A note from June
Someone said something to me this week that stayed with me.
He has a 9-to-5 and several businesses. Yet when it came to his mortgage, the picture of what he earned was still built around his salary.
There was more to his financial life than his payslip could show.
It made me realise we haven’t explained clearly enough why we’re asking you to map your Pholyo.
You might have a job and a business on the side. Several consulting clients. Paid speaking alongside advisory work. Each contributes something, but when they sit in different places, it’s hard to see the whole picture.
What do you earn across everything you do? Which work pays best for your time? Where might you be undercharging?
Mapping your Pholyo brings your roles, income and time together, so you can understand what each stream contributes and compare your rates with people doing similar work.
But that’s the starting point.
We’re building towards a verified record of your work—one you control.
A record that brings together your experience and evidence of what you’ve done across clients, businesses and roles. Something you can build on as your career evolves, rather than starting from scratch every time you pursue an opportunity.
The potential unlock is being able to show the full picture when you’re pricing your expertise, pursuing new work or demonstrating how you earn.
Longer term, we want to help financial providers understand people whose income comes from several places. That will take more than a map, but it starts with understanding the whole picture.
Your individual answers stay private. As we build verification, you’ll control what you share and with whom.
You don’t need to leave your job or call yourself a portfolio careerist. If your working life stretches beyond one title, this is for you.
What your maps are revealing
Among the people who have mapped so far:
- 71% hold two or more roles, but only a third are paid for more than one.
- 29% of the roles they hold are unpaid.
- Some people doing similar advisory work earn more than twice as much as their peers.
Where does your own work sit?
Mapping takes about five minutes. Every completed map helps make the benchmarks more useful for everyone.
Who came to mind?
You probably know someone whose working life doesn’t fit their LinkedIn headline.
The friend with a job and a side business. The consultant juggling clients. The person everyone turns to for advice.
Forward this email with a simple note:
“I thought of you. You do more than your job title suggests.”
Once you’ve mapped, we’ll email you a personal referral link. When friends complete their maps through it, you’ll earn free time on MyPholyo membership when it opens:
- One completed map earns you one month free.
- Three completed maps earn you founding member status, plus another month.
- Each referred friend who becomes a paying member earns you one more month, up to a year.
We’re aiming for 1,000 maps by MyPholyo Playground on 5 November. Every person you bring in helps us understand more of the ways people work and earn.
The one-title trap
This week, I spoke at Entrepreneur UK’s Business Breakfast about why one job title rarely tells the whole story of what someone can offer.
For businesses, that means looking beyond a title to understand someone’s full experience. For those of us combining different kinds of work, it means being able to explain and demonstrate the value we bring.
That’s the connection to MyPholyo. Your work across several roles should strengthen the picture of what you can do.
We’ll share photos and more from the morning soon.
Could we help your community?
We’re partnering with communities whose members combine employment, businesses, consulting and other income streams.
Members who map using their community’s code get their first month of membership free when it opens. The community receives an anonymised, aggregate picture of how its members earn, alongside a portfolio careers clinic or an evening with me.
It’s a chance to understand the questions members are facing about pricing, income and their next move and have a useful conversation about them.
Know a community we should speak to? Reply to this email. We’d love an introduction.
Help people see what you bring
Understanding your value is one step. Helping other people recognise it matters too.
Female Founders Rise’s 30-day Personal Branding Challenge gives you a daily prompt, example and framework to turn the work you’re already doing into content.
The aim: 30 published posts and a system you can keep using.
Waitlist pricing is £239 instead of £299, or £99 if you’ve taken the challenge before.
Reply if you’d like the waitlist link.
Bring your whole working life to Playground
On Thursday 5 November, we’re bringing 100 founders, consultants, fractional leaders and advisers together at The Old Palace, Hatfield House.
Come with a question about your next move, what to charge or how to make your experience count.
There’ll be a visibility workshop with Laura Fox, a session on getting your first board role with Erevena’s Maria Josife, a live Enter the Boardroom recording with Nurole’s Oliver Cummings, and honest conversations with Mark Evans and Jimmy McLoughlin.
Plus career mapping, bookable 15-minute expert sessions, a professional headshot, a shared lunch and an afterparty.
Get your Playground ticket →
Catch you next week,
