Ascender

Put your health over your hustle. Sign up for our FREE upcoming events for #entrepreneurs & #SmallBusinessOwners! .20 > The Mental Cost of Being the Boss featuring Sharise Nance of Vitamin C Healing .27 > Real Talk: Working Towards Balance featuring Leigh Solomon Pugliano of Straightforward Consulting Co. & Alex Bernstein of ASCEND Climbing

Pitch perfectionlike all kinds of perfectionis fake news. At the end of the day, there is ALWAYS something you can improve upon, but you need to get yourself to the point where you feel confident and capable of adapting to new audiences instead of being obsessed with perfection.

Are you working towards finding a balance between your personal life and profession? Let's be realwho isn't? Leigh Solomon Pugliano, founder and principal consultant at Straightforward Consulting Co., and Alex Bernstein, president and director of finance & business development of ASCEND Pittsburgh - South Side, are ready to go for our next Real Talk. Join us to learn from, connect with, and ask questions of these #Pittsburgh entrepreneurs as we chat about work/life balance, daily productivity practices, personal fitness, and caring for your family as you care for your business.

LatinxConnect Conference 2021 kicked off today and there is still time to register for this free virtual event! Our team is leading a co-design session on Saturday (10/16) that you don't want to miss. With your help, we'll brainstorm actionable ways to support the next generation of Hispanic/Latinx founders and dismantle the barriers they currently face.

In the field of child development, there’s the concept of parallel play kids who are still learning how to interact with one another will first play alongside each other, but not really with each other. This helps little ones grow confidence and social skills and develop cognitively by observing how others solve problems. In some ways, working in a #coworking space can offer professionals the same opportunities. Read on to see how coworking is like being two years old: https://tinyurl.com/ascender-parallel

You need to save your spot for today's free session if you're an entrepreneur with an e-commerce presence looking to enhance your digital experiences or a small business owner at the beginning of your e-commerce journey. Mike Cleary, #ecommerce extraordinaire & co-founder of HUEMOR, drops by our virtual space to help you explore the creative process behind your online store. Don't miss it!

Over the past decade, Hispanic/Latinx-owned small businesses have grown at a record pace. And, fortunately, there are no signs of that slowing down any time soon. Even though Hispanic/Latinx-owned businesses are growing incredibly fast, the overall trend shows that these businesses tend to start small and remain small. According to Stanford's 2020 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report, there is at least a $1.5 trillion opportunity gap if Latinx-owned businesses generate, on... average, the same annual revenues that their non-Latino counterparts generate. This trend doesn't have to continue. To be a part of the change, join us on Saturday, October 16, during the Latinx Connect Conference to brainstorm actionable ways to support the next generation of Hispanic/Latinx founders and dismantle the barriers they currently face.

Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay, an international day for global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma. Unfortunately, that stigma is alive and well in the startup world where you fake it until you make it, and impressions matter. Like the most innovative entrepreneurs, let's pivot that conversation and be unafraid to share our struggles with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. To get started, check out the resources we've collected to help entrepreneurs work on their mental health and wellbeing: https://tinyurl.com/ascender-wmhd

In our latest Real Talk, we were treated to some words of wisdom from Lou Camerlengo. Lou is the President and Co-founder of Fivestar Development, a custom software design, development, and implementation shop based here in Pittsburgh. He shared that being a leader isn't tied to a specific job title. You don't have to hold a position of power to be a leader in the workplace. And, even if you do have your own office or nameplate, you aren't magically the world's best leader. A...ctions and outcomes are the true signs of leadership. Want to hear more from these result-driven leaders? Watch our conversation here: https://tinyurl.com/ascender-real-leaders

As we continue to celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth, we honor the contributions of generations of hardworking and resilient people. Get inspired by three local Hispanic/Latinx entrepreneurs as they share more about their backgrounds, overcoming challenges, and business hacks that keep them on track. https://tinyurl.com/ascender-latinx

"It's taken me a while to feel comfortable calling myself an entrepreneur. Same goes for calling myself a founder. And I'm still not there with "CEO." Even though I am all three of those things. I'm definitely feeling more accomplished than I ever have in my career, even though Mamalux hasn't officially launched yet." - Lindsay Stuart If you're still getting used to calling yourself an entrepreneur/founder/CEO like Lindsay, read the newest post in our FROM THE START series,... a collection of interviews with founders from our 20212022 Incubator that trace their startup stories from the beginning. Get to know Lindsay & @Mamalux, a company producing game-changing, leakproof sleepwear for breastfeeding moms. https://tinyurl.com/ascender-mamalux

New date, same great content! During our free workshop on 10/13, Mike Cleary, co-founder & CEO of HUEMOR, will walk us through different strategies to design an e-commerce site with features that convey your business's personality and core values. Save your spot for this session if you're an entrepreneur with an e-commerce presence looking to enhance your digital experiences or a small business owner at the beginning of your e-commerce journey.

As an entrepreneur, you spend hours upon hours looking at numbers, figures, and stats. Here's one you won't forget. According to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health, 72% of entrepreneurs are impacted by mental health issues compared to only 48% of non-entrepreneurs. Growth matters when it comes to your business, but this is one number we want to see decline. At Ascender, we believe in hustle, but we also believe in a healthy approach to entrepreneurship that prioritizes finding a sense of wellness and balance that works for you. So this month, we'll have those critical conversations about mental health and help you place health over hustle. https://ascenderpgh.com/upcoming/

"If you're so convicted on what you're doing and I'm not funding you, or somebody else is not funding you, then go bootstrap it and improve it and come back." - Will Allen, Co-Founder of Nascent Group Holdings & Founder of the Will Allen Foundation See our full conversation with Will: https://medium.com//will-allen-talks-tds-and-vcs-ec0410dcf

Interested in getting your small business started on Amazon Web Services? Register for our upcoming seminar with EagleDream Technologies to learn how you can use AWS's infinitely customizable services to grow your business with confidence. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/128530533285

Yinz, something to look forward to next week!

More than halfway there! Help Revitalize Energy Tears reach their goal of raising $50,000 on Indiegogo. Give them the boost they need. https://www.indiegogo.com//revitalize-energizing-eye-drops

Did you catch the Pittsburgh City Paper photo story on Ascender member Open Field? See how they're working to bring together refugee and immigrant kids from Syria, Congo, and Somali Bantu to build community on the soccer pitch. https://www.pghcitypaper.com//open-field-unity-on/Content

This Thursday (11/5), Will Allen of the Will Allen Foundation will join us to talk about what investors are looking for in startups, what startups should know when raising funds, and the current state of tech and entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh. Register for Real Talk with Investors: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/125977611427