The Power of Live Networking Lunches

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 with my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, how's going today?

I'm fantastic. Hey, big Jim. How are you doing?

Doing well. Doing well. Loving life. Summertime here is treating me well.

Summertime in Canada, which is probably the same as air winter. Exactly. No. It's no. Everything's good over here.

I'm glad that everything is great there. So let's just dive straight into today's topic. This is one of my favorite topics, actually. It is the power of live networking lunches. Probably one of probably one of the things that I feel grew my business better than anything else.

And I know we've we've spoken about networking in the past. I know on episode 23, which was marketing pillar number five, verbal marketing, and networking lunches come under that. And I know also on episode one twenty nine, we're talking about enhancing professional networking for podiatrists on, like, Instagram and LinkedIn. But what I'm talking about is specifically live network events, specifically lunches. But that could include, like, an evening or weekend event or even a a corporate event.

But most of what I'm gonna talk about is a networking lunch. And I I think back to my clinic and even right up to a selling my clinic, I remember having a patient coming in the last week that I was actually there. And I had met him twenty something years ago at one of the first networking lunches that I ever went to, and he'd been impatient ever since then. And he had referred so many people to me over those years. And when I think back to a lot of the connections I I made in Cairns that had a significant impact on my business were all through networking lunches that I went to on a regular basis.

No. That's huge, especially if you're moving to a new area and don't really know anyone. Even if you know some people in the area, there's probably people that have moved to where you're from, and it gives you an opportunity to meet them face to face and build trust and hear what they have to do. And then, you know, you obviously can let them know kind of what you're into as well.

Yeah. Well, the best thing about networking lunches is they all follow exactly the same format. I've been doing overseas. I've been doing McCann's, Brisbane, doesn't matter where you go. They all follow the same pattern.

I've noted down a couple of things here. Usually, there's a pre lunch meeting area. You might even get sometimes a glass of champagne on arrival. They're usually seated lunches, normally tables of 10. Still sound familiar to to you, Jim?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Most last for two hours. It might be the lunch will start, say, twelve till two, and that might include fifteen or half an hour of networking beforehand and then bang it straight into the line. Sometimes it might go a little bit longer. There's usually a guest speaker, which is normally always interesting. Could last twenty, yep, twenty, thirty, forty five minutes.

I did one for the chamber of commerce in Power River in British Columbia where I knew I was going to British Columbia. I was going to Power River to visit some friends. I thought, oh, they'll have a chamber of commerce. So I sent them an email. I said, hey.

I'm gonna be in the area. I was wondering, could I come in and do a talk? They said, yep. Not a problem. And I think I've told this story to you before.

And so they said, well, we don't have a lunch on, but we'll organize one. Next thing, it's in the paper. Famous Australian author visiting town. I went to the lunch. Normally, they have 12 people there.

There was, like, forty, fifty people at this luncheon. The mayor came to meet me, so did all the councils because there was an election. It was coming up to the local elections. And And the friends who were visiting were just laughing their head off. But what was really funny, it was exactly the same format.

We all turned up, bit of networking beforehand, tables of 10. It lasted for about two hours. I was the guest speaker. They wanted me to talk for forty five minutes, and I spoke about marketing. There was a a business card draw with everybody.

It was the same food that you get at every other network event. It was the you and one will be beef, next will be chicken, beef, chicken, what do they call an alternative drop. And I'm just going, well, this is amazing. It doesn't matter where you are in the world. It all follows the same thing.

And then normally, it finishes, some people will shoot straight off because they're in a hurry, but others will hang back, and you get a chance to actually network afterwards. So that is the best thing about them. It's always the same format. So if you've been to them before, you move to a new town or you're visiting somewhere, you know what to expect. There's no surprises.

Yeah. It's it's that's a nice aspect of those those networking events. It's been a little while since I've been to one. You know, me living in a French speaking province, I do most of my things online. But when I move to Oregon here soon, I'm excited to kinda go reconnect with the Eugene, Oregon community, and maybe I'll pop into the the chamber of commerce for one of these lunches.

