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.
stress, time, yoga

Leap: To Be Rooted and Free In Times of Difficulty

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Last night I went to ISHTA Yoga for the first time since Hurricane Sandy hit. I deeply missed my yoga home and being away from it made me realize how important it is for me as a staple in my life. We are so lucky that the studio didn’t incur any damage other than loss of power.

On my way to the studio, I was conscious of how tight and uncomfortable I was. This week I had two interviews for new freelance work that went very well though the preparation days leading up to them left me surprisingly stressed. They are both wonderful jobs and I’m eager to work with these mission-driven organizations. The roles are highly creative and dovetail perfectly with my passion for education.

While I was preparing for these interviews, I also spent a fair amount of my energy getting my head around the difficulties being faced by so many of my fellow New Yorkers in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. It’s as if we are living in two parallel worlds. One in which life is perfectly fine and proceeding as normal, and 5 miles away one that has descended into complete chaos with leveled homes, unbelievable loss of life and valuables, no power, no running water, and no heat. And all of this on the eve of another storm heading our way that may bring us our first dusting of snow and 60 mile per hour winds.

As I settled down onto my mat, I was considering how best to care for an open heart, how to be with people in times of distress without inheriting that stress. It is difficult but it can be done. And the trick is in our roots.

As my teacher, Douglass Stewart, walked into the room and began to talk us through our class. I felt myself release down into the mat, down into the Earth. What I’ve been missing in these past few days is the stability of grounding. Douglass, who always seem to know the perfect thing to say at every moment, asked us to firmly plant ourselves down, through our feet and hands, to feel that the Earth below us is stable and supportive. He asked us to recognize that the further we sink our roots, the higher we can fly. I felt that sentiment so strongly that my eyes began to fill up. That was my missing link.

When we feel like the wind is whipping us around, when we feel like everything around us is swirling at breakneck speed, it’s the ability to root down, to find that which gives us stability and strength, that helps us to rise. I am so grateful to ISHTA for being a part of that which helps me feel rooted so that I can be free and available to be of service, particularly in times of difficulty.

Keep breathing, New York. We’ll get through this together.

job, work

Leap: Two Great Jobs Looking for Great Applicants – Sesame Workshop and The Mind Fitness Training Institute

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Yesterday I learned about two great job opportunities that I wanted to pass along. If you’re interested, please let me know and I can get more information to you!

The first is at Sesame Workshop where I am a consultant for The Joan Ganz Cooney Center (JGCC), the digital media research lab at Sesame. So, the best part of this job is that you’d get to work with me. (Kidding, kind of.) JGCC is hiring a Senior Project Manager to work on a wide variety of impactful projects around education and technology. The job is posted on Idealist.org and is now taking applications. I could fill up a whole post with the perks of this job, but I’ll keep it short and say that the JGCC team is stellar, the projects are filled with goodness, and there is flexibility in schedule. The job is based in New York City at the Sesame Workshop offices. (Yes, where Grover, Cookie, Elmo, and the whole gang spend their time.) Click here for the complete job description and to apply.

The second is an Executive Director role with The Mind Fitness Training Institute. This is a DC area 501(c)(3) non-profit research and training organization dedicated to teaching mindfulness and resilience skills that enhance performance and strengthen response to stress, change and uncertainty. The job is not yet posted but if you are interested in learning more about it, please let me know and I will get the details for you from my friend who let me know about the opportunity.

I like to help good people work with good causes. Please pass on these opportunities through your network.

adventure, choices, decision-making, dreams, time

Leap: Your True North

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

Finding our true north is about deciding what matters.

Next week will mark 5 months since I left my corporate job to start Chasing Down the Muse, my own consulting and teaching practice. I did this for many reasons though there is one reason that stands head and shoulders above the others: I wanted to work on projects that matter to me. I care deeply about education (defined broadly as cultivating the imagination by stoking our creative fire with inspiration and information), healthcare (defined broadly as helping all people attain their maximum level of wellness), and strengthening entrepreneurship / small business.

I was working a corporate job in financial services. It didn’t add up. This is not to say that I think financial services is a terrible place to spend a career. On the contrary, I am grateful that I spent time in this industry because it helped me to understand the mechanics of our economy during an unprecedented crisis. It just wasn’t right for me anymore in this capacity. So, I left in an attempt to find a better path with a safety net that consists only of my savings account and my passion to live an authentic life.

