Hello and welcome back for another episode of the Future Ear Radio podcast!
For this week’s chat, I sat down with Chelsea Treseder, Co-founder of MyVitalsPro and VP of Business Development at Pivot Hearing, about her perspective on the changing nature of hearing healthcare, and how she’s helping to usher in technology that helps empower hearing practices of all sizes.
During our chat, Chelease and I 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
I’m really encouraged by this, “leveling of the playing field,” trend that we’re seeing in this industry as certain technologies become more commoditized and commercially available for small businesses. Tools that had previously been limited to large enterprises are becoming more affordable for the mom and pop shop, which I think is a very healthy development to help incentivize more entrepreneurship in this industry.
-Thanks for Reading-
Dave
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Dave Kemp
All right, everybody, and welcome back to the future ear Radio Podcast. I am pumped to be joined today by Chelsea traced her. Thanks for so much for coming on the podcast today. How are you? How you doing?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
I’m great. Thanks so much for having me. David, it’s great to be here.
Dave Kemp
Awesome. Well, wanted to have you on, as I was telling you right before we started recording, I’ve been on this series of these sort of, like entrepreneurism in the world of hearing healthcare, talking to audiologists, talking to hearing insurance specialists or people and entrepreneurs from all around the industry about, you know, kind of like how you see your perspective on the state of the industry, how it’s changed over the last, you know, throughout your perspective, and then where you kind of see it moving into the future. So given that you are, you and your family have been pretty entrenched in this space for quite a while. Why don’t you share a bit about your long family history in the hearing healthcare space?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, great. I would love to, yeah. So I think never been proved wrong on this, but I also can’t technically prove it myself. I think my family is the longest running family in the hearing care industry in the United States. So we date back to the 1930s I had a great, great grandmother who worked in a hearing clinic in Billings Montana, way back then. So I think we’re celebrating our 90 year anniversary as a family this year in 2024 I know you see those stats, right? Like combined 90 years of experience. I’m like, we go back, actually 90 years. I can’t even imagine if you added it all up. So that was my great, great grandmother. Her son worked for sonitone, which was a hearing aid manufacturer based in New York. Dave, you might be too young to remember it, but your dad, I’m sure, would.
Dave Kemp
He’s probably listening right now, nodding along. Okay. I
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
was gonna say, the older I get, the fewer people actually still have ever heard of sonitone, but I’m gonna keep bringing it up. So that was my great grandfather, and then my grandfather owned a private hearing care practice in Athens, Ohio, which is the town where he raised his family. That practice is called dials Hearing Center, and it’s actually still there. It’s under new ownership. He passed away about 12 years ago, but it’s still there. And we go by and say hi when we’re in town visiting my grandma, who turned 95 last week, so that’s always fun. And then my parents met at Ohio University, which is also in Athens, Ohio, where the practice was located. My dad grew up there. My mom went to school there. That’s where they became audiologists and met one another, and then they moved out to California. In the early 80s, they got married. They purchased a practice that had been in existence in Northern California in a town called Santa Rosa. It had, it’s existed since the late 1950s actually. So my parents purchased it in the early 80s. That’s also when they started their family and had me and my two brothers. So yeah, it makes us the fifth generation, and between the three of us, there are eight grandkids, so we’ll see if any of them decide to continue in the family footsteps, continue
Dave Kemp
it on to the sixth generation to make you officially the longest standing family in hearing healthcare
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
like it would just be such a letdown for anybody to not continue it at this point, right? Somebody’s got to we got one of the eight. Yeah.
Dave Kemp
Do you have any idea with your great grandmother and billings or great, great grandmother, how that all came to be like, how she ended up in that position, where she was the first of six generations,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
yeah, so it actually was because her son worked for sonitone, and then he got her involved in the business. So I think, technically, it started in his generation, but because he got her involved, it’s how we’re able to save that. These are the little bits and pieces that when you start to get into it, you find out. But multi
Dave Kemp
generation family business, I’ll play a referee here.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Thank you. A few years ago, we were poking around. I don’t know about you, I always love looking at audiology practice websites, because they’re all interesting, and look at people’s logo and who they are and reading their history. We had found a practice that said that they dated back to like the 1920s and I said, Oh no, we’re not going to be able to make our claim anymore. And we dug a little further and actually talked to them, and it turned out they had originally started the business as like a pharmacy, and then added hearing aids in, like, the 40s or 50s. So we were still able to say, so, yeah, this is where I don’t have it, like, trademarked or anything like that.
