Make Your Favourite Services Centre Stage | Podiatry Marketing 7

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Introduction and Episode Overview

Jim McDannald, DPM: Welcome back to another episode of podiatry marketing. I'm here. I'm Jim McDanald here with my cohost as always Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's things going today?

Tyson E. Franklin: It is really good, Jim. It's what are we up to? Episode seven. It's come along pretty

Putting Your Favorite Services Center Stage

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, it's hard to believe we're already at this level, but I'm really excited about where we're gonna be talking today about putting your services center stage. So lead us into that. What are we, what are your, what's your feedback on that area?

Tyson E. Franklin: it's making your favorite services center stage. So it's going back and thinking, and we may have touched on this briefly, in some of the other episodes and we'll constantly talk about this again, but it's, what do you love doing in podiatry? What do you like doing? more often than anything else, it doesn't mean it's the only thing you want to do, but what do you really love doing in podiatry and what do you want to do more of?

And then it's taking those, that thinking or what you love to do, what you want more of and making it center [00:01:00] stage in everything that you do and all the marketing that you're actually putting together. So for example, if we were talking about your website, if I came to your website. Regardless of what it is that you love doing, so whether it was running, diabetes, it could be nail surgery.

When I come to your website, that thing that you love doing more than anything else should be center stage. As soon as I come to your website, that should be the first thing that I see.

Jim McDannald, DPM: It makes a lot of sense because, obviously, you wouldn't differentiate yourself in the market from other podiatrists or other service providers. And by having that be up front, it makes a lot of sense for that to be there.

Implementing Your Favorite Services in Offline Marketing

Jim McDannald, DPM: you talk about websites, when it comes to like offline marketing, and putting that out there in the public.

What are some ways you think that can work well, with that?

Tyson E. Franklin: As though, as in keeping your favorite services

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, just some examples like a real world, obviously the website, pictures of it, links to it, a good description of those things, but, when it comes to more, traditional forms of marketing, what are some [00:02:00] ways that you think that would work well? the

Tyson E. Franklin: simple things. If you're going to do a face to face talk, you're going to do a community talk somewhere. Then organize your community talks around the things that you really like doing. So if you don't want to do more general podiatry, then don't do talks to groups where the topic is going to be general podiatry.

Now I used to do a talk every year to the Independent Retirees Association. And it was a, it's a group of people, over a certain age who do not get any money off the government to retire. They are self funded retirees. And why they used to get me coming back to do my talk was they said they'd had podiatrists in the past, but they'd always come and talk about

Jim McDannald, DPM: said, I found

Tyson E. Franklin: cutting toenails, corns and calluses on the feet, diabetes, circulation tests.

And they said they found that really boring because the doctor would mention that the diabetes education would talk about that. So I used to come in and I would talk about.

Jim McDannald, DPM: about problems that

Tyson E. Franklin: Problems that would occur when they were walking and running and trying to keep active and [00:03:00] being at the gym. And through that, my goal was leading everything towards orthotic therapy or some treatment based around keeping active.

Jim McDannald, DPM: coming

Tyson E. Franklin: They loved my talk every year kept coming back. We would have maybe 25 to 35 people in the room and I'll guarantee.

The Impact of Focusing on Your Favorite Services

Tyson E. Franklin: Every year, I would pick up between 10 to 12 new patients that became authority patients every time I did that talk. I could have gone in there and just talked about everything about podiatry, which a lot of people do.

They become, they're going to do a talk for Rotary or Lions or some community group. And they go, Oh, I must talk about everything because I want to talk to everybody in the room. No, find what you love doing. What's the type of services and treatment you want to do more of. And then go in there with that focus and that's all you talk about.

And I nailed that time and time again with community talks.

Jim McDannald, DPM: It makes a lot of sense, right? Because, I think you bring up a really good point that, you know, we as podiatrists, whether it's during our schooling or [00:04:00] training and during practice, there's so many different procedures, so many different types of things we can treat. but if we go into these different public opportunities or other opportunities with our marketing.

