In today's episode, our guests are Saul Alvarez, found of Midbrain, and Dr. Chantel Garcia, founder and owner of Carolina Eye Doctors in Harrisburg, NC, talking about the power of marketing and how your website and external marketing drives the experience your patients will have in your practice. 

Key Takeaways:

1. While websites feel like old hat, they shouldn't. Your website should tell your story, evoke an emotion from your patients, and set them up for the experience they'll have in your practice before they actually step foot through the door. Language tone, colors, fonts, photos, and videos matter significantly.
2. Your brand is all encompassing. Your decisions. Your patient experience. Your physical space. Your lighting. Your technology and equipment. A good marketing partner will take all those into consideration to build a strong foundation.
3. Setting your processes and procedures to set your practice up for the success you want. Make the bold decision. Stick to it while it's tough. It will lead to the outcomes you want.
4. Your personal story is a critical component of your brand. Tell it and tell it often. Offloading your marketing prevents you from telling that story effectively.
5. To continue to grow, your strategy must evolve over time. As your strategy changes, invest in your marketing to support the specific goals you have for that time period.
6. In the grand scheme of things, the basics of marketing are the most impactful. 

Dr. Garcia's Practice

What Saul is Reading:

• Letters from a Nut by Jim Nancy

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $15 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year - with $15 extended through June of 2026, and $10 thru the end of next year! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

We're live from Vision Expo West in Las Vegas in the buzz of the show, discussing the new direction for Newton, formerly Neurolens with CEO and co-founder Davis Corley. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Newton was inspired by Isaac Newton, one of the earliest fathers of optics and prism opening a new direction for three pillars: Sequel, Neurolens, and AI innovation.
2. Sequel is the newest lens portfolio to hit the market, spanning two near relaxing designs and a full progressive. Driven by Convergence Boost technology, the lens eliminates the varients in prismatic effect as patients move form distance to near.
3. Neurolens continues as the flagship product for Newton, leveraging the N3 device to deliver therapeutic optics to patients with symptomatic convergence issues.
4. Newton is also investing in Isaac, an AI innovation and training platform to support private practice staff training and development.

What Davis is reading: 

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $15 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year - with $15 extended through June of 2026, and $10 thru the end of next year! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Brett Richardson, founder of DermaCautery to discuss chemical cauterization of benign skin lesions, who can perform it in the practice, and the benefits it brings to your business and your patients. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Chemical cauterization of lid lesions is within the training of optometrists, and is permitted in many, but not all states.
2. The procedure is relatively straightforward. A wooden applicator is soaked in the chemical agent. Following application, the lid lesion will no longer receive blood supply, leading to necrosis and sloughing off. Follow up is 2-3 weeks and is rare to have complications.
3. Patients actively desire to have these skin lesions removed but aren't necessarily thinking about having it done in the optometrist's office. The lead in conversation is important and many patients will be open to receiving treatment.
4. Staff are a great asset with this service. It is not a major burden on the team as the treatment and preparation is relatively simple. Getting them on board is key to success.
5. Depending on the patient complaints, it may or may not be billable to insurance. For cosmetic only, it is a cash based procedure. On average, each treatment adds $350 per patient to your top line. Given most of it is a service based, most of that drops to your bottom line.

What Brett is Reading:

• 10X Is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $15 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year - with $15 extended through June of 2026, and $10 thru the end of next year! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this unscripted episode, we sit down with PECAA President Jonathan Worrall to discuss the importance of connection as a person, business owner, and with your team. No question list. No prepared answers. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Connection with yourself is critical to success as a business leader. Knowing your values, what drives your integrity, and how to be present is what sets great leaders apart from the rest. 
2. A great way to build connection with your people is to start with curiosity. Ask more questions, have less answers, and make everyone's voice feel heard - both personally and in the context of work. 
3. A connected team creates an energy in the business that patients can feel when they walk through the door. It is the foundation of a great patient/ customer experience. 
4. Actions speak louder than words. 
5. As a leader, it is important to build relationships with your people and create the space to share deep challenges and great successes. 
6. Connection builds trust and that is a slow process. Yet, trust allows you to move faster, more efficiently, and be more effective. It allows you start at a further place down the path to change and growth. 

What Jonathan is Reading:

• Tuesday Morning Coaching by David Cottrell

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $15 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with Mike Kogelis, co-founder of Big City Optical, a 20 location private optometry practice in Chicagoland. Primarily growing by individual cold starts, Mike is a wealth of knowledge in building and scaring a practice. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Having a disciplined, growth mindset is the foundation for scaling your practice as large as you want to build it. You can't grow your business without working on and growing yourself along the journey 
2. The most successful businesses aren't afraid of making mistakes in the process of growing. Mistakes lead to learning that lead to faster, more effective business decisions in the future.
3. You can't scale without having great people. Build your business around a great employee experience leads to a great patient experience. Empowering them to lead, grow, and develop is necessary as you grow. Find people who can help you build in addition to those who can help you run the business.
4. Stick to a game plan that works. Repeat it over and over. Avoid distractions that take you away from your core business model.
5. Surround yourself with people that help you become the person, business, etc. you want to be.
6. Luck favors the bold and prepared. Say yes, make the phone call, make the crazy ask, take the chance.

