I know what you’re thinking.

“We already have a marketing team. We’ve invested in SEO. We’re doing fine with Google. How different can this LLM thing really be?”

I get it. I’ve heard this exact objection during every major digital transition over the past 20 years. And I’ve watched what happens to the companies that wait too long to adapt.

Let me tell you what I’m seeing right now, and why this moment matters more than you might realize.

I’ve Seen This Movie Before (And I Know How It Ends)

For ten years, I ran a company helping small to mid-sized businesses transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. You remember those business card websites? Static pages with your phone number and maybe a contact form? We helped companies move into the world of content management systems, SEO, and actual digital marketing campaigns.

The companies that succeeded weren’t always the biggest or the best-funded. They were the ones who recognized that “doing it themselves” meant either doing it badly or not doing it at all.

Here’s what I learned: Every major digital shift requires a combination of story and technology working together. That’s why I developed the Story + Tech framework (Story + Tech = Momentum). I was tired of watching brand strategy groups sell $200,000 slide decks that looked beautiful but left marketing and brand activation as an afterthought. Strategy without execution is just expensive decoration.

But here’s what’s fascinating about this moment we’re in right now.

The Story + Tech framework has taken on entirely new meaning with LLM visibility optimization. Because for the first time, search engines—or more accurately, AI systems—are evaluating both simultaneously. They’re not just crawling your technical SEO anymore. They’re assessing your brand positioning, your sentiment, your trustworthiness, your consistency across the entire web. They’re reading your story while parsing your code.

And most companies have no idea how to handle both at once.

The DIY Illusion: What “Handling It In-House” Actually Means

Let’s be honest about what we’re really talking about when you say “we can do this ourselves.”

Your marketing manager has 40 hours in a week. Maybe 20 of those are going to your product launch. Another 10 to prep for the trade show. Your content person is already behind on the blog calendar and managing three campaigns.

Now add LLM visibility optimization to that list.

Except it’s not just “optimization.” It’s:

• Understanding and implementing proper JSON-LD schema markup
• Configuring Twitter cards and Open Graph meta tags correctly
• Building entity relationships that LLMs can parse
• Restructuring your sitemap architecture
• Auditing brand sentiment across third-party sites
• Creating content specifically formatted for AI consumption
• Managing how your brand appears in knowledge graphs
• Monitoring and responding to how LLMs represent your company

Where are those 30-40 hours per week coming from?

Most businesses I work with—established B2B companies, commercial real estate firms, industrial manufacturers, finance and insurance companies—have spent years (sometimes decades) building their operations. They’ve got teams running the business, managing existing marketing campaigns, serving clients. They don’t have unlimited capacity sitting around waiting for the next big thing.

And here’s what I see happening: Companies try to tackle LLM optimization in-house, and they do the bare minimum. Maybe they add some schema markup. Maybe they optimize a few meta descriptions. But they’re not doing the layered, integrated work this requires. They’re not connecting the technical infrastructure to the brand narrative. They’re not monitoring how AI systems are actually interpreting and representing their business.

They’re doing something, but not nearly enough.

Why Story + Tech Matters More Now Than Ever

Here’s what changed.

Google’s algorithm was sophisticated, but it was fundamentally looking at signals: links, keywords, technical structure, user behavior. It was evaluating your website.

LLMs are evaluating your brand.

They’re looking at consistency. Does your story hold up across your website, your LinkedIn, your press mentions, your customer reviews, your knowledge base articles? Are you positioned as an expert, or are you just one of many vendors saying similar things?

They’re assessing trustworthiness. Not just through backlinks, but through sentiment analysis across everything written about you. They’re looking at whether people speak positively about your company, whether you’re cited as a source, whether your content demonstrates genuine expertise.

They’re understanding relationships. They want to know how you fit into your industry, who your competitors are, what problems you solve, which customers you serve best.

This is why most approaches fail. Because most agencies do one or the other:

The brand strategy folks understand story, positioning, and messaging. They’ll give you beautiful frameworks and brand guidelines. But they have no idea how to translate that into schema markup, structured data, or technical infrastructure that LLMs can actually parse.

The technical SEO folks understand code. They can implement schema all day long. But they don’t understand brand positioning, sentiment management, or how to craft a narrative that makes you citable and quotable to an AI system.

You need both. Simultaneously. Integrated.

That’s Story + Tech. And that’s what LLM visibility optimization actually requires.

The Cost of Waiting (Spoiler: It’s High)

ChatGPT just launched their own browser. Think about what that means.

This isn’t some experimental feature. This is AI search becoming the default behavior for millions of people. And every major LLM platform is racing to integrate deeper into workflows, operating systems, and daily search behaviors.

But here’s what most people don’t realize: LLMs are constantly ingesting data and forming their understanding of the world right now. They’re building entity relationships. They’re establishing which brands are trustworthy. They’re determining who the experts are.

And once those patterns are established? They’re sticky.

If an LLM has learned that your competitor is the authority in your space because they’ve done the work to be citable, quotable, and properly represented, you’re playing catch-up. You’re trying to change an established pattern instead of establishing one yourself.

The companies that move now are in a land grab for entity recognition and brand authority in AI systems. The ones that wait are playing defense.

What You’re Actually Buying (It’s Not What You Think)

When I tell potential clients about our $5,000/month subscription, I sometimes see them calculating: “That’s $60,000 a year. Our marketing manager makes $75,000. Why wouldn’t we just have her handle it?”

Because you’re not buying task completion. You’re buying strategic advantage built on two decades of pattern recognition.

Here’s what we actually deliver:

1. A Comprehensive LLM Visibility Scan (Free upfront)

We run your entire digital presence through our proprietary brand and website scanner built on the Story + Tech framework. You get a full report on your current LLM visibility score, schema implementation, technical SEO foundation, and on-page optimization. You see exactly where you stand before spending a dollar.

2. Brand Strategy Audit & Shoring Up

We make sure LLMs understand what you actually do—not what your 2015 website says you do. We audit your brand positioning, consistency, and narrative across your entire digital footprint. If you need deeper brand strategy work, we’ll identify that upfront. But most established businesses just need their story tightened and clarified for AI consumption.

3. Technical Infrastructure Fixes

This is the layered work most teams miss. Proper JSON-LD schema implementation. Twitter cards and Open Graph meta tags configured correctly. Sitemap architecture optimized for AI crawlers. Structured data that helps LLMs understand your relationships, expertise, and authority. This isn’t one-and-done; it’s ongoing refinement as platforms evolve.

4. LLM-Optimized Content Creation

Content that ranks in LLM responses looks different than content that ranks in Google. We create content specifically designed to be citable, quotable, and useful to AI systems answering questions in your domain. This builds your authority and increases the likelihood of being referenced.

5. Reputation Management

LLMs form opinions about your brand based on sentiment across the entire web. We monitor how you’re being discussed, cited, and represented. We work to strengthen positive signals and address gaps in your narrative.

6. ROI Tracking & Business Alignment

We partner with platforms like Search Atlas to show measurable improvement in your LLM visibility metrics. But we also connect this work to your actual OKRs and revenue goals. Because ultimately, you don’t care about schema markup—you care about pipeline, conversions, and growth.

What you’re really buying is someone who understands both the story and the technology, who can speak to your marketing team without drowning them in developer terminology, and who can speak to your technical team without hand-waving away the complexity.

You’re buying the ability to move fast while your competitors are still debating whether this matters.

The Story + Tech Advantage

Look, I could just sell you on technical implementation. There are plenty of SEO agencies pivoting to “AI optimization” right now who can check boxes and submit invoices.

But checking boxes doesn’t create momentum.

I’ve spent 20 years watching businesses succeed or fail at digital transitions, and the pattern is always the same: The companies that win are the ones who understand that technology without story is just infrastructure, and story without technology is just aspiration.

You need both.

LLMs are sophisticated enough now that they can tell when your brand story is inconsistent, when your technical implementation is sloppy, when you’re just gaming the system versus providing genuine value. They’re evaluating you holistically.

So our approach evaluates you holistically too.

That’s our unfair advantage. We’re not too heavy on brand strategy with no activation. We’re not overly technical with jargon that alienates your marketing team. We sit in the middle, fluent in both languages, building bridges between your story and your technology.

And we’ve built proprietary tools—like our brand and website scanner—that assess both dimensions simultaneously, giving you a clear picture of where you actually stand.

So Should You Pay for LLM Visibility Optimization?

Here’s my honest answer: It depends.

If you’re a small business just getting started, with limited revenue and no existing digital presence, you probably have bigger priorities. Build your foundation first.

But if you’re an established business—doing $5M+ in revenue, serving B2B clients, operating in competitive spaces like commercial real estate, industrial manufacturing, finance, or insurance—and you’ve been thinking “we should probably figure out this AI search thing,” then yes. Absolutely. Yesterday.

Because your competitors are figuring it out. And the window where you can establish authority instead of fighting for it is closing.

The question isn’t really “Should I pay for this?”

The question is: “Can I afford to be invisible when everyone else is optimizing for the future of search?”

Ready to see where you stand? We offer a free comprehensive LLM visibility scan—no obligations, no sales pitch. Just a clear, actionable report on your current state and what it would take to improve. Email me at chris@paynestreet.co or get your free scan here.

Because Story + Tech = Momentum.

And momentum is what separates the companies that lead from the ones that follow.