It can be hard to find the energy to handle basic life, between work plus personal responsibilities, much less develop skills. Not only is time limited, chances for learning can be both rare and expensive opportunities. Staying on top of the reasons people engage with a business keeps them actively involved. Five ways to take advantage of free information for advancing knowledge in any industry whenever is convenient:

1. Audit MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

2. Explore conferences, talks, and festivals

3. Find magazine and newspaper articles

4. Follow blogs and social media

5. Join email lists

Websites such as Coursera, EdX, and Udemy offer online courses from universities such as Harvard, Berklee, Yale, Oxford, and more from around the world that can be audited for free. While the free version does not come with the official credit from the institutions that come with paying for the classes, there is full access to academic videos and resources. There are also sites like Google’s Classroom, Khan Academy, Facebook’s Blueprint for Business, or HubSpot which are meant for anyone to learn. These open learning sites can come with free certificates once certain actions are taken in a given subject.

Major tech or industry conferences like Collision, Web Summit, or South by Southwest may offer free or discounted entry for students, women in tech, startups, and people from sustainable initiatives. Smaller talks and festivals including Simple Play’s Music Industry Happy Hour, New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, and French Quarter Fest offer opportunities for personal engagement with experienced professionals. Explore local community centers and museums for speeches or events that anyone can attend starting with UNO, Delgado, Xavier, Loyola, Tulane, the Treme Center, plus New Orleans Museum of Art.

The more educational opportunities taken advantage of, the more resources worth subscribing to are easily available. From writers to businesses, professionals offer a myriad of information between journalism and digital content for free easily. Absorbing the experiences of trusted authorities provides useful variables to keep in mind when testing out the implementation of other work for new projects. No matter where someone is in their understanding of any specialty, there is always something else to learn to better impact the community. A few suggestions about looking for what to learn: think about what step can move the next initiative forward, stay on top of current industry trends as well as long term patterns, and explore any inspiration’s application to your current business plans. Associations about a brand are put together by different judgements of quality, credibility, consideration, and influence. Manage skills to demonstrate the value provided by doing business with self directed learners.

Deaf Child Links:

1. Blog

2. Reading List

3. Online Classes List

4. Music Marketing Encyclopedia