The sun was setting over Sioux City, Iowa as the fifth semi-annual Base 3 event began with a Biz Brew social hour. The rosy light poured through the windows of the Ho-Chunk Centre as a group of about 50 entrepreneurs, bankers, community leaders and students gathered to enjoy live painting, delicious barbeque and local craft beer.
The crowd soon made its way to their seats to hear about all things entrepreneurship and innovation from three speakers of diverse backgrounds in marketing, software development and video production.
Joshua McNary, a marketing technologist and entrepreneur, started the evening with his best advice for new entrepreneurs based on his experience in the field. He stressed the constant hard work that goes into the lifestyle as well as his top networking tips. McNary explained that he constantly made connections by never eating lunch alone, and always asking his mentors and peers who he should talk to next.
Next, Stacy Carlson, the COO of SitStay.com and CEO of gottaPixel, took the stage to start a conversation about the feeling of not fitting into the startup community. Carlson spoke about Imposter Syndrome, the inability of a person to internalize their accomplishments.
“I didn’t realize that 60,000 users was good,” she said.
Carlson explained that despite her notable achievements, she never felt like she had a seat at the startup table. She explained how she felt intimidated by other female entrepreneurs, and how she never felt like she had enough knowledge to pass onto other entrepreneurs.
Carlson then gave advice on how to combat the negative thought process. She told the crowd to own their successes, surround their lives with positive people and to not let Imposter Syndrome get in the way of taking risks.
“Everyone is an expert at something,” Carlson said. “You may think that you’re not, but you are, so own it.”
You can read more advice from Carlson on her guest post for SPN, “When you’re successful but you feel like a fraud.”
The last speaker, Tito Hamze wrapped up the evening with a talk about taking risks. Hamze is currently a producer, shooter and editor for TechCrunch and the CEO at Sunol Group Media where he has created hundreds of videos that review new applications.
Hamze started the conversation by reflecting on his time traveling. He explained how he owes a big part of his success to his family who not only encouraged, but forced him to do things big.
“When I failed Spanish in 10th grade, they sent me to Mexico for five weeks,” Hamze said. “And when I showed a slight interest in hockey at a young age they sent me to Canada! They really instilled that mentality of, if you’re going to try something, you might as well go all out.”
Hamze closed the event by encouraging the crowd to take risks, travel, go all out in all aspects of their lives and to realize that success takes a lot of really hard work.
“No one can tell you what you can or cannot do,” he said. “You have to rely on yourself to push things forward.”
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Melanie Lucks is a communications intern for Silicon Prairie News and AIM Careerlink.
