Gratitude and Grit: Thriving Against the Odds with Fader Plugs

Do you ever catch yourself daydreaming about the destination, only to realize the journey is where the magic truly happens? This episode is an invitation to marvel at the power of embracing the process, as we commemorate three years since the ground-breaking fader plug patent came to life. We take you down memory lane, exploring the rollercoaster of highs and lows, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way. From the importance of planning, budgeting, and executing, to the vitality of a supportive network - every pitfall and triumph has its place in the grand scheme. 

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? Or considered the immense growth that comes with each season of life? We delve into these concepts, and underline the necessity of adopting a slow success mindset. We're not talking about stagnation here, but rather nurturing character growth and keeping the ego at bay. As we whip out our umbrellas to dance in the rain, we reflect on how things going awry isn't necessarily a bad thing, but a stepping stone towards improvement. 

Finally, we bring our gratitude front and center, expressing sincere appreciation for the mentors, supporters, and the community that's been with us from the get-go. We also address the escalating national epidemic of hearing loss, and discuss our collective role in addressing it. Keeping a pulse on the bigger picture, we remind ourselves and our listeners that every step of the journey counts, and every challenge faced contributes to the success story. So buckle up and join us, as we toast to the lessons, growth, gratitude, and the hope that fuels our journey.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

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 Weave, the all-in-one patient communication and engagement platform. Cycle, built for the entire hearing care practice. Redux faster, drier, smarter, verified. Otoset, the modern ear cleaning device. Welcome back to another episode of the Hearing Matters podcast. I'm your host, blazdel Fino. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. I'm actually recording this quite early in the morning and I have my cup of joe here, so excited to spend a little bit of my morning with you getting prepped for the day. Or maybe you're driving home from work right now. Either way, I'm hoping that everyone is having an excellent day better than good and just wanting to extend my gratitude for you lending your ears, whether it be the past month since you discovered the Hearing Matters podcast, or you've been on this journey since 2019. I think it's so important to extend gratitude and again, thank you so much for the continued support. This is a special episode and it is really all about the I want to say failures or, as some like to say, ways that didn't work with the fader plug journey. So this is an anniversary episode. This isn't going to be like a downer episode of oh you know, we tried this and that didn't work. It's really a way in which I believe we're able to inspire you, fellow hearing health care professionals, to understand that vision has different versions, and that's something that I've personally learned throughout this life journey, throughout this entrepreneurial journey. The anniversary episode we are celebrating three years since the fader plug patent has been issued and a special thank you to everyone that has been on this journey. It's been quite the journey.

Speaker 1: 2:30

So what does that even look like? Well, what happened in 2020? We had a global pandemic, and I say the two greatest things happened in 2020. Number one I got married. And the second is the patent was issued.

