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

Jackson, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I have taken in my career was my move down to Los Angeles in August 2023.

Up until that point in my creative career I had played it generally safe. My job out of college was at a production company that focused in Real Estate marketing solutions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Towards the beginning of my 3rd year with the company I really started to realize that I was stuck in this comfort zone of having this stable job and living at home. The company had grown a lot and I became super disappointed that the years had been going by and I hadn’t really been going anywhere. I felt like I was spending my time building somebody else’s dream. This discomfort ultimately started to show in my work and in my attitude and eventually, I was fired.

I was fired 7 days before a month long trip to Colombia with 2 of my good friends. I used that month to recalibrate, work on some passion projects, and come back to the states ready to begin a freelance career.

From December 2023 – June 2023 I continued to live at home while working as hard as I could to market myself as a freelance drone pilot and director. I worked on a wide variety of projects in different industries. Music videos, short-films, real estate, long-form content, short-form content whatever I could get my hands on, I would take it.

Now things are going good. I’ve successfully replaced the income I previously had solely with freelance work. I had a lot to learn on the business side of things, but I was super proud of the progress I had made in the past 7 months. I was still living at home in the Bay Area, unsure of how things would really go as a freelancer.

I was visiting LA for some work in early July 2023 and I met up with a friend of mine to get some lunch. At the end of our lunch he let me know he was looking for someone to add to a house in LA starting in August, however once he told me how much the rent was I didn’t think it would be a good fit.

I got home from that trip to LA and I couldn’t stop thinking about his offer. It was almost 2x what I was initially planning to spend on rent, but for some reason it seemed like a good idea. I brought it up to my parents and they were the first people to tell me I should go. This time I would get to step out of my comfort zone on my own terms. That being said I had some self doubt. I would not be the first person with a camera and a dream moving down to LA and I really had to dig deep and believe in myself more than I ever had before.

My aunt passed away from a stroke a few days after I got back from my LA trip on July 4th, 2023. She left behind a little cattle dog named Belle Starr. I was very close with Belle and as soon as I got the news, I knew she was going to be coming down to LA with me.

Belle and I made the move down on August 14th, 2023. This interview comes at a great time, one year since my move to LA and I’m proud to say that I just signed the re-lease on the same place that was previously 2x my budget. Since being in LA I have found myself on sets that I feel much more creatively aligned with than my previous work & sometimes it’s MY set which I can’t even believe I get to say.

My days are spent building something for myself which is ultimately the most rewarding. I still get to collaborate with great people and work on talented teams which I really enjoy. I’m super thankful for the experience I had working at the agency; I think it really helped me on the client relations side of things and showed me how a production company operates at scale. We’ll see what’s next ;)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I consider myself a Director & Drone Pilot, but essentially I wear a lot of hats all underneath the content creation umbrella. I provide a variety of services to a variety of industries. My main services involve commercial production, licensed drone operations, video editing, real estate & architectural video, live event capture & multi-cam recordings.

I fly a unique genre of drones called FPV (First-Person View) drones. These drones are capable of capturing acrobatic, high speed footage and are a great option for a lot of different applications. I have a fleet of different drones depending on the situation at hand.

Generally I am most proud of how long I have stuck with pursuing my creative goals. I discovered a camera pretty early on at the skatepark when I was about 12 years old. I always found myself hovering over the guy with the VX2100’s shoulder in awe of the fisheye lens. By the time I was 16, I had a pretty solid concert photo & video portfolio and I was pretty sure that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It’s weird for me to think that I decided what I wanted to do for the rest of my life when I was 16. Pretty impulsive decision if I do say so myself.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding as aspect of being a freelance creative is also the biggest hurdle. I love waking up everyday feeling like I am spending my effort building something for myself. However, at the same time its very easy to feel like I’m not doing enough or I’m not spending my time wisely. You have to be super self disciplined and you only get out what you put in. It’s extremely rewarding to look back after completing a big project or having a record month, but the satisfaction is short lived because I have to do it all over again the next month.

Just because you are doing a lot more, doesn’t mean you are getting more done. Don’t confuse movement with progress. – Denzel Washington

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I along with a lot of others got very lucky that content and creativity has exploded with the rise of technology. The non-creatives need us more than ever now and I don’t think that will slow down anytime soon. My business is 80% referral based, which really speaks on how society has supported me personally up until now. The most valuable thing someone can do to support you is refer you for a job or think of you when they need someone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imjackson.us
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_imjackson/
• Other: https://itsnova.com/jackson