Jim's Word of The Year

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, as usual, my partner in crime, big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, I'm doing well. I'm kind of that time of year here in in Oregon where I can't decide if I do I grow the beard out? Do I not grow the beard out? It's like to beard or not to beard. That is

the Yeah. Well Yep. You can see mine here if people are watching the video.

That a baby's butt? Why why are you showing me a baby's butt?

I know. I know. You see it there. I have not shaved six days. How impressive is that?

I've tidied it up, but the the little goatee and Sure. Under my nose, which is all gray. Yeah. That's six days worth right there. So Nice.

I'm a hairy beast. There's a rumor that you're gonna be sharing your word of the year today.

Yeah. So you shared yours with there a little while ago.

Time since the year is almost over.

Yeah. I mean, I think I had to definitely get it in the first quarter. Otherwise, this could be a topic. But yeah. So my word of the year this year is consistency.

And, you know, I I was happened to read through, you know, you kinda come across quotes here and there online, and sometimes I subscribe to some newsletters. And something really struck me a few weeks ago was and and I I know this and this is a pretty simple quote, but it's intensity is common. Consistency is rare. And, you know you know, not that I compare myself to other people, but I'm I'm pretty consistent in what I do. You know, I show up with you here every week.

We do a podcast together. You know, we've doing it for over three years now. So

I know.

I mean

I saw the anniversary thing come up a couple weeks ago, and I went, it's been three years already.

I know. So, I mean, so there's certain aspects of my life where I'm consistent. If I have a goal to train for a marathon, I'm pretty good about, you know, getting the training in, so I'm not gonna just suffer for, you know, three or three and a half hours. But, you know, I just kinda it just kinda came to me here recently that I you know, as consistent as I am, I really you know, as I'm getting into my late forties, now is the opportunity just to kinda take some of these learn lessons learned and, you know, just try to do good work, you know, every day and try to squeeze, you know, as much work or as many hours out of the day as possible. Because, you know, in five years, ten years, twenty years from now, I'm not gonna wanna do that anymore.

And it's just a a kind of a challenge I have for myself this year just to, like, you know, really try to do great work, but do it on a consistent basis because I really feel like those little increments, you know, an extra half an hour, an hour sometimes if you have energy, you kinda add that up day over day, week after week, month after month. It can really make big steps and big leaps. So that that's what I'm looking forward to start off this this 2025.

And consistency sounds easy. Oh, well, I'm just gonna do this each day. But life is full of distractions. That's that's the difficult part.

Yeah. There are a lot of things competing for our time. Right? I mean, I'm a I'm a dad. I've got two kids.

Like, for example, tonight I was driving around town from one soccer practice to the next. You know, it was, like, three hours of logistics and, you know, me being the the soccer dad. So, I mean, there's always things that can get in the way. But, you know, as I get older, you know, you have to really prioritize and set time aside for, obviously, your work and and, you know, I love providing great work for the people that I do, but, you know, setting aside time for my family to be present not only as their soccer dad, but also at home with them to help with homework and do things like that. But then also, you know, our you know, we're not getting younger, Tyson, so our health has to be a priority.

So, you know, my You

wouldn't be getting any younger, but no. I know.

But, you know, what but what are those, you know, habits that I you know, I'm a runner, I like to go for running, but, you know, can I be more consistent doing that? You know, whether it's, you know, stretching, strengthening, you know, diet. So there's little things I'm implementing this year trying to really kinda build trust in myself, you know, so I can kinda do those things I want to do as I, you know, as I get into the in my fifties and my sixties, I can still be active and do things I wanna do.

Yeah. It's true. I thought what you said at the age of my mind thinks I'm 25, but my body thinks I'm an idiot.

Well, I've had, like, a course of, like, running injuries here over the last, you know, three to six months. A couple of things kinda not kinda laid me up for a little while. It makes me realize that, you know, you know, I'm not as bulletproof as I used to be. Right? So you can't just get away with going out for, you know, a seven or eight mile run and then not stretching or, you know, doing some foam rolling and things like that.

So I just really realized now that I have to kind of bake these things in and and set aside time for them. Otherwise, you know, I'll be laid up for another, you know, three to six weeks.

Yeah. But I I like what you said, though, about the building trust in yourself. Because I think when you are consistent, you say you're gonna do something on a regular basis and you start doing it. The more the more I think it's a conscious action that you're doing, where you're thinking about having to do it, you I think you build the trustees up. But I think eventually, with that consistency, it then becomes like a bit of a it becomes a habit.