Speaker 1: 2:46

And if you've been following this show, you'll know that I am a former private practice owner. My family started a private practice years ago, so I've been in hearing health care really since. I've been biting ankles, essentially, if you will, and when I got news that the patent was issued, it was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, but at that point in time, I wasn't really implementing as much mindfulness or just living in the moment. And sure, there will be entrepreneurs who say, like life will be sort of unbalanced at times, and I totally agree with that. But I wanted to bring you through, and bring us through, my top five takeaways as I reflect this year, in 2023. So, while I was excited that the patent was issued, my mind automatically went to all right, well, now we're leveling up. Now there's a whole new set of challenges we're going to face, because building an organization and building a company, it comes with levels. You're building different platforms. But my first takeaway as I reflect this year, as I'm older, wiser, a more seasoned entrepreneur and more seasoned student of business, my first takeaway I want to discuss today is something I learned from a mentor's plan, budget and execute.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Now, plan, budget and execute. What the heck does that even mean? This is very similar to building a house. So, if you've built a house physically with your hands, if you are building a house and you're having contractors do it, or really, if you're building anything, if you're building a car, usually what you're going to do is plan it out. So, if you're building a home, you're going to have the prince. You're going to budget everything out. Ok, we're going to source the wood from this supplier. We're going to source, you know, electrical services from this organization. You really do budget out every single expense almost to the T. So at the end of the project it's not like, oh hey, you owe thousands of dollars to this contractor but you didn't budget that in. So again, you're planning, creating that blueprint, you're budgeting and then you're executing.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Now, this is something that I personally didn't do in the beginning of the fader plug journey, and the reason being number one, I was a younger entrepreneur and, at that point in time, was definitely heavily influenced by a lot of the entrepreneurs at that time. Or, you know, go out and get it, make it happen at all costs. I'll tell you, it cost and I'm grateful for the opportunity. But I'm also, you know, failed fast, learned quick and pivoted. But now, looking back, and again every year, I reflect on this journey and the first thing that came to mind was I need to talk to our community about planning, budgeting and executing, and you can implement this in your life. You know, my wife Autumn and I we're always talking about that plan, budget and execute, even just for everyday living, you know, for budgeting out our own personal expenses and things of that nature. So my big takeaway is plan, budget and execute. But we had a video project that we were doing. The video turned out incredible. I mean, we still use it today for marketing but sort of just said, yep, all right, let's do it. It's going to cost decks, so let's make it happen, without really analyzing and budgeting and with very limited execution, I would say. But of course today it's interesting you can't see the picture when you're in the frame. I feel like being outside of the frame now I'm better able to see things, to kind of slow the roll, to talk about the pros and cons of each decision. So the first takeaway that I wanted to discuss with y'all today is plan, budget and execute.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Leaning into the second takeaway, I've mentioned this before. You know I have faith, I believe in God and I believe that I am where I am today because of God 100%. And if you know my journey and you understand my journey, you will know that I was pretty involved in music. I would play a bunch of shows locally to the Lehigh Valley, had a couple opportunities to play in New York City, traveled some, and I am where I am today because that's where my skill set lies, but also because where God wants me and as a younger entrepreneur. That was really tough to grasp, because I always thought that I was going to perform, I was going to be a musician. So in 2014, 2014, I graduated undergrad and then I took that year as a exploratory year, if you will, that's my way of saying. I didn't get into grad school, I took an exploratory year. So I took that year, but it was such an eye-opening year for me.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I did have my hearing instrument specialist license so I was able to fit patients and help them hear life story. While I was fitting patients, I engineered a full-length album for a hip-hop artist and I was doing a lot of audio engineering. Look where we are today. A lot of what we do at this podcast and other projects that I work on, it's audio engineering. It's the skills that I was acquiring all of those years, and I always stop but no, no, I'm a musician. God's going to elevate me, you know, and I'm going to perform in front of people at the Grammys, right, and God's like, yeah, and you know, it's that ego, it's that edging God-off where you think you know the plan, but it's really not your plan, it's his plan, and really everything that has happened with this fader plug journey is all in his time. So, again, I always thought that I would be a performer and I would, you know, tour and do audio engineering. And I kept thinking like all right, god, you know, show me the way. How can I continue to be connected and integrated in the music industry? Because I love music? Just show me the way. What does that look like?

Speaker 1: 9:23

And in July July 2015, I was on a run in Long Beach, ireland, new Jersey. That's where our family was vacationing. And out of nowhere, and, mind you, I was listening to an artist by the name of Mike Stud. Now he goes by Mike, just Mike, period and you know I've sent him this via Instagram message and it's pretty cool, he's responded. So he knows that I was listening to his music when I had this idea. One of the lines in his song is a team full of stars, my life's a constellation. And as I'm listening to his song, all Good.

Speaker 1: 10:02

The word fader plugs just comes to me. You know, out of nowhere, and again, that was divine intervention. I had a mind at that point that was open to everything and close to nothing and God said all right, please run with it, literally and figuratively, fader plugs. So I run back to the beach house that we were renting for the week and, you know, share the idea with my parents. Literally within like 30 minutes, I called our attorney. I had an appointment to set up the LLC, I bought the domain and you know the logo was being created. And that's really all about action. Now, of course, I just talked about plan, budget, execute.

Speaker 1: 10:41

But there will be instances in life where it is that divine intervention or whatever you believe in, whether it be the universe, you know that intuition, that, hmm, I'm getting an itch here. I feel this down deep in my belly. I need to take action. And that's what that was. I think to myself all the time. Had I not taken action, where the heck would I be today? And this is where I believe that all in his time, I get, you know, messages of oh Blaze, you know one, fader plugs coming out. You've been talking about it for years. All in his time.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Vision has versions. The first and second version of fader plugs would have been a complete failure, even the third. But I will tell you now I'm not going to say much about, you know, releasing in this and that we are in a position where we are ready to help a lot of people and that is an exciting, exciting feeling. And I've also learned as a entrepreneur, and you know business owner, patience is key. Patience is a virtue. Patience is so hard, but we can learn to live in the now. Just like I've talked about Eckhart Tolle's the Power of Now, and you're so present, I will tell you you're going to open up your mind to the field of possibilities and I will tell you when we talk about, you know, all in his time, it is really all in his time, and if we were to really gone to market in 2017, 2018, it just would have been sloppy.

