Why personal branding exhausts you
Your weekly guide to building a pro-passion, anti-hustle portfolio career
⏰ 60-SECOND TAKEAWAY
Build a business that can pause without panic
Why we escaped corporate but recreated the prison
Your Human Design makes or breaks your personal brand
Portfolio careerists are winning the AI game
Human Design Q&A: 2/4 Projector visibility without the burnout
📣 ANNOUNCEMENT
You're Not Broken. Your Personal Branding Strategy Is.
The real reason ambitious women feel invisible online- and the Human Design solution that changes everything.
I'm excited to launch my new course: Personal Branding for Portfolio Careerists Using Human Design. Get step-by-step guidance to build authentic visibility that works WITH your energy, not against it.
Early bird special: $97 (regular price $250) for the next 10 days only.
💭 WHAT’S ON MY MIND
"The most radical thing you can do as a portfolio careerist isn't building a business that never stops. It's building one that can pause without panic."
This week, I returned from my first real break since moving back to Australia last April and stepping into my portfolio career full-time. For over 20 years, working in corporate meant relying on established systems and teams when I took my holidays. This time, it was just me, my incredible ops manager, and the systems we'd built together.
The moment I stepped onto that plane, a familiar darkness crept in. I've just blown up my business. My clients will leave. Everything will fall apart without me. The irony wasn't lost on me; here I was, preaching sustainable portfolio careers to my clients while battling the very toxicity I help them escape.
I realised that panic wasn't about my business. It was about my identity.
My undefined root centre in my human design was doing exactly what it does, creating pressure to rush into action, to do something, anything, to relieve the discomfort. Instead of jumping into emails or Slack like every instinct screamed at me to do, I got curious. Was this pressure telling me something genuinely needed my attention? Or was it revealing how deeply I'd tied my worth to always being there, always being on?
The answer was uncomfortable but clear: it was the latter.
For two decades, I'd been conditioned to believe that my value was tied to my availability. That stepping away meant stepping down. That rest was a luxury that successful people couldn't afford. Even in building something I deeply cared about, I'd unconsciously recreated the same "always-on" prison I'd helped others escape.
We know the truth, we've been sold a lie about what building something meaningful looks like. We're told that passion means never stopping, that purpose requires perpetual motion. But what if the most purposeful thing we can do is model a different way?
My business didn't collapse. My clients didn't leave. The systems held. But more importantly, I returned with something I hadn't felt in years: genuine excitement about my work. Not the manic energy of someone afraid to stop, but the deep satisfaction of someone who knows their work matters enough to protect it, and themselves.
This is what I want for every person building a portfolio career: not just financial freedom, but the freedom to be fully human. To build something that serves your life, not consumes it. To create work that's so aligned with your values that taking a break from it feels like an act of love, not abandonment.
The most sustainable portfolio career isn't one that never stops running. It's one that knows when to rest.
🫣 INSIDE THE PORTFOLIO CAREER CLUB
We Escaped Corporate to Have Fun, So Why Aren't We?
This week inside The Portfolio Career Club, a member made a confession that led to one of the most powerful conversations I have had all month: "I left corporate to have more freedom and fun, but I'm working harder than ever and I've completely forgotten how to enjoy myself."
The Problem: We've been so conditioned by corporate productivity culture that we've imported its worst habits into our portfolio careers. Despite building careers around flexibility, we're recreating the exact 9-5 constraints we escaped.
Brené Brown's research helps explain why a lot of us often experience something called "foreboding joy". The moment we feel happy, we immediately brace for disappointment. You land a great client, and instead of celebrating, you worry about the next one. You have a successful month and panic about maintaining momentum.
The Reframe: Fun isn't the reward after you've "made it". It's the fuel that sustains you while building something meaningful. Brene Brown reminds us that joy isn't a constant floodlight; it's twinkle lights appearing in ordinary moments. But if we're always chasing the next milestone, we miss the joy right in front of us.
Try this instead:
Practice gratitude for ordinary wins: That smooth client call, the perfectly worded email. These aren't just stepping stones, they're joy moments worth savouring
Build play into your work rhythm: Take midday walks, have lunch away from your computer, schedule coffee with someone who makes you laugh
Celebrate small victories immediately: Don't wait for six figures to pop champagne. Celebrate the first client, first referral, and first breakthrough moment.
A Personal Confession: A couple of months ago, I realised I hadn't taken a proper lunch break in weeks. I was so focused on building something meaningful that I'd forgotten to enjoy the process. So now, I take proper lunch breaks, bake my cottage cheese bagels, and read my trashy books, which make me smile.
