What’s a Natural Living Family & Why We Started this Podcast – Episode #1

Transcript & Timeline for Natural Living Family, Podcast Episode 1:

What’s a Natural Living Family and Why We Started This Podcast

The contents of this presentation are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This presentation does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

[0:00 – 0:42] Prelude
Mama Z: I remember the very first day of my health class in tenth grade. And that was on the chalkboard, “What is health? A balance between all of these areas.” And that stuck with me. And it’s so amazing that that just happens to be the cornerstone of what we do.

Dr. Z: Exactly. And it’s about abundance. I’m not talking everyone wearing Rolex watches and driving around Bentleys and having private leer jets. That’s not abundance. Abundance is really not lacking. It’s having your needs met. And I would daresay having extra to help others.

[0:43 – 1:06] Intro
Hi there! This is Dr. Z.

Mama Z: And this is Mama Z. And welcome to our show!

Dr. Z: Each week, we invite you into our home to talk about how you can master the art and science of natural living. And we share the very same tips our family uses every day to experience an abundant life.

Mama Z: So come on in and get comfortable. After all, you’re one of the family…Our Natural Living Family!

[1:10 – 2:29] Sponsor Spotlight: Thrive Market
Dr. Z: Before we dive into all the fun today, we’re excited to share a special note about today’s sponsor.

Mama Z: What would you say if there was an online store that carries thousands of bestselling organic foods and natural products at 25-50% below traditional retail prices?

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Mama Z: Shopping at Thrive Market means supporting a select group of brands that make the world a better place. They sell non-GMO foods, personal care products, eco-friendly cleaning supplies, nontoxic beauty products, our favorite kitchen staples, and so much more.

Dr. Z: Plus, it’s all shipped straight to your door. This is our favorite part.

Mama Z: As a special gift to our Natural Living Family podcast listeners, Thrive Market is giving you 25% off your first order.

Dr. Z: Now keep in mind, Thrive Market’s prices are already 25-50% off, and now they’re giving you an extra 25% off your first order, plus a free 30-day trial.

Mama Z: Many of you will be making a grocery run this week, so why not give Thrive Market a try, and shop from your home?

Dr. Z: Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com to find the special link so you can redeem this deal on the show notes from today’s episode.

[2:30 – 5:10] Show Welcome
So welcome to episode one of the Natural Living Family podcast. What is a Natural Living Family and why we started this podcast? We are so excited. This is our very first inaugural episode, and this has just been absolutely birthed in prayer, and counsel, and you know, we’re doing this because of you.

So many of our followers, through DrEricZ.com and NaturalLivingFamily.com have asked us just to get a behind the scenes sneak peek into what we do, how we live, how we manage our health, our finances, our kids, our business, our work life, and so many things, that our heart is absolutely full. And we just want to share what God has given us.

Mama Z: Yes. I’m so excited. I know that we’ve talked about this, and this is one of the things that as soon as Dr. Z mentioned it to me, usually I always say no first. But in this case, I actually said yes because I really think this is such a great place to connect with everybody. They ask us all the time different questions. And now we have a better forum to be able to reach so many more people when we answer those.

Dr. Z: Well you do say no all the time, to everything. Stay tuned for later on in the show, because there’s a critical part of even our business and brand development where Sabrina is like, no. And then she ultimately changed her mind, thank God. But you know, I get that. You’re very reluctant to change. I get that.

Mama Z: I don’t like change. I’m very structured.

Dr. Z: Oh, and me. Whenever I see an opportunity, I’m changing at a whim. And I’ll tell you, that’s a sneak peek into episode two because I am the extreme one of the bunch, and I will drop my hat, and I will turn on a dime any time I learn something new. And Sabrina is like, whoa, hold your horses!

Mama Z: Yeah. Kudos to those people who change their living room furniture in every different configuration every week, month. That’s not me.

Dr. Z: No.

Mama Z: It is the same configuration it was when we moved here two years ago.

Dr. Z: Well, that’s your comfort zone. I’ve learned to embrace that. But also I praise God, because you are like a bridle. Or kind of like a harness to me.

Mama Z: I’m very structured.

Dr. Z: Yes. You hold me back because if it weren’t for you, I’m always in cloud 9. I’m 50,000 feet up in the air.

Mama Z: Yeah. And remember we have always called you a 10-gallon hat cowboy. If he only needed a 1-gallon hat, you’ve got a 10-gallon hat.

Dr. Z: And that’s a future episode, too. If one is good, ten is better. How to live with an extremist, all about balance.

[5:11 – 13:35] What Is a Natural Living Family?
So, ok here’s the thing. What is a Natural Living Family? I get that. I know you’re asking this. People have asked us, why did we change our website? Again, we’re going to talk about this in just a minute. We had millions, literally 5.5, 6 million people a year visit DrEricZ.com and then we just flipped the switch in December 2018 and changed it to NaturalLivingFamily.com. And there’s a story behind it. There’s a reason behind it. And it’s also part of why we have this podcast.

And before we even answer that question, before we even talk about why we did that. We’ve got to address what this Natural Living Family is because before, really we met. And even before we moved down to Georgia because we lived in Michigan. Before we moved down, we didn’t have a Natural Living Family. It was just kind of us.

Mama Z: And we had our church family, and a few other people. But that’s about it.

