The Zest

The Zest – Damon Sununtnasuk

We sat down with Damon Sununtnasuk, the founder of Natural Cure Labs. He is a passionate entrepreneur, the founder of multiple companies, a leader in the health and wellness space, and an all-around rock star.

We learned so much from him about business, what to look for when choosing supplements, and much more. Watch the full interview or read the transcript below!

Teju

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Zest. I’m your host, Teju. I am so excited about today’s episode.

You guys are in for a treat. I have Damon Sununtnasuk, and he’s here to share all that he knows, some of his best practices, how he stays healthy, and approaches total well-being. So, welcome to the show, Damon. I’m so happy to have you. And hopefully, I didn’t butcher your last name.

Damon

You did great. I’m glad to be here.

Teju

I have just enjoyed our conversations over the last… We got to know each other a couple of months ago – or maybe almost a year at this point.

Teju

Yeah, summer of last year. Just for our viewers, funny story. I am so passionate about Damon’s product monolog. You guys have probably heard me talk about Monolaurin in other episodes and blog posts. It’s something that I use for my total well-being. I have the nickname the monolaurin pusher.

So I’m always recommending it. And we got connected and just so jazzed because I absolutely love your product and it has been instrumental for me. I would love to kick off with you just telling us about yourself. I read that you started in big corporate, so you were at Microsoft and Google and Samsung. What was your role at these companies? And then how did you like working in corporate America?

Working in corporate America, travel, entrepreneurship

Damon

That’s right. Well, first, thanks for the very generous and kind introduction. I really appreciate it. And we love having passionate customers like yourself.

It’s so wonderful to hear these stories and when the audience can be your own best marketing. But indeed, yeah. My history is a bit of a different one. My first startup was in undergrad, and despite being ultra-prepared and writing a full business plan, it didn’t come to fruition.

Getting some experience in a larger, more established company felt like the right way to go. That’s exactly what I did. Fresh out of undergrad, I worked for some pretty large technology companies, both in the United States and abroad, which was pretty instrumental in my growth and development and framing of my approach to challenges and to work.

Teju

What was that first company? I’m so curious.

Damon

It was Microsoft. I worked for Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Seattle for a few years. I even transferred to the London office to work for their UK headquarters. And from there, really, my life was pivoted to a very different track. I became so enthralled with different cultures and people and ways of doing things.

And so my move to London really propelled me into a longer term stay overseas. You mentioned Google – I did some work with them in Germany. Then Samsung, I lived in Korea for several years working for their corporate headquarters. These experiences have been really fundamental and instrumental in my outlook on business and solving problems.

Teju

Awesome. I love London. I spent summers in London and it’s always been one of my favorite cities. So super cool that you were there. And it’s funny, I think that everyone thinks entrepreneurship is like you start a business and then you blow up and make millions. It’s not the case. What was that business you started? I’m curious.

Damon

Yeah. So I’ve always had a desire to work on projects that have the capability of solving problems for the greater good. And my first company was no different. It was a piece of software that helped magnify computer screens for visually disabled users.

At the time, this was in the early 2000s and the solutions that existed were pretty crude. There was a physical screen you laid over the cover of your monitor, and that was the only way to view small text. And so the startup was trying to build a software solution that did exactly that, that zoomed in the text for people with visual disabilities.

Teju

Right. Very cool. Now, how did you transition from a tech business working at Microsoft and Google to starting National Care Labs.

Damon

Yeah, it all came together as really serendipitous. I think everyone’s life is a collection of experiences that all come together at some point to make something bigger. And that’s exactly what happened to me.

I was working for Samsung in South Korea and relocated back to the US to Silicon Valley because my entire career had really, as we hinted at, had been in the tech industry. And what better place to come back to than the epicenter of the tech universe, Silicon Valley?

And it was very serendipitous in many ways. I had come from living overseas, experiencing the benefits of social healthcare systems where everyone had access to health solutions. Moving to a very expensive city where that wasn’t the case, I was in between jobs, and so I wasn’t protected from that perspective.

