Finding the Intersection of Your Skills & Experience

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me today is big Jim McDannald all the way over in Canada. Jim, how are you doing this morning?

Life is good in Montreal. No complaints. Yeah. Just, you know, powering through 2023, getting in shape, enjoying life. Yeah.

No complaints here.

And what what's your idea of getting in shape? What's your getting in shape look like? Do have abs?

I do not have, know, washboard abs, but I like to go for some runs. I do a little bit of weight lifting, but, you know, I'm a skinny hundred and fifty pound distance runner. So just trying to, you know, keep up with my eight and six year old, and that's kind of what it's all about right now.

Yeah. I get disappointed that even in my dreams, I don't have abs. You you think in your dreams, could at least put put a set of abs on yourself for your dreams that you'd sort of go, yeah. That's what I that's what I look like in my dreams. I think I had an ab once.

Actually, the reason one of the reasons I got into medicine to to begin with is that I I had some medical stuff that kind of like I I blame on not letting me have abs. I had a little condition called peccus excavatum, like a flail chest. So it kinda messes up your your your your chest and your abdomen. So like, I've you know, I'm not, you know, porky or anything, but I've never I'll never have those like, you know, washboard abs like, you know, Rico Suave or anybody like that. So

Yeah. I used to know some people that they never exercised a day in their life. They drank like a fish, and then they take the shirt off, and they just had this this washboard abs. And I just went Genetics. Genetics.

Yeah. I just meant genetics. It has it had well, it is obviously genetics because they didn't work at it, whereas in other people, yeah, they do. They put the effort in. And it's like anything.

It's just like podiatry marketing. If you put the effort in, you will get the rewards.

There we go.

Which is why you and I work work on marketing because we know we can get improvement with that, and our abs genetically, we are predisposed to not having them.

Yeah. This is not the ten minute apps podcast that you're listening to. This is definitely the podcast.

What are we talking about today, Jim?

Yeah. So today, we're gonna be talking about kind of a high level topic. Know, I think we get jumped into, like in recent weeks, we talked about why blog posts maybe aren't the the first line of podiatry marketing. But today is a little bit more high level. We're talking about kind of finding the intersection of your skills and your experience and how that can not only lead to maybe some professional satisfaction, but also really help people determine kind of what messages they wanna market out there.

You know, what what do they wanna put out into the world based off of kind of, you know, like you said, their skills and experience.

So where and so where do people start with this? Because it's it is one of those topics that I know I was talking to someone this morning, and they're they're still trying to figure out what direction should I be going in podiatry. And they and they get confused because podiatry is so broad. They're not sure should they be staying completely broad or should they be focusing in one particular area or, yeah, a a particular a couple of particular areas of podiatry.

No. That's a really good point. I think, you know, obviously, we go through school. In The US, they go through residency. And then even in the first couple of years, sometimes when you get into a practice, you don't start in your own private practice right away is that, yeah, you do feel this kinda like generalist mentality.

Right? Kind of jack of all trades. I'm gonna do it all. I've already got my special my specialty. Right?

You know, the foot and ankle I'm already like the foot and ankle guy, there's no reason to niche down any further. But within, you know, within school and residency and practice, there's probably certain procedures or, you know, types of care that people find themselves drawn to a little bit more. So I think it's kind of a introspection or kind of really assessing, you know, what skills or type of care you like to provide. So, you know, maybe it's for some people it's surgery or some people prefer making orthotics or some people like working with kids, other people like working with adults. Trying to find, you know, finding those areas you're drawn to and it's not always super, you know, obvious to people until they can kinda step back from a little bit.

Maybe it was something that got them into the profession in the first place. Maybe something they found, you know, they were volunteering at something they got into it. But at first is assessing kind of like what your interests are, and then also tying that into the skills that you possess or the skills you've trained to do. Right? So, you know, it you went to a three year surgical residency.

Do you like to do ankle and rear foot type stuff? Or even though you you're maybe you're trained in that, you didn't really enjoy that part of it. So I think that part first part is really kind of initially assessing the skills that the skills and, you know, assisting those skills and the type of care you like to provide.

