Over Forty Wellness Podcast
Over Forty Wellness Podcast
"Himalayan Secrets: The Ancient Superfood - Shilajit" with Aly Ramzi
From the remote heights of the Himalayas near K2—the world's second-highest mountain—comes a remarkable natural substance that might be the missing piece in your wellness puzzle. Aly Ramzi, founder of Rakaposhi Organics, shares the extraordinary story behind Shilajit, an ancient mineral resin harvested at elevations reaching 18,000 feet.
What began as a deeply personal mission following the loss of Aly's mother has evolved into something extraordinary. His mother had dedicated 15 years to building a charity school in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, and Ali created Rakaposhi Organics to honor her legacy while supporting the communities she loved. Through ethical sourcing and transparent practices, the company channels proceeds back to educational initiatives in these remote Himalayan villages.
The star of this wellness story is Shilajit itself—a substance so remarkable that its Sanskrit name translates to "destroyer of all weakness." This dark, mineral-rich resin forms naturally in high-altitude rocks and has been treasured in traditional medicine for over 3,000 years. Modern science is now validating what ancient practitioners knew: Shilajit delivers impressive health benefits including sustained energy levels, improved testosterone (one customer documented a 43% increase in just 30 days), enhanced athletic performance, better cardiovascular health, and stronger immunity.
Unlike many supplements, Shilajit works by allowing "your body to become more of itself," providing the minerals and fulvic acid needed to optimize natural functions. The production process is as fascinating as the product—specially trained monkeys help locate the resin embedded in mountain rocks, followed by a meticulous three-month purification process using nothing but mountain stream water and sunshine.
Whether you're an 80-year-old seeking gentle energy support or a professional athlete looking to maximize performance, authentic Shilajit adapts to your body's needs. Just be mindful—the market is flooded with imitations. True Shilajit comes exclusively from the Himalayas, contains naturally occurring (not added) fulvic acid, and should be sourced from companies with direct relationships to the harvesting communities.
Visit RakaposhiOrganics.com to discover how this rare Himalayan treasure could transform your wellness routine while supporting education in one of the world's most remote regions.
Contact Aly
https://www.rakaposhiorganics.com
Discount Code: 15over40
Contact Vincent
Pro Coach: https://procoach.app/vincent-hiscox
Email: vincent.hiscox@outlook.com
LinkedIn: Vincent Hiscox
The one universal benefit that is generally observed by everyone is their energy level goes up and it stays up all day. But it does it in a very non-caffeinated kind of way where you just remain at an elevated state of energy, not just physically but also your brain power. It goes up and it stays up kind of the whole day, and that's a universal thing that we've pretty much heard from everyone. Beyond that, I would say that if you're somebody who's physically active, somebody who goes to the gym or you run or those types of things, that variety of people have also made some noise about just their physical performance going up in general. I think it's really obvious there.
Aly Ramzi:For the rest of the benefits and there are a few, I think those just take longer to start manifesting. So the rest of the benefits and there are a few, I think those just take longer to start manifesting. With that said one of our customers his testosterone level and he tested this it went up by 43% in a month, right, and he actually did a T-test before and after 30 days. I was really shocked to hear about this. But yeah, there's a load of benefits.
Vincent Hiscox:Hi, I'm Vincent Hiscox, a health coach, podcaster and storyteller. Welcome to the Over 40 Wellness Podcast. We all have the ability to look better and feel better. Becoming healthy should not be complicated. On this podcast, I talk to health and wellness professionals who share their stories and their expertise so that you can optimize your health. The conversations will inspire and empower you with simple tips that you can put into practice to transform the way you feel, look better and feel better with the Over 40 Wellness Podcast.
Vincent Hiscox:My guest on the podcast this week is Ali Ramsey. Ali is the founder of Rakoposhi Organics, a Hong Kong-based company established in 2024. Ali is dedicated to delivering authentic Himalayan wellness products and superfoods to enthusiasts and discerning customers around the world, passionate about holistic and natural wellness. Rakoposhi Organics champion authenticity, ethical sourcing, fair trade and community impact, particularly supporting rural Himalayan communities through education and employment opportunities. In the podcast, ali tells the story of why he set up Rakaposhi Organics following the untimely passing of his mother. How proceeds from the business are being channeled into a charity school that his mother helped to build in the north of Pakistan, in Skardu, in the foothills of the Himalayan mountain range, in an area called Gilgit-Baltistan, rakoposhi Organics pledges a portion of their profits to charitable causes that benefit humanity, with a focus on empowering the next generation.
