By Dr. Harry Landsaw
If you asked most independent practice owners to describe their week, you’d hear words like “reactive,” “scattered,” or “full.”
We spend our days moving between two very different roles. One minute, you are the doctor, focused entirely on the patient in your chair. The next, you step into the hallway and become the CEO, HR Director, CFO, and Marketing Manager—often all before lunch.
The problem isn’t that we lack the skill to handle these decisions. It’s that we lack the structure to handle them efficiently. We carry the mental load of every decision, big or small, in our own heads.
That is why we built Executive Board™.
It isn’t designed to replace your judgment. It is designed to give you a structured way to access specialized perspectives instantly, so you can make decisions and move on.
Here is what a typical week looks like when you have an advisory board on call.
Monday: The HR “Crisis”
The Situation: It’s 8:15 AM. Your lead optician calls out sick for the third Monday in a row. The rest of the team is frustrated, and you know you need to address it, but you dread the “confrontation.”
Without Executive Board™: You stew on it all morning. You vent to your spouse at dinner. You vaguely plan to “talk to them” later in the week, but you’re worried about saying the wrong thing and causing them to quit.
With Executive Board™: Between patients, you open the dashboard. You select the Human Resources Advisor and Legal & Compliance Advisor.
You type: “My lead optician has a pattern of Monday absences. It’s affecting morale. I need to address this formally but supportively. Draft a conversation outline that documents the issue without escalating it unnecessarily.”
The Result (2 Minutes Later): You get a structured script.
HR Advisor gives you the “Seek to Understand” opening: “I’ve noticed a pattern of Monday absences. I value your contribution, but this is impacting the team. Is there a barrier preventing you from being here?”
Legal & Compliance Advisor adds the necessary documentation step: “Ensure you have the attendance log printed and signed during this meeting to establish a formal record.”
You hold the meeting at lunch. It’s calm, factual, and documented. You go back to patient care with a clear head.
Wednesday: The Vision Plan Decision
The Situation: You’ve been debating dropping a low-reimbursement vision plan for months. You know you’re losing money on chair time, but you’re terrified that patients will leave in droves.
Without Executive Board™: You ask a few colleagues on Facebook. You get mixed advice (“Drop it!” vs. “You’ll go broke!”). You look at your P&L, get overwhelmed by the spreadsheet, and decide to “wait another quarter.”
With Executive Board™: Wednesday evening, you sit down with your laptop. You select Strategy Advisor, Finance Advisor, and Marketing Advisor.
You type: “I’m considering dropping [Plan X]. It represents 15% of my patient volume but only 8% of revenue. Help me model the risk. How many private-pay patients do I need to replace them to break even? How do I communicate this to patients so they stay?”
The Result:
Finance Advisor runs the break-even math: “If you lose all 15% of these patients, your revenue drops $X. However, you free up Y hours of chair time. If you fill just 40% of that time with private-pay exams, you are more profitable than you are today.”
Marketing Advisor drafts the letter: A warm, patient-centric email explaining that “In order to maintain the standard of care/technology you deserve, we are moving to an open-access model with this plan.”
Strategy Advisor gives you the transition timeline: “Don’t drop it cold. Stop accepting new patients on the plan first. Measure the impact for 90 days. Then commit.”
You didn’t just get an opinion. You got a plan.
Friday: The Equipment Purchase
The Situation: A sales rep is pushing a new $85,000 dry eye device. The “show special” ends today. It sounds amazing, but cash flow has been tight this quarter.
Without Executive Board™: You feel the pressure. You operate on FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). You might sign the lease just to feel like you’re “investing in growth,” hoping the patients will appear.
With Executive Board™: You pause the rep. You pull up Executive Board™ and select Finance Advisor and Operations Advisor.
You type: “I’m looking at an $85k device. Lease is $1,800/mo. What is the realistic patient volume needed to cover this, and what operational bottlenecks usually cause these devices to sit unused?”
The Result:
Finance Advisor: “To cover the lease + consumable costs, you need 12 procedures/month at $XXX. Your current dry eye volume is only 4/month. This is cash-flow negative for at least 6 months.”
Operations Advisor: “Who will run this? If the doctor has to run it, you lose exam revenue. Do you have a technician trained to sell and operate it independently?”
You realize you aren’t operationally ready. You decline the “deal.” You saved $85,000 and months of stress.
The Weekend
Without Executive Board™: You spend Saturday morning writing patient recall emails and Sunday afternoon worrying about that HR conversation you didn’t have.
With Executive Board™: The HR issue was handled Monday. The vision plan decision is made. The equipment purchase was declined with confidence.
You spend the weekend being a person, not a stressed-out owner.
Structure Earns Its Place
This isn’t about magic. It’s about having a governance framework that works as hard as you do.
When you stop reacting to every question and start processing them through a structured advisory board, you don’t just get better answers. You get your life back.
Ready to bring this structure to your practice? Try Executive Board™ risk-free for 30 days. See how different next Monday feels.