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.
celebration, change, holiday, Spring

This just in: Now is a time of renewal for all of us

Christa Avampato
Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Happy Spring.
Happy Easter. Happy Passover. Happy Spring.

Have you ever started over from zero? I’ve learned to not be afraid of these times. With seemingly nothing left, just being able to keep going is a remarkable feat. To still believe in a better tomorrow, despite a grim today, is an act of courage and strength. That’s what this season teaches us.

With all of these holidays about renewal coalescing—Easter, Passover, and Spring—I’m reminded of what it means and what it takes to begin again with faith and hope. During these times, we find in ourselves a wellspring of untapped potential that we would never know existed if life always handed us an easy road.

To be down to nothing and look up to find a hand, a smile, and a heart willing to help us when we can do nothing for them in this moment is a remarkable gift. Some days I’m the one who’s down to nothing and looking up for help. Other days I’m the one who provides the hand up to someone else. I’m grateful for all of the opportunities I have in each role. They’re all blessings.

From my heart to yours, happy Easter, happy Passover, and happy Spring.

career, choices, education, environment, health, job

This just in: The career you choose impacts the state of the world

Christa Avampato
Build a better world by building a better career
Build a better world by building a better career

This week I’m in the midst of many big and heady discussions about industries that demand rapid and radical transformation: healthcare, education, and the state of the planet for starters. We cannot close our eyes to the enormous problems we face as individuals and as a society. The good news is that we have everything we need to change our fortune—technology, know-how, and our imaginations. The trick is to find ways to unleash and connect them on a massive, actionable scale. And that scale lies within all of us building meaningful and impactful careers.

It’s easy to develop a solution that solves part of a problem. We’ll help some people and manage the costs with a relative degree of effectiveness. For a while, the band-aid will hold. We could almost fool ourselves into thinking this is okay, that it’s the best we can do with what we’ve got. Mediocrity is ours for the taking and my suggestion is to shun it with every ounce of strength we’ve got. We can and must do better starting now.

We could watch the news about California’s austerity measures in the face of the most horrible drought in its history and say, “That has nothing to do with me. I live thousands of miles away and I have plenty of water where I am.” The truth is that California is the canary in the coal mine.California will be everyone’s realty if we don’t take action to reverse course now. Think of all that’s been wasted there sustaining thirsty lawns in the middle of a desert for the sake of aesthetics. I actually feel a pain in my heart thinking about it. What have we done? What are we continuing to do by just going through the motions of life as usual? And if we think we have war now, imagine what will happen when we’re fighting over water rights that literally draw the line between life and death. Without water, debates about nukes are irrelevant.

These same kinds of scenarios are also true in education and healthcare. Our public education stats are appalling because we have failed to engage students and care for all of their needs from having enough food to eat to living in a safe neighborhood to nurturing their imaginations. We may be experiencing the rise of a lost generation of talent and potential because of the state of public education, and we can’t afford that. In healthcare, we discard our elders, dismiss patient concerns, and believe that quantity, churn, and lowering costs take precedence over patient experience and compassionate care. How we treat the sick, the young, and the old says a lot about who we are as a society. And I want us to be better because I know we’re capable of it right now.

Let’s stop making excuses and start doing and making things that matter for the long haul. We’ve got all of the technology and know-how we need. We each possess the most marvelous machine ever created – the human mind. Let’s join them and use them to develop career that are callings, callings to build a better, healthier, happier world.

compassion, dreams

This just in: The words you speak determine the direction of your life

Christa Avampato
The words you speak become the house you live in. ~Hafiz
The words you speak become the house you live in. ~Hafiz

“The words you speak become the house you live in.” ~Hafiz

Have you ever thought about how you speak to yourself vs. how you speak to others? So often we say things to ourselves that we would never dream of saying to someone else. Kindness to self is just as important as kindness to others. We need to be our biggest internal cheerleaders and champions.

The second you hear yourself using negative self-talk, stop. If someone spoke that way to someone you love, what would you do? What would you say to your friend who was being spoken to that way? My guess is that you’d stand up for your friend, that you’d support him or her and negate those negative statements with positive ones. That’s what friends do—we support each other.

Do the same for yourself. Be your own friend. Turn the language around. Hafiz is right—the words we speak become the house we live in. Build a tower of strength to house your dreams. They’re worthy of it, and so are you.

dreams

This just in: With quantum physics, the reality you want already exists

Christa Avampato
We are in the reality we want
We are in the reality we want

Yesterday I had a chat my dear friend, Mary, and she explained that in quantum physics there is a principle that states the reality you want already exists. To realize it on this plane, we have to change our perception from wishing to envisioning. I took her advice to heart during lunchtime and saw myself in the reality I’ve been working toward. I was finding my way to it as an explorer and adventurer. Once I arrived I tried it on like a new coat and it fit perfectly.

What if we could approach every situation in life like this? We could let go of desperation and longing, and replace them with the profound awareness that we are already in exactly the place we’re meant to be. What we want we have already built.

home

This just in: Finding home

Christa Avampato
Home sweet home
Home sweet home

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” ~Maya Angelou

Home is a powerful word. It brings to mind images of our dream home or a childhood home, a city, or the people and occasions that symbolize the idea of home for us.