Vincent Hiscox:Their current product is Shilajit resin, a traditional medicinal product that is purported to have profound health benefits. It is harvested from an altitude of around 18,000 feet or 6,000 meters in the heart of the Himalayas. The product is an organic mineral superfood. It is usually consumed mixed in a cup of warm water. The validated claims include, but not exclusively, boosting male fertility and increasing testosterone. It's good for the heart, improves the quality of the cholesterol mix and triglycerides of the cholesterol mix and triglycerides. It's good for blood iron content, vo2 max and a myriad of other health benefits. It allows the body to become more of itself. The primary ingredients are minerals and antioxidants and there are no adverse side effects.
Vincent Hiscox:In the podcast, ali shares several stories of clients who have used Shilajit. The universal benefit is the energy level goes up and it stays up in a non-caffeinated way. One customer tested his testosterone level, which went up by 43% in a month. Another customer in her 80s. She only needs around 125mg per day and she reports she is flying the whole day. This may be contrasted by a young trainee professional fighter who takes 1,500mg per day and spends 12 hours a day in the gym, training in three doses. Myself, I've used Shilajit for the past 15 weeks and during this time I've taken 500 milligrams three to four times per week before going running, which could either be a slow-paced fivekm or a HIIT training including 10x100m sprints. What I've noticed as a trend is my energy level during the exercise and my energy level during the day following the morning exercise is higher. I don't feel fatigued. I appreciate this is an experiment of one without any formal measures, but on that basis I'm happy to share my experience and endorse the use of Shilajit resin so good morning.
Vincent Hiscox:Ali, how are you today?
Aly Ramzi:Hey Vincent, it's good to see you. I'm well.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, really good. Really, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. I'm sure we've got lots of lovely things to talk about, and I thought we would kick it off directly with you telling the audience everything about the product that you're going to be promoting now on the podcast, your product, which is made from Shilajit with the brand name Rakoposhi, so maybe you could tell that story.
Aly Ramzi:Sure, so thank you very much. I'm Aly Ramzi. I founded a wellness brand called Rakoposhi Organics and our original intention was to showcase a very specific part of Himalayan culture to the rest of the world. So a very specific geographic region is what we're primarily interested with, and the reason is because my late mother helped to build a charity school in that part, which is in the north of Pakistan. It's an area called Gilgit-Baltistan, and so my mom built a charity school there over the last 15 years or so and when she passed away kind of very suddenly in 2021, I had the idea that we should try to do something where we can perpetuate her spirit of charities specifically in that region. So that was the idea, for the brand was to kind of showcase that part of the Himalayas and that culture to the rest of the world. We didn't really have a product in mind at that time when we did research on that region.
Aly Ramzi:It turns out that that part of the Himalayas, which is the Hunza Valley, it's very famous, even though technically it's not considered a blue zone, but historically there have been lots of reports of people living to a very late age, living very high quality lives, no issues with, you know, kind of blood pressure and cardiac and all the other types of issues that people in big cities have and live to like 110 or 120. So I thought that might be an interesting angle to kind of look at and research. If the produce of the land was legitimately that valuable, then it might be something meaningful to share with the world. And it was through that vein of research that I came into something that turned out to be Shilajit, which is a very ancient, very well-documented traditional medicinal product. It's basically a resin that is extracted from the Himalayas and it's told to have profound health benefits for any user.
Aly Ramzi:When I came across this I was very interested. It turned out that through the charity school we have relationships on the ground in the north of Pakistan that could provide us with direct access to this because it's a very access-dependent product. So we went about doing that and that's kind of how we ended up with Shilajit. So we didn't go looking for it, but the way it worked out, because one of the things that was really important for me in building this brand is that we must try to be a positive influence for every single entity that we touch, from our kind of producers to our team, to our customers. It must be a universal win for everybody that comes in contact with the brand, because that's really what what we try to promote through through this, and that's the core message yeah, great.
Vincent Hiscox:Thanks so much for sharing that, and a few things I want to bring out. What was very interesting about what you were talking about, of course, is the human aspect of that. I mean, it was centered around your mum that sadly passed away, and then from that, you had an idea to do some giving back, and that was really the fundamental reason for starting this escapade. I'm going to call it escapade.
Aly Ramzi:Sure sure.
Vincent Hiscox:I mean it's set in the Himalayas. Yes, and just for the audience, I mean, how deep into the Himalayas are we talking about?
