Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Schlottig.
Hi Jon, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My friend call me by my middle name, Mike. I moved to Grants Pass via the Bay Area the summer before 9th grade. I graduated from Grants Pass High School in 2005. I earned a Dean Scholarship to U of O but left after the first term of my sophomore year and enrolled in an Energy Management Program at Lane CC. I enjoyed that program and that was my introduction to integrated systems thinking. After finishing the program in 2009 and working in Eugene for several years I had an opportunity to manage a small commercial farm. I really enjoyed working outside and applying what I’d learned in school to a completely different discipline – it was fun learning about soil chemistry and applying that knowledge to optimize the way complex biological systems work together and being able to see the tangible results within a relatively short period of time.
After close to 10 years i was ready for a change and took a job with Leaf Home Solutions, which really opened my eyes to the high demand in home services industries, and the power of SEO for landing local clients. During my 3 years with Leaf Filter I saw the effectiveness and shortcomings of their digital marketing strategy from the inside. In late 2024 I began doing some consulting on the side for my brother and his company, 10DC. While putting together demographically segmented market research reports and mapping out digital outreach and sales strategies I started utilizing AI. Then, in early 2025 Ai took a massive leap. Suddenly work that would have taken me a week could be done in a day. After breaking down the local market opportunity and competitive landscape, in conjunction the scalability and breadth of capabilities that leveraging Ai enables, I decided the time to start my own company had arrived.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a particularly smooth road. While the market opportunity is substantial, and Ai provides leverage and a wide breadth of expanded capabilities, it requires more work, not less. If you do not possess a high level of expertise on the tasks you are augmenting with Ai Assistance, it can and will lead you astray.
While on the surface local search optimization is primarily dictated by a well structured Google Business Profile paired with consistent and semantically synced messaging on a trustworthy and high performance, mobile-optimized website, the complexity and sprawl of the surrounding architecture needed to build and maintain those assets compounds quickly.
For example, review recency is a key factor. Many small business owners don’t have automated reach-out systems. You can send emails manually or add a line to every emailed receipt, but conversion to reviews using email is very low. SMS provides a significantly higher conversion rate but requires a 3rd party. There are many API based automated SMS services, but prices, quality and reliability vary widely, and in order to automate the SMS upon receipt of services the API needs wired into the backend of the clients systems. Or, the business owner, or their agency has to pay another 3rd party to handle it. That’s just one example. Stacking and scaling 3rd party services can get expensive quickly.
I decided that in order for me to provide the level of service to clients that I’m committed to, and to have the ability to scale my business the way I want to, i have to have ownership and control of the infrastructure from end to end. Building out that architecture while managing client projects, and keeping up with Googles regular algorithmic changes has been a challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about LEVERAGE AI LLC?
I founded LEVERAGE AI LLC in April of 2025. My goal is to provide local service businesses with affordable, high ROI digital assets and capabilities previously only accessible to massive organizations. You should know that the roadmap for this company extends beyond local search visibility, Ai search optimization/Chat GPT citations, and getting clients into the top 3 results of google maps pack for high intent local queries. But, growth begins with revenue, and revenue begins with visibility, which enables capturing intent and turning leads into customers. There are no digital marketing strategies that consistently come close to the ROI of organic search performance. That’s the reason I’ve made it the foundational layer of my business.
I build integrated compounding assets. I prefer building with open source primitives to avoid being dependent on a single platform or company. Until recently, the majority of my focus since founding Leverage Ai has been on building those assets at an infrastructure level. I’m now at a point where I’m actively putting that infrastructure to work for Clients.
I specialize in applying integrated systems thinking. In the context of currently available services to clients that entails a wholistic approach, which is precisely what sets me apart.
Most local businesses are leaking revenue on several different fronts. Imagine a business as a boat: a google business profile with a main service category that isn’t in the meta title or H1 heading of their website home page/primary service page is one leak. A different phone number and email on a directory listing from 5 years ago that they’ve forgotten about is another leak — one that’s also impacting being cited by Ai. Missed phone calls are another leak, a lack of a consistent system to generate and respond to google reviews is another. A 3 year old word press site that doesn’t have JSON-LD schema embedded on every public page is another — Most digital marketing and web design companies, even expensive and well-known SEO agencies who charge $2500 per month+ for ongoing services plug 1 or 2 or perhaps 3 of those holes, and maybe create a few location anchored SEO optimized service pages to go along with a couple of blog posts and, if you’re lucky, a backlink or two per month for their $2500+ fee.
