Month: August 2014

charity, community, New York City

Inspired: What I learned about hunger in New York City from Total cereal and a baby stroller

Christa Avampato

“Do you think you could help us get a few things to eat at that grocery store until our food stamps for the month come in?” An elderly man pushing a baby in a stroller whispered this question to me two blocks from my apartment. After so many years in New York, I’ve grown used to people asking for help on the streets. So used to it that I can now *almost* get out a “sorry” with a smile and be on my way without feeling nauseous. Almost.

But this man was different. I’m not sure if it was his phrasing, tone of voice, simple request, or the baby carriage that did it. I just couldn’t walk away from him without helping. I was carrying two boxes of Total cereal that I had just bought and I handed one to him. “Does this help?” I asked. “It sure does,” he said with a smile. His cracked gold tooth gleamed in the late morning sun.

He’s haunting me now, even though I did help him. A box of cereal wasn’t enough. I know that. What he really needs is a job, a source of income that eliminates his need to beg at all, gets him off of food stamps, and helps him contribute whatever talents he has to the world. That’s a dignity we all deserve. I don’t have that job for him so all I could do in that moment was hand him a box of cereal. It feels woefully inadequate to look into another person’s eyes, see their need, and realize we can’t meet it. It leaves a hole, a crack in my well-crafted New York City armor, and perhaps that is the crack where the light will enter. Thanks, Leonard Cohen. I’m beginning to hear your Anthem.

New York City, time

Inspired: Enjoy Your Rest This Summer

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means a waste of time.” ~ Sir John Lubbock, The Use of Life

I recently returned from vacation and this quote ran through my mind every day as I wondered if I was taking too much time away from my work. I got back to New York City refreshed, rejuvenated, and raring to go. Rest gave me confidence, courage, and perspective. Have you taken a break this summer? I whole-heartedly recommend it. It does a body, mind, and heart good.

action, adventure, career, choices, decision-making, determination, future, time, work

Inspired: Bet on yourself

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Sometimes the universe tests your commitment before it decides to back you. It’ll bet on you only after you bet on yourself.

I had just finished a call with my friend, Sheldon, about my decision to carve my own career path when an email popped into my inbox. The startup that offered me a job that I declined emailed me with a new offer that is exactly the role I asked for during the interview process. After I turned down the previous offer, I made the decision to build my own dreams rather build someone else’s. This offer tested my resolve. Without batting an eye, I thanked the startup and told them about my choice to double down on my own ideas and projects. The gut always knows and for the first time, I listened to it unequivocally.

Clarity about our own abilities and the value of our time radically simplifies our decision process. I know the road ahead of me will be rocky. There will be bumps, bangs, and bruises, and I will learn from every single one of them. I’ll be stronger, braver, and more capable for taking this path. I know that my future is safest in my own two hands. Yours is, too. Believe it. Your time is finite; your potential isn’t. Bet on you.

writer, writing

Inspired: Join Me for National Novel Writing Month

Christa Avampato
Join National Novel Writing Month in November
Join National Novel Writing Month in November

This November, I am taking up the challenge to write the first draft of my first novel. With the help of National Novel Writing Month, I’ll write 50,000 words in 30 days to tell a story that’s been brewing in my mind for almost 5 years. It’s not doing anyone any good in my head so better to have it on digital paper. If you plan to participate, please let me know so that we can encourage each other along the path. I’ll be blogging about my progress as well sharing insights from my writer brain as the process unfolds.

National Novel Writing Month is an online community that provides support and a platform to get and give support as writers barrel through the process of a first draft. Last year over 600,000 writers took part in the event.

compassion, game, gaming

Inspired: My new game highlights the value of compassion, empathy, and cooperation

Christa Avampato

I’ve played an insane amount of Candy Land with my nieces while on vacation. They get an endless amount of joy from choosing a card and cruising along the colored path in hopes of reaching King Candy before everyone else.

Simultaneously, I’ve been watching the news out of Gaza and the Ukraine, researching climate change, and reading John Lewis’s story about his dedication to the Civil Rights Movement. And I am afraid for my nieces and the world we are leaving them; Candy Land it is not. How do we teach compassion, empathy, and cooperation, the qualities we need in spades, in a world that sometimes seems devoid of them? The answer – we make a game out of it.

One of my new projects is a game that highlights the value of these qualities through a series of stories, challenges, and choices based on current real-world situations. I’m now doing a lot of research and working on the design of a prototype. Want to take a peek and provide feedback when it’s ready? Let me know. With the complex world we’re leaving to our kids, candy isn’t going to cut it.

action, adventure, career, dreams

Inspired: Why I Decided to Stop Consulting

Christa Avampato

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” ― Dhirubhai Ambani, Against All Odds: A Story of Courage, Perseverance and Hope

I’ve decided to stop consulting. When I left my corporate job at American Express over 2 years ago, I started my consulting firm, Chasing Down the Muse, to provide my business know-how to help nonprofits and for-profit companies build a better world and to formalize my freelance writing and yoga teaching. The writing and teaching has been phenomenal. The consulting has been a mixed bag. Increasingly, I grew frustrated because I spent most of my time working on my clients’ dreams and not my own.

