Marcus's Recent LinkedIn Posts

"Google search won't be affected by AI search" will go down as the most ridiculous marketing prediction of all time. And the amount of smart SEOs that said it over the past 4 years is stunning. Just shows you how biased ANYONE can be when they feel their identity is on the line. Over the last year, I've asked every single audience I've spoken to (60 + events, many thousands of people) the following question: "How many of you use AI (like ChatGPT) over Legacy Google as your preferred means of searching online?" When I started the poll about a year ago, the average was about 35% of the audience. Since that time, I've watched the numbers climb and climb. Today, the average is about 65-70% of all audiences prefer AI-search. In another 6 months, we'll likely be at 85% or more. But don't you worry. Google won't be affected by any of this. Not at all. Unless, of course, your buyers are people. 😁

Every era of digital marketing has one dominant challenge. For 25 years, it was: How do I get Google to rank me? Starting now, it's: How do I get AI to recommend me? By 2028, it'll be: How do I get an AI agent to trust my business enough to transact on my behalf? This is exactly why I feel urgency about helping businesses wake up to what's happening around them. Most companies (and their agencies ) are still solving for Google. And Google still matters. But its impact lessens by the day. Some companies, the smart ones, are solving for AEO. They're few and far between right now, which means the window for a real advantage is wide open. And then there's the extreme minority - the visionaries already thinking about agents. Not as a buzzword, but as an obvious inevitability. So I'd ask, which one are you? Where's your leadership team on this? It's time to start looking ahead my friends. It's all happening faster than we realize.

The easiest way to make people angry right now is to tell them where AI is actually headed. Not because you’re wrong. But because you might be right. My friend Daniel Priestley was recently on The Diary Of A CEO and gave an honest assessment of what AI could mean for jobs, business, and the economy. The response? A flood of people in the comments wanting to tear him down. (he wrote a post about this here on LinkedIn) Why the hate? Because when a message threatens someone’s identity, livelihood, or view of the future, many won’t wrestle with the message. Instead, they’ll attack the messenger. I see this too. Just last week, I spoke candidly to a room full of CEOs about how AI agents and agentic search will fundamentally change sales models in the years ahead. You could feel the tension it in the room, some directed at the future...but some directed at me. (All good, I'm here for it.) But here's the part I feel so many don't quite understand: Most serious people talking boldly about AI’s future are not doing it because they’re trying to sell you something. They’re doing it because they *believe* it. They see something coming and feel being quiet would be dishonest. When Matt Shumer wrote his viral piece “Something Big is Happening,” plenty accused him of hype. I had the opposite reaction. I thought, "Finally, now that's a well articulated reality check where we are and where this is going. Well done sir." Yes, there are grifters out there. Of course there are. But not everyone sounding the alarm or making simple predictions is a grifter. Some are just willing to tell the truth before it becomes comfortable. And that’s what makes people angry. The future is moving fast. Faster than most leaders want to admit. And if every person who speaks honestly about that future gets mocked, dismissed, or attacked, eventually many of those honest voices will go quiet. That’s not wisdom in my opinion. It's more of a cultural self-sabotage, and I've got no interest in going down that road. We do not need more sugarcoating right now. What we need is more honest, grounded, uncomfortable conversations. Only then will we give ourselves the best shot at preparing for what's truly coming next...whatever that might be. What say you?

For 25 years, you've been optimizing your website for *human* visitors. People who browse. People who click. People who scroll. That era is ending. What's coming next is something most businesses aren't remotely ready for. In fact, I’m likely writing this post about 6 months too early, but this is really going to matter to your business, so please lean in. Here’s what your future looks like: Instead of a person visiting your website to research a purchase, they'll send their AI agent to do it for them. "Find me the best option for X. Compare pricing. Check reviews. Tell me who I should talk to, and who I shouldn't. Come back with estimates and recommendations." Do you see the difference? The "visitor" won't be a human. It'll be a “digital representative” acting on behalf of the buyer. In fact, when it comes to website “Traffic Sources” in the future, you’ll have your “human” visitors and you “non-human” visitors. We may call them “Digital Representatives”, we may call them “Agents”, but I can assure you of this: entire websites, KPIs, and tools will be built around measuring and optimizing for agent interaction on YOUR website. As you might imagine, this changes everything about what it means to succeed online. For the last 20ish years, here’s how it looked: 👉 Clean design 👉 Smart headlines 👉 Emotional storytelling and helpful content 👉 Getting someone to "stay on the page" Here's what will matter: 👉 Clear, honest, structured information 👉 Transparent pricing information 👉 Direct answers to hard questions 👉 Content that a machine can read, evaluate, trust, and take action on. This is why the AI agent won't be impressed by your hero image. It won't be swayed by your brand colors. It won’t care about the color of that latest CTA you added to your navigation bar. It will ask one thing: Does this business answer the buyer's questions better than the alternatives while allowing me to take the actions I need to take? I know, it sounds intimidating. It should. Because there will be an entirely new arena of website design/build/UX that will come from AI agent interaction online. Folks, and this isn’t me exaggerating,  this is the biggest shift in digital strategy since Google entered our lives all those years ago. And, if I’m being honest, businesses, and certainly their agencies, aren’t at all ready for it. This will create a wild west for the web in the months/years ahead. So what should you do? Well, start by asking yourself one question: If an AI agent visited your website today, on behalf of a buyer who's ready to spend money, could it actually get what it needs? Could it find clear pricing? Could it compare you to the competition? Could it take the next step without needing a human to pick up the phone? If the answer is no, you now know exactly where to start. Because this is coming faster than anyone realizes. And its impact will be bigger than almost anyone currently believes. Thoughts? 👇