What Mike is Reading:

• Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, Dr. Manning shares some key takeaways from the 2025 PECAA Annual Meeting and the power of storytelling. Key takeaways:

1. Humans are far more likely to remember details, facts, and information when they're wrapped in a story v. just shared individually. In fact, facts are up to 22x more likely to be remembered when they're wrapped into a narrative than shared individually.
2. Humans primarily make decisions in the right hemisphere of the brain - tapping into more of the emotional creative side - and then it reaches the left hemisphere where we use logic and rational thinking to justify the decision. If we only lead with the logical and rationality with our patients, we miss the most critical aspects of their decision making process.
3. There are multiple ways of crafting a story but two of them work really well in business - the PIxar method and the Storybrand method.
4. Story provides extra significance and value to the products you sell. In 2009, two journalists purchased 100 random useless items for a total of $129.  They listed the items on eBay and had writers craft a story for the item itself. In the end, they were able to sell the items for more than $3,600 all due to the value a customer associated with the item due to its story.

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $60,000 in 2025 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Steve Faith, co-owner of Livermore Optometry Group in Livermore, CA to discuss data driven decision making with vendor partners, what a good partnership looks like, and leveraging the right data to drive practice success. 

Key Takeaways: 

1. Best advice: "Independent practice is not that difficult. You only have to do two things. Make sure people like you and control your personal and professional overhead."
2. At one point, LOG worked with over 40 different vendors. When looking only at their optical, they had 30-35 reps calling on them regularly. It cost the practice $100 an hour in staff costs to see reps, equalling more than $40,000 a year.
3. LOG looked at various industries for insight on how to improve their vendor purchasing habits and their data to influence their  purchasing. EdgePro made a huge difference in tapping the data in the EHR system to make better purchasing decisions.
4. Vendor data has not been all that impactful for Livermore as it's focused primarily on the vendor partner's product but does not take into account the practice as a whole. Bringing the practice level data into the conversation has a much greater impact.
5. Great vendor partners are ones that know the practice individually and provide the support the practice needs. Great partners are willing to work with the needs of the practice based on the data the practice has.
6. For Livermore, the VSP practice report has been valuable to providing even greater insight into their patient base and other practices in their area.

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $60,000 in 2025 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this Tales From The Trenches episode, we sit down with Dr. Emily Ridge, owner of Elite Eye Care in Hernando, MS. Emily started her practice nearly 3 years ago and has learned a lot along the way, growing faster than she planned.

Key Takeaways:

1. Emily knew she wanted to be an optometrist in elementary school and as she worked her way back to her home town, knew that starting her own practice was the only way to create the ideal environment for her.
2. Her vision was to create a practice that would serve all ages of patients and while that vision has stayed the same, the practice has evolved to provide more pediatric services and specialty contact lens care.
3. Mentorship and building a team/ community around her to support the cold start launch was critical to opening on time and successfully. Being curious and asking questions is one of the most important skills.
4. Fear of failure is a normal emotion to have not just before opening but after as well.
5. While it is important to know and understand as many areas of the business as possible, do not hesitate to outsource components of the business to allow you to focus on the aspects on you can focus on.
6. Your staff will never feel the same depth of connection to the business and its success as you the founder, but there are ways to get them to invest long term in the success and care about the patients and business.

What Emily is Reading:

• The Housemaid Series by Freida McFadden
• Sara J Maas series

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $60,000 in 2025 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with the founders of the 2 Blind Brothers apparel company Brad and Bryan Manning to discuss the positive impact their wildly successful clothing brand has had on blindness research and treatment advancement for Stargardt's maculopthy, a condition both brothers have. 

Key Takeaways:

1. 2BB has a powerful origin story. Brad and Bryan were shopping in Bloomingdales when they realized they bought the same shirt based on feel alone due to challenging nature of clothes shopping when visually impaired. Thus was born this idea of creating an apparel brand that was so comfortable on initial feel that you'd want to buy it.
2. 2BB donates 100% of all company profits to fund blindness research. It has grown into the eye care industry through partnering with L'Amy who was donating proceeds form their sales to 2BB by purchasing plush guide dogs.
3. To date, 2BB has donated more than $3 million to research and supporting businesses that employ individuals with visual impairment. That funding has directly impacted bringing genetic treatment options to the market for genetic retinal/ neuron-ophthalmic disease including Stargardt's.
4. Having a noble cause that the business supports cultivates a deeper emotional connection with customers for which that cause resonates. The story must be authentic and true to who your business is. 

What Brad and Bryan are reading:

• Brad: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
• Bryan: What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

Learn more about 2BB:

• Frames
• Apparel

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $60,000 in 2025 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Danny Clarke, Chief Business Officer of Amplify Hearing USA to discuss the demand and opportunity of offering audiology and hearing care to your patients. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Only 20% of Americans who have hearing loss use hearing aids. In Europe where audiology and optometry are close partners, it's more than 33%. In the UK and Denmark, it's over 45%.
2. In Europe, 48% of hearing aids are fit in private optometric locations.
3. When available, vision care patients are more than open to receiving hearing care in their optometry office and vice versa. Hearing patients are more than open to receiving vision care from optometry practices that offer it. It provides significant convenience that patient consumers want and rests on the trust optometrists have built with their patients. The average consumer with hearing loss has no idea where to go for hearing care.
4. Like so many other opportunities, team training and education on the "why" is critical to success. 
5. The availability of OTC hearing aids have dramatically increased the awareness of hearing loss and hearing care, further driving the opportunity for success in this space. 

What Dr. Clarke is reading: 

•  Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

Practice Advantage Reading List

** Don't miss out on an extra $10 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams this year! Earn up to an additional $60,000 in 2025 just by taking great care of patients. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!**