Interesting. Well, hello, beautiful, powerful, everyday women of the world. Welcome to the Startup Stories podcast, where the ambitious everyday woman is heard, held, and served in life and in business. Relatable stories to keep you sane, grounded, and growing as you expand yourself and deliver your purpose to the world, and done so in the easiest way possible. Today on the show I have the beautiful and accomplished Jensen Savage, who's a powerhouse in strategic marketing.
She's recognized now for award -winning expertise and a track record of generating a remarkable ROI, return on investment, for service -based businesses. This was really cool, Jensen, when I was reading about the service -based businesses that you serve. And we'll bring some of that out, but like, they're in the healthcare and in different industries that we, as online coaches,
whatever, don't often talk about. So I love that different portfolio and bringing in what trends and habits and things that you see in those industries. Jensen founded Savage Growth Partners and like, what an awesome name, by the way, right? Like, you just wake up and you're like, yeah, Jensen Savage is on the go. Just wake up feeling savage
every day. So her work's been organically featured in highly accredited media outlets, you guys, like Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Wired, Inc. She's known for her hands -on leadership, strategic insight and dedication to results. So definitely a marketing expert. And now you've built up this agency and there's only three of you that are
running it, is that right? Yes, so we have strategic partners that we bring in and so They own their own sort of companies that they do that I also bring in based on kind of the deals that we have going on. But I also have a full in -house marketing team in addition to that too. Yeah, so we have strategic partners and then we also have in -house folks as well. Okay, amazing. So that's a pretty cool structured system to hold the space for
everything that you do. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I want to know about you. I want to know about Jensen. What did you dream of as a little girl? And are you living your dream life now? You know, what was the origin story to get to this place? Yeah. Yeah. So interesting origin story. So I kind of always had this desire to be in the business world and I didn't really
know what it was when I was a kid. I've talked about this a little bit before in other podcasts that I've been on, but I always kind of had this entrepreneurial spirit about me that I didn't really put a name to until I was older. But like a funny example is, so when I was a kid, my dad was a real estate agent and he worked with foreclosed houses a lot. And I would go with him to these foreclosed houses and we would like take pictures
and whatnot. And I built a portfolio and I didn't even remember building this portfolio until I was back in my childhood house as an adult and I'm going through all my childhood stuff and I found this folder, you know, written in my little kid handwriting is like Jensen's foreclosure portfolio. I had like a portfolio of foreclosed houses that I was just like interested in. And it's just funny because like real estate is like a kind of like an interest of mine to this day.
And it's just funny because it's like what kind of kid that's in like fourth or fifth grade cares about foreclosures, like real estate. But I was always kind of like that, like interested in that kind of realm. And so as I grew older and older, I wanted to be a lawyer. So for many years, I wanted to be a lawyer. I specifically wanted to work in corporate law. I went to University of Minnesota with the intention of becoming a corporate lawyer. That was the track that I was
going to take. I was dead set on this. I was just, yeah, that was the direction I was going to take my life in. And it was funny because when I was in college, I actually, I had a volunteer thing that I did. And basically what it was was
different. It was actually through one of my philosophy classes, different students would go and work with elderly people in the area, and really just like, make friends with them, hang out, do things that maybe like helping with stuff around the house, but really just the whole point was kind of bridging the gap between the younger generation and the older generation in
the area. And so the elderly couple that I was matched with were both retired lawyers, very successful lawyers, like went to Harvard Law, extremely smart, extremely well accomplished in the Minneapolis area as well. And just talking about law in general, I kind of realized that that's not what I wanted to do. You know, it seemed very structured and rigid and like there was an old way of doing things and that just totally does not coincide with the way that I
think or operate. And so I quickly realized I was like, yeah, I don't want to do law. And so from there, I kind of put that idea out of my head and I had already been working in social media for a few years, kind of just on the side and kind of social media content creation, that sort of thing. And I kind of quickly realized from there, there's so much more to the marketing world. And so it was kind of just happenstance that I had some experience and exposure to the
marketing world. And I also was at this point where I was like, giving up on this other idea that I had for my whole life. And I was like, totally sold on this and completely changed direction.
