#196: Artist Turned Owner- How Christina Barsi Built a Podcast Media Agency (as featured in The Future of Work Podcast)
I'm taking you behind the scenes of my journey, from "artist to entrepreneurship" as I found my way to podcasting and then built my branded podcast agency Avant Haüs Media, in this special feature episode.
This episode originally released on The Future of Work podcast, presented by Pasadena City College, hosted by Dr. Salvatrice Cummo and Leslie Thompson, executive produced and developed by me and on-goingly produced and managed by my team at Avant Haüs Media for six years now.
We dive into my journey from aspiring actor to innovative business owner, and explore how I transformed my artistic passions into a successful podcasting career.
In this conversation, you'll also hear how community college and mentorship shaped my path, the hurdles I faced in a male-dominated industry, and the powerful lessons I learned of self-awareness and resilience in both business and life.
From building my first podcast audio-drama project out of a love for storytelling and in a search for my identity, to forming an agency and finding a passion for guiding others in finding their voice...I hope my story inspires you to take action on your dream - it really can begin with one step.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to find and build your unique voice as an artist, creative, or empath
The importance of support and mentorship
How to let go of perfectionism and ego to allow space for learning, and cultivating compassion
Why creating space for more diverse voices is imperative
The FREE Audio-First Podcasting Action Plan
Get clear on what you actually need to start your podcast (and what you don’t)
05:15 How Community College taught me to believe in myself
09:39 Leaving the film industry to forge my own creative path
13:06 Creating my audio-drama podcast DIMENSION
16:09 Producing my nominated documentary film IS ANYONE LISTENING - A PODCAST STORY
17:55 Starting a podcast production agency
23:04 Burnout and the podcast boom of 2020
24:57 How to hire and build a team
34:09 How entrepreneurship teaches self-development on a deep level
More episodes on this topic:
Launch Your Passion with Podcasting Toolkit - $37
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Stop waiting to share your magic and start supporting and expanding your brand and business in the most authentic, aligned and engaging way possible.
Read the Full Transcript
Christina Barsi [00:01:03]:
Hi, welcome back. The episode I want to share with you today is actually an interview I did with the Future of Work podcast.
Christina Barsi [00:01:12]:
Which is another one I also produce.
Christina Barsi [00:01:15]:
And I, I chose this one because I think this will resonate with you— well, many of you— because a lot of you are artists and you have your own creative business. Or you're thinking of having your own creative business or something similar.
Christina Barsi [00:01:30]:
And in this interview, I share my journey of how I got started and turned my passions and my creativity into an entrepreneurial journey, as well as some of the hurdles I experienced along the way.
Christina Barsi [00:01:42]:
So if you're asking yourself questions right now, like, how do I take the leap, or how do I shift my creativity into something more, then this one's for you.
Christina Barsi [00:01:58]:
In this episode, hosts Salvatrice Cummo and Leslie Thompson chat entrepreneurship, the path to starting, surviving, and succeeding, and what it means to be a woman in a male-dominant industry while also taking into account the uncertainties of building a business in a new media like podcasting.
Christina Barsi [00:02:17]:
And the guest today is yours truly.
Christina Barsi [00:02:20]:
I'm Christina Barsi, the founder of Avant Haus Media and the producer of this podcast. Here's my journey of artist turned owner.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:31]:
Welcome back to the Future of Work Podcast. I am your host today, Salvatrice Cummo, and here today with my co-host again, Leslie Thompson. Leslie, how are you?
Leslie Thompson [00:02:42]:
I'm doing great. How are you doing?
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:43]:
Pretty good. I'm excited that we get to chat today with Barsi, founder of Avant Haus Media and our producer for the show. Barsi, how are you?
Christina Barsi [00:02:54]:
I am fantastic. I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:58]:
Yes. Now we were thinking not too long ago, we've done these podcasts, excuse me, these episodes, and you are a producer and you help navigate and you do all these great things with us and coach us and do production, et cetera, et cetera. And you're a founder, you're an entrepreneur, and you have a journey and a story. And so we want to hear about it. We want our audience to hear about it because it's a beautiful story to tell.
