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

Alex, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

I struggled with mental health for a long time. I was called to plant medicine in 2020, and that was the tipping point for transformation. During my first ayahuasca ceremony, I was shown how disconnected I was from those around me. I struggled with crippling anxiety and total dissociation. During that ceremony, I rocked back and forth saying “when was the last time I felt anything”. After this moment, I started connecting with the world in a different way and working towards a better me. I feel like I was doing amazing, but then my physical health started to decline. For reference I was bodybuilding, and truly though because of how good my body looked that I was “healthy”. After a grand mal seizure and 3 days of hospitalization my outlook changed and this is where my paths collided. I went on to meet a friend who introduced me to to an animal-based diet. During this time I started eating raw liver and for me that is when the true healing began. I started to flourish both mentally and physically. I felt like i was “here” for the first time. All that time I was lights on, but nobody home. With being able to be present in my body and my brain to run at optimal levels, I was able to start building awareness around my mental health issues and break through my struggles. I discovered that not just food, but nutrient dense foods were the foundation of everything.

Alex, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Humanimal is a mood health brand that focuses on beef organs as a foundational pillar of mood health. We currently have three products Beef Liver, Beef Organs (Liver, Heart, Kidney, Spleen, & Pancreas), and Bone & Marrow. This diversified range of organ meats and bone support everything from the structural health of your gut lining to neurotransmitter or “feel-good” chemical production. As a brand we support the following pillars for optimal mood health:

1. Nutrition:

We support a MOOD-based diet, optimized for high or low mood, with serious emphasis on meat, organ meats, collagen-rich, and probiotic-rich foods. From there depending on if you have a high (anxious) mood or low (depressed) mood, it encourages the adoption of mood foods:

a. High Mood Foods: whole carbohydrate options like fruits, root vegetables, and honey
b. Low Mood Foods: more saturated fats like butter, tallow, and coconut meat.

Each option having less of the opposing mood foods.

2. Environment:

We focus on environment as a pillar because you can’t heal in the same environment you were hurt in.

3. Relationships:

We focus on relationships as a determining factor of success in your healing journey.

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

During the development of Humanimal, I tried to be “like my competitors.” I knew what I was doing worked, and it was completely life-changing for me, but I had a hard time honing in on my “why.” This lead to a ton of money being lost in my business development and marketing efforts. In the end, I had to make budget cuts and truly start bootstrapping because I was running out of money and all the money I was spending was speaking to the wrong audience. It took me over a year to finally carve out “why” I was doing this. The more I grew, the more it grew. Once I came to the realization that the biggest impact refining my diet had on me was my mental health, it all started to fall into place, but this left me completely overhauling my website twice, spending thousands of unnecessary dollars, and trying to make all of these changes and fixes on my own. In all honesty, we still have product going out with messaging on the label that doesn’t really match my brand, but we have made peace with that, and look forward to continuing to expand.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My partner showed me a photo of myself sitting on the porch at my mom’s house after having my seizure in 2021. When I saw the photo, I immediately started crying. In those moments and for months after experiencing this life or death situation, I felt empty, like a piece of me had been erased. When I look back, I can see that in those moments I had a very big choice to make. It was either to never grow or to start moving forward. One day I finally took that first step, and it has blossomed 2 years later into me owning my own business, potentially pursuing my master’s degree in psychiatry to study nutrient deficiencies during childhood and how they affect your mental health as an adolescent, and experiencing peak health and confidence. I consider this resilience because I had the choice to fall back and do nothing or be nothing, but I chose differently.

Contact Info:

• Website: shophumanimal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shophumanimal/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shophumanimal/

Image Credits
Ryan Smart