by Steve “Tuna” Tornovish
Dear Diary – please don’t tell anyone but I think I’m turning into an influencer. Is that possible at my advanced age? After all, I’m getting transferred onto Medicare in another couple of months. Was there a box on the sign-up form that said Influencer – check yes or no? If there was, I’m sure I hit no. And rightly so. After all, who in their right mind is going to be influenced by someone who recently asked the doctor who was about to do his colonoscopy to keep an eye out for his missing key fob for his truck? See what I’m saying?
But this influencer stuff keeps coming up in my client conversations. “Influencers are all over town for the (fill in the blank… Nantucket Film Festival, Comedy Festival, etc.).” Every young woman from thirteen to thirty has told me something about standing in a line to enter the Dairy Boy store in town. Dairy? Nantucket is fairly bereft of cows, to the best of my knowledge. Turns out that this is a first-year women’s clothing store. The trendiest thing you can possibly do is to have a Dairy Boy store bag to walk around with. Who knew? And all of the marketing came through viral social media posts, kicked off by… influencers.
I’m still fuzzy on this influencer stuff, so I asked the magic thinking device (Grok) to define “influencer” and answer like a teenage girl would if explaining this to her grandpa:
“Okay Grandpa, so like… an influencer is basically this person on the internet —usually on TikTok, YouTube, whatever—who has a bunch of followers and people just listen to them!
“It’s like… remember those old commercials where a famous person holds up a product and smiles? Same idea, except now the person lives online and posts stories every five minutes, and you can comment “slay” under their pictures. Basically, they’re professional ‘trust me, this is cool’ people.”
I’m not sure I’m cut out for this influencer stuff. It sure sounds like a lot of work. And the cell reception isn’t that reliable on Great Point. Perhaps I’ll just stick with the fishing guide gig for a bit longer.
Speaking of guiding, I had the pleasure of fishing with two really fun groups on a recent Saturday. The morning group consisted of three young men who had attended Denison University together. I knew in advance that they were going to be a great bunch to hang out with. First of all, they had been referred to me by Brian Savage, a man I’d taken out fishing the previous year. Brian Savage was an absolute blast. We had laughed, talked music, and caught some fish in the middle of a fairly terrible Sunday morning. Brian had met Luke Jeans, one of the three young men, on the golf course. Somehow the topic of Nantucket came up. And here we are. Clearly, Brian Savage is an influencer!
And the second reason I knew this was going to be really fun? Luke told me that the three were “…super stoked” to go fishing with me. Perfect answer. Unbridled enthusiasm. Exactly what was needed for the relatively bleak fishing conditions as of late.
I knew my premonition about these three amigos was correct the minute that I greeted them in the Wauwinet gatehouse parking lot. I started in on them from the jump. It felt oddly like running a police shift with a bunch of rookie cops working. Sweet memories!
Luke’s compadres were Doran Yustein and Max Gregory. It was a joy to see how much fun the three of them had over the course of our trip. They were amused at the thought of me having been a police officer in a previous life. They strongly hinted that maybe, just maybe, I could provide them with a get-out-of-jail-free card in the unlikely event that, well, you know. I assured them that if they were to get lugged by Nantucket’s finest over the weekend, mentioning my name would certainly earn them a cell upgrade.
The guys told me that their plans for the afternoon included a trip to the Cisco Brewery. My influencer instincts kicked in at once. I told them that their new goal was to seek out the August Blues – Nantucket tent and introduce themselves. I must say that I was impressed to receive a picture of the three with Augie Chotkowski – the tournament’s namesake. Well done, guys! If I ever go back to college I promise to pledge Delta Chi, their fraternity.
My afternoon trip was another wonderful group. The Mandel family was ready to go fishing: Mark Mandel (the dad), Jen (the mom), and their two children, Jeremy and Clara. Jeremy will be going into the eighth grade, and Clara is starting fourth grade. Their school is starting up on August 5 in Memphis, Tennessee, so this was the last blast of summer for the Mandel kids. I think we got the most out of the day.
One of the greatest things about the fishing guide gig is getting to meet such amazing families as the Mandel crew. Jen, the organizer, was an absolute joy. She’s a professor at the University of Memphis, where she teaches the most advanced classes in the science of plant life. Mark and I hit it right off—he is a retired police officer as well, having served on the Nashville TN police force and then in Athens, GA on the campus of the University of Georgia. Let’s just say that we spoke the same language. Little Clara was a spitfire, much like her wonderful mother. And then there’s Jeremy.
Please give me more kids like Jeremy! He absolutely loves to fish. He likes baseball—he had just finished attending a summer baseball camp—but Jeremy Mandel LOVES to fish! His grandfather, Bruce Mandel, had told me this when Bruce organized the fishing trip a few weeks earlier. Mark told me that Jeremy checks in with him after school and is then all about getting to the nearest pond or lake.
Jeremy listened well. He took suggestions, made corrections and in the course of an hour was casting like he had been raised on Nantucket. He is smart. Determined. And he was able to handle the ups and downs that come with surf fishing. Jeremy managed to hook three bluefish while Mark and I casted without a single hookup. All three of Jeremy’s fish managed to avoid the beach, due to no fault of Jeremy’s. But Jeremy had managed to hook into the only three blues that I knew of on the entire beach on that Saturday. That young man is going to do just fine in the fishing realm and, more importantly, at life. I hope I influenced Jeremy to get back here next summer and get out with me again. He’s sure got it all!
I am grateful for the amazing people and families that I get to spend time with. But this particular Saturday was a treat. Thanks to Max, Luke, and Doran for making me feel young again for a few hours. Thanks to the Mandel family for sharing their family time with me. Perhaps I’m not an influencer after all. But I sure am blessed.
Steve “Tuna” Tornovish is a Nantucket native who has spent his life fishing from the beaches of his beloved island. He loves to introduce clients to the joy of fishing with his Nantucket Island Fishing Adventures: stevetuna.com