Dr. Z: But we didn’t have anyone that we could really relate to, like a group of people that we could relate to after church. You know, people go out to eat, which, by the way is a huge issue and we’re going to talk more about that in episode 2. Like, what do you do when your loved ones, your friends, your family, your church members, are all going to Applebee’s or something after church, and you’re like, whoa, I can’t eat that. There’s nothing I can eat at Applebee’s. That creates stress. Right? Anxiety.

So one of the biggest blessings when we moved down to Georgia is we were, in a sense, adopted into a Natural Living Family. And it opened up my heart. It opened up my eyes and my mind, which, by the way, I’m the one who said no to that in the beginning. Remember?

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: You don’t remember?

Mama Z: No.

Dr. Z: I didn’t want to play volleyball.

Mama Z: Oh yes!

Dr. Z: Oh, yeah.

Mama Z: So, when I started playing, I was like, this is the perfect connection for us. The people were all likeminded. I love this. And I remember inviting Eric to go, and he’s like, no.

Dr. Z: I was on a business trip, too, right? You went two weeks in a row and I was gone.

Mama Z: Yes, he was gone.

Dr. Z: And they’re playing beach volleyball. I’ve never played beach volleyball. And I was like, I don’t want to play volleyball with strangers. Literally, I was grump.

Mama Z: And it was so funny. I was thinking, oh I don’t want him to ruin this. These people are our people. Such a special group of people. And we are so blessed.

Dr. Z: Yeah, we’re going to talk a little bit more about them. We actually call them the fit fam, fitness family. But it wasn’t until we got connected with the fit fam that I really appreciated what we had and what we have, and what we need to do. And that has been now two years in the making.

And this Natural Living Family community that we’ve built online, literally tens of thousands of people that we connect with on an individual, one-on-one basis through Facebook groups, through chat instant messenger. All these different avenues, it’s really opened up my heart and mind to the potential that we can have as a community. Right?

So what is a Natural Living Family? It’s simply, very simply, nothing more, nothing less, than a group of people. And this is key. Regardless of how large or small. This group of people that are committed to helping you experience an abundant life.

Now, we have to define what abundant life means, and what abundant life is. When Jesus says in the gospel of John, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it to the full. Other versions say, I came that you may have an abundant life. That opens up a conversation to really what does that mean for you? What does that mean for me? And how can we as a people support one another, unconditionally, to being your best person?

That’s really what this is all about, is being part of a community, whether it’s online, whether it’s face to face, local groups, that you have a place to go. And as one pastor once told us, he called it a safe place to land. A place to hang out. A place to be yourself. A place to be vulnerable. A place to admit your mistakes. A place also where you could celebrate your success and people won’t be intimidated. Right? A place that people aren’t looking at you with jealousy because you’ve got your shirt off at beach volleyball and you’ve got 6-pack abs. Right?

Mama Z: Yeah, because you wear your shirt off, and you consistently tell me that you don’t have 6-pack abs.

Dr. Z: I don’t have 6-pack abs, which, by the way, we will talk in the next 6-7 months because…

Mama Z: He’s getting that down. He’s dialing it in.

Dr. Z: We’re talking about this, yeah. We’ve got to talk. You know, that should be an episode, sacrificing health for wealth. Not that I’m doing what we do to make billions of dollars. But you know, folks. I’ve got to tell you. I’m a dad. I’m a provider. We have four children. Exercise every single day was the first thing that went off my calendar just because I’m just trying to pay bills.

Do you remember that launch when we first came out?

Mama Z: Oh. my goodness.

Dr. Z: You know, the Essential Oils for Abundant Living Master Class. We’ve had almost 400,000 people.

Mama Z: And he hates when I say this, but…

Dr. Z: Don’t say this. Come on.

Mama Z: He hates when I say this, but literally I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and he was sleeping on the floor of my closet. And I asked him later, why were you sleeping on the floor of my closet? And he says, I was working so much, and so hard, that the floor of the closet looked comfortable.

Dr. Z: I think I was delusional. Something happened.

Mama Z: It’s a carpeted floor in that area, and there’s tile in the bathroom.

Dr. Z: It was quiet. I ended up lying on the floor doing work. I literally worked 40 hours straight. No stop. The only thing I ate was an acai bowl, and I had some matcha green tea.

Mama Z: He didn’t want anything else, either. He was on a mission, and he was focused. And when he gets focused, he runs his fingers through his hair, like over and over again. And his hair afros out. I’m like, wow, you are really thinking over there, when I come in and his hair is super tall.

Dr. Z: Yeah. One thing you’ll learn about me, if you haven’t, is that I wear my emotions, my heart, everything on my sleeves.

Mama Z: Yeah, if he’s not feeling well, you know he’s wearing a hoodie with it up.

Dr. Z: I have a lot of external markers that let people know, so when I’m deep in thought. But we had some serious tech glitches. And at this point, we had 160,000 people attending this Master Class. And we crashed the server. And it broke my heart because literally, I paid like three times the amount of money to upgrade our hosting so we wouldn’t crash the server. They guaranteed us. And we still crashed it. The website is down. People were like, “I can’t watch!” And it was like, nightmare.

This is what we do for a living. We educate people. We help people. So I literally worked 40 hours nonstop. And I don’t know what it was. I was delusional. I saw the carpet, and I was like, sleep. Now. Rest.

