For years, you’ve probably heard people say that you should be using video in your marketing. It makes sense. After all, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. If you don’t have a YouTube strategy, you’re missing out on a ton of traffic and a massive opportunity to promote your brand. While creating video content is cheaper and easier than ever, it can still be intimidating if you’re unfamiliar with the medium or if you’re a perfectionist like me. If you’re ready to unlock the power of video marketing, keep reading because this episode is going to be a masterclass from a true expert. Sunny Lenarduzzi has been called a master marketer by Entrepreneur.com. She’s helped brands like Hootsuite develop winning social media and video strategies and she runs her highly successful YouTube channel, which has amassed over 260,000 followers and has been praised by Forbes. From scripting to why you need a loyal community of fans, Sunny will be revealing tried and tested techniques to help you leverage video to its maximum potential.
The Strategies and Techniques Behind Viral Videos with Jamie Salvatori
Today we’re talking to Jamie Salvatori, an expert in viral videos. He’s the founder of Vat19.com, which is an eCommerce store featuring unique and quirky gifts, toys, candy, and curiously awesome oddities. Its YouTube channel currently boasts 3.5 million subscribers and nearly 3 billion video views. We discuss his views on marketing, and how to “try everything” in order to get your video seen.
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Press and Media Appearances AS SEEN ON : Select a category below All Categories TV Appearances Conference Interviews Podcast Appearances Article Mentions Bylined Articles TV Appearances https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5VbYUTxkM Stephan shares his secret tips on how to find anything online with Google. View Transcript and Resources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEDu_0qIIEY Stephan gives advice on how to become a savvy search expert online. View Transcript and Resources https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA7pzSYCnQM Stephan talks about his foster care upbringing and common misconceptions about foster kids. […]
How to Be Incorruptible with Eric Ries
Most companies eventually give in to the pressure to maximize profit at any cost, but a rare few resist that pull entirely and stay true to their mission for decades. My guest on today’s show is Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup method and author of the bestselling book by that name, along with The Leader’s Guide and The Startup Way. He’s also the founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, the AI research lab Answer.AI, and the legal startup Virgil.
In our conversation, we explore Eric’s new book, Incorruptible, and the mystery behind why companies like Costco and Patagonia manage to resist the corrupting pull of shareholder primacy while so many others don’t. Eric explains the idea of mission guardianship and why structural integrity matters more than culture or stated values alone. We get into why information overload makes deep, primary-source learning more valuable than ever, and why an old idea like the low information diet still holds up. Eric also shares his honest take on where AI’s real capabilities stand today, separate from the hype, and why the timing of a protective decision in a business matters just as much as the decision itself.
If you’ve ever built something you care about and worried what might happen to it under pressure, this conversation offers a real answer along with the tools to protect it.
LinkedIn Outreach That Doesn’t Suck with Jason Osborn
Cold outreach on LinkedIn has become a numbers game. Automated connection requests, templated pitches, and AI-generated messages flood inboxes every day, and the fact is – most of them are getting ignored.
My guest on today’s show is Jason Osborn, a LinkedIn lead generation expert who has spent years helping companies generate business on the platform. But the most memorable story he shares has nothing to do with LinkedIn. It’s the story of surviving a plane crash and the unexpected lesson it taught him about consistency, relationships, and making the most of the time we’re given.
That perspective shows up in the way Jason approaches business development. Rather than chasing prospects with heartless pitches, he developed what he calls the LinkedIn Reverse Podcast Method. The idea is surprisingly simple: interview your ideal prospects instead of trying to pitch to them.
In our conversation, Jason explains why traditional LinkedIn outreach falls flat. He shares how a brief conversation can create more trust than months of messaging back and forth. We explore where automation helps and where it gets in the way. His view is that technology should make relationship-building easier, not replace it.
If you’re tired of sending messages that disappear into the void, this episode offers a refreshingly human alternative.
What AI Says About You When You’re Not in the Room with Jessica Bowman
Most brands are optimizing to be found. Far fewer are asking what AI actually says about them once a buyer starts asking questions. That gap is exactly where Jessica Bowman, my guest on today’s show, works.
Jessica is a long-time SEO veteran with a career spanning two decades and a speciality in in-house SEO. As the founder of Coxwell and Gain, she’s an enterprise strategist and consultant to Fortune 500 brands pioneering the operational side of AI visibility. Her consultancy is built around a simple yet urgent idea: AI is forming judgments about your brand, and most organizations have no system to manage it.
Jessica’s work goes well beyond keywords and rankings. She helps companies see how decisions in product design, fulfillment, customer service, and even earnings calls shape what AI tells buyers about them.
In this episode, we discuss how AI builds a case for or against a brand. We cover what an AI visibility audit actually looks like in practice. We explore why the fix often lives outside the marketing department entirely. And we get into what leaders need to do now, before AI Mode becomes the norm for all Google users.
We also get into real tool costs, the new cross-functional demands this discipline creates, and why some of the most damaging AI narratives are ones brands unknowingly wrote themselves.
