Professional Athlete Shares Secrets for Optimal Health

Most of us enjoy a good drumbeat, but did you ever stop to think about the athleticism required to bring us the beat? The pounding beat takes a toll on the joints and ligaments. Inflammation is a drummer’s nemesis. Tune in today as Frank and Lauren Zummo share the routines that keep Frank in top athletic shape whether at home and on tour with his band, Sum41.

Notes for this week's Podcast

Empowering You Organically – Season 9 – Episode 68

Title: Professional Athlete Shares Secrets for Optimal Health

Hosts: Jonathan Hunsaker

Guest: Frank and Lauren Zummo

Description: Most of us enjoy a good drumbeat, but did you ever stop to think about the athleticism required to bring us the beat? The pounding beat takes a toll on the joints and ligaments. Inflammation is a drummer’s nemesis. Tune in today as Frank and Lauren Zummo share the routines that keep Frank in top athletic shape whether at home and on tour with his band, Sum41.

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About Frank Zummo

Frank Zummo is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer for Sum 41 and Street Drum Corps.

About Lauren Zummo

Lauren is Director of Client & Talent at Pathfinders Health Search. Executive search consultant and talent scout specializing in the placement of perioperative leadership.

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What Started Frank’s Natural Health Journey?

I was having lots of inflammation issues, just from the amount of shows, and just being a drummer. It just takes a toll playing so hard. And it was just bad, like literally it was scary bad with just my shoulders, how bad they were inflamed, and my forearms getting inflamed, and that’s when my wife actually found you guys, and that started this journey, about, yeah, three years ago.

J: Lauren, you’re the one that found us initially, right?

L: Right.

J: Why were you looking for organic solutions as opposed to prescription meds? Or did you guys try prescription meds?

L: First of all, organic, to me, it’s just an absolute no-brainer. But on the other side of it, as far as like prescription, I think it started because like I became allergic to penicillin when I was in high school. And then, when I was in college, I got a flu shot and broke out in hives. So, I think I’ve just always had these sensitivities, and it’s driven me to look for other solutions.

J: We sent you a bunch of our different products. And what has that done for you now, Frank? I mean has that made a big difference? Did you feel a difference when you started taking any of the supplements?

F: I told her what was going on, and she had been following a lot of the work that you were doing with The Truth About Cancer. And through that rabbit hole, she found turmeric.

L: I had an email that said—like addressing inflammation. And I’m like “Okay, there might be something to this. Let’s look into this.”

F: I tried it on the break, and then I went on a nine-week tour, which is the longest tour I’ve ever done in my life, a consecutive tour, being out for nine weeks and Europe, playing two hours a night, playing the crazy music that we play. And I didn’t have one issue. I didn’t have to call in a sports therapist on that tour.

Frank’s Regimen

- - First thing I do when I wake up in the morning is, I think there’s six bottles of stuff I take with you guys to start my day.
    - 7M+ [now 7 Mushrooms] to keep my wellness on the road
    - Probiotixx, because I’m eating all different random stuff every day in all these different countries I’m in, with different catering backstage.
    - I will do a bone broth smoothie with your guys’ products and load it with everything I possibly can, with the collagens and all that.
    - But the turmeric pills, I just started taking the Brain Health 8 [formerly Ageless Brain] that you guys came out with, OrganiZymes.

J: What’s other stuff that you’re doing?

F: Constant training.

- - When I’m off tour, I have a boxing coach, I’m boxing weekly.
  - I go to the gym.
  - I run constantly. Just cardio, cardio, cardio.
  - I trained for a month with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece.
    - Laird changed the game with healthy amazing coffees. I use his coffee and creamers. I’ll even put those in my smoothies sometimes, too, which is great.
    - Activate, which is like cayenne and lemon, and all this stuff, to kind of jump start your day. So, I’ll take that with all your guys’ vitamins and all his like coconut waters to just stay hydrated, which is really important with just how I’m doing it.
  - I do ice. When I’m with them training, I do full ice bath stuff. On tour, I obviously can’t travel with that, so I have a Home Depot paint bucket. And for like four minutes before the show and after the show, I do from the tips of my fingers to like as far as I can get in ice, to reduce inflammation and help with that.
  - I do a bunch of cardio and light workout stuff backstage.
  - I just do a ton and ton of stretching. I have the rollers to lay on to work out any knots or any issues I have.
  - I actually have a warmup kit in the dressing room as well, that I’ll get on for 45 minutes to an hour because I can’t come on stage stiff.
  - The only other products that I’ll use throughout the day is Primal Kitchen. They’re like bars, they’re protein bars and stuff like that.
  - And just eating as cleanly as I can from what we have.

J: Lauren, let me ask you, because Frank’s on tour a lot, so you’re home with two little ones all the time. What do you do? What’s your routine? Do you have any things that keep you going throughout the day?

