If you've ever searched for a local business and noticed the same three names in that little map box, you know how much those spots matter. If you run one of those businesses (or want to), you also know it can feel like a closed club. After nearly 30 years at flyte, I rebuilt our local SEO webinar from scratch because the ground had moved, and this episode is the short version of what I found. We'll walk through your Google Business Profile, reviews, your website, and the local links that push you toward the top three. Most of it costs time, not money, and none of it requires a decoder ring. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/641 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

Some of the best content ideas in your company are probably stuck inside the heads of people who have absolutely no interest in writing a blog post. Jesse Harris shares how marketers can earn the trust of subject matter experts, draw out what they know, and turn highly technical expertise into clear, compelling content without watering it down. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/639 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

Substack has been on my radar for a while, but I'll be honest: I wasn't sure it had much to offer someone who already has a blog, an email list, and a few social channels up and running. Turns out I was asking the wrong question. This week I sat down with Tracy Friedlander, a former professional orchestra musician turned Substack strategist and the voice behind The Second Act Strategist, to find out what the platform can do for small business owners and marketers who want to build a real audience without starting from scratch all over again. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/638 Register for my Local SEO Webinar (9.23.2026): https://www.takeflyte.com/flyte-school/live-events Take the Substack Quiz: https://www.takeflyte.com/flyte-school/live-events Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

Every few months a new acronym shows up promising to replace the last one, and this year it's GEO. I brought Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media back on the show to settle a debate I keep having in my own head: is generative engine optimization its own discipline, or just SEO wearing a trench coat and hoping nobody looks too closely? Andy has spent twenty five years building websites that turn into lead generation machines for B2B companies, and he came in with a much sharper answer than "it depends," even though he says that phrase more than either of us would like to admit. If you run marketing for a small or mid sized business and you're wondering whether AI search means starting over from scratch, this conversation will save you a lot of wasted effort chasing the wrong checklist. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/637 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact Check out Andy's first appearance and the introduction by my daughter Maya: https://www.themarketingagents.com/andy-crestodina-neuromarketing

Every time you ask ChatGPT or Claude for a recommendation, you're training it to know you better, and that changes everything about how customers find your business. My guest this week is Vivienne Wagner, founder and CEO of Houndstooth Media Group, and she's built her entire practice around helping business owners get recommended by AI the same way you'd ask a friend "who should I call for this?" We get into why clarity beats volume, how Google Business Profile reviews are quietly becoming AI training data, and why a bridal shop's "ultimate guide to summer weddings" outperformed anything her competitor across the street was doing. If you've been wondering why some businesses seem to show up in every AI conversation about their industry while others are invisible, this episode breaks down exactly what's happening behind the scenes. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/636 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

If your Google Ads budget keeps climbing while your results stay flat, you're not alone, and you're probably starting in the wrong place. My guest this week is Jeff Coleman, founder of Factor Four Marketing, who has spent more than two decades building results-driven Google Ads campaigns for everyone from local service companies to Fortune 500 brands. Jeff makes the case that most businesses jump straight into keyword research when they should start with their ideal customer profile instead, and once you make that shift, everything from your ad copy to your landing pages gets easier to build. We dig into what really makes your business remarkable (hint: it's probably not "great service"), why Jeff builds landing pages before finalizing keywords, and how to train Google's algorithm to send you better leads instead of just more of them. If you've ever looked at your ad spend and wondered whether it's working for you, this episode is for you. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/635 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

Here's a question I ask every business owner who complains their marketing "isn't working": when's the last time you actually looked at your website like a stranger would? Because nine times out of ten, the traffic is fine. It's the website that's dropping the ball. My guest this week is Irwin Hau, founder of Chromatics and Conversion Cow, who's analyzed close to 70,000 websites (yes, 70,000) and built an entire framework around the psychology of trust and conversion. Before he was auditing websites for a living, he was a card illusionist, which honestly explains a lot once you hear him talk about how easy it is to manipulate attention online. If you've ever wondered why people aren't calling, filling out your forms, or sticking around past the homepage, this episode hands you the four questions your website needs to answer, and the simple, often free fixes most businesses are missing. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/634 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

LinkedIn is the one social platform that hasn't burned me out yet, and after this conversation, I understand why a lot more businesses should be paying closer attention to it. My guest is Kaila Vander Horn, head of content at Speedwork, a LinkedIn advertising agency where she runs organic strategy for B2B companies and the leaders behind them. We get into what thought leadership really means (spoiler: you don't need a corner office or a Fortune 100 badge to claim it), how often you really need to post to see results, and why LinkedIn has quietly become one of the most cited sources for AI tools like ChatGPT. If you've been putting off posting because you don't think anyone cares what you have to say, this episode, and this recap, is for you. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/633 NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/technology/personaltech/chatgpt-gemini-prompts-privacy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0FA.zhw-.mAZ5BSDr9qg7&smid=url-share Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

You already know stories beat spreadsheets when it comes to winning people over. But what if the story itself isn't even the most important part? This week I'm talking with Jennifer Gardner, a Los Angeles trial lawyer, persuasive communication speaker, and administrative law judge who's spent three decades convincing juries to see things her way. Jennifer breaks down what's actually happening in the brain when a story lands, why admitting your flaws builds more trust than any case study, and why the AI-generated content flooding your feed is missing the one ingredient it can't fake: you. If you've ever wondered why some stories grab you instantly while "important" ones put you to sleep, this conversation gives you the answer, and a few techniques you can start using today. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/632 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

If you've ever felt like local search is a game rigged for the big guys with bottomless ad budgets, this episode is going to change how you think about winning. My guest, Nick Cohen, is a rare combination: a practicing attorney and the COO of Matador, where he helps over 180 law firms compete against much bigger competitors in local search. But don't let the law firm focus fool you. Everything Nick shares here about reviews, backlinks, content, and the wild new world of GEO (that's optimizing for AI search) applies just as much to your HVAC company, your dental practice, or your marketing agency. We get into why reviews might be the single highest-leverage thing you can do this month, how to figure out exactly which keywords to target with his refreshingly simple "what you do, where you do it" framework, and why showing up in ChatGPT might convert better than showing up in Google. Let's get into it. GEO Audit: https://www.takeflyte.com/geo-audit?utm_source=aocp&utm_medium=id3&utm_campaign=aocp GEO Snapshot: https://www.takeflyte.com/geo-snapshot?utm_source=aocp&utm_medium=id3&utm_campaign=aocp https://www.theagentsofchange.com/631 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact