[Growth] From Science to Sales – Educating Patients on Treatment Plans

Kimberly Friedman, OD FAAO, is an optometric physician and serves as Vice President of Education and Scientific Affairs at PRN Vision Group, a company that provides evidence-based omega-based nutraceuticals and ocular health products to support eye care professionals and patients worldwide. Under her medical education leadership, PRN Vision Group and its brands (including EyePromise) hold the top-selling dry eye nutraceutical product in the US, are distributed in over 20 countries, and have achieved rapid sales growth through high-quality education. Dr. Friedman is also a Founding Partner of Moorestown Eye Associates, a recognized media consultant, and one of the nation’s few optometrists with a recurring segment on major market television.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[03:20] Why work-life balance drew Dr. Kimberly Friedman to optometry
[05:05] The different career paths possible in optometry today
[08:39] Tips for translating clinical knowledge into patient education
[10:28] How nutrition research is rapidly evolving in the eye care field
[13:03] Strategies to recommend products without sounding salesy
[16:50] Analogies that instantly simplify complex ocular health topics
[22:13] Stepwise approaches for gaining patient trust and compliance
[30:19] Dr. Friedman’s top career advice

In this episode…

In today’s healthcare world, patients are more informed than ever. However, that doesn’t always mean they truly understand their treatment options. How can doctors simplify complex science into clear, trustworthy advice that motivates patients to follow through on care plans instead of feeling “sold to”?

According to Dr. Kimberly Friedman, a seasoned optometrist and medical education expert, it all starts with communication rooted in trust and clarity. She explains that the same skills doctors use daily in the exam room — distilling medical science into relatable language — are the foundation of effective patient education. Dr. Friedman highlights that using analogies, prescribing with confidence, and taking a stepwise approach to recommendations all build stronger compliance. By focusing on understanding rather than sales, practitioners can elevate patient outcomes while strengthening long-term relationships built on credibility.

In this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast, Kim Carson sits down with Dr. Kimberly Friedman, Vice President of Education and Scientific Affairs at PRN Vision Group, to discuss how to educate patients on treatment plans without overwhelming them. They talk about using analogies to simplify complex science, fostering trust through confident recommendations, and evolving with new research in ocular nutrition. Dr. Friedman also shares advice on balancing clinical integrity with practice growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“We are taking complex topics and helping to explain them to our patients so that we can build compliance and better outcomes.”
“Step one is to learn to be able to teach it in detail. But step two is to learn how to then translate that to the real world.”
“Patients don’t want us to over complicate it. Patients want us to fix it.”
“It’s what you put into the career, not what the career gave to you.”
“Start from yes and then see if it’s a right fit for you.”

Action Steps:

Simplify complex science for patients: Breaking down medical information into relatable, clear explanations helps patients understand their conditions and comply with treatment plans.
Prescribe with confidence and clarity: Presenting recommendations decisively builds patient trust and reinforces that treatment advice is based on sound medical judgment.
Use analogies to bridge understanding: Comparing eye care routines to everyday habits, like brushing teeth, makes education more accessible and memorable.
Adopt a stepwise approach to treatment: Introducing foundational care before advanced procedures encourages patient buy-in and long-term commitment to their health.
Stay informed through continual learning: Keeping up with evolving research ensures recommendations reflect the latest science, enhancing both credibility and patient outcomes.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by EyePromise.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:07

Welcome to the Cleinman Connect Podcast, where we discuss marketing, ownership, growth strategies, and everything else surrounding the business of optometry. Cleinman is Optometry’s trusted business partner for over 35 years. Hello, I’m Kim Carson, hosting doctor Kimberly Friedman on this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast. Past guests of the show include Sarah Vinson of Lunette USA and Kate Virzi, the Director of Sales & Client Success at Marketing4ECPs. Those episodes are available at cleinman.com or wherever you like to listen. Our sponsor for today’s show is EyePromise.

EyePromise has just joined forces with the PRN Vision Group and Avenova. They are the number one eye doctor recommended nutraceutical brand trusted by professional athletes across sports including baseball, football, hockey and golf, EyePromise, has a nutritional solution for almost any eye health need, and you can find more about them at eyepromise.com Kimberly Friedman, O.D. is a Founding Partner of Moorestown Eye Associates, a private group optometric Practice in New Jersey and the director of the Dry Eye Clinic at Morristown Eye. She is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians, a fellow in the American Academy of Optometry, a diplomat. Does this have an iron like that?

