Here is an international internet business idea involving the convergence of  the future and nostalgia.

One appeal about Ecuador for example is that it offers a lifestyle of simpler times.  Life in Ecuador is still like the good old days.  Children can walk a deserted lane by themselves and do without fear.

We’ll look at Ecuador’s simplicity in more detail in a moment.

First, let’s look at an international internet business idea that can help you earn wherever you want to be in the world. The idea is that “people want what they perceive they have lost”.

Recognizing what you feel you have lost, there are ways to to earn income wherever you live.

Problems create opportunity.

Having lost something is a problem.

Since each of us represents a unique market… if we can understand what we feel we have lost… we can understand a problem that many others also feel.

Here is a case study about this.

I feel that we have lost simpler times… when we were not so dependent on a system that is so far beyond of our control.

For example, if for any reason the internet does not work… I am out of business.

If for any reason the national food distribution system stops, I cannot eat.

If for any reason, gasoline supplies are cut off, I cannot travel.  Etc. Etc.

Access to these supplies are beyond my control.

That is one reason that we moved to an isolated North Carolina  farm 11 years ago.. a survival place… where we also love to be even though the system we depend upon is working fine.

I would like this farm to be more independent and sustainable.

The growing risks of a social economic systemic meltdown have created a window where the past and future have come together.

We perceive we have lost a simple, independent life.  In the future we may need to be more independent again.

So we can logically ask, “What needs for the future are now here?”

Here are five “the future is now” investing and business trends that have merged. They seem to have a bright future.

#1: Gain value added. This is the era when small and flexible are beautiful. Modern community technology makes it possible for even micro businesses to virtually integrate. I’ll give you a specific in a moment.

#2: Invest in real estate. I know, I know people keep saying that prices are going down. Yet these same people keep having kids without making more land. This looks like an opportunity distortion to me.

#3: Bet on inflation. I do not see how with the massive government bailouts this will not happen everywhere…to a great extent.

#4: Invest in alternative power and sustainability. The same fundamentals as for real estate are at work…more kids…no more fresh water…trees…soil…clean air…etc. Plus one factor more. Each child born expects more.

#5: Invest in natural health. The current social economic lifestyle is flawed.  The acquisition of stuff creates too much work…leading to too much stress…with too little time…and poor nutrition…leading to pharmaceutical and surgical intervention. This intervention costs too much and is not a pleasant, effective approach that optimizes maximum human efficiency.

I believe that anyone who invests or has a business in these areas has great potential.

Based on this belief, I am working with a team that is assembling a proposal for what we can do with our land creating a Draftwood Village, micro hydro power supply, etc.

That team has been organized by Ian Snider…  the formulator of the Draftwood concept.  Draftwod… sustainable harvested, value added timber hauled out by draft horses.

Here is Ian mowing hay near the old farm house they live in on the South Fork of the New River.

Here is Ian’s wife, Tracy, with their draft horse, Frank, discing their sweet sorghum cane field.

With these thoughts in mind we are taking our next step here at the farm which was originally an investment in real estate (#2 above). Plus our move here was also an investment in water. We have dozens of springs. This one for example, called the “Indian’s Trough”, is a historical site and produces many gallons of water a second.

This one spring alone provides all the water in our home and fills a small waterfall in our backyard, and waters all the animals out back.

Plus fills the wood fired, hot tub we have in the deep woods.

Spring water fills the tub.

Fallen wood heats the water which comes from the spring year round at 49 degrees F. We usually soak at 105 to 110 F.

There are dozens of the springs on the property…hundreds of rivulets leading to streams and pretty soon they form our creeks, waterfalls…

and ponds.

Our land rises nearly 1,000 feet. You can see the rise on an aerial photo. The blue lines are roads on the farm. The bald at the top sits at 4,000 feet. Our entrance at 3,000+.

At the bottom of the farm we have a rushing creek pushed by hundreds of feet of drop.

We are combining this fact with a bet on inflation and an investment on sustainability and alternative power (#3 and #4 above) and plan to move our farm off the grid so we can live in a healthier, wealthier, more independent way. Not all alternate energy is cost effective at this time…at current energy rates. I expect the rates to rise so am willing to speculate by investing in energy saving and producing capital now.

Here is the plan we are working on that enhances the value added aspect of our business (#1 above). We have some great home sites on the farm. Some have some great locations for solar, hydro and wind power.

Many of our meadows have southern views and are filled with morning and evening sun.

Our home has a complete southern exposure and was built with 13 inch concrete filled, styrofoam insulated, heat retaining walls.

The 12 large glass windows and doors let the sun pour in all day. Even when it is freezing outside you can nearly heat the house with a candle.

