February 5, 2025 • 42 mins
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In this episode, Evon welcomes Dr. Chad Fleming back to The Optometry Money Podcast. Dr. Fleming shares his experiences with strategic planning and explains how setting aside time to work on the business through a strategic planning week has helped him scale his practice operations. They discuss how private practice owners can improve leadership, reduce chaos, and increase profitability through intentional planning.
Evon and Dr. Fleming dive into the nuts and bolts of what a strategic planning week entails, how to execute it, and why it’s essential to long-term business success.
In This Episode:
- What’s the difference between growth and scale for optometry practices?
- The concept of working on vs. in your business and why stepping away is crucial.
- What happens to a practice and the owner when there's no intentional planning time.
- How Dr. Fleming’s annual strategic week helped him plan, lead, and reduce turnover.
- Practical advice on creating a productive planning getaway—from choosing a location to preparing resources.
- Measuring and implementing your strategic ideas when you return to the practice.
Episode Highlights:
- [00:04:40] Scaling vs. growth: defining both for practice owners
- [00:06:10] Working on your business versus working in it: practical examples
- [00:18:22] Dr. Fleming’s annual strategic planning getaway explained
- [00:23:05] How to prepare and gather your thoughts for a productive planning session
- [00:35:00] Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success
- [00:40:06] Exciting opportunities in the future of private practice optometry
Resources:
- Contact Dr. Chad Fleming: Email him at chad@pipgpo.com
- LinkedIn: Connect with Dr. Fleming on LinkedIn
- Past Podcast Episodes: Check out more episodes with Dr. Fleming in our podcast archive:
Connect With Us:
- For more podcast episodes, blog articles, and optometry-specific financial resources, visit www.optometrywealth.com.
- To learn more about working with Evon and the team at Optometry Wealth Advisors, CLICK HERE to schedule a free consultation.
The Optometry Money Podcast is dedicated to helping optometrists make better decisions around their money, careers, and practices. The show is hosted by Evon Mendrin, CFP®, CSLP®, owner of Optometry Wealth Advisors, a financial planning firm just for optometrists nationwide.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Evon (00:04):
Hey everybody, welcome back to The Optometry Money
Podcast.
Where we're helping ODs all overthe country make better and
better decisions around theirmoney, their careers, and their
practices.
I am your host, Evon Mendrin,Certified Financial Planner(TM)
practitioner, and owner ofOptometry Wealth Advisors, an
independent financial planningfirm just for optometrists
(00:25):
nationwide.
And thank you so much forlistening today.
I appreciate your time.
and your attention.
And on today's episode, I amexcited to welcome back to the
podcast, Dr.
Chad Fleming, and we dive intohow to implement a strategic
planning week into youroptometry practice.
And we dive into what it reallymeans to work on your practice
(00:48):
versus work in it.
we talk about how to create andimplement something like a
strategic planning week or chunkof days, to help you and to
improve your practice.
We talk about time of the yearthat it makes sense to do this.
how to prepare and to build anagenda for that planning
session, who should be involved.
(01:09):
And then we talk about how toimplement those ideas, those
changes once you get back homeas well as how to measure what's
working and where to makeadjustments throughout the year.
And this was a phenomenalepisode.
And I think the main gist, thetakeaway here is how important
it is to step away from the dayto day stuff, the day to day
activity in your practice, andto take some time to
(01:30):
intentionally look at how to, tointentionally plan and think
through how to improveeverything that happens in your
business.
And If you have any questions,please reach out to us.
you'll find all of the links andresources and Dr.
Fleming's contact information inthe show notes, which you can
find in whatever app you'reusing to listen to this, as well
as at the Education Hub on mywebsite,
(01:52):
www.optometrywealth.Com.
And while you're there, checkout all the other resources,
content episodes we've puttogether, and if you're thinking
through some of these things,and you're wondering what it
looks like to work with a, anoptometry specific financial
planning firm, reach out, wouldlove to have a No commitment, no
pressure intro call with you.
We can talk about what's on yourmind financially, and I can
(02:14):
share how we help optometristsnavigate those same things all
over the country.
And without further ado, here ismy conversation with Dr.
Chad Fleming.
Welcome back to the OptometryMoney Podcast.
I'm your host, Evon Mendrin, andI am excited to welcome back to
the podcast once again, Dr.
(02:34):
Chad Fleming.
Chad, thank you so much forcoming back on.
Chad (02:37):
Thanks, Evon.
It's good to have, good to behere and good to, communicate
again and just visit aboutoptometry and business.
Thanks
Evon (02:45):
oh, it's good to have you.
There's always a mic availablehere on the podcast for you.
I want to dive into somethingthat's come up in our
conversations, and that is thisidea of a strategic week.
in the practice and, why that'simportant for developing
leadership, for scaling up thepractice.
And I want to dive into whatthat is, what that means, how
(03:07):
you've carried that out, maybein your own business.
But for those listeners whomaybe don't know you or haven't
listened to our past episodes,which listener you should, all
the links to those will be inthe show notes.
Just describe your business.
What, what does your practice,your business look like right
now?
And how has it changed overtime?
Chad (03:27):
our business is the result of about three to four years of
scaling up, buying practices,going from a one location, three
doctor practice to a fivelocation, nine doctor practice
throughout the city of Wichita,and a surrounding, small town.
And so it has, been a scaling upof chaos of risk of reassessment
(03:50):
of finding the right people toput on the.
In the bust and then getting thewaters calm and establishing a
firm base, allowing those togrow to change into the
structure that they need to befor us to successfully continue
to grow.
So that's what's been going onfor the last probably four to
(04:11):
five years.
Now we're at a place whereleadership and organizational
structure is key to be able toscale to the next level should
we choose to go that direction.
Evon (04:24):
And so it sounds like over several years you've put in the
work to, to bring together thesemultiple locations and people
and now developing leadershipand really make this scale.
And I, in a recent conversationI had with, Erich Mattei of
Akrinos we talked about thedifference between scale and
growth.
And I think a lot of times wesort of interchange those two,
(04:46):
but there are differences.
In your mind when you thinkabout scaling the practice, what
does that mean to you to scale?
Chad (04:52):
To scale means to enlarge in size and footprint in, top
end revenues.
growth in my mind is more a, nontangible because you can grow in
how you're developing people.
You can grow in how you are.
It's just like a, it's verysimple, but how a plant grows
(05:13):
from a infant to a mature treeor how a kid grows.
We all go through the maturingprocess, so you don't
necessarily have to be big togrow.
I think scaling up, people thinkof one location to three
locations to five to ten.
That to me would be more scalingup.
Growth is a Defined measure ofgetting better in different
(05:38):
areas of the practice and ofyourself.
Evon (05:42):
interesting.
And we often hear this phrase,work on the business, not in it.
And, you know, we, I think wesay that a lot.
Sometimes I know I've done itwhere it's like the smart thing
to say, yeah, you know, you needto work on your business, not in
it without really adding somecontext to what that even means.
So when you hear that phrase,when you think about working on
(06:03):
your business, versus in it,what does that even mean for an
optometry practice owner?
What are the differences betweenthe two?
What are some of the actionsthat are working on versus in
what, what does that mean?
Chad (06:16):
Well, very easy to say that working on the business
most likely means you areoutside of the business.
when I'm in the business, I amgathering, information.
I'm gathering pieces that mightbe broken.
I'm gathering the way oursystems and processes are
working.
And then I get away from thebusiness to really, Drill down
(06:40):
on.
How to, how to bettersystematize things, how to be
more profitable.
What, what are our areas ofprofitability?
What are our areas of, negativeprofit growths?
That's, you know, what are wedoing good?
So I think a lot of times wemake the mistake of working on
the practice is you're still init.
And most people will be aservant to the tyranny of the
(07:02):
urgent when they're in thepractice.
And they don't, it doesn't givethem the opportunity to work on
the practice.
And I think that's one of thebiggest.
mistakes or deceptions that wehave in thinking we can work on
the business and we're rightthere in the midst of it
churning in it on a daily basis.
Evon (07:22):
So working in it, you are in patient care, maybe in
administrative tasks, you are apart of the processes that make
your business work.
You're a part of the machine andso working on it is stepping
outside of that so that you canlook at how things are running,
you can look at the financials.
And, and work on ways to improveall those different parts of the
(07:43):
business, how things are, howthings are actually working
without being on the inside ofit.
It's, you know, the tyranny ofthe urgent.
Is that just, you're constantlyreacting to things as they're
coming up?
Is that, is that what that is?
Chad (07:57):
That's the tyranny of the urgent.
It's just that takes priorityover anything else.
And I think most, most of uswill take care of the problem
right in front of us versustaking care of a priority
problem, which isn't right infront of us, because we don't
know how to get out of theproblem because it usually
involves other people.
And so it comes across as beingrude, and so we don't know how
(08:20):
to kindly excuse ourselves thatsays, hey, I appreciate that
we're having issues in thisarea, I will make a note of it,
I will put down the details ofit, and I will address it, at a
later time, but I've got to getto our top priorities, for the
whole.
I think a lot of times wesacrifice the whole for the one.
(08:41):
And that's where we get involvedin the day to day activities too
much.
