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- Hello, I would like to welcome you
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to the Laramy-K OpticianWorks
Training Center,
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where the other day over on YouTube,
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I got a comment from a gentleman
asking if I could help him
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train a newbie
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on matching lens power and lens material.
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And as always here at the
training center, I said, sure.
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So I just sat down at the computer,
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whipped up this super easy chart to read,
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read one column lens power
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across the other is lens material,
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you match it,
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you're good to go.
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Not really.
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If only it were that easy.
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(upbeat music)
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Let's talk a little bit about those charts
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that are in fact out there.
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We have all seen them.
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You've seen that one
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that one
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I'll leave that one up there for a second
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just for your entertainment.
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You've see that one
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and those things are a
pet peeve of mine okay.
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The thickness charts they're gimmicks.
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They're snake oil.
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They're not real.
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They don't provide for diameter.
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If you really look closely,
you'll see how the CTs
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of those lenses grow to make it look
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like it's a greater difference
than there actually is.
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And of course you have
to keep in mind cylinder
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none of those show or account
for cylinder being present
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thick edge, thin edge as
that thick edge moves around
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and positioned by axis
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the increase is going to
change the edge thickness.
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None of that's accounted for,
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but fear not Laramy-K OpticianWorks
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we did a physical test, ran
about 50, almost 60 lenses.
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And I'll show you our results
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when we get to the bench in a few minutes.
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Pet peeve in my opinion,
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you should find charts
like those offensive.
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It is either reducing your value
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or trying to elevate the frame
stylist to point and prey
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or point and pray.
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Point and prey minus one OU
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but hey they point it
to 1.74 so what the heck
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or point and pray corporate says that
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high index is the flavor of the month
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and they point it to 1.67.
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So what the heck I sold it, right?
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You however, thank you.
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Are taking the time to learn
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all of the things that matter.
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Go you.
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So let's an industry
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stop going for the lowest
common denominator,
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the chart
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the quick guide.
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And if we do, everyone
is going to benefit,
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you will,
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your customer will,
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the store owner will,
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and the lab will as well.
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There is not a one simple trick.
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There is no chart that
you can simply read across
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up and say oh, there's my
perfect power to material match.
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If you have that,
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you've got online sales.
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And if you have online sales,
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you the optician has
absolutely no value whatsoever.
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Power material choice comes down to you.
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Allow me to drop in here and remind you
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that there is all the other great stuff
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over on the OpticianWorks website
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in there are 14 other videos
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related to power lenses and material.
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Now I think the fact that
there are 14 other videos
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further drives home the point
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that there is no one
simple answer or a chart
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when we're talking about
power and material.
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How frame selection
affects lens thickness.
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Minimum blank size.
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How do identify lens materials.
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The importance and use of stock lenses.
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We have six on decentration.
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We have size and shape
matter, but you matter more.
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We've got index of refraction
Abbe value in specific gravity
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and we'll have the links
to the YouTube videos
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down at the bottom of this video.
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Every customer interaction
should be different
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separates you from online sales,
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where you don't need to
interact with a human at all.
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What is the golden rule of optical?
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Say it with me
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to get something you have
to give up something.
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The perfect pair of glasses
has great optical clarity
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in all of the ranges
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that that particular
individual customer needs.
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It has great comfort.
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They're lightweight.
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They're the correct width.
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They fit their nose well.
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The temples are long enough.
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They're going to be happy wearing them.
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And they look great.
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Now who controls that and that and that
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you do.
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So while you're thinking about this
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and working through this stuff
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with your individual unique customer
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while you're doing this
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you also have to be
thinking about all of this.
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When you're thinking
about power and material.
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Lot going on there.
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You have got to be considering
the cost of that lens
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in the power that you're looking at
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in the material that you're thinking
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about putting that person in.
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You must think about
both the wholesale cost.
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What is it going to
cost me or my employer?
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And what is it going to cost retail?
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How much is my customer willing to spend?
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Are they're looking for
the cheapest possible thing
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to throw in their suitcase?
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So when they get to the hotel
and take out their contacts
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they have something to wear
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or are they telling
you money is no object.
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I want the thinnest lens
that I can possibly have.
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You must be thinking about availability.
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Not every material is available
in every single power range.
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You have to be aware of back orders.
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It was a couple of years ago.
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One of the giant factories caught fire.
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1.60 single vision lenses
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weren't available for like six months.
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Can I get the power I want
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in the material I want
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with whatever coatings
and other add-ons I want
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you need to be aware of this.
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Back order is a really tough conversation
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to have with a customer
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and you got their money
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they're all happy
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they left everything's great.
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And then you call on the lab
says no, we can't get that.
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And then you either have to be saying,
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well I can bump you up and eat the costs
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or I'm going to have
to give you money back.
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Never a good thing.
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Good luck trying to get into up-sale
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because something's not available.
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And you weren't aware
of it really important.
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As is so often the case
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I see something pop up on social media
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while I'm assembling one of these videos.
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And it was a perfect connection.
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And I just felt I have got
to share this with you guys
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in the tens of thousands of
people that I sold glasses to,
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I would say about 1 out of every 100
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of those customer interactions
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we were near the end of the sale
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we had chosen a frame
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we'd chosen lenses
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we discussed add-ons and
I would be sitting there.
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And of course I don't
have much of a poker face
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and I'd be like,
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and I'd flipping the pages back and forth.
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And then I'm like.
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And 1 out of every 100 of
those people would say,
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what's wrong?
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And I would have to say
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I'm trying to decide what is
going to be the best material
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for this job.
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I was saying,
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I don't know, right this second
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but I'm going to figure it out.