Other sustainability assets include wind potential in places on the land that are high, sunny and exposed.

Our vision for the farm is evolving like this…homes that can support themselves: …energy…food…and water…but connected to the world.

There is more value added potential in…wood. A nearby business specializes in sustainable logging…with horses. See www.mtnworks.org

This allows one to work on an entirely integrated plan…harvesting and milling wood…to build houses and cabins on sites like this…that

are off the grid with solar, wind and water power and with enough land to grow one’s own organic food.

These and other qualities also lead to many natural health opportunities so we have a complete opportunity to create opportunity from all five of the the “future is now” investing and business ideas above.

This plan is filled with value added potential. We can help our forest with sustainable logging.

The wood can be used for the cabins.

We can offer courses that teach people the logging, the milling, how to build the cabins.

We can teach people how to save via off the grid living and even help them obtain off the grid equipment. Plus we gain off the grid homes for our retreat center.

I expect this will make new avenues so our business can change and grow in the next five to ten years…just as Ecuador altered our life and business a previous decade ago.

This process feels right to us and we are proceeding.

As Ian at Mountainworks points out we could offer some great value added benefits that combine the past and future.   Here is how he describes what we could do.

“Come stay for a week this winter and ski/snow shoe our horse logging trails, learn how to sustainably select your trees for the perfect bluegrass guitar….take the reins for a turn driving the draft horses as they carefully remove the chosen wood…soak in the wood fired hot tub after a day of custom sawing your lumber….dine on the finest game of the field or our preserved farm veggies with homemade wine…return late next spring to assemble your dream instrument in time for pickin at the summer festivals…stake your claim in our exclusive Draftwood Village of custom built carbon positive cottages….”

See Ian Snider’s website here.

Life in Ecuador – Still Like the Good Old Days.

Children can walk a deserted lane by themselves and they do without fear.

Our Land of the Sun Foundation feeds Cotacachi children free lunch at our hotel El Meson de las Flores.  Here are a group of them having fun.

This is why I would like to bring Ecuador closer to you.  We can help you know Ecuador better in numerous ways.

To assist those with great interest in Cotacachi or all Ecuador I have established a full time full support team to help subscribers in almost any way of travel, investing, living, buying property or doing business here.

Our staff at the hotel awaits to serve you. This is Eduardo and Consuelo.

Learn more about Ecuador’s charm.

Until next message, may all your business and investing be inspired.

Gary

See lesson two of the eleven lesson International Marketing Sales Strategies course

Combining good international investing with the greatest asset of all, the ability to earn wherever you live, brings everlasting wealth.

This is why we offer our course Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business.

A clear mind and healthy body are also a vital assets… plus a second language is a powerful diversification tool.

This is why I am willing to pay you $300 to attend either our Ecuador Super Thinking plus Spanish seminar in September or our North Carolina International Business & Investing seminar in October.  Sign up for either seminar and I will email you our Tangled Web… How to Have an Internet Business Course (offered at $299) free plus I’ll knock an extra dollar off your seminar fee…. to round up the $300 savings.

See details of the two seminars below.

Join Merri, Thomas Fischer of JGAM, our webmaster David Cross and me in North Carolina this October and enroll in our emailed course on how to have a web business free.  Save $300.

Learn more about global investing, how to have an international business and diversification in Ecuador at the seminar.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Here are comments from one seminar delegate about the way we help: Hi Gary & Merri,  I want to keep you posted, since the idea of the Health Card partnership with Marvin Yakos goes back to your classroom!!  All is well with me and The hCard.  Feed the Children are going to partner with us, so we are finally getting some nationally awareness.  Boy this has been a huge project!  The largest Food Bank in American approved the personal membership hCard yesterday.  Check out the new personal hCards under CUSTOM CARDS.

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Super Thinking + Spanish Course

Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

October 16-18 Ecuador Southern coastal tour (early sign up before Sept. 1, $499 per person).

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Tour

Oct. 25-26 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador Seminar

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador seminar or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

Ecuador Travel Tip

This time of year is glorious in the Blue Ridge. Here is a shot of our front yard.  Yet soon we head south traveling again to Ecuador.

There is plenty of beauty in Ecuador too.

I took this shot from near our hotel Meson de las Flores. The difference is this green was in the middle of winter. Cotacachi’s weather is eternal spring!

Ecuador travel is easy from the USA… less then four hours from Miami to Ecuador about five from Atlanta to Ecuador.

However travel is travel and security procedures combined with airline cutbacks have added stress on travel to Ecuador or anywhere.

So I thought the note below about Ecuador travel was worth sharing with all.

