November 10, 2025 • 29 mins
You’ve worked hard. You’ve built a successful career. On paper, everything looks great — yet deep down, you feel that quiet restlessness…
That tug for something of your own.
Something more fulfilling, more purpose-driven, and more aligned with who you’re becoming.
If you’ve been craving a new direction — but you’re not ready to walk away from the stability of your current job — this episode is your roadmap.
In today’s conversation, I’m sharing 5 simple steps you can take this week to start creating work you love… work that lights you up… work that could eventually give you the freedom and fulfillment you’ve been longing for.
And the best part?
You don’t need to quit your job, take a big risk, or have it all figured out.
You just need a clear starting point — and a strategy.
Inside this episode, as your CliftonStrengths® Coach and Visionary Strategist, I’ll help you:
✨ Take inventory of the skills that energize you
✨ Turn past work experience and hobbies into new opportunities
✨ Identify causes and problems that light you up
✨ Leverage your God-given talents (your CliftonStrengths®!) to create impact and income
✨ And inspire you with one woman's story — Ms. Rachel of Songs for Littles — turned her passion project into a $50-million purpose-driven business
Whether you’re craving a creative outlet, dreaming of a future career pivot, or simply ready to explore what’s next, this episode will help you take your first confident step toward building a career — and a life — where you can live your calling, lead with your strengths, and create meaningful, sustainable success.
🔹 Take the free Portfolio Career Quiz → DiscoveringYourCalling.com/quiz
🔹 Book your Start with Strengths session → SheriMiterCo.com/services
Mentioned in today's episode:
Take our free 12-question quiz to see if it's right for you and get your next action step. https://discoveringyourcalling.com/quiz
Checked all the boxes of success but still feel like something’s missing? My new book, Discovering Your Calling, is a guide for ambitious women ready to stop drifting and build a life of true fulfillment and joy. Your calling is waiting.
✨ Grab your copy today: https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-Your-Calling-Ambitious-Fulfillment/dp/B0F49CH72W
Connect or work with Sheri:
Book a 30 Minute Clarity Call
Website - www.sherimiterco.com
Let's be friends on Social Media - @SheriMiter
Apply to work with Sheri- Apply Here
Searching for Mary Kay products? Shop Here
To learn more about CliftonStrengths and Gallup - Click Here
Matthew 5:14-16 is the inspiration for this podcast.
Gallup®, Clifton StrengthsFinder®, StrengthsFinder®, the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder® theme names are trademarks of Gallup, Inc.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:40):
In today's episode, I'm sharing five practical steps
you can take this week to startbuilding a portfolio career,
even if you're not ready toleave your nine to five.
I'm going to show you how tostart building your future on
the side.
And at the end, I'm going toshare a real life story of
someone who turned one smallidea into a$50 million impact.
(01:09):
Welcome to the Discovering YourCalling podcast.
I'm your host, Jerry Miter.
I'm here to help you unleashyour strengths and get clarity
on your calling.
I believe when you find yourpurpose in life, fulfillment,
joy, and success will follow.
If you're ready, pop in thoseearbuds, hit that follow button,
and join me on this journeytoward discovering your calling.
(01:32):
So if you caught last week'sepisode, we talked about what a
portfolio career is.
And after you listened, youmight have been like several
people that contacted me andsaid, I've been building up one
my entire life.
They just didn't have a name forit.
And if you're someone whonaturally just loves variety,
that might sound familiar.
(01:52):
You love that idea of havingmultiple sources of income.
That's again how you've beenworking your business your
entire life.
But maybe if you are someonewho's taken that more
traditional career path, thatmore linear of you go to
college, you get your degree,you land that job that uses that
degree, and you're work, youwork your way up the ladder
(02:16):
until retirement.
This may sound a little odd toyou.
And you may be thinking, well,why would anybody want to have a
portfolio career without thesafety and security?
And no matter which directionyou are right now or where
you've been, I want you tolisten to this episode with the
open mindset of how could Ipossibly build something else on
(02:41):
the side?
Now, if you're already doingmultiple sources of income,
maybe for you it's it's makingsure that what you are doing
aligns with your calling, italigns with your gifts and
skills and all the things we'regoing to talk about today.
And if you are more of thattraditional career path, for
you, it might be looking atlike, how could I add something
(03:01):
on, you know, something to mylife on the side without
stepping away from my nine tofive, without, you know, losing
that security.
And this is all about creatingthat, that something that feeds
your soul, something that usesagain, your gifts, your talents,
your life experiences, and notabout giving something up,
(03:23):
giving up that career that's allabout security.
And that's the way I want toreally look at this building
your portfolio career.
And I do, as I shared in thelast episode, I really do feel
like today, because there reallyis no safe jobs out there
anymore.
You know, it used to be that youknew you could count on having
that job until you retired atage 60 or 65 or 72 today.
(03:45):
Um, but nowadays, nothing isguaranteed.
So I really feel like we allneed to build something that we
can call our own and have thatas a secure fallback, you know,
plan B or fallback plan.
I don't know if that's the rightverbiage, but you know what I
mean?
Like something that you havecontrol of.
It's about taking control ofyour life.
And that's what building aportfolio career to me is really
(04:08):
all about.
But I want to make one thingclear about what a portfolio
career isn't.
It is not about working a bunchof random jobs because you have
to pay the bills.
Now, I have been there before.
My husband and I were talkingabout this and kind of started
chuckling, thinking back to whenwe were newlyweds and we got
married really young, likeshockingly young.
(04:31):
If I said my age, it'd be like,oh.
Um, so we were both very young.
And he had just got on the cityfire department where he did
spend his career.
And I think his starting pay wassomething around$15,000 a year,
maybe less.
You know, we were eligible forfood stamps if we wanted to take
them.
