Hey readers,

It’s our first-ever edition of Portfolio Path. Pinch me. 🤯 

And what better way to kick off than to reveal the secrets from our private fireside chats?

Today, in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

• 🌟 Real stories of 7 professionals from Canva, Hubspot, Stripe, and more who cracked the code to launching their consulting business

• 🎯 How to avoid the most common pitfalls that keep new side hustlers stuck

• ⚡ Essential strategies to land your first clients (hint: you don't need social media)

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🔥 Zero to One Secrets From $1M+ Consulting Revenue

The best way to learn is by doing. The next best way is learning from your peers.

Over the past 6 months, we hosted private fireside chats with thriving part-time and full-time consultants—plus, alumni from Part-Time Consulting Launchpad.

They have worked for top brands like Canva, Hubspot, Stripe, Square, and Ali Abdaal as well as startups.

Their stages ranged from just starting out (first few clients) to scaling up (7-figures).

In this newsletter, I’m going to synthesize some of my favorite 0-to-1 strategies from our private fireside chat speakers.

First off, let me introduce our stellar speakers:

Fireside Speakers

🇦🇺 Audrey Thehamihardja (Product Lead, Lorikeet; ex-Canva) - went from Canva PM to building a 7-figure design agency in 1 year to scaling back into a side hustle

🇺🇸 Chase Damiano (Founder, Human at Scale) - went from coffee brand COO to starting an ops agency that served 85+ clients

🇸🇬 Sophie Syed (Product Ops, SG GovTech; ex-Hubspot) - leveraged her expertise onboarding 500+ clients at Hubspot into Fractional Customer Ops consulting

🇺🇸 🇫🇷 Aman Manik (Product Designer, NiaHealth; ex-Square) - fractional PM/designer for multiple startups

🇬🇧 Ines Lee (Head of Content, Ali Abdaal) - cohort alum, content consultant on the side for 7-figure creator businesses and startups

🇸🇬 Shilpa Nath (Founder, What The Fail) - cohort alum, Fractional Marketing Leader & organizer of one the biggest communities of its kind of Asia

🇸🇬 🇺🇸 Lily Wu (BD Director, MeetSocial; ex-Stripe) - BD consultant for startups entering the Australia/North America markets

5 countries represented. Proud of our global flavor.

Here are 7 of my favorite lessons. Let’s get into it:

7 Secrets on Going From Zero to One

1/ Get crystal clear on your goals in the first place.

You’ll hear TONS of noise on the internet (“build a 7-figure creator business!”). But the most important voice to listen to is your own.

Think carefully about what you want vs what you think you should want.

Example 1: Ines realized her goal was to generate side income for holidays/family support. Her main income was still her full-time job.

Example 2: Despite hearing “never do free work!” advice, Audrey started designing for free to gain experience in a new field. This helped her accelerate her freelance design business while being a PM at Canva.

2/ Start broad, then iterate towards a specific ideal client profile.

Our speakers generally started with a broader client hypothesis, tested it in the market, and then got more specific about who they served as they learned more.

Example 1: Lily initially targeted Series B-D startups because they:

• Make decisions quickly

• Have consulting budgets

• Can act on recommendations

Along the way, she realized a sub-segment of these startups sought market expansion, so she doubled down on this need.

Example 2: Audrey focused on recently funded startups with <10 employees because:

• They lack in-house designers

• Have product-market fit

• Can move fast

Along the way, she learned it’s important that these startups ALSO have technical product experience, so they better understand the value of design.

3/ Win the game of one.

Counterintuitively, fewer offerings lead to more clients.

Example 1: Shilpa initially listed 10+ services on her website, causing decision paralysis for her clients. She simplified to just two offers:

• Social Media Strategy Support

• Marketing Plan Audit

After the change, she had easier sales conversations and more conversions.

Example 2: Chase had one anchor consulting offer over 5 years. This was the bedrock of his consulting while he experimented with:

• Cohort-based courses (Maven)

• Fractional COO services

• Additional products

His anchor offer helped him bring in consistent cash flow, while testing new revenue streams.

4/ Deliver value and trust quickly in your sales process.

Many newbies make the mistake of jumping straight into selling. The pros look for ways to deliver heaps of value and trust ASAP during their sales conversations.

Example 1: Chase refined a structured sales process after 5 years:

1. Triage call

2. Strategy session (120-question assessment)

3. Paid business blueprint

4. Live proposal discussion

Each step is meant to showcase a bit of value and build trust incrementally.

