We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Irino and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Starting from a young age, I was always a die hard fisherman. We were lucky to live near the ocean and my dad would often take me to the beach to surf fish. As I grew older, I would expand my fishing horizons and began fishing for new species, in new waters, and learning new techniques. After graduating college, fishing began to gain popularity on Youtube. One of the people I watched was another bay area fisherman named Matts who had a channel called “Fisherman’s Life”. I distinctly remember when he decided to go full time as a Youtube fisherman. That got me thinking, “Could I do that?”

I decided to start my own Youtube channel and film myself as I was fishing on the weekends. I thought going full time Youtube was a long shot but I thought maybe I could make a little money to fund my weekend hobby. I worked a 9-5 job during the week but I was always fishing on the weekends so I decided that I would start bringing a gopro along on my adventures. The fishing part was fairly easy as I had been doing that for many years, but learning to film and edit videos was a learning process. I still am no pro, but I learned as I grew my channel, trying to make small improvements with each video I posted.

Eventually, my channel grew to around 30k subscribers. I was still working full time in my 9-5 but always had fishing and youtube in the back of my mind. One night, I sat down with my wife to discuss the possibility of quitting my job and becoming a full time “Youtuber” (the idea was still very strange, lol). She was gracious enough to entertain my proposal and support me throughout the entire process, even to this day. I took the plunge and gave my 2 weeks notice and the rest is history. I have been a full time Content Creator for 4 years now and grown my Youtube channel to 86k subscribers. I am still a small channel in the Youtube world but proud of what I have created so far. I am excited to continue to share my experiences and improve my fishing, filming, and production skills as I continue on the road to 100k subs and the Silver Play Button!

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Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My content is all about fishing. What I am most proud about is all the different types of fish that I have caught and all the different places I have been to to catch those fish. It definitely wasn’t easy but just like most things, if you put the time in, you can expect results to follow. One thing I have learned with social media is that there are so many different kinds of content you can create. Whatever your passion is, there is likely other people that share your passion. And if others share your passion, there are definitely opportunities to pursue that on social media. If anyone takes anything away from my story, its that I knew absolutely nothing about filming, posting, editing, or anything else that goes with creating content. I was just a guy that loved fishing and was willing to put in the time to learn the rest. If I can do it, so can you.

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Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to the coastline. Its where I spend most of my time fishing and have been lucky enough to call it my office for the past 4 years. There is some amazing wildlife out there that most people only see on TV. As far as food, I’d cook them some of the fresh fish that I caught in my latest fishing adventure.

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Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First, I would like to thank all the other content creators in the Bay Area that have helped me grow my channel. From shouting me out in videos of their own, to help with technical stuff on the back end, I would not be doing what I am doing now without them. There are many more that I am sure I am missing but here are a few: Ish with Fish, More Than Fishing, Outdoor Chef Life, Nick Fish, Fisherman’s Life, Chrispfish, Philosophy D

And most importantly, I have to thank my wife. She has supported me through the whole process, especially in the beginning when my channel was still small and not sustainable financially. Much different than my fishing content but she is also starting her own content creation and I would be eternally grateful if anyone follows her page: @lizzieforsyth.writes on IG and Tiktok

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/die.hard.fishing/

Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@DieHardFishing

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@die.hard.fishing

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