An Exclusive Interview With Marissa Streit CEO Of PragerU & Host Of CEO Talks
An innovative leader in the conservative movement, Marissa Streit joined PragerU in 2011. Under her dynamic leadership, PragerU has grown quickly into one of the most respected, go-to resources for conservative ideas. Her experience in business, education, social media, and the non-profit sector has enabled PragerU to more than double its audience each year, making it the fastest-growing conservative organization in the world.
Introduce yourself. What do you do? How did you get started?
I’m Marissa Streit and I am the CEO of PragerU. I’m also a wife, a mother, and a former educator. Regarding my background and education, I’m a Los Angeles native who moved to Israel at a young age, where I attended primary school. Later I served in the Israeli 8200 intelligence force, an elite unit that focuses on maximizing the potential of intelligence gathering for Israel—which, as you probably know, is a very small country that is constantly under threat in the Middle East. I came back to America to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in education. I then became an educator in California, teaching every grade between kindergarten and 7th, as well as serving as a headmistress of a private school. I also helped to build a small nonprofit. Today I run one of the largest educational media organizations in the world aimed at teaching the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
How did I end up leading PragerU? Twenty years ago, I began to realize that Americans were not being exposed to some of the world’s most important ideas and truths. As a young professional educator, I was incredibly frustrated with America’s education system, particularly its lack of accountability, biased curriculum, and the disturbing politicization of most classrooms. In late 2010, a friend named Roger called me and asked, “Marissa, do you happen to know someone who has a background in education, is comfortable with the digital space and knows how to grow a nonprofit from scratch?” I responded, “Well, Roger, that might seem like a random collection of skill sets, but they are skills that I incidentally happen to have.” Roger connected me to author and talk radio host Dennis Prager and screenwriter Allen Estrin. They had a big idea: build a digital organization that would teach the truth to young people without any of the barriers and constraints of the legacy bureaucracies that have traditionally stood between the elites and the people. They described their vision as a way to provide medicine for the mind. Dennis and Allen said to me, “Imagine a classroom the size of the Internet.” At that point in my career, I was about to turn 30. I could not help but feel that God had prepared me for this moment. A little over a decade later, PragerU now provides educational and entertaining or, as we say, “Edu-Tainment” video content to millions of people, from ages 4 to 104. Through our videos, viewers are enriched with a better way of thinking, understanding, and living. Looking back, I believe what prepared me the most for this opportunity—to run a media enterprise with millions of subscribers, over 100 employees, thousands of supporters, and all the challenges that executives face (plus the battle with Big Tech censorship and an increasingly woke culture)—was the adversity I experienced growing up. Those who know my background know that, like many people, I didn’t have an easy childhood. As with most humans, there were many moments when I could have seen myself as a victim or someone who couldn’t succeed. But instead, even early in my childhood, I viewed every challenge as an opportunity to push myself and push the world around me to be better. I developed a saying over the years that encapsulates this outlook: “I kiss my calluses.” With that attitude, I hope to continue to be brave, to be strong, speak the truth, do what’s right, and inspire anyone who questions whether they are capable of something great.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned since beginning your career?
There is a duality to my life—I am very open to it, and it works synergistically. That duality is that I am a very dedicated mom, a very dedicated CEO, and an entrepreneur. Sometimes, our culture talks about these roles as being separate or says that they can’t co-exist. I am a mother of three children ages 4, 7, and 9. I’m a very involved mom. I am simply “all in'' for both roles, and dedicate myself to this duality. The more my kids see me as dedicated to something that matters to me and the harder I work, the more they learn and the more they are enriched. They appreciate that my work is important and they are growing up around a culture of hard work. We shouldn’t take hard work for granted, because often there isn’t a culture of hard work in America anymore. My kids are learning some of life’s most important lessons—more important than math or social studies. You kiss your calluses. You don’t give up.
Tenacity is good. Success is something to aspire to. Great things and great achievements don’t come easily. They see their mom doing it. Integrating motherhood and my work is important to my family. There are, of course, some parts of my kids’ lives that I have to miss, but these times are supplemented by lessons they are learning by watching Mom in this duality. My kids are learning that being patient and understanding when Mom needs to work helps them contribute to larger goals. They need to know the world doesn’t revolve around them and their schedules. They share Mom’s time with something that she is passionate about and brings meaning to other people. I believe these lessons will teach them how to share, be generous, and have tenacity and resilience. Being a very dedicated leader, I don't get to switch off being CEO very often. I am always a mom and I am always a CEO. Sometimes when I go on a hike, my brain is resolving problems at work and comes up with new ideas and innovations. Mom, wife, CEO—You need to find a balance. It’s not always rigid where you are CEO from 9-5 and a mom during other times. The blessing of that duality is that each side enriches the other: I’m a better CEO because I’m a mom and vice versa. It is hard, but I’m not afraid of hard work. That is part of what I grew up with and it’s something I value.
How do you bounce back from everyday obstacles or adversities?
I don’t bounce back from them. It’s the opposite. I roll with them and find a way for challenges to fuel me. When God or the universe throws a challenge to me, either I get better or end up fixing something around me and making it better. I look at myself first. How do I lead in my environment so that these adversities become sources of strength, learning, and a reason to either do better or get stronger? I think if you sit down with any entrepreneur, and ask them about their most important lessons, they will always mention an adversity element. At PragerU we refer to it as “the pit of despair.” There is an opportunity to come out of it better—perspective plays a significant role in being able to grow from challenging moments. In 2016, I experienced significant adversity. It was one of the most shocking moments of my career and the biggest challenge I had yet faced as CEO.
