Transcription
AI is about to decide who gets recommended and who gets ignored. And most founders have no idea how to show up in that world. I brought on Simone Sortter to break down exactly how AI systems interpret credibility, how they decide who to trust, and what you need to do right now to make sure you're the one getting recommended. This isn't theory. Simone's going to show you how to train AI to recognize your authority. If you're a founder or CEO trying to stay visible in an AI-driven world, this one's for you. Stick around to the end because what she shares about building trust with AI is going to change how you think about your entire content strategy. Hello, Simone. Thank you for being here.
>> Hello, Simone. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited.
>> Goodness, me too. I'm so excited to dive in today's topic because I think it's so important in this fast-paced world that we all understand what we need to do to get out there and be visible. So, let's just dive in. All right. Um, so, um, can you pull up the slides? Perfect. Okay, everyone else. I'm so excited to be here because today I will share something with you that will change your business if you implement what I tell you. So, we're going to talk about what I call the visibility triangle. Um, which will teach you how to be recommended by AI, trusted by humans, and chosen for premium opportunities without constantly posting on social media.
So, we probably haven't met before. So, my name is Simone Sto. I help founders, CEOs, and established entrepreneurs build undeniable authority, credibility, and visibility in the AI era. And I do this through GEO, generative engine optimization, strategic media coverage, top-tier podcasts, interviews, and becoming the expert that AI systems recognize, cite, and recommend.
Now, um, just very briefly about me, it's taken me one minute, but that's the thing that you should know about me. So I hold a master's degree in journalism and PR and I'm a certified PR consultant by the German Press Academy in Berlin. I spent eight years working as a journalist before I moved into corporate PR which means I do understand the media um and how it actually works um from the inside out and not only, you know, how to pitch them. Um, so I've led PR and communications work for global brands like match.com, Tupperware, Daimler, uh, Siemens. Really operating at a level where reputation, messaging, and credibility really matter.
Now, for my first business, if you Google me, you can find that I worked as a breakup and divorce coach in 2014. Um, and for that business, I have built a content-driven website that reached over 100,000 monthly organic readers. And I did this using SEO, search engine optimization and PR, public relations um and not social media. And that visibility directly led to a book deal which became a bestseller. So what basically happened is that my publisher found me through um my um media presence and they approached me asking me if I would want to write a book with them about how to recover from heartache and I did and this became a bestselling book which was really amazing. Um, so my work and my expertise also have appeared in more than 40 mainstream publications including Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Closer. I do write for Business Insider. I write for Parents.com and for other publications. I am an entrepreneur since 2014 and since 2018 I have helped entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs translate their expertise into media coverage and into authority positioning and long-term visibility without relying on constant posting. So the emphasis is on long-term visibility. Everything that we do that I do with my clients is long-term, like there is no get-rich-quick scheme. There is no magic pill. So we really build a foundation um for the long term. And in uh today I bring in 23 years of experience across journalism, PR, search engine optimization, and authority building. And I now work at the intersection of media credibility and how AI evaluates expertise. Now, this is about me and everything I'm teaching you today comes from building authority at scale for global brands, for myself, and for founders and experts navigating visibility in the AI era.
Now, what are we going to learn today? What are we going to cover today? Um, by the end of the session today, you understand how you can build trust in the age of AI. You will also understand how to become visible to AI and to humans. Um, and specifically, how can you be recommended by AI as an expert when people search, be cited and referenced by AI when it generates answers, and how you can make your expertise discoverable through AI and not worried by it. And we will also learn how you can build a business and personal brand that is not dependent on social media. Now, it's not about visibility for the sake of visibility because there's no point to that. It's about building authority that compounds and does not reset. This is what we're going to cover today.
Now, there are three shifts that are happening at the moment, like, you know, and everybody can feel them. So, uh, the first thing is people search in AI, right? So, um, the entire search behavior changed. Like before AI, people were Googling things and everybody um tried to get on page one, spot number one on Google. Um, I did this too, like, you know, with my first business because this is how people found you. This is how people discovered you. But people still Google, but like most of the people by now use the Google AI mode, which is this little summary thing, uh, that you can see when you Google anything. And of course, people use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, like any um large language model to do their research, right? So, um, the question is now not anymore, how can I get on page one in Google? The question is now, how can I actually show up in in AI when people search for an expert and where people search for answers that I know the answer to. Um, so this is one thing.
The second thing is we are in a trust recession, in a very, very big trust recession. Everybody feels it. Um, for most of the people, it's harder to sell because people lack the trust. And why? Because with AI, everybody can create content um that looks like you're an expert. Like everybody can create expert content and pretend to be an expert, which leads then to people um not trusting anymore because they don't know, is this actually written by you or is this actually written by AI? Before AI, we had to use our brains and our hands to write. Now we can just prompt anything and we can get perfect text, but that doesn't mean that we can deliver what we promise. Um, so this is the second shift.
