Julie Michelson: Brian, welcome to the podcast.

Brian Johnson: Oh, Julie, it's such an honor. Uh, super exciting to be here, especially with somebody that, uh, We shared suchamazing experiences together and our growth. So thank you for having me.

Julie Michelson: I am thrilled to have you here and also excited for listeners because I love what you're doing. Um, and I've, I've watched it develop and it is this, you are creating such a needed service. Um, so I want to just start with your story, let listeners get to know you a little bit, you know, what led you to create Centergy360 and, you know, more and more and more because I know the, the, the whole business model is kind of expanding as you go.

Brian Johnson: No, I mean, absolutely. I mean, it's constant evolution. Uh, we never stopped learning, right? Like the moment that we, we stopped learning, you know, there's, there's, uh, we're, we're, we're, yeah, we're done. We're, we're falling behind, you know? Um, and. You know, really, you know, individuals like us, you know, we're, we're pioneering, we're just, we're just blazing away, you know, and so it's constant research, you know, to say how did the curve, um, and yeah, you know, and it's interesting to, you know, how we met.

Is, you know, we're both on this path of, and we're all on these paths of like healing and, you know, whether it's recovery from sports or recovering for, you know, autoimmune, um, and putting together protocols, you know, I look at it at the end of the day is just like optimization, right? Like just health and just optimization and what can we do to, to just really optimize our health and of course, find body and spirit.

Um, and. You know, through through our endeavors of, you know, even working together in the past, um, you know, back in 2000 and three. You know, I've always been in construction. I come from the lumber industry, went into construction in early 2000s, went right into building concrete homes. I was really, I always felt like I was real progressive and I always wanted to be ahead of the curve back then.

Um, building these concrete homes and but then we had, you know, the housing crisis head and just no one was into the whole green thing and sustainability and eco, it just kind of fell to the wayside a little bit. Um, and I went into more concrete construction, but then I have different divisions where I got into doing a lot of industrial.

Um, and also to was involved in a lot of mold remediation. Um, I was a contractor. Um, and then projects that we were on would be remediated for mold. Um, and this was in California and a very dry climate area. And, you know, fast forwarding from that, you know, kind of back in the day when we first met, you know, I was really exploring functional medicine, um, integrative medicine, and just the practices of.

Really finding the root cause instead of just the band aid, right. And just, you know, just kind of the, the mainstream of everything. And, and, and once I came into, into that, uh, I met some amazing, uh, functional doctors created great relationships and, and I was big in athletics. And once I started doing all of this testing, you know, on, you know, metabolic testing and, you know, heavy metals and, you know, all these amazing tests that.

That you, you know, help interpret for your clients. Um, you know, I, I was full of toxins. I was full of, you know, mycotoxins heavy, not so much heavy metals, but just, you know, like toxic exposures. And, uh, my doctor said. Huh, that's pretty interesting. Like, what are you exposed to? And I'm like, well, no, you know, she's cause she knows that I'm living this like bulletproof, optimized, clean, you know, like, and you know, how rigid I was with my, my diet. Um, but that stuff doesn't go away. And, and I, I had always thought, you know, kind of what the Western approach, you know, Hey, your cells are always rejuvenating and, you know, this whole process and, you know, we're just, you know, our bodies naturally heal and, and come to find out, you know, that was my bubble was bursted and, and, and I was trying to like always move to the next level and athletic.

So. I was like, what are these hurdles? Well, we found out what those hurdles. And so my doctor inspired me. She says, look, you're a builder. I'm like, yeah, but I haven't built in a long time. You know, I'm doing other things. She said, why don't you, why don't you consider building healthy homes? Right. I mean, this, this goes back some years ago and.

And I thought, you know, I've been thinking about getting back into the building industry, but you know, in all this file hacking and now I'm going to kind of like talk about like all the things that even you and I are into red light therapies and all the things and saunas and air purifiers and in all of these things that red lights that we can, you know, replace in the home, right?

To to bio to to optimize our environment, you know, um, mold tests and then it gets into that whole thing. And, you know, so I thought, you know what, we're already living it. This is it. We need to build it like the home needs to become the modality.

Julie Michelson: I love that.

Brian Johnson: Right. And go ahead.

