Author: Christa Avampato

The short of it: Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day. The long of it: My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events. While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series. A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist. My company: I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media: • I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference; • I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable; • I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me. Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
creativity

Wonder: Breaking Bread Podcast website is live

Christa Avampato

Screen Shot 2016-07-19 at 10.28.28 PMI’m using this week to work on personal creative projects. After securing my first guests (more details soon!), I launched the website for the Breaking Bread Podcast. Take a look around, let me know what you think, and please share with anyone you think would be interested. The Breaking Bread Podcast features interesting and interested people sharing their thoughts and ideas while breaking bread around a table together in Washington, D.C.

Breaking bread together is one of the oldest human traditions. When we share the same food, we generate a mutual respect and understanding for one another. In our world, respect and understanding are needed now more than ever. It’s my hope that in some small way this podcast helps to build bridges across the many divides that separate too many of us today, one guest, one meal at a time.

The concept is simple—I invite a few people to my home in the NoMa neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., make their favorite foods, and then we use the stories that make these foods special to my guests as a gateway to talk about issues and ideas that matter to them. Welcome to our table.

Bon apetite!

**Want to be a guest? Know someone who would be a great guest? Let me know.**

creativity

Wonder: Heaven help us all

Christa Avampato

As this week kicks off, in light of the violent weeks and months that have preceded it, I find myself turning to music to quiet my mind and lighten my heart. Music is a great unifier, a powerful form of expression, and a vehicle to help us figure out how we feel, what we know, and what we hope to build. This weekend as I read about the shooting in Baton Rouge, the protests sprawling across the country, and that gathering in Cleveland, I thought about Stevie Wonder and his song “Heaven Help Us All”. I revisited its lyrics and meditated on the creation of a better world in which none of them applied.

Heaven help the child who never had a home
Heaven help the girl who walks the street alone
Heaven help the roses if the bombs begin to fall
Heaven help us all

Heaven help the black man if he struggles one more day
Heaven help the white man if he turns his back away
Heaven help the man who kicks the man who has to crawl
Heaven help us all

Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all, help us all
Heaven help us, Lord, hear our call when we fall
Oh, yeah

Heaven help the boy who won’t reach twenty-one
Heaven help the man who gave that boy a gun
Heaven help the people with their backs against the wall
Lord, Heaven help us all, Heaven help us all

Heaven help us all, help us all
Heaven help us, Lord, here we call, help us all

Now I lay me down before I go to sleep
In a troubled world, I pray the Lord to keep
Keep hatred from the mighty and the mighty from the small
Heaven help us all oh yeah

Heaven help us all
Heaven help us all
Heaven help us all

creativity

Wonder: Illegitimi non carborundum (Don’t let the bastards grind you down)

Christa Avampato

A friend sent me this saying, “Illegitimi non carborundum—don’t let the bastards grind you down.” And I certainly needed that message this week.

On Saturday I wrote about the topic of being authentic and true to yourself, even if it causes you disappoint others. As I thought, my direct and professional note was not received well by the person to whom I sent it. And you know what? It’s totally okay. It’s better than okay.

When I hit send, I detached myself from the result because I knew it my gut and in my heart that I had been truthful, honest, and respectful, and that I had honored my own integrity and dignity. That’s really the best we can hope for in any situation.

I closed that chapter gracefully holding my head high and keeping my eyes ahead. On to the next grand adventure, a change that I know is absolutely the right decision.

creativity

Wonder: Fill your time with work that feels like play

Christa Avampato

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play.” ~L.P. Jacks

There are so many reasons that I’m excited for my new job that starts a week from today. There’s the one phrase about the respectful and professional culture in the job description that told me this is the place for me: “This is a very egalitarian operational environment…everyone has a say.” There’s the great opportunity ahead to build products based in AI, AR, and VR technology that will help people live healthier, happier lives. There is the sense of starting from a blank canvas that will rapidly be filled in to develop a prototype product in a quick handful of months. There’s the small, experienced team that will work closely together around a single table for a single goal.

And still, above all of that, what has me most excited about this opportunity is the quote above by L.P. Jacks. The roles and companies I have most loved in my career are those that didn’t feel like work at all because what I was doing was so interesting that is took my curiosity and sense of wonder to a level that felt like play. I didn’t mind the long hours, I barely noticed the time flying by, because the work itself was so satisfying that it gave me energy rather than draining it. And I am so ready to return to that kind of work.

