Hello from Hollywood!
A week in the life of my portfolio career.
This week I’ve ditched the rainy, grim Australian winter to bop about in the land of driverless cars, food delivery robots, Erewhon smoothies, palm trees, Tesla Cybertrucks, beautiful people and beautiful-er views - Los Angeles!
I’ve ventured stateside because five weeks ago, the Executive Producer of a podcast slid into my inbox with an invitation I couldn’t refuse; to guest on the very show that played a massive role in me quitting my job back in 2019 to do my own thing. There’s almost certainly some good luck and divine timing at play here. At the beginning of the year I channeled some manifesting-adjacent vibes and wrote “guest on a global podcast, ideally American” on my vision board, even though I wasn’t sure that I belonged in a massive U!S!A!-sized room. It’s kinda wild that now, just 6 months later, some of my delusional intentions are materialising before my eyes.
I came to LA for the pod but the opportunist in me wanted to make the most of my time here, so I’ve had a jam-packed itinerary: catching up with founders and friends, having meetings, recording some more podcasts, trying out coffee shops I’ve seen on TikTok, buying all the things I can’t get in Australia (hello Lemme sleep gummies), eyeballing various Hollywood Hills mansions, and most importantly, hosting a reader meetup.
I’ve been writing online for almost three years and while I’ve built relationships with readers in the DMs and on mentoring Zoom calls, I’ve met very few people in real life. Intellectually, I know that lots of people read my stuff, but I forget that behind every subscriber is a person with a life and a story, and their own hopes, fears and dreams.
On Wednesday, I met twenty of those beautiful people as they walked through the door of a café in Fairfax. We settled in, we had coffee, we chatted, we shared. Women told stories about quitting their jobs or being made redundant, they shared their portfolio career ambitions, exchanged social media handles and friendships began forming before my eyes. A few people from Eastside LA even decided to keep catching up for regular local hangs.
I write a lot about constructing your Career Web - a personal ecosystem built on connections between people, projects and ideas - and on Wednesday I witnessed people rocking up to an event alone, sharing openly and starting to build their ecosystems in real time. Who knows what might come from the conversations they had with each other this week. The friendships, the support, the sense of belonging, the introductions, the ongoing meetups (shoutout to my Eastside gals), the things they might build together, the work opportunities that one day might follow.
The meetup was the highlight of my trip, and a reminder that if you’re sitting at your desk and waiting for the client, the opportunity, the podcast invitation, the lucky break, the green light, the right time, or a sign from the universe, then perhaps it’s time to get out of your head and into the world. Find your people. Find the room.
Or better yet, build your own.
A reflection on the week and why I’m still not over meeting my readers in real life.
🫶🏼 When you’re ready, here are two ways I can help:
How to future-proof your career in the world of AI: a free 14 day email series teaching you how to diversify your income and risk, and build a portfolio of skills, opportunities and income streams. Sign up here.
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SYSW inspoooooo 💕💕💕
Such magic around right now - awesome to see/hear all this!