Hello and welcome back for another episode of the Future Ear Radio podcast!
This week, I sat down with Chelsea Walters BC-HIS and Jen La Borde BC-HIS, owners of Family Hearing to discuss the story behind their practice.
During our chat, the three of us discuss:
– Their professional journeys, how they both ended up at Family Hearing, and the decision to eventually partner together to own and operate the clinic
– The process of evaluating the prospect of purchasing and owning a clinic
– Partnership – determining who does what, leveraging each other’s strengths, and how to maintain a strong partnership when things go sideways with the business
– Transitioning from the original owners to Chelsea and Jen and choosing which aspects of the clinic to preserve and which to overhaul
– Staffing, cultivating talent and creating paths of upward mobility for employees
I’m really enjoying all of these conversations with business owners and the state of entrepreneurship within the hearing healthcare industry.
-Thanks for Reading-
Dave
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Dave Kemp 00:00
All right, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Future Ear Radio Podcast. I am really excited to be joined today by two great guests. I have Chelsea Walters and I have Jen La Borde. So thank you two so much for coming on today. How you guys doing?
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 00:22
Great! Thanks for having us.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 00:23
Yeah, we’re really excited to be here. Thank you so much.
Dave Kemp 00:26
You’re welcome. Well, I’m very thrilled to have you on. I think this is going to be a great chat. So like so many of the other episodes, why don’t we sort of go back to the start and talk through how you two decided to even get involved in this industry, and then ultimately, how you two linked up, and then we’ll kind of take the conversation from
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 00:45
there. Sounds great. Yeah, Chelsea and I have different origin stories, but mine, particularly started when I was about 16. I just decided to take an American Sign Language class at a local college, and I fell in love with it. My teacher was deaf. Part of the deaf community did wear a large hearing aid, and I thought that was really interesting, and wanted to know about that. But just really fell in love with sign language in the deaf community and decided to major in speech language and hearing sciences in college, because there was no ASL major or Deaf Studies major, and I worked at the local speech and hearing clinic through the University of Colorado in Boulder, and just really loved working with the people there. Tested my parents’ hearing, found out they both had hearing loss, and I thought, wow, that’s also really interesting. They were candidates for hearing aids. So that made me more interested in the hearing aid aspect. After graduation, I decided I wanted to get a job and a hearing clinic, and I didn’t know, you know, who was hiring, what that might look like. It was also looking at grad school for Audiology, looking at Sign Language Interpreting programs. Couldn’t make up my mind, so just called around all the different local audiology practices, and no one was hiring. And my dad just said, you know, leave your name and number. You never know what might happen. So I did, and someone wrote down my name and number on a post it note, and then threw it in the trash can. And luckily, the previous owners left recycling, so they were going through the trash, found my name, gave me a call, and I started at the front desk. That was 19 years ago. Oh, my family hearing for 19 years.
Dave Kemp 02:18
Wow, that’s kind of an amazing turn of fate for someone to, like, dumpster dive your contact information.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 02:26
Yeah, that’s literally what happened. And I did. I called my dad all upset no one was hiring. I really want this job. And he goes just, you know, call everyone back. Insist on leaving your information. You just never know what might happen. And he was right. It’s amazing.
Dave Kemp 02:40
Okay, all right, so we have that part of the story now. What about you? Chelsea,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 02:45
I always knew I wanted to be in a field where I was helping people, so I initially thought teacher, and then that morphed into psychologist, and I ended up shadowing a mentor that I grew up with, who was a speech therapist, and thought this was a good blend of both of my goals, like I could teach and do therapy, and so that’s what got me into the degree of speech and I didn’t know anything about audiology till I got in that space, and I loved my audiology classes, but at the end of the day, when I graduated, I was certain that I wanted to be a speech therapist, still, But I wanted experience before I invested in grad school, so I became an SLPA for a couple of years, and while I liked it, I didn’t love it. And so I was living in Albuquerque at the time, and wrote a bunch of audiologists and knocked on their doors and called and just said, Hey, I have a degree, but no real world experience. Could you use me in some way so I can get that experience? And an audiologist called me back, and luckily took me under her wings, and I just fell in love with private practice audiology, just because of how quickly you can make a change in someone’s life for the positive and the autonomy to be able to do whatever it takes to get them what they need. And so I have not left private practice since 2010 I’ve been in private practice audiology since 2010 now.
