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Building Trust in the Digital Age – Fastlane Founders with Sameer Somal
Sameer Somal talks with Jason Barnard about building trust in the digital age.
Sameer Somal is the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Technology and Co-Founder of Girl Power Talk. Sameer leads client engagements focused on digital transformation, risk management, and technology development.
Sameer talks about building trust in the digital age, with a focus on managing personal brands and handling both good and bad press. He explains the comprehensive process his company uses to manage and repair digital reputations, including reputation assessment, roadmap creation, and content analysis. He also discussed how ChatGPT and other AI tools have impacted his practice emphasizing the need for authentic and high-quality content.
Learn practical strategies for building trust across different search verticals such as Google News, Google Videos, and general search results. If you’re a business leader seeking to protect and enhance your digital presence while creating authentic, lasting impressions online, this is definitely an insightful episode to watch.
What you’ll learn from Sameer Somal
00:00 Sameer Somal and Jason Barnard
01:10 Sameer Somal’s Brand SERP
02:21 What Does Sameer Somal Do at Blue Ocean Global Technology?
02:58 What Does Blue Ocean Global Technology Specialize in When it Comes to Digital Reputations?
03:08 What Are the Areas Sameer Has Focused On in the 300 Cases He Has Consulted On?
04:15 What are the Processes for Addressing Negative Content on Google or in a Knowledge Panel?
04:31 Process 1: Reputation Assessment
05:08 Process 2: Client Goals
05:25 Why Should Business Leaders Proactively Shape Their Personal Brand Online?
05:41 How Can Professionals Manage Unwanted Information in Their Digital Presence?
05:55 How Do Different Search Verticals Impact Your Digital Reputation Management Strategy?
06:00 Process 3: Roadmap Creation
06:25 Why Do Ethical Reputation Managers Choose to Decline Certain Client Cases?
07:51 Process 4: Content Analysis
08:23 What Do Reputation Companies Not Realize About Educating Google?
08:42 What Do Companies Need to Understand About Google’s Tendency to Prioritize Negative Keywords?
09:13 How Many Hours Does Sameer’s Team Dedicate to the Technical Work to Achieve Desired Results?
09:40 How Does Sameer Somal Evaluate and Manage the Expectations of the People Seeking for His Help?
09:48 What Time Frame Does Sameer Provide His Clients to See the Results and Feel Comfortable With it?
11:26 What Does Maintenance Mode Involve in Sameer’s Process?
12:02 What is the Risk if Clients Choose Not to Continue With Maintenance Mode?
13:05 How Does Sameer Emphasize the Idea That Offense is the Best Defense?
15:18 How Much Do Successful Leaders Value Their Presence Across Search Verticals?
15:28 Why Do Successful Leaders Struggle to Navigate Their Digital Brand Strategy?
15:38 Why Does Relying Solely on LinkedIn Posts Fall Short of True Digital Presence?
15:49 What Has Become the Universal First Step in Professional Networking Today?
16:01 What Search Verticals Do People Explore When Researching New Connections?
16:16 How Do Digital Assets Work Together to Tell Your Complete Brand Story?
16:26 How Do Authentic Personal Images Help Build Meaningful Professional Connections?
16:58 What Extent Has ChatGPT and Other AI Technologies Changed the Approach of Sameer and His Clients?
This episode was recorded live on video January 21st 2025
https://youtube.com/live/E6t7anA_QFY
Links to pieces of content relevant to this topic:https://youtu.be/khCFv1J78Vk?si=92lU1XM0RTBqBG7mhttps://canvasrebel.com/meet-sameer-somal/https://www.cshlaw.com/resources/defamation-and-reputation-management-in-the-digital-age/Sameer Somal
Transcript from Building Trust in the Digital Age - Fastlane Founders with Sameer Somal
[00:00:00] Narrator: Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard. Each week Jason sits down with successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives and get them to share how they mastered the delicate balance between rapid growth and enduring success in the business world. How can we quickly build a profitable business that stands the test of time and becomes our legacy. A legacy we're proud of Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard.
[00:00:31] Jason Barnard: Hi and welcome to another Fastlane Founders and Legacy with me, Jason Barnard. And a quick hello and we're good to go. Welcome to the show, Sameer Somal.
