Is Marketing A Dirty Word?

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 back to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me today is big Jim Mac. How you doing today, Jim?

I'm doing fantastic, Tyson. Thanks for the great intro as always. How how's things Down Under?

Down Under. Yeah. It's it's weird how they refer to it as Down Under. I suppose it's Down Under The Equator, isn't it? Pretty much.

It is. Yeah.

So, yeah, I only just thought about it. Why do they say that? Anyway, no. No. All good here.

And I'm looking forward to today's topic. Let what is it? What are we talking about?

Yeah. The the the topic today is a fun one. It's is marketing a dirty word?

Oh, yeah.

And, yeah, it's it's one of those things I think that even when I was starting my marketing business where I, you know, provide digital marketing services for podiatrists, you know, do I put that in my name? Like, do I can I say that to podiatrists? You know, we are in healthcare. Right?

Yeah.

So like it no. You know, even me going through residency, being in practice, it's not something that I had to really learn all that much until, you know, later on. So I think it is one of these words where, you know, I would say it like it totally turns people off, but they're like they're kind of like they hear it and sometimes their their brain shuts down or their ears turn off because like it's not something that people are always super excited to like I I think, you know, you and me like to talk about it and people that are in a private practice. But I think the podiatry profession as a whole is kind of disparate and there's different kind of people practicing in different ways. So sometimes people hear that word podiatrist, you know, podiatry marketer, just marketing and like, not not for me.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about why that is and then jump into some ways that, you know, you and I both see, know, what marketing is and how it can benefit a practice and patients.

Yeah. I always find it funny when people well, podiatrists will say, oh, no. I'm not into marketing. And I'm like, seriously? Yeah.

And I'll I'll say, do you have a partner? Boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife? And they're, well, yeah. Okay. So you you had to do some form of marketing.

You had to do some form of marketing, put yourself out there to make people know yeah. Yeah. Make make them aware that you're available. It's all you're doing with your podiatry clinic is making people aware of the service, but it's true. People just they see the word marketing, and I think straight away, they're thinking, like, sleazy salesperson doing marketing.

Oh, here you get these orthotics in a set of steak knives. Yeah. So they think they've gotta do something that's really tacky to actually attract people's attentions, and that's not the case.

No. I think that's a good point. And I think it's also one of those things too where, you know, I think a lot of us go into medicine or even into podiatry, you know, we kind of on on a very kind of narrow path. Right? University, podiatry school, residency in The US for us, and then, you know, try to get a prestigious job in a way.

And, you know, it's it's kind of this achievement along the way that makes you feel like that's how you're gonna earn you know, you're gonna be the best. So patients are gonna see the best. And they're somehow, magically, every patient's gonna know about who provides the best foot and ankle care locally because, you know, you got a a plus in biomechanics. Right? So you're gonna make the best orthotics.

Right? So it just a bit of a switch to kinda go from this kinda very narrow path, academic, you know, you're not necessarily you know, you're worried about the academics. You're worried about the clinical skills. You're not always so focused on the business aspect of things. And like I said, it can be a big shift because, you know, especially when people get into a private practice setting, whether it's a you know, it's gonna vary.

Right? If you're in an academic setting or if you're in a huge group practice, you know, maybe this is not something that you have interfaced with. But the moment you decide that you wanna have a private practice of your own, you basically sign up for two businesses. You know, you sign up, you know, two professions in a way. You you know, a a doctor or podiatrist, and you become an entrepreneur in a way.

And not everybody feels as comfortable wearing both hats at the same time. It it you know, like I said, like, if some people try to wear that academic hat while they're a private practice, and it's really to their detriment because you're in a business and trying to kinda, like, balance that business along with the clinical and, you know, podiatric medical skills at the same time is it's a bit of a disconnect for some people.

Yeah. It it always reminds me of there was a podiatrist in town. I've mentioned it on this podcast and my other podcast numerous times. I should buy I should buy the guy a gift every every year and just send it to him as a thank you for keeping me fired up through my whole career. But at an event, there's a group of general practitioners there.

