"What do you like to do? What makes you happy?" Two questions that Hannah Peery reflected upon early on as a college student at the University of Florida, and ones that led her to uncover her interest in content creation and storytelling. After being on the pre-med track for her first year-and-a-half of school and discovering that she didn't want to pursue a career in medicine, Hannah began to search for alternative career paths. Pondering on her childhood interests in cameras and experiences in theater and commercial acting, Hannah started to explore the world of telecommunications. From TV & broadcasting to photography to video production, she completely immersed herself in this realm. She was on a mission. During her first internship in news, Hannah unearthed the vast career opportunities present within social media management and decided to embark on a journey of her own in the space. It was up from there. Merging her passion for sports, creative direction, storytelling, and digital media, Hannah began working with GatorVision—the primary entity responsible for creating video content for the Florida Gators sports teams—before accepting a role with the Houston Rockets upon graduation. The rest is history! Currently in her third season, Hannah continues to curate captivating content as the Rockets' Social Media Coordinator & Content Creator, and works to bring Rockets fans closer to their favorite athletes through unique storytelling. Amazing!
Take us back to the beginning! How was that transition from college into the world of sports media and content creation like for you?
It was scary of course—as it is for any college student entering the professional world—, you know? Doesn't matter what you're doing (*laughs*). It's a scary experience going from a student to a professional with not only professional responsibilities, but also life responsibilities. So it was scary, but a really great growing experience. I had a social media internship with ESPN for the last eight months of my college time, so I think that really helped prepare me for the professional job that I got. It was just really growing into my own. You know, it was scary because I wasn't in control of really large-brand social media accounts. I mean, I was posting with ESPN. But, when I got to the Rockets, they had millions and millions of followers across all of their accounts. So I really got the keys to the kingdom right when I started (*laughs*). It was scary, but I really like being just thrown into the fire and thrown into things. So it was great. I'm grateful for the team that I have, and the manager that I have at the Rockets. They did a really great job of just trusting me, throwing me into things, and letting me figure it out. It has really just created such great opportunities for me to express my creativity and really build the brand as a whole.
As you reflect back on your journey early on, what were some challenges that you faced as you embarked on your career in the social space for an NBA team? How did you work to overcome them?
I think just the challenges of being super young and thrown into the professional world. You're worried about your retirement accounts, your health insurance, paying rent, and moving across the country. All of that was a huge, huge challenge for me. You know, I really just leaned on my support system, my family, and my friends in other places that were really going through the same thing. I leaned on those people and then really just focused on my career. You know, going out of my way to build relationships and build community. It takes effort and time. (Also), talking to a therapist—I did a lot of work on my mental health. It was a really hard transition coming from Florida to Houston, not knowing a single person, not having any family, so I really did a lot of work on my mental health.
That was a huge help for me. As far as professionally, I think that the biggest challenge I've had is really just being a woman in this field. You know, navigating all the challenges that come with that. I think it is getting a lot better and that's obvious, but I think that there are still a lot of issues that women face in this industry that people…if you're not a woman, then you're not going to really understand it. It's hard to explain to people and people are like, “Oh, you can't possibly be having any issues. How could you possibly be having any issues? You're successful.” It's like, “I'm successful despite all of those challenges that I'm having because I'm pushing through and paving a way so that the women behind me don't have to deal with these issues.” It is a challenge being in a male-dominated industry and it's something that I've really had to work to deal with mentally; and despite all the adversity, just kind of continue to focus on what I'm good at. You know, focus on the fact that the challenges that I'm facing now—if I can push through them and bring light to it on my platforms and encourage people through my own personal brand—, then hopefully later on down the road females can enter this industry without having to face any of these things. That's kind of my motivating factor to get me through all of those challenges.
Love that! Diving more into your work with the Rockets, you're currently the Senior Social Media Coordinator for the team. Could you share more with us about your journey there and what this experience has been like for you thus far?
I started as Coordinator and then was just promoted after two seasons to Senior Coordinator. My main responsibilities are posting on our platforms all of the time, but (especially) during the game—that’s a huge emphasis. We're keeping our fan base updated, posting live highlights, photos, gathering content from all the different resources that we have. Whether that's the broadcast, NBA photographers, our videographers that we have on our team, (we) are just really creating a story on our accounts to show the fan base in the city of Houston the story of this team. Then, also creating organic and original content for our channel. So for example, on TikTok, doing fun trends with the team and telling the story of these guys. Especially with the past few seasons, really just finding a way to tell the story of these athletes as humans and connect our audience to them as we watch them grow, and as we build this team back into a championship caliber team—so just telling that story as it really happens in front of our eyes.
If you could give insight to someone of what “A Day in the Life” looks like for you in this role, how would you describe it?
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