Episode 186 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.681)
Well, hello, Andrew. Welcome to the show. How are you from Hobart?
Andrew Griffiths (00:06.462)
I am great, thank you Heather. You notice that I'm wearing my light jumper today in Hobart. I lived in Cairns for 30 years in the tropics as most of your listeners will probably know. So my wardrobe has gone from tropical Hawaiian shirts, filling it up, to jumpers. And I have medium thickness puffers, thick puffers, thin puffers, but puffers, puffers, puffers.
Heather Porter (00:30.163)
Well, it's really more know the cold for sure and No, thank you for being here I'm I'm I always hit record really quickly because I have questions that I you know Secretly want to know about you, but I figure like the best stuff comes out in those moments. We just hit record and go Yeah, I always like to start with a few tangible tips takeaways
Andrew Griffiths (00:33.398)
Ha
Andrew Griffiths (00:45.066)
It does. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good idea.
Heather Porter (00:52.177)
You know, what do you do during the busy times in your own life and business to stay sane and like stay away from that hustle and grind culture? What are a few tips that you have around that?
Andrew Griffiths (01:01.558)
Yeah, so funny you say, I just did a presentation in Sydney on the weekend called How to Stay Sane and Profitable When It Feels Like the World's Going Crazy. And sometimes it's a difference between is your world going crazy or is the world going crazy or is it a combination of both? I think what I've really learned to do over the years, is to preempt that a little bit. So I've kind of built my life to make sure that it's
Heather Porter (01:07.943)
Interesting.
Andrew Griffiths (01:30.926)
It stops building up to the point of craziness. I have a, every six weeks I take 10 days off and go up to the Bay of Fires on the east coast of Tasmania, stay in a little shack, walk on the beach, do a bit of riding, do all of those kind of things. And I've been doing that for years. And it's because I'm a workaholic by nature. And so if I don't preempt it, I...
Heather Porter (01:50.951)
Nice.
Andrew Griffiths (01:57.774)
trying to get crazy and busy and stressed and all the rest of it. So I've learnt that that's the best thing that I can do and I've scheduled those breaks a year in advance so that I look at my calendar and every six weeks I'm truddling up there or we're truddling up there with the dogs, the things we need and we go and enjoy a beautiful bit of serenity.
Heather Porter (02:13.501)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (02:18.429)
Do you shut off? Do you know how to shut off?
Andrew Griffiths (02:21.021)
No, no, not really, not really. mean, I think, you know, my partner is a meditator from, she lived in India for years and she's one of those people that can really do that. I don't think so. I think for me, I'm always on to a degree. And I think too, I think like lots of us, I kind of like, I like being busy, I like having lots of stuff on. I just don't like the overwhelm. That, you know, when you slide into that,
Heather Porter (02:31.219)
Andrew Griffiths (02:50.561)
that out of control, you wake up in the morning and your heart's in your mouth because you've got so much to do, that's just icky. So I really do my utmost to avoid that.
Heather Porter (03:02.643)
Do you how do you get out of that? Cuz I know we all go there We've had you describe it so well cuz I know you've been there a lot How do you if you feel it coming on? How do you how do you scale that back that?
Andrew Griffiths (03:07.501)
Mmm. Mmm, that's-
Andrew Griffiths (03:14.645)
Yeah, I think what I've learned over the years, and of course I've had many years of overwhelm probably which has got me to this stage, was I've learned that there's things that I like to do that pull me back down. And it's like creating, when I do creative stuff like, you know, designer briefs for brochures or book stuff or, you know, even doing a presentation for a keynote, that kind of stuff I find really...
Heather Porter (03:23.272)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (03:42.354)
It takes me a bit out of overwhelm as well. I think I also have got a lot better at pushing back on other things that come in and say like our next three days I'm just doing this and so moving appointments or changing things and I think I've also because I mean we've always got a hundred things we can do I've just got better at prioritizing and saying not so much that this is a priority project
Heather Porter (03:45.574)
Hmm.
Heather Porter (03:54.962)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (04:10.881)
but I'll feel much better when I've got this done because this is the thing that's actually waking me up in the morning and it's top of mind. So I'll address that. managing myself better and being really acutely aware of the things that throw me into overwhelm. And that's the fear of letting people down or a big project that you haven't quite got your head around. How do I go forward with this? That kind of stuff. And then just having a really good process. is okay.
Heather Porter (04:19.922)
Nice. Nice.
