Following Your Gut Podcast #2, My name is Jeff...

Explore the origins of Master Supplements Inc. and US Enzymes with founder Jeff Thurston and President, Jeff Porubcan. Hosted by Roland Pankewich, this episode delves into the journey from the early days of introducing probiotics when few knew about them, through pivotal moments like the acquisition of US Enzymes.

Gain insights into the synergy between probiotics and enzymes and how they’ve harnessed this to impact health and wellness. Discover their commitment to quality, transparency, and digestive health innovation that continues to resonate in today’s wellness industry.

Timestamp | Summary
0:02 | The Genesis of Master Supplements and US Enzymes
3:15 | The Evolution of Probiotic and Enzyme Innovations in Healthcare
12:26 | Adapting Marketing Strategies in a Post-Covid World
13:27 | The Rise of Probiotics and Enzymes in Health Science
20:54 | Synergy and Teamwork in Navigating Business Challenges
23:48 | The Evolution of Probiotics and Market Competition
26:41 | The Journey of Master Supplements and Digestive Health Innovation

“The microbiome of our digestive tract is like the soil of our body."

Transcript

0:00:02 Roland Pankewich: Welcome to the Follow your Gut podcast, where health science meets clinical wisdom. My name is Roland Pankewich and I’m happy to be here today. And I’m extremely happy to be here with two very special individuals. And here’s the great part. If you forget their names, you just need to remember one name and I promise you, both of them will look your way. So I want to introduce to you Jeff and Jeff, or as I affectionately call them, JT and jp the owners, founders of Master Supplements Inc. And owners and operators of US Enzymes. How you guys doing today?
0:00:35 Jeff Thurston: Fabulous.
0:00:37 Jeff Porubcan: Really good.
0:00:38 Roland Pankewich: It’s great to have you both.
0:00:40 Jeff Porubcan: We’re following our guts.
0:00:41 Roland Pankewich:  That’s what led you here today, right? So this whole podcast came from a conversation that the three of us had. And I finally get to scratch an itch I’ve had for five years. I have always wanted to hear you guys tell the story that you’ve told me to everyone that has knowledge and experience of using the products within your company. So I thought, well, what better thing to do to be one of the first episodes to kick off this podcast than to actually have you guys tell that story so everyone can actually hear the amazing story.
0:01:12 Jeff Thurston: It is perfect. I mean, I always love telling stories. You know, they’re always fun and they always seem to be heard more readily than just monotone speaking.
0:01:27 Roland Pankewich: Well, stories are what connect people to knowledge since the dawn of time. Right. And we’re losing the ability to tell stories with the rise of technology to some degree. But what I do love about the opportunity to share things on media platforms is you can get access to information through people’s stories that you would never come across otherwise. And you know, in 2025, with most things being digital, people want to gravitate to things that they resonate through story, through co residents, through things that they can relate with, not only that they like, but maybe that they’ve experienced and with what we do in helping people with their health and well being through specifically the digestive system as it connects to all other aspects of the body.
0:02:07 Roland Pankewich: I think understanding how you guys got here and working backwards to from the inception point would be a really good place to start. So I know there’s a lot to tell here. Who wants to start with the early days of how Master Supplements came to be? Let’s go with the gray haired guy. I think you have the most out of all of us, right?
0:02:26 Jeff Thurston: Yeah, you know, the act. Actually the genesis of the company started probably in the early 1970s. Jeff’s father, Randy Porubkin, was. Was My partner at the very beginning. But way back then, Randy started working with Lactobacillus acidophilus, the NCFM strain of acidophilus, to grow it, you know, commercially as a probiotic. The story before that is too long to tell, but it started way back then. And we met in the mid-90s at an organic conference out in Tulare, California, and we just hit it off as two people, and we just stayed in touch. And then one day he called me up and said, you ready to start this business? And I said, yep.
0:03:15 Jeff Thurston: And that was in 2002, right? And, you know, the reason it worked is because of all the different science that went into what we’re doing, you know, it wasn’t just, oh, here’s a probiotic. And, oh, by the way, when we started, I said, you know, said, we’re started a probiotic company. Everybody said, what’s a probiotic? Nobody knew what a probiotic was back. And then Jamie Lee Curtis came on television and started talking about activia yogurt and probiotics for your belly, to make your belly feel comfortable.
