Guests: Annie Duchen, Au.D - Head of OTC Hearing Aid Sales & Customer Service at Sony. Amanda Fadden, Au.D. - OTC Product & Commercial Lead at Sony.

Dave is joined by Annie and Amanda to discuss the current state of the OTC hearing aid market, including the Sony offering and how clinicians are implementing these devices into their portfolio.

On this special episode of the podcast, Dave moderates a panel discussion from the Future of Hearing Healthcare Conference 2025 discussing a variety of bills that are being proposed or have recently passed to increase the scope of Audiology within each panelists' state.

The panel members are:

- Dr. Alicia Spoor (Maryland)

- Dr. Kelley Linton (Arkansas)

- Dr. Bryan Greenaway (Oregon)

- Stephanie Czuhajewski - Executive Director of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA)

Guests: Robert Sweetow, Ph.D. - Co-Inventor/Scientific Advisor and Miles Aron, Ph.D. - Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder

Dave is joined on the podcast this week by Robert & Aaron to discuss their company, Neurotone AI, and their flagship Auditory Training platform, LACE AI Pro.

Guests: Brent Jones, CEO & Robert Allen Au.D, Clinical Director of Topple Diagnostics

Dave kicks off the 2025 podcasting season by bringing on Brent and Robert to discuss their business, Topple Diagnostics. The conversation encompasses how the business was conceived and built, significant milestones as the business scaled, how they've found product-market-fit, and how they're trying to make vestibular diagnostics more accessible for patients and more affordable for clinics to provide.

Guest: Oli Luke - Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer for Orange & Gray

Oli joins Dave on the podcast this week to share his perspective on how to navigate and capitalize on the rapidly changing marketing environment within the hearing healthcare market.

Guests: Ross O'Neill Ph.D (Founding CEO) & Hubert Lim Ph.D (Chief Scientific Officer) of Neuromod

Dave is joined by Ross & Hubert to discuss:

- The backstory of how Ross & Hubert met and ultimately partnered together on Lenire

- Hubert's research and papers he wrote about paired stimulation & Pavlovian conditioning, which included data that identified tongue stimulation combined with sound as a promising direction to pursue

- An overview of what exactly tinnitus is and why Lenire presents such a novel approach to treating tinnitus

- Other types of synchronous-stimuli approaches that have emerged in other healthcare verticals (i.e. mirror therapy for phantom limb pain)

- The challenging process of gaining FDA approval and the clinical trials that were conducted throughout the process

- Being featured as the cover story on Nature Communications

- The initial roll-out of Lenire, the current state of the provider network, and the real-world data that's being collected and published

Guest: Patrick Lawler - Director of Sales at Cognivue

Patrick joins Dave on the podcast this week to share a personal testimonial about the need for better cognitive screenings in healthcare.

Guests: Jen La Borde BC-HIS & Chelsea Walters BC-HIS - Owners of Family Hearing

Jen and Chelsea sit down with Dave this week on the podcast to discuss:

- Their professional journeys, how they both ended up at Family Hearing, and then eventually partnering together to own and operate the clinic

- The process of evaluating the prospect of purchasing and owning a clinic

- Partnership - determining who does what, leveraging each other's strengths, and how to maintain a strong partnership when things go sideways with the business

- Transitioning from the original owners to Chelsea and Jen and choosing which aspects of the clinic to preserve and which to overhaul

- Staffing, cultivating talent and creating paths of upward mobility for employees

Guest: Kelsi Mangrem, Au.D. - Owner of Holland Hearing Center

Kelsi joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory, route into Audiology, and how she ultimately decided to purchase a private practice to own & operate

- Reminiscing on the first year of owning Holland Hearing Center - failing, learning and growing

- Methods for growing her network of fellow entrepreneurs and business owners and the benefits of cultivating that type of professional network

- The realities of owning and operating a private practice in 2024 - threats and opportunities

- Making the decision to remove third party administrator (TPA) plans from her offering

- How to differentiate a private practice in 2024

- Leaning into effective, modern digital marketing strategies

Guest: Reuben Zielinski - Co-Founder and Owner of Redux

Reuben joins Dave on the podcast this week for an in-person episode to discuss Reuben's professional journey that ultimately led him to designing and developing the Redux Drying System.

Guest: Chelsea Treseder, MBA - Cofounder of MyVitalsPro (MVP); VP of Business Development at Pivot Hearing

Chelsea joins Dave this week on the podcast to discuss:

- Her family's long-rooted history in the hearing healthcare industry (spanning 5 generations!)

- The three business ventures her family runs together: Kenwood Hearing, Pivot Hearing, and MyVitalsPro

- The realities of working in a family business and the importance of identifying clear roles and responsibilities

- Identifying gaps in a market based on deep expertise and building solutions to fill those gaps (i.e. MVP)

- What makes MyVitalsPro unique and valuable to a private practice owner

- Small businesses being empowered by tools that had previously been limited to enterprises and the macro trend of technology being, "the great equalizer"

- The types of trends that Chelsea and her team are noticing within their MVP data (i.e. managed care trends)

- How to build a business when you don't have a blueprint or any reference point to take your cues from

Guest: Craig Kasper, Au.D - Founder & Managing Director of NYHD | Institute for Hearing & Balance

Craig joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- His backstory and how he got into Audiology, gaining a business background as a consultant, and then returning to Audiology to start a private practice

- Craig's process of acquiring business acumen and expertise and then leveraging those skills in a private practice

- The importance of actively building relationships with all types of allied medical professionals and being the expert in all things Audiology (not just hearing aids)

