A Jill Of Many Trade's

Story telling career by Cheryl Campbell

I have been ask a lot lately to describe who I am & what exactly I do. Well, I tell them that is too vague of a question.... My career path has landed me in so many creative careers in Lambertville, NJ, NYC, Los Angeles & now Savannah Georgia. I was scouted & referred by colleagues, but I was mostly an independent contractor for events, design & redesign of homes.

When I was starting out I always had a second job in the hospitality industry in order to pursue my interests as a Artist, Creative Designer & Actor.. Creatives, as we all know it takes time and I mean a lot of time to be successful either financially or to be acknowledged in the ART SCENE. During the day I was creating art & designing, at night off to my second job as a waitress/ bartender. I knew if I put my mind to it that I could make my career happen faster on my own. I believe that I could do anything I put my mind too. If I didn't know how to do it I would figure it out. I wasn't afraid to ask for help! My Father's favorite phrase to me was..... Cheryl! There are 10% of the people in the world that love what they do for a living. There are 2% of the people in the world that love what they do for a living & make a good living. He said just make sure that you are in that 2% or 10% for you will have a happy life! His quote has been burned into my brain even still to this day.......

I went to school for interior design & fashion design. My first job out of school was as an assistant clothing designer for Blue Fish Clothing. I was one of the original 5. Owner Jennifer Barclay appeared on the Oprah Show for being a self made female millionaire under the age of 30. I later opened a 6,000 sq. ft. Art & Antique store in Lambertville, NJ with David Teague called "America Designs". www.americadesigns.com . As Co-Founder/Owner of America Designs, America had a unique eye for one of a kind art, furniture, decorative arts, vintage, mid-century & period pieces from every era. What made us stand out was acquiring the largest collection of Period Clock Tower Clock Faces from Europe. David was designing one of a kind pieces of furniture & I was designing interiors for clients. We were vendors at Antique Shows in NYC & in the Hamptons. Our client list was endless. Martha Stewart, Betsy Johnson, Richard Gere, Annie Leibovitz, Anthropology, Ralph Lauren, J. Peterman & many high profile Interior Designers. America had an endless source of unique display pieces of furniture for retail stores, also designing display fixtures. Our store & our home was featured in many articles such as Architectural Digest, British Country Homes & Interiors, 2 page color spread in the New York Post's 200th Years Celebration, The Star Ledger, Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Life to name a few. After a successful 10 year career together we decided to call it quits as Co-Owners. I moved to NYC to pursue acting & David kept the store. I became a SAG actor on the Movie "Unbreakable". As an actor I got calls from Walken/Jaffe Casting to audition for 'The Sopranos' multiple times as well as other shows. Then 9/11 happened it changed my life. I ended up being the Head Coordinator of a the supplies needed for Ground Zero for 6 months.

After 9/11 I decided to move to Los Angeles. First thing was to find a bartending job in LA. I was being considered for the original "Extreme Make Over Home Edition" TV Show as a designer. I didn't get cast but someone told another person from HGTV about my portfolio. I landed as a featured designer on HGTV Show "Outer Spaces" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYWJNBBAcuM

As I was pursuing acting I was the Operations Manager for ROK Events. ROK was a new staffing agency that we were developing of chefs, supervisors, models, servers & bartenders. I was hiring & training by the 100's. Most of the people wanting to make it in the acting, modeling or food industry. We would staff events for all the major studios in LA. Our client list was escalating so fast for Caterers, movie premieres, MTV Awards, SONY Pictures:"The Roast", The Golden Globes, Emmy's,Wolfgang Puck & many more. That lead to a call from one of Oprah Winfrey's staff Dave Kiaurakis about this new TV Network Launch. I'm sure you know of this Network called "OWN" to launch January 1st 2011. We got hired to help produce & design this new Network Event! ROK Events was the IT Staffing Company at the time. My partners had already committed to a huge event in Las Vegas. I was on my own, lol. Finally getting to use my talents in design to launch the network OWN event & it was a SUCCESS!

Being freelance artist & event coordinator got me jobs designing events & parties on my own. Clients started heading my way; Decorating Pink's 4th of July party in Malibu, Stevie Nick's Christmas Party & Designing table scapes, beautiful food stations for movie premieres, studio events, TV Awards & great LA Catering companies. Some favorite events that I was operations supervisor for: The LA Times Food & Wine Festival 'The Taste", Unveiling LAX Tom Bradley International Airport Remodeled Event 2013 & charity events.

Later I got referred to Wolfgang Puck Catering in Los Angeles. WP was the first corporate company that I really enjoyed working for! 8 years working for this company was AMAZING!!! I got to travel & supervise incredible events & help establish WP in Seattle for Microsoft. My favorite WP events I help execute: The Oscars, MoPOP Holiday Events for Facebook, Zillow, Microsoft & Paul Allen, The Desert Trip Concert, HBO Emmy Party. If I had to guess how many events I worked in my career it would be in the thousands.

So, what am I doing now??? I'm working on Saving Savannah! My true passion is redesigning homes that are falling apart. My intent is to make sure all these amazing historic homes & buildings that are in decay will be restored & preserved to their original state or be reinvented into a BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART. Savannah Georgia has this AMAZING MYSTIQUE about it & it needs help. I'm looking for those passionate people, organizations or mega companies that are looking to invest in helping me preserve our cultural history one city at a time. From there I want to engage in helping better education in public schools, helping disabled veterans, animal shelters, underprivileged children, poverty, homelessness & cancer awareness. I know that's a big undertaking but we have to start somewhere & social awareness is a good place to start. One step forward, right?!

The only thing I know is that I want to make a difference in this World! When I die which will hopefully be past the age of 100, that somewhere on the internet, wikipedia or the cloud that it says: Cheryl Campbell made an impact on this world for a better future.......

Reach out to me if you want to help. I'm one person with a voice & grateful to have this platform to inspire others.

The picture above are 3 of my chefs & the beginnings of building the Launch event.

Storytelling by Cheryl Campbell

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