🎧 Semantic Triples, Ikigai, and Optimizing Life with AI (Featuring Ana de la Cruz, Part 2)

In Part 2 of this conversation, Ana de la Cruz, SEO Lead at Chartis, returns to The Simple and Smart SEO Show with Crystal Waddell for a deep dive into the human side of AI.

Ana unpacks how experimenting with chatbots taught her the inner workings of LLMs, what semantic triples really mean for SEO, and how the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai helps her balance learning, creativity, and life.

Crystal connects it all back to entrepreneurship — discussing the “never-ending to-do list,” living an optimized life, and how technology can make us more human when we use it with intention.

You’ll learn:

• What SEOs can learn from experimenting with AI and coding
• Why understanding semantic triples and language structure matters
• How to use Ikigai to prioritize time and energy
• How to optimize life, not just website

Helpful Links:

🎧 Podcast Hub → https://simpleandsmartseo.com/best-seo-podcast

📘 SEO Starter Course → https://SEOin7Steps.com

💼 Guest: Ana de la Cruz → LinkedIn Profile

Connect With Crystal → Linkedin Profile

Chapters / Timestamps:
00:00 – Experimenting with AI and LLMs
01:00 – Presenting a Chatbot Project at Work
02:00 – What Are Semantic Triples?
03:20 – Why Meaning and Context Matter in SEO
04:24 – The Good, Bad, and Ugly of AI
05:00 – Embracing the Learning Process
06:10 – How to Balance Learning and Earning
07:09 – The Ikigai Framework Explained
10:00 – The “Never-Ending To-Do List” GPT Idea
12:05 – Energy, Emotions, and Productivity
13:34 – Optimizing Life with Technology
15:59 – Rapid-Fire Q&A: SEO, AI, and the Future
17:30 – Where to Connect with Ana

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Chapters

• 0:00 Ana De La Cruz (2): I ended up actually getting some insight into how LLMs work.
• 3:22 Semantic Triples and Language Fundamentals
• 4:00 Connecting the Dots in Learning
• 4:24 Balancing the Good, Bad, and Ugly of AI
• 4:54 Embracing the Learning Process
• 5:19 Applying New Skills in Real Life
• 7:09 Prioritizing Tasks with Ikigai
• 13:28 Optimizing Life with Technology
• 15:59 RapidFire Q&A
• 17:28 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

[00:00:00] Ana De La Cruz (2): I ended up actually getting some insight into how LLMs work. From the text extraction to the embedding. To the vector database, to the tokenization aspect of it, to the cosign similarity. it was really, really interesting.

I remember going on the company retreat and because I was new, they asked me if I wanted to present anything to kind of, you know, break the ice and have people get to know me a bit.

And I was like, you know what? We're in LLMs right now.

We're in the whole AI thing right now. Lemme just present this stupid project. I put together this rickety Rackety chatbot. And I actually did that. I presented it. I showed them like, here's what I'm learning.

Because that basically what it was, it was a learning experience. It wasn't for me to become an expert in chat bot and start selling an app.

It was for me to kind of test and also study how these LLMs work. 

I highly recommend every SEO right now. And you doing it already Crystal, you're seeing the benefits from actually experimenting with these [00:01:00] platforms. And I'm pretty sure you're learning new things as well. I recommend every SEO right now.

I honestly believe this is what you need to be doing. Even if you do it at a small scale. Even if what you're doing is trying to automate a certain process.

You're not trying to build anything like what I was building. But even if you're just trying to test the smallest of things, I think it's worth doing it.

[00:01:18] Crystal Waddell: Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO show podcast.

I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, here to bridge the gap between SEO strategy and real world business success.

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.

[00:01:39] Ana De La Cruz (2): To kind of see me go through this. Having no knowledge of what I'm doing. So I'm like, just relying on ChatGPT, honestly.

And I was still able to create it and test it. And use it.

And I was able to present it even to my team at Chartis when I first started the job.

And like, for example, I was doing semantic triples a few weeks ago.[00:02:00] 

I wanted to see, can I extract semantic triples from content?

