Why Your Best Frames Should Never Be in the Window — and Other Lessons from a Global Optics Legend
There are people who work in the optical industry, and then there are people who shape it. Daniel Feldman belongs firmly in the second category.
Based in Colorado, Daniel is the Executive Editor of The Optical Journal — widely regarded as the most visited optical news and business platform in the world — and the founder of DBA Designs, a specialist consulting, marketing, and website design firm built exclusively to serve the eyecare industry. He has spent over 25 years helping optical practices, frame brands, and trade organisations grow — and in that time, he has become one of the most recognised, most travelled, and most trusted voices in global optics.
As an international speaker, Daniel has taken to the stage at the world’s biggest optical trade shows — from Silmo Paris and MIDO Milan to Vision Expo, opti Munich, and Silmo Istanbul — sharing his expertise in optical retail strategy, eyecare marketing, and social media with audiences across the US, Europe, and Asia. His podcast, The Optical Journal Podcast, launched in 2018 and has since featured hundreds of interviews with the industry’s leading frame makers, brand founders, optometrists, and marketing minds — including names such as QUAY Eyewear, Forall Frameworks, Strato Eyewear, and Wright & Bailey London.
He has also been a long-standing friend and contributor to Silmo Paris, appearing as a featured guest on the official Silmo podcast, The Right Optics, where he is introduced simply as “an industry heavyweight.”
That description barely scratches the surface. When Garry Kousoulou FBDO sat down with Daniel on The Optician Show, what followed was one of the most candid, practical, and inspiring conversations on marketing for opticians you will find anywhere.
What 25 Years of Optical Marketing Really Looks Like
Daniel didn’t stumble into optical marketing. He was headhunted into it — brought in by the owner of a high-end optical chain in Denver who had seen what good marketing could do in other industries and wanted some of that energy in his stores. That was over 25 years ago. The owner still works with Daniel today.
That relationship tells you everything you need to know about the way Daniel operates. He doesn’t parachute in, deliver a presentation, and disappear. He embeds himself in the businesses he works with, learns the product, learns the customer, and builds something that lasts.
When he first walked into those early stores, he brought with him something most optical practices had never encountered — a retail brain sharpened outside of optics entirely. His background was in sporting goods, where he had helped run nine stores across the Denver area and learned the kind of lessons that only come from managing real footfall, real stock, and real margins. He understood decompression zones, merchandising flow, staff utilisation, and the quiet but devastating impact of a window that works against you.
He understood, above all, that the customer’s journey begins long before they sit in the consulting chair. It begins the moment they walk past your door, glance at your window, or land on your website. And in optics, that journey was — and in many practices still is — almost entirely unmanaged.
That is the gap Daniel has spent a quarter of a century helping practices close. And in this episode of The Optician Show, he shares exactly how.
Over 25 years of optical marketing experience. Hundreds of podcast interviews. Factory tours in Italy, shows in Hong Kong, Munich, Milan, New York, Las Vegas, Istanbul and beyond. A man who can walk into a practice and know within seconds what’s working — and what isn’t.
He’s probably the most recognised face in global optics. And he was generous enough to give me an hour of his time on The Optician Show.
We covered:
🔍 Why your best-selling frames should never be in the window
📦 How stock control can make or break an independent practice
🌍 How to walk a trade show with real purpose
🧠 The Simon Sinek principle every practice owner needs to hear
🤖 Why AI in eyecare is about to change everything
“Stop buying what you like. Start buying what your customers will like — otherwise you’re going to have a lot of inventory sitting in your personal drawers at home.”
“Stop buying what you like. Start buying what your customers will like — otherwise you’re going to have a lot of inventory sitting in your personal drawers at home.”
“Your best-selling frames should never be in the window. Make customers walk to the back of the store — they might just discover something better along the way.”
“You walk in every morning and you stop noticing. The cobweb. The tape on the window. The sign nobody took down. Fresh eyes see everything you’ve stopped seeing.”
“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”
“A good optometrist can tell you’re diabetic before your GP even knows. AI is going to take that even further — and the consulting room is where the revolution begins.”
“Once you dip your toe into this industry, you want to dive in. Healthcare and fashion all together, and we’re giving people their vision back. There’s nothing like it.”
“The independents who are coming through now are hungry, committed, and starting lean. Watch out for them — they’ll build something remarkable.”
The Optician Show — the podcast for optical business owners, practice managers, and everyone serious about marketing for opticians. Subscribe now and never miss an episode.
Want me to now wrap the whole blog together as one clean cut-and-paste document — H1, intro, both body sections, and the closing takeaways all in one place?
I do genuinely believe that meeting face-to-face builds deeper relationships than just always being on Zoom, and Daniel really makes the effort to get around the shows all over the world, which makes him one of the most credible, knowledgeable people in the space of optics.
Garry Kousoulou FBDO
Garry Kousoulou is a UK-qualified Dispensing Optician, founder of Loving Social Media, and host of The Optician Show — Optical Business & Marketing Podcast. He has worked across both optical practice and digital marketing, helping independent opticians improve their visibility through social media, SEO, Google Business Profile optimisation and patient-focused content.
Garry’s authority comes from direct optical practice experience, having owned and operated an optical business, combined with years of helping independent practices communicate more effectively online. He is recognised within the optical industry for bringing social media into optics early, including being described by the Business Book Awards as the first optician in the world to use Facebook for business.
Daniel Feldman
Daniel Feldman is the Executive Editor of The Optical Journal and Optical Business News. He is an international speaker on retailing, eyecare marketing and social media, and has decades of experience working with the optical industry. He is also the founder of dba designs, a consulting, marketing and website design firm serving optical businesses.
Together, Garry Kousoulou and Daniel Feldman bring a rare combination of clinical optical knowledge, independent practice experience, optical retail insight, publishing authority and specialist marketing expertise. Their perspectives are grounded in real-world work with opticians, optometrists, optical brands and independent practices.