Podcast
Power Hour Optometry
Hosted by The Power Practice · EN
Join us for the latest ideas and innovations in the optometric industry.
Brought to you every Wednesday by Power Practice. Learn more at www.PowerPractice.com
82episodes
Episodes
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Private Equity, AI & Recruiting: The Conversations Quietly Shaping Optometry Inside ODwire
Today01:00:48Summary readyFor more than two decades, some of the most important conversations in optometry have happened quietly behind the scenes. Not on stages. Not in public Facebook groups. But inside private discussions where doctors could speak openly with each other about what was really happening inside the profession. That eventually became ODwire. In this episode of Power Hour, Eugene sits down with Dr. Adam Farkas, Founder and Chief Technologist of ODwire and CEwire, to unpack the story behind one of the most influential private communities in optometry. What makes this conversation fascinating is its vantage point. For more than two decades, Adam has had a front row seat to the real conversations happening inside optometry, the ones doctors have with each other when nobody else is in the room. And over time, those conversations have quietly become a reflection of how the profession itself has evolved.
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The Eyecare BOSS Guide to Building High-Performance Teams: The People System Your Practice Needs to Scale
1w ago01:00:56Summary readyEXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY: Be the first to get the book, "The Eyecare BOSS," by Eugene Shatsman & Jamie Rosin → https://eyecareboss.com/ When practice owners are asked about their biggest challenge, the answer is usually the same: People. Because when your team is aligned, accountable, and operating at a high level, growth feels possible. New ideas get implemented. Patients have a better experience. The business moves forward. But when the team is burned out, inconsistent, or resistant to change, even small improvements can feel difficult to execute. That's exactly why People is one of the foundational pillars of the Eyecare BOSS (Business Optimization & Scalability System). In order to scale and optimize a practice, you need the right people in the right seats, operating with clear expectations, shared rules of engagement, and accountability across the organization. The People System is designed to help practices build that structure intentionally — creating systems that consistently develop stronger teams, stronger culture, and better execution over time. Because when culture depends entirely on one or two people holding everything together, growth eventually stalls. This episode is the first in a five-part Eyecare BOSS series, where Jamie Rosin and Eugene break down the systems behind building a more scalable, optimized practice.
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The $1,000 Revenue Per Patient Model: Building a Specialty-Driven Practice | Dr. Patricia Poma
2w ago01:00:54Summary readyMore revenue per patient. It's one of the most talked-about goals in private practice right now. But in this episode of Power Hour, Dr. Patricia Poma makes something very clear: You do not get there by chasing every new machine, trend, or specialty that shows up on the market. You get there by building intentionally. That is exactly why the shift toward a specialty-driven practice is starting to get serious attention. Dr. Patricia Poma has built a model that achieves over $1,000 in revenue per patient. By building one specialty at a time until it becomes a "beautiful beast," she has created a practice that is sustainable on its own. Not a boardroom theory. Not just a retail idea. A solution built over two decades in a real private practice. In this week's Power Hour, Dr. Patricia Poma-Nowinski, Owner of Birmingham Vision Care and KOL for Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions Inc., breaks down how she built a high-profitability model focused on non-doctor-driven revenue and medical-heavy specialties.
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The $30,000 Recurring Revenue Strategy Every Doctor Should Understand | Membership Plans at Scale
3w ago00:56:54Summary readyMembership plans are starting to move from an interesting idea to something practices genuinely need to understand. In this episode of Power Hour, host Eugene Shatsman sits down with Cody Tomasik, Founder and CEO of DirectOD, a platform built within real optometry practices to solve the frustrations of vision plans, low reimbursements, and cash-pay patient retention. What makes this conversation critical is the shift it represents: moving away from third-party entities that dictate your revenue flow toward a direct, one-to-one relationship with your patients through customizable benefits. And as Cody explains, when you cut out the middleman, the math becomes incredibly compelling for any practice owner.
