Just finished putting together a website layout for my portfolio, and I’m beyond exhausted. Funny enough, doing this for clients never felt this draining. After deciding to take a quick rest, your post was the first thing I saw on my phone. I managed to answer all your questions, and speaking my answers out loud reminded me why I started this journey in the first place. It dawned on me that the reason this feels so tough is because, while we're used to asking clients these questions to understand them better, I completely forgot to do this for myself. It's ironic how we can easily solve others' problems but struggle to do the same for ourselves. Thank you for creating this! Your questions helped me refocus and rediscover my original motivation, which was exactly what I needed at this moment. Now, back to the grind. 💪😁
It's funny isn't it, we often intellectually 'know' what we need to do or the questions we need to ask ourselves, but we don't actually spend the time or give ourselves the space. I'm happy you took a few moments to think through these questions and it's given you the motivation to continue. Mission accomplished!
Doing my own thing, but just came from being employee #6 at a place that went from $0 to a $2B public co in 10 years…
Control is the #1 difference. The difficulty, pace and pressure of doing your own thing is an ocean of difference from being part of a “go big” thing. It’s not even close!
I guess if you have an insatiable ambition OR operating within a naturally difficult biz (e.g. restaurants), then doing something “small” can be thought of as just as hard.
But in “go big” you have to keep going bigger. Take that thing to $10M, and all of a sudden you now have to up the ante again, then hit $50M, then $100M, and so on. Never ending!
Anna, I would love your tips on writing a bio for a portfolio career. I imagine we would need to write aspect specific bios but using a common thread. Whilst I have a common thread it’s articulating it succinctly I feel is the challenge.
Loved this series Anna! I've been self-employed for almost five years now and my business has been through lots of iterations but I'm feeling particularly energised by my portfolio career atm. Seeing others navigating similar paths in posts like yours mean a lot so thanks for sharing :)
Just finished putting together a website layout for my portfolio, and I’m beyond exhausted. Funny enough, doing this for clients never felt this draining. After deciding to take a quick rest, your post was the first thing I saw on my phone. I managed to answer all your questions, and speaking my answers out loud reminded me why I started this journey in the first place. It dawned on me that the reason this feels so tough is because, while we're used to asking clients these questions to understand them better, I completely forgot to do this for myself. It's ironic how we can easily solve others' problems but struggle to do the same for ourselves. Thank you for creating this! Your questions helped me refocus and rediscover my original motivation, which was exactly what I needed at this moment. Now, back to the grind. 💪😁
This happened time yesterday too! But my challenge came in writing a bio!
The portfolio career bio...I think this is another post in and of itself! I'm going to noodle on this over the next few days and come back to you.
It's funny isn't it, we often intellectually 'know' what we need to do or the questions we need to ask ourselves, but we don't actually spend the time or give ourselves the space. I'm happy you took a few moments to think through these questions and it's given you the motivation to continue. Mission accomplished!
People who think building a big business is just as hard as building a small business… simply have not done both.
It sounds like this is coming from someone who has done both? I'd love to hear your take.
Doing my own thing, but just came from being employee #6 at a place that went from $0 to a $2B public co in 10 years…
Control is the #1 difference. The difficulty, pace and pressure of doing your own thing is an ocean of difference from being part of a “go big” thing. It’s not even close!
I guess if you have an insatiable ambition OR operating within a naturally difficult biz (e.g. restaurants), then doing something “small” can be thought of as just as hard.
But in “go big” you have to keep going bigger. Take that thing to $10M, and all of a sudden you now have to up the ante again, then hit $50M, then $100M, and so on. Never ending!
Anna, I would love your tips on writing a bio for a portfolio career. I imagine we would need to write aspect specific bios but using a common thread. Whilst I have a common thread it’s articulating it succinctly I feel is the challenge.
This is a fantastic question. I need spend some time thinking about this but I’ll come back to you!
Loved this series Anna! I've been self-employed for almost five years now and my business has been through lots of iterations but I'm feeling particularly energised by my portfolio career atm. Seeing others navigating similar paths in posts like yours mean a lot so thanks for sharing :)