Personalities of the Peninsula: Jon Timm’s Up North Renaissance

A native Michigander, Jon Timm spent the better part of the 2010’s living in Nashville. Influenced by artists as wide ranging as Neil Young to David Bazan, the musician describes his sound as “semi-autobiographical therapy core.”

His love of music was nurtured from the time he started playing violin at age eight straight through to his college years when he studied music at NMC and performed with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra.

Music wasn’t the only thing that brought Timm to Nashville, though. He’s also a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). As he recalls it, when he graduated from Western Michigan University in 2011, Michigan’s job market was scarce, so he “ended up moving to Nashville with the dual purpose of pursuing music and also my early career in ABA.” There, he put out his 2016 album, “Fever Dream” and worked for several different ABA (applied behavior analysis) organizations.

Though Nashville holds claim to The Grand Ole Opry and several ABA centers, Timm says it couldn’t compete with his family and familiar surroundings back home. “I've always thought of northern Michigan as my ideal place to live. Even when I lived away,” he says. That’s why in 2017, as the job market rebounded, he loaded up his instruments and moved back to Traverse City.

Then, in January of 2020, Timm branched out on his own and created North Arrow ABA.

North Arrow operates out of the former Norris Elementary School on the southeastern edge of Leelanau County. When Timm first opened, “it was just me and one client,” he says.

But since then, the growth has been phenomenal. North Arrow is the only ABA practice that’s owned and operated out of northern Michigan, which he says gives them an edge in creating plans for their clients based around life up north.

Now North Arrow is the building’s largest tenant, serves more than 100 clients, and also operates offices in Petoskey, Cheboygan, Grayling and Cadillac. The organization provides behavior analytic services to those affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities. ABA organizations like North Arrow work with children and their families to create and implement treatment plans for the purpose of developing essential life skills while increasing independence.

“I really didn't have a goal to grow beyond a consulting organization providing consulting services to other ABA providers across Michigan,” he recalls. Realizing that no one wanted to spend money on consulting in the middle of a pandemic, Timm knew he had to pivot, “So I started opening up my services to clients.”

He partially credits the rapid growth to the time the shutdown gave him to develop a “thorough clinical model.” Without that time, Timm says, “I wouldn't have been able to do this with such intentionality and turn it into what it is now.”

Timm says that he also wanted the flexibility of factoring regional influences like icy roads and local socioeconomics into how he approaches his clients' needs, instead of answering to a national organization when curating treatment plans. “I wanted this practice to be a blend of my [past clinical] experiences and one that was more centered on community,” he says.

If being a behavior analyst by day and a music headliner by night sounds like a juggle, Timm agrees. “The reality is, when I'm really truly focused on one, the other one suffers a little bit.” It’s a balance that he says means taking a hiatus from performing when his workload is heavy and getting back on stage when his clinic slows down.  This year, Timm’s been carving out more time for performing alongside other local musicians, most recently in June at Traverse City’s new music venue, The Alluvion. He’s also planning to get back into the studio this fall to finish an album that’s been on hold since the pandemic. Timm is also in the throes of nailing down North Arrow’s next two locations.

Of his diverse career identities, he says, “I tend to keep those two worlds very separate like a Bruce Wayne/Batman kind of thing.” Yet, some clients' families Google him before they meet, coming across concert promotions, music videos and live performances. It’s a vetting Timm understands, considering he often works closely with children and young adults. “For the most part, everybody's excited. One of my clients actually watches my YouTube videos frequently at home,” he laughed. “I try not to blend the worlds, but it’s kind of impossible in the Internet age.”

A man of many titles, he’s added yet one more this summer: dad. Timm and his author/artist wife Brianne recently gave birth to their first child.