Running a podiatry clinic shouldn’t come at the expense of your health, happiness, or home life. Yet far too many practitioners are running on empty, juggling long hours, heavy patient loads, and the constant pressure to keep their businesses afloat.
In this week’s episode, I spoke with Daniel Monteleone, the owner of Proactive Health and Movement in Geelong, Victoria. Daniel’s outlook is refreshing: he’s built a business model that values wellbeing just as much as revenue, proving that a healthy practitioner really does lead to a healthy business.
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Redefining the Workweek
Daniel encourages his podiatrists to work a 25-hour consulting week, supported by structured mentoring, team meetings, and personal development time.
At first glance, that sounds like a reduction in productivity, but it’s actually the opposite. His clinicians show up energised, focused, and engaged — which leads to better patient care, stronger retention, and a thriving clinic culture.
He realised early on that long days, missed workouts, and late nights of documentation weren’t sustainable. By re-engineering the schedule, he created a system where everyone wins — patients, practitioners, and the business itself.
Healthy Practitioners Create Healthy Businesses
We often discuss the importance of patient wellbeing, but how often do we address the wellbeing of practitioners? Burnout, fatigue, and frustration are quietly eroding our profession.
Daniel and his wife, who co-founded the clinic, recognised that the health industry is full of unhealthy professionals. So they made well-being a core business value, not an afterthought. Their team trains together, supports each other, and genuinely enjoys being part of the clinic community.
That’s not luck; it’s design. Culture doesn’t happen by accident — it’s built by intention, structure, and shared purpose.
Mentorship and Psychological Safety
One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation was the emphasis on mentorship.
Daniel ensures that his team has regular shadowing sessions, honest feedback, and a psychologically safe space in which to learn and make mistakes. When practitioners feel supported, they don’t just perform better, they stay longer.
It’s a leadership lesson every clinic owner can learn from: success isn’t about micromanaging numbers; it’s about creating an environment where people can grow.
Tradition, Connection and Team Culture
What struck me most was how Daniel intentionally builds connections into his business. From morning huddles to team days and informal catch-ups, his clinic thrives on authentic relationships. Those social bonds are the glue that holds great teams together.
As he said in the episode, “If you’ve got no time, what’s the point?” A simple truth many business owners forget. Your team can only pour into others when their own cups are full.
Takeaway for Every Podiatrist
Whether you’re an employer or employee, ask yourself:
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Do I have the right balance between patient care and self-care?
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Am I creating or working in an environment that supports growth and wellbeing?
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Am I measuring success purely in dollars — or in fulfilment, health, and happiness too?
If the answers make you pause, this episode is worth your time.
If this episode resonates with you, take action.
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Revisit your clinic structure and ask whether it truly supports your wellbeing.
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Share this episode with your team and start a conversation about balance and culture.
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If you’d like help creating a podiatry business that supports both profit and peace of mind, visit tysonfranklin.com to learn more about my business coaching and upcoming workshops.
Because the truth is simple: when practitioners are healthy, the business thrives.
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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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 design to help you feel, see, think differently about the podiatry profession. With me today is Daniel Monteleone. He owns Proactive Health and Movement in Geelong, Victoria, and we connected with each other back in 2021.
When Daniel sent me a message and said, I just listened to episode 1 41 and it was 10 meat smoking tips that also apply to your podiatry business, so if you miss that one, go back and have a listen, especially if you like smoking meat. So Daniel, welcome to the podcast.
Daniel Monteleone: Thanks so much Tyson. Thanks for having me on today. I am looking forward to being a part of the show and following in the footsteps of a few of our podiatrists who’ve been on the show before.
Tyson E Franklin: No, no guests I’ve had so far has let me down. And I don’t think we’ve already chatting beforehand, so I already know you’re not gonna let me down either.
And we’ve got some really interesting stuff to cover, which I think this is gonna become a very popular episode. [00:01:00] But I just wanna go back to the 10 meat smoking tips that are to your podiatry business. Did it help you, smoke meat better, or did it help you with the podiatry business?
Daniel Monteleone: Mate, let’s say both. I’m still learning about smoking meat, which I think was part of the flavor of the episode that you never stop learning.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: And applying that back to what we do in clinic, , every day about providing better healthcare and helping people better is what really turns around and drives business too.
So still learning about smoking meat and still learning every day in clinic.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, that’s the funny part. When I reached out to you, I think my message was, Hey Daniel, are you still smoking meat? And by the way, would you like to come on the podcast?
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah. Yes to both.
Tyson E Franklin: But what caught my attention when, I’m not quite sure where you had posted the ad, but , you had an ad going to employ a podiatrist and how you described the position.
I read through it and I went, now that’s how an ad should be written. You haven’t found anyone yet, I dunno. [00:02:00] But explain the ad, how you wrote it, what was the thinking behind it?
Daniel Monteleone: The search is on, , we’re looking for a great person to join our team. Look we’ve got a role on offer, , and with what we have on offer, it comes back to what we do in the clinic every day.
So, all clinics are out there at the moment trying to offer everything they can to recruit a star employee. What’s I’m gonna say special about our clinic is that we’ve got some really amazing people that are part of the team. You’re probably gonna hear that everywhere. Yeah. Our. Our clinic’s been around for almost nine years, and we’ve got so many team members now that have been there for, over seven years, over six years, over five years.
Team’s just grown and has stayed together. There’s this real feeling of trust and respect around the clinic, which I think is really important and. We’re fortunate in a way that we’ve learned so much. Both my co-founder and I. My co-founder is also my wife who’s [00:03:00] got a background in management and also finance.
Oh, that’s helpful. Blending that together has been super helpful in our clinic. We’re very deliberate in how we present. So many things for a role. But the key thing that differentiates our clinic is that we encourage our practitioners to seriously consider a 25 hour consulting week.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: And that allows for them to be healthy and that allows them to be happy. Which we had a bit of a turning point where we looked around at some time and thought, gosh, there’s a lot of people in healthcare that just aren’t healthy. There’s
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, true.
