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.
change, opportunity, writer, writing

Inspired: What a seed teaches us about risk-taking

Christa Avampato

My friend, Amelia, one of the incredible actors in Sing After Storms, posted this quote last week and I’ve been thinking about it every day since. To grow, we have to leave the security of the shore and delve deep into the unknown. Discovery and growth happen when we encounter new experiences, people, and places, when we take risks, and try something we aren’t quite sure we can accomplish.

I have no idea what my life will look like in a few short week when literally everything changes and I start my full-time writing life. I do know that I need this. I need to give this new, wild, unpredictable adventure my best shot, way out there in the wide open air where I’m free to learn and grow in many different directions. Giving up my current way of life seems like complete madness to some; they’ve told me as much. And that’s okay. I’ve known plenty of destruction, followed swiftly by plenty of growth, and I cherish it all. Where they see only loss, I see pure potential to have exactly the life I want to live. I’ve got a chance, right now, this very brief window of opportunity, and I’m taking it. 

art, books, story, writer, writing

Inspired: Meet Emerson Page—the heroine of my first novel, Where the Light Enters

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I want you to meet someone I’m going to spend a lot of time with this Fall. This is a sketch of Emerson Page, the heroine of my first novel, Where the Light Enters. She’s 15, strong-willed, curious, and battling both personal and external demons. She’s stronger than she thinks she is, more talented than she ever imagined in ways she never knew were possible, and is about to learn some deep secrets about her heritage, the world around her, and the world that exists just below the surface of our awareness. Emerson loves technology, is fascinated by the weather and nature, happily gets lost in stories, and is devoted to animals, especially her therapy dog, Friday. For now, she lives in New York City, but that’s about to change, sort of.

I’ll write the first draft of Where the Light Enters this November as part of National Novel Writing Month. The title is inspired by this quote from Leonard Cohen’s song, Anthem: “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” And by this quote from Rumi: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

I found this picture while scrolling through Pinterest and pinned it up at my desk. This visual helps me watch the story unfold. I tried to figure out who the artist is, but no luck. If you recognize this sketch, please let me know!

career, work

Inspired: Another lesson from the dirt—the power of rest

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

The land has so much to teach us. When farmers plant crops, they rotate them so that the land has a chance to rest. Land that’s rested grows the best crops. We’re the same way. A mind and body that’s rested is able to give its best. So take a load off this Labor Day. Do what you love. Be with people and animals you love. Enjoy the sun, sand, surf, and breeze. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. 

dreams, future, time

Inspired: How to value dreams

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

“You cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true.” ~ Justice Sonia Sotomayor

All dreams are difficult. If they were easy, we’d be able to check an unlimited number of them off our to-do list every day. They take time and heart. Sometimes they cause a great deal of difficulty. If working toward them makes us feel alive, if we the time we spend on them feels like time well spent, and if we learn something in the process no matter what the outcome, then they are worth every ounce of effort we put into them. Dreams are tricky like that. Their real value is not in their achievement but in how they help us evolve toward our best selves. 

books, child, children, writing

Inspired: Free your writing and write for children

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I’m outlining the draft of my first novel that I’ll write in November during National Novel Writing Month. It’s for a young adult audience and at one point last week I worried that the story was getting too complicated for that age range. Then I saw this quote by Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time: “You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if that book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” Children understand so much that adults have forgotten. Once I really understood this, the story opened back up to all these wonderful possibilities that my adult mind had closed off. Writing’s funny that way. It makes us wonder. It makes us young again.  

adventure, books, determination, dreams

Inspired: Mind the gap between where you are and where you want to be

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Big dreams inspire and terrify, usually at the same time. I often look at where I want to go from where I am, and all that runs through my mind is, “Well how the hell am I going to get up there?” I search around the base of the vertical mountain and eventually I find a foothold. It’s small, but solid, so there’s my first step. From that slightly elevated view, I find another small place to grip and pull myself one inch higher. This is how the journey of every big dream goes: many small bits of progress taken one at a time. The key is to get started right now and not give up. Concentrate on each small win and the greater journey will take shape in its own way and in its own time. In the words of Dr. Seuss, “Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” 

fear, future, sleep

Inspired: Don’t believe everything you tell yourself late at night

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

3am can be a tough hour for me. That’s when some of my greatest fears surface. “What are you doing?” “That’s a terrible idea!” “You’ll be all alone!” And on they go. To exercise those little gremlins, I write them down in the notebook I keep next to my bed and then put an “X” through them. Then I lay down, focus on my breath, and silently say “I am okay” until I fall asleep again. Don’t believe everything you tell yourself late at night. At night, the good and bad rise up in our minds. We can’t control that. All we can do is get it all down, throw out what harms, keep what helps, and get some more sleep. Tomorrow needs us at our best.

career, choices, commitment, determination, dreams, work

Inspired: They only work we have to do

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Yesterday I was offered the largest consulting contract of my career. I turned it down because it’s not the work I want to do anymore. Was that the right choice? Definitely. Did it hurt to let it go? Absolutely. I was referred by a former client to organize the annual meeting of a private equity firm. I could have played that role and done the work with no problem, but I’m committed to writing full-time and that gig would take me away from my dream. This is the tough work of commitment, the work no one tells us about. Focus and commitment are not a one and done deal. They requirement constant vigilance; temptation to veer off-course is everywhere. The opportunities you don’t take will be scooped up by other people who want and need them. Do your work. Walk your road.

art, business, work, writer, writing

Inspired: The difference between business and art

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

As someone who moves between the worlds of business and art, a business woman with an MBA and a full-time writer, I see them both as creative acts. Both require inspiration and perspiration to build something of value. The difference is where each begins. In business, we assess the market early on in the process. It is largely an act of educated calculation and we try to mitigate risk. In art, market assessment is messy, if not impossible. We have to create art before we know if there’s an audience for it. Art is an act of faith. And the more we risk in art, the better. To have impact, business and art need an audience. They just go about finding their audiences is very different (and wonderful) ways. I do know this: I love them and need them both because together, they make my life richer. In this next chapter of my career, my art, my writing, is also the center my business.

art, books, writer, writing

Inspired: When the reader is ready, the writer will appear

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I love bookstores though sometimes when wandering through them I catch myself thinking, “What else could I possibly have to say that’s interesting and worthwhile?” A split second later I’m reminded that with 6 billion people in the world, there’s a lot of people doing almost the same thing: doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, painters, teachers, chefs, scientists, and yes, writers. But not one single person practices his or her craft in exactly the same way. No one exactly like you has ever existed before or will ever exist again. We are each a unique makeup of circumstances, skills, beliefs, experiences, and ways of seeing, hearing, doing, and being. When the reader is ready, the writer will appear. And we never know when that will be. All we can do is get the story down, put it out into the world in as big a way as possible, and the people who need our story will eventually find it.