But I was also surrounded by people who were hyper-enthusiastic about personal health and individual health goals, but also with the fervor of the startup industry of being entrepreneurial and blazing your own path and working on things that you find personally very interesting and have a passion for.

And so it’s a combination of all those things that really got me exploring, like, what can I do to better promote my own health, promote the health of others?

Damon

You explore some of the options out there, and a lot of them have a lot of shortcomings. So it was a lightbulb moment where I said, “We can do better.” There are 28 million Americans out there who don’t have health insurance. There are 58 million Americans who suffer from something called medication insecurity and don’t have access to the medications they need.

And I thought, “Wow, can we combine my personal experiences, my desire to do something bigger and better, with some of these health needs?” And that’s how I started.

Teju

How interesting. And did you start off with the intent to sell supplements? How did you arrive at that? Were there multiple iterations of the business? Walk me through that a bit.

Damon

Yeah, it was all about supplemental health, I think, at the time. Health, as you know, is a holistic approach. There’s no one thing that’s going to support individual health goals. It’s going to be a combination of great eating practices and getting plenty of sleep and getting physical exercise and watching what you put in your body. And so it’s just one tool in a larger toolkit of considerations.

But I thought that supplements were some of those things that had the greatest opportunity to do good. And again, serendipitously, I was speaking with some people who were ultra passionate about coconut oil and its therapeutic benefits.

And that got me down this research rabbit hole of asking, “Wow, what are the potential applications of some of these natural products to do good from an overall health perspective?” And that’s how we got started.

Teju

Walk me through your first product. So did the coconut oil deep dive lead to your first product?

How did you even figure out manufacturing and processes and packaging? All of the little things that go into getting a product on the shelves. Walk me through some of those early days.

Damon

You’re really bringing me back. This was 2015. So it all started with research, and that’s really been the foundation of the company from day one, and it continues to drive everything we do today. Everything is based on research and what the academic community has to say about particular ingredients and particular products.

It was around researching coconut oil and the various applications around the world from oral health to skin health to hair health that really got us looking into, well, if we break down coconut oil, what are the beneficial properties? And so that got us on this path to lauric acid, which eventually ended with monolaurin. So lauric acid is the hero of the story here.

Monolaurin is a medium-chain fatty acid that’s derived from lauric acid, which is a medium-chain fatty acid that’s found primarily in three sources in large quantities: Coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and human breast milk. It’s an incredible substance.

I encourage anyone listening today to go poke around. There are very authoritative websites, including PubMed, that talk about it. It’s part of the National Institute of Health, the government website that promotes and indexes publicly available peer-reviewed research.

Damon

So we started looking for suppliers and manufacturers who had an alignment with the goals that we had around safety and quality and transparency – really, really critical things to get right when you’re building a business that depends on the trust of your consumer to put something in their body. That was paramount.

It began with the research and then finding and assessing partners throughout the entire supply chain that could live up to the standards that we were looking to do. We started with that one product and grew from there.

Teju

Amazing. Amazing. I think that with my own journey with Clean Rebellion, starting any type of product business, there are so many steps, and then there are highs and lows on that journey. Walk me through some of the highs and lows that you’ve experienced with product development.

Now you have so many different products launching and growing and scaling. Walk me through those high points and some of the points that you’re like, “Oh, no.”

Damon

There’s plenty of both. In the early days, maybe more lows than highs. But I think the entrepreneurial spirit was there from day one. Since college, I wanted to do something bigger and better beyond my individual contributions.

It was really exhilarating to build something from scratch, but also terrifying at the same time because I’m sure you and your listeners have heard of this imposter syndrome where you feel like you don’t have what it takes to be successful, that you’re in a position that’s beyond your own capabilities, and there’s a lot of self-doubt.

And that’s a real thing and something that I think probably every entrepreneur experiences in their career and their course of building and creating.

Teju

So I, similar to you, have gone from tech to health and wellness. And you’re like, “Wait, this is not my native industry, and I’m having to learn a ton.” So it really triggers imposter syndrome – at least in my own experience.

Damon

Completely. And that’s coupled with the almost paranoia of getting things right, that, “Wow, this is a product that someone’s going to put in their body. This is a product that’s regulated. This is a product that’s in a very competitive landscape.”

There are so many considerations and you don’t want to get any one part wrong because that could be disastrous for the company, for your consumer, for a lot of reasons. So obsessing over the quality and having that be foundational.

And we talked about it just briefly, like the transparency and trust and compliance components are really the foundational elements. So the good news is that having spent many years in the formal economy and formal corporate worlds, you do pick up on a lot of those good best practices.

You learn about how to structure your day and how to navigate contracts and how to look for suppliers and partners that are going to be beneficial and help support your business in meaningful ways. And so I think those foundational experiences really help deliver on getting some of those things right, at least in the early stages, right?

Teju

Right, absolutely. For a long time, I was very bullish on entrepreneurship as the only way to go, and corporate isn’t really the path, and so on and so forth.

But I have to say, too, for myself, going back to corporate and being in corporate America, I did learn a ton in terms of business processes that have helped me grow Clean Rebellion and launch. And I think that sometimes people discount that, that those experiences are really valuable.

Damon

Completely. I rely on experiences that I had earlier in my career all the time. And not just the experiences of going through the protocols and the formalities of being in a formal or a very large business, but also the networks that you build, the good habits you pick up from your mentors and your managers and people you inspire to reflect in your own mannerisms.

And those have been truly the experiences that have stayed with me and kept giving along the way. When I started my first business, I didn’t have any context, really. And it was going to get that context within a formal work environment that I could bring back with me and apply in the entrepreneurial space.

Teju

Right. Absolutely. Now, on this lens of imposter syndrome, I know a lot of entrepreneurs struggle, or they actually don’t even get started because their limiting beliefs. Were there any that you had to overcome? And are there any that you’re still working through today?

Damon

Yeah. Gosh, well, there’s always that seed of self doubt. I think that anyone can walk into a CVS or Walgreens and see these successful brands on the shelves and question, “Could I be that? Could I compete with that? Could I replicate their success?” And it’s really daunting, extremely daunting.

But I think the approach that’s best for me is just focusing on incremental wins. How can you improve and consistently raise the bar for yourself and your company by doing the right things incrementally? So if you see something that a large brand does really well, whether it’s around community building or supporting nonprofit efforts, or really connecting with the consumer, you can take pages out of their book.

Looking at your past experiences, and looking at what’s being done in the industry in this space really well is almost like a menu of options you have to imitate. And there’s a saying that says “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” And in that respect, I believe it is.

Damon’s personal approach to well-being and being flexitarian

Teju

For sure. I couldn’t agree more. Now, one of the things that I love, speaking of wanting to imitate, is your approach to well-being. I mean, you’re managing so many things.

You’ve got multiple businesses. How do you do it all? What is your approach to healthy living? What do you do in the morning? You’re such a beacon of health and wellness, and how do you do it? And what are your best practices?

Damon

Thanks, Teju. That’s really flattering of you to say. It’s changed over time, in part because I’m always learning and trying new things. So most recently, my days start with exercise in the morning.

And everything, I think, is a combination of mental health and physical health. Some colleagues of mine say that for their mental health, they never check their phones in the morning because that can really draw you in. You see an email that feels very urgent, it derails you from the rest of the things you had planned that morning.

In a similar fashion, I get up, head straight to the gym, or go for a run. I use that opportunity to clear my mind before the day and have a little bit of a reset. In terms of eating well, have you heard of this concept called flexitarianism?

Teju

Yes, I have. I personally haven’t practiced it, but I’d love for you to explain what that means to you and how you incorporated it.

Damon

Absolutely. So as we said, overall well-being is a combination of mental health, physical health, and lifestyle choices. From an eating perspective, flexitarianism is something that my girlfriend and I try to implement every week.

I first heard about this actually when I was in corporate and when I was in Microsoft, of all places, they had a huge banner that said, “Have you ever considered being a flexitarian?” Not knowing what it was and being a very peculiar-sounding word, I had to look it up.

But at the end of the day, flexitarian is basically when you make the conscious choice to not eat meat a few days a week, whenever is most convenient to you. Let’s say you choose four or five days a week where you don’t eat meat, and the other two or three, you can bend the rules a little bit.

