Is CreativeLive’s Creator Pass worth the money? I’ve taken several CreativeLive courses and am happy to bring you my review of the subscription to the Creator Pass and recommend several courses I’ve enjoyed on Creative Live.
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As of the time of this writing, you can also get an additional $10 discount using SUMMER10
What is CreativeLive?
Creative Live is an online education platform where you can take online courses from some of the best creative professionals from your computer, tablet, or phone to improve your creative skills.
The courses are mainly aimed at different types of creators: artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, photographers, and crafters. Really, when it comes down to it…if you create stuff…you’ll find some new skills to learn on CreativeLive.
In my opinion, this is one of the best online learning platforms for creative entrepreneurs. From the fundamentals of photography to personal finance, you’ll find most of what you need on this platform.
The most recent class I’ve been taking on CreativeLive is one called Fulfill Your Creative Purpose by Ann Rea. It’s a 30 day class on finding how your creativity can be leveraged as your purpose in business. I’m in the first week of the course and finding it pretty helpful in thinking through ideas for my upcoming membership.
CreativeLive’s mission is to “champion creators to live their dreams.” I think this mission sums things up well because not only do they focus on how to do the creative work, but they also have a ton of classes on how to use your creativity to make a living.
How Does CreativeLive Work?
There are several ways you can take courses on CreativeLive.
- You can watch free courses. See the schedule here.
- You can purchase a course you’re interested in. It will be added to your library and you can watch it whenever you want.
- You can get a CreativeLive Subscription and get access to almost all of their courses at any time your little heart desires!
My recommendation is to go and try out one of their free courses. I think you’ll quickly see the quality of the programs offered is outstanding!
I made a video for you showing you these different options. In this video, I’ll show you why I recommend you subscribe to the CreativeLive Creator Pass:
How Do I Access My Creative Live Class?
The courses are available to you when you log into your account at CreativeLive. You can also download their iOS CreativeLive app if you have an iPhone or iPad.
You can either stream the videos or download them to watch offline.
Most courses are “on demand,” which means you can watch them whenever you want since they are pre-recorded.
I say “most” because one of the coolest things about CreativeLive is when they record new courses, these are live streams on the website (and typically for free! You can check out their on-air live free classes here).
Jasmine Star (my favorite course instructor) recently recorded a new course called Your Social Media Bootcamp and it was pretty cool to watch the streaming live course while it was being recorded for CreativeLive.
I didn’t have to worry about missing any of it since I had a subscription too. This was great because I could watch it at my own pace. If I didn’t have a subscription, I could have watched it for free while it was recording!
Note from Marlena: If you're interested in using social media to create genuine connections with an audience, I highly recommend her course. Jasmine is brilliant with Instagram and also on other platforms. I personally follow most of her stuff on Facebook. You can get her Social Media Bootcamp course here.
Creative Live’s approach involves finding the best instructors who then teach a live class that is recorded to a studio audience. Each week they offer free on-air courses, which is awesome because you can try before you buy.
You don’t even have to buy, you can watch for free. I watched Mel Robbin’s course How To Break The Habit of Self-Doubt and Build Real Confidence when it was streaming for free. I loved it. It did take the whole day though 😉 so I had to plan for it.
Another pretty cool freebie is 30 Days of Genius by Chase Jarvis. In this program he interviews people like Brene Brown, Gretchen Rubin, and Marie Forleo about their successes and failures to give you some actionable tips to reach your creative goals.
What Does CreativeLive Cost?
In the video, I showed you some of the current prices on programs. CreativeLive’s pricing varies because they often have sales going on. – Since the video some of the prices have changed. See below for a picture of the current prices on the Creator Pass.
The individual classes we saw in the video were priced at $23, $79, or $119 each; however, this varies because they have a lot of sales.
As you saw in the video, the current sale is typically shown up at the very top of the screen.
CreativeLive offers different bundles and a subscription, which GREATLY reduces the cost of the courses.
For instance, we saw that at the time of this video, the course “Start a Profitable Online Business” featuring James Wedmore, Derek Halpern, and Lewis Howes was $119 if you purchased it alone (on sale from $149 at the time of this writing).
If you purchase it as part of the 30 Days of Genius Bundle which includes five other courses, the price is $249! That makes it $40ish per course. Huge difference.
If you purchase a year long subscription to CreativeLive, the price for an annual membership is currently $129 (with the 57% discount on the yearly plan)! This is what I recommend. I can’t even do the math here. You get access to approximately 1500 courses, so this would make the course mentioned above…getting my calculator…20 CENTS!
Of course, I don’t think you’ll be able to watch all 1500 courses this year so maybe look a little more realistically. I bet you could watch 10 at least this year, bringing the price down to about $30 a course.
