ThinkBiz Podcast
ThinkBiz Podcast is your go-to show for real conversations about building and growing your business. Hosted by Garrett Hammonds of Hammonds Media and Nolan Rogers, we dive into the challenges, wins, and strategies that matter most to small and startup companies. Tune in for expert advice, inspiring stories, and actionable tips to take your business to the next level.
ThinkBiz Podcast
Math, Faith, & Making It Work
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Want a clearer way to bet on yourself without gambling your future? We break down why entrepreneurship is more coin flip than roulette and how simple stats, focus, and boundaries can tilt the odds in your favor. Nolan Clay Rogers shares how he built an interfaith, one‑to‑one practice that blends tarot, astrology, and candid conversation to align decisions with values, and why he started not from passion, but from math.
We trace surprising roots: tarot imagery shaped by Christian morality plays, the role of astrologers in the Nativity story, and how history complicates modern taboos. From there, we move into the mechanics of better choices using Bayesian thinking. If a vendor promises 500 percent ROI but your priors say 20 percent is typical, confidence should adjust until you see strong, independent evidence. That filter protects focus, budget, and sanity. The Raising Cane’s lesson applies: do one thing incredibly well, scale the boring parts, and let consistency compound.
Nolan lays out a crisp ideal client profile—creators, people who raise children, and leaders responsible for others’ success—because responsibility drives real change. He explains how to say no with care, deliver maximum value in a single session when needed, and design follow-up that honors privacy. The conversation lands on a deeper truth: there’s a difference between childlike and childish. Reclaiming childlike clarity—desire, wonder, and honesty—helps you make clean decisions at work and at home, without the noise of outdated scripts or performative faith.
If you’ve been tempted by shiny tools or vague promises, you’ll leave with a practical lens to evaluate offers, the courage to narrow your focus, and a renewed sense that numbers and meaning can live in the same room. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s on the fence about their next move, and leave a review telling us the one thing you’ll double down on this year.
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Podcast is produced by Hammonds Media. For assistance with you digital marketing needs, visit https://www.hammondsmedia.com
Business tech nephid, Brett. I told you, I warned you about this.
SPEAKER_01:Solutions.
SPEAKER_00:I think we're killing it. We are killing it. Happy Tuesday, everyone. We are here at the Think Biz Podcast Studio here at Project 3810. Brett, how has the day been for you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's good. It's good. I got some delicious food. My wife made my favorite, favorite, I guess, dessert say. But uh yeah, so it was delicious. If anybody missed it this week, they're gonna be sad.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, we did have an event after networking today, and we had some games for people to play coinciding with my interview on the podcast today.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So I get to ask you the questions this week. Do get to ask me the questions. Instead of putting me on the hot seat. So if you all want to have questions asked of you on the ThinkBiz podcast, please make sure to join our Norman group, our 430 OKC group, our 930 OKC group, which is the best group. And then we also have our Edmund group as well. So there is no reason for you to not want to be here and be a part of our community. But with that, Brett, I had my presentation today. Anything stuck in your crawl that you'd like to ask the local wizard?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So I think before we get into your presentation, let's do a little bit of background on you and and tell people what you do and how you do it, and why you started doing it and why you continue to do it.
