I have a few guiding principles when it comes to building a sustainable portfolio career but this is probably #1:

Create 1 core income stream to act as your anchor.

I find that for most people the quickest and easiest way to build this anchor income stream is by selling the skills they already were paid for (ie. in their full time job) in a contracting or consulting capacity.

Eg. if you were a Digital Marketing Manager, sell your digital marketing skills as a contractor. If you were a Project Manager, sell yourself as someone who can come into a business and run a project end-to-end while the core team focuses on BAU.

Once you learn how to market and sell your main skillset and land one or a few retainers that cover your monthly expenses, then you’ll have the creative headspace, motivation and confidence to play around with other income streams and offers.

I see a lot of people trying to build a diversified portfolio of work right off the bat, and in my opinion this is a surefire way to feel overwhelmed and distracted.

You can ABSOLUTELY build a portfolio career made up of lots of types of work, offers and projects, but you can’t do it all at once. Like anything worthwhile, it takes time.