327 – From Stage Fright to Spotlight: Speaking Strategies for Podiatrists

Jun 4, 2024

In this episode of the Podiatry Legends Podcast, host Tyson Franklin welcomes professional speaker trainer Sarah Bauling. They discuss the critical role of speaking skills for podiatrists and how improving these skills can benefit their careers.

Sarah shares her journey from starting public speaking in South Africa to becoming a sought-after speaker and trainer worldwide.

She explains the three types of people she works with—elite speakers, emerging speakers, and business owners—and emphasizes the importance of having a structure in presentations.

  1. Elite Speakers – speakers who are already making money and want to improve because they love her structures.
  2. Emerging Speakers or the Dreamers – who would love to be professional speakers.
  3. Business Owners who want to use the speaking platform to grow their businesses. Speaking at conferences and association events gives them the opportunity to be seen as an authority, resulting in connections, collaborations, and clients, which all lead to cash.

The Fantastic Four Framework for structuring your presentation applies whether you’re doing a 10-minute or 90-minute presentation.

  1. Opening
  2. Body
  3. Q&A
  4. Close

Also, make sure that you’ve got a speaker bio so that the first words coming out of your mouth are not, I am this, me, me, me, me, I, I, me because the audience wants to learn what you’ve got to say. The person introducing you will use your bio information and will build trust with the audience, so you don’t have to.  

The Five Ps – Look at the Opening again:

  1. Who are the people in the audience?
  2. What is the purpose of this presentation? To entertain, educate, inspire, or persuade. Once you know the purpose, you’ll know what will go into your presentation.
  3. The product – what is the actual thing you are promoting?
  4. The period – how long have we got here?
  5. Is the platform live on Zoom Google Meeting or a hybrid?

Once you’ve got those five P’s, you’ve answered many questions, allowing you to move into that presentation with confidence.

Then you have your Hero Story, which is generally your own story and can change depending on the product. 

Are you scared to speak or have imposter syndrome?

Unfortunately, we tell ourselves stories that are not true, like there’s someone in the audience who knows more than me. While that may be true, they are not the people you are serving. You are serving the people who know less and are eager to hear from you because how you explain things may be the only way they will ever learn it.

You need a serving mindset. 

Speak on your expert area.

When you get on stage, you should speak on your expert area and hand off other topics you do not know. So speak on what you’re good at and pass on the rest. Speak on what you know because that takes away half the nerves.

Podiatrists could use a similar structure even when talking and presenting to their patients.

Sarah provides practical advice for podiatrists on enhancing their speaking skills, whether on stage or in smaller settings and invites listeners to her Power On The Platform masterclass workshops (visit www.powerontheplatform.com.au)

If you have any questions about this episode, you can contact me at tyson@podiatrylegends.com

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Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Tyson Franklin and welcome to this week’s episode of the Podiatry Legends Podcast. The podcast designed to help you feel, see, and think differently about the podiatry profession. With me today is Sarah Bauling. Now Sarah is a professional speaker trainer.

[00:00:14] And I’m saying they’re very slow for you because this is something that I think every podiatrist needs. They need to become better at speaking, which is why I’ve got Sarah on here. Now, as you’ll hear when Sarah comes on, she’s immigrated to Australia in 2019 from South Africa. And also want to point out that her brother has been on the podcast.

[00:00:33] Back on episode 154 and 157, Sam Harrop, and it was titled, Become an Employer of Choice. So Sarah, how are you doing today? I am absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on the show. This is great. And you are so much better looking than your brother. Oh, Let him know that. Yeah, I shall. He actually said to me, he goes, you’ve got to get Sarah on your podcast.

[00:00:58] With what she does with speaker [00:01:00] training. It is so cool. Plus I was at one of Sam’s, mad days, which are absolutely fantastic and you were speaking at one of his mad days. So I did meet you there and I remember you talking and I went, Oh, damn, this is good stuff.

[00:01:16] Thank you. So let’s get down to basics.

[00:01:19] What, is it that you do as a professional speaker trainer? Okay, that is a great question. So Tyson, what I’ve done over the years, and I’m going to kind of digress a little, is I started speaking professionally in 2010 in South Africa, and there’s a bit of a story about how that all started.

[00:01:37] And I’ve been on the most phenomenal journey for the last 14 years, where I’ve had the honor and the privilege of speaking on some of the largest stages alongside some of the greatest speakers, predominantly on the African continent. We moved to Australia in 2019. And of course, again, there’s another whole story of how the business transformed in that time, because it was obviously [00:02:00] quite a, quite a rough year in the world.

[00:02:02] And that’s what sort of led me to where I am now. We look at the, , the things that I love doing is I love coaching and I love training, very specifically adults. And I love the power of speaking and what speaking can do. So in this, I’ve worked with three key areas of people or three, , three focus areas.

[00:02:24] The one is elite speakers. And for me, that’s a very privileged position. It’s where speakers who are out there making money on the stage have heard me. They see that I’ve got a system and a framework and they’re like, I want a piece of that. Oh, so they’re already good speakers and they go, I want to get better.

[00:02:44] Yes, so, and that’s a very, very privileged space because a lot of them are earning a ton of money already. Yeah. Then you’ve got the emerging speakers or the dreamers who go, I’d love to be a professional speaker. Okay. Of course they reach out and we go, right, what does that journey [00:03:00] look like? Where are you now?

[00:03:01] Where do you want to go and how can I be on that journey with you? And then the third is actually the space that I’m probably the most passionate about and that is working with business owners. So it’s not necessarily a business owner who wants to get on a stage and earn a ton of money, but a business owner who wants to be able to use the platform to basically grow their business.

