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, education, fear, marketing, teaching

Beautiful: The Best Class You Can Take Is Practice

Christa Avampato

23252c94afced662d93d9659daff6a69 “The only way I know to get anything done is to work like hell.” ~ Robert Spekman, my MBA marketing professor at Darden

A few years back, I contemplated going back to school to get my PhD in education. Robert was one of my favorite professors at my Darden MBA program and I spent a good amount of time with him during my two years there. When I was thinking of going back to get my PhD, he was one of the first people I talked to.

He was in New York for a meeting so I met him at the restaurant of his hotel and we had breakfast together. I told him about my own history and how my education literally saved my life. I explained that I was a bit worried about applying for a PhD in a field in which I’d never formally studied. Robert told me I had the best experience of all: I lived it. He followed up the line above with this – “Take all the classes you want in any subject. Until you actually sit down and do the work, with your a*s on the line for results, it doesn’t matter.” And with that I put my fear aside and applied.

Things didn’t exactly go the way I had hoped. I only applied to one school, Columbia’s Teachers College, and I didn’t get in. (You can read about my rejection letter here.) It turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. And I never forgot that conversation with Robert, nor the lesson he taught me. I use his advice all the time. I’m grateful for his support, but I’m even more grateful that he didn’t coddle me with exclamations of how great I was, or intelligent, or talented, or any other load that he could have told me to just move the conversation along. He showed me that I already have what it takes to have an impact in a field that means a lot to me. I didn’t need another degree; I just needed to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

children, education, media, video games

Beautiful: Short Film I Worked on For National STEM Video Game Challenge

Christa Avampato

Hi all – fun video post today. This is the short film I worked on for the National STEM Video Game Challenge. It highlights the incredible work of kids in New York City who attended our fantastic workshops on video game design. It clocks in at just under 5 minutes and the insights from these kids will leave you hopeful about our future. Let me know what you think!

business, entrepreneurship, mentor, SXSW

Beautiful: Grab One of My Remaining Mentor Slots at SXSW V2V

Christa Avampato

It’s almost here!

The inaugural SXSW V2V conference in Vegas runs from August 12th – 14th. I’m giving 6 mentor sessions to new and would-be entrepreneurs on August 13th. Half of them are already gone. If you know someone going who might want to spend some time with me in one of my remaining sessions, send ’em on over to this link to sign up: http://mentor.sxswv2v.com/mentors/53.

Thanks y’all!

creativity

Beautiful: Don’t Work; Be More Productive

Christa Avampato
Mark Twain, one of my productivity idols, countered a busy week of writing by taking weekends off to spend with his family, read, and daydream

My summer break in Los Angeles helped me realize the truth in an adage that I have long-loved but only now really understand: “So often what’s needed in a change of self and not a change of scene.” I can, and should, take more breaks and I don’t have to skip town to do it.

I am inspired by this article from the Huffington Post about the un-plugging rituals of some highly productive folks, both past and present. It’s a fun and inspiring read. If these folks can take a break, so can I. And one of the happiest upsides is that it will make my work even more joyful and energizing.

Here’s how I plan to implement my own regular “take a break ritual” when I’m back at home in NYC:

1.) I love to spend my Sunday mornings curled up on my couch with a cup of something warm and tasty, reading the New York Times and watching CBS Sunday Morning. I always learn something new and inspiring. I’ve sacrificed this time too often in the past. No more. On Sundays, I won’t be reachable until noon.

2.) Mornings are a time that I feel reflective and clear. I want to make the most of that time. Of course Phin and I will continue to do our morning gratitude walks (the pup’s gotta get out!). I’m up early by nature so I plan to give them a bit more structure – morning meditation, some gentle yoga, a vegan smoothie, followed by a page of writing (not typing but actual writing) anything that comes into my mind.

I’m excited to see if and how keeping these two rituals change my perspective. Of course, I’ll be sure to report back right here on this blog.

story, writer, writing

Beautiful: Ira Glass Offers Encouragment to Writers – Don’t Quit

Christa Avampato

Ira Glass, I love you. I love you for so honestly putting it out there: storytelling is a craft, an art, and it takes a really long time to get good at it. And the only way to get good is to try over and over and over again. Write. Write. Write. There is no substitute for practice. There’s no shortcut. It takes blood, sweat, tears, and time.

Thank you for encouraging writers everywhere to keep going. Check out Ira’s video:

family, love

Beautiful: How I Got the Name Rose

Christa Avampato

50ca7680124c63f97bcde850a09d0212For those of you who don’t know, my middle name is Rose. I’m named after two people: my two aunts who are both named Rose.

My first Aunt Rose
My first Aunt Rose, or Rosie as we call her, is 86 years old and she is in the sunset of her life. We found out last week that she has stage 4 lung cancer that has metastasized to an alarming degree. Chemo is no longer an option and the treatments she will undergo are meant to make her comfortable in the remaining months of her life. We are all heartbroken by the news because we love Rosie very much and because it feels like losing my grandmother Sadie (her sister) all over again. She looks just like her – they both remind me of Bette Davis with those gorgeous doe-like eyes and soft rounded features. I look at old photos of them and my jaw drops. They were and are stunning, as beautiful inside as out.

