We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Zlotnicki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Anna , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
Yes – we’re completely mobile! We’re independent opticians with an entirely mobile operation. We don’t have a brick-and-mortar location, but instead we meet our clients right where they are. When you think of purchasing glasses, you probably picture, for example, going to an optical retailer at the mall, buying from a private practice, or shopping online. Each of those options have pros and cons – we wanted to offer the best of both. Purchasing eyewear from a specialty optical retailer or your doctor’s office offers the benefit of having an optician on hand to talk you through the process and ensure you get properly fitted, but can be extremely expensive. Buying glasses online can definitely be more affordable, but you’re not always able to try frames on, and may not be able to see well if your measurements aren’t right. We bring our collection of frames – and our expertise – right to your doorstep so that you can enjoy a laid-back, personalized shopping experience in the comfort of your own home, and still have licensed opticians’ expertise in fitting and dispensing your glasses. And by not having to cover the overhead associated with a physical location, we’re able to pass along our savings to our customers. Pretty much the only thing we can’t do is the exam itself.
We’re currently the only mobile opticians in South Carolina, and excited to continue to serve our community.
Anna , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My background is in art and advertising, and earlier this year I stumbled into optical – and found that I love it! It offers a great balance of science and creativity and I could really see a future for myself in the field, so I began an apprenticeship to become a licensed optician. During the apprenticeship, my colleague and mentor, Chris, mentioned that he had long dreamed of opening his own optical business – but that he wanted to make it mobile. At the time, we both worked in corporate optical retail and were becoming increasingly frustrated with policies that prioritized company profits over the customer experience. My skills in web design, social media management, and marketing paired perfectly with his background in business and opticianry – he’s been in the industry for nearly a decade now – so we founded The Clear Optical and went independent. The Clear Optical is entirely mobile, bringing eyewear to our community, wherever they may be. By eschewing the traditional brick-and-mortar model, we’re able to greatly reduce our costs – and pass those savings along to our customers. We’re also able to serve those of our community who might not be able to travel for their glasses – folks who are injured, disabled, without access to reliable transportation, or otherwise homebound. While we don’t currently file insurance, we’re able to match copays if someone brings along their EOB; however, even without insurance, our prices are competitive without compromising on quality or care. Plus, our primary lab is only an hour’s drive away, so we can offer some rush services that many larger retailers can’t.
Our goal is to provide personalized service and top-quality products at an accessible price. We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to do so far, and are looking forward to expanding service in our region.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to learn to balance my work ethic with a rest ethic – because y’all, burnout is real, and it’s awful. Even as I start a business, I’m pushing back against hustle culture. I know that sounds contradictory, but a key reason my partner and I wanted to leave corporate was that we had no control over our own time – you can always make more money, but you’re only allotted so much time in your life, and we wanted more control over that. So I’ve been re-learning my time management to prioritize myself a little bit more. It sounds so selfish, and it kind of is – but the thing is, I’ve found that I am so much more productive and engaged with what I do when I’m able to do it on my own terms. It’s not always possible, of course – but having even just a little bit more control over my schedule has been amazing for my mental health. As we grow and contemplate bringing on more team members, it’s something that I want to be able to offer, that freedom of time management. While we do have some scheduled events, regular meetings, and of course set appointments with our customers, much of our “background” work can be done at any time. Whether it’s at one in the afternoon or one in the morning, as long as the work gets done – and done well – we’re not particularly picky about the circumstances, or being busy for a set number of hours.
It’s so different from our standard culture of a 9-5 that it sometimes feels a little wrong – but I think that’s part of the unlearning. I see such a push to always be busy, reach max productivity, hustle hard and make your work your raison d’être – but that often requires the sacrifice of rest, of time with friends and family, pursuing hobbies, doing things purely for play or pleasure. And those things are so important – that’s where I find a lot of fulfilment and joy in life, but it also helps me when I go back to work by inspiring new ways of thinking, building new connections, and restoring my energy. You’re not as effective when you let yourself get run down – you’ve got to know when to turn off the phone, and let yourself rest.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Life has been full of funny little twists and turns that, in hindsight, make total sense, even if they felt like whiplash in the moment. The most recent, of course, was the founding of The Clear Optical – this is not at all where I thought I would be right now. At the beginning of the year, I had been accepted into a master’s program in Art History in England and was preparing to move abroad in the fall. I took a job in optical retail thinking it would just be a temporary position to save some more money for school. But then the war broke out in Ukraine, prices of everything skyrocketed, my funding fell through, and I realized that I just wasn’t going to be able to afford it this year without taking on ridiculous loans. And I found that I had begun to really enjoy optical – my background is in photography, with a focus on large format photography. Those cameras function essentially the same as the human eye – and I enjoyed learning about lenses from a new perspective, diving into a new-to-me field. It’s still learning, just a very different field than I’d thought I’d be studying right now. When I told Chris that I would be staying in optical for the foreseeable future, he encouraged me to immediately apply for an apprenticeship for an optician license. He has a real gift for mentorship, and I’m lucky to have found a colleague who is so willing to work with my style of learning. After working together for several months, he approached me about creating a new company. Our skill sets complemented each other perfectly and we both wanted to be better able to meet the needs of our community – so The Clear Optical was founded.
I still think sometimes about where I might have been if I’d followed my original path – but I’m so glad that I let myself release my old expectations and open myself up to new possibilities. You don’t always get to choose when a pivot comes – it definitely hurts more when it’s forced on you – but there can be so much growth on the other side.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theclearoptical.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.clear.optical/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-clear-optical/
Image Credits
Anna Zlotnicki