Sara Jensen: CEO Of Hugh & Grace

This is the first installment of Rejuve’s new series called “Watch This Woman” where we highlight incredible women who have done some amazing things. In this installment, I interviewed Sara Jensen, co-founder & co-CEO of Hugh & Grace, which promotes hormone health with elevated products that improve your skin, health and home. Sara and her husband started the brand after Sara’s 14 year struggle of infertility.

She's a dear friend of mine and I had a fantastic time interviewing her. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hi Sarah, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do with Hugh & Grace?

Hi, I'm Sarah. I am co-founder, co-CEO, and co-parent to Hugh & Grace. I work with my husband, which is wonderful and also terrible at the same time!

My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and my grandma was a stay-at-home mom, so all I ever knew in life was to be a stay-at-home mom, and so we got married young. I thought that's what I was going to be, and then not ever being able to get pregnant and not ever being able to be a mom for so many years really pushed me and said, okay, what do I do with my life now? And so I went to graduate school and got my MBA. 

I was class president of my MBA class at USC, and I think that was one of the first things that I was really proud to achieve. We've just received a Real Leaders Impact Award for our mission for Human Grace, which is incredible. We are a very fast-growing business. 

I just always want to be a mom, and now I'm finally a mom, so that is a huge part of my success in that we were able to have what we wanted, but then also creating Hugh & Grace, which really creates a platform to help a lot of, primarily women, but other people who have achieved success as well, is something that we're very proud of.

With Hugh & Grace, you’re helping others build a career, so your success is everyone else's success as well.

 Well thank you!  My husband was operating a multi-billion dollar family office out of Beverly Hills and I've always worked in philanthropy. So, when i went back to work at USC, I was working with our top alumni and parents across the country, raising transformative gifts, and when we finally had our kids, andI told Ben, I don't want to be on an airplane every single week, and he didn't want to be working nights, weekends, crazy, crazy hours, and we sort of finally had this idea of what is our definition of success, and how do we create that?

At work, we surround ourselves with these billionaires, and on the outside looking in, it looks amazing, but then we were saying, Ben and Sarah, what is our definition of success? We want to be with our kids. We call it mixing lifestyle with livelihood. How do we actually have success in multiple areas of our life, because you really can't have it all.

So Sarah, you make success look easy. If you could choose things related to health, what are 3 things that have made a big impact? 

Well, I'm actually gonna give you credit for some of these, because I remember it was last summer, and we were on a summer tour, we were traveling every single day, different places, meetings, events, and I was so stressed, overwhelmed, gaining weight, all this stuff, and you're like, “do you take your wellness products?”

And I wasn’t everyday. So, we put our three top-selling products, and called it The Routine, and that is the first thing in the morning, I do. I take our morning supplements, first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, it gives me energy, helps focus, helps me reduce stress. I put our collagen in our coffee, pour it in there. It's odorless and tasteless, then I have our hydrate detox drink, which i, aldothione, it's prebiotics, probiotics, fiber, magnesium, it's everything you need in one drink. What that does is it helps me get in a great mindset, it helps me feel like, okay, even if the day goes all downhill from there, I have that in my system, and it's easy, it tastes good, it's my morning ritual.

The second I'd say is walking, I used to be an ultra marathoner, I used to run a hundred miles a week, and then my fertility doctor said that running chicken doesn't lay the eggs, so I had to stop, but I think just walking and being out in the sunshine, being out in nature is something that really helps ground me, and fills my soul and helps me be a better person.

Then I would say the third is spending time with loved ones. When I come in at night, I put my phone in the other room, and I don't have an Apple watch, so I don't have any notifications. We have a four-year-old and a six-year-old, and they get really worked up, and we'll actually breathe together, do box breathing as a family together, and so, that's kind of four, so breathing, walking, the wellness routine in the morning, and then loved ones.

I think you kind of already answered this, but I think a lot of times women are stuck in these jobs and/or careers that don’t actually make them happy or make them feel fulfilled. So, can you tell us a little bit about what actually makes you happy?

Every single year for New Year's, my parents watch the kids for a few nights, and Ben and I go on a retreat, and we read books, and go on long walks. So, we went for a long walk in Napa, and we just said, “what if we can remove all constraints, what would our lives look like? If we didn't have to have these jobs, if we didn't have to pay our mortgage, or have all this pain, like what would this look like?” We were about to have our daughter, and we weren't sure if we wanted to raise our daughter in LA, and my husband's always loved the mountains, and so he said, “okay, Park City, let's go.” So we got up and moved and we actually ended up moving back to LA, because we said, no, actually, LA is really the best place for us.

It's really challenging. Saying, okay, this is what I want,  these are the needs that I have, these are the needs my partner has, let's write them down, and make that happen.

Sometimes it is deprioritizing people, sometimes it is having people exit your life. There's a lot of positive self-talk, and saying, “I want this, I can achieve this.” It's a ton of work, but really just having that dedication and then really figuring out. We live in an RV right now, and that's what makes me happy, because I get to spend time with my kids, we get to travel, we get to explore the country in different places, in a small area, and we go on walks, we're in nature a lot.

I've realized in my mid-40s the things that really make me happy, and so it's moving my life around those priorities.

I love tangible takeaways. So, is there one or two things that you could say “what does it look like for women to be successful in 2024?”

Well it is just what we talked about. Figuring out what each individual's person’s definition of success is, but then it's going for it. You know, looking back at my life, I went through 14 years of hell from 14 years of infertility, and I just wish I would have given myself grace,as well as belief.

Understanding what you, what your definition of success is, having the confidence that you can go and do it, and then when you can't go full force, some days, give yourself some grace. Lastly, manifest it, be out there, share it with the world, because the world would be a better place with all of us doing that. 

Thank you so much for doing this. Where can people watch and find you?

If you want to see RV stories, you can follow me on Instagram! Hugh & Grace is still a relatively new company, so we'll be building on social, bringing in experts like Megan. We have a whole content calendar this year with bringing in experts and showing great products. We always have new exciting things, whether it’s our podcast, or our social channels.