For most of her life, Meagan Camp followed a fairly straight career trajectory in design. Not only were interiors a constant topic of conversation at her household growing up, but they were also a family legacy. Camp’s mother, grandparents and even great-grandparents all earned a living from interior design, making topics like paint colors, antiques and home layouts fodder for casual dinner table conversation in her house.

“I feel like I was born into design,” Camp tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of the Trade Tales podcast. “It was ingrained in me at an early age that the space around you is such a major part of how you feel in life.”

Still, Camp didn’t go directly into the family business. Instead, she studied photography in college and spent nearly a decade as a stylist before realizing she wanted long-term creative control over her design projects. After completing a project secured through a family friend—a gut renovation on the Upper East Side—she went all-in on a career in design in 2014 and began building her own firm.

But while the work itself was fulfilling, the pressure to keep up with everyone in the industry online could sometimes feel overwhelming. The onset of the pandemic—and the influx of new projects that followed—did nothing to alleviate her frustration with the nagging obligation to post on Instagram. Then, in 2021, Camp decided to do something totally off course. She woke up one morning with the sudden realization that her social media accounts weren’t serving her. It was time to take a break—and instead of simply turning off her notifications, Camp opted to completely clear her accounts and archive all of her posts. In one fell swoop, her firm disappeared from Instagram.

Camp never expected to quit the platform entirely, though her social media pause lasted nearly a year. Among many other benefits, the move allowed her to effectively hit the reset button on her online presence. “It was like this creative social experiment: If I could start fresh, wipe the slate clean and start over from the first post on the type of work I would like to showcase, what would that look like?” says Camp. “It was such a weight off my shoulders. I felt like, ‘Hallelujah, I have done something that no one else has done, and they probably think I’m nuts, and I don’t care.’”

The hiatus proved to be a transformative experience. In this episode of the podcast, Camp shares the lessons she gleaned from her social media break, how she realized she was undercharging and why her ideal projects allow for a new kind of luxury.

Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This episode was sponsored by The Container Store and The Shade Store.

Homepage image: Meagan Camp | Courtesy of Meagan Camp