Podcasts about aeo

Only 34% of AI model citations align with brand-recommended positioning today. Jason Lax, senior SEO and AI expert at SAP, brings nearly two decades of search experience now focused on evolving enterprise strategy for AEO and GEO. He outlines a framework for prompting AI models directly to surface why they aren't recommending your brand, then converting those gaps into cross-functional tactics spanning product, pricing, and promotion. The discussion moves beyond ranking-driven SEO toward using AI model feedback as a diagnostic layer for pricing and product positioning challenges.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us Fan MailThe future of real estate search may not belong to Zillow, Realtor.com, Compass, or any brokerage portal.It may belong to AI.Buyers are increasingly moving toward a world where they can simply tell ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, or another AI assistant exactly what they want:“Find me the five best homes for my family, my budget, my commute, and my lifestyle.”And then comes the question every real estate agent should be thinking about:“Who is the best agent to help me buy one of these homes?”In this episode of Dishin' Dirt, Gary Pickren explores why the real estate industry may be spending millions of dollars fighting over portals while artificial intelligence is quietly changing the entire way consumers search for homes, compare properties, research neighborhoods, and ultimately choose a real estate agent.Google itself is moving from traditional search results toward AI-generated answers. Zillow is already embracing conversational AI. The consumer journey is changing fast.So what does that mean for Realtors?It means the future may not be about getting more website clicks.It may be about making sure AI understands who you are, what market you serve, and why you are an expert.In this episode:• Why AI could become the new front door to real estate search• Why traditional real estate portals may lose influence• How Google AI is changing the way consumers search• Why Zillow is already preparing for the AI era• How AI may narrow hundreds of listings down to the best few• Why agents will still be essential to the real estate transaction• How AI could determine which agents get recommended to consumers• Why Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO, matters• Why generic real estate content will not be enough• How hyperlocal expertise can help agents stand out• Why YouTube, reviews, websites, articles, and original content matter more than ever• What agents should be doing now to position themselves for AI searchThe biggest marketing question for Realtors may soon change from:“Where do I rank on Google?”to:“When AI is asked who the expert is, does it say my name?”The agents who win the next era of real estate may not be the ones who spend the most money buying leads.They may be the ones who become the most trusted answer.Stop trying to own the search. Become the answer.CLICK FOR THE BEFORE YOU SIGN SERIESDon't Sign a Buyer's Real Estate Agent Agreement Until You Watch This | South CarolinaSubscribe to Dishin' Dirt for more discussions on real estate law, technology, artificial intelligence, brokerage trends, marketing, and the issues shaping the future of the real estate industry.#RealEstate #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Realtor #RealEstateAgent #ChatGPT #Zillow #GoogleAI #RealEstateMarketing #RealEstateTechnology #AEO #FutureOfRealEstateDon't forget to like us and share us!Gary* Gary serves on the South Carolina Real Estate Commission as a Commissioner. The opinions expressed herein are his opinions and are not necessarily the opinions of the SC Real Estate Commission. This podcast is not to be considered legal advice. Please consult an attorney in your area.    

Sessions and visits mislead teams as AI absorbs informational search intent. Jason Lax, senior SEO and AI expert at SAP with nearly two decades of search experience now leading AEO and GEO strategy, breaks down why declining traffic volume can mask rising engagement quality. He details how to layer conversion data and engagement dimensions alongside session counts to distinguish true visibility loss from a healthier, higher-intent traffic mix, and outlines the metric framework enterprise teams need as AI reshapes the top of the funnel.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Michael Sorg and Katie Dudas are joined by Sam Eitzen, CEO of Snapbar, for a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is changing experiential marketing, trade shows, conferences, brand activations, and the humble photo booth. Sam explains how Snapbar evolved from physically hauling hundreds of photo booths to events into building a web-based platform that lets brands create interactive experiences accessible from an iPad, touchscreen, QR code, or an attendee's own phone. What started as a necessary pandemic pivot has developed into AI photo experiences, highly personalized AI Stories, and new ways for brands to combine entertainment with lead generation. The conversation also gets beyond the AI hype. Sam discusses the unpredictability of image models, why prompt engineering still requires humans, how Snapbar tests and switches between different AI models, and why brands need to understand that generative AI is not simply automated Photoshop. Snapbar's system remains cloud-based, meaning connectivity and third-party model reliability are still real considerations for live events. Topics and products discussed: What experiential marketing actually means: Sam distinguishes traditional broadcast and digital advertising from interactive marketing designed to bring the audience into the experience through participation. Snapbar's origin story: The company began as a side-gig photo booth business before moving from weddings into conferences, trade shows, sporting events, product launches, festivals, and other B2B activations. The pandemic pivot: When physical events disappeared in 2020, a client asked whether Snapbar could bring its photo experiences online. That request became the foundation of the company's current web-based platform. World Cup fan activations: Sam describes branded soccer experiences that let attendees transform themselves into stylized or animated fans and players without improperly copying team intellectual property. QR codes instead of long lines: Experiences can run on event iPads while also letting thousands of attendees participate from their own phones by scanning a QR code. Understanding the audience: A soccer activation that works at the World Cup may flop at a legal conference. Sam says cybersecurity audiences, for example, often respond particularly well to gaming, fantasy, and trading-card concepts. Digital experiences as event swag: The group discusses whether personalized digital content can become an alternative to another pile of branded pens, bottles, and promotional giveaways. Snapbar's planned digital spinner wheel: Sam explains a digital version of the familiar trade-show prize wheel with customizable branding, prize probabilities, inventory management, QR control, redemption codes, and lead capture. The rise of the AI photo booth: Early image generation was unreliable, producing extra arms, heads, and other artifacts. As models improved, AI photo experiences became one of Snapbar's biggest products. AI Stories: Snapbar adds Mad Libs-like personalization to AI-generated experiences, allowing attendees to influence the resulting scene while brands maintain controls over the experience. Taking event tech into unusual environments: Sam recalls activations at music festivals, on boats, and experiences that attendees could even access while traveling because everything is web-based. Working across AI providers: Rather than building its own image models, Snapbar evaluates available third-party systems and can shift between models depending on prompt adherence, realism, animation style, and client needs. Why testing matters: AI models can regress or behave differently after updates. Snapbar's team tests experiences ahead of events, attempts to break them, adjusts prompts, and can intervene while an activation is live. Treat AI like a new team member: Sam suggests thinking of AI less like an infallible machine and more like a new employee that needs context, supervision, defined permissions, and an understanding of what it does well. AI is not automated Photoshop: Clients sometimes expect pixel-perfect control, but generative systems still involve prompting, probabilities, and outputs that cannot always be completely dictated. Why AI may not magically fix event networking: Sam pushes back on the idea that feeding hobbies and job titles into an AI matchmaking system automatically creates meaningful human connections. Event attendees ultimately want genuine personal and professional connection. The danger of easy AI startups: AI makes prototypes and products dramatically easier to build, but that also means competitors can build similar products just as quickly. Distribution becomes the advantage: Sam argues that customer relationships, audience access, SEO/AEO, reputation, and reaching the right buyers become even more important when everyone has access to powerful AI tools. Learn more about Snapbar at https://snapbar.com, which Sam specifically shares at the end of the interview.

Marketers routinely misjudge which AI platforms their actual audience uses. Jason Lax, senior SEO and AI expert at SAP with nearly two decades in search now leading AEO and GEO strategy, argues platform prioritization should never be assumption-driven. He outlines a cross-platform measurement framework that tracks performance across every AI search surface rather than defaulting to personal usage patterns, paired with audience-segmented analysis that accounts for enterprise tool restrictions and generational usage splits to reveal true visibility gaps.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

9/16/26Episode SummaryAnswer Engine Optimization is how your products get recommended when a shopper asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini what to buy. Two of my clients are now getting about 7% of their sales from AI, so this is a real channel, even though it's still under 1% of retail traffic overall.In this episode I walk through the two halves of AEO work: on-site, which is the structured data and content that controls how AI understands your products, and off-site, which is the third-party citations that determine whether AI actually recommends you. Then I show three client stores live across all three AI engines. All three got identical on-site work through Datify. Mulberry Park Silks and ReptiChip rank at the top. Healing Home Foods doesn't appear at all. The difference is entirely off-site.Also covered:Why AEO is not SEO, and why unlinked mentions matter more than backlinksWhat's happening to Reddit, and why you shouldn't build your strategy on itThe citation tactics that are actually reachable for a small brand with no PR budgetA five-query test you can run this week to score where your store standsShow LinksEpisode 182 - A Practical Guide to Shopify's Agentic Storefronts - https://jadepuma.com/blogs/the-shopify-solutions-podcast/episode-182-a-practical-guide-to-shopify-s-agentic-storefrontsEpisode 183 - How to Use the Shopify Knowledge Base App for Agentic Commerce - https://jadepuma.com/blogs/the-shopify-solutions-podcast/episode-183-how-to-use-the-shopify-knowledge-base-app-for-agentic-commerceMulberry Park Silks - https://mulberryparksilks.com/Citation - https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/article/the-best-silk-sheets/Citation - https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/g28686955/best-silk-sheets/Citation - https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/sleep/best-silk-sheetsReptichip - https://reptichip.com/Citation - https://reptifiles.com/ball-python-care-guide/ball-python-substrate/Citation - https://www.smallpetexpert.com/reptiles/best-ball-python-substrate/Citation - https://peteducate.com/best-substrate-for-ball-pythons/Healing Home Foods - https://healinghomefoods.com/collections/raw-crackers/products/pizza-thinsDatify - https://apps.shopify.com/datifyVideo & Transcripthttps://jadepuma.com/blogs/the-shopify-solutions-podcast/episode-194-aeo-for-shopify-stores

AI is changing how prospective patients search for dentists, and traditional SEO tactics alone may no longer be enough to earn visibility or trust. In this episode, Kirk Behrendt talks with Eric Hubbard of Pain-Free Dental Marketing about answer engine optimization, or AEO, and what dental practices need to understand as AI platforms become part of the patient search process. Eric explains why reviews, consistent practice information, useful content, and a clear digital presence matter when AI systems assemble recommendations. You will learn where to focus your marketing efforts, which outdated tactics to reconsider, and how to create content that helps patients and AI platforms understand who you are, so listen to Episode 1100 of The Best Practices Show!Main Takeaways:AI platforms are increasingly appearing in patient conversations and are changing how prospective patients discover dental practices.Dentists are now competing for trusted AI recommendations rather than only competing for clicks in traditional search results.Reviews, consistent practice information, and clear demonstrations of clinical work are foundational investments that can remain valuable as AI models change.Dental websites should communicate who the dentist and practice are instead of relying on generic location-based language such as “dentist in [city].”Content should answer real patient questions and provide context about cases, patient concerns, treatment experiences, and the dentist's approach.Dentists should avoid promises about hacking AI platforms because the underlying models are changing rapidly.A practice's homepage, first-visit page, and about page should clearly reflect its values, personality, and ideal patients rather than using interchangeable copy.Episode Chapters:00:00 What AEO means for dentists.01:19 Meet Eric Hubbard03:34 The misinformation and uncertainty surrounding AI in dental marketing.04:30 How patients are beginning to use AI platforms for search.07:01 Why traditional “dentist in [city]” website language is becoming less useful.08:00 Website appearance does not guarantee strong technical performance.09:35 Why dentists should be cautious about promises to hack AI search results.14:24 How dentists can generate ideas for useful patient-focused content.16:12 Why execution matters more than marketing ideas that never get implemented.17:00 Pain-Free Dental Marketing's focus on controllable, long-term investments.19:16 Eric's first action step for reviewing a dental practice's digital presence.20:00 The Bite-Sized Dental Marketing podcast and current marketing changes.22:00 How dentists can learn more about Pain-Free Dental Marketing.Guest Bio:Eric Hubbard is a dental marketing professional with Pain-Free Dental Marketing. His marketing background includes experience with Procter & Gamble and GameStop, where he developed an approach centered on clearly identifying and communicating with an ideal customer. Today, he applies that discipline to dental practices, helping them improve their digital presence, attract the right prospective patients, and focus on sustainable practice growth.Episode Resources:Bite-Sized Dental Marketing podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bite-sized-dental-marketing/id1688425885Pain-Free Dental Marketing: https://www.painfreedentalmarketing.com/More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Contact Gina to learn more about ACT: gina@actdental.comThe Best Practices Show: https://www.actdental.com/podcast/Smile Source Community Hub: https://www.actdental.com/community-hubUpcoming Events & Workshops: https://www.actdental.com/events/Smile Source: https://www.smilesource.com/Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.comSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com

What happens when a CMO brings the discipline of P&G, private equity and fintech together?Vineet Mehra, CMO of Chime, joins Jon to explain how the challenger bank has disrupted one of the most established industries in the world - and why modern marketing leaders need to become more fluent in the language of commercial value.Vineet shares what marketers can learn from private equity, how to position investment with a CFO, and the financial metrics he watches most closely. He also unpacks the constant balancing act between long-term brand building and short-term performance: not treating them as opposing forces, but connecting both to sustainable growth. They also discuss where AI is genuinely creating return, how marketers can avoid becoming commoditised, and the skills CMOs will need as AI reshapes the profession.Timestamps00:00 - Start01:21 - Vineet's background at P&G04:51 - What marketers can learn from working in Private Equity07:50 - What is Chime Bank?09:02 - The strategies that Chime used to disrupt the banking industry13:46 - Advice on how to position marketing to the CFO17:00 - What financial metrics is Vineet most focused on?19:40 - How Vineet combines long term and short term marketing23:59 - Are we in a golden age for marketing?26:59 - How Vineet is getting the biggest return on his AI investment31:13 - How to stop AI commoditising marketers36:09 - What skills will a CMO need in an AI-first future38:58 - How to see AI as an opportunity not a threat40:13 - Why Vineet is on the Effie's board42:15 - Why Vineet spends time building his personal brand on LinkedIn46:00 - What's the bst advice Vineet has ever received? ---Thank you to our sponsors System1 and HubSpotDownload System1's creator effectiveness report here:https://system1group.com/the-creator-effectiveness-playbookFind about more about HubSpot's AEO product here:https://www.hubspot.com/products/aeo

AI is changing how B2B buyers search, evaluate solutions, and decide which brands to trust. For marketers, that means traffic, leads, and traditional attribution metrics no longer tell the whole story.On StrategyCast, Lori Jones talks with Andrew Davis, SVP of Marketing and Sales at TextUs, about how AI is upending buyer behavior and forcing marketers to rethink their go-to-market strategies. Andrew explains why today's buyer journey happens across Google, AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude, review sites, retargeting, and other touchpoints long before a prospect converts.And don't forget! You can crush your marketing strategy with just a few minutes a week by signing up for the StrategyCast Newsletter. You'll receive weekly bursts of marketing tips, clips, resources, and a whole lot more. Visit https://strategycast.com/ for more details.==Let's Break It Down==00:00 How AI Is Changing Buyer Behavior01:42 Andrew Davis' Path From Sales to Marketing04:21 Why Traditional Marketing Playbooks Stop Working06:11 AI Search, AEO, GEO, and Changing Demand08:00 The New Multi-Channel Buyer Journey10:39 Why Traffic Is Not the Same as Demand14:16 Lead Scoring and Multi-Channel Engagement16:11 Why Cost Per Lead Can Be Misleading17:48 Personalization and Human Connection in the AI Era22:08 How Modern GTM Strategies Are Changing24:28 Why Creative Testing Needs to Happen Faster27:37 The Marketing Skills That Matter in an AI-Driven World31:28 Human Intelligence as an AI Advantage32:37 Where to Connect With Andrew Davis33:23 Building Trust Across the Buyer Journey==Where You Can Find Us==Website: https://strategycast.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strategy_cast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strategycast==Leave a Review==Hey there, StrategyCast fans!If you've found our tips and tricks on marketing strategies helpful in growing your business, we'd be thrilled if you could take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback not only supports us but also helps others discover how they can elevate their business game!

Apollo 13 never made it to the moon. It also brought all of humanity together, set a record for the farthest distance from Earth, and produced some of the greatest problem-solving under pressure the world has ever seen.Eric Hanson, CMO at Mitel, joins us to dig into what B2B marketers can steal from the Apollo 13 playbook - and the 2024 documentary that reframed the story entirely. We cover why the clearest mission you can give your team is your most powerful tool, how to break down silos between marketing, sales, and product, why starting with the business need beats starting with the technology every time, and how going contrary to the mainstream is still the fastest path to getting your market's attention.About our guest, Eric HansonEric Hanson is CMO at Mitel, a communications platform helping organizations enable high-value and critical use cases across a hybrid and on-premises world. He is not a typical CMO: he started his career as an inside seller, moved into enterprise sales, co-founded a visual effects studio in San Francisco that worked on major motion pictures and global brand campaigns - including the design bible for Avatar's future interface - before finding his way into B2B marketing leadership. He has held senior roles at companies including DocuSign and brings a rare mix of creative, commercial, and strategic instincts to every team he leads.What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Apollo 13When the mission is clear, the impossible becomes possible. Eric's central argument is that the best B2B marketing isn't really about marketing at all - it's about creating the conditions where people come together around a common cause and do things nobody thought possible. He connects it directly to Apollo 13: "It brought all of humanity together, even for a brief moment. And so often with the way you think about what happens in the workplace, so much of it is about whether you can create that sense of a common cause, that common mission. Because the highest performing organizations, it's when you have that shared vision, that clarity of your mission, that people really come together and the impossible kind of becomes possible." His practical version of this is what he calls the triple threat: treating marketing, sales, and product not as separate functions with a waterfall handoff, but as a single coordinated strategy. When the foxhole includes everyone, you move faster, you adapt better, and you find things nobody would have found alone.Start with the business need, not the technology. Eric has a sharp way of describing the most common mistake in B2B selling: show up and throw up. Lead with the technology, the architecture, the speeds and feeds - and lose the room before you ever got it. His counterpoint is a story about a sales engineer calling on a CIO for an F1 team. The engineer launched straight into the tech, and the CIO cut him off: "If you can tell me how to make the car go faster, I'm all ears." Eric's version of this in practice is to start with the market dynamics, the specific pressures facing your ideal customer - whether it's a hospital struggling with patient flow or a multinational navigating digital sovereignty - and then work backwards to the technology. "The market can't always connect the dots on what the art of the possible is," he says. "That's our job." The faster horses problem is a marketing problem as much as it's a product problem.Tell an old story in a new, more human way. Ian's biggest takeaway from the Apollo 13 documentary is the audacity of director Peter Middleton, who looked at one of the most famous stories in American history - already immortalized in an acclaimed Tom Hanks film - and decided to tell it again. Differently. Without talking-head interviews, leaning entirely into archival footage, centering the human stakes over the mission mechanics. The result is a documentary that feels immediate rather than retrospective, and that lands differently than the movie despite telling the same events. Ian's takeaway for B2B marketers: "Every story that you think has been told can be retold in a different way." Eric adds the business version of this: the fastest path to getting your market's attention is to go contrary to the mainstream. For Mitel, that meant spending two years pushing the concept of digital sovereignty when everyone else was selling cloud. "I wouldn't say we planted it," Eric says. "But we anticipated it. And now the market is saying: yeah, you're right."Make it work with what you have - then adapt. The most memorable problem-solving moment in Apollo 13 isn't the drama of the oxygen tank explosion. It's the engineers in Houston dumping a pile of plastic bags, duct tape, and mismatched filters on a table and being told to build an air scrubber before the crew runs out of oxygen. No extra supplies. No time to order parts. Just: here's what you have, figure it out. Eric connects this directly to the George Lucas documentary series Light and Magic - where ILM built motion-control cameras from scratch because they didn't exist yet, pulling in motorcycle mechanics and stop-motion photographers to solve a problem nobody had solved before. And then he connects both to B2B marketing: "You read and react to what's happening in the market, and you try to optimize for that. Whether you're talking about your website performance and the emergence of AEO and how SEO dropped off a cliff overnight - you don't sit there and admire the problem. You go figure out a creative way to work around it." The crew of Apollo 13 didn't get home because they had perfect conditions. They got home because they broke the problem into the next three steps, solved those, and then took on the next three."The highest performing organizations - it's when you have that shared vision, that clarity of your mission, that people really come together and the impossible kind of becomes possible. I think about that every day. How can I create that type of environment that actually breaks down silos and makes people think about not how they've always done things - but how do we solve this problem that seems insurmountable?"- Eric HansonTime Stamps[1:38] Meet Eric Hanson, CMO at Mitel[1:55] Why Apollo 13?[3:09] About Mitel and Eric's Eclectic Path to CMO[4:23] Meredith Explains the Documentary: Apollo 13: Survival[6:58] What the Documentary Gets Right That the Movie Couldn't[7:54] Was Apollo 13 a Failure? Redefining What Success Looks Like[8:39] When the Mission Is Clear, the Impossible Becomes Possible[9:20] Break It Into Bite-Sized Pieces - Focus on the Next Three Steps[10:12] The World Cup, Pochettino, and Why You Have to Dream Big to Get Close[26:28] Great Innovation Happens When a Compelling Event Forces New Thinking[13:01] Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors, and the Whole Being Greater Than Its Parts[14:22] If You're Not Failing, You're Not Trying - Bob Iger and Ride of a Lifetime[15:21] Light and Magic: Make It Work With What You Have[24:59] B2B Lesson #1: Tell an Old Story in a New, More Human Way[18:57] B2B Lesson #2: The Triple Threat - Marketing, Sales, and Product as One Strategy[20:07] Start With the Business Need, Not the Technology[20:53] Digital Sovereignty: Going Contrary to the Cloud-First Mainstream[23:07] Content Strategy: Connect the Dots for Your Audience[24:03] The F1 CIO Story: "If You Can Tell Me How to Make the Car Go Faster, I'm All Ears"[29:06] From Visual Effects to CMO: How Eric's Background Shaped His Marketing[32:38] Marketing as Persuasive Journalism - Make an Argument and Cause a Reaction[36:38] AI as a Calculator: Enabling Sellers to Move Faster and Think Bigger[40:27] Final Thoughts - It's Not the Strongest Who Survive, It's the Ones That AdaptLinksConnect with Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericshanson/Learn more about Mitel: https://www.mitel.comWatch Apollo 13: Survival: https://www.netflix.comAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK.Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

