Resolution Season: Capturing the New Year Fitness Boom

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 is my good friend, Jim McDannald, aka Big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

Tyson, doing well. Cold up here in in Montreal, Canada, but otherwise, no big no no complaints. It's definitely a little warm up sometime here in 2026, but still a few months away from that.

From how you describe it's like it's cold there fifty weeks of the year. It for me, it probably would be.

I mean, I've told you that joke right there. There's there's two seasons in in Quebec or two seasons in Canada. There's winter and construction. So, yeah, it's it's usually pretty cold here until early March, mid March. So

Okay. And I want to point it to everybody too that if they were unaware, when we do this podcast, you do it from your home studio, and I do it from mine. Now meaning then what that means is when we're doing it from home, sometimes you will hear the odd noise in the background that we try for it not to happen, but some days so if you hear kids running around, smashing furniture, just creating a complete ruckus, that's coming from Jim's end. If you hear a dog losing losing its head over visitors, that's my place. So I just thought I'd point that out to people.

You may not hear anything. They they may have all received the text messages that we've been sending to them going, oi, we're trying to a podcast.

I'm sure the listeners appreciate that.

I've I tell you. Because I've listened to some podcast episodes, different shows, and sometimes the the most annoying noises in the background, but they don't make any reference to it. And and that's why I always think, and here's a lesson for everybody. If you know there's a problem, something's happening somewhere, pre frame it. Make sure like, if you're talking to a patient and you know that somebody potentially might be coming into your room to disturb you partway through the consultation, tell the patient beforehand.

Someone may come in the room to disturb us so it's not a shock when it actually happens. It's a It's a tip. Good plan. It's a tip for life. Okay.

What what are we talking about today, Jim?

So we're here in early January. So early January is resolution season. Oh. So we're gonna talk a little bit about capturing these kinda new patient athletes, people trying to get back in shape. You know, right now millions of people are lacing up their running shoes, maybe going on treadmills here in Canada and other places, joining gyms, have all these great intentions to start off the year.

They're promising themselves that, you know, this is the year they're gonna get in shape. So you know, in about two to four weeks, you're probably gonna notice that maybe a little bit later, there's gonna be overuse injuries. There's gonna be people that are, you know, just not cut out for that, you know, three to four mile run kind of right off the bat. They're kind of banging themselves up and when they're Googling for what does my heel hurt after running or a foot and ankle doctor near me, it's gonna be a great opportunity for you to be the one that's seen. So today we're gonna talk a little bit about some different ways to appeal to those those folks seeking those New Year's resolutions.

Yeah. It's funny. In back in December, I saw these videos that were produced by this coaching organization. And they were saying to me, you know, December and January is you know, we always know that it's one of the worst months in health care. And I'm like, it was the busiest time frame.

December and January, bleeding in February used to be some of the busiest times of the year, so I don't know where that person was getting their information from. But I think what what you're gonna talk about here and what you're targeting is it's a gold mine if you can tap into it the right way.

In The US, the the big issue becomes that insurance is usually renewed at the start of every year.

Same as

people are rushing in November and December to get to meet that deductible. So there are sometimes concerns around around that. But if you talked about in in past episodes about seasonality and how you can tap into some of these different areas of seasonality, when people are in the summertime getting ready to wear flip flops and sandals, you know, people have fungal nails, it's an opportunity to kinda push that type of service. But, you know, today we're more focused on on fitness and, you know, some of the opportunities that arise when people who haven't been working out, all of a sudden, they see that New Year's resolution and they wanna jump in and get things started.

Well, it's one of these. It's funny, isn't it, that we we can't most people don't just set those resolutions on the March 15. That's it. As of tomorrow, I'm gonna do this. Everybody waits for that for that new year moment that they can sort of it's almost like you've got a market on the calendar.

You say, So in five years time, go, oh, I remember when I did this because I started it on 01/01/2026. It's crazy. It's crazy. Us humans are nuts.

Yeah. Humans are nuts. You know, every January, the same thing happens. You know, millions of people make these fitness resolutions. They start running, joining gyms, signing up these kinda couch to five k's programs with all kind of within weeks.

