When I was building my side-hustle offline leather goods business back in 2018, I initially wanted to focus straight on e-commerce. But I quickly realised I was missing something important: seeing how real people actually react to the product. What they touch first, what they ask, what confuses them, what makes them hesitate. You learn more from ten minutes behind a counter than from another hour staring at analytics.
The second lesson was selling myself. Talking to people, negotiating, hearing “too expensive,” handling objections. It can be uncomfortable and sometimes painful, but that is exactly why it works. It is like the gym: muscles grow because you put them under load. The next day everything hurts, but after enough repetitions, you become stronger.
The photo is from a full day at a local fair: sales, conversations, questions, mini-interviews, and a notebook packed with customer feedback by the end of the day (my legs were soring as hell!)
Data is useful. Frameworks are useful. But they are still a proxy. Every now and then, leave the dashboard, go where the customer actually is, and sell something yourself 😎
