Articles

Driverless cars and ego explosions (ASCRS Recap)

Got back a couple days ago from ASCRS in Los Angeles. My brain has finally un-fried and I gotta share some highlights.

The trip had some serious misses…

Like those creepy driverless Waymo cars. Some of you are straight-up daredevils for hopping in those things. (Looking at you, Caleb Sawyer!)

Then there were those ridiculous Coco food delivery robots. I wasted 5 minutes watching one battle a bench and lose. Worth it.

And the road rage? Geez. DFW drivers are saints compared to LA lunatics.

But the hits were way better…

Hanging with my people and making new friends was the best part. I’m all about people (high I on the DISC scale), so this feeds my soul.

The parties were next level. LALpalooza, Party for a Purpose, and that crazy mermaid event from Promptly/Liine/Codex/CardSmart. Epic stuff.

And our courses crushed it! So many people came up afterward saying how helpful they were. My ego nearly exploded, I felt like a Hollywood superstar. (cue the Oscar nomination…)

Michael King and I packed the house for our session on mastering financial conversations. We shared our best strategies for building value and converting more patients in all things related to money.

I call these strategies our “Money Talks.”

And I know a bunch of you couldn’t make it to LA. So I’ve been thinking…

What if we did an encore?

I haven’t even asked Michael yet, but he’s usually down for anything. Would you tune in if we hosted a LIVE online version of our Money Talks?

>>> Reply with “Show me the money!” so I know you’re interested

If enough people want it, I’ll make it happen. Simple as that.

Talk soon,

Troy “My ego barely fits through doors now” Cole

P.S. I handed out Lucky Two dollar bills at our LA talk. Not sure how to do that over Zoom, but I’m open to ideas!

Weird stuff in my suitcase

I’m stuffing the strangest things into my suitcase for ASCRS in LA this weekend.

Baseball uniform? Check. Cowboy hat? You bet. Stacks of $2 bills and baseball cards to hand out at my talks? Absolutely essential.

Have you seen the new RSC data? Refractive volume is down again for Q1.

But there’s a silver lining. They have data to suggest interest in vision correction is slightly up – fear-based search volume is down, and “Buzz Volume” has increased significantly.

Not only that, but search data from my guy Michael King shows a big opportunity right now is in the Lens-based procedure space. He’s seeing massive search volume increases around RLE, and even EVO is getting a lot of interest.

So how do we take advantage of this opportunity and weather the LASIK storm? Fundamentally, your team must be mentally, strategically and tactically equipped to make the most of EVERY patient who walks through your door right now.

That’s exactly what I’m focusing on in LA this weekend. Here’s where to find me:

Friday 11a – Michael King and I are talking money. This session will be packed with actionable nuggets your team can use Monday morning in financial convos with patients. From Awkward to Impactful: Making the “Financial Conversation” a Key to Patient Success

Sunday 830a – I’m teaming up with Mike D from Glacial, Diamond Dan Haddad from LeadEngage, and Zeissmaster Carol-Anne for a live encore of our hit webinar – Optimizing Lead Conversion for Refractive Clinics in 2025 (this is where the baseball uniform comes in)

Both talks will be entertaining as heck and packed with real strategies. Let me know if you’ll be there.

Between all that? Cocktails, catching up with amazing clients, visiting with my friends at Zeiss, CareCredit, STAAR, Promptly, Boost, MDP and more, and other Hollywood shenanigans.

I’m also doing “10Spots” throughout the weekend. What’s that?

A 10Spot is a 10-minute meetup where you tell me your challenges and I prescribe your next step. No fluff. Just solutions.

Going to ASCRS? Reply with “Gimme a 10Spot!” and we’ll make it happen.

Is someone else from your office going instead? Forward this email and copy me so I can connect with them.

Need my number? Just reply and I’ll send it to you.

Skipping the conference entirely? Smart move avoiding the chaos. Let’s connect when I’m back.

Talk soon,

Troy “baseball cards are my business cards” Cole

My wife ‘OK boomer’d me (was she right?)

Ever ordered a burger from a robot? (Well, technically a screen, but let me be dramatic here.)

Went to Shake Shack for the first time with my boys the other night. I stroll up to the counter, ready to charm the cashier with my burger order, when my oldest nudges me toward these glowing monoliths in the corner.

“Dad, I think we’re supposed to use these?”

I mean, seriously? I hollered at one of the workers behind the counter, “YO! Do I have to order on this thing?” She just shrugged. SHRUGGED. Like, “Yeah, welcome to 2025, dinosaur.”

So there I am, poking at a greasy screen that 400 other humans touched that day, trying to figure out how to dial up a regular cheeseburger with pickles and ketchup (my 10 y/o’s favorite). Not happy with the situation at all.

