Anne Chong is the President and CEO of Visual-Eyes, a practice management software provider serving 400-plus eye care clinics across Canada. She joined the company at its founding in 1996, began in client support and implementation, and became an owner in 1999. Today, she oversees daily operations and works closely with managers to streamline clinic workflows. A University of Toronto Engineering Science graduate, Anne brings expertise in operational efficiency, team leadership, and practice management. She also partnered with Cleinman on the work-life balance chapter of Doctor, Dear Doctor.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [3:06] Why Anne Chong partnered with Doctor, Dear Doctor to support its work-life balance chapter
- [6:23] Anne’s approach to delegating responsibilities and letting go of unnecessary tasks
- [9:23] How customizable patient communications can impact clinic efficiency and workflows
- [13:00] The importance of overcoming perfectionism and knowing when “done” is good enough
- [16:35] Why scheduling personal time is essential to maintaining a healthy work-life balance
- [19:29] Anne’s advice for practice owners: doing the math, measuring what matters, and making smarter business decisions
In this episode…
Long hours often come with the responsibility of running an optometry practice, but more time spent working doesn’t always lead to better results. Without clear priorities and time for personal well-being, productivity can suffer. How can practice owners accomplish more without constantly working longer hours?
Anne Chong, an expert in optometry practice management and operational efficiency, believes working smarter starts with recognizing which tasks truly deserve your time. Sacrificing sleep or exercise to squeeze in extra hours can actually reduce productivity the following day, making those additional hours less valuable. Anne emphasizes the importance of setting priorities, delegating effectively, and letting go of unnecessary tasks or unrealistic expectations. By protecting personal time and focusing on meaningful business metrics, practice owners can achieve better results without sacrificing their well-being.
In this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast, host Kim Carson sits down with Anne Chong, President and CEO of Visual-Eyes, to discuss why working longer doesn’t always mean accomplishing more. Anne shares how to prioritize essential tasks, delegate without perfectionism, and make time for personal well-being. She also explores meaningful business metrics, clinic efficiency, and her involvement with the work-life balance chapter of Doctor, Dear Doctor.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Kevin Wilhelm on LinkedIn
- Kim Carson on LinkedIn
- Cleinman
- Anne Chong on LinkedIn
- Visual-Eyes
- Dear Doctor, Always Remember: Do the Math and Measure What Matters by Anne Chong
- “From Kindergarten to the Boardroom Part 1: Lessons in Confidence & Culture” with Dani Driusso on the Cleinman Connect Podcast
- “From Kindergarten to the Boardroom Part 2: I.C.O.N.I.C. Leadership” with Dani Driusso on the Cleinman Connect Podcast
- Dr. Karine Shaghoyan on LinkedIn
- Dr. Dori Carlson on LinkedIn
- “Streamlining Processes and Reducing Operational Friction” with Anne Chong on the Cleinman Connect Podcast
- “Mindset Shifts: Personal Development For Professional Fulfillment” with Dr. Beth Repp on the Cleinman Connect Podcast
Quotable Moments:
- “Just because you did it one way, it doesn’t mean they have to do it that way.”
- “What is good enough, and do I need to do it or not?”
- “You spent time and energy and effort on it, but was there real value for it?”
- “When you’re deciding whether you can afford new software, the honest question is sometimes whether you can afford not to.”
- “If your schedule is empty, no amount of work on second pairs will save you.”
Action Steps:
- Prioritize tasks based on their importance: Using an emergency-room-style prioritization system helps identify urgent responsibilities, manage less critical work, and let go of tasks that don’t need to be completed.
- Evaluate responsibilities before delegating: Determining whether a task truly needs to be done and who should handle it prevents unnecessary work and allows team members to focus on meaningful contributions.
- Protect personal time through intentional scheduling: Setting aside time for family, exercise, sleep, and self-care helps maintain productivity, prevent burnout, and improve overall effectiveness.
- Let go of perfectionism when delegating: Accepting that others may complete tasks differently encourages greater team ownership, reduces unnecessary pressure, and allows leaders to focus on higher-value responsibilities.
- Measure what truly matters in your practice: Evaluating actual operating costs, pricing, and performance metrics helps practice owners make informed decisions, improve profitability, and avoid wasting resources on activities that deliver little value.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Visual-Eyes, the premier practice management software solution for the eye care industry through ease of use, reliability, and total office integration. The Visual-Eyes suite of software helps to reduce operational inefficiencies, allowing you to focus on what is important: your patients. Get more information at visual-eyes.ca.
This episode is also brought to you by Doctor, Dear Doctor, the newest book from Cleinman. This resource brings together the voices of respected optometrists across generations to share lessons, experiences, and insights that have shaped their careers and their lives. Through candid letters to their younger selves, these industry leaders offer guidance on clinical care, practice, management, leadership, innovation, and the personal growth that comes with a life in optometry. Doctor, Dear Doctor will be available in October 2026, and you can get more information at Cleinman.com.
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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 optometrists trusted business partner for over 35 years.
Hello, I’m Kim Carson, hosting Anne Chong, President and CEO of Visual-Eyes. On this episode of the Cleinman Connect Podcast, past guests of this show include Dani Driusso in two episodes surrounding the conversation of leadership. You can listen to those episodes in so many more now at Cleinman.com or wherever you like to get podcasts.
This episode is brought to you by Visual-Eyes, the premier practice management software solution for the eye care industry through ease of use, reliability, and total office integration. The Visual-Eyes suite of software helps to reduce operational inefficiencies, allowing you to focus on what is important: your patients. Get more information at visual-eyes.ca.
This episode is also brought to you by Doctor, Dear Doctor, the newest book from Cleinman. This resource brings together the voices of respected optometrists across generations to share lessons, experiences, and insights that have shaped their careers and their lives. Through candid letters to their younger selves, these industry leaders offer guidance of clinical care, practice, management, leadership, innovation, and the personal growth that comes with a life in optometry. Doctor, Dear Doctor will be available October 2026 and you can get more information at Cleinman.com.
So I am joined now. Finally, I’ve read all the things. I am joined by Anne Chong, President and CEO at Visual-Eyes, and is a graduate of the University of Toronto in the fields of engineering, science, and to some degree, she has been with Visual-Eyes since its inception over 30 years ago and has become the backbone of the company, overseeing all aspects of essential day to day operations and collaborating with her team of talented managers. She is very proud of Visual-Eyes and its ability to make a difference in how a clinic operates. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Anne Chong: 02:13
Thank you for having me.
Kim Carson: 02:15
Yeah, of course, it’s always a pleasure. I know that we talked a lot about efficiency in our last episode, so I hope you don’t mind. I know that Visual-Eyes is all about efficiency, saving time, working smarter, not harder. I hope you don’t mind that we will focus a bit more on this book in this episode.
Anne Chong: 02:36
Yeah. No.
Kim Carson: 02:37
Absolutely amazing. So I don’t know if you knew this previously, but you were our first call that our friend Cole that he made when we knew that we were going to be launching this book and that we wanted to have some partners on different chapters. So you were the first call, and you also just so happened to be the fastest yes to partnering on this book with us. Why is that?
Anne Chong: 03:06
That is a great question. Apparently, when something sounds like a good way to start something, I wanted to support it and sounded like a great way to support Cleinman and to support doctors who need to get that balance. So I love that you had me chapter, the sponsor, the, the work life balance, the work life balance chapter. Because definitely an area I’m focused on right now for myself. And just as you get to those ages, right, you get there.
So yeah, this resonated at the right time, I think was, was where we were.
Kim Carson: 03:47
Yeah. I mean, amazing, honestly, I really like this chapter just for anyone who doesn’t, you know, have a copy of it in their hands right now. It is chapter four and it is about finding that work life balance. You know, not having a burnout, finding efficiencies within your life. There also is, you know, Dr. Karine Chagoyan is one of the letters that has been compiled into Doctor, Dear Doctor, and her letter is featured in this chapter.
She talks a bit about the emergency room prioritization model. Would you like to kind of explain what that is?
Anne Chong: 04:23
And when I read that, I was like, oh my God, yes. I hadn’t quite framed it that way before. But yes, absolutely. The idea that there’s things that have to get done this week versus things that should get done this week versus things that maybe won’t happen. And then being honest with yourself.