Julie Michelson: what your definition or, you know, for listeners, when, when you say healthy home, you did just list some things. Um, and it's kind of like when we start to talk about toxins, you know, it can be so overwhelming cause we're exposed everywhere. What are, what are some of the things, you know, if listeners are like, healthy home, hmm, you know, that, that you consider, because you have, especially now, because you've done, really, you know, helped with remediation work and all the things, now you're building truly healthy homes.

What does that even mean?

Brian Johnson: Yeah. So defining a healthy home. Um, there's a lot of, there's just a lot of washing going on out there. Um, and, and I want to bring that up first because the, the definition green, um, Um, you know, sustaina, sustainability and all these terms are, they're kind of just washed in and it, it's kind of misleading because somebody would think, you know, if they're building green or sustainable or, or whatever, it's healthy.

And, and that's not the case at all. Um, a building, building a healthy home. And by the way, um, Julie, you know, even since. You know, we first met like I've developed a lot of, um, knowledge through the building biology Institute. Um, it's a great resource for all of your listeners here to the bullet building biology Institute and they have, you know, for like contractors and just all levels of what you're looking at all the way from the basics of the one on one.

To, you know, the master certifications and I've required all three of their master's certifications for building and environmental consulting. And through that process, I've really understood what the healthy aspects were. And it's really, you know, like the key features on a healthy home is like. Water is a big one, you know, so bringing in filtered water into the home, um, and recognizing like all the fixtures and you know, the pipes and everything that the water is pushing through.

Um, that's a big one. Um, uh, air quality, air quality, it's, it's a really broad term and air quality because it, it defines what air quality is. It's like, hey, do we have a lot of V. O. C. S. Volatile organic compounds outgassing from like plastics and you know, all these different synthetic materials in building materials.

Okay. Um, you know, ventilation, you know, are we getting good ventilated? Is the air being filtered through like HEPA back? Uh, excuse me, HEPA, you know, filtration type systems. Um, for the entire home is, is the home free from any like moisture intrusion? Um, do we have good ventilation in the bathrooms and the showers, you know, are the fans operating properly?

Um, so it's kind of like this moisture management, understanding outgassing, understanding good, uh, good centralized, if you're using like centralized heating and cooling systems, that these systems are maintained well. Um, getting into the EMF field, which is the electromagnetic,

Julie Michelson: that one a little bit because I think parts and pieces, you know, we've had a a bunch of episodes that we talk about toxins and VOCs and air quality and water quality and not to the level that you pay attention to in a home. Um, but, but EMFs, I think, not I think, Have to be an exacerbating factor.

It's not just that our toxic exposure is, is higher, which it is, but I, you know, and I know there's studies, like, especially with mycotoxins, the EMF exposure makes mycotoxins more active. Um, and so I really think it's a, it's an issue that. It is really worth us digging into and you are such a great resource for listeners to, to understand in a way where we're not scaring people that there are things we can do as the world is, you know, increasing and increasing exposures and 5g and who knows what, you know, 6g it'll be like, it's just crazy.

Brian Johnson: yes,

Julie Michelson: So, so let's talk about. Kind of, if you will, I don't know. I, I'm thinking like, okay, here's what you do in your amazing, truly clean homes, and here's what we can do when we're already living in a home. Like, just things, changes maybe we can make, things like that.

Brian Johnson: yeah, no, um, you know, so this whole, you know, and like you nailed it too, just kind of, just kind of stick with this, you know, we call it the rain, the rain barrel effect, right? You know, when, when the toxic barrels full, it starts overflowing and then we start these symptoms, you know, just they become more magnified and then one thing leads to the next.

Right. Um, and EMF definitely, and I'm going to define it. Um, EMFs definitely. Push that, push that, right? So it just takes this perfect storm of all these different things. It's just not one thing. It's, it's everything. And that's what Synergy 360 is all about. It's a holistic approach to the complete environment that we're inside, you know, as far as specific to home building, but EMFs, just, I just want to break this down real quick.

Um, there's EMFs. We have electrical fields, which is put out by 60 or 60 Hertz cycle of what electricity comes into the homes. For the power lines and distributed into the homes. That's called electrical fields. We can't get away from that because that's how we have all the modern amenities. We have a C magnetic fields, which is generated by an electrical field, um, a C magnetic fields.

