Business Matters: BeAlive, Inc., Jason Brown
Jason Brown, 44, owns BeAlive, Inc. located on James Savage Road in Midland. BeAlive has 14 employees and three different business models. The first is an active brand, a consumer-centric brand. The second is a media brand, a cause marketing platform that focuses on sustainability.
The third business model is the BeAlive Studios, a production house in which linear, digital stories are produced in series format or as documentary films. They work with streamers to present these programs on different platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple TV + and NatGeo. Look for Bikes of Wrath, The Frenchy, and the Dropped Survival series.
Brown and his wife Darci have been married for 20 years. They have two sons, Gibson (15) and Weston (11). You live in Midland. Brown is a graduate of Beaverton High School and CMU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and cinematography. Darci is an agent at ReMax of Midland.
1. How long have you owned your company?
We started in 2016. We had Rusted Rooster for 15 years. We changed the audience. We were in a hunting and fish based room. Now we are in the outdoor lifestyle and adventure sector. This is our trend-setting brand. On the agency side, we do a lot in the area of sustainability.
2. What inspired you to own this company?
Our founders needed to tap into a growing audience. We saw that nature was really growing. We have seen so much money being spent on outdoor recreation and the outdoor lifestyle. We love it so much.
With our “Be Alive” message, we thought it would inspire people to get outside and live their best lives. We want to inspire people, we are storytellers. Always been a storyteller. Our primary mission is to use our storytelling for good. We want to use our skills to improve the planet and help people lead healthy outdoor lifestyles.
3. What makes Midland a great place to run a business?
For us, Midland has always been the linchpin for a lot of what we do. Number one, it’s in Michigan. Whenever new employees come to Midland, they love the city center. The community is warm and welcoming. When they travel to any part of the state they are overwhelmed. Since Dow and DuPont are investing money in the area, we are supported here. We have family and friends here. It has a big city feel to it, but it’s still a small town.
4. How is your company doing in the local community?
We help out with the Open Door on Thursdays. This is important to us. We support many local organizations: Boy Scouts, Junior Achievement. Personally, at Mid Michigan College, I am on the board of directors for the Hunting and Fishing Scholarship Program, which covers three areas: outdoor media, conservation, and administration. I teach courses in outdoor media. Teach them how to make a living from it. Your passion can be a job. I connect them with the people I know outside.
5. What are your interests and hobbies?
Outdoors. I can go fishing and hunting with the boys anytime. We always seem to be connected unplugged. Another passion is that we are a big sports family. Football, basketball, baseball, golf. Sport in general. Golf, have played it all my life. Play with my wife too. We met while playing golf. Our youngest has adapted to it. The elders enjoy it too. There are four of us playing as a family.
6. What local companies do you work with that will make your business a success?
JE Johnson has helped with many aspects of our office remodeling. Ieuter has been an incredible partner to our insurance company, and the Michigan Baseball Foundation is a group that we are always happy to support. We played a role in the growth of the downtown Eat Great event (which was canceled in the past two years) and love attending the Dow GLBI event every summer. Wine and molasses are two places we like to bring our customers when they come into town. You are always impressed.
7. Other thoughts?
Be passionate about what you do every day. Bring that to your team, to your community. Bring your passion and be humble. We really want to start giving back. We have milled every day for the past five years. With COVID it was a challenge, but where we are now it’s incredible considering where we were a year ago. We have completely changed due to COVID. The ability to shift gears has been part of our success.
Our CEO and my co-founder of the BeAlive business, Chris Keefer, as well as the leadership and vision for our successful turnaround with BeAlive, Inc. It was definitely a team effort as we changed business models, but he pushed all the right buttons when we could can’t afford to meet a wrong one.
We are preparing to launch our own consumer brand. We want to take it to the next level. We want to create something that is not currently in our community. Everyone has a bond in common. Everyone wants to get out. We all want to unite. We are excited about the future.