And, you know, it's funnybecause I know today, some of
(04:52):
you are listening, might bemaking$15,000 a month.
And we were making that a year.
So we had to be scrappy.
And we were willing to doanything, legally and morally
right, of course, to provide forour little growing family.
We had had a baby like a year,year and a half after we got
(05:12):
married.
We started had started ourfamily, and we were still, you
know, he was not making a lot ofmoney.
So I remember I worked retail ata department store.
I used to sew these crazy 3Dsweatshirts for small local
business.
And then they hired me.
They wanted me to go out andhelp sell them.
(05:33):
And I mean, talk about a cringejob.
I look back at the I think backto those sweatshirts, like, oh
my gosh, they were so, so 80s.
Um Tom and I together used todeliver phone books, or if any
of you remember phone books.
I mean, he delivered packages,he delivered pizzas, he
delivered newspapers.
(05:54):
Again, you name it.
I think we did it or tried it.
And that was just from a need ofcash.
Had nothing to do with living inour calling.
It was all about the cold hardcash.
That is not a portfolio career.
The portfolio career is aboutcreating work you want to do.
(06:15):
And again, whether that's aboutmultiple roles at one time or
keeping your full-time job whilebuilding that something on the
side, or designing work thatjust gives you freedom to be a
work-from-home parent, or maybeit's about making an impact
after you retire from thattraditional career.
And it's about using yourstrengths and having the freedom
(06:37):
to live life on your terms.
And as I mentioned last week,and I mentioned earlier in this
podcast, to me, right now, it isthe smartest way to create
future security.
Because again, I can't say thisenough.
There is no job that is reallysafe anymore.
So if you're ready to startcreating your portfolio career
(06:59):
of your own, let's talk aboutthese five things you can do
right now, this week, to starttaking inventory and start
looking at what you can bring tothe world to start creating your
side.
We're really talking about theside project today, the passion
project.
Again, I don't like the wordside hustle, but if you think
(07:19):
about that, like something youcan start doing on a small scale
on the side right now.
So grab a pen and paper becauseyou're gonna want to take some
notes.
And this may even be a podcastthat you want to listen to a
chunk, put it on pause, writedown your thoughts, turn it back
on, listen to the next section,write, you know, put it on
pause, write your notes down,whatever serves you best.
(07:40):
But this definitely does take alot of it's about you taking the
time to write down the thoughtsthat come in.
So, first thing you're gonna dois take inventory of your
current skills.
Start by taking inventory ofthose skills.
Um, as I mentioned in my book,Discovering Your Calling, and
also in my academy, the key hereis to only focus on the skills
(08:04):
that you have that energize you.
You know, we've all had to learnskills at one point in our life
that we had to do them, but wedidn't enjoy doing them.
And in fact, they kind ofdrained us when we did do them.
So we're not talking about thoseskills.
We're talking about what are theskills you love using, the ones
that you're known for.
(08:25):
Maybe at work you're the ITperson.
Maybe you're the IT personbecause you were trained to do
that, but maybe you're also theIT person as an unofficial job
title because you just geek outover technology.
So everybody asks you questionsabout, oh, my computer's not
working right, or this is notworking right, or how do I fix
this?
You're just known as the ITperson.
(09:55):
Could you offer that expertiseas a side gig to people outside
of your circle of influence?
Who could you offer that to?
I mean, there's a lot of us outthere that are not IT experts
that could use somebody to comein and help us fix our computer.
Actually, right now, myhusband's computer, the sound is
not working properly and wecould not figure it out.
(10:16):
So he's looking for that personthat, you know, he would hire
you to come in and fix thiscomputer.
Um, so that's one example.
Maybe you have skills like acraft, like sewing or woodwork.
Could you take those skills thatyou use to create something?
(10:36):
Um, could you take that andcreate something that maybe you
could sell on Etsy?
Or maybe you could take thatskill and teach others how to do
it.
Now, if it's about sewing, I'mguessing you're probably not
going to be making those cringy3D sweatshirts I had to make
back in the day.
But what are the skills that youhave that you have honed and
(10:57):
you're known for?
Again, woodworking.
Could you make a beautiful pieceof furniture to sell to
somebody?
So think about those skills.
Um, my client, my current clientright now, Mary, we're working
right now on her taking some ofher one of her skills.
She is a very skilled, um, not aflorist, but she's has this
(11:18):
great skill of being able totake flowers and just create
amazingly beautiful flowerarrangements.
And she wants to take that andcreate a side business for now,
possibly more in the future, ofselling these flower
arrangements to others.
Uh, particularly, she wants todo them for gravestones.
And it's something that she'spassionate about and something
(11:40):
she's very skilled at.
We're also talking about how shecould take those skills of being
able to create these beautifulflower arrangements and teach it
to others in a workshop setting.
I mean, people are paying forworkshops like that.
I went to a charcuterie boardworkshop not too long ago to
learn how to create acharcuterie board.
So, what are the skills that youhave that you could either teach
(12:04):
to somebody else or maybe createsomething, or maybe just offer
your services to somebody.
But just remember, it needs tobe the skills that not only are
you good at, but that energizeyou.
Because just because you aregood at something doesn't mean
you should be doing it if youfind them exhausting to do.
(12:24):
So your first step is write downfive to 10, five to 10 skills
that you have that you trulyenjoy using.
And some of those skills may bethings that you haven't utilized
yourself in a long time.
So think back, you know, toprevious skills that you used to
use.
So, what are those skills?
Write down five to 10 skillsthat you have that you enjoy
(12:46):
using.
Step two is review your workexperience.
So look to your current work,but also look back at your past
work experience.
What roles or projects have youhad that where you maybe you
were helping others?
Or how could you take thatexperience that you've had at a
(13:07):
job and maybe become a mentor, apaid mentor?