Those that's that's what we have. That's the quiet, that's the silent deadly one. Um, you know, obviously you wouldn't want to live next to a, right next to a power line, you know, um, because it's generating a high amount of AC magnetic fields. Um, we have, um, RF radio frequencies from 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, Wi Fi, Um, you know, docked phones, baby monitors for all your listeners out there with the baby monitors.

Um, they, the wifi signals put out, they're putting out like 5g signals within your home. So if anybody's alarmed about the whole 5g thing, you want to be just equally as alarmed as, uh, uh, wifi. So that's RF. And then the fourth one is what we refer to. A lot of people hear the term dirty electricity, which is microelectrical surge pollution.

And what that is, that is a simply line noise, uh, it's harmonics that feeds back in a couples. And through the electrons through the wiring into the home So now we're having just by the electrical system in the home. We're exposed to dirty electricity And what generates dirty electricity are things like switch mode power supplies from a computer Plug in to to charge or you know to charge your computer or to plug your computer in Uh three way dimmer or excuse me dimmers for anybody listening, of course Dimmers are a big factor, uh, because what it does is it's changing the frequency of the light by dimming, and it dumps this dirty electricity right back into the line.

Um, you know, solar panels within proper inverters, they lead to this whole thing, so the concern about solar panels for everybody. Ultimately, it's the power. It's when it converts from D. C. To A. C. Within the home, it creates this dirty electricity. Okay. Um, and just for takeaways, you know, and I'll just keep it at that.

So those are the four types of EMFs. Okay. And, you know, the, the electrical fields, we're not going to get away from that, you know, but it's being very mindful of your exposure. So here's the cool thing about electricity. It drops exponentially. So the fields of that, you know, so if it's a field like this, um, you know, four feet away, it's going to be decided by finger, you know, so it drops exponentially, right?

Um, and just, and think about this, if we're sleeping, Now, keep in mind, we're like 80 percent water. And so we're conductors, we're just absorbing energy. That's just what we are. We're these energetic beings. And, and it's not that we're not demon, you know, demonizing electricity or we need it, but we could use it to in our favor and still optimize our health.

So by distancing ourselves, so if you have a metal bed frame, keep in mind a metal bed frame, there's, these are some takeaways. Metal conducts electricity and what do you have in your walls, you have convenient outlets to plug in lamps and, you know, all kinds of things in your room, right? So, If your bed is backed up against a wall, you know, there's wiring behind the wall, what it's doing, it's absorbing the energy.

And then it's just now, now you're just buzzing, so to speak. Okay. It's just, and it just doesn't allow the body to get to that place of homeostasis because there's something running in the background. You know what I mean?

Julie Michelson: Sure. Well, we're supposed to be healing and detoxing when we sleep. So,

Brian Johnson: yes, yes, yes. And, and there's, there's solutions. Um, and that's the whole goal. That's the goal here, right? Um, and there's solutions just like quick, you know, like you could work with an electrician. Um, you could even put a kill switch in the room to kill the power to the complete room. So now you're in a complete EMF free zone, you know, well, From an electrical field.

Um, you know, but keep in mind when you have that lamp, or hopefully our listeners here aren't still plugging in your cell phone next to your band, but no judgment. Okay? Um, you know, I did it until I really kind of started putting it together. But, um, what, what you're doing is that, that extension cord, now you're taking that wiring from the wall and you're just bringing it up even closer to your head at your bed lamp.

Okay? So. You know, go to like, go to a battery operated, you know, if you're into the red lights and amber lights, you know, you can buy them on Amazon now, you know, maybe distance your bed away from a power outlet, you know, maybe go to some battery operator for like reading lights. Um, these are things that we can do on our bedrooms.

Um, the, the thing. And those are just some quick takeaways, you know, you know, go, go to like a, go, go to like a wood bed frame. Um, you know, if, if you don't have the resources right now to work with electrician to put a kill switch in the thing about the AC magnetics, again, what happens is with AC magnetics in a home, if there's wiring errors, um, sometimes of, uh, Electricians come in even on a new home.

Sometimes they might cut a corner and they'll share a neutral and they'll create it. They'll jump another circuit off of that just because they don't want to, you know, do a new home run or either trying to pull power for a switch here and there. This is all the mechanical stuff. I'd like, uh, like, you know, um, excuse me, electrical work.

