A four-week engagement that sets the strategy for developing the niche-defining insight that takes you from a recognised expert to the Undisputed Authority in your field.
This engagement is about making the strategic decisions behind your next phase of insight: which specific area of your expertise to double down on, who it's really for, the one frustration you'll own, and the practice that develops your thinking further.
Those decisions determine everything that follows: what to curate from your best existing material, what's missing and needs creating, and how it all weaves into one body of work that feeds everything you've already built, the keynotes, the list, the podcast. The kind of body of work that ends the comparisons, because on this subject, you'll have no peers. Your opinion will be the opinion.
What does winning look like? Aim paints a picture of where you want to be, by when, and what your business will look like in the future. Every other choice is made to lead to the outcomes we determine here.
Who are the people you'll serve? Your people are the specific group defined by what they have in common in relation to your work. Identify those patterns from your best real clients, and everything you make is designed to delight and compel them.
What one frustration or task will you obsess over? Like a diamond, your body of work has a grain, the through line that shapes everything you publish, build, and offer. Find it, and everything aligns.
What practice will develop your insights? Like a comedian working out material in small clubs, the Yellow Pad is how you generate and test new opinions in public.
You're already recognised for your expertise by some: perhaps you've spoken on stage, written a book, and built an engaged email list. Your content is well received and it leads to opportunities. But you don't feel like you've truly arrived.
You know there's more depth to your insight than the market has seen. Narrowing down to one thing seems like the best way to access it, but you're nervous you'll pick the wrong thing to double down on.
You've had a gnawing sense of unfulfilled potential for a while now, and lately it's been growing. Perhaps the calendar has cleared or you've reached a milestone that's given you breathing space to look long term. It feels like the moment.
It starts with a conversation. Complete the form to book a call. I'll get an understanding of your situation, you can ask any questions you have about the engagement, and we'll figure out whether this is a fit.
By the end of the engagement, you'll know what insight you're developing, who it's for, how it all fits together, and what to build first. A defensible position, where your greatest strength meets what the market most wants.
An objective synthesis of where you are, where you want to go, and how that meets what your clients want and value from you.
The one frustration you'll own, framed as a single question and scored against five criteria. The through line every piece of insight answers.
Every topic and sub-topic to write about, sequenced so each piece builds toward a body of work that moves an ideal-fit client from stranger to fan.
The artefact to commit to first: often a book, sometimes a series of long-form essays or a podcast series. We pick the form where your strengths in articulating your expertise meet how your ideal-fit clients consume media.
When you move to making, I offer Thought Partner. It's an engagement where I draw the sharpest insight out of you and help you shape it into the body of work we're building.
“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.”
His book created excess demand, so much so that he had to hire to fulfil it. In his words, "I got a 19:1 ROI on every dollar I spent with you."
How I worked with Nigel