Perry Brill – Opticians Thriving in the Digital Age

Perry Brill's passion for optometry stems from his upbringing in a family with a long history in the field. His father, a respected optometrist with over four decades of experience, influenced Perry's decision to pursue a career in optometry. Despite initially considering a path in medicine during college, Perry found his calling in optometry after realizing his disdain for chemistry and lab work.

Perry delve into the national average salary for opticians, which falls far below what can be considered a livable wage. But fear not, because we also explore innovative solutions such as employing remote opticians to handle tasks like ordering and paperwork.

We also dive into the cutting-edge technology used in the eyewear industry, including Perry's's groundbreaking software called Specsfax, which converts faxed orders into digital orders and sends them to a lab management system.

Perry and I also explore the future of the industry, including the rise of virtual opticians and the potential for virtual fittings through platforms like Zoom. And with a growing need for more opticians, the possibilities are endless.

Takeaways

1. Embrace Technology
2. Explore Collaboration and Growth Opportunities
3. Streamline Workflow with Automation

Connect with Perry Brill:
Remote Staffing: www.eyehelpyou.co
Podcast: www.eyetrepreneur.simplecast.com/episodes
Eyetrepreneur Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/eyetrepreneur

Timestamps
03:55 Generational practice, deep relationships with opticians.
08:51 Opticianry involves insurance, patient interaction, data entry.
13:06 Companies lack understanding of automation in data processing.
15:59 Dispensary chaos, optician's constant obstacles, remote engagement.
18:11 American talent should embrace remote work professionally.
20:49 Podcasting uncovers unexplored voices, challenges, and innovations.
25:09 Rewarding work as optician helping people see.
27:39 Automation needed to ensure seamless order delivery.
30:30 Automated interconnected facts drive efficient prescription safety eyewear.
34:37 Learning art in a classroom is beneficial. Opticians can do virtual fittings.
38:42 Independent community revolutionizes glasses industry through technology.

Talk with Peter Precht: www.eyecclearly.com

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to Optometry Profits Revealed. I'm your host, Peter Pracht. On this show, we explore the strategies and tactics eye care professionals need to thrive in this digital age. So put on your glasses, and let's Focus on the future of your success. Welcome to another episode of Optometry Profits Revealed, and I am blessed to have Perry Burrow with me today. He is the head of Entrepreneur Media. He's been in the optical field for 11 years. We're gonna talk a little bit about virtual scribing, some front desk Material. We're gonna touch on Ihelpyou.com, which is really where this began. And then I wanna talk A little bit more like we were just talking about about Spec Spot because I think that's that's a key element of of really of running a profitable, Dispensary. Without any further ado, Perry Brill, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Peter. Pleasure to be here. So I know you're in PA. Are you in, Amish country? Or is that near park? Yeah. On the other side of the river. I'm in York. Yeah. I'm in York. But absolutely, Pennsylvania Dutch runs deep in in our in our area. I was just driving through there because I lived in Vermont in a while and stopped in this cute little town, and I saw all the the children on their little dates. Well, they're probably not children. They were teenagers, and they have spectacles on there. And thinking, man, where do they go for spectacles? Will they go somewhere? That's right. They do. Make spectacles like they're making wooden chairs. That's right. There's several practices that that cater directly to them and they do still sell glass. That's no doubt about it. Wow. Okay. I think it's really awesome what I see you've you've done with specifically with, Ihelpyou.com. But I wanted to ask you about, you know, the whole virtual approach, not just to staffing. We were talking about a bunch of different things. Where did the inspiration for this come from? Because I don't think anybody really kind of talks to you about, like, where did what inspires you to think forward like that? Even podcasting, you know, you're podcasting 5 years ago. Yeah. To me to me, this is just now getting its traction, but you're like, no. It's been Oh, for a while. Yeah. And I feel terrible. You know? I haven't I have over a 170 podcasts, and then I actually I've took in about 11 months off from podcasting. And I think I lost the spark, just like you can lose spark in optometry. I mean, my my dad who's a 40 plus year practitioner, it's like, How many refractions has he done in a lifetime? You know, it's crazy. I mean, so, You know, the the how I got in this field was I was actually in college at University of Kansas, thought I wanted to be a medical doctor. I hated chemistry. I hated lab. I was like, I gotta get out of here. So, ended up getting a job just in optical at a local clinic with 4 doctors, you know, has probably been there 50, 60 years, and I enjoyed that part time job a lot. And, I had a motorcycle at that Time, I was like vroom vroom