AdAge 40 Under 40 - CEO at Growth Skills - Fractional CMO - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2022 U.S Search Best Campaign Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

I’m a performance driven Growth Marketing expert. I help brands acquire customers and increase their value over time. I have a deep speciality in SEO & Content Marketing. I made AdAge's 40 under 40 for innovating in these areas. I'm a self taught marketer so I can talk theory but also do hands on execution. 

Philosophy: There are only two relationships in Nature. Symbiotic and parasitic. Humans and corporations can chose to be either. I’ve chosen to grow and nurture symbiotic relationships with friends, family, coworkers and clients. I also help connect people who I know would thrive together. 

Kyokushin Karate: I’m a bare knuckle Kyokushin Karate champion. I equate bare knuckle Karate to growing a start up. You have to embrace the suck, be fearless and stare the problem in front of you right in the eyes and solve it. I’ve learned that martial arts has very little to do with kicking and punching but everything to do with life.

Specialties: Business and Team Growth, SEO Management, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, SEO Product Development, Social Media Marketing, PPC, Website Development, Video Editing, Video Production, Project Management, Partnerships, Negotiation, Sales, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, PR, Brand Building, Brand Positioning

Lavall Chichester

I'm speaking Digiday  Digiday Media Buying Summit Monday, March 2nd 2026.    My topic: Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice: 🎓 

In this session, we’ll unpack the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Discover what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

I hope to meet you IRL there.

#aio #geo #aeo #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #llms #searchengineoptimization #asnwerengineoptimization #ppc #googleads #digitalemdia

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🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

AdAge 40 Under 40 - EVP, BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

ChatGPT has invested heavily in SEO & Content Marketing. 💸 
I did an analysis for Search Engine Land of ChatGPTs SEO & Content marketing efforts and potential ROI. I showed how Perplexity and Claude are also using SEO, but not doing it as well as they could. ☠️ 

The Summary: 🎓 
-ChatGPT built a brand and amazing product. They cash in on that with 45 million searches for “ChatGPT” for their brand name.
-They built SEO into their user generated content creating content that drive traffic and conversions at scale
-Perplexity and Claude mess up basic SEO. Basic SEO works and should never be overlooked.

Read my article at the link below and watch the video in this post.

I hope you copy what ChatGPT is doing and take it to the bank. I’m rooting for you. 🥋 

#contentmarketing #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #searchengineoptimization 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Great day one. Don’t burn your house down with AI. 🥋

”What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. Digiday

The Digiday Media Buying Summit kicked off today in Nashville, TN 🤠 Here's a recap of Day One ... 

➡️ In our 'The view from the top' session, Ralph Pardo of Omnicom Media joined Michael Burgi to discuss how the media unit is moving forward armed with Acxiom, as well dealing with fee pressures, AI acceleration, consolidation and evolving client expectations.

"The pace requires us to constantly evaluate. The service will change; the models will change. We’re going to have to stay quite nimble for the next 18 months," Pardo said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice' session, Lavall Chichester of BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media chatted with Sam Bradley about the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), as well as what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

"What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Have we reached peak retail media?' session, Jared Belsky of Acadia examined whether we’ve seen the retail media wave crest, and what might hold back further investment growth in this area – and how agentic and AI developments might alter strategies.

"There is friction, but here's why I'm not negative. This is the shape of [retail media] today. This is a better friction than the old friction," Belsky said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Transparency and independent strategy' session, Kaitlyn Mcinnis of CROSSMEDIA joined James Cooper to discuss how to use AI for media orchestration without surrendering the transparency that independent agencies are built upon.

"I think as marketers, we're overestimating AI as a feature and underestimating the trust factor with consumers," Mcinnis said onstage during the session.

