Portfolio or Mastery? Making Sense of Your Career Journey

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Have you ever looked at your career and thought, “Does any of this even make sense?”

In this episode, Ryan and Vic unpack two common career paths:

• The portfolio career – built through experiments, pivots, and lots of different chapters.
• The mastery career – built through depth, focus, and long-term growth in a specific craft or field.

Neither is better. What matters is how you understand your patterns, your identity, and the meaning inside your story.

Ryan shares his non-linear path across wine, HR, L&D, and coaching as an example of a portfolio career. Vic shares how she built a mastery career in leadership and manager development without a traditional degree, and why experience and curiosity matter just as much as credentials.

You’ll hear:

• Common limiting stories for both portfolio and mastery careers (and how to reframe them).
• How to spot the patterns that have been there all along, even when your CV looks “messy” or “too narrow.”
• Why your next move should be driven by identity, not fear.

We wrap with practical coaching questions you can use right away to make sense of where you’ve been and what might be next.

This episode is for you if:

• You’ve done a lot of different things and worry you “never stuck with anything.”
• You’ve gone deep in one area and feel stuck or trapped by your expertise.
• You’re somewhere in between and just want language and clarity for your journey.

Listen in, grab a notebook, and start seeing your career through a kinder, clearer lens.

Resources

• Go Coach Yourself! - You Are Not Your Job Title
• Go Coach Yourself! - Uncovering Your X-Factor: Conversations on Honesty and Intention with Francesca Ranieri

Hosts:

Ryan Reichert-Estes, StackRise Coaching | LinkedIn | Insta: @stackrisecoaching

Vic Smith, WhistleSmith.co | LinkedIn | Insta: @vic_bk