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Amanda Slavin: The Creative Catalyst Behind CatalystCreativ

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You know those people who have so much energy that, as they’re talking, you’re wishing you could bottle it up and drink it everyday before breakfast instead of coffee? Meet Amanda Slavin, the 28-year old founder of CatalystCreativ, a community design firm that’s focused on helping cities, brands and movements flourish through developing educational and inspirational events aimed at making the world a better place. Founded in June 2102 and backed by Zappo’s CEO and venture capitalist Tony Hsieh, it’s now an eight-person company with a big vision for impact and its hands in so many different things that it can be difficult to explain, or place within pre-existing mental frameworks. Let me try.

Clients hire CatalystCreativ to help them out with “designing their community” – this includes brand consulting, engaging the right thought leaders to further their strategic goals, developing educational content, training selected speakers or panelists, and providing detailed planning and execution of events. Additionally, the company hosts an event series in downtown Las Vegas called Catalyst Week, where a few dozen individuals gather every month for an intimate four-day interactive experience that works to familiarize them with Hsieh’s Downtown Project, engage with (and give back to) the local community, and experience “random collisions” that spark new ideas, and business opportunities. It’s more affordable and less exclusive than TED Conferences, allowing anyone in Las Vegas to attend the speaker sessions, with attendees pulled from both Hsieh and Slavin’s networks – a huge cross-section of people in various stages of their careers.

The venture makes sense given Slavin’s background, going all the way back to childhood when she recalls organizing and facilitating snack exchanges between her schoolmates during mid-morning recess, demonstrating what Sheryl Sandberg would most definitely term “executive leadership” skills. Highly social and a natural connector, Slavin’s love of teaching led her to attend University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education to obtain a dual bachelors/masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction. But she soon grew bored, and felt frustrated with the system’s reliance on standardized testing, choosing to write her thesis about how to take kids outside the classroom and measure achievement through observed application of learning digested. Around this time she was also dipping her toes into the media world, interning at Entertainment Tonight, and eventually becoming a freelance event planner – more due to others insistence that she would be good at it than her own desire. They were right.

Slavin began spending her weekends in Manhattan, throwing elaborate parties at CELLAR BAR (At The Bryant Park Hotel) for mostly financial sector and marketing industry clientele, and would then travel back to New Jersey during the week, where she lived with her parents while finishing school. Upon graduation (in 2009), she accepted a position at the Paige Hospitality Group as their Director of Marketing and Events, moving to Manhattan and helping the company grow from two restaurants, including The Ainsworth and the Southampton Social Club, to seven properties in just three years. Still doing some freelance work on the side, she was hired by Summit Series to help organize the Summit at Sea event, and then later Summit Basecamp, exposing her to an inspiring group of young entrepreneurs, artists and change-makers.

She was so inspired, in fact, that she woke up one night with an idea for a nonprofit music festival in Central Park, enthusiastically building a presentation the next day and sharing the idea with friend and cofounder of Invisible Children Bobby Bailey who immediately recognized the similarities between her vision and what his friends at the Global Poverty Project were developing. He connected her to Hugh Evans, Michael Trainer and Ryan Gall, and Slavin contributed to what would become the first Global Festival. Noticing just how many of the individuals in Summit Series had started nonprofits and needed help forging relationships, raising money and building campaigns and events to increase social awareness, she and a few friends founded Charity Connector – an event series that took place at the Paige Hospitality Group properties, to do just that.

She met Tony Hsieh through Summit Series as well, and was immediately excited to learn about his $350 million investment in Downtown Project. When he offered a casual invitation to a group of people gathered around in conversation one evening at Summit Basecamp she jumped at the opportunity. But when she arrived in Las Vegas weeks later, he didn’t recall having met her. At first feeling a bit awkward about having made the trek across the country, she soon received an invitation to get drinks with him and a few other people, and he spent some quality time with her, asking her about what she was creating, and the kind of impact she wanted to have. That conversation planted a seed that would later grow, but Slavin first had to return home and attend to her current responsibilities, which also included being a regular blogger for Huffington Post. Is anyone else keeping track of how many jobs Slavin had taken on by this time?

Indeed, it was a non-stop on-the-go lifestyle that had her tethered to her phone, constantly buzzing around meeting new people, brimming with ideas, and feeling so inspired and motivated that she’d repeatedly run herself completely ragged. Eventually, this led her to take a 10-day technology-free trip to India where she allowed herself to pause, reflect, and recharge. It was here that she started brainstorming what CatalystCreativ would become, writing down in a journal all of the people she would invite to the events, and all of the experiences she would create. After returning home she couldn’t get Las Vegas off of her mind, and began talking with Paige Hospitality Group about starting her own venture, discussing ways she could leave her current role without causing too much havoc. The solution uncovered was to take her former employer on as a CatalystCreativ client for the first six months, regularly traveling between Las Vegas and Manhattan to smooth out her departure.

Two years later, she now bounces back and forth between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and excitedly talks about past client projects (e.g., developing educational content for the Life Is Beautiful Festival, creating brand awareness and loyalty for NPR’s Generation Listen, and strategy and event planning for Schusterman Family Foundation) and what’s on the horizon (e.g., updating The Intelligence Group’s long-standing “Cassandra Sessions” to make it an even more immersive experience for those seeking a deep-dive on current consumer trends). There are also plans to expand CatalystCreativ beyond Las Vegas, with the goal of benefiting other communities in need of revitalization, and to blow out their online community functionality. It’s a lot to keep up with, but none of it seems to faze the 28-year-old (who comes across at least a decade wiser).

When asked what’s driven her to do so much at such a young age Slavin candidly says, “Originally it was a mixture of loving to teach and help, and also probably seeking validation from others as a way to avoid looking within myself.” No matter how cliché as it may sound, her trip to India was life changing, and made her realize how ungrounded she had become. She’s since prioritized self-care. This means regular exercise (I swear every time I go to SoulCycle she’s there), eating healthy, keeping her phone in her purse when she’s out with friends, continuing to invest in personal growth opportunities, trying to talk less and listen more, and only saying yes to the things and people she truly cares about. Understanding the importance of work/life balance, she encourages her employees to do the same. And when it comes to lessons learned as of late, Slavin says, “I’ve learned that sometimes doing the right thing isn’t the easy thing, but respect is harder to earn than being liked, and it’s much longer lasting.”