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.
hope, personality, psychology

My Year of Hopefulness – The Hopeful Cynic

Christa Avampato

On occasion, my mom has referred to me as her daughter, Christa, the cynic. I’d really like to disagree with her, though after years of trying to refute it I’ve realized she’s right. She just forgot to add the word “hopeful” in front of “cynic”. This might sound like a contradiction, though as my friend, Trevin and I always say, “I live my life hoping for the best and expecting the worst.” It keeps my life full of wonderful surprises.

The balance between cynicism and hope is delicate and must be constantly maintained. There is a real danger in slipping much too close to either the happy-go-luckies who live their lives in a state of optimism bordering on delusion and the people who are so cynical that you wonder how they kept them from just putting it all to an end yesterday. The balance is important to maintaining the very best of both extremes.

I like to look at a whole situation – details and the big picture comprised of those details. I don’t mind being the naysayer so long as it gets us to higher ground when it’s all said and done. I don’t like nicey-nice cultures – I like and appreciate honesty and thoughtful discussion.

I also don’t mind being the voice of hope in a room full of doom and gloom. I like being able to transform a situation from helplessness to self-confident action. Someone has to be the initial spark that begins a gathering light and that role suits me fine.

There aren’t that many of us hopeful cynics. Frankly it’s a lot of work to have this personality. Everyday that I pick up the paper (which does happen to be everyday) I wonder what our economy might be like with a few more hopeful cynics. I wonder if we would have been better prepared for this crisis. Would we have saved more when times were good? Would we have questioned expenditures and “business as usual” more closely?

To this end, I developed a few guidelines in case anyone is interested in developing the hopeful cynic within them:
1.) Question everything, always, and don’t stop until you get a solid, logical answer
2.) Read works of fiction and nonfiction in equal amounts. Fiction keeps you imagining worlds that could be while nonfiction helps you see things as they really are, often from someone else’s point-of-view.
3.) Watch movies that make you laugh and cry, and especially watch those that make you think.
4.) Be wary of people who say yes or no to everything.
5.) Trust your instincts, even if no one around you seems to have the same opinion
6.) If a situation is 100% a dream or 100% a nightmare, do some more digging so you know what you’re really in for
7.) No matter what circumstances you’re in, good, bad, or indifferent, know that eventually it will pass. Change is the only thing that is guaranteed.

career, economy, Examiner, innovation, job

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: Businesses Take a Cue from Reality TV for Extreme Innovation Projects

Christa Avampato

Imagine your office. Imagine your co-workers. Imagine that they become your roommates for 10 weeks.

For the full article, please click here.

books, creativity, hope, TED

My Year of Hopefulness – It Only Gets Better from Here

Christa Avampato

33. How did that happen? When did I go from being a confused, maybe even lost, cute chick in my mid-20’s? I don’t feel any older. I actually don’t even look any older (or at least I tell myself that as I smooth on the anti-aging moisturizer.) I took a long walk in Riverside Park today and thought about my past birthdays, which very often have turned out to be pivotal moments in my life.

My first birthday after college I was promoted to a position at work that would set me off on 5 fantastic years in theatre management. Another birthday I had my passport stolen in South Africa and learned about the tremendous kindness of strangers, while simultaneously falling in love with the country and culture as a result of what I thought initially was a horrible tragedy and later turned out to be a blessing. In South Africa, I learned painfully that we are never alone in this world, that someone, somewhere is always willing to lend a hand if we have the humility and grace to ask for help sincerely and honestly. I’ve fallen in love on my birthday, and I’ve also had my heart broken on my birthday, none of which would I ever take back. I went snorkeling for the first time on my 30th birthday and so began my gradual letting go of the fear of water. (This is still a work-in-progress.)

So today, what is the pivotal moment that happened? Today, I learned to trust my instincts. I realized that maybe I learned to temper my wide-eyed, blinder-clad idealism with a bit of reality. I learned to see people and situations for what they really are and not simply for what people told me they were. I began to connect dots from my past to my potential future. I learned that while my days past were wonderful, my future days will be better and happier still. I learned to hear and acknowledge what was not being said, as clearly as I am able to discern what is being said.

