Every story has a backstory forged through experience, and everybody has their own story to tell. This attempts to detail how I intend on keeping my online presence as authentic to my character as I can.
I always had a hard time determining my values and finding my purpose throughout my teens and twenties because I cared too much that people wouldn’t like me for who I am. That was stressful. At some point, I largely stopped caring about the judgement of others and started focusing my energy solely towards the task at hand. All this goes to say that I feel my goals and purpose are less clear than those of others, however what I hold closest to me is generally whatever I spend the most time doing, so they are largely a function of repetition more than something I feel inside myself. What moves me doesn’t always pay the bills and vice versa.
LinkedIn Transformation
The first activity in my exercise is to analyze the parts of my LinkedIn profile for quality and value alignment and make any changes that are necessary. I did spent a lot of time in early 2024, doing just this, so I don’t envision making as many changes as I would have had to make at this time last year.
The construction of my headline is pretty straightforward about who I am, which is a Certified Salesforce Administrator, but also about what I stand for, which is shiny things and dance parties. My header photo is also a direct homage to my late musical contemporary Alex Camero, who died of brain cancer in August 2024.
While writing this out, I did update my headline slightly to most accurately represent what I am working towards.
It’s always been a challenge for me to analyze the worth I can provide to others, I just like getting right to action, however much of a professional career depends on the value that you can provide to others. Looking through the top of my profile, I feel like I’ve highlighted many of the things I care about and wish to intersect. They know my credentials, they know I’m a vibe, and they know what pushes me. I also have a section for what roles I am interested in, which are various Salesforce roles.
About Section
I’ll give you a look at my About section as it is currently. It’s honestly not bad. I’d hire myself. They should too.
Given some considerations to weigh, let’s have a quick think about how we can make this pop more. I will try to rewrite the pieces that are sorry and introduce some new flavor to the platform.
The first consideration we need to weigh is whether we truly detail the problems that we solve. Although I talk about the tools I work with, I don’t really talk about my specialties into each product, where the common thread would be a focus on data quality. Rather than talking about port forwarding, an activity I absolutely hate but am willing to do, it would be desirable for me to position myself about things that give my brain the juice it needs to keep going.
The second consideration that I am chasing is detailing who I serve. Although the top of my profile kind of intimates that I serve people who are looking for full time work or paid project work, I feel I could be more specific in this regard. Perhaps the About column isn’t the best place to pontificate about the future though. I feel like the last sentence of this is the strongest statement about who I wish to serve. I’m half content with this, half thinking about minor changes, but updating this bit specifically does not appear to be a priority for me. It’s definitely personal though, my main concern is the efficacy of the messaging.
The next item to check is whether I accurately reflect the values that drive my work. I did a really good job at this, I’m not too worried about this part at all.
Offering others a look into my own unique perspective on things may be the most challenging part of this whole equation, but ultimately, I feel like me rocking with the people of this world for more than their job title pretty succinctly demonstrates that perspective in one line.
The item that likely requires the most work is going to be evaluating the impact that I want to make. I’m a firm believer that life will fall into place, however I should still let the world know how I’m trying to operate in my life. This is going to require a bit of soul searching for sure.
All of these considerations in mind, let’s try to rewrite this in a way that keeps what I thought was good about the initial writeup but includes more thoughtful content and more of a professionally based voice, whereas the current iteration is firmly from the mind of a creator.
Rewriting About Section
Here is something that I believe fits who I am a little closer while still maintaining the energy that I would poke a swarm of bees with a stick. Additionally, I kept aspects of my original bio.
Enhancing Trailblazer Profile
The next step is improving my online presence on my Trailblazer Profile. Although I feel like it is okay (not fantastic), I have never prioritized that as an area of focus, given that I primarily use Trailhead for the gamification of the processes that I need to learn anyway.
You can visit my Trailblazer profile to see it in action. https://www.salesforce.com/trailblazer/crsauer91.
Project Portfolio
For the outline of the project template I will use the following –
- Project Name
- Challenge
- Solution
- Impact
- Value Alignment
I will arrange this information in reverse chronological order for the purpose of detailing my learning journey in a way to showcase my growth over time.
I will include technical skills and industry knowledge as part of the solution section to detail how the solution was completed, rather than what the situation was. This will most accurately detail my areas of expertise.
In the impact section, I will include available mnmetrics for projects I’ve done.
