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Greg Heilers with Jason Barnard on Fastlane Founders And Legacy. Authority Building Secrets
Greg Heilers talks with Jason Barnard about authority building secrets.
Authority Building Secrets! Greg Heilers—co-founder of Jolly SEO, and digital authority strategist who has secured media placements for countless C-suite executives since 2017—reveals the insider system for transforming unknown entrepreneurs into recognized industry authorities. Drawing from extensive experience in journalist outreach platforms and performance-based PR strategies, Greg breaks down his proven methodology for earning high-quality media mentions that build genuine credibility and thought leadership without relying on paid shortcuts or gimmicky tactics.
Get ready for a deep dive on:- The journalist outreach platform strategy: How to leverage platforms like HARO, Featured.com, and others to secure expert citations in top-tier publications- The numbers game decoded: Realistic conversion rates, platform differences, and why premium vs. free platforms matter for your success rate- Quality over quantity approach: Why a mention in a niche-relevant publication can be more valuable than a major outlet placement- The co-citation power play: How being mentioned alongside established authorities amplifies your credibility in AI-powered search- Beyond traditional link building: Why brand mentions without links are now equally powerful for building digital authority- The listicle comeback strategy: How smart brands are leveraging collaborative content placements to boost AI visibility- Performance-based PR secrets: The "pay for wins only" model that ensures accountability and measurable results
This episode delivers proven, accessible strategies for entrepreneurs, founders, and business leaders ready to build authentic authority through strategic media positioning and expert citations.
#AuthorityBuilding #PR #MediaMentions #PersonalBranding #EntrepreneurAuthority #DigitalPR #ExpertPositioning #FastlaneFounders #GregHeilers #JournalistOutreach #BrandBuilding #ThoughtLeadership #BusinessGrowth #SEOStrategy #EntrepreneurTips
What you’ll learn from Greg Heilers
This episode was recorded live on video September 9th 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTqfuoeJJY8
Links to pieces of content relevant to this topic:https://www.theseoshow.co/episode/127https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/greg-heilershttps://backlinko.com/haro-alternativesGreg Heilers
Transcript from Greg Heilers with Jason Barnard on Fastlane Founders And Legacy. Authority Building Secrets
[00:00:00] Greg Heilers: In the journalist outreach ecosystem, as it were, there are limitations. There's only so many publications. So if you only want new wins, for example, it's not super scalable because the same publications are coming again and again. But for the person who wants to stay relevant, stay top of mind, to both algorithms and human readers, yeah, we have clients who are with us for years. And we're just doing something like 5 or maybe 10 wins per month, month after month after month. Now we don't count the syndicated stuff. So there's way more in terms of syndicated content out there that definitely builds and it scales. But I'm just talking purely about the one-to-one wins that we've built.
[00:00:51] 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.
[00:01:20] Jason Barnard: Hi, everybody 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, Greg Heilers.
[00:01:33] Greg Heilers: Awesome to be here, Jason. Thank you.
[00:01:35] Jason Barnard: Brilliant, lovely. We're working to talking about Authority Building Secrets for entrepreneurs, and this is hugely close to my heart.
You build authority, you get the PR. At Kalicube®, we leverage that and amplify it in Google and AI. So I think we're gonna have a really great conversation. Now, the first thing I always do is analyze people's Brand SERPs. And this is what comes up for you. You've got a small Knowledge Panel. That's a tiny Knowledge Panel with your name, a tiny photo, Facebook.
Obviously, you are thinking about or working on building that out to something that looks more like this. Scott Duffy, Kalicube®'s favorite client of the moment. We've built this lovely Knowledge Panel for him. He's been with us for five years, managing his personal brand in Google and AI, and that makes him look like a superstar.
And he is, he sold a company to Richard Branson, so he is a superstar. He deserves that positioning. And then I looked in ChatGPT for you. I got a really, really lovely description. Co-founder of Jolly SEO, founded in 2017, and so AI is doing this summary job directly in the chat, and it generally gets it pretty good.
