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Welcome back to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. I'm so glad you're here today because what we're talking about has been on my mind lately, and virtually every coach, consultant, and expert I know should be listening to this episode because if you're not thinking about this, I don't know what you're doing because, in business there are times when- if you get the timing right of a big change, you can really ride that wave for the next 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, and I think this is the wave.

Here's the situation. The way your ideal client finds you has changed, and I'm not talking about in the future, I'm talking about right now, and if you haven't caught up yet, you are genuinely leaving opportunities and impact on the table. I'm talking about the shift from SEO to AI recommendation

I wanna start right at the top because some people might be thinking, "Ugh, I've heard this. It's just another thing that I have to learn on top of everything else." Make the [00:01:00] case, why does this matter right now? So here's the simplest version. When someone needs a leadership coach, a business consultant, uh, an expert, a mindset expert, whatever your thing is, most of the time people are no longer going to the Google search bar.

Not anymore. They're going to AI. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, whatever AI tool they're on, and they're asking a question, a specific question. And instead of getting a list of ranking links like they did before when we searched on Google, either you were on the first page, the second page, or you were as good as dead, Now what they're getting is a name or two or three names, something they can act on immediately. And so the question is, are you one of those names that are showing up? And if you're not, why not? And more importantly, what can we do about it?

This is such a huge opportunity right now. Think about it. Traditional SEO was a [00:02:00] ranking contest. , You either had to be really technical, where you were convincing the algorithm through technical signals, backlinks, keywords to rank higher than the next person.

And if you didn't have that expertise or you couldn't afford to get that expertise, you literally could not rank on Google. And what that meant is that you couldn't win like other people who are winning, who had either that expertise or, you know, the ability to hire someone who's a really good expert at SEO.

What AI has done through AI recommendation is fantastic in so many ways. It means that if you do the things that create trust signals, your people will find you. You don't have to know any of the technical things in order for you to be recommended by AI. What you do need to do is you need to do the work.

Okay. But if you're already in the business game, I think in this trust recession, 'cause all we've been hearing lately is, [00:03:00] "Oh, business is low, people don't trust, we're in a trust recession, getting clients is hard." But people are still buying, and people are just buying differently. They are using AI. What AI is doing is helping people overcome that hesitance, that trust recession.

It's allowing people to gain trust through the way that it searches all the ecosystems, everything in the digital space to make sure that someone is who they say they are. Trust recession fixed.

This is so exciting, especially for that person who felt like wherever they were posting online, the algorithm hated them. I know the feeling. You don't have to learn how to use the algorithm because AI recommendations are not about prepared algorithms. They are about creating enough signal that makes you trustworthy.

So if you're a purpose-driven founder who's really concerned about helping people, you've really honed [00:04:00] your craft, and you're an expert, this is the opportunity that you have been waiting for

Think of it this way: traditional SEO was a ranking contest. AI recommendation is a trust contest

It's all about signal Now, I'll break down what that means

Signal is genuinely earned credibility. It's about being cited by publications. It's having other people mention you in relevant contexts. It's about having a specific body of work that demonstrates that you are an expert in a defined topic. It's not about who's running the most ads all the time with, you know, a $500,000 budget.

It's not about that, and I know that's a huge relief for a lot of people

To put it simply, the old way rewarded people who could, you know, out-optimize the machine. The new way, which is AI recommendation, is gonna reward the people who are most consistent, coherent, [00:05:00] publicly visible, , who have a genuinely credible reputation in their space. And that's something you can build by being good at what you do and being strategic about how you show up

Okay, so let's go straight into , the framework for AI visibility

Okay, the acronym I'm gonna use for ease of remembering is CLEAR, you've just got to be CLEAR. First thing, C stands for claiming your category.

This is the foundation that most people get wrong. AI models are scouring the digital space looking for patterns. The more the pattern is consistent, the more clean signal it gives to the AI that this person is who they say they are

So when your ideal client asks about a particular topic or a particular need, the AI model is looking for someone who is the clear answer to this. So if your positioning is vague, for example, I help people reach their potential, the AI models can't categorize that.

It can't recommend you with [00:06:00] confidence Instead, you're better off saying, " I am the coach who helps first-time engineering managers transition into senior leadership at startups or at corporations." Now you're being specific think about how your prospect or your client is searching.

They're searching, "

Who are the top leadership coaches to help me get promoted? at my company. The AI they're using already knows that they're an engineering manager. The AI already has background on them, so they know that the kind of coach that would be ideal for this person

is a specific type of leadership coach, not all leadership coaches. It's gonna look at what is the user asking, and based on what the AI also knows about the user, who are the people who'd be the top matches for that person? So that changes the whole game. You know, , it's funny, it's almost like full circle.