Dave Kemp
But, yeah, all right, cool. Well, you know, obviously you and your family have a long standing, you know, perspective on this space and so. Guess I’ll just be curious to hear from you, like, when you were growing up, when what were some of those early memories of, like, being around the business and just sort of firsthand experience having played witness to, like, okay, my mom and dad are audiologists. Is that something that you knew you wanted to pursue? Like, how did this all kind of shake out for you and your brothers, where you decided to follow in those footsteps?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, it’s such an interesting question. Honestly, no one’s ever asked me that before, but yeah, I would say I almost don’t remember, you know, anything outside of being in an audiology office. You know, our family had moved to California, and we didn’t have any extended family, so my parents had, you know, just bought this little business and had three tiny kids and no family to help. So we spent a lot of time in those offices. I mean, I have memories of eating McDonald’s french fries in the back office while my dad had to see a patient and my mom had a doctor’s appointment. You know, when I got a little bit older, probably around my oldest son’s age, who’s 10 now, filing, which, of course, is like a thing of the past now, but I think it’s probably how I learned to, like, read and alphabetize, working for no pay in my parents office, even like just silly little kid things like taking envelopes and stamps and label makers and pretending to have my own little business using the, you know, old school paper supplies that existed in an office in the 80s and 90s. So kind of don’t ever remember, not, you know, being part of that. And you know, there’s just because both of my parents were in the business, or both audiologists. And this is still true today. Ask any of our spouses or our friends, like, you’re just always talking about audiology. And hearing aids, like we can be at a wedding. We can be at a pizza night at my brother’s house. It doesn’t matter. We’re going to be talking about the business in some way, shape or form. It’s really just inevitable. So it’s just kind of always been part of our family dynamic. And you know, when you said, Did I always know I wanted to get into this? Absolutely not. I mean, you know, I went to college, and as did both my brothers were very close in age. We’re all only two years apart, so we went to the same college. We each had a different major, and I had no idea that I wanted to be in audiology or work in the family business. And I think it actually was at the encouragement of our parents that we each went out and kind of got other skills and experiences, you know, I think had I just automatically become an audiologist and started to work in the family business, I may have loved it, or I may have always wondered if there was something else out there for me. So I think it was good advice to just kind of spread our wings a little bit. And sure enough, it was, you know, a handful of years before we each ended up back in the business, and I think it’s really good, not only for just kind of personal, you know, satisfaction and things like that, but also the skills that we each gained by pursuing things that weren’t at all technically related to audiology have given us some ability to do things in our businesses that we may not have had had we all just kind of put our heads down and gone straight to get our AUDS. So for example, I went to business school and worked at a variety of companies in sales and marketing roles, which has allowed me to do sales and marketing things at our various companies. One of my brothers went into he was a business major as well, but went into Supply Chain Management for a major children’s clothing retailer that you’ve all probably heard of. So he learned a bunch of, you know, Excel skills and management skills and things there that were for a much bigger business than your typical, you know, hearing aid practice that he was able to kind of then bring back to our businesses. And my third brother was actually a music major, which, you know, obviously the audio file thing has some crossover with the hearing industry, but he went and worked for a music distribution company in development and QA, where he learned how to build massive databases, which has also proven extremely valuable in one of our family businesses. And I think it’s almost kind of crazy how we went out and got these skills that have now coalesced into being able to develop new things that actually do benefit the audiology space. So
Dave Kemp
coalesced and complement each other. Yeah, absolutely, very different skill set, different aptitudes. I’ve met you a number of times. I’ve not met your brothers, but just based on what you’ve told me, it sounds like you all complement each other really nicely, which is a really cool, like aspect of your businesses, is that everybody kind of has their own division of power, and, you know, territories, if you will,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
totally, I think. And you know, people ask all the time, what’s it like to work with your family? And I actually want to hear from you too, Dave, because I know you’re uniquely in that position, but yeah, we get along great, just kind of personally. And then yes, because we each have our own sort of areas of expertise and or just things we enjoy, we really defer to one another in those assorted areas in a way that I think helps us get along. And then also, you know, get things done. Yeah, so how does it work for you guys?
Dave Kemp
No, very, very similar, right? You know, working. I’m not fifth generation. I’m only second generation, but it’s, you know, whereas my parents had like they were kind of yin and yang, my dad was very much sales and marketing oriented. My mom was more operations and the numbers and finances. And, you know, it’s kind of like in many ways. I think that oak tree would not even exist, if not for, like, all of the major contributions that my mom played early on. And the funny thing is, like she was an English major, so she just sort of learned it all. She’s a very, very intelligent person, so she learned it all just sort of on her own. But, you know, now, for the way that we have it structured today is, you know, I kind of have followed in my dad’s footsteps, whereas my brother has followed in my mom’s and so very much, you know, like, kind of that same idea where it’s, like, you know, there are certain aspects of of my job that he doesn’t really say, like, you know, what’s going on over there. He just trusts that. Like, okay, that’s his world. He knows this better than I do, and vice versa. So I feel like that’s, like, a pretty important part of working in a family business is, like, having those divisions of power. I think it could get a lot trickier if, if they weren’t as well defined. So I’m very fortunate from that standpoint that we are very, very different. Like, personally, you
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
kind of have to wonder, like, do families naturally create people that are different from one another, or do you self select into those roles? Because you have to differentiate from your siblings in like, a pack?
Dave Kemp
Maybe,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
probably some scientists
Dave Kemp
birth order, or some kind of like psychology that you could go into there,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
are you the firstborn?
Dave Kemp
I’m I’m the baby.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
You’re the baby. You’re the first. Okay, our baby is not the sales and marketing guy, so I don’t know. We’ll have to keep working on some theories. There,
Dave Kemp
you’re for you’re the firstborn, though, aren’t you?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, how
Dave Kemp
could you the oldest? I think because you’ve told me,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
okay, not because I look old. Essentially, no, no,
Dave Kemp
