Spotlight on Success
Featured Interview
Alastair Wallace
“Spotlight on Success” is an interview series created by David Levine of I Am Your Virtual Professional. Its purpose is to amplify the voices of today’s business leaders. Each interview provides actionable insights that readers can implement immediately. No fluff, just practical wisdom that enables individuals to move forward with clarity and confidence.
Alastair Wallace
| Company | Brainfood Ltd |
|---|---|
| Role | CEO |
| LinkedIn Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastairwallace/ |
| Company Website | www.brainfooduk.com |
With more than 25 years of leadership and management experience, Alastair helps organizations develop confident, accountable first-line and middle managers who lead effectively and reduce the burden on senior leaders. Having trained and developed more than 23,500 managers, he is known for turning leadership theory into practical behaviors that improve performance, consistency, and accountability across teams. Before becoming a consultant and CEO, he progressed from frontline supervisor to leading more than 200 people across multiple sites, giving him first-hand insight into the realities of management. He is the creator of the award-winning How To Lead Your Team leadership system, designed to help managers handle real workplace challenges with confidence. His work has been recognized with CEO Magazine’s CEO of the Year for Leadership Development award in London for three consecutive years and includes contributions to postgraduate organizational psychology education.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
Interview Questions
1. What’s one strategy your business used recently that created meaningful growth?
I got much sharper about selling outcomes, not “training”. People rarely wake up thinking, “I’d love a leadership course today.” They think, “Why are my managers still escalating everything to me?” So I now position Brainfood around measurable business impact: managers saving time, improving performance, handling difficult conversations, and applying learning to real work. That shift has made the offer clearer, especially for our How To Lead Your Team™ programme, which is built around practical application and a 200% ROI guarantee.
2. How has AI or technology changed the way you operate or serve clients?
AI has become a useful thinking partner, but definitely not the boss. I use it to speed up planning, create draft scenarios, test ideas, and turn leadership concepts into sharper learning tools. But leadership development is still deeply human. You cannot automate trust, empathy, or the ability to read a room when a manager is quietly panicking about their first difficult conversation. So I treat AI like a very fast assistant with questionable judgement! Useful, but supervised.
3. What’s one thing you stopped doing that actually helped your business grow?
I stopped trying to sound like a “serious corporate training provider”. The work is serious. The delivery does not need to be dull. Brainfood works best when it sounds human, practical and a bit playful: no theory for theory’s sake, no endless dull slides, and no pretending that a leadership model changes behaviour by magic. The more I leaned into that, the easier it became for the right clients to recognise the value.
4. What’s a customer insight you discovered that changed the way you do business?
Senior leaders and HR teams are not really buying “training”. They are buying relief. They want fewer escalations, fewer awkward people issues landing on their desk, and managers who can actually manage. Many managers were promoted because they were good at the job, then expected to magically know how to lead people. That insight changed how I talk about Brainfood. It is not just training. It is confidence, capability, and fewer fires to put out.
5. If a business had to improve ONE area to grow faster in the next 90 days, what should it be?
Improve the quality of management conversations. Performance, motivation, trust and accountability succeed or fail one conversation at a time. If managers avoid feedback, delay difficult conversations, or give unclear expectations, small issues quietly become expensive dramas. Give managers simple tools to communicate clearly, coach properly, and tackle problems early. That is where time, money and morale are often leaking.
6. What’s one thing you do consistently that keeps your pipeline healthy?
I try to stay useful. I share practical leadership videos, simple tools, and honest observations about what managers actually struggle with. Not “unlock your potential” nonsense. Just things people can use in the real world. My aim is simple: even if someone never buys from me, they should still think, “That was helpful.” A recent client said to me at the end of a two day strategy workshop “You just make it all so easy for us”. There’s no great compliment than that tbh.
7. What’s a decision you made in the last year that had a bigger impact than you expected, and what led you to make it?:
I decided to put measurable ROI at the centre of How To Lead Your Team™. Leadership training is often treated as a nice-to-have, especially when budgets are tight. I wanted to challenge that by showing the commercial value of better management: time saved, performance improved, and problems prevented. That led to the 200% ROI guarantee. If learning does not change behaviour or create value, what was the point?
8. What’s one process you streamlined that made a noticeable difference in efficiency or results?
I simplified how managers apply learning after training. Traditional training often fails because people leave inspired, then get swallowed by meetings, emails and “quick questions” that are never quick. So I built real-work application into the process. Managers on How To Lead Your Team™ use the tools on live workplace challenges. That means development is not something extra on top of the job. It helps them do the job better.
9. What book, podcast, or resource has influenced your thinking or business decisions lately and why?
I keep coming back to behavioral science and habit formation. I love Atomic Habits by James Clear. People rarely change because someone tells them to “be more confident” or “communicate better”. That is about as useful as telling someone with 400 unread emails to “just relax”. People change when the new behaviour is simple, relevant, repeated, supported and immediately useful. That thinking shapes the way Brainfood designs learning: practical, brain-friendly, memorable and built for real work.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
I am Your Virtual Professional's
3 Key Takeaways
# 1
Focus on the Problem Your Client Wants Solved:
The strongest lessons from this interview is that customers often buy outcomes, not services. Alastair recognized that organizations were not looking for leadership training itself, they wanted fewer escalations, stronger managers, improved performance, and less pressure on senior leaders. Businesses that align their messaging with the problem they solve rather than the service they deliver often create stronger market positioning and growth.
# 2
Practical Value Builds Trust and Opportunity:
A consistent theme throughout Alastair’s responses is usefulness. Whether sharing leadership insights, simplifying learning application, or maintaining his pipeline through practical Content, he focuses on providing value people can immediately use. This reflects an important business principle: when you consistently help people solve real problems, trust grows naturally and opportunities often follow.
# 3
Systems Work Best When They Support Human Skills:
Alastair embraces AI and process improvements to increase efficiency, but he is clear that leadership still depends on judgment, empathy, communication, and accountability. The broader takeaway is that technology should enhance human capability rather than replace it. The businesses that combine efficient systems with strong human relationships are often best positioned for long-term success.
Who Should You Nominate?
- Leaders doing meaningful work
- People with insights others can learn from
- Voices worth elevating
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