After much deliberation, I’m pivoting. I’ve decided to complete my consulting work with my current clients and to not take on any additional ones. I did well financially as a consultant, but it’s not the best use of my passions. (For the record, I think consulting is a fine gig; it’s just not the right one for me.) I will continue and expand my freelance writing, content development, voice over work, and teaching. I also plan to continue to advise, partner with, and invest in young businesses.

This pivot is scary, though I’ve learned that the best way to overcome any fear is to do exactly the thing that frightens me. Once we do what frightens us, we’re free from the fear. The best thing I’ve done in the past two years is write, direct, and produce my play, Sing After Storms, at New York City’s Thespis Theater Festival. It reminded me how much I love taking an original idea from concept to launch with a creative, collaborative group of people. I want to get back to this kind of work full-time so I’m taking the leap again and going after exactly the career I want, fear and all!

In the coming days, I’ll be writing about and ramping up each of my new projects. I can’t wait to share the details with you. Are you taking a big leap, too? I’d love to hear about it, and support it!

child, children, creative process, writer, writing

Inspired: Write for one person

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Over the weekend, I started reading Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview. He believed all writers should write for an audience of one to give writing intimacy and immediacy.

It took me about half a second to realize who is in my audience of one: it’s me as a child. I write every word to help her be brave. To help her know that a better, freer, happier, more fulfilling life awaits her. That all things and all dreams are possible. And yes, it will be difficult and there will be many times when she will want to quit. She will lose a lot of sleep and she will be very afraid, but it will all be worth it. I write to entertain her, to help her escape, to give her the courage to keep going. And I know there are lots of people out there, the tall and the small, who still need that encouragement and support.

Sadly, as much as the world has changed since I was a kid, this fact hasn’t: we spend too many days afraid. Reading helped me press on despite fear. Now as an adult, writing helps me do that. So I write – for me, for her, and for all the people like us who need to know that we can create our own bright future one day at a time.

action, change, choices

Inspired: A new direction requires a new routine

Christa Avampato

Just do itI head back to New York City soon to begin a new chapter of my career. A new direction requires a new routine. Here are the steps I’m taking:
– More focus on my personal projects as I transition away from consulting
– Much earlier to bed and much earlier to rise: target wake up time is 5am
– In general, I plan to keep myself in a much more structured routine of working hours with very specific goals and milestones that must be hit each day. And I have to schedule my downtime to make sure I take it for my creativity’s sake. Otherwise, I’m likely to work until I drop without batting an eye!
– More cardio exercise and strength training: hello, running shoes and free weights
– Healthier eating and cooking: whole, organic, and seasonal. I’ll share the photos and recipes out of my kitchen.

Are you starting a new routine? I’d love to hear your plans and support you along the way!

career, choices, dreams, work

Inspired: Listen closely. You already know the answer.

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I wrote the draft of the blog post below over a week before I received an offer from the company I reference. My intuition knew the answer to the offer before I even got it. And I listened. Lesson learned – the gut knows. And so do our dreams.

“I have an amazing career opportunity in front of me: a dream job at a well-funded tech startup with a lot of great people in a city I enjoy that focuses on pet health. Rather, it could look amazing if I really dress it up, see it as a stepping stone only, and believe that within the mess there is opportunity. I’ve taken this action and perspective before, and I found that within the mess lies more mess.

Some people at this startup call it “nimble” and put down larger companies (like the ones I’ve worked for and with) for being “rigid” because the startup is disorganized, lacks charismatic leadership, and doesn’t have an inspiring vision. There’s a lot of finger-pointing between the tech and business teams, and their response to key questions on pricing and go-to-market strategy is “I don’t know. That decision was made before I got here.” In other words, they don’t understand what they’re selling, how it’s priced, or how / why people are going to buy it.

In a senior position, I could drive change and bring order to the chaos. I’ll likely be offered a mid-tier role charged with cleaning up a mess that is growing exponentially. With two months before launch, they still don’t agree on requirements, have no marketing plan, and no customer experience or servicing set-up. Their thought process is that the pet industry is huge (and at $50 billion annually, they’re right) and that if they build it, people will buy it. The problem is no one there has any idea what “it” actually is.

I had been tossing around all this info in my mind, trying to keep a positive frame of mind, and wrestling through ways I could make this work. Then I had a dream that my main contact there quit, moved to San Francisco because all of her friends lived there, and we ended the conversation with “goodbye and let’s stay in touch.” I already know my answer to the offer; this isn’t a dream job. It’s a nightmare dressed up like a dream. So I will politely and professionally decline the role. The paycheck would have been nice, but the headache would have been exhausting from beginning to end. I already have my dream job. I work for me on projects I love and care about. Now I have to get to work on turning those dreams into a healthy paycheck so I can invest in more dreams. That’s the job I want, and have.”

action, adventure, career, creativity, future

Inspired: Hello, Clarity!

Christa Avampato
Elsa from Frozen ("Let It Go")
Elsa from Frozen (“Let It Go”)

“It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small…I didn’t know what I could do until I tried.” -Elsa from Frozen

I’ve been away from New York City on an extended holiday to spend time with my family and figure out how I want the rest of my year to take shape. 3 weeks did the trick; I woke up certain and clear of my next few steps. They involve a lot of learning, a bit of traveling, and a boatload of writing, creating, and building. After months of limbo, it feels amazing to have arrived here more sure than ever that this is the way forward for me. Stick around – this is going to be a fun adventure!