And later as I’m telling Susan this story, she had the audacity to hit me with, “Ok boomer, I know you LOVE a good kiosk…”

Look, I’m 41. I’m cool. I’m hip. I use TikTok. Sometimes.

But here’s the thing – sometimes I just want to walk into a place, tell a human what I want, hand them money, and get food. Revolutionary concept, I know.

Some people love self-checkout lanes and ordering kiosks. Others would rather interact with actual humans. Neither is wrong! But forcing everyone down one path? That’s where things get dicey.

The situation is way more nuanced than “tech everything” or “humans only.” Smart businesses understand this balance.

First-time customers (like me at Shake Shack) often have questions. They want recommendations. They’re prime for upselling.

A screen can’t read my facial expression when I’m debating between a regular or double burger. A kiosk can’t tell me “the pickle sauce is fire” or “skip the fries, get the shake.”

And this isn’t just about burgers. This is about patient experience too.

When your LASIK prospects walk in, are they greeted by a warm smile or a cold tablet to “please check in”? Are your cataract patients feeling valued or processed?

Are you having 74-year-old Ms. Jones navigate your check-in kiosk, or is someone walking around the front desk and saying, “Let me take care of that for you, Mrs. Jones…”

I know for a fact some folks reading this have experienced this very pain in their practice – because you’ve told me, “We switched to this fancy new EMR that’s suposed to integrate everything and make it better, and now I have to click 7x more places than I used to. It’s a waste of my time and I absolutely hate it.”

Cool, that’s how your boy Troy feels dragging his finger across the greasy Shake Shack screen. And it’s how your patients may feel too.

So audit your processes and make sure they don’t feel that.

Because at the end of the day, people don’t buy vision correction from a kiosk. They buy it from people they trust.

Back to the original question: am I a boomer or not? I need to know for my Instagram bio.

– Troy “Hold the tech, extra connection” Cole

PS – In our talk on Sunday morning at ASCRS (with Carol-Anne, Diamond Dan and Mike-D), we get into specific ways to use tech AND your people to create a great followup experience for your digital leads. How to stop leaking $$ from your marketing, and build a better team culture while doing it.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’ll be decked out in a full baseball uniform to match the sporty theme of our talk. YES, including the tight baseball pants. I can’t make this more of a no-brainer for you. See you Sunday…

At work and at tennis: the messenger matters

I’m sitting here watching my son’s tennis drills session and something weird just happened.

For WEEKS now, I’ve been telling him to go low to high with his forehand. Literally, I’ve said it 50 times if I’ve said it once. And what happens? He has a flat forehand, and every other ball slams into the net. It’s like I’m speaking a foreign language or something.

Then, not 10 minutes ago, his tennis coach has the discussion with him — “Let’s talk about going low to high with your forehand.”

And you know what happened within 15 minutes? My son has adjusted his swing and BOOM! Eight perfect, deep forehands in a row. Beautiful arcs sailing over the net. Picture-perfect technique.

I’m sitting here like… 🤔

But that’s when it hit me: there’s something almost magical about hearing advice from an “outside expert.” It’s not that they necessarily know more (though often they do), but their words carry a different weight than hearing the same thing from an “internal source.”

It’s like when your spouse tells you something a hundred times, but then a random stranger mentions it once and suddenly you’re all, “Wow, what a brilliant insight!”

This psychological quirk is just part of human nature. We’re wired to sometimes tune out the familiar voices and perk up when we hear the same message from a fresh source, an outside authority.

I see this all the time with LASIK and cataract surgery teams. The office manager / admin can repeatedly tell staff how to communicate with patients about premium options, but it doesn’t sink in. Then an outside coach (yours truly) comes in – sometimes with similar advice – and suddenly everyone’s nodding and implementing.

To drive home an important point – it’s not just WHO is communicating (though that obviously matters), but also HOW they are communicating it. Not only does the tennis coach have the authority and expertise, but he can explain the concept better and in different ways.

Something I’ve learned from investing multiple six-figures in high-end coaching for myself, as well as $$$ spent on private sports coaching for my children – good coaches have a hundred ways to communicate the same concept.

Thoughts, analogies, how a move should feel, when to pay attention to what’s happening BEFORE a misstep (or after it), etc.

It’s because we have different styles of learning, and depending on what mental blocks we’ve built up inside us (which we often don’t even know about), we need to hear / see / feel in multiple ways for a concept to “click.”

So if your instruction is falling on deaf ears, it may be time to try saying it / presenting it / engaging in a different way.

This is precisely why so many surgical practices are finding such tremendous results with our E3 Conversion System Bootcamp. Over 12 weeks, we install both the mindset and mechanics your team needs to convert more prospective patients into high-ticket surgeries, without being the least bit salesy.

And we have all the analogies, mindset approaches, tactical maneuvers and “get out of your own way” techniques your folks need be confident in their “forehand” and compete on behalf of their patients.

When your team hears and experiences these conversion principles from our coaches, something often clicks differently for them.

If you’re ready to have your team hit those conversion “forehands” deep and with confidence, let’s chat about how the bootcamp might serve your practice.

Just don’t tell them I compared LASIK sales to tennis,

– Troy “Still waiting for my son to listen to ME” Cole

PS – I’m speaking at ASCRS twice next weekend, and both talks will include coaching approaches on what I discussed today.

My talk Friday AM with Michael King – “From Awkward to Impactful: Making the Financial Conversation a Key to Patient Success” – digs deep into the mental blocks teams have on the topic of money (and how to overcome them). Hit me back if you want more details on this masterclass, you definitely don’t want to miss it.

Your communication cheat code (from Major League Baseball)

There’s a ton of hype in Major League Baseball right now about the Torpedo bat. Here’s one of 100 articles about it – essentially it’s a bat with less wood at the barrel end, and more in the middle, so it looks similar to a “torpedo.”

Apparently several Yankees used it in a game and hit a bunch of home runs. Now all the commentators and pundits are asking if this is the next big thing in baseball, will all the teams start using it, is it even legal, OH MY GOSH THE INSANITY!

There’s one problem with this whole storyline – it’s not “new” at all.

In a fascinating interview on my local sports radio station – the afternoon drive hosts spoke to the founder of Warstic Bat Company and asked him about the Torpedo bat.

The wild thing is, he explained how this style of bat actually is NOT some revolution in hitting tech. The bat design has been around for decades. A few players have used it over that time, but it’s just not a good bat for most hitting styles.

The hosts were stunned. Everyone thought this was some new breakthrough in technology. He told them, “Dude, I could go make you a torpedo bat right now, we have the template for it along with the 100 other bat styles we make. It’s nothing special.”

Lots of lessons we could learn from this. Today I want you to consider how this parallels with what your patients experience.

People who don’t have the information (prospective patients) may think something is new, novel, revolutionary or even unproven. Vs. the folks who DO have the information know better (you / patients you educate).

SO 1. be aware of this asymmetry and 2. use it to your advantage.

1. Be aware.

You have patients who don’t know we can fix astigmatism with refractive surgery, even though we’ve been doing it for decades.

You have patients who don’t know there’s more than just LASIK. You have patients who are oblivious to the fact there are specific procedures to fix their reading vision.

Know this.

2. Use to your advantage.

Do you think Major League Baseball is upset that the entire general public and most of the media are misinformed about the history of the Torpedo bat? Heck no. They’re getting eyes and attention on the sport.

And is it causing any harm? Nah. Hey if torpedo bat is “new to you,” who am I to burst your bubble?

And people are learning about the bat, about different bat styles, more about baseball. So the increased attention and excitement toward Major League Baseball is worth a bit of nebulous misinformation about an obscure bat.

Same goes for you. You don’t have to paint an entire, to-the-letter accurate history of every procedure you offer. It’s not necessary. It’s boring. It wastes time. And it confuses your patients!

But what you SHOULD do – lean into the aspects of your procedures that people are interested in, the various features that align with their buying priorities.

Here’s what I mean – take EVO for example.

For the cautious personality, you need to reinforce trust and longevity – “This technology is proven over the course of 20 years, it’s trusted, over 3 million of them have been done around the world, and our surgeons selected this very procedure based on their years of experience and research.”

For the inspiring trend-chaser, you want to hype up the newness, high profile and excitement – “Yeah, this is the latest and greatest version of the EVO procedure, now all these celebs are doing it, they all love it! Let’s do it!”

Depending on who we’re talking to, we’re simply focusing on the info that’s important to the prospect.

But Troy, those are wayyyyy different approaches. How do I know which one to use?

Exactly. This is where personality styles come in. Learning your and your patients’ personality styles is like a “Cheat Code” (a client’s words, not mine) for effective communication. Because you don’t feel like you have to say everything. You can focus on the important things.

In our DISC for Doctors & Teams program, we teach elective medical practices 1. how to understand your own personality style, 2. how to determine someone else’s personality style, and 3. How to meet them where they are to take them where they need to go.

And while it’s insanely effective, it’s not rocket science. Anyone who saw me and Susan speak at The Outliers Meeting in Nashville learned a lot about being a “DISC Detective” in just our 30-minute presentation.

It’s something you can pick up and start using after just one session.

So if you want the full details on this conversion-boosting superpower… if you want the cheat codes… just hit reply.

– Troy “hitting homers with the right words” Cole