[00:03:25] So that could be speaking at Conferences, it could be speaking at events, it could be association events. Yeah. They go, , we are looking for, , a great speaker on X, whatever X is, and it gives them the chance to get up on that stage, deliver an amazing presentation, which often educates their audience if it’s an industry event,

[00:03:48] that gives them the opportunity to be seen as the go to authority. And as a result of that, you get connections, you get collaborations, and you get clients, which leads to [00:04:00] cash. Well, it does. And that was one of the reasons why I wanted to get you on here because like I know myself, and I’ve mentioned it on the podcast before that I managed to go through primary school, high school, and university without ever getting up and doing an oral presentation.

[00:04:17] How did you do that? I just didn’t turn up for them. No. It was really simple. Just don’t turn up. And sometimes it might have been a particular class or a lesson that said, this is worth 20%. This is worth 40%. They’re going to put me down for a zero. I said, I’ll blitz the exam and I’ll get through.

[00:04:34] That’s all they need to do. And sometimes they would say to me, oh, you must do it. And I go, show me the rules where it says I must, this is a fast subject. So I was able to just avoid it. I was the only sports captain that never got up and did a speech. I sent the vice captain up there. I was president of my rugby union club here in Cairns, and I just avoided.

[00:04:55] ever doing any speeches. It was, it was incredible. I [00:05:00] was absolutely terrified. And then I just started doing it. It’s an interesting thing, Tyson is so many people are almost self conscious. They’ve got a completely lack confidence. I’m going to totally mess this up. It’s just going to be awful.

[00:05:17] I don’t know what I’m doing. A couple of realities. The first reality is If you’re up there speaking, there’s a whole bunch of people going, I’m so glad it’s not me. But the second thing is the only person who knows if you’ve actually messed it up is actually just you.

[00:05:35] Yeah. But somebody told me once the crowd never sits there and says, geez, I hope they stuff it up. They’re all on your side. Everybody is on your side. A hundred percent. And the great thing is this is if you are adding value to that audience, , people are more taken with that information and worrying about, , he missed a line or he stuttered over a word or he professional speaker, there are [00:06:00] times on stage where.

[00:06:01] I don’t get it right. Everyone thinks it’s perfect in my own head. I’m like, yeah, miss that one. We’ll miss that line. But the bottom line is your audience actually doesn’t know. They hit, they didn’t learn. It’s true.

[00:06:13] And how I ended up, I wouldn’t say I ever got over it was a doctor approached me, said, oh, we need someone to present this sports medicine talk.

[00:06:22] Now I knew the topic. I said, yeah, I can do that easily. And I said, yes, but, and I don’t know why. Okay. I went, why did you say yes? You do not do public speaking.

[00:06:31] So anyway, I rock up 20, 30 people in the room. I managed to turn a 45 minute talk, I reckon to about four and a half minutes of me umming and ahhing, burping and probably passing wind.

[00:06:42] I just butchered it. I walked out, sat down, just trying to regain myself. And the doctor came out, put his hand on my shoulder. And I’m thinking he’s going to say to me, you didn’t do as bad as you think, but he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, that was the [00:07:00] worst presentation I have ever seen in my life.

[00:07:03] If you’re ever asked again, please say no. He said, it’s just, he goes, please don’t, don’t put anybody through that ever again. He said, that was awful. And he walked away and I went, Hmm. But what I learned from that was I saw somewhere once and it said nobody has ever died on stage public speaking. Nobody’s actually ever died up there.

[00:07:26] And I’m thinking if that’s as bad as it can get. And I still walked out breathing. It can only get better. And like I said, it couldn’t have been any worse. And I thought, and I just went from horrendous to terrible, from terrible to not so bad, awful. And just slowly worked my way up until I’m still not great at doing it, but I now get enjoyment out of it.

[00:07:53] That’s exactly it. And I think You know, , I love the fact that you, so there was a couple of things in there that I took out. And the [00:08:00] first is one of the, things , I teach my, my own students is always say yes. In fact, when I wrote my three day masterclass, I start off with a story, which is about yeses.

[00:08:12] And the very closing line is always say yes. And it’s in those yes moments where many things happen. As humans, we get to grow in that space. That’s the one thing we get better at what we do at our craft of speaking, but here’s the really, really important part. And , this is the bit that really counts is every professional is generally very good at what they do.

[00:08:41] So they are highly confident and competent at what they do. Now, when you get on stage and you share that, That’s where you’re really making a difference. You’re impacting, you’re inspiring, and you’re influencing people from the stage. And , in many ways, you’re changing lives through [00:09:00] that. So when we get to say, yes, it’s not just about us.

[00:09:03] It’s about the audiences that we have the privilege of sharing with. And, on that point too, I look at all the opportunities through my whole life that I missed because I said no. Yeah. Just dozens and dozens of opportunities that were put right in front of me.

[00:09:22] And I’ve been at business events. And they’ll say, Oh, our next speaker is just running a little bit late. Does someone want to come up on stage and just talk about the business for the next two or three minutes? And you see all the heads slowly sink down in the chairs because nobody wants to do it.

[00:09:36] And then you’ll see some person go, Oh, I’ll do it. And they get up there And they just ad lib for two minutes, which they’ve obviously done before. Everybody in the room has heard about their business and they sit back down again. And I go, that was such a missed opportunity for so many other people that slid down in their chairs.

[00:09:53] 100%. And you never know where those speaking opportunities come from and also where they can lead to. Yeah. The [00:10:00] bottom line is when you finished standing up and speaking is people will generally come over and that’s where the relationships get built.

[00:10:08] That’s where you get to have those conversations that lead to the conversions. As people, going, Hey, I was interested in , in what you said or shared, or , inspired something in me or, made me think about something different or think differently about something.

[00:10:21] The people that meet after you do a talk. Because normally they’ll have more questions. If you’ve done a good presentation, I think what puts people off, they’re just scared that they’re not going to do a good presentation. So here’s is what I teach, is everything is around structure and everything’s around a process. And I think in my, and I say generally in most industries and in most jobs and the most work that we do, everything is process driven. You might find a creative has a lot less of a process than a searcher, for example, but everything is process driven.