- - L: Organixx Bone Broth Protein powder in a smoothie every morning.
  - I’m not getting enough sleep. That’s like my big, big thing that I really need to work on.
  - I started using the Turmeric 3D, and also feeling like getting that vitamin D.

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Episode 68 – Professional Athlete Shares Secrets for Optimal Health

This week's Transcript

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Episode 68 – Professional Athlete Shares Secrets for Optimal Health

* * *

Jonathan Hunsaker: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Empowering You Organically. I’m your host, Jonathan Hunsaker, with a very special guest today, Lauren and Frank Zummo. Thank you, guys, for joining us.

Frank Zummo: Thanks for having us, man. Good to connect.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Absolutely. So, for those that don’t know, Frank is a world-class drummer for the band Sum 41. We connected, what? About three years ago? Two years ago?

Frank Zummo: Yeah, when I started like our long, long touring cycle and the last album cycle, when I was having issues, and lots of inflammation just from—and this is Brixton—Wyatt, by the way.

Lauren Zummo: Wrong kid.

Frank Zummo: Yeah, when I was having lots of inflammation issues, just from the amount of shows, and just being a drummer. It just takes a toll playing so hard. And it was just bad, like literally it was scary bad with just my shoulders, how bad they were inflamed, and my forearms getting inflamed, and that’s when my wife actually found you guys, and that started this journey, about, yeah, three years ago.

Jonathan Hunsaker: So, was that the biggest issue, was just shoulder pain? Was it so bad you couldn’t play?

Frank Zummo: It was, at the end of that one tour, before we broke for the holidays, it was scary bad, that like there was sound check that we were doing before the show that night, and I was like playing with one hand because I just didn’t want to mess up my body even more for this show. And then our tour manager was able to get in a local cupping person, and I tried cupping for the first time, and that kind of got me through the show, but it was not good.

And it was scary. And that’s when we discovered the miracles of turmeric just with inflammation. And now, I can start feeling it come on, in forearms or my hands, so I’ll really get proactive and try to get it before it becomes that bad of an issue. And thank God, it hasn’t, again. But I mean there’s days that hurt, there’s days that it’s harder.

It’s really like being a football player, in a sense, with just playing this many shows. We play anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours a night. And I don’t know how to tone it down. I go as hard as I can because just the energy, that kind of music, is the way it just needs to be attacked, and when you’re playing to that many people going that crazy, it’s just kind of the way that I do it. I just want to give my all, and that comes with the aches and pains.

Lauren Zummo: The beating.

Frank Zummo: Yeah, the beating. So, I’ve just had to restructure my life around a regimen that works now. I mean it’s a two-hour process to get ready for the show, and it’s like a 30-minute process after the show, and then just all through the day, putting the right things in your body and just taking care of yourself.

I literally consult with athletes now, and companies like Organixx, to help me on this journey, because musicians, and drummers especially, are athletes. And most people don’t really realize that, I think. And consulting with athletes and sports medicine people, and supplement companies, and vitamin companies, and all that stuff, that’s been the partnership that has helped, and it’s really changed my life.

I want to do this forever. I don’t ever want to retire and not do this. This is who I am and it’s why I wake up every day and why I’m inspired. And I want to make sure that I can do that every day, so I have to just constantly push the envelope and try to just be as healthy as I humanly can to be able to do this.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Absolutely. So, Lauren, you’re the one that found us initially, right?

Lauren Zummo: Right, right.

Jonathan Hunsaker: And so, why were you looking for organic solutions as opposed to prescription meds? Or did you guys try prescription meds? And what—yeah, what’s your story?

Lauren Zummo: It’s so funny, because I was talking to one of my family members, and I think she said, the other day, she said, “We’ve kind of always been that way.” I’m like “Was I?” It’s like I can’t even remember if I—have I always been? I don’t know. I just happen to be—I happen to believe that, well first of all, organic, to me, it’s just an absolute no-brainer.

I mean pesticides and insecticides are poison. So, like small increments of poison is better? No. Just to me, it’s like obviously I don’t want that in my food and my—anything I give my family, my children, in any way, shape, or form, whether it’s like what I’m putting on my skin, or whether it’s what I’m putting in my body.

You know what I mean? So, for me, organic is just like a total no-brainer. But on the other side of it, as far as like prescription, I think it started because like I became allergic to penicillin when I was in high school. And then, when I was in college, I got a flu shot and got—and broke out in hives, you know?

So, I think I’ve just always had these sensitivities, and it’s driven me to look for other solutions. And when—I somehow forget about that, and then I’ll go back to like “Why am I this way again? Why are we going through all of this to make better decisions?” And then, we try another conventional something, and then we get a reaction, and it’s like “Okay, that’s why.”

That’s why, because I’m allergic to everything. But so, that’s really what has drawn me to like alternatives from just conventional. Just I feel like the conventional medical system really addresses the symptom and not the root cause or what’s really going on. And so, if we can look at ways to address what’s really going on inside versus just a band-aid.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Exactly. There’s no money in a cure, right?

