The Power of Tough Decisions: Your Path to Success

Laurie Sorrenson: Let’s say that I go bankrupt. I lose the building. I have to move into a smaller house. I go get another job as an optometrist working for someone else, still making more money than 90% of the population in the United States. I’m still okay. So let’s do it.

Bethany Fishbein: Hi, I am Bethany Fishbein, CEO of The Power Practice, host of the Power Hour Optometry Podcast. And I’m excited to have a guest who’s one of my favorite people to talk to. This is Dr. Laurie Sorrenson. She’s the owner of Lakeline VisionSource. She’s a VisionSource administrator, director of practice management, professional editor of review of optometric business. She teaches practice management at University of Houston College of Optometry. She is a frequent lecturer, an author, a wife, a mom, and just has a long history of exceptional contributions to our industry as a whole. I’m proud to have her as a colleague, as a guest on the show, and as a friend. Laurie, thank you so much for doing this.

Laurie Sorrenson: You’re welcome. I’m glad to be here.

Bethany Fishbein: I feel like we could have done a whole episode on your list of credentials and just gone through each one and called it a day. But you have an amazing career and amazing practice and have had a huge influence on a lot of people.

Laurie Sorrenson: Well, thanks. I love optometry. I love everything that I’ve done. There was a question on a Facebook page the other day about what would you do differently? What would you tell your younger self? That’s what it was. I was like, you know, I don’t think I’d tell her anything because I think that the journey was the journey. And I got where I’m at and as happy as I am in the profession through some of the mistakes and things too, right?

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah. I mean, really, that’s what I invited you here to talk about. I forget what it was that I was watching that you were doing, but you were talking about risk taking and kind of the balance between risk being a necessity and a good thing and a bad thing. And it just struck me as something that we’ve talked about a couple of times over the years. And it’s that attitude towards risk that really helps shape that journey. And that’s kind of when you’re at those forks in the road, picking one way versus another. So just talk about kind of your personal definition of risk a little bit. I think it’s one of those words that gets a bad rap, like, oh, risk, that’s bad. But it doesn’t totally deserve that. Just talk about risk in general.

Laurie Sorrenson: So I think that I do think some people have much more tolerance, obviously, for taking risk than others and what somebody might think is risky, you might not think is as risky. But I think when you talk about risk, the first time I really felt like I did something really risky to me was when I built the building we’re in right now. Because where I was at was inexpensive. I had a great landlord. I was paying 30% under market for the space. He was willing to expand it, double the size, he was going to pay for the build. I mean, all these kinds of things that would make sense financially just to stay there. But I really wanted my own building.

I wanted to make my own stamp and have this building. But I did some due diligence. I actually talked to Gary Gerber and had him analyze the financials. And basically what he told me was, they’re both good decisions. So that helped a lot, right? I had somebody, a professional look at it. But I also sat down and went, what’s the worst thing that can happen? And I think that’s kind of where my, how I can get through making a risky choice is what is the worst thing that can happen?

So here’s my thought process when we were doing the building, which is I’m doubling my expenses overnight, right? Let’s say that I go bankrupt. I lose the building. I have to move into a smaller house. I go get another job as an optometrist working for someone else, still making more money than 90% of the population in the United States. I’m still okay. So let’s do it. And then I just quit worrying about it after that.

So it’s like, worst case scenario in my mind was still not a terrible situation to end up in, right? And of course, none of that happened. But it made me able to go, yeah, I can live with that. Let’s move forward.

Bethany Fishbein: So it’s hard to imagine that that was the first big memorable risk, right? I mean, you opened a practice, you like go back further. And I think as you take bigger risks, the earlier ones probably start to feel smaller.

Laurie Sorrenson: That’s true. That’s true. I’m trying to think of from a business standpoint, one of the first risk things I think I did was I quit my job and I bought a practice with a couple of other optometrists. But we kind of built in a salary. So I don’t, I sit there and go, I didn’t feel super like I was taking a big risk. But then shortly after I did that, LensCrafters came to me and said that the doctors that had the lease where I used to practice, they were basically kicking them out for not paying rent, and they wanted me to take over that lease. I was all of 20, God, how old was I? 27 years old, maybe?

Bethany Fishbein: And this was like 10 years ago.

Laurie Sorrenson: Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I was really young and basically take over a practice. It’s next to LensCrafters because in Texas, it’s a two door state and you sell the contact everything but the optical.

