Oliver Duffy-Lee

Founder of Authority Agency & Komms | 800+ Agencies Mentored | Previous clients include Volvo, Porsche and Unilever

21six is a brand and purpose studio that believe the world needs Brands That Care. More than that, we know that genuinely caring isn't just a slogan, it's a commercial strategy – we call it The Care Advantage™. It’s our simple but powerful system for helping the world’s leading companies grow crowded markets by showing they care – not as a slogan, but as a living, breathing part of how they operate.

We’ve used The Care Advantage™ to help Johnson & Johnson, The North Face, and Philips with global projects, capture new audiences, and create work that actually matters. And we apply it to every brief, from rethinking a brand’s positioning to igniting movements people want to join.

The age of simply churning out campaigns is over. We’re here to transform the way brands connect with people; faster, smarter, and with more humanity than ever before.

Founder

Website: https://www.authorityagency.co.uk

Welcome to the age of Thought Leadership.

Most B2B brands are drowning in a Sea of Sameness, unable to differentiate themselves from their competition.

And so they spend their time:

- Scrapping for low quality opportunities
- Unable to build an audience
- Failing to fill their pipeline
- Struggling to sign new clients 
- Pricing their services too low
- Stagnating and not growing
- Struggling to make pay day

The problem isn’t caused by lead generation, marketing or sales…

It’s a positioning problem.

Strong positioning will:

✅ Differentiate the business
✅ Attract high quality leads
✅ Convert them into high paying clients
✅ Grow the business month on month

And the strongest way to position in 2024?

Build Authority.

If you want help becoming the Go-To Authority Thought Leader in your space, book a call below:

https://content.authorityagency.co.uk/

FINALLY found some time to write a post for LI this week*… Here’s a small update on how our year has started…

1. In Amsterdam this week with one of the most exciting players in Optical Retail 🙏

2. Had a lot of RFP opportunities land so far this year, many of them unexpected. I’ve never had a problem pitching, I actually enjoy it… Never understood the anti-pitch policy many agencies have

3. Also had some really nice new client wins, including TDK, Asus and UCL… Very grateful for these amazing brands putting their trust in us

4. We’re learning to navigate a world where client decisions take longer and involve more stakeholders… This can be challenging, but it’s definitely not changing any time soon

5. More and more we’re productising our IP… Not to sell as it’s own product, but to help explain the value of our strategic thinking - this is definitely an area of the business I’m most excited about

6. Lot of travel to happen this year (all over Europe and Asia)… My view is that international business and expansion is crucial for UK agencies looking to grow. UK market alone isn’t strong enough right now to bank on for strong growth

7. Fascinating to hear the conversations in the agency world on AI influence… It seems to be having an HR impact already, especially in junior positions, but hasn’t transformed our world yet (A convo for another post)

*This is BS btw, it’s about priorities… Content hasn’t been a priority for me recently, but will get back to it. How are things in your world? Let me know 👇

CEO at 21six | The Agency for Brands That Care

Where companies go to get noticed | Co-Founder and Managing Director at noticed. |

Morgan Ratcliffe

In the last 3 years, 99% of our clients have come from LinkedIn.

Just one platform.

Which is strange, because most businesses I speak to still rely on referrals, website traffic, or paid ads to grow.

And when those slow down, pipeline slows with them.

We realised early on that LinkedIn isn’t just a place to post content.

It’s a place where your buyers already spend time.

So instead of waiting to be discovered, we built a system around showing up consistently, starting conversations intentionally, and giving people clear ways to move closer to working with us.

That’s what turned LinkedIn from “a marketing channel” into our main growth engine.

The takeaway?

You don’t need more channels.

You need one channel you actually treat like a system.

That’s when it starts producing clients, not just impressions.

5 ways to acquire clients on LinkedIn ⤵

We’ve signed clients all over the world through LinkedIn.

Not because we “posted consistently.”
Not because we chased engagement.

Because we built a system.

For a long time, we treated LinkedIn like most companies do, somewhere to share updates and hope the right people saw them.

It felt productive.
It wasn’t predictable.

The shift came when we stopped viewing LinkedIn as a content platform and started treating it like infrastructure for demand.

One clear ICP.
Content engineered to create familiarity.
Outbound to start conversations.
Assets to convert interest.
Paid to accelerate what already worked.

No randomness. No guessing.

Just a structured path from attention → conversation → client.

