Project Person // Profile #2

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Meet B.T. Harman // Project Person #2

What project are you currently working on? Camino Made, products and resources for those traveling the Camino de Santiago.

What did it take to get started? I’ve taken five Camino trips, following five different paths. Each time, I took photos and compiled research. I also connected with other pilgrims, joining no less than 30 Facebook groups as I researched. I created a brand and a website for Camino Made and invested my time and energy into building an engaged community.

What’s your most impressive or favorite stat? Organically growing our Instagram account to 10k followers in less than six months.

What keeps you up at night? Knowing that what Camino Made is now is nothing like what I hope it one day will be. My social media clients get my first and best currently, so I have not invested in Camino Made as much as I wish I could.

What are some of your other projects? Blue Babies Pink & Catlick

As always, the most interesting stories (and probably, the answers to all of life’s questions) are found in the paradoxes. 

This project is no different. 

A solo hike across 500 miles of unfamiliar terrain in an effort to dispel loneliness?

And then creating a digital community to promote this ancient, decidedly unplugged pilgrimage?

These are the paradoxes in which Camino Made was, well, made. 

As entrepreneur and marketer B.T. Harman neared his 40th birthday, he looked for a meaningful way to usher in a new decade. In the process, he was introduced to a 476 mile trek beginning in the Pyrenees Mountains of Southern France and winding across Northern Spain: the Camino de Santiago. 

This particular path, along with dozens of other footpaths of varying distances, emerged nearly 1000 years ago, all leading to the Basilica of Santiago de Compostela—an elaborate cathedral built atop the Apostle James’ burial site. 

The trek has become a Christian pilgrimage surpassed only by Jerusalem and Rome, and in recent years, many have started taking the path for reasons outside of faith.

Recently divorced, widowed, laid-off, retired? Celebrating a 30th, 50th, 70th birthday?

Pilgrims of all ages and abilities have made the voyage, with 440,000 reaching Santiago de Compostela last year alone. 

B.T. was celebrating a birthday—not having a major life crisis—when he left for his first Camino, but as he began his walk along the ancient path, he noticed how his mind and body began to decompress. 

“The modern human mind is wracked with anxiety,” he told me. “I could hardly comprehend this level of simplicity. It was the first time in my adult life when all of that noise ceased to exist.” 

He called it a mental health cleanse. 

On his first day, he walked over 15 miles with nothing but his backpack. He stopped for some photos and he listened to some podcasts, but for the most part, he took in the sights.

And he thought. 

And he moved.

B.T. realized that for 99% of human history, our species did not move from one place to another with a car, plane, or train; they used their own two legs.

Movement is actually one of the “pilgrim practices” of the Camino, alongside others like quest, altruistic community, and inner peace. And for good reason. As B.T. pointed out, our current pattern of chronic sitting is freakishly unnatural to our bodies, and he found immense satisfaction in moving himself from one city to the next.

(In fact, it’s a practice he’s taken home with him, now walking two miles around his neighborhood most afternoons.)

Retiring in a new town at the end of each day, B.T. would post an update on his personal Instagram with some freshly (and expertly, might I say) edited iPhone photos along with the key details: the cities where he started and ended, the miles he walked, and the miles left to go.

It struck a chord with his friends and followers: 

“And now you have convinced me to copy you before I die and do this thing…”

“Thank you for sharing your days (and nights) with us. What an amazing journey you are on. Look forward each day to your posts.”

“Love seeing your journey! Also from ATL and starting the Camino Frances on 10/2. Getting lots of useful tips from your stories. Can’t wait to watch the rest of your journey!”

“Buen Camino!!! Super excited for you, I hope to do this too some day:)”

Yes, he experienced altruistic community along the path (Buen Camino! Buen Camino!), but he was building it digitally, as well.

Was he on to something? He packed that thought away with his wet socks and set to finish the plan set before him—195 miles on foot and 281 miles on the bike. His husband Brett joined him for the last 70 miles, and they arrived at the Basilica on Day 25. 

I remember watching the Instagram story sharing the moment he arrived in the city, with tears in my eyes. And I think hundreds of other people did the same. 

We had all become invested in what B.T. would discover. What quaint towns or conglomerations of sheep or cattle would he stumble upon? What characters would he meet? What self-discoveries would he make? 

As B.T. points out, a vacation is about rest. 

A journey is about the destination. 

Adventure is about risk.

But a quest is about search. 

And we loved what he found. 

As B.T. re-entered his noisy life stateside, he was bombarded with questions about the Camino. Which path should we take? What should we pack? Where should we stay? He tried to share as much information on his Instagram account as he could, but he was realizing the demand was bigger than he was set to address.

Sure, the internet was full of information about the Camino, but there was something so personal and fresh about the way B.T. shared his experiences. Within this group of hopeful pilgrims, there was a need for a trusted source. 

And then there was the more universal need that emerged across the comments—the need, as B.T. put it, for “a return—to wilderness, to wildness, to solitude, to adventure, to each other”.

We all wanted our own mental health cleanse.

He planned a few more trips to other well-known paths along the Camino, even bringing his photographer friend with him for one to collect professional content. Along the way, B.T. continued to cultivate this online community of the Camino-curious, and in 2023, he launched Camino Made as its own website and Instagram handle. 

Currently, Camino Made offers beautiful products related to the Camino journey while continuing to grow and resource a digital community of people who have taken, are taking, or hope to take a pilgrimage.

B.T. is also launching Camino Made’s first online conference to share details about planning one’s own Camino trip, and a Kickstarter is in development to fund an interactive Camino guidebook. 

He told me we all deeply desire personal, emotional connection with other humans—that we want to be known, liked, and trusted.

And I think this is his secret-sauce—it’s what makes B.T. such an engaging storyteller, someone so easy to follow.

Even across the internet, he finds a way to connect on a real level.

And he encourages others to seek out that emotional connection as well.

He notes the absence of this is what’s led to “our current state of peril”, and he paints a pretty grim (albeit honest and true) picture on the Camino Made homepage:

“Depression is up. Lifespans are down. People are lonely. And deaths of despair are rising. Somehow, we’ve created a world where more & more people are looking for the exits.”

But then he points us to the return—to the paradoxical quests of solitude and community, adventure and quiet. 

“And as it turns out,” he tells us, “there’s a thousand-year-old tradition in Spain delivering all that and more.”

-Callie

Interested in your own Camino adventure? Join B.T.’s free virtual Camino Conference on August 3!

Next week, I’ll share a primer with B.T.’s advice about growing an engaged digital community. Stay tuned!