Identity Shift& Business Audit
Start being the CEO of a high-performance practice.
Month 1 at a Glance
| Month | 1 of 12 — The Foundation Month |
| Theme | Identity Shift & Business Audit |
| Phase | Phase 1 — Foundation |
| Sessions | 4 × 60 minutes |
| Month total | 4 hours |
| Client deliverables | Practice Health Audit · 12-Month Vision · CEO Calendar · 12-Month Battle Plan |
| Estimated value | $30,000–$100,000 in recoverable profit identified |
| Mindset shift | From clinician-who-owns-a-practice to CEO-who-also-practises-optometry |
From Michael
This workbook belongs to you. Not in the way a textbook belongs to a student or a manual belongs to an employee. It belongs to you in the way that a turning point belongs to the person who had the courage to turn.
Inside these pages you are going to face some numbers you may have been avoiding. You are going to write down a vision for your practice and your life that might scare you a little. You are going to make commitments to yourself in writing — signed, dated, specific — that you are going to be held accountable to.
You are going to leave Month 1 with more clarity about where you are, where you are going, and exactly how to get there than you have had at any point in your career as a business owner.
Here is what I need you to bring to every session and every worksheet in this workbook: honesty. Not optimism. Not the version of your practice you wish were true. The honest version. Because only the honest version can be fixed, improved, and transformed.
The most expensive belief you can carry right now is that things will improve without a deliberate, specific, supported plan. They will not. The practices that thrive are the ones whose owners decided to change something — and then did the work. You have decided. Now do the work.
Every worksheet has a purpose. Every piece of homework has a dollar outcome attached to it. Every commitment you write down compounds in value every week you honour it.
This is your program. Your practice. Your life. Let's build something extraordinary.
Three Phases, Each Week
This workbook is structured around four weekly sessions. Each week has three components — designed to be lived through, not just read.
Complete any preparation or pre-work indicated at the start of the week. Arriving prepared is the single highest-leverage thing you can do to maximise the value of each session.
The worksheets in this workbook are designed to be completed during or immediately after your coaching session while the insights are fresh. Do not leave blanks. An incomplete worksheet is an incomplete session.
Each week has specific homework to complete before the next session. This homework is non-negotiable. The next session builds directly on it. Incomplete homework means incomplete progress.
Keep this workbook with you. Bring it to every session. The completed pages become your evidence — proof of how far you have come, and the foundation everything else is built on.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Duration: 60 minutes · Goal: See your practice exactly as it is.
To see your practice exactly as it is. Not as you hope it is. Not as it felt during a good month. Exactly as it is. This is the session that changes everything — because you cannot fix what you won't face.
Gather your most recent bank statements, P&L, and quarterly BAS. Bring whatever you can find. The gaps matter as much as the numbers.
Your Practice Health Audit
Complete every section below as fully as you can. Write 'unknown' if you genuinely cannot find a number — but make a note to find it before the next session.
Section A · Revenue
Section B · Profitability
Section C · Patient Metrics
Section D · Team and Operations
Section E · Your Honest Self-Assessment
Circle your honest score for each area (1 = very poor, 10 = exceptional).
Section F · Your Practice KPI Scorecard
Fill in your Current numbers now. You will set your Target numbers in Week 2.
| KPI Metric | Current | 12-Month Target | Module That Moves This |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Revenue | Months 3, 5, 6 | ||
| Net Profit Margin % | Months 2, 9, 10 | ||
| Revenue per Patient ($)Total annual revenue divided by unique active patients across the year. | Months 2, 3 | ||
| Optical Capture Rate % | Month 3 | ||
| Recall Success Rate % | Month 4 | ||
| New Patients / Month | Month 6 | ||
| Staff Cost % of Revenue | Months 7, 8 | ||
| Owner Clinical Days / Wk | Months 8, 9 | ||
| Owner Admin Hours / Wk | Months 8, 9 |
When you finish this table, sit with it for a moment. The distance between every Current and every Target is a specific dollar amount with your name on it. Everything in this program exists to close those gaps — systematically, month by month.
The Profit Leak Exercise
Based on your audit above, identify the three areas where you believe the most money is currently leaking out of your practice each year.
Profit Leak 1
Profit Leak 2
Profit Leak 3
That total is not a source of shame. It is a source of fuel. Every dollar of leakage you just identified is a dollar that is recoverable — with the right system, the right conversation, or the right decision. That is why you are here.
My Letter from My Future Self
The Vision That Pulls You Forward
Duration: 60 minutes · Goal: Build a vision so specific and so personal that the distance between where you are and where you are going becomes a source of energy rather than anxiety.
Re-read the Letter from Your Future Self that you wrote last week. Read it out loud if you can. Bring it with you.
Operator vs Owner — A Brief Reflection
Before building your vision, take a moment to reflect honestly. Right now, are you operating as an Operator or an Owner?
An Operator is trapped in the day-to-day. They are the last to leave, the first to be called, and the one everything depends on. Revenue stops if they stop. The business is them.
An Owner is building an asset. They think in systems, lead their team, make decisions from data, and are building something they could one day sell — or hand over — on their own terms.