And what does that look like? Because that was becoming part of the conversation about like how you optimize for LLMs.

And one of the things I figured out was like once, once I got the output, I realized, well, there's nothing you can do with an isolated data of just semantic triples.

They're not really built for that. And just to give a little bit of information, what semantic triples are: they're basically textual structured data.

They're the object predicate and subject. Or the subject predicate and object. Something like that.

And they're just basically structured data on text. They're supposed to provide meaning to an object. So what you're basically trying to describe.

Somebody mentioned this on LinkedIn:

they're really good for maybe like a glossary page. But when you look at it as your content strategy, an isolated audit of semantic triples is not enough.

There needs to be so much more. Because I noticed semantic triples would not take into account, first of all, whether the content is accurate.

[00:03:00] And it also won't take into account the subtle nuances there are in writing.

Maybe there's a slogan or something that the client has. A message that the client is trying to give and it won't necessarily pick up on those things.

So on its own, I learned there's really not much it can do with audited semantic triples. So it's like, now you have to be creative. And learn more about what structured data is, what meaning is, what context is, and et cetera. 

[00:03:22] Semantic Triples and Language Fundamentals

[00:03:22] Crystal: I understand the concept of semantic triples. It was last year when my son was doing his English assignment.

They were talking about subject and predicate. And, I was reading something that Michael King wrote. And of course like going through it with chat GPT to explain it to me like I'm a third grader.

And I realized I was like. my gosh. Like this is the structure that the computers understand. And so even though I think it's stupid and I don't really understand it either. It's like I need to go back to the fundamentals of the English language so I can understand the translation model that it's using to get into [00:04:00] the LLM.

[00:04:00] Connecting the Dots in Learning

[00:04:00] Crystal: it's just such a great point that the more you play around with it. And in it. 

Then you can start connecting the dots.

I also joke that our chat GPTs and, you know, Geminis, whatever. They just look like our Canva, you know, I don't know about you, but my Canva is a hot mess. And now chat GPTs the same way. And I'm like, ah, there's gotta be a better way. 

[00:04:22] Ana De La Cruz (2): I mean, yeah, it is exciting. 

[00:04:24] Balancing the Good, Bad, and Ugly of AI

[00:04:24] Ana De La Cruz (2): I mean, these things, they are imperfect. They make mistakes. They give you sometimes the wrong information.

And so, you have to take the good with the bad. That's how I see it. You have to take the good with the bad. Or you have to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The ugly being, how, you know, terrible, this can be to our environment the more we use it.

And then you have the bad. Which is like the misinformation that sometimes you can get the wrong or inaccurate informations that you can get from it. But the good is the learning that you're getting from it too.

[00:04:54] Embracing the Learning Process

[00:04:54] Ana De La Cruz (2): So if you're considering doing this. You have to sometimes just be okay with [00:05:00] knowing that you're not gonna know everything right away.

If you're trying something for the first time, for example, vibe coding. Or trying to understand semantic triples or even query fan out, you know what I mean? It doesn't matter what you're trying to do.

Cut yourself some slack. And give yourself the opportunity to just go with it. Just go with it. You're already working with it. 

[00:05:19] Applying New Skills in Real Life

[00:05:22] Ana De La Cruz (2): Think about it when you're in a, like a pizza making class. Funny enough our company had a outing last week and we went to make pizza together.

It is almost like a, a similar process. A lot of us there weren't pizza expert.

We don't own a pizzaria. We don't know anything about the process of pizza making. We don't even, we wouldn't know the ingredients to use.

Unless somebody tell us. Or we look it up. We are not expert in that field.

But here we are taking instructions from an, from an expert, taking instruction from someone who does. And just going with it. You're having fun, you're going with it. So you gotta kind of apply that same mentality. And approach. To this, to this thing too. Don't go in it thinking, oh, I have to be an expert.

Go in it thinking I'm here to learn.

[00:05:59] Crystal: [00:06:00] Yeah. 

[00:06:00] Ana De La Cruz (2): And if this thing gets something inaccurate, I learned that it's inaccurate. And then I could go to actual written documents from humans that can help me correct this.

