The journey · Boots on the ground
Twelve years, six continents, almost 1,000 centers walked
Sumbea isn't theory. Every recommendation we make comes from years of living inside these places — tents, ecovillages, retreat centers, houseboats, monasteries, farms, vans. Here's the volume, roughly. Not including life as a digital nomad... which of itself is triple the volume of properties and lands visited.
- Chapter 01
Hawaii — Yogananda macadamia farm
Four months in a tent on a retreat center in the Yogananda lineage. Designed our first Balinese-style joglo, ran fundraising with early investors, worked the farm, meditated daily, ate clean, detoxed.
- Chapter 02
Ananda Village, California
Three weeks embedded with the IT team — meditating and studying how a mature spiritual village actually runs its infrastructure.
- Chapter 03
TEDx — California
Spoke on 'Elevating Connection: Humans, Nature, and Technology.'
- Chapter 04
Findhorn Ecovillage, Scotland
Studied the most successful intentional ecovillage on the planet. Met a community-loving partner and moved onward together.
- Chapter 05
Netherlands — houseboats, De Hobbitstee, De Uelenspiegel
Four months living inside De Uelenspiegel with just the owner and one other resident. Cooking, supporting retreats, cleaning toilets, wiring up the tech backbone.
- Chapter 06
California — Holistic Centers Network
Built the online marketing for a 250+ holistic-center executive summit navigating covid. Ran it again the following year.
- Chapter 07
Back to De Uilenspiegel
Returned to seed real community. Weekly sharing circles held by our founder, standards established, foundations laid to move from single-family land into shared stewardship.
- Chapter 08
Mexico & nearby islands
Another summit for holistic center developers, plus tours through ecovillage projects across Mexico and the surrounding islands.
- Chapter 09
Netherlands — full sweep
Returned and visited every significant community project in the country.
- Chapter 10
Ibiza
Community projects, Airbnb operations, ecovillages, and farms — the full spectrum of the island's alternative living scene.
- Chapter 11
California, again
Cross-state tour of new land and community projects.
- Chapter 12
Damanhur, Northern Italy
Studied high-tech spirituality and dispersed pod-style living woven into a normal village fabric.
- Chapter 13
Van life — Oregon · Colorado · Washington
Months on the road, hundreds of houses and community projects walked, until an extraordinary property surfaced in the most remote region of Colorado.
- Chapter 14
Arizona → Hawaii (3 islands)
More ecovillage stays, consulting, sharing circles, and community-dynamics analysis across three Hawaiian islands.
- Chapter 15
Netherlands & Germany
More time inside holistic living environments across Northern Europe.
- Chapter 16
Scotland · South Africa
Back to Scotland for more community visits, then a wide sweep of projects across South Africa.
- Chapter 17
Bali — the deep dive
500+ retreat centers visited. 250+ homes walked. Analyzed air quality, EMF hygiene, mold, parasites, infectious disease. Extended trips through Thailand, Malaysia, and neighboring Indonesian islands.
- Chapter 18
Land, rentals & property management — Bali
Built visions and structures with locals, ran rental properties, consulted for property management orgs — a deep study of life inside one of the most toxic environments on earth.
- Chapter 19
Portugal — present day
Left Bali over air quality. Now living in Portugal, consulting on some of the most spiritually advanced projects on the planet — the country hosting the largest volume of holistic centers in Europe.
Every place taught us something the last one couldn't. That's the library we bring to your land.
The process
How we work with a project — from first visit to next evolution.
A slow, honest arc. We only go deeper when the land, the owner, and the work all say yes.
- Phase 01
We visit the property
Boots on the land. We walk the site, meet the people, feel the rhythm of the place — no slide decks, no assumptions. Nothing about a piece of land can be understood from a distance.
- Phase 02
Three nights on the land
We stay for three nights and step into the project with the owner — where the friction lives, what's been avoided, what the land is quietly asking for. If the owner can't hold the process, we end the contract here with respect. If there's openness to real change, we continue.
- Phase 03
Green Apple Certification analysis
A detailed diagnostic of the property's health across every dimension — community, environment, and sustainability through revenue streams. A single honest picture of where the project actually stands.
- Phase 04
Proposal & direction
We produce a proposal outlining the direction we believe the project should take next — grounded in what the land, the people, and the numbers are telling us.
- Phase 05
All else to the side
From here, everything else moves aside. The priority is singular: the project, and how to produce its next stage of evolution.
About us · A note from the founder
"Don't try this at home…" 😉— the motto of my life
I had 9 near-death experiences looking for the best places on earth to live.
I experimented in all the places you don't want to live — and learned the best parts of the places you do. Collapsing to the floor of ambulances in countries around the world, I went looking for what environments actually produce the healthiest, most beautiful, most joyful human lives. It's really true. All nine of them.
Its true, health begins inside of us. But, I'm sure, most of us prefer to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat clean food even though we know that its not the root of our problems. We love to enjoy community, we love to celebrate, and we love incredibly insanely beautiful scenery.
Out of my journey came this — a culmination of the most magical places in the world, stitched together into one quiet invitation. A manifestation of the best places on the planet to live and visit, designed so our children can care for them for generations to come.
Please join us. Message us with any questions. We're welcoming every interested participant — because it's going to take a whole planet to rebuild the magnificent, magical home we all share.
Next up — where do you want to build?