I had the pleasure of speaking at Digiday Media Summit last week. The conference was amazing. I met some brilliant people. ❤️‍🔥 

My quote "AI, is like fire. It can be used to cook food, or burn your house down." Resonated with the audience because of how real it is. 🔥 

Three real examples of AI burning your brands house down: 🧑‍🚒 
- Media: You use AI to pump out creatives on social and AI granny shows up and creeps your customers out. You got off easy with 1st degree burns. But damage to your brand was done because people documented the sightings.
-GEO: You buy that shiny new GEO/AEO monitoring platform and you realize it's useless. Worse you chase synthetic prompts to rank for things on ChatGPT that still won't drive traffic and revenue to your site. AI gives you 2nd degree burns.
-SEO/Content: Use AI to write and pump out articles that work in the beginning but then tank your organic search performance and it takes a year at least to recover. AI gives you 3rd degree burns.

The most insightful thing I noticed at the conference was the AI fatigue. 
To a lot of the agency folks AI seemed to be this heavy blanket they were
carrying around in the middle of a desert. It get it. AI is every where and overwhleming.

However, now is the time to learn and embrace it beyond the simple prompting.
There are people vibe coding multi-million dollar SaaS products right now.
AI is a life changing gift and most of us are getting paid to learn it.

Shake it off. Get your reps in with the AI tools and do the work to level up.
In, a year you will be glad that you did. If you need help, reach out. I'm rooting for you. 👏 


#digidaymediasummit #business #careeradvice   #ai #seo #sem  
#contentmarketing #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #searchengineoptimization 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Most people sleep on Bing for website traffic and revenue. I highly recommend you change that. Bing Web Masters Tools even gives you customer service. They fix issues and actually reply. Google and Google Search Console has a lot to learn from them. My client had a problem, I summited the ticket, it got a reply and a fix. Fixed in under two weeks. Bravo. 👏 

#bing #google #bingvsgoogle #contentmarketing #seo 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol changes the game for e-commerce brands. Nelson Sarco who leads SEO and AI Optimization delivery for us explains it. Read his article on Search Engine Land and learn what brands need to do to use it. #seo #geo #ecommerce #google

Digital Marketing Leader 🔹 Collaborative Problem-Solver 🔹 Effective Player-Coach 🔹 Technology Enthusiast 🔹 Motivated Self-Starter

Most commerce leaders are still thinking in terms of channels.
Search. Paid media. Marketplaces. Owned channels.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol forces a different question: What happens when the “channel” is an AI agent making decisions on behalf of your customer?

If that question makes you pause, it should.

In my latest Search Engine Land article, I unpack what this shift means for enterprise growth, commerce, SEO, and AI leaders. Link below.

#AICommerce #UCP #AgenticCommerce #DigitalStrategy #SEO

VP of People at Gorilla | In the pursuit of employee significance | Leadership & Career Coach | Illustrator | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

I’m a tech executive who believes the future belongs to companies that combine AI capability with human intelligence.

Not AI as a silver bullet.
Not people strategy as soft culture work.
Not simplistic “do more, faster” productivity narratives.
But practical systems that help organisations make better decisions as they scale.

I’ve spent my career building and operating those systems across people, performance, operating models, and now AI. 

The work only matters if it shows up in reality; how leaders lead, how teams decide, and how companies change without losing trust.

Most recently, I led the global People function at a Series B energy tech company and co-led our early AI rollout across governance, ethics, enablement, tooling, and experimentation. 

Alongside this, I work with founders, executives, and investors as a fractional leader and advisor. I help organisations roll out AI responsibly, navigate change, and build people systems that compound growth rather than create drag.

If you’re a founder, COO, CPO or leader trying to:
- adopt AI without breaking trust or momentum
- lead change without drowning managers in process
- scale people and operating systems that actually work in the real world.

I write and speak for you.

Things I write about:

- Practical AI adoption without hype or harm
- Where human judgment still matters in everyday AI decisions
- Leading change that creates clarity and engagement, not chaos
- People systems that support growth instead of getting in the way
- Why culture breaks during scale-ups, and how to fix it

Vanessa Monsequeira

2 months ago, I had to decide to stay in-house or bet on myself and go solo.

I knew which direction pulled at me.

But I was about to play it safe: positioning myself in a category that felt comfortable, familiar and small.