And you can continue learning from there.

[00:06:11] Crystal: If I'm a Shopify store owner and I've got this huge list of things to do.

How do I balance my learning time with my, I gotta make money time.

And then, you know, the other part of it is like, oh, if I have clients.

How do you explain to your client, Hey I'm gonna need you to pay me to play around here a little bit. And experiment and have some learning time. How do you frame that so that everybody gets on board?

[00:06:36] Ana De La Cruz (2): it's so funny because you, you're literally preaching to the choir. I, I've been struggling with time as well, like how do I apply time? It is a whole different situation with me because my job depends, to an extent for me to kind of learn these things, to adapt to these things, to get comfortable with these tools.

And so because my job depends on it, I could find ways to kind of apply that [00:07:00] training to a test that I'm doing. And merge them both together. I was talking to, so funny, you're bringing up a lot of conversations I've been having the past couple of days, but. 

[00:07:09] Prioritizing Tasks with Ikigai

[00:07:09] Ana De La Cruz (2): I was actually talking to one of my colleagues about this. And I don't know if you ever heard of the term Ikigai.

I know very little about it, but I've been reading about it. It's basically the Japanese term. And it is a framework or a philosophy to help you find your purpose and your center.

[00:07:26] Crystal: Heard of it. And I, I don't know if someone on the podcast talked about it, but yes, I have heard of it. Very cool.

[00:07:33] Ana De La Cruz (2): Yeah, and I remember coming across it on YouTube because YouTube is my platform. And, you know, hope to talk about it a little bit here. But I, I, I definitely feel like I applied that kind of philosophy to what I'm doing.

Because when you have a list of a hundred things that you need to do, either you have multiple interests or you have tons of important things. When you list them and you create.

Kind of like little bubbles of [00:08:00] them or little cards of them, and you start lining them up. You start seeing that some of those things overlap. 

And you can combine them and say, okay, these two, let's say you have like two little cards or whatever, of two different, two different interests. You can find a way to combine them.

So that was what worked for me. So I'm pretty sure that this can be applied to anyone right now, struggling to try to prioritize where their time should be spent the most. Or whether they're overthinking it because it's all in their head. It is not on paper. And so when it's all in your head, it can be confusing.

It could be daunting, it could be almost overwhelming. But when you put all of your interests and all the things you have to do, you can find that some of them overlap and you can do them together. So that's one of the things I'm doing right now. I told my bossat Chartis, I was like, assume everything I'm doing is going through some form of LLM process.

If it's client confidentiality documents, obviously those are not.

So I gotta find workarounds around that [00:09:00] because that I'm very adamant of responsible AI and the responsible use of AI. And client information is not something that we at Chartis do. So being very smart and very intent and very cautious of that, is very important.

But assume that the research process or auditing process of like, you know, open source information. I am definitely going to improve some process, even if it takes me all day. But that's where the practice come in. I've been doing this already, the vibe coding already for the past year nonstop. And so for me, I'm comfortable with doing that.

But you gotta get started someday, right? We all gotta start somewhere. So you might as well just start now. And trying to find where can I overlap this new skill that I need to learn with things that I already have to do, that I need to do, so that way I could cut the time in half.

[00:09:50] Crystal: Yeah. I loved listening to you talk because it's giving me a thousand ideas.

But I talk about this thing called the never ending to-do list. [00:10:00] And I also teach other Shopify store owners how to use SEO to grow their store. And like you mentioned earlier, we don't just talk about SEO, we talk about user experience. We talk about brand, we talk about, you know, all the elements that make a business great . Including customer service.

That's a lost art. But I remember it was my friend Rachael who told me about that.

Is that Ikagai? Is that how you pronounce that?

[00:10:23] Ana De La Cruz (2): I believe that's how you pronounce it. Yeah. 

[00:10:25] Crystal: But as you were talking, maybe I could make a GPT. That is like the never ending to-do list that that trains it to say. Find things that overlap. Use the principles of the Ikagai.

Because that to me is one of the most powerful things about ChatGPT. 

is it synthesizes these things that we want to do to work smarter. But we forget that either we had the idea or we don't have time to really do the analysis to where we can implement it, you know, moving forward.