Lauren Zummo: Right, exactly.

Jonathan Hunsaker: It’s a challenge with supplements. Some people can take them for a while and it actually heals them, and then you don’t need to take them as long, or different things like that. And so, it’s a different mindset. But I remember, I want to say it’s about three years ago you guys reached out, you were asking about our turmeric. We sent you a bunch of—a bunch of our different products. And what has that done for you now, Frank? I mean has that made a big difference? Did you feel a difference when you started taking any of the supplements?

Frank Zummo: 100 percent. I mean I had told her the issues I was having on tour and how I was scared with—

Lauren Zummo: This little guy’s walking around with a drumstick, by the way.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Yeah, it’s in the blood, right?

Frank Zummo: Seriously. But yeah, we—I told her what was going on, and she had been following a lot of the work that you were doing with The Truth About Cancer. And through that rabbit hole, she found turmeric.

Lauren Zummo: I found—I had an email that said—like addressing inflammation. And I’m like “Okay, there might be something to this. Let’s look into this.”

Frank Zummo: And by the way, thank you guys for sending out those emails, because like it’s super informative. It’s not just like “Buy our product. We have this new release.” It’s like the fact that you guys put that much effort into it is why you guys are crushing the game in that. Because it’s all about engaging and all that.

I play SJC Drum Company, and they are the same way. It’s not just about “This is business,” and numbers, and “We’ve got to move product.” Like they cross that barrier with the consumer and with their fans, and demographic and all that, and it’s like really great the way that you guys do that. And because you would think if you’re following The Truth About Cancer, how did we find this turmeric?

It’s because you guys send so much informative stuff about your company and the things that you guys believe in and you’re part of. It came to this. And we were on break at that point, and she ordered. She sent me that email, I read it, and she’s like “I’m going to order you this turmeric stuff, and let’s just try it.”

I tried it on the break, and then I went on a nine-week tour, which is the longest tour I’ve ever done in my life, a consecutive tour, being out for nine weeks and Europe, playing two hours a night, playing the crazy music that we play. And I didn’t have one issue. I didn’t have to call in a sports therapist on that tour.

I would get occasional massages just for—to work on my body. But it wasn’t like “Hey, I’m having an issue, because this is wrong,” or whatever. And that’s when I had—literally, we’re a consumer. We bought your product, and I got on your mailing list through that. And when you get those emails that you guys send out, it usually, in companies, it goes to “You can’t reply,” no reply at the end.

And I was like “You know what? Like this changed my life. I’m just going to let them know,” and I sent you guys like two sentences and actually got a response. And then, they looped you in with me, and we started this relationship. It was really amazing, because I just wanted to let you guys know, like how—I didn’t know if you knew drummers were using your stuff and it was helping my life.

And that’s when you said, “Hey, let’s get on a program that works.” And then first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is I take—I think there’s six bottles of stuff I take with you guys to start my day, the 7M+ [now 7 Mushrooms] to keep my wellness on the road with the amount of—I live on a tour bus with 12 people.

It’s an incubating germ sickness place. And with all the traveling, with all—being on the plane, with—we get run down a lot. So, I have to try, especially, I get more run down being home. I mean I slept five hours last night because of the kids and all that. And I’m doubling up on that now because I know. So, I take that.

Probiotixx, because I’m eating all different random stuff every day in all these different countries I’m in, with different catering backstage, and I absolutely eat as clean as I can, and if I can’t, I will do a bone broth smoothie with your guys’ products and load it with everything I possibly can, with the collagens and all that. But the turmeric pills, I just started taking the Brain Health 8 [formerly Ageless Brain] that you guys came out with, OrganiZymes?

Jonathan Hunsaker: OrganiZymes?

Frank Zummo: That. And then, the multivitamin. So, that’s six that I take every morning, and I have those bottles in my suitcase with me so I can have it always, it’s at home in my home, and then I have a dressing room case. That literally has just got my warmup kit, my backstage clothes, and all my supplements and Bullet for smoothies and all that stuff.

And then, on the tour bus, I have all that stuff. So, when I finish a show, I go directly to the bus and I make a bone broth smoothie, load it with the collagens and all that good stuff, because we get off stage about 11:00 every night, generally. I can’t go eat a big meal like that and then go to bed. It’s just I don’t feel well.

So, I’ll do a smoothie to know that I can load up with all the proper things that I need. I don’t feel gross. And then, I can lay down and sleep fine and all that. So, that’s pretty much my after-show routine every night. And then, when I’m home, I’ll do that in the day for lunch. That’ll be my lunch because I can obviously make a proper dinner at a decent time.

So, it’s like I kind of have a regimen at home and on the road, and I have to keep up with it, and that’s why I have these products with me in all these different things, so I can always can have it. And it’s like you guys keep evolving, keep coming out with amazing stuff. I just came home, and I had you guys’ new—the face serum stuff. So, I’m going to take that—

Jonathan Hunsaker: That’ll keep you looking young, you know?

