No One Owns the Whole Market

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 as always by my trusty co host, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's it going today?

I'm fantastic today, big Jim. Good to be here. Looking forward to today's topic.

Yeah. I'm curious. I didn't get a chance to read through the topic very closely today. What are we gonna be jumping into?

Well, it's actually funny. Yeah. When you're not quite sure what we're gonna talk about, and and I haven't provided the notes as early as what I should have, then there's a lot more not ad libbing, but I think your answers or your comments straight from the cuff. You haven't had time to think about it.

Exactly.

Okay. So what we're gonna talk about is a topic that no one owns the whole market. And the reason I bring it up is in the podiatry profession, I've got notes in front of me here anyway, there's

a

there are some large individually owned podiatry businesses. A of lot of the bigger towns have some big clinics, and there's also a few corporates that are huge. Yeah. They are really big. In Australia, in particular, there's one particular one.

I won't mention their name. They're like Voldemort. You don't mention their name. And but the thing is no matter how big they become, they will never have a monopoly. They will they will never own the whole market.

And sometimes, I I think they get it in the head that they will, that they're gonna be that big and that dominant, that everybody in the town is going to want to see them and nobody else, and that is not the case. So I put into AI, what does owning the whole market mean? And this is this is what it told me. So I'm gonna read this out word for word what it said. I edited it down just a fraction.

It says, in economics, the concept of a monopoly refers to a market structure where there is only one seller providing a particular good or service, effectively dominating the entire market without competition. The statement no one owns the whole market suggests that monopolies, while powerful, do not necessarily encompass every aspect of an entire market. Even in industries dominated by a few large firms, those that shall not be named like Voldemort, there are usually other players, even though they may be smaller, that provide alternatives or they compete in a specific niche. This distribution of market influence prevents any single entity from completely monopolizing an entire market sector, maintaining some level of competition and diversity. So that's what AI AI told me.

I I I like that I like that definition. I think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying there because in The US there can be a lot of large kind of multi specialty groups. There's actually some large podiatry groups, know, that are kind of VC funded. There's hospital based groups as well, but there is still room in markets for those smaller very niche specific practices to really thrive. So I'm excited to to learn more about your take on this today.

Yeah. But the way and you probably did the same thing. I think everybody grew up playing Monopoly. And you would have played Monopoly, Jim?

Absolutely. Yeah. I was a big Monopoly player for sure.

Yeah. And and I think as we grow up, we sort of I think it's maybe it's ingrained into us that the game Monopoly is actually real. That you can go in there, you can buy Mayfair, you can own the whole board and everybody here lands on you and you dominate it and the goal is to monopolize the whole board and kill all the other players. So you walk out with all the money, all the property. And I think in the back of my mind, sometimes people think that's real, but I don't think it's real.

Not not in podiatry anyway. And I I don't think in a lot of industries. I don't think anyone can own the whole market. And I did read something else that said, and if they do, sometimes it can be slightly illegal if they try and own the whole market.

No. Absolutely. I think even when you're playing Monopoly though, right, sometimes you got the electric company or you got some of these lesser, you know, kind of like properties that didn't seem that great at the time. If you could build up on them quickly Yeah. And kinda get a get a foothold in, you're maybe not gonna win every single game, but you'll you'll get a significant amount of people landing on that.

Maybe you'll you'll be in sec second place in the market or, you know, you'll be second place in the Monopoly game. So there is definitely some benefit of having some strategy and being, you know, whether it be Monopoly or real life.

Yeah. So what I thought, I'd just go over some not real life examples that I've noticed through my career, other people that I've worked with, just things that I've seen, but keep it specifically, like, in the podiatry realm. So when I moved to Cairns in 1992, which was a long time ago, thirty two years ago. I just came up here for a drive. I was I said, I came for a drive, and then I went, hey.

This place is not too bad. I might stay for twelve months. This is the story, actually. I'll stay for twelve months. And then I was talking to head of the podiatry department in Brisbane, and he'd said to me ages ago, if I was ever gonna open up another clinic, I'd open up in a town where there weren't a lot of podiatrists.

Fair enough. But I I didn't come to Cairns to set up my clinic. I came to Cairns to have a break from from life, and the head of the podiatry department said that I think there's a job going in Cairns. So I applied for that job, but I didn't get it. Somebody had got in a week before me and taken that job.

Long story there, they weren't really registered, and we won't go down that path about that podiatrist. But anyway, if anyone ever wants to buy me a beer one day and hear about that whole story, it's a funny story. But anyway, when I moved to cancer, they were the only clinic. I think they had four podiatrists working. They were in the middle of town, had four podiatrists, and they had a three month wait.

They were a pretty big podiatry clinic. And I did hear someone say, oh, jeez. Are you thinking about opening up a podiatry clinic in opposition to them? They're so big. They've been here for so long.

Everybody knows who they are. I went, you know what? I can't they didn't want to employ me because they'd already employed somebody else who wasn't registered, we won't go down that path. So I ended up working for myself. But a decade later and my clinic just boomed.

It went went really, really well, even though I was advised not to open up. But a decade later, there were 10 podiatry clinics in the town. Just over the years, more and more slowly opened up. Don't know what what dragged everybody up here. Maybe they heard me talking about how nice it was up here.

I'm not sure. But at the time, even though there were 10 other clinics, my clinic was the market leader, but I still did not own the whole market. And if you had a look at where my clinic was at the time compared to everybody else, I mean, there was so much distance between what we were doing and what everybody else was doing, But they were all keeping relatively busy. And the only reason they probably didn't really give me a run for my money, one, laziness, I think, was one thing. Complacency.

They were happy to just put a sign up and I'll just wait for the patients to come to me. But I know they all kept pretty busy, but none of them really niche down in a particular area or try to say, hey. This is what I wanna do more of. They, at the time, didn't have websites. When websites are coming out, it took them years before they had a website.

They were just slow to get off the market with everything. Now that I've sold my clinic eight years ago to the company that should not be named, but there's now a new market leader. There's a clinic here in Cairns that is the biggest clinic by far. They've got a couple of locations. They've got, I think, eight podiatrists working there.

It is a it is a big clinic. But once again, they do not own the whole market, and there's probably about 10 other podiatry clinics in there. And there's room in Cairns for more. If another person wanted to come to Cairns tomorrow and open up a podiatrist clinic and wanted to make it, niche down a little bit and be special. There is so much room here in Cairns.

So everybody needs to be aware of it. I'm not saying come to Cairns. I'm just saying look at areas.

Yeah. It's it's like trying to find that that sweet spot between, you know, is is there an opportunity there? Maybe like you said, if you can niche down at a specific area where there's enough patients, they're willing to pay, also just kind of where do you wanna live is Yeah. An important component. So obviously that twelve months for you turn into a lot longer.

Thirty two years. So I mean it's trying to find that sweet spot and I think that's a great you know, you know story that kind of lets people know that just because there's podiatrist in town doesn't necessarily mean there's not opportunity there, just kind of being a little bit more creative, a little bit more deliberate about the type of patients you're trying to go after as opposed to just you know, open up your shingle, kind of try to treat everybody, and really not stand out to anybody at all.

Yeah. And what's what's funny is sometimes people will move into a town. They might, you know, they might marry someone and they go back to a hometown or whatever it is. And there might already be an existing pediatric clinic there. They go, oh, I should open up on the other side of town because I don't wanna be too close to them.

So when I opened up my clinic in Canterlite, the first clinic that was here, they were in the city. So I didn't wanna be in the city anyway. So I looked at a map. I looked at where all the where the growth areas were. So I where my clinic is now, I pretty much stayed in that same area.

But at the time, I I worked out at two different locations. And one was on the South Side Of Cairns, one's on the North Side. South Side Of Cairns is 20 times busier than the North Side. So it was really easy to not work there and just focus on the South Side, which is what I did. So if you move into a town and there's already a really well established big clinic in a certain location, it lets you know that is a good location.

