TL; DR
The PESO Model® Certification has been rebuilt for 2026 to help marketers and communicators run PESO as an operating system—one designed for AI-driven discovery, zero-click visibility, and trust that holds up across paid, earned, shared, and owned media.
Gini Dietrich breaks down what’s changed, how AI fits into the new certification, what you’ll build week-by-week, and what you’ll walk away with—whether you’re a team of one or leading a global organization.
Key Insights
- Discovery has changed: AI-powered search and zero-click answers mean people may never reach your website—so visibility has to be engineered, not hoped for.
- PESO has evolved: It’s no longer a framework you reference; it’s an operating system you run to connect paid, earned, shared, and owned media.
- Visibility engineering is the new requirement: Build consistency, credibility, and authority across the places your audience (and AI) pull information from.
- The 2026 certification is built for implementation: Short lessons, a workbook, worksheets, and the PESO OS AI so you can do the work as you learn.
- You’ll build real outputs: A PESO plan tied to business outcomes, plus owned, earned, shared, paid, integration, and measurement deliverables you can run immediately.
- It scales to any team size: Useful whether you’re solo, on a small team, inside an enterprise org, or at an agency.
- Recertification has been updated, too: If you’re already certified, you’ll receive instructions by email in the coming weeks.
The way people discover and trust information has changed—again. And this time, it’s not just about search or social. It’s about AI-powered discovery, zero-click answers, and systems that decide what gets surfaced before your audience ever (if they ever) hits your website.
Which means the old “channel-first” approach—post here, pitch there, boost this—doesn’t just feel scattered; it is. It performs scattered. It creates noise instead of momentum.
That’s why we rebuilt the PESO Model® Certification for 2026. Not as a refresher. Not as a content course. But as marketers operationalize visibility, credibility, and trust across paid, earned, shared, and owned media, the work compounds and scales without requiring more resources or a bigger team.
And because it launches on my birthday, I decided to skip candles (though I’m still having chocolate cake decorated with conversation hearts) and give you something more useful: an operating system you can run—whether you’re a team of one or leading a global org.
Get ready for all of the details about the brand-spanking new PESO Model Certification! I’m super excited about it…and hope you are too, after you read all the gory details.
The Big Shift—PESO is Now an Operating System
For years, many pros have treated PESO as a list of tactics to execute or a framework to pull out when a plan is needed.
But the world we’re working in now doesn’t reward plans that live in a deck. It rewards systems that can be executed, measured, and improved—week after week—without reinventing the wheel every time the algorithm sneezes or a business priority shifts.
That’s what the PESO Model has become—an operating system. It now sits underneath your marketing and/or comms programs and is updated as the industry evolves, and so does your work with it.
Not “do a little owned, sprinkle in some social, pitch a few reporters, and boost a post if it’s doing well.”
An actual system that connects what you publish (owned), what validates you (earned), what moves through networks (shared), and what you amplify (paid)—so each part makes the others stronger.
If you’re a team of one, you don’t need more tactics. You need a way to make the work you’re already doing compound—so one strong piece of content becomes multiple assets, multiple proof points, and multiple paths to discovery.
If you’re on an enterprise team, you don’t need more channels. You need alignment—so paid doesn’t run in one direction while earned runs in another, social is stuck chasing trends, and the website becomes a dumping ground no one owns.
The PESO operating system works at every level because the goal stays the same: build visibility you can control, credibility you can borrow, and trust you can keep—then connect it all so it performs like one program, not four separate efforts.
The updated PESO Model Certification is built to teach you how to run exactly that.
Visibility Engineering in an AI Discovery World
And, in today’s AI-driven world, discovery is happening with or without you.
Your audience gets answers in Google without clicking. They make decisions based on summaries, screenshots, and creator commentary. And now they’re asking AI tools to explain, compare, and recommend—often before they ever visit your website…if they visit it at all.
That doesn’t mean your job is to “do AI.” It means your job is to ensure the truth about your brand, your expertise, and your point of view is consistent across the web and surfaces in AI answers.
That’s what I call visibility engineering.
