As we finalize the details of our speakers and agenda, we hope you are getting excited for all that the meeting has to offer you. There’s education to help you and your staff to deliver improved patient care and grow your business, experiences with the latest technology in the industry thanks to our sponsors and engagement with colleagues who understand your business and its demands.

Hear below from SNAPP Group member Arlandis Word about his experience. As a new Pearle Vision franchise owner, he’s sharing how being involved with the SNAPP Group and attending the meeting has helped him and energized him for the future. Want to take an even deeper dive into the business? Consider SNAPPGroupMasterminds, and read on to learn more about the benefits focused group from Travis Lehr, OD, FAAO.

Be sure to join your SNAPP Group colleagues in Clearwater, Florida, from Nov. 2-5. Get all of the details on the Clearwater 2025 page, and register today!

In addition to the guidance from Pearle Vision, Word also joined SNAPP for insights on how other Licensed Operators (LOs) manage their businesses. He attended his first SNAPP meeting later in Las Vegas last fall, “and I was able to meet other LOs and gain immediately actionable advice,” he says.

He says he quickly noticed how some highly successful locations obviously leaned into the Pearle Vision branding but also had a brand of their own. He cited SNAPP board members Lisa Hamilton, OD, and Ken Kopolow, OD, as examples. “They have doctor websites and are not just counting on the Pearle brand to bring people to me. It forced me to think about the business beyond the franchise itself,” he says. “I began to realize that I’m running a Pearle Vision but I’m also running a medical business.” Visit his website at macombeyedoctors.com.

Still New to the Business

Word says he’s had a lot to learn in this first year. “I’m still laying the foundation and developing the vision. The first year's focus has been to get our feet under us,” he says. But now in his second year, he and three optometrists he has hired are working on developing a more comprehensive medical model.

He has purchased a Topcon Maestro retinal imaging and OCT device. “We have bundled in wellness screening on all of our comprehensive exams, and we’re able to co-manage more glaucoma and macular degeneration patients,” he says.

He notes that the addition of more medical services has been a help in recruiting doctors who want to practice at an expanded scope and higher level of care.

Before the practice started adding medical services, the staff was doing most of the billing. But at the 2024 SNAPP National Meeting, Word stopped by the HELIX booth and signed on. “The staff didn’t have the exposure to the medical billing, so this simplifies our day” and ensures that the practice is reimbursed quickly and correctly for medical services.

In just more than one year, Word has gained enough confidence in the Pearle Vision model and the support network through SNAPP that he is contemplating adding additional offices in the future.

The SNAPPGroupMasterminds met in Austin from May 18-20. Thank you to those who attended to share and collaborate.

Also, thank you to our speaker Nico Van Slyke for joining us in Austin. Check out this video from his presentation. Find out more about his work and message on going from stuck to unstoppable on Instagram.

He is thankful for the launch pad that Pearle provides, offering good patient access and brand familiarity, and Dr. Lehr says that being involved with the SNAPP Group has helped set him up for continued success. As a subleasing doctor, Dr. Lehr says he found himself interested in learning more about the franchise operation and optical side, so when SNAPPGroupMasterminds program was formed in 2022, both he and his father joined.

Deeper Connections, Deeper Understanding

They make it a priority to attend the two in-person SNAPPGroupMasterminds meetings per year. “I wanted to surround myself with other great operators and learn from the best,” Dr. Lehr says. The close-knit group has proven itself as a dependable resource for their businesses in the years since. “We can openly reach out to each other at any point and time,” he says, adding that there’s great value in having that familiarity and trust. “We have each other’s back.”

In between those face-to-face gatherings, Dr. Lehr says that the text communication group is active at least every other day with conversations about what’s going on with Pearle and how to bill certain procedures among other topics. “It’s been a great resource, and it brings awareness sooner than I may have discovered on my own and also solutions that may be better than what I would have come up with.”

Dr. Lehr most recently attended a SNAPPGroupMasterminds meeting in Austin this month. “There’s a ‘we’re all in this together’ mindset,” Dr. Lehr says. “That group perspective rallies you around the brand and helps to drive a little excitement, brand camaraderie and good idea sharing.”

Making Changes for Growth

Dr. Lehr says that he’s taken away many lessons from SNAPPGroupMasterminds discussions, but the biggest change driven by was to focus on prescribing the Pearle-branded contact lenses from CooperVision as a first choice to all appropriate patients.

It was a push made after the April 2023 meeting, Dr. Lehr says, and it’s paying off with tremendous results: reduced cost of goods and increased brand awareness. He even had a new patient who moved to his area from Minnesota come into his office specifically because she wanted those contact lenses. “She could have got them under another name but, because of the brand—it brought her to me.”

Photo credits—Getty images: calendar: iStock; spotlight: ADAM CALAITZIS; eyedrops: iStockPhoto; did you know: haushe