I grew up backstage in the speaking business.

My father is a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author who has keynoted for NASA, Disney, and hundreds of audiences around the world. In early 2026 I noticed something: event planners had stopped Googling speakers and started asking AI.

So I ran the test on my own dad. I tracked the real questions planners ask, every day, across the AI tools they use. The results surprised both of us. AI knew exactly who he was. It almost never recommended him. On most of the questions a planner would actually ask, a speaker with ten books was nowhere in the answer.

That is when I understood how this works now: AI does not recommend the best speaker. It recommends the one it can read.

Shortlist exists to make sure that speaker is you. One score, measured on the real questions planners ask, and the exact fixes that move it.

My father was the first client.

What we hold to

• ✓
  Accurate. Every number we report traces to a logged, dated AI answer or a named public source. If it isn’t logged, it doesn’t go in.
• ✓
  Clear. We say what we find in plain language, and we measure what we can prove. We never promise bookings, because no honest firm can.
• ✓
  Actionable. You never get homework without a path. Every finding comes with the fix, written so your web person can make it. If you’d rather hand it off, we work with them directly.
• ✓
  One client per category. We never work both sides of the same recommendation.