The World is Our Forever Classroom.

In order to be and stay successful in business, we must continually use the world as our classroom.

I’m in sales, so I load up on retail classes. I walk through malls with no intention to buy – only to learn: which colors are in, which products are becoming more popular, which items are attracting people’s attention, how prices have changed, etc.

And I also look for the non-obvious things, like people’s expressions when they browse and buy - how each product seems to make them feel. Which age groups are attracted to which items.

I walk down every aisle in the supermarket, to do the same.

I sell to sports fans specifically, so every time I’m at a game, I take some time out to walk 360° around the stadium, to see: which players are moving people to buy jerseys and other items, which items themselves are moving people, if anything I’ve never seen before has come out, etc. (In an upcoming post, I’ll tell you how one of my stadium audits, years ago, led to the creation of one of our most popular collectibles.)

(If you want to know which styles are in fashion, go to your nearest department store and check out what’s on the racks.)

Heck, you don’t even need to leave the house anymore to learn from the world. Did you know that the equivalent of 10 years of content are uploaded to YouTube every day? If you’re not using YouTube as a teacher, you’re falling behind.

Do you consider yourself a student? Even if your last day of school was years ago, you should.

As always, thank you for staying engaged with my blog and social media channels. My new company @collectiblexchange is currently running a sale of 25% off select football collection. If you'd like to take advantage of the sale click here