Episode 209: Jake Plummer was an NFL Star, but Success Broke His Body. Here’s How He Flipped the Script

We trace Jake Plummer’s path from NFL leadership to functional mushroom entrepreneurship, focusing on recovery, healthspan, and the discipline behind nature-first performance. He shares practical ways mushrooms support sleep, energy, and inflammation, and why meaningful dosing and education matter.

• a fifth-grade playground moment defining inclusive leadership
• the cost of playing through pain and rethinking recovery
• hemp and cannabinoids as a gateway to functional mushrooms
• the mushroom kingdom explained: functional, gourmet, psychedelic
• quality extraction, real dosing, and daily rituals that work
• the grind of mushroom farming and building a skilled team
• Pat Tillman’s influence: passion, action, and asking hard questions
• healthspan over lifespan and consistent habits for longevity
• Umbo’s vision: research, access, and athlete-led impact
• how to try Umbo and connect with Jake

Use "uncommon 15" at checkout, and you can get a 15% discount to give it a shot

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝟭𝟱% 𝗢𝗙𝗙 𝗨𝗺𝗯𝗼 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀:
Use Code: 𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍𝟏𝟓
Shop: https://getumbo.com

Please, a couple of things. 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐄 it with someone else who needs to hear it. 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 if you can, and then ultimately take advantage of that uncommon 15. Try out a sample pack at getumbo.com and see if it might be something that's good for you

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𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 Jake Plummer👇
➡️ 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 (primary): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-plummer-5b95b719/
➡️ 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞:  https://getumbo.com/
➡️ 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊: https://getumbo.com/pages/functional-mushroom-playbook
 
𝙒𝘼𝙉𝙏 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝙄𝙉𝙎𝙋𝙄𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙇𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙀𝙍𝙎?
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭:
🚀𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭s: 🍎 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-uncommon-leader-podcast/id1577348656 
🚀𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲: 💚 https://open.spotify.com/show/5uJi4cd4vbTeLTweSKz9FR?si=b4a655399eb248e5 
🚀𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐓𝐮𝐛𝐞: https://youtu.be/Y0j6LZtZeyA

#TheUncommonLeaderPodcast #JakePlummer #ExecutiveLongevity #NFL #PatTillman #Umbo #GrowingChampions #CoachJohnGallagher

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Transcript

Welcome And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I like the throw kindness in there too, like curiosity, but really uh you know when it comes down to it, you know, a world that is constantly evolving, there's times where there's upheaval, there's times we're under bad leadership, and what we have to remember is our communities are important. Okay, when there's peace, love, and I believe mushrooms are even just good nature, natural intelligence. You know, that's the thing I like to go on because artificial intelligence just doesn't look that's all we're beat, it's the beast, love, and mushrooms.

Jake Plummer’s NFL To Entrepreneur Journey

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Hey Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast. I'm your host, John Gallagher. My guest today really needs no introduction, but I'm gonna go ahead and try to do it anyway. He comes to us from the gridirons of that are frozen in Idaho to the desert heat of Arizona in college, ultimately leading to the pinnacle of an athletic career in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos, ultimately leading that team to the AFC Championship game and an all-pro nomination for this guy, Jake the Snake Plumber. And while we'll get a chance to talk about his athletic prowess and those things that are going on, we're really going to talk today about how he's taken that leadership into a new role as an entrepreneur as the co-founder of Umbo Functional Nutrition Company. And we'll talk about that ultimately, how functional mushrooms can play an impact in the lives of athletes and leaders to help them recover, to help them feel better. And we'll talk about many things that the difficulties of being an entrepreneur inside of that space and leading in that space, and even some of the difficulties of starting up and becoming your own farmer. So, Jake Plummer, welcome to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. It's great to have you on the show. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

I'm doing good, John. Thanks for that intro. It's a pleasure to be here today as an uncommon leader.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

I can't wait. That's what we're going to find out pretty quickly. But I'll ask you the same question that I ask all my first-time