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And you know what guys
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that is okay to say,
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look you bring your car in
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because the check engine light is on.
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They don't know what's wrong.
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Okay it takes them a little time there
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to plug it into the computer.
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The sensor tells them what to look at.
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They check that.
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Does that fix it?
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Is it a light off?
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They have to say I don't know,
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I'll find out.
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And you're perfectly okay with that.
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It's expected.
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Right?
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Pest control that my wife
decided to go to war with the
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fire ants here in South Carolina
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the guy showed up.
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He said, well, first I have to
measure the wall in the yard.
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So I know how much I have to order.
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Then you had to decide what
chemical he wanted to use
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in order to fight the ants.
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We were okay with that.
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He said, I don't know,
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but I'll find out.
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And that's okay.
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You will probably need to stop,
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call and ask the lab.
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Does this particular thing come
in this particular material?
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What is my cost?
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What is my availability?
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What's my turnaround time?
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That might take you 10 seconds.
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Most of the time you just
decided in your head to go.
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Well I had 1.67, 1.60
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around the edge 1.67 good okay we're done.
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All right, it might be 10 hours.
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It could be Friday afternoon
labs already closed up
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and you'd have to wait
until Monday, who knows?
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But yeah, somewhere in there.
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It's okay.
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It's all I'm trying to say.
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Please, please stop
feeling like you need to
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just have that snappy answer
or something you don't.
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It's okay to think.
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In your head while you're doing this
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you're thinking about frame
size and PD constantly.
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Minus five little tiny pair of glasses PD
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well centered stock lenses no problem.
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Going to get great cutout.
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Everything's going to
be good thin as possible
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lens combination of power and material.
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They've got a narrow little tiny PD
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and they think the newest fashion thing
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the dinner plate specials
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are the frames to have.
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Then you're going to be
thinking about surface.
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You're going to be thinking
about using a higher index lens
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to thin out that edge
because their frame choice.
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Do I have this power in stock?
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If you are on the fence
between Poly and 1.60
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and you stock poly with a decent AR
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you don't want them walking off thinking,
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well, I could just order them online.
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Okay no, get that money
while you can get them
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while you're there as long
as you've got a good product.
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Good AR if you have it in stock,
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sell it and get that sale.
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You will be thinking
will this be a stock lens
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or am I going to have to surface
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now a stock lens that you would order
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if you don't have it in stock like this
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day or two you call up 24 hours later,
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it's at your door FedEx.
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And you can run that pair of glasses.
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Now, along with availability
it's just another part of it.
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You have to be thinking
about what coatings you want
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on that particular lens
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material related to power.
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Maybe they want polarized.
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Maybe they want a photochromic
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you have to consider all of these things
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while making that judgment call
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what material compared
to what power I have?
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And a little bit of a word of warning.
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Don't say I didn't warn you.
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You would think that the top of the line
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free form whizzbang progressive
would be the single most
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expensive thing out there
that you can purchase.
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And I believe last time I looked
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I think it was like a
high index straight top 35
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or might even be like a trifocal.
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So be really careful.
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It's another conversation
you don't want to have
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with your customer after the sale.
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So much to think about
here to not just a matter
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of looking it up or thinking,
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oh, I've got this well, then
I have to put them in that.
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No, there's so much to this
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including of course also drilling
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if you're doing a
rimless three-piece mount
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some materials drill well, some don't.
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We ran a series of about 60 lenses
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in plus and minus three
and plus and minus six
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let's head over to the bench.
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And let me show you the
results of that little study.
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For our physical test
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we gathered up the
following series of lenses
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stock in plus three and minus three
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stock in plus six and minus six.
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Then I went ahead and
fired up the trustee Lexi
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and I cut every lens for the same frame
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using the same trace and layout parameters
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knowing what we do.
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We know two things.
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First, when we reach high lens powers,
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we guide our customers towards frames
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that are appropriate
for those high powers.
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In other words, not the
dinner plate specials.
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So our lens size should be a
good representative sample.
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Second, we looked to high index materials
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when we reach those higher powers.
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I think that looking at these lenses
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that once we reach 1.60 and above
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that the actual differences in thickness
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is barely discernible to the naked eye.
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Just a little bit more stuff,
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because I wanted to say stuff.
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You're probably thinking, come on, John
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you can give me some idea to go on.
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So here is the Laramy-K OpticianWorks
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power and materials suggestions and rules.
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In minus always go with
stock for single vision,
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super easy simple rule to follow
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the companies have already tweaked it out.
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You're guaranteed you're going to have
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the thinnest possible combination
of material and power.
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In plus anything over three diopters
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the only way to know
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what is the thinnest
possible lens I can get
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is to call with the lab.
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You check with the lab,
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you get them all of your frame parameters
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shape being the biggie
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all your human parameters,
your lens powers.
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They plug it into the software
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and the software tells them
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what is going to be the
best possible lens choice,
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suggestions, guidelines.
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In minus start considering
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high index at about four diopters.
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It's a great rule of thumb.
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If you're right on the
fence, you're four diopters.
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You've got to Poly you got
a 1.60 go with that 1.60.
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In plus for a lot of reasons,
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you're basically forced
into the high index,
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but in plus start
thinking about high index
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at about three diopters,
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1.74 is some quirky stuff.
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So stick with your 1.60 and
1.67 until around seven diopters
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getting up there.
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Once you hit that mark
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then you can start
thinking about that 1.74.
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There is our look at power and material.
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If you are watching us on Facebook
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please give us a like
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watching this on YouTube
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please go ahead and hit
that subscribe button
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down there in the corner.
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Make sure that every lens
regardless of its power
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or material comes from Laramy-K
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and I will see you again next week.