SPEAKER_00:Looky there, all the all the W's and the H right in there. That's right. But I am Nolan Clay Rogers. You can find all my shenanigans at nolanclayrogers.com that I'm willing to put out for the public so far. And what I do in particular is I provide spiritual consultations privately and small group level, as well as holistic wellness tools and teaching people how to use those tools for anyone that is at the crossroads of family, work, and faith. And so I have a lot of different clientele that crack open a lot of different holy books, and I have a set amount of tools that work for all of them. And so whether it's personal problems, whether it's professional issues, we go through all the things tucked away in your red letters or black letters or whatever else is colored in your special Bible that you have at home. And we help you make sure that whatever actions you are taking, they are aligned with whatever laws that the heavens have put down for us. And that's basically my what I do on a regular basis. Now, to make it even simpler, I throw tarot cards for people, I calculate astrology charts, but a lot of it is just having really deep conversations to make sure people are fully aligned with what it is they want for themselves.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. And how did you get into starting your own business? I mean, that's a big leap, right? So how do you get into starting your own business for that? And then why do you continue to run it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, so points of order. So one of the things that a lot of people don't know about why I got into this in the first place is A, I tried to prove it wrong. I grew up a good little non-denominational Protestant boy, and I said, Well, my God's bigger than pieces of ink and paper, so surely I can prove this wrong. Well, unfortunately, it continues to work. And not only does it continue to work, the more that you look into the history of things, tarot cards themselves and the images on them were based on Christian morality plays around the 1200s in medieval Europe. And they put those on playing cards. The original playing cards came from a Persian deck, just two cards, four cards more than a normal poker deck that we used to have. The Italians got a hold of it in the 1300s. They added political and religious jokes, they added those symbolisms from Christian morality plays, and then it still wasn't used for divination or spirituality for three to four hundred years after the fact. And so we have these understandings of what we were preached to as like, oh, this is of the devil. Well, surprisingly enough, it was just of man trying to tell his own stories. Particularly when you get into one of the main decks I utilize, it's the 1659 Noble Marseille Tarot deck. And from some lay scholars that have come out, some other things, we find that a lot of the imagery in those are also based on Torah stories. From Jews and Hebrews that at the time were getting the first level of inquisitional oppression in a lot of different states, in Italy and in Spain and in France. And so they put some of the things they were not allowed to teach or practice or even go to synagogue, they put it in the playing cards, to the best of our knowledge. And so it's just this interesting point of a lot of what has been preached to us as the thing that will damn our souls, in reality, these things came from and were reminders of the holiness and the divinity that we have access to, including, you know, astrology. Astrologers were who found Jesus in the manger. The three wise men were literally what they were called Chaldeans, classically. And Chaldean was anybody that was, you know, east of the Louvant that had knowledge of mathematics of the stars and all these histories and other projections as far as crop rotations and things that astrology used to get used for, but they used it to predict the birth of Christ. And that's what got them on their months-long journey to that manger in Bethlehem. And so a lot of people just don't know that the things that we're told are evil and bad and terrible, are historically Christian a lot of the times. And without that knowledge and understanding, it hurts a lot of my clientele who basically are Christian, but they just don't like church. They don't like the control mechanisms that were done in their small towns, they don't like the hypocrisy of their preachers, and they're still trying and seeking for some spiritual life for some fashion of faith that they've always had. But they just need that permission to know that you can still have the faith you were raised with without all the other junk that got put on it. And so that's partially the why I continue to do this, is I tried to prove it wrong. It works, it works for everybody, and it also reinforces the faith that originally told us that we shouldn't touch these things. And then I started doing it as a business purely because of math. That's what most people don't know, is that I made this as a business decision, not because I'm passionate about it. Frankly, if I could do anything other than throwing tarot cards and astrology charts to live the life that I am currently living right now, I totally would do it. But the math works out and I do it better than everybody else in the space right now, to the best of my knowledge. So it is purely based upon 2022, when I was doing the math on how to start this type of business or what business I should start, because I'd been burned through the COVID years by lots of employers that were not good, were not moral, and we're not aligned on my values. And I said to myself, okay, if I'm gonna burn the boats, what's gonna be the best ROI? And I looked at some projections. People had already asked me to start charging for the readings that I would do for people or for just the advice that I would give them in my private life. And I saw two to three percent industry growth over five to ten years, and I said, yes, I will take that math. Part of that industry growth can be mine. And then I just ran the numbers again, and now over general holistic wellness, the metaphysical industry, everything else, 9% growth now. So the industry I'm in is continuing to grow, and I'm going to continue to have a piece of that pie for as long as I can because people need these services. And so, regardless of my passion about this, for some reason I'm really good at it, and I'm gonna do that for as long as I can.
SPEAKER_01:That's good. That's good. You said that you don't do it because you're passionate about it, and I would have just having a conversation with you would have to disagree. I think that you are passionate about it. It may not be your sole passion just because you know business tends to do that to people. But I think you are incredibly passionate about it. You're incredibly good at doing what you do, and just just listening. I mean, so let's get into to your topic today, right? Your topic today was based off of the math of of business and what we how we can get our what we focus on and and how we get I'm I'm butchering this by the way, but how we can do the math on uh how we can grow our business and what we should be focusing our time on and whatnot. And so can you give us a little bit of more of a you know, actual educated rundown of that and not just my blumbering through that?
