Bill Widmer

Bill WidmerAug 26, 2026

I just sold my hairstylist SEO. Now his salon is booked out for months. Here's what happened... I have long, curly/wavy hair. Not just anyone knows how to cut it properly. I need a curly-hair specialist. Enter: ChatGPT. I uploaded photos of my hair and asked it who would be the best person in Austin to cut my hair. It sent me to a curly-hair specialist salon. My barber already had a lot going for him. He's well-loved on Reddit, and AI recommended him highly. Until last month, when he opened his own salon. After the switch, when you asked AI, it sent you to his page on the old salon's website. A page that no longer has his information. To make matters worse, ChatGPT started sending those leads to his competitors instead. He was losing customers. That is, until I improved his digital footprint and SEO foundation: → I rebuilt his site, added a thorough about page, service pages, and schema data. All optimized for the prompts and keywords his clients were searching. → I updated his Google Business page and created pages on various directories and services like Yelp, Apple Connect, Bing, etc. → I fixed his social pages so they all pointed to his new site and profiles and clearly said what he did and who he was. → I commented on several Reddit threads where he was mentioned, letting people know about his new location. → Most importantly, I added a "How did you hear about me?" box to his booking page. "ChatGPT" and "Reddit" are almost half of his new bookings. Not only did he recover his previous rankings. He's filled out his booking calendar with organic leads who need exactly the services he provides. In fact, he's gotten so many new clients that he's expanding his salon to hire more stylists. That's the power of SEO and AI search optimization. Want more organic qualified leads for your business? DM me for a free AI visibility audit and 15-minute consultation.

Bill WidmerAug 31, 2026

Doing “favors” for myself has transformed my mental health. Here’s what I mean: I am a person whose love language is acts of service. I love surprising my friends and family with little acts of kindness; I might randomly clean their car, buy them something practical they wouldn’t have bought for themselves, fix something in their home… whatever. It’s easy for me to give to others in this way. But I would sooner fix something for someone else than fix something in my own home. Maybe it’s partly my ADHD. Recently, I shifted my mindset around this. I started doing “acts of kindness” for myself. Rather than looking at cleaning my car as a chore I don’t want to do, I viewed it as an act of kindness for someone else. As if I were someone I was doing something for. And I gotta say, it feels pretty great! I get a clean car AND the satisfaction of “doing someone a favor”! If youre like me and you like doing things as a service to others… try viewing yourself as “other” for a task. Clean your house. Fix the thing that’s been bugging you for an eternity. Take care of that admin work you’ve been putting off. It might sound silly. But for me, it works. Have you done an “act of kindness” for someone recently that you wished someone would do for you?

Bill WidmerAug 21, 2026

I just sold my second business. Here are 3 lessons it taught me: 1. Your customers, subscribers, and community members are your best asset. It was a community member - Brian Cappello - who bought my business, The Founders Guild. It's also my community members who helped me learn what to offer and how to offer it. Invest in your people. 2. Focus on giving. It always comes back. You might not know when, where, or how. But caring about the people who subscribe to what you're doing is the best path to success. I bet Brian Dean would agree with this after selling two companies. He gave immensely to the people in his community, SEO That Works. To this day, it's been the single biggest investment of my lifetime. 3. Build a community, and get to know your members. If you haven't already, building a community for your followers is one of the greatest investments you can make. Having a platform to easily get customer feedback and learn your customers' deepest desires and pain points informs every decision you make around your company. Bonus points if you invite community members into live calls and even book coffee chats with them 1:1 to get to know them. Oh, and did I mention the SEO benefits? The Founders Guild ranked well on Google and ChatGPT for keywords/prompts like "online ADHD community" and "ADHD community Austin". We got hundreds of members organically, who were searching for exactly what we offered. Does your organization have a community yet? If not, would you consider making one?