Dave Kemp 04:12
Okay, very cool, very cool. All right, so continuing on. So then how to do your two paths eventually meet?
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 04:19
Well, so yeah. So I started with family hearing in 2005 at the front desk, and the previous owner is a PhD audiologist, and his wife was a hearing instrument specialist. They actually ended up buying the practice after their first date. The audiologist was going around to different practices, selling real ear equipment, and needed to demonstrate on someone with hearing loss, which was the hearing instrument specialist, Karima. And so they met about the practice. And while, when I started, I was still thinking, Oh, go back to grad school, get an AUD or a PhD in audiology. And I was working with Karima at the time, and her husband was at a different location, but they kept asking me, What do you want to do with your degree? And I kept saying. Private Practice adults and so they both said, in their own different ways, you don’t need to go to grad school. And Dr Schweitzer would say you’ll likely be overqualified if you get a PhD in what you actually want to do. It’s a lot of time and money you could intern with with us and become a hearing instrument specialist like Karima. So I did that, but board certified in 2008 no 2007 so I’ve been board certified hearing instrument specialist since 2007 and kind of moved up from, you know, front office, odd tech type person, to hearing instrument specialist seeing my own patients. And I was with the practice for So you joined us in 2012 2012 Yeah. So I’d been there about, what, seven years, and we needed another hearing instrument specialist for another location. And Chelsea interviewed, and you can take
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 05:51
it from there, yeah. So I was moving back home from Albuquerque and looking for a place that needed a hearing instrument specialist. So found family hearing that way. And Jen and I, you know, we saw each other at team meetings and communicated regularly, but we were really both managing our own locations, doing our own thing. And it wasn’t until, you know, Chris and Karima started to think about retirement that they saw in us a partnership alliance that would work, because while Jen and I were both successful in our locations, we were both successful in very different ways. We are, we have the same heart, but pretty much do everything else different, yeah, and that’s true. And so they saw that as a strength, you know, where Jen could do some of the payroll stuff and the more administrative stuff, that was not my inclination, and I could do more of the creating processes and hiring people on some of the messy I guess they both can be messy, Messier stuff. And so they actually talked to both of us about, what do you think about being partners and taking over our first child, because they had family hearing before they were married, and we talked about it for probably a year, like, is this what we want to do? Who does what? And you know, you know, for Jen, she’d been with the practice forever and had her eye on this idea for a long time, whereas me, it was not even on my Ranger, yeah. And she was like, so you just want to do this new like, really? Like, how can I how can I trust that you’re going to be in it to win it? And so it took about a year for us to get on the same page. But, yeah, it’s been a wild ride. So we bought the practice on April Fool’s Day. 2017 our anniversary is April Fool’s Day, and some years we do feel foolish. That’s true. That’s funny. Most of them have been good, yeah,
Dave Kemp 07:49
okay, that’s a it’s, it’s great to hear this backstory, obviously, very interesting. I still can’t get over Jen’s. Like, the actual, real genesis of this whole thing was somebody looking through the trash. That’s crazy. I mean, that’s like, fate right there. But, you know, I find this really interesting. Of like, again, kind of talking about some of these themes on the podcast. Of like, you know, you kind of get an idea in your head of like, okay, I want to, I want to set out on this thing I’ve kind of identified. I want to work in this industry. I want to do this as my profession. But I like, I guess, like, the next level is, like, figuring out, like, what’s your actual endeavor going to be that you kind of put your all into? And so for you know, some people, that’s being a lifer at the hospital or the VA or whatever environment they’re in and they love, but for others, it’s like, you know, actually starting some sort of venture or or buying a practice, an existing practice, taking it over, something like that. So I think this will be really interesting to kind of unpack some of the, some of the ways that this unfolded for you to like for me, just right off the bat, I’m curious of you know, like you said there, Chelsea, it seemed as if Jen was sort of maybe it was a little premeditated on her part. She had really thought about this and wanted to do this. And for you, maybe not so much. So can you maybe walk me in the listeners through what that process was like when this started to kind of become an opportunity, and what that year long process was like of evaluating it, evaluating the dynamic between you two, and just what considerations kind of went into that whole process and period.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 09:28
That’s a big question. Yeah,
Dave Kemp 09:30
welcome to future year, and
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 09:32
