Priming Your RAS: Reticular Activating System

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. Join us always, my trusted cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, what's going on today?

Oh, what have I been doing today, big Jim? Just work. I'm a workaholic. Love to work yeah. No.

Actually, I'm not I'm lazy. I'm really lazy.

Lord loves the working man, though. Come on.

No. I well, he's always jokingly say, I work really hard so I can be lazy.

There you go.

But no. No. I'm I'm not a workaholic. I just enjoy what I do. And the other night well, so I've had a had a goal all this year that I will at 05:30, I will walk away from my computer.

I may have only got to it at 05:00, but at 05:30, I will walk I will walk away from my computer. And I was working on my workshop that I did in The UK. And while I was working on it, I I just lost track of the time. I get sometimes I get in such a zone, which is a good thing. It's what they call like a flow state.

When all of a sudden, you get in that flow and you lose track of time. Next thing, my wife's knocking on the office door and she said, so you come in at any stage tonight to have dinner, or are you gonna eat? Or she says, actually, I don't even know if you've eaten today. Because I'd got in there I'd come in the office early morning, and I was just in that whole flow state that I pretty much went through to 07:30 that night. And I was off.

I was bouncing off the walls. I was yeah. I could've kept if you hadn't knocked on the door, I would've just kept going till early hours of the morning.

Yeah. You definitely don't have any young children.

No. No. Not anymore. You look at me. Don't look like I have

young children. Flow state is. I I don't I forgot what one of those are. Of these days.

I do recall I do recall what it's like to have young children. It's not fun.

Yeah. We we love.

We went out for dinner the other night with friends. It was the one of the daughter's eighteenth birthday, and they had some other family there. They had these two little kids, I think. Six months and two and a half.

That's really young.

And they're sitting opposite me. And the whole time, I'm just gonna god. I don't miss that. Having kids at having kids at restaurants. And that no.

They were well behaved too. Sure. But it was just just seeing what they're going through, and and they were managing it really well, and the kids were really well behaved. And, yes, okay. One of them cried every now and then.

And I was paranoid. There can be projectile vomiting, which just really I can't stand. Oh, I can't stand them. And Someone's they've had them on the boob or they're doing something. They've given them a bottle, they see the pee and they're patting them on the back, and their head's pointing towards me.

And like this one on an airplane once, and I'm like, I tap his excision. Could you walk down that way? He says, he won't spew. I said, but when he does, yeah, I don't want a twelve hour flight. This is not what I want.

So anyway, first world problems, Jim.

Yeah. So today's topic, I guess, is projectile vomiting on airplanes.

That what you're Yes. I've had people tune in for this. They go fast forward the first three or four minutes because they go, you guys just rave on. So, anyway, okay. Today's topic is priming your reticular activating system.

And everyone's gone, oh.

What is that? That

is interesting. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna read what the definition is just so I don't lose anybody. Your reticular activating system is a small part of the brain, sit to the back here, and its job is to regulate behavioral arousal, consciousness, and motivation. So it controls what incoming information or what stimulus you're aware of so that you'll be motivated to behave in a certain way. That's pretty much what it does.

And then it says here that it's a guard that sits between your brain and the senses. So sight, hearing, touch, and it filters what information gets through and what doesn't. So basically, everything we see throughout the day, our brain does not let us take it all in. It filters out certain stuff. Otherwise, we would go stir crazy.

Absolutely. You got to tune out some of the noise of life.

Yeah. But how it works in a positive way, it'd be anyone who's listening to this right now, think of some that you've bought recently, whether it was a could be a a football team jersey, you know, your team, or it might be a car that you bought. So say, for example, you just bought a a Lexus. All of a sudden, you'll see more Lexus on the road than you've ever seen before. If you've taken up cycling, you will see more cyclists on the road than you've ever seen before.

So your reticular activating system will also make you more aware of certain things if you then if you stimulate your brain to say, this is what I'm actually looking for. So it's like Muay Thai. So everyone listening to this know that I go to Muay Thai. I go six or eight times a week. Very consistent, Jim.

And Very. But before I started it, like, a decade ago, I've never really heard of it. I've heard of it, but never really seen her anyway. Then a gym opened up. We decided to do it.

And the more I'm like, now I'm just addicted to it. I see it everywhere, whether it's in TV shows, online, everywhere I look around. See people, because you know certain people that do Thai boxing, they've got certain tattoos on them. I don't. Mhmm.

But certain people do. But I'll see the tattoo on the leg or on the back of their neck, and I go, oh, show you how I know that that's a Thai fighting tattoo. Prior to that, I would've had no idea. I just thought it was ink.

Now you know.

So now I know. So your reticular activating system, when you're looking for something, it will help you find it. If you regularly think about your ideal patient, you think about them, you're reviewing it all the time, you're refining it on a regular basis, it will help you search for them. And that's what I'm talking about, priming your reticular activating system for things you actually really wanna see.

No. That makes total sense. I think if you can harness that power, it can be pretty powerful as far as helping you make some key decisions when it comes to niching down or focusing on that ideal patient.

It's like a superpower. We've all actually got it. It's it's like a you feel like an x men when you or an x woman. When you when you tap into this, it is surprisingly cool how well it works. And this was a lot with your regular with your ideal patient.

If you review that on a regular basis, you're constantly thinking about it, and then you're always looking around, you'll go you'll walk into a place. Australia will go, oh, this place is full of my ideal patient because you you'll notice them straight away. It will it will help you notice them wherever they are, but it also helps you with your future marketing. Because if you Absolutely. Start noticing, oh, this is where they hang out or these these are the cars that they drive or this is the coffee shop they go to or this is where they the restaurants they go to.

Because I think, how can I tie this in with a marking? And I remember years ago having certain patients come in there and ask them, what was your favorite restaurant? And then they started telling me that, yeah, their favorite restaurants. And surprising, there was a high percentage that liked this particular restaurant. It was an Italian restaurant, Cairns.

I won't give them a plug because we don't need sponsors on the show. But and then not long after that, the person who actually owned the restaurant came in as a patient, And she pretty much was like one of those ideal patients as well. Until I'm talking away and I said, oh, you're you're surprised that a high proportion of my patients love your restaurant. It's their favorite restaurant in Cairns. She went, oh, that that is so nice to hear.

And I went, so I said, so that tells me that your restaurant is full of my ideal patients. I said, can we can we do something? Like, can I mention you in my newsletter, and can I somehow tap into, like, your client base? So we we were sitting there trying to work out ideas, but it was because I used my Reticia activating system and just became aware of where these people were actually hanging out.

That's a great example. I definitely can see where that, you know, that mutual kind of win win relationship developed with that business could be a real benefit to your practice overall.

Yeah. And it's now making me hungry because it's

Me me too a little bit.

I know. A good Italian restaurant. It is really nice. So I'm gonna tell a story. Something happened in 02/2018, and this is when it really clicked in how this worked.

We were at a business bike ops event in Arizona. And, usually, when we go to that event, we do something on a Friday afternoon that's a little bit different. We've we've learned how to get out of handcuffs, pick locks, throw knives, hatchets. We've done meditation. They've shot guns, drive four wheels through the Desert.

Anyway, this one particular day afternoon, we went to Topgolf. Have you been to Topgolf?

Yeah. I I know what Topgolf is. I've not been, but I know what it is.

It is it is a lot of fun. Anyway, so we had a competition on who could find the most marketing ideas that Topgolf used to get money out of your wallet. That was the that was the that was the competition. And whoever won it, I bet we you won something. Anyways, we're in groups of four or six.

So we're all we're playing golf at the same time. We're all then walking off, and we're checking everything here. And we came up with the fifty fifty three ways that they were taking money out of your wallet. And we're thinking, we're have the shot here. No.

There's no way anyone got more than that. We're pretty good. The guys that wanna found a hundred and 20. And when they started pointing them out, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, you're looking on over there.

Plus, they well, we reckon they cheated because they then went online and had a look at their website, and their website had a pop. So they probably looking around, they just pipped us, I think, looking around because we then had to tick off on the sheet what you had as well. And in fact, in some some of ones we had, they didn't have. But what it did, it made us all hyper aware of how Topgolf comes up with ideas to take more money out of your wallet. Since then, my reticular activating system never turned off from that.

From that actual experiment, it never switched off. I can't walk in anywhere now without just looking at billboards, posters, signage, how they've got things set up, where they've got things placed in a business. My brain is constantly searching, which is fun. I actually should really, really enjoy it. And then I share it with all my coaching clients, whatever I find.

Yeah. I definitely I think I've heard some of the examples you're gonna say a little bit later. I won't I won't I won't steal your thunder, but, you know, having watched a lot of your videos, then definitely some great examples.

Yeah. So what so what is this, whenever I travel, I now travel with intent. And this all came about because of this particular thing we did that afternoon. Because it was really intense. I mean, it really just it's sort of like it opened up a little patch in my brain.

It opened up my reticular activating system, opened up the door, and it forgot to close it. And so whenever I travel now, I travel with a tent, I'm always looking for daily takeaways. What's something that I can learn today? And and I just I constantly do it. And it's not that I'm it's not that I'm even thinking about it.

It's just that my awareness is just there. So my reticular activating system is just constant gone. So in the past twelve months, these would say this is even just the last six months. If I went through everything, I've got so many things that I've picked up. We were in oh, no.