And they've just kind of they think they're gonna take out a big chunk in, you know, two to four weeks, and they're gonna really get in shape. But that's when things like plantar fasciitis, achilles sonitis, stress fractures, the whole lineup of overuse injuries kinda becomes an opportunity for podiatry clinics. So, you know, the problem is that most of these people, you know, don't know what podiatrists can help. They end up in an urgent care or they end up with their primary care physician, but if they know that you exist, you're a great opportunity for them. So that's the missed opportunity that some clinics have right now is that for them and for you.

So these patients are actively searching for answers, And if you're able to provide the answers for those patients, you can be the the person that that they go to. So I know that I for me example, I I kinda stopped lifting weights for a period of time when I was living in Oregon there for a while. So I was doing some running and some swimming and things, but I I decided to get ahead of the New Year's resolutions and start lifting in in November. So I'm already well into my fitness regimen, but I'm definitely trying to make sure that it's something that sticks and can last for a while as opposed to these resolutions that usually fizzle out, you know, you know, maybe sometime in February, March.

And that's why too, I think it's always good to be in, like, that educational mode, like, trying to educate your patients when they are coming in with problems is not just address the problem, but get to the underlying reason of what what was their purpose for starting the exercise. Was it for fitness? Was it for losing weight? And taking them through what you know from experience happens to patients when they go too hard, too fast, and helping them get over that side of things as well. So I think a lot of education's involved this time of year.

And the And that can be a part of your marketing.

Now when people come into your clinic, they're gonna wanna know why something happened. So you can be a partner with them as far as making sure that they have success moving forward instead of, again, getting injured, again, kinda getting the cycle of injury, this kind of, you know, that initial hype that those first four weeks are easy. Right? So if they do come in injured, you can try to, you know, just have them visualize that or kind of explain to them and kind of be a partner with them along that path. But you know, the real goal here is that, you know, it is January now, but maybe these patients aren't gonna get injured till February, March.

So it is a good opportunity to look and see, you know, what is the messaging on your website? What does your Google business profile look like? Are you able to get a little bit proactive as far as the type of blogs or the content you have on these different channels to make sure that when people are Googling at 10PM looking for solutions that that you pop up there.

Yeah. And it's really focusing in too on what based on your own experience and all the past patients you've had in the past, what have you learned from that? What are the most common problems? So, yes, you might have had one or two people over the last ten years that had shin splints. But if majority of them had heel pain, then that's where you need to put your focus.

Focus on the problems that you know people are going to experience as they're getting into their their sort of activity.

Yeah. That's a perfect example. I think also, there are different patient personas. Not all resolution patients are the same. So understanding the you know, the understanding this helps you speak directly to them.

So you've got returning runners, people that are maybe a little bit more experienced that for some reason just kinda took some time off, and now they jump back in, you know, too hard, too fast, And they're frustrated and motivated to kinda get fixed up pretty quickly. Then you've got more your true beginner, someone who's never run before, who doesn't know what's normal, what's abnormal when it comes to injury and soreness. They need education and reassurance. So they need something different than that. Mhmm.

More, you know, experienced runner. And then you have the real kinda like, you know, couch to five k crowd that's following a very specific program. Maybe they're wearing the wrong shoes. They're going through pain that they feel like they should ignore because no pain, no gain. They're kind of in that mentality.

So you really wanna make sure that whatever type of content you're building on your website, on your socials, or on your Google business profiles, speaking very clearly to these different types of athletes or these different types of, you know, runners and and fitness, these kind of new people getting into fitness during the holidays or after the holidays. So it it can be something that's really, really important.

Yeah. And I think too, with your own clinic, you would know what type of patients you attract. If you are quite you know, known for as being a sports podiatry clinic, you're probably gonna get more of your elite runners and people who take this sport a lot more serious. Whereas if you're not known as being the sports clique in there, you're probably gonna get more of your your couch to five k programs. And the thing I find with those too when people have been doing nothing and then all a sudden doing, like I say, a five k run or here in Cairns at the Muay Thai gym I go to, they do naught to taught, a twenty two week program.

Flogs the crap out of them. I watch them, but I see some great results with them as well. My clinic used to attract a lot more of those type of people. We got elite athletes coming, but I I used to find the couch to five k type patients. The ones more fun to work with.

So I think you gotta know who is your market, and then when you're talking before about website, your blog, everything you're doing is talk to those people.

