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.
You might think you need a class, or a degree, or more experience, time, or money. Maybe you do. Or maybe too many people have questioned your ideas and your dreams and that’s worn you out. Maybe the doubt demons rally every time you start to think it might be time to take a chance. If I had to place a bet, I’d say you’re abundantly ready to make your move. You have what you need, and most importantly, you have heart. And passion. And ambition. You can learn the rest as you go, and there will be a lot to learn but that’s part of the fun. And the adventure. You can’t continue to bury dreams. You can’t settle for being less than you know you can be. You have to rise up. Take a chance. Let go. And see where the path leads. Put one foot in front of the other. Take it step by step. Day by day. Before you know it, you’ll be running. Then flying. Then taking others along with you. You’ve got what it takes. Now go show the world. Go do. Be. Build.
I’m honored and excited to be the featured guest today on Rocksauce Studio‘s Twitter Chat #AppDevChat. We’ll talk about the power of storytelling in a mobile app. Including the way the information ladders, written content, art, and user experience, we’ll explore how all of these pieces hang together to create a property that users love. #appdevchat is a weekly program. I’ve participated in the last few since connecting with Rocksauce after Advertising Week and they’re a blast. I’ve learned so much and connected incredibly talented people through them.
The details
Time / Date:
1pm – 2pm Eastern on Thursday 11/14/13
Structure:
There will be a series of 8 questions asked by Rocksauce Studios to guide the discussion. Just respond with an answer or comment to any of the questions that intrigue you. You’ll also be able to ask questions as well.
Catch up later:
If you aren’t able to join us live, don’t worry. All of the tweets from the chat will live on long after it’s over. You’ll be able to get to it through the #appdevchat hashtag and the fabulous Michael Manning at Rocksauce will post a recap. To see what a recap looks like, click here to check out the one from last week on wearable tech.
Why I’m doing this
I love technology, stories, culture, and business. I live at this intersection and I write about it all day, every day. This is a topic close to my heart and always at the top of my mind. In 2010, I worked on my first mobile app project at American Express and I’ve never looked back. The projects I did at American Express changed the way I view technology and my role in its development. I can’t wait to share with and learn from everyone at #appdevchat!
Do you feel like you’re making a mess by following your heart? That happens. Every day, I have to sift my way through a to-do list that’s always too long and never done, competing sets of priorities, different opportunities that fly across my eyes and get lodged in my mind. Last night I got to 8:00pm after working since 6:00am and I left like the spaghetti that was coiled around my dinner fork as I sat at my computer, still playing catch-up. I had to laugh at myself. Why did my desk seem to get more cluttered, not less, as the day went on?
I sat in the middle of my mess – on my desk and in my mind – and tried to see the beauty. It was there. It always is. Inspirations on scraps of papers in separate piles, contacts scribbled on my whiteboard, reference material tacked on my cork boards, an endless slate of tabs open in my internet browser.
I grabbed Phin’s leash and we took a spin around the chilly block in the dark. Winter’s settling in again and I’m looking forward to it. I always do. A time for hunkering down. The darkness outside always reminds me of the light within. It lets me be alone in my thoughts. It gives me time to play in my favorite place, my imagination. It also hides just enough of the messy work of creativity so that I can’t really be bothered by my ability to only see the very next step and not the whole staircase of my path.
In the dark, I plod on one foot in front of the other, one day at a time. Inch by inch. I build whatever it is I’m building brick by brick, without a set blueprint nor timeline. The thing with creative work is that you can set the stage but you can’t force the action. It comes in bits and pieces and you have to grab them as they arrive. I always find walking helps them rise to the top. We actively move them out of our minds and into being.
I got back home with Phin. He headed for his warm bed. I went back to my desk. The mess was still there – after all I am by choice flying solo with this work so no one else is going to do this for me – but now I could see the order appearing. On its own terms, though getting clearer all the time.
In the book Far from the Tree, author Andrew Solomon shares the idea of nature via nurture rather than the classic nature versus nurture. His argument is that the traits that are nurtured within us are the traits that rise to the surface of our lives. We are all born with inherent tendencies, good and bad. Whether or not certain traits are borne out in our lives is not nature or nurture. The two work together. Are we raised to bring the best parts of our character into being or are we raised to tap into the less desirable parts of our character?
We can’t do much to change our initial gut reactions. Nurture helps us to modulate our actions, and reduce the time between our instinctual reactions and purposeful actions. We are who we are. There is no changing that. Who we become is largely a matter of influence and choice so choose wisely and mindfully. Embrace the fact that what we nurture within us will be our legacy.
No matter where we are in life, there were internal and external battles we had to win to get here. If I’ve learned anything about people over the many years I’ve spent elevating people watching to a high art, it’s that everyone, everywhere, is fighting something every day. Always healing. Always overcoming.
