Will AI Recommend You or Replace You? AI SEO Evolution for Expert Visibility

A quick note before we jump in, if you're a consultant, coach, or operator who relies on referrals, content, or reputation to get business, AI is changing how people find and trust experts. Today's conversation is about staying visible and credible in that new world. Welcome back to the AI Agency Journey podcast. I'm your host, Antonio Rothenbeck.

Today we have a special guest, Andra, Andy Simon, a corporate anthropologist who has spent more than two decades helping organizations get unstuck and adapt through major shifts. Andy is the CEO of Simon Associates Management Consultant, an award-winning author, and the host of the podcast On the Brink with Andy Simon, where she's recorded hundreds of episodes exploring what it really takes to navigate change. change. She's lived through multiple waves of transformation, banking modernization, healthcare change, leadership development.

She brings a lens to what's happening now with AI, not just with the tools, but the human behavior behind adoption, resistance, and trust. So in this episode, we're going to focus on something that matters immediately for consultants and thought leaders, and it's how AI is changing search. It's no longer just ranking on Google. It's getting increasingly about how AI can help summarize, recommend, answer questions, and sometimes automatically decide who the preferred expert is before you even start looking at different prospects.

So we're going to talk about what Andy's seeing in this field, how she and her clients are adapting, and those practical moves that can make you stay discoverable and credible as this shift gets faster. Andy, I'm really excited to have you here. Welcome. Hey, thank you, Antonio.

It's a pleasure to be here. What a great topic for today. Absolutely. Such a pleasure to have you with us.

So we'll start with a little bit about your background. Tell us a little more about you and your career and what you're doing now with the consulting practice, if you will. Well, that was a very lovely introduction. Sometimes I wonder who are they talking about, but I've had a wonderful career.

I'm a trained anthropologist. I have a doctorate. I did my research on immigration from the Mediterranean to New York, the United States, and I was really interested in how people adapted and changed. And then I went back to Greece to do postdoctoral work with my daughters to study Greek women.

And little did I know that I was sort of crafting out my own interest and career around my curiosity about how people change. By chance, I was at a cocktail party. My husband was at Citibank, and he was going into banking at a time that deregulation was changing the entire industry. And they said, why don't you come and help consult for us?

And I said, oh, I can do that. So I took a year's leave of absence from the university. Now I had gotten tenure, but I was really into change and I don't know how I was going to do the same thing forever. And so I got into banking at a time where people were trying to figure out, oh, I used to work from nine to 12 and one to three.

And if I didn't steal, I had a job. And the city bankers wanted to know, how can we get them to sell in service, not just attend. Now those are really important words because behavior comes from the words we're using and people saw it in a particular way. So I spent 14 years helping banks change as an EVP of one bank and SVP of a savings bank.

And then I got into healthcare during managed care. And I share this with your listeners because that was by chance. They said, can you come help Montefiore, you know, begin to break into a new market called managed care? And then the doctors would scream at you.

So it was an interesting time. And then after 9-11, I launched my business. That's 23 years ago. And my public relations firm said, Andy, you're a corporate anthropologist that helps companies change.

And I went, ditto, that is perfect. That's my elevator speech. And I really haven't changed my speech, but I had certainly evolved as a consultant and a practitioner applying anthropology to corporations of all sizes, billion-dollar companies and and $10 million companies, helping them literally see what's often right in front of them. My first book on the brink was about eight of our clients who've gotten stuck or stalled because I couldn't see what was right in front of them.

And each of the books I write is a way of getting people to appreciate how a little anthropology can help them and their business grow. And so the application of it to today is extraordinarily relevant. People say, I thought you studied small scale societies. My response is what makes you think a business isn't a small scale society?

The rituals, the habits, the beliefs are all strong and held very dearly. At a time when things are changing, we don't know what to do. And I was talking to a wonderful woman this morning who said she's working with CEOs who are stuck or stalled. I said, oh, I know the feeling so well because they know they have to bring AI into the business, but they're not quite sure how.

And every twist and turn seems to be overwhelming. And I said it is because humans hate the unknown. It's dangerous. And the brain hates to change.