Andrew Griffiths (04:41.069)
I can do that, or I need to spend a day designing a keynote or a PowerPoint presentation, because that'll be pretty pictures and nice little words on a screen, and I'll go into my little happy place, and I'll come out the other side going, everything is okay, the world is okay.
Heather Porter (04:55.314)
I love how productivity is actually a way that you get out of overwhelm. That's great in a different way. So good.
Andrew Griffiths (05:03.981)
Spoken by a true workaholic,
Heather Porter (05:06.554)
Yeah, totally. All right, we now need to know what you actually do. I mean, I have the bio and I already read it to everyone listening, but tell me about yourself, Andrew. So what's your business doing? How'd you get there?
Andrew Griffiths (05:20.183)
Well, today I'm predominantly obviously an author and a speaker and I talk about business. business, I kind of feel like I love that intersection of personal growth and business. And I think if you want a better business, of build a better person is the way around that. so that's most of my day job, well, it's not really most of my day job, but it's a big part of what I do. It's the pinnacle of my stuff.
Heather Porter (05:24.636)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (05:47.234)
But after that, I do a lot of coaching, I do lot of business coaching, predominantly do a lot of book writing coaching. That's become my, I guess, one of my main passions. I'm so proud as I've helped a thousand first time authors to write and publish their books, which is something, I've got bookshelves full of my authors' books. And that's a really special thing because I really love helping people to discover that thing inside them that is their bigger.
And I think writing a book really brings that to the surface. I always say writing a book is the best personal development program you'll ever do. again, meets my need for that intersection again. And then the third thing that I do is speaker coaching as well. And really, Heather, most of my stuff is kind of teaching people to do what I've done. I've been writing for 25 years and speaking for most of my kind of life.
Heather Porter (06:34.385)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (06:44.275)
in one way or another. I was one of the cool kids that joined Toastmasters at 15. Yeah, right up there with the chess club and the gardening club and all those other people were off playing rugby and you know all those things. I was in the cool part of town. And so yeah, so I just really generally share what it is that I've learnt to do and that's my approach. But I bought, yeah sorry I was just gonna say I...
Heather Porter (06:48.035)
yes.
Heather Porter (07:00.613)
haha
Heather Porter (07:10.749)
Wanna talk? Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (07:13.611)
Being a small business owner most of my life, I bought my first business when I was a kid, 17. And of course it was hugely successful from day one. No. And I, who has any idea? When we start a business, buy a business or whatever, it's like, if you knew, you would never do it. And then you go in and you bumble your way through. Like I joke, I got to know my bank manager really, really well because.
Heather Porter (07:16.221)
Got it.
Andrew Griffiths (07:41.152)
Every morning he'd pop in and give me the checks that I'd bounced the day before. It was just a disaster, but I figured it out bit by bit and finally turned it around. But it was a great moment for me because before then I'd had a really, one of those childhoods, I was an orphan, I was in an out of state facilities, a lot of violence, a lot of neglect and stuff in my childhood. And a really complicated.
Heather Porter (08:02.365)
Wow.
Andrew Griffiths (08:10.029)
upbringing which is kind of normal when you come from a fairly bizarre background and I think that I had a lot of issues around self-worth I had a lot of issues and I was going down a really predictable path of the alcohol the drugs the petty crime everything kind of escalating a little bit and then I just somehow landed in I started working part-time I'd learned how to dive and I loved it and then I just started working part-time in this dive shop and then next thing
The guy said, do you wanna buy it? went, okay, I don't know how to do that. And I went into the bank and I was 17 and a half and I got a loan for like 22 grand. It wasn't a million dollar business that I bought, but it was in the 80s and you could do that. And I walked out with a check and I think my interest rates then were like 22%. So I chuckle these days when we hear about interest rates. But that really gave me a great grounding and it gave me responsibility and I...
Heather Porter (08:48.507)
Incredible.
Heather Porter (08:52.945)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (08:57.331)
Andrew Griffiths (09:07.819)
I kind of had to grow up quickly because teaching diving and all that stuff, you've got other people's lives in your hands and I became a commercial diver as well, so doing projects like that and then that kind of set the scene for me and my business life I think for many years after that.
Heather Porter (09:26.205)
Do know, it's interesting, you mentioned a really tricky upbringing and some people might choose the wrong path. You know, as you were saying, you started to go down that. Do you actually remember a moment in time that actually you woke up one day and you said, I don't want to go down that path. Like what was going on for you to change your direction?