Aly Ramzi:So we're talking. It's pretty high up. So for your audience, a good point of reference would be K2, which is the second highest mountain in the world. So the K2 base camp is within the vicinity of where we're harvesting from. From an elevation point of view, it's pretty severe. I mean, you know our guys get it from 18,000 feet sometimes, but yeah, it's pretty remote. It's one of those places where you know, a flight service can get easily suspended because of extreme wind conditions or something like that.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, so yeah, you painted a great picture there. So it's set, I would say, in the heart of the Himalayas, that's right. I mean, k2 is just around the corner.
Aly Ramzi:That's right.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, you're already at an altitude, an appreciable altitude I mean, as myself, as a sort of former skier. When you go to ski resorts, it's the first thing that you kind of look at altitude, because the higher you go, the more snow you get. The higher you go, the more you have to be careful about the safety and everything around you.
Aly Ramzi:It's harder to breathe up there. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the K2 base camp is at 10,000 feet above sea level, right, and that's also where that's roughly the elevation for the charity school and the city, the village of Skardu, which is kind of where all this is centered around. That's where the population center is, so to speak. That's inside a valley. So if you kind of go out 10 kilometers in any direction, the verticality of being there is pretty severe. You go from 10 000 to 20 000 feet very quickly right, yeah and yeah.
Vincent Hiscox:Because I lived in france for a long time, I always think in in meters sure yeah, so no, no, it's okay. I just I can do the division by three. Yeah, and already I know, because for myself I've climbed the mont blanc, which is the sort of tallest mountain in europe, and that's at 4800 meters. Call it five, which relates to 1500 feet. So we're talking, you know, you, yeah, you're easily around the mont blanc and higher it's pretty intense.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, it's pretty intense up there yeah, you have this idea of giving back to the society, enabling the charity work that's going on in that area to continue, and this brings you around to the product. So, let's start talking about the product.
Aly Ramzi:Okay. So the product is, I mean, a good way to think about it. A good way to describe it would be that it's an organic mineral superfood. The form that it takes is a resin, so it's almost like a very thick paste. It's very dark and it has a very pungent smell, and the way it's consumed in this culture traditionally is to mix it in a cup of hot water or warm water, and you drink that first thing every morning on an empty stomach, and the health benefits of this are so.
Aly Ramzi:There's a traditional set of purported benefits, but increasingly, over the past, kind of 20 years or so, we've seen clinical studies being done at research universities and labs that are starting to validate some of these traditional claims, right? So one of the primary benefits, for example, of Shilajit, for men specifically, is that it boosts male fertility, so it improves your sperm count, your sperm quality. It also helps increase testosterone in men. It's basically allowing your body to become more of itself, and the primary active ingredient in this supplement is just minerals and antioxidants, so it's not something that is toxic, it's not something that has any kind of adverse side effects, right? So we've talked about fertility and testosterone. There's also an impact on the cardiovascular system. So it's good for your heart. It improves the quality of your cholesterol mix and triglycerides, it's good for blood iron content, it's good for your VO2 max, it improves your exercise gym performance and post-recovery by reducing inflammation, and I mean so there are just a myriad of health benefits to taking Shilajit.
Aly Ramzi:You get into kind of the more traditional stuff because it is an Ayurvedic supplement. It's been around for a very long time. I mean the published track record for Shilajit goes back about 3,000 years. That's how long people in this Himalayan valley have known about it. So, yeah, huge benefits, right. And for us again, we didn't go looking for this, it just happened to be that the specific part of Pakistan that we want to get involved in this is a core product that is from there. And not only that, but this particular part, which is Gilgit-Baldistan, is widely known and considered to be the premier production region in the world for Shilajit. So it just kind of worked out.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, absolutely great, fabulous, just one thought. That sort of popped into my mind. So this is very good for men. It'll improve the testosterone. I mean, what about women? Does that have an adverse effect on women?
Aly Ramzi:No. So you see and this is important to understand All you're doing by taking Shilajit is adding antioxidants and minerals to your body. That is it right. The primary antioxidant is something called fulvic acid, which occurs in Shilajit. Naturally, our Shilajit has I think it's close to 30% organic fulvic acid. So, unlike many other people out there who inflate numbers of fulvic acid by adding chemicals to it, we don't do any of that. Our stuff is 100% organic. But what it does is it helps your body absorb any nutrition or supplementation that you put in. It just becomes a lot easier to absorb into your bloodstream, so it makes things more bioavailable. So if you eat well and you have reasonably good habits, like you exercise or you walk or whatever whether it's cardio and you have a pretty good diet, it'll really help to accentuate or to express all those positive things.
Vincent Hiscox:Great, I understand it now. So basically, the boosting of the testosterone is something that the Shilajit does, but it's not like a kind of it's for men, right, yeah, right.