[00:10:56] Everything works within a framework. And the same thing [00:11:00] applies to speaking. And I use a structure, it’s called the Fantastic Four Framework. Guess how many bits there are to it? Oh, four. There you go. Keep it simple, keep it simple. So you’ve got an opening. You’ve got your body, Q&A’s, this is an interesting one, is number three, and your close is number four.

[00:11:19] When you’ve got your opening, your body, your Q and A, and your close, and you’ve got that structure, and within each of those segments, you’ve got a process, it means that you can actually get up and you can deliver, whether it’s a 10 minute presentation, right through to a 90 minute presentation, just following the actions.

[00:11:35] The same structure. Yeah. And when you say and the force, the four parts, they’re not all timed the same either. The introduction might be the smallest part. A hundred percent. So what we would do, and this is something that I recommend particularly for, when you are booked to be the guest speaker at an event, , and it’s, I guess, very similar to the podcast, is you want to make sure that you’ve got a speaker bio so that the first words [00:12:00] coming out of your mouth are not, I am this, me, me, me, me, I, I, me, because the audience just wants to learn what you’ve got to say, lady.

[00:12:08] So again, , the very first thing, having a speaker bio means that you’re introduced as the expert. You’ve already been placed as a credible expert in your space by the Master of Ceremonies or the host, who generally has the audience’s trust already. So by the time you walk on stage, you’re ready to go.

[00:12:27] And then we look at that opening again, very, very structured. I look at five P’s. Who are the people in the audience? We’re looking at the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, and how many of them are in that audience. We need to know who we’re speaking to.

[00:12:39] Even in your world, if you were speaking to other podiatrists, you’d probably be using very different language than if you were speaking to an ordinary, , man or lady on the street type of person. And I have done that where I’ve done one presentation to a group of dentists. And the same presentation to just a group of business people.

[00:12:58] Yeah. And, [00:13:00] and I used the terminology that I know dentists would understand, and I used different terminology for the business people. Exactly. So before we’ve even got on that stage, and it’s interesting because someone said to me, do you always go through the five P’s after 14 years?

[00:13:14] And I go, every single gig I do, I ask these questions. So who are the people? And the second one is Or can I just go back one step before that, , when you said about having a good bio. Because I have, I’ve seen presentations where they provided a bio, the person’s read the bio, and then all of a sudden they’ll get up a stage and the first five minutes of their talk is telling everybody about who they are.

[00:13:37] And you sit there going. We’ve already gone through this. Yeah, we just heard this once. 100%. So, again, right, it comes down to structure. And if you’ve got, I spend a lot of time writing my bios, because, again, I don’t want you spending 10 minutes introducing me. You want to kind of get into this. Yeah, yes, dive in.

[00:13:54] It’s a podcast, you want to get going. So again, I said to my clients, spend time on that bio [00:14:00] so it’s really succinct and that it’s got all the credibility that you want in there. So that by the time you are actually speaking, you’re placed as the expert.

[00:14:10] I’ve also heard with the bio too, it’s also good to change your bio slightly based on the audience and the topic that you’re going to be talking about. So if I was doing a presentation to other authors. I would mention that I’ve had two books written. Correct. I don’t need to talk about the podcast if they don’t really care about podcasting, but it could get mentioned if I wanted to, but the emphasis is on who it is that I’m talking to.

[00:14:34] Absolutely. So, so that’s the first thing is like, who are the people and how many of them are going to be in there? Now the second thing we look at is what is the actual purpose of this presentation? Okay. That’s good. And there can be many purposes and there could be a couple. So for example, it could be to, , to entertain.

[00:14:50] Okay. It could be to educate. And education, funny enough, is one , that’s a big one in the business world is, how are we actually educating people? It [00:15:00] could be to inspire. And again, you’re educating, you inspire can often work hand in hand. And then your last one is persuade. And that’s where I say, do not be afraid to go, Hey, when I’m on stage, I’m pretty keen to.

[00:15:15] To generate revenue as a result of it. So when you know what your purpose is that also determines what is going to go into your actual presentation. Well, I like that. Then we look at the product and again, the product I guess would relate to what you’ve just said. , where you’re speaking to dentists, or you’re speaking to authors, what is the actual thing that you’re promoting?

[00:15:35] I’ve got so many topics that I can speak about if I had to jump in here and go, we’re going to talk about pitching and we’re going to talk about sales, and we’re going to talk about cold calling, and we’re going to talk about customer service, and we’re going to talk about speaking, the audience is going confused.

[00:15:53] And what’s the thing we say? The confused mind does not buy it, does not put it in its pocket for [00:16:00] anything. So again, what is the product? We look at the, period, which is how long, , how long have we got here? I asked you the same question.

[00:16:08] Hey, how long have we got? You then able to, to pretty much gauge which way you’re going. And then the last thing is the platform, , is it live? Is it on a Zoom, on MS Teams, on Google Meet, on some other random platform? Is it hybrid? So those are the five P’s. And once you’ve got those five P’s, you’ve answered a whole ton of questions, which then allows you to move into that presentation with confidence.

[00:16:32] So that’s where you’d get in your opening. What are the key questions? What are the pain points? When they leave your talk, what are they going to leave with? Then from there, once we’ve got that, and we’ve got the audience on board, we then go into the, what I call the hero story.

[00:16:48] And the hero story is generally your own story. It’s the thing that got you to where you are today. And again, your hero story changes depending on the product, right? Because my hero story on [00:17:00] pitching is a very different hero story to professional speaking. So yeah, that’s your opening. Your body is where you get your teaching and all that, that’s where all the

[00:17:08] the meat and potatoes happen, and then of course your close is generally nice and short, wraps it up, and hands back to your host. And then of course, well, the Q& A is at number three. I can see, even with just having that structure in place, how much more confidence that would give certain people. Yes.