And when they come in, be knowledgeable. Right? Not every I know I come from a running background, so I sometimes blind to the fact that maybe not every podiatrist was a runner. So if you don't know basic, you know, training philosophy, it's a good opportunity to kinda just read up a little bit and understand a basic training plan. You know, I think we go to school and we have a general sense of what to do when people are injured, but, you know, sometimes that return to running program is almost as important as the type of treatment you're doing.

And also giving that high, that type a personality, that person you know is not necessarily gonna rest, giving them some other forms of exercise to help get that nervous or that kind of just energy they have out of them a little bit. Because it's it's one of those things where if they don't have something to do, it can impact their mental health, how stressed out they are, and just other people that are around. So providing other alternatives outside of, you know, running, other forms of non weight bearing exercise they might be able to do while they're hurt can be a huge benefit. This takes a little bit of time sometimes for podiatrists who aren't necessarily runners to understand what all those different options are, what's a good return to running program, and what's a general way to build people up from couch to five k. It doesn't necessarily have to be that you have to take their program and use that on patients, but just talk to people at running shoe stores and other places about what would you suggest someone who's never run before?

What's good plan or a good time frame that they should focus on in order to become runner and, you know, hopefully, injury free at the same time?

Yeah. But it's also we talked then about the education. It's one of those things where you could even next year, towards the end of the year is you start using this in your newsletters and some of your marketing to your existing patients. Okay. There's gonna be a lot of people here who are thinking about next year maybe getting fitter, losing weight, getting off the couch, and doing a five k run.

If that's you, come in now before the year finishes so we can get you set up for the next new year. So you can tell you can educate them way before they ever get the problems. Hopefully, avoid

it. No. That's a perfect example. I think having that content ready that helps them understand what's going on, you know, and kinda like you said, there's educational content that's they're gonna really benefit from. So you can kinda get ahead of the ahead of it for them.

And if they do have, you know, they can be educated as far as what's normal pain versus what's injury pain. Not that they're necessarily gonna have to self diagnose, but they they're gonna see you as the expert if something does go wrong down the road. You're gonna be the first person that are gonna get contact with.

Yeah. And I think but you said then too, but what's normal pain and what isn't. I think for someone when they're getting back into activity, especially having done it for a while, they can't tell the difference. But as health professionals, that's where it's up to us to educate them and identify how to identify what's normal pain and what's not normal pain. Absolutely.

So what's next?

I'd say next is to get your Google Business profile ready. Now when someone searches heel pain or you know, heel heel pain after running near me or some a similar search topic. Your Google business profile is usually gonna be the first interaction they have with your clinic. They're not gonna go to your website. They're gonna search on Google and they're gonna see potentially your name or your clinic in your Google business profile.

So you know, the question becomes, does does your Google business profile, you know, actually say that you help runners and athletes? Does it look like, you know, every other kind of generic podiatry listing? So update your services to include sports injuries, running injuries, plantar fasciitis, Add a timely post because you can post on your Google Business profile something about, you know, seeing a lot of New Year's runners or just kinda getting that out there because Google will pick up on those keywords. So this takes maybe, you know, fifteen minutes to create some of these listings in the Google Business profile, but can have a real big impact on the number of people calling your clinic and searching for your help.

Yeah. And we've done a few episodes where we've talked about the Google Business profile, but I definitely think that this time of year is when you really wanna be posting a lot more of that type of information because it's exactly what people are searching for.

Yeah. They're for it, and they wanna see people like them. Right? Whether it be the Calcify k person or the experience, they wanna see active people being taken care of. If it's all wounds and kids, they're gonna see that that Google Business profile.

Hopefully, it's not those two things combined. That's a little uh-huh. But but they see someone teaching treating pediatric patients or see them on treating a diabetic foot wound, they're not gonna see that that feel that same affinity or that same pull towards that's a person who's treating someone like me. So you really wanna make sure it's visual visual. You have good photos.

Like we talked about authentic photos of you taking care of your ideal patients, and if those are runners, make sure that those are visible on your Google Business profile.

Yeah. And this goes back to what I said before. You need to know what type of patients that you're you're chasing or that you would like, and that your business tends to attract. You know, who who is your patient avatar? Because like I said, if I was an elite runner, which I have never been, and but but say I was an elite runner and I go to a podiatry website because I'm looking for someone who treats elite runners.