A Fifth-Grade Lesson In Leadership

SPEAKER_01 2:01

guests. And that's to tell me a story from your childhood, maybe something back in Idaho that kind of shaped who you are today as a person or as a leader.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, you know, it's uh I've all you know, time to reflect on your childhood and your past as you get older and away from, you know, what put me on people's radar was football. Uh so, you know, as I look back in my life and how did I do this? How did I navigate, you know, growing up with two older brothers in Idaho in a time when they weren't turning out D1 athletes left and right? What was it that got me to a point where I felt confident in myself and the ability to go and jump into a fresh situation like ASU as a freshman and be the leader and just take the reins? And I didn't have a guru quarterback coach. I didn't have uh any type of like advice other than just two older brothers that pushed me and and kept me grounded and constantly challenged me to you know play every sport possible. And I think back to one situation that, you know, maybe defines me as a leader in what I was, and and it popped up uh in the fifth grade, actually, at Pierce Park Elementary School in Boise, Idaho. Um, you know, I had begged my mom to play football. I loved all sports, but my buddy, my best friend, Casey Richards, wanted me to play on his Optimus football team, which was Pop Warner, Optimus, same thing. So I begged my mom to play and she would not let me play. And I begged her and begged her all summer. I was like begging her, and then finally my winning argument was Mom, we're playing tackle football at recess with no pads, no helmets, no protection. So if you let me play Pop Warner or let me play Optimist, I'm gonna be protected. And so she finally said yes. Leading up to the moment of you know, when I figured out I was a leader, was I took Casey's job as quarterback on Phone Works was the name of our team. Needless to say, everybody was a little upset at me at the time because Casey was, you know, the leader of the guy, and I took his job. So at recess at Pierce Park one day, after I took Casey's job as the starting quarterback for the phone works optimus football team, we would play football at recess, and usually I was a first captain or second captain or picked first or second or whatever that looked like. Well, this day I wasn't a captain and they picked everybody, and Casey had a plan to pick me last. So I got picked last, and I was like, oh, okay, so you're you're gonna do that. That's fine. So the next day when I was a captain, I didn't pick any of the guys that normally got picked first. I started with the person that would usually get picked last. I picked him, and then I moved my way up from like the guys that were always the last picks. I picked them first, second, third, down the line. And then I got them together and I was like, let's go, let's take it to these guys. We're gonna beat them. And sure enough, we rallied together and with the little bump of encouragement and belief, and you know, my abilities were I was pretty good and hard to tackle. Uh, we beat those guys, and so that's when I realized, like, wow, you know, just the encouragement and belief in somebody and the ability to bring them up to the level they didn't know they could reach through my whether I was the best or not, just believing in my abilities uh can be very contagious. So I realized then that was one moment of leadership that I exhibited that carried me through, you know, on to, you know, Hillside Junior High, Capital High School to Arizona State, the Cardinals, the Broncos was just always believing in the guys around me and never letting them get down, always pushing them to achieve and fight and never give up, not believe that they weren't good enough or we can't get it done, but always believe, yes, we can get it done. Who cares if they're better than us? Let's go beat them because they think they're gonna win. We don't know if we're gonna win, but let's go taste it. Let's go see if we can find it. And um, that was a pretty good moment that defined me as a leader uh way back when I look back and reflect.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

I love that. Even again, there's so many different things that go through my head as I think about that in the playground of St. Anthony's School in Falls V, West Virginia, when I when I played as well. Though we didn't play tackle on the streets, uh, but recognizing, you know, A, your abilities that that got you to the point you needed to from a leadership standpoint, and ultimately that bringing that group of guys together, uh, whether it be a ragtag group, whatever that was, that it was leadership also and belief in them that could take them to the highest level. And look, you've performed on the highest level with regards to athletics in the National Football League. So you had to have some of that belief, not just in yourself and your ability, but also in the other 10 guys around you, because you didn't get a chance to play in every position. We'll talk a little bit more about that in terms of sports, but there are other things that defined you inside of that through your career as well that I've read a

Playing Through Pain And Rethinking Recovery

SPEAKER_01 6:31

little bit about. And one of those was, you know, your decision, if you will, many times to play through uh what might be seen as an injury that gets you on the injury port uh on the NFL list, but ultimately through pain that you experienced. And it sounds like that's kind of led you into the space that you're in now from a functional nutrition standpoint, and there's a lot of different things going on in that space. So why mushrooms? And again, uh, even you know, maybe you might have a chance to distinguish the different types of mushrooms so that the leaders of the Uncommon Leader podcast know what you're talking about. But ultimately, what was it about mushrooms that led you to say, I want to ultimately see what I can do to help others in this space too?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, I mean, that's a journey in and of itself, you know, post-career playing the game of football. Um, I've had mothers and parents numerous times say, How can I keep my kid safe and keep him from getting hurt playing football? And I said, You can't. It's a violent game. Get ready to help him into the car, get ready to take him to the doctor for an X-ray. I mean, this is a violent game. You can't. He's gonna get hurt. It's a sport that very few players have ever gone. Even myself, I feel like I'm a rarity that I never ever once stopped play, laying there, whether unconscious or hurt really bad. And the announcers, you know, said, Oh, we're gonna take a commercial break as Jake lays there, possibly who knows what. And so my mom never had to sit through, you know, that trepidation and like worry and like, oh my God, what's going on with my baby? I never stopped play. I mean, there were very gratuitous, you know, TV timeouts or timeouts taken that saved me from maybe having to call the trainers out. But playing that way and playing and showing your courage and your toughness in that game was paramount. Um, sometimes to the point of like, damn, I should have probably taken a break and laid down and taken a game or two off. But through that and through that journey and even just playing all sports, you know, landing on the ground, falling down on your wrists and your backside, whatever it may be, you put your body through a lot of rigorous activities only during the game, but actually to train to get ready for it. And now the focus has been so much on recovery and performance and biohacking and sleep monitoring and cryogenics and all these things. They were there back when I was playing, but it really wasn't something we participated in. Um, you know, our diet was important, yet we were just eating because we were hungry, you know, there wasn't food provided like these college athletes have now. So, you know, the ability to grow up in a family where my grandma was a Seventh-day Adventist vegetarian. And so as a young kid, I grew up, you know, we were fed meat, but we weren't eating meat all the time. My mom was very health-driven, uh, putting good food in our bodies, making sure we were eating when she had control of us, eating really well. Now, I would go to Taco Bell with my friends or go buy some fast food, but when we were home, we were eating really good, thought out, prepared, whether it was organic, bought from a farmer's market or just put together good nutrition for us. Um, my mom was amazing at keeping us fed and healthy and teaching us to be careful and at least cognizant of what we're putting in our bodies, whether that be, you know, alcohol, soda, you know, junk food, sugar cereals, or pharmaceuticals and medicines that were called medicines, but were maybe not so good for you. And that's what led me down this path and why I retired, because I was taking anti-inflammatories. I would get off them for a week and I'd hardly be able to move. I was 30 years old getting up out of a movie after a movie, like creaky bones, like walking, going, oh God. And I'm like, this isn't a life that I look forward to post-career. How long can I make this? How long can I ride this train and still have some semblance of livelihood post-career? As I saw a lot of guys that played for 15, 16 years hobbling around and like, nah, golf's fun, but it ain't gonna be my only sport. I need, I want to do other things. I want to play handball and basketball and pickleball and hike and mountain