[00:17:26] Because it’d purely be the lack of structure, it’s not, I don’t know what to present. It’s, I don’t know how to actually put it together into some format. To me, it’s like when I’ve taught people podcasting and they go, Oh, it just looks so, so big and scary.

[00:17:38] I go These are the steps on how you put a podcast together. And once they see how simple as they go, Oh, I can do that. And then it’s really, really easy. What do you do for the person though, who is just terrified?

[00:17:52] Always a reason why. Okay. Yeah. What is that reason? Is it an internal reason? Do you feel like you’re [00:18:00] an imposter? No one would feel like they’re imposter. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. A lot of people go, I can’t talk. I’m an imposter. They say things like, I feel that in that audience, there’ll be people who know more.

[00:18:13] So these are the stories we tell ourselves. They’re terrible stories by the way. And I think in podiatry too, 50 percent of podiatrists feel like imposters and the other 50 percent lie. Yeah.

[00:18:25] And here’s the deal, right? And even from my side, I’m really knowledgeable on speaking and everything around it. There is always a chance that there’s someone else in that audience who maybe knows more than I do. Maybe they’ve got 25 years of experience and at the end of the day, I’m not actually there for them.

[00:18:44] So I’m there for the people who need me. And they are the people that I serve. And, and again, I digress slightly, so when we’re on stage and you can have a laugh, laugh all you like, you’re on the stage and this is me. You’ve got the lights, you’ve got the [00:19:00] cameras, you’ve got the action, you’ve got the adoring fans, the applause, I just love all of that.

[00:19:06] And that’s the one side of it. And that’s the side that people think is the real deal. The real deal is actually getting up on that stage and serving. So when you’ve got a servant mindset on stage, yes, I’m incredibly powerful and very good at what I do. But when I’m on that stage, all of my attention is on the people in that room.

[00:19:28] So when you’ve got a serving mindset, you get over yourself really quickly, actually. I’m not there to be , the big famous person. I’m there to actually help you. That’s the one thing. I digressed slightly, but no, no, but I think that’s a really good point because when you talk about the whole imposter syndrome, people get scared that, Oh, I’m going to get up on stage and we’re going to talk.

[00:19:49] And there’s going to be a whole pile of people in the room that know more than I do on that particular subject. But there’s also going to be people in the room who don’t. know as much about that particular subject. And they’re the [00:20:00] people you’re talking to. So if you can get your mindset around the fact that I’m only helping three people out of 30 people, but you don’t know how it’s going to affect those three people and what they’re going to then take away with that information.

[00:20:13] So I think it’s a great point. Different speakers come up with different things. , you’ve got your own stories. And again, someone who’s better than you may hear something and go. Gosh, I’ve never actually looked at it that way or that’s really helpful.

[00:20:26] And I was really blessed Tyson. I had a phenomenal mentor who worked with me pretty much from the start of , my journey, Dr. Alex Granger. And, he unfortunately passed in 2021, but Alex was my rock in so many ways. And I would call him on the way to a gig. And, this is what it’s all about.

[00:20:45] And I would talk through it. And do the gig and then get off stage and on the way back, jump on my phone and be like, Oh, this is how it went. We did a debrief. We did this for 11 years. And what’s interesting is I often said to him, I feel like I learned so much from you. [00:21:00] And he said to me, what’s interesting is how much I learned from you.

[00:21:03] And I was like, really? He says, you do some things very differently to how I do them. And you’ve given me insights into things that I never thought about because of how your brain works. It’s different to mine and Alex is one of the top speakers in Africa. So again, even when we think we’re not impacting people, we actually are.

[00:21:24] You would know Andrew Griffiths. Yeah. So Andrew was, we’re talking to me one day and remember him saying that he did this talk to a group of personal trainers and he said he got there, he’s on stage and he’s waving his arms about as he does

[00:21:39] and he’s just giving us all this amazing information. And when he finished, yeah, he got a good, yeah. A little bit of applause from everybody. Okay. got off, I felt good about himself. He reckons this next guy he gets up there and they were talking about marketing and he’s giving them really elaborate marketing stuff.

[00:21:54] This next guy gets up there, dressed pretty averagely and says, you need to get a business card. And the [00:22:00] crowd’s going, Oh, and he’s just saying the most basic stuff. Everybody stood up, gave him, a standing ovation. And Andrew’s there going, you are shitting me, aren’t you? He gave the most basic stuff, but Andrew had forgotten that sometimes the crowd needs the basic information.

[00:22:19] Now there may have been people in the crowd there that were going, I already know all that. But obviously there were a lot who didn’t. Yes. And, Andrew reckons he walked away from that , taking away so much from that actual, , presentation. Yeah, and and every audience is different.

[00:22:33] But if you follow the structure, you’ve got a plan. Yes. Getting on the road without a map. Like you don’t just hit the road and go, we are driving to Queensland from Sydney. I mean, I think there’s probably only one road anyway. Just go north. Yeah, just go north.

[00:22:45] Just keep going north to get, you’ve gotta actually have a plan. I wanna go back. So were you saying oh. I feel that they have lost their voice and, they just feel so stressed. Again, what works for one speaker doesn’t necessarily work for all. So for me to [00:23:00] prepare to speak, I’m very calm. I have water, room temperature water to make sure that my vocal cords are lubricated.

[00:23:08] Obviously you never ever drink alcohol before you go on stage, nothing good comes of it. Could be good for the audience though. Ah no, just don’t go there. You do not want to be remembered. Yeah, I know. You don’t want to be that drunk speaker. Remember that speaker who fell off stage. So anyway, you want to every speaker prepares differently.

[00:23:27] Some, I’ve been backstage where we’ve done showcases where we’ve got 10 or 20 speakers backstage ready to kind of go on . Five minutes a speaker type of thing. And some of them are doing star jumps and some of them are doing pushups. So you look backstage and there’s a million things happening, different speakers prepare in different ways.