Or you could use those, youknow, it's kind of like the
skills, but the work experienceto freelance.
Or maybe it's becoming aconsultant.
Um, if you're a graphicdesigner, could you freelance on
the side?
You know, if you really lovedoing graphic design, that's
(13:27):
your nine to five, you love it,you're passionate about it, and
you want to still do more, youcould freelance on Fiverr or
upwork as a graphic designer.
Or maybe you could take someskills and um that you've
learned through your your workexperience, uh, take your work
experience and volunteer tomentor somebody, maybe mentor
(13:50):
teens.
Maybe you could take your workexperience and serve on a
nonprofit board, or maybe youradvisor for startups.
Um, not all of your calling to,by the way, or even your
portfolio career.
This again is Sherry Mitre'sopinion, has to be paid.
Some things I feel like maybemight start off as just giving
(14:12):
back to society, giving back andjust offering your services for
free.
You never know where it couldlead, or maybe it'll always stay
as a volunteer portion, but itfeeds your, it fills your cup,
it feeds your soul.
So that's gonna give you um moreenergy, more passion in your
life.
So go back through all of yourpast roles.
(14:33):
What work did you love doing?
What work were you reallyexceptionally good at?
And what would you enjoy doingor helping others with?
Because sometimes your next stepis hiding in something you've
already done.
So just take some time to reviewyour current work experience
that you've you're known for,like you know you do it really
(14:55):
exceptionally well, andor pastwork experience.
Just jot that down.
Now I want to pause here and letyou know we're not worrying
about trying to create somethingyet.
You're just jotting down thisinformation.
Don't worry about if somethingcomes up like, well, I don't
even know how I could do it.
We'll get to that in a minute.
You're just writing down theinformation right now.
So you should have yourinventory of your current skills
(15:18):
or past skills.
Second thing is review your workexperience.
Now the third thing is the thirdstep is to revisit your hobbies.
So think about your hobbies, theones that you currently have or
the ones you used to have.
Could you take something youlove doing and turn it into
something that brings in extraincome?
(15:39):
Maybe you are a great musician.
Maybe you enjoy painting, maybeyou enjoy coaching a sport.
Could you teach something?
Could you sell your creations onEtsy or even start something
totally new?
And my son, my youngest son, uhtook his hobby, his love for
(16:00):
espresso of all things, and hehas turned it into a coffee cart
business.
And let me tell you, he'skilling it.
He has, it seems like two orthree bookings every single week
since he started in July.
So he took his hobby of coffeeand espresso and turned it into
(16:21):
a business.
Another son of mine, our oldestson, him and his wife, have
chickens.
So they now sell eggs and othergoods and a little farm stand.
So what are your hobbies and howcould you possibly turn them
into a side business or makemoney from them?
Um, you know, what hobbies,again, do you have or did you
(16:44):
used to have that maybe you feellike you haven't had time to do,
but you could bring them backinto your life.
And again, don't be afraid todig into your past.
You know, what did you lovedoing as a kid?
What did you do in college?
Or what were you do before youeven had kids?
You know, after that, it seemslike we do everything for our
(17:04):
kids.
So jot those ideas down.
Just revisit your hobbies.
The fourth step is to find acause that lights you up.
So the next thing is to thinkabout the causes you believe in,
the ones you would love tosupport or bring awareness to.
And in the Discovering You'reCalling Academy, we call this
(17:27):
your purpose-driven problem.
What is that thing you see outin the world or in your world
that tugs at your heartstrings?
What makes you say someoneshould do something about that?
Well, maybe, my friend, it'stime for you to be that someone.
And it might be that you takeyour skills, your knowledge,
your work experience to helpsolve the problem in your own
(17:49):
unique way.
So, for example, I am passionateabout making sure everyone has
access to fresh vegetables.
I just, I think it just mattersso much in our lives.
Next year, I plan to volunteerat our local community garden.
And again, in my humble opinion,not everything has to be paid,
but sometimes it can be.
Um, I have a friend Connie, andshe's a cancer survivor.
(18:12):
She now dedicates her time torunning her own foundation.
It's called Get Your Rack Back.
It's fabulous.
You should look it up online,get your rack back.
They help families in crisis byproviding restaurant gas and
grocery gift cards and financialaid for physician and hospital
co-pays.
She's also become a paid authorand speaker.
(18:34):
So she took what mattered to heras a cancer survivor and turned
it into a foundation to helpothers.
So what tugs at your heart?
Is it helping somebody with acertain disease?
Is it animals?
Is it politics?
Is it the environment?
Write those things down.
Okay, and step number five islean into your God-given
(18:58):
talents.
Take a look at your God-giventalents through the Clifton
Strengths lens.
Now, if you've taken theassessment, pull out your top
five or your full 34 report andstart reading through it.
But I want you to look for theclues that might point you
toward a side business or newproject idea.
(19:20):
So, what do I mean by this?
So, for example, one of myclients reports um said this in
the report.
It said, Because of yourstrengths, you may be adept at
setting up processes that makesthat make it easier to perform
certain repet repetitious.
It's getting late here for me,repetitious assignments or
(19:41):
tasks.
And another line read, youperiodically establish rules
that help people manage daily orweekly routines.
Perhaps you outline a detailedplan.
Now, she was also a graphicdesigner for me.
She did some graphic designwork.
And I know by working with her,her mind does work this way.
(20:01):
She has a very unique way oforganizing her thoughts and
organ creating organizationaltools to help get a project
done.
So she could also just createorganizational tools for small
business owners because I don'tknow about you, but that is not
my forte.
And it would be great to haveher like break down how to how
(20:24):
to, you know, look at bigprojects and make them into
manageable daily tasks.
So that might be something shecould do with her natural
strengths.
