AI Search Is Changing How Small Businesses Get Found
AI is changing the way people search for businesses.
In this episode, I speak with Elise Balsillie from Thryv about how quickly search behaviour is changing, what AI means for small and medium businesses, and what business owners can do now to improve their chances of being found.
Elise points out that people are no longer always typing a short keyword into Google and clicking through a list of websites.
They are increasingly asking much more detailed questions and letting AI recommend the answer — and sometimes the business. elise-tony-take-02
That means traditional SEO still matters, but it now sits alongside AI search and answer engines.
We talk about practical things small businesses can do, including testing how their own business appears in AI search, improving ratings and reviews, answering the questions customers regularly ask and making sure their online presence is accurate and useful.
How AI is changing search behaviour
Why SEO and AI search now need to work together
How to test whether AI can find your business
Why reviews and ratings matter
Why directories are becoming relevant again
Using AI to solve real business problems
Why FAQs can help businesses get cited in AI answers
Understanding how your brand appears online
How AI can help smaller businesses compete with larger companies
Why the best place to start is simply to have a play
One of Elise’s strongest points is that business owners do not need to treat AI as a mysterious black box.
You can actually ask it why it recommended a particular business and learn from the answer. elise-tony-take-02
And the opportunity is still there for businesses prepared to start making small changes now.
In this episode
7 Oct 2026
How a Dog Walk Became a Support Network
Get your bum off the chair.
That is Lisa Llewellyn’s advice after more than 25 years of working from home.
The flexibility of working from home is great, but Lisa says it is also easy to spend the whole day — and sometimes the evening — sitting behind a screen unless you deliberately make time to get out, see people and connect. lisa-tony
When Lisa and her partner moved from Sydney to the Northern Rivers, they only knew a couple of people locally.
Their dogs changed that.
Daily walks became conversations.
Conversations became coffee and dinner.
And over time, those small interactions became a genuine local support network. lisa-tony
In this episode, Lisa talks about:
working from home and the risk of becoming isolated
why connection has to be deliberate
dogs as natural icebreakers
building the Wag Stars dog-walking community
why coffee, walks and small conversations matter
the value of getting outside and into nature
how small business owners can become overwhelmed
knowing when to step away, talk to someone and seek support
Lisa also talks about the impact those simple interactions can have on other people. Members of the Wag Stars group dealing with depression and anxiety have told her that regular conversations and being welcomed into the group made a profound difference to their lives. lisa-tony
For anyone working from home, running a business or simply spending too much time behind a screen, the message is simple:
Get your bum off the chair.
Go for a walk.
Have the coffee.
Say g’day.
You never know where the conversation might lead.
18 Aug 2026
AI Can Create Content. It Can’t Create Clarity.
Tony Skinner interviews Krista Patterson of The Positioning Collective about how businesses need clarity on their positioning before leveraging AI for content creation.
Who has been a guest on Podcast My Business
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Krista Patterson
Garrett Houston
Davis Lemke
Byron McCaughey
Karan Anand
Podcast Authority Score: 46 / 100
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