Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Adam Irino. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Adam , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To me, success is setting a goal and working toward achieving that goal. Sometimes, this can be as simple as chores around the house, other times it can be something that takes years to achieve.

One of the success stories that I am proud of:
A few years ago, I started steelhead fishing. I had fished most of my life but never targeted this particular species of fish. I set myself a goal to catch a steelhead in a particular river that only sees a few fish each season. Not only that, the season is very short and can sometimes be limited to a few days each year (due to the weather). It took me three years but eventually I was able to catch the fish that I set out to catch. When I look back at the journey, I am proud of the fact that I never gave up. Although some may see them as failures, I took all the days that I spent not catching fish as opportunities to learn more about the fishery. The entire journey is documented on my youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vY0wY7VS1I

Adam , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For those who don’t know me, my name is Adam and I created the Youtube channel Die Hard Fishing which centers around my fishing adventures. Most of my content is kayak fishing on the California Coastline, but I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world and catch a wide variety of different species.

One of the things that I am most proud of is that I have built the channel, and all my different social media pages, by myself. Although many content creators that work full time have editors, managers, and/or partners to help them grow their pages, I have chosen to do everything myself. It may limit the quality of my content, or the size my pages can grow, but I like what I have created.

How did you build your audience on social media?

For the first 3 years of my Youtube channel, I created content based on what I liked to do. Basically, I did what I was already doing in my free time, but brought around a gopro to share my experience with others. I wasn’t trying to sell anything or gain subscribers, I just wanted to share my experiences and inspire others to enjoy the outdoors. Unintentionally, I think this approach led my channel to be more relatable and slowly but surely my channel began to grow. Since I have gone full time content creating, it can be hard to balance being to “salesy” with being authentic in my videos. Although there are some things you have to do to remain financially sustainable as a content creator, I always do my best to keep the same vibe that I started the channel with.

My advise to those starting a Youtube channel is fairly simple. First, it can be cliche, but be yourself on camera. Even the best actors can be spotted when they aren’t genuine. If you are going to do content creation as a living, its not sustainable to do something you don’t love doing. Second, and this is getting tougher and tougher nowadays, is to find something unique to your channel. For me, it was kayak fishing. When I started kayak fishing, there was very little kayak fishing content on youtube. Having something that sets your channel apart from others is one of the key factors to growing a channel, in my opinion.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think the biggest thing that built my reputation is the dedication I have put into fishing. Sometimes, that meant waking up earlier than I wanted to or standing out on the beach in the freezing rain, but I think it has shown in my videos.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/die.hard.fishing/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMFceCKfi45GRJFNXBTZOIw

Image Credits

NA