Frank Zummo: Doing that. I mean it is—we are entertainers. I do want to look good. So, if that can help, great.

Jonathan Hunsaker: No and thank you for all that feedback. I appreciate it. It does—it is a challenge when we’re a company that’s not about all profits. I mean we have to make a profit, of course, but it’s all about education really. And that’s why my next question, it’s not about our supplements, but what are some of the other supplements that you take?

I know you were talking about Laird Hamilton’s stuff before we started recording. But what are some other things that you’re taking, and what are some other things you have in your routine, whether it’s stretching, or a certain amount of sleep? What’s other stuff that you’re doing?

Frank Zummo: Constant training. When I’m off tour, I’m—I have a boxing coach, I’m boxing weekly. I go to the gym. I run constantly. Just cardio, cardio, cardio. This way, when I—if we’re on a break and I go back on stage, I’m not feeling whooped. I just constantly have to keep that intensity up, and I just need it for my head, too. I need that daily release. It’s just such a positive thing to feel with all that.

And then, even going a step further, I just, before this last tour we got off of, I trained for a month with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece. And I went on Gabby’s podcast about three years ago, and we broke down, and she was just telling me, from an athlete standpoint, about conditioning and things to do. And that really, really helped.

So, she’s been kind of like, whenever I need advice on that, I’ll always consult with her, and we’ve just become really good friends. And I’ve always wanted to do the pool training with them, because that’s something that is scary to me, out of my comfort zone, and I’ve trained with them, and it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever done in my life.

And I’m going to go to Hawaii in March on our break and go fully dive in and train with them on one of their retreat things. It’s just been the greatest thing for my head, and just to be trained by these incredible athletes, and do stuff that I never thought I could do. They’re helping expand my breathing with all this breath work and all that.

So, I love coffee, because I don’t party, I gave up that lifestyle. I don’t party, I don’t drink alcohol on tour, any of that kind of stuff. And I love coffee, so that’s kind of like my little thing. So, Laird changed the game with healthy amazing coffees. So, I use his coffee and creamers. I’ll even put those in my smoothies sometimes, too, which is great.

And then, when I take all your guys vitamins in the mornings, instead of slamming it with water, he’s got this Activate, which is like cayenne and lemon, and all this stuff, to kind of jump start your day. So, I’ll take that with all your guys’ vitamins and all his like coconut waters to just stay hydrated, which is really important with just how I’m doing it.

And then, I do icing. When I’m with them training, I do full ice bath stuff. On tour, I obviously can’t travel with that, so I have a Home Depot paint bucket. And for like four minutes before the show and after the show, I do from the tips of my fingers to like as far as I can get in ice, to reduce inflammation and help with that.

I do a bunch of cardio and light workout stuff backstage. We just—actually were in Canada doing hockey arenas, and they have all the gyms backstage for the hockey teams. So, I got to go in and use these amazing gyms every day, which was really amazing as part of my warmup, which I wish we could have every day. That was pretty cool.

And then, I just do a ton and ton of stretching. I have the rollers to lay on to work out any knots or any issues I have. And that’s like a two-hour process. And I actually have a warmup kit in the dressing room as well, that I’ll get on for 45 minutes to an hour because I can’t come on stage stiff, and especially we’ve been playing some really cold hockey arenas and stuff, so I have to be as loose and warm, get a sweat going beforehand so I can attack this not stiff.

Because if I am stiff, I’m not going to function properly and play this stuff properly. Because we come out of the gate. It’s so fast. So, I have kind of my little sanctuary world backstage, where I can do what I have to do to do the absolute best to perform every day, and it kind of works for me. And like on that nine-week tour, when I started working with you guys, is when I kind of put this whole routine together.

And now, I’ll learn different things or add little different things here or there. And they’ve been great. They have really good clean bars. And just eating as cleanly as I can from what we have.

But it’s great now, the world we live in, where I can literally, just on my phone, put in a Whole Foods order and get everything I need for breakfast, lunch, my smoothies, and just have it delivered to my tour bus. It’s pretty amazing. Like in Europe, you really can’t do that, and they don’t have a lot of the things that we have here, so I kind of have a separate kind of thing there, with what I can get there, or even Japan, places like that.

But we’ve been lucky. This year, we’ve mainly been in America and Canada, so that’s been easier. Now, it’s going to be harder when we start going to Asia and all these other places. But like that’s why I travel with a case so I can have my stuff, and I have like the different blenders for the different voltages and all that kind of stuff. I mean I just geek out on that stuff so I can just constantly stay the same and just be as healthy as possible.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I mean it makes a big difference. And the one thing that you say that I don’t even know that I grasped it until I went through it myself personally, is how much you are an athlete, right? So, you think band, and you don’t really think athlete. Well, go watch one of your shows from beginning to end and you are jamming nonstop.

