AI Search, AEO and Losing Yourself to Be Found [E78]

SPEAKER_00 1:24

How can you use AI to give yourself more clarity, but keep enough authority over your positioning to notice when the difference has been watered out? Welcome back to Clear Signal. I hope you enjoyed the last episode where I took you down memory lane, season one and season two, and encapsulated a lot of where we've been. Speaking of memory lane, I want to read a quote to you from a past client who posted this on LinkedIn a year after we finished our intensive together. We did some retainer work after this, but the bottom line is this is the power and the proof of foundational work. Because you're going to find a lot of people who hire people and then they're disappointed or in their same place months later. It's what I talk about on this platform. And I want to read you a couple of passages because this speaks so much to not only the work that I do, but also the X marks, the spot offer that I'm doing. Because not everyone is going to be in a position to work with me for months at a time. And sometimes you don't have to. What she said, in addition to so many great things, I will link it below. And if you're on LinkedIn, definitely check it out. She helped me recognize, meaning me, that I don't have to force myself into somebody else's strategy to become successful. More importantly, I now have a filter for every strategy, opportunity, and piece of advice that comes my way. I can hear somebody else's opinion without immediately questioning my own direction. I know what's right for me, what isn't, and what isn't right yet. Very important. Something can be the right thing at the wrong time. Her work didn't simply give me clear business direction. It changed the foundation from which I make business decisions. That has continued to pay off long after our work together. Thank you, Sunitha, for helping me trust my own voice. This is Ariel, and she'll be coming up in a case study very soon. I work with amazing people. And it is so powerful when that is recognized. Because if you cannot figure that out, you will definitely hear in the next episode that what I'm here to do is to set you up to win. I'm here to help you trust yourself again. And you need a guide in that process. No different than I use guides in what I do. But ultimately, when you understand what is for you and what is not for you, it's not just about the client you did or didn't get. It's not just about all of the things that you are going to get, but it is about this. What are you not spending money on? What is the mental charm you're not wasting time on? What is the coach you're going to hire that is not right now or not for you at all? What is the tactic that is a waste of time? What is the tactic that is going to take you off path? And so when you understand how to make yourself successful without forcing yourself into a box, that's what X marks the spot is because it's the intersection of your innate value proposition. What can you do that only you can do? Your brilliance, how do resources want to flow to you? Where do you optimize for time and energy? Your market potential. That is what that is the intersection of. It is literally what are you designed to do? And what are the actions you're going to take that are going to maximize your prosperity path? That is what I do in all my work. There are three slots left at the time I'm recording this, but the live page will tell you what's left. Take advantage of that. It is simple and powerful. And why is it that? Because it's forever. Thank you so much, Ariel. Look forward to that case study. Let's get into the rest of the episode. Since this podcast is a lot about where we're going in business, the environment we're swimming in as we do it, and positioning, how could we not talk about AI? How could we not talk about what that means for business? I have always been on the precipice of what people are talking about, the unspoken things that people aren't saying, anticipating. We know that entrepreneurs are overwhelmed with AI. We know that it has made life more complicated. We know that it has made apps more expensive, and we know that it's become one more thing to do. On the one hand, everyone wants to sell you that you now have this chat bot that can create all these things and create all these reels and do all this stuff. And that's fabulous. But on the other hand, let's be frank, it's watered down everything. And what is positioning? Positioning is what makes someone choose you over somebody else at the end of the day. That is traditional market positioning, looking at you in the competitive landscape and positioning in the way I do it. It's your founder identity. It is what you can do that nobody else can do. And that is based in your architecture. And that is based on a whole framework I use that is your innate value proposition. That was always important because you're not a shampoo bottle. However, it's even more important now in the age of AI. One of the things entrepreneurs are doing is using AI to shape their positioning. They don't need anybody else. They can figure it out themselves with AI. So they optimize themselves based on what the robot does. They water down their edges, they water down their messaging, they water down their positioning, they water down their branding, and it's milk toast. And I