If I do not see an elite runner somewhere, pretty pretty soon after going through their website or their Google profile, their business profile, I'm gonna be leaving. If all of a sudden I see dumpy, overweight, out of shape people sweating on treadmills and think I'm gonna go, well, okay. This is this is not the clinic that I go to. And I think it'd be the other way around too. If I was a person trying to get off the couch and do a five k run, and every pitcher I see is someone really elite and super trim with a six pack, great buttocks, I would be thinking, oh, maybe they're they're too advanced for me.

I need something that's a little bit more toned down.

I will have to say that Australia does have some of the the fastest podiatrists in the world. There's a guy by the name of Thomas DeCanto who I think was recently, like, in the top maybe top five, top six at the Australian cross country running championship. So there's some really knowledgeable people that practice podiatry in The US, Australia, and in in The UK who really know what they're doing. And they can even, you know, themselves being high level athlete is a way to showcase their their knowledge and their expertise. So, yeah, there there's definitely some high level podiatrists in the running community.

Oh, there's some you know, I've had some on the podiatry legends podcast. Yeah. X Olympic steeple chases and yeah. There there's there's a lot of elite sports people in every sport in podiatry if you actually look around.

For

sure. What's next?

So next is kinda something you touched on a bit earlier. It's like, so if people are you know, we talked about the type of content or where you should post content, but what is the type of content that's really gonna, you know, answer patients' questions is gonna be the most really powerful type of content you can create. So what pod what podiatrists miss sometimes is that the resolution runners aren't searching for podiatrists. They're really searching for answers. You know, why does my heel hurt after running?

Is it okay to run through foot pain? I'm a new runner, I have heel pain. They're gonna type those things either into Google or maybe into ChatGPT these days. If you have content that answers these questions, you're more likely to be, kinda gain that trust in the patient, and it's gonna show up on Google results or in ChatGPT. So writing a blog, why your heel hurts after starting a running program one way to do it.

That one piece of content could potentially bring in patience. It positions you as that go to expert for runners in your local area. So those are things to consider when you're thinking, oh, I don't know what type of content I should create. Well, think about the type of questions that runners or people that are starting fitness programs will have. If you answer those questions, position yourselves as an expert, you have a great opportunity to have them come into your clinic.

Yeah. What you said right at the start there, of that particular point, I think if podiatrists can just remember, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I would like to see a podiatrist today. Nobody does that. When they've been if they've never seen a podiatrist, nobody wakes up and says that's what they wanna do. They are searching for why is x happening to me when I do this.

Through that, hopefully, there's you've put enough good information out there that they go, ah, I need to go and see this podiatrist.

Absolutely. I think that's a great point, and you know, there's a couple other types of blog posts. I'll give you some free ones away that people can use if they want to. Yeah. Something like, you know, new new to the gym.

Here's when foot pain is a red flag. The beginner's guide to avoiding running injuries is something you can consider. So that's some some free content. There's lots of different ways to create that content, but those are gonna answer questions. And you wanna make sure you provide a clear call to action.

You know, if if this sound you know, at the end of the the post, something like, if this sounds like you, you know, give us a call. You know, that's gonna work much better than just like a generic contact us. You know, that's something that doesn't generally work very well when you're trying to attract patients to your clinic. So position yourself as an expert, answer questions, show that you have availability, and you're willing to help, and that's gonna really drive those types of patients to your clinic.

And once you create this content, you repurpose it?

Yeah. Definitely. I think there's there's the tools we have available now, you know, whether it's on your social channels, your Google business profile, there's other places you can put you can work some of that stuff into some of your advertising, whether it be your Google advertising or people who are advertising on Facebook and Instagram. There's definitely ways that, you know, create once and then spread it across different channels can be a very successful way to go about doing it.

Well, especially if you've if you've written a really good blog article, and if you can confidently get in front of a camera and do a video on that same topic between what you've written and that video, you put her in so many different places.

Yeah. Like we talked about before on the podcast before we started recording is that there's some tools that can, you know, clip that video. You know, if you have maybe it's a five minute video, but you can clip it into different sections. You can, you know, have some talking points you would wanna have for thirty to forty seconds and really make it even before you record the video, you can do those kind of things. So there's no shortage of ways to prepare to make it very easy to to kind of fill up some of those different visible channels.

You know, I was talking to a friend of mine this morning, Super Joe Pardo, and he says that he'll shoot a video, and then he'll put it like into Opus clip, and it'll produce 22 videos for him. And then he just programs a video every hour. So every day he shoots a video, and then he breaks into 22, and then does 22 short clips from it, the one that gets it gets released every hour. You go over two hour break or something like that. That's why he does 22.