SPEAKER_00:Not blumbering at all, because I also I made it as simplistic as I could, mostly because, again, math is hard. Math is the main demon that everyone is scared of. And so that's also what I front my entire processes in my business and in my own faith and spiritual practices. I do math first. And part of that math first for our networking audience was about just how many years you're in business and the odds that that business will survive, on average, across all industries. And what was really important to take away from just the first part of my presentation was the fact of, you know, you've got a 50-50 chance for your business to survive to five years. So out of a hundred businesses, 50 of them will be out of business, roundabouts, by the time five years has passed. But if you can make it to five years, your chances of survival to 10 years, 15 years, and so on hovers around 60 to 70 percent. And so this is where, if we can just have that in the back of our minds for independence, for a lifestyle that aligns with your values, with your family, for the people that you want to be around, is a coin flip worth it to just start? And a lot of people don't realize or think that it is worth it, or they can't remind themselves why they started doing this in the first place. And just a coin flip chance to live the life you want to live. I'm gonna take that deal every time. And I passed out some handouts as far as like casino survival. So you can understand if you walk into a casino, what are the odds that you're gonna be able to win? And the only game that you can technically win most of the time is Baccarat, and that's another just slightly above coin flip chance in your favor. Everything else is sub-50%. Apart from poker, if you're good. Casinos are in business for a reason. They know they are in business for a reason, right? But it's that problem that people don't understand, is I had on the as a question on my first slide, is getting into business gambling. And long term, technically it is. So if you just start a thing now, the the rates are really good. So 70 to 8% of businesses do not fail in their first year. As long as you can make it to two years again, about 60% of those will still be in business. But that five-year mark, it's a coin flip to get there. And that is better than just betting all of your money on black, on roulette. And I'm gonna take that bet. And that's the bet I took. I based it off of some math and industry projection growth. And I just really want people to understand that faith is also partially about the things that we do know, right? It's not all about the mystery, it's not about what we can't understand or comprehend from whatever put us here on this planet. There are things that are knowable, and I base my decisions off of things that I do know for a fact first. And just those basic statistics are really important. And then I got into the statistics of one of my favorite systems, it's called Bayesian statistics. He's a mathematician, theorist, things of that nature. And I tried to make it really simple for people to understand how to make better decisions. Because some of my favorite people to listen to, as far as entrepreneurship is concerned, they're always harping on the fact of if you just do one thing the best that you can for 30 years, you will make a million dollars. Is that not worth it to you? And a lot oftentimes we get all of these new things, AI, newfangled CRMs, all these other technological equipment that's coming in to try and make our businesses more profitable, quote unquote. When in reality, if you just do one thing better than everybody else, Canes Chicken sells chicken fingers, fries, and dip. And Keynes Chicken is one of the most popular chains that have cropped up in the past 10 years. Even though the man who founded Keynes was laughed out of his business courses. He scraped together, he opened his first store, and he just does chicken. That's it. And honestly, I am starting to treat my own industry like that. I'm trying, I'm starting to treat church, spirituality, faith, community, all of these things that we took for granted growing up here in America. And if we start running it like a business, how about we just run the best churches that we can? How about we run the best communities that we can? And to do that, we have to do some math. And Bayesian statistics just gives us some other ways to think about this, right? So the thing that we want, whenever it's concerned with spirituality, faith, or community, is our belief and confidence that doing something new will work. So that's on the other side of the equal sign. That's the thing that we want. We want belief and confidence within a certain percentage. To get that as high as possible, we have to take the likelihood of a new thing working, right? So again, the example I used was say somebody's new CR, you get 500% ROI off of whatever it is. Okay, that's great that your the salesman is telling you that. But if you know from prior knowledge that industry standards are 20% ROI on new CRMs