"Don’t step over dollars to pick up pennies.”
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine, where we delve into the stories and insights of influential figures who are shaping the business world. In this exclusive feature, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Maya Krampf, the founder of WholesomeYum.Com, a platform that has redefined healthy eating for millions of readers each month.
Maya Krampf’s journey is a testament to determination, creativity, and a commitment to promoting healthier lifestyles. Through her dedication, she has not only transformed her passion for wholesome living into a thriving business but has also authored USA Today Best Selling cookbooks and introduced a line of natural zero sugar ingredients and food products under the Wholesome Yum brand.
Join us as we explore Maya’s unique path to success, gain insights into her experiences running a company, and learn how she has adapted to the ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship.
Discover the valuable lessons and inspiration she has to offer to those on their own entrepreneurial journeys.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Maya Krampf: Hi! My name is Maya Krampf and I’m the founder of WholesomeYum.Com (a healthy recipe website reaching millions of readers every month), the Wholesome Yum app (for custom meal plans, automatic grocery lists, and more), and Wholesome Yum Foods (a line of natural zero sugar ingredients and food products).
I create easy, healthy recipes with 10 ingredients or less. I’m also the USA Today Best Selling Author of two keto cookbooks, The Easy Keto Cookbook and The Easy Keto Carboholics’ Cookbook.
Our mission at Wholesome Yum is to make it easier and more enjoyable for people to eat healthier and feel better. I’m a big believer that eating well doesn’t have to be boring, tasteless, or time consuming, and it doesn’t have to mean giving up foods you love, either – we just have to get creative sometimes.
My readers are the reason I do what I do – the emails, the comments on my website and social media, the stories. It’s so meaningful and rewarding to see how my recipes and products make people’s lives better.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Maya Krampf: Our recipe website traffic is up 25% year over year, and that has been a huge achievement with a lot going into it behind the scenes from my entire team.
Our biggest source of traffic is Google, and SEO is extremely competitive these days, so being able to grow in today’s landscape is a big achievement for us.
Other milestones we are celebrating are the launch of zero sugar honey flavors and continued growth of Wholesome Yum Foods in retail, including large chains like Sprouts, Stop And Shop, and Meijer.
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Maya Krampf: One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received – that I wish I had received earlier – is “don’t step over dollars to pick up pennies.” It’s easy to get caught up in trying to save every dollar and do everything yourself, but that’s not the path to growth.
Sometimes growth requires investing in your business, and sometimes it means letting go and delegating. I look at ROI for every investment I make, and it’s not always easy to give up control, but I’m no longer afraid to do that.
Next quarter we are moving across the country to a warm, sunny place, so I’m improving my surroundings!
In business, we are focusing on incremental improvements during this time, including website improvements, email marketing improvements, a better system for our books and inventory, a big feature release for our mobile app, and as always, lots of new recipes.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Maya Krampf: “Who Moved My Cheese?” was extremely influential for me. I am resistant to change by nature, and while running a business has made me a lot more flexible, it’s still something I struggle with.
The premise of this book is that you can roll with change or you can get left behind, and it couldn’t be more true. Over the years, I have come to look at change as an opportunity.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Maya Krampf: The biggest challenge for us right now is growing Wholesome Yum Foods while managing cash flow and keeping a profit. Food product businesses run on razor thin margins. You’re always balancing being in stock with managing your cash investment, and sales velocity can change on a dime.
I had no prior experience with products before I started this side of Wholesome Yum. My content business is very different, and I never imagined how difficult having food products would be. But I’m also extremely passionate about offering people cleaner, tastier options for their cooking and baking, so I’m determined to make this a success!
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Maya Krampf: Decision fatigue and context switching fatigue are very real. I was a software engineer in my past life, and while that job requires skill, it requires doing mostly just one thing and doing it well.
Running a small business requires juggling 1000 things and making dozens of decisions every day.
If someone had told me 10 years ago that my job would involve SEO, marketing, photography, recipe development, supply chain, finance, people management, web and product design, and dozens of other jobs all in one role, I would have never believed it.
Because we are a small team, I touch every part of the business. Nonetheless, I love it because I’m so passionate about what we do, and I’m never bored.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Maya Krampf: Does doubling the hours in the day count? 🙂 I always have more ideas and things I want to do than I have time for.
In all seriousness, learning to say no to opportunities sometimes and finding balance is a more real “superpower” that I’m striving toward.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Maya Krampf for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Maya Krampf or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