Oh my God.

Kimberly Friedman: 01:33

I think they call it a diplomat. I’ve heard it both ways, though.

Kim Carson: 01:39

She is a past president of the New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians, a fellow in the American Academy of Optometry, a diplomat of the American Board of Optometry, and a past clinical director for the National Special Olympics Opening Eyes program. She currently serves as a chief medical education officer for the PRN Vision Group, which includes PRN or PRN, EyePromise Avenova, Cliradex, and more. Dr. Friedman has served on numerous national advisory boards and has appeared in numerous television segments and print media throughout the United States, including The Rachael Ray show. She remains one of the only optometrists in the nation to have had a recurring monthly television segment in a major market news, and she is here with us today. Thank you so much.

Kimberly Friedman: 02:27

Oh, thank you Kim. I’m so excited to be here. And I love the Cleinman podcast that you’ve been doing, so I really appreciate you inviting me. Most people named Kim on the same podcast. This isn’t going to be confusing at all.

Kim Carson: 02:40

What could possibly go wrong?

Kimberly Friedman: 02:42

Nothing. Absolutely. Well, thank.

Kim Carson: 02:44

You so much to to get any compliments from you is genuinely amazing. Reading through your bio and everything you’ve done is it’s astonishing. You are so, so accomplished. And I’m flattered that you said yes to coming on here today, so thank you.

Kimberly Friedman: 03:00

Oh, I’m so excited to be here. I appreciate you taking the time to to put this together so that we can meet and chat.

Kim Carson: 03:06

Of course. Yeah. I guess that’s honestly a great spot to go into with all of these incredible achievements. Everything you’ve done. I kind of want to go back to the very start.

Why optometry? What what drew you to the eyecare field?

Kimberly Friedman: 03:20

I would love to tell you that I have some grand story about why I chose optometry and some optometrists that impacted my life, and we could pretend that that would be the truth. The reality is, I never even had an eye exam myself personally before I went to optometry school, so it was not a great story like that. The truth is that I was pre-med. I knew I wanted to go into medicine, but I also knew that I wanted to be in a medical field where I could have work life balance. I wanted to be in a medical field where I would be done my education and or residency by mid 20s, not mid 30s.

I knew that I had some things in life that made it so that I wanted to start a family, maybe a little bit younger. And so optometry, dentistry. There were a few others that I looked into, primary care pediatrician, and I was really looking for a a medical profession that I could complete my education process within 8 to 10 years, maybe all in, and really have that ability to not be on call 24 over seven for a residency for five years. And optometry really became a calling for me. And, you know, looking back now, 30 some years later, it was absolutely the right decision.

Kim Carson: 04:40

Wow. That’s I mean, you know, looking into all those things, it kind of speaks to your drive that you have. You know, you you’re saying that you did it so that you could finish a little earlier than other doctorates, but that all of them were open to you. And I just want to compliment you on your drive and how obviously incredibly intelligent you are.

Kimberly Friedman: 05:05

Well, thank you, but, you know, I should thank the field of optometry. It has definitely impacted my life in such a positive way. And and one of the things that I always say to people that are looking into optometry, there are so many opportunities within this profession, if you like, just from the outside looking in, people generally would think of optometry just as, you know, somebody flipping dials in a room saying, which is better, 1 or 2. And yet, like if I look back on my 35 year career, I never anticipated finding myself as a chief medical officer of a, you know, a of an eye care company, you know, or I have so many friends that work in either a corporate facing environment or maybe our professors or or so many different directions that we can go in from this profession. And I never even knew that that was a part of this profession when I started either.

Kim Carson: 05:58

Yeah. So could you explain to me your role at Penn Vision Group as the the chief medical education officer? What does that entail? What what do you do?

Kimberly Friedman: 06:08

So it’s evolved through the years. And I started out on this particular part of the journey in a way that a lot of the Cleinman colleagues out there might be experiencing a little bit as well. And that was with a company back in. I think it was maybe or maybe Alcon initially approached me and said, you know, we’re doing a dinner event, we’re looking for a speaker. You use a lot of product, a successfully would you be willing to, you know, get some training and do a speaking engagement for us as a key opinion leader?

