Month: March 2009

friendship, social change, social media

My Year of Hopefulness – The Power of Passion

Christa Avampato

By nature, I am a passionate person. I get excited about charitable causes and I enjoy sharing my excitement about them. I often write about them on this blog and on my Examiner.com column. On occasion, I wonder if anyone’s listening or if anyone reading shares my interest and excitement. I guess that insecurity is normal for writers though I’ve never been able to be comfortable with it, particularly when I’m writing about something that I care about deeply.

Today, I received an email from a friend of mine that eased my sense of insecurity and re-energized me. Recently, I put together a post about a cause that I’d like to support. I’m not sure how to support the cause as it’s not one that is talked about frequently, at least not in the circles I travel in. My passion for the idea and my desire to make a difference in this area prompted me to put the idea out there into the world, hoping that I’d attract people to it who are as interested in it as I am. For a while, the airwaves have been silent but today, all of that changed with my friend’s email.

As it turns out, he and a friend of his are also very interested in this cause. They’ve been in the process of creating some content to support the cause and have been searching for someone to do the business framing around the idea. Perfect! I’ve got the business framing in mind and have been searching for content.

In addition to finding out about this shared interest with my friend, I also learned a critical lesson about social media. It gives us a way to howl and find our pack. It gives us a way to connect and explore new interests in ways that are far-reaching and previously impossible. It gives us a way to unite, collaborate, and innovate in extraordinary, immediate ways.

business, Examiner, marketing

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: Lessons in branding from Payless Shoes, Dunkin’ Donuts, and HP

Christa Avampato

As I was walking through the city with my sister, Weez, and niece, Lorelei, yesterday, we noticed something interesting about a few brands widely advertised in New York. While many have recently experienced a fall from grace, some staged their brand image’s turnaround just-in-time. Three examples floated to the top that are interesting case studies.

To read the full article, visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m3d8-What-brand-turnarounds-can-teach-us

career, economy, job

My Year of Hopefulness – My Best Investment

Christa Avampato

A lot of my friends and colleagues are talking about getting into the world of trading stocks for the first time in their lives. While they’ve invested in mutual funds, 401Ks, and IRAs, most of them have never actively traded stocks through a broker or services like e-trade or Sharebuilder. With the bargain basement prices on Wall Street, some of them are considering taking the plunge, at least in a small way. Heck, as of Friday, you could buy a share of GE for $7. That’s less than the cost of a pizza! Why not give it a shot and see how it goes?

I completely understand where they’re coming from. And their enthusiasm for this idea has had me thinking about doing the same thing over the last few days. I am in an extremely fortunate position during this recession, and I am grateful for it every day. So why not dip one toe in the turbulent waters of the stock market?

As I was cleaning my apartment this afternoon, I was having a monetary conversation with myself – this is what happens when you are the only source of both the income and expense in a household of 1. Should I pay off my student loans? (Much to my dismay I could not deduct a single penny of the interest I paid on them in 2008 from my taxes.) Should I save for a down payment on an apartment? (NYC real estate is going for historically low prices at the moment and unlikely to recover any time in the near-future thanks to the exodus of bankers and their salaries.) Should I just sock it away in cash for a to-be-determined investment? Should I consider the stock market? Should I continue to invest in my 401k since I no longer have a match by my employer? After a while I talk myself in circles during these conversations and I end up right back where I started, which is usually without an answer. And then, one bright, shining thought surfaced to the top so clearly that I surprised myself.

Yes, GE and other large blue chips are down to a point where I could actually afford to buy a block of shares. Real estate has always been at least a decent investment. However, the paradigm is shifting. While yes, we used to investment in big companies because of their stalwart nature, we are seeing them whither like never before. We are beginning to see the waste and excess that so many have taken as a given for decades. It is possible that there is a small business out there, a start-up, that would be a much better long-term bet in the new economy, and maybe that start-up is me. Let’s face it – that age-old assumption of compounding interest rates at 8% to 10% may no longer be valid and these stocks that are so far down may actually be not only down, but out.

What is critical is my freedom, and my freedom will always be my greatest asset. This means that my best investment is me, and that means reducing anything that reduces my ability to be flexible at every turn. End of monetary discussion with myself, once and for all.