or new technologies that come in to improve your business, then you have to adjust it. So that's the likelihood that somebody says a new thing is going to work times your prior knowledge about things. And then under that, you have to divide that likelihood and prior knowledge by the evidence you have. So if a person is cold calling you or sending you a cold email, would they even need to be selling this thing that gives you 500% ROI for what it is? Or would they just do that? Would that just be their business model? Would they even have to sell it to you? Would they even have to be cold calling you? It's kind of like whenever you hire somebody, yeah, the resume can say whatever it says, but if if there's not pictures to show you the type of concrete they pour or the type of mitered edges that they can put in, I don't trust a resume. I don't trust the salesman. I trust whether or not you've been doing business this way and it's been getting you 500% ROI. And that's how we have to shift our confidence and belief. And so in my own practices for tarot astrology, everything I do in session with clients, I do it because it's worked professionally for these past three years running my business, but it's also worked for 13 years of a good little Christian boy trying to prove it wrong continuously. And it works for atheists, it works for Christians, it works for pagans, it works for everybody that's all wishy-washy about what they think is out there, what the spirit has for them. Well, the universe has one thing to tell us, and it's do the math right the first time. And we can all do that. It is possible, and that's how I continue to do business, that's how I'm gonna continue to do it for God willing another 30 years. Because I am confident that I can make this industry, I can make church, I can make the one-to-one conversations about what a person believes with another person better than anybody else.
SPEAKER_01:You know, d speaking with you on anything, really, really puts it and solidifies it into my my brain of how intelligent you are and how humble you are. Because every time I talk to you, you never make anyone that talks to you, and and me as well, for example, because I can speak on myself, uh, you've never made me feel like I'm a moron, right? Like you've never talked down to me, and it's always talking with me and building me up instead of really, you know, just trying to show I call it in in superior intellect, right? Where you're like, I'm smarter than you and you can't do anything about it, you know, like I'm gonna just destroy you in a conversation and then laugh on the back side, you know. That's not who you are at your core. And and I just want to say one, I appreciate you for that. That's absolutely incredible that you do that. And how is it that you do business? I'm sure you run into, especially in your type of business, that you run into people that do things like that, right? That that are do come off that way, right? We we definitely know that that not everybody meshes with who we are as humans. How do you do business? Do you continue to push a relationship with a client that's like that? And and how do you handle a situation like that whenever their morals aren't lining up with what your morals are? Right. And you still need to service them as a client.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that's where the still needing to service a person as a client comes from how I've also shifted my process just in the year and a half compared to how I first did it. How I first did it was I would meet a complete stranger, I'd sit him down, and I'd just give him a normal tarot reading, right? Complete stranger, don't know you from Adam, and I'm gonna throw some tarot cards, and I'm gonna tell you what those mean, and I'm gonna ask for a little clarification as to what these could mean for you. The problem that I found is I've only I've only had two complaints in these past few years. And those two complaints, mixed with a couple other sessions for clients that this just really didn't work for, has allowed me to figure out what every business I've found has a really hard time figuring. It's that their ideal client profile. So, one, the first thing I I do anymore to meet new people is I make sure they tick one of three boxes. A number one, you will be a good client for me if you make any form of art. You don't have to do it professionally, you don't have to like the quality that you do, you don't even have to consider yourself creative. But if you sing in the shower, if you like doodling in the margins of your notes in a meeting, if you enjoy viewing and creating something, just because you do, not necessarily for anybody else, you will be a good client for me. The second checkbox. Do you raise children? Notice I said raise children, not that you are a parent, because unfortunately, and I don't care who hears this, just because you are biologically attached to a child does not mean you are raising them. That is a problem I've seen as I've raised Healthy, as I've seen other kids.
