Leadership Development Spotlight: Meet Cody Martensen of Circles Utah Valley

At Circles, we know that leadership is more than a natural talent or a paid professional role. It’s the cumulative process of weaving each setback and success we meet into a consistent, goal-focused practice that benefits the whole collective. The more deeply we root our identity in service to our families, chapters, and communities, the more we distinguish ourselves as leaders within these groups striving to move from surviving to thriving. 

Circles USA’s new Leadership Development Spotlight series spotlights graduated Circle Leaders who have stepped into challenging service roles at the chapter, regional, and even national levels. Among the most skilled, dedicated participants in the Circles network, these big-L Leaders’ stories offer insights and hard-won lessons guaranteed to inspire us all in our shared mission of building community to end poverty.

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Please share who you are, where you’re based, and what you do there!

I'm Cody Martensen, and my chapter is Circles Utah Valley. But we also, this last year, added Wasatch Valley…so Circles Utah and Wasatch Valley. My role is Coordinator, but people have also called me the Director.

Cody, will you tell us when and how you got involved with Circles?

I got involved about seven years ago…I want to say 2018. I had recently gotten sober and got custody of two of my boys. And it was my first time being a full-time dad. You know, usually I was the “Disneyland dad”: take my kids on the weekend and amp them up on sugar and send them home. So I just needed all the help. 

I don't even know how I heard about Circles! But magically I learned about it, and I just got involved. In my recovery, I had signed up for classes; and with each class I took, my life got a little bit better and I learned some new life skills. I learned how to cope in a different way. So I knew about commitment and I just kept showing up. 

Then years later, I think around 2020, I got custody of my daughters. Their mom got arrested for two first degree felonies. And so I flew out to South Carolina, got my daughters, and brought them back to Utah. I was almost graduated from Circles—I think I had a couple thousand dollars more to make and I would have been graduated. But then my poverty level jumped again. And so they were like, “You can stay in… what do you want?” I was like, “Sure!” Circles is just another support network, and I know I need as many support networks as I can get. So I probably stayed a couple years longer than the normal person. I stayed probably four, five years, and I don't think I really had any intention of graduating. Like, I was happy where I was at: I was making alright money, I was saving for retirement, I was taking care of my kids. 

And then I got married, and—with our incomes combined—they were like, “Oh, you graduated!” That was about three years ago. So that's my Circles journey.

What were your financial goals at that time?

Just to learn how to live, you know? I didn't have any retirement. I wanted to fix my credit, which was ruined. I’d had a couple failed marriages, and I had to claim bankruptcy because of debt and the wreckage from my addiction. So I think [my goal] was just to learn how to manage money and be successful enough to take care of my kids and myself. It was like, all right, how do I do it right this time instead of just winging it, hoping that I'll figure it out as I go? I think I owed back child support and I owed some fines. Through Circles, I slowly started chipping away at all that stuff. Now the only debt I have left is my student loans. And that might take me a minute… I deferred it forever, and I finally started to pay on it about a year or two ago. I started learning how to budget, how to use my credit to work for me, and how to save and build a retirement.

That is a really impressive journey. So, what are some of your goals and wins today?

I was in school for social work, but I broke my leg so I withdrew. I never really finished, but I have $20,000 in student loans that I don't really have much to show for. I've finally realized that those student loans aren't going to go away…I just need to get it behind me and pay it off. So a goal of mine is to go back to school. But right now I'd rather focus on my kids and family time, and I'm okay with that. It aligns with my values right now. And, you know, the day will come, hopefully. My second daughter, she's 15. She'll be in college in three, four years. And she's like, “Dad, you're going to take some college classes with me, right?” I was like, “I'd love to! You really want to go to college with me?” And she’s like, “Yeah, I'd love to.” So I’ll probably go back then. Maybe I'll finish in four years. But right now I'm enjoying working for Circles and just hanging out with my family.

My purpose, I decided, was to help people like me. Every day, I get to wake up and I get to do things that are aligned with my purpose.

You mentioned setting goals that align with your values right now. If you had to name a couple of those values, what would they be?

Add value to the world and my family. Leave people better than I found them. There were so many years I took from this world. I battled with addiction for over 21 years, from 13 to 34. And so when I got clean and sober, I knew I needed a purpose or I was gonna fall back into my old ways. My purpose, I decided, was to help people like me. Every day, I get to wake up and I get to do things that are aligned with my purpose. It makes life easier. Life will throw curveballs at me, and it's just kind of like, oh, life's happening. It's nothing detrimental, just another challenge I get to find a solution for. So that's how I approach life and challenges: I get to be creative and find solutions for them.

I think a huge thing that people don't really pay a lot of attention to is Beliefs. All the classes in the world aren't going to do me any good if I don't believe I deserve a good life, you know? As we're working on our goals, we also have to look at our beliefs and our values and really decide, “Are these still serving me? Can I incorporate new ones?” And then, in order to incorporate new ones, we also have to take action behind them. That's one thing I tried to instill in the Circle Leaders I interact with. The values that I had when I first got sober—when it was just me—they were different than the values I had when I became a dad. And then my values changed again when I got married. It's like, all right, I need to be consciously looking at those things and making sure they're aligning with the person I'm trying to be, with the life I'm trying to create. Yeah, I feel like that stuff's almost more important than goals. You’ve got to make sure you have the beliefs that back up whatever you're trying to create.

All the classes in the world aren't going to do me any good if I don't believe I deserve a good life, you know? You’ve got to make sure you have the beliefs that back up whatever you're trying to create.

What are some things you’d like people to know about your journey from Circle Leader to now?

You never know what the future holds. Like, just show up. Half the battle is just showing up. When you are committed to showing up, a way will be provided. It doesn't matter where you come from, what your past is. There's so many roadblocks that I ran into, and somehow a way was provided because I was committed to showing up. Sometimes I didn't know what I was showing up for, but I was there. That's what I've learned in my journey from Circle Leader to Coordinator. The state of Utah told me, “You're not getting custody of your kids. You're the last person we want to put your kids with.” And I just kept taking classes and kept bettering myself; I didn't take no for an answer. And finally, one day, they said, “Do you still want custody of your kids?” And so you never know what the future holds. Just continue to show up and work. Stay the course and [keep] the vision of what you want out of your life. Keep chipping away at it regardless of what's happening around you or what curveballs life throws at you.

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