To stay relevant within business or any industry, you be must continuously learning new things to improve.
"How do industry experts stay at the peak of their field? They never stop learning."
Be it industry updates, new systems and processes or product information to keep up with new customer trends. it's always consuming and most of the time a bit laborious, but highly important.
Why? Because when you add all of the little tasks and educational tips, blogs and videos that have to be learnt together, it creates the very thing that drives a business into the future. The creation of an industry expert. Which is you!
How do you do this?
Research online - There is an abundance of information within specific industries online, from webinars to videos. Sometimes it can come from a different industry which you find can be adapted .Start searching and best of all it’s generally free.
Seminars/meet ups - In most industries there are meet ups and gatherings be it expos or networking events. Get to know people who organise these and start attending, it’s great to discuss with other like minded people in the same field.
Industry body websites/Papers - Most industries have bodies that regulate or collectively work towards better knowledge for an industry, these groups can have a huge amount of information that you can gain additional knowledge from. If you haven’t taken a look around in your industry I recommend you do so.
So take these small things on with as much enthusiasm as a pay rise or big deal signed, and have a think about this the next time you are listening to education or in a training meeting about a new product.
One day you might actually learn something new and that could be all that separates number one and number two in any industry! Experience and expertise always takes time and you only get out what you put in to it.
The person who is number one in your industry didn't accidentally get there, it was through learning and refining their craft over a long period of time.