Sarah Thomas-Drawbaugh On Living The Healthyish Life
We all try our best to be healthy, but nobody's perfect. We skip out on our workout every once in a while in favor of binging our favorite Netflix show, and we'll eat a slice of pizza when we should be eating a salad. We're usually pretty good about staying healthy, but hey, we're only human!
And if you ask Sarah Thomas-Drawbaugh, that's totally okay! It's why she created Healthyish Foods, the baking subscription service that lets you indulge in the occasional sweet treat without feeling guilty. We love a good entrepreneur story almost as much as we love a good slice of cake, so we were thrilled to interview Sarah and learn more about how she founded her business and how we can live the healthyish lifestyle.
SIMPLY: Tell us about your journey of starting Healthyish Foods.
Sarah Thomas-Drawbaugh: In early 2016 during my graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University, I realized I wanted to do something new. Historically, my background had been in technology, but I fell in love with this concept of being "Healthyish" and knew I had to act.
So what is Healthyish? It is essentially the equivalent to having pizza one night and a salmon salad the next and realizing that it's OK. It's about balance and living a life you love without the side of guilt. And it's about sensibly indulging in all food groups via portion control and moderation.
In my opinion, being Healthyish truly captures the way millennials think about life and their relationship with food. You no longer have to be THIS or THAT, you can just be the best version of yourself, and that's perfect. Which is why I trademarked the term and began building the Healthyish brand.
From there, I launched Healthyish Foods in December of 2016 with a simple mission in mind. I wanted to change the way people think about dessert. Let's face it, no one wants an entire cake or tray of brownies laying around their house anymore. Either it gets eaten or even worse, wasted.
Healthyish Foods solves this problem with our organic baking kits. We deliver perfectly portioned, organic baking ingredients to our customer's doorstep, allowing them to bake single serving desserts at home. Our single serving approach decreases food waste and the temptation to overindulge, making Healthyish Foods the newest way to sensibly indulge at home. We offer a monthly subscription service along with pre-selected, themed baking kits that can be purchased individually vs. subscribing.
What does being “healthy-ish” mean to you?
While our organic baking kits are one of our Healthyish offerings, actually being Healthyish is more of a lifestyle. It means living in the moment and not forcing yourself to be perfect all of the time. At the end of the day, we are all humans just trying to do the best we can, and that's good enough.
What has been the most difficult part of starting your own business?
Selecting the right technology platform was one of my biggest challenges. I knew I would need something that could scale on demand as my business grew. I ended up selecting the full Microsoft cloud stack, including Dynamics 365, Office 365, and Azure. This decision has allowed me to automate a lot of business processes. Additionally, I have full order management and fulfillment capabilities, along with robust reporting and analytics.
What’s one piece of advice you’ve learned along the way?
Trademark your brand. When people ask me for advice, I always tell them the same thing. You have to protect your brand if you ever want it to be valuable. It might be a little expensive upfront, but it is essential if you want to create a powerful, lasting brand.
Also, network and collaborate with other people and companies. I am always networking with interesting people and companies on Instagram. I love creating new and exciting content to share with the Healthyish community. Whether it's a new blog post, competition, or recipe idea, it's amazing how far you can go when you support and promote each other.
Do you have a favorite recipe available on Healthyish Foods?
While I know this will sounds cliche, I really do love all of our flavors and recipes. We use organic beet powder in our Royal Red Velvet cake mix, and we use turmeric powder in our Tangy Lemon and Mellow Yellow mixes. Using high quality, healthy ingredients is one thing that really sets us apart from the rest of the pack. Additionally, we provide a Healthyish blog with loads of Healthyish recipes (not just desserts) and baking tips for our customers and followers.
Any other tips on how to live a healthyish life?
Just be you. Be the best version of yourself. And remember, life is journey, not a destination. So be Healthyish!