My First Month @ CloudForests
A month seems like a fairly substantial amount of time from afar, however I’ve learned over the last four weeks that it really is nothing. However, what’s important is not the amount of time I’ve been at Cloudforests, it’s the quality of time I’ve had.
What do I mean by quality of time? Put simply, I’ve gained so much in the last month from simply being a part of the Cloudforests story. From the people I’ve met, the mistakes I’ve made (and the lessons I’ve learned from those mistakes), the skills I’ve picked up and just generally the experiences I’ve had working for a company with such a strongly defined and important mission.
Now, for a more detailed and pragmatic description of the past month. It’s been a busy few weeks and unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to journal/take note of everything I have done. However, the joy of the work I’m doing is, I can actually see and track the fruits of my labour, whether it be one of the numerous blogs written or the gift cards, which I witness go from the idea stage, all the way to full production. So, here is a quick overview of the last 4 weeks, do forgive me If I have missed anything…
Week 1:
If you want a detailed breakdown of my first week, you can read the blog I wrote about it here.
To give a brief overview of the week. I started the week being onboarded, this involved setting up my computer, all my accounts, getting me registered etc. This was followed by some minor content creation to familiarise myself with the set up.
It was during this first week that I had my first meeting, which was an incredible thrill, especially as the meeting was regarding Project Redwood. This was the name for the partnership between ourselves and Shelbourne FC (more on this later).
I also had my first taste of planning for our incredible Super Twosday Planting Day. This included talking to our CoolPartners, our Hotel Partner (Armada Hotel) & reporting it all back to Bernard.
Finally, in my first week, we were in the process of getting our beautiful Gift Cards printed by the brilliant CSM Print. We also got started on the design of custom Gift Cards for two of our CoolPartners.
Week 2:
The great thing about working on something you're passionate about is, coming into the office on a Monday, is that small bit easier, if not a little exciting. So, coming in on my second Monday at Cloudforests, I was raring to go.
Week two was very much a continuation of the work we had started the week before. We continued working hard on our collaboration with Shebourne, as we aimed to launch the next week. Along with this, I continued to work on designing and printing some lovely custom Gift Cards for two of our CoolPartners, which were then sent out at the end of the week.
I also continued working on blogs on numerous topics, from the Miyawaki Method, to writing My First Week at Cloudforests blog.
We finished the week on Friday, with a very inspiring & productive meeting, with a potential future Community Partner. It was an exciting way to finish another brilliant week at Cloudforests. This was also another example of the amazing people I have met.
Week 3:
This was undoubtedly my favourite week so far. We really knuckled down and focused on our Project Redwood Collabaration with Shelbourne which we launched on the Thursday. This involved announcing the ‘Redwood Forest’, which will be the world's first forest dedicated to a football club. It also involved Shelbourne becoming our CoolPartner number 20, which is great for the community. We also announced our custom Gift Cards for Shelbourne, which allows fans to gift a tree to fellow supporters. This launch was hard, but incredibly rewarding, work and it really revealed the potential of Cloudforests. It also revealed Shelbournes desire to become Ireland’s most sustainable sports club through real climate action. If you want to learn more about the RedWood & our collaboration with Shels, simply follow the link below:
Although the Shelbourne launch was hectic, we had plenty of other things to work on. This included getting an idea from the community on who will be attending our Planting Day next year, getting a few gift tree orders out in the post and most importantly, working on the dreaded task of invoicing and accounting (The stuff I went to college for).
Week 4:
I said this in my First Week post, but it is truly surprising how fast time goes when you’re working towards something you’re passionate about and something worthwhile. So when I had reached week 4 at Cloudforests, I took a breath and decided to begin to document the work and really appreciate the work we are doing her. This is hopefully something I will continue this week and into next year.
Week 4 was another busy week between announcing a brand new CoolPartner (CoolPartner 21 : PowerRight), and getting everything ready for our Gift Card Launch for Shelbourne.
As well as those two tasks, there were our own Gift Cards to be posted, blogs to be written, and more invoicing to be done.
…
So, I hope in this blog, I have really got across the point that the Cloudforest mission isn’t just an ideological aspiration, it is implicit in all of our actions and tasks. It is the beating heart of the company and something which excites me every day as I come into the office and open my computer. We are a real, climate action company, who work towards Making Planet Earth Cool, in everything we do.
It’s been a great first month, here's to plenty more to come!