Another client's um strengthsreport had this to say in it:
you are flexible and can quicklyadjust to changing or unexpected
circumstances.
(20:44):
Your calm response to chaosreassures others and helps
respond to what people need.
Now, she happens to be a weddingevent planner.
And that is one of hersuperpowers in there because as
you can imagine, on the day of awedding, there's usually a lot
of chaos.
So she uses that gift of hers tohelp calm that chaos, to help
(21:08):
people, you know, realize she'sgot it so that their wedding can
come out beautifully and justwhat they had imagined that day
to look like.
So that's how she's leaning intoher natural, natural strengths
of being able to make, you know,help things calm and be flexible
in the day.
So what clues might be hidden inyour report?
(21:31):
Now, for this one, it might begood to even ask a friend, ask a
close friend who knows you wellto read your report and see what
clues they pick out.
Sometimes that's easier to pickout clues for somebody else than
it is for ourselves.
Or better yet, you can alwayshire a coach like myself, a
Clifton Strengths coach, to helpyou uncover those hidden gems.
(21:53):
Because we have the advantage ofreading a lot of reports out
there and we see what are theunique gems that stand out that
aren't in anybody else's, butthey're in yours.
That tells you what your naturalClifton strengths are and how
they could be used to helpothers in the world.
So that was step five, lean intoyour God-given talents.
(22:13):
So I'm going to review thesereal quick.
So number one was take inventoryof your current skills.
Number two, review your workexperience.
Number three, revisit yourhobbies.
Number four, find a cause thatlights you up.
And number five, lean into yourGod-given talents.
Now, as we wrap this up, I wantyou to go back and look at your
(22:37):
list and think about the commonthreads there.
Look to see what stands out atyou.
Maybe an idea already pops outjust by writing down the list.
Um, you could also use AI forthis.
Take all your ideas and plugthem into Chat B GPT and ask for
a few creative ways to bringthem to life.
Or maybe you could ask Chat GPT,like, how could I create a side
(23:01):
business knowing that I havethese skills, this work
experience, you know, I'mpassionate about this.
Like feed all that informationinto Chat GPT and see what it
comes up with.
Or again, if you'd rather workwith a human, let's connect.
I would suggest starting withour uh my start with strengths
session, which is where we can,you know, look at your
(23:23):
strengths, but we'd also look atthis list as well.
If you book a start withstrength session specifically
for creating your potential sidehustle, your potential passion
project, we can take all thesethings that you've already
written down and we'll, youknow, we'll look at them
together and figure out like,what is it?
(23:44):
What is it hidden there that youcan start creating something to
start making that little extraincome or something that just
again fills your cup, somethingthat gives you energy.
Because this isn't again aboutnecessarily just trying to
create something that you haveto do because you're desperate
and you need money.
It's not really about that.
(24:05):
Now, yes, you might want to makesome money and you kind of need
some money, but it's aboutcreating something that's in
tune and lines up with yourcalling, whether it be that it's
always going to stay a passionproject on the side, or is it
potentially going to becomesomething that could turn into
your full-time, you know, incomeproducer?
(24:27):
It really doesn't matter whereyou want it to go.
It's about where we start today.
So I want to close here with areal life example of someone who
did all these things.
She actually, as I thought backto, is like, yes, she did all
five things and has now createda$50 million business.
(24:48):
She saw a problem she wanted tosolve.
She used her past workexperience, her professional
skills, her creative hobbies,and even her spout her spouse's
talents to build somethingmeaningful, meaningful.
And what started out as a smallproject to help just one person
grew into something that nowtouches millions of lives around
(25:12):
the world and is turned into abusiness worth over$50 million.
Sounds pretty unbelievable,right?
Well, some of you may have heardof this person before.
If you have anybody in your inyour life that's under four
years old, you probably have.
And that person is Miss Rachel.
She's the creator of Songs forLittles on YouTube.
(25:34):
And she created that because shenoticed her young son was
struggling with speech, and shecouldn't find the kind of
educational videos she wishedexisted.
So she decided to make themherself.
So that was her purpose-drivenproblem.
And she drew on her workexperience as an early childhood
(25:55):
educator and music teacher.
And she used her skills insongwriting and teaching, and
she tapped into her hobby ofmusic and her husband, Aaron's
background as a Broadway musicdirector and composer.
He now handles the production,music, and editing of their
channel.
And together, they becamebusiness partners in bringing
(26:15):
her vision to life.
And what started out as a momtrying to help her child has
become, again, one of the mostbeloved educational platforms
online, helping millions ofchildren, including my own
grandchildren, my the smallergrandchildren love Miss Rachel.
And her story really is just abeautiful reminder that your
(26:37):
portfolio career, or that littleidea tugging at your heart,
might grow out of a combinationof these five things: your
skills, your work experience,your hobbies, your
purpose-driven problem, and yourGod-given talents.
And who knows, who knows thatone small idea might not just
(26:59):
change your life, it mightchange someone else's too, or
perhaps millions of lives outthere.
You never know.
But you have to take the firststep, which is just to explore
and then experiment and testthings out.
And remember, your callingdoesn't show up all at once.
It kind of just unfolds as youtake action.
(27:21):
And just as a reminder, if youneed more support and/or you're
trying to decide, is this evenfor me, do I even want to create
a portfolio career?
Then I would suggest you takeour new portfolio career quiz.
It's still kind of in the betastages.
So it's not all it's going to bein the future, but it will
definitely give you um somedirection.
(27:43):
So take our portfolio careercareer quiz um at
discoveringyourcalling.comforward slash quiz.
So discoveringyourcalling.comforward slash quiz.
The link will be in the shownotes.
Take the quiz and see whereyou're at.
And I'm also here for you.
Not only am I cheering you on asyou create your career and a
(28:07):
life that truly fits who youare, I'm here to help you.
