My Story

I’ve been an entrepreneur ever since I was a child. In 2nd grade I remember the principal of my school shutting down my bracelet making business. Parents were complaining that their kids were spending all their lunch money on my products. I understood business even then.

What I wouldn’t give to go back and time now and hear 8 year old Erika’s sales pitch.

At 18, instead of going to University for writing and English Studies I taught myself how to write a business plan and applied for a small business government grant to start a photography business. Blending both my business and creative brains.

For 13 years I developed and co-owned one of the most sought after photography companies in Canada. The work created at Rowell Photography was published hundreds of times worldwide, in magazines, books and online blogs.

As a photographer I visited some of the most beautiful and interesting places in the world. The Palace of Versailles in France, the Highlands of Scotland, the southern most point of South East Asia Singapore, The Glacial Lagoon in Iceland, private castles in Czech Republic, and tiny villas in the Caribbean. I wrote a blog for nearly 10 years straight documenting the stories of those clients and my travels. 2006 – 2016 http://www.rowellphoto.com/blog/

During my time as a photographer I also mentored up and coming photographers. Working with them to develop business and marketing plans, helping them reach their goals. It wasn’t long before I started managing my commercial photography clients media strategies for their advertising and social media campaigns. Collaborating with business and advertising agencies to get the most out of their media was a huge part of my company photography services. It lead me back to writing. Being able to blend two very different skill sets to tell business stories just made sense to me. So I branched off from photography alone and began consulting on media for companies across Canada and the United States.

Currently, I partner with The Lakeside Collective on most local projects. The Lakeside Collective is a team of graphic designers, web designers, coders, photographers, videographers, social media consultants and copywriters, who collaborate to create bigger and better performing brands for local businesses in Ontario. We all bring together our unique skills and experience to each project. That’s probably my favourite part of this team. In 2018 we successfully launched 7 brands into the marketplace.

In addition to working with The Lakeside Collective, I am a partner at The Muskokan; a lifestyle and travel blog and listing site about Muskoka, Canada.