So that’s kind of how it began. And that would have been, you know, maybe 15, 20 years ago. And I found that I really enjoyed teaching. I enjoyed the, the the camaraderie of in-person continuing education, spending time with our colleagues at events like the ones that Cleinman does. And, you know, through that, my involvement in sort of being a key opinion leader and in corporate events and such continued to grow and grow.

Then PR Vision Group literally called me out of the blue one day and said, hey, we noticed that you use a lot of nutraceuticals in your practice fairly successfully. Would you mind coming in and talking to our sales team and telling them, what is it that you’re saying to your patients to, you know, have them adopt this philosophy of using nutrition to manage their ocular conditions? I said, sure, I came in, lo and behold, 24 hours later that led to a job offer. Had no idea that that was actually probably an interview in disguise, but that’s what it was and ended up taking a job, kind of crafting the medical education that we utilize in, in, at PRN. And EyePromise for educating our doctors so that they can go and educate our patients.

Kim Carson: 07:58

Wow. Yeah, maybe that should have come with a warning. Hey, like, yes, being being successful in this meeting could lead to a job offer.

Kimberly Friedman: 08:08

A complete job change. Surprise. But it’s been a great it was a great choice for me.

Kim Carson: 08:14

Amazing. And so you’re building these educational programs around these nutraceuticals. How, you know, without maybe giving away any of your secrets, how do you do it? How do you take something that sounds so complex and you distill it down to something that people that don’t have, you know, that don’t have OD after their name can can understand?

Kimberly Friedman: 08:39

Well, I think that anybody listening to the podcast, any Cleinman doctor out there, would agree that basically what I’m doing is taking 30 years of clinical experience and applying it in a different way, because the number one thing that we do as clinicians is education, and we are taking complex topics and helping to explain them to our patients so that we can build compliance and better outcomes. That’s what we’re doing. So I’m really not doing anything different than what I did when I was seeing patients full time. I’m taking these complex concepts. Now, I will admit that our education in this particular area of nutrition and optometry is lacking a bit in our formal education.

So it did take a lot of research, a lot of self-study, a lot of kind of attending the lectures of experts out there in nutrition, even beyond just optometry, to begin to learn this aspect at a deep level, but then just taking that and beginning to distill it down. I love analogies, I talk in analogies a lot to try to explain things and make it simple for not only the doctor, but also for the doctor to then express it to the patient because it’s step one for the doctor to understand it. But step two for the doctor to be able to convey that to the patient in a quick, efficient, concise way. Because we don’t have all the time in the world to explain a one hour continuing education lecture to our patients, we need it in one sentence. So step one is to learn to be able to teach it in detail.

But step two is to learn how to then translate that to the real world.

Kim Carson: 10:12

And do you find that you’re constantly learning in this way that you are you know, you you know what seems to be everything about a product? And then a new study comes out and a new talk comes out, and your work kind of begins all over again.

Kimberly Friedman: 10:28

Oh, totally. Yeah. You know, nutrition is ever evolving. I mean, I think there’s a whole lot more that we don’t know than we know right now. And even since I’ve been with PRN, EyePromise since 2018, I have seen new studies come out that totally make us rethink things.

You know, if let me give you an example. So Areds two, every everybody on the call knows about Areds two. Areds two has become standard of care management for intermediate to advanced macular degeneration, but the Areds two publication is over a decade old at this point. There has been a lot of information published in the decades since Areds two. So while Areds two is a fantastic foundation for our medical management of macular degeneration patients, it’s not all we know that at this point, it really should be maybe Areds two plus where we know that, for example, omega three fatty acids play a huge role in macular degeneration prevention and progression.

We know that zeaxanthin specifically is so much more critical than it was really thought to be a decade ago when Areds two was developed. So if we really want to conform to evidence based medicine today, we take that foundation of Areds two, but we add on the added additional zeaxanthin, the added additional omega three. now in eye promises case that products called macular health or macular health complete if it also includes the multivitamin. But that’s a perfect example of, you know, science marches on and AredKimberly Friedman has been the gold standard forever. And Areds two is still a gold standard.

But there’s a better way to do an Areds two by adding a few additional things. And that’s what this evolution of nutrition science has taught us over the last decade. And we’ll continue to teach us over time.