I was really impressed by what you've got there. Have you done any work on the AI aspect of your personal brand?
[00:02:58] Greg Heilers: I haven't done a lot intentionally, I should say. So what we have learned in the last year or so is that brand mentions carry a lot of weight right now as of mid 2025. So unintentionally, yeah, I've done a lot, but it wasn't intentional, I'll be honest.
[00:03:17] Jason Barnard: Right. And podcast guest appearances are great because you get brand mentions and you also get co-cited. In AI, co-citation is really important. So being co-cited with Jason Barnard helps Greg, and being co-cited with Greg Heilers helps Jason Barnard. So explain to me what Jolly SEO does, because my approach to all of this is saying, well, I'm gonna take what you've got already, so don't bother doing anything else.
And I will package it for the machines and amplify it through Google and AI. And if you think about Google and AI, it's trillions of conversations with billions of people every day. The people trust them to recommend the best solution. And if we can amplify you there, we're amplifying you through the biggest influences in the world.
But we can always have more press PR mentions, how do you do it?
[00:04:04] Greg Heilers: So what we do is actually very accessible to founders listening to your podcast, Jason. We use these journalist outreach platforms they're called. The old school one, Help A Reporter Out. It's helpareporter.com. There's lots of others now, featured.com, you gotta pay for a subscription, but really easy to get a win on there and several others.
All you're doing here is a reporter working on an upcoming article says, I need an expert on personal branding. For example, you chime in with three sentences, maybe 10 sentences, nothing more. You're not writing the whole article and then you sit and wait and hope you get picked up. It's a numbers game to that extent.
But in a nutshell, that's what we do for clients.
[00:04:52] Jason Barnard: And you mentioned numbers game. I mean, what are the numbers? What's the probability? I would say, what's the probability for somebody who's just giving it a go like I might? And the probability for somebody who knows what they're doing, like you?
[00:05:04] Greg Heilers: Yeah. And that's really important because you're an expert at what you do.
And that's the most important part. Obviously, having some writing skill is important, but it doesn't have to be perfect grammar, doesn't have to be perfect punctuation. To answer your question super directly though, every platform has its own conversion ratio, we call it. Some of these platforms, you can expect maybe for every 10 pitches you send, you get a win, a published link somewhere or your name mentioned. Some of the platforms are harder and some are easier. So you can rig this in your favor by paying a premium to platforms that filters out a lot of people who aren't really invested.
But there's plenty of free options that you just need to write a little bit more. Again, just quick reminder, you're not writing a whole article, you're just writing a two paragraph pitch.
[00:05:59] Jason Barnard: Right, now, i'm coming back to that is number one, great advice. You're not writing the whole article. I think we would all go in there thinking I'm gonna answer the entire question.
It's one point that helps the journalist move their article forward. And I'm sure a lot of people listening to this contribute to Forbes. And Forbes have that expert panel where they limit you to 400 characters. Is 400 characters a good idea?
[00:06:24] Greg Heilers: Yeah, it's somewhere around there. We have it pegged per platform, how many words you need.
And so while I don't have it in characters, it seems like it'd be somewhere around there. It's around a hundred words. If we were to average it across them all. So, it's pretty succinct.
[00:06:40] Jason Barnard: Okay. And on these platforms, so you're saying that some of them have a premium service where the people who are just playing around get filtered out?
So the idea is it's free for anybody and a lot of people sign up for the free one and they just really don't take it seriously. The ones who pay a premium are the ones that are being pushed.
[00:07:03] Greg Heilers: Well, perhaps I misspoke. I mean that there are both premium and free platforms. And some of the platforms do have premium versions, but if you wanna save time and spend a little money, for example, Qwoted, Q-W-O-T-E-D has very high quality publications and you'll convert pretty well because it costs quite a bit of money to use.
And then, there are free like helpab2bwriter.com, just marketing and business opportunities. Pretty decent conversion. Maybe like one in 12 ish you could expect,
View all episodes
By Jason Barnard Entrepreneur and CEO of Kalicube
4.8
2222 ratings
Greg Heilers talks with Jason Barnard about authority building secrets.
