- Hello and welcome to
the Laramy-K OpticianWorks Training Center.
It has been two years since we posted
our very first video on YouTube and Facebook.
Besides the fact that my beard wasn't all white,
one heck of a lot has changed since then
and that is what I would like to
talk with you about for a few minutes.
So please keep watching.
(upbeat rock music)
That is a Ford Model T.
Now, the first Model T
rolled off the assembly line back in 1908.
Back in those days, a few years before the internet,
there were magazines and there were newspapers.
That was how people got their news.
- Morning paper. Morning Star.
- Journalists wrote about the introduction of
cheap and accessible automobiles.
But they weren't anti-horse.
Hey, they probably owned a horse,
they probably rode a horse.
They had no animosity towards coachbuilders,
horse breeders, or large animal vets.
They were simply writing
about a certain inevitable future.
And that is what we've been trying to do here
for the last few years.
You may have thought that we were only
building and growing the best online optician-training site
there is in the whole world,
but if you pay attention and dig just a little bit deeper
and you read the Optical Retail Success newsletter
that Keith puts out every week,
you'll see that we're trying to do
a whole lot more than that.
We're trying to get you to realize that our world
and our industry is changing.
That sticking to the old ways because
well, that's always how it's been done,
is not going to work anymore.
You know that we'll only sooner rather than later
put a whole lot of people out of work
and that's not what we want to see happen.
I have been preaching this stuff myself
for over 10 years now.
Yes, optician skills are still critical.
I mean, that's the main idea behind OpticianWorks, right?
But we need to look beyond optician skills
if we hope to have a future.
We're not anti-optician.
We're not anti-optometry.
I mean, for goodness' sake, I am an optician.
An optician that is facing headfirst,
the possibility of my own extinction.
We're trying to create a different model
from the one that we've been locked into
for far too long now.
We are trying to change the conversation.
We're trying to change the conversation that you have
with your customers and with your peers.
Here's the thing.
You can't stop progress.
Self-refraction technology, self-neutralization apps,
and telemedicine are here.
And what you need to realize is that
it's now supported by the biggest players in our industry.
Nothing is going to stop it.
It isn't a dream, it isn't an idea.
It is a reality.
Just like Uber and Airbnb did,
it will shift the way that you think about
getting a pair of glasses.
It's only a matter of time
before we're buying eye glasses on Amazon.
That's when things will get real, real fast.
We have to rethink our entire process.
Our concept of what glasses are.
What glasses mean to the people who wear them.
What their real value is.
But more importantly, what value can we add as opticians
to help tip the scales back in our favor.
We're gonna have to think about business,
about marketing, about customer experience.
About creating something a whole lot more.
Sitting in your doctor's office waiting for a patient
to pop out of the lane with a prescription,
you know guys, it's just not gonna cut it anymore.
Continue on that path and all we're gonna see
is more and more purchases leave the office and go online.
We need to flip that around
and make it so that people are coming to the store
because they want to buy glasses first,
not as an afterthought, a requirement,
or for some legislation.
These changes are going to turn this industry
into chaos for a while.
We want to continue to help you
prepare for that inevitable future.
But we need your help
and that'll be because of course
real change is not going to happen from the top down.
The real change, it will only start with you.
So please, join OpticianWorks.
Whatever you do, please subscribe to
Keith's Optical Retail Success newsletter,
it is just amazing.
Reread the Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Rock Star Optician.
You'll find links for that stuff,
either above or below, somewhere there.
And continue with us on this journey.
Never stop learning and of course,
make sure that every lens in your optical world,
it comes from Laramy-K.
Wow okay, as of two-year anniversary
our videos have been viewed on YouTube and Facebook over
one million times.
That is just so really amazing, guys.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
thank you so much for watching.
Thank you for being a part of this.
Thank you so much for all your kind words and encouragement.
It means so much.
Absolutely none of this is possible without you.
Thanks. I'll see you again next week.