How to Transform Your Podcast Into A Lead Machine w/David Griffiths

In this episode, I speak with digital creator and content coach David Griffiths, who shares his journey of struggling with YouTube for over a decade before discovering the key to creating engaging content. 

He discusses the importance of consistency, audience research, and strategic content creation to grow a loyal following. He also highlights the role of mentorship, the power of short-form video, and the necessity of clear calls to action in building a successful digital presence.

Finally, David emphasizes how being authentic can lead to personal success as evidenced by his 1.5 million followers.

Key Takeaways:

04:30 Everyone is a Content Creator  – We are all content creators in some form; the key is to capture attention, engage our audience, and drive action.

14:50 The Power of Audience Feedback – Your audience will teach you what they want if you consistently post content and analyze engagement patterns.

21:35 The Importance of Mentorship and Coaching – Having a coach can help shortcut the learning process, saving years of trial and error.

26:10 Short-Form Video Wins – The algorithm favors short-form video, making it the best format to reach more people organically.

34:25 Don't Forget A Call To Action (CTA) – Engagement without direction leads to missed opportunities; your audience will appreciate you showing them what to do next.

"Be authentic. If I had listened to the so-called experts and changed who I was, I wouldn’t have 1.5 million followers today." ~ David Griffiths

Connect With David:

• Email: David@contentcreatingacademy.com
• Instagram: @DavidTheDigitalCreator
• YouTube: @DavidGriffithsMusic
• TikTok: @DavidGriffiths07
• Facebook: @OrphanHelper

#ContentCreation #PodcastingTips #DigitalMarketing #SocialMediaGrowth #ShortFormVideo #AuthenticityMatters #CallToAction

Transcript

[00:00] J. Rosemarie Francis: Does your content authentically serve your audience? I invite you to listen to today's discussion with David Griffiths, content creation expert with over a million followers. Don't miss this episode if you're looking for tips and strategies to create content that resonates with your ideal audience.

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:01)
My guest today is digital creator David Griffiths. Welcome to Tools on the Podcast straight, David.

David Griffiths (00:09)
It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:13)
Of course, it's my pleasure. All right, before I get into what you do, could you tell us who is David Griffith?

David Griffiths (00:22)
Who is David Griffiths? That's a good question. For some, for two little cherubs, not so little cherubs, I am a father to my 20 year old son and 11 year old daughter. To others, they know me as a gospel recording artist. I enjoy praise and worship music. I enjoy songwriting. So to others, maybe they know me as a songwriter. And then to others,

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:24)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

David Griffiths (00:52)
I am someone who is passionate about content creation and social media.

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:59)
Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you for that. All right, so content creation. What do you do with that and how do you help people? Let's talk about.

David Griffiths (01:16)
Okay, well, content creation is something that we all do, right? And so it's a nice label to have, but in reality, you know, I was in a classroom, I was teaching in middle school and I was thinking, you know, content creation, really, yeah, my students do it, I do it. You know, we can create ways to assess someone's ability.

to understand something or do something, we could ask them to turn in a video, right? We could ask them to turn in something written. We could ask them to create a visually stimulating project. And that's what social media is really, because we have pictures with descriptions, we have short form video, we have carousels, many pictures together, telling a story or teaching us how to do something. And so...

I think all of us create content. The question is, do we figure out a way to get people's attention? And then do we convey something that's engaging, that's interesting? And then do we remember to ask people to do something afterwards so that we can develop some momentum? So I help especially faith-based content creators figure out how to connect with the people they wish to serve by creating effective content on social media.

J. Rosemarie Francis (02:38)
Okay, all right, so thank you for explaining that and you know, it might sound like general knowledge, but you know, these phrases get thrown around so much that sometimes new people are a little confused about what it actually means. So I appreciate the explanation. All right, so when I was reading your bio, we connected and pod matched the awesome place and you shared about

And I thought I read it wrong at first and I reread it and I'm like, you gotta be kidding. You shared about your struggles with YouTube and you had a hundred subscriber, you know, over so many, you know, such length of time, right? Now I don't feel so bad. Okay, just kidding. Anyway.

David Griffiths (03:27)
13 years.

J. Rosemarie Francis (03:37)
I wanted to address that because there's a, I mean, a hundred subscribers may not sound like a lot on YouTube because it doesn't get you monetized, right? But I wanted you to address two things. One is what was going through your mind when you were, when you discovered that that was a problem for you, right? A hundred subscribers, because, you know, some people might think, hey, that's awesome.

hundred people but what was going through your mind number one and number two how did you overcome that setback?

