DIRECT-ME · MARK GRIFFIN · PORTLAND, OREGON
When a buyer asks AI who to trust, is your name in the answer?
Your customers are asking ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity who to trust, and almost nobody has checked what the AI actually says back. I record it, then I fix it — for brand-new businesses anywhere in the US that need to be found from day one, for dog breeders who health test and want to be named when a buyer asks, and for owner-operated companies in Portland that want fractional AI leadership from someone who has run a business. I started by asking AI who the best breeders are, 180 times, and checking my own kennel first.
What I found, and why I am the one who found it
On 2 September 2026 I asked ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the five questions a buyer actually types, across twelve states. 180 answers, every one kept word for word, 3,884 sources logged.
- The AI answers with institutions, not businesses. The AKC is named in 146 to 148 of the 180 answers — about four in five. The individual business is usually not in the answer at all.
- Citation is extremely concentrated. The ten most-quoted domains carry about a third of every citation in the study. One directory alone is quoted 315 times, across 84 of the 180 answers.
- Where a business does get named, the engine had retrieved a page of its own — and far more often the home page than a deep article. That is the part you can act on.
I did not do this as a marketer. I own a boarding kennel on eighteen acres, going on nineteen years, plus a Golden Retriever program and a Cavalier program. I ran my own two programs through the same questions, and the result is the reason I take this seriously: my written work is quoted as a source ten times across six answers, in Oregon, California and Ohio — and my kennel is named in three answers, all of them Oregon.
The writing travels and the business does not. I would rather have found that out from my own data than from a quarter of missing enquiries.
The whole study, ungated, with the method →
One state, one breed, answer by answer: what the three AI engines said about Golden Retriever breeders in Arizona.
Who I work with: service trades, new businesses, dog breeders, and owner-operated companies
I do every piece of the work myself, which is also the limit: a small number of engagements at a time, and I would rather say that than overbook.
When you’re on a ladder, who answers your phone?
An AI receptionist that answers every call in your business name, day and night, books the job into your calendar, and texts you a summary. Set up and tuned by me on real calls before it answers a customer of yours. Founding rate: $297 a month, about $10 a day. 14-day free trial, no card. Cancel any time. No setup fee for the first ten Portland-area shops.
Callers are told it is an AI assistant. You hear every recording. Keep your number; forward calls after hours first if you like.
You just opened. Make sure people, Google and AI can find you.
The Day-One Launch Kit: a simple website, your Google Business Profile set up, your core listings, and a check of what AI says about your trade in your town. Launch pricing: $299, then $29 a month. Full refund until you approve the first draft. You own your domain, your profile and your site.
Other options start at $149 for a Google profile setup, or a website for $39 a month with nothing down. See an example site.
You are being sold AI by people who have never run anything
Fractional AI leadership for owner-operated companies in the Portland metro, starting with a three-week Operations Review at a fixed $5,000: what AI can and cannot do in your operation, what you are being oversold, and a roadmap that is yours to keep whether or not we work together afterwards.
I have run four organisations. I make nothing from any vendor, which is the entire point — there is no software I am steering you toward.
You health test, you place well, and almost nobody can find you
Six weeks on one litter — the pages a buyer actually reads, the waitlist and deposit flow, and your health testing made legible to a machine as well as a person — so that when a buyer in your state asks AI for breeders, there is something about you for it to read. $2,500: half on signature, half on whelping day, and the second half is owed only if the litter is committed. If it is not, you owe nothing further and the first half is refunded in full.
I am not an agency that took a dog client. I breed, I whelp, and I have sat with the same problem you have.
Find out what AI tells your customers about you
Direct-Me Reports asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude the questions your customers ask, shows you what each one says, and gives you a plain, step-by-step plan to fix what they get wrong. Your first check is free, no card needed. After that it is $49 a month per business, checked again every 30 days with an email each time.
Run a marketing agency? Each client you add is its own $49 report, so you can hand every client a monthly AI check.
Start with the free check, not with me
Before any of the above: I will run your business through the same three AI engines, on your own questions, and send you what comes back. Free, nothing to sign, and the file is yours whether or not you ever reply again.
It is the same method as the study and it takes about ten minutes of my time and none of yours.
What I will and will not claim
One client ranks #1 on Google for their core local term — North Star Tutoring, for “dyslexia tutor Gresham.” You can search it. That is the only ranking claim on this site, because it is the only one I can point at.
There are no testimonials here, because I do not yet have ones I could stand behind. I do not guarantee a ranking, a citation, a mention by any AI system, or a sale — these are third-party systems that change without notice and nobody honestly can. What I offer instead is a refund term written into the agreement in plain words, which you read before you pay anything.
Also here: the research behind all of it · the $5,000 Operations Review · who I am · contact
Questions people actually ask me
What does Direct-Me do?
I find out what AI says about your business when a customer asks, then I fix what it says. I start by recording the actual answers from Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity and sending you the transcripts. You see exactly what I see, before you spend anything.
How do I find out what AI says about my business?
Ask me for the free AI Visibility Check. I put the questions your customers really type to all three engines, save every word that comes back, and send you the transcripts with the sources each engine read. It costs nothing and there is no call required to get it.
Why doesn’t my business show up when someone asks ChatGPT?
Usually because the engine never read your site. In my study of 180 answers, the AI leaned on a small group of big directories and associations: ten domains carried about a third of all 3,884 citations. If your pages are not among the sources it retrieves, you are not in the answer.
If I rank on Google, won’t AI recommend me too?
Not reliably. They are different systems reading different things. A page can sit on page one of Google and still never be retrieved by the AI answering the same question. That is why I measure the AI directly rather than assuming a Google ranking carries over.
Do you guarantee I’ll be named by AI?
No, and I would not believe anyone who did. Nobody controls what these engines say. What I can do is measure where you stand today, make your pages the kind of source engines actually retrieve, and measure again so you can see whether it moved.
What does it cost?
The check is free. For dog breeders, Litter Launch is $2,500 for six weeks, and if the litter is not committed by whelping the first payment is refunded in full. For owner-operated companies, the Operations Review is $5,000 over three weeks. No retainer is required to start.
Who is behind this?
Mark Griffin, in Portland, Oregon. I run a boarding kennel and a breeding programme of my own, which is how I found this problem: I checked what AI said about my own business first, and it was not good news. I publish the whole study, ungated, including the parts that do not flatter me.
Where is Direct-Me, and how do I reach you?
Direct-Me LLC is in the Portland metro: 13203 SE 172nd Ave, Suite 166 PMB 2030, Happy Valley, OR 97086. Phone 833-736-1991, email admin@direct-me.org. One person answers both. That person is me.