Mendy Applegate built HDC Academy to answer one of the most frustrating questions in small business: why does nobody hand business owners the actual owner's manual?!

Trust us, she would know. Mendy spent years in corporate, pivoted into running her own bookkeeping firm in 2020, and has grown into one of the most trusted small business educators in the Oklahoma City area. She speaks at the Chamber, at colleges, at real estate groups, at massage schools. She teaches as an adjunct professor. She just released her own textbook! Every piece of that experience went straight into the curriculum she built inside the Academy.

HDC Academy teaches what business school skips and trade school never touches. Accounting, budgeting, profit margins, business structure, tax implications. The mechanics. The fundamentals. The pieces a cosmetologist, a contractor, a coach, and a four-year degree holder all walk away without.

Mendy is teaching it. And colleges across Oklahoma are paying attention! Her vision is bold. She wants HDC Academy in every college and several high schools across the state. We have zero doubt she gets there.

We caught Mendy at one of the most exciting points in her business so far. In this episode we dig into how to lead with transformation when you are already the most trusted name in the room, why the speaking engagements that light her up are her smartest strategic move, and how to streamline a multi-passionate business into one clear funnel without losing the joy.

Mendy walked us through the mindset shift that brought her joy back. She stopped chasing the sale at every speaking engagement and started measuring her success by the work itself. The second she made that shift, everything changed.

About Mendy: Mendy Applegate is the founder of Honey-Do Checklist and the HDC Academy in Oklahoma City. She offers bookkeeping services, business training, and speaking engagements, and recently released her own business textbook. She also teaches as an adjunct professor and is building HDC Academy into a foundational business education program for colleges and high schools across Oklahoma.

Connect with her:

Website: https://www.hdcacademy.org/

Honey-Do Checklist: https://www.honeydo-checklist.com/

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

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mendy-applegate-44199a121/

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