I'm talking away. He walks over, and he says, unlike some podiatrists, I don't need to market my business, and walked away. And back in those days, I was doing a lot of marketing in different areas, TV, radio, print. This is well well before online became, like, a popular platform. And and he walked off, and they all looked at me and said, you know he's having a go at you.

I went, oh, yeah. Anyway, didn't worry about it. I just kept doing my own thing. You go ahead twenty years, his clinic is pretty much nonexistent. Working in some little back room, some down dark alleyway, yeah, you you go ahead twenty years, his clinic is almost nonexistent, and my clinic absolutely just boomed and grew over that twenty year period until I eventually sold it.

So just to say marketing doesn't work or to have that attitude that marketing doesn't work or marketing is evil, I think is is a is holding some podiatrist back and they've gotta get over it.

Yeah. Thing things like we talked on a similar topic in a previous episode where it's, you know, people think that marketing is this one thing. Right? It's just the Google ads. It's just the Yeah.

Facebook ad. It's just this, you know, the newspaper or the television thing. But like like you talked about, you do learn those, you know, professional clinical skills, you know, you have to have those things. Those are almost kind of a given. Right?

Like but, you know, treating p patients well, providing great care, that's the the foundation of good marketing is, you know, providing value to your patients. But there is, you know, that step wise and those other opportunities out there that, you know, some people are just not they just don't feel comfortable with. Right? I think I think part of it is, at least in The US, it could be because a lot of our residencies now are associated with hospitals. You know, I think there are residencies that do a good job of incorporating private practices and and spending time with people in private practice.

So you get a little bit of an idea. But, you know, it can be sometimes tough, you know, you're at least in The US, you're working, you know, when I was in residency, you're working like, you know, fifty, sixty hours a week. You know, that time you have to go into work on somebody's private practice, I got to do that a few times. Yeah. You you know, you didn't have ownership of it.

Right? So you saw it maybe happening and you were kind of participating in it, but until you're kinda sitting in the chair or you're the owner, it it becomes a lot more real at that point. Right? And, you know, we like we talked about, you know, it sometimes you do have an opportunity to learn some of these, you know, base some basic skills within podiatry school. But until you're really sitting there, you know, figuring out what you wanna be an expert in, what you wanna be seen by your local community, what kind of care you want to have coming your way, it's tough to know.

And if you don't have those, there's definitely ways to learn. Like, you know, listening to this podcast is a great way to, you know, bone up on some of these skills when we talk about Google search ads or Facebook ads or, you know, just general SEO techniques and things like that to to get better so you can take that information and, you know, search Google and look for some good other content either on your website or my website Mhmm. And some other places. But I think it's one of those things where it has to be kind of an action that people are willing to take to learn a base level of knowledge. But then, you know, with running a practice with, you know, also, you know, taking care of your patients, it's one of those things that it's well done on the list.

And if it's not delegated or it's a real passion for the podiatrist in the practice, then it's sometimes forgotten. I think that's can be a real detriment to people practice.

Yeah. It's true. Because if someone's very busy looking after their team, doing accounts, making sure have the money, they're looking at their numbers, they're working as a podiatrist as well. They don't always have a lot of time to do marketing. I think that's why they they push it aside a little bit and they go, I'm not really into marketing.

But I think people will say that for two reasons. They don't have time to do it, which is why they should then reach out to other people and get help whether it's from you or I, or they don't understand marketing. So it's easy to say, I don't like marketing, then they say to Bill, I know I have no idea what I'm doing. And you actually made reference to like, say, for example, putting an ad in the newspaper or putting an ad online is not marketing. That's a platform, but the font you use, the photo that goes with it, the colors you choose, the day of the week, where it's positioned, that is marketing.

Marketing is the is what makes it work, not the actual just putting an ad somewhere.

