We were lucky to catch up with Kayla Ellis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kayla, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I have always managed my own social media. I think it’s very valuable to be able to showcase your personality alongside your product and to be a relatable figure. Sometimes, somebody clicking with you can be the difference between them choosing your business or the competition. It’s so useful as a business owner to be personable and friendly, and managing your own social media is a great way to do that. As a mom of three, managing a business was part of my daily life, and mingled in with community events, youth sports, and school functions/fundraisers, and it felt important to show people the life going on behind the scenes, not just the end product.

Kayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve dabbled in photography since high school, and in college, I took an internship working for Disney. Though my job was is an unrelated field, I spent a lot of time photographing all of the delicious and beautiful food offered around the property. When I moved to the Space Coast, my work caught the eye of Florida Today, and I was featured in an article about Food Photography. Once my name and my work had been published, my social media started taking off and I started booking photography jobs with restaurants, food trucks, and food festivals. The businesses would use he photos for promotional items, menus, social media, etc.
In January 2020, my family welcomed our second baby, and was home for a few weeks to recover. In March 2020, my few weeks to recover, turned into everybody staying home for much, much longer! Needless to stay, all the restaurants were closed, and there were no photography jobs to be had.
I really needed a creative outlet. I was cooking every day for my family already (and I’m very good at it!), and would always photograph it…but I needed more.
I saw a couple charcuterie board accounts on Instagram, and started playing around with different ingredients. Looking back, the first ones were…not my best work. But after posting some to social media, I began getting messages about people wanting to order one – which was something I hadn’t even considered. I kept practicing, and began testing the waters here and there, making them for friends and family, and the handful of people who asked.
My work continued to get better, and requests were starting to really pick up. I started to wonder if I could really run a business, and was so nervous!
With my family cheering me on, I jumped in. I opened an LLC and rented commercial kitchen space!
Kayla Camera Eats (I kept my photography name) exploded. I was the first licensed and insured charcuterie company in Brevard County. With everybody still staying home for many celebrations, charcuterie was definitely at its height of popularity and was a social media hit.
I was doing so many boards every week, booked most weekends, and sold out every single holiday. I was doing all sizes of boards, would come up with fun seasonal or holiday ideas, was always on the lookout for interesting ingredients or containers, creating big corporate orders, started teaching workshops locally, guest spotting on other social media accounts, would set up grazing tables for large events, and even catered huge events for SpaceX! My brain was either on charcuterie-mode or mom-mode.
As my two boys got a bit older, and my business continued to grow, I found myself having to miss out on things because I was “booked”. i hasn’t in a place to hire somebody, but between my family, and all the aspects of running a business solo, I knew I needed a plan moving forward.
When we welcomed our third baby in May of 2023, I decided to close ordering for the summer. The big boys were out of school, and I wanted us to be able to spend time and bond as a family and recoup from the pregnancy.
The summer flew by – as summers do – the boys flourished and kept growing, and I got to be there for all of it.
I decided to re-open when school started back up, in mid-august. The orders started rolling back in! It felt so good to have been missed by the community, and everybody was so happy about the baby and for me to be back, it really was lovely. I even was nominated for “Best of Brevard” in the catering division, and got to go to a fancy gala!
However…I missed my kids. Weekends and holidays were always my busiest times…but also was when my whole family was together, and I wanted to be with them. I kept plugging along with my orders and events, trying to juggle soccer games, school events, birthdays, family trips, caring for a baby, etc. It was hard. And while I loved it, and felt SO PROUD to have created something entirely on my own, with no formal training, no college degree…it was bringing me far more stress than joy.
I agonized over what to do for weeks. Talked it to death with my husband and my mom, trying to decide how to proceed. Ultimately, I knew in my heart, that I wanted nothing more than to be able to give my 100% focus to my family…which meant closing KCE.
I announced that I would take regular orders through September, and large events through October, and kept all scheduled orders on the books to be completed. When I made the announcement, I wasn’t sure what to expect – but the outpouring of love and support that the community gave me is something I will hold close to heart for the rest of my life. My babies are all still little, and the time I’ll get with them is so fleeting; the fact that this huge group of people understood and were cheering me on as I followed my heart…was just such an incredible gift, and made my difficult choice an easier adjustment.
In the 3.5 years I was open, my business FLOURISHED, and I created over 2,500 grazes on the Space Coast. I left a place in the community that has been filled by other extremely talented people (who I will always refer my past clients to!) and it was truly an honor. KCE has been closed for just over 6 months now. It’s been bittersweet. I don’t miss the paying taxes, bookkeeping, and hours in the kitchen (I actually got to watch the thanksgiving day parade with my kids this year, and make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve morning!), but I do miss the creativity, and being a part of people’s celebrations. I’m still making boards for family events, and haven’t written off the thought that I may jump back into it in the future – or maybe try something totally different. But it’s really great to feel like for now, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

One of my biggest pieces of advice is STAY ON TOP OF YOUR TAXES. Make sure you know exactly what you need to be registered for, who needs to get what payments and when they are due. It can be very overwhelming, but don’t be afraid to make phone calls and ask a million questions.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

If I knew an order was for an event, like a proposal, birthday, wedding, etc, it’s always nice to reach out after the fact. You can ask how it was, or just drop a quick hello, and tell them you hope it was lovely!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayla.camera.eats/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/kayla.camera.eats/

Image Credits
The photo of me (the personal photo, in the white dress), and the last photo of the board that uploaded (with the glass of OJ in the background) are by Winship Photography. The rest I took myself.