But here’s the thing, though: we’re real. And when it comes to it, we’ve been so blessed that not only have we been part of a local natural living family. But we’ve been so inspired by that that we started our own online community. And we really want to help you. And that’s the point of this podcast. That’s the point of our bible health ministry. To help you experience abundance in the seven areas of life.

And they are this: spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, financial, occupational, and social. So whatever it is, whether it’s your job interaction, or whether it’s your interaction with your employers, whether it’s your love life with your spouse, whether it’s how much time you spend in the word of God praying, or worshipping, whatever it might be, how you manage your thoughts, your stinking thinking, whatever it might be.

Every aspect of your life will fall into one of these seven buckets. Again, it’s spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, financial, occupational, and social.

Mama Z: And you know the best part about that? I remember the very first day of my health class in tenth grade. And that was on the chalkboard, “What is health? A balance between all of these areas.” And that stuck with me. And it’s so amazing that that just happens to be the cornerstone of what we do.

[13:36 – 18:27] The 7 Pillars of Abundance (spoiler: it’s not what you think!)
Dr. Z: Exactly. And it’s about abundance. I’m not talking everyone wearing Rolex watches, and driving around Bentleys, and having private leer jets. That’s not abundance. Abundance is really not lacking. Is having your needs met. And I would daresay having extra to help others. To supply.

To be a safe place where someone like, we had a friend of ours who is a farmer. And I’ll tell you something. We’ll talk a lot more. We actually have an episode coming up about organic gardening, and Sabrina’s, what is it, your herb and homestead roots.

Mama Z: Yes.

Dr. Z: We’re going to talk a lot about that. My appreciation for farmers has just skyrocketed. We have a friend of ours who is a farmer who had two harvests that were basically devastated back to back because of horrible conditions. And he couldn’t make his mortgage. And he was in a position where he was in foreclosure. And he had no one to go to. No one in his family could help him.

And thank God we had a couple extra few thousand dollars in the bank. We got him caught up. We paid for his mortgage. We cut him, what was it, like a $5,000 check. And we’re like, man, bless you. Just don’t pay us back. Don’t think about it. He just said, hey, can you hep me. I’m stuck.

And not only were we able to get him through that moment, but he had enough where he had two months ahead that he didn’t have to worry about. And it literally was just life transforming for him at that moment because his life was falling apart because he had three kids, still does. Married. And the stress and anxiety of about to lose your home.

And that’s what I mean by abundance, being able to do something like that, to sponsor missionaries. And when it’s on your heart to give a nice check to the building foundation at your local church or something, you could do that.

Also abundance means having joy in your heart. Not having depression and anxiety and chronic stress riddle you and overtake you. It’s also about having a positive outlook, which is something that I’ve always had to battle because I was raised in a very negative environment, which is something we’re also going to be talking a lot about on this show because Sabrina wasn’t raised in that environment. So a lot of the baggage that I brought into our marriage caused some problems. And I’m so blessed because she sometimes just calls me out, and she’s like, you’ve just got to stop that. You’ve just got to stop being so negative.

Mama Z: Yeah.

Dr. Z: Only your wife, only your husband or spouse could be that blunt to you.

Mama Z: Sometimes I’ll say, I think you need a little time with Jesus.

Dr. Z: Yeah. And then she’ll walk away from me, which gets me all the more upset. I’m just like, are you kidding me? You just turned your back on me. I don’t need more Jesus, all angry.

Mama Z: And then it’s nice because sometimes he’ll read his bible then, and he’ll pray. And I’ll know that he is over that hump. And he’ll come down, or whatever, and he’ll say, are you ready to be nice to me?

Dr. Z: Or I’ll be like, I forgive you.

Mama Z: Yeah, and I’ll be like are you ready to be nice to me? And then I’ll say, I forgive you.

Dr. Z: That’s pretty much our script. At this point, we have a script. I’m like, are you ready to be nice to me, after I obviously was not nice to her. That’s how I say I’m sorry.

Actually I will say one thing, you know one thing I’m really good at. I always say I’m sorry. Always. God has given me this litmus test. It aches at my soul. I feel like my soul just rotting if I have unconfessed sin on my heart. I’ve always been that way.

So the first chance I get, even if it’s like, I’m so sorry, mad at you. But you know, you are a slow to say I’m sorry kind of person.

Mama Z: I have to survey the scene.

Dr. Z: Ok.

Mama Z: See if I made the mistake there. Usually, I’m the second person to say I’m sorry right back. But, the last couple of times I said it first. Ha-ha-ha.

Dr. Z: Yeah, ok.

Mama Z: You know what, we do have to mention. And this is so funny. One of our wedding gifts, or maybe it was a shower gift. But our friends, who had just gotten married. Had been married about 6 months. They gave us a forgiveness bell. And they hadn’t used it in the 6 months, so they gave it to us.

Dr. Z: Forgiveness bell.

Mama Z: Do you remember that, the bell?

Dr. Z: I do.

Mama Z: Well we used that bell a lot.

Dr. Z: Like, ring, ring, ring.

Mama Z: Yeah, like, ding-a-ling-a-ling. Like, ok. It’s time to make up.

Dr. Z: So how did that work? When you want your spouse to say I’m sorry. I forget. You ring it?

Mama Z: No, when you’re ready. When you’ve had a minute to think about it. It’s the forgiveness bell. And you’re ready to forgive. So then it’s just like the 80s sitcom. All right, now it’s time to talk about it.