So I was thinking, I did the numbers and went, oh, that kind of makes sense. But I’m thinking this is a lawsuit. This is going to take a year. I have a year to prep because I don’t know how to start a business. I don’t know anything about taxes. I don’t know how to pay salaries. I don’t know any of this kind of stuff. And then I get a phone call three days later and said, we’re taking it over tomorrow. We need you tomorrow. So in like a 24, 48 hour period, I had to go from this one practice and have the lease next to LensCrafters and start seeing patients. Didn’t close down.

So I had to figure out how to get DBA and do set up payroll and do all that all in just a couple of days. I think I was too busy to feel like the risk. I’d already decided to do it and just was moving forward with it. So that was kind of a super crazy time.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah. So at that time, you owned a different practice with partners?

Laurie Sorrenson: I was a third partner. So I actually sold it to my husband at the time.

Bethany Fishbein: Okay. So there was three partners. One of them was your ex-husband.

Laurie Sorrenson: No, I sold my third to him. I went back to the LensCrafters. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. And then of course I sold the LensCrafters and started my private practice. And that was kind of a big thing. And for me, I kind of had these moments in my life where something just like the click, I almost hear an actual click in my head. And I had something happen where the regional manager said something to me that I felt was disrespectful and very much didn’t sit right with me that I didn’t go to optometry school to listen to this guy. I won’t use the words I normally use about him. Talk to me that way. And that was my click. I was like, I’m going to sell this practice and open a private practice so I don’t have to deal with corporate folks in that world. So I did it. And then six months later, I’d opened my own private practice.

Bethany Fishbein: So was there stuff that leads up to that click? Like, is it something that that thing that happens is the last straw?

Laurie Sorrenson: Sure. Similar stuff. Like not having control. I’ll tell you the biggest thing that happened was when I first took over the LensCrafters, that LensCrafters had been built out by two optometrists. The doctor’s side had been. And it was pretty colors and it was designed differently. And it wasn’t just like that typical hallway type of an office those usually are. And it was really, really nice.

Well, the mall wanted to move the LensCrafters over into another spot and build a bookstore there. So we ended up moving and my space got smaller and uglier and it didn’t feel the same. And my patients didn’t like it either because we were kind of like on the outside of the strip center where parking was really easy. And now we were kind of like in the center of the strip center where parking wasn’t easy. And so in our patient, quite a few patients were unhappy with how that felt.

Plus, then you walk in and you’re in this little tight reception area, which before we had a nice, pretty little reception area that was kind of spread out and pretty. So I think that was a big part of it. It just didn’t feel like it did before. It didn’t feel like, I felt like I had a private practice next to LensCrafters before. Now I felt like I had a lease next to a LensCrafter. So it really felt very different for me. And it was growing. We were like the third biggest, third or fourth biggest LensCrafters doctor’s side production wise in the country at the time. So in that little bitty space, I was doing quite a bit and it just wasn’t as fun. I don’t know. I didn’t enjoy it as much.

Bethany Fishbein: So when you decided to leave there, did you go through that same what’s the worst that can happen kind of question or there you were unhappy enough that you were, the worst that could happen was to stay?

Laurie Sorrenson: I don’t think I went through the worst case scenario as much. I think you’re exactly right. I think worst case scenario, I feel, I think I was too stupid to know how bad it can be at the time. I don’t think I thought through it. I just wanted to do my own thing. And I had a doctor that worked for me. He worked part-time for me and he really encouraged me to do it.

He was just super positive and talked about how great I would be doing it. I really had a very strong cheerleader in my office saying, you can do this. You should do this for months. And I think he really helped me decide, yeah, other people can do this. I can do this. I think that’s another attitude I have is if somebody else can do it, then I can do it.

Bethany Fishbein: I feel that sometimes.

Laurie Sorrenson: Yeah, right?

Bethany Fishbein: We talk about that with practice owners like that are worried about a recession or worried about a competitor. Like somebody is going to be successful in this space in this time. What’s going to make that practice successful? And then how about we make that be yours?