Evon (08:47):
I,
Chad (08:47):
And you got to have the right people.
Evon (08:48):
busy, but, it's not those big stepping out of the business
actions that really drive thingsforward and that we can kind of
fool ourselves sometimes by, byfeeling like we're productive,
feeling like we're busy.
but not really tackling the mostimportant things that need to
get done.
Chad (09:03):
Very true.
I think that, are you, whenpeople say they're busy, I
always think to myself, are youbusy doing the right things?
because I think a lot of timeswe, we do get busy doing the
wrong things.
and it doesn't fall in line withour own personal goals and our
personal values, and it doesn'tfall in love, in love.
It doesn't fall in line withour, business values either in
(09:24):
the direction that we're, youknow, the end point that we're
trying to get to.
Evon (09:28):
Yeah.
It doesn't fall in love with thebusiness values either.
That's
Chad (09:30):
Nah, it doesn't fall in love.
Evon (09:33):
so when, when you're not spending with, when a practice
owner is not spending time tostep back, look at overall how
the business is running, how theprocesses are working, how the
financials are working, likeintentionally taking time to do
that.
What are some of the mistakesthat come from that?
What, what happens long term tothe business or to the owner
(09:54):
when they're not able to stepback intentionally and, and look
at the business in that way?
Chad (10:00):
The business starts getting off course, and it's the
very simple analogy that, onedegree of a ship.
Over the course of, you know,multiple weeks, months, years is
going to lead a ship way off acourse, and it's only one degree
at a time.
And so I think that's whathappens as you get this slow
(10:21):
fade away from where you'retrying to end up and you're
trying to end up in a space thatyour business is, is not a
hobby.
It's actually a very lucrative,profitable business because it's
a for profit business.
And so there's, many doctors,the way they pay themselves,
look at what they take home andthink, wow, I'm doing good, but
(10:44):
they're doing good as a doctorin the clinic and the actual
profits they're making are, arenot worth the time or investment
that they're putting in becauseif they're not making profits of
north of eight to 9%, then theymight as well take their money,
sell their practice, and put itin a, a gift to their investment
(11:05):
advisor because they're notgetting the benefits of owning a
business.
They're getting all theheadaches, but they're not
getting the, the benefits of it
Evon (11:13):
In other words, they have a really well paying job that
happens to have more stress thanmost other optometry positions
out there.
And that's such a good point.
And there are sort of these.
I mean, the way a lot of thesebenchmark measures are taken in
terms of what practice ownerstake home, this, this figure of
(11:33):
practice net or whatever it maybe, you know, a lot of times it
doesn't account for theappropriate compensation of the
optometrist.
And if you're not accounting forthat, especially if you are in
certain practices that are taxedas sole proprietors, that are
taxed as partnerships, youliterally aren't paying yourself
a wage.
For partnerships, there might beguaranteed payments, things like
(11:55):
that, but you're literally notpaying yourself a wage.
So if you're not accounting forthe fact that, okay, there is a
doctor that needs to work in thebusiness, there is a cost to
that, whether it's you as theowner, whether it's another
doctor that you hire in, that'sa true cost to the practice.
And then if you're notaccounting for that properly,
you are potentially dramaticallyoverstating the profit of the
(12:18):
business.
Meaning what are you as theowner?
actually returning for theownership of that business if
you were not the associatedoctor or if you were not the
doctor seeing patients.
And it can, it can overstate thepay that you're paying yourself
where you could just be earningthe same amount in another
optometry position.
(12:39):
with a lot less responsibilityand stress and headaches.
So, you know, do you have a wellpaying job or do you have a
business that is actuallyproviding a return on the
equity?
I think it's a great question tolook at.
And sometimes you have to sortof ignore a lot of those
benchmarks and to really look atyour own business and account
for that properly.
Because business to business, Imean, there's such a wide range
(13:01):
of what practice owners will paythemselves, a lot of it for tax
purposes, right?
So it's, it's not always goingto be apples to apples when
you're comparing your practiceto, to all the others.
how do you, outside of this likestrategic week, how do you, how
have you over the years arrangedyour time so that you're making
sure that you're, You'rescheduling time in your weeks or
(13:22):
your months to step back and tolook at the overall business and
improving it rather than justworking in the day to day.
Chad (13:30):
I would say that I have, improved in that significantly
in the last couple of years.
I was getting very frustrated,in leading the company in
regards to, What we were doingin a year, what we were choosing
to put emphasis on, what we werechoosing not to put emphasis on,
really defining what I wasdoing.
(13:50):
I felt like I was putting morefires out or I was just being
busy to make myself feel good.
Because I needed, you know, Ineeded to be doing something.
So if you have somebody who'slike myself that likes to build
things, if you get bored, whatdo you do?
You break them.
You break them so you can buildthem again.
(14:10):
And it's just this cycle that isgreat for me because I like to
build, but it was not good formy team because I was really
throwing them off course everytime I wanted to break something
and build it back up.
So I said, this has got toimprove.
So, one of the things I decidedto do through, reading, if you
look at what, what are the topthree things a CEO should do, or
(14:35):
Harvard Business Review wrote a,a number of articles about
leadership and about leading acompany, and it talked about,
they interviewed hundreds ofCEOs to figure out what they
spent their time on, And walkingthrough some of those, articles,
I realized that 25 percent of aCEO's job is to sit away from
(14:58):
the business and really sit andprocess and problem solve away
from the day in and day outgrind of meetings and running
the company.
So I said, you know, I'm goingto take a week.
Away where I leave, the city, I,I go to a place, a Airbnb and
just have a plan to map out thewhole next year.
(15:20):
And I sit and map out the wholenext year in October, so I can
go back to our board, which ismade up of our, owners and go
back to them and get approvalfor the next year.
These are the things that I wantto carry through as our CEO.
and so did that the first year,and I had to hate to say this,
(15:43):
but my other owners are like, weain't paying you to go sit in a,
a cabin for a week and juststare at the wall.
And so I said, I, I tell youwhat, I'll pay for it myself and
I'm just telling you what I'mdoing.
And so I said, all right.
They kind of chuckled and sowent away and ran this process
for one year, came back, gotapproval, had mapped out, on a,
(16:05):
basically on a, what do you callthose, charts?
It's like a Gantt chart.
It really wasn't a Gantt chart,but it was like, had mapped out
of all the timelines of what wewere doing, when we were making
the changes.
And they loved it.
And we gave the managers this.
And so the managers wereexcited.
To me, it was boring because Ijust now had the next year
mapped out and it's like, whatam I going to do?
(16:26):
Just twiddle my fingers now andjust kind of watch the wheels
turn.
But it ended up being extremelyimpactful, extremely successful,
and we had a really good year.
Less staff turnover.
There wasn't as much chaos goingon.
We had a plan, so people weremore comfortable.
Most people like to be in a verycomfortable setting, so they
(16:46):
don't like a lot of change, andso I mapped that out, and then
the owners about August of thenext year said, hey, you're
going on that strategic planningmeeting again, and I said, so
you want me to go park in acabin for a week and just do
that?
Stare at the wall and they'relike, absolutely.
And so that began that process'cause they saw the value in
(17:07):
what I brought back to the tablein doing that.
And so now it is a line item forus.
It's extremely important that wesend me.
to do that.
And that's away from aconference.
I don't, I literally do not goto an optometry conference, do
not go to a business conference,nothing.
I sit there with a mapped outplan of what I'm going to do.
(17:28):
And you might say, well, what doyou do for like three or four
days?
And good resources to read.
So I read a lot of businessbooks.
I read a lot of Harvard BusinessReview articles.
I look at what others are doinginside the company, outside the
company, and then I, just workthrough different scenarios of
(17:51):
answering questions andanswering problems that we have,
and then come back and some ofthat's doctor compensation, some
of it's the way we're payingstaff, some of it is the way we
are generating new patients, andAnd the technologies we're
using, so I'll review differenttechnologies we're using.
Is our EMR the best that weshould be utilizing for this
(18:13):
next year?
On and on.
So, I'll pause with that and seeif there's any direction
Evon (18:19):
Yeah, so this
Chad (18:20):
overwhelm our
Evon (18:21):
of that strategic This is the genesis of that strategic
week for you is, is realizingthat you need more time to step
away and to think about what'sgoing on in your business and
where to see improvements.
And, it can be a cabin in thewoods.
It can be somewhere at thebeach.
It, it sounds like it just needsto be away from the daily
workspace.
(18:41):
Is that right?
Chad (18:42):
It needs to be away from the daily workspace and it needs
to be away from the pull of thefamily, pull of the other things
that get you, you need to go toa place you're going to be bored
because if you don't, you willfind every reason in the book,
to not to get distracted.
So, last year you might say,well, that that's a really good
(19:04):
excuse to get away.
And then there's other thingsof, well, what are you going to
do with your time?
I actually, this last strategicmeeting, asked a, one of my best
friends who runs a very largechurch in Kentucky.
And I told him of the idea andhe's done a number of these, on
his own prior to me doing them.
(19:26):
And so we actually met together.
and we, you know, we had alittle conversation in the
evenings, but most of the timewas filled with just, you know,
we were accountable to eachother that, you know, we were
honoring with our time and wewere doing what we said we were
going to do.
And it turned out to be a reallygood week for both of us.
Evon (19:45):
And it sounds like you do it in October.
Is there a particular time?
Specific time of year thatmatters sometimes towards the
end of the year, or is it justwhat's best for the business to
give yourself time to implement?
What, does the timing matter?
Chad (20:00):
Timing matters.
absolutely.
So our, business calendar, ourfiscal year ends at the end of
the year.
And so it's like, you're kickingoff a new fiscal year.
Not a new vision, but I alwaysfeel like the beginning of the
year is kind of a kickoff ofwhat we're going to be focusing
on this year, what we're goingto be looking at, how I'm going
to be leading, what are thethings that are going to be
(20:21):
instrumental to our, growth andour patient care for the year,
and so October allows me to comeback and start introducing it.
So that I can assess thepushback I'm going to get,
assess those who are going tobuy into what we're doing, and
get everyone on board, becauseI, that way, January 1st hits,
(20:41):
we hit, I hit the ground runningwith things that are going to,
we're going to move forwardwith.
Evon (20:47):
Work out all the kinks and make sure it's running well in
January.
I think a lot of us sort of waittill December, maybe just before
the holidays to get that end ofyear planning in.
So that, that makes sense.
Get that thinking a little bitearlier in the fourth quarter.
Give yourself time to introduceit, work out some of the kinks
or maybe good ideas versus badideas and then hit, hit January,
(21:10):
hit the ground running.
And who should be involved inthis?
If we're thinking aboutdifferent practices, different
sizes of practices, listening,who should be involved in these,
these types of strategic weeks?
Chad (21:23):
Strategic Weeks is really your, who's leading your,
practice.
So, Very seldom do you have,multiple captains because
multiple captains is going tosink a ship.
So I would say already, ifyou've got multiple captains,
then you're most likely going tobe locked and you're not going
to be able to go anywherebecause you just, you can't, you
(21:44):
got to have a quarterback on thefield that has to be established
first, who's going to be theleader.
And that's not the tyrant.
That's not the monarchy.
That is the person who's goingto lead with the other leaders.
What, what does the group wantas a whole?
And then they're the ones whoare going to carry that out.
So that must be establishedfirst.
(22:05):
And then after that, that's theresponsibility of a lot of
these, a lot of these, you know,private equity, bigger companies
call it a practice directorversus a CEO.
You can, it's basically who'sgoing to lead.
the practice as a whole.
So that has to be establishedbecause there's young doctors
who are anxious to do this andthey're like, Hey, I hear you.
(22:28):
This is great.
We need to prepare for thefuture and we need to have good
systems in place, but they'reultimately not the ones who are
making the decision.
They don't have 100 percentsupport.
Evon (22:39):
Gotcha.
Okay.
very often it sounds like itwould be the majority owner if
there's multiple owners in thepractice, at least for a single
doctor practice.
Hey optometrist, it's you.
Okay.
It's, it's pretty easy there.
I'm fortunate to work with somehusband and wife teams that,
that own and run practicestogether.
Okay.
That makes it a lot easier too.
Although, please draw the linebetween vacation time and,
(23:01):
intentional strategic time inthat getaway.
it sounds like there is aspecific list of topics or
things that you'd like toaddress during the week.
Do you come into it with anagenda?
or very specific things thatyou've thought about throughout
the year that now you're goingto take time to address it.
How do you approach it?
What do you gather to make surethat this is a really productive
(23:25):
use of your time?
Chad (23:27):
Oh, I have a, page in my notion that I dump everything
into.
And so throughout the year, I'mjust dumping in, hey, this, this
is broken.
This is going to need changed.
I see a vision of this staffperson is most likely going to
retire in the next year or two.
I need to have a transitionplan.
Hey, we're paying this persontoo much.
(23:50):
How are we going to solve that?
Or we're not paying these peopleenough.
We have way too much turnover.
I mean, it, it evolvesthroughout the year of me just
dumping stuff in.
Hey, our vision therapy part ofour practice is not profitable.
I continue to hear that, youknow, we're not running a good
system there, or patients aren'tpaying, or we're taking off too
(24:11):
many write offs.
I just dump it.
It's just collection bin, in, onthat page, and then I go back
prior to the time I get away,just make sure I've covered
everything and see if there'sanything that's left over, and
then when I get away, I organizeall of that and prioritize of,
you know, what what needs to beaddressed?
(24:33):
And so usually when I'm lookingat what's in that list, that's
also helping me to define whatresources, books, journal
articles, those types of thingsI want to collect and review,
podcasts, great leaders, whatare, how are they solving those
problems, those types of things.
So I might look for them.
(24:53):
5 to 10 podcasts on my drive.
I make it so I can drive to andfrom the place I go to, and then
that way I can listen anddigest, different ideas.
So I might collect and throw inthere and just have a list of
podcasts I'm going to burnthrough.
We're
Evon (25:08):
Gotcha.
So throughout the year, you areaware of what's going on in the
practice.
You're just dumping ideas,questions, difficulties,
challenges, whatever it is, intoyour, your list.
There could be Notion, could bea Google doc, whatever that is.
And then, you're organizingthat, getting that ready for,
for this getaway.
And then you're preparingarticles, books, whatever
resources you need to sort oftackle these, this list.
(25:31):
You're, you're bringing thatwith you.
And, what are some of the, Imean, what are some examples of
big questions that you've solvedthat you felt like have made a
big, a big difference in yourbusiness?
Like what, what are someexamples of things you've worked
through on some of these, someof these getaways?
Chad (25:49):
That's a great, that's a great question because it's very
practical.
Having a plan when you have asenior doctor that's going to be
retiring, having that mappedout, what that looks like.
Doctors who are looking toretire are scared.
They've never been in this placebefore.
They don't understand what it'sgoing to look like.
They'll say, hey, yeah, I'llretire at the end of this year.
(26:11):
And then about a year, about, 3months ahead of that.
It's like, Hey, I think Ichanged my mind.
I'd like to retire a little bitlater.
Getting all of that kind ofmapped out, is good.
Moving, if you've got,especially if your business is
growing, you're going to need toraise leadership.
And so we, I'm a firm believerin raising within.
(26:33):
So, we're usually have somebodyin leadership training all the
time who's going to be our nextleaders to fill in positions.
Those transitions can bedifficult and they can be
culture breaking if you don'taddress them properly.
So, that will be addressed.
how we're compensating ourdoctors, right now.
We probably pay our doctors toomuch, and that sounds funny, but
(26:56):
if you look at the bell shapedcurve, I've been in some
meetings with networks of otherdoctors who own practices and
have associates, and we're onthe side of the bell shaped
curve.
We need to adapt.
with that, so I had to come upwith a whole compensation model.
So we look at how we'recompensated.
I changed how our, our, upperend, leadership was compensated
(27:20):
and changed a little bit, howour opticians were compensated
to help drive more sales in theoptical.
All of that planning was linedup at the strategic meetings and
so, or strategic planning time.
Evon (27:35):
These
Chad (27:35):
Is that answer, was that specific enough to, for the
Evon (27:38):
these are, these are big questions to tackle, right?
And if you're not givingyourself the time to think
through these and to plan aroundthem, I mean, these are big
business altering decisions thatyou need to think through.
And you talk about going throughthis planning week or planning
time, and then at the end of theyear, it gives you some time to
(28:01):
introduce them, go through them,work, work them out a little
bit.
And then January you're hittingthe ground running.
Okay.
So you, you've gone throughthat, right?
So the, the listener has plannedout that week, they've gotten
their list of things they wantto go through.
They brought the resources,they've planned it out through
the week.
It's been really productive.
Then they go home.
Okay.
(28:22):
How do you make sure that you,you know, what steps do you take
or what do you do to make surethat you are implementing the
things that you've planned?
That you're not just going homeand then it's just life as
usual.
Like you're, you're actuallytaking the time to implement and
introduce those things.
Chad (28:38):
Bye bye.
It depends on, you've got toknow yourself.
If you are a disciplined personthat is good at execution, then
you know you're going to take itback and you're going to do it.
If that's an area where you.
You're really good at planning,but not executing on anything.
You need to be self aware andsay, I better hire a consultant.
I better hire an accountabilityperson.
(29:01):
I better have somebody in theorganization who will not let me
be passive about this.
Because I can tell you, it'svery easy to be passive about it
because it, It's more work tohave to make change, so you've
got to want the desired outcomemore than you, avoid the pain of
(29:21):
the current moment.
And so you've got to have peoplein place to hold you
accountable, unless you're just,you're that 3 percent that, you
know, is highly, highly selfmotivated and is great at
execution and will execute untilit's, it's the problem solved.
Evon (29:39):
Got it.
Knowing yourself, thataccountability for a lot of
things is, is critical, right?
And you mentioned at times, youhad an accountability partner
during the week to make surethat you are being productive
during the week.
Very often in the business,sometimes you'll hear it called,
if you're using, EOS or, orRocket Fuel, you'll, you'll hear
it called an implementer or anintegrator, right?
(30:00):
You'll, that's someone in yourpractice, that really executes
on things that is sort of the,the gatekeeper towards bad
ideas, that person that reallyputs things into action.
And, that accountability soundslike it's a big part of that.
And, you know, you might getthis sort of thought that, I
can't step away from thepractice for that long.
(30:23):
Or I just can't take time awayfrom seeing patients.
I can't afford to.
I think patients will be upsetnot being able to schedule in
that week.
What do you say to that, thatsort of hesitation around taking
that much time?
I mean, we're, we're talkingabout a week or even if it's
shorter, to dedicating that timeto stepping away and doing that,
(30:44):
that type of work.
Chad (30:46):
that's a great question.
Because, I think that's real.
I think that where I'm at rightnow, is allowed because of the
size of our practice and becauseof the The, the way our practice
does run and it is profitable.
I would say you start with a dayand then let it expand from
(31:07):
there.
but I don't, it's hard for me tosay that that that time's not
worth it.
That's like saying that I'mgoing to go be a professional
athlete, but I'm not going totake the time to do game film
because that's not pumping outwidgets to make me stronger,
faster on the field.
We're not working on catchingpasses.
(31:29):
We're just studying.
To say that, I think there's amindset shift that needs to
happen.
So, it's, you've got to be tiredof where you're at, and you've
got to see the light at the endof the tunnel that you're
probably going to burn out.
if you just hit the ground andsee and let the patients run
(31:49):
your schedule, don't let yourpatients run your business.
If you're worried about, well, Iwon't be able to see the
patients.
They're going to be frustrated.
They're going to be upset.
I can tell you, I've done morethan enough things to upset
patients and yes, they're goingto be temporarily
inconvenienced.
But they're going to be muchhappier when they have a
successful practice that's beengrowing, that can take care of
(32:12):
them, that many doctors can addassociates.
they just don't, they don't takethe risk of the investment of
adding a one day associate ortwo day associate.
And maybe that's the first stepis, you know, get somebody to
come in and, and see patientsfor a day.
It's hard though.
I talked to doctors that, youknow, saying it's one thing,
(32:32):
pulling the triggers another,because it's like, it's an
investment and people, peopledon't like change.
But I say, you, I say you can'thelp you.
You can't not work on thebusiness.
Evon (32:46):
I would agree.
And, and it's interesting, wethink of the investment as
dollars spent, like you're goingto take dollars you've, you've,
you've received and, and buysomething or spend it on
something.
That lost potential revenue foryou not being in the practice
those few days, that's aninvestment, right?
And it's a necessary part of, ofgrowing and moving the business
(33:06):
forward.
And I wonder if a lot of thethings that, that make us feel
like we are, are overworked orburned out, or that we're so
busy, we can't leave thepractice.
I wonder if a lot of thoseissues that, that put us in that
position can be solved by takingtime away and being able to
improve.
If we're feeling like we don'thave time because we're so busy
(33:30):
seeing patients, well,maybethere are scheduling issues.
Maybe there's flow issues frompatient walking in through pre
testing to seeing you, or maybethere's hires or delegation that
needs to be done to make surethat you as a doctor or owner
are being able to do the mostimportant things in your
schedule.
So I wonder if a lot of thosethings that make us feel that
way can actually be solved by bystepping away and looking at how
(33:54):
the business is running andlooking at ways to improve it.
Does that thought feel likeit's, it's a possibility?
Chad (33:59):
Well, my thought went to what is a couple percentage
improvement equal out?
so say you can't, say you workon your business and you improve
by 2 percent on your profits,Which I think is very easy to
do, especially if you haven'tscrutinized your business on a,
a yearly basis and you improveby 2%, what is that,$20,000 for
(34:21):
every million that the practiceis doing, and so it more than
pays for itself.
And so now, instead of having togenerate more and more patients,
you're just keeping more of thedollar that's coming in.
and so that's, that's what yougotta do.
I don't, I don't see there'sanother way around it because
I've seen a, I've, I've seen alot as you have P&Ls of
(34:45):
practices and there people areworking really, really hard to
keep, you know, 10 cents on thedollar when they should be
keeping, you know, 18 cents onthe dollar, 19 cents on the
dollar.
Evon (35:00):
Yeah.
After that end of year planningsession is done, January comes.
What do you do throughout therest of the year to make sure
that you are reviewing all ofthis stuff you've implemented,
all of these ideas and changesyou you're working on and
checking and seeing if they'reworking or if they need to be
improved.
What, what's happening month tomonth from there on out, to make
(35:23):
sure that things are working andmoving along.
Chad (35:26):
Well, you've got to measure.
What your changes are.
So if you're going to changethings in the optical, and
you're going to start payingincentives to your staff, and
you're going to have to provethat there's you take the people
who are doing your finances, andyou're going to say, hey, this
is what we're I'm making somesignificant changes that's going
(35:46):
to potentially increase thecompensation of my opticians.
I need to know, is the opticalgrowing?
Is my cost of goods going up,going down?
And usually you can measurethat, that it, well, you should
be able to measure that.
It's not going to happenovernight, but that's what your
measurables are going to be.
I mean, I can measurespecifically when we went to
(36:08):
incentives.
Sales grew 25 percent year overyear from when that day that we
started in doing, doing theincentives program.
And so that was a very valuable,decision that we are continuing
to move forward with.
So you've got to have themeasurables.
(36:29):
Right now, I'm in the middle ofspending a ton of time revamping
our Vision Therapy Department,and there, I've got measurables
as far as capture rate, as faras signups, as far as money in
the bank versus money writtenoff, that we're looking at those
numbers, and that's going to bemy, you know, win or loss of the
(36:51):
efforts that I put into that,because that's one of our big
items that we're addressing for2025, and I'm responsible for
carrying that out.
Evon (37:00):
knowing what you're working on and what measurables
are important to that thingessentially, and then just
having accurate data to be ableto watch that as, as the year
unfolds.
I think this has been great.
I think the, the, the idea thatwe need to step away from this,
the day to day work and justtake time to think and okay,
(37:21):
say, okay, what's, what'sworking, what's not, take
ourselves out of the processesand say, okay, what's working,
what can be improved?
How can we improve it?
I think that thinking time is soimportant.
I even think on a daily basis, Imean, we do so much.
We fall into that trap of likeconsuming stuff constantly.
I mean, consuming content.
every part of our day and justnot taking time to think.
(37:44):
And, I've, I'm in that trap allthe time.
And I just on a daily basis,just taking that time to step
away and just think.
How are things working?
How can they be improved?
I think it's so important, buttaking that time, certainly as
you've been talking about, tointentionally dedicate it to
thinking and improving thebusiness, it seems so important.
And what are some just finalthoughts you'd like to leave
(38:06):
with, with the audience in termsof either planning out this
strategic planning week or justintentionally taking time out of
their lives on a daily basis orweekly basis to, to improving
the business?
Chad (38:17):
There's a number of different things that That I
would want to repeat and want tosay, and I think it sounds
simple, but it comes back to,what are the, what are your core
values?
Where, where are you headed?
you've got to know thedestination that you're wanting
to end up in personally.
(38:40):
to be able to implementprofessionally and be motivated
to meet those professional goalsand then have professional
destinations and then you canmap out how I'm going to get
there and then head in thatdirection.
So I think it's a matter of youbeing intentional yourself of
Knowing what you want, and Ithink a lot of times, you said
(39:01):
something that was beautiful.
We've got so much noise with allthe content we consume, with all
the things that we look at, withall the things we try and keep
up with, that we've lost focus.
And I think that the biggestthing to take home from today
is, don't lose your focus,figure out what your focus is,
and then be intentional about,heading in that direction.
(39:24):
And I think that the margin inyour life will increase, your
relationships with the peoplearound you will improve, and
you're, you will all around, bea more fulfilled, individual.
And I think that's what weultimately all would like to
have is enjoying the journey.
You got to enjoy the journey, orelse you end up in the
destination and you're justcompletely burnt out.
(39:45):
And there's a lot of people thatare on the verge of burnout
right now.
Evon (39:49):
Yeah.
I love that takeaway.
I appreciate those thoughts.
when one final question, as wejust wrap up, the whole
conversation is that when youthink about the future of
optometry in the context of thisconversation, private practice
optometry, what are you mostexcited about?
Chad (40:07):
Wow, long pause for, dramatic effect.
Evon (40:11):
right.
Chad (40:13):
What am I most excited about?
Man! Evon, I think you stumpedme.
Evon (40:20):
Good.
It worked.
Now.
the listeners probably realizedevery podcast by law has to now
include this deep, deep finalquestion.
So we got him.
Chad (40:30):
think that was good.
Thank you for the time.
I think the thing that's comeinto me, and I was trying to say
it in a way that didn't soundlike I was completely oblivious
to how we are at this point, butI think that with pain, with
difficulties with an industrythat, you know, there's a lot of
(40:54):
different areas that we looklike, hey, things aren't going
well.
It's just your mindset.
There's a lot of opportunitiesout there.
So when I see things of what adifficult, healthcare
environment, I say, Hey, there'sa lot of opportunities.
I just need to figure out whatthose opportunities are.