76% of marketers still treat AI search as a separate content channel. Jason Lax, senior SEO and AI expert at SAP, argues this misconception is costing enterprise teams their competitive edge as he transitions his nearly two-decade SEO practice into AEO and GEO. He reframes the core measurement shift from ranking position to mention-worthiness, applying the same foundational SEO fundamentals rather than building parallel content strategies for AI-driven search surfaces. The discussion centers on unifying content strategy across traditional and AI search rather than fragmenting resources across separate channels.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rankings no longer predict whether buyers choose your brand. Jason Lax, senior SEO and AI expert at SAP, has spent nearly two decades building the company's global organic program and now leads its shift into AEO and GEO across dozens of markets. He details SAP's technical-plus-content split strategy, using LLM citation gaps and "why weren't we recommended" prompt audits to surface product and positioning issues, and reframes measurement around model consensus and citation quality rather than session volume alone.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI search is changing what it means to build visibility online. Matthew Bertram sits down with Matt Emgi to explore the evolving relationship between SEO, AEO, and LLM visibility, including why authority, entity associations, consensus signals, and brand presence are becoming increasingly important. They break down digital PR, original research, Reddit marketing, link building, attribution, automation, and the strategies SaaS and B2B companies can use to turn search visibility into measurable business growth.• separating SEO and AEO budgets without losing the core strategy • treating LLMs as a new layer, not a replacement for SEO • building entity associations and clean categorization signals • leaning into E-E-A-T, authorship, and third-party verification • using “consensus” across relevant publications to reduce risk • choosing visibility targets with AI citation data, not vibes • avoiding Reddit astroturfing and focusing on real community building • tracking the full funnel with attribution, CRO, and CRM visibility • earning durable links through original research and credible PR • building partnerships that create co-citations and a digital trail • adding guardrails to automation and agentic workflows • SaaS actions that prioritize best leads and lifetime valueGuest Contact Information: Website: emgigroup.comYouTube: youtube.com/GoEmgiLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matt-emgiMore from EWR and Matthew:Leave us a review wherever you listen: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon PodcastFree SEO Consultation: www.ewrdigital.com/discovery-callWith over 5 million downloads, The Best SEO Podcast has been the go-to show for digital marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs wanting real-world strategies to grow online. Now, host Matthew Bertram — creator of the LLM Visibility® Stack, and Lead Strategist at EWR Digital — takes the conversation beyond traditional SEO into the AI era of discoverability. Each week, Matthew dives into the tactics, frameworks, and insights that matter most in a world where search engines, large language models, and answer engines are reshaping how people find, trust, and choose businesses. From SEO and AI-driven marketing to executive-level growth strategy, you'll hear expert interviews, deep-dive discussions, and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve. Find more episodes here: youtube.com/@BestSEOPodcastbestseopodcast.combestseopodcast.buzzsprout.comFollow us on:Facebook: @bestseopodcastInstagram: @thebestseopodcastTiktok: @bestseopodcastLinkedIn: @bestseopodcastConnect With Matthew Bertram: Website: www.matthewbertram.comInstagram: @matt_bertram_liveLinkedIn: @mattbertramlivePowered by: ewrdigital.comSupport the show

Wondering how AI is changing the way buyers discover solutions?This episode of Demand Gen Studio is all about how Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) can help your brand be part of the AI-generated answers and transform your approach to content creation.Listen to discover how AI decides what to recommend by reading, comparing, and synthesizing signals across your digital footprint, and how authority is increasingly built across your website, LinkedIn, podcasts, webinars, reviews, and industry communities.00:00 Why AI Search Matters05:34 What is AEO07:54 AEO vs SEO15:50 How AI Synthesizes its Answers25:47 Creating AI-friendly Content30:35 Readiness Checklist

You can feel it when a remodeling business is built on real trust, not just pretty photos. We're joined by Andrew Reisinger from Kitchen, Bath and Home in Dallas, Texas, to unpack how he went from a “summer internship” mindset to becoming an owner who oversees sales and design, plus earning top industry credentials all the way up to Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer. We talk about what that kind of education actually does for credibility, confidence, and the client experience in high end residential remodeling. We also get practical about marketing for kitchen and bath professionals. Andrew shares the behind the scenes reality of a stalled outsourced website project, how he learned to build the site himself, and why owning your message matters more than chasing trends. From there, we dig into organic marketing strategies that support long term growth, including what it looks like to be a one stop shop for homeowners while still offering a flexible a la carte approach for designers and contractors who need a strong partner. The most timely part of the conversation is AI and answer engine optimization. Andrew explains how his team uses AI for communication and content as a “smart assistant,” not an autopilot, then lays out an AEO approach built around the questions clients actually ask and answering them directly in the first 60 words. We connect that to PR, third party mentions, and consistent online signals so your business shows up accurately when people and AI systems search for a trusted remodeler or certified designer. If you care about building credibility, improving discoverability, and growing through partnerships and networking, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend in the industry, and leave a review so more designers and remodelers can find the show.Transform your marketing with Designer Discussions Academy. In weekly face-to-face sessions, we equip busy business owners with cutting-edge PR strategies, marketing insights, and time-saving tools to not just work in your business, but on your business. Join us to outshine competitors and elevate your business.Join us for our Academy sessions and workshops:https://www.designerdiscussions.com/academy.htmlDesigner Discussions is an educational interior design podcast on marketing, PR and related business topics. Download our FREE Client Avatar GuideDesigner Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY

Webflow just scanned 2,000 real websites and gave them a report card on how ready they are for AI search. The median score? A 2 out of 5. And the reason companies are failing isn't the reason LinkedIn keeps telling you.Dave Steer — CMO of Webflow, with prior stops at Twitter, Facebook, eBay, PayPal, Cloudflare, and GitLab — joins Stephanie Postles to unpack what the data actually says: the failure point isn't content volume, it's the technical basics of your website. Broken internal links. Missing schema. No bylines. Stale content. Fix those four things and you'll pull ahead of a category that's failing them all.Then Dave goes deeper — why AEO breaks the siloed marketing org, why hiring an 'integrated marketer' won't fix your silos, and why the teams that know how to fight well are the ones that are going to win.What you'll learn• Why the median website scores a 2 out of 5 on AI discovery readiness — and what that actually looks like under the hood• The 4 technical fixes (internal links, schema, bylines, content freshness) that will move you up the AEO maturity index this week• Why AEO can't be one person's job — and what a cross-functional weekly cadence actually looks like (the Reddit task force story)• Why hiring an 'integrated marketer' doesn't create an integrated team — and what an 'orchestrator' role does instead• The Tuckman model of high-performing teams, and why 'silos exist because of conflict aversion' — not because of org design• The 3 expertise sets every modern CMO needs — and why nobody is world-class at all threeConnectDave Steer on LinkedInWebflowMarketing TrendsChapters• 0:00 Introduction• 2:22 The biggest shift Dave has seen in two decades of marketing• 3:24 CMO 1.0 vs CMO 2.0 — from campaigns to systems• 5:34 What's actually working (and not) across millions of websites• 8:28 'AI has fundamentally rewritten the buyer journey — under our feet'• 9:42 The 4 pillars of AEO maturity (and why it's a team sport)• 12:14 'What we learned shocked us' — the 2,000-site scan• 13:54 Why 'just make more content' is making the internet worse• 16:15 The 4 technical fixes: links, schema, bylines, freshness• 18:29 Can AI help do these basic checks?• 20:47 The Reddit task force — what cross-functional AEO actually looks like• 26:58 Building high-performing teams (Tuckman model + conflict)• 31:26 The integrated marketing hire that didn't integrate anything• 36:03 'The teams that know how to do this will beat the teams that don't'• 37:52 Trust is the highest-order bit — your name is your guarantee• 39:37 Is the CMO role dying? The 2.0 answer.• 41:01 The one skill every CMO needs to unlearn• 42:46 Lightning round ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, we dive into how AI is changing e-commerce apps and online shopping. Garry Egan, founder of Interlinks Development and 25-year software developer, shares why single-task apps are disappearing and how the best apps will become AI wrappers. He reveals strategies for specialized workflows, why deep technical expertise matters for developers, and how AI alters the buyer journey.InterLinks: For Shopify stores, automatically create internal links that increase conversions, boost click-through rates, and drive more page views. Get 500 FREE Extra Keyword Automations here: https://tinyurl.com/538jfhknTopics discussed in this episode:  How AI changes e-commerce software usage.What makes low-hanging single task apps obsolete.Why store owners prefer GUI buttons over prompt lines.How specialized apps evolve into AI wrappers.What types of complex workflows survive AI.Why high-risk compliance stores need custom tools.How LLMs alter the product discovery journey.What store owners need to know about AEO.Why full-stack skills matter more for developers.How expert developers build faster with AI tools.Links & Resources Website: https://getinterlinks.com/Shopify App Store: https://apps.shopify.com/interlinksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garryeganGet access to more free resources by visiting the show notes at https://tinyurl.com/443tzjyy______________________________________________________ Our Sponsors Xero is cloud-based accounting software that helps small businesses, including ecommerce sellers and DTC brands - manage invoicing, cash flow, bank reconciliation, and reporting from one place, on any device. Get 90% off for 6 months. Learn more at https://referrals.xero.com/ecb - T&Cs apply.Bizrate Insights: Star ratings tell you how customers feel. Bizrate Insights reveals what's driving those ratings, helping ecommerce brands create smoother shopping journeys, inspire confident purchases, and build lasting loyalty. Turn verified shopper feedback into clear priorities and better customer experiences. Learn more at bizrateinsights.com/coffee ______________________________________________________LOVE THE SHOW? HERE ARE THE NEXT STEPS!Follow the podcast to get every bonus episode. Tap follow now and don't miss out!  Rate & Review: Help others discover the show by rating the show on Apple Podcasts at https://tinyurl.com/ecb-apple-podcasts   Join our Free Newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommercecoffeebreak.com/   Partner with us: https://ecommercecoffeebreak.com/partner-with-us/

AI is rapidly changing how people search, shop and discover new brands. So what does that mean for marketers?Sophie Neary has spent the past few years inside Google, giving her a front-row seat to some of the biggest shifts in consumer behaviour and advertising. In this episode, she joins Jon to explore what she's learned, the assumptions marketers still get wrong about Google, and the surprising ways consumers are already using AI.They discuss how brands can show up in AI-powered search, the evolving relationship between advertisers and creators, how to make the most of the crucial golden quarter, and what AI commerce could mean for the future of shopping.Plus, as AI becomes capable of doing more of the work, Sophie and Jon ask a bigger question: which uniquely human skills will become even more valuable to marketers?This episode is an advertisement feature brought to you by Google.Timestamps00:00 - Start01:12 - What has Sophie learned in the past few years at Google?03:07 - CMO lessons from being inside Google05:11 - What assumption marketers have about Google would Sophie challenge08:07 - A surprising consumer pattern with AI11:17 - How brands can show up in AI searches18:56 - How advertisers can collaborate with creators?22:09 - How Sophie uses her Google Fitbit Air24:18 - How to optimise the golden quarter28:08 - How important will AI commerce be in the future?30:36 - get them to check this section34:01 - The most uncensored question for Sophie Neary37:44 - Where will human skills count in the age of AI?45:26 - The best advice Sophie has ever been given ---Thank you to our sponsors System1 and HubSpotDownload System1's creator effectiveness report here:https://system1group.com/the-creator-effectiveness-playbookFind about more about HubSpot's AEO product here:https://www.hubspot.com/products/aeo

Hey CX Nation,In this week's CXWeekly Update episode I walk through some ideas, goals & CTAs that me & the team at CXC have been focused on.Full candor, we're in a full blown sales sprint to the end of the year to close 2026 with a bang & tee up the best year yet in 2027.We're also working on a ton of new customer focused business content -- including my 2nd book "Make Happiness A Habit" that we are launching in the New Year. Don't worry we have a ton of amazing guest interviews coming down the pipeline over the next couple of weeks.Part of our goal at CXC is to create some of the best customer focused business leader content, including short episodes like these CXWeekly updates that are digestible, actionable & most importantly entertaining for all of you.Huge thanks for all of you who helped to celebrate our 6th year anniversary of building CXChronicles, it's been a hell of a journey. This is our by far our best year yet as we continue to grow our business & community.Soon we will be celebrating 300+ episodes of customer focused business content.We've had the pleasure of working with 200+ companies/agencies across the world helping make customer & employee happiness a habitPartnered with the biggest players in AI/software & technology including Google, Salesforce, Hubspot, Intercom, Zendesk, & Freshworks.We're looking for early feedback on our Ask CXChronicles Intelligence Platform, see how your company's CX stacks up to the rest across Team, Tools, Process, Feedback & AI. For all of our friends interested in seeing how their company's HubSpot Utilization performance is shaping up today, click here for our FREE HubSpot Utilization Scorecard Assessment.If you enjoy The CXChronicles Podcast, please do me a favor and stop by your favorite podcast player and leave us a review today.You know what would be even better?Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's content, CX/CS/RevOps services, our customer & employee focused community & invite them to join the CX Nation!For you non-readers, go check out the CXChronicles Youtube channel to see our customer & employee focused video content & short-reel CTAs to improve your CX/CS/RevOps performance today (politely go smash that subscribe button).Contact us anytime to learn more about CXC at INFO@cxchronicles.com and ask us about how we can help your business & team make customer happiness a habit now!Reach Out To CXC Today!Support the showContact CXChronicles TodayTweet us @cxchroniclesCheck out our Instagram @cxchroniclesClick here to checkout the CXC websiteEmail us at info@cxchronicles.com Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Is it too late to focus on SEO now that everyone's talking about AI search? In this episode, Rachel breaks down what small business SEO actually means today, and why AI search has made it more important, not less. You'll learn how to pick the right keywords, why local SEO and your Google Business Profile matter, what commodity vs. non-commodity content means for your rankings, and how to decide whether to learn SEO yourself or hire it out. If you've been putting off SEO because it feels overwhelming, this episode lays out exactly where to start. Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

You're getting enquiries. You're booking consultations. So why aren't more patients saying yes? In today's episode, we break down one of the most misunderstood challenges in clinic growth right now — why consult conversions feel harder than ever. And the answer might surprise you. Because this isn't a marketing problem. It's not a pricing issue. And it's not about lead quality. It's a conversion breakdown happening inside your consultation process. What You'll Learn Why patients today are harder to convert than before The biggest mistake clinics make during consultations Why “I need to think about it” is not the real objection The hidden role your patient coordinator plays in conversions Why most consults go deep clinically but shallow emotionally How to bridge the gap between interest and decision What high-performing clinics do differently to convert consistently Key Takeaways Patients are more informed, sceptical, and emotionally cautious Conversion is now more psychological than logical Surface objections hide deeper uncertainty Most clinics lack a structured conversion system Training and process matter more than personality You cannot out-market a broken consultation process Core Insight “Patients don't say no because they don't want the procedure. They hesitate because they don't feel certain enough to decide.”   Listen & Subscribe Follow OMD TV and OMD Podcast for more strategies on growing your clinic with predictable patient enquiries and stronger conversion systems. Work With Us At Online Marketing for Doctors, we help clinics build: High-converting websites Structured SEO and AEO strategies 24/7 AI agent & human call centre to support sales conversion  Scalable patient acquisition systems via Pay Per Click advertising If you want to position your clinic at the top, not just blend in, get in touch with our team. Key Links Mentioned