Yeah. I think one of the challenges too, especially when people go into private practice, even if they are super entrepreneurial, right, is that we we're kind of on this like hero's journey. Like, we are the hero in our own, you know, movie or the own our own story.

Yeah.

And at least for a long time, a lot of people, you know, at least the American dream or the way we sometimes think in the in The US is that like, you kinda pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Right? And you're kind of this, like, you don't wanna show weakness. You don't. Like, you've learned from your teachers along the way, but all of a sudden when you finish residency, you should have it all figured out.

But that's not the case. And I think it I think, you know, with with your people like yourself providing coaching, you know, business coaching, really helping people continue to develop those skills while they're in practice is hugely valuable. Because whether it's through someone like you or working with a colleague or maybe that's a a weekly conversation with another person to practice, getting having kind of a mentor or just the people people going through similar things you do, having those thirty minute conversations or an hour conversation is hugely important because you don't wanna get stuck in this like going it alone mentality, you against the world. Because if you do that, you're gonna close yourself off to information, to, you know, to help, to learn it through other people's experiences. So I I I know for a fact, like, you know, like, even when I was in practice for a while, there's a period of time where I felt alone on an I know, on a practice island where I didn't necessarily wanna ask for help because I should be I should know everything.

So, you know, it's it's when I kinda asked for help or, you know, I got some mentorship within my group that really it kind of un unburdened me in ways that were really beneficial. So whether it's, you know, marketing skills or business skills, getting some mentorship, I think those things are really, really valuable. And I know that time is valuable, but these spending time doing these things can be hugely beneficial, not only professionally, but also personally.

I think you have to be in the game. Like I said, if you don't have the answers, you go and search for the answers. And I think sometimes that's the difference between when you work on, say, with someone individually like myself or or with you, where some people wanna be part of, like, say, big group coaching organizations. Because I think that that will help with the market because they're gonna feed off of, like, a number of people. But then I realize sometimes in in even some of those big groups, some of them aren't very clever.

They just you've got people in there who are really good at marketing. You got other people who just aren't very clever. And if you go in there, you gotta make sure you're you're directed towards the right or you're getting the right information from the right people.

I I totally agree there. I think there's there's there can be some benefits of having some group coaching. But until you have someone that's really, like, one on one with you who understands your situation, your knowledge, you know, like, if you go to a group coaching session and you're either well below or well above somebody's knowledge base and you're getting they're bombarding the the speaker with a lot of, like, questions that you already know. Yeah. Whether you know it or not, you're probably turning your brain off and you're probably gonna miss that next good question.

So was it really, you know, worth that time to be in a big group when you could really work with someone one on one who's listening to your needs, your practice, and your expectations? So I'm not trying to make this a a Tyson or Franklin coaching sales call, but I really think

that No.

But having a one on one relationship with someone who's listening to you, who can provide individualized feedback is hugely important when it comes to this stuff.

Yeah. There's a a friend of mine who's doing a talk at an event and he's a he was a marketer. Anyway, he's got up there on stage and it was to a group of personal train yeah, personal trainers. Got up on stage, and he's talked about all this stuff. And he just and he goes, jeez.

I was good. He said, so good. I came off, and I he got a bit of a bit of, you know, polite clapping. He said, anyway, the next speaker gets up there and says, you should all have individual business cards. And he's going, you are kidding me.

Yeah. This is the information you you need to have a business card. Anyway, he said the most basic information got a standing ovation. As he came off, everyone stood up and cheered as he were and he's a guy. And it made him realize that everybody is at different levels.

And because he'd been doing marketing for so long, he was thinking at a way higher level than what the average person was. And I think that sometimes the benefit of when you're doing when you're working doing marketing with someone one on one is they can figure out where are you at. And then based on where you're at, they go, okay. You're pretty switched on. This is where we need to head.

Or, okay. You don't know the basics. Have you got a business card? And and then what to do. But then once you've got all that and and you're doing really comfortable I've a lot of people I work with for a period of time who then go off and do group coaching.

