IAM2349 – President and CEO Helps Young Optometrists Start Their Businesses

Title: Transcript - Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:38:38 GMT

Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:38:38 GMT, Duration: [00:16:58.48]

[00:00:00.16] - John Marvin

And doing so not only getting them open, but helping them understand their path to a five year path towards becoming financially successful, but at the same time not compromising their clinical rewards through patient care.

[00:00:17.60] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast.

[00:00:44.85] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gretch from the I Am CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have John D. Marvin. John, excited to have you on the show.

[00:00:52.82] - John Marvin

Well, thank you very much Gresh. I'm good to be here. Glad to talk to you.

[00:00:56.92] - Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm excited as well to talk with you. You're doing so many awesome things, so I'm super excited to get the opportunity to delve down a little bit deeper. But of before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about John so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And John is a visionary entrepreneur, acclaimed columnist, and influential leader dedicated to empowering others to unlock their full potential. As president and CEO of Texas State Optical, John has cultivated a thriving business network while spearheading initiatives in health and wellness consulting and eye care partnerships. With a steadfast commitment to personal growth, John has spent years studying the transformative power of mindset in the inner game in achieving success beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors. Through his unwavering dedication to making a difference, John epitomizes the essence of leadership and empowerment, making him a compelling guest for our podcast and really getting that opportunity to learn from him and inspire all the awesome things that he's doing. So TSO brings in around $110 million in revenue annually. And one of the really cool things that I was doing before we prepared for this is I absolutely love that he spent time in Wichita. We talked a little bit about that. But what he does for young optometrist is really co. Because I think so many times you get the skill and the art of like doing whatever your craft is, but you don't necessarily know all the business aspects. So I love how he marries both of those things. And not only does he have all these business accomplishments, he's also had numerous awards, including the UHCO Volunteer of the Year. And he also is a certified member of the John C. Maxwell team of professional speakers, trainers and coaches. So John, you're doing all the things. Excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

[00:02:34.81] - John Marvin

Well, I am. I am. Thank you for that nice introduction.

[00:02:38.34] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it was easy to read, harder, probably, to do all the things.

[00:02:41.71] - Gresham Harkless

So I guess what I wanted to.

[00:02:43.30] - Gresham Harkless

Do to kind of kick everything off is rewind the clock. Hear a little bit more on how you got started before you started accomplishing all these awesome things.

[00:02:49.40] - John Marvin

After getting out of school, college, I went to Oral Roberts University, which is a school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And it was really formative for me because I went with a desire to pursue a career in theology. And after about my first year there, I realized that the program at ORU was much more pastoral, and I was more attracted to the ministry of Oral Roberts and his evangelical approach to things. And so I decided then to switch my focus, start studying business administration with a marketing emphasis. Turns out I probably was. In addition to being moved by the spiritual message of Oral, I was impressed with their marketing capabilities and their ability to take that ministry and magnify it the way that they had. So I came out of that and had a real interest in pursuing a marketing career. And that led to ultimately being involved in the world of ophthalmology, which is the surgeons. And through that, really, that was my introduction into eye care in general and understood the roles of optometry, ophthalmology, and how those two things intertwined, and moved in to move to Houston in 1989, and through that relationship was introduced to an organization called Texas State Optical. And I had done some consumer research, because that's a big part of my academic background and my interest ended up going into my own business. After four or five years with the surgical group that focused just on consumer research, and Texas State Optical became a client of mine. And so I ended up being hired by the franchisees to construct really, what amounts to as a franchise association. And from that worked through the 90s in that capacity, not as an employee, but as a tso, was a client of my marketing firm, Marketing Management Group. And in the late 90s, the franchisees decided they wanted to purchase the franchisor. And so they turned to me and asked me to help them in the negotiation to acquire the company. And that took about a year to negotiate that acquisition. And as we were closing in on completing it, I was asked to come on as the new president. The company, which I took that position in 2001 and have been president ever since. And so we ended up identifying the best opportunity forward was through helping young Optometrist that had gotten out of optometry school, been out two or three, four years, and had decided that they wanted to own their own business, own their own practice. But if you're late 20s and have always worked as an employee of that, you really don't know. Because the academic training you get isn't something centered around entrepreneurship or business ownership, it's around the clinical skills that you need to be a good optometrist. And so we put together what I refer to as the turnkey system of success for young optometrists that started with real estate selection, construction, design of the space, how you maximize your square footage in terms of the retail side of optometry, which is a significant piece of optometry. And we ended up opening up about 85 new locations and doing so, not only getting them open, but helping them understand their path to a five year path towards becoming financially successful, but at the same time not compromising their clinical rewards through patient care. So that, and that's again, it's one of the exciting things about the position that I have and the opportunity I have is that Even though it's 23, 24 years later, the profession and industry continues to evolve and change. And so there's always good challenge. And I'm one of these people that actually enjoy change and feel challenged by it. And it kind of energizes me to figure the puzzle out, so to speak. And I told someone that I feel like I'm a builder and problem solver. So that's kind of where I. That's the short version, believe it or not, of where I am today.