Broad keyword targeting is quietly undermining AI search visibility. Jenna Hannon, founder and CEO of Hatter and former first marketing hire at Uber Eats, has built an AEO agency helping brands get discovered across Google and AI answer engines after advising companies like Multisensor AI, FORM Kitchens, and Kyte as a fractional CMO. She breaks down why keyword specificity now outperforms broad-match traffic grabs, how legacy SEO habits actively hurt AI search performance, and what product marketing rigor brings to building durable AI visibility strategy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us Fan MailChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. Or Google...Search visibility has changed.AI search is changing how donors and volunteers find nonprofits, and most teams are still figuring out what to do about it. This week, host Jena Lynch talks with Jessica King, Director at Getting Attention, about what's actually working in search right now...from why ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are showing up as real traffic sources, to why relying on one platform is risky, plus how to make full use of the $120,000-a-year Google Ad Grant. Jessica's take: you don't need a new playbook for AI, just a stronger version of the marketing fundamentals you already know. What You'll LearnWhy ChatGPT and Claude are already shortlisting nonprofits before donors ever reach your site, and what that means for your funnel.Why AI search doesn't call for a new strategy, just sharper execution of the SEO fundamentals you already have in place.How to build a channel mix that holds up when a single algorithm or platform shifts.How to extend the reach of your $120,000-a-year Google Ad Grant as search behavior changes.Why page-level content depth outweighs metadata for both AI and traditional search, and what that means for your content priorities.If your team has just a few hours a month for online visibility this Giving Season, this episode tells you where to spend them.About Our GuestJessica King is Director at Getting Attention, where she helps nonprofits get more from Google Ad Grants, paid Google Ads, and search-focused content strategy. Before Getting Attention, Jessica worked in communications and digital marketing across higher education and the nonprofit sector, with a focus on SEO for mission-driven organizations. She holds a Master's degree in Communication from Virginia Tech.Links MentionedGetting Attention: gettingattention.org - free guides, templates, and Google Ad Grant auditsGetting Attention on YouTube: weekly tutorials and marketing adviceBook recommendation: Steal Like an Artist by Austin KleonDonorbox: donorbox.org  - fundraising tools for nonprofitsHostJena Lynch is Head of Community Engagement at Donorbox. Each week on The Nonprofit Podcast, she brings nonprofit leaders practical strategies and clear insight to help them raise more and reach further.Chapters:0:00 Intro & Welcome1:43 Meet Jessica King from Getting Attention2:24 AI as a Traffic Source and the Shifting Search Landscape6:38 Donor Trust, AEO/AIO Buzz, and Not Losing Sight of the Fundamentals8:34 Why Foundational SEO Is the Basis for AEO10:50 Building a Marketing Mix With No Single Point of Failure13:26 Making the Most of the Google Ad Grant19:05 Why Traditional Website SEO Isn't Dead21:24 How AI Levels the Playing Field for Smaller Nonprofits24:11 Non-Negotiables for Giving Season27:53 Connect With Jessica and Getting Attention28:35 Wrap-UpDonorbox is a trusted online and on-location fundraising platform that helps nonprofits raise more. With easy-to-use donation forms, powerful donor management tools, and features designed to grow recurring giving, we have helped 100,000-plus organizations process more than $4 billion in donations worldwide.Enjoying the show? Subscribe for more practical fundraising strategies, leadership insights, and tools to help your nonprofit grow sustainably.The information provided in this series is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please consult with a professional advisor for specific guidance.Support the show

#387 | Six B2B marketers share tactical plays for using AI to make content that doesn't sound like AI. This Exit Five Live session breaks down a set of specialized agents that lifted blog traffic 700% in six months, a 23-step agent that researches and writes AEO content straight into WordPress, and the winning play: turning original survey data into an ownable narrative. Also on the agenda: a structured review process that replaces vibes-only QA, a Claude skill trained on stakeholder feedback so drafts land pre-aligned, and five rules for using AI to learn faster without outsourcing your thinking. One thing the full group agreed on: the human stays in the loop.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro and the Exit Five Live Format (03:47) - - Meet the Lineup (07:38) - - Build a Digital Team of Specialized AI Agents (14:33) - - Before the Prompt and After the Prompt (21:42) - - A 23-Step Agent That Writes AEO Content for LLMs (30:11) - - Turn Original Research Into a Content Differentiator (33:20) - - Treat Your Edits as Training Data (35:55) - - Faster to Content and Faster to Internal Buy-In (43:19) - - Rules for Learning With AI (49:16) - - The Winning Play Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

AI search visibility now hinges on fundamentals most brands abandoned years ago. Jenna Hannon, founder and CEO of Hatter and former first marketing hire at Uber Eats, built one of the first agencies dedicated to AI search visibility after scaling global growth operations and serving as fractional CMO for companies including Multisensor AI and Kyte. She unpacks why AEO performance is built on foundational SEO discipline rather than a separate playbook, and why treating strategy as an AI-replaceable function misreads what actually drives purchase intent. The conversation centers on using AI to scale execution while keeping human synthesis of customer motivation as the non-negotiable core of the strategy layer.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Special guest and familiar face, Charles Oswald joins the Suite Spot in his return to the TMG Hospitality Trailblazers series. As CEO & President of Aperture Hotels, Charles shares his insights on AI & technology in hospitality, capital investment challenges, and his vision for the Aperture Hotels brand.  Tune in now to the full conversation. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailblazers. Technically, a look back on a few years back when we visited with this particular individual and company trailblazing and paving the way forward in hospitality. That is Charles Oswald, president and CEO of Aperture Hotels. Charles, thank you so much for being back here on The Suite Spot. Charles Oswald: Oh, it’s good to be back. Thank you. Ryan Embree: Yeah. You’ve been busy. It’s been a long time. I had to look back and see the last time we visited here on The Suite Spot. We did our original hospitality trailblazers, really in the infancy of Aperture Hotels back in December 2023. A lot’s changed on that since then, right? So catch us up a little bit. What have you been working on? There’s been some incredible growth that we’ve seen with your company. Congratulations on that. But catch us up since we last visited. Charles Oswald: First off, so at that time when we had launched Aperture Hotels, we were coming out in the, in the wake of the pandemic. So if you kind of think back where we were three and four years ago versus today, there were a lot of properties that had gone through this economic shock, and there were owners who were reeling from that experience, especially those that had corporate business travel hotels as opposed to those leisure destinations that benefited from the pandemic. And so during that time, Aperture actually went on and took on almost 30 different properties that we added to the portfolio, that were, driven by those owners who needed a new management company to come and take a look at their, their with fresh eyes and take a look at their top line strategies, their expense controls. And so we had a lot of properties, and they were 100% of those properties were not through acquisitions, but were actually just performance turnaround assignments where they were switching management companies, to somebody to take a fresh look. So, with all that said, we found ourselves, walking into properties that were on, like, the sixth or seventh year of a five-year hold strategy for private equity firms or high net worth individuals and so on. And that quickly turned into turnarounds, which the story from us lately has actually been sales, a lot of sales, 20 plus sales over the course of this last year. And so today, as we stand here, I’m actually more rebuilding the pipeline with a mix of more management change assignments, plus a few pipeline of new developments. And those new developments are mostly, like, 100 or 300 room soft brand properties across the country. So yeah a lot’s changed for sure. Really rapid growth, really rapid sales, and now more sort of measured one at a time growth. Ryan Embree: Yeah, and I wanna talk about that, because I’ve had the privilege to talk to some management company owners and leaders, and they’ve kind of echoed that same sentiment of not just growth, but strategic growth. And that seems to be where you are right now, too. So when you kind of take a look at. I know you mentioned that particular segment, but when you take a look at the hospitality landscape right now, what makes the right strategic partner for Aperture Hotels right now as you kind of enter this cycle where you’re trying to build back up a little bit? Charles Oswald: You’re right. The right partner, it’s about fit. And when you look at the experience of our leadership team, we’re really engineered towards compact, full service hotels, lifestyle, premium select service brands. They can be brand or independent. We’d like to partner with owners that have some portfolio stable scalability. Preferably they own by that, I mean, they own more than one hotel, and there might be more than one opportunity there. You know, we wanna work with those owners that know what they’re doing, right? They’ve got some, some governance, sophistication, some decision speed. Hopefully, they’ve not just made bad investments when they’re turning over these properties, but really, they’re looking for some performance turnaround in a good investment. And preferably those are longer term holds. As you can tell, we did a lot of hard work for some turnarounds and watched them sell. And they sold largely to owners who had their own management. So that’s tricky for us, right? That leads us looking for more opportunities. So in terms of us in aperture and how we see ourselves in competitive points of difference is we’ve got a group that has hundreds of hotels of experiments. Myself, I’ve managed about 300 hotels now over the years, and they’ve ranged from little 60-room properties up to a thousand plus room convention hotels and resorts. And so what we bring is, we’ve got big experience in our leadership team, but we’re in a small package, right? A boutique-sized company that can give more corporate support to property ratio. And we’re very data-driven in how we use our decision-making tools to uncover those hidden business opportunities and the potential to drive market share and outperform GOP. Big experience, I’d say that corporate support, the data-driven decision-making process and tools, I think is really what sets us aside. And by the way, I’ll just mention that our average RGI that we’ve achieved in the first 18 months when you put us in place after another management company, the average RGI growth or repar index gains is actually just over 10%. So we’ve had, like, incredible turnarounds at the top line, which leads them to great bottom line improvements as well. Ryan Embree: Which makes it so much more impressive, too, with the climate right now. And these events that we go to would talk about operating and margins right now, and trying to be just efficient as possible, because costs are, are rising right now. It is certainly difficult to navigate, and I’m sure that experience that you’ve had has certainly lended itself to some great stories that you can then share to help grow that portfolio. And the other part of the experience that you were talking about is you have the data and the insights. And one of the places you find that data and insights is obviously hospitality events that are going on. I’ve had the pleasure of running into you at quite a number of these. If I’m not running into you, Charles, I’m seeing you up on stage conducting interviews or, or sharing some of your takeaways on LinkedIn after the event. You got a busy second half of the year. I wanna talk about these events, though, and how you kind of leverage them, right? So, why do you think these events, especially now, are so important? And then, how do you measure success of an event once it’s completed, whether that be a lodging conference, an investment conference, or whether it be, just an educational data event? Charles Oswald: Look, that’s a really good question. When you consider the time, travel budget, and the opportunity costs on an executive’s busy calendar to get out to these conferences and spend three, four days between the travel and the time out there, we’ve gotta be, we’ve gotta be very intentional, right, about how we approach it. So, I see value in going to these conferences because of deal sourcing and the relationship capital that we pick up. Also, I think there’s that market intelligence and the pricing signals that we get from those from this conference. There’s the access to capital markets. That was particularly important for me here recently as I was looking to as I’m in the process of acquiring a property right now in Phoenix, and when we needed to raise LP capital and we had those relationships these are people, again, we met at conferences. I think talent reputation, right, it’s important to get out there and continue to manage that. So those, those are a number of the reasons why we wanna get out to these conferences and why we think they’re important. But the measure of success, you’re right, for a data-driven guy, I wish I could put a specific number to it. Like, here’s the ROI from each of these conferences. It’s really difficult to. It’s really difficult to do, but I can tell you that, I do look back and, and aggregate those. I look at the management contracts we picked up, and I think of, “Okay, well, where did I meet these folks? And so what’s the average return?” And I can put a number to that. And I would tell you that in terms of the immediate return, what I’m looking for is if I can have three to five specific follow-up conversations, a result of that conference, then the trip was worth the cost. Ryan Embree: That’s great advice for young hospitality professionals out there. I mean, we have a great industry, and one of the coolest parts of it is you get to rub shoulders sometimes with those executives. So even those younger hospitality professionals that might be tuning in here, it’s a great piece of advice to when you can, obviously, try to get that exposure of networking and get out there because hospitality is certainly a big world, but it’s also a very small world, and you run into a lot of the same people. And again, this, just like you said, Charles, a lot of the stories, success stories, whether it be business relationships, some of those transactions could stem from sitting next to somebody at breakfast – Absolutely. On day two of a conference. Love to hear that advice, love to hear that those stay beneficial, because we love those. We’re hospitality people, right? We’re in that industry. Now, another thing you become kinda famous for your takeaways articles on LinkedIn. My advice would be to encourage anyone, definitely give Charles if you’re not already a follow, because you have some great insights and takeaways from some of the events that he goes to. So I’m gonna kind of put you on the spot here. If you had to do a takeaways article for the first half of 2026, maybe give us a couple points, and then if you could, maybe share some predictions. We’re hospitality people. We love to kind of predict, try to predict the future a little bit, so. Charles Oswald: Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe the biggest takeaway from the first half is that we’re not great in hospitality about predicting future. Ryan Embree: That’s a good one. Charles Oswald: So, as we rolled into 2026, there were a lot of folks that were saying it was gonna be, like, Groundhog Day, that we’re looking at flat, very modest, RevPar growth and expenses that, outpace, the top line. And I think what nobody saw coming was US demand growth in the first half of the year. Now part of this, I will tell you, if we look back in some panels, a year ago, I called part of this, which is I asked why is no one talking about the impact of the $30 billion increase in tax refunds that we’ll see, plus the real wage growth that’s happening, and what impact that could have on our industry? And, and a lot of people kind of poo-pooed and they said, “Well, you know, we don’t really know that the tax refunds are gonna be there. We don’t really know how those are gonna hit.” Okay. But we do. There was some, some mirroring it kinda like during the pandemic when you put money in people’s pockets, there were a lot of people that just went out and spent it. And so I did, I think that had a real impact on the, on the first half of the year. And then the other part that none of us saw coming, and I didn’t, was certainly there’d be a war in Iran and how the general global conflict can would affect the outbound travel case for the American traveler. So, that outbound travel, international outbound decelerated, right, while domestic leisure demand, stayed strong. So, that helped prop up the first half of the year. So there are some trends from the first half that I think will carry out to the second half. So for not getting in looking forward, I’d say that second half of the year, there’ll be more bifurcation. You know, we’re gonna see a continuing challenge to new supply growth, and we’re gonna continue to see labor costs rising, but at a bit of a decelerating rate. So if I were to expand a little bit on that, on the bifurcation, we’ve heard a lot of talk about the K-shaped economy. And really in that bifurcation, there’s some people talking about this hollowing in the middle class, and, and, and I think that’s actually very, very misrepresented. What’s actually happened is we’ve seen a growth generational wealth, over the course of the last 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And this is a long-term macro trend, okay? The fact is that there are fewer poor today, about a third less than there were, you know, 40, 50 years ago. There are few, fewer lower middle class, and no longer is the core middle class the largest classification of income in America. But according to the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is actually now the upper middle class is the largest class, right? So people are moving up on this continuum, and they’re more wealthy. So when you start thinking about that, what does that affect on our industry? That’s why we’re seeing this interest in, towards experiential travel, towards the soft brands, towards luxury, and why upper upscale and luxury tiers have been outperforming. So I think we’ll continue to see that as we go through the end of the year. And the other story I think we’ll continue to see is that new supply, right? Man, the plan, I mean, there’s, like, you know, 10% supply growth planned. But what actually happens, is just a, you know, a fraction of a percent. And so, in there, the challenge, you know, debt isn’t the problem anymore. It’s more about equity and construction cost relative to the commercial real estate valuations,in interest rate market environment that we’re in today. Ryan Embree: Yeah, so you have a little bit tampered demand, or tampered, building construction because of those construction costs. And do not underestimate, again, the willingness and ability for people and wanting to travel and have experiences. I still think they even the younger generation, they’re getting some more money in their pockets, and the first thing that they’re wanting to do is plan a nice trip, right, before they go out and, and buy those expensive things that, which was, was typically would happen. Charles Oswald: Yeah, and I wanna just comment one thing though is we’ve talked a lot about economic resilience, and that resiliency definitely exists in the US, and it’s more resilient than a lot of folks probably though it was when you look back in time. However, some of that does seem to be breaking here, right? You know, you are seeing rise of credit card debt. You are seeing some increases in folks, particularly at the mid-scale and, and, and lower income classes defaulting on car payments and things like that. And so if you start to make a decision about, you know, do I travel or do I pay my, my car, that is going to affect the industry, you know, as we go forward. And, and that’s gonna play a little bit in that bifurcation that we were talking about. Those who are on the upper end have watched unreal growth for the last few years in their stock market portfolios. You know, they, they feel a little bit more free and, and open travel. Ryan Embree: Yeah, it’s interesting. You’re right. You know, we always talk about still prioritizing travel, but travel over things. But when tho- those things become, like you said, payments or car payments, then all of a sudden the priorities start to shift a little bit. So it’d be interesting to see how that continues in the second half of this year. Now, another topic we that you’re gonna hear at every single hospitality show, it’s a bingo card, is AI and technology. And you, and you actually speak a lot. I’ve seen you on panels speak a lot to it in, in your interviews. Where do you think the hospitality industry, which we’ve said typically is one to slowly adopt technology? Where do you think we are in this cycle of AI adoption? And then maybe you could zoom in a little bit into your organization and, and where you’ve prioritized that, or maybe stayed away from it. Charles Oswald: Maybe we kind of break that down into sounds like three or four areas, right? I think, yeah, it’s what’s the biggest impact today? What’s kinda happening now? And maybe where’s it going? Sure. And, uh, and how do we play into that as a management company, right? Yeah. So I guess there’s four ways. In terms of the biggest impact today, it’s for sure it’s been, it, it, it’s been in distribution, right? Uh, GEO and AEO are the new SEO. And so, um, uh, maybe what’s accelerated hospitality is entrance into AI because the customer was using it to search for hospitality, and then all of a sudden we woke up and said what – Ryan Embree: Great point. Charles Oswald: It’s not just about keywords, but how, how do we become the answer to the question they’re asking? And so that’s, uh, that’s certainly the biggest impact today is on the distribution side. I think what’s happening in progress, we’re starting to see more in the areas of revenue optimization and design, right? Like on, you know, when it comes to new hotel renovations and they and developments. And then the future, where’s it going? I think we’re gonna see AI more in our, more closely integrated into our business analytics, like and that’s gonna extend into labor scheduling and productivity. I think we’ll see it help us in energy management and procurement. Things like F&B menu engineering both from the creative standpoint and kinda marrying that with the math, right? Like, what the cost of plate is and what the customer’s actually buying. And and that’s really important. IAnd by the way, that’s a weak spot, I think in the industry. There are an awful lot of management companies that are not very good on food and beverage side. So at Aperture, what are we doing? First off, I would say we lean really heavily on our tech partners to adapt, adopt AI for their analytics or reporting insights. And today insights has become the real opportunity, right? I mean, if you ask your BI system, you know, it’s one thing for them to be able to pull a report or show you some side-by-side comparisons, but the insights, like, why is this happening? You know, you can tell me, me what my flow-through is, it’s great, but, like, what should it be if we had run according to all the budget metrics that, like, that we put out there? They’re, they’re weak on that side, at least to date. So I think that’s gonna be the next step is that is conveying those analytics and reports to insights. And so, we’re keenly working with technology solutions that they can implement in those ways, and digital marketing efforts that help us improve the distribution that we were talking about earlier, GEO and AEO. And from a practical day-to-day standpoint, you know, we’ve incorporated, cloud enterprise solutions in our daily work and our applications, like, you know, Excel and SharePoint, et cetera, like a lot of other companies have. But we got plenty of room, plenty of runway there when it comes to AI. Ryan Embree: Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. So, uh, every day, yeah. every hour, it feels like sometimes with these announcements. Um, but yeah, you, you mentioned something really, really fascinating at the top of that, the answer of, you know, I think the adoption cycle sometimes with technology and hospitality has been slow because we’ve tried to, sometime, “Hey, download our app,” right? We’re, we’re trying to get the customer to move with the technology that we want them to move into, and the ecosystem that, that, “Hey, you know, do this.” And now, what’s happening is we’re seeing the consumer move into these LLMs and, and AI search, and now hospitality’s kind of been like, “We have to catch up because this is where our customer is,” right? So maybe that does cause a little bit of, uh, acceleration. So, because that is the biggest thing that we’ve been hearing as well, is just AI visibility. There is just this, this fear of a couple years ago, it was the fear of doing anything and being like, “I’m not doing anything with AI and technology. Now it’s like, now I have. My biggest fear is keeping me up, is I’m not being found on AI, uh, search engines and LLMs.” Charles Oswald: Yeah, let me tell you, like, just a great example, I was traveling not long ago, to Chicago, and I had a trip to Nashville, and I was just curious. I just, I went to Google – Yeah. And said, “Hey, what are the, what’s the best hotel in Chicago?” And it gave me a list of sponsored results. So it was like, I don’t know, half a dozen or so hotels there. And it gave me a list of, like, you know, here’s what says, and there’s like 20 properties there, and there is, AAA and Forbes, and there was the map and so all this stuff, and I’m like, “Wow, there, there’s, like, you know, 60 best hotels in Chicago.” And so then I moved over, just out of curiosity, I asked, uh, Claude, “What’s the best hotel in Chicago?” Gave me one answer, named one hotel, this is the best. And it gave me a little honorable mention list of three properties underneath it. I thought, oh, my gosh. And then I did the same thing with Nashville. I get one answer – Yeah. And it’s honorable mentions. And it really started making me think, oh my gosh, like, like, if, if only one hotel is gonna come up with that, how do I make that money? And, uh, and who is this, who is this, um, generative AI trusting? And so, so, so we began to dive really deeply in that conversation about, like, when, where are these trusted resort returns coming from, and how do we influence that, right? How do we make sure we appear there? Ryan Embree: 100%. Yeah, that’s the, the next race right now is to try to figure that out. And that’s difficult. Charles Oswald: Kind of back up and just elaborate, just one more comment – Yeah. Is just that, that, like, in Google, I mean, it’s, sure, it’s trusted. I don’t think anybody says that you don’t, you don’t trust Google on those returns and the 60 properties that it’s sent, but – Right. It’s returning the results that it wants you to see, the search engine. Whereas Claude, ChatGPT, Grock, others, they’re returning the results that, as the consumer, I wanted to see. Ryan Embree: And that’s, and that’s the, I think that’s the difficult because it almost changes into a little bit 40 chess, because I might ask the same question, and based on my search experience, it could look at a different best hotel in Chicago than could be your best hotel in Chicago. Once you go down that. Yeah. Charles Oswald: Are you Going there for business, or is it a wedding, or is the soccer team? Yeah, right. And it, it might know the purpose. It might know lis – a little something about you. You’re exactly right. Ryan Embree: Well, uh, uh, listen, I’m gonna take us back before we get to, into that to rabbit hole and, and lose everybody there, because one of my, uh, one of the favorite parts of the conversation, and we’ve done, you know, now this, I think we’re, we’re over 200 episodes here, but one of the, one of my favorite parts, uh, places of our conversation, Charles, back when we first spoke, was hearing the origin story of aperture hotels and, and the name for it. And so, uh, I wanted just to revisit that for those who may have missed that episode. Can you share that story again and why this whole shift your perspective, which you can find on your LinkedIn, your website, everywhere, that mindset has really resonated, uh, with, so well with, um, hotel owners, investors, and has, has been an important part of your s – your company’s success. Charles Oswald: Oh, wow. Um, you know, thank you for, uh, for asking that question, uh, and, uh, and it’s a reminder and the flashback. You know, so, uh, so what is an aperture, first off, right? It’s, it, it’s, it’s in that, you know, that, that, that camera lens that allows light, right, to, to, to pass through, right? So, so it creates a clear, well-composed image. And so I think from a hospitality brand, um, that maps into some of our values. Um, you know, we talk about transparency and accountability. We talk about clarity and vision, right? Like, an owner sees a, a hotel’s position, um, uh, potential, and we can help capture it, right? We help focus, bring focus. Precision and control, you know, I, I think that helps, uh, convey into our views on process orientation across the enterprise and, you know, and consistent execution. One of our core values is about being actively curious, right? Like, how do you scratch beneath the, the surface and shine a light on, on what that is, right? And, you know, what can we do to, to make, you know, to reveal those, those, the, the hidden business potential? We think about, you know, when we’re walking into the hotel and, and, and we’re touring our, our properties and, and, and looking for those, um, those guest experience improvements, it’s like, how do we make this, uh, picture perfect for the customer who arrives, right? What that arrival experience, what are the first moments of truth? And so I think all of those things, that, that transparency of clarity, vision, precision control, uh, you know, picture perfect, uh, all these things, um, sort of play into that aperture name. But I’ll be honest, there was another part of this, uh, which is that, you know, there’s, like, 400 hotel management companies out there, uh, and there’s hundreds more that used to be. Finding an original name is admittedly difficult. Every name you can think of has been, uh, used. Sure. Uh, we, we were fortunate, uh, to be able to find something that was original that didn’t, you know, pigeonhole us into something like, you know, calling ourselves, uh, Sunbelt Management or something like that. So, so, so that did work out well for us. Ryan Embree: Yeah. Well, I love it because, you know, you, you mentioned at the top that this was, you know, Aperture Hotels was really their origin story started during and during that COVID time, right? During and after that COVID time. And I think it was in those conversations, the companies and organizations that I spoke to that had a very clear North Star, a very clear direction of who they are and their culture during that time, because it was such a difficult time. So to have such a strong kind of name and you have all of those things, I’m sure that is, has been so beneficial for you as you continue to grow and scale, because you need that, right? You need something to kind of lean back onto and be kind of your Compass North, your North Star, however you wanna to phrase it. But I love to hear that. And like I said, it, it stuck with me all these years afterwards, so I wanted to touch on it again. And, um, I saw recently on LinkedIn that, uh, you and your team wrapped up a leadership conference in, uh, New Orleans. Tell us a little bit about that event and how, how instrumental the team has been, and also your, your success over at Aperture Hotels. Charles Oswald: Oh, that is. Well, yeah, that, that, that was a fun time. Uh, first off, getting together, getting our team together – Yeah. For that annual conference is my favorite part of the year really energizes me. Um, you know, I’m so grateful for, for, for, for the team that’s doing this work on the ground and, and the leadersh – uh, we have out there in the field. You know, I think often we talk about performance. We send around our balanced scorecard. We measure and we rank people and, and, uh, you know, we talk about process and so on. And that, and that’s, that’s an important part of the, uh, uh, of what we cover in the, uh, in, in our annual leadership co – uh, conference as well. But, um, but I think when you’re rubbing elbows, uh, you know, you’re in the same room with everybody. Uh, there’s, there’s a different level of, you know, preparation, focus, and curiosity, you know, team member bonding and relationship that happens. And, you know, and I love how in the aftermath of these conferences, we, you know, we hear about how, you know, the general manager, you know, in, you know, in the US West, it’s called the general manager in the US East, and they’re – Sure. They’re getting together and collaborating now on, on, on best practices and, and how they dealt with certain challenges maybe that are shared experiences that they’re having. So that’s where it happens, right? I mean, you get out there in a conference together like this where I think i- ideas get sharpened, uh, perspectives broadened. People learn, you know, here’s some insights, and they, uh, you know, share in their experiences. They challenge each other. And, uh, we, and, and we come out of it just, uh, winning together. And by the way, I should mention also, there’s some really great food, uh, so – Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. New Orleans. Uh, I’m a big eater. Ryan Embree: Yeah, that, that helps too. Uh, Charles Oswald: A few extra, but I’ve never missed one. And, uh, New Orleans is a great place for someone to like me, that’s for sure. Ryan Embree: Yeah. We, well, we talked about how quickly things are moving right now in hospitality, and it’s so important to kinda get everybody together in one place. And we’ve seen how you prioritize, obviously, the, the bigger hospitality events across hospitality. So sometimes to get that dialed in with your team, just so important. And great to hear that that continues to be. ‘Cause if you remember back in the day, we were hearing that that was gonna be the end of this, by the way. Everybody was gonna have these leadership conferences on Zoom, and everyone was gonna love it, and nobody was going anywhere. So, uh, love to see that that, that prediction didn’t come to pass. Now, you’re – Charles Oswald: Yeah, you know, the funny thing about that, Ryan, is – Sure. Is that we’re out there in hospitality on the sales front. We were telling our companies, our clients, why they all need to get together. And hospitality companies are like, “Well, but, but we’re gonna do it on Zoom.” Ryan Embree: Right. Right, exactly. Right? We gotta practice what we preach a little bit Charles Oswald: Both Sides of our mouth, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, and enjoying some of the hospitality, uh, that we provide every single day, right? So, so you’re headquartered in Atlanta, Charles, you’ve got. But the portfolio spans across the country, you mentioned it. Are there any particular markets that you’re seeing strong opportunities and maybe some that you’re cautiously maybe staying away from for a bit right now? Charles Oswald: Well, uh, first off, the Atlanta part. Um, right? I mean, we’re, we’re the transportation hub of the Southeast, but, uh, arguably the country and the world with the world’s biggest and busiest airport. So when we talk about, like, w- where we’re willing to go, we’ve got a competitive advantage from here in the, uh, in that we have more direct flights to more cities across the country and the globe than any other, an- anybody. Else, right? Uh, coming out of, uh, the world’s biggest and busiest airport. So, so that’s, uh, that’s, that’s really nice and not to mention there’s a, there’s certainly a lot of drive markets, uh, that are within four, four hours of, uh, of Atlanta. So, um, so yeah, that makes us pretty opportunistic when it comes to, uh, uh, hotel management assignments. You know, ideally, uh, you know, we’re looking, ideally we’re, we’re looking at, you know, those top 100 or so cities. Ideally, you know, we, we, we certainly have better presence in the eastern half of the US, but we do span from Florida beaches to coastal California. In terms of the type of markets that are, that are more ideal and better fit for us, you know, generally speaking, they’re, you know, a lot of the, the southern markets are, uh, you know, certainly performing well. They’re business friendly. We avoid union hostility, uh, where, whenever possible, right? Sure. And, um, you know, th- those are the type of markets where we’d wanna go. And in terms of, of the type of hotels, you know, again, I think leaning towards the bifurcation that we know exists in, uh, in the industry that kinda says, you know, you gotta be great at, uh, soft branding experiential properties, right? And some lifestyle assets. And, and so that we’re, we’re, we’re leaning that direction. And you see it in our pipeline. You know, so, so our pipeline includes, you know, includes today, uh, multiple Marriott, Hilton, soft branded assets, like, like Tribute and, you know, and Tapestry Autographs. We also have, uh, some brands like Compass by Margaritaville sitting in the pipeline, right? And, and independent. Um, so, so really cool, exciting places where we get to create our own brand, really, our own store – Yeah. Based off of the building that’s there. And all of those new development projects that we’re talking about have, um, they have a lot of credit. I mean, that’s the only way you can pull these off today is if you’re, if you’ve got historic tax credits, you know, so we’ve got that in multiple places and hundred plus year old buildings. It’s, you know, great stories to tell. Uh, we’ve got, uh, you know, tax increment financing, PIDs, we’ve got enterprise zone, we got the CIPLA, you know, many other different factors that have played into making a capital stat that actually works. Uh, and that’s the way to, you know, that’s, that’s the way we’re getting it done and, uh, on the new development side. Ryan Embree: Well, those are fun projects, let me tell you. Um, I, I, I’m sure to work on, because it’s like you said, I mean, you get to tell a story there. Um, sometimes there’s a story already ingrained with these historic buildings that then become a, a key foundational component of, uh, you know, what you’re building on, um, so to speak, and, you know, uh, literally and figuratively when, when it comes to your maybe digital story. So, yeah, very, very cool to see. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll be excited to watch, watch those come to, to life. I want to. We’re, we’re wrapping up here, Charles, but I always feel like it’s always my duty, you know, having the privilege to talk to leaders like you, try to just get as much inside advice as I can out of you during this time. Obviously, as a business owner, you know, starting a business never easy, so much vision, resilience, incredible amount of commitment, especially doing one where you started it during a historic time and around COVID, right? But looking back on your journey building Aperture, you know, what advice would you give maybe to the next generation of hospitality leaders? It doesn’t necessarily have to be about if someone’s wanting to build their own, uh, management company, but e- even just a hospitality professional just now today in 2026? Charles Oswald: That’s a good question. You know, some things that come to mind is, uh, it’s a one in whatever business you’re, you’re doing, if, if you’re trying to be entrepreneurial and you wanna be an owner, I’d say, you know, choose your partners carefully, right? If you’re coming up in the business, I’d say, um, master the numbers, you know, not just your gut. If you’re, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re in the hiring seat, uh, uh, as a, as a team leader, I would tell them to, um, make sure they treat people decisions as serious as the capital decisions, right? Very, very important. I think from a business development standpoint, uh, I say those guys that are trying to, you know, build a, a portfolio need to y – learn to, to read the deal and not just as an operation. I think young or old, we should embrace the tech shift. I couldn’t believe I, I have some college professor friends, I do some advisory work at several universities, and I listen to, uh, college professors and some students out there, uh, who are very, being very resilient, r- resistant to AI, talking bad about it, they view it as a threat. And, uh, I’m like, “Hey, guys, y’all need to know that we do employ people, employers are looking for those young folks to come out with some experience and exposure and learning, uh, you know, and, and, and to have some insights in how to, how, you know, we cannot adopt AI at our companies.” And, and, uh, you know, you’re doing an injustice if, uh, if you’re resisting tech shift. Uh, so, and lastly, I would say think about your reputation management, right? Like, like, protect your credibility with your owners, with your franchisors, like it’s capital, because it is. Ryan Embree: Great advice. Sound, sound about. We got. That was comprehensive. Thank you for, thank you for sharing that. No, really appreciate it. Like I said, you know, uh, try to glean as much as I can out of these conversations and share it. Um, all great advice. Um, you know, hopefully we don’t have to wait three years next time to have you back on the podcast. Would, would love to catch up with you then, but who knows where, where you’ll be and, and the growth, uh, of Aperture Hotels. But what’s next? Like, as we wrap up today’s final question, kinda what’s your vision for the future as you look into the, this latter part of the half of the 2020s, right, for Aperture Hotels? Charles Oswald: Yeah, I think, um, being involved in a few developments is, is, you know, the one side. I’d say there’s just ongoing organic growth of, uh, taking on, on, uh, new management contracts, and they’ll probably mostly still be through, management company transitions as opposed to actual ownership transitions. And then, look, M&A is on the table, right? We, we’ve studied, uh, a few other small management companies that we can maybe, uh, acquire or merge in with. And I think that’s, yeah, I, I’m continuing to be open to that, uh, that conversation and, and, uh, uh, I hope to probably do just one. Uh, I don’t think multiple, but, but, but probably just one that’s really the right fit and the right strategic play. Ryan Embree: Awesome. Well, we’re excited. It’s been cool to watch your journey and aperture hotels from when we first spoke with you to here we are now and wish you nothing but success. So thank you so much, um, for taking the time to, to spend some time with my, myself as well as our sweet spot listeners, Charles. Charles Oswald: Yeah. Thank you. It’s great chatting. I appreciate it, Ryan. Ryan Embree: alright. Thanks, everyone. We’ll talk to you next time on The SuiteSpot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with cover art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.  

