You can't think your way into a new life

I first met Layla Smith back in August 2025 when she joined Cohort 1 of my accelerator, The Portfolio Career Build Method. At the time she’d been running a copywriting business for 2 years while living the digital nomad Bali dream, and while business was technically great, she felt anything but.

Layla was restless. The life she’d created felt misaligned with her values. She cared about copywriting and her clients, sure, but she cared more about the planet, about social impact, about the state of the world. And so, in the middle of this career crisis, she decided to enter a season of deliberate slowdown; of reading, journalling, going to writers’ retreats and impact-related events, and following the nudge whenever curiosity called.

The nudge (noun): The pull towards following your curiosity or a new direction, even when it doesn’t make any logical sense.

The nudge took her places (so many places!) until an idea for a brand called cool to care started to form; a movement inspiring the younger generation to get involved, give back and create meaningful change. A platform making it feel cool to care.

Layla noodled on this idea for months; researching nonprofits, rebranding her Substack, sound-boarding endlessly with Claude and brainstorming what “cool to care” could look like in practice: consulting, creator collabs, IRL events, the list went on.

At times Layla felt like she was making progress, but really, it was only in her head. Despite all of her effort, months later she was still a copywriter living in Bali, relying on her current roster of clients for cash. Copywriting was still her identity, her income and her whole business.

Cool To Care was a well thought out dream, but a dream nonetheless.

That is, until we met.

During (and since) Cohort 1, Layla has pivoted her entire world bit by bit:

• While Layla came into the accelerator with a clear goal of pivoting into social impact, she didn’t have any experience or tangible proof points to her name (yet). Instead, she decided to create her own credibility and took a grant writing course; the hypothesis being that a credential would get her foot in the nonprofit door

• Alongside this, Layla reached out to a bunch of nonprofits to offer some tightly scoped pro-bono work that she could later leverage as case studies. Instead of trading time for money, she strategically traded time for proof

• With her full roster of copywriting clients, study and pro-bono work, Layla was close to capacity but remained determined to find paid social impact work. Pretty quickly she hit a roadblock, learning that many nonprofits are underfunded which made it difficult to land well paying consulting work

• Instead of freaking out, Layla took a breath and thought about how to pivot. She noticed that she got fired up while thinking about how nonprofits could partner with purpose-led brands. Specifically, how they could work together to reach Gen Z and amplify their impact

• Layla reworked her positioning, target customer, offer stack and pricing by reapplying the same methodology (The Portfolio Career Build Method) she’d learned in the accelerator

• Around this time, Layla also started writing about the intersection of Gen Z and social impact online. She led with curiosity instead of positioning herself as an expert; sharing campaigns she found interesting and breaking down how purpose-led brands were engaging younger consumers

• She started getting noticed

• She won new clients

• She went all in on her new positioning as a Gen Z Social Impact Strategist, and built an offering and platform around the brand Cool To Care

But the biggest win (in Layla’s own words) was this…

“I spent so long disconnected from my work, feeling lost, going through the motions, and not believing I could turn my business into something that felt meaningful. I always felt like the way I made money and what I cared deeply about had to be separate. Now I wake up excited about the problem I’m trying to solve. Showing up online (which used to send me into an actual fight-or-flight response haha) doesn’t feel paralysing anymore. I have a point of view. I feel like I have valuable things to say. I have words for what I do.”

I’m obsessed with Layla’s story because it perfectly captures my belief that while you can’t think your way to a new life, you can build your way there. However, you must act before you’re ready, post before you’re an expert, embrace failure but not defeat, and persist until you win.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to get things moving. A supportive guide, an external perspective, a little nudge towards a big goal, a community of smart ambitious people cheering you on, or a proven methodology for building the portfolio career of your dreams.

Doors to Cohort 3 of The Portfolio Career Build Method open today, June 19 at 12PM AEST if you’re on the waitlist (or Monday June 22 if you’re not!). Places are limited - sign up to the waitlist to get first access.

Leave a comment

• How to future-proof your career in the world of AI: a free 14 day email series teaching you how to diversify your income and risk, and build a portfolio of skills, opportunities and income streams. Sign up here.

• The Portfolio Career Build Method: a 6 week accelerator for smart, ambitious humans who want to build multiple income streams and gain full ownership over their time and life. Doors open June 22 or 48 hours earlier if you sign up for early access here.

…to help you build a financially lucrative and creatively fulfilling portfolio career and life.