Episode 115 · October 10, 2023
Jenny Guthrie: Glow Medical Founder shares her battle with Breast Cancer
with Jenny Guthrie, Founder, Glow Medical
54 min
Jenny Guthrie: Glow Medical Founder shares her battle with Breast Cancer
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In this episode
In this episode I sit down with my former next-door neighbor, Jenny Guthrie — a family nurse practitioner by certification and, as she puts it, a business owner by accident. Jenny is the founder of Glow Medical, a facial aesthetics practice that has grown into one of the leading med spas in Oklahoma, with locations in Tulsa and Enid and a team of 11. I love that we got to reconnect after all these years and hear how her path unfolded one step at a time.
Jenny is raw and honest about how her business was born out of necessity — a divorce, unexpected debt, and watching a med spa she worked for fail — and how she built Glow slowly, with no debt, reinvesting as she went. She also shares a beautiful way of seeing her work as a small act of restoration in a broken world, and her heart to make it a place where her team can grow too.
Because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Jenny opens up about her breast cancer diagnosis in early 2023 — finding a lump herself just six months after a normal mammogram, the surgeries and complications that followed, and the lifestyle changes she's still navigating. Woven through all of it is her faith, and her belief that even the hardest seasons can recalibrate us toward our God-given plan and purpose.
Key takeaways
- Don't rely on mammograms alone — Jenny found her lump herself only six months after a normal mammogram, and one in eight women will face breast cancer in their lifetime. Know your body and speak up.
- Build slow and steady. Jenny grew Glow Medical without big loans or heavy overhead — reinvesting profits, paying as she went, and letting each step fund the next.
- Get experience before you go out on your own. Working in both a failing and a successful med spa taught her what to do and what never to repeat.
- If you're stuck in a job that's draining you, it may just be a season. Ask honestly where you fit, be still, and be willing to consider paths outside your comfort zone.
- Your work can serve people, not just sell to them. Jenny treats every patient as a long-term relationship rather than chasing the first-visit dollar.
- Food is medicine. Chronic stress and processed foods drive inflammation — Jenny's diagnosis pushed her toward whole, fresh foods and taking real care of herself.
- Illness can become a distraction that pulls your eyes off your purpose. Jenny leaned on Scripture, a tight circle of prayer, and time in the Word to stay grounded and let God recalibrate her.
Chapters
- —Welcome and reconnecting as former neighbors
- —Jenny's background: Montana, Missouri, and landing in Tulsa
- —Choosing nursing and becoming a nurse practitioner
- —What Glow Medical is and who it serves
- —Seeing aesthetics work as a small act of restoration
- —Finding work you love and what to do when you don't
- —The accidental entrepreneur: divorce, debt, and a failing med spa
- —Building the business slowly and debt-free across two locations
- —Breast cancer: finding the lump and the diagnosis
- —Surgeries, complications, and the grace-of-God timing
- —Lifestyle changes and letting food be medicine
- —How faith carried her through the journey
- —Closing thoughts
“It was not my original vision. I didn't wake up thinking I was gonna own a business someday. The plan and purpose that God's had for me has just kind of unfolded one step at a time.”
“I would rather them spend nothing with me that first visit, but then when they're ready, come back and let's have a long term plan.”
“I feel like I'm just doing one tiny little thing to restore creation as best we can.”
“Even if the devil doesn't kill you with cancer, if he can distract you enough that you get off your course, then he's happy with that.”
“I don't want this to define me. For me, it's like a blip in the radar in my life.”
About Jenny
Founder, Glow Medical
Jenny Guthrie is a family nurse practitioner and the founder of Glow Medical, a facial aesthetics practice with locations in Tulsa and Enid that has grown into one of the leading med spas in Oklahoma. Married with two young boys, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2023 and shares her journey through diagnosis, surgery, and recovery.
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