How I build my authority ecosystem [Steal My Updated strategy For 2023]

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. It’s an oldie but goodie because it’s the ecosystems, partnerships and the power of having the right connections that fast-track results, for companies and for individuals.

The question is - how do you build your own ecosystem that helps you not only build your own authority status but also creates opportunities for you?

This is exactly what I’ll cover in this blogpost as I share with you my updated strategy how I level up building my network and ecosystem that is aligned with my up-levelled vision and goals. My name is Petra Zink and this is epi 88.

A couple of episodes ago, episode 85, we were joined by Mark Schaefer, talking about the power of building and being part of a community, especially in the lens of a company or a brand to leverage it as the last great marketing strategy.

I’d argue however that it’s a strategy anyone who wants to play a bigger game, who wants to make a bigger impact and who wants to increase their influence should leverage as their competitive edge. 

Looking at the changed work landscape where we trust companies and corporate brands less which means personal brands are seeing an increased focus as it’s people who can build (back) trust with clients but also current and future staff, we also see corporate structure being less hierarchical and more project-based and thanks to more competition, shorter tenure and consistently evolving roles and responsibilities thanks to automation, changed consumer behaviour and higher expectations increase the importance of being entrepreneurial also as employee, so being able to get the buy in through building relationships and trust is what sets apart those who get ahead and those who’ll be treading water for a long time.

The question is - how do you even go about building a community, an ecosystem that supports you in achieving your personal and professional goals as well as challenges you in your own belief system so you can stay relevant?

This is what I discuss in this blogpost as looking at my own approach, it got me thinking how different this year is going to be compared to previous ones and hopefully it’ll spark some ideas and inspiration for you also to rethink and refine your network strategy to make sure that you have the support system that you need to achieve your goal.

First things first, I’d change the word ‘network’ to community as simply having a ton of loose connections in your network who may know you or vice versa but only superficially doesn’t really do much.

It might be a semantic but as we know- our words shape our behaviour and treating people like an actual asset rather than a number makes already all the difference.

In the end, if the focus is to only increase the number of followers which may be a nice ego push but still just a vanity matrix that doesn’t mean much if you can’t leverage it and have a mutually beneficial relationship..

Communities however is where the magic happens as the commitment to showing up, contributing and creating relationships behind the follow button is what translates into commercial results (which could also be a permanent role for you and doesn’t necessarily just mean a paying client or speaking engagement etc).

The good thing (and I’d also say untapped opportunity of) building a community is that it doesn’t require you to have a certain level of authority, knowledge or experience. It does require a sustainable interest and commitment to a certain topic because it takes time for you to find your feet in terms of your take on, your tone & voice and your message aligned to the topic but also for others to associate the topic with you.

So going hardcore for 3 months, posting on the topic 5x a time to then drop off doesn’t take you anywhere. If you’re worried about getting bored with the topic - I’d say: you haven’t explored this topic enough because chances are, it’ll go through massive changes in the next few years.

Think about my topic of personal branding which I’ve been obsessed with since 2016 when I got into recruitment and realised that incredibly smart, capable and highly qualified professionals (my candidate) didn’t get the pay rise, weren’t considered for the promotion, or weren’t even invited for an interview, not because of a lack of knowledge but because of their lack of branding, marketing and sales abilities for themselves.

Have the angles that I discuss changed?

Sure have!

Have the tools and tactics changed that I shared?

Absolutely!

However, the strategy of how you actually do it is still the same but the remit of its impact has been broadened.

From executives realising the power of building their profile online especially since the rise of Gary V, Alex Hermozi and Co as well as the introduction of ChatGPT just this year and everything in between - it sure does keep me on my toes and exploring those trends and their impact on your topic- this is exactly what establishes you as the authority in that space but only when you share it which is why I create content.

1. [CONTINUE TO CREATE CONTENT] BUT ALTERNATE BATCH CREATION WITH LIVES

Now the message and idea behind what the content comes from is my beliefs, experiences and knowledge and that doesn’t change.

However, new tools like ChatGTP have a ripple effect on every industry and one way I overcome the lack of trust and skepticism whether or not someone is genuine or not is by making Live videos a priory. By the time of this recording, I just had my very first self-hosted LinkedIn live (I did one with the team at LinkedIn themselves so I figured they’d be the best for the job haha) and it went well.

