The Chocolate Tour
We were on an Ecuador export tour in Quito, Ecuador.
We came, we saw, we ate.
I liked it.
One of our visits was to Kallari, Republic de Cacao a shop with many Chocolate products.
The menu at Kallari has a lot of chocolate.
There are people on the planet who don’t like chocolate. I’ve met them, but they’re rare. More commonly, there’s a shuffle, a queue, a line up, a wait because most of us love chocolate. It contains the “love drug” – the chemical released when we are in love – so it’s popular and elevates our mood.
What started out as an import/export tour in Ecuador grew – some days later into an Amazon tour – including chocolate. My mood was rising.
We rode the Napo River. We were in the Ecuadorian Amazon where cocoa is grown.
There are various percentages of cacao content in chocolate. Percentages varies from 10% cocoa up to 100% [usually 99%]. 85% is usually the greatest percentage used for eating. After 85% the bitterness of the chocolate is too great. Bitter chocolate may still be used for baking however – up to 100%.
Great Chocolate is Created, not Born.
What makes a great chocolate? Chocolate is made with two of the three magic ingredients – sugar and fat and of course chocolate. But where does the chocolate come from? From packages of course! One’s mind rarely delves beyond the package. But there is a life before the package that goes something like this:
Chocolate begins its life in a pod/husk full of seeds. These seeds become the beans. The raw seeds themselves are slimy although tasty (lemony sweet) but this alone doesn’t create chocolate. While the majority of the world’s seeds/beans originate in Africa, the quality product often originates in countries such as Ecuador (which in Spanish means Equator) and they then make their way worldwide. Cocoa beans grow only within 20 degrees north or south of the Equator.
The process of making Chocolate is something like this:
Cocoa is grown and the cocoa bean is harvested. It grows as a seed in pods/husks. The harvest occurs most of the year (often 11 of 12 months) making for a very long ‘season.’
The beans or seeds from inside the husk are fermented for 2-8 days. The husk is thrown away. Fermentation changes the sugars in the beans to an acid, activates the enzymes in them to improve the color and flavor and increases their temperature to around 125 degrees F/51-52 degrees C.
The fermented beans are dried to prevent molding.
The dried cocoa beans (they were seeds) are bagged, labelled and when needed, ground after roasting.
The ground cocoa may be used as a powder or further may be processed into cocoa liquor, cocoa butter or cocoa fat.
The powder and/or the cocoa liquor/fat is mixed with sugar and other ingredients (like vanilla or milk for milk chocolate) in the correct ratios.
The resulting liquid is molded into bars, Easter bunnies, Santa Claus et al, balls, truffles or other forms and is packaged accordingly.
Chocolate can be made into a butter or a fat/liquor (all similar). This liquor has no alcohol although you can also obtain Creme de Cacao which is a liqueur containing chocolate.
You purchase the package not realizing the cocoa has traversed the globe and many steps have finally resulted in your purchase. Cheaper quality chocolate companies often fill their product with inexpensive edible waxes and disguise their flavor with sugar/sweeteners and flavorings whereas expensive chocolate is often organic, its fermentation, drying, storage, shipping, roasting, grinding and mixing with other ingredients, remaining a closely guarded secret. Your final price is often determined by these factors.
The end result of of chocolate manufacturing can be this expression:
My tip is to pay a bit more and receive the better quality product.
Glenn
Turn your passion into profit
There are many ways to turn your passion into profit… but always try to make your choice one that is unique and suited to you.
Take Chocolate for example. Don’t just import chocolate bars. There is way too much competition. Chocolate is a commodity and the only way to compete with a commodity is by lowering price. This destroys margins and the key to a financially successful micro business is a good margin. This means that a non unique commodity business is likely to be marginal.
If one plans to sell chocolate… make it unique in some way… so it attracts a premium.
Reader Craig McCarty sent a December 26, 2011 article at the Speculaist website (see a link to the entire article below) entitled ” In the Future Everything Will Be A Coffee Shop” by Stephen Gordon that says (bolds are mine): Universities Will Become Coffee Shops
We’re faced with an education bubble. Tuition and other costs associated with a college education have been outpacing inflation for decades. It’s a trend that simply cannot continue. It has continued, so far, because the demand for education has proven to be somewhat inelastic. If you want a good job (the thinking went) there really wasn’t much of a choice. You went and you paid whatever price they put in front of you.
But what’s the advantage of a good job if the salary difference between that job and a non-college-level job is lost servicing student debt? It’s a reasonable question that has become more pressing as the amount of student debt required to get an education has risen.
At the same time several universities with world renown branding have begun offering online courses for free. MIT has been the pioneering institution in this. They were first to make practically all classes available online. Now they are beginning to offer some level of credential for completion of online courses through a new program they’re calling MITx.
Imagine a personnel manager at a mid-sized industrial corporation in Kansas who’s looking for a candidate with a particular set of knowledge. There are two candidates: one from the local state school with an appropriate college degree, a second with relevant MITx certificates of completion.
Let’s say all other things between the candidates are equal. Which should be chosen? It’s true that an online education is not the same as the college experience. The candidate who went to college probably enjoyed his experience more, but how much is that experience worth to a potential employer? Unless he’s a member of the same fraternity, probably not as much as the college candidate would hope.
And here’s the reality: the student debt of the college candidate controls, to some extent, his salary requirements. Since the MITx candidate appears to have the knowledge required, and has no student debt, he probably can be hired cheaper. There is a tendency to go with the college candidate because: “that’s the way its always been done.” But cheaper ultimately wins. Repeat that story a million times over the next few years and you begin to see how the local colleges – which already are overcharging for their product – begin to suffer in favor of free programs like MITx.
Eventually you could have local campuses becoming places where MITx students seek tutoring, network, and socialize – reclaiming some of the college experience they’d otherwise have lost.
Phil thought this sounded like college as a giant coffee shop. I agree. Every education would be ad hoc. It would be student-directed toward the job market she’s aiming for.
This trend toward… coffeeshopification… is changing more than just colleges:
Book Stores Will Shrink to Coffee Shops
Ebooks are coming of age – for many reasons. You can keep your library in your pocket. You can annotate and share your thoughts within social networks. Writers can publish more directly to their audience. Once completed, the unit cost of each ebook sold is essentially $0. Those savings can (and sometimes are) passed on to the customer. Also, an ebook doesn’t have to be limited to the written word. An ebook can incorporate video, audio and other methods of presentation. Your book store is always with you and has every book ready to sell. Nothing ever goes out of print because there are no print runs.
Compare that with your local Barnes and Nobel. Those stores are huge but can accommodate only a small fraction of the titles available in the Kindle store. They require expensive real estate, buildings, and employees.
If you don’t like reading from an ereader, there are new on-demand printing options like the Espresso Book Machine that can print a book within minutes.
Between ebooks and print-on-demand, Barnes and Nobel sized stores shrink down to just their coffee shops – or maybe Starbucks takes over their business. Either way, customers keep the experience of reading with coffee and those big comfortable chairs.
The Coffee Shop Will Displace Most Retail Shops
My Christmas shopping this year was 90% through Amazon Prime. Not having to fight the crowds and having it delivered free of charge to my home is a big plus, but as with the Kindle store, the online retail selection is much better that even the largest retail outlet.
Which is more enjoyable: Starbucks or Walmart? For the sane: Starbucks. So if you can accomplish your Walmart shopping at Starbucks, why do it any other way?
Also, imagine the 3D print shop of the future. You put in your order, probably from your smart phone, and then go pick it up. What does the lobby of such a business look like? Again: a coffee shop.
Offices Become Coffee Shops… Again
We’re going back to the future: the modern office was birthed in 17th century coffee shops. Steven Johnson has argued that coffee fueled the enlightenment. It was certainly a more enlightening beverage than the previous choice of alcohol.
The need for offices grew as the equipment for mental work was developed starting in the late 19th centuries. That need appears to have peaked about 1980.
It was a rare person who could afford the computers, printers, fax machines, and mailing/shipping equipment of that time.
Now a single person with $500 can duplicate most of those functions with a single laptop computer. So the remaining function of the office is to be that place that clients know to find you… and that kids and the other distractions of home can’t.
I have long believed in this concept and wrote back in the early 2000s:
There is a Micro Business Magic in Trends
We can get clues about investing trends and business trends by watching what everyone reads. Best selling book lists are like a window into a nation’s soul. This is why two authors who have had special, phenomenal success in recent years can lead us to greater investing and business returns. In fact the clues you will read from these authors is so powerful you could say they are like magic.
See why we created out own mountain cafe atmosphere so we could get small groups of readers together to discuss writing, publishing and micro business philosophy.
One of the fundamental rules you can use to spot trends is that people always want what they have lost and no longer have.
Once the building trade had perfected clean, low cost efficient central heating, the trend that everyone wanted a fireplace began. Is it smoke and ashes and the labor involved in building a fire that mankind misses? Probably not. Perhaps instead they lost romance.
Once America created a smooth highway system so anyone can drive anywhere without hardship or bumps, four wheel drive off road SUVs became the most popular form of transportation. Did we long for the sweat of replacing blown out tires ruined by potholes?
I doubt it. But I’ll buy that we had lost the our sense of adventure.
Get the drift?
The growing trend is for the purchase of immaterial goods, such as sports, entertainment, health, communication and spirituality. Togetherness is a key motivator for emotional fulfillment. Many wealthy consumers have learned that just acquiring stuff is not enough. More and more things don’t satisfy much or for long. At some point our material excesses turn into junk, worthless burdens that cost us to store, clean and insure. Successful companies in the future will learn to attach symbols of love and togetherness to their products and services.
There will be a growing business in ties that bond people together.
Coffee houses and similar places of gathering will continue to boom. Clubs will grow. Restaurants which offer a place for people to be together will thrive.
Join us for our Writer’s Camp and deep woods cafe. We’ll even show how to use chocolate to write better.
Gary
Writer’s Camp
Last modified on 2012-05-13 15:03:05 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Start a one year writing project. Attend our Writer’s Camp at the retreat center at our North Carolina farm in the Blue Ridge. Start with our online course Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher FREE right away. ($299 value).
The July camp filled almost immediately so we added two more camps and the June Camp has almost sold out in less than a week.
June 22-23-24 2012 SOLD OUT
July 20-21-22 SOLD OUT
September 1-2-3 2012
Single $799
Couple $999
May I introduce a touch of financial magic? Magic gained from experience… but so important you’ll never worry about having enough money again…
Do you believe in fate? Fortune? Good luck?
If so, let me share a story about this message that has spanned 40 years from my past to this moment when it has reached you… here and now… so your finances nor your lifestyle will ever be the same.
This is a message that just about guarantees you a perfect way to always have more than enough money and will let you have important, highly meaningful, fun and fulfilling work… that, yes, is also profitable (perhaps magically so).
That’s a pretty bold claim so let me explain why I am confident enough to make it.
We all arrive through fate at unexpected crossroads. This is good. Life could get boring if we plodded along only one straight path. Yet unexpected can be scary… especially when you start something new.
Fate created a crossroad for me 1972. That was the year of the last, worse recession before the one we just suffered through. Back then, I received the proverbial sledgehammer called the pink slip. This termination notice was bright pink because my boss went broke, the company I worked for was bust. I was broke, without any job prospects and to make it a bit more interesting… I was stranded 12,000 miles from home…in Hong Kong…with no way to get back.
From Hong Kong , fate and 40 years brought me and this message… now to you. What a thread!
I am not sure how long you have been reading our daily reports, but before I outline a way to assure your wealth let me share a bit more about my background and this 40 year thread.
Gary Scott is what most people call me. I am in touch with over 30,000 readers a day and thankfully my five kids call me dad…instead of old man or jerk. My wife, Merri, calls me “darling” (I call her “my salvation”). All these blessings are in part because of that horrible experience in Hong Kong.
The crisis I had then, the worry and doubt turned me into sort of a workaholic recluse. I was broke, in debt…no college degree (lots of years of study but no degree), had three kids then and could not pay the rent. Talk about scared!
That pressure had some sort of peculiar effect that has lasted for life and made me an outstanding expert on survival and success during the toughest times.
For four decades I have worked to destroy unemployment and poverty for those who have enthusiasm, are willing to work and… who through fate happen to cross my path.
I am thankful that this process helped me find a secret about earning a living so long ago so I can help so many others suffering in the changing economy now. (Fate works in mysterious ways). Applying the secrets of survival I learned during the tough 1970s has brought me millions…and much more.
Fortunately the secrets required very little money to start. I was really broke. Once I could not even find six cents to get into town for the mid levels tram for a job interview. So I had to walk in a suit for miles on a hot, humid Hong Kong day… into an office with ice cold air conditioning. I’ll never forget trying not to wince when I sat down…my shirt soaked with sweat, that turned ice cold.
And I did not get the job.
That may have been the low point in my non career. But it was good because it made me so determined to find the secret to success. And I did… one so powerful it allowed me to dig my way out of a potential bankruptcy.
In fact these secrets brought me such freedom and enjoyment and has allowed my family to live in so many wonderful places that I have been compelled to share them with small select groups for years.
You’ll see in a moment how I still have a weird quirk about helping people get careers. (I think it comes from the terrible fear or maybe that icy shirt back in Hong Kong ). This weirdness may help you because it made me so conservative that everything I do is based on smallness.
My wife, Merri, and I have possibly the smallest…yet are among the highest earning… self publishing company in the world.
Our high earnings come from writing, self publishing secrets I learned clear back in Hong Kong. These secrets have worked so well they have earned extra millions.
Let me add one more thing right now…since I’ll say it a number of times more. Merri and I believe in fate but we also know that it is vital to “Get Started”… but “Start Small”.
There I said it flying in the face of society hammering us to “Think Big”. This is the era where small is beautiful in a very big way. If you have doubts about this, just ask Steve Bozos (Amazon.com) or Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google.com) about the value of small.
We need to dive into this idea of smallness.
I am stuck with this horrible fear of being broke. You know unfilled promises… tight finances… money worries…even costly groceries and bill collector stuff. I had all that in Hong Kong and even though 40 years have passed it’s not forgotten.
I hate this for anybody. No money. No future prospects. Worry about the kids. Not knowing how to retire… or where to turn.
My problems 40 years ago affected me for life. In fact I am so hung up on this that that Merri and I (we are so thankful that we can) give away money to help create jobs….we have now donated close to a million dollars in our quest to reduce joblessness.
Merri and I are writers and self publishers. We have earned as much $20,000 for a single day’s work… and have earned consistently year in and year out… while we do what we love… because of a few secrets.
Fateful may also apply to your case because I want to share these secrets with you so you can make six and even seven figure income each year in a matter that suits you.
There is more good news than the money. The secrets we share make working fun. You are your own boss. You gain respect so your ideas are listened to.
Merri and I invite you to share a the writer’s camp we’ll conduct in 2012. This will be a retreat for a select few that can help you create you own publications for profit.
Believe me we will be relentless about this fact.
In a moment I’ll explain why this retreat which we’ll conduct in the seclusion of our North Carolina farm… needs to be started early. We’ll meet in July… but work will begin on your publication right away.
Our secret “little system” creates a crack in the creative process…so you’ll not have just one idea for a business but many. You may be flooded with ideas! In fact a big part of the workshop narrows you down to deciding which to do first.
Merri and I are living proof. We can’t open the darn paper without getting a new idea.
Remember I have a bit of a hang-up about work so I am like a kid in a candy shop and act on these ideas.
First, let me repeat…Start small!
The camp by the way is called “Self Fulfilled – Self Publishing – In Person”. I am thinking of renaming it “Start Small but Earn Millions”.
Writers who earn the most are writers, like Merri and myself, who also publish. We always make an annual six figure income but many years we net seven figures…over a million dollars. That’s because we figured out that the lion’s share of income earned from writing goes to the publisher. The publishing part of writing can be outrageously profitable.
One case study we’ll look at in the course reviews the book. “Who Moved My Cheese.” It’s so small! I love it! The publisher had to push just to make it look like a book, yet 17 million copies in the first two years of release. No one is laughing. If the normal price is $19.95 a book, that’s $339,155 million in sales. If the author received a normal 12% royalty he made a cool $40,698,000 (much much more as it has continued to sell for all these years).
Pretty good, huh?
The $40 million plus will pay for quite a few groceries. Almost anyone would love to have this much income until they realize that this leaves the publisher with the other $300 million to spread around.
The neat thing about being a small, self publisher is that virtually all this money (the other 88%) is yours! (Sometimes the 12% too.) In other words, it could be all yours.
Merri and I began publishing with no money and little background. We started small! As already mentioned, I was bust and had no background in copywriting. I did not finish college.
Before we share the exact schedule of this exciting workshop, let me outline a few of the benefits that self publishing have brought to Merri and me.
If you accept our invitation, we will hammer, even bombard you with the absolute, vital importance of starting small. We live in the era of epublishing that makes small “big”. This plays perfectly into the hands of small businesses and copywriters as we just happened to have a perfect advantage right now in the marketplace.
Let’s begin to understand this with that old rule… follow the money. Our self publishing business has brought us millions. We own four houses, a farmhouse, six cabins and over 1,000 acres of land. Plus more money than we can spend, in the bank… safe, secure bonds and shares… no mortgages… no credit card bills and zero debt!
Now let’s get to the important stuff. Our life is less stressed (not stress free – every business has stress) but Self Publishing can be a low stress business… no commuting…choose your own hours… immersed in your own passions with like minded souls. How refreshing!
You can have fun every day doing what you love as you accomplish goals that are important… to you… and are a service to your community.
Merri and I, for example, love helping people get jobs. So we used self publishing to create a foundation (Land of the Sun Foundation) to help the indigenous learn how to get work. The foundation has donated nearly a million dollars in Ecuador to create jobs.
What do you love? Why not make the kinds of money I’ve just mentioned publishing your passion and do something good for the world at the same time?
Your passion and self publishing create…magic, wealth, happiness.
Three other things you gain.
#1: Respect. If you are not a recluse like Merri and me, you’ll find yourself the center of attention at social events and with your friends and in business because publishing is highly respected.
#2: Power. Everyone wants publishers to distribute good information about them. And everyone fears publishers a bit. The pen is mightier than the sword!
#3: Protection. Writers are protected by the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. You do not need a license to publish. There is no government watchdog nor do you have bureaucratic red tape involved in publishing. Publishers enjoy almost more freedom than any other occupation because of the Freedom of the Press. This is so powerful because the first amendment is actually a part of the Bill of Rights. Just in case you missed this in school (as most students did including me) here are the exact words of this amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
You become the press and you are set free. You cannot get more protection than that.
Shall we get back to the money and lifestyle? What can self publishing do financially for you?
Merri and I love nature so here’s our 252 acre farm in the High Country. This is an autumnal shot from the front yard of the North Carolina Dream House we built…with cash from our self published writing.
This is only where we live in the summer. The Blue Ridge is a slight misnomer for a large part of the year. Correctly named in the winter, these mountains would be called “White Ridge”. The white comes from snow which begins with S as does South which is where we head around November…to Ecuador .
While it’s freezing in the North Carolina mountains, we worry about sunburn, sometimes at our Ecuador hotel.
This hotel, by the way, is one of the most satisfying parts of our self publishing business. We bought it from bankruptcy because a dozen wonderful people (with babies and kids and worries about education, medical bills and yes groceries) were about to lose their jobs.
Mostly right now… due to a elderly mom and many wonderful new grand kids we spend winters at our in Florida and visiting families in Oregon and England.
What’s the point? Self publishing has easily fulfilled all of our material needs. More importantly it has thrown us together with fantastically interesting people from all walks of life.
You can enjoy this lifestyle as well. Married, single, rich, poor, in good and bad health, educated and not, travelers and those who want to just stay at home. This is who self publishing works for…those who want a gradual part time improvement in life and those who want to make big enhancements now.
This workshop appeals to anyone who would like to write or publish or both. We will look at how published products can include compilations, catalogues, CDS, interviews. Plus we’ll look at how to develop treks, tours, visits, products and services.
For example, you’ll see below how one delegate who attended the workshop used her publication to sell real estate.
This course is for individuals and couples. We include those who want their own publishing system together as a family business.
Self employed, retired, professionals and those who are employed who want to add extra income or who want to change their life entirely will benefit. Previous course delegates have included investors, chiropractors, doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, other professionals and those who already own their own business and of course retirees.
This workshop is not theory. Merri and I share our real time experiences. We start at the beginning 35 years ago but mainly look at how we earn hundreds of thousands and even millions a year in our exciting lifestyle…right now.
Let’s get our noses to the grindstone. The workshop provides a Path called the seven Ps. They provide a simple, small and easy path for starting your own publishing business.
The workshop has one focused, refined and relentless goal. To prepare you to start your first publication the day after the workshop ends!
May I add that this workshop has done a pretty good job already? Here are a few examples of small self publishing businesses that started after attending this workshop.