For me, home is a feeling. I’ve felt at home in many cities around the world, at museums and theaters, in parks, on rivers, at the ocean, and up in the air. Many times, home has been a yoga mat or a good book that lets me lose myself for a good long while in an effort to find myself again. Sometimes it’s a long walk with Phin or a long talk with a good friend. Home for me means comfort, somewhere that lets me be who I am without apology or explanation. A place where I can feel all my feelings and manage my way through them.

Now as I make a new new life in Washington, I’m hoping that I can help other people find that meaning of home, too. Maybe it will be through my volunteer work or teaching yoga or somehow sharing my writing in some format. What I do know is that there are a lot of people who need to find and feel the true meaning of home in their lives who’ve either never had the feeling before or who haven’t felt it for a long time. I understand that feeling of searching for home all too well. I’m spent most of my life in that mode, and I think I can help.

art, culture, time

This just in: The truth about the truth

Christa Avampato
Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.

“The truth is always dangerous because once you know it you have to do something about it.” ~Azar Nafisi

Yesterday I went to hear Azar Nafisi, one of my favorite authors, speak about the cultural landscape of Iran and how understanding that landscape can open the way to cross-cultural dialogue. The quote above is my favorite from her talk, and it resonates so deeply with me because of the past year I’ve had when so many truths within my own life and in the world itself have come to light in stark, and often frightening, reality.

Once we know the truth, we can’t unknow it. We can try to ignore it, even deceive ourselves into thinking it’s not there. Truth is relentless—it will grow louder, larger, and stronger until it finally gets its share of the limelight. It will not move on quietly. It demands to be noticed and addressed.

The truth will set you free, though free in this case has a very specific meaning. It will free us from old paradigms, habits, and routines, and this isn’t always easy. Actually, it’s almost never easy. Truth sets us free to see ourselves and those around us as we truly are, not as we imagine. Truth rips off the veil; it strips away the lens and the filters that alter our reality. And this is a very good, albeit difficult, thing.

With the truth, we can have a real and lasting impact. We can move forward with confidence and conviction, and we can help others do the same. The truth makes us lighter, makes it possible to imagine and then create new realities that are sustainable and richer than the half-truths that we had before.

Maybe you’re in the midst of confronting some prickly truths, realizing that things were not as they so long appeared to be. I certainly am, and so are many others. You’re not alone in your discoveries, and you’re certainly not alone in trying to make peace and purpose with them. This is a part of the human experience. It’s something that binds all of us together, across every culture, race, religion, gender, language, and even across time. We’re in this together.

nature, Spring

This just in: Eventually Spring will win

Christa Avampato

Buds on trees in D.C.Even though it was freezing in D.C. yesterday, the buds on this tree couldn’t and wouldn’t be stopped. Winter can hang as long as it wants, and eventually spring will win. Spring plays the long game, and I respect that.

creativity, curiosity, election, learning, school

This just in: Stay curious

Christa Avampato
Follow your curiosity
Follow your curiosity

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” ~Leo Burnett

If there’s one attribute I’d like to see held up above all others in our society, and especially in our schools, I would have to say curiosity. It’s where every exploration, internal and external, begins. It’s a trait that never goes out of style and I believe if we keep after it, it’s always rewarded in ways great and small. It boosts our happiness, our sense of accomplishment. Curiosity connects us to people and places, even ones we may never see in-person. It provides the path to contribute to our world in a meaningful and profound way that will last far beyond our own existence. Curiosity is the root of everything meaningful, and isn’t that what we’re all after?

 

forgiveness, learning

This just in: The power of forgiveness

Christa Avampato
Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give and get
Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give and get

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

When I was a very young theater manager, we had a member of our company who was extraordinarily difficult. He was constantly disrespectful to many people in the country, especially to my boss at the time. In front of the entire company, they had a huge confrontation and this difficult person swore at my boss and stormed out of the room. I was shocked, and angry.

A few hours later that company member came into our office and apologized to my boss. He was sincere in his apology, though I had no expectation that my boss would let him off the hook after his horrible behavior and public display. My boss shook his hand and accepted his apology. When the company member left, I turned to my boss and asked how he could so easily accept an apology after he had been so terribly treated only hours before. My boss turned to me and gave me one of the greatest lessons of my life.

“Christa, if someone has the courage to sincerely ask for my forgiveness, then the least I can do is have the courage to forgive him. Asking for forgiveness is the hardest thing we can ever do. Granting forgiveness to someone who’s hurt us is the second hardest.”

That was almost 15 years ago, and I’ve never forgotten that incident, nor the lesson that it taught me. Forgiveness, on both sides, is the domain of the strong. Let’s be strong. Let’s forgive.

action, adventure, future

This just in: Lights in the distance

Christa Avampato
Lights in the distance
Lights in the distance

There’s something so hopeful about lights in the distance. Though they may be out of focus from where we are now, we can be confident that as we continue to move forward everything will become clear.