I told myself I didn't have the right to play in AI.

Even though I'd led AI adoption in my last organisation.

Even though our VC asked me to present best practices and pitfalls to their portfolio companies.

The doubts were loud:
↳ “I'm not technical enough”
↳ “What about the financial risks?”
↳ “Who am I to claim this space?”
↳ “What if I am no good?”

Then I met Frans van Loef in January. 

A busy executive coach, author and former CEO. The kind of person whose calendar you don't expect to make it onto twice.

We had a mentoring conversation over a year ago.

But when we sat down at the same café, same table, it felt like no time had passed.

Like catching up with an old friend who wasn't going to let me shrink. And someone who could show me what it actually looked like to back myself.

He didn't let me get away with playing small.

Frans didn't give me a pep talk. He held up a mirror.

Not just to the last 15 months of AI work, but to 15 years of leadership, change, transformation, tech and business consulting.

The pattern was right there. I'd been doing this work all along, I just hadn't claimed it.

That conversation shifted something.

I stopped waiting for permission and started building.
(more on this every week)

Last week, I launched my business.

I help tech leaders close the gap between AI ambition and AI outcomes, without burning out their managers or losing top talent.

Since then, I've had multiple enquiries and calls.

That's what happens when someone helps you see what you've been too close to see yourself.

Building a business will never be easy.

But if there's a "shortcut", it's having someone who can reflect your capability back to you when self-doubt is doing the talking.

Then it comes down to backing yourself. FULLY.

Frans, thank you for being in my corner!


PS. I’m about to launch my newsletter on How AI is rewiring thinking, leadership, and the workforce. Get it for free: https://lnkd.in/eh_aYrzw

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

AI Transformation and Change Leadership | Fractional VP People | Building Work as a Product | Corporate Hippy

Close-up selfie of two people smiling warmly at the camera indoors. On the left, a man with short light brown hair and blue eyes wears a navy collared shirt. On the right, a woman with shoulder-length dark curly hair wears a light knit top, gold necklace, and colorful earrings. They are standing close together in a cozy space with exposed brick and soft natural light in the background.

Anthropic dropped their AI fluency report this week.

Two findings made me curious and hungry:

1. AI Fluency is strongly linked to iteration and refinement, not just output volume.

2. When creating outputs (e.g. documents, code), users get more directive but less evaluative.

AI is making us better but only if we use it to augment our thinking, not delegate, deliver and forget. 

I believe the answer isn't to stop using AI to create outputs.

It's to use it with critical thinking:
↳ Structure Problem Solving
↳ Analysis and Critique
↳ Decision Making 

The problem is that critical thinking is rarely taught in schools, universities, or businesses.

So we're handing people a powerful tool with no framework for how to actually think with it.

That's why I built the The Critical Thinking Sandwich:

Your thinking is the bread: Thick, sturdy, holding everything together.

The filling (meat or veg) is where the real work happens: The iteration, the critique, the refinement.

AI is the cheese: Essential, delicious, sticks things together, but never the main event.

AI is the cheese but it doesn't make the sandwich.

Your thinking does.


#criticalthinking #AI #cognitivedebt

"How to stay sharp when AI does the work" showing The Critical Thinking Sandwich — a five-layer framework for using AI without losing your edge.
Layer 1 (orange, thick): Critical Forethought. Frame the problem yourself before you prompt.
Layer 2 (yellow, thin): AI Output v1. Raw material. Not the answer.
Layer 3 (green, thick): Critical Analysis. You interrogate first, then ask AI to challenge it from multiple angles.
Layer 4 (yellow, thin): AI Output v2+. Refined and pressure tested.
Layer 5 (orange, thick): Critical Readiness. Can you defend this without AI? If not, go back into the filling.
Footer: "AI is the cheese. It doesn't make the sandwich."

IT teams are about to become everyone's problem.

Most leaders haven't realised it yet.

At a hackathon last month, Debora Gallo shared an example that I haven't stopped thinking about. 

People teams are starting to build their own tools. 