What I love about this is you make the conscious choice to default to the vegetarian option. And when it’s more convenient or when you feel like it, you can have meat. So if you’re at a business dinner and it happens to be at a steak restaurant, you don’t necessarily want to be that guy who orders a salad.

Damon

Well, maybe that’s the one day that you cheat a little bit. So my girlfriend and I, five days a week, Monday through Friday lunch, I should say, we eat vegetarian or vegan usually. And then Friday night and Saturday and Sunday, we relax the rules a little bit. And I love that being flexitarian puts the power in the individual, but you’re also making that conscious choice to eat healthier.

Business rules and how to launch a business

Teju

I love that approach too. And I studied economics, so the Pareto principle is something that I’m always thinking about how to apply to my life. I love the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time you do one thing.

And then 20% of the time you’re doing another thing and trying to figure out the best way to segment your life in a way that doesn’t feel constricting.

Damon

Yeah. In fact, I’m happy you brought up that Pareto ratio because I was going to bring up another one on an earlier question, and you just jogged my memory. I think it went back to learning and applying rules and how you figure out how to be an entrepreneur.

The 70-20-10 rule basically states that of the skill set that you apply to work on the job, only 10% really comes from academia, from formal learning. 20% comes from learning through others, through mimicking and imitating the best practices of others, or coaching or mentorship. And then the remaining 70% really is through doing.

So no one can really teach you how to be an entrepreneur. You just have to go and do it and learn the hard way.

Teju

I love that so much. I couldn’t agree more. And whenever I work with entrepreneurs and startups or businesses, a lot of times people spend a lot of time in that prelaunch mode where they’re like, “Oh, I’ve got this idea, I want to think about it, I want to refine that.” And I’m an advocate of launch, test, and move forward.

Damon

Completely. The Agile methodology is the one that’s actually being taught in schools today. I know this because I was recently a guest speaker at the University of Florida’s Principals of Entrepreneurship class, and that was one of the questions that came up either from the professor or one of the students, was,

“Which methodology would you recommend to an entrepreneur today: Labor over the world’s most perfect business plan, extrapolate and forecast out every opportunity and every blocker and challenge in every scenario, or have an MVP, a minimally viable product, and just test fast, fail fast, and keep iterating?”

I said, “Oh my gosh. When I was in school and undergrad, it was the former. I labored over my business plan.

Today, it’s all about being agile. It’s all about being dynamic and learning fast and failing fast and iterating as rapidly as possible in response to the external stimuli.’’ I think that’s for sure the way to go.

Teju

I couldn’t agree more. I think for anyone who’s watching this and who wants to start a brand, that is gold advice right there. Launch and learn. I always say the proof is on the thank you page. You want to see how many people get to the thank you page and then iterate from there. I love that. I love that. Which is how you’ve built your business.

I would love to transition to Natural Cure Labs. Walk us through some of your products. What are your top-selling products? What are customers raving about? I know I’m raving about Monolaurin, but you’ve got a whole other lineup of products. Walk us through some of those.

Natural Cure Labs products

Damon

We do. Thank you. So the most popular and probably our foundational product is still the most sought after, which is our Monolaurin product. We have three. We have a 600-milligram capsule, an 800-milligram capsule, and a combination product which is Monolaurin plus L. Lysine.

So I would consider those the major pillars of the business, but we’re deliberately and thoughtfully expanding the product line to support other areas of immune health. We have several immune-focused products, a 16-ingredient blend or proprietary blend with a lot of amazing herbal extracts, botanicals, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

We’ve also expanded into some more specialty products. We have a biofilm product here that uses various highly researched herbs and botanicals to create a proprietary formula.

And most recently an elderberry product. During the surge in demand for immune support products last year, elderberry grew 17,000% in interest. And so we had to respond to consumer interest in that perspective.

Again, everything is research, whether it’s research on ingredients or research on consumer trends. According to many retail authorities, liquid-based extracts are one of the fastest-growing categories right now. So we launched this liquid immune support blend. Again, fantastic product, alcohol-free, cold processed to preserve a lot of its bioactivity.