And then the third shift is, um, social media is flooded with AI content because now it's so easy to create content. Like before AI, you know, only the people who were content creators or really, you know, were busy with their visibility on social media were seen, and the ones that, you know, did not create content were not seen. But the ones who did not used to create content now create content with AI, which means um our feeds are flooded and our attention span just got a little bit shorter. I think it's around 8 seconds now, which is like super duper short. Um, and at the end of the day, our audience is exhausted, and we are exhausted as well. Like I am, and I'm guessing you are too. Um, so AI is the gatekeeper, right? So now the question is, why is AI the gatekeeper? Because discovery is increasingly handled by AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Publexity. Um, and those systems do not browse the internet like humans, right? They analyze patterns. They analyze consistency and validation. So they look for evidence of authority across multiple sources and not opinions or personality. And if your expertise is not structured, documented, and verifiable in a way, so it's all about verification these days, that AI cannot confidently recommend you, even though you're not visible, like because it, it just cannot recognize you. Okay. So AI follows documented signals and not popularity. So this is also what I love about that because it doesn't matter if you have 50 Instagram followers or 50,000 or 2 million. That doesn't matter for AI. Um, because AI follows the links and not the likes, which is good news for everybody who doesn't want to be on social media, like me.
So now the question is, how does AI decide who gets seen, cited, and recommended? Um, so as I said, AI doesn't read content like we humans do. AI does aggregate signals. Um, so it collects data points across the web to understand who you are and whether you're credible. Now, and these data points come from long-form content, repeated themes. And what do I mean with that? Repeated themes is basically you need to talk about the same thing over and over. And that's the thing that you want to be known for. Um, it comes from third-party references and from consistent entity information. Now, what is consistent entity information? This is the data that you feed to Google because AI runs on the, the Google content, like what the Google Knowledge Graph knows. You need to train it. You need to give the right data. Um, so basically, um, you have to imagine like this, if your ideal client asks ChatGPT, who should I hire for your expertise, right? Then AI goes and scraps the entire internet um looking for proof that you are credible, and you need to create this proof. Um, also, um, AI looks for patterns, as I just said, and not posts, like so what do you talk about repeatedly? Who mentions or features you, and where does your expertise show up across trusted sources? Trusted sources. We're going to talk about this later.
Now, when um enough content, consistent signals exist, AI can verify your expertise, cite you as a source, and recommend you with confidence. And what is very important to understand is AI does not discover you once. It confirms you over time. The beauty is also AI does not need volume. You need clarity and repetition.
Now, I think now is a good moment to um everybody to uh take a moment and Google your own name. Like Google your own name and see what you find. And um, I do this with Simone, like not, not me, but Simone Leah. Um, so yes, here, this is what, what I see, right, when I Google your name. Um, and, um, it's basically your website. It is your, your Instagram, and it is your YouTube. Does that also um belong to you? The photography.
>> Okay. Um, that is that your podcast?
>> Yep.
>> Okay. That is great. All right. Um, so basically, what I see is, okay, people can find your website, which is good. But then on the right-hand side, you can see um three different Simone Leas. So one is a photographer um and there are two other ones. Um, let's just click that. So here, now this is a good example um of a Google Knowledge Panel, right? We will talk about this later. So Simone Leia photography um basically trained Google um to read the read the correct data, and this is how she created this this Google Knowledge Panel, and we will talk about this later um and how we can actually make this happen. So when we go back, okay, this here, now you can see your your website, and here now you can see the um something that is generated by uh Google AI, but it's, it's not you, right? Because it's a French author, and as far as I'm concerned, you're not a French author. Um, and then here, so this is yours. Yeah.
>> But it's still, it's also like there is still the photography in there. So, as you can see, you did not train Google on the data that is needed, right? So,
>> Um, but, uh, what you, what you can do as a, as a viewer now, go and check your, like Google your name and see what comes up, and also see if what comes up is consistent. Consistent in a way um that um do you have like the same title, the same bio everywhere? Like do you um like, like there are social media profiles that that you don't want anymore, like, like I'm still cleaning out that for me, it takes some time because I have quite some things online um, uh, but like I just recently deleted my Pinterest because I'm not on Pinterest and it, I don't need it anymore. So like, really, you need to think about your digital footprint in a way of, okay, what, what you can see, Google can see, and what Google can see, AI can see, right? Um, and ask yourself, is this actually what I want to be like, what I want to be visible to AI, to Google, and to your ideal clients, to prospects, to people that you work with, okay? Um, so this is always the first step that I do with my clients as well. Um, now, can we switch over to the slides? Yeah.
>> No. Um, and, and, um, I'm also curious um what, what you found out about, uh, your, your profile. So, um, yeah, put it in the chat, and then we can um, we can see.
