Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Carlytta Camper with me. Welcome.
Carlytta Camper: Hello. I’m excited to be here.
Toni: I’m excited to have you here. So, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Carlytta: Alright. My name is Carlytta Camper. I’m the owner of Oasis Dog Spa and Shop located in Muhlenberg Township on Route 61. I am 30 years old.
Toni: Okay, great. Now, I just was part of another interview with you for our audience where you’re going to have to check out her interview at the Chamber, because she gives dogs blueberry facials, just as one of the services that you do, correct?
Carlytta: Yes.
Toni: Very cool for the dogs. Let’s get into the Project, alright?
Carlytta: Alright.
Toni: What does inspiration mean to you?
Carlytta: Inspiration for me is an idea that comes that’s inspiring, that it makes me want to create something. Whether it’s a smell, sight, sound — anything that jolts my mind to then want to create.
Toni: It could be a thought, or it could be something tangible?
Carlytta: Yeah, and even sometimes for me, strangely enough, it’s even a dream that I have, that I dreamed something, and next thing you know, I want to now make it a reality.
Toni: Are you one of those that wakes up in the middle of the night and writes those ideas?
Carlytta: Yes.
Toni: Are you really? That’s great. When was the last time you were inspired?
Carlytta: The last time I was inspired, I would say actually, you know what, it was probably at the mixer, Jobany’s third mixer. To see the hard work that he had done to create having the Wednesday Diversity Mixers, that was so neat, and to see how many people he influenced and impacted, and then when he had his family come at the end to show how it was worth it and to inspire his kids, I thought that was so neat.
Toni: What did that do for you? How did it make you feel, that inspired room?
Carlytta: Really, really good, and really proud. It was exciting to see someone who took — again, being a business owner, you understand hard work. You understand sleepless nights. You understand ideas that maybe people don’t understand, and then again to see something that someone else created and to now me being there as a part of his creation, then it makes me think of what I do to others. It’s really cool.
Toni: It really came full circle.
Carlytta: Mm-hmm.
Toni: So, how do you take that, in that particular instance, whether it’s pride, being moved by somebody else’s success or seeing what you can do to pull things together, how do you take when you’re inspired and put those ideas into practice in Berks County?
Carlytta: Good question. Again, like I said, I guess being what I do — again, as you know, I do things with dogs. My thing is to now translate that into my work. How do I make my customers or people who are coming in that I influence happy? My customers actually have four legs. How do I make them happy? Again, like you said, coming full circle, I do things for dogs, which again makes me happy, and I’m excited, and then they go home and they’re excited as well. I try to carry what I learn into the work that I do as well.
Toni: If you were to think of your personal inspiration, does it translate the same as far as creating experiences?
Carlytta: Yes. For me, who inspires me are my parents. My mom, she is a stay at home mom, but yet I saw all the hard work she did to make sure me and my sister were taken care of. I also get a lot of my behavior from her; being kind, generous, things like that. As far as my dad, he’s always worked, so he’s technically a workhorse, so that’s where I get that from. He always would do overtime, anything he can to provide for his family. Those two combinations is basically what makes me.
Toni: That’s fantastic. You’ve been inspired by your parents, and you’ve put that inspiration into practice with work ethic and values and so forth.
Carlytta: Exactly. Yeah.
Toni: That probably, most likely, translates into your business as well as your personal life.
Carlytta: Basically. They correlate in some ways, because basically, as you know, your business, it technically is part of my life. It is my life.
Toni: Absolutely.
Carlytta: When people come, they’re seeing me, too.
Toni: You’ve already given me a hint of this question, but who else in Berks County inspires you?
Carlytta: I would say also Hamid Chaudhry. His giving is so neat. It never gets old.
Toni: Yes.
Carlytta: I love the fact that he gives so much, but not just gives — anyone can give— but to do it lovingly; to be excited about that. You see that when you see him. I’ve been following and reading up on him and seeing just the different things. I had the pleasure to meet him at an event that we had. Again, similar to myself, you see that’s a part of his character.
Toni: Right.
Carlytta: Anyone can do things, but when you see it as someone’s character, that I feel is a treasure to have.
Toni: What a great answer. Anybody else in Berks County inspire you?
Carlytta: There’s so many. There’s so many, as you know, who I met in the last even week. It’s just neat to read and hear about people. Oh, my goodness. I would say Angie Farrell from Sweet Ride. Oh, my goodness. Her too. Again, now being a woman and putting her business, her dream, something she thought about with the ice cream, and then actually now I can partake in that. I think it’s neat. Anyone can read about people, but when you meet them, you see their character, and again, now I feel I can share in their dream, and then vice versa for me.
Toni: So, it’s really the personal attributes of people really inspire you, too. It’s not just their transaction.
Carlytta: Yeah. Like I said, anyone can do things, but when you see it become natural—and like I said, again, for me personally, I can relate to that. That’s why I feel connection, and that inspires me. It inspires me all the more to even keep going; that there is a reason to do things.
Toni: What would you like your legacy to be?
Carlytta: Well my legacy I want to be is — well, like I said, everyone knows I’m nice and kind, but I also want them to know how I always would seek the Lord’s faith. Again, as we talk about inspiration, the Lord, and things like that have always inspired me. That is a very key factor in my life. That way, people will see how the Lord has blessed me. Because of these practices, because of how I live that, they see the product of that. That’s what I would want people to even see now and know in the future when they read about me.
Toni: So really, the legacy continues every day, doesn’t it?
Carlytta: My gosh, yes.
Toni: You work that muscle pretty hard.
Carlytta: I do my best; and again, making others happy, that’s what makes me happy.
Toni: There you go. What a wonderful living legacy you are.
Carlytta: Thank you.
Toni: Thank you so much for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Carlytta: Well, thank you for inviting me. It was fun.