Are Creative Courses Worth The Price?
I purchased 3 years of Creator Pass because I love the classes on CreativeLive so much. I feel they are really great quality and that this is a great place to find what you’re looking for when wanting to learn more about creative entrepreneurship. As a small business owner, I love that I can learn a new creative skill whenever I make time to do so.
CreativeLive seeks out great teachers who know their stuff. I’ve watched/listened to at least 10-15 courses and have enjoyed all but one.
The one course I didn’t like? I got a full refund on it! (This was before I had Creator Pass).
There is such a great variety of courses on CreativeLive so I truly think you’ll find something you enjoy there.
What Topics are on CreativeLive?
The classes focus on the following categories:
Within each of these categories, the topics are broken down even more. They include things like photography classes, self improvement, business, graphic design, drawing, Adobe Photoshop, cake decorating, jewelry design, Etsy shops, calligraphy, time management, and leadership.
I could go on and on but wanted to give you a picture of how diverse the class topics are.
It really goes to show they believe there is a creator in all of us.
Classes I’ve Taken and Recommend:
I purchased a bunch of the classes at CreativeLive prior to purchasing my Creator Pass. The Creator Pass is the best deal since you get access to almost everything. If you like learning, this is a great deal.
Here are some of the courses I’ve taken and enjoyed.
Your Social Media Bootcamp by Jasmine Star
If you want to grow an audience on Social Media authentically, you’ve got to listen to Jasmine Star. She teaches how to create content that resonates with your audience. More importantly, she teaches about engaging with an audience in an authentic way.
Everyone tells you you need to do this, but she tells you how. Jasmine is a great teacher. I’ve learned so much from her and highly recommend taking this class on CreativeLive.
Build a Standout Business by Tara Gentile
I’ve actually listened to this one twice, it’s that good. Tara teaches how to build a business that stands out in the marketplace.
If you’ve ever started a business, you probably learned pretty quickly that many others are doing similar things to what you do in your business.
You may have even stopped yourself from starting your business because of worries that others have done it before.
This course teaches actionable steps to take to grow a business that stands out and attracts your ideal customers.
Build a Fan Base on YouTube by Sunny Lenarduzzi was a surprise win for me. I was bored one day and just decided to watch this one because I saw something from this teacher sometime in the past.
I wasn’t even interested in YouTube, but this class gave me so many ideas about how to use YouTube to grow an audience. I learned a ton from this class and highly recommend it.
How to Break the Habit of Self-Doubt and Build Real Confidence by Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins, the author of the 5 Second Rule, teaches about how to build confidence. She helps you tackle negative thoughts and self doubt so you can break past your mental blocks. She taught a different perspective on what causes self doubt that resonated with me.
If you experience imposter syndrome, I recommend this one. I’ve seen it streamed live for free a few different times so I imagine it’ll be on there again in the future if you watch for it.
Start a Profitable Online Business by James Wedmore, Lewis Howes and Derek Halpern
Another good one. I included the names of the instructors on this one because you may recognize some big names in online business.
In this course you learn how to develop a product that sells, how to develop a lead magnet and grow your email list, and skills for online marketing. I liked ideas about coming up with a product idea, driving traffic using webinars, and growing your email list.
This one is timely right now as James Wedmore is going through the launch process of his program Business By Design (BBD). I mention this because it launches tomorrow and I might purchase it. 🙂
Starving to Successful: How to Become a Full Time Writer by Jeff Goins
I loved this course.
I didn’t know much about Jeff Goins prior to taking this course other than that he wrote some books.
His approach to teaching about writing was approachable and I want to learn more from him in the future for sure.
The class talks about mindset changes to make to become a profitable writer. He teaches how to find your writer voice and then the different steps to take to become a full time writer. Highly recommended!
Design Surface Patterns from Scratch by Bonnie Christine
If you’ve ever had a desire to learn how to use Illustrator, this class is a MUST.
I didn’t even really know what a Surface Pattern was when I started taking this course, but it kept coming up in my recommendations so I decided to take it.
WOW, she’s a fantastic teacher and led me down a path of discovery that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I even joined her membership after taking this class.
So, whether you want to learn how to make patterns, or just to use Illustrator, I recommend this.
Other Courses:
I’ve taken other classes on hand lettering, using Photoshop, and selling with an Etsy store. They have all been good.
The only ones I haven’t liked are classes that are more on the woo-woo side, but it is pretty easy to identify those 🙂 There aren’t many but I know I ran into one that felt a bit woo-woo.
I’m excited to learn more from CreativeLive and encourage you to check them out.