Why Mushrooms: Safety, Types, And Promise

SPEAKER_00 10:30

bike. And so it led me down, you know, getting out of the game early, um, obviously kind of exploring what was happening here in Colorado with the legalization of not just marijuana, but also uh hemp and getting an opportunity there through a great friend and teammate, Nathan Jackson, and a great friend that was working with Charlotte's Webb named Ryan Kingsbury, who introduced us to hemp oils. And the reason he did that was for their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, to work with inflammation, to help uh reconnect neuronal pathways, to help with just overall ease of the stress and uh you know beatings that our bodies took. So when I got into that, I realized, wow, nature. I knew about nature. My mom had taught me about nature. We took garlic and honey for colds and echinacea and golden seal and like we took these things back in the day. Uh really uh, you know, alternative forms of healing, my mom was always about with a pyramid in our living room. I mean, we were into this kind of hippie, kind of like uh naturopathic ways already. And so when I got into hemp oils and realized the the benefit for us as athletes and the voice we had to help, you know, let the help the public become aware of these mothers that were fighting for the right to give this plant to their children that had severe seizure disorders. Um, it really felt good to get behind that movement and help bring it to light. So these mothers didn't have to fight anymore. They didn't have to fight the legal system in order to give their children a plant that was helping them. And uh the the benefits not only of hemp and the cannabinoids and all that in that in that plant, but also the healing powers of marijuana and what it could do for people suffering from you know cancer treatment for their appetite or sleep disorders, helping them sleep, whatever it may be. The it really got my mind going, like, wow, we're making a plant. Somebody somewhere is is writing a law that's not allowing us to eat uh what is a natural occurring plant, a God-given created, if you believe in God and what he's done for this earth, like a plant that grows on this planet that we can't use. And I felt human rights were involved in this. And that stirred that kind of direct me directed me into meeting Del Jolly, who gave me some mushroom tinctures right before the pandemic, uh, introduced me to Rashad Evans, who's a former UFC champion and Hall of Famer. Uh, we both started taking these mushroom tinctures, and I felt the benefits again, the inflammation in my body at another level was disappearing. I was getting more flexibility when I'm supposed to be following this narrative of wow, you played all these games of football and had all these head injuries and body injuries. You're supposed to prepare and get disability and get ready for when you can't remember where your keys are and donate your brain to the blood bank. And I thought, this isn't, I don't think we're supposed to just jump on this aging train and ride it till we're disabled and forgetful and someone else is wiping our ass. Like, I don't want to follow this. That's not the narrative I want to follow. And these mushrooms helped me, they helped me tremendously, along with the CBD and Charlotte's Webb. And so Dell and I decided uh looking at the market and seeing, you know, the amount of products that were claiming to have so much of this in it, or mushrooms in it, or saying it was a mushroom product, when they were sprinkling just very little amounts of these functional mushrooms into their product. We said, let's start a company, let's do this right, and kind of follow in the footsteps of Charlotte's Webb, let's set the bar high on our extracts and our products and make sure people are getting a healthy dose. We can't say a therapeutic dose or anything like that, but getting a healthy dose of what we claim and kind of educate people on is like another food group. It's just basically a food group that we we forgot about. Now we can't eat all mushrooms. I'm not saying that because most veggies you can't eat. You know, uh mushrooms are definitely worth our uh attention right now, especially with the way our health is going. Functional mushrooms are what we're dealing with. There's also gourmet mushrooms that you can cook and put on food, and there's also psychedelic mushrooms that also can heal you by taking you on a on a spiritual journey. So I like to say that can there's mushrooms that can heal you, there's mushrooms that can kill you, you know. So you have to educate yourself, and there's mushrooms that can take you on a spiritual journey. And that spiritual journey uh is on another level being researched at at the leading institutions and colleges and universities around the country for its ability to heal and help with a lot of the mental illness that we're dealing with. So we're stepping into something so big we don't even know it yet. We I've been in it now for four, almost five years, growing them, getting them extracted at a high level with major, the most potent you can potency you can provide and bioavailability you can provide. And we're still learning more and more every day. And so it's a very exciting thing to step into, as I wouldn't do this if it didn't help me, if it didn't help me sleep better, if it didn't help me have more energy, less fatigue, if it didn't help me with my inflammation and my ability

From Hemp To Functional Mushrooms

SPEAKER_00 15:35

to still keep going at age 51 and still keep keep believing that I have a long life ahead of me. Um, you know, I that's why I'm behind this. That's what I'm doing this for. And the more people that are curious and listening, you know, that's who we're searching for, uh, to give them another option for their own health and wellness, a positive intervention into their health and wellness.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

