Last Updated on May 14, 2021
Camille Walker represents one half of the popular My Mommy Style blog, which she manages with her life long best friend and cousin Melissa. From recipes to parenting topics and home décor ideas, My Mommy Style was created to share ideas than inspire Moms to live a happy life as well as promoting the idea that there’s not just one perfect way of being a mother. You can learn more about Camille at mymommystyle.com.
Can you tell us a bit about how you got started as a blogger influencer?
Yeah! So when I started blogging I was a stay at home mom with two young children and I really started to feel disconnected from my community around me or, you know, just to people on the outside world in general. So when I started my blog I actually started it with seven women of my closest ties to my family. My best friend, my cousin, my roommate and we all started this journey together and slowly they kind of filtered out so now it’s just myself and my cousin that blog together. But I just really wanted to create a community for women and thankfully with online tools it’s really allowed that and it has been so much fun and so rewarding to learn from the people that read my blog and interact with me online as well as just learning in the journey all along. It has been almost seven years now so I have learned so much and it has really been a family effort with my husband and my children and that’s just been the best gift ever.
At what point did you branch out into influencer marketing?
So the first few years it was really the blog was more just for fun. I didn’t realize the actual potential for online marketing or what that could be as for business development and the growth of online business for myself and other online other influencers. So I think it was after I’d been blogging maybe two to three years and we started to get offers of like fifty dollars or “get a free something” and we were like “yeah this is so cool”. So it took a few years before I even was starting to realize what potential it could be for working with brands and finding ways to bring their messages into a real valuable content source that could give value to everyone that was reading the blog post.
In another interview, you say you work as a team with your sister and cousin. Can you describe the dynamic and how you three come up with unique content ideas while balancing family life?
Yes! It’s funny because we each have very unique strengths that we handle in which running a blog online there is so much you have to consider with site maintenance and the media, the marketing, the contracts, and also the content creation so she more focuses of content only and I will do content but I also cover the other aspects as well. So coming up with those we will have brainstorming sessions for activities or holidays that are coming up or a l ot of times it’s questions we have ourselves as mothers and women that maybe we’ll search for that and see there’s nothing online.
And one of our tops post is how do I get crayons out of my clothing, you know, that has been through the wash and has gotten like melted wax all over the clothing and it has helped so many others out there that just say “thank you so much I thought my clothes were goners and that post really helped us” and that was just coming up with a question that we saw wasn’t solved online, you know, the greatest resource. So we try to fill in those gaps and really make content to help solve people’s problems and make their life easier as a mother.
As a mother, what are some of your favorite brand partnerships to-date?
So it’s funny my cousin does particularly like to write branded content. She doesn’t like the restriction of marketing things that have to be mentioned and whatnot so typically it’s just me that does brand partnerships. So I have four kids and one of my very favorites has been working with Disney as a Disney mom and being able to see first hand up and coming things with Disney and being able to involve my children with those. Another really fun thing has been working with toy brands that will send things and I will make videos with my kids or I really like finding products that make mom’s lives easier.
There’s a new monitor coming out that’s a breathing monitor for babies that actually has smart technology to watch the baby breathing that will notify you through your phone if something is wrong. And so that is just up and coming technology that is so groundbreaking like it’s really awesome. So I just love – it’s really exciting to me to be able to hear those things and share them with others so I could go on and on. I just love working with brands so it’s fun to be able to create that partnership and just bring that story to life.
I read your recent post about diapering and I am right in the middle of that season of life as well. Did you ever think to yourself when you were cleaning up messes in the middle of the night that you would one day be sponsored as a baby influencer to talk about those experiences?
No, No. I mean goodness it’s funny because my fourth now is almost out of diapers and I’ve been partnered with diaper companies for years and I never thought something like that, something so practical and almost an everyday nuisance that there were actually opportunities with that. But there are because there are ways to save money diapering, there are tips I’ve learned with diapering a new born versus diapering a two year old it’s very different. And so yeah that’s just been mind blowing that that’s been a possibility but it’s really neat. Like I’ve worked with Hugs and Pampers and Huggies so it’s been just really fun. Not the diaper changing part. We’re excited to be done with that.
You don’t have to name names, but what are some pitches you have received from brands that you turned down because they weren’t a good fit?
There’s been some really funny somewhat awkward brands that don’t fit my brand where I’m very family friendly positive brand. So sometimes there could be like lingerie or hard alcohol or sometimes there has been things with helping – a lot of things that involve the bathroom. Let’s just say that or things like that but for the most part I think people know what we represent. But yeah there have been some really funny ones. I can’t even remember there are because there’s been some really good laughs.
What has been the most rewarding moment for you as a blogger/influencer?
I think I just had it. So I have made quite a few videos about preparing for childbirth non medicated. And I created a series how to prep not only mothers but also their birth partners on how to practice hypnobaby and it was very much a passion project. I an an affiliate of theirs but I was not contracted to make this content and I recently met a woman randomly in the grocery store who recognized me said “that the content I had made had helped her to be able to achieve this and it helped not only her but her husband to be able to approach it. And she said and here’s my baby that we had and you walked me through it. It’s because of you that I did this” and I was just like “uh”. Like that was just really amazing because a lot of time you send out the content and you may get comments or emails that are really wonderful thanking you for what you’ve done but to me it’s someone in person it really warmed my heart. It almost makes me want to cry like it just made me feel so good that it truly helped someone and gave them value for their whole life and that is just so rewarding.
What are some goals you have for your blog moving forward?
I would say at this point in my life I have just a few years left with my little ones in home with me and something blogging has afforded me that has been greatest gift is that I can experience so many things related to my blog that involve my family and even my friends and extended family sometimes. So my goal for moving forward is I would love to just continue that. If my kids want to pursue channels of doing it themselves, which they’ve expressed interest we’ll see how that goes., but I just love that it’s family venture and if I can continue that and also even help other bloggers build a blog the way I have. I’m working on some content for that as well and I just feel like it’s such a wonderful opportunity especially for mothers who want to be at home with their children, to help provide for their families, and add value to other people because there is just so much possibility there. I just want to keep growing it and just try to keep it in the best balance that I can. As women and mothers I think we are always doing a balance check to see what we have going on and wanting to pursue more but also keeping it in mind with time with our family and true value there. So I’m working on content for that to help women achieve that as well, course content. So I think I will be selling that in the next coming year. I’m working on that with my husband where we will actually build course work to not only build a blog but also the business side of blogging like the taxes and most of the finances and a full understanding of what it entails. That’s kind of my next big project.
Is your course available coming up soon?
Yeah, we want to release it probably in the first part of the year. Maybe February, March and then we’ll be doing a couple speaking engagements as well to help people understand the business side of blogging. So I think a lot of people look at content creation and influencers and think oh that’s so easy or on the flip side they might think oh that’s too hard, like how do you run a business from home. And so it’s just kind of simplifying the package of okay there’s the content side but there’s also the business side and how do you marry the whole [thing] and still keep a family life going cause of a mother of four all under the age of ten it’s a bit crazy sometimes. So just finding that balance but it’s so doable and I would love to give that gift to other mothers.
Andrew is the Head of Client Services for Intellifluence and has a background in communications. He is committed to helping brands get the most out of their campaigns and is the co-host of the Influencer Spotlight series.