0:03:51 Jeff Thurston: Everybody then knew what a probiotic was, right? So we. That was a real big help for us to get, you know, the movement going on, on a. On a concept that was very different. But Randy and I, both being microbiologists, knew what these bacteria could do. And. And the problem with most probiotics is they can’t get through the stomach. So Randy had all these great ideas that we ended up patenting, but it was using sodium alginate to get things to the stomach, right? That was number one.
0:04:24 Jeff Thurston: And from all those years, way back when, when he was growing probiotics, he found out that there are certain things that you need to wake the probiotics up. So we came up with lactostem, and between getting them through the stomach and waking them up, we found a way to deliver them into the GI tract where they belong and begin to work. And so, you know, all of those things went into the story of how we started, and then where we got to. And the last two little pieces of that puzzle are still using glass bottles because they store better and, you know, and adding a guarantee on the end.
0:05:02 Jeff Thurston: And so we have a probiotic that’s been working for a long time. I think our first conference might have been in August of 2003. We went out to a conference called AANP, which is the American association of Naturopathic Physicians. And the eight or so doctors that purchased at that conference became customers for as long as they had their practices, you know, and so how much more can you ask for than to have a product that people buy over and over and over and over again for 10, 15 years because it’s helping their patients.
0:05:40 Jeff Thurston: So that’s the basic genesis of where we started. But along the way business changed, you know, the conditions change for where you, you, you start to come into commerce. And so we had to make some modifications and we started developing a professional only line of products. And from that professional line of products we just kind of knew that we needed to do more. So in 2019 we purchased a company called US Enzymes and they made a full line of enzymes that were healthcare provider only.
0:06:23 Jeff Thurston: So the marriage of those two companies really was the culmination of all those first few years of what we did together. And Jeff, I think you probably can talk about that conversation as well as I can, so why don’t you pick up from here and carry on about the, the acquisition of US Enzymes.
0:06:46 Jeff Porubcan: Happy to, to me, you know, it’s two things it’s. And you touched on, on the first one which was leaning into that doctor business. And we had developed you know, a couple the Therolac Pro and Tru Bifido Pro specifically. But at two products and going up against you know, really huge companies with hundreds of items, we just needed more. So it was out of, you know, that will to do more for the practitioners. And it was as things changed and the Internet was getting, you know, you know, growing in terms of you know, people, consumers and how they’d purchase.
0:07:25 Jeff Porubcan: We were selling before Amazon was a thing so we can, we can remember those days. But it became apparent it was going to be too hard with the original core items as strong as they were and with as many practitioners as was using them that we needed to have products specifically dedicated to our healthcare professionals. And, and the two that we had had and had developed, I’d say that was like circa 2015, 2016 was good and it was a step in the right direction. We still have those items and they’re popular, but was really with the push of US Enzymes. And all of a sudden we had you know, a whole range of, of targeted enzymes, some broad acting enzymes and then some other options in nutritional supplementation and that prebiotic fiber. And what I the other part, other than the leaning into that professional side of our business which was really our, our, our bread and butter and where you know, we felt the most connected, not to take anything away from, you know, our read the retail co ops that we’re popular in.
0:08:33 Jeff Porubcan: So it was good for. For that. And I would just say it was kind of harkening back to even those original products where you know, we had an enzyme. We had one enzyme go all the way back to those early years from you know, 2005, 2006. Enzalase still a very popular product. And we were one of the first people to bring Sun Fiber as an ingredient into the market. And it’s extremely popular. It’s been brought into, you know, huge marketplace growth over over the years. But in 2009, true fiber, which paired the sun fiber ingredient with three enzymes was. Was really, you know, ahead of its time and one of the first to jump on the SunFiber bandwagon, which has become a very big bandwagon now over the years. But was one thing you. When we found US enzymes it was like, wow, we had enzylase. Like we knew kind of the, the.