Your Invitation: This week, instead of optimising productivity, optimise for one moment of genuine fun each day. Your portfolio career isn't just about building something successful. It's about building something that brings you alive.
One small change I made immediately after that conversation was to our Slack celebrations thread. Instead of just 'Celebrations', which can feel heavy if you’re having one of those weeks, I renamed it 'Fun and Celebrations' so we can share both the big wins and the small moments that brought joy to our week.
Which ordinary moment will you choose to savour today?
🤬 UNPOPULAR OPINION
Your Human Design Determines Whether Personal Branding Will Energise or Exhaust You, And Most Advice Ignores This Completely
While everyone's debating posting schedules and content pillars, the real reason 90% of portfolio careerists burn out from personal branding has nothing to do with strategy. It's because they're following advice designed for someone else's energy blueprint.
Most personal branding advice assumes everyone operates like a Manifestor with a 3/5 profile: constantly initiating, experimenting, and bouncing back from failure. But what if you're a Projector with a 2/4 profile who needs invitation and recognition? Or a Generator with a 1/3 profile who needs to research deeply before sharing?
Inside The Portfolio Career Club, I have a client who is a 1 / 3 Projector who came to me completely overwhelmed by the expectation that she needed to be "visible" daily on social media to be recognised as an expert. Instead of forcing daily posts, she went completely into her cave and stopped posting altogether, paralysed by the pressure to share insights before she felt ready. When she moved into alignment with her design and released the pressure of "needing" to be everywhere, she shifted into researching content and topics that she felt genuinely excited about. This energy shift has led her to build a series of workshops and develop a podcast.
TRY THIS: Before planning your next content strategy, ask yourself: "Does this approach honour my energy type and profile lines?" If posting daily drains you as a Projector, try weekly insights. If vulnerability content feels forced as a 1/3, share your research process instead.
Your personal brand should amplify your natural gifts, not fight against them. When you align your visibility strategy with your Human Design, you stop performing and start attracting. The right people, opportunities, and income streams find you.
If you are interested in build your personal brand using Human Design - you are in LUCK! I have recently launched a self paced course that supports you step by step to launch your personal branding using your Human Design!
Interested in launching your personal brand based on your human design? Access my one of its kind course which is ONLY $97 for the next 10 days...
🤖 AI SPOTLIGHT
How Portfolio Careerists Are Using AI to Hit $40K+ Months
Corporate restructures are accelerating, and AI isn't just coming for junior positions anymore. It's threatening senior analysts, strategic consultants, and even C-suite decision-makers.
While traditional employees panic about AI replacing their single role, I’ve witnessed portfolio careerists who have already built the ultimate AI-resistant career architecture.
Why Portfolio Careerists Have an Unfair Advantage
I've been tracking this with my clients for 12+ months, and the data is clear: women with diversified income streams are not just surviving AI disruption. They're thriving because of it.
Take my client who left her corporate consulting role 12 months ago. She's now averaging $30-40K months supporting startup founders across five clients. While her former colleagues worry about AI replacing their analysis work, she has trained Custom GPTs to handle research, data synthesis, and initial strategy frameworks.
But AI isn’t what is generating her five-figure months; it’s her ability to sell her services to startup founders. Her AI operations setup doesn't just handle the grunt work; it frees her to focus on business development and strategic relationship building. While AI creates the proposals and handles the research, her skill in understanding founder pain points, reading between the lines in discovery calls, and positioning herself as the strategic partner they can't afford to lose is what converts prospects into $8-12K monthly retainers.
Her AI systems handle the execution, but her selling skills across multiple startup contexts, from fintech to healthtech, are what turn efficiency into premium income without needing to build a team of 10 people.
The Four AI-Resistant Elements of Portfolio Careers
1. Cross-Domain Pattern Recognition Your brain makes connections between your different expertise areas that AI can't synthesise. You might spot that a client's marketing problem is actually a leadership issue because of your coaching background.
2. Relationship Portfolio Compound Effect AI can't replicate the trust you've built across multiple networks. Your coaching clients refer you for strategy work; your strategy clients book you for speaking.
3. Adaptive Context Switching You're already trained to think systemically across different business models and industry challenges. This cognitive flexibility is purely human.
4. Strategic Synthesis Across Domains While AI excels at single-domain analysis, you excel at connecting insights across your multiple expertise areas to create unique solutions.