It fights it. It fears it. It flees it. It creates cortisol.

It makes you feel pain from it. And but the times they are changing. So I don't care which part of the fourth industrial revolution you're tackling right now. You're going to have to begin to get you and your team and your customers because they're always moving faster than you are sometimes.

And unless you're ahead of them a little bit, you're going to be well behind and left them behind. And so it's an interesting from my perspective as an anthropologist, we have evolved 100 million years. we have grown into who we are now. And the next stage is going to be a different one, but a very exciting one.

But I will tell you, I wrote my dissertation on punch cards. Nobody knows what they are. And I must remember having a VHS. Nobody has that anymore.

So think about our own lives. Changes have happened and we've all survived it and we've thrived, but you need to be clever and agile and agility is key now. So that's who I am. And for your listeners, I'm delighted to be here to begin to share with them some of our conversation about the challenges that are really opportunities and not problems, but really good opportunities for us to be clever and creative.

What do you think? I love that, Andy. And, you know, share that passion for for change and being open to change. My whole career has been about always looking to improve and building that muscle inside of organizations.

And now with AI, it's all about change. And we have challenges out there. So the more we can discuss these topics and gain the expertise of others, it's going to help companies get through that change and take advantage of those opportunities that come with it. So I'm really happy to have you with us.

Our audience can already tell how great of a storyteller we have. So I'm looking forward to some of the stories that you have to share with us and the topics that we'll uncover. You touched on AI a little bit. Tell me more about how you are using personally AI within your business and, you know, servicing your clients.

You know, forever, I had a copywriter, a copy editor, freelancers who supported me doing all kinds of things, writing brochures and writing copy and doing blogs and supporting all the content marketing for search engine optimization and making sure we had the right keywords. And in a sense, Google had created a platform. If you want to be found, you had to have all the right tools for its algorithm to find you. And then one day they called us and said, I've had enough.

I'm not going to do this anymore. And we said, good, because I had just been introduced to the wonderful people. They called you. They called us.

We didn't say goodbye, but they wanted to go off and do something else. and I would not have fired them, but I was delighted not to hire them anymore. And I wish them well. And off we went because we didn't really know what this new world of chat or co-pilot or Claude would provide.

But remember, we are explorers. If you look at my archetype, I'm an explorer and a philosopher. My husband is a serial entrepreneur. The two of us are perfectly happy exploring things.

Some work, some don't. But what was this and how could it help us? So I had a client prospect and they wanted a very quick proposal for me to come out and do ethnographic research on a senior living community. So I went to my chat and I said, okay, this is what I need to have.

A good proposal for a CEO of a senior living community who wants to understand what quality means among their residents. I'm an ethnographer. They want an anthropologist to come really study it. What do you suggest?

And I must tell you, in literally no time at all, it came back with an extraordinarily good proposal. And I went, boy, that's even better than I can think about it. But rather than be afraid of it, how do I then expand it? So each part of it, I began to say, well, now I need more here.

And can you really, it was better than talking to my copywriter because it really knew exactly what I was looking for as long as I guided it. It was a collaboration. And that was so interesting because I had it done in no time at all. And then I had a client in no time at all.

And I went, man, this is really cool. And then all the research that I was doing I had to push into a thematic analysis and out of it came the themes that were coming Now I must tell you in my earlier life there were ways to do this They would take longer and they would be onerous And I not quite sure they were better, but they were different. And certainly I've been in business long enough to know that I can pitch a client and pick them up and sometimes not. But often, you know, I knew how to frame it in a way that was appealing to their way of thinking about it.

But now I had a buddy. So I asked Chad, what do I call you? Are you my teammate? Are you my friend?

And he came back and said, I'd love to be your teammate. I said, good, you're my teammate. And somebody said to me, you call it a he. And I said, yeah, I have.

It's a he. Now I can't tell you why, except I can yell at it more easily than if it was a she. But for the moment, he's my teammate. And we have been working together as a collaboration and alliance around all kinds of interesting things.

