Category: creativity

creativity, dreams, writer, writing

Beautiful: Inspired by Julia Child, I’m Following My Dream of Being a Full-time Writer

Christa Avampato

3c52d8c67468e7c4da66be625f3b9becWhen Julia Child was 37 (the age I am now), she began to cook because she loved to eat. She had no prior experience in the kitchen, and yet she gave herself over fully to the craft that captured her imagination. It took her a long time to reach the success she ultimately had as a cook, but she kept at it even in the most trying times and circumstances.

Julia Child was lucky financially in that her husband had a very good job and she wasn’t on the hook for her own rent. I have to keep a roof over my own head (and Phin’s) and food on the table (and in Phin’s bowl.) So I will have to continue to work in the vocation of business (which I love) in order to do that – for now. But here’s the difference going forward – it’s all in service to my craft as a writer.

I’ve been writing every day, on the side, for 6 years and I’ve loved every second of it. This summer, I wrote my first full-length play and worked on full outlines for several other writing projects. The goal is to eventually write full-time. I don’t know long it will take to make that happen but that’s what I’m working for and towards. I don’t know how long it will take – it could be a dream many years in the making – but that’s the mountain I’m climbing, small step by small step. And I’m fine with however long this journey takes. That clarity is liberating and empowering.

Here’s to shooting for the moon!

business, creativity, entrepreneurship, writer, writing

Beautiful: Restarting My Examiner Column on Entrepreneurship

Christa Avampato

Examiner-LogoIn early 2009, I started writing a business column for Examiner.com. Over the course of 15 months, I published 130 articles, many of them interviews with entrepreneurs. Invigorated and inspired by President Obama’s election, I wanted to lend a hand to entrepreneurs who courageously moved forward during the darkest days of the economic recession. I knew I could do that through my writing. I also wanted to find the courage to start my own business so I thought interviewing brave entrepreneurs would help me, too. A number of them became friends of mine; all of them provided me with the inspiration and confidence I needed to strike out on my own. Quite a few of them – OXO, Airbnb, Behance, Squarespace, and Divvyshot among them – have gone on to experience phenomenal success. I wrote first e-book based on 27 of these stories. You can download that book for free here.

I stopped publishing on Examiner in mid-2010. Since then, I’ve been involved with a lot of different ventures and Examiner.com has grown substantially. Now I’m returning to it to honor and serve entrepreneurs again. Even though I stopped publishing, Examiner never removed my column. You can still see all of the pieces I wrote from 2009 – 2010 and starting today you will be able to read all my new features going forward. Today’s piece is my SXSW V2V wrap-up. I’ll publish the links to all my future stories on this blog, my Facebook page, and my Twitter feed. You can also subscribe to my column by clicking here.

California, calm, creativity, peace

Beautiful: My LA Adventure Taught Me to Be a Tree in Winter

Christa Avampato

9d2275bf25fe5c1d448e48e7aff6128d“I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.” ~ Jeffrey McDaniel

My LA adventure is drawing to a close. The last few weeks have been a kind of magical transformation for me. I stopped trying to force my experience here and just let it be whatever it wanted to be. It was both liberating and invigorating. I could delight in the hazy sunshine and the gorgeous trees and the cool air without asking anything of them, knowing that they ask nothing of me except to be seen, felt, and experienced.

It’s not in my nature to stop inquiring, to stop digging, but it’s kind of lovely once in a while to take the advice of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and let it be, knowing there will be an answer. Trusting that somewhere along the line that answer will rise up when it’s good and ready. The more we let go, the easier it is for that answer to rise. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is just stop, take ourselves out of the equation, and wait.

It takes nerve to wait. We worry that we’re wasting time, our most precious and irreplaceable resource. Here in LA I found that in a calm mind resides every answer we need. They’re there all along – our only job is to get out of the way and listen. Let the answers rise. They always do.

Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I’m going to try my best to bring a little Los Angeles back with me. In the hustle and bustle of New York City’s streets, I hope you’ll be able to spot me as the calm in the middle of the storm, leaving a wake of peace everywhere I go. New York is where I’m needed. That’s where I’ve got something to give.