>> All right. So,
>> I thought I actually found that really interesting that like obviously I post a lot on Instagram, but there was not that many photos or anything like that. Is that something that like we can learn how to improve that as well? Like, you know, like social media does not really, uh, is not really of a big interest to um, to AI because social media is, is like advertising, right? It's what we say about ourselves, and I can say I am great, I am amazing, I can, you know, achieve anything for you, but if somebody else says that, like somebody, if you speak on a podcast or if you are in the media, so we all, we always want to go for the third-party um endorsement um, but that's what we're gonna, what we're going to talk in the in the further presentation.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. So, um, what you need to do is you need to stop building on rented land, right? So, this also maybe answers your question a little bit. Um, so, social media, and I have an infographic for you um later where you can understand this really deeply. Social media is useful for distribution and not for building authority foundations because content on social media platforms, it's temporary, right? So, yesterday's post has no memory for today. It's like you're posting something amazing, nobody sees it the next day except when you're going viral, which 95% of people don't. Never. I never went viral. Um, so, um, so it, it's, and I wouldn't, wouldn't rely on that, right? So you also don't own the relationship, you don't own the data, you don't own the reach. Um, and when algorithms change, visibility disappears, even if your expertise has not, obviously. Um, so for me, for example, um, LinkedIn is my number one platform and also the only platform that I'm active on, and I have around 12,000 followers. And um, before LinkedIn changed the algorithm, I made one post and I reached around 3,000 people with one post. Now it's around 200 to 300 people. So it's like 10% or less. And why? Because they changed the algorithm. And um, if you build your business so on social media, you're always dependent on, on um, uh, on the algorithm, right? So, your authority only exists on platforms that you cannot control, and it's fragile by design because you are only one algorithm change away um from starting over. So bottom line, what that means is you don't need more followers. You need um permanent, searchable credibility that works right while you're asleep and, you know, while you're doing other things. Um, now, your digital footprint, um, you should build your digital footprint instead, right? And what does that mean? Um, you want to have a clean and easy-to-read online appearance. So this is what we just Googled, like, you know, if you Google your name, then you should, everything should be clear and neat. Um, and you can Google my name and then you can see how this approximately looks, and even mine is not perfect yet, and it can never be perfect because, you know, you can like influence Google to an extent um and do your best, but sometimes there are just also things that show up that you still have to go and work on. Um, so, but that is that then a structured and verifiable website with high-quality content, podcast interviews, media appearances, and a Google Knowledge Panel. This is what I just showed you with um Simone Leia photography. Um, now, um, with that, you um build instant trust with your ideal client, and AI can see and approve you as an expert and recommend, cite you, and you don't have to rely on social media. All right. Um,
>> Say it again.
>> It's exciting.
>> It is. I know. I love what I do, you know. So, um, but I also want to show you a couple of like, like why it matters, and I want to show you data. Okay. Um, so according to recent research, 63% of B2B buyers use AI tools like ChatGPT in their research process before contacting vendors. So, I have a high-ticket program. So, and whenever people would want to work with me, I do this the same. Like if I drop 20, 30, 40K somewhere, I do my research and I have a conversation with ChatGPT or any other AI about the person that I want to work with, and if there is not the information that I expect to see, or um, there is like, you know, like either no information, negative information, or um, wrong information um, then I have a hard time to build trust, right? So then it's really difficult for me to um, to, to then reach out and confidently, you know, drop this amount of money. Um, so what you want to do is you want to make sure that people find the information that they need, right? Um, then also podcast listeners are four times more likely to trust the brand after hearing the founder on the show, which is obvious because they have you for 30 to 60 minutes in their ears, and um, you build this know-like-and-trust factor immediately because you tell your brand story, you share about your expertise, you share about yourself. Um, and then also media mentions increase perceived authority by 73% compared to self-published content alone, which is also obvious, right? If you see somebody being featured in Forbes, on Cosmopolitan, or in Healthline, or whatever big publication, you automatically think, not even consciously, but subconsciously, oh wow, this person is an expert. Um, and then also, Google's AI Overviews now appear in 84% of searches. 84% um, and it prioritizes, it prioritizes entities, so like people with structured data. And I know I talk a lot about data and trust sources, and it sounds all very technical, but it's not as difficult um as you, as it sounds, okay?
Now, the visibility triangle that I will present to you is not theory. It is um built on how AI actually evaluates um you, your business um, and, and credibility. Now, on the, now this is um my visibility triangle, what we're going to talk about um here um, and you can see on the bottom, you have GEO, which is the foundation. Like GEO is generative engine optimization, which is the technical backbone that makes your authority machine-readable, right? So, as I said, AI is machines, it's not humans. They read differently. So, in simple terms, GEO tells Google and AI exactly who you are, what you want to be known for, and why you're credible, so that they can, that they can confidently recommend you. Right? Now, this involves two things that we need to do. First, structured data alignment. So, your name, role, expertise, um, everything appears consistently across the web, your website, profile, in your schema markup, everywhere. This is what I just said. When you Google yourself, see if your messaging is consistent. So, I always call myself PR and AI strategist, and not PR expert here, like this, what I used to call myself, but I'm now also correcting everything online so that it's just all the same, right? It's consistent messaging. So this is one thing. And then the other thing is strategic blogging. Um, so you need to publish content on your website that answers your ideal client's questions because with that, you feed AI with authoritative answers it can cite. Because think about it, if you want to be cited by AI, it actually needs to get your answers from somewhere. So you need to write a blog. Um, and, uh, so in 2014, with my first business, this is how I built my, my website to 100,000 monthly organic readers with SEO, right? So then I optimized for keywords. But now we don't optimize for keywords anymore. We optimize for, uh, your entity. We optimize for you as a person, like who are you and what are you known for? Um, so, and obviously, back then I wrote all the blog articles by hand, which took me around 60 to 90 minutes. Now I have a system which takes my clients 15 to 20 minutes to have an article that is not written um like with, like from AI content, but with our own content, but it's written by AI. So we help, we use AI to help us write the content, but it's still coming from our head, right? It's still our own ideas. Um, and without GEO, AI sees only disconnected fragments, and with GEO, it sees you as a verified expert. This is also why it can see, and why the triangle is upside down, and GEO is on the bottom, because if you don't have the foundation, if you don't have the, the grounding layer, then the triangle will collapse. Now, this is the, this is the, the foundation that we need to have. Um, and, uh, let me just um, share my screen again because, um, usually when I have this presentation, I get a lot of questions about the schema markup. Um, and let me just share the screen. Oh, now it's in Dutch, of course. Sorry, I did not, I did not do my, my VPN. So, what I want to do here is I want to just grab my website.