And so yeah, from there, I just kind of fell into marketing, fell in love with it and realized that business and marketing and being an entrepreneur was definitely the path I wanted to take because it kind of fused the things that I liked about pursuing corporate law, like being in business and being in that business world while also having kind of the freedom and the creativity and, you know, the different day to day life that being an entrepreneur and being in business in general
kind of provides. And so, yeah, that's that's kind of the the high level overview of my path. Yeah I love that because you know you had an idea in your head for a long time like you said about how this was going to go and then when it was met with some very experienced kind of on the other side of it right those that elderly couple you got to really have more data to see whether or not this was something that was going
to fit. And now you can play in systems and structure with a lot more creativity to your heart's content, right? Yeah. And a very organic shift in that. But was there a bit of an identity crisis for you when all of a sudden you realized law, social media marketing? Like, who am I and what does
this mean? Oh, yeah, yeah, 100%. And for a while there, it was kind of just marketing was the thing that I was doing at the time because I didn't know what direction I wanted to take my life in because that's, you know, that's a big shift to go from, you know, moving out of state to go to school for this thing and then deciding this thing that I've had in my mind for years that I was going to do, I was committed to this.
And then I just like all of that just falling away and completely, you know, just just changing your mind on such a huge thing is is a big thing.
And so it was kind of the process was definitely rocky in Coming to a point where like where I am now where I own my own business, you know Because I had a marketing career before that as well And so there was kind of this whole evolution that happened over those years mentally to where I came to the conclusion that it's like, okay I love marketing and I love business growth and I want to own my own business, you know So this is like a thing that was like years in the making
It wasn't just like I'm not gonna do well, like I'm just gonna switch to marketing it was it was something that took kind of years to come to terms with and really kind of crystallize in my mind, like, what do I actually want my future to look like? So like, 30 years down the line, and looking back, you know, I want to look back and say, you know, I did exactly what I wanted to do. And it's like, what do I have to do today to make it so that I feel that way in
30 years? And so that was, yeah, it was a long kind of rocky evolution. Yeah, well, that's how you can really kind of put in the heavy lifting to find out. Yeah. Put the pieces together. So did you stay in school, finish school, still get a degree or? Yeah. Yeah. So I, I left school at University of Minnesota, um, worked for a couple of years and I actually went back for my degree in business administration with a focus
in marketing. So finished up my degree, kind of more focused on the, the direction that I took my life. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Um, and so then where did Savage Growth come from? Like what, what led you, you know, I'm going to make a couple of assumptions that maybe you've got a few jobs here and there and you were trucking along, maybe starting to collect some clients and then decided to go all in on something of your own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, a little
bit of backstory kind of in my career. So I've worked as a marketing director and leader for various companies, uh, mostly in the service based realm from, you know, fitness to finance. And I. loved the process of especially coming in on smaller companies being, you know, the first marketer or a member of a very small marketing team. There's so much change and impact that you can drive so quickly. And I just thought
that was so fun. I loved that. So that was a big part of the reason that I designed the Savage Growth Partners the way that I did. But another reason that I've developed Savage Growth Partners the way that I have is I also saw this need in the marketplace for something like Savage Growth Partners that's not really being addressed by
any other company out there. So kind of for a bit of context, at Savage Growth Partners, we really are partners in growth, you know, it's in the name, we are, you know, we're in the day to day, we kind of fuse the best parts of a consultancy firm and an agency, you know, we give the advice and the strategy, but we're also in the weeds executing and really looking to move the needle. And we also help businesses to, I basically say it's like the three S's, like sustainable, scalable,
and sellable. Those are kind of like the three pillars that we base all of our strategies on. So scalable. you're able to grow and continuously reinvest in the business. Keep going. Sustainable. You're not just doing, you know, little gimmicky growth things or your revenue is one place this month, another place this month. You know, it's something that's actually becoming an asset that kind of ties into being sellable as well. And when I say sellable, some business owners might
be like, oh, well, I don't want to sell. But being sellable, is more than just wanting to sell because you still, regardless of if you want to sell your business today, you want your business to be structured in a way that it's sellable because think about it, when somebody is looking to buy your business, they want it to be easy to operate. They want it to not have key man risks. So if you step out of the business today, the business isn't just going to go crumbling
down. They want everything to be documented. They want your finances to be clean, all that stuff. And it's like, well, even if you don't sell your business, you benefit from having your business be sellable so that it's easier to operate. But also even if you don't want to sell today, maybe 10 years down the road, you're going to benefit from it being sellable. If you do say, yeah, I do want to sell I'm having a life change