not at all. Okay, well, I guess let’s before we deviate too far where let’s cycle back to, like your businesses. Okay, so your parents obviously have the private practice, but why don’t you share about you know, like you mentioned, you and your brothers went and you got this, these, like, outside experiences and skill sets and stuff, and then you brought it back. So share about, like, when, when you brought it all back together, what you guys have done up until this point and with your different business endeavors, great.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, so we do as a family, have three different business entities. So yes, we have our practice, which is the one that’s been around since the 1950s that we’ve owned since the 1980s it’s called Kenwood Hearing Centers. It’s located here in Northern California. We’ve got seven locations. I think we’re at 12 or 13, depending on had to count part time providers who work with us. And it’s just been such a joy. It’s grown and grown, and we see so much opportunity there. So that’s been really fun. Just, you know, adding to our team, getting more efficient with our processes, bringing in technology. So that’s kind of our, you know, B to C business. And then we have 2b to B businesses. One is pivot hearing, which is a practice Development Services Group. It’s been around for about 11 years now. With pivot, we work with other private practice audiologists and hearing instrument specialists across the country and in Canada, and we work with them to help them grow their businesses and achieve their goals. So we work with practices that are, you know, brand new, and writing their business plan and trying to get loans to get started. And we work with practices who’ve been around for 40 plus years, and kind of everything in between. So as you can imagine, what we do with each practice is going to vary quite a bit depending on who we’re talking to, the situation of their practice, the life cycle of their business, the market they’re operating in, all of those sorts of things, but generally speaking, we provide coaching, mentorship, advice, and then we meet with our practices regularly. We use data to understand what’s happening in their business and the opportunities. And then we put together strategic plans for marketing, recruiting, professional development, you know, any sorts of things that they may need assistance with. So that’s pivot hearing. And then just about two and a half years ago, my brothers and I started another company, which is called my vitals Pro. That one really came about by accident. We you know, as people who were trying to run a growing increasingly complex retail audiology practice found that we were drowning in trying to pull Excel spreadsheets out of our office management system and manipulate them and understand what was happening in the business as we grew. And so we started looking around for a solution, and there obviously wasn’t anything in the audiology space, and because of those kind of unique. Skills I mentioned before in terms of like, massive sets of data and creation of databases and management of those, and software development, and, you know, understanding very complex business ideas around KPIs and supply chain and management and things like that, we somehow had the right set of skills to develop a BI tool for the audiology space, and again, never intending to do that for any purpose other than solving our own immediate need to better understand our practice. So I remember it was like October of 2021, and my brothers sent me a little link to something that they had created, and then they said, We’re going to see if we can get the data to update automatically tonight. And we logged in the next morning, and this very, you know, archaic now looking dashboard updated automatically while we slept. And we just all couldn’t believe our eyes, right? Because before we would have had to get up at 6am and pull the spreadsheets and do the whole thing again, and it had done it while we slept, so we were super excited. And that was really the birth of MVP. We kept adding features and functionality that would help us better understand our business. And then we started showing it to people on, you know, the practice development group side, you know, we thought, oh, wow, this is going to be such an awesome tool. You know, rather than starting calls with our customers by saying, Hey, how’s it going? Right? We’re going to be able to be able to start calls and say, Hey, we’re looking at the data. We can see what’s happening. Of course, we want you to tell us as well. We can’t see everything in the data, but we can see a lot, and then that, married with an owner’s experience and what they’re going through, is really an amazing combination that, quite frankly, nobody ever had before. So we knew it would be valuable there, and that was really fun to get going on as well. And then for you know what, we showed it to more and more people who, for various reasons, aren’t good fits for the practice Development Services Group. And so a couple months in, we just looked at each other and said, Oh my gosh. I think we have to figure out how to sell software, which wasn’t something any of us really, technically had experience in before. I obviously had sales and marketing experience, but we had never, you know, sold software. So I will say that was a steep learning curve. And we probably did a lot of things, not the way you’re technically supposed to do them, but we, you know, like a small startup, can we just tried a lot of things, and we tried them quickly, and we, you know, we would find out right away what worked and what didn’t. So I can’t say that we followed even the advice I would give an audiologist starting a practice, like, hey, create a business plan and some projections. Like, we hadn’t done any of that. We, of course, went and did that later. But yeah, so that’s kind of those are the three different entities.
Dave Kemp
I find it just so interesting that, like, basically, MVP came about, obviously you were your own first customer, which is always cool, because you’re solving for a really, a very tangible, real thing when you know, and then it’s like that, coupled with this really long standing, deep knowledge of this industry, of this profession, of this market. And I’ve been, you know, recently in the podcast, I’ve talked about this whole notion of, like, you know, one of the things that I think is very distinct about this particular industry is that, relative to its neighbors, the other, you know, kind of like adjacent medical professionals, from dental to vision, is that they’ve, you can kind of see the future coming, because you just need to look toward our adjacent neighbors to see what’s happening. So, like, managed care was a huge thing that’s already, kind of already gone in and happened and transpired in all these adjacent industries, same with some of the like over the counter, stuff like smile direct and Invisalign and some of these different things. But I think that, you know one thing, that one of the first thoughts when I saw MVP for the first time was like, I’ve seen BI tools elsewhere, but I’ve not seen many in this industry. And it’s like total like, of course, here it is. But it’s cool that it was sort of developed by someone with a really deep understanding of what the real KPIs are, what the actual kinds of things that, like a private practice, would be trying to solve for. And I think that’s pretty powerful in and of itself. Yeah,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
it’s funny. You say that, there’s a lot of things I will say I’ve learned since we started the company that ideally you would have known before you started the company, but, you know, you got to roll with it. And one of those interesting things I’ve learned is that it seems like in a lot of spaces, the best software comes from industry people, not software people. And so I’ve had conversations with people in all kinds of different sectors, healthcare and way outside of healthcare, and actually have a good friend who’s got a software startup in the construction management space, and it’s the same thing. He’s a construction manager who saw a gaping hole or something, and he’s spent 10 years. Building the most amazing software product in the world, because he understood it so deeply. He was living it. He was having binders of paperwork he’s having to manage. And he said, there’s a better way, right? So I think that’s, I think you’re totally right. And we’ve gotten this feedback from a lot of people, once they see MVP, is like, Wow, you are, like, in my mind, as a practice owner, as far as what I need, and it’s like, yeah, because we are, we’re there right right there with you, right? And totally understand. So say, MVP is definitely example of something that is audiology and hearing aids first, and then, you know, we figured out how to make it work from a technical perspective from there. And I think that’s why it resonates with so many people right away, because you can really feel that in, you know, as you interact with it.
