Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky, and we are so happy to have everybody here today to give us a listen. Um, before we get started, I wanted to mention that today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors. Defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Mainstreet Warriors and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee Chapter of the Main Street Warriors, Diesel David, Inc. Please go check them out at diesel.david.com.

Joshua Kornitsky: My guest today is Jacqueline Jensen. Jacqueline is a business leader, a professional EOS implementer and a passionate supporter of entrepreneurs. She joins us today to talk about an initiative that she’s helping bring to life in the Atlanta area, one that’s all about creating meaningful support for business owners who really often feel like they’re going it alone. Welcome, Jackie. It’s so nice to have you.

Jacqueline Jensen: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Joshua. Thanks for having me.

Joshua Kornitsky: Tell me, what led you to launch this program? And what is this program about?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. So I became aware of an organization, our nonprofit called ENRG. So it is spelled e n r g. I came about that organization, um, maybe about six months ago. Uh, and I just loved everything they were about. So energy e n r g stands for entrepreneurs entrepreneurial network resource group. Okay. And another, another little acronym for it is. Um, so it is aligned with iOS, which is the entrepreneurial operating system, and iOS, um, in energy aligned as well as brought in the entrepreneurial leap. So Leap Academy is also brought into it. So the other acronym that stands for is companies that are exploring iOS new to iOS, running on iOS and growing on us. So it is.

Joshua Kornitsky: No, I just wanted to pause and maybe I jumped the gun. Help us understand what all of these do.

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. Um, so iOS, um, is a business operating system that helps entrepreneurs and their leadership teams organize all the moving parts of their business. Okay. Um, and so it takes kind of entrepreneurs tend to have about 136 36 issues at best. Running around in their head at any given time. So it helps streamline and simplify those issues into six buckets. Um, entrepreneurial leap is on the front side of the entrepreneurial journey, so it helps people in individuals determine whether they are a right fit for an entrepreneurial type career. Okay. Um, and for those who may have taken the leap to become an entrepreneur, um, and maybe in the early stages of that. So when we talk about early stage entrepreneurs, it’s individuals with typically less than ten employees.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. So so it sounds like leap is sort of the beginning. Uh, EOS is sort of more mature for for an entrepreneur whose organizations already kind of up and running. So is that where the energy program or energy, um, platform fits in?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah, exactly. So it helps energy helps support both early stage entrepreneurs. And those entrepreneurs are integrators. So kind of second in charge for an entrepreneurial company, uh, find a place where they can connect. So, uh, what energy likes to say. And part of their core focus is the community for the entrepreneurial path to mastery. So how can energy create this community? You mentioned in kind of the intro, the entrepreneurs, um, tend to feel a little lonely, or maybe they don’t have a place to go celebrate their successes, or they don’t have a place where they can feel vulnerable enough to express their challenges or fears. And so energy is about creating this space, this community, for those entrepreneurs to continue gaining the tools they need as they work towards mastery in their in their business.

Joshua Kornitsky: So now you have been an entrepreneur in your life, correct?

Jacqueline Jensen: I’ve been a family business leader. Um.

Joshua Kornitsky: And but in within an entrepreneurial organization. And the reason that I asked that is, is I want to talk a little bit about this going it alone, this entrepreneurial loneliness. Right. Can from your experience, what does that look like or what did that feel like? And what are you what are you looking to solve?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so for me, it felt like in my in my early 20s, I, um, began working in my family’s business and was regularly, regularly placed into leadership positions, uh, that I just didn’t feel qualified for. Experienced enough for. I certainly didn’t have the, the knowledge, um, to execute those seats well, but the pressure of leading well was certainly there. And so oftentimes I didn’t feel like I had a place to turn. So for me, I turned a lot to books and podcasts and anywhere where I could gather, uh, information and knowledge and wisdom from those who had experienced something similar, um, before me. And but that takes a lot of time, and it’s still not a real connection. Um, so energy gives a place where these business owners that feel stuck in a certain part of their business can come together, learn new tools and skills to put into, you know, what I visualize as kind of being a tool belt around our waist. Right. Um, and then also in, in real life, connect with other entrepreneurs who have maybe gone through that same challenge in their business and can share from experience. So that’s one thing in energy. Um, in our meetings, we spend about 60 minutes discussing real challenges, um, in business owners lives. And we share from experience. We don’t share from ideas or thoughts or hearsay.

Joshua Kornitsky: Theoretical.

Jacqueline Jensen: Exactly.

Joshua Kornitsky: So so you said something I want to I want to just ask about you said in person. Now what is this in person you speak of? So seriously, you get people together in physical group.