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, gave a talk at TED this year that has had my mind spinning for weeks. She is funny, likable, and brutally honest, even at her own expense. She talked about success, and the concern and fear of many, maybe even of most, people who achieve success. “How will I ever top this?” “Is my greatest work done?” “Is this the very best I will ever be?” And her answer – maybe.

However, she counsels, keep showing up. Every day, keep looking forward, appreciating what we have and had, and recognizing that always within us there is the potential to achieve and be more tomorrow than we are today. Much of our creativity and inspiration comes from an other-worldly source that we do not control, but can only revel in and listen to. Pay attention. Or, as Ann Curry told me via Twitter “Inspiration often comes without warning.” And if that is the case, and I believe firmly that it is, then why not think that it only gets better from here? We have no reason to believe otherwise because much of it is likely out of our hands.

The photo above is of Elizabeth Gilbert and can be found at: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/elizabeth_gilbert.html

economy, goals, work

My Year of Hopefulness – Impossible Standards

Christa Avampato

At first blush, the term “impossible standards” doesn’t seem to have any hint of hopefulness in it. We think of demanding bosses, people who think we are never good enough, and inability to reach a set goal. Though if we took a broader view of impossible standards, we could see in the term the potential for continuous improvement, the ability to always discover something new, the opportunity for never-ending achievement.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this term lately. Tomorrow is my birthday, 33 (what my dear friend Brooke would call “my Jesus Year”), and it’s always a time of reflection for me. Of where I’m going, where I’ve been, and what’s good in my life. I spend an entire day not beating myself up over anything. I take the day off from work and I do exactly what I want to do. I have tremendously high standards for myself and I usually reaffirm them on my birthday. I make a commitment to continue reaching higher and higher in every aspect of my life.

I consider what’s happening in our economy right now and there is one very clear take-away that emerges for me. A lot of companies and a lot of leaders took on a view of entitlement, of being above any laws or rules or ethics. They thought they were at the very top of their game, always, when in fact they just had a very low bar for themselves and for their teams.

Impossible standards keep us humble, they keep us striving and fighting for improvement. I grow concerned not when someone sets an unimaginable standard, but when someone settles for things as they are because they can’t imagine ever being, doing, or having any better.

economy, Obama, writer

My Year of Hopefulness – We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Christa Avampato

We have been waiting for someone to save us. We have said,”Once Barack Obama becomes President, he will save us.” “Once the government gets us a stimulus package, we will be saved.” “My company will protect my job.”

Truthfully, no one is coming to save us. Not Barack Obama, not Ben Bernanke and a stimulus package, not corporate America. So stop waiting. We need to stop standing on our doorsteps, timid and scared to take a step outside to see how the world has changed. We need to stop waiting for our neighbors, our friends, our family members, our companies, our government to make a move only so we can follow suit.

We are the ones who must move. We must take action and change and grow and learn and be brave. Our world has changed. This is not a cycle. There is a fundamental shift, a step-change, that has occurred in our markets and it is not reversible.

We can only look forward. Don’t look back over your shoulder; there is nothing left to see. We have spent our time mourning, and now we must begin living again. As the author Alice Walker so beautifully, simply, and powerfully put it, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

In case you didn’t hear and see Ms. Walker deliver her beautiful letter to President Obama (just before his inauguration), and to the nation as a whole, click here.

The image above can be found here.

economy, entrepreneurship, New York Times, Oxo

My Year of Hopefulness – Tired of looking for work? Use your superpowers.

Christa Avampato

Yesterday the New York Times ran an article about how the frustrations of job searching have caused some unemployed Americans to stop looking altogether and start their own businesses. This news made me so happy that I literally jumped up and down in my apartment while reading the article. I know that entrepreneurship is the way forward in this country and I am so glad to hear reports that it is taking root.

So what if you are someone like my friend, Kelly, who has a corporate job that she’s not all that thrilled with though she isn’t quite sure what kind of business she’d like to start? You could follow Alex Lee’s example as the CEO of OXO. He has an entrepreneurial spirit, though didn’t want to start from scratch with his own idea. He wanted to find a small company that made good products, and use his skills, talents, and interests to grow the company. He found that at OXO.

