In this episode of Chu on This!, Dr. Katie W. Chu sits down with fellow optometrist and entrepreneur Dr. Thanh Mai for a candid conversation about business, leadership, asking for help, and learning to live with greater intention.

Thanh shares his journey from opening an optometry practice from scratch to growing through acquisitions and additional locations. Along the way, he learned lessons that only come from building a business, including choosing the right partners, understanding the numbers, creating accountability, having difficult conversations, and learning when to let go.

The conversation also becomes personal as Katie reflects on finally hearing her own voice after years of putting others first. She and Thanh discuss celebrating the people around them while remembering to celebrate themselves, asking for help without seeing it as weakness, and giving themselves more grace when things don't go perfectly.

Ultimately, it's a conversation about continuing to grow at every stage of life, surrounding yourself with the right people, and realizing that you really can do hard things without having to do them all alone.

You can do hard things without doing everything alone. Asking for help isn't a sign that you're incapable. Sometimes knowing when to lean on your "village" is part of becoming stronger.

Growing a business means learning to let go. Clear roles, accountability, and trusting the right people become increasingly important as a business grows beyond its founder.

Give yourself permission to grow imperfectly. Growth doesn't require getting everything right. Sometimes it means becoming a little gentler with yourself and allowing room for things not to go exactly as planned.

“I have never lived my life with so much intention. Everything is with intention.”

“The best news I hear is when good things happen to my friends and family.”

“Most of the commitments we break are with ourselves.”

Dr. Thanh Mai is the co-founder and CEO of Insight Vision Center Optometry, a multi-location group practice. He is a Fellow of the Scleral Lens Education Society, founder of the Scleral Lens Practitioners group of more than 9,000 optometrists, and a contributing author for Review of Optometric Business.

Thanh has personally managed more than 1,000 myopia cases and speaks nationally on myopia management, scleral lenses, practice management, and AI. He also works with Vision Source and Treehouse Eyes in various leadership roles.

Despite all of that, Thanh's preferred bio for years was simply: "Thanh is just a guy." His mentor eventually made him stop.

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