Andrew Griffiths (09:33.942)
Hmm.
Andrew Griffiths (09:44.91)
Totally. had a very, it's a great question. I had a very distinct moment where I had that. And it's funny, I've got a new book coming out called The Bigger Button, not to, not trying to, you know, do a plug for that. But that's around finding that bigger within you. And I had that moment. there was a real predictability of path. I was 15, going on 16, I was just staying, like living on couches of friends.
Heather Porter (09:56.359)
Heather Porter (10:02.396)
Right.
Andrew Griffiths (10:15.812)
And as I was saying that the life that I was living was escalating and so the drugs were instead of smoking a bit of weed it was now starting to move into you know heroin was starting to come into the scene and it was an acid and stronger drugs and alcohol now was alcohol fueled with driving whereas before then it was alcohol in the paddock
Heather Porter (10:32.285)
Wow. Yup.
Andrew Griffiths (10:42.765)
that you can probably only hurt yourself really but that whole escalation and I was around people and I I started to notice other people so my group you know with the wrong kind so was I because I was a part of that right but then I started to notice like friends fathers or other people that were just really kind of good people and and just I hadn't really noticed that too caught up in my own little world
Heather Porter (10:45.938)
only.
Andrew Griffiths (11:11.873)
And I started to realize there was an alternative. I didn't have to go, I didn't have to become the person that I was becoming. And I knew that the person I was becoming was gonna be dead in prison, whatever it might be. And literally one day, I was standing at the end of the driveway of the house where I was staying and it was, was Vivid Friday evening, the sun was kinda going down, this beautiful moment, and I just, I did, had an epiphany and it was like, you know.
turn left or turn right, get in that car tonight and embrace that life 100%. Or turn right and I went back in the house, grabbed my bag and I just left and I broke away from it and I'm so grateful that I had whatever it took to do that and I don't really know.
why I was just very, very lucky. And that started my real journey again to go, okay, well, I get to choose my life, I get to choose who I am, how I act, I'm not gonna be a victim of circumstance or any of that kind of stuff, certainly not gonna play victim. And yeah, it was a big, big moment. I don't know if it was a religious moment, it was certainly a spiritual moment. And yeah, how lucky was I to have that moment? I certainly wouldn't be talking to you now otherwise.
Heather Porter (12:28.103)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (12:34.255)
Yeah, it's amazing. I find that a lot of lives, our lives are based around these epiphany moments. And I want to, it's interesting you brought up your new book. So I actually think now's a good time to talk about that because I know nothing about it. But the reason why I asked this question is because a lot of people that listen to this are in a bit of stagnation in their lives. Like they're, they might've been sort of fell into being a business owner and 10 years pass and they're in the same spot as they were 10 years ago.
Andrew Griffiths (12:39.819)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (12:45.655)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (12:52.512)
Hmm.
Andrew Griffiths (12:56.301)
Mmm.
Heather Porter (13:00.507)
And there's even those conversations going around, like sort of from the time you go 40 plus, you hit this stagnation period of your life where most people just go, the best is behind me. I just stay where I am. So let's talk a little bit about this sort of stagnation, not playing your best role, your biggest role that you can in your life. I want to hear more about your thoughts on that and your book that you're working on now too.
Andrew Griffiths (13:22.561)
Yeah, think the reason that it's I think because I because I've just finished writing and I think I'm still figuring out my way to talk about it but I talk about that moment as that was the moment for me that I discovered and felt that I wanted to be bigger and I wanted to be bigger by my definition of what that meant and that for me was being the best version of me it was
Heather Porter (13:42.759)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (13:51.749)
being kind, was being a good man. I'd seen a lot of bad men and I had a lot of bad experiences with people that I should have been able to trust and I couldn't and I became repelled by that and repelled by violence and repelled by those things and I had that part of me then that I discovered was bigger and I really spent the rest of my life
Heather Porter (14:07.667)
Hmm.
Andrew Griffiths (14:18.838)
you know, trying to define who I am, live life to the beat of my own drum, and be that person, you know. And it's a never-ending thing, and it's by no means perfect, but I'm being, that happened, I mean, 40 odd years ago, know, 40 something plus years ago that I had that moment, and I spent it. But what's really interesting for me was a few years back, I just started looking at what am I doing, who am I helping, who am I working with, who am I?
