We’re looking forward to introducing you to Joaquin Camilo. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Joaquin, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Volunteer, and give back to my community. Honestly, it feels scary to step out of my comfort zone and collaborate with people I’ve never interacted with before, and share pieces of myself that may help someone else. We all feel like broken pieces at times, and to think that someone else finds value in a piece that’s mine, it’s a weird feeling.
On a bigger level, I don’t believe the world changes with a post or a comment. If anything, the digital world and the politics around it, often divide us more than bring us together. Volunteering might not scale like a viral post, but it can impact someone’s world—maybe even just for a brief moment. That feels more real to me.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Joaquin Camilo. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. I had this odd little ability to mimic people’s physicality and it would crack my dad up. I’d walk across the room imitating how each family member moved, and I just remember how much joy it brought me seeing everyone’s reaction. That love of performing led me into acting, and eventually into producing and line producing a handful of indie films.
Then the industry slowed down. I shot a couple of films during COVID, which was wild in itself, but then after the strikes, everything just went dry. During that slower period, my two kids were born, and necessity gave life to a blue-collar company my wife and I started called Betty’s Windows. I took Mike Rowe’s advice jumped head first into the blue-collar world.
I’ve never been a stranger to hard work. As an actor, I had to survive. I’ve probably worked 20 different jobs in my life, sometimes two or three at the same time. I knew I could learn something new quickly. Line producing had already opened up the business side of my brain, so building Betty’s Windows felt like a natural extension of that. We launched in early 2024, naming the company after my wife. A big part of that decision was wanting our daughters to grow up seeing their mom’s name on the trucks and to know they can build something of their own one day too.
Almost two years in, we’ve built a strong base of commercial clients, a growing list of residential customers, and even a handful of office buildings we maintain. Business is growing, and honestly, it fulfills me in ways I never expected.
At the same time, I’m still rooted in entertainment. A short film I directed last year, Oceansiders, is currently running the festival circuit. It’s a quirky horror story about a time-share presentation you can’t escape from. So in a way, I’m balancing both worlds, the creative and the entrepreneurial, and both continue to shape my story
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Jean-Paul Sartre wrote an existential play titled No Exit, where three strangers are trapped in a room and eventually realize that ‘hell is other people.’ Their torment isn’t the room itself, it’s being forced to confront themselves through each other’s gaze.
But in the same way that hell can be other people, so too can heaven. What breaks the bonds between us is people, and what restores them is also people. At its core, it’s the choice we make together: to work on something, or to walk away.
Of course, that’s an oversimplification. Ego, pride, and circumstance complicate things. But in the end, it often comes down to whether both sides decide to show up and make it work, or to let it break.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I started acting in 2005 and spent about five years studying under different teachers here in Los Angeles before finally getting an agent and starting to audition. This is not an exaggeration: it took me 750 auditions before I booked one. By audition 745, I was completely done. In my head, I wasn’t good enough, I was the problem, and the noise in my mind was deafening.
Then a friend, Alec, mentioned a clowning workshop from a European company called Spy Monkey, taught by a Spanish instructor named Aitor Bassaury. That class in 2015 cracked me open in a way I didn’t expect. From there, I went on to work non-stop for the next five years, right up until COVID hit.
After audition number 750, I ended up booking and working on just over 50 commercials to date. It was wild, absolutely on fire. And to think, at 745 I had almost walked away. No one would’ve blamed me if I had.
But it taught me something: sometimes the breakthrough really is just a few steps past where you think you can go. I used to hear that all the time, but finally living it, that made it surreal.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I think a lot of smart people are getting it wrong by assuming we’ll choose technology over humanity. Right now, we’re in a kind of digital hypnosis, where we’re influenced to believe technology is the solution to all of humanity’s problems. Sure, it can make certain things more efficient, but it doesn’t address the deeper spiritual and social vacancy so many people are struggling with.
Technology has, in many ways, made us a lonelier society. These devices and apps promise connection, yet often do the opposite. They pull us away from each other, and even from ourselves. They distract us from the moment right in front of us and rob us of the serendipitous experiences we might have had if we were more present in the real world.
I believe there will come a breaking point, a boiling over, where people start seeking out genuine, human-to-human connections again, beyond the walls of social media. And I think that shift will be powerful.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If immortality were real, what would you build?
If immortality were real, I would dedicate it to building a living timeline, a true history of humanity, untouched by the distortions of power or conquest. Too often, history is written by the victors, reshaped to serve agendas rather than truth. With endless time, I could bear witness across centuries, keeping a record that reflects who we really are.
Because beneath the changing faces of culture and empire, our humanity is constant. The Romans, the Greeks, the people of every age, they wrestled with the same desires, fears, and dreams we do today. Immortality would allow me to weave those threads into a single tapestry, a mirror to show us that we are not separate from the past, but a continuation of it.
To leave behind a flawless chronicle of the human story, that would be a legacy worthy of eternity
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bettyswindows.com
- Instagram: @bettyswindows
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquin-camilo-3b2614117
- Twitter: @bettyswindows
- Facebook: @bettyswindows
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bettys-window-and-power-wash-los-angeles?osq=Betty’s+Window+%26+Power+Wash
- Other: Google Business Profile: https://share.google/urKlsYL31I4q9hlUl
