Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Lynn Simmons.
Hi Erica Lynn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been a very outdoorsy girl who loved being out on the water. I practically grew up on a boat, visiting & fishing with my Pop Pop from a young age. We’d fish around Long Island, New York for Fluke & Flounder and I have so many great memories of days out on the water with him. Unfortunately, he passed away from cancer when I was in middle school, and from that point on my family wouldn’t fish. My grandma sold the boat and that chapter seemed to be over after he was gone. I started to realize I was way more of a warm-weather/water girl so once I graduated college with a Graphic Design degree in Pennsylvania, I decided to make a life-changing decision to sell everything I owned, packed up my car, and moved to Florida on my own. Other than my grandma who since moved to Dunedin, FL after then being widowed, she took me in for a few short months while I started house hunting & bought my own condo on the water shortly after. I was determined to get back out on the water again because I knew that’s where my passion still was, so not long after I moved in, I bought myself a fishing kayak. Now, fishing in Tampa is WAY different fishing than up north so I did my best to teach myself a new way of fishing & would be so thrilled to hook up to anything at that point since I had no idea what I was doing. lol catfish, ladyfish, jack (mostly what we refer to as ‘trash fish’ now but hey, I had to start somewhere, lol) A few years later, through a mutual friend, I was introduced to my now-husband, Garrett, who, not long into our first conversation which led to our mutual passion for fishing, we totally hit it off, and have been inseparable since. Some of our first ‘dates’ were taking our fishing kayaks out together & him teaching me how to actually fish Tampa Bay (I wasn’t very good until I met him. lol) He also had a 22ft flats boat so we’d find ourselves itching to get out on the water together any free moment we had. Before work, after work, every weekend, etc. We were hooked on fishing. During all of this time, I had been sharing all of my catches & adventures through my social media at the time (Instagram) which was slowly gaining more and more attention as we were always out on the water catching fish, whether in Tampa or on our many trips around the Bahama islands, the Keys, & Florida coast. During all this time I had been working as a Treatment Coordinator in an Orthodontic practice, and with their flexible patient schedule, this allowed me to have more than just Saturdays and Sundays off. Since I was starting to see so much positive feedback through my Instagram as my follower count started to grow more and more, which is now up over 270,000 followers, I was starting to have opportunities presented to me that, if I didn’t have the full-time schedule to dedicate to these projects for sponsoring bigger brands, it didn’t seem fair to start signing paid contracts. I decided at that point to quit my job (10 years in orthodontics at that point) to commit myself full time into YouTube videos & Instagram. Through my videos and sponsors, I’ve now been able to make this hobby & dream a full-time paid reality. I now have a full-time boat sponsor (South Dade Skiffs) & dozens of other brands I’m currently working with to grow myself & them through my social media platforms. For them and me, it’s a win-win. My days now mostly consist of either getting YouTube content & fishing or on my computer at home with the dogs editing my next viral video. I’ve been so thrilled to see all of the positive feedback that people are really enjoying watching me catch fish in my skiff by myself or trips out with my husband. At this point, I’ll ride this wave as long as I can, see where it takes me & will be soaking in every minute!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Growing my social media followings hasn’t been an easy process & after transitioning to working for myself, I’ve overcome new challenges of organizing my time for editing & content creation. While yes, a lot of what I post is organic & effortless, I had been working a full-time job up until recently so managing to post & get out on the water consistently on top of my work life was a lot sometimes
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about iLynn Digital?
Since I was starting to see so many jobs & growths coming out of this type of work, I decided to create my own business to run my collaborations & expenses through. So, I created iLynn Digital, LLC. Although I consider this my ‘behind the scenes’ business name, no one really hears it otherwise on my IG & YouTube, it was a necessary step as I was starting to present invoices & fees to new potential advertisers, and of course, Uncle Sam needed his portions too. It was a bumpy adventure getting everything for my business set up, LLC, bank accounts, payroll, tax documents, etc., but I got through it while still working full time so I feel pretty accomplished I dedicated all of my time off from work to get it all done, while still keeping up with my social media platforms. Once I had a good foundation set up with my business is when I felt it was a good time to end my orthodontic career and go 100% into working for myself
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
The role of luck… Hmm. I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten lucky, other than I’m lucky I’ve had so much of my content go ‘viral’ to get me to the point advertisers are dying to have me include their products into my content since I see some high volumes of ‘impressions’ on my posts, but I’ve worked my butt off to get where I am today. None of this was handed to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: ilynndigital@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @erica_lynn.2
- Youtube: Erica Lynn
