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As I write this, I’m sitting on a park bench atop the small hill which overlooks my local footy ground. In the distance, a bunch of raucous kids are splitting their sides in fits of laughter as they attempt to ride what can only be described as homemade unicycle, a single-wheeled contraption that looks like it was made out of 5000 pick-up sticks.

As soon as I saw this unicycle I started thinking about wheels, oddly enough, which then got me thinking about flywheels, which then gave me the idea for this very newsletter (I wasn’t lying when I said I find writing inspiration everywhere).

If the concept of a flywheel had an OnlyFans account I’m convinced it’d be a top 1% earner, because it’s truly the sexiest business concept I’ve ever come across. If you’re not in the loop (pun intended), a flywheel is the idea that everything you do or create can build momentum for the next thing, such that over time, the whole ecosystem almost grows on its own.

This flywheel concept doesn’t just apply to traditional businesses; it applies to non-traditional portfolio careers too, although very few people structure their income with this in mind, at least at the start. Instead, they collect a client here, a project there; mostly reactively, sometimes opportunistically, but rarely strategically.

There’s nothing wrong with this ‘take it as it comes’ approach per se; it’s how I started building my portfolio of work and things for me have turned out pretty well. But at some point you start to feel like a hamster on a wheel who’s sprinting at a million miles just to stay in the same place. When every income stream operates as an independent mini business, it’s tiring and can be hard to build momentum overall.

How most people start, with a collection of disparate ideas and gigs

On the flip side, a portfolio career with a flywheel kicks off when your income streams start feeding each other like the hungry little caterpillars they are. This is the Career Web in practice; where everything you do, everything you create, everything you say and every piece of work you deliver spits something out that can be leveraged to fuel something else. A fresh insight, more credibility, an open doorway, a new customer or client, or a set of eyeballs you can turn into cash.

Take my portfolio career as an example. I have two verticals (working with startups and portfolio career education) with multiple flywheels:

Documenting my journey online has built a readership > readers ask me for advice about how to build a portfolio career > their questions inform my offers > people engage me as a mentor > they write testimonials > I share those testimonials online > this brings in a new wave of readers and clients…
Mentoring people 1-1 made me realise that lots of people building portfolios experience similar challenges > from these patterns I created a methodology > this became the curriculum for The Portfolio Career Build Method > I launched the beta Cohort 1 and received feedback > I improved the program > Cohort 2 delivered stronger outcomes for people > I attract new participants…
My consulting projects for startups often turn into advisory retainers > advisory can surface angel investing opportunities > this can provide greater access > I build new case studies > I become more valuable to the next founder > I go to market with more credibility > I win work more easily…
My writing sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship and career > most of my essays reach both founders and portfolio careerists > a founder becomes a new client, a portfolio careerist becomes a new customer > both types of engagements produce fresh insights and learnings > this gives me something to write about > I publish > the next essay reaches both target customers again…

And round and round it goes.

Building an income flywheel (as opposed to a collection of disparate gigs) is a solid strategy, and if you’re keen to do the same I suggest you do the following:

Be strategic with how you sequence. Establish a core income stream first so you can pay the bills. Next, prioritise your income experiments based on how much fuel they could produce for other things. What is your audience builder? Your proof generator? Your door opener? Your pathway to the next thing?
Be conscious of how everything fits (or doesn’t fit) together. Before you put your weight behind a new vertical or offer, think about how it relates to everything else you’re doing. Will it act as a setup for something else? Does it overlap with anything else you’re doing? What can it draw from based on what’s already in motion?
Find the thing you can leverage. An insight that informs a product, a piece of content that opens a door, a result you can turn into a case study, or a client who'll refer you to someone else. Always be mining!
But lastly….not every single thing needs to feed the flywheel. I know I know, this goes against everything I just said (oops). But sometimes it’s fine, probably healthy, if a project sits adjacent. Sometimes it’s life-affirming to do something purely for joy.

Creating a self perpetuating flywheel is one of the most fun but trickiest parts of building any business. It can take years of grunt and grit for things to fully crank and whir. But once they do, it’s possible that one revolution of the flywheel might spark a revolution in your life.

So spin it. Crank it. Let it soar!

If you want to build a flywheel that creates opportunities and income, I urge you to join me in Cohort 3 of The Portfolio Career Build Method. The program won’t run again until mid-2027, so this is your chance to make moves!

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How to build an income flywheel that spins and cranks and soars

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