>> I have so many questions, but I'm like, I'm sure she's going to answer them. I'm sure she's going to answer them.
>> Yes, I will. I, we have time at the end as well to answer the questions. So, you know, when I say structure your website, um, one part is the people schema markup, the organization schema markup, there is a book schema markup if you're an author. So this is a snippet, like a piece of code that you need to write um and add on your website so that AI can actually read it. Right. So, as you can see here um and then there, it's a, it's a longer thing here. Oh, this is, yeah, okay, I have to look at that. Um, but this is basically me and the person, like my name, what do I want to be known for? Those are all the links. This is everything that I, that I know and that I want to be known for, right? So, but this is data that you need to create and that you need to feed um, like feed AI, and you can only do this by putting this code on the website so that um AI and Google can also put together the dots of who you are and what you want to be known for.
>> Can I ask a quick question? Can it go on, can it go on, uh, any website? Like, can I put that data, like that, um, code into say a GoHighLevel website or a Wix website or a WordPress? Like, will it work on anything?
>> Yes, it works on anything. So, you just have, like, it depends on the web, like, it depends on if you work, you know, use WordPress or Wix or Showit or whatever um, then it depends um on how you can put it there, but you always can put the, the code in there, uh, so that it's readable. Yeah, absolutely. Amazing. That is so cool. Yay. Thank you.
>> Um, all right. Can we go back to the slides?
>> All right. So, that was GEO, the foundation. Now, the next thing is podcasts. Now, um, podcast interviews are third-party credibility signals, and they create long-form contextual conversations that AI can actually understand. Now, what does that mean? So, with podcasts, first of all, you build trust because people listen to you for 30 to 60 minutes. Secondly, you get the backlink, and the backlink is basically um somebody else saying you're an expert in that field because you talk about your, your um expertise on the podcast, obviously, and then you get the backlink. Um, and the um, the, the transcripts, they function as a high-quality, natural language blog content because AI can obviously read video, um, read audio, um, read text, you know, it's um, nowadays, there still has to be a transcript, but, you know, it can read video um, I think like the, the MP3, like the only the audio um, um, it's, it's a little bit buggy um, but, uh, that's only just a matter of weeks, probably, until this is possible. So AI can just read anything. Um, and again, you want to make sure that you talk about your expertise. Um, and then repeated appearances around a clear expertise lane um creates signal density. That's what I said in the beginning as well. Always talk about the same thing. The more you talk about the, the denser the signal is um, and, and the more trust um AI has in you, and your ideal client as well. And then for humans, podcasts build familiarity and trust um at a depth that social media cannot at all because, you know, 30 to 60 minutes and one social media post. And then for your ideal clients, broadcast interviews let them get to know you really deeply before even booking a call, right? So they already arrive pre-sold, not just curious. So when I, whenever people come to me when they hear me on a speak on a podcast um, most of the time it's like, how does the timeline look? Um, do you have capacity, and what is my investment um, because people already know that they want what I sell um, so depth builds memory um for people and um, for machines. Um, now the next layer is the media, which is the validation layer. So, media appearances act as a third-party credibility signal as well, and the bigger and more credible the publication, the stronger the trust signal. Now, not only the publication, but the bigger and more credible the source. Like if you speak on Lewis Howes, The School of Greatness podcast, this is a massive backlink that you would get, right? So, um, and then also, you know, compared to like Forbes or, or, or Cosmopolitan or like all the big publications that you have, if you get those backlinks, this is a massive indicator for AI, for Google to say, like, okay, this is really next, but she or he actually knows what, what he or she's talking about. Um, and also high authority mentions um, uh, strengthen your digital identity and reinforce your expertise, obviously. And the beauty about um, media is also that you don't, you don't need to convince anyone, right? So you write on the publication's reputation um, and it does the work for you. Um, also, media works best when it validates something that already exists and not when it tries to create authority from scratch, which that's, which is also why this is the third layer, right? So, we always start with, to start with GEO, then we go to podcasts, now we go to media. Um, and authority is stronger when others say it for you. That's what I said. You know, if I say I'm great, that's ads. If somebody else says I am great, or you are great, then this is PR. Um, and now here, the, the pink circle around the AIO, that's the continuous visibility loop, right? And AIO stands for artificial intelligence optimization, and how it's basically a system that reinforces itself, right? So, podcasts generate depth and discoverability, media provides the validation and authority signals, GEO ensures um everything is connected, legible, and understood by AI, and AIO ensures that these signals are continuously reinforced so that authority um compounds over time instead of resets, like with social media, when you say something the one day and the next day it disappeared already.