I'm here to coach you.
I'm here to mentor you.
And if you want that little nextlevel support, again, I
recommend the Start withStrengths session because
everything really does startwith strengths.
And you can book your sessiontoday and or look learn more at
(28:29):
sherymiterco.com forward slashservices to check out our Start
with Strengths um session.
So that's it, my friend.
So I hope this is valuable toyou.
And I would love to know whichstep gave you the biggest aha.
Which of the five steps that wewent through, which one was it
that, like, oh, wait, maybethat's it.
(28:50):
Maybe that's what I could do tocreate something.
Let me know.
I'll be waiting to hear fromyou.
Thank you for spending this timewith me.
My hope is something you heardtoday inspires you to take
action toward discovering yourcalling.
I just have two favors to ask ofyou before you go.
One, if you found value andenjoyed this episode, please
(29:10):
leave us a review on ApplePodcasts or Spotify, and you
might hear your review read on afuture episode.
And two, can you share thisepisode with three friends who
will also enjoy it as much asyou did?
By doing these things, you willhelp us grow the podcast to make
a bigger impact on the world.
And until next week, remember,you've been created to live a
(29:31):
life of fulfillment, freedom,purpose, success, and joy.
In today's episode, I'm sharing five practical steps
you can take this week to startbuilding a portfolio career,
even if you're not ready toleave your nine to five.
I'm going to show you how tostart building your future on
the side.
And at the end, I'm going toshare a real life story of
someone who turned one smallidea into a$50 million impact.
(01:09):
Welcome to the Discovering YourCalling podcast.
I'm your host, Jerry Miter.
I'm here to help you unleashyour strengths and get clarity
on your calling.
I believe when you find yourpurpose in life, fulfillment,
joy, and success will follow.
If you're ready, pop in thoseearbuds, hit that follow button,
and join me on this journeytoward discovering your calling.
(01:32):
So if you caught last week'sepisode, we talked about what a
portfolio career is.
And after you listened, youmight have been like several
people that contacted me andsaid, I've been building up one
my entire life.
They just didn't have a name forit.
And if you're someone whonaturally just loves variety,
that might sound familiar.
(01:52):
You love that idea of havingmultiple sources of income.
That's again how you've beenworking your business your
entire life.
But maybe if you are someonewho's taken that more
traditional career path, thatmore linear of you go to
college, you get your degree,you land that job that uses that
degree, and you're work, youwork your way up the ladder
(02:16):
until retirement.
This may sound a little odd toyou.
And you may be thinking, well,why would anybody want to have a
portfolio career without thesafety and security?
And no matter which directionyou are right now or where
you've been, I want you tolisten to this episode with the
open mindset of how could Ipossibly build something else on
(02:41):
the side?
Now, if you're already doingmultiple sources of income,
maybe for you it's it's makingsure that what you are doing
aligns with your calling, italigns with your gifts and
skills and all the things we'regoing to talk about today.
And if you are more of thattraditional career path, for
you, it might be looking atlike, how could I add something
(03:01):
on, you know, something to mylife on the side without
stepping away from my nine tofive, without, you know, losing
that security.
And this is all about creatingthat, that something that feeds
your soul, something that usesagain, your gifts, your talents,
your life experiences, and notabout giving something up,
(03:23):
giving up that career that's allabout security.
And that's the way I want toreally look at this building
your portfolio career.
And I do, as I shared in thelast episode, I really do feel
like today, because there reallyis no safe jobs out there
anymore.
You know, it used to be that youknew you could count on having
that job until you retired atage 60 or 65 or 72 today.
(03:45):
Um, but nowadays, nothing isguaranteed.
So I really feel like we allneed to build something that we
can call our own and have thatas a secure fallback, you know,
plan B or fallback plan.
I don't know if that's the rightverbiage, but you know what I
mean?
Like something that you havecontrol of.
It's about taking control ofyour life.
And that's what building aportfolio career to me is really
(04:08):
all about.
But I want to make one thingclear about what a portfolio
career isn't.
It is not about working a bunchof random jobs because you have
to pay the bills.
Now, I have been there before.
My husband and I were talkingabout this and kind of started
chuckling, thinking back to whenwe were newlyweds and we got
married really young, likeshockingly young.
(04:31):
If I said my age, it'd be like,oh.
Um, so we were both very young.
And he had just got on the cityfire department where he did
spend his career.
And I think his starting pay wassomething around$15,000 a year,
maybe less.
You know, we were eligible forfood stamps if we wanted to take
them.
And, you know, it's funnybecause I know today, some of
(04:52):
you are listening, might bemaking$15,000 a month.
And we were making that a year.
So we had to be scrappy.
And we were willing to doanything, legally and morally
right, of course, to provide forour little growing family.
We had had a baby like a year,year and a half after we got
(05:12):
married.
We started had started ourfamily, and we were still, you
know, he was not making a lot ofmoney.
So I remember I worked retail ata department store.
I used to sew these crazy 3Dsweatshirts for small local
business.
And then they hired me.
They wanted me to go out andhelp sell them.
(05:33):
And I mean, talk about a cringejob.
I look back at the I think backto those sweatshirts, like, oh
my gosh, they were so, so 80s.
Um Tom and I together used todeliver phone books, or if any
of you remember phone books.
I mean, he delivered packages,he delivered pizzas, he
delivered newspapers.
(05:54):
Again, you name it.
I think we did it or tried it.
And that was just from a need ofcash.
Had nothing to do with living inour calling.
It was all about the cold hardcash.
That is not a portfolio career.
The portfolio career is aboutcreating work you want to do.
(06:15):
And again, whether that's aboutmultiple roles at one time or
keeping your full-time job whilebuilding that something on the
side, or designing work thatjust gives you freedom to be a
work-from-home parent, or maybeit's about making an impact
after you retire from thattraditional career.
