Community leaders Heather and ZeNai Savage talk sisterhood, childhood memories, their parents’ influence and their favorite family recipe
In this series, the Indianapolis Recorder explores love, family and friendship among some of the city’s community leaders and residents. Editor-in-Chief Camike Jones sat down with Heather and ZeNai Savage. Heather is the co-founder of the youth mentoring group, Let Them Talk Indy and the CEO of Savvy Consulting Services. ZeNai is the chief financial and administrative officer for the Indy Chamber. She also owns and operates The Savage Advantage which offers business support services.
Between laughs, the sisters shared how they support one another in their respective leadership roles, how they stay connected as a family and important lessons from their parents Howard Savage, Sr. and Everlla Savage.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Camike Jones: Who is the elder sister? Do the traditional sibling roles affect how you all interact with each other?
Heather Savage: I find joy in saying ZeNai is my older sister. As long as I can remember, she’s always been in leadership positions. I have admired everything that she’s done and the trajectory of her career.
I’ve followed in her footsteps in some ways. I lean on her and ask her a lot of questions about certain things or which direction to take when I’m doing different things, too.
ZeNai Savage: I think we do kind of stay in our age spaces. I’m the oldest, my sister’s the middle, which I think she does have a little middle child syndrome and then our brother (Howard Savage, II, is the youngest). We were laughing the other day because even though he’s obviously grown, married with three kids, we still call him the baby brother.
As they do get older, I don’t feel the same sense of responsibility because now I can go to them in their specific areas of expertise and learn from them, too. I think as we’re getting older and more established in our careers, that knowledge sharing and dynamic is shifting.
Jones: What’s a great piece of advice that your sister has given you?
Heather: I tell people all the time I’m not a numbers person. I do people. I don’t do numbers. So, any questions about accounting (or) budgets, I can always go to her and ask those questions.
ZeNai: Have you given me advice?
Heather: Maybe. You’re also very smart and don’t need my advice, but I think I confirm a lot of the things that you already know.
Jones: How did your upbringing influence the work you both do?
“It’s ingrained in us to be involved, but then not just be involved, but to be leaders.”
ZeNai Savage
ZeNai: We grew up knowing that we didn’t need or want for a lot of things, but we grew up understanding our upbringing was not the same as everybody else’s. Even being active in church at a young age, we learned the importance of giving back.
It’s ingrained in us to be involved, but then not just be involved, but to be leaders. We’re involved in a lot. We tend to be the ones that take charge for some reason.
My mom (Everlla Savage) was a paralegal. For a long time, I thought that she was the boss at the law firm. I know now the role of a paralegal but the way my mom carried herself and talked about the business, she just had a (sense of) responsibility there.
Our dad (Howard Savage, Sr.) was a coach, a gym teacher and a dean. So, he also was a leader. I think just growing up around that ingrained that same work ethic and responsibility into us.
Jones: How do you support one another in the work you do?
Heather: I think we do a pretty good job of supporting each other’s different events. If ZeNai is on a panel, I try to attend. For the Let Them Talk launch party, they both came. My brother gave an interview and talked to the news about the importance of the event. If there’s an opportunity to volunteer to show additional support, we do a pretty good job of that.
ZeNai: Heather helped on my campaign when I was running for office. If it makes sense to bring on somebody who can keep us organized and move things along, then I’m going to have my sister do it.
Jones: Do you have a favorite memory together growing up that describes what your relationship was like?
Heather: I remember when ZeNai was at the University of Louisville and I was in high school. Normally in high school, it was one of those situations where the little sister can’t tag along, but I got older and then I got cooler. I remember going to the University of Louisville and spending spring break with her and it was a good time. Just being around her other friends, the people on the track team, or just me and her hanging out. Going through high school, we didn’t get that because she was busy. I was busy. But being able to go down there and spend that week was a pretty cool time.
ZeNai: I remember when we lived in Fort Wayne, we would come here for the summers and stay with our grandma. It was us and our other little cousins. My grandma had these plastic chairs that were all different colors and we would all watch Power Rangers. I was the oldest and I remember trying to tell everybody where to sit. I’ve been bossy for a long time. I really need to let that go.
Jones: Do you have a favorite family recipe that has been passed down that you share at the holidays? Who makes it best?
ZeNai: Peach cobbler.
Heather: Yes, (our grandmother’s) peach cobbler. We are trying to get that down.
ZeNai: When we say ‘we,’ it’s more Heather trying to get it because I am not.
Heather: That is the recipe I’ve been trying to master for years. Whatever she put in it, I’m trying to figure it out.
ZeNai: It was delicious.
Jones: As you’re talking about how you support one another, what I don’t hear is competition. There’s room for both of you to shine and to grow.
ZeNai: My mom was the youngest of nine. My dad was the oldest of seven. So, there’s a lot of people around all the time. I don’t really feel like across our families there was too much of that (competition).
Over the years, I tried to be careful because I knew in high school I played travel sports and (my sister and brother) were following us all the time. I think they had to figure out their own path and I had to be conscious of that to tell my parents (they) can’t force them to do stuff just because I did it.
My sister began to develop her own path in music and leadership. My brother was an athlete. But we had to figure that out early on and our parents allowed space for us to figure it out too.
“I think our parents did a really good job of paving the way and setting a standard for us.”
Heather Savage
Heather: I would agree with all of that. I think our parents did a really good job of paving the way and setting a standard for us. We’ve always seen them being lovers of people and treating people with kindness and they have always taught us to stand on our own but also be supportive. There’s no need to be jealous. We’ve always learned to be appreciative of what we’ve had.
ZeNai: I finished my CPA license but then my sister is going to do her PhD. Then I’m like, do I need to do something else, too? It’s not competition, but it is like motivation. It’s definitely good to have people that are close to you that are doing successful things that you can look to.
Jones: Is there anything else you would like to share?
ZeNai: We still get together twice a month for Sunday dinners. My parents cook and we go over their house – all the siblings and spouses or significant others and all the kids and (we) hang out for a couple hours. Even though folks may not see us together all the time, we’ve done that forever.
Heather: Definitely since COVID and we’ve kept it up. We go around the table. Sometimes we just talk about life updates and what we’re doing or we’ll get into a dialogue about current events. It’s a good time, like a feel good moment.
If you have a story on love, family or friendship you would like to share, email us at newsroom@indyrecorder.com and use “Love in Color” in the subject line.
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Contact Editor-in-Chief Camike Jones at 317-762-7850.
Camike Jones is the Editor-in-Chief of the Indianapolis Recorder. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Jones has a lifelong commitment to advocacy and telling stories that represent the community.