Jacqueline Jensen: We do. We get people together physically once a month. So the Atlanta chapter meets on the third Friday of each month at 8 a.m. at Serendipity Labs in Alpharetta, near the North Point Mall.

Joshua Kornitsky: And we’ll have a link to that and the address when we publish. So don’t worry about looking that up while we’re talking.

Jacqueline Jensen: Perfect. Thank you. Um, so we come together for 90 minutes. It’s 8 to 930, uh, on Friday morning. And for the first, um, bit, we check in with each other. And that just helps us learn about the other entrepreneurs in the room. And then for about 20 minutes, we share a tool that the group seems to be struggling with. So, um, the first meeting we we launched last month in September, Remember um, and we talked about an issue solving track. So when you’re in your business with your employees, your team, um, oftentimes entrepreneurs are really good at bringing their team together and just discussing the heck out of an issue, but never really.

Joshua Kornitsky: Forever and.

Jacqueline Jensen: Ever solve. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right. We’ve all been in those meetings where you’ve spent entirely too long just discussing something, and then you leave and you’re like, what did we actually solve? Or what’s the next step?

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure.

Jacqueline Jensen: So in this first energy meeting, we talked about the issues solving track, which is a tool within the Entrepreneurial operating System toolbox. And then we went and we practiced that tool for the remainder of the meeting. So it’s about a 5 to 10 minute check in 20 minutes on a tool and then 60 minutes solving real challenges, obstacles, opportunities that the entrepreneurs in the room are having in their business.

Joshua Kornitsky: So they they bring their own issues to discuss.

Jacqueline Jensen: They do.

Joshua Kornitsky: So. So you’ve you’ve got a group of entrepreneurs that are in a room physically once a month. You’re you’re teaching them something they don’t know from an established methodology. And then you’re going through and helping them understand and resolve their issues. This must cost a fortune.

Jacqueline Jensen: Oh, that’s a wonderful question. And then, no, this is a nonprofit. Energy is a nonprofit supported by wonderful sponsors around the country who support entrepreneurs in their businesses. Um, but there is no cost to energy.

Joshua Kornitsky: So this is this is free.

Jacqueline Jensen: This is free.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it’s a national nonprofit. So that there’s no there’s no sale coming down the pike where someone’s going to be. Oh, hey, you know, first taste was free, but if you want to get all in. Really? So how’s the reception been? Uh, in the in the community. I know you’ve only just launched here, Tier. But but how are local businesses finding. Are they finding value?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. Oh, that’s such a great question. I’m glad you asked this, Joshua. Um, so yes, we launched September 19th, so a couple weeks ago in Atlanta. Uh, we had 15 business owners or leadership team members in the room. Everything from solopreneurs up to seven figure business owners. Wow. And they brought some fantastic challenges in imperfections and obstacles in their business. And I was so impressed with their vulnerability. Um, and then how energized the group was to help each other, uh, with where, where these entrepreneurs were feeling stuck. And what was really neat to hear is a couple days after this energy meeting, a few of the folks in the room connected one on one. Um, so we had one business owner who expressed, um, some challenge with kind of niching down. You know, what we would call an iOS kind of determining target market. Okay. And there was another individual in the group who owns a marketing agency. And so the two of them connected had a one on one. The marketing agency business owner, um, gave a basically a free workshop, um, to the other entrepreneur in the room. And like, that’s the beauty of bringing entrepreneurs together, especially those that share the core values of energy. Which one of those is givers that we’re help first and also abundance minded. Um, so just how to, you know, collaboration over competition.

Joshua Kornitsky: So if I can ask sort of a hard question. Jacqueline, why are you doing this?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: You personally?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah, personally. Uh, so my background comes from, you know, working in family business, which I shared in that family business was in hospitality. Okay. So I feel like I’ve. I’ve had this servant heart, um, and I love community and so doing what I do as an EOS implementer, a lot of what I do is a solopreneur to a degree. You know, I’m working out of my home. Um, I’m growing my practice here, but I don’t always have the opportunity to connect with others. So I love that idea of bringing community together, bringing entrepreneurs together. And then also just my history of kind of walking in their shoes. Right. And I’m currently walking in their shoes, right, of what it feels like to be an entrepreneur who can feel stuck and as if you don’t have the tools in your tool belt. And I just think that there is so much value and so much power in creating a space where entrepreneurs can come together and make connections, like the one that happened, um, in September, and help each other get unstuck and move forward. Right? Like entrepreneurship is a foundation of our country.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, it really is.

Jacqueline Jensen: And, you know, it gives back. It creates space for, um, an opportunity for those we employ, and it helps us take care of our family.

