I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
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.
If you’re lamenting your age or wish you’d already hit certain milestones (and I’m certainly part of that group!), I’d like you to meet one of my heroes—Harry Bernstein. He famously said, “My 90s were the most productive years of my life.”
At 96, he published his first book, The Invisible Wall, to wide acclaim after it sat on a desk at Random House’s London office for over a year. At 98, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to pursue his writing. He wrote over 40 books over his life but destroyed almost all of the manuscripts after they were rejected by multiple publishers. He made a living as a Hollywood script reader and as an editor of a construction trade magazine.
I’m impressed by his tenacity and refusal to give up on his craft. He wrote his first published pieces in the wake of his wife’s passing as a form of therapy. They were married for 7 decades. He embraced his creativity to the very end, passing away at 101.
Harry Bernstein didn’t give up and you shouldn’t either, no matter how old you are and no matter how many obstacles you face. I hope I publish my first book before I’m 96, and if I don’t, that’s okay. I’m in good company with Harry. Keep creating.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein by accident. Lord Byron was visiting Shelley and her husband. There was a terrible storm that kept them all inside the house. To entertain themselves, Byron suggested they all write and then share horror stories. Byron’s and Mr. Shelley’s stories were mere entertainment for the trio. Mary Shelley’s became a classic novel (after much revision on that first draft!)
You never know when you’re creating the greatest work of your life which is why the very act of continuous creation is so important. And why it’s important to remember that from unlikely, and frankly unwanted, experiences, can come wonderful gifts. Mary Shelley didn’t know she was writing a novel destined to be a classic. She just knew she cared about its theme and wove an entertaining story around it. She didn’t leave her thoughts to spin around in her mind. She fearlessly wrote them down and sent them out into the world. We should, too.
The cuddly Arctic Fox, the only native mammal to Iceland
I’m planning a trip to Iceland in April and my friend, Sheldon, sent me a BuzzFeed piece that confirmed my suspicions: someone crawled inside my mind and built me a country! Why I should live in Iceland, and maybe you should, too:
Happy and friendly
Iceland is the 4th happiest country in the world. I’m now building up my cheek strength by excessively smiling. (I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.) Also, there is virtually no violent crime and the police don’t carry guns.
Books are everywhere
Iceland has a 99% literacy rate and publishes more books per capita than any other country. Books are the most popular Christmas gift. It’s an Icelandic tradition to exchange books on Christmas Eve and then spend the rest of the night reading. They usually take their books to bed with some chocolate. (There’s a pickup line if ever I’ve heard one!)
Beauty (and clean energy) is everywhere
The sun basically never sets in the summer, it has the dazzling Northern Lights in the winter, and is famous for its rejuvenating hot springs. The houses are unique and colorful and the landscape is rich with wildlife including cuddly horses, the adorable arctic fox, and magical reindeer. (Phin will have a diverse set of friends!) It’s also a very clean and environmentally sustainable country. 25% of their power is generated through geothermal sources and they plant more trees per capita than any other country. And here’s the real kicker—Iceland has zero mosquitos! (Now you’re speaking my language!)
Socially liberal
It’s the #1 country for gender equality and was the first country to elect a female president (Vigdis Finnbogadottir was President for 16 years). The former mayor of the capital city of Reykjavik was a punk rock taxi-driving comedian.
Food
Their traditional yogurt is actually cheese (WHAAAAT?) and they have a special sauce for everything they eat. (Just stop it, Iceland. THIS is too good to be true.) There’s no McDonald’s in Iceland and they’re famous for making the world’s best hotdogs.
Technology
Iceland is the most web savvy country in the world. 97% of people have broadband.
Storytelling
Most Icelanders believe in mythical creatures such as elves, trolls, and fairies. (Iceland, where have you been all my life?)
April can’t get here fast enough! I’ve got fairies, cheese, books, and smiling faces waiting on me. Skál! (“Cheers” in Icelandic.)
Happy new year! Each year I set up a general theme for my blog posts. In 2014, I looked for stories and ideas that inspired me and passed them on through my daily posts. Those posts gave me the courage to make major changes to my life last year and I hope they helped everyone who read them.
2015 is going to be very different from any other year I’ve ever had. I truly don’t know what to expect. I turned my life upside down in 2014 in an effort to have the pieces fall together in a better way going forward. This is going to be a year of surprises so I’m embracing the idea of “This Just In” to celebrate the newness that I am seeking and that I know will find me.
Wishing you an adventure-filled and abundantly happy new year! Here we go!
Tonight, I’m going to ring in 2015 with Billy Joel, one of my favorite artists. He’s giving a concert in Orlando, and I’ll be spending it listening to him with my sister and brother-in-law, two people who made one of my wildest dreams possible and offered me the opportunity to write full-time.
My cup of life is overflowing with gratitude for the miracles I never saw coming. Billy Joel gets that. His story was improbable—from an oyster fisherman to world-renowned rock star—all because he took huge chances and leaps of faith. When he was down and out, he kept right on playing.
Like me, Billy Joel carries a New York State of Mind everywhere he goes. And though I live in Florida at the moment, the very best aspects of New York City are never far from my mind and heart. They never will be. We believe all things are possible with love and luck and creativity. Sing me a song, Piano Man. I’m in the mood for a (celebratory) melody. Carry me along the River of Dreams in the middle of the night. I’m ready for the journey. Happy New Year!
If anyone had told me last year at this time that this is what my life would be like right now, I would have laughed out loud. This life that I’m living now wasn’t conceivable to my December 2013 self. A lot can happen in a year. A lot did happen this year.
