Portfolio Career Podcast

Laís de Oliveira, author of Hacking Communities, returns five years later to talk about burning out on community building and what brought her back. She shares how she grew communities at GigU and Sia by helping users become contributors, and why trust can’t be automated.

I started this podcast in a cohort based course in 2018. It was powerful and transformative for starting my podcast and the community that was built through it. Patrick McCrann is an expert in cohorts for community building. He thinks online community building should be revamped and include more cohorts. We also talked about how in-person events and conferences could have more cohorts and what that could look like!

In this episode, I wanted to talk about some of the challenges I have faced as a soloprenuer. Some of them may be acute to the type of work that I do, but maybe they are more broad as well. I love working as a soloprenuer but it has some drawbacks. Hopefully this episode helps you learn more and see a more holistic picture. Enjoy!

In this episode, I share details and stories behind how I have found work as a soloprenuer since September 2025. It's been a little bit random but relationships, timing, and proof of work has been helpful. You will learn about how I started building A Chief of Staff, a community and a platform for Chiefs of Staff with events, newsletter, and a podcast. You can learn more here: https://www.achiefofstaffpodcast.com/

For more than one year, I have been betting on myself with my work. I have worked on many interesting projects and learned a lot. There have been some distinct chapters in the year as well. Recently, I have been enjoying building the A Chief of Staff community and platform and how that has been growing over the year. In this episode, I shared my learnings and reflections on the year. Excited for year 2!