[00:00:44] Sameer Somal: What a melody. Thank you Jason. Pleasure honor to be here and certainly have a genuine appreciation for your leadership, Kalicube and yeah, looking forward to the conversation.
[00:00:53] Jason Barnard: Yeah, me too. So we're going to be talking about Building Trust in the Digital Age, particularly personal brands, bad press, good press, how to protect yourself, how to defend yourself, and how to overcome bad press. But also I think as you said, the best defense is a great offense. So be proactive. But before that, I look at search results for people's names and this is what comes up for you. You've got your own website, which is great. Google and the AI are looking for that, what we call the entity home website that they can use as a source of information from you, about you and then build their understanding of you through corroboration around the web where you should normally get a Knowledge Panel which I'm sure you're not very far away from. And if people watching this want to search my name, Jason Barnard, you'll see what a great Knowledge Panel looks like.
The pink box is the top Knowledge Panel cards. Google really understands who I am and that's the fact it understands about me. But then I thought I'll look at you in ChatGPT and this is what ChatGPT comes up with. And what's great is I don't need to read the entire SERP, I can just read its summary. It's using Bing search results and it's summarizing them and that's pretty good. So as long as your search results on Bing are great, ChatGPT will represent you the way you want. That's what we do at Kalicube. And what do you do at Blue Ocean Global Technology, Sameer?
[00:02:16] Sameer Somal: Well Jason, I'm glad you didn't scroll down and show them all those negative links. Just kidding. You know, look, I always share with folks that I'm an accident into the reputation business. You know, I didn't held back by technology resources when as a former investment banker I launched a wealth management firm. In 2012, I did a global search. I found some great partners and I said maybe I should share these resources, given I've spent 18 months finding really good people. And so we started out and focused on the technical work, working with public relations agencies. They did what's called spray and pray, putting content out there, hoping that it ranks.
We were really good at all the work behind the scenes and understanding Google's algorithm. So Blue Ocean Global Technology specializes in building, monitoring and repairing digital reputations. We also do technology development, litigation, consulting. I've had the pleasure of being an expert witness and consulting on 300 plus cases. Many of them related to Internet Presence, Online Reputation, Search Engine Optimization, source code, Internet defamation, quantifying damages. So I come at it from a different lens. Not just being a resource for business owners, entrepreneurs, executives to take all the trust, goodwill, relationship capital they have offline and how do they represent it thoughtfully online, but also understanding the downside and the reputation risk and what happens when things reach the internet and people are able to take legal recourse or in many situations they're not able to. And how do you do to, what do you do to address those challenges?
[00:03:51] Jason Barnard: Right. So when you come in, when somebody has a problem of something showing up on Google that's negative, or in the Knowledge Panel even worse, which is the fact, according to Google or in ChatGPT, what's the process you go through to help them solve that problem and what are their expectations and are they reasonable?
[00:04:13] Sameer Somal: Wow, loaded question. First and foremost, I think that the vast majority of our work is actually done building positive brands when people don't have issues. But I'm proud of the fact that most of our clients who have come because of a challenge end up being our clients in perpetuity because we do really good work. And it starts with, one understanding what's out there, doing a reputation assessment. What is out there? What do you like? What is false, erroneous, harmful, defamatory, negative? What is kind of neutral? I was speaking with a family office earlier today and the gentleman who runs that organization was saying, I'm so frustrated. We have AAA rated PR and digital assets, but none of them are ranking on the first few pages. And he's right.
[00:05:01] Jason Barnard: Yeah.
[00:05:02] Sameer Somal: You know, this real estate deal he did 25 years ago is one of the things on the first page. So one, understand what is out there. Two, each person has an idiosyncratic, a unique view of what they want out there. And oftentimes I speak at events to sophisticated investors and high net worth folks. And I explained to them that, you know, Eric Schmidt said it best. Identity will be the most valuable commodity for citizens of the future and it will exist primarily online. And if you don't control the conversation and narrative about who you are, your strengths, your capabilities, well then somebody else can. And so you need to be proactive.
So one, it's understanding what somebody's comfortable with, what they're known as. There are a number of ways and strategies that we explore when somebody doesn't want information out there and they want to be, they still want to remain anonymous.