Thanks, LA, for taking me under your wing and for teaching me more about me than I ever thought possible. I’ll never forget you.

creativity, time, values, writing

Beautiful: Your Mission, Your Tagline

Christa Avampato

c9ce7be37f7cff45866452dbd86940bcIn business school, I was trained to place supreme emphasis on an elevator pitch. In this age of shorter-than-ever attention spans, an elevator pitch is too long. Now we need a tagline to use online and off. Who are you and what do you care about in 10 words or less? I recently updated the tagline on my blog: “Curating a creative life through ancient wisdom and modern tech.” 

My tagline used to read “Curating a creative life” and I would sometimes get the question, “how do you do that?” I wanted to be clearer about what I do so I expanded my tag line with the descriptors of how I curate a creative life. This summer I realized that everything I do is rooted in two worlds – the one of ancient wisdom (art, yoga, philosophy, wellness) and modern tech. That balance is very important to me because the two halves inform one another.

This clarity took time and a lot of effort to find and articulate. However, it was well worth the energy because it’s made my other career decisions so much easier. That’s the power of a personal mission.

What’s your tagline?

career, choices, creativity, work

Beautiful: You Find Success Where the Needs of the World Meet Your Talents

Christa Avampato
From Pintrest

“Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.” ~ Aristotle

Trying to figure out what career path to follow? Join the club. According to the latest Gallup poll, 70% of Americans hate their jobs. I used to be one of them until I struck out on my own, and though I now work a lot more hours and live with a lot less certainty, I am happier than I’ve ever been in my life because I love my work so much that it actually gives me energy. The road to happiness wasn’t easy and it’s a daily process to stay on that road, but here’s how I got started:

1.) I looked around to find out things that the world needs
2.) I wrote a list of things I love to do
3.) I wrote another list of things I’m good at
4.) And then I lined them all up

Now there are a million and one things you could do to get the answers for each of those 4 steps – and I’m happy to share my process for doing that – but those are the road signs along every successful career journey I’ve ever heard of. Get yourself to that crossroads in step 4, and you’ll know exactly which mountain you’re meant to climb. Need help? Get in touch with me – I’m glad to be your guide!

Up tomorrow: What to do after step 4.

action, business, creativity, decision-making, entrepreneurship, product, product development, profession

Beautiful: My Company Pivots – a New Direction for Chasing Down the Muse

Christa Avampato
My new business card

As I head to Vegas this morning to be part of the mentor program at SXSW V2V, I’m excited to announce that my company, Chasing Down the Muse, is making a shift to place more emphasis on making products. I used my summer in LA to figure out my next career steps. I moved away from everything and almost everyone I know to figure out what mattered most to me.

Here’s what I learned: While I’ve enjoyed the strategy, communications, and marketing consulting projects I’ve done this year, I miss spending the majority of my time ideating, making, launching, and iterating products. Time to change that! Don’t get me wrong – the strategy, marketing, and communications is vital to having successful products and I plan to continue that work; now I want to bring the actual making of products back into my daily work life. Want to work together on product-based projects? Drop me a line!

This summer I’ve spent every day involved in the process of making and it’s been a complete delight. I have always believed that the surest way to a fulfilling life is to follow the joy wherever it leads. So I’m taking my own advice. I’m going for it – let’s roll!

Check out the Chasing Down the Muse website to see what I’m creating and to get a few freebies that will help you find your direction, too.

Up tomorrow: Why I lean in every day

creativity, dreams, fear, feelings

Beautiful: Fear Can Be a Path to Free

Christa Avampato

494ab1219a79b1ae0d7cab6dcea48107 With just over a week to go in LA, it’ll be back to life and back to reality very soon. Some of my old familiar fears are beginning to seep in: Am I on the right track? Am I going the right way? Are these sacrifices really worth the potential rewards? And if they are, and I don’t ever see those potential rewards, will I still think of this path as one worth taking?

Too often I’ve associated freedom with lack of fear. With a year out on my own under my belt, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that if I waited for the fear to subside before pursuing my dreams, I’d never pursue them at all. The road to freedom is paved with fears, and lots of ’em. I don’t banish my fears, but I use them like our bodies use carbohydrates, like cars use gas. I burn through them and part of that process means fully feeling them, looking them in the eye, and not flinching. I press on with those unrelenting fears at my back, and they only subside when I face them and live to tell about it.