[18:28 – 20:50] How to Become a Part of a Natural Living Family
Dr. Z: It’s time to talk about it. That’s funny. So here’s the thing, y’all. If you’re not part of a Natural Living Family right now, we want to share with you a couple of things. First, how to find your own, how to be part of one. Or we want to adopt you into ours. So we’re going to talk in just a few minutes about really how to start your own, and how to essentially be adopted into one, like how we were.

But here’s the thing. You literally can just come into our world. We’ve been so blessed with so many people that have just showered us with love and appreciation. We have so many ambassadors and volunteers that help with our Facebook groups and our communities. And these are just people, like you and I. That love each other, that love Jesus. That love health and wellness.

And quite frankly, some don’t love Jesus. And that’s cool, too because we have a very open door policy. But if you haven’t noticed, we’re very open with our faith because we’re not embarrassed. And we have no shame in our game. Nor do we want you to feel shame if you don’t serve the God in the way that we serve the God that we serve.

We want to make that clear up front because yes, we’re Christian and we serve the Lord with all our mind, heart, soul, and strength. There is light and love and life in everyone. And we just want you to know that we’re here. We’re not judgmental on any level. And that’s something that we’ve gotten a lot from other Christian groups, regardless of what it is. It could be race, religion, sexual orientation. It could be what kind of bread you eat. I mean, if you eat gluten bread in some circles, people are putting up their cross. We just want you to know, we really just want to be a safe place to land, which is why we invite you to not only subscribe to this podcast, but get hooked up with us online.

The easiest way is to go to NaturalLivingFamilyPodcast.com. And you can join our special exclusive weekly newsletter. I’ll give more details in a minute about what that is, but one of the best parts is you’re going to get a special invite to our exclusive Facebook group that only you can get access to, which is really special because this is our place, that we can connect one on one and you can be part of our tribe.

[20:51 – 24:45] Why Did We Start This Podcast?
So why did we start this podcast? Mama Z?

Mama Z: Well, we really wanted to be able to connect and inspire and educate not only our community, but the community at large, about natural living. Quite frankly, different people of different faiths have reached out to us and said, I’m so glad that you talk about health because we find that in our circles, and this is people of all different faiths.

They’re like, people aren’t talking about that. In my faith, everything is centered around food and this and that, and it’s not healthy. So I’m really glad that you’re standing out in your faith to do what you do. And I think that’s key.

Dr. Z: So one thing about us is that we are the exact opposite of perfect. One thing that we get, and this is one reason why we wanted to start this podcast. You know the Master Class. Again, 400,000 people have watched this Essential Oils for Abundant Living Master Class. One of the most common questions we get is, Mama Z, what makeup are you wearing? How do you do your hair?

Mama Z: And he gets so mad because he’s like, “I’m talking about life changing stuff here.”

Dr. Z: It’s a big deal. They’re treating cancer with oils. They’re losing weight. Their marriages are restored.

Mama Z: And he’s like, all they want to know what you wash your face with, and what you put on it.

Dr. Z: So when people look at us, they look at us. And we get this, you’re just the perfect picture. We actually had someone say that. Who was it? Isaiah, our son. Isaiah’s first grade teacher, Ms. Kidd. Didn’t she say, “You guys look like that picture frame family, the picture frame model family.”

Mama Z: Yeah, I had somebody say that yesterday, too.

Dr. Z: You know the picture that you get on the picture frame with the stock photo family. So here’s the thing, we’re not that way. A few years ago, we were throwing the word divorce out to each other. I feel, unless God intervened, we wouldn’t even be here right now. We almost lost our marriage. We’ve had serious health issues with our kids. We’ve lost a baby. We’ll talk about that. We have a baby in heaven.

We have dealt with, like me, I have my fat pants story, I call it because I gained so much weight, I had to extend my pants out, which was devastating to me.

Mama Z: Oh yeah, he only went to this alterations place that one time, just to get the fat pants made.

Dr. Z: It was horrible. But we’re real!

Mama Z: Remember, if one is good, 10 is better. And he thought that same way about my cookies.

Dr. Z: We’re going to talk about that in a future episode.

Mama Z: They’re healthy cookies, but I’m not as much of a cookie or sweet tooth person. And Dr. Z loves his cookies.

Dr. Z: What are your three rules again? Your three to-do’s? Aren’t they rules?

Mama Z: He used to have three rules.

Dr. Z: Where are they? It should be ingrained in the…

Mama Z: We lost it in the move. Don’t you love it? We lost a bunch of things in the move. We really did move it in the move.

Dr. Z: It should be ingrained in the wall.

Mama Z: It was be nice to your husband.

Dr. Z: No, love your husband. He’s the best ever.

Mama Z: OK, yeah, that was number one.

Dr. Z: Respect your husband and submit to him. Right? Something like that?

Mama Z: No, it was something like that, but not that.

Dr. Z: And three. The most important one was three.

Mama Z: Yeah, make cookies, lots of them.

Dr. Z: Make cookies, lots of them. I love my cookies.

Mama Z: And as you can see, I didn’t write these top three. That was Eric.

Dr. Z: Respect and honor him. Yeah, so it was like, love and appreciate him, he’s the best ever. Respect and honor him, and make lots of cookies.

Mama Z: And he would come in and say, you are failing at one, two, and especially three.

