Google Ads vs. SEO: How to Choose the Right Strategy for Your Business with David Green

In this jam-packed Part 2 episode, I continue my insightful chat with David Green, founder of Devslove.com. 

We dive deep into Google Ads, strategic ad spend, and the realities of running paid campaigns for small businesses. 

David shares expert insights on choosing the right platform, retargeting strategies, and why SEO and AI-driven search are shaping the future of digital marketing. 

Plus, we discuss pricing, profitability, and setting the right goals to make digital marketing actually work for your business. 

If you're an entrepreneur looking for a clear strategy to maximize your online presence, this is an episode you don’t want to miss!

🔥 Key Takeaways:

 ✅ Choosing the Right Platform – Should you start with Google Ads, Facebook, or LinkedIn?
✅ Retargeting 101 – The power of keeping your brand top of mind for potential customers.
✅ Ad Spend Strategy – The 90-day rule for testing ad profitability.
✅ Pricing and Profitability – Why underpricing can ruin your ability to run ads effectively.
✅ SEO vs. Paid Search – How they work together for long-term growth.
✅ AI & Search Trends – What’s changing in 2025 and why SEO is still critical.

✨ Memorable Quotes:

💡 “Google Search is one of the best proxies for demand that you can find.” – David Green
💡 “If you're not converting high-intent visitors, something is wrong with your website—not your ads.” – David Green
💡 “Ads don’t work if your pricing isn’t built for profitability.” – Crystal Waddell
💡 “SEO is about more than just traffic—it’s about making that traffic meaningful for your business.” – Crystal Waddell

🎯 Listener Action Items:

✔️ Do a quick Google keyword check before diving into ads—is your audience even searching?
✔️ Audit your website’s conversion process before launching paid ads.
✔️ Consider a retargeting strategy—not everyone buys on their first visit!
 

🎧 Where to Find David Green:

💼 Website: devslove.com
🔗 LinkedIn: David Green

🎙️ Join the SEO Conversation:

✅ Follow me on LinkedIn → Crystal Waddell
✅ Need SEO coaching? Visit Simple and Smart SEO
✅ Join my SEO Squad for expert guidance on optimizing your online presence!

🌟 Loved this episode? 

Don’t forget to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and share it with a fellow business owner who needs clarity on SEO and ad strategy! 🚀

Chapters

• 0:00 You could do some quick keyword research and go, okay.
• 0:02 There's 20 searches per month for that.
• 1:07 Why Entrepreneurs Should Consider Google Ads
• 4:27 Heuristics Analysis and Site Issues
• 5:33 Exploring LinkedIn Ads for B2B
• 6:11 Choosing the Right Platform for Your Business
• 7:19 Case Study: Premium Socks Business
• 8:53 Understanding Ad Spend and Conversion Rates
• 11:44 Preliminary Research and Keyword Analysis
• 13:58 Retargeting Strategies with Google Ads
• 15:58 Pricing and Profitability in E-commerce
• 18:24 SEO and Conversion Rates
• 21:09 The Future of SEO and AI
• 23:53 Strategic Planning for 2025
• 28:15 Implementing Ideas and Taking Action
• 28:31 Connecting and Networking

Transcript

David Green: [00:00:00] You could do some quick keyword research and go, okay. 

There's 20 searches per month for that. Across the country, across the U S. Okay. So if there's 20 searches per month total. 

What are the chances are we're going to have enough volume here?

To make this work? Pretty low. Because it's only 20 searches. 

It's maybe get a hundred searches. 

So sometimes you can eliminate business off the hop. 

You can say, your market doesn't go to Google to find this product. 

You have to go and find them. 

Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast, where we talk all things, brand building, SEO. Helping you connect with your audience, elevate your visibility and grow your business. 

I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, here to bridge the gap between SEO strategy and real world business success. By bringing you insights, stories, and conversations from the SEO community and beyond. 

Whether you're an entrepreneur, marketer, or SEO enthusiast, this is your place to learn, share, and build a brand that stands out. 

So grab a coffee or your favorite tea. And let's dive into Smarter SEO for your business.

Welcome back to part two of my interview with [00:01:00] David Green, founder of devslove.com.

Crystal Waddell: you are the ads guy. 

I love SEO. I love organic. 

Why Entrepreneurs Should Consider Google Ads

Crystal Waddell: For my audience, entrepreneurs. Smaller businesses. Who may not want to grow and take over the world. 

