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 set real goals and follow through.

• burnout, mindfulness, and team communication
• the difference between mentoring, consulting, therapy, and coaching partnerships
• mindful leadership basics like self-care, empathy, and bringing fun into teams
• how she builds Alpine Blue Coaching to help more clinicians and organizations
• practical ways to find clarity through journaling, reflection, values, and goal writing
• Camino cycling lessons on mindset, endurance, and fresh perspective
• speed round takes on sleep, meditation, affirmations, and big goals
• what coaching actually looks like for independent high performers
• delegation and imposter syndrome strategies, especially for women carrying many roles
• what’s next including VOSH service in Nicaragua and upcoming speaking

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com. 

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com 

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

Transcript

Welcome And Live Audience Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Yeah, and it will just be super casual. So um anyway, welcome to the show, Dr. Melissa Barnett. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you chatting with me and everybody that's watching us live out in LinkedIn land. Um, you can comment and we'll see your comments and we can respond to them. Um, so if you just want to say hi to Dr. Barnett or if you want to ask her a question, this is a great time to do that. Or if you just want to say how awesome she is and you're such a huge fan, then now's a great time to do that. And you can do that anytime while we're here on LinkedIn. But but I'm truly grateful to have you on the show because number one, you are you're in iCare and you are you're just everywhere. You're you're so giving of your knowledge. And I so I'm excited to kind of dig into what drives you and what's got you excited. And so maybe let's just start with that. Like, what is it that that you're up to these days? Um, and why why are you driven to do that?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Well, thank you. First of all, for all the kind comments and hi everyone out there, great to see you. Thanks for joining us. I know it's such a busy time. So, to answer

Why Coaching Lights Her Up

SPEAKER_01 1:22

your question, there's so much that's exciting. So, in eye care, let's start there. I am an optometrist practicing 25 years, and in eye care, it's such a super exciting time. So, we have new technologies, new advancements. My specialties are in dry eye and specialty contact lenses and contact lenses, keratoconus and presbyopia. So, so much there. But what's really exciting now is that I am a professional credentialed coach. So I'm a life coach in addition to an eye doctor. And that has been giving me so much joy. And what I love about it is giving back, so really giving back to the profession and giving back to people, being able to partner with people to set goals and achieve their goals and not just people, organizations as well. So it is so fulfilling, it is so exciting, and it's a great start. Oh, I we didn't even start. Happy New Year! Happy New Year. We can still feel that, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah, this is a great time to be having a conversation about goals and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Um, so yeah, you know, with that, maybe that's a great place to kind of start. It is a new year. Uh, we're recording this on January 8th, and you help practices and eye care providers to set goals, to have a vision, create clarity. And what are what kinds of questions do you do you typically get um or problems maybe that are kind of presented to you in your coaching work?

Burnout Goals And Practice Problems

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Sure. So so many, so many questions, right? But let's highlight a few of the most common ones. Uh, so when we talk about coaching, I always think of it as life coaching, it's work and life. They all go hand in hand. So things that come up often are burnout. Burnout is highly prevalent right now in eye care. It's highly prevalent in so many different professions, and how to overcome burnout. So, how to work with mindset, how to get into routines like exercising, for example, in the morning or the evening, going on a walk, how to incorporate different things like mindfulness. Um, but also a lot goes into sort of the business of eye care too, how to increase efficiencies, how to include a specialty in your practice, like specialty contact lens or dry eye, how to talk to staff, that's and how to work together as a team. That comes up a lot. Delegation is a big one too. So there are a lot, a lot of different topics, but what I love about it, about the coaching that's so rewarding is actually seeing the transformation and seeing the change. And in so many heartwarming stories, even this week, of people getting new jobs, of saying that a transition or change was life-changing for their practice. That, you know, that's that is just really wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, it doesn't get too much better than that. Um, you know, I'm wondering, you know, you maybe many many years ago when you were starting your optometry journey, you may not have imagined that you would be doing what you're doing right now in the world of coaching. Was this something that came upon you gradually, or did you have like a boom, like an aha moment where you said, I gotta share this?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Oh, that's that's a great question. So practicing 25 years, I've done mentoring for the most most of those years as well. And the mentoring got me into a few different mentoring, formal mentoring programs of mentoring people in and outside of iCare. And that's what introduced me to coaching. So it was sort of a natural progression. It was one conversation, particularly that I remember saying, you know, when I was talking about the different types of coaching. So the coaching that I do is with the International Coaching Federation, and it I'm a credential coach. And so it's a it's a very rigorous process, actually, to become a coach. And I remember having this conversation, like, you should go down that path. And I said, that sounds great. I'm all about really doing no harm, creating the best and taking the best, helping people get the best out of them and having the best life. So that was a very specific conversation. And it's been, it's been a wonderful journey. I'm so grateful. And you're exactly right that I never ever could have expected this many years ago.