And it's about using yourstrengths and having the freedom
(06:37):
to live life on your terms.
And as I mentioned last week,and I mentioned earlier in this
podcast, to me, right now, it isthe smartest way to create
future security.
Because again, I can't say thisenough.
There is no job that is reallysafe anymore.
So if you're ready to startcreating your portfolio career
(06:59):
of your own, let's talk aboutthese five things you can do
right now, this week, to starttaking inventory and start
looking at what you can bring tothe world to start creating your
side.
We're really talking about theside project today, the passion
project.
Again, I don't like the wordside hustle, but if you think
(07:19):
about that, like something youcan start doing on a small scale
on the side right now.
So grab a pen and paper becauseyou're gonna want to take some
notes.
And this may even be a podcastthat you want to listen to a
chunk, put it on pause, writedown your thoughts, turn it back
on, listen to the next section,write, you know, put it on
pause, write your notes down,whatever serves you best.
(07:40):
But this definitely does take alot of it's about you taking the
time to write down the thoughtsthat come in.
So, first thing you're gonna dois take inventory of your
current skills.
Start by taking inventory ofthose skills.
Um, as I mentioned in my book,Discovering Your Calling, and
also in my academy, the key hereis to only focus on the skills
(08:04):
that you have that energize you.
You know, we've all had to learnskills at one point in our life
that we had to do them, but wedidn't enjoy doing them.
And in fact, they kind ofdrained us when we did do them.
So we're not talking about thoseskills.
We're talking about what are theskills you love using, the ones
that you're known for.
(08:25):
Maybe at work you're the ITperson.
Maybe you're the IT personbecause you were trained to do
that, but maybe you're also theIT person as an unofficial job
title because you just geek outover technology.
So everybody asks you questionsabout, oh, my computer's not
working right, or this is notworking right, or how do I fix
this?
You're just known as the ITperson.
(09:55):
Could you offer that expertiseas a side gig to people outside
of your circle of influence?
Who could you offer that to?
I mean, there's a lot of us outthere that are not IT experts
that could use somebody to comein and help us fix our computer.
Actually, right now, myhusband's computer, the sound is
not working properly and wecould not figure it out.
(10:16):
So he's looking for that personthat, you know, he would hire
you to come in and fix thiscomputer.
Um, so that's one example.
Maybe you have skills like acraft, like sewing or woodwork.
Could you take those skills thatyou use to create something?
(10:36):
Um, could you take that andcreate something that maybe you
could sell on Etsy?
Or maybe you could take thatskill and teach others how to do
it.
Now, if it's about sewing, I'mguessing you're probably not
going to be making those cringy3D sweatshirts I had to make
back in the day.
But what are the skills that youhave that you have honed and
(10:57):
you're known for?
Again, woodworking.
Could you make a beautiful pieceof furniture to sell to
somebody?
So think about those skills.
Um, my client, my current clientright now, Mary, we're working
right now on her taking some ofher one of her skills.
She is a very skilled, um, not aflorist, but she's has this
(11:18):
great skill of being able totake flowers and just create
amazingly beautiful flowerarrangements.
And she wants to take that andcreate a side business for now,
possibly more in the future, ofselling these flower
arrangements to others.
Uh, particularly, she wants todo them for gravestones.
And it's something that she'spassionate about and something
(11:40):
she's very skilled at.
We're also talking about how shecould take those skills of being
able to create these beautifulflower arrangements and teach it
to others in a workshop setting.
I mean, people are paying forworkshops like that.
I went to a charcuterie boardworkshop not too long ago to
learn how to create acharcuterie board.
So, what are the skills that youhave that you could either teach
(12:04):
to somebody else or maybe createsomething, or maybe just offer
your services to somebody.
But just remember, it needs tobe the skills that not only are
you good at, but that energizeyou.
Because just because you aregood at something doesn't mean
you should be doing it if youfind them exhausting to do.
(12:24):
So your first step is write downfive to 10, five to 10 skills
that you have that you trulyenjoy using.
And some of those skills may bethings that you haven't utilized
yourself in a long time.
So think back, you know, toprevious skills that you used to
use.
So, what are those skills?
Write down five to 10 skillsthat you have that you enjoy
(12:46):
using.
Step two is review your workexperience.
So look to your current work,but also look back at your past
work experience.
What roles or projects have youhad that where you maybe you
were helping others?
Or how could you take thatexperience that you've had at a
(13:07):
job and maybe become a mentor, apaid mentor?
Or you could use those, youknow, it's kind of like the
skills, but the work experienceto freelance.
Or maybe it's becoming aconsultant.
Um, if you're a graphicdesigner, could you freelance on
the side?
You know, if you really lovedoing graphic design, that's
(13:27):
your nine to five, you love it,you're passionate about it, and
you want to still do more, youcould freelance on Fiverr or
upwork as a graphic designer.
Or maybe you could take someskills and um that you've
learned through your your workexperience, uh, take your work
experience and volunteer tomentor somebody, maybe mentor
(13:50):
teens.
Maybe you could take your workexperience and serve on a
nonprofit board, or maybe youradvisor for startups.
Um, not all of your calling to,by the way, or even your
portfolio career.
This again is Sherry Mitre'sopinion, has to be paid.
Some things I feel like maybemight start off as just giving
(14:12):
back to society, giving back andjust offering your services for
free.
You never know where it couldlead, or maybe it'll always stay
as a volunteer portion, but itfeeds your, it fills your cup,
it feeds your soul.
So that's gonna give you um moreenergy, more passion in your
life.
So go back through all of yourpast roles.
(14:33):
What work did you love doing?
What work were you reallyexceptionally good at?
And what would you enjoy doingor helping others with?
