Hartland Grad Starts Business in U.P.

This week, I've caught up with a fellow a 1993 graduate Jason Reece, who's gone on to start his own business, learn the martial art Muay Thai and settle in Marquette not far from the shores of Lake Superior.

After, it seemed appropriate to look up someone who I knew had been in band around the same time that I was.

As I spoke with Jason, I realized two things about him: He has a strong work ethic and self-confidence. His work ethic could be traced back to his sophomore year in high school when he began working for his father’s assembly plant every day after school. In high school, he loved working out in the weight room before classes, and he enjoyed his time with the high school band.

Many of his decisions throughout life have been driven by his desire to improve himself in some way. In middle school, one of Jason’s relatives who had become a successful jazz musician, Johnny Reece, inspired him to learn the saxophone and join the sixth grade beginner’s band. His thoughts at the time were, “If he can do it, I can do it.”

Jason stayed in band until his senior year when he quit because of personality differences with the band director. Jason later joined the marching band at Northern Michigan University where he was the first freshman to win a march off.

Overcoming bullying

Yet despite these successes, high school wasn't a completely positive experience as Jason struggled as a target for bullies, which led to him as an adult to seek out Muay Thai, also called Thai boxing, a sport he has taught the past six years.

“I was bullied a lot in high school, and never wanted to feel that way again. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I didn’t have to go to Muay Thai to not feel that way any more.”

Jason looks at those students differently now.

“Those kids bullied people because they were hurt. Kids don’t pick on people because they feel like. They are either following the crowd or they are angry and lashing out,” Jason said. “The person with the loudest mouth in the room is normally the weakest person in the room. The people who were the worse had to have had a lot of stuff going on at home. You look back and hope that they grew as a person.”

Jason goes on to say that Muay Thai did help center him.

“My master was a Buddhist monk before he was a fighter,” Jason said. “I remember that my instructor said to me one day, ‘Anybody can hurt someone, but it takes a lot more to help them.’ (That’s) always stuck with me.”

From corporate trainer to business owner

In the past, Jason has helped people through his work as a corporate trainer.

“As a corporate trainer, I facilitated values, principles, and the culture of the company to the employee. I also ran team building workshops.”

Jason said that his greatest challenge and reward as a trainer was motivating the people who didn’t want to be in his class. These days, Jason helps banks, counties, universities, and other types of organizations cut the costs of their phone and cable bills through a company that he co-owns with business partner Chad Stevens called Telecom Liberty Consultants.

After graduating from Eastern Michigan University, Jason was drawn back to Marquette where he lives with his wife Ruth. He is step-father to her son, Travis. He highlighted some of the city's best features.

“We have the university, the hospital with a level two trauma center and the some of the best neurosurgeons in the world, the Cleveland cliff mine and other small businesses," he said.

He said that the Upper Peninsula was practically its own entity.

“It may be the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but we’re basically our own state,” he said.

After talking with Jason, I began to wonder how many other former residents of Hartland have started their own businesses? If you or your spouse are currently business owners, or you’ve started a business in the past and either of you are originally a resident of Hartland, please share your story as a comment below. I may want to profile you in an upcoming column.

Wife, Ruth Ann Robinson; step son, Travis Ruesing.

Mom, Christine Stonham Reece; dad Paul Reece; brother, Christopher Reece.

Hardy Nursery School, 21 Building, Round Elementary School, Farms Intermediate School, Hartland High High School

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