Authority Roadmap

Uncover what makes you extraordinary, then build your authority around it.

The strategy to establish yourself as THE voice in your niche is executed through your positioning, your insight, and your distribution. But all of that is downstream of one decision: knowing the thing that makes you uniquely valuable. It's the intersection between your expertise and what your clients truly value in you.

The Authority Roadmap is a 12-week engagement that finds this intersection, articulates it in a way that resonates, and builds your entire authority strategy around it.

Here's where many invisible experts are stuck:

You know you have the expertise. You've put in the years, you've done the work, you've earned the right to be considered among the best in your field. But you're not seeing the evidence that you've ‘arrived.’ The market hasn’t confirmed it.

You've put out what you thought was your best thinking, and it's crickets. Then you say something to a client in passing, something you wouldn't have thought to write down, and they tell you, "My gosh, that was so helpful!" You have no idea why one lands and the other doesn't.

You receive advice from trusted friends and peers in your network on leveraging your expertise, but that just adds to the confusion. You've heard everything from "You should do a workshop" to "You should write a book.” You want to pick the one thing that's actually worth building around. You just haven't found it yet.

"I've done this so long that what I share sounds ordinary to me. I've heard myself say it a thousand times. But Liam hears it and says, name that, you can own that. And it never occurred to me that I could, because it just feels like common sense. That's the thing. While I'm talking, I can't process my own ahas. Liam does that for me. What I get back refines the story and sharpens the message in a way I could never sharpen it myself.”

Michael Burcham
Entrepreneur, Executive Coach and Author of The Art of Startup Failure

Here's what the other side looks like:

You're no longer being compared to your contemporaries. In your market, for your specific thing, there's only one answer and it's you.

When your name comes up in a room, people don't say "she's very good." They say "she's the one you call if you want X."

The keynote invitations come to you. The right clients find you, arrive already convinced, and because you have more opportunity than you can take on, you get to choose who you work with.

The nature of the work changes too. Less doing, more advising.

And because everything you publish, speak about, and create points in the same direction, it compounds. The untapped potential that's been gnawing at you has somewhere to go.

Who this is for:

You're a consultant, coach, or expert-led business owner. People pay to access your thinking, not just your delivery.

You have a decade or more in your field. Your approach, niche, or deliverables may have evolved, but your expertise in the core subject has been consistent.

Your ambition is to be THE name in your space, not just one of the good ones.

How the engagement works

The Authority Roadmap runs over 12 weeks. There are six live sessions between us, sections where I'm working behind the scenes, and deliberate space for you to think.

Here's how those weeks are structured.

Pre-work
BEFORE WE BEGIN

You complete a comprehensive intake questionnaire covering your positioning challenges, goals, and current approach. I audit your existing materials. This gives me the foundations to hit the ground running from day one.

Interview coordination
WEEKS 1 TO 2

You identify 8 to 15 of your best clients. The kind of people you'd love to clone and keep working with if you could. You send the initial invitation, I handle all follow-up and scheduling for interviews from there.

Origin story session
WEEK 3

A structured two-hour conversation about your history, your beliefs, and what genuinely drives you. Where your expertise came from, what you've noticed that others in your field haven't, what you find yourself thinking about unprompted. We also establish your resources, preferences, and capacity for creating content. This establishes your internal perspective, which we later set against what your clients reveal in the interviews.

Customer interviews
WEEKS 3 TO 5

I conduct 25-minute interviews with each participant following a strategic arc that moves from factual to emotional to aspirational. What surfaces is almost always different from what you assumed people valued about you.

Research synthesis
WEEK 6

I process everything. Interview recordings, transcripts, origin story notes. Patterns identified across all conversations, direct client language preserved throughout.

Research findings presentation
WEEK 7

In a 90-minute session, I present what the interviews revealed. What clients actually value, in their own words, and what differentiates you from alternatives in their eyes. This is often the first time the gap between assumption and reality becomes visible.

Core message and focusing question development
WEEK 8

I develop three focusing question options, each with supporting rationale, alongside the core message components. The core message captures who you are and what you do today. The language you'll use on your website, in conversations, and in proposals. The focusing question builds on that foundation, defining where you're going and what you'll build authority around.

Selection workshop
WEEK 9

In a two-hour session, I present both the core message components and the three focusing question options. Each option is scored against five criteria: recognition, proof, ownability, energy, and expertise. So the decision is grounded in evidence rather than instinct. The core message gives you language you can use immediately. The focusing question gives you direction for the next 12 months and beyond. We discuss, refine, and you have three days to make your final decision on both.