Because sometimes your next stepis hiding in something you've
already done.
So just take some time to reviewyour current work experience
that you've you're known for,like you know you do it really
(14:55):
exceptionally well, andor pastwork experience.
Just jot that down.
Now I want to pause here and letyou know we're not worrying
about trying to create somethingyet.
You're just jotting down thisinformation.
Don't worry about if somethingcomes up like, well, I don't
even know how I could do it.
We'll get to that in a minute.
You're just writing down theinformation right now.
So you should have yourinventory of your current skills
(15:18):
or past skills.
Second thing is review your workexperience.
Now the third thing is the thirdstep is to revisit your hobbies.
So think about your hobbies, theones that you currently have or
the ones you used to have.
Could you take something youlove doing and turn it into
something that brings in extraincome?
(15:39):
Maybe you are a great musician.
Maybe you enjoy painting, maybeyou enjoy coaching a sport.
Could you teach something?
Could you sell your creations onEtsy or even start something
totally new?
And my son, my youngest son, uhtook his hobby, his love for
(16:00):
espresso of all things, and hehas turned it into a coffee cart
business.
And let me tell you, he'skilling it.
He has, it seems like two orthree bookings every single week
since he started in July.
So he took his hobby of coffeeand espresso and turned it into
(16:21):
a business.
Another son of mine, our oldestson, him and his wife, have
chickens.
So they now sell eggs and othergoods and a little farm stand.
So what are your hobbies and howcould you possibly turn them
into a side business or makemoney from them?
Um, you know, what hobbies,again, do you have or did you
(16:44):
used to have that maybe you feellike you haven't had time to do,
but you could bring them backinto your life.
And again, don't be afraid todig into your past.
You know, what did you lovedoing as a kid?
What did you do in college?
Or what were you do before youeven had kids?
You know, after that, it seemslike we do everything for our
(17:04):
kids.
So jot those ideas down.
Just revisit your hobbies.
The fourth step is to find acause that lights you up.
So the next thing is to thinkabout the causes you believe in,
the ones you would love tosupport or bring awareness to.
And in the Discovering You'reCalling Academy, we call this
(17:27):
your purpose-driven problem.
What is that thing you see outin the world or in your world
that tugs at your heartstrings?
What makes you say someoneshould do something about that?
Well, maybe, my friend, it'stime for you to be that someone.
And it might be that you takeyour skills, your knowledge,
your work experience to helpsolve the problem in your own
(17:49):
unique way.
So, for example, I am passionateabout making sure everyone has
access to fresh vegetables.
I just, I think it just mattersso much in our lives.
Next year, I plan to volunteerat our local community garden.
And again, in my humble opinion,not everything has to be paid,
but sometimes it can be.
Um, I have a friend Connie, andshe's a cancer survivor.
(18:12):
She now dedicates her time torunning her own foundation.
It's called Get Your Rack Back.
It's fabulous.
You should look it up online,get your rack back.
They help families in crisis byproviding restaurant gas and
grocery gift cards and financialaid for physician and hospital
co-pays.
She's also become a paid authorand speaker.
(18:34):
So she took what mattered to heras a cancer survivor and turned
it into a foundation to helpothers.
So what tugs at your heart?
Is it helping somebody with acertain disease?
Is it animals?
Is it politics?
Is it the environment?
Write those things down.
Okay, and step number five islean into your God-given
(18:58):
talents.
Take a look at your God-giventalents through the Clifton
Strengths lens.
Now, if you've taken theassessment, pull out your top
five or your full 34 report andstart reading through it.
But I want you to look for theclues that might point you
toward a side business or newproject idea.
(19:20):
So, what do I mean by this?
So, for example, one of myclients reports um said this in
the report.
It said, Because of yourstrengths, you may be adept at
setting up processes that makesthat make it easier to perform
certain repet repetitious.
It's getting late here for me,repetitious assignments or
(19:41):
tasks.
And another line read, youperiodically establish rules
that help people manage daily orweekly routines.
Perhaps you outline a detailedplan.
Now, she was also a graphicdesigner for me.
She did some graphic designwork.
And I know by working with her,her mind does work this way.
(20:01):
She has a very unique way oforganizing her thoughts and
organ creating organizationaltools to help get a project
done.
So she could also just createorganizational tools for small
business owners because I don'tknow about you, but that is not
my forte.
And it would be great to haveher like break down how to how
(20:24):
to, you know, look at bigprojects and make them into
manageable daily tasks.
So that might be something shecould do with her natural
strengths.
Another client's um strengthsreport had this to say in it:
you are flexible and can quicklyadjust to changing or unexpected
circumstances.
(20:44):
Your calm response to chaosreassures others and helps
respond to what people need.
Now, she happens to be a weddingevent planner.
And that is one of hersuperpowers in there because as
you can imagine, on the day of awedding, there's usually a lot
of chaos.
So she uses that gift of hers tohelp calm that chaos, to help
(21:08):
people, you know, realize she'sgot it so that their wedding can
come out beautifully and justwhat they had imagined that day
to look like.
So that's how she's leaning intoher natural, natural strengths
of being able to make, you know,help things calm and be flexible
in the day.
So what clues might be hidden inyour report?
(21:31):
Now, for this one, it might begood to even ask a friend, ask a
close friend who knows you wellto read your report and see what
clues they pick out.
Sometimes that's easier to pickout clues for somebody else than
it is for ourselves.
Or better yet, you can alwayshire a coach like myself, a
Clifton Strengths coach, to helpyou uncover those hidden gems.
(21:53):
Because we have the advantage ofreading a lot of reports out
there and we see what are theunique gems that stand out that
aren't in anybody else's, butthey're in yours.
That tells you what your naturalClifton strengths are and how
they could be used to helpothers in the world.
