Camilla J Collins

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Camilla J Collins ✍️ Writer 🎤 Speaker & 🎨 Founder
Identity | Creativity | Energy
Work & Life adventures ans musings...

Realigning creative entrepreneurs to live better and feel better by creating more time, energy and freedom ✨

I’ve been rather quiet on here lately - and even if you’ve been following me for a while, you may not recognise me - nea...
16/09/2026

I’ve been rather quiet on here lately - and even if you’ve been following me for a while, you may not recognise me - nearly 9 years of multicoloured hair and I’ve gone back to my roots… literally! 💁🏼‍♀️

So, hey, I’m Camilla (Cam or Cammy for short) 👋

At the beginning of this year I started writing a book…
Then I spent months developing a signature talk and a whole programme around identity, achievement and all the different versions of ourselves we create…

And then something happened - which really shouldn’t surprise me or those who know me…

I finished all that work and thought… 🤔 I’m not sure I actually want to do this anymore.

Not the thinking or exploring - I’m still FASCINATED by people, identity, behaviour - and all the weird and wonderful things us humans do!

But I realised I didn’t particularly want to turn every interesting thought I had into a post or a programme… or make everything quite so. damn. serious.

The last few years have got a bit “heady” if I’m honest.

And so lately, I’ve been getting back into my hands 🤲

I’ve wanted to be a cog in a wheel again for a minute, not try to be the whole damn wheel!

So I put myself back on the books for my own agency CJC Hair & Makeup … and it’s been joyous!

I’d forgotten how good it feels to create with my hands, how lovely the conversations are in the makeup chair, and how WON-DER-FUL collaborating on awesome projects with creative people feels! 🙌

I’ve remembered how much I really, REALLY like creating.

Sometimes that’s makeup artistry or sculpting hair…
Sometimes it’s building a business, an event, a talk… a piece of writing or an idea to explore.

There are exciting things happening BTS, but I can’t / won’t package all of it into a perfectly coherent answer about “what I’m doing now”.

We don’t always need to know what we’re doing next.
We’re allowed to just follow what feels interesting for a while. And, no, not everything needs a strategy.

I hope to get back into posting more here - observations, stories, work, creativity, biz, life, dogs (obvs!)… and whatever else!

But for now, just interrupting the silence to say I’m still here… and going back to my roots in more ways than one 🫶

Another Beast in the bag! 👏 - honestly, it’s my FAVOURITE thing - I’d do these every Sunday if I could!! Massive shoutou...
18/08/2026

Another Beast in the bag! 👏 - honestly, it’s my FAVOURITE thing - I’d do these every Sunday if I could!!

Massive shoutout to Harry Briggs Reeve for rising to the challenge and being SUCH a a good sport allowing me to rope him into it so last minute… and for being BRILLIANT company! 😂🫶

With a camera roll bursting with footage a reel will make its way to the grid soon…
But for now I’m Dartmoor bound and off grid for the rest of the week working on biz, life, and ♥️.

See you on the other side folks ✌🏻

P.s. If you want to join me (and Harry!) on the next Spartan then let me know!
The more the merrier and it’s a GREAT day out - Harry will attest to this, won’t you Harry?! 😉

P.S.S. Thank you all for ALL the Birthday love ###

13/08/2026

There’s a type of magic that only appears when we allow ourselves to wander without agenda… when we are open…and when we are fully present.

Sometimes the best things are the ones we didn’t think to look for.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” - John Muir

When I was competing, there was an extreme focus on how I looked. There were photos like this aplenty in my camera roll!...
12/08/2026

When I was competing, there was an extreme focus on how I looked.

There were photos like this aplenty in my camera roll!

But over the years, as I’ve deliberately shifted the emphasis away from how my body looks, I’ve questioned many times whether caring about my physique is vanity.

After years of competing and being a show pony, it’s taken years to rebuild a healthier relationship with my body and build confidence in myself beyond how I looked.

My physique is still important, not so much because of what it looks like but what it represents.

The last 4 months have been exciting, but also chaotic as I’ve been travelling, moving home, building new things and juggling a lot.

The routine that keeps me feeling good - mind, body and soul - had to take a backseat.

And that’s fine because life isn’t a straight line and balance 24/7 isn’t how life works.

But over the last couple of weeks, I’ve finally had the space to return to it - not as tick boxes squeezed in between events, clients and deadlines, but fully present with it all.

This reflection isn’t just a body.

It’s:

Time outside.

Sleep.

Movement.

Calm headspace.

Enough water.

Nourishing food.

Keeping promises to myself.

Stronger boundaries.

Looking after myself.

For many years I let the mirror tell me my worth.
Now it simply reminds me how I’ve been treating myself.

And that’s a much healthier relationship to have with a mirror.

What have I been expecting my work to give me that it simply can’t?… this is a question I found myself sitting with yest...
06/08/2026

What have I been expecting my work to give me that it simply can’t?