[00:23:45] So if you’re that speaker who feels that you really get short of breath and, you can kind of feel it in the top of your chest, breathe, it’s just Big breaths in, big breaths out, let that air fill your lungs, let your [00:24:00] diaphragm do the work it needs to do. and relax your vocal cords.

[00:24:05] Once you’re out there, people are dying to hear what you’ve got to say. They’re dying for that education. So it’s the breathing. It’s making sure you have water. I’m not a fan of speakers drinking on stage because you hear the, oh, they’ve got their little microphone on.

[00:24:22] But have water before you go on that stage so that you are well lubricated. And do the thing that works for you. Some, speakers like to think and get into their head, and some like to be all energetic before they go. And what I find interesting with all that too is, yeah, I know I have a lot of speakers as well.

[00:24:36] And even the really good speakers that you see get up on stage and they just nail it every time.

[00:24:41] Still have a process that they go through. Yep. And still get nervous before they get up there. They don’t just, and somebody else said to me once that if you just walk up on stage and you have no emotions whatsoever when you’re going up there, you’re probably not going to give a very good presentation.

[00:24:58] So, and that’s another [00:25:00] point is I was in South Africa and my key topic was actually customer service. And I had a big insurance firm that called me and they wanted to really give me a lot of money to do this talk.

[00:25:10] I was like, this is amazing. Taking the booking and P’s and I said, and I was on the product part. And I said, I just want to check. We are looking at customer service. Yes. And he says, Oh no, no, no. We need your leadership talk. I said, okay, but I don’t have a leadership talk. No, but you can do a leadership talk.

[00:25:30] I said, okay, let me just slow this right down. I can do a leadership talk, but I don’t speak on leadership. Why? I said, because it’s not my expert area. So yes, I’ve effectively led teams and yes, I’ve effectively led the organization, but I don’t have a book. I don’t have a workshop. I don’t have a follow up talk.

[00:25:53] I don’t even have a worksheet. I’ve got none of that stuff because that’s not my focus area. I’m sticking to my pot. [00:26:00] What are we going to do? I said, we’re going to find you the best damn leadership speaker in the country and they’re going to do the gig. That makes sense. I got hold of a guy called Lorne, stunning man, great leadership speaker.

[00:26:12] And he said to me, but you can speak on leadership. I said, my friend, I can speak on leadership, but I don’t. I said, cause the bottom line is you’re going to get a talk on customer service. You can do it, but you won’t do it. You’re going to give it to me. I mean, good point, good points there. I like that. So again, when we getting on that stage, you’re speaking about your expert area.

[00:26:35] I could speak on giving birth. But boy, oh boy, that would be real imposter syndrome. Number one. And all I’ve done is I’ve birthed two babies. Yeah. I’ve birthed none. And I, I reckon I could do the same talk with even more imposter syndrome. Righty ho. And I mean, can you imagine, can you imagine a really experienced doctor, gynecologist getting up there and giving a really powerful talk or midwife giving a really powerful talk [00:27:00] about birthing, being able to answer any questions that come their way and having a book that they can sell at the back of the room.

[00:27:08] So speak on what you’re good at. Speak on what you know, because that takes away half the nerves. A lot of the nerves sit in here. And I think for podiatrists too, like for the average podiatrist that’s in a clinic, most of their speaking opportunities may not be at the association or on a big stage. A lot of their speaking opportunities may just be at the local medical center or local sports ground in front of 10, 15, 20 people.

[00:27:35] And I think they’ve got to realize in that room, on that day, nobody knows podiatry as well as they do. Nobody. Yeah. And you never know who you inspire and touch in that room. Yeah. Look at it, looking at sport, you’re looking at a bunch of sportsmen. There could be someone in that room who’s going, I’m looking for a career change, or I’m feeling like I want to do something different, or I want to take a new path.

[00:27:59] And [00:28:00] this amazing human comes in to share and serve. You cannot believe the power that you have as a speaker in terms of inspiring and moving people. Yeah. And especially in podiatry, you can be approached like, say for example, I was approached by Cairns Netball to come in and do a talk on different types of strapping and do a bit of a demonstration.

[00:28:19] I thought it’d be about 10 or 15 people. There we turn up, it’s 150 people, and I wasn’t nervous by then, I was used to doing it. I was over all that. Yes. But what I realized is. There’s other podiatrists that get these opportunities, and if they say no, and they may be the best podiatrists in that town to be sharing the information, if they let the other, the guy down the street who’s a bit of a dud, get up there and do the talk, and not give the, not so much not the right information, but not as good, like you said, there could be that one person that needed to hear it from you, not them.

[00:28:53] And that would have changed their life. Correct. You have the power to change your life. I had a very interesting audience. It was one of my [00:29:00] first big gigs in Australia and I gave the talk and the man at the front of the room was the guy who paid the big bucks. It was an internet, it was a global company.

[00:29:10] We had about, four or five hundred people in the room. Anyway, this was the guy who’d signed off the budget. He was from Sweden and he sat like this, cross armed. The whole talk was very interactive. There were group activities. It was like all the magic was happening. He didn’t move.

[00:29:25] And I thought, oh my goodness, he was so unhappy with me. I obviously wasn’t what he was hoping for. Anyway, got off stage. A whole bunch of people came up and lots of questions. And he stood in the line very patiently. And I thought, oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end anyway. And he eventually, after everyone had dispersed for lunch, he came to me and he said, it was a really good presentation.

[00:29:49] I’m so, so glad that you loved it. And I’m thinking, okay, what’s coming up next? And he said, your story in the beginning has Moved me in [00:30:00] such a way that it took me back to my own journey 35 years ago. And he said, seeing you and where you’ve come from and your medical drama had a medical drama, your medical drama that got you to where you are today.

[00:30:15] He said, I’m sitting here going, no more excuses. He says, you’ve changed my life and I was literally on that stage for an hour thinking the guy who paid the bill doesn’t like me. Again, you just don’t know who you’re going to impact. I did I was fortunate enough to do a talk in Liverpool. And there was a thousand podiatrists there.

[00:30:38] And I remember walking up on stage and I think the first thing that came out of my mouth was, I wish I had worn my brown pants. And because I wasn’t, it was just like, it was such a big crowd. But when I was there, a girl came up to me and said, Oh, I want to introduce myself. She says, you don’t know me, but I did podiatry because I met you in Australia [00:31:00] and yeah, when I was in high school, I met you, I was a patient and you were talking about podiatry and that inspired me that when I moved to the UK with my family, I decided to do podiatry.

[00:31:11] I just wanted to let you know. How did you feel? I was, got my photo taken with her I was so happy that I could have that sort of positive impact on somebody. Isn’t that a great reminder? Yeah. I love that. That every patient that’s in the room with you, and that’s what I mean about even just the presentation.

[00:31:30] Sometimes it’s just you and another person talking. Everything is a performance. A hundred percent. And I , had that conversation, I was talking on leadership with someone yesterday. And, yeah. And, but one of the things we were talking about, I said, ask your team, do they think they’re leaders or not?

[00:31:51] And they went, Oh, okay. And I said, why? I said, well, they might think they’re not leaders. I said, but when they’re in the room with a patient, they have to be the leader. [00:32:00] I said, because the patients want to be led on what’s actually going to happen. I said, so you need to. Use your leadership to teach them that they are leaders, if not in the clinic overall, but they are with their patients.

[00:32:14] And, and you just don’t know where that conversation is going to go. So they could have some similar structure, even when they’re just with their patients talking. Absolutely. And that’s exactly it again, no one comes to the podiatrist to not be told what to expect.

[00:32:32] Yeah. They want to be led. They want to know. And I think back , to my daughter, she had a cheerleading injury. . But , obviously with an injury, there’s a process and we really felt like we were in the hands of our doctor.

[00:32:45] He was outstanding, but we literally said, what do we need to do to get her back on the floor for the next comp? What is the process? Where do we start? And it wasn’t him going, I think this, or maybe we could do that, or perhaps this would work.

[00:32:59] [00:33:00] He went, this is the plan. Yeah. That’s good. What comes out of the other end? We hope it’s going to get her on the floor. It may or may not. But that’s the plan. So people need to be led. And we needed to know who were paying the bill. It’s again, the confused mind doesn’t buy.

[00:33:18] I was very happy to pay the money because there was a plan. He was clear. He said, I can’t guarantee it. But we’re going to do the best we can. She’s got to bring her bit to the party too. So yeah, to encourage you, it’s 15 year old girls. They forget to do their exercises. So the 58 year old guys.

[00:33:42] But that’s where these presentation skills. It’s not just on a big stage. , it’s at all different levels going down that you can take these skills. If you’re a business owner talking to your team, if you’re a team member talking to a patient, these are different opportunities are always going to be in front of you.

[00:33:59] A [00:34:00] hundred percent. What I also teach and one of the things that I teach in the Power On The Platform three day masterclass, which is my absolute favorite. Yeah. I want that information because I want everybody to know about it. So if they really want to do this at a more serious level to actually think about doing it.

[00:34:16] I’d love that. I’d love that. And so one of the things that we do in that three days, we actually have a look at what we call a unique branded system. And this may be something that, your listeners are familiar with or may not be familiar with, but taking things like, for example, the Disc Profiling or Maslow’s triangle, rich dad, poor dad quadrants, whatever it is that you do.

[00:34:37] It’s around developing a branded system for your business. So that you are able to use that branded system for whatever the, whatever in my world is the speaking opportunities. So when we look at that branded system, what are you actually speaking on? What are your focus areas? And now that we know the focus areas, we’ve got [00:35:00] our body, which is where all the magic happens.

[00:35:02] Yeah. How do we structure that around each of those pieces? So as you’re developing it, were you thinking of a stage presentation when you pull it right back, you’re able to bring that into your business. I had two really successful stories just around that. Both of them, funnily enough, did not want to be professional speakers.

[00:35:21] They wanted to grow their own personal skills. The one was a business A business broker, very interesting man, Scott, and as a result of the course, he actually developed a a different product within his business to sell. Because as he went through the process, he went, Hey, we told my business broking.

[00:35:40] But there’s actually a whole bunch of stuff that happens two years before we’re selling a business. And he started a new revenue stream in his business as a result. And I thought that was really, it was really great. The second guy was a builder and I’m like, what’s the builder going to do? And he said, I just want to be able to share my passion.

[00:35:58] Just beautiful man. [00:36:00] I’ll share my passion. I said, okay. So he developed a system in that three day workshop. And at the end of it, he said, I’m going to do a webinar, an hour long webinar. I said, good. It says, I’m presenting this thing.

[00:36:12] It’s going to be amazing. And he did a good job. I jumped on, and there was a chap in the room who was quietly observing, would probably be the most polite way. Anyway, after the webinar I called him and he couldn’t get hold of me. I was like, oh, that’s weird. Anyway, he called me an hour later. He said, you will not believe what happened.

[00:36:31] I said, what? He said, you remember the guy in the room with the blonde hair? I said, oh yeah, he was very quiet. He said he runs the biggest Facebook group in New South Wales for builders. And I’ve been kicked off this page. I said, why were you kicked off? He says, I have no idea, but I was booted off the page about a year ago.

[00:36:50] Anyway, I reached out to this chap and said, I’m running this webinar. Why don’t you jump on? And he came, he said, anyway, I’m now back in the group. I have [00:37:00] been given a personal recommendation by this gentleman who owns and runs the groups. He’s got a lot of accounts. And I said, what does that look like for your business?