Dr. Z: I would show her the rules.

[24:46 – 29:01] In the very beginning: how Dr. Z and Mama Z got started
So why did we start this podcast? Because we’ve been so blessed and honored. Literally, millions of people have seen us on documentaries. Last year, in 2018 we had, what? I forget, I should know this. Like 6.2 million people visit our website.

And here’s the thing about our website. I want to share with y’all because this is kind of monumental. DrEricZ.com started in 2014. And it was really, it was never my favorite. I never liked it. I didn’t like the name. It was a concession. We didn’t know what we were doing. We really didn’t. And I wanted abundantlife-dot-com, of course that was taken. I wanted biblehealth-dot-com, of course, that was taken. And I wanted DrZ.com and Mama Z.com. and they were taken.

And DRZ, by the way, if you own DrZ, shame on you because they’re trying to charge me $100,000 to buy that URL. And it’s like, forget it. I don’t need that.

So I started DrEricZ.com because I was a medical writer. I was a researcher at the time. I was going from grant to grant to grant, publishing articles. I was ghost writing, white papers and blogs. I was just doing a lot of stuff. It became basically my resume. My curriculum vitae. It was my portfolio. I was like, well, let me go put up these articles so people can see my work.

And then Sabrina is like, “Well, hey, let’s put up some of my recipes.” And I added the idea, why don’t I put up a couple of my devotionals? And it just started. We had no idea. And I remember, because I was working for a very well-known blogger at the time. And I told you, I never wanted to have a blog.

Mama Z: Yeah, he never wanted to. But you know, at that same time, we had a friend that graduated two years before us. Here was a doctor, and he was working in high-rises, scraping asbestos off of skyscrapers. With a doctorate. And literally, I remember walking into the bathroom that day and you were on your computer. He always likes to type in the bathroom, that’s like one of his safe places.

Dr. Z: It’s like the only quiet place in the house. That’s why. Remember the Christmas Story where Ralphie got his decoder pen? It’s the only place a man can have privacy. But now I have an office.

Mama Z: Yeah. So I remember going in there, and I’m like, we need to start our business today because he had two more years until graduation, and again, we didn’t know what we were doing. I remember doing my first, I think it was on lettuce. My first go at my first blog, about lettuce. And just picking this amazing organic lettuce, and what we do with it, and all this stuff. And I remember agonizing about every part of it. And trying to figure all this stuff out.

But, all of it is all to say that we just, in the process of doing what we did, realized that there were so many other people out there that needed to connect, whether it was online, or in person. We did physical classes. But in this day and age, so many people are online. They’re able to listen to podcasts while they’re working around the house and doing things. So it’s huge to be able to connect in a different way if we can’t do it physically.

Dr. Z: So, I definitely want to talk about this in a future show when we talk about financial abundance and financial peace. We’ve really got to talk about this.

Mama Z: Yeah, because don’t you remember, the first article. I think it took him a week to do. And it was for some place in India, and I think he made like $9 or something like that.

Dr. Z: It was $7. It was $7.

Mama Z: $7.

Dr. Z: But yeah, that was…

Mama Z: But you know, it was as springboard.

Dr. Z: Yes, it was.

Mama Z: Seriously, it was amazing.

Dr. Z: It was very humbling. I started my writing business. And I didn’t turn down anything, anything that came to me because quite frankly, student loans don’t cut it. When you’re in medical school, chiropractic college or whatever it is, especially if you have a family.

But I want to talk about this in a future show, because financial abundance is a mindset for people. Getting out of that poverty mentality and stinking thinking is key. It’s something I had to graduate from and get out of myself.

Mama Z: Right.

Dr. Z: But, before we talk about that, here’s a quick note about our sponsor.

[29:02 – 29:39] Sponsor Spotlight: Thrive Market
There’s nothing like hearing the doorbell of the delivery person letting me know that a Thrive Market package has landed on our doorstep. It’s like Christmas time every time we get a package.

Mama Z: Yes. From ingredients to snacks, it’s so awesome. And the kids go nuts.

Dr. Z: We love Thrive Market. The convenience, the price, and just the movement because we know that every dollar spent goes towards a more sustainable, healthy, natural world.

So if you haven’t joined, then what are you waiting for? You’re going to absolutely love it.

[29:44 – 35:38] How the Essential Oils Revolution Summit Began
Dr. Z: Kind of fast-forward. We had this blog. And really just kind of, it was a hobby. Just did a couple of things. Really wasn’t sure what to do.

Mama Z: All along he’s still saying, “I never want to be like Dr. So-and-so, mommy blogger, whatever. I never.”

Dr. Z: Yeah, it was never an intention. And we came out with, God gave us this brilliant idea because I can’t take credit for it because it was brilliant. It was perfect. It was everything. The Essential Oils Revolution Summit, right?

Mama Z: Yes, I remember literally listening to the Grow Your Own Food Summit.

Dr. Z: I remember, it was Sayer Ji from GreenMedInfo. And Sayer just blew my mind talking about, what was it? Culinary doses of garlic and how that had all these health benefits. I’m like, who is this guy? That was the first exposure I ever had to a health summit online. And you introduced me to it.

Mama Z: I know. I thought to myself, this is amazing, just learning from these scholars from all over the world, what small farmers endured when GMOs came out and all of these different things and how 70% of our world’s food comes from small farmers because some of it tied into running a farmer’s market, which I did, and selling at one for 37 years.