Laurie Sorrenson: Well, there’s that study that was done, you know, tens of thousands of CEOs that were studied and look at the most successful CEOs and look at their traits. And there were four traits, but there was one trait that was by far the most important, hands down, more than twice as important as the other three traits. And it was being decisive. So there’s that saying, when you get to a fork in the road, take it, you know, make a decision and go. I think that is in having that, I think partly have and then having the faith that you can make it work. And maybe then you can back up and go down the other path too. That’s always an option in some situations, not all. But I thought that was really interesting that being decisive was by far the most important trait for a successful CEO in this huge study.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, I absolutely believe that because even if you’re wrong, at least you’re moving, right? Because when you’re stuck as the CEO or as a leader, everybody around you is stuck and you can’t do anything. So it’s guaranteed you’re not moving forward. My quote always that I like, and I guess it’s the opposite of your four quote, but it’s the road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision. That’s mine.

Laurie Sorrenson: Yes, I actually have that on one of my slides too.

Bethany Fishbein: Yes, we both shared that one over the years, but that’s what it’s about. It’s better to go down one hallway, realize, turn around, go back, go down a different one than to just stay there looking at the doors and wondering where to go.

Laurie Sorrenson: One other part is to know yourself. I’m a decisive person. I mean, that’s my personality, right? So for me, I don’t have to push myself to be decisive. I need to actually stop and listen and make sure that my team’s on board, my son’s on board, my husband’s on board or whatever, more than I need to do the other. But the vast majority of people are the opposite of that. They aren’t super decisive. And so they need to push themselves to make decisions. I actually need to slow down a little bit.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah. Do you think about what you have to lose in those situations? So I mean, you walked away from a LensCrafters lease, you were probably making a decent amount of money.

Laurie Sorrenson: I was. And I did have an income situation the first couple of years, but I sold my LensCrafters practice and I actually have a, I can’t tell you how much I sold it for, but I have never heard anybody selling that side of the doctor side of a practice because it’s basically a three-year lease you’re selling, right? And I think I threw in, I had a couple of computers and some equipment I’d bought that I sold too. But I had some cash money to start that practice from selling the LensCrafters. So I had a little bit to hang on to for a little while. The problem was, you know, I did open that practice and you know what happened, right? I got pregnant.

Bethany Fishbein: I do, but my listeners don’t.

Laurie Sorrenson: I got pregnant, which kind of, you know, that’s one of the things you could tell your younger self, dumb idea, start a new practice and get pregnant right away. But when is a good time to get pregnant when you’re a practice owner? Like now, I don’t want to say how old I am. Now’s a great time, plenty of time to have a baby and not hurt the practice. And you know, and cashflow will be just fine without me, right?

Obviously that can’t happen. I’m getting ready to have a grandbaby though. So I have time for the grandbaby. And I was so fatigued and felt so terrible and everything, but I ended up going on bed rest for 11 weeks. So there was 11 weeks without a doctor in my practice.

I did hire somebody to come in once or twice a week. I actually had some friends, really good optometry friends that came in because I was doing ortho-K and stuff. Men would come in and one just saw regular patients, one saw my ortho-K patients. So for the first month or so, they just came in when they could just to help out a little bit here and there. But then I hired somebody part time.

But what that did for me, and so that’s one of the things I say is one of the worst things that happened to me was this bed rest thing. I did go back to work five days after the baby was born, by the way. But I also, I went back, I only worked two or three hours at a time, would go home to nurse and come back for two or three hours. But I never ever went back and saw patients 40 hours a week. I always worked, there were some full days in there, but a lot of half days. So from that very beginning, I think it kept me from growing and being as profitable as quickly.

But what it did is it taught me how to do that and become profitable. So that’s all my energy was spent on becoming profitable and still not seeing patients for 40 hours a week. So I had associate doctors from the very beginning. And I think that’s one reason why my brain works a little differently. I think that a lot of doctors, they work their tail off, they get up to where they’re producing $800,000 a million and then they take on an associate doctor.

Well, I had an associate doctor like when I was broke, like almost bankrupt. And then I added another one super quickly. And then I added another one super quickly. And so instead of learning how to pull my schedule down, my schedule was already here and I had to figure out how to be profitable with my schedule down instead of the other way around. How do I stay profitable and pull my hours down. Which I still pulled them down over time, but it was a pretty slow thing because I wasn’t seeing patients a huge amount. I think it was probably for a long time I did probably three-ish days a week and then went to two and a half days a week. And when I say two and a half, it’s usually five half days. I really like working half days as far as patient care. And then I went to four half days. I did that for a long time, four half days, and then went to three. I think you were during my three time and then I was around you during my go down to two time. And then I went down to just doing one and seeing a second day with my son. And right now I don’t even have a schedule of patients.