Dr Margaret Heffernan is one of the world's leading thinkers on uncertainty, leadership and creativity. A bestselling author, entrepreneur and former CEO, her latest book, Embracing Uncertainty, challenges one of the biggest assumptions in business that the future can, and should, be predicted.In this episode, Margaret explains why forecasting often fails, where great ideas really come from, and why spending more time with uncertainty can actually make us better leaders and marketers. We discuss the dangers of relying too heavily on data, the surprising habits of highly creative people, and why walking might be one of the best things you can do for your thinking.Timestamps00:00 - Trailer01:09 - Why pick uncertainty as a topic05:31 - Why some companies shouldn't forecast09:04 - Why smart people are wasting time on forecasting14:41 - The problem with having too much data19:07 - Predictability only happens at scale24:41 - Where do ideas come from?27:19 - Why the Chief Economist of the Bank of England goes on walks30:29 - Are we becoming too left brain dominant?32:32 - The problem with AI36:10 - Is AI killing our ability to think?41:17 - How to make good ideas happen44:11 - The power of surprise46:15 - The improvisers paradox49:31 - The correlation between the artists mind and the entrepreneur's mind51:57 - What human skills do we need to survive?58:43 - The best advice Margaret has ever been given ---Thank you to our sponsors System1 and HubSpotDownload System1's creator effectiveness report here:https://system1group.com/the-creator-effectiveness-playbookFind about more about HubSpot's AEO product here:https://www.hubspot.com/products/aeo

Most SEOs assume AI visibility requires an omnichannel content spread. Jenna Hannon, founder and CEO of Hatter, scaled Uber Eats as one of its first marketing hires and now runs an AI search agency advising fractional CMO clients including Multisensor AI and FORM Kitchens. She outlines how to run an AI visibility audit to benchmark brand and competitor citations across generative engines, exposing which source types actually drive AI answer inclusion. The discussion reframes AEO as an extension of proven SEO fundamentals rather than a separate, channel-hungry discipline.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the point of AI wasn't to make more, but to work less?This is the thing everyone said AI should do that nobody's actually doing. All the capitalists want to use AI to make more money, not work less.In this episode of Small Effort (Season 4, Episode 15), Sean and Andrew dig into the team that used AI to move to a four-day week instead of squeezing out more, and the WordCamp pivot it mirrors: Andrew walking away from SEO autopilot to build content you're actually proud to publish. They cover why platform risk still burns big companies, the four pillars of content that survive after the AI tricks stop working, and why "what stays stable" beats every AEO hack.Links:Andrew's Twitter: @AndrewAskinsAndrew's website: https://www.andrewaskins.com/MetaMonster: https://metamonster.ai/Slackletter: https://slackletter.com/Sean's Twitter: @seanqsunMiscreants: http://miscreants.com/Margins: http://margins.so/Sean's website: https://seanqsun.com/For more information about the podcast, check out https://www.smalleffortspod.com/Transcript:00:00.95SeanHello.00:02.69AndrewHello, my friends.00:04.02SeanHow you doing? How was WordCamp?00:04.96AndrewGood. WordCamp was... Fucking awesome. um interesting like This is my first WordCamp ever. WordCamp is definitely in decline.00:14.91Seanah00:17.37AndrewAt least Recamp US is in decline.00:17.52SeanOh. uh-oh00:19.76AndrewDone. ah00:21.27Seanis there Is there other WordCamp? Is that like WordCamp Belgium?00:23.90AndrewThey're all over the world.00:24.30Seanor00:25.14AndrewThere's like WordCamp Europe, my... uh my one of my new friends that i made at the conference is going to word camp manila next week Um... It's ah yeah, they have them all over the world. And I think they're.00:38.38AndrewThey're still bigger. They're actually now bigger overseas than they are in in the US. which is interesting00:45.15SeanThat's it.00:45.09Andrewum we00:46.87SeanSense.00:47.60AndrewYeah.00:47.49SeanIsh. Maybe.00:48.39AndrewYeah.00:48.20SeanI don't know.00:48.90Andrewissue. Um,00:49.85SeanYeah.00:50.63AndrewI think. we're from the the cheesemade that i got from people who our repeat attendees is that WordCamp US has been in decline since something happened two years ago. What what might have happened two years ago? I can't remember.01:06.94AndrewAmen. any Any big drama in the in the WordPress space? that you can remember?01:13.39SeanNo. I block that out.01:15.00Andrewfifty01:15.04SeanFrom my memory. Um, Yeah, there was a, you know, there's... For some reason, a lot of people who are on WordPress. Um, complaining about something.01:25.31SeanAnd it brought us a lot of Webflow customers. so01:27.59AndrewHell yeah. Let's go.01:29.99SeanUm, uh,01:33.65SeanYeah. i'm I'm kind of curious. like like The shockwave that must have been across. I didn't realize there were so many word camps. So I wonder if like...01:45.34SeanWhat happens in all those WordCamps, all the same, like... throughout that entire year that feels01:51.35Andrewno I know.01:51.62SeanYou know?01:52.74Andrewum I mean, I got a little bit from my my friends who've been going for years. Okay.01:57.64Seanahha01:58.98AndrewUh, But. Yeah, like WordCamp US used to be like 2 ,000 to 2 ,500 people. They also they scheduled it in Phoenix in August this year, which I think. a lot of people were like i think that's part of the reason it's not doing well although At the same time, in the back of my head, I was like Black Hat and Def Conner in August every year and fuck tons of people go.02:18.45AndrewUm.02:19.80SeanYeah.02:20.06AndrewSo I don't know that that really impacted it. But yeah, this year was like. I think. one of my friends saw the registered attendee list, and it was 900 people. down from like 2 ,500 a few years ago.02:33.16SeanOh shit. God damn.02:34.28AndrewYeah.02:35.81SeanUm.02:36.57AndrewNot a great sign.02:37.93Seanfor For those not in. the web space. Um, Um,02:46.43AndrewHe's...02:46.39SeanThe... Do you want to, I don't know.02:48.63AndrewI got, I got.02:48.83SeanYou're the expert now, so.02:50.72AndrewSo I got, I'm not an expert, but. All right. So one of the... original co-creators co-founders of wordpress um I got.03:01.61AndrewI got yelled at by a friend, not yelled at, but like I got chastised by a friend for calling him the founder of WordPress. Someone was like. More like the forker of WordPress. um03:10.74SeanHell yeah.03:14.01AndrewUm, Uh, Matt. Mullenweg? Is that his name? um Uh... Anyway. WordPress mat. um a couple years ago went Like, got really... pissy at at a Word can.03:30.22Andrewduring a keynote. Um, at WP Engine, who's like one of the largest WordPress hosts. and a competitor so like it's all complicated because like WordPress is WordPress is...03:45.18Andrewa free open source tool. that is owned by a nonprofit. um and the WordPress trademark is owned by a nonprofit. Matt also owns... automatic which is a for-profit business that offer that owns wordpress .com a for-profit WordPress hosting service um and a bunch of other WordPress tools including WooCommerce and Pressable and some others.04:08.67AndrewUm, and Um, Automatic. has a like perpetual license from WordPress .org, the nonprofit, to use the WordPress trademark.04:20.96AndrewUm, And a couple years ago, he got mad at WP Engine, who's one of their biggest competitors, um who basically built their entire reputation on...04:32.11AndrewHey, your product kind of sucks. We're going to do it better and charge more for it. And people loved them for years and years. Um, I think some people have started to leave WP Engine. I don't know.04:43.08Andrewwhat the state of the things is right now. But like for years and years, people loved WP Engine because they were just like rock solid. Awesome support. And like they charged a premium for it.04:53.56SeanAnd WP Engine also owns... um the custom field the advanced custom fields plugin All right.05:00.36AndrewYes, they own a couple of like very successful WordPress plugins as well. And that got all pissy that they were like, using WP in their name. um that they even though like everyone in the wordpress community uses wp in their name Um,05:16.26AndrewThey were using WP in their name, and he was like, you're not contributing enough to open source. You're not contributing enough to WordPress .org. and05:24.72SeanOpen source. Oh, so the name. What I what i call my wallet.05:28.52AndrewYes.05:29.19Sean...

