Ep 11. Andrew Griffiths: Dominate Your Market via the Written Word

The Honest CEO Show, Episode 11: Andrew Griffiths: Dominate Your Market Via The Written Word

Caroline Kennedy (00:17)
My guest today is Andrew Griffiths. From humble beginnings growing up as an orphan to global entrepreneur, keynote presenter and international bestselling author, Andrew is a powerful inspiration to business owners around the world. It's been almost 20 years since Andrew's first book, 101 Ways to Market Your Business, first hit the shelves. The way we do business has evolved furiously during this time.

In an age where we are drowning in information but thirsty for wisdom, Andrew now has 12 bestselling titles which are sold in over 60 countries. As a keynote presenter, Andrew's authenticity is one of his greatest assets. He presents globally on a host of business success topics, as well as diving headlong into the big personal growth concept of overcoming adversity, communication, curiosity, trust and much more. Andrew imparts wisdom generously, but with clear expectations. He doesn't just want to leave a warm and fuzzy lasting impression on his audience. He wants to have a lasting impact on the way they choose to live, work and do business as a result of what they have learned.

Recently, Andrew formed Small Business Inc., a specialist advisory firm designed to help business, better engage with small business. In this space, Andrew has worked with other organisations including CBS, HP, Telstra, Optus and many others to provide strategic advice on small business engagement. He is also a media commentator, writer and columnist for Inc.com out of New York, Huffington Post, Flying Solo and MOB Magazine to mention a few. Most recently, Andrew launched Smallville.

A small business community offering advice from over 100 of the top small business influencers in Australia. Most recently Andrew launched Smallville. A small business community offering advice from over 100 of the top small business influencers in Australia. Andrew is an active campaigner for not-for-profit organisations which create better living opportunities for others, including an ambassador role with the Act for Kids and fundraising support for the Salvation Army, the Red Cross Blood Bank, the RSPCA and Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary to mention a few. Andrew, the only word that comes to mind is wow! Congratulations on all that you've achieved to date.

Andrew Griffiths (02:53)
Well, thank you, Caroline. It's a lot when you read it in a few paragraphs. It's it out over 20 years and it's been well paced. Let's put it there.

Caroline Kennedy (03:03)
Yeah, I'm sure. Now you're, you're really passionate about many things in life, but one of which is helping small business. And I think that's certainly, you know, you do that so well. tell us where did it all begin?

Andrew Griffiths (03:17)
I feel like I'm on a couch and a psychiatrist office. When did it all begin? You know, it's funny. I've been a small business owner myself for many, many years. And I bought my first business when I was just, you know, just 18, basically 17 going on 18. I had no entrepreneurial kind of desires. didn't really didn't come from an entrepreneurial background in the slightest. But I bought a small business and it was a dive shop in Sydney.

And I just, fell in love with it. And I've been basically in small business for pretty much the rest of my life, the next 32 odd years. And I've had a fascination with small business. And in the last 20 or so years, I've had a real fascination with helping small business owners. And that's really why I wrote my books, Caroline, as well, because it was a great way for me to help a lot more people.

And it's why I love presenting. It's why I love writing is that everything I'm doing comes from a place where I guess I'm a helper. I know the challenges, I know the struggles, I know the issues that we all face in small business and I think a lot of them can be easily surmounted simply by getting the right advice from people who have perhaps gone ahead.

Caroline Kennedy (04:22)
Yeah, and I agree and I talk about that a lot and particularly to our listeners and to our guests in regards to if you've seen somebody do it before, don't go around struggling. Go and ask them how they did it and learn from their experience as well.

Andrew Griffiths (04:39)
And it's and it really is this I mean small business is is not that complicated There's a few things you've to get right but but it's complicated when it's us and we're doing it because it's it's so tied into who we are it's so You know, we're often the product and we have all the issues around self-worth that can come out No one's gone to a small business university. I got the small business, know MBA type thing It's like we have to figure it out and as much as you can get advice from others you still have to go through it yourself and still got to make the same mistakes.

But it is so much nicer if you can kind of learn from someone else who's gone ahead of you, whether it be in a book as a mentor, whatever kind of role and say, okay, what did you do? Because I guarantee every business mistake imaginable, I reckon I've made them all at least a dozen times. And I guess you learn a thing or two, hey, once you've kind of made enough mistakes.

Caroline Kennedy (05:28)
Yeah, absolutely. And we all make mistakes. don't think anyone's journey isn't, you know, hasn't got failings in there. And that's, that's where the big learnings come from as well.

Andrew Griffiths (05:40)
Best parts of my businesses have always come from the things that I've buggered up the most. I love that and I'm appreciative of those mistakes every day because they've all kind of combined and got me to where I am today.

Caroline Kennedy (05:50)
Yep. Now you've written 12 bestselling books. So tell us about your journey as a bestselling author.