So thank you for that. That was how [00:11:00] I kind of connected it to something that I had worked on before. And also a goal that I had for the future. So just wonderful ideas.

[00:11:06] Ana De La Cruz (2): I'm looking to get better at the whole Ikigai stuff. I remember I was just like watching just YouTube videos and kind of learning a little bit more about it. Wasn't really that into it. But it stayed in the back of my mind in terms of, 'cause everybody has different process. Of Ikigai. I've noticed when I was watching YouTube videos, some people were doing, like I mentioned the list and trying to find the center, like where should my time be more spent?

And so many different people find the. This philosophy in and of itself very useful. So it it definitely worth exploring that method and is worth exploring what this really is both historically, philosophically, culturally.

What this means to kind of give you context of whether this is something that you want to do. And then apply it to some of your, you know, long list of things that you need to do to try to find areas where.

Hey, I'm, I'm here overthinking. But three of these things overlap. [00:12:00] Now. I have less things to do. Because I can now combine a lot of the stuff I need to do.

So, yeah, definitely.

[00:12:05] Crystal: And recognizing our energy levels. You know, like

[00:12:07] Ana De La Cruz (2): Mm-hmm.

[00:12:08] Crystal: Everything is connected. So even though we have a to-do list that may be geared towards business. There may be times where we're thinking, I would really like to go for a walk today. You know, or, or incorporate a time to get up and move every day.

Get away from my computer for about 10 minutes.

We always think we don't have time, but then there's the times where we're like, Hey, I have 10 minutes. Wouldn't it be nice to go to your, to your chat and say, Hey, I've got 10 minutes and this is how I'm feeling.

What's something off my to-do list that I could knock out that really aligns with how I feel right now?

You know, because how we feel changes all the time, so I just, I love the

The time.

The application of that.

[00:12:46] Ana De La Cruz (2): Mm.

[00:12:47] Crystal: and just that reminder of, hey, this is who you are. This is who you said you wanted to be. And just because you don't have the mental capacity to remember that all the time. That technology can come in and help us with that. To be [00:13:00] that, that best person.

[00:13:01] Ana De La Cruz (2): Absolutely. There's a plus side to technology. Funny enough.

[00:13:05] Crystal: My whole thing is like, how do we optimize our lives? You know? Like we're always worried about optimizing websites, optimizing a business. But I want to live an optimized life. You know, I told you what happened to me in 2020. I don't want to just use technology and then have more time to do more work. You know? So how do you guard against that, even for yourself? 

[00:13:28] Optimizing Life with Technology

[00:13:34] Crystal: It's like, okay, if you can harness the power of technology to help you work more efficiently, how can you use that to optimize your life?

[00:13:36] Ana De La Cruz (2): Well, number one, I, I have boundaries. I know what I like and what I don't like. I try my best to cut myself some slack about it as well. Because sometimes I feel self conscious of having boundaries. Because the world makes you sometimes feel bad for having self-respect. It is the weirdest thing. And it's kind of like, no, you gotta stay true to that. If that's what you wanna do.

Don't let somebody else make [00:14:00] you feel bad about it. And one of those things that I do to optimize my life, funny enough. Is to balance out my time with technology. Because as efficient as technology can make you, it could also hold you back on a lot of things.

And one of the ways that I try to balance that out is like, where is my time with technology?

Where is my time best spent? And instead what I do is, I'm not on social media all that much.

It doesn't matter whether it's LinkedIn or Instagram or you or even YouTube. I try to, not do too much of the social media stuff. And instead.

If I am gonna be in front of the computer, if I am gonna be in front of my phone, find apps and find other technology that are better for what I'm trying to do.

We were talking about ChatGPT. I, we were talking about Claude and Geminis and these LLMs and how they can help. I'd rather spend my time there maybe learning how to do, how to make a, a process much more efficient.

Maybe how to [00:15:00] automate certain, process in our work. Or how to automate a certain workflow because, you know, it's, it's a redundant task.