don't think people realize that that's what they're doing because I see people doing it. I'm like, why are you doing this? You have such a point of view, you have so much compelling things to say, and it's making you sound flat because if you've got to understand that AI is always at this stage of the journey, this is fall of 26, AI is always going to be neutral. AI always wants to be less controversial. AI is always going to water down the edges. I don't know why it does that, it just does. So that is positioning and watering down your edges. But what I want to talk about today is something known as AEO. I brought this up on a couple of podcasts, and people look at me like I have two heads. AEO is artificial engine optimization. It is the new Google. And what that is, is how are you optimized to appear in AI search? Now I'm not an expert in this, but what is signal? What is outbound signal? We talked a lot about inbound signal in the first couple of seasons, talking about human design, talking about influence. What is outbound signal? It's the signal you're sending out. So when you're sending out a signal to the robot to be found, that's what AEO is. It's part of the game. Especially if you're in a topic where people are going to search for you. My lane, I don't necessarily think that's the case, at least right now, but that might change. And either way, people are going to search in AI for what they're looking for, not Google, AI. And what can your business say so that the machine recognizes you? Now, just like search engine optimization, there's a formula to this. This is not an interpretive dance. There are specific things you need to do. When I talk about business as a spectrum on this platform, there is this notion of I'm a creator, I'm trying things out, I'm exploring myself, there are no rules. I'm expressed in what I do, and I lean kind of in the middle, depending on the project. My other platform, the Dark Matter Show, I lean way on the other end by design. But when it comes to SEO, it's like accounting. There are rules. There's no interpretive dance there. So you have to decide what are the rules that you want to do. Now, what is this built off of? This is built off of for founders and solopreneurs, this notion that they have to be understood. Pick a niche, make your offer clear, use customer language, use recognition-based language. The last one I would say is very important, especially if you're selling online, because if people don't recognize themselves in your offer, your copy, your content, they're not going to buy, especially if it's a problem solution type situation. However, we've already talked about this whole niche and how it's very, very simplified in online language. The word niche isn't even used correctly. Niche doesn't take into account your innate value proposition. Niche doesn't take into account your identity. People are building a niche, they're building a box, they feel trapped, then they want to burn it down, they're not leveraging their innate gifts. Okay, all that, great. But now we got to satisfy another master. What is AI gonna recommend? And so the question becomes how much are we gonna change to become easier for the machine to explain? Last episode, I mentioned an interview that I did that's gonna be on this platform very soon. There is a conversation I had with her that may or may not make the cut because the interview was a bit long. But what I shared with her is that with the dark matter show, when I had my Linktree, which is my name, as the Linktree in the Dark Matter show, if you were to Google me or let's say chat me or whatever, actually it was Google because there's a preview that shows up at the top. I think it's Gemini. It said I was a sorceress. Now, I take that as a compliment. And the person I had the conversation with who's a spiritualist was like, I take that as a compliment. And I do, because if you look at my background, that's actually a powerful combination. But you can understand why that's not the first impression I want to give for someone who calls herself a strategic advisor. So for the Dark Matter show, I created a separate Link Tree, and that is now what's in everything because a Link Tree is an SEO vehicle, entity, thing, whatever the word is. I'm gaming the system there. And that's fine because that brand has a completely different objective than my main lane, and the audience, at least up until now, has been very different. That is part of what I'm creating called a brand universe, which is a future conversation. Brand universe isn't for everybody, but it's what I want. Going back to AI, this pressure to be understood, now it's this pressure to be found in everyday language. So the positives are AI search optimization, AEO improves your chances of appearing. So if you are a nutritionist, you're a dentist, you do solar panels. This is an exact conversation I had with someone. He found his solar panel guy through chat. You are a fractional, you are a lot of things that people know the title for what you do. You're gonna miss out if you don't show up in a EO result. Fear is a big part of what's driving this. Who can help me with this? And you show up first and you're bot. So there is an understandable tactical strategic incentive to make your expertise and your audience and your offer explicit. So what happens is you water down