Now, here is um like an infographic um so that you can understand easier what I just said because I know it is a lot to process. So, uh, this is basically the new hierarchy of authority um, and also at the same time, how you can become visible to AI. So, on the top, there you have the priority, which is the foundation of authority. Now, here we have the, the strong GEO foundation, right? So, you create um your verified entity, which includes also a Google Knowledge Panel that signals AI that you are real and you are a recognized entity. Then you want to start pitching podcasts, and also later than pitch the media. So this is your number one priority. Then on the second layer, the legibility, that is the structure of understanding, so that we show AI um, or that we teach AI and teach Google um, who we are and what we want to be known for. So you have on the right-hand side, you have the consistent messaging, what I said, you know, always the same bio, always the same topic, create the, the, the theme density. And then on the left, you have the structured data, like that's the technical setup of your website, where you have the schema markup, for people, for organizations, for books, and everything. Now, those two layers are the most important ones that you want to focus on. And then you have the bottom layer, which is the distribution, which is basically the amplifier, and this is where social media and regular posting sits. So, um, the role of that tier, of that, you know, yeah, tier is basically only to distribute the authority and the proof that you have built in the first two layers, right? And not really to create foundation, found, sorry, foundational credibility. Sometimes words are hard. Um, and then on the right-hand side, you can see the invisibility trap, which is really, most entrepreneurs focus their energy on the support tier, right? On the foundation, on social media, and then they wonder why they are invisible. Um, and, uh, yeah, so social media will never create the authority and the visibility that the first two layers will create for you. All right. Um, oh, sorry. So interesting now. So why do most strategies fail and why you, why are you not crazy for being frustrated? Now, first of all, you have already seen the system and work that I just told you, right? You just did not know what to call it because if you think about experts um in your niche that you get see quoted everywhere, they have a strong media presence, they appear on multiple podcasts, um when you Google them, everything um is connected, right? They have a verified, verified foundation, but they are not smaller, smarter than you. They also look more qualified. The only thing that they have um is what you're about to build, right? They connected, verifiable signals that AI can recognize and recommend. This is what we need to do. Um, so why do most strategies fail? So, you probably tried LinkedIn, leader, LinkedIn through leadership content, but without um media validation, you're just another voice in the noise. Um, you probably guessed on podcasts, but without the GEO structure, AI cannot connect the, the dots and the appearances to your expertise. Um, you've published probably content about um, um, inconsistent topics. Um, a positioning um, a positioning that confuses both humans and AI. Maybe you also chase followers, but attention without authority um gives you stuck in the "almost known" loop. Um, and you maybe also keep changing your messaging with, uh, fragments, um, um, which fragments your digital, sorry, I just read it and then I'm just, I just need to speak freely. Um, so you keep changing messaging with fragments, um, which fragments your digital identity and makes you invisible to AI systems. And the missing piece is basically a strategic system that creates the connected, verifiable signals across all three points of the triangle.
Now, um, here is a quick overview of, how your business looks, or how your digital footprint looks without the visibility triangle and with the visibility triangle. So, without the visibility triangle, you have scattered signals, which basically means AI is confused, and you don't exist in recommendations or at all, right? So, your podcast appearances live in isolation, your content is not connected to your entity, um, media mentions, if you have any, aren't reinforcing a clear expertise, and AI sees fragments and not authority. Now, with the visibility, uh, triangle um, you have connected signals, which, which then, which gives AI the confidence to actually recommend you and cite you. And this is basically means your, your GEO creates your verified foundation, podcasts generate searchable, long-form authority, media provides third-party validation, AI sees consistent proof of expertise across trusted sources, and as a result, you show up when it matters the most.
Now, here is another infographic. I love working with infographics because I know it's a lot that I, that I draw. Um, so here is basically in a nutshell, what I, what we just talked about, right? So, um, the AI visibility shift is basically from rented land to owned authority. So, on the left-hand, you can see the old way, which is a rented visibility. Your strategy relies on rented land, which means social media platforms control your reach, making your visibility fragile and unreliable. Then, your consistency is just busy work because boasting consistently without clear authority signals just makes you consistently ignored. And your visibility, you're invisible to AI gatekeepers because AI doesn't reward noise or volume. It rewards clear, credible authority signals. Now, on the right-hand, you can see the new way, which is your own authority. Now, your strategy is engineered um, is engineered authority, like, engineer the way of you thought about like, what do I actually want to be known, uh, for, and what do I need to feed into Google and into AI. Um, so you do this with your GEO, with podcasts, interviews, with media, and that also means your presence satisfies humans and AI. Like, we talk a lot about how can AI read what you publish, but everything that you read and everything that you publish for the machines is also great for humans because they actually want to read the answer of the question that you answer in your blog post. They actually want to listen to you on the podcast, and they build the know-like-and-trust factor, and they build the trust when they can see you on the media, right? Um, so that basically also means you're building an asset that survives. So, this approach creates a long-term brand that outlives trends and algorithm changes. So, as I said in the beginning, there is no get-rich-quick scheme. There is no magic pill. This involves work, obviously. But if you think about how much work you invest in social media and how quickly it disappears, then you might want to shift from investing your time into something that compounds over time instead of just going um to create content that, you know, like will disappear in the void. Um, and now here um, you can see the entire roadmap because, um, as I said, it's a lot that I talked about, and this is like the final summary where I want to put together the dots of what do you actually need to do because now you understand the concept of like, like how does it all work, but now you want to probably want to have a step-by-step system of, how can you implement this? Now, first step, and I did not talk about this in the triangle, but this is something that I always do with my clients. I establish, or we establish your LinkedIn profile. Um, so, and why do we do this? Um, because your clients