Yeah. And that's why I specifically want to pinpoint the word live as well because you can do things online. And I was on a a webinar last night. It was really interesting. There's about 30 podiatrists on there to admit a particular topic, and it was great.

And there was a bit of interaction with people, but not a lot of interaction. And when I got off of this, well, the information was good, but I would rather be in a room with those 30 people, having that speaker come in and talk. I would have walked away with not just the information, but I would have connected with other people. Like, says my wall. The next connection you make could be the one that changed your life.

That's the advantage of doing something live.

Absolutely. Those it's really tough to replace those kind of in person events like that. Just like you said, it could be a connection that changed your life.

So I've got 10 benefits I wanna talk about to attend

Let's hear them.

Live networking lunches. And if anyone's listening to this and you've never been to one, you're just missing out. You're gonna get some of the most average food you've ever had. Actually, I don't usually mind it. It's sort of like some people complain about airplane food.

And I'm like, I've never had a problem with airplane food. But maybe my standards are just like but anyway, 10 benefits of networking languages. First one, you get to meet like minded people. You need to make connections with like minded people and other professionals and other business people that you may not have even thought about. The person that I mentioned before that I met, first networking event I went to, he owned one of the biggest car dealerships in Cairns.

He was a very prominent person in Cairns. I just happened to meet him the first time, and each time I went to it, I just kept bumping into him, and we just became friends and then, yeah, over a couple of decades. The second thing is the more often you go, those connections turn into long term relationships just like you did with this the the guy that I mentioned. The third thing is personal development. It takes you outside of your comfort zone.

It actually gets you out of the office, which and sometimes it's really easy just to hide in the office. Patients come to you. You talk to your staff, your own team, but you you very rarely venture outside of the office. But you probably experience it yourself, Jim. You're your home office most of time.

No. Exactly. I think you have to get outside of your bubble. Right? And, you know, whether that be in like, for me, it's not necessarily always in person, but at the same time, just talking to other people, because maybe it's not that person you talk to, maybe they have a connection that that might be a good fit for you, or with a potential client, or potential patients, or potential refers.

And, you know, once you get out of your comfort zone, sometimes you're kind of insulated in your own bubble. Right? And that will sometimes lead to kind of like, I would say not very progressive thinking. You just kind of do things always the way you've done things. You don't have a chance to see, you know, maybe someone in a different industry is doing something interesting that you could apply to your clinic or to your practice.

And you won't really experience that if you decide, oh, I'm not gonna go to that, I'm just gonna hang out in the office and do some paperwork, or you know, I already have enough professional connections in the area, but like you said, this is it's really about putting yourself out there in a way that will help you grow along with, you know, meeting other people.

Yeah. And that's the thing with them, is you don't know who you're gonna talk to. You might bump into someone and they might be a carpenter or they build kitchens. They're a cabinet maker, and you think, well, what's the benefit of having a connection with that person? You don't realize that cabinet maker, the person that owns that kitchen business, maybe one of the biggest kitchen businesses in your area, which is why they go to these networking lunches because they're talking to other people.

You strike up a conversation with them. Long term, you build up a connection with them. You may never need a kitchen. They may never need a podiatrist. But by you having that connection, I'll guarantee if you bump if you have another friend who says, oh, we're thinking about getting a kitchen made, that person's gonna be the first person that's gonna pop in mind.

It'll be by the same thing with them. If somebody mentions a foot problem, they go, oh, actually, I I know a podiatrist. I've met them a few. I've known them for a couple of years now, and now I refer people to you. So that's the advantage of going to these things is just really, you know, spreading your wings outside of, like, the comfort zone.

But also, the more you do this is what point number four. It builds confidence the more you talk to new people. And I think the more new people you can meet on a regular basis, it also helps you talk talk more with your patients. And the fifth thing is it raises your profile in the community. Every time you're at a networking event, every time you meet somebody new, that's another person that will probably go home that night, and when their partner says to him, so how was your day?

I went to this lunch today. I spoke to the most awesome podiatrist. What's a podiatrist? And then all a sudden, the conversation starts from there.