[00:37:09] He said, I can only do eight builds in the next 12 months. Each build is worth between one to $2 million. Thank you. Sydney , $2 million and I will close every deal off that Facebook page. I was like, okay. So I guess you could say it was worth it.

[00:37:28] Yeah, definitely. Out of curiosity. Did he ever find out why he got booted off? So what had happened is a lot of people have been recommending him. The guy thought that people were basically just spamming the page and just recommending someone that they didn’t know. Oh, we’ve heard of this guy. We’ve heard of this guy.

[00:37:44] We’ve heard of this guy. And he was like saying, but genuinely all those people have heard of me. He’s no, it sounds like spam. Bang. You’re out. The joy of Facebook, I’ll tell you. But again, it just shows though, that being able, and was he the [00:38:00] greatest speaker in the world? No. Was he a good speaker?

[00:38:02] Yes. Yeah. He had a plan and when he presented it, he came across as, and he only said to me afterwards, I was shaking Sarah, my throat was dry, but he got up and he delivered. He said, I just followed your process. That’s all I did, follow the process. And , that was the neat result. So one of the things I’m really proud of in the course that I run, is that every person bar two have actually made money as a result of working with me.

[00:38:30] So the folk who go, I suppose your top three things are, I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. And why do I want to do this now? Every person who’s invested, and I call it an investment, who’s invested in that three day has actually made money. So the two people who didn’t make money, let’s talk about them.

[00:38:46] Let’s be real. Well, the one was my husband. And the reason he came is he just came to support me and he didn’t have a product to sell. He worked in an auction organization and he’s in IT, so he’s not even client facing. So he didn’t make any money off it.[00:39:00]

[00:39:00] And the second one was a woman. She works in the church and as a result, she developed a program for women coming out of domestic violence situations using the branded system, the thing we just spoke about. And she said through that so many lives have been touched and changed. So she said for her, it’s worth a million dollars.

[00:39:21] No money is generated because of the kind of program it was. So I love the fact that people who’ve come in, people who’ve spent the money, they’ve made their money back. And for me, that’s really important. I think that’s with any, program like I run different things. Anyone’s listening to this, the two day podiatry business reboot, go to our website, tysonfranklin.

[00:39:40] com. You’ll see the info there, but the same thing I tell people, if you do it, if at the end of two days, you go, that was crap tyson didn’t like it. I’ll give you back twice what you paid because I know you’ll walk out going, we should have paid more. Should have paid more.

[00:39:54] It’s worth far more. Far more. And that’s, that’s the deal. When I, when I do work with [00:40:00] people, I do chat with them. I don’t just, I don’t just say, Hey, sign up. I want to have that chat. I want to know, where are you? What are you wanting to achieve? Is this the right program to get you there?

[00:40:10] And can I get you there? I mean, obviously you don’t want to sign everyone up, but I can only work with 60 people a year. I do. I work with groups of 12, five times a year. That is it. So I want to make sure the people that come into my world are going to benefit number one, and that they’re going to change the world one, one speech at a time.

[00:40:27] Do you run all your events in Sydney? So interestingly enough, I ran all of them in Sydney until I had my Melbourne clients who said, Hey, we’re feeling left out. So this year for the very first time, I’m actually putting one in Melbourne. So I’ve got a couple coming up. My June workshop is a masterclass is completely sold out.

[00:40:47] I’ve got one coming up in Sydney, which is the 26th to the 28th of July. Couple of weeks later, 9 to 11 August in Melbourne, and then a couple more in Sydney for the rest of the year. Okay, [00:41:00] so what is your website so people can go and check it out? Absolutely. So it’s obviously www. powerontheplatform.com.au.

[00:41:09] So powerontheplatform.com.Au and they can send an inquiry. They welcome to give me a ring, pick up the call, pick up the phone. Let’s have a chat. Otherwise you can do the application online and once you’ve done that application, I’ll be on, on a call with you to, to make sure that we’re good.

[00:41:27] But one thing I saw on your website too, and it said, because you said this earlier on, just say yes. So this was on your website. I said, say yes. So you can be seen as an industry leader, stand out from your competitors. Now that is a huge thing for podiatrists to stand out amongst their competitors, share your knowledge, which I think every podiatrist should be doing with the community at any opportunity that they get, build your personal brand, expand your network, increase your visibility, generate leads, and also grow your business.

[00:41:58] And even with the generate leads, when you are [00:42:00] better at presenting and you walk into a doctor’s surgery and there’s three or four doctors there and you are using that structure that you were talking about, just by doing that. If they can see that, geez, you actually presented that professionally, you didn’t and ah and look disorganized and pulling pieces of paper out of different places.

[00:42:20] They are going to refer more patients. . I guess it builds that one little currency that we cannot buy. And that of course is the currency of trust. Yes. One hundred percent. So you only do, this five times a year. Yeah, so I only run the three days.

[00:42:34] It’s called the three day intensive. Someone asked why it was called that. It’s three days. Because it goes for three days and it’s intense. Oh my goodness. Yeah, you might shatter it by the end of it all. But it’s three days. I run it normally on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And again, I go back to the very start of our conversation.

[00:42:52] One of the areas I love working with is business owners. And again, the reason I run it the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, [00:43:00] is time is a big issue and we want to make sure that they’re still working in the business that they need to work in and really only just taking the Friday out and dedicating their weekend to it.

[00:43:11] So, runs three days and I run them, I literally run five a year. I do a couple of free workshops as well. And I’m always pretty honest, it’s a great workshop filled with information. Yep. And there’s a funnel where I’m obviously promoting the thing that I’m the most passionate about, which is that three day.

[00:43:27] So again, I’m not a good person who can sell silently. I can literally tell them I’m about to sell you something. Yeah, but, but I think that’s the way it should be. And I know there’s a lot of people out there, I call them freeple. where they’re just people looking for free stuff all the time.