Who have I worked with over those years and I look back at it and and most of the people I've worked with in whatever shape or form it's been whether it's helping people start and be successful in business or even teaching people how to dive way back when they had something in them that they wanted to be bigger whether it was and I call it this yearning there was something about and I see it very much in the face of people who want to write a book they they know that they've got a book in them
Heather Porter (15:05.895)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (15:15.37)
why the hell write one, know, just so you can grow your business. It's bigger than that. And there's something in there. And I realized that what I'm actually very good at is helping people to recognize that bigger and then provide a path for them to really bring it out, like to write a book or to learn to dive or to build a successful business or start a business, et cetera. so I realized one of my strengths is around that. And that's really what it...
this new book is about is to say well it's a book for those people who yearn to be more and go okay well you you gotta follow this process figure out the villains you gotta figure out what matters in your life you gotta figure out those kind of elements who are your mentors I feel personally I'm a little bit tired I don't no disrespect but I don't want to hear what Gary V is doing even Richard Branson all those guys you know the hustle mentality I mean
Heather Porter (16:08.755)
Yeah.
Yeah!
Andrew Griffiths (16:13.324)
I've had the pleasure of working with Richard Branson and doing stuff. Awesome. But you know what? My mentors have changed now. The people that inspire me. Let me give you an example and shut me up because I can talk under cement in case you haven't noticed. you know, there's a... I needed a personal trainer and I had a quadruple heart bypass earlier on in the year. And a few months back, six months ago.
Heather Porter (16:25.203)
Please. Now I want to know, I want to know your, who are your new mentors?
Heather Porter (16:39.571)
Uh-huh.
Heather Porter (16:43.377)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (16:43.384)
And so, you know, I'd been on a mission to lose weight for many years. I've lost 60 kilos over the last 10 years or so. anyway, I looked around for the mentors that mattered to me and I found a guy called Neville, and he happens to be my next door neighbor here in Tasmania. And he's amazing. He's always doing these multi-day walks like Cradle Mountain and five-day walk, every...
Heather Porter (17:01.085)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (17:11.006)
other day he's running up and down Mount Wellington swimming in the Derwent River like he's first time today we moved in here he's come over where he's baked a whole pile of food for us and he's the most extraordinary guy he's 88 he's 88 years of age and we have a saying in our house be more like Neville he's intelligent his wife is lovely she's a little bit slower in terms of she's you know
Heather Porter (17:27.292)
I love that. Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (17:40.877)
She's a little bit older than him, he snagged an older woman, which he's kind of proud of. But honestly, he's the most amazing inspiration, and you look at it go, that's the kind of person that inspires me now. That person who is extraordinary every single day, not competing with anyone, not trying to build an empire, not trying to do anything, but he lives what I think is a really rich life. And they're the mentors that I look for.
Heather Porter (18:06.109)
Mm.
Andrew Griffiths (18:09.396)
these days those people that are going you are extraordinary and they're all under our noses most of the time and that i've i don't i just feel that there's i learn more from them than i learned from tony robbins you know gary v's you know synec all those people who do amazing stuff but it's just for me on my bigger journey it's the nevels of the world that that are trans that are changing me and inspiring me to
Heather Porter (18:09.744)
Mm.
Heather Porter (18:37.65)
Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (18:38.624)
you know, get off my lazy butt and climb up Mount Wellington to, you know, to, like literally he dropped in last night some orange ice cream that he'd just made and a big bag of herbs from the garden and a big basket of lemons. And you go, just extraordinary. My gosh.
Heather Porter (18:57.745)
And the kindness and that, some of my biggest mentors right now, there's a little coffee club group of people and they're, they're in their eighties, most of them. And just like you, I'm getting the best advice from women that are in their mid eighties. but the kindness and the community element that is part of that. I'm really glad you brought that up. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (19:16.908)
Incredible.
Mmm, pleasure. I feel that there is that bit of a pushback and it's, I think again, I see it in business. I use this line, I work with people of substance to help them build business as a substance. And that's the critical part for me because I've never really wanted to build an empire. I've had no desire and I've worked on programs and I've done that.
Heather Porter (19:24.54)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (19:40.602)
No.
