From light shows to life design: Big ideas from the Portfolio Career Festival #168
"The future of the company is the individual."
▶️Last week: Bold Types #12: Philip Hofmacher on building businesses with heart.
▶️Today’s topic: The future of your portfolio career.
I went to The Portfolio Collective's Portfolio Career Festival at the Ministry of Sound this week.
A one-day event to explore the challenges and opportunities of portfolio work with talks on:
How to land work as a portfolio professional.
Ignite your personal brand with the power of storytelling.
What does the future hold for portfolio professionals?
Fantastic light show to kick things off and wake us all up. Put your headphones on and listen to this. We love a light show!
We had a bit of fun with gamified tribe quests and prizes to be won (I was with the ‘Arty Hearts’). Post your asks/offers on the activity board and connect with others. A nice ice-breaker when you’re on your tod.
Here are my takeaways from the main stage.
#1 How to land work as a portfolio professional
w/Mike Anderson, Mary Agbesanwa, Faris Aranki, Fiona Chorlton-Voong. Hosted by Lexi Radcliffe-Hart.
The first session of the day on the importance of growing your network, online and offline.
Lots on LinkedIn (a love/hate relationship). Faris's signature move is LinkedIn voice notes (I got one from him earlier this week after commenting on his post.) It got my attention - he has a friendly voice but I felt a bit less special after discovering he sends quite a few of these.
His goal is to connect with as many people as possible via the platform, as some of these convos will turn into clients. Very high energy!
‘Mentor Mike’ said most of your work will come from your 2nd-degree connections, so focus on the network you already have. Reach out to friends of friends and be open to work coming to you in unexpected ways.
He has a thoughtful and grounded approach that resonated with me. Also intriguing to hear his thing is ‘taking tea’ with people.
Fiona talks to three strangers every week, which has led to some great conversations.
I love a panel where the speakers disagree and challenge one another to think differently. Otherwise, it's an echo chamber and boring. This worked well as there was some tension and a transformation in thinking. You can see it on people's faces.
Some killer quotes too - I need to watch the replay.
A plea from me: no mobile phones on stage. They are so distracting.
2. Ignite your personal brand with the power of storytelling.
w/Alex Pitt and Fiona Chorlton-Voong sharing their stories. I love that they met on Bumble Bizz!
They invited Lara Hayward on stage to tell her story. Here's someone doing the portfolio career thing well—she’s a lawyer/executive coach/wellbeing consultant/circus performer. I can remember what she said so it’s worth spending some time on your story, knowing your why, and writing it down.
The art of strategic selling
After lunch, I did a workshop on ‘The art of strategic selling’. A crash course from Ben and Charlie on biz dev (Ben has 25 profiles online!). It should be little and often, put it in the calendar.
Biz dev is about action - being visible and helpful. Make sure you do something every day, forever.
Team tip - Download your contact list from LinkedIn. Upload it to ChatGPT, tell it you want it to target specific people from your audience, and ask it to create a plan (xls) for you.
3. What does the future hold for portfolio professionals?
Final panel of the day w/Pip Jamieson, Mike Anderson, Mary Agbesanwa, Aušrinė Keršanskaitė. Hosted by Lexi Radcliffe-Hart.
Our relationship with work has dramatically changed post-pandemic. Add to that the shifting priorities of Gen Z workforce and the rise of AI, and we’re in new territory. This was a meaty one! (grab a cuppa).
What are the challenges & opportunities of portfolio work?
Pip: "It's about a diversity of income streams."
Interesting to hear that most of Pip's business (she founded The Dots) is now licensing their tech to other companies. She had a juicy offer from a members' club - £1,000 a month to use their venue for work, etc. Nice side gig.
Charlie: "Also a diversity of values. It can be lonely - you need a tribe to learn with.”
“Community is an intimate space to share your vulnerability. The future generations need that."Aušrinė: "Community allows you to discover your strengths, niche, and beat imposter syndrome. They help you evolve quicker. You can ask the stupid questions."
At Operations Nation, they put people into smaller groups for intimacy, creating intentional spaces.Ben sees two gaps:
1. Helping students fresh out of uni into portfolio careers, so more education around entrepreneurship in schools and some graduate training.
2. Helping portfolio people work together as a team - pitching for bigger projects, negotiating, managing contracts, etc.
And some food for thought on the future of the ‘company’, especially with AI empowering solopreneurs.