Andrew Griffiths (05:57)
Well, I've actually written about 20 books, but there's only 12 that I admit to. Actually, my best selling book of all time is a book called Australian Animals. And I wrote that for a photographer by the name of Peter Lick is probably one of the most famous photographers in the world who used to be my neighbor. And I think he paid me like $1,500 and it sold like 2 million copies or something ridiculous. And believe me, it did not sell because of my sparkling copy. It was definitely because of his awesome pictures.

But I think I never set out to be an author. I never set out to be a writer. I'm not one of those kind of people who was born with that desire to be like Ernest Hemingway. But I was very good at it. I'm an entrepreneur who writes is probably the best way to put it. so I saw opportunities. I saw people with the same kind of challenges and I found that I could write about them. I wasn't very good as a writer in the early days. I've just got better as a writer because I've written a lot.

You know, millions and millions of words in the last, you know, 15, 20 years. And, uh, and I've learned a bit about it, but I think probably the old writing journey has just been extraordinary. Caroline, I've, it's changed my life in every, every way. You know, I mean, I've, I've become a speaker or I travel the world doing what I'm doing. I get to influence hundreds of thousands of people a year. I, um, you know, there's so much that has all come about simply because I've written some books that have been successful.

And it's something that I'm just eternally grateful for every day, to be honest. It's extraordinary. The stuff that I get to do, the people I get to work with, all as a result of writing some books that have been successful, is truly extraordinary.

Caroline Kennedy (07:32)
Yep. And you know, what you just mentioned before is about in the beginning, you know, you didn't see yourself as the best writer. And that's so true for anyone because, you know, even when I write now myself, I'm always looking to improve and grow. And that only comes with experience and the amount of times that you continue to write over and over again.

Andrew Griffiths (07:52)
Exactly. And I think you also get better at getting to the crux of the issue. You start seeing things a little bit differently in the world. So I travel through the world on a day to day basis, looking for article ideas. So everything, everything that I'm doing, whether it's having a coffee at a coffee shop, whether it's, uh, I don't know, at a restaurant, whether it's flying somewhere, being in a taxi or an Uber or something, I'm constantly looking for ideas for articles. And I think that kind of changes my perspective as well.

So not only have I learned to write, I've learned to be much more observant about what's going on around the world. And thirdly, I'm also extremely curious about everything. And I find that that really helps me to get better at being a writer and better at able to identify issues, opportunities, and share my thoughts and interpretation with others. And that's probably the biggest thing that's changed now is looking down a few decades, I've got a lot more experience so I can see things, but then I can commentate on them and say, right, well, this is what used to be a problem 20 years ago. Now this is what it looks like today and it's still a problem. This is what I think we need to do about it. So there's a bit more depth, I guess, in what I write about in many respects.

Caroline Kennedy (08:59)
And depth definitely comes with experience as well over time. Yeah. Now you truly believe in the power of publishing and you're on a mission to help inspiring authors reach their goal and publish a book. I know that without your mentoring and guidance, I would never have written or published a book. The methodology that you teach in terms of how to write a book makes the process such a simple one.

Andrew Griffiths (09:03)
Absolutely.

Caroline Kennedy (09:25)
It's not easy because writing a book is not easy and I don't want our listeners to think that it is. But the process and the methodology that you teach is so smooth. So tell us about that mission and you and how, cause you've helped so many people.

Andrew Griffiths (09:40)
I've got about 300 authors now, first time authors that I've worked with. I've got a bookshelf that's overflowing with my first time authors kind of books. It is a passion. I think like most things for me in my life, as you mentioned earlier on, I'm passionate about a lot of things, but I know how much writing a book has changed my life. I know what it can actually do for someone to stand out from the crowd too.

They say that writing a book is the best personal development program you'll ever do. And I actually agree with that. I think that you've got to be strong. You've got to believe in yourself. You've got to be disciplined. You you've got to be brave because once you write a book and publish it, people are going to read it. And you you've got to have some conviction behind what your thoughts are, all that kind of stuff. And there's a, we've all got those little voices in our head that tell us we're not good enough and who are you to write a book and all of that kind of stuff that you've heard me wax on lyrically about over the last few years.

But I believe that my job is to actually help people to push through that. And I've helped people write books on every topic imaginable. I look through my bookshelf and I go, I cannot believe the sheer diversity of books that people write about. And the methodology that I teach is very, very simple, very straightforward. It's really about getting clear on your idea, getting clear on your niche, getting clear on who you're writing this book for, then just chunking it down into manageable bite-sized pieces. People think, there's lots of people writing books and all the rest of it, but there's more people writing books probably because of people like me.

But I gotta say, there's also a lot of books that are getting written that aren't very good. And my view is if you're gonna write a book for it to be a leveraging tool, it's gotta be the best book you can possibly write. And I don't know if our first book is ever our best book, but it gets us on the way. It gets us started.