View all episodes
By Jason Barnard Entrepreneur and CEO of Kalicube
4.8
2222 ratings
Sameer Somal talks with Jason Barnard about building trust in the digital age.
Sameer Somal is the CEO of Blue Ocean Global Technology and Co-Founder of Girl Power Talk. Sameer leads client engagements focused on digital transformation, risk management, and technology development.
Sameer talks about building trust in the digital age, with a focus on managing personal brands and handling both good and bad press. He explains the comprehensive process his company uses to manage and repair digital reputations, including reputation assessment, roadmap creation, and content analysis. He also discussed how ChatGPT and other AI tools have impacted his practice emphasizing the need for authentic and high-quality content.
Learn practical strategies for building trust across different search verticals such as Google News, Google Videos, and general search results. If you’re a business leader seeking to protect and enhance your digital presence while creating authentic, lasting impressions online, this is definitely an insightful episode to watch.
What you’ll learn from Sameer Somal
00:00 Sameer Somal and Jason Barnard
01:10 Sameer Somal’s Brand SERP
02:21 What Does Sameer Somal Do at Blue Ocean Global Technology?
02:58 What Does Blue Ocean Global Technology Specialize in When it Comes to Digital Reputations?
03:08 What Are the Areas Sameer Has Focused On in the 300 Cases He Has Consulted On?
04:15 What are the Processes for Addressing Negative Content on Google or in a Knowledge Panel?
04:31 Process 1: Reputation Assessment
05:08 Process 2: Client Goals
05:25 Why Should Business Leaders Proactively Shape Their Personal Brand Online?
05:41 How Can Professionals Manage Unwanted Information in Their Digital Presence?
05:55 How Do Different Search Verticals Impact Your Digital Reputation Management Strategy?
06:00 Process 3: Roadmap Creation
06:25 Why Do Ethical Reputation Managers Choose to Decline Certain Client Cases?
07:51 Process 4: Content Analysis
08:23 What Do Reputation Companies Not Realize About Educating Google?
08:42 What Do Companies Need to Understand About Google’s Tendency to Prioritize Negative Keywords?
09:13 How Many Hours Does Sameer’s Team Dedicate to the Technical Work to Achieve Desired Results?
09:40 How Does Sameer Somal Evaluate and Manage the Expectations of the People Seeking for His Help?
09:48 What Time Frame Does Sameer Provide His Clients to See the Results and Feel Comfortable With it?
11:26 What Does Maintenance Mode Involve in Sameer’s Process?
12:02 What is the Risk if Clients Choose Not to Continue With Maintenance Mode?
13:05 How Does Sameer Emphasize the Idea That Offense is the Best Defense?
15:18 How Much Do Successful Leaders Value Their Presence Across Search Verticals?
15:28 Why Do Successful Leaders Struggle to Navigate Their Digital Brand Strategy?
15:38 Why Does Relying Solely on LinkedIn Posts Fall Short of True Digital Presence?
15:49 What Has Become the Universal First Step in Professional Networking Today?
16:01 What Search Verticals Do People Explore When Researching New Connections?
16:16 How Do Digital Assets Work Together to Tell Your Complete Brand Story?
16:26 How Do Authentic Personal Images Help Build Meaningful Professional Connections?
16:58 What Extent Has ChatGPT and Other AI Technologies Changed the Approach of Sameer and His Clients?
This episode was recorded live on video January 21st 2025
https://youtube.com/live/E6t7anA_QFY
Links to pieces of content relevant to this topic:https://youtu.be/khCFv1J78Vk?si=92lU1XM0RTBqBG7mhttps://canvasrebel.com/meet-sameer-somal/https://www.cshlaw.com/resources/defamation-and-reputation-management-in-the-digital-age/Sameer Somal
Transcript from Building Trust in the Digital Age - Fastlane Founders with Sameer Somal
[00:00:00] Narrator: Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard. Each week Jason sits down with successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives and get them to share how they mastered the delicate balance between rapid growth and enduring success in the business world. How can we quickly build a profitable business that stands the test of time and becomes our legacy. A legacy we're proud of Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard.
[00:00:31] Jason Barnard: Hi and welcome to another Fastlane Founders and Legacy with me, Jason Barnard. And a quick hello and we're good to go. Welcome to the show, Sameer Somal.