0:09:27 Jeff Porubcan: The. The co factors and the synergy between probiotics and enzymes and prebiotics that a triangle that goes back to my father, I remember him like with a black Sharpie drawing that triangle. And we had True fiber and enzylase and. And several probiotics, but just needing more. And with US Enzymes it brought in a Sun Fiber product, just the straight ingredient that feature, you know, extremely popular and effective ingredient and, and heavily researched. A lot of people might not know this, but it was, you know, it was Nestle Foods who, who chose Sun Fiber to be their main medical, you know, the main fiber using their medical foods. And because they were doing all these things with it, they funded a lot of research and research beyond GI Health which was. Is our specialty Roland, as you insinuated. You know, we always say we’re like one thing but that one thing is connected to all things. So you know, it kind of started all starts with your gut health and these different axis elsewhere. And that which I think is amazing in these podcasts to be featuring because there’s been a lot of microbiome guests on certain podcasts. But as far as I know and in our research for this, this is the first ever podcast devoted just to digestive health.
0:10:46 Jeff Porubcan: So hopefully that’s there’s enough people that’s drawing interest for. So yeah, with us Enzymes it helped our healthcare professional business flourish with a lot, you know, just more intricate protocols that could be created role. And this is when you were coming on board and bringing your clinical expertise and kind of, you know, we had all these different products that we knew well but you helped frame them and the concept of like protocol building and you know, how to look at things more in these phases, which ended up becoming what we call now our master philosophy.
0:11:23 Jeff Porubcan: Put the framework around how to approach our entire product line. So yeah, ever since then, just expanding on the options of the prebiotic fibers, other nutritional supplements, the enzymes, both digestively and systemically. And then other than that, just doing a lot of the same stuff that we had been those, you know, the trade show circuit, which also changed. I mean, I think Covid, it’s hard not to say that that had a kind of like a pulling the rug out from under the whole industry in terms of travel and people, you know, getting four or five hundred docs all in one big conference room for, for a few years there. And I think some areas haven’t even fully bounced back, but we’re starting to see it and you know that there’s, you know, other online marketing initiatives in a day and age when everyone wants a little bite size, you know, clip or to. To like and subscribe and follow the, the events and the trade shows. These one, they’re great organizations with amazing people behind them for amazing causes.
0:12:26 Jeff Porubcan: AAEM Med Maps, you know, a couple that we have coming up. But, but they’re, you know, a great way to shake hands with you, you know, and more personal than just, you know, finding people online and promoting that way. So it’s kind of a. I like that old world marketing of having a conversation and shaking hands. So. Yeah, and I’ll pass it back to you, Roland. That’s right. I’m sure that’s all starting to sound familiar right around the time we started partnering together. And, and it’s been. Been fast, but it’s amazing. It’s been almost now five years.
0:13:00 Roland Pankewich: Oh, it’s time has really flown and I want to thank you guys both for, for giving that history. And there’s a few things I want to ask actually before I segue to kind of our present state of affairs. You know, JT, you said something back in 2001, 2002, no one knew what a probiotic really was from a commonplace perspective. So why start a probiotic company if no one knew what a probiotic was? What was the opportunity that you saw there?
0:13:27 Jeff Thurston: Well, if you, if you just kind of look at the overall picture, everybody says bacteria are bad, you know, but. But Randy and I knew from, from our organic agriculture days how bacteria could, you know, clean out vibrio in a shrimp pond, how, how it would make rice grow better, how. How bacteria would do all these different things. And, uh, and we both had this Strong belief that that bacteria were, were very important in our lives.
0:13:58 Jeff Thurston: You know, I mean, if you look at a birth of a baby born naturally, most of their skin is lack bacillus. In a C section baby, it’s less than 5%. I mean, there’s a world of difference between what mother Nature gave us and, and what, you know, what we’ve kind of done in a certain way. So tying food, tying, you know, all these different things, gut, health, you know, wise, it all made sense to start this thing. And I said, you know, starting something that nobody else is doing is always kind of a challenge, you know, and we were both up for a challenge. You know, it just happened to be the right time, the right place and everything else.
0:14:37 Jeff Thurston: And so, you know, even from the very beginning, we started publishing third party lab tests online by lot number for strength, purity and activity. We did those kind of things to say this is the way we think it should be done. And we’re still the only ones doing that to the best of my knowledge, you know, and all these little details, you know, took us in that direction. And thank, thanks Jamie Lee Curtis and Activia for pulling that, that, that together for us in a marketing sense, you know, but again, it’s being there.