Really, really fantastic product. And we also have this dual capsule thyroid support product. It took us nine months to develop this thing using patented technology from South Africa.

It’s just a phenomenal product with amazing ingredients and breakthrough capsule technology that splits the capsule in half using a vegetarian membrane. So there’s a liquid side and a powder side, which is really cool.

Using supplements as part of a holistic approach to well-being

Teju

Really interesting. You’ve got such a diverse lineup of products. How can you integrate them into your life? How could you use Monolaurin versus the biofilm product? Walk me through that a bit.

Damon

Yeah. So these products are all part of, again, a holistic approach to overall health and well-being. No one product is going to solve anyone’s personal health concerns.

And by definition, no product is meant to diagnose, treat or cure any disease. But I think that also by its name, they are supplementary. From a monolaurin perspective, people choose to take it for a variety of reasons: overall health, digestive health, etc.

People can integrate it as a daily driver. I don’t know how else to put it. You could take a multivitamin every day as a part of your overall health and well-being, and many people choose to do that.

Others choose to take it under times of duress. If they’re feeling a little bit down, if they think their immune system could use a little bit more support, they choose to take it at that point. But what’s nice about monolaurin specifically is that these mono and diglycerides are found on the FDA’s GRAS list.

GRAS is an acronym that stands for Generally Recognized As Safe. So monolaurin is already used in many products that people enjoy today and in many industries that they just simply wouldn’t know to look into.

Damon

So it’s used in the cosmetic industry, it’s used in the food preparation industry, it’s used in meat processing – all for its natural properties. And so the nice thing is that you can use monolaurin safely because of its GRAS standing.

Teju

How about lysine? That’s one I’m not too familiar with.

Damon

Yeah, so lysine has some incredible research on it. We made our own. It’s an essential amino acid, meaning it must be obtained through diet or supplementation. Your body can’t make it on its own. Lysine is very popular, and a quick search on Amazon will find hundreds or maybe thousands of options.

But we chose to get into this space because, again, the research guided us there. The research behind lysine is incredible, and I encourage everyone to go on to Google Scholar or PubMed and do the research themselves. But yeah, so we wanted to make our own licensing because we didn’t feel comfortable with some of the variants that were on the product. There’s something called an excipient, which is industry speak for a lubricant or flow agent.

So encapsulation equipment is very sophisticated, very high-speed equipment. And in order to ensure uniform fill within the capsule, you have to have what’s called an excipient. It supports the flow of the product into the capsule. And a lot of other companies choose to use either synthetic or not naturally sourced excipients to gain that lubricating property that they’re looking for.

Damon

So things that are common are magnesium steroids or silica, or other items like that that can be found on the supplement facts label. And we don’t like that because some of those artificial excipients can irritate the digestive system or potentially slow the absorption of the actual supplement.

So we only use organic natural rice powder for ours. This product specifically only has three ingredients:

The lysine itself (which is naturally derived from plant sources), the vegetarian capsule, and the rice powder that is used as that flow agent.

Teju

Interesting. And then how about the biofilm product? Walk me through maybe some of what’s in it. Why would someone use that?

Damon

Yeah. So again, the biofilm is really interesting. It has six different ingredients in it, ranging from turmeric to pomegranate, sweet wormwood powder, and clove. So these are compounds and herbs and extracts that people can find individually.

But in conjunction may make a really convincing proprietary formula. Biofilms, by definition, are these conglomerates of bacteria that form this protective shield that prevents your body’s natural defenses from penetrating and eliminating the pathogen.

Biofilms can build up. Actually, the most common one is probably in your mouth. So tartar is an example of a biofilm. It builds up on your teeth. It creates this hard outer shell that prevents your body from breaking down the bacteria that’s inside and eliminating it.

So we wanted to approach that problem by researching all of the various extracts and compounds that have some really solid research with respect to biofilm formations.

Teju

Interesting. I think the supplement industry is like Pandora’s box. There are so many supplements out there. There are so many companies. You go on Amazon as you were talking about and type in whatever it may be that you’re looking for, and there are a bajillion options it feels like.