And so, yeah, it’s just really interesting, I mean all the stuff that you’re doing, the weight training, the boxing, the cardio. I mean it’s all necessary to keep up your lifestyle, or your profession even, not even your lifestyle. But yeah, I wish I liked coffee. I’ve heard so much about Laird’s stuff. I’ve listened to him on Joe Rogan, I’ve listened to Gaby Reece. Like just for the sake of trying it, just because I know how much good stuff they put in it.

Frank Zummo: Yeah.

Lauren Zummo: You should.

Jonathan Hunsaker: But yeah, I’ve heard amazing things.

Frank Zummo: I mean they make a really good matcha.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Do they?

Frank Zummo: They make a great matcha, and then all the coconut waters with all the different flavors and stuff, it’s all amazing. So, if coffee’s not your thing, they do have those things to check out, which are super good and healthy.

Lauren Zummo: You know what I—I’m not—I’ve never really been a big coffee person either. And I started doing what—before this little guy, what was it? The instant—

Frank Zummo: Oh yeah, the InstaFuel. It’s kind of just like just throw it in hot water and you can add a creamer to it, and it’s good to go.

Lauren Zummo: And there’s like a—we’ve got like—what is it? Cacao creamer? Or a turmeric creamer. So, there’s a couple different like—and it’s not—it’s sweet, but it’s not sugar. It’s like coconut, well I guess it’s coconut sugar, some of the stuff they have. You can also use—it’s coconut based. But I don’t know. It’s not like your typical coffee, I want to say. Just try it.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Yeah, for sure. I need to. I’ve heard so much good stuff about it. So, Lauren, let me ask you, because Frank’s on tour a lot, so you’re home with two little ones all the time. What do you do? What’s your routine? Do you have any things that keep you going throughout the day?

Lauren Zummo: Well, it’s time to eat.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Other than having to chase them constantly as part of your routine?

Lauren Zummo: Yeah, right? Well, so I mean I work, so I’m like juggling a lot. But yeah, I mean I normally do the bone broth, like Organixx Bone Broth Protein powder—

Frank Zummo: Every morning.

Lauren Zummo: —in a smoothie every morning. It’s like my favorite. My smoothie, it’s like I’m addicted to smoothies. But yeah, and more recently, I’m just—I’m not getting enough sleep. That’s like my big, big thing that I really need to work on. I should have like a New Year’s resolution going on to figure out what I can do about that, because sleep for me is like—there’s just not enough hours in the day to do everything, so I’ve got to either simplify or cut some things out, or care less about the perfection of things.

I don’t know. But I started feeling like kind of joint pain in a way. I don’t know what—how to describe it. It wasn’t really joint pain, but it was like my hands swelling, and I’m like “What on earth?” So, I actually, I started using the Turmeric 3D, and also feeling like getting that vitamin D. I was listening to another podcast about how huge vitamin D is for like preventative—prevent from getting sick.

And I’m thinking I’m not getting enough sleep, which, okay, I’ll work on that, but in the meantime, I’ve got to like at least boost my—boost everything, my system as best as I can. And so, yeah, I started taking that. And I honestly felt like that was really helping me with—I probably was kind of getting some kind of inflammation going on in my hands.

But so, yeah, so I’ve incorporated that as well into my routine. I still do like a prenatal vitamin for this guy. I’m still nursing. And so, I have that going on. But yeah, I mean I—he’s like an example to us all, of optimal health and how to maintain that. He makes it a priority, whereas I could—I need to work on that, making those things, sleep and exercise a priority. But actually, my job is transitioning now, I’m going to be working from home coming up, so it’s—and he’s a pianist, too. So yeah, so I think that I’ll probably have a little more flexibility, maybe go on a walk or a run, or whatever. So…

Jonathan Hunsaker: Well, and it’s nothing to feel guilty about. I own a supplement company, and I was—I continue to get healthy. I don’t even think I’m as healthy as Frank is. And I have no excuse other than I work a bunch and I have three and five-year-old girls that I’m chasing. So, it’s interesting. I like that aspect of different [indiscernible 0:23:47] of us, right?

Everybody wants that one solution. Everybody wants to know, okay, “What supplement do I take every day? What exercise do I do every day?” And who knows, right? It’s different for everybody. Everybody has different issues. We have different diets; we have different needs. So, it’s just nice to hear what other people are using to let our audience know that you have to play with it, and just listen to your body and make changes and make adjustments as you go along.

Lauren Zummo: Actually, I’ve got to say one other thing, too. He just put in my bathroom, that vitamin C serum, too. And I literally noticed it, just like yesterday, I’m like “Okay, I’ve got to try this.” Because even that, I’m using whatever product, and I feel like they change their formula. And so, I’m like “Okay…”

And then I see this, and I’m like “Oh, alright.” And I think on the box even says, like why you guys are making it, like people want a product for their skin and whatever they can trust, and that’s huge for me too. Like it’s not even just what’s in the body but on it, because that like soaks in, right, to our skin.