And so, yeah, those are probablythings I'm most excited about
(41:15):
the future is that with a lot ofpain points, which I'm seeing,
there's a lot of opportunitiesand, and solving those problems
is, is what excites me.
Evon (41:25):
I appreciate that.
Yeah, there, there are a lot ofnegative opinions about the
future of eye care particularlyprivate practice.
So I appreciate your thoughts onthe opportunity moving forward
with, with optometry and theexciting opportunities you see
there.
So, Appreciate your time, Dr.
Fleming.
Appreciate all of your thoughtsin this conversation.
(41:46):
I'm certainly taking a lot awayfrom it, and I think the
listeners are as well.
How can people find and followand learn more about what you're
doing?
Chad (41:53):
just email me, chad@pipgpo.com.
You can also catch me onLinkedIn.
LinkedIn, I've got a number ofthings that I put up on there.
but yeah, you're welcome tocontact me and, we can talk.
Evon (42:06):
Perfect.
I will throw your contactinformation and links to our
prior episodes in the shownotes, and for the listener,
really appreciate your time andattention, and we will catch you
on the next episode.
In the meantime, take care.
Hey everybody, welcome back to The Optometry Money
Podcast.
Where we're helping ODs all overthe country make better and
better decisions around theirmoney, their careers, and their
practices.
I am your host, Evon Mendrin,Certified Financial Planner(TM)
practitioner, and owner ofOptometry Wealth Advisors, an
independent financial planningfirm just for optometrists
(00:25):
nationwide.
And thank you so much forlistening today.
I appreciate your time.
and your attention.
And on today's episode, I amexcited to welcome back to the
podcast, Dr.
Chad Fleming, and we dive intohow to implement a strategic
planning week into youroptometry practice.
And we dive into what it reallymeans to work on your practice
(00:48):
versus work in it.
we talk about how to create andimplement something like a
strategic planning week or chunkof days, to help you and to
improve your practice.
We talk about time of the yearthat it makes sense to do this.
how to prepare and to build anagenda for that planning
session, who should be involved.
(01:09):
And then we talk about how toimplement those ideas, those
changes once you get back homeas well as how to measure what's
working and where to makeadjustments throughout the year.
And this was a phenomenalepisode.
And I think the main gist, thetakeaway here is how important
it is to step away from the dayto day stuff, the day to day
activity in your practice, andto take some time to
(01:30):
intentionally look at how to, tointentionally plan and think
through how to improveeverything that happens in your
business.
And If you have any questions,please reach out to us.
you'll find all of the links andresources and Dr.
Fleming's contact information inthe show notes, which you can
find in whatever app you'reusing to listen to this, as well
as at the Education Hub on mywebsite,
(01:52):
www.optometrywealth.Com.
And while you're there, checkout all the other resources,
content episodes we've puttogether, and if you're thinking
through some of these things,and you're wondering what it
looks like to work with a, anoptometry specific financial
planning firm, reach out, wouldlove to have a No commitment, no
pressure intro call with you.
We can talk about what's on yourmind financially, and I can
(02:14):
share how we help optometristsnavigate those same things all
over the country.
And without further ado, here ismy conversation with Dr.
Chad Fleming.
Welcome back to the OptometryMoney Podcast.
I'm your host, Evon Mendrin, andI am excited to welcome back to
the podcast once again, Dr.
(02:34):
Chad Fleming.
Chad, thank you so much forcoming back on.
Chad (02:37):
Thanks, Evon.
It's good to have, good to behere and good to, communicate
again and just visit aboutoptometry and business.
Thanks
Evon (02:45):
oh, it's good to have you.
There's always a mic availablehere on the podcast for you.
I want to dive into somethingthat's come up in our
conversations, and that is thisidea of a strategic week.
in the practice and, why that'simportant for developing
leadership, for scaling up thepractice.
And I want to dive into whatthat is, what that means, how
(03:07):
you've carried that out, maybein your own business.
But for those listeners whomaybe don't know you or haven't
listened to our past episodes,which listener you should, all
the links to those will be inthe show notes.
Just describe your business.
What, what does your practice,your business look like right
now?
And how has it changed overtime?
Chad (03:27):
our business is the result of about three to four years of
scaling up, buying practices,going from a one location, three
doctor practice to a fivelocation, nine doctor practice
throughout the city of Wichita,and a surrounding, small town.
And so it has, been a scaling upof chaos of risk of reassessment
(03:50):
of finding the right people toput on the.
In the bust and then getting thewaters calm and establishing a
firm base, allowing those togrow to change into the
structure that they need to befor us to successfully continue
to grow.
So that's what's been going onfor the last probably four to
(04:11):
five years.
Now we're at a place whereleadership and organizational
structure is key to be able toscale to the next level should
we choose to go that direction.
Evon (04:24):
And so it sounds like over several years you've put in the
work to, to bring together thesemultiple locations and people
and now developing leadershipand really make this scale.
And I, in a recent conversationI had with, Erich Mattei of
Akrinos we talked about thedifference between scale and
growth.
And I think a lot of times wesort of interchange those two,
(04:46):
but there are differences.
In your mind when you thinkabout scaling the practice, what
does that mean to you to scale?
Chad (04:52):
To scale means to enlarge in size and footprint in, top
end revenues.
growth in my mind is more a, nontangible because you can grow in
how you're developing people.
You can grow in how you are.
It's just like a, it's verysimple, but how a plant grows
(05:13):
from a infant to a mature treeor how a kid grows.
We all go through the maturingprocess, so you don't
necessarily have to be big togrow.
I think scaling up, people thinkof one location to three
locations to five to ten.
That to me would be more scalingup.
Growth is a Defined measure ofgetting better in different
(05:38):
areas of the practice and ofyourself.
Evon (05:42):
interesting.
And we often hear this phrase,work on the business, not in it.
And, you know, we, I think wesay that a lot.
Sometimes I know I've done itwhere it's like the smart thing
to say, yeah, you know, you needto work on your business, not in
it without really adding somecontext to what that even means.
So when you hear that phrase,when you think about working on
(06:03):
your business, versus in it,what does that even mean for an
optometry practice owner?
What are the differences betweenthe two?
What are some of the actionsthat are working on versus in
what, what does that mean?
Chad (06:16):
Well, very easy to say that working on the business
most likely means you areoutside of the business.
when I'm in the business, I amgathering, information.
I'm gathering pieces that mightbe broken.
I'm gathering the way oursystems and processes are
working.
And then I get away from thebusiness to really, Drill down
(06:40):
on.
How to, how to bettersystematize things, how to be
more profitable.
What, what are our areas ofprofitability?
What are our areas of, negativeprofit growths?
That's, you know, what are wedoing good?
So I think a lot of times wemake the mistake of working on
the practice is you're still init.
And most people will be aservant to the tyranny of the
(07:02):
urgent when they're in thepractice.
And they don't, it doesn't givethem the opportunity to work on
the practice.
And I think that's one of thebiggest.
mistakes or deceptions that wehave in thinking we can work on
the business and we're rightthere in the midst of it
churning in it on a daily basis.
Evon (07:22):
So working in it, you are in patient care, maybe in
administrative tasks, you are apart of the processes that make
your business work.
You're a part of the machine andso working on it is stepping
outside of that so that you canlook at how things are running,
you can look at the financials.
And, and work on ways to improveall those different parts of the
(07:43):
business, how things are, howthings are actually working
without being on the inside ofit.
It's, you know, the tyranny ofthe urgent.
Is that just, you're constantlyreacting to things as they're
coming up?
Is that, is that what that is?
Chad (07:57):
That's the tyranny of the urgent.
It's just that takes priorityover anything else.
And I think most, most of uswill take care of the problem
right in front of us versustaking care of a priority
problem, which isn't right infront of us, because we don't
know how to get out of theproblem because it usually
involves other people.
And so it comes across as beingrude, and so we don't know how
(08:20):
to kindly excuse ourselves thatsays, hey, I appreciate that
we're having issues in thisarea, I will make a note of it,
I will put down the details ofit, and I will address it, at a
later time, but I've got to getto our top priorities, for the
whole.
I think a lot of times wesacrifice the whole for the one.
(08:41):
And that's where we get involvedin the day to day activities too
much.
Evon (08:47):
I,
Chad (08:47):
And you got to have the right people.
Evon (08:48):
busy, but, it's not those big stepping out of the business
actions that really drive thingsforward and that we can kind of
fool ourselves sometimes by, byfeeling like we're productive,
feeling like we're busy.
but not really tackling the mostimportant things that need to
get done.
Chad (09:03):
Very true.
I think that, are you, whenpeople say they're busy, I
always think to myself, are youbusy doing the right things?
because I think a lot of timeswe, we do get busy doing the
wrong things.
and it doesn't fall in line withour own personal goals and our
personal values, and it doesn'tfall in love, in love.
It doesn't fall in line withour, business values either in
(09:24):
the direction that we're, youknow, the end point that we're
trying to get to.
Evon (09:28):
Yeah.
It doesn't fall in love with thebusiness values either.
That's
Chad (09:30):
Nah, it doesn't fall in love.
Evon (09:33):
so when, when you're not spending with, when a practice
owner is not spending time tostep back, look at overall how
the business is running, how theprocesses are working, how the
financials are working, likeintentionally taking time to do
that.