will look at it, editors will look at it, journalists will look at it, podcasters will look at it, and um, it will also um, be um, be looked at by um, by AI. So, this is the only platform that it's cited because you can also publish blog articles there. Um, so what you want to do is you want to set up and optimize your um, your profile. You don't have to put content there every single day. I don't do this. You can check my LinkedIn. Um, but you want to have this there so that when people find it, they can see who are you, what do you want to be known for, what is it that you do, how can you help them. This is always the first step. The second step is where we build your GEO hub, like um, your generative engine optimization. Um, as I said, you want to optimize your website for AI um, data pulling and understanding your expertise and recommendation. Now, on the bottom, you can see two things. First, create a consistent digital footprint. That's what I said, your messaging and everything. Um, you want to Google yourself and clean up what you can see. And then on the left, structure your, uh, website data um, or your data for um, for AI, which is then again, where, where we implement the schema markup, people schema, organization, book, whatever. There are a couple of those um, and then once you have this ready, then you want to create high-value blog content um, that is readable by AI. So you need to have a certain structure. Um, and you want to publish around, uh, two posts per week. Uh, and you also want to update the, the blog posts. Um, and then um, another thing that I also didn't mention in the um, in the triangle, in the visibility triangle um, but what I hope that you do in your business anyway, is build your own, build your own email list because this is the, your marketing channel that you own. There is no algorithm. You can say whatever you want. Um, uh, you know, real um, and this is something that you, uh, that I always optimize the website for my clients for as well. Can't talk about this now because that will go too deep um, but this is the second step, right? So, we build your GEO hub, and then the, the third step is you amplify um, with podcast pitching, like you pitch yourself as a guest to podcasts um, to build the backlinks, to get the authority um, to create AI-readable content, and so that AI can cite you, and also to build trust and credibility with your ideal client. And then once you have that um, I usually do this with my clients um, for um, three, four months so that we establish a routine so that they um, are really speaking on podcasts on a regular basis, and then we introduce media pitching as well. Um, because then you want to solidify your authority with media pitching, and for the media, you can either be featured or you can be a contributor. Uh, these are two different routes as well. Featured means you're interviewed, and you're going to be cited by the journalist um, and they will talk about you um, and then link to your website um, and being a contributor means that you write the article on your own, which means, and I love that, that means you are in charge of the messaging, and you're also being paid for that. Publications pay for you um, if you, if you write an article. Now, with that, you um, generate the strongest authority signal. Now, here in the um, infographic, B2B examples, Forbes has 110 million answer readers, and Business Insider has 105 million monthly readers. Now, if you think about um, the heaviness of this backlink, um, you can imagine how valuable they are um, for your visibility. And then also, what I love about the media is that you unlock new opportunities. Um, as I said, I got my book deal from that, wrote a bestselling book, but I also got clients from this, collaborations from this. Um, and things will appear out of nowhere, um, which is really great. Um, and then in the infographic, in the last step, you can see repurpose and reinforce. Is basically we create content in all those steps before, and then we can, we can use this content and post it on LinkedIn or other social media channels. Now, this is basically in a nutshell, how you can um, become visible to AI and recommended by AI and cited by AI, and obviously also um, trusted by your ideal client, you know, by buyers.
>> Absolutely love that. That is so, so, so, so interesting. I have a million questions. Okay, first question, if, because I love that. Thank you. If someone was like, okay, I'm going to do all of these things, how long can it take? Like, is it something that's going to take us 10 years to build authority, or can we start to build authority in as little as two to three months, as you're saying there?
>> So, um, like the, the entire roadmap that, that you just saw is, uh, what I implement with my clients in 12 months. So, my um, AI Authority Accelerator is basically a 12-month program where we start out with LinkedIn, and then we introduce everything else step by step. Um, what is important to understand is that, um, you build something over time, right? AI does not suddenly discover you. Um, it really sees you over time um, in everything. Like, at the beginning, it can feel slow because you build and you build and you don't see something um, but, just know that everything that you put out there um, with that system, builds and compounds over time. And if you publish two articles per week, you know, that's um, like more than 100 a year. Um, and then you update everything that you have. And then, you know, if you speak on, on four podcasts a month, this is um, about 50 podcasts per year. If you get, you know, published in one publication per month, that's 12 per year, you know, and everything that you build compounds and and is being put together um, because you have the foundation, right? So, you teach with your GEO um, you teach um, Google and AI what you want to be known for um, and then um, if you, if you create everything that I just told you um, it will compound all the time.
>> Absolutely love that. Thank you. And when you are saying update the blog posts, what do you mean by that?
>> So, um, AI looks for the freshest um content that there is. Um, so the recent study says like, when a content is cited in AI, it is not older than 13 weeks. So, what you should do is you should go and you should update your blog posts or refresh them so that there is a new date of um, like a new publishing date, uh, there, so that AI can actually see this content is still relevant. Because if it's like six months or 12 months old, AI does not understand that this is still relevant. So, this is why you need to update the content.
>> That is super interesting. Thank you. I had no idea about that. Next.
>> And also, don't have to reinvent the wheel, the, the wheel, right? So, with social media, you have to continuously think about new posts and new things and new ideas and new concepts. And with that, you create high-quality content on your website, and you go back there every 10 weeks, let's say, or every 12 weeks, and you go through all the posts and you um, update things or just republish them so that the date is up to date.
>> Yeah, I love that. It sounds so simple, but it, you wouldn't, and you wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference, but now that you've said it, I'm like, "Yeah, that would make a huge difference." Um, my next question as well though is, where, where are we getting this blog post from? Like, so say, for example, I have a podcast and I do half an hour once a week. Can I just use that to become my blog post and publish that on my blog and in LinkedIn and Substack and all the places?