The future of the company is the individual.
Why do you need a company?
Pip: "You just need a great Ops person who's fractional. Be nimble. Have fewer employees."
It's a shift happening too slowly in companies, so Aušrinė is thinking about market creation - let’s do it together.
Mental health and work/life balance. How do we set boundaries?
The portfolio career is a double-edged sword. I find it hard to switch off.
Aušrinė:"My partner does not like me being on 24/7." Feeling guilty when you’re not working on other projects and "that niggly voice in your head that you're not doing enough." What's helped her is focusing on outcome, not output.
Charlie: "It's not career design; it's life design. You have to let go of that 9-5 mindset in your head." Focus on what you want. Charlie’s also a sponsored endurance athlete. He placed 33rd out of 1,115 at the Ironman UK 2023 and represented GB in 2024. Bring that energy to your work! 💪
Ben: we have three sources of worry that are solvable.
1. Inconsistent earnings. He re-forecasts his rolling income every month.
2. Having obsolete skills. Have a learning plan.
3. Being a workaholic. Block time on your calendar (he colour codes his) and does walking meetings to keep fit.
How do we get more comfortable with taking risks?
Charlie: "Work at a startup! You may get paid late. Build a side hustle income stream."
Ben: Wind down the day job rather than quit. Hang out with other portfolio professionals. "If you get it right, there's a little bit of stress every day." Having one full-time job is more risky than having multiple income streams.
Pip visualises the worst thing that could happen, which helps her feel more comfortable dealing with daily stress.
Any advice for students entering the world of work?
Ben: It doesn't have to be university; we have apprenticeships. Start doing stuff, give talks, volunteer.
Schools need to train every single person to be an entrepreneur and learn remote collaboration skills.
His first side hustle was selling condoms at boarding school to the other boys, who wanted everyone to think they were having sex, even though they weren't. "Every teenager should be making money how they see fit."
💬Random chats!
I had several throughout the day and it made me realise what I’m missing as a remote worker. Not quite the same vibe with the barista. I love sharing tips and hearing other people’s stories.
The woman who's had three careers already and wants FIVE (her dad had seven!) She’s also learning how to be a Japanese tea master.
The man who said he'll never retire.
The marketer who lives just down the road from my mum - instant rapport!
The footwear designer and lecturer who’s passionate about empowering individuals & biz navigating entrepreneurship, creativity, success.
I also chatted with a few people who weren't working and thinking about their next move, so this was a good day for inspiration and reflection.
Brilliant event, well done team. 🙏
Excellent facilitation by Lexi who is warm and open and "also available for hire.” Good to see they practise what they preach and promote portfolio work within.
Someone said on LinkedIn, "The energy of portfolio work is contagious," and it's true. They’re now at 12,000 members, four years on. It's a movement trying to define how work happens.
I've been feeling fired up this week, which tells me I need to get out to more events like this and that I'm on the right path, exploring this shift to entrepreneurship.
Someone said to me, “You must take tea with Mike - it’s an experience not to be missed!” I messaged him when I got home and he replied straightaway. We’re having tea on Tuesday! He has a media background so it will be interesting to hear his perspective on what I’m doing.
Also exciting to hear their plans for the future - a second city and a TPC hub in town. Yes! It would be ace if they had a physical space.
They’ve built a kind, supportive community of people doing things differently, and I recommend you join.
As Seth said,
The best way to create value among audiences like this and get paid for it is by connecting people. It's tempting to be in the media business where you broadcast to everyone, but what people are eager for, which is scarce, is being in the room with the right other people.
Were you there? Do you have any insights to share?
Ministry of Sound
Very pleased to see (on the loo door) that Fab & Groove are resident DJs. The Godfathers of D&B.
It’s 30 years since I started going to their gigs!! They’re almost 60 now with more skin in the game than anyone (playing an all-nighter as I write this). I love how much they support each other - their own biggest cheerleaders, always one step ahead of the competition.
“I’ve seen young kids who are taking a break, and they’re 22, getting burnt out because this job is just that hard.” We can learn a lot from the OGs. This is the kind of stuff I want to read about in the biz press.
Time moves on and the trick to longevity is moving with it. - Fabio.
Cheers,
Nika 🥂
Where’s Jack the Ripper? Oh yessss!! 10 minutes of bliss.
Read, listen, watch, book. Here are those recs from me and my portfolio peers. Enjoy!
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