Business Innovators Radio - Vivienne Wagner – CEO – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Vivienne Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Houndstooth Media Group, a boutique digital marketing agency helping mid-sized businesses turn their websites into revenue-driving assets through strategic SEO and AI-driven optimization.Known for making complex marketing concepts clear and actionable, Vivienne advises business leaders on how to position their companies to be found by both human audiences and emerging AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Her approach increases organic visibility, drives qualified traffic, and reduces reliance on paid ads, enabling businesses to scale more sustainably.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houndstoothmediagroup/Website: https://houndstoothmediagroup.com/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivienne-wagner/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/vivienne-wagner-ceo-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. You are listening to Brilliant Business, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have an incredible guest on the show today, Vivian Wagner. Vivian is the founder and CEO of Hounstooth Media Group. a boutique digital marketing agency, helping mid-sized businesses turn their website into revenue driving assets through strategic SEO and AI-driven optimization. Vivian, welcome to Brilliant Business TV.

Mark, thank you so much for having me. Delighted to be here. The pleasure is all ours and a really interesting topic. I'm in the space of digital media as well, so I'm really looking at. forward to hearing all of your words of wisdom today. Now, we've all spent years obsessed with SEO, keywords. I know I have, but you talk about the death of the keyword. What is fundamentally changing in how people find and discover businesses today, Vivian? Well, I think the main way, it's not as much the death of the keyword as you better have some meat and potatoes to go along

with that search term. People aren't going to Google and just typing in keywords anymore. We're having full-on conversations. And a lot of people are bypassing Google altogether and going straight to Claude or chat GPT. And instead of keywords, they're having conversation. And that's changed the game.

Yes, and I think conversations are so, so important. And I have to agree with that, keeping that human connection there as well. Now, most business owners just want to be on page one of Google. Why just being visible no longer enough? And how do we ensure we are the singular authoritative answer that an AI tool like ChatGBT or Gemini recommends? Absolutely.

So it's no longer enough to be visible. That's not enough. One of the most important things that a business owner can do is actually analyze how they themselves are searching for things online. What are they doing? Because if they're doing it, chances are very good. That's what their customers and potential customers are doing as well. So ask yourself, what's the last time I went to Google and then was happy to look through a bunch of different websites that it offered up to me on page one to sort of see if that's got my answer or not. It's very helpful to think of Google as a librarian who will recommend books on a book,

shelf, go read those over there. That's the topic you're interested in. But AI is like a detective who's going to go read those books for you and come back to you with a singular answer. And then we talk about that answer with AI. So page one isn't enough. You have to be visible and also recommended and mentioned. Very different. Yes. I think being recommended has a lot of power, doesn't it, Vivian? It absolutely does. I actually think of AI. as the new personal referral. I've bought things because AI recommended that I buy this one over that one. Oh, yes.

Go see here instead of there. Oh, yes, and it's so fast and it can like take rapid's amount of information all in one go and compare things and give you the best one out of all. I actually love AI for that. I think it's very powerful. and I must be doing something right, Vivian, because I've AIed myself. I've asked who is Mark Stephen Bueller. And actually, I was quite happy with what come up.

So that's obviously a good starting point, isn't it? It's a great starting point that Google and AI know your name. That's a great starting point. What is the next milestone step that you want to reach is what is the service or best benefit you provide to your customers or your clients and ask about that. Where can I get the best whatever it is that you do, right? Where can I get this? And you want your name to come up there. So if you're a restaurant owner, it's one thing to say, you know, can what can you tell me about Mark's burger bar? What can you tell me about that? It's something very different to say, where can I

get the best hamburger in London. Yes. And then be recommended. Yeah, I think being recommended and I think AI is definitely definitely something that our clients and customers are using. So we have to make sure that what AI is finding on us is very, very accurate as well. Now, a recurring theme among listeners is the need for business owners to build authority and trust to attract and retain.

clients in this new era of search, how does a business owner build digital trust so that AI algorithms, not just human users, recognize them as the most authoritative and safe recommendation? Absolutely. So chances are you probably have a lot of this authority and credibility, which is something AI loves, right? You probably have this at your fingertips already, but you might not be leveraging it appropriately. So, for, For example, depending on your business, you should be listing how many years of experience you have. How long have you been in business? How many happy customers or clients have you serviced?

