Entrepreneur Camille Styles on Adapting... and Adapting Again

Yasmin Nouri

Yasmin is the host of the "Behind Her Empire" podcast, focused on highlighting self-made women leaders and entrepreneurs and how they tackle their career, money, family and life.

Each episode covers their unique hero's journey and what it really takes to build an empire with key lessons learned along the way. The goal of the series is to empower you to see what's possible & inspire you to create financial freedom in your own life.

Camille Styles
Image courtesy of Camille Styles

Camille Styles thought she had her dream job — until she started to crave more creativity.

On this episode of Behind Her Empire, the serial entrepreneur talks about how she learned to take risks, dealing with burnout and gaining the confidence to pursue her passions.

Styles runs Camille Styles, a digital publication that grew out of a blog she created as a hobby and, over time, became a business.


Styles says she grew up adapting. As a young girl, she lived in Fort Worth Texas where her mother exposed her to art, nature and cooking. When she turned eight, her family moved to a small town in Missouri. Eventually, her family moved once more, leaving Styles to once again find her footing in a new environment.

“I can remember screaming at my parents that they were destroying my life,” she says. “But in hindsight, I am so thankful for those experiences that really started to build that sense of independence and determination to kind of find my own path and carve out a place for myself.”

That skill of adaptability helped Styles to stay afloat through her professional life — from New York, where she worked in the fashion industry as a college student, to Texas, where she got her start in event planning, to her journey into becoming an entrepreneur at 24.

“I talked to basically every small business owner that I knew, I asked for their advice and to talk to them about some of the mistakes they made,” she says.” “And I launched Camille Styles Events with one intern and myself working out of the basement of our little 1,000-square-foot bungalow.”

She didn’t stop there; “On the side, I launched a blog,” she adds.

That blog has been the focus of her career for over a decade. Throughout that time, Styles had to adapt to keep up with the rapidly-evolving internet, growing her audience, monetizing her content and refining it for social media platforms– all while being a mother to her two children.

Styles says she avoids feeling overwhelmed by doing what feels natural to her—changing.

“Instead of quitting, I pivoted and I changed,” she says, “which I think is really important when anyone feels burnout—to not just keep doing what you're doing.”

Thirteen years after starting her blog, Styles is once again changing route. Her new business hasn’t yet been named or announced, but Styles says she is learning how to build and ship physical products to customers, something she has never done before. But starting from scratch is nothing new for Styles.

“It's nice to be able to kind of let it unfold naturally and take my time with each step of the process,” she says.

Engagement and Production Intern Jojo Macaluso contributed to this post.

Hear more of the Behind Her Empire podcast. Subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radioor wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Deep 6 AI and Point Predictive Gain New CROs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Deep 6 AI and Point Predictive Gain New CROs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

***

Read moreShow less

This Week in ‘Raises’: Britive Secures $20.5M, Mad Rabbit Lands $10M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Britive Secures $20.5M, Mad Rabbit Lands $10M
This Week in ‘Raises’:

A local cloud identity security platform raised fresh funding to expand customer interest in the company’s intelligent privileged access management platform, while one tattoo aftercare company raised its largest funding round to date with the help from Mark Cuban and other notable investors to expand its product line, increase marketing efforts and grow its team.

***

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending