I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rebecca Rodger, a podiatrist based in Kendal, England, who is now making waves on a global scale as a Clinical Strategist with Convatec. Her story is one of curiosity, courage, and redefining what a career in podiatry can look like.
Rebecca began her career much like many of us, working clinically, setting up her own business, and building a multidisciplinary clinic that exposed her to the broader MSK world. But when COVID struck, she stepped into an entirely new space: vaccination. This experience opened her eyes to what she calls “podiatry-adjacent skills” and the possibilities beyond the traditional scope of private practice or the NHS.
Her pivotal career moment came through LinkedIn, when a recruiter approached her about joining Convatec. Despite the uncertainty of leaving behind everything she had built, Rebecca embraced the opportunity to impact wound care globally. Today, she leads initiatives across the foam and fibre portfolio, helping shape evidence-based practices, policy, and education that influence thousands of clinicians and patients worldwide.
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Taking Risks and Redefining Identity
One of the strongest messages from Rebecca’s journey is the importance of embracing risk. She admits it was difficult leaving her established clinic, but she trusted in her skills as a podiatrist to always provide a safety net. If things hadn’t worked out, she knew she could return to clinical practice at any time.
This idea, that our clinical skills are never taken away from us, is a powerful reminder for podiatrists who might feel “trapped” in one career lane. As Rebecca points out, many podiatrists fear losing their title or identity. However, she argues that while job roles may change, the essence of being a podiatrist remains unchanged.
“You can almost stagnate if you don’t go onto the next opportunity.”
Networking and Mentorship
Another theme that came through strongly is the power of networking. Rebecca encourages podiatrists to attend conferences, both within the field of podiatry and beyond. These events open doors, create opportunities, and expand horizons by connecting you with like-minded professionals across multiple disciplines.
She also highlighted the role of mentorship. For students and new graduates, seeking out podiatrists who are already working in roles they aspire to is invaluable. A simple message or conversation can provide clarity, guidance, and even career-changing opportunities.
Evidence-Based Wound Care
While Rebecca has ventured into corporate health, she continues to practice clinically to stay grounded and credible. Her passion lies in evidence-based wound care, ensuring that the latest research and best practice frameworks inform clinicians in both private and public practice.
She points out that evidence-based care shouldn’t be limited to the NHS. Private practice podiatrists, too, should strive to work to the highest possible standard, ensuring consistency in treatment and achieving improved outcomes for patients.
Inspiring the Next Generation
A recurring theme was the need to showcase the breadth of podiatry to students and the public. Too often, podiatry is seen through a narrow lens, while other professions like physiotherapy are marketed as “sexy” and dynamic. By highlighting roles in wound care, corporate health, footwear development, research, and academia, podiatry can attract a wider pool of passionate students.
Rebecca herself will be speaking at the 2026 Foot & Ankle Show, continuing her mission to inspire the next generation of podiatrists.
Final Thoughts
My conversation with Rebecca was both inspiring and practical. She is proof that podiatry can open doors to diverse opportunities far beyond the clinic. Whether it’s entrepreneurship, research, corporate health, or global strategy, our profession provides a platform for impact at every level.
If you’ve ever thought about pivoting or exploring non-traditional career paths, Rebecca’s story is a reminder that it’s possible, and that your podiatry skills will always remain your foundation.
If you’re looking for a speaker for an upcoming event or a facilitator to run a pre-conference workshop, please visit my Speaker Page to see the range of topics I cover.
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UN-EDITED PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Tyson E Franklin: [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 Rebecca Rogers. She’s from the uk. She’s in Kendall, England. Now, this is really interesting. She’s a specialist in wound care, but actually she’s a clinical strategist for Convatec and she leads a global clinical initiatives for the foam and fiber portfolio. I’m looking forward to breaking this all down and explaining what this all means. We spoke about this before I press record, and I thought it was really interesting what you’re doing, and I think you’re gonna inspire a whole pile of podiatrists on this episode.
So Rebecca, welcome to the podcast.
Rebecca Rodger: Thank you for having me. And that is the goal. If we can inspire the next generation into some interesting career paths, I think we’ve done a job well done today.
Tyson E Franklin: I think [00:01:00] so and that’s the whole idea of the podcast, is to expose podiatrists all around the world, all the amazing things that they’re doing.
So these new graduates and recent graduates, and even some of the crusty ones can listen to other people’s stories and go, wow I think I could do that. Or I might make that little pivot, or I might introduce that into what I’m currently doing. So I’m looking forward to unpacking what you’ve been doing.
But before we get into that, I always ask what got you in a Podiatry.
Rebecca Rodger: Oh, good question. So I really wanted to be a dentist. And at the time you needed you sick. I know. Shocking. At the time, you needed three a stars and to have been volunteering at an orphanage for 10 years to get into university.
Yeah. So that one, although I did well at school, I wasn’t quite at that level. So I went to a university called Sulford to look at the open day. And [00:02:00] at the time I was with a friend who was wanting to be a nurse. I sat in the nursing talk and I thought, absolutely not for me. So I went out to the Podiatry talk and I was the only person there.
And what I found out was it was almost identical to dentistry, but you were looking at the other end of the body. And from then I was absolutely hooked. But I can’t say I was born thinking, oh yes, this is the career path I want to go down. But actually it’s the career path that has given me the most success in life.
And I very much recommend it to anybody who is thinking about a career in Podiatry.
Tyson E Franklin: My brother’s a dentist and he wanted me to do dentistry, and I had the choice and I didn’t want to do it, but down the track, we thought about actually setting a clinic up together because there’s so many similarities between what we’re doing and we’re gonna call it foot and mouth.
Rebecca Rodger: Even better. That’s genius.
