Podiatry Legends Podcast

A few years ago, I was asked to present a keynote speech in Cairns titled Persistence and Resilience, and in this episode, I want to discuss three key points from my talk that I feel are worth highlighting.

1. When bad things happen, you can use it as an excuse for failure or a reason to succeed. I always chose the latter.
2. Don't lose sight of your WHY, and ask yourself on a regular basis, why do you do what you do?
3. What is it that drives you? Usually, it's not money.

NEXT EVENT

If you want to recession-proof your podiatry business, consider attending the Work Smarter, Not Harder event I am doing with Jonathan Small on the 21st and 22nd of July. For booking details, please visit https://www.tysonfranklin.com/events

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

This episode revolves around the positive experiences of two 2021 graduates, Michael Carter, who graduated from the University of South Australia and Cooper Garoni, who graduated from Charles Sturt University, working together at the Adelaide Heel Pain & SA Running Injury Clinic.

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• Reflecting on what they learnt in their first year.
• How a joint collaboration can create a win-win situation between employer and employee.
• What they learnt at university and how it applied to a real-life work situation.
• What great mentoring looks like.
• All new graduates talk with each other about working conditions. So far, most of the conversations have been very positive.
• Our profession needs to market itself more aggressively.
• The disparity between podiatrists, especially the more senior podiatrists.
• What have they noticed about the current state of the profession?
• Advice for current podiatry students.

To grow the podiatry profession, it's up to each and every podiatrist to hold themselves up to a higher standard.

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

Live Events & Online Courses

If you're looking for podiatry education, please take a look at my LIVE EVENTS and current ONLINE COURSES that I endorse.

YouTube

Have you checked out my YouTube Channel – Tyson E Franklin? This is where I uploaded the UNCUT videos of each podcast episode and short career and educational videos.

Podiatry Business Owners Club

On Facebook, I have created a group called the Podiatry Business Owners Club. If you're a podiatrist or podiatry student and you own a business or would like to own a business one day, this is the group you'll want to join.

When it comes to purchasing equipment for your business, there are two types of equipment purchases you can make. One is income-producing equipment, and the other is non-income-producing equipment.

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

For example, let's say you need to purchase eight chairs for your reception, and you're deciding between a $150 chair and a $400 chair, which means you will spend $1200 or $3200 to purchase the eight chairs. In addition, the chairs' comfort levels are about the same, and at first glance, they look similar.

This is when you need to stop, think and ask two questions:

1. Will the $150 chairs be sufficient for your current needs?
2. Can you use the $2000 you save elsewhere in your business?

Brand

If a $150 chair is sufficient and serves the intended purpose, why spend the extra $250 per chair, especially if it won't detract from your brand?

I know from experience that you are better off saving the $2000 or investing the $2000 towards income-producing equipment that will generate income for many years.

Best ROI

As your podiatry business generates revenue long-term, you have choices; you can save it and earn interest or reinvest your money into income-producing equipment.

Ask yourself, where do you think you're going to get the best return on your money?

For example, suppose you had $30,000 in your bank account, earning 5% interest. In that case, you're getting about $1500 in income per year, but if you invested the same amount into purchasing income-producing equipment, how many times would you need to use the equipment to get the same return ($1500)?

When I purchased a milling machine to make orthotics for my podiatry business in 2008, it cost approximately $75,000 to set it all up. In the first year of operation, it saved my podiatry business over $100,000 in lab fees.

After taking away the costs of materials and running costs, I got my money back in the first year. Over the next eight years, up until selling my business, I was getting up to a 150% return on my initial investment, year in, year out.

Borrowing

Of course, not everyone has $75,000 in a bank account, so if you borrowed $75,000 at 10% and got a 100% return on your investment, it's still a worthwhile income-producing purchase.

Equipment Goals

Therefore, before you purchase any new equipment, you must set equipment goals.

Purchasing equipment without setting equipment goals makes no sense, and I've seen a lot of expensive dust collectors sitting in the corners of many podiatry businesses because no goals or outcomes were set before the equipment purchase.

So, before making any equipment purchases, you must ask yourself the following question:

How long will it take before I get my full investment back?

To work this out, you need to know:

1. How much you're going to charge?
2. How many times does this service/equipment need to be utilised?

Knowing this information lets you set realistic goals to calculate your return on investment.