I’m proud of the life I’ve built because of what I had to live through to get here. It’s so improbable on so many levels. If I were to go back and talk to a younger me, 5, 10 or 20 years ago and tell her what life would be like at 37, I’d never believe it. To make a living as a writer, to live where I live, to be blessed by amazing people in my life, to love and be loved so deeply and with such conviction, to have healed so much so I can offer the opportunity to heal to others, I wouldn’t believe it. 17-year-old me would never have been able to fathom it. I can barely believe now, in the midst of living it. It was a journey I never imagined.
When I think of all the dreams I have now, they seem improbable at best. They are so big, much bigger than me. And in those moments, my journey over the past 37 years is a great comfort. I close my eyes and I try to hear the wise voice of 57-year-old me, telling me that all the dreams I have at 37 are only the beginning of what’s in store for me over the next 20 years. I imagine her telling me about incredible things I will do that I have not even been able to fathom because right now they are actually impossible. Someday, and someday very soon, they won’t be because our world and our capabilities are changing, accelerating, so fast. The future is going to be amazing.
Then I open my eyes and take a full deep breath. I feel buoyed by confidence rather than weighed down by too-heavy dreams. I remember that today’s reality is so much more than any 17-year-old me in a tiny rural town ever thought possible. And that keeps me going. I may not be able to see around the bend, but it’s enough to know that someday I will.
I’m blessed beyond belief that I do what I love and love what I do. It wasn’t always this way. For a long time I had to choose between one or the other. Freedom and happiness don’t always go together. I’ve had financial freedom with little happiness and a lot of happiness with little financial freedom. I had to put myself on a course to figure out what I love and then on another course to figure out how to make a living from it. It’s still a work in progress, day by day, month by month. And though I have regularly scheduled freak out periods that always strike on or around 2am, I wake up every morning raring to go on a path that holds freedom and happiness in equal and high regard. The freak out periods are just fuel to stay the course.
I’m a big believer in signs and I’ve found that they are all around us. We never have to wait for them. We only have to open our eyes and ears to see and hear them. And if at times my signs fail me, if I just can’t seem to find the ones I’m looking for, then I get out my laptop and make my own. That’s what this blog is, for me and I hope for you. Here’s the sign you’ve been waiting for no matter what you’re trying to do. Now get out there and do it. Make it happen.
And a happy birthday shout out to my sister, Weez, another keen eye-spying sign spotter.
Fear isn’t such a terrible thing. It shows us what we’re made of. What matters. Fear points the way to newness. New heights to be scaled. New things to learn. And ways to grow. Fear is only dangerous if it stops us from living the lives we want to live. If it prevents us from fulfilling a dream. Everything I ever wanted to do, everything I ever did that I’m really grateful that I had the chance to do, started out as something I was afraid of. So when fear shows up, I don’t cower. I don’t turn tail and run. I say thank you. And then I leap.
I am so lucky to be a New Yorker. I pride myself on my intense love for and loyalty to this wacky and incredible city. Every day that I step outside of my apartment, I get a little twinkle in my eye and a pep in my step. I live in New York City.
As I was making my way home from the first day of the ad:tech conference, I stood on the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue waiting to cross the street to the subway. A lot of New Yorkers hate Times Square. I love it. The energy. The lights. The creativity inside every door of every theater. I grew up in that area of the city when I managed Broadway shows in my 20s and so it holds a special nostalgia for me. As Sondheim said in Merrily We Roll Along, it’s where I began being what I can.
As I was waiting to cross 42nd Street, I felt a little tap on my shoulder. I turned to find two British women, probably in their 60s, visiting New York City for the first time.
“Excuse me,” said one of them in her perfectly lovely and lilting accent. “Is this Times Square?”
I smiled wide. “Ladies, you’re looking at it,” I said.
“Oh my!” the other one said. “And this is the real 42nd Street, from the musical?”
“The one and only,” I said as I pointed east. “Take a stroll that way and you’ll be smack in the middle of all of the craziness. It’s wonderful.”
They thanked me and crossed 8th Avenue, as excited as any kids I’ve ever seen on their way to a playground. And I was reminded again, just as I am every day, that this is one amazing town.
Today and tomorrow I’ll be poking around the hallways of the Javitz Center as I cover the ad:tech New York Conference for Allvoices.com. I covered Advertising Week for this same publication and I’m excited to have a second act with them. Though smaller in scale, I expect the learning at this conference to be every bit as eye-opening. I’m actually counting on it. And you can come along for the ride. Follow me on Twitter through the hashtag #adtechny. Also, read my Allvoices column for breakdowns of the different sessions I attend and the interesting characters I meet. Glad to have you with me. As always, questions, comments, and observations are both welcomed and encouraged.
Christa Avampato 