Hearing Matters Podcast

From Private Practice to the World's Largest Privately Held Hearing Aid Manufacturer - The Journey Unfolds

August 16, 2022 Hearing Matters
Hearing Matters Podcast
From Private Practice to the World's Largest Privately Held Hearing Aid Manufacturer - The Journey Unfolds
Hearing Matters Podcast +
Get a shoutout in an upcoming episode!
Starting at $3/month
Support
Show Notes Transcript

Before You Listen to This Episode

Hello there! I'm Blaise Delfino, host of the Hearing Matters Podcast! I want to thank you for donating your time and listening to this episode. If you've listened to previous episodes, you will notice this one is  a little different. You see, there's been a lot of changes in my life that I wanted to share with our listeners and my patients at Audiology Services. Before sharing new journey, I wanted to bring you back to where it all started. I am where I am today because of the experiences I had the tail end of high school and college (undergrad and grad).  

I am genetically predisposed to hearing healthcare. My parents are hearing healthcare providers and started a private audiology practice over 20 years ago. It's safe to say almost every dinner table discussion was centered around hearing healthcare. I knew about compression and digital processing at the age of 10. I know, not the most riveting conversation when you're a child. However, it is because of these conversations and my life experiences I have been able to help patients Hear Life's Story. 

Treating Patients at Audiology Services

I graduated with my Master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders. During my commencement speech I told my fellow colleagues that we have all put in our "10,000 hours" to deliver patient centered care. Following graduation, all of my classmates had secured positions in different clinical settings. When asked what my plans were following graduation and what setting I would be going in to, I responded, "Well, I won't be getting my CCC's. I'm going to work at Audiology Services and build Fader Plugs."

You see, it was at this time I was not sure I was making the right decision. Mentors, friends, and family members asked if this was what I really wanted. In my heart of hearts, I knew this was the right decision.

Five years later, Audiology Services is continuing to serve the Lehigh Valley with two locations in Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I thoroughly enjoyed my full-time position at Audiology Services. It was during this time I had the opportunity to interface with patients and work with them throughout their new hearing journey. Many of my patients trusted me with their hearing weeks after I graduated from graduate school. Living in the Lehigh Valley they have many treatment options. However, they chose and trusted Audiology Services.  That is a sacred trust and I always wanted to ensure they received 110% from us.

The Phone Call I Will Never Forget
 
It's 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday. My wife and I are both home with the flu. We're eating Chick-fil-A and all of a sudden, my phone starts ringing. It's a Minnesota area code. I think to myself, "Who could this be calling me from Minnesota? On a Sunday?!" I answer the phone. "Hello, this is Blaise." "Hi, Blaise. It's Brandon Sawalich with Starkey. I understand you want a little bit of a challenge and want to make a greater impact in the hearing healthcare indus

Support the show

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Twitter:
@hearing_mattas

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

Blaise Delfino:

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. Before we kick this episode off, a special thank you to our partners; Starkey. Hear better, live better; Weave, the all-in-one patient communication and engagement platform; Redux. Faster, dryer, smarter, verified; Fader Plugs, the world's first custom adjustable ear plug. I'm your host, Blaise Delfino, and to all of our listeners right now, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for the continued support.

            We found out yesterday that the Hearing Matters Podcast is rated the number one podcast under the category of Audiology. Now, we're not celebrating the fact that we're in the number one spot. What this means to us is that we are doing our job to spread awareness of hearing healthcare. I want to congratulate the entire team, Megan Oaken, Dr. Gregory Delfino. Thank you to Robert Frankel. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

            Today's episode is going to be a little different. What you can expect is, I'm actually going to be sharing my journey in hearing healthcare and where I am at today. I am currently the Director of Professional Relations at Starkey. I've been there a few months and I just want to share my journey because patients at Audiology Services have been asking friends and colleagues, and I wanted to take some time before I record this episode to sort of digest this new journey and kind of navigate life in and of itself so I'm going to bring you back a little bit over 10 years.

