The AI Reality Check
Delighted’s LeaderStamp: turning outreach into a unified authority engine
Jon Jones is CEO of Delighted, which built LeaderStamp to combine lead generation, PR, content, branding and SEO through an interview-based approach. The firm turns prospect conversations into published content and media exposure, and Jones explains how that focus on authority, plus selective AI use, is shifting the balance from outbound to informed inbound.
Build measurable authority across interviews, PR, content and SEO so prospects arrive already informed; use AI to automate repetitive research, content prep and personalization, but keep humans in judgment- and relationship-driven roles.
What’s the quick origin story of your brand, and what makes your product or positioning genuinely different from other options in your niche?
We started with a pretty simple observation: businesses don’t just need more marketing—they need more authority. Getting someone to notice you is one thing; getting them to trust you enough to become a customer is another.
That led us to build LeaderStamp around authority building. We combine lead generation, PR, content, branding and SEO instead of treating them as completely separate services. Our interview-based approach is a big part of that. We can create genuine business conversations with prospects while also turning those conversations into content and media exposure that strengthens the client’s credibility.
The difference is really in how the pieces work together. We’re not just selling leads, press releases or SEO rankings individually. We’re building an ecosystem around the person and the company so that when a prospect researches them, there’s something substantial there.
Where does most of your new business come from today, and where do you wish it came from?
Most of our new business currently comes from outbound and direct outreach. That’s intentional because it gives us control over the pipeline and allows us to target the exact types of companies we believe can benefit from what we do.
Long term, I’d like a larger percentage to come from inbound—particularly organic search, referrals and people discovering us through our content and media presence. There’s a big difference between convincing someone that they need your service and having someone come to you already understanding the value.
That’s the direction we’re building toward.
What’s one thing you’ve actually handed over to AI in the last year, and one thing you tried it on and went back to doing the human way?
We’ve handed a lot of the repetitive work over to AI—research, content preparation, data organization, personalization, and parts of our outreach process. AI is extremely good at taking a large amount of information and turning it into something usable very quickly.
Where I still prefer the human approach is anything involving genuine relationships and judgment. We experimented with pushing too much of the communication side into automation, and it became obvious pretty quickly that there’s a point where personalization stops feeling personal.
AI can help you prepare the conversation. It shouldn’t necessarily be the entire conversation.
Have you noticed a change in how customers find you or what they already know before they reach out? Is anyone arriving through AI assistants like ChatGPT yet?
Absolutely. People are doing much more research before they ever speak to a company. By the time someone reaches out, they often already have an opinion about you based on your website, articles, interviews, reviews, social profiles and what comes up when they search your name.
We’re also seeing the beginning of a shift toward AI-assisted discovery. People aren’t just asking Google anymore—they’re asking tools like ChatGPT questions and getting recommendations or information before deciding who to contact.
That changes the importance of authority. If an AI system is trying to determine whether a company is credible or relevant, having a strong digital footprint matters. You need to be represented consistently across multiple credible sources, not just have a nice website.
If you were advising someone in your industry on all of this for the next 12 months, what would you tell them to actually do, and what would you tell them to ignore?
I’d tell them to build authority before they worry about scaling everything else. Create real expertise-driven content, get your people featured and interviewed, build relationships with credible publications, improve your search presence, and make sure there’s a consistent digital footprint around your company and its leadership.
I’d also tell them to use AI aggressively for the parts of the business that are repetitive and time-consuming. There’s no reason to spend hours doing work that AI can help you accomplish in minutes.
What I’d ignore is the constant hype around the "next big thing." Every few months there’s a new platform, new tactic or new AI tool that supposedly changes everything. Most of it is noise.
The companies that win over the next 12 months won’t necessarily be the ones using the most tools. They’ll be the ones that combine technology with real expertise, credibility and relationships—and execute consistently.
Thank you to Jon Jones and the team at Delighted for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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