We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tiffany “Snookie” Risch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany “Snookie” , thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I have had the pleasure working with is getting kids and women involved in fishing through social media connections.

Currently I am working on a project to get women out on the water boating and fishing. To do this, I am partnering with one of my captain friends who provides local guide services on James river with a handful of women who want to learn how to catfish. The event is organized to provide women an opportunity to learn about the James River, ask questions about the species and experience hands on how to catch the fish. I hope my small group events will encourage women to come aboard and give fishing/boating a try while making new friends that share the same passion for nature.

In the past, I have assisted with organizations like Beyond Boundaries that help connect the benefits of the outdoors to kids and young adults.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In 2014 my Paw-Paw passed away while I was sitting beside him comforting my grandmother and extended family. It was an experience you truly aren’t ready for no matter how hard you fight to stay strong. This experience broke my spirit causing my grieving period to be extremely difficult.

During that time I decided to try long walks in nature to cope. It was a random back road drive that reminded me of the good times I spent at the pond with my Paw-Paw. I turned to fishing, one cast at a time I could let my emotions out.

Knowing how much nature helped me, I decided to explore the sport on a much deeper level: attending tournaments, fishing benefits and shows all while fishing for multiple species and building my name in the industry through social media networking. To honor my Paw-Paw, I branded my childhood nickname he gave me “Snookie”.

Now I create content for the fishing industry, run bass tournaments, work closely with conservation efforts, women empowerment events and more. If it involves fishing, boating or nature, I AM THERE! The reward for me is telling others stories of how nature saved them like it did me.

I enjoy helping and networking with like-minded people. It could be the older gentleman that owns a guide service that knows the water but doesn’t under the power of social media marketing, influencers and apps. He would hire me to attend a ride-along trip where I collect content ideas from the experience on the boat. I would then turn this into photos and videos for him to use to tell a story either on his website or on social media. Sometimes my clients will use this footage as a selling point for their bigger name clients that may want to use this content on their personal pages. The opportunities are endless!

Content creation is exciting because I can use it to sell a product, service, event or experience!

Nowadays you can hire just about anyone to create or manage your online presence. However, knowing the language and having the hands on experience of fishing/boating is what sets my business apart from other influencers and bigger brand management companies.

I am most proud of the way I handled my grief and turned it into something positive that will inspire others. I pride myself on giving people a chance to try the sport and how that experience I provide may change their life forever by helping them deal with life’s challenges. We all have a past, a lost loved one, something that try’s to steal our sunshine. Why not come together and try soaking up the serenity of nature to deal with those emotions, experiences and struggles.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yes, as a small business owner I have had to pivot many times. Like most people, COVID directly impacted my business. All my fishing shows, tournaments and women’s meet ups were shut down. I had to find a way to make money while being stuck at home. When the news encouraged folks to get out in nature to pass the time, it caused the boat ramps to be flooded with inexperienced people. I saw this as an opportunity to build connections for future projects. I often had to assist people at the ramp (from a distance) loading and unloading their boats. As a petite female, you can imagine this sparked interest, conversation and opportunities to pick up new clients.

Another example of a pivoting moments in my career would be when opportunities stack up on the same calendar dates. I cover the mid-Atlantic region for fishing shows. There has been times when fishing shows or related events are on the same dates. When this happens and I can’t book both events, I turn to my network for assistance. Many times I have reached out to other lady anglers to see if they could fill the opportunity. This has always brought joy when I can create space, jobs and opportunities for other women in the sport. It also helps build a strong relationship with my clients when they know I will go above and beyond to meet their needs. It’s a win -win!
My career started with a pivoting experience dealing with the death of my Paw-Paw. Managing grief along with all the sudden changes in my life to creating a business that serves the community is definitely a moment I will never forget!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Yes, I have experienced the general public not understanding how my role is considered “work”.

Social media has the power of tricking the naked eye to believe life is what we post. When in fact that is the exact opposite. As a creator it is my job to make the viewers want the product I am selling or think the experience is something they are missing out on if they don’t book it right away. It’s the marketing behind the content.

So if you see a creator posted a 10 second video of them running down a beach at sunset, that doesn’t mean their life is truly that. It means they spent hours driving to the location, setting up the equipment, finding out the exact time the sun will set (research) all to create the video/photos they then have to go home and edit. It’s takes a lot of work even though to most the term “influencer” means they just live life.

Social media never stops. While we are sleeping the rest of the world is online searching, engaging and building an influencers to-do list. We wake up to our work and go to be to our work.

It 100% is a real career for those who do not understand this generation.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/snookiefishing?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnookSnookFishing?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyrisch

Image Credits
Credit my IG account. I took them with my camera.