Yeah. It is a tough one because I think sometimes, especially when you first graduate and you're you're in the real world, you might think there's one particular area that that's what I really like. But then once you actually start working, you go, oh, I actually don't like that as much as I thought I would now that I'm doing it on a more regular basis. And then you find other aspects of podiatry that interest you more.

No. That's an excellent point. I think just kinda keeping an open mind. I think sometimes, whether it be in school or kind of the way that residencies are now, they're they're very heavily surgical. So maybe some a lot of people are getting into because of the surgery.

But for me, for example, I was really into sports medicine. Like, the surgery part was interesting to me, but being a runner who was injured and, you know, seeing some people that treated high level athletes was really what kind of got me excited about podiatry in the first place. And you gotta kind of be open to the idea that you may learn about what you wanna do, but also knowing what motivates you, knowing what gets you excited to go to work is really a you know, it it seems like it would be easy. But when you kind of know or take the time to assess what that would be, it helps really kind of move you in that direction, not only from, like, what you wanna do yourself in the practice, but also what you show to the world. You know, we talked about in the past that, you know, what you put out into the world, whether it be marketing or talking to, you know, any any form of marketing you're doing out in the world, it really kind of it shines a light on on your expertise or what you're you know, if I walk into a running shoe store and say I'm a sports medicine podiatrist or if I'm speaking at sports medicine type events, then people will see me in that way.

Yeah.

Or if I'm advertising in the local running magazine or something, that's how people will see me. So it is really important component if you do have that interest or the skills in a certain area, you need to be seen in other places where people that, you know, provide those skills or looking for those services are looking for you.

Yeah. It makes sense. It's sort of a perfect example, I think, would be Simon Bartold. I don't know if you know who Simon Bartold is. Yeah.

Mhmm. So when I first graduated, Simon had been out a few years ahead of me, and he was just he was the sports podiatry, footwear guru. Always was, always has been, and it's still the area of podiatry that just floats his boat constantly. And I'll guarantee you, if you had a look at list of all the events that that Simon went to in his early career, I would say a lot of them would have been sports medicine, running, footwear, beco and because he was always seen at those events, and that was his interest, and he wanted to work with sporting teams as well. And I remember him telling me once that, you know, he did a he put a lot of time and effort, a number of years into doing things for free at sporting events before he ever got paid $1.

But he was always seen in those areas, and now he's still living the dream.

No. I think that that's a that's a perfect segue into the next section really. Like, and that's kind of evaluating your past experiences, but then also making a plan for your future experiences you're gonna have. So whether that's some type of, like, you know, like you said, going to specific conferences, either talking or attending, you know, maybe you're volunteering. Like you said, you're not getting paid right away, but you are that guy taking care of the local, you know, track and field team or the football team or the soccer team, you know, by by kind of being seen in those areas and kinda having those experiences.

Maybe it's attending coursework. It's, you know, going to the, you know, sports medicine if you're if you're into that, like, those types of meetings. But just being very clear about, you know, what are those experiences you enjoyed in the past, but how do you build up that, you know, for lack of a better term, like your professional resume Yeah. To be seen as that person. And, you know, sometimes you stumble into it, but once you stumble into something you're interested in, you really have to kinda get known either in your local community, sometimes it could be nationally.

You know, whenever I first started practice, I wanted to get into more like the sports medicine aspect. I volunteered at the like the local the the the marathon in Eugene, Oregon was just getting started again. And I had an interest. I'd worked in Chicago Marathon and Portland Marathon. Like, well, I'm gonna go help out the Eugene Marathon and people will see me doing that.

And they're like, well, if I have a running injury, I would go see the person that, you know, helped, you know, do the medical tent at the Eugene Marathon. So it doesn't it's not like rocket science, but getting evaluating your past experiences and projecting what you wanna do and getting your future experiences lined up in that way, I think it's hugely impactful and a really important way, like I said, not only for yourself that you enjoy it, but also to be seen by others doing that type of work.