Andrew Griffiths (19:42.655)
If you do, awesome. I love it and admire it. We need empires and we need people to go and build Ubers and Canvas and do all of that stuff. But a big part of my piece in the world is knowing what matters and what's important and to build a business that I don't want to have staff. I don't want to do that stuff. I do my own thing. I learned to live life to the beat of my own drum a long time ago.
and i know what matters to me and what matters to me are things like wild places i have a lot of wild animals and wild places and i want to make sure that my life lets me enjoy those and support those and do all of that kind of stuff i i know that i need to have my writing retreats i know that i'd i want to help people that have got really great views on life you know all my coaching clients my big prerequisite for people i work with is
Can I learn from them? Can I selfishly become a better person by helping them to write a book? And pretty much all of the time I do, I think. I think I definitely learn more. I think I should be paying all my coaching clients.
Heather Porter (20:45.458)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (20:54.438)
This is yeah, this is brilliant. Most of the people I've been speaking to they have a new definition of success and it's very much what you're saying. I want to actually talk a little bit about your books that you already have. So I know you're working on one. How many books have you written?
Andrew Griffiths (21:02.57)
Yep.
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (21:09.718)
I've written 14 and I'm just, working strangely on three at the moment for different purposes, yeah.
Heather Porter (21:11.332)
What?
Heather Porter (21:16.175)
my-
What's your favorite one that you've written so far?
Andrew Griffiths (21:22.444)
I wrote a book called The Me Myth, which was like my first personal development book and that's really a book about empathy and the power of understanding others and putting others first and I wrote that when I've just felt a game, we're just in such a me, me, me kind of world that I wrote that and was a... the publishers were Simon and Schuster and they wanted me to write an autobiography.
And I just went, guys, you know, I haven't climbed Mount Everest with one arm. I've got friends that have done that. I mean, I don't want to write an autobiography. It feels too self-indulgent for me. And I just don't. I think there's bigger and better stories. But I will write a personal development book. And I'll share my life and my stories in it around this concept of if you really want to become a better and bigger person is to put others first.
And so that's probably my favorite. But in saying that though Heather, I think it's like children. I think your first one is probably there's always a special spot in your heart for the first one. Then you have a couple that you hit and miss after that that you're never quite sure of. I wrote a book on network marketing with another guy who faked his own death and disappeared. And it's like, only because I had done some work with him. I didn't know the first thing about network marketing, but he wanted me to co-write a book. But my first book was 101 Ways to Market Your Business.
Heather Porter (22:38.343)
Whoa!
Andrew Griffiths (22:48.948)
And it was a really simple, easy stuff that I was doing. I was running a little marketing company. And I was just really lucky that I got published by, I got picked up by a publisher called Alan Unwin. And I remember I got a phone call from the main person there who was liaising with me and said, hi Andrew, it's Ian Bowering from Alan Unwin. Got your manuscript in front of me. And know, all very nice. He said, Andrew, your manuscript looks like it was written by a drunken dyslexic.
Heather Porter (22:49.136)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (23:18.304)
heroin addicted chimpanzee. Such a great line, isn't it? I remember it to the day I die. And then of course I said to him, that's okay, why are we talking if that's the case? mean, like this is not going down the path that I imagined. And he said, your writing is terrible, but your content is fabulous. We can fix bad writing, but we can't create fabulous content and heartfelt stories and rah rah.
Heather Porter (23:20.483)
Wow, this is description. Yeah, that's brilliant. Yeah.
Heather Porter (23:35.442)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (23:39.987)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (23:48.46)
And so then I kind of got it from there and I wrote 11 books with them in 10 years. So, yeah, amazing.
Heather Porter (23:54.452)
That's a huge feat and it makes perfect sense on why you help people write their own books as well. And I know you, cause you speak and you mentioned you help people speak as well. I want to know, okay, first question is this AI, obviously I have to bring that into the mix. What's your thought on that and how it's affecting books in general?
Andrew Griffiths (23:59.949)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (24:07.392)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Griffiths (24:13.972)
It's such a big thing at the moment and I think writers and industry, the publishing industry in particular, people are not really quite sure how to handle it. And I see the extreme of it. Like I've worked with a client at the moment and because she lacks a little bit of confidence in her writing, she's an amazing story, a great message, all the rest of it, but she's using AI for everything. And I keep telling her that the problem is you're writing a book that you can't live up to.
Heather Porter (24:16.445)
I know.
Andrew Griffiths (24:43.932)
And you just don't need to do this. Like there was a section on leadership that I read and went, okay, I asked her three questions from that section and she couldn't answer the question, you know, and you can tell AI. So, unfortunately, the downside is it's helping people to write books that are not really their knowledge and it's not really who they are. it's not, you know, they're up there and you kind of go, that's not gonna help you, that book. People are gonna pick up pretty quickly that...