You could also start by focusing on your superpowers rather than on an idea for a business. Seth Godin wrote a terrific blog post this morning about harnessing our superpowers – not anything a la X-Men but a superpower being something that we do very, very well. Maybe you are a great story teller. Perhaps you have a knack for translating numbers on a spreadsheet into a narrative that gets people excited about a business. You might be a whiz on Facebook and Twitter. Do you draw well? Do you have an eye for color or design? Perhaps you make the best melt-in-your mouth sugar cookies. You might be the best listener on the planet.

The point of Seth’s post is that we all do something exceptionally well. The key to success as an entrepreneur is to start with your strengths. Build a business or join a small business where the majority of your time is spent doing the things you do best. It sounds so simple and yet think about how often we beat ourselves up every day for things we don’t do well. Our so-called “areas of development” take over our entire career. Think about how destructive and devastating that is to our self-esteem, self-image, and confidence.

There is a young man featured in the New York Times article who got so frustrated and depressed looking for work that he just stopped doing it. Out of his house, he builds jellyfish tanks that allow the jellyfish to live longer, healthier lives in captivity than they do in traditional fish tanks. Huh? How successful could that venture possibly be? He recently sold a tank to a restaurant for $25,000. The time he spent building that tank for that restaurant was far more lucrative than the same amount of time he had spent looking for a job in a down economy.

We aren’t in just another economic cycle. What we are experiencing is a step-change in the way our global economy grows and operates. Stop thinking about when your 401K and your company’s stock price are going to bounce back up to their 2007 levels. Focus on the opportunity that’s in front of each of us to contribute to the economy on our own terms with our own strengths as the very basis of our work. This is the way of the future.

The photo above was taken by Jim Wilson for the The New York Times and depicts Alex Andon with one of the jellyfish tanks he builds. He started his business after he was laid off.

business, entrepreneurship, GEL conference, gel2008

NY Business Strategies Examiner.com: Alex Lee, CEO of OXO

Christa Avampato

“The company is a design philosophy. It’s about solving problems for every room in the house.” That began my recent conversation with Alex Lee, CEO of OXO.

For the full interview, please visit: http://ow.ly/VYL

economy, friendship, neighbors, New York City

My Year of Hopefulness – Look Up

Christa Avampato

I was walking along Amsterdam Avenue recently, taking notice of all of the store fronts now covered with brown paper and masking tape. A large “retail space for rent” sign hangs prominently on too many doors these days. I kept wondering how we slipped so far so fast, how in a matter of days and weeks businesses are opening and then shuttering their days. Less than two years ago I moved to the Upper West Side, grateful for an apartment under $2000, no store front left unoccupied. On what used to be one of the busiest blocks, 5 spaces are now available.

Equal parts nervous and confused, I was preoccupied with the state of our economy. And then a man and a woman whom I had passed in a rush had a 10 second conversation that made me almost stop in my tracks. The man said, “Oh look at that! The stone work on that building is beautiful. Have you ever seen that before?” “No,” she replied. “In all the time I’ve lived here I’ve never noticed it.” I looked up. I’d never noticed it either. And it is beautiful – cerulean blue, grass green, sunny yellow, and bright orange. How could I have been missing that magnificent splash of color all this time? I guess I’ve been looking down too often.

Sometimes it takes people new to a situation to help us see clearly. We are in such a rush, so used to our surroundings, that we often don’t see the beauty right in front of us, or above us as the case may be. We become so lost in our thoughts and concerns, that we miss out on what’s happening all around us.

We’re exposed to so many signals and messages and images with every step, that our mind has to filter just to stay somewhat organized. This filtering sometimes causes us to miss out on things that could and should bring us some amount of joy and happiness. I am a firm believer that eventually we will always find what we’re looking for. The flip side of that is that if we aren’t looking for something, we may not find it on our own. It often takes someone else’s perspective and experience to wake us up to the life we’re walking through.

health, healthcare, social media

My Year of Hopefulness – YouTube for Medicine

Christa Avampato

My mom told me yesterday that one of her knees has gotten so bad that it looks like she will need a total knee replacement. My mom, by nature, is an incredibly upbeat, positive person. The tough part about her is that she tends to grossly underplay any serious news when it comes to her health. I know that this type of surgery is very invasive and serious so when my mom said she’d likely be back at work two weeks after the surgery I almost fell off my couch.

