113. ChatGPT Is the New Google – Here’s How to Show Up in AI Search with Gloria Chou

PR used to sound like one of those things reserved for celebrities, venture-backed startups, and brands with budgets big enough to make you mildly resentful.

For the rest of us, it felt like a locked room.

If you were a creative founder, service provider, educator, or small business owner, the message was basically this: come back when you’re bigger, shinier, and able to throw thousands of dollars at an agency.

That is exactly why this conversation with Gloria Chou matters.

Because what Gloria lays out is not the old PR model. It is a smarter, leaner, more accessible version built for real founders with real businesses. The kind of founders who are doing excellent work, serving people well, and still feeling invisible because nobody taught them how media visibility actually works.

And now the stakes are even higher.

This is no longer just about getting your name in an article so you can slap a logo on your website and call it authority. PR now plays directly into discovery, trust, and how AI tools decide who gets recommended.

That means if you are still treating PR like an optional extra, it is time to rethink that.

Why PR matters more than ever

Let’s start here: attention is fractured, social media is noisy, and traditional search is not the only game in town anymore.

People are increasingly using AI tools to look for experts, products, recommendations, and solutions. They are asking for the best coach, the best tool, the best service provider, the best gift, the best fit. And those tools are not pulling answers out of thin air.

They are looking for trust signals.

They are scanning credible mentions, digital features, backlinks, podcast appearances, and other signals that suggest your business is real, relevant, and respected. In other words, the work you do to get visible in the right places is no longer just marketing fluff. It is part of how you get found.

This is what makes PR for small business such a powerful lever right now.

A strong earned media strategy supports:

• credibility
• discoverability
• authority
• SEO
• AI visibility
• long-term brand trust

That is a lot of mileage from one category of effort.

The biggest PR myth small business owners still believe

A lot of founders think they are not ready for PR.

They think they need:

• a bigger audience
• a more impressive business
• a bestselling product
• a giant launch
• a publicist
• a blue checkmark and a personality disorder

None of that is true.

The truth is simpler and more useful: you need a relevant angle and a clear pitch.

That is it.

Gloria makes this point beautifully. Journalists, editors, podcast hosts, and producers are not only interested in Fortune 500 companies. In fact, if they only covered giant brands, their content would get stale fast.

They need fresh voices. They need specific stories. They need angles that matter right now.

And that is where small businesses have a real shot.

Because small businesses are often closer to what is actually happening. They are closer to customer behavior, to local stories, to lived experience, to niche expertise, and to the human side of business that big brands usually flatten into polished nonsense.

What makes a pitch actually work

Gloria teaches a framework called CPR:

• C = Credibility
• P = Point of view
• R = Relevance

That sounds simple because it is simple. The mistake people make is assuming simple means shallow.

A good pitch is not a rambling biography. It is not “Hi, I’d love to be featured because I’m passionate about helping women thrive.” That tells nobody anything useful.

A good pitch gives the recipient a reason to care.

1. Credibility

Why should this person listen to you?

This does not mean you need fame. It means you need context. What qualifies you to speak on this topic? What experience, perspective, data, or lived expertise do you bring?

2. Point of view

What do you believe that is timely, useful, or fresh?

The internet is full of generic takes. “Marketing matters” is not a point of view. “AI search is changing how small businesses get discovered, and earned media is becoming a trust signal” is a point of view.

3. Relevance

Why now?

This is where most people fall apart. Their pitch could have been sent ten years ago or ten years from now and it would still sound the same. That is the fastest way to make your email invisible.

Relevance is what ties your idea to the current moment.

Specific beats broad every single time

One of the sharpest lessons from this episode is Gloria’s obsession with specificity.

She gives the perfect example. A vague pitch says, “I want to talk about marketing for small businesses.”

Nobody is moving mountains for that.

A stronger pitch says, “I want to talk about how small businesses can adapt to AI-driven discovery as traditional SEO loses ground.”

That is tighter. More current. More interesting. More usable.

When your pitch is specific, it becomes easier for the other person to imagine the headline, the angle, the interview, or the episode. You are not handing them a pile of mush and asking them to shape it for you. You are making their job easier.