My Aunt Rosie is only 14 years older than my mom so they are more like sisters than niece and aunt. They are so close that she was the maid of honor at my mom’s wedding. She’s also my brother’s Godmother. And she holds the title as my family’s original yogini. Last year we lost my Uncle John, Rosie’s husband. While I was at her house before the service, she showed us an exercise book that she’s used for many years. It was published years before I was born and depicts daily yoga exercises for better health. I never knew she practiced. I guess I was meant to be a yoga teacher – it’s in my genes and my name.

My second Aunt Rose
I never knew my second Aunt Rose. She was the first child of my paternal grandparents, and she died when she was just three days old. Their three children who followed Rose were all boys. My dad once told me that every year on Rose’s birthday my grandfather would cry all day. This tough, gruff Sicilian man who survived the Great Depression and so many other difficulties, in Italy and in his adopted country, never cried about anything except the death of his daughter. Before my older brother, Joey, was born, my grandmother bought my parents a tiny pink dress in the hopes that Joey would be a girl. (But make no mistake – they both adored Joey.) My grandmother died the year before I was born, but my grandfather was still among us. When I was born, my parents gave me the name Rose, and when they told my grandfather he was so happy. He couldn’t wait to meet me, but we never got the chance.

The night I was born, there was a heavy snow storm. My grandfather was shoveling out his car so he could drive over to the hospital to meet me. He pushed himself too hard and had a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital, but never regained consciousness. He died the next day without getting the chance to hold me, the little girl he had been waiting to have for almost 50 years.

What’s in a name? In my case, a lot. A lot of love, and dreams, and honor for two people – one who has lived a long, happy life and one who never got the chance she deserved. I’m proud to carry them both with me.

learning, time

Beautiful: What the Stars Teach Us

Christa Avampato

971564_634792789875069_364829714_nEvery night, Phin and I take a spin around the block and we look up at the stars. We see them twinkling there. Phin’s just trying to find his next great pee spot and I’m trying to figure out where I go from here and how. A few months back, I had the idea of wiping the slate clean on my career and my life, starting over on a number of levels, fearless about my future and unhampered by my past. Then, I wanted newness in all its forms, and that’s what I want now, too, more than ever.

When we look at the stars, we realize how small we are. A speck in the cosmos. But still a speck, occupying some amount of space for some amount of time. We’re not nothing. We’re something. And we should try to do something meaningful and helpful and useful with our cosmic something-ness. That’s what I learned by staring at the stars and having them stare back at me. We’re here. We don’t know why, or how, or for how long, but let’s make the most of it.

story, writer, writing

Beautiful: I Learned How to Trust My Story

Christa Avampato

f8b912445421c7a737529d5ca28216ad I’m learning this lesson in spades this summer. I’m in the midst of working on a handful of stories that have been churning in the depths of my mind for years. I’ve worked on them in fits and starts, stopping short when I would hit a roadblock that I couldn’t figure out how to remove. And so they’ve sat, unexplored and never shared.

“I’ll think of something eventually. I’ll meditate on it. I’ll just leave it alone and somehow it will fix itself.” I would try to make myself feel better with these affirmations. Really, they are just excuses.

The thinking doesn’t help. The meditating doesn’t help. The leaving it alone doesn’t help. The only thing that fixes writing is more writing. Yes, you have to lean into your writing, especially when you don’t know what to do.

You have to say to hell with the fear of writing garbage. All writers write garbage. It’s part of the process. It gets edited out later. Ditch the fear of being a screw up, of being wrong, fear of putting crap on the page and having it stare back at you. Write anything and everything that comes into your mind. The devil, and the answers to my roadblocks, are in the details and those details only step into the light through writing.

Once I committed to take action, I stopped being a writer and transformed into an observer. I follow my characters around as they tip-toe, stomp, saunter, skip, hop, and run through my imagination and the world they create in it. Rather than writing a story, I decided to trust my characters; those highly flawed, beautiful, totally irrational beings create something much more authentic and poignant for themselves than I can build for them. I set them free and let them act the way they want to act and do the things they want to do. They mess up. They hurt each other, and themselves. My instinct is to protect them like I protect my friends and my family, but that doesn’t serve anyone and it’s not my place.

So I let them be exactly who they are, and I love them all the more for it. To honor them, I play the scribe, getting it all down as accurately as I can. I take a page from Anna Quindlen’s advice on how to live life: “I show up. I listen. I try to laugh.”

experience, story

Beautiful: Tend Your Stories

Christa Avampato

975cdc77aefd36de8a8884bf879c9c2b Two people go through the exact same experience and end up in radically different places. Why? Because of their stories.

What happened to them before the experience? How did they view the experience while it was happening? What did they do with what they learned from the experience? The answers to these questions build out a person’s stories, the ones they tell themselves and the ones they tell others.

When you go out into the world, you are bound to have things happen. Some of them will be wonderful, and some will be awful. We can bear them all and make good use of each one by putting them into a story. Stories help us cope. They give us an outlet for celebration and for understanding. To write a story, we have to stand at the nexus of our experiences, past, present, and future. We have to be in the moment while also reflecting back and looking forward.

If we can tell a story that’s honest and helpful, then we have lived well.