vroom driving to the optical. I thought it was pretty cool. And, I luckily, they had a good in office education. And I think that is one of the, things that this field can provide is if you find a great Private practice or even a corporate office sometimes they will train you from scratch. And there's probably someone there that knows some stuff. And more than just how to stick a pair of glasses on lensometer, but how to manually polish lenses, how to add a safety bevel manually, Out of tint lenses, out of drill, and, I was fortunate to get all that education on the spot. So Yeah. That it's it's wonderful when you can be part of a practice that's been around for so many years in a certain region when it's multi generational, like you were talking about because not just from the wealth of experience, but you get to see the inner relationships that are taking place with Some of these opticians and some of their regulars and then kids and then grandkids. And, this past weekend, I was down in North Carolina to practice that An optician had take over took over running that had been there long before her, and I said, well, where else did she work? And she said, nowhere. You're between 35 40 years you've been here and I mean, that's, our industry is like that I think that's amazing. I think it's really, really cool, but those are really deep relationships. Just clearly making glasses for grandkids And, you know, and they're getting old. Yeah. Yeah. Which is which is to me, that's just amazing. Yeah. These businesses can stay opticals And practices can stay around for a long time. And, you know, I was listening to a podcast this weekend about how Best Buy and Dollar General, Best Buy, where you used to go buy your boom box and your video games and televisions. Right. And, Dollar General, which is just sales garbage, is junk, you know, candy bars and sponges and whatever else. Well, they're getting into health care, And they're getting into primary care. They are going to have doctors on-site in a lot of their stores because they have the footprint. And the issue that they're solving is, If you try to call a primary care doctor to get a physical, good luck. 6 months, 8 months, a year to even get in. And, I think that's one of the strong suits of small business is is that we can cater to people's immediate needs. Let me give you an example. Let's say you have a high roller customer who who you know, they they regularly spend $2,000 every year. Well, you know, when they call, you get them in. Right. Exactly. When they call corporate optometry, corporate optometry doesn't care. They're like No. Okay. You're you're nobody to me. Private will recognize that Ongoing your relationship and cater towards that. Absolutely. And you know, sometimes people do pay for that, you know, anonymity, But not, not in a repeated way in the same, not, not a repeat Patient, I guess, is the best way to to put it, you know, in my mind. So after I learned a lot there and after college, I went to work for my father, who owns a practice for you opened in 83. And, you know, he started off small by himself and then expanded that Strip center space and then built a building and ended up being a 70 or almost 7,000 square foot office space, 8 exam rooms, lab, Huge dispensary. 2,000 plus frames, you know, going from$50 to $2,000, you know, buffalo horn. All over the place. Yeah. All over the place, and we were able to, I give credit to him because he's the one that built the beast, and I just came in, you know, 3 decades later to to work. But there's nothing more valuable than working in the practice and and understanding it. And, you know, I had a friend He owns another technology company in eye care. And he said, Perry, how how do I how do I learn what you know? I said, Quick. I said, why don't you spend a day a week working inside a practice? You you need to be hands on in the field to understand The business. The practical. Yeah. There's a practical element of it that gets, that meets a little bit better understanding when you're actually, when your hands are in, in, In there dealing with patients, you mentioned, software. How does connect Spec Spot to Practice management and what's happening these days, like, in in in an average dispensary, the independent environment. Yeah. So let's look at opticianry as a whole. It used to be that, probably in your days, Peter, Did she put orders on index cards? Yeah. Actually, we did. Network files were pretty darn small, you know? Yeah. Now There's some wonderful techniques that came from those days too, where the doctor came out with PDs and all that done for you and then talked about non glare coatings and all that great stuff. So there's There's a handoff element that from those days, but you know you're right. I absolutely had handwritten of those cards. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was just, at a optician down the street from my home here, and he's been in business for 12 years, old school optician. He has no POS system, nothing to keep track of orders. Everything is paper, and it's it's functional disarray. And he knows. But Yeah. He does know it. He knows. Yeah. He's really struggling. So much so he even asked me for help. So So I can help you, but we gotta go slow. Right. So what is opticianry today? It's it's an insurance Insurance data entry festival on the front end, and then you work with the patient. You sell them a pair, you fit them a pair, you style them. That's the fun part for a lot of people. And then you do go back to the data entry part. Now when you can vision web something or DVI directly to the lab, I'll every optician is like, yes. This is amazing. You know, one click automation direct to the lab. But then you start involving ICD 10 and CPT codes and well, this product is not available in this and You have all these limitations. Well, there's a lot of optician burnout. And the only way to fix burnout, the only way to Provide more pleasure in a job is to simplify it. And, I have built a suite of software tools called Spexbot. And basically, You can think of it this way. There's robots that crawl into vision payer websites. If you think about ChatGPT, Have you used Chat GPT? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. I love it. Anyways, what does Chat GPT do? It crawls the the the Internet, And it that it fetches the data and it brings it back in, and it it builds a story for you. Right. So, I mean, I'll give you an example. I have a friend who, was leasing a home, and, tenant didn't pay the last bill, and the tenant damaged property. Tore the blinds, ruined the back garage door, had, like, candle wax melted on the floor, and it took some work, you know, to clean all that up. And I was telling her, I was like, look. You need to recoup this money. So we typed in the chat GPT what is the Missouri law for filing a small claims court, and it brought back the whole story. Right. And so, what this robot does is it collects your story. It's your financial data, your Spectacle RX data, lens measurements, And it feeds it back to the vision payer websites, and it does it for you. And so when you spend 10 to 15 minutes per optical order, Doing data entry. So let's say you sell 5 pairs of glasses a day. Well, now you have an hour and a half of data entry on top of that, at least and That's what I call opportunity costs where you should be actually on the sales floor just Oh, totally. Drinking glasses, edging glasses, and doing real work and not just BS data. Great. Well, just like we were talking about increasing that 1 on 1 time before we began recording, that 1 on 1 time gets constantly lost in the shuffle. So the optician doesn't even have a, capacity to say, wait, wait, wait, wait, I've got something better. You know, with with the I'll let you keep going. I mean, it it's so true. No. No. It's it's all about increasing 1 on 1 time and reducing the rush And anxiety of getting through the paperwork. Right. Oh, I billed it wrong. Oh, I did this wrong. Oh, Oh, you have to ask for more money when they come to pick up their glasses. You know? I mean, something and then, you know, training is always very hard in And it it doesn't have to be. There are I'll give you a great, great example. It should be fun. I was getting ice cream At McDonald's, McDonald's has the best ice cream, especially, you know, hits hard at 10 PM. Right. And so I'm in the drive thru, Just getting a con with a friend, and we roll up to the where you'd place the order at the speaker box. I don't know what you call that. Right. And all of a sudden, I heard a robotic voice. It was literally AI taking my order At Mcdonald's. Never heard that before. No accent? No. No accent. And Would have at least thrown a foreign accent And they're just, you know, making Right. Right. And I was like, dumbfounded. I was like, wow. This is amazing. Rather than me waiting 3 to 4 minutes for some For the McDonald's attendant to get back to me, who's currently working the French fryer, they just had a very smart piece of technology taking my simple number 1 and ice cream, you know? Right. And like, we need to be deploying the technology to get that 1 on 1 time. Right. So, it's it's a very hard process to do though. So when I'm mapping out to Ifinity or or Crystal or Revolution, Icloud Pro, these companies are not Do not understand automation. What they understand is I'm gonna give you a blank slate, a drawing board, a canvas, and you put your data in that, you do whatever you want. The where the a lot of the EHRs have missed the mark is how do we facilitate our workflows better? How do we not just provide, a ledger in an optic form? How do we get that data to the next point where it needs to go? Which kinda seg segues to another question that I had and I don't wanna leap too much back and forth to I help you, but this is all very interrelated To what they, what that's all about. How do I work with my virtual member? How, like, how does that take place? And, You know, I know that's a question that you get you get asked. How how how does that happen? Like, for Yeah. Yeah. For an owner, for an optician, for whomever. I mean, how How does that happen? Yeah. So you have 2 types of data entry systems. You have robotic ones, which which is spec spot. So and then you have human ones Who are intelligent and have decision making capabilities. And we know there's a staffing shortage in United States and, Your average person who may be 20 years old, does not want to go work at the grocery store making $14 an hour. They want to be self flipping sneakers on the internet. Right. And be making, $2,000 only working a few hours. You're an influencer. Yeah. Yeah. We're an influencer. Yeah. It's true. It is true. And some make that jump, but, yeah, How many? I mean, it's hard to find talent who is willing to work at mediocre wages. And that's the hard part about optical is the wages have been stagnant for ever, forever. I mean, I know opticians Who are who are making$22 15 years ago, and still opticians are not making$22 an hour. Right. The last last I'd seen now this number might be a year old, but, national average was $37,500 annually. You know, for It's almost minimum wage. Right? Right. It's not a livable wage. But again, you know, So the opticians have some choices. They can balk and complain and say, well, we should be licensed because I know all this stuff. Okay. Well, What does your what does your state say? What's your region? What how do we embrace education? But let's take this a step further. Take your knowledge, take your engagement. Let's go back to that 1 on 1 scenario that we talked about a few minutes ago where you're losing that. There's, there's all these extraneous things that are happening in the dispensary. Someone's picking up contacts, doctors bringing in people, phones are ringing. All of these things, the lab needs to talk to you about something and you rush and push this thing through. So take hold of that scenario with the people that are gonna be warm and engaging With it, send them home with frames and do that remote engagement because that helps so many people in so many different ways. But man, I mean, to connect this back to, like, you're saying, here you are trying to be an optician and there's all these other factors that are in your way. Yeah. You don't need to be there. Distractions. And You don't need to be there. Yeah. And so people play whack a mole all day, you know, the the arcade game. And, you know, what should happen in a practice is a virtual assistant who can be located anywhere in the world. Mine is Ihelpyou. That's my company. We have about 50 practices at this point, probably over 60 assistants. And they hail from, about half of them are South African. Nice. And the reason, we like South Africa as a hot spot is education levels are high, Friendly, accent. Real yeah. English. Really hard work ethic. Yeah. I've heard that. Yeah. And so those things are common. And then, you know, we have people based in Mexico, So, Latin America, Chile, Argentina who speak Spanish and provide, you know, that language relieve the language barrier for the coast. But kinda getting back to how do I got into this, I actually hired my 1st virtual assistant for myself about 5 years ago. And it was a sales role. I need help in sales. And so I hired a guy. His name is Nayari. And He, I think, was a marketing major, and he had he could pick up the phone. He wasn't scared. And that's how I kinda learned, like, this is I can find extremely high quality talent at a 30 to 40% cost reduction. And, you know, we feel bad that we're not Supporting American talent. But when there is no American talent to hire, you need to make a decision. And the decision is I need my practice to thrive. And the only way to do that is by finding people that can fill the gaps and take off that paperwork load. Right. And if the American talent isn't able to take their engagement remotely or Even find another sophisticated way to, you know, keep the professionalism as it should be, you know, then why not? Yeah. Doctor. Why aren't we like, well, this is where you, you and I began that we're just beginning to touch the tip of the iceberg with us. Like, what can potentially be done? And this is this this is where I think your your vision is so awesome because Yeah. You do you do really look forward in in a different way, I think. Mhmm. Yeah. People will ask, you know, here's a few things that a remote optician could do. 1, optics are the same across the world. We have the same lenses, same contact lenses, same coatings and everything. Maybe our lens names may be a hair different, but for the mostly, Sleep. It's all the same. And if you have, let's say you sell 15 pairs of glasses a day, or even 10 or even 5, you can have a Literally a remote optician get on your EHR online or remote into your computer. Someone else can order all your jobs. And that that optician And just be able to help patients 1 on 1, face to face, and let someone handle the back end. Exactly. Yeah. It it's so awesome. And, you know, Pracht. It's a little mind boggling how slow it is to be adapted. I've had other discussions with different Opticians, and we'll continue some of those discussions about how people adapt at certain levels of technology and, like, Where do you begin? Who you know, you mentioned your 50 trusted practices, you know, were they hard to find? Was that were they did they come to you? At this point at this point, they're probably finding you at this point. Yeah. You know, I love marketing. That's one of my favorite things, honestly. If I could sit on LinkedIn and Facebook, and email newsletters all day, I would. It's fascinating. It I never was into it, but it is Really deeply fascinating me because it's way more than algorithms. You know, you were talking about chat gpt and, you know, it's a reflection of what you feed it. It's, you know There is no hack. Actually, we can get into that actually. There is no hack about building an online following, whether it's a personal brand For a business, there is no hack. The hack is you engage. So