Christina Barsi [00:03:23]:
Thank you.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:03:24]:
You're very welcome.
Leslie Thompson [00:03:26]:
That's right, Salvatrice. We're very excited to be talking with Barsi today. And I know we had talked about kind of an overview. We wanted to talk about her career trajectory and the role that community college played in that and kind of get her story. All the way through school and how she ended up where she is today as an entrepreneur in her own business and kind of talk about some of the challenges she had. So if you're up for that, Barisi, we're ready to go if you are.
Christina Barsi [00:03:50]:
Let's do it.
Leslie Thompson [00:03:51]:
Awesome. Well, let's start with the first point. Can you tell us a little bit about your career trajectory and the role that community college played?
Christina Barsi [00:03:58]:
Absolutely. So I was your typical aspiring actor. And the way I kind of fell into that originally was, well, high school, my English teacher was like, "You should take the drama class." And I was like, "Okay.".
Leslie Thompson [00:04:16]:
I love it.
Christina Barsi [00:04:17]:
"I will do that." And then had a lot of fun. And I was a very shy person. So for me, it served other parts of my personality that needed to sort of blossom and come out. And I wanted to get out of my own way. So theater really helped me get out of my own way, find my voice, and turned out I was pretty good at it. So I fell in love with it and found a mentor pretty quickly in the community college space. I went to Mt. SAC, Mt.
Christina Barsi [00:04:44]:
San Antonio College. Woohoo! Which is—
Salvatrice Cummo [00:04:47]:
Yay, sister college! One of our Ring Colleges. Yes.
Leslie Thompson [00:04:50]:
Yes.
Christina Barsi [00:04:51]:
Yes. I love PCC, but I also very much love Mt. San Antonio College. And I handpicked it as if I were searching for 4 years. I was very particular. It was an hour away from my house. It was not out of convenience by any means. It was very much a curated experience that I wanted to have, and I was very intentional about that.
Leslie Thompson [00:05:13]:
Why'd you pick Mt. SAC? Just curious.
Christina Barsi [00:05:15]:
At the time, well, one factor was I wanted it to be an hour away from my house. I was, you know, 17 turning 18 and really wanting my freedom. So that did play a factor, I have to admit. The other one was I loved the campus. It had some history to it, and I liked just— there was a lot of programs, and something about it just spoke to me. I think it was kind of a gut choice at the end of the day, but I don't regret any part of it. I took all the classes the very first semester I got there that I would have dreamt up, and it was like women in literature and environment, humans in the environment, and theater and philosophy, and I was like, this is what I was supposed to be doing. Like, this is great.
Christina Barsi [00:06:00]:
So I was excited. And fast forward a little bit, I did well in the theater group there. Ralph Eastman, shout out to Ralph Eastman. He was my first sort of mentor that wanted to kind of take me under his wing and kind of show me how to be a better actor, but also just kind of learn what it means to be a human because acting is all about kind of learning about yourself and finding your, your true voice so that you can be as present as you can in every role and on stage and with your other, you know, actors, basically. So we went to a competition. We were— I was nominated a couple of times to go compete. That was really special. And Ralph drove us each time to Utah and to San Francisco and places like that.
Christina Barsi [00:06:47]:
So that was like Very unique experience, very, very special. And from there I ended up joining the forensics team, which is the speech and debate team for anyone who thinks of forensics as, you know, what is it? I was just going to say, CSI.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:07:04]:
Are you doing criminal investigations? Like, what's going on? No, I didn't see that coming, Barsi. I didn't see that coming.
Christina Barsi [00:07:09]:
I know there's some sci-fi I'll get to later, which I will touch on. Slightly because it's part of the story, but forensics actually means seeking knowledge. So that's why speech and debate is called the forensics team typically. Yeah, so Liesel Reinhart was my honors communications teacher there.
