I attended your classes at the convention at the Kalahari. I wanted to let you know that you are one of the best speakers I have ever had for continuing education! You did an amazing job and I hope you will be back again to teach!

"I enjoyed all your courses that I attended. I especially enjoyed the leadership program on Saturday! I initially signed up for the leadership portion of the conference thinking maybe I would walk away with a few new things but as the morning went on, I realized this presentation will be life changing."

It was awesome attending your lectures last week at the conference! Thursdays lectures were great not only for new employees understanding the importance of business etiquette but also a good reminder for current employees because it is so easy to get comfortable and forget the importance of certain practices and principles.

Thank you so much for being such a great educator!

I want to start by saying thank you for everything at IOA. You were amazing to listen to and learn from! My whole team really enjoyed all of the classes that we attended. I hope we get another opportunity to meet!

We are implementing much of what you have discussed with us this past weekend. I really want emphasize how much we learned from you. I have been trying to move my current practice into a more structured and dedicated office. I am excited to see what is in store for the future and this company for the first time in a while.

Thank you for being an inspiration. Keep being yourself, you’re truly awesome!

I attended your classes at the convention at the Kalahari. I wanted to let you know that you are one of the best speakers I have ever had for continuing education! You did an amazing job and I hope you will be back again to teach

I took your classes this weekend, and I just want to tell you, that you absolutely deserve Top 50 Influential Women in Optometry! I honestly was a little mad at myself for taking all of the classes, because I have done this before when taking classes, and the teachers seem to be repeating themselves, but just in different ways. YOU on the other hand blew me away. I loved every single class, each was very different and had very specific points in the correct areas. I just loved them all. This is my 17th year in managing my office. We all love our office, and staff, and all of my employees have been here 10 years, so it is a really good place to work, but I literally took something from you if not Several things from you this weekend. I just want to tell you, You are AMAZING, and great at what you do. Honestly, my favorite speaker in all of the classes that I have ever taken, and I have been to Vegas multiple times, as well as all around here. Keep up the great work. You really do change lives and make people want to better themselves in many ways. Thank you for being there for me to listen to.

With being in this position doing the same thing day in and day out, and having the same staffing for so long, we pretty much do the same thing. It works for us, but just hearing everything this weekend, just makes me feel like there are always ways to improve. I hope to see you again. I would watch all of your classes over again, they were that good. You will not leave this earth stating you didn't do much, or didn't change lives, because it seems like you do wherever you go. I am very glad to have met you and got to hear your output of professional office experiences. Thanks again!

My staff said " Wow, she is so professional!" We enjoyed it, learned from it and it started some good conversations.

“Your classes re-inspired me. I've been an optician for 10 years and look forward to MOA and vision expo for this very reason! I'm so excited to try and implement some of your ideas here at our office.”

“I attended your leadership classes last week. After 17 years of being in the field, I would have to say these classes were the most beneficial and interesting out of all I've ever taken.”

"Life changing!" "I attended a three-day intensive training program on Front Desk Skills facilitated by Mary E. Schmidt. It changed my life. It created a career mentality for me, when prior to that, I just viewed what I did as a job. Now I know the impact I have on patient's lives and I love what I do. I just celebrated my 12th year in the optometric field, all because Mary helped me believe in myself."

"Thank you for the lecture this morning. I felt encouraged and inadequate at the same time. The sum of those 2 equals a challenge, so I accept your challenge to move forward in leadership by January."

"I have been in the business for 44 years and still get a lot of education, yours was exceptional! We are changing some office policies and your suggestions make a lot of business sense. Thank you for your presentations at the Wisconsin Paraoptometric Association Convention.

"I cannot thank you enough for the positive classes you presented this weekend. I think this was the first convention in years where I left feeling positive about my skills and hopeful for the future changes in my development.
Thank you so much!"

"I have been in the optical field for over 37 years and I've never understood prism. After your class today, I finally get it! Thanks."

What impressed me when listening to your webinar was, you were straight forward, your information was excellent, there were great learning examples and you were easy to understand. You are an excellent teacher.

"I was in several of your classes at TOA - as usual, you were the most knowledgeable...and the most entertaining!"

I have been fortunate to see first-hand, Mary's unique ability to connect with an audience. Not only does she bring a wealth of knowledge to her seminars, but her passion and commitment for the industry makes them educational AND fun at the same time! I have been in the educational field with other companies for many years and I am very impressed with the extensive curriculum Mary has in her portfolio which she can customize for any audience or for any practice. Through her consultation services, practices throughout the country have been able to grow and nurture the development of their staff - she is awesome!

Placing my staffs training and development in Mary's hands was the best business decision I have ever made. She knows how to teach, train and motivate every staff member including doctors. Her staff development expertise is as essential to the health of our practices, as the diagnostic instruments we utilize for patient care.

“Because of your classes I was able to understand for the first time what is expected of me as a office manager and how to create a great team.”