We have a group that I have, an accountability group of guys, and we've been talking about this a bunch. I first of all, I love the the mindset behind uh life wasn't meant to be at 40 years old. We start to go down. It's actually meant to ultimately say that how can we, uh as I've looked at it uh in the past few years, how I can extend that life in such a way that I continue to add value in life and that I'm not taking value from someone else. I'm not relying on someone else to do something for me. You touched on it in terms of some of the most simple things like getting up in the bathroom by yourself or whatever that is and making that happen, or ultimately, as I think about it from a health span standpoint, being able to attend and dance at my grandchildren's wedding. You know, that's something I want to be able to do in the future. And I don't have any grandchildren yet, so I get a lot of years to be able to figure that out. So this functional nutrition side of recognizing how do I help myself feel better in that space becomes very important. So UMBO, you started that out. I had to look that up what UMBO was. I thought maybe as an acronym to get started, but it really is kind of a part of the mushroom or a mushroom in and of itself. But you know, you started this company. What's different about what you all were doing versus some of the others that have conversations about mushrooms and or uh others in this functional nutrition space?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yeah. I mean, as I as I dove into this and and you know, went down the rabbit hole, watched a movie, documentary called Bantastic Fungi, which is a great reference for people that are interested in learning like mushrooms. Okay, they grow in my backyard. What the hell are these things? I eat them on my pizza once in a while. Uh, I heard a story about someone dying from eating some, and like, yeah, they're worth diving into as um when you get in and you start researching them and you realize like they were one of the first living organisms on this rock that we're inhabiting. So they know a lot about the evolution of all these plants and animals that surround us. And so my belief in them is so strong that I think you know, starting umbo was an opportunity to kind of set the bar really high on on products and having the amount of mushrooms in them that we feel is beneficial, not just fairy dust like a few milligrams. We're talking two and a half grams in our bars, like two and a half grams, so that you'll feel these uh benefits. And and it may not happen right away. Uh, that's the thing with these. This isn't an advil. You know, I don't take any of that stuff. I actually recently had to for some dental work, and it was like, these advil are my whole body feels so good right now. Uh, because I don't take that stuff. I want to use nature as most as much as I can, and uh learning the difference between the mushrooms and also educating yourself on the fact you can't just go grab a mushroom out of your backyard and eat it because it could poison you. And so this is a an entire kingdom. I like to call it a queendom because I feel like it's been uh part of the the mother, kind of like a mother to the rest of creation on earth. And uh people may think I'm crazy, but I do believe in the power of these of this of this queendom and the ability it has not only to keep the earth clean, I mean, like in the forest, if trees fall, if there wasn't mycelium, we would have the mess of trees just sitting there that would be so tender and ready to explode with a spark and burn everything. Mushrooms decompose all of this dead matter that dies naturally around us. And so they're part of our this whole cycle. And uh when I got into this and started growing them, it was to watch them to be able to inoculate a substrate and then watch it, you know, myceliate in the dark room, and then you open it up and give it oxygen, and boom, these mushrooms show up overnight almost. And then the ability to cook with them and eat them, and then finding uh some people that are amazing at what they do and extracting them so that then we can add them to our diet as a as a daily regimen. Like that's why coffee, mushroom coffee is so great because it's something you do every day. You know, I'm trying to figure out how to make mushroom toothpaste. Like, can we do mushroom toothpaste? Would it be beneficial? Would it go in your gums? Like, what is there out there that we're not looking at? Uh, I'm curious, and I think that the people I work with, they definitely are curious too to find out what's next and understand this organism at a deeper, deeper level. Well, in the meantime, you know, having the ability to take them and understand by reading texts from Chinese herbal medicine from centuries ago and understanding that their value hasn't just uh peaked the last 10 years or five years or even this year. It's been these have been around being used in medicine for a long, long time. Uh, turkey tail is the first mushroom that has been prescribed

Building Umbo: Doses, Quality, And Education

SPEAKER_00 20:30

for uh people undergoing treatment for breast cancer in Japan. So this isn't something new we're coming across. I'm not some you know prophet here saying this is these mushrooms, I discovered them. No, these have been around forever. I'm a conduit for this knowledge, and I believe in them as we set forth Umbo to be uh more geared towards athletes. Why? Because I'm an athlete, former athlete, and I still want to be an athlete. Like you said, being able to dance with your grandchildren at their wedding, like I want to have a my 95th birthday at a trampoline park. You know, I hope to be able to still do a backflip and a front flip, you know, like when you set your mind to something, that's what when we we want something and we go do it, it starts up here. So if I can believe so much so in these mushrooms that they're doing the work for me, they in turn uh you know take that and provide that for me. And so we produce these products for athletes for performance and for recovery, because when you're an athlete, those are two of the most important things. The actual event that you're doing will take place and you'll do your thing if you've been gearing towards performance and then also recovering. And so that's where we're at as a company with umbo that is the tip top of the fruiting body of a mushroom or the boss on a shield that protrudes. So, you know, we wanted to set ourselves up as the best, and and not so I can brag about it, but just so that this you know regulated industry can have some bars set high so that people know like there is a difference product to product. Some extracts are good. For you, some extracts are better for you. When we really get down to it, these mushrooms are showing a lot of promise with children with mood and behavior disorders. There's even children with untreatable, you know, seizure disorders that nothing else has worked except a blend of functional mushrooms. So when you're looking at what modern medicine provides and the side effects of some of these medicines, that yeah, they can help you, but damn, living with some of those side effects doesn't look pretty. This is nature. And so if we can keep diving into these and finding out how they not only help us as humans, you know, function better, live longer, uh help us with these maladies and dissipes that we've created, but also how they can help Earth cleaning up the waters and creating a new product that isn't petroleum-based. You know, like somehow, some way, when we do wake up to this, um, it's going to shift and change things dramatically and be really, I believe, the future of how we evolve uh going forward. And when people learn that and catch on, I think they believe now that I'm not just talking a bunch of craziness. They're actually like, wow, he is, he's on to something. And so it's not just me, it's the people around me that keep bringing this knowledge to me and allow me to be uh kind of a leader in that in the space and move forward and be on podcasts like this, talking about something a lot of people probably don't know about. And when they hear mushrooms, they think, oh yeah, Jake Plummer, he's that cannabis mushroom, he was marijuana, dude. Now he's trying to trip me out. No, if you're into that, there are ways to go about that. But I'm talking about a daily thing you can add to your diet and to your stack or to your whatever it is that's gonna not only it's gonna help you, it won't hurt you, it's gonna help you. How? That's for you to determine and to be in touch and in tune with your body and find out for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Are you tired of being tired? I know I was. That's when I was glad to find own it coaching. Now my resting heart rate's down 20%, sleep quality up 300%. You know, I just ran my first Spartan rage at age 56. I feel better than I ever have. So if you're ready to stop settling and start owning your own health, go to coachjohngallagher.com forward slash own it and set up a free call with the own it coaching team. That's coachjohngallagher.com forward slash own it. Now, let's get back to the episode. Touch on so many things there. Uh gosh, I want to I want to pull on a company. One was, and you brushed over this real quick, becoming a

