How Micro-storytelling Can Improve the Patient-Physician Relationship

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald. Welcome back to podiatry marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald, Joined by always my trusty co host, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's it going today?

I am fantastic. Big Jim, how are doing?

Things are good. Things are good. No complaints here. Family's healthy. You know, excited for another episode where we dig deep into a podiatry marketing topic, and you know, give the listeners something exciting to to kind of on the morning commute, maybe it's after work, maybe they're on the treadmill, who knows?

But listen and learn a little bit. Yeah. Exactly.

Well, what's funny, I had someone I was talking to recently, they said they've gone right through my old podcast. It's no secret doctor. They've gone through 211 episodes there. They've gone they're right up to date on the podiatry legends podcast, and they said, now I'm devouring the podiatry marketing. And they said okay.

I've got so much information going on in my head, but they're actually enjoying the show. They said it's it's fun because it's it's not It's awesome. Long. It's they're not like overly long episodes, but we pick on a particular topic, which I think every podiatrist should be just paying attention to.

No. That's that's that's that's nice feedback to have. It's nice to hear that people are out there. That's that person probably heard your voice, what, over like, what, 500 episodes now? So that's pretty impressive feat for that for that person.

Yeah. They go to sleep with my voice in their head head pads.

Scary thoughts.

Scary Scary thoughts.

Well, enough about, you know, our diehard your diehard fan, I would say. But what are we jumping into today?

Today? Yeah. Today, we're going to talk well, back on episode 56, we spoke about storytelling adds value to your business. And and that's looking at storytelling, like, on a macro level, as a as a big as a high level. What I wanna talk about today is what we call micro storytelling.

And that's more talking about your business and yourself, but more on a micro level, and you actually get to control the narrative. So you get to tell the story, and there's a lot of podiatrists that are a bit paranoid about sharing anything about themselves online because they're like, oh, what if my patients find out something? I don't know what is about their life that is that exciting that they wanna keep a secret, but you can really control what the patients learn about you.

That's very interesting. Like, a survey is just talking about finding a little, like, personality tips, like, know, pull up personality about who you are, what kind of food you like Yeah. What kind of burgers you enjoy, things like that.

Yeah. Well, most of my patients knew I loved hamburgers. My patients knew that I played the guitar guitar poorly. But there's a lot of things that I do, and I just slowly posted things on social media, on any website, and brought things into my business that slowly told that story. And I think one of the the easiest ways to sort of understand this is if you've ever watched a a show on TV like Law and Order or CSI.

Have you ever watched any of those? You a fan of those?

Yeah. Actually, one of my my coach's sons was in in in CIS Los Angeles. And so I've watched that show a few times.

Yeah. So if you think of the original CSI when it came out, the one in in Las Vegas, and Grisham was was, like, the main character. In the initial episode, all they did was just show the main characters who they were, didn't really give you any background on them. But as the seasons go on and the the popularity of the show increases, they start giving you a little bit more about their backstory, who they are, where they came from, past marriages, people that there might be somebody else on the show that they've had a bit of a crush on for a long period of time, but you were unaware for the first three seasons. All of sudden, it's just popped up.

And then you find it like Grisham, for example, what his interests were outside of work that he ended up having a hearing problem. So as the season's gone, they slowly tell more and more about the character until by the time a show ends, if you said someone, tell me about Grisham, for example, they could tell you everything about him. Happens on Law and Order. But what they do, the writers, they're the ones that are narrating the story. They can take it any way they want.

And I think you can do exactly the same thing with your podiatry business and yourself on how you explain things to your patients. You can tell the story.

I think it's a really good point. I think, you know, a lot of times when people are utilizing Facebook or social media, even like their website or paid media, they'll just kinda jump to like, let's make have you make an appointment? Let's just make an appointment. It's all like, here's here's what plantar fasciitis is. And I think you bring up an interesting point is that it's not only about the care that they receive, but it's also the person behind the care.

And when they have when they see you, they wanna receive people wanna receive care from interesting, you know, other humans and people. They don't want this to be medicine to be this kind of sterile, you know, really kind of, like, impersonal. I think sometimes, you know, whether it's dentistry or medicine, sometimes it gets that that wrap of being sterile and impersonal. But if they have a little bit of your backstory, they know who you are, and it just kinda can kind of endear you more to your patients and the people in your local community.

