Trend #004 - Portfolio careers ⚖️ | Reaching 1k on Twitter | Can we factcheck ChatGPT?

Hey,

Every other Friday, I will send you a trend alert to make you the smartest person in the room about all things startup.

Today, we are going to break down the hype about Portfolio Careers.

What you will learn:

• Why portfolio careers are making a comeback, after 500 years

• 3 trends pushing this into the spotlight in 2023

• How to decide which opportunities to pursue.

• Can you do it all?

• Who's making $338k/yr with a portfolio career?

• 4 ways to build a portfolio career

• 5 unconventional ways to profit from this trend

• The 1 thing you should NOT do 

What's happening in Hazel's world:

Two really cool things happened.

1) Follower growth

Woohoo, we made it to 1000 followers on Twitter! 🥳 I maay have an announcement to make in Feb 🤫... For now, I am focusing on growing THIS newsletter which takes HOURS to write but is super fun.

2) A ChatGPT alternative

I know all of you absolutely LOVE ChatGPT.

Here's a ChatGPT alternative I found that gives you current events (ChatGPT is 2 years behind) and cites its sources. I asked FactGPT for "interesting business ideas I can create using ChatGPT", and it delivered.

Definitely useful if you need AI content that is fresh and traceable back to its sources. I asked the founder Ankur and he said yes to offering a free 500 credits* to readers of our newsletter (psst: not available if you simply scroll the website).

*Valid as of the date of writing. Ankur is now our first newsletter sponsor!

Ok, enough about me. Let's dive straight into today's topic 👇

🔎 What is a portfolio career?

It is when you do more than 1 traditional 9 to 5 job. A lawyer who’s also a broadway dancer at night is an example of someone with a portfolio career. (You'd laugh, but I have a friend who is doing this)

“Multipotentialite” is another term I’ve come across to describe a person like that. There is a Ted Talk about it.

👁 Trend spotted

Searches for terms like indie hackers, no code and side hustles are all trending up worldwide. More people are realizing the need to transition away from a single source of income.

Just look at that dotted uptick at the end... (Google's own prediction of growth)

🔮 The big picture

The desire to have a second (or third) income is fueling this hype. With inflation and interest rates going up, and a recession looming, I suspect this trend is only going to accelerate.

👀 Examples of portfolio careers?

Portfolio careers are not new. In fact, here are some famous historical figures that had multiple careers:

• Marie Curie - The only person to ever win Nobel Prizes in TWO different fields - Physics and Chemistry. An incredible role model.

• Leonardo da Vinci - A painter, an architect, a designer and an investor… There is almost nothing he couldn’t do.

Ok, enough of this history lesson. Let's look at some recent examples:

🔥 Opportunities 

Let's look at two ways you can profit from this trend. 1) Building your own portfolio career and 2) Helping others build theirs.

💎Create your own portfolio career

Here are some ideas:

1️⃣Start a 5 to 9 side hustle.

Everyone knows about diversifying income streams. But how do you decide which option to choose? Try this simple decision tree👇

1. If you have a skill set that can help individuals, consider packaging up your services as a course, a template, an ebook, or offer microservices. The next time you attend a meet-up or networking event and someone asks you for help, you can refer them to this product. Help them get to know you, and move them up the offer ladder.

Dagobert Renouf - He created the very popular How To Dominate Twitter course (which I bought & completed myself)

Daniel Vassallo - He is an ex-Amazon employee who wrote a book about AWS (Amazon Web Services).

Justin Welsh - He packaged his experience growing other people’s businesses to $50M+ to help creators via his courses.

2. If you have a skillset that is highly specialised, consider working for multiple clients via platforms like Catalant.

Sean O’Dowd - Built a $500k/yr profit business by providing consultancy services on Catalant. It all started with an engagement ring debt. 👀Read his incredible story here.

Alan Tang - One of my good friends from school who’s now Chief of Staff at Portfolio Collective (a community and job board for people with portfolio careers).

2️⃣Get multiple FULL-time jobs

Yes, you read that right. There’s even a term for this - “Overemployed”.

Check out the subreddit r/overemployed. (🔴Warning: This is NOT life advice - don’t come at me if your employer finds out. Always check your employment terms!)

(Yes, ChatGPT is trending in r/overemployed too!)

3️⃣Run one-off workshops

You already know your stuff. Find charities, local companies, or go through your contact lists to find other organizations you could run a one-off workshop for, in exchange for testimonials. Then do more and start getting paid.

Take me as an example. I run growth hacking & incubator workshops for Allia’s accelerator programs (<< Say hi to me on LinkedIn)

4️⃣Consider passive income sources

As interest rates go up, this becomes more important. (The opportunity costs of inaction is higher)

💎 Create tools to help people build their portfolio careers

Here’s where it gets interesting. Remember the saying “During a gold rush, sell shovels”? Let’s unpack a few “shovels” opportunities.

1️⃣Help people figure out WHAT to start

Start a community (Escape The City), a podcast (Portfolio Career Podcast), a job board (The Portfolio Collective), or even a newsletter for new ideas (like this one you are reading!)

2️⃣Help people figure out HOW to start

Everyone has an app or product idea in their head that they want to build. Leverage the No Code momentum and help people build (Example: Max Haining’s 100days Of Nocode or Alex Fasulo’s book Freelance Your Way To Freedom)

3️⃣Job boards for new identities

The biggest change when people move from a 9-5 to a new portfolio career, is a change of identity. They no longer self-identify as “an accountant”, but rather, “a new father experimenting with working for themselves”.

Find what people identify as, and build a job board for that target audience.

This is Milly building Generalist World for everyone identifying as a Generalist (yes, NOT niching down is a niche too!)

4️⃣Help people with time management

During the exploratory stage, you will be doing a lot, and the biggest constraint is time. So any tools that save time during the portfolio career transition (like Moimaere’s Twitter AI automation tool or any automation widgets will be helpful)

5️⃣Platform ideas

Job sharing is now a thing. Build a platform to share ideas, collaborate on projects, facilitate collective client pitching etc…

💀 Risks

• Remember the old adage - “A jack of all trades”…… and a master of none. Whilst diversifying your income sources, avoid tackling multiple big changes all at once to avoid burnout.

• Not knowing what to pursueThe best way to learn what you’d like to do is NOT to read and analyse your options (Been there, done that). Try a few things, see where you find joy and momentum and take it from there.

Links to learn more

• Taking Ownership of Your Portfolio Career - Seth Godin

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I hope it's doing that. If it is, let me know by replying.

Until the next one,

Hazel

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