The value alignment section will detail why each respective project spoke to me.
- January 2025 – Lenticular Solutions
- We are challenged with remodeling some permission sets in an org due to the data model changing.
- The solution is for me to locate the requisite functionality to create new permission sets to account for the changes.
- This has an impact of giving a budding business interest peace of mind regarding org structure during his company’s infancy as well as me the paid professional experience I need to succeed in the Salesforce industry.
- This aligns with my values as this is someone who is deep in the Trailblazer Community who intends to bring up more aspiring Trailblazers with a local path to paid project work.
- November – December 2024 – Lenticular Solutions
- We were challenged with reviewing six years of vendor records and contracts for the Oddities & Curiosities Expo, ensuring that all information made it from their record archives into their org, and standardizing fields that were not standardized in the past.
- The solution was for using lots of hotkey shortcuts to quickly type repetitive text bits, lots of clicking and dragging down a column, and sifting through ~12000 records to audit and update any values that needed it. Formula fields played a key part in validating my data standardization.
- This had an impact of being the first time the entire history of the Oddities & Curiosities Expo that all of their event records were standardized in a single repository, which is hugely important as the event continues to scale.
- This aligns with my values as I’m very much a creative type in my heart and I like people and situations that have flavor to them. This was also my first paid consultancy, a huge landmark as I forge my path forward in the ecosystem.
- March – April 2024 – Mile High Dreamin’
- We were challenged with doing a complete org migration and preparing a data model for many new managed packages to ensure that Mile High Dreamin’ seamlessly transitioned from the 2023 stack to the 2024 stack. My responsibility was data migration for 85 objects with between one and 20 related objects. I also created a handful of permission sets to account for the new functionality.
- The solution was achieved by using Data Loader to perform one primary insert and a variable number of upserts per object to ensure that all related records carried over.
- This had an impact of preparing Mile High Dreamin’ with the information and security we needed for the 2024 event to go over seamlessly.
- This aligns with my values as I was fresh to the Community Group and they gave me the opportunity to show what I know right away.
Expertise Areas
Technical Skills – ETL processes, data standardization, data modeling
Industry Knowledge – Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, Managed Packages, API, AppExchange
Value Alignment – creative license and highly technical
Impact Focus – I prefer for my independent impact to focus on non-profit programming and small businesses who encourage creative excellence.
Due to space constraints on the Trailblazer Bio, I put some on the bio and all of it on the career page. I do not have my work experience on there as it is both on my website and on LinkedIn. I did include my project experience.
Engagement Strategy
Analyzing my strategy of producing content and tying in interested people is going to be an interesting thing to do. I’m generally inconsistent about how and when I post on networks. Essentially, if you’re not on Bluesky, you’re not plugged in to my stream of consciousness. I need to focus on making this website specifically my main channel of sharing information, as it is the most expansive and yet most personal online indicator of who I am.
I’ve never cared much for what people thought about the content I’ve created in the past, and I hate the idea that humans are brands because we’re actually humans, but I love to teach people new things and exchange knowledge, so I need my messaging to reflect both a very personal and very informative strategy. My ultimate value proposition is going to be about inspiring others to think critically.
For the outline of my content creation strategy I will be using the following.
- Day: Subject
- Focus
- Format
- Value
For content themes, there are some areas I am much stronger at than others, so I am going to try playing to my strengths and interests here to keep it interesting.
- In terms of knowledge sharing, I want to be sharing niche use cases where I can attract both creative types and linear thinkers to the content.
- For technical tips, shortcuts are going to be my bread and butter, as that is commonly my calling card in a workspace.
- Implementation insights are something that I could do pretty well at – I’m pretty strong at providing considerations to people so giving people new ideas is going to be my specialty here
- Problem-solving approaches is a pretty cut and dry approach to me, I think a philosophical deep dive would be interesting.
- I’m not sure how great I can convey a specific learning experience. I’m much stronger at telling a story, so any learning experience should maintain a story format to not get boring with it.
- I don’t like speaking to my impact to others – ideally this media strategy highlights my impact plenty without me needing to speak to it. I wouldn’t even know where to start here to be honest.
- I don’t necessarily have enough project outcomes under my belt to speak about them in the manner that I would like to, so I’ll likely keep these posts limited to my website (and then shared to social media) as opposed to doing anything super networky with it.