Those kinds of numbers are really, really great to be able to put on your website and share in your social media. It's also great to list any organizations that you're involved with or any accreditations that you have. Because AI can see it. And so if you just have the bare bones on your website and you haven't listed, this is where they say, toot your own horn, toot your own horn a little bit. Every little clue that you can give AI that you are a subject matter expert in what you do is going to be visible to AI. And because AI is the detective and it's not just a singular answer, it then turns into a conversation,

that conversation can be very nuanced. And so AI is going to pick up the nuance that's on your website, your authority and credibility, and it's going to bring that into the conversation sooner. I love that. Toot our own own. Great advice. Now, for an entrepreneur who feels overwhelmed by the speed of AI innovation,

what is a one immediate shift they can make? to their digital presence today to start being recognized by recommendation engines. Okay, well, it's not exciting or sexy, I'm sorry to say, but it does go back to solid SEO best practices and foundations. In the last couple of weeks, Google just released their core update, and it basically at the end of the day says SEO is still. incredibly important. You need to have those best practices in place and dialed in and then you layer AI on top of that. That can sound scary. Like, how am I going to get a good SEO foundation to if you're just a business owner trying to run your business? There are simple things that

you can be doing. Literally, Google, what's an SEO best practice? Take your website and put it into chat GPT or Claude or whatever and say, what am I missing here? You can ask AI what is missing from your own website. And you can start by doing that. It's just incredibly important to start taking one step at a time. And you're not going to game the system. And when you're feeling overwhelmed at the concept of AI,

this is a really important distinction. Do not confuse operational AI that you're using to run your business or write things for you or, you know, as a productivity tool because that is moving very, very quickly. Don't confuse that with having high quality, clear information on your website and in your social media and online presence. You need to be clear about who you are, what you do, and who you're for. Who are your customers? Those three things you need to be real crystal clear about. Everything else is technology that you're not going to keep up with and you don't need to for this.

So separate in your mind operational productivity tool AI versus AI as a search engine looking for what you are doing. So it's good to know that actually ACO still has its place and it's about then integrating all of the next steps into it. So some people might not have that starting place of SEO, so that's still really important. But for those who have got it, need to layer the next steps on with AI and things like that as well.

Now, how does AI-driven search act as the modern version of a personal recommendation and how can inative leaders ensure their authentic brand voices, is what the algorithm actually shares with potential clients, Vivian. Well, so keeping in mind how we as individuals are using AI. If you go directly to chat GPT or to Claude, you don't put in a good hamburger near me, right? You don't start your conversation that way. You say, I'm looking for a good hamburger or good fish and chips

or good whatever, near me, I am allergic to peanut oil. You say so many things that are nuanced and very detailed. And AI is crawling the Internet looking for that information. AI doesn't pull its answers out of thin air. AI relies on SEO as well to find websites basically, right? And then when the website is very clear, for example, if there's somebody who has a lot of food allergies, back to my restaurant example, food sensitivities, food allergies,

dietary restrictions, restaurants who cater to that kind of a clientele need to make sure that that's clear on their website. If they don't mention it, AI doesn't know. And so they're missing out on important nuance that informs the people who are asking chat GPT for recommendations or any AI platform for research. recommendations. And it's a great point actually, Vivian, because I use AI a lot and I think you've really given a great tip there that you have to be very, very giving AI the right information. So going into detail because the more detail and information and accuracy you give to AI,

it allows it to do its job so much better than being really vague, it doesn't. and take Vivian. Absolutely. Absolutely. Clarity is the new currency. The more clear you can be about who your products and services are for, the more AI is going to connect you with the people who need them. It's really, really important to make sure that you're clear on that.

Now, there's certainly other ways to help with that clarity, including schema markup. It's also called structured data. That's a little bit, that's a little bit, that's a little bit. that might require a website developer, or at least somebody who can put that code on your website for you, sort of a behind-the-scenes message for AI and the language that those machine learning tools like to read. But any opportunity you have to be more detailed

about who you are, what you do, and who it's for. I sound like a broken record with that, but it really is just that simple. Make sure that AI knows those. things, those three things. And that just starts to make all of the difference in the world. Vivian, I've really enjoyed your talking points today. I would love to just for you to share a little bit about your business and how you

support your clients and just share how people can get a reach of you as well, Vivian. Oh, absolutely. So Houndstooth Media Group, we are a boutique marketing agency. We specialize in SEO and AI-driven search, but we do all of the other things you would expect a marketing agency to do. We treat marketing like an ecosystem. They all have to work together. Your social media has to work with your website, and it's all about attracting the right client or customer for you. And who does that mean to you and what does that look like?

So we work with small business owners just to help with that visibility and make sure that they're known for what they do. And we connect them with who they want to be doing business with. We've been in business about 14 years. We've got a wonderful team of specialists. And yep, it just lights us up to get people visible because there's nothing better than being a business owner, building your own economy. chasing your dream and helping people in the process. It's just the greatest thing. And so we love doing that.

So, Cher, how can people get a hold of you? Should they follow you on Instagram? Should they come to your website? What's the best way for them to reach you? Absolutely. Our website is houndstoothmediagroup.com. And you can email me personally, VIVV at houndstooth.

dot m g as in media group not a dot com dot m g um and you can follow us on instagram or hounds tooth mg catch up with us on lincoln um we're happy to answer questions and talk i have a free webinar where i teach everything that we just went over at a real high level i teach you how to uh to do that on your own website and how to leverage your own social media to make AI absolutely love you and recommend you. Vivian, I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you today. Thank you so much for being my guest. Thank you so much for having me. The pleasure has been all ours. Thank you everyone for joining us for brilliance business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. Until next time, bye for now. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators.

Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at business innovators.com today.