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Eye Care Leadership Live
I speak with eye care and healthcare clinical leaders and the experts who help their clinics succeed.
Episodes
70 episodes
Conversion and Follow-Up Excellence (Kade Wilcox)
Your marketing might be doing its job and you could still be losing your best patients. That’s the core tension we dig into with Kade Wilcox, founder of Convert Health, an ophthalmology lead generation and lead conversion specialist who has see...
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Culture Tips for Healthcare: Mike Lyons + Jakub Grajcar
Most healthcare practices don’t struggle because the medicine is bad. They struggle because leadership gets stretched thin, managers get promoted without support, and culture slowly drifts until turnover, drama, and “constant fires” feel normal...
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How to Communicate as a Leader (with Mike Lyons)
Your team isn’t ignoring you, they’re processing. When the message affects benefits, pay, staffing, or job security, people don’t just “hear” an update and move on. They replay it, question it, compare notes, and fill in blanks with...
Are You HIPAA/OSHA Audit Ready? (with Jennifer Cosey)
You can do everything “right” for patients all day long and still get blindsided by a privacy complaint, an OSHA inquiry, or a cyber incident. That’s why we invited Jennifer Cosey, President of Eagle Associates, to talk with us about what healt...
Hiring The Right Operations Leader (with Greg Spruce)
We talk with ophthalmology executive recruiter Greg Spruce about why senior hires go sideways in ophthalmology and what to do differently before you make a costly leadership mistake. We break down how to match operators to your business stage, ...
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The Four Agreements For Clinic Leaders
We use The Four Agreements to talk about what actually changes clinic culture: the words we choose, the stories we invent, and the standards we repeat. We share real ophthalmology examples that connect emotional intelligence to clearer training...
Tales from the Trenches: Patient Complaint
We share a real-world story about a patient’s serious allegation against an employee and what it takes to respond with care, speed, and sound judgment. We break down how we build trust, gather facts, and make decisions that protect patients, st...
HIPAA Safe Marketing That Actually Grows A Clinic
We talk with Carl White about how private practices can beat bigger competitors by leaning into what independence makes possible and by saying it clearly in their marketing. We also dig into HIPAA blind spots that show up in websites, agencies,...
Smarter Spending For Eye Care Clinics
We talk with Dr. Cynthia Matosian about the leadership moves that keep eye care practices sustainable when costs rise and reimbursements fall. We dig into building patient-first culture, learning the business skills most clinicians never get ta...
Hillary Golden: Lessons in Glaucoma Patient Care [Replay]
In this episode, which originally posted in June 2025, my esteemed guest was Hillary Golden. Hillary is a keynote speaker and advisor on the topic of patient care in ophthalmology with a particular focus (no pun intended) on glaucom...
Clinic Marketing That Actually Works
We talk with Jennifer Church Kilkenny about what actually drives growth for cash-pay services in healthcare, from local search intent to email lists you control. We also get real about social media tactics, staff involvement, paid ads strategy,...
Self Care - Rest That Makes You Better
In this show, I talk about rest as a form of self-care that makes us better leaders, not just better at “getting through” the week. I share practical ways to protect our energy so we can think clearly, support our teams, and improve clinic cult...
So, You Want To Sell Your Clinic?
We talk with Mike Guelcher of Prism Consulting Partners about what really drives an ophthalmology or optometry practice sale and why “value” is not the same thing as the final price. We dig into the human side of transitions, the metrics that k...
Onboarding For Eye Care Technicians with Jane Shuman
We break down why technician turnover stays high in busy eye care clinics and how better hiring and onboarding fixes it. We share practical ways to validate skills, build a consistent training program, and create a culture where new techs feel ...
Legal Traps in Clinics (And How to Avoid Them)
We talk with healthcare attorney Matt Stevens about the real-world legal and operational fights clinics face with insurance reimbursement, audits, and payer clawbacks, plus the steps that keep small problems from turning into career-level crise...
Tales From the Trenches: Harassment Investigations (5/1/26)
A harassment allegation can make even experienced clinic leaders freeze, not because they don’t care, but because every move has consequences. We’ve handled these situations many times, and we break down what actually works when a sexual harass...
If You Don’t Define Culture, It Defines You - with Kurt Defenbaugh
Mike talks with Kurt Defenbaugh about why culture is not a slogan or a perks program, but the lived DNA of a clinic that either gets designed on purpose or assigned by default. We walk through a concrete method for defining core values, then us...
Tales From The Trenches: Hiring (4/24/26)
Hiring shouldn’t feel like a weekly emergency, but in many ophthalmology and optometry clinics it does: outdated job descriptions, endless resumes, interview no-shows, and the temptation to grab the first person who seems “good enough.” I’m try...
Beat Burnout and Build Better Clinics with Dr. Melissa Barnett
We talk with Dr. Melissa Barnett about how a dry eye and specialty contact lens optometrist becomes an ICF credentialed coach and why that work brings her so much joy. We dig into burnout, clarity, and leadership habits that help eye care teams...
Announcement: Compensation Survey
This episode is to announce that Mandy Cansler Consulting and I are launching a free, multi-phase ophthalmology compensation survey so leaders can stop relying on generic healthcare numbers and start benchmarking pay with data that matches real...
Managing Gen Z At Work
My guest for this episode is Luke Goetting, a speaker and advisor on leading Generation Z and across generations. We unpack how digital natives changed the rules of retention and why eye care clinics win when they trade secrecy for ...
If Your Team Can't Find You... It's Time To Add A Leader
In this show, I tackle the real question behind manager overload: when an eye care clinic needs more leadership coverage to protect retention, productivity, and culture. We share clear warning signs, practical alternatives to hiring, and what t...
Launching Clinical Research In Eye Care
We sit down with Amy Ford of Curo Research to map the real-world path to launching and scaling clinical research inside an eye care clinic. We dig into staff growth, budgeting that actually covers the work, sponsor red flags, and where ophthalm...
From Optometry To Authorship: Purpose, Patients, And Personal Courage
We explore how a 30‑year optometrist reconnected with purpose, found her voice through vulnerability, and turned a clinic into a culture powered by gratitude and action. The story spans a viral poem, practice reinvestment, children’s books, and...