Well, give you an example. I'll use you as an example. You could write an article on shin splints or heel pain or ankle pain from running. You write that article, you put it on your website. Yeah.

That's great. Fantastic. A few patients may see that. They might respond. They may not.

However, you you post a photo about shin splints or whatever, but you also may include a photo of you walking with your family in a park. And that's the photo you said, oh, shin splints, this. These problems can occur not just with running, but also just with walking. But they get to see your image of you, and they go, oh, Jim's married. Oh, Jim has children.

Could be another article that you wrote or you may do an adaptation of that article, but it's a photo of you running. Also, they go, oh, Jim has a family. Jim has children. Jim runs. I'm a runner.

Therefore and I've got kids. Jim Jim and I have got a lot in common, and and I know where that park is. Now it's not they're looking at that park going, oh, I'm gonna hang out in the park behind a bush, wait for Jim. I'm gonna follow him home and break into his house while he's asleep at night Hope not. Just watch him stand above him and just watch him.

Just like that. They're not doing that. But then later on, you post something else and you make a comment or you post a photo. Oh, here's a photo blast from the past, and it's you on the Olympic team. And they go, hang on.

So Jim has a family. He's got kids. He he goes to this park, which I go to. He runs. I'm a runner.

Bloody hell. He's been to Olympic games. How cool is that? I wanna go and see Jim's. But it's not that you go and post all these photos in the first week you open your practice because they're gonna go, I don't care.

I don't want all this information. I don't even know you. But as you tell that information over a period of time, they get to know you. You're the family man. You're you go for walking.

You love the outdoors. You you love to run. And then you slowly start ramping it up with, oh my god, you're pretty awesome. You're being in the Olympics. So and that's that's an example of one way of just telling us a bit of a story.

No. I I like that. I think it it kinda reminds me of, you know, when I moved to Canada or the first time, you know, you like, you meet your significant other. Don't give them, like, the day by day or the year by year breakdown of, like, the the the trials and tribulations of your life or what makes you interesting. Because, honestly, nobody really wants to hear all that stuff all at one time.

It's too much. But if you can tell things in an interesting, you know, storytelling fashion, you know, storytelling fashion, The highlights, little bit of here and there, just a little bit, you know, parsing it out a little bit at a time, whether it's be your patient or that significant other. It does it does kind of like, you know, makes makes your story more palatable or more interesting to people, especially if it's more relevant to them as opposed to, like you said, just kinda like putting all that stuff out in the first week. Right? That would just be too much for people to try to process.

Why too much?

They're living their own lives. It almost seems boastful in a way. So I think you're right about this micro storytelling can be a pretty powerful, you know, technique to get your message out there for people to learn more about you.

Well, I'll give you a perfect example. Last night, sitting on the lounge talking to my daughter. And, yeah, she's gonna go off to university next year. She had one of her friends here. I said, oh, which uni are you going to?

She said, I'm thinking of going to Griffith uni. I went, alright. Yeah. I said I went to Griffith uni for a while after I finished podiatry. And my daughter went, what what did you go to Griffith University for?

I said, I wanna do accounting. I've known you for eighteen years. When the hell did you do accounting? I said, when I finished podiatry. And she's like, I never knew this.

She said, so you're an accountant? I went, no. I realized partway through that I didn't wanna be an accountant, so I I gave it away. And there were other reasons, plus the podiatry clinic got busier. But so here here's something that I shared with my daughter that she was totally unaware of.

But Yeah. That that and that but that's part of my story. It just has never come up in conversation. So there's so many things about yourself that your patients just just don't know, but would actually find interesting.

Yeah. Sometimes it can like add a a sense of mystery or a sense of like, wow. Like, you know, maybe there's a a, you know, a connection there in a way. Like, for example, like when my mother was younger, her and her family lived in they wouldn't move from Illinois to Louisiana just for one year. And my mother would tell, you know, I never knew about this.

