Levi Jensen walks in to his store wearing a perspiration-soaked shirt with his small daughter Janie and faithful dog Luna trailing behind. He’s just finished a seven-mile hike, toting Janie the whole way.
“I’m out there and sometimes I just can’t get off the mountain,” Jensen said.
But 34-year-old Jensen has many things that pull him back to reality. He owns Dragon’s Keep, a comic book and gaming store, and for his full-time job owns a private practice as a mental health therapist. Four young kids keep his family life occupied and his wife Betsy works as a physical therapist. This saturated life gives him little time but a lot of fulfillment as he is constantly working with people.
“People are all different and that is really cool,” Jensen said. “Everyone has a different perspective, a different opinion and different likes and dislikes. I really like that about people.”
Jensen moved to Provo as a teenager with his family for his dad to be a professor at BYU. He would often go into Dragon’s Keep, then under different ownership, for his love of science fiction and fantasy comic books.
“I am definitely a geek at heart,” he said.
Jensen continued visiting Dragon’s Keep for years and as an adult could see it wasn’t doing well.
“The service wasn’t very good when I came in and they were kind of rude,” he said. “Then I found out they were barely making money, if at all.”
So after serving a mission in Chile for the LDS Church, graduating from BYU, and getting a master’s to be a therapist, Jensen, with his brother, also became a small business owner.
“I just didn’t like the idea of it going out of business so I bought it,” he said.
This ownership and his private practice lets the husky father be his own boss. Because Jensen doesn’t like being told what to do it’s a perfect fit; but it doesn’t mean he’s controlling or unfair when in charge.
Jeremy Silveira, from California, works for Jensen at Dragon’s Keep, and said he is accommodating as an employer.
“He’s a very hands-on boss and he likes to be a part of everything,” Silveira said. “He tries to be fair with everybody and if you need something he’ll go and work with you on it.”
Jensen’s even-handedness emerges in other aspects of his life. Jensen’s wife, Betsy, said because of his training as a therapist, he knows how to speak well with people who are upset and uses those skills in his family life.
“He impresses me every day as a father,” she said.
More than just know-how to communicate well with his children, Jensen knows how to have fun with them. His wife said he frequently takes the three boys, Stryder, 9, Ari, 7 and Isaac, 5, into Dragon’s Keep to play games and help their love of super heroes grow. Janie, 3, becomes more involved when chores are to be done.
“He’ll often put on some fun upbeat music and we’ll do the chores together and everyone’s dancing and doing the mopping,” Betsy Jensen said. “We have lots of little dance contests at our house.”
Being active in general, other than dancing, is a goal Jensen recently made to help him have a healthier life. His wife said he wanted to change some things so he began hiking and eating better and has seen some definite results.
“It just shows when he makes a goal to do something he works and works until he follows through with it and gets it done,” she said.
Jensen’s goal-setting and get-it-done attitude haven’t been noticed by just his wife. Todd Spalding, director of Oxbow Academy, a private group home for troubled teens, has known Jensen for almost 10 years. Jensen worked at Oxbow Academy while Spalding was director and they have worked together as counselors. Spalding said Jensen is compassionate and insightful and as a therapist is able to connect with his clients to help them deal with issues. But Spalding said Jensen’s great love for other people doesn’t mean he’s all heart.
“He’s pretty headstrong,” Spalding said. “He knows what he wants so he’s dreaming to go where he wants to go and doing what he feels is best.”
Jensen’s dreams don’t stop where they have already taken him. Even though owning a business is hard and takes a lot of time and money, Jensen wants to eventually evolve Dragon’s Keep into a game store and a pizza place. He also wants it to someday be a chain.
Although a self-professed geek, the games aren’t what prompt Jensen to continue building his store. He hasn’t been really involved in gaming or read a series of comics since being a teenager. It’s the people that keep him going.
“I’ve really come to appreciate, while I may not like it, how exciting it is to see someone else excited about something,” Jensen said. “It’s sounds corny, but it’s absolutely what I like about it.”