Personalised, scrappy and iterative is exactly what the business needs. 

And IT's response was awesome, but we can't maintain that. 

I've seen this movie before. 

Years ago I was brought in as a tech consultant because a company's manufacturing engineering team had started building their own systems rather than waiting in the IT queue. 

They would "dev all the way to core systems" and then throw it over the fence to IT. 

IT was getting frustrated: 
→ Those systems needed to talk to central infrastructure. 
→ They needed someone to maintain them post development. 
→ They needed security sign-off. 

But nobody had planned for it because they went around IT.

They thought IT was too slow and always said no.  

And the whole thing became an expensive, political mess to untangle. 

That was considered an edge case back then. 

"Shadow IT" was the awkward anomaly everyone quietly complained about. In the age of vibe-coding, it becomes the default. 

And the People team won't be the only ones building. 

Finance, Ops, Marketing, Sales and any function with a problem and a bit of curiosity can now ship something. 

That's genuinely exciting! 

But it's also a structural time bomb if no one is asking the harder questions. 

What leaders need to start doing: 

1️⃣ Map your org design for a world where every function can build, not just request. 

2️⃣ Set the rules now: maintenance, governance and security can't be an afterthought when every team is shipping. 

3️⃣ Audit your future roles and skills. Agentic AI and vibe-coding are rewriting what every job actually requires. 

Keen to hear if you've been doing or observing any of the above. 

#aiadoption #orgdesign #futureroles

Black background with large white serif text reading "In organizations when everyone is vibe-coding......." with the words "vibe-coding" highlighted in purple, followed by "Who will maintain our apps?" with the word "maintain" highlighted in coral orange. Vanessa Monsequeira and Intentional AI Adoption appear in small text at the bottom left and right corners.

Have you every attended a 'conference' that changes the way you think, learn and experiment?

For me that's been PX experiences by SapienX.

Every year I learn things from fellow speakers and peers that keeps me coming back. 

Every single time I've been able to put what I've learned into action immediately.

Key highlights:

🗓️ 2024 - London

➟ How to launch people products using best practices from marketing 
➟ UX to PX applications and north star and meaningful metrics 
➟ Deep dives into service design and the double diamond, and interactive icebreakers I still steal to this day. 
➟ Everyone comes to the game of work with the same set of cards but a different set of rules from past workplaces... and we expect everyone to play the same game 

🗓️ 2025 - London and Amsterdam

➟ PX in action for performance design 
➟ PX and service design deeper dives 
➟ Practical applications of agile for people teams 
➟ The culture card game and a touch of wizardry 
➟ Experiment Design canvas - integrating all our learnings into action 
➟ Purpose at work interactive session and preview of Jessica Zwaan's new book 
➟ The future of HR turning into the future of design of work, workforce, and workflows 


🗓️ 2026 What will we see next? 

Join us at PX Live to find out.

It's going to be a cracking line-up:

Alicia Grimes
Dart Lindsley
Glenn Martin
Chris Metcalfe
Luke O'Mahoney
Thomas Forstner
JooBee Yeow, PhD (OOO)
and me Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

If you're: 
👉🏽 A Head of People trying to drive real impact 
👉🏽 A PX leader building capability beyond admin 
👉🏽 Someone who believes the People function can be more strategic

come join us for the fun, to learn, and to be part of the movement to redesign the future of HR and work.

It's on March 20 and it's limited to 100 practitioners.

Discount code - VANESSA-10

#peopleexperience #pxlive

Promotional banner for PX Live London featuring a diverse audience smiling and seated at a live event. Overlaid text reads: “Work is broken. Product can fix it.” Event details: “PX Live — London | March 20th.” “Limited tickets available” appears alongside a QR code. Supported by hownow, Humaans, and huggg. Sapien logo in the top left corner.

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The Battle

Lavall Chichester

Vanessa Monsequeira

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Performance ScoreLavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Lavall Chichester

Vanessa Monsequeira

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Lavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreVanessa Monsequeira's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreLavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance