Case study — LinkedIn + Newsletter + Podcast

Mike Lamb built category authority in a relationship-driven market.

New Power Partners brokers renewable energy infrastructure deals. Mike’s buyers — utilities, municipalities, enterprise energy directors — are not on LinkedIn much. The Founder-Led Flywheel found them anyway.

enterprise partnership conversations sourced from content

speaking invitations in year one

18K

LinkedIn followers (a hard category to crack)

The challenge: a relationship-driven market that distrusts content marketing

Renewable energy infrastructure is a trust-first market. Buyers make multi-decade decisions. A utility doesn’t choose a partner based on LinkedIn posts — or so the conventional wisdom went.

Mike had 20+ years of domain expertise and a reputation that mattered within a small professional network. The problem: that network wasn’t growing. And every new deal started from a cold introduction.

The hypothesis: even buyers who don’t use LinkedIn often have someone who does. If Mike became the trusted voice on renewable energy infrastructure, those buyers would eventually find him — or their colleagues would surface him.

The approach

✓ LinkedIn posts targeting energy infrastructure decision-makers
✓ Bi-weekly newsletter on policy, technology, and deal structures
✓ Podcast featuring utility executives and infrastructure operators
✓ Conference speaking positioning through content credibility

What worked

Policy-as-POV

The renewable energy space is full of policy volatility. Mike published takes on IRA implications, grid interconnection queues, and state-level RPS policy — the specific issues his buyers argued about in internal meetings. They shared his posts because they wanted their boards to read them.

The newsletter as deal intelligence

Mike’s newsletter became a resource that energy directors forwarded to colleagues. It tracked policy changes, project finance trends, and deal structures. Subscribers weren’t just passive readers — they replied with intelligence he used in deal conversations.

Guest selection as trust signal

Podcast guests were utility executives, infrastructure operators, and policy directors — not energy tech vendors. That guest list itself became a credibility signal. Speaking alongside those guests placed Mike in their peer network.

“People told me my buyers weren’t on LinkedIn. They were wrong. My buyers’ teams were on LinkedIn — and they surfaced my content in board meetings. That’s how two of our biggest conversations started.”

Mike Lamb, Founder, New Power Partners