And I loved the black just being honest with yourself that it’s not going to happen and it’s okay to let that happen. And that’s probably the one I struggle with the most, is it’s okay to have some black flagged things that just are not going to happen.
Kim Carson: 05:00
Yeah, absolutely. I think too, and maybe you can elaborate on this, but just that kind of permission also that comes with it. You categorize all the tasks and you’ve checked those boxes, but then to have some that are just like, let it go, it’s not going to happen. Do you care to elaborate a bit on that? Like how you’ve kind of come to those conclusions or dealt with that bit of struggle where you’re like, I have to let it go.
Anne Chong: 05:25
So as a CEO of a company, part of my extra challenge is do I let it go or does the organization let it go? And so there’s different levels to that as well. So there’s things that I need to be okay with. I’m not the one that it needs to sit with anymore. And who on the team should be looking after that.
And moving that forward, or should anyone be doing it? And I think both are valid questions that we need to pause before we delegate even and say, does it need to get done?
Kim Carson: 05:59
That’s a great point to make. And that honestly makes me think that you’re, you know, having this forward thought of also protecting the time of your team members. Because if attack, if a task is black for you and it’s not going to get done and you want to let it go, and you look at it and say, well, should I just delegate this? It’s like, well, will it be important to them either? Like, is it actually important to get done?
Anne Chong: 06:20
Yeah.
Kim Carson: 06:21
I love that. I love that although.
Anne Chong: 06:23
The black task probably shouldn’t go to anyone, it’s the other yellows and well, even the emergencies. Should I be dealing with it or should it be somebody else’s emergency where somebody else is running it? Maybe just reporting back to me or not even. Do they do they own it and I need to let them.
Kim Carson: 06:41
Oh, that’s a great way to think about it too. Like as the, like, everything kind of comes through you or comes from you as the CEO, but sometimes. But yeah, like, am I the right person? Like just because my title is something, am I the right person to be dealing with this green task or this red task or this yellow task?
Anne Chong: 07:03
Exactly.
Kim Carson: 07:03
Oh, amazing. So this, you know, the book is a compilation of letters from all these industry leaders, and it’s been put into a story where there’s a fictional doctor, but it ultimately is peer to peer storytelling. Do you find that to be a more powerful way to teach work life balance rather than like a standard business manual?
Anne Chong: 07:28
Oh, definitely. When you can tell a story about what you did in a situation or how you felt in a situation, it does two things. It resonates. I think more with somebody because they can either picture what you were feeling at that time or maybe have felt that way as well. And then so it’s not you telling them what to do.
It’s telling you, telling them what you have done, which also comes from a different point. And then they need to take that and ingest it in what they’re how they’re going to ingest it rather than how you did. So just because you did it one way, it doesn’t mean they have to do it that way. But by sharing the story, they have another perspective to add to their decision making process and come up with their best self, whatever that might look like.
Kim Carson: 08:22
Yeah. Resonates and relates kind of. Yeah. So where do you think that Visual-Eyes fits into that?
Anne Chong: 08:29
So I think we’re Visual-Eyes fits into the life balance piece is allowing you to practice the way you want to practice. And so one example is with our electronic communications. So I have some clinics that it’s a simple message. Every patient gets the same message. And it’s plain.
Jane and I have another clinic that has over 100 messages per appointment reminders because it’s personalized for each doctor and each type of appointment, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. Like those are two complete extremes, and I would prefer to see clients somewhere in between the two of those. It’s about allowing them to practice the way they want to practice in the level of detail they want to give their patients and the experience they want to give their patients.
Kim Carson: 09:16
So I’m just trying to think of different use cases for 100 different types of appointment reminders.
Anne Chong: 09:23
When they told me they wanted to do this, I was like, are you freaking kidding me? Because not only that, if you need to edit something, you got to do it 100 times. Now. You can’t just do it once or five times. Like, as I say, most clinics probably have five.
Kim Carson: 09:36
But yeah.
Anne Chong: 09:37
And this is just an appointment reminder, like, don’t get on their recalls and all the other stuff.
Kim Carson: 09:43
I mean, let’s talk about work life balance and, and maybe, maybe specifically.
Anne Chong: 09:48
He delegated everything to the staff member who actually did it. So maybe she has a week work project.