Most companies are still approaching LinkedIn tactically.

Post here. Run an ad there. Try a bit of outreach.

But LinkedIn only becomes commercially valuable when it’s architected as a system, not used as a channel.

That’s when it stops being “marketing.”

And starts behaving like pipeline.

OLD VS NEW LINKEDIN

For most of the last 3 years, almost everything we’ve done on LinkedIn has come back to one simple idea:

One good piece of thinking should never turn into just one post.

When we started noticed., we treated content like most people do.

Have an idea.
Turn it into a post.
Move on to the next one.

It felt productive.
But it meant we were constantly starting from zero.

The shift came when we realised the best ideas weren’t posts.

They were assets.

One video, one report, one campaign, one core topic… could easily become a week’s worth of content, conversations, and even sales opportunities if we actually broke it down properly. 

That’s when LinkedIn stopped feeling like a content treadmill and started feeling like leverage.

Instead of chasing new ideas, we started:

Turning one long-form piece into multiple angles.
Sharing the lessons, the behind-the-scenes, the industry take, the practical advice.
Then using that momentum to create something genuinely useful for our ICP.

Not just content.

Something worth giving away. 

Because the truth is, most content doesn’t fail because the idea is bad.

It fails because people treat it like a one-off.

The takeaway?

If something is worth saying once, it’s probably worth saying five different ways.

That’s how content starts to compound instead of just filling the feed.

LinkedIn Help

3 years ago my younger brother and I started noticed.

2 years ago we hired our first team members. 
1 year ago we made Insider 42 under 42. 

This year we're trying to hit (just shy of) £2,000,000 in revenue.

It's been a wild ride. 

Ups, downs, lefts, rights, you name it, we've experienced it. 

But over the years, the thing it's allowed me to realise is that building a business is the ultimate test of who you are as a person. 

It requires you to: 

1. Believe in yourself.
2. Show up every day. 
3. Innovate and problem solve.  
4. Have real deliverables to hit. 
5. Learn and improve constantly. 
6. Hold real and heavy responsibility. 

And not only that, you have to be willing to sit down and do that every day over a 10-15 year time span. 

People say "It's a marathon, not a sprint". 

But I disagree. 

It's more like a full Ironman where you have to be able to swim, bike and run, apart from you're swimming in the ocean with sharks, then you have to build the bike while you're riding it, and the marathon is actually a run with no shoes and it goes on for an unspecified amount of time. 

But god damn it's fun. 

Anyway, if that sounds fun, then welcome to entrepreneurship. 

May the odds be ever in your favour ✌🏻

Lessons from scaling an agency ⤵

We’ve used LinkedIn as our main sales channel for nearly 4 years. 

How to run successful LinkedIn …

And the biggest mistake I see B2B companies make is surprisingly simple.

They work hard to get attention…

…but give that attention nowhere meaningful to go.

Early on, we fell into the same trap.

Content was landing.
Views were climbing.
People were noticing us.

But pipeline wasn’t moving at the same pace.

The shift came when we understood this:

👉 Attention is only valuable when it’s captured and redirected.

Once someone notices you, your job is not to impress them.

Your job is to guide them.

Not to 10 different pages.
Not to your generic website.

To one clear destination.

For us, that meant building assets worth exchanging an email for.

Industry reports.
Playbooks.
Assessments.

Things that made a buyer think,
“Useful… I want that.”

When you do this well, three things happen:

You build trust faster.
You stand out from competitors.
You become front-of-mind when timing is right. 

How to run successful LinkedIn …

Most LinkedIn strategies fail because they stop at visibility.

But visibility alone doesn’t create clients.

Direction does.

If you’re generating attention right now, ask yourself one question:

Where am I sending it?

Because the companies winning on LinkedIn aren’t just being seen.

They’re deliberately turning attention into ecosystem.

How to run successful marketing campaigns on linkedin 

Most people think LinkedIn growth comes from posting more.

In the last 3 years we’ve gone from £0 to £1M+, signed clients across multiple countries, and built the entire pipeline off LinkedIn.

And the biggest thing I’ve learned is this:

LinkedIn only works when you stop treating it like a content platform and start treating it like a legitimate marketing system. 

Early on, I made the same mistake most businesses do.

Posting broad stuff.
Talking to “marketers”.
Trying to appeal to everyone.

It felt like progress, but it didn’t move the business.

Things changed when we flipped the approach.

Instead of asking
“What should we post?”

We started asking:

Who exactly are we trying to get in front of, and what do they actually care about right now?

That led to a simple system we still use today:

Pick the exact audience first
Not industries. Not job titles. Real buyers with real problems.

Study what already resonates with them
Not to copy it, but to understand what conversations they’re already having.

Add your own angle and proof
Your lived experience, case studies, opinions, mistakes, lessons. The stuff nobody else can say.

That’s when LinkedIn stopped being noise and started becoming leverage.

Because attention from the wrong people is just vanity.

Attention from the right people is pipeline, partnerships, hires, and growth.

Improve Your LinkedIn ↪

Marketing on LinkedIn is confusing for businesses. 

Bringing up questions like: 

- “What should we spend our budget on?”
- "How do we use this to grow revenue?"
- “Do ads work? 

And “How can we craft a strategy that actually works?!". 

It’s tough. 

So most businesses, ignore it completley. 

Leaving businesses: 

- Blending into a sea of competitors. 
- Not driving sales or generating traffic. 
- And not building the brand or getting noticed online. 

It’s almost criminal. 

So, to solve this problem we’ve teamed up with Social Chain Co-founder Dominic McGregor to host a B2B marketing masterclass. 

How To Survive The New Era Of B2B Marketing.

- Dom pioneered the rise of social media marketing. 
- Built one of Europe’s fastest-growing marketing agencies. 
- And grew Social Chain to a £300m valuation. 

It’s safe to say, Dom knows a thing or two about marketing 😂 

On Thu, Mar 19, we will be live with Dom showing you how the fastest-growing B2B brands are marketing themselves in 2026. 

We’re going to cover:

- The New Way to Look At B2B Marketing.
- How Dom McGregor Grew Social Chain To £300M.
- B2B Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid In 2026.

+ anything your business needs to get noticed online.

📆 Thu, Mar 19, 
⏰ 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM GMT
📍 Live on LinkedIn

You don't want to miss it: https://lnkd.in/erzNfDfc

In your career (and life) people won't believe in you. 

"You can't do ironman as your first triathlon"
↳ Finished in 13:48:00

"You can't build a business with your background" 
↳ Hit £1,000,000 in revenue in just 3 years. 

And at every turn, there will be people who speak their doubts to you both out loud, and behind your back. 

Over the years I've learned that when people do this, all they're doing is projecting how they feel onto you. 

They don't think they could finish. 
They don't think they could put in the work. 
They don't think that they can do great things. 

And even the thought of you attempting forces them to put you down in order to make themselves feel better about their own situation. 

But many of the people I've met who have achieved great things have nothing "Special". 

The real ability they all share is the fact they can block out the noise, take action and continue to do it year after year. 

The takeaway is that you can do pretty much anything you want in life. 

- Build a business. 
- Finish an ironman. 
- Learn a new language. 
- Grow a Youtube or LinkedIn account. 

Because the gap between where you are and where you need to be isn't as big as you might think. 

And success often lies in your ability to block out the noise ✌🏻

Here's what happened ⤵

Someone called me a “meat head” for doing Ironmans and hitting the gym.

Just a daily reminder that you don’t have to fit into anyone’s box. 

Fight in a cage.
Build a business.
Learn a language.
Be a savage in the gym.
Run untramarathons & Ironmans. 

It’s your world, everyone else just lives in it✌🏻

For year's I've heard people talk about what "good" content on LinkedIn looks like. 

And yeah, maybe a photo of your breakfast in Bali looks good...

But it also doesn't bring in many clients.

Especially for a serious business looking for growth. 

The shift for me came when I realised most buyers don’t come to LinkedIn to be impressed.

They come to recognise themselves in what you’re saying.

The posts that started working weren’t the most designed.

They were the ones that made the right person think:

“Yep… that’s exactly the problem we’ve got.”

That’s when conversations started happening.

Because good LinkedIn content isn’t really about being interesting.

It’s about being relevant.

You don’t win by sounding smart.
You win by sounding familiar.

That’s the difference between content that gets engagement…

…and content that actually brings opportunities your way.

GOOD VS BAD LINKEDIN CONTENT ➡️

Everyone likes to shout about wins on LinkedIn, but what about one of our biggest failure?

Here’s our worst performing LinkedIn campaign and what I’d change if I had the chance to do it again ⤵

We built a free assessment to help businesses “find their perfect lead magnet.”

