516: From Caregiver to CEO: How Camille Joy Turned Her Son’s Diagnosis Into a Movement
Side Hustle Pro
Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I sat down with Camille Joy, founder of the Moments of Joy Podcast and author of Moments of Joy: 90 Days of Encouragement, published by Penguin Random House. Camille is a trafficking survivor who escaped an abusive situation at 21, became a high school dropout turned executive chef, and fought her way into a six-figure salary by going directly to the CEO. When her youngest son Mason was diagnosed with autism, everything shifted again, and a raw, tear-filled video she recorded in her car after a difficult doctor visit went viral with over six million views in 2022.
Today Camille runs two businesses: Moments of Joy, her for-profit media brand built on brand deals, speaking, and her book, and Awesomely Different, her nonprofit that provides swimming lesson grants for children with autism. She also shares how she and her filmmaker husband manage it all without a village, and what it really took to land Holly Robinson Peete as a podcast guest after five attempts over several years.
Main Takeaways
- Your test is your testimony: Camille's openness about trafficking, autism, and grief is what built her audience and her business.
- Tackle the shame first: Before you can turn your story into impact, you have to get comfortable sharing what you have been through.
- Serve before you ask: Camille landed Holly Robinson Peete as a guest by consistently showing up in her community, buying her book, attending her events, and reaching out five times before getting a yes.
- Caregiving and entrepreneurship can coexist: Camille and her husband run two businesses while raising Mason by communicating constantly, sharing schedules, and giving each other permission to pursue their goals.
Highlights Include
- 00:46 - Camille shares what life looked like before the Moments of Joy Podcast existed
- 01:45 - Mason's birth story and three heart surgeries in 18 months
- 02:42 - Receiving Mason's autism diagnosis and how it changed everything
- 04:40 - Camille reveals she is a trafficking survivor and how she escaped at 21
- 06:06 - How a stranger saying her name out loud was the sign she needed to go to culinary school
- 09:14 - Fighting for the executive chef title at ConAir Corporation by CC'ing the CEO
- 11:13 - Going to the CEO directly to demand her six-figure salary and getting it on the spot
- 23:22 - The viral reel that changed everything: 6 to 7 million views after a tearful moment in the car
- 27:06 - Launching Awesomely Different, her nonprofit that teaches children with autism to swim
- 31:52 - Signing with Penguin Random House and the reality of first-round edits
- 38:45 - How Camille and her husband manage two businesses and Mason's care without a traditional village
- 46:01 - Why tackling shame is the first step to turning your test into a testimony
- 52:03 - The strategy behind landing Holly Robinson Peete and why she reached out five times
- 56:17 - Lightning round: resources, role models, daily non-negotiables, and parting advice
Links Mentioned in This Episode
Podcorn (early podcast sponsorship platform): https://podcorn.com
Moments of Joy Podcast: https://www.mojpodcast.com/
Watch & Listen
Side Hustle Pro Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13qDj08lBR4ymzGhXIKy8t
Side Hustle Pro Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/side-hustle-pro/id1126021323
Social Media
Instagram: @momentsofjoypodcast
TikTok: @momentsofjoypodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Anytime you go through something, it causes you to feel so ashamed. |
| 0:04.2 | You don't want to tell a soul. |
| 0:06.0 | You don't want anybody to know your business. |
| 0:09.2 | You tackle that internal shame and deal with that first. |
| 0:12.6 | Because when we go through things, it's not meant to pull you down, but it's meant to, like, exercise those muscles so that, you know, you become all that God intended you to be. |
| 0:22.2 | It's never to wear you out and wear you down. |
| 0:25.2 | You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your side hustle |
| 0:30.9 | from passion project to profitable business. |
| 0:34.0 | And I'm your host, Nikaela Matthews Okome. |
| 0:36.6 | So let's get started. |
| 0:38.3 | Today's episode is for anyone who's ever gone through something so difficult and so painful that it completely changed the direction of your life, because that's exactly what happened to Camille Joy. |
| 0:52.3 | After her youngest son Mason was born with |
| 0:55.1 | congenital heart disease and later diagnosed with autism, Camille found herself navigating |
| 1:00.1 | sleepless nights, endless appointments, caregiver burnout, and the overwhelming isolation |
| 1:05.5 | so many special needs parents quietly carried. But instead of suffering in silence, she started talking about it. |
| 1:12.2 | What began as a podcast in 2018 turned into an entire movement. Today, Camille is the founder of |
| 1:18.4 | Moments of Joy, hosts of a podcast with more than 180 episodes, a creator with a community of |
| 1:24.3 | over 160,000 followers, co-director of the documentary Parents of the Spectrum, |
| 1:29.7 | and now a published author with Penguin Random House. |
| 1:33.3 | In this episode, we talk about building while caregiving, turning pain into purpose, |
| 1:39.0 | the business behind her platform, and why sometimes the very thing you're ashamed to talk about becomes the thing |
| 1:46.4 | that changes your life. Here's my conversation with Camille Joy. |
... |
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