0:15:11 Jeff Thurston: If we weren’t there then we would have been like everybody else just trying to catch a ride on the train that was already heading down the track. And now the microbiome is one of the most heavily studied parts of human science and it’s actually carrying us back into the food that we eat and how important the food is that we eat. You know, so when we were actually, you know, looking, you know, in 20, 18, 17, we looked at a lot of different companies that we might look at.
0:15:43 Jeff Thurston: And us enzymes had such a similar synergy to what we were doing, but they actually went one little step further. And it was a detail that really made a difference to me.
0:15:55 Jeff Porubcan: Right.
0:15:55 Jeff Thurston: So if we, if you’re taking one capsule a day, there’s 31 capsules in a bottle. If you’re taking two a day, there’s 62. If you’re taking three, there’s 93. And everybody goes, why? Well, because seven months have 31 days, you know, it’s a detail. But that’s the same kind of detail that’s gone into every one of the products from the beginning. And if you don’t look at the details and you don’t have of quality, you’re not going to survive. And that goes all the way back to 2002 when we started you know, it’s just that kind of a. A mindset that we’re. We’re transparent, we’re open.
0:16:28 Jeff Thurston: You know, if you’re looking at almost all probiotics they have, if they put a strain designation on the model. Right. It’s a trademark, has nothing to do with scientific notation, you know, but there’s a culture collection that they usually belong to. So we give you that kind of information. We try to tell you everything that the organisms can do. It’s that kind of attitude that we started with, and we’re still doing that today.
0:16:56 Roland Pankewich: : I think that’s probably one of the foundational reasons why the loyalty among the customer base of practitioners and doctors and health professionals that you’ve built. Once they have entered the arena of master supplements and US Enzymes, they realize a, because of all that, the products work incredibly well. Secondly, they realize that they will not find these things anywhere else. And the third thing that I want to ask JP about after I make the statement is the power of enzymes to synergize with probiotics to positively affect the health of a human organism is something that is, I think, a little underrepresented in the Western world, in the eastern world, you know, Germany, Russia, different parts of Asia.
0:17:42 Roland Pankewich:  Enzymes are part and parcel of what people use in commonplace. But, you know, jp, back in the days of looking at purchasing US Enzymes, it’s a similar question. What was the draw to buy a company to where there was not a lot of public awareness about what an enzyme is and what it can do beyond digestion?
0:18:04 Jeff Porubcan: Well, I think they’re, you know, they’re the two words that come to mind as you’re asking, that were potential and then risk. You know, we knew there was certain amount of risk in. In purchasing any company. We were just doing our best due diligence to put ourselves where there was shared core values of transparency, being one of our four that Jeff, you know, was touching on. And there is a. And I gotta say, Troy Operly, who we. We had partnered with, and. And he’s got, you know, other ventures going on. So we knew Troy, and when we saw what he was doing specifically with US Enzymes, I mean, it was.
0:18:44 Jeff Porubcan: It was like Jeff was saying, I remember my dad in the early days, in early meetings, it wasn’t just one or two things that we did differently. You know, there was a. A list usually written on a manila folder in Sharpie in the meeting of all these different things. And he’d remind us all, you know, over and over again. So we saw a lot of that it was that, that faith in the enzymes. You know, we had, we’d had really great success with enzylase, but it was just one product, but we knew like, wow, making sure you’re digesting your food. You’ve helped us over the last few years elucidate that.
0:19:20 Jeff Porubcan: A little shameless plug for our YouTube channel where you’ve got, you know, videos and webinars where you’ve broken down the whole master philosophy benefits of why you need to digest your food, where enzymes come in, but then also what happens if you don’t to the body and what these, you know, large protein molecules or what they can do, you know, further downstream. So, you know, we, we knew some of that we were continuing to learn, which is important.
0:19:47 Jeff Porubcan: But, you know, we, we saw the potential that was there and you know, weighed that with, you know, the risk and it was, you know, it’s, it’s been amazing because the customer and we, there was actually some similar customers, surprisingly enough, or maybe not surprisingly when we, we had, you know, all these customers were using these enzymes, but they hadn’t really underst. Like they hadn’t seen our probiotic take and all those, the attentions to detail, all the, the packaging and shipping and this, those small things that we do that are different aside from the, the identity and compatibility and these other areas that others don’t really talk about.