But I asked him for my client and myself, I said, how do we make sure in this new world that we come up high on the finder list? I don't even know what you call it, for search. And he gave me a whole list of things to do. And I went, wow.

So now I have a how-to list. For AI searches. Exactly. If people are going to be not Googling, but asking chat or Claude or GoPilot, who is, or where do I, how do you make sure that it has found you in this world of an abundance of information data?

Now, I remember in Anthropology 101, I was taught that data out of context do not exist. And I was fascinated because what he was telling me, and I will say it's a he, was how to get my data in the context of the kinds of questions and questions and issues and interests that people would have. So an interesting story. So I finished my fourth book and I had, I found a publisher and she said how interesting.

I went onto my chat and I asked what is corporate anthropology and who were the right corporate anthropologists? And first it gave them all kinds of wonderful information and then referred to me as somebody you should go read more about. And I said, this is so interesting. Now she didn't go to Google.

She went to, and now we have to see these as complimentary, perhaps. But one of the things I noticed on Google and I've been reading about is if you find something on Google, gone and surf, the tendency is not to go and click through to the website. And what people are finding is that the search engines need to answer the question rather than push you to find the information yourself on a website and answer it yourself. Now, that's a kernel of cultural transformation.

But that's what AI is doing. It's not giving. So I said to him, whenever you give me stuff, I want to know the reference. And then I'm going to check the reference.

I don't want you giving me stuff that isn't accurate. And times it doesn't. You know, I was asked that I want women entrepreneurs who are creating companies of purpose. And he gave me a bunch of men.

I said, no, you got it wrong. But you have to be responsible yourself and don't any more than you have to be responsible on Google. You know, out of context, it has no... In his defense, there's some names that could be either men or women.

Exactly. And he was, remember, he wasn't upset. Yeah. So sorry, let me go look again and came back with good ones.

But I didn't have any of that emotion that my prior researchers might have come back with. Nobody was angry at me. And I wasn't angry at anyone. And I just need to be more clear and be certain that what I was getting was really cool.

So I used him, and I say this quite generously, to help me scope out my fourth book. Now, did he write it? No. But did he help?

Yes. And did Copilot also? I found Copilot did a better job taking interviews and summarizing them than Chat did. And I'm not going to be angry with Chat because it summarized it but shrunk it down so it lost all of its personality.

and co-pilot kept the personality in the context. Now, if I could take all, you know, an hour's worth of interview and try and pull it out, or they could, which was more efficient? Them doing it. And then I could check it, could go back, and then I sent it out to the person I interviewed to make sure it was accurate.

So I had a lot of collaboration going on as I was pulling my book together. Now, we run a website for one of our clients and with social media, our web guy said, we have to change the content on there because AI is now going to be driving people. This is a plastic surgeon and it needs frequently asked questions. It needs ways of finding the information more accurately for a location.

Location is extremely important. People are going to look for a plastic surgeon in Westchester or a particular ethnicity that's looking for a particular kind of surgery or a lot of post-weight loss surgery or what? And so in a sense, we go to AI and we say, okay, what are the topics that are hot for people looking for X, Y, Z? And then how do we make sure that his website is a bundle of solutions that AI and chat, pardon me, and Google can find?

But what we're looking for is AI is going to be the driver more so in our world. Please go ahead. So let me understand that better. So you use the did you use the the guides that ChatGPT gave you for your own business first to rank higher?

Right. And then you use that for your client, for them to rank higher on an AI search. Is that what you did? That's what we did.

Excellent. Excellent. And what were the results then? Well, for me, we're getting nice traffic, but and for them, they're getting nice traffic also.

and we can watch the traffic and we can watch it off, you know, Google Analytics. The interesting part is we can see for him how search has gone down since the end of the pandemic. And yet his business continues to rise, which means that of those who are searching, we're making the right match. And then the other thing is that we can go test it.

And it's easy enough, just ask the questions that you think people are asking for and see what comes up. If it's not coming up, then you haven't prepared the answers properly for the kinds of questions. It is not hard and it doesn't take a lot of time and it's not expensive, but you can own it in a way that is understandable. I'm actually not interested in an algorithm finding it.