Farming Mushrooms And Assembling A Team

SPEAKER_01 24:26

mushroom farmer. I want to talk about that a little bit. The second thing you talked about, though, was within the name Umbo, the top of being the best and not doing this from a mediocre standpoint. So again, using some of your athletic story from the past and comparing it to how you're running your business now, I'll ask you a fun question. What's more difficult to do to prepare for a Troy Palomalu-led defense or to run a mushroom farm?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Neither one of those. Being a parent is the hardest thing. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

And we've had that too.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

There's no game plan, you just got to roll with it. Uh, but yeah, when you look at the two and compare them side to side, they're both challenging 100%. Uh there's knowledge that you need, there's experience that you need in order to get to become uh on that on that field to face uh Troy Palomalu-led defense. And I was grateful to have great teammates around me. And I've learned in this also as a mushroom farmer and as an advocate for functional mushrooms. It's not just me, I got to have a great team around me. I got to have other people that know how to do other things well. Um while I want to learn as much as I can, I also am not going to try to convince myself I know how to extract a mushroom. I don't. I know the science behind it, I've watched them do it, but I I'm not that person to go do that. When I can come across someone like Shane Schoolman, who is uh runs Michaelove Labs, he was helping us run our farm. We were growing mushrooms. Uh, that was just such an amazing experience to go out and really learn. It's not simple, but but it is when you get the process down to watch these things go and grow. And as a farmer, this isn't a seasonal thing. This is weekly. Like you're you're doing this weekly over and over. You're you're throwing out comp you're throwing out substrate once you've harvested the mushrooms, you're throwing it out to put in a compost, and you're starting fresh with a substrate, and you're keeping your your your spore count, your your your mother, so to speak, uh you're keeping that going constantly. Uh liquid cultures or through petri dishes, like you have to it's this is a science so deep that to be involved in it was super fun. I stepped away from the farming because uh, you know, it was a lot of work, and I found people that needed the work and were actually really good at it. They'd been doing it for years. Uh, you know, maybe they were growing psilocybin, uh, but they were growing mushrooms, so they were in tune with that organism and understood how it worked. And so that was that's been the fun part. Uh finding a guy like Shane Schoolman who who really is is a master at extraction. And he's not just set in his ways. He's like, is there a new way? Is there another something else we can do to get more of this fruiting body into a bottle that's bioavailable or into a powder that will that will be absorbed even more so into our human bodies? And that's what is fun to watch, is to watch him evolve and to see where this is going. As you know, Paul Stametz has been the leader in this for years. William Padilla Brown is another guy, uh complete opposite spectrum of a Paul Stametz that's also leading this charge to like find ways to continue to grow these mushrooms, to help cultivate them, to find ways to break down the stigma behind it because it is confusing. It's not something you just jump into and and like I said, go pick a mushroom out of your yard and eat it. Like you eat foraging for them. There's just there's millions and millions of these organisms out there. Um, not all mushrooms or all mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. So there's definitely a lot of fungus out there that isn't a fruiting body that lives in and amongst us. Um, and so the research behind it is what's exciting. And I tip my hat to the people that have been in this for years, Jeff Chilton and these guys that have definitely learned more and been involved with it for 30, 40 years. Uh, as I come into it, the ability to, you know, get people to listen. I have a background in sports. So we're getting athletes and we're getting people that are in sports that are listening to what I'm saying and going, oh, wow, that's cool. That's not a very common path for a former NFL quarterback. You know, I was I was out driving to Fort Lupton and mucking bags and filling substrate and inoculating and like harvesting lion's mane and dehydrating it. And I mean, it was, you know, Tom Brady's in the booth. Good for him. He's great at what he does. But I was doing something that was like, wow, this is fun. What a what an amazing thing to be involved in and to to find the people to help me continue this. That's been the challenge, and uh, we've done pretty well at that. And, you know, people are still confused. You know, when do I take these? Why do I take these? How much do I take? Oh, yeah, I've been drinking that mushroom coffee. Well, that's a great introduction, but like as you feel the benefits of that, maybe add a little more into your daily intake and then understand, you know, how this thing, how these can help you, whether it be a higher quality sleep, our sleep capsules are amazing. They help you get more rim sleep. Your dream state expands our capsules, our rise capsules help you have no non-caffeinated, uh stimulant energy that's natural. And so if you're into natural intelligence, which I have definitely gotten into and was grateful to be introduced to that as a young kid through my mother, my grandmother, and living in nature, uh, functional mushrooms are a must. Check them out and and dive down that rabbit hole and understand the studies that have already been done in China and Japan, the studies that are happening now. Uh, it's really uh eye-opening when we're told that you know there's a pill here for this or a pill here for that, but you're not really truly healing. Uh, healing starts, you know, with one yourself good water, good sleep, and good food. And then from there, adding in the right things that work for you. And mushrooms might not work for you.

