Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour

When we landed in Sioux Falls, we were graciously told by our pilot that it was -19 degrees. We left Florida when it was 78 degrees. You do the math! Arel and Sarah picked up our awesome Danish intern, Tue, grabbed the bus and headed off to Mitchell, South Dakota!

If you thought LAUNCH 2009 was fantastic, LAUNCH 2010 blew everyone away! Conference Partners included the Enterprise Institute, Kelley Center for Entrepreneurship at DWU, South Dakota EPSCoR, South Dakota Governor’s Office on Economic Development, South Dakota Small Business Development Centers, and South Dakota State University Entrepreneurship Program. Our sponsors and partners were incredible and brought in a great program.

The one and only, fabulous Sheena Lindahl was our key note speaker for the event. Boy can that girl rock a crowd! She motivated everyone in the audience and told them that “we are who we allow ourselves to be”. She talked about how “extreme” entrepreneurship is taking entrepreneurial skills and applying those to your entire life. She told about her own story of how she was able to co-found the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour and create the life that she wants for herself by being able to work with people who inspire her and raise her 15 month old daughter, Halle. What an inspiration.

Quotable quotes from what students learned:

“It takes more than an 805 job to get what you want out of life”- Bryan
“There are two kinds of luck, good and bad, and I can create my own opportunities in life”- Nick

After the event, the EET team loaded up the bus in the snow and ice and made the trek to Minnesota, don’t ya know (said with an accent). We made a pit stop at the Corn Palace, the main attraction of Mitchell, SD. An entire building made from corn! It was quite a spectacle and an incredible work of art. To get some caffeine for the ride we stopped at Black Sheep Coffee where Arel tried chai for the first time (and loved it) and solved a rubik’s cube in under 5 minutes! If you weren’t full of awe for this guy before, you can be completely impressed now!

3 events in one week and they were all huge successes. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store!

What’s better than home cooking? Beats us! The Extreme Tour kicked off the Central Texas  College event on Tuesday  night with a hot meal and some good company at the OrgSync headquarters. OrgSync C.E.O., Eric Fortenberry, was a gracious and humble host who set the tone for Wednesday’s event. The Central Texas SIFE team is a hard-working and welcoming group who really embodies what it means to “DREAM BIG.”

The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour team kicked off the Spring 2010 tour and rocked the house in warm and sunny Florida. We arrived at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida on Monday, February 22.  In order to get a flavor for the community we would see the next day, we went to the Original Tiki Hut to experience some fresh seafood before bringing all of our energy to the event the next day.  I don’t know what they’re feeding the fish down here, but it definitely worked!

The event was sponsored locally by EDI (Entrepreneur Development Institute at IRSC), the CCTI (Corporate & Community Training Institute at IRSC), the SBDC (Small Business Development Center at IRSC), and the City of Ft. Pierce Redevelopment Agency (FPRA).

As usual, the event started off with a lot of high fives and even though it was 8 am, everyone was participating enthusiastically.  The participants came in tired and skeptical of what they just signed up for, but by the end of the day they were literally jumping in their chairs and busting with ideas and goals to apply what they learned that morning.

Keynote speakers Adam Witty and Jason Duff definitely brought on the heat.  Their success stories impressed us all and they addressed topics from social entrepreneurship and using your talents and passions to make money and save the world, to the importance of who your employees are and making sure that they are so focused they are able to “pee through a straw”.  Marinate on that one for a minute!

Here are some worthwhile quotes from some of the event participants:

“It wasn’t just another conference with the mumbo-jumbo of trying to just get everyone motivated and inspired.  The tour achieved that of course, but actually gave us tangible and practical steps for how to be able to apply that energy and take the next step”.

“Can you come back next week?”

“I learned something new today.  I’ve always known that to be a successful entrepreneur you have to connect a new and innovative idea with the solution to a problem, so I’ve been trying to create something completely new and separate from what is out there.  I learned today how to apply this enthusiasm and passion to creating a service to improve the current, rather than create something brand new.”

If this first event sets the precedent for what the rest of the session will bring, you are all in for a treat!  The team heads out to cold and snowy South Dakota bright and early tomorrow morning.  Let’s hope the energy from participants at the South Dakota LAUNCH 2010 will be able to keep us just as warm and fired up as we are down here in Florida!