We’re two days away from bidding adieu to 2014 and saying bonjour to 2015, and I’ll be brutally honest: I have no idea what my life will look like a year from now. Not. A. Clue. Given my passion for planning, you’d think I’d be a nervous wreck over the ambiguity. And I am, usually around 3:00am. But once I get up and move around and drink in the morning light, I really feel just fine. Even peaceful about it all.
2015’s going to be fine, better than fine. I know 2015 is going to hold change and transformation for me on an unprecedented level. I’m okay with the roller coaster. I’ve spent my whole life preparing for this moment. We all have. Let’s make this one a year for the record books, the year when we’ll look back and say, “Damn, that was one heck of a wild and wonderful ride. I’m so glad I was there.”
A couple of weeks ago I read E.O. Wilson’s take on the basis of all transformative events in our lives. As I thought about his ideas, I realized all of my writing and the stories I love start in one of the three ways he outlined:
You (or your characters) take a journey to an unexplored land
This might be to a foreign country (or another planet if you love sci-fi like me!) or it could be around the corner to a new cafe. Daily adventures are important. They give us the opportunity to expand our minds and heart by interacting with newness. I whole-heartedly encourage taking them as often as possible. I plan to take quite a few myself.
You (or your characters) search for the grail
We’re all in search of the secret – how to be happy, how to find and keep love, how to be more creative, why it all matters. There’s no shortage of quests we can take to find the meaning in everything and everything. Go in search of something that matters to you and let your characters do the same.
You (or your characters) engage in a battle of good against evil
And it’s all the better if we have a hard time figuring out which side is which, and if the battle is as much about brains and courage as it is about brawn. Things are never as good as they seem nor as bad as they seem. The same is true for people. We all have light and dark within us. It gets really interesting when the light and dark meet, and when we’ve got some difficult decisions to make. The very best of life, and writing, is often found if we are willing to go into the shadows, our own shadows.
The most compelling reads and lives practice more than one (or all!) of these beginnings on a regular basis. In 2015, go have adventures and discover newness, seek out something that really matters to you, explore your own shadows, and get down all the juicy details. I can’t wait to hear about what you (and your characters) find.
“Be crumbled so wild flowers will come up where you are.” ~ Rumi
I know a lot of people who’ve had a tough year. Maybe you’re one of them. You feel a little broken by life, by the holidays, or maybe you feel a little broken and you’re not even sure why. Maybe someone you love is facing this reality right now. I came across this quote by Rumi yesterday in my reading and I think it’s an important one to keep close. Know this: perfection is a myth. Truthfully, we’ve all got small cracks, chips, and breaks somewhere in our lives. They aren’t always visible, but they’re there and there’s some comfort in knowing that we’re all on this imperfect journey together. So don’t be embarrassed or afraid or feel despair for the parts of you or the people you love that are a little crumbled. The flowers are on their way.
Self-talk is an everyday part of being a writer. You can be your own biggest cheerleader or your own worst enemy. Luckily for every negative self-talk question I can think of, there’s a more positive way to get at the same information. I used to ask myself, “What am I going to write about today?” In fiction, this is a heavily loaded question. Now I ask myself, “Who’s with me today?” It adds an ethereal quality to the work and squarely places me in the role of being an observer of my own imagination. Then I take up my perch and get down everything I hear and see. This simple change of perspective reduces the pressure and ups the fun of the task. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
A few days ago, I wrote a post about all the things I did in 2014 that I’m proud of. There are many more things that didn’t go as planned that deserve high-fives, too. What didn’t go so right for you in 2014? Here’s my list:
– My housing situation was a mess thanks to the outrageous New York City real estate market. My apartment building went condo and there was no option for me to stay. I wasn’t willing to spend a lot of money on a lease that would lock me into a mediocre place, and all I could find in the rental market in my price range was mediocre at best. (Broker fees, the cost of moving, and the extensive money I would have had to put down just to get in the door would have cost me at least ~$10,000.) So, I left the best apartment I’ve ever had to move to a temporary sublet to then make the decision to leave New York altogether. Not having a home of my own for most of the year was very scary, but it’s turned out to be a blessing. I love being (very) near my family for the first time in a long time. And thought I didn’t know it at the tie, the Universe knew I was ready for a new adventure in a new place. Still, I do look forward to having a home that I own. No more renting for me.
– I faced rejection every single day. I constantly pitched my writing and voice over work so for every win, there were literally dozens of losses that added up to hundreds of rejections in 2014. That’s the name of the game as a writer, and though each rejection stings, I’ve learned to move on quickly. Each one makes me stronger and brings me closer to that big hit that I know will eventually come my way.
– I dealt with a number of challenging consulting clients. I did far too much work for not nearly enough money. I decided it was time to close down the independent consulting side of my business and focus on my writing. I knew that day would come, but I thought it would be years down the line. The Universe had other plans.
– After four years, Compass Yoga closed its doors. That was a very painful decision, but I know it was the right one for me from both a personal and professional perspective.
– On the dating front, I had a few promising starts but I am ending the year single. I’m also wiser and more confident as a result. I’m hoping dating in Florida trumps dating in New York. We shall see. I trust the timing of my life. When the right guy shows up, I’ll know. And I’m always willing to be set up because hey, you never know!
Through all of these experiences, I grew into a stronger, braver, and more resilient person. That’s what matters most. 2014 was still the best year I’ve ever had despite these missteps, and many more. Welcome, 2015. I’m ready.
If you’re lamenting your age or wish you’d already hit certain milestones (and I’m certainly part of that group!), I’d like you to meet one of my heroes—Harry Bernstein. He famously said, “My 90s were the most productive years of my life.”
Christa Avampato 