or whatever. So we get a lot more. involved than other options out there, especially for the size of company that we work with. So we work with companies that are usually between like two hundred and fifty thousand to five million dollars in revenue, sometimes higher. But this kind of area of the market there. too small for private equity firms to get involved with normally. But they're also too big for the founder to try to figure everything out on their own while also running
every other aspect of the business. And so there's kind of like this underserved part of the market that I was like, these people need guidance with marketing and sales and operations. Because I saw in my experience as a marketing director, all of these functions are like extremely intertwined. You cannot have marketing that's not connected to sales, that's not connected to operations. Otherwise you're just, you're literally springing
leaks the whole way. And so I'm like, there has to be something that kind of like synthesizes all these business functions for maximum profitability. And so yeah, that was, I mean, long winded way to say that was kind of my process of creating Savage Growth Partners. I wanted to be kind of more than a marketing agency. And so yeah, I just wanted to be a full on getting in the weeds with partners, growth partner. Yeah, well, the passion is there, but your face lit up as you
spoke about all of that. Yeah. And it is a more holistic approach to supporting a smaller business in reaching their next level, because there are
a lot of moving pieces. And if they have to hire three different companies or consultants to help them with everything then they have to also coordinate all of those together or come to a one -stop shop and really have somebody who who's invested in them rather than just trying to you know grow their own business or get a sensational testimonial or something like that and then it it sounds like with your process it really elevates that business's functionality, right, which that's
the golden ticket to take it to the next level. Those three pillars you talked about are key. And yes, sellable, you know, often business is your baby, and you can't ever imagine giving it up. But even if it's your baby, you have a routine, you have basic care needs, you have structure around it, you know. And that's something that business owners tend to not be as good at because they have the creativity and then lack the administration. But then it's not really
a business. If you can't step away from it, it's got to run on its own. And then that also gives the business owner and or the staff the ability to take the foot off the gas. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think especially with the company sizes that we work with you see that, you know, more than you would at, you know, a hundred million dollar company. Um, you see that kind of attachment to the business and there's nothing wrong with
having attachment to the business. We have to understand the business is kind of its own entity. It should be an asset and not, you know, a job or your baby and treating it more like an asset that needs to be optimized and systematized is going to serve you. way more than just, yeah, basically having a glorified job. Right? Yeah. Well, and also that I was kind of have a hard time articulating this. So maybe you can even go further with that statement because the business
should run on its own. And so like, um, let's say Home Depot or Target, you know, as a giant franchise have a a recipe that can be implemented in any city at any time and as long as it's staffed well it can function and so we kind of want to model off of that. to take the pressure off of ourselves so that it's more spacious and then that the business, like what I hear you saying is that it can grow more on its own, right? That it really takes on a life of its own and gets
going. So I love, love, love that. And, you know, for especially women who are just starting a business of any kind and doing it maybe on the side of their desk. the better that you can structure it, the more it will serve you in the limited amount of time that's available for it, right? So, being organized, I heard this woman say a quote once and it was just so fabulous. She says,
I'm not stressed because I'm organized. And that's kind of what we're talking about here is getting things into a flow that's repeatable and that, you know, can be handed off and that gives life and that's where a business can take off into momentum. So Jensen, how did you, would you say that you've niched down with Savage Growth Partners? In a sense, not so much to where it's like we only work with plumbing businesses. But in the sense that we only work with service -based businesses
around a specific size. And, you know, we have criteria that we look at when we're talking to potential clients where it's like, you know, what problems are they having? Then we even, you know, we assess the mindset of the clients that we work with because it's really important, you know, we can come in and we can tell you exactly what you need to do. We can execute,
but we can't do absolutely everything. So it's absolutely critical that the people we work with also, you know, have the same long -term vision for the company that we can all kind of align on. Because at that point, it's pretty easy for
us to take it to the next level. But, you know, on the flip side, it's virtually impossible, even if you're doing all the right things, if somebody is like, Yeah, I don't know, that's just too much growth, or I actually do want to work in the business all the time, you know, it's like, there's a fundamental misalignment there. But yeah, so niche down as far as, you know, size problems that we address overall kind of business model. Yes. Um, but, and that's kind
of by design too. I've, uh, a huge part of something I love about my company is that we do work with so many different types of businesses and it's fun. It's exciting. We get to address so many different, uh, like just types of people. And, you know, there's just so many cool opportunities you get by working with different types of businesses that, you know, you don't get if you run a firm that's just dedicated to helping, you know, gyms.