- Takeaways from the 2024 American Academy of Audiology conference

- Dr. Kasper's longtime specialization with tinnitus patients and his initial experience with bimodal neuromodulation tinnitus treatments

- Ways the market might adapt to a growing demand for hearing care services with a flat or diminishing supply of Audiologists

- Mentorship in Audiology - bridging the generational gap and imparting wisdom from one generation to the next

Guest: Tom Goyne, Au.D. - Owner of Aberdeen Audiology, Adjunct Professor at Salus University, and Founder of Integrative Audiology

Tom joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Tom's backstory, journey into Audiology, and the three hats he wears as private practice owner, professor, and practice management consultant

- How the field of Audiology and the broader industry that surrounds it has changed across the past 25 years

- What Tom is seeing from his students about the kind of Audiology work that they're seeking post-graduation and how that's shifting from past generations

- The growing significance and impact that auditory training and APD work is having within Tom's clinic

- What types of new roles and responsibilities the Audiologist will take on into the future and how to set oneself up to capitalize on those changes

Guest: Daniel Romero, Ph.D. - Vestibular Audiologist and Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Daniel joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss some of their main takeaways from the 2024 American Balance Society Conference.

Emilie Joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory, personal experience with a loved one's hearing loss and dementia, and the serendipity surrounding her path to Audiology

- Entering into a profession and being energized about the direction Audiology is heading (closer to the brain)

- "The Big Onion" patient experience and the value of providing a holistic approach

- Earning her Au.D. at Nova Southeastern, her mentors, and identifying which facets of Audiology she wanted to focus on

- Her residency at Weill Cornell and rounding out her skillset with as much specialty hands-on experience as possible

- Endlessly learning and seeking out challenging scenarios to grow from and invest in oneself

- Emilie's perspective on personal brand building and how she envisions using social media throughout her career

Guest: Jennifer Micacci, Au.D. - Owner of Best Life Hearing Center

Jennifer joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory, how she ended up in Audiology, and her path to becoming a practice owner

- The noticeable leaps forward that hearing aid technology has taken in the past decade

- Some of the major differences between Jennifer's experience working inside an ENT office vs. her own private practice

- The rationale behind why she decided on her first location for Best Life Hearing and the considerations that went into expanding to three locations

- The challenges that come from scaling a practice and methods to hone new skills (i.e. cultivating leadership skills)

- The increasing impact managed care is having on Best Life and some ideas that Jennifer is using to help navigate this challenge (i.e. upskilling Audiology Assistants)

- Finding other business owners and entrepreneurs to collaborate with and learn from

- Emerging opportunities and additional revenue generators of the future

Guest: Tish Gaffney, Au.D. - Professor of Audiology at Nova Southeastern University & President Elect of the American Academy of Audiology

Tish joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory, how she ended up in Audiology, and her path to becoming a professor at Nova Southeastern University

- Getting involved early in her career with various professional organizations, which she attributes as a major accelerant to her career's growth & establishing her professional network

- Her specialization in vestibular diagnostics and the growing interest in the vestibular side of Audiology among young professionals

- A brief overview of the trends happening in the nascent field of pediatric vestibular diagnostics

- The American Academy of Audiology's (AAA) goals in 2024 and then beyond during her tenure

- The intersection of Public Health and Audiology and how Hearing Professionals can "extend themselves" by imparting their institutional knowledge to allied medical professionals

Guest: Dave Fabry, Ph.D. - Chief Hearing Health Officer at Starkey

Dr. Fabry sits down with Dave this week to discuss:

- His start as an aspiring Veterinarian, which ultimately exposed him to Audiology (training Chinchillas to "perform" an audiogram)

- Dave's PhD, time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Clinical Fellowship at The Mayo Clinic

- The ACHIEVE study and Dave's big takeaways as both a clinician and researcher

- The emerging use cases for biometric and acoustical data sets that are being captured and logged by Starkey's latest hearing aids

- The evolution from machine learning-based applications to deep neural-net based applications for hearing aids

- The case for why this is the most exciting time for Audiologists and Hearing Professionals broadly speaking, even with the existing and forthcoming challenges on the horizon

- Career advice and words of wisdom from Dr. Fabry

Guest: Lindsey Koble, Au.D. - Owner of Audiology Always

Lindsey joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory and path toward launching a private practice Audiology clinic, Audiology Always, in 2023

- Lessons learned from externing at an ENT clinic and then working as a hearing aid field rep (Signia)

- The value of garnering generalized experience and specialty expertise

- The decision to launch her private practice and the preparation involved

- How to begin attracting patients - high-level strategies and day-to-day tactics

- The evolution of private practice Audiology in today's climate and how to navigate today's challenges/opportunities

- The importance of support staff and upskilling staff into handling more and more of the patient load

Guest: Frank Wartinger, Au.D. - Owner/Founder of Earmark Hearing Conservation

Frank joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss: - Frank's backstory as a musician, experiencing tinnitus at an early age, and his eventual pursuit to become an Audiologist

- Obtaining his Au.D. from Salus Univerity and some of his mentors along the way

- Starting EarMark Hearing Conservation to provide hearing wellness for musicians in the form of healthcare, hearing protection and occupational safety

- The importance of educating the musician community on the importance of hearing health so that musicians serve as vocal advocates and ambassadors of hearing healthcare within the music scene

- Frank becoming a Course Director with the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC)

- Extending the knowledge of hearing healthcare to allied medical professionals (i.e. occupational therapists) to dramatically expand the provision of hearing wellness

- The role that Frank's podcast, Talking Ears, has on his business

- Some of the highs and low, and learned experiences Frank's had over the first few years of his business