It opened my mind because I’m like, wow, you’ve got to hear this. What if we can do this with oils?

Dr. Z: And that was what started the Essential Oils Revolution Summit. That was in 2014. That was in June. And then I called my buddy. Well, buddy now, client at the time. Jill Winger, from the Prairie Homestead hired me to write a couple of her blogs. Again, I was blog writing for all kinds of folks, y’all. You’d be surprised the people that had a blog for who I ghost write.

So I’m like, “Jill, what are your thoughts about hosting a telesummit?” And then I went to my other client, at the time, Dr. Josh Axe. And I’m like, “Josh, what do you think about an essential oils summit?” And he’s like, “I think it’s a great idea.” Well, that’s what birthed the essential oils revolution. And 165,000 people later, May 2015, we automatically had a global audience.

And that started what has now been a 4-year journey of writing a bestselling book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils. Coming out with a new bestselling book, The Essential Oils Diet, May 2019. And becoming the foremost number one visited website on non-branded essential oil education online. And that’s what we do differently, folks, than anyone else on the planet.

And I know that almost for certain because everywhere else, your favorite mommy blogger.com, your favorite Dr. So-and-So.com. Every time they talk about an essential oil on their blog, they’re either selling their own line, they’re distributors for one of the network marketing companies, or they’re affiliates for one of the main companies out there. You never, ever, ever see. And if there is anyone, kudos to you. As far as I know, we’re the last people standing.

And here’s the key about that: we don’t judge anyone at all. Bless your heart, especially for those of you who are distributors. We love you. We were just at Doterra and Young Living signing books. We are here, and we’re in it to win it with y’all.

But the thing is, because of the Food and Drug Administration restriction and literally stripping away freedom of speech, people cannot share how essential oils have healed them anymore and then sell an oil. It’s become illegal for someone to say, “I used peppermint, and my son no longer battles asthma.” That’s illegal, if you are a distributor.

What’s happened, because of our essential oils summit because of the blog because of the books. We’ve literally become the voice of the distributor. And since then. And by the way, something that really struck me, threw me for a loop, our devotionals, our Bible verse for healing, our Bible verse for love, our bible verse for happiness, our Bible verse for depression, these posts are top ranked posts on Google. The next thing you know, we get 5.5, 6-plus million people a year visit our website.

Mama Z: And we will even have, I’ve had, people say things like, “Well, I know you can’t say this, but will you tell me what essential oil you use?” And I always direct them to the same place. And I let them know why we do what we do. Blah, blah, blah. And they say, “Well, I want to come into your home. And I want to see what essential oil bottles you use.”

Dr. Z: They do!

Mama Z: So what I actually did years ago was I bought all different kinds of unbranded plain old bottles, and I put my little label maker on them. And I have generic top labels. So even if you do come into my home, good luck because you don’t know what we use because we use a variety of different essential oil brands. And we’re able to stay non-branded.

Dr. Z: We have friends that own essential oil companies, y’all.

Mama Z: Yes, we do.

Dr. Z: Seriously, we use several. So we’ll talk a lot about oils, too, as the podcast shows go. But just know. How we got to where we got to in 2019 as the number one ranked Bible health website on the planet, and having all the folks that we do come to visit us about essential oils.

[35:39 – 40:25] Becoming NaturalLivingFamily.com and How This Podcast Came to Be
But here’s the problem. What do we do with Mama Z? When you have a website that’s called DrEricZ? And I’ve struggled with this. And I did struggle with this for many, many moons. And again, I never really liked DrEricZ at all to begin with. It was there. And it was something when I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t understand why someone would buy a URL and then sell it for lots of money. I didn’t realize this was a business. Again, I had to become internet marketing guru on the fly just to kind of understand what’s happening with this world.

So what we did was, Sabrina just became prolific. All these recipes, her gardening tips, her DIY tips. You go to NaturalLivingFamily.com and you’ll see we have a cleaning tab, a beauty tab. We have recipe tab, gardening tab, all these different things. And so what the original website did was we had a tab that said Natural Living. And that was like Mama Z’s corner.

I never liked that. I felt that wasn’t fair. Literally, I felt like Sabrina was always in my shadow, behind me.

Mama Z: Should we tell them the secret?

Dr. Z: Of what?

Mama Z: Who actually got you using essential oils.

Dr. Z: Oh no, that’s later. Honey, this episode can’t be 10 hours long. This is the intro.

Mama Z: No, the short version! You didn’t even know about essential oils.

Dr. Z: We’ll get there. Ok, you. You. We’ll give you all the credit for everything. So Sabrina is in Mama Z corner. I never liked it. My spouse is by my side. She formulated most of the recipes in my bestselling book, which is why, I will say this, which is why the publisher came back to us. Our book was an instant bestseller. Instant. And the publisher is like, “Let’s get another book next year. Wow, this is awesome.”

And I told my agent, “I’m like, John, don’t even.” And again, I’m being…

Mama Z: Listen, you’ve got to tell this right because he says to me, he says, “Well, what if they don’t want you?” And I said, “Well, I’ll just do the same thing I did before, and write the recipes. I’m good with that.” I like to say in my lane.