They just want the freedom, the flexibility to make the money that they can make. And live the life that they want to live. 

Why do you think busy entrepreneurs should consider Google ads as part of their marketing strategy? 

David Green: Yeah, I would say. 

If nothing else, you get a really good understanding of the market. For your service, or your product. 

Google Search. Specifically-

I don't know if there's any other better proxy of demand. That you can find. You're getting high intent individuals who are coming in. 

They are putting what they want into a search bar. 

And they're looking for the results. 

There's just a lot to learn, from specifically Google search.

I'll speak to that. 

So. We sit down with clients and quite frankly. 

Sometimes I look at a business. [00:02:00] And there's some industries we go... I've done this enough times. 

I don't think it works for them. 

The numbers don't work out. Or, you just you can't get that high intent individual. 

So for example, real estate. Is a tough one to Google search on. 

Why? Because. Someone who's looking to buy a home. If they do go to Google search. 

They could be anywhere from two months to two years out. 

From even considering doing it. Like you, you've no clue where they are.

They could just be browsing. 

They're just nosy to what their neighbors are doing. Who knows? 

There's a number of different reasons someone's on Google search in real estate. 

So if you're a real estate agent and you're saying, I'm betting on someone coming to Google search. And saying, I need a real estate agent.

I think a few people out there have ever really done that search. Cause you see ads everywhere. You don't need to do a Google search for that. 

So that's an example. 

But overall, I think it's a good proxy to test. 

Like how much of your market is there? And can you make it profitable? 

And quite frankly, you can get data back pretty quickly that tells you if you can win or not. 

Crystal Waddell: Okay. So what type of data [00:03:00] points are we looking at then to get some great insights that will help us with our business? 

David Green: Yeah. let's say, for example, you make updates to your site. There's a good example, actually. You made updates to your website and you're trying to test out how's conversion rate going to be affected by these changes?

If you send a hundred people there from Google search. 

You're selling Christmas socks. That's your thing. So someone's typing in Christmas socks for kids. Large Christmas socks. 

Probably are in the mindset of buying Christmas socks. 

Specifically or if you're within 36 days of Christmas.

So assume that. 

So if you send 100 people to your website. And nobody buys. 

Probably have a good indication that you might have conversion rate issues. 

Now, if you send 100 people to your website from even organic or other searches as well. 

Because you don't know the level of intent that typically are in. 

You don't necessarily know for a fact if that conversion rate is truly reflective of you had a high intent individual come to buy. 

So now I [00:04:00] know I have an issue on my website. 

You don't know for sure. 

But Google search gives you a lot, as one example. It gives you high intent individuals. 

That are typically looking to make a purchase. So now you have a better understanding. 

Do I have conversion rate issues on my site?

Crystal Waddell: And so once that happens, and let's say, you are not converting the people who are coming via ads. 

What is the next step then in that particular situation? 

David Green: Yeah, typically, I do an audit. 

Heuristics Analysis and Site Issues

David Green: So heuristics analysis on the site. Trying to figure out where the gaps are. 

You could put on some of those softwares, we track. 

both: Oh, like a hot jar. A hot jar, yeah. Clarity . Exactly. Okay. Yeah. 

David Green: And see whether there's issues. Like we have a client right now. 

That just went through a complete overhaul of their sites. 

And. We've been sending branded search traffic to their site. And they haven't had a conversion in six weeks. 

And we go, something's wrong. 

Because a branded search, which means somebody who knows your brand. 

Is typing into Google. 

You're Staples. Someone [00:05:00] types in Staples. 

And they come to Staples website. And nobody's buying. 

Something's typically wrong. 

And we actually went and did some deep dives into the site.

We found some problems. Some like big tech problems. 

That would completely throw anybody off on the site. 

And the reason we could find that probably pretty quickly. 

Is because we sent enough traffic from Google search. To now see, okay. 

This is abnormal. And I just have enough experience to know that this shouldn't happen for this period of time. 

Something bigger is happening now. 

So that's one example. But beyond just like problems, it's just a great 

Exploring LinkedIn Ads for B2B

David Green: Channel to try to find more revenue to try to grow. 

YouTube ads is part of Google ads as well. 

A great avenue to try to get some more brand awareness. Stay on trend with video. 

I also say to anyone out there as well. There's a misconception about LinkedIn ads being super expensive. 

It can be expensive. 

But if you're a B2B advertiser. The targeting you can do there, is unparalleled to anything I've seen. 

