What My Portfolio Career Looks Like In 2Q26

**David Nebinski** (0:05)
Hey, friend, it's David Nebinski here in Brooklyn, here at the Portfolio Career Podcast, where we take ownership of your career and design a life that you want to live. So I wanted to give another update. I recorded an episode in March of 2026 that was called, let's get the title right, it was called Personal Reflection on Being, air quotes, independent for six months. That was in March of, the episode went live March 2026, in 2026
And I think in that episode, I reflect a lot of like confidence in that things were like durable and compounding and growing. I still feel that way.
And many things have changed, or kind of more evolved since then. I think some of the things that I was pretty excited about then kind of like haven't happened as much. And like new things have come up or, so I think that that's interesting. Like there were some things that I was pretty confident about then that haven't really happened yet. And I think one of the things that I've kind of taken away from that was like to, which really matters when you're building a portfolio career, solopreneur, self-funded, is that, like to make things real and to like not have this like story around like what you're telling yourself of what might be happening or what could come. Like obviously imagine and dream and like, you know. But yeah, I think that there was some things that I was thinking about in around then that were complementing my excitement or positivity. Yeah, just didn't become real as much. And it was a little bit more of like a story I was telling myself. So anyways, that's okay. And that has kind of forced me to continue to push. And I think where I'm at now, I'm recording this July 11th, Saturday, July 11th, to then in March, I think that things have gotten better and are improving. And now I'm going to go through the reasons why. But there was a little bit of like a dip in from now to where I'm at now to where I was in March. And I think some of that was just kind of like waiting around or yeah, like just kind of like waiting versus like taking action. And so I think that yeah, that's just like the biggest thing that I've been continuing to learn is like just kind of like make things real, say what you want to do, propose things and make things happen. Like I think that I've come to realize like the like it's rare to actually be able to like suggest things and make them happen. And so for you that are listening to this, like if you're an executor, like we need more executors and like there's an opportunity for you to execute. And yeah, the people that follow up, they say that they're going to do like that actually like is like really stands out. So that's you, like you're in luck.
So, yeah, that's kind of like the biggest takeaway is like stop waiting and just like make things happen, like become, like fill up your time and your work so that like, you know, if something else that's like a potential, like you can just say no, instead of like waiting on something. There, yeah, there had been another moment or so in the last couple of months where I was like, thought like a big project might happen. That kind of fell through. And then that gave me some clarity as to like, I thought this might be like a multi-month project. And that kind of like fell through and got postponed, et cetera, or we'll see where it goes. So that was another thing that's happened recently. Like I've kind of had been really liking this like cycle of like three month bigger projects. And then, and like really pushing towards that.
And that's what has kind of like happened before that I really liked. And so I was like kind of hoping or looking for something like that. Something like that almost happened, but it didn't and that's okay. But getting that kind of clarity that like this bigger project was on pause or not for now was nice. So then I was able to just like work around that and start taking more action and putting myself out there and suggesting things and having conversations with people that might be able to hire me.
And yeah, so like as a reminder, I think there's like two strands of work for me right now. There's like client work. And that's where I'm partnering with founders on community-led growth initiatives and helping them kind of like build their business and a community around events.