Short Bio
Alastair McDermott helps “best-kept secret” experts & consultants to rapidly build authority by combining the power of video & podcasting so that you can command premium fees, cherry-pick the best projects, get off the gilded-hamster wheel of hourly-rate work, and never have to suffer a bad-fit client again!
Alastair is an author, consultant & business coach who hosts The Recognized Authority Podcast, The Specialization Podcast, and the Accelerating Your Authority Podcast.
Long Bio
Alastair McDermott helps “best-kept secret” experts & consultants to rapidly build authority by combining the power of video & podcasting so that you can command premium fees, cherry-pick the best projects, get off the gilded-hamster wheel of hourly-rate work, and never have to suffer a bad-fit client again!
Alastair is an author, consultant & business coach who hosts The Recognized Authority Podcast, The Specialization Podcast, and the Accelerating Your Authority Podcast.
Alastair got into digital marketing and business when built his first website on GeoCities in the “before-time” of 1996 – he has been hooked on websites ever since.
Alastair left a “safe” corporate job in early 2007 to start and grow his first business during “the worst recession in modern history” – that was a wild ride.
His podcast and email list is called “The Recognized Authority”. You can download his free book “How to Sound & Look Good on Zoom & Podcasts” from SuccessStore and Amazon.
Speaker, Podcast & Radio Guest
Alastair has spoken at many business & marketing events, and been invited as a guest lecturer at top universities including University of Limerick, University College Cork, and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.
He has also appeared on radio and podcast with Dublin City FM’s Inspirational People, Inspirational Stories, as well as The Self-Made Expert, The Accelerate Sales Podcast, INC60, Hallway Chats, Dealing with Goliath, Social Media Chats, The Unpolished MBA, Make Your Someday Today and many more.
Note for podcast hosts: Alastair will show up on time, in an acoustically treated room with a professional microphone. Local audio recording file available on request – ask before we record!
Talking Points/Questions
- How to become a recognized authority in your field
- Why & how to build authority
- How to niche down your business
- Why vertical specialization is a silver bullet
- Why referrals are dangerous
- Why audio & video quality matter far more than you think
- How to look and sound amazing on video
- What is the Authority Maturity ModelTM
- Why it’s harder to sell consulting
- Why I surveyed over 1,200 consultants about marketing
- What it was like growing up in an adventure centre
- How I got a job because of a computer game
“Anyone interested in authority needs to add this to their podcast playlist right now”
Rochelle Moulton, Author of The Authority Code
Popular Episodes
- How to Build Your Personal Brand with Mark Schaefer
- How Content Can Save Your Business with Marcus Sheridan
- How to Become The Recognized Authority with Jonathan Stark
- The Business of Consulting with David C. Baker
- How to Scale Your Consulting Business with Brad Farris
- Three Keys to Building Your Authority with Rochelle Moulton
- Grow a Consulting Firm into a Business Empire with Peep Laja
Career/Business Timeline
- First job ever: assistant kayaking instructor
- First job post-college: mainframe assembler programming
- Six years at Sun Microsystems as software engineer
- Started online marketing business in early 2007
- Successful first year with six figure project
- Financial crisis 2008-2011 almost destroyed business
- Two failed start-ups in 2010 & 2012
- Slowly built consulting business back up from 2012-2020
- Despite COVID-19, 2020 best revenue year since 2007
Videos
Selection of Interviews
- Becoming A Recognized Authority In Your Field With Alastair McDermott (The Better Way to Strategic Marketing, May 2022)
- Create An Unfair Advantage with Alastair McDermott (Virtually Famous, May 2022)
- Command Higher Fees & Get Better Clients With Alastair McDermott (When It Worked, Apr 2022)
- Specialization and Authority with Alastair McDermott (The Self-Made Expert #154, Oct 2021)
- How to Scale and Productize Your Consulting Business with Alastair McDermott (Alisa Meredith YouTube Live, Oct 2021)
- How To Market Your Consulting Business With Alastair McDermott (Build Live Give #305, June 2021)
- How to Get Clients without Relying on Word of Mouth Referrals (Dealing with Goliath #026, Nov 2020)
- How to Test & Promote my Online Course (How I Built It #231, Aug 2021)
- How to Specialize in Your Business and Marketing (The Audience Converter Podcast #078, Feb 2021)
- Inspirational People with Alastair McDermott (Dublin City FM, August 2020)
- How Consultants Avoid the Feast or Famine Rollercoaster (Dealing with Goliath #014, Aug 2020)
- Getting Your Business Online with Alastair McDermott (INC60, Aug 2018)
Alastair's Guest Appearances
The Specialization Podcast:
An Educational Podcast Series
The Specialization Podcast: how to niche down your expert consulting business so that you can have more impact, command higher fees and work with better clients.
The Specialization Podcast is an educational podcast series focused on helping you to understand and implement specialization in your expert business.
If you are a consultant or expert and you are considering specializing your business, you’re in the right place.
Photos
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The Recognized Authority Brand Images
Large Uncropped Images
Cutout PNGs
Book: "How to Sound & Look Good on Zoom & Podcasts"
If you’re a consultant or other professional and you’re using Zoom (or Teams) for client meetings or you’re podcasting, you need to read this ebook.
HOW TO SOUND & LOOK GOOD ON ZOOM & PODCASTS does exactly what it says on the tin!
It provides you with useful tips & tricks to make you sound and look better.
This is important, because research shows that poor audio quality can influence listeners’ perceptions negatively – and you definitely don’t want that!
Book: "Running a Website With WordPress"
“Clear, concise, jargon free, and packed with great tips, pointers and advice. Especially good if you’re tackling a website for the first (or even third) time” – Amazon Reviewer