Practical Use: Sleep, Energy, And Consistency

SPEAKER_00 30:10

You might want to feel something right away. Well, that's fine. These are consistency over time equals results, which is basically anything you set your mind to. You can't just eat a head of broccoli and go have your personal best at bench pressing. That ain't gonna happen. But we eat it, we eat broccoli a couple times a week. We eat carrots, we eat celery, we eat apples and berries. Add mushrooms in just like that. It's a food group. Add the right ones in, find what works for you, and I think that uh you'll understand the benefits when if you're aware of how your body's feeling.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Well, and there's a discipline required, again, inside of what you're doing as the founder and as the the you know the owner of the business. And I'd love to relate them back to some of the stories that that you know I read about you as I prepared for the interview. One of them was uh the coach at Arizona State who recruited you in Idaho through a snowstorm, ultimately destroyed a pair of shoes coming to see you, and you all you ended up buying him a pair of shoes somewhere down the road. But you think about that, and you're having to recruit uh, in essence, individuals uh to play the brand inside of your space. What are some of the disciplines you have to do to keep your mindset in a way that I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep finding the individuals that I need to? What are you doing daily and weekly?

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Yeah, I mean, it's really uh opportunities like this to join a podcast that people are not just thumbing through and finding this podcast randomly. You you have you have uh loyal listeners that want to get better, that are uh trying to find ways to improve their life and their longevity. And you touched on it earlier, you know, as far as lifespan, you know, great. If I could live to be 110, 120, that would be awesome, right? But I want my health span to live to be the same. So getting those balanced, that's key because being 90, but not being able to do anything, you know, that that doesn't look great for a lot of people. So when you say, when I say that at times I've said, Oh, I want to live to be 110 or even older than that, people are like, You're crazy. Why would you want to live that long? That's gonna suck. I'm like, well, for you maybe, but I plan to be like, I'm hoping that I can be have vitality and be 110 yet still be doing things and be present and cognizant and have my brain working. And I definitely am behind the eight ball there because of what I did to my body. And I know a lot of guys that I'm working with, they they had multiple concussions, so you know, a lot of TBI. But as we're studying these organisms and studying even psychedelics as a way to reconnect neurons and neuronal pathways and unload, you know, heavy traumas that may be the root cause of some of your illness. And and you know, inflammation is one of the most detrimental things for us, and we actually feed our inflammation through the diet that we are so readily available to have when you go to a store and there's just chips and sodas and preservatives and all these things. And so it takes discipline. And uh, when someone asks me, you know, hey, I need help, what do I gotta do? I say, well, you have to be willing to get better in order for me to help you. It's gotta start with you. I can't just give you our capsules and you're gonna be better. Like you have to start looking at your diet, your sleep, the way you speak about yourself, the things you're doing during the day, the things you're watching, consuming, not only through your mouth, but your eyes, your ears, your nose, all this stuff. And so, you know, I'm not a biohacking wizard. I'm not a longevity guru. I just know that nature has the answers. And if I can find them and try to somehow, you know, get them out to the people that are curious. Um, it's really been what I've tried to do. And obviously, I have connections in the NFL and at Arizona State and through a lot of uh you know former teammates that that are battling serious, serious bodily injuries uh and inflammation. You know, I start there. That's really what you know. If I can get these guys to try it and it helps them, and they tell 10 people and it helps them and they tell 10 people, then we're starting just little fires here and there and letting it be uh you know what it is. I'm not a big brand pusher. I'm not a big uh everywhere I go, I take bars and hand them out. You know, that's how I do this. And I take my samples and give them to people because I want people to know there is something out there that may help. That's how we got into REI. You know, REI carries our bars. Why? Because I gave some bars to a handball buddy,

Discipline, Healthspan, And Athlete Outreach

SPEAKER_00 34:20

George, and his wife Karen runs the Boulder here and Boulder is a manager here in Boulder REI. And so entrepreneurially, I'm not this guru that knows how to work these paths. I just know that what I'm doing has something beneficial for us. So I continue to reach out to the people I know, um, hoping that they're curious enough to try it. And and when they stay consistent with it and it helps them, and that they continue to spread that good word.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Best marketing you can have is a change life. There's no doubt about it in terms of making that happen. I agree 100%. Jake, the other thing I found a little bit in the research, and I think this uh sits into the discipline that you're talking about. You had a strong relationship, friendship relationship with Pat Tillman, the legendary NFL football player who ultimately signed up for the military in the midst of a war, lost his life in that war. Uh but the mantra that he had that you and he uh built ultimately talked about was I think he said, get off your ass and do it. How have you, and maybe from that relationship, how have you kept that alive as well inside of your business and what you're doing today?

