Alastair McDermott

Marketing Consultant & Coach

Author · Speaker · Podcaster

Short Bio

Alastair McDermott is a Marketing Consultant and Business Coach. He is host of The Recognized Authority Podcast and The Specialization Podcast.

Alastair helps consultants & invisible experts to become The Recognized Authority in their field so they can have more impact and command higher fees.

Long Bio

Alastair McDermott is a Marketing Consultant and Business Coach. He is an author, speaker and host of The Recognized Authority Podcast.

Alastair helps consultants & invisible experts to become The Recognized Authority in their field so they can have more impact & command higher fees, without having to beg for referrals or send spammy LinkedIn messages.

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.

Along the way he co-founded several start-ups, some of which were mildly successful, and he has written a book called “Running a Website with WordPress: A Quick Guide for Business Owners”.

His podcast and email list is called “The Recognized Authority”.

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 guested on many podcasts, including one of iTunes most popular business podcasts, “Breaking Down Your Business” with Brad Farris and Jill Salzman.

He has also appeared on radio and podcast with Dublin City FM’s “Inspirational People, Inspirational Stories”, as well as INC60, Hallway Chats, Dealing with Goliath, Social Media Chat with Louise McDonnell, 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

Why & how to build authority
How to specialize your business
Why referrals are dangerous
Why vertical specialization is a silver bullet
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

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Most Popular Episodes

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

Interviews on Other Podcasts

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)
Slow sales vs. Fast sales with Alastair McDermott (Breaking Down Your Business #328, Sept 2019)
Social chat with Alastair McDermott (Social Chat with Louise, July 2017)
Getting Your Business Online with Alastair McDermott (INC60 2nd August 2018)

Running a Website With WordPress: A Quick Guide For Business Owners

“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