I'm interested in my buddy, an AI finding it. And it humanizes it in a very unusual fashion. From an anthropological point of view, I'm imposing on it a humanness. True or not?

I don't know, but it's comforting. and I relate to it in a way as if it were. And I share that with you because who I am, you know, I don't want to be dealing with a bot and I don't need to. It's all in my own mind, how I refer to it and relate to it.

You're smiling. No, because I was gonna ask you if you gave him a name because I've spoken to other consultants and everybody's got a different name for his chatty buddy. Chatty Chad. No, actually, I just called my teammate.

That's interesting. I haven't thought of naming him, but I always say please and thank you and compliment him on a good job. So, yeah, I have to confess, Andy, I'm not an AI SEO expert, and I'm sure the audience, some of them have tried those type of things. And I can go and ask my buddy, how can I rank higher in AI SEO?

But I'm curious before I do that to ask you, what did you do differently compared to just normally what we do with ranking on Google? And what were those critical things that you were able to do so that you would rank higher? Well, you know, and you can go and do the same question and see what they recommend. Quite frankly, this is so data driven.

And the question is, how do you put the data in context in the kind of blogs? I'm a podcaster, but I put all my podcasts into blogs with lots of long tail keywords. I ask them, what are the right keywords to use for certain things so that it'll be found? That's not changing.

Frequently asked questions is interesting because they're putting it on our website so that it's easy for them to find answers to those frequently asked questions. Anticipate it as if you are searching for a question about, you know, okay, what is a corporate anthropologist? A corporate anthropology expert. How do you do corporate anthropology?

Or I'm a blue ocean strategist. You know, one of the 10 big frequently asked questions about blue ocean where I want to score highly. Now, I've owned it on search for Google for a long time. You know, corporate anthropology, New York, you know, research is a corporate anthropologist, business anthropology, content is key.

But it's not that, remember, its data. And if you don't put the good data in and frequently comment on it, one of the things I asked my teammate is, okay, how do I do this through LinkedIn? And so it gave me a whole series of posts put out for my new book so I can build. And then it gave me all the comments I should put on after a day after, and then the links I should put on after that.

And it gave me a whole plan so that A, I build LinkedIn, but also I build AI. I mean, it's all sort of connected. Yeah. Don think of them as either ors Think of them as a world of you and you coming alive You know people say how do they find you I say well often when I a speaker I do a lot of speaking then they identify something that I said with what they need But how can you do that without speaking all the time?

Well, this is all the content, the video, all the stuff that you've used before, but it has to be the right stuff for what you want to be found for. Post it in the right places with the right answers to the right questions and don't underestimate the more done well. And of course, there's lots of questions about how much content there is. AI don't, hasn't it tired, but it is searching.

It is. It is. It is. And it's good.

Excellent. And it tells you the sources too, right? Yeah. Very cool.

What I'm curious about is on those, you mentioned that you asked, I'm guessing Chagipiti in this case, for those key things that you can do, but you gave him your context of what your goals were, right? Right. Okay. So that's the key thing is to personalize that for yourself.

Well, let's finish, follow that up. Everything that you're doing, if you just do it in the abstract, you'll get abstract back. So don't think of this as a blanket slate, a white page with nothing on it. You're already there, right?

In some form or fashion, you've already got data there abundantly. So now the question is for you in this next stage of your own business or personal life, you know, how do you develop an identity within that data? And I do think that you're creating your virtual identity because when I'm working with my pet, it already knows the book that I got, how I want to sound. Do you want to write it like this or like a CEO might listen to it?

No, I think you can put it in my voice or that. You're already creating a virtual identity. You can run away from it, but I'm not sure why. I mean, it is reality now.

There is no reality. So you might as well enjoy this mysterious new world. It's not different than a video game. That's right.

