“We don’t compete on price. We compete on personal!”
– Jorge Tendeiro
I’ve always abstained from publishing Herbosophy’s “specialness” – frankly because I know I’m biased. It’s my venture after all. Naturally, anything I say about my beloved Herbosophy will sound like a selfie-obsessed teenager with a new iPhone. Okay, maybe not that bad.
Still, since I am pragmatic to a fault, I do try to remain objective in most things: especially Herbosophy. Why should you believe me? Because Herbosophy arose from terminal desperation. Wait, what??
Yes, I have a terminal illness – ALS, to be exact – but the disease itself is not the issue. What is relevant is what I discovered when I was most desperate about the whole medical, CAM and Supplement Industry, and it left me with a sour taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively).
There’s a very different mindset and priority when you take a supplement as a preventative or for an acute illness. It’s quite another when you’re chronically suffering or terminally ill
The following points, therefore, are my Herbosophy pillars. They are my antidote to what I found lacking with commercial equivalents.
1. Pure herbs and extracts
What I noticed from many mass-produced, herbal supplements was how many additives, preservatives, binders, fillers and often, just bad quality stock was around.
However, I wanted a fresher, unadulterated herb. One I could open the capsule of, if need be, and make a tea with it. Unfortunately, I challenge you to do that with a commercial herb and tell me the taste. Horrible! The herb usually tastes old and dead. The kicker is the lack of taste and smell of typically strong herbs like garlic, cloves, damiana, cinnamon, turmeric, etc.
Try it with a Herbosophy capsule, and you’ll get a sensory explosion of a freshly ground herb. Strong herbs should hit you hard when you open a capsule: Herbosophy’s do; others don’t.
2. Custom Blends
You need two herbs, but you can’t find them in the same capsule? It may be you want a herb to help your circulation and one that helps your liver; a herb to help you focus with another to help you endure; a herb to stabilise your hormones with another to settle your moods; the options are many. The point is, why buy two bottles and take two different pills when you could have one?
I had the same frustration, so I offer a custom blend option. There, you can choose any two of our concentrated herb extracts and have them encapsulated together. This is cost effective and time-saving. But why only two extracts? And why not with the pure dried herbs?
Simply, a capsule has limited volume and the more herbs you add, the less of each you have. So you end up taking more capsules anyway to make up the difference. That’s why two concentrates are enough. They’re strong enough to be effective at half the volume each in a capsule.
Pure herbs, which usually require high intake per day are best on their own for that purpose. Also, you can open a single dried herb capsule and use the content in a tea or cooking. You can’t do that if you blend two dried herbs like Turmeric and Andrographis: two great liver herbs but the Andrographis’s extreme bitterness would ruin any dish you open the turmeric blend capsule into. Keep it simple; keep it single!
3. Fresh Encapsulation
I assume that you, like me, when cooking with herbs and spices, don’t use the old, odourless, tasteless, skanky herbs found in the bottom corner of your pantry. You throw them out…because they’re skanky.
Likewise, when you buy a bottle of Garlic capsules, you subconsciously use the same quality metric as you’d use in your kitchen. You don’t want a capsule filled with an old, odourless, tasteless, skanky, garlic thingy – NO – you want to smell vampire-grade Garlic when you open that bottle. With Herbosophy, you get that!
That’s because our herbs haven’t been sitting on a shop shelf or warehouse for years. Our herbs are ground to a powder and only encapsulated when you order. Personalised service, as it should be.
4. Personal
I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy. I don’t think that personal service is a crutch for a bad product. I believe personal service is a foundation where the rest sits on. Why? Because the business of health is the most personal business there is.
Mostly, when a person seeks something for their health, whether as a preventative but mainly as a curative, they’re already in a position of weakness; they need help. Otherwise, there would be no need to be there. When was the last time you visited a doctor/herbalist/therapist/counsellor because you were bored or wanted to have fun?
Never? Me neither.
It’s with this personal understanding of your psychological motivation – you’re visiting Herbosophy because you need help – that I base my service and Herbosophy on.
Yes, Herbosophy is an online-only service. Online only stands for the shopping process. My personal standards are infused and required in every herb we encapsulate for you: It has to be useful, good quality and made specifically for you.
It’s also true; I can’t talk to you personally on the phone because my speech muscles are paralysed. Yet, when you email Herbosophy, your email comes straight and only to me. I want to hear your concerns, and I want to be personally of service to you. However, if you need to place an order via the phone, you’ll find my assistant, Jodi, warm, caring and willing to help you.
5. Terminal Assistance
If you or someone you love is terminally ill and would like to use our herbs for assistance, I offer a generous discount so that burden is at least one less thing to think about. It’s the least I can do to support someone going through the gauntlet; from someone who knows what you’re going through. That means I won’t lead you up the garden path with empty promises. In fact, I’ll insist that you consult a live therapist with at least 20 years experience behind them for herbal advice.
You’ll need to send me medical proof of course from your physician and please remember chronic illness is not classified as a terminal one. A terminal illness means you’re on borrowed time, and there’s no more the medical establishment can do for you. This discount is a gift from me to a comrade.
These are the main points that make Herbosophy special. However, you’ll receive the same benefits from visiting a compassionate Herbalist or Naturopath personally. That’s always the best first step.
Our decision-making process can be confusing and desperate. With so many promises and marketing hype making us hopeful, it’s at least some solace to find a place that’s simple, straight and down to earth: I have worked with great effort to make Herbosophy that kind of place.
It’s my sincerest hope that it’s that kind of place for you too.