I think that that's a great point. I would go back to number four is that it will sometimes also help you click know, when you speak with confidence to other people and build your confidence with other people about what you do, it helps you kind of kind of retell yourself your own story or help you create your own story in a way that you buy into and you believe in. Because sometimes we'll, I'm just a foot doctor, Oh I just do this But if you spend some time really thinking about you know what do you wanna do in practice? What things bring you joy and excitement into the clinic, what kind of patients do you want to see and then you can kind of spread that to other people. It helps you in a lot of different ways because you're really kind of focusing in on you know the aspects of your job and of work that you really really enjoy.

So by kind of getting out of that comfort zone and building confidence and telling people who you are and what you do in a very kind of specific fashion, like you said, not only does is it build confidence, but it helps you have this story that you can build off of and just kind of commit to in a way.

Yeah. Well, I think if every podiatrist got off their bum and went to a networking event just once a year in their local area, and if everybody did that, the profile of podiatry would just be lifted across the board. And I saw a post recently a little while ago. It was in the UK podiatry group. And when somebody said, oh, I went to the bank and I applied for a loan, but they wouldn't give it to me because they didn't know what a podiatrist was.

It wasn't in their list of occupations. And I'm thinking, you guys are in the dark ages. What the hell is happening in The UK if a bank doesn't know what a podiatrist is? It wasn't listed there. And so he said, oh, you should have told me you're a chiropodist.

I'm going, but you're not. You're a podiatrist. Now if every podiatrist in The UK stood up, went to a networking event, then maybe they'd actually bump into one of these bankers, a conversation would start, and and podiatrist would be at his occupations. I just shook my head when I read this thing. And there's all these people making excuses about it.

Oh, yeah. But, yeah, maybe because I'm just going, no. You guys need to all band together, get together your association or your registration, whoever the groups are over there, and you need to podiatry just needs to be maybe screaming it from the rooftops.

They gotta take action for sure.

Yeah. Anyway, so number six, great for your business and career development. Great for the profession as well as we just as we just mentioned. The seventh thing is it's often educational. So you will always learn something new.

It could be depending on who's speaking. So it's not you're not always gonna go to a podiatrist. You're not always gonna be podiatrist talking, but it could be latest trends on happening or certain things in business development. I know I've been to some events where they'll have a politician talking, and I'm like, yippee yippee ki yay. Great.

But sometimes, there's still interesting conversations. So depending on the group, depending on the network lunch you go to, determine who the speaker's gonna be. So chamber of commerce tend to have a little bit more, like, business related and sometimes political views, so they brought up a little bit more. Whereas, I've gone to say Cairns Business Women's Group, and they will usually bring in a guest speaker that may be from, yeah, from Cairns or outside of Cairns. So you can pick who the speakers are gonna be, but and often, sometimes, we'll choose a lunch.

People will choose a lunch you're gonna go to based on the speaker. But I think there there's certain things if you enjoy the people that you're meeting there and you're enjoying the average food that you get served on the alternative drop, then you just go along to this. Make it make it a habit of actually going.

No. I like that. You just have this chance to, like I said, get out of your bubble a little bit. You know, sometimes we get stuck in our own thinking, our own kind of frame of mind, but if you can go and learn some things from other folks in the local community and make those connections, it can be huge.

Yeah. And this and then eight, nine, 10, though I'll explain is they can be used for marketing. Like I said before, usually, this table's a tent. You can sponsor a table. You could book out the whole table if you chose chose to do that.

So that's the marketing aspect, but it's a great event to reward your team. It's refreshing to have your team leave the office once a month and go to a networking event where you can actually put a sign up and say, we're closed. You put a answering machine message on to say, we've gone off to a networking lunch. And you take your whole team and you sit there and just enjoy each other's company for two, two and a half hours. Everyone sits there.

You'll learn something new. It's refreshing. It will recharge your mind, and they'll all come back to work. And you'll probably be more productive afterwards than what they were beforehand. And number 10 is it's great to invite guests.