Tyson E Franklin: But at the time, I think
Rebecca Rodger: you’ve missed a trick there.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. At the [00:03:00] time when we went to do it, it was back in the day when the registration boards in Australia were far more anal than what they are now. And if you just, if your letter was one centimeter on your signage too big, they would come down and you like a ton of bricks.
And we just went, you know what? We don’t need to bring that much attention to ourselves because I’m so quiet. We thought let’s just fly under the radar. So we didn’t do it. Never worked together.
Rebecca Rodger: Oh, bless. So is he still practicing then?
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Yeah. He’s still working as a dentist. He absolutely loves it.
Rebecca Rodger: That is, I thought you might have gone down your path and done the Dentist Legends podcast.
Tyson E Franklin: No. He talks more than me. I don’t think he’d have to be doing a solo show, but he just loves being a dentist. I just couldn’t handle having my hand inside people’s mouths all day.
Rebecca Rodger: True. Oh, but feet are fine,
Tyson E Franklin: but feet are fine.
I, I, but yeah, some people they go, oh, I’m repulsed by feet. I don’t know why
Rebecca Rodger: no. I could think of a [00:04:00] lot of worse body parts that you would have to treat than feet. Feet have never thrown up on me. We’ve never had an accident with them.
They’re quite so contained.
Tyson E Franklin: They had a thing in the newspaper or a few decade ago and it had the top 10 worst jobs in the world and Podiatry was in there. It was rank, luckily it just came underneath armpit, smeller.
Rebecca Rodger: Can you I didn’t know that was a job. It sounds quite a lucrative job, to be fair.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. They sniff people’s armpits and then test out different deodorant . And we were really interesting as well. Fortunately we weren’t ranked as high as what they were as worst jobs.
But anyway, talk about, you
Rebecca Rodger: could have been the top.
Tyson E Franklin: Talk about a tangent. So anyway you discovered Podiatry from day, you loved it.
Rebecca Rodger: Absolutely. So I started as an FHP, which is quite controversial topic, but I started in my second year of [00:05:00] university and set up my own business doing domiciliary work.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, so
Rebecca Rodger: I was working clinically from quite early on, and then as I graduated as a Podiatry, I went to straight to work in a single chair clinic in Kendall for a company that also manufactured other medical devices and retail devices in the orthotic sphere. And that was probably the best thing I ever did.
I spent a lot of time there. I grew it into a multidisciplinary clinic. It gave me a very strong background in a. Industry and what else is out there? It allowed me to go to lots of conferences, do a lot of conference speaking and get my name out there and learn a lot about the MSK world.
And then I COVID hit, everything changed. I went and vaccinated for about a year and a half. That opened my eyes into what [00:06:00] else could we do with our skills. I like to call it things that are Podiatry adjacent.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Rebecca Rodger: Loved it. Absolutely loved it. And then at the end of COVID, I got a message on LinkedIn from a recruiter who said, have you ever thought about working in the medical device industry?
And they said it’s work from home. And it’s, a very nice salary and you will be impacting change on a global scale, and particularly to do with the wound care industry. And I said, where do I sign up? And I have never looked back from,
Tyson E Franklin: so somebody, through LinkedIn reached out to you and said, Rebecca, would you like to stay at home work and we’ll pay you really good money?
And yeah. And you probably didn’t even think about it.
Rebecca Rodger: Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong, it was a really difficult decision at the time. Yeah. It was leaving everything I’d built over, the first portion of my career to [00:07:00] then go into something that at the time was very unknown to me. But I’m a big believer in, you can almost stagnate if you don’t go onto the next opportunity.
If you don’t give things a try, then how will you ever know whether or not it’s going to work? And I think as Podiatry, we have this really secret skill in our arsenal, and that is okay if you try something out and it doesn’t go well, you can always set up on your own. Yeah. And that’s always been my safety net is.
I know my skills as a Podiatry are still very good and therefore I have that backup option. And I think when we talk about, careers and non-traditional careers in Podiatry, one of the biggest kind of blockers to it can be, what happens if it all goes wrong? And my answer always is that ever gonna take away your skills as a podiatrist.
That’s true. You can always go and work that clinically. So it’s not as scary taking that jump as [00:08:00] it feels sometimes.
Tyson E Franklin: I always just say that. ’cause sometimes podiatrists are very, this is gonna be really controversial what I’m about to say, I never had a fear of the registration board.
You know how some podiatrists if they get one little complaint they get all concerned. I had no fear because they thought they can never, even if they wanted to strip the title off me, wouldn’t matter. They can’t strip the skills that I have and the knowledge that I have, so I could take those skills and you could do something else.
Whereas I know some they live they live with fear that, oh, if this, if Podiatry is taken off me, what would I do? And I’m thinking there’s a lot of things you can do.
Rebecca Rodger: Absolutely. And I think we almost become, as podiatrists, we identify as podiatrists. And that is a lot of what makes us. And I think when.
Whether it is, either you’ve been stripped of it or it’s we’re going into [00:09:00] a, something that’s slightly adjacent where Podiatry isn’t your job title anymore. I think that can feel almost like you’re losing a bit of your self identity. And I know from personal experience, it’s why I still work clinically because I’d never not want to be a podiatrist.
I can be lots of other things in the world, but fundamentally I will always be that podiatrist. And I think that’s nice.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Like I haven’t been in a clinical situation for Yeah. Quite a period of time, but I still keep up to date with it. The reason I do the podcast is ’cause I’m a Podiatry.
I know that, but I’ve taken a bit of a step sideways and I’m doing something completely different. I’m doing business coaching for podiatrists. I don’t do ’em for other people, just Podiatry. So and oh before too. I go back, I’m not condoning that anyone should do dumb stuff and have no fear of the registration board.
