The first month of my portfolio career

A life update: business results, tulips and a birthday surprise

The last few months have been a lot. After twenty years in corporate roles - plus my adult gap year - I quit my job and announced my new freelance status to everyone on LinkedIn. The anxiety is real.

I’m now a month into being a part-time solopreneur. Starting something new after a long period of burnout means doing it differently. My old operating system isn’t compatible with this new life.

Me with the April tulips.

What my portfolio career looks like

People are asking me what I’m doing now I’m self-employed but it’s hard to describe in a quick sentence. My portfolio career comprises a few areas.

There’s my travel blog, BackpackingBella.com. I’ve also launched a new site, CareerBreakTravel.com which, as the name suggests, is designed to help people considering taking a career break to travel. As part of this, I’m training to be a certified travel coach. This isn’t like a travel advisor who books your flights, but someone who helps you get clear on what you want from your trip. The kind of person I wish I could have spoken to when I was busy talking myself out of exploring the world.

Finally, for more years than I care to admit, I’ve been saying I’ll write and publish a book. A memoir about everything I experienced and learned on my solo travels. I’m a lot closer to finalizing the structure.

What happened in April

Since I posted that first LinkedIn post, I’ve been steadily building my new personal brand. As well as securing an article in Business Insider, a Substack article I wrote about my adult gap year was spotted and republished by Australian women’s digital media company Mamamia. For anyone creating something from scratch, this kind of external validation matters more than you expect.

I repositioned my travel blog to focus more on solo female travel, which represents who I’m really speaking to - and who I was when I first fell in love with travel. I’ve also hit 700 subscribers on Substack, so thank you for reading!

On a personal note, April was also a great month. My brother visited me in Brussels over the Easter weekend. On the sunny bank holiday Monday I went to the beach and saw seals from the local Sea Life centre being released into the sea.

My birthday was going to be a low-key affair until friends organised a wonderful celebration at their place, then my boyfriend booked a surprise birthday dinner at a nice restaurant.

A few days later, I went with friends to the Floralia display in Brussels where a million bulbs are planted of over 400 types of tulips.

What I learned

I need to tone down my ambitions. I’d planned to write eight new blog posts for my travel blog in April and only wrote two. While my personal life was rich, my energy fluctuated and I needed to rest a lot.

Discipline is another big one for me. My best work happens when I have a clear focus and a framework to work within. Instead of large targets, I need smaller, scheduled commitments.

The reality is, I keep a monthly report of my ‘wins’ and learnings - but no one needs it except me. I no longer have the structure of corporate life - no management team waiting for my updates and results. Now I set my goals and I’m the one deciding whether I met them. This is what freedom feels like.

The post-burnout me can’t keep falling back on productivity as the scorecard for whether I had a good day. It needs to be a balance between my work and my wellbeing.

Looking ahead

In May I’ll build on what worked, but with rhythms and routines to protect the times of day I operate best.

I will start writing the final manuscript of my memoir. Publish one blog post a week. And keep this momentum going with my personal brand.

If I feel relaxed and healthy by the end of May, it will have been an epic month.

And after the year I’ve had, that’s everything.

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