Kim Carson: 12:20

Okay. Yeah, that honestly makes a ton of sense. My mind kind of goes to being a client in a situation like that. And do you have any advice or any anything to kind of make people feel like they’re not being sold to? It’s a topic that we’ve, you know, talked on this podcast a lot about before that, you know, you want to have this, this supplement and, you know, this wipe and this cleanse and this, you know, it’s all of a sudden it’s five products, right?

And they’re all needed and they all help each other work better. But how do you say all that to a patient without them feeling like, oh, you’re trying to upsell me on something?

Kimberly Friedman: 13:03

Correct. Yeah. It’s tough right? Yeah. That is a very real concern because we do have an aspect of our practices that involve retail sales.

There’s no doubt that we have that as part of our business model in many of our practices. But we also have the importance of balancing that with giving medical advice, you know, prescribing things in order to treat or prevent a particular ocular condition. And it’s this delicate balance. I remember way back in the 1980s and 90s, when I went to school, there was almost like this. It was almost looked down upon.

If you had a large retail component in your office. And now we understand that that is an important part of what we do. And it took me a while to really understand the patient perspective, and I kind of put myself in the role of the patient. I appreciate the convenience of being able to pick up the product at the doctor’s office and not have to go to the Isle of Confusion and CVS and try to navigate that for myself. Like, I appreciate that they’ve done the work for me, and I have a relationship with the doctor, that I trust them and I want their advice.

I don’t want to have to go to Doctor Google or Doctor TikTok to tell me what eyelid wipe to use. I’d rather the doctor tell me what would be the best option. That being said, the way that I find that I can convey that to patients without coming off like a snake oil salesperson is, I will use words like, this is what I would use if I had your condition. This is what my mother is using. This is what I recommend for my daughter, you know, and I will.

I will say things like that so that they understand that like this is coming from my best medical recommendation, I will also use the word prescribe. Even if it is not a prescription that you’re picking up at the local drugstore because I am prescribing this treatment for you. Whether this treatment is a nutraceutical, whether this treatment is like a hypochlorous acid, like avenova, whether I am prescribing cliradex to be used in conjunction with Xdemvy. It is part of the prescription treatment. So I treat it just like a drug.

I don’t say, for example, if I have a glaucoma patient, I don’t say to them, well, we could do timolol or we could do rhopressa or I’ve heard that cosopt thing is, okay, we’ll try one of them. You know, I don’t do that. I say, okay, we’re going to get started today on Vyzulta. You’re going to take it at bedtime. I’m going to call it into the local pharmacy, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Like, I, I treat all of my other prescription recommendations, whether they’re over-the-counter or truly RX. Rex. Yeah, exactly the same as I do a drug. You know, I am prescribing this. This is what I recommend.

I recommend it by name. This is why I’m recommending it. And this is what I would do if I were you. Yeah. And I think that the patient can understand that confidence and understand that you’re basing it on evidence based medicine, scientific integrity, picking the best product for what the patient’s condition is.

Kim Carson: 16:11

Yeah, I think that that does help to, you know, when you have those moments with patients, you are trying to educate them on what they need or what they need to do, and it just speaks with a level of confidence in the reading, the learning, the schooling that, you know, the the doctor that they have chosen to go to has done, I think.

Kimberly Friedman: 16:31

Right, right. Exactly, exactly.

Kim Carson: 16:33

Could you give me a couple examples of maybe something that would be commonplace to the ODS listening that, you know, is is complicated or sounds very complicated. And then maybe give me the example of how you would filter that down to be understood.

Kimberly Friedman: 16:50

Yeah. So let’s go with something simple like a cleanser. Okay. So we’re talking to the patient about we want them to remove the biofilm from their eyelids or lashes that we want them to use a cleanser daily. Maybe they’ve had recurrent styes.

Maybe we’re just doing this for a little bit of blepharitis. Whatever. So what I will say to the patient is that, you know, just I use again, analogy. As I said, I used analogies a lot, just like the dentist does not wait until you have a cavity to start to tell you to brush and floss. I can’t wait until you get another stye to have you remove the biofilm, the bacteria, and the film on your lids and lashes.

That is very much like the bacteria and film that forms on our teeth. This is part of a normal daily hygiene that we should be doing, removing that bacteria, the buildup up that we get on our lids and lashes, because it makes us more predisposed to styes, more predisposed to like pink eye or conjunctivitis, more predisposed to dry eye. So it’s part of the preventative maintenance, just like what you do with the brushing your teeth. We’re going to do that by using fill in the blank cleanser Avenova Cliradex a wipe, whatever your cleanser of choice is. But by making that analogy to dentistry, we don’t wait till there’s a cavity to have to to solve the problem.

We don’t wait till you have a stye to solve the problem. We’re going to take care of that right away. One of the other ways that I’ll do it is sort of, you know, in the space of dry eye, for example, Tfos Dews three, which just came out in June, still comes out and says that ocular nutrition supplements are the cornerstone of dry eye therapy. Yet we all know that there are a lot of clinicians out there that hesitate to recommend nutritional supplements, because either they don’t feel qualified to make the recommendation because they’re just not quite as educated on that area, or they’re confused by headlines that they see that say, this works. No, this works.

No, this doesn’t work because there’s so much information and misinformation out there. So understandably, sometimes our colleagues will kind of shy away from that a little bit. So when Tfos Dews three came out and literally reinforced that this was cornerstone level one, stage one therapy that applied to all etiologies of dry eye, the clinicians started to pay a little bit more attention to omega three supplements again. But one of the things that can come up with these omega three supplements is like, how do I quickly, efficiently convey that to a patient because I cannot go down a nutrition rabbit hole. So like one of the things that I’ll say is, you know, as you know, we went through everything today.

You have dry eye. Believe it or not, dry eye is just like arthritis of the eyeball. So what I’ve done there just by saying dry eyes like arthritis of the eyeball, the patient now gets that this is more than the eye just feeling a little scratchy or dry, more than a feeling of dryness. This is actually. Wait, what?

Okay, this is actually an inflammatory condition. It progresses as we get older, and then I reinforce it by saying, you know, as as this condition progresses, not only is it going to lead to greater discomfort, which is all they are thinking when they hear dry eye, but it also leads to problems with clarity of vision and with the cosmetic appearance of your eyes. Those are the three I hit. I hit comfort, clarity, and the cosmetic appearance. I guess that’s the three C’s, right?

Comfort, clarity, and cosmetic appearance. But by hitting those three, it’s a quick and simple thing. Takes 30 less than 30s 10s. And it kind of gets the patient to understand that the nutraceutical is a part of this treatment, and we need to address this because it’s not just about a little bit of scratchiness in the eye.

Kim Carson: 20:48

Yeah, it’s not that small of a problem, but how do you how do you say that without scaring them into into being like, oh no, I’m going to, you know, get my eyes removed or something like.

Kimberly Friedman: 20:56

Yeah, I don’t overstate it. I’ve definitely seen doctors do the scare tactic thing. And I don’t think that works either. Right. But you just educate that it’s more than a feeling of dryness.

And we’re going to lay some foundational framework here with exactly what Tfos dews II says nourish, heat and cleanse. Okay, so we’re going to nourish, heat and cleanse as our foundation. And then many of the Cleinman doctors have really advanced clinics with advanced dry eye procedures available. You lay the foundation, you then introduce the procedure so foundational, you know, nourishing cleanse maybe with a prescription drop, maybe not, depending on what you see. You introduce the IPL, the lipiflow, the low light level, whatever it is you have in your office, you give them information about it, you tell them about it.

You say, okay, we’re going to start with these foundations to clean out the glands from the inside out and from the outside in. Think about these procedures that we have here. I’m going to see you in three months to see how you’re doing on the foundations. And then we may add in procedures if we need. But that way you’re building trust.

You’re getting them to buy in, be a partner in the treatment plan. You’re not hitting them with the oh, here’s your $2,500 treatment therapy from the first minute they’ve met you. You know, you’re doing this stepwise approach, and I find that people have much more success doing it that way.

Kim Carson: 22:13

Yeah. And then like you said, it’s they buy into the treatment plan and not even necessarily like we’re not talking dollars they buy in because you know that these treatments will work because you are cleaning it from the inside out and the outside in. And actually, you know, upstream thinking wise of of the issue that they’re having.