Dave Kemp
So like, what are some of those things that, if you’re someone that’s not ever seen this before, you’re showing it to them for the first time, what are going to be some of those things that really jump out at at prospect that they’re going to say, okay, that’s actually very, very powerful.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, great question. So I can kind of name a few things. So there’s certain things about MVP that are very high level that would be part of any dashboard you might look at, even if you grab something off the shelf that you could get to integrate with your LMS. So looking at revenue and payments and unit sales and projections and things like that. So MVP does all of that, of course. But if I want to look at some of the things that are maybe a little bit more specific to our line of work. I think one example of that would be just some very specific hearing aid and audiology related KPIs. So for example, we break down your production, so your revenue, your payments, your units, however, you want to look at it into things like new patients versus existing and first time units versus upgrade units. So things again, that are going to be very important to an audiology and hearing Audiology and Hearing Care Practice and kind of niche and specific to what we do, we do a lot of breaking out between private pay and third party, you know, you mean, you mentioned managed care already. I think it’s arguably the hottest topic for any private practice you’re talking to in almost any area of the country. And so, you know, just a deep understanding of that element of the market was very much a part of the development of MVP, and continues to be, I would say, there’s tons of rich features in MVP that already address that, and we’re continuing to add more Medicare Advantage analyzer capabilities and things like that to help practices understand what’s happening by harnessing big data into ways that they can actually use and interpret and gain insights from some of the other things. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of detail around hearing aids. You know, for better or worse, they are kind of a real cornerstone of this industry. So one thing people really love is the ability to do benchmarking in MVP, which we do in the hearing aid module, we do in some of the marketing modules. We do just kind of overall across a lot of MVP, but being able to see how you the way you’re pricing certain technology tiers or even manufacturers and down to specific models, compared to other practices in the country or in your region. Same thing across like marketing, like are do you have more or less than the average practice in terms of patients in your database ready for upgrade? Are you doing a better or worse job than the average practice at upgrading the patients in your database? Things like that. And then I would say another thing that’s just been really cool and people have enjoyed is this market share analysis we have where we can show somebody down to the zip code level, exactly what their market share and penetration rate are. To understand, you know, where are you really strong in your market? Where do you have opportunity to grow? So I would say, you know, and again, using data on private pay, sales, TPA units, things like that that are very specific to what we do. I think you can just kind of really feel throughout this tool that these are things that are super specific to way, the way a private practice audiologist will want to look at things.
Dave Kemp
It’s so cool. Did I’m curious, like the first time that you showed your parents, as you know, long time practice owners, what was their first impression of it?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
So funny. You say that we always laugh because my dad’s he’s an amazing guy, like, he built his business over many, many decades. He’s beloved by his team and his patients and everyone who’s ever met him. He is so not a data guy, like, I think he’s blown away by MVP, like, in a lot of ways, but I don’t, I don’t even know if he has a login, which is so funny. So my mom’s a little bit more analytical, so I think they’ve, from the start, been super excited about it, and I think just been thrilled. My brothers are absolute. They’re geniuses, like in any world, and I think you want to talk about, like, best and brightest minds in our industry, like unmatched, you know. So I think they’re, they’re super proud. And I they know, you know, they still own the practice, but we as the next generation have really taken over the day to day, running and management of it. And I mean, we live and die by MVP every single day. We’re all in there all day, every day. A looking at things, using it to understand our team’s performance, our marketing performance, you know, all those different elements that we’re trying to understand and manage across a complex organization, and using it to to try to constantly improve the practice. So, yeah,
Dave Kemp
it’s so cool. I mean, it really is, like one of just those cool stories of a lot of serendipity, like, you know, a lot of things that broke the right way. And it all, like you said, coalesced, coalesced into you all, like, kind of uncovering this really interesting application that doesn’t exist in a widespread manner in this industry. I mean, there’s obviously a lot of of the different omss and the software, you know, like databases and stuff like that, but the business intelligent intelligence tool, and, you know, being able to have a better, I think, like, look into the state of your business and All these different views is super, super valuable. And it just seems like one of those things that I have to imagine when you kind of when you after you described that day where you woke up and that the data populated, it’s like, holy cow. You know, we actually have something here. I mean, did it feel like from that point, like, okay, we’re all going to go all in on this, or did you have to kind of wait until it materialized a little bit and you could see, oh, I as the salesperson, I can sell this.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah. I mean, it’s a great question, and something we definitely figured out as we went. I don’t think any of us knew way back then that first night, that this was going to become, like its own exciting business. That kind of became more clear over time. And I would say, you know, even now, none of us are, quote, all in on MVP, at least my brothers and I. We, of course, have employees now who work for us, who focus all of their time and energy on MVP. But because we have the other couple businesses, we’re definitely, you know, we have different things we have to think about and look at on any given day. I think, you know, you could make an argument that that’s not great. You could also make an argument that it’s part of what makes MVP so great, because we’re really in the trenches and constantly creating new features and thinking up new KPIs and things that we want to manage our own business. So I think there’s definitely some benefit to us, kind of keeping our toes in some of these other ventures as well. I mean, same thing on the buying group side, because, again, we’re in conversations with so many awesome practice owners who have a different perspective. Like I used to joke that early on, MVP was just a map of my brother’s mind, which was cool, but it was exactly the way he thinks about a business, which is, by the way, better than the way better than the way 95% of people probably think about their businesses and way more detail and things like that. But as we’ve got, I think, 960 clinics using MVP now, we are talking to so many different owners and practice managers who think about things differently and honestly it makes MVP better. We oftentimes take their requests and ideas and build them into the core product, or take iterations of them, or sometimes build people things that are totally custom, because the way they’re doing things is just super unique to their their business. But I think it’s made not only MVP better, but us better too, in kind of broadening our perspective about how some of the smartest people in the space are thinking about their practices in the future.