unknown:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:My brothers and sisters will have a nation of children that are literate if I have anything to say about this. But people that raise children, so teachers, coaches, parents that treat their children as more than a handbag. If you raise children, I will be able to help you. The processes and the tools that I have will help you. And then the third checkbox, mind you, if you check all three, you're literally my ideal client profile, and I will help you for as long as I can. But the third checkbox is do you run a business or are you responsible for other people's success in a business? So that could be a head of a department, that could be your executive level, owner of the business itself. But are you responsible for other people's success in order to produce GDP, ROI, profit, good services, good products? And all these things are technically the same because astrologically, making art, raising children, and uh being responsible for other other people so that way they can live the lifestyle of leisure and pleasure that they want, those are all ruled by the fifth house. And the fifth house is classically about leisure, pleasure, children, and art. If you make anything, if you want to create something and you want to bring it into the world and make sure it lasts for however many generations you could possibly consider, these tools can help you. Faith isn't required for those things to be solid and safe. Everybody else that doesn't tick one of those three boxes, I basically will spend however long I have to to tell them, no, I don't want to give you a reading in the nicest way that I can. Because if I because I've done readings for college kids, I've done readings for people that are just, you know, interested or curious, and I tell them, okay, go buy a tarot deck, go catch. Your astrology chart for free online. Go watch these YouTube videos. If you are not responsible for something bigger than yourself, it doesn't matter what you say you believe. You will not be able to behave in the ways for you to make changes in your life. Because you don't have anybody to change it for. Because we can't trust ourselves to make better decisions, usually, if we don't have something else that we are concerned for and we want to last. And so unfortunately, that's just one of the ways that I stop doing business with people that are bad for my business. Is if you don't create something and you don't care about its longevity in any way, shape, or form, not my client. I don't want to work with you. I'll send you to other people. And that is ensure the longevity and the fruitfulness of our nations.
SPEAKER_01:I like that you said that. That's something that's really resonated with me was you said, if you don't have a reason to be responsible, right? If you don't have somebody that you have to be responsible for, you won't be. And and I think that's the most true statement I've ever heard in my entire life. And again, and that's the first time I've ever heard that, right? Like that's like you're such an original guy, and and you just your knowledge, your wealth of knowledge is just incredible. But that that is so true that uh it and and it doesn't happen overnight, right? It it uh it's a learning process and it takes time. And but when you do have somebody that you need to take care of, you you will learn how to do it. You know, you go, hey, I have to be better because of blank. And and a lot of times for me in my life, I mean, that's definitely like my wife, for one, right? And my kids, they're huge in on that totem pole of like, I have to be better because they deserve better. Right. You know, and and I love that you said that. Uh if you don't have a reason to be better, then you won't.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that's also kind of the shift I have to take towards ends of most sessions, is I remind everybody that even if, you know, Brett and I have great conversations, I might have helped him with XYZ, but even if you are responsible for those other people, there's another level that we have to change. We have to shift who we are truly responsible for, even though we love and care about all of those things we're bringing into the world. And part of that is the person who is trained out of basic faith, basic boundaries, the basic capacity to know exactly what you want, align your values to it, and go after it, no matter what anybody else says. And the person that gets trained out of that is always gonna be around about six, seven-year-old us. When we are responsible, not just for all the kids and the people and the projects and the beauty that we want to bring into the world, if we are instead responsible for the person inside of us that was trained out of doing good business, of making good art, of feeling like they are enough, then we're actually gonna change. Because then if you have a six, seven-year-old version of you on your shoulders every second of every day, you're gonna know exactly what you should do. Because that's why I have to remind all of my Christians about this is that you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven without the mind of a child. That's true. And that mind of a child is inside of you. That mind of a child is the person that was told you don't deserve this, you've got to put that away in the closet in order to grow up, even though it didn't destroy any mandates of heaven. You wanting an ice cream when you wanted an ice cream isn't immoral. And that was when things got trained out of us to actually have the mentality, have the soul and the spirit that gets us into heaven every second of every day. And when we shift that basic, basic belief that we're not just responsible for those external people and projects and beauty, when we are responsible for that childlike version of us, then we make a difference, we make a change.
SPEAKER_01:I like that. I like that a lot. In fact, it it actually really confused me when I read that because it says that it says in the Bible as well, I believe it's Paul says that you have to put behind childish things. You know, we Paul and I have beef. But but I think there's a difference between childlike and childish. Correct. Right? And and that childlike thinking of things of everything could be good, you know, everything could be a positive look. And and, you know, like where's the where's the positivity in everything versus childish, which we all know somebody, you know, like we all know that that that uh like hey, that is not what you know he meant by that. And and that's good. I like that you you said that. So if you have a client that you have built community with, and they they decide to take you up on your services, and then they you kind of talk to them and realize that maybe they're not the right fit for you. How does that affect because you have a more personal business than most?
