Today we’d like to introduce you to Camille Wilson.
Hi Camille, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
This will probably surprise folks. But I didn’t drink when I was in college because I didn’t like the taste of alcohol and couldn’t understand what the hype was about. But after moving back to New York City to attend graduate school, things changed for me. At that time, the craft cocktail boom had hit the city. So for the first time, I was drinking well-balanced cocktails made with fresh, unique ingredients. And I actually enjoyed it. So I would go home and try to recreate some of the drinks I had when I was out and create my own variations.
So in 2018, I started thinking about going back to school for a doctorate degree. And I soon realized that I would need to get back into the habit of writing since I had been out of school for so long. I decided I would start a blog but needed something interesting to write about, something that would make me excited about writing. And cocktails were what made the most sense for me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For the most part, things have gone really well for me and I’m super grateful. One of my biggest challenges is balancing The Cocktail Snob with my full-time job. I’ve been a working professional in a 9-5 work environment for over ten years now. And I’ve always been able to strike a good balance between work and life. But once I added content creation and blogging to my plate just under three years ago, I knew I had to reassess how I would strike that balance.
At first, it was pretty simple because blogging was more of an escape, a passion project for me. But once I began to monetize my passion, I knew I would have to redefine what balance looked like for me because I didn’t want my passion project to suddenly start feeling like a job I resented. Having a solid foundation in the way I balanced my work and life for so many years definitely helped. But I’ve learned that expanding my definition of balance to include being intentional about self-care and doing things that energize me regularly is very important…
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
By day, I work in admissions for a private university. And a lot of my free time is spent creating content for my blog, The Cocktail Snob, and hosting virtual mixology workshops online. I started my blog to inspire people to create their own happy hour at home. And through my mixology classes, I get to be a part of that experience. What sets me apart is how I break down mixology into something that’s digestible for the average person who is just looking to enjoy a drink at home. I find that there’s this misconception that you need lots of ingredients and expensive alcohol to make quality drinks at home. But that’s not the case. And through my website and Instagram, I share many simple recipes and tips and tricks to show people how easy it really is.
What are your plans for the future?
For my future, I want to continue to challenge the notion that you need to spend a ton of money and have fancy ingredients to create good cocktails at home. Outside of that, I’ve got a couple of big projects in the works that I’m really excited about. One of which is my book, Free Spirit Cocktails, which will be published by Chronicle Books in November of this year.
Contact Info:
- Email: cheers@cocktailsnobnyc.com
- Website: www.cocktailsnobnyc.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecocktailsnob_
Image Credits
The two photos of me were taken by Amanda Crommett
