The Importance of Being Genuine

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald. Welcome to podiatry marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald, joined as always by my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's it going today?

I'm fantastic today, big Jim. Good to be here, and I'm excited about today's topic. But before we get on to today's topic, let's remind everybody that next month is going to be our podiatry marketing live event, twenty first of October in Chicago. Where are the details? Where where can they get information and how to register?

Yeah. If they go to podiatrygrowth.com, there's a big button up in the upper right hand corner. They can find all those details. So, yeah, we're we're definitely excited. It's we get to meet in person in, you know, just about a month from now and looking forward to a good turnout so we can, you know, teach some some basics of marketing, but also just get to know some of our listeners that have been along the ride with us here on the podcast.

And it's only $499 US to spend a day with Gemini, which I think is well worth every it should be double.

No. I think that's gonna be it's it's it's a value. It's it's definitely a a great deal for all involved. But, no, I'm super excited. I think there's there's a lot of value we can share.

And also, we're gonna be able to get a little bit more personalized. You know, we we talk a lot about the general concepts and and best practices, but to really sit down with a group of podiatrists and really kinda dig into the weeds of their specific practices is something I'm really, really excited about.

Yeah. And what's really interesting is back in July, I did an event with Jonathan Small. We did work smarter, not harder. 20 people in the room, and the 20 people that walked out of there after the event all were saying, I am so glad I decided to spend the money to come along to this thing. And I think it'll be exactly the same with the marketing event that they'll walk away going, wow.

This has just opened my eyes to areas of marketing I never even considered. And plus, when you got a a room full of like minded people, the ideas that just get bounced around and the energy that you pick up and take away, I don't think you can put a price on it.

Yeah. I mean, you can learn a lot from your other colleagues. Right? It's not just, you know, us up there, you know, talking at you with with with the best in practice, but, you know, you can talk with some of your colleagues that are putting some of these strategy and tactics into action. And really kind of a a collaborative learning environment.

It can be really, really helpful for for everyone involved. So, yeah, I'm super excited. October 21, Chicago, Illinois. Like I mentioned, go to podiatrygrowth.com. There's a big button in the upper right hand corner.

Learn all about the event and register today.

Okay. So let's get on to today's topic, which is the importance of being genuine or genuine. Do you say genuine or genuine?

Well, when I think of genuine, there's like an American singer. That's that's his name. He had a famous song called Pony, but we won't get into that today. But yeah. No.

Tell us about being genuine. What what is the benefits of doing that?

Well, main part, if you're in the public eye or even people listening to this podcast, if they've never watched the video or seen us before, we're pretty much we're in their ear, and we're in the ear for an extended period of time. But this sort of relates to more with with your patients. If you're doing marketing to your patients, to your community, you're gonna be in the public eye a lot. And I think it's important that you will be judged, and people will have a certain sort of expectation when they meet you based on what they've heard. What they've heard, what they've seen, what they've seen you talk about.

Right? And the important part is is do you live up to that expectation when they walk in your clinic and meet you for the first time?

Yeah. First impression is hugely important, but you also have to back it up with kind of who you are. Right? If you're putting on a face or you're being genuine, then people are gonna read that pretty quickly.

Yeah. So when they meet you, are you gonna be less than impressive? Are they gonna meet you and sort of get, oh, wow. That was underwhelming. I was expecting so much more.

Or will you meet or exceed their expectations? And one of the comments I've always received from people when they've met me face to face, they said, you're exactly the same as what you sound like on the podcast. When I've watched you on a video, even when I've read your book, they said, you you come across as exactly the same person. And my wife sometimes tells me that's one of my biggest flaws is I'm always exactly the same person in any situation. I don't I don't I try to modify myself a little bit, but I am who I am.

So when I was doing any marketing for my podiatry business, if a patient saw that and they came in and met me, they were going to get exactly what they saw.

Yeah. I think it makes a lot of sense because, you know, you want to have that you want to build trust and then by being genuine to who you are and the way you treat people, it's that kind of, you know, you don't it doesn't feel like a bait and switch. Right? It's like, you know, this this quiet, you know, politically correct Tyson on the surface and then to get to know him in the clinic or on a podcast and he's, you know, open you know, very honest and straightforward about things. You know, people like to have that consistency and personality and definitely and ever since I've known you, you're you're that guy.

So

Well, it could be oh, let's say you got the name Big Jim is but it could be exactly the same as you see someone on a video or in any of their marketing, and they seem a little bit out there, they're a bit louder, and they look a little bit different, they sound different. You go, wow. That's the place I wanna go to because that's what I'm expecting. And then you go and meet them, and they're like a dead fish. They're boring.

You'd sort of go, wow. That's not what I expected. Or it's no different to if they meet you see, I think your marketing has to represent not just you as an individual, but it has to represent your business, and it has to represent your team. You are normally reflected in your business, but then the team members you bring on board should fit that same form of you know, the same sort of culture. And even though you can have people that have completely different personality, I never had anybody in my clinic that wasn't a good talker, that couldn't hold a conversation, talk about any topic any topic almost underwater if they had to, with little or no information.

That's that was like our our rule. You had to know a little bit about a lot of topics, so the conversation was always interesting.

Yeah. I think you have to be well rounded. Right? I think it sounds like a lot of your staff is that way. I know that when I was working with my clinic staff, you know, there are there are just certain kind of cultural touchstones we have or kind of, you know, posts and kind of the ways of operating that, yeah, you can be different personalities and those things, but those core kind of fundamentals of the culture of your team kinda have to be intact.

Yeah. So if your marketing says that your business is modern, upbeat, friendly, then that's exactly how your team should behave when they walk into the clinic. When the when a patient arrives in your business, it should be upbeat, modern, friendly. Your team should be behaving the same way. When you're answering the telephone, if all the marketing is saying upbeat and friendly and someone answers the phone, they go, hello?

Yeah. Like, lurch off of The Adams Family, then that sort of that isn't really congruent with what all the marketing said. And I have I have done that where I've rung a business, and the person who's answered the phone sounds like a dead mullet. And do you know what mullet is? Just before I throw that out.

It I I assume it's a fish.

It's not

a Okay. It's a fish. A bat hair.

It's a bat hair. Well, yeah. That would have been yeah. They answer the phone like a like a bad mullet, and that was really off putting. So I wasn't sort of expecting that.

And and it's how you greet your patients. If you're upbeat and friendly, your team should be meeting the patients when they arrive, being very upbeat and friendly. Otherwise, I think your business will will suffer from that. And I've seen businesses that look beautiful, everything about is great. You walk in, and the receptionist at the front counter looks like they've been weaned on vinegar their whole life.

And you meet them, and they just they're not friendly. They're rude. You sit there going, wow. This is not what I expected. And since you feel a bit uncomfortable, you're starting to make decisions and judgments about the business.

Yeah. When there's that when it doesn't connect, right, when the kind of the the front of it or the the perception of what something is doesn't meet the reality, you know, that's almost worse than having kind of like low expectations from to begin with. Because if someone is expecting a a great experience, expecting to have kind of the best in class care, and if any if if it's not consistently that way, people will will like it less than, like I said, even if something that they have low expectations for.

Yeah. And everyone's heard this saying, yeah, fake it till you make it. But I think there's a limit to how you do that. I think you can you can fake being positive if you're not really feeling positive. Yeah.

You keep telling us, oh, I'm positive. I'm positive. Even if a little voice in your head is going, oh, no. I'm not. I'm feeling a bit down, feeling a little bit negative at the moment.

You can keep telling yourself that, and I think that's what the fake it till you make it is all about. But to actually fake your personality just to sort of try and be more successful, get more followers, get more likes on your videos, doing all those sort of things to try and attract patients. I think in the end, your true personality will come out. And I and I've met people who they come across as being a really nice, kind person, and then when all a sudden the shit hits the fan a little bit, you see their true personality come in, and all of a sudden, they just erupt. You go, woah.

I didn't see that coming. And you go, where where has that been hidden? Are they a serial killer that I'm totally unaware

Well, hopefully not. I hope they're not John Wayne Gacy or something. That that'd be unfortunate for you if you're if you're in the presence, but but I know what you mean. Right? Like, there there's this kind of fine line between impostor syndrome

Yeah.

And kind of being disingenuine. And everyone's gonna have times you're new in practice or trying something new or you're just unsure of yourself and you kind of have that imposter syndrome kind of slip into your mind. But as long as you're being true to yourself and kind of your pace true to your patients and also the direction you wanna send your practice. Right? You wanna build your practice in a specific direction.

If you're being true to all those things, it's gonna be normal to have the occasional, you know, not lack of self confidence, but just a little bit of uncertainty. Right? And uncertainty is part of life. There's there's no guarantees. Right?

So as long as you're, you know, being true to yourself, working in the best interest of your patients, and really trying to move your practice in towards the direction that you'd be excited with for for taking care of your patients. That's really what matters.

Yeah. And I jokingly say to people, deep down, I feel like I'm an introvert, not an extrovert. But the only way I counteract being introvert is I have to be an extrovert to sort of balance the the two out. And I think it's really important. I think in the end, you just need to be you.

