Meet Reed Hansen

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reed Hansen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reed below.

Reed, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

For me, resilience comes from a mix of lived experiences that taught me how to get back up when life knocks you down.
As a young man, I served as a Mormon missionary in Italy. Every day I was out knocking on doors, trying to share something I believed in — and most days, people weren’t interested. It was humbling, it was hard, and it often felt like failure. But it taught me the value of persistence, of showing up every day even when the results don’t come right away.
I also watched my father, who was one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known. He built a landscaping business from scratch, poured everything into it, and when it ultimately failed, he didn’t quit. He pivoted, rebuilt, and created a successful career in a completely different space. That example has stayed with me my whole life.
And then personally, I’ve been laid off twice in just two years. Both times, it would’ve been easy to sit in frustration or blame the circumstances. But I went back to the example my dad set and to that resilience I learned as a missionary. I had a responsibility to my family, so I got back up, recalibrated, and kept moving forward.
So where do I get my resilience? From those experiences — from rejection, from watching my dad get back up after failure, and from knowing that no matter how hard things get, I have people counting on me to stand back up and keep going.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, a marketing agency I purchased a few years ago. At the time, it was essentially just a software platform focused on email and text automation. Useful, but I quickly saw there was a much bigger need. Businesses didn’t just need tools — they needed a partner who could help them actually create predictable, scalable lead generation machines.
So we expanded MarketSurge into a full-service growth agency. Today, in addition to automation, we provide SEO, web development, ads management, and more. What excites me most is that everything we do is designed around one outcome: generating quality leads that convert.
Right now, we’re especially energized about two things: our ability to get clients high-end exposure through strategic backlinks, and helping them step into thought leadership through podcast guest placement. Those services open doors to audiences and opportunities most businesses can’t access on their own.
At the end of the day, we’re not just running campaigns — we’re building complete growth systems that allow our clients to do what they do best and not worry about the rest.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

In hindsight, three things have shaped my journey the most.
The first was my years in sales. As an introvert, it was like heavy lifting every day — forcing myself to knock on doors, pick up the phone, and have conversations that weren’t always comfortable. Getting lots of rejection. But that experience gave me persuasion skills and people skills I wouldn’t have developed otherwise. For anyone early in their career, I’d say don’t shy away from an opportunity to work in sales. Even if it’s not where you’ll end up, it’s one of the best ways to build confidence, resilience, and communication skills.
Second, getting my MBA reinforced that success isn’t just luck or timing — there are proven frameworks you can learn and apply across a wide range of situations. It showed me that complex problems often have structures you can lean on to simplify the path forward. My advice here: invest in learning, whether that’s formal education or self-study. The right frameworks save you years of trial and error.
And third — punctuality. It might sound simple, but in my house growing up, being on time wasn’t optional. I’ve found that reliability — showing up when you say you will, doing what you say you’ll do — is a sneakily powerful skill in business. It builds trust fast. For anyone just starting out, master the basics like this. It might not feel glamorous, but over time it compounds into a reputation people respect and rely on.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was the way my dad brought me into his world of work. When I was eight years old, instead of playing with friends on evenings or weekends, I’d often be with him at his landscaping design business. At the time, I didn’t always realize it, but that was really special quality time together.
I learned firsthand what hard work looked like — the long hours, the problem-solving, the persistence. But I also learned that work could be enjoyable, even fun, if you approached it with pride and purpose. Watching him build something from scratch gave me a deep admiration for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It showed me both how challenging it can be and how rewarding it feels when your effort directly creates success.
Those early experiences shaped the way I see business today and instilled in me both a work ethic and respect for those willing to take the risk of building something of their own.

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