[00:08:07.49] - Gresham Harkless

And I absolutely love that, John. And I wonder if that's part of what I would like to call your secret sauce. It could be for yourself personally the business or combination of both, but your ability to kind of understand all the business aspects, but also understand that human aspect and create that win win win synergy, so to speak.

[00:08:24.31] - John Marvin

In addition, helping them to understand the people that they're engaged with. Both their staff and their office are the same. And you know, the young lady who makes 15 to $18 an hour working in the office has a. She's a mother to somebody and she's a wife or he's a husband. And that human element is so not only important to success, but I look at it as one of the beauties of it because we are able to have these meaningful connections with people in the kind of the mission that we have to deliver value to a community and to people.

[00:09:11.54] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or even a habit that you have. But what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:23.28] - John Marvin

My answer to that would be my morning routine. And you read a lot about that. And if, you know, I've always been somebody that is really committed to the continual learning, and I did that, frankly, pretty selfishly, because I feel like if I don't challenge myself and approach things with an attitude of continually trying to understand or learn, then I'm going to get bored. And I believe boredom leads to a lot of things, none of them much good. You know, and my father was this way. I mean, I probably learned it from watching him. But my morning routine is something that I first read about and the importance of that years ago, but only in the last, probably 20 years, really started consistently practicing a morning routine, and then it was intertwined. You mentioned in the introduction about my work with John Maxwell's organization, and John Maxwell talks about the fact that nothing in your life will change until you change something you do daily. But then a learning stack is every year between Christmas and New Year's. I spend that time in kind of a reflection and planning process. And one of the things that I come to learn and appreciate is that if you will read five books on any one subject, you'll have more knowledge about that subject than 99% of the people. So I sit down and I think, okay, what are the subjects I want to become better at? And then I spend some time trying to discover at least five books that focus on that subject. And oftentimes it ends up being more than five. And then that becomes my reading list for the year. And I keep in my journal each day I keep a list of those books, and as I read them, I mark them off. But my learning stack every morning is, which book did you read? And I try to read at least 10 pages every day. If you get a book of 300 pages and you look at it, it seems almost overwhelming. But if you just say, I'm going to read 10 pages a day in a year, you'll read that, right? And if you're a reader, what you end up doing is you read far more than 10. But if you put a minimum of 10, and then I forced myself in my journal to say, what did I learn today from that? Those 10 pages.

[00:12:14.40] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So I wanted to ask you this, which is a little bit more CEO Nugget. So you Might have already touched on this, but this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell a younger up and coming optometrist that's going through your organization. Or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self this. What would your co nugget be?

[00:12:33.74] - John Marvin

Don't wait to be great at something to get started. Because I think that especially in when you're young, you feel like as soon as I read that extra book or I learn that extra thing, then I'll get started. And I've got another friend of mine who his job, his passion is leading expeditions up Mount Everest. And that's his job. And it's interesting because he said, John, you learn how to climb mountains by climbing mountains. And that's always stuck with me. And so a young John or a young optometrist, I'd say just get started. You're going to make mistakes, but that's where you learn. And there is no mistake out there that is so fatal that you can't recover from it. And it could be embarrassing, but it's still, it's a learning opportunity. So I'd say, you know, get started. Don't wait to be great to get started. You've seen probably the phrase of you don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to start to be great. So it's wrapped up in that.

[00:13:57.27] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And so you touched on this maybe a little bit. And one of the awesome things I get to ask is everybody is for their definition of being a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So John, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:11.12] - John Marvin

First of all, it's a important daily. I'm impressed with the level of responsibility I have because it's not just for me, but for team members and team members, families and so forth. So my what it means to me is the responsibility I have to be a important and positive influence in their lives, which sometimes can be just listening to someone tell me about how frustrated they are that their kids are sick and they're struggling with this or that. Other times it's about making sure we stay on track with budgets and meet our sales objectives and revenue objectives. So that level of influence that I'm blessed with through this responsibility, I take very seriously. And so I think that it's a rewarding but an also very important responsibility.

[00:15:18.65] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that responsibility words. Truly appreciate that definition. Of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best people can get a hold of you find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

[00:15:35.51] - John Marvin

Well, they can get a hold of me by probably the easiest way. There are two ways. One is our website, tso.com and on that website is a contact us option, which certainly you could use that, but my email address, they could also just email me directly, which is JD as in David JD Marvin so.com and I'd be happy to, you know, visit with people, get to know them and extend this conversation.

[00:16:07.69] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I appreciate that so much John. Of course we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up and connect. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest day.

[00:16:16.09] - John Marvin

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[00:16:18.14] - Intro

Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo. Co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.