Leslie Thompson [00:07:30]:
Yeah.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:07:30]:
And she's our dean here at Pasadena City College.
Christina Barsi [00:07:34]:
Yes. Maybe you're starting to catch on to how I ended up working with you. So she's threaded throughout my whole life, really. So I was about 20 years old at the time. And she's still a big part of my life. I just had her on a panel a couple of weeks ago that I was hosting as well. So pretty, pretty cool. So she made a big impact on me.
Christina Barsi [00:07:54]:
Uh, there's a lot going on in my life at the time. And she, just the way that she coaches and led that team to victory every year, every competition, no fail. I mean, we won gold, like it was just a piece of cake because of the, the the level of care and coaching that went into that team. It was, it was amazing. And I'd never won anything before. I did not win those theater competitions, by the way. So being able to walk over to the speech team and do that for a year and just kill it— she was also the person who was like, okay, it's time for you to transfer now. You can't stay here forever.
Christina Barsi [00:08:31]:
And she kind of kicked my butt to do that as well. So that's kind of where I started with my interest in the arts, my interest in communication, my interest in speaking, and all of that. So fast forward to, you know, after college, and I ended up wanting to pursue acting and got my lead role on stage right after college and thought that I was, you know, the everything. So I was like, well, I'm moving straight to LA, I'm gonna make it. And turned out I didn't really enjoy the process. I didn't really enjoy what has to happen in order to be a working actor. The audition process was difficult for me because I was only getting sent out for modeling jobs and for commercials that were like for Spike TV or things that ultimately felt misaligned for my spirit. And I felt a little degraded each time and was like, this is not what I came here for.
Christina Barsi [00:09:39]:
How do I get out of this, like, hamster wheel? And, and what does this all mean? And is this what this is going to be? So I kind of hit a wall around, like, age 29, 30, around that time. And, and it was very difficult for me to look at it and possibly give up this thing I've been in love with for over 10 years, you know, my whole adult life at that point, and ask myself the hard questions. You know, what is it— what does this mean to you? What is it that you really want? And what does it mean for you to be a creative person and an artist? And maybe it's not acting. Maybe it's something else. You know, maybe— who knows? So I quit my acting class and gave myself a minute to kind of like reflect on all of that and started writing roles that I wanted to play for myself. And this is where the sci-fi comes in. I ended up writing a science fiction story called Dimension.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:10:42]:
Wow. We're going to have to read that. You've never shared that with us.
Leslie Thompson [00:10:45]:
Well, I had a feeling though. I had a feeling. I really had a feeling. I had a feeling there was a sci-fi background somewhere.
Christina Barsi [00:10:51]:
Something nerdy in there. Yeah, I got really obsessed with time theory. And was like, well, how can I explore this further and still write the badass women I wanna play and how can that all work together? So this story dimension ended up being my first podcast. So you can actually listen to it.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:11:13]:
Wow, I have to find it.
Christina Barsi [00:11:15]:
Yeah, so that's how I got into podcasting. And it was back in 2012 when we were, when I was like joining the other people who were doing the podcast stuff that let me come and tell my story with their group. And we launched in 2013. So this is a long time ago. I didn't know what podcasting was. Most people didn't. And I would just tell people it was a radio play because I didn't know what else to call it. And we had sound effects and music and I wrote scripts every week and we did it for 2 years.
Christina Barsi [00:11:48]:
And it was the— it made me fall in love with art in a way that I never had because I was creating this world myself and everyone showed up to play along. And that was the most magical experience.
Leslie Thompson [00:12:01]:
That's so cool.
Christina Barsi [00:12:02]:
Yeah. So then I fell in love with podcasting, of course. And, you know, here we are now. So you can see the impact that had.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:12:09]:
And I'm sure it wasn't an easy road to get here. I think that, like, Would you say that the next phase of your discovery process and being an entrepreneur, like, whoa, you know, you, you know, you go from really self-discovery to now entrepreneurial discoveries, and that has so many different, you know, just so many hiccups, so many great things and not so great things. Yes, right?