Kimberly Friedman: 22:31

Buying in from the sense of compliance as opposed to dollars, although compliance leads to dollars. So yes.

Kim Carson: 22:39

There is one without the other. But. Right. So it sounds like. And and if I may, you know, paraphrase a little bit and please stop me if I’m getting out of pocket, that it’s not necessarily about explaining every piece of the science to, to patients.

It’s not sitting down and being like, here’s a YouTube link. I recommend you watch this three hour talk on Dry Eye, but it’s more these these quick things and kind of putting maybe everything, you know, and all the details and all the research that you’ve done, putting it just like on a shelf, not necessarily to the side and getting down to a very simple form of all of the hours that you have spent learning.

Kimberly Friedman: 23:23

Yeah, I, you know, in my family, my brother’s a mechanic, and we often joke that my brother and I do the same thing, only he’s got it worse because his patient doesn’t tell him what’s wrong. And my patient will tell me what’s wrong. But I don’t have a clue about how a car works. I don’t really care to know how a car works. It’s not in my wheelhouse.

But what I have is a clinician, a a, you know, mechanic who knows it. I don’t need to know what he knows. I trust him, I’ve built a rapport with him. He is my mechanic. I need him to be able to explain it in a sentence or two, distill it down for me so that I understand, so I can make an informed decision on whether I want to invest my dollars into doing this or that.

But that’s all I want. I don’t want a three hour dissertation. I don’t want my eye exam to keep me in there more than 45 minutes. I’ve got things to do. Like, you know, sometimes we are so involved in being eye doctors that we sometimes I hate to say this out loud, we sometimes might elevate our position of self-importance in those patients lives.

Okay. How important now, like, how important is your dentist in your life? Now you might love your dentist, and for a few of you, your dentist is going to be crucially important. But for most of us, our dentist is the person that we go to twice a year. We like them, they’re nice, we have a nice relationship with them.

But if our insurance changed, we’d probably change dentists and they’re not somebody that we’re thinking of on a daily or even weekly basis. And as much as we love them, I’d like to get in and out of there in 45 minutes. Right. That’s how they’re thinking about us, you know, they don’t want us to give them a two hour dissertation on dry eye. They’re coming to us and they say they have this problem.

Could you distill down what I need to do to fix it? Okay. Thank you. See you in six months. Or see you in three months or see you in a year.

You know, patients don’t want us to over complicate it. Patients want us to fix it. And that, like, we need to understand the background, but we don’t have to spend hours explaining to a patient the difference between a ten and two level of zeaxanthin and lutein to a ten and ten level of zeaxanthin and lutein. You know, it just it’s they’re paying us to solve the problem for them not to spend hours in education.

Kim Carson: 25:52

Yeah, yeah. Not to give them a pseudo degree in the issue that they’re facing. Right.

Kimberly Friedman: 25:59

But every once in a while, we will have those patients too. Yeah. But but most of the time not.

Kim Carson: 26:05

And you’re like, I actually have missed two appointments now.

Kimberly Friedman: 26:08

Yeah.

Kim Carson: 26:10

Do you have any information or or anything helpful that ODS listening might be able to use in how to find marketing tidbits or, or something like that on products that they have? Like, maybe not necessarily. They’re saying it to a patient in the room, but you know, they have this new procedure, they have this new nutraceutical in their practice. How can this education, this very quick education that they’re trying to give patients in a room. How can they give that to other people?

Kimberly Friedman: 26:46

Right, right, right. And I gotta say, I think one of the quickest, most efficient ways of doing this is to rely on the knowledge of the sales reps. And I know that sometimes, you know, we’re busy, we’re backed up, we’re running from this room to the other, and the sales rep is standing there monopolizing space in the office, and you really want to just get to the next patient and you’re behind. And I get what that’s like. But our sales reps are really incredibly valuable resources for us.

I mean, obviously they have a job there. They’re trying to sell us things in the office, but they are also incredible sources for information to help make our lives easier. So I do think it’s important to just take the the five minutes here or there, or maybe sit down and have a lunch with, you know, if you are are committed to learning how to incorporate, you know, a know, a particular nutraceutical into your practice, a particular cleanser, a particular procedure, a particular lens, contact lens. It really behooves us to take those few minutes to talk to those sales reps, because they know the time tested things that have worked, and they know what hasn’t worked, too. And they can, like EyePromise, for example, we have like 1 to 2 minute audio clips that we can share with people on.