It's really good. And you can [00:06:00] target audiences down to job titles. 

And you can filter out the ones you don't want. 

It's a really good platform for specific businesses. Specifically for B2B. 

So want to put that out there as well. 

Crystal Waddell: Awesome. 

Choosing the Right Platform for Your Business

Crystal Waddell: Yeah, I'd heard that before. 

That's one of the the questions that I was going to ask. Is like, what makes Google ads unique compared to those other platforms? 

Is that where you would even say to start? If you were an entrepreneur with a smaller budget? Like which platform is the best to get started? 

David Green: Yeah, it depends on your business, honestly. 

Because I there's some times we get like a potential client that comes in. 

And I just look them in the eyes and say, I don't think Google search is just starting point. 

You probably a better off starting off with paid social. Facebook, Instagram. 

I think this type of product would lend well there. If you get proof of concept on that platform. 

Then I think you could come over to the Google side. 

And then we could find some some wins here. 

Depends on price point. The type of product or service you're offering. 

There's a few different variables in there. 

So it's going [00:07:00] to be hard to give a blanket answer. 

There's typically is a platform that works better than others for each business, I should say. 

And Yeah, Google is one of many channels that you could choose. 

Crystal Waddell: I'd love to know if you could tell us like who that was. Not the business itself. 

But the type of business that you told them social was better than Google.

David Green: Yeah. 

Case Study: Premium Socks Business

David Green: so for example. We had a client that came over for they sell like. Premium socks. 

They are premium socks business. 

And we've done enough apparel. Apparel is a tricky one. 

Because apparel. Again, if you're typing in Black pants or black flowy pants into Google search. 

You're probably looking at the Google shopping ads. So the visual ones that show up in the top there. 

And you're probably looking for the price point. And the reviews on those. 

Or it could be going straight to Amazon. And looking right at Amazon which is quite common as well. 

But this business, they came and they asked us to possibly partner with them for their socks.

And just because we've seen enough types of businesses like this. 

We [00:08:00] recommended hey, do you have a presence on Facebook ad or Instagram? Or even Amazon? 

And they had no for all the above. 

And I said, Hey, and we don't offer paid social. 

Facebook, Instagram. And Amazon as well. That's not our offering.

We have a partner agency we work with that. 

I said, hey, no, I'm going to clip my hat on this one. I know some agencies will just take your money. And just run ads for a few months. I don't know if this is going to work here. 

But I know that if you get this to work on paid social, it probably will work here as well. 

Or we could find learnings from there that we bring over here. And try to launch campaigns here.

So just we respectfully walk away. 

We said, Hey, that's probably a better approach. But that's one example of a product, that just from experience. 

Just the way socks and the price points and their visual. 

There's just more you can do on some of those social platforms. When someone's scrolling their Instagram. Then you can necessarily do on the, at least right now to the Google ecosystem.

Understanding Ad Spend and Conversion Rates

Crystal Waddell: One thing I learned from doing Facebook ads a couple of years ago. Was that the conversions will [00:09:00] happen. 

But they tend to happen, at volume. Or that you had to get so many.

I can't remember, I don't know my terminology with ads. 

But you had to get so many interactions before you could get a conversion. To get so many impressions and so many clicks. 

And then you got a conversion. 

And you could do that on a smaller budget, but it would take forever. 

So if you had a bigger budget, you could find it out faster. And that was really interesting to me. 

But it was also like, okay, is there a secret formula to knowing how much to spend? 

And how quickly to figure out whatever it is you're trying to figure out? About whether your product can convert? 

David Green: Yeah.

Good. Good question. I can't speak to the paid social. Facebook, Instagram side. 

I know that the iOS 14 or the big update a couple years back. 

Completely uprooted their algorithms. And their ability to target and their audiences. 

And we saw a bunch of clients get affected. Still affected by it, quite frankly. Based on those changes.

I [00:10:00] can't speak to that side. 

I know the Google side, but that's a common question we get asked. 

We have a number of small businesses are saying, okay. 

I want to enter the space. 

What do I need to invest? 

Again, this is a general rule. 

But we typically say around 100 per day at a minimum to start. 

What you're trying to do is... we typically say within about 90 days. 

You want to have enough budget to run ads for 90 days. Three months. 

Three months gives you enough time to look at the variability of. Times of year within reason. 

Weekends versus weekdays. Time of day. 

And just to optimize your campaigns. To a point, 

that by day 60 to 90. 