What Does the Math Tell You?

A $10,000 piece of equipment charged at $250 per use must be used 40 times to get your money back; that's less than one use per week.

Is this realistic?

What if it is used twice per week, that would be 104 uses for the year and generate $26,000 in gross revenue. That's a high ROI.

What Is Your Marketing Strategy?

Therefore, you should also develop a marketing strategy as part of your goal-setting process. You may only need to use your new equipment 40 times to get your $10,000 investment back, but how are you planning to achieve this goal?

What marketing tactics are you going to employ?

Opportunities

This is why income-producing equipment should be a business priority over non-income-producing equipment, and it can and should be used to set your business apart from your competition.

Think about the services you currently offer and whether you can offer more.

For example, do you have a wax foot bath? They are inexpensive and only cost about $300 to $400 to set up, yet not every podiatrist has one, but it can add thousands to the bottom line with little to no effort.

So, keep your eyes open for opportunities, and remember a patient's bum will rarely tell the difference between a $150 and $400 chair; however, they will notice a business that reinvests their profits into new equipment and technology that will provide a better, faster, more efficient outcome for them.

Competitors

If you can purchase something that none of your competitors is currently using, it will set you apart from the crowd, but first, do the math, work out if it is a viable purchase, set your goal for your ROI and have a marketing strategy in place before you make the purchase.

Get this right, and you'll set yourself up for income-producing equipment success.

Coaching & Mentoring

Purchasing income-producing equipment and developing a marketing strategy and tactics is something I have done a lot of coaching and mentoring around, so if you need help in this area, please reach out and contact me.

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

Simon Bartold from Bartold Clinical has been a speaker, educator and course developer, both live and online, for decades. In today's episode, we dive into the nitty gritty and the sometimes difficulty in creating online courses for the podiatry profession.

It's not always a bed of roses, and not every online or live course is successful. You may think you've created a ball-tearer, but low registration numbers may tell you something else.

On this episode, we also discuss:

• Current learning trends in the podiatry profession.
• Everyone learns differently, so course creators have got to adapt their delivery.
• The value in focused meetings versus national conferences.
• Why some courses can take up to two years to develop.
• What roles will AI play in the future?
• Why we need to bring fun back into learning.

We would love to hear from you if you have any ideas for an online course. Please send your emails to [email protected] or [email protected]

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar and schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

Most bad patients will give you early warning signs, and your goal, as you become more experienced, is to identify them as soon as possible, so you can take action sooner rather than later and eliminate them from your business.

In this episode, I want to share my top six ways to identify bad patients, and what I'm about to explain is far from a complete list. Still, it's an excellent place to start, and having friends in other professions and industries, it's nice to know they share similar problems with their patients, clients and customers.

Detailed notes are available from the Podiatry Legends Podcast website.

1) THEY WILL OFTEN COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR FEES

2) THEY HAVE A RUDE AND ABRUPT PERSONALITY

3) THEY'RE ALWAYS ASKING FOR A DISCOUNT

4) THEY'LL ASK FOR AN ACCOUNT

5) WHEN YOU GIVE THEM AN ACCOUNT, YOU HAVE TO CHASE THEM FOR PAYMENT

6) THEY WILL COMPLAIN AND RAISE THEIR VOICE AT THE MOST INOPPORTUNE TIME

If you have any questions about this episode, you can email me at [email protected], or if you'd like to learn more about One-On-One Business Coaching, please email me at [email protected]; otherwise, you can go directly to my online calendar schedule a face-to-face Zoom meeting with me.

Dr Michael Donato is the current President and Fellow of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. In this episode, he discusses his career progression in podiatry, his love of sports and biomechanics and how he became involved with the AAPSM. He also shares some great insights and advice that every podiatrist should take on board.

He has been a co-owner of Rappahannock Foot & Ankle Specialists in Fredericksburg, Virginia, since 2002.

I said to myself, this is what you love to do, so why are you not doing more of it everyday.

Legendary Tip

Whatever way podiatry is going, go the other way. Don't follow the crowd, do what you want to do. Do what makes you happy.

