Undisputed Authority

It took Jay Acunzo five years to build a successful business as a paid keynote speaker.
At his peak, he did 25 gigs a year and opened the biggest event in his industry to 4,000 people.
Then the pandemic hit, and his business disappeared overnight.
He pivoted, built an advisory business model, and now earns more than he did in his most lucrative years as a speaker.
And he's done that in a way that few other advisors selling expertise attempt.
He prioritises creative projects, blends them with commercial ones, and runs a one-person business that pays musicians, videographers, and illustrators instead of outsourcing to AI.
He's gone all in on vinyl while the market has moved onto streaming.
That's the story I'm telling in Episode 15 of Undisputed Authority, one of advisory built on craftsmanship.
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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

Resources:
Website: jayacunzo.com
Podcast: Why They Resonate
Book: Break the Wheel
Sources used in this episode:
The Learning Leader Show #349
The Learning Leader Show #321
Ira Glass on Storytelling, Part 3 (Current TV)
Creator Science #63
Creator Science #81
The Marketing Companion with Mark Schaefer, Episode 329
Trinity College English Alumni Panel
Nothing Is Boring (jayacunzo.com)
I Had 12 Readers. Google Still Loved My Blog (jayacunzo.com)
How I Broke Through (jayacunzo.com)
How I Unf*cked My Marketing (jayacunzo.com)
On Current and Future Struggles in the Creator Economy (jayacunzo.com)
Building the Creator Kitchen (Outseta)
The Worst Advice for Building Your Business or Career: "Be the Best" (Jay's YouTube channel)
Jay Acunzo on his personal journey (Instagram)
LinkedIn: Turned 40
LinkedIn: I hated both Google and HubSpot
Undisputed Authority with Carl Richards
Undisputed Authority with Marty Neumeier
Undisputed Authority with Michael Zipursky
Undisputed Authority with David C. Baker
Undisputed Authority with Blair Enns
Undisputed Authority with Nancy Duarte
Undisputed Authority with Dorie Clark
About Liam Curley
Liam Curley works with leaders who sell their expertise, helping them articulate the insights that get them recognised as authorities in their field.
Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Roger L. Martin is one of the most influential thinkers on business strategy. 

He has advised the CEOs of companies like Procter & Gamble, Lego and Ford. 

In 2017, Thinkers50 named him the world's number one management thinker, and he has appeared in every one of their rankings since 2009. 

Aside from HBR editorial staff, he has written more articles for Harvard Business Review than anyone this century. And he co-wrote Playing to 
Win, a Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller, one of his 13 books.

But by 1998, almost none of the thinking that would make him renowned was public. Before his 42nd birthday, he had published just four articles.

So how does someone get that far into the first half of their career, relatively unknown outside their network, and then become one of the highest-profile figures in their field?

That's the story I'm telling in Episode 14 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
Resources:

Website: rogerlmartin.com
Substack: Playing to Win Practitioner Insights
Books: The Opposable Mind, The Design of Business, Playing to Win

Sources used in this episode:
Wisdom From The Top with Guy Raz
The CEO Series with Karl Moore
Talk About Talk with Andrea Wojnicki
HBR IdeaCast — Malcolm Gladwell
BE GOOD! Podcast — Joe Henrich
PBS NewsHour — Jerry Seinfeld
Ira Glass on Storytelling — This American Life
Consulting Success with Michael Zipursky
The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish
Roger Martin's Transformational Legacy — Poets & Quants
Getting to Know Me I — Roger L. Martin, Medium
Getting to Know Me III — Roger L. Martin, Medium
Getting to Know Me IV — Roger L. Martin, Medium
The Origins of Playing to Win — Roger L. Martin, Medium
Being Fired Repeatedly — Roger L. Martin, Medium
Being 'Too Busy' Means Your Personal Strategy Sucks — Roger L. Martin, Medium
How I Do Strategy, Part One — Roger L. Martin, Medium
Undisputed Authority with Rory Sutherland
About Liam Curley

Liam Curley works with leaders who sell their expertise, helping them articulate the insights that get them recognised as authorities in their field.
Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Michael Zipursky is the co-founder of Consulting Success, a coaching business that turns over multiple seven figures by helping consultants build and grow their own consulting firms.
The business is driven by publishing insight. They have a weekly newsletter with more than 45,000 subscribers, a podcast with more than 400 episodes, and several books.
Some time ago, a listener said to me, "All these authorities you study went to a prestigious university, or have Google or Apple on their CV. I don't have that. Is it even possible for someone like me, without an impressive CV, to become an authority?"
Michael Zipursky had none of that. No elite degree or famous employer. He’s not even had a proper job.

So, when you have none of the traditional credentials associated with being an authority, how do you become one?
That's the story I'm telling in Episode 13 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

Resources:
Website: consultingsuccess.com
Podcast: Consulting Success Podcast
Books: Consulting Success Books
Sources used in this episode:
Bacon Wrapped Business
Forecast with Ahmad Munawar
GSD Podcast
Your First Thousand Clients
On The Brink with Andi Simon
Red Cedar Marketing
Undisputed Authority with Ryan Deiss
About Liam Curley

Liam Curley works with leaders who sell their expertise, helping them articulate the insights that get them recognised as authorities in their field.
Work with Liam: liamcurley.co.uk
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/liamcurley33

Debbie Millman is one of the world's leading authorities on branding.
For two decades she was President of Sterling Brands, where she had a hand in around 20% of the brands on the US grocery aisle.
She has built her career on an understanding of how and why brands work, and at the centre of that understanding is the concept of deliberate differentiation. That branding is the act of attaching meaning to an object, idea, or movement.
So when people ask her how to build a personal brand, her answer is surprising: don't.
She thinks it's a trap. So how did the world's foremost branding expert build her own authority without ever branding herself?
That's the story I'm telling in Episode 12 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
Resources:
Website: debbiemillman.com
Podcast: Design Matters
Books: Books & Writing
Sources used in this episode:
The Tim Ferriss Show
Hello Monday
Chase Jarvis
The Great Discontent
Good Life Project
Unlocking Us
Creative Boom
TED - How symbols and brands shape our humanity
99U
Wayne's World
Sandra Bullock — 2010 Oscars
Undisputed Authority with Rory Sutherland
Undisputed Authority with Chris Do
Undisputed Authority with Nancy Duarte
Undisputed Authority with Blair Enns
Undisputed Authority with David C. Baker
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

Chris Do is the founder of The Futur, an education business with 2.79 million YouTube subscribers.
But he didn't start there. He spent two decades running Blind, an Emmy-winning motion graphics studio working with Nike, Google, Microsoft and the NFL. At its peak, Blind was the kind of business most designers spend their careers trying to build.
So why did he walk away from it? And once he made the call, why did it take five years before the new business worked?
That's the story I'm telling in Episode 11 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
Resources:
Website: https://thefutur.com/
YouTube: The Futur
LinkedIn: Chris Do
Sources used in this episode:
The Right Questions with James Victore
Marc Gutman on Baby Got Backstory
Hao Tran on Vietnam Innovators
Chris Do on The Futur
Jay Clouse on Creator Science
Morgan Housel on Quiet Compounding
Undisputed Authority with Ryan Hawk
Undisputed Authority with Rory Sutherland
Undisputed Authority with Marty Neumeier
Undisputed Authority with Ryan Deiss
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