Joshua Kornitsky: So let me ask you in, in, um, in in the one session a month that you’re hosting, uh, and again, we’ll share the location in Alpharetta when, when we post the, the podcast. Um, are you doing this all by yourself? How how many other folks are involved with you?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. Um, and if you don’t mind, Joshua, I’ll take a second to just provide a little history of where energy started. Um, so energy started about four years ago in southern Alabama. Okay. And it was for integrators. So, again, kind of the folks that, um, are typically below the founder, um, and they’re the ones that are the glue to the organization. Right? They beat the drum, they keep everything held together. They keep everyone on track, uh, with the vision. And so for integrators, um, in southern Alabama. We’re running their businesses on iOS, and they would attend the annual iOS conference. And you go to a conference and you learn new skills, and you connect with others, and you’re aligned and you’re refocused and you’re re-energized, and then you go back home, the back into their community. And that energy kind of wanes. The focus goes, you know, tends to go astray a little bit. Um, and so they built this group, this energy group to hold themselves accountable. They said each month we want to get together, we want to recreate the energy from the iOS conference and hold each other accountable. So for a few years, they did on a monthly basis. They met.

Joshua Kornitsky: Just doing it themselves.

Jacqueline Jensen: Just doing it. The four of them, um, and adding other business owners and leaders along the way. But it was just that southern Alabama group for, for a couple years. And then word started to spread and a couple other chapters opened up. Um, and at the I believe at the beginning of this year, there were only four chapters in the United States. Um, in September there were 40. And they just announced that they are now working to launch 53, um, chapters. So this is growing tremendously around the US. Um, and even in Canada, I spoke to an implementer in Canada who is interested in launching a chapter in their area this week. And so really cool to see the growth. Um, and to go back to your question, Joshua, um, I don’t do this alone by any means. You know, we have great support from Energy National. Um, and I have partnered with an integrator here in the Atlanta area. So Ashley May, who’s with Logic Speak. Okay. They run on iOS for about five years. So she’s familiar with the tools. And.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, and so that’s great because now you’ve got someone who’s also putting it in, who’s using it in daily life and can give context to the folks around the tools that you’re sharing.

Jacqueline Jensen: Yes. And that’s the value of what I shared earlier. And what you, um, accentuated was we’re not sharing from theory. We’re sharing from experience. So having Ashley in the room to run the meeting, to keep us on track and to make sure that we don’t go down rabbit holes, um, or have tangents. You know, she keeps us very focused. We work through the issues, we identify the root cause, we discuss it briefly, and we walk away with a solved and next steps for that issue. Um, and so yes, I’m doing this with Ashley, um, and, and the entrepreneurs that come. So we are so fortunate to have such a wonderful group in September.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s great. And again, you’re, you’re you’re just shining more light onto the process. And this process of being able to provide real world experience over politely what somebody just thinks ought to be the answer. Um, so to understand, moving forward when you get together next, Will, will you still be introducing. Will you introduce a new tool every month?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yes, we’ll introduce a new tool each month. And the entrepreneurs in the room get to pitch where they’re having trouble. So we have a solid issues list started and we can’t wait to add more issues each month. Um, and from those issues, it generally starts to, um, you know, focus us on maybe what the entrepreneurs in the room, which will might benefit them the most. And so the October, uh, US tool that we’ll be teaching is going to be the Vision Traction organizer. Uh, so this is a two page document that provides a clear vision on where the company is going. And the group thought that that would be the best tool to focus on since most are starting to plan for 2026.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so let’s use this platform here to tell me a little bit about the Vision Traction organizer. So anybody that’s listening can understand what what you’re offering for the next session, which is scheduled for October 17th. Okay. Perfect. So we got great timing on this. Tell us a little bit about that. So if somebody wants to come and learn what are you going to share with them.

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. So Vision Traction Organizer is another tool in the toolbox. And this tool answers eight simple questions and clearly defines the vision for the company and kind of crystallizes the focus for everyone within that company. So would you like for me to run through.

Joshua Kornitsky: I was going to say in only eight questions. Yeah. If you know them I’d love to hear them.

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. So the eight questions. Um, so what are your core values? So core values define the culture within the organization. Uh, what’s your core focus. What’s your ten year target. So that’s your big goal, um, your marketing strategy. That kind of diving into that target market, as I alluded to earlier, what’s your three year picture. So how do you bring that ten year target, that big hairy audacious goal down to the ground a little bit more and create a picture around it. And then we bring it down even more to the one year plan. So can we simplify what needs to be accomplished this year to 3 to 7 items? Um, in order to move towards the three year picture. Then we bring it down even more and start to define what are the most important items we need to do this quarter so that we call those quarterly reports. And then last is the issues list. So what’s a long any long term issues. Any issues you’re not looking to discuss in the next 90 days. We place that on the issues list to make sure that we don’t forget about it.