Upcoming Events

Work Smarter, Not Harder - Brisbane: 21-22 July 2023

AAPSM Conference - Washington: 13-15 Oct. 2023

Podiatry Marketing LIVE - Chicago: 21 Oct. 2023

If you have any questions or feedback about the episode, you can email [email protected], or if you would like to work with me one-on-one, please email [email protected].

In podiatry, there are times when perfection is expected. Surgery would be one of those times, sterilising instruments would be another, and also performing a biomechanical assessment and prescribing orthotics would be times when perfection, or close to perfection, is pretty important…however, there are other times when perfection is totally unnecessary, and good enough is good enough to get started.

Episode Sponsor - Podiatry Clinic Websites

Launch Now and Fine Tune Later

Over the past few years, I've seen some average podiatry websites; but an average LIVE website is much better than having no website.

If you're waiting for your website to be perfect before making it LIVE, please stop waiting for it to be perfect and get something out there now.

Every day you wait, you're losing potential patients to your competitors who have a live website, and there is a big chance their website may be worse than the one you're holding back.

And, if you're rebuilding your existing website, don't wait until every page is perfect before relaunching; get the new information onto your site as soon as you can and get it out there so your patients can see it.

Podiatry Legends New Website

I must point out that I am talking from experience here.

I have had at least four major podiatry website designs over my career, and more recently, I have just launched a stand-alone website for the Podiatry Legends Podcast, so this is all very fresh in my mind.

Please, take a look and see what you think. Just visit www.podiatrylegends.com

It's far from perfect, and it still needs a few tweaks, but it is LIVE, and that is what counts most. Right now…good enough is good enough.

You have to keep in mind the 80:20 RULE.

If the 80:20 holds true, only 20% of your website pages will be viewed by 80% of the people that visit your website, so if you're waiting for every page to be ready before you launch, you're wasting time because 80% of your pages are not going to be viewed by many people at all.

It's sad but true.

And even as I say this, it makes me think back to some of the delays I caused on the podiatrylegedns.com website. To make me feel better, you can visit my website and look at every page, but let's be honest, just like your patients, you'll stick to the main pages of interest.

Other Marketing

It is important to approach all your marketing with the same attitude: good enough is sometimes good enough.

The patient information brochure you're working on, the reactivation letter you discussed at last week's team meeting that still needs some work, and the video you shot last month for YouTube, but you're holding back because you're unsure about the lighting or the sound.

In general, most of your marketing activities, as do my own, could probably be tweaked and made better, but 80% and out the door is better than 100% and in the draw.

A brilliant email blast, clinic newsletter or Facebook ad will get zero results until it is released.

The solution is to release it.

I remember when I wrote my first book, It's No Secret There's Money in Podiatry. I was part of a writer's group, and we had a writing mentor. There were four of us in the group, and at a particular point, our mentor said…good enough is good enough; you've got to stop editing and send it to the publisher; otherwise, it will never get done.

There were two things I learnt from this after sending it to the publisher.

1. I got a mental break. So much work went into writing and editing it felt good to stop and just let it go, and this mental break allowed me time to work on another project.
2. When I got it back from the publisher, I had plenty of time to do further edits, but I got the process started by sending it off.

My initial transcript went back and forth two or three times until all editing was complete, and it was then sent off to the printers.

That was a stressful day, and I remember thinking there was no turning back now.

Even to this day, nine years after publishing and with thousands of copies sold, there are a few things I would have liked to have changed. There are even a few errors in the book, but if I didn't follow the good enough is good enough principle, my book would still be in my head and partially written on my computer.

Here's something else I'd like to highlight.

In my writers' group, only two of us out of the four stopped editing and sent it to the publisher as instructed. Both of us since then have also written and published a second book. The other two in the group, who didn't stop editing and didn't send it to the publisher, never had their books published.

I think we can all learn from this.

Having a good enough is good enough approach is the first step in getting projects completed, especially marketing projects.

Once completed, you'll have time afterwards to make slight changes if needed, and with each change, you can test and measure the success of each change.

Testing and measuring are important and relate to understanding the numbers of your business. I did an episode on this, Episode 135 - The Importance of Understanding Your Numbers.

Your Team

To wrap up, I have one more item to discuss in relation to good enough being good enough.

So far, I've only discussed how it applies to marketing aspects of your business; however, this good enough is good enough approach can also be applied to your team.