But, um, but what you wouldn't know until you measure it. But, like, as a new builder, we're very cognizant of that, so we're running dedicated circuits, and, and, and the reason, what happens, here's what happens, you know, you have one wire, uh, delivering electricity, and you have another wire coming back, so you have a hot and a calm, and there's two wires, when they're close together, they, they cancel themselves out, so power lines sit like this, right?

That's, that's why they're generating this field, right? It's like a PEMF on steroids, right? Um, it's it's putting out of frequency. And so what happens is when we have these a c magnetic issues with the home. This is just one. There's several reasons. Um, it could be that when they pulled a circuit this way.

Well, then there's a circuit going this way around the room. And now it's creating this electrical this magnetic field or if there was a power line outside of your, um, outside in front of your house. You know, that could be producing a high amount if it's outside of the house externally. Sometimes they can be a real challenge to remediate.

But if it's in the home, it's just a matter of having like a consultant come in with the meters saying, Hey, you have some high values and I'll work with an electrician. We found a wiring error. We fixed it. Okay, so there's solutions to that, but it's it's it's that's the real important one. Um, solutions for RF radio frequencies are if you are going to use a Wi Fi router.

I'm on a Wi Fi router now, everyone, but I have it on a switch. So when I'm doing my networking, so when it's time for bed, or if I'm just, I don't want to have the frequencies, there's a lot of people that have, you know, these electrical hypersensitivities that cannot be exposed to that. Right. Um, you know, so like a router is not even an option.

Um, but just for most of our listeners, if you're using that, put it, put it on a switch and just literally just shut it off when you're not using it. Okay.

Julie Michelson: have mine's on a timer because I don't want to have to remember to shut it off all the time, you know, and

so I can shut it off when I'm not using it, but also I, it's always shut off when I'm sleeping. Cause so I don't have to think about it. Um, and maybe there's, you know, a drawback to the timer. I don't know.

Brian Johnson: No, no, that's 

perfect. 

Julie Michelson: to make stuff easy, you know, so that. Uh, you know, and they're cheap. Like it's not, it's not even expensive.

Brian Johnson: timer could be five to 10. And like you said, save you the time laying in bed, you know, halfway across the house where the timer 

might be going, did I remember to shut it off? You 

know? 

Julie Michelson: for my workaholic clients, it's a beautiful thing because oh, wifi is down. If you're not already in bed down, it's time to,

Brian Johnson: nice. No, I like that.

We, we 

Julie Michelson: it's like a double, double end there. Yeah. And I want to highlight You said it and we both have said it. I want to say it one more time. This is there is no perfect and there is no avoiding. So we're talking about optimizing and reducing exposures where we can control it. And in our homes is where we can control it.

And so it's not about perfect.

It's about better. So yeah, because I, I know it's like there's so many rabbit holes. Um, it can be overwhelming.

Brian Johnson: Julie, that's where you're just amazing in your coaching. Right. Because it's like, we're not, you know, we're not striving. Nothing's ever going to be perfect. Right. But You know, what are, what are actionable steps that, you know, we can create step by step at a time, you know? Um, and so for, thank you for bringing that in, because this is full disclaimer here, like I'm here to help bring solutions to the building industry and to bring solutions for our clients.

Um, and not to scare people, you know, there's, unfortunately in this business. There's a lot of opportunistic, um, you know, situations going on out there. And, but I, I feel like within our realm and with our network, we're all pretty true to what we want to do in our mission and ultimately is here. We're, we're here to create, you know, or for me, it's to create healthy healing environments and for you to help navigate that client through.

Through the journey to get there, you know, from all factors, right? 

Julie Michelson: absolutely. And but you, you raise a good point because it, you know, like you talked about greenwashing, which comes up in so many, you know, whether it's food or products. I mean, it's just, it's a marketing tactic. Um, and, and so for people to find somebody who's trusted, Yeah, absolutely. And not a shyster. Um, you know, do you recommend that they, they search through the building biology Institute?

Like how to, how do people know? Okay.

Brian Johnson: Absolutely. 100%. Um, I would say the building biology is probably for all of your clients. Um, I refer to it on my webinars all the time. They really set the gold standard. The building biology started post post World War Two. It was developed in, um, Germany post World War II, like in the 60s, when they started discovering all these environmental illnesses post all the homes being destroyed and rebuilt because now it's the turn of the century and we're building mercury and lead and copper and asbestos and all these things, right?

