Category: work

career, creative, creativity, imagination, innovation, job, work

Beautiful: Forget Job Searching. Instead, Create the Job of Your Dreams.

Christa Avampato

eb20a4bca686ede0d04a1cc9628f3e6bImagine if college wasn’t about preparing you for the job search. Instead, imagine that it was a 4-year haven for you to grow the skills that most interest you and for you to craft your own business that utilizes those skills. Over 3 million people graduate from 4-year colleges every year in the U.S. That’s potentially 3 million startups created every single year.

Imagine what that would mean for our economy, for our communities, and for education. Tom Friedman did just that in his New York Times column last week. Soon, we won’t have to imagine. This is the reality for our children today, and for their children, and so on. They will be job creators, not job seekers. Our society and our economy are changing rapidly. The paradigm of work and income is shifting, and there will be no turning back. This is a transformation in the economy that is moving full-steam ahead.

Rather than asking our kids what they want to be when they grow up, we need to help them figure out what they intend to build. And then we need to set that example for them in our own careers.

creativity, time, vacation, work

Beautiful: 2 Surefire Ways to Improve a Vacation

Christa Avampato

It is always great to get away from daily living to give ourselves both a physical and mental break. No matter how long I’m away, I always have a little stress that sneaks in on my last day of vacation. This stress could be dramatically reduced in two ways:

1.) a private jet for travel
2.) someone who does all of my work while I’m away so I don’t have to come back to mountains of it

I wonder which is more likely to happen first!

creativity, time, to-do lists, work

Beautiful: My Stop Day Results

Christa Avampato

05037166e614dbda61527b0005c77dd9Some times the very best thing we can do for our work is to not work.

On Saturday, I took the day off in honor of a self-imposed Stop Day. I have only taken a handful of days away from anything related to work since leaving my corporate job and starting up my own business last June. I love my work. It gives me energy and inspires me. I’ve never felt the need or desire to work long hours out of guilt or a belief that working more hours will get me further ahead on some nebulous ladder to the top. I give what a job needs to be done well and starting my own requires a lot of my time to tend to clients, do the work I committed to do, pitch for new business, and research possible future pitches. (See my 3X3X3 article for my system of working.)

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about how stepping away from work helps make us more efficient and creative. Since I am an efficiency hound and constantly trying new ways to boost my creativity, I decided to give it a purposeful whirl.

It was much more difficult than I imagined. Because I do enjoy my work so much, I found myself constantly coming up with new ideas that I could do and people I should connect with. Rather than act on them, I would make a quick note of these for later and then let them go. I put aside any reading that was even remotely related to any work I do. I stayed off my social media channels (for the most part) and didn’t write anything related to assignments I currently have.

After a couple of hours, I did feel a surge of energy and did a free writing exercise whose results even surprised me. A gush of words flowed out on a subject I haven’t thought about in years. I guess they had been trying to break through the surface and saw that they finally had their chance.

By early afternoon, it was time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. I went to brunch at Lobster Joint with a dear friend and then we took a several hour walk all over lower Manhattan, reveling in the sunshine. I stopped into Crumbs, my favorite cupcake shop, to pick up some goodies for a cocktail party that another friend had spontaneously decided to throw at his apartment that night. I arrived at the party and then stayed many hours later than I had planned.

It was a truly wonderful and relaxing day. And you know what? The sky didn’t fall down and my business didn’t tank just because I took a day off. In fact, despite daylight savings time, I hopped up out of bed and was excited and inspired to get back to my work without the stress of a to-do list. My efficiency was higher. My energy was cranking even without the zip of coffee. I felt really alive.

Stop Day will make a regular appearance on my schedule going forward.

success, work

Beautiful: Be Your Own Champion

Christa Avampato

e41933d7b503e2a2cc784c583e68a214“You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~ Lucille Ball

You said it, Lucy. You have to be your own best advocate. Every. Single. Day. There is no end to the number of people who will tell you that you can’t do something. They’re also fond of telling you what you should do and how much you should make to do the things they want you to do. I experience it as a freelancer every day. And every day I need to reiterate my boundaries, to myself and others. Then I need to enforce them, constantly.

I make the lion’s share of my income advising nonprofit organizations and then executing my advice in the form of programs, content, fundraising strategies, and marketing campaigns. I never intended to be a consultant but in this first phase of life in the freelance wild west, that’s how the chips have fallen. What I need to do to move into the next phase is be my own best consultant, coach, and fan. I need to look at my goals, look at my actions, formulate any and all needed adjustments, take my own advice, and go for it. Whatever “it” is.

It’s a tough job to be your own biggest fan. It’s even harder to be your own counsel but there’s no one better for the job.

time, work

Beautiful: I’m Officially Declaring 3/9/13 as Stop Day

Christa Avampato

aac725539ccd7b76ef4bda3631d3dd64“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” ~ Eddie Cantor

Did you know there are people in the world who spend at least one day a week goofing off? Just flat-out not doing a damn thing that has anything to do with work of any kind. I know. I’m shocked, too. And by shocked, I mean envious.

We wear our work schedule on our sleeves as a source of pride. And certainly dedication and determination are prized qualities of character. I’d go so far as to call them skills. But lately I’ve been thinking a lot about an article I read on CNN.com that discusses the idea of a Stop Day, as in hold everything, stop the presses, close up shop, and spend the day loafing around with your pooch. Or going for a run. Or seeing friends. Anything that is the opposite of what work means for you. I’m rather in love with the concept. It makes me giggle like a school girl.

For thousands of years, the world continued to turn while every week most of the planet’s population took one day to rest and rejuvenate. No. Work. Allowed. Violations of Stop Day were punishable by death. Okay, not really but seriously, there was no way you were getting to Heaven if you violated Stop Day. Don’t even bother showing up at the Pearly Gates. Workaholics need not apply and Saint Peter is the bouncer. You don’t want to mess with him.

Somewhere along the way, we shunned organized religion. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but folks we threw the baby out with the bath water. On days when people went to their Church, Temple, Mosque, or holy coffee shop to reflect and pray for sunnier days ahead, they took time off. For one day, their minds stopped racing and they just spent time in the company of loved ones. Or no one. They did what they wanted to do. They thought about their time – past, present, and future – and how it had been and should be used going forward.

Being someone who loves to be busy and who honestly loves work, the idea of a Stop Day made me sit straight-up, crinkle my nose, and, as I’m wont to do, ask “who the hell has time for Stop Day”? And that’s the point. I do. We all do. It’s a matter of priorities. And if our priority is to be the very best version of ourselves, then we better make time to take time lest we spend our days exhausted, worn out, and bitter.

I’m not sure if I can take a day every single week to completely stop work of any kind. I’m building a business, running a nonprofit, and working on several personal projects. But, despite my better judgement, perhaps a day off a week is just what I need to make a break-thru. Maybe all the running around, the constant pursuit, is doing more harm than good.

Look, I’m not saying that now I’ve seen the light and I will forever hold one day every week for the rest of my life as Stop Day. But I’ll commit to giving it a try to see how I feel once I experience it. I’m a little worried that this will quickly become an addiction, much like my undying love for frozen thin mint cookies. But, what the hell. You only live once.

Next Saturday, March 9th, I’m taking a break from it all. Everything that looks, feels, and smells like work will just have to hold its horses and wait this one out. Want to join me and give yourself a break, too? You deserve it.

office space, technology, time, work

Beautiful: Marissa Mayer’s “No Telecommuting” Policy and the Quest to Make Time in the Office Meaningful

Christa Avampato

-1“Hmmmm…” I thought as I heard about Marissa Mayer’s decision to end telecommuting at Yahoo! As someone who loves to work from home, I had a hard time understanding this decision. In my efforts to be as open-minded as possible about opinions not my own (and believe me this ain’t easy, folks), I tried to understand Ms. Mayer’s point-of-view. Personally, I don’t believe Yahoo! can be saved by anyone, but is getting everyone around the same physical table the only way to give the company its best shot at survival? Is there any truth to the media soundbite “you can’t build a culture via email”?

I reflected on my own office experiences. Some of them were a blast. I made some of my very best friends of my life working side-by-side with them in the same office every single day. Many of them are still some of my nearest and dearest. Others made me want to curl up in a ball under my bed. A lot of them made me quit my job in search of greener pastures.

I don’t think Ms. Mayer’s motivation is a bad one – she wants to build a collaborative culture where innovation is a common, every day practice. The trouble is that she thinks mandating time in the office will provide that. I know there’s this old wives’ tale about innovative ideas happening around the proverbial water cooler in large corporate towers. It doesn’t happen. Offices grease the gossip mill; they don’t foster creativity.

And I have proof – Harvard said so, and therefore it must be true! Being a Penn and UVA grad, I am logically suspicious of anything Harvard says. However, I read an article that the Harvard Business Review ran in September that gave me a jolt of shock. “A study of 6,000 people conducted by the NeuroLeadership Group in collaboration with a large healthcare firm asked respondents questions about where, when, and how people did their best thinking. Only 10 percent said it happened at work.”

10 percent!? That’s Marissa Mayer’s worst nightmare. And while some may think that we need to then alter the office environment to improve that, my question is why not dump the office altogether? Why put money, time, and effort into improving something that feels beyond repair? After all, if a company’s product or service only met 10% of its revenue or profit targets, companies would bury it deep into the ground and make it the Lord Voldemort of their product line.

The HBR article goes on to explain how to increase our chances of doing our best thinking. One is to distract ourselves, giving our brains even just a short break from our problems so that the unconscious can provide a fresh perspective. Another involves planning out three goals we want to accomplish and giving yourself 4 hours of uninterrupted time every day to work on those goals. The other involves structuring our time to do our most challenging work during a time of day when our minds are most clear. None of them involve getting people into the office more often.

I’m a fan of togetherness. I like to be with people, but forced togetherness isn’t fun for anyone. It’s miserable. I’m all for bringing people together so that they can get to know one another, so that they can use one another as a resource for a challenge they are tackling. There are lots of ways to do that, some of them involve bringing people together in-person and some of them involve bringing people together through virtual networks. I’ve found the best way to foster collaboration is a combo of in-person and virtual time. Bringing people together, in-person, is something sacred. Make is purposeful. Make it matter. Do something with that time that people cannot do virtually. That’s the way to win.

creativity, imagination, time, work

Beautiful: Take the Time to Journey Into Your Imagination

Christa Avampato

50afeed7247c211c9a96778c99eb8e34“If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.” ~ Bernard Byer

There’s a little magic moment, a switch that happens, when we’re fully vested in creative work, when we give ourselves the opportunity to travel on a one-way ticket into our imaginations. We’re totally consumed. There’s no separation between us and it. We lose ourselves only to discover that being lost is how we truly find our way.

I suggest taking this little trip every day. Find some time, even a moment or two, to let yourself dream, without a destination and without judgement. It’s amazing what revelations emerge from a relaxed mind. They come straight from the heart.

career, choices, opportunity, work

Beautiful: How to Know When to Let Go of an Opportunity

Christa Avampato

66938dw9i9fftf5-300x300Opportunities are everywhere and if you took every one that came your way, you’d wear yourself out before you even got started. You’d also become highly distracted from the work you’re meant to do. Turning down an opportunity, especially when it’s a particularly good one, is a tough call. We second-guess our judgement. People give us their opinions and plant fears in our head with sayings like “well, if you don’t take this opportunity, someone else will.” I say that’s just fine. There is more than enough opportunity to go around for all of us. Your only job is to figure out which ones are right for you and then make the most of them.

When I first left my corporate job last summer, I was offered a freelance gig immediately by another division of my former employer. I knew the VP well (I actually adore her) and knew the work would be fun. However, it didn’t align with what I really wanted to do and why I left my employer in the first place. I wanted to focus my energies on consulting for nonprofits in the education and healthcare space, my teaching, and my writing. While this freelance gig would have paid well, it wasn’t what I wanted to do. So, I turned it down. The VP totally understood and left the door open for me if I ever changed my mind.

You should have heard the firestorm from some people in my life. “You should take it so that you have a big client on your books right away.” “Are you crazy? You can’t afford to turn down work when you’re first starting out.” “You can’t always do work you love.” Mind you, this was day 2 of starting my new company.

I didn’t listen to the criticism. I knew I did the right thing for me. I think what really flipped people out was that if I turned down work that wasn’t right for me, what did that say about their decisions to do work that wasn’t right for them?

At the beginning of January, I was offered a gig with a client I had worked with before. My first gig with them was not fun but it paid well and gave me an opportunity to learn a new skill set. It was a good experience but I had no desire to repeat it. When they came back to me and asked if I’d like to work on a new opportunity with them, I turned it down. Another firestorm ensued, this time directly from the client and the headhunter who had negotiated my first contract with them. I easily stood my ground because I was very clear about my own goals.

And that’s the trick. I’m a firm believer in you following your goals, not the goals of others. What do you want to learn? What kind of work do you want to do? What type of industry / company do you want to work with? What matters most to you? If this whole shindig is up tomorrow and it’s game over exactly where you are, will you feel good about the legacy you’ve crafted? Those are the only questions that matter. Let other people wage their own battle with their own choices. Your concern is how you spend your time, and that is work enough.

adventure, career, choices, creativity, job, work

Beautiful: Consider Taking a Crappy Job

Christa Avampato

2b22a1692e52c0522ffd195cd829ba27“What???” you might be saying to yourself. “Christa, the self-appointed evangelist for only doing work you love, is suggesting I take a crappy job?” Yes, yes I am. Under 3 big, fat conditions. It must be: 1.) temporary, 2.) lead to something you love, and 3.) possible to keep your dignity. Let me give you an example.