yourself to belong to a category. Now, here's where it gets sinister. You're using the same model to define your positioning. Then you're using that same model to categorize you. You see the problem with that? You've now watered yourself down to then water yourself down. And what are you left with? You're left with boring brands. Have you looked online? Have you looked at graphics lately? It is boring. There is no life force in this. I will share an example for you. As I'm trying to take what I do and the unique mechanism that I do, which I call category bleeding, and I try to make it something that I can explain on non-spiritual podcasts, or even let's say explain what I do with clarity, because what is a signal if it's not clear? I have used AI because I have client results, I have client case studies, I have things that other guests or other hosts have said about me as a reflection. I have things that guides have said about me, and I am building a model of that. I'm building a model of me. I incorporate my human design, my astrology chart, all my things that I call founder architecture as part of that. And what I found is the stuff that AI comes up with, even in a pro account, even with someone who knows how to use it, it's garbage. It's so watered down. It's codified language from the coaching industry. It makes me sound like a personal development coach. It takes what I do and translate into something familiar. So a lot of times in the copywriting world, you're going to hear this tagline, which I cannot stand. It is such lazy marketing. It is clear over clever. And the problem with that is people use clear over clever. What it really is, is clear over vague. There's nothing wrong with clever if it's clear. When you do clear over clever and everybody says clear over clever, and everybody looks for AI to clarify what they do, you've translated what you do into observable marketing language that becomes more in quotes professional, more in quotes, accessible, more in quotes foundable. So you're found. And people know what you do, but you have disappeared. So that's fine because we're talking November 2026, and you're like, who cares? If I can't be found, I can't be hired. Okay, cool. Let's get in a time machine to a year from now when everyone's using the same advice, everyone's using the same models. You think you're the only one who has Opus or haiku or whatever framework. No, everyone's doing the same thing. So now you're competing for this very small piece of real estate to be understood by the same tool that everybody else is being understood, and you've left you out of the equation. You flattened yourself to two things: a business that doesn't represent you anymore, and now you flattened it even more to dumb down language that sounds the same as everybody else. And familiar language feels safe because people have seen it before. AI is great at feeling confident. AI is great at sounding confident, dangerously confident. And your brain tells you that's evidence that it's commercially sound. Right? Right. I've had people say things to me who don't understand AI, and they're well, AI told me. And I'm like, AI would confidently tell you that the sky is green. That doesn't mean it's true. An episode that was very recent, I talked about the visibility wound, in quotes. And I told you about this situation with Swiss cheese. And I told you how I made a mistake in terms of what I put into the chat. And so Swiss cheese was confidently aligned with my podcast topic in a way that sounded genius. And I ran with it. I mentioned it on the podcast that I did that and why. But it sounded very convincing. So when you change your offers, you change your niche, you change your language to match the description of what you think you need to be, you're gonna build a business that fits a positioning, but you stop questioning whether positioning is even you in the first place. And is it gonna fit your unique genius? Is it gonna fit what you want to build? And is it gonna fit what you want to do? There is so much more to say about this. And I am not saying that AEO should be ignored. I'm not saying I'm an expert in this. I am saying we're in the very, very nascent stages of this, and people who claim to be an expert in this are claiming confidently, and you're gonna listen because you're afraid of not being found. You're afraid that you're gonna miss out on opportunities. And if that works for you, then run with that. But I do want you to be thinking bigger about this because that's what we do here. We don't think about the three tactics that are gonna expire tomorrow. We talk about how we play the game. And part of playing the game and game theory, which is an episode I'd like to do soon, is anticipating moves. If everybody is doing this, you might want to do that. That doesn't mean not get found by AEO. That doesn't mean not understand what it is. But most business owners are not gonna dig into it. They're gonna say, okay, this is what I need to do. I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna get found. Okay, maybe. Are you gonna get found for what you actually want to be found for? Are you gonna be found for what's gonna differentiate you in the marketplace? Are you gonna get found for what's gonna make you stand out? Or are you gonna get found for what the robot understands? Do you see how