And then you probably don't even think about it. Like, all the consistent things that you wanna do. It's like us doing the podcast. I don't really think about, oh, we're consistently doing it. We just do it because we've been doing it for so long.

No. Absolutely. It's just kinda like part of our week. Right? It's just been this this time together and have these conversations.

And I will say that, you know, whether it's, you know, the culture or the media or, you know, pub you know, entertainment, you know, consistency is not sexy. Yeah. It's doing doing a little bit of something every day on a consistent basis or, you know, getting out a, you know, getting out at, you know, four or 05:00 in the morning for a workout or something. Like, it doesn't feel very glamorous. You know?

Sometimes, you know, you see people on social media maybe kind of bragging about their their schedule or what they're doing, and and and maybe there's a little bit of a flex there more now than there used to be. But, you know, we're used to movies where the coach gives some crazy pump up speech. Right? Like, it's like everything's in our in a lot at least in American and North American culture, it's like it's you know, this inspirational speech is then gonna lead to, like, an amazing performance. But when you really think about the the top level performers, it's not necessarily they just have, like, one intense effort that led them to be who they are.

It is that consistent amount of work or dedication to a craft over long periods of time that that lead to that. You know, me being a distance runner, as much as I would like to think that I was consistent, I, you know, I love working really hard in workouts. That intensity is what, you know, makes you feel like you're doing something. But, you know, as I've gotten older, you know, and I'm running, you know, marathons and even longer stuff, I just realized more and more that intensity has its place, but it's really those that are consistent over long periods of time that, you know, the the the the rabbit and the and the the tortoise and the rabbit, you know, situation, you know, the the the tortoise. I'm I'm becoming more of a tortoise as time goes on,

I think. So are you looking at, like, all aspects of your life? So it's not just consistency is in work. You're looking at, you know, your own your own health, what you're eating, everything else that you're basically doing.

Yeah. I'm just trying to pick it apart a little bit. Right? Like, what kind of daily decisions am I making? You know, if I'm sitting around helping out one of my clients and I've got, you know, fifteen minutes to go grab a snack, like, have I set myself up in an opportunity where I'm gonna either grab some granola and some yogurt and maybe some nuts or something healthy, or am I gonna go grab Oreo cookie Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers with sharp cheddar cheese?

I mean Yeah. I have the ability to go buy those things if I want to and eat those if I choose to. But, you know, in ten years or twenty years from now and I'm older and not as as agile as I used to be, like, it's I think some people also with your health, said it's not only the work aspect, but, like, there's these little incremental things that happen over long periods of time we don't always realize. Mhmm. You don't get you know, you don't gain 50 pounds or a hundred pounds, you know, over the course of, like, two days.

It's just, like, habits and, you know, either a lack of consistency. You know, some people you know? But it's just one of those things where you have to kind of, like, you know, you have to make these daily decisions. So, know, how can you put yourself, whether it's, you know, when I go out for morning runs or morning workouts, did I put up my clothes the night before?

Yeah.

You know, little like, giving yourself little wins and making it a little bit easier to do some of these things, whether it be having good food in the fridge, you know, writing out a a clear schedule, what your what tomorrow's workday is gonna be like so you can really know. And it can always change. Right? But, like, when you have that written down, I think it just kinda puts you more onto it makes good decisions more on autopilot, you can be more consistent with it.

I I like that what you said about the planning, when you said like, you know you're gonna be working with clients throughout the day and the same as I do. So planning ahead, okay. When I have this break and this break, what am I going to eat at those particular times that's gonna be a good decision over a bad decision? Because, like, I'm I'm addicted to ice cream. I just love it.

And I said, well, why do you keep buying it? She goes, why do keep eating it? She says, you don't have to eat it. But I will during the day. Like, I get up at 05:00 every morning, go to the gym 6AM, catch up with the same group of people there.

We have a great time. But I plan that I know at a certain time, you know, I'll have my breakfast, and a certain time at lunch, I'm going to eat. And I same thing. I've already worked out exactly what we need before. And if I know that and it's there, I do the right thing.

It's when I haven't thought about it, and I go, damn it. I'm hungry. Everything sweet looks good.

No. Absolutely. I'm, like, I'm a total fiend for, like, Ritz crackers and cheese. I mean, I could just eat it, like, nonstop for days, but I know that that's gonna there'll be a price for that. It won't be tomorrow.

It may not be the next day, but someday down the road, you know, it would have made sense to eat eat something a little more healthy. Next section, would say it's, like, also consistency when it comes to personal and professional relationships. And that that seems kind of you know? What do you mean by being consistent with that? I think it's setting, like, expectations about how you know you know, when you when you when you're consistent with what you're doing, it allows other people to interact with you in ways that they they kinda understand, you know, where you're coming from and what you're doing.