Christina Barsi [00:12:36]:
Yes, it's a journey which is for sure full of all the bumps and turns and curves and dips and, and successes and surprises too, right?
Salvatrice Cummo [00:12:46]:
Yeah.
Leslie Thompson [00:12:47]:
Can you, can you tell us a little bit about that? How you made that transition from discovering this is what you want to do. I love that you said you fell in love with the art. I mean, that, that speaks to me. I think that's amazing. So you fall in love, then what? How do you take it from, how do you take it from falling in love to actually building something sustainable that pays your bills?
Christina Barsi [00:13:06]:
Absolutely. So what happened was I was so elated with everything we just created that I decided I would produce a documentary about this experience. So that was my first— I mean, I have to say, funding a film is like starting a business, especially if you've never done it before. So that was kind of my first step out in doing something bigger. And through that, we finished the film and it was a 25-minute documentary called Is Anyone Listening? A podcast story. And it was a love letter to the experience, to artists, to creators, and to the new media, podcasting. And people didn't know what it was yet. So it was kind of like, this is what this is, this is what it can look like.
Christina Barsi [00:13:50]:
This is how it can change your life. Because it was truly what it was doing for me. And we did festivals. So we got into some festivals. We premiered at Sci-Fi London, which was a dream come true. And because we were talking about audio and performance in this way, there's a lot of audio geeks out there, turns out. And people kind of fell in love with the content, like the idea of just radio plays and telling a story this way. So we got extra things out of the film festival experience.
Christina Barsi [00:14:26]:
People would create, or the festival directors would create these sort of special events for us. Where we would be featured, or one of them I got to perform Dimension. So the, this, the script, I got to fly out some of my players, and we— they asked us if we would actually do a reading as well after our screening at the film festival. And that was like amazing. I'd always wanted to do it live. And what happened was, this is where it connects to how I started a business. Because I couldn't bring my crew. I couldn't bring my sound people or my production team or my sound effects guy.
Christina Barsi [00:15:04]:
And I was like, oh no, like, I have 2 weeks to figure this out and I have to do it myself. And I— how am I going to do that? So I quickly learned how to sound design. I quickly learned how to put together a digital soundboard and find the technology to do that and threw together a special script and did all of this in a couple of weeks' time before we had to go perform.
Leslie Thompson [00:15:28]:
Wow.
Christina Barsi [00:15:29]:
And I was so impressed with myself that I was like, I can do anything. I can do whatever I want. And I quit my job. I quit my day job the weekend before I was supposed to leave for this festival. And I was like, I'm going to go follow my dreams. And I'd been wanting to be an entrepreneur for a long time, which I hadn't mentioned yet. I was kind of like, geeked out on entrepreneurship by this point already, just watching how other people did it and not understanding, like, when am I gonna make the jump? It's so scary. Like, how do people do it, you know? So I just literally did it and just did it.
Christina Barsi [00:16:09]:
And I went to this festival and I saw someone speak, and I was like, I need to talk to him after. And I went up to him and I told him I was a podcast producer which I wasn't yet, and that I had a company. That's right, small detail. Yeah, and that, you know, he should call me. He was like, okay. And I ran into him later that night, and he'd been obsessing over the idea, and he was so like excited, and he was like, we need to talk, we need to talk. I was like, great, yeah, let's talk. And, um, we were just, you know, Firing Ideas, and he was a manager of a lot of very famous YouTubers.
Christina Barsi [00:16:49]:
And he's like, I have someone for you. I know who you should launch with. And I told him my whole, I told him everything. I was like, this is what I wanna do. I haven't started yet, but this is what I've done. And he was just so excited with me. So he's another mentor, turns out. He just kind of was like, I wanna help you.
Christina Barsi [00:17:06]:
And he gave me my first client. And she's, her name is Laura Clery. She's very popular in the YouTube space. And I got to, I got to work with her as my first person, and I started my business officially a couple months after that in January of 2018. And this was in the fall of 2017 when I was, you know, lying to people about my, about my company. I told him, you know, the truth immediately, but, uh, I just wanted to bait his interest, and it worked.
