Aha! I bet you thought I wasn't going to send anything this month. Oh, just me? 😅 I usually send this newsletter out really early in the month, but here we are! This edition includes some personal learnings and reflections from recent happenings. There's a lil spooky picture in this one to help you move from October to November if, like me, you want the spooky to continue.

Last week, I wrapped up the One and All Entrepreneurial Cohort, a 10-week program from LEAP (Lansing Economic Area Partnership) that helps local founders learn how to start and run a business. It’s designed especially for people in the Lansing region who have ideas, energy, and vision but might not have access to the same networks or resources as traditional startups.

For ten weeks, we met, learned, laughed, and worked. The program covered everything from filing for a business license to business models. It was both a short and a looooong cohort, packed with learnings, some of which I'd like to share:

Take a chance on yourself. We don’t need to have every detail figured out to start. Done and out there, getting feedback, is better than perfect.

Give your dreams time. Let them grow at their own pace. Dreams reveal themselves slowly, sometimes in failure, in trying again, or approaching things in a different way, I'm learning.

Hold on when things feel beyond your abilities. This is the GROWTH ZONE! It can be uncomfortable, but we don’t have to do it alone. Keep folks nearby who remind you of what you're made of when you forget.

I’m so grateful to be part of the Lansing community, a city with a small town heart and a big city spirit. People here genuinely root for each other. That's my final takeaway - Help each other. There's enough for all of us.

Entrepreneurship, like being human, isn’t supposed to be a solo mission. Reach out to others and accept help!​​

This weekend, I co-hosted an in-person Extra Life event with Lansing Codes at Hoplite Games, raising funds for our local children’s hospital. Eight hours of non-stop gaming joy. We raised $1,175, over 50% of our goal!

I learned about Crokinole, played Cultivate, and remembered how strong our local gaming and tech communities are. People showed up not just to donate or play, but to be together with others. It's been a while since I felt that sort of feeling in a large group of mostly strangers. I was overwhelmed by the friendliness and kindness.

Huge thanks to Adam Broadbent from Lansing Codes for pulling this off with me on just a month’s notice. I have even more respect for event planners now! This was my first in-person Extra Life event, ever!

Excited to do this again next year, but better! And hopefully with more lead up and less work ha!

Donations are still open if you'd like to add or join our team!

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Because this game night was in October, clearly we had to play something scary! We got a team together to play There Are Ghosts in This Discord, a collaborative storytelling horror game about communication and hauntings.

In this game, you set up a discord server like a certain setting. For example, our setting? The scariest of all: a return to office! Specifically, an old, abandoned office building sinking off the coast of Rhode Island. Our discord channels were areas of the office on different levels, like the reception, break room, or cubicle farm.

Players are split into 2 groups - the investigators and the ghosts. The investigators can only community through their "walkie-talkies" AKA voice channel, and the ghosts can only listen in on their conversations.

The objective of the game is to tell a story about what's brought the investigators and ghosts here to this location. The ghosts try to learn more about the investigators by haunting them via text and media. Meanwhile, the investigators are trying to figure out what ghosts haunt just beyond the veil...

...A reminder that even in ghost stories (and workplaces), what we’re really haunted by... is disconnection. 😅

This is a great, easy to pick up game for folks interested in light facilitation. It's a spooky way to practice storytelling, communication, and creativity as a team. Check it out!

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Fun gadgets and games I've found this month.

Scope Creep

Warning: This interactive story about moving deadlines and surprise features might give you nightmares....

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LinkedIn Wisdom Generator

Just as useful!

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