It's the most influential one that we'll write because it's often the beginning of our journey as an author, as a writer. I don't know, I I experienced the upside of being an author every single day of my life, every single day. And I know when I help someone to write a book and their book first arrives and they get that look in their eye of, my goodness, I've done this. And then they are handing their book out or they send me a copy of it. I know that that has changed their life forever.

And I tell you, really, that is the coolest of feelings in my world. It's such a blessing. I give thanks. And so all my author books are right beside me now. They're at my desk. And I look at them, you know, when I'm home, you know, they're my most prized possessions.

Caroline Kennedy (12:12)
That's lovely. And I know I liken the experience of writing my book and obviously my first one to having your first child. You don't know what you're doing and you go through the process and you come out and then you think, all right, well, the second one is going to not be a lot easier, but you understand the process and the experience. You've been there and done it, you know.

And at the moment I'm considering I want to write my second book because I know that I can give a lot more because I've been through it the first time. you mentioned before about the methodology and you mentioned a couple of tips, but do you have any other tips for anyone out there that would like to write a book? Where did they start?

Andrew Griffiths (12:46)
Yep, yep, yep, I think the thing is you've got to start the book with the right intent and for me writing a book is never about money I never never wanted to make money from selling books and I think a lot of people get caught up in the concept that if you write a book you're making me in dollars out of it really is more about what the book is used from a credibility point of view so that so for me my aim is not to make $2 selling a book my aim is to use every book and turn that into a $10,000 project so I have a different view about them there it's a leveraging tool.

So first and foremost, I think you've got to understand why you're writing this book. And a part of that process is to really understand that it will give you this extraordinary competitive advantage. you know, starting with that why element is important, of course, as we know. The second part of it is, the other tip that I would give is to write about what you know about, write about the stuff that you're seeing on a day-to-day basis that is going to solve people's problems. If you solve problems for people, your book will be successful.

Simple as that. So I wrote a book about marketing, my first book, 101 Ways to Market Your Business. And I just wrote about the stuff that I was seeing every day, the questions that I was getting asked every day. I just was able to put my perspective and my take and my understanding on them, and that's what made it work. So people think you gotta split the atom. You gotta write this really complex book, brr, brr, brr. You don't, you gotta solve people's problems.

And I thought everyone knew about marketing. I thought the stuff that I was writing was so simple that surely everyone knows about this stuff and they don't. And that was another really big realisation for me was the fact that the stuff that we often take for granted and assume that everyone in the world knows they don't and they want your take, they want your perspective, they want your opinions and your views.

So there wouldn't be too many people listening to the show who wouldn't be able to share their own unique take, realisation, understanding aha moments, their observations, whatever it might be, and put it into a format that is beneficial to other people. And that really is what writing a book is all about in the modern world.

Caroline Kennedy (14:55)
Yep. That's a very good summary. and some really good tips there. Now you run an author's retreat, for authors who are already published and they've already written their book. Your next one is in November. So tell us about that.

Andrew Griffiths (15:11)
That came about because I have got so many people that I've helped to write books before. And they go, well, okay, we've got the book out and we know we've got to leverage it, but where do we go from here? the whole idea of the retreat is to really help people to map out the next part of their writing journey. It's actually to map out the next 10 years. So it's to look at, okay, you want to be a writer, let's map out your author business. So we go into a lot of detail about building tribes, about what are you going to be writing, how are you going to evolve as a writer? How are you going to stay relevant as an author?

You know, I mean, that's something that I've managed to do over almost 20 years is, is not to be a one hit wonder all that time ago, but to still be current, still be writing, still be doing books. And that's a, that's a challenge for a lot of people. You know, so we met that stuff out. talk a lot about book sales in this like international selling, selling, to, know, the mainstream markets doing more and more of that kind of stuff as well. and, and then a lot of it comes back down again to, the business side of things, understanding.

Maybe looking for a mainstream publisher as opposed to self-publishing to try that. There's a few, you know, we go into depth, so it's four days and it's a pretty intense four days, but the feedback is really fabulous. Everyone that comes along just raves about them. And so it really helped them to map out the next, you know, the next 10 years of their writing side of things, the next five books or the next, you know, four books or whatever it might be. So, and I generally run those in Bali these days.

So the one in November is definitely going to be in Bali. And it's a cool thing to do. You know what's really interesting as well, Carole, that everyone says it's so nice to be around other authors who have already got a book out so they're not learning how to write. They've already kind of got a book out and they can have the most wonderful conversations and partnerships that are formed. And I found that probably one of the biggest upsides of the whole retreat, actually.

Caroline Kennedy (16:55)
Yeah, it's really good that they can also learn from each other and leverage those experiences too, you know? And I think it comes back to, if you really take writing seriously and it's something that you want to pursue, then you've got to continually produce material and books and you're right, it can't just be a one-off and expect that, you know, as you say, a one hit wonder kind of thing because that's not... can't. No, no.