If you’ve ever wondered whether AI is working for or against your brand, this conversation will provide some really interesting insights to sharpen how you think about it.
So without any further ado, on with the show!
Resonance Over Reach with Jay Acunzo
In a world drowning in content, being good at what you do is no longer enough. My guest on today’s show is Jay Acunzo, keynote speaker, storytelling strategist, and author of Break the Wheel. Jay has spent his career helping experts stop competing on volume and start winning on resonance, working with speakers, authors, and service providers who are tired of being treated like a commodity.
In this episode, we discuss why most personal brands fail to convert, and what separates the people buyers seek out from the ones who end up on a comparison spreadsheet. Jay walks through his framework for packaging expertise into signature stories, branded ideas, and a distinct premise that makes price negotiation almost irrelevant. We also get into how AI is raising the stakes for generic content creators. Public speaking, it turns out, may be the highest-leverage skill you can develop right now.
If you sell expertise, services, or ideas, this episode gives you a sharper lens for how to position yourself and communicate in a way that makes the right people come to you.
How to Speak to Sell with Majeed Mogharreban
Authority isn’t just what you know. It’s what people remember, repeat, and act on after you leave the stage, the screen, or the scroll. The difference often comes down to story, positioning, and a clear next step that doesn’t feel like a hard sell.
My guest on today’s show is Majeed Mogharreban, a world-renowned speaking coach and the creator of Expert Speaker. He helps entrepreneurs and experts turn speaking into a smart business strategy, not a once-in-a-while keynote fee. His work blends performance, persuasion, and a sharp understanding of how attention actually works.
In this conversation, we break down how to become really memorable on stage, including Majeed’s “feel, know, do” framework and his “Pain Island to Pleasure Island” model for building a talk that moves people. We also explore how to weave proof into your stories without bragging and why “speech to conversation to offer” can outperform the old-school pitch. Plus, we get into a surprisingly useful topic: how to turn haters and controversy into momentum without losing your composure.
This episode will sharpen your message, strengthen your presence, and help your next talk create real demand. So without any further ado, on with the show.
The Case Against Psychology Hacks with Billy Broas
Marketing gets weird when it forgets there’s a person on the other side of the screen. The internet makes it easy to chase clicks, triggers, and tactics—and just as easy to lose the plot: real persuasion isn’t a hack, it’s a clear, defensible case.
My guest on today’s show is Billy Broas, author of Simple Marketing for Smart People and creator of The Five Lightbulbs framework. He helps technical founders turn complex products into clear, persuasive arguments, and his new manifesto, Marketing Is an Argument, challenges the psychology-first playbook in favor of belief-building that actually holds up.
In our conversation, we define what a manifesto is and why Billy wrote one. We contrast “what works” marketing with marketing built on human dignity. He explains what it means to “re-enchant the transaction.” We also break down the upstream/downstream approach to messaging. Billy walks through the Five Lightbulbs as a practical framework and a belief-building system. And we talk about why content works best as proof, not noise. You’ll also hear how syllogisms reveal weak logic, sharpen claims, and align teams around one clear message.
If you want marketing that earns trust, sharpens conviction, and converts without the cringe, this conversation gives you the blueprint. So, without any further ado, on with the show!
Cutting-Edge AEO Strategies with Patrick Stox
Search is still search—until it isn’t. The moment answers show up without the click, the job shifts from “rank for keywords” to “earn the mention.”
My guest on today’s show is Patrick Stox, Product Advisor, Technical SEO, and Brand Ambassador at Ahrefs. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Patrick lives and breathes SEO, with a particular fascination for how systems really work—and the strange, edge-case problems most people never notice.
He contributed to the Ahrefs SEO Book for Beginners, served as Technical Review Editor for my book The Art of SEO (4th edition), and was lead author for the SEO chapter of the 2021 Web Almanac.
In our conversation, we break down what AI Overviews and AI-mode search are doing to click-through rates, and why “information gain” is the only real moat. We talk about how Ahrefs is building toward real-time site auditing and push-button fixes with Edge SEO, plus the unsexy technical moves that protect performance. Patrick also explains why data studies and comparison pages are winning right now, how Brand Radar actually works, and what it means to manage your reputation across the whole internet—not just your website.
If you want a smarter, more defensible search strategy for 2026, this episode is a great place to start. So, without any further ado, on with the show!
Trust is a Growth Strategy with Dov Gordon
Growth doesn’t slow because expertise disappears. It slows when trust erodes. As markets get louder and attention gets harder to earn, partnerships only work when credibility and follow-through are rock solid.
My guest on today’s show is Dov Gordon, founder of JVGrow.co, back for another conversation. Dov has spent the past fifteen years helping established entrepreneurs grow through joint ventures that actually work. He built his network after seeing how often partnerships fail, through misalignment, poor execution, or inflated promises. JVGrow is now a tightly curated community for experienced thought leaders (myself included) who have proven offers and active funnels.