Gary,  I know you and Merri must be very healthy to do as much time on airlines as you both do, and many other attendant exposures!  In all the years I have enjoyed your news letters, I have never heard of either of you being “down with the flu or cold”!   Do you eat airlines food?  or do you have any other tips for healthy eating on airlines?  Any other health tips for airlines will be appreciated and put to good use!

The reader is correct… Neither Merri or I are hardly ever ill.  Neither of us has been to an MD (for sickness) in over 20 years. I cannot recall missing a day of work because we were ill.

There are many things we do to maintain our energy and health.  We try to spend  our time and money on health preservation instead of medical insurance.  There are links to numerous health tips below.

Here let’s just look at some tips for health on planes.

In May 1968,  I boarded my first commercial flight Portland, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong on Canadian Pacific Airlines.

Merri (I did not know her then) at about the same time was headed Atlanta – New York – Frankfurt on Lufthansa.

Over the next 41 years, we’ve traveled to more than 70 countries researching business opportunities, exploring and enjoying new destinations.

We have lived and worked on every continent.

Many of you like ourselves are on the run, traveling thousands of miles and crossing dozens of time zones the year through. We have to perform well on these trips even as we put enormous stress on our bodies.

Here are a few tricks we have learned over the millions of miles we have flown. I hope they help you in your travel to Ecuador… or wherever.

First, avoid peanuts and other hard to digest foods on airplanes. In fact it’s better to avoid salted peanuts completely. Our friend, the Taita Yatchak, who lived with us at our hacienda in Ecuador  was amazed to see us eat roasted peanuts. “High in Uric Acid”, he said.

Our Indian (from India) friends who are experts in Ayurveda (the 5000 year old Science of Life) have also warned us away from peanuts as being very hard to digest. They are known as tomasic (meaning those things that destroy rather than build).

Then imagine getting on a plane and crossing the ocean and a half dozen time zones which will throw off our digestion in itself.

This is a dry dehydrating environment hard on the kidneys. These factors alone are hard enough. To throw in a hard to digest food high in uric acid is like the kiss of death.

Second, avoid alcohol on airplanes. Dehydrating as well, hard on kidneys,and liver. Mixed with roasted peanuts! Ahhhhhh!

Third, sleep when traveling towards the sun. Travel through time zones throw off our Circadian rhythm.

We find that it helps to stay awake when traveling away from the sun. We fly to Europe or South America numerous times every year when I speak at seminars there and to visit our children.

Often I have to get up the day after I arrive and conduct seminars… sometimes for  eight hours. This requires a clear mind and energetic body.  So we need to be sure that the flight has not drained us.

We have flown across the Atlantic with clients and observed as they tucked into cocktails (peanuts!) heavy dinner, desserts and after dinner liquors while we are settling down to sleep through the flight.

We awaken, have only a little breakfast on the plane, and meet the European morning refreshed and ready to have a full day (but we go to bed early the first night).   Those clients are dragging and beat.  “Where on earth do you get your energy?” they ask.

Can’t sleep on planes?

Buy some Valerian tea at the health food store, ask for hot water and make your own tea. It tastes like what I imagine dirty gym socks would taste, but is a natural way to get to sleep.

We also use melatonin to restore the natural melatonin that is lost on endless time zones. Just buy a bottle of liquid from the health food store and take 20 minutes before sleep.

I also bring along my Bose noise suppressing headphones and some baroque music.

Before I leave on a journey, I massage my feet with an essential oil blend.

When essential oils are applied to our feet, they stimulate zones on our feet that “mirror” the entire body. Stimulating these reflexes sends messages to the associated body parts that help reduce tension, improve circulation and help the body deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells… important benefits on a flight.

I use my Essential Oil Blend Chart, created by Candace Newman and massage the oil blend in my hair, put it in my ears up my nose, on my face and on my collar and shirt cuffs.

The oil fights virus and bacteria plus helps balance the flighty feeling on a flight.

Here is Candace’s Essential Oil Blend Chart.

We also avoid airplane water (except bottled).   We add a drop of Rose Otto essential oil.  This makes a tasty rose water that aids digestion and the time transition.

We make sure the oil we use is Rose Otto which is the steam distilled essential oil of rose petals. Otto is the term used to differentiate the steam distilled variety from the ‘Rose Absolute’ and “Rose Concrete”.  The extraction process for both Absolute and Concrete use solvents so Rose Otto from the Bulgarian ‘damask’ Rose, cultivated since the 16th century, is considered to produce the finest quality essence

Rose Otto is bright, alive, richly floral and complex and is more potent than the Absolute and Concrete so smaller amounts of Rose Otto are required.

