Michael O. Brickell, Holistic Junction's Visionary Extraordinaire: A Glimpse into the Soul behind th

Michael O. Brickell, CEO of Holistic Junction has been the driving force behind the revolutionary site, Holistic Junction -- geared toward positive community awareness; a portal to alternative & holistic education, and a plethora of healthcare information resources and the arts. I had an opportunity to speak candidly with Michael and asked him what inspired him, and why he wanted to create an online holistic journal with such a wide array of topics: [C. Bailey-Lloyd] Good Morning Michael. Tell me a little about yourself, personally -- Where were you born, a fond childhood memory, or perhaps what makes you -- you? [Michael O. Brickell] First of all, let me say how appreciative I am of all the work our team members, including those not directly connected to Holistic Junction, have done. So much positive energy has gone into this challenging and wonderful endeavor. Every single contribution regardless of size and detail, was and still is so very important. Each one of our team members bring certain talents to the table and everything we have accomplished and continue to do is done with such cohesiveness and great attention to detail. Everyday in some way there is an improvement within the site and it's such a joy to see all of the integral pieces of this giant puzzle come together as it does. Most of the improvements have been program related but in the very near future we will also begin to see notable changes in the site design itself. It's all very exciting to me and I look forward to these visible changes as they occur. It's something that we will all be able to see and share. Now before I get carried away, you wanted me to talk a bit about who I am. Well, being that I really am an introvert at heart, I am not always comfortable talking about myself, but I'll give it a go here... I was born in Seville, Spain in 1956. When I was 2 days old I was taken to a Spanish orphanage where I stayed until I was about 3 and half years of age at which time I was adopted by a very charismatic couple who at the time were not able to have children. My Father, now deceased, was from Colorado Springs and my Mother is a native of Canada. My Father was a Civil Servant, which gave us the opportunity to live in various countries including France, Greece, Turkey and Germany. I graduated from high school in Wiesbaden Germany. My fondest childhood years were those years I spent in Greece from age 10 to 14. I have felt for a very long time that my heart and soul belong in the Mediterranean. I love the life style, the culture and spent many summers on the Greek Islands Mykonos and Crete with young Swiss friends. I also remember on one separate occasion while visiting Crete with my Mother, actually sitting on the throne of King Minos of the Minoan civilization and secretly thinking how I would have liked to be King of such a colorful and advanced culture and society. Wonderful memories while on the mainland too, of standing on the cliffs at Sounion overlooking the great and beautiful Aegean Sea, visiting the mighty Acropolis in Athens and of course one of my favorite pastimes, going boating on weekends during the summer with Scandinavian friends also stationed in Greece at the time. I remember how beautiful and clean the water was. Swimming in that turquoise colored water was such a joy. I remember very well going snorkeling with my Father and actually seeing the ruins of ancient civilization right there on the ocean floor. I even remember falling in love for the first time with a beautiful Swedish girl with whom I shared many swims in Greek waters. Still to this day, I think about her with great fondness. I have so many great memories of my childhood, but those are a few of my favorite. [C. Bailey-Lloyd] Thank you for that. I have always wanted to ask you -- why did you decide to create an online journal, and what made you choose it to be holistic, in nature? Is there any particular reason that stands out? [Michael O. Brickell] Yes there are numerous reasons. I have worked with many different people and organizations throughout my life. Much of my work has been in public relations, advertising and marketing. I gained a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge from all of this, and I wanted to parley these experiences and knowledge into work that I felt would be more interesting, exciting and meaningful to me. I have always had a thirst for knowledge and truth. I certainly don't claim to have the answers to all of the mysteries of life, but I have always had a deep desire to understand the truth behind all that we call `reality'. Much of what we call reality it seems to me, are really illusions so it's interesting to look at life from a metaphysical and holistic perspective- things such as cause and effect, the physical and metaphysical organizational structure of the universe and the role that we as individuals play in all of this. I have felt for a very long time that to truly understand life and one's self, it is important to view life from metaphysical and holistic points of view because it takes into account everything to do with the God Source. Traditional schools don't typically teach this. We live in a very fast paced world so staying grounded is vital. I believe it is important for those interested in these points of view, to have access to the information Holsitic Junction provides. Some of the available information can be very helpful in making sense of life and realizing just how purposeful and miraculous life really is. Life is an evolutionary process and much of the information available on Holistic Junction does help define and give purpose to our lives and the world in which we live. Holistic Junction offers people from all walks of life a place to come and share philosophies, truths, opinions, art, poetry and more. I also wanted to include on HJ the opportunity for trade and commerce so that schools, practitioners and retailers may join as business members and promote their services and products. To me, that is what a true on-line community is. It's interesting to note that even at this point in the evolution of Holistic Junction with over 5 million page views and more than 300,000 visitors annually, it is still in it's infancy! There is so much more growth potential. Things like more submissions, greater traffic to the site, improved navigation and site design, higher page rankings and everything else associated with the expansion of an established website such as ours. We have received some very constructive feed back from members and visitors to the site and we now know what areas to focus on for overall site improvement. We are working on many of those improvements as we speak. As a matter of fact, we are scheduled to go live with our new homepage design sometime in August of this year (2005). The results include a streamlined homepage and easier site navigation. Very exciting indeed! [C. Bailey-Lloyd] I'm certain that others may have told you that Holistic Junction simply offers way too much information, what is your response to that? [Michael O. Brickell] Frankly, I don't believe that is true. Holistic Junction is an online community that integrates all of the resources that human beings need or desire at various times in our lives. The resources we offer are vast and are all tied together in one way or another to some facet of life, thus the name, `Holistic Junction'. The resources on the site are an integral part of the whole, which does not allow us to leave much out, including consumer products and services. Our primary focus is targeted to topics that fall within the scope of those things considered to be holistic, metaphysical and even scientific in nature, however, one of the true functions of a community, online or otherwise, is to provide its members with what ever there is a demand for. Holistic Junction is no different. The consumer resource directory is one of those. We attract many kinds of people, blue and white collar consisting of artists, teachers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grand parents, people who are just curious and others who are looking for something specific. The point is this...It does not matter what type of person you are or what background you have, we all have something in common, and that is our needs. Those needs are what we as an online journal and online community, focus on, whether it be information on alternative medicine or a new car! Holistic Junction offers something to just about everyone, if they will take the time to look around and discover what we are about. As you know, we currently have over 800 topic categories that are split into various directories, specifically the holistic, metaphysical, healing arts, vocational and consumer resource directories. In reality, that number is still quite small when you consider the number of additional categories that would actually be needed to cover the entire spectrum of information available on Metaphysics and Holistic topics alone. We continue to add new categories as needed. Back to the consumer resource directory for just a moment. Some people have wondered why we chose to include the consumer resource directory to the mix of things we already have. The consumer resource directory is not a focal point, but it has great value. The idea there is very simple. It's to provide everyday consumer products and services for those of us who simply want them! Many of us may want to buy a home, a car, change insurance carriers, purchase health insurance, find a lawyer or subscribe to a particular magazine. HJ offers retailers the opportunity to invest in a business listing for that purpose. It's there for convenience and it just so happens that we actually generate quite a bit of traffic there as well. Our site statistics tell us this. Kind of a long winded answer to your question as to whether or not we offer too much information, but no I don't believe that we offer too much of anything on HJ. It really boils down to what our visitors and members are interested in and what they want to look at, as opposed to what we want them to look at. What we have available are lots of choices, and those choices in this instance, are a good thing! (For Complete Interview, please visit: Michael O. Brickell, Holistic Junction's Visionary Extraordinaire: A Glimpse into the Mind behind the Site Interview)