The Dose Episode 8 – Michael Pote, CEO at The Growth Cooperative

Welcome to this Episode of The Dose podcast. My guest on today’s show is Michael Pote. Michael and I met a little over 4 years ago through a national optometry association and have followed each other’s businesses ever since. Michael’s exposure in optometry has been primarily as a marketer, but today he is the leader of the Growth Cooperative, a unique organization that helps optometrists around the country with many issues that practitioners face today, such as the role of insurance in the industry, the OD/MD split and what it means to the patient experience, and how to help optometrists scale and build a practice that they otherwise might have thought to be impossible. In this episode we discuss:

• The evolution of managed care in optometry and how it has changed the way optometrists not only practice clinically but how they structure their business.
• Why focusing on making money in your practice is not necessarily the best way to make money in your practice, and why you should think about the “currency of care” to measure your success.
• The benefits the Growth Cooperative are bringing to optometrists and what optometrists can do to “stand up” to the change and pressure that eye-care providers are feeling from legislators in each of their states.

The Growth Co-op