Kim Carson: 09:56
Professional message editor. So your chapter, it starts with a fictional doctor sitting in her car. She’s exhausted. She’s overwhelmed by her practice. I would love to know if you hear stories like that from ODS that you talk to, and what makes this book potentially the right remedy for somebody feeling that.
Anne Chong: 10:20
So I actually, I personalized this a little bit more when I read that. Yeah, I’m not usually in the car when I have that overwhelm, I’m sitting at my computer going, oh shit. I missed dinner again. I’m on my way, I promise. Yeah.
And I mean, personally, one of the ways I have kids, they’re, they’re now grown. They’re, they’re 20 and 21 now, but as I were growing up, they got in my schedule for anything that was critical. So I made sure that there were certain class trips I went on or, you know, dance recitals or sports events, whatever it was. I did not promise to go to all of them because they knew that was unrealistic. But they got in my schedule, and that’s how I made sure that those situations happened for me.
And so each person deals with that in a different way. And you need to figure out what yours is. I’m moving into a different phase of my life where the kids, my life doesn’t revolve around the kids anymore because they’re out of the house. And how do I continue to make that time for family when I don’t have those pieces that we used to happen more naturally? So I’m still working on that part.
I would say I do have dedicated me time that’s in my schedule though, so I’m doing better on that part.
Kim Carson: 11:50
I mean, honestly, it is a daily practice, a weekly practice for all of us. I recently did a podcast episode with Dr. Beth Repp and she, you know, even just talking to her pre and post of the podcast, I was like, how do I just get you to call me every morning and like, tell me what I need to be doing? Keep me on track. Like, remind me that like, I’m important to go drink some water. Like, how do I get you to just call me and tell me to do these things?
One of the, another one of the doctors that does have a letter in this chapter is Dr. Dori Carlson. And she does write about having mom guilt and kind of navigating that. Letting go of the perfectionism, which, you know, maybe perfectionism. Perfectionism isn’t the word you might use for yourself. But if it were to be, can you give us a bit of a peek behind the curtain of this work that you are doing?
Like, like you said, having the me time in your calendar. Like what, what are you doing to, to kind of redefine what success actually looks like on your terms?
Anne Chong: 13:00
So I think this one flipped to me in two different ways. So one is that dedicated time and what, what is it that I want to spend my dedicated personal time to? For sure. The perfectionist piece, I think is back to that delegation thought as well. So what is good enough and do I need to do it or not?
And so sometimes we delegate things, what we expect it to be done at the same level that we’ve always done it at. And often we delegate. It’s not I mean, sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s better than what we can do, in which case it was a successful delegation. But oftentimes the vision we have in our mind is not going to be the exact vision that when we delegate, it is going to be completed. But done is still better than my perfect and allowing that to happen and deciding which areas of my life need to have that level of perfection, let’s call it, versus, you know, Donna’s better than not done.
Kim Carson: 14:03
Yes. Thank you. As part of this collaboration between this book and Visual-Eyes, we did ask you to write a letter to doctors as well. And spoiler alert, I will ask you to read it in a little bit, but I’ll ask you some questions from it now. It does advise anyone reading it to measure what matters, instead of chasing a vanity metric.
When it comes to work life balance, what personal metrics would you suggest to a doctor? Or how are you measuring that in your own life?
Anne Chong: 14:39
Oh, and I wasn’t my brain wasn’t going personal life balance when I wrote the letter. So yeah, that’s a little bit harder. I mean, for me personally, I know when I get enough sleep and get enough exercise, I’m the best form of myself. And so those typically are the metrics that I’m watching in myself, because I know if I work too late and don’t get my exercise in and don’t get enough sleep at night, then I’m not as effective the next day. So even if I worked an extra two hours, if I’m less effective the next day, then I didn’t really win that two hours that I thought I caught up the night before.
And so I think that that would be how I would reframe it to this, this chapter.
Kim Carson: 15:26
Yeah. It makes me think of there’s an analogy of boiling water. So, you know, if you’re boiling water at the highest heat, it’s going to boil faster than if you’re boiling it at 50%. So, you know, we can maybe think of ourselves like that. If you, like you said, stay the extra two hours in the office.
