The Authority Trail: How AI Actually Finds and Recommends You
I want to talk to you about your findability online. With today's world of AI, even if you don't like AI at all, you don't want to use it, don't care about it — that's totally fine. You don't have to. However, I want you to understand how people are finding you with AI, because even if you personally don't use it, your clients and event planners do.
If you're a speaker, event planners are using ChatGPT, Claude, and similar tools to find and look you up — over Google. If you're a coach, people are looking for you and trying to see if you're credible, if you're trustworthy. So let's walk through how it works, so you can optimize everything you're doing now and make it as easy as possible to be found.
Why I Call It the Authority Trail™
I call this framework the Authority Trail, because what AI is looking for is authority. It doesn't care about certain metrics. It doesn't care about popularity, followers, or that kind of thing. It's looking for things that show you are the expert — that you're the actual authority.
Here's why this matters: ten years ago, when we optimized for Google, it was all about keywords and ranking those blue links. When you searched for something — say, a website designer — you'd get a list of links, and you'd have to click into each one, search the page, go to the next link, and so on. You had to do all the work, and you put trust in yourself to sort it out.
Now, AI is giving you the answer directly. It's not just handing you links — it's doing the homework for you. It searches in a completely different way than Google does. Google search still goes to search results, and you're doing all the work. AI search actually recommends experts, and we tend to trust those answers. That's the core difference. If I ask ChatGPT to find me a speaker who talks about holistic health, it's already gone out and done the work — it's giving me people it has found authority on.
So how does AI find that authority? It basically crawls the internet looking for authority signals — things it can index on you, almost like a file cabinet of everything that signals authority and trust. The formula both Google and AI use is called E-E-A-T, and I want to walk you through how it finds those signals.
Here's the thing: you can say you're the number one speaker on storytelling all you want, but AI needs proof. It needs someone else to say you're the expert. It's looking for independent mentions — experience, plus recognition, plus consistency. And consistency is the biggest word I want you to remember: consistency equals trust.
Visibility vs. Authority
We talk a lot about "visibility" right now — more followers, more views, more likes, more reach, viral posts. None of that is bad. If you're a coach, you want to be seen and top of mind, and that's fine. But when it comes to being found by AI, it's authority AI is looking for, not visibility. AI doesn't care about followers, likes, reach, or viral posts.
Here's an example: a couple years ago, my husband and I built a pool with an enclosure that was supposed to be our forever home. We put it on TikTok, and one post went viral — over 5 million views. But AI is never going to recommend me as a pool expert, because that was one thing, and there's no consistency behind it. Even if it's related to your business, one viral post won't matter to AI. It's looking for recommendations, speaking invitations, media citations, trusted references, and consistent presence across search results.
How AI Actually Crawls You
When AI crawls the web, it looks at:
Your website. Even though it's technically "first person" content, it still says a lot about who you are.
YouTube and podcasts. AI can't listen, but it reads transcripts. If you were on a podcast years ago that has no transcript, share it somewhere with a written summary, or run it through a transcription tool.
Books and articles. When your name is attached to an ISBN, AI sees that as a high authority signal.
Speaker pages and media. The more places you're listed — directories, media — the more third-party mentions AI can find.
The key across all of this is consistency. Once you're clear on what you do and who you serve, be consistent everywhere — your bio, your message, your podcast and YouTube presence — so that as AI crawls, it sees the same story everywhere and says, "here's all this evidence I need to recommend this person."
The E-E-A-T Framework
This is what AI is actually evaluating:
Experience — Have you actually done it? Live stories, case studies, client results, behind-the-scenes content, stage experience, speaker reels — anything with a transcript. It's almost ironic: artificial intelligence is looking for human experience to recommend you as the authority.
Expertise — Your frameworks, your keynotes, your books, your courses, your educational content. A framework is really everything you teach, distilled — like the outlines we had to write in school. Combine your stories with your framework, and that becomes your keynote. That framework is your IP.
