If AI Can’t Find You, Neither Can Your Customers | Mariya Pallais, Pink Fins Brand Management

What we talked about.

In this episode of the Sunny Ray Show, host Sunny Ray talks with Mariya Pallais of Pink Fins Brand Management about what happens when customers ask AI for recommendations and a business never appears. Mariya explains how her four-person boutique shifted from traditional PR to combining digital PR with answer engine optimization (AEO) and SEO for local service companies such as commercial cleaning, laundry, and dog training. She describes why valuable digital PR links help businesses get cited by answer engines, how schema markup on her own website now produces contact form leads with a close rate just under 90 percent, and why early ChatGPT ads look reasonably priced. The conversation also covers the diver and air supply analogy for leads and referrals, the role of a personal brand in building trust, and why small businesses benefit from a team that carries work from start to finish. Mariya closes by describing Trip Heist, her pre-revenue travel community project, and what must be true before she would take outside funding.

When customers ask AI who to hire and you are missing from the answer, you lose leads. Mariya Pallais explains how digital PR and AEO fix that.

The questions, and the answers.

What happens when customers ask AI for recommendations and your business does not show up?

You don't get the lead and you don't get the introduction. You miss out on a lot of opportunity. From my own experience, being absent from those answers means potential customers never even learn that you exist, so someone else gets the work.

How did you figure out that PR can move the needle for AEO?

We're a small four-person boutique, and full PR campaigns weren't in our clients' budgets. I kept hearing about digital PR links, which can be even more valuable than a backlink. We could still offer coverage without a huge campaign, and it shows up in answer engines. The content just has to be genuinely valuable.

What does AEO mean in plain English, and why should a founder care?

AEO is answer engine optimization. It means giving tools like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity enough information to accurately know who you are and who to refer you to. When someone asks who to pick for dog training, you want to be in the mentions. It adds another layer of being found.

What did you do differently with your own website, and what has paid off most?

I added a lot of schema markup so machines can read exactly what we are and who we serve, with no ambiguity. Our website contact form submissions are the most valuable leads, with a close rate just under 90 percent. Search and answer engines compound slowly, and we're getting leads before we've even been mentioned.

Why did Pink Fins focus on local service businesses?

We've had to adapt. We started in food and beverage, then moved to gaming and tech, and as the economy changed we went where we could make the biggest impact. Marketing and PR are often the first things cut, so we look for clients who see the value and can commit time. Right now that's commercial cleaning, laundry, and dog training.

How do you compare marketing and PR to a diver and their air supply?

If founders were divers, the air would be leads and referrals. Experienced divers don't like diving with newbies because they run out of air fast. A new or undiscovered business is similar: when your lead and referral sources are cut off, you're left without air.

What gap convinced you that Trip Heist needed to exist?

I live in Thailand, and friends visiting kept turning to us as travel agents because they arrived with no plan. I thought seasoned travelers could sell trips, like seven days in Chiang Mai, and give people a trusted layer of verified information. After traveling for four or five years, I know research alone can't catch everything.