And so yeah, that's that's kind of by design, because I really enjoy that kind of varied day today that I kind of mentioned earlier, I like not having the just do the same thing every day, like repeat. the same thing. I like having new challenges and things like that. So yeah, I think that kind of answers your question. So the different service -based businesses, which I'd love for
you to give us some examples of. um, activate your creative problem solving because they're in different markets providing different services. So like you mentioned plumbers, but then you had, um, like I think health spas or something like that on the list and other ones. And so you get to learn about these different industries too, and see what you can do to elevate any one of your clients in that field. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
And it's, it's kind of cool because, you know, we get to work with all these different businesses and challenges, but at the same time, service businesses at their core are largely the same. You know, you've got to get leads. You've got to close them predictably. You've got to serve with excellence and then rinse and repeat, you know, keep those clients that you do have, you know, start to build the business up from there
and get new leads, all this stuff. But basically the process and the core principles are the same. So in that way, you know, there's systems and tactics that we can implement in businesses, even that are across different industries that will still work because the fundamental business model and the principles are the same. So, so yeah, that's that's kind of the the interesting part is I think, you know, when people think about niches, it's like, well, you've got to
just work with gyms or whatever. But I think it really kind of depends on what it is that you're doing. Because ultimately, you know, service is service. And like I said, we've niche down to service specifically, you know, we don't do, you know, products or e commerce or anything like that, because that actually is a completely
different ballgame. But yeah, so service based businesses, the other fun to work with, it would just kind of came naturally to because my experience as a marketing director, I'd primarily work with service businesses, too. And so yeah, that's kind of the evolution of that. Okay. So then take us into some of those fundamentals. What
do we need to focus on? Yeah. So as I mentioned, really, if you just think of it like this process of getting leads, converting them predictably, and delivering your service with excellence. Those are kind of the key principles that you need to understand in order to grow a service business. Now, kind of peeling back the layers on all those things. Yes, there's a billion other kind of sub things under that, right? Like getting leads, it's like, okay, well, like, how do I
get leads? How much can I afford to pay to acquire a lead? You know, how do I close leads? And you know, how do I deliver in a way that makes sense and all these different things, but kind of at its core, those are, those are the three big things that you need to keep in mind. Um, but yeah, so for all the little details, that's when you really get into needing to sit down and figure out your business financials and things like
that. And that's where I get kind of excited because that's why I created Savage Growth Partners, because all that stuff's so important to understand how those different pieces connect to each other, right? Like you can't have just getting leads. Like you have to understand, okay, what's our profit margin? And now it's like you're looking
at... operations. Now you're looking at finance, you know, and so that's that's kind of the the fun part is, you know, you talk about marketing and sales and operations, and all of those are critical pieces that all kind of lean on each other. And you implemented those in your own business. as well. And so what are you doing in your marketing? And what what have you found as your magic recipe to make that flow for Savage Growth Partners? Yeah, so I mean, I'm a huge
proponent of systems. And pretty much every single thing that we do within the company is documented and put to a system. And that's another thing that I am very bullish on implementing in clients businesses as well. I'm like, you need to have a repeatable, reliable process for everything that you're doing because it makes things faster. It makes things more predictable. And to the point we were talking about earlier, it makes
things sellable, right? Because if I can just hand you a rule book or a guidebook and say, Hey, this is how we get leads. Sorry about that. Yeah, right. Sorry about that. Um, but yeah, if, uh, if I can hand you the rule book and say, this is exactly how we get leads, here's how we close them. It becomes so easy in comparison to just doing things fly by night and, you know, shooting from the hip and hoping that something
hits. And so that is a big, big, big part of our success and it's something that's become even more critical as we've gotten bigger and bigger and bigger because you know your scalability is going to be limited by how systematized your business is yes of course yeah if mcdonald's had to make one order at a time they'd be pretty limited to how many people they could serve they wouldn't reach the billions in any in any short order yeah and and to your point earlier that's
another thing that when you're talking about expansion, that's another reason why having systems is critical. I've worked with so many businesses where, you know, it's been a med spa that's expanded out to multiple locations. Or I had mentioned doing work in Vancouver, I have a job training service company that I work with that we are based out of Toronto originally, and now we've
expanded to Vancouver as well. And so it's like, because we identified the overall structure it's like okay we can put this here and it'll work and we can make minor tweaks and we can put this here and it'll work and you know and that's how you create that scalability is being able to rely on those systems. Yeah amazing. So Jensen what's changed in you as a woman? throughout your entrepreneurial journey? Are you meeting the vision that you cast for yourself so far?