            During high school, I played sports and loved playing sports, played football, played baseball, really enjoyed it. Probably my sophomore year, I would say, I actually started to play music. I am musically inclined. My father plays guitar and sings. My grandfather played the drums. My cousin plays the trumpet. Big music family. But I was always about sports and it was really during high school where I was like, "You know, I really want to play music. I want to learn guitar. I want to sing."

            I was not good at singing when I first started but, so we had a high school band. We actually would play at the different talent shows and things of that nature. That was a lot of fun, really great memories there, but I just remember my first eight track mixer and spending hours in my parents' basement recording music. I cut my first EP when I was 17. I made 50 copies and just distributed that EP throughout my high school. It was my senior year of high school where I had my first really big musical opportunity and it was to open up for Elliott Yamin. He was on American Idol.

            I just remember I had to sell 75 tickets, sold them out in two days because when you're in high school, it's a Friday night, invite all your friends out to the show and it was just such a blast. I thought when I was 18, 19 years young that I would be this rock star traveling the world, playing out, and making a living with music because it's what I loved. I love obviously creativity and writing songs and it's just something that I really do love.

            When I was 18, graduation is upon my senior class. I had the conversation of I don't think I'm going to go to college right away and after discussions with my parents I decided, nope, I should go to college so I actually went to St. Peter's University in Jersey City, New Jersey and what an amazing experience there. I'm talking to you on the microphone right now. When I was at St. Peter's University I hosted a radio show there. Thank you to Professor Lamachia, he really got me started with radio and, of course, now podcasting.

            When I went to St Peter's University I was initially studying communications and I had the opportunity, of course, to travel into New York City via the Path train and I would play out at different clubs. I had the chance to play at Webster Hall, National Underground. I actually opened for platinum recording artist, JoJo, in New York while I was at St. Peter's so just an amazing experience. After St Peter's University, I changed my majors and transferred over to East Stroudsburg University where I then changed my major to speech language pathology, so a communication science.

            It was here at East Stroudsburg University that I really found my purpose and I found a way to marry my passion of music to the hearing and speech sciences. To me, that was really important because I think of music as a language, a way in which we can all connect with each other, but it was really at this point in time where I'm like, "Okay, this is where I am supposed to be," and just had so many amazing mentors. This is around the time, I'm 20-years-old here and still playing music, played at the Sherman Theater down there in Stroudsburg, and then graduated from East Stroudsburg University with an undergrad degree in speech language pathology. That was in 2014.

            I took a year off, from 2014 to 2015, just to take a break. Played a ton of music, recorded a ton of music during that time, and then decided that I wanted to go to graduate school for speech language pathology so I did that from 2015 to 2017. That was just such an amazing experience, learning more about speech language pathology, about communication sciences and disorders and how speech language pathologists, on a daily basis, help individuals on their journey to better speech and hearing.

            During graduate school, it was at this time where I had an idea, and this idea is called fader plugs. July of 2015, which was a month and a half before I started graduate school in 2015, I had this idea. I was running down on the beach. We rented a home in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, which love vacationing there. I'm on a run and I guess a couple weeks leading up to this run I had been thinking, "All right. I know my purpose. I know my passion. Where can I serve and what am I going to do with my life?" I guess, subconsciously I just had been thinking about this and reading the right books, listening to the right mentors, and all of a sudden I'm on this run listening to an artist by the name of Mike Stud. He now currently goes by just Mike.

            All of a sudden I have this idea. Bam, fader plugs. I run back to the beach house that we're renting and I said so excited, "Mom, dad, have this idea. It's fader plugs. It's going to be the coolest ear plug company that ever exists. We're going to help a ton of patients." Within the hour of having the idea, I'd bought the domain. I'd called up legal counsel to start to file the LLC and we were off to the races. Of course, I was excited about this going into graduate school but I knew that, "Blaise, this is a new journey going into grad school. You need to be focused. Focus on school and then fader plugs can be extracurricular at this point in time."

