Advertise on podcast: The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Podcast

LinkedIn has been quietly turning into a video platform, and a lot of small businesses haven't noticed yet. That's an opening. This week I talked with LinkedIn strategist Louise Brogan, author of Raise Your Visibility on LinkedIn, about how to use LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Events, and prerecorded video to get in front of the right people. We get into how to get your network to show up live, when a company page beats a personal profile, why your captions belong at the top of vertical video, and the easiest first video you can record this week. If you've been meaning to "do something with video" on LinkedIn, this one gives you a place to start. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/642 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 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

Most of us obsess over growing our email list, then greet new subscribers with... nothing. Maybe a generic "thanks for signing up" if they're lucky. Allea Grummert, email marketing strategist and owner of Duett, says that first stretch after someone joins your list is where relationships (and revenue) are won or lost. In this episode, she breaks down how to build a welcome sequence that answers your subscribers' biggest questions, shows off your best content, and quietly identifies your hottest leads, all on autopilot. If your welcome email still says "welcome to the community," this one's for you. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/630 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact

If you have ever opened your Google Analytics, felt your eyes glaze over, and quietly closed the tab, this episode is for you. I sat down with Kyle Akerman, a digital measurement consultant in Nashville who helps small B2B marketing teams turn data into decisions without the overwhelm. We get into why your analytics should work like a feedback loop, why three good questions beat thirty random metrics, and how 25 minutes on a Friday (beer and tacos optional) can tell you more about your marketing than a year-end report ever will. If measurement has always felt like the punishment for loving the creative side of marketing, Kyle has a simpler, saner way in. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/629 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 been using ChatGPT or Gemini and quietly wondering whether you can trust everything it tells you, there's a Google tool built to solve exactly that problem. NotebookLM only works from the documents you give it, which means it's grounded in your own content instead of guessing at the entire internet. This week I'm joined by Lisa Monks, an Australian social media strategist and AI educator, who has spent the last few years figuring out how to put that grounded approach to work for real businesses. We talk about everything from repurposing podcasts and building staff training quizzes to creating fully branded slide decks, and by the end of this episode you'll have a clear list of ways to put NotebookLM to work in your own business this week. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/628 Need help with your branding, website, or digital marketing? Reach out to me (Rich Brooks!) today at https://www.takeflyte.com/contact