So if you do happen to book a table and most networking lunches too, they're like 35, 40 5 dollars. It's not a lot of money. So even if you booked a table at ten, invited your team, invited a few referrs, booked out the whole table, $450, That is gonna be money well worth spent by more in the orthotic economy, it is, like, less than one orthotic for something that will pay so so many dividends afterwards.

And I think there's a huge aspect of, you know, bringing your team there. Like you said, you know, when it's when it's you yourself, obviously, you're motivated to go meet people and make those connections. But just kind of the show of force of having, you know, four, five, six you and some staff members there, you know, it's just gonna it could be a real multiplier if, you know, you have some sociable people that work in the clinic that really want to get to know the other folks and maybe you know, they already have connections maybe in the business community, so it could really help multiply that opportunity to get visibility for the clinic, but also make some really strong connections.

Yeah. And you'd be surprised when you go along to these things. The people that you you might think you're not gonna know anyone when there's 200 people in a room. You'll be surprised who's there. You go, oh, I didn't know they came to this.

And and you'll find the more you go to these things, you'll see the same people, yeah, over and over again. And that's why the connections grow and get stronger because all of a sudden, they'll realize, oh, we have something in common here. You also like coming to these lunches, and then you start talking. Now the other part I just wanna talk about is you gotta be prepared. It's really important to be prepared.

So on episode three three five of the podiatry legends podcast, the episode was talking about the perfect pitch. And Sarah Bowling was my guest. And she said, when you go to a networking event, people are going to ask you what do you do. Be prepared for that. Have an answer.

When somebody says, what do you do? They go, oh, well, jeez. How do I explain? I sort of just tell them what you do. And and, yes, you are a podiatrist, but what do you actually do?

You might be, oh, I'm a podiatrist and I work with people with high risk feet. And you go down that path, you must say, oh, I'm a podiatrist and I work with athletes to help them get it back on the sporting field. So have something that when they hear it, it sort of goes, oh, that's interesting. And then they'll wanna know more. And so always be prepared, have business cards ready.

And I know some younger people don't believe in business cards anymore. They just like tap tapping phones and doing that sort of stuff. Just have business cards. You need to have business cards. And I'm not saying you run around dumping your business card or slipping them in people's pockets when they're not watching.

But if somebody asks you, do you have a business card? You can say, yes, I do. And you can actually hand it to them. And the other part, I think, when it comes to being prepared is dress appropriately for the event. Because if you're going to a a business luncheon, most people there are going to be dressed in business attire.

So if you normally go to work wearing a pair of shorts and a polo shirt, which is how I used to go to work all the time, sport shorts and polo shirt and joggers, that's fine for when you're at work. But when you're actually going to a networking lunch, if you wear shorts all time, yeah, put on your big boy pants. Wear your longer pants if if you're a male or, yeah, wear however you wanna dress. But I would say just have a slightly more business like uniform when you're going to these networking events. Because I've I've been to somewhere, you'll have someone who might be a cabinet maker.

And I've seen some rock in, and they're wearing their work shorts, work boots, and they've got their polo shirt on. And I see another cabinet maker who owns the business who will turn up a little bit better dressed with a business type shirt and still got the business name on there, and you can just see the difference between the two. So I'm thinking just dress for the occasion.

Absolutely. And I think it's always better to air a little bit on the side of being overdressed instead of underdressed.

Yeah. Unless you're like, you'll see some people who will turn up at these events, and they might own a gym, and they're built like a brick shithouse. They do you use that term in Canada? Oh, yeah. I mean,

that's it's a very, yeah, it's a

very common term. Yeah. So they're built. You know, they're buff. And I if I was that buff, I'd wear a tight t shirt too.

But but to me, that's the only time it's appropriate. The rest of the time, dress appropriately. And I I think the other part too I just wanna finish on is post lunch. When when the lunch is finished, you don't just leave. I think it's there's a couple of things you should do.

One, you should thank the people, the staff at the hotel that were working. The people that served you is when the day is finished, go out of your way to say, hey. Thank you. You're for looking after us today. They will appreciate it because no one ever thanks them.