Andrew Griffiths (17:22)
Well, and in my world now, so every few years I have a book come out, but it's a time in between that now we're writing articles, we're doing blog posts, we're contributing to other sites, whatever it might be. And that's how we're actually building our tribes is the interconnected stuff that we do on a weekly basis. But the books are just those big, the big leveraging, the big credibility boost that comes from a book. So, I always say no one likes a one hit wonder when it comes to being an author. So you do have to write.

You've got to kind of keep your books coming out and you build a following and to the point though where your audience is expecting you to write something else. They want to know what you've got to say about a particular topic now. So there's all that kind of stuff to consider as well.

Caroline Kennedy (18:04)
Yeah, because it really follows that thought process of being a thought leader and sharing your experiences and, and, and helping, you know, the people out there.

Andrew Griffiths (18:16)
And that's exactly it. Everything I do, everything I'm doing from a writing point of view, speaking point of view, even though I get paid to do it, that's not really my motivation. My motivation is I'm doing it to help people. know, someone comes to, you know, on Thursday last week, I'm talking about the art of influence to 400 school principals. You know, the week before I'm talking about seven strategies for staying sane in a world that feels like it's gone crazy to, you know, 400 solicitors. you know, the, you know, the whole reason for all of this for me is always, I'm sincerely just trying to help people.

And, the fact is I get paid to help people. Well, that's a bonus. That's a nice thing, but you know, it's, it's not really the, the bill and the, and the end also saying with writing, you know, everything I write, I write to help people. That's my number. How can I help people with this article is a question that I asked myself, but you know, when I start an article or start a

Caroline Kennedy (19:08)
Yeah, they're really good tips. And I think the fact that you are really genuine is why people are drawn to you. And that's how you've been able to build that tribe.

Andrew Griffiths (19:17)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Caroline Kennedy (19:19)
Now you've been a professional speaker for many years now and you've presented for many companies, L'Oreal, Telstra, St. George Bank, Optus Hertz, LJ Hooker to name a few and many, many more. So you've built a strong reputation as professional speaker, which is really important. So can you share your tips on what people can do to become a better speaker?

Andrew Griffiths (19:43)
It's a big question, isn't it? That one. mean, I've been speaking in one shape or another for over 30 years. and I didn't really realise it, but when I bought my first business's dive shop and I was, as I mentioned before, was like that whole concept of that I had to get in front of a group and teach people how to dive. I taught people bush survival skills. I was a sales rep for a big Japanese shipping company as well. So I'd travel around the world.

I took so Queensland as a tourist destination in the Great Barrier Reef. So I was constantly in front of large groups of people kind of something, but it changed a great deal when I started talking about my stuff and like what I, you know, my books and talking about marketing and business and stuff like that. That was, it was a very big shift. And that's when I kind of realised that I had to take my speaking to a different level. even though I'd been speaking for a long time, I, I hadn't really had any professional training. didn't have any skill development. just was kind of.

I was reasonably good at getting in front of a crowd and having a chat. Um, but then when I started being paid to speak in a more kind of keynote speaker, he kind of role, that's also when I really started to develop my skills. And I, you know, I remember I did a speakers, a four day speaker training program with Anthony Robbins, uh, team. And you know, like at the time I didn't have the money costs like $12,000. Um, I had to, it was all on credit card and I had to fly to Sydney and it was.

I don't probably cost me 15, $16,000 by the time I'd done this thing. And you know what? It was the best money I'd ever spent in my life. That's really took me to the next level as a speaker. But then, know, a lot of other things like I'm, as I mentioned, I'm incredibly curious. So I'm speaking all the time at conferences. So I'm the guy that is there all day and I'm watching all the other speakers. I'm down the back of the room taking notes on the other speakers.

What do they do well? What do they not do so well? I'm trying things all the time. So over a longer period of time, I developed a lot of skills as a speaker and I learned those through everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. From stages collapsing to data projectors blowing up to having snakes in a venue that I was then seeing to an event planner getting arrested halfway through my presentation to someone having a heart attack in the front row.

It's just the most bizarre of things. you know, like anything, once you've got enough experience, you're really able to handle anything. I can be put in front of any crowd, any audience, and I feel very comfortable about being able to hold my own. But I think when I became what I would consider a really good speaker was when I actually stopped trying to be one. And I said, you know what, I'm just going to talk from the heart. Whatever I'm talking about, I'm just talking from the heart now. And I think you can do that when you've got enough skills behind you.

You know, I think it's it's good advice for someone who's Experienced stop trying to to be the greatest speaker and start to be the most authentic speaker But I do think it's good for new people up and coming that learning as well authenticity is such a key to being a great speaker that people can see through it when you're not and and And if you can be an authentic speaker about any topic you'll go a long way.