It was twelve months ago. We were in Airlie Beach, walking down the street at Elly Beach, and there was a billboard at the front of this bar, and it said, best mojito in the world. Rumba, Elly Beach. And they actually had the the Google page and the searching at the top, best mojito in the world, and it had the top 10 mojitos, and theirs was number one. They've actually copied that, and that was on their billboard at the front.

And all the passer went, that is brilliant. I took a photo of it. So all these things I'm mention, I have photos of everything as well. I took a photo of it, and I said, well, we've we've gotta have one. I said, because this is the best mojito in the world.

So we we must have one. And it was pretty good. I don't if it was the best one in the world, but it it was really good. But then while we're sitting there having our best mojito in the world, I reckon I had the best seafood chowder I've ever had in the world at that that place as well. It was just just it was just incredible.

I'm getting so hungry. This episode is making

so hungry. Bringing up pasta seafood chowder. You're killing it.

I know. The second example was Capital One Cafe. That was a trip last year to Arizona and Las Vegas. And Capital One Cafe, it's a a bank and a coffee shop have blended together. They're fused.

And there's a sign at the front that said 50% cheaper if you bank with them. So whatever's in their food, coffee, whatever it is, it's 50% off if you actually have an account with them. And I went, that is absolutely fantastic. This is what I mean. I'm always looking at this stuff.

But what is this? I don't just look at I look at it, I take photos of it, I make notes of it, I note things down, and then the first thing I ask would get, how would I use this idea in a podiatry clinic? Because it's fine just to have the idea. Sure. But it's like and don't if you if anyone listening to this now says, with some of the ideas I'm about to share, oh, that wouldn't work in podiatry.

Just instead of saying that, actually ask yourself, even though it won't work in podiatry, if it did work, how would it work? Just just change your thinking. The other part that Bit

of a mental exercise. Yes. Like a a way to get out of your comfort zone and just think about things from a different perspective.

They they had another party. There was another sign, and it said free coffee during the World Series. So but baseball?

Yep. Baseball.

Yeah. So baseball. We happen to be in there, and there was a sign there that said free coffee during the World Series. We said, what are you gonna do with free coffee? And they said, all you gotta do is answer this question.

So you go on just scan the QR code and answer the question. Okay? Went on there. And because we didn't have our phones weren't linked up, we we couldn't get to work. And the girl said to her, well, this is the question.

You know the answer. We went, no. She said, give me the free coffee anyway. So she still gave us a free coffee. I came out of there, and I said to my wife, I go, I would if I lived in an area that had a Capital One cafe, I would have a bank account with them.

I said, with with there any problems also, coffee was absolutely fantastic. The food was really nice. Staff were great. Wi Fi was just on fire. It was so fast.

Everything about it was great, anything. And they had so many tables and chairs around there that you could just sit there on half the place is full just for people on computers doing stuff. And and I'm thinking, that's just a great service that they're providing. So how could you use that podiatry? Then my reticular activating system went nuts.

Another thing was we're in Las Vegas Airport, and there was a thing that's a chiro port. So it was a chiropractor that was set up at the the gate. And I would just say, make sure you're straight before you get to the gate, something like that. That was a it was a chiropractor. So I thought it was pretty cool.

Then this one was quite funny. This one was just recently as well that we saw it, and it was a Specsavers. Do you have Specsavers in America? No. It's optometry business.

Okay.

Yeah. And they all their ads are saying they their slogan ish should've gone to Specsavers. So they always have these funny slogans. So, anyway, big sign. Welcome to Sydney.

I know he says should have gone to Specsavers. Think, okay. Why is that funny? This sign was in Melbourne.

That's nice. So you

get to Melbourne also, there's a big sign that says welcome to Sydney. What? I should've gone to Specsabers. That was really funny. So they always have these really funny ads.

Southwest Airlines. And on their napkins, it actually has the best ideas are born on napkins. And then when you flip the napkin over, it's got a drawing. It must have been when they first come up with the idea of where Southwest Airlines was actually from Dallas to Arizona, wherever it was, the three places. So that's how it all started.

And I went, what a fantastic idea there. Because a lot of times how many times? Oh, I've got this idea. You grab you've grabbed a napkin at a bar or some of us, and you've scribbled something down. And I actually remember my father-in-law, he's a retired builder, and he was telling me when he was younger, they were building a house.

He'd be sitting there at the pub, someone would walk up to him and go, yeah, Ben, I wanna get a house, but he goes, oh, yeah. What do you want done? They'd pull a napkin out on the bar table. They would draw the plan of what he wanted built, and the whole house was built off of a napkin. That napkin went in his pocket.

He said, I'll give you a quote. He'd tell them the quote. They go, yep. Okay. Handshake agreement.

