108. The Portfolio Life: A Conversation with Christina Wallace

The Disruptive Voice

Christina Wallace wrote The Portfolio Life: How To Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger Than Your Business Card, in part, to explain the zig zagging path of her own life, a trajectory that has been markedly different than the more linear and predefined paths often followed by those in earlier generations. The accelerating pace of change, along with one societal disruption after the next, has resulted in ever more uncertainty about what the future holds and translates into the need for an emergent strategy for one’s life. The beauty of the model presented in The Portfolio Life is that it provides readers with a practical guide on how to be more intentional and strategic about the actions we take, particularly during times of transition, and it allows us to rebalance allocations when our needs inevitably change. In this conversation, hosted by Katie Zandbergen, Christina reflects on parallels between The Portfolio Life and How Will You Measure Your Life; the importance of having an identity separate from your job title; our oftentimes flawed metrics of success; why she thinks of herself as a human Venn diagram, and the value that can be found at the intersection of those overlapping circles; the promise of diagonal thinking; and more. Listen to learn about how practitioners of The Portfolio Life model gain optionality, flexibility, and diversification in their lives, resulting in greater stability in the face of the many unknowns and changing circumstances that we all will face in navigating the waters – both personal and professional – of our lives.