It’s Thursday night and your group chat just lit up. One friend texts, “Where should we eat Saturday?” and within thirty seconds, everyone’s on their phone. Another friend searched for “cute aesthetic taco restaurant near me,” someone else sent a link to a place that turned into a nail salon last fall, and another friend said “I don’t care” and then vetoed every option.
Don’t act like you’ve never had twelve tabs open at once when looking for a place to go on a Saturday night. You’ve all been in that group chat too, trying to plan something for the weekend after an exhausting week, searching for a spot to go.
Now think about what is actually happening here. Before anyone picked a spot, you all read reviews, watched a couple of TikTok videos, and decided which restaurants made the cut. The owners had no idea any of it was going on. That is how people choose now, and it is not just happening on TikTok.
Google Search works differently now too. With AI Overviews and AI Mode, you can ask detailed questions, almost like having a conversation, and get answers with photos and videos right alongside them when researching their options. That means your website is no longer the only place a customer meets your business. It’s one stop on a longer trip, and people may have already formed an opinion before they ever land on your homepage. Google’s guidance on AI search
Nekia Nichelle, our founder and CEO, saw this shift firsthand at Google Marketing Live 2026. Google summed up the moment with this line: “The age-old trade off between a smart decision and fast decision doesn’t hold up anymore.” Google Marketing Live 2026
Customers can make a decision fast now, which means they’re doing their research in minutes. Is your business giving them enough to work with?
That’s where our N’ Business Spotlight comes in. We’re offering a five minute interview with our founder, Nekia Nichelle. Each business that joins gets their own feature, plus the published link to share with customers, partners, and their own audience. That link would be perfect for the bio on your business’s social media pages, so anyone checking you out can hear from you right away.
Small Business Saturday is a great way to introduce your business, and the way customers research gives you a reason to make that introduction count. Think back to that group chat. Those twelve tabs aren’t going anywhere, so this is your chance to be one of them.
So what do business owners need to understand to actually be one of those twelve tabs? Our COO, Clinton Johnson, put it this way:
“We want businesses to walk away with the understanding of the new way of media and how they need to be showing up and what they need to be doing to show up as AI has entered our space, and we are entering a new way of media.”
In taco terms, “best tacos in town” doesn’t help anyone in that group chat decide. They want to know if it’s open late, if it’s cute enough for the photos, and if it has something for the friend who doesn’t eat meat.
That’s the kind of information customers are hunting for, and it ties right into what our founder and CEO, Nekia Nichelle, wants for businesses:
“At the end of the day, we want businesses to show up everywhere and at every touch point a consumer will be utilizing in their customer journey. And one of those is AI.”
And this isn’t just our team saying this, a recent Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Advisor newsletter says that social media has become a bigger way for people to discover new small businesses than search engines. It also pointed out that more shoppers are choosing to support small businesses than they were a few years ago. People want to support you, but you still have to give them a reason to buy from you. That’s why the newsletter suggested an easy question to ask yourself: could a new customer understand your business at a glance?
That question is exactly what the N’ Business Spotlight is built around.The interview is part of our Doing Business in 2026 series, and every business answers the same three questions, exactly as we ask them:
- Who are you, what is your company, and who do you serve?
- What is one of the biggest problems people in your industry face, and how does your company solve it?
- What has changed about doing business in 2026, and what advice would you give other business owners navigating those changes?
Sign up now! Enrollment closes October 31, 2026. Participation is $300 per business, paid in full before scheduling. After you pay, you’ll schedule your five minute interview with Nekia, look over the three questions, and send us one approved business link.
Your full interview will be publish on Nekia Nichelle’s YouTube channel during the first two weeks of November, and you’ll get the published link to share. We’ll promote the series in rotation across The N Brand’s social channels and YouTube throughout the month, though not every interview is guaranteed a spot on every channel. Next time that group chat starts scrolling, wouldn’t you want your business to be in the mix?
Email partnerships@thenbrandagency.com to enroll in the N’ Business Spotlight.