You're in the ballpark to know, aren't these ads or these campaigns even going to work? 

And by the 90 day mark, we typically say we should have a clue. 

That these ads will work or we are at least in the path that we can make this profitable. 

We want return on the ad spend. So if you spend a dollar, want to make sure you're getting back 2 or 3 [00:11:00] or 4, right? For most businesses, you can't spend a dollar to make a dollar back. It doesn't work out. 

So you want to be able to see that you're going in that direction.

And typically 90 days. Most agencies will say around there is what you need to get enough data. To make an informed decision. That do we keep going? Or do we pull the plug? Or no? Or figure out what makes sense. 

So a hundred dollars a day, 90 days. 

Give and take is what you want to put aside as a rough estimate.

But again, it does really does vary by industry. 

Crystal Waddell: Yeah. And so I could imagine as a small business owner, it'd be so scary to put that money out there. 

And then see zero conversions. 

So is there a. Like a time period that you're like, okay, this isn't working at all. 

Or do you have to wait that full 90 days?

Preliminary Research and Keyword Analysis

David Green: there are some preliminary research you can do in advance. To have a clue that this probably won't work. 

So again, for example, as someone's been around different spaces, industries. And I give you the example about real estate. 

No matter who this real estate agent may be, no [00:12:00] matter what they might say. 

If a real estate agent or broker comes to me and says, Hey, we want to work with your team. We're going to say no. 

Because we're being respectful for the fact that we've seen this a few times. 

And we just, we have not seen the numbers make sense and work out. 

But there, there are preliminary. Research that you can run. 

And an analysis you can do. To have a clue if it might work. 

Or specifically, if it won't work. 

You're in a very niche space that's looking to sell baby formula for I don't know, I'm trying to think I was going to say, we're going to take 

both (2): wood letters, because that's what I sell.

David Green: Okay. Wood letters, specifically for brown walls. 

I'm going to make that for wooden brown walls. 

They said they, they nailed it a specific way, 

both: very 

David Green: niche market. 

You could do some quick keyword research and go, okay. 

There's 20 searches per month for that. Across the country, across the U S. Okay. So if there's 20 searches per month total. 

What are the chances are we're going to have enough volume here?

To make this work? Pretty low because it's only 20 searches. 

It's maybe [00:13:00] get a hundred searches. 

So sometimes you can eliminate business off the hop. 

You can say, your market doesn't go to Google to find this product. 

You have to go and find them. They may not even know that you offer wooden signs. And they'd be interested in it. 

But you have to go and take a different approach.

You have to go and say, where does this person shop? 

They typically go to retail stores. 

That's focused, on, or targeting women. There's a certain audience we can go after. 

Or they go to A whole food or some stores like that. 

And we start saying, okay, can we build an audience around that type of audience. 

And build a campaign to target the audience to say, okay, if they see our wooden signs.

That audience will say, oh, this is something I'm actually interested in. 

And now we get them into our funnel. Now, retarget them, maybe try to get them to sell. But if we're trying to depend solely on Google search. 

That becomes a little bit more complicated to do. Because they simply don't want to Google search for this particular product.

Crystal Waddell: That makes a lot of sense. And I have a question about the retargeting then. 

Retargeting Strategies with Google Ads

Crystal Waddell: Because say you have great [00:14:00] SEO, and you're driving people to a blog post. Or even a product page or collection page. 

That is super specific and demonstrates intent. 

Can you retarget that particular page?

Can you pixel people for visiting that page? 

And then retarget that easily with Google ads? Okay. 

And the strategy then, and the costs associated with doing that particular thing. Is it the same as what you mentioned before?

David Green: It would be part of the entire strategy. So the 100 per day at a bare minimum. 

Depending on the space, you would spend some of that on a search. But typically you would have some retargeted or a budget built into that as well.

So you have to build up your retargeted audiences to minimums. 

Depending on what platform you're on. It could be a hundred people in the audience. Or a thousand people in the audience. 

But once you get to those thresholds, then Google gives you the ability to retarget them. 

That's either through YouTube. Through Gmail ads. Through display ads that you're probably familiar with.

There's different avenues you can take to retarget. And highly effective, again. 

Because most people [00:15:00] aren't going to a new brand they never met before. The first time on their website, pulling up their credit card and buying. 

It just doesn't happen. Or booking a demo. Just doesn't happen. 

So you want to retarget. And that would be built into that price point. 

In my opinion.

Crystal Waddell: Yeah, I

have a funny random story. Just yesterday - I sell giant photo collages, too. That's what I make. I'm an artist. 

And so I put people's pictures on top of these letters and numbers that I make. 

And they're expensive... yesterday. 

Someone bought one. It's 600, right? 

It happened to be a returning customer, which was great. 

But I was telling my son and he goes. Maybe you might want to lower your prices. And I was like no, actually I wouldn't. 

I want to show you real quick. 

So I do stuff like that. Like made one for him every year on his birthday. 

But anyway, I just thought it was really funny because he's maybe you should lower your prices.

And I'm like no, I never will.

I say that because I finally feel like I've gotten to the point where I have the margin to run ads. 

Pricing and Profitability in E-commerce

Crystal Waddell: And I think that's something that's really [00:16:00] important for smaller businesses to understand. 

Because especially entrepreneurs, I know this isn't a problem that's unique to me.

I've spoken to other business owners. 

And I have a friend who's built an entire business around educating women business owners. 

Particularly about profitability. And, if you don't have the margin, you don't have the funds to run ads. 

Have you run into that as well? 

Yes, what happens? Tell us a story. 

David Green: That there is.

Austin, I speak about this as well because he Austin specializes a lot with e com businesses. 

And, we focus a lot more with lead gen advertisers. 

But we still have overlapped in some of that. 

And e com. 

There's a number of, I think around, I think we had about 80 somewhere around there. 

Which is around the sale price of a product. Somewhere around there is what we found to be about the sweet spot where you can make the numbers work.

Again, going back to that socks example. 

If you're selling socks [00:17:00] for 10. 

The numbers for what you just said, get hard to make. 

Because there's only so much margin can be built into there. 

The cost for the cost per click, the CPC on an ad. 

Let's say it's 2 and 50 cents. So if you got four clicks, You now be at 10. And then so if you start doing the math, if you get a hundred clicks at 2. 50. 

Then you're paying what's 250? 

250 and you need to get how many sales of those hundred? To get back your money?

So 250, your socks are 10 a pop. You now have to sell what 50 pairs of socks? 

To make 500 and to make like 2x your return?

Like the numbers don't make sense. 

Like you just said, like that is a big factor as well. 

Your price point of your service or offering. Doesn't matter if it's B2B, B2C, whatever. 

If you have a service that you're offering. We've had situations where landscapers work with us. 

And if you're a landscaper and you charge 20 bucks per lawn. 

The numbers [00:18:00] just don't make sense because you don't charge enough for that service.

But if you are making chimneys, for example. 

And chimneys could be five grand or 10 grand, okay. 

Those numbers make a lot more sense. You don't need to sell as much to, to make the numbers work. So you're completely right. 

What have you seen? Same question back to you. 

Are you seeing on the SEO side? 

Do you find that price point a big factor in terms of success?

SEO and Conversion Rates

Crystal Waddell: Absolutely. And I just think it's important to understand what the numbers mean relative to each other. 

I really appreciate the fact that you guys have said, okay, we've looked at a lot of different products. 

80 seems like a sweet spot. For, a comfortable return on investment or whatever. Not to put too many words in your mouth.

And I think with Ecom, there's a lot of different terminologies that are thrown around. 

Like conversion rate. 

And you mentioned this before, but like conversion rate doesn't tell the whole story. 

Because, there's a difference between a conversion rate on a informational blog post. [00:19:00] 

Versus a bottom of funnel product page. 

But the problem is Shopify and your general platforms. 

They don't differentiate between the types of pages and your conversion rate. 

Like the overall visitors to conversion percentage that you get. So there's a little bit more math to do there.

So I feel like that's a thing that's missing an SEO. Something that I really should probably create. 

But somebody is probably already working on it. Or got it and I don't even know it exists. 

Finding the right numbers to understand, like how to set a goal relative to your numbers. 

I think that is so key. And that's the challenge. Yeah. 

So that's where SEO, I feel like it doesn't tell the whole story. 

Because it's just like anybody who starts out in SEO. 

The first thing you want to do is you want to drive traffic. 

That's when you know, you're successful in SEO. You're like, look at all this. 

both: Yeah. 

Crystal Waddell: Then you're like, wait, though, like I got like a thousand times more traffic. And I'm not making any more money.

[00:20:00] What's that? 

And so it's like. is that SEO? 

Is that what we're supposed to be doing here? And it's like, no, it's these growth stages that people go through. 