You know, if you're kind of up and down, you know, you're intense for a month and then you're you're in if you're not a good you're not communicating well or you're there's just not a good flow of information back and forth, whether it be in a personal situation or in a professional situation, I think it it makes things much easier when you have kind of clear expectations around consistency of communication and and passing information back and forth can be really helpful. So that what that means, like, you know, generally, when I work with clients, you know, I'm always available for email, but we kinda dig into the nitty gritty on a quarterly basis to determine practice goals and then set, you know, you know, what do they wanna be doing for the next three months in their practice. So I think it's really important that, you know, there is that, obviously, daily communication, but also when it comes to goals and expectations, you know, setting those goals on a quarterly basis can be really helpful.

Yeah. I was listening to a podcast, and there's this guy talking who works does coaching for billionaires. So obviously, he knows his stuff, but he has a business coach. And that business coach rings him up every morning for the last twenty seven years or something, and actually says to him, yeah, have you done this today? And the person that was interviewing him said, every day for twenty seven years.

He goes, yeah, consistently does it every day for twenty seven years. He goes, the reason he does it, though, because he knows I'm an undisciplined bastard. He goes, if I'm left to my own devices, I I won't do what I said I was going to do. But so the other guy consistently maintains that contact with him to make sure that it keeps him on track because he is undisciplined.

Yeah. And I think that's a great point is there you know, if you know that something you struggle with, you know, finding an accountabil accountability buddy or a partner Yeah. Maybe it's maybe they don't need to be more consistent. Maybe they need something else from you. So but just having that person you can check-in with, and they can be like, hey.

You know, hey, Tyson. How's it been going with your your ice cream? Maybe cut that down at all. Oh, cut

it down. Cut it right back.

How many pints did you how how many pints did you eat this week? Just making it to hold you accountable can be you know, because it it is one of those things where, you know, it doesn't always have to be totally on your shoulders. Obviously, you have to be the one that takes those actions, but sometimes having, you know, accountability to somebody else can be a helpful way.

Yeah. And I know at at the gym, yeah, the Muay Thai gym, we're we're all at that. We're most of us are fairly disciplined, but we're all if somebody's not gonna go that morning, they will contact the other person. I'm not gonna be there today. And we all give them hell.

Why? And next thing they turn up.

No. For sure. And I think there can also be benefits, you know, whether it be, you know, kind of figuring out what are some kind of key performance indicators. They don't have to be super, you know, ridiculous. But, like, I will sometimes, you know, look at my, like, my app my iPhone has, like, the health app.

Right? And I can see the days that I either did a workout or

if I

did, you know, if I was able to walk, you know, 10,000 steps, it has those rings that close. So Yeah. You know, maybe I wanna try to get to the point where I'm doing at least 25, you know you know, maybe it's 25 workouts a month or maybe 25 ring closes trying to get 10,000 steps on each of those days. Maybe it's, you know, the number of miles you run a week or run run per month. Maybe it's how many times you make it to the gym and do a session.

I think it's also really important just not to, like especially as you're getting into whether it be health or diet and those things and not feel like it's like an an all or nothing situation. You know, you're gonna have setbacks. You don't have to be like you know, if you fall off the wagon on, you know, week two or week three doesn't mean that the whole year is shot. Obviously, we're doing the word of the year, but have some grace when it comes to, like you know, you're you're you're making some behavioral changes or you're trying to be more consistent. You know, it's okay to, like, you know, well, I just didn't have it then, I got injured so I couldn't do that.

But it does not it's never too late to kind of restart that streak or that pattern. So I think that's an important thing is to have some of these Mhmm. That's really good peak performance indicators to, like, help you fill you know, it doesn't always have to be, you know, you know, these exact numbers that make you feel as much as sometimes the low numbers might feel make you feel not great, but just, you know, feeling motivated by some of these numbers.

Yeah. I I think it's really good point, though, is you can be super consistent, but if something just falls off track, if I eat two pints of ice cream, And a pint would just be a taste. But if you if you ate ice cream or if you're saying you're not gonna drink and you you have a drink or you're giving up smoking and you have a smoke, it but it's the consistent behavior leading up to it. It's a consistent behavior afterwards, which I think is important that you can get straight back on track. And you and I think that's the thing.

By measuring it, you know when you're off track. So so do you have a do you have a ritual with your consistency? Is there a ritual that you're planning to go through each day? Is there a a set structure? Do you have it do you have it written down like in a in a brain book?

