Exploring Life & Business with Jackson Harris

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Harris.

Hi Jackson, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Jackson Harris: I am a Musician, Martial artist, and Entrepreneur; residing here in Nashville. 

Martial Arts: My father, Jimmy Jr. was a military man and a martial artist, fighting in tournaments around the world. He set me well on my journey into the martial arts world at the age of 3 1/2 by wrestling with me at home. He ensured I had ample access to the best available training. I was given the opportunity to attend classes every day, travel to week-long wrestling camps, and was eventually introduced to advanced levels of grappling by joining my first Jiujitsu gym at the age of 9. 

I fell in love with Jiujitsu and solely trained it until the age of 14 when I was permitted to join our school’s Muay Thai program. I’ve trained and competed throughout the southeast and was named the #1 adult male purple belt in TN & KY when I was 19. Around that time, I put my professional competition goals on the back burner to focus on my business. I wasn’t upset at all by this as the value I got was every night on the Mats training with my best friends. 

Since I’ve paused my competitions: I’ve had the honor of watching my training partners win #1 world, national, and state titles and I intend to join them soon. I am very blessed to live in a place that attracts world-class martial artists of all kinds. I have a very strong lineage in Karate, Kyokushin, and jiujitsu. I plan on training hard my entire life. 

Music: Since I was little (3 or 4), I dreamed of playing music. I would have images in my mind of me with a red electric guitar playing for people. Not long after, I found myself holding a real guitar and learning to pick it. My Grandfather, Jimmy Senior, gave me my first Guitar lesson at the age of 6 years old. He explained to me a lineage of entertainers that I was lucky to be a direct extension of. He told me that Carl Perkins, who wrote and played for Elvis, Johnny Cash, and many more, actually mentored him and eventually launched his career in music. 

At the age of 12, my grandad was picked up by Carl and taken on his first tour with Cash as well as Merle Haggard. Not long after he returned to Jackson TN, outside of Memphis, my grandaddy was approached by Loretta Lynn for the same arrangement. He later went on to play for many more artists and ultimately created an atmosphere for me to be cultured in music myself. Through all of these stories, the greatest one was yet to be told. My grandad explained to me that the reason Carl Perkins was a friend of our family was because Elvis Presley was my great uncle. 

This all made sense to me as our family reunions in Jackson, TN were always filled with live music and wonderful relationships at the family farm. This experience at the age of 6 began my immersion into music and the world of entertainment. Little did I know I would go on to perform alongside Multi-Platinum, Multi-Grammy award-winning artists who have taught me a great deal throughout my time as a professional in the industry. 

Film: While growing up, I spent a lot of time around my mother and her businesses. I observed her producing modeling shoots, commercials, radio shows, and even a reality TV show. When I came of age and started my first commercial/streamlined business, I found myself in the position of creating commercials and media marketing pieces. I have even had the opportunity to produce more than one reality show myself. By the time I made it into the Entertainment Industry, I had a solid foundation of basic media production. This, paired with my ability to connect with people and negotiate, allowed me the opportunity to be brought into TV and Film projects. 

I was originally referred to a partner of our agency who was mainly in TV/film production. My job was to contact, negotiate, and broker talent for a TV show in preproduction that was destined for a major network. I was thrilled and excitedly successful in the overall endeavor. This brought me social equity with their association and gave me a foundational resume. Not long after, our company was given the contract to score a Western film that was in preproduction. While I was working to solidify the scoring contract, I was given the opportunity to help them with basic casting (extras, etc.). 

Not long after, their group offered me the partnered position of Executive Producer for the distribution contract that was being formulated. This led to me receiving complex tasks such as verifying bank statements, raising money, and general oversight of the film’s distributive logistics. After demonstrating my due diligence by revealing a fraudulent associate based out of Hong Kong, I was given the authority to contract and negotiate with the major talent. This included working with agencies and A-list talent that most Americans would recognize by name. I was more than thrilled. 

Not long after, our Director of Marketing and PR contacted me regarding a film that was being produced in West Tennessee. It turned out the film was a documentary on the Gospel Side of Elvis Presley. This documentary included more footage of people who knew Elvis than any other to date. As soon as I heard of this filming, I gathered some girls from the local cosmetology school to act as extras and I drove out to the set. After watching the production and meeting all the higher-ups, I was able to set up a meeting with the producers. 

It turned out they owned Johnny Cashes Farm in Bon Aqua TN. I was invited to a meeting at the production house on the farm where I was given the chance to design the scoring for the Elvis Film. This was an incredible moment for me. 

Shortly after this, a close family friend of mine whom I had worked with for years, created the #1 theatrical Movie in the world. I was so impressed that my friends and colleagues had done such great work. Not long after, the producers of the Elvis film released a theatrical movie that went to #3 in the world. Both films were created in Tennessee and both filmmaking groups were long-term partners of mine. I was mind-blown. Recently, I attended the test screening for the Elvis film and was in the front row where I got to meet some incredible talent and was given the opportunity to make a documentary about one of my musical heroes. I have been very blessed in this world and am thrilled to be a part of it. 

Funny Film Story: a script that we had pitched to our board had been having some resistance. We hired an outside screenwriter to evaluate the screenplay. He discovered the problem with the script and ended up pitching us a rewrite. The rewrite was a fiction story based on my actual life experience and my character as a whole. This was a wild experience that resulted in a 125+ page screenplay being forged. That script is currently in the review/revision stage. 

