Leeds twins with 'wind in our sails' after being shortlisted for Black British Business Awards 2023

Bradley and Myles Jensen started their family-run business, Jensen and Jensen, in 2019.

The company is a creative brand agency and focuses on providing designs, branding, content to a range of businesses, entrepreneurs and startups.

The twins have worked with many Leeds-based businesses, with Jensen and Jensen being based here itself, and global enterprises too.

Currently in the running for the Black British Business Awards in the entrepreneur of the year category, Jensen and Jensen hopes to achieve new heights.

Co-founder Bradley, 28, said: “When you have winners such as Steven Bartlett, who have won our category before, it really means a lot and I think it carries a level of prestige. And it also gives that confirmation back to our community and ethnic communities, that if these guys can do it, we can do it.”

Twin and co-founder Myles added: “It just fills us with validation. It gives us the confidence that we're doing the right thing, and we're on the right path.

“The big issue that Bradley and I faced when we first came into this industry is when you try to approach larger clients, we don't talk like them, we don't look like them, we're two young guys from South London who live up in Leeds so we immediately kind of stuck out.

“I think just having that kind of credibility and recognition gives us a bit of wind in our sails.”

The Jensen twins say that entreneurship came naturally to them both – and at a young age; the duo recall selling sweets to make a profit back when they were at boarding school.

Later, Myles went on to study marketing at university in Liverpool while Bradley attended University of Leeds’ Business School and later launched their own businesses putting into practice what they had learnt.

Myles said: “Many [businesses] just didn't work at all, but really just enabled us to kind of play in that sandpit of entrepreneurism.”

The duo returned to Leeds, a city which Myles says has a “good ecosystem for business and digital marketing”, with a new business For Fork Sake in 2018.

This Leeds-based food content creation company had won an award at the Leeds Digital Festival in 2019 but the business struggled to make its way through the pandemic, when the restaurants and eateries it worked with were no longer able to operate in the ways they used to.

But Jensen and Jensen continued to grow.

And now, four years later, the brothers have worked with brands they said they dreamed of working with, including Manchester City F.C.

More recently, the duo wrapped up a shoot with London jeweller David Morris, showcasing 180 million Euros worth of jewellery worn by the likes of Beyonce, Oprah and Adele.

“There's always been within us, this kind of innate aspect, that we wanted to do something off our own accord – I just didn't realise that it would be us working together,” Myles said.

This marked the first time in David Morris history that the company featured models from a minority background.

Myles tells the Yorkshire Evening Post that diversity, inclusion and championing black businesses is at the heart of Jensen and Jensen’s vision.

He added: “There is so much black talent out there. There's so much minority and ethnic talent out there. Too often right now, diversity is seen as something as a tick box exercise, and I think it's fair to say that no one wants to no one wants to be that.”

The company dedicates time and resources not only into mentoring black businesses but also putting money into black and minority ethnic talent.

Myles said: “When we first started, we were two young, scrappy entrepreneurs. Now, we recognise actually what we're trying to achieve and build is a legacy, and something much wider than just an agency.

"For us, it's really about giving opportunity to people who look like us, sound like us, and really be able to put money back into diverse talents pocket. That is really the main why for us as a business now.”

Jensen and Jensen is also in the running for four other awards this year, including the Black Talent Awards. Find out more about Jensen and Jensen via its social media channels and website.