But you do need to have some technical skills as well. You know, you've got to understand how to make decent eye contact. You got to know how to read a room. You got to know how to structure a presentation. You got to know what to do when you're losing an audience and you can't, you you're reading the room and the energy is down and you've got to do something, you know, to get it back. so I guess that's a, in a long-winded way, that's kind of my trajectory as a speaker, Caroline, to the point where now I feel extraordinarily, I probably my happiest place is to be on a stage in front of a group of people.

Caroline Kennedy (23:17)
I love to hear you say that, especially because, you know, you talk about the fact that you're a natural introvert and, know, introverts, as you know, lose energy. It's not about being shy, but lose energy amongst big crowds of people. isn't that great that you've come to that point where, you know, you just love being on stage.

Andrew Griffiths (23:37)
I do, but in the same vein, the way that I manage that, it's a really interesting kind of a concept, is that I do spend, so my life has two different parts. One part, which is planes, flash hotels, stages, and doing all of that kind of jazz. And the other part is my little house in Cairns, and I'm very, you know, t-shirts, shorts, and thongs, cover coffee at the coffee shop, five doors up the road, and very, very simple, very chilled, very relaxed. And that's how I get my introvert mojo back.

You know and it's a beautiful balance and I love you know, I'm on a plane on Saturday. I'm home for a week That's a luxury for me this time of year, but I'm you know on a plane on Saturday to go and do a presentation in Brisbane and You know and and I'm really excited about that, but I I've learned to just kind of balance it out I know that if I just presented all the time, it would just kind of wear me out to be honest I don't think my my personality type would be able to handle it, but I love getting on the stage.

And I want to help the people in the audience. That point I said before, I get on there and I ask the universe in my own little ritual that I have, please help me to help these people in the audience however they need help. Please help me to give it to them.

Caroline Kennedy (24:44)
Yeah. And you know, I think a lot of introverts over time realise, particularly in business as well, is that they've got really strong traits, but also they learn to adapt to, to, like learn to be an extrovert as well. Cause I know I've certainly done that in certain circumstances. It requires that you bring out those character types, that extrovert character types might not necessarily be comfortable for you, but you learn to embrace it, don't you?

Andrew Griffiths (25:12)
Exactly, exactly. And it's just, you know, it's a part of what you do and you get your game face on and you it can be a bit a bit tricky at the beginning, but but over time you start to look forward to it and you get into that zone where you're not so much, you know, it's lovely when you move past the fear element of being a speaker of getting onto a stage and being nervous and fearful. mean, I was a very nervous speaker for many years and I certainly struggled with it. I really totally understand it.

There are many a time that I'd be looking at the door and they just they're doing my introduction and I've decided whether to go on stage or whether to make a run for the door, you know, and there were times, you know, I could have easily just run out that door and never look back. but things change, you know, when you change your reason for doing it changes, you take the pressure off yourself a little bit by going, look, you know, all I can do is share my story, share what I've learned and that that helps other people. And that's a good thing.

Caroline Kennedy (26:06)
Yeah. And I think that they're really good tips that you've just shared with us and particularly about around the fear because great speakers at one point where they did have that fear, but they overcame that fear by just pushing through and doing it continually.

Andrew Griffiths (26:22)
Absolutely. And that's exactly the key. Isn't it? You they, they, they, they didn't kind of, I don't know. Look, I've got a friend of mine who she, she just speaking. She has to take a valium before she goes on. I know. go, God, you put how exhausting. And she said, it's terrible if it goes for, if it's delayed, you know, like I'll fall asleep at the table type thing. And she said, she's so nervous. I go, I said, why on do you do it? She goes, well, I love it.

Caroline Kennedy (26:33)
Sounds like me.

Andrew Griffiths (26:49)
I go, man, you need help. You need some serious help. But I understand that conflict and that contradiction. You go, well, how can you love something that you feel so stressed about? It's complicated. I totally get it, but it's complicated.

Caroline Kennedy (27:03)
But it does get easier, I think that's the key. The more you do it, the easier it gets, you know.

Andrew Griffiths (27:08)
That's a big bit of advice, isn't it, Caroline? Is to do it more. Talk at the opening of an envelope. You know, get up in front of 10 people, get up in front of 20 people, get up in front of 30 people and do it as much. mean, I've done hundreds and hundreds of presentations now. And it's easy for me to kind of talk from this space, but if someone's listening and then you and they're feeling fearful, it really is exactly that.

The more you do, the easier it gets. you know, don't beat yourself up if you bugger up a presentation. Man, I got plenty of tales of destruction with terrible presentations that I've done, but I've learned from each one of them. And the more I've buggered them up, the more I've learned from them. So I kind of go, okay, that's okay. I'm not gonna curl up in the fatal position and sob about what I got wrong, but I'm gonna learn from it. And I never make the same mistake twice.

