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: 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 The most successful businesses aren...
Jun 02, 2025•45 min•Ep. 95
In this episode, Dr. Manning shares some key takeaways from the 2025 PECAA Annual Meeting and the power of storytelling. Key takeaways: 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. Humans primarily make decisions in the right hemisphere of the brain - tapping into more of the emotional crea...
May 05, 2025•19 min•Ep. 94
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: 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." At one point, LOG worked with over 40 different vendors...
Apr 07, 2025•34 min•Ep. 93
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: 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. Her vision was to create a practice that would...
Mar 03, 2025•29 min•Ep. 92
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: 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 shoppin...
Feb 03, 2025•35 min•Ep. 91
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: 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%. In Europe, 48% of hearing aids are fit in private optometric locations. When available, vision care patients are...
Jan 06, 2025•31 min•Ep. 90
The light sensitivity and photophobia associated with migraines can be debilitating for many of the patients who walk through our doors. In this episode, we sit down with Derek Johnson from Avulux to discuss the role Avulux's lenses play in alleviating the symptoms of migraines. Key Takeaways: Avulux is a light filtration system that filters out specific wavelengths of light that have been shown to amplify the symptoms of migraine headaches including photophobia and light sensitivity. The techno...
Dec 02, 2024•23 min•Ep. 89
In this episode, we sit down with Shelley Paxton, Chief Soul Officer of Soulbattical to discuss an inward look at ourselves as leaders and business owners to make our work, the why behind what we do, more fulfilling. Key Takeaways: A "Soulbattical" is a time to take a step back, realign the work you're doing with what matters most to you, and living it out each day in your work. It involves living and leading with greater authenticity, courage, and fulfillment. Creating a fulfilling work environ...
Nov 01, 2024•45 min•Ep. 88
In this episode, we sit down with Catherine Bornbaum, PhD, MBA, Chief Business Officer at RetiSpec, an AI company that uses fundus photography to detect Alzheimer's disease risk and development. Key Takeaways: RetiSpec's technology works with most standard fundus cameras and uses AI to assess and detect the retinal changes associated with amyloid deposition - the biggest risk factor and key diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's. There are 55 million individuals globally living with dementia and th...
Oct 01, 2024•23 min•Ep. 87
In this episode, we're continuing our focus on the Future of Eye Care with frequent Practice Advantage guest, Shelby Wade, PECAA's Marketing Business Advisor to discuss how marketing will evolve in the future and what things we'll need to pay attention to as we communicate with our patients in the future. Key Takeaways: Word of Mouth will always play a key aspect of marketing, but we must continue to adapt to new forms of marketing. The basics will still apply: have a great website, have a stron...
Sep 02, 2024•25 min•Ep. 86
In this episode, we're continuing our focus on the Future of Eye Care with Jim McGrann and David Spear, CEO and President and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively, of Advancing Eye Care to discuss the future of equipment technology. Key Takeaways: Diagnostic equipment plays two critical roles both today and the future - it provides the clinical insight needed to take great medical care of patients and provides an impactful patient experience through improved efficiency and experience. The advanc...
Aug 05, 2024•36 min•Ep. 85
In today's episode of the Future of eye Care Series, we discuss the opportunities within dry eye management with dry eye implementation expert Michelle Schnabel. Key Takeaways: The dry eye disease market will grow from $6 Billion to over $7 Billion in the next five years. While many optometrists have expanded dry eye management within their practice, there will be so many more patients to treat from now into the future. Michelle believes there are three different levels of dry eye disease manage...
Jun 24, 2024•22 min•Ep. 84
In this episode, we sit down with the CEO of Visibly Brent Rasmussen to discuss the future of eye care and the role remote vision testing could play, especially in private practice. Key Takeaways: 35% of individuals who take Visibly's online vision test fail the exam - resulting in a recommendation of referral to a provider. From a standpoint of private practice, this type of technology has the potential to drive more patients INTO a practice. Visibly is primarily a visual acuity testing softwar...
Apr 08, 2024•37 min•Ep. 83
In this episode, we sit down with the founder of Digital Optometrics to discuss tele-optometry and the role of a patient-in, doctor-out model, today and as part of the future of care. Key Takeaways: Digital Optometrics was born out of both a patient demand for access, especially in rural areas/ healthcare deserts and solve the gap in provider demand. DO has performed over 1.8 million remote eye exams and currently performing 2500 pre day on the system. Today’s patient consumer wants convenience ...
Mar 18, 2024•31 min•Ep. 82
In this episode of the Future of Eye Care series, we sit down with PECAA's Kathy Long to discuss strategies for success in implementation. The future of eye care will bring all sorts of new technologies, new services, and significant change to how we take care of patients. Implementing these changes successfully is key. Key Takeaways: Kathy's Four Steps to Implementation Identify the need for change and what needs changed Prepare everyone for the change Implement the change Track results for tha...
Mar 04, 2024•20 min•Ep. 81
In this first episode of the Future of Eye Care series, we sit down with the head of VSP's Global Innovation Center, Ruth Yomtoubian to discuss the future of eye care and how innovation happens. Key Takeaways: Innovation isn't just about disruption and the future. True innovation respects the past, understands the presents, and seeks to solve the problems of the future. Two key trends Ruth is following outside of eyecare that likely will impact eye care: Hybrid care - the best of in person and v...
Feb 19, 2024•37 min•Ep. 80
In this short episode, Dr. Manning introduces the Future of Eye Care Series, a new series from the Practice Advantage podcast. Over the coming weeks, we'll be exploring the demands of the patient consumer in the future, the advancements technologies and technology companies are making in healthcare and eyecare. Artificial intelligence is a huge topic of conversation in all industries. In this series, we'll talk through how the industry is evolving and how other companies view innovation. We'll a...
