Achieve Your Dreams Through Branding and Networking: A Framework for Sustainability Leaders

I am willing to bet that you have been "meaning to" put some more time and energy into developing your brand online, and networking with peers.

Good! You are in the right place.

People want to become a Recognized Sustainability Leader for a number of reasons:

-Find a board seat

-start your own consulting company

-recession proof your career

-find your dream job

-stay abreast of sustainable innovation to hit company targets

-start a non-profit

I can’t speak to your personal motivations, but I can give you a framework that can help you achieve these outcomes and much, much more. The framework in itself is broken down into 3 foundational components: Branding, Networking, Execution.

Branding

From a branding perspective, our goal here is to position your professional brand on LinkedIn so you are organically attracting your ICP (Ideal Connection Profile).

We want to take you from somewhat of a laggard on LinkedIn and make the pivot to operating in a state of organic attraction.

Here’s how we do it:

Select Strengths: Identify your key strengths and think about the experiences and outcomes that have made you the leader that you are today. "What achievements would you talk about during a job interview? What skills did you gain through attainment of that achievement?"

Unique Value Prop: Somewhere in the nexus of your strengths, experiences and achievements lies a problem that you are uniquely positioned to solve. Ask yourself, “If someone were to give me $1 Million, what problem could I solve for them? What outcomes could I deliver?”

Thought Leader Mindset: Being received as an authority on a subject requires an immense amount of passion and energy being naturally channeled towards that subject. Does your Unique Value Prop light your world on fire? (in a good way) If not, then you need to find a way to integrate your Natural Passion into your Unique Value Prop. Only then will you adopt the socially accepted characteristics of a Recognized Leader.

After you have landed on a problem that checks all of these boxes, then and only then, can you start putting together a framework (exactly like this one) to distill all of those jumbled thoughts and ideas into a palatable, actionable and methodic visual representation of how you would solve that problem.

This will give you fodder for a series of high-value content to share with your network, further reinforcing your brand and value proposition.

This is your brand. This is your company. This is the tool that you will use to achieve your goals.

Networking

Perhaps the most daunting foundational component of this framework: Networking.

But, truth be told, you've likely been networking wrong for your entire life.

Our goal in networking is to identify as many Allies as possible who can help us achieve our goals.

Ally - a state of formal cooperation with another.

Allies are integral in our success because they not only have the skills that we are looking to develop, but they also have a sincere alignment to your passion and value proposition. They support your mission and want to help you achieve your goals.

You just need to find them.

Now that we have identified your strengths, and produced a framework that delivers value to our ICP, your brand will organically attract your ideal connections. As we continue to produce high-value content, the next stage in the process of becoming a recognized leader is to intentionally grow our network and following on LinkedIn, through strategic connections.

This starts with a similar exercise in introspection as branding. However, instead of identifying our core strengths, we want to identify our deficiencies.

The goal of Networking needs to be centrally focused on learning, from peers and experts. Areas and skill-sets in which we want to intentionally develop, which will help us reach our goals.

Here is how we do it:

Define Deficiencies: Think about your goals and where you want to be 1, 3 or 5 years from now. What skills do you need to develop in order to get there?

Intentional Connections: Intentionally reach out to peers and experts on LinkedIn who have identified that they have those skill sets. Through connecting with these users, you will start to see a shift in the content that you are exposed to on LinkedIn, which will help you organically develop the skill sets that you originally identified.

Active Peer Learning: Reach out to people for the purpose of scheduling an efficient networking meeting to learn from them and explore potential synergies. Our goal through peer learning is to find and identify Allies and peers who are willing to share insights.

Allies have the potential to change the course of your life, and can expedite the timeline to help you achieve your goals. However, it takes consistency in order to find them.

Networking should be a productive exercise. If you aren’t getting value from the networking conversations that you are having, then there is no purpose in continuing the pursuit. By making networking centric around learning, we can align the exercise directly with your own goals and the outcomes that you are looking to achieve.

Each conversation is a small win. Each conversation will teach you something, grow your network through a genuine connection, and exponentially expand your reach through that person’s connections.

More importantly, you are one conversation closer to meeting an Ally who can change the course of your life. Inevitably, you will meet an Ally sooner or later. When that happens, you need to be ready to lean into that relationship.

Execution

Now that we have a brand which is organically growing our network, and a networking strategy to intentionally develop meaningful connections, it is time to focus on execution.

While leaders know the value of networking and amplifying their brand, a vast majority don’t do it.

Failing to execute, isn’t because of lacking motivation. It is because execution takes time and energy, the Cost of Inaction (COI) has not been truly embodied by the leader. As leaders, there are many distractions, that take priority on a daily basis. Operating under the status quo has served most leaders relatively well. So most don’t feel the urgency to implement a systematic approach to networking and branding themselves, pushing it to the bottom of the priority list.

This is why we need to set a systematic approach into motion, leveraging automation and tools, which will deliver consistent networking meetings into your calendar, and enable leaders to deliver high-quality content to their network which reinforces their brand to a quickly growing network of connections.

Here is how we do it:

Tech Stack: Leverage a LinkedIn Automation tool to send targeted connections to people who have expertise in the skill sets that we identified as deficiencies. Once we have a strong value prop and framework developed, we can also automate connections with our ICP. (There are a few other tools that I recommend, but this one will help you save the most time)

Deep Focus: Use weekly time blocks to build out our framework and develop a series of high-value content pieces.

Fanatical Execution: Make a contract with yourself to devote time engaging, reading, commenting, and posting on LinkedIn - EVERYDAY. You need to be fanatical about establishing a presence on LinkedIn which will consistently reinforce your brand - Making you top of mind when your connections hear about an opportunity which aligns with your goals.

The time to start executing is NOW

Most leaders will read this narrative, attempt to apply some of these concepts for a few weeks, maybe months, before a distraction comes and blows the ship off course.

That is why CSObroker offers a consultative 12-month engagement to support executives in achieving their goals.

Here is what’s included:

10-Week high touch onboarding

Week 1: Goal Identification & Embodiment

Week 2: Strength Selection

Week 3: LinkedIn Overhaul

Week 4: Framework Development & Delivery

Week 5: Automated Networking Campaign

Week 6: Tech-Enabled High-Value Content Generation

Week 7: Automated ICP Campaign

Week 8: How To Run an Efficient Networking Meeting

Week 9: Time Management & Writing Schedule

Week 10: Progress Review & Establish Monthly Review Schedule

Monthly Review Sessions to review networking meetings, outcomes, content, opportunities, and strategic activity to reach your goals.

If you have been thinking about amplifying your brand, and networking more, reach out to me today for a complimentary framework review session. The time to get started is now.

Bobby Hite, Founder, CSObroker

Contact me at: info@csobroker.com or send me a connection on LinkedIn