There is a peculiar moment in the life of a promising company when everybody agrees the product works and nothing moves. The engineers have finished. Customers are interested. The spreadsheet is handsome. Then a committee chair has a question, a regulator changes a definition, a local coalition gets nervous, or a reporter notices the one sentence the company hoped nobody would notice. The product has not failed. The route has.
BHA Strategy built a business around that moment. The Nashville firm describes itself as a government relations, public affairs and strategic consulting shop. That is accurate, but it misses the mechanism. Its more revealing idea is that a corporate problem in public is often a political campaign in disguise. There is an objective to define, an electorate of decision-makers to understand, a story to sharpen, supporters to organize and a clock that refuses to stop.
A firm born after the product stalled
Blake Harris had seen the machinery from the inside. Before founding BHA in 2022, he served for three years as chief of staff to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. He had also been the political strategist behind Lee's 2018 gubernatorial victory and 2022 re-election. In government, Harris worked around large, consequential projects, including the TennCare III waiver, Ford's Blue Oval City recruitment and Oracle's move to Nashville. The lesson was less romantic than the campaign posters: large outcomes depend on sequencing.
BHA's account of its origin begins with companies that had serious products but stalled in the maze of legislation, media scrutiny and political timing. Harris and co-founder Laine Arnold turned that frustration into a firm. The offering was not merely access. It was coordination - the ability to put the government-relations person, the researcher, the communications lead and the business strategist on the same clock.
The setting is almost too neat. BHA works from the Howell House, an imposing brick home built between 1870 and 1873 for Judge Morton B. Howell, who served as Nashville's mayor. A house once occupied by a civic leader now hosts people paid to understand civic leaders. The building is not the strategy, of course, but it makes a good physical metaphor: old institutions, new commercial uses.
Four verbs, no incense
Consulting firms are tempted by fog. Complexity can make expertise look expensive. BHA's published advocacy method is pleasingly plain. First, clarify the win - the precise policy result that advances the client. Second, map the decision-makers into champions, neutrals and blockers. Third, mobilize data, narrative and coalitions. Fourth, sustain momentum by monitoring the environment and changing tactics.
Anyone can copy that sequence. The useful twist is to resist beginning with a message. A message without a defined decision is decoration. A coalition without a map can be a group chat. BHA says its engagements use scorecards and a weekly cadence, which sounds pedestrian until one remembers how many public campaigns die between an enthusiastic kickoff and the next committee calendar.
“Strategy is not a 100-page slide deck. It's a series of decisive actions executed on a cadence your people can sustain.”BHA Strategy's stated consulting philosophy
The model is useful because policy, reputation and revenue do not politely stay in separate departments. A fintech entering a state may need regulatory analysis, a stakeholder map and a public explanation at the same time. An education company may have a strong classroom product but misunderstand procurement, funding or district politics. A health system in a public dispute cannot wait for the lobbyist, the communications agency and the researchers to compare notes on Friday.
Connected practices spanning policy, opinion, intelligence, business strategy, education and pro bono work.
The thick rulebook is the market
BHA's practices now cover Tennessee and multistate lobbying, public affairs, media and crisis communications, research and due diligence, strategic business consulting, education strategy and selected pro bono work. A newer specialist service, RFP Supports, helps companies navigate government procurement by converting a solicitation into a compliance map, writing plan and submission schedule. It is a revealing extension: if dense rules are where clients lose momentum, the proposal itself is another regulated campaign.
The customer list is wide enough to look like a conference seating chart assembled by accident. BHA publicly displays logos for Ford, Accenture, Palantir, Robinhood, Workday and T-Mobile; health systems including Ballad Health and Erlanger; education groups and teacher residencies; trade associations; Metro Nashville; the Nashville Zoo; and hospitality brands. The common denominator is not industry. It is exposure to public decisions.
This is a services business, not a software subscription. BHA sells tailored engagements and does not publish a rate card. The economics depend on senior judgment, research and execution rather than licenses or seats. That also sets a natural limit: the method is strongest when a client has a definable policy, market-entry, procurement or reputation problem. It cannot rescue weak product-market fit, replace legal counsel, or help a leadership team that refuses to choose an outcome. Campaign discipline requires somebody to admit what victory would look like.
Nashville roots, a Washington bridge
In February 2024, BHA announced a strategic partnership with BGR Group, the Washington government-affairs and public-relations firm. The arrangement is a geographic bridge. BHA brought Tennessee legislative and executive-branch experience, plus state and local relationships; BGR brought federal policy depth, a broader office network and national public-affairs capability. The firms could work across commercial real estate, health care, infrastructure, higher education, finance, hospitality, entertainment and advanced manufacturing without pretending Nashville and Washington are the same place.
The change also explains the firm's hiring. Government relations remains the spine, but BHA has added senior communications and public-relations operators. Nicole Watson joined as a partner in 2025. Sarah Stockton and Grant Minchew followed in communications and government relations. In 2026, former broadcaster Grace Anello Tuberville joined strategic communications, and longtime Tennessee Titans content strategist Amie Corey arrived to lead public-relations work. A lobbying firm needs contacts. A campaign firm needs people who can turn complicated material into something another human will remember.
Campaign and public-service experience becomes a Nashville consultancy.
BGR Group adds a bridge from Tennessee advocacy to federal reach.
Senior public-affairs, government-relations and communications hires broaden delivery.
Broadcasting and NFL content experience arrive in the communications practice.
The thing worth stealing
Most readers will never hire a lobbyist. They can still borrow the method. Before launching a difficult initiative, write one sentence describing the decision you need. Make three columns - champions, neutrals, blockers - and put real names in them. Decide what evidence each person trusts. Give the campaign a weekly rhythm. Track movement, not activity. Ten meetings are not progress if the same ten people remain unconvinced.
That is BHA Strategy's sharpest observation: public outcomes do not emerge from a single brilliant argument. They are assembled. The firm sits in the assembly business, between what a client wants and the institutions, stories and people that can allow it. The campaign never ended because the public sphere never stopped voting - in hearings, procurement rooms, headlines and quiet decisions about whose call gets returned.