How do I make it meaningful for my business? And, it really comes back. 

This is a nice little tie up here because it comes back to setting a strategy.

And creating a plan. 

In my SEO group, I have a small group for business owners. Who, are similar to me, solopreneurs. 

Or, they're the ones managing their website. 

Or maybe they have a small team, but they want to understand. What's going on with their website. And search engine optimization. 

And really optimization of all platforms. 

Because that's what we coming down to.

We talk about these things. 

And I try to, share with them like the whole picture. And it's it's not just, Oh, I'm going to try ads, or I'm going to try SEO. It's what's the goal? 

You have a goal for your business. Either revenue or, unit sold or projects booked. 

Or whatever [00:21:00] it is. 

Set that goal and then let's break it down and figure out how we're going to get there. Leveraging all of these amazing tools that are available to us.

The Future of SEO and AI

David Green: And to add to what you're saying, 

I think that's going to be part of the future. It's the strategies. The cohesive strategy. 

Again, going back to the omni channel piece. 

And even tell you Crystal. 

The SEO piece. 

I think the value of SEO is going to continue to increase. Because. Right now. 

Like when you think, Wil Reynolds said in his keynote, he said that his site. 

I think he said his, he goes, I'm an SEO agency.

So I appreciate that. I'm telling this to you because my site has dropped in traffic, organic traffic, 41 percent year over year. 

But He's been paying attention to some other channels and goes, he looked at chat GPT. I think that's what he looked at. I don't know if he mentioned Perplexity, but I know he said chat GPT. 

And traffic obviously is way lower. But that percentage increase is going up right now. And then he's been tracking that his lead [00:22:00] pipeline hasn't dropped. 

So the quality of those coming in from chat GPT have been better. 

They've been that good. 

And you can imagine that would make sense. How that experience would work.

If someone would break down, like how ChatGPT or Perplexity would analyze. 

And give you a bit more of a rich experience in terms of choosing the agency. 

It would feel more authentic than like just plop it up on a Google search. 

And I'm not surprised that even organically, I'm not surprised there.

Good organic presence. So chat to PT, or there's other AI's can find these businesses. It's going to be so important. 

Crystal Waddell: That's my humble opinion on that. 

 it goes back to this concept of a knowledge graph and SEO. 

Crystal Waddell: Because Google and Perplexity and chat all these, they're still just computers. They speak math. 

And they can. Translate very quickly into something that human beings can understand. 

But they speak math. And what that essentially means is they are connecting dots [00:23:00] all over the earth. 

I've never really said it out loud before, but that's essentially what I try to teach other entrepreneurs.

And what I like to share and have discussions about. 

Because you've got to be able to connect those dots online. In order to be found. As the same you, wherever you're at. 

That's going to be the major benefit of SEO and search, in my humble opinion. In the future. 

Because when you can help those new engines connect the dots of who you are. 

And build the knowledge graph around who you are. 

Then you're going to show up in the search engines of the future. 

Because people are always going to search. 

They're going to have to search in some form or fashion. The question is just more of: can you be served up as a trustworthy result to answer the query? 

Wherever someone is querying what you have to offer?

David Green: Isn't that the truth? 

Strategic Planning for 2025

David Green: What's your prediction for 2025? 

Biggest change you're making for 2025, let's just say based on your [00:24:00] takeaways?

Crystal Waddell: Oh my gosh. 

So this was something I wanted to tell you about the podcast. And my services. So after speaking with you. 

And, just knowing that you guys did Your strategic planning session.

It inspired me. I was going to go to the San Diego zoo. I stay an extra day in San Diego. 

And I got up early. I'm still on East coast time. So I got up at five 30 or six. 

And got myself some coffee. I went to the beach front over there in Seaport village. 

And I have a GPT. Where I create brand guides. 

That's one of my offers. 

I'm going to do a brand interview with myself. Here 

on the beach. 

Just looking over seaport village in the water. 

So people were running by. 

And I was interviewing myself. I downloaded a software on my iPhone where I could, read and record at the same time. 

And then I transcribed the video. Using Descript. 

My favorite software, which I talk about all the time. 

Use Descript, downloaded the transcript. [00:25:00] Uploaded it into my GPT. 

Built a brand guide. And a strategic plan for 2025 with, all of those elements. 

And realized. 

That even though I had positioned myself in my mind as a Shopify SEO expert. 