What are some of the mistakesthat come from that?
What, what happens long term tothe business or to the owner
(09:54):
when they're not able to stepback intentionally and, and look
at the business in that way?
Chad (10:00):
The business starts getting off course, and it's the
very simple analogy that, onedegree of a ship.
Over the course of, you know,multiple weeks, months, years is
going to lead a ship way off acourse, and it's only one degree
at a time.
And so I think that's whathappens as you get this slow
(10:21):
fade away from where you'retrying to end up and you're
trying to end up in a space thatyour business is, is not a
hobby.
It's actually a very lucrative,profitable business because it's
a for profit business.
And so there's, many doctors,the way they pay themselves,
look at what they take home andthink, wow, I'm doing good, but
(10:44):
they're doing good as a doctorin the clinic and the actual
profits they're making are, arenot worth the time or investment
that they're putting in becauseif they're not making profits of
north of eight to 9%, then theymight as well take their money,
sell their practice, and put itin a, a gift to their investment
(11:05):
advisor because they're notgetting the benefits of owning a
business.
They're getting all theheadaches, but they're not
getting the, the benefits of it
Evon (11:13):
In other words, they have a really well paying job that
happens to have more stress thanmost other optometry positions
out there.
And that's such a good point.
And there are sort of these.
I mean, the way a lot of thesebenchmark measures are taken in
terms of what practice ownerstake home, this, this figure of
(11:33):
practice net or whatever it maybe, you know, a lot of times it
doesn't account for theappropriate compensation of the
optometrist.
And if you're not accounting forthat, especially if you are in
certain practices that are taxedas sole proprietors, that are
taxed as partnerships, youliterally aren't paying yourself
a wage.
For partnerships, there might beguaranteed payments, things like
(11:55):
that, but you're literally notpaying yourself a wage.
So if you're not accounting forthe fact that, okay, there is a
doctor that needs to work in thebusiness, there is a cost to
that, whether it's you as theowner, whether it's another
doctor that you hire in, that'sa true cost to the practice.
And then if you're notaccounting for that properly,
you are potentially dramaticallyoverstating the profit of the
(12:18):
business.
Meaning what are you as theowner?
actually returning for theownership of that business if
you were not the associatedoctor or if you were not the
doctor seeing patients.
And it can, it can overstate thepay that you're paying yourself
where you could just be earningthe same amount in another
optometry position.
(12:39):
with a lot less responsibilityand stress and headaches.
So, you know, do you have a wellpaying job or do you have a
business that is actuallyproviding a return on the
equity?
I think it's a great question tolook at.
And sometimes you have to sortof ignore a lot of those
benchmarks and to really look atyour own business and account
for that properly.
Because business to business, Imean, there's such a wide range
(13:01):
of what practice owners will paythemselves, a lot of it for tax
purposes, right?
So it's, it's not always goingto be apples to apples when
you're comparing your practiceto, to all the others.
how do you, outside of this likestrategic week, how do you, how
have you over the years arrangedyour time so that you're making
sure that you're, You'rescheduling time in your weeks or
(13:22):
your months to step back and tolook at the overall business and
improving it rather than justworking in the day to day.
Chad (13:30):
I would say that I have, improved in that significantly
in the last couple of years.
I was getting very frustrated,in leading the company in
regards to, What we were doingin a year, what we were choosing
to put emphasis on, what we werechoosing not to put emphasis on,
really defining what I wasdoing.
(13:50):
I felt like I was putting morefires out or I was just being
busy to make myself feel good.
Because I needed, you know, Ineeded to be doing something.
So if you have somebody who'slike myself that likes to build
things, if you get bored, whatdo you do?
You break them.
You break them so you can buildthem again.
(14:10):
And it's just this cycle that isgreat for me because I like to
build, but it was not good formy team because I was really
throwing them off course everytime I wanted to break something
and build it back up.
So I said, this has got toimprove.
So, one of the things I decidedto do through, reading, if you
look at what, what are the topthree things a CEO should do, or
(14:35):
Harvard Business Review wrote a,a number of articles about
leadership and about leading acompany, and it talked about,
they interviewed hundreds ofCEOs to figure out what they
spent their time on, And walkingthrough some of those, articles,
I realized that 25 percent of aCEO's job is to sit away from
(14:58):
the business and really sit andprocess and problem solve away
from the day in and day outgrind of meetings and running
the company.
So I said, you know, I'm goingto take a week.
Away where I leave, the city, I,I go to a place, a Airbnb and
just have a plan to map out thewhole next year.
(15:20):
And I sit and map out the wholenext year in October, so I can
go back to our board, which ismade up of our, owners and go
back to them and get approvalfor the next year.
These are the things that I wantto carry through as our CEO.
and so did that the first year,and I had to hate to say this,
(15:43):
but my other owners are like, weain't paying you to go sit in a,
a cabin for a week and juststare at the wall.
And so I said, I, I tell youwhat, I'll pay for it myself and
I'm just telling you what I'mdoing.
And so I said, all right.
They kind of chuckled and sowent away and ran this process
for one year, came back, gotapproval, had mapped out, on a,
(16:05):
basically on a, what do you callthose, charts?
It's like a Gantt chart.
It really wasn't a Gantt chart,but it was like, had mapped out
of all the timelines of what wewere doing, when we were making
the changes.
And they loved it.
And we gave the managers this.
And so the managers wereexcited.
To me, it was boring because Ijust now had the next year
mapped out and it's like, whatam I going to do?
(16:26):
Just twiddle my fingers now andjust kind of watch the wheels
turn.
But it ended up being extremelyimpactful, extremely successful,
and we had a really good year.
Less staff turnover.
There wasn't as much chaos goingon.
We had a plan, so people weremore comfortable.
Most people like to be in a verycomfortable setting, so they
(16:46):
don't like a lot of change, andso I mapped that out, and then
the owners about August of thenext year said, hey, you're
going on that strategic planningmeeting again, and I said, so
you want me to go park in acabin for a week and just do
that?
Stare at the wall and they'relike, absolutely.
And so that began that process'cause they saw the value in
(17:07):
what I brought back to the tablein doing that.
And so now it is a line item forus.
It's extremely important that wesend me.
to do that.
And that's away from aconference.
I don't, I literally do not goto an optometry conference, do
not go to a business conference,nothing.
I sit there with a mapped outplan of what I'm going to do.
(17:28):
And you might say, well, what doyou do for like three or four
days?
And good resources to read.
So I read a lot of businessbooks.
I read a lot of Harvard BusinessReview articles.
I look at what others are doinginside the company, outside the
company, and then I, just workthrough different scenarios of
(17:51):
answering questions andanswering problems that we have,
and then come back and some ofthat's doctor compensation, some
of it's the way we're payingstaff, some of it is the way we
are generating new patients, andAnd the technologies we're
using, so I'll review differenttechnologies we're using.
Is our EMR the best that weshould be utilizing for this
(18:13):
next year?
On and on.
So, I'll pause with that and seeif there's any direction
Evon (18:19):
Yeah, so this
Chad (18:20):
overwhelm our
Evon (18:21):
of that strategic This is the genesis of that strategic
week for you is, is realizingthat you need more time to step
away and to think about what'sgoing on in your business and
where to see improvements.
And, it can be a cabin in thewoods.
It can be somewhere at thebeach.
It, it sounds like it just needsto be away from the daily
workspace.
(18:41):
Is that right?
Chad (18:42):
It needs to be away from the daily workspace and it needs
to be away from the pull of thefamily, pull of the other things
that get you, you need to go toa place you're going to be bored
because if you don't, you willfind every reason in the book,
to not to get distracted.
So, last year you might say,well, that that's a really good
(19:04):
excuse to get away.
And then there's other thingsof, well, what are you going to
do with your time?
I actually, this last strategicmeeting, asked a, one of my best
friends who runs a very largechurch in Kentucky.
And I told him of the idea andhe's done a number of these, on
his own prior to me doing them.
(19:26):
And so we actually met together.
and we, you know, we had alittle conversation in the
evenings, but most of the timewas filled with just, you know,
we were accountable to eachother that, you know, we were
honoring with our time and wewere doing what we said we were
going to do.
And it turned out to be a reallygood week for both of us.
Evon (19:45):
And it sounds like you do it in October.
Is there a particular time?
Specific time of year thatmatters sometimes towards the
end of the year, or is it justwhat's best for the business to
give yourself time to implement?
What, does the timing matter?
Chad (20:00):
Timing matters.
absolutely.
So our, business calendar, ourfiscal year ends at the end of
the year.
And so it's like, you're kickingoff a new fiscal year.
Not a new vision, but I alwaysfeel like the beginning of the
year is kind of a kickoff ofwhat we're going to be focusing
on this year, what we're goingto be looking at, how I'm going
to be leading, what are thethings that are going to be
(20:21):
instrumental to our, growth andour patient care for the year,
and so October allows me to comeback and start introducing it.
So that I can assess thepushback I'm going to get,
assess those who are going tobuy into what we're doing, and
get everyone on board, becauseI, that way, January 1st hits,
(20:41):
we hit, I hit the ground runningwith things that are going to,
we're going to move forwardwith.