And just try to say everything at a very surface level. It makes us pretty hard to distinguish from other providers in the local area. So I think that's a pretty smart way to approach it.

Tyson E. Franklin: the props that I used and the demonstration that I was going to do was very simple and it was very focused.

And then I was only ever going to get questions based on the topic that I spoke about, which could then lead on to other things. But if I got up there and said, Oh, I'm going to talk about everything about podiatry, and I've got 20 minutes, let's cover everything I do in podiatry in 20 minutes. [00:05:00] I did a video, about two years ago, I should reshoot it.

And it was about getting your message out there and not diluting it. And I was talking about making a rum and Coke, and I got three different types of rum and I poured it in the glasses. And I said, if the message, the thing that you love doing. Or the treatment you want to talk about, you want to put out there more.

You could have put a decent whack of rum in that glass. Then you add the coke. And when you taste it, you can really tell the difference between different types of rums. Whereas if you put a little bit of rum in each glass and dilute it down with coke, which is trying to spread your message too far. And you drink it once, it just tastes like coke.

Not worth even putting rum in there. And you can't tell the difference between the rum. So if people are hearing these podiatrists talk about everything about podiatry here and another one's talking about everything about podiatry here, all of a sudden, all the podiatrists become really beige. Whereas if you talk about the things that you love doing more than anything else and really focus on that area, then people will [00:06:00] actually hear that message.

The Importance of Specialization and Conclusion

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, it makes sense to be like, be that specialized, but also just be relevant to the needs of your audience. I think finding that right message and audience fit, fit is a huge, opportunity that like you said, sometimes it gets glazed over the fact that we have all this stuff that we can do and we want to talk about everything.

I think when you're in front of those folks, time is a huge, opportunity and, you don't have, it's not like you're in front of this group for, every day for a week or, once a month or something where you can really lead them through, different opportunities that maybe work for your practice, but having a tight, talk that's relevant to them and also values their time.

So they get something out of it. Maybe it's something that's actionable or, you become a resource for them that they didn't necessarily knew existed in their community. it only gives you an opportunity to connect with them, but you might also be able to connect with their network as well.

If you get known for that specific specialty or procedure or being the expert in that kind of, that center, being center [00:07:00] stage on those specific types of service you're talking about, in those community talks.

Tyson E. Franklin: good part when you really focus a community talk into one area and then when you finish and you talk, and like I would always turn up on time, never turn up late for a community talk. Do my talk and I would always stay afterwards for tea, coffee, biscuits, bit of cake to talk to everybody. I would never be to rush out the door.

Because what I want to know after I do the talk, what did you think of the talk? Did you have any questions? Do you know any other groups that you think would be interested in this talk? And it'd be surprising how that talk led on to another talk. And that's why when you focus your energy into one area that you like, then it becomes a lot easier to be known for that as well.

And I know some people get scared that, Oh, if I,

Jim McDannald, DPM: and it's

Tyson E. Franklin: and it's not just niching your practice in one area, it's just niching your marketing. it's talking about what you love doing and just putting it center stage with everything that you're doing. And some podiatrists get scared, Oh, [00:08:00] if I do that, I will lose patients.

I'll guarantee you, we're not going to lose patients by doing that. when I set up the Mackay clinic, we were 100 percent just sports and biomechanics. That's all we did. I'll guarantee every day of the week we had someone ringing up. Can you clip my toenails? Not once did we ever mention it, but we still had people ringing up.

Oh, can you do a diabetes check? Can you do this? Now we had the clinic set up and we were, no, we can't. We're just focusing on one area, but with the Cairns clinic, yes, those patients still came in, but. The things I love doing, I kept making center stage, like I said, website. Every time I write an editorial, I'm thinking, am I writing an editorial on something that I love doing and I want to make center stage in my clinic?

If we were having a media release done on the clinic, I would only talk about the things that I wanted to make center stage. Not every aspect of podiatry. So it's something you really have to keep focused and keep it top of mind to remind yourself to do that.