Daniel Monteleone: There’s a lot of statistics on people being burnt out, relationship breakdown addiction psychological problems that the people are working on because they’re just giving so much day in, day out.
And I don’t think that’s healthy. So we sat down and looked at it and thought, well, from a structural point of view, what can we do in our clinic? It’s great to try and, tell people that we’re great people and it’s, we try [00:04:00] and present an image, but day to day what is the structure in the clinic like to actually allow for that health?
And the vast majority of our team have chosen to operate that way. And, for example, today I’m doing this podcast. I’ve been up this morning. I’ve been to the gym. I’ve been at home helping out with the family and kids. Yeah. I’ll do this podcast, I’ll do some admin. My clinical day will start at one o’clock.
And for me that’s just a fantastic lifestyle. Conversely, tomorrow I’ll go into work at eight o’clock and I’ll walk out the door at one o’clock. So, I think when you’ve got that flexibility in life, it allows for that social cohesion at work. It allows for that looking after each other, that respect and that long-term relationship and just.
Not being exhausted. We’ve got more to give.
Tyson E Franklin: So do you offer everybody that comes and works with you the same thing? Is it like a five hour shift that they’re doing each time?
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah, so all practitioners will be offered that there are pathways there for people that if they wanna explore outside of that, it’s possible.
But the vast majority of our practitioners work that way. And I’m gonna say really happy that way [00:05:00] personally and like many examples across the team. But there’s no reason why you can’t have. An extremely healthy, very full diary priority list of people that are wanting to see you, fantastic income, fantastic remuneration which allows for that lifestyle.
But if you’ve got no time, what’s the point? If you’re exhausted, what’s the point? So I think with this kind of structure it really allows for people to enjoy it. Yeah. Well, one
Tyson E Franklin: of the earlier episodes I did, it was a two part thing why I left podiatry and I interviewed a whole pile of podiatrist that had left the profession and asked them why.
The number one thing other than the head bosses that weren’t really the best. They were burnt out. Some of them they were working, 38, 40 hour weeks, which as a business owner doesn’t seem like a lot, but for an employee, that’s what you’d work. But they weren’t taking account. Sometimes they were traveling an hour.
One way to go to a clinic. They’d work a full eight hour shift and then have to drive an hour back again, and it was, they no exercise. Getting home late. [00:06:00] Sometimes kids were in bed before they got home and you’re doing this five days a week, and then by the time they got the weekends, they just wanted to rest and over a period of time and they weren’t enjoying the job.
The work that was given to ’em was pretty much all the work that the owners of the business didn’t want to do, and then they wonder why people leave the profession.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah, I’ve certainly had my experience of that. I’ve been consulting now for just around 20 years. The start of my career, that was really normal.
That’s what you did. Yeah. There were times, depending on the time of the year, you’d get up in the morning, it’s dark, you get in the car, you work all day, you help a whole bunch of people. You’re exhausted. You get in the car, it’s dark, you drive home you go to sleep, you repeat all over again.
I think I remember that shock to the system. Being a university student and like study was certainly challenging. Being at uni was certainly challenging back in the the days as well before anything being online. So I still felt like I had some kind of freedom in my breaks at university. I’d be in the gym.[00:07:00]
I, I’d be connecting with my friends. I had that sense of having a well-balanced life and then straight into clinical practice and there’s this feeling of exhaustion, we’re not conditioned to it. Yeah. And there’s an element of sink or swim. And I remember being really shocked and horrified to hear how many of my fellow students six months, 12 months down, you’d hear around the traps or so-and-so’s no longer working in podiatry.
Did you hear that this person’s now doing something else? I thought, wow, isn’t that just unbelievable? And it, it didn’t take long two, three years down the track. There wasn’t many of us left still practicing. I think for the ones that have, they’ve found a way to make it work for them and then influence it in a way that’s working for them, but.
For myself, I don’t want anyone who joins our team to feel that. I certainly want them to feel embraced and looked after and shown the way. Given examples of this is how you do it, this is how you make it work for you, this is how you can still help a lot, but then also have a lot in return. And I think in [00:08:00] anything when you’ve got that win-win.
Everyone wins, right? So if you’ve got a win-loss situation, people start looking at it and go, well, geez, I’ve gotta change something ’cause this isn’t working. And I think for all those people pleasers and people that give so much out there that don’t make that call, sadly, they’re the ones that stay in it and they just give so much.
And the health deteriorates so many things around the deteriorate. I think collectively as a whole it’s time for us to look at it and say, well, what can we do?
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, we, yeah. Well, that’s it, the profession. Needs to make changes if they wanna keep people in the profession. But you’re saying like, say a 25 hour work week, are they still getting paid the same?
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah. So, if you’ve got someone who’s working in a clinic all day and there’s an element of admin time or downtime,
Tyson E Franklin: yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: I’m gonna say at the end of the day, the remuneration is gonna be the same, if not similar. If you’ve got that practitioner working absolutely 38 hours a week, and they’re seeing clients for that full 38 hours a week.
What’s the cost of that in the long run? And is there a [00:09:00] way where, again, if you come back to win-win, is there a way where you can work less consulting, you are valuing yourself at a higher level. You’re maybe asking your clients to pay a higher rate. Yes. ‘Cause you are. Offering your full, dedicated self, not your exhausted self, your full, healthy, happy self?
I think that there’s a way to do that and our clinic is proof that it can happen. But every clinic is also different. So you know that someone needs to sit down and look at the numbers, look at what’s available there for the team, look at if it is actually possible. We’ve found a way in our clinic to be able to offer that.
And yeah, it’s working very well.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, like I know some of my coaching clients, when I first started working with them, they’re working so many hours, and we sat down and looked at the type of patients they were seeing what they were charging, looking at the numbers, and then started crunching saying, well if you move this around and you change this, you can make more and actually do less hours.
And I’ve got some that are [00:10:00] doing two or three times more than they were when I first met them and working far less. Having more holidays, time off they’re actually become a very attractive employer. People want to come and work for them, which then allows them more time to step back and just manage and look after the team.
So I think that, I think the healthy approach to running a business, and if you’re someone who’s looking for a job, trying to find that type of work where you’re not just a podiatrist wearing a hat and they’re just flogging you to death with patients. They’re actually, they care about you and your wellbeing as well.
Daniel Monteleone: I’d agree with that strongly and say that’s key. If we do look at, okay, how is that 12 and a half hours across the week, split up and used, some of that is gonna be one-on-one meeting time with a mentor.
Some of that is gonna be team meeting time. Some of that is professional development time. We have shadowing sessions quite regularly where you’re gonna have people around the team, whether they be from the same or a different discipline, sitting in, leaning in, trying to coach [00:11:00] and guide.
We’ll have team alignment days where we close the clinic twice a year and we take the whole team out for professional development, learning and social connection. And then there’s all those social things that just happen naturally when we’ve got that downtime. I think what’s been the most lovely thing for me as a clinic owner and an employer has been watching the.
The connections and the relationships flourish around the team. Hearing, we’ll have a huddle in the morning where we get together and catch up before the day gets started and we’ll hear that a few of the team members have been out that night. They went for a run together. Yeah. Or there might be something else that just happens where, a group of people get together and go on a camping trip or go out surfing.
I think that’s what really makes me happy is seeing that there is that growth for that. Social relationship. And look, that’s what makes us happy. There, there’s so many studies on connectedness and how important that is for humans to feel happy. And, if you look at the opposite of that it’s feeling pretty sad and being depressed when you’ve [00:12:00] got that structure there that allows for that.
I personally can’t imagine working in a different way now.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. It’s funny, the clinics I know that are quite successful. Where the business owner, like yourself seems extremely happy and healthy are the same ones that do less, if that makes any sense. They actually take time out of the office and they do things together, or they’ll block out days where I’ve been, I’ve done a few like leadership and creativity days where I’ve gone into a clinic and I structured this whole day where we’re just doing all this creative learning.
Everyone is just bouncing off the walls at the end of the day. And when I talk to the business owner, they get the feedback from everybody. It just recharges them. And I think clinics that don’t do that type of thing, I don’t think they realize how much it’s actually a benefit for the team and for themselves.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah I think doing less. Maybe I’d use language like understanding where to dedicate your time.
Tyson E Franklin: [00:13:00] Yeah.
Oh, ’cause she said they do 25 hours clinical, but then they do a certain amount of hours that you do have them doing things together around the clinic.
Daniel Monteleone: For sure. Yeah. It certainly works for us.
I think now I probably, if I look at how much I pour in, I’m gonna say I, I do more. But it’s really in a different way. I do less with clients one-on-one. And I do more with the direction of the entire clinic, the direction of the team. And collectively as one person I can only do so much.
But across the team with multiple team members, we’re all helping in a way. That’s how we can do more and contribute more.
Tyson E Franklin: I did a post just recently in Facebook about dichotomy of pain and function, and it was in Facebook group podiatry business owners club. If you are not a member, jump over there.
Daniel Monteleone: Yep.
Tyson E Franklin: And, but there was another one where I’m gonna do a post soon, so it’ll probably be out before this episode comes out. And it’s just talking about the clinician versus the business owner the dichotomy between the two. And you can’t be both at exactly the same time. [00:14:00] When you’re a clinician, you need to be a clinician.
You can’t be thinking about the business. When you are thinking about the business. You can’t be thinking about the patients that you’re treating. So there’s that. There’s that balance and dichotomy between the two of them where they can both work, but just not at exactly the same time.
Daniel Monteleone: It’s so important and where do we learn that?
So I, I could tell you how on this
Tyson E Franklin: podcast,
Daniel Monteleone: but where do we learn that? And, I think I’ve often felt myself in clinical practice, I’m a teacher a lot of the time with my clients, but I really feel these days when it comes to team members I’m a teacher so much all day, every day.
We see that people come in at different levels of clinical practice. Maybe they’ve been working for three or four years maybe they’re fresh from university and they’re a new graduate. And there’s this element of, oh God, I’ve gotta learn.
That university diploma or that cert that we got, that we hang up on the wall.
It really isn’t everything. There’s so much more to learn and I’ve learned so [00:15:00] much from being in different clinics, from the mentors in my life. I’ve learned so much through paid mentorship. I’ve learned so much through relationship. And all of those things come together to influence me to help lead the team every day.
I just get this overwhelming sense of just teaching constantly. And where you’ve got team members that really wanna learn and they see that learning is constantly being shared. They’re your best friends. They’re just there all the time. They’re like, how can I let me help? And in return, they’re learning, they’re developing, and we’re all moving forwards together.
We’re all helping people in our community. It feels good.
Tyson E Franklin: There’s a couple of things there. One, like I always say to people that we don’t come outta the womb knowing this stuff. We just, we’re all the same when we come out. But if you’re gonna have a business or you wanna be a better podiatrist, you have to genuinely have an interest in wanting to become better in that particular area.
So if you want to be a better podiatrist, you’ve gotta put the time and effort in to become a better podiatrist. If you wanna be a better business owner, you’ve got to get mentors, whether they’re. [00:16:00] People you work with, whether it’s paid mentors, the knowledge doesn’t come naturally. You have to go searching for it.
And I think if you’re a business owner and you wanna be a better business owner, you have to put the time and effort in to become a better business owner
Daniel Monteleone: for sure. And I think mentorship is. If you don’t have a real active working relationship with someone where you’ve got a mentor or you are a mentor it can be really scary.
I remember realizing I had a knowledge gap and I thought, oh my God, I’ve got a lot to learn here. Yeah, this is a problem. And. I needed to go on the journey of looking for people that might be out there to help me. Whether that be, I’ve gotta do a certain amount of courses, or I might need to find someone that I trust and work under them.