They’re there for a reason. And even though I’ve banged heads with the registration board a few [00:10:00] times, I’m a huge believer that they need to be there big time.
Rebecca Rodger: Absolutely.
Tyson E Franklin: Because it’s crazy.
It’s crazier people than me out there. And if they weren’t there I would hate to see what the profession to be like.
Rebecca Rodger: And I think you’re absolutely right. They’re there to protect the public and, and fundamentally that is your whole job. You can’t really say that. They’re not doing what they’re doing.
Absolutely they are. I do think they become this scary kind of monster under the bed sometimes to certain podiatrists. Yeah. But in reality, what they’re doing is a really good job and they’re there for a reason. And because when it does go wrong, it can go severely wrong. And there needs to be something that keeps us accountable.
Tyson E Franklin: I think so.
Rebecca Rodger: And you shouldn’t be scared if you’re doing all the right that ring things, you should be fine.
Tyson E Franklin: So with, okay. You got approached [00:11:00] by, so was it Convatec that approached you?
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. Just as part of their recruitment process and I was very fortunate. I had a lovely manager. He was a well still is a tissue viability nurse which was really interesting with a background in theatre to nursing.
So I learned a lot from her. So I came in an entry position, so I was a medical affairs specialist, and I have worked my way up over the last few years to the position that I’m in now. But I did think that going in at a lower level gave me a really good foundation for that first year or so to learn the job and what the job was about.
It was only really within the last. Yeah, that I, and as all research takes a lot of time is that we’re starting to see the fruits of the labor, being published in wound care journals. That’s [00:12:00] really exciting. And then we’ve done a lot of conferences, a lot of poster presentations that I’ve been a part of, and now I’m really can see the difference that.
And making within that area of work. And I think I’ve had more success and more joy outta my job in the last little period of time being able to impact a change on a global scale than I probably had in the entire time I was doing Podiatry before. And there, for me, that makes it worth it, from my point of view, I think I’ve got the best job in the world.
So what I want to say is to other people who are maybe thinking about non-traditional career paths that don’t involve the clinic that are other things out there, and you might end up like me, where you’re in a position where you’re in the best job in the world. You’re a classic example of a nontraditional career path.
I definitely social media.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. And do you enjoy what you are doing? Would I,
Tyson E Franklin: yeah. I don’t, I don’t look back
Rebecca Rodger: on it and think, I wish I [00:13:00] was still cutting toenails.
Tyson E Franklin: No, it’s one of the things, like, I’m not the only one listening is not telling you to get outta the profession. We want you to stay, but.
I think if you are at that point in your career where sometimes you’re just like, is there something else I could be doing? Then you could still be doing Podiatry part-time. Don’t give it away altogether and just leave the profession. Keep doing it, but maybe do something else on the side. So the podcast, I enjoy it ’cause I get to talk to people.
Interesting people like yourself all around the world. And it’s funny, I always say to people, once you’ve been on a podcast with me, well we’re friends for life. It’s just the way that it is. I’m sort you because we have a historical recording of us having this polite conversation and therefore, if I’m ever in the UK and I bump into you, but straightaway we’re gonna be, ah, how you doing?
It’s just the way it works. And that’s what I love about podcasting.
Rebecca Rodger: It is a fabulous networking opportunity. Oh, it’s, I can’t imagine you go to many conferences and think, oh, I don’t know anybody [00:14:00] here.
Tyson E Franklin: That’s why the quote on my back wall, your next connection could be the one that changes your life.
And when I had my other podcast, that was, I did 211 episodes on them before I stopped it. And that was called, it’s No Secret with Dr. T. And that was not Podiatry related, it was just business related in general. And I had owners of baseball teams had, Mr. Universe had so many interesting people on there, and a lot of them I’m still connected with.
I still talk to, I’ve stayed with them overseas. I’ve caught up with them different towns when I’ve gone to America. It’s just, it’s fun. And I think everybody should be collecting people in their lives that are interesting.
Rebecca Rodger: I love that. Yeah. Collect the people in your lives that are interesting. Yeah.
Some people collect stamps,
Tyson E Franklin: but yeah, some people collect stamps. I think you should collect interesting people in your life.
Rebecca Rodger: I do. I love that. Absolutely. Love that. [00:15:00] That’s something you can take away and anybody can use really.
Tyson E Franklin: Well, it’s fantastic that you can go into a town or a city, not really know anyone, but through a network of people.
You might go who knows someone in this town? And if you, like, if I asked you, oh, I’m going to a certain part in England. Do you know anyone there? And you seem to be a perfectly normal person so far.
Rebecca Rodger: We’ll give it a couple more minutes.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. But if you recommended someone straight away, I would go, oh yeah. I’d love to catch up with them. So yeah, I just think that’s, yeah, ev, everyone should do that. So let’s get back onto your story.
Rebecca Rodger: Sorry again. No, but I do totally agree and I always very much say to people, okay, the how you network is very niche and specialist to you.
Yeah. But everybody can go to a conference. Everybody can go and do the CPD days and network there. And that’s how I spent a [00:16:00] lot of my career and I have a lot of connections with podiatrists. All around the UK is because I’ve been to conferences and it, and I suppose it’s not just going to conferences and standing there, it’s reaching out to people.
Talking to people. If you see somebody who’s talking, you find them interesting. I can say from personal experience, I will quite happily sit there for half an hour after my talk meeting people who, maybe find an interest in what it talked about. But actually that’s hugely valuable for both sides of the spectrum.
Tyson E Franklin: That was what I found after the foot and ankle show. This year when we did it, I loved talking to people afterwards and them asking me more questions about what I was talking about or whether they got something from, I had one person come up and say, oh, I disagree with you.
