In August 2007, after 15 years living in Chicago, a new job brought Jason Meyers back to his hometown.
But the father of three still yearned for the Windy City's social and cultural offerings; in one of his bleaker moments, he even put his East Lansing house on the market and planned a return to Chicago.
"I was a little miserable," says Meyers, 39.
While his home languished on the market, though, Meyers began to reconsider and take stock. Where he once saw a Capital region bereft of big city sparkle, he began to see promise and opportunity of his own making.
Meyers now runs
Live Concepts, producing live content for websites and publications from his office at the
East Lansing Technology Innovation Center (TIC). He also serves as editor-at-large for
Entrepreneur Magazine.The magazine's editor-in-chief, Amy Cosper, gave a toast at "
Launch: A Celebration of East Lansing Entrepreneurship," a daylong event in December, which Meyers helped organize. The event served as another key moment in his transformation from naysayer to Nostradamus of good fortune.
"I think we're on the verge of something huge around here," Meyers says. "It's professional, it's social, it's cultural and it's technology-focused. I would be a booster or backer for any effort to get people to start companies and to stay here."
This epiphany came through introspection and unexpected sources of inspiration.
Big City DaysLike most college grads, Meyers sought to escape his youthful surroundings for the kinetic energy of a major metropolis. In 1992, a week after graduating from MSU, the journalism major moved to Chicago where he worked for PR firm before landing an assistant editor gig at
Telephony magazine.
In seven years, Meyers made his way up to editor-in-chief. His career prospered. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Melanie, started a family and settled in Chicago's
Edison Park. The couple has three children: twins, Charlie and Julia, 7; and son Logan, 4.
In April 2007, Meyers had seemingly reached the pinnacle of career fulfillment and was named the managing director of
Penton Media's custom media division in Cleveland, a title he held until 2008. Rather than move to the lakeshore Ohio city, Melanie—a Flushing, Mich. Native—thought Lansing would be a viable alternative.
Meyers had misgivings about moving back to his hometown. Feeling displaced in his hometown, Meyers often found himself yearning for Chicago.
"When I first moved [back] here, I didn't expect to be very happy from a social or cultural standpoint," he says. "I didn't expect there would be much of a cultural vibe or a social scene except the one I knew of with my friends growing up."
Moments of MotivationThose sentiments gradually faded as he began to find peace in places he took for granted. He and Melanie started meeting more people, like their neighbor Bill Mansfield, who serves on the
East Lansing Downtown Development Authority.
While at Mansfield's Bay Harbor retreat in northern Michigan, the neighbor provided an accelerant to Meyers' long festering idea of starting his own business. With a family to feed, though, Meyers was reluctant to take the risk.
"I sort of took the other approach," says Mansfield, recalling the pair's conversation. "In this day and age where companies don't show a ton of loyalty to employees and employees don't show a ton of loyalty back to companies—that's our culture now—I perceive an actual greater level of safety with your own [business], because he can take his business in a couple of different directions."
The East Lansing Technology Innovation Center (TIC) offered the ideal launching pad for Meyers' enterprise. Live Concepts shares the small-tech business incubation space at 325 E. Grand River Ave. with 13 other start-ups.
Meyers has already collaborated with incubator co-inhabitants
Nicholas Creative Video and
Good Fruit Video on a couple of projects.
"He is rather a typical entrepreneur who wants to have a lot of different ideas going at the same time," says Jeff Smith, the TIC project manager. "He fits the mold."
Quality of Local LifeMeyers' hectic, entrepreneurial workday involves tending to business for a couple of hours in the early mornings before taking his kids to school. But he appreciates all the small things he can fit into a typical workday in East Lansing, such as having an hour to attend his daughter's Teddy Bear Tea event at
Marble Elementary.
He also walks to his workplace, which is 20 minutes from his home.
"I couldn't do that kind of thing in Chicago," he says. "It was a daily grind where I'd take the train downtown, work all day, take the train back home and put the kids to bed because it was 7 o'clock by the time I got home."
In terms of culture and entertainment, the college-town atmosphere is growing on him. Dublin Square, an Irish pub a few blocks away, has become his favorite haunt.
He also raves about
Old Town and the
Travelers Club International Restaurant and Tuba Museum in Okemos.
He's also changed his tune when speaking with college students.
"I would say this to any student, depending on what you want to do, try to do it here," he says. "Try to make it happen here. There is an infrastructure of support form the cities around here, and the university, and the people."
"There's network of proud, Midwest Michigan people who would love for this state to boom in a way it never has, in a way that is non-automotive," he continues. "What that is I think we're still trying to feel our way around and figure it out."
To receive Capital Gains free every week, click here.
Larry O'Connor is a mid-Michigan freelance writer who recently profiled Lansing-area actor
Mark Boyd for Capital Gains Media.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:Jason Meyers, his Entrepreneur Magazine, and his East Lansing office
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie