Being part of GLOCAL has helped me to rethink what I am doing with the social business I started in January 2019. So far, Ciclo has survived three years of pandemic, moving across continents and eight different countries, nine months of pregnancy, eight months of a new-born baby, and a full-time master’s program. Ciclo is resilient, flexible, adaptable, and courageous. I am proud of its design, of its model, and what I have achieved thanks to its existence. Ciclo has given me the job stability to be able to travel, explore, and keep on searching for what I am looking for. Ciclo is evolving, as it walks — or flies — around with me and my team.
The beginnings
Ciclo came alive one day walking down the beach, when I had the realization that humans are part of a universal energetic flow. Like rain, we receive education, knowledge and opportunities that allow us to flow into a wider river of privileges: jobs, salaries, businesses, consumption. Eventually, rivers get to the sea, this vast mass of water, the satisfaction of the achievement, the abundance of the economic system in which we belong. However, even the ocean has limits, and eventually escapes to evaporate back to the clouds, starting the cycle again. How can we improve the use of our privileges for the common good?
Thanks to a group of young professionals that supported the idea from the beginning, and to the Spain Business School in its role as business partner and mentor, Ciclo envisioned becoming an agent of transformation for Latin American communities. Initiated in Costa Rica, the organization’s aim is to contribute to more equal, fair and fulfilling societies. We want to support nonprofits working for sustainable development to be more strategic, and to more efficiently communicate their work and ideals to the public. Therefore, Ciclo offers affordable consultancy on strategic planning, social marketing and communication for the third sector.
Spain Business School is Ciclo’s business partner and mentor.
Work in parallel
However, Ciclo was never meant to be a consultant or a marketing agency, solely. We wanted to create a new way of doing business, of creating value. We dreamed with artists and environmentalists to make a living doing what they love, without having to sell their energy for a salary in industries and jobs they disagree with. Therefore, we tried out projects that brought people together to live, and to reflect on alternative life-business-working-styles. Experimental was a one-year residency for artists to work together on thematic events relevant to new audiences, creating solutions for problems in specific communities. Íntima Cuarentena was an eight episode series documenting how people in the nonprofit sector and creative industries in Costa Rica survived the lockdown. TribuS was a nomadic experience through permaculture communities to experience and learn how to live in a regenerative way, beyond “sustainability.” VAN was an attempt to create a network of support for nonprofit directors and workers.
Working in strategy, marketing and communication with nonprofit organizations in different fields has been challenging and exciting. But bringing people together to share ideas and work together to make dreams come alive is the part that excites us the most!
The evolution
Thanks to GLOCAL, I have been able to refine my interests and passions. The course Political Ecology at the University of Barcelona, with professor Federico Demaria, was meaningful enough to remind me of the power there is in knowledge. Studying is not about collecting information; it’s about action and activation.
Currently, Ciclo is going through a thoughtful process of redefinition, to create a common space for people to reflect, experiment and activate alternative ways of living that recognize the privileges we have and the need to break down to be more equalitarian, fair and fulfilled.