The image above can be found at: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/314770566_1b1cb0f796_o.png

child, childhood, children, family, New York City

My Year of Hopefulness – Ball, Dog, and Oprah

Christa Avampato

I spent this weekend with my niece, Lorelei. She’s one year old and came to New York to visit me with my sister and brother-in-law. We’ve been playing in the park, at the Children’s Museum, FAO. She is running around, beginning to say words that actually sound like words, and tearing up everything in her path. She gives me hope.

It’s easy to look at the situation directly in front of us and feel like it might not be such a good idea to get out of bed. Spending time with children forces you to take the long view. Some day they will grow up, they will continue on their respective paths. Every day they are learning something new. They discover and wonder at every moment, and we discover along with them. Her best words at the moment are ball, dog, and Oprah. I’ve never had such fun say those words, or any words for that matter, as I have saying them with Lorelei.

I think whether or not you want to have kids of your own is irrelevant. I do think spending time with them in some way, whether they’re nieces and nephews, kids of friends, kids you coach, teach, or volunteer with, they will change your life by changing the way you view life and the world we live in. They really are the most optimistic people you can ever meet. And in time when so many people feel like they’re down and out, it helps to spend time with kids who feel that their best times are yet to come.

business, career, Examiner

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: Acumen Fund, Social Media, and Recruiting

Christa Avampato

Sasha Dichter, the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, used his blog, Squidoo, and Seth Godin’s blog to advertise the an open position and to collect applications.

To view the full article, please visit:
NY Business Strategies Examiner: Acumen Fund, Social Media, and Recruiting

business, nonprofit, philanthropy, social change, social entrepreneurship

My Year of Hopefulness – Acumen Fund, Social Media, and Recruiting

Christa Avampato

Acumen Fund is looking for a Business Development Manager. Rather than go the usual route of getting the word out about this position, the took an interesting approach both in the advertisement of the position and in the application. Sasha Dichter, the Director of Business Development at Acumen Fund, used his blog, Squidoo, and Seth Godin’s blog to advertise the position. 13,000 viewed the post on his blog alone. In addition to the usual resume and cover letter request, Sasha also requested that applicants create a Squidoo Len (webpage) and answer a series of questions in ~250 words each to get at the heart of what the applicants believe and how they express themselves.

There are so many business applications to this recruitment and application method, and I will discuss those in my Examiner.com column. For the purposes of this post, I wanted to explain why the incredible response to Sasha’s post gives me great hope for our future. Acumen Fund is dedicated to investing in projects that focus on providing critical services in the developing world. It’s a very intriguing hybrid model of nonprofit and venture capital. The position requires people who can put on a nonprofit and for-profit thinking cap; someone who can think both analytically and conceptually, and express themselves in engaging prose.

Not only is this degree of interest in a position at Acumen Fund a win for those who believe they can do well by doing good, it is also a great victory for storytellers and the skill of writing in general. Many people in the world of business think in bullet points on Powerpoint slides. They have forgotten how to create meaningful, compelling prose. The many people who applied for the Acumen Fund show that expressive writing is not dead at all — it is still alive and well, and garnering great interest among business people.

For people like me who are interested in having one foot in the for-profit and nonprofit world, who wants to analyze numbers and then build out the narrative that those numbers create, it is so exciting to know that there are many others out there with this same interest. My sincere thanks to Seth Godin and Acumen Fund for providing this example and instilling us all with hope!

The photo above can be found at http://blog.acumenfund.org/author/ddoshi/

business, career, Fast Company, health, media, New York Times, politics, women

My Year of Hopefulness – Women on the Rise

Christa Avampato

I read an amazing article this week in the New York Times about women who are finding the athlete side of their personality later in life. As recently as 30 years ago, women were discouraged from competitive sports, particularly from running. As a runner, that fact still stuns me and makes me grateful for the times when I was raised. For my mom and for millions of women like her, the road was not easy along any path, particularly when it comes to being fit and active. That is a recent phenomenon. One I am very grateful for.

The article left me thinking about what other areas of life have been off-limits to women that are now seeing the tide turn. Certainly in women being entrepreneurs and controlling their own careers. Great strides have been made in media – there are so many to name in that field. From Oprah to Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour, Arianna Huffington. And the list goes on. I am always proud of how many female business journalists have been featured as our media chronicles this latest economic downturn. I often think that women are running the reporting from Wall Street: Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett are terrific examples.