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Yeah, I mean, I think there's another great quote by Pat uh dealing with passion, dealing with passion. And like if you're gonna live your life, live it with passion. If not, it's not worth living. You know, like what are you doing if you're just going through the motions? And so that's what Pat really embodied. And you know, I still like it would be so awesome to have him around, just to have him ask me the tough questions. Like he would dig on you. If you believed in something, he would see how deep your belief and your knowledge and all of that was by asking the tough questions. And uh, you know, that really is it, you know, just having passion behind what you do, um, you know, doing it and and not letting somebody tell you it's wrong or you shouldn't be doing this or shouldn't be doing that. If you believe it, go do it. Now, obviously, there's something about, you know, doing it if you're doing something that's detrimental to other people or causing harm to other people, of course not. But if it's something that you believe in that's good for you and good for others, then get behind it and move on it. And that's really what Pat did. He was a great friend. Uh so me personally, I try to continue to be like that as far as reaching out to other teammates, keeping tabs on guys. Um, it's hard because we're we're playing for the same teams, the same organizations, and all that. But then when we go back to life, we're spread out all over the world, sometimes, at least for sure, across the United States. So it's always fun to see these guys. We're brothers that spend a lot of time together, you know, fighting for one true cause that we believed in at the time, even though post-career I realized it's just a silly game. We're just playing this silly game of football, but it's means so much to so many people. And uh, you know, getting to meet guys like Pat and getting to be teammates with many, many other amazing humans that are doing some awesome things, you know, it gives me a chance to believe in myself, you know, and believe like back then and back at ASU when we had our run at the Rose Bowl and national championship, you know, it was Bruce Snyder who ruined a pair of floorshime shoes recruiting me. And the reason I went to ASU is because he said the words, you as a quarterback are the key for us to pursue a national championship. You're the guy I want. And when a guy, when a coach at that level puts that much confidence and belief in you, how can you not go get after it and try? And sure enough, we almost did win that national championship. And so when those things come full circle and it almost happens, yeah, we didn't win that Rose Bowl, we didn't win a national championship, but good lord, the levels I reached with somebody believing in me, you know, has put me in that position to also believe in others and to believe in what I'm doing and know that there is always going to be a different or better way to live your life. But when you're living it and you're feeling good and you're doing something right, enjoy it. Enjoy life. I like to say, enjoy spelled I-N-G-O-Y-J-O-Y. Like, do things enjoy. When you do that, you know, you can eat a donut and also go train and get better because you're not putting stress on that donut or putting these bad thoughts on it. And it's the words you choose, the thoughts you choose. And with a lot of these former guys, you know, I got many, many teammates that are much younger than me that have already applied for permanent and disability, uh permanent, total and permanent disability with the NFL. They're in their 40s and they're totally and permanently disabled. And now you you're gonna be that way forever, and that's gonna not really probably shoot you upwards in your trajectory. You're probably gonna be spiraling down as years go. And so I'm searching for those guys that

Pat Tillman, Passion, And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 38:40

don't want that, that they don't believe in the narrative, they want to flip the script on brain health and body health and the beat down we took in the NFL and know that we can reverse that, we can switch that around and actually become stronger and regain some of that vitality and warrior mentality we had when we were the best in the world. You at one point I was one of the best in the entire world. So, what am I gonna do now? I'm gonna be one of the best in the entire world at what I do now. Why? Because I have an internal belief in myself and those around me that anything is possible. If you can conceive it and believe in it, you can achieve it. And so that's kind of what I'm up to. And the people that join up, it this isn't really as much of an entrepreneurial, you know, bang for your buck, 10x on your money. It's more 10x on your health. And that you really can't put a price on living uh well and feeling good each day. Like, yeah, I wake up with headaches, I wake up sometimes real groggy and not wanting to face the day, but I know I have the tools now in my toolbox and my to get myself up and get going. And I want to spread that to more people if I can.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Enjoy. I love that. Doing things with passion, as Pat talked about. I love that, Jake. I think you just ultimately, in the last few minutes of this conversation, folks, has defined the the epitome of the uncommon leader, one who isn't ready to settle for just good enough and kind of working their way through, but is looking for something different to do and continue to make a difference. And that's the question like when you think about umbo and you look out 20 years, what do you want the impact of umbo to have been? And maybe it's looking out even further, Jay, because you talk about it 110, it's looking out further. But what do you want the impact of umbo to be?

