---
title: 'SEO and AI Shifts? Bravery Breeds Success'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=5_8xpzILeH0'
video_id: '5_8xpzILeH0'
date: 2026-07-29
duration_sec: 720
---

# SEO and AI Shifts? Bravery Breeds Success

> Source: [SEO and AI Shifts? Bravery Breeds Success](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5_8xpzILeH0)

## Summary

The video addresses the impact of Google algorithm updates and AI shifts on content creators and businesses, urging viewers to focus on building real value and resilience rather than dwelling on setbacks. It emphasizes that persistence and optimism are key to navigating change and achieving long-term success.

### Key Points

- **Focus on What Matters** [00:02] — The speaker asks viewers to reflect on where they spend their mental and physical energy, noting that this determines future outcomes.
- **Change is Constant** [00:43] — Recalling the pandemic's sudden changes, the speaker draws parallels to current shifts in the internet, AI, and information consumption.
- **Opportunity in Disruption** [01:26] — Change creates opportunities for those willing to adapt and create value, while many businesses fall by the wayside.
- **Productive vs. Unproductive Focus** [02:08] — The speaker contrasts focusing on creating value versus complaining about poor Google search results (SERPs).
- **Cheaters Lose in the End** [03:32] — Google's updates have penalized spammers, opening doors for those building real value and reputation.
- **The Game Has Multiple Rounds** [04:43] — Business is like a game with many rounds; losing one round doesn't mean losing the match. Persistence is key.
- **Optimism Leads to Better Outcomes** [05:38] — A study shows that optimists who play fair end up with more points than pessimists who cheat, as optimists collaborate and build trust.
- **Build a Resilient Business** [08:44] — Instead of relying solely on Google, focus on building a brand, doing real marketing, and cultivating personal relationships.
- **Persistence Over Talent** [09:41] — Quoting Calvin Coolidge, the speaker asserts that persistence and determination are more important than talent, genius, or education.
- **Your Choice to Persist** [11:11] — Success depends on your willingness to persist and learn, not on external factors like Google or innate talent.

### Conclusion

Embrace change with optimism and persistence. Build real value and relationships to create a resilient business that isn't dependent on any single platform.

## Transcript

the majority of your mental energy right now? you worrying about? And why?
Your why is very important, but the what of what you're doing is also very important, too. Because the what of what you're doing, where you're spending your energy, your mental energy and your physical energy,
those are the things that are going to dictate where you go next. Right now, we are in a time of change. Just like yesterday and the year before that. I remember a few years ago
new disease that was spreading around the world before it reached the US and thinking, "Well, wow, hopefully that doesn't come here. That seems like it'd Next thing we knew, the world was shut down and guess what? Basically
everything changed. And we adapted. And we came through it. Well, now we're at a time where the internet's changing. Information is changing. The way people interact with information is changing. Artificial intelligence is changing the
And the ways that we've gone about building business in the past are going to need to change to be successful in the future. That's okay. In fact, as change comes,
We see a lot of businesses fall by the wayside. Now, that's scary because you don't want that to be you. But it's also opportunity. Because with every change,
things being created, and there are new ways to interact with technology and with people. And the people that are willing to adapt with that change, and
the people who are willing to put in the real effort to build something of value those are the people who succeed. So, I go back to my original question. Are you focusing your time and attention on figuring out what you can create,
what value you can add to the world so that you can be compensated for it? Are you spending your time and energy, well, on Twitter saying about how awful the SERPs are? Now, they're not wrong.
of you who aren't familiar with that phrase, results pages. These are the pages when you type in a search, like in Google, and you see a listing of results. Those pages right
now are unhelpful in large part, ironically, given that Google has called They've essentially replaced helpful blog content with Reddit and
not a lot else. Now, we can talk about that, and we can have been some pretty funny things said about that, and some really scary things is that helpful to dwell
on how crummy the search results are right now? Is it helpful to dwell on how many people's websites have lost a bunch of traffic? Probably not. I would say definitely not. When I look at what's happened as a
made, I see a lot of people who have worked really hard, who have had their income quickly taken away. You know what else I see? A whole bunch of people who tried to to cheat and spam the system and get
away with it for a long time. Their entire business model has been destroyed. And to that, I say, good. Now, those are the words or the word of Jocko Willink, who, when looking at tough things that
that's the attitude that he takes. And that was pretty eye-opening to because no matter what happens to you, no matter how bad it seems like it could be, there's opportunity there. Right now,
As a result of that, guess what's happened? happened? A whole bunch of cheaters have had their business model taken away from them. And that has opened the door
value and establish a real reputation to be able to build business and be able to create content that actually helps people. Now, is that content currently today surfacing at the top of the search
results? Not really. But it will. That's because right now, we're at the end of a round. really any other fighting or many other sports,
there are rounds. And the end of the match doesn't come for many more rounds. The cool thing, too, is that this kind of game is like a merry-go-round where the rounds just keep going and
going and going and going. And the game only ends when you decide that you're going to get off. So, that's my question for you. What are you doing? if you are, you're off the merry-go-round right now.
You're not actually making any sort of progress. Do you want you do. You can just do whatever it is that you were doing before before you got into trying to create a business. It's not
it's something that you still want, the fight isn't over. Google's not done changing or adapting. We're not done changing and adapting. to come out on top. Now, I'm optimistic about this and I
didn't that way by choice. Did you know that optimists and worlds? Julia shared with me an interesting study that happened uh a few where a bunch of people in a room were invited
would pair up with another person, and they would play round of the game. That one round wasn't the whole game. It was just one little round. And in that round, there would be some sort of
interaction that took place. And you had a few options. You could play fairly, the winner would win points, and the loser wouldn't. There was also a way in the game that you could cheat. And if you cheated and won cuz the other person
didn't cheat, you got the points. But, if you cheated and the other person you would still get points, but not as many points. So, people who were naturally optimistic and who wanted to
be trusting of other people, those people would play the game. while, they'd get stuck with somebody who was more pessimistic and that would cheat. And whenever they did, they would lose,
and the cheater would win the points. What happened was, once they knew that that person would cheat in the game, they would never play with that person again. But, they also spread the word.
there, they are a cheater. Don't play with And pretty quickly, what happened is the room divided into two groups of people. fairly because they just assumed that the other people were also going to be
honest. And then there were the people who assumed everybody else is going to cheat anyway. And so, if I don't cheat, I'm going to lose. It's that game theory. If I assume everyone's going to cheat, then it's in my best interest to
cheat. And that's why we call the cheaters pessimists. And before long, optimist would no longer play with the pessimists at all because they would cheat, or at least there was a risk that they would cheat.
And they would only play with each other. And in the end, the optimist ended up with more points overall, independently each one of them, because who didn't do as well in the game ended up with more points than the pessimists,
up with more points than the pessimists, because the pessimists always could ended up maxing out at just the smaller number of points. When you live in a surrounding yourself with other pessimists. When you live in a world of
other optimists. When you are an optimist, you are far more likely to persevere, to do what needs to be done, to create something that matters, and to just put in the work until you get the
outcome that you want. You might lose a round here and there. We're all going to get hit down a few different times and we're going to lose a round here and there. But the beautiful thing is, it's not
Right now, a lot of us are losing this round because an external force called Google has changed the game on us, and we have That's okay. We can be down this round, but we can
learn from what's happened. We can see the way that our opponent is striking at us, and we can change the game ourselves. Instead of focusing on just creating content and hoping that that turns into
a good income, we can focus on creating a brand and doing real marketing, things all the time. And in doing that, it won't matter what Google does, because we won't be relying on just them. We'll be relying on so
also we're going to be relying on people, individual people who we have interacted with in the past and who have had a positive experience with us, who want to work with us in the future. Now, in case you're feeling like,
"I just don't know if that's me. I don't know if I have what it takes to be successful as a business person." That's okay, I understand you. But before you give up, I want to share with you something that was said by one of
the former presidents of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. I love this quote because I have seen it play out over and over and over again. Here's what he says, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." Don't expect to come up with the best solution overnight. Don't expect that you're going to have a strong business that is
in just a week or two. Expect that it's going to take persistence. And if you're willing to be the person that is persistent, you will over and over again. The people, especially in content
creation, the people that stick with it and are still creating content and still focused on creating value after a year or two years or three years, they find themselves doing really well. And the people who
always sought the easy way out or who just relied on their education or work, those people, well, we hardly remember who they are. And what I love about that
decide. Are you going to persist? Are you going to put in the effort? Are you going to learn what you need to learn and do the things that you need to learn to build a resilient business and
take control of your financial life, of your time, and be able to have the things that you've always wanted to have in life, whether that is things or whether that's opportunities or just freedom of your time.
That's up to you and does not depend on Google, it doesn't depend on your born talent, it doesn't depend on the amount of education you were able to get, it just depends
on you. So, let's make it happen.