And what are you noticing about yourself as you grow more and more into the CEO of this company? Yeah, that's a deep and great question. I think, you know, it's always a process. And that's how I really see, I guess, everything. But I'm kind of stepping into it every day more and more. And I think a huge part of that was coming to terms with who I am and what I wanted for my
future. I think keeping the end goal in mind is a big part of why I'm able to do the things that I do on a day -to -day basis and get through stressful times. And it's just, I don't know, kind of stepping into my truest self, instead of trying to kind of fit myself into a box of what other people wanted, or, you know, what societally expected of me, or, you know, the
easy way. A part of my journey, too, was I built a marketing agency, just a standard marketing agency before, and I grew it pretty large, pretty quickly, I grew it to $30 ,000 within the first month. And so I had success out the gate. And I was like, wow, this is awesome. And I realized I'm like, because I had identified this problem of marketing, not being the only function that was critical to small business success. I was like, I don't feel like it's genuine to run a
marketing agency kind of knowing this. And so that was a big part of the evolution into switching the complete business model, which that's scary because the business that I run now, like I said, nobody else is doing this. So now I've entered from standard business to kind of almost startup territory of this is a completely different thing that's ever been done before. And that's terrifying.
Um, and so, yeah, but it is, I would just say, you know, if I were to boil it down to anything, it would just be a constant process of small improvements in my own mindset and behaviors over the day to day and just keeping that end goal in mind. You're holding a lot of responsibility and it sounds like a robust client portfolio
too, right? And so you have to really trust yourself to lead that and to lead the team and to build a company that can um serve with that client excellence that you desire and demand out of your own company so what what how do you um keep yourself full and and growing like are you in masterminds or you know doing any um professional or personal development type stuff or how do you keep that growth mindset in an in an expansive state Yeah, so I'm a part of a couple of different
groups of entrepreneurs and whatnot, like different communities where we, you know, share wins and stories and tactics and all that kind of stuff. So that's definitely helpful. I also just read a lot of books. I'm just always I'm just a lifelong learner, to be honest, not even just related to mindset, but also just everything. And that stuff just learning gets me very excited. And so I'm always just kind of looking for ways to level up, I guess. So those are some of the biggest
ways that I continue to evolve. I'm just always seeking out new information and perspectives. And so really kind of wherever I can get that I'm open to it. Like, I'm always talking to other business owners, too. And it's like, every time I talk to a business owner, I swear I take away at least one helpful piece of information, you know, whether that's, you know, a tactic that they tried or a mindset that they've adopted, I always take away something just by kind of
absorbing it, you know, from other people. So I think that's a that's a huge part of it is just getting connected with other people and and just be willing to learn from them and be open -minded. I think that's another big thing instead of being really ego -driven and like, oh, I know the best way to do this. Like I'm, you know, I'm so talented, I'm the best, whatever. It's like there's business owners that have much smaller businesses than me that have, you know,
way less experience quote unquote than me. But it's like they have experiences that I'll never have. They have perspectives that I'd never considered and so it's like just learn from everybody all the time and you'll kind of be surprised at the the evolution that you kind of make in your own mindset based off of what you absorb from other people. That right there is so exquisite and um I just want to lean into it a little bit because this is a pressureless and like always open and
willing state of being. And it lacks comparison. It lacks self judgment. And that, I think, is like the deepest state of embodiment that you can bring to life in general. Never mind leverage for business development, business growth, right? Is like we're all equal in the sense of our value and our worth. And we all have something to contribute to each other so that we can all do more. and be more, right? So there's like, there's no competition.