And I went, okay. I said, that’s fine. Really don’t be. Yeah. I’m not telling you, you don’t have to be happy. No, but it wasn’t, it was just my definition or one of the definitions I used of it that I used. He said, I don’t agree with [00:17:00] that. I think this word is better. And I went, okay, so let’s Google it.
So then I googled that word and that word was just another version of the word that I used. So we were both right, but just had a slightly different way of looking at it. But yeah that’s the fun part about con and that’s why I reckon people, you should go to industry events. You need to meet other podiatrists.
You need to, what do I say? Dig the well before you need the water.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. And don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t just have to be Podiatry events. No. You, there are a lot of international, which means that you get travel. Travel. It’s free time. Travel. Travel.
Tyson E Franklin: Every October I go to Arizona.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. Which one are you going to? Which?
Tyson E Franklin: It’s called Business Black Ops.
So it’s a group of 35 to 40 people. There’s a few podiatrists go along to it. And do you know Peter Wishnie at all?
Rebecca Rodger: [00:18:00] Yes. Yeah, I’ve heard of him. Yeah. Well, Peter, in real life, ,
Tyson E Franklin: I haven’t seen Peter there for a while, but I’m catching up with him in December.
’cause I’m gonna be in New York for Christmas,
Rebecca Rodger: oh, fabulous.
Tyson E Franklin: Yes. See, this is all about reaching out to people.
Rebecca Rodger: I gonna be in New York. No, but very to the point is, it doesn’t have to be a Podiatry only conference. And it, you have wounds UK for example, that’s in Harrogate.
You have Yuma, which again, I’m obviously gonna say a lot of the wound ones, but there are other, yeah, that’s okay. Everyone knows it’s my favorite subject. Humor travels around Europe. So I’ve been to Yu in Milan, I’ve been to Yu in Barcelona. It’s going to be in Germany this year. And there’s no reason why we as podiatrists in the UK can’t also be expanding our horizons, and doing that little bit more effort in going to conferences that might not be on your doorstep.
And there’s lots that are on your doorstep as well. It doesn’t just have to be Podiatry only. And then you get to meet [00:19:00] people who, work in that same sphere, but might not necessarily have that job title as Podiatry. And when we are very much looking at multidisciplinary working as the gold standard, that is how you network in multidisciplinary arenas is going to conferences that aren’t just Podiatry focused.
It’s it’s interesting and I think not a lot of people take advantage of it.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. If I think of all the different types of conferences I’ve gone to, I’ve got a lot of business ones, of course. And the business bike ops one is completely different. It’s fantastic. You we’ve done some weird things, but I now know how to pick a lock really well, which I then do at my, when I do my marketing master classes, I teach people how to pick locks.
Because it’s part of the learning process as a trick to how you do it, but it relates to juggling, it relates to a whole pile of other things. I’m gonna say, I’ve gotta introduce handcuffs. I think that’ll be the next one. [00:20:00]
Rebecca Rodger: That wasn’t in your book.
Tyson E Franklin: No.
Rebecca Rodger: I forgot to mention, the first ever Podiatry book I picked up was yours.
And it’s ways to make money in Podiatry.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. It’s No Secret, There’s Money in Podiatry.
Rebecca Rodger: Yes. That’s the one. And that was the first ever book I ever read on Podiatry before I’d even picked up a book on pathophysiology or anything like that. It was, yeah. How you know what’s funny about that
Tyson E Franklin: book is I know the title puts a lot of people off, but you probably agree when you read that book, I don’t actually say anything about making money.
Rebecca Rodger: No. It doesn’t even talk
Tyson E Franklin: about money.
Rebecca Rodger: No, but what it does do is fill in a gap that not a lot of people are taught. And that is, and I find it really bizarre because we go to university and the kind of route is, you’ll either go into NNHS or you’ll go into private.
But if you go into private, there’s a whole.
[00:21:00] Area there, which you obviously you do a lot of work in terms of the business around it. And how do you set up, because you’re then not just a clinician, you’re a business owner and that is a different set of skills. And I think when you are faced with those two options, and this kind of goes into this non-traditional career paths, when you are faced with those two options, you either have the thought of, I’m gonna succeed in business and go private, or Yeah, I’m gonna go down the NHS route ’cause I wanna be a clinician.
My argument is you don’t have to do either of those two things. There are other things out there in terms of a career trajectory that aren’t the NHS and aren’t private practice or clinical work that we are not taught about or for, or hear about, whereas. I think private practice always gets a little bit of a bad name because of everything that goes along with it, which is that kind of business a aspect.
And if you’ve gone to, you’ve done your A [00:22:00] Levels and you’ve then gone to university when, have you ever done your business course? Oh yeah. It just doesn’t happen. Think that’s an area that just doesn’t exist. It yeah. We had one
Tyson E Franklin: business subject. We were at uni, we had one, one business subject and I did that subject and we had to put together a business plan on how you would set up a clinic and went for six months.
Had to put all this detail into it. And I actually, I’m gonna blow my own trumpet here ’cause this was, oh, go for it. First time I had the head of the podiatry department called me in, which was a fairly regular thing.
Anyway, I’m getting called to his office. I go, oh, what have I done now? Go in there. And he said, oh, I just, I had a meeting with the head of the business school ’cause they were the ones that were running that project. I went, I don’t recall annoying anybody. I paid attention. He said no, he just came down.
He wanted to let me know that here’s your result for the exam. You got a hundred percent for it. You’re the first person ever [00:23:00] for that subject in Podiatry and even in the business school that’s ever got a hundred percent for that particular project that you did. And he said, oh, done. I just wanted to call you in here and let you know.
And I just went, wow. Okay. Thank you. I always
Rebecca Rodger: private practices for me.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh yeah. I was always gonna be in private practice, but I always knew I liked the business behind Podiatry. I enjoyed being in the clinic for a certain amount of hours, but to do it week in, week out, 40, 50 hours a week, I could do it for short periods of time.
But I really loved. What was going on behind the clinic? What made it tick?
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. And I think there’s a lot of people who do and make, a very good career outta having more than one clinic or even having a very full clinic and taking that step back. I think it’s a very worthwhile career pathway, but it’s one that we’re not very much talked about.
And how, [00:24:00] Hey can, Hey,
Tyson E Franklin: can I tell you something funny though? When I graduated, I eventually set up my own business. Do you think I followed the business plan? Nah, no. I had this amazing business plan. I got a hundred percent, they ticked every box and then I didn’t even look at it.
And I struggled for years. And then I found my business plan, went back and read it and I went, damn, you should have just followed what you were going to do in the first place. It’s quite funny.
Rebecca Rodger: No, it’s funny. I’ll say.
Tyson E Franklin: Actually my first, the first book I read that was related to like any business, I was never a big reader.
I didn’t really enjoy reading and now I’m reading all the time was this book by a guy called Noel Whitaker called Making Money Made Simple.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah, I’ve seen that one as well. Not read it, but I know which one you mean.
Tyson E Franklin: What was fantastic about six years ago, it was pre COVID. There was a lunch in Cairns, and Noel Whitaker was the guest [00:25:00] speaker and he was releasing his new book.
In my book, I actually mentioned Noel Whitaker that that’s the first book that I read, making Money Made Simple. So I took a copy of my book and said the organizers, can I sit at the main table with Noel Whitaker? And I told them why. And they went, yeah, that’d be great. I said, I wanna give ’em a copy of my book.
And I highlighted the part where I mentioned put a Post-it and that in there. Sat next to him at the lunch, gave him the book. He gave me a copy of his, and then we got a photo together and it was just just a surreal moment.
Rebecca Rodger: Full circle moment. Yeah.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, Yeah. I was sort of, um, yeah, I was like, I was a fan.
So it was, it’s good when you meet, when someone like that and then you meet them and they exactly how you wanted them to be. They were, and that, but I didn’t realize, I actually friends with his son for years. I had no idea. Oh,
how funny is that? I only found that out about two years ago. [00:26:00] Somebody said, well, you are friends with his son. And I went, am I? Because it’s just, it’s never come up in conversation.
Rebecca Rodger: I think that says more about his son, not sad about his dad.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, the son’s not, yeah, he’s not in riding on his coattails.
Rebecca Rodger: Which I appreciate.
Oh yeah. But no it’s funny how you can have those full circle moments. This for me is a full circle moment. My very first book I picked up. Oh yeah, yeah. I suppose. And then to come on the Podiatry Legends Podcast all these years later, like for me it’s that kind of redefining success and it seems really silly.
But that is my full circle moment, is I’ve now been able to experience you, in person having read your book all those years ago. So I totally appreciate
Tyson E Franklin: No, it’s really, that’s actually that is quite funny. It’s I’m blushing. But when I asked you to come on the podcast, ’cause like I said, we, I came across you on [00:27:00] LinkedIn.
And it was a, something that was posted that drew my attention to You, read what you’d done, thought, this is really interesting. I wanna get you onto here. And when I, a lot of times I reach out to people and say, oh, do you wanna come on the podcast? And it could be a week later, it could be two weeks, something Never get back to me.
And you were like, bang, straight away. Yeah. I’d love to come on and went. Absolutely. Oh, I love the enthusiasm. How good is this? Bring the energy.
Rebecca Rodger: No, it was I can safely say, I think I let out a little scream. And it made my evening completely. And it’s really funny. So I live with my husband and he’s not into Podiatry at all.
Yeah. He, the most he touches it is he does the phones for me on a Sunday when I work clinically. And having to explain to him what a big deal this was. And bless him he, he didn’t really get it, but he was like, well, as long as you are happy.
Tyson E Franklin: It makes you realize, like sometimes I’ll mention, I’ll be talking to podiatrists and I say, [00:28:00] oh, do you know such and such?
And they’re like a well-known person, say in the podcasting world, I might mention a guy by the name of say, Jordan Harbinger, and most people just gimme this blank look like, I, no idea. Okay. But he’s like a, he’s like a god in podcasting. Everyone on podcasting knows him. And I can mention, John Lee Dumas and all these other people, everyone goes straight over their heads means nothing to them.
So it makes you realize how each of these worlds are separated so isolated. Yeah. And I think the more we go along to different things. And we’re exposed to it, which is great, but it also exposes that other group to podiatrists.
Yeah,
Rebecca Rodger: absolutely. And that’s a huge thing. Getting our name out there is Podiatry as a profession and saying that, we can play in the spheres with other healthcare professionals have dominated in recent years. Wound care. If you look at the amount of, physicians, [00:29:00] associates, nurses, doctors that are KOLs in the spheres and in reality there’s very few podiatrists.
I can think of three off the top of my head who have made really. Good names for themselves in the wound care sphere, but when you’re talking about three, in comparison to the hundreds that are out there,
Tyson E Franklin: yeah,
Rebecca Rodger: It shows that, we are still breaking that glass ceiling. And I think that’s the only downside in Podiatry is you do get that resistance.
When I started off, I was in the MSK sphere, it was very heavily male dominated and it was dominated by people who had been in the indus in that world for a long time. I came in as a 21-year-old, female who was, going, we are setting up this multidisciplinary and we doing this and we’re distributing to that.
And you. Get to know podiatrists and HCPs and physios and what have you. And it was very [00:30:00] jarring to the kind of old school that were there.
And I think that’s not necessarily a bad thing though. That’s how we move forward in the world. And it’s the same in wound care and industry. We are waving, flying the flag for Podiatry to show that other people can make a career in this industry as well.
It doesn’t just have to be those select few who have had a lucky break or have networked. Well, it is a career open to us. And if you are wanting to hang up your clippers in the clinic, then what else can you do? And don’t get me wrong, it’s not just industry. Yeah, it can be social media, it can be working for regulatory bodies like BSI or Nice.
You could be going into academia. There’s lots of little areas that you would never think about, have never heard of or never been taught about. And actually a lot of people make a fantastic career outta going down look slightly [00:31:00] more unusual route.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. I remember when we’d recently graduated and yeah, been up for a few years and then a guy that was the year behind me, but we ended up in the same year because the university enjoyed me so much that they wanted me to stay and so we became a good friends.
His name was Alan McCulloch and he was the first person I’d met that did Podiatry with us, who then was, I think it was Adidas that he may have been working for. And I was just like, you are actually working.
For a shoe company. He goes, yeah, I’m the state rep. And I go around and I do this and I’d never heard of that position before. And I was just like, and especially when you’d only been out for a few years, his job seemed so cool compared to what I was doing yet he did that for a long period of time, but then eventually opened up his own clinics and was extremely successful.
But his clinics also [00:32:00] had a very heavy footwear slant to it. And then his wife, I think it was a physio and a podiatrist, and they ended up developing their own shoe brand.
Rebecca Rodger: Well, startups are an absolutely, hugely important part of our world because a lot of times people have very good ideas for ways we can improve.
Value to patients. And it takes a very driven person to take that idea and that concept and do the work that needs to be done to then launch that on the market. And again, there are a few podiatrists I know who have managed to take what was a concept turn it into a startup. They’ve had funding and then managed to launch it onto the market and being very successful with it.
So again, that entrepreneurship is another avenue that people can go down when they are [00:33:00] exploring these different career paths.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, definitely. Well, you would heard Simon Bartold was another person that was involved in footwear. I was
Rebecca Rodger: about to say Simon Bartold.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, you see,, I’ve got the all behind me there, the VIMAZI footwear behind me. Give them a plug. And, but yeah, I was talking to Simon this afternoon. It was really funny. He was one of the first conferences I ever went to that he was talking at, and I remember him up on stage talking and after it finished, I, and I’d only just, very might’ve been my first conference ever.
He came off stage. He was sitting down having a beer with some other people, and I grabbed a beer and went over there and just sat down and just started talking to him and been friendly with him ever since. Only found out today. He’s 10 years older than me.
I didn’t know that.
Rebecca Rodger: I feel like we’re releasing all his secrets on these podcasts today. I know
Tyson E Franklin: it’s but this is what I mean. It’s whe when you’ve [00:34:00] been in the profession, like I’ve been in and around the profession since I graduated like 37 years now, and you see so much and there’s so many. So many positive things that have happened over that 37 years, and you’re another example of that.
Rebecca Rodger: Thank you. I don’t think I’m quite up to the level of Simon Bartold, but I’d like to think one day I will be.
Tyson E Franklin: But the thing is, it’s good that, like you said there’s all these different things you can, you don’t have to give Podiatry away. You can still do it part-time. You can, if you have a, an idea, oh, maybe I could do this or I can invent that, is put some time aside and actually stop wondering if it’ll work, just do it and see what happens.
And the best part about Podiatry, you can make some pretty good money in it. Oh yeah. That’s, no one can deny that and you can reinvest your money into other things that you want to do that maybe it’s something you wanna [00:35:00] invent. It may be within the profession, it might be something outside.
Rebecca Rodger: Absolutely. Absolutely. But no, so that, that’s my, is non-traditional career paths. And then my other sort of focus that I like to look at is at evidence-based wound care practices within our clinics.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Again,
Rebecca Rodger: I think so. And we’ll be doing the foot and ankle show this year. So if anybody’s interested in looking at evidence-based wound care practices, come and see my talk.
The reason I think it’s really important is because I think we can become a little bit detached as we graduate in terms of what the research is. And I am very well aware that not everybody is sat. Reading all the manuscripts that are coming out in journals. But I do think it’s really important, particularly in private practice, that we are still working at the top of our game and looking at what is the newest [00:36:00] research out there, what is being published and what are the themes that we need to be following whether that be a framework, auditing, guidance, et cetera.
It’s that evidence based. But, and for me. I love being the person on the other side of it who does the evidence, but I also think it’s really important because, and this is why I still practice Podiatry, is if I’m stood there and I’m telling you, you need to be putting, whether it be something like wound hygiene framework into your clinic so that every single clinician is working at exactly the same level and doing exactly the same things as in part of a treatment process that is backed by evidence, then for me, I need to be a Podiatry who’s still doing it and touching patients
Tyson E Franklin: for
Rebecca Rodger: that credibility.
Otherwise, I, and I’ve seen it before where I sit there and I think, well, you’ve not touched a patient in 10 years, so why should we listen [00:37:00] to you and that’s not what you
Tyson E Franklin: want. That is so true. Its the only reason I stay registered and keep up to date with stuff and talk to other podiatrists and I still.
Read different articles, so I know what’s going on. It’s because when I’m talking to another Podiatry on the podcast, I can with confidence or say, I am still actually a podiatrist. You can throw me in a clinic tomorrow, and I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m, I’ve not lost anything from what I’ve learned.
And I think it’s really important. Absolutely.