Coyuchi is proving that a 35-year of press is a brand's ultimate asset in the age of AI search. By continuously optimizing site schema for LLMs and selling “feelings over features,” the organic home textiles leader is turning AI discovery directly into revenue. For more on Coyuchi, in show notes, click here. Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

What separates the brands that dominate their category from those that disappear into digital noise? Two things: a ruthlessly focused niche and a brand story governed with such precision that your ideal client finds no other logical answer. Lindsey Busfield, co-founder of Optimize My Firm, built the nation's most recognized SEO agency for personal injury attorneys by doing exactly that — going so narrow, so deep, and so disciplined in her StoryOps™ that competitors simply can't follow. In this episode of the Business of Story, host Park Howell and Lindsey unpack why niching down is the most powerful brand strategy available to any business, how governing your story with clarity, consistency, and coherence makes you the category king or queen of your market, and why AI-driven search now rewards exactly this kind of high-fidelity storytelling. You'll discover: Why casting a wide net produces shallow results — and how radical niche focus turns your brand into the signal, not the noise How personal injury lawyers use story to win cases — and what every business can steal from that approach to govern their brand narrative How to build your digital footprint across SEO, AEO, and GEO so that Google, Perplexity, and every AI search engine serves you up as the definitive answer in your market Lindsey is also host of the Personal Injury Marketing Minute podcast and author of How Personal Injury Lawyers Get Leads: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why — available now on Amazon. Connect with Lindsey Busfield: Website: optimizemyfirm.com Email: lindsey@optimizemyfirm.com LinkedIn: Lindsey Busfield Learn more about the Business of Story and StoryOps™: storycyclegenie.ai

Only one-third of Google searches now click through to the open web. Jenna Hannon, founder and CEO of Hatter and former product marketing lead at Uber Eats, argues that AEO success depends on marketing fundamentals, not channel-hacking. She and Tyson break down why brand differentiation and positioning outperform multi-channel content sprawl, how AI visibility metrics like citation frequency and sentiment are replacing traditional traffic-based attribution, and why keyword specificity now beats broad-volume targeting in an AI-driven search landscape.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#386 | When your ad budget is zero but your creative ambition isn't, three simple techniques can still make you scroll-stopping. Dasha Shakov sits down with Shlomo Genchin, founder of unbore.com, the "unofficial school for B2B ads," to break down what actually makes a B2B ad good. Shlomo walks through his two-part research process for beating the blank page, then unpacks three frameworks - A World Without, Visual Analogy, and Personification - behind some of his highest-performing client campaigns. They also get into hiring actors on a budget, winning over a nervous CEO, and why Shlomo believes advertising should follow culture instead of trying to lead it. Plus his honest take on where AI actually helps and where it still falls flat.Tools & swipe filesreddit.com/answersadfolio.designblackcamel.agency/b2b-video-ads-libraryAds referenced (but not shown)Fibbler's AI adTimestamps(00:00) - - Welcome: Shlomo Genchin (01:51) - - How ad school and B2B's "Wild West" pulled Shlomo out of the agency world (07:05) - - Beating the blank page: practical research vs. personal research (13:15) - - The biggest myths about creativity, and how to "steal like an artist" (16:29) - - The three pillars of a great B2B ad, and technique #1: World Without (21:35) - - Technique #2: Visual analogy, and why a winning ad can run for years (29:45) - - Technique #3: Personification, and how to hire actors on a budget (38:05) - - Getting a nervous leadership team to say yes to a fun idea (42:04) - - AI philosophy: why advertising should follow culture, not lead it (46:11) - - The highest-leverage move for a team with zero ad budget Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

La forma en que los compradores B2B buscan información está cambiando.Ya no solo recurren a Google: también utilizan herramientas de IA para investigar, resolver dudas y evaluar soluciones.En este episodio hablamos sobre qué es el AEO, cómo funciona la búsqueda con IA y cómo preparar tu contenido y tu estrategia de marketing para este nuevo escenario.01:35 ¿Cómo está cambiando la búsqueda B2B?05:19 ¿Qué es AEO y cómo se diferencia del SEO?18:51 ¿Cómo decide la IA qué marcas recomendar?29:38 ¿Cómo crear contenido para la búsqueda con IA?35:50 ¿Está tu equipo preparado para la búsqueda con IA?Si este episodio te hizo replantear cómo debe prepararse el marketing B2B para la búsqueda con IA, te recomendamos escuchar estos episodios donde profundizamos en los fundamentos de SEO, la construcción de visibilidad orgánica y el papel de la inteligencia artificial dentro de la estrategia de generación de demanda.

#385 | Five B2B marketers share their single best-performing webinar play - with the real numbers to back it up. This Exit Five Live session breaks down the exact tactics behind a signup flow that 5x'd conversions, a post-webinar follow-up system that closed $1M in pipeline in a week, and a series format built to compound results instead of resetting with every session. You'll also get a look at running a webinar program like an in-person conference, and how to borrow an influencer's audience to solve the cold-start problem. Real plays, receipts, and step-by-step mechanics you can steal for your own program.Timestamps(00:00) - - Why Exit Five Live exists, and today's webinar bracket format (06:01) - - Turning the thank-you page into a qualifying survey to 5x conversions (13:06) - - Building a webinar series that compounds instead of resetting each time (20:01) - - The post-webinar follow-up system that closed $1M in pipeline in a week (23:14) - - Building AI agents to personalize that follow-up at scale (27:31) - - Structuring a webinar series like an in-person conference (33:09) - - Borrowing an influencer's audience to solve the cold-start problem (35:55) - - Automating content repurposing from one webinar transcript (40:09) - - Why first-party research is the real lead magnet (40:49) - - Live vote, the winning play, and closing announcements Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

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Is SEO dead? Ross Simmonds, CEO & Founder of Foundation Marketing, says that's the wrong fight. In today's episode, Ross breaks down AI search, AEO, and how to get your brand cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. He also asks the real question: what happens AFTER you publish.Also: why Reddit is STILL the most underrated channel in Marketing, how to measure your AI visibility (from share of voice, to referral traffic, and the "how did you hear about us" trick), and the 1 silo problem invisibly killing most marketing teams.If you're a Marketer who wants to get found in AI search without drowning in content slop, this episode is for YOU.Enjoying the pod? Follow and drop us a rating, it genuinely helps more Marketers find the show.Follow Ross:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosssimmonds/Follow Daniel:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themarketingmillennials/featuredTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/Dmurr68LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murray-marketingSign up for The Marketing Millennials newsletter:www.workweek.com/brand/the-marketing-millennials

Summer is closing up, kids are headed back to school, and September can be the gateway to the holiday season if you're prepared. Here are our tips for marketing your store in September. What did we miss? What works for you?Back to SchoolHistorically, K-12 schools start the day after Labor Day, but in some districts, schools can start as early as mid-July through August.  A great time to sell locks, commuter bikes, kids' bikes, helmets. Also, think about other security measures such as Apple AirTag holders from MucOff or Topeak.Colleges start classes in September…talk to your local campus police departments about new fleetsSales to campus police don't stop with the bikes; there are police decals, police bags, police-specific lights ...and don't forget service!  These aren't typical retail sales; they often require a check to be mailed in from the Accounts Payable department, so plan for that difference in cash flow earlyLabor Day SaleIt doesn't have to start and end on Labor Day; ride it out for a week or two. Adjust Google Hours if you are closedSpring/Summer ApparelWhat hasn't moved yet …let's start marking those jerseys down ...make room for the fall apparel that is just about to hit your dockFor non-perishables, such as black gloves, bibs, shorts, etc., you can keep those at full price.  Maybe take inventory on them, so if you store them away, you at least know the inventory is correct.Holiday Planning - not too early to think about the holidaysBlack Friday offersSpecial buys from your vendors (socks, sun sleeves, hats…stocking stuffers)Talk to your reps, find out what they are heavy onWe have a great E-Bike Premium Page which has great data for great SEO, AEO and GEO…talk with your account coordinator to get that added to your site Search Engine, Answer Engine, Generative EngineNew E-Bike page coming, here's an existing E-Bike Page - see all of our Premium Content Packageshttps://youtu.be/xAC5EuPYeXo - Debunking ecommerce mythshttps://blog.workstand.com/bicycle-chain-case-study - Case Study Be sure to email your questions to podcast@workstand.com. We read all emails sent, and we look forward to hearing from you.If you're a Workstand client with questions about your subscription, email support@workstand.com or call 303-527-0676 x 1. If you are not currently a Workstand client with questions about how our programs work, email info@workstand.com.Find Us on LinkedInMark Still, Senior Business DevelopmentDavid Martinez, Key Accounts AdvisorWe also publish Around the Workstand on our YouTube channel if you'd like to watch while you listen. Here is our Around the Workstand playlist.If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this episode of Around the Workstand or if you have ideas for new topics we can cover, schedule a time to meet with Mark Still here or email mark.s@workstand.com.

Send us Fan MailOur 200th episode! Thank you for being part of this community - whether you've been here since episode one or found us last week. Want to shape the next 200? Topic ideas, guest suggestions, or your own pitch: email anya@anewgo.com. And if the show has ever helped you, a 30-second review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is the best gift you can give us.Fittingly for the milestone, this is a big one. In this August State of AI, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - breaks down the month that moved AI search from theory to infrastructure.The crossover moment A Semrush study of nearly 500 marketing professionals found more marketers now plan to invest in AI search optimization than traditional SEO - 38% vs 36%. For 25 years SEO was THE discipline every budget started with. For the first time ever, it just got passed.Google's August 19 update: Search becomes a workspace Gemini Notebooks now live directly in AI Mode - imagine a homebuyer research notebook with floor plan PDFs, community brochures, pre-approval letters, and every AI conversation about builders in their market, all in one workspace that remembers everything. Custom document creation means a buyer can generate a comparison one-pager of the three builders on their shortlist - and whose information ends up in it depends entirely on what AI can find and trust about you.The 3D moment The headline update: Search can now generate interactive visual widgets and 3D simulations on demand inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google calls it generative UI - the AI isn't just writing an answer, it's building an interface. If Search can generate a rotating 3D molecular model today, how far away is "show me what an open-concept 2,400 square foot floor plan feels like"? Interactive content isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's becoming the raw material of the answer layer - and the builders who invested early are the ones AI will build from.Google published the rulebook - and called out the snake oil There is no special technical trick that unlocks AI visibility. What Google's official guidance rewards: unique, non-commodity content grounded in genuine expertise - your communities in real detail, your building practices, your actual differentiators. Not generic slop.Who's winning and who's invisible 85% of marketers say AI has changed how they approach search - but 40% still check their AI visibility by manually typing prompts into ChatGPT. The chart that matters: teams with fully integrated SEO + AI visibility report more leads from AI 81% of the time. Completely siloed teams: 36%. Same tools, different results - the difference is whether it's connected. And when brands actually checked how AI describes them, nearly 9 out of 10 found something wrong.Zuckerberg's signal Meta's 6,500-word manifesto commits hundreds of billions to "personal superintelligence" - a world where every buyer has their own powerful AI working on their behalf. Every major platform is now building toward the same buyer: one who arrives with superintelligence riding shotgun. Is your digital presence ready to talk to it?There is no page two When AI recommends two or three builders, most buyers just accept them. The recommendation is the market. The gap between cited and not cited isn't a difference in degree - it's a difference in kind.

Are you a small business owner who's new to SEO and wants to learn how to get started with it so you can grow your visibility, traffic, leads, and revenue? If so, this week's episode is going to help you get started with search engine optimization. I'm going to walk you through what you need to have ready ahead of time, how SEO works, what small business SEO does for your business, and more. Get started with SEO today with this episode.  Support the showRegister now for the free SEO class - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class  My free resources are here- https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies  Want to work with me 1:1? https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-consulting   Join me in Simple SEO Content -https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program. - https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links) Podcast recording and editing - DescriptPodcast hosting - BuzzsproutEmail Marketing - Active CampaignMarketing Website Analytics - Clicky SEO Tool - Ubersuggest     Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast? Ask it here -  https://forms.gle/Fbrqpmss6gxUnaMj7

Giulia Miotti is Senior Ecommerce Experience and Performance Manager at Bang & Olufsen, the Danish luxury audio brand where Scandinavian design meets high-fidelity sound.With over a decade of international experience across Adidas, Escada, and B&O, she's built her career at the intersection of digital innovation and brand storytelling; leading content, SEO and AI search, and ecommerce growth strategies that bring a legacy brand confidently into a digital-first, omnichannel future.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:00] Introduction[02:20] A century of maintaining brand craftsmanship[05:02] Kicking off the brand's digital transformation[09:46] Sponsor: IntelliGems[11:47] Building omnichannel Ecommerce roadmaps[15:03] Sponsor: Klaviyo[17:24] Legacy systems and internal friction[18:17] Piloting in-store appointment bookings[23:40] Sponsor: eFulfillment Service[25:59] Winning over franchisees with customer data[27:19] Callouts[27:29] Optimizing for AI search and AEO[36:48] Why strong SEO fuels AI search success[39:02] Final thoughts and where to find GiuliaResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeHigh-end Headphones, Speakers, and Televisions bang-olufsen.com/en/int Follow Giulia Miotti linkedin.com/in/giulia-miotti-digital/ Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ Get your free demo klaviyo.com/honest Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Did you know AI and affiliate review sites decide which mattress brand you see first—before you even step in a store? Here's how to win that game.Think the best mattress wins online? Think again. In this eye-opening episode, Mark Kinsley and PR/affiliate powerhouse Kris Hillberg reveal the hidden playbook behind how mattress and bedding brands become household names—whether or not their products are actually better.Discover why today's digital landscape is driven less by quality and more by who controls review sites, affiliate links, and the new “AI search” engines like ChatGPT and Google's LLMs. Kris shares insider tips on how brands are gaming YouTube, leveraging social proof, and rewriting the rules of SEO—now called GEO and AEO. If you're a retailer, brand, or even a curious consumer, you'll learn why old-school tactics are out, how social media keywords and creator partnerships are essential, and why being “real” will matter more than ever as AI-generated slop fills the web.Feeling lost as Google changes everything, review sites lose power, and affiliate commissions plummet? Kris and Mark break down the new rules—plus the biggest mistake most mattress brands make: ignoring holistic, multi-channel strategies. With concrete examples (Liquid Death, Tuft & Needle, and more!), they'll show you how to build digital gravity and create a surround-sound brand presence that's future-proof.Timestamps:- 00:50 – Why top mattress brands win (it's not product quality)- 03:45 – AI's secret influence on what brands consumers see first- 06:20 – How YouTube & social media now drive mattress discovery- 10:05 – The end of classic SEO: What is GEO & AEO?- 14:30 – Mattress review sites: Are they losing their power?- 18:00 – The “affiliate tax” and the dark side of mattress marketing- 22:15 – Why local retailers are losing to digital-first brands- 27:50 – The surround-sound strategy: What 8-figure brands do differently- 34:10 – Liquid Death & consumer-first branding secrets- 42:00 – Why “realness” beats AI in building trust- 49:00 – The 5-year plan for launching a winning mattress brandConnect with The FAM Podcast:

Most clinic owners believe playing it safe is the smart move. Keep overhead low. Avoid risk. Stay comfortable. But over time, this approach creates a hidden cost — stagnation, dependency, and limited growth. In this episode, we break down why playing it safe can actually hold your clinic back, and what happens when you shift from protecting your position… to building real control and growth. Drawing on insights from a high-performing private practice journey , this episode explores the key decisions, mindset shifts, and strategies that separate average clinics from those that scale successfully. What You'll Learn Why “playing it safe” limits long-term growth The hidden risks of staying small and dependent How niching down accelerates patient demand Why modern clinics must compete globally, not locally The importance of controlling your business environment How to build a high-performing, resilient team Why patient experience is now a major differentiator The mindset required to handle growth and uncertainty Key Takeaways Growth comes from focus, not comfort You cannot excel if you try to do everything Control of your systems = stability in your business High-performing clinics take calculated risks, not reckless ones Patient experience is just as important as clinical results Strong teams are built on attitude and resilience, not just skill Long-term success is built through consistent, intentional decisions Core Insight “Playing it safe doesn't protect your practice — it limits it.” The clinics that grow are not lucky. They are intentional about how they operate, position, and scale. Listen & Subscribe Follow OMD TV & OMD Podcast show for more strategies on growing your clinic with predictable, high-quality patient enquiries.   Work With Us At Online Marketing for Doctors, we help clinics build: High-converting websites Structured SEO and AEO strategies 24/7 AI agent & human call centre to support sales conversion  Scalable patient acquisition systems via Pay Per Click advertising If you want to position your clinic at the top, not just blend in, get in touch with our team. Key Links Mentioned