When I first moved to New York in 1998, I took an incredibly crappy job to follow my dream to work on Broadway shows. (This is more years ago than I really care to admit but since this story benefits you, I’m going to let that slide.) I sat on the floor of a very cramped theatre office opening mail, speaking to screaming customers, getting coffee, and doing just about any horrible job they needed done for $10 / hour.

Taking that crappy job was the best career decision I ever made because it got me inside a theatre which is exactly where I wanted to be. My boss was so appreciative of my work that I was promoted two and a half months later (on my birthday) to a slightly less crappy job managing a box office. In my new role, customers still screamed at me and I got a new boss who was completely awful (which was really unfortunate since I loved my first boss at that theatre), but now I was making $15 / hour and managed a team.

I spent 9 months “in the box” as I affectionately referred to my time there, and on my lunch break one day I ran into a college acquaintance totally by chance who put me on the trail of a job that let me go out on my first theatre tour. On tour, customers still screamed at me and I had a second really awful boss, but now I was making A LOT more money, traveling the country, and running a whole company.

Life was good, until it wasn’t, and then I quit, moved to Florida, and 6 months later got a great job with a great boss and lots of responsibility. There I learned how to be a fundraiser. Unfortunately, it only paid $13 / hour. I took it any way. That was the second best decision I ever made in my career.

My theatre career was a series of trade-offs. I worked my way from job to job gaining experience, making money, then making less money, and then taking my career in an entirely different direction. When I look back, I took those crappy jobs for all the right reasons. They were all temporary (which to be honest is true for every job eventually), they all led me to do things I love to do (working in a theatre, raising money for causes I care about, and managing a team), and I always kept my dignity. Even when customers were screaming at me, I was empowered to help them. Even when my few bad bosses were doing things like throwing staplers around the office and cursing out everyone who came near them, I learned how to stand my ground, stick up for people I cared about, and be confident in the face of great difficulty.

Most of all, those crappy jobs showed me the power of determination and the strength of my own abilities to make a rough situation much better. My presence in those jobs mattered, to the mission of the organizations and to the people around me. And that was a wonderful, beautiful thing. It still is. I’m incredibly proud of the work I did as a theatre manager and to this day I will tell anyone who will listen that it was the very best business training I’ve ever had. It taught me to take calculated risks and go after my dreams.

Your crappy job may do the same for you. If it does, I think it’s worthy of consideration. Sometimes, the very best opportunities aren’t the ones that are shiny and bright but the ones that require our efforts to make them shine.

career, determination, entrepreneurship, work

Beautiful: Entrepreneurs Work Like Ducks

Christa Avampato
Work like a duck
Work like a duck

Do you know how a duck moves forward? It may look like it’s just gliding along the water effortlessly and peacefully. If you were to look under water, you’d find that a duck is paddling is furiously to get ahead. In this way, entrepreneurs are no different from ducks.

Forget overnight success
I talk to a lot of people who are just starting out. They’re all looking for their big breakout moment, their game-changing innovation. Many of them want success yesterday and they get frustrated when they’re latest greatest product or service is not an overnight sensation. We have become a nation obsessed with insta-everything. All of the successful people I know worked very hard for a long time to get where they are. Their success required hard work, determination, and unrelenting passion for the work, not prestige.

How to make the leap
Taking my leap into a freelance life took a lot of careful, deliberate planning. I put myself through school twice while living on very little money. I took lots of jobs that were difficult and didn’t pay well because they were phenomenal learning opportunities. I took jobs that I hated, working for people who were grossly incompetent and flat-out mean, because I needed the cash. I did a lot of work for free because I believed in its value for the world. I read incessantly, network constantly, pitch myself every single day, and help other people take their leaps because I believe in their potential and because I know that a rising tide lifts all boats. I take lots of risks, and many of them do not carry tangible rewards but they’ve all been valuable experiences.

We all need to get a little lucky
And even with all that work, I still needed luck on my side to get to a point where I cover all my expenses on my freelance work and am now poised to begin to save again, too. I still needed a few lovely angels who came in the form of bosses, mentors, friends, teachers, and even some complete strangers. I’m always prepared to be lucky, and every once in a great while that preparation pays off.

Everyone has ideas. Everyone is creative. Everyone wants to evolve and grow and blossom into the very best people they can be. My advice? Be a duck. Keep a calm and centered exterior. Trust that if you are willing to pedal madly that progress will indeed be made.