we're creating a problem in why we think we're creating a solution? You add this to a soup. You add this to played out branding, water down language, positioning that feels familiar, you add that to watering down your edges to be found. Well, you've got a hot mess express. And so where do you follow in that? What do you do? You take a real look at the language that you're utilizing to describe what you do. Is this a problem I actually want to solve for? Is this actually what I do? Is this something that only I could do? Has AI fundamentally changed what I do? When I started to look at what AI was giving me when I go on podcasts, it made me sound like a coach. It made me sound like a mindset coach, and I'm not. I understand I'm unique. I understand that what I do is category bleeding, doesn't really exist. People are probably not going to search for it. So I'm playing a different game here, but it doesn't mean that that's not affecting you at some level. I found this when I went on podcasts and I went on a lot of coaching podcasts when I was doing a lot of different exploration, especially business coaching podcasts. They would repeat back to me the language they understood. It was codified language from the personal development industry. It was codified language from the, in quotes, what they thought a healer was. It was codified language from the XYZ. And I would kind of push back a little bit. And it created an awkward situation where I was like, no, that's actually not what I do. And here's what I do. Now it makes you better because you are playing tennis and you're realizing where you're not clear, you're realizing where you might want to change your game, you're realizing where you want it might adjust your strategy. It's all positive. The problem is with AI, you're not playing tennis with anyone. You're going one-way tennis. You think you're playing tennis with it because you're asking it to clarify. You think you're building a model, sure. But also, so these are things to be thinking about. So what do you do? You understand what AEO is. Number two, you get really effing clear on what it is that only you can do. And number three, you understand that this is short-term gain at long-term loss. And then anybody confidently telling you about how this is going to work in the future is confidently making it up. Because if business changes incredibly fast in general, AI is going to make business change at the speed of light over the next two years. That includes marketing, that includes how you're found. That includes your signal. So, yes, be aware of the signal you're sending out. I need to know that Google is thinking I'm a sorceress. I need to know that some of my earlier episodes that are human design focused are not going to be the ones I optimize for SEO because that's not how I want to show up. You need to be aware of the game. You need to know what game you're playing, but also don't lose yourself in that process. That is what I do in all my work. That is what Alchemical Edge is, and that is what X marks the spot is. My pilot offer. My pilot offer, which is your innate value proposition, cross paths with your prosperity path. Half of that X is yes, what is the optimal route you are designed to take to make money? What is the optimal route you are designed to take to get opportunity? Yes, that is not a technical question. But the other side of that X is your innate value architecture. And that is what can you do that nobody else can do? Where can you shine that nobody else can shine? What are you designed to do? And how do you leverage that as the root of your branding, your positioning, your offers, your targeting, everything? That is the fundamental core. That is founder architecture. Everything grows from that. And that's what you need to make sure still exists after you're done with artificial engine optimization, after you're done with AI. Have you lost that? And do you even know what that is? And that is what I do in the work that I do. There is no way that AI can do what I just did. You know it and I know it. If I try to water this down to be appropriate for AI, I would lose the whole game. Now that doesn't help the podcast get found, but you understand that when you water down your edges and you don't understand what makes you you, you don't understand what makes you brilliant, you don't lean into your gifts, you don't own your gifts, even if you say you don't know your gifts, how this can get really ugly really fast. X marks the spot. If that pilot offer is still running, run, don't walk, grab it. Right now, there are three slots left. It is bedrock. You are orienting yourself for the actions you want to take. You are orienting yourself for the platforms, you're orienting yourself for your offers, you're understanding things that are holding you back. They're no longer holding you back. You're still driving the boat, you're still at sea, you're still navigating, but you have the map to guide you. And you can use this forever. This is you. This comes with you to another business, to another stage of your business, to another industry. This is you. This is priceless. You use this for the rest of your life. It's simple, but it's based on a complex architecture. That's X marks the spot. That's my take on AEO, and that's something for you to think about. I'll see you on the next one.