[00:43:41] All they want is the free stuff. And that will take you so far, but if you really want to develop a skill that you will have for the rest of your life, then you need to invest. in that. And I look back Tyson and I’m glad you mentioned that is I didn’t get to share my actual story of [00:44:00] how I got to where I am.

[00:44:01] Yeah. It was, February of 2010. I was sitting in a room. They were, speaker after speaker who were basically selling from the stage. And it was funny, people were getting irritated and I’m going, I don’t care to be sold to you, sell it to me. Anyway, of course, this gentleman got up, Andy Harrington.

[00:44:17] From the UK and he blew my mind. I just sat there going, I just never seen anything like it. It was just like, what? This is the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life. And I was that idiot who climbed over the chair, shoving everybody out the way with my credit card. ’cause he only had a hundred spots at this workshop.

[00:44:35] And I paid, it cost an absolute fortune. And my husband, when I got home, he said. Oh my gosh, did you buy it? And I was like, yeah. He’s do you regret it? No. He’s well, I’m like, I dunno. I just think the guy is great and when I look back it, I could have got a refund. ’cause you had, you’re cooling off, period.

[00:44:52] Yeah. I look back and I’m so grateful that I didn’t, because the next day and when I realized what I had done, , [00:45:00] I, I called my friend Alex. And Alex said to me, do you want a mentor? And I went, Oh, let me think about that for a millisecond. I’m in. So as a result, I said yes to Alex. And then I got my very first paid gig and.

[00:45:16] I was nervous. I was like, Oh my gosh, people are going to pay me money to get on their stage. What if I mess it up? What if I’m not good enough? What if they know everything that I’m teaching them? And I called Alex and he said, what are you doing? This is what you, this is what you trained for.

[00:45:30] The answer’s yes. I was like, what’s the damn answer’s yes. So again, when I look back, I’m immensely grateful. That I said yes to Andy that I, and it was a lot of money that we didn’t necessarily have at the time. I just knew that if I want to do this thing, that’s the man that’s going to get me there.

[00:45:48] I was so grateful to say yes to Alex and having him as part of my journey, what a privilege that was. And he always made sure that I kept on my true north and I’m immensely grateful for the very [00:46:00] first client who actually was prepared to pay me for my, knowledge. And I look back now and the lives I’ve touched and changed as a result, it’s a real privilege.

[00:46:09] So, you’re thinking about it, don’t even think, just do it. The investment is amazing because it’s not just the money that you get, it’s the lives that you change and the people that you serve. I couldn’t agree with you more. And I know I’ve seen other programs and the one that I do and other, just other things that I’ve heard people say, Oh yeah, I want to do it, but I’m just going to wait a little bit longer.

[00:46:31] And I just go, oh, time waits for no man or woman. Yeah, I don’t know what it is that they’re actually waiting for. And I know sometimes it’s they go if I, spend the money, what if it’s no good? All you can do is look at the people that have done these sort of programs before and they’re going to work.

[00:46:45] So I’m not saying everyone listen this. Yeah. Cause there’s thousands of podiatrists listening to this podcast. So they can’t all fit in with your program.

[00:46:57] It’s the same as when I did the reboot. I saw I did the same thing. I [00:47:00] kept it at about 12 and it’s just a good number. It’s a, it’s a good number that you can sort of, you can. Talk with everybody and everybody gets to know each other really well. It’s not too big. In fact, what we do in ours, which is really nice is I do teaching.

[00:47:14] Yeah. I’m a real, I’m a natural the thing that fires me up , is teaching. So it’s about what are we doing? Why do we do it? And how do you do it? What is the actual process? So I teach it. Then they go away and they start writing.

[00:47:30] So in other words, they actually take the information that we’ve just done and they put it into practice. And then they do the really hard thing. They get up and they deliver it. They do bite sized chunks. So with a group of 12, everyone has the chance to get up and deliver. Everyone gets the chance to get feedback.

[00:47:49] And the best is on day three, when every person gets up and delivers a 10 minute presentation. The people that walked in on day one and walk [00:48:00] out on day three are different people. I believe it. It’s epic. I love it. Okay. Well, Sarah, I want to thank you again for coming on the Podiatry Legends Podcast. I know this is a different group of people that you’re talking to.

[00:48:13] You’re sort of thinking podiatrists, you want me on a podiatry podcast? That’s the opportunity everywhere. We never say no. I know, but I just think, Oh, the other thing I was going to say too, You and Sam, your brother, Sam Harrop, are so similar in your energy and your waving your hands, but you must have driven your parents nuts.

[00:48:32] Oh, I think, no, but my parents, our parents Were they the same? Yeah, I think it’s like monkey see, monkey do, and then monkey see, monkey do again. Because usually you’ll get one crazy child and the other one is quite reserved, but you’re both a bit nutty. Oh, we both are a bit nutty. I mean, Sam, he’s a pretty cool big brother.

[00:48:50] He’s a little bit more reserved than you. Slightly. I think he’s a little bit more reserved, but when he gets, when he’s excited and he’s passionate about [00:49:00] a topic, then he just, just absolutely gets into it. So people, if you go back and listen to 154 and 157, the episodes, Become an Employer of Choice, you will absolutely love them.

[00:49:12] So back to my farewell. Sarah, I want to thank you for coming on the Podiatry Legends Podcast, sharing your knowledge. If any podiatrist has listened to this, and I’ve said this often, and you didn’t get something from this, Give yourself an uppercut, take two Panadol, have a lie down, get back up and listen to it again.

[00:49:28] You obviously weren’t listening. So Sarah, thank you very much. Thank you. It was an absolute privilege and absolute pleasure, Tyson. I’m looking forward to serving your listeners. Yeah, that’d be fantastic. Thank you.