It makes sense. If if you wanna be wanna be known for something, you gotta be seen in the right right areas. It it just it to me, it it's just like it's common sense. I remember when I first graduated or and then had my business on the Gold Coast, they had the Gold Coast Marathon. I put my hand up to volunteer for it from the Gold Coast Marathon, and this is way before social media, but I bumped into a physio that was at the Gold Coast Marathon who was helping out.

And he was also the physio at the time for the Gold Coast Rollers basketball team and also the Gold Coast Seagulls Rugby League team. And he said, oh, do you follow either of sports? I said, yeah. Played both. And then from there, he then started sending me all those players to to him.

But by having them coming in, then all of a sudden, the newspaper was talking about particular injury, and there's my smiling face in the newspaper with the patient. All of a sudden, I was starting to be known as I was the podiatrist that was in that particular area when I was on the Gold Coast.

Yeah. That's that's how it works. I mean, that's

a And I'm a and I'm bit of a media tat too, so I don't Don't mind

You're you're not shy?

No. Oh, actually, I am. I am very shy if people are wondering, but I cover it up with pretending that I'm an extrovert.

There you go.

So deep down Secret.

This the the the mister doctor T's secret is now out.

Yeah. It but but it is. A lot of people say, oh, I couldn't do that. I went through and I haven't said this on this podcast or anything, but I have on my other one, or maybe it was on my old podcast. I went through primary school, high school, and university without ever getting up and doing an oral presentation.

I just wouldn't do it. I would go to the lecturer and say, how much is this worth? And they'd say, the oral presentation's worth 40%, exam's 60. And I go, fine. I'll get 50 out of 60 for the exam.

Just put me down for a zero. I wouldn't do it. Just refused to. I didn't turn up. I knew when I was playing rugby union in Cairns that I was going to get the trophy for best back, which is up here, actually, on my wall.

The trophy's sitting there. I didn't go to the presentation, because I knew when I got that trophy, I would have to do a speech. So I didn't go. I was petrified. So if anyone's listening to this and you go, oh, yeah.

That's me. I can't do talk. I can't do that. Just first be seen like what you're explaining, Jim. Just be seen in the right place, and then that slowly will build up confidence over a period of time.

Now, that's a that's a great example. I think I mentioned I might have mentioned this previously as well. I was one of people who go to conferences, sit in the back, you know, hang out with my friends, you know, go to podiatry conference and enjoy some of the lectures, but never would ever yeah. A little bit of that, maybe sometimes. But never would have thought that there was something that would compel me to wanna get on stage and really share my experiences or expertise.

But aft after having got into, like, helping, you know, podiatry clinics improve their marketing and just really finding some some ways of providing value to my colleagues, you know, it's really it's been something where now I have a podcast. I talk with you every week about it. Yeah. I've been on, you know, different conference stages, whether it be, you know, on Zoom or in person. So, yeah, it's amazing what you let yourself do when you kind of find something you're you're really passionate about.

So so, yeah, those are good examples.

Well, I've gone from not being able to talk in front of my class or cannot being able to get up and grab a trophy that I'd worked hard for and copped a lot of belts around the head, which explains a lot of how my thinking is, from speaking at the Osgo event in Liverpool in front of a thousand people. They're getting up there on stage. And I must admit, when I got up there and looked at the crowd, I'm thinking, I wish I had brought my worn my brown pants. It would've been better. But and then all of sudden, you realize when you're up there talking, you're going, I know I still do this today.

If I'm in front of a group talking, the whole time in the back of my head, I'm going, shit. I can't believe I'm doing this. This is amazing that I'm actually I'm up here and I'm not terrified anymore.

Yeah.

Just experience.

That just takes time. And and and the more you do it, the better you get at it.

Yeah. Have we got off track?

A little bit off track. So I'll we'll we'll bring it back to, like, where we're going with here. So Yes. So now we can understand what our skills are. We have these experiences, and now it's time to kinda put those two things together.