[00:00:44] Sameer Somal: What a melody. Thank you Jason. Pleasure honor to be here and certainly have a genuine appreciation for your leadership, Kalicube and yeah, looking forward to the conversation.
[00:00:53] Jason Barnard: Yeah, me too. So we're going to be talking about Building Trust in the Digital Age, particularly personal brands, bad press, good press, how to protect yourself, how to defend yourself, and how to overcome bad press. But also I think as you said, the best defense is a great offense. So be proactive. But before that, I look at search results for people's names and this is what comes up for you. You've got your own website, which is great. Google and the AI are looking for that, what we call the entity home website that they can use as a source of information from you, about you and then build their understanding of you through corroboration around the web where you should normally get a Knowledge Panel which I'm sure you're not very far away from. And if people watching this want to search my name, Jason Barnard, you'll see what a great Knowledge Panel looks like.
The pink box is the top Knowledge Panel cards. Google really understands who I am and that's the fact it understands about me. But then I thought I'll look at you in ChatGPT and this is what ChatGPT comes up with. And what's great is I don't need to read the entire SERP, I can just read its summary. It's using Bing search results and it's summarizing them and that's pretty good. So as long as your search results on Bing are great, ChatGPT will represent you the way you want. That's what we do at Kalicube. And what do you do at Blue Ocean Global Technology, Sameer?
[00:02:16] Sameer Somal: Well Jason, I'm glad you didn't scroll down and show them all those negative links. Just kidding. You know, look, I always share with folks that I'm an accident into the reputation business. You know, I didn't held back by technology resources when as a former investment banker I launched a wealth management firm. In 2012, I did a global search. I found some great partners and I said maybe I should share these resources, given I've spent 18 months finding really good people. And so we started out and focused on the technical work, working with public relations agencies. They did what's called spray and pray, putting content out there, hoping that it ranks.
We were really good at all the work behind the scenes and understanding Google's algorithm. So Blue Ocean Global Technology specializes in building, monitoring and repairing digital reputations. We also do technology development, litigation, consulting. I've had the pleasure of being an expert witness and consulting on 300 plus cases. Many of them related to Internet Presence, Online Reputation, Search Engine Optimization, source code, Internet defamation, quantifying damages. So I come at it from a different lens. Not just being a resource for business owners, entrepreneurs, executives to take all the trust, goodwill, relationship capital they have offline and how do they represent it thoughtfully online, but also understanding the downside and the reputation risk and what happens when things reach the internet and people are able to take legal recourse or in many situations they're not able to. And how do you do to, what do you do to address those challenges?
[00:03:51] Jason Barnard: Right. So when you come in, when somebody has a problem of something showing up on Google that's negative, or in the Knowledge Panel even worse, which is the fact, according to Google or in ChatGPT, what's the process you go through to help them solve that problem and what are their expectations and are they reasonable?
[00:04:13] Sameer Somal: Wow, loaded question. First and foremost, I think that the vast majority of our work is actually done building positive brands when people don't have issues. But I'm proud of the fact that most of our clients who have come because of a challenge end up being our clients in perpetuity because we do really good work. And it starts with, one understanding what's out there, doing a reputation assessment. What is out there? What do you like? What is false, erroneous, harmful, defamatory, negative? What is kind of neutral? I was speaking with a family office earlier today and the gentleman who runs that organization was saying, I'm so frustrated. We have AAA rated PR and digital assets, but none of them are ranking on the first few pages. And he's right.
[00:05:01] Jason Barnard: Yeah.
[00:05:02] Sameer Somal: You know, this real estate deal he did 25 years ago is one of the things on the first page. So one, understand what is out there. Two, each person has an idiosyncratic, a unique view of what they want out there. And oftentimes I speak at events to sophisticated investors and high net worth folks. And I explained to them that, you know, Eric Schmidt said it best. Identity will be the most valuable commodity for citizens of the future and it will exist primarily online. And if you don't control the conversation and narrative about who you are, your strengths, your capabilities, well then somebody else can. And so you need to be proactive.
So one, it's understanding what somebody's comfortable with, what they're known as. There are a number of ways and strategies that we explore when somebody doesn't want information out there and they want to be, they still want to remain anonymous.