WMW #18: Polina Pompliano, writer, entrepreneur, mum
"Once you identify your passion, start doing it in public"
My interview this week is a big deal for me. It is with mum, writer and founder of The Profile Polina Pompliano, who I have been following for a while now. If you are a regular reader here, you would’ve seen many links to her work in my newsletter.
Polina’s newsletter profiles the world’s most interesting and successful people, and draws lessons from them that we can learn from. The way she writes them is unique because each profile is so well-researched, written with precision, and full of actionable takeaways.
She quit her job at Fortune magazine in 2020 to write her newsletter The Profile full time, not knowing the world was going to be hit by a global pandemic.
Despite that, today she has 10’s of thousands of subscribers, and 1000’s of paid subscribers, and is making more money than she ever has in traditional media. She also just released a book that she wrote in the ‘edges of time’, whilst running her newsletter and having a toddler in tow.
Polina is an exemplary example of a mum who has been bold enough to design her life doing what she loves, and getting paid to do it, by the people she is doing it for! Her contentment, passion and joy in her work seeps through every sentence she writes. I often re-read her writing as so much of it resonates with me.
I’m so thrilled and honoured to share her interview with you. There are so many golden nuggets here, I will let you get straight into it.
(It’s a long interview, but I promise every word is worth your time. I have highlighted bits that stand out for me the most.)
Meet Polina Pompliano, journalist, writer, mum and founder of The Profile
Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself (work, family and personal interests/hobbies)
I often have trouble describing what exactly it is that I do because there are so many facets to my identity that I don’t know which one’s my primary one. I’m a mom of a 14-month-old, a writer, and an entrepreneur. I also really enjoy doing yoga, reading, and going to bookstores.
Q. What inspired you to start The Profile? Did you ever plan on doing it full time when you started it?
I began The Profile as a conversation starter. As someone who has always loved reading longform profiles of interesting people, I also really loved the process of discussing them with family and friends. So I started sending a weekly email in which I curated seven to eight profiles that I found interesting.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that this tiny newsletter that’s grown solely through word of mouth would be something I quit my job at FORTUNE magazine to work on full-time. The lesson I learned from this experience is that the most interesting enterprises can be born out of a genuine passion rather than a calculated business plan.
Q. When did you know it was the right time to quit your job and pursue The Profile full time? Did you ever worry about it failing?
To be quite honest, I worried about failing every single day. But a few things happened that contributed to my decision in March 2020 to leave my job at FORTUNE and pursue The Profile full-time.
First, The Profile was a free newsletter, and I had been writing it for three years. It was growing pretty rapidly for something that I just did on the side. I then happened to come across this article, 100 True Fans by Li Jin. It made the point that as the passion economy grew, more and more people were monetizing what they loved. So it planted a seed in my head and I asked myself the question, “Could I realistically monetize The Profile? Would some of my ‘true fans’ really pay me to curate this for them each week?”
Second, I started doing the math on how many paying members I would need to match my salary at FORTUNE. Based on my newsletter’s growth, I thought I could reach that number in six months. So the risk didn’t look as scary and unrealistic as I first imagined.
Finally, I read this commencement speech by Anna Quindlen that lit a fire inside me that I can’t even describe. She said, “I am not nuts. I am happy. I am successful on my own terms. Because if your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. Remember the words of Lily Tomlin: If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.”
I realized that I would never be happy as long as I measured success as money, status, and titles. The Profile gave me an opportunity to start over, build a name for myself, and run a business exactly how I wanted to.
Q. How has working for yourself changed your life, both as a professional and a mum?
It’s given me something I now realized I’ve craved my entire life: Independence. There is no better feeling than the freedom to decide what you work on, how you spend your time, and who you do business with.
This is something that I want my daughter to learn from an early age. I want her to see that you can be entrepreneurial in any industry — even if you start small. After all, all big things started small.
As a mom, I’ve had the independence to continue running my business while spending time with my child. I wouldn’t trade a single second of being there for every single moment during her first year of life.
Q. Did your professional ambitions change after becoming a mum? If so, how?
Yes, but in a bizarre way! My daughter was born in November 2021, and I had been thinking about writing a book for years but never got around to it. When she came along, everything changed. I had no time yet I wanted to do more.
When she was three months old, I received a message from Harriman House editor Christopher Parker. He reached out on Twitter with a simple, “If your thoughts ever turn to writing a book, we’d love to chat with you.”
At first, I dismissed it. There was no time. I had a baby that refused to sleep. The very thought of writing something longer than a newsletter post made me nauseous. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t even know what I would write an entire book about.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and from there, I did it little by little. It started with a brainstorm, then it turned into a book proposal, and then a sample chapter, until I had a finished manuscript.
In those early months of becoming a mom, the baby needs you for everything to the point where you don’t even feel like your body belongs to you anymore. But having something you do solely for yourself did miracles for my mental health. (And of course, I dedicated the book to my daughter, so she better be nice to me in the future!)
Q. How has working on The Profile changed since you became a mum?
We didn’t have any help with my daughter, so that meant it was just me and my husband. I wrote the book and The Profile in the “edges of time” — often found in between diaper changes, 20-minute naps, and games of peek-a-boo.
And I want to be clear: This isn’t for everyone. I know someone is reading this right now shaking their head thinking that I’m some sort of workaholic who thinks it’s possible “to do it all.” That’s not at all the case. Writing is how I express myself, so even if this wasn’t what I did for a living, I’d still be doing it in some capacity while taking care of my baby.
The key for me has been about being realistic about what I have energy for and what gives me energy. Luckily, those two things were watching my daughter grow and working on my newsletter and book.
Q. What are your thoughts on the future of the creator economy and the potential it has for mums looking to create online as a means to make an income?