Authoritativeness — Third-party mentions: podcast interviews, conference speaker pages, media features, awards, industry organizations. One caution on awards: AI is smart enough to know if you bought an award or if it's a popularity contest (pay $25, beg your friends to vote for you 30 times). That doesn't carry the same weight as a merit-based award — though it can still matter for other purposes, which I'll get to.
Trustworthiness — A real professional website (if you're a speaker without one, you are not getting booked, full stop), consistent bios across platforms, accurate claims, testimonials, and clear contact information.
Your Authority Trail: Story + Framework
If you start with just two things, everything else falls into place: your story and your signature framework.
Think about when everything changed for you — the pivotal, before-and-after moments in your life. ("That was before my divorce." "That was after my surgery.") Those are your stories. Combine that with your framework — everything you teach — and you will never run out of content, because those two things build your keynote. From the keynote, you create video, get on podcasts, write articles, publish books — all sharing the same story and framework in different formats.
What AI can't see: the keynote you never recorded, the framework you never published, the stories you've never shared, the expertise that only exists in your head, the book you haven't written, the podcast episode you never released.
The AIM Framework
If you take one thing from all of this, remember AIM:
Authority — Define what you want to be known for. That's the combination of your story and your framework.
Inventory — Identify every authority asset you already have. Search your own name on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube. Take stock of what already exists.
Multiply — Turn one message into dozens of discoverable assets. Repurpose what you have: break a podcast episode into a LinkedIn article, social posts, a blog post.
Authority isn't built by creating more — it's built by multiplying what you already have. Authority compounds over time, while flash-in-the-pan visibility (a red carpet photo, a viral moment) doesn't. Both can be valuable, but they serve different purposes: visibility impresses friends, family, and potential clients; authority is what gets you recommended by AI.
What To Actually Do
Decide what you want to be known for.
Build one signature framework — figure out everything you want to teach and combine it with your stories.
Create a keynote around that framework.
Record and publish everything.
Multiply every piece of content across every channel.
Repeat quarterly at minimum — monthly if you're just starting out, so you can gamify your progress ("I'm on 10 podcasts right now — how do I get to 13 by month's end?").
Don't be afraid of repetition. If it feels redundant to you, that's exactly what AI wants to see.
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It's the framework for how AI actually finds and recommends people online. Instead of chasing keywords and rankings the way we did for traditional Google search, the Authority Trail focuses on the signals AI looks for to determine who's a genuine authority: your story, your framework, and consistent proof of both across the web.
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Visibility is followers, likes, views, and reach — great for impressing potential clients, but AI doesn't weigh it. Authority is evidence that you're the expert: speaking invitations, media citations, books, consistent bios, and search presence. A single viral post won't get you recommended by AI; a consistent trail of proof will.
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It's the framework AI (and Google) uses to evaluate authority: Experience (have you lived it?), Expertise (can you teach it?), Authoritativeness (do others recognize it?), and Trustworthiness (can people verify it?). All four need to be covered for AI to confidently recommend you.
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ItIt depends on the award. Merit-based awards carry real weight as third-party validation. Pay-to-enter, vote-for-me contests don't carry the same weight with AI — though they can still be useful for building visibility with potential clients, which is a different goal.
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Yes — arguably more than ever. AI crawls your website for content and context; without one, there's nothing for it to index. A landing page is the minimum if you're just starting out.
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Authority (define what you want to be known for, built from your story + framework), Inventory (take stock of every authority asset you already have — podcasts, videos, articles), and Multiply (repurpose one message into many discoverable formats). Authority compounds when you multiply what already exists, not when you constantly create something new.
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At least monthly when you're starting out, quarterly once established. Stale content (2+ years old) can see a significant drop in AI-driven search visibility, so refreshing your website, bios, and profiles regularly matters.
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Anything that isn't published or recorded. The keynote you never filmed, the framework only in your head, the podcast episode that never went live — none of that builds your Authority Trail until it exists somewhere AI can crawl it.
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As far as we can tell, AI is primarily looking for your name attached to an ISBN — so being part of an anthology likely still counts as an authority signal, even though a standalone book may carry more weight with human clients and event planners. This is an area worth continuing to research as the technology evolves.
