that puts a lot of perspective on the life I want to lead.

My dad tried to open up his own business and it failed.

And I only started to seriously consider opening up my own business in the past year. I’ve always wanted my own cafe, but that’s not for a while. But I also want to have six different ways of bringing in money and revenue, and one of them is through my brand. I have to start somewhere. Beyond that, I really admire how Michael delved deeply into all the things that make up entrepreneurship.

I loved it when he said,

“Always be kind and smile because you don’t know who you’ll meet when.”

I fully agree with this. I’m always meeting people left and right. I have no bias. I’ve been asked on multiple occasions how long I’ve known the person I was in a full-blown conversation with, and most of the time I just met them. That’s the type of person I am, I can talk to anyone, anywhere, at any given time about anything.

I most often meet people while on a plane or an airport. I’ve met some really awesome people this way. Like this one time, I met an Egyptian girl who sat next to me from Germany to Philadelphia on a Lufthansa flight. And it was her first time flying in a long ass time, and she said I kept her calm by talking to her. She felt so much joy from that she thanked me by giving me a hieroglyphic scroll that I still have to this day.

It’s that type of connection that sticks, because you don’t know if you’ll ever see that person again or not, but you’d want them to have a good impression of you. If this person was to be a professor at my college and I gave them a bad impression of me, they could have made my life a living hell. You don’t have to be extroverted like I am, but don’t give someone a reason to dislike you if they’re being nice to you. Have some manners and courtesy to be nice back, if you’re not in the mood to talk excuse yourself politely. It’s really not that hard.

This class definitely helped me put a much more “it’s possible” perspective on some of my dreams. I’m always working on all these things I want to do. Sometimes I don’t know how, but little things add up. And honestly, even if you’re not considering having your own business one day like I said, if you work in HR and are being asked to reconstruct the brand and the corporate culture, Michael gives great ideas. If you’re a college student and have a business writing course or organization communication course, this gives value to that. I listened and was legit remembering, “Oh I learned that in Dr. Chewning’s class.”

That makes all the difference because it’s sometimes hard to envision how college classes will help us in the real world. Well, here’s your proof, it is used but many people don’t talk about it. So I really applaud Michael for coming forward and putting all that info out there.

Got to the end? Soooo, what next? I'm very tired of the number of YouTubers who accept SkillShare promotions. It's gotten to be pretty over the top.

In conclusion, I really wanted to check out what the hype was. I wanted to know, "Is it worth it?" "Why are so many YouTubers sponsored by SkillShare?" "Is it really that good as they make it seem?" And to me, I did find some material that I enjoyed, but a lot of it was pointless. Definitely felt like Skillshare isn't all that what's chalked up to be, especially not for its price tag. I did have 2 months free to try it out.

These 3 were the Skillshare classes I did find and felt they were decently worth it; the rest, it would have been better if they were on YouTube.

Beyond that...

As someone who is deeply invested in eLearning and studying eLearning ICTs that are currently available today, this was great for my research.

Till next time!

~Diana

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