Undisputed Authority

In 2006, Dorie Clark was a consultant working with local clients in the Boston area. 

She didn't have a national platform, unfair advantages, or, to start with, differentiated positioning.

Fast forward to today, Dorie runs a high-margin 7-figure, 1-person business. 

She's also a best-selling author, a writer for Harvard Business Review, and has taught at Duke and Columbia for over a decade.

So, how did she do it?

Dorie figured out how to navigate 'the Dip'. When she wasn't making progress, when other people weren't noticing her work, and other consultants would have quit - she figured out a way to get through.

That's the story I'm telling in Episode 6 of Undisputed Authority.

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro

[01:03] Chapter 1 - 500 Articles
[17:16] Chapter 2 - The Dip
[25:33] Chapter 3 - The Academic Edge

Resources:

• Website: https://dorieclark.com/
• Books: https://dorieclark.com/books/

Sources used in the episode:

• The Nathan Barry Show
• Terry Rice
• The Anxious Achiever with Morra Aarons-Mele
• Suswati Basu
• Free Time with Jenny Blake
• How to be a Better Human
• Dorie at the Alan Weiss Million Dollar Convention

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and a three-chapter narrative structure. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps experts identify what makes them uniquely valuable, then develop the positioning, frameworks, and insights that differentiate them from everyone else in their field. These are people who lead businesses where their expertise is the product.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Ryan Hawk launched The Learning Leader Show in 2015, an interview style podcast with no social media presence, email list, or prior podcasting experience.

Today, that show is the basis for a phenomenal business, best-selling books, and a leadership development programme delivered to Fortune 500 companies.

What exactly did Ryan do so differently that led to these outcomes? He conducted his professional development in public.

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro

[01:00] Chapter 1 - Cold Start

[13:44] Chapter 2 - Doors Open

[24:23] Chapter 3 - Optimising for cool things

Resources:

• Website: https://learningleader.com/
• Books: Welcome to Management, The Pursuit of Excellence, and The Score that Matters.
• Podcast: The Learning Leader Show

Sources used in the episode:

• Game Changers podcast with Molly Fletcher
• The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
• Creator Science
• How to be awesome at your job podcast
• Uncensored CMO
• Charlie Munger’s USC Law Commencement Speech

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and a three-chapter narrative structure. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps experts identify what makes them uniquely valuable, then develop the positioning, frameworks, and insights that differentiate them from everyone else in their field. These are people who lead businesses where their expertise is the product.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Nancy and her husband Mark started their business in their apartment in 1988 with no formal business training, no design training, and no public presenting experience.

And yet together, they built the world's leading firm specialising in strategic communication, Duarte Inc.

Nancy became THE undisputed authority on storytelling and presentations. Her TED talk has 3.7 million views, and her books are foundational texts in the field.

How did she achieve all this? She focused on the one thing that moved the needle, not the many that nudge it.

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro

[00:51] Chapter 1 - An 18 Month Window of Opportunity

[14:39] Chapter 2 - Moving Upstream

[22:23] Chapter 3 - G-Force Growth

Resources:

• Duarte Inc. website: duarte.com
• Books: Slide:ology, Resonate, Illuminate, DataStory
• TED Talk: The Secret Structure of Great Talks

Sources used in the episode:

• Alice Heiman
• Consulting Success
• Lenny's Newsletter
• Nancy's LinkedIn
• Amantha Imber
• Learning Leader Show
• Charlie Rose

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and a three-chapter narrative structure. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps expert consultants and entrepreneurs build authority through content strategy and thought leadership. He identifies the unique, counterintuitive insights that set experts apart and helps them develop the defining body of work that cements their place at the top of their field.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Ryan Deiss is one of the godfathers of internet marketing. He co-founded DigitalMarketer, one of the largest marketing education platforms in the world, and used that platform to launch The Scalable Company.

He launched The Scalable Company with an existing audience, a validated problem, and a solution people loved – and the business almost failed.

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro

[01:19] Chapter 1 - Good Marketing Is Everything, Until It's not.