You can order Rose Otto 4 ml here

We also spray ourselves (head and face and air above us) with lavender essential oil lavender misted with distilled water to combat dehydration and to refresh, cleanse and purify.

In Aromatherapy, mists and hydrosols are generally used to calm our emotions, lift our spirit, cleanse the air, and soothe the skin.

You can make your own mist with Lavender oil.

You can order Lavender  essential oil here 10 ml

Candace Newman has a four mist sampler pack that contains all four of mists.

Candace offers a sample of four 1 oz essential oil mist blends each in amber plastic bottle with zipper carrying case and includes an Essential Oil Mist Chart is included free.

1 ounce Lavender Mist
1 ounce Lavender-Peppermint Mist
1 ounce Lavender-Rose Mist
1 ounce Rejuvenation Mist

Learn more or order here.

Next we travel first or business class using our frequent flyer miles to upgrade ourselves. There is more privacy and room in this class and because we book as early as possible, we almost always are upgraded.

We do yoga (or stretching) before we get on and off… plus stretch during the flight. This helps keep spinal fluids moving. The spine is often perceived as just a stack of bones in reality it is our gateway of energy and it shifts with every thought we have about life. It is a precise mirror of who we are. With every stress we have, the interrelationships of bones, muscles, ligaments, and nerves are altered in and through the spine. These deviations are minute, often imperceptible, but no matter how small, the changes in the spine have gigantic effects on the body.

I then use a spinal tuner before and after each flight.  You can learn about Joe Culbertson’s spinal tuner at www.spine-tuner.com

On long flights we also  wear an ionizer around our necks. This purifies the air and  creates negative ions that makes us feel fresher and cleaner.

This is a shot of my well used travel ionizer.

Mine is old and about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  New ones are in the market for $119. They offer a Corona Discharge Air Purification technology to create fresh air while purifying the air with a stream of charged electrons (Ions) .  This Ionizer is worn around the neck so a continuous stream of ions flows toward the face.  A round magnet rests on the back of the neck to reinforce your body’s magnetic field (which is off balance in high altitudes).  Google the word Chionizer and you’ll see a number of sites offering this product.

We also try to arrive and leave via a small airport. When we are in North Carolina we fly Delta’s commuter partner in Tri-Cities Tennessee to Atlanta or Cincinnati.  Big airports like Miami or Atlanta create a lot of stress… crowds, noise, rudeness and pollution.  This is not a good way to start or end a flight.  By starting at a small airport, there’s not much stress, people remember us and it goes smooth and easy.

Finally we meditate when we get on the plane, often during the flight and before we disembark.

We do our best to eat little or nothing and avoid hard to digest foods on these long hauls…just some pure water, fresh fruit…. sometimes a boiled egg… a few seeds and nuts are very satisfying.  Rest and avoid stress as much as you can on the journey.

Every generation has had its health cross to bear. Neanderthal Man faced the Saber Tooth Tiger.  Medieval  Europe had plagues.  Today we face fast food, stress and long flights!

It is a miracle, privilege and responsibility that we have the freedom to travel almost anywhere on this good earth we choose. This gives us the ability to broaden our horizons and contribute more to the world. These few simple tips  can reduce the negative elements of the great joy of air travel.

Gary

Join us at an upcoming Ecuador or North Carolina conference or tour.

On our upcoming Imbabura real estate tours we’ll look at real estate on all three of the big lakes near Cotacachi. Here is a map of the area.

June 12-14 Shamanic Mingo Tour

June 16-17 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

June 18-21 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

We’ll  visit the sacred Quicocha lake for a shamanic study and perhaps a ceremony.

July 4-8  Ecuador Export Tour

July 8-9 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

July 10-13 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

July 24-26 IBEZ North Carolina

View from San Pablo Lake property for sale.

Sept. 17-21 Ecuador Spanish Course

Sept. 23-24 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Sept. 25-28 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Lake Yahuarcocha

The lake is a historical site also known as Blood Lake because of a 13 year battle between the locals and Incas.

Oct. 9-11 IBEZ North Carolina

Oct. 21-24 Ecuador Import Export Expedition

Nov. 6-8 IBEZ Ecuador

Nov. 9-10 Imbabura Real Estate Tour

Nov. 11-14 Ecuador Coastal Real Estate Tour

Attend any two Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$949 for one.  $1,349 for two.

Attend any three Ecuador courses or tours in a calendar month…$1,199 for one.  $1,799 for two.

More Health Tip Links

Natural Health One Step at a Time

Vision and Food

Here’s Incredible Power

Natural Awakenings to Secrets of Longevity

Foundations of Health

Investing Inspired by Raspberries at Dawn

Ecuador Shamans & Purification