That matters more than most founders realize.

Why earned media beats paid vanity features

Let’s talk about the emails everyone gets.

You know the ones. They promise to feature you in some publication or “top entrepreneurs to watch” roundup for a fee. Usually a few hundred dollars. Sometimes a few thousand if they are feeling bold.

And yes, it is tempting.

Because it sounds easy. Pay money, get visibility, move on with your life.

The problem is that many of these placements are just dressed-up ads wearing a fake PR trench coat. They may give you a logo. They may let you say you were “featured.” But they often do very little for real trust, SEO traction, or long-term visibility.

Earned media is different.

Earned media means you were included because your perspective or business was actually relevant. That kind of feature tends to hold more weight, create stronger credibility, and contribute more meaningfully to your digital footprint.

Small business PR works best when it builds authority that compounds. Not when it rents you a shiny badge for a week.

How AI tools can help you do PR smarter

Now for the part that should make founders breathe a little easier: you do not have to do all this manually like it is 2009.

Gloria recommends starting with Perplexity for research.

Why? Because Perplexity is strong at real-time information gathering. It can help you find:

• timely consumer trends
• relevant news angles
• current conversations
• reports and research
• ways to connect your business to what is happening now

That matters because relevance is not something you should guess at. It is something you can research.

Then, once you have the angle, you can use ChatGPT to help refine your draft into something more natural and conversational.

This is where founders tend to overcomplicate things. They assume visibility requires mystery, connections, and insider access. What Gloria shows instead is that much of the heavy lifting can now be done with the right prompts and a clear framework.

That is a huge shift.

The first steps to building a small business PR strategy

If you want a practical place to start, here is the stripped-down version:

Know your lane

What do you want to be known for? Not in the fluffy “personal brand” sense. In the useful sense. What topic, problem, or perspective do you want associated with your name?

Find your angle

Use current trends, customer behavior, seasonal relevance, local relevance, or market shifts to make your idea timely.

Build your pitch

Use the CPR structure:

• credibility
• point of view
• relevance

Write a better subject line

Your subject line should not waste space on your name or company if those details mean nothing to the recipient yet. Lead with the topic, issue, or hook.

Track your outreach

Install an email tracker. This is a tiny operational move that can save you a ridiculous amount of emotional drama. If your email was never opened, that tells you something. If it was opened several times and ignored, that tells you something else.

Think beyond the biggest outlet

Forbes is not the only form of visibility. Local media, podcasts, niche blogs, product roundups, and digital publications can all contribute to authority and discoverability.

Why this matters for creative founders especially

If you are in a service-based or expertise-driven business, credibility is not optional.

People are not buying a hoodie off a shelf. They are buying your thinking, your judgment, your leadership, your process, your taste, or your ability to solve a specific problem.

That means trust has to be built before the sale.

PR can support that in a way ads and social content often cannot. Ads might get attention. Instagram might keep you visible for a minute. But earned media helps answer a more important question:

Why should I trust this person over everyone else?

That is where founders start to separate themselves.

Not by shouting louder. By being referenced well.

The opportunity is now, not later

One of the strongest threads in this episode is urgency.

Not panic. Not hustle. But urgency.

The founders who start building these signals now will likely have an easier time becoming visible in AI-led discovery later. The businesses that keep waiting until they feel “ready” may find themselves trying to catch up after other names have already become the default recommendations.

That does not mean you need to become a full-time publicist next week.

It means this deserves a place in your strategy.

If you are building a business that depends on trust, expertise, and being found by the right people, PR for small business is no longer some luxury side project. It is part of how you build a durable reputation in a changing landscape.

Final thought

The old version of PR told small business owners to stay in line until they were bigger.

This version says: get clearer, get more specific, and start now.

You do not need to fake authority. You need to build it.

You do not need a bloated agency bill. You need a better angle.

You do not need to be famous. You need to be relevant.

And if you can do that consistently, you are not just increasing your chances of being featured. You are increasing your chances of being found, trusted, and chosen.

That is the game now.

Want to build a business people can actually find and trust? Start treating visibility like strategy, not luck. Listen to the full episode, then go test one pitch this week.

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