David Griffiths (04:18)
Yeah, okay, good, good question. So what was going on in my mind? Well, honestly, and I should say in 2012, I did a live recording, it was sold out, and I posted videos from the live recording on YouTube. And even that didn't get me to have hundreds of followers, right? So the thing that I realized was there is a science to creating content.

J. Rosemarie Francis (04:21)
Yeah.

David Griffiths (04:47)
that is engaging and to creating content that gets people to follow you and become part of a movement. So the biggest first aha was, okay, there's more to this and probably it would serve me best to get with a coach that's done this before so they could give me the cheat code so that I could go further faster. Yeah.

J. Rosemarie Francis (05:16)
Okay. So, all right. So you learned by doing the mechanics and the steps. So it's not just about throwing spaghetti on the wall, so to speak, and seeing what sticks, right? When it comes to content creation.

David Griffiths (05:31)
Well, it's

that's part of it. So once I got a coach, the coach did suggest that I consider what are the different areas that I'm passionate about. So I had eight or nine different areas that I was passionate about. And so I started creating content in the different areas. And the coach said something interesting. The coach said, as you post these different kinds of content, your audience will teach you.

what it is that they want from you. okay. So first of all, you won't find out what your audience wants from you if you don't post consistently.

And if you only post one thing, one type of thing, that's not going to do it either. So you have to, you have to come ready to be consistent and ready to try several different kinds of things until you strike gold until you come across that thing that your audience goes, yeah, that's it. That's what we want from you. And so I think what many people do is they don't approach it from.

J. Rosemarie Francis (06:29)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

David Griffiths (06:37)
let's say a scientific approach, they don't go, all right, let me do research. So one of the first things that I did was I went online and I looked at what content was performing well in my subject area. And so after I found what was doing well, then I started to analyze it. How long were those? First of all, short form video is the best kind of content to create. If I just made a blanket statement.

because the algorithms are favoring it. Thanks to TikTok, short form video gets a lot of organic reach. so, so then I'm gonna talk about short form video, right? So short form video, you wanna look and see in your subject area, what's already being successful. So when you look at a video that has a lot of views, look at how long it is. Look at,

J. Rosemarie Francis (07:21)
Okay.

David Griffiths (07:37)
Is it, you know, what's the pacing? Is it a couple seconds switch, a couple seconds switch, a couple seconds switch, a couple you know, are there a lot of jump cuts? Is it just someone talking, but then you, they're up close, then they're back here, then they're up close again. You know, what is the cadence of the content? Is it just the talking person or is it showing B-roll of something else that they're talking about and then coming back to the talking person?

So you look at some of these elements and then secret sauce. Let me just share this. I realized in my videos that went viral. I was wearing either a gray shirt or a black shirt. So I know that it's funny because I remember being in a class of another content coach and she was telling her students to wear colorful colors and Hey, that's great for some people.

I know that when I was wearing colorful colors, none of those videos went viral. Only when I was wearing gray or black. So you need to, you wouldn't pick up on that if you're not on a weekly basis going back and looking at your content and analyzing it. And of course, analyzing content in your vertical or subject area to see what's already been successful.

J. Rosemarie Francis (09:01)
Right, okay, thank you. There's a lot there. And I'm going to, I'm just gonna do a flashback to quickly recap so that our audience understand what you are saying. So I got that, you need to research, you need to do your research, right, ahead of time to see what your audience want. You had a lot of topics and there's nothing wrong with that.

Usually creatives are multi-talented and we want to talk about everything we want to talk about, right? But the key to what you're saying is do your research, analyze this analytics, see what people are watching and not watching, and create more of that and do it consistently. Did I recap that correctly?

David Griffiths (09:56)
You did a great job.

J. Rosemarie Francis (09:57)
Okay, thank you. All right. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that because I think we kind of get lost in the weeds sometimes, you know, so, all right. So what is David grateful for today?

David Griffiths (10:14)
Wow. I am so grateful for the people who've trusted me to go on this journey together. I am the kind of person, my heart is, anybody that's worked with me, I want to give them such a delightful experience that I'm gonna be busy long term because...

I'm, people will say, David, when he starts working with you, he's committed to you being delighted about his service. If you're not delighted, he figures out how to get you happy. Right. I want to have that legacy and testimony. And because I approach things that way, I, the overflow benefits me. I'm helping people who are coaches to connect with the people that they want to serve. And so one of them, for example, she's a grief coach. Well, in the overflow.