Speaker 1: 12:12

The initial version to the attenuator or the tuner of the fader plug we actually changed the sizes two times, purchased a micro injection mold for a size we don't even use and will never use. So you know it was said oh, can you decrease the, the tuner? And we said sure. So we did it by 63%. If you know anything about 3D printing and micro injection molding, 63% reduction of a product that's already small is insane. So we're like, oh yeah, we did it. Guess what Didn't really test it. We had the mold built. We did not plan, budget and execute. Lesson learned, we bounced back from that, but again, vision has different versions. The fader plug has had different versions. Now we're at a version where we're ready to rock and roll, but again, all in his time.

Speaker 1: 13:05

I'm Andy Frisela fan. I believe I was listening to a podcast and took him about like 10 years before first form actually like was rocking and rolling. I mean, he was working different jobs to make sure to. You know, first form had some capital to be infused into it. But I don't, I don't rush anymore, I don't. You'll never rarely, you know see me. You know, oh, coming in, you know, january 2024. When we're ready, you're going to know, you're going to see on social and you're going to hear about it and it's super exciting because it's all in his time.

Speaker 1: 13:41

The third takeaway that I've been reflecting on is embrace and enjoy the process, and take a sip of my cup of Joe. Embracing and enjoying the process. This is something where you know I really personally had to learn and I'm sure you have had as well. You know you have your days and maybe you have a goal. Let's just say you set a goal and that goal is to help 25 patients this month get into hearing technology. And you know, you plan, you budget, you execute, you plan and then you work the plan and then you accomplish it and then it's like all right, we did that. Well, now, what? Well, part of that? Now, what group can be very unfulfilling? Now, just even the past year, learning about to be mindful and present and literally in the moment and just enjoying every step.

Speaker 1: 14:34

You know, as fader plugs is ready to launch and we have everything in the queue, I find myself like, oh man, I missed that journey or I missed that process. And maybe it's the battle of like I'm young but it's like man. That was sort of like those youthful days of building the organization, those youthful days of being a company, or those youthful days of just like learning as an entrepreneur, because I was in my you know, 20s and learning all this new stuff. So, to kind of be away from the now, what group to now like, well, we're in the now, so enjoy the process. And I was. I was present during the earlier stages of building this company and organization, but it was always thinking about the next thing, whereas now it's like complete reframe. Here I am in the moment, I'm going to enjoy this call with the team and we're going to talk about marketing and how do we create those brand relevant memories. So it's really just being in the moment and embracing the process, embracing the now.

Speaker 1: 15:44

And I'm a huge believer in the law of detachment. So the law of detachment, in simple form, says that you have a mind that's open to everything, close to nothing, but also you're not attached to the end outcome. So how often you know, if you submit a proposal, let's say, and the customer doesn't accept it, and that puts you in a mood, so that means that that individual's decision had power and has power over your feelings and how you're feeling in that moment. Well, what the law of detachment is, it's I'm not attached to the outcome. So, whatever will be will be, and again, embracing and enjoying the process and the journey.

Speaker 1: 16:31

To be transparent, I'm not attached to how successful or how unsuccessful this launch of fader plugs is going to be. I know that in the heart of hearts, again, we go to that second takeaway all in a time. This is all meant to be, this is also supposed to happen and we're going to help a lot of people because our heart and mind is in the right place. But I'm not attached to that end result or that outcome. We have goals. We want to set those specific, measurable, attainable it's early in the morning here, I can't go through these acronyms y'all. We're going to set those smart goals, but I'm not going to be attached to that outcome. That's that third takeaway of just like embracing the process. I don't want to be attached to that outcome, and really is a beautiful way to live, because all too often it's like oh, I hope they accept the proposal, I hope they accept this. I wonder what they're thinking about how I structured this sentence. You know what? Everything is a work of art. Put your proposal together, submit it and let it be.

Speaker 1: 17:31

Focus on the now, enjoy the process, be present right now, because you deserve it, your family deserves it, your friends deserve it. I believe I'm not going to say who I think conducted the study because I don't want to be completely wrong but 47 to 48% of individuals are unconscious, so that means that it's like almost half of us are not embracing or enjoying the process of life and that's sad. And again, that's why you know Hearing Matters podcast and just our organization and community. We want to focus not only on hearing healthcare and helping patients hear life story and help you build your business and whether you're a student, you know, provide you with tools to successfully get through four years that are insanely stressful, but if you focus on the now, it's a beautiful thing. Enjoy the process.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Every athlete you'll hear, you know, dion Sanders. He's at Colorado now. First of all, the second takeaway that we talked away of all in his time, dion, you know, knew that. You know my job was done. He coached that Jackson, I believe. So, like now he's at Colorado and he said this is where I'm supposed to be, this is where God wants me, and I can really resonate with that. So my third takeaway of this fader plug journey and celebrating the anniversary of fader plugs is embracing and enjoying the process.

Speaker 1: 18:54

The fourth takeaway has to do with wanting to quit. Raise your hand if you've ever wanted to quit something in your life. Yeah, I've done it in both of my hands. However, if you quit once, okay, maybe you quit for certain circumstances, but if you quit something two, three, four times, that becomes conditioned. So three feet from gold.

Speaker 1: 19:16

So there's the story of a gentleman who was digging for gold and you know he had this incredibly fruitful field and he was digging. It was digging, you know, gold here, gold there, and then all of a sudden it all dried up and he literally left all of the equipment in the field. He said the heck with this. He and his family up and left. Now another gentleman came out, hired an engineer and said okay, I want to dig for gold, this is a fruitful field, can you help me? So they surveyed it and the engineer said, oh okay, well, three feet from this hole there should be a vein. Now I don't know how all this works, so just bear with me here. The gentleman said okay, I trust you, you're an engineer starts digging for gold, literally gold mine. The first individual who you know bought the land and walked away. Had he planned, budgeted and executed and he would have called in counsel and resources to help him he would have hit that gold mine Like it wasn't dried up. Maybe that specific vein was dried up, but that gold mine three feet from him was a surplus. So you see how this whole episode sort of intertwining Again, just speaking from the heart and off the cuff here.

Speaker 1: 20:39

But when we talk about three feet from gold, there's been times throughout this journey where we've been thrown so many curveballs, you know, so many hardships, tears shed during this journey. I mean, I'm not getting too dramatic here, but you know, as a private practice owner, you've had your days. You've had your struggles. As a student, you've had your struggles. You've had your days. But I encourage you, please take it from me you are three feet from gold. Plan, budget, execute, have faith, enjoy the process, because if you do all that, you know you're three feet from gold. God's got your back. Whatever you believe in, whoever you believe in the universe, it's got your back. As long as you're a good person, that law of karma you put out good good's gonna come back to you. You're three feet from gold and I think I'm talking to many of you right now.

Speaker 1: 21:35

You're probably in a time, in a space right now, where you're like damn, I don't know, blaze, I might just want to pack it in, I want to give it up. I get it, I get it totally. But have you planned, budgeted and executed? Have you leaned on counsel? Have you leaned on mentors? Have you called in a specialized individual who can help you find that new gold vein? I'm talking to you right now and I understand it, but that's a takeaway that I learned from this journey is we've been three feet from gold many times and right now we're so close and I have a big smile on my face right now because I know what it's like to be so stressed out, because you want this to work so bad and you've invested so much time, effort, energy, capital and it's like my gosh, when is this gonna work? All in his time, it's gonna work. Something's gonna come out of it. You know, at the end of success is pain, and you are already in pain right now, so you might as well get a reward from it. I'm gonna take a swig of my cup of Joe again. It's a beautiful morning here in South Carolina. Love it down here. You know, it's like the pink sunrise, it's absolutely beautiful. So it's been awesome to spend this morning with you, and whether you're driving to work, driving from work, or you're enjoying your cup of Joe with me, you know. Thank you so much for lending your ears to me this morning.

Speaker 1: 23:53

Now the fifth takeaway the best laid plans are Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law is this anything that can go wrong Will go wrong. You know, the best laid plans of my cement goes back to plan, budget and execute, and just know so. With Murphy's Law, if anything can go wrong. It will go wrong. Again, don't think that things are going to go wrong. However, plan, budget, execute. Go about your day excited to capture the day, to make a difference, but just understand that there are going to be those speed bumps throughout your journey. And again, if you are mindful, if you're in the moment, you're going to plan, budget, execute, you're going to enjoy the process. Understand that not everything that happens in our life is in our time. You're most likely three feet from gold. There's going to be a few curveballs. That's how the universe works. That's how God works. He says okay, how bad do you want this Really? You're praying for patience. I'm going to put this circumstance in front of you. I'm going to see how you handle that. Enjoy the process and understand that Murphy's Law anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Again.