Peter, like I've noticed your name on LinkedIn a lot. Well, you're you're active. Right? And you're providing intellectual commentary. You're not just doing a thumbs up. Right? You know, and so we feed the algorithms and show that you care it Organically, these these systems know. It's the truth. I mean, just the interview process of creating a podcast Has exposed me to voices and names and angles that I didn't even think of when, you know, When I first dove into the idea, you know, the idea was, look, I need to connect the dots a little better to, I See Clearly.com and in in ground, in practice, you know, in management, in opticians, and and and optometric situations. But a little more than that. What is the profit? What is the future? Where are we gonna how are we gonna connect this to build those software, You know, products like you were just talking about that make things so much easier that don't make you somebody who has to spend 15 minutes trying to find out if that, you know, Is that, you know, 1.67, you know, transitions available in blah blah blah, you know, and I don't know. You know what I mean? Can will fit in that? Is this prescription range gonna work? You know? Yeah. You know, let's go back to I would like to talk about your your safety line of work that you did for, you know, a decade or more. For some reason, I I fit a lot of safety glasses at my dad's practice. We, were a BNSF location. And Nice. The railroad workers would come in with their forms, usually 2 forms. Right. And they were 3 m frames only. We had a little kit, And the 3 m frames are actually quite nice compared to some of the other ones. No doubt. No doubt about it. Here we are. I'm typing out no. Handwriting the prescription, and then you fax it at that time, was AO Safety, and then Hoya bought AO Safety. Right. And then so we and then we'd fax those forms to the lab. I'm thinking WTF, I'm faxing this piece of paper to the lab in twenty 15, 20, and then 2019, probably when I left my the office. Right. My guess is nuts. Completely. How How unautomated some things have remained in certain places and how advancement people, you know, people are willing to embrace moving forward. It's the difference between there's a product in prescription safety I wear called Hylations, and they've been now very active, you know, since 2008, 9. They were strong competition for me, But they were a one stop kiosk. So the the individuals, the safety directors that wanna go that route, They're the ones that are forward thinking because they just wanna report back. So and so got their safety glasses. He should've had them on. Sorry that happened. I mean, and and I don't wanna make it stoic or cold or make them safety people sounds like something that they're not. That's not really true. But at the end of the day, Enforcing stuff and it's a different animal. Safety hour is very different. The fact that you were even willing to participate in it at your practice shows A level of humanitarian connection that you give a crap about these folks. You wanted to stay connected. And like you said, the real world obviously employs a lot Lot of people everywhere everywhere, you know. So Yeah. They're they're probably your patients anyway. Yeah. We got paid $18 a pair. So we I'm sure we made 4 or $5 profit. Right. Not not just enough to cover the cost. Right. What really came out of it was the Well, 1, I tell you the railroad people, they all make 6 figures. Right. So that's one thing. Their dirty pants don't really convey who they are. Mhmm. So and then they go they take 3 months of school or 6 months at the community college, and then all of a sudden they're making 6 figures. And then some of them make high 6 figures or Yeah. Right. Oh, it it very good. Retention tool, a service just to get people in. Absolutely. Makes all the sense in the world. That was the most successful practices I ever worked with In safety, we're very, very much thinking about it in terms of the relationships going forward. It was a chance to engage And they didn't, they they weren't even thinking about the worker. They were thinking about the family. Yeah. Which I think is, I don't know, I think it's wonderful. It's It really cuts to the core of why we do this. You know, there's, you know, when we talked about some of the, the, The relatively low in pay in terms of national average, it is rewarding work. The opticians remain opticians because it is gratifying To help people see clearly. And it is in a way that, you know, yes, it's appreciated by a seasoned and skilled opticians, but Don't don't underplay this for people coming into the industry that are new. They're training. They get it. You know, that's, it's a wonderful thing to keep going. I love reposting the videos on on LinkedIn of anyone putting glasses on for the 1st time. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yes. That's why we're doing this, but it is bigger. It there's a clarity thing. There's a confidence thing. There's a human thing. When you're confident and you're clear and you can see clearly, oh, man, how much more can you really do and deliver in So many different ways. Yeah. You know, I think my most gratifying pair of glasses I ever made was this, Asian girl, named Violet. No Korean Some specific. And she had an adult size head, but she was about 9 9 years old. And you can't put an adult frame on a child. The nose is not developed. The ears are still, you know, not in the adult position on the head. And her bridge is flat. Bridge totally flat because she's, you know, Korean. And, we ended up, doing a 3 d facial scan of her head. I did that, got the glasses made in Hong Kong. And, you know, the mom luckily could afford it. But I think any parent would save up to afford it. They would eventually find a way, you know, and that was life changing to her. You know, I could tell that was the biggest smile. Mom was happy. Daughter was happy. So Right. She's had something that fit and her vision looked Oh, yeah. Usually, 4 plus 5 at the same time. So yeah. Man, that's tough enough. That's That stuff enough on its own, you know, let alone having, like you said, the other dimensions, the facial, the ears. I wanted to touch on one thing, regard regarding safety since we Brought it up. You know? I'm trying to think of, you know, automations not just on the ECP side, but also the wholesale side because it's a It's a relationship because opticians will complain. Why is the job late? Well, the job was late because you manually fax in the order. And now there's a stack of paper. And who's gonna type that stuff into the lab? But who's gonna notify somebody that the order wasn't received if they didn't know that it wasn't received. And then let's face it. You're chasing $18 right now. Yeah. Yeah. Automation is badly needed, there. And I, you know, because even even connecting the front end of the automated Fitting machine like I talked about a few minutes ago, connecting that with a seamless order process that comes back out the back end And and it's deliverable. One thing that did come out of that thing that that at least The safety people knew loud and clear about this. I don't know how well we would translate this, to be honest. People are way more willing to drop some money when they're sitting alone at a computer and click, click, clicking. I mean, is this the truth? You're you're so right. I I am definitely willing to spend money in that checkout card on my computer Right. Versus Me too. In store. I don't know why. I've even I'll even jump to buy something. Some oh, oh, I've been forgetting to buy this. And I'm like, boom. I think Mark Clark hit it on the head because it's convenient. It's so easy. It's a I don't like getting it through Amazon, but it's so easy to go. Click click dot. I mean, I can literally place an order in 3 seconds. Okay. 30 seconds. Yeah. And you get it It is none. You know? Here you get it same day. I mean, my dad was ordering some, pools for some cabinetry. Literally showed showed up in 4 hours from Amazon. I was like, this is just wild, you know. That is crazy. Yeah. I did wanna touch on the lab automation. So part of my Specsbot software is I have, one of the products is called Specsfax. And so, labs get faxes. And what I took on the challenges, how can I take a faxed order, which is still happening 50 to 100000 times a day Right? In the United States. And, I'm actually converting faxed orders through optical character right recognition. And I convert that data into A digital order and send that to a through our labs lab management system. So which, it works with DVI currently. That's really cool. Yeah. Mhmm. I was just gonna say, aren't aren't a lot of faxes integrated with email anyway right now? Yeah. So actually, what happens is The the faxes go to email. The emails get forwarded to my technology. My Sweet. Optical character recognition identifies it, And then it transmits it to the lab. Oh, okay. You know, it'll never be perfect. I can't, opticians will put Shit and special instructions that don't belong there. Right. And, you know, a human has to review that. Right. No. No. You're right. Yeah. Absolutely. Because it'll hit it'll just stop. It works like it dies on the line there. Yeah. You know, they're asking for transitions blue or something. So Right. So you So and you do you're right. You do end up needing that human element to say, well, hey, this is what's available and that's this what do you wanna do? Yeah. What's the what's the choice gonna end up being? But that is pretty cool that it's interconnected with facts and how it can so the further we go, the more automated down the line that ends up going. And, You know, the other thing about prescription safety eyewear is it's not, it's not slowing down. The production that is in this country is, Even when I began, I mean, I loved the idea of of saving employees' vision at work and we Certainly did and, and, and wonderful stories related to it. But even then I was like, man, these Companies throw so much money proactively at stuff. Why do they do that? And the reality is that once the numbers shake it out, It makes all the sense in the world to dump $180,000 in safety, you know, in PPE for your folks because it does. And you know, oh my gosh. That's only a 100 people at that plant. You know what? The plant down the road is dumping 190, you know, and and and ready to ready to increase the parameters of the prescription safety hour program. So what are you gonna do? You know? And it's the truth. I mean, it makes sense. And it it it took me a while to get my head around that, but it connects to what you and I are doing. We're we're investing in something we don't even see yet. And that's kinda It's not easy