Dr. Z: Because I’m the doctor, and I’m the one who went through aromatherapy school, and I’m the researcher. So everyone has looked at me as the authority. Not realizing, Sabrina is really the expert. I’m just the medical research geek writing and researching. And Sabrina is the one who actually does this, day in and day out. She’s helped hundreds and hundreds of people one on one, raised our babies, and all this stuff.

So I told my agent, kind of matter of fact.

Mama Z: And I was totally embarrassed.

Dr. Z: I told him, “John, don’t even give me a contract without my wife’s name on it.”

Mama Z: I was so embarrassed because I’m like, oh my gosh, they’re going to think that I said that.

Dr. Z: No! I told him. And this was the beginning of NaturalLivingFamily.com. And this was the beginning of the Natural Living Family podcast. I’m like, it’s me and Sabrina from here on out, which is why I always have had Sabrina’s picture with mine.

Again, you go to DrEricZ.com and it’s a picture of my family. That didn’t make sense. We are a Natural Living Family. We want to invite you into our Natural Living Family. And, I will say, by God’s grace, NaturalLivingFamily.com was available!

Now, remember what I just shared a few minutes ago. BibleHealth-dot-com wasn’t available. AbundantLife-dot-com wasn’t available. DrZ.com wasn’t available. MamaZ wasn’t. All the websites we thought we wanted weren’t available. This was like, aaahh! You know?

Mama Z: So then he comes to me and is like, “What do you think about NaturalLivingFamily.com?” And I said no.

Dr. Z: You always say no! She’s like, no. I’m like, “Why? This is perfect. Sabrina, this is everything. This is you and me. We could go side by side. We could share this with the world. It’s not like you’re under some natural living tab on my website anymore. Come on, this is us!”

Mama Z: And then it started growing on me.

Dr. Z: I was deflated. I was broken. My team and I agonized over this, and we had marketing experts say, “Wow, this is brilliant.” And I was like, well that’s cool. I just want to do this for my wife. I want to do this because we’re a team, and we’re a partnership.

And I’ll tell you, we will talk about this in a future show. But one of the reasons why our marriage struggled, and one reason why we hinged on the verge of divorce, was because we weren’t working on the same team. I lived my life, she lived her life. And it was not working.

And since then, now 5, 6, 7 years, we work together as a team. And we need to have the same website. So, obviously you…

Mama Z: I came around.

Dr. Z: You conceded.

Mama Z: Well I came around, and I said, I think that that’s ok.

Dr. Z: Thank you. Welcome to my world, y’all.

Mama Z: And he goes, what? And I said, I kind of like it. It’s growing on me.

Dr. Z: Yeah. Growing on you.

Mama Z: I do like it. So I’m grateful.

[40:26 – 46:16] How to become part of a natural living family
Dr. Z: So we want you to be part of, of course ours, but part of a natural living family. And if you don’t have one, then find one, whether it’s a home birth group, a Le Leche group, a Bible health study group, whatever it is. There are groups of people out there.

Sabrina and I were talking earlier before we started the show, you could visit your natural health food store and go to their pinboard. All of them usually have a pinboard or something. Even Whole Foods always has this. And find a local group because a lot of these groups are like, hey, we meet on Wednesdays. There are exercise groups.

So, you should be able to find one local. Now, if you live in an area like my dear friend Jill Winger who lives in Podunk, I don’t know where she lives. She lives like 45 miles outside of Chugwater, Wyoming. Literally, Jill is legit. Jill literally lives in the prairie on a homestead in the middle of nowhere.

If you’re like Jill or if you’re somewhere where you just can’t find one that’s already established, start your own. Talk a little bit about Jason Carver, our good friend, who started the Mountain Challenge locally because that’s really what started us playing beach volleyball. And now they’re like our best of friends, right? So tell us how you got connected with Jason.

Mama Z: Ok, so what happened was our friend came in from out of town. And she had a friend that does the Mountain Challenge, so she wanted to do it. And we were like, what is it all about? And I remember Eric saying, I think it’s a bunch of crazy people running up the mountain.

Dr. Z: And it is a bunch of crazy people running up the mountain.

Mama Z: And then Eric said, you know, I think we should reach out to them. It just so happened that we had a friend that was doing an open house at the same time that they were about ready to do their ribbon cutting for their local business, which is twisted cycle, which is a group fitness and personal training.

So we connected with them, and he says to me, you know, maybe this would be something good to do with your crown, and sash, run up the mountain.

Dr. Z: By the way, pageant. People that don’t know what crown, she’s not royalty. We’ll talk more about pageants, too.

Mama Z: Yes. As Ms. Kennesaw.

Dr. Z: Ms. Georgia contestant.

Mama Z: We run locally and do a lot of different things, and utilize your sash to bring awareness to the Mountain Challenge. Oh my gosh, they just welcomed me into the family at Mountain Challenge. And I have the coolest picture. It was hundreds of people. They had their cameraman there, and he’s amazing. And they just gave me their Mountain Challenge vibes. And we took a picture.

Dr. Z: They’re all pointing fingers at you.

Mama Z: Yeah!

Dr. Z: It was really cool.

Mama Z: And they were like, well what do you think? And I was hooked.