I am now reading a book entitled Another Day in the Frontal Lobe. It’s the story of Katrina Firlik, a young neurosurgeon. She was the first woman accepted into the neurosurgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Certainly in healthcare, and particularly in fields like neurosurgery, women like Dr. Firlik are paving the way.

Technology is seeing its fair share of women on the scene. Ning co-founder Gina Bianchini, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, and Charlene Li who authored the book Groundswell while at Forrester Research, immediately spring to mind. Having made great strides in this industry, women have a long road ahead. Fast Company recently ran a feature on some of the most influential women in tech. It’s a good read and I highly recommend it.

In politics we are lucky to have so many women taking the helm. I am very proud that Secretary of State Clinton heeded the calls during this difficult time that America’s reputation is facing around the world. I cannot imagine anyone better suited for the job. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shirley Franklin, and Janet Napolitano are other shining examples of the many that serve in all levels of government.

I consider fields like energy, transportation, and engineering and wonder how women will make their marks in those areas in the coming years. It will be exciting to watch and to take part in that development. With so many incredible female role models to learn from, women are poised for take-off.

The photo above was taken by Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times.

Examiner, social entrepreneurship

Whole Planet Foundation

Christa Avampato

Latest post on Examiner.com – featuring Whole Planet Foundation, run by Whole Foods, which gives microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world.

For full article, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m3d4-The-Whole-Planet-Foundation

hope, New York City, news, subway

My Year of Hopefulness – Let’s Get Wednesday

Christa Avampato

I boarded the subway an hour earlier than usual this morning for some early more meetings. I needed something to cheer about. Over the subway loud speaker, I heard “Let’s get Wednesday.” In New York, we’ll occasionally get a humorous subway conductor. They are few and far between and when I get one, I always appreciate their ability to fun up the a job that I am sure is not that much fun during rush hour on a Wednesday.

After entering my building, I hopped onto the elevator. We have these tiny TVs in our elevators that run a circuit of news and advertisements. As you can imagine, the news is not that uplifting these days, and certainly not something I need to be reminded of as I head to my desk. Today there was an ad on the screen with the simple statement “Go humans go.” It’s part of a new ad campaign by Quaker. I am beginning to notice a pattern here.

On Wednesday afternoons I teach a high school Junior Achievement class about Business Ethics for an hour. As I was crossing the street back to my office, the traffic cop asked us to wait for the light to change. “Let’s to live another day, folks. Your families need you at home tonight. They’ll be waiting for you and you don’t want to disappoint them by getting run over.”

Combined, these three signs today were signs of life for me. We are living in dark times, though even when it’s darkest, we have to do our best to find that little speck of light and do what we can to turn it into a bonfire. I stood a little taller today, walked a little quicker, and worked a little harder. It might sound silly to say that the subway conductor this morning set the tone for my day by making one simple, 3 word statement. And it’s truthful. Sometimes a little cheering is all it takes to keep our chin up. Coming up above ground and saying to myself, “Yes, let’s get Wednesday,” really did help me do just that.

The image above can be found at: http://startwithsubstance.com/images/facebook/img_main.jpg

corporate social responsibility, Ethics, high school, Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement – Ethics Class 2

Christa Avampato

I was considerably less nervous for my second week teaching Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at the High School for Finance and Economics. Maybe it’s because I knew the students (at least a little). Maybe it’s because I knew where the building was and which classroom was mine. Whatever the reason, I was able to manage my time better and improvise a bit more with a greater deal of success.

What I found most interesting is that the students are thinking about ethics all the time, they just don’t have the term for it. Some students who did not speak up at all and were disruptive to the class in the first session were more engaged in the discussion this second time. One in particular is showing a lot of promise. Last time he had no interest in ethics and this time he was leading the classroom in some very profound statements about the situations we were discussing.

In an effort to get students to see that the subject of ethics is all around them, I have asked each of them to bring an article that deals with an ethical dilemma to our next class. The article can be from any section of the paper, any magazine, or any website. We’ll talk through the articles and see how the students reason through ethical decision making. I’ll let you know how it goes!