When people ask me what I want my career and my life to be, I have to turn to L.P. Jacks and say, “Thank you for putting my whole purpose into 15 words.”  

creativity

Wonder: Pay attention to your discomfort

Christa Avampato

“If you feel like you don’t fit in, in this world, it is because you are here to help create a new one.” ~Jocelyn Daher

We do everything we can to alleviate discomfort. I’m not talking about making yourself some chicken soup (or a giant bowl of ice cream) when you’re feeling sick. I mean that we will say and do things (or not, as the case may be) against our better judgement for the sake of avoiding discomfort or in an effort to fit in. My friend, Sara, posted the quote above and it is exactly what I needed to hear.

Discomfort is a great gift. It tells you where you shouldn’t be and what you shouldn’t be doing so that you move on and go where you’re needed, wanted, and appreciated. Discomfort is the motivation to go, do, and be something different. Learn from it. Use it. Recognize that discomfort now is leading you to exactly where you need to be tomorrow.

creativity

Wonder: Honesty and transparency are necessary leadership traits

Christa Avampato

“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” ~Rita Mae Brown

This morning I had to send a brutally honest note to someone. It wasn’t rude, but it was direct, clear, and concise. Someone has been trying to push me into doing something I absolutely don’t want to do. I thought about just going along with it for a while, to save any drama and to avoid making anyone else uncomfortable despite my extreme discomfort with the situation for the past few months.

Then my friend, Amanda, posted the quote above and I realized I couldn’t conform against my own authenticity. So I sent the note, and never looked back. I have no idea how it will be received, and that’s not my concern. I can only do things and go places with my whole heart. Anything else is just phony.

And here’s what I learned in writing that note: it’s always possible to be both professional and honest, respectful and strong, dignified and clear. You can’t be worried about burning a bridge that isn’t even there. Sometimes you’ve got to disappoint others to be true to yourself.

creativity

Wonder: In your career, be a Swiss Army knife

Christa Avampato

For a long time I struggled with the pull between being a specialist and being a generalist. Lately I’ve found I actually didn’t have to choose. If, like me, curiosity itself is your muse and embracing the new is what gets your motor running, then stand by that passion. Follow it down every rabbit hole it takes you. Learn, build, and share with wild abandon. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a Swiss Army knife with an attitude of “whatever the challenge is, I’ll figure it out.” Make it your purpose to defy any definition and every day of your life will be an adventure.

creativity

Wonder: Looking for my first home

Christa Avampato

20160712_230714I met with a new real estate agent on Tuesday and his first comment was, “Tell me about your home. What does it look like? What does it feel like?” I hadn’t thought of that. I was so caught up in the process, in the action steps needed to find a home and close the deal, that I hadn’t really thought of look or feel of the actual space.

Though it was hard to back out of the condo deal this spring, it was the right thing to do. It was a blessing. I was compromising, and little did I know that right around the corner would be an opportunity to have a whole house and exactly what I wanted. This is the most amazing thing about life—events that seem so unfortunate at first can be made into the  very best things in our lives if only we have the courage and determination to make them so.

communication, community

Wonder: Breaking Bread – the title of my new podcast

Christa Avampato

Sharing a meal with someone—it’s one of the oldest traditions in the world. And that’s why it’s so important to me to have a home where I can host people for dinner and why I want to include sharing a meal in my podcast to get passionate conversations flowing.

My friend, Carolyn, sent me an article from PsyBlog entitled The Right Food Can Promote Trust And Closeness Between People about the value of eating the same food with another person. It brings us closer. It helps us to listen and attempt to understand one another, especially when dealing with issues that mean a lot to us. Meals are an act of communion and community. Meals together matter, and I’m excited to begin orchestrating them on my new podcast that will be appropriately named Breaking Bread.

Would you like to be a guest on the show? Know someone who would be a good guest? Let’s gather around the table and see (and hear) what happens.

creativity

Wonder: Make your time matter

Christa Avampato

God willing, I’m not at mid-life yet but the truth is I’ve almost died a handful of times. On a few of those occasions, I barely scraped by. And maybe that’s why I am so driven and impatient. Maybe that’s why I abhor wasting time. Maybe that’s why I am utterly incapable of sitting down longer than 18 minutes a day to meditate. Sometimes, I think this makes me a complete lunatic. And then I read quotes like the one below from Brené Brown, and I realize that yes, I may be crazy, but there’s a method to and a reason for the madness. And it’s all okay. I’m just trying to make my life meaningful and to make my time matter.

”I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear: I’m not screwing around. It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go.

Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy of love and belonging, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever.

Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through you. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen.”

~Brené Brown