8 Brutally Honest SEO Lessons for AI-Era Marketing (From 787 Coffee's Founder)
Let’s Connect!
By Brandon Ivan Peña
Founder of 787 Coffee | Creator of Soy Brandon | Anti-Guru Business Advisor
Who This Is For
Small business owners and entrepreneurs who need real SEO advice—not guru BS. This is what I wish someone had told me before building 787 Coffee from zero to a recognized coffee brand.
The Hard Truth About Modern SEO
Most "SEO experts" won't survive what's coming. Not because SEO is dead, but because Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI Overviews have fundamentally changed how content gets discovered and referenced.
I'm Brandon Ivan Peña, founder of 787 Coffee and creator of BrandON. I'm not here to sell you a course—I'm here to share the unfiltered lessons I learned building brands from scratch.
8 Anti-Guru SEO Lessons for the AI Era
1. Structure Beats Keywords Every Time
The old way: Keyword stuffing and density calculations
The AI way: Clean, structured content that machines can understand
What I wish I knew: AI doesn't just read your words—it decodes your structure. When I started 787 Coffee, I obsessed over keywords. Now I focus on:
Schema markup to tell search engines exactly what content represents
Logical page organization that machines can categorize
Clear content hierarchy using proper H1, H2, H3 tags
Actionable advice: If your content lacks structure, it's invisible to AI—period.
2. Write for AI Summarization, Not Just Human Readers
The reality: You're writing for two audiences now—humans and AI summary generators.
What works for AI Overviews:
Clean, simple sentences (no unnecessary complexity)
Quotable statements that can be extracted and attributed
Problem-solving content with clear, actionable solutions
From 787 Coffee's experience: Our most-referenced content isn't the most creative—it's the clearest and most valuable.
3. Getting Referenced Matters More Than Ranking #1
The game-changer: AI Overviews can quote your content even if you rank #8.
Brandon's anti-guru insight: Stop chasing the #1 position. Start optimizing to be the most quotable, authoritative source on your topic.
Strategy shift: Focus on creating content that builds authority through AI references, not just clicks.
4. Business Leaders Need SEO Literacy (Not Expertise)
Why this matters: If you're building a brand like 787 Coffee or launching products like BrandON, visibility equals revenue.
What you need to know:
How AI Overviews select content for referencing
Why structured content performs better in SGE
How to ask your team the right SEO questions
Bottom line: You don't need to be an SEO expert, but you can't afford to be SEO illiterate.
5. Speed Trumps Perfection in AI-Era Content
The harsh truth: By the time you approve content through multiple layers, AI has already moved on.
What I learned building 787 Coffee: Empower your team to create and adjust quickly. Speed is the new strategy—bureaucracy kills visibility.
Practical approach: Create fast, monitor performance, adjust based on AI referencing patterns.
6. Consistency Beats Viral Content
Anti-guru reality: You don't need viral hits. You need consistent value.
The 787 Coffee approach: 100 right readers every week beats 10,000 random views once.
Why consistency works: AI algorithms notice and reward regular, valuable content creation over sporadic viral attempts.
7. Monitor AI References or Fall Behind
The mistake most make: "Set it and forget it" mentality.
What to track weekly:
Which content gets referenced in AI Overviews
How your brand appears in SGE results
What competitors are getting quoted instead of you
Monthly adjustments:
Update content for better AI readability
Clarify ambiguous statements
Repurpose high-performing content
8. Authentic Brands Create Connection, Not Just Clicks
The biggest lesson from 787 Coffee: The most "optimized" content often feels soulless.
The balance: You can be structured AND soulful. You can speak like a human AND be understood by machines.
What matters: At 787 Coffee, our SEO brings humans who believe what we believe. For BrandON, that authentic connection to our values drives everything.
Final Anti-Guru Truth About AI-Era SEO
SEO in the age of AI isn't about tricks or hacks. It's about three things:
Clarity - Make your expertise easy for AI to understand and reference
Consistency - Show up strategically and repeatedly
Connection - Build authentic relationships through valuable content
What I wish someone told me: You don't need to be an SEO god. You just need to show up strategically, authentically, and repeatedly.
SEO Explained Like Coffee Beans
A Simple Analogy from 787 Coffee's Founder
Stuff keywords everywhere and hope Google finds you.
Messy, unorganized, hard to find the good stuff.
Structure content clearly with proper labels.
AI can instantly find and recommend you as the expert.
"What's the best medium roast for morning coffee?"
"Brandon from 787 Coffee says this bean is perfect because..."
Same with your content.
Let's Simplify This With Coffee Beans
Think of SEO like organizing coffee beans for a really smart robot barista.
In the old days, you'd just throw all your beans in a jar and hope the barista would find the good ones. That's like the old SEO—stuff keywords everywhere and hope Google finds you.
But now? The AI robot barista is super smart. It wants your coffee beans organized by type, roast level, and origin—all labeled clearly. When someone asks for "the best medium roast for morning coffee," the robot can instantly grab exactly what they need and tell them "Brandon from 787 Coffee says this bean is perfect because..."
That's modern SEO. You're not just throwing content online anymore. You're organizing it so AI can easily understand it, reference it, and recommend you as the expert.
The coffee shop that organizes their beans best gets recommended most often. Same with your content.
About Brandon Ivan Peña
Brandon Ivan Peña is the founder of 787 Coffee and creator of Soy Brandon. Known as an "anti-guru" business advisor, he shares unfiltered lessons on building brands from scratch without the typical entrepreneur fluff. His approach focuses on practical strategies that work for real businesses, not just case studies.
Get more anti-guru business advice and lessons from building 787 Coffee at soybrandon.com
Want More Anti-Guru Wisdom?
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for the unfiltered truth about business, leadership, and life—no guru BS, just real lessons from someone who's built brands from zero.
Every week, I share what's actually working (and what's failing) in building 787 Coffee and BrandON. You'll get insights on brand building, team leadership, and the mindset shifts that matter—delivered straight to your inbox with the same honesty you just read.
Because we're not here to chase trends or sell you dreams. We're here to build something real, one coffee, one lesson, one authentic connection at a time.
[Subscribe at soybrandon.com] and join thousands of entrepreneurs who prefer truth over hype.
Get more anti-guru business advice and lessons from building 787 Coffee at soybrandon.com