My top recommendation is the Creator Pass so you have access to all that I mentioned and more. I don’t know how many trainings they have but it is A LOT. The marketing materials say 1500 courses.
Creator Pass: Are There Exclusions?
I mentioned how much I love the Creator Pass. It included a huge number of courses.
A question I had when I signed up was: Does the Creator Pass include all of the courses available on CreativeLive? Is it really an all access pass?
The answer is nope. Apparently CreativeLive has prior agreements with some of the course instructors that require them not to include those instructors’ courses in the membership. The instructors are:
- Art Wolfe
- Julieanne Kost
- Marc Goodman
- Steven Kotler
- Ramit Sethi
The CreativeLive website lists 25 courses that are excluded which appear to be in addition to the ones from the instructors listed above.
Have I noticed? No, but that might be because I’m not that interested in learning photography and it appears many of these are in that space. No worries though, a lot of photography courses are included in the membership.
The only course I was sad I didn’t get was the one by Ramit Sethi. I ended up purchasing his course separately because I was interested in it. Although I was a little annoyed that it wasn’t included, I got it on sale for a good price.
Also, it doesn’t take away from the overall value of having access to so many other courses with my membership.
Creator Pass: Refunds? Autorenewals? Comparisons?
Whenever I sign up for a membership I like to know how do I cancel. It is something kind of weird about me I guess.
Here is a quick little FAQ:
Can you get a refund on Creator Pass if you don’t like it? Yes. You can get a refund within seven days. After seven days there is not a refund though.
Is the Creator Pass on auto-renewal? Yes. You may be like me and go in and renew it early though. I love that I have three years of Creator Pass 😉 To cancel auto-renew you just go to My Account > Subscriptions > Do Not Auto-Renew.
I for real HATE auto-renew. It is telling how much I love CreativeLive because I don’t even care that it is on auto-renew. (Usually I turn off auto-renew).
Can I view courses offline? Yes, purchased courses can be downloaded with one weird exception. If you purchase a course on an iOS app, you can download it on the app but not on the website. If you buy on the website you can download both on the app and on the website. *shrug* I don’t know. Weird.
How does CreativeLive compare to Udemy or Skillshare?
All of the sites have some good stuff. See my review for Skillshare here.
If I were to compare Udemy vs. CreativeLive, the first thing I would say is that CreativeLive is likely to win on quality of their courses. The instructors are high quality and knowledgeable. I trust CreativeLive to bring me good stuff.
I’ve enjoyed some Udemy courses as well. Their positioning (most courses are very cheap) makes it feel like their stuff is not as high quality. I rely on reviews a lot on Udemy before making a purchase.
Skillshare seems to be for a different audience. Courses on Skillshare are usually shorter and less produced. I highly recommend Skillshare for learning about how to do specific things like how to create digital stickers in Procreate (the class I teach).
For me, I would look to CreativeLive for things I want to learn for my business, things that are very important to me. I always check CreativeLive first. If I want to do something fun, I check Skillshare first since I have a membership there as well.
Each of these platforms is good for what they do. CreativeLive is my favorite.
The Bottom Line: Do I Recommend CreativeLive?
I give this a 8/10.
If you’ve followed this review previously, you may have noticed I took away a star. As mentioned below, I took away the star because I haven’t seen much new content added to the platform that fits my interests recently.
I am still a huge fan of CreativeLive and I highly recommend you try out some of their courses. The courses I’ve taken have fit a variety of my interests (as noted above) and they’ve all been great. I loved the new class by Jasmine Star and was excited to participate in the streaming audience for that.
I recommend you watch a free course to see what you think. Then, sign up for the Creator Pass for the best value!
I LOVE this website and even signed up for three years of Creator Pass (whenever I see a sale I renew my subscription).
Here’s a real quick rundown of the pros and cons of CreativeLive:
Pros:
A huge variety of topics
Quality instructors
Taught in a live format
Courses are on demand
Courses can be watched on your computer or on an app
Free courses every day
Creator Pass is affordable.
Cons:
Buying individual courses adds up quickly. I spent a lot of money on CreativeLive prior to getting the Creator Pass. (I could now watch all of those courses as part of my subscription so that is kind of a bummer).
I don’t like that the courses autoplay when you click on them. Sometimes I just want to click on one and read a description. NEVER do this in a meeting hahaha.
A new con for me, which may be pandemic related: there doesn’t seem to be many new classes and it’s hard to tell when a class was created. There have been a few times when I’ve been watching a class and a resource is mentioned (like a Facebook group), and I’ve gone to get it and it no longer exists. My guess is that they do create new classes, but maybe in topics I’m less interested in, like photography.
I am going to lower my rating a bit though because I’ve noticed that there aren’t as many new classes that fit my interests as I’d like.
