Dan Nestle, founder of Lilypath, joins Sandy Carter on The Marketing Companion to unpack a shift most professionals have not noticed yet. AI systems are now interpreting, ranking, and recommending people before any human ever clicks a profile. Dan calls this Authority Intelligence, a new category he built Lilypath to define.

Inside the episode, Dan and Sandy cover the Gemini Deep Research moment that exposed how badly AI can misread a real expert, why LinkedIn has quietly become the number one cited domain for professional queries across six major AI platforms (per Profound, LinkedIn, and Semrush data), and what "broken" looks like when your authority signal is off: silent inboxes, irrelevant pitches, recruiters missing you, RFPs going to competitors, and a stranger suddenly getting credit for ideas you have championed for years.

Dan also shares the one concrete action every senior leader should take this week to fix how AI reads them, plus a Lilypath discount for listeners. Use code COMPANION20 at checkout.

Brought to you by Semrush, the platform powering the search and AI visibility data behind this conversation, and Brevo, the all-in-one CRM and marketing platform helping growing teams turn authority into pipeline.

00:00:05 - Welcome and Sponsor Mentions
00:00:54 - Guest Introduction: Dan's Early Career in Japan
00:01:57 - Dan's Career Evolution and the Founding of Lily Path
00:05:47 - Introducing Lily Path and Authority Intelligence
00:07:23 - The Genesis of Lily Path: Optimizing for AI Interpretation
00:12:42 - The New Era: Domain Knowledge vs. Coding with AI
00:16:06 - Authority Intelligence: Taking Control of Your AI Narrative
00:21:23 - LinkedIn's Evolved Role as AI's Professional Truth Source
00:27:17 - Maintaining Human Relevance & Actionable Steps for Professionals
00:36:06 - Special Offer, Conclusion, and Contact Information

If your ads are being skipped, your emails are going unread, and your campaigns are blending into the noise, this episode is your wake-up call.

What do Disney, a pool full of sprinkles, the United Nations, and the world's first AI film at Tribeca Film Festival have in common? Michaela Ternasky-Holland. And every single one of those experiences holds a lesson for how you market your brand.

Michaela is an award-winning immersive experience director and film producer whose work has transported audiences across some of the most iconic and unexpected stages on the planet. She helped bring the legendary Museum of Ice Cream Sprinkle Pool to life. She has created experiences for Disney and Meta. She has worked with the United Nations on some of the most emotionally charged storytelling on earth. And then she walked into Tribeca Film Festival and made history as one of the first directors to premiere a film made with OpenAI's Sora.

She is not just watching the future of marketing evolve. She is building it.

In this episode of The Marketing Companion, Michaela introduces her concept of compassionate storytelling, an ethical framework that builds genuine trust rather than manufactured impressions. We talk about why the scroll is broken, what generative AI actually unlocks for creative teams, how to make the ROI case for experiential campaigns, and the single principle every marketer can steal from immersive design and apply tomorrow.

This is the episode that changes how you think about what marketing can actually do.

What happens when marketing moves beyond campaigns and becomes experience, emotion, and intelligence (AI) combined?

In this episode, I sit down with Kenny Lauer, one of the most dynamic leaders in modern marketing. From early roles at Apple and KPMG to leading global digital experiences at George P. Johnson, serving as VP of Marketing for the Golden State Warriors during their championship era, and now shaping immersive sound-driven experiences at Meyer Sound, Kenny’s career sits at the intersection of technology, storytelling, sports, and live experience design.

We unpack how marketing has evolved from messaging to moment-making, and why the next era will be defined by AI as a teammate, not just a tool.

Inside this episode, we explore:

• The throughline behind Kenny’s career across tech, sports, and global brand experiences
• How marketing is shifting from campaigns to end-to-end experiences
• Lessons from the Golden State Warriors during one of the most iconic runs in NBA history
• What global markets like Japan teach us about culture-first marketing
• A real marketing “war story” and the lessons every leader should learn
• The top 3 takeaways from SXSW 2026 every marketer needs to act on now
• What the future looks like when AI becomes your teammate, not your tool

This conversation is a masterclass in experiential marketing, brand strategy, digital transformation, and AI-driven marketing innovation.

If you are a CMO, founder, marketer, or builder trying to understand where marketing is going next, this episode will give you both the strategic lens and practical insights to stay ahead.

The bottom line:
Marketing is no longer about what you say.
It is about what people feel, experience, and now… what intelligent systems can co-create with you.

OpenClaw is the hottest open source AI agent in marketing and in this episode Shawn Reddy from Cliqk pulls back the curtain. He walks us through the OpenClaw dashboard live, demonstrates social media scraping in action and shows the complete setup process so you can see exactly what it takes to get started.

This isn't another episode about AI theory. Shawn shows us the real marketing use cases working today including social monitoring, content research and cross platform automation across Gmail, Slack and LinkedIn. You'll see the dashboard, watch social media scraping pull real time insights and understand what the setup looks like from start to finish.

Then we confront the security risks head on. Wiz discovered Moltbook exposed 1.5 million API keys. Malicious plugins are exfiltrating private files. Prompt injection attacks are real. If you're handing an AI agent your credentials you need to hear this conversation.

We also explore persistent AI memory for personalization at scale, Moltbook's 770,000+ agents and whether agent to agent interaction changes marketing forever, and the governance frameworks brands need before letting agents act on their behalf.

One of the Top Marketing Trends in 2026.  AI search is about to overtake traditional search by 2028, and the implications for marketers are massive. In this episode, Sandy Carter sits down with content strategy expert Andy Crestodina to unpack the rise of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and why it is radically different from the SEO we all know. You’ll hear why AI-generated recommendations convert at higher rates, and how brands can train AI to choose them as the preferred answer, and most importantly, a Hack to start making progress for your brand today!

Marketing is scaling faster than humans can adapt—and most leaders are underestimating the shift. In this conversation with Sandy Carter, Ray Wang, CEO and founder of Constellation Research, and Liz Miller, former leader of the CMO council, and analyst at Constellation Research, reveal what’s changed in just two years: AI agents embedded in org charts, accountability rising as decisions digitize, and why selling to humans still demands trust, authenticity, and reputation. From boardroom blind spots to the death of long-held marketing myths, this episode is a roadmap for leaders preparing for 2026.