And then I would see occasionally, like, years would go by or you you come across some photo and it's like, that doesn't look like the place where you grew up. It's like, oh, that's right. That's that that was that year that you lived in Louisiana of all places. Like, how did that happen again? Like, it's just it's a it could be a source of, like, intrigue.

Right? So

It is. I I think it's anything like that. But like I said, you know, when you meet someone for the first time, you don't dump all your baggage on them. Like, if I told my wife my whole life story when we first met, she would not be my wife. I had to I had to drip feed her the information over a period of time.

I had to gain her trust once I get and that's the thing. Once you gain your partner's trust, you can then tell them some other things about yourself and probably some, yeah, some of your dark past. But because they know, you know, love, and trust you, when they do when you do start telling me your dark past or bad things that may have happened, they're quite open to accept that. And I think your patience are the same. Once they get to know, like, and trust you, some will love you, which is can be a bit awkward sometimes.

But when they get to know, like, and trust you, then you can you can share a little bit more. And it doesn't mean you share the same information with every patient as well. There'll be stuff you put on social media for the broader audience, but there might be stuff you share with a patient in a room that you don't share outside of that. And that's still part you're still controlling the narrative as you're going along.

And I think that comes down to also, like, we've talked about in the past is, like, kind of the this how the kind of patient doctor relationship or the patient podiatrist relationship has changed over time. I think this is definitely a huge issue for people in The US. Right? You know, with HMOs and insurances and things, people are expected to see 30 to 40 patients a day and develop that same level of trust or just that kind of, that bond between patient and the doctor, that's a fragile thing. And patients will feel when it's a very transactional relationship.

And by building in storytelling, by, you know, creating those kind of shared connections with patients on a human level, it it's a it's a great way just to, like, build bonds in your local community, but also it just shows that you are, like you said, a trustworthy person. Someone that, you know, connects with people on a different level than just the person who's running from treatment room to treatment room, trying to see 50 people, grab an you know, you're gonna be people are gonna be busy, and that's okay.

Yeah.

But at the end of the day, I think a lot of people got into medicine is to have those, you know, special relationships with people, sometimes difficult relation they can be difficult at times, but it's a different type of thing where it's not just like going to the fast food restaurant and ordering a burger and getting a burger. Right? Like, you're you're part of these people's lives and you're part of helping people get better. And by incorporating some of this micro storytelling in there, it just helps cement that bond between patient and physician.

Oh, I I definitely agree. It's and there's so there's so many areas that you can do it in. Like I said, you what you tell a patient in a room could be different to what you put on social media, which would also be different to, like, say, your newsletter, for example. You can a newsletter can be a a newsletter, or you can use your newsletter like it's a storyboard. And you can think yeah.

Look at your newsletters over the next twelve months. What story do you wanna tell your patients? So I've got one particular coaching client who had had a child recently, and I said, children are one of the best marketing tools you'll ever get. I said, because patients have been with you for a long period of time. They they may have known you before you're married.

They've seen you get married. And then from the marriage, all of a sudden, you've you're pregnant, and they've been with you that whole time while you've got pregnant. Now all a sudden, you've had the baby. You you can't keep the baby away from them because some of them just they've known you for years. They they wanna know what's happening.

So I've got her putting a section in her newsletter, but it's being narrated by the baby. Oh, this is what I've learned this month. So her her her child is now talking to the patients, but she's now using part of that to tell a story each month when the newsletter comes out. The the patients are interested to find out what's happening next. And she'll do that for a period of time until moves on to something else.

Yeah. That's an excellent example of, like, different ways of telling a story. You know, I think it gives, there's a level of empathy or just shared, we all have shared experiences. And I think a lot of maybe other parents in her clinic will kind of remember what that was like, or maybe people that haven't had children yet. It's an opportunity for them to kind of connect with that physician in a way that otherwise maybe they wouldn't have that connection.

So I think it's an interesting way to kind of, like I said, just kind of share that connection.

Yeah. And so I think look at your life. Look at all the things that you do outside of working, may feel, this is too boring or my patients would not be interested in what I'm doing. But you'll be surprised that they do wanna know a little bit more about you, and don't fear that you're going to tell them too much about yourself and they're gonna you know, follow you home from the park and then stare at you while you're sleeping at night. Because the thing is you don't realize, they see you anyway.