            It's interesting how the universe and God works. The first two weeks of grad school, my friend Mary, she worked at the Career Center. Met with Mary and one of her colleagues was like, "Hey, Blaise, I heard about an idea that you had called fader plugs and there's a business plan competition that East Stroudsburg University is hosting. Fast forward from 2015 to 2017, fader plugs competed in the PA State System Business Plan Competition. Out of 223 submissions, we placed first. Then, in 2017, we competed in the TecBRIDGE Business Plan Competition. We placed first.

            During this time was just, it was such an amazing time. I'm doing really well in school. We're building fader plugs. I had the opportunity to be the commencement speaker during our graduate commencement, which I was incredibly humbled by, so that was definitely a highlight time in my life. I think about those times a lot. It was during those times, I would say, in the trenches, working my tail off to get my master's degree in communication sciences and disorders and see where we can build fader plugs, and just a lot of great, great memories there.

            I was posed with, I would say a life dilemma. I didn't know, after graduate school, what to do but I had this burning sensation in my heart and my stomach that I was meant to go into the family private practice, which is Audiology Services, and build fader plugs. At that time, my girlfriend, Autumn, who is now my wife, we were just sitting at the kitchen table one night at my parents' home and I said, "You know, do you want to help me build Audiology Services and fader plugs?" I think to our patients right now the rest is history. We did just that.

            When I was faced with that decision to move forward and go into the private practice, I decided to not get my C's in speech language pathology. I didn't want anyone to think that I went to grad school and now I'm not getting my C's, I'm not going to be a speech language pathologist but I just knew in my heart of hearts that this was part of my journey. I'm so happy that I made that decision. It's so amazing that you are literally one decision away from your life completely changing, which is a lesson that I totally learned, and I'm so happy and grateful that I experienced.

            From 2017 up to May of 2022, we were building as a team, Audiology Services. I think back to all of the patients that we helped, so hosting our patient appreciation events, helping patients on the road to better hearing, implementing best practices, high standard of care, the ability to connect with fellow colleagues and learn from some of the top thought leaders in the industry. I will always remember and I will never, ever take for granted the opportunity that I've had at Audiology Services. I will tell you that navigating a small business in an audiology practice during a global pandemic was no easy feat.

            There was many sleepless nights but I believe that it is during those times of turmoil and pressure where you really learn about yourself. There is a reason why we are meant to be here, the team at Audiology Services. We are here to serve the Lehigh Valley and our community, to provide first class service to our patients and assist them throughout their entire hearing journey. I just want to thank our team there, Mary Sue, Megan, Autumn, Cheryl, Dr. Delfino, the entire team. What we have built is incredibly special and we have helped so many patients on the road to better hearing.

            I would say, probably the last year, I had been thinking to myself, "What's next? Fader Plugs is opening the first ear mold lab in the Lehigh Valley so we have that going on, and where do I go from here?" As a clinician but also an entrepreneur and business owner, I am a very firm believer in transfer of information and process of duplication so how can Audiology Services continue to provide first class service to our patients? Well, I needed to duplicate myself and that's exactly what I've been doing the past two years.

            Our newest team member, Megan Oaken, who you probably heard her episode last week, she has been with our team since 2020. I have been mentoring her for the past two, two and a half years, teaching her everything that I know and sharing my passion of hearing healthcare and helping patients on the road to better hearing. It is so cool to see her growth and how she's now helping patients on their journey to better hearing. The past two years I've definitely been thinking, "How can I make a global impact? How can I help more patients? How can I help more clinicians? How can I help more private practices?"

            I just really started to, number one, pray, asking God, "What direction do I go in? How do I continue to help patients on the road to better hearing? How can I help clinicians?" It was December of 2021. I'm going to take a sip of my coffee here. For those of you who don't know, I'm a big coffee drinker, love coffee. I should probably cut down. But December of 2021, I had the opportunity to travel to Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which is where Starkey is headquartered. I had the opportunity to interview five of their executives on the Hearing Matters Podcast.

            As I'm flying home from these interviews and listening back and seeing what edits I need to make, from an audio engineering standpoint because I love that, I just kept saying to myself, "I feel like this is where I need to be. I need to be at Starkey. These are my people. These are thought leaders and leaders in the hearing healthcare industry that I want to learn from, that I want to implement what they know and build other leaders and inspire other clinicians in private practices to implement high standard of care and implement best practices and continue to just help patients hear life's story."