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The AI-Driven Patient Journey Every Practice Needs: Transforming Information into Outcomes
4w ago00:54:33Summary ready364 days of silence, then one automated appointment text. A patient who walks in completely unprepared to purchase. This is the current state of most optometric practices, and according to consumer expert Jeff Fromm, it's a massive missed opportunity. In this week's Power Hour, Eugene Shatsman is joined by Philip Alexander, AI Technologist and CEO of AnswerMyQ, and Jeff Fromm, a 5x author who has written for Forbes since 2014. They dive deep into why the patient journey needs to move from "informed" to "fully customized." But here's the core challenge they present: If you started with a blank sheet of paper, would you really design the experience you have today? Probably not.
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The 187 Million Views YouTube Strategy Every Doctor Should Understand | Educating Patients at Scale
Apr 2401:02:07Summary ready187,000,000 views. 1.3 million subscribers. +- 500 long-form videos. And right now, thousands of people are watching his content live. Not a media company. Not a full-time influencer. A doctor. In this week's Power Hour, Dr. Joseph Allen, Founder of Doctor Eye Health, breaks down how he built one of the largest eye care education platforms on YouTube, from zero experience in 2018 to a global audience today with over 1.3 million subscribers. But here's what makes this episode worth your time: It's not about going viral. It's about understanding how content actually works.
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Quarterly Metric Review: What the Data Is Really Telling Practice Owners in 2026 | Dr. Jason Lake
Apr 1701:07:28Summary readyIn this episode of Power Hour, host Eugene sits down with Dr. Jason Lake, General Manager of PERC & Opti-Port for another Metric of the Quarter, and this one hits differently. Some episodes give you ideas. This one gives you numbers you can't ignore.
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Artificial Intelligence in Eye Care: What's Real, What's Overhyped & How to Evaluate It | Eugene Shatsman & Abed Sarhan
Apr 1001:01:48Summary readyAI is everywhere right now. And the real challenge right now isn't access, but knowing what to trust. Every vendor has a solution. Every platform claims to be "intelligent." Every conversation seems to come back to what AI is going to do next. But when you step into your practice, the question becomes much simpler: What actually works for me? In this episode of Power Hour, host Eugene Shatsman sits down with Dr. Abdullah "Abed" Sarhan, CEO and Co-Founder of RetinaLogik, who has been working in deep learning and AI long before it became widely used. And what makes this conversation different is that it's not theoretical, but practical. They break down what AI is actually capable of in eye care practices today, where it can genuinely improve workflow and patient experience, and just as importantly, where ODs should be far more skeptical.
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Four Locations. Three Cold Starts. Launching an Alliance | Scaling a Practice & The Vision Behind View Optometry Alliance
Apr 300:56:30Summary readyThere's a point in every growing practice where things start to feel different. Not because the business isn't working, but rather it's working only because of you, and the moment you try to expand, that dependency gets exposed. You start to realize that growth isn't as simple as opening another location. It's about building something that can operate without you being everywhere at once, and that's exactly where this conversation begins. In this episode of Power Hour, Eugene sits down with Dr. Tommy Lucas (President, VIEW Optometry) and Dr. Mary Kate Walters (CEO, VIEW Optometry), a husband-and-wife team who have built a four-location practice in Central Texas, including three cold starts that didn't just survive, but ramped quickly. And while the growth itself is impressive, it's only part of what makes this conversation worth paying attention to. Just as important is how they think about building a business. Because underneath the numbers, you start to hear something deeper: a philosophy around people, systems, incentives, and what it actually takes to create something that can function beyond the owners being everywhere at once. And then, it shifts from building a practice, to something much bigger - VIEW Optometry Alliance.
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High-Touch vs High-Volume | Two Doctors. Two Philosophies. Two Exceptional Paths to Practice Growth
Mar 2701:08:17Summary readyMost practice owners think growth is about doing more. More patients, more staff, more lanes, and more locations. But the truth is, scaling a practice is about building the right structure underneath it. In this week's episode of Power Hour, host Eugene Shatsman sits down with Dr. David Moore, President of Moore Eye Center, and Dr. Julia Zyrina, Founder of Pine Vision Care, two doctors who are both building exceptional practices, but in fundamentally different ways. They meet for the first time on the show, and what unfolds is a fascinating look at how two high-performing doctors can pursue growth through completely different philosophies. They both prioritize patient experience. They both use technology to advance patient care. They're both focused on building something bigger than themselves. But the way they think about execution – exam flow, pace, trust-building, team consistency, hiring, and scale – is where the real contrast appears.
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