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Dr. Abby Jakob
EYES – Dr. Abby Jakob, Kingsville, ON 

Dr. Abby Jakob’s favourite (she is Canadian after all) parts of running her business are choosing her own hours, taking time off when she knows she needs it “for my health and sanity,” and becoming more well-known in her community. “It inspires me to get even more involved with community events, volunteer groups, and fundraisers, and that, in turn, helps my business even more as a result!” Of course even jobs we love come with things we don’t love so much. For Dr. Jakob that’s the time required for her social media channels. “I want to engage people and show my true personality with fun, clever, or visually pleasing posts, and it takes up so much time!” Other than that, hiring staff (and potentially having to fire them!), and finding a balance between seeing patients and setting boundaries with her time and schedule, rank in her top three least favorite things. Luckily, every day she gets to go home to hug and kiss smother her husband and all of her cats. “I [also] love going for walks with my dog, one of my cats (Booboo) actually walks with us, and my awesome husband, Patrick.” If it’s a weekend, you can find her in “an old hole-in-the-wall bar with live music, requesting all of my favourite songs and singing along!”

Megan Baureis, ODUptown Eyes Eyewear Gallery, Fayetteville, AR

Optometry is really a people business and one in which Dr. Megan Baureis excels. “I love our team and our patients! We get to meet the most amazing people every day.” But running her own business also provides other benefits she loves. “The flexibility and versatility that an independently owned business offers,” she adds. “Whether it’s experimenting with a new schedule, throwing an event, remodeling, playing with different marketing ideas.” So naturally, the things that take her away from that are her least favorite: “The days where paper/computer work exceeds patient time, and the current state of our managed care plans and how much energy is put into it.” Not to mention all the digital platforms that require monthly subscriptions… To unwind, she spends crisp fall days on her deck with her husband, wine in hand, watching her kids play outside. In the summertime, it’s all the lake time her family can get. In between, she loves to organize! “Decluttering around me declutters my brain and makes me feel calmer, and a run with a good audiobook is super helpful too.”

Cheryl Murphy, OD
Optometrist/Freelance Writer, Northport, NY

Dr. Cheryl Murphy has been practicing for 15 years and currently works at three practices — two ophthalmology practices owned by an MD and one optometry practice — in addition to being a freelance science writer having written for optometric trade journals and blogs like Scientific American and Huffington Post Science. To top it off she is the mother of tween triplets! If there was ever someone who needed to develop some keen unwinding skills, it is her. To do so she consumes lots of iced tea, reads the classics, and spends as much time as possible outside looking for deer and four leaf clovers in the woods behind her house.