            It's funny how life works. If we fast forward to the end of February of 2022 to the beginning of March, and I remember this ... I'll remember this for the rest of my life. It's a Sunday evening, six o'clock Eastern standard time, which would make it five o'clock Central standard time. I get a call and it says Minnesota, and I answer the phone call. On the other line I hear ... Kind of gets me a little choked up, "Hey, Blaise, this is Brandon [inaudible 00:15:50] from Starkey. I hear you want to make a greater impact in the industry."

            It was at this point in time where I knew that God had set me up to make a global impact in the hearing healthcare industry and to help patients. Man, here we are leaning into vulnerability. I appreciate y'all. You know, it was this phone call that really made me believe in myself. To all of those entrepreneurs out there, sometimes you need to believe in someone else's belief in you before you believe in yourself. It's a Sunday evening and the CEO and President of Starkey is calling me, a hearing care provider in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. How that made me feel and to know that this is the company I am supposed to be with, a company that cares, a company that puts the patient first, a company that has been around for over 50 years, founded by Bill Austin in 1967.

            We help patients hear better and live better. It was during this phone call that I knew, yes, I am supposed to be with Starkey. I am supposed to provide greater service to our industry, because you'll probably see a couple episodes back we interviewed Bob Berg, who was the author of the Go Giver. The key to success, it's not taking, it is being selfless and it is giving to others, and that is something that I learned throughout this journey. The more you give, the more you receive, but you need to give without expecting anything in return.

            If we fast forward now, it's August of 2022 and I have been with Starkey for almost three months. Audiology Services is still serving and will continue to serve strong the Lehigh Valley. Of course, Dr. Delfino is going to continue to provide first class service to the patients and Megan and Cheryl and the whole team is there to continue to help patients hear life's story and what an amazing journey this has been. Again, I've been with Starkey for the past three months. I am so excited for the opportunity that has been presented to me, and I'm very much looking forward to helping and continuing to help our patients hear better and live better and to serve our providers.

            I also feel as though that one of the burning desires and kind of nudges that I was getting the past year and a half to two years is, the hearing healthcare industry has been experiencing many threats throughout the years and in any industry leadership is so important. Leadership is key. In any organization, in any industry, it comes down to leadership. I wanted to make sure that I could be a voice for my patients, that I could be a voice in the hearing healthcare industry to defend an industry that helps so many patients, that helps so many providers because we believe, and I truly believe, that hearing healthcare is best served in the hands of the hearing healthcare provider.

            The hearing healthcare provider must be a part of the equation when it comes to overall hearing healthcare, hearing wellness. I am so grateful for the outpouring love that I have personally received over the past few years. To all of my fellow colleagues and graduates and where you're a hearing aid user, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your belief in me, especially my patients that believed in me as soon as I graduated from grad school. That is a trust that I will hold sacred for the rest of my life. It is because of the experiences and because of your trust in me that I am now able to shed light, shed a greater light on the hearing healthcare industry and make a global impact, which I vow to hold this responsibility.

            I vow to always keep the patient's needs and the patient's overall health in mind, at the forefront of every decision that I make as a leader in the hearing healthcare industry. I am here for all of you. I am here for the patient. I am here for the provider. If you have any questions about hearing healthcare, please do not hesitate to reach out. There will be contact information in the description of this episode if you're listening currently at Buzz Sprout, but I felt it in me to share what I've been up to the past three months because the patients that I fit with hearing technology, you deserve it.

            I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust in me, for your trust in Audiology Services. That is a trust we do not take lightly. Growing up in hearing healthcare and seeing my mother and father start Audiology Services and serve the Lehigh Valley for over 20 years, of course, I'm genetically predisposed to hearing healthcare and this is where I'm supposed to be. I am so grateful and so blessed to be where I am today. Again, I will continue to put the patient at the forefront of every decision that I make.

            You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. Until next time, hear life's story.