to do. But you you you've already been able to see the need in in some of your own inspirational ways, but you've been able to quantify it too. Like, you know from a software standpoint that who Who needs this? You probably know exactly who needs this. The technology adoption, everyone, all the tech people in Icare say, you know, we were slow to adopt in this Industry, we're always very slow. I think we are. It doesn't have to be slow. If you are just willing to Fork up a little dough, couple$1,000 and and use it. Exactly. And close those loops. You know, not just given opportunities within your own ranks, but to the people that are coming in and out of it. People are spending the money to keep you open. Yeah. You're gonna use technology. People are gonna use my technology. They're gonna use my virtual staffing your IC clearly. And some people are gonna hate it. And that's okay. It wasn't meant for you. And you just have to realize, hey, it's time to move on. Let me check out IC clearly in 3 years, maybe it'll be a better fit for me. And you know, same thing for my software. Somebody They say, hey, Peter. Your fax machine, connection is just, mixing pluses and minuses. I'm like, okay. That was a glitch, And we fixed that 2 weeks ago. So, I'm not gonna be there. Right. Exactly. And, you know, that's 1 actually, I think it's one of the, For me, it was one of the biggest conversion points into jumping forward, was a conversation with a developer where he's like, you're gonna jump in the pool, aren't you? And I'm like, yeah. And I have been standing on the diving board. You're right. It's time to time to get in. And and, you know, You do feel inspired, by communicating with other people that see some of this vision going forward. I literally can envision Virtual space with thousands and thousands of opticians saving opticianry because right now, opticians are being removed from the purchase of eyewear. There's no need for them. The virtual work you're doing is critical to this. How can how would you not involve humans? You know, how would you not involve skilled staff? Like you said, we're running out of staffing shortage too, which is not gonna I think we're gonna see some improvements with with opticians, but ODs. Man, we need ODs. What are we gonna do? You know, there's there's all sorts of opportunities for opticians. So one Is like you can attend a virtual painting class today. You can learn to paint oil canvas from home. It's a pay you pay for it, A class. Nice. And it's a way to learn in in a classroom environment. Yes. It's it's not as intimate with, you know, 10 other beautiful artists next to you, But it's it's better than nothing that you're gonna learn that skill. And that art teacher now has a profession. You know, while schools are diminishing their spin on art, now, like, okay, this artist can do something independently, and that's their side hustle. For opticians, you know, there are a handful of opticians, probably 10 to 20 That have developed online reputations, and they're already doing virtual fittings. Now to do those virtual fittings, It's just on a Zoom call. There doesn't need to be anything fancy. Right. We always take we always take the extreme or what if we We don't get the OC right. I'm like, they're a minus 150 sphere. Right. What what is gonna go wrong? Right. Yeah. We know our parameters, we know our standards, we know our professionalism, we know nationalism. We know what we're doing. There's too many people buying glasses unguided. There's too many of them. Yeah. All virtual opticians should be busy And it will be. It will be. The more we can my head and turning this way, you could be like, hey. You know, that temple is Right. 10 millimeters too short. Easy. Right. Yep. Like, that's not gonna work. Let's see. Is that available in something bigger? Check that first. Otherwise, I'd strongly recommend we go this direction. And it is. It's, I think it's huge and it is the future. It's, it's cool to see it being embraced and practice saying, you know, we're gonna do this And we're gonna try this. You know? One of the opticians I was talking with recently is stepping away from it for an illness and, You know, business doesn't have to stop. Yeah. You know? I know who I am. If you can't be there, Zoom with them. Like you just said, have these Zoom calls, Have someone there that can process the order so that your business stays functional and moving forward. And Yes. Not when You know when the pandemic hit, everyone's like, I gotta do, Virtual optometry. I gotta do this. And and, you know, how are we gonna prescribe drugs through the the webcam and treat their red eyes? Like, no, that's not really what it's 4 in this field right now. Right. And I'll give you a good example. I know an optometrist who's doing what she calls virtual virtual OrthoK. And basically, she is doing myopia control in meeting with parents through, meeting. So So the parents can be at home 8 pm with their little their little girl and talk about their child's myopia. They don't need to come into the office, they can just have Face to face conversation like this and a more comfortable environment. That's that that that's actually an Inadvertent potential side business would IC clearly in terms of the wholesale lab market too, because they don't have time to give To pull an expertise away from what they're