I think it’s it’s really interesting, because Chelsea and I have very different perspectives. We went through the process together, but how we both got there was different, and how we figured out how to work with each other. Like Chelsea said, we have the same part where we do things really differently. And I think she’s right in the sense that I always knew that this is what I wanted, whether or not I didn’t express it to the previous owners until I was there much longer, because I just thought this is kind of silly. Here I am 20. One years old, thinking maybe one day this I could own this. And so I kept it close to my heart until we got closer. And for me, I never doubted that. And in that process, I was thinking I would do it by myself. I always envisioned it like that. So when the previous owners saw how well we worked together and brought that to the table. It was something that I hadn’t ever considered. And I wanted to know that Chelsea was in it forever, because I knew I was and so, you know, we had to prove ourselves to each other and our and the other person over time, because saying the right thing one time is one thing, living it and breathing it and living it together for a long period of time, a year or two years, then shows you that someone else is really in it, and Chelsea is way in it, which is amazing. And I’m never want to do this with anybody else, nor would I want to do it alone 100%
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 10:55
Yeah. I mean, for me, I like, like I said, I this wasn’t on my radar. I thought I was just going to be a provider forever. I love helping patients. And so for me, it was talking about the business aspect of things, and learning Jen’s perspective on how the business runs operationally, whereas, you know, like the financial she had more of an insight into the financials and how effective was each provider. And those were things that, you know, I was looking at my own, but not looking at it practice wide. So getting leaning those insights for her and from her, and kind of learning, learning a bigger picture that wasn’t on my radar, but from my end, I’ve always been like boots on the ground. This isn’t working. What’s the system that we’re going to put in place to make this better? And so I’ve already been doing that across across the locations, and trying to make things more consistent across our three locations. And so trying to explain the value that I think that I could provide to this partnership and make sure that Jen trusted in it. And just, you know, building a friendship. We had a good working friendship previously. But, I mean, I think that next year was like, Okay, if we’re gonna do this, you know, we need to have a strong friendship. And so it was building that too. And also the transition was unique for us, because even though it’s not a familial transition, we weren’t Chris and Kareem as kids. We are their adopted kids, and they are our adopted parents. And so, you know, talking about, you know, the value of the practice, and maybe, whereas, if we didn’t have a relationship with them, you know, we might come in stronger, like, hey, I need to see the books through here, through versus here, so we can understand this. We always had to come in with a mentality and a respectfulness that I think was different than other transitions, because you can’t talk to your parents that way, right, you know. And and from them, their point of view, you know, we think we know everything we need to know, probably. And like, Oh, sweetie, let me. Let me walk you through how this works. Yeah, yeah. Chelsea
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 13:02
and I took this, our business partnership, really seriously, because it is like a marriage. You are signing some big documents, and you just, you don’t want to get divorced, so you got to make sure it’s the right partnership, and you had all of the hard conversations that you can imagine that might come up. There’s going to be threats. There’s always going to be threats. And there’s been a lot of things that have come our way that we didn’t expect. The pandemic being one of them. And it’s, how well do you know this person? But also, how well do you know this person under stress? Yeah, how do they operate when s hits the fan? Like, how are you going to work together through that hard time and come out better for the at the end of it. How do you navigate those conflicts? And talking about situations and going through them are different things we talked about as much as we could. But it was also, you know, a transformative time for both of us and making big decisions together, and it bonded us as well, yeah,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 13:58
and also just going back to, like, we’ve really learned how to leverage our differences. At the beginning, we didn’t really, we had differences of opinion a lot of the times, and could always look at things from many angles. But now it’s like we know how to leverage our differences. You know, like, this is something Jen’s more suited to. I want Chelsea to handle this, because she she’s going to do a better job at this. And we can’t imagine doing this without each other. It would not be the success that it is today if we didn’t have both perspectives. So
Dave Kemp 14:30
definitely. Well, it sounds like, I mean, really seriously, it was an amazing sort of match that. And I feel like people aren’t always going to be that fortunate. I feel like this is going to be one of the hardest things. I mean, things. I mean, I was literally born into it. I didn’t have a choice to who I who I’m, you know, basically, you know, like, kind of my partner is, it’s my brother, right? And so I think that for you too, it’s similar, though, where, you know, you were kind of thrust into this wasn’t like you had. This giant pool of of options. And you know, as fate would have it, you two actually work really, really well together, but it does seem like one of those things that you would have to actively work on, and I think it’s critical too that you mentioned that, like First off, you also you both had prior experience working there, independent of owning it or anything like that. And so you had a, like, a nice long period of time to really evaluate the dynamic between you two. And then obviously you had, like, this first year that was like a dating period, more or less, you know. And so I find that to be though, something that’s probably really important though, is to, like you said, you really do need to think through the long term sort of aspect of, like, who you’re going into business with. And then not just like, do you get along, but do you compliment each other? And I think that’s really fortuitous that you two kind of check both boxes. And so what I mean, you’d mentioned it earlier that the division of power more or less is like, maybe Jen’s a little bit more suited for some of the administrative tasks, whereas you Chelsea are more like you, like some of the patient oriented type responsibilities and duties. But was that something that was like, immediately obvious, or did you have to kind of sort through that and figure out who does what and who like you said, where the strengths lie.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 16:22