So don't go and open up on the other side of town thinking, oh, I'll open up the other side of town because, therefore, I'm far enough away from them. There might be a reason they're not there. They may have been there previously, and over the years, they've moved to a better location. So don't be afraid to be close to where there's a bigger clinic. And as a matter of fact, the clinic I mentioned before in Cairns, which is now the market leader, opened up directly across the road from my old clinic.

So you got the two biggest clinics in Cairns that are pretty much we can see each other. They could see each other across like wave at each other each morning if they really wanted to.

I've heard that you know, sometimes independent coffee shops do actually even better if there's a nearby Starbucks. Yeah. Know a lot of people would say, oh like don't you don't wanna be near near a Starbucks here in independent coffee you know a cafe. But in reality just kind of makes the area known you know if Starbucks comes in people think coffee and they wanna go help the little guy or the independent shop that's right next to the Starbucks. So, yeah, it's it can be a little counterintuitive when opening up a practice or business.

Yeah. And as long as you've got a good product, that's that's the important thing. You might open up across a clinic that may have a fantastic reputation. The patients may love them, but let you know that area must be a good area. And we chose it for a particular reason, and I would say they did exactly the same thing.

They chose it for a particular reason because it was so central. It's a terrible area Okay. But it's a great location because everything sort of all roads I used to say all roads lead to ProArch back in the day. And so, yeah, so don't be put off by existing clinics. And I actually helped a friend open up a podiatry clinic in Townsville, which is four hours south of Cairns.

When she was opening that up and we were looking at locations, there was an existing podiatry clinic there that we used to call the Taj Mahal. It was a three story podiatry clinic. It was a beautiful clinic. It had been there for years. Very well established, very good podiatrist that owned it.

It was run very well, had a fantastic reputation. And I said, just open up down the road. So it wasn't, like, directly across the road, but it was it wasn't very far from each other. I helped to open up that clinic there, and and what was funny prior to that, a lot of people avoided opening up in Townsville because of that existing clinic. You'd hear them say, oh, I'm not gonna open up there because such and such is there.

And so I said, this friend, you just open up there? That's where you wanna go, open up there. We did that, and I said, you gotta do is just run your own race. Don't don't try and compete them compete with them head on. Just be a little bit different.

Let's do things differently. And that's what she did and had a an extremely successful clinic. And she has done very well from it and is financially in an awesome position in life. And she also just sold recently to the company that should not be mentioned. But when I talked to her, she said it went so well.

And here she was. She moved into a town that had a big existing clinic who did not own the whole market. That's the important part. They don't own it all.

Exactly.

Oh, you know, I thought you're gonna have another comment there but but anyway and that's all you got. Exactly. Now now you have the comment.

No. I think you're you're on a you make a good point there. I think sometimes you get people get scared off. Right? They kind of think that yeah for whatever reason all those people before your friend decided just to skip town because they felt like the competition was you know spending too much or had too good of a reputation.

But if you find your niche and you know what you want to do and you're different than you know it's kind of like that Seth Godin purple cow. If you're just different enough maybe you like you know pediatrics or you like treating you know more elderly patients or doing sports medicine. Whatever your area of interest is if you can set yourself apart from and be a little bit more nimble than the big competitor, it's a huge opportunity because some of those places kind of have to become more of a vanilla do everything for everybody. But when you're when you're not that and you're more kind of hustling and nimble, you can really focus in that target demographic whether it be level of activity or an age demographic that really interests you and set yourself apart. So yeah, think there's whether it's in your marketing or just, you know, who you're networking with, there's there's huge opportunities even if there is a a big player in town.

Yeah. And it's like we did I'm pretty sure we did an episode on this and it was titled, a nose I can hear is worth two that can smell. And that was all about just being different. So if you had a nose that could actually smell and hear is better than just two noses that can smell. But anyway and you so everyone would have heard that quote from a Field of Dreams that was, if you build it, they will come.

