Alastair McDermott

Yesterday, I discussed some of the downsides of a dependency on referrals: It’s unpredictable, you can tap out your network, they can bring in bad-fit prospects if your business changes, your network shrinks as people change jobs or retire. This makes it hard to grow, change your business model, and

When I researched building authority as a marketing strategy, I surveyed over 1,000 consultants at firms sized 1-200. Referrals are the number one source of leads for independent consultants and firms sized 2-10, 11-50, AND firms sized 51-200. The main reason that consultants rely so heavily on referrals for business

What’s the common thread here? Read Exercise Write a book Start a podcast Choose healthy food Spend time with family Catch up with old friends For many these are in the Important/Not Urgent quadrant. They don’t demand immediate attention. They have payoffs far in the future. Often they’re uncomfortable. Put

I wrote about the huge benefit of having a platform where you can invite someone to share your stage. This ability to invite and showcase a guest is a major benefit of podcasting as a component in your overall authority platform, and a super-power for networking. There’s another major benefit

There’s a massive benefit from creating a podcast that you don’t get with most other platforms: the power of invitation. I speak to a lot of experts and thought leaders about the choices they have when building their authority platform. And I’m very pro-podcasting, for a number of reasons. The

Yesterday, I highlighted the risks of over-dependence on social media platforms. Now let’s talk about “owned” channels, like your website, your email list, and your podcast. You own these channels yourself, and the major advantage is that you have complete control over these platforms. However, it’s important to understand the

Yesterday, I wrote about an authority platform as a container for your authority-building content, your body-of-work. One major consideration when thinking about what components (or “sub-platforms” or “channels”) to use within your authority platform is ownership. When you build a profile on a social media platform, like LinkedIn, Facebook, or

I think of an authority platform as a high-level container that an individual authority uses to share knowledge by publishing expert content. It’s a container for your “body-of-work”. It can include one or more components which are sometimes referred to individually as platforms. We tend to use the word “platform”

There are many options you can choose as a platform to build your authority. Here’s what I consider to be the “minimum viable authority platform”. A reminder: an authority platform is a trusted and respected source of information that is created when an expert is present in a space, publishing,

An authority platform is a trusted and respected source of information. It’s created when an expert is present in a space, publishing, educating, and being a source of knowledge. Marcus Sheridan answered customer questions on his website, massively growing his business to dominate his industry. David C. Baker, alongside his