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CreativeLive Co-Founder Craig Swanson Interview

Secrets From Silicon Valley Interview

“10 years from now, there’s going to be a new generation of leaders and innovators in the world that are going to share in their common story a moment in time at this place—CreativeLive—watching something that happened here. Now that doesn’t mean that CreativeLive will be around ten years from now. What happens with CreativeLive in 10 years? That’s for us to execute well on or execute poorly on.

“But there is a change that is happening in the world based on the people who are watching us and what they are doing with their own lives. And for me, that’s what this is all about.

“…Nothing that we have done would be possible without the support of everybody out there, especially those supporting us in the early days. Because it is the audience, the community, that supported us early on that makes everything we’re doing now possible.

“And for me, I feel so incredibly fortunate every time I come to work. We are able to attract really great instructors. We’re able to attract some of the best staff in the world doing this. And none of that’s possible without the audience, without you guys that are out there supporting us, tuning in, talking back, arguing, sometimes poking us when you don’t like what we’re doing.

“You are the people that make CreativeLive exist, and I never forget that for a moment. …When we started, it was a $25 microphone, and nobody had any reason to pay any attention to us all. And the only reason instructors paid attention to us is that the size of our audience became significant enough, and people spoke on our behalf strongly enough that other people started to listen.

“So especially for those of you who’ve been watching. You know, for over three years or sometimes longer back. Thank you. That sense of community is something that is felt. Whenever people come to participate, they say that they were in their homes a lot of the time and they felt like part of the family.

“…We see the difference in people’s lives. We see people creating businesses that didn’t exist previously. We see people taking risks. We see people telling the story of what they’re doing, and it’s not us doing that work. They’re doing the work in their own life. Sometimes we’re doing nothing more than giving them an excuse.

“I feel humble about the audience. For me, it’s a responsibility. You know, there are people that have given us the amount of attention they’ve given us, and it’s our responsibility to live up to that.”

Russ Andes interviewed me from Studio D during the broadcast of Secrets From Silicon Valley on the occasion of opening our new San Francisco studio. Listening back not quite a decade later, I hear my younger self speaking to me now, reminding me of the profound sense of purpose and gratitude from the early days of CreativeLive.