Caroline Kennedy (27:39)
Yeah. Yeah, good. Good tips. Now, Andrew, you recently launched Smallville, which is a small business community offering advice from over a hundred of the top small business influences in Australia. Congratulations on that actually. Smallville. Yes, me too. So tell us about it.

Andrew Griffiths (28:06)
Thank you, I love it.

Well, it was one of those kind of projects that I had on the drawing board for a few years. And I think I wanted it, what I really wanted to do, and I did this with a friend of mine called Bree James, and we both were kind of chatting a bit about it. And really the thing was, this is the kind of site that we both wanted like 15, 20 years ago. You know, like a site that was just really great information, not mainstream information. You know, was much more, it was more, wasn't beige stuff. It was challenging. It was a bit controversial, the stuff. It was current. It was relevant from a broad depth of people.

So I did a shout out to my network and my community. The concept of having like 100 people who I admire and respect enormously wanting to contribute to this site was just mind blowing for me. I really aim for those people who were perhaps newer and up and coming and had something to say and were opinionated and they wanted a platform to be able to voice their views and ideas and and that's what we got we got this great community of contributors who I look at and go wow, know, they're just incredible people I didn't want the same old names that we hear everywhere and and in some respects I put myself in that group as well You know a lot of time people have got a high profile everywhere you go.

They're contributing and that's kind of nice but I think we need the fresh ideas coming through. And we certainly got that with Smallville. The number one bit of feedback that I get from people that go to the site is they can't believe how great the quality of the content is. It is really a good site. The content is extraordinary. And of course, I love hearing that. it's steady, steady. It's a huge project to get something like this off the ground. And it's a long-term project.

And it's one of those ones that you've just got to, every month, you just got to bed down your contributors. And you've got to keep building your traffic slowly and just got to make sure the quality of your content stays high. And little bit by little bit, you build a great community. But our community here really is our contributors. And that's the interesting part, who are collectively doing this great stuff and providing this incredible free resource to tens of thousands of small business owners.

Caroline Kennedy (30:17)
And you know what I love about it and what you've just described as well, Andrew, is the fact that you get to help what you, you know, classes, up and coming writers and people who have a lot to say and have the experts in the field. But you also get to help small business as well because then they can leverage that expertise and learn from that expertise with the tips. So it's like a twofold approach, isn't it?

Andrew Griffiths (30:39)
Absolutely, I think that that's one of the real keys out of it. Everyone wins. And for me, I wanted a platform for small businesses because I haven't really had a platform for small business owners. Even though I've written all these books and all the rest of it in that space, this was something that has always been one of my dreams in the last 10 years, 15 years, I guess, is to build that kind of space. it's really cool to have that and to see. I'm really proud our contributors. It's the easiest way for me to describe that. I look at the quality of the articles and I just get a smile on my face and go, know, this is really a cool site. yeah, for all of us to be proud of.

Caroline Kennedy (31:18)
Yeah, I agree with you. And certainly, you know, from our perspective as contributors, we're just, you know, really proud of what you've done as well, because you've really given us that platform to be able to grow our profiles and help us educate, you know, small business. So thank you. You give so much to the community. And that's one of your really key strengths. You're just so genuine and authentic.

Andrew Griffiths (31:36)
Thank you, Caroline. And people sometimes say to me something funny, know, when talk about values and all that stuff, they say, don't you find it exhausting, you know, to be so contributing and so giving you all that stuff? Okay, to be honest, no, I find it the exact opposite. I find it incredibly energising. I do, just find the more that, I know it's a cliche term, but the more I give, the more I get. But I never do it for that reason.

But I just, I don't know, I love conceptualising an idea getting a group of people together and making it work. that's the entrepreneurial kind of, that's our kudos. no, what am I trying to say? That's our manifesto, isn't it? Come up with an idea and make it work and then hopefully someone will buy it kind of concept. That's what we're all kind of doing. But I think Smallville is going to grow into something quite extraordinary in our part of the world.

Caroline Kennedy (32:32)
Yeah, certainly. our listeners should go check it out and I'll certainly link it through as well so that they can have a look because there's certainly a lot of great contributors on the site and I have no doubt that they'll get something from it. Now, what are the biggest lessons you've learned in business?

Andrew Griffiths (32:48)
And that's a tough question, isn't it, over the years? I've learned a lot of lessons. And I think it depends where you are in your business cycle. a couple of lessons that I would rattle off. One that I've, my biggest lesson I think I've learned is to listen to my intuition. And I'm very much a believer in that in terms of people, opportunities, situations, whatever it might be. The times that I've made the biggest mistakes, when I haven't actually listened to my intuition. I think I've seen that many, I've experienced it, I see it in others.

