The Recognized Authority

Writing articles for your website or social media is hugely time consuming, and it's so difficult to find the time when you're already working long hours on client projects. But you need to make the time. Here's why. In this episode, bestselling author & renowned speaker Marcus Sheridan and Alastair McDermott discuss how writing articles, answering client questions, and giving away "proprietar...

The business of independent consulting can be challenging, no more so than for a change management consultant in the healthcare industry in the midst of a pandemic!  In this episode, Molly Angel and Alastair McDermott discuss what it's like to run consulting projects in challenging times. Molly shares why she hired a business coach for her business despite having an MBA herself, some big mistakes...

Last week, David C. Baker talked about the importance of research. In this week's solo episode, Alastair McDermott speaks about how research fits in with the Journey to Authority, and explains the Authority Maturity Model. If you are interested in growing your expert business and becoming an authority, this is for you. On Thursday Alastair will be running a live webinar for consultants and experts...

Running a consulting business can be exhausting. How can we make consulting easier to sell, easier to price, and easier to predict? In this episode, David C. Baker and Alastair McDermott discuss the business of consulting, including why research is crucial in positioning and standing out from your competitors, how to deal with the fears of niching down, and how to expand your services in a tightly...

Selling consulting services is often selling the invisible and intangible. How can we better demonstrate the value of our services to prospective clients? In this episode, Kate The Case Study Copywriter and Alastair McDermott discuss how case studies can help convert your prospective buyers. They can learn how you have helped businesses like theirs to achieve measurable results, and help you diffe...

How do you give yourself the maximum chance of winning your ideal clients? What are the characteristics of clients that you are uniquely able to help? How do you know if your messaging is right? In this episode, Emily Omier and Alastair McDermott discuss the differences between strategy, positioning and messaging, how to get more referrals, and how to make it easier for your clients to make a purc...

For consultants, traditional marketing can often feel like an inappropriate tool for the job. In fact, sometimes it even feels like we're screaming into the void. But what's the alternative? In this episode, Michael F. Schein and Alastair McDermott discuss how to use hype to grab attention, create curiosity, and build a tribe of like-minded people. They cover some fundamental strategies to achieve...

As a consultant, it can often be difficult to be seen as meaningfully different from your competitors. Every consulting firm has  - or claims to have! - smart people, great methodologies and tools, and every website talks about how they can solve complex business problems in a variety of industries. So how can you stand out from the competition? In this episode, Shannyn Lee and Alastair McDermott...

In this episode reposted from Philip Morgan's The Self-Made Expert Podcast, Alastair and Philip discuss what the journey to authority looks like, why you should cultivate expertise, and how publishing develops your thinking. They also discuss when authority matters, how you know if you have authority, and the importance of specialization in building authority. ➡️ Learn more about Authority Labs: h...

LinkedIn can be a fantastic source of leads for consultants, but there's a lot of noise on the platform, especially since the start of the pandemic.  In this episode, Louise Brogan and Alastair McDermott discuss how to do lead generation on LinkedIn without spamming people or burning yourself out. They also discuss Louise's specialization journey and how she niched down to just LinkedIn. “That is...

When we first start our consulting business, very often we come in with a specific idea of how it's going to look, what our services are going to be, and how we're going to sell them. But the great advantage of being independent is the ability to change the rules, to choose a business model that suits us as an individual.  In this episode, Chris Williams and Alastair McDermott discuss the differen...

There are different stages to growing a consulting business: the strategies you adopt when you're getting established can be different to those you use to scale later.  Several weeks ago I attended a marketing conference called The Uprising, an event run by Mark Schaefer. I spoke with many of the attendees and speakers. One of the people I met was Alisa Meredith, and when we spoke, she invited me...

The path to authority is a route to creating leverage and value beyond simply billing for your time. Authority allows you to work with clients who energize and inspire you, it allows you to stop pitching and instead have sales conversations with pre-sold clients and buyers. In this episode, Rochelle Moulton and Alastair McDermott discuss Rochelle's new book "The Authority Code" where she outlines...