Mentoring Versus Coaching Explained

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Um, I'm wondering, since you have so much experience, you talked about mentoring and now you're an ICF certified coach. What, first of all, what is the difference and is there a difference between mentoring and coaching in your mind? And if I'm a clinician or a practice administrator in optometry, ophthalmology, and I want to maybe I want to mentor my team or coach them. Like, what's one or two things that I could begin to implement to be more effective to do that?

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Okay, so I'm going to try and answer all the questions that I'm going to do. Let me know. But again, great question. So, coaching is really partnering with people to define and achieve goals versus something like consulting, which would be sharing information or mentoring, providing an opinion. Coaching is not therapy. So if there's any prior trauma that should be taken care of prior to coaching, you know, sometimes alongside too. Uh, but great questions there. And for those who are looking for mentorship is so valuable. I have so many mentors. Thank you, all of you out there over the years that I'm still in touch with. You know who you are. So many mentors who have helped me. And I think it's wonderful to have mentors and be a mentee all at the same time, because we can all help others, whatever stage of life we're in, we can definitely be mentors. But to answer your question about some specific things, so it really depends. One is communication, communication with your team. So how do you communicate? And the team could be your practice, your staff, uh, it could be technicians, it could be other doctors, it could, you know, the team could be defined for the individual. But effective communication is really important. So starting with yourself, right? And when I talk about my coaching style, it's mindful leadership, wellness, and effective communication. The mindful leadership really starts with yourself. How are you as a person? How are you leading yourself? And how are you taking care of yourself, which is the wellness part, in order to take care of your team? So I think it's also very important to be human and to have empathy when you are talking to others and also with a team to have some fun. I mean, it's it's great to have fun, you know, you can make a joke, you can incorporate fun into your work, and that really helps with team bonding.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Okay. Um, love the self-care. Um, I'm a huge advocate of that. And I love that you you kind of put that at the center, you know, you've got to take care of yourself first, you know, uh to be able to get to be able to be a good mentor and a coach. Uh, you really have to be able to do that.

Building Alpine Blue Coaching

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Um did um as you were going through as you were going through your journey, um you you decided to kind of create your own business out of this. Was there a like a was there what was the driver behind that of saying, hey, I'm gonna create a whole business around? Because you're you could have stayed and I I'm mentoring and I'm giving advice, but now I'm gonna put myself out there, you know, and put it on LinkedIn and I'm gonna create a website, and that's not a small thing, right? And and and so what what kind of went into that thought?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yes. So going through the coaching program and my obtaining my certification, and it took me a while actually to identify as a coach. And because I've been an eye doctor all these years, and so now I have this other identity as well as being a coach. So I I and then I just fully embraced it. So even though it took a bit of time during the program, once I embraced it, like everything else I do, I'm all in. So I thought, how can I really help the most people? And and there are still people out there who have no idea that I'm coaching. So that's why we're talking today, right? That's right. Getting the word out. They don't know me as a coach, they know me as a doctor. So I thought that in order to be most effective and help the most people, that's why I started the company Alpine Blue Coaching.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Okay.