Those kind of things. I'd rather spend more time on that. Than, you know, scrolling through an endless feed that never ends. So I try to balance it, right? I try to optimize my life by having time away from actual technology. And actually using that time to read a book, to read an article. To maybe spend some time with family. Spend some time with myself.

Just quiet. You know what I mean? Be with my cats. Learn from their wisdom. 'Cause I love cats. I love animals in general. And sometimes we forget that they're there and they have something to say. They may not be able to say it verbally, but they're great companions. And so spending time with them is also something that I do to optimize myself.

So minimizing the technology. Despite the technology, making my life a little bit more efficient is how I optimize myself, for sure.

[00:15:59] RapidFire Q&A

[00:15:59] Crystal: Okay, so our [00:16:00] time is dwindling down.

But we have to do the RapidFire q and A before we pop off here. Okay. This conversation,

[00:16:09] Ana De La Cruz (2): Sounds good.

[00:16:09] Crystal: to talk again in the future 'cause we didn't even get to like YouTube SEO and content.

[00:16:14] Ana De La Cruz (2): Absolutely. I would love to come back.

[00:16:16] Crystal: was amazing.

I've got nine questions for you. Unless you answer differently to number two, and then I'll ask you number three.

Okay? And if you, if you wanna follow up later or something, we definitely could do that.

All right. So question number one. S-E-O-G-E-O-I-D-C, or IDK.

[00:16:33] Ana De La Cruz (2): SEO.

[00:16:34] Crystal: SEO is dying, yes or no?

[00:16:36] Ana De La Cruz (2): it is not.

[00:16:37] Crystal: Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Chat, GPT or something else?

[00:16:43] Ana De La Cruz (2): Oh I, oh

[00:16:44] Crystal: I.

[00:16:45] Ana De La Cruz (2): Chat GPT at the end of the day. 

[00:16:47] Crystal: Best use case for AI in SEO

[00:16:50] Ana De La Cruz (2): automation.

[00:16:51] Crystal: AI agents.

Hype. Or breakthrough?

[00:16:54] Ana De La Cruz (2): Breakthrough.

[00:16:55] Crystal: Google AI overviews: good, bad, or ugly.

[00:16:58] Ana De La Cruz (2): Ugly. Very ugly.

[00:16:59] Crystal: [00:17:00] jobs in SEO that AI is most likely to take in 2026?

[00:17:05] Ana De La Cruz (2): I don't know yet. I don't think I can answer that question.

[00:17:07] Crystal: Fair enough.

Jobs least likely to be taken?

[00:17:11] Ana De La Cruz (2): Content.

[00:17:11] Crystal: Best AI powered app for SEO that no one knows about yet.

[00:17:16] Ana De La Cruz (2): Repeat that question.

[00:17:17] Crystal: Best AI powered app for SEO that no one knows about.

[00:17:22] Ana De La Cruz (2): It could be any app, does it matter? I like using Monica.

[00:17:25] Crystal: Ooh. Yeah, I haven't heard of that

[00:17:27] Ana De La Cruz (2): Yeah.

[00:17:27] Crystal: Very cool. 

[00:17:28] Conclusion and Farewell

[00:17:31] Crystal: Okay, so if people wanna connect with you. Follow you or whatever, where shall we send them?

[00:17:34] Ana De La Cruz (2): come to my LinkedIn. That's where I'm at, that's where I'm most likely to respond. And also it's where I reach out to, to the community. And it's a wonderful community there. Amazing SEOs. And yeah, you can follow me there.

[00:17:49] Crystal: Awesome. Well, Ana De La Cruz, this was so much fun. Oh my goodness. Like I'm buzzing. I

[00:17:57] Ana De La Cruz (2): Thank you.

[00:17:57] Crystal: I have so much energy now. I [00:18:00] can't wait to go back and listen to the episode.

So thank you for being here with us today. And just sharing all of your insights. Can't wait to have you back on.

[00:18:08] Ana De La Cruz (2): Absolutely. Happy to come back.

[00:18:09] Crystal: thanks for being on the Simple and smart SEO show podcast.

[00:18:12] Ana De La Cruz (2): Thank you Crystal.