From Sandra, a restaurant owner:
“Dear Gary and Merri, Yes I did it! Without you and your wonderful writing class I would not have been able to see my potential!! I THANK YOU BOTH! You told me to write about what I know and I did. Thank you for all the encouragement. Starting today, we are taking orders and I wanted you to be the first to know! So here goes…..I have some exciting news to share! I have just written my first book and very much appreciate your help. This book would make a great gift for any bride-to-be or even the parents of the bride (especially if they’re paying the bill)! Please check it out. I genuinely appreciate you helping me spread the word! Thank you!! Sandra”
From Jerusha, an anthropologist:
“Hello Gary and Merri. I am the first in the class to publish! I published a calendar on www.lulu.com!
From Todd, a wedding photographer:
“Thanks, Gary and Merri name recognition is beginning. Here is my new photoletter that your program helped me develop. I’m getting more clear about my own marketing now, so I may be able to better advantage of it. I am planning now to send out an email once a week showcasing new photos and creating awareness for my products and services. By mid July, I will place my first greeting card order (with a printing company Merri recommended in Cotacachi). So, I will soon have an inexpensive product to offer along with the more expensive prints that I sell. So far, I’ve got 60 opt-on subscribers to my email list, and I am telling everyone I know about it, so it’s starting to grow nicely. My first goal is to have 1000 readers. I’ll see how quickly I can accomplish it. Take care, Todd”
From Micky, a real estate broker:
“I want to say thank you for the inspiration and encouragement that I received through your publishing program. I recently published a 28 page booklet” Naples is Priceless “. This FREE booklet is being distributed through the Chamber of Commerce, banks, hotels, etc. With over 25 years as a Realtor I can now let potential real estate buyers gain knowledge and inside tidbits about this beautiful area. Again, thank you for helping me develop my potential. Micky”
This writer’s camp refines both Merri’s and my 40 years of experience into its most essential points. All of us will have to work intensely to cram everything into three days. We have six months to prepare you because we want you to be ready for this intensive program.
This workshop is being conducted by Merri and me. We will be hosting the event at our North Carolina farm where we have built a seminar hall on Little Horse Creek. We’ll personally work with each delegate to assure that all who attend can create their own publication.
On Friday, July 20, 2012 at 9 a.m. sharp, get to work.
What will you write? Some of you know what you want to do…that’s great. We’ll work on that. Some of you just feel that you can succeed in this field…we’ll hone that and work on that. We’ll create our own niches.
Your product? Your goals? This is why we are inviting you to enroll in the camp now. This is a six month program and we’ll help you create your own product now that we can work on at the camp.
Here is where product development gets interesting. You product will be safe.
Our camp uses three highly successful strategies… #1: personal attention from Merri and me for six months… #2: peer review and #3: anonymity. Reasons for the personal attention is obvious. The peer review is a proven way to get extra insights into your publication. Look at the acknowledgements of any successful writer. They thank many people who helped make their book correct. The anonymity is our unique touch… so no one needs to be worried. I could say more but just believe me this makes all the difference. This is a unique part of our system that has evolved from decades of helping others write and publish products.!
In the afternoon, we’ll dive into the 7 Ps of self publishing. Passion, Problem, Person, profitably priced Product, pathways to Prospects, Promise and Presentation.
Then we get down to brass tacks by placing the ideas you have fractured under the first magnifying glasses of Passion, Problem and Person. This is the beginning of your first perfect product so you can become your own perfect client.
I’ll talk about how your passions, your current knowledge bring you to your own niche create the stories. We’ll look at the all powerful “Golden Rule of Simplicity…Your Passions Represent Markets”.
Merri and I will both show you how to follow your passion to the market and use your passion to find “Prospecting Pathways” and “Presentation Templates” that are the drivers of your business.
Merri’s publishing skills and history, by the way, far exceed mine. She began her own import business selling products form Italy , Germany and Mexico through her own advertisements she wrote in the New Yorker, Sunday NY Times, Smithsonian, House & Garden, House Beautiful, and other magazines. Then she formed an ad agency and edited and published hundreds of books, brought a bankrupt magazine to award winning status as executive editor to Gulf Shore Life (which later sold to the Robb Reports for $23 million dollars), has edited over 1400 writers and was even offered the top editor (the only female) at the National Enquirer working directly with Generoso Pope (which she politely turned down). She lectured at Magazine Conferences throughout the South to help others bring their own publishing ventures to awarding winning and financial success.
