How To Dominate AI Search in 2026 | Sam Dunning

He built a seven-figure agency with one employee. Today’s guest is Sam Dunning, founder of Breaking B2B — a lean, high-margin SEO agency doing ~$120K MRR helping SaaS companies dominate Google and AI-driven search. In this episode, you’ll learn: 🔥 How Sam helped Adam Robinson scale RB2B to $6.3 M ARR through smart, bottom-of-funnel SEO. 🔥 The step-by-step playbook for ranking inside ChatGPT and AI Overviews before anyone else. 🔥 How to run a lean, high-margin agency without burning out. If you want your business to show up everywhere buyers search — from Google to GPT — and turn SEO into a predictable growth engine, this episode is for you. Chapters: 00:00 - Evolution of SEO and AI Search 03:22 - From retail to SEO 05:26 - Why B2B SaaS became the focus 06:42 - Reaching $120K MRR with one staff 08:49 - Using contractors vs full-time hires 11:48 - Standing out in a boring industry 14:23 - What actually drives leads (LinkedIn, YouTube, SEO) 15:43 - Working for Adam Robinson 18:14 - Is one marketing channel enough? 19:55 - Bottom-of-funnel SEO explained 21:31 - How RB2B scaled to $6.3M ARR with SEO 22:08 - The money keyword matrix 23:58 - Ranking for competitor & alternative keywords 26:00 - Going up the SEO funnel 28:08 - Shifting to AI search: what's changing 34:12 - Future of AI search and SEO 35:23 - Google vs. ChatGPT 38:50 - How brands win in Google and AI visibility 42:23 - How to track AI search visibility 47:12 - Controlling the narrative with listicles 48:52 - Beating bigger competitors with SEO 51:32 - AI content vs human-written content 54:13 - What actually matters in on-page SEO 58:08 - Backlink strategies that still work 01:02:20 - Podcast guesting for SEO & brand growth 01:03:45 - Final thoughts on SEO, AI, and growth