You don’t get to do those things that kind of fill you back up. Then you might have that extra two hours of work, but the next day you’re only going to be trying to boil water at 75% instead of 100. So is that maybe the measure, what matters like that we’re talking about here?
Anne Chong: 16:04
Yeah. Yeah, it could be for sure. Because measuring the checks on the to do list, if the quality of the work is less than it didn’t.
Kim Carson: 16:15
You also talk in that letter about doing the math. So doing the math on clinic costs and pricing, how would you say that an odd could apply that same kind of. Do the math discipline to the lessons in this chapter. So like evaluating the true cost of burnout versus taking a pause.
Anne Chong: 16:35
I think part of it is when we think about work balance, there’s always work to fill the back voids. And so if you if you don’t put those blocks In your calendar or, you know, schedule or be deliberate about what you’re doing for yourself, then your self is never going to come first, and the rest of the work is always going to back fill it so that you’ll never make time for it. And where I think the do the math can come into play on that is try it. Because at a point you think you. There’s no space in your life to, to say, exercise every night.
But it’s amazing how when you put that time in your calendar to do that, everything that needed to get done still got done. You just didn’t finish a black thing that really shouldn’t have been done to you from, from our emergency room doc, because really, it probably didn’t need to get done. So yes, you spent time and energy and effort on it, but was there real value for it? I think a lot of things that we do, we don’t realize that they’re black things that didn’t have to happen. And we just, we, we did them because we thought we should.
Kim Carson: 17:50
If, you know, I say if as if doctors will not read this. But when a doctor reads this chapter. When the copies are available for distribution. If they were to only take one action item out of this chapter, or. Or even your letter or any of the other doctors letters, what do you hope that take away is?
I love asking these questions because I absolutely. In my mind, I have an answer and I love hearing what other people say. I ask and I’m like, I know what I’d say, but I’m interested in what you’d say.
Anne Chong: 18:25
I will admit that the emergency room resonated the most with me. So I would definitely say the red, green, yellow, black. And really, it’s the black. Yes. Absolutely.
Kim Carson: 18:40
Yes. Amazing. So I do have one last question before I ask it. I would love to point people to your website again. This is my last question, but is there anywhere else you would like to send people to to find more about you?
Anne Chong: 18:56
And we actually have a new website. visual-eyes.ca. No dot dot com.
Kim Carson: 19:02
Oh, okay.
Anne Chong: 19:04
I love connecting to people on LinkedIn so they can connect to Visual-Eyes on LinkedIn, but they can also connect to me directly on LinkedIn as well. So I’m actually Anne Chong Visual-Eyes.
Kim Carson: 19:16
There we go. Anne Chong Visual-Eyes on LinkedIn. Okay. Well, officially my last question for you is would you please read your Doctor, Dear Doctor letter for our listeners?
Anne Chong: 19:29
Dear doctor, there are two pieces of advice I would give any new doctor stepping in to practice ownership first is do the math. Which means actually running the numbers before you commit. Take pricing. Most owners set a price by looking at what the practice down the road charges or by applying the markup they inherited. When you do the math, you understand how that price flows through your.
To profitability. Do not forget to account for patient discounts and other clinic overhead. The same discipline applies to spending. When you’re deciding whether you can afford new software, the honest question is sometimes whether you can afford not to. The math is in.
In this case, should be saved. Staff time from efficiencies reduce costly errors and delays, or simply easier access to your metrics. Those all have the real value to your bottom line. But in very different ways. The second is measure what matters.
This starts with your goal. From there, follow that goal down to the actions and metrics that will meaningfully affect it in your practice. Look across your processes and metrics to. Those are the ones you want to watch, and they will likely be unique to you. If you’re chasing sales growth, the number that moves it might be your booking rate, your capture rate, your second pair.
Which one? It depends entirely on where your weakness sits. If your schedule is empty, no amount of work on second pairs will save you. We can learn from others, but you always need to gut check against your own practice to see where we need to go.
Kim Carson: 21:04
Awesome. Thank you Anne. Oh, thank you so much. Well, that is our episode for the day. And if you want to hear more of the podcast, you certainly can at Cleinman.com and wherever you’d like to listen.
Thank you.
Anne Chong: 21:17
Excellent. Thank you for having me.
Outro: 21:19
Yeah. Thank you for listening.
Outro: 21:20
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