It's pure, not necessarily collaboration, but like collective wellbeing that we all participate in each other's growth and each other's success and that we're not worried that because somebody else is doing this or is doing that, that it means anything, that there's value to be gained
from it. So that was really well articulated and I think that's such a critical again, state of being, to work towards on the daily, then you're not under threat, then you're not hijacking your nervous system, then you're not constantly reacting, you know, with scarcity or concern. You're just like, oh, cool, yeah, oh, cool, yeah, yeah, cool, cool, this, this, this, in an exchange,
in a mutual exchange everywhere you go. And that's how you can really, you know, come into confidence and... great certainty of your capabilities and then keep adding to it to build your company bigger and bigger. So I have a couple of other questions as we kind of start to come into this and maybe I'll just put them both out and you can choose which one to answer first is what's
coming next for you now? Like you know you were a startup, you If you like the terms like an industry disruptor with the marketing agency with love it. I love it, right? And that's, you know, if we're doing something really out there, I think that's the rabbit hole to go down, because it means that it's the right one, the more uncomfortable and uncertain and unconfident it is. True ingenuity lies, right? Right. Like, oh, okay, I'm going to be that guy who gets to do that thing. But
somebody's got to go first. Yeah, yeah. So having done all of that. you know do you foresee Savage Growth Partners carrying on as it is or do you have what what's your next 15 year vision even for it? And then the other question maybe to wrap up the interview after is who are you outside of Savage Growth Partners like who is just Jensen Savage as a day -to -day woman? Yeah, love it. Okay. Yeah, so first I'll address kind of the trajectory of Savage Growth Partners. So I think
the trajectory that we're on is great. So really, the only thing I kind of see changing is just looping in more strategic partners, like I said, with the clients that we work with, I'm always looping in industry leaders that are extremely good at what they do, that can provide perspective and experience that I can't provide as, you know, somebody that's more focused on business growth and marketing. I have people that I work with that are incredible when it comes to finances
and numbers. And it's like my understanding of that is not even near where these people and their experiences are. So looping in even more prolific and skilled people, that's one part of it. Another part of it is just being able to take the company larger and larger so we can help more small service businesses. Because like I said, this isn't a part of the market that
is underserved. Their options are limited. you know, their options frankly aren't very good because like I said, marketing agencies, a lot of the time, you know, they're focused more on execution, which is fine, but you have to have
strategy behind it. And so if the business owner is not guiding them on strategy, a lot of the time they're just shooting from the hip or maybe they are, they have a marketing strategy, but it's like, if you don't understand all of the business behind the curtain, your marketing strategy
is not going to operate with excellence. And so it's like their options are kind of in most cases i'm not poo pooing all marketing agencies but you know in most cases their options with business growth are kind of lackluster and like
you mentioned earlier they're not. comprehensive to where it's like okay if I need help with operations and sales and marketing you're kind of piecemealing all these different services and vendors and hoping that they're good and then trying to you know get them to communicate with your team get them to communicate with each other and maybe there's overlapping messages that it just makes it more confusing um and so and would it be fair to say I'll just interject quickly too that um
because it's really important to note the underserved market because generally they don't have the money that a company will want to get paid in order to deliver a service, right? So it is really brilliant to look at who's not getting what they need and deserve and meet them in their playing field so that they can grow, which is good for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly it. And that's kind of what the word partners comes back to, you know, we're invested in their growth.
We get a piece of their upside growth. So it's basically like investing in a company when they're small and knowing like, we're going to come in, we're going to, we know that our systems work. We know that we can take this to the next level and we're all going to be more successful as a result, right? Like we're all going to make more money. We're all going to be more fulfilled.
Um, and so that's, that's kind of the exciting part is, is like you said, it's under, underserved um and so you have all these yeah they deserve it and they want it and if they can't get to it and then i love that like i just have this image of of course the saying skin in the game but you fuse in with them right you really become invested um so that they feel like you're not just taking their money and trying to do a thing like you're very much side by side with them
to elevate them. Because a business owner will take the company so far and then you plateau like that's just natural, you need a different coach or a different somebody with better skills and somebody who can coordinate a high level of professionalism and proficiency in those different areas of expertise that you talked about. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And that's a huge part of the reason why I wanted to build Savage Growth Partners the way that I have is that I didn't want to
be transactional. It was made abundantly clear to me. I could make a great living just doing transactional marketing. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to devote my life. It's like we spend so much of our life working, especially me. I work all the time, but it's like I'm excited to do it. Because I am literally helping people. I am changing the trajectory of people's lives. I have worked with businesses that wouldn't have been able to break through revenue plateaus.
