Meet Jason Heien

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason Heien. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason below.

Hi Jason, really appreciate you joining us to talk about a really relevant, albeit unfortunate topic – layoffs and getting fired. Can you talk to us about your experience and how you overcame being let go?

In March 2025, I was laid off from my Team Leader position at a marketing firm that mainly develops websites and technology for auto dealerships, It was mainly due to the tariffs. Since cars cost more, less vehicles sold, less money for dealerships to spend on marketing. Half of my team, including my supervisor was laid off, along with 100 other people.

While I got a decent severance package, I knew things would be different this time, since there were already thousands of federal workers that had already been laid off for month.

The only thing that has helped us afloat during this layoff is my “side hustle”. Since my 20’s I have had my own business developing websites for local companies, and over time my business has grown, I started offering new services, such as WordPress Dedicated Hosting.

I am still going through this layoff, and have gotten minimal interviews. I am still grieving. I hate the feeling of not having a regular paycheck. I hate not being able to contribute to my 401k or Roth IRA every month.

But since the layoff, I have been building my business, and had gained several new clients which is keeping us from tapping into my 401K or IRA. Bills are paid, and we even have a little extra. I sold my car, and leased a new one, with a lower payment, and luckily, I was diligent to refinance our new home right before 2020 when the interest rates were the lowest, setting us up for success should something like this happen.

The more my business, MindChip Industries makes, the less my salary requirements are for a new position.
I am still going through the process, but I am hopeful for the future.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a Full Stack WordPress Developer. But there is more to it than that. I own my own business, MindChip Industries, and handle all my clients personally. From redevelopments to starting from scratch, I build, maintain, monitor and hosting WordPress Websites. Most of my clients are in the Metro Detroit Area, but I have several clients from all over the United States.

I like taking great ideas and implementing them into a website. So far, there has not been a single thing that I have not been able to do with data in WordPress.

I also created an AI Chatbot WordPress Plugin. This takes the content from your website, and uses it to form the answers while casually asking the visitor in the conversation, for their name, email and phone number. Once the chat has ended, the chat transcript is sent to an email of your choice.
What makes this chatbot different from any other chatbot, is that all the state that is collected is stored on YOUR website and not some 3rd party. Your data is stored where your website is stored, (here in the United States), so it is secure, unlike unknown data centers elsewhere in the world.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Looking back, I would have to say you should think of these 3 things as you are on your journey:

1. Never Stop Learning – The more you learn, the faster you become, the more things you can do, and the more experience you get. You can not put a price on that.

2. Do work that it just outside your comfort level – If you aren’t pushing yourself, how are you going to grow? For me, I live the “figuring it out”.

3. Fail Forward – You are going to make mistakes and that’s OK. Learn from them. But more importantly, learn from other’s mistakes. There is no need for you to make the same mistake that someone else made.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The single most impactful thing my parents did for me, was letting me be an exchange student.

When I was a senior, I went to Denmark for 6 month. Looking back, I wish I would have went for a whole year.
My host family barely knew English, so it was imperative that I learn Danish.

While a bunch of my friends were playing video games after school back home in Detroit, I was napping. Why? Because everyday was brain draining. Each interaction was constantly translating. Translating what was said in English, translate to the Danish, form a response in English, translate to Danish, and then say it. Every. Interaction.

I truly feel that formed connections in my brain that would have otherwise not connected. After 3 months I was fluent in Danish, was thinking in Danish, and dreaming in Danish. I found myself translating English songs into Danish.

Not only learning the language was impactful, but lived in a suburb of Detroit, and in Denmark, I lived on a 50 acre dairy farm. I was expected to help out with the farm chores, just as everyone else in the family did. I loved it and it gave me a huge respect for farmers and the nonstop year round work they do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mindchip.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindchip/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DetroitSEO
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seomichigan/
• Other: https://whiskerbattles.com