Jim McDannald, DPM: I think it's great to, at the end of your talk or when you're done with your talk, there's three areas by, sticking [00:09:00] around, whether it be a formal question and answer section, or like you said, more informally, discussing with, with that audience, over, tea or a beverage or something afterwards.

But number one, like you said, it's, it gives them a chance to ask, direct questions, to like for you to prove that you are that specialist, cause they probably have, Specific questions where you're obviously not giving medical advice or do an exam there after the talk, but they can get some value from that.

Number two, like you said, you're seeing how well it was received. Like it gives you a chance to evaluate, what how did it go, right? Did it go over? was I relevant with my message and they get, did they get out of it? What I was hoping that they would. and then number three, I think that.

when you do it like that, like you said, it becomes this, like an opportunity to be a connector or almost like multiply your message by asking, Hey. I'm happy you enjoyed this talk. Are there any other groups you're a part of, so you can use a similar talk, you don't have to go back, make a brand new talk every single time, right?

If there's relevant or [00:10:00] similar groups within your community or near your community, you can, just repurpose that talk and do the exact same thing again with maybe a few improvements that you learned along the way, but that's a huge, opportunity to like. Number one, get your name out there, but also just show the community that you have a valuable service to provide.

Tyson E. Franklin: I think the other thing whenever it comes to doing talks, and like I said, don't just arrive on time, arrive early. And when you arrive early, ask, if you want to keep getting invited back, what you want to be is the perfect guest speaker. Arrive early, do they need a hand setting up? Stay afterwards, answer questions, do they need a hand putting things away?

Go and make someone a cup of tea or coffee. you're going to make one for yourself. Would you like a cup of tea or coffee? Is just be the best guest. And when you do that, you keep getting invited back. Whenever I've done public speaking at any conference, I will always get there early. I will always ask if they need a hand setting up.

I always hang around. Do they need a hand pulling anything down? [00:11:00] And when you do that, you get invited back to speak again. So it's be a gracious

Yeah, that's is a little tip on

yeah, be a good human, be helpful, provide, episode. Don't be an arsehole. It's one of those things where I've seen speakers rock in right on time, do their talk and zip straight back out the door again, and you go, wow, even if the talk was good, it doesn't leave a great taste in your mouth.

But getting back on to making your services center stage and not being an arsehole. I also think it's a good opportunity to, to maybe what you love doing, have it reflected in your business name is a, is an opportunity as well. So I know some people that love diabetes and high risk patients, but they'll call themselves the family podiatry clinic. Okay. it's a bit beige.

Jim McDannald, DPM: Do you

Tyson E. Franklin: Do you really want to see the whole family or is there certain areas that you'd like? So if you like diabetes, why not be family podiatry and diabetes clinic? Or Family Podiatry and High Risk Foot Clinic [00:12:00] is target, make the business a little bit longer to bring in what you want to do.

If you like running, maybe running should be in the business name. Or if you like orthotics, maybe orthotics should be in the business name.

Jim McDannald, DPM: out a huge opportunity there that I don't think enough people are doing currently. There's a, a clinic in Chicago called the running clinic and,

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah, I wonder what they

Jim McDannald, DPM: exactly. And then there's a physio clinic in Quebec city near me. It's also called, the running clinic. So If you put yourself, like you said, center stage with the exact kind of care you want to provide more of, it's only natural that people that aren't, that don't know everything that we do or have this kind of specialized knowledge, like we do about a profession to see a flyer for that, see that on the internet, see, read that and just see themselves as being that ideal patient for that clinic based off of the way it's been positioned with the brand name or the clinic name.

Tyson E. Franklin: But it even comes back to simple stuff like paid advertising. Like the [00:13:00] last episode, or was the episode before that we spoke a bit about Google ads and whether it's Facebook ads or any sort of paid advertising, it could be old school, newspaper, magazine, could be radio, TV. If you're going to spend money advertising, then make sure you're spending money advertising and marketing on the services that you like most and the things you want to do more of and make that center stage.