What’s your advice to consumers when they’re looking for supplements? What are some things to look for when they’re reading the back of labels? What are some things to avoid? How can we shop as informed consumers when we’re buying supplements?

Damon

That’s a great question. I empathize with that overwhelming sentiment that one may have either browsing the pages of Amazon or even browsing the shelves of a CVS or Walgreens. There are enormous amounts of choices out there and the average customer may not know what to look for.

We talked about excipients, these flow agents that are used as an essential part of the manufacturing process. I prefer to look for natural alternatives like organic rice powder, which is what we use in favor of synthetic alternatives like silica or magnesium steroids. That’s one example.

The other things I look for include compliance with labeling. It’s something that the average consumer wouldn’t know, but it’s a dead giveaway. If your labeling is not compliant, then maybe there are some things beyond that that are being overlooked. Are the companies talking about the source of the material?

Are they talking about whether it’s vegan or non-GMO or gluten-free or manufactured in the United States? These are the triggers I look for within the labeling. Are the supplement facts panels formatted in a correct and compliant way?

Additionally, I just recommend that everyone does their research in advance. I mentioned that Google Scholar, NCBI, and PubMed are amazing resources. Just be an informed consumer and know what you’re getting into, know what are the weights and amounts that you’re looking for in a particular supplement.

Are you looking for a powder? Are you looking for an extract? Does the part of the plant mean something to you? Because that has to be explained explicitly on the label as well. Is it from a leaf or a stem or a root? These are meaningful questions and ones that people don’t necessarily know to ask.

Teju

Right. So do you have a process that you go through when you’re evaluating supplements? Are you researching first? And of course, you’re an expert. What’s the process of using Google, looking at key things, what’s the process our viewers can follow?

Damon

I think first, get educated on the supplement that you might be looking for. Generally speaking, people look based on how they’re feeling and want a solution to something they’re experiencing. That’s the traditional way.

I don’t think people really look for what is the best vitamin C. They look for, “How can I improve my health?” That’s the approach that usually kicks off the research.

And then you look for trusted brands that have a long-standing. They send their products to accredited laboratories. All of our products are sent to ISO 17025-accredited laboratories for testing.

They test the fill amounts, they test for presence, and they test for gluten, of course, because all of our products are gluten-free and vegan. They test for heavy metal contaminants, they test for microbials. And it’s really important. And does your supplement invest in these things?

Because the supplement industry does sit in this rather gray area – the FDA focuses a lot of energy on food and drugs. And this middle space that has been carved out for dietary supplements is governed more or less by the DSHEA Act of the early 90s, but its enforcement is not always consistent, unfortunately.

And so a lot of companies choose to cut corners or make label claims that may not be entirely truthful. They may use inferior ingredients or they may fill their capsules with an amount of supplement that isn’t really going to be super beneficial if taken as directed.

Again, it’s all part of the education side, looking for those companies that obsess over transparency and safety and quality. And just being an educated consumer when making a choice.

Teju

This is incredibly helpful. I wanted to be mindful of time because I want to see the demo. If you could show us the new capsule that you have, which looks cool, that would be amazing.

Damon

Absolutely. As I teased before, this is one of our newest products. It’s called thyroid support. It’s this dual capsule that took us nine months to develop. Let me go ahead and tear open the seal. Maybe it’s a great demonstration of what to look for, right?

We have a printed safety seal on all of our products to ensure that they’re not being tampered with. You take off the safety seal and inside you’ll find a secondary seal, a foil seal that protects the inside of the bottle.

And you take it out or take off the foil seal and inside we have a cotton pack because these supplements get really thrown around in transit, right? And it’s to help prevent the settling of the capsule. It’s meant to help prevent damage to the contents.

And again, it’s a very small touch that not everyone necessarily picks up on because it’s extra effort and extra cost to include it. But we obsess over quality, so we don’t cut corners with respect to that.

Teju

And then you mentioned the ISO, and I’m going to forget the rest of it. Is that printed on your labels? And do some companies, do most companies print that on their labels?

