Women In Wellness: Mariah Craig of Maria Bowls On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Create a positive morning routine: The most impactful positive change I made in my life was when I changed my morning routine. And by that, I mean what I was doing the moment I woke up to set the tone for the day. This might sound silly to some people, but every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is press play on a Feel Good playlist I created for myself. I’m talking full volume, surround sound, before I’m checking my Instagram notifications. Ensuring I start off every day on a positive note (which for me is singing and dancing around the house) has created a significant shift in both my mental health and productivity. Dare to wake up and tell yourself ‘I am energized’ instead of ‘I am exhausted.’
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mariah Craig.
Mariah specializes in all things creative for health and wellness businesses, from content development, to social media strategies, graphic design and even recipe development. She originally studied Advanced Graphic Design and worked with creative agencies for years in creative and marketing positions, including the most sought-after advertising agency for thoughtful food and beverage companies, and one of North America’s leading hospitality agencies. After battling her own health issues, Mariah began to study nutrition and gained a certification as a Culinary Nutrition Expert. From there, she worked with industry leaders as a plant-based recipe developer, worked in natural health product sales for one of the fastest growing plant-based nutrition companies in the country, and worked in Senior Brand Manager and Social Media Manager positions for health and wellness companies. Today, with a background in graphic design and certifications in nutrition, Mariah is able to apply her knowledge and passion for holistic nutrition with her creative skills to create effective and meaningful social media content for her clients at Social by Nature.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My backstory really starts in college where I studied Advanced Graphic Design. During my second year I began feeling very sick and after six months of being misdiagnosed and seeing dozens of doctors who turned me away, I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease. This completely changed the trajectory of my life.
I left my home on campus and moved in with my family for a short while to get the extra help I needed at the time, but if you know me you know I’m stubborn and determined when I set my mind to something, so I made sure I graduated despite my struggles. In order to graduate, one of my final assignments was to interview the owner of my ‘dream company.’ This assignment launched me into my career starting as a graphic designer.
I sat down with the owner of my favourite art publishing company, and after that day I kept reaching out to him determined to get a job until he sent me a project and said ‘flip this back to me in three days.’ I sent the work back to him in two days and he then said ‘move to Toronto and you’re hired.’ By the next day I was crashing at my best friends’ house in Toronto until I could get my own place and I had a job that allowed me to represent my favourite artists in the world. My biggest win was designing my favourite artist’s first art book, which sold out at her first show that we hosted in Manhattan, NY.
From there I worked with agencies in various creative and marketing positions, including the most sought-after advertising agency for thoughtful food and beverage companies, and one of North America’s leading hospitality agencies. During this time I was really suffering from Lyme, so I decided to take my health into my own hands and went back to school to study nutrition where I gained a certification as a Culinary Nutrition Expert. This prompted me to start a health food blog which quickly gained a lot of traction and led to me working with industry leaders as a plant-based recipe developer. If you ever want to hear a good story, ask about the time I started a raw vegan dessert line, developed recipes for the Harvard School of Med, or worked as a vegan personal chef.
I then worked in natural health product sales for one of the fastest growing plant-based nutrition companies in the country, and worked in Senior Brand Manager and Social Media Manager positions for health and wellness companies. It wasn’t until my last role working for a start-up wellness company in a digital marketing role that I started to see all of my skills and passions aligning. That’s when I decided to go off on my own and started freelancing. Fast forward eight months later and I had started my first company Social by Nature, a digital marketing agency that represents health and wellness brands. Talk about things coming full circle!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I can speak to a very pivotal moment in Social by Nature’s growth and success, which speaks to the importance of not just being good at what you do, but the importance of relationships.
I was in my mid-twenties starting Social by Nature, and while I was confident in my skills, I was figuring out a lot of things along the way. When I launched the company, I was relying heavily on the relationships I had built in the industry over the years to get my name out there. Sure enough, a year into running the company, a client of mine who I built a strong relationship with came to me and said ‘Your competitor is looking to sell their company, are you interested?’ And what did twenty-something-year-old-me respond with even though I didn’t know the first thing about buying and selling a company? ‘Yes.’