On the other hand, I use a systemic approach. The same approach I learned while going to school for Energy Management and subsequently performing energy audits and preparing reports with detailed recommendations. The extent and depth depends on the clients needs and budget, but generally speaking: I gather all the relevant information, from listings, to lead handling and reach out, phone answering systems, email reply system, Ai search data, SERP performance, local SERP performance, Page performance data, GBP Audit, Website Audit, Social Media Audit, All publicly available mentions and contact information, as well as develop a comparison matrix against the top performing competitors in the local area. I leverage ai to help me with this — enforcing strict parameters and structure, along with validation to ensure output quality. (I control Ai costs and quality using cybernetic enforced gates within a multi-loop harness, where model selection is governed by a capability matrix that’s managed by Claude)
I then do a detailed analysis looking at all of the available data to spec out a plan within the context of the Clients goals and budget. The client gets a detailed report, and if they want to move forward they can put the cost of the audit and report towards the implementation.
– Brand Wise I’m most proud of the drastically improved digital performance of my friend and client who own Daley Organics – a Soil yard and mulch provider in Grants Pass (Merlin). He was paying for lackluster SEO and when i looked it his SERP performance his Google Business Profile was buried and coming in behind companies in Portland for queries like “Buy Soil by the yard in Southern Oregon” I built him a high performance custom website and did several designs for product logos that have received positive feedback. The blog and knowledge base is driving traffic in addition to his product pages. His search visibility is up substantially – well over 10x, and his SEO clicks have more than quadrupled year over year as well: https://daleyorganics.com
– I’m also proud of the Oregon business directory i built to utilize as a strategic asset that allows me to provide a quality backlink to clients, it’s also an organic marketing tool and provides a digital presence to the many local businesses who don’t have their own website. https://oregonsmbdirectory.com
What I want readers to know:
– you can find my available services on my website at: https://leverageai.network
– If you’re interested in getting more detailed information submit a contact form on my website or reach out direct through email, SMS, or a phone call. SMS is best.
– Because Search Optimization is a zero-sum game, I’m taking a limited number of clients for ongoing monthly services: 1 per business category per city.
– While there are many disparate and conflicting opinions on Ai i can say with confidence: It is reshaping the landscape of businesses across the board and it’s happening faster than predicted.
– Ai Search and overviews have grown 6x in market share over the past year.
– While your GBP is currently the most important digital asset when it comes map pack visibility that doesn’t mean a website isn’t important. Your website, in addition to branding, gives you the opportunity to build up your entity authority which is what influences Ai Search Citations, and gives people- confidence in you.
– Ai is not a replacement – it’s a lever. Empower your quality employees. To use Ai effectively you have to force yourself to think a layer or two above what you’re used to. It’s challenging, but unlocks a lot of possibilities.
– For Local Oregon Businesses that don’t currently have a website, I’ll build you a high-performance custom website up to 5 pages, for $500, with a contact form that emails you on submission, and sends a “Thankyou we’ve received your inquiry” Email to the lead. And I’ll host it free for the first year. **Limited availability based on volume and your timeline – but I’ll commit to taking on a minimum of 20 if that many people reach out for a website.**
While I do charge for the extensive Audit, I’m more than happy to have a 10-15 minute conversation to answer questions.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
– The adage that “your website is your digital storefront” will become more true than ever.
– The separation and revenue difference between the “haves and have-nots” when it comes to digital visibility will widen drastically
– Ai friendly API endpoints with structured data will be more important for your sites visibility than digital graphics or a beautifully designed blog and image gallery (for most businesses)
– High quality web developers and agencies who can deliver on what they promise will become more in demand than ever.
– Ai Search and overviews will eclipse 90% of search volume, but Google will still be number 1.
– The ability to effectively orchestrate a team of Ai agents will become table stakes for non-entry level positions. Think PowerPoint and Spreadsheets in the 90’s. It will go from a well paid specialty to a resume requirement.
– Word Press will remain the most used web framework but will steadily decrease in market share due to bloat and unsolvable security vulnerabilities.
– I think there’s a decent chance It will be normal for e-commerce websites to have parallel paths – one for people and one for ai agents. And the human side will have chat bots replaced with high fidelity lifelike Ai Avatar concierges to guide your experience
– Google will continue to crack down hard and low quality keyword stuffing content.
– It will become increasingly difficult to get new websites ranked and at the top of search
Pricing:
- $500-$1200+ Full Digital Presence Audit and Report
- $800+ Custom Web Design and Hosting
- $1500-$4K+ Audit + Implementation
- $400-$800+ Ongoing Optimization Services and GBP management
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leverageai.network
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Leverageai-LLC-61575834658691/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schlottig/
- Twitter: https://x.com/LEVERAGEAI_LLC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LEVERAGEAI
- Other: https://oregonsmbdirectory.com