Leslie Thompson [00:17:38]:
Nice.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:17:39]:
Well, did you find that Did you find that it was a male-dominated sector? I mean, did you anticipate that, and how do you navigate that as a young female entrepreneur in a very, you know, white male-dominated space?
Christina Barsi [00:17:55]:
Exactly, very good question. And you're absolutely right, it was very white male-dominated. It still is technically. I mean, the numbers are still leaning in that direction. It's grown a lot since then, even in the short amount of time that has passed, but going into podcasting industry events, it's just an ocean of men. You know, you see, you go to a conference and it's hard to find the faces that look like you, you know what I mean? And that's usually how we feel related and how we can normalize a situation is when we see, you know, faces that look like our own or hear voices that sound like us. You know, it's very important for like younger people, especially, you know, especially to see that and hear that in media and everywhere. So it, it's a little off-putting when something is so saturated in one direction.
Christina Barsi [00:18:48]:
So the space has been making a lot of efforts to try the industry as a whole to make it more of a diverse, a diverse place. Women are really leaning into it. The stats I remember from about a year ago when women were about at 41% of the industry, where they were way, way lower than that before, just like a year before.
Leslie Thompson [00:19:11]:
You had mentioned like going to these events and not seeing yourself represented and the importance of, kind of alluded to the importance of representation in these arenas. And I wondered if the work that you do as a mentor for other young women or, you know, is it?
Christina Barsi [00:19:26]:
Well, I did start to do some outreach last year to, I was offering free coaching to anyone well, Black creators first and then just anyone of color, because I, I believe diversity is the best way for us all to have a clear and real representation of the world. We're not seeing all the perspectives if we are missing that many voices. So it's important to me to use this platform in that way as well, and I wanted to just make time For that, again, it's important for us to have a full picture of what the world is, and we need more voices to, to reflect that.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:20:06]:
And not only that, just feeling like connected.
Christina Barsi [00:20:09]:
Exactly.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:20:09]:
Feeling of connection and community. And, you know, it's really kind of this community-led effort to build awareness, to, you know, be of support to one another, and so that you don't feel alone. I think is oftentimes as entrepreneurs, we do feel alone. We're out there, you know? Yes. Right. And it's lonely. It's a very lonely experience.
Christina Barsi [00:20:33]:
Yeah.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:20:33]:
Because we don't know what we don't know.
Christina Barsi [00:20:36]:
Yes.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:20:36]:
Right. And then we end up stumbling across obstacles that we hadn't really thought about, or, and/or better yet, like we keep talking about obstacles, but you know what? Sometimes there's an abundance of success and entrepreneurs have a hard time navigating that as well. I'm sure you've experienced that, right, where you've experienced this growth and you're just like, oh my gosh, like, how do I, how do I, how do I manage that? Is that, is that a true statement?
Christina Barsi [00:21:07]:
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you touched on so many things. I'm like just seeing flashes of my life go by as you are mentioning these points, because it's true. It's like this very up and down experience. And being in, you know, you're talking about hurdles and stuff, being in a new media, there's not that many colleagues to reach out to and go, how are you doing this? You know, I didn't I didn't know anybody else doing it when I started. And there was just no one to reach to. And you couldn't even Google podcast production at the time.
Christina Barsi [00:21:36]:
There was only traditional production to look to. And those numbers don't make sense for this space. It just doesn't translate the same way. Neither does the systems or the organization for it. So it's sort of a strange, it was a strange navigation at the beginning because of that. And it's like such a relief now to be able to Google something and have information come up. So that's the first year and a half, I'd say, of what this experience has been. And then thanks to COVID, a lot of people were at home and sort of navigating their days differently.
