20/20 MONEY

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Dr. Michael Neal, OD and this is another episode in which I experimented a bit with the format of 20/20 Money: we recorded this episode at 8,000 feet, flying from Indianapolis to Chicago! As you’ll hear in the beginning of the episode, Mike was in town meeting up with other successful practice owners from around the country. They’re all friends and have turned their personal friendships into a professional mastermind group, where they get together at least one time per year to exchange ideas, talk about the business of optometry, share what’s working in each of their practices, and learn what’s not working…all in the spirit of helping each other deliver a great patient experience while running highly efficient and profitable practices.   As Mike and I were chatting during one of our recent recording sessions for the show, he mentioned that his return flight home to Pennsylvania was departing from O’Hare and that he was riding up to Chicago with one of the guys in the group on Friday morning. Knowing my calendar was flexible…and having the idea of capturing some of the ideas from his recent meeting…and ALWAYS looking for a reason to fly, I invited to give Mike a lift on a short flight to Chicago Executive airport and from there he could take a 15-minute Uber to ORD. During our flight, Mike shared some insights and takeaways from his meeting, the topics of which you can see in the title of this episode.   I hope you like this different format of the show. It’s one that I may do more of from time to time, as the situation presents itself. If you have thoughts either way, you can email me via the link in the show notes of this episode.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my airborne conversation with Dr. Mike Neal, OD To see some video of this podcast recording, please subscribe to our YouTube page: https://bit.ly/49F6pb7    Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!    

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guests on today’s show are Drs. Eric Baas and Bob Steinmetz, co-founders of iCare advisors, a consulting firm dedicated to the success of cold start practices nationwide. With close to 350 successful cold starts nationwide and 11 practice starts between them, I was really excited to have them back on the show to talk through the “state of the cold start” marketplace—looking back on 2023 as well as looking forward (as best they can) to what’s coming down the pipe here in 2024. We spend time talking through  data that their team has compiled directly from the source—that is to say it’s not self-reported—and what they’ve learned from that data that is helping cold start ODs be successful. We also take a bit of a trip down memory lane, with both Bob and I sharing some pieces of data that we both just happen to come across in our respective archives, that show just how much optometry has changed over the years, and why that should give us so much confidence on the success of private practice into the future. We discuss rural optometric practices and what they’re observing as established practices are looking to sell and how they reconcile that with a younger OD that is faced with the decision of buying that established practice vs cold-starting in the area (hint: if you are an owner of said rural practice, we share an offer/statement you should most definitely NOT share with anyone). We wrap up the conversation with a light-hearted discussion about how both of them manage to get so much done in all of their businesses.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Drs. Eric Baas and Bob Steinmetz.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information iCARE ADVISORS Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell Bob’s Review of Optometric Business Article Warming up to cold starts Part 1 Warming up to cold starts Part 2     ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Kevin Wills. Kevin is Sr. Vice President, Healthcare Business Banking with PNC Bank and I wanted to have Kevin on the show to discuss the state of lending, specifically in the healthcare space, from a nationwide perspective. In this episode, Kevin and talk about steps borrowers can take to put themselves in the best financial position prior to going through underwriting, how important projections and pro formas are in the underwriting process, how the banking landscape has changed as more and more banks have focused on healthcare lending, and a number of other topics.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kevin Wills. Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guests on today’s show are two more of my favorite people in the optometry space: Drs. Chris Wolfe and Kyle Klute.   Although, this is a bit of a different episode in that they’re not only guests on the show…they’re guest hosting the show! This is another 20/20 Money Takeover and basically a response to the first takeover episode I release with Drs. Jennifer Stewart and Jeremy Ciano (link here). Kyle was kind enough to reach out to me after the original takeover episode aired and shared some perspectives and opinions on the show and, in true transparency, included Jeremy and Jennifer on the message thread. There was a lot of great convos had and I thought that having Kyle and Chris on the show to talk about “the response” to the first takeover was a great idea.   What neither of the duos know, though, is that I already have an idea for a 3rd episode: getting the four of them together on a virtual roundtable and just hitting record. No agenda. No topics. No script. Not even really a time limit. Just the four of them and a couple of microphones. It’ll be like a battle royale, optometry-podcast style.   Long time listeners will know that my introductions usually give you a bit of an insight into the topics that’ll be discussed on this show. Not this one. Again, just like the first one, I’m listening to it for the first time right alongside you.   I’m excited to hear what they talked about and will be curious to hear your feedback (if you’re so inclined). If you do have feedback for the show (on this episode or any other episodes), you can always email the show at podcast@integratedpwm.com.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy this 20/20 Money Takeover with Drs. Chris Wolfe and Kyle Klute.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information Eyecode Education ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!  

