The Canopy by Clemelopy Episode 1: Welcome to The Canopy Published: February 24, 2026 --- Hello, everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of The Canopy, a podcast by Clemelopy. I'm your host, Jen Shannon and founder of Clemelopy, and I am so excited to finally hit record on this. If you are just hearing about Clemelopy for the first time, it's a platform I built to help small businesses show up in AI search. So think ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, all of those conversational tools that are changing how people find information online. But before I go any further, let me tell you a bit about who I am and why I built this thing. I have been a small business owner since 2008. So when I say I understand what it's like to wear every single hat in your business, I truly, truly mean it. I have been the marketer, the web designer, the accountant, the customer service rep, the event planner, the vendor sourcer, the person troubleshooting tech at midnight, all of it. And that's on top of the thing that I created the business to do. I'll save the full story for another episode, but like most of us, I have a story that turned out to be the catalyst for a life changing decision. Before I was laid off from a job that I loved, I was tasked with doing deep research and strategizing for GEO, also known as generative engine optimization. I learned so much, put together massive amounts of information, and found myself genuinely excited about the future. I started what was supposed to be a side hustle on October 23rd, 2025, and was laid off on October 31st, 2025. A couple of years ago, though, I started noticing a shift and it actually started with my husband. He's much more nerdy and techie than I am. And he downloaded ChatGPT fairly early on. He'd send these funny AI generated writings to our group chat with our best friends who also happened to be married to each other. And while they were funny and gave me a good laugh, I just kind of wrote ChatGPT off as this just for fun thing. But then it started gaining popularity and I was hesitant to hop on that train. It was so new. And to me it felt like the ocean. It was pretty on the surface, but underneath was an entire world that was completely unknown, holding a tremendous amount of power that no one could quantify. But eventually, I did give in, and I hopped on the ChatGPT train. And I started noticing that people weren't just googling things anymore. They were asking ChatGPT. They were asking Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot, you know, all of those AI search engines. And that leads me to today where I can confidently say that the way people search has fundamentally changed. And here's the thing I keep coming back to. AI search isn't some distant future thing. It's happening right now. And that means small businesses can be part of that equation. So when someone types in, I wanna learn how to work with my short hair, it recommends, say, a YouTube video or a hairstylist or a salon in that person's area. Or someone could type in, how do I learn to watercolor paint? And it recommends your paid course or your YouTube channel or your website. But for a small business to become part of that equation, they have to optimize their websites in order for it to be readable and discoverable by these AI search engines. And that's what we call GEO or generative engine optimization. And small businesses, you know, the ones who don't have massive marketing budgets or an in house SEO team are the ones who need this information the most, but they are also the ones who feel the most overwhelmed by it. And that leads me in to talking about why GEO matters. Most business owners have heard of SEO, which is search engine optimization, where you optimize your website using keywords and backlinking strategies and so on and so forth. But AI search engines don't work that way. They seek to understand language and intent through natural human language, not just matching keywords and ranking by domain authority. But here's the thing about GEO. It's complicated. If you don't live in that world, most business owners start their business because they're really good at doing whatever they started their business for, but they soon realize they have to wear all the hats. So they do just enough to get by, which is like checking the boxes of having a website or a Google business listing and hoping they show up in searches. Maybe they have a Facebook page or a social media account somewhere, but they're already overwhelmed. And now they've got to learn an entirely new way of optimizing with terms they don't understand. And quite frankly, don't have the desire, time or patience to learn. So my goal with Clemelopy was to make this easy for people who don't live in that world and to reduce the overwhelm of yet another thing that they have to learn. And in order to do that, I created what is called the Orchard Ecosystem Framework, which is my proprietary system for making GEO feel intuitive instead of intimidating. And it uses metaphors for growing an orchard, like roots, soil, trunk, branches, leaves, fruit, pollinators, underground network, and cultivation. It's technical strategy wrapped in something you can actually picture. Through this framework, Clemelopy has created a new category of business called AI visibility architecture, which we have defined as the discipline of building websites so AI systems can interpret and include your expertise in answers when someone asks questions. And that's why I built Clemelopy. And that's why I'm starting this podcast, because I believe this stuff doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to feel like you need a computer science degree to understand it. With the right framework and a little guidance, any business owner can get their heads wrapped around this. But enough about that for now, let's actually talk about why Clemelopy and why The Canopy. So you may be thinking why the name Clemelopy. It sounds weird. I can't look at it and pronounce it correctly. You're right. And there's a story behind that, which again, another day, another episode, but Clemelopy is a mashup of my Clementine tree's name, which is, oh, so originally named Clementine and Penelope, the name of my polka dot begonia, which is my favorite indoor plant and it sits on my bathtub. It is such a beautiful plant. If you don't know what a polka dot begonia is, definitely look it up. It's like green with white polka dots on the top of the leaf, and then underneath it it's red, but it looks like glitter red in the right light. So it's beautiful. I love it. But then, the canopy, if you think about it is the view above the trees where the sunlight hits, it's where you can see the entire orchard from above. And so this podcast is where learning about GEO meets Clemelopy as a business. It's part founder diary, part honest conversation about building a SaaS as a solo founder and doing so in a new niche with emerging technology. The canopy felt like the perfect name because it's where everything comes together. We also have a bimonthly newsletter called Clemelopy's Canopy that helps silence the noise from the tech world and brings you grounded information to reduce that overwhelm. So with all that being said, let's shift gears and talk about what you can expect from The Canopy going forward. Each episode will fall under one of four segments. We have case studies, diary of a founder, behind the build, and AI visibility breakdown. Case studies are where we follow businesses for twelve months. We help them use Clemelopy to optimize their websites, and we show over the course of that twelve month period, how their AI visibility changes. There's also a YouTube channel that I post this on, but I wanted a place where people could just listen instead of having to watch. So that's part of why The Canopy was also born. Then we have diary of a founder. This is where I take you inside my head. It's not a pretty place to be sometimes. It's not polished. It's not corporate. It's not a webinar. It's everything from wins and losses to pivots, to psychology, to revenue, maybe some AI commentary, but basically anything that has gone on in my mind, because I have built this by myself. This is where that information is going to live. Then there is behind the build, which is a deep dive into the strategic decisions that I've made for Clemelopy and continue to make for Clemelopy in order to build it. So this is gonna be the who, what, when, where, why, and how of it all. And then we have the AI visibility breakdown. This is the industry analysis lane. So this is where we talk about new studies that are published, consumer behavior, maybe traffic reports, SEO, GEO, and all of the platforms that go along with it. So those are the four segments that you can expect under The Canopy, and we may add some more down the road, but for now I feel like this is a good starting point. So that's The Canopy, a place to learn, a place to hear real stories, and a place to figure out this new world of AI search. And did I mention I'm all about the self deprecating humor? I don't edit this stuff out. You'll get a taste of it when you get to watch the first episode of Dana Goodson's case study where I mentioned yeast infections. Yep. I digress. If you're a small business owner trying to make sense of all this, you're in the right place. If you're a marketing agency looking for an edge for your clients, stick around because I am developing our agency platform. And if you're just curious about what it takes to build a SaaS from the ground up as a solo founder, you're definitely gonna wanna subscribe. Thank you so much for being here for episode one. I'll see you in the next one. Until then, keep growing forward. --- The Canopy is brought to you by Clemelopy, helping small businesses grow their visibility in AI powered search. Learn more at clemelopy.com