Rebecca Rodger: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And I also think it resonates well, and this is why again it ties into we need more podiatrists to do more exciting things. Yeah. Is because I think it resonates well when it’s coming from a podiatrist to a podiatrist, and I think we’re all guilty of it sometimes is classic example.
If you are getting lectured by a physio on how to treat [00:38:00] the foot, there can sometimes be a bit of a, well, we are the experts and therefore, what do you know? Whereas I think when it comes from somebody who’s worked in the same job that you’ve done and are still doing it, I think it resonates a lot more that, okay, well this is what I’m doing.
Yeah. And this is, we’ve done research to say this is what the gold standard is, this is what we need to be doing. And it doesn’t have to be, one thing, it can be whatever you’ve researched and whatever makes sense for you clinically, however. Other people are doing it and therefore we should be doing it as well.
And keeping that level of treatment to the highest possible standard we can. And I think we can do that by evidence-based practices. And I always say the NHS is evidence-based treatment. There’s no reason why we can’t do it in private practice as well. I think that’s a really valuable consideration.
Tyson E Franklin: I think the other part that’s really [00:39:00] important with what you’re doing though, is and like us having this discussion about all these different things you can do once you graduate, is it then makes the profession look more interesting to students who are graduating. Oh, I’m thinking of a career. What career should I do?
I met a podiatrist who works for this particular company who evaluates dressings and I know this other one that works for a shoe company. Oh, I know someone who’s in clinic, somebody else who’s in academic all of a sudden. The scope of Podiatry just keeps growing and it becomes more interesting. And I think that’s the advantage physiotherapy has had over us over the years is because they’ve made physiotherapy look sexy.
No one talks about postural drainage. Have you ever seen that done? It’s disgusting. Anyway, someone’s a little tilt tilted and they’re patting ’em on the back so all the mucus comes out. That’s physiotherapy. But kids in high school don’t hear [00:40:00] about that. They only see all the sexy stuff of physio. Oh, and that’s why I wanna be a physio.
So I think Podiatry needs to expose young people to all the interesting aspects of Podiatry as well.
Rebecca Rodger: I have a friend who’s a physio and she’s moved over to Melbourne now fully enough. But during. COVID, she was on her rotations in hospital and what she does now is neuro physio. That was her kind of special interest.
She got stuck on the respiratory ward for the entirety of COVID.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh
Rebecca Rodger: and
Tyson E Franklin: yummy.
Rebecca Rodger: I always say to her, how she still managed to continue on afterwards to go into neuro physio and do what she’s doing now was, the mental fortitude needed for that. But it’s not always as sexy as you think it is.
I can safely say I’ve never had to aspirate anybody in my life before and I’m quite glad of that fact.
Tyson E Franklin: No. I, it’s just something I wouldn’t wanna do. So when when you came on here, you asked for some [00:41:00] talking points. This is just gonna be, this might be a bit funny and you gave me three talking points.
On the third talking point I actually gave you were listed the cut off. Yeah. And you gave me the third talking point. And you must have deleted it before you press send. And all I got here was Brie. Now I’m assuming you didn’t wanna talk about cheese.
Rebecca Rodger: Oh, that was so funny. So what was it supposed to be? It was, so we had bridging clinical practice and Okay. Which I think we really just covered. Yeah.
Tyson E Franklin: And then
Rebecca Rodger: I also had as the fourth one, that never even got to your attention. Oh, the one,
Tyson E Franklin: yeah. No, I didn’t get the fourth one.
Rebecca Rodger: Men.
It was mentorship and professional growth oh, very important. Yeah, and it ties in really well to what we were saying before about this networking that, there are, and what we’ve just talked about in terms of podiatrists in all sorts of weird and wonderful places. And, I know [00:42:00] podiatrists that work at football clubs.
I know podiatrists that have their own huge clinics. I know podiatrists that have made the name for themselves, in the diabetic world, within the NHS. I always very much say, if you’ve seen somebody do something, so for example, you wanna get into podcasting, you’ve seen Tyson’s podcast, reach out, we are always a friendly bunch. We have a connection in that we’re all podiatrist, and usually if you manage to grab somebody at a conference or send somebody an email, I’ve done it before where I’ve done a lot of messages over Facebook for people who are wanting to get into the industry I’m in and what they need to achieve.
We’re always very open, and that’s the best kind of piece of advice I can give people is look at somebody who’s doing the job that you want to do, and then ask them how they got there. Because yeah, it’s the. The best idea of how can you then position yourself in exactly the same sphere. [00:43:00] And we’re not a hugely competitive bunch.
We wanna raise podiatrists up. We don’t want to be the only one in the room. We would like more people there with us.
Tyson E Franklin: Well, that’s why I Sometimes I get annoyed when I see a podiatrist tear another podiatrist down. Yeah. And it might be like, say this podcast, I’ve heard podiatrists bag, this podcast.
Oh, it’s the biggest as load of crap. I’d never go on there and I’m thinking, what am I doing wrong on the podcast? I am exposing the profession to other podiatrists, sharing their stories and get, I get so much positive feedback.
I don’t worry about the negative ones. My book, when I wrote. I got a lot of five star reviews, which is great. A, most people I’ve read it have said it’s great. And then you get the couple of one star ones going, oh, if all you’re gonna learn outta this book is you need a good location. What a waste of money.
And I’m thinking, if that’s all you got outta the book, you’re an idiot. It’s pretty good advice. Yeah. But I’m thinking if that’s all you got out of it, [00:44:00] then you’re not very smart. Maybe you can’t read, maybe. Maybe you just can’t read. So when I see people bag, specifically other Podiatry or work they’re doing, like I’ve read a lot of other Podiatry business books.