We’ll then return to and chip away at your fractured writing and publishing ideas to refine the most valuable asset you have in your business armory….your imagination.
Finally around 5 pm, we’ll stop working as one large group. However, that is not the end of the educational, evolutionary process that will by now be whirling away. You’ll have enough momentum and information to refine your publication. That’s what you’ll be assigned to do.
We won’t want you to work too late though. We still have a lot to do on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday, I already know what will happen. You’ll all be sitting around with others buzzing over your ideas. I’ll have to force you back to group work at 9 a.m. because you’ll have such a head of steam you won’t want to stop talking. However, I hope that you have followed Merri’s and my example and had a good night’s sleep. Experience suggests that some of you in your excitement, will have worked through the night. You might not get to sleep now because today we’re going to accomplish three days work in a day!
We’ll start with a review of your assignments. No red marks or stars by the way… just feedback and a gentle coaxing toward the ways to create winning writing and self publishing ventures.
Then we’ll get into how to turn your thoughts/desires/energies into reality with:
#1: Stories with authenticity, meaning and roots.
#2: Stories true to the heart.
#3: Stories with conflict.
#4: Stories with passion.
The “why” of these four qualities is fascinating and so impossibly important, yet simple, that knowing it is worth the entire investment you make in the workshop. Here it is quick, down and dirty… knowledge worth millions.
There are three main demographic subgroups in the Western World. One is dying out. One controls everything but the third is rapidly rising… growing so fast that it can take down even a big organization like Starbucks (which it did in England) if ignored. Yet this third group (whom you will write and publish for) is at least partially ignored by every large corporation in the world. They all make the same cheesy error and this huge mistake creates fracturing opportunities for you… which will be the tiny, but immensely profitable small publisher.
We go on to our next Story Review about small niches that Merri and I have fractured. How we beat a publisher that’s 1,500 times larger in this niche.
We’ll break for lunch (same as Thursday but your new assignment will either refine your product or start another in light of new knowledge you have gained). Then at 2 pm it’s back to work:
In the afternoon, Merri and I look at how to match your passion to the National Psyche by studying the NY Times & USA Today best seller lists. We’ll see how new indie epublishers are creating top selling books and provide magical clues that lead to successful products, stories and marketing.
We’ll work on epublishing…how it is virtually free of expense to start/continue/succeed. Only things necessary: inspiration, desire, hard work and follow through…actual cost? Zero.
Then we’ll review how to use Twitter to develop viral marketing and… what’s next!
Getting your reports, books or simply ideas on the epublishing parade…that’s through Kindle, Book Nook, etc.
The excitement that builds by this time of the camp often interferes with the dream process. Ideas for reports, publishing ideas, businesses, stories, new lifestyles and bigger profits come rushing forth even though you are trying for sheep.
Regardless, on Sunday July 22, – as before, we’ll start at 9 a.m. sharp and remain intensely focused until noon.
Before Merri and I wrap up the entire process, we’ll outline our how we’ll continue to assist you for the rest of the year.
Wouldn’t this be fateful that this 40 year thread from Hong Kong, and my horror over losing my job in the 1970s recession, creates a whole new income source for you now?
Let’s end this with a summary:
Merri and I will begin to help you develop your publishing, writing idea the minute you enroll. Our goal is to help you create your own product so you can fine tune it in July. The workshop will help you come up with new ideas… but we want you to start one now. Merri and I will be glad to help you with it.
Okay, how about your cash investment? The cost of the workshop.
As I said earlier, Merri and I have been self publishing for 40 years and we make millions. This invitation provides access to information we share with only a very limited group.
The cost of the camp is $799 or $999 for a couple. Travel, room fees, and meals are your responsibility. We have a limited number of rooms and will also offer a meal package at the farm.
Registration has to be limited due to the personal attention we provide. We expect to be full.
Here is how to register immediately.
Click here:
We’ll send you an email giving you details, the preparatory material for the camp, travel, etc.
We’ll set up our line of communications as well as deliver our online Self Publishing course.
We’ll send you what you need to get started. We’re going to be learning from the first minute, and we want you to be ready.
Get started and work with us and the online course until July.