Topic architecture
WEEK 10

In a one-hour session, we map the full territory beneath your focusing question together. The pillars, subjects, and angles you'll investigate, write about, and build authority around over the coming years.

Format workshop
WEEK 11

A one-hour session covering what you'll actually make, how often, and through which channels. Not simply LinkedIn or a newsletter. What kind, what structure, what it draws from. The format is shaped by everything we've learned across the engagement, your energy, your audience, your capacity, and the nature of your focusing question. From this session I develop your measurement framework. The leading indicators, how long to commit before evaluating, and what would constitute confidence to continue.

Final deliverables
WEEK 12

A designed PDF document containing your core message components, focusing question, topic architecture, format and cadence plan, and measurement framework. Plus a Notion workspace with all interview recordings, transcripts, and research findings organised and accessible. A resource you'll return to long after the engagement ends.

"One of the most valuable parts of the process was the time Liam spent talking directly with our Members. Hearing how they described the work, what they valued, and why it mattered to them gave us clarity we couldn't have reached on our own. Liam listened carefully, then came back with a clear report that showed us the common threads we hadn't fully seen yet. He turned hours of conversations into something usable."

Jacqueline Jensen
Managing Partner, The Society of Advice

What you'll receive:

01
Core message components

A positioning statement that captures what you do and for whom in a single sentence. A thirty-second version of what you do for conversations, proposals, and introductions. And three core frustrations your ideal client is experiencing, paired with the aspirations that make them ready to act. All grounded in your clients' actual language.

02
Focusing question

The single question that directs your entire body of work. Everything you write, speak about, and investigate moves you closer to answering it. Because it's anchored to a real frustration your ideal clients already feel, the people it attracts are people who would actually work with you.

03
Topic architecture

The full territory beneath your focusing question. The pillars, subjects, and angles you'll investigate and build authority around. A map you'll return to every time you're deciding what to write, speak about, or explore next.

04
Format and cadence plan

What you'll actually make, how often, and through which channels. Chosen based on your energy, your audience, and your capacity. A specific plan built around how you work best.

05
Measurement framework

What leading indicators signal traction, how long to commit before evaluating, and what would constitute confidence to continue. So you know whether it's working rather than guessing.

06
Customer insights workspace

All interview recordings and transcripts, organised in Notion and accessible long after the engagement ends. The direct language your clients used to describe their frustrations, aspirations, and what they value about you. A resource you'll return to when developing content, refining your offers, or preparing for speaking opportunities.

“Liam's a gold pan. A tool used by those of us seeking treasure in our expertise. We run our thoughts and ideas through the gold pan and the sediment and debris pass through the pan, leaving nothing but the gold. ”

Nigel Green
Sales Leadership Consultant & Author of How to Hire Elite Salespeople

Logistics

Duration
12 weeks.
Your time commitment
Six live sessions totalling approximately nine hours, plus identifying and inviting interview participants and async communication throughout.
Interviews
8 to 15 customer interviews, each 25 minutes. You identify the participants and send the initial invitation. I handle all scheduling and conduct every interview.
Communication
Unlimited async communication throughout via email or Slack.
Investment
$15,000 to $27,000 depending on scope. We'll discuss what's right for your situation on a call.
Payment Terms
15% deposit to secure your start date, remainder in three milestone payments across the engagement.
Book a discovery call

Frequently asked questions

How many clients do I need for the interviews?

The research works best with 8 to 15 participants, but the minimum is six. If you're not confident you can get there, we'll discuss an alternative approach on the discovery call.

What if none of the focusing question options feel right?

It hasn't happened yet. The options are built directly from the research and origin story work that precedes them, so they're grounded in what's already true about you and your market. But if none of the three land, we'll workshop alternatives together on the call until we find a direction that feels right.

What does the intake questionnaire involve?

It covers your current positioning, how you describe what you do, the clients you've worked with, what frustrates you about your market, content you've created and consumed, and your capacity for creating content going forward. It takes most people an hour to complete, and it's what allows us to hit the ground running in the origin story session.

What if my schedule doesn't fit neatly into 12 weeks?

We can build in pre-determined extensions at the start if either of us has holidays or commitments we know about in advance. What we don't do is pause mid-engagement. The momentum matters. Exceptions exist for genuine personal circumstances on either side.

What happens after the engagement ends?

The deliverables are designed to be self-sufficient. You should know what you own, what you're building, and where to start. For clients who want ongoing support during execution, I offer Thought Partner, a monthly arrangement where we work together to stress test your thinking, sharpen your positions, and build the conviction to say what you actually believe.

Book a discovery call