We were lucky to catch up with David Claassen recently and have shared our conversation below.
David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
When I first started playing music and sports at a young age in Sydney, Australia, I envisioned myself playing at a professional level. I watched sports and music on TV growing up and always wanted to do both when I grew up! Those were my dreams and goals. Looking back, I’m happy to say that I have been able to experience an enriched life filled with NCAA football, international rugby, live music, studio albums, collaborations with songwriters, musicians, bands, managers, agents, labels, publishers, music supervisors, promoters, lawyers, producers, directors, actors, marketing and PR agencies, athletes, agents and even fans. When I could finally check off enough boxes and tell you who was “pulling the strings behind the curtains,” I knew it was time for me to pursue something else. I knew I wanted to be able to continue my path of helping people but in a more personal and meaningful way. Thankfully, I had a Scientist!
I lost my amazing father to an eight-year battle with prostate cancer in 2009. That loss sent me out on an extensive health quest that included juicing, consuming fresh organic and local produce, alkaline water, reducing sugars, salts and other inflammatory foods from my diet. I stopped taking Advil and pain killers and started using hemp (CBD) and marijuana. I did semiannual liver cleanses. I got regular chiropractic treatment and slept in a hyperbaric chamber to advance my healing from my 13 car accidents and sports injuries. I laid on a Shakti acupuncture mat multiple times a day. To say I had chronic pain was an understatement!
Paul Grzybowski and I became friends when I was working in music and entertainment in 2014. I remember sitting with him in his house for three hours discussing homeopathic treatments for my nagging injuries. I told him my injury history and about my rehabilitative efforts. I told him that I ran a Sunday night Health Night at my house with a myofascial release expert. (He ended up being a regular! LOL) I was fascinated by Paul’s intelligence and empathy. Before I left, he asked me what I thought he should be doing. I told Paul “Just be the scientist!” I was paraphrasing something engrained in my head from my own father Dr. Oliver Claassen who told me often, “David: Be the leader you are meant to be!”
Paul and I have been amazing friends since that fortuitous meeting! One day, I mentioned that a close friend had cancer, so Paul created an email with white paper publications detailing the benefits of functional mushrooms as an addition to traditional treatments. I started sending out emails about mushrooms and cancer and began helping others identify ways to boost their own immune system and response with functional mushrooms, based on white paper studies that Paul had shared with me. Those emails were circulated to afflicted friends and family for years until one fateful day in spring of 2021.
That day during the pandemic, one of my dear friends reached out with news that his wife had stage four breast cancer. Though our email was highly informative, he had difficulty finding a product that matched the description of her need and asked us to formulate a custom mushroom blend for his wife who was starting chemotherapy in two weeks. This was the birth of ENCAPSULATE!
Paul, a chemist and mycologist, designed our supplement to help people rebuild their immune systems, especially while getting “zapped” from chemotherapy, radiation and oral treatments. I found a US based source of locally grown mushrooms in California and Oregon. We mixed them and overnighted the product to our client. Initially it was a mixture of mushrooms and myceliated grain but offered with our 10g scoop instead of the 1g serving given by others. This was the difference that she felt helped lead her to wellness, along with her doctor’s therapy.
After 58 days of taking our mix (first in the morning and late in the afternoon in a smoothie on an empty stomach) alongside her treatments, she went into remission! After her surgery, the family wanted to continue with the product but hated the taste and texture of the powder, which led to the search for extracts and the final form of the ENCAPSULATE 6 Mushroom Blend which we offer today.
We were ecstatic and started taking our new product ourselves. After experiencing amazing results, we began telling more people about it and selling our blend to friends and family. We launched our macro mushroom supplement company ENCAPSULATE in 2021 with a mission to help people treat inflammation, promote blood flow and aid with their numerous nagging ailments.
Paul designed the capsules and extract that we now sell with an equivalency of 8 grams of functional mushrooms: Lions Mane, Shiitake, Turkey Tail, Reishi, Cordyceps and Chaga. It’s the most potent medicinal offering out there! When taken on an empty stomach first in the morning, clients report back of reduced inflammation, increased energy and sex drive, heightened focus, relaxed joint pain, lower blood pressure and heart rate, lower cholesterol, relief from leaky gut symptoms and diverticulitis.
It’s amazing how the product, if taken daily, can help so many people! Our Amazon testimonials are a joy to read as they tell individual stories of healing. We distribute our supplements to doctors and chiropractors, sports medicine facilities, athletic trainers, medical centers and athletes. Our products are sold in health food stores, spas and independent shops. We also sell online at www.EncapsulateUSA.com and Amazon.
We first started selling our product at the Georgia Mushroom Festival and quickly saw how popular it was but how much education was needed to help launch such a product in the USA! Many of our conversations were with people who considered themselves to be “mycophobic” or fearful of mushrooms. We started doing educational booths for ENCAPSULATE at vegan festivals, art festivals, farmers markets and soon launched our own Atlanta Mushroom Market in Atlanta featuring local mushroom vendors and live music. We held it at Wild Heaven West End Brewery & Gardens. Soon after, we added education and presenters, live chef demos and upgraded to the Atlanta Mushroom Festival. We are dog and children friendly. We live stream the event on our YouTube page with recap videos. We host amazing speakers from Emory, CDC, scientists, mycologists and chefs working with mushrooms. For more information check out www.AtlantaMushroomFestival.com.
The governing body behind our educational endeavors is our non-profit (pending) Global Mushroom Initiative (GMI) which oversees our educational events, outreach and community involvement. We are so excited to see what the future holds for mushrooms! Our event attendance and social interaction suggests that we are just scratching the surface.
We are most excited about educating more people and helping them familiarize themselves and friends with functional mushrooms. Whether at a young age attending our festival or our monthly markets to watching our online YouTube videos, we aim to provide in-depth knowledge about all thing’s mushroom. With our involvement in school programs and extra-curricular initiatives we can teach about the health benefits and how to grow these healthy mushrooms for consumption. We are so excited to be working with amazing people in our city of Atlanta and like the mantra “ATLANTA influences everything” we look forward to spreading Mush Love throughout the rest of the world!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://encapsulateusa.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/encapsulateusa
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083104400407
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveclaassen/
- Twitter: https://x.com/encapsulateusa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ENCAPSULATEUSA
- Yelp: https://www.amazon.com/ENCAPSULATE-Six-Mushroom-Blend/dp/B0BGJHPXY9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=366BKWXV42BCL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.X2WEOqQOlKyXkxx0dgkzkUc5aDp2TCbb3Evg7H5EVhFibo4i73gIMmMuYcm-8m20QL7bUgbCptvQZDoWTG_DfNmVRditmEbPHploIpzqAvDYm9SDB4e5DHZpsDdlgheXZvthQ6vjBBsdJjBklEqVUd18Dn7n7vwj-La4RjdO_ZWEVwuIVxYV9H3D5_Fc13FFRDpf-RFGMZandY8J_XW6NPavGMrf_EIA8A7ZWNSuX-cOT1iCA5-pEWM3YPaCuTTD5zOpT5_A0YpUuXgZEShXeQ0NJaTpOXpsoqtyH3Ar0W4.y7VzwiWwkNmDrCh33yPYciSsZcy9Shr-k2JECSAWX8A&dib_tag=se&keywords=encapsulate&qid=1719602432&sprefix=encapsulate%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@AtlantaMushroomFestival
Image Credits
ENCAPSULATE
Atlanta Mushroom Festival