Actively managing your personal brand is critical if you want to make a significant impact in the areas of your life important to you. What you say and what you do influences how people perceive you, so take note that your personal branding will determine how successfully you’ll be able to make an impact in life.
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Personal Brand Catalyst. Today we are joined by Dr Charlie Teo AM, who has been instrumental in the development, dissemination, and acceptance of the concept of keyhole, minimally invasive techniques in neurosurgery.
Dr Teo runs a fellowship program that attracts over 600 applicants yearly and has trained many of the world's leading figures in neurosurgery. He has trained neurosurgeons at distinguished centres such as the Barrow Neurological Institute, John Hopkins, Yale, Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and Harvard universities.
He has published over 160 peer-reviewed journal articles, has authored two books on keyhole approaches to brain tumours, and has featured as a guest editor for several journals. Dr Teo strongly believes that a surgeon's responsibility to his patients shouldn't end after surgery.
In keeping with his desire to find cures for recurrent brain tumours, he has raised over $40 million which has been used to fund research and scientists, both in Australia and internationally.
It's such a great honour and privilege to speak with him today.
Self-Identity As a Brand
Charlie Teo never deliberately thought of himself as developing a brand. He doesn’t see his reputation now as being a reputation of a brand or a reputation of a single solitary person.
But can the term “brand” be aptly applied to the name Charlie Teo? For him, it can be. But he never really thought about it as a brand.
Perception of Others
Despite the controversial media in the last two to three years about Dr Teo, people would still come up and voice their strong passionate support for him no matter where he goes.
It is possible because they see him as a neurosurgeon, as a father of four children, and as a voice for voiceless animals.
He thinks they see Dr Teo as a whole, as an entity and he believes he has turned into a brand. He thinks people see that brand is something that's worth congratulating him over and something that's worth supporting.
Using the Identity for the Foundation
Dr Teo’s previous foundation was called The Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
He specifically and deliberately requested that it not have anything to himself, he mentioned, "I didn't want a charity to die when I died and I felt the two could happen simultaneously".
Secondly, he knows that he polarises people and he didn't want the charity to polarise the community. So he specifically said he didn't want his name to be associated with any of his.
The Cure Brain Cancer Foundation became the peak body for raising money for brain cancer research and weren’t going to disband when they asked Dr Teo to leave.
A lot of people would have disagreed with what was happening at The Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, but Dr Teo knows they would have wanted to have supported him, rather than an institution.
So he had to come up with a name for a foundation that would then make sure that people knew that he was no longer associated with The Cure Brain Cancer Foundation.
Dr Teo affirmed an earlier point in the conversation that the people who think or strive to define themselves by their vocation, looks, celebrity status, and wealth, are going to fall flat on their faces once they lose it all because it's all about developing a brand by yourself.
Importance of Reputation
When Dr Teo started off in his career, his reputation was very important to him.
Whether he was a good neurosurgeon or not in terms of his operative skills and his clinical skills, he wanted people to know that he cared and that he was in medicine for the right reasons.
His intention wasn’t to become the world's best neurosurgeon or do the most difficult cases. Instead, he was simply going to treat his patients with respect. He was going to treat them in the same way that he would want someone to treat him as a patient.
Most of the moral codes he lives by are incredibly simplistic and were given to him by his mother. Some of the codes he learned are, “Treat other people the way you would like them to treat you”, “Everyone got some value to give you”, “Don't think you're any better than anyone else” and so much more.
Values Being Tested
When asked where his values tested in his career and life, he said that it’s happening now.
Dr Teo loves neurosurgery so much, but he is unable to in practice it Australia because he’s had his privileges taken off him.
However, some people are willing to let him back in again on the condition that he ‘tows the party line.’ Everyone is telling him he should because at least he can start operating again. That way, he’ll be able to help some people as opposed to helping no one.
But according to Dr Teo, the only person who’s going to be damaged by taking on difficult cases is him and not other people.
The struggle he has with making that decision is whether he should become part of the fold because he can help some people or lose his self-respect.
But by standing by his moral code and disregarding professional political correctness, Dr Teo has developed a brand now that has been incredibly robust.
And if there’s a lesson he wants to share with young people, it’s that, "To make decisions based on what is right for the greater good. Not what might be politically correct. Not what might get you a promotion at work. Not what might fill your banks with more money. Do what is right and in the long run, it will come back to reward you."
Brand As a Doctor
Dr Teo is a doctor in practice and in name, but he doesn’t think that he’s a doctor in brand. Simply because he’s shown integrity, stood by his beliefs and shown dogged perseverance. He believes these are the reasons why people support him, and not so much that he’s a skilled or talented surgeon.
Having a Mentor in Life
As a child growing up without a father, Dr Teo tried to look for father figures. If you read the book on his life ‘Life in His Hands; the True Story of a Neurosurgeon and a Pianist’, he talks about finding John Wayne as a father figure at one stage.
But apart from John Wayne, there was a school prefect called Nguyen Cameron who he held in high esteem because he showed kindness to Dr Teo.
And then when he started surgery, there are a few doctors who he can identify specifically who were role models and helped him develop the code that he lives by now.
One of them was Tony Milne, a pediatric surgeon in Brisbane, and he taught him the importance of questioning dogma and not blindly accepting everything that your professor told you.
Another mentor he had was Mark Shanahan, who was a cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Vincent's Hospital in the era of Victor Chang. He taught Dr Teo the importance of perseverance and sheer tenacity when things seem to be going from hell to high water and losing control.
And then in Johnston, Northern Territory, there was a neurosurgeon who showed him amazing intellect and how important it was to offer your patients not only compassion and surgical skill but also the importance of reading the literature and being scientifically up to date.
These have been people along the way that have added to Dr Teo’s mum's general body of moral codes and have guided him to become the person he is today.
Charlie Teo As A Mentor
Dr Teo has always wanted to be a teacher. When he was younger, he was a black belt in karate and enjoyed teaching more than actually sparring with the other students.
He won the best teacher award both in America and Australia but unfortunately, given the climate in Australia, he hasn’t been given the opportunity to teach.
But Dr Teo has a fellowship (which he considers his family) of neurosurgeons from all around the world wanting to learn his techniques that he accepts every year he takes out all his teaching frustrations on them and passes his skills.
Learnings and Insights to Share For Young People
The advice that Dr Teo wants to share the most, especially for young people is, “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”
He says, “At the end of the day, you've got to sleep with yourself, you've got to have self-respect, and you got to be proud of what you do.
It’s so easy to say what is meant to be said and do what is meant to be done even though you know it's the wrong thing to do or the wrong thing to say because there is an immediate reward for doing that. You get promoted, you get the deal, you seal the contract, you tell a lie, and you managed to get some extra funding for it or whatever but don’t be ever tempted because it will come back to bite you.”
Dr Teo says other people call it karma, others call it God, the universe, or mother nature. But whatever others may call it, we are the sum total of our actions.
“You may feel alone at times or you might feel it’s difficult but at the end of the day, being a good person and doing things for the greater good will build your brand. It’s going to give you respect from others and more than anything else, it’s going to give you self-respect and pride for what you’ve done.”
Final Message and Outro
I want to thank Dr Charlie Teo very much for taking the time to really share his wisdom and insights.
Thank you for listening to this episode. Please leave a five-star review and subscribe for more episodes if you enjoyed it.
If you'd like to learn more about developing your personal brand, please visit garrybrowne.com.au to get in touch or grab a copy of Brand New Brand You.