Hayley Brunsden // Vision, Courage and the Art of Starting From Scratch

This week we leave the studio for the Georgian high street of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, where Hayley Brunsden has built something quietly extraordinary. CBTR Opticians opened three years ago, won two national awards in its first two years, and has become the kind of boutique practice that clients travel for.Hayley's story involves a motorway diversion, a Watford FC football match, and a to-let sign spotted at exactly the right moment. It involves pitching one of the world's most prestigious lens manufacturers before she had a single wall painted, talking her way onto the books of fiercely protective eyewear brands at SILMO with little more than a clear vision, and when a Swiss brand said no to supplying their glasses to the UK, going straight to the MD and asking again.But this conversation is really about something harder to define: what it takes to build a practice that feels genuinely personal. From the pre-appointment survey that asks whether you're sweet or savoury, to handpicking a small number of independent brands whose stories she can tell with real conviction, Hayley has thought carefully about every detail of the experience she's created.Warm, funny, and admirably relentless, this is one of those episodes that will leave you wondering why more people don't just go ahead and create their own business.https://www.cbtropticians.com/https://www.instagram.com/cbtropticians/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.