My rather ambitious plan for 2025

And why I’m focusing on my interests, income and impact.

It’s the first work week of the year and my boss told me that while I’m technically meant to be back in the office, she’s cool if I take it easy and spend the week building my newly purchased Milky Way Lego set instead (the boss is me).

Jokes aside, I’ve uncharacteristically given myself permission to start the year off slowly because:

1. December was my biggest and busiest month ever, and despite 2 weeks off I’m still zonked

2. For the first time in a long time I feel calm, clear and focused about what’s to come so don’t feel the need to rush

Even though we’re just 10 days in I feel like I’m in an ascending spiral. This is far more exciting and less anxiety-producing than being in a downward spiral; which, by the way, I’ve become well acquainted with over the last 10+ years of my storied career.

It’s a nice feeling, this whole “I’m on the right path” thing, and while I’m sure many curve balls will be thrown my way in 2025 (they always are), for now I’m making the most of it by stacking Lego bricks one on top of the other, and dreaming, strategising and planning for the year to come.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

The Process

Before we begin I thought I’d outline my annual planning process. This is an abridged version but you can find the full thing, worksheets and all, within the Portfolio Career Operating System.

1. Choose a word

Every year I choose a word that sets an intention for the year to come. In the past I’ve chosen unencumbered (after a particularly heart-wrenching breakup), abundance (at a time I was feeling everything but) and freedom (the year after coming out of the world’s longest lockdown).

2. Write down my vision

I’m not a vision board kinda gal and don’t feel much enthusiasm for cutting images from magazines and making a collage on my wall (no shade if that’s your thing, it’s just not mine). Instead, I love to write my annual vision down in past tense as if it’s already happened. If I don’t dream, then there’s no way my dreams will come true.

3. Identify three focus areas

I’d love to make meaningful yearly progress across every aspect of my life - relationships, creativity, money, business, writing, adventure, hobbies etc. - but I know myself, and I know that if I pick more than three areas to focus on I get nothing done. Last year I chose work/career, personal brand and health.

4. Set goals for each area

I set 1-2 goals for each and ask myself the following questions:

• What is my goal?

• Why is this important to me?

• What steps do I need to take to make it happen?

• What could I ask/engage for guidance and advice?

• At the end of the year, how will I know if I’ve been successful?

5. Identify 1-2 habits

This is the most important part of the process - identifying the simple habits that ladder up to my goals. I think of these tiny daily actions like Lego bricks, they stack one on top of the other to form a full and vibrant model of my future.

6. Plan out each quarter

Including core focuses, projects, milestones and results I hope to deliver.

My Plan

This year, as you may know, my word is expand and my three focus areas are:

1. My interests: voraciously pursuing my curiosity and expanding my knowledge of ideas, frameworks, philosophies, industries and cultures.

2. My income: increasing my earnings by doubling down on revenue streams that have proven product-market fit.

3. My impact: writing more, sharing more, speaking more, teaching more and reaching more people worldwide through my words and ideas.

My interests

I’ve always been a curious cat and my interests are far broader than startups, portfolio careers and writing. I also love Lego. Space. The intersection of spirituality and science. Ancient civilisations. The brain. Human potential. Fashion. Billie Eilish’s entire discography.

I still have so much to learn, and I also know that to write interesting stuff I need to live an interesting life. I need to know and do interesting things. This means pursuing my interests (even the weird ones), taking risks (so I can report back), reading widely (stuff that not everyone else has read) and putting myself in new environments and cultures (to help me evolve).

Goals

• Read 24 books that challenge and broaden my way of thinking

• Go back to Europe and the US

Habit

• Read non-mainstream non-fiction for 30 minutes per day. Ideally before bed, instead of getting sucked into the dior bag Tiktok vortex or being served videos about whether the pyramids were, in fact, constructed by aliens (daily)

My Income

I spent all of 2024 adding new revenue streams to my portfolio. In January I had 2 (fractional work and startup consulting) and by December I had 3 more (founder advisory, portfolio career mentoring and the Portfolio Career Operating System). It was the highest earning year of my career which, I must say, I am rather chuffed about.

This year I intend to expand my income, not through adding new revenue streams but by maximising the ones I’ve already got. I want to earn more because my income is explicitly linked to impact - the more I earn the more I’m contributing to the world, because money is simply a measure of value. That, and I need to finance my US and European sojourn and feed my Lego addiction (it’s expensive).

Goal

• Grow my overall portfolio pie to $X (I’m too nervous to share my actual sales target with the world, soz ‘bout it)

• Shift my primary income stream from fractional work with startups to the Portfolio Career Operating System. This is a bold goal to be sure, but early signals suggest I’ve found product-market fit so I’m backing myself

• 50% of income from do-it-yourself (the OS), 40% from done-with-you (advisory and mentoring), 10% from done-for-you (fractional)

I chat about this revenue growth plan in the voice memo at the bottom of this post if you fancy learning more.

Habits

• Email every OS customer within 24 hours of purchase. Establish a personal relationship. Go above and beyond to make sure they’ve onboarded properly. Offer 1-1 email support (daily)

• Solicit feedback consistently about my products, messaging, brand and marketing. Act on feedback consistently. Iterate and improve (weekly)

• Run marketing experiments and track lead generation and conversion (monthly)

My Impact

Impact takes many shapes - helping, teaching, serving, inspiring, motivating, challenging, uplifting. It happens at a micro scale in a single heartfelt conversation and occurs en masse through broadcasting ideas to the world.

My personal impact - the contribution I’m here to make - is through my ideas and words. I know that writing is my purpose just like I know that the sky is blue and the Milky Way Lego set has 3091 bricks.

Goal

• Grow this newsletter to 25,000 subscribers. It freaks me out to put this ridiculous goal into the world but hey, my word for the year is expand so expand my realm of possibility I shall

• Help 1000 people start or grow their portfolio careers

Habits

• Write, edit, prune, tweak and refine my craft for an hour a day (daily)

• Pitch once per week. To editors. To podcast hosts. To collaborators. To networks. To conferences. To a penguin shaped book publisher (weekly)

The Daily Habit Tracker in my OS.

I don’t have the space to share my quarterly plans here, but you can betcha bottom dollar they are big, brave and bold.

Operationalising the dream

Most people are pretty good at dreaming up a vision and setting big goals. After all, that’s the fun stuff.

Few people are good at identifying the daily and weekly actions that ladder up to those goals and dreams, and even fewer are conscious about creating an environment that ensures they stick. That, my friends, is the boring stuff. But the boring stuff is what matters. The repetitive actions are the ones that move you forward.

So if you’re planning for a brilliant, full, creative and inspiring year, don’t forget to operationalise your dreams and ideas. Commit to the obvious work. Do the boring action. Moment by moment. Day by day.

Brick by brick.

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Do you dream of a life that’s as colourful, multifaceted and varied as you are? Do you want to earn great money doing what you love, all while marching to the beat of your own drum? The Portfolio Career Operating System can help. It’s the exact OS I’ve used to turn my skill stack into multiple income streams, all while creating a life of freedom, creativity and impact.

The early bird price finishes on January 20 so this is your last chance to get the OS at $299 USD before it increases to $497 USD. If you’ve been thinking about buying it, now’s the time. Don’t miss out!

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🎙️ My revenue growth plan for the year, why all income streams are not created equally, and where I hope to be by the end of 2025:

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