Visibility engineering is a strategic, outcome-focused approach to marketing and communications that uses PESO to build authority, trust, and credibility, particularly within AI-driven search engines. It allows you to, well, engineer your visibility in AI answers and across all the places your audiences hang out.
And the best part is: this isn’t reserved for brands with giant budgets.
If you’re a solopreneur, visibility engineering means building a tight, defensible body of work that gets reused everywhere—so you’re easier to discover and easier to trust without posting 24/7.
And if you are inside an enterprise organization, visibility engineering looks like aligning what teams publish, pitch, share, and promote—so your authority doesn’t fracture across business units, agencies, or regions.
This is exactly why the PESO Model is evolving so well right now. Because visibility is not a channel problem. It’s a systems problem.
When your owned media clearly articulates what you know, your earned media validates it, your shared media distributes it through the right networks, and your paid media accelerates what’s proven—AI and humans see the same thing: consistency, credibility, and authority.
That is a visibility engine driven by a PESO operating system.
And it’s the foundation we built into the 2026 PESO Model® Certification—so you’re not guessing how to show up in this new discovery landscape. You’re engineering it on purpose.
What’s New in the 2026 Certification
This year, we rebuilt the certification around one goal: help you run PESO as an operating system. It’s not something you study once, learn it, and move on. Now it sits underneath your marketing program and runs the engine based on where you want to go.
Learning the model is no longer the hard part. Doing the work consistently is. Connecting it across channels, and proving it matters—whether you’re a team of one trying to stop recreating everything from scratch, or you’re inside an enterprise org trying to get ten teams (and three agencies) moving in the same direction.
So what’s new?
Updated for how MarComm teams work today
We rebuilt both the certification and recertification for modern teams—today’s roles, today’s workflows, today’s reality. It teaches you how to embed the operating system and engineer visibility in smart, ethical, resource-conserving ways.
If you’re already PESO Model certified, you’ll receive an email from us in a few weeks with instructions for your recertification and guidance on what’s new.
Visibility engineering and AI discovery are baked in
This isn’t an “AI bonus lesson.” Visibility engineering shows up inside owned, earned, shared, and paid—because that’s where discovery and trust are being decided right now.
AND this year’s certification comes with a workbook to house all of your work—and your final PESO plan. That workbook includes AI prompts to accelerate your work and make the outputs more efficient.
The PESO OS AI
And speaking of AI, the PESO OS AI is included for free. It’s a $ 1,000-per-year subscription, included so you can pressure-test the work you’re doing and train your PESO bot to do it effectively.
It’s like having me on your shoulder, directing you through the work every day. And who doesn’t want that?!?!
Stronger measurement architecture
We’ve always led with business outcomes first and marketing metrics second, but this new iteration allows you to get really sophisticated, with the help of AI, with not just reporting results, but doing it in a meaningful way that leaders are excited to hear.
Think metrics combined with storytelling in a creative and compelling way.
Tools and templates designed for implementation
There are three things that power this expanded version:
- The workbook (one place where your plan lives from start to finish)
- Lesson worksheets (short, focused tools so you don’t get lost in the weeds)
- And, of course, the PESO OS AI I’ve already mentioned
If you’re solo or on a small team, this becomes your command center—so you can build momentum without needing more people, time, or money.
If you’re in an enterprise org, it becomes the alignment mechanism—so everyone is working from the same source of truth.
How the PESO Model Certification Works
This isn’t the kind of certification you “consume.” It’s not something you can half-watch or listen to while you’re multitasking. It’s built so that you can do the work while you learn. There isn’t a single lesson longer than 20 minutes, but most are between 9 and 11. They’re bite-sized, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time, but it’s super productive.
Here is the structure.
Week 1: Orientation and Setup
We get you grounded in what’s changed (AI discovery, visibility engineering, operating system mindset), and we set up the tools you’ll use throughout the program so you’re not hunting for templates or reinventing the wheel.
Week 2: Owned Media — Build the Home Base
You’ll build the foundation: the themes you can defend, the expertise you want to be known for, and the owned ecosystem that becomes your source of truth. This is where it all starts.