Aly Ramzi:So whatever is relevant to your specific body is what it'll bring out. Right, right so as a man, testosterone as a woman. For the ladies I've heard from my friends who take it that it does help with hormonal balancing. It will have that effect. It kind of mellows you out a little bit and makes the volatility function dampens that a bit.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, if I summarize that and I'm summarizing for myself is that, basically, it gives you the sort of building blocks for the body to do what it should be doing normally. Yeah, optimally, optimally. Yes, and you know that elevation of the testosterone is one element of that, but there are many other different elements. And also, then you know this applies equally to male health and female health. Yes, yeah, absolutely fabulous. Before we get off this part in the Himalayas, I'd like you to go through the sort of way that this is extracted, because I think that's a fabulous story.
Aly Ramzi:Sure, okay. So shilajit is a super interesting. You know we call it. We could call it a food supplement. What it really is is a superfood, because you're not making this thing in a lab, right? It is something that is almost harvested from the mountain directly.
Aly Ramzi:So Shilajit is found inside rocks at extreme elevations in the Himalayas. Now, to be fair, shilajit or mineral pitch, which is the generic term for Shilajit exists anywhere in the world. That there are mountains taller than, say, 8,000 feet, right, but Shilajit is unique to the Himalayas. It only comes from the Himalayas. The word itself is a Sanskrit word, which is the ancient language of the subcontinent. The word Shilajit means destroyer of all weakness, because if you take it, shilajit means destroyer of all weakness Because if you take it, it will just make you, at least physically, it'll make you better and it's also good for your brain health. So, yeah, I mean Shilajit is found in the mountains. You know we get it at 18,000 feet and when you look at the raw material, it just looks like a large piece of rock. But we use animals that are specially trained to identify it by sight and by smell, monkeys specifically. And when they do identify it, then they're taught how to harvest these rocks and bring them down to an elevation where the rest of the.
Aly Ramzi:This is a very tribal business, so this is not. People may have seen videos of folks in proper gear extracting shilajit. That's not how it's done in the mountains. It's very remote and the tribes that do it are very specialized in what they do. They're very secretive about their ways, but they harvest the rocks from wherever they find the vein.
Aly Ramzi:Then they'll bring it down to a purification facility, which is usually their home right, and the process of purifying and extracting the Shilajit from the stone basically involves breaking the stone into much smaller pieces and continually rinsing it in stream water and then filtering it using a cheesecloth, over and over and over again, until what you're left with is a shilajit slurry which is just mixed in water, and then, once you've gotten to that point, it is sun-dried, you know, left out, and when it hits the desired texture, it's ready for offer. Now this process is extremely physically tedious and laborious. It takes three and a half four months to do all of this. So it's made in small batches and it's also weather dependent.
Aly Ramzi:So sometimes you'll have a situation where you have overcast weather for weeks at a time, right, and then these guys are sitting there saying, hey, we can't get it, we can't get it sun-dried, therefore, we're going to be late by you know x number of weeks. So that's how. That's how you go from the rock all the way down to the actual resin form, the paste form that people are used to seeing yeah, and what I get from that really is that.
Vincent Hiscox:Okay, let's call it it is the processing from the raw material to the finished product. But the processing is that there's nothing else involved in the processing other than the product that you're trying to extract from the rocks that you find it in. Basically, yeah, yeah, so there's nothing added to it there, there's nothing taken away from it.
Aly Ramzi:Nope. So there are people out there who will say that Shilajit should be washed in something called a Triphala solution or whatever you know, like how you actually extract the Shilajit from the rocks. I will tell you that our guys and the way they do it, where we get it from, which is you, which is in that very narrow part of the Himalayas the way they do it is they just wash it in stream water. So you could make the argument that the mineral content within that mountain stream water somehow makes its way into that Shilajit and makes it better. Fine, that would be fair. But again, it's very geographically specific to where we do it.
Aly Ramzi:There are other parts in India, there are other parts in Nepal that may have different practices. There are people who, for instance, while they are purifying their shilajit during this phase, when you go from taking the stones, breaking them down into smaller stones and then washing them, that solution with which you wash it in some cases includes animal excrement as a way to boost the yield of the organic matter that is often tested for. Some people will add agricultural fertilizer in the form of fulvic acid just to show that their Shilajit is very potent. You see these guys saying it's, you know, with 70% fulvic acid. 70% fulvic acid does not exist in an organic product, right, but somehow it's become this like benchmark for doing stuff yeah, and I'm sure we'll come on to that later.
Vincent Hiscox:What was the question that sort of you know popped up in my mind was from the listeners point of view, and you've been through it, you it as you were talking. But I'll ask the question specifically how does the product aid people? What would you say are the top benefits from using this product?
Aly Ramzi:So I think that if I think about the feedback that we've had from our customers people writing reviews on our website or just talking to people I think the one universal benefit that is generally observed by everyone is their energy level goes up, right, and it stays up all day, but it does it in a very non-caffeinated kind of way where you just remain at an elevated state of energy, not just physically but also your brain power. It goes up and it stays up kind of the whole day, and that's a universal thing that we've pretty much heard from everyone. Beyond that, you know, I would say that if you're somebody who's physically active, somebody who goes to the gym or you run or those types of things, that variety of people have also kind of made some noise about just their physical performance going up in general. I think it's really obvious there. For the rest of the benefits and there are a few, I think those just take longer to start manifesting the rest of the benefits, and there are a few I think those just take longer to start manifesting.
Aly Ramzi:With that said, one of our customers his testosterone level and he tested this it went up by 43% in a month, right, and he actually did a T-test before and after 30 days. I was really shocked to hear about this. But yeah, there's a load of benefits to taking Shilajit. My missus, for example, she has been on it consistently for several months now. She was saying that her hairdresser tells her that her hair is growing back and we're both in our mid-40s, which is kind of a big deal. One thing that I have observed I've been taking Shilajit consistently for a couple of years now and my immune system is at a point where I rarely ever get a flu, like I don't remember the last time I got a flu. Touch wood right. So it's just one of those things where your your kind of base level of existence goes up across the board yeah, and that's great and you actually you shared.
Vincent Hiscox:You shared a customer story there, yeah. So I think customer stories are great because you know that that's the sort of real world people using the product and what they got from it. Do you have any other customer stories that you could share with us?
Aly Ramzi:One of the things that I would like people to know about and I guess this is a customer story, but it's an indirect one People get stuck on the question of how much should I be using and how quickly will these benefits start manifesting themselves? Right, and I really want to emphasize that our product is a 100% organic mineral supplement. That's what you're putting into your body. How long it takes for you to respond to that is something that no one can guess. But generally speaking, if people take, you know the adequate dose or the recommended dose, which is 500 milligrams. So all the clinical tests that have been done with Shilajit pretty much universally dose at 500 milligrams a day for 90 days, and that's when they do their measurements. And you know you see all these crazy positive stories coming out. But other than that, I would say that the amount of Shilajit that you consume and this is especially once you get used to it, right, once you become familiar with its effects and you've been doing it for several days you can then ramp it up or down based on whatever you want to do and whatever is suitable for you. So there's no upper limit, there's no toxicity to it, but you may not need.
Aly Ramzi:So, for example, I have a customer who is in her eighties. She is a five foot one, maybe, and she maybe weighs 90 pounds, Okay, and she takes the product and she only needs 125 milligrams a day, right, which is basically the size of a grain of rice, right, and she's flying the whole day. And then I have another customer who is much younger, you know, maybe late 20s, training to be a professional fighter, and this lad is taking 1500 milligrams a day because he spends 12 hours a day at the gym training, right, so he's doing 500 milligrams morning, afternoon and evening. So what I'm really saying is that there's an application for both of these people for the same product. The question is how much do you need versus how much do you dose with, and I think that is an individual journey that everybody has to take, but a good benchmark is 90 days to feel the benefits great, yeah, great and yeah, what I get from that is that really, the product is very versatile.
Vincent Hiscox:Yes, it's very versatile from, certainly from the stages of life. So even the elderly lady that you spoke about, she is getting benefits from it. Then the young, fit athlete also getting benefits from it, and I want to bring it out because it's always important. Are there any downsides? That we know of.
Aly Ramzi:So here's the thing okay and this is really important If you consume Shilajit or anything that is tainted with something bad, like heavy metals or I don't know, animal excrement or whatever right, you're going to end up hurting yourself. The answer to your question is if you are consuming properly purified, organic, authentic Shilajit right from a producer who you know, who you trust because, again, this is a very, very access-dependent product. So if you know you have a good supplier, then great, yes, good brand, you know, go for it.
Aly Ramzi:If you don't and this is where we see a lot of problems, because there's a lot of Shilajit on the internet most of it is fake and, unfortunately, I have read stories on places like Reddit and other places where somebody took Shilajit or something that was marketed as Shilajit and then they had heart palpitations for six months following that right, something like that. Somebody took Shilajit and then they had this reaction on their skin, some kind of heavy metals, poisoning or whatever. So I think you just have to be really careful about where you get it from. But assuming it's the real stuff, then there's no downside whatsoever. It's non-toxic, there's no known adverse interactions with literally anything, it's completely fine, it's completely safe. But that's assuming that you're using the right stuff great.
Vincent Hiscox:So my next question really for you is how can the listeners help themselves? So this is the first time. I'll be very fair. This is the first time we've we've had a product story on the podcast, sure, but I'll ask the question anyway.
Aly Ramzi:There's a few ways that an average consumer can defend themselves, because, again, I don't want to disparage anybody out there that is running a real kind of Shilajit product. That's great, you know, I think Shilajit is a wonderful thing that people should have access to. But there are a few things Because, you see, supplements as an industry are pretty much an unregulated space, right, which means that if you have an unscrupulous actor with the right marketing budget, you can end up going completely haywire in terms of messaging and what you get right when you look for stuff. But from a consumer's point of view, I would definitely say that if you are considering buying Shilajit from a vendor, right, the first thing that I would ask you to do is to copy the photograph, the product imagery, from that vendor, copy it and do a reverse image search on Google to see if that's a white label product from another website such as alibabacom. Because what we found last year after launching with Shilajit is that close to 99% of Shilajit or products marketed as Shilajit online are sourced from Alibaba and are basically being dropshipped under all these different brands and they're all fake, right. So if anybody who's used Shilajit, you see one of those fakes and immediately you know it. Unfortunately, most people don't know. So if you just do a reverse image search, you will find that the same thing exists on Alibabacom, right? And then you're like, well, wait a minute, why am I paying 10 times this amount where I could just be a wholesaler myself, type thing.
Aly Ramzi:That's really important. It's important for the brand to kind of be very specific. First of all, they must have a website, okay, so all that's important. There are a bunch of people, there are a bunch of quote-unquote brands on these platforms. They don't even have websites. They have no presence outside the platform. It's pretty wild. And they're selling $30 Shilajit from because and again, these are just important cues because Shilajit is so regionally specific To say something like Himalayan, honestly, it doesn't mean anything okay.
Aly Ramzi:It really doesn't. So I'm sorry. I'm from there, right, the Himalayas begins in Nepal and goes all the way through India, through Pakistan and kind of ends at the Afghan border. Okay, that's a really large swath of land, very unique geologically. So when you say Himalaya, what do you mean? Himalaya? Is it Nepali Himalayas? Is it Indian Himalayas? Is it Pakistani Himalayas? And if it is Pakistani Himalayas, which one? Because Pakistan has the Himalayan range, the Karakoram range and the Hindu Kush range, and all of these taste very different from a Shilajit point of view.
Aly Ramzi:So if I'm marketing something to someone, I would be very specific that, look, this is kind of my expertise, or I'm from here, right, that's another tell. You'll also bump into a bunch of people out there who will market their product as Shilajit, but they're actually sourcing it from Russia, right? So calling Russian mineral pitch Shilajit is a little bit like calling California sparkling wine, champagne. Okay, it is not okay. So Shilajit only comes from the Himalayas. If it's coming from outside the Himalayas, somewhere else could be Latin America, it could be North America, it could be Europe, whatever, it's not Shilajit, simple as that.
Aly Ramzi:So Shilajit is Himalayas Within Himalayas. They're very geographically specific. So as you pull your vendor on these types of very specific deep dive questions. You'll be able to pulse, check them pretty quickly to see if there's a real person back there. Is it a bot farm? Who are these people? And I think that extent of due diligence is important and it's incumbent on the buyer Because, again, if you end up buying a product that is tainted with heavy metals or with animal excrement or anything else that goes on chemical fertilizer, right, whatever, and you get sick, you have no recourse. You have no recourse whatsoever.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, and I I'm gonna jump in at that point. What I'm hearing from you is, when you make your purchase, of course, if people come to you, then they've got full confidence. But even if they come to you, they should go and check, they should go and do due diligence and then after that, then they make an educated decision in terms of what they want to buy. And for sure that, as you said earlier, this also applies to the whole supplement market, and the supplement market is billions today. I mean, we can, you know, we can go into any, doesn't even have to be a pharmacy, you can go into any shop and you can find supplements. And it's always something that I do and I always recommend to my clients. If that's something that you're going to do, then really go and do the research. What I'm hearing from you is exactly the same. Yes, go and do the research and be prepared to do really good research. When you finish your research, then you make your educated decision as to what you want to do.