Evon (20:47):
Work out all the kinks and make sure it's running well in
January.
I think a lot of us sort of waittill December, maybe just before
the holidays to get that end ofyear planning in.
So that, that makes sense.
Get that thinking a little bitearlier in the fourth quarter.
Give yourself time to introduceit, work out some of the kinks
or maybe good ideas versus badideas and then hit, hit January,
(21:10):
hit the ground running.
And who should be involved inthis?
If we're thinking aboutdifferent practices, different
sizes of practices, listening,who should be involved in these,
these types of strategic weeks?
Chad (21:23):
Strategic Weeks is really your, who's leading your,
practice.
So, Very seldom do you have,multiple captains because
multiple captains is going tosink a ship.
So I would say already, ifyou've got multiple captains,
then you're most likely going tobe locked and you're not going
to be able to go anywherebecause you just, you can't, you
(21:44):
got to have a quarterback on thefield that has to be established
first, who's going to be theleader.
And that's not the tyrant.
That's not the monarchy.
That is the person who's goingto lead with the other leaders.
What, what does the group wantas a whole?
And then they're the ones whoare going to carry that out.
So that must be establishedfirst.
(22:05):
And then after that, that's theresponsibility of a lot of
these, a lot of these, you know,private equity, bigger companies
call it a practice directorversus a CEO.
You can, it's basically who'sgoing to lead.
the practice as a whole.
So that has to be establishedbecause there's young doctors
who are anxious to do this andthey're like, Hey, I hear you.
(22:28):
This is great.
We need to prepare for thefuture and we need to have good
systems in place, but they'reultimately not the ones who are
making the decision.
They don't have 100 percentsupport.
Evon (22:39):
Gotcha.
Okay.
very often it sounds like itwould be the majority owner if
there's multiple owners in thepractice, at least for a single
doctor practice.
Hey optometrist, it's you.
Okay.
It's, it's pretty easy there.
I'm fortunate to work with somehusband and wife teams that,
that own and run practicestogether.
Okay.
That makes it a lot easier too.
Although, please draw the linebetween vacation time and,
(23:01):
intentional strategic time inthat getaway.
it sounds like there is aspecific list of topics or
things that you'd like toaddress during the week.
Do you come into it with anagenda?
or very specific things thatyou've thought about throughout
the year that now you're goingto take time to address it.
How do you approach it?
What do you gather to make surethat this is a really productive
(23:25):
use of your time?
Chad (23:27):
Oh, I have a, page in my notion that I dump everything
into.
And so throughout the year, I'mjust dumping in, hey, this, this
is broken.
This is going to need changed.
I see a vision of this staffperson is most likely going to
retire in the next year or two.
I need to have a transitionplan.
Hey, we're paying this persontoo much.
(23:50):
How are we going to solve that?
Or we're not paying these peopleenough.
We have way too much turnover.
I mean, it, it evolvesthroughout the year of me just
dumping stuff in.
Hey, our vision therapy part ofour practice is not profitable.
I continue to hear that, youknow, we're not running a good
system there, or patients aren'tpaying, or we're taking off too
(24:11):
many write offs.
I just dump it.
It's just collection bin, in, onthat page, and then I go back
prior to the time I get away,just make sure I've covered
everything and see if there'sanything that's left over, and
then when I get away, I organizeall of that and prioritize of,
you know, what what needs to beaddressed?
(24:33):
And so usually when I'm lookingat what's in that list, that's
also helping me to define whatresources, books, journal
articles, those types of thingsI want to collect and review,
podcasts, great leaders, whatare, how are they solving those
problems, those types of things.
So I might look for them.
(24:53):
5 to 10 podcasts on my drive.
I make it so I can drive to andfrom the place I go to, and then
that way I can listen anddigest, different ideas.
So I might collect and throw inthere and just have a list of
podcasts I'm going to burnthrough.
We're
Evon (25:08):
Gotcha.
So throughout the year, you areaware of what's going on in the
practice.
You're just dumping ideas,questions, difficulties,
challenges, whatever it is, intoyour, your list.
There could be Notion, could bea Google doc, whatever that is.
And then, you're organizingthat, getting that ready for,
for this getaway.
And then you're preparingarticles, books, whatever
resources you need to sort oftackle these, this list.
(25:31):
You're, you're bringing thatwith you.
And, what are some of the, Imean, what are some examples of
big questions that you've solvedthat you felt like have made a
big, a big difference in yourbusiness?
Like what, what are someexamples of things you've worked
through on some of these, someof these getaways?
Chad (25:49):
That's a great, that's a great question because it's very
practical.
Having a plan when you have asenior doctor that's going to be
retiring, having that mappedout, what that looks like.
Doctors who are looking toretire are scared.
They've never been in this placebefore.
They don't understand what it'sgoing to look like.
They'll say, hey, yeah, I'llretire at the end of this year.
(26:11):
And then about a year, about, 3months ahead of that.
It's like, Hey, I think Ichanged my mind.
I'd like to retire a little bitlater.
Getting all of that kind ofmapped out, is good.
Moving, if you've got,especially if your business is
growing, you're going to need toraise leadership.
And so we, I'm a firm believerin raising within.
(26:33):
So, we're usually have somebodyin leadership training all the
time who's going to be our nextleaders to fill in positions.
Those transitions can bedifficult and they can be
culture breaking if you don'taddress them properly.
So, that will be addressed.
how we're compensating ourdoctors, right now.
We probably pay our doctors toomuch, and that sounds funny, but
(26:56):
if you look at the bell shapedcurve, I've been in some
meetings with networks of otherdoctors who own practices and
have associates, and we're onthe side of the bell shaped
curve.
We need to adapt.
with that, so I had to come upwith a whole compensation model.
So we look at how we'recompensated.
I changed how our, our, upperend, leadership was compensated
(27:20):
and changed a little bit, howour opticians were compensated
to help drive more sales in theoptical.
All of that planning was linedup at the strategic meetings and
so, or strategic planning time.
Evon (27:35):
These
Chad (27:35):
Is that answer, was that specific enough to, for the
Evon (27:38):
these are, these are big questions to tackle, right?
And if you're not givingyourself the time to think
through these and to plan aroundthem, I mean, these are big
business altering decisions thatyou need to think through.
And you talk about going throughthis planning week or planning
time, and then at the end of theyear, it gives you some time to
(28:01):
introduce them, go through them,work, work them out a little
bit.
And then January you're hittingthe ground running.
Okay.
So you, you've gone throughthat, right?
So the, the listener has plannedout that week, they've gotten
their list of things they wantto go through.
They brought the resources,they've planned it out through
the week.
It's been really productive.
Then they go home.
Okay.
(28:22):
How do you make sure that you,you know, what steps do you take
or what do you do to make surethat you are implementing the
things that you've planned?
That you're not just going homeand then it's just life as
usual.
Like you're, you're actuallytaking the time to implement and
introduce those things.
Chad (28:38):
Bye bye.
It depends on, you've got toknow yourself.
If you are a disciplined personthat is good at execution, then
you know you're going to take itback and you're going to do it.
If that's an area where you.
You're really good at planning,but not executing on anything.
You need to be self aware andsay, I better hire a consultant.
I better hire an accountabilityperson.
(29:01):
I better have somebody in theorganization who will not let me
be passive about this.
Because I can tell you, it'svery easy to be passive about it
because it, It's more work tohave to make change, so you've
got to want the desired outcomemore than you, avoid the pain of
(29:21):
the current moment.
And so you've got to have peoplein place to hold you
accountable, unless you're just,you're that 3 percent that, you
know, is highly, highly selfmotivated and is great at
execution and will execute untilit's, it's the problem solved.
Evon (29:39):
Got it.
Knowing yourself, thataccountability for a lot of
things is, is critical, right?
And you mentioned at times, youhad an accountability partner
during the week to make surethat you are being productive
during the week.
Very often in the business,sometimes you'll hear it called,
if you're using, EOS or, orRocket Fuel, you'll, you'll hear
it called an implementer or anintegrator, right?
(30:00):
You'll, that's someone in yourpractice, that really executes
on things that is sort of the,the gatekeeper towards bad
ideas, that person that reallyputs things into action.
And, that accountability soundslike it's a big part of that.
And, you know, you might getthis sort of thought that, I
can't step away from thepractice for that long.
(30:23):
Or I just can't take time awayfrom seeing patients.
I can't afford to.
I think patients will be upsetnot being able to schedule in
that week.
What do you say to that, thatsort of hesitation around taking
that much time?
I mean, we're, we're talkingabout a week or even if it's
shorter, to dedicating that timeto stepping away and doing that,
(30:44):
that type of work.
Chad (30:46):
that's a great question.
Because, I think that's real.
I think that where I'm at rightnow, is allowed because of the
size of our practice and becauseof the The, the way our practice
does run and it is profitable.
I would say you start with a dayand then let it expand from
(31:07):
there.
but I don't, it's hard for me tosay that that that time's not
worth it.
That's like saying that I'mgoing to go be a professional
athlete, but I'm not going totake the time to do game film
because that's not pumping outwidgets to make me stronger,
faster on the field.