0:20:31 Jeff Porubcan: So, yeah, I mean, it felt right. And after looking at a few instances where it didn’t look right, you know, I mean this will sound cliche, not just a plug for the podcast, but I think we were following our gut. Like it just felt right when we found, when it came together and sometimes when just the life events like, like unfold and it just all seems like it’s like unfolding, you know, for you, it’s like, okay, we’re, we’re gonna go with this, so we’re gonna keep going with this.
0:20:54 Jeff Porubcan: That’s not to say there was challenges and, and throw out the way of, you know, ul it all work and getting to the finish line. But it’s, it’s been, you know, it’s been amazing to see the, those two companies and the, the synergy there. So.
0:21:08 Jeff Thurston: Yeah, and interestingly it. It. We. We purchased it at the. Like late 2019, and in 2020, the world shut down.
0:21:20 Pankewich: Go there. There you go.
0:21:22 Jeff Thurston: That was not, that was not anticipated, you know. You know, it’s just, you know, like if you’re not ready for, for an opportunity, you know, it’s going to pass you by and if you Take that opportunity and things start to, you know, change around you. You’ve just got to figure out a way to keep it going. And you know, fortunately with, with Jeff over there and it’s worked really, really well. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m pretty much the one that goes out and does the, the trade shows and the schmoozing part of it, you know, and Jeff’s the one that keeps it all glued together and keeps it running, just humming along smoothly.
0:21:57 Jeff Porubcan: Well, we gotta, we got a great synergy.
0:21:59 Pankewich: You guys are enzymes and probiotics. Your synergy right there.
0:22:03 Jeff Porubcan: Well, you’ve seen the team here. I gotta give it, you know, we’ve got an amazing team. They make sure that orders are fulfilled in a timely fan. All these things that you know, we do that we get, you know, accolades and compliments on that when we’re really, we’re just trying to make sure what we put on the label is what’s in the bottle and things that we look at like supplement company, like what do you, what do we actually have to deliver. But when you adhere to your values, you know, making sure there’s not out of stocks what Sonya does in the lab and managing the production schedule. You got 60 some items and you never want to run out of everything.
0:22:36 Jeff Porubcan: But also you don’t want to be over stocked on, on items that have a two or three year suggested use date. So it takes, it’s certainly a team of us here and if anyone’s listening to this, who’s a current customer, you likely know the, the, the folks that we have working in customer service. And you’ve maybe don’t know the, the on the fulfillment side but there’s people behind the scenes making sure orders are fulfilled accurately. So it takes a team. And Jeff, you’re, you’re the one I think most people are going to know. I mean enroll into you too now because you’ve been, you know, helping us educate for so long. But Jeff, your longstanding relationships and the, the circuit of trade shows and all these different organizations over the years.
0:23:17 Jeff Porubcan: So yeah, you gotta, you gotta be hitting in both regards make sure you’re doing the little things behind the scenes but then also getting your, getting yourself out there. Roland, I wanted to, when you were talking about how you know the risk from even the U S enzymes which we talked about, but all the way going, just jumping back to that 2000 because I remember that when my, my dad was going through that he had had a company where he, they were doing microbes for Agricultural purposes. Jeff, you had mentioned shrimp farms, and that was a big part.
0:23:48 Jeff Porubcan: Was all over the world and he was traveling and. And they started. The business was called Advanced Microbial Systems, and it was ams. And that was. He ultimately was able to sell that, oddly enough. It was to, like, a Texas oil company. And one of the strains of bacteria they had helped the. The oil become more. Helped improve the viscosity to where they were, you know, able to extract more. Sounds like it would be worth, like, billions and billions of dollars. It was nothing like that, but it was. It’s. I. It’s interesting enough that. That connection, because it’s just not something.
0:24:24 Jeff Porubcan: You know, microbes, they’re. They’re amazing and they have applications everywhere. But it was really that happening. And then him and Jeff identifying, you know, Jeff, the sides are. You remember my dad, like, traveling to China and getting in customs. They had, like, a bag of white Lactobacillus powder. And they’re like, what’s. So my dad. My dad’s, like, mixing that into, you know, whatever. Whatever he can. So I think partially, you know, with Thera Lack, it was things that he knew and from others in the industry that would be different and how so that people didn’t have to carry on like a Ziploc baggie filled with lactobacillus. You could actually deliver an amount that would have an impact, and he was great with that. And with numbers, like, he would. He would break down how much Activia you would actually need to take and have the math, like, worked out where it’d be very easy for anyone to follow.
0:25:19 Jeff Porubcan: Long story short, it was like a pickup truck full, like the bed, like, stacked up of Activia cartons to get one capsule of what you could just get in the. So it was. That was our competition in those early days, and with Jamie Lee Curtis talking about those products, it was more like us against yogurt and us against these, you know, products that would have 25 million active cultures. And we’re like, okay, well, there’s a thousand millions in a billion, and we’ve got 30 billion with 20 billion overage in capsule. So it was just such a difference back then. I will say the. You know, there’s been more quality. Now it’s more us.
0:25:57 Jeff Porubcan: Our competition is. It’s. You just get into, like, the big box store mentality where you’re not putting the exact strains so that they can be interchange behind the scenes. Should there be a supply issue. They’re not looking at things like compatibility. They’re not going to pay a little bit more for, you know, glass and, you know, a nitrogen flush and the oxygen absorption packets, all that extra stuff.
0:26:20 Jeff Porubcan: So it. It has been more nuanced. But, I mean, in general, there’s just, you know, you can go on Amazon and see, you know, probably hundreds of probiotic options. So it’s certainly different. You know, you’re spanning 20, 20 years. But at the same time, we’re doing the same things we’ve always done and seeing the effects with our wide customer base.
0:26:41 Roland Pankewich: And the results ultimately speak for themselves. I had never put the pattern together of realizing that both of you kind of did the same thing twice. You saw an opportunity, you took a gamble, and you made it work both times. And I think it’s a wonderful segue to kind of bring things up to speed from compressing 20 years of company history in about 25 minutes to we are now, and I believe the ultimate factor to the success that I’ve seen you guys have. It’s what drew me to want to be involved in the first place, is you’re authentic in what it is you do.
0:27:17 Roland Pankewich: You have an incredible alignment with the purpose of the company being twofold. Digestive wellness. And everything that extends up from Digestive wellness is the pillar from where you move forwards to wish to be of service to all the people who purchase your products. You know, we’re in an age where people come up really quickly nowadays. There’s a. It’s like a hurry up and wait mentality when it comes to finding success.
0:27:41 Roland Pankewich: : And I think extracting the story of all it took, and this again was a very abbreviated version, we could go into a longer, you know, deep dive at some point in the future. And I think, jt, I’m gonna have you come on. And I really wanna talk strain designations to really help people understand the functional difference of why a probiotic is. And it also is not a probiotic. But, you know, five years ago is when I came involved or became involved, rather.
0:28:07 Roland Pankewich: And the timeline of all that had to take place from the initiation point in 0102 to the big level up in 19 to covet happening. It was all perfectly timed to create staying power and what it is you guys have created in the industry because you have gone into, as you said, a very popular space, Gut health. But within that popular space, I would still say that it has been niche. And the point of the niche has been to incubate the potential for showing people what therapeutic enzymes, probiotics and digestive support and anything that stems from those Three.
0:28:48 Roland Pankewich: Three places that triangle, as you mentioned, anything that can help someone in that way can help something both acutely in the gut and both systemically in the rest of the body. And the variety of different doctors and practitioners and specialists who focus on everything from autoimmunity to inflammatory degenerative conditions to cancers to whatever the nature of those things are showing themselves to be effective because they are the repeat customers helping people who have not been able to find help in a classical medical model.
0:29:22 Roland Pankewich: And it’s been an absolute joy to initiate the first phase. I think the launching of this podcast can safely be said to be the second phase, where you’ve proven the concept from a business perspective, you’ve proven the concept from a efficacy perspective for the people who are buying your products. And now it’s to tell the world that, look, you may have not grown up with the knowledge of how a simple enzyme can be a powerful catalyst and how it can help transform your health. Not acutely.
0:29:52 Roland Pankewich: Sometimes you get the quick win, as we call it. But when you help the body realign itself and find homeostasis and health and balance again, that changes people’s lives. And you don’t necessarily think something so profound can be catalyzed by such a small little bottle or a multiple few bottles of products, but that’s, you know, encompassing the entirety of the story and all the intention, the desire that went into that.
