Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariah Harkey.
Hi Mariah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I got started in video dating all the way back to college (which feels like forever ago, given that I graduated in 2015!). When I was in college, I studied abroad in Bilbao, Spain. It was one of my first times really being out of the country, and all I wanted to do while I was there was preserve the memories we were making. And the way I was able to do that was through video.
That experience abroad was really pivotal in my life path. After college, I started working as a travel agent for a company that planned trips to Ireland, Scotland, and England. I knew I always wanted to be around the travel industry, but I didn’t know what piece of the puzzle I wanted to be yet. I thought for a while I wanted to be on the Marketing side, but I didn’t actually think I could be a full-time photographer or videographer, because I didn’t know anyone else who did that.
I was always really good at making content and posting it online, and I often got my work reposted by large pages—but I never really thought of it as a career until I got my first full-time video job, working as a videographer for Semester at Sea, a study abroad program that takes place on a ship traveling around the world. In 2018, we visited 11 countries by ship over the course of four months, and my job was to document the student and ship community experience. That was another pivotal point in my career path, and it led me to my home for the last six years: Los Angeles.
I moved to LA in 2019 to pursue a career in video in the travel and music industries. For my first year in LA, I worked for a large media company in Santa Monica called Tastemade, where we built an incredible network of creatives in the food/travel media space. After moving to LA, I also started to pursue video opportunities in the live music industry. It was a big goal of mine to work on music festival media teams, which slowly started to happen around 2019 too. But shortly after I moved, COVID hit. I took a step back from those goals because everything changed—especially in the travel and live music industries.
Once things started to get back to normal, I received a DM that changed my trajectory. I was given an incredible opportunity to go to the Maldives for a month in 2022 with a group of 10 creators based in LA to create travel videos for a resort chain. I had to quit my full-time job to do it, and I never looked back. I didn’t plan to become a full-time freelancer, but after that trip, freelance work kept knocking on my door. For the last four years, I’ve been a full-time freelance videographer in both the travel and music industries.
I’ve worked on over 40 music festival media teams in the last three years, including Coachella, Stagecoach, Camp Flog Gnaw, Electric Forest, EDC Vegas, and more. I’ve also traveled to over 35 countries for fun and for work, and I’m now building a new company within the travel media space that will launch this year!
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?
Of course not! Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. When I decided to go full-time freelance in 2022, it was on a whim. It was because I got an incredible opportunity that I had to quit my full-time job to go on. But I never really saw myself stepping out of full-time corporate work, because I loved the stability that it offered.
So when I decided to go freelance and stick to it over the last few years, the feeling of “lacking stability” has always been an obstacle for me. I am someone who tries to solve problems before they happen, and so this career path has been challenging for me because I’ve had to let go of the control over the outcome. I’ve always been confident in what I do, but I still can’t help but wonder from time to time if the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes I wish that I could shut my laptop at 5 PM on a Friday and not care, which is quite the opposite when you work for yourself 24/7.
But although the freelance life comes with its challenges, it also has amazing things about it that were lacking in my full-time corporate work. I feel like I have purpose in what I do, and I’m living my purpose in doing video full-time as a freelancer. And I think that will always outweigh the struggles that I face along the way.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Roamh Creative?
I’m in an exciting time in my career because I’m rebranding my entire business! Over the last few years that I’ve operated as a full-time freelancer, I’ve taken on multiple jobs in the travel industry, music industry, event industry—you name it.
But as of this year, I’ve rebranded to Roamh Creative: a social-first video production agency for destinations, hotels, small businesses, and experiences within the travel industry. Over the last 10 years working in the travel field, one thing is certain across the board: a lot of the media that’s supposed to entice people to book trips and experiences is outdated. I’m building Roamh Creative to be the first choice for travel video media that is compelling, interesting, engaging, and social-forward for all types of travel businesses and experiences. There is so much power in social content, whether it’s shot on a Sony Fx3 or an iphone – and I want to show tourism businesses that.
Roamh Creative is offering social content creation for clients (photo + video) on both a project basis and a retainer basis. We do everything from 10-second ads to short documentaries to tell your story the way you want it told—and the way we know how to make people fall in love with it. You can learn more at RoamhCreative.com soon!
Who else deserves credit in your story?
First, Cache Bunny. She was the one who invited me to the Maldives in 2022, which is the reason I quit my full-time job and the reason I’m a freelancer today. I have to thank her for the incredible opportunity, as well as for being such a great person to look up to when I was first figuring out my path. There aren’t a lot of women in this space—especially in video—so she was one of the first women I really saw crushing it, and I’ll never forget that.
Second, James Winterhalter, who I ended up meeting through Cache when I went to the Maldives. On that trip, we went around the table and said what our career goals were for the next five years. My goals felt so small and simple compared to everyone else’s, given that most of them had been freelancers for 5+ years. One of my goals was to be on one music festival team, while the person next to me’s goal was to have a Netflix show. That group really taught me to dream bigger.
But I have to thank James—because at that table, I said one of my main goals was to work on a travel show in the future. And when his travel show was bought by Paramount+ and MTV soon after, he hired me as the BTS videographer. We spent nine weeks on the road, traveling through six countries around the world. I’ll forever be thankful for that job and that experience, so I have to thank James!
I also have to give credit to my parents, who are entrepreneurs themselves. I was the first person in my family to go to college, which they helped me do—because they told me I had no choice (ha!). I didn’t really understand the concept of college, given that my parents were successful entrepreneurs without it, but they opened the door for me in so many facets of my life and now in my career. Although they may not work in the travel or music industries, they’ve been nothing but supportive of me going after my crazy endeavors. It’s hard to watch your kid go down an uncertain path—and freelancing is so uncertain at times. But if they’ve taught me anything about entrepreneurship, it’s that it’s worth it in the end.
And most recently, I also need to give credit to my incredible partner, Quinn, who encouraged me to pursue Roamh Creative just last year. At the time, I was sitting in the fear and uncertainty of what my future looked like as a freelancer. I even thought about going back to full-time work. But Quinn, who’s also a full-time photographer, encouraged me to pursue my lifelong goal of building a travel company. It wasn’t until he put that in my head that I actually thought it was something I could do. There really are so many limitations we create in our own minds sometimes, and it takes a special kind of person to help you see the other side—and believe it’ll all work out. So thank you, Quinn, for your everlasting support.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.roamhcreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its.hark/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahharkey/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@its.hark