It's all the business advice we've always gotten, and AI [00:07:00] is sort of making sure that we actually stick to doing that business advice. Being specific, picking a specific niche. Who do you serve? How do you serve them? What outcome do you provide for them? And spelling that out everywhere where you are present digitally

And I know a lot of times as new founders, we all fall into this trap. You know, we have the LinkedIn profile that says, , "Leadership coach/AI-enabled, uh, consultant/blah, blah, blah." We've got all these three things in order to try to catch as many people as we can. What that does to the AI, it doesn't show a clear signal.

Remember, When the AI models search the internet, they need clear signals for the exact person that this person is looking for. So narrow down your niche. May feel like it's shrinking your market, and yes,, it is shrinking your market. But if it's making it easy for AI to recommend you, in a [00:08:00] trust recession where people are skeptical about buying, I think , this is a wise move

The AI is not gonna recommend a generalist

, Your positioning has to be so clear

Because as much as people say, "Oh, people aren't buying, the trust recession," people will always buy. People will always buy. They will just buy from either people they know or people they feel have been verified. The more all of us are gonna use AI, the more we're gonna rely on AI to verify who it is that is trustworthy.

This is why I'm so excited about this, and I think this is the opportunity. Yes, it may feel like you have to do some extra things that you are not doing, that you feel you don't have time for it, but I believe in riding waves, and this is a wave that if you ride this wave, you will be smiling.

I stand behind that statement. I totally believe that this is the time

Okay, so you've got your positioning statement. What else can you do? Make sure that your content is genuinely useful for your ideal [00:09:00] client. I know this sounds pretty obvious, but most of us have a tendency of jumping from topic to topic to topic to topic to topic with our content. Remember, a clear signal, and that doesn't send a clear signal that you are an expert in that specific niche.

You have to think about signal the whole time. Is this signaling one to the AI? Is it signaling to my ideal client? How do I create this signal? Simple. You're gonna think about something that is useful in your niche for your specific client

Ask yourself, if my ideal client read this, would they feel genuinely helped? Think about the purpose of what you're putting out there in your content

, Is it taking my prospect from A to B and giving them enough proof that I can help them get to C? That's the only purpose that your content has

C is claim your category. Let's get to L. Leave a legible trail

Leave enough for the AI to be [00:10:00] able to draw a conclusion about you. This one is about evidence

And by evidence, I mean that things that are publicly accessible, . So it can't be something behind a paywall, remember, the AI is reading what you can only read publicly.

So it's reading podcast transcripts, it's reading blogs, it's reading, uh, LinkedIn articles. It's reading everything that's in the public space.

It's not going into private groups or private communities. It's only reading everything that's out there, which I don't know if you remember this. There was always this sense of like, give everything away. Give your very best stuff away, and give it away publicly. And a lot of people sort of felt like, "Well, if I give away all my good stuff, then why would somebody hire me if I've already given them everything?"

And this is what AI is gonna make us all do: give away everything, because if the AI can't read what it is that you're about, it can't recommend you. So basically, give your frameworks away, give all the good stuff away, put it all on [00:11:00] public places so that when the AI searches, it gets that signal that you are an expert, and it gets that signal that you are trustworthy and credible, and you have authority to speak on whatever it is that your client is searching for.

So here's the thing. It may feel like you have to do more, In a sense, yes and no. It's not about volume. It's not about being on every platform, posting every day. It's more about creating quality content that's consistent with the positioning you have. So if you say you're a leadership expert, it's about leadership.

It's diving deep into the needs that your clients have in that niche of leadership. It's not, short posts everywhere. So it's content that can be considered to be credible, so long-form articles, uh, YouTube videos, podcast episodes that are really deeply useful and well-structured with a [00:12:00] defined subject that aligns with your specific niche, with the category that you're claiming.

And this is another thing. You have to be publishing consistently. This is very important because when the AI searches, it's looking for the newest information around whatever someone is searching for. So abandoned blogs don't help your efforts. Abandoned YouTube channels, don't help your efforts because it's looking for active expertise.

It's looking for the newest thing that's out there in the digital space about this thing. And I know I'm guilty of this too. You get overwhelmed, you slack off on a lot of things. But remember, if AI is doing the recommendation, as much as you are writing for people, even more you're writing for the models to recognize your authority, in that specific niche

Okay, let's jump to E. Let's keep going. L is about leaving a legible trail, something that the AI can read. Not behind paywalls, not in private [00:13:00] communities, out in online public spaces where the AI can read it. E is earn third-party credibility. This is a big one. The most powerful AI visibility signal is not what you say about yourself, it's what other people say about you.

So you may be thinking, well, you know, how do I engineer that? When your name appears in articles written by others, podcast show notes, conference speaker lists, these can be virtual, these can be in person, and client testimonials, the AI model sees these signs as consensus between what you say about yourself and what other people say about you equals trust.

You're trustworthy. So If the only source you have is you saying you're an expert on your website, that's self-nomination. If 10 sources, independent sources associate your name with a specific area or expertise, that's a pattern. That's what AI is looking for So how do you go about getting this? Get on podcasts.

Get quoted in [00:14:00] articles. If you have, Peers who have a different audience than yours, offer to write for them on their blog to serve their audience and let them serve your audience by writing on their blogs. , There's so many businesses that are, looking for people to guest on their podcast, to guest on their, , blog.

Take up those opportunities because the AI will recognize that this is another person saying this about you

This is no longer optional. If you're gonna ride the wave into being recommended by AI, this is foundational Start building what I would call a collaborator ecosystem. You know, build relationships with 10 people in different niches.

Help each other with interviews, with writing for each other's newsletters, recommend each other publicly. This builds third-party mentions, and it's so funny when I think about it.

Because it literally just sounds like doing good business, being in community with other people and Helping each [00:15:00] other to get ahead

The funny thing is that even though I'm giving you sort of a list of things to do, The AI models are very holistic. , They're reading the overall signal of your entire presence in the digital world

And so the way to position yourself for that is to really think deeply about where you show up, how you show up, if what you're saying is consistent., Even things like , if you have frameworks that you use, consistently mentioning them in articles, podcast episodes, wherever you go, consistently naming them by name

Okay, so that's E, earning third-party credibility. Make some friends, make some friends everyone. Let's get to A of the CLEAR framework. A is anchor your framework. This is one of my favorite tactics because it's high leverage and most haven't done it. The idea is you wanna create proprietary language.

To be honest, there's nothing out there that is new. It's about [00:16:00] giving old things or known things your own take and giving it your own language and your own methodology. That's your framework, that's your model, something that is specific to you. And this matters because when someone asks about something that your framework solves or methodology speaks to, AI will be able to say that this is the XYZ method

And the more methodologies and frameworks you share, , the more you can signal expertise to the AI

So don't hold back, on those frameworks to only when you're coaching private clients or you're doing consulting work. Put them out there so that the AI can link that these are your frameworks, because if you don't do that, somebody else will do it, and they will claim your work as their own, and the AI will recognize that work as belonging to that person, but it's only because you didn't do it.

So it's no longer do you share your framework? If you're giving it to people, you might as well give it publicly so that the AI can make the link that those [00:17:00] are your frameworks, and that is part of your expertise.

This is another interesting shift with AI if you aren't first to mention that this is your work, in a world of AI where people can take someone's book and put it in the AI and ask it to do whatever it is that they wanna do with the frameworks in that book, , the wisest thing I would say is to get ahead of that and use your own frameworks publicly.

Mention them by name everywhere you go. Share them publicly. Let them be linked to you. Right. That's A, anchor your frameworks. Let's go to R, reinforce across platforms. This is about consistency. It's about what you say on LinkedIn, does it match what you said in the podcast episode? Does it match to what you wrote in your blog?

Does it match to what somebody else said about you? Because remember, it's looking for patterns, and any inconsistencies reduce your credibility. So if your LinkedIn says you help [00:18:00] executives with leadership transitions, and yet your website says you work with anyone who wants to grow, and your podcast bio says you're a mindset expert.

I know over time that can happen, but this is the time to sit down and make sure that everything across your platforms, everything across the bios you share with other people when they're mentioning you are saying the same thing. 'Cause consistency signal. It lets the AI model say with confidence, "This person is specifically the expert on this topic."

So make sure that your positioning is identical in substance everywhere where you appear, your speaker bios, your conference profiles. Pick your language of how you'll describe yourself and repeat it every single time. Talk about the elevator pitch being used now. You're gonna have to memorize it and use it everywhere because, this is the kind of digital [00:19:00] footprint that AI needs to be able to recommend you

So that's the CLEAR framework. You're not trying to do this overnight. You're not trying to do this in the next six weeks. It's something to think about consistently as you're doing things. But I would say get started now

Cause I'm telling you, , whenever everyone starts talking about something, it's too late. Right now, all the people, and I know as a podcast host, everyone's trying to get on a podcast, everyone's writing long form, everyone's, getting on YouTube channels because they know this information, and they're getting a headstart on everything.