We're not working on catchingpasses.
(31:29):
We're just studying.
To say that, I think there's amindset shift that needs to
happen.
So, it's, you've got to be tiredof where you're at, and you've
got to see the light at the endof the tunnel that you're
probably going to burn out.
if you just hit the ground andsee and let the patients run
(31:49):
your schedule, don't let yourpatients run your business.
If you're worried about, well, Iwon't be able to see the
patients.
They're going to be frustrated.
They're going to be upset.
I can tell you, I've done morethan enough things to upset
patients and yes, they're goingto be temporarily
inconvenienced.
But they're going to be muchhappier when they have a
successful practice that's beengrowing, that can take care of
(32:12):
them, that many doctors can addassociates.
they just don't, they don't takethe risk of the investment of
adding a one day associate ortwo day associate.
And maybe that's the first stepis, you know, get somebody to
come in and, and see patientsfor a day.
It's hard though.
I talked to doctors that, youknow, saying it's one thing,
(32:32):
pulling the triggers another,because it's like, it's an
investment and people, peopledon't like change.
But I say, you, I say you can'thelp you.
You can't not work on thebusiness.
Evon (32:46):
I would agree.
And, and it's interesting, wethink of the investment as
dollars spent, like you're goingto take dollars you've, you've,
you've received and, and buysomething or spend it on
something.
That lost potential revenue foryou not being in the practice
those few days, that's aninvestment, right?
And it's a necessary part of, ofgrowing and moving the business
(33:06):
forward.
And I wonder if a lot of thethings that, that make us feel
like we are, are overworked orburned out, or that we're so
busy, we can't leave thepractice.
I wonder if a lot of thoseissues that, that put us in that
position can be solved by takingtime away and being able to
improve.
If we're feeling like we don'thave time because we're so busy
(33:30):
seeing patients, well,maybethere are scheduling issues.
Maybe there's flow issues frompatient walking in through pre
testing to seeing you, or maybethere's hires or delegation that
needs to be done to make surethat you as a doctor or owner
are being able to do the mostimportant things in your
schedule.
So I wonder if a lot of thosethings that make us feel that
way can actually be solved by bystepping away and looking at how
(33:54):
the business is running andlooking at ways to improve it.
Does that thought feel likeit's, it's a possibility?
Chad (33:59):
Well, my thought went to what is a couple percentage
improvement equal out?
so say you can't, say you workon your business and you improve
by 2 percent on your profits,Which I think is very easy to
do, especially if you haven'tscrutinized your business on a,
a yearly basis and you improveby 2%, what is that,$20,000 for
(34:21):
every million that the practiceis doing, and so it more than
pays for itself.
And so now, instead of having togenerate more and more patients,
you're just keeping more of thedollar that's coming in.
and so that's, that's what yougotta do.
I don't, I don't see there'sanother way around it because
I've seen a, I've, I've seen alot as you have P&Ls of
(34:45):
practices and there people areworking really, really hard to
keep, you know, 10 cents on thedollar when they should be
keeping, you know, 18 cents onthe dollar, 19 cents on the
dollar.
Evon (35:00):
Yeah.
After that end of year planningsession is done, January comes.
What do you do throughout therest of the year to make sure
that you are reviewing all ofthis stuff you've implemented,
all of these ideas and changesyou you're working on and
checking and seeing if they'reworking or if they need to be
improved.
What, what's happening month tomonth from there on out, to make
(35:23):
sure that things are working andmoving along.
Chad (35:26):
Well, you've got to measure.
What your changes are.
So if you're going to changethings in the optical, and
you're going to start payingincentives to your staff, and
you're going to have to provethat there's you take the people
who are doing your finances, andyou're going to say, hey, this
is what we're I'm making somesignificant changes that's going
(35:46):
to potentially increase thecompensation of my opticians.
I need to know, is the opticalgrowing?
Is my cost of goods going up,going down?
And usually you can measurethat, that it, well, you should
be able to measure that.
It's not going to happenovernight, but that's what your
measurables are going to be.
I mean, I can measurespecifically when we went to
(36:08):
incentives.
Sales grew 25 percent year overyear from when that day that we
started in doing, doing theincentives program.
And so that was a very valuable,decision that we are continuing
to move forward with.
So you've got to have themeasurables.
(36:29):
Right now, I'm in the middle ofspending a ton of time revamping
our Vision Therapy Department,and there, I've got measurables
as far as capture rate, as faras signups, as far as money in
the bank versus money writtenoff, that we're looking at those
numbers, and that's going to bemy, you know, win or loss of the
(36:51):
efforts that I put into that,because that's one of our big
items that we're addressing for2025, and I'm responsible for
carrying that out.
Evon (37:00):
knowing what you're working on and what measurables
are important to that thingessentially, and then just
having accurate data to be ableto watch that as, as the year
unfolds.
I think this has been great.
I think the, the, the idea thatwe need to step away from this,
the day to day work and justtake time to think and okay,
(37:21):
say, okay, what's, what'sworking, what's not, take
ourselves out of the processesand say, okay, what's working,
what can be improved?
How can we improve it?
I think that thinking time is soimportant.
I even think on a daily basis, Imean, we do so much.
We fall into that trap of likeconsuming stuff constantly.
I mean, consuming content.
every part of our day and justnot taking time to think.
(37:44):
And, I've, I'm in that trap allthe time.
And I just on a daily basis,just taking that time to step
away and just think.
How are things working?
How can they be improved?
I think it's so important, buttaking that time, certainly as
you've been talking about, tointentionally dedicate it to
thinking and improving thebusiness, it seems so important.
And what are some just finalthoughts you'd like to leave
(38:06):
with, with the audience in termsof either planning out this
strategic planning week or justintentionally taking time out of
their lives on a daily basis orweekly basis to, to improving
the business?
Chad (38:17):
There's a number of different things that That I
would want to repeat and want tosay, and I think it sounds
simple, but it comes back to,what are the, what are your core
values?
Where, where are you headed?
you've got to know thedestination that you're wanting
to end up in personally.
(38:40):
to be able to implementprofessionally and be motivated
to meet those professional goalsand then have professional
destinations and then you canmap out how I'm going to get
there and then head in thatdirection.
So I think it's a matter of youbeing intentional yourself of
Knowing what you want, and Ithink a lot of times, you said
(39:01):
something that was beautiful.
We've got so much noise with allthe content we consume, with all
the things that we look at, withall the things we try and keep
up with, that we've lost focus.
And I think that the biggestthing to take home from today
is, don't lose your focus,figure out what your focus is,
and then be intentional about,heading in that direction.
(39:24):
And I think that the margin inyour life will increase, your
relationships with the peoplearound you will improve, and
you're, you will all around, bea more fulfilled, individual.
And I think that's what weultimately all would like to
have is enjoying the journey.
You got to enjoy the journey, orelse you end up in the
destination and you're justcompletely burnt out.
(39:45):
And there's a lot of people thatare on the verge of burnout
right now.
Evon (39:49):
Yeah.
I love that takeaway.
I appreciate those thoughts.
when one final question, as wejust wrap up, the whole
conversation is that when youthink about the future of
optometry in the context of thisconversation, private practice
optometry, what are you mostexcited about?
Chad (40:07):
Wow, long pause for, dramatic effect.
Evon (40:11):
right.
Chad (40:13):
What am I most excited about?
Man! Evon, I think you stumpedme.
Evon (40:20):
Good.
It worked.
Now.
the listeners probably realizedevery podcast by law has to now
include this deep, deep finalquestion.
So we got him.
Chad (40:30):
think that was good.
Thank you for the time.
I think the thing that's comeinto me, and I was trying to say
it in a way that didn't soundlike I was completely oblivious
to how we are at this point, butI think that with pain, with
difficulties with an industrythat, you know, there's a lot of
(40:54):
different areas that we looklike, hey, things aren't going
well.
It's just your mindset.
There's a lot of opportunitiesout there.
So when I see things of what adifficult, healthcare
environment, I say, Hey, there'sa lot of opportunities.
I just need to figure out whatthose opportunities are.
And so, yeah, those are probablythings I'm most excited about
(41:15):
the future is that with a lot ofpain points, which I'm seeing,
there's a lot of opportunitiesand, and solving those problems
is, is what excites me.
Evon (41:25):
I appreciate that.
Yeah, there, there are a lot ofnegative opinions about the
future of eye care particularlyprivate practice.
So I appreciate your thoughts onthe opportunity moving forward
with, with optometry and theexciting opportunities you see
there.
So, Appreciate your time, Dr.
Fleming.
Appreciate all of your thoughtsin this conversation.
(41:46):
I'm certainly taking a lot awayfrom it, and I think the
listeners are as well.
How can people find and followand learn more about what you're
doing?
Chad (41:53):
just email me, chad@pipgpo.com.
You can also catch me onLinkedIn.
LinkedIn, I've got a number ofthings that I put up on there.
but yeah, you're welcome tocontact me and, we can talk.
Evon (42:06):
Perfect.
I will throw your contactinformation and links to our
prior episodes in the shownotes, and for the listener,
really appreciate your time andattention, and we will catch you
on the next episode.
In the meantime, take care.
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