And, you know, maybe you enjoy sports medicine, but you don't like working with adults. So maybe it's kids and sports medicine or it's Okay. You know, it's for for me, it was like, you know, my podiatry background in marketing. Right? So now I work with Tyson.

Now I have a podcast. Now I provide these services for my colleagues, but everyone's gonna be a little bit different. So identify those different skills you have, the experiences that you enjoy, and this experience you've gone through, and just really try to find what that is. And after you do that, like I talked about previously a little bit, is that once you know what those things are, you have to let the world know about it. You know, just because it's in your head and you know you wanna do it, that's not enough.

You have to focus on really making that visible to people in your local community. Maybe it's nationally or internationally if you're if you want if you have that level of ambition or drive. But when you know what your skills and experience are and what that intersection is, then you can really put out a a strong message to connect with those ideal patients that, you know, you're gonna enjoy seeing. Maybe it's not, you know, right when you do it. It's gonna it's gonna be like anything else.

It's gonna be a it's gonna be a build. It's gonna be a bit of a grind to get where you want to be with your practice. But, you know, by putting up, you know, by naming your clinic the right thing, by marketing yourself in the right way, by networking with people and having experiences in that special niche or subspecialty within podiatry, you'll be surprised, you know, the type of reputation, the kind of clinic you can develop if you're really focused on those things instead of just wondering what's gonna happen by being a generalist your entire life.

And I think it's bringing in like, if you step back and you think about your personality and what you get enjoyment from, you will probably find if you can bring that into the areas of podiatry you like the most, you're gonna be really, really effective. Because it's even what we're doing now, like, the podcast doing coaching, say speaking, but I had considered being a teacher. And there was something that and when even when I said I mentioned heaps of times I I was gonna be an art teacher, but it was more the teaching, not so much the art. I enjoyed teaching people stuff. Didn't know how I was gonna do it in front of a class, but I I knew I'd I'd work it out eventually.

But that is what I'm doing now through this podcast, podiatry legends, the coaching, and all that. I am actually teaching people. So I get so much enjoyment, but I'm teaching people that relates to podiatry. So I've taken what I've done as podiatry, and I and I've slowly developed my career into an area that gets me out of bed in the morning really easily. For other people, like you said, it could be it could be sports medicine.

It could be working with children. So many different aspects.

No. That that's a that's a perfect example as well. I think you have to kind of find that intersection of your skills and experiences. And when you do, like I said, you wake up in the morning. You're excited to go to work.

You're excited to show up on a Tuesday evening or a Wednesday morning and and have a nice conversation with a with a podcast cohost. So, you know, that was really the the emphasis of today is just to have people take a little bit of step back, think about what skills they have, what experiences they've had, find ways to combine those, and like put it out into the world and see what happens.

Yeah. I I think even I know some podiatrists that are, say, good cooks, and I'm thinking but if you step back and you think about it, is it is it the actual process of the cooking they like, or is it the creating that they like? So sometimes that's where podiatrists could be. Yeah. It's creating treatment plans to me is putting together a recipe for an end result, which is like the cake.

So dig deep. People gotta dig deep and and find what it find what it is that I I think some people got, like, hidden skill sets. They don't realize they're even there themselves.

Well, I think what happens is we get we get busy. Right? You know, life is busy, whether it be family, practice, taking care of your staff, those kinds of things. You just kinda get into day to day and, you know, you know, it it it takes a little bit to kinda take that step back and really kind of evaluate where you're at and where you wanna go. And we do those things where skills and experiences kind of intersect.

Like I said, I think people can go in a direction that can bring them a lot of professional satisfaction and and allow them to provide really great care to those people that are within that kind of area of that intersection.

Do you think part of the problem could be almost like a generational thing too where you've you've been in the profession, you look at the profession ten, twenty, thirty years ahead, and you think, oh, that's how I'm supposed to be. So some of your skills and interests and things that you like when you're looking at the general podiatry profession, go, oh, I and some people put those things away. They almost, like, put a put a ceiling on themselves and go, oh, I wanna do this, but I don't really wanna stand out. I don't wanna ruffle any feathers or I don't wanna look different to what all my colleagues look like.