Audio-only note: There will not be a video version of this episode this week. We are currently without power after the derecho that came through our area, but we still wanted to get this important conversation out to you.   For years, homeowners found landscapers by asking a neighbor, searching Google, and reading reviews. They still do. But now more people are also asking AI tools questions like: “Who are the best landscapers near me for a patio?” or “Who can fix drainage problems in my area?” That is where AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — comes in.   In simple terms, AEO is about making it easy for AI-powered search tools to understand who you are, what services you offer, where you work, and why homeowners should trust you. Your website and Google Business Profile are still essential, but they are now part of a bigger picture. Google's own guidance says that strong search fundamentals—useful content, a clear site structure, crawlable pages, and accurate local-business details—remain the foundation for visibility in its AI search features.   In this episode, Scott covers: •What AEO means in plain English—and what it does not mean •Why a nice website and a solid Google Business Profile are only the starting point •The five things homeowners and AI tools need to understand about your company •How clear services, service areas, photos, reviews, and helpful answers build trust •A free, unsponsored tool—AgentChecker.ai—that can help you see where your website stands   Important: AgentChecker.ai can surface technical terms such as structured data, accessibility, Core Web Vitals, and headers. Do not worry if the report feels technical. Send it to your website person and ask them what matters most and what should be fixed first.   Follow Million Dollar Landscaper: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube   If this episode helped you, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps us reach more landscaping owners who need practical, no-fluff advice.   #MillionDollarLandscaper #LandscapingBusiness #AEO #AnswerEngineOptimization #AISearch #LandscapingMarketing #LocalSEO #GoogleBusinessProfile #LandscapingWebsite #LawnCareBusiness #GreenIndustry #ContractorMarketing #SmallBusinessMarketing #ScottMolchan #HomeServiceBusiness  

What happens when artificial intelligence, remote therapeutic monitoring, patient engagement, and chiropractic care come together?In this episode of TechTalk Healthcare, Brad Cost sits down with co-host Dr. Jay Greenstein, founder of Embodi, for a deep dive into the technology transforming modern chiropractic practices.Jay explains how Embodi uses remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM), patient-reported outcomes, home exercise programs, gamification, and rewards to help chiropractors stay connected with patients outside the office while creating new opportunities for practice revenue.The conversation breaks down Embodi's three revenue streams (RTM, patient retention, and rewards) and explores the real-world data behind increased patient engagement and practice revenue. Jay also shares how one practice generated $53,000 more from app users over 16 months and discusses the potential for practices to generate significantly more revenue through improved retention and patient engagement. The conversation then looks toward the future, including AI-powered healthcare decision-making, relational AI, AI search optimization, SEO/AEO/GEO, and Embodi's vision of becoming a worldwide digital health company. In this episode:Remote therapeutic monitoring for chiropractorsHow RTM can create additional practice revenuePatient retention and engagement strategiesGamification and rewards in healthcareAI in chiropractic and digital healthThe future of AI-powered healthcare decisionsSEO, AEO, and GEO for healthcare practicesBuilding a scalable digital health companyThe future of chiropractic technologyIf you're a chiropractor, healthcare entrepreneur, practice owner, or interested in the future of AI and digital health, this episode is worth a listen.For more information on EMBODI, check out this link: https://business.embodihealth.com/audit

