Hi {{name}} ,

In my last post — and I know it's been a while — I promised to share insights from the projects I've been working on. I have been working, like never before, in a state of flow, creativity, and discovery, and I'm genuinely excited to finally share it with you.

These projects are becoming more relevant by the day. As people turn to AI for answers and for search, showing up and getting recommended by AI is becoming a real superpower — often called GEO or AEO (Generative Engine / Answer Engine Optimization).

The two experiments I ran last year were exactly about this: how to get discovered, cited, and recommended by AI. In the first, I took a new blog with no backlinks to 8K monthly visitors. In the second, I took a directory to 15K monthly visitors.

I'd planned to turn this into something like 10 mini tutorials on how I did it. But then, as fate would have it, the main project I'm working on — The Game of Life, an AI multi-agent system in the wellness domain — now needs a GEO/AEO strategy of its own.

So instead of writing about the build after the fact, I'm doing something better: building the next part in public, live, as it happens.

Here's what that means:

I'll share what I've learned so far, and what I'm building next, in real time — as clearly as I can, so there's a map you can actually follow. That includes step-by-step videos and posts along the way, monthly meetups, and a 3-day workshop in November. Follow along, build your own version, or just show up to the meetups and ask questions.

Now, let's go a bit deeper into the experiments, and what exactly I'm building in public.

Insights From the GEO/AEO Experiments

Last year I ran two GEO/AEO experiments that went exceptionally well.

The first was using AI to create a blog around one idea: that a well-organized taxonomy can attract both search engines and LLMs. A new blog, on a new domain, with no backlinks. A few months in, we were at 8K monthly traffic.

On the surface, that looks like success.

But the reality is more complicated.

If AI is what created this content, why would AI need my blog at all? Users can just ask AI the question directly and skip the middleman entirely.

So experiment two went deeper: create information AI didn't already have, in a form AI could actually use. That meant organizing relationships between entities — which led me to build an AI Directory.

The AI Directory organizes AI tools, resources, and services by industry, department, use case, and tag (HIPAA-compliant, for instance). You can look up how people in your industry are actually using AI, and with what tools — backed by articles, guides, tutorials, and case studies.

You can start to see the power in that structure — it's exactly what LLMs need, but can't easily build for themselves: contextual, integrated information.

The AI Directory grew quickly — 15K monthly traffic within a few months, with no promotion, no backlinks, and most of that traffic coming from AI itself.

Which brings me to a deeper realization about the future of websites.

People already get everything they need — content, information, answers — from social media, Google, and AI. If your website is just information, it's dying.

For someone to visit your site, there has to be a bigger reason: something they can't get anywhere else, something AI can't hand them. Your site has to become a destination — somewhere people go to get something done, not just read something.

With that in mind, earlier this year I started building Game of Life.

Game of Life is a set of experiences, conversations, and games that reveal the hidden structures of your mind back to you.

Here's the scary truth: we're always communicating, always telling the world who we are, whether we mean to or not. As a result, technology already knows us better than we know ourselves — and most of it is used to manipulate your attention and sell you things.

Game of Life holds up a mirror instead. It helps you understand your mind, and how much of your life is shaped by decisions you don't realize you're making. It hands the power back.

So, what's next?

Building in Public

Here's what's next: a set of interactive directories that integrate our psychological models directly, built to give you real insight — not just information.

Imagine a tool where you type in a feeling or a piece of self-talk, and see where it likely comes from and why it's there. Another that reflects relationship compatibility based on your actual traits and attachment style — and more.

Here's the plan:

Our first live meetup is Thursday, September 10, 4:30–5:30 PM PDT.

[RSVP for September's Meetup →]