She helped me understand some things about unresolved grief and how it can be affecting me and just gave me wisdom on how to deal with certain situations. So I'm grateful for the kind of people that I get to help and the overflow that benefits me. There are other people who I get to coach as well who, for example, one of my clients, she helps people to write books.

J. Rosemarie Francis (11:27)
Yeah.

David Griffiths (11:36)
And one of the things I didn't realize is a big thing you can do is you can have a pre-sale launch of your book even before your book is done. And that pre-sale can actually pay for stuff like your editor or even actually printing hard copies of your book because you can pre-sell a couple of months before you're actually done with the book. And so those resources that come in can end up paying for things that you didn't have the money for. So, you know, I'm just so blessed.

J. Rosemarie Francis (12:03)
Right?

David Griffiths (12:06)
to be helping her connect with her clients. And in the process, the overflow, I learn about stuff that can benefit me as well.

J. Rosemarie Francis (12:14)
Okay, awesome. So grateful for the overflow. Like I'm getting overflow by interviewing you. So, it's awesome. All right. Thank you. Thank you for that. You mentioned coaching and I'm a big believer in not just coaching, but also in mentorship. How beneficial you've given your own experience. How beneficially...

David Griffiths (12:18)
Yes.

Yeah.

J. Rosemarie Francis (12:44)
is it to have someone guiding you through processes, whatever it is you have to do, whether it's a personal or a career goal, how beneficial is that?

David Griffiths (12:56)
It's extremely beneficial. So let me give you an example. I had a conversation today with a couple people of a particular business and they wanted social media support. Previously, they had gotten someone who was a wonderful videographer. They contracted them to do social media for them, but...

Sometimes what happens is like someone can make beautiful videos but if they don't understand the principles of what makes content engaging on social media and how everything works Then you can end up having really pretty things on your timeline, but it's not part of a marketing strategy. So That's something that I've seen where people people really need to get a mentor or a coach that actually has gotten the results that you want to get

So I'm happy because I know that I can help people that are where I was six months ago, a year ago, two years ago. And I vividly remember what that feels like to, you know, be overwhelmed with all the information available to you and then feeling like I don't have enough time to process it all. Well, that's why you pay for a coach who actually gives you the short code because otherwise you can figure it out long-term, but it might take you five years to figure everything out.

as opposed to six months. So it's much better to get with the mentor who actually has gone down the path and can help you avoid some of the distractions that you'll find if you just do it on your own without any support.

J. Rosemarie Francis (14:40)
Yes, absolutely. And on that note, how can we get in touch with you? Throw out all your podcasts, links, offers, anything you have.

David Griffiths (14:49)
Well, if you'd like to ask me a question, email me at David at contentcreatingacademy.com. David at contentcreatingacademy.com. I am David the Digital Creator on Instagram. I am at David Griffiths Music on YouTube. I'm at DavidGriffithso7 on TikTok.

and I'm at Orphan Helper on Facebook.

J. Rosemarie Francis (15:25)
Okay, awesome, thank you, I appreciate that. And we'll put those links in the show notes so people could get in touch with you. All right, yes, thank you. So this is a podcast that targets aspiring podcasters. And given your knowledge, background, and success, can you give an aspiring podcaster three tips for success?

David Griffiths (15:51)
Okay, so what I realize, I'll say the first tip will be the same tip that I would say before you get going on content creation on social media. You need to get clarity on who you are, who you serve, and how you serve them. You need to do that before you begin. Why? Because...

There's different ways that you can use your podcast. So let me throw out a curve ball. Maybe this is a different way that someone could use a podcast. So as I get to do, like I'm averaging, I think two podcasts a day in the season, at the end of the year. But I noticed that some people with their podcasts, they actually interview people who are

potential leads for one of their offers. And so they're gonna give value by interviewing the person to their audience. But, so let's say in my case, I could run that play too where I'm, I have a podcast called Change, but let's say that I'm gonna use that podcast as a lead generating machine. So I could interview coaches and then some of them may need

a landing page or a funnel system set up. My company does that and we have a software called Biz Greenhouse. That's our CRM, our customer relations management system. So I can interview people, but in the process I can also get to know, some of them actually don't have the setup and then I can offer them our service. So that's one way, like in a traditional sense, you may think, okay, I'm have a podcast, I'm gonna grow my audience, I'm gonna get sponsors or...