We all like to think we're good at what we do, and if you've been practising for many years, it's probably true; however, what happens when you employ someone else and they start treating your patients?

Firstly, this can be a stressful moment in your career, and secondly, it will drive you crazy if your push for perfection on a day-to-day basis, and I know this for a fact because I have done this in the past.

As I said in my opening comments, surgery is one of those times when perfection is required or as close to perfection as possible, as is sterilisation; however, your business will fail to grow at the rate it should if you focus on perfection with your team.

Yes, your team's communication skills may need improvement, and their KPIs may not be as good as yours in certain areas, but then again, they may be better than yours in others.

Would you chew yourself a new one if your team, out did you? No, you wouldn't, so give your team the same allowances. Taking on a good enough is good enough approach in some aspects of your business will give you a mental rest, and this is a positive.

Last week in Episode 265, I mentioned you get what you tolerate, meaning if you allow poor behaviour or attitudes to continue, you only have yourself to blame.

I think it is important to point out that having a good enough is good enough approach to your business is not a...

Have you ever considered why some patients are easy to work with, follow all your instructions and always return when requested, while others seem far more challenging to work with, never listen and fail to return for follow-up appointments? 

To have more patient compliance, we must learn how to adjust our behaviour to who walks through the door. Most podiatrists are technicians and are more concerned about what they do, not what the patient wants. 

My guest Deb Johnstone, from Transformational Pathways Australia, will explain that there are four patient behavioural personalities that we need to be aware of. 

If you want your patients to follow your instructions, return as requested and refer their friends and family, you've got to communicate and connect with them the right way; if you fail to connect, you can lose them. 

What you'll learn in this episode can also be applied to your team. 

After listening to this episode, if you want to connect with Deb Johnstone personally or have her do some work with your podiatry team, you can send her an email at [email protected] or visit her website. 

If you would like to discuss podiatry business coaching, please send me an email at [email protected] and when you get the time, take a look at the NEW Podiatry Legends Podcast website at www.podiatrylegends.com

Upcoming Events

Visit https://www.tysonfranklin.com/events or https://www.podiatrylegends.com/upcoming-events/

Episode Sponsor - Podiatry Clinic Website: Step Up Your Website Game

https://www.podiatryclinicwebsites.com/ 

I am bringing back my solo episodes; the first is about improving team meetings. On a recent family trip to Canberra, we visited Parliament House, and when it comes to enforcing rules around meetings in the chamber, no one is stricter.

Every podiatry business can learn from this because YOU GET WHAT YOU TOLERATE. If you allow poor behaviour, you will get more of it, especially when starting meetings on time. 

The idea for this episode came from a blog article I wrote for my tysonfranklin.com website, Parliament House Clock Teaches Team Accountability

If you have any questions about this episode, please email me at [email protected] and make sure you visit the NEW Podiatry Legends Podcast website at https://www.podiatrylegends.com/ and check out our sponsors, online course and live events. 

Episode Sponsor:

Podiatry Clinic Websites - Step Up Your Website Game https://www.podiatryclinicwebsites.com/

Podiatry Business Coaching:

I'm now only coaching six podiatrists at any one time. If you'd like to be added to my waitlist, please email me at [email protected] or consider coming to one of my upcoming events. 

YouTube:

Have you checked out my YouTube Channel - Tyson E Franklin https://www.youtube.com/tysonfranklin

James Clear is a world-renowned habits expert, and in his book ATOMIC HABITS, he explains that when you want to make changes to your life, you don't need to think big, and you don't need to turn your life upside down. Instead, real change comes from making hundreds of small changes, which compound over time, resulting in significant change long-term.

Goals are essential; they give you direction, but goals alone will not get you where you want to be unless you've developed the proper habits in the background. This applies to every area of your life.

Available on Amazon

If you have any questions about this episode, please email me at [email protected]

Podiatry Business Coaching

If you're looking for a podiatry business coach that will help you get sh#t done and turn your podiatry business into a profitable business enterprise, stop looking and let's talk. To kick things off, all you need to do is email me at [email protected] and tell me a little about yourself and your business.

Upcoming Events

July 21-22, 2023 BRISBANE:

Work Smarter, Not Harder https://www.tysonfranklin.com/events/WSNH2023