SPEAKER_00:Very much so.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And so how does that affect your relationship with the person and and how do you navigate that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, and I'm still trying to figure that out in my processes because unfortunately, I don't get to have the normal just blanket follow-up text or email that your CRM sends out, right? I can't just tell somebody, hey, we saw you last time and we spoke about this deep, dark, terrible thing that's happened, and we've helped you find some processes to move along through that. Nobody wants to see that in their inbox. Well, I'm not gonna do it no matter how hard anybody says that. Oh, but you should, Nolan. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01:Let alone you have your phone sitting there and it goes off, somebody sees it like, whoa, yeah, exactly. You did what?
SPEAKER_00:And so I'm having to basically reinvent processes that used to be normal, right? So priests used to have a parish and they would, you know, go to every house in that parish and check on people in the privacy of their own home. Well, that's not scalable for an individual, because that's effectively what my business is. It's a one-man, private, interfaith church to make sure everybody's taken care of. And so the problem that I've found is that a client that's doing good work and everything else, I basically have to try and give them everything I can in one shot. And so that's where I've even changed things on my website. If you only have time for one session, it's gonna be a pretty penny. But we're gonna make sure that you've got some prayers in line. We're gonna look at your astrology chart, we're gonna throw some cards and some dice and some other weird stuff that I can make sure that you are fully aligned for whatever it is you truly want. Because that's all that I can hope for. Is I can't trust that they're gonna be, you know, in my community when some of them they're just tangentially passing through town, like, oh, I want this. Or they live two hours away, and so it's gonna be hard to maintain a good relationship that direction. And so I have to shift my processes to where you get as much as possible in a single session. So that's the step one is I make sure that everybody can get everything they could possibly need in a single session. So if they need to record it, if they need to take notes, they're welcome to do all of that. But then there's longer-term clients that I also, again, I like to incentivize things because I see that my best clients to solve a problem, it takes anywhere from six to nine months. And so we can schedule, you know, four sessions anywhere throughout there to help them have that check-in. Because even with my best clients, they forget that they can just shoot me a text without me running a meter on them to just say, hey, I've got this problem, what do I do? And I won't hear about it for weeks, months after when I could have been of help. And so I'm still trying to figure that out. And mostly I'm trying to do that by finally doing the thing that most everybody else in this industry does is sell a course. Have a little, have a little top-of-funnel PDF that people can purchase. So that way people can at least remember that, hey, Nolan exists. Hey, I don't have to talk to Nolan about all the big terrible things. But I am having to build that community digitally now. And I'm gonna start there because again, what most people need is they want to know that they're not crazy. They want to know whether they're right or wrong in a given scenario. And they just want to know that, if anything, what can change? What is in their control? And people don't need that over all of the horrible stuff. I want to make sure that they can have just basic little tools and a good community that is at their fingertips. And so, again, unfortunately, a roundabout ways to answer that question is that those good clients, I'm trying to build the thing that allows them to have access to what they need at any given point in time. And so that is in the process and airing 2026.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, I'll be excited to follow up with you and and stay tuned for that. Well, we are unfortunately running out of time. We have running. But uh, yeah, I I could talk to you for hours. So, but so one quick lightning question. How often do you get a client that comes in and says they want blank, and through talking with them, we find out that that's not actually what they want. That is the that is a hundred percent of my clientele.
SPEAKER_00:That is a hundred percent of my clientele. So, regardless of what you say you want, I have a process I will take you through to figure out what you do truly want and see what's blocking you from getting there.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm, that's good.
SPEAKER_00:How can people get a hold of you? Nolanclayroders.com. You can book a session. Uh all my contact information is on there, and ideally, you'll come up to our 9 30 Tuesday group here at Project 3810.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:All right, well, we've got to remember our tagline this go around because I forgot it last time. So we got a stage on it. That's right. I do remember that. Okay. And ladies and gentlemen, have a good rest of your day. Happy holidays.
SPEAKER_01:Business solutions.