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He Brought Hearing Aids To Bingo Night And Built A Practice

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Imagine programming hearing aids while the TV is actually on, or fine-tuning a patient’s settings in the middle of a lively social hour—with high ceilings, echo, and live music. That’s the power of mobile audiology, and it’s where our conversation with Dr. Brad Stewart shines: practical, human, and built for better outcomes.

We unpack how Brad launched a lean, house-call model out of necessity, then turned it into a concierge service that seniors actually use and love. From free onsite screenings and clean-and-checks to education sessions and yes, calling bingo, Brad shows how authentic presence inside retirement communities creates trust, accelerates referrals, and lets clinicians solve real problems in real environments. Portable audiometers and connected programming tools make accurate in-home testing not only possible but often more effective, because you can optimize in the exact acoustic challenges patients face every day.

The story isn’t just growth; it’s wisdom. Brad scaled to serve nearly a hundred communities, experimented with a vestibular clinic, and made the hard decision to close it when the model strained his health and marriage. We talk candidly about stress, vision, and the humility to pivot—even when it looks like failure from the outside. You’ll hear how to set a clear practice vision, build systems that empower teams, navigate slow months without panic, and choose services that match your values and energy. If you’re considering a mobile vertical or rethinking your practice model, you’ll leave with tactics you can deploy tomorrow and a mindset that puts patient experience first.

Want more? Join Brad’s free Facebook community, the Mobile Audiology Collective, to learn from providers doing this work today. If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a review so more clinicians can discover smarter, more accessible hearing care.

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Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a global epidemic. Hearing loss. Before we kick this episode off, a special thank you to our partners. Sycle: built for the entire hearing care practice. Caption Call by Sorenson: Life is Calling. Care Credit: Here today to help more people here tomorrow. Fader Plugs: the world's first custom adjustable earplug. Welcome back to another episode of the Hearing Matters Podcast. I'm founder and host, Blaise Delfino. And as a friendly reminder, this podcast is separate from my work at Starkey. I am your host, Blaise Delfino, and joining us today is the one, the only, Dr. Brad Stewart. Dr. Brad, welcome to the Hearing Matters podcast. We're so happy to have you on the show.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Thanks, Blaise. It's an honor to be here.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

We have been connected, I would say, since 2019. I believe it was the first time you and I actually met in person. And then the entire world shut down as a result of COVID. But since that time, we've been connected on social media. And Brad, you have such an incredible story. I really love your entrepreneurial spirit, your business mindset. And you were able to really build up a mobile audiology model, practice model, if you will. And that's what we're going to talk about today because when we talk about accessibility and affordability, mobile audiology absolutely fits that equation. So share with us your mobile audiology practice, why you wanted to start with mobile audiology and what the process looked like. Definitely.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Yeah, I think it's really been fascinating to see how the profession has started to shift in the direction of doing mobile audiology. I think it's becoming much more common for providers to be interested in providing house call services or have these buses that are going out to rural communities and providing services. I think it's really, really neat how changes, challenges in the economy and challenges in the healthcare market have caused audiologists to be more creative in the way that we deliver value and care to patients. My background, the story behind why I did mobile in the first place, was actually more of a story of necessity than it was of like any kind of creative genius. I was working in my first job as an employee at a private audiology practice. And that job ended up being a job that I no longer had. The practice owner and myself weren't a great fit. And so I found myself without that job. And at the point, at that point, I was, you know, in my mid-20s. And I had a wife that was four months pregnant, and I had student debt and I didn't have a job. And I didn't see myself working for another practice. So I wanted to go out on my own. But at that point in my life, I didn't have any resources to buy a practice or open up a brick and mortar location. And so I said, you know, I know how to help patients. I know that I have kind of the business ability, the capability to go out and create a practice that'll be successful. And so mobile audiology just made a lot of sense, actually going to people, bringing my equipment to them, much lower overhead for me and much more personalized service for patients. And so I started making connections with senior learning facilities in the area and providing those services.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Brad, I love the story because you learned to pivot. You learned to run lean. And running lean when you're first getting started in a business is so important. You know, you had a LinkedIn post yesterday and I commented transfer of information and process of duplication. Like that's really what business is all about. And what you're able to do, I so admire the creative aspect because that is creative, Brad. It's how can I run lean? How can I help as many patients as possible? And that's with mobile audiology. Share with us what your experience was like working with these senior homes. What did the process look like in terms of creating and establishing a relationship with some of these retirement homes and senior livings? Because that's also a process in and of itself. You're selling yourself as much as you're selling your services.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Definitely. Yeah, absolutely. I so I'm in the Dallas area, which Dallas Fort Worth is a huge market with hundreds and hundreds of senior living communities. And so it was very evident to me that there were thousands and thousands of seniors in this area that weren't providing, weren't receiving the highest level of concierge care. There are people that can't get out of their community, or it's very hard for them to get out of their community, and they needed this service. And so, really, my approach was to research the senior living facilities that were in the area and just offer to bring some value to the community. You know, we started doing free clinics for some of the communities where we'd come in and look in people's ears, do hearing screenings, do clean and checks on their hearing aids, just kind of get in there and provide some complimentary services and start making relationships with the residents. We'd come in and do educational lunch and learns. And, you know, when I was early on, if there was an opportunity for me to be inside these communities and network and meet the people that lived in the communities, I would do it. So I've called bingo, I've brought, you know, boxes of wine to social hours, you name it, I've done it to get into these communities. But it's really ultimately it's all about it's all about the relationship because these communities are tight-knit, they talk to each other, they're all friends. You have to really bring your A game and your very best every time you're there because good news travels fast, bad news travels faster. And so you really want to be bringing your best.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

When I first started getting involved with the practice in 2014, very similar to your model, I was loading up the audiometer, driving to the nursing homes. And I know you can relate because when you fit a patient for the first time with hearing technology in an environment they're comfortable in, which is their now home, that's such a great feeling to have. So you've established the relationship with the nursing homes and these retirement facilities, and you are able to sell your services and really get buy-in from the decision makers at these homes. What did the care look like? Because we have a lot of providers tuned in right now that might be saying, Well, can I still provide that first class care? You had mentioned concierge. I love it because you're literally driving to their home in an environment they're so comfortable in. But what did the care model look like? Because we know that your overall patient satisfaction was incredibly high. So I'd love to know more about that.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Yeah, I think a lot of audiologists have questions around how do you actually do a hearing test in somebody's home, right? And so, you know, I mean, the beauty of the time that we live in is just that the technology is so good that we can have these little tiny portable audiometers and they attach to our laptop and we can go into the room. And assuming the room has pretty, pretty low level of noise, we can do a really accurate hearing test just inside of somebody's apartment. And then the really cool thing, I mean, the thing that's like such a huge differentiator and such a huge experience that you can't create for somebody in a clinic environment is, you know, as you alluded to, when you're fitting somebody with hearing aids, we're in the situations where they're having difficulty. So if they have trouble watching their favorite TV show, cool, let's schedule your appointment at a time when the show is on so I can come out and we can make adjustments as you're listening. I actually had a patient who had a really challenging hearing loss, really poor speech understanding, really poor speech and noise ability. She really wanted to be able to go to these social hours at her senior living community and just like hang out with her friends and have conversations while live music was going on, which is a tough situation, right? It's tough. It's tough. And we're talking like high ceilings, echo, like bad acoustics. But the thing is, I so I actually came out after hours to her community while one of these was going on, brought my laptop, had her hearing aids connected, and it became like not only did we get her hearing more dialed into the specific situation and create a program for the specific situation, which was great for the patient. In addition to that, we had a little audience, a little crowd of people that were all curious what we were doing. And so they were all gathered around watching me make adjustments to this woman's hearing aids and then seeing in real time as she was hearing better. And it was just like on the spot, patients were like, oh my goodness, this is incredible, you know. So just really powerful, really powerful.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

One of my favorite books is The Go Giver by Bob Berg. And I will tell you, my friend, you are a Go giver because the secret to success is giving and doing it authentically. And what you were doing, you made with what you had. You have this passion for helping people, you have this passion for helping individuals who present with hearing loss. Your barrier to entry was really nothing. Like you, you, if there was a barrier, you ran right through that, my friend. I think that is so incredible. This reminds me yesterday, Autumn, you know, my wife Autumn, she and I worked the practice together. And we were saying how when we first started, we were not using a CRM system for scheduling. And having experience in the mobile audiology space, if you will, we were using a paper planner. So I have to know, Brad, like what type of scheduling equipment did you use with your mobile audiology business?

Dr. Brad Stewart:

I will admit that there was a paper planner involved at times, but yeah, use counseler. And so everything was going into an office management system. And I brought my laptop with me and my iPad with me, and we were doing everything on the fly there. But yeah, that's funny. I can imagine trying to run an entire practice off of a paper planner would be a challenge.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Yeah, it was it was tough. And then we finally we got cycle and it worked out great for us. You know, Brad, you have to get creative. I love the fact with mobile audiology, you're creating that accessibility and affordability. When you mention calling bingo and doing things that are out of the ordinary, maybe, because you have to do that as an entrepreneur and a business owner. What was the response like with that? Because the patient or maybe prospective patient, Brad, they're seeing you in a different light. Like you're humanizing yourself by doing those things.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Yeah, it's true. I think that as a practice owner and a leader in a business, one of the first things you kind of have to do to be successful is just drop the ego and kind of be willing to do whatever needs to be done to make things work. And so when I was going through my doctorate program, did I imagine that I'd be calling dingo for a group of seniors? Like not necessarily, but you know, I did the event. And then afterwards, I would have really like every time I would do that type of event, inevitably at the end, I would have people walk up to me and we'd have really impactful conversations and have people that were interested in working with me because, as you said, they got to see me as a person and we connect it on a personal level. And, you know, I mean, kind of like you were talking about earlier with the go-giver and being generous and being patient-centered. If you can with integrity be aligned, always aligned with what's in your patient's best interest, things just work. Like everything else just falls into place. If you create the best experience, if you create the best customer service, if you wow, people, it just works.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Brad, it reminds me, and I know you have experience with this, you have an off month or things just aren't going the way that you planned them. Because you're trying to go against the universe. How did you, as a private practice owner, navigate those choppy waters?

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Man, I I've had a lot of them for sure. I think that the I think the key is just being willing to be flexible and being willing to change and to pivot. I had multiple pivots in my practice. I wasn't just a mobile audiologist, not just a mobile audiology practice owner. I ran a vestibular practice with a full physical therapy team at one point. We had a tinnitus clinic. We did a lot of different things. And in many cases, those were us responding to what's happening in our practice and in the market and positioning ourselves to, you know, be the place that patients want to go. So I think that I think not getting entrenched in mindsets and being willing to learn and grow is the biggest key.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

And I love the word there, pivot, because the market, you're not going to tell the market what it needs to do. It's facing the brutal fact, as Jim Collins would say, from good to great, you have to face the brutal facts and pivot accordingly. But again, to your point, keeping the patient's best interest always number one. Because it's interesting the months that you ensure you get rid of that egoic mindset, you put the patient first. Isn't it pretty insane how those months really flow, Brad?

Dr. Brad Stewart:

100%. When you get where you're in the flow of, as you said, in the flow of the universe, which does sound a little bit woo-woo, but I actually really do believe that energetically, if you're putting out good and you're putting out like, I want to help people, things just fall into place. And it's weird how it happens, but the right conversations happen. You know, a phone call comes through when you're like at that moment where you're like, I don't know if we're gonna have any more patients this month. It just happens, you know? And so it's such a cool thing. And I often forget that that's gonna happen. And so I start trying to force my own will, and that never works.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Never it Brad, it never works. Being whether your really your entire model is mobile audiology or private practice or vestibular, anything in business in life, being present in the now, you're just gonna flow. It's gonna flow so well. So, Brad, we talk about you mentioned the evolution from mobile audiology to vestibular to having a team. Share with us the Dr. Brad Stewart evolution from mobile audiology to where you are today. It's an incredible story. And I admire what you've been able to do so much. It's really inspiring.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Oh, thanks. You know, I think when I very first started my practice, I had kind of indoctrinated myself into this world of like leadership. I saw John Maxwell speaking at a conference when I was a first-year audiologist. And it was really inspiring to like see how growing yourself as a person can have such an impact on your financial life, on your business life, on your professional life, personal life. And so when I went into starting my own practice, my number one goal was I want to learn how to be a good leader and I want to learn how to be a good business owner. Like I was focused on that growth over. I mean, I wanted to grow as a clinician too, and I did, but really focused on the business side. And so, really early on, I started bringing on additional clinicians. I read a book called The EMyth. Now it was one of the first business books I read. And so I was in this mindset of like, I need to create systems around the business. I need to make this thing where it's like we've got systems and processes for everything that we do so that we can just like add people into this ecosystem and it just works. And so early on, I added providers so that we could serve more senior living communities. We got up to where we were serving about a hundred senior living communities around Dallas Fort Worth. Our profession has been going through some turbulence in the past decade or so. And so about five years ago was actually when the OTC bill initially was kind of proposed and passed. And I saw changes coming. And so I figured that expanding our services would be important. So I actually ended up opening this vestibular clinic with the franchise, frankly, having to relearn how to be a vestibular audiologist. I hadn't done it since graduate school. And we were inviting the hardest, most challenging cases into our clinic from day one. So it was trial by fire. So we ended up building that vestibular program up to we had 12 employees. We were serving a couple hundred patients a week. It was a pretty busy practice. And at the time, my wife and I were running the practice together, and it was incredibly stressful. Physical therapy is a totally different business model. It's very like efficiency and time-oriented, and you're trying to like just see as many people in the shortest amount of time as possible. And I just frankly, I didn't really enjoy running that business. It was just not a business model that I enjoyed, and it was stressful and it was affecting our relationship. And, you know, we made a really hard decision at the beginning of 2020. We decided that we were going to close our vestibular practice and just refocus on hearing. And so I had to give seven employees the notice that we were going to be letting them go. And then we actually had a couple more people leave on their own after that. However, the timing, I mean, our last employee left our vestibular practice in March of 2020. And so we had this kind of like perfect timing where we could regroup and we had like a tenth of the overhead that we used to have. And we could regroup. And COVID kind of actually, in the case of our practice, gave us an opportunity to take a breath and re-reevaluate like what do we want to be as a practice? And so we really just refocused on, I had this kind of like small team. We had an audiologist that was an extern with me. And so she knew exactly, you know, kind of how I wanted things operated. And so I ended up basically turning it into more or less an autopilot practice where I would come in maybe a couple of days a week and see patients if there were people on my schedule that wanted to see me. But more or less that practice just ran on autopilot for a couple of years. And then in December of 2021, I decided to sell the practice and become a practice consultant and help other practices help more patients.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Brad, your story is incredible because you've lived it. You started mobile audiology, vestibular understanding and having the grit to start something that you've never done before with the vestibular model, but also having the humility of saying, you know what, this is affecting my health, the relationship with me and my wife. I'm not going to give that up for the stress of this practice. And I really admire your decision making there because I think that there's a lot of private practice owners out there right now, especially now following the pandemic, that are stressed. And if we were to take a step back, you've lived it, you understand the stress, the evolution from mobile audiology to actually selling a private hearing healthcare practice. What would your advice be to the providers right now who are still running private practices and love doing what they do but are stressed to the max? How can they handle that? What do they do?