I think that, you know, prior to, prior to even this conversation starting, Jen and I were already leaders in the practice, and we would already see things and make a solution for it. And you know, Jen was more, I guess you can speak more to what you did. But like I very much, was all about consistency and processes and making things work better in the location that I was in, and then replicating that across other locations. And, you know, I got into this because I love talking to humans, and so I do the HR thing as well. I was already hiring patient care coordinators for the previous owners, because I wanted to say, and who was hired, and, you know, and so, so those were things that I had kind of already taken over to the degree that I could as an employee. And for you, if you want to say what you did, yeah, well,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 17:12
to piggyback on what Chelsea said, Just to elaborate on her position, she was kind of splitting time between two locations when she was originally hired. And so that was part of the natural progression of streamlining things between locations, like having a system in process, so that when she travels from one location to the other, it’s the same. So that kind of naturally developed there. And for me, I was primarily in one location, and the previous owners had me sitting in on like the monthly financial review and talking about marketing and the HR conversation. So I had been a part of those kind of monthly touch base calls with where we are a member of Audigy Group, so with that team there that’s been helping us. So I was part of those calls for maybe three years or four years before we bought the practice, and Chelsea had a lot of experience with the systems and processes and duplicating so when we started talking about owning the practice, we had already had backgrounds in those areas within the practice. And so instead of just duplicating ourselves, we just decided to compliment each other, and it worked out really well.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 18:18
Yeah, that said we both had kids along the way. And so I have done payroll, yeah, Jen has done my one on ones and hiring. And, yeah, you know, so we’ve, we’ve dabbled in each other’s worlds, and we’re always very glad when the other one comes home,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 18:33
very thankful to be back in our respective seats that we prefer, yeah, better at
Dave Kemp 18:39
Yeah, I mean, but I think it is like a testament to, you know, whenever it’s a small business, it’s, it’s kind of a stereotype, but like, you kind of have to wear every hat, you have to kind of have an idea of the the different departments and what goes on. I mean, that’s, that is the nature of a small business that I think makes it really starkly different than, say, a, you know, a larger, kind of, like, enterprise level company that you are the size of your department in that is going to be, you know, an order of magnitude bigger than just one small family business, you know what I mean. So I find this, though, really interesting, how, how you sort of determined, like, who’s going to do what, and you’ve come, you know, basically to the agreement like, Hey, we’re going to make really good partners. We have this great opportunity, so let’s seize it. So here we are. It’s 2017, you guys decide to pursue this, and you, you know, the baton gets passed to you, and now you’re running family hearing. You want to talk about maybe what those first few formative years were like before you got hit with a sledgehammer. That was the pandemic.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 19:45
I mean, I think one thing that was nice was because Jen and I had been, I would been with the practice five years when we bought it, and you had been with the practice, how long when we bought it? Oh
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 19:53
gosh, 2017 that was 12 years, 13 years, 12 years or
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 19:58
13 years. So I. So the patients all knew us. We didn’t make some big announcement that, oh, now it’s ours, because we had been acting like it was the transition took time. I don’t know how. I don’t remember how long it took, but two or three years for us to, you know, talk and work everything out with the previous owners. So the transition from that aspect was really easy. Since it was the same company. Everything ran the same we just had different goals. It’s definitely hard when you buy the practice and your co workers are kind of your friends, and then now you’re the boss. Yep, you know, we made some changes in payroll right away that we hoped everybody would like, but having more constructive conversations with team members that you know previously you were on the same same level with, was awkward. Um,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 20:50
yeah, I think also just right out the gates, you know, Chelsea and I were seeing patients 40 hours a week. Yeah, so any of the business owner hats were done nights and weekends or early mornings or, you know, middle of the night, we’re both up texting each other, and everything is