Every optometrist dreams of running a practice that truly reflects their passion. Few ever rebuild one from scratch to make it happen.

That's exactly what Dr. Stephanie Woo did.

After years of running three full-scope practices, she sold them all to pursue a vision that challenged everything she'd known about optometry — a specialty-only clinic built entirely around custom contact lenses, concierge-level care, and life-changing patient outcomes.

What separates the practices that are growing in 2025 from those falling behind?

This week on Power Hour, Eugene Shatsman welcomes back Dr. Jason Lake, General Manager of PERC and Opti-Port, for another data-driven conversation every practice owner should hear.

As one of optometry's top data experts, Dr. Lake manages one of the largest private-practice datasets in the industry, giving him a unique perspective on what's really happening behind the numbers.

And this quarter, the data tells a surprising story: while much of the industry saw exam volume drop nearly 5%, many independent practices are reporting high single-digit growth in revenue, with double digit profitability.

So what are top-performing practices doing differently — and what can others learn from them?

Most optometry practices think AI is complicated, expensive, or years away from being practical. This episode proves otherwise. In this first-ever live build on the Power Hour, host Eugene Shatsman and AI consultant Abhi Bhattacharya (Amazon Alexa, Athenahealth, VSP Vision) create a working AI voice agent — from scratch — that calls and confirms patient appointments in real time.

No long timelines. No big budgets. Just practical tools you can actually use. If you've ever wondered "Where would I even start with AI?" — this episode is your starting point.