The other thing is find out who the main organizers are at the event, who are the people in the committee or who's ever organized the whole thing, and go out of your way to introduce yourself and thank them for putting on a great lunch if it was a great lunch. If it was a great speaker, thank them for organizing a great speaker. If you get the chance to go and thank the speaker, thank the speaker as well. And the last thing is whoever you met on the day, if you happen to get their business card, get their details, send them an email the next day or later that day. Just, hey.

It was really nice to meet you. I look forward to meeting you again at the next event. Don't try and sell them something unless they ask for it. Just thank them for meeting them on that day. That's all you need to do.

And that's a great way to actually tie up all the loose ends from the networking event. And if you said to someone you were gonna do something or you're gonna check something out, make sure you do it, make sure you get the information to them, tie up all the loose ends, and then get prepared for the for the next one.

I think that's great. I think you're right on the path there. You don't it's not that that correspondence that first correspondence after the networking event is not the right time to say, hey, come make, you know, come see the clinic, come make an appointment. It's like that's gonna do the exact opposite. And I know I maybe I'm just, you know, obviously like I said, I'm not doing a lot of in person events, but even you get a LinkedIn or friend request or you're the first email after you get a you know, you friend somebody who's maybe a physician and it looks like they do something similar as you.

And then they're like, you know, trying to sell you something or just kinda weirdness. So, like, yeah, just thank people for the conversation. It was great meeting you. You know, maybe see you, you know, at the next one. Stuff like that, just kinda leaving an open ended.

You said, if they did ask about, oh, like, you know, something professionally related, you know, follow-up with that information to be helpful. But, yeah, it's definitely not the time to make it awkward by, like, shilling too much to these new connections you just met.

Yeah. Think about all the things that would annoy you if you came back from a networking event, and just don't do that. And like you said, it's like a special social media. Facebook, you'll get a friend request and you'll look and go, oh, they know 25 people that I know. You look what they're doing.

They said, I'll accept their request. And as soon as you do

You totally regret it.

As soon as you do, you get this message right. Would you like to 10 times your business? I go, seriously. No. I don't.

I do not want to 10 times my business. So please don't give me any information. And you're just going, like, you don't know me, and you've just oh. Yeah. So I very quickly just unfriend them, and then I block them.

Yeah. It's you just gotta think about being these these these relationships are for the long term. So it's it's a marathon, not a sprint. If you're just thinking short term and try to squeeze stuff out of these people, you're gonna do the exact opposite. Not only will you annoy them, but it probably will annoy their network as well.

So you're just gonna you're basically digging yourself a big hole if that's the approach you take. So always think long term, be genuine, and like, you know, treat people like you wanna be treated.

Yep. It is. This this type of marketing is long game marketing. But for me personally, I always believe building your business around long game marketing plans and having that sort of strategy, long term, you're be far better off than the person who's going, hey. Come and do my my Instagram course and I'll show you how to get 78 new patients in the first three days.

Holy shit. Absolutely. Yeah. It's crap. Anyway, Jim.

So on that note, I think we've covered this subject. Like I said, this is one of my all time favorite things to do. I still enjoy going to networking lunches even though I don't have a podiatry clinic. But I still just enjoy meeting people. It's just fun.

Yeah. I think you've inspired me. I think once I get to Eugene, I'm gonna have to hit up one of these chamber of commerce events.

Yeah. And then you get a live video from there and you go, I'm coming to you live.

From Instagram live.

Well, it's also, you know, for people. I always think when you're doing these things, and then touch on this, but the great marketing opportunities in other areas where you get your photo taken with certain people there at these lunches that you can use in your social media, you can use on your on your website. And so this this so many other benefits that we didn't even touch on. So I think just start doing it, and I'd love feedback from people. If they've never done one and they go and do one, what they learned from doing it, and send us an email.

Yeah. This is like a plan.

Okay, Jim. I will talk to you again next week.

Alright, Tyson.

Okay. Bye. Bye now.

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