And it has great memory. It has improved so much than before. I think some people are still a little bit not convinced that it works because they have tried it before. But it's gotten so much better now.

and there's some tricks that they don't know about where you can help it structure so they remember key details about things that you wanted to remember by yourself so i've done that myself too you can privatize this stuff or you can publicize you can open it those are choices and and trust is difficult even among humans but this is a time where you're going to have to decide those elements about how much trust do i have how much do i want to be private how much can i offer it.

And just be careful yourself that you're not providing private information or financial information or things that could be abused because it would have no problem abusing it without any guilt. I mean, it just doesn't know. I really appreciate those insights. What I was going to ask you about was you mentioned that, you know, people can kind of find what those critical things are they can do to search.

But what's one quick win that anybody can do right away to either start ranking or rank higher using AI? Do we call it AI SEO now? I don't really know. I've heard that.

Yeah. But, you know, whatever you call it. Yeah. Let's assume that you just simply want any of the door openers, flawed or perplexity or co-pilot to know you in some way.

So first thing I would do is go see what it knows. You know, write me a bio. Yeah. Antonio.

And see what it pulls through and see how accurate it is. Pull up the second thing. I want to provide for a client a good understanding of the way I work. See what it comes back with.

Begin to test it for honesty and accuracy because it will present you as it sees you. And if it doesn't see you well, it's time then to begin to tell it. That's really not an accurate portrayal of me. And you can say that.

this is really who I am and what I prefer to do. You've got that close, but not. So begin to manage that reality. Now you ask, what's the first thing?

I'm not sure that's necessarily the first, but it's not a bad door opener any more than it would be if you had a new job and you wanted to begin to introduce yourself to people. Let me tell you about myself. Now, remember, you could say, let me tell you about myself and write it out and put it in, put it on a blog. I'm beginning to say, let me tell you about my experiences with and begin to populate the data that you would like to have reflecting who you are.

And it's interesting. I want to throw out one other client situation. I had a great client from Blue Ocean and they had a problem communicating. And I love their solution because another email was not a solution.

And what they created was a proprietary database of really rich material and an agent that gave exclusivity to their members for access to the information and for training and development and for insights into only they. So now they had a paid membership with access to an agent to data that they control that wasn't open to the masses. But it's all through the same tools. And that's, I said, wow, because we were working with them on how to improve that communication.

Their folks wanted to just send have better newsletters. And they said, no, that's not going to work. And instead they created a whole new way of interacting. And I went, yes.

And he said, yes. And their IT people went, this isn't hard. And I laughed and they said, agents with restricted access can give you wonderful opportunity. And an attorney not long ago said to me, you knew all that paper comes in.

Let me tell you, my junior folks are supposed to do the analysis. My AI can do it much faster. So what does that mean for people? They're going to have to develop new skills and that's not terrible, but it is different.

Yeah. And that's the reality that we live in and the opportunities that will come and also the challenge for people who can adapt, right? Oh, yes. Some great insights there on that, on AI SEO search.

What I'm interested to learn more about this, and I thought that was a great insight there on, you know, researching yourself, right? To see what it already knows about you and you probably need to do this on not your own account but a private or separate public or different account so that it doesn't know your chat history and it's going to pull up stuff from you from what you've discussed with uh with whatever llm you're using and i love that one uh so the other thing i'm thinking about is there's so much content out there right so for someone who is already has blog articles or videos on youtube all this information they've already put and they've been using it for Google SEO, right?

What's one thing that they need to do? And maybe just, is there something technical they need to activate for that to be discoverable for AI SEO or? Already out in the data? Don't you recommend that kind of person?

If that stuff is already out in the data world, then they're already being, what you could do is go search and see if they can find it. And if it has the right words in it and it has the right answers to the questions that people are going to be looking for or asking. But, you know, now it's time to own that material in a different fashion. Think about it backwards from the Claude or Co-Pilot.

What are they looking for? Because they really want to do it well. Let's assume that they're well-meaning, not ill-meaning, and they would love to find an answer to a question someone's asking. Have you done a good job of providing the right information done in the right way for your stuff?

Now, your history, leave it. But now, take a look at it and resurrect it. You may not need to start all over again. You are who you are.