Jonathan Hunsaker: We weren’t going to go down that rabbit hole, but the same with supplements. When I first started with supplements, and I realized how corrupt the industry was, if that’s the right word to use, just how crap most of the supplements are, how cheaply they’re made, and they’re all made with regular grown ingredients, so they have a lot of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides in them.

So, once we went down that rabbit hole, we had to change everything with supplements, now it’s the same with skincare. Like we started researching, people were asking. It’s like “Well, do we turn them on to this one?” Then as we researched more, it was like “Well, we can do this better.” So, after the vitamin C serum came, we have an eye cream.

We’re recording this ahead of time, so that actually launches tomorrow. So, we have a new eye cream that’s coming, the anti-aging serum. So, we’re doing a lot of stuff to change the game there, because our skin’s our biggest organ, and most women don’t realize that they’re getting all of these toxins, and it might smooth out your wrinkles for that day, but they’re aging you much more over the long run. And so, it’s just toxins, it’s just more toxins out there, quite frankly.

Lauren Zummo: And so, you guys have like other skincare products besides just…?

Jonathan Hunsaker: We’re coming out with them. So, we just launched the serum. It’s our first product. Our eye cream is coming out, and then the anti-aging will come out late January. And then we have I think four others that we’re planning. So, we’ll have seven different things. We’re looking at a face scrub and different stuff. So, we’re not going too far down the rabbit hole, because it’s hard as a small company to have so many SKUs and to keep stock of so many products, but we’re trying to get the basics, because that’s what everybody’s asking for.

Lauren Zummo: That’s awesome, yeah. I’m looking forward to that.

Frank Zummo: And I totally forgot, too, one of the biggest things that our entire family uses is your guys’ essential oils. Like that is the first thing, when I go in my dressing room every day, I diffuse—I have either—the blends, either Shield, just to keep from getting sick, and it smells incredible. Like everybody that walks in my dressing room when I have Shield is like “What is that?”

And I’m just like “It’s essential oil.” And then, I use, in my hotel rooms, like either Relax or Relief. And I have a diffuser in my bunk on the tour bus, too. And that one goes in my hotel rooms with me. So, I’m constantly diffusing, which is great. And then we use the different blends in like the different hand—home remedy things we use for my hands when they’re cracking, like we’ll mix your guys’ oils with coconut oil and kind of make like a cream for my hands.

Because especially in the winter, my hands start cracking. My hands start cracking just from playing shows and the weather and stuff. So, that stuff helps. And then, just like all the wellness stuff. We’ll—she’ll make up different blends and stuff and use them on the bottom of our feet, the different lemon oils in the kid’s room as well. And then one of my favorite other things is the green—the green powder.

Jonathan Hunsaker: OrganiGreens, yep.

Frank Zummo: And I use that daily as well on the road. That’s awesome.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I need to have you on all of my shows, because you’re the guy promoting our supplements here. No, but thank you for that, man. I appreciate that. So, to wrap up, one, thank you guys for taking the time. Clearly, you’re busy, and I just appreciate you taking time to spend with our listeners, spend with me, and kind of share some of your tips and tricks of what you’re doing. This is one of TeriAnn’s questions that she usually asks. I’ll go ahead and ask it. If you had one thing that you could share with the world, what would that one thing be?

Frank Zummo: Sorry, one thing that what?

Jonathan Hunsaker: If you just had one thing that you could say or share with the world, what would that one thing be, that one bit of advice?

Frank Zummo: One bit of advice that I would want to say or share with the world? The first thing that comes to mind is I think one of the most proud things I am is about trying to inspire the youth, and really try to, because there’s just so much—the world that we live in now, the amount of negativity, and just all the negative sides to social media and all that.

And the positives to all that, how we have such amazing resources now and ways for upcoming artists and musicians, and just everybody’s walk of lives, with the power of the amazing technologies and things that we have now. There’s not enough people out there trying to I think inspire the youth and really give back, especially in a position that I’m fortunate enough to be in, when there’s that many eyes on me at shows and on social media.

And that’s why I make it a really important point to go out and work with communities and kids on these—we took basically drum clinics and turned them on their head and made these great places where kids can go at skate parks and venues. And where I’m letting the youth come and give them the space to do whatever they want.

Young kid bands, young kid drummers. Then I’ll go up there and play a little bit. And then just literally, sit down on the floor with the kids and just bond and try to inspire these kids, and then perform with them. And I’ve taken them on the morning news shows in the city that they’re from to try to help jumpstart their careers and give them these opportunities and things that I never had.

And it’s been one of the most incredible things that has been working. Like I’m constantly getting emails from these kids. There’s a girl drummer right now who is literally a YouTube star because she was inspired by—and she wasn’t even performing that night. I literally pulled her up on stage and she played like one drum next to me.