YouTube was the platform we had predominantly built PragerU on, and they had started to censor us without any reason or recourse. For just a moment, I thought that this would be the beginning of the end for PragerU. If there is no one reason to speak with at YouTube about our content being restricted or censored, what would prevent YouTube (or its parent company Google) from taking us down entirely? How would we reach the millions of people whom we are supposed to serve? How could we be living in the freest society on earth, yet experience such censorship of speech? Would we lose America as we know it? It felt like we were living under the rule of a monarchy. The YouTube challenge fueled me. It also became a catalyst for PragerU’s growth. It caused us to reprioritize our marketing efforts and invest in our own platforms like our website, mobile app, and OTT (streaming media technology). We also focused on building audiences passionate about freedom of speech and encouraged them to donate to our cause. This experience sparked us to build closer alliances and networks with other companies that share our same concerns about being de-platformed by tech giants. PragerU is exponentially larger today than in 2016, on every single metric. We used to release one video a week, now we release 50 pieces of original weekly content. Our audience is about five times larger and our budget is over three times bigger than before YouTube tried to censor us. And, by the way, YouTube still restricts over 200 of our videos.
What piece of advice would you give to the young women of this generation?
I think the key to all of this is that we live in a culture that tries to box us into victim groups. We never need to think of ourselves as victims— it limits us. When we think of ourselves as victims, we spend our lives surviving instead of thriving. Women especially are the opposite of victims. We are victors. When we are faced with challenges, we need to remember we are incredibly capable, creative, resourceful, and can do more than we think we can. Instead of believing that there is a glass ceiling, that men will look at us or treat us differently, or that the odds are stacked against us, we should push those thoughts far away and continue to charge forward to accomplish our dreams. I also feel strongly that young women should embrace their femininity. Don’t try to be something you’re not, simply because the culture seems to celebrate it. Enjoy being a woman, allow yourself to receive a compliment from the opposite sex, and choose not to be offended. If someone tells you you are good-looking, don’t assume that person thinks all you have is looks. Consider that you might be both good-looking and smart! Just say “thank you.” It’s good to remember the old saying “sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt me.” I think women are naturally stronger mentally and emotionally than men. But the culture wants to weaken that innate gift. We must reject the label of victims or the notion that female professionals always face larger obstacles than men. If we accept these labels, our mental state will set us back. Another nugget of advice is to focus on building a family. Be a good spouse and enjoy your kids. I always say whatever effort you put into your career, you should double that effort into finding a spouse that shares your values. Then put that effort into building the relationship. Then put that amount of effort into your family. Through this process, you will learn to maintain a balance between family and career. Who you marry is likely one of the most important decisions you make. Put a lot of effort into finding your match, because you can always change your career but it’s hard to change your spouse. Specifically for young people, this advice is key because our culture is shifting in another direction where marriage and children are of a lesser priority.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Every day I wake up in the morning and ask myself, how can I do more good for the world? How can I make sure when I pass on and meet my creator, I can say I did everything I could to leave this world, my country, my community, and my family better off than how I found them? And every night before I go to bed, often exhausted, I ponder whether I’ve done enough. There is always going to be more that needs to get done. But the greatest gift I’ve received in my life is seeing the ROI (Return on Influence) that I’ve managed to bring to my family and my country. The work we do at PragerU is all about helping people think better so they can live better. We are strong believers that education and perspective are some of the greatest gifts that we can give. When I think about the millions of lives we’ve impacted at PragerU, I also think about the specific individuals whose lives have been changed.
In 2021, my family moved houses in Los Angeles and we hired a local team to help us. The lead mover on the team was named Nick; he recognized the PragerU logo on my sweatshirt and approached me while I was carrying boxes down the stairs. He asked me with an intimidating look, “You support PragerU?” I’m a small person and I was naturally a little startled. Before I gasped he continued, “My teenage daughters and I have been binge-watching PragerU videos over the last few months. I love their stuff.” With great surprise and pride, I told him that I happen to run PragerU. Nick and I became instant friends and spent the rest of the day carrying boxes and talking about the importance of access to truth, education, and good values. A week after the move, Nick texted me the following, “Marissa, I want to thank you again for the work that you do at PragerU. You have changed my perspective on life. I will be my family’s redemption and I will raise my daughters with the love of God and country.” This relationship means a lot to me. What are the chances of building such a friendship with someone who grew up with a completely different background on the other side of a city of millions of people? It really shows the true impact of our work at PragerU. The lesson at the end of the day is that all of us simply want our children to thrive, and the best way to do that is through truth and good values.
What projects are you currently working on that our readers should be on the lookout for? What excites you about this project?
As CEO of PragerU, I’ve often thought of myself as a behind-the-scenes person. Naturally, as I run a media company, my role has been to build personalities, influencers, and shows. This past summer, I recognized that I had much more to share. I often sit down with entrepreneurs and great business leaders across industries who are generous donors of PragerU. They’ve become my mentors, and I’ve learned so much from them. I wondered if others could benefit from the great discussions I have with these giants from the business world. Over the upcoming months, my team and I will launch a brand new series called CEO Talks with Marissa. PragerU viewers are invited to be a fly on the wall in my office, cafes, and impromptu private settings across America as I discuss topics related to entrepreneurship, management, realizing visions, and personal growth with other CEOs and businesses leaders. This series is intended to educate the next generation of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is looking to get inspired. I am truly blessed to be in a position that can bring such valuable discussions and lessons to those who want to learn. □
Article Credits
Marissa’s Instagram: @themarissastreit
PragerU’s Website: Home | PragerU
Photo Credits: @miguelperales.photo