Thursday July 19th, 2012. Show up for the introductory evening session.
Please if you want to participate, reserve your place right now! Simply click here to register:
Best regards,
Gary
P.S. This is a chance to experience the dream life of a writer and self publisher.
We are going to work hard the entire time from now until the camp but the effects of this retreat won’t end on that Sunday. They’ll just begin.
One of the finest benefits you gain will be new like-minded friends. Our previous workshop delegates have stuck together…formed support groups and helped each other develop, grow and profit. This is called an “old boys network” in some places. Every major university and educational system has one…this invisible power because “who you know”, not just “what you know” works. We’ll encourage this so your alumni group can enhance your efforts whenever required.
Register today!
June 22-23-24 2012
July 20-21-22 FILLED
September 1-2-3 2012
Single $799
Couple $999
May I share three final examples of how big, your little self publishing business can become from our workshop?
A long time friend, who had just retired from a 30 year career in the oil industry joined our program. His passion was to learn more about health and looking at the deep, more spiritual aspects of life since he had ended a financially successful career. He has gone on to publishing the leading healthy living magazine where he lives.
Not only does he publish 20,000 copies of a 48-64 page magazine on healthy living every month, he has been able to meet and work with leading health and spiritual leaders like Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dwyer and even the Dali Llama. What a thrill.
Michelle Toole, an at home mother, made a fateful decision… to attend our self publishing course.
Michelle was disabled when she took the “Self Fulfilled – How to be a Self Publisher” camp.
She took what she learned from our publishing courses and created her own successful global micro website.
Michelle wrote: “I have some great news, my web site http://healthy-holistic-living.com is now getting on average 2,000 visitors a day! Yup my little one man show web site now gets close to 60,000 visitors each month! The power of the internet is amazing as well as the opportunities. We have said it before but it deserves saying again the internet is truly the great equalizer.
“My web site is at a point now that it is growing without much effort and produces a nice passive income allowing me to continue working on my second site http://home-remedies-and-natural-cures.com and to get my third site up and running. I am also working on various joint ventures with other web sites focusing on helping others start their own web business. I am doing monthly webinars helping disabled individuals start their own business on the Internet and will be starting a coaching club in the new year. The opportunities are only limited by one’s imagination.
“Again I can not thank you and Merri enough, I look forward to many great adventures and new experiences in the coming years!”
Another successful self publisher who attended our workshop wrote :
“MY HEAD IS STILL SPINNING from all of the valuable input I received. Out in the boonies, 2 + hours from the airport in Charlotte , North Carolina it was not your typical setting for a business seminar.
“It was presented by a fascinating guy with an interesting career history. Gary Scott and his wife, Merri, split their time between their idyllic farm in North Carolina and their property in the mountains of Ecuador . I first heard about Gary through my interest in Ecuador .
“By his own admission, Gary is often ‘a bit ahead of the curve’ which is part of what makes his material interesting. You sense the authenticity of what he is saying but it has not caught on in the mainstream media or pop-culture.
“The input is that is already affecting my life was not just from the instructor, but from other participants. The small group, less than twenty, seemed to be intimately bonded as soon as the seminar started. People from all walks of life and all parts of the country gained insights from the information that was geared to create a ‘life of your choosing more so than just a successful business. A very simple but powerful concept. Why do we want the money in the first place?
“The lifestyle aspect of the course was taught by example. We, as a group, were temporarily inserted directly into the lifestyle led by Gary and Merri. No better way to learn than by doing.
“The course content suited my needs very nicely. It addressed issues pertinent to FilmTrips and my marketing company, MJ Media. New life has been injected into several FilmTrips projects that had been languishing on a back burner for quite some time. Gary talks about being open to ‘connect the dots’ and take advantage of distortions or discrepancies between economies and countries. I am in a very good position to do that. Telephone and Internet technology has certainly arrived to help make it happen. I will keep you posted!”
In the workshop we learn how to use the “Business Evolutionary Process.” Start with a small idea. Let the idea build enthusiasm. Let the enthusiasm lead you to an education. Let the education create action. The action will bring, deeper ideas…so you can start small and grow.
This is what so many others who have accepted Merri’s and my invitation have done and are doing now….as are we. A never ending process for all.
We hope you will join this growth process with us. If you do, this letter…the invitation and the workshop will be fateful and fun. Register today!
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