There is absolutely no ceiling. As I’ve talked with my mom friends, one thing keeps coming up: “I am in dire need of an intellectual conversation.” As many of your readers know well, those newborn days are very monotonous and … quiet (well, minus the screaming). It’s so easy to become lonely and even plunge into a depression because your entire world has been re-configured.
The advice I always give is: Don’t think about the money first. Think about what you genuinely enjoy doing that you would do even if there was no monetary incentive. And then start doing it. I worked on The Profile for three years before I ever made a single penny off of it, but it built consistency and it helped me become an expert at this super niche thing, which is “share profiles of people I find interesting.”
So whether it’s knitting, reviewing restaurants, interviewing people, or making salads *(seriously, one of the top PAID newsletters on Substack is about salads), you can make it work. You just need to start because consistency plus time equals trust. And building trust with your reader or customer is what will one day allow you to turn your passion into a business.
Q. You run a successful newsletter as a full time job, are the mum of a toddler, and have just written a book - how do you manage your time?
As you can imagine, a toddler’s life is pretty regimented, which means mine is as well.
Here’s an example of what a day looked like during the book-writing process when she was taking multiple naps:
Q. What is your advice to mums looking to do more both professionally and personally?
Do it in public. What I mean by that is that I know whoever is reading this has a personal passion they’ve wanted to explore for some time. But unless you do it in public in some capacity, then you won’t have any external accountability.
When I first started The Profile, it was terrible. But I got feedback along the way and made it better with multiple incremental changes over the years. You will never launch something in its most perfect form. It’s simply impossible without feedback from other people.
So once you identify your passion, start doing it in public. If it’s a newsletter, start publishing every week even if it only goes out to 10 people. If it’s singing, record a sample and publish it to YouTube. It sounds terrifying, but the fear is what makes you more resilient and fulfilled.
We want our children to grow up being competent and confident, so why not start by modeling it ourselves?
Q. Do you suffer from mom guilt? How do you deal with it?
I’ve definitely had my fair share of anxious moments of, “Wait, am I doing this right,” but I’m constantly reminding myself that as long as we have a ferocious level of love for our kids, that’s all that matters in the end.
Perfection is futile — things will go wrong, we’ll make mistakes, and sometimes we’ll say things we don’t mean. It’s the unconditional love, care, kindness, and support that are instrumental in shaping our kids into wonderful, responsible adults. Nothing more, nothing less.
Q. What is your ultimate goal as a working mum?
My ultimate goal is to raise my daughter to identify her own “hidden genius” and leave the world a better place than she found it. I hope that I can be a good role model for her in that women aren’t confined to one role.
You can be a mom and an astronaut. You can be a mom and an author. You can be a mom and whatever the hell you want to be. I want her to know that you don’t have to allow the world to reduce your entire being to one singular identity.
Q. Where do you get your motivation?
Honestly, from fellow humans. I meet or read about people all the time whose stories inspire me beyond belief. Whether it’s Olympian Sara Mardini, entrepreneur Tope Awotona, or author Robert Hoge, it’s the experiences of people who have had to overcome tremendous hardship to defy the odds and accomplish their dreams. I’m inspired by people whose life journeys aren’t linear. In fact, I’m most amazed at the ones with the winding paths that lead to some very beautiful places.
Q. What is your best productivity hack?
I use the Pocket app to save articles that I want to read later. It’s amazing because it also works offline, so you can read them even when you don’t have service on a plane or on the subway.
Q. What do you do in your 'me-time' and how does it help you?
Yoga! When I’m on that yoga mat, it’s the one place I associate with total serenity. I’ve found that physical movement really helps me decompress when the work that I do requires me to use my brain all day long.
Some quick fire questions:
Q. The best parenting advice you have got
Everything — the good, the bad, and the painful — is fleeting. When you’re in the thick of it, it’s human nature to think that the challenging moments will last forever.
One Profile reader reminded me that life is just a series of phases. “A baby waking up every two hours is temporary,” she writes. “A kid who will only eat chips is temporary. A temper tantrum — temporary.”
I remember reading an edition of this fantastic newsletter, which explained that our belief that things will last is the root of our unhappiness. It says:
There's a Jewish folktale about King Solomon asking a counselor for an adage that would make the happy man sad, and the sad man happy. The counselor, perplexed, asked a jeweler in the bazaar for advice. The jeweler inscribed on a ring: 'This too shall pass.' Call it obvious, but it’s taken me my entire life to half-master this axiom.
Q. Favourite tool that makes your life easier
When my daughter was a newborn, I used the Huckleberry app that allows you to track sleep, feedings, and all sorts of other things. That was probably the app I used most often for months on end.
Q. Favourite quote
“I don’t like to gamble, but if there is one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself.” — Beyoncé
Q. Best thing you have read or watched lately
I recently discovered “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield, and it’s an amazing book. If you’re feeling stuck in any creative endeavor, this is a must-read.
Q. Lastly, if you could invite 3 people from those profiled on your newsletter to dinner, who would they be and why?
Wow, what a question. I would invite country music legend Dolly Parton, chef Grant Achatz, and astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz. These are three people that have seemingly nothing in common, but that would be the most fascinating conversation of all: What would three people from three totally different industries talk about?
This question is so great because it makes you realize that you don’t have to wait to invite these people to dinner one day. You can start now by inviting three of your friends who have totally different interests to dinner. What will they talk about and what new ideas could come out of it?
I hope you found that as interesting, inspiring and useful as I did. Do share if you know anyone who might find it useful.
If you have any questions for Polina, leave a comment or reply to this email and I will make sure she gets it.
You can follow Polina’s newsletter here, The Profile
You can pre-order her upcoming book The Hidden Genius, here.
Have a great weekend,
Love,
Abha