0:30:18 Roland Pankowicz: That’s really where we are now. And it’s been an absolute pleasure to help build this with you guys to be on this journey. And I really want to thank you both for, you know, telling us the tales of all that it took. And as you were talking about the story, the one thing that came to me as a metaphor was, well, you know, you said, oh, not that there hasn’t been challenge along the way. Look, when you get food poisoning, having the runs is part and parcel of recovering again. So nothing in life comes easy without a certain set of challenges to make a joke in a very appropriate vein of what we specialize in.
0:30:50 Roland Pankowicz: But to close this out for both of you, are there any final statements that you each want to make about the story, about the intention behind anything, or that you want anyone who’s going to listen to know that they automatically start to associate once they pick up that bottle. They see that master supplements or that US enzymes label.
0:31:08 Jeff Thurston: Well, Thera Lac. I mean, Theralac is where we started and theralac is where we hang our hat. You know, we’ve been dealing with so many doctors and theolac for over 20 years. If you take an antibiotic, you drink alcohol, you take birth control pills, all these things, stress, they all affect your GI tract. THERAC can just help you get through that. It’s simple. You know, it’s not, it’s not the cure all, but it’s just Randy and I always used to say probiotics or the police, they just go down and put things back in order.
0:31:38 Jeff Thurston: I love that you then to heal yourself. Right? And so to me, that’s, that’s pretty much everything that we’re doing is just to put things back in order so that your body can heal itself. But that’s taking good food, I wonder, all the way back to organic agriculture back in the 90s.
0:31:55 Roland Pankowicz: I promise you we’ll get an episode going where we can definitely talk about that. Jp, last thing to quickly wrap up.
0:32:02 Jeff Porubcan: I would just make a statement. Thank you. Thank you. I would say for the podcast, it’s almost cliche, but I’m, it’s, to me, the, the story continues, it’s ongoing, you know, and this is just another way to get it out there. So a cliche in that it’s kind of a journey, not a destination. I think this podcast is just another way for us to keep the conversation going and on digestive health, but then all the other things that tie into that. So excited to be kicking this particular podcast off. And for anybody who’s just thinking about master supplements or us enzymes and not familiar with us, certainly with the, you know, that, well, that, that first product in a lot of ways encapsulates what we do, you know, with everything, you know, honesty and that transparency, the, the rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work. So whatever we’re bringing to you, we’re doing with that, that high quality, that quality control and quality assurance.
0:33:02 Jeff Porubcan: We might not have everything for everybody and we, I know we don’t have everything for everybody and don’t carry every, you know, type of supplement out there, but with what we do have, we feel like we can have an impact for the individual and for the practitioner with, with a relatively few amount of capsules comparatively. And sometimes it takes, you know, three, four bottles of something. But like Jeff said with there, we got a lot of customers who aren’t big supplement takers, but they’ve taken theralac for this or that and it’s, you know, now got a permanent spot in their butter area of their refrigerator door. So, yeah, thank you, Roland, for everything that’s to come.
0:33:41 Jeff Porubcan: That’s all, all I’ve got to say for now But I’m excited to get into the subsequent episodes and listen to. I think we’re gonna have some great guests that people are going to be really interested to hear you talking to. And. And Jeff, you know, we could. There’s just so much. So many different angles. So. Yeah, just. Just excited.
0:33:58 Roland Pankewich: Awesome. Well, guys, thank you both for your time, for the wonderful stories. It’s always amazing to hear the story because each time you learn something slightly differently and you both rounded out in a perfect way. We’re here to help people upgrade themselves, be it physically, beyond physically, and ultimately to be of service to anyone who wants to learn more about how to take responsibility for their own health.
0:34:22 Roland Pankowicz: Supplements are definitely key catalysts along the way. And as you just said, Jeff, the information that will come will pair very nicely with the efficacy of the products that we have available to everyone. So I want to thank you both for being on, and we’ll definitely have one of you, if not both of you, back on in the future to dive into some deeper aspects of organic agriculture, strain designations, enzyme specificity, and more.
0:34:45 Roland Pankowicz: So thank you very much for following your guts today, guys, and we’ll definitely be speaking with you again.
0:34:52 Jeff Thurston: Take care.
0:34:52 Jeff Porubcan: Yeah.
0:34:53 Roland Pankowicz: Bye now