You never know what a conversation or a relationship can lead to. Granted you have to be good at what you do, but there are a lot of people less talented than you who have been a lot more successful than you. My confidence, communication and people skills have been essential in getting me to where I am today in both my professional and personal life.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Like any entrepreneur I’ve had to learn my fair share of lessons the hard way. One of the biggest mistakes I made at the beginning was not designing a better hiring process. My dad always said you’ll be hired for your skills and fired for your personality. I think a lot of what we’re taught in terms of behavioural questions are outdated and don’t reveal the qualities in a candidate that really matter to ensure they will be a good cultural fit. Knowing what you’re looking for is a lot harder than it sounds, but I have learned that thoughtful hiring is extremely important, and in order to hire thoughtfully you need to really break down the qualities and behaviours that are important in the role outside of what’s on a candidate’s resume.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
All of the brands we represent at Social by Nature are helping make a bigger impact in the world in regards to health and wellness in some way. That’s why it’s so easy to be proud of the work we do and feel so passionate about growing our clients’ online presence to influence lifestyle changes and healthier choices. During a time where there’s a lot of negativity in people’s social media news feed and not enough talk about how to build our health, it feels good knowing we are pushing brands and messaging that can have a positive impact.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Everyone’s needs are different, but these lifestyle tweaks have helped support me in my journey towards better wellbeing:
- Create a positive morning routine: The most impactful positive change I made in my life was when I changed my morning routine. And by that, I mean what I was doing the moment I woke up to set the tone for the day. This might sound silly to some people, but every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is press play on a Feel Good playlist I created for myself. I’m talking full volume, surround sound, before I’m checking my Instagram notifications. Ensuring I start off every day on a positive note (which for me is singing and dancing around the house) has created a significant shift in both my mental health and productivity. Dare to wake up and tell yourself ‘I am energized’ instead of ‘I am exhausted.’
- Eat real food: Everyone can have their own opinion when it comes to what diet is best, and every body is different, but I think one thing we can all agree on is that an abundance of real, whole foods will make you feel (and look) better inside and out. Having struggled with health issues for a decade now, it’s forced me to become so in tune with my body and it’s now so noticeable to me how much consistency with nutrition will impact my life. With that said, it’s also taught me that in order to feel truly healthy when it comes to food, it’s about what you do most of the time, not some of the time. Having the glass of wine and slice of cake is important too! True wellness does not come with unhealthy obsessions.
- Choose your inner circle wisely: Who do you surround yourself with? Do those people inspire you? Do they support you? Do they bring positivity into your life? Do they challenge you? The most uninspiring year I’ve had to date was the year that I would have answered ‘no’ to all of those questions, and that is not a coincidence. Choose your circle carefully.
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable: Coming from someone who never had a clear plan or vision when it came to a career path, I attribute a great deal of my success to the fact that I was never stagnant. I was always trying, doing, failing, succeeding. There are transferable skills in everything… The worst thing you can do is to stay inside your comfort zone and expect change. Follow your heart and happiness will follow.
- Make time for movement: I remember when I was really sick, any movement at all was a struggle, even walking. My joints and muscles were always in pain, and I had this intense tingling sensation that I compared to ‘pins and needles’ in my legs. My dad would always make a lot of effort to get me up and moving no matter how much I would scream and shout at him. Going through this gave me such a deep understanding of how much movement can impact the body, to the point where to this day I will get flare-ups if I’ve been inactive for an extended period of time. We are designed to move, not be sedentary! It’s so important to create ways to move for both our body and our mind. Find a form of movement that you love, whether it be a bike ride, dancing or swimming, and find ways to incorporate it into your days.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
That’s a tough question to answer because wellness is truly defined by an individual’s needs, wants and goals. On top of that, I think wellness has been redefined in recent years as a result of the global pandemic. With that being said, I think the immediate focus in regards to wellness needs to be mental health. It’s no secret that depression and anxiety has reached an all time high. In fact, depression has doubled among young people. With so many individuals experiencing this for the first time who don’t know how to identify their symptoms, or had preexisting mental health struggles and are now experiencing increased risk, we need change, resources, education and accessibility more than ever.
If I could deliver the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people right now, it would be through an abundance of efforts supporting mental health awareness to a society that has taught us to be cool instead of be connected.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Surround yourself with people who challenge you to be better
You ruin your life by tolerating it
Big goals require different habits
Consistency is more important than perfection
Take care of your energy
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
That’s a trick question! These are all topics that are so important to me and it’s hard to say which is dearest.
As someone who has a sustainability brand that repurposes discarded coconut shells, reclaimed wood and bamboo to create eco-friendly products and lessen greenhouse gas emissions, you could say that sustainability and the environment are causes I care about.
Veganism, while not a diet that I follow now, is something that is very personal to me because it was a part of my life for many years and was the diet that I followed when I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease to manage my inflammation. It’s also what pushed me to go back to school for culinary nutrition and get involved in the plant-based food space!
Lastly, there is no way I can not speak to the importance of mental health. Especially in the current climate when it’s something that people are struggling with now more than ever. More on that in one of my previous responses.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
I’m the most active on my personal Instagram account @ murrcraig. You can also check out my company accounts @ socialbynature and @ mariabowls.
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Mariah Craig of Maria Bowls On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.