In this episode, we focus on what still drives growth, and what no longer does. We talk about why broad messaging underperforms and why narrow positioning builds trust faster. Dov explains how joint ventures evolve when audiences are skeptical and overwhelmed. We explore where information stops being useful, where mastery begins, how AI fits into the picture, and why human judgment still shapes meaningful outcomes.
This conversation brings clarity to partnership strategy, sharpens how value is framed, and shows how to grow without relying on tactics that stopped working years ago.
KPIs for AEO with Duane Forrester
Discovery has evolved. We moved from directories to links, then to intent signals. Now, AI systems sit between your content and your audience—deciding what gets retrieved, summarized, cited, or ignored before a human ever sees it.
My guest today, Duane Forrester, has lived every phase of that shift from both sides. He helped build the platforms at Microsoft Bing that shaped modern discovery, then advised hundreds of organizations on how visibility actually works. As the former Senior Product Marketing Manager who led Bing Webmaster Tools and helped bring Schema.org to life, Duane now focuses on one core problem: how brands stay visible when machines—not people—are the first audience.
In this conversation, we unpack his framework for a new set of KPIs built specifically for the AI era. Metrics designed for a world where ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude control the gates. Duane walks through the tools he’s bootstrapped to track chunk retrieval frequency, embedding relevance, and citation rates—signals most SEO platforms don’t even attempt to measure.
We also explore why so many businesses never appear in AI-generated answers, the mental models Duane uses to ship meaningful work without getting stuck in his own head, and why asking fewer, better questions beats chasing every platform update.
This episode cuts through the noise and gives you frameworks for measuring what actually matters in the machine layer. So, without further ado, on with the show!
Intentional Marketing in the AI Era with Stephan Spencer
In a digital world increasingly dominated by AI, understanding how to approach marketing with both strategic intelligence and ethical integrity has never been more crucial. This special episode features a conversation originally hosted by Gert Mellak on his SEO Leverage podcast.
Our discussion explores the power of intentionality in marketing and how it creates energy that attracts the right opportunities. We examine the challenges of working with billion-dollar brands versus nimble startups, and why I prefer collaborating with hungry companies open to innovation.
Our discussion explores cross-channel strategies that boost search rankings through social media. I explain how Google’s approach to link penalties has evolved over time, and we dive into ethical concerns around AI-generated content and its implications. I share my thoughts on the “Dead Internet Theory” where originality fades away and online discourse is mostly bots. You’ll also learn about writing for three distinct audiences to maximize your content’s impact.
You’ll discover how intentional marketing creates a powerful edge in this new era. Now, without further ado, on with the show!
SEO in an AI World with Stephan Spencer
Search is evolving fast—but relevance still wins. In this special rebroadcast of a conversation I had with Samantha Riley on her show, Influence by Design, I unpack what SEO really looks like in an era dominated by AI-generated answers.
Google’s AI Overviews are grabbing headlines—but behind the scenes, they’re generating something else: considerable misinformation. From fabricated stats to dangerously inaccurate medical and financial advice, these tools raise real concerns for users and marketers alike.
We explore why SEO remains not only relevant but essential. I explain how experience-driven content and real-world authority still outrank machine-made fluff, and how businesses can stay visible by leaning into what AI can’t replicate: lived experience, proven results, and human credibility.
We also dive into how to build a website that isn’t just a passive brochure, but a conversion engine. From irresistible lead magnets like my SEO BS Detector to pages focused on tangible results rather than praise, we outline what actually moves the needle with both visitors and Google. You’ll also hear how to avoid being misled by slick-talking SEO “experts” and focus on the metrics that truly matter.
If you’re ready to build lasting digital authority—and stop building your house on rented land—this episode is your blueprint. So without any further ado, on with the show!
Reverse Engineering Google Algorithms with Ryan Jones
According to today’s guest, most SEOs are still optimizing like it’s 2005—counting keywords, stacking H2 tags, obsessing over density metrics that search engines haven’t cared about in years. But the truth is, Google and AI don’t work that way anymore. They think in vectors, not words.
My guest for this episode is Ryan Jones, who runs the SEO practice at Razorfish and created the semantic SEO tool SERPrecon, which evaluates websites the way search engines actually work. Ryan dove deep into the Yandex and Google source code leaks and used that knowledge to build a tool that evaluates websites using the same technologies that are powering modern search.
In our conversation, we discussed why the SEO industry must evolve beyond lexical tactics and embrace semantic relevance. Ryan breaks down vector space, third-party consensus for Google knowledge panels, and how to reverse-engineer Google AI Overview citations using passage BERT. He shares his Reddit strategy, explains the flaws in traditional keyword optimization, and demonstrates how SERPrecon scores title tags using Yandex’s exact logic from their source code leak.
Stay tuned, and you’ll shift how you think about SEO, giving you a competitive edge in an AI-driven search world. So, without any further ado, on with the show!