Feb 05, 2024•11 min•Ep. 79
Setting goals is critical to business success. In this episode, Dr. Manning shares goal setting tips for accomplishing the success you want this year. Key Takeaways: Start with the end in mind. Envision December 31, 2024 and look back on the year. What happened over the course of the year. Where's the practice and what success did we have along the way? Set SMARTER Goals. Your goals should be: S - Specific M - Measurable A - Achievable R - Relevant T - Time-bound E - Evaluated R - Readjusted and...
Jan 15, 2024•16 min•Ep. 78
In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Jerry Robbin to discuss the clinical and business impacts of dehydrated amniotic membranes in practice and his paradigm shifting experience with the PECAA K-DISK. Key Takeaways: For a practice to truly expand in dry eye management, a number of things are important to have: Diagnostics - Inflammatory testing, tear osmolarity, and meibography Treatment Options - ZEST or BlephX, meibomian gland treatments including thermal pulsation and IPL/LLLT, Amniotic mem...
Dec 18, 2023•28 min•Ep. 77
In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Mila Ioussifova and Roger Kennedy to discuss the clinical and business impacts of cryopreserved amniotic membranes in practice, especially with patients with dry eye. Key Takeaways: The easiest way to bring amniotic membranes into your practice are by just doing it. Learn about application tools, patient education, billing and coding from the companies themselves and just go for it. Amniotic membranes aren't just for train wrecks. Persistent ocular surface...
Dec 04, 2023•28 min•Ep. 76
Gratitude is a critical skill for leaders managing people. Leaders that express gratitude on a regular basis have dramatic impacts on their culture, their people, and their business's performance. Key Takeaways: Gratitude and thankfulness are two separate concepts but are similar expressions of deep appreciation for a person, an action, or thing. Leaders who express gratitude are more effective, efficient, and create more productive teams. Studies show that 80% employees would work harder if the...
Nov 20, 2023•14 min•Ep. 75
In this episode, I sit down with PECAA's Marketing Member Business Advisor, Shelby Wade, to discuss the importance of launching a 'Use It or Lose It' campaign to drive more patient exams into your office. Key Takeaways: Overall, it's important to follow a yearly marketing calendar with each quarter focusing on a different type of campaign. The end of the year is great for a "Use It or Lose It" campaign. Use It or Lose It is powerful because it reminds patients they have benefits to use and that ...
Nov 06, 2023•21 min•Ep. 74
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams extended through December 31, 2024. Earn up to an additional $15,000 in 2023 and up to $30,000 in 2024. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** In this episode, my guest is Founder & CEO of focalCenter , Dr. Ron Krefman to discuss the power of leveraging demographic data in understanding who your patients are, how to market to them, and how to grow. To get PECAA member pricing on localEyes, visit localEyes and use Discount...
Oct 23, 2023•26 min•Ep. 73
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams extended through December 31, 2024. Earn up to an additional $15,000 in 2023 and up to $30,000 in 2024. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** In this episode, I sit down with Brant Southwell and Pierre Bertrand of neurolens to discuss implementation of their newest technology, N3. N3 takes the neurolens measuring device into virtual reality and streamlines the doctor's use of the platform. Key Takeaways: Business innovation ...
Sep 29, 2023•17 min•Ep. 72
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** Vision Expo West is this week and having a game plan in place ahead of time is crucial to success when it comes to purchasing frames and equipment for your office. IN this episode, I sit down with Bryan Hoban and Kayla Groves from our member business advisor team to discuss a game plan for success. Key Takeaways: Take stock of your financial situation bef...
Sep 25, 2023•17 min•Ep. 71
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** Your practice and business is only as successful as the quality of team members you employ. Searching for, interviewing, and hiring great candidates is one piece of owning a business that consumes a lot of energy and time for owners and managers. Hiring for attitude is an important key to success in advancing your business and practice culture. Key Takeaw...
Sep 11, 2023•13 min•Ep. 70
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Brianna Rhue, owner of West Broward Eye Care in Tamarac, FL to discuss her recent buyout of her partner to become sole owner. Key Takeaways Timing is a critical part of the process. Put in the time and energy ahead of time to set the course for partnership and buyout. Invest in the relationship with the partner. Build ...
Aug 21, 2023•22 min•Ep. 69
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** Do you want to create a great customer experience for your patients? Do you want to make life easier on your team? Allowing patients to book and change appointments online is a great tool to do both. Key Takeaways: Demand for online scheduling is high 20% of patients state waiting for the practice to open is a major pain point when it comes to scheduling ...
Aug 07, 2023•14 min•Ep. 68
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** In this episode, I sit down with Cindy Morgan Jaffe , founder of the Positive Money Club and author of the book Positive Money to discuss how we look at and think about money and the impact it has on our business. Key Takeaways: In many ways, the messages we’ve received about money growing up impact how we make financial decisions in practice. Beginning t...
Jul 24, 2023•31 min•Ep. 67
** Don't miss out on an extra $5 rebate for all commercial VSP Eye Exams between now and the end of 2023. Visit www.pecaaexamrebate.com now!** On today's episode, I sit down with employee engagement expert Richard Hadden to discuss simple strategies for keeping the great talent you already have and attracting great new talent. Key Takeaways: Culture is the personality of the business. You can feel it as soon as you walk in the door. And engaged employee is one who is "into" their job. The more "...
Jul 03, 2023•26 min•Ep. 66