Like I'm a Shopify partner, I'm a Wix partner in terms of websites and doing SEO. 

How many podcasts do you think I've made out of over 150 podcasts? About Shopify SEO? 

One,

I think your first instinct was right. I'm a goose egg! 

I'm a goose egg! 

Yes. I love having conversations about things that support SEO. 

But as I was. Chatting with Chat GPT and creating this strategic plan. It's okay these are my goals. 

How am I going to get there? What should the lead magnet be?

Chat gave me these great ideas. One of them was a audio series about Shopify SEO or transitioning from Etsy to Shopify. 

And I was like, Oh, cool. Can I use some episodes I've already [00:26:00] created, to make this audio series? 

I'm like, Oh, look at me. I'm already off to a running start.

I was so excited and full of myself. 

And unfortunately I didn't have any episodes. So I've got to go back and make those. 

And it was just such a Whoa! 

I've on my e commerce side of my business, I've really, got the strategy piece. 

I really understand the strategy piece about that.

I'm executing that to the best of my ability. 

Me and Chat GPT. 

But the strategy piece I hadn't fully applied to the podcast. 

That's what I learned from you. And I wanted to say thank you. Because it's helping me. 

For 2025, that's my major shift.

And you helped me see that and put it into words and make a plan.

David Green: Hey, I'm glad. I'm glad. We're all trying to figure this thing out together. 

So I think you go to these conferences, you appreciate, we're all figuring it out.

Nobody knows everything. And it's just the ability to bounce ideas off each other. 

Crystal Waddell: Is the beauty of what we do right now. 

I think you might've asked me this earlier. What did I take away [00:27:00] from the conference? 

Crystal Waddell: What I took away from the conference was this conversation that we're having right now. 

And when you and Austin were talking about the strategy session that you are having. Like I took that away. And that had nothing to do with the conference.

That had everything to do with talking to the right people at the right time. To build a better business. 

David Green: Keep doing them every year. Or whatever cadence works for you. 

This was not my own idea. 

It's Tim Ferriss, a four hour work week. I read the book Tool of the Titans, the other one. 

And quick breakdown. Like me and my wife started doing them years ago. 

Like probably five, six, seven years ago, we did a couple of them ourselves.

And then I branched off and started doing them with Austin. Cause he's more in my space as well. 

But me and my wife did it for like. planning our life. 

We call it healthy, wealthy, wise. We want to be healthy, wealthy, we want to be smart. 

So we just planned out different things. And just got better every single year.

Imperfect. We're still imperfect. 

We're still, oh, we're going to figure it out. 

But it was like, Hey we're just improving. 

We just found we got gains every single year from doing it. So for a [00:28:00] business perspective, even personal. I highly recommend. 

Just take a little day for yourself. Plan and don't be too hard on yourself.

We don't hit every single goal. The goal is simply just to move the needle a little bit. And keep going. 

So I'm glad you took that. RUN with it! 

It's amazing. 

Implementing Ideas and Taking Action

David Green: Yeah, One of my superpowers is getting good ideas from people. And putting them into action. 

So I can't wait until I see you guys next year. 

And I can share like the successes that I've had because of it.

So that'll be something to look forward to. 

Connecting and Networking

David Green: So back to you though. 

Where can people find you? And if they've resonated with you and said, Hey, you know what? 

David sounds like the type of man that I would like to work with. 

How do they find you? Where's the best place to connect? 

Yeah. So I'm just on LinkedIn. And my website or email.

LinkedIn is probably the best spot to to hit me up on there. So I'm not on X or Twitter or these other platforms. 

I'm an old school kind of guy. 

Don't do that much social media. So LinkedIn would be great. My website you can put that in the show notes. I [00:29:00] imagine devslove. com. 

Send me a quick note there or an email.

So that would be the best channels. 

Crystal Waddell: Awesome. David, thank you so much. You were definitely a bright spot and a highlight of my Brighton SEO experience. 

And I think you can tell I'm not just saying that, like it's so true. 

And I'm so excited to see what 2025 has in store for both of us. 

David Green: Thank you for having me.

And I want to say the exact same as well. 

I appreciate all your insight you shared to have me here. 

And the energy was contagious. And I'm excited to get to chat this out. 

I've been dying to chat this thing with somebody and just bounce these ideas off. 

So I appreciate so much as well. I look forward to chatting about next year.

Crystal Waddell: Awesome. 

Thanks for being here. 

And guys, I will catch you next time.