Finding Clarity Through Values

SPEAKER_00 11:10

You know, when I looked at some of your content that you've put out, I saw a lot of talk about clarity and vision. And those are those are those have to be critical, right? In business, um, personally, you know, if you own a practice or even personally, you know, on your career, you kind of have to know where you're going. And now we're here we are at the beginning of a year, new year. Um, what advice would you give to someone who's kind of saying, gosh, I don't know, I don't know what my future is. I don't know where I want to go. I don't have clarity. Um, are is there something that someone can can do to try to to try to uncover that?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Sure. Well, coaching is always an option, and you're but you don't have to have a coach. Having a some someone, a person to talk to is one option. Some people find that journaling is very helpful. Reflection is another great option. So going for a walk, thinking about things, setting goals, writing them down, identifying values, your your own values, and living by those values is something else. There are a lot of also a lot of great resources out there that talk about different priorities in your life. So that's also another thing. So it's really, I love the clarity because it has the eye care and the coaching aspect of it, right? Right. I'm kind of an eye nerd too. And so it's great to have, you know, there's a lot of different resources. Some people like to do it individually, some people like to do it with a person or a group, but there's really a lot out there in order to define your goals and knowing what your values are in order to define the goals and then achieve the goals.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Okay.

The Camino Bike Trip Mindset

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Now you you mentioned going for a walk. And so I have to mention you recently posted a picture on LinkedIn about a bike trip. I guess you went on a bike trip in in Portugal or Spain. Both. Okay. Yeah. So tell me, tell I'm gonna put that picture up here on the screen.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Oh well, that's super fun that you can do that. Yeah, yeah. So we rode for six days straight from Portugal to Spain. So these are 10 hour days.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

And this is the Camino. So a lot of people walk the Camino and which is amazing. And I definitely want to go back and hike it. Um, but we decided to ride bikes and because we thought we wanted to, oh, that's oh, that's so so neat. Amazing, amazing. So um, it was an incredible experience. It was the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, and it was so physically challenging because it you can't really tell in this picture, but it was so mountainous, so so steep, the elevation was crazy. And it was also during the heat wave last summer, it was really, really hot. And then there were headwinds the whole time, too. So we were riding, but then with the headwinds, because it was so windy, it was even more difficult. So it was so it was so physically challenging, but I love bike riding, I think it's so fun that it all it became a mindset. It's all about mindset because when after day one, everything hurts, you just keep going. And it was the most incredible experience. I recommend everyone do it in your lifetime, put it on that list. Like it was incredible. I definitely want to go back. There are three different routes, so you can go from Portugal, from France, or from Spain. I definitely want to go back and hike it the same route. And we learned, we met all sorts of wonderful people, and we learned that if you hike it, there are things like buses and trains that you can take. So you don't actually have to do every single mile if you don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Sign me up on that right there.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

And there are lots of supported trips. So we took all of our belongings from one place to another, but there are lots of companies that if you want, they could take your bag from one place to the other. And there are also e-bikes that we did not have to.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Now I'm intrigued. You know, I'm wondering, yeah, we talked about clarity. Um, I know for me, uh, you know, if I get away, uh I I might leave an experience like that with with with some new thoughts and some new perspectives on my business or family or career or something. Was that the case for you after completing the uh the Camino experience?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yes, I think with anything, if you have a lot of time to think and be in a quiet space and think, so that could be anywhere, really, or doing something like riding a bike for six days, 10 hours a day. Yes. So it definitely helped clarify goals and moving forward. So so far, so good. It's been a great time since then. That was about six months ago.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Okay, cool.

