Portfolio career journey

One step at a time

Portfolio career is something I stumbled upon in 2021 when I wanted to see where my passions are and what is my true identity. My meaning and purpose in life - ikigai is to help folks be their true authentic selves🙏

In the past when you are on a visa you don't really have much of an option than do just one thing and one job.

Now with the flexibility, I can create a portfolio career with mentoring, teaching, product marketing and others that make me feel fulfilled and find meaning in my work and life.

There was an interesting discussion on substack about portfolio career versus gig economy.

Portfolio career

For me, a portfolio career became my identity and my sense of being in the world. To belong as part of a community and the workforce simultaneously.

As I look for my next product marketing leadership career, I'm also continuing to pursue my love for mentoring and teaching. Of course, there are days when classes get canceled and 90% of my mentoring is free - it’s my way to support my folks and community … to pay it forward. So, it's not a sustainable source of income. But I'm determined to be the hustler and find creative ways to earn.

Some folks have even recommended fractional product marketing leadership roles to explore for my next opportunity.

Considering the dynamics of the market shifts and the economy, it makes sense to have multiple channels of income to support yourself in case of a downturn.

Financial freedom and flexibility has been a core focus in the past few years. Knowing how to support myself and my parents are key to my independence and well-being.

Here are few tips I have learned in the past few weeks from folks during job search. We need to set the intention for what we want before we start applying.

• LinkedIn Jobs - Filter search for hiring / job postings from individuals and that can help to find relevant product marketing roles.

• Otta, Trueup, Ziprecruiter are a few other job posting sites to check out along with LinkedIn. Indeed didn’t have relevant PMM roles in my past experience.

• Folks in PMA / Product marketing curate job postings and share PMM job lists.

• Upwork was recommended to check out short-term projects and opportunities.
  

Mentor

I'm grateful for the opportunities to mentor folks and be a guiding light. Every conversation is a spark in our collective thinking and mindset.

Teacher

As an instructor and facilitator, I come alive when I teach with unconditional love. It's inspirational to share my learnings and bring folks together in a group discussion.

CEO mindset - curiosity, empathy, open

Action is my antidote to anxiety. I am taking another leap into the unknown and creating a Product marketing course on Maven.

Free Lightning lesson - Tuesday, October 29th
3-3:30pm UTC, 7-7:30am PST, 10-10:30am EST

3 cohorts - 2 days

• November 11-12, 18-19, 25-26 2024

• 3-4pm UTC, 7-8am PST, 10-11am EST

Product Marketing Mastery - Div Manickam

Author

Folks ask how I have written six books in 2021-24, this is part of the laser focus that allows me to self-publish a book in 4 weeks sprint. I guess I'm creating my rainbow collection of my books - each book has a color. I can sense my next book is going to be about mindfulness and workplace wellbeing.

Explorer

I enjoy my discoveries around the city whether it's a new garden or revisiting an old garden with new flowers in bloom, new restaurants or recipes or ingredients, and finding myself in all of these places from the streets to the parks and bridges.

… Sharing some of my discoveries in the past few months. As you can see the theme pink is everywhere. Definitely my color of the year…

• Travel Backpack - Women

• 6000mah Ultra Slim Built in Cables Power Bank

• Compression Packing Cube for Travel

• Notabag – 2 in 1 Backpack and Bag

🎼 Chez D 🎼 one meal at a time

I enjoy cooking and it's my way of celebration for a mindful moment. After months back in San Francisco, I baked my matcha oat and nut cupcakes and quail egg puffs. And glad I got to share with my folks in SF.

🎼 Chez D 🎼 • one meal at a time

Volunteer

I am so glad I started to volunteer at the community cleanups on 3rd Street on Saturday and Mission on Sunday. And the SF botanical gardens are always a pure joy to connect with folks who love nature and flowers just as I do.

I even had a friend join me one time. It was wonderful to share this community cleanup experience together.

I have met folks from all walks of life during volunteering and the weekend before my trip to the UK, because of the excess heat warning we didn't have as many folks in the mission clean up as we usually do. We all ended up having a conversation during lunch at Manny's. One of the questions or prompts was - as a US ambassador which country would you want to go to. We had a global representation. I shared Croatia because I love the place from the last time I visited in 2016. Some folks shared Japan, China, Canada and we had a lovely conversation. We could hear folks dreams and aspirations.

• One volunteer mentioned moth program for storytelling. I remember reading about it in a book. If only it was not late at night I would have attended too.

• One volunteer shared about Mari Kondo’s creative method of folding and a travel set of compression packing cubes.

I will miss this volunteer group during my travels and our collective sense of belonging. Always something to learn #student4life.

Trust the journey, for it is leading you to where you need to be

You will soon be driven by a new opportunity

You will soon be driven to success

Open your heart

Live in this moment

Friendship is a sheltering tree

The future is ready when you are

Inspired by fortune cookies, we created mindful motivation cookies(PDF) - feel free to download and print these pocket sized mindfulness for your day. We included a free page to add your own mindfulness into the mix :)

mindful motivation cookies [PDF]