And I think business owners have a kind of sixth sense that we kind of, we listen to our brain instead of our heart. So I've got a little list of criteria. If I'm gonna do business with someone, there's like 10 things on that list. And the last point is what does my intuition say? And if the first nine are ticks, and then the last one is across my intuition, I don't do it.

And that's my guide. So that's one. The second one is I think that I don't think people know how to charge. I think they charge based on their sense of self-worth. And what I see is people generally they undercharge for their services and their products even. And there's that real link in there. And I find that that's what leads to small business poverty is people that just simply do not charge enough for what they do because they don't have the confidence. So I've learned over the years to charge.

And there's a line, a title of my new book called, someone's gotta be the most expensive, it may as well be you. And, and of course, if you're going to be the most expensive, it means you've got to be the best. so there's a lot of people fighting out in the cheaper end of town, price-driven end of town. And there's a lot of uncluttered space in the most expensive end of town. And, and people go, but everyone's price-driven. go, know what? They're not. There are people that are prepared to pay for quality and there are more people prepared to pay for quality now than ever.

You can't charge the most and not be the best. So, you know, there's got to be a link in there. So that to me is probably the second one. Learning how to charge what you're worth means being able to deliver, you know, quality. think another third one for me is really, and this is a big, is the importance of your peer group and the people that you have around you. And I know there's a lot of discussion always around this, but for me, very, very, very much. You know, I think there's three types of people. Those that'll pull you up, those will pull you down and those will hold you in place.

And I think we have to have a great peer group. I'm very fortunate. I'm around a lot of very smart business people, very motivated business people, and not just giant businesses, I might add. These are sometimes just solo operators, but they're just good business operators. They're smart at what they do. I think that that's really important as well. it's business isolation is a real problem. Times when I struggled the most in business is when I felt isolated. And I probably haven't had people around me that I could call on to ask for advice. And, you know, honest advice. People will tell me the truth, not just what I want to hear. Yeah, that's so important. So three bits of advice there for me that have helped me a great deal over.

Caroline Kennedy (35:42)
Yeah. And I think that what you've just described is key and particularly charge what you're worth. you know, it goes that concept of I've always believed in, charging, based on outcome, not just trading my time for money and be really committed to that outcome, with your clients as well. is so important and do all you can to get to that outcome, obviously within your influence as well.

And your third point about surrounding yourself with people. I've always believed in surrounding myself with people that lift me up and also people that intimidate me. If I walk into a room, I want to feel intimidated because I know then that I'm going to learn, I'm going to develop and I'm going to grow from these people too, you know, which is really key because we don't know everything and continual growth is so important for us too.

Andrew Griffiths (36:33)
Well, and also the other part about that, I would say is you've to back yourself. You've got to believe in yourself. You've got to be your number one fan. that at times can be hard for people as well. It's great if you've got a good peer group around you, but you do have to have a strong sense of self-belief that you can achieve that. Even if there are days when you've got to fake it, and we all have those days, But you've really got to believe in yourself. And I think that that's a really big part of being successful in business is that confidence that you can do that, even if you've got to fake it till you make it, at least, you know, pardon me, try to have that confidence in what it is that you're doing, or belief, even more than confidence.

Caroline Kennedy (37:12)
Yeah. And I think belief is the key. Now, finally, what does the future look like for you?

Andrew Griffiths (37:17)
Well, you know, I have a pretty full world these days. I mean, I do a lot of stuff as it is. More books, bigger books, I guess, you know. I've got some new sites that I'm launching. I've got a site called Authorville and Speakerville for author resources and one for speaker resources. So many versions of Smallville. Coming up, I've started a new business called Small Business Inc. where I'm offering small business advice to large corporations.

So that's just launched and we've already got our first couple of clients. I'm doing that in partnership with a friend of mine. and you know, a lot more not for profit work, a lot more, a lot more retreats and training. mean, I'm just going to do more. I'm going to keep doing exactly what I'm doing now, but I'm going to do more of it and I'm to do bigger and, just have, you know, bigger versions of it. I guess is probably the key to that. and I guess use my influence a little bit more partner with some more people and just, you know, keep trying to become a better human being along the way, Caroline.

That's my number one driver is always that, am I better today than I was this time last week? And you roll them all together and you do it. I love what I do. I'm ridiculously passionate as we've said about everything that I do. I'm curious and turning 50 recently gave me that wonderful insight into the clock's ticking. So I've got a lot I've got to do in the next 50 years. So I got to get going.

Caroline Kennedy (38:35)
And I think that you're a prime example of there is enough time in the day because I hear so many people say, just don't have enough time. Well, there is plenty of time. just don't, you know, it's about prioritising.

Andrew Griffiths (38:48)
It's all about prioritising. You know, if I had a dollar for it, every time someone came up to me said, Oh, one day I'm going to write a book. And you go, well, you know, book won't write itself. You got to make the time. When I wrote my first books, I had to write them from 11 PM at night till three or four o'clock in the morning. Cause I was, I didn't have any other time. I was running a really busy business that wasn't doing very well that needed all of my attention. And I wrote my first three or four books from 11 PM to four AM in the morning. And, um, and I'm not saying that to as a sob story in the slightest.

But it's just, I was committed and you know, a lot of people talk a big game, but are you really committed to do what it takes? and I don't want to be a hard ass about it, but I think it's easy to talk about harder to actually do in any part of doing a business. And no matter what anyone says to be successful in business, you got to roll up your sleeves and you got to work hard. And, and, I've yet to meet any successful entrepreneur that doesn't agree with that point. It always takes hard work and it always will.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to have an extraordinary life, you've to be prepared to do the work. It's kind of as simple as that really.

Caroline Kennedy (39:53)
Yep. Now, I know that we're running short of time, but one last thing, you do a lot of work for not for profit and I'd really, like to hear a little bit about that and I'm sure I'll listen to this word too. So tell us why is it so important to you?

Andrew Griffiths (40:06)
I think like a lot of things as you get a little bit older, it's more significant, but I've always been big on not-for-profit. I just, I think I choose the causes that are meaningful to me. I was an orphan. had a fairly difficult childhood as you introduced in the introduction there. I, you know, so for me, I'm an ambassador for the Abuse Child Trust. I'm a big believer in trying to, there's no excuse for child abuse in any shape or form. So that's one thing. But I've been a blood donor for 20 years and blood plasma.

My foster mother in the childhood died of cancer at a young age and I saw the power of blood donation. And these days, my big thing is also animals. I'm an extreme animal lover. I have just so little tolerance for anything to do with animal cruelty. I'm a supporter of RSPCA and this wonderful little organisation called Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary. And people say to me, that seems a strange thing for you to be involved in. it's like, well, it's not actually because I have some weird fascination with wombats, even though people think that I do.

It's because it's run by this most extraordinary lady who's devoted to rescuing and saving wombats that have generally been hurt, shot, poisoned, know, run over for fun by people in ridiculous ways and she's got this little property with a husband and a couple of kids and a dog and about 50 of these wombats that she has built this incredible little sanctuary and she's the most extraordinary human being. I love seeing that in someone else and I look at someone like that and she deserves to be supported. And yeah, I love wombats and yes, I am passionate about that but I love people who stand for something. And it's like the Abused Child Trust, the CEO of the Abused Child Trust.

Neil Carrington is their number one donor. I look at that and go, how amazing is that? So he's a professional speaker. So he makes about three or $400,000 a year as a speaker. He donates that money back to the fund and because he gets paid a salary. he's donated like a million dollars to the Abused Child Trust. Now, how extraordinary is that as a human being? And I guess I look for that kind of stuff and go, well, someone who's that cool deserves to be supported and their cause kind of aligns with me. So that's pretty cool.

Caroline Kennedy (42:22)
Yeah, and it really comes down to community and I've always been a believer that the people make a business, whether that's a not-for-profit business or whatever it may be. No, and these are prime examples of that.

Andrew Griffiths (42:31)
Doesn't matter, doesn't, bsolutely, absolutely. And I think from a business point of view or just from a human point of view, we've got to contribute, we've got to make a difference. It does get more important as you get older. I think there's no doubt about that. But I think that our customers expect us to be good corporate citizens and good corporate, know, good corporate karma, I call it to buy from good people. I think that's getting more and more important every year. I think we're asking better questions and we're, you know, if I'm to spend my money with you, I want to know that you're a good person. I want to know that your business is making a difference, you know, and I think we need to ask more of those questions.

Caroline Kennedy (43:11)
Yeah, I would agree with you completely. Well, thank you so much for your time, Andrew. I really appreciate it. And you certainly are an inspiration to many. And thank you.

Andrew Griffiths (43:20)
Well, Caroline, lovely to chat to you and thank you for all that you do as well. you know, out of the interview, the part that I've got most excited about is the discussion of your second book. I no idea how much of a smile that puts on my face. I know could have gone down to path and said, now, what's it to be called? I could have grilled you on your own show. How uncool would that have been?

Caroline Kennedy (43:41)
No, not very cool. But you're the one, you're the inspiration behind that because certainly, you know, you just give so much and I think I want to do the same. I want to be able to give back to the community and share my experiences and just contribute in any way. I think it's so important.

Andrew Griffiths (44:00)
And you do that by doing the show. You do that by everything you do. And I think that that's one of the things that we often forget. We don't have to cure cancer. It's just how we act. It's how we treat others. There's so many little ways that we make a huge difference that we all can do that. So good on you.

Caroline Kennedy (44:17)
Thank you, I appreciate it.

Andrew Griffiths (44:18)
Take care, Bye.