The idea was strong.
The feedback was great.

Over 500 people completed it, and we booked 4 sales calls off the back of it. 

But here’s the part that matters:

It was one of our lowest converters from attention to pipeline. 

And the reason was painfully obvious in hindsight.

We didn’t launch it.
We just posted it.

No build-up.
No anticipation.
No real distribution strategy.

Just dropped it into the feed and hoped the right people would find it.

They didn’t. At least not enough of them.

If I had the chance to run it again, I wouldn’t touch the asset.

I’d change how we took it to market.

First, I’d create teaser content to build curiosity before the release.
Because when something launches into silence, it rarely travels far.

Second, I’d directly target 100–200 people within our ICP and start conversations with them.

Not pitch it, offer it as something genuinely useful.

Third, I’d embed it into outbound and email so it didn’t rely on organic reach alone.

Good campaigns need inbound and outbound.

And finally, I’d treat it as evergreen, not a one-week push.
The best assets compound when they’re repeatedly put in front of new buyers.

Big lesson from this one:

Hope is not a distribution strategy.

Most campaigns don’t fail because the idea is bad.

They fail because no one knows they exist.

Anyway, there's an honest one for you. 

But I often find the campaigns that miss usually teach you the biggest lessons.

Our Lowest Converting LinkedIn Campaign ➡️

For about 10 years, people used LinkedIn like a corporate facebook.

Polished updates.
Safe messaging.
Occasional sales pushes.

And yeah, it looks professional... but it gets no engagement, and generates no pipeline. 

The shift for us came when we put in place a system on LinkedIn, combining: 

1. Content tailored to our ICP.
2. Outreach used after intent signals. 
3. Sales assets to drive inbound contacts. 

And emails to scale the approach and drive even more traffic. 

Instead of asking, “What should we post this week?”

We started asking, 

“How does LinkedIn move someone closer to becoming a client?”

"How can we drive more intent signals for outbound?" 

"How can we create content that drives more traffic?"

That changed everything.

Content became about visibility & community. 
Outreach became about conversations, not pitches.
Campaigns were built to give value first, then guide people somewhere useful.

Once those pieces connected, LinkedIn stopped feeling random.

It became predictable.

Most companies don’t have a LinkedIn problem.

They just haven’t built a system that turns attention into action yet.

You don’t need more time to post on LinkedIn.
You need a better use of the time you already have.

Most people think good LinkedIn content requires hours of effort.

It doesn’t.

Over the last few years building noticed., most of my posts have fallen into three buckets depending on how much time I have that day.

15 minutes → capture the moment
A thought, something that happened in the business, or a quick observation from the day.

30 minutes → share something useful
A story, a lesson learned, or a simple breakdown that helps someone understand a problem better.

60 minutes → build something substantial
A proper deep dive, a campaign launch, or a detailed industry breakdown.

The biggest mistake people make is thinking every post needs to be the 60-minute version.

It doesn’t.

Consistency comes from having formats that match the time you actually have.

Some posts document the journey.
Some teach something.
Some spark conversation.

Over time those layers compound.

and LinkedIn starts becoming a place where people actually want to hear what you have to say.

For 3 years, LinkedIn has been our main client acquisition channel.

Not because we post a lot.
Not because we “grew an audience”.
Because we built a system around it.

Most companies treat LinkedIn like a visibility channel.

The ones signing clients treat it like infrastructure.

Here’s the system we keep coming back to:

1. Define one ICP clearly
Not “founders” or “marketers”. One role, one problem, one buying context.

2. Create content that signals relevance
Not generic advice, just things that make your ICP think “this is for me”.

3. Start conversations intentionally
Use outreach to speak to people already showing signals, not random cold pitches.

4. Give attention somewhere to go
A guide, report, audit, webinar, something useful that moves them closer to working with you.

5. Scale what already works
Only once conversations and conversions exist do ads make sense.

That’s it.

No hacks.
No growth tricks.
Just a clear path from attention → conversation → client.

Most LinkedIn strategies fail because they stop at step two.

The money sits in steps three to five.

After 4 years posting on LinkedIn, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is surprisingly simple:

The platform rewards clarity more than creativity.

Early on, I thought success on LinkedIn meant:

Better graphics.
More polished posts.
Trying to say something clever.

But the posts that actually worked were far simpler.

They spoke to a very specific problem.
For a very specific person.
In language that felt obvious to them.