Vincent Hiscox:That's correct. Yeah, great, let's get back to you and let's get back to the business. So, from the job that you're doing now, which is promoting Shilajit to the marketplace, let's say where do you see that going in the future?
Aly Ramzi:That's a really good question For our brand and our mission. The intention is to get to profitability as soon as we can, because that will give us a pathway towards kind of funding the charity schools and we have other projects that we've identified that we will pursue because I think that natural wellness is definitely something that is compatible and congruent with our overall vision for our brand and for the impact that we'd like to have on the planet. So this is something we can run with Over time. I have ideas on adding additional product lines, whether they be on the superfood side or they be on something else.
Aly Ramzi:I have ideas on things that we can do, but again, we want to maintain a very sharp focus on this part of the Himalayas which is Gilgit-Beldistan and Skardu. It has its own very rich history and tradition and culture and we'd like to share that and, of course, you know the benefits of just a Himalayan lifestyle. A lot of the things that people take for granted nowadays with mindfulness and yoga, a lot of these originate from those mountains. So I think there's a lot of synergy between that thought process and what people in the modern era, especially in big cities, for the things that they crave.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, what I get from what you've said is that really, the business aims of what you're doing today are more sort of focused on being able to pay back. They're more focused on the memories of your mum being able to pay back. They're more focused on the memories of your mum. They're more focused on improving the education of the people living in the region where the shilajit is being harvested. How do you grow that into a bigger business?
Aly Ramzi:That's a good question. So, look, the truth is that shilajit is never going to be a big business. There's just simply not enough of it. Right, those are facts. It's a beautiful product, it's a great story. We have access to arguably the best Shilajit on planet Earth. It's my opinion that we do, but I think if we want to go further than this and we do, I mean in a controlled way further than this, and we do, I mean in a controlled way so again, we can, we can. We can explore more health foods and supplement type things, because there's tons of those.
Aly Ramzi:You know, when I first came up with the idea for rakaposhi organics back in over Christmas of 2021 this is right after my mom passed away the first product idea anybody hit me with was Himalayan salt right, the pink salt and I was like, oh wow, I knew nothing back then about any of the stuff. I was like, oh yeah, that sounds really good. So I looked into it and I just couldn't make the numbers behind that work. So when I built my business model, it just wasn't working out. So for us, it's going to have to be a combination of something that fits mathematically as well as mission of the overall, so it could be something in the health food space. It could be something in handicrafts, right, because that's definitely something that we can have a direct impact if we market kind of indigenous-made handicrafts out of that place to the rest of the world. So many things for us to consider here. So there is a way to grow, but Shilajit as a product is definitely hard-capped in terms of how far we can go with it.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, thank you very much for sharing that message, because I think from the listener's point of view, it's important. This is not something which is going to sort of boom and then suddenly it's going to die off again. This is something which is small scale. It needs to be sustainable.
Vincent Hiscox:But it needs to be sustainable in a profit-making way, so that the ultimate aim then is to feed some of that revenue back to the village schools, back to the local people, back to the people who are doing the harvesting of the shilajit today. So it really is a sort of a process of giving back, but given that that is capped which I think in some ways is a nice message then you will be exploring other ways where you can make your presence more significant and where you can actually continue to make a difference with products which are coming from a very sustainable and a very sort of pure kind of background. Is that a fair way to put?
Aly Ramzi:it yeah, no, I think, I think that's that's exactly right yeah exactly right great so again, I always like to do this, you know, taking it back to you.
Vincent Hiscox:So for yourself, maybe you could share with the listeners what would be your routine. You know, for the first thing in the day, but oh, for me you do in the morning.
Aly Ramzi:Yeah, sure, uh. So I'm a really I'm a creature of habit. Um, I'm someone who likes to sleep early and I'm usually the first one awake in my household. So, for example, this morning I was up at five o'clock. I was out of bed by five. I don't like to do a whole lot. My first hour right, it's usually my time when everybody else is asleep I get time to myself, I get to reflect, I like to pray at that time, I'll make my coffee and, of course, I'll have my shilajit first thing every single day. But my first hour after I wake up, I really like to take it slow and let the ideas just come to me. Whatever needs to happen, I try not to look at my phone to the best of my ability and just kind of get ready, reflect on the previous day, reflect on things that need to get done that day and try to have a detox in the morning.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, and I'm going to ask this question because it popped into my brain just now, when you were talking about shilajit and then coffee in the morning and you were talking about sleep all these wonderful things that I really like.
Aly Ramzi:Oh, I totally need my sleep. If I don't get my, I need at least eight hours a night. If I don't get that, I'm a grouchy guy.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, are there any sort of side effects from Shilajit with respect to sleep?