No. I think it's a good point. I think there is this kind of combination of, you know, whether it be the way you're trained, the way you're kind of the education you go through. Like, doesn't this kind of idea that you have a choice Yeah. Feels a little foreign to sometimes to people that, you know, maybe you got into podiatry or into medicine because they kind of standard like, I wanna help people.

Right? But and while that's a great thing, you gotta kind of further define what that actually means to you.

Yeah.

And know that you have there is a like, there is a degree of freedom you have to decide about how that's gonna happen. Right? It doesn't necessarily have to be the cookie cutter thing that your residency director did or maybe that's the podiatrist in the community, you know, the the 60 year old podiatrist in your community that you shadowed when you were like in in college or university. Right? So it to know that the world can be what you want it to be or your profession could be what you want it to be, it's not something that you really get lessons about or anyone teaches you either in school or residency and you have to kind of find that out as you live life.

Maybe some people will find it out earlier in life. Maybe they figured out before they got into podiatry school. But even myself, I would I would say that I was kind of a late person to really understand that like, that I could take control and I can move my profession or my career in a way that that I wanted to do and that was possible. You know, going from residency into a big orthopedic surgical clinic, like, I kinda like took whatever came my way because I wanted to be good employee, a good kinda like teammate. And I felt like if I didn't take that, then I was somehow, you know, letting people down or not being kind of a good team player.

So I think there this this kind of, like, unwritten rules or unspoken things that people have to kind of, like, you know, I kinda started pushing against as I got a little bit older into practice, but it kind of exploring these ideas a little bit earlier whether in residency or getting earned early into practice, I think will really help people kind of get on that path towards a profession or combining their skills in a way a little bit earlier that really brings in that that professional satisfaction or joy to provide great care for people.

Yeah. No. I I think it's all really good advice. So have you got anything else that you wanted to add before we finish up?

No. I mean, like, I'm always open for people to, like, send us messages. Right? If this resonates with you, if you wanna brainstorm or shoot ideas to Tyson or myself, we're definitely open to, you know, talking with with our listeners about this. You know, some people, honestly, when it comes to like either, you know, changing your career slightly or majorly, it can be kind of a it can be kind of a stigma thing.

It can feel a little odd to either talk to friends or or, you know, you know, kind of coworkers with. So other podiatrists with it, you know, you might feel judged. Right? Like, you know, like so if you wanna reach out to Tyson and me, go to podiatry.marketing. We're happy to, you know, have conversations with with our listeners about, you know, ways to improve their practices, whether it be through, you know, coaching like Tyson does or, you know, marketing services like I provide.

So definitely reach out to us. We wanna have and, you know, we have a lot of great interactions with our listeners so far, and we're happy to have more in the future.

Yeah. But like I always say to people, if you think you're gonna be judged, oh, yeah. You will be. You will be judged. You do anything different, you will be judged.

But the people who are judging you aren't important because the majority of people won't judge you. It's just there's only a small amount of people that or other podiatrists that are always just looking at what other people are doing because they wanna they wanna pull them down to their level. I call them mud crabs. Do you know if you have a mud crab if you have mud crabs, this is our excuse to catch a lot of mud crabs in my younger days, that you never had to worry about mud crabs ever climbing out of your bucket. Because as soon as one mud crab got to the top and looked like they're about to leave, the other mud crabs would grab it and and pull it back in.

So I know there's there's people out there that are like that that if they see someone starting to get to the top, they try and grab them and pull them back in, and what you gotta do is just kick them and and just move on. And realize there's a lot of people outside there's a lot of other people that want to see you succeed because if you succeed, you can be the shining light for them. Because then it goes, oh, if you can do it, I can do it.

Yep. That sounds good.

That's why there's so many podiatry podcasts out there these days.

I mean, there's only one that I listen to besides this one. So yeah. Like, it's a legendary it's a legendary show.

A legendary show. Okay, Jim. I will talk to you again next week.

Sounds like a plan, Tyson. Okay. See you later.

Bye, Tyson. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at podiatry marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.