Um, And it's, you know, and so that's where they started. And then it was brought to the U S and like 19, I think officially 1986. So they've been around matter. And so here I'm into the whole optimization and healthy home building. And it wasn't until later on that I found out about the building biology institute and I, when I found them, like, where have they been all my life?

Like, this is like. This 

is the 

Julie Michelson: not know? That was like me on functional medicine. I was like, wait a minute. I thought I, I thought I knew things.

Brian Johnson: yeah, right. Exactly.

Julie Michelson: love that you bring up, um, Which again is like our, our modern technology create can also give us answers, but sometimes is part of what's creating more problems, right? Like, we were talking about 5G.

I was just thinking about when you were talking about World War 2 and, and rebuilding, um, my daughter has her master's in architectural preservation. And so she did, she did her thesis on mold on, on, you know, the, because. It's mortar used to breathe back, you know, 200, 300 years ago. And then we got, we got crafty and creative, right?

And we started, so it's like, Oh, this will last longer. Yeah. And it's also holding the moisture in.

You do a lot with materials in your new building. Can you share a little bit about what are some of your favorite building materials? Because I want listeners that are thinking of building a new home. To maybe lean in a little bit and realize that they can contact you.

Brian Johnson: 100%. And your daughter and I have to sit down and have a conversation. And, and, uh, because you threw the building biology and, you know, so everybody, if you want to know more, you want to find a consultant, um, somebody to help point you in the right direction. That's really, truly passionate that has. You know, we all have our stories of what brought us here and you're gonna find everybody that's so heartfelt, like, well, not everybody, but I'm going to say everybody that I met through the Building Biology Institute.

I spent the last couple of years very involved. Um, they have an amazing resource that you can go under their website, the Building Biology Institute. I don't know if it's not org, I think maybe, but we'll have to, you'll have to post that later, Julie, but, um, Yeah, we'll find it, but you can go on there and you can find, um, you can find like, you know, providers or, you know, specialists through there.

Yeah. And they, they, they do really good. Matter of fact, I get, I get, I get leads from time to time and I, you know, I'm just on there on the reason, you know, on there, uh, you know, the referral or what, not the referral, but. 

What am I trying to say? They're, uh,

Julie Michelson: specialists.

Brian Johnson: certified specialists. Yeah. And I get calls, um, you know, but like for Arizona, they're like, or California even.

And yeah, they're all over the country. So they've got, they've got you covered and it's just a matter of resonating with somebody that, that fits where you're at. Um, and. You know, look at BBEC, which is Building Biology Environmental Consultant, which is kind of more kind of rounded, just everything they're looking at indoor air quality and, you know, the EMFs and just they're looking at everything to come up with a program, a protocol, just like what you do for your clients, you know, like, Hey, what are action steps?

What can I do? You know, what are these little things like I was just kind of giving short demonstrations on. Um, Um, you know, you know, me as a builder kind of switching gears just a little 

bit, 

Julie Michelson: I want to just touch on the new homes that you're building and your approach.

Brian Johnson: Yeah. Thank you. And so you nailed it with the whole breathing thing and everything that your daughter did her research and thesis on.

It's fascinating. And in those homes have been around for like, A long time. You 

Julie Michelson: Yeah. She studied, she's, she studied in the UK, so those were some pretty old buildings.

Brian Johnson: you know, 800 years old, you know, eighth generation types home, stuff like that, right? Um, and they were, it was the brick and mortar. It was clay. It was all these natural building materials. So fast forward where I'm at today. As a builder and I'm currently actively building, um, building thermal mass. So it's just basically these big massive walls, but now I'm evolving more into what's rammed earth building, which is, which is a very specific specialty.

In my opinion, it's like the healthiest way to build a home on the planet.

Julie Michelson: For listeners who don't know what is rammed earth.

Brian Johnson: Rammed Earth is basically taking all of our local source. That's what's beautiful about it because it's truly a green, recycled product that we're giving back to the Earth even after the cycle of the home. But, Um, it's all locally sourced dirt and aggregate. What we do is we build these forms and these folds of the walls and the, you know, the window openings and creating amazing masterpiece architecture.