Now that quote is total BS without implementing a good marketing strategy. If you just set up a podiatry clinic but don't have a marketing strategy behind it, it's gonna be a long, slow process. When you come to market your podiatry business, I think it's important to remember that some people will immediately say yes. I do have figures and stats and all this, but I'm not gonna go into it. No matter how good your offer is, there will be some people will never say yes to you.

It'll just be no. They don't care. You say free orthotics. Don't not interested. I don't want me to sell keep your snake oil.

Just go away. But there's a large percentage, which is the biggest part of the market, and they just need to see your marketing on a regular basis. And it doesn't mean just on Facebook. These people who need to be nurtured over period of time probably aren't on Facebook looking for you. They need to see your multiple channels in multiple ways.

They're searching for information, so you need to be putting it out there. Stuff on your website, whether you're using Google Ads or whether it's traditional print, you need to be seen and heard on a regular basis. And I think you need to be more specific with what you want more of in your podiatry business. You can't just be like a wandering generality like everybody else and just being really beige and hoping you you're gonna attract people away from the other four clinics that have already been there for years if you're not gonna deal with just trying to stand out a little bit. And I always say, if you're if you're a little bit different, you may not own the whole market because nobody owns a whole market, but you will own that space.

And that is a different thing altogether. Perfect example, when we introduced Shockwave in 02/2011, nobody else in Cairns even had a Shockwave. Nobody had heard of Shockwave. We introduced it. We did a lot of marketing around Shockwave until eventually we became the podiatric clinic that you got Shockwave from.

In fact, we were the only clinic, Allied Health Clinic, where you got Shockwave. And then even they over the as the years went past, other podiatrists got Shockwave, but by them yelling at, yeah, we have it too, didn't matter. Everybody really knew that we owned that space. So you can't own the whole market, but if you get in early for specific areas or services, you can own that space before everybody else does. You won't own the whole space.

You just own a big chunk of it. That's a completely different marketing talk that I can do another time.

I think you're breaking a good point though. If you if you do establish yourself with a certain modality or a certain patient demographic, you're gonna be brought into a bunch of different conversations even if you weren't initially thought of. Because if you're the sports medicine guy or the running foot doctor in your local area, it just you get known for certain things over a period of time and you know it's almost like a way to market yourself or just to get that name recognition from people that have had great care from you. So I think you're right on the the ball there that's yeah, you have to get things out and you have to market yourself but there is you know, by continuously marketing yourself and by being proactive, you give yourself an opportunity to kind of build that both kind of in real life and digital word-of-mouth that, you know, it's it's tough to kind of sometimes quantify, but if you're consistently doing those things and being visible to your ideal patient, they're gonna find you at some point.

Oh, definitely. And I think it's just and it's been it's a consistency with your marketing. And and if you do that, like, the title of this, you're never going to own the whole market. There will be there could be the dodgiest podiatrists open up a couple of kilometers away from you. And you might know they're no they're not very good.

You may know you're so much more superior than what they are in every aspect of podiatry. Yet people will still go to them because they're closer. They just want the closest podiatrist. They don't they don't care all the they're the cheapest. Yeah.

So it doesn't matter what you do. You're never gonna own the whole market. And just remember, if you're never gonna own it, it means whoever else is in your town will never own it. So there's plenty of for everybody. I've I've never seen a town that has too many podiatrists that they just go, no.

They're all sitting around looking at each other going, oh, we're all bored. They all seem to be busy once they once they start building it the right way. So that's all I wanted to say on this today, Jim.

I think it was good. I definitely you know, it's good to remind people that, you know, they need to be, you know, relevant and kinda stick out in their local area, but there's always, you know, plenty of opportunity out there and hopefully that gives some folks to listen to podcasts a little bit of motivation to maybe consider where they're practicing now and maybe where they wanna practice in the future or so.

That's true. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and review on whatever podcast platform you are listening to at the moment. It's not that hard, people. You go there, you push a couple of buttons, give us a five star. Just say Tyson and Jim are awesome.

That's all you gotta do. It's really that simple. Okay, Jim. I will talk to you again next week.

Sounds good, Tyson. Okay. Bye. Bye now.

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