Heather Porter (24:44.008)
Okay.
Heather Porter (25:05.213)
Yep.
Andrew Griffiths (25:12.236)
It's not your stuff. The biggest tragedy though that I have with AI is that writing a book is the best personal development program you'll ever do. You'll learn more about yourself with writing and publishing a book than just about anything else and if you're using AI you miss out on all of the stuff that you get out of the book writing process and that to me is the greatest kind of loss.
in the same vein, it's an awesome tool to help you structure and figure out the flow and the layout of the book and to toss around things like titles and definitely great value in all of that. But it comes at a cost. And publishers now are kind of going, okay, well, have we got a two-tier economy? If someone submits a book that is 85 % AI, how can we charge 35 bucks for that?
Heather Porter (26:02.044)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (26:09.056)
when it's basically a series of prompts. And I know it can be more complex than that. Whereas, do we now value human-created content versus AI-created content? And whose copyright is it? If it's come from AI and you're writing a book about charging what you're worth, odds on you've got some of my stuff in your material. And it's like, well, OK, that's problematic. So.
Heather Porter (26:22.994)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (26:36.488)
So I guess it's complex and it's evolving. I use, you know, ChakGPT or Claude or one of the platforms to help me map stuff out, to help me get my head around it. But what I've realized as well though, is that it's much slower for me to use AI to write than it is for me to write myself. Because if I do a prompt for a chapter, for example, and, you know, give it a bit of background, all the rest of it, it'll take me forever.
Heather Porter (26:54.448)
interesting.
Andrew Griffiths (27:01.75)
to change it to the way I want it to be in my voice and it's much easier to start with a blank document. And I gotta say, I actually felt a sense of relief about that and I've had that same conversation with journos and other writers kind of going, yeah, I had to use it and finally go, you know what, if I'm use Check GPT, it's actually gonna take me a lot longer to write the book because I gotta change so much because it's just not my voice. I saw something today on an article.
that I was playing around with on CheckGPT and all the languages, words I would never use and it would be so obvious that it wasn't me. So it's an interesting kind of a beast.
Heather Porter (27:37.651)
You
Heather Porter (27:40.899)
It is. I know I'm not... use it too, but I find that you can kind of tell when it's there that something about the soul or the heart of the messaging is just not quite right. So yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (27:44.031)
Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (27:52.469)
It's missing. Well, and I had an instance where I had a client of mine who had engaged a guy to do a workshop for them recently, and they said 15, 20 minutes into this workshop, and it was a high-level leadership kind of thing, 15 minutes in, we realized this guy had no idea what he was talking about. He couldn't answer questions, he had to read off the screen, he did not have any knowledge.
Heather Porter (28:00.796)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (28:12.25)
interesting
Andrew Griffiths (28:20.168)
any subject matter, expertise or experience. And on top of that was like, his promotional material was fabulous. The outline for the workshop was incredible. It a 15 gram workshop. It's pretty big commitment for an organization and the management team in there. And it was like, wow. And he had to come clean and say, hey, I've developed most of this with AI. So I can just read, I can't do this. And it's like...
Heather Porter (28:23.485)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (28:29.234)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (28:42.333)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (28:46.122)
They've gone away and said, we're sophisticated. We book speakers and trainers all the time and this is not our first rodeo. And it was really thought provoking to say, well, okay, that whole ability to bat above your pay grade, that's a terrible term. I can't think of a better term, but it's like, I'm seeing that a lot, big promises in books and then you go, this is just AI generated. is that. this whole...
layers of complexity that I think we're yet to figure out.
Heather Porter (29:17.587)
It can't replace our personal wisdom. That's it. Yeah, not, not yet. Especially when you're a speaker and you're out there and people are asking you those questions, right? Um, story.
Andrew Griffiths (29:19.87)
I don't think it can. Yeah, I don't think so.
Andrew Griffiths (29:26.314)
Wow, yeah, and story, right? Your experiences, AI can't share the story, can't create a story of my upbringing or, you know, I'm a storyteller, 100%. So I don't feel threatened by AI coming along and taking my job just yet, but it's complicated. It's definitely complicated, particularly as it gets better and better at doing what it does.
Heather Porter (29:31.717)
No.
Heather Porter (29:37.235)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (29:43.516)
Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah, thank you for kind of going on a little diversion with me. I wanted to bring that up because of what you do. speaking of that, let's recap who who you can help. So I know you coach and work with authors, but tell me again who you help and then how can people reach out and get in touch with you?