Like you mentioned, they would have been stuck at a certain size. And it's like, now they're expanding. They're making more money for their family. They're bringing on employees who they're paying well and are giving great work life to. All these different things that just come as a catalyst. And it's like, how could I not? want to work and be excited about that. It's like that, that transcends money by, you know, so
much. It's like money is great. Whatever. Of course, you know, everybody's in business and wants to make money, but it's like being able to have that impact and have work that you're like, yeah, if I show up today and I meet a business owner that didn't have access to anything like this before, like I can change their life. That's That's amazing. Like that's what gets me fired up. So fulfillment, right? That's your heart
and your soul right there in action. Yeah. And I think it's, it's, it's not something that a lot of people realize that your soul is going to crave until you're at a space or until you're at a place where money, I guess, is no object. You know, it's like when you're coming from places like financial scarcity, you're like, Oh God, if I just made a bunch of money, I just would never care about anything ever again. I'd be fine. But it's like, At least for me, I crave
purpose more than anything. You know, it's like, once your financial needs are met, I mean, it's like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? It's like once your basic needs are met, then you
start to search for fulfillment. Yeah. And I'll pull out of that just so the listeners really anchor into this that Jensen, you you led by true example of you know, starting that first marketing company that made that 30 grand in a month, but then realized that it was out of alignment with your intrinsic values and who you really are and what you identify with. And so you were willing to go first and create something
way more. fulfilling, meaningful for you, which now has become its own entity and is creating all of these beautiful collateral benefits to the companies that work with you. And that is self leadership, but you can do anything to make money. But if you go higher and do the thing that's right and in your integrity and aligned with your values, you're going to go a lot further. And money will, you know, show up like you're saying on the side of all of that to continue
to support you. So that's very, very powerful. Yeah, I like to say money is a side effect. I think, you know, if you're just chasing money, it quickly becomes unfulfilling. Yeah. Yeah. So I could go down a whole rabbit hole with that, but yeah. Yeah. Ultimately it was just kind of, I felt it was kind of my duty to build a business
that aligned with my values. And especially when I knew I had this idea and I spoke to so many business owners that were like, I told them about the original idea and they're like, Oh my God, like that is incredible. Like that reaction from people was so different from the conversations I had where I'm like, hey, I have a marketing agency. And it's like, yeah, of course we did great work. We got great results, but it's like something where it's like, we are like business
transformation specialists like that. That's unique. That gets people excited. That's never been done before. So that's what, that's what keeps me going. But, um, and answering your second question, who is Jensen Savage as a human? Um, so I, uh, I'm a, I'm a lot of things. So I absolutely love nature. Um, I am a you can catch me outside whenever possible. I absolutely love being outside.
I love to hike. I love to kayak. I have four rescue dogs and a lot of my free time I spend volunteering with the rescue that I actually got two dogs of mine from. So I have three Australian shepherds and a mutt. So my house is always busy with crazy dogs and I love it so much. They're like my kids. I'm also a musician. I play guitar and sing. So those are some of the things I do. Like I said, I'm also a lifelong learner. I'm super into really any subject that I can sink
my teeth into. So like psychology, science, history, you know, true crime, anything that I can just absorb like nonfiction stuff. I'm always reading some sort of nonfiction book. People actually tease me like, I won't read fiction. I'm just like, Oh, why would I read fiction? I don't know. I just like to learn. So I'm always, you know, I'm always, I'm always hyper fixating on some random subject that I'm learning about it at
any given time. But yeah, other than that, I love antique shopping and I collect antiques as well. So so yeah, those are those are some of the biggest things. Beautiful. I love it. And is there anything coming up this year for you in life or business that you're super jazzed about, like a big event or trip? Yeah, so going to be going to more events in the upcoming year,
which is exciting. So I've done a couple of events locally, like going to different summits and whatnot near me, but it's never been something that I focused on within Savage Growth Partners. I've been to a bunch of industry conferences and stuff, working with other people's businesses, but now I'm going to be kind of focusing more on doing events. for Savage Growth Partners, as Savage Growth Partners. And so a lot of exciting things like that coming up soon. Wonderful. Right
on. Well, thanks. This was a beautiful conversation. Gave lots for my brain to chew on and I know served the listeners. So I'll drop your links in the episode and we'll find you on Facebook and LinkedIn. Is that right? Yeah, you can see me up there. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Brilliant. Well, thanks so much, Jensen. What a pleasure. Yeah. Thank you for having me.