Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Romero.
Hi Rachel, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I moved to Los Angeles over Labor Day weekend in 2011 and didn’t have the faintest idea of what I would do out here. The idea of hibernating through another winter as a native Coloradan didn’t sound appealing at all and my good friend Inka One had an open room available and so I trusted my gut, packed up everything that I owned into my 2003 Altima, and rolled out west.
After that first glorious sunny winter here in LA, I accepted a job as a project manager on the marketing team at Machinima (and eventually served as their Director of Audience Development), which was a wild and professionally fulfilling experience. One of my highlights was throwing a banger of an E3 party with Mixmaster Mike headlining but I also launched some pretty cool projects around fan appreciation and even live tweet displays way before they were a thing that people did. I learned so much about the entertainment, digital content and gaming industries and had the opportunity to work with so many talented people that are still continuing to push boundaries and crush it a decade later on their own paths. Eventually, I was hired as the VP of Marketing for Legendary Digital Networks, which manages Nerdist, Geek & Sundry, and Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. I had worked with studios often at Machinima but this was a really solid experience in better understanding how the non-gaming side of the entertainment industry works. And LDN is where I fell in love with Critical Role.
I’ve been working with Critical Role since 2016 and am their SVP of Marketing. I also am a proud board member of the Critical Role Foundation, which supports really stellar nonprofit organizations that are working in a variety of different areas to make the world a better place.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I’ve been working with the Critical Role crew for a bit over six years and it’s been such an incredibly rewarding experience as a marketer but also as someone that finds lasting inspiration through being a part of a team that really embraces and respects creativity.
Our core show, Critical Role, is a long-running and streamed roleplaying game campaign that has been created by our founders, who are incredibly talented, award-winning voice actors. It’s all really improv while using a gaming mechanic as a sometimes chaotic catalyst for storytelling. We’re grateful to have found such a wonderful audience that has allowed us to own and operate our own studio and fulfillment warehouses and an incredible, diverse team of some of the brightest stars in all of the various industries that we have the opportunity to play in.
Critical Role is such an incredible place to work as a marketer because the community is passionate, vocal, and kind. There’s never a boring day and it’s been a beautiful experience to land somewhere that supports a wide variety of different types of creative works. We have our own publishing company, Darrington Press, and even our own record label, Scanlan Shorthalt Music. It really does feel like no matter what kind of medium it is, we want to find a way to tell the best stories ever on it.
Right now, we’re working on a ton of new stuff for 2023, including the release of the second season of our animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina. You can binge the entire first season right now on Prime Video, with the second season launching January 2023.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I thought about this question for a dramatically long time and this feels like such a broad thing to say but one of the best things that you can do for yourself is consider and analyze how you are either adding value or taking value away from a situation. Value has a deeper meaning in most contexts than increasing capital worth too. Make it a habit not to focus on the things that don’t add value, or consider de-prioritizing them on your list. I think that there’s a high level of self-awareness in doing that successfully but it also takes a great deal of courage to curate your focus in that way, especially if it means feeling like you’ve let someone else down or if the decision isn’t clearly cut and dry. Sometimes, you can’t do everything all at once for everyone and that is okay.
Also, you probably already do these things but just in case:
Write everything down. Always buffer deadlines. Take photos or videos of advertising or marketing that inspires you so that you can draw on it for inspo later.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.critrole.com
- Instagram: @_missrachel
- Twitter: @missrachel
Image Credits
Blake Jackson