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Dr. Ted McElroy. This is part two of our conversation that we teased on last week’s episode, and today Ted and I talk about the importance of resilience as a trait and quality that we should all embrace. He shares what resilience has meant to him in his life and how it was demonstrated throughout his life, most influential and notably by his grandfather, and how he’s strengthened that quality over his life…and how that’s benefited him in his life personally and professionally. From my perspective, I share some thoughts on the importance of resilience as it pertains to your money as well as why journaling is one of the single most important actions you can take today to improve how you think about resilience and how you respond when faced with any type of challenge or setback.   If you remember back to last week’s episode, you’ll remember that I accidentally had the wrong mic IDed with my recording software. Since Ted and I recorded these conversations back-to-back, this episode is the same way. Big shout-out and kudos to my producer Kyle for being the audio ninja that he is and doing the best he could to turn the episode audio into as best of a finished product as he could. Again, I appreciate you Kyle!   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Ted McElroy, OD.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information The Coaching Habit by Michael Stanier Bungay The War of Art by Steven Pressfield Link to Ted’s podcast     ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Dr. Ted McElroy. This is part one of our conversation where we talk about the importance of vulnerability as a leader, and why the two traits (vulnerability from today’s episode and resilience from next’s week’s episode) are intertwined. That is to say you can’t have one without the other. I believe Ted and I hit on a number of very important ideas in this albeit abstract conversation, but it’s one that I really enjoyed…and I actually do a pretty decent job of weaving in some personal and business finance into the conversation! We wrap it up with Ted sharing great questions to ask your team in a 1:1 setting and why that’s been beneficial for him.   Lastly, I must admit that, even 250+ episodes into 20/20 Money…I still make mistakes…which I guess is fitting for the topic of this episode: I had the wrong microphone in use for the recording. So while Ted sounds very crisp, I sound like I’m recording using the built-in mic on my MacBook…which is exactly what happened. For you the listener, I’m sorry about that and hope that it doesn’t detract away too much from the content and message of the episode.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Ted McElroy.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! This “housekeeping” episode is all about knowing the timely and relevant numbers that impact your various savings strategies as we enter into the new year. I also spend some time talking about an awesome new feature for defined benefit plans (thanks to SECURE Act 2.0) and a PSA to all of you that received the ERC in 2023 (or anticipate receiving it in 2024).   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information Backdoor Roth Episode   Per pay period numbers for 401k contributions: $958.33/pp at 24 884.61/pp at 26 1270.83 at 24 1173.07 at 26 Lively HSA   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! Kicking off the new year, I wanted to share with you three important questions I ask myself that I’ve found to be very valuable and impactful when considering new projects, initiatives, or “asks” that occur throughout the year. These questions, when asked successively and answered together, can help bring a lot of clarity around where and how you spend your capital of time, money, and energy.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy this solo episode, and Happy New Year!   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information Belay Solutions The Power Practice       ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!