Entrepreneurship: My mother was an entrepreneur her whole life, opening the first medical spa in Nashville, and servicing clients such as George Jones, The Cyrus Family, Marsha Blackburn, Candace Owens, and many more. She had launched and consulted over 100 spas across North America. By the age of 35, she also owned multiple real estate firms and consulted with businesses of all kinds. I watched my mother create Standard Operating Systems, create skin care lines, invent and develop sophisticated machines, create successful multimillion-dollar sales funnels, launch brands, and lead a staff of over 300 individuals worldwide. 

More than all of that, what I learned most from my mom was client service, satisfaction, and the ability to create lifelong relationships with the people we worked with. My mom later went on to write and produce a #1 book in the field of child psychiatry and has since helped many families through the processes of healing. My mom helped me start my first business at the age of 12 called “Jack of All Trades” where we serviced the surrounding neighborhoods in basic manual labor. She granted me one of her trusted employees to assist and mentor me. Ultimately, this process taught me how to sell face-to-face and keep thorough records of my affairs. 

My mom also educated me in science and technology which allowed me to graduate high school at the age of 16 and go straight to college to study business and biology. On my 18th birthday, my mom gave me the gift of my business license. I was able to formulate and operate my organization. From the age of 18 to 21, I found myself partnering and working in various industries and eventually found myself right where I knew I belonged: Entertainment. My entertainment career began in music, mostly as talent, playing guitar and piano on music videos for various, newly produced artists. Eventually, I began frequenting the studio sessions that were regularly conducted by the label. 

Through this, I discovered the magic of making records that were bound for radio and TV. I fell in love with the business. After some time, I found myself in a general consulting position, at the company, developing and expanding our organization’s systems and working with clients, companies, and partners across the globe. This process caught my mother’s attention and interest, at which point she decided to purchase a large amount of the company’s shares and join me in this adventure. 

I was later offered the position of VP and ultimately COO. I have since been ushered into the film industry where I have developed partnerships and business opportunities in Movies and Television. I have been blessed to work with multiple major networks and personalities in the film and music business. I could not be more grateful for what has come to me. I am a devout follower of Jesus Christ and a firm believer in servant leadership. I love every bit of this business and look forward to a long career. 

Education: I have been in college since I graduated high school to gradually earn my undergraduate in neuroscience, and then go on to law school. I’ve always known that I love the collegiate and educational environment and that I wanted to be involved in it in some way or another my entire life. I intended to eventually earn my degrees, and in my older years, become a professor. To my delight, shortly after partnering with the agency, I was given the opportunity to work with Harvard University on an advanced study in music science. Shortly after, I was given a contract to teach commercial entertainment at Samford University. 

My experience in the industry gave me the credentials needed to share knowledge at the collegiate level, which is something I’ve always aspired to. I have since gotten the opportunity to develop curricula for film schools, private Christian universities, and educational institutes of various kinds. This has been one of the most satisfying aspects of the business. I am in as it is allowing me to do what I truly love, which is to help others succeed. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life has not been easy. Since I was born it has felt like an evil force has wanted nothing more than my destruction. As an infant, our home caught on fire, there were no fire alarms in the house. A hot wire triggered the sound of the doorbell (perhaps it was an angel). This doorbell woke up my mom who found her house filling quickly with smoke. She woke up my dad and they both sprang into action, promptly evacuating our family out of the windows of the home and saving our lives. 

I struggled to breathe as a young toddler. My lungs would go into episodes of constricted breathing. So much so that one time I began to turn blue, and my father had to rush me to the emergency room. While driving, a police car began to pursue my dad with the blue lights on. My dad did not stop and drove straight to the emergency room and took me in where they were able to administer medicine that allowed me to breathe normally again. I remember putting my head in the freezer every day to get cold air into my lungs. It was difficult. 

When I was about 4 years old, our family contracted a microorganism known as Mycoplasma. The smallest and most intracellular organism known to man. It also has multiple patents from various government and non-government agencies (such as the U.S. Army pathology lab, which shows that they contracted a Chinese scientist to manipulate the bacteria). This bacterium was undetected and proliferated in our cells until noticeable symptoms began to present themselves (about 4 years after the initial infection). 

My father developed a manic-depressive condition, my mom developed a very rare neuromuscular/autoimmune condition, and I developed a novel neuropsychiatric autoimmune condition. Vanderbilt took me out of school and studied me for weeks, conducting painful and traumatic examinations such as lumbar puncture spinal taps, and many more. It was determined that they were at a loss for how to treat the condition. So, my mom haulted her business affairs and took me to Duke University’s pediatric neurology department. They also had no answers that provided any sort of treatment. Through extensive travel and investigation, my mom ultimately discovered the cause of these conditions- the infection and subsequent systemic inflammation. 

Through working with experts around the country she discovered that the condition could be treated, and the symptoms could subside by the long-term administering of antibiotics. It also turned out that our view of antibiotic resistance was not true. It was completely safe for me to take the antibiotics and for the treatment, our debilitating autoimmune conditions began to take a back seat. 

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I have always been an extroverted and very happy individual. I’ve loved my family dearly and have had a love for Jesus since I can remember. I’ve always been infatuated with Martial arts and mesmerized by music. I love learning! 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://rrnashville.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thy.captain.jack?igshid=MXZrNWxxeHVjbThrNA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065656011540&mibextid=PzaGJu