Now, the question is, can you really capitalize on it at this new time? The folks who I worry about, we were out for lunch with some friends, and they were concerned that their son and daughter would be out of work. I said, no, they're not out of work. They have to reinvent themselves.

It's no different than we're buying things online and retail has challenged. You know, it's changed. And so don't feel threatened. Feel like all this content I have has given me a good foundation.

Now, where am I going with it? And what comes next? And what's happening? I keep asking AI, what's happening that I should pay attention to?

Yeah, excellent. Excellent insights there. So I want to talk more about the content part of it, because a lot of people have been used to writing content and everybody's writing more content. And it's become easier to have AI help you with an outline and you have more content out there.

So people are getting inundated, right? And it's going to continue like that. I don't know if you probably agree with me on that. is not going to be that consultants or other thought leaders are going to be putting out less content, but the ones that are going to be exposed the most with their content are going to be the ones that are going to be more successful, right?

I heard you saying about content repurposing and how you've used JGBT to make posts from different books or articles. Can you share more about that, how you're currently using repurposing and how that would be important for other consultants? Well just for example I have 480 podcasts and they all have content there And now the question becomes how do I optimize visits to the podcast blogs or to wherever How do I use it? And it isn't that different in terms of seeing the storyline that you've created and what does it do and how does it lead you somewhere?

We've been doing content for years now. And the thing that is so interesting is sometimes I rank highly for articles that I published a while ago and not even a third person population populations in my own blog or on LinkedIn. So it has the ability to find your stuff. Now the question becomes, you're there already.

How do you now multiply that, leverage it and continue to be the voice of whatever it is? You want to be the voice of AI and agency. You know, you've put content in. Now the question is, how do I become the authority on it?

How do I get the credentials? Now, does that mean you need to be in the Harvard Business Review? Well, it would be nice to be credentialed like that. But I also find that the press doesn't necessarily credential you that way anymore.

And I also don't think content is one of the things that we'd like to do with our content is humanize it. You know, there are some AI services out there that I put our blogs and other things into to humanize it, to put it into our voice. And then I put it through Grammarly to make sure it's grammatically correct. Are they all AI?

Yeah, they are all A tools, but the voice ought to be my own. And if I'm pulling back and reciting other things, make sure it all makes sense. Now I'll have four books out. I love to share chapters in the books.

I love to do pullouts from the books. And I think the books give you credibility that is important. Do you have to write a book? Not necessarily.

But I'm coaching a couple of people who are trying to and trying to urge them, get them out. You know, I took my four years for my first book, two years for my second book, a year for my third book and nine months for my fourth one. And you, because if not, it's old news. It's obsolete before it becomes useful.

And so the question is, how do you get that kind of credentials out there? And then how do you take it apart and use it for all kinds of purposes and repurpose it? So it is, and content is an extension of who you are. So think about it that way.

You know, who am I? What am I doing? How am I doing this? Right.

Excellent. Tell me more about the process you're using for repurposing your books, for example. That's probably the one that you're using the most. Are you using AI to do that?

Is there still like manual steps in between for that? Yep. There's manual there, but you can also put it in and say, can you give me a summary of this? I'd like to post it with a link to.

And you can always create that summary that gives you a link into a link to. And you don't, the chapters are still part of the book. I still like to sell the books. And yet there's a lot of how to's and what to do's and good stories to share.

And I'm a storyteller. You said that at the beginning. And I do think we live the stories in our mind. And the books are ways of sharing the story and optimizing the content so others can enjoy them and learn from them.

And so there's a lot there to play with. But that's cool stuff. Very cool. Very cool stuff.

And do you want to do more of that repurposing? Is that something you're trying to do? I think so. I wish I had more hours in every day that AI can't give me.

It can give me more speed and ease. But at the end of the day, so the new book, Rethink Retirement, is a really cool book. And so I'm already beginning to book workshops, virtual and in-person speaking engagements, and ways to take it apart and put it together for people before they retire, during, and along the journey. I'd like to retire the word retirement because people get into a stage where they have no plan and doing nothing.