As the son of a home builder in the 1980s, I remember often being on a job site and seeing home insulation wrapped up in large round packages with the "Pink Panther" smiling back at me from the label. I didn't know what "branding" even meant back in those days, but I always thought any company that was willing to put the Pink Panther on their stuff had to be pretty cool...which is why it gave me such an absolute thrill to speak at the Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor event in San Antonio yesterday to 400 of their top partners. Looking back, who would have thought that little chubby kid running around those job sites, smiling at that Pink Panther packaging, would be the guy they'd bring in 40 years later to speak at one of their biggest company events?? Life has a funny way of coming back full circle, doesn't it? 🙂

I continue to see major differences between AEO and traditional SEO. Here's a perfect example of something that just happened: One of my companies launched a hyper-targeted "Best of" post for our niche. Within 48 HOURS, a large franchise found us through a ChatGPT search and filled out a contact form. Had they searched Google instead we never would have been found. But in this case, we were, and it was a massive win. This is the AEO vs. SEO difference most business owners and marketers have yet to understand. Google still rewards domain authority - something that generally takes months (or years) to build. LLMs don't care how long your site has been around. They care about depth, specificity, and clarity of the answer. If your content directly and thoroughly answers the question someone is asking (I hear there's a book about this 😉 ), you can show up in AI search TOMORROW...even if Google doesn't know you exist yet. So once again I'll beat the drum: Are you still only optimizing for an algorithm that's losing market share... or are you also creating for the one that's gaining it?

Just got off the phone with a CMO who told me a story that genuinely made me slap my forehead. She and her husband had scheduled an appointment with a door salesperson. Husband runs 15 minutes late. My friend tells the rep, "It's fine, let's get started." The rep refuses. Why? Because (and I quote ) "the man of the house isn't here." (In 2026. This actually happened.) She didn't buy. Went with another company. (Shocker, I know.) Here's the thing though...I don't entirely blame the rep. Yes, his "man of the house" comment was utterly stupid and ignorant. But what I really blame is his training. Somewhere along the way, someone beat into him: Never run a "one-legger." Both decision-makers must be present. And he followed that rule to the letter, completely blind to the spirit of it. The spirit of the law was "don't waste anyone's time." The letter was "don't start without everyone in the room." He chose the letter. And lost the sale. But here's the saddest part: I'd bet money that when his manager asked how it went, he said something like: "Yeah, the husband showed up late. They clearly weren't that serious." He cost himself the sale...and he'll never know why.

Today I'm pleased to announce that I've produced the most extensive book ever written about the past, present, and future of online pricing for the home services & home improvement industries. If you know me at all, you know I've been speaking on this subject for years, and I felt it was time to create a book specifically for for the millions of contractors around the world that are watching their industry change before their eyes, knowing a massive change is being forced upon them (pricing transparency), while feeling very unprepared and uninformed as to what to do next. Well, finally there's a book that solves this problem, and lays a vision that will frankly *shock* many contractors about what they need to prepare for. For example, here's a small snippet from the "The Future of Pricing in Home Services..." chapter of the book: 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘈𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘧. “𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢. 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘵.” 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 (𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴), 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴...𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 “𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤” 𝘈𝘐. 𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮. 𝘐𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥. At the end of the book, you'll find a 90-day plan that lays out exactly what to do next, and how to do it. Oh, and it's FREE. My gift to my blue collar friends, because I want them to win, and times are-a-changing. I hope you enjoy the book, and even if you're not in home services/home improvement, please know these changes are VERY likely to come for your industry as well, it's just a matter of time. All this to say, the death of "Call For Quote" is at the doorstep. And there's a very different future of pricing transparency ahead. I do hope you enjoy the book. 🙂 -Marcus (link to FREE copy is in comments section)

2023: 1 ChatGPT tab open on my desktop Early 2024: 2-3 ChatGPT tabs open Late 2024: 3-4 ChatGPT tabs + 1 Claude tab occasionally Early 2025: 2-3 ChatGPT tabs + 2 Claude tabs Late 2025: 1-2 ChatGPT tabs + 2-3 Claude tabs Early 2026: 1 ChatGPT tab + 6 Claude tabs Do you see it? ChatGPT made the world aware of AI. That matters. But Claude became the tool I actually think 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩. The one I build 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩. The one I trust to push back on me instead of just telling me what I want to hear. And although this list will likely look different again in 6 months, I can say that no single tool has ever affected my productivity, my work, and my life as much as Claude. Not even close. How about you?

I used to get lonely on the road. If you travel a lot for work, you know the feeling. Another hotel. Another city. Another dinner by yourself staring mindlessly at your phone. But a few years ago I made one simple change: I started packing my disc golf gear, and it quietly became the best travel hack I've ever found. For example, yesterday I played one of the most beautiful courses in the country - right here in Napa, walking along a mountainside for two hours with a silly grin on my face, smiling like kid in a candy shop as I'd walk up on each new hole and think, "Good grief this place is beautiful." Here's why I'm telling you this: So many of us grind through travel like it's something to survive. We white-knuckle it from keynote to airport to hotel and wonder why we're burned out. That's what I did for years. But I've found that one simple rule changes everything: Wherever you go, find the thing that fills you back up, and protect that time like it's a client meeting. For me it's disc golf. For you it might be a morning jog to a new landmark, a local coffee shop that you've never been in, or just 30 minutes outside with no agenda at all. But this much I know: The road doesn't have to drain you. In fact, it can fill you. Just be intentional, and the positive impact will follow. 🙂 PS: Last year someone sent me an unmarked box in the mail with "Endless Customers" imprinted on a bunch of disc golf discs. Whoever that was, thank you, as you can see they're getting used! 😀