Andrew Griffiths (29:52.171)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (29:59.82)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (30:06.269)
Yeah, sure, thank you. My passion is teaching people and helping coach people to write books for obvious reasons. So that's kind of more and more now as I get a bit older as well. That's probably the area that I'm moving more into. And my specialty is really, it's about the business of being an author. I'm a commercial writer. I'm not trying to be Ernest Hemingway with 27 cats and an alcohol problem.
Heather Porter (30:13.277)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (30:21.734)
Okay.
Heather Porter (30:33.364)
Hahaha, yeah!
Andrew Griffiths (30:35.371)
I'm a non-fiction, I specialize in that business of being an author. So how do you utilize your book to build your business, build your brand, know, build whatever you want it to be. So you're having the right product architecture, or having the right positioning, all of those things. So that's really my space. And I work one-to-one with people predominantly.
And again, I love doing that as well because of that personal element of writing books and there's a lot of book writing programs and great You know, I know most of the people that are out there running programs and things like that My approach is much more about that one-to-one element and That's you know, my main area of expertise Business coaching is a little bit different. It's but again most of the people that I'm coaching business wise to build a business are predominantly authors and speakers and
Heather Porter (31:27.399)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (31:28.427)
You know, so I'm in that space, realistically. And I'm easy to find, if you Google me you'll see me. But I'm andrewgriffiths.com and all paths lead from there realistically. Or connect with me on LinkedIn if you're a LinkedIn platform. I'm always pretty receptive. I don't have a big line of barriers to get to me. I've got a small team, me and my dog, Bloom. she's not, Maltese.
Heather Porter (31:30.695)
Yeah. Love it.
Heather Porter (31:53.541)
You and your dog. What kind of dog? lovely. Sure she is.
Andrew Griffiths (31:58.156)
terrible at answering emails, I might add, but she's very, very good at belly rubs. That's her number one priority for pretty much eight hours of the day. And normally she would be sitting on my lap during one of these interviews, and just a part of it, but I don't quite trust her because she's a bit barky today.
Heather Porter (32:11.784)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (32:16.532)
Okay. Are all of your books on your website as well? Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (32:20.203)
They are, and look, a few of them are old. Like, if someone said to me they wanted to buy 101 Ways to Market Your Business, I would be mortified. It's 25 years old. What I need to do with that book is I need to republish it as 101 Old School Marketing Ideas. know, and, cause it's this 25 year anniversary or something this year, I've been meaning to do it, but my, a bit of a operation earlier on in the year changed everything.
Heather Porter (32:27.507)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (32:34.674)
yes!
Heather Porter (32:45.844)
Yeah, big thing you've been through. There's a book you sent me as well. It's called Someone Has to Be the Most Expensive. Why not make it you? And I'm holding it up for you, those of you on video right now. I've already just started into it. By the way, brilliant marketing hook. Absolutely love it. So, and when was this one written, by the way?
Andrew Griffiths (33:02.827)
Thank you. In 2022, I think it was, 2021, 2022, a couple of years, a few years back now, but 40 years in the making, because that's what turned my dive shop around, was I had a poverty mentality, the business owner had a poverty mentality, the industry had a poverty mentality, and it was all based on cheap. And I share that story in the book that I took a guy to come along,
Heather Porter (33:07.728)
Okay, excellent.
Heather Porter (33:17.444)
Okay.
Andrew Griffiths (33:32.618)
coach to come along and charge me five grand that I didn't have to tell me someone's got to be the most expensive it may as well be you but if you're be the most expensive you got to be the best and and and that started a fascination for me with that so this book has been brewing it brewed for a long time but it's been quite fascinating since it came out because it's just why I've spoken so much about it Heather I've done
Heather Porter (33:39.912)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (34:02.155)
So much work globally around this and every industry has a problem with charging what it's worth. Every time I do a speaking gig, I ask this question if it's on this topic, how many people in the room feel that they actually charge what they're worth? And the average response is 2%. So by obvious conclusion, 98 % of business owners feel that they don't charge what they're worth.
Heather Porter (34:23.006)
Yeah, wow.
Andrew Griffiths (34:31.467)
across every industry that I've spoken for at least, you know, which is probably 30 different industries, 40 different industries over last few years. So really, I think it's one of those books that came at the right time. It's had amazing feedback and it just has a lot of life left in it, as I was saying, that it just needs more work. I mean, I just did a keynote on this. Oh no, that was about staying sane when the world goes crazy.