Maybe I'm gonna run my own offer on the podcast. But in reality, you can actually get clients even from the way you set up your podcast and the guests that you bring in. So if you get clarity at the beginning about who it is, who you are, who it is that you serve and how you serve them, you may find that your actual podcast system becomes lead generating on the front side and on the backside. All right, so.

J. Rosemarie Francis (18:04)
you

David Griffiths (18:17)
So that's one and you want two more, huh?

J. Rosemarie Francis (18:21)
as many as you can chew.

David Griffiths (18:23)
well, yeah. Well, no, no, me not do that. I don't want to be, I have a headache. no, no, no. Here's the second thing that I really want people to remember. You are the guide. Your audience, your avatar, the person you're seeking to serve is the hero. So you want to guide your hero on their journey.

towards their destination. So when you're promoting your podcast, be thinking about the problem that you're solving for someone in the content you're creating. Let it be about that and don't think so much about just like, hey, here's me and I have a podcast and here are all the cool things I've done. Because it's not really about you. It's only about you in the context of how you serve the hero.

So I would say the second thing is make sure that you have all your content aligned to the pain points and problems of your avatar, the hero, and that you position yourself as the trusted guide that's gonna take the hero on their journey from where they are to the solution that you've created.

J. Rosemarie Francis (19:40)
really love that. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, you are. I don't know how you could top that, but let's see.

David Griffiths (19:43)
Okay, I'm doing well. I hope number three doesn't disappoint. Let's come up with a good number three.

Okay, so number three, I'm gonna go for a simple one. Number three is this. I remember one day I was watching this beautiful young lady and she had this cool way, I don't remember the actual word she used, but she like, the beginning of her short form video, she'd do something like, let me just make something up. What's up, what's up?

So she'd do that at the beginning of her videos that caught our attention. That's an important thing called a hook that you do in the first one to two seconds. But she would show different outfits and she would get thousands of views. And I'm watching her being interviewed by someone and she's getting thousands of views. And I wish that I could like crawl into the camera and whisper in her ear, did you ask anyone to do something?

Did you ask anyone to do something at the end of your video? Because what I was seeing was for all of the views she was getting, she hardly had any followers. There's a very simple solution. Did you ask anybody to follow you?

J. Rosemarie Francis (21:06)
a call to action. Yeah.

David Griffiths (21:08)
There was no call to action. So as fabulous as she was, as clever as she was at coming up with this concept and hooking people's attention, as beautiful as she looked in the different clothes and as wonderful as the outfits were, at the end she didn't ask anybody to do anything. And so don't assume people are gonna follow you just because you said something clever or you had something cute on. People want to be directed. Okay.

J. Rosemarie Francis (21:11)
Yeah

David Griffiths (21:38)
I've had this great experience. Now what? Tell them what that next step is. And just a FYI bonus tip. So your channel should be a place where people get value on a regular basis. And if you're going to launch something, say that I met you two months ago and we were talking about this. I'd say every day give value and only do a tiny call to action, a light call to action, which we would say is something like.

J. Rosemarie Francis (21:43)
Yes.

David Griffiths (22:09)
If you want more information like this follow right so follow for more is like a light called action Then as you get ready to say have Black Friday sale Then you'd say like last week you'd say hey get ready. We're having special launch next week. You're not gonna want to miss it and Then this week then go crazy Let everything be about your Black Friday sale go crazy for a whole week then after that week

Go back to normal because people don't like following pages where they're constantly being harassed. They wanna know they're gonna get more, that you have a habit of giving more than you ask. If you have that habit, you'll find it easy to get people who not only follow you but stick around for years to come.

J. Rosemarie Francis (22:59)
Awesome. I appreciate you, David Griffiths, digital creator and content coach. We won't forget that. We'd love to have you back again sometime in the future because this is awesome content and I really appreciate it. Yes. Any parting shots?

David Griffiths (23:03)
You're welcome.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Just be yourself. Once upon a time when I was an aspiring gospel artist and I sat down with a marketing person and they said they were trying to get me to see the brutal truth of content creation and the kind of metrics I needed to have. There were some assumptions that they had about how I needed to change in order to be viable. So today,

with my 1.5 million plus followers, I have 20 or 30 times as many followers as that expert had. If I'd listened to them and I changed being who I really am, then I'd never have the experience I'm having today. So be authentic, be authentic. It will pay off in the long run.

J. Rosemarie Francis (24:11)
Amen. Thank you. I really appreciate you.

David Griffiths (24:14)
Thank you.