There is a direct connection between niching down and earning more money. In this episode, Geraldine Carter and Alastair McDermott discuss positioning and specialization. Geraldine outlines the direct connection between your specialized positioning and your ability to command higher fees. They also discuss pricing new service lines, and how consultants tend to undercharge significantly. “Underpric...

Podcasts are rapidly growing in popularity in the B2C and B2B worlds with Joe Rogan and Spotify leading the drive. There's a lot of advice about podcasting available online, but much of it is missing an important nuance that applies to experts and consultants who are on the path to authority. In this episode, Joe Casabona and Alastair McDermott discuss the realities of starting a successful podcas...

Most consultants have been told "you should write a book" at some point. But easy as that is to say, where do you start? In this episode, Anne Janzer and Alastair McDermott discuss how to start writing your book, why writer's block isn't quite what people think it is, and how to think about success in relation to your book. They also discuss how not to screw up your business emails, and why sharin...

As authorities and experts in our specialist areas, we want our prospective clients to see us as competent, intelligent experts. But many of us are self-sabotaging and creating the perception of being less competent, less intelligent, having less expertise.  In this episode, Norbert Schwarz and Alastair McDermott discuss how audio and video quality exerts a disportionate influence on the perceptio...

The world is getting louder, more chaotic and it becomes difficult to hear your own voice amidst the noise around us. In this episode, Dr. Carmel Finnan and Alastair McDermott discuss the importance of storytelling in communication, and how it helps in building your brand. They also discuss how listening can play a major part in breaking through the noise. “When we feel heard - when we as human be...

"You should raise your prices" is advice you'll frequently hear on this podcast and elsewhere. But it's not that easy to implement. In this episode, Ron Baker and Alastair McDermott discuss why pricing by the hour is a bad option, and why value pricing is better for the provider and for the client. They cover steps you can  take to do value based pricing, and talk about the importance - and diffic...

Marketing and branding are often conflated: the distinction can feel more like semantics. But there's a very real and easy to understand difference. In this episode, Leo York and I discuss the primitive origins of marketing, how plants were the first marketers, and how and why color choice impacts how we think about brands.  We also discuss how experts can use the 3 Aristotelian modes of persuasio...

Being an independent consultant can sometimes be a tough gig - but there are things you can do to make life easier for yourself! In this episode Michael Zipursky and Alastair McDermott discuss how to run a successful consulting business, including details on how to niche, how to increase capacity, and why you should raise your prices immediately.  They discuss how selling consulting services is di...

After an initial growth period of several years, it's quite common for a business to hit an inflection point where they start to level off or even start to struggle.  In this episode Evelyn Starr and Alastair McDermott discuss how this happens and what you can do about it. Evelyn uses the analogy of teen adolescence to help identify the signs your brand might be in this period, and how to course-c...

What does it mean to be a thought leader? What is thought leadership content, and how is it created? In this episode Andrew Rogerson and Alastair McDermott walk through the actionable steps that you can take to create thought leadership content, from the strategic overview to research, writing the content and then repurposing it in multiple ways afterwards. They also discussed the importance of we...

Guesting on podcasts is a fantastic way to get your message in front of a new audience and build your authority. But the majority of pitches received by podcast hosts are terrible! In this episode Mai-kee Tsang and Alastair McDermott discuss why most podcast pitches are bad, how podcast guesting is such a fantastic opportunity, and how you can create a "yes-worthy pitch" that is well received by t...

Consultants are not in the business of selling methodologies - you're in the business of solving a client's problem. You need to be laser focused on your client and on solving their problem. In this episode Luk Smeyers and Alastair McDermott discuss why consultants say that they don't have time to do marketing, and how this is a fixable problem.  They also discuss what Luk terms the "vicious loop...