Heather Porter (34:31.764)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (34:51.284)
Yeah it does.
Andrew Griffiths (35:01.491)
Earlier last week I did another one on this topic and just, people really are struggling with this as an idea about this worth because it's getting busier, more competitive and the homogenization that's happening, driven by AI as well, is now making people more of a transaction at a time when I think the world is craving unique. The world wants different. The world wants you to go against the tide and I...
Heather Porter (35:25.0)
Yes.
Andrew Griffiths (35:29.161)
I had so much fun researching this book and I'm looking at those people that are doing amazing stuff from making croissants to making canes to being photographers and just not listening to all of the rhetoric out there and going you know what I'm great at what I do I'm going to charge accordingly and I've worked with so many people to help them reposition themselves
And it's like they all say the same thing. I should have done this 10 years ago. Instead I struggled along. I felt tired and fried and I had the wrong customers and all this kind of stuff. And when they do this they go, Andrew, I should have done it. Which was the same for me. It's the same thing. And I laugh. I say, how many clients have you lost? And they go, yeah, I've lost probably about 10. And I go, how devastated are you about that? And they said, my God, they were the ones I had to lose. I'm so relieved.
Heather Porter (36:11.443)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (36:22.676)
Happy about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (36:24.582)
I didn't know how to get rid of them. And I've replaced them with 20 fantastic clients. And it's like, that's the secret of this. But it's not an easy path to go down. And I use a quote in the book called, I say, can't just put lipstick on a wombat. You can't just triple your prices tomorrow. You can't just become the most expensive. You've got to be able to back that up. You've got to be able to embrace this as a concept. And that's...
Heather Porter (36:35.934)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (36:52.809)
takes a bit of changing your thinking and positioning and your product offering and pretty much everything.
Heather Porter (36:59.718)
Absolutely everything. I'm hearing some themes from you as we start to wrap up. Like definitely know thyself is a big one, right? You've been talking about understanding who you are to get through moments of overwhelm. Like just know, know yourself. Like what stresses you out and work with that. But also play bigger, huge theme from you and really play into the uniqueness of you. And I think that that's a big theme for what probably what you do with people is you help.
Andrew Griffiths (37:10.635)
Mm.
Andrew Griffiths (37:17.589)
Mmm. Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (37:26.453)
Mmm.
Heather Porter (37:26.942)
pull out their greatness and what makes them unique and help them deliver that to the world through all the different books and resources you have. as we wrap up, do you have any last words of advice that you would like to leave our listeners with?
Andrew Griffiths (37:29.643)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (37:35.051)
Mmmhmm Nice
Andrew Griffiths (37:43.191)
I think it's around that. It's about the own your unique. It's so important. It's the one bit that you're right. Whether it's writing a book or whatever someone is doing a keynote or becoming a speaker or just building their restaurant or whatever. I just think the world is just craving unique. And if you can step into yours.
Heather Porter (37:47.954)
Yeah.
Andrew Griffiths (38:11.707)
and just own it and embrace it. All you gotta do then is find your tribe. You gotta find your customers. But I guarantee there'll be people out there that will gel with you and they will find you if you step into your unique. And I think I see younger people, Gen Z millennials, that get that and do that. And I see that that's the thing. think we, and I say, probably the Gen Xs, certainly millennials.
Heather Porter (38:25.192)
Hmm.
Andrew Griffiths (38:41.399)
know struggle a bit with that because often it's like you should be this is what an accounting firm should look like or what a law firm should look like and this is you know how you should do that stuff. I love the fact that the world is craving unique and I love it when I come across people in business that have embraced it as a philosophy they're doing their own thing and they make a great product or service and they they they find their customers and their customers find them because of their uniqueness. Can't emphasize that enough.
Heather Porter (39:06.419)
Mmm.
what a great way to end. Thank you. That's a really great reminder to all of us. So Andrew, thank you so much for being here. really appreciate your time.
Andrew Griffiths (39:12.883)
Mmm.
Andrew Griffiths (39:19.275)
Lovely to chat to you Heather and thank you for asking such great questions. So I do a lot of interviews, do a lot of podcasts, a lot of media and stuff like that and it's a really, to me it's a lovely sign of respect and I appreciate that when someone asks really well thought out questions and that means a lot to me so thank you.
Heather Porter (39:39.267)
well, thank you for saying that. Alright you guys, thanks for tuning in.
