A year when the world had other plans

At the end of 2019 I made the decision to reinvent myself all over again. I decided that Plázida would no longer be the first “liquid” coworking space (without a space of its own) for digital nomads in Madrid, and I would focus again on my true profession, branding consultancy, and on the creation of beautiful events, something I have always done “in addition to”. 

I merged grasp, Brands that make sense (my former consultancy) with Plázida and out of the best of both worlds, the new Plázida, the slow branding and beautiful experiences consultancy, was born.

A professional reinvention is not done every day. The occasion was worth a celebration. So I planned for a big kick-off party in April together with three other entrepreneurs whom I admire very much. Among them, my dear client, Inés Sagrario from ekonoke.

But the world had other plans. 

2020 has been one of those years that made history for the wrong reasons. Like 2001, with the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, or 2008, with the financial crisis from which we have still not recovered. 

It will be difficult to forget that fateful March that confined us to our homes. The news that came to us from abroad. The daily number of deaths in nursing homes and collapsed ICUs. In often inhumane conditions. How in the worst moments of the pandemic, Madrid’s Ice Palace was set up as a morgue and a huge field hospital was opened in IFEMA, as if we were in wartime. It has been the year in which the pandemic has taken (and still takes) the front pages of all the media every day. 

We have normalised a situation that we are experiencing as provisional, especially since the announcement of the vaccines. But it is still terrifying. Every day and only in Spain, there are as many deaths from COVID as if a plane had crashed and all its passengers had died.

Every day. How can this be normalised?

In the country of the party, the bars, the after-dinner conversation, the fun, the crowded beaches, the sun, the walks, the drinks, the macro-concerts, the friends, the long and extended family, the “cañas de después”… it seemed as if the virus wanted to destroy everything that we like and that defines us in one fell swoop. Our very identity as a people. All that attracts a whopping 80 million tourists a year. We have even started to have dinner at 8 in the evening as they do in the Nordic countries.

And particularly, how have I lived this tragic year?

I am almost ashamed to say that for me 2020 has been a good year. With physical and emotional health, which is the most important thing. With a harmonious coexistence with my partner and my dogs in our small flat. With views of trees and the sky and the Madrid mountains from the rooftop clothesline.

In the first moments of confusion, I was lucky enough to take the collective mentoring course “Get shit done” with Natasha Mason, co-founder of a successful international group of women entrepreneurs in Madrid. Thanks, Natasha 😊! 

I managed to relaunch Plázida with less noise than expected but with a lot of pride. I love my new website and my renewed identity. Thank you, Iván 😊!.  

And then came the first branding projects and with them the realization of how much I enjoy my profession. I love it because it’s always an intellectual, creative, and handcraft challenge.

To be visible again after the absence was not easy, but I am succeeding.

While my physical world became smaller and smaller until it was reduced to my little flat, it has been the year of “everything by zoom”: work, hobbies, learning, events, community, friends…

And it has also been the year of the co-creation with Alberto Garcia of Newdreamers, the movement and community of dreamers, to which we have devoted a lot of commitment and love. Thank you, Alberto Garcia 🙂

Since the launch of the first event in May, “The world we all want to live in“, every month we have made a video gathering with an inspiring person to explore a great open and enabling question. The R.O.L. (return-on-love) has been gigantic and the intention is to continue the project in 2021, to make the community grow, and to continue pushing so that the world in which we all want to live is born with all its infinite possibilities of entrepreneurship and branding.

This year has also been one of great discoveries of people and inspiring projects. Such as The Great Wave, the macro event of The House of Beautiful Business; the Complexity University courses that aim to teach how to tackle 10 complex challenges in 10 years; the book “Human Kind” by Rutger Bregman that offers a new understanding of human nature; the activist author Charles Eisenstein and his course on Political Hope or his book “The most beautiful world our hearts know is possible”; “The Good Ancestor: how to think long-term in a short term world” by Roman Krznaric or “Privacy is Power” by Carissa Véliz.

As you get older, the perception of time speeds up. The months and years go by so quickly that it’s hard to remember what happened when. Has it really been 7 years since that photo the Facebook algorithm showed us? 

But this year has taught us that we can also (or perhaps should) live more slowly, that it gives us time to think about whether it makes sense where we invest our time, money and attention. No one will ever be able to convince us that those good things we saw when the world stopped in its tracks did not actually happen. For example, we can stop climate change if we drastically change our lifestyle, or that it’s possible to put aside our own interests and focus on the common good.  

Shall we put this into practice in 2021?