Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Zimmerman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Zimms Organics began as Herb & Olive. The original name was created on the beach in Playa del Rey. I was still working at the consulting firm BCG Digital Ventures at the time, and was talking to some friends about my escape plan to launch a high end CBD infused olive oil brand. One of my friends came up with the name Herb & Olive and it just stuck.

I ran with this name for 3 years while the brand grew into 80+ stores across the country. One December evening in 2022, while laying in bed back in my childhood home in Portland, a thought struck my brain like a bolt of lightening. “You have to change the name”. It came in so suddenly and clearly that I couldn’t question its integrity. As a musician and poet, I’ve learned to trust and honor these thoughts. These thoughts are the closest thing to our connection with God, universe, spirit, source (whatever you want to call it- for the sake of my personal experience, all these terms mean the same thing).

I had personally grown so much in the three years since I launched Herb & Olive. I overcame a debilitating Crohn’s disease diagnosis and gotten myself off medication (against my doctor’s and family’s will), I quit a financially comfortable situation in corporate consulting and I had launched my first full length musical project entitled HORIZONS. I was breaking down all of the societal constructs that had shaped me into the man I am now. These same constructs were also holding me back from my true self and spirit.

For these reasons, I had to put my name on the brand. The company was no longer a CBD olive oil brand, it grew a life of its own. Similar to when you release a body of art or music into the world, it is no longer yours to own. You’ve freed it to fly in the wind in any direction and interpretation it pleases. Herb & Olive had to become something bigger. It had to become Zimms Organics, a health and wellness brand focused on my personal healing journey to help inspire others that they can do it too. I wanted my name to be front center so people could understand that I am a real person behind this brand. The integrity falls on me, and I will never jeopardize the quality of our products for any reason. I will only sell products that I consume frequently.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I come from a background in tech and business. Growing up I was always interested in writing, music and art, but I never realized that this could be a chosen path for me. Music felt like more of a dream or passion than a way to make a living, so this took me down a more traditional route of going to college and studying business, then getting into tech. My tech job led me into a product manager role at the consulting firm, BCG Digital Ventures. I stayed there for 4 years learning about how to build businesses with fortune 500 companies.

During my time at BCG, I got really sick and was hospitalized numerous times due to Crohn’s disease complications. I was diagnosed right after I got promoted just 6 months into this new job. My identity was shook, because I felt broken and “less than” because of this condition. I went the traditional route with medicine for the first year until my body stabilized. The traditional medicine route never really worked for me, my labs would always show significant inflammation. I decided to learn more about the human body myself and started to try alternative solutions on myself.

That’s where the organic extra virgin olive oil came in. There were a lot of accounts online of people healing themselves from the inside out with this natural product. I quantified the inflammation in my body while consuming large amounts of EVOO and whole hemp CBD and noticed a drop in my inflammatory markers. This was my “aha moment” that maybe this kind of product would be my escape plan from the corporate life.

Years of R+D later while biohacking my own body, I found the right farms and partners who were doing things the right way with integrity. I quickly learned that so much of our food system is broken due to an industrialization complex. I gave myself 2 years to save up enough money at the firm, and then I launched my brand.

At the same time, I quit my job, got off medication (and have been off it for 5+ years) launched my olive oil brand (Zimms Organics – zimmsorganics.com), released my first full-length hip hop and spoken word album (dzimm.co) and moved downtown to the Arts District. Historically my life lessons come in intense bursts, so I figured I would do all of this at the same time.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s the most rewarding and scariest at the same time. You take full accountability for your work and life, and you don’t have anyone else to share the blame with if something doesn’t go your way. You have to accept all of your failures as lessons- otherwise they would drive you into a crazy, because there are so many lessons to be learned on this journey! The misses are beautiful, and you really only fail when you stop trying. It’s okay to pivot and try something new, but if you truly believe in yourself and vision (even when other people may not), you keep going with resilience and grit. That’s what separates the greats from people who almost did something special.

Also, no one’s journey will be the same as yours. You may get different advice and feedback from everyone you talk to. I’ve personally reached a point where I don’t ask for feedback unless I’m ready for contradicting answers. It took years to reach this point, but now I have the confidence and faith in myself to accomplish anything I put my mind to.

This mindset comes with experience, because I surely did not feel this way in the first couple years. Time and experience builds character. I naively thought my music and business would pop in year one, and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Going through a major rebrand 3 years into building company and putting my name and personal healing journey front center.

I first launch my olive oil brand as Herb & Olive, after overcoming a severe Crohn’s Disease diagnosis. I was debilitated after being in and out of hospitals for months, and losing over 70% of the blood in my body overnight. Doctors told me that I would be on medication the rest of my life, but that wasn’t part of my plan. After my body stabilized, I got to work.

For years, I researched the human body (and biohacked my own), while learning about the food system in the U.S. I discovered that most chronic conditions (IBS, Crohn’s, Colitis, Diabetes, Heart Disease, etc.) weren’t prevalent before food became industrialized in the mid 1900s. I discovered the healing benefits of high quality organic extra virgin olive oil and its anti-inflammatory properties. I started consuming copious amounts of high quality olive oil and noticed a change in the inflammatory markers in my body. This easy dietary change, plus a myriad of other physical and mental wellness practices that I embraced, helped me get off medication for good (and I’ve been off western medication since 2018). I quit the corporate consulting job with BCG, and launched a high end olive oil brand in December 2019, right before COVID hit. I didn’t want my experience to be front center of the brand, because I was still hiding this part of my identity from the world because I hadn’t fully processed the experience. Sharing this story as the brand ethos was too vulnerable, so I launched the brand under the name Herb & Olive.

After growing the brand into over 80 stores in the U.S, I finally became confident in myself without the shame of the awful condition that I overcame. I was inspired by the confidence and authenticity of the many young people and social influencers that I worked with. Time and honest work helped me heal. This confidence and trust is the core and foundation of what Zimms Organics is built on, and will continue to grow from.

Contact Info:

• Website: zimmsorganics.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/zimmsorganics
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidzimmerman28
• Other: instagram.com/dzimm33

Image Credits
Mel Hummel, Thomas Welch