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Anytime I start working with a practice owner, one of the first things we do is this dream practice exercise where we just kind of like step back and imagine if I could wave a magic wand and create my ideal practice where I'm earning the income I want to earn, I have the team I want to have, I'm doing the work I want to do. What does that look like? And then we actually put metrics on that and then we reverse engineer it and we say, where are we now and how do we get there? You know, I think that it's so easy to lose sight of what your vision was when you got started because you've just kind of been reacting to whatever happened. And when you're reactive and you're just kind of like responding as things pop up, that takes you in a direction that maybe you didn't mean to go, or maybe five years ago you thought you wanted to build an empire and now you realize you just want a small lifestyle practice. And so I think you're right. You do have to have the humility to do something that might look like failure from the outside in order for you to live the life that you want to live.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Absolutely. And the word that you use there was vision. And I'm a huge fan of Gino Wickman, talks all about vision. He has this vision traction organizer, huge fan of that because you have to have a vision. It's like when you were driving and your windshield is blurry, you're not gonna see too well, right? So what you had, Brad, was vision with the mobile audiology and constantly you built the foundation. You're a great leader, you know how to build teams, be an effective leader and scale. You know, we were just talking to Dr. Jason Leindecker, and he was like, Well, we want to grow. He's like, actually, no, we want to scale. And it comes to the transfer of information process of duplication for any audiologists who are interested in starting up a mobile audiology vertical and they want to connect with you. How can they connect with you? And what are some of the consultative services that you can offer, not only to them, but other private practice owners as well? Because I really love what you're doing.

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Totally. Yeah, thank you. So, probably the best thing to do is we have a free Facebook group called the Mobile Audiology Collective. And in that group, I share kind of some of the things that I've learned. And we've got a lot of audiologists in there that are doing that same type of work. So it's a great free community that you can join to learn from people that are out there doing it right now. That would be a great place to start. I do teach people how to build this program. I have a couple of programs where I teach you how to market to retirement communities because I think that's a really underserved and underutilized kind of grassroots marketing approach for practices. And then if you wanted to start a full-fledged mobile practice, I can help you with that too. But join the group, get to see what's in there, and then yeah, we can have a conversation.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

Brad, we're really excited to have you back onto the Hearing Matters podcast. Before we sign off, do you have any closing remarks to those tuned in?

Dr. Brad Stewart:

Well, if you're a practice owner, then just always remember that you need to take your patient's perspective. You need to be able to have the empathy to see where your patients are coming from and what your patients want, and then work from there.

Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS :

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters podcast. Today, we had Dr. Brad Stewart talk all things mobile audiology, scale, and evolving from a mobile audiology to selling his audiology practice and now providing consultation services. Until next time, hear life story.

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Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS

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