about the author
Jason Olinik was born in 1987 in Royal Oak, Michigan.
In 2002, he started working for the local recreation department team, reffing basketball games and setting up baseball fields for little league teams on the weekends. In 2003, he was hired at Chili’s as a server assistant. He would spend 7 years there, working his way up through serving and shift leading and into management. In 2010, he graduated from Central Michigan with a degree in Business Administration. He moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico a month after graduation and began a career in hotels. He would go on to work at 4 hotels in 4 years, receiving numerous promotions a long the way. He became a General Manager at the age of 26, and finished his career in hotels as the Director of Food and Beverage at the Edgewater Beach Resort in Naples, Florida.
In 2014, he moved back home with his soon to be wife, Amanda Rose, and they were married in February 2015. Upon moving home, he began a career at Detroit Metro Airport as Director of Operations for table service restaurants inside the Macnamara terminal. He would go on to spend the next 4 years there, and in 2017, he would be named to DBusiness Magazine’s 30 in their Thirties.
In 2018 he joined local food service company, Continental, and assumed the role as Director of Operations for Corporate Dining. He currently oversees the Southeast region of Michigan.
A student of leadership and business, Jason brings 17 years of hospitality experience to the readers of this blog. A laid back approach that intertwines experience with emotional intelligence to tell stories, both personal and professional, to teach the lessons and the value of never giving up.
Jason lives in Clarkston, Michigan, with his wife, Amanda, and their rescue pup, Penny Lane.