I immediately called my friend, Ken, who works in physical therapy and is one of the dearest people in my life. he has an incredible bedside manner and is a wonderfully caring therapist who is also honest and straight-forward. “No way, now how is she going back to work after two weeks.” We talked some more about the procedure so I would know what to ask the surgeon when I go with my mother to get a second opinion (and we are getting a second opinion, and a third and a fourth is necessary.) “Oh, and one more thing,” Ken said. “Go to YouTube and type in ‘total knee replacement’ so you understand the procedure. Just don’t tell your mom to do that or she’ll never get it done.”

I followed Ken’s advice, of course, and went to YouTube. 729 hits for “total knee replacement”. I was able to understand the process in both long and short formats, understand the immediate post-op and recovery process, and have a list of questions to ask the surgeon when my mom and I met him or her. Ten of thousands of people are viewing the health videos I checked.

YouTube is a treasure trove of medical information. “Cancer” yeilded 123,000 videos on YouTube. “Heart attack” – 39,300. “Diabetes” – 20,700. “First aid” – 36,900. I am by no means suggesting that we begin to use YouTube to self-diagnose or diagnose others. When it comes to collecting information about our health, I ere on the side of wanting more than my fair share of information and data. Social media sources like YouTube are changing the way we view our bodies, our health, and our healthcare system. This is serious cause for hope and thanks.

The above image and video on total knee replacement surgery can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aoo_nFpDd4

business, economy, Ethics, legal

My Year of Hopefulness – New Directions Caused by Unfortunate Circumstances

Christa Avampato

A friend of mine called me this evening to tell me about an extremely unfortunate incident at his place of work. It’s something that I imagine a lot of people are facing these days: bad behavior. We read stories in the newspaper about the desperation of people in this economy – violent crime is up, bank robberies are rising, and bad practices of good businesses are being uncovered every day. My friend uncovered today that his company has been inflating top line sales by purchasing their own goods and writing off the expense. And now he is faced with a very serious ethical and legal dilemma. Say something or move on? For him, sticking around while this is happening is not something that he can do.

His situation is complicated by the fact that he works for a public company (and a troubled one at that) and he has no solid proof of the transactions in writing. This piece of information was conveyed on a conference call that he had the misfortune to be on – everyone on the call was aware that this had been happening except for him. He had wondered how his company sales could be going along okay, far better than the competition, at a time like this. Curiosity can sometimes uncover truths we never dreamed of and never wanted.

A friend of his said that clearly the Universe is sending him this information for a reason. Bombshells like this don’t fall from the sky without a purpose. It is a moment of teaching. For some time, my friend has been considering whether or not the big corporate life is really for him. Originally he went into it for a lot of the same reasons many people went into it – to make a good living, good benefits, the chance to be promoted, the opportunity to work for a company with great influence on our society. Now with the fundamental shift in the marketplace that we are experiencing, the futures of those in corporate America may have shifted as well. Perhaps the days of easy living that so many experienced have passed us by. We have lived through and beyond the “good old days”. Bob Dylan’s most famous words never rang truer.

My friend is experiencing the hard, sad truth about some companies that we have admired for so long, held up as the gold standard in business: winning shows part of a company’s character and losing (or at least not winning as easily or as big as it used to) shows all of it. My friend has considered striking out on his own and I think this most recent incident at work may push him to finally take the plunge.

He’s been betting on his company for a long time – he’s invested many years of his life with them and has been moving through the system as a good clip. Today he realized that the system he thought he was a part of is really smoke and mirrors. After the hurt and disbelief subsides, there is a huge lesson in all of this for him, and for all of us. Tomorrow he’s cashing in his chips, walking away from the table, and making a new bet on himself and his own ideas. In a very serious tone he summed up the trade-off to me: “I may not get to win as big or as often as I imagined doing with this company, but at least I get to make the rules I live by and keep my integrity.”