But that feeling of not knowing oh my God, I need a change. Where am I gonna go? What I’m gonna, what am I gonna do? And you naturally just start scrolling through job offers. Yeah. Wishing and hoping that someone’s gonna talk to you. The reality is that, there’s an element of trust that’s needed in any mentorship [00:17:00] situation.
We need to have trust. We need to have honesty and real conversation, and we’ve gotta have accountability. And you can’t just go out and get that. It’s really hard to know where to go looking. To find that because if you haven’t got that trust and that psychological safety at the core of it, no one’s gonna learn anything.
No one’s gonna be able to pass on knowledge. So, your environment matters so much. Entering into a relationship a little scared is diff is difficult ’cause you’re not gonna learn in that environment. Trying to build that safety and that environment so that people actually have the opportunity to learn.
I think in reflection has been the most biggest lesson for me. And we’re always thinking about it, like, how can we provide this safe environment at work so that our team members are continually learning, they’re leveling up, they’re becoming leaders, and then they’re influencing in their own way. Without that psychological safety and that trust at the core of all of it in reflection I can see why I didn’t learn in other environments, and I can really see why those [00:18:00] mentors stood out for me.
And I’m getting chills just kind of saying
Tyson E Franklin: Well, I was talking to a yesterday, was that a, yesterday I was talking to a first year podiatrist student at one of the universities. I know he listens to the podcast, but I encourage students to reach out to people who have been in the profession for a long time and ask for advice.
So he was asking me, what advice would you give me as a first year podiatrist student? And I said to him, well, first of all, don’t do what I did. Don’t just cruise on through. Don’t stir people up. , I pretty much told him not to do what I did as a student and as a new graduate, but also told him, look for podiatrists.
Listen to the podcast. If there’s podiatrist that you hear and you go, I think I could learn a lot from them. I said, reach out to them now while you’re a student. Dig the well before you need the water. Make these connections. Because then when you graduate, if you already have a relationship with these people and they’re looking for someone you will already know, that’s a person I [00:19:00] want to actually work with.
And then be really targeted with where you want to work and what you think you’re going to learn. And it is one of those things where we. Constantly need to be giving back, but also think students and new podiatrists coming through have gotta be looking for those for good mentors.
Daniel Monteleone: So Ripper advice makes me think of when I was 15 years old, I dropped outta high school and I thought. I’m gonna do whatever I want. I’m gonna do really well here. And very quickly the world humbled me. And I went from job to job thinking that, someone was basically gonna look after me and holy hell did I learn a lot real quick.
So I went back to school and I realized that we’re all on this track. School’s the same for a lot of people. I thought it was really interesting when the careers teacher said, go choose one place and stay there for two weeks, and then after that decide what you’re gonna do. Yeah. I thought, I’ve just had a whole year off and done all sorts of things and I’ve realized none of them were gonna work out for me, so what the hell am I gonna do Now?[00:20:00]
It put me in a position to go, actually, I’m gonna take a bit more ownership here. And I spent a couple of hours with an optometrist, with an osteopath, with a physiotherapist, a podiatrist. I just, I knew I was interested in healthcare at that point. And it gave me the ability to make an informed decision, and I think at university.
We’ve also got people on the same track. You can stay that course and you can work it out at the end, or you can go and make connections like you’ve suggested a lot earlier on. And that just gives people knowledge. Yeah, no decisions have to be made. The right people will emerge. The right relationships will emerge for you.
And I think that works both ways. It usually works really well for the student. It also works extremely well. Like for the clinic owner when we get. People reaching out in our clinic, everyone gets excited, the admin team and the client experience team get really excited.
The practice manager gets excited. All the other team members get excited and often we’ll have them come in and everyone wants to get to know them and share what they can ’cause they remember being there. And I think we get really excited by people that do take that [00:21:00] action. Because often that’s the thing that makes a difference as a practitioner, and that’s Oh,
Tyson E Franklin: huge
Daniel Monteleone: thing that makes a difference in life.
If you go and take action usually you, you got a high chance of getting what you want.
Tyson E Franklin: And that’s what I was telling him. I said, if you’re looking for part-time work, go and get a job at like the Athlete’s Foot or one of those larger companies. I said, because one, you’re gonna learn communication skills, you’re gonna learn sales skills.
And I know people hear sales and go, Ugh, but. It’s just communication. I said, but you’ll learn how to follow systems. That said, all that is very valuable information. I said, plus you’re learning about footwear, which is a valuable skill to have when you graduate. And then he actually asked me, he said, how come you’ve never spoken at any podiatrist conferences in Australia?
And I said, ’cause exactly what I just told you before. I said I didn’t dig the well before I needed the water. I didn’t make connections when I was a student. When I got out, I didn’t have much to do with the association. I said, don’t do what I did. , [00:22:00] Plus the people at the universities, the people in the associations and the board.
I said, they’re all interrelated if you stir up the wrong people. You get a black mark against your name. You don’t want to do that. So do everything that I didn’t do. Don’t do what I did. , Just do the right thing. Be involved. Join the association if you need to go to the conferences.
Even as a student, okay, meet people and start building your career now. Don’t wait till you graduate and don’t stir out people.
Daniel Monteleone: All great advice. But I want, Tyson, I don’t think you’ve got a black mark against your name according to me, mate. So,
Tyson E Franklin: well what? ’cause he said, oh, I know that you’ve spoken in America, you’ve spoken in Canada, you spoke over, you speak in England.
You’ve, I’ve talked to students at the California podiatrist school, high school students in Wisconsin said. But you never do anything in Australia. And I went, I said, it’s a long, it’s a long dark story. I’ve gotten wiser as I’ve gotten older.
Daniel Monteleone: Well, that’s what we want.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. And I think that’s the thing.
That’s what [00:23:00] I like now is, especially when a student reaches out to me, is just reminding ’em, why did you choose podiatry? What is it you want to get out of it? Really start thinking about your career now. Don’t wait until, don’t just be a student for four years and then graduate and go, oh, now I need to go and find a job.
I said, you could be hunting these jobs down as a student.
Daniel Monteleone: It’s so hard, isn’t it? I think, I wonder what I would’ve said when I was a second year student, if I had, have listened to this podcast and then someone would’ve said, Hey, why don’t you do that? I probably would’ve gone out. Yeah. But yeah you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta sit with that information and then have the confidence and the ability to go out and make that call and.
Sometimes you’re not used to that. You haven’t got the experience. It was hard enough to finish high school and then go on to university. But usually if you do go and act like that, you’re gonna learn something. You’re gonna learn that the environment is. Something that you are, you’re not wanting to be a part of.
Maybe that’s the clinic that you don’t really want to continue developing the relationship with. Or maybe you might find a [00:24:00] relationship that changes the whole course of your career and potentially your whole life. Which
Tyson E Franklin: yeah,
Daniel Monteleone: That’s a pretty good odds if all it takes is to go out and make a bit of contact to see what happens.
There’s lots of upside.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Well, that was the other thing I said even, you just reaching out to me now through my website and organizing to have a chat with me. That took balls to do that. He goes, oh, I was, he says, I was actually quite nervous to do it. I said, but you did it.
I said, the main thing is that you actually did it. And I encourage all students reach out to people and just keep learning. But also what you think you like about podiatrist now you don’t know until you see more of podiatry. So you might say, oh, I love sports and biomechanics.
I used to always say I just wanna work with elite athletes until I worked with elite athletes.
Daniel Monteleone: I love that,
Tyson E Franklin: but I still, but I always had an interest in sports biomechanics and orthotics. It was just an interest I had as I went through. That never changed, but I know other people that [00:25:00] love high risk feet, but ended up loving bio mechanics. Other people that loved biomechanics ended up moving over to high risk feet.
So don’t block out. What you think you might like now, be open to all aspects of the, of what the profession can offer.
Daniel Monteleone: Great advice. Strongly agree.
Tyson E Franklin: So let’s get on to, so this has been fantastic. I, this has actually been one of my favorite episodes so far.
Daniel Monteleone: Awesome.
Tyson E Franklin: Only because it’s, so we’re just talking about positive, uplifting stuff, but I wanna mention to people too that you’re not just a podiatrist, you’re a strength and conditioning coach.
You’re a clinical Pilates instructor. Wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at you. I dunno why I said that.
Daniel Monteleone: Offense taken.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, that’s good. But your clinic, you have podiatrists in your clinic, you have physiotherapists, and you also have psychologists working in your business. Let’s talk about that a little bit.
Daniel Monteleone: Okay. Well, probably the journey starts maybe just talking about what we’re talking about at the end of the previous convo where, I thought I knew what I liked in podiatry. I thought I knew what I didn’t like. Yeah. [00:26:00] And I remember once upon a time thinking, yeah people that have painful conditions that just don’t get better straight away.
Yeah, I don’t like that. And the reason I didn’t like it now looking back, was I didn’t have the skills to navigate it. I felt very uncomfortable when a person returned and they were still struggling with pain. And I didn’t know what to do often in the end, I’d refer on to the more senior practitioner who was either in the clinic or in another clinic.
And I just simply didn’t know how to help. That’s important because I had a time in my life where I got hurt and the injury led to me not being able to walk for a good six months. Yeah. I spent a long time in rehabilitation. I spent a long time bouncing around between different practitioners that
Tyson E Franklin: What was the injury?
Daniel Monteleone: So I did a LIsfranc injury in my right foot. I broke eight bones there, and then as I tried to return, I developed a hip injury, which required a hip reconstruction.
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, Jesus.
Daniel Monteleone: So, yeah, it was a long road. It really confronted me because I realized that I. I knew more than most, and I [00:27:00] didn’t know enough to help myself.
I also knew that the people that I’d entrusted, the ones that I thought were very experienced I went to them for help and they were all scratching their heads. And so I developed, chronic pain and all the things that come along with that. You’ve got all the financial stress, you’ve got all the psychological stress.
So, in the end, I worked with a great group of practitioners that helped me. Very quickly. It was very eye-opening to see how much I learned in such a short amount of time, how my pain changed and how my function returned. And I was back at work and I was, remember driving to work, feeling so happy on my first day, driving back to work.
I probably hadn’t had that feeling of happiness. Driving to work before, probably get up, rub the eyes in the morning. I was just so grateful to be back and I was so grateful to get my health back. I was so grateful for. My future and the question marks that evolved around my future during that time.
So that opened my eyes to the bio-psychosocial lens of health. That helped me understand the importance of working with multiple practitioners. The importance of how physios and [00:28:00] podiatrists can work together, and especially how psychologists can fit into that picture and the importance of the nervous system for people that recovering from conditions, but the importance of psychology and our nervous system, and how all of our environments are geared up for success.
Or gearing us probably towards having some likely issues. So it’s informed me as a practitioner it’s helped me enjoy my work and give so much. I love it. And it’s also had huge influences on the clinic. Everything that we do, we think about it through a psychological and a nervous system lens so that we can be happier and healthier.
That’s the point.
Tyson E Franklin: So with your psychologist on site, do you, . Have time with a psychologist as well just talking about things or they come in and talk about mindset, positive thinking.
Daniel Monteleone: Constantly. I’d say a whole team talks about mindset and critical thinking. The joke that we probably have around the clinic amongst the podiatrist and physio team is that in our own way, we’re all pseudos psychologists with every single one of our [00:29:00] clients that walks through.
And that’s just ’cause you can’t separate, your psychology from any kind of interaction. That’s just the way that it is. But yes we learn quite a bit from the team. We share information across the team. I think it’s helped our podiatrist and physio team and our client experience team be so aware of how psychology impacts everything.
But also for our psychology team, it’s helped them understand how the client experience and how podiatry and physio can gear up and influence people and still also influence psychology for clients that are coming in primarily as psychology clients. We’re looking at whole health. That’s the whole point.
Yeah. It’s meant to be holistic. But I’m pleased to say that I know what that is these days. It’s not just a word. We see it in clinic all day, every day.
Tyson E Franklin: I love reading about psychology stuff. I, when I do my marketing workshops
, when I do any of my business seminars, I introduce a little bit because it’s such an important part of what we do. So I think actually having psychologists as part of your team [00:30:00] is a brilliant idea. I think podiatrist will hear us and go can I get one?
Daniel Monteleone: It helps. And they’ve gotta be the right fit.
The clinic’s gotta,
Tyson E Franklin: yeah. Oh, definitely
Daniel Monteleone: be set up well. But yeah, it can be brilliant combination.
I’d say that our team constantly considering. Where each other are at. I know that when I’m feeling like I’ve got a bit on my plate our entire team will know that and often they’ll say, Hey how can I help? They’ll be aware of that. And in return, right across the team from leadership down, we’re always looking to help, but just having that consideration for someone else and where their psychology might be at is really important.
And I think a really important part of just showing other people that you care, which. If I think back to again, the start of my career, probably the element that was missing. I was a practitioner off in a room by myself a lot of the time. Just checking in on people. Having that guidance, that mentorship, that showing that you care is extremely important.
Tyson E Franklin: , Whenever I talk about [00:31:00] numbers you need to understand the numbers of your business and the KPIs. Some employees here that can go, oh, you’re just one of those employees that all you care about is numbers. But what they don’t understand, what numbers show is I could have a podiatrist working with me and I could look at their numbers.
It could be very consistent week after week, month after month, and all of a sudden their numbers drop. Now when their numbers drop, that’s an indication that there’s something going on. And I remember a person working with me and all of a sudden I noticed their numbers dropped two weeks consistently. I went, that’s odd because.
Everything else has been the same. So I pulled ’em aside and said, look, I noticed the numbers dropped. What’s, is there something going on in your life that I’m unaware of that you want to talk about? And they explained that they were trying to have a child and it had fallen through the second time. I didn’t know the first time.
And there was a lot of emotional baggage that was happening at home that was coming into work and it was affecting them . So I said, have a couple of [00:32:00] days off. Spend time with your wife and just chill out came back. Numbers back up again. So numbers aren’t all about punishment.
Numbers are about understanding the psychology sometimes or what’s happening with your team.
Daniel Monteleone: For sure. Numbers are so important and I recall also at the start of my career being extremely defensive around us. And again, there wasn’t much psychological safety or trust there for me to understand that.
When we have that and someone’s teaching us and we learn in a safe environment, it’s, there’s so much there in, in data. That’s why it’s so important in sports. That’s why it’s so important in business. And I think sometimes psychologically we separate healthcare. And numbers or healthcare and business.
But when we look through that lens of, Hey, as long as we help people and we help them , the numbers typically take care of themselves. And looking at your data helps you understand your own behavior and then go, okay, how can I change or influence my own behavior to help people more? And in turn, that just helps me more.
Tyson E Franklin: And the [00:33:00] employers that are using numbers as punishment are using them the wrong way. I think you do need to look at your numbers and make sure the business is always tracking, right, and things are improving year after year, especially if you’ve had a fee increase. So you should expect certain numbers to improve, but they shouldn’t only be used just to pull people up for doing the wrong thing or punishing ’em in some way.
There’s so many ways that you can actually use numbers in a positive aspect.
Daniel Monteleone: Probably talking about leadership again and how we can influence people to create some kind of change in behavior and understanding the why behind things. When we’re leading in a way with education and safety and understanding often people are more willing to look into the data and look into the numbers.
People are feeling like there’s some kind of consequence. They’re not being coached. They’re maybe just being held accountable and there’s blame in their direction. Usually that’s a bit of a flag that that might be a better environment out there for you or that maybe a tricky conversation is worth having so that you can share how you’re feeling if you’re on the other side of [00:34:00] that.
Tyson E Franklin: I always tell people, don’t leave jobs before you leave the profession. I think if you are, if you’re not happy where you’re working, have a really honest conversation with your employer and let them know you’re not happy and what you’re not happy about. And then see if you can fix it. And if you can fix it, then you’ll find your, you’ll stay.
But if you can’t fix it, then I don’t believe in breaking contracts. But I think as soon as your contract ends, go and find another position before you think about changing professions.
Daniel Monteleone: Sure. I’ve had so many phone calls from people that don’t even work in our clinic. But I’ve met along the way and say, Hey, can you help me with this?
Gimme some advice on this. And usually the first thing I’ll say is, have you even spoken to your employer? Have you had a conversation about this?
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: And often just talking about it can lead to a place of learning where either there’s a good outcome or a not so good outcome, but at least you gave it the chance.
And you’ve probably learned along the way, you’ve developed some skills along the way. There, there’s always other things out there. But I think just [00:35:00] understanding your environment or influencing your environment to be something that is healthy for you is the way that we all, in my experience, should be going about it.
It’s worked very well for us.
Tyson E Franklin: So there’s something else I wanna point out too, that you were a finalist for podiatrist of the year 2020 and 2021. You should apply again . you’ll win.
Daniel Monteleone: Thanks so much. I appreciate that. The, those two years the competition was it was so cool actually.
I went up there with one of our psychologists to, to the last event and we sat there looking around the room, just going, just some really great people in this room.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: So the podiatrist that of. Over the years, I think have set a really fantastic example and show via their own action, this is how you can do good and achieve really good things.
And I’m so thrilled that the awards exist and provide a platform for people to be recognized and for people to look up and aspire to say here’s something for me to aim for or seek. Some kind of connection with these people to see what I can continue to learn. So yeah, very cool to [00:36:00] be a part of it.