>> Yes, absolutely. So, this is, you know um, what you can do, like, you know, like an ideal workflow if you have the time and the capacity or team is, you can create a YouTube video um, because YouTube is the second most cited um platform um, as well. Can create a YouTube video, and then you use for the YouTube video, you extract the MP3, and you have this as a podcast, and then you use the transcript of that, and you use AI to actually take the transcript and write a blog post for you, and then you publish the video and the blog post on your website. This will be the ideal um workflow. I only have a blog, I don't have a YouTube channel yet um, but, uh, if you do have, then, then you can totally set up this workflow. If you only have a podcast with like no video, uh, then you can obviously use the MP3, like, uh.
Get the transcript and then use the transcript, uh, to feed AI and ask AI to write a blog post, um, for your website. I love this. Thank you so much. What about things like, so say for example, if I'm publishing the exact same, the exact same blog post, can it be the exact same blog post on my website, my LinkedIn, somewhere like Substack? Can I repurpose all of that with virtually the same amount of words, use that same thing to go onto Facebook, or do I need to tweak the words a little bit for each different place?
>> No, it can be the same. Uh, so what I would usually start with is publish it on the website and then wait for three, four days, um, so that Google can actually recognize this as the first place where it was published. And then I would go on and I would use it, um, for LinkedIn and all the other places, Substack, um, and I do this, it's still my habit because with SEO, you had to make sure that, um, uh, the original source, um, was being recognized by Google. Um, and this is why I still do that. First, publish on the website and then wait for three, four days and then publish it on all the other places.
>> Yep. That's super interesting as well. Thank you. Cuz yeah, like these are things we don't even know normally as content creators and we're just like, you know, posting on Instagram and you're like, set the foundation, guys. Set the foundation. So, love this. If someone was starting from scratch, I'm feeling like what you're saying is two, two blog posts a week is the minimum, followed by one, um, interview a week on a podcast, followed by, um, one publication a month. Is that kind of like the bare minimum to get this sort of moving?
>> No, I mean, this is, I mean, this is enough to to get it moving fast. You know, you can also be on one publication, uh, like every other month or every three months, you know, like it's, it's important that you, the most important thing is that you understand the concept and that you set up processes for you so that you implement this on a regular basis because it's about consistency. Like it's with social media, you have to post consistently that people can, you know, see you every single day, um, just to see the content disappearing again. Um, and with that, you, you need to have a system. Like for me, every Tuesday I do, um, every Tuesday I do the pitching, right? So I do the pitching, I do the follow-up, um, the outreach, um, and the writing, uh, and everything. And, um, if you set this up and you really understand that this is CEO work, right? So this is not, um, like this is not assistant work. This is not something that, I mean, you can outsource it to your team in-house. I would never outsource it to an agency, like never. First of all, they, uh, they, you know, ask an arm and a leg, um, investment advice. Uh, secondly, most of them, most, not all of them, but most of them are not worth it. Um, so you need to understand that this work is actually CEO work, um, and work that needs to be done by you or be supervised by you. You know, if you have an assistant, um, then you, uh, you need to look at what is created and what is published, um, to make sure this is actually what you want to be seen online.
>> I love this. Thank you. And also as well, when it comes to like, if someone's brand new, how are they finding these podcasts that they're pitching to? Are you using an AI tool to do that? Are you doing manual research and how many are you even applying to a week to get on to say one a week, like one four a month sort of thing?
>> Yeah. So I, uh, I use different strategies, but there is a great, uh, search engine for podcasts that you can use, um, which is called Listen Notes. Um, there you can find a lot of, um, shows like, uh, it's basically a podcast search engine. Um, then there are also, um, tools like Popmatch where you can sign up for, uh, where matches. This is more like a beginner strategy so that you, you know, then you don't have to proactively find and pitch them, but then you get, you set up a profile and then you're going to be matched and then you still have to pitch them, but it's a little bit more reactive, whereas, um, pitching podcasts is, um, proactive, right? Where you create your list and you come up with speaking topics and you write your professional pitch, um, and all those things. Um, what was the second part of the question? Oh, how many podcasts do you have to pitch to to speak on four, um, per month? That, that depends. Like, that really depends. Um, I typically, um, uh, pitch 40 podcasts per month, so 10 per week. Uh, which is super, um, fairly quick if you understand the system and how to set this up and how to make this work. Um, but you know, uh, it can also be that you, uh, that you need to pitch 80 podcasts, right? But that, that really depends on a multiple factors, uh, you know, like how good of a fit is the podcast shows, how, um, how, uh, great are your speaking topics, do you actually show that you want to, um, uh, offer value? Um, how good is your pitch? How good is your subject line? Like, those are a lot of things that you need to take into consideration. But I, I always say like, um, pitch 10 podcast shows per month, which is 40 per, uh, 10 podcasts per week, which is 40 per month, which is almost 500 per year. And you, um, you do speak on podcasts a lot.
>> Yep. That is super cool. Pro tips for everybody playing at home. You don't hear someone telling you this sort of stuff all the time. So definitely be writing notes, guys. Uh, also with the publications as well, in getting in publications, is that sort of similar to how you're getting onto podcasts?
>> Well, with publications, it's a little bit more, um, I wouldn't say complicated, but a little bit more complex. So, uh, you need to understand, um, how the media works. You need to understand how the publication works, what they want. Um, you need to understand how to pitch them and what kind of stories to pitch them. Um, and also how to find the contact because it's really, you don't have to have a, this is the biggest lie that PR agencies will tell you because this is how they make the sales, like we have the contacts, like, you know, we have the contacts and we just need to send one email and then it's going to magically happen and that's Um, so what you want to do is you want to research a publication and find the right person who is interested in what you have to say and then write a pitch. And then also the pitch, uh, for being featured is, um, uh, drastically different from the pitch if you want to be, um, a contributor and write for the media. Um, but yeah, so basically, uh, go to the publication, see what they publish, see how you can add value, and then find the person that you would want to pitch.