Dr. Z: So what is it? If you’re local to Atlanta, go to Kennesaw Mountain National Park on a Monday. It’s usually depending on the weather. Depending on the light of the day. Daylight savings, whatnot. Usually about 6:30 or 7. You go to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. And you literally do high intensity interval training up a 1 mile hike up a mountain. And it’s absolutely loving. It’s absolutely intense. You’re going to hate yourself while you do it, but after you’re done, you’re going to feel so accomplished. And then, you summit at the very top of this mountain with like 100 to 150, sometimes 200 people from the local area. It’s absolutely free.

But this is something our now good friend Jason Carver started like 7 years ago. And it was literally Jason, a handful of other friends.

Mama Z: And a bunch of rusty weights from his trunk.

Dr. Z: Yep. And they just did it. They just worked out. And next thing you know, Gabe invited his friend. This person invited their friend, this person invited. And now, literally, it is well established.

Mama Z: And Eric goes with me. Esther goes.

Dr. Z: It’s lovely. So if you’re into that, you could do something like that. Or you could do like a home study. And our good friend, Joette Calabrese, you can check her out JoetteCalabrese.com. She’s a homeopathic physician. She has home group studies for people that want to learn how to use homeopathy. And that’s how Joette started.

Joette never took her kids to the medical doctor. Ever. They never visited a pediatrician. By the way, we’re not condoning that. We’re just saying, this is her story. And I think it’s pretty cool, by the way. She was like, I’m going to take care of my kids. I’m going to learn everything I need to know. And she taught herself homeopathy. How? Because she got books, and she invited a couple of friends. They had home group studies at her house. For years. And then she went on to get her proper training, certifications, licensing, and now she’s like the foremost expert in America.

Or you could get the Trim Health Mama book, which we love the Trim Health Mamas. You could get our new Essential Oils Diet book. You could get a book, invite a few of your friends over, and say, hey, let’s walk through this book together. And now you have a community. You meet weekly. You meet monthly.

The bottom line is whether there is a Mountain challenge that’s already set up that you just are adopted into, or whether you start your own, you need to be part of a Natural Living Family. And of course, you have ours. We have one online for you, as well.

[46:17 – 50:36] Final Thoughts
So this has been such a blessing, y’all, just to meet and chat, share with you why we are where we are, how we’ve come here, and where we’re going. And the key to all of this is we are here because of you, and we want to continue with you, alongside our journey to helping millions of people experience the abundant life.

Baby girl, anything else on your heart?

Mama Z: Just one last thing. That is, the reason why we do what we do, and why we encourage you to join a Natural Living Family, or create one, is because in the process of living a natural life, and a natural lifestyle, it’s so important to surround yourself with other like-minded people so that you feel supported because maybe not everybody in your family is that same way.

But you can get the same support—you can—like a family, from people around you that are like minded. And it really makes all the difference.

Dr. Z: We’re going to talk in episode 3. Right now we’re going to be talking about overcoming the stigma of natural living. There are a couple of powerful stories that we had to endure where even a loved one or two didn’t want to be around us and our children during the holidays because our kids weren’t vaccinated. And they were afraid that our kids were basically carriers for smallpox. And we have this crazy life story that’s going to blow your mind. It’s going to blow your mind.

Folks, thank you so much for listening. Join us next time when we discuss our origin story. It’s literally one of the most common questions we receive from our Natural Living Family. How did me and Sabrina meet. And the title is this, what happens when an eating disorder meets a health fanatic? It’s a tale of balance. So just kind of read between the lines there. It’s going to be powerful.

Mama Z: To wrap up today’s show, we have a natural living tip for you.

Dr. Z: Are you interested in starting a Natural Living Family group study at your house? Are you also interested in learning more about how to use essential oils the right way? Sweet. Why not hit two birds with one stone? Here are the essentials you need to get started.

First, pickup my bestselling book, The Healing Power of Essential Oils at your favorite book retailer. Next, invite some healthy minded friends and coworkers over to your house, so y’all can work through the book together. Make some of our natural remedies and healing recipes. And share your success stories. And be sure to tell them that you’ll have healthy snacks! People will always come for the snacks.

Then, read a chapter of the book before everyone comes. Jot down some notes to help lead the discussion, and share your thoughts, experiences, successes, and maybe some essential oil mishaps with each other. If you’re not sure where to get healthy snacks, then look no further than our friends at Thrive Market. They carry the best selection of organic, sweet, salty, and healthy snacks in the world, and at prices that won’t break your balance sheet.

Mama Z: And as a special gift to our podcast listeners, Thrive Market is going to give you 25% off your first order.

Dr. Z: Keep in mind, Thrive Market’s prices are already 25-50% off, and now they’re giving you an extra 25% off your first order, plus a free 30-day trial.

Mama Z: Many of you will be making a grocery run this week, so why not give Thrive Market a try, and shop from your home?

Dr. Z: Simply go to NaturalLivingFamilypodcast.com to find the special link so you can redeem this deal on the show notes from today’s episode.

So as a reminder, you can find all of the Natural Living Family podcast episodes, show notes, transcripts on NaturalLivingFamilypodcast.com. And, while on the website, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter, which includes a personal invite to join our private Facebook group. So you can connect one on one with us, and you can meet thousands of natural living lovers, just like you.

And finally, please, please, please don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. We love hearing what our Natural Living Family has to say about our show.

With that said, folks, we absolutely love and appreciate you. Thank you for tuning in. As always, this is Dr. Z.

Mama Z: And Mama Z.

Dr. Z: And our hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience the abundant life. We’ll see you next time. God bless!

Mama Z: God bless!