And like all these amazing stories of kids that were having depression issues, that drums and all this help them bring out. And like that to me is one of the most important things of my career and everything. And just it’s you inspire and you try to mentor kids, and the advice—and I talk about all this stuff, too, just the wellness and things that you don’t hear rock stars talking about, because it’s not cool to be healthy and all this kind of stuff.

Like F all that. Like to me, that’s so important. And I would rather be remembered for stuff like that than selling out some concert somewhere, or selling this many records, or things like that. This is something that I feel is really important, because I didn’t have these opportunities or people telling me this stuff when I was coming up, and I think it’s just really important now. So, that’s kind of the first thing that came to mind. I don’t know if that really answered your question.

Jonathan Hunsaker: No, it absolutely does. I mean I think that’s awesome. I think a lot of today, the kids are raised by their devices, right? So, they’re on their phones and their social media and Instagram, and they’re not getting the personal attention, they’re not getting that direct attention that they need. And I don’t think that they’re always getting the best influence.

So, I think what you’re doing is making a massive impact, because it’s not just affecting that one girl, it’s affecting all of her friends that have seen it happen, you know? It’s affecting her family. It’s all of that. And that’s the beautiful thing about being able to do stuff like that.

I wish we had more people that did more stuff like that, worried less about being Insta-famous, and focused more on kids and their community, because that’s the only that we’re going to see true change. Otherwise, we’re going to just continue I think blindly going down the digital rabbit hole, where we go further and further disconnecting in our life.

Lauren Zummo: I have a question for you, and if this takes us off track, then you could edit this out or whatever. But are you at all involved or hearing the chatter about, like I don’t know if it’s FDA or whoever, that’s trying to kind of come down on the supplement industry?

Jonathan Hunsaker: It’s been happening for a while, so they want—they’re trying to, a lot of pharmaceutical companies are trying to get rid of the supplement industry and vitamins. We’re direct competition for them, right? It’s the same thing. They sell all kinds of prescription inflammatories versus take a turmeric supplement.

The challenge is the supplement industry is not very well-regulated, so they try to use that as the argument, but then to shut it all down because of that fact, and now they’re just going to want to move it towards pharmaceuticals are the only ones that can put out supplements, now you’re just going to end up with more crap, in my opinion.

We’re going to end up with more genetically-modified ingredients, we’re going to end up with more patented ingredients, we’re going to end up with a lot of stuff that I just don’t think is natural for our bodies, nor do we need it. I think there’s a time and place for some pharmaceuticals, but for the most part, I think anything that can be handled with diet, nutrition, and [inaudible 0:34:09].

So, to answer your question, it’s—I’m not stressed about it, and this is why we educate, and this is why I don’t mind promoting other products. I don’t like endorsing other supplements that don’t believe in the organic lifestyle like we do, because I think that’s also another part of the problem.

But that’s why I asked Frank what other stuff is he taking, because the more that we can all kind of come together and stay strong, and stay strong with the organic movement and with organic supplements, they’re not going to be able to shut us all up, right? They’re not going to be able to shut us all down. And I think it’s just them reaching for straws at a battle that they’re starting to lose more and more.

Lauren Zummo: Yeah, I think that’s awesome, because I totally agree with you. I mean that’s, to me, that’s a big takeaway for— I mean maybe your audience is already in on this, but just the idea that we all—we have to stay vigilant in protecting this option of helping heal ourselves through plants and things that are naturally-grown on this planet versus something that was—

Jonathan Hunsaker: Synthetically made.

Lauren Zummo: Yeah, a synthetic pharmaceutical product, exactly. Because that’s—they, like you said, they would like to have the complete monopoly on that. And the same thing is happening with like homeopathic remedies right now. They’re trying to say that they’re not well-regulated or something, that some are not—it’s like you’re saying in the supplement industry. So, it’s like they want to just—

Jonathan Hunsaker: Yeah, when people don’t realize that, prior to like 1930s, all medical schools were homeopathic, and that’s what they were teaching was homeopathy. And that’s the ancient medicines have been passed on for so long that work. But in my opinion, the way I know that we’ll never lose this battle is look at marijuana, right?

So, that’s a big—I meant that’s taking a big hit in their pocketbook, and they tried to do medical marijuana for a while, and they’ve lost the battle, right? It’s now I think on the Senate floor to be approved nationwide, so it’s not going to be criminalized anymore, and I think we’re within a few years of legalized nationwide.

And the fact that that has happened goes to show me that they’re—it’ll be impossible to get rid of supplements, right? Because they tried to get rid of marijuana, they wanted to patent it, they wanted to do all this other stuff, and you just couldn’t keep the truth hidden that long. It was just blatantly obvious what it does and how it helps heal people.