I do some emergencies and things like that. But it’s been a whole year. I did it last August. I didn’t realize it’d been a whole year that I decided to take a sabbatical from patient care just to see what it felt like and how it worked. And so far I still haven’t had added it back in yet.

Bethany Fishbein: Not a bad place to be. I tell your story.

Laurie Sorrenson: I’m glad to be able to do both. Right?

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I tell your story of getting pregnant so quickly after you opened the practice. And I think about another client I worked with who had a very similar situation, brand new, cold start, beautiful office, and got a call one day and she’s like, so I have to tell you something. And you’re right, because it teaches you how to make the practice run and helps you avoid that situation where everything in the business depends on you, where we see sometimes docs in their 50s, we’re getting a call, they’re like, I can’t take more than a week vacation. I’m like, yes, yes, you can. You just got to do it.

So I mean, risk and trust to me kind of go together. Like when you say, okay, I’m willing to take this risk, you’re putting your trust in someone or something, or I guess usually in yourself, that this is going to all work out. Right? You have to believe that that’s likely most of the time, right? You go on, you jump out of the plane and you trust that the parachute is going to do whatever it’s supposed to do when you pull the cord, I don’t jump out of plane. So are there times where you lost that trust a little bit, where something happened and it didn’t go well, it like made you question yourself or you felt like something really didn’t pan out?

Laurie Sorrenson: Oh, yeah, for sure. But I think because of those, I don’t know how much we want to talk about that one, but I had a partner embezzle from me at one point in my career. And that I totally, it was so much my own fault, right? Because I didn’t have systems set up in place and I was just, I wasn’t watching what I should have been watching. And at that moment in time, that was about as low as I could go.

I mean, I was, I felt like a failure. I felt like an imposter because I was also the Benedict Professor of Practice Management at the University of Houston that same year, right? So I’m supposed to know what I’m doing and here I was being embezzled from for years and didn’t know it. So at that point, I didn’t have a huge amount of trust for my own ability to run a business. And I think that imposter syndrome helps a lot.

So because of that, I had that, right? So I decided to really work hard at understanding business. I always liked it anyway, but I became pretty obsessed with how do you run a practice? How do you run a business? How do you become profitable? How do you do all these things? I really became kind of obsessed with it. And I think that’s because I took my imposter syndrome stuff and did, I’ve done it before when I was the legislative chair for the Texas Optometric Association, same thing.

I was pretty young when I took that over and I felt like I was kind of an imposter in that situation. So I made our first spreadsheet on every legislator, who their contact person was, which town they were in, and I went met them all. I went to every fundraiser. I mean, there was nobody in the state that knew more about the legislative stuff concerning optometry than me at that moment in time. So because I felt like I was being put in a position I wasn’t really ready for. And so I kind of did the same thing, I think, with business. So sometimes being not sure of yourself can actually make you better because you work harder at it.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that a lot. It’s something that I think has gotten so much more challenging for people now that everybody’s out talking on social media. I’ve heard from a number of people that it makes it extra hard when you feel like you’re not doing well, right? Because most of the people that are posting on Facebook or in groups or whatever, everybody seems to be doing amazing except you, right?

So being a successful private practice owner who says, okay, there was a time I felt stupid. I missed something big. I should have known that this is how I felt about it. I think it’s just important to share those stories because just about every really successful practice owner I know, I think actually every has those, right? Those times where you did not feel successful.

Laurie Sorrenson: Oh, moving into this building, my cash flow went to pot. I did not have enough money saved up. I really didn’t know what I was doing then either. And it was a struggle because I’m hearing people talk about how much they’re making and how this works and always get a building your income will go up overnight. And I’m like, well, that didn’t happen to me. I mean, my cash flow sucked for two years. You were around me then. I was talking to you during that period of time. It was rough.

I actually worked on getting some outside income during that period of time. And thank goodness. And it worked really, really well. And then got over that hump. And of course, it’s been a great decision since then. But that first couple of years was tough. So I feel bad when people are building a building and everybody’s just talking about what a great decision it is. And I’m not saying it’s not, but it wasn’t easy because our expenses seriously more than doubled overnight. And when I say more than doubled, I’m not just talking about the rent and the mortgage. I’m also talking about having to double the number of computers that I had. How many more employees I had just to cover the square footage of the place.

I mean, there was a lot of expenses that I had zero idea was going to happen during that. Trash cans. I mean, there’s so many things that you have to buy when you move into a new space besides all the equipment. I had more exam room equipment and everything else. So that was a tough couple of years for me too that I wasn’t sure I knew what I was doing. And you were really helpful during that period of time for sure.

Bethany Fishbein: Thank you.

Laurie Sorrenson: You told me it was going to work. And that’s what I needed to hear. It’s going to work. In another six months, I think you’re going to be safe. I was like, okay, I can do that.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, we did a podcast a couple months ago, but he talked about, with a psychologist who talked about negativity bias and how much bigger those bad things seem in your mind, how it’s really like a thought distortion. And that one, I think about in those kinds of situations because it’s fear, right? I don’t know if I have enough money to meet payroll. What’s going to happen if I can’t pay my staff? What’s going to happen if I can’t make the payment on this building? And it might be a small concern. In a grand scheme of things, it might be unlikely, right? But it feels like the only thing at that time. And you feel that.

So, I mean, you work with students and you have for a while. So you’ve seen the changes in student thinking. Do you feel like the risk tolerance or risk understanding of today’s students is different than 20 years ago?

Laurie Sorrenson: Man, I hate to generalize too much, but yes. And here’s one of the things that I’ve noticed. So I’ve been doing like personality profiling, Joyce Letowers, personality plus stuff with my students for most of the 20 something years I’ve been teaching. And it’s interesting to watch how the personality profiles have changed. So that now the personality profiles of the students actually match the general population a whole lot more because you know the peaceful personality is the most common one, right?

Well, that’s true at school too now. And before there weren’t hardly any. 20 years ago, there were very few peaceful personalities in my classrooms. So I think that peaceful personality is a little bit more averse to risk taking. We’re a little slower at it too. I mean, I don’t know which way to say it, but they’re not as aggressive about taking risks. So yeah, that’s how I’ve seen it more than anything. And of course, their horrible school debt now is just awful. And I think it makes them make decisions they wouldn’t have made before. So they’re really scared of not being able to pay their loans. So they’re looking for how much money can I make? I mean, and we all were when we graduated, but I, so I was offered two jobs.

I was offered when I got out of school, I was offered a five day a week job up in Dallas without the greatest equipment in the world, making $72,000 a year. And I was offered a job in Austin for four days a week with nice new equipment, wasn’t fancy equipment, but it was nice new equipment for $36,000 a year, half the amount of money. And I took the $36,000 a year job because the money wasn’t as a big deal, but I didn’t have $200,000 in student loans, or even the equivalent back then, $100,000 in student loans. I think I might have had 15 or 20 because tuition didn’t cost hardly anything in state school here in Texas. It was nothing, $1,000 a semester or something. It was crazy. So I had an ability to make a decision that was different versus if I’d had a larger student loan, I couldn’t have taken that job.

Bethany Fishbein: So do you teach this in your classes? Do you talk to them about that kind of decision-making? Because it’s tough, right? Those decisions, it’s not that one decision shapes the rest of your life every time, but if you had taken that job in Dallas, you might not be where you are now. And if you had done a couple of gap years before optometry school, so you were two or three years older than you were, which a lot of optometry students are now. And so you had a much greater debt load. You felt like you didn’t have a choice. Do you teach your students about a matrix for that decision-making?

Laurie Sorrenson: Not really. I do at the end of the course, the last thing I talk about is I talk about the profession a little bit and what a great profession they’re getting into and how excited I am for them. And we’ve talked about goals. I said, it’s just crazy for me to think what your next 10 years are going to be like, because every decision you make for the next 10 years is just such a big deal, right?

It’s so much about how, and I always talk about that if you’re not happy doing optometry, then it’s your fault. There’s so many ways to do optometry that if you’re not happy, you should fix it. There’s opportunities there that you can do that. And I get pretty dramatic about it when I talk about it with my students. It’s your fault, because I want them to be happy and love the profession as much as I do. And I don’t want them to go, yeah, it’s okay. It’s a job. That makes me sad. That makes me really sad when I hear somebody say that.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah. I don’t know if I was lucky or unlucky, but I remember I’d gotten a job as a tech in an office. It was in a mall. I guess it was in between second year and third year. And there was a doctor who’s working there who was really miserable as an optometrist. And I remember in school, I was all excited to meet an actual optometrist. And the first day he gets a lunch break, I’m like, oh, would you mind if I go to lunch with you? I don’t know. I was oddly outgoing then. And he says, sure. And I said, what are you, third year? Yeah. He says, I guess it’s too late to talk you out of it. That’s how lunch started. And I was like, what do you mean? And I still remember the conversation that he wasn’t happy and hadn’t been with a lot of his career. And I think that at the time being young and idealistic, I was like, I’m always going to be happy. And you’re right, though.

