A year ago a scandal took over our social media.

A Coldplay concert with a camera peering out to the audience caught a couple embracing.

But there was more to this story.

As the camera showcased their intimate connection, the couple dodged and hid from the camera.

The kiss cam incident went viral and it soon came to light that the featured couple were in fact work colleagues, and one of them was still married.

Yes, this is old news and sooooo 2025.

I get it.

But this could be you.

Don't side-eye me — please let me finish what I have to say.

You see, the HR exec from the Coldplay kiss cam has been unemployed for over a year now.

A whole year.

Her situation has been so dire that she was unable to get work and had to use college money and retirement savings to support her two teenage kids financially.

But I have a question for you. Could you afford to be out of work for a year?

This is a question I need you to seriously consider.

You may not be locking lips with your CEO (at least I hope not) but I would argue that not investing in multiple career streams is just as risky.

If you don't believe me, you have to take a look at what is happening in the world of work right now.

One in six UK employers are planning AI driven layoffs in 2026.

Yep, you heard that right.

The IPPR reckons up to 8 million UK jobs are at risk in the more aggressive scenarios. The roles now flagged as exposed include the ones a lot of you are sitting in right now:

One UK survey of employers already planning AI driven cuts found 28% expect it to hit managers and intermediate management specifically, not just entry level.

Here's the bit that should really get your attention: globally, women's jobs are roughly twice as likely to fall into the highest AI risk category as men's, and in richer countries like ours, that gap nearly triples. It's not because women are in worse jobs. It's because the roles that got built around coordinating, reporting, and managing information, the exact skillset a lot of professional women spent a decade getting good at, are the ones generative AI is fastest at absorbing.

Meanwhile (and this is the part nobody's shouting about) women with AI skills are earning a 56% wage premium over women in identical roles without them. Job listings asking for AI adjacent skills are paying up to 15% more. The gap is between the women who got hands on with these tools early, and the women who didn't.

If the HR exec had multiple career streams, a business on the side of her main employment, this year could have been less financially brutal. Instead of raiding retirement and college funds, she'd have had something of her own still bringing money in while she job hunted.

The tips below will help you take ownership of your income and career.

1. Audit your own week, honestly. Get a piece of paper and actually map it out. What percentage is execution: drafting the deck, formatting the report, chasing the sign off, updating the tracker? And what percentage is judgment: deciding, negotiating, persuading a stakeholder, reading a room in a tense meeting?

Here's what a high execution share actually means for you: it's the work that's cheapest and fastest for a company to hand to an AI tool instead. It's also usually the least visible to leadership, nobody remembers who formatted the deck, they remember who made the call in the room. The combination of easy to automate and hard to defend is exactly the profile of the roles bearing the brunt of AI driven cuts right now. A Senior Manager who spends 70% of her week formatting reports is more exposed than a junior who spends her week negotiating with clients. The Title doesn't protect you but the task does.

2. Get hands on with AI tools inside your current role, before you're forced to. Not "understand AI" as a concept, not another saved reel you'll never open. Actually use it, on real work, this month. Draft the first pass of that report with it. Have it summarise the meeting notes you'd normally spend an hour on. Use it to prep for a negotiation. The goal is to be able to say, specifically, what you've built or improved with AI. Recruiters are increasingly asking candidates what they've actually done with these tools, not whether they've heard of them.

3. Post on LinkedIn weekly, but make it count. Share insights, reactions to news, things you're learning. But don't post randomly. Post like the woman you're becoming, not just the job title you currently hold. Want to pivot into marketing? Want to work for startups instead of corporates? Start creating content that speaks to that future self now.

4. Expand your network on purpose. Connect with people who are already where you want to be, or who could support your next income stream, and actually ask for the virtual coffee. Don't just collect connections. Around 80% of jobs come through networks, not job boards.

5. Work towards a speaking engagement. Doesn't need to be a stage with a mic and a lanyard. A panel, a webinar, a podcast guest slot, all of it builds the brand that, eventually, turns into speaking fees as a genuine income stream in its own right. Start small. Start now.

6. Get strategic about your second income. Start with the end result and work backwards: what does that second income stream look like in three years, who is it for, what does it replace? Then find the one thing you could start doing this week that moves you a fraction closer to it. One client. One offer. One hour carved out on a Saturday. It doesn't need to be big. It just needs to exist before you need it to.

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or legal advice and we are not certified financial advisers or lawyers! This newsletter is strictly educational. Please  consult with an independent financial advisor or lawyer for advice on your specific circumstances.