Authority Building Secrets! Greg Heilers—co-founder of Jolly SEO, and digital authority strategist who has secured media placements for countless C-suite executives since 2017—reveals the insider system for transforming unknown entrepreneurs into recognized industry authorities. Drawing from extensive experience in journalist outreach platforms and performance-based PR strategies, Greg breaks down his proven methodology for earning high-quality media mentions that build genuine credibility and thought leadership without relying on paid shortcuts or gimmicky tactics.
Get ready for a deep dive on:- The journalist outreach platform strategy: How to leverage platforms like HARO, Featured.com, and others to secure expert citations in top-tier publications- The numbers game decoded: Realistic conversion rates, platform differences, and why premium vs. free platforms matter for your success rate- Quality over quantity approach: Why a mention in a niche-relevant publication can be more valuable than a major outlet placement- The co-citation power play: How being mentioned alongside established authorities amplifies your credibility in AI-powered search- Beyond traditional link building: Why brand mentions without links are now equally powerful for building digital authority- The listicle comeback strategy: How smart brands are leveraging collaborative content placements to boost AI visibility- Performance-based PR secrets: The "pay for wins only" model that ensures accountability and measurable results
This episode delivers proven, accessible strategies for entrepreneurs, founders, and business leaders ready to build authentic authority through strategic media positioning and expert citations.
#AuthorityBuilding #PR #MediaMentions #PersonalBranding #EntrepreneurAuthority #DigitalPR #ExpertPositioning #FastlaneFounders #GregHeilers #JournalistOutreach #BrandBuilding #ThoughtLeadership #BusinessGrowth #SEOStrategy #EntrepreneurTips
What you’ll learn from Greg Heilers
This episode was recorded live on video September 9th 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTqfuoeJJY8
Links to pieces of content relevant to this topic:https://www.theseoshow.co/episode/127https://majestic.com/seo-in-2025/additional-insights/greg-heilershttps://backlinko.com/haro-alternativesGreg Heilers
Transcript from Greg Heilers with Jason Barnard on Fastlane Founders And Legacy. Authority Building Secrets
[00:00:00] Greg Heilers: In the journalist outreach ecosystem, as it were, there are limitations. There's only so many publications. So if you only want new wins, for example, it's not super scalable because the same publications are coming again and again. But for the person who wants to stay relevant, stay top of mind, to both algorithms and human readers, yeah, we have clients who are with us for years. And we're just doing something like 5 or maybe 10 wins per month, month after month after month. Now we don't count the syndicated stuff. So there's way more in terms of syndicated content out there that definitely builds and it scales. But I'm just talking purely about the one-to-one wins that we've built.
[00:00:51] 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.
[00:01:20] Jason Barnard: Hi, everybody 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, Greg Heilers.
[00:01:33] Greg Heilers: Awesome to be here, Jason. Thank you.
[00:01:35] Jason Barnard: Brilliant, lovely. We're working to talking about Authority Building Secrets for entrepreneurs, and this is hugely close to my heart.
You build authority, you get the PR. At Kalicube®, we leverage that and amplify it in Google and AI. So I think we're gonna have a really great conversation. Now, the first thing I always do is analyze people's Brand SERPs. And this is what comes up for you. You've got a small Knowledge Panel. That's a tiny Knowledge Panel with your name, a tiny photo, Facebook.
Obviously, you are thinking about or working on building that out to something that looks more like this. Scott Duffy, Kalicube®'s favorite client of the moment. We've built this lovely Knowledge Panel for him. He's been with us for five years, managing his personal brand in Google and AI, and that makes him look like a superstar.
And he is, he sold a company to Richard Branson, so he is a superstar. He deserves that positioning. And then I looked in ChatGPT for you. I got a really, really lovely description. Co-founder of Jolly SEO, founded in 2017, and so AI is doing this summary job directly in the chat, and it generally gets it pretty good.