[07:39] Chapter 2 - The Idea Resonates, The Offer Does Not

[17:44] Chapter 3 - Building The Machine

Resources: 

• The Scalable Company website: scalable.co
• Book: Get Scalable
• DigitalMarketer: digitalmarketer.com

Sources used in the episode:

• Self-Publishing School podcast
• The Rise Up Kings Podcast
• Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk
• Billy Broas interview
• Smart Author with Chris Benetti

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and a three-chapter narrative structure. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps expert consultants and entrepreneurs build authority through content strategy and thought leadership. He identifies the unique, counterintuitive insights that set experts apart and helps them develop the defining body of work that cements their place at the top of their field.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Blair Enns is a consultant and author who helps creative firms win business without pitching. He's the founder of Win Without Pitching, author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, Pricing Creativity, The Four Conversations and co-host of The 2Bobs podcast.

He's known for challenging the conventional sales process in the creative industry and building a luxury brand through scarce, high-quality work.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The meeting where Blair declined to pitch (with his boss sitting next to him)
• How he made the positioning claim before he had the methodology
• What "Oops" meant when David C. Baker emailed two days before his own seminar
• The blog post Blair was most nervous to publish—then people mounted it on their walls
• Why he got sick four times on three continents and what it forced him to change
• How a friend's offhand comment ("your clients will never read those books") led to a $1M product
• Why one book costs $320 and another costs $30
• What Blair means by "the method you scale is the method you commodify"
• Why not being "so good" at most content types on the lead generation ladder is a strength

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro 

[01:21] Chapter 1 - Win Without Pitching

[09:34] Chapter 2 - Manifesto

[22:32] Chapter 3 - Get Creative

Resources: 

• Win Without Pitching website: winwithoutpitching.com
• Books: The Four Conversations, Pricing Creativity, The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
• Podcast: 2Bobs

Sources used in the episode:

• Kamp Vuur
• The Agency Collective
• Anneli Hansson
• Design Domination
• The Futur
• 2Bobs
• Consulting Success
• Modern Sales - B2B Selling
• Rise25 (Smart Business Revolution)
• Cal Newport, TedX Tyson
• Talk about Talk

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and a three-chapter narrative structure. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps expert consultants and entrepreneurs build authority through content strategy and thought leadership. He identifies the unique, counterintuitive insights that set experts apart and helps them develop the defining body of work that cements their place at the top of their field.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Carl Richards is a certified financial planner, bestselling author, and creator of The Sketch Guy column which ran in the New York Times for 10 years. He's known for simplifying complex financial concepts through hand-drawn illustrations and is the founder of the Society of Advice. 

In this episode, you'll discover

• How two blank stares from smart clients led Carl to draw his first sketch
• Why he emailed weekly to "just my mom" and kept going anyway
• How a forwarded email reached a New York Times editor
• What Carl means by "playing in traffic" and why it compounds
• How he wrote his book by curating what already resonated with readers
• Why he scrapped his online course business even though it was profitable
• What the Society of Advice does differently (and why courses don't create outcomes)

Get the 10 Patterns of Disruptive Wisdom

There are 10 specific behavioural patterns that consistently separate authorities from equally talented experts who remain invisible.

Get the free 10-part email series where I break down those 10 patterns → liamcurley.co.uk/subscribe

Chapters: 

[00:00] Intro 

[00:58] Chapter 1 - A Problem You're Interested in Solving 

[12:55] Chapter 2 - Playing in Traffic 

[25:09] Chapter 3 - Consulting at Scale 

Resources: 

• Carl's website: behaviorgap.com 
• Books: The Behavior Gap, The One-Page Financial Plan, Your Money
• Society of Advice: societyofadvice.com 

Sources used in the episode:

• The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors
• The Society of Advice YouTube Channel
• Work Life Play with Aaron McHugh
• Breakthrough Advisor Podcast
• Advisor Marketing Made Simple
• Lex Friedman Podcast
• On Being with Krista Tippett
• Lex Writer's Series

About Undisputed Authority

Each episode tells the story of how one expert became THE voice in their field – through deep research, conversation, and three-chapter narrative storytelling. Not hacks. Strategies and patterns you can apply to your expertise-driven business. 

About Liam Curley

Liam Curley helps expert consultants and entrepreneurs build authority through content strategy and thought leadership. He identifies the unique, counterintuitive insights that set experts apart and helps them develop the defining body of work that cements their place at the top of their field.

• Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33