I've seen some podiatry ads where they will. It'll be a print ad, and I'll have 25 different things that they do in that print ad, and I just go, I'm confused reading it, and I know what the, and I'm a podiatrist, and I know what you do, but I just see it as a big mess, and I've seen other people use the same space, and put one message there.

Heel pain, for example, and I go, oh, I wonder what they treat. to me, it's when you're trying to say too much, and On websites, too much in all your marketing, whether it's paid or free advertising, too much in a [00:14:00] community talk. And you don't focus on what you love doing, what you want to do more of. It becomes really beige, the message becomes beige, becomes diluted like a bad rum and coke. Whereas, if you really just focus in and make it center stage in everything that you do, you will see more of what you love doing, and you'll see less of what you don't like doing.

Jim McDannald, DPM: sense to me.

Tyson E. Franklin: And for some people, if you're not sure what you like doing, Then do the opposite, what's called inversion thinking, is write the opposite, but write a list of all the things you don't like doing, and that will help you find out what you do doing more of. And then when you figure that out and you go, okay.

Look at your website. Does that reflect what I like doing most? And if you look at your website and go, no, not really. It looks just like the other four podiatrists down the road. Then do something a little bit different.

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, that makes sense to me. Cause I think I like that kind of invert, inverted perspective or addition by subtraction, I guess is what you could call it because. just because you've been trained on something or you know that you have the ability to do it doesn't necessarily [00:15:00] mean you want to see that in your practice.

But like you said though, it's tempting to want to show all the things like, everything is up there. So you're not having anybody, fall through, through your fingers. But, the same time when you don't have a specialty or you don't have some.

Differentiating, aspect of your practice, that it makes it easy for you to look exactly like someone down the road, or some other, podiatry clinic.

Tyson E. Franklin: I know when we had a clinic here in Cairns, I knew for a fact that our evaluations at the time were better. The orthotics that we made were better. I had my own lab on site. You could have them within an hour. If you wanted to hang around, if we knew ahead of time, guaranteed same day or 24 hours later, I knew we provided all those services.

So that was center stage. When you went to our website, you knew that's what we did. You knew that you could hit your athletics 24 hours guaranteed, no questions asked or same day if we planned it ahead of time. So if I provided that service so much better than [00:16:00] everybody else, why would I not have it center stage?

And I know there's some podiatrists that they do things so much better than everybody else, whether it's diabetes evaluations. they love doing it. So why not make that center stage and tell everyone I do this better than every other podiatrist in my area. But instead they're like, Oh, no, I don't. Yeah, what happens?

I might miss the other person down the road here that wants something else done. Don't worry about them. Just focus on what it is that you love doing, what you want to do more of. And especially if you know you're better than other people in your area at providing that service. I think it's really important to do that.

Jim McDannald, DPM: I totally agree. I think you have to be okay with differentiating yourself and saying no to some of the things or at least not displaying the things that you're really not that interested in practice. But it takes a little bit of time of self reflection, to be confident in the skills that you have attained and where you're at in your practice.

Maybe that's a little bit easier for someone, I think maybe the first five years of practice, some people feel like, [00:17:00] okay, I just, I've been in school for so long. I'm just out of residency. I just want to do all those things and I'm maybe I'll think about this later, but, you bring up some good points and, crafting out that, those services that you want to put center stage a little bit earlier, in a profession or in a career, will just allow you to build upon that and gain momentum over time, as opposed to 10, 15 years in the practice trying to do an about face in a way.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah, I think when you're first starting out in business though, it is like if I was just setting up a clinic first time, maybe I'd worked somewhere for a couple of years and I was just setting up my own practice. You may want to see everybody initially because you don't really know what you like doing until you actually have the choice to do it.

So when you're working with somebody else, a lot of times you don't have a choice. you're told that you're seeing these patients on these days, these are your hours. And you might go, Oh, I really love runners and I want to do more sports. I hate doing all this general work because it was thrown at you so much.