By the time everyone's talking about, uh, AI recommendations, they've been doing it for 24 months. So three things if you were to start this this week. First, I would run an AI audit. Open your AI of choice and ask it, who is your name? Give it your name. In my case, who is Priscilla Shumba?

And then ask, who would you recommend as whatever it is you do

Who would [00:20:00] you recommend as a communication strategist for founders? If you have a methodology, ask it. What is the,

communication signal framework. What comes back is your current AI reputation. You wanna establish a baseline, and this is so important because what it's gonna show you is that probably AI doesn't know very much about you, or it's vague, or it's inaccurate, and this is where you need to start.

And if you've been using your AI for a long time, it knows a lot of things about you. Then ask it What do I need to do for me to be recommended on this list? It will tell you exactly what you need to do for you to be recommended on that list.

It'll even show you the gaps that you may not see

. And then use that to become your roadmap for the next 12 months. Consistently, purposefully, intentionally, strategically building up that credibility it serves you in two ways.

Not only are you building the credibility for the AI, but you're building credibility for your ideal client because [00:21:00] now you're all signal

After you've done your AI audit, it's given you your baseline where you are. Now you know, okay, what do you need to fix? The next thing I'd say is write your one-sentence positioning statement. The AI can help you with this. And once you've written that statement, go into all the places where you are present online, your LinkedIn, your website, um, any bio if you're a speaker that you share your profile.

Make sure that all those things are consistent. You don't need much time to do this. These are just three things you can do immediately after listening to this episode. The third thing you wanna do is you wanna name your framework. There's a way that you've been working with clients, or consulting with people, or just a way that you approach things.

Name those frameworks, name those processes, those methods. Give it a name. And I would, if you're a writer, write a comprehensive... You don't even need to be a writer. You can use your AI to help you with this. Write a comprehensive article Where you explain your approach, your method, your process, and you name your [00:22:00] framework in detail.

Publish it on your website, publish it on your LinkedIn. Use this as the anchor, the thing that AI will find if someone searches your name in relation to that context. So those three things, you can do that in the next seven days. Those three things, your audit, your positioning statement, and your framework article, and then begin to build on that strategically and intentionally over the next six to 12 months

This doesn't have to be a full-time job. You just need to have

An ongoing rhythm that flags that you are active, you're an active expert, you're an active coach, you're an active consultant on a specific topic for your ideal client.

One major thing that a lot of coaches, consultants, experts are getting wrong is that they're keeping all their good stuff behind paywalls. Remember that AI can only read the stuff that is in, that is public. So if all your good stuff is inside an email sequence, a private Facebook group, a members-only [00:23:00] community, AI cannot see any of that, and you get no credit for it.

And remember, whoever puts that information out there is the one that's gonna get credit for it. So I would say you should put that information out there. Don't hold back because you need to create trust signals so that when your ideal clients go to AI searching for someone who can do exactly what you do, solving for exactly what it is that you do, that trust signal is recognized by AI and you become recommended

As we wrap up, this shift from SEO to AI recommendation is the biggest opportunity for, you know, founders running businesses that has existed in a long time it truly is leveling the playing field. If you get started today and you're doing this consistently

You can build a public, visible, genuinely credible reputation for your people, for your ideal prospects, and for the AI to recognize

[00:24:00] In the past, a lot of really good coaches, experts lost the game to people who are good at marketing. This is gonna take a little bit more work, but this is the work that if you're a purpose-driven founder who's really, , concerned about sharing expertise,, serving their people, this is in line with what you have always been wanting to do.

If you weren't trying to win a popularity contest online, this is exactly the opportunity that we have been waiting for

The window is wide open. Most people haven't started this yet. So if that doesn't get you moving, I don't know what will. So thank you so much for listening to this. I hope you are going to do something with this information. 12 months from now, oh, I would, I would love to know that this episode that got you started in building that signal so that AI can recommend you is paying off big time.

I'm looking forward to hearing that from purpose-driven founders.

I'm Priscilla Shumba, the business communication strategist for founders who want [00:25:00] to turn credibility, conviction, into strategic visibility and authority in their niche. If you found this valuable, share this with your founder bestie.

It's always good to work in community and to help each other.

Until next time, keep showing up, keep being specific, and go make yourself findable