… this is a question I found myself sitting with yesterday.

It’s not the first time I’ve asked it.

In fact, it’s a question I’ve explored with many clients over the years too.

For many of us, work starts as a way to earn a living…
but over time it becomes something much bigger.

Purpose.

Identity.

Belonging.

Recognition.

Security.

That’s a very tall order for any career to carry.

Sometimes when people feel stuck, restless or frustrated, it isn’t because they need a different career or business…

It’s because, without realising it, they’ve started asking work to provide everything.

So, I thought I’d throw that question out to you today.

It’s one that’s worth asking if you’re ambitious, driven, or someone who cares deeply about what you do.

What have you been expecting your work to give you that it simply can’t?

For years, I thought I was building a career in hair and makeup… But all along I was learning how to read people.For the...
04/08/2026

For years, I thought I was building a career in hair and makeup…

But all along I was learning how to read people.

For the last 15 years, people have sat in my chair just before some of the biggest moments of their lives.

Brides. Musicians. Actors. TV presenters. Speakers. Founders and CEOs.

No matter who they are, there’s always a mix of excitement and nerves... and then there’s the mirror.

Very few of us spend that long simply looking at ourselves.

It’s surprisingly vulnerable.
I remember experiencing it myself at makeup school, where we spent hours working on each other every day.

You have to face yourself and stay there.

And no matter how successful someone is, self-doubt often finds a way of appearing in the reflection.

Yes, I’m there to do their hair and makeup - and it’s one of my greatest joys - but I’ve always found myself paying particularly close attention to the person.

Their energy and demeanour - how they’re holding themselves… what they’re saying… what they’re not saying.

And the big changes often aren’t seen in the mirror at all.

They’re when someone relaxes, begins speaking more openly, smiles more brightly - that’s always been the real magic for me.

The the makeover became the vehicle.

I didn’t really have the language for that when I started my business back in 2010, but I do now.

And that’s why my work gradually expanded beyond how I could help people transform to how they relate to themselves.

After fifteen years of watching people in the mirror, one of the most overlooked parts of transformation isn’t necessarily what we put on…

It’s what we’re finally willing to put down.

28/07/2026

I don’t believe anyone should want less from their life or stop striving for the things that matter to them….

But we do need to recognise when achievement is no longer something we’re choosing and has become something we’re depending on.

There’s a huge difference between:

I want to achieve this… and I need to achieve this to feel okay about myself.

They can look exactly the same:

A successful business.
An impressive career.
A fitter body.

But internally, they can be driven by two very different things.

One is driven by desire… the other by fear.

If achievement has become part of how you create your sense of safety, worth, or identity, then reaching the goal doesn’t give you what you thought it would…

Because it never feels like enough for long.

There’ll always have to be another goal
another level…
another version of you to become…

Which makes being still feel more uncomfortable than moving forward - hello burnout! 👋🏻

I’m not campaigning for less ambition.
I’m encouraging ambition to be driven by choice, not fear.

So you can still do extraordinary things without needing them to prove you’re enough.

To me, that is freedom 🪽

These last couple of months I’ve been creating my signature talk - it’s about how the identities that once helped us can...
23/07/2026

These last couple of months I’ve been creating my signature talk - it’s about how the identities that once helped us can eventually hold us back later on.

What I’ve come to understand is that coming back to yourself doesn’t actually feel very welcoming at first.

If you’ve spent years being the person your career or business needed, or constantly becoming an improved version of yourself you thought you needed to be to “succeed”… then removing those identities leaves you feeling vulnerable and lost.

Because you’re a stranger to yourself.

You can feel like you’re on shaky ground and out of control, and the natural response is to find something else to hold onto.

Another goal, a new role, the “next level” of yourself… basically, a new script you can follow.

My response to uncertainty was always to become something.

New business? - That’s going to require a new me!
New city? - Ooo, what a great opportunity to reinvent myself where no one knows me!
New goal? - Well, it’s time to step for my ‘next level’!

It’s exhausting.

Recognising that pattern is what stops me from automatically following it now.

This photo was taken last week when I was delivering my talk and telling a personal part of my story.

I hadn’t planned to sit down mid-delivery.
I just did.

That tiny moment represents something.

Less controlling, less perfecting and polishing…
and more trust in myself to respond naturally.

Dropping an identity feels disorientating.

When the old script stops working and you resist the urge to immediately write yourself another one it gets particularly uncomfortable…

That discomfort shouldn’t be avoided.
But it often is.

Because reinvention is celebrated, right?
We reward achievements - just as we do impressive roles and responsibilities.

But much of that validation comes from other people.

If nobody else was around to witness your next reinvention… how much of it would you still want?

With things moving at such a fast pace these days, I believe the most satisfying work isn’t becoming someone new…

It’s staying in the space between identities long enough to get reacquainted with the person underneath them.

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