There are so many choices. Optometry does not shut a door. It opens a door. There are so many ways to practice optometry. There are so many ways to be an optometrist and not practice optometry. You can work with any population. You have options. But that’s the piece, right? That’s where this risk comes in is you have to be willing to take a chance on them sometimes for a slightly lower salary, for a little bit longer commute, for a job that wants you to work Saturday mornings when you really didn’t want to. But otherwise, it seems ideal. And then to be able to realize when you’re in it that maybe it wasn’t what you thought. Maybe you made this decision. And now that you know more, you need to make another one.

Laurie Sorrenson: So when I first started working for those optometrists, I had the spot that I ended up owning later down the road next to a LensCrafters. And I was a good doctor employee. I ran meetings, and I painted walls after hours, and I did all kinds of different things. I mean, I really took the ownership of that practice on a lot. And then I asked the doctors I worked for for a raise for my front desk person, who was a single mom, child, was amazing. And they said no. So I told you before I get clicks in my head, that was my first click with my business that I can’t go work for someone else.

They were wonderful taking care of patients, but the way they were handling their staff was just, I couldn’t do it. That’s when I bought that other practice with the two other owners. That’s when I left there. That was the click when they told me no for giving a raise. I didn’t just say, hey, can we give this person a raise? I wrote a letter, writing out everything she had done, why she deserved a raise. And this was back in the day, it was $5 to $5.50. So that tells you something. I was appalled. First of all, they would tell me no. What I didn’t know is they were in financial trouble. But still, I was told no. And I was like, I didn’t know. I can’t not be in control of these people that I’m working with every day, where they can be treated this way. So that was my first click with needing to own my own place.

Bethany Fishbein: Alright. So you get these clicks, you start thinking about it. You go through this idea of what’s the worst that can happen. What are the other signs that you look for or feelings that you look for to say, this is something I should do versus this is something I shouldn’t?

Laurie Sorrenson: I think something that I keep thinking about, I think I’ve put it on the shelf, and it comes back to me. It’s just something like the expansion of the building. Actually, I knew we needed something. Actually, it was Eric’s idea of how to expand the building. And I was like, we just decided we’re going to do it. I mean, we don’t even know how much it’s going to cost us. But we’re basically going to win is the question when it comes to cost, right? Not if, of course, right now, it’s if because of the imminent domain issue that we have in our building that we might have to move.

So that’s kind of another thing I think that for risk for me is I have a nice history now of a lot of things that happened to me that weren’t always the greatest, and I always figured it out. Right? So I think that I always just like this whole thing, if I have to move, which I really do not want to move, I did not enjoy building a new building, I didn’t like that part at all. I’m going to figure it out. Like, if I have to, I have to, and I’ll make it work. And I just have a lot of faith that it’s going to work. You know, and I can’t worry too much about it, because I don’t know the details yet.

So it’s pretty relatively easy for me to put it on the back burner and wait until I know for sure, which will be in a hopefully about four or five months, I’ll know for sure. And as soon as we know for sure we can stay, we will be expanding the building.

Bethany Fishbein: So I mean, you were in a position for a long time where you were making all these decisions by yourself. And now you’re including Eric, your son is your partner and in these decisions with you.

Laurie Sorrenson: And my husband.

Bethany Fishbein: And your husband.

Laurie Sorrenson: Yes, I got them both I got to deal with.

Bethany Fishbein: So is their view the same as yours? Like, it gets harder when you have a partner because your risk tolerance might be a little bit different, you have faith that it’s going to work out, but they want they might want to see numbers or, you know, you have faith, but they’re pretty sure it won’t work out. Like, how has that changed your ability to make decisions?

Laurie Sorrenson: So Eric is definitely not as big a risk taker as me. Not I mean, personality wise, it’s just he’s kind of the opposite end of the spectrum. My husband’s a risk taker, but he also does it. He doesn’t have to have any numbers or anything. If he wants to do it, he’s just going to do it. And he doesn’t worry about all the details. Right.