And we're actually pouring layers and we're putting just a little bit of cement into it and creating this really solid matrix. And we're hitting PSI strengths that blow that exceed concrete. And then we ram it. And so that's the hints, the term ram dirt. So that's, that's a very specialty one. So anybody that's interested, I could just blow your mind with it.

Um, you know, there's a company that I, that I work with, they've built 800 structures around the world, world class, um, architecture. Um, uh, there's another building thermal mass, which is. I that's my favorite, but I've gone with a green version of this and it's called insulated concrete form construction.

And so we do use cement with a combination of, like, non toxic. We didn't get into that, but non toxic, like, um, insulation and we're using, like, natural plasters, Julie, that again, because we're, we're, we're creating a breathable. Environment, right? This, the home becomes the microbiome we talked about, right?

Julie Michelson: I love that. 

Brian Johnson: right. And we, we want the home to have its own natural ways to acclimate. We don't want to be using, you know, all these sprays and disinfectants and antimicrobial stuff. Like for everybody listening, you know, you definitely want to, you know, just, I would not recommend that at all. And the way that we build, we're doing it naturally just with building materials.

So the goal is. Is to use the most natural building material. Now I didn't bring up wood framing. There's nothing wrong with wood framing, but it's all new growth. Um, it's not the old growth that we used to have. Um, you know, there's, there's the potential issue. So if you are having a contractor build your home, you know, sometimes there's a lot of mold on this lumber that they're framing these homes with.

I posted on my Instagram all the time and, you know, it's a serious thing. And we didn't really get into the mold, but when

Julie Michelson: Well, and people tend to think, and we have discussed it before on the podcast, um, you know, we think of like, oh, old Moldy homes, but new homes are built, you know, to pass inspection in my county. It has to pass a certain airtight test and like you're saying, you know, if you're building materials were wet or moldy and not dried out properly before drywall goes up.

Like, it's it can be in there. So I think that, um. It's good to touch on that it's not just an old musty moldy 

Brian Johnson: at all. 

Julie Michelson: building, but, and that's why even I'm, when I moved to Colorado 22 years ago, I was told, you know, there is no mold in Colorado. Yeah, there is. Even in Arizona, it's

Brian Johnson: 80 percent of the earth's biomass is fungus.

Julie Michelson: Oh, wow. There you

Brian Johnson: 80 percent of the world of the earth's biomass is fungus. It's like, yeah, everyone just full disclaimer. There's not one state, not one continent, nowhere that you're going to go that you're, you're going to get away from that. You know,

Julie Michelson: And not all fungus is bad and not all mold creates illness. So, you know, um,

Brian Johnson: Yeah. Not to 

scare everybody 

Julie Michelson: thing back when you were barely eating any foods either, you know, I wouldn't eat things that I'm like, Oh, that's not the kind of mold I have an issue with. But I still, I still use really clean coffee. I do, you know.

Brian Johnson: Oh, Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, what talks in the actor to, you know, all these different types of things that are, I mean, they're in the food, you know, so it's, it's good to source all that. So it's the same thing. It's like, we're sourcing it, the food as a builder, I'm reading the labels. Right. And, you know, I wish it was just.

You know, simple five ingredients. But when you're building a home, you're working with about 8, 000 different materials. So just imagine me reading the labels and that's what I do as building science and as a builder. Every product that I'm designing, I'm building with, there's a rhyme and there's a reason, and there's an understanding behind it.

And also lastly, just talking about, so if you're building a home that is non toxic or if you're remodeling a home that you want to be non toxic, it's, if you're using and you're sourcing and you're working with somebody like me to source these types of non toxic alternatives that don't have gas or have smalls or.

Or smells that are, you know, for people that are chemical sensitive in things like that, right? Um, you know, that, that's a, that's a big factor right there. So that's something to really take into consideration. So if it's non toxic, it's green. So we shouldn't be talking about green, but you know, the word toxic kind of alarms people.

So, you know, it's not the most popular word when you, but when you put the word non in front of it. So, so we're, we're

Julie Michelson: I'm identifying qualifier. Yes.

Brian Johnson: hundred, a hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Julie Michelson: What is, I'm going to throw you under the bus here. What is like the one thing, say somebody is building a new home and they're not going all in, they're not working with somebody like you. Is there one material that if they traded out one material, it would make a big impact? Or not really. I know,

Brian Johnson: me on the spot. 