Most optometrists who own practices arrive as deep Operators. This program exists to move you across that spectrum — so that by Month 12, you are running a business rather than a job. Your vision in this session is the first step in making that shift real.
Your 12-Month Vision
Complete every section below in present tense — as if you are already living this reality 12 months from today. Use 'I have', 'My practice generates', 'I work' — not 'I want' or 'I hope'. The language of future certainty creates pathways that the language of future possibility does not.
Part 1 · My Practice in Numbers
Be ambitious. Be specific. The numbers you write here become the targets on your KPI Scorecard.
Part 2 · My Practice in Feeling
Complete these sentences with as much detail and honesty as you can. Go beyond the professional. Let this be personal.
Part 3 · The Practice I Am Building
Part 4 · My CEO Commitment
Write this in your own words. Make it powerful. Make it yours. This is the statement you read every morning.
The most important contract you will ever sign. Your coach has countersigned the same commitment. This is no longer a goal. It is a decision. Decisions change trajectories. Goals do not.
Return to the KPI Scorecard in Week 1 and fill in every Target column using the vision you just built. If you are unsure of a target, use the benchmark shown — and push yourself to the higher end of what feels genuinely achievable with support.
Reclaim Your Time or Lose Your Mind
Duration: 60 minutes · Goal: Make your hours worth dramatically more — not by working harder, but by working on the right things.
Time is the one resource in your practice that cannot be bought, borrowed, or manufactured. You have exactly the same number of hours every week as the most successful practice owner in the country. This session is about making yours worth dramatically more.
Bring your five-day time log from your Week 2 homework. The more honest and detailed it is, the more value you will extract from this session.
Part 1 · Where Your Time Is Actually Going
For each category below, write how many hours you personally spend on it in an average working week. Use your time log from this week as your reference.
Part 2 · The CEO Time Matrix
Transfer every task from Part 1 into the correct column below. Be ruthlessly honest. The vast majority of practice owners are shocked by how many tasks land in D and E.
Go back through each item and label it with one of three letters. C = Only I can do this — it requires my specific expertise or authority. D = Someone else could do this with proper training and clear instructions. E = This should not need doing at all — it exists because we lack a system or process.
| C · Only I Can Do This | D · Delegate (To Whom?) | E · Eliminate or Automate |
|---|---|---|
Every hour you spend on a D or E task is an hour stolen from the work that only you can do — the thinking, the leading, the building. That theft is not malicious. Nobody told you it was happening. Now you know.
Part 3 · Your New CEO Calendar
Design your ideal working week. Start with clinical sessions. Then block time for your three highest-leverage CEO activities. Protect those blocks like appointments — because they are the most important appointments in your week.
| Time | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7–8 am | |||||
| 8–9 am | |||||
| 9–10 am | |||||
| 10–11 am | |||||
| 11–12 pm | |||||
| 12–1 pm | |||||
| 1–2 pm | |||||
| 2–3 pm | |||||
| 3–4 pm | |||||
| 4–5 pm | |||||
| 5–6 pm |
Your 12-Month Battle Plan
Duration: 60 minutes · Goal: Forge everything built in the last three weeks into the single document that drives your entire program.
Today we take everything built in the last three weeks and forge it into the single document that drives your entire program. Not a list of intentions. Not a mood board. A battle plan — with specific targets, a clear sequence, and your signature on it.
Review everything you have completed in Weeks 1 through 3. Come ready to commit. This session is where everything becomes real.
Section 1 · My Practice in 12 Months
Transfer your final targets from your Week 2 vision and Week 1 KPI Scorecard here. These are the numbers you are committing to.
Section 2 · My 12-Month Module Roadmap
For each month, write your specific target — the number or outcome that will tell you that month was a success.
| M | Module Focus | My Specific Target | How I Will Measure It |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Identity Shift & Business Audit | ||
| 2 | Financial Mastery & Profit Architecture | ||
| 3 | Optical Retail Dominance | ||
| 4 | Premium Patient Experience & Retention | ||
| 5 | Specialty Services & New Revenue | ||
| 6 | Marketing Machine & Patient Acquisition | ||
| 7 | Hiring A-Players & Culture Design | ||
| 8 | Systems, SOPs & Automation | ||
| 9 | Leadership, Delegation & Management | ||
| 10 | Insurance Strategy & Fee Optimisation | ||
| 11 | Growth Strategy & Second Location | ||
| 12 | Valuation, Exit Readiness & Year 2 |
Section 3 · My Non-Negotiable Weekly Disciplines
These are the behaviours you commit to every week for the full 12 months. Not when you feel like it. Every week.
Section 4 · My Personal Declarations
Write these in your own words. This is not a corporate mission statement. This is a personal manifesto. Make it yours.
Section 5 · Our Shared Commitment
Not because of what is on the page — but because of who you are now that you have written it. Keep this document visible. Read it every week. Let it remind you, on the hard days, exactly why you are doing this.
My Reflection
Before you move to Month 2, take 10 minutes to answer these honestly.
You Just Completed the Most Important Month of the Program
The work gets more specific, more tactical, and more financially transformative from here. Everything you built in Month 1 is the foundation it all sits on. It is solid. Build on it.