In this edition:
Why AI is replacing output — but not you
The silent skill clients are now paying a premium for
How to show your judgement (not just your work)
The 6P System I use to demonstrate my thinking
A powerful shift for women leaving corporate — and how to navigate it with clarity
RESERVE YOUR SPOT to my FREE PORTFOLIO CAREER BY DESIGN Workshop series
I was listening to Sinead Bovell interview Ajay Agrawal recently, and one line stopped me in my tracks. She said AI isn’t just another tool. It’s a general-purpose technology, like electricity or the internet. When something that foundational enters the scene, it doesn’t just change how we do work. It changes what we value in the first place.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now.
We’re living through a shift where output — reports, decks, dashboards, recommendations — is increasingly handled by machines. What remains distinctly human is judgment. The ability to decide, to filter, to know what matters and why.
If you’re building a portfolio career, that’s your edge. And it’s where your value lives.
What’s Actually Changing (and Why It Feels Messy)
You can see it across industries. Consulting firms are restructuring. Clients are pushing back on bloated reports and theoretical advice. What they’re asking for is clear:
“Help me decide what matters”
“Don’t just advise, own the outcome”
“Tell me what to ignore, not just what to read”
In a world flooded with information, the commodity is analysis. The differentiator is decision. If your work is rooted in output alone, you risk being seen as interchangeable.
The shift can feel uncomfortable. But it’s also a huge opportunity to reposition how you work and how you show the real value you offer.
We’re not just imagining this. According to McKinsey’s The State of AI in 2025, while 72 percent of companies report using AI in at least one business area, only 1 percent feel confident they’ve fully embedded it in their workflows. This gap between adoption and maturity is exactly where human judgement becomes essential.
A Familiar Pattern: The Accountant Story
There’s a story I often share with clients.
In the 1980s, accounting students were tested on arithmetic. One exam asked students to turn to page 47 of the phone book and add up all the numbers. That was the test. Then, in 1985, Excel arrived, and overnight, arithmetic became a button press.
The accountants who adapted didn’t try to out-calculate the software. They became storytellers of data. They focused on interpretation, meaning, and advice. That’s what kept them relevant.
Today, the same shift is playing out across strategy, marketing, operations, coaching, and advisory work. AI is handling more of the predictable and repeatable tasks. The work left behind — the human work — is filled with ambiguity, nuance, and responsibility.
That’s where your judgment belongs.
When Experience Meets Doubt
Many experienced professionals, especially women in their 40s and 50s, are hearing a new kind of question:
“Can’t AI do most of this already?”
It’s a confronting moment. Because the answer is sometimes yes. Parts of what you do can be automated. But underneath it all, your value isn’t in the parts. It’s in the whole. The story. The choices. The context.
AI can’t replicate your life experience. It can’t intuit what a client didn’t say but clearly meant. It can’t weigh risk in a boardroom or hold emotional nuance in a leadership call.
You are the human filter. You shape what to trust, what to edit, and what to amplify.
That’s how you stay essential.
Judgement Is the Real Currency
Clients are no longer buying hours. They’re buying clarity.
And right now, they’re overwhelmed. There’s more data, more dashboards, more AI-generated content than ever before. But more doesn’t equal better. It just creates noise.
In that noise, what people are craving is discernment. Someone to help them see the signal, not just the stats.
This flood of low-quality content has a name. It’s often called AI slop — content produced without depth, care, or rigour. As everyone races to produce more, your advantage is not speed. It’s being able to say, “Here’s what matters, and why.”
“Selling and delivering your services based on outcomes rather than output can transform how clients perceive your value.”
How Your Judgement Becomes Visible
(The 6P Framework and Logic Mapping)
Judgement is powerful, but it’s often invisible. Your clients see the slides or the proposal. They don’t see the decisions, the trade-offs, or the instinct that shaped it.
That’s why you need a structure that makes your thinking visible.
In my work mentoring women as they transition from corporate careers to build successful portfolio businesses, I use a system called the 6P System. It’s the lens I use with every client inside The Portfolio Career Club, and it’s how I bring my own judgement into every offer.
Here’s what it looks like:
When a client gets stuck or overwhelmed, we return to these six lenses. Together, they make judgement visible. They turn ambiguity into strategy.
You can create your own process too. Whether it’s a decision tree, a three-step model or a filtering question, what matters is that people can see how you think. Because that’s what builds trust.
If You’re Building a Portfolio Career, This Matters
If you’re a woman in your mid 30s, 40s or 50s pivoting into coaching, consulting, fractional leadership or advisory work, here’s what I want you to know.
This moment is not something to fear. It’s a moment of power. A chance to stop overproducing and start aligning. A chance to work in a way that honours your experience, not hides it.
You are not behind. You are exactly where you’re meant to be.
Your clients don’t need more slides. They need your insight. Your ability to say, “Here’s the move.” That is valuable. That is rare.
What You Can Try Next
You don’t have to change everything. Start small.
Share a decision: Post about a time you said no to something misaligned, and how you knew
Let people in: Next time you create a programme or product, write a short post about how you made the decisions behind it
Explain your process: Add a “How I Think” section to your website or proposals. Let people understand your approach before they work with you
These small moves are powerful. They show your judgement in action. They attract the right people. They remind you that how you think is what makes you valuable.
Quick question: Are you planning to leave corporate in the next 12 months? Or did you recently leave and now you’re wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into?
Either way, I’m running a free workshop series specifically for you.
The Portfolio Career by Design Series
3 workshops. 3 weeks. Your roadmap out (or through).
Oct 23: From Employee to Expert
Recognise your true expertise and discover how your Human Design Authority helps you make confident decisions (especially about your career transition)
Oct 30: The Portfolio Foundation
Finally understand why some business ideas excite you and others don’t (your Type holds the answer) + choose your perfect starting point
Nov 5: The Anti-Hustle Portfolio Career
Price with confidence and build systems that energise instead of exhaust you (using your Human Design Profile)
This is for women who want to build a strategic portfolio career, not a chaotic collection of gigs.
The details:
70 minutes each
Live on Zoom
Recordings available for 48 hours
Completely free (no pitch fest, just practical strategy)
I’m on a mission to help 10,000 women build portfolio careers by 2030. This workshop series is part of this mission!