- My community contributions are far more organic and personal than most people I come across in this world. I’ll probably lean into this mindset as I create content.
- Value creation examples is something I’m curious about – I need to find a way to make people critically think – that’s for sure going to be the sauce here.
- Highlighting the learning journey is going to be my best bet to build out a story. I don’t like the way most people share their educational pursuits, so I’m going to highlight this in my Education section on my website in detail and in social media in more creative, sarcastic formats (such as writing a villain arc for an AI Marc Benioff). Crafting the story would ideally include a deliverable, so this will be a chance to explore deeper how I can integrate Salesforce data and methodologies across platforms.
For content channels, I’ll trust my instinct on this, as I generally know how to deliver a message properly in a wide number of formats and environments.
The value will vary depending on what the topic is, but the common denominator will be that everything will attempt to tie technology to enhance a less-technical interest.
I’ll start with rotating the topics based on day of week, rotating focus based on the scuttlebutt from around the ecosystem to keep the deliverables relevant.
I don’t think my primary value proposition uses video format, so I will rely on different written and visual mediums to share my message. If the concepts were more elementary, a video format would be better, but I’m a strong writer and will play to that strength.
I’m pretty regularly online, so there’s no excuse for me to not do some level of self-marketing each day. That in mind, I will do a daily posting schedule as opposed to a thrice-weekly frequency.
Each day I want to hop in at least one Salesforce-related conversation each day, alternating platforms to ensure that I am getting a wider cross-section of the ecosystem. This would ideally entail at least three back and forth comments where knowledge is exchanged. My engagement approach will vary slightly every day as I’m not trying to create monotonous material. I already follow up with every legitimate career-related inquiry quickly, so this is a natural daily occurrence.
Each week, I want to find new mentorship opportunities and connect them with the people who need them. I’ve noticed quite a disconnect between these two parties in particular. I’d like to ideally create 10 organic connections each week across media platforms and to highlight at least one mentorship program.
Keeping the same focuses on the same day each week throughout the month allows me to create themes, variations, iterate upon ideas, and generally gives me a level of stability that I appreciate. I’ll rotate the subject of the story for each post itself daily so I’m not working along the same use cases/agendas. This will keep the material fresh for the viewer and creatively rewarding for myself while allowing me the space I need to float through the universe untethered by creative limitation.
Content Calendar
Monday
- Focus – sharing of knowledge and resources
- Format – written format with gifs to illustrate each concept visually
- Value – staying on top of new functionality and the most recent documentation
Tuesday
- Focus – implementation insights and problem-solving approaches
- Format – social media focused
- Value – natural connection with others, having people share their commentary to gain new insights, philosophical discussion
Wednesday
- Focus – learning experiences/how to impact others
- Format – prose
- Value – holistic view of tech while sharing real-life anecdotes in a medium I feel comfortable
Thursday
- Focus – projects and community
- Format – heavily referenceable and deliverable information sheets
- Value – connecting projects to the people who complete them
Friday
- Focus – the intersection of creating value and finding values
- Format – this needs to be in a social media format to encourage discussion
- Value – deeper connections with like-minded individuals
Saturday
- Focus – the learning journey
- Format – website, this seems pretentious for me to put on LinkedIn
- Value – self-reflection, an ever-changing mindset
Sunday
- Focus – telling a story
- Format – website, should create a section for personal anecdotes
- Value – people get to know me deeper than as a dude in the universe
Impact Metrics
We need data from trial and error to come to the ideal framework for metrics, but a preliminary measure of career efficacy on a monthly basis would be as follows
Reach – 10000 total engagements each month across platform
Profile Views – 150 on LinkedIn, 75 unique website visitors (50% increase on LinkedIn, exponential increase on website)
Content engagement – 150 comments monthly, aim for 3 comments on each of my posts.
Network growth – grow LinkedIn by 15%, grow Bluesky by 10%, gain 5 subscribers to website per month
Community Influence – Aim for 5 likes on every post regardless of platform as the algorithm will take over at that point.
People helped – every single act outside of self-development needs to be done with the intention of helping people one way or another
Knowledge shared – 30 external resources each month
Connections enabled – 3-5 industry functions each month
These numbers give me something kind of intense to work towards, but something that can sure be done given my best-performing professional self.
With all of this planning above, I feel like I have a solid framework to move forward making progress in my career and would not hesitate to trial this framework for 30 days.
Christopher Sauer 
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