Christina Barsi [00:22:09]:
And I noticed a big surge in people who wanted to either start something new or who already had podcasts wanting to really lean in because they weren't paying— some of my clients would pay for studios and things of that nature. Or you record in the field. They kind of have more— had more liberty to do more because they were building home studios and doing things at home. So when all you have to do is sit down in front of your computer, now all the ideas start coming and you want to do more. And like, right, you're kind of forced.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:22:41]:
To be creative, you know, giving yourself that permission, that space to— yeah, yeah.
Christina Barsi [00:22:45]:
And some people have the brain space for it, or some people had, you know, whatever it was. That suddenly there was a surge and it was just non-stop, which was— I was so grateful for it, but I've never experienced so much burnout in my life either. And that's interesting.
Leslie Thompson [00:23:02]:
Yeah, you got burnt out from it? You were burned out from it?
Christina Barsi [00:23:04]:
Absolutely. I mean, I was working 90 hours a week for weeks and weeks and weeks, and it was just impossible to take a break because there, then something wouldn't get published. So, um, yeah, and then things were changing so much that some of the— what would happen is some of these episodes are timely, and then you'd have to can them because the information wasn't relevant anymore. So you'd be double producing sometimes. So we have multiple shows where this is happening, you know, you're now doing the same thing 2 or 3 times over just to try to get one episode out for one client. And then also everyone's new to doing it themselves where they used to have a team, you know, we'd go into studio or we'd have multiple moving parts where they could just show up. They can't do that anymore. So now I'm in session with everyone as well.
Christina Barsi [00:24:02]:
So my time and my days were just so packed with holding everyone and having space., for their process and for their work, that, which I loved, honestly, was that I learned so much and there was so much I gained from that experience. But the burnout was just inevitable and very real, and it came in waves. So I— for sure. Yeah, it was interesting. And you're— and that can sink a company very quickly if you can't keep up. I had to learn how to put systems in place very fast What kind.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:24:34]:
Of systems were they?
Christina Barsi [00:24:36]:
Well, I have to admit that one of it was just, you know, financial. I hired an assistant and I just finally was like, I need more people on my team. I need a team is what it boiled down to. So, but the idea of like onboarding a whole bunch of people was also like overwhelming. And it's like, when am I going to do that?
Leslie Thompson [00:24:55]:
It takes time to train people.
Christina Barsi [00:24:57]:
Yeah. Yeah. So it was a process for sure. And now I have a small team, but it was So shout out, shout out to Brandy, shout out to Daniel, shout out to Clint, shout out to Elizabeth, shout out to Brandon. That's so cool. Yeah, like they are what helped make this doable, and it was— they're all such good people. The experience was so intimate that they would check in on me and be like, is there anything I can take off your plate? You know, is there— you know, what can I do? Stuff like that that really, really helped make the experience a whole experience for everyone. Because they wanted— people wanted to feel needed as well.
Christina Barsi [00:25:35]:
Like a lot of people lost their jobs, you know. So it was this gift to be able to hire people because they wanted jobs. And then through having to bring people on, you have to find systems so that you can delegate well. And that just boiled down to organization, finding organizational tools and better ways to streamline the exchange of communication and assets. And that's really what it boiled down to.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:26:02]:
Those are some serious growing pains.
Christina Barsi [00:26:04]:
Oh yeah, but I'm reaping the benefits now because all the systems are working, thank God. Yay! And I finally have rid myself of that feeling that I had for like the last year or two or three.
Leslie Thompson [00:26:19]:
Are you referring to the crippling anxiety?
Christina Barsi [00:26:21]:
So much. Oh, I realized I was living in a fight or flight state for quite a while as well. Like, I, I, that came into view. You know, one of the hurdles personally was I suffered a concussion in 2018. Oh my goodness. And that was, or sorry, 2019, excuse me. And that was a very difficult thing to grow my business through because it was a new business. So trying to figure things out when you have a head injury is very difficult.
Christina Barsi [00:26:51]:
Sounds like a challenge.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:26:53]:
I would bet, I would bet it is. My goodness. And no one knew, I'm sure. And you can't say anything to your clients because that jeopardizes their trust.