They see you at the shops. Unless your practice is miles away from where you live. But where I'm here in Cairns, there is no hiding from your patients. You go to the shops and you're you're waving at them all the time. If you went out for dinner, there'll there'll be a patient at the restaurant.

If you're at a sporting event, there's going to be people that you know that are at a sporting event. So they see what you're doing anyway. So just I think micro storytelling is about just reminding them of what you do, but you get to control the narrative. You get to tell the story, and you can make yourself look far more interesting than what you are. Because if you're boring, you can actually make yourself like, my podiatrist is so interesting, but you might be dull.

But I think I think you bring up a good point there as far as, like, your place in the community as well. Because I think some of the sometimes, like you said, when you're in the clinic or you're wearing the white coat and you're kind of in that doctor patient relationship, like, in the clinic, but it extends beyond that. And by showing that you are an active member of the community, it helps kind of lead additional trust and credibility to who you are. And, you know, it just sets up this you know, like, the story the stories that you tell, you know, it just it just enriches the overall community and that the patients will see you there. I think it's a really helpful thing.

Yeah. And if you're in Rotary or Lions, Apex, one of the organizations that that does work in the community, it's just slip it in there every now and then. Let people know that you're doing it. If you had a Rotary event or you're helping out, you're you're flipping burgers and someone takes your photo, put it in your newsletter. Put it on social media.

Your patients will see that and go, wow. Not only, okay, I know you're busy at at work, but Jesus, it's nice to see you giving back to the community and not asking for anything in return. And just builds a bond that it builds a bond you can't pay for.

And I think that's huge, especially like nowadays. I think, you know, during all the lockdown and the COVID related stuff for the past few years, you know, people are searching for ways to connect with other people. And whether it's volunteering or both either medical or nonmedical related things, I think diabetes associations in The United States is a big way for podiatrists to really have a huge impact not the health of their local community, but also educating their community about the impact of diabetes. So finding those areas that are of interest to you, connecting with your community with a story that really resonates not only for yourself but really helps other people in your community can be a huge way. And like you said, don't be shy about putting it onto your social media or onto your clinic website just to show the people that you are that advocate for the community, but you're out there you know, helping not only telling the story, but helping create a better story for you and your community.

Yeah. And if you have team members that work with you, tell their story. Share share their story amongst what you're doing as well. So and make them understand that micro storytelling is a good thing. The more your community knows about you and the people that work in your business, and they realize that you you've got the same beliefs and values, then that is just it's it's just all positive.

There's there's nothing negative by doing it. I haven't like I said, I haven't heard anyone yet that does micro storytelling who told me they've been followed home.

But I think I think you make a really good point about the staff though too because I think there's, you know, whether you're in medicine or where you're at, you have people from different backgrounds that come in and can really be, you know, positive, make a positive impact on your clinic. And sometimes by telling those people's stories or celebrating them publicly, whether on your socials or your website, telling a little bit about who they are and how they got to be where they are, it sometimes can really be an inspiring thing for other people, you know, whether it's you yourself or someone on your staff. You know, some of them never thought that they would be a podiatrist, never thought that they could be, you know, the manager of a clinic, you know, could potentially see themselves in that role. And they're not always like Rocky type stories, right? They're not Yeah.

Always the scrappy underdog from the wrong side of tracks that does well. But, you know, it's sometimes these, you know, people from middle class backgrounds that were looking for meaning in their life, and they really found that helping patients or, you know, contributing to a team that's helping is something that really inspired them. And maybe that know, sharing that story through some storytelling, you know, whether it be on your social, on your website, can really, you know, create kind of, you know, some positive, not necessarily PR, but just, positive examples for other people locally to kinda say, hey. Like, that clinic's doing it, so let's let's continue this in my line of work, or I'm inspired to change my career and do something different. There's different ways that the storytelling can have a real impact on the the community where you live.

Yeah. And even with the podiatry legends podcast, it's the feedback I get from people well, most of the positive feedback, people say, oh, their episode was good or that was great. But they love it when the podiatrist they have on isn't just talking about a specific topic when they're sharing their story. When they're actually talking about and I just did one this morning that was just we we dove into stuff that I don't think she thought we were gonna dive into. And when it all finished, she said, oh, are you okay with that?