Aly Ramzi:No, you know it's interesting. You ask that question. You would think so, right, because one of the benefits of Shilajit is the energy. So it intuitively makes sense that if you're taking something that boosts your energy, that it would impact your ability to sleep. But absolutely it does not. In fact, over the last few months, I've had three different customers who specifically mentioned that, since they've been taking Shilajit, that it helps them sleep better. So I don't know if it helps me sleep better, but these are three different customers who've said this to me specifically, saying you know, ever since I started taking this, I feel like my sleep is much deeper and more restful. So no, it's the opposite which seems counterintuitive. No, no it's great.
Vincent Hiscox:So it's saying it's not really a stimulant as such.
Aly Ramzi:No, no, it's not a stimulant.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, yeah, absolutely great. So we're coming towards the end of the podcast now and there's a few things that I want to mention before we sort of close, and one of them is your kind offer that, you know, for the listeners. We'll put a code into the show notes where the listeners can then, if want to try shilajit, they can do that with, you know, with some reduction sure, yeah, happy to do that.
Aly Ramzi:We can set up a discount code for your, for your listeners, absolutely, absolutely great.
Vincent Hiscox:And then the very last question, from your point of view now, from what it is you're doing, from this, you know this making shilajit available on the market. What's your key message to the listeners? What would you say? You know, looking at it from a listener point of view, what would be your key message?
Aly Ramzi:so I think that a lot of people don't really need supplementation, uh, if they're eating well and if they're taking care of themselves, getting enough sleep. But I also think and what I mean by that is when I was in my 30s, I didn't need anything, right, I was basically invincible. But there is a dropping off point. That happens naturally for every single person and you may feel it sooner or you may feel it later, but at that point, if you do find yourself to be in need of high quality supplementation, I think that it's worthwhile to research who it is that you're buying from, rather than it just become a default condition.
Aly Ramzi:Especially on something as niche and exotic as the thing that we're doing, the quality of the supply chain really really matters. So we, for example, don't work with any kind of third party or brokers or anything like that. We have our own people who do it only for us. They're almost considered them to be in-house, so it's a JV with a company, and I think those things are really important. And I also think that, going forward, we live in an environment now where information has become so much more readily available to an average consumer that lying to them is really not a good long-term strategy. So you know, for us we're hyper transparent. We answer probably more questions than anybody ever would on this topic because we don't have anything to hide and I think you can tell a lot by about a person, about a brand, about a company, about the way in which they approach difficult topics. So ask those difficult questions. I think that's kind of what I'm really saying.
Vincent Hiscox:Yeah, super, super message. So don't take anything for granted. Yeah, absolutely not. If you have anything where you want to ask a question, then just ask the question. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So here's a really, really important question now how do people get in touch?
Aly Ramzi:with you. So the best way is to just visit our website. We are at rakaposhiorganicscom that's one word r-a-k-a-p-o-s-h-i. Rakaposhi that's the name of a mountain in this general area where we get our trilogy from. So rakaposhiorganicscom is probably the best way, and then from there you can email me, you can ping my whatsapp if you have any questions. I actually really enjoy answering questions from our customers. So, yeah, hit me up, ask me anything.
Vincent Hiscox:Great. So I thank you very much for everything that you shared on the podcast, ali. I mean your enthusiasm. For me it shines through in everything that you said. What's driving you also is very inspirational. I I really thank you very much, thank you.
Vincent Hiscox:Thank you really appreciate being here super podcast with ali with super takeaways, and here are my takeaways. Number one shilajit resin from rakoposhi organics is a traditional medicinal product. Number two the product is an inorganic mineral superfood that boosts health. Number three it has many validated claims, including, but not exclusively boosting male fertility. Good for the heart. Improving cholesterol mix. Fertility good for the heart. Improving cholesterol mix. Improving DO2 max. 4. There are no adverse side effects. 5. Sales of Shilijit resin support rural Himalayan communities through education and employment opportunities. Through education and employment opportunities.
Vincent Hiscox:If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Please share with your family and friends. You're welcome to email me with feedback, comments and questions at vincenthiscox at outlookcom. Would you enjoy getting a short weekly email from me where I share simple tips that you can put into practice to improve your health? Subscribe to Vincent's Wellness Newsletter at vincent1cdsubstackcom. If you are looking to get into the best shape of your life, to look and feel your best, visit my coaching website, procoachapp. Forward slash. Vincent dash Hiscox. All of the references to the websites will be in the show notes. And don't forget to share the episode with a friend.