But he just says, these days, all he's gonna do is shoot the video. Everything else is pretty well done for him, and then he just programs it all in. So it's getting easier. No one's got you don't have any excuse not to do this sort of stuff these days.

No. It's getting more automated and easier as the days go on.

Okay. What are we moving on to?

Yeah. So the last is to kind of, you know, how to prepare your clinic, hopefully for the influx of patients that are gonna come in.

Oh, yeah.

You know, showing showing up online only matters if you can actually get these patients when they call you, or when they fill out a form. So train your front desk staff when someone calls in, you know, I just started a running program, my heel's killing me. Your team should know exactly how to respond. Something like, you know, we've been seeing a lot of this in January, let's get you in before it gets worse. Or there's also kind of big appoint if you have appointment availability, making sure that you have definitely openings more than opportunities for people to come in and see you.

So you're going to hopefully bite into some of those urgent care clinics or competitors or primary care physicians who they might try to go to first. So consider holding some same week slots in January, February, March, specifically for these kind of acute issues. I think we've talked about this in the past, but, you know, when you make yourself kind of available for more urgent types of patients, these patients are gonna be super happy when they get in. They're gonna leave great reviews. They're gonna tell people about you.

So the practice that can do this are really gonna be quickly seen as the ones that are the experts and the ones that truly care about local patients.

Yeah. I think it's really important to, like, say, just be knowing that if you're gonna put all this work in, you are going to attract patients, and they need to be able to get in. And I have spoken to podiatrists in the past, some people when I first doing coaching with them. And one of the questions I asked them, if I rang up Monday morning, I said, well, this is happening. When can I get an appointment?

And I'm in a lot of pain. They go, oh, jeez. We probably couldn't get in for three weeks. And I said, uh-uh. Wrong answer.

I said, you've done all this work. You've done all this marketing, and I phoned your clinic first thing Monday morning, and I can't get in. Sometimes it'll be three, but sometimes it might be a week ago. I don't wanna wait a week. I'll make the appointment with you for a week, but in the meantime, I'm gonna start ringing around other places, and I may end up seeing someone who's not as good as what you are.

So you you need you need to learn how to restructure your diary to get these people in. Because they are also gonna be the ones that are probably gonna be higher paying.

Yeah. They'll pay for that access, or they'll and they'll definitely appreciate it when you provide it to them.

Okay. Anything else you need to talk about on this subject? I'm sure there is.

No. I think that I think that's a wrap. I think, you know, the the kinda key to this entire topic we talked about tonight is just this is us kind of noticing a predictable aspect of seasonality. This is not, rocket science. People are gonna make for New Year's resolutions.

They're gonna get injured. The question is whether they're gonna be able to find you or not. So doing work that that, you know, answers patients' questions, you make sure you have your Facebook or sorry, your Google business profile, maybe your social channels, your website, having content that answers questions for them. And then having that availability is gonna be super important to make sure that patients are able to schedule with you, and you're gonna see more of these patients that are going back to the gym or starting a running program the first of the year, and it should pay some dividends for you and for your clinic. So I think that's a good place to stop.

I think if anyone's enjoyed the podcast tonight, they should consider going over to podiatry.marketing, leaving us a review there, or leaving us a review on iTunes or Spotify. It really helps other podiatrists that you know get to know the show. If you're really enjoying the show, feel free to maybe email an episode or contact one of your colleagues about an episode you listened to where you felt like you got a lot of value, because we're really trying to grow our audience of podiatrists who know about marketing, implement it in smart ways, and grow their practice in ways that make them happy and that really benefits their local community.

Definitely. And if you want help, if you're looking for a business case in 2026, go to my website, tysonfranklin.com. And if they need help with their whole online presence, Big Jim, how they where are you where can they find you?

Yeah. They can go visit podiatrygrowth.com or email me Jim at podiatry growth, and we can set up a time to chat about, you know, what's going on in your clinic, what your goals are, and maybe some ways to achieve those those those opportunities and to build that practice that brings you nothing but happy patients and and a lifestyle that you enjoy and a work that you enjoy going to every each and every day. So, yeah, thanks a lot for the this episode today, Tyson, and look forward to catching on the next one.

Yep. I will see you next week. Bye.

Bye now. 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.