Thursday, October 29, 2026
A lot of owners try the wrong format, see no shift, and decide coaching doesn't work for them. Here's what a peer room is actually good for, what 1:1 coaching is actually good for, and a 3-check way to pick.
A customer searching for your kind of business is now almost as likely to ask an AI chatbot as to open Google. In the past year, 45% of US consumers used an AI tool to get a local business recommendation — up from just 6% the year before — and 31% went straight to ChatGPT for it, according to BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of over 1,000 US consumers. Separately, Pew Research's 2026 study of US adults found that searching for information is now the single most common reason people open an AI chatbot at all.
Most SME owners have noticed this shift exists. Very few have changed a single sentence on their website because of it. After over 30 years in brand and communications, from McDonald's media plans to nine businesses of my own, I can tell you the gap between noticing a shift and acting on it is exactly where the opportunity sits.
The obvious move, and the one most agencies will sell you first, is schema markup — the behind-the-scenes code that tells search engines what's on a page. It's worth having for other reasons, but as a lever for AI visibility specifically, the evidence doesn't support it. A 2026 Ahrefs study tracking close to 6,000 pages over eight months found that adding schema markup made no measurable difference to how often a page was cited in AI Overviews, Google's AI Mode, or ChatGPT — the differences were statistically indistinguishable from zero.
What actually gets an AI engine to quote you isn't the code behind your page. It's whether the words on it directly answer a real question, in one specific, speakable sentence. AI engines summarise what's genuinely useful to repeat — and polished, on-brand marketing copy is, ironically, one of the hardest things for a machine, or a human skimming in ten seconds, to lift and repeat.
"Kevin, you distilled business, marketing and sales strategy into powerful simple concepts and actions with real life stories of your start-up business and corporate life. You walk the talk with empathy and passion. Feedback has been off the charts. The energy in the room was palpable."
— Nikki, MahiTahi / The Colab
Here's the real obstacle: specific, plain-spoken answers feel unpolished to the person approving the copy. Owners are trained to want language that sounds impressive, not language a machine would find easy to repeat verbatim. The two instincts pull in opposite directions, and brand polish usually wins the argument in the room — which is exactly backwards for how buyers, human or AI, actually find you now.
This is where an outside, evidence-first view earns its keep: someone who'll tell you the schema markup your last agency sold you isn't the lever, and that the plainer, blunter version of your FAQ is the one that actually wins the next ten customers.
If you don't know what your website would say if an AI chatbot summarised it to a customer right now, that's worth finding out before you spend another dollar on ads.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME marketing describes the product and targets a demographic — and both miss why people actually buy. Here's the Jobs To Be Done framework, and how to find the job your business is really being hired to do.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Nearly half of businesses miss the target they set for themselves — and it's rarely because the team didn't try hard enough. Here's the three-number check that builds a 2027 target you can actually hit.
Monday, October 26, 2026
ActionCOACH, an EOS Implementer or an independent coach? A fair, source-linked guide for US owners, with a six-question test to match the help to your biggest constraint.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Gallup's 2026 global workplace data shows manager engagement is collapsing faster than everyone else's. Here's the research-backed 3-step fix for SME owners wearing the manager hat too.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only about a third of seasonal businesses hold enough cash to cover their leanest months before the slow season hits. Here's the ten-minute reserve check before this year's peak trade.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A well-known coaching ROI study found a $7.90 return per $1 spent. Here's an honest look at where that number comes from, and what actually transfers to an SME owner.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only around 20% of companies complete 80% of their strategic goals, and fewer than half of employees know what's expected of them. Here's how OKRs fix that at SME scale.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Bain research shows winning a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than keeping one you already have. Here's the CLV/CAC discipline that flips where your sales effort goes.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A 2026 Gartner survey found SMEs put just 12% of marketing spend into brand-building, against the 60% long-term research recommends. Here's what that costs you eighteen months from now.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Fewer than 5% of employees understand their company's strategy well enough to act on it. Here's the one-page scorecard that fixes it, reviewed in 15 minutes a week.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Help to Grow: Management, a peer group like Vistage, or a business coach? An honest UK comparison, with best for and not ideal if for every option.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Free and low-cost mentoring suits some NZ owners; paid coaching suits others. Here is how to tell which fits your stage, your problem and your budget.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Most SME owners know their follower count, not where their last ten paying customers actually came from. Here is the 2026 data on what really drives growth.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
ANZ's September 2026 survey shows NZ business confidence easing again. Here's the trap that data creates for SME owners, and how growth-minded owners should read it instead.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
More people call themselves a business coach than ever before. Here's the one test that actually separates a coach who gets results from one who just talks.