I appreciate kind words, Tyson.
Tyson E Franklin: I think entering awards too is such a good thing for your business and for yourself. I know when we went in the Telstra Small Business Awards, and just going through that process and reflecting on your clinic and what you do and why you do certain things and answering the questions and then having the interviews.
With the judges. Even when we’re sitting there, they were gonna say who was gonna win? We didn’t really care whether we won or not because we thought just being there in the finals and going through that process, we learned so much about our business. Now we’ll point out we won that year, but hey,
Daniel Monteleone: that’s awesome.
Tyson E Franklin: But I know a number of podiatrists that have gone in over the years and have won it. And they’ve all said the same thing. Just going through the process of entering an award, you learn so much about yourself, so I recommend that to everyone .
So with the uh, podiatrist of the year award, what’s the process? How are you nominated by someone? Do you nominate yourself? [00:37:00] How’s that work?
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah, so for the years that I was involved nomination takes place. Believe you can also self nominate and then. Much like the Telstra Business Awards, there’ll be an element of questions, answers that need to be completed.
And then over, over the course, it gets narrowed down and you identify who the finalists are. Eventually you make your way to the event which is really cool. Really want to tip my hat to the organizers. The event do a really good job. And on the night the the winner is announced, which is always very exciting.
Tyson E Franklin: Do they move it around each year? Is it in different states or is it always in the same place?
Daniel Monteleone: No, it does move around, which also makes it really interesting and exciting.
Tyson E Franklin: Have to go along one year,, i’ve heard it’s a fun night.
Daniel Monteleone: I highly recommend it. I think just sitting in the room, like again, going through the process, you tend to learn a lot about yourself, but then seeing the event, hearing from other people who have been involved or who potentially have won the event, it’s just so interesting to see people leading in their own way in different ways. Our clinic’s also been nominated [00:38:00] for its own space. Yeah. What it does as a clinic and just seeing how other people, other clinics do things you tend to learn. It’s really good.
Tyson E Franklin: Well, I think you should nominate again.
Oh, really? Because I’ll probably, you’ll probably find, oh, that’s four years ago, 2021 you have probably changed so much as an employer, as a business over the last four years that I think you should just go for it.
Daniel Monteleone: That’s a good point. We have changed a lot. If I think about.
Gosh, the amount of things that have changed in that time. Yeah, it’s incredible. We’re constantly evolving, constantly learning. Yeah you might gimme something to think about there, Tyson. Appreciate it.
Tyson E Franklin: It’s one of those things that I think every year you should reflect on year and reflect on your past years and just realize how far you’ve come.
I know when I had my first clinic on the Gold Coast, and I look back at that now and I go, oh, it was so ordinary. I mean, so ordinary. I see pod clinics opening up today that look exactly the same as mine did in [00:39:00] 1989, and I’m thinking you could do better. Yeah. No. There’s so much more.
The other thing I usually tell new graduates too, is when you graduate, don’t work for yourself. Go and work somewhere else for a couple years. Save some money and then when you go to open up a clinic, open up a good clinic, not one that’s just held together with string and sticky tape .
Daniel Monteleone: I can’t imagine not changing. I can’t imagine not learning. And you’ve made me think of something which I had a good chuckle at. I’ve got a very good friend who I’ve known for many years. We’ve known each other since we were in our teen years, and once a year we get together and often there’ll be some kind of video where we will hold it up and say, all right, tell me what’s happened this year.
And so, we’ll talk into the video and share all the things that have happened personally and professionally. And it’s hilarious now to watch back when the memories pop up or you get that video year on year. And you can just see. What you said.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: What you talked about, how you’re even communicating and what you think is important at that time and how much things have changed.
We’ve been doing that for many years now, and it’s, [00:40:00] it gives me a good chuckle. It’s amazing when you are moving and things are changing, just how much things can change.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. I do two things. One, I have a brain book, which I’ve been doing every year since the 14th, April, 2000, so 25 years.
And I started a new book every year. And in that book, it’s not like, dear diary, it’s just thoughts, ideas, observations. If I go to a conference, I wrote all my notes down in that particular book. So at the end of the year, so here’s my brain book. This year’s one, my 2025 brain book.
Daniel Monteleone: Nice.
Tyson E Franklin: And yeah, and I just write a whole pile of different stuff in there and I go back and look at some of my books from.
15 years ago, or 20 years ago, and ideas and thoughts that I had and I go, you really had no idea, did you? But the other thing I do, which is great, and my wife and daughter do it now too, they’ve done it for about last 10 years, is on the 1st of January, every year we pull our Christmas tree down and we write a letter [00:41:00] to our future self about what’s been happening.
What we think is gonna happen in the next 12 months and just thoughts and ideas. And we write, hand write this letter, we put an envelope and we put it away with the Christmas tree so that when we, on the 1st of December, we pull the Christmas tree box out, we pull that out letters and we read ’em out to each other and it is funny, some of the things you go, yeah, did that, and go, what was I thinking?
There was no way that was gonna happen. The best surprise is one year I opened up, I forgot I put a hundred dollars in there.
Daniel Monteleone: Oh, how good.
Tyson E Franklin: Anyway, how good is that? And a little note, and I said, go buy yourself a carton of Coronas.
Daniel Monteleone: So good.
Tyson E Franklin: I went, oh, I love my past off. He was fantastic. He knew that future self wanted a carton of Coronas.
So there, yeah, there’s funny things like that you do that you can just record how much you’ve grown each year.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah, look, from a structural perspective in clinic we have a structure for goal [00:42:00] setting. So those goal setting sessions will come around very regularly, regular intervals. We’ll either do those at three or six months, depending on where people are at and what they’re working on.
And again, just coming back to mentorship having that element of honesty and accountability, having it written down, revisiting it, it’s really nice to do that in a structured way at work. But personally, it’s really nice to do that as well. And I love that you’ve had the foresight there, mate, to give yourself a hundred bucks for some years the year after.
