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Burnout isn’t always a collapse. Sometimes it’s a quiet, confusing boredom that shows up after you’ve “made it” and you can’t figure out why the work feels empty. On Eye Care Leadership Live, we sit down with Dr. Brett Cordes, an ENT surgeon turned physician coach, to trace what burnout really looks like over time and why so many doctors stay stuck in denial until the consequences get loud.

We talk through Dr. Cordes’ own story: a thriving private practice career, the moment fulfillment started slipping, and how burnout contributed to substance dependence, job loss, and a long road through rehabilitation and licensing disruption. From there, we get practical about what he now hears daily from physicians across specialties: the crushing administrative burden, endless EHR charting, prior authorization battles, private equity pressure, and the gut-level distress of moral injury when non-clinicians influence care.

We also unpack the human side of physician burnout: irritability, strained relationships, a shrinking frustration threshold, and the fear of being seen as weak. Dr. Cordes explains why self-awareness radically improves the outlook, why there’s no “easy button,” and how building an identity outside medicine can protect your career and your life. If you’re a physician, practice leader, or healthcare administrator trying to reduce burnout and retain great clinicians, this conversation offers clear language and real-world insight.

Subscribe for more candid healthcare leadership conversations, share this with a colleague who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What’s the earliest sign of burnout you wish you had taken seriously?

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

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We talk with Sarah Duval and Brittany Williams about turning entry-level ophthalmology roles into real careers and building a frontline team that makes your clinic stronger. We share what actually drives staff growth, retention, and confidence when mentorship is limited and the day-to-day feels nonstop.

• career paths from front office and technician roles to leadership positions
• finding mentors and skill-building through ASOA, AAOE, and smaller peer networks
• why certifications like COA and COE raise competence and patient trust
• how to advocate for conference funding and prove ROI back at the practice
• building in-house training when you cannot send everyone to meetings
• reducing turnover by investing in A players and developing B players
• spotting high potential through teamwork, curiosity, and follow-through
• mentoring through presence, opportunity, and five-year plan conversations
• managing across generations by setting clear expectations

Brittney Williams can be reached at bwilliams@vitalinteraction.com

Sarah Duval can be reached at sduval@ascrs.org

If you enjoyed this episode please subscribe to the show on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content
I also invite you to subscribe to my HR newsletter for eye care leaders.

You can find information about that at seasoned-advice.com.

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

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AI can make HR feel effortless ... right up until it makes a confident suggestion that’s quietly wrong.

I this episode, I walk through how I use AI tools every day for HR documents and research, why that speed is real, and why it can also create real risk when the user doesn’t know what questions to ask. Think of it like a great surgical tool: powerful in the right hands, dangerous in the wrong ones.

We dig into the messy middle where HR lives: employee conflict, terminations, sensitive conversations, and anything with legal exposure. I explain how “90% correct” output can still steer you in the wrong direction, why prompts often leave out the details that matter most, and how to pressure-test AI recommendations before you act. You’ll also hear practical ways to use AI safely, like polishing job descriptions, upgrading interview questions, and drafting what not to say during delicate moments.

Then I share a hands-on tool I’ve been using for hiring: Plaud, a standalone AI note-taker that summarizes interviews so you can stay present with the candidate. We talk cost, how I cross-check notes, why it can’t read tone or character, and the consent and recording expectations you need to think about. Finally, we cover why AI resume screening can miss the best people and where automation shines instead, like faster applicant follow-up, onboarding check-ins, and gathering honest feedback through AI call agents, especially in healthcare and ophthalmology clinics.

If you want a realistic, practical guide to AI in HR, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a hiring manager, and leave a review with your biggest question about using AI at work.

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

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Culture shows up in the smallest moments: the way the front desk greets a nervous patient, how a technician handles a delay, whether a physician trusts the team or escalates every hiccup. When those moments add up, you get either a clinic that feels calm and capable or one that feels tense and brittle. That’s why I sat down with Joey Hamel, Executive Director at Eye Physicians and Surgeons in Delaware, to talk about how real culture change actually happens inside an ophthalmology practice.

Joey shares what surprised him about ophthalmology compared with heart and vascular care, then gets specific about the leadership moves that rebuild trust fast. We dig into hiring for personality over pure experience, training motivated medical assistants into strong ophthalmic techs, and partnering with the University of Delaware to bring in student interns. We also talk about a practical way to create a marketing footprint when you don’t have a marketing department, from restarting LinkedIn and Instagram to planning a grand opening event that strengthens community awareness.

We go deep on leadership habits that keep teams engaged: meeting every staff member one on one, listening and making ideas actionable, reshaping staff meetings so people actually speak up, and giving frontline leaders the space to lead. Joey also explains how he handles resistance to change and what to do when a physician unintentionally becomes part of the culture problem by bypassing the team.

If you want better staff retention, stronger patient experience, and smoother operations in your eye care clinic, hit play, subscribe, share this with a fellow Eye Care leader, and leave a review so more practices can find these conversations.

Connect with Joey here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-hamel-91696165/

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

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Your marketing might be doing its job and you could still be losing your best patients. That’s the core tension we dig into with Kade Wilcox, founder of Convert Health, an ophthalmology lead generation and lead conversion specialist who has seen what happens after the form fill, the phone call, or the Meta ad click. When practices spend money to create demand but don’t respond fast or consistently, the real leak is not branding or ad spend. It’s follow-up, workflow, and patient engagement.