So that kind of probably helps push me when I really want to do something. I’m not gonna get any pushback from him whatsoever, that I should go ahead and do it ever. He’s never gonna say, oh, that might be a bad, he’ll always say, oh, let’s do it.

Bethany Fishbein: So maybe that’s why I didn’t, I didn’t include him initially when I said you have, sorry Joel, I didn’t forget on purpose.

Laurie Sorrenson: Just the opposite. As a matter of fact, no, he never put it, but Eric does. And I think it’s actually really good because I don’t feel like it slows it down. I feel like it just, if I can make him relatively comfortable, I know that I have processed it appropriately, that I have thought through everything. And he’s the one that came up with the idea of where to expand the building. So he, even though he’s way less comfortable with it, he understands the need for taking risk to put us where we need to be.

So this whole building onto the building thing came from last Christmas, between Christmas and New Year’s. I wrote an article about this, but Christmas and New Year’s, we were incredibly busy and we were running five doctors at a time every single day, trying to work in all these patients that wanted to get in before the end of the year. It was seriously the busiest week we’ve ever had in the history of this practice, for sure. It was crazy, crazy.

And so I sent a survey out to my staff and said, what did we do well during this week period that was so crazy? And where could we have been better? Where did we either didn’t do well, or didn’t feel as good as it should have been? And basically, and I did it anonymously, but I came down to four things. Two things were kind of easy fixes. One had to do with checkout and one had to do with, we needed another auto refractor. So I bought an auto refractor and we changed, added a credit card machine where we check out.

The other two were that just like any holiday, people bring in two, three, four people with them when they’re visiting. So our patient lounge area and our optical felt crowded. People got taken care of really well. There was no wait. We did really good. I heard from everybody. There was almost no issues whatsoever taking care of the patients timely because efficiency is one of our core values, but it felt crowded, right? It didn’t feel as good, which means we need more space, right? So how do you do that? And we were going through all these ideas. And then Eric said, why don’t we push the building out towards where the patio is on that side and take over the patio. And then we can move, we can make a patient lounge bigger and we can make the optical bigger. I was like, oh wow, fantastic idea.

So here he is. That’s a pretty bold, risky move. And it was his idea. So we walked out there immediately, stopped the meeting right there and walked out there and walked it to see how it would work. And we would have already been started on it if it wasn’t for the eminent domain thing. But well, hopefully we’ll get to do it because I’m real excited about it.

Bethany Fishbein: I think, obviously you can’t get where you’ve gotten without being willing to trust yourself and being willing to take chances and not like wild gambles, right? We’re talking about calculated, put some thought into it. This makes sense kind of decisions, but having the guts to pull the trigger, right?

Because I feel one of the things that people will talk to me about from time to time is just that uncertainty. They’ve gone through all the decision-making. They know it makes sense. They’ve weighed the pros and the cons. They’re not too worried about the worst case scenario. They’ve figured out the financing and that last moment of, should I do it? Right? What do you think makes you different that you don’t get stuck there?

Laurie Sorrenson: I have a lot of mentees in my world, a lot of younger doctors, because they were my students, friends of my son and all that kind of stuff. And I see that all the time because they are more that perfect personality. They’re really good at analyzing stuff, but they struggle sometimes with that final step. They see that all the time. I don’t know why I don’t have that.

I think I just have a different personality. My decision is up at the front, not at the end. And those people, they do all their stuff and then they make their decision. I think maybe that’s where the difference is. Just like expanding the building, I’m going to do it if we stay here. Now, how am I going to do it and when am I going to do it? I’m going to figure all those things out. But that personality will go, well, what’s the time? Money and this and that and all these kinds of things before they could say, yes, I’m going to. Well, I’ve already said, yes, I’m going to. I can still say no. I can still say, no, I’m not going to, which I could if we’re obviously, if we’re moving. I think that step happens at the beginning for me instead of at the end.

These younger doctors that I work with, talk to all the time, I feel like I’m always pushing them, like, hire another person, get that associate doctor. Yes, put that second line of equipment in. Yes, do. I’m always like, and they give me the analysis. I ask questions. I don’t just say do it. I find out, I was like, oh my gosh, girl, you should have, you need to hire two people, not one.

