The Singing Podiatrist

Sue Turner calls herself a “free spirit” – she does what she wants when she wants. Never having been one to be told what to do, finding a niche in modern society presented a challenge for her – one she overcame both personally and professionally. In the process, she found the perfect career and learned something existed inside of her she didn’t even know was there.

“I knew I wanted to be in a profession,” Sue recalls, reflecting on the early days in her life when she was deciding what she wanted to do. “I can’t have anyone else tell me what to do so I knew I’d never be able to have a normal job.” But to many, “podiatry” seems normal enough, if not somewhat cryptic. After all, what exactly is a podiatrist? “A podiatrist is a foot doctor,” Sue explains. “Not a medical doctor mind you, but one that specializes in foot problems.” Looking at people’s feet all day might not sound like the dream job for most of us, but it was a different story for Sue. “I wanted to be my own boss and be financially secure. I was living in Alberta and found out there was only one female podiatrist in the whole province so I thought, ‘hey, they need women.’”

They did and do. But the route to her own practice was blocked by a rather large obstacle: there are no podiatry schools in Canada. Undaunted, Sue decided to make the trek to San Francisco where she enrolled in a podiatry school. But obstacles remained. “A podiatry education costs $23,000 US a year for four years,” Sue states, relieved to report she has been able to pay off her student loans. It was hard work, but for Sue, it has paid dividends.

“I started my practice in a medical office shared by four other doctors,” she says. “I basically started from scratch and saw 12 people in my first week.” Over a period of five years, the business grew to a full-time practice five days a week. “Now, I’m down to about 1.5 days a week,” she reports, partially blaming the removal of podiatry from standard medical. “Because of that, our volume has gone down 30%.”

Not that she’s bored. Somewhere along the line, Sue discovered a second dimension to her being. “I just decided to start learning blues music and become a singer and songwriter,” she says as if that decision was as arbitrary as choosing wallpaper. “I knew I could do it if I wanted to. I didn’t even think I’d be able to sing blues but it turns out I can.”

Soon, playing and writing music was all she wanted to do. “I could wake up every morning and play music all day long.” And in fact, she has done just that. The free time owning her own podiatry business has given her has allowed her to pursue her music on a full-time basis. "I am in my apartment 30-40 hours a week learning music, playing it and writing songs. I don’t have a car and I don’t buy a lot of stuff. I don’t need a lot of money.” The balance between “work” and music is a fine one, she admits, and knows they can both be successful. “If I was at work 5 days a week, I could have enough business for a 5-day-a-week practice, but I want more time for music.”

If you had asked Sue if she thought she was every capable of doing anything creative, she would most likely have burst out laughing. “I always just thought I was one-dimensional and never thought I could be creative,” she says. “It’s really interesting to me that I have this one life that is very conservative, responsible and intellectual and this other that is so creative.” She laments that many people are too programmed at school and are pointed in the direction of a career in something they are good at. “I don’t think that way at all – I think people should be going off in all directions and finding out about all the things they are good at.” The combination of the serious (podiatry) and the creative (music) sides spawned her website, SingingPodiatrist.com. “It gets people thinking about their own possibilities.”

It’s obvious that Sue loves both sides of her existence (if, in fact there are only two, which seems unlikely). She loves being a podiatrist – “I love being there for people” – and she loves her music – “The music is all about self-expression and I am really into that now”. Which takes precedence? “The music is dominating right now,” she admits. “I could play it all day. I used to think that way about podiatry but its still work. But it’s not that I don’t like it – I really do.”

Sue encourages people with foot problems to call and talk to her at 604-736-1910. Her office is located at #315-1250 W. Broadway in Vancouver. If, however, you would rather see the Singing Podiatrist…sing, then you can check her out next August 10 at the Maple Ridge Jazz and Blues Festival and August 22 at the Darby Dawes Pub in Vancouver. She is also slated to perform with her group the Gurus August 24 in Blue Mountain Park in Coquitlam for the Missing Women’s Society benefit. She also encourages you to check out the website and perhaps even learn something.

“A lot of people don’t even know what a podiatrist is,” she chuckles. Never mind a singing one.