Christina Barsi [00:27:03]:
Their trust. At least that's what my fear was, is that it, that it could jeopardize their trust. And I didn't want them to worry, and I didn't want them to have to worry about anything but what they were creating anyway. So that, that is an isolating experience too, because there's not a lot of information about concussions either. So isolation was very much a part of my life for much longer than COVID-19 has been in play.
Leslie Thompson [00:27:28]:
Wow.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:27:29]:
And so what does it look like for you to stay connected so that you don't feel isolated as someone who's contributing to the gig economy?
Christina Barsi [00:27:37]:
How do you do that? Right. So that's another good thing to point out is that when you are in a gig economy, which I feel is where things are headed and are in a lot of ways already in terms of the workspace. So just to circle back to like anyone who's listening who might be a student, really thinking and looking to your future in a different way. It's not as traditional as it used to be in regards to how you have a job, how you work towards getting that job. There are just, there's, there's a lot of like gig economy stuff that turns into longer positions. And that's how I started. It felt like a gig, and then it became, became more of a business.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:28:19]:
A real— yeah, something you were doing all the time versus just a little side hustle.
Christina Barsi [00:28:26]:
Yeah, I mean, I was doing it all the time, which is like, gig is a deceiving label, right? Because it's not really a gig, but for sure you're freelancing, so technically it is. So it's this funny like in-between thing where you're like, oh this is not a gig. This is like a full-time job for sure, but we're not making like business money yet, you know.
Leslie Thompson [00:28:46]:
I'm curious, you mentioned earlier about processes and, you know, we wanted to hear a little bit about that. What skills are required to be successful in this kind of environment? Like in order to be successful in a gig that's actually a full-time job or to strike out on your own as an entrepreneur, what skills do you need to be successful? And do you get them in school or do you learn them on the ground?
Christina Barsi [00:29:09]:
Yeah, great question. And I didn't really answer yours, Salvatrice, about how to stay connected. So I'll try to work these both in together. So, you know, I realized how much organization is a tool. I wasn't the most organized person and as a, as just a trait, it's not really my thing. I organize in my own messy way, you know, like seeing my assistant put together spreadsheets is just like this beautiful experience. To me.
Leslie Thompson [00:29:32]:
I'm like, wow, isn't that impressive?
Christina Barsi [00:29:34]:
It really is. And what, like, a lot of entrepreneurs say this, but it's true. It's knowing what your weaknesses are. Like, what are you great at and what are you just good at? And then what are you not good at? So like really having a sense of awareness and being like letting go of the ego and being okay with knowing that you're going to be in a learning space forever. Like that's just the way life is. And if you can accept that and not need to know everything at all times, I'd say that was one of the biggest lessons that helped me, not just in business, but as a human being. And it allows so much more space for me to, to grow, to make space for others, to be more compassionate in everything I do. It works inside out in that way for me.
Christina Barsi [00:30:23]:
And Learning that it's very humbling, right? It's constant pivoting. It's constant like, what's coming next? I'm not sure. Be ready for it to change. Overall understanding of that, I think, is one of the biggest lessons, but still knowing how to prepare through that. So how do you prepare through something that may always be changing? I'm in a new media as well, so it's good to point that out that not every space is as pivoting as mine might be. The podcast space is new media. We're, we're still learning what it is. And even though it's been around now, people know what it is for at least 5 or 6 years or like 7, going on 7 years prominently.
Christina Barsi [00:31:03]:
There's still a lot that's changing and sure, it's constantly evolving. Right. So knowing that, it's like, how do you prepare through that? And it really does boil down to being okay with not knowing, knowing who can fill the holes that, that you're maybe not great at, knowing how to delegate, being— letting go. You know, it's hard when it's your own. You want to— you hold really tight, you know, at least I do, and most of us do when it's something that we've created. It's like hard to give that to other people to handle sometimes. And knowing how to best use your time. Your time is valuable.