Dave Kemp
And what do you think like based on your experience in all wearing all three different hats you had mentioned before? You know, obviously the elephant in the room right now is managed care. That seems to be, like you said, probably the number one issue for the vast majority of practice owners today. So like, how do you kind of see that being handled by both the folks in the buying groups, the people using the MVP, and then even you yourself, Does that feel like one of those things that is going to, I don’t know, like, basically, fundamentally change the profession and the role of the profession. Or, do you think that it’s just another, I guess, another challenge that needs to be solved and it will just be another challenge? Or do you think this thing’s a different beast? Yeah.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
I mean, kind of the million dollar question. So I think, yeah, it’s, it’s the right it’s the right question. Though, I think it’s something that any private practice needs to be asking themselves and asking their advisors. I mean, I think it already has fundamentally changed the business. And I think, you know, I know of a handful of practices personally where it, it took them out over the last couple years between that and covid, and they weren’t adapting, and they were running super profitable organizations, and it took them out. And I think, you know, though, there may continue to be some of that. It’s actually really interesting, Dave, because we, because of the amount of data that we have in MVP, now, we’re able to see kind of at a high level what’s happened. Across, you know, not all the private practices in the country, but 960 clinics. So it’s a significant amount, and we see some interesting things in the data. I would encourage anybody who’s not on our email list or anything yet to go to our website and get on there, because we are putting out some data with some regularity, and doing webinars and things like that, where as we have new insights, we’re trying to share them with the industry too, to help educate private practices and help them be informed to make their decisions. But I know there’s some very smart thought leaders in in this space who are projecting that managed care has continued to grow super rapidly from here. We’re not seeing that right now in the data, we’re actually seeing some leveling off and even a bit of decline. Now, I want to put a lot of asterisks around that, because it’s 960 clinics. That’s not all of them. It’s also the data set is all private practices. So this is not going to reflect what’s happening in corporate retail or, you know, I mean, so much, but Costco VA things exactly. This is not the whole of the industry. You know, it’s also, you could make some arguments, like the practices that are in the MVP data set, maybe those who are more focused on their business and less likely to take managed care. So there’s some caveats to the data. I of course, that said we’re not seeing the steep increase that we have been seeing kind of consistently over the last five years or 10, you know, for those practices who have data back then. So I don’t know. I definitely don’t have a crystal ball. You know, our family tends to still be very bullish on the future of private practice. I think gone are the days when you can be a lazy private practice owner and not, you know, do everything electronically and not look at your business data and your numbers and manage them very carefully and, you know, just run a newspaper ad reactively with the schedules. Like, like, gone are those days? Yeah, but I do believe that there are, there is a segment of consumers who want to receive high end premium care service and products from well run private practices. And I don’t think that’s fundamentally changed, so I do think there’s going to continue to be a place for very well run private practices. We may, we may lose some, you know, while we sort that all out, but I’m really hopeful that, you know, a tool like MVP. I mean, that’s really what it’s all about, is, you know, we have this legacy in private practice, and believe strongly in the value of it for the patient and for the audiologist and for the industry. And I think, you know, if we can create and continue to improve upon this tool, that’s going to level the playing field between relatively small, low budget private practices compared to corporate retail and big box and managed care companies that we’re competing with. Then That, for me is, like the deep passion reason behind this, because that would just be super fulfilling for me begin, because I know that’s an environment in which patients are very well served. Yeah.
Dave Kemp
Like, I, well, hold on. First off, what is the website that people can sign up to get in on this? That’s great.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Go for it, yep. So it’s my vitalspro.com there’s a lot of information about the product on there, but you can also submit a form and then get on our list, and we’ll keep you informed of again, like, kind of industry roundup type things. We’re trying to share webinars. We’ve been doing some interesting like an ad hoc analysis using the data set around like, Okay, what makes a TPA patient different from a private pay patient? Things like that. And we’ll be making that content available to the industry as well.
Dave Kemp
I was going to say though, I think that you know, one of the I recently did a panel, like, I hosted a panel, and it was with these four different audiologists that were doing different entrepreneurial things. And really, like, my takeaway from that conversation was that, you know, the each of these ladies that I had on had a different story, a different thing that they’re doing. And, you know, while on one side of the coin you have, like, kind of these scary things, like managed care, the vertical integration, you know, these things that for the small guy really are concerning. You also, like, here in 2024 is such an empowering time, like for the small guy, because there’s so many new things that allow for you to, like, circumvent traditional barriers of entry. So for example, a tool like yours in the past probably would have cost like you would have had, like, custom build it, and it probably would have been like, hundreds of 1000s of dollars, maybe millions of dollars, or something like that. And so now it’s a subscription that a single private practice owner can have. And for me, like that, it goes exactly to what you said earlier, which is like, if you’re not lazy, the I think the people that are probably most at risk really are the like, very, very complacent. This is how we this. Status quo. This is how we’ve been doing business for the past 30 years. Kind of head in the sand, like all of the like, you know, stereotypes of the the complacent business owner, those people really are probably in peril. But I think that, like, if you’re ambitious and you’re motivated and you’re like, driven, I think that you really do have some serious advantages afforded to you simply by like being in 2024 so I think that it is kind of a two sided coin where, like you do have to take the good with the bad and recognize that while there are some looming threats, there are probably more opportunities, as like a single person or a small business than really ever before, and I feel like you guys are a testament to that too.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Oh, I so agree. Like and in some ways, technology is like a great equalizer, right? Because, I mean, I don’t know, I haven’t seen like the corporate retail BI tools, but from what I hear, like they’re actually not even as robust as MVP. So here we can have a private practice who’s been open for six months may have access to a better, insightful BI tool than like, hundreds of millions of dollars organization you know, so totally nimble, able to make changes quickly, again, no red tape, right to stand up a new BI tool in like, a massive organization could be a multi year project, like, if somebody does a demo of MVP with me today, they can be up and running before the end of the week, right? So things like that, and then, yeah, like other things we’re seeing as well that have been great for again, you know, I think small practices and large can take advantage, but just automation of marketing, right? And there’s things we can do using, kind of the data, the back end side of MVP, to help people more effectively and efficiently communicate with their patients. So, you know, I think sure people’s inboxes are full and, you know, all of that, but there’s ways to really communicate to the right people at the right time with the right message. Again, kind of using technology in a way that allow you to be more effective and efficient than you have in the past. So totally,
