Hello! I am Karlie Cole, your host at HelloHolistic and I want to share with you how this came into being. Like all great things - it started from frustration. I am a single mother of four kids and I am a holistic practitioner. And I was frustrated with several things - maybe things that have frustrated you, too.
My son needed some good health care, preferably holistic and I had recently moved. I knew there had to be practitioners that resonated with my values all around me - surely no more than 5 miles away, but no matter how much I googled, I just couldn't find more than one or two. I visited directory sites of all kinds and found listings that gave me only slightly more information than the Yellow Pages and I had unruly bookmarks coming out my ears and plenty of phone calls to make just to learn more about the practitioners.
After hours of searching, I felt no closer to scheduling an appointment! I'm sure I had some good people bookmarked but I was already stressed out about the situation with my son and the search process was stressing me out even more! I did eventually make an appointment, but it got me thinking that this part of dealing with our health issues holistically really ought to be the least stressful part.
So many other things have become easy to find and easy to keep track of with all the new internet technology, I thought something ought to be done.
Of course, that got me thinking even more. Like, why, if it's so easy to find current listings of movies and sporting events online, it's not that easy to find events I like to go to - you know, maybe something a bit more enlightening - a meditation class, or yoga, or one of those great life-changing events. I know, they're probably all out there on the web somewhere or in some of the great local magazines we have here in the Twin Cities, but my life, like yours, is busy and I don't have time to keep track of all the different sites and organization's calendars. I wanted one place I could go to when say a Saturday morning suddenly opened up to find something I'd enjoy doing. I wanted one place to look for the events I like to plan ahead. I wanted to stay up to date with the people and places that I like for events and I wanted to be able to keep it all in one place.
Again, I thought so many other things have become easy to find and easy to keep track of with all the new internet technology, something ought to be done.
And then I thought about food. Maybe all that thinking had made me hungry. I try to eat mostly organic and local.
And there again, I thought so many other things have become easy to find and easy to keep track of with all the new internet technology, something ought to be done.
I'm interested in doing what I can to create a sustainable future. So then, well you probably guessed, it occurred to me that maybe the somebody to do something was me (gulp)!
Now, I had built websites before, but nothing at this level. And I wanted it to be good! So I thought about some of the big names out there and what they were doing right. Like Facebook gets connecting people right with plenty of tools for sharing and conversing. And Meetup.com gets events right with easy ways to find events and invite people. And Craigslist gets hyper-local right by giving you the goods just for your area.
So, HelloHolistic has many of the functions of these combined and if your familiar with Facebook, the learning curve for using HelloHolistic will be very quick. AND, I've thrown in some improvements that they don't have. Search on HelloHolistic and you can get very detailed and precise results. You don't need to know the name of the place or practitioner your looking for - only what your needs are. As you look through those profiles that your search turns up, you'll find all the details that you want to know before you decide to go further. Like what you see, CONNECT!
Once you're connected, you can private message anytime day or night and avoid the dreaded phone tag!
As membership builds, many of the Holistic Practitioners and Business Members will offer Virtual Office services for you. What's a Virtual Office you ask? A Virtual Office makes it easy for the Practitioners and Businesses to offer you more on their profile. Depending on the services they choose according to what's right for their practice or business, you'll be able to access easy online scheduling, online payment, online forms, webinars, video conferencing, stores and more.
And, you can get great discounts from many of our Holistic Practitioners and Businesses with the Member Discount Program. No Membership Card required! Your membership on the site verifies you're a member of the discount program with no risk of forgetting to bring a card. Click here to see the current Member Discounts being offered.
How about another improvement? Everyone has a blog. Status updates are great for quick stuff, but sometimes a topic just needs more depth. As HelloHolistic grows, you'll find interesting articles on various healing modalities, healthy food, exercise, home remedies. You'll stay up to date on the latest local news on creating a sustainable, green future and much more. If you like someone's blog, you can subscribe to it with one click and anytime they add a new article, you'll know about it. Want to learn more from a practitioner or business? Send them a message and ask them to blog about it. Or add your comments and questions on their blog article.
You can use your blog however you like or completely ignore it - it's up to you. You can even use it to keep notes journal style and on HelloHolistic you can set your privacy settings so you can even keep your blog for your eyes only.
Well, and you know, holistic lifestyles are meant to be shared, so I made the site for everyone. Invite your friends and family. On a healing journey? You can keep them updated easily and they can connect to the people and places you love, too. Going to an event, easily invite your friends and family to join you. Working on a lifestyle change, connect with your friends and family for support.
Or are you a more private person? On HelloHolistic you can also "go invisible!" You'll be able to enjoy all the benefits without anyone you don't know knowing you're even there.
No matter if you're an extrovert or introvert, you'll find out about articles and events from your connections as they're posted. And everyone you "like" will be there for you saved on your profile whenever you return.
Going to a great event? You can add events, too. Invite your friends and family easily and, if you're so inclined, invite the practitioner or business hosting the event to join HelloHolistic.
There's plenty of ways to connect what happens on HelloHolistic with the rest of the net, too. Share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Email and more are at the top of every page and you can use Facebook Connect to log in and what you add on HelloHolistic will easily also post (with your permission) to Facebook.
There's probably more I could say, but it's better if you just experience it - so signup today and join me in this great experiment. Further instructions can be found on the FAQs and if you have any questions or comments at any time - good or bad - I'd love to hear from you!
Many blessings!
Karlie Cole
HelloHolistic Host
HelloHolistic Host
No comments:
Post a Comment