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yeah, I mean, I would love to get it to a point where, you know, we're getting athletes behind this so that so that when umbo grows to a point, we can also now do the research to help make this beautiful natural organism accessible to the people that need it, that are sick or the mothers that have sick children uh that are dealing with this daily, you know, whether it be extreme fits, whether it's seizures or just mood behavior disorders, you know, these families shut down when this happens with a child that isn't balanced right. And so if we can somehow, I say this, you know, with a smile, because if we can somehow make the athletes pay more so that we can give it away for less to these people that need it, you know, that would be the ultimate goal with Umbos, to get sustainable, uh, to be able to make the right amount of money that then we can throw into doing the studies, doing the research, uh, putting the guys in the lab to know what's in these beautiful organisms, what's in Rishi, what's in lion's mane, cordyceps, turkey tail. Those are just the ones we know now as we're finding more and more each day. But finding out what's in these and why they help us so that people are not so intrepid or scared of something they don't know much about. And as our pharmaceuticals, 30% of the pharmaceuticals come from fungus, you know, so it's already being used, but uh it's being manipulated and turned into sometimes something not so good as far as healing us, but masking what we're going through. And so Humbo just continued to uh, you know, drive it forward uh and be part of the solution, not just the only solution, because there's also a lot of other great companies that are doing work in this space, and uh it's just exciting to be part of it. So, you know, as as it grows, ultimately I'm I'm looking forward to having a long, healthy life.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Excellent. Jake, I and I've had the benefit of folks of trying these out. They're tasty bars. I'm working with the uh sleep tablets as well just to get it. Uh, how do folks learn more about Umbo and about and connect with you, Jake?

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Yeah, you go to getumbo.com uh is a great place to start. We're also on social, on Instagram, at getumbo. Uh sign up for our newsletter. That's a great way to get uh information into your inbox and a free e-booklet that kind of talks about the mushrooms that we're using. And of course, we're you know, we're using athletic terms and athletes to represent these mushrooms so people can understand them because it is very complex science. And also I'm at I'm on Instagram uh at Snake Plumber. I'm always open for people that are interested and have questions. Uh and you know, I'm not a doctor, so I can't give medical advice, but I can steer you into the right, you know, the right area to find some answers if there are if they are out there. Uh yeah, you know, it's what we're doing, it's what I'm up to, along with raising three kids and uh, you know, trying to take care of my body. Three daughters. No, two boys and a little girl.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Two boys, okay, all right. Yeah, I mean, I was a little bit really feel your pain if you're gonna talk about three daughters. I wasn't sure. Goodness

Umbo’s Impact Vision And Research

SPEAKER_01 43:10

gracious.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

I mean, I I love them. They're they're great, they're a challenge, but they're just it's amazing. And as we age, you know, I want to be around as long as I can to uh enjoy them and and hopefully, like you said, dance with my grandchildren and run around with them and be active well into my uh hundreds, hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Jake, I appreciate you coming on the Uncommon Leader podcast. Uh, I know that folks are gonna find value from this conversation, and I encourage them to go out and follow you on social media, visit your website, and check that out. Uh, I want to give you the last word ultimately, how I do with all of my first time guests that I have on the show. And frankly, I'd just love to be able to do this another year from now and be talking about the success of Umbo and how that's going. But I'm gonna give you a billboard, and you can put any message you want to for the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast and those that you No, you can put any message you want to on that billboard. What's the message that you're going to put on there and why do you put it on there?

SPEAKER_00 44:05

I don't know. My tagline when I sign off usually with people is just peace, love, and mushrooms. And you know, that could be a peace sign, a heart, and a mushroom. And that kind of says it all. I like to throw kindness in there too, uh, and curiosity, but really, uh, you know, when it comes down to it, you know, our world is constantly evolving. Uh there's times where there's upheaval, there's times where we're under bad leadership. And what we have to remember is our communities are important. And when there's peace, love, and I believe mushrooms are even just good nature, natural intelligence, you know, that's the thing I like to go on because artificial intelligence just doesn't sound good to me. Um, so my billboard, that's all it would be, is uh peace, love, and mushrooms.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Love that, love that so much.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Jake, I've enjoyed this conversation. I got a code for your listeners, uncommon 15. So if anybody out there is interested, and we have sample packs where you can get a few bars and some of our travel packs to try the capsules, and we have liquid extracts and blends of those liquid extracts, and we also have new products coming online here soon. Hopefully, as we keep uh continuing to find ways to make these uh beautiful organisms accessible, use uncommon 15 at checkout and you can get a 15% discount to give it a shot. Also, you'll get a discount if you sign up for the newsletter. And uh, like I said, it's curious people that are interested, we love that. We're looking for uh those kind of people that want to get out there and be active. And our mushrooms are for athletes, but as Nike said, if you have a body, you're an athlete. So it's not just for professional sports players, it's for anybody that wants to get out and ride a bike, go on a walk, go on a hike, go swimming, do anything. These are gonna help you function better. So check us out at getumbo.com. And I appreciate you know, John, the opportunity to talk, reflect, and also share some of this uh new information I've been learning and been given. So appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

It's been a blast. Appreciate it. Wish you the best, Jake, going forward, okay? Do well.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Hey, thank you, John. You too. Peace, love, and mushrooms.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Great conversation with Jake the Snake Plum. I truly enjoyed that. I love that. Peace, love, and mushrooms. Folks, this functional nutrition side is going to be very important. But I love the conversation about longevity. It's not just our lifespan and how long that we live, but it's our health span and how long we can live healthy uh with the years that we have. So whether or not mushrooms uh are correct for you, the functional mushroom, uh, is something that you have to decide. But in the world of uncommon leadership, I think he's doing something with a passion that ultimately is trying to improve the way that we live today. So I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Please, a couple things. Share it with someone else who needs to hear it. That's how we get it in the hands of so many other listeners. Uh give us a five star rating if you can, and then ultimately take advantage of that uncommon 15. Try out a sample pack at getumbo.com and see if they might be something that's good for you. And until next time, go and grow champions.