So that was step five, lean intoyour God-given talents.
(22:13):
So I'm going to review thesereal quick.
So number one was take inventoryof your current skills.
Number two, review your workexperience.
Number three, revisit yourhobbies.
Number four, find a cause thatlights you up.
And number five, lean into yourGod-given talents.
Now, as we wrap this up, I wantyou to go back and look at your
(22:37):
list and think about the commonthreads there.
Look to see what stands out atyou.
Maybe an idea already pops outjust by writing down the list.
Um, you could also use AI forthis.
Take all your ideas and plugthem into Chat B GPT and ask for
a few creative ways to bringthem to life.
Or maybe you could ask Chat GPT,like, how could I create a side
(23:01):
business knowing that I havethese skills, this work
experience, you know, I'mpassionate about this.
Like feed all that informationinto Chat GPT and see what it
comes up with.
Or again, if you'd rather workwith a human, let's connect.
I would suggest starting withour uh my start with strengths
session, which is where we can,you know, look at your
(23:23):
strengths, but we'd also look atthis list as well.
If you book a start withstrength session specifically
for creating your potential sidehustle, your potential passion
project, we can take all thesethings that you've already
written down and we'll, youknow, we'll look at them
together and figure out like,what is it?
(23:44):
What is it hidden there that youcan start creating something to
start making that little extraincome or something that just
again fills your cup, somethingthat gives you energy.
Because this isn't again aboutnecessarily just trying to
create something that you haveto do because you're desperate
and you need money.
It's not really about that.
(24:05):
Now, yes, you might want to makesome money and you kind of need
some money, but it's aboutcreating something that's in
tune and lines up with yourcalling, whether it be that it's
always going to stay a passionproject on the side, or is it
potentially going to becomesomething that could turn into
your full-time, you know, incomeproducer?
(24:27):
It really doesn't matter whereyou want it to go.
It's about where we start today.
So I want to close here with areal life example of someone who
did all these things.
She actually, as I thought backto, is like, yes, she did all
five things and has now createda$50 million business.
(24:48):
She saw a problem she wanted tosolve.
She used her past workexperience, her professional
skills, her creative hobbies,and even her spout her spouse's
talents to build somethingmeaningful, meaningful.
And what started out as a smallproject to help just one person
grew into something that nowtouches millions of lives around
(25:12):
the world and is turned into abusiness worth over$50 million.
Sounds pretty unbelievable,right?
Well, some of you may have heardof this person before.
If you have anybody in your inyour life that's under four
years old, you probably have.
And that person is Miss Rachel.
She's the creator of Songs forLittles on YouTube.
(25:34):
And she created that because shenoticed her young son was
struggling with speech, and shecouldn't find the kind of
educational videos she wishedexisted.
So she decided to make themherself.
So that was her purpose-drivenproblem.
And she drew on her workexperience as an early childhood
(25:55):
educator and music teacher.
And she used her skills insongwriting and teaching, and
she tapped into her hobby ofmusic and her husband, Aaron's
background as a Broadway musicdirector and composer.
He now handles the production,music, and editing of their
channel.
And together, they becamebusiness partners in bringing
(26:15):
her vision to life.
And what started out as a momtrying to help her child has
become, again, one of the mostbeloved educational platforms
online, helping millions ofchildren, including my own
grandchildren, my the smallergrandchildren love Miss Rachel.
And her story really is just abeautiful reminder that your
(26:37):
portfolio career, or that littleidea tugging at your heart,
might grow out of a combinationof these five things: your
skills, your work experience,your hobbies, your
purpose-driven problem, and yourGod-given talents.
And who knows, who knows thatone small idea might not just
(26:59):
change your life, it mightchange someone else's too, or
perhaps millions of lives outthere.
You never know.
But you have to take the firststep, which is just to explore
and then experiment and testthings out.
And remember, your callingdoesn't show up all at once.
It kind of just unfolds as youtake action.
(27:21):
And just as a reminder, if youneed more support and/or you're
trying to decide, is this evenfor me, do I even want to create
a portfolio career?
Then I would suggest you takeour new portfolio career quiz.
It's still kind of in the betastages.
So it's not all it's going to bein the future, but it will
definitely give you um somedirection.
(27:43):
So take our portfolio careercareer quiz um at
discoveringyourcalling.comforward slash quiz.
So discoveringyourcalling.comforward slash quiz.
The link will be in the shownotes.
Take the quiz and see whereyou're at.
And I'm also here for you.
Not only am I cheering you on asyou create your career and a
(28:07):
life that truly fits who youare, I'm here to help you.
I'm here to coach you.
I'm here to mentor you.
And if you want that little nextlevel support, again, I
recommend the Start withStrengths session because
everything really does startwith strengths.
And you can book your sessiontoday and or look learn more at
(28:29):
sherymiterco.com forward slashservices to check out our Start
with Strengths um session.
So that's it, my friend.
So I hope this is valuable toyou.
And I would love to know whichstep gave you the biggest aha.
Which of the five steps that wewent through, which one was it
that, like, oh, wait, maybethat's it.
(28:50):
Maybe that's what I could do tocreate something.
Let me know.
I'll be waiting to hear fromyou.
Thank you for spending this timewith me.
My hope is something you heardtoday inspires you to take
action toward discovering yourcalling.
I just have two favors to ask ofyou before you go.
One, if you found value andenjoyed this episode, please
(29:10):
leave us a review on ApplePodcasts or Spotify, and you
might hear your review read on afuture episode.
And two, can you share thisepisode with three friends who
will also enjoy it as much asyou did?
By doing these things, you willhelp us grow the podcast to make
a bigger impact on the world.
And until next week, remember,you've been created to live a
(29:31):
life of fulfillment, freedom,purpose, success, and joy.
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