"My co-workers and I attended your courses last week. The best we have ever attended! I learned so much. Thank you!!!We went back and shared everything with our doctor and he wants to start implementing what we learned into our practice."

I was one of the lucky ones who had the opportunity to attend your QuickSix class. Thank you for doing what you do and for teaching the way you teach. You're easy to understand, relate to and fun. I feel I was able to grasp concepts that I had difficulty understadning int he past.

Thank you again for the 3 day Center for Paraoptometric course. I immediately grew more confident and found that patients respected me more after the prgoram. I am also able to more thoroughly answer questions and explain different lens options to patients. I feel satisfied knowing that I utilized every resource I have and did my job to the best of my abilities.

We attended todays webinar and I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. It was thought provoking, concise and drove home to the staff what we've been teaching them. I communicated with optometric colleagues the value of your presentation.

Mary always makes her workshops valuable. We learn, we laugh and we are challenged to be better.

"For me personally her classes have been life changing. This was my second multiple day workshop with Mary and I can't recommend her highly enough. They say "never give all 10's" because there is nothing higher to aspire to, but honestly I would rate her programs with a 10. She is extremely knowledgeable in every aspect of the optical profession. She makes learning fun and includes a lot of humor to keep you interested. In fact, in our group she gave us a 30 minute break and we asked if it could be only 15 minutes, so we could maximize our time with her. She helps every student participate and feel like your own personal concerns are valued. She gives you tools to take back so that the problems you came with seem manageable when you leave. She gave me the action plan to help become a more effective manager. Many thanks to you Mary"

"I recently received my degree in business management and I think I learned more in this weekend class with Mary Schmidt than I did it the entire business program. Thanks for all the great information." Class attendee 9/2012

I've been lucky to attend a couple of your presentations and I must let you know that by using the principles I learned from your Frame Inventory management program, I was promoted to optical manager and and now I am a supervisor at our practice.

Once again thank you for the useful information you provide.

"I learned so much from your workshop and the experience was so incredibly valuable to me. You are a wealth of information and I only wish we could have had more time! I have been so inspired by you and I am excited about making many positive changes within our practice. Thank you for not only giving us so much important information but for allowing us to have plenty of time to discuss issues specific to our practices. Your are such a fantastic facilitator."

I have had the opportunity to work directly with Mary Schmidt on a number of projects and in each case, Mary “over-delivered” with outstanding results.

Mary helped us initiate a well thought-out and practical frame board management program. We have carefully tracked our frame cost since we put in “Mary’s Plan” and we noted the first year a 45% decrease in frame cost as a percentage of total cost of goods sold. Three years later our frame acquisition cost has stayed at a very manageable number.

Mary is a high energy, results-driven professional. She comes from a deep understanding of the eyecare office, because she has lived it and does it. Her advice and suggestions work because she understands that the success of an eyecare office can only happen when all team members are recognized and supported and when there are understandable and practical processes.

I attended a course of yours called "All About Lenses" in Monterey, CA. I just wanted you to know that after your class I began working at least a portion of each day as an optician. You told me I needed to stop second guessing myself and just get out there and do it! Well that is what I did and I love it!! I can't believe how naturally it comes to me and have no clue why I was so scared. I am even outselling some of our senior opticians, it's great! I really feel that the pep talk you gave me gave me that little push I needed to get going. And for that I am very grateful.
Thank you.

"I attended your seminar and I just wanted to one, thank you being so informative and secondly for renewing my interest in a field that was quite frankly becoming stale. I read up on you a bit and found that your are considered one of the 50 most influential women in optical (way to go by the way.) and Id have to say your now my optical profession hero !!! Prior to the seminar I was seriously debating a change of career, feeling I couldn't go any further than what I have already done.... I have realized that I really haven't taken the time to be 100% in my chosen field, I didn't realize how important my contribution to an office or to the field could be till I did my research."

"I have learned so much from this program there is not one question I have that was not already discussed. You made this class not only educational but fun."

"Your presentations are excellent. There was a lot of hands on experience and putting the whole package together."

Mary Schmidt brings the unique combination of knowledge, skill and charm to every project she is involved with. She brings her life experience to each presentation to ‘make it real’ for the course attendees. We leave her courses enthused and revitalized and ready to go back to the office to practice what she just taught us. You will find that Mary Schmidt can educate and still keep her courses lively and entertaining.

Mary was great to work with. Very professional, knowledgeable and always with a smile on her face. She did a wonderful job for us and was always very well received by the participants.

"Mary, I wanted to inform you on how incredible your class on frame inventory was! Your 3 hour class was hands-down the best course I have ever taken, in over 40 years. You gave such terrific tips and ideas that helped us achieve our financial goals. I hope that you believe people when they tell you you're the best, because you are!"

"Other speakers can learn from Mary. Exciting, informative and kept my attention. Thanks for the humor!"