The Portfolio Career AI Strategy
Instead of competing with AI, leverage it to amplify your uniquely human advantages:
Delegate the research (let AI gather data across your domains)
Own the synthesis (you connect the dots between industries)
Automate the execution (AI handles formatting, initial drafts, analysis)
Amplify the relationships (you provide the human insight and connection)
The Pricing Opportunity
AI should increase your rates, not threaten them. When you can deliver cross-domain insights faster and with broader context, you're not selling time. You're selling transformation that only comes from your unique combination of experiences.
TRY THIS: Audit your current income streams this week. Identify which elements require cross-domain thinking or relationship-based trust, then consider using Value-Based Pricing to price your offers.
🙋🏻♀️ ANSWERING YOUR PORTFOLIO CAREER DESIGN QUESTIONS
Each week, I'll answer a Human Design question from a reader. Submit yours by replying to this email with "HD Question" in the subject line.
This week's question: I'm a 2/4 Projector, and I'm struggling with building my personal brand. Everyone says I need to "put myself out there" and create content consistently, but it feels forced and draining. I have incredible insights about leadership development, but I feel awkward promoting myself. People tell me I'm naturally gifted at seeing what others can't see, but I don't know how to turn that into a sustainable business without burning out from constant self-promotion. How do I build visibility in a way that actually works with my design?
My response: This is the 2/4 Projector conundrum perfectly described. You have natural gifts that others desperately need, but traditional marketing advice feels completely wrong for your energy.
The solution isn't to force yourself into Generator-style content creation. It's to build a system that invites recognition rather than demanding it.
Here's your strategy:
Wait for the invitation to share. Instead of posting daily, share your insights when someone asks a question you can answer brilliantly. Comment thoughtfully on others' content. Your 2nd line gifts shine when they're called out, not when you're pushing them forward.
Build through your 4th line network. Focus on deepening relationships rather than growing followers. One meaningful conversation with the right person will generate more opportunities than 100 generic posts. Your network is your net worth.
Create "invitation magnets." Develop resources that naturally draw people to ask for your perspective. A simple framework, a thought-provoking question, or a case study that demonstrates your unique insights without feeling salesy.
Position yourself as the "invitation-only" expert. Market scarcity, not availability. "I work with three leadership teams per quarter" feels more aligned than "book a call anytime." This honours your Projector energy while creating premium positioning.
Share your process, not your presence. Instead of personal branding content, share how you see patterns others miss. Your insights about leadership development are the brand, not your personality.
Your natural gifts don't need promotion. They need the right conditions to be recognised.
🤳🏼 THIS WEEK’S QUOTE
Growing up, I was ashamed of feeling envious, especially as a woman. Society told me this wasn't likable and I should hide it. But I came to understand that envy is misplaced desire; it shows me what I want in my life. Now I use pangs of envy to get curious about my desires and learn from others how to achieve them.
What is your envy showing you?
⚡️ WHAT'S LIGHTING ME UP THIS WEEK
📚 Reading: I recently met incredible author Blanche Johanna on a retreat. Her book 'The Soul Remembers' is a poetic journey that helps you uncover who you are beneath the stories and conditioning. If you're looking for a read that will touch your soul and shift your perspective, this is it."
🎥 Watch: If you're after some bingeable, fun content, watch 'Too Much' on Netflix - a funny, unconventional love story that gives me pangs of nostalgia every time I see scenes of London on the screen.
🧵Threads worth reading: I read this thread on LinkedIn from Nick Sincliar, who talks about how we’ve moved from hustle culture to lazy culture, with everyone talking about working less but no one discussing what it actually takes to earn that freedom. The real goal isn't fewer hours, it's significant profit in fewer hours through leverage, systems, and clarity, but you still have to do the messy middle work first.
💭 Question I'm sitting with: What would shift if we measured professional growth by how much energy we have left at the end of the day rather than how much we accomplished?" (I'm challenging every 'hustle harder' metric and wondering if sustainable success looks completely different than we've been taught – how do you define thriving vs. just surviving in your work?)
And if you are looking for support to kickstart your portfolio career in 2025, here are some ways to work together:
Launch Your Personal Brand Using Human Design Course - Get Instant Access Here, Special Launch Price of $97 for 10 days
Register Your Interest for the September Portfolio Career Club Intake
Get your Hyper-Personalised Human Design Career Insights Report: Personalised analysis revealing your innate work style and leadership potential, blending Human Design with strategic frameworks
Check out my Portfolio Career Mentorship: Corporately-honed, consciously-led 1:1 portfolio career mentorship for visionary women (taking interest for June, 2 spots available)
FREE Download: Guide on how to Kickstart Your Portfolio Career using Human Design, download here
FREE Quiz: Find out your Portfolio Career Archetype here