Dave Kemp
that was a that like these used to be like things that really were sort of limited to large organizations that had it was kind of a pay to play model, you know, you had to be able to have the money required for the software, for the technology, or whatever. And so, like today, it’s, I do feel like there’s been this huge leveling of the playing field. And so like to your example earlier, where you know you might have, you might be competing against a really large entity in your backyard. But the reality is, is that they are, they have a lot of limitations that you don’t and so I think that’s, that’s what’s exciting, is like, you can be nimble. You can move very quickly, you know, you can pivot when you need to from, you know, like, one source of revenue to another. So again, I just think, like, the agility that you are afforded by today’s technology, like really lends itself nicely to a small business. And for me, I just, I think that’s going to be I think that will be a trend that we’ll see is just the private practice of the future. I don’t think that that type of person just dies out generationally like I think that will continue to exist. I’ve met tons of young audiologists and people in the industry that are very entrepreneurial, that want to have it be their own boss, that want to have their own business. And they’re thinking about it along these lines of, like, do I, I think really challenging a lot of the like, traditional assertions of, like, what it would mean to be a private practice owner? Like, do you need all the overhead that is, traditionally, you know, associated with a practice. Do you need to buy a building? You know, like, a lot of these, like, really kind of fundamental things are being challenged and in an exciting way, I think again, in this, like, old vein of empowering the little guy.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, I have seen a huge uptick basically since covid of startup private practices, which, I mean, I don’t have any data on this per se, other than to say, been in the industry for a long time, and talked to a lot of private practice owners, and I swear, I get two or three inquiries a week now from practices who are starting from scratch, and some of them are fresh out of school, and some are coming from an ENT and some have been working in private practice and have that entrepreneurial spirit, so a kind of a variety, even like manufacturer reps wanting to, you know, not get off the road and not travel so much and and have their own business. So it’s been really encouraging to me that people feel so bullish about starting businesses because, you know, it’s it’s hard, it’s intimidating. My dad’s business mentor had a great quote, which was, if owning a business were easy, everyone would have one. And I think about that a lot when you’re in your kind of low, dark moments of business ownership, which are there for all of us at some point, I think there’s no escaping it, because it is a. Challenge, and it also has the other side of just rich blessings. So I’m just really encouraged by the number of people who are starting practices today. And like you said, I see a lot of innovative models. So people who are starting mobile while they figure out the exact place they want to put in office, or they get some revenue going before they commit to a lease. And, you know, I think that’s great, and I’ve seen a lot of practices only need to do that for a couple months before they feel like, okay, now I’m, I’m confident, and going to go rent a space, or look at buying a space or and so I think, like you said, I think if you’re, if you’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit, that’s almost the most important part, because what exactly is going to come at all of us, we don’t know. It’s just going to be that drive to be successful and willingness to adapt as needed to, you know, what’s happening in the industry.
Dave Kemp
I was going to ask you to like the, you know, when you said that you had, you had the background as a salesperson, you know, you got your MBA, but it’s a lot different than, you know, like, the realities of, like, Okay, now we just sort of uncovered this new business. We’re going to, like, try to set forth and and make this thing a reality. What was that process like for you in terms of, okay, you know, your parents had the private practice. Pivot was maybe more of a collective thing. I don’t actually know the the origin of pivot, but I’m, I’m just kind of like saying that, you know, that that whole, for you personally, really kind of taking this on with with MVP, and what was that like, in terms of, you know, like, those first that learning curve, if you will, like, some of those failures, and some of the, some of the stuff that, like, you look back on, like, fondly, even though it sucked at the time that you’re like, Okay, that’s just kind of part of being an entrepreneur. And these are the kinds of things that happen when you’re getting started out, you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to fail, but that’s kind of how you
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
learn, right? Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, there’s a couple things that come to mind right away. One is that, you know, somebody I’ve worked with for a long time, who I respect deeply, told us flat out, do not start a software company. And he said it’s going to distract you from your other businesses. And you know, it’s really easy to get into a cycle with software where you’re constantly tweaking and tinkering and working on but not focusing on making sure it’s a profitable business. And I think his watch outs were valid, no doubt, but I certainly had his voice in the back of my head while we were continuing to build and invest in MVP, and it kept me up a lot of nights. I will say, I think I’m happy to have proven him wrong at this point. And he’s a good friend, and hopefully he’s listening to this, but, you know, there it’s certainly, you know, to go out and start a software company when you don’t necessarily know what you’re doing. It had risks, and, you know, I think it’s worked out really well, but nobody knew that at the time. I mean, another thing was just our pricing model, because, you know, we’ve created a product and a category in audiology that did not exist before. And so, you know, I think whoever comes after us, if anyone does, will have somewhat of a roadmap of like, Oh, here’s how to think about it, and here’s what the key features are, and here’s how you price it, and things like that. And we had to kind of figure all that on our own. And I think we tried three or four different pricing models, not so much price points, but just, I mean, how do you price it? Is it a subscription? Is it monthly? Is it annual? Is it by clinic location? Is it by practice size? Is it by data volume? Like there were all these different ways you could do it. And, you know, we had to try a few different things to find something that seemed to work. So, yeah, I mean, those are just, those are just a few that come to mind. You know, we’ve completely rebranded. So it was always more or less called MVP, but at first we tried a logo in branding that was kind of more of a sister spin off of pivot. I think the further we got into it, we realized kind of the importance of differentiating the two companies. Sure, there are a lot of ways in which they really work well together, but at the same time, like I said before, they’re two very different businesses that, you know, can serve different different types of practices that exist today. And so I think kind of differentiating them a bit more was a lesson we kind of had to learn as well. So yeah, a few of the things that come to mind, there’s probably a list 100 things long, of I