Maybe for some it's okay, but for most it's boring and by waste. Particularly if you have your health and enough wealth, go for it. So anyway, that book will be repurposed a great deal. Each of the books have great.

The third book, Women Mean Business, we did, we sold 10,000 copies, many of which were on speaking engagements in corporations. And I don't know, I enjoy sharing. It's part of the share. Right.

That's right. Very nice. Very nice. And I'm really familiar with some, there's some people I've seen, you know, repurpose contents and content in an automated way.

Probably not the subject here, but it's interesting how it's going. Like there's more people putting it out there, putting content, but you can even automate the content using AI in there to give you more hours. Cause not like you said, you don't want to spend more hours doing that manually. You're trying to focus on the next thing, but you still want to keep that content repurposing going and it could be interesting.

for you and for other people. I'm sorry. Google's come out with new visual images now competing with chats, which doesn't have good image making yet. And I have a hunch there's going to be some interesting challenges about those images.

Oh, yeah, yeah. But those are already happening too. You could get chapters from your book or little stories and create an image for it automatically. You can create a workflow and videos now are going to come out.

They're already there. You can actually create videos. It's going to be really cool what you can do with that. And it's already.

Those are really good videos. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So. We have this huge new world of technology that's going to help make our stories come alive. That's right. In all kinds of ways.

And facts are all going to blend together. That's right. Yeah. Because people who like to read, people don't like to read.

right? It's different media for different people. So it's going to allow us to get your message out to the way people like to consume their information. Awesome.

Some great advice there. Can you tell us more about your, you already mentioned what you're going to be working on the future with your book. What's next for you in terms of your consulting practice? What are the things you see as this year that's a focus for you?

Well, you know, we've been working with a client for eight years now on their leadership academy. They give me a dozen or so of their emerging leaders every year to turn into really good leaders. This is in healthcare, and it's going through an enormous transformation with the new systems that are coming out that will summarize the patient before you even get to see them and tell you all about them based upon their chart. It's some real interesting pieces.

Now, how do you help people learn how to use this intelligently? And how do I build it into a leadership program as a core part of the transformation that's going on? So it is, you know, I'm thinking through all the ways. I work with a not-for-profit that handles about 600 autistic kids.

And I have a friend who's got wonderful software, experiential, I'll call it a game, to help kids learn to speak and to be. So there's lots of interesting applications coming in ways that I can help my clients see beyond what they're currently doing, which isn't bad, but there are new things. And sometimes I'm the broker or the translator to help connect them with the new technology in a safe fashion. And I find it's like a translator.

You know, it's two different languages. And if you can't see it, you can't be it. And slowly you have to try it. And then all of a sudden you can embrace it.

And then the folks who you're helping can be transformed. So I think of myself as a broker. I don't need to have all the answers, but I can find wonderful solutions and the world's providing them in ways that you just want to help them see it so they can do it. So that's me.

Excellent. It's the same way I'm trying to help consultants and small companies understand all these AI tools and how they can use them to improve their processes. I'm the same way. I'm just a translator.

I'm an enabler of that. Yeah, all right. So we share a lot. Awesome.

Thank you so much, Andy. We had an amazing conversation, some great insights that are going to be very valuable for our audience. I really thank you so much for all that you have shared with us and wish you the best in your new book and in your next year in your consulting practice. I'm sure people after this, they might want to find you.

How can they find you? So there's always LinkedIn and it's either Andrea Simon or Andy Simon, but there I am on LinkedIn with all my stuff. And my two websites, simonassociates.net, is all about our consulting business.

And andysimon.com is all about our books, our podcast, and our speaking. But I'm always anxious to talk to people and I enjoy conversations. And this has been a wonderful one.

So thank you, Antonio. It's been a great opportunity to share. Thank you, Andy. Thank you so much.

And thanks to our listeners for tuning in and learning a lot of my anthropology. who's really excited about all these changes that are happening. And we should all get excited and face those challenges and fears in a way that's constructive for everybody so that we can retire earlier or maybe not work so hard. Ever retire.

In any event, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much, Andy. Take care.