Whole house built. He said he never lost money on a building project. So that born a napkin is actually a real thing that happens. And while we're on the plane, there were these little packets of mini pretzels, and they were stellar mini pretzels. You think, know, it's so exciting about that.

But on the front of it, it says, baked with love. When you turn it over, there's a story about the mother and daughter and how they came up with the idea of doing these pretzels and and how they used to bake together in the kitchen, and now they they're working together, and they've got this loving relationship, this fantastic business. QR code, you click on it, go through to their website, and it tells you even more about them, the story, just their their love of baking together, and how much it's meant to

them. Sure.

And I'm like, that was freaking awesome. So and what if if my reticular activating system wasn't on fire looking for this sort of thing, I would totally miss all these stories. It wouldn't mean anything. And the last one we came across just recently when we were down at the Gold Coast, we're at this, like, a farmer's market, and they had these vinegar and salt chips. They weren't called salt and vinegar.

They were called vinegar and salt. And the brand was what is it? Snack Chingy chips. So on the front, they were really nice, actually. They were really, really nice chips.

And on the front, it's got a crazy story. So it's got this really it's got this image of uncle Benny, uncle Kenny, and he's got this woman, and he's he's got, like, this spatula in his hand. And he's and he's got this woman on the other arm, and he's he's helping her through the jungle. And it says, uncle Kenny fighting ferocious guinea pig saves girl. I'm like, what the hell is that?

So then I flip it over, and then on the back, it's got this big story about the potatoes, the free range potatoes. They're they're peeled gently from left to right. It's this whole story. And I read it, and I said to my wife, I said, this so I took a photo of the packet. I said, I'm not just gonna take a photo the packet.

Let's buy some. So I bought them brought them home, and then I flattened it out and took a really good photo of the front and the back. But I read that, and it just made me realize just I bought those tubes based on the packaging of the packet and the story that they told. And even though the whole thing about uncle Kenny is total BS, he did not fight guinea pigs and save that woman. I'll guarantee those potatoes were not hand peeled or they were free range potatoes, let run free, and they've got a heritage from Pikachu or whatever where they where they first originated.

It's a whole story about potato.

Sure.

You know that's all BS, but it's unique marketing, and it made me buy two packets. There you go. And they were sensational chips. So so, basically, they they backed it up. So that's all my storytelling.

Jim, that's about why you need to prime your reticular activating system. Start with your ideal patient because if you do that, it'll help you look for more. But then challenge yourself to keep your mind open to everything that's around you and what people are doing in the world of marketing because you and I both love it. And you'll be surprised what's out there, and then ask yourself, how can I use that in my podiatry business?

Yeah. I like that. That was a that was a fun topic.

Did I actually did you actually say anything in this episode, Jim, or did I just keep talking?

No. I mean, I was I was enthralled. I was I was excited to hear your perspective, though. I think I think you're right, though. I think this is something that, you know, it's once you you kinda once you see marketing or you see other people doing things, you just kinda, like, if you have an interest in it and maybe it's, you know, not practice marketing, but you can learn so much from other people that are doing it that, yeah, I find myself doing the same thing.

Right? Just, like, seeing other examples. Like, that's an interesting way they did that. Like, if there's some way that I could incorporate some of that into to what I'm doing with the the practices I'm working with. I think no.

I just really resonate with what you had to say.

Yeah. Like, have you been to Dutch Bros Coffee?

There's there's a bunch here in in Oregon. So, yeah, I've been there before.

And I've only ever been yeah. Once not last year, year before. Went to Dutch Bros Coffee. The window opens up. We went through the drive through, and this young girl, big smile on her face, and she says, hello, friends.

And she was so bubbly and so nice, and we ordered our coffees. As we drove off, I said to Dave Fries, if I had a job going tomorrow, I would be going back around the drive through and handing her a card and say, you need to come and work for me. I didn't care what your qualifications are. I don't know if you can use a computer, but your attitude and your friendliness. But then, it got me in, you know, did she just make that up?

No. Then I went to the website, and that was a big part of their introduction is Hello Friends is part of their just their systems as part of their marketing. So I really think if if people can just keep their active rating system open, there's so much that they can learn from every business, and it's fun. Like I said, I take photos constantly of all this sort of stuff. And sometimes my wife

It's pressure hunt.

Sometimes Christine just looks at me and what are you doing? Okay. I just take I need to take a photo. This is so cool. And sometimes, I take a photo, look at it later and I go, I don't really need this and I dump it.

But there's nothing worse. There's been times where I haven't taken a photo, and then a couple of hours later, I go, I wish I had of. Yeah. So you got your phones on you. Just keep taking photos, delete them all later.

Okay, Jim. That's enough on that topic.

Alright. Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. I look forward to talking to again next week.

Alright.

Bye now. See you.

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