Nika Talbot, Fay Edwards, Jabu Tamme, Jessica McGreal, Barry Hunt, Charlotte Buxton, Ruth Walker, Portia, Renette van der Merwe, Rita Lobo, Stephen Fleming, Elena Cobianu might be able to share some nuggets of wisdom

Articulate how the Portfolio Collective makes a difference. Tell the story.

Ben Legg. We often google symptoms rather than diagnoses. I wonder if we may be more like to google the problems that a portfolio career can address rather than the solution with these specific terms we may not know yet.

What circumstances, in your experience, bring people to seek to build a portfolio career?

I tried a few searches where TPC could be relevant:

– I am good at too many things

– Alternative to LinkedIn

– Multiple careers in a lifetime

– Multipotentiality

And TPC was never on the first page.

A TEDTalk by Emily Wapnick also came to mind.

I dont think many people would search for ”Portfolio Career”.

Instead people would search for ”Career change”, or jobsearch .. I would be so bold as to put out an ad on all jobsearch engines with a fictitious job role selling the virtues of a multifaceted job, when clicked ” find out more” the link leads the user to a specific landing page which ”sells” the virtues of TPC.

I would affiliate with all job search, career, and career coaching sites to drive traffic to TPC, setting up specific landing pages and campaigns.

There are many people in TPC alumni with better skills than I who can advise and set up some amazing campaigns in collaboration with the team. If there is anything that I can do please let me know.

Unless you’ve come across the term (I read a book about it years ago), I suspect most people haven’t come across the title ‘portfolio career’ and think more about ‘part time’ professional or having multiple jobs.

In terms of specific PR, I think there are a number of routes you could explore e.g.

1. Pitching a specific idea for an article on the rise of portfolio working to radio, business magazines or business sections of newspapers (or willing to be interviewed on)

2. Putting yourself up as a podcast guest for a) business podcasts aligned to above or b) the productivity podcasts where the angle would be about managing time and managing multiple clients and deadlines.

3. Some universities like UCL have career podcasts and business accelerators. MBA alumni networks may also be interesting – recent grads will want to be full time to pay off the loans but people further along might be interesting.

4. If I ever get events back up and running for the Levitt Group, I’d love to have you along to speak.

There are plenty of audiences. It’s time that’s the limiting factor so needs a bit of thought on prioritisation.

I’m not in PR or a journalist, but I had a few thoughts building on what others have already said so I hope that’s ok

1) SEARCH TERMS: I agree with what’s been said about the search terms as I wasn’t aware of the term “portfolio careers” until recently either although I have heard of “multipotentialite” and the more traditional “Renaissance Man/Woman”.

“Side gigs” tends be a more common phrase that people are more familiar with and perhaps using that term in an article to compare to a portfolio career might be helpful.

People also search in terms of pain points like “How do I choose a career” or “How do I travel the world and work”.

2) ARTICLES ABOUT PEOPLE WITH PORTFOLIO CAREERS: As someone who has switched careers many times, I have sometimes felt like I was being a “flaky” especially some would consider that I “wasted” my three degrees although I do draw on my experience and knowledge from them.

When I took a sabbatical from practicing law, my freelance writing break was considered by recruiters and those in law, to be a “red flag”, and I felt disloyal and apologetic for doing so despite having learned many entrepreneurial skills during my self-employment, which helped me better appreciate my legal clients’ perspective.

Reading about multipotentialites and portfolio careers really helped me see my journey in a different light and I believe it would help others as well who are struggling with making a transition outside their main careers.

Articles featuring people like that circus juggling IP lawyer with a dog walking business would be a huge eye-opener for many who may not realize that embracing all our various interests is not only feasible, but can be a competitive advantage.

Hi Ben, I see it coming up a lot in the media at the moment, think it’s a big topic that is only going to grow with convos around the future of work. So I think for you it’s a case of how to get a slice of the action for TPC and position yourself as an expert in this space. Some PR ideas:

1. Set up Google news alerts for “portfolio career” “side hustle” “freelancing” etc and other terms related to the sector (also any key competitors if you have them) – this will help you see who’s writing about it, where and with what angles

2. Buy all the national newspapers and read them, to Id relevant stories and journalists

3. Using 1+2 do some research on relevant journos / publications covering this space and send then (targeted!) pitches about what you have to say and how you could help them (eg offer stats, case studies etc). Start to build relationships with key people – focus on offering really great content.

4. Have a think about any data that you could use to create proactive stories around the subjects – eg does data from TPC show something interesting about the demographics of freelancers, are really high niche and genuinely fascinating careers taking off? What’s the gender pay gap for freelancers? What are your predictions for the future?

5. Think about offering reactive comment on the back of any major new stories – eg if the budget has major implications for freelancers / portfolio careers can you say something unique and insightful about it? Then issue to your key press in a timely way.

Good luck!