Google’s EAT 1.0 was the four signals the algorithm could measure: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. The problem in 2026 is that AI passes the surface test. EAT 2.0 stacks the human layer the framework was never asked to measure. Empathy, Authenticity, Transparency. These three are what authority now compounds on, and they are the move AI cannot imitate.
Most people use ‘branding’ and ‘brandifying’ as if they were the same word. They are not. Branding decorates what already exists. Brandifying names the thing into existence first, so it can be owned. I have been doing the second one for 35 years without a word for it. Here is the line, the move, and why expert-led firms that want to claim a category have to learn to brandify rather than brand.
Most “revenue architecture” sold today is plumbing, such as pipeline mechanics, attribution, dashboards. But the real architecture is upstream, where positioning lives.
The playbooks that drove growth for the past decade have quietly stopped producing results. Here are the three I see failing most often and what’s replacing them.
When a solid offer fails to convert, the problem is usually the audience. Here is The Bullseye Method, the two-read targeting model I use in fractional CMO and CRO engagements to separate where the buyer is from who the buyer is, and how to apply both before changing the funnel.
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