I was really impressed by what you've got there. Have you done any work on the AI aspect of your personal brand?
[00:02:58] Greg Heilers: I haven't done a lot intentionally, I should say. So what we have learned in the last year or so is that brand mentions carry a lot of weight right now as of mid 2025. So unintentionally, yeah, I've done a lot, but it wasn't intentional, I'll be honest.
[00:03:17] Jason Barnard: Right. And podcast guest appearances are great because you get brand mentions and you also get co-cited. In AI, co-citation is really important. So being co-cited with Jason Barnard helps Greg, and being co-cited with Greg Heilers helps Jason Barnard. So explain to me what Jolly SEO does, because my approach to all of this is saying, well, I'm gonna take what you've got already, so don't bother doing anything else.
And I will package it for the machines and amplify it through Google and AI. And if you think about Google and AI, it's trillions of conversations with billions of people every day. The people trust them to recommend the best solution. And if we can amplify you there, we're amplifying you through the biggest influences in the world.
But we can always have more press PR mentions, how do you do it?
[00:04:04] Greg Heilers: So what we do is actually very accessible to founders listening to your podcast, Jason. We use these journalist outreach platforms they're called. The old school one, Help A Reporter Out. It's helpareporter.com. There's lots of others now, featured.com, you gotta pay for a subscription, but really easy to get a win on there and several others.
All you're doing here is a reporter working on an upcoming article says, I need an expert on personal branding. For example, you chime in with three sentences, maybe 10 sentences, nothing more. You're not writing the whole article and then you sit and wait and hope you get picked up. It's a numbers game to that extent.
But in a nutshell, that's what we do for clients.
[00:04:52] Jason Barnard: And you mentioned numbers game. I mean, what are the numbers? What's the probability? I would say, what's the probability for somebody who's just giving it a go like I might? And the probability for somebody who knows what they're doing, like you?
[00:05:04] Greg Heilers: Yeah. And that's really important because you're an expert at what you do.
And that's the most important part. Obviously, having some writing skill is important, but it doesn't have to be perfect grammar, doesn't have to be perfect punctuation. To answer your question super directly though, every platform has its own conversion ratio, we call it. Some of these platforms, you can expect maybe for every 10 pitches you send, you get a win, a published link somewhere or your name mentioned. Some of the platforms are harder and some are easier. So you can rig this in your favor by paying a premium to platforms that filters out a lot of people who aren't really invested.
But there's plenty of free options that you just need to write a little bit more. Again, just quick reminder, you're not writing a whole article, you're just writing a two paragraph pitch.
[00:05:59] Jason Barnard: Right, now, i'm coming back to that is number one, great advice. You're not writing the whole article. I think we would all go in there thinking I'm gonna answer the entire question.
It's one point that helps the journalist move their article forward. And I'm sure a lot of people listening to this contribute to Forbes. And Forbes have that expert panel where they limit you to 400 characters. Is 400 characters a good idea?
[00:06:24] Greg Heilers: Yeah, it's somewhere around there. We have it pegged per platform, how many words you need.
And so while I don't have it in characters, it seems like it'd be somewhere around there. It's around a hundred words. If we were to average it across them all. So, it's pretty succinct.
[00:06:40] Jason Barnard: Okay. And on these platforms, so you're saying that some of them have a premium service where the people who are just playing around get filtered out?
So the idea is it's free for anybody and a lot of people sign up for the free one and they just really don't take it seriously. The ones who pay a premium are the ones that are being pushed.
[00:07:03] Greg Heilers: Well, perhaps I misspoke. I mean that there are both premium and free platforms. And some of the platforms do have premium versions, but if you wanna save time and spend a little money, for example, Qwoted, Q-W-O-T-E-D has very high quality publications and you'll convert pretty well because it costs quite a bit of money to use.
And then, there are free like helpab2bwriter.com, just marketing and business opportunities. Pretty decent conversion. Maybe like one in 12 ish you could expect,