That’s really clever.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, I’m pretty certain, I’ve put a hundred in this year too. So 1st of December I’ll open it up. I’m pretty sure I put a hundred in
Daniel Monteleone: there. I never thought myself a gift on Christmas, but a gift to myself seems like a good idea. I might add that to the list.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Well we do it so we, because we know we’re gonna open up the box on the 1st of December, so we put the tree up.
So then when you pull the letters out it’s actually enjoyable. Just reading what your thoughts were a year ago and what you thought was gonna happen throughout the year. And I’d say 50% of the time, you’re right, [00:43:00] 50% of the time you’re wrong. But I do the same thing. That’s pretty nice.
Daniel Monteleone: Family tradition, Tyson that’s pretty cool, mate.
I like
Tyson E Franklin: that. Yeah. See, I’ve done it for as long as I can remember, and my wife and daughter just go, what are you doing? And I explained it and they went, so they did it one year. So we’ve been doing it ever since. And then one year my daughter didn’t do it and she was dirty on herself that she didn’t do it because Do
Daniel Monteleone: you remember how old your daughter was when you started doing that?
Tyson?
Tyson E Franklin: Oh, she’s 21 now, probably. She probably started when she was about 10.
Daniel Monteleone: That’s a pretty cool family tradition. I like that.
Tyson E Franklin: And I think it’s important to have traditions in your family, traditions in your business. We do this other thing, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on the podcast before. We, so when I was a kid growing up, when we’d go to pick the Christmas ham, my dad would take me as little kid and we would talk to the ham and you had to get the feel, you had to get the vibe back from the ham that this was the Christmas ham.
So I’ve done this with my daughter her whole life. She’s 21 this year and her and I will still go [00:44:00] to the shop. Only her and I go, we don’t take my wife and we will look at all the hams. We’ll pick ’em up, we’ll talk to the ham. We’ll say, are you the Christmas ham? And we’ve gotta get the vibe. We’ve both gotta feel the vibe from the ham.
And it was really funny, last year she had a boyfriend and he said, oh, you just go and shop Chris. Can I come? And she went, well, no, of course you can’t come. This is a father daughter thing that we do. And to me that’s a tradition that, and then that night it’s ham, cheese and pickle night. So we buy the ham, we buy french loaf, we cut it up, mature cheese pickles.
And then we’ve got a couple of friends that now come over and they have it in their diary. They know that first Wednesday night of December is ham pickle.
Daniel Monteleone: I love it. That’s
Tyson E Franklin: great. It’s, and I think you need to do this at work too. You need to have traditions at work.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah.
Tyson E Franklin: That people look forward to.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah. A few little cultural things that typically happen when those relationships get stronger can just be the magic [00:45:00] that holds it all together a lot of the time. And if that’s your ham cheese and pickle night or if that is some other tradition, that happens around a workplace that’s kinda the magic.
That’s the glue that usually holds everything together. And is the proof that those relationships are deep and meaningful.
Tyson E Franklin: After I sold my business, one of the things that everyone that was still working there said what they missed, and I actually still did this two years after I sold my business, was I would turn it with my barbecue and I’d cook a big ham and egg breakfast for everybody on the last day of work.
And even after I sold my clinic, I still did it. I still went in there, hooked up the barbecue, cooked food for everybody for breakfast, and they just went, this is so much fun. Then once everybody had left, I stopped doing it.
Daniel Monteleone: That’s cool. Like traditions are important, right? So, yeah, I think people tend to remember those.
Certainly in families, those things can last generations, like you’ve just said.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah.
Daniel Monteleone: And again, it’s like, it’s the magic. That’s the glue. And if we’re lucky enough to have those, trusted deep good [00:46:00] relationships in a clinical setting where, we’re becoming friends over many years and these things, these little traditions emerge again.
That’s the magic, that’s the glue. It can be everything for people.
Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. I bump into old staff members and some of ’em were still friends, quite close friends with, and they still say the same thing. Oh, just the love that ham and egg breakfast used to make for us on that final day. And what was good about anyone who was working or they had to work that day.
’cause we’d only work half a day anyway, but anyone who wasn’t rostered on that day, we would then crack open a bottle of champagne. We’d sit out the back and drink champagne at seven o’clock in the morning and they just loved it. So before we wrap up, Daniel, what’s your contact details if anyone wants to reach out to you?
Whether it’s about the current job offer you have or they just wanna reach out, talk to you in general. Someone might be, listeners, have their own podcast, wanna get you on there as a guest. Sure. How do you get a hold of you?
Daniel Monteleone: The best one there is my email, daniel@proactivehm.com au Or you can look us up and hit us up directly on the socials on Instagram or Facebook.
There’s so many different ways. Connect through the clinic website. We’ve [00:47:00] got a Join us function directly on our website that people can fill in. They can do that when we’ve got a job app offer up or they can do that at any time if they’re interested in connecting with us and just forming a bit of a relationship, getting to know each other.
Had students sit in clinic not in structured university time. Yeah. They wanna come off their own bat and sit and learn. Very happy to do that. Not just myself, but right across our team. Any way that they think they can get in touch with us they’re very welcome to.
Tyson E Franklin: And that’s what I told that student too.
I said, don’t wait till placements come up. Just go and do them now. Do it in your own time. Do it during your holidays. People will notice that you’re actually going outta your way to do this. So any students listening to this, Daniel is one of the clinics you definitely want to go and visit and make a connection with.
So Daniel, I want to thank you for coming on the podiatrist Legends Podcast. Like I said, this has been one of my favorite episodes. I’ve really enjoyed this, so thanks.
Daniel Monteleone: I’ve had a great time too.
Tyson E Franklin: Thank you very much.
Daniel Monteleone: Yeah, my pleasure. I really enjoyed being on and very grateful that you’ve asked me to be a part of it.
Thank you, [00:48:00]
Tyson E Franklin: and I’m sure we’ll talk again very soon.