Welcome to this episode rewind of 20/20 Money! I think I’m starting a bit of a tradition, because I felt compelled to bring back this episode again, just like I did last year, for the last episode of the 2023!!   Given that this is the last episode of the year, this is usually when we are thinking about goal setting, and everyone’s schedule is anything but normal being the day after Christmas, I wanted to bring back the conversation that I had with my friend, business collaborator, and advisor coach Stephanie Bogan from early 2022. I’ll share some info about Steph here shortly in the intro and then close out this introduction with some personal thoughts and reflections.   While Stephanie has built and sold a number of businesses in her career, most recently she is the founder of Limitless Adviser, a coaching program where she empowers financial advisors to create and build wildly successful practices and a life that they love. This was a special conversation for me as I’m also privileged to be involved in that program—first as an advisor that was being coached by Stephanie and now currently serving as an advisor coach, where I help coach and empower other advisors to work intentionally on their practices by applying the mindset and methods that Stephanie teaches in the curriculum and that I’ve learned over the years as well.   In this conversation we talk about something that tends to be popular around this time of year: goal setting. However, we talk about it from a bit of a different angle, which is first spending time focusing on your purpose and intention for building what you’re building and how money plays a role in that plan. We talk about it from two angles: the first being the practice owner that’s at the tail end of their career and facing an inevitable transition from their practice and also from the lens of a younger practice owner that has many years in front of them. We talk about some of the “sacred cows” that exist in practice ownership, why some of them should be questioned, and how to think about solving those problems. We wrap up with Stephanie’s very powerful answer to the one question that I ask every first-time guest on 20/20 Money.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you!   Now over 250 episodes into 20/20 Money, this show has continued to grow and develop into something bigger than I thought it would have and I’m eternally grateful for everyone that’s been involved in the show. To all my guests that have given their time to come on the show and share their perspective, experience, and expertise—thank you. To my producer Kyle— yet another thank you for all your help with the show. From getting it initially set up in 2018 to handling everything with the show after I’ve finished recording an episode…I appreciate all that you do for the show. And lastly, to you, the listener of the show. Whether this is your first episode, or you’ve listened to dozens (or even hundreds!) of them, I’m sincerely grateful for the intimate, albeit asynchronous relationship that we’ve been able to have. My goal is to have positive impact at scale in the optometric community and help practice owners make educated and informed decisions with their money and this podcast has allowed me to have a platform to share not only my knowledge and experience but also the experience of the guests that I’ve had on the show. I have always tried to keep the show as objective and unbiased as possible. I’ve never taking a dollar of sponsorship money, no guest has ever paid to be on the show, nor have I ever paid a guest to be on the show. This podcast is organic and authentic, and your continued support through listening and sharing the show is something that I’m both humbled and grateful for and I look forward to another great year in 2024!!   A couple of big announcements that I’m now far enough along in development to share with you all and to keep an eye out for (see what I did there) coming into 2024: ·         I’m going to be launching OD Masterminds™. The goal with the masterminds is to bring three key qualities to the group: clarity, accountability, and camaraderie. I’ll have more details in early January about how you can learn more about the masterminds and what’s required to qualify for them, so stay tuned. I’ll share in a future episode intro during the first couple weeks of January ·         I’m in the final stages of writing a book! The (working) title is How to Buy an Optometry Practice and it’s going to take buyers through an A-Z process of buying an optometry practice. Whether you’re an associate already in a practice that you’re wanting to buy into, looking for one nationwide, or just curious to learn more about it…this book will have everything you’ll need. ·         Along that same note, we’re going to be launching OD Transitions™, which will serve as a completely separate set of services to help in the valuation and transition of private practice, specifically from OD-to-OD. Again, I’ll have more on that in early January, so don’t skip through the intro of future episodes, because that’s where I tend to nest these updates.   I hope you’re all having an enjoyable holiday season and we’ll talk to you next year!   And with that long introduction, I hope you enjoy the last episode of 2022 with Stephanie Bogan.   Resources: 20/20 Money Membership Information   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!    

Welcome to this episode of 20/20 Money! My guest on today’s show is Dr. Bethany Fishbein, CEO of The Power Practice and host of the Power Hour podcast. On today’s episode we continue our dialogue that we started on my last appearance on the Power Hour podcast, which was around year-end planning. However, this conversation starts with the non-financial decision-making process that practice owners should be considering as they map out the direction of their practice going into the new year, specifically around the addition of treatments, therapies, and services they can provide to their patients.   Bethany shares great insights on how practice owners can start thinking about which treatment/therapies/services ODs should consider in their practice, the dangers of giving into FOMO and the bandwagon effect, how to present change to both your team as well as an associate OD you might have in the practice, and the importance of understanding the opportunity cost of these decisions. We wrap up conversation by distilling all of this down into the most important KPI (key performance indicator) that you should be tracking and reconciling a decision like this against in your practice.   As a reminder, you can get all the information discussed in today’s conversation by visiting our website at integratedpwm.com and clicking on the Learning Center. While there, be sure to subscribe to our monthly “planning life on purpose” newsletter that’s filled with tips and ideas to help you plan your life on purpose. You can also set up a Triage conversation to learn a little bit more about how we serve in the capacity of a personal and professional CFO: helping OD practice owners around the country reduce their tax bill, proactively manage cash flow, and make prudent investment decisions both in and out of their practice to ultimately help them live their best life on purpose. You can also check out any number of additional free resources like our eBooks, blog posts, and on-demand webinars. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming launch of the 20/20 Money Membership in January of 2024, please check out the link in the Resources to learn more about what we have in store for you! In next week’s episode, I’ll have more information on some upcoming webinars that you can attend which will give you a sneak peak into the membership and details about joining the first cohort!   And with that introduction, I hope you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Bethany Fishbein, OD.   Resources: 20/20 Money Community Information   ————————————————————————————— Please rate and subscribe to 20/20 Money on these platforms Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher  ————————————————————————————— For past episodes of 20/20 Money with full companion show notes, please check out our episode archive here!