Planning to leave wasn’t easy. I had a cushy gig with nice people (many of whom I am honored to have as friends), regular work hours, a healthy paycheck, and a solid benefits package. It was a lot to walk away from but I’ve never looked back. These benefits paled in comparison to the possibility of doing the work I am meant to do, the work I am called to do.

I should have been scared. On paper this looks like an extraordinarily naive decision made by a wide-eyed twenty-something, not a thirty-, on the verge of forty-something, who’s been around the block a number of times. But here I am, 5 months later and resolute in the fact that given the chance I would absolutely do it all over again and perhaps sooner.

There isn’t a single day when I say to myself “I really should have stayed where I was.” Even when it’s hard, even when I haven’t had things work out as I planned or expected, I continue to feel motivated and inspired by possibility and opportunity. I’m always confident that something I really wanted doesn’t work out because room had to be made for something I have not yet even dreamed of.

To chart a new course, to step off the ledge, requires the belief in our ability to fly even if we have never taken flight before. Certainly, it requires equal amounts of conviction and lunacy because there is no proof, evidence, or guarantee of success. We make these kinds of decisions based on guts and faith.

You might think this is a recipe for anxiety but it’s exactly the opposite. Somehow, I am now calmer, clearer, and more relaxed than I’ve ever been. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to be free, happy, healthy, and fulfilled. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t feel like the luckiest, most blessed, grateful person on the planet. To somehow repay the world for this incredible opportunity, I put these thoughts down on paper in the hopes that they help you find your own true north.

Never, ever doubt that your wildest, most wonderful dreams are not only possible, but also probable, if you set out to find them.

creativity, management, work

Leap: Business and Life Lessons from Ship Builders

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Most people have no business managing others because they have no idea how to positively motivate others. In this void of motivation, managers think the best idea is to have update meetings with their team members so the team can offer up detailed lists of what they’re working on to account for their time.

How many of these meetings have you been in? And how many of those meetings left you inspired? I find meetings like this useless. If you’re an adult and you have a job that you care about, you just do whatever it takes to get the job done in the time that you have to do it. You go to your manager when you need help or want to talk through an idea. Why waste time accounting for the hours you worked by preparing a detailed list of tasks for your boss? That sounds unbelievably inefficient to me and it communicates a true lack of trust and respect between managers and their team members.

Here’s a better idea for managers: build a team that actually cares deeply and passionately about the work. Motivate them by caring about who they are as people and being vested in their success. My former boss, Bob G., had one simple belief about teams. When he hired me he said, “Christa, I hope you are really successful at this company. But more importantly, I support you personally. I want to see you as a person be happy and successful and I’ll do anything I need to do to make that happen.”

I was more motivated to work for Bob than any other boss I’ve ever had. This belief in how to manage also presented another unintended consequence: because I was so self-directed working for Bob, I became entirely self-directed in all of the work that followed. That sense of self-direction in a job made entrepreneurship much less scary for me down the line.

Unfortunately, Bob spoiled me with this attitude. He set the bar too high. I have expected every boss after him to be this wise and supportive. The fact that I now work as a freelancer should tell you that every boss I’ve had after him failed to rise to his level. Once you get used to working for someone like Bob who has an enlightened view of management, you can’t go back to the dark days of micromanagement.

Bob’s outlook is all too rare these days. But it doesn’t have to be rare. Anyone could take this point-of-view. Anyone could decide at any moment to give their team members freedom to grow, experiment, and shape their work. What have you got to lose? Try it in small steps with small projects and see how it goes. You’ll be surprised by how high your team can soar when you give them the opportunity fly.

creativity, New York City, volunteer

Leap: Ray Bradbury, Yoda, and Cleaning Up After Hurricane Sandy

Christa Avampato
Parts of Downtown Manhattan saw the light tonight for the first time in almost a week. From NYTimes webcam

“Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” ~ Ray Bradbury, American writer

I have been glued to my television this week. With transportation being a tangled knot, if it exists at all, I wanted to let those who really need public transit access it without people like me adding noise to the system. In the past day or so, I’ve found myself incredibly anxious and antsy even though I was completely unaffected by the ravages of Hurricane Sandy. I donated money to the Red Cross but that one action wasn’t sufficient for me when my city is in such dire need. I needed to stop watching and start doing.

This weekend, local efforts to mass mobilize volunteers are getting underway. After signing up for countless lists, my inbox is flooded with requests for help and I couldn’t be happier. I’m rolling up my sleeves, heading outside, and pitching in. It will take all of our creativity, patience, and compassion to get us moving again. We can’t just try to make a difference; we must actually make a difference. The health of our city depends upon it.

