Adam did not leave community mental health because the bureaucracy was choking him out. He left because he was tired of driving an hour to work every day and his kid was not going to stay little forever.

After four years in community mental health, Adam stepped out on his own and built Greenside Prairies, a private practice where he works with individuals on trauma, OCD, anxiety, aging concerns and life transitions. He loves being a clinician. He shows up energized. He is, by his own admission, incapable of getting through a session with a straight face, and he thinks that is exactly the point.

But loving the work does not automatically fill a calendar. Adam is smart enough to know that being a great therapist and being a business owner are two completely different skill sets, and he came to us with one word on his mind. Visibility.

In this episode we dig into why "walk life's prairies together" sounds beautiful but will not get anyone to click book now, how talking to everyone on your website means you are really talking to no one, why a millennial and a college student need a completely different door to walk through than an 85 year old client (literally, there are five doors to Adam's building and only one of them is the right one), and why scheduling content in advance is one of the smartest habits a solo practice owner can build.

Adam ended the conversation ready to build his first real website, post a video of what it actually feels like to walk into his office, and stop hiding his humor behind a more "professional" voice. Sometimes the thing standing between you and your next client is not your skill. It is whether they can tell, in 300 characters or less, that you are talking to them.

About Adam: Adam is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Greenside Prairies, a private practice based in Oklahoma. He works with individuals navigating trauma, OCD, anxiety, aging concerns and life transitions, offering both in person and telehealth sessions. Before starting his own practice, he spent four years in community mental health. He also has a sign in his office that says "everything is figure outable," which tracks.

Connect with him:

gsprairies.clientsecure.me

instagram.com/gs.prairies

facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582729359970

The Business Reality Check Podcast is your dose of clarity. Hosted by Jonna and Lori, Co-Founders of Thrive Collective. This podcast is for business owners and solopreneurs who feel burnt out and unfulfilled. They dive deep to uncover the strategic misalignment that is silently sabotaging your success. Learn to eliminate the exhaustion, anchor your foundations with intentional processes and firm boundaries, and achieve total alignment between your life, your offer, and your dream client to stop the cycle of burnout and truly thrive. Real conversations. Real problems. Real solutions.

Watch more episodes and apply to be a guest: https://www.thrivecollective.shop/podcast

Jay Tharian did not stumble into entrepreneurship. He ran at it from every direction he could find.

He fell in love with technology as a kid, ripping apart Walkmans and figuring out how the internet worked before most people knew what it was. He went on to spend years in the restaurant industry scaling franchises and building tech infrastructure, eventually becoming a director of technology for large restaurant companies. When COVID hit, he left Dallas, moved to Oklahoma, looked around, and noticed nobody was doing residential tech support. So he built TechnoloJay from scratch in a 25-year-old Honda Accord with no financial backing, knocking on doors and shaking hands until he had a team of six, over a thousand TV installs, and a couple thousand cameras behind him.

Oh, and he also got his real estate license, sold or listed nine homes in under two years, and is currently in the final stages of beta testing a SaaS platform for real estate brokers that he has been quietly building on the side.

Jay is doing a lot. He knows it. He logs 70-hour weeks. He wakes up on Sunday nights excited about Monday. And he came to us asking one question. How do you go from small to scale?

But the more interesting question turned out to be this. How do you wind down what got you here so you can build what is actually next?

In this episode we dig into what it looks like to be in that hard middle ground where the for-now money is still paying the bills while the real vision is being built, how to stop marketing to everyone and start talking directly to the millennial brokers and business owners who are already looking for what Jay is building, and why 70 hours a week in labor is the very thing standing between where he is and where he wants to be.

Jay ended with something we keep coming back to. Iron sharpens iron. And sometimes you just need someone outside of your own head to help you see the thing that is right in front of you.

About Jay: Jay Tharian is the founder of TechnoloJay and a licensed realtor with JT Homes Group in the Oklahoma City area. He specializes in residential technology installation and is in the final stages of building a SaaS platform designed to help real estate brokers scale their operations and connect their tools. He also goes bungee jumping to decompress, which tells you everything you need to know.

Connect with him:

https://technolojay.net/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556009883916

https://www.instagram.com/technolojay

https://jthomesgroup.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572496858237

The Business Reality Check Podcast is your dose of clarity. Hosted by Jonna and Lori, Co-Founders of Thrive Collective. This podcast is for business owners and solopreneurs who feel burnt out and unfulfilled. They dive deep to uncover the strategic misalignment that is silently sabotaging your success. Learn to eliminate the exhaustion, anchor your foundations with intentional processes and firm boundaries, and achieve total alignment between your life, your offer, and your dream client to stop the cycle of burnout and truly thrive. Real conversations. Real problems. Real solutions.

Watch more episodes and apply to be a guest: https://www.thrivecollective.shop/podcast

Selena Parrish has spent 30 years in veterinary care. She knows what is in every product on her shelves, why it works, and what it will do for your pet. That is not something you find at the big box pet store down the road. That is what she built Wags, Whiskers, and Beyond around.

It started as a converted 18-passenger bus she drove to events across the OKC area. When she was ready for more, she opened a brick and mortar in Yukon, Oklahoma with private enclosed self-wash bays, hand-selected products, and the kind of intentional care that only comes from someone who has spent three decades doing this work. She gives free baths to stray dogs brought in by Yukon animal control officers because it makes them more adoptable. She built relationships with rescues and groomers and veterinarians across the community because that is just who she is.

She came to us with a 10 out of 10 on passion and a 10 out of 10 on frustration. She needed a concrete plan, and we love nothing more than that.

In this episode we dig into why the self-wash is the hook that everything else should be built around, how to stop spreading energy into e-commerce and start building the kind of in-person experience that keeps people coming back, why a photo of a wet dog will always outperform a graphic, and why leaning into the Yukon community is the most powerful marketing move she has not fully made yet.

Selena has always known exactly what she wanted to build. She just needed someone to help her see which parts were already working.

About Selena: Selena Parrish is the founder of Wags, Whiskers, and Beyond in Yukon, Oklahoma. She is a registered veterinary technician with over 30 years of experience and has built a pet boutique and self-serve wash around education, intention, and a genuine love for every animal that walks through her door.

Connect with her:

Website: https://www.wagswhiskersandbeyond.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WagsWhiskersandBeyondLLC

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wagswhiskersandbeyond

The Business Reality Check Podcast is your dose of clarity. Hosted by Jonna and Lori, Co-Founders of Thrive Collective. This podcast is for business owners and solopreneurs who feel burnt out and unfulfilled. They dive deep to uncover the strategic misalignment that is silently sabotaging your success. Learn to eliminate the exhaustion, anchor your foundations with intentional processes and firm boundaries, and achieve total alignment between your life, your offer, and your dream client to stop the cycle of burnout and truly thrive. Real conversations. Real problems. Real solutions.

Watch more episodes and apply to be a guest: https://www.thrivecollective.shop/podcast