But when you've got your own business and you start bringing [00:18:00] in the type of client that you want to bring in, because you might find the person you're working for. Had lower standards. They aimed at low hanging fruit. So the type of patients that came in for general podiatry may not have been the nicest patients.

They might have been, for your clinic, they may have been C or D patients that you would have get rid of. But if you have A and B type clients that come in who are also general patients, who pay their bills on time, are really polite. They're nice. They actually have clean feet when they came in.

They wear footwear. All of a sudden your thinking on general podiatry may change a little bit. You might go, actually, general podiatry is not as disgusting as I thought it was, I don't mind doing it. And even though my clinic, like I said, center stage, orthotics, sports, that's what we did, 30 percent of our workload was still general patients, but there were only A and B type patients, we didn't have any C's or D's.

Jim McDannald, DPM: But it makes sense though, to like ramp up to a point where you're, hitting a critical mass, if you're starting a practice or you're just new entry on practice, like ramp it up to get, do as much work as you [00:19:00] can. And then once it's at that critical mass, that's a, that's maybe a better time to sit back.

Think about, look at your book, see what's, what makes financial sense, what makes professional satisfaction sense in a way, where's that kind of crossover, that kind of Venn diagram, where those two things come together, and then, when new patients call, or you're trying to make some changes in your marketing, or really, create kind of a public image of who you are and what you want to put center stage, then you're able to do that a little bit more informed instead of just maybe pulling something out of thin air in a way.

Tyson E. Franklin: I definitely, I mentioned it before, a dentist that I knew when he set his clinic up said, I'm prepared to see anyone that will pay me a dollar. Once he got booked out where he couldn't fit anybody else in, he said, I'm now prepared to see anyone that will pay me 2. I don't think there's a problem, like you can either set a clinic up from day dot.

This is what I'm going to do. I need this type area of podiatry and I've done that and I've done it successfully. Or you can say, I'm going to set a business up where I'm covering all aspects of podiatry. [00:20:00] And once I get to a critical mass, I'm going to adjust my pricing, or I'm going to change certain things to limit certain types of patients.

And I've done that successfully. So I don't think one way is better than another. It's just. You need to know what you like doing, what you love doing, what you want to do more of, make it center stage. And over time, it may take a couple of years before you really figure out what it is that you love doing.

But if you're not sure, start writing a list of things you don't like doing. And at least that will help narrow it down a little bit more.

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that's, having that objective, thinking forward, I think walking yourself towards that objective, whether it be what you want to do or what you don't want to do, can be definitely a beneficial exercise for anybody that's in practice.

Tyson E. Franklin: So I think I've covered my topic today. That's, if you've got anything else to add, Jim, I'm done. I'm worn. I just wore

Jim McDannald, DPM: no. I think that was great. I think, I definitely was able to jump in there and some of my ideas, I think. like you mentioned previously as well, I think that, when you're an associate or you're, you don't own your own practice, [00:21:00] you do get what comes your way.

but there are still ways within that, frame of reference to within that kind of work agreement to. Build yourself up. So maybe when, even when you like leap to your own practice, you've already built up that reputation. Like it's, working at events or he said, like events specific to what you want to see more of.

but there's ways of making that transition, but no, you talked, you touched, really well on this topic today. I learned a little bit and, definitely enjoyed the, the conversation now,

Tyson E. Franklin: it just made me thought I reckon a great topic in the future. I'm not sure when we'll do it is building your own personal brand. That's a really important

I think there's that, that, that's huge. I think, we get We'll put that in a

Jim McDannald, DPM: we'll put that on the list because I think it's easy to think about board certification and all these different meetings to go to and that stuff. But I think, how you build that, that local reputation or that nationwide or international reputation for yourself is not something that just like automatically happens.

So I think that's a great topic for future show. All

Tyson E. Franklin: and I'll talk to you again next week.

Jim McDannald, DPM: right, Tyson, see you later.

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