Shannon Spotswood – CEO, RFG Advisory Choosing a platform isn't just about technology or economics. It's about finding a partner that helps you build the business you actually want to own. Shannon Spotswood explains why growth without compromise starts with choosing the right partner. In Summary What should advisors really look for in a platform partner? Jason Diamond sits down with Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory, to discuss why the best platforms do more than provide technology and operational support—they help advisors build stronger businesses. Shannon shares lessons from helping grow RFG into one of the industry's leading supportive independence firms, covering everything from private equity partnerships and advisor experience to enterprise value, branding, and overcoming the fear that keeps many advisors from pursuing the business they truly want. The Storyline Most advisors evaluating independence compare technology, payouts, and service offerings. Shannon Spotswood believes they're asking the wrong first question. After spending two decades in institutional investing and later helping to rebuild RFG Advisory from the ground up, Shannon has developed a philosophy centered on partnership. She argues that the best platforms function less like vendors and more like long-term business partners, helping advisors spend more time with clients, build enterprise value, and create businesses aligned with their vision rather than forcing compromises. Jason and Shannon discuss what meaningful support actually looks like, why the right private equity partner can accelerate growth rather than restrict it, and why advisors should demand evidence – not marketing promises – when evaluating a platform. The conversation also explores one of the industry's biggest obstacles to change: fear. Shannon explains why outdated assumptions about transitioning firms continue to prevent advisors from building businesses they enjoy, even though data suggests the experience is often far less disruptive than many believe. Ultimately, the discussion reframes independence itself—not as the destination, but as the beginning of choosing the right long-term partners. Topics Covered Evaluating advisor platforms as long-term business partners Building an independent business without compromise Enterprise value and organic growth Private equity as a strategic growth partner Advisor experience and client experience Branding and authenticity in wealth management Overcoming fear and transition myths Technology, outsourcing, and operational leverage Leadership, succession, and organizational growth The future of supportive independence   > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why should advisors think of a platform as a business partner? (10:00) Shannon explains why technology and service alone aren't enough—and why the right partner should help advisors build the business they ultimately want to own. What does “growth without compromise” actually mean? (10:00–17:30) RFG's philosophy centers on helping advisors focus on their highest-value work while surrounding them with integrated support designed to drive enterprise value. Can private equity make a firm better? (25:00) Rather than debating whether private equity is good or bad, Shannon explains why success depends on choosing a partner whose values and long-term vision align with yours. How should advisors evaluate competing platforms? (43:00) Her advice is simple: don't rely on marketing. Speak with advisors already using the platform and ask firms to demonstrate – not simply promise – how they solve problems. Why does fear keep so many advisors from making a change? (48:30) Shannon discusses the “PTSD” many advisors carry from outdated transition stories and why today's reality often looks very different. What does the future of advisor platforms look like? (34:00–42:00) The conversation explores advisor demand for greater personalization, stronger brands, AI-enabled efficiency, and partners that help advisors grow without sacrificing independence. Key Takeaways The best advisor platforms function as long-term strategic partners—not simply service providers. Enterprise value grows when advisors spend more time serving clients and less time managing operations. Private equity can be highly beneficial when partners share a common vision and respect management autonomy. Advisors should evaluate firms based on demonstrated execution rather than marketing claims. Fear remains one of the biggest barriers to advisor movement despite significant improvements in transition support. Authentic branding and deeper client relationships will become increasingly important as AI reshapes wealth management. https://youtu.be/jaSt3-mO0so Quotable Moments “The right partners make you better. The wrong ones can quietly hold you back.” “Don't tell me. Show me.” “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” “Your team deserves to be happy. You deserve to be happy.”   FAQs What should advisors look for when evaluating an advisor platform? Shannon believes advisors should look beyond technology and economics and evaluate whether a platform acts like a true long-term business partner that helps them grow and build enterprise value. How does RFG define “growth without compromise”? By providing integrated support – from technology and compliance to marketing and coaching – that allows advisors to spend more time with clients while maintaining control of their businesses. Is private equity always good or bad for advisor firms? No. Shannon argues that success depends less on private equity itself and more on choosing partners who share the firm's long-term vision and values. Why do advisors hesitate to make a move? Fear and outdated perceptions about transitions still influence decision-making, even though today's transition experience is often much smoother than advisors expect. How should advisors compare competing platforms? Talk directly with affiliated advisors, ask for measurable evidence of results, and focus on how a platform responds to advisor feedback rather than marketing claims. How is AI changing advisor businesses? AI should enhance – not replace – the advisor relationship by creating operational efficiencies that allow advisors to spend more time delivering personalized advice. Shannon believes advisors should look beyond technology and economics and evaluate whether a platform acts like a true long-term business partner that helps them grow and build enterprise value. By providing integrated support – from technology and compliance to marketing and coaching – that allows advisors to spend more time with clients while maintaining control of their businesses. No. Shannon argues that success depends less on private equity itself and more on choosing partners who share the firm's long-term vision and values. Fear and outdated perceptions about transitions still influence decision-making, even though today's transition experience is often much smoother than advisors expect. Talk directly with affiliated advisors, ask for measurable evidence of results, and focus on how a platform responds to advisor feedback rather than marketing claims. AI should enhance – not replace – the advisor relationship by creating operational efficiencies that allow advisors to spend more time delivering personalized advice. Related Resources How to Evaluate a Firm Beyond the Obvious: A Framework for Advisors Why You Should Stay at Your Current Firm   Shannon SpotswoodCEO Shannon Spotswood is a 25+ year industry veteran with a tremendous amount of experience across both retail and institutional finance and an outstanding reputation built on her passionate leadership and ongoing success in investment banking, hedge fund portfolio management, business development and retail wealth management. Joining RFG in 2015, Shannon recognized the opportunity to channel her entrepreneurial experience and passion for service into leading a mission to create an Advisor-focused RIA of the Future delivering a supported independence platform that empowers Financial Advisors to build the businesses they want to have, without compromise. Shannon's career has been characterized by her determination to build something bigger than herself. Having fallen in love with finance at only age 14, she was focused on making an impact in a male-dominated industry. After graduating from college, Shannon spent 20 years in San Francisco working in institutional finance. She began her career in investment banking and eventually achieved her dream job as a Portfolio Manager of a long- short equity fund at Symphony Asset Management. The company was acquired by Nuveen in 2001. After a decade at that firm and now a mother of 3 young children, Shannon turned her entrepreneurial passion in a new direction with a drastic pivot to start a luxury children's clothing brand, Busy Bees. Taking her years of experience in qualitative analysis of retail companies, Shannon and her business partner built the brand from the ground up, ushering its' growth from a garage to “Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop” over the course of a few years. Shannon and her family made the decision to move from the Bay Area to Birmingham, Alabama to be closer to family. And shortly after, the call to return to her first love, finance, grew to great to ignore. In 2015, Shannon joined RFG Advisory as President, leading RFG as the firm has grown from $1.8B to over $5B. In July of 2024, Shannon was named CEO of RFG Advisory and currently serves in that role. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience A conversation with Jason Diamond and Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory. Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for Financial Advisors. Today’s episode is Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience. It’s a conversation with Shannon Spotswood, the CEO of RFG Advisory. I’m Jason Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: The right partners make you better. The wrong ones can quietly hold you back. Most conversations about independence focus on platforms as providers of technology, service, or infrastructure. Shannon Spotswood sees them differently. She believes advisors should evaluate a platform the same way they’d evaluate any long-term business partner, by asking whether it will help them build the kind of firm they ultimately want to own. That’s exactly what we explore in this episode. Shannon is the CEO of RFG Advisory, a firm that has grown from a startup into one of the industry’s leading supportive independence platforms. Along the way, she’s developed a unique perspective on what advisors should be looking for beyond economics and technology, and why the right partner can accelerate growth, strengthen culture, and help create a business that’s built to last. It’s a conversation that goes well beyond advisor platforms. We explore why Shannon believes so strongly in growth without compromise, what private equity can look like when the partnership is aligned, why firms shouldn’t try to be everything to everyone, and how advisors can separate marketing promises from meaningful support. We also spend time on a topic that comes up in nearly every transition conversation my team has with advisors, fear. Shannon shares her perspective on why outdated assumptions about making a move continue to hold advisors back and why asking better questions and demanding evidence instead of promises can fundamentally change the way advisors evaluate every opportunity in front of them. Whether you’re considering independence, evaluating your current platform, or simply thinking about what comes next for your business, I think you’ll find Shannon’s perspective both practical and though-provoking, especially the sage advice in her words, “Don’t tell me, show me.” There’s a lot to take away from this conversation, so let’s get to it. Shannon, thanks so much for joining me. Thrilled to have you here. Shannon Spotswood: It’s excellent to be here. I’m really looking forward to it. Jason Diamond: Me too. Let’s dive right in. I want to start with your background. You spent 20 years in San Fran as an investment banker, then as a portfolio manager at Symphony Asset Management before even touching the world of wealth management. So what made you walk away from, we’ll call it the institutional world and enter the world of wealth management? Shannon Spotswood: It’s a little bit of a circuitous story, but I’m going to take us on the short route. I fell in love with Wall Street as a teenager, so I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street. My dream job was actually the time that I spent at Symphony Asset Management. I was a hedge fund manager for them for six years running a long/short equity fund. I then had three children in three and a half years. The firm was acquired by Nuveen Investments, and we grew very large, and I was on this really interesting trajectory within the institutional investment management world. And somewhat of the unexpected happened to me in 2010, we’d come through the financial crisis. I looked around the room, I had these three young children, and having loved finance since a very early age, I couldn’t crawl on an airplane anymore. I fell out of love with what was honestly my first love. And I made a pretty radical pivot. I left Symphony, the tallest building at the time in San Francisco, and I partnered with a woman, and we built a luxury children’s clothing company for the next three years. So about as radical of a move as you can make, a $30 billion firm, big team, a tremendous growth ahead of us to upside down boxes of infant cashmere in a garage that flooded when it rained. So I had my startup in a garage moment. And while I was running the children’s clothing company, my husband and I took a big leap of faith and decided to move from San Francisco to Birmingham, Alabama to get closer to family, to raise our kids in the South, and just manifest the life that we wanted. In the third year of running the kids’ clothing business, we checked every box of our initial business plan, and I turned to my business partner and I was like, “Now what? Should we raise capital? Should we open stores? Should we diversify manufacturing?” And we realized this beautiful little luxury brand that we had created was exactly what it needed to be. And so we restructured the company and I punched out of that. And I spent, really for the first time in my life, about five months in deep contemplation. What was the first hedge fund that I was a part of in San Francisco, my tour of duty through investment banking as an analyst associate and helping them start an M&A group. This incredible decade that I’d spent at Symphony, and then this wild out of left field moment of building a luxury children’s clothing brand. And it had such an epiphany, Jason. And it was this, that I was on the ground floor of all of those businesses. And my aha moment was, oh my gosh, I’m a builder. What I love more than anything is sitting at the intersection of talent and opportunity and what I think is truly one of life’s greatest gifts, and certainly I think the most fun way to live your professional life, which is building something. So I put my resume together and I titled… It wasn’t even really a job search. It was more, I was new to Birmingham. I wondered if there was anything I could be of service in being a part of building something. So I put that resume together and I titled it Seeking the Intangible. And I was looking for that opportunity of talent and building something bigger than myself. And it was through some networking with my across the street neighbor who went on to become a board member of RFG who thought all I did was sell his wife incredibly expensive clothing who networked me to Bobby White, who’s the founder of RFG. And in the first 10 minutes of my conversation with Bobby, and I’ll tell you, both of us went into that meeting thinking it was going to be a filler meeting. He was doing a favor for a friend, and I had seen a little bit of the wealth management industry after Nuveen had acquired Symphony and was like, “That’s not really my bag. My jam is more on the institutional side of things.” And 10 minutes into our very first meeting, we both canceled the rest of our day, and we spent the next two and a half hours in his office having a conversation that really started with what if. What if we took RFG, which had been founded in 2003, and at the time was an OSJ with LPL, what if we took that business and we tore it all the way down to the ground? And we rebuilt it from the ground floor up to be a platform that is designed, that is intentionally engineered, to serve independent advisors? What would it look like to be a client experience company first, a technology company second, and a corporate RIA third? And I’ll tell you, walking out of that meeting, I was like, “This is it. This is it. This is the intangible. This is an opportunity to really build something very special.” And that’s how I found myself sitting in this talking to you today. Jason Diamond: Wow. So there’s a lot to unpack there. Thank you for sharing. And you shared it with a degree of vulnerability that I personally, I have a two-year-old and a three-week-old as of this recording. So it resonates with me. I think it resonates with a lot of advisors, people in our, and honestly, probably most industries, the constant pull in multiple different directions. And I love what you called it, seeking the intangible. And it sounds like you didn’t go in with any preconceived notion about… Many of our guests, by the way, that is the case. They walk in saying, “I knew since I was two years old I wanted to be in wealth management. I wanted to help be a steward of client…” And I love that your circuitous route took you a different direction. I want to talk more about the firm, and we’ll dive in on some of these elements of your background also. But before we do, you mentioned a little bit of, at a high level, what RFG is. Give me a little more context, types of advisors you serve, types of clients you serve. And if you don’t mind, provide some stats around size as well. Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. So we are on a mission to help independent advisors build their business without compromise by driving organic growth to create enterprise value. And I share that because in our mission statement is the passion that links us all together, which is helping independent advisors build what they want to envision for their clients, what they believe is the best representation of their vision and their values. So we are a platform, a full turnkey platform for independent advisors. We talk about our services as a flywheel. There’s a very intentional interdependency from technology to marketing to compliance to talent to investment management to coaching, operations, transition services, and capital solutions. All of it is knit together very thoughtfully in order to be able to deliver to the advisors on our promise to help them operationalize and professionalize their business, to serve their clients and to generate that organic growth, which is what translates into enterprise value. What is so cool about the RFG advisor community, and I think is really the thread that binds between our teams and our advisors team is this servant heart growth mindset that you find it in every nook and cranny of RFG and certainly within all of our advisor partners. So the advisor profile for us, we do tend to skew a little bit younger. Average age is 45 years old. Organic growth across all of our advisors is north of 10%. So we’re very focused and leaned in on growth. We do have advisors that are lifestyle. We talk about them as lifestyle scaling and enterprise, and they run all along that growth at growth spectrum, depending on what do they want to build in their lives, what is going to help them really realize their dreams? And we’ll talk about this a little bit and just the growth of the firm and what we’ve been building, but we are at $9 billion. So it’s been a big run in 2026, as I say, 10 years of pre-game warmup to be able to really talk about that level of growth. So just knocking on the door of $10 billion and truly, Jason, I can tell you, I feel like we’re just getting started. I feel like we are just at the beginning of the J-curve as advisors are really realizing that their most valuable asset is their time and the amount of enterprise value that they can create being independent. There’s a lot of different flavors of that. We’ve got some incredibly well-capitalized and very strong competitors, but the collective awareness around this bull market for advice that we’re sitting at the very beginning of is shining such a bright light on what does it mean to be independent? What does it mean to be really supported by a partner who’s all in to help them win? And that’s where we find ourselves. And by design, that’s where we find ourselves. Jason Diamond: Yeah, and it’s an exciting time. I completely agree. The space, the vertical you’re in, probably as much or more than any other pocket of the industry. You took the words out of my mouth, the J-curve. I completely agree with the story you’re telling. There’s one component of your background that I do want to ask about, which is many RIAs, platforms, and the like, the leadership team is intentionally ex-advisors in their own right. So I’m curious, do you think of it as a benefit or maybe to what degree is it not a benefit that you have never been an advisor and served clients? I do love the idea that you’re a business builder and you’re helping advisors to build a business. That’s not lost on me, but I’m curious specifically about never having been an advisor. Shannon Spotswood: I think it is so critical that we were advisor-founded. What we like to say is we’re advisor-founded and professionally-led. Bobby founded the firm in 2003. We partnered in 2015. Our third partner, Rick Wedell, who’s our chief investment officer, managing partner, joined in 2016. So the three of us really co-founded the version of RFG that is- Jason Diamond: The right version. Shannon Spotswood: … expressed in the market today. But you’re a hundred percent right to double click on this. And I think it is such an important area for reflection for advisors in terms of where are their greatest skills? Where does their passion lie? And what are they interested in building? That very first day that I met Bobby, his telling of the story is he looked at my resume the morning that we were meant to meet, and he is like, “Well, why would I hire her? She could do my job.” And he often talked about that where you get to this point as an advisor where the business is scaling and growing. And we certainly are seeing this in a lot of the larger teams that we’re talking to and the relationships that we’re beginning to build within the pipeline of these advisors who were attracted to the industry because they wanted to serve clients and find themselves as accidental CEOs, COOs, their chief cook and bottle washer to advisor to all of these C-suite titles. And it’s not amplifying their natural skillset and it’s not aligned with what is actually their passion for the business. So I give a tremendous amount of credit to Bobby for recognizing more than 10 years ago really what it would take and how he could align team around him and build partnerships around him to be able to maximize the impact that we can have for advisors. So that north star of keeping advisors front and center is truly our, it is woven into our DNA and it is our north star. So we are a client experience company by design. We talk about it all the time, whether it’s how we’re building our team, how we’re thinking about investing in technology, how we’re soliciting feedback for advisors. I always say one of our greatest strengths as an organization is we’re active listeners and then we actually execute on it. Our best ideas come from our advisors, but you’ve got to have that posture as a firm that everything you do is orienting around how do we help advisors operationalize, professionalize, drive organic growth, and create enterprise value? And you can’t do it sometimes. You’re either all in, chips all in, only winning when your advisors win, and only having that lens of will this benefit the advisor and their team or not. It’s not something that you can just dip your toe in and out of. And I think RFG, having that foundation from which to always build is absolutely critical. Jason Diamond: Can I try and paraphrase or synthesize, and you tell me if I get this right? The pitch is something to the effect of, “We are really good at what we do. Let us take all the BS off of your plate so that you can go out and be an advisor. Service your client and prospect.” Do you find that story is resonating more over time? I mean, you’ve been with the firm now long enough to see this kind of cycle of movement towards independence. How has that story evolved over time? Do you find it easier to tell? Shannon Spotswood: Oh my gosh, without question. And I would even put a shorter term window on it. I would say in the last 12 to 15 months- Jason Diamond: Oh wow. Shannon Spotswood: … there has been a collective awakening by advisors, and I think there’s a lot of contributing factors to that. One is obviously as we are all aware, the majority of the industry is now private equity backed. There has been a real focus on the aggregator model, transitioning advisors into a W-2 model. And as that has played out and that financial engineering has translated into some incredible valuations and returns, there has also been simultaneously advisors picking their head up and like, wait a minute, I wanted to get independent so I could serve my clients in a way that I felt best represented my vision and my values. And I’m finding myself increasingly in a captive environment. All the while the technology is getting better, the valuations are getting larger, the ability to control both your branding and what that means for your family legacy is increasing. So over the course of the last 15 to 18 months, that story has just, while it’s been there for a long time, the independent movement was obviously sparked more than, gosh, now 16, 20 years ago in earnest. Now it’s just the passion and the knowledge that advisors are showing up to conversations in recognizing I want more. I want to spend my time where I want to spend it. I want to serve more families. I want to be well-positioned for generational wealth transition. I want to own the enterprise value. I want to build my team and I want the best tech. And that to me is exactly why we’re at the beginning of this J-curve. Jason Diamond: Yeah, I think you nailed it. And I agree with you that this notion of independence is not a destination in and of… It’s too broad of a term I think to use. And there are plenty of advisors who either started at one version of independence and need something different now, or to your point, thought they were going independent only to realize perhaps there’s elements of the business that aren’t as independent as they realized. And that’s where I think a firm like RFG to me, it’s not an accident that your firm fills this niche. This was advisor demand driven. Advisors said explicitly and implicitly, “We want to be independent. We want to own our equity. We want to have control over the things we like, but we want a support partner that helps us with all the back office, the middle office, investment management, the flywheel,” as you call it. Shannon Spotswood: That’s right. Jason Diamond: One other element of your journey to this point that I want to ask about, the succession journey or the journey to CEO, and I’m only asking because it’s somewhat recent, I think it was 2024, so we’re about two years in CEO. For the eight years prior to that, you were president. Shannon Spotswood: Yes. Jason Diamond: And this dynamic is near and dear for a lot of advisors. This idea you’re the heir apparent, but the date hasn’t happened until it happened. Was that a smooth transition date or did you find yourself, and I hope you can be honest about it, and if not, I understand, but I think this is something that a lot of advisors in their own businesses struggle with. So as somebody who’s gone through a major succession journey in the last two years, I’m curious what your thoughts are. Shannon Spotswood: The timing coincided with us bringing on a growth capital partner. So we closed on that partnership with Long Ridge in the fall of 2023, and we really set our sights on how do we bring this capital into the business and invest in our team, invest in our technology, invest in this desire to help independent advisors build their business. And Long Ridge really shares that long-term strategic belief that independence and the corporate RIA model is the ultimate winning model. So we have a lot of room to run there. So entering into that growth partnership with Long Ridge really provided a natural opportunity for that succession conversation to take place and to be able to take the company to the next leg. So we’ve tripled the size of the company over the course of the last two and a half years. Jason Diamond: Good for you. Shannon Spotswood: And as I said, I feel like we’re just getting started. I always joke we’ve had the longest pre-game warmup in history. In a lot of ways that’s by design. For me, the way that I can sleep at night is knowing that we are waking up as a team in this unified front to walk the walk for our advisors. It is incredibly important to us to honor the promise that we’ve made, whether it’s on tech or talent or transition services or marketing growth. So being able to lean in and deliver that, it takes a long time to build that institutional know-how and to be uncompromising in consistently making hard decisions, whether it’s around talent or the investments that you’re making or how you’re running and growing and building the firm. And so Bobby reached and Long Ridge and all of us reached this point where it was just a very natural way. And I think it was such a gift that I had such a long warmup, if you will, in the bullpen, running the day-to-day of the business as president, being so close to sweating the details of how we built the foundation, how we run the firm. And then obviously Ed Swenson joined us as president in last fall in October of 2025, having joined our board when we partnered with Long Ridge. So he joined our board in September of ’23, and he and I set up a call every other week. So we just became this incredibly trusted confidant of mine as we made a lot of strategic investments and key strategic decisions in that first 15 to 18 months of our partnership with Long Ridge. So to be able to build and attract the caliber of talent that we have to RFG, I mean, I’m totally biased and talking my own book, but I think we have the best leadership team. Doug Nelson joined us from Long Ridge as our CFO in November of last year, just bringing that rigor, particularly around capital strategies into our C-suite. So it was the right time to make that transition. And what I would say for founder advisor-led firms, it’s all about what are your growth ambitions? It’s what are your growth ambitions? Without question, when I joined and Bobby and Rick and I set upon this journey to tear the entire company down and build this robust tech stack and be at the forefront as an innovator in that space, that was experience that I had from my 20 years in San Francisco. And Rick had this incredible institutional pedigree having spent 12 years at Bain Capital plus two years at Stanford Business School, complimenting this authenticity that Bobby brought as an advisor, bringing that together. So recognizing as a founder advisor, if you have growth ambitions to 10X your business, it’s going to require that you bring high caliber talent to the table and allow for that room both from an equity participation perspective, but also just from what does the business need as it continues to scale up? Jason Diamond: That’s exactly right. And part of this gets back to private equity sometimes gets a bad rep in our space, but the reality is capital from private equity enables a lot of what you’re talking about. And I give you a lot of credit. I mean, you make the half joke about the longest pregame warmup ever, but I think of it as you learned on your own dime and you built all the kinks and ironed out all the kinks prior to having this critical mass of advisors on your platform. And we’ve seen certainly plenty of firms go that route too. So I give you credit for that. I think because we’re on the topic, let’s talk about it, private equity. Positive experience, negative experience, neutral, neither good nor bad. Just give me your… I don’t want to make the episode about the perils- Shannon Spotswood: Right. Jason Diamond: … and benefits of private equity capital, but just curious what your experience has been. Shannon Spotswood: I think this is one of those life lessons. Choose your partners wisely and great things can happen, whether it’s in your marriage or your friendships- Jason Diamond: Spouse. Yep. Shannon Spotswood: … or your business partners. And Long Ridge found us very serendipitously. I mean, we were probably two years from even contemplating bringing in a growth capital partner. They were introduced to us by a former board member and they were in our offices in January of 2023. And the most important things for us were twofold. Number one, they shared our vision and belief that the corporate RIA independent is the winning model for the industry and for advisors and clients. And number two, who they are as people is very much who we are as people. They’re builders. Jason Diamond: Culturally. Shannon Spotswood: They have this servant heart growth mindset that they share with us. So I feel incredibly blessed to say they’re amazing partners. And what’s interesting, and I’ll share this very openly, they’re the majority owners of RFG. We were very early in that time of bringing them on. They have always honored the promise that they made to us, which is we run the business. They are a strategic partner. They’re a great thought partner. They are the capital provider, but there has been multiple examples where we have made business decisions where there’s been some heat in the kitchen, in the boardroom, and we’ve felt very strongly about it. So I just couldn’t say enough great things about them. And one thing that I will just share, and I say this because they’ve shared this with me, I have had this incredible personal journey of growth bringing such a deep bench in Long Ridge into the firm. And that has been certainly challenging at times. Do hard things, get comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s the ultimate definition. But I really think that is something that never gets talked about is what it means in upskilling the caliber of your talent, yourself, how you have to grow and evolve as an individual has been really, I won’t say it’s been easy, but I look back on what I’ve learned over these two years and just feel prepared as a leadership team, how we operate as a team, what is expected of us to be able to deliver and execute for our advisors in this next leg of growth. Jason Diamond: I think your marriage analogy is the perfect one, and I’m going to use it. And honestly, in a lot of ways. First of all, marriage is hard, good or bad. It’s hard. Second of all, it’s the ultimate… The institution of marriage is not good or bad. Private equity capital is not good or bad, but your answer is the right one. Pick your partner very wisely. My favorite part of your answer, because it’s the most original, was around a good capital backer, a good partner, whatever you want to call it, pushes you to be better. And I think that you’re surrounding yourself with, by definition, some of the smartest people in the industry, and that can’t be a bad thing. And the proof is in the pudding. The growth trajectory you’ve seen, it’s certainly no accident. I think part of it is tied to your incredible stewardship. You don’t have to answer that. You don’t have to be humble, but I’ll attribute it to you. That brings me to my next question. Shannon Spotswood: I do have to say really quickly. Jason Diamond: Please do. Shannon Spotswood: I will be celebrating my 27th wedding anniversary in October. So yeah, pick your partners. Jason Diamond: Congrats. And I feel equally blessed, I assume as you do. I have a great partner, I’ll say. I don’t know if she’s listening right now, but she’s a great spouse. What I was going to say though, good segue, I think there’s been more in recent years, but not a ton certainly of female C-suite wealth management executives. How do you feel about your role? Do you feel an increased burden? Is it an honor to you? Is it something that you don’t think much about at all? I’m curious what your thoughts are. Shannon Spotswood: I feel immense gratitude. I mean, just in general, leading RFG and locking arms with our team and our advisors is, I mean, a gift of a lifetime. I was incredibly fortunate to not just have mentors during my 20 years in San Francisco, but to have true sponsors. Whether it was the first hedge fund I worked at, I took that job because it was a female portfolio manager and at the time one of the only in the country. And she really opened up her heart to me and poured into me. And then 10 years at Symphony, the founding partners of Symphony, they dropped me into the deep end of the pool and gave me a lot of rope to make a lot of mistakes and continued to invest. So I have this foundation from which to build and to lead and to be ready for this role. I couldn’t do any of this without my partners. Rick and I have been partners for more than 10 years. It really does take a village in the same way that it takes a village to raise your family. It takes a village to find the courage and the strength to lead in a way that really honors the gravity of the mission. But I’ll tell you this. One, I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street from a very young age, so I chose this. I knew what I was getting into, that it was a male-dominated industry. I have made particularly, this is one of the unique facets of the wealth management business, we have phenomenal both male and female talent, and I have made the strongest female relationships on this side of the business as compared to the institutional side of the business. So I think there is a richness to our side of the industry that doesn’t get enough air cover. There are just phenomenal leaders, and I think increasingly so, we’re seeing more women stay in the game and raise into positions within the C-suite and leading these firms. I will tell you one thing in 2019, and I really give a lot of credit to Bobby for this in coaching me, is I was raised by wolves on Wall Street without question. I sat on a trade desk, I was completely comfortable with compartmentalizing emotion, and I made it a mission to develop intentionally my emotional intelligence. And that truly unlocked everything for me, and I think plays such a huge part of who I want to be and who I challenge myself to be as a leader. And so it’s funny when I get the question asked of me about being a female CEO, because I think that’s what people feel must be like came very intuitively to me, but I had to learn it. I had 20 plus years of being able to run with boys and I needed to develop that skill. And it is a skill that I challenge myself on a daily to continue to lean into. And I think it is increasingly important both for men and women who aspire to leadership to hone the strategic and execution alongside that emotional intelligence. Jason Diamond: Great answer. And I think you know I admire a lot about you, but it’s certainly one of the things I admire most about you is over the last couple years in particular you’ve been a real beacon of positivity, of empowerment in that regard. You’re active on socials, you’re active at industry events, you’re always willing to talk to people. And honestly, that to me is the answer. A lot of people complain about this as a problem, and I want to just take a second to applaud you because I think you and your firm actually do something to at least try and actively solve some of this. And also you mentioned it earlier, but same thing with some of the next gen dynamics. You skew much younger than the average firm on the industry. And I think that too is to your credit around, okay, we’ve identified that we have a major succession problem in our industry. What are we doing to solve that? Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. Jason Diamond: Let’s talk about growth a little bit. I agree with your thesis. This space you occupy, no better time to be in it. We’re at the perfect spot on the J-curve. Unfortunately, we are not the only two people to think that. There are also, I think, some other firms. This space has become crowded. What do you think about that? Just the fact that there’s more competition than ever. I mean, my view of it is there are enough quality advisors to go around, but curious what you think. Shannon Spotswood: Anytime I find myself wading into the waters of fear and scarcity around this topic, I’m reminded that 67% of the assets still remain within the wirehouse and IBD space. We got lots of room to run. I believe in a mindset of abundance. The data will tell us that the demand for advice is increasing by 30% over the next decade while the number of advisors is decreasing by 1%. So we’ve got, find me another industry where you see a graph that looks like that. On top of that, next gen, which I think this is so fascinating, next gen actually wants more advice when compared to the baby boomers. So baby boomers created our industry, and here we are sitting on $87 trillion worth of generational wealth that’s going to begin to transition. That doesn’t even include all of the wealth that will be monetized through real estate and family-owned businesses. It is a tsunami. And what is, I think, really interesting is that next gen recognizes the value of their time. I’m sure if I had a conversation, Jason, with you and my husband about how intentional you want to be in terms of showing up for your children and the equal nature of parenting, that alone is changing the way the next gen thinks about both their professions as well as their family life, which means you by default have to hire professionals to do the things that you don’t want to spend the time doing. Jason Diamond: Really good point. Shannon Spotswood: So we have this incredible convergence that’s happening right now, and it’s coming at a time that technology is finally going to allow us to serve more families more intentionally along that wealth spectrum. So it is like, bring it on. There is more than enough to go around. We are in an era of abundance. And what I worry the most about, and this, it’s like climb up on the soapbox and let’s roll, about independence because I see and have so many conversations with advisors where they have been willing to accept such a compromised service experience that they would never allow to be delivered to their clients. So advisors are delivering this 24-hour concierge, high-touch, deeply thoughtful experience, estate planning, tax planning, financial planning, multi-generational conversations. They’re in it. They’re in the trench. And then they turn around and their service partner is so subpar. They’re compromising their growth. They’re burying them in compliance and ops and clicks and swivel chair and tech that doesn’t work. So we’re at the very beginning of this bull run for advice. And I think advisors who recognize, I want to serve more families, I want more control over my time, I want to be able to build enterprise value on my personal balance sheet, have room to do it. So I welcome the competition. I think the best way to talk about it is iron sharpens iron. I learn so much from our peers and like, ah, they did this or they did that. How do we think more disruptively, more innovatively? How do we do it differently? So I think there’s a lot of room for all of us. You’re going to be busy, my friend. You’re already sitting there advising the lion’s share of the big deals, and I think you guys are just getting started as well. Jason Diamond: Yeah, it certainly feels like a bull market for advice and also I think a bull market for some of the… You allude to an interesting paradox, which is some of the biggest and most sophisticated advisors in the industry have really high-touch impressive service models, but they don’t seem to demand the same in return. I have some thoughts as to why. I think one could just be Kool-Aid drinking, like you don’t know any better and you’ve been there for so long. There’s just so much friction associated with moving a business and fear associated that it’s unless things get really dire or unless I find something that’s better enough or meaningfully better enough, I can gut it out. But the third one that comes to mind is these firms we’re talking about have unequivocally, they do a lot of good, a lot of bad, but unequivocally one of the things they do really well is brand. Shannon Spotswood: Yeah. Jason Diamond: How do you reconcile that question with a firm that obviously doesn’t have a brand that the average American consumer would know? Shannon Spotswood: We take a posture on this that is rooted in an Accenture study that was conducted several years ago, but I think still remains so true today, is that advisors think that the value proposition that their clients are looking for, either it’s that big monobrand that’s advertising at the Super Bowl or the alpha they’re ever able to generate or the portfolio investments. But the clients tell us that what they’re looking for in an advisor is, do you get me? Do you share my values? And do I want to spend time with you outside the office? And that is basically distilled down the way we talk about it is people connect with people. So now more than ever, particularly if you take a big step back and you think about the influencer economy and how brands, big brands, Nike or big consumer brands have really leaned into niche branding. How do I get my brand into the hands of someone who’s very passionate about it? So advisors who develop their own brand, who have a presence on social, who have a presence in AEO and SEO, who are leaning in and expressing not only their client experience, but their vision and their values through their brand, I actually think as this generational wealth unfolds, that authenticity carries so much more weight than is my name on a football stadium. So it is those three factors. It’s just I’m comfortable. I don’t want ripple. It is friction and fear for sure. And then it’s like that branding is up for grabs because we certainly see one of the most fun parts of advisors joining RFG, this is a big part of what we do is helping them design and develop or reimagine their brand name, their logo, all the rest of it. Once that creative energy is unlocked and you get to tell your story, your my why, that connective tissue is so powerful with the clients and with the growth that comes from that because I mean, I truly believe people connect with people. They’re looking for that. And I think more so now than ever with AI. Jason Diamond: You just took the words out of my mouth. Do you think AI perpetuates that? Shannon Spotswood: I think people are craving that. And this is why advisors who are powered by AI without question are going to win. Advisors are not going to be disrupted by AI unless they haven’t made the move to get themselves in a position to be able to leverage the technology, the brand, the talent, the maximizing of their time. But especially with something as important and as personal as money, as you walk through life, I mean, you are at the very beginning. I’m sending, I’ll have all three kids in college. But as you make these critical decisions in your life, whether it’s getting married or starting a business or changing jobs or buying your first house, buying your vacation house, all of these things, you can go right or you can go wrong. And having a trusted partner who really understands you, I actually think that we’re going to see the fees paid for advisors increasing as there is a greater premium placed on, I want deeply personal relationships that are tailor-made for me. Jason Diamond: But I assume the flip side of that is you have to do more. You as a firm and you as an advisor have to do more, and you can’t just raise fees with the same service model. So I think what is the corollary of that? What are some of the ancillary growth areas that you do beyond the financial planning and asset management that says, “We’re worth that money you’re going to pay us”? Shannon Spotswood: It is, and I love the work that wealth.com is doing here. I mean, the estate planning and tax planning, making that more accessible along that continuum of wealth spectrum, the blurring of the lines between ultra high net worth and high net worth, and then mass affluent is so exciting. Better, more robust planning is good for our industry overall. Obviously there’s a huge amount of demand on the tax side of things, particularly the 1040. It’s easy to find a CPA to do the cool complex stuff. It’s increasingly more challenging for advisors. That’s an area that I know a lot of firms have leaned into. We’re certainly doing a lot of work. But so much of this, Jason, is showing up at the right time for clients with the resources. It’s a really interesting conversation about, yes, you have to do more for your clients, but you don’t have to do more for all your clients at exactly the same time. Jason Diamond: That’s well said. The flip side of that is as an advisor, because ultimately the advisors are the ones making this decision. There are a lot of firms, and not even just firms that you would be competitors with, because the reality is you and I understand the industry landscape and where various firms fit in. For many advisors, it’s a long list of various firm names that they’ve heard. So what are some things that you think advisors should be asking a firm like you or a business development person at your firm to suss this out? How does an advisor go about understanding if a platform is empty or is really going to be able to deliver in all these areas? Shannon Spotswood: Remember back in the day when the Wall Street Journal used to run have a monkey throw a dart and see if you can beat the pros on stock picking? I love to do that with regards to our advisors. We always tell our prospects, “Throw a dart at any advisor that’s affiliated with RFG and call them. Certainly we can provide a list of advisors who we think you’re going to most align with in terms of what your growth ambitions are or the way you want to run your business or who you are, life stage, all the rest of it.” But I do think that getting that unfiltered experience, the good, the bad, the ugly. We always are like, “Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Do we though immediately want the feedback so that we can iterate to excellence to get better? Absolutely. Get that firsthand testimony.” So that’s number one. Number two is don’t tell me, show me. There are so many, and it always pulls at my heart because as much as I love to win business and transition advisors, and I think that we’re working certainly at RFG on some really interesting technology that is anchored around removing that friction and fear by speeding up the time that you can make that transition in. And the tech is finally there to allow for this. So I think we’re going to be able to take variable number two and at least make that box a little bit smaller. But if I’m sitting as an advisor, I would want to see the evidence. Show me how you’ve solved the problems that advisors have brought to you. How have you refined your tech stack? How have you invested in your team? How have you made the decisions where the ROI can be measurable and tangible? And I think too often I’m surprised that advisors get, it’s almost as if they get overwhelmed by the amount of information that they’re taking in trying to compare all these different firms. If I’m ever asked, I’m like, please work with a third-party recruiter. You need someone not only to act as an interpreter, but you need someone to help really keep your top three priorities at the front of your decision-making matrix, because it really is apples to oranges to orangutans and you get decision fatigue. And then advisors end up making this decision that is anchored in like, well, this is the highest payout, and I’m willing to take all of these sacrifices and paper cuts for this highest payout. And that is just such a travesty. So it’s like, know what you want. What are your top three problems that you’re trying to solve? Talk to advisors that you get to pick just so you can do some secret shopping, and then demand evidence of how the firm, the platform has responded to feedback and gotten better as a result because that will tell you, are they really going to walk the walk or are they just going to talk the talk? Jason Diamond: I’m super grateful that you gave specifics there because it’s an easy question to dodge and talk around. So I completely agree. Your first answer, actually all three of those points you just made, but certainly doing name-blind calls, and I say name-blind because advisors worry about confidentiality. I think that’s one of the best and most underrated tools to learn about a firm is advisors now have so many colleagues. There’s been this diaspora of advisors where advisors know advisors everywhere. And that’s a benefit if you wanted to go and just network and have conversations with other advisors on your own. But if you’re worried about confidentiality, there’s certainly the mechanisms, and we do this all the time for advisors to set up name-blind calls. You dial into a conference line, it’s John Smith, and you pick an advisor’s brain and say, “Hey, you moved your book from LPL to RFG, and tell me what that experience was like and what were the positives? Give me all the negatives.” To your point, you want advisors to ask those questions in advance. It’s better to ask those questions than to end up in the wrong marriage with the advisor. Shannon Spotswood: Absolutely. And the other thing is what an easy answer to BS around is tell me who’s a good fit for your firm. And it’s like, “Everyone’s welcome here.” Jason Diamond: Everybody. Yeah. Shannon Spotswood: It’s just not true. RFG is not a good fit for an advisor who is not open to using technology, who is not interested in outsourcing investment management, who doesn’t want to have a conversation about how are you spending your time and do you want to create enterprise value? Do you want to grow? So it really is important to have that vulnerability and that honesty and the answer to that question. Jason Diamond: I love it. We have time for one more. I can’t believe it’s been almost an hour. Shannon Spotswood: I know, it flies by. Jason Diamond: We speak with plenty of advisors who aren’t considering a move, but I’m interested. I think you have a really nice lens into the industry. What is one thing you wish advisors knew? You have a megaphone to just talk to advisors who maybe are considering change, but maybe aren’t. What’s the questions they should be thinking about? What keeps you up at night? Just what would be your public service announcement? Shannon Spotswood: I’m going to focus on the friction and fear because that’s the number one barrier to making a move is PTSD, either first person PTSD or the collective negative experience that the industry has had. It took me 90 days to transition. I got sued by my former firm. I lost all these clients. I didn’t have income. The wise tales of fear are very widely trafficked and widespread. And what I would say to an advisor is everything you want is on the other side of fear. And I look at all of this data that suggests exactly the opposite, which is you have the relationship with the client. You have the trust with the client. You are the one who they call on Sunday night when they need a shoulder to cry on or sage advice for making a decision. Just believe it with the core of your being because what we see is 99% of assets transition, whether it’s a restrictive transition or you’re taking full data, that the majority of assets are transitioning within 30 days, that this is still a free country, and you can make a move while honoring your contract around non-solicitation, non-competes, and non-associations. So it is like this fear of holding advisors back is preventing them from realizing and monetizing this enterprise value, but equally as importantly, loving their business. Have fun. This should be fun. We spend the majority of our life at work. And so being able to surround yourself with people who win when you win, with a team who’s aligned and isn’t just drudgery with all their operations compliance headaches that they’re dealing with. Your team deserves to be happy. You deserve to be happy. And that fear factor is holding so many advisors back. So that’s my advice is that it just doesn’t have to play out that way. And I think not just at RFG, collectively where we are as an independent industry with technology, with the way that AI is changing and our ability to harness data and business intelligence, getting to that point of next best action, how am I spending my time, how am I realizing, what is the blueprint for realizing my growth goals is more tangible now than ever. That’s immediately where I go. Jason Diamond: I’ve never been an advisor. I’ve never had a book of business, so I don’t want to minimize the fear, but I will say this. If we speak to advisors, let’s say a year post-transition, by far the number one thing we hear from them is, “I wish I did this sooner.” Shannon Spotswood: Wish I did it sooner. Jason Diamond: And that to me is the most telling data point there is to your point about fear and getting over it. Shannon Spotswood: So I do this exercise all the time with our team as we’re onboarding advisors is I want you to go home and look at your spouse and tell them, “I’m going to leave my job. I have no certainty that everything is going to work out. We might not receive any kind of compensation. Are you cool with that?” Walk that emotional journey. And while there’s plenty obviously that we can do with Capital Solutions to ease the financial fear associated with it, I still think at the baseline, it’s a great exercise to keep everyone very humble. You are asking an advisor to take their life’s work. And someone was sharing this analogy with me the other day and I was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so good,” which is imagine moving houses. It’s such a hassle packing up moving one house. Now imagine moving 400 households or 1,200 households. It’s a lot, but I always hear the same thing, “I wish I’d done it sooner.” Jason Diamond: Thank you for sharing. You had some really sage wisdom that you shared with our audience. I can’t wait to see the next chapter, the continuation of the J-curve. This has been a fantastic episode, Shannon. Thank you. Shannon Spotswood: I love being with you, Jason. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibilities seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind. It’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively, whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook.   Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience A conversation with Jason Diamond and Shannon Spotswood, CEO of RFG Advisory. Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for Financial Advisors. Today’s episode is Growth Without Compromise: Building Around the Advisor Experience. It’s a conversation with Shannon Spotswood, the CEO of RFG Advisory. I’m Jason Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition re