They’ve all been good. I’ve got something outta every single one of ’em. I’ve never read one where I’ve got, oh, this deserves a one star and I’m gonna bag it to bring that person down. I’ve listened to a lot of other podiatrists podcasts and I’ve enjoyed ’em. When I listen to ’em, I’ve enjoyed ’em. I would never bag any of their podcasts.
I’m thinking, you know what? You are actually doing something that others aren’t doing. So I think if you’re thinking about doing something, don’t be scared about what other people bet. The really minority of people that will probably try and tear you down. ’cause they will, the other 99% are gonna support you all the way.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah. Oh, 110%. I mean I even still get it. I have very [00:45:00] much, what’s the word? So I don’t have a master’s, I don’t have a PhD. I have a lot of experience. And I have, which is fantastic and that’s brought me to where I am in life. But I have been at conferences before where I’ve been sat next to doctors.
Yeah. And it’s very much the feeling in the rooms being, well, why are you here? Because you are not at that level. And actually that’s one person’s opinion. The other 300 people who are sat there watching the lecture who think, come up afterwards and say, it’s fantastic. They’re the people that count.
And I always to bring it back to Podiatry. So I used to manage a clinic and I used to manage staff underneath me in terms of Podiatry. And a lot of them were new graduates and they would always get a few bad reviews within the first year. And it would be like two or three people.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Rebecca Rodger: And it’s just part and part of the process.
And some of [00:46:00] them would get really upset and I’d sit them down. I’d go let’s look at the stats. We, on average, are treating 2000 people in a year. If you get two complaints out of 2000, that percentage is so low that the other 1,998 people are absolutely fine then. You have to put it into perspective.
Yeah. And that’s what I always say. Nothing is perfect. There’s not a piece of research out there that’s perfect and can’t be picked apart. However, people are trying their best and as long as your best is reaching to the majority and the majority are liking it, who cares? If somebody has an opinion that doesn’t quite add up to your own, you know it’s not gonna stop you.
It’s not gonna stop you from life. And if anything, it’s probably a good thing because it toughens you, it. It means that when you do hear feedback that isn’t always positive and that is just life, you know how to deal with that. You know how to not take [00:47:00] it really personally or stop it from, affecting your career in the way that you want to go on in that trajectory that you are on.
So I always think it’s quite good to have a little bit of criticism. Oh yeah. I think you need it. It’s just how you handle it. Yeah. And how you put it into perspective.
Tyson E Franklin: Okay. Before we wrap up? Yes. You are, you’re gonna be talking in 2026 at the Foot and Ankle show, third and 4th of March.
Rebecca Rodger: Yeah,
Tyson E Franklin: what’s your topic? I’m
Rebecca Rodger: in, so I will be building on the topic that I did not last year.
’cause I had a baby the year before, which was evidence-based practices in, in Podiatry. So last time we talked about putting the wound hygiene framework and how we can use, utilize that within our own practices. And this year we haven’t quite finalized it yet, but we’ll be looking at probably what’s the latest [00:48:00] up to date research on certain wound dressings and how.
How we can use that to inform our own practice. Which is fantastic ’cause there’s been a lot of research published this year throughout the industry. And hopefully we will be able to inspire some people to think why are they using, the antimicrobial that they’re using, why are they using the dressings that they use?
And maybe even learn a little bit more about what differentiates certain wounds. What’s the difference between A DFU and A VLU and how can that impact healing trajectories as well. Just a little sum up for you, it probably sounds dead boring if you’re not into wound care, but I’m really forward and, told you see me anyway,
Tyson E Franklin: I’ll come and watch and you know how much I love wounds and everyone who listens to this podcast knows I love wounds as well.
But that’s okay. But the foot and ankle show, if you’ve never, if you’re listening to this, you’ve never been to a foot and ankle show before. Definitely go to it. It is [00:49:00] a fantastic couple of days. And I’m talking as well, my talk is gonna be called skills transference and how to learn everything faster That, so yeah.
But it’s, my talk is basically teaching that when you learn certain skills, there’s certain aspects of how you learn and the process of learning that you can then take the next thing you learn.
And once you understand that process, you can then, this is why I could, I was able to take a new graduate, they could ’em start with me and in three months I could have them performing probably at the same level as someone who’d been with me for five years, just, which is really exciting, which, and I used to tell ’em that when they started and they go, oh no, I don’t believe you.
After three months I say. What do you, how do you think you’re going? They go, oh my God, I cannot believe what I’ve learned over that period of time. And that was, and that’s sort of what I’m gonna touch on in my talk. So I’m looking forward to, it should be fun. Oh, it should. And I’m doing my workshop Monday, the 2nd [00:50:00] of March, the Podiatry Marketing Masterclass.
All the details will be on my website and in the show notes. I
Rebecca Rodger: look forward to it. Oh, and we should shout out Tony Gavin for another non-traditional career pathway. Getting into conferencing, putting on the Foot and Ankle Show
Tyson E Franklin: special mention. Yeah, special mention Tony. And he’ll be back. I’ll have him on the podcast again later on in the year to sort of, ’cause by then he’ll have nearly all the speakers lined up.
So I get him to come on and just do another talk about the foot and ankle show as it leads into it. Rebecca, this has been fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you today. This has been fun. I wanna thank you for saying yes so quickly. And,
and yeah, or obviously we’ll see each other next year. We’ll stay in touch and probably get you back on some stage in the future to see what else you’re doing, because I know you’ll probably be doing something else. Amazing.
Rebecca Rodger: Okay. Yeah, research never [00:51:00] stops.
Tyson E Franklin: Okay. So thank you very much.
Rebecca Rodger: Thank you. Bye.