An Interview With Edward Sylvan
I am very passionate about making health and wellness free and accessible to every person. That is why all of the 12 actions in my book are free and accessible to every single person, no matter what country or place they are in the world, whether they have money or don’t have money. I hope it will allow people to live healthier lives.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing MaryRuth Ghiyam.
MaryRuth Ghiyam is a certified health educator, nutritional consultant, and culinary chef. After the passing of her brother and father, and her mother’s diagnosis of two benign brain tumors, she traveled the country to learn about the body’s path to heal itself — and stumbled upon what she termed the MaryRuth Method. Her program took off, gaining hundreds of followers in just one year, and eventually led her to create wholesome supplements for her family, friends, and fans of the MaryRuth Method. This grew into MaryRuth Organics, and the business has been flourishing ever since. MaryRuth’s greatest joy stems from her four children under four, her husband, family, friends, and the 90 employees at MaryRuth Organics. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born in New Jersey, and I had a very happy childhood. My mom and dad were very much in love, and I had a brother, Daniel, who was two years younger than me. I always played sports growing up. I was the captain of my basketball team, the captain of my lacrosse team in high school, and I ran cross country. I love playing sports and being a part of teams. A lot of my childhood memories have to do with sports.
Some of the defining moments in my childhood were losing my dad suddenly at age 42 and losing my brother, Daniel when I was a sophomore in college. Losing both of them was a defining moment of my life. Overall, I had a loving, wonderful childhood.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
A book that was especially important to me was Don’t Let Death Ruin Your Life. It shows that there is a correlation between losing a parent when and what you contribute to society.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
A mistake that I definitely made was not learning enough about financial stability, financial freedom, working capital, cash flow, negative cash flow conversion cycles and understanding the value of money. The way that I built MaryRuth Organics was we got out of a tremendous amount of debt ($700,000), and the mistake I made was allowing my mom and I to get in debt in the first place. Going through the process of getting myself out of debt, I really learned a lot about finance, so it was for the best.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
I am very passionate about making health and wellness free and accessible to every person. That is why all of the 12 actions in my book are free and accessible to every single person, no matter what country or place they are in the world, whether they have money or don’t have money. I hope it will allow people to live healthier lives.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
There are so many things that we shared in the book. One interesting thing is this concept of liquids until lunch. By skipping that solid food breakfast over the course of 365 days, you’re giving yourself more energy.
That’s how we built MaryRuth Organics. I was teaching this concept of liquids till lunch in my private practice, and all of my clients loved it, but they complained that pills and capsules made them nauseous. So I made a liquid vitamin a liquid morning multivitamin and a nighttime multi-mineral to solve this problem. Those liquid vitamins were the first out of over 120 products now at MaryRuth Organics. It all started with the concept of liquids till lunch.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
There was no real “aha” moment. It was more that I absolutely love helping people create routines to support what makes them happy. A lot of what I am passionate about is allowing people to have self-awareness around what makes them happy. Once they know what makes them happy, they can build a micro-routine to help support the macro of what gives them joy. People really want the freedom to do the things that they love. One of my favorite sayings is, “Structure creates freedom. Move forward every day.” So when you’re not in the mood and don’t feel like doing something, you can always go back to your routine. Taking a liquid morning vitamin and nighttime multi-mineral is an example of this.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
I have been teaching health and wellness since 2013. I taught group classes, webinars, privates, individuals, and I answer hundreds of direct messages every day. I am passionate about mentoring younger people, who are in high school and college. I am also passionate about team-building exercises. At MaryRuth Organics, I help my team live a healthier life to support the things that bring them joy. So, all of the people that have been impacted by taking our vitamins or reading Liquids Till Lunch can create a routine that will support their wellbeing.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I am on a mission to make health and wellness free and accessible to everyone, especially people who cannot afford health and wellness, so empowering people in their communities to know that every small action you do does create positive momentum in other people’s lives. Even on a quantum physics level, you hear about the butterfly effect where a small butterfly flaps its wings, and that small action creates massive ripples in the world. For people to know that the work they do within their community and the people they meet every has an impact. Hopefully, we are trying to work towards creating a more positive world.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
I think the greatest leaders work really hard and have a lot of empathy. An extremely important quality as a leader is to pause for just one moment before you speak, put yourself in that person’s shoes, and then speak to them from a place of understanding, kindness, true care and support. Help build them up. True leaders are builders, not destroyers. True leadership is a combination of consistently doing really hard work every day, having a routine, having a structure, being organized, and time management coupled with empathy for yourself, for your team, for the teams that you’re leading. I always talk about this at our human resource meetings at my company with our team of 90 people. I truly believe that the way people grow is through guidance and making them feel really good.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
I wish someone had told me how important financial freedom is and understanding cash flow. How important it is to manage your time correctly, and how important it is to have a separation between work and personal life on a daily basis. I also wish someone told me about how sometimes you’re going to want to quit, but maybe just take a break instead. And I wish someone had told me that there would be painful moments along the way, and you should try to learn from them and bounce back as quickly as possible.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
An amazing life lesson quote is from James Clear from Atomic Habits. He says, “Anxiety is thought without control. Flow is control without thought.”
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Yes, Sara Blakely from Spanx! She is such a trailblazer and such a special woman building her business. I especially love her foundation, The Red Backpack, where she supports entrepreneurs by giving them a certain amount of money to help them with their small businesses.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on Instagram at @maryruthorganics or online at www.maryruthorganics.com.
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why MaryRuth Ghiyam Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.