It’s the same thing with turmeric. Turmeric has over like 2,000 studies. If they were to try to make a turmeric supplement illegal, it would never fly, because there’s just too much information out there on it. And so, because people do ask, “Are you worried about it? Are you stressed about that?” Look at marijuana, and the fact that that is getting to the place where it’s going to be, there’s no way. If that’s going to win, there’s no way I have anything to worry about.

Lauren Zummo: Yeah, yeah.

Frank Zummo: And like CBD now is a very big, popular thing. I had a lot of drummer friends say that they were using CBD with the supplements and all this stuff. And I tried it, and I found a really clean, organic place that had the oil. And whenever like I am starting to feel like a little bit inflamed or whatever, like I’ll put it on before the shows, and it definitely helps, you know?

With everything combined, it definitely helps. And I really felt a difference in when we were rehearsing for like nine hours a day for a week straight, and I was training too, and I was just like really, really sore, and it was definitely helping. And like I have a lot of drummer friends, too, that are like backing it and swear by it too. So, if you can find the good, clean, organic kind, like I think that’s a great healer helper as well.

Jonathan Hunsaker: I mean it really is. And we’ve been approached quite a bit to come out with a CBD product and to come out with a hemp product, and we probably will. The problem was I wanted a strong strain that was—strand I should say, that was organic, that had all of these other properties that we were looking for.

Everybody’s jumped on the CBD bandwagon, so my bit of advice on that is be careful, don’t just go buy CBD from your local vape store or things like that. Buy one that’s organic, that’s high-quality. And you get what you pay for in life. So, if that CBD is $10.00 a bottle versus one that’s $100.00 a bottle, there’s likely a big difference and that $100.00 bottle one is probably worth it in the effects that you’re going to get.

But yeah, and that’s just it. I mean I think that CBD is phenomenal. There’s a lot—listen, we sell a dozen different products, but there’s 50 more that are wonderful for other people, that other companies are making. Just we’re not big enough to go down that rabbit hole of carrying some of everything. But I just—I’m so much for finding alternative solutions.

[indiscernible 0:39:24] whether it’s diet, nutrition, supplements. So, and I think that they’re out there, I just think a lot of times, the quick fix is going to the doctor and getting a prescription as opposed to going and trying a bunch of stuff and spending six months to find out what works for you and what doesn’t.

Frank Zummo: Yeah, and it’s funny because we’re not even wired that way. Because you’re right. Most people generally will go to the doctor and get on—

Lauren Zummo: They’d rather take a Motrin every day, like my parents.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Yeah, right?

Frank Zummo: I mean I called you guys when I got a staph infection from the gym around my eye. And your doc, who makes up all this stuff, recommended a bunch of stuff, and I literally went to my paid healthcare provider and they told me to wash it with baby soap. Like what? And I found through you guys, and then I found—maybe—

I don’t know if you guys recommended him, or not, you might have, there was a naturopathic doctor in Pasadena who now I go to, and he helped me cure it. Like we didn’t use all kinds of medicines and this and that. Like we did it a natural way and it went away, and like it—

Lauren Zummo: I mean it took a while, but that’s staph. And that happens whether you take conventional antibiotics or not.

Jonathan Hunsaker: And that’s the challenge, right? It’s so quick to throw an antibiotic, and now just destroys your whole gut, and then if you don’t restore your gut, then all kinds of other stuff grows. I mean my daughter was 2 ½ years old, 3 years old, had a splinter in the bottom of her foot that I couldn’t get out.

Took her to the pediatrician. He wanted to put her on antibiotics just in case. I’m like “I’m never going to see you again.” We’re talking about a splinter in your foot. We’re going to put her on antibiotics just like—let’s just wait. It might hurt for a few weeks, but it will work its way out, you know?

Lauren Zummo: Yeah, let’s put—that’s when I would put that coconut oil concoction with lavender oil and tea tree oil. Like literally every cut or anything that we get, like that stuff goes on it, and I swear by it.

Frank Zummo: Yeah.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Awesome.

Lauren Zummo: Anti—

Jonathan Hunsaker: Thank you guys so much for being on the show. For those of you listening at home, you can go to Empowering You Organically for all of our show notes. You’ll have links to all the products that we’ve talked about, transcriptions of the whole show. Go to iTunes and subscribe, give us five stars on there. But Frank and Lauren, thank you guys so much for taking time out of your busy day and just sharing—

Frank Zummo: You too, man.

Lauren Zummo: Absolutely.

Frank Zummo: Definitely, I know it’s a crazy time of year with the holidays, so it’s good to see you this time of year.

Lauren Zummo: Good to meet you.

Frank Zummo: Yeah.

Lauren Zummo: Glad you can meet this little guy.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Absolutely. Let me know next time you’re in Dallas on tour, man. We’ll come by and see you.

Frank Zummo: Definitely will, brother.

Jonathan Hunsaker: Awesome. Thank you, guys, so much, and we will see you on the next show.

Frank Zummo: Cool. Bye.

Lauren Zummo: Thanks. Bye.

* * *

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