Do you have it in a Google Calendar? Is there something that you use to prompt to remind you of your word of the year? Because I I know I I do with mine.

Yeah. So my Google Calendar is kinda like the my kind of, like, just how I'm kind of running my my personal and professional life just to have everything on that calendar. So that you know, and I had that quote kind of, like, on my my laptop as far as the background goes so I can kinda take a look at it and kinda be reminded of it.

Yeah. What was what was the code again? That was what you said right at the beginning.

Intensity is common. Consistency is rare.

Oh, yeah.

So so that's, you know, like I said, so I have that, you know

And that's a difference, but that's a difference between the word of the year and, like, a resolution. A resolution usually has intensity at the beginning, but there's no follow through.

No. Exactly. It's like we talked about those, you know, those coach movies. Right? Whether it be, you know, go out and win one or, you know, we gotta go take down the bad guy.

It's never just necessarily a consistent thing over time. It's gotta be wrapped up, I guess, in two hours for movies and for for basketball games. But but, yeah, it is one of those things where I think the key is, like like you talked about, having whether it's a brain book or some kind of document. You can kinda go back and look at it as a kind of daily reminder. It doesn't it doesn't have to hit you over the head with it, but it's something that just it's there, you're kinda using that.

But then I think it's also that and we touched on it briefly, and you and you like this idea. But it is like, what are those kinda, like, things that make your life easier for kind of your future self? You know, I think we we need to live in the moment, and we need to, like, not plan, you know, too far ahead. Like I said, my goal is to really kind of be consistently in the moment each day. But, you know, if I lay my workout clothes, you know, out for me, and I can, you know, go change and and get go do it instead of having to ruffle through my drawers.

Do I have a clean pair of socks? Where are my shoes at? Where's my GPS watch? If all that stuff is already the night before laying out on my chest of drawers and ready for me just to put it on. And there's a lot of other things, you know, even on your professional life.

Right? Are you reviewing kind of your employ you know, those things you can do to kind of those kind of cheat codes, I would say, that help kind of facilitate this consistency so it can be more something that can be achievable, I would say.

Yeah. I like your future self. He's a he's a good guy.

That's the thing. Like, I tell I tell my kids that sometimes. Right? You know, they're throwing their shoes or their room is dirty. I'm like, you know, just be kind to your your, you know, your future self that somebody else is gonna have to clean up with that.

Yeah. Your future self has to do it. But it's true that it's like, what what decisions are you gonna make today that your future self are gonna thank you for?

Right.

And I don't know. Do I ever tell you that we do this every year at home here, that we actually write a letter to our future self at the beginning of the year? When we put our when we put the Christmas tree away on the January 1, I've done this for so many years, but I've got my wife doing it now and my daughter, and we write a letter to our future self, and we all open it up on the December 1. And it's just a it's just a letter of what we're thinking right now and how we see the year planning out. And we're so we're writing.

Hello, Tyson. How are doing? This is past Tyson talking to you. And it's really weird, and it was funny. This year, I opened up and had $50 in there.

I've totally forgot to put it in there. It was a little note that said, how you going by yourself a carton of beer? And I went, thank you, past self. And you think you remember what you wrote? And I wrote it a month or so ago, and it's in the box.

I cannot remember what I wrote. I have no idea. So when you're reading it back, you you actually haven't been able laugh, but that is just something that yeah. This is with the the whole future self. Your future self thanks you for the decisions you made today.

No. And like you said, we only you can only live in the present. Right? Obviously, we can plan our future. We wanna have where we wanna be in five or ten years.

Those are all those are great things. But, really, I think, like I said, you know, and whether it be professional or personal, you know you know, you can get the most out of what you're doing in your professional life just by, trying to kind of take those actions on a consistent basis. It can really move far. And in your personal life, for example, me, like, my kids will be around home for the next ten, twelve years, and they'll be living their own lives. Right?

So if I don't take advantage of each day to spend with them, to to do things with them, life is short, so you gotta try to enjoy the time you have with the people you care about and the and the job or the profession that you love doing.

Yeah. And I like how you use the word consistency, and it's not just work related. You're actually using it in your personal life as well.

Yeah. It's super important.

Okay. Big Jim, anything else to say before we wrap up?

No. I think that's good place to end there, Tyson.

Okay. So anyone listening to this, if you have not chosen a word of the you can do it at any time. You can just it could be one month to get if you're listening to this in November, you can still choose a word of the year. Finish strong on it, and then choose another one next year. Not the plan.

Okay. I'll talk to you next week.

Bye, cousin.

Okay. See

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