If you’re in New York City, or plan to be, and you want to lend a hand, New Yorkers can use your support. Visit nyc.gov/service to learn about volunteer opportunities with the City and community-based organizations working on the recovery.  Please check the website periodically in the coming days as they update the opportunities.

neighbors, New York City

Leap: Kindness Multiples in New York City

Christa Avampato
Image by Milton Glaser

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – your act of goodness is not an isolated incident. It will change you. It will open your heart, and not just in that moment in which you’re giving, but always. It will open the hearts of others. As you give what you have to others who need help, you will inspire others to do the same. And that act will affect them, not just in that moment in which they’re giving, but always.

The pictures and videos emerging from Hurricane Sandy, the stories of heroism, generosity, and sheer kindness are nothing short of flat-out inspiring and tear jerking. Lives have been shattered in the greater metro area and people all over this country are rising up to help people put the pieces back together. In the midst of all of this sadness, all of this loss, I couldn’t be prouder or more honored to call myself a New Yorker.

Earlier this year, I contemplated making a move to a new city, citing the cost and insane pace of this city. No way. Not now. I am doubling down on my city. This is my home, these are my people, and we’re going to get through today and all the tough days ahead of us together. We can and will do this.

choices, friendship, inspiration, time

Leap: Take Up the Call

Christa Avampato

My friend, Amanda, recently posted this photo on her Facebook wall. I can’t think of a better piece of life advice than this. I printed it out and hung it at my desk, right next to Amanda’s quote that reads “We who are committed to living authentic lives need to cheer each other on….”

Consider this post my way to pay forward Amanda’s advice. Close your eyes. Hear that distant roar? It’s the sound of me cheering you on along your own joyful journey. It’s the wild and wonderful call to your spirit saying, “You can do this! Don’t delay. Don’t back down. Don’t give up. THIS is your moment.”

choices, decision-making, time, work

Leap: How to Decide What to Do

Christa Avampato

I’ve recently been faced with a few career decisions. I’ve had some opportunities crop up that are tantalizing with a side of “I’m not sure this is really the right choice for me right now.” To be clear, they are really wonderful options – good pay, interesting work, nice people. But in each there is a key ingredient that makes me think I should pass. Either the flexibility in schedule isn’t there or the work doesn’t feel like the best use of my time.

These decisions feel like the textbook definition of “the fork in the road.” It would be easy on some level to take these jobs and I’d be good at them. Here’s the morbid, though quite helpful, question I keep coming back to: what if this is it? Post-Sandy, we’re hearing about people who lost their lives despite following all directions and making good decisions. This grim idea gives me pause. I’m not any different from these people. That could have been me, and perhaps a bit too easily.

These are the tough questions, ones that don’t have any right or wrong answers. Isn’t it now, on the tail end of youth prior to solidly moving into middle age, that I can really take every chance to firmly commit to joy in my work? And isn’t that the choice that could have an expiration date? Down the line, won’t there be some job that I could do that feels a bit less like joy and a bit more like selling out that I could take if I really needed to?

This is the hero’s journey and I am in the midst of the “challenges and temptations” portion of the trip. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where character is formed and tested. Revelation and transformation lie in wait just around the bend. And it is not easy.

creativity

Hurricane Aftermath–What’s Up and How You Can Help | Brooklyn Based

Christa Avampato

This just in! If you wish to volunteer for the Hurricane Sandy clean up efforts in NYC, please click this link: http://brooklynbased.net/email/2012/10/sandy-in-brooklyn/. I just signed up with the Public Advocate’s Office. Thanks to the wonderful team at Brooklyn Based for getting this info to us!

creativity

How to Help in the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Christa Avampato

Hi everyone – Thanks for all of your emails, texts, and social media messages. Phin and I are A-ok. We never lost power but we don’t have internet service. I do have 3G signal through my cell, which I still can’t believe! The greater metro area is devastated. I am grateful beyond measure for my good fortune in this storm and I spent the morning trying to find ways to help others. At this early point, the best thing to do is donate to the Red Cross. I made a donation this morning. Please visit their site http://redcross.org to contribute. You can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Also, a number of other nonprofits are accepting donations. That list of organizations is available here. I will be on the look out for other ways to help in the coming days and will pass that info along through this blog. On behalf of my amazing city, thanks for all of your care and concern.