So...I'm launching a portfolio career accelerator soon
And I've been stealthily testing it for a year. Here's how.
When I started documenting my portfolio career online in 2024, the internet was littered with shiny career success stories. Everywhere I scrolled, people were raising millions of dollars, landing on the Forbes 30 under 30 or proudly leapfrogging up the corporate ladder.
I celebrated these LinkedIn friends and foes from afar, but no part of me felt drawn to emulate their version of success. Instead, I felt compelled to reject the linear path and go rogue. I sought freedom! Whimsy! Creativity! Meaning! Impact! Money! I wanted it all!
Not once did I think that just two years later, I’d be teaching people all around the world how to birth their portfolio career babies. I’ve now mentored almost 200 people across industries, career stages and countries, a factoid that stuns me to this day. Through it all I’ve come to realise that the challenges portfolio-people face are eerily similar, namely:
Figuring out what you’re good at and confidently articulating your value
Building your offers around an existing or emerging skill stack
Positioning yourself so the market gets you
Finding the thread between the (often disparate) things you do so your portfolio feels intentional and not all over the joint
Pricing yourself properly
Generating leads, negotiating rates and converting deals
Getting over the fear of being seen
Building an engaged community online and attracting epic opportunities
Managing and marketing a multi-prong portfolio of capabilities
I’ve mentored so many people through these challenges that, about a year ago, I did what any respectable Type A systems thinker would do: I began codifying my approach into a curriculum.
It was a gargantuan undertaking. I spent months trawling through my past mentoring conversations, career history and personal business experience to create a thesis and methodology that is uniquely mine. From brand building at Uniqlo and Mecca, to the chaos of working with tech startups and scaling consumer brands, to my utter obsession with storytelling and writing, the hyper-engaged community I’ve built online, years of consultative sales, my own 5-6 income stream portfolio…I pulled all of it apart and developed The Portfolio Career Build Method; a methodology (hence the name!) for constructing your career web and creating, testing, launching, iterating and scaling income streams into a diversified ecosystem of work.
The Portfolio Career Build Method is also the name of my new six week accelerator (how meta) that I’ve been developing for almost a year. Here’s what’s I’ve been working on behind the scenes!
Cohort 1: MVP and validating if there’s a need
Around July/Aug last year I decided to give the accelerator thing a crack. My main goal was to simply do the damn thing even though I knew it would be a little clunky. I set out to deliver not the best experience in the world, but to the best of my ability
I spun up an EOI form to see if there was any interest. I posted about it on LinkedIn and Substack and 150 people signed up overnight
I got ready to shoot my shot and personally reached out to everyone on the list. I offered a discounted beta rate and very quickly recruited 10 people. We were on!
Cohort 1 kicked off a few weeks later. I spent the following 6 weeks stepping into the role of teacher and facilitator, which felt stressful at times, euphoric at others
We wrapped on October 30 and I left for Europe the following day. I took the time off to decompress and collect signals about how things went: did I get good feedback? Did I deliver value? Did I enjoy it enough to run it again?
While smashing a pint in London the feedback started trickling in. Things like “I feel like my entire perception of my business and career identity has shifted in the last seven weeks” and “This was the best investment I could have made into my portfolio career”
In that moment I realised yes! I want to do this again! I can help people! I can have impact! I want another pint!
How I felt: Honestly, scared. For some reason I’ve always believed I’m a shitty facilitator so the idea of running group calls multiple times a week freaked me out. But I pushed through and realised I (and it) was nowhere near as terrifying as I thought.
Cohort 2: Iterating and improving
When I got home from Europe I started reworking the curriculum based on feedback from the group. I engaged Maggie Terhune, a Community Strategist who was also part of Cohort 1, to help me design an experience that encouraged deeper relationships and more peer to peer learning
I tested a bunch of new educational concepts by sharing them on Tiktok and with my mentoring clients
I decided to run a second beta cohort at a higher (but still discounted) rate, given all the changes. I recruited a larger group of wonderful humans through direct outreach
If my goal for Cohort 1 was to make it exist, my goal for Cohort 2 was to make it feel POLISHED. The next 8 weeks of my life were dedicated to delivering the best learning experience on planet earth. I pulled 50+ hour weeks but seeing everyone’s transformation made the late nights and weekends worth it
After our final call, I cried
Upon reading the feedback, I cried. One person wrote “I came into the Build Method with a constant niggling feeling that I wanted more for my life and career than the current status quo. Working for myself has always been an aspiration but I never really knew how to get started. But now I have the confidence, structure and system to back myself through small, consistent steps rather than waiting for a moment of readiness that was never going to come”
I had a fire in my belly to bring this accelerator to market
How I felt: Confident, assured, dedicated, inspired, grateful. Still a little scared though.
Cohort 3: Officially launching in June!
Since Cohort 2 wrapped I’ve made some more big changes: increasing the number of participants and opening it up to all time zones, redesigning the program architecture to improve pacing, buttoning up the weekly assignments and feedback mechanisms, introducing guest Q&As, hiring a small team and engaging past participants to come back as co-facilitators and mentors
There are now over 1000 people on the waitlist, another factoid that stuns me
Doors to Cohort 3 open on Monday June 22 (or 48 hours earlier if you register your interest here)
Spots are limited!
More soon!
How I’m feeling: Nervous! Excited! Hopeful!
Going through this process of creating, testing, launching, iterating and growing The Portfolio Career Build Method (the accelerator) has been the result of following The Portfolio Career Build Method (the methodology). In a weird Inception-like way, it’s a product of what it teaches: to listen to market signals, build an offer around a customer problem and your unique strengths, act before you feel ready, bring ideas to market softly (then loudly), iterate relentlessly and expand strategically.
If you need some structure and a gentle push to get your portfolio career off the ground, I hope you’ll join me. Together we’ll work towards freedom! Whimsy! Creativity! Meaning! Impact! Money! You can build it all!
The most important lesson from building the accelerator that you absolutely must (!) follow if you’re creating any kind of product or service to sell:
🫶🏼 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.
The Portfolio Career Build Method: a 6 week program that helps high performers rethink their approach to work, and design a portfolio career of multiple interests and income streams that deeply aligns with who they are. Officially launching July 2026! Sign up to learn more.
❤️🔥 Subscribe for more ideas and frameworks…
…to help you build a financially lucrative and creatively fulfilling portfolio career and life.
AMAZING. This is epic- big congrats!
I’m so impressed. I have been following you for over a year and this is such a natural transition for you! Good luck! 🫶🏾🤎