And I don’t think that being afraid of something means that I should definitely do it. For me, it means that I should put a lot of thought and consideration into the decision. Facing fears is difficult work; it’s often painful, plagued by hardship, and there is no guarantee of success. All of those facets have to be weighed in totality. I have to ask myself, “Even if this path is difficult, do I still feel in my heart that it’s the best way to spend the precious little time I have?” If so, I use the fear for fuel. If not, I’m grateful for that realization and I pursue another dream.  After all, I’ve got a list of dreams that never seems to have an end. If this one doesn’t work out, there will always be another.

Up tomorrow: An exciting announcement about my company

art, business, creative, creative process, creativity, music, technology, time, writer, writing

Beautiful: What We Can Learn About Time from Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, Black Sabbath, and Angry Birds

Christa Avampato

robin_thicke_blurred_lines_album_cover_ARIA_120613_640x360Singer Robin Thicke has something to celebrate. After 10 years in the business, the 36-year old has his first #1 album with Blurred Lines. His first album never got out of the triple digits. Think Thicke has grit to stick with it for all these years? The band Black Sabbath recorded music for 46 years before their album, 13, hit #1 in June. The crackerjack team over at Rovio Entertainment created the wildly popular app, Angry Birds, after creating 51 other apps.

Age has nothing to do with it
Hollywood, Broadway, Silicon Valley, and American Idol have created a culture obsessed with youth. The wild rise of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech moguls in their 20s has caused a dangerous and unfortunate fixation on youth among the venture and investor community. Many VCs and investors refuse to even hear the startup pitches of any founders older than 30. We bemoan getting older and so we nip, tuck, pluck, lie about our age, and workout to the point of breaking our bodies, never happy with how we look or where we are along life’s path. Robin Thicke is 36. Ozzy Osbourne is 64. Peter Vesterbacka, one of the Angry Birds creators, is 44. If you think you have to be at the top of your field before you see your first wrinkle or gray hair, think again.

Success takes time and talent
When we aren’t as successful as we’d like to be at something right off the bat, we often throw in the towel. Too often and too soon, we sulk back to our homes, hide under our beds, and hope for brighter days ahead. Sometimes we resign ourselves to the idea that time has passed us by. Don’t do that. Figure out what worked, what didn’t work, and try again with this knowledge in-hand.

If your work isn’t its own reward, then find other work
Success is a personal and daily process. Even if I never receive any kind of critical acclaim as a writer, I’ll never think of the time I spend writing as a waste and I’ll never stop writing. The act of writing, putting my story out there and knowing that it helps others, is all the reward I ever need from it. Certainly critical success on a large scale would be lovely, but I don’t sit down every day and write with that as a goal. I’m trying to tell a story as honestly and as clearly as possible. If you’re working only for external rewards, you are wasting your time and setting yourself up for enormous disappointment.

If you found work you love, stick with it. If you get up every day, excited to create something, then keep creating. If your work fills your heart as it grows your portfolio, then you’re on the right track.

creativity, meditation

Beautiful: From Ah! to Om…: A Meditation Guide for Beginners and Two Guided Meditations

Christa Avampato
From Ah! to Om…: A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation

I’ve been wanting to put together a few guided meditations for some time now. At long last, here they are for your viewing, listening, and downloading pleasure! Thanks to my pal, Alison, for prompting me to get this done and out into the world.

From Ah! to Om…: A Meditation Guide for Beginners is just that – 5 tips to help you begin your own meditation practice. Whether you’ve never tried to meditate before or you’ve tried many times before without much success (which was me not that long ago!), these 5 tips will help. With some beautiful images, music, and a voiceover by yours truly, I hope you enjoy this multi-media presentation. Prezi presentation link.

Ujjayi Breathing for Beginners is a guided meditation that shows you how to practice this simple technique to calm your mind and deepen your breath. Plus you can hear what I sound like, at least when I’m teaching meditation. Prezi presentation or audio only. Take your pick!

Chakra Meditation for Beginners is a guided meditation that gives you a little flavor of what chakras are and the power of each one to restore balance to your life. Prezi presentation or audio only. Take your pick!

Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions. Happy Om…

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.