Dave Kemp
just find it interesting, like, because, you know, it’s, it’s just one thing to to sort of get that experience through a textbook, even vicariously when you’re working in a small business or a startup or something like that. But like, when it’s your own, you know, that’s kind of a different beast. And I feel like, you know, there’s just a lot of lessons that are translatable across different jobs and industries and stuff. So, you know, I feel like a lot of these are universal lessons, you know, coming up with, like, when you don’t like, you said, don’t. Have a blueprint as to, like, here is the proper way to roll out a software, basically a piece of software, to an industry without any semblance of what that should be priced as. Or, you know, I just find that to be really interesting, because, like, where do you take your cues, if not for just throwing spaghetti at the wall and then kind of seeing what sticks and what the market tells you is appropriate and what’s not. I don’t know the answer to that no
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
for sure, and it like, it almost pains me, because we do. We, you know, on the consulting side, takes so much pain to say to people, like, you really need a business plan and you really need projections, and then, like, I feel a little bit two faced and that we didn’t have one that said, I think, you know, if you’re starting an audiology practice from scratch, I can sit down with you in 30 minutes and we can map out kind of what your first year is going to look like. Yes, there are decisions to make around. Are you mobile? Do you have brick and mortar? Are you leasing? Are you buying your building? Which products are you going to fit? How are you going to price them? Are you going to work with TBAs? Right? There’s some some serious questions to consider, but we can sort of more or less ask the right questions and help make projections. I think with something like MVP, there were just too many question marks. If I had tried to put together a any kind of model two and a half years ago, it would have been so far off, it wouldn’t have made any sense. So we’ve continued to refine from here. But honestly, it’s part of what makes it so fun, too. Like whenever I’m having, like, some a stressful day for whatever reason, or, you know, we’ve got problems with our back end technology, or whatever it might be. I always try, and I’m not. I’m not always successful, but I try to remember that, like, this is the fun part. Like, I know I’ll be looking back, and I don’t know if it’s in one year or five years, or 20 years or 50 years, and saying, like, wow. You know, we created something that didn’t exist, that solved a real problem in an industry that needed it, that we loved and were passionate about, and we made it happen. And, you know, where, where we go from here? I don’t know, but man, it’s a fun ride, and I am trying to keep that in mind, even when it, you know, has its stressful moments too, and
Dave Kemp
you’re and you’re just looking back, like, 10 years from now, just cackling about how, like, remember when we did, like, remember when we rolled this thing out and we, like, priced it at, you know, blah, blah, blah, and everybody’s laughing about, you know, like, how stupid were we. But in reality, it’s like, you didn’t know any different at the time. And I agree with you that I think that’s a it’s, it’s a really cool aspect of, of, like, kind of, like, the the day to day of just, like, not really knowing what to expect, other than just, I’m going to kind of tinker and I’m going to just refine this thing a little bit more for me. Like, that’s just how I sort of saw it firsthand with the when I grew up and I saw oak tree being built, it was literally just like, you know, every single day you just kind of go in, like, and you’re, you’re grinding, for lack of better term, you know, you’re just kind of, like, in this in the trenches, just figuring out, like, what works and what people respond positively or negatively to. And honestly, I think there’s a, like, a pretty big lesson there in terms of, you know, one of the things on the podcast that we talked about is like, you know, the apathy that you can have, where you can, you can get kind of paralyzed by all the decisions that I need to make, and then it’s like, you know, you don’t ever really do anything. You’re just sort of in this, you know, like, prolonged, you know, you’re frozen and you can’t figure out, like, well, and I think that the point is, is, like you got to just start, and once you start, everything starts to kind of fall into place, because you kind of realize what’s working and what’s not. And so I think especially for a lot of, like, aspiring people out there that are looking to kind of do their own thing, and they’re trying to figure out what they want to do. That seems to be, you know, you obviously want to have a plan. You don’t want to just like, blindly go into something, but I think that you can get paralysis by basically not being able to make a decision and not being able to just say, All right, we got to start
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
somewhere, for sure, and just kind of that willingness to test and try things I know you’re going to fall on your face sometimes. I remember it was like September of 2022 and I really wanted to go to the odd boss conference that was in Anaheim. It’s in California, where we’re located. It was easy to get to. I knew it was our perfect type of practice, right? I mean, it’s all owners, it’s private practices. Just it just couldn’t be more perfect fit for MVP. We had never been to a trade show before, and, you know, I think trade shows have a reputation for being expensive and hard to justify from an ROI perspective. And so I had to kind of push my team to say, I think we need to try this. And it was such a resounding success. And now trade shows are an absolutely critical part of our strategy with MVP, I think they work very well for us. You know, the software is beautiful. We bring a screen and everybody can see it and play with it and all that so. But, you know, it was scary spending that money at that time when we didn’t. Have it to spend and, you know, but again, you just Yeah, and it had it been a total flop, then okay, we would have learned our lesson pretty quickly and easily. On the flip side, it was a success. And of course, we’ve gotten better and better at how we do trade shows and which ones we go to, and how we convert and things like that. So not to say we have all the answers and don’t continue to learn we absolutely do, but I remember that being so scary. And I mostly was gonna have to face my brothers if it was a failure, yeah? So I was happy that that one was a win. Yeah, totally.