Um, 

Julie Michelson: wasn't to be mean. I'm just really curious. Like, I'll, like in my, I didn't know much when I built this last home, but I knew enough to tell the electrician, you know, I don't, I don't want any LED or compact fluorescent lights. And they were, he was like, well, we don't, we don't do that. I'm like, well, you do this time.

You know?

Brian Johnson: I, you know,

Julie Michelson: Is there like a thing that, cause again, it's what, you know, something, it doesn't have to be the number one, but something that reduces burden a little bit,

Brian Johnson: oh my goodness, Julie is like 20 things come to my mind and I would feel guilty if I left one thing out. Um, but I think even, I know I'm not, I can't answer this because I'm going to have to give you 20. Um, but, uh, but I think it's when you're starting a project. Working with a builder doing a remodel.

It's really working with somebody like me or a good architect that understands, you know, the whole non toxic like, Hey, you know, I have multiple chemical sensitivities or I have this or that it's working with an architect or somebody mindful of that. So that

Julie Michelson: I think is really like the perfect answer because, You could do what I did. You're not going to get the results. I didn't know this was seven, eight years ago, um, to take a regular builder and a regular architect, and that's not their wheelhouse and then tell them, but I don't want this. And I know I don't want that.

And, um, so actually I think 

Brian Johnson: know what 

Julie Michelson: beautiful answer is to really work with people that are in the, this realm. And, and you already gave the really good resource of, of the building biology. So.

Brian Johnson: it's like you, you know, you're, you're coaching your clients on the direction of health. Um, you know, it's the same thing with a builder. Like you're working with a builder, an architect that understands the goal. You know, what's most important, like, Hey, you know, I'm concerned about mold, you know, in my home.

Hey, you know, we have these, we inspect all the lumber. We're going to do a good ventilation and, you know, heating an air system that's breathable. We're going to build a breathable system. We're going to use these materials that are non toxic. You know, and it's just really an understanding, like. You know, on this whole EMF factor, we can build homes and we can wire homes for them to be safe.

This isn't some special thing of EMF. These are just going back to the principles and going back to the basics. And so working with a contractor, it's just somebody, Hey, you know what, I have electrical sensitivities to these types of things, you know. to where, hey, okay, let's work together and maybe we'll work with a consultant.

Um, you know, Hey, we'll go to the building biology Institute, you know, and we'll, we'll work with somebody to help guide us and make the recommendations through the process.

Julie Michelson: I think that that's, that's brilliant and really good advice, especially I say it, it is, I love the analogy that you made. It is, it's like going to a traditional allopathic Western medicine doc to get autoimmunity reversed. Well, that's not their wheelhouse. They'll give you the medication to treat the symptom. But, so it is, it's a totally, and what, what came up was I was thinking, you know, if your builder tells you it's, that doesn't matter, or that's not important, or this isn't a problem, EMFs, mold, all the things, that's your, that's your signal that you need to find somebody who's, who's really serving health.

Brian Johnson: And, and there's a lot of that too. And that's a good point. I think ultimately everybody's don't, don't just take, you know, a builder's word for it or whatever, because if they're not listening to your goals, that's not the builder for you.

Julie Michelson: Yeah. Amen.

Brian Johnson: Amen.

Julie Michelson: I love it. So I already, I asked a very specific one thing question and you did end up giving us actually like the most important thing. Um, but we always end the podcast with one step that listeners can take. starting today to improve their health. It could be building related. It could not be, you have a wealth of knowledge in the wellness world.

So share with us an action step.

Brian Johnson: You know, I think it's, um, I think it's just, it's looking at everything and it's really. Knowing that it's just not one thing. Um, you know, nature's the gold standard. I want to bring that. I think that's really important. Um, you know, for, for healing is, you know, the whole grounding, you know, because everyone, that's what I'm creating.

I'm creating homes that I'm building nature, right? So the quality of light, so sunlight therapy, getting into the light, 

natural 

grounding. 

Julie Michelson: do one thing, Brian.

Brian Johnson: No, I know, but it's, it's, I've

Julie Michelson: Let's go with the grounding. There's an action step people can take, even if it's not built into the home. Let's, what can people do for grounding?