I don't know why, but they do.

Yeah. You know, really, there's kind of when when I think about podiatry marketing or I think about marketing in general, there's kinda like but there's four things that I really think about that, you know, when I when I got into marketing, but also when I when I see kind of what it can do for people in a positive way. It's not, you know, it's not you bragging about yourself. It's not like you you being in an interruption for people that, you know, when I when I think about the first the first thing is visibility for kind of all the care that you provide. Right?

So, you know, it's it's easy for us to sit in our practice and know what our skill set is, to know what kind of patients we wanna see, and just wonder why no one is coming you know, why don't we have more of those patients or more of those procedures? But it really comes down to visibility. And and basically, being visible to your patients through a great website, through whether it's Google search ads, whether it's video, but just, you know, whether it's Google reviews, you know, encouraging those those types of things to happen. Just provide an overall visibility for the care you wanna provide, the different procedures you wanna do, and the type of patients you wanna treat. So to me, marketing is a way to provide patients or people in your local area that visibility into, you know, what your ideal practice is so they can either say, yes, this clinic is right for me.

I wanna go there. It seemed like an expert. I I wanna see someone who treats treats runners. Or no, like, I've got a diabetic foot wound. I don't wanna go see that person.

I think it's it's hugely powerful to have to utilize marketing as visibility and see it in that light.

Oh, no. But I think it's really important if you've got a if you think you're you have a skill set that is better than other people in your community and you are the best person to treat a particular problem, I think it's it's actually wrong not to tell the public that that's what you do. And because if you got a skill that can help people, there's people out there who need help, you would don't want them going somewhere that is not as skilled in that area. So you're you're doing the community a disjustice by not an injustice by not letting them know that you're there. You can't keep it a secret.

No.

No. No. It's it's no secret, you know.

Yeah. It's no secret.

But I I think we're on this totally the same wavelength because you basically just read my mind. This this is my second point is that Yeah. You know, you're you're not doing your local community any, you know, any favors by keeping that hidden. Like, if you are skilled at something, you provide excellent foot and ankle care in a specific subspecialty or niche of podiatry, you want them to see that because then they can get that excellent care. It's not it's not necessarily like this, oh, look at me.

I wanna make millions of dollars in my podiatry practice. Like, I'm gonna market. No. Like, you have to provide that visibility of that excellent care you provide so you can benefit your patients. So Mhmm.

By not by not kind of being visible, you're like, you know, you're not committing a crime. You're not doing anything anything bad, but, more people would benefit from your your subspecialty care or that special thing that you can do that no one else is doing in your practice or you're the best at treating runners. So you wanna be visible to that patient population. I think that's hugely hugely important.

Yeah. I'm not sure if this is exactly accurate, but I'm sure I read somewhere once that Thomas Edison, when he invented the light bulb, didn't take a patent out on it. But when he invented the light bulb, he was that excited about what he had invented and thought everybody could benefit from it so much. He just let anybody have it because he thought it would totally change the world. I'm not sure if that's exactly accurate or not.

If it's not, it's a damn good story. But to me, it's it's like, if you've got a skill, you can't keep it a secret. You've got to tell everybody that it's basically there because you you can actually help them. You can and there's probably somebody out there right now who if they can get in contact with you, you can add ten years to their life because you can keep them moving.

No. I totally agree. I think that's a a great point. I think it's you know, you're kind of, you know, you're kind of providing hope hope and and opportunities for to improve people's lives. I think that's a really important thing.

And, you know, part of what marketing to me as well is, like, is basically kind of building trust. Right? Like, you're not only are building trust by offering specific services and, you know, hopefully, you know, more times than not providing great outcomes for people to live better lives, but also providing platforms for your patients

Mhmm.

To speak for you. So that's, you know, in The US, you can do testimonials, things like Google reviews. But when people, you know, leave kind of genuine, you know, reviews or testimonials, right, you don't wanna get your assistant, your mom, your girlfriend, and your sister to come, you know, leave a or, you know, testimonials on your website, which, you know, I think some people are concerned when they see testimonials that they've gotta be fake. But, you know, if there's enough testimonials, if there's enough Google reviews, you can have a couple negative Google reviews. But other people speaking, you know, that you are trustworthy, that you do provide care, that's what marketing is to me as well is that it gives you an opportunity for that kind of digital word-of-mouth because we all want word-of-mouth marketing.

Marketing. Right?

But Yeah.

How can you kind of ignite some of that trust building and that digital word-of-mouth and that marketing your practice allows the kind of a a platform for that to happen.

So what's what's the third thing that we're gonna talk about?

Well, so that so number one was visibility. Yep. Number two was, you know, showing patients all the excellent care you provide so you can, you know, provide your local community excellent care. Number three was kinda building trust by, you know, whether it's, you know, not only providing great care, but giving patients a platform to do so.

Oh, is that number three? Did I did you not say number three? Did you because you were talking about that. Did I not hear you say, number three is?

No. So number three was like that build trust. Oh, okay. Number but but maybe number four, I'll just hold off on until

Oh. Something. Well, you're creating you've left you're leaving an open loop, and then you can tell a couple of stories. That was last week's episode about open loops. So you're now leaving an open maybe you don't tell anyone the fourth.

If they wanna know the fourth one, they can send you an email.

I'll leave a dramatic pause because I'm always trying to speak too fast. But no, I think so we'll we'll jump in the fourth one. I think, know, the listeners wanna hear the fourth one. Maybe we'll try the open loop close in a different one. But I think number four is really important because, you know, like I talked about, when you're in podiatry practice or, you know, podiatry education and residency, you're kinda on this narrow road.

Right? And I think sometimes when you become a business owner or an entrepreneur, it's something that you and I can experience, Tyson. There's not one right way to go help somebody or to get a new client or to work with someone. So there's a bit of uncertainty. And and whether it's an open loop or just life in general, us humans, we kinda create crave some way to have an impact on the world around us.

And by, you know, by doing marketing, by coming visible with all the care you provide, you're you're taking an action step and you're exerting some control over your own destiny, your own practice. Not to get too, like, philosophical, but, you know, you are kinda making a dent and putting things out there and kind of, you know, showing that you want to be seen for something or you're you're not just kinda, like, waiting for it to fall on your lap. I think that's the thing we talked about earlier like, you know, sometimes you just feel like, hey, I've worked, you know, I went to undergrad. I went to residency. You know, I went to to podiatry school.

I, you know, when is it my is this gonna fall on my lap? Right? This is gonna like, I'm gonna open the doors. The patients are gonna charge through into treatment rooms, and they're just gonna be busy doing all the all the care that I wanna do every single day of the year. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, but I think if you don't leave it to chance and you take some action to exert a control of your situation, you know, not only is it a, you know, financially or, you know, a thing that's beneficial your patient, but it's also beneficial to you personally that you know that you're kinda putting your best effort forward to provide great care to your patient, but also to build a thriving practice.

Yeah. Well, I hope everyone takes us on board and just like, if they if they've listened to every episode from all the way through to what we're up to now, which is this is actually episode four sixty five. So if somebody has listened to all 65 episodes and they're listening to us now, I would say they're convinced that marketing is not a dirty word. If they if they still think marketing is a dirty word, wait till next week's episode. There we go.

There's the open loop. There's the cliffhanger to for next week's episode.

I like it.

Yeah. So have you got anything else to say to add to this before we wrap up?

No. No. That that's all I got for me this week, Tyson.

Oh, well, wait till they hear next week's episode. It is a pearler. And Wow.

I I I'm I'm sitting on my edge of my chair right now.

Without the anticipation. So okay, Jim. It was great talking to you, and I look forward to talking to you next week.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. Bye now.

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