I expected no one to show up and within the first 30min, there were over 80 comments and I had 37 new connection requests in the next 24h of the live. I also asked what topics would be interesting for those who were watching and the role of ChatGTP in personal branding came up.

Now even though this should be such a no-brainer topic, to be honest - I hadn’t even considered talking about it because I didn’t think it had relevance.

Dah … well of course it has and this example was a good reminder again that being in the jar, you can’t read the label and community building through events like hosting Lives is the way you can get ideas and insights into what your audience is interested in which then - when integrating those questions and showing up consistently on your chosen platform - build community.

So the updated strategy for me is creating not only content through my batching approach but add LinkedIn lives.

2. BEING ACTIVE IN SELECTED COMMUNITIES IN DEDICATED FORUMS

Speaking of chosen platforms and communities - another updated approach I have to not only build my diverse network but stronger relationships is by being more active on selected communities myself.

I’ve been in a few discord channels, mainly for investing, crypto and NFT but also in a couple of Telegram communities which are more on content creation, entrepreneurship and scaling businesses.

Having said that, I have not been very active on it and have been more of a lurker (which the majority of LinkedIn users are) than an active contributor.

When Mark Schaefer invited me to his private community of marketers (which is by profession by trade for those who’re new to my world) I jumped straight after the interview on discord and got active.

I figured that just watching from the sidelines doesn’t really do anything and is only a productive time waster. So the changed strategy when it comes to communities is for me to be a lot more selective with the groups I join but be very present and a contributing member rather rather than the sideline lurker not only to make the most of being in the community and being able to join conversations that are happening on topics that are relevant to this group which will also give me some new insights and ideas for my own skill, tool and mindset but at the same time, also share my best practises to establish myself as the authority in my field.

Again- not in marketing overall because remember: it’s all about micro-niching but marketing for digital and tech executives who want to learn how to leverage and commercialise their authority brand.

3. JOINING AND PRO-ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN INDUSTRY-LEADING FORUMS

Speaking of niche communities - the last approach that I’m changing is to not only be more active on social media channels with strangers who share the same interest in a topic and have a common purpose to get together (which is the definition of a community) but to also seek out more specific groups to be hands on involved but on the next level.

So what does that mean?

Just before I left for Austria early December, I reflected on my 2023 planning which I did already in November since I was away all over Dec.

One of the goals was to expand my involvement and experience in advisory on a more group level. Whilst I’m an advisor already for a few executives who have me on speed dial basically, I want to focus more on that.

Now I’ve been working with an investor group for 18 months at that stage and they plug me into different digital and tech scale ups to build their team and then usually also their leadership capabilities and work with selected execs on their public presence because they are usually in the business of raising money or having to build authority quickly in the public eye due to the novelty of what the business is all about. A company brand doesn’t do the trick when it comes to tech for new medical devices for example or crypto etc where the trust level is low by nature and the recent scandals and bad news stories don’t help. 

Anyway - whilst this partnership has been amazing, I want to step it up and told the directors from this group that I want to be more involved - formally and more holistically rather than being often a bandaid that comes in last minute.

That could have easily gone pear shaped but guess what? It didn’t and we met a couple of weeks ago to formalise the engagement which not only makes me more committed to contributing more but is also a stretch for me as the discussions and also challenges are on higher levels than I have been operating. Again- this is the definition of growth though as it’s a massive stretch but exactly what’s needed for me to achieve my longer-term goal. 

Finally, what also happened between Xmas and NY is that the organisation I’ve been working with for a few years now asked me to become part of their career thought leaders council which sets the standards in the career, leadership and business coaching industry. Again, this is a step up to not only be part of the community, occasionally attending one of their trainings and running training on my topics for them but to actually research topics we discuss and create programs and content for. 

You see- whilst it’s still the same topic and very similar approaches to building a network, it’s on a higher level, a lot more aligned with my stretch goals.

If you haven’t listened to epi 86 where I talk about 10x your authority - I’d recommend you to get back to it as one thing that I shared was the importance of your mindset and you believing that it’s possible for you and then, taking aligned action to this big goal.