Speaker 1: 25:11

You know we had we didn't really plan, budget and execute the decrease in size of the attenuator. So that's an awful description there, but sort of can length the connection Decreasing the size of the attenuator. From an aesthetic standpoint it made sense. From a functionality standpoint it made absolutely no sense and didn't change the attenuation. We could just say, yeah, we can make it smaller and look what we did. That's nothing, to you know, hang our hat about. We wanted to make it smaller, made it smaller and Murphy's Law kicked in. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Yeah, it sure did, which we didn't think about. And again, lesson learned, we brushed off our shoulders and brushed off the mud and the dirt and we got back to work, but understanding that there are these seasons of life and I have written down here, you know, the seasons of life.

Speaker 1: 26:00

So, with Murphy's Law and this comes from Jim Rohn, I'm a huge Jim Rohn fan. God rest his soul, my gosh, his stuff. He's one of the best public speakers and I listened to him on a weekly basis and again, throughout this entire fader plug journey. You know, talking about these takeaways, I've learned so much from his teachings. Again, that's Jim Rohn, R-O-H-N. You know he talks about the seasons of life, capitalized in the spring and summer, plant in the spring, harvest in the fall. I think I got that one right.

Speaker 1: 26:36

We have seasons of life and, with the best laid plans and Murphy's Law, we need to learn how to embrace and really capitalize on the summer and springs of life and navigate the winters. Because for the past, how many thousands of years. What comes after fall, winter, what comes after winter, spring, growth, right For the past thousands of years. And that's life as well. So life is like the seasons and we need to understand and learn. When we are three feet from gold and we hit that gold, mine keep on going, keep that positive mental attitude and embrace the journey and be present and grateful throughout that, because again we're going to have those shedding seasons, like winter is like a shedding season, winter is like a test time. All right, you know you've put in the work.

Speaker 1: 27:36

How bad do you still want it? It's in those times, those challenging times, where you really start to learn how bad do you want something like? How bad do you want to grow your practice? Do you want to be multi-location? Do you want to be one singular rock star location? Do you want to go mobile? If you're a student, maybe you don't want to go into private practice but you want to work in a manufacturer, or you know there's so much you can do in the field of audiology. So it's that Murphy's Law you can set out those plans, but something can go wrong. But to me, I look at that as a way of testing of how bad we actually want it from the powers that be, and I read this quote yesterday and I wanted to share it with you.

Speaker 1: 28:19

Slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego. And again, vision has versions. We've been working on this project really since 2016, and we are just about at the cost of ready to rock. If you will. Going back to that analogy of building a home, if you want something that's built to last, you want a really thick foundation, right? You want that foundation to be in the ground. You don't want it to move, you want it to hold up that house. You need to lay that foundation.

Speaker 1: 28:55

All too often you hear so many stories of these individuals who had fast success and all this money and then, guess what, they have too much month at the end of the money, or lottery winners, because, again, it's all about mindset. Everything in life is all about mindset. If you have a lack mindset and you win the lottery, chances are you're going to blow all that money. Slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego, and what ego is is edging God off.

Speaker 1: 29:24

So this anniversary episode, I really felt it in me. I felt a calling of. I want to talk to our community about five of the takeaways that I reflected on this year, because every year they're different, because I've experienced new situations, I've experienced different circumstances and I do believe that life is the greatest teacher if we embrace it. Again, those five takeaways plan, budget, execute Number two is all in his time. Number three embrace and enjoy the process. Slash law of detachment. Number four was three feet from gold. Number five was the best laid plans or Murphy's law, and a special shout out and thank you to Dr Douglas Beck, who introduced us, to Dr Grant Searchfield, who conducted research on fader plugs.

Speaker 1: 30:17

I will put in the show notes, if you're listening on Buzzsprout or even Apple Podcasts, the last paragraph. I'll put a little segment from that research article. It's really cool and just super grateful for those two as well, for their mentorship and belief in this journey, but also this product as well. It's super, super exciting. We're so grateful.

Speaker 1: 30:39

Again, thank you so much for dedicating 37, 38 minutes of your day to hang out with me and talk about life, talk about hearing, healthcare. It's so enlightening to see so many, really all of our community members who are so passionate about what we do and wanting to get 1% better every single day, and I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to every single one of my mentors, because we talk about self made success, but no success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal and every success story. I didn't do this on my own had so many mentors and teachers throughout the way, so thank you so much. There's too many to name, but I just want to thank you all so much for your continued support. Please, if I can be a sounding board pun intended reach out to us.

Speaker 1: 31:30

Our email address is in the show notes, but I hope everyone has an incredible day. I hope you continue to hear life story and just know you're going to get through it. You are three feet from gold. We're tuned in to the hearing matters podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices and a growing national epidemic Hearing loss. I'm Blais Del Fino, your host, and until next time, hear life story.