In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Bill Slawski, author of SEO by the Sea and director of SEO research at Go Fish Digital. The conversation begins with a sponsor mention, then moves into personal storytelling as Bill shares his most valuable life lesson: his father’s mentorship taught him the importance of honesty and building trust with clients. Bill discusses his approach to SEO advice, emphasizing that understanding a client’s language and context is more useful than merely pointing to patents. He offers broader business guidance about aligning communication with audience needs, and reflects on personal advice he would give his younger self—listen to his father more. The discussion touches on his definition of happiness as daily self‑satisfaction, his favorite book "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler and the lesson of adapting to rapid information change, and a favorite quote from Edmund Spenser about finding joy through liberty and hardship. Finally, Bill lists where listeners can find his work online: the SEO by the Sea website, his Twitter handle @Bill_Slawski, and the Go Fish Digital blog.
Chapters
Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Bill Slawski with us. He is the author at SEO by the Sea and the director of SEO research at Go Fish Digital, where he often blogs about search engines and search engine patents and white papers and SEO. So welcome to the show, Bill.
Thank you, Tyler.
Of course, man. Thank you for joining us. Really appreciate it. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Okay. So my father was my mentor. He was a businessman. He helped start at least one business. We're in the plastics industry. Nothing to do with internet marketing. But as I was growing up, I used to listen to his client calls. And he received a call one day from a client who asked him if machines he built could make a certain size part. He said, "No, you want to talk to a competitor of ours. Here's their phone number." And that made me think about how you interact with clients, how you build trust. How you, uh, helped them. And I've tried to be honest with clients ever since that, since hearing that, uh, because they used to call him back all the time with questions whenever they had them. They relied upon him, and that was a good thing to see.
Thank you for sharing that. That is a very valuable lesson. Um, and what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
It's tough narrowing down to one thing. I'm often asked about advice regarding SEO and internet marketing on specific topics, and I spend a lot of time researching patents and papers, and having worked in the industry for 20 years, I've learned a lot of things. So I'm not sure I can narrow it down to one, but when I get a question from somebody like, "What is that patent that deals with relevance?" and I'll tell people, "That doesn't help me much. You have to give me more information regarding what you want to learn.
Let me be responsive." And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
It's a matter of enabling your audience to understand what you're doing by understanding how they talk, what language they use. When they ask for something, What words are they likely to ask him? Do you have answers for the questions? How easily can you respond to them? Learn that stuff, exercise it, practice it.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Listen to your father more.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Feeling satisfied with yourself every day.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
The best book I read, I read as a teenager. It was called Future Shock by a guy named Alvin Toffler. And he talked about how information and the world was changing at a faster and faster pace and how we could adjust to that, the stresses of it, and become acclimated to it. I learned a lot from it in these days of internet and Growth. Changes on the web every day, something's new. I've come to expect and anticipate that stuff.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
What more felicity can fall to creatures than to delight with liberty? From Edmund Spencer. And it's pointing out biblical events that Adam and Eve fell from the Garden of Eden. That's what the felicidad de fallar de la criatura stands for. But it's basically a matter of knowing that we go through hardships and tough times and difficult things we learn from, and it helps us grow. Chance to express yourselves. Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
There's a few. My website homepage, SEO by the Sea. I'm active on Twitter. It's Bill_Slawski. I blog at the Go Fish Digital website too, and I answer questions at Go Fish and SEO by the Sea comments on those sites.
Perfect, Mitch.
Dude, thank you so much for coming on again. We really appreciate it.
Oh, no problem.
The podcast you just heard was published with Anchor. Got something you want to say to the creator of this show? Send them a voice message using the Anchor app. Free for iOS and Android.