Speed Round On Success Habits

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Um, well, I want to try something that that I occasionally do here on the show, and I call it the speed round. And during the speed round, what I do is I will give you a a hot topic or a trend or um maybe a technique that that might be popular, and you tell me if it's if it's hot, you can go thumbs up, or if it's not, or if it's kind of in the middle. And these all kind of relate to success or mindset or clarity or goal setting or something like that. So are you game for that?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Okay, let's give it a try.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Okay, and if anyone's listening here and they want to share their comments about these, um uh I welcome that as well. Okay, so the first one is um getting good sleep. Oh uh two thumbs up.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

I want to give more than two thumbs up.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Oh yep. Wow, okay, and we can come back on these topics too if you want to double-click on anything. Okay, um, the second one is meditation. Yeah, yes. Meditation? Okay. What about fake it till you make it? No, I'm supposed to do thumbs down. Thumbs down?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Okay, you're well well if you it can I give an example.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, you can do some some editorial.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Some editorial, uh, you know, it it depends. It depends on the on the circumstance on that one.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Okay, it depends. Okay, fair. What about um affirmations?

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Using affirmations for your yes, I think some people are very, very much like affirmations.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Okay, and then last one, uh, this is kind of an older one, but I I still hear it. The big hairy audacious goals.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

The B Hag, uh shark, go for it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Two thumbs up on B Hags. Okay, very good. They're still they still work. Um okay, cool. Um, well, yeah, anything from the speed round that kind of jumped out at you.

Sleep As Foundational Self Care

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Oh, sure. Yes, let's start with sleep.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

So sleep is actually one of my hobbies. Like I love sleep. I do call it a hobby, and yeah, and it's true, but getting a good foundational sleep, right? That helps everything when we talk about self-care. It's not only exercise, it's sleep, it's drinking enough water, it's having a healthy diet. But but sleep is so incredibly important. And I always like to think like professional athletes use sleep as a technique to improve. So, yep, huge fan of sleep.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Okay, awesome. Um, likewise, likewise, although I probably don't get enough of it.

What Working With A Coach Is Like

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Um I'm curious about um, you know, coaching. So you you've been involved with coaching here for a while. We talked about mentoring and coaching a little bit, but what does it, what does it look like to work with a coach? You know, um, I think that's probably an obstacle that a lot of people might have. They might think, uh, I don't want to have to get vulnerable, or um, I don't like it when somebody tells me what to do. I'm real independent. You know, what are some of those barriers that people have when they think about working with a coach? And then what is what is it actually like to work with a coach?

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Sure. I I think that's interesting. Some of the barriers that you brought up. So the second one, let's start there, is that coaching is partnering. So you're not told what to do at all. It's really helping you find within yourself, because you you know within yourself, and finding within yourself what you want to do. So that's that's one thing. I I think there a lot of people don't know about coaching, they don't know how a coach can help. I find that people who are actually doing quite well are those who reach out for coaching to do even better. And so they've they've already done a lot of inner work, they might have done therapy, they they've they've reached a point maybe in their career, for example, where they're doing quite well, but they want more, or it's not right the right fit, or they want to see if they can reach that goal, whatever it might be. So I I I think some people think that coaching is scary or something like that too. Like I I don't know how to do it, I don't know how it can help me, but it's not scary. It's actually very, it can be very deep work. So yes, there is vulnerability involved for sure. But the ICF coaching method is very uh everything is very ethical, nothing is shared, it's all The best interest of the person. So it's it's not scary. It's very, it's just wonderful. The wonderful thing also about being a coach is doing a lot of reciprocal coaching. And so I've gotten a lot of coaching, which has been wonderful for clarity.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

It looks like you spent you spend a lot of your time in coaching working with women.

Delegation And Imposter Syndrome Tools

SPEAKER_00 22:43

And what are ways that what are techniques that that um help to overcome that?

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Sure. So there are a few things. One is burnout, which is just incredibly prevalent, both men and women. I I would say I don't think that's any different. But women oftentimes take on everything, take on all the roles. So at home, making the kids' lunches, for example, making dinner, doing all the different things that buying the birthday present, whatever it might be, and at work doing everything as well, whether you're a business owner or not. And so it's just the amount of things that that is a little bit different. So it some of it is delegation. And this isn't any different for men or women or anyone, but it's delegating. There are tasks that can be delegated, and there are some things that cannot be delegated. And really finding, I found that to be extremely helpful with my clients is what can be delegated to give you more time for yourself and the other people around you, too, whether that's at work or at home. So that's a big one. Imposter syndrome. That's huge. And I do think that that is a bit different for women compared to men. So we all have imposter syndrome at some point in time, and it's how do we really identify it, name it, like Renee Brown says name it to tame it, like name it, it's here. This is the situation. And then there are multiple strategies in order to really reduce the imposter syndrome and to be aware of it and then know actually how to reduce it. It might not go away completely, but how to really just tame it so it's not at the forefront there. Um, I can go on and we can spend all day here, but it's it's wonderful. I'll just share a few stories, but it's just wonderful having clients tell me that these techniques of coaching in eye care are life-changing. Like this is life-changing. You've changed my life from teaching me this thing. And and some of it, and my coaching is a bit of mentoring too in eye care because of all the experience I've had. And so I understand eye care. Like I've lived in this, right, for 25 years. And so I really understand the ins and outs. And sometimes it's having that outside perspective of, and it's asking, you know, could this be done a like a different way? Could it be done a different way? How does this work in your clinic? It might be completely different than my clinic. It might, and coaching is also putting things out there, putting out different perspectives. Maybe it's looking at this problem a different way. And so oftentimes that really solves the problem, or maybe it isn't a problem, it's a perceived problem. And then helping people move forward. So hearing these words, another one is just a complete new, new job, new life, new everything from from coaching and and being able to lecture, never lecture before, on the big stage lecturing. So many heartwarming, heartwarming stories. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Um yeah, I can tell that you get so excited about the work that you're doing. I'm curious what's what's coming up next for you? What is the future um of what you're doing? We talked about um a project you're about to undertake here um in the next 24 hours. Um and so tell tell us about that and then maybe like other things you're planning in the in the coaching and the and the speaking and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Oh,

Nicaragua Service And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 26:58

sure. So my boys and I, two boys, they're 17 and 19. We are going with Vosh, so Volunteer Optimetric Services to Humanity to Nicaragua, uh just right after this podcast. So yeah, we're all ready to go, and we're really excited to serve and help a few thousand people along with a great group who is going. So, yes, that is going on today. And with coaching, it's been fantastic. So I offer group coaching programs, individual coaching, and also coaching to organizations as well. So it's gonna be a great year. And then as far as speaking goes, lots of great, great things coming up this year, too. Yeah, I'm in Arizona a lot. Okay. If you live in the Arizona area, it's in Scottsdale. I think I'm there six times this year. So come say hi. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Wonderful. Well, I'm honored that you joined me here for iCare Leadership Live. And um, you know, how can people get in touch with you if they want to work with you or just learn more about you?

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yes. Well, please stay in touch, definitely. I would love to hear from you. So all the socials, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Alpine Blue Coaching, and AlpineBlueCoach.info is the website. So yes, please stay in touch.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, and I'll put I'll put uh some of those links in the show notes for the for the show. So that'll make it easy for people to to track you down. But thank you so much, Dr. Barnett, for joining me today. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and your passion with me. Oh, thank you so much. This is so much fun. Yeah, well, um, yeah, I look forward to staying connected with you and um to everybody else that's out there listening, uh, please reach out to Dr. Barnett, follow, follow me, follow her. Uh, we're both very passionate about sharing um, you know, ways to make your practice better. Uh, and so with that, y'all have a great night. And Dr. Barnett, have a wonderful trip.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Thank you so much. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yep. And I'm gonna go ahead and hit the end stream button, but we can we can stay on um for.