Christina Barsi [00:31:40]:
It's the one thing that you really have, you know, that that you can manipulate. And if you're getting bogged down with operations all the time, or with skills that are harder for you but might be easier for someone else that can do it quicker, that's maybe not the best use of your time. So again, it's like constantly reassessing, like, okay, like what's on the table today? Who needs to do what? What's going to be the best use of my time to serve the small picture and the big picture all at the same time? Those are the skills that I think I've most learned. And I worked in hospitality for a long time, and honestly, you're— that's the most multitasky. Like, you have to have your hands— you have to have eyes everywhere. You have to know what's going on in the kitchen. You have to know what's going on on the floor. You have to know what's going on with your back staff.
Christina Barsi [00:32:28]:
You have to know what's going on with your teammates.
Leslie Thompson [00:32:30]:
And a lot going on, for sure.
Christina Barsi [00:32:32]:
So I feel like I learned those skills doing that kind of work, and seeing how it translates into this space has been kind of interesting. And then for others, I think for me it's most important to have soft skills over hard skills. I think there's some hard skills that are imperative to serve the job, whatever the task is, but most of those things you can kind of teach up or, you know, give some guidance on. I'm more interested in someone who's invested, who's willing to learn and grow. You need to have that self-motivation and team.
Leslie Thompson [00:33:06]:
Player-Ness. I think That also underscores what we hear from employers in general in terms of like the skills that are required. There's more need for the soft skills that aren't necessarily always being taught or students aren't graduating with all these other skills. You can learn hard skills. I used to work in retail and we used to say, you know, hire for personality, we'll train for everything else. Right. Because you got to have those kind of soft skills. And I think what you just said supports that idea that, like you said, you're willing to train someone as long as they have these other these other things in place.
Christina Barsi [00:33:37]:
And to hearken back to some of our previous episodes, I think Josh Davies points it out really well each time when he says, you know, it's the human skills.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:33:45]:
Speaking of human skills, dare I ask this.
Leslie Thompson [00:33:50]:
Question?
Salvatrice Cummo [00:33:50]:
Uh-oh. As founder, creator of Avon Hass Media, what is next? What is— where do you want to go? You know, where do you want to take your company? In the next year? I know it's super fluid right now and things are so delicate, but what does it look like for you in the upcoming year?
Christina Barsi [00:34:09]:
Great question. I think about this. I obsess over this question daily because I'm a futurist and I love dreaming about what's next. And that's how I got to where I am, I'd say, because I, you know, it's all about putting action to those ideas, right? So I think about this a lot. Most of my focus at the moment is wanting to lean into more, more mentorship. You know, you brought that up in our conversation earlier, and I would like to lean into that more. That's where my heart really lies. It's something that I realized through this experience with Avant Haus Media as well, through, through working with clients, is that I really enjoy the consulting part.
Christina Barsi [00:34:49]:
I love coaching people into their voice. I love You know, just showing people that they have what it takes, that their voice matters, and that I can show them how, how to do the rest. It's just their passion, their stories, their ideas, their, their backgrounds, that they deserve to be heard. And I love that process. So I'm leaning into doing more things like that. I would like to do some more writing. Hopefully, you know, there might be a book in the future. That's so cool.
Christina Barsi [00:35:19]:
Thank you. I love the podcast space. I'll be probably teaching on that more. I'd like to speak more. I just want to show up more. I want more space to show up in, in ways that help people understand how to fulfill their own dreams, really.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:35:34]:
That's good to know because as we, you know, as we grow our own programming here and our division— yeah, now we know.
Christina Barsi [00:35:43]:
Send me all the people.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:35:44]:
This has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much, Marcia, not only for this particular episode, but being a mentor and a guide for us as we develop our, our own podcast channel. There's so much I've learned. There's so much I've learned through this process with you. And I just wanted to thank you.
Christina Barsi [00:36:04]:
Thank you so much. It's been such a delight. I really, really enjoy working with the both of you and everyone else. On the team at UWD and Future of Work and Pasadena City College. And I've learned a lot myself. So thank you.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:36:19]:
For sure. For sure.