Example 2: Sophie offered a 1-month Hubspot audit as the first deliverable. Then if the client liked and trusted her recommendations, she proposed a deeper engagement to implement these ideas.

Example 3: Lily focused on delivering immediate BD value—e.g. making a quick intro to a potential partner before giving the proposal. This showcased her network and abilities, building trust.

Example 4: Ines shared Loom videos to potential clients in her outbound DMs, reviewing their content and proposing suggested improvements. She described the model as “Educate, not sell.”

5/ Move towards value-based pricing, not hourly pricing.

One common theme was value-based pricing. On pricing, several speakers also developed more creative models to optimize both cash flow and upside.

Example 1: Chase focuses on outcomes like time savings or revenue increases instead of quoting hourly rates. He might say, "If this saves you 10 hours per week, what's that worth to your business?"

Example 2: Given Lily’s work was in securing BD deals, her offer included a 75% upfront retainer and 25% performance bonus (based on clear 2-month milestones). However, she recommends to delay setting a final target until a 2-week trial period to talk with stakeholders and assess if the target is achievable.

Example 3: Aman’s pricing journey:

• Tested both monthly retainers and project-based pricing (tied specific amounts to clear outcomes and deliverables)

• He preferred the latter because the value was clearer to his clients and easier for clients to say “Aman is the owner to deliver this project”

6/ Start with your network, referrals, and cold outreach.

Another common theme was speakers was tapping their networks for their early clients. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need social media to get your first consulting clients.

Example 1: Chase actively setup networking chats with other founders via Linkedin outreach and communities. He did NOT sell during these calls. Only if there was a fit, he “invited” potential clients into the sales process.

Example 2: Audrey initially recruited clients through word-of-mouth referrals. One effective tactic was asking friends to recommend her services in founder Slack channels.

Example 3: Even though Ines creates inbound content for Ali Abdaal, she prefers to craft personalized outbound DMs in her own side business.

7/ Design your client service model based on your time constraints.

A common challenge is managing client communications and time commitment.

The overarching suggestion is to consider carefully your offer components, so they don’t eat up your calendar unknowingly:

Example 1: Audrey started capping the number of active design projects a client can request at the same time to avoid capacity bottlenecks.

Example 2: Chase tested Fractional COO work, but realized it often required more urgent response times. This made it more difficult to scale than his consulting projects—which were more constrained to work done for scheduled client calls.

In Summary

1. Define YOUR version of success

2. Test broadly, then narrow down your ideal client profile

3. Win the game of one (offer)

4. Show value and build trust before selling

5. Price based on value delivered, not hours worked

6. Leverage your existing network and direct outreach (social media optional)

7. Design your service model around your time constraints

What’d you think of this edition? Rate it at the bottom of the email OR reply with your thoughts. I read every email.

💎 Last Week’s Finds

• 👵 How Should Your Allocation Change With Age? I liked this article because it reframes a common trope. E.g. If you’ve started a family and have huge liabilities (house, kids), then regardless of age, it might mean decreasing your risk tolerance.

• ✈️ Remote Source, a Remote Work newsletter with 50k+ subscribers - I just met its founder, Grant, at the Newsletter Marketing Summit in Austin. Check out Remote Source’s job board and actionable remote work tips.

• 🔎 GummySearch - Insightful tool for researching customers on Reddit, analyzing Subreddit discussions, and breaking down hot trends. h/t to Steph Smith (speaker at the Summit)

📚 From Our Archives

“If I just get that promotion, then I’ll be happy.”

Replace “promotion” with “new job,” “$X net worth,” or “big client”…

… and you’ll get different flavors of the same thought that has caused me misery throughout my work and life.

Wall Street Journal recently featured a few Americans who decided to “[borrow] years of freedom from their future selves to enjoy some of their retirement while they are still young.“

This runs counter to the ethos of the FIRE movement, which focuses on saving aggressively to achieve early retirement in your 30’s or 40’s.

Is enjoying the present worth the trade-off of slowing the growth of your nest egg?

✨From Our Community

• RSVP for our next Community Call on Offer Design & Positioning (March 6th).

• We announced our rebrand on Monday and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Thanks for sticking by our side on this new path!

• In February’s Community Call, we walked through the 4 Types of Portfolio Careers and small steps to take in the next 30 days:

Whenever you’re ready, here’s 4 ways I can help you: