Tyler
Graham

Before the business world, there were fairways and park trails. I spent years keeping golf courses pristine and managing county park crews — work that started before sunrise and taught me more than any classroom could.

Managing grounds crews, coordinating with county officials, solving problems on the fly. It wasn't glamorous, but it was foundational. Some lessons only come from showing up every day, regardless of the weather.

A vineyard in Arizona sounds romantic until you're in the tasting room at 6am prepping for the day. But that's where I met my first small business owners — people who'd bet everything on an idea.

I worked in winery and marketing operations — running events, managing social media, figuring out how to tell the vineyard's story. But mostly I listened. To customers. To the owners. To the guys who'd been farming that land for decades.

Colorado was about going deeper. I helped businesses adopt technology — CRMs, automation, digital tools. But the tech was never the point.

The point was understanding what people were actually trying to do. A restaurant owner who wanted to spend less time on paperwork. A startup founder drowning in spreadsheets. Their problems were my puzzles.

I also spent time in classrooms. Teaching kids reminded me that the best way to learn is to explain things to someone else.

We moved East to explore something new — a fresh start in a new area for our family. Started Mainstreet Origin. Got back to basics.

Now I spend most of my time meeting people. Local business owners, entrepreneurs, anyone building something interesting. We grab coffee. They tell me what's going on. Sometimes I can help. Sometimes I just listen.