doing to to answer these things, there should be a professional that could should be answering them like you and I are doing right now. I mean, it makes all the sense in the world to have pros connect whether you you know, Myopia management with a regular Meeting that way makes all the sense in the world. I mean, what an opportunity for the both of them. And it's so much more convenient for everybody too. Yeah. And, yeah, you're never gonna get 30 minutes to an hour with, an eye doctor inside a exam room. But if you do it virtually, you you can get that time. Right. Exactly. It's cash. There's no insurance. And so, people are willing to as long as they're compensated fairly, they're willing to take the time to to talk to people. I think so too. And it's the, you know, like we've been talking about, it's the future of what we're gonna be doing, which I think is so cool. You know, it expands the capability, the capacity to grow any type of of practice, which I think is so cool. I wanted to talk about, Yeah. I just wanted to say this as we wrap up the this is on your LinkedIn page. Build eye care online communities, grow wholesale channels. I absolutely love this philosophy. We've never seen an opportunity like we do right this very minute. Well, I mean, it's Been in the mix for the last handful of years, but, man, right now, the independent community has such influence and such Ability to be inside of practices, you know, not just with software that you're doing with SpecBot, but All virtual capacities, all remote engagement capacities, you know, it's gonna change the way people get glasses. It's going to be a normal process, but we have a chance to create it now and use the technology that we want. I used the term cherry pick before, but it it's really true. I mean, It's nice to be able to work with who does the most accurate virtual measurements. You know, who gives you the best PD, the best segue, whose lab is producing this stuff on the back end for you the most seamlessly, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the, regarding the whole a wholesale channel. So if you own a frame company, a lens company, maybe you create websites, maybe you do virtual fittings, You know, online, through I see clearly or maybe you make cute little, business cardholder trinkets. You you will never ever ever be able to grow a business if you do not connect with people online. Right. And I know people say, I hate social media. Well, Look. You don't need to make cute graphics and infographics. Just whatever is top of mind, just let it out. It could be a sentence. Could be a crappy drawing, could be a napkin. Just personify yourself and tell your story and don't care what people think. And I think that's the most important thing to to building a following and building a community and and time. Give it Give it 2 years to to get anywhere. I'm so glad you said that. I mean, you you The work that you've done and some of the videos that you've done, I just oh my gosh. I've laughed so hard watching some of the You know, I'm actually running a tool here. I just found this one. It's called Capsule dot video. If anybody's looking to make videos, it's a really cool it's free, and it capsule makes cool little titles. Included in the links. I definitely want you to send me links so that we you know, anything that we can connect people with directly with SpecBot, obviously, I help you. Thank you so much for doing this. I know we've had some crazy times connecting, but this has been awesome. I've really enjoyed this. And I know we're gonna talk a little bit more in the future because We've really only begun to touch the surface in terms of what software, capacity you can bring into an existing practice, you know. Yeah. You know what I mean? Really, really cool. Anything in optical optometry, if you can dream it, you you can build it. Not everything takes gobs of money. Sometimes just things just take, you know, time and collaboration. Collaboration. That's it. If you don't have to know the answers, find people that do. Yes. And, you know, our industry is full of that anyway, but man, it it's so cool to see interaction right in front of our face. You know? Thank you so much for this. Yeah. You're welcome, Peter. This has been another episode of Optometry Profits Revealed. If anything you Heard here, you know, struck a chord, you find interest in it, please by all means, contact us or visit icclearly.com. We'll have links to Perry's information regarding, Ihelpyou.com and definitely, spec spot. And if you're gonna go back in, into the podcast studio, by all means, let us know. You know? It's it's fun. I'm gonna like you. I'm gonna get in there. I'm going to. So it's it's been itching at me. I have so much to talk about. Yeah. It's you need it if you need time off. I I've just begun this. I can't even imagine doing as many as you've done. I mean, it's But the the people in the interviews, man, please, by all means, everybody, visit Idrepreneur Media, right away. Thank you so much. You take good care, Perry. Alright. Thanks, Peter. Thank you for tuning in to Optometry Pre profits revealed. Remember, amidst disruption, there are tremendous opportunities to lead your eye care business toward increased profitability. Contact me, Peter Pracht for a free consultation today at icclearly.com. Let's turn these ideas into your profits.