Brian Johnson: Uh, it's it's simply, um, bare feet. There's just, there's all the signs and I know we're talking about it today. Um, but the homes that I build, I'm taking that into accountability so you can walk, you can walk in your home barefooted and actually be grounded.

Julie Michelson: right. But for people living in, you know, regular dirty homes, they could just go step outside onto the earth.

Brian Johnson: they could do, you know what, let me, and also too, like, I, I, I gotta switch gears here 'cause I'm just thinking, just be really mindful of all of the chemicals in your home. You know, just no different than the chemicals, you know, we're always about putting, you know, chemical free, you know, whatever on our skin, whatever our homes.

Just look at the, look at your labels on all of that. If, if you have under your cabinet, under your kitchen sink. One of the big things my pet peeve is the kitchen sink is designed to be able to have access to plumbing. Everybody puts all their stuff under the sink. You know, that stuff is like outgassing and it's leaching, it's leaching things into the air.

Get rid of that. I know it's inconvenient. Maybe put some civil court cleaners in there. Put everything out into a ventilated area in the garage, ultimately in another ventilated area beyond that. Um, but I think really be mindful of, of just everything being stuck under there and do observations, take a flashlight, look around, you know, like, Oh, Hey, there's a leak.

It's been leaking there for two years. Well, you know what that's going to lead to, you know? So, um, I think just really being mindful of these simple little things. Um, it, it keeps going, but I'm sorry, Julie.

Julie Michelson: Well, and I'm going to highlight what you just, you know, I love the, just start to pay attention to the products you're using. You know, we're talking about home and that's like a whole big thing. So it's a great place to start. And you've said it a bunch of times. You've you, you do it in your business all the time, but reading the labels.

I mean, it is. That's the homework. There's that's where greenwashing loses its power. If you'll read the labels. So that is, is wonderful advice

Brian Johnson: But back to the nature piece. I just kind of, the reason I went to grounding is like, if you're inside, you're locked up all day long and you do have the air purifiers and that's all great. You know, and those are simple little actionable steps you can take, you know, before you really start going beyond that, but get outside.

You know, as much as you can just get just breathe the air outside ground if you can the sunlight there because I'm really big into incorporating nature within the home, but it starts outside as well.

Julie Michelson: I love that. I love and I love just the whole idea, you know, we think this is like so new age and fancy and complicated, but that's such a beautiful way to put it is where it's just getting back to nature, bringing nature back into the home, which is amazing. 

Brian Johnson: Yes. 

Julie Michelson: Brian, for people that are listening on the go and aren't going to check the show notes, where's the best place to find you?

Brian Johnson: Um, I'm on Instagram. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to always, you know, try to keep up with Instagram and put stories. I have years, a couple of years worth of like building stories that I've put on there, what I'm doing, what I'm up to date with. Um, it's, it's synergy, S E N E R G Y synergy 360. So you can find me under synergy 360 on Instagram.

That's a good one. You can even message me on there. I'm, I'm good with that. Um, or my website, which is Synergy360. com. Um, and you can just, you know, send, um, send an inquiry through there. And of course, you know, reference, you know, Julie. So then I, that I know where, you know, you know, where,

Julie Michelson: Where we found you

Brian Johnson: we found, but 

Julie Michelson: and Brian has great reels on Instagram too. I highly recommend you check out some of his, his reels and, and cause it shows, you know, the, the process of you building these homes, which is, is so fun and inspiring.

Brian Johnson: but yeah, no, at least. At least if I know that it's somebody that you're working with, I know that they're under that care, right, that they're, they're being driven a direction of, hey, you know, I heard you on Julie's podcast, and I'm really curious about the home, you know, so that way I know that that person's on, on track instead of just, you know, just from the beginning.

So somebody's already working with you. They've got a lot of insight already.

Julie Michelson: Well, and a lot of listeners aren't working with me, but they've been on this path and on this journey. So I say, you know, Brian's been a friend for a long time, reach out. He's not only a wealth of knowledge, but just an amazing human. So Brian, I thank you so much. You've given us amazing gold today

Brian Johnson: Uh, you've been, you've been an amazing friend. Thank you, Julie.

Julie Michelson: for everyone listening. Remember you can get those show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.