And if that doesn't always gel with the the patients that you're currently attracting, then just go and find where you fit. So if you like, it's no different if you wanted to have a a sports clinic or an MSK biomechanics clinic. You're going to act and dress a particular way, and your marketing is gonna say that's pretty much what you are. If a patient saw your marketing saying, oh, sports clinic, and they rocked up, and you're wearing a suit and tie, they'd be going, wasn't expecting that. Then again, depends where the clinic is.

If you're in a a very up upmarket clinic, there may be some places where they expect a suit and tie even though you may be a high end sports type clinic.

No. That makes sense. And I think there's also an aspect of not only putting yourself out there as the expert, you definitely wanna do that, but I think there's a genuineness about caring about other people. And I think people love talking about themselves.

Yeah.

So when you when you generally care about your patients, your staff, the people you work with and you're asking questions and showing that you make efforts on their behalf, you know, maybe, you know, that you have to like sacrifice to the bone, right? But at the same time, by by kind of showing people that you do generally care about their health, their activity level, and these things, it really shines through. Right? So, you know, working on soft skills can be one way of just becoming a better listener, asking better questions so you can take better care of people.

Well, it's true. You can pretend that you care about people, but if you really don't care about people, eventually, will show. If if you did a particular treatment on a patient and you go, oh, yeah. I I really wanna make sure that that's going fantastic, that it's working out well, you're not in pain, and then you never get back in touch with that patient to find out what happened, did you really care or was it just a speech that you gave? So I know if you were doing, say, nail surgery on somebody, you did it that night, they leave the clinic and you say, this is what should happen over the next few hours.

You know, take up Panadol or what's your pain killer in America?

Ibuprofen?

Ibuprofen. Take a bit of ibuprofen over here, might be Panadol. Go lie down a couple of hours. It might throb a little bit. Pain will go away, you'll be fine.

Now if you gave them a call that night, yeah, 07:00 that night, thinking, you they may have had the dinner already, Quick call and just say, hey. Just just checking in on you to see how your ingrown toenail went after surgery today. How are you feeling? And they would be going, wow. You said that you cared.

Now you just showed me that you cared. And if they had an appointment, you know, a few days later, and for some reason, that point wasn't yeah. They had to cancel it, and you phoned the backup yourself, not your receptionist, you phoned yourself. So, hey, just checking and see how everything's going. Once again, you showed that you care.

So your actions back up the words that you actually say.

That was a great example.

So I just think in the end, you you can be if you're just genuine at all times, it's far less work than trying to pretend that you're somebody else. And in the end, I I think it will work out for you if you just be yourself. If you're a caring person, be caring. If you're not a caring person I'm not saying don't don't care about your patients, but don't pretend to be caring if you're not really a caring person. Just just be yourself.

And there'll be patients that like that, and the patients go, jeez, I don't like this podiatrist. He doesn't care. You'd be a caring you would have been a caring podiatrist, Jim.

Oh, I I cared probably too much, and I I don't if you can care too much, but, yeah. It's, you know, finding that it's a fine line between yeah. Like, they definitely cared about those patients. But at the same time, you you you're not living their life. Right?

So you can't make sure they don't get that that that dressing wet or have them not walk on that cast or something. That sometimes those, you know, you try to do the best job you can to kinda act in the patient's best interest at the same time. Part of caring about a patient is, like, letting letting them take care of themselves or helping them take care of themselves.

Yeah. And I say, I I will care as much as they care. So if they don't care about the problem, then my care level isn't up there with them. But if they were genuinely cared about the problem and cared about getting a great result, then my care factor went up as well. But I think bottom line, you just in anything that we're doing, whether it's your marketing, working with patients, the team that you get together, it just try and just be you.

Don't don't look at another clinic and see what they do or hear someone on a podcast, you see how they behave when they're on the podcast or or you see them in a bit and think, oh, I have to be like that to be successful in in podiatry. No. You just need to be you, and then find the right patients that fit with who you are. And once you do that, the the clinical my my click like, I was a bit nutty at work, and I attracted nutty patients. But they were fun patients as well, and together, we we all had a great time.

That's awesome.

So I have nothing else to cover on this particular subject, Jim. So if you've got anything else to add, if not, we can say farewell.

Yeah. No. I think that's a that's a good place to wrap it up. I think I think it is a good topic because sometimes we get caught up on, like you mentioned, looking to see what other people are doing. You know, there there's a lot of kind of influencers or people out there that have a specific way of handling themselves, and being true to yourself is important while taking, you know, excellent care of your patients.

Yeah. Let's blame the influencers. Let's point all the blame. Ben, I was watching the video. All the blame is at the influencers.

I could point the blame to the people that try to act like the influencers, I think.

But Yeah. Anyways. Okay. Let the influencers be the influencers. Don't impersonate them.

Okay, Jim. That is fantastic. I look forward to talking to next week.

Sounds good, Tyson.

Okay. See you.

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