So I see that all the time. And it’s just funny that I didn’t have to have somebody push me. Although I told you that one guy really pushed me to open my private practice. And I kind of needed that. I needed somebody saying, yeah, you can do this. You’ll be good at this. He goes, I did it. You can do it. You’re better than I am. That’s kind of what he said to me. And I was like, whatever. But I think having somebody encouraging you in different places, right, I think is really important. And I do that a lot with these different younger doctors I work with.

Even Eric does it too, though. I mean, he talks to these same people because they’re his friends too. And he just sees us. He’s lived in a growth mentality practice his whole optometry career. So I think he processes, even though he’s not a risk taker, he gets that to do what you want to do, you’ve got to.

Bethany Fishbein: Awesome. Laurie, any final thoughts, anything else you want to share here?

Laurie Sorrenson: So I think we mostly talk about big risk, right? There’s always these weird little risks, like trying to implement something new. And for somebody with some kind of personalities, for me, it just feels like a pain in the rear end to get it going. But for somebody else, it might feel like a risk. And I think the other thing I think about all the time is, let’s just do it. Let’s go all in for three months. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll fix it. And we’ll check in and fix it and work with it during that three months, of course. But willing to pull the plug at three months, no matter what. This isn’t working, we’re done.

Now, sometimes that will extend. I just told you about a project that took me a year and a half to get completely done. And then sometimes I pulled the plug after three weeks, because like, this ain’t working. And I don’t see how to fix it. But basically, to get everybody on the same place and in the right mindset is to kind of put this deadline out there that this is how long we’re going to try this. And if it doesn’t work, hey, we’ll go back or we’ll do something different.

Bethany Fishbein: Yeah, that’s a good point. Like, the big risks are fairly rare. Right? They’re not fairly rare. I mean, huge building and building risks are fairly rare for most people. There are kind of middle ones like, can I live without this staff member? What’s going to happen if I let someone go? Can I take this day off for something that’s important to my family? Those are medium risks. And then there’s kind of the little ones. It’s a constant decision making that practice owners are doing. Anything that students or young doctors have shared with you about how they’ve gotten better at it?

Laurie Sorrenson: I have heard, I hear your voice in my ear. I hear that too. You would say do it. I’ve heard that a few times. Which I think is funny.

Bethany Fishbein: Yes. Yeah, definitely asking other people but having somebody, I think the difference between like what you hear and I hear that too, right? I know you’re going to tell me to, I know you’re going to say and that’s different than I posted it online. And, you know, the slight majority of people told me to like, you got to find people that you trust, who know you, who you believe care about your outcome, they want to see you succeed and have maybe that level of risk tolerance that you aspire to have.

Because that’s, I see that with younger doctors too, that sometimes their families are discouraging them. You’re not going to be able to do this. Why would you take that risk? Why wouldn’t you take the short thing? You could be comfortable. You can, you know, you’ll know you have this salary, you won’t have to worry. And that’s the parent’s side, right? You want to protect your kid from any potential hurts or anything like that. But having somebody who can be that voice in your ear, whether actually or even from memory is even maybe even more valuable is pretty extraordinary.

Laurie Sorrenson: I think about what you just said is somebody might post online, should I fire this person? And they tell the scenario. And of course, everybody on usually responds, yes, you should fire that person. But if I tell you my story, you know me, you know, my culture, you know, my office, and I tell you and ask you, do you think I should fire this person? It’s a complete, that’s not the same thing. Like you’re, and we’ve had this conversation before where I thought you were going to, I know you’re going to tell me to fire him today and you didn’t, you said fire him the next week actually is what you told me. And I think, like you said, having a good mentor, somebody, friends that get you and know you and ask them their opinions.

You know, and now I have my son, my son and I definitely have each other a lot on these kinds of things and run things by each other all the time. And I think that’s a lot better than posting your question to a bunch of people you don’t know.

Bethany Fishbein: No argument for me. Thank you so much. Thank you for the time. Thank you for sharing the story. Thank you for being willing to be a little bit vulnerable and talk about some of the things that haven’t gone so well and how those played into your journey to get you to all the things that have done well. And yeah, wishing you tons of continued success, whether in your existing location or if you have to move, I know you will take that opportunity to make it even bigger, even better, because that’s who you are and that’s what you do.

Laurie Sorrenson: Thank you. I appreciate that. Appreciate you, Bethany.

Bethany Fishbein: If you are looking for better cLauriety around your business that lets you spend more time doing the things you want to do and make more money doing so, please reach out to us at powerpractice.com. Thank you so much for listening.