The New York Minute Mag team recently had the chance to speak with Caroline Fausel, founder of OliveYouWhole to find out what inspires her to lead a healthy life and how she took her passions and turned them into a successful, full-time job. 
NYMM: What inspired you to start eating paleo/whole30?
CF: We were vegetarian for almost five years… then our sweet little girl Ella was born. That didn’t change anything immediately. It was when we started feeding her that everything changed for me. It was one of those times that took me back to the roots of why we were eating the way we were eating.
Then I read the Whole30’s first book It Starts with Food on vacation in Hilton Head…We got back from the beach, and immediately went straight from a grain-heavy, meatless vegetarian diet to a Whole30 in May. We were making everything from scratch. As almost everyone says, it changed our lives. We’ve never felt better.
NYMM: What motivated you to keep at it?
CF: What motivates us to continue eating this way is that we know we feel our best! We have SO much more energy, sleep better, wake energized, have sustained daily energy, less bloating, clear skin, the list goes on and on.
NYMM: At what point did you decide to turn your diet and lifestyle into a blog?
CF: The month right after our Whole30 July of 2014 I started my blog. Yep, not a ton of thought went into it. I wanted to plan and plan and plan, but then it occurred to me that my fears could very quickly make me overthink it and I might never start.
So I just did it.
NYMM: How long did it take to start turning that hobby into a successful career?
CF: I think the answer depends on how you define “success.” It took me about three and a half years until I was working on my blog full time. I was a graphic designer before that. When my blog income overtook my graphic design income, I knew it was time that I could fully make the switch!
NYMM: What do you think was the secret to taking that leap?CF: When I was doing freelance graphic design full time, it was a time that my income was super important to our family’s wellbeing. It was food on the table. For that reason, I couldn’t just “try this blog thing” full time and hope it worked out… And honestly, when I started my blog, I had ZERO idea that it could be anything but a hobby.
Since my income was so important, and since it takes a while to build your blog to the point that its monetized, I waited to make the leap until I knew I could sustain the income we needed from my blog.
NYMM: What is a day-in-the-life like for you?
CF: My day starts pretty early, around 5am! I’ve been loving my new Nespresso machine, so I start with coffee, collagen peptides, and steamed almond milk! We leave around 7:30am and we make the carpool rounds. I get home and have about an hour and a half to knock out some work before my daily yoga, which it keeps me grounded, leveled, and gets my heart pumping!
I come home and work from 10:30am-3pm. This can be so many different things! Crafting new recipes, grocery shopping, cooking, photographing, writing blog posts, working with companies, and more. I pick up the kiddos around 3pm, then we play in the afternoon!
NYMM: Who is your inspiration?
CF: I’m constantly inspired by other women entrepreneurs! Looking at bloggers who are miles ahead of me reminds me that my dreams ARE possible!
NYMM: What advice would you give to other women looking to start their own business?
CF: My biggest advice for women who want to start a business is GO FOR IT! Will there be challenges? YES. Will it be one of the hardest things you ever do? Probably.
But will it be worth it? Absolutely! I can’t promise you success. But what I can promise you is growth!
NYMM: What is the biggest challenge is running your food blog?
CF: The hardest part about running a blog for me is wearing so many hats!! There are so many different pieces that go into it, and especially at first, you have to learn how to do ALL of them. It can be overwhelming if you let it be! I don’t know that there’s ever an end to what you can learn, so I try to learn one thing at a time!
NYMM: Who is your biggest support through it all?
CF: My husband is by far my biggest support through it all! He’s so wise, logical, financially-minded, and strategic. It would be really easy for him to nay-say some of my ideas or the directions we take with the blog. But he trusts me and empowers me to keep dreaming bigger.
Images courtesy of Caroline Fausel
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