Damon

No, so we do not. There are some programs you can participate in, like UL, which is another authoritative body that does GMP certifications, among other things.

And so you can pay to have UL inspect your products and approve them and pay them a royalty to get to use their mark on your bottle. We don’t do that. It’s really expensive. We do the testing itself. We have all the certificates of analysis in a dossier of supporting materials for every lot and every product. It’s just that being very conservative, we don’t want to overstep any lines and print it on the actual bottle.

Teju

Totally makes sense. And that’s good to know, too, for all consumers: The research is there, but it’s not something that gets printed on bottles, which I didn’t know.

Damon

Not necessarily, but you can usually find it on manufacturer’s websites, including our own.

Teju

Okay, very cool.

Damon

So again, apologies to everyone listening and not watching. But here is an example of the capsule itself. The bubble of air is very deliberate. It’s part of the manufacturing process.

I learned a lot about methodologies to prevent splashing when dealing with these materials because you can’t have any material splash when you fill the capsule – it would damage the outside and it would not allow for a successful seal of the capsule itself. We use a lichen-derived vitamin D source for this capsule because vitamin D is traditionally derived from lamb’s wool.

Teju

I didn’t know that.

Damon

Not a lot of people do. But for some people who are sensitive to having a truly vegan option, one could make the argument that lamb’s wool-derived vitamin D probably isn’t vegan. So we spent the extra effort and resources to find a lichen source of vitamin D, which is pretty cool.

Supplements for dogs

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another product. So last year we actually expanded our product line to include other members of the family, you could say. We launched a brand new line of pet multivitamins. So these are really cool.

Our new brand is called Vitatails. These are specially made soft chews for dogs. They have 30 different active ingredients in them. It’s an all-in-one vitamin. It’s meant to support a healthy coat and joints and digestion, it has probiotics in it and overall vitality for your furry friend.

And we feel great about this product. It’s made in a food-grade manufacturing facility. It’s cold extruded to preserve a lot of the active ingredients like probiotics, etc. And we’re really thrilled to be expanding our expertise from human supplements to pet supplements.

Teju

I love it. I want to get a dog soon, so now I know where to get supplements.

Damon

Absolutely.

Where to follow Natural Cure Labs and find out more

Teju

I love it. I could chat with you all day, but I know you’re super busy and have to go. So where can we find you on social media? And then, what’s next? You have expanded your product line, what’s next? And then, yes, where can our customers and our viewers go to shop for your products?

Damon

Yeah. So we can be found on all major social media channels under Natural Cure Labs. We’re not the most active brand out there in social media, again, because we labor over trying to be as compliant as possible. And it’s a lot of things our lawyers don’t allow us to say or do or interact with.

And social media is one of the highly scrutinized channels where you have to be super careful. So we are there. You can find us there. And actually, the American Business Awards announced their 2021 winners, and we were voted company of the year for health products and services for the second year in a row. So we’re very, very proud of that.

Teju

Congratulations.

Damon

Thank you. And what’s next for us in the future? Well, we’re in the middle of actually going through one of the most challenging things I think any company or brand can do, which is pivoting brands. We have the Vitatales brand, which we’re really proud of for our pet supplements. And for our human supplements, we are in the process of changing over from Natural Cure to a newly reimagined brand called Palmara Health.

And we think this new brand change will be a better reflection of the principles and compliance of the company. Palmara is a fictitious word, but it’s derived from a Greek or Roman word called Palmarius. Palmarius meant to indicate something extraordinary or someone very special because a palm frond was given as the award to the victor of a competition. So Palmarius is someone who is a victor or someone who’s been extraordinary.

So we took that as the root and the Latin root and we made Palmara. And we’re excited to relaunch our brand as Palmara Health. Again, indicating that it’s a little bit more aligned with who we are as a company.

Teju

Well, thank you so, so much. Everyone, go to their website and check out these amazing products that I use for myself all the time.

Damon, this has been an incredible conversation. I always learn so much from you. So honored and humbled.

Damon

It’s absolutely my pleasure. Thank you for having me today.

Teju

Thank you, Damon.