And she went, yeah. Yeah. It was fine. I didn't didn't think that's what we're gonna talk about. But I know there'll be people that are gonna listen to that episode and go, oh, wow.

That's me. I I was like that. So if they can do it, it means it means I can do it. And I and I think your patients will even see you as the as the podiatrist. When they they'll see things about you, they go, oh, they actually got, yeah, similar interest to me.

Well, it's an opportunity to learn. Know? Sometimes us as physicians, we think, oh, like, we're gonna go in there and tell our patients all about these things, and we're gonna like, you know so as much as we like to tell our own stories, it's important to listen to the patient's stories as well. Whether it's on your podcast as well as listening to the, you know, the people's stories that come onto your podcast, you there's you know, instead of sometimes having to go through trials and tribulations on our own, sometimes we learn about someone else's story, whether it be inspired by it or we just make sure we don't do something that we we heard them that they did in their own life story. So it's yeah.

The the story the kind of the benefits of storytelling are kinda multifaceted. And, you know, this micro storytelling topic is something that, you know, it it's got many layers to it.

Yeah. And it's true what you say about your patients. Same thing. You'll have a a patient that will walk in and try and tell you their whole life story in that first visit, and it almost kills you. So don't do that.

Patients. I know those patients.

Yeah. So don't do that. You don't want to be that podiatrist that is doing that. But you'll get other patients that'll come in that you've been seeing for years, and over a period of time, they just drop little bits of information. And I I recall one particular patient.

He passed away, but he was older. And, yeah, I was seeing him for a certain period of time, and all of a sudden, I remember one day I said to him, you're in World War two, ain't you? He goes, yeah. You've never spoken about it. I said, I get veteran affairs guys coming here all the time, and I'll tell you, some of them reckon were, yeah, 60 pounds soaking wet, and they're telling me how they defeated, yeah, the whole, yeah, German army by themselves.

And I said, but you've never spoken about it. He goes, never thought about it. He said, no. Let me think. I'm 80 years of age, and the army was three years of my life.

I did a lot of things beforehand. I did a lot of things afterward that were far more interesting. And that's that's the stuff that he told me about.

One of my orthopedic colleagues when I was in practice, super soft spoken guy from the the American Midwest, never want to brag about anything. But he was one of the early podiatrists who worked with Nike. And, you know, the roster of, like, famous American athletes that came through the clinic in the 1980s and the early '90s when he was kind of in his prime as an orthopedic surgeon, You know, Michael Jordan, you know, like, all of these, like, you know, just superstars would come through there. And I obviously, I was not in the practice at that point in time, but, you know, he would never mention it one iota. You know, he'd hear these stories kind of from the other physicians, and he would go.

He'd be willing to talk to you about it if you wanted to talk to him about it, but never one to, like, you know, throw that out there. Like, that one time I was treating MJ or, you know, that one time I was treating Prefontaine, who's like a famous Oregon distance runner. No. Just super humble, and you're allowed to pull it out of them, but it's it's like those little stories. They whether be from a patient or a colleague, you can learn a lot from and yeah.

It just makes life that more intriguing and interesting.

Yeah. Well, you don't you don't need to tell the story when you have a like a ten foot photo of you and Michael Jordan on the wall in your clinic. That's what I'd be doing. Was no

photo like that. Yeah.

Is that you? Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't like to talk about it. I just have it as a big the whole wall is one big photo, but, yeah, I don't like to talk about it. Yeah. I'm humble. So I think we've covered this subject pretty well.

So Jim, I think I'll let you wrap it up. So that was fun.

Yeah, Tyson. Thanks a lot for sharing this this episode on micro storytelling. If anyone's got some stories they wanna tell us, they can head over to podiatry.marketing. You know, fill out that comment form. Let us know how we're doing.

If there's topics you want us to discuss, we've got ideas, but we're always open to to listener feedback. So head over to podiatry.marketing. And until then, we'll talk to you next week, Tyson. Okay.

See you then. Bye. Bye.

Thanks for listening to podiatry marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim McAnnold. Subscribe and learn more at podiatrymarketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.