Felicia Ceballos-Marroquin is a systems thinker and entrepreneur, dedicated to building a sustainable future.
Inspired by the Natural Order
A permaculture approach combined with an ethos of inclusive prosperity.
Growing up, Felicia Ceballos-Marroquin cultivated a deep sense of respect and wonder for the natural world. Her desire to live in harmony with nature, led her to adopt a circular mindset that valued local community-driven solutions for living sustainably on an individual level.
While working as a Technical Operations Manager, she encountered the unhealthy culture and dysfunctional business processes that are the byproducts of short-sighted systems. Since she was immersed in Thinking in Systems: A Primer and Permaculture, she brought her sustainability paradigm to work and transformed the business by focusing on building people-centered systems that created long-term productivity and prosperity.
Wanting to make a larger impact, she started Spiffy Rebel, a vegan and plastic-free personal care product line. She shares her knowledge by teaching soapmaking classes, contributing to the WordPress open source community, and helping businesses operate sustainably.
Read Felicia’s Bio
MY SUSTAINABILITY PHILOSOPHY
Go Slow and Fix Things
As far as I’m concerned, the “Go Fast and Break Things” philosophy, that has defined companies like Facebook, is not a wise way to conduct business in our changing complex landscape, that was initially fueled by cheap fossil fuels and now relys on short term thinking to fuel dimishing growth with debt at and the expense of people.
As a gardener and systems designer, I continuously encountered the desireable outcomes that an alternate approach to increasing productivity produced. In a serendipitous twist, I came to find that this phenomenon is called Felicitas, a condition of divinely-inspired productivity. For me that means, following the patterns that life itself uses, wherein elements are integrated to be interdependent and evolve over time. Productivity is increased by removing the obstacles that block this natural process and by maximizing sustainable resources.
I draw inspiration by studying the science of complex adaptive systems, but I filter what I learn through a lens of intersectionality to ensure that the fruits of my labor do not originate from an malignant source or produce harmful byproducts. I believe that over time a healthy metaphorical orchard that is properly managed will continue to feed us all, in body, mind and spirit.