Joshua Kornitsky: It sounds like it’s a fantastic both strategic and tactical or um, tactical approach to to sort of quantifying your business. So I think that’d be hugely valuable for anybody that wants to come and learn. And, and is there a minimum size for the organization to be part of energy?

Jacqueline Jensen: No. Um, like I mentioned, our September meeting, we had everything from solopreneurs up to seven figure business owners.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. This is really an incredible opportunity for a business to to to gain momentum and, uh, to, to be able to learn from existing, experienced organizations and teachers and coaches and integrators what works?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yes. Um, no. We and we welcome more. Um, I think one question I get a fair amount in um, in our first meeting was, well, how many folks are you going to have in these energy meetings? Right. At a certain point, maybe it’s too many. And so a chapter caps out between 20 and 24 members. So once we achieve that, then hopefully energy, um, someone else in the community wants to take on another chapter and energy will, um, cheer them on and facilitate another chapter in Atlanta launching.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s fantastic. And, and, um, I know you said that you’ve only had one meeting so far and getting ready for the next one in October. Um, do you still have room for others to join?

Jacqueline Jensen: We do. We do. So we had about 15 in the September meeting.

Joshua Kornitsky: Definitely.

Jacqueline Jensen: Yep. So we’ll hopefully get it to that 20 to 24 number for 17. And then or I’m sorry for October um 17th and then um be able to move forward and keep our community together. That’s a big piece to um, you know, really building that community and a group of individuals who enjoy coming together on a monthly basis.

Joshua Kornitsky: So last question before I ask you how people will learn more. Um, what are you hoping this does for your community? What what do you want the impact of this to be?

Jacqueline Jensen: Oh, that’s a fantastic question. Um, I, I think it aligns with the energy core values. Right. I want a group of entrepreneurs to feel comfortable and safe coming into a room, connecting with each other. Um, and so the core values for energy are we’re givers, so help first. So having entrepreneurs that come into this.

Joshua Kornitsky: I love.

Jacqueline Jensen: That to support other entrepreneurs, um, growth. So we don’t welcome egos. Right. And then this idea of when you teach something. So when you’re sharing from experience you’re actually learning as well. And so this idea of being growth minded um, building community. So if we’re growing our business, we’re growing our communities. So that’s again another place that energy comes back into place. And then abundance minded. And I mentioned this earlier, earlier um collaboration over competition. So I am just hoping that energy creates this space for entrepreneurs to come together, feel supported, um, be able to share their wins and share their fears, um, and feel supported from the group, and take that back out in the community and give back to the community and let that continue evolving out.

Joshua Kornitsky: Jacqueline, I think you’re doing a really, really good thing for the community that we both share, right? I mean, all of us, everyone listening to this is part of this community. And and I think what you’re doing is going to make a real, tangible difference because it’s not trying to sell anything. It’s just trying to educate and elevate. And I think that’s fantastic. Thank you for sharing that with us. So how will people how can people learn more, understand, um, you know, when the event is all of that type of stuff, what’s the best way to to learn more?

Jacqueline Jensen: Yeah. So the best place to learn more is to go to the energy website, which is dot l I f o. And just going there. We’ll share more about energy national and what energy is all about. And then there’s a little tab up on the top called attended chapter. Click on that scroll to the bottom. Fill out a form. Very short form and I’ll be notified that you’re interested in coming to the October event, and I’ll be in touch with you from there. Otherwise, you can reach out to me directly at Jacqueline, at EOS worldwide, uh, or on LinkedIn. Jacqueline Jensen. Jensen.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wonderful. And again, we’ll share those links so that if people didn’t manage to write that down ahead of time, not a problem. We’ll have all of that available. Jacqueline, it’s it’s been an absolute pleasure having you here. Thank you for sharing the hard work you’re putting in to help others. I love that help first mentality. It really resonates with me. Um, thank you, I appreciate it. So, um, my guest today has been Jacqueline Jensen. She’s a business leader, a professional EOS implementer, and a really, really passionate supporter of entrepreneurs, as she shared with us, uh, all of Jacqueline’s information and information about energy will be available via our website when we go live with this, which will just be in a few short days. And then last again, I want to make sure that I tell everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Mainstreet Warriors. Org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Go check them out at diesel. David. Comm. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky. Thank you for joining us here on Cherokee Business Radio. We’ll see you again next time.