That’s when things started to change.

Conversations increased.
People started recognising the work we were doing.
Opportunities appeared that would’ve been impossible to manufacture through traditional outbound.

Not because the posts were perfect.

Because they were relevant.

Most LinkedIn content fails for one reason:

It’s written for everyone.

But the posts that resonate the most are usually written with one person in mind.

The founder struggling to generate pipeline.
The marketing lead trying to prove ROI.
The business owner wondering why their content isn’t converting.

When someone reads a post and thinks
“this feels like it’s written for me”

That’s when LinkedIn actually starts working.

Not as a social network.

But as a place where the right people slowly start paying attention.

4 Years of LinkedIn

I think a lot of people on LinkedIn are doing the right things… just in the wrong order.

We see companies running ads straight to their website and wondering why nobody clicks.

Posting content they personally find interesting, but their audience doesn’t really engage with.

Or sharing something useful but not giving people anywhere obvious to go next.

We did the same early on.

It felt like we were “active” on LinkedIn, but it didn’t feel joined up.

What changed for us was realising LinkedIn works best when the pieces connect.

Content should make the right people feel like you understand their world.
Ads should amplify what’s already proven to resonate.
And every post or campaign should point somewhere intentional, not just vaguely “to the website”.

It sounds simple, but once you start thinking of LinkedIn as one connected journey rather than separate tactics, the platform becomes a lot clearer.

Most people don’t need to do more on LinkedIn.

They just need the things they’re already doing to work together a bit better.

🔥 FIRST YOUTUBE VIDEO IS LIVE!! Breaking down our full LinkedIn process - just hit “Visit my website” button 👇🏻

We're #HIRING for some of the most exciting roles in our company's history. 

So, if you're dragging yourself through another Friday at a job you don't like OR you just want a new challenge, let me tell you about 2 of them 👇🏻

ROLE 1: Content Lead (Founder Brands)

We're on a mission to be the most-well known marketing agency in the UK. You'll help us fulfil that mission

- Work 1-on-1 with our founders to create content
- Lead creative direction across founder brands (100,000 followers)
- Freedom to experiment and test new content ideas
- Work with the internal team to expand horizons

So much to do here and a dream role for anyone with a content background. 

ROLE 2: Account Manager

You'll be the bridge between our clients and our team. 

- Manage relationships with some massive brands
- Translate business goals into campaign briefs
- Present work and lead client meetings
- Spot opportunities to grow accounts and deliver more value

(You'll learn more in 3 months in this role than 10 years in most other roles)

Both roles are full-time and hybrid, 3 days/week in office. 

This is your chance to work in a fast-growing team where your work actually matters.

Interested? I'll drop the job posts in the comments or DM me and I'll personally intro you to the hiring manager!

♻️ Repost this so people in your network see it! 

P.S. Know someone who could be a fit for these roles? Please send this post to them! :)

🚨 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨

B2B marketing is evolving faster than ever.

For the first time in decades, a lot of business owners and marketers have no idea what's next.

The businesses that will win aren't the ones with the most resources. They're the ones who adapt first.

So we're running a live masterclass with Dominic McGregor to chat about what's happening on the forefront of B2B marketing.

Dom has a track record of spotting shifts early. He was one of the first to see the potential of social media marketing at Social Chain, and he's built multiple businesses by staying ahead of where the market is moving.

If you want to understand what's actually working now and where things are headed, this is worth your time.

Join us LIVE on LinkedIn. 

March 19th 📆 See you there 🫡

LIVE MASTERCLASS: How To Survive The New Era Of B2B Marketing 

We've been cleaning up recently with our Linkedin outreach system for clients all over the world. 

Content to engage prospects. 
LinkedIn outreach to target buyers. 
Email outreach to scale the approach. 

It's led to meetings booked with brands like Blue Origin, Caterpillar, Ford and a ton of others. 

I truly believe we're one of the best in the world at generating new business on LinkedIn right now. 

We're swamped at the moment, but if you want to use the platform to grow in 2026, apply to work with us in the link below: 

https://lnkd.in/e9JWDNfV

✌🏻

taplio

The Battle

Oliver Duffy-Lee

Morgan Ratcliffe

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taplio

The Battle

Oliver Duffy-Lee

Morgan Ratcliffe

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Oliver Duffy-Lee's LinkedIn Performance

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Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreOliver Duffy-Lee's LinkedIn Performance