Last week, I shared part 1 of your portfolio career menu featuring fractional, freelance, advising, and consulting.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m covering part 2: content creation, coaching, mentoring, and teaching!

The goal isn't to convince you to do all of them but to help you figure out which one (or two, or three) might actually fit where you are right now.

Content creation has a low barrier to entry—anyone can pick up a phone and start creating content—but in my opinion, content creation is about the long game.

While you might be lucky and have a few videos go “viral”, it takes a while to build trust and authority online.

For example:

You create a TikTok on the side of your full-time job with no intention to monetize it. You build consistency in posting and eventually, you get hit up by a few brands to work with. Because you have a full-time job covering your bills, you have more safety to explore new creative ideas.

Content creation might be for you if:

Content creation might not be for you if:

Question to ask yourself: How can you keep consistent even when the payoff is delayed?

People to follow: Ginny Fears

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Just like anyone can call themselves a content creator, technically anyone can call themselves a coach. Coaching is different than consulting where someone is telling you their POV. Instead, coaches ask questions to bring insights out of you, then help you move forward toward your goals.

Coaches also may be able to charge higher rates than mentors because of accreditation or training.

For example:

You’re a coach that helps women leave their corporate job and start a business. Your client feels stuck and unsure if what she’s doing is “right”.

You might ask her questions to learn more about her values, her strengths, and what’s holding her back from achieving her goals. During the conversation, she uncovers a new insight that helps her realize that the narrative she’s been telling herself isn’t serving her anymore, empowering her to change her future behavior and actions.

Coaching might be for you if:

Coaching might not be for you if:

Question to ask yourself: How does it feel when someone you help has their own breakthrough?

Resources to explore: International Coaching Federation, iPEC Coaching

A mentor is an experienced, knowledgeable individual who provides guidance, advice, and support to a less experienced person (the mentee) to foster their professional or personal growth.

Mentoring is typically unpaid, at-will, and mutually beneficial. At the same time, I’ve also seen others offer paid 1:1 mentorship (vs coaching). I’m always curious how people perceive the difference, especially when it comes to what they’re willing to invest in.

For example:

You’re a mentor at work for someone who wants to pivot their career into Product Management, like you did a few years ago. You meet with her every month where she brings the agenda. When you leave the company, you decide you want to mentor more women like her and spin up a paid 1:1 mentoring offer.

Mentoring might be for you if:

Mentoring might not be for you if:

Question to ask yourself: What questions do people come to you for advice?

Resources to explore: Mento

Teaching is about packaging what you know into something others can learn from—a course, a workshop, a curriculum, a cohort program. It's scalable because you create the material once and deliver it to many people, rather than trading time for money one conversation at a time.

The distinction between teaching and coaching or mentoring is structure. As a teacher, you're designing a learning experience. You're deciding what someone needs to know, in what order, and how to help it actually stick.

For example:

You've spent years navigating the freelance world and you know the exact mistakes that cost beginners their first clients. So you build a six-week cohort program that walks new freelancers through pricing, positioning, and pitching.

Instead of answering the same questions over and over in 1:1 calls, you've created a repeatable experience that delivers transformation at scale.

Teaching might be for you if:

Teaching might not be for you if:

Question to ask yourself: What’s something you’ve done before you could teach?

Resources to explore: Maven

That’s a wrap on this series! If you missed part 1, make sure you go back and read it here.

Remember, you don't have to pick just one item on the portfolio career menu.

The whole premise of a portfolio career is that you're not forced into a single box.

Maybe you start with mentoring because you're a couple of steps ahead of someone who needs you. Then you layer in some content creation to build an audience. Eventually, you teach what you've been learning!

Today is the year of the fire horse, which is all about bold breakthroughs and momentum. Lately though, I’ve been feeling a bit distracted with personal big life logistics, like moving abroad and upcoming travel.

Next Monday, I’m headed to London for a few weeks, followed by three weeks in Mexico. I rented out my room in my apartment to avoid paying for an expensive NYC apartment I won’t be using and am using Kindred while I’m in Mexico, which means I’m only spending about $150 total for the trip (crazy, I know).

Looking forward to sharing my adventures and day-to-day with you all (likely over on Instagram).

Talk soon,
Maggie

Reimagine 1:1 Coaching
Reimagine is a highly personalized 1:1 coaching program for multi-passionate women ready to build their portfolio career. Book a free career strategy call with me to learn more.

Unblock Strategy Sprint
Get 90 minutes of strategic support on Zoom, personalized strengths mapping with an Enneagram assessment, and 2 weeks of async support to help unblock your goals and come up with a concrete action plan.