Week 3: Earned Media — Earn Credibility That Compounds
Earned media is a credibility engine, so you’ll map story angles, proof points, and a strategy that reinforces what you publish and strengthens what you want audiences (and decision-makers) to trust.
Week 4: Shared Media — Distribution in a Distributed Ecosystem
Shared media is where attention moves now. This week is about designing distribution and conversation on purpose—so you’re not just posting, you’re moving people and signals in the right direction.
Week 5: Paid Media — Strategic Amplification
Paid is the accelerator. You’ll learn how to amplify what’s proven, target with intention, and create smart rules for what gets budget, when it gets budget, and what success looks like—whether your spend is $5, $500, or $500,000.
Week 6: Integration — Turn Four Media Types Into One System
This is where PESO stops being four workstreams and becomes one program. You’ll build the intersections and workflows that make the work reusable, scalable, and consistent across teams and channels.
Week 7: Measurement — Outcomes First, Metrics Second
You’ll build a scorecard that connects what you’re doing to what the business cares about, so reporting becomes decision-making—not a monthly ritual of screenshots and “engagement was up.”
Week 8: The Operating System
You’ll consolidate everything into a final PESO plan that will allow you to embed the operating system and work on top of it.
What You’ll Walk Away With
At the end, you’ll have a working PESO operating system that is built for your org, your team size, and your reality—so you can run it again and again without ever having to start from scratch.
You’ll have:
- A complete PESO plan tied to business outcomes
- An owned media ecosystem that becomes your home base
- An earned media strategy that compounds credibility
- A shared media distribution plan designed for how attention actually moves
- A paid media approach that amplifies what works
- An integration map that turns four media types into one program
- A measurement scorecard you can actually use
Who This Is For
The PESO Model Certification is built for people who want a repeatable system, not a never-ending list of tactics. And it’s designed to work whether you’re running a global team or you are the team.
For solo practitioners and consultants, the certification helps you:
- Build authority without posting 24/7
- Repurpose one piece of content into many
- Create a plan you can actually execute, even with limited time and budget
- Prove results without drowning in reporting or needing to understand Excel pivot tables
For small teams, it helps you:
- Stop chasing every channel and start running a connected system
- Create shared priorities so everyone isn’t working in different directions
- Build workflows that reduce duplicate work and increase reuse
- Make measurement meaningful, even if you don’t have a full analytics department
If you’re inside a big org, the certification helps you:
- Align paid, earned, shared, and owned under one operating system
- Create consistency across teams and agency partners without constant policing
- Reduce duplication, conflicting messages, and “random acts of marketing”
- Build measurement and reporting that connects to business outcomes leadership cares about
If you work at (or own) an agency, it helps you:
- Run repeatable planning and execution across accounts
- Show value in a way clients understand (and renew for)
- Build integrated programs instead of disconnected deliverables
- Create a shared language across strategists, specialists, and client stakeholders
Whether your title says marketing, communications, PR, brand, digital, content, or “other duties as assigned,” the work is the same: earn attention, build credibility, show up in the right places, and prove results.
If you want to stop collecting tactics and start running a system that makes your work more visible, more credible, and easier to defend, you’re in the right place.
What to Do Next
If you’re convinced and ready to become PESO Model certified, that’s great! You can do that by clicking here.
If you’re a member of IABC or PRSA, you get a special discount! For IABC members, please click here to enroll. For PRSA members, please email us.
If you teach at a university or are a student, please email us at support@spinsucks.com. You also get a special discount.
If you’re interested in team discounts or in-person training, please email us at support@spinsucks.com, and we’ll discuss your needs.
Come Back Next Week
And, if you need more time to kick the tires and learn more, come back here next week. I’ll go deep on owned and earned—and exactly how they work together to build visibility engineering in an AI discovery world.
I’ll show you what you’ll do inside the certification to build authority that both humans and AI systems can recognize, validate, and surface.
Until then: let’s flipping go!
© 2026 Spin Sucks. All rights reserved. The PESO Model is a registered trademark of Spin Sucks.
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