What happens when the technology helping you build your business also threatens the way customers discover it? That question is becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurs as artificial intelligence changes software development, content creation, search, marketing, and online discovery. In Part 2 of our conversation with Amit Zandberg, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche explore what it means to build trust in the AI era while creating a review platform for online mentors and high-ticket educational programs. The discussion moves beyond using AI as a productivity tool and examines a larger challenge: AI can simultaneously be a business tool, a competitor, and a new distribution channel. For Amit, adapting to that reality means thinking beyond traditional software features and search rankings. The long-term opportunity may be to build something both people and AI systems recognize as a trusted source of information. About Amit Zandberg Amit Zandberg is an entrepreneur focused on improving trust and transparency in online education. His work centers on helping people make better-informed decisions about online mentors, content creators, courses, coaching programs, and other high-ticket educational products. Through his review-focused platform, Amit is working to create a more reliable source of information for prospective students while giving quality creators an opportunity to establish credibility through meaningful learner feedback. His approach combines detailed reviews, structured ratings, AI-assisted analysis, and validation mechanisms designed to make manipulation more difficult. Amit's work sits at the intersection of online education, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, consumer trust, and digital discovery. As AI changes both how information is created and how people find it, his longer-term strategy is evolving beyond traditional search. The goal is to build trusted information valuable enough to serve not only people searching for courses and mentors, but also the AI systems increasingly helping them make those decisions. Building a Marketplace Around Trust Amit describes his platform as something similar to Yelp for online education. Rather than attempting to review every inexpensive online course, the focus is primarily on creator-led education where the financial decision is considerably larger. These are mentors and content creators who build audiences on platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok before offering courses, coaching programs, masterminds, or other educational products. The buying decision changes significantly as the price increases. Spending $10 on a course may require little research. Spending several thousand dollars should require considerably more. A review platform serving this market therefore needs to provide more than a simple star rating. Potential students need information about price, mentor quality, learning experience, reported results, and whether the program is appropriate for someone with their particular goals. This makes trust more than a feature of the platform. Trust becomes part of the product itself. Trust Has to Be Built Into the Product A review platform does not simply provide information. It also asks users to have confidence in that information. If users believe reviews are purchased, selectively collected, generated by AI, or manipulated by creators, the value of the platform quickly disappears. Trust cannot simply be a marketing claim placed on a landing page. It has to be supported by the way the system operates. Amit discussed several mechanisms for making review manipulation more difficult, including detailed review requirements, account validation, suspicious activity monitoring, AI-assisted detection, manual investigation, and the ability to request additional verification. No individual control guarantees that every review is legitimate. Instead, the objective is to create several layers of validation that make large-scale manipulation increasingly difficult. That principle applies to more than review platforms. Anyone building an AI-enabled product should consider what information would need to be manipulated to cause the system to produce an incorrect or misleading result. Those potential failure points should become part of the product's quality and validation strategy. Recent Information Can Be More Valuable Than Old Data Reviews introduce another challenge because products change. A mentor may launch a program and initially receive poor feedback. The creator might then respond to that feedback, improve the material, change the delivery process, and produce a much better experience for future students. Should reviews from several years ago continue to define the program? Amit's approach gives greater importance to recent information. He discusses using a recent group of reviews or reviews from a defined period rather than allowing every historical review to carry the same weight indefinitely. The idea allows creators to improve while still providing prospective students with information that reflects the product they are considering today. It also illustrates an important principle for AI and data systems: more data is not automatically better data. Historical information has value, but relevance and recency can sometimes be more important than volume. The correct balance depends on the decision the system is trying to support. AI Is Changing the SEO Equation One of the largest challenges facing Amit's business is not necessarily another review platform. It is the changing nature of search itself. The platform relies partly on people searching for information about specific mentors and courses. Someone considering an expensive program might search for the creator's name followed by the word "reviews." Traditionally, that search creates an opportunity for a review site to rank in Google and receive a visitor. AI-generated search experiences can change that relationship. Instead of requiring the user to visit several websites, an AI-generated search result may summarize information directly on the search page. The search engine can potentially consume information from publishers while reducing the need for users to visit the original source. For businesses that depend heavily on organic search traffic, that creates a significant challenge. AI is not simply changing how content is produced. It is changing how that content is discovered and consumed. Moving Beyond Traditional SEO Amit's response to this change is particularly interesting because he does not view blocking AI as the long-term answer. Instead, he wants his platform's information to become valuable enough that AI systems use it as a trusted source. The traditional SEO objective has been straightforward: rank highly enough that Google sends users to your website. The emerging objective may be different. Businesses may need to become authoritative enough that AI systems use their information when answering questions. Whether the industry ultimately calls this GEO, AEO, AI search optimization, or something else, the strategic question is similar: When an AI system answers a question about your industry, where does its information come from? Businesses need to begin thinking about whether they are simply creating content for search engines or building information valuable enough to become part of the answers AI systems provide. Becoming the Source Is a Competitive Advantage This idea connects directly to Amit's longer-term strategy. AI makes software increasingly easy to reproduce. A competitor can potentially analyze a website, recreate many of its features, generate similar content, and launch an alternative faster than would have been possible only a few years ago. However, recreating an application is not the same as recreating a business. A competitor still needs users. It needs creators willing to participate. It needs trustworthy reviews, search authority, historical information, distribution, and enough marketplace activity for people to consider the platform credible. As AI reduces the cost of producing software, competitive advantages may increasingly move away from the code itself. Trusted proprietary data, customer relationships, brand authority, historical information, distribution, network effects, and integration with other ecosystems become more difficult to reproduce than an application's interface. Amit's strategy is to make the platform's review information valuable enough that it becomes an authoritative source for both people and AI systems. AI Makes Software Easier to Copy Michael raised an important question during the conversation: What prevents someone from using AI to recreate the platform? For many technology companies, the uncomfortable answer is that software features alone may provide less protection than they once did. AI-assisted development dramatically reduces the effort required to create applications. Competitors may be able to reproduce interfaces and common features much faster than before. The important distinction is that copying an application does not automatically copy the ecosystem surrounding it. A clone does not inherit the original company's reputation, relationships, users, data, search authority, or history. Those assets take time to establish. This changes how entrepreneurs should think about defensibility. The software remains important, but the application is only one component of the business. Distribution May Be Harder Than Development One of Amit's primary goals for the remainder of the year is increasing distribution. That challenge should be familiar to almost anyone who has launched a product. Creating something useful is difficult. Getting people to consistently discover and use it can be even harder. AI can accelerate development and content production, but it does not automatically create demand. It does not guarantee search visibility, establish trust, create customer relationships, or prove product-market fit. As software becomes easier to build, these nontechnical elements of business become increasingly important. The competitive question is no longer simply, "Can we build this?" More organizations will be able to answer yes. The more difficult questions are whether people will find it, trust it, use it, and continue returning to it. Trusted Data Becomes More Valuable in an AI World There is an interesting paradox emerging around artificial intelligence. AI can produce enormous amounts of information, but that abundance may make trustworthy information more valuable. As generated content becomes increasingly common across websites, search engines, social networks, reviews, and educational products, both people and AI systems need better methods for determining which sources deserve confidence. That creates an opportunity for businesses capable of building specialized, trustworthy datasets. Some of the most valuable AI businesses may not necessarily be the companies creating the largest models. They may be organizations that provide the trusted information those models need to produce useful answers. Instead of asking only how a business can survive AI disruption, Amit is asking a different question: How can the business become useful enough that AI systems need its information? That shift turns AI from a competitor into a potential distribution channel. Choosing the Right Mentor At the end of the interview, Amit offered practical advice for anyone considering a significant investment in a mentor or coaching program. Before investing a large amount of money, prospective students should first develop enough knowledge about the industry to evaluate what they are purchasing. A mentor should not be expected to magically solve every problem simply because the program is expensive. Amit also recommends looking for insight that cannot easily be obtained elsewhere. A strong mentor should provide experience, perspective, or knowledge that changes how the student understands the problem. The right question is not simply whether the mentor knows more than the student. It is whether the mentor possesses knowledge and experience relevant to the student's specific goals. The value of mentorship ultimately depends on fit. Stay Connected: Join the Developreneur Community

If execution is cheap now, what should Marketers really be getting paid for?Marvin Chow runs Marketing for Search, Gemini, and AI at Google, and he says the hire of the year is a Marketing engineer: a Marketer who thinks like a systems architect (not a project manager. Love you, project managers.).He breaks down the "barbell" reshaping every Marketing team, why taste and judgment are suddenly the premium skills, and how to actually show up in AI search as SEO, AEO, and GEO collapse into one. Plus, his brand bank rule and the AI sparring trick that puts Ogilvy and Olivia Pope on your board of directors.If you're a Marketer who wants to future-proof your role in the age of AI, this episode is for YOU.Hit follow and leave a rating if this one gave you something to steal. It helps more Marketers find the show.Follow Marvin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/therealmarvin/ Follow Daniel:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themarketingmillennials/featuredTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/Dmurr68LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murray-marketingSign up for The Marketing Millennials newsletter:www.workweek.com/brand/the-marketing-millennials Daniel is a Workweek friend, working to produce amazing podcasts. To find out more, visit: www.workweek.com

Traditional search engine volume is experiencing a structural decline as AI chatbots and generative answer engines redefine how buyers seek solutions. Despite this massive shift toward generative discovery, many B2B organizations are still relying on outdated organic playbooks, resulting in a decrease in their organic search visibility. How can B2B marketing teams adapt their digital strategy to maintain organic dominance and capture market share in an AI-first search environment?In this episode, we sit down with Jenna Hannon, Founder of Hatter, who shared actionable strategies to drive long-term growth by increasing your AI search visibility. Jenna broke down the critical transition from legacy SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) powered by generative search models. She analyzed the operational impact of changing search behavior and why broad keyword targeting is losing ground to hyper-specific user prompts. Jenna also explained how large language models (LLMs) parse context to surface authoritative B2B solutions, while outlining the diminishing influence of traditional backlink building. Finally, Jenna delivered her proven framework for optimizing B2B content for generative engines and elaborated on the precise metrics growth teams must track to measure success. 

What do you want to be known for, and does your digital footprint actually reflect it? In this special behind-the-scenes session from the She Believed She Could Summit, Allison Walsh is joined by Heather French Henry and Brielle Cotterman for a powerful conversation about personal branding, identity, storytelling, publicity, and taking ownership of your narrative. Heather challenges you to look beyond titles, services, and accomplishments to define the character, values, and impact you want people to associate with your name. Brielle then reveals why telling that story intentionally has never been more important, especially as AI changes how people discover, research, and form opinions about individuals and brands online. From defining what you stand for to leveraging PR, earned media, podcast interviews, thought leadership, and third-party credibility, this episode will help you become more intentional about the story the world is hearing about you. Because if you don't tell people who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, someone else will. Plus, Allison shares how you can experience more conversations like this live at the upcoming Iconic Impact Summit. Connect with Heather: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherfrenchhenry/ Website: https://www.heatherfrenchhenry.com/ Connect with Brielle: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briellecotterman/ Website: https://influentialleaderagency.com/ Positioned for Partnerships™ Mini Course - Turn your platform into a revenue-generating brand opportunity—without needing a massive following. Learn how to position your brand, create a high-converting media kit, and confidently pitch partnerships so brands instantly understand your value.