W] What is your own experience of neurodiversity?
Before joining FindCenter, I had been editing and publishing books for over 30 years, with a specialty in books on how to manage the human experience. Along the way, I published books on managing anxiety and depression and ADHD, on being bipolar, on obsessive-compulsive thinking, on trauma, on learning differences, etc. I also had always been told I was “a little weird” in that I’m a kind of artsy person with a strong current of tech geek. Along the way I began to suspect that I wasn’t exactly neurotypical. My child more obviously diverges from the norm and we had some very, very painful experiences as a family until we all recognized that she wasn’t neurotypical. Probably about 20 years ago, I started reading about the autism spectrum and have come to a much fuller understanding of neurodiversity through fabulous books like Steve Silberman’s NeuroTribes. Once you understand that so much of the way we learn and relate is hardwired in our brains, and that there’s such a wide spectrum of brain styles, everything begins to make more sense!
W] What experiences led to the creation of FindCenter?
FindCenter was created by a small team of good-hearted humans with backgrounds in tech (our CEO, Neal Goldman, was the visionary founder of a few other highly successful technology companies that aggregate data in uniquely usable ways and holds numerous patents), humanitarian causes, consciousness and religious studies, and book publishing. We had each experienced an awakening of our hearts through difficult life situations and shared a desire to help others through similar passages. As a person steeped in wisdom teachings for much of my career, I brought a deep library of the ‘who and what’ of what can be most helpful to people who are trying to develop a deeper understanding of life. And a greater capacity to handle emotional complexity. With Neal’s tech genius and my knowledge base, we were able to create this powerful platform for healing and growth.
W] How do you want people to experience the site?
We are hoping that people will find fantastic information, of course, but also a sense of belonging, of being seen without judgment. Whatever your pain points might be, we hope you’ll find the right tools for your own healing. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to gaining inner peace, and we hope people will find the information and inspiration that’s best for them from the wide range of options.
We’re also planning changes to the site to support community. We hope to bring together people looking to find lasting contentment; we hope to connect them to each other by their own particular interests and discoveries. We also plan to involve practitioners of a range of wellness specialties (yoga, meditation, energy healing, Qigong, Chinese medicine, bodywork, etc.) in several ways. We hope they’ll use FindCenter to network with each other and also be able to reach wider audiences looking for their services.
W] What challenges come with building a site like this and providing it to people for free?
Ha. Many! For starters, a site like this is enormously expensive to engineer (a very sophisticated knowledge graph drives the web of connections between different pieces of content and requires that the site be built with exquisite precision) and requires the highest levels of engineering expertise. We’re also in largely uncharted waters in what we’re trying to do and at the scale we’re trying to do it and that brings both high risk and high adventure on a daily basis; and of course there’s the question of how to bring in some revenue to support our efforts. We are all firmly committed to keeping the site free to use and have revenue plans that do not create any obstacles to that. Our revenue plan is built on the idea of being generative for all and not extractive.
W] Can you talk about how you find the book editors that develop and curate the resources available on the site?
Absolutely. My own longtime career in personal growth-oriented book publishing gave me access to a wonderful talent pool of copyeditors, content editors, researchers, and other book pros with exactly the right sensibilities and skill for complex information management and content discernment, as well as a love of accurate data! I have to say, as hard as the work can be, the content team has been having so much fun building this site.
W] What are some of the future goals for FindCenter?
One goal for sure is to attract many, many thousands of wellness practitioners to the site. We are also planning some changes to the design so it appeals as much to the right brain as the left. In its beta version, we know, the site still looks a little too much like an index and doesn’t signal how rich the content is. We want people to more readily recognize that this site will help ease their emotional burdens, whatever they are. We all experience how hard it can be to be human. Maybe right now you’d like to raise your emotional intelligence because you’re finding yourself repeating certain patterns in relationships, but you’re also looking for good resources for a friend who feels shattered by an impending divorce. Next month your sister’s child is diagnosed as bipolar. Or you finally want to start that meditation practice or you’re curious about energy healing. There are resources galore on FindCenter for all of these. We also hope to build up our class roster so people can find courses to meet their interests: everything from breathwork to neurodiversity to near-death experiences or psychedelic therapies–in other words, the whole gamut of tools for managing life’s many pain points. Of course it’s not all about pain! We hope people will come to the site for inspiration, to awaken their sense of awe and wonder at how beautiful and extraordinary life can be. That feeling has to be built into the design as well.
W] How can people get involved?
For starters, people should come and check out the site–including our original podcast, Redefined with Zainab Salbi and our free classes introducing various healing approaches. If they like what they see, they can sign up for a free account and start receiving a weekly newsletter customized to their interests. By signing up, you also get access to one of the cooler features of the site: the ability to make collections of your favorite articles, videos, music, podcasts, etc., by topic or any other grouping. These collections can be stored on the site either to share with other users dealing with similar issues or for their own later use. They can also be shared on other social media. There are already some wonderful collections by other users–on everything from dealing with loneliness or overwhelm or negative body image to sound healing, mindful parenting, astrology, and psychedelic healing.
There are also our identity pathways, like neurodivergent, LGBTQIA, athlete, that offer all this life wisdom through the lens of our most important identities and life experiences.
There’s so much to explore. I hope you’ll come check it out.