We talk about what “modern patient expectations” really mean for ophthalmology clinics trying to grow elective procedures like premium cataract and refractive lens exchange (RLE). Kade shares a simple but hard truth: patients want a seamless experience that feels like the tools they use every day, not phone tag, hold music, and repeated intake questions. We also discuss why a dedicated new patient concierge role can outperform a well-meaning team that’s forced to wear five hats.

Then we get tactical with Kade's conversion framework: speed to lead, joyful persistence, and true availability beyond 8 to 5. He shares mystery shopping insights (including how many practices never follow up at all), plus where AI in healthcare marketing can help staff move faster without replacing the human connection that high-value surgical decisions still need.

Subscribe for more practical leadership conversations, share this with a clinic leader who owns growth, and leave a review so more ophthalmology teams can find the show.

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

Send us Fan Mail

Most healthcare practices don’t struggle because the medicine is bad. They struggle because leadership gets stretched thin, managers get promoted without support, and culture slowly drifts until turnover, drama, and “constant fires” feel normal. We sit down with HR consultant Mike Lyons to get practical about what actually helps a clinic scale: hiring the right managers, managing those managers well, and building a team environment people want to stay in.

We dig into how to hire for people skills, not just experience. Mike shares what to look for when you’re interviewing, how to pull leadership signals from real situations, and why clarity is a form of kindness. We also talk about the day-to-day mechanics of managing leaders: weekly check-ins, skip-level conversations, and simple documentation habits that reduce risk and prevent surprises. If you’ve ever thought, “I know what I should do, I just don’t have time,” we address that too with a memorable “sharpen the knife” metaphor and a delegation mindset that develops future leaders.

Culture comes up again and again, especially gratitude. We unpack how gratitude changes a leader’s mood, reduces negativity, and helps employees feel seen when they do the quiet work that keeps a practice running. You’ll also hear how to balance appreciation with constructive feedback, and why writing things down can protect both the employee and the organization in difficult HR moments.

If you lead an ophthalmology practice, optometry clinic, or any healthcare team, this conversation is built for you. Subscribe, share this with a practice manager who needs it, and leave a review so more leaders can find these tools. What’s the hardest part of management for you right now?

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

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Your team isn’t ignoring you, they’re processing.

When the message affects benefits, pay, staffing, or job security, people don’t just “hear” an update and move on. They replay it, question it, compare notes, and fill in blanks with worry. We talk through why clinic leaders routinely underestimate how much communication it takes to create real clarity, and why you should assume you need to say it at least three times, then more when the stakes climb.

We walk through practical examples from the HR trenches: benefits enrollment that goes sideways when staff don’t understand what’s changing, and the culture damage that follows when people feel surprised or unsupported. We also address the tougher moments like layoffs, reorganizations, and leadership changes where you can’t share every detail but you still have to lead. A key framework guides the whole conversation: heard versus understood versus believed versus remembered. If trust is low, the number of repeats required goes up, so we discuss how to rebuild credibility through consistency and visibility.

You’ll also get a tactical menu for communication in an eye care clinic: email for quick reach, video for tone and trust cues, and simple walk-arounds where you show your face on purpose to answer questions and settle nerves. We add a crucial twist for effective change management: communication is two-way. Anticipate the questions staff will have, invite input, use surveys when needed, and consider small informal councils so you don’t miss what people are afraid to say out loud.

If you want better employee engagement, stronger staff retention, and a healthier clinic culture, this is the leadership skill to master. Subscribe, share this with a fellow practice owner or administrator, and leave a review with the communication challenge you’re facing right now.

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads

Send us Fan Mail

You can do everything “right” for patients all day long and still get blindsided by a privacy complaint, an OSHA inquiry, or a cyber incident. That’s why we invited Jennifer Cosey, President of Eagle Associates, to talk with us about what healthcare compliance looks like when it’s done as real risk management, not just paperwork, posters, and binders on a shelf.

We dig into the practical why behind HIPAA compliance, OSHA compliance, and fraud waste and abuse training, including how a single needle stick can spiral into urgent care visits, paperwork, and stress that nobody needs. Jennifer explains how prevention and communication reduce incidents, save time, and lower costs. We also talk about how complaints actually happen: patients can go directly to the Office for Civil Rights, and employees can contact OSHA when safety concerns feel ignored. Those triggers make your documentation, training records, and day-to-day habits matter fast.

From there, we get specific about what “good” training looks like: solid new-hire onboarding before exposure to hazards, plus ongoing annual training delivered in smaller segments so people retain it. We clarify when quizzes are required, why they help prove effective training, and what OSHA topics many clinics overlook, from chemical hazards and tuberculosis to waste management and workplace violence.

The biggest takeaway is simple and uncomfortable: training alone is not compliance. Jennifer breaks down why written policies must be implemented and why a HIPAA security risk analysis cannot be fully outsourced to an IT vendor. We also cover enforcement trends like the patient right of access and today’s focus on security risk management, including what “reasonable and appropriate” safeguards look like for password policies and scalable cybersecurity. If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a practice leader, and leave a review so more clinics can reduce risk and protect patients and staff.

Find Jennifer at: www.eagleassociates.net // 800-777-2337 // info@eagleassociates.net

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com.

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com

Get my free HR and leadership downloads here: https://www.seasoned-advice.com/signup-for-free-downloads