Business of the Month: WAVERIDER SCALAR WELLNESS CENTER
Matt Russell
Wellphora CBD
12805 W Beardsley Rd #105
Sun City West, AZ 85375
info@novaslabs.com
480-369-3199
Sun City West, Arizona
Personal Background Highlights
I am a native of Arizona and grew up in Glendale. I married my beautiful wife over 21 years ago
and have 3 children. I played college basketball on scholarship before getting my dream job as a
Firefighter. I consider myself and outdoorsman and love to be outside golfing, fishing, hunting,
exploring and off-roading. I am fortunate enough to be able to spend my summers in Montana
and the other 8-9 months in Arizona. I call myself a “Sunbird”, which is similar to a “Snowbird”,
but I never had to leave the snow and literally follow the sunshine and warm weather year-
round.
Professional Background Highlights
Immediately after college, I started my 23-year career with the Peoria Fire Medical Department.
During my career I served as a Fire Captain, Engineer, Battalion Safety Officer and also had
specialties as a Hazardous Materials Technician, Toxicologist Paramedic, Rescue Swimmer, Boat
Captain at Lake Pleasant and even a 5-year assignment with Homeland Security as a Terrorist
Liaison Officer. I have always immersed myself in science-based learning with an emphasis on
health and helping others. Towards the end of my Fire Department career, I started
experimenting with plant-based medicine to help with my wife’s arthritis. This eventually led me
into manufacturing wellness products and currently I am the Lab Director and CEO of Novas
Labs, a contract manufacturing company that primarily produces hemp-based CBD products.
During my time as Lab Director, I developed my own line of organic, all-natural CBD products
that would later become Wellphora CBD.
What I do
I have the opportunity to lead an innovative company that specializes in natural healing and
wellness through plant-based medicine while continuing to be a trailblazer in the cannabis and
naturopathic industry. Innovating new products, speaking with, and helping people with their
health journeys are what makes my job dynamic on a daily basis. I get to collaborate with some
of the best and brightest doctors from the naturopathic world to find alternative, non-
pharmaceutical treatments to help people better their lives.
What I like most about doing business here
Moving out of the industrial park near the airport and relocating to the heart of our customer-
base here in Sun City West, where we can directly connect with our customers, has been
nothing short of amazing. The people here in Sun City West have really embraced our business,
products, and what we are trying to do to help people achieve optimal health and deal with
personal medical issues. Everyone has been so friendly, including our incredible neighbors here
at Beardsley Square. Every single day we are getting more and more new customers just from
word-of-mouth referrals. We love Sun City West!
Changes I’d like to see in the area of natural healing
The biggest change that needs to happen is transparency. There is currently no way to legally
advertise, or even communicate to customers what natural, plant-based medicine can be used
for. The Federal government has locked down the use of any medical term (examples: Insomnia,
Arthritis, Parkinson’s). People researching these topics will never find what they are looking for
in the mainstream, outside of pharmaceuticals, because the professionals of these alternative
medicine fields have been silenced thanks to the influence of powerful lobbyists from the
alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industry… with Big Pharma being the biggest opponent of
natural healing.
What am I promoting
I am promoting an alternative to pharmaceuticals through education, lifestyle changes, and
plant-based medicine to live a better healthier life. Although we manufacture CBD, we often
refer our customers to naturopaths and other functional medicine practitioners that support a
more scientific and common-sense approach to achieving better health outcomes without the
use of pharmaceuticals.
What I’m excited about and why
I am excited about the upcoming speaking engagements I have scheduled. The opportunity to
share information (uncensored) and connect with people that are looking for natural health
solutions and information that will enrich their lives through simple changes in their diets and
lifestyles. We just launched 2 new products including one that is super specialized and being
case-studied extraordinary results thus far. I am also excited about expanding our business
model in 2024 to include other forms of therapeutic treatments that include frequency healing
(EMF) and oxygen healing (HBOT) with potential strategic partners and investors.
Favorite community cause and why
I am a big supporter of the Peoria Firefighter Charities because of the amazing support that they
provide to the community. I have had the opportunity to be closely involved with this worthy
organization for +25 years and have personally experienced the lives that they have impacted in
very positive ways.
When and why I started my business/employment here
I started this business to help my wife who was dealing with arthritis flare-ups because she had
previously broken her back in a car accident years ago. CBD was one of the only things that
helped her with the pain and inflammation. At that time CBD was unregulated, and we had very
inconsistent results from using different products. I leveraged my chemistry and medical
background to formulate my own CBD that I knew could be trusted, safe, and free of harmful
chemicals and heavy metals. Because quality CBD was so expensive to produce, I started a
contract manufacturing business to produce CBD for other companies to help offset the costs of
our own personal use. CBD took off, for good reason, and the rest is history!
Where I came from and why I left
The decision to move on and retire from the firefighting career that brought me so much joy for
23 years was difficult and one I did not take lightly. The personal calling to help and serve others
has always been the driving force. Now I have the opportunity to continue that personal mission
on a larger scale by impacting more people. I have blazed in the natural healing world and
continue to help others make changes in their lives to support their own health and well-being.
Although I miss the brotherhood of my Fire Department family, I am certain that the path I am
on currently is right where I am supposed to be, and I have no regrets.
My family
My family has been super supportive of my career change decision and have all had a hand in
helping me grow Wellphora into what it is today. They have stepped in to help with everything
from being the assembly line workers packaging products, to sales staff, to investors during
times of rapid expansion. I have also included them as guinea pigs (testers) sampling and sharing
their personal results during new product development. I wouldn’t have been able to do this
without their support and commitment.
Interests and Hobbies?
I love learning about electromagnetic energy fields (EMF) and Oxygen Therapy, which I find both
subjects very interesting and difficult to research because open-source information is
continually suppressed for some reason. I have recently set up electromagnetic energy fields
surrounding our organic gardens at home, and we are seeing pretty incredible results on the
yields of our vegetables thus far. On the Oxygen therapy portion, I am fascinated on how much
something as basic as oxygen can make such a tremendous impact on our health. I want to
continue to explore this and help to make Oxygen Therapy more mainstream within our
community. Besides my inner “nerdism” I love golfing, fishing, hunting, and all things basketball.
My guiding philosophy
Professionally, I maintain the belief that “We are Physics before we are Biology.” I continuously
seek out as much research as possible in the field of Quantum Physics because I believe this
holds the key to our existence and improved health.
Personally, I try my best to live by the Golden Rule.
My advice to today’s youth
In the words of the great Coach Vince Lambardi, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”.
My advice… Never let your lack of preparation be the reason to miss out on opportunities. This
is also known in the Marine Corp as the 7 P’s of success.