This is how our medical team messages this to patients. Not that you’re going to necessarily use the exact same wording that I would, but because it will give you a starting point that you can listen to a few times in the car when you’re driving somewhere, and you’ll kind of get it in your head, and then you’ll be able to massage it and make it your words and feel comfortable with it. Because I can’t tell you how many times doctors attend an event. They attend a CE class, they attend a weekend getaway, they get all excited about a new product, a new procedure. They bring it into their office.

They try to message it the first time to a patient. They get a little tongue tied. They feel a little uncomfortable when they get tongue tied and they give up. And you know, it’s so easy to hit that first friction, point that first wall and stop and give up. And that’s true in every aspect of our you know, you could be going to a Cleinman lecture or seminar on on practice management.

It doesn’t even have to be on a, on a product. And you’re excited and you walk out of there and you hit that first bump, you hit that first speed bump, and then you’re just like, I don’t know what to do. And you stop because there’s so many other things happening in your world that you’re too busy to actually do it. You know, that’s when you call the sales rep. That’s when you call your Cleinman regional manager person.

That’s when you call them and say, I hit this, I hit the speed bump. Okay, help me get over it. Help me figure out how to navigate around it, through it, over it. Because they know. They know the ways.

We just have to reach out and ask them.

Kim Carson: 29:37

Yeah. Amazing. I have one last question for you. And before I ask it, I do want to point people to the EyePromise website, EyePromise.Com.

And my final question is, you know, you’ve received many awards including the end of the year, young of the year award, the Robert Daborne Humanitarian Award, Vsps People First Award, and the Special Olympics National Recognition Award. And I’m certain there’s more. But I say all this because you are obviously overly qualified to answer. What advice would you give to anyone beginning their journey in optometry as an optometrist today?

Kimberly Friedman: 30:19

Well, first of all, I must state that I would clearly not qualify for the young OD of the year award anymore, so that one was a little bit in the past. But thank you for putting those out. I appreciate it, but I am asked occasionally like, you know, what advice would you give to a younger optometrist just starting out? And I constantly come back to the same thing, and it’s pretty simple. It’s one word.

It’s say yes. You know, it’s just say yes. Make your default. Yes. Now, that doesn’t mean we can do everything.

That doesn’t mean we can juggle everything in the world. Make your default. Yes. Think about it. If it’s really not a right fit for you.

Okay, flip the yes to no. But the default isn’t. No, the default is. Yes. So when you get these opportunities, when Alcon or Allergan comes knocking on your door asking you to do a local dinner at the at the Capitol Grill with some local colleagues, and you think there’s no way in heck I’m qualified to do this, why are they even asking me to do this?

I don’t want to learn a new deck. I don’t I don’t like public speaking. I don’t want to put myself out there. Stop. Start from.

Yes. Start from. Why not? Why would I not want to do this? Who knows what opportunity?

Yeah, maybe I’m going to fall on my face and it’s not going to go so well. Okay. So what you know, start with the yes and then see if it’s a right fit for you. I cannot tell you how many unexpected opportunities have come my way in optometry, just because I was willing to maybe take a chance. And they didn’t all work out.

They certainly did not all work out. But being willing to kind of put yourself out there, take a chance, go to the Cleinman events so that you’re networking with other doctors that are like minded, like you. You know, talk to your colleagues when when they have local in-person CE so that you can build those bonds and those relationships. Get involved in your local optometry, your state organizations, your national organizations. You know, these are the things that really make you feel like you’re a part of a fulfilling career, a fulfilling career, so that when you fill out that survey in years, like would you recommend optometry to your child, you want to check the yes box, and it’s based on how you approach the career, not what the career gave to you.

It’s what you put into the career. So to me, number one advice always say yes doesn’t mean you have to juggle it all and be all. But start with yes and then titrate based on what’s best for you. But don’t start from a place of no. Start from a place of yes.

Kim Carson: 32:55

Amazing. Thank you, Kimberly, for your insight and your time today. That is our show. If you want to hear more of the podcast, you certainly can at Cleinman.com and wherever you like to listen. Thank you for joining us today.

Kimberly Friedman: 33:08

Thank you so much.

Outro: 33:13

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