Dave Kemp
Do you all have to limit the amount of, like, when you’re at a family event, like, the amount of of industry talk that’s that’s being had. Like, hey guys, can we maybe not talk about something like or can we talk about something that’s not related to this industry? We used to joke growing up that it was a sixth family member. Yeah,
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
I would say we, we suffer from that too. And I think actually, my sister in law, she works in the business as well, and she’s one who like she when we’re hanging out having wine, like she doesn’t want to talk about work. So I have to kind of keep in mind who I’m talking to. Usually, when it’s the kind of core five of us, I don’t know, there’s no real limit to it, and we enjoy it doesn’t feel like work. I think you probably know this to some extent too. When you work with family and you absolutely love what you do, one it’s almost impossible to draw boundaries. I mean, any given 15 minute conversation is going to include stuff about kids and stuff about work and a funny joke and everything in between. So, you know, it works well for us. I think, you know, you have to kind of keep it in check to some extent, but there’s a certain amount of it that’s just inevitable. It’s
Dave Kemp
like a shared thing across everybody that it’s like, this common denominator, and it is so hard to avoid. Yeah, it’s, it’s a funny thing to try to, like, you know, maybe curb it a little bit, because it, it does kind of like, find its way into just about every conversation I find. Like, how did we just, how did we start talking about this again? Like, I thought we were, it all comes back to lowering eight. Yeah, so anyway, you know, kind of like, looking into the future, you know, as we come to the close here, I’m just curious, like, obviously, you guys have done a lot of really cool things. I think it’s just super cool that, you know, you’ve got, like, this long tradition in the industry, and that you’ve all kind of had a different, like spin on, you know, of, you know, your own contribution, I guess, to the history of hearing healthcare, where all do you see yourself and MVP and pivot and all that like, what is the rest of 2024 what does the future look like, without getting into, you know, like your product roadmap, or anything like that, but just in general, I mean, I think it’s amazing that you’ve already, you know, you’ve got 900 plus private practices, you know, as part of your customer base. So what an accomplishment that is. But like, you know, what are some things that you can I think it’s just super cool that you know now you can actually glean some very interesting insights that nobody else really could probably gather. So you do have kind of an interesting perspective from that standpoint, like, what, what kinds of things I guess, can, will the continued growth afford you all to do. And what are some things you’re excited about?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah, so I would say, I mean, this might be kind of a boring answer, but I don’t expect a lot of fundamental change. I mean, our, like, I said, our family’s owned our practice since the early 80s. Like, that’s, that’s not going to change. Like, we absolutely love what we do. I think we just, we want to grow, obviously, and continue to get better at everything we do, both from a patient care and business perspective. You know, we’re constantly, I was going to kind of say this before when we were talking about a few different things a few minutes ago. But, you know, we have businesses that are at almost every different stage, right? We have a very mature, established business that’s been around since the 1950s we have kind of, like, a medium term business that’s been around for a little over a decade. And then we have more or less a startup that’s also like, coincidentally, like creating a new product category. So it’s really, really startup ish, and each of those has a slightly different trajectory over the next year, or even five years, because of that, right? So when it comes to our practice, like, we want to make kind of marginal changes around the edges that make that business better for everyone, better for our patients, better for our amazing team members, better for us as managers and leaders, better for our community. All of those sorts of things. Are any of them going to be like massive probably not only because we’ve been tweaking it around the edges for, however, 60 plus years now. But I do think you know, even small changes can have great value for those various stakeholders. I think you know, on the on the consulting, the pivot, hearing side of things, that we have to constantly be evolving our own knowledge and skills, only because, you know, we all know the industry changes. Quickly. These days, the challenges and opportunities for practices change quickly. You have to always have both ears open, both eyes wide open, looking at what’s happening in the industry and with the data, what’s changing about our patients. What are the types of things that are working and resonating as patients change? So you know, we’re constantly developing and innovating on that side. So I think, you know, again, those changes aren’t going to be like major per se in terms of, like the structure of the company or anything like that, more in just constantly trying to evolve and get better and better and stay super relevant with all the things that are going to help private practices. I think MVP will hopefully be unrecognizable in a year from now from where it is today. It’s amazing, but our team launches two or three new features a week. I actually had to stop sending feature release emails because I think people were getting sick of hearing from me. So we’re trying to consolidate just send one per week. Yeah, that kind of highlights the coolest new feature, so that that tool is going to continue to grow and change, I think, fundamentally for private practices, again, based on a combination of our experience and everything we’re learning from looking at data and talking to practices about their data, and then, of course, hearing from them what they want and what they need. I think our list of things we’d like to incorporate in MVP is, like, a lot taller than I am it’s going to take us, we are going to get to them all different things are rising to the top all the time, and usually again, in collaboration with the practices that we’re working with. So I think we’re going to continue to make it better and better, literally, every day and every week, and just really excited about being able to offer such a robust tool to practices to help them achieve their goals, because that’s what it’s all about. It’s a
Dave Kemp
It’s just such a natural progression, like private practice owners to practice management to, like, now a BI tool that’s applicable to all of your members, and then also your members are private practice owners, like you basically reverse engineered it for yourself, and you’re like, Okay, now let’s sell this to the masses. But it again, I just, I find this to be such an encouraging trend that this is all part of, which is this whole sort of empowerment of the common man, you know, like the single the single location practice owner, I think in many ways, has a lot of a lot of the same kind of tools that previously had been completely, uh, untamed, like non tangible, you know, unless you had the backing of a billion dollar company or Something like that. So I think that’s a really encouraging sign for the profession as a whole. Because I think we can all agree that, like, having a vibrant private practice sector is beneficial for like everybody.
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yep, definitely agree. Yeah. I would say one of our kind of we have five guiding principles at MVP, and one of them is what we call data parity. And just being able to level the data playing field between private practices and any and all of their competitors has been so important to us, you know, kind of allowing them to fight above their weight class when it comes to bi and I know there’s other companies in the space doing that with different things, whether it’s digital marketing or recruiting, right, just giving private practices, you know, helping them have the ability to out compete more corporate competitors, which I think, you know, there’s a lot of ways in which they very much can and are better suited to and then, you know, empowered with the right tools, technology and people around them, they can, you know, do it in spades. So
Dave Kemp
that’s awesome. Well, I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. One, you know, multi generation hearing healthcare, family member to another, yeah. So what’s the best way for people to connect with you if they want to follow up, and, you know, learn more about all of these different entities that you’re part of and how they could link up?
Chelsea Treseder, Au.D.
Yeah? So I would say, learn more about MVP at my vitalspro.com you can email me at Chelsea, C, H, E, L, S, E, A, at my vitalspro.com Those are great ways to get in touch with us. And I just want to thank you so much for having me, David. I always enjoy talking to you. It is fun to share kind of our family histories, and I just, I always enjoy our conversations. So thank you
Dave Kemp
absolutely. I really enjoyed this as well. So thanks for everybody who tuned in here to the end. We will chat with you next time. Cheers.