>> Yeah. No, I love that. Thank you. One more question. Sorry, I'll probably be saying that for the next [laughter]
>> But how much AI involvement are you using in this writing? So, if you're writing a blog post or you're pitching someone or you're writing an article for one of the publications, how, what is the kind of percentage of how much of that article or blog post or pitch is written by you compared to say Claude or Chat GPT?
>> Like for my blog, everything is written, um, by me, but it's, uh, it's based on, uh, on various transcripts that I give. So there is also a system to that. Um, pitching for the media, um, you cannot write a pitch with AI and you can also not, um, write an article for, um, with AI for the for the media. The only publication that at this moment allows to write with AI is Inc. magazine. Uh, for all the rest, they have an AI detector and if anything looks like AI, um, then this is basically, um, like they will basically blacklist you, they will not respond to you, um, you know, so, um, and then for the, for the pitch, um, that's a little bit more drastic, um, over than if you're, let's say, like being accepted as a contributor and you could write the article for the publication, um, they do not allow you to write with AI. And you also have to, um, uh, sign an agreement and like, you know, for Business Insider, it says that, for Parents, it says that, for Forbes, it says that, you know, like every agreement says like you're not allowed to write with AI and if you still do and they find out, your article will not be published and you have just blew the chance to write for a big publication. So there is like, with the media, there is a lot of manual work still, um, still included.
>> Yeah, I love that. It's good because it's still allowing people to like have their voice. Cuz that was one of the things I was wondering, even with blog posts for your website, whether or not it was actually going to penalize you if AI was writing it. But from the sound of it, with what you're doing, as long as you're using your own language patterns, your own thought ideas and stuff like that, you're not actually getting penalized for using AI in your workflow.
>> Yeah. No. And there is a, like, there is this rumor that if you write content, like your blog posts with AI, then Google will, um, punish you. It's absolutely not true. The only goal that you need to have is to, um, uh, add value and to answer a question and it needs to be, uh, humanized, right? It needs to be with human language. But, um, if you, uh, create the content the way I teach it to my clients, then you use your own voice. You use your own words and you don't use this, you know, AI text with all the dashes and the colons and the super fancy words. Um, because this is actually what is, um, not what me, what it means like to not humanize a content, um, a blog post.
>> Yeah. No, I love this. This is so, so interesting because it feels like what we've really built on today is like that long-term strategy. Like what you're saying, it's not the quick wins of your 30-second, um, of fame with your reel. It's literally building those long-term, basically SEO, but the AI version, like the now version, which is just cool.
>> Yeah, exactly. So, um, yeah, with, as I said, like with social media, you have to reinvent the wheel every day and like, I, sorry, I can't be bothered to create a reel every single day and to dance in front of the camera. Like, I, I don't, I have two kids, um, and I don't have time for that. So everything that I want that I, that I build, um, or like create should compound. I did this with my first business, um, and I'm now heavily invested, uh, in in that strategy in 2026 myself, obviously, um, because everything changes super fast and I also think that building a personal brand just gets harder and harder, um, in the next, um, two to three years because with AI, we can already do so much, um, but you need to build a personal brand now to build this trust because at the certain point, we cannot distinguish anymore, is this a, a real human or is this actually an avatar talking to us? Um, so, yeah, and that, that still is, um, you know, an avatar will not be, uh, featured in the media, you know, because the media will always only, you know, well, I'm saying that now, right, in 2026, but as from now, I think the media will always only include humans, um, and not AI, um, avatars into the media, um, into, yeah, into their presence, um, and the same goes for podcast interviews, right? So this will remain a strategy. It has been for a long time. PR has been a, um, a long-term strategy and a number one strategy for a very long time. It becomes even more important now as we're moving so fast with AI and everybody can create everything. Um, I mean, I can create an AI avatar and I can pretend to be, I don't know, any other expert, you know, like a health expert or nutritional expert or whatever. Um, and, um, and people could, you know, believe it. But, um, um, it would not be possible for me in that case to speak on a podcast because if you speak on a podcast, you really need to understand what you're talking about. Or like on a, on a summit like this, if you don't understand what you're talking about, um, you know, you, you, you just can't show up. Yeah, I think that was a long-winded answer to your question.
>> No, I loved that answer. It definitely, like, yeah, it makes sense and I definitely agree with you, like getting that visibility and showing up now, why, like, as you said, why people are still showing up as humans is definitely so important because, yeah, avatars are what's coming in and there is going to be a couple of years time where we just can't tell the difference anymore. What might even be quicker than that? So I love this whole topic and it's been so great to connect with you and hear about it. Where can people find you?
>> Well, the easiest way to find me is on my website, Simone.com. Um, and then if you want to connect with me directly, then LinkedIn is the place. I'm also on Instagram and but you know, you try to get in touch with me there. Now, it's not really easy because I'm hardly there, but LinkedIn, I'm there on a regular basis. So, feel free to connect, send me a message, and, uh, you know, if you have any questions and reach out.
>> Amazing. Thank you so much, Simone, cuz this has been like amazing stuff that we don't even think about, but that I feel like we really, really, really need to know moving forward. So, thank you so much for your time today because this has been amazing.
>> Thanks a lot for having me.