How I quit traditional work and built a “portfolio career” of 5 income streams:

(PS. I’m sharing this to show that it’s possible for you to do the same)

• Some quick context: I spent my 20s working in full time Strategy & Project roles at big retailers like Uniqlo and Mecca. I loved these jobs, but in 2017 I got the entrepreneurial itch and, with 2 friends, I started a podcast and community for female founders.

• Our show got some early traction and we landed a big network deal, and I quit my job at Mecca to go all in on building the podcast and brand. For years and years I poured everything I had into it - time, money, energy, creativity…all of it.

• It was amazing in so many ways but coming out of COVID I realised I wasn’t happy anymore. As a generalist / multi-passionate, I didn’t feel fulfilled putting all of my energy into one thing. I wanted to explore lots of different interests. I wanted to write. I missed working in beauty. I was super interested in getting experience in tech. And so I left my first business without a plan 😬. I considered getting a job but really didn’t want to lose control over my time. And I was way too burnt out to start another business lol.

• I kept an open mind and started networking my little baby heart out. Pretty soon I landed 2 amazing fractional gigs: a GTM project with a tech startup and a long term retainer with an Aussie skincare brand who brought me on to lead their USA market entry strategy. I knew that it was a kinda random career move but I committed because it was the best of both worlds: income security + I was working mostly remotely and I’d set expectations with clients that allowed me to maintain a lot of control over my calendar.

• Once those initial income streams were locked in I decided to finally start writing. I launched my Substack 🫶🏼 and started sharing what I was building - a portfolio of different work interests and income streams, aka. a “portfolio career”. My newsletter grew very quickly, I think partly because people resonated with my story and partly because no one else online was talking about building an unconventional career so openly.

• Off the back of showing up online I started receiving lots of requests for mentoring, so I spun up a 1:1 portfolio career mentoring offer. I also tested a bunch of other mini offers - some landed, some didn’t.

• At this point I decided to wrap up with my biggest fractional client (and walk away from 70% of my income) to focus on other revenue sources. My mentoring client base started to grow and I began offering GTM advisory for early stage beauty brands.

• In my mentoring sessions I started hearing people talk about the struggle of managing multiple types of work (sales, marketing, client work, new products, admin, cash flow etc). I’m a Type A freak and had built an Operating System to solve this problem for myself and so I packaged it up and started selling it as my first digital product - The Portfolio Career OS.

• About six months later I launched my second digital product and tested a couple of community based offerings.

• 2 and a half years into working this way, I’m now starting to fly around the country to speak about the future of work and portfolio careers. It’s still wild to me that this is where I’ve landed!

• Over the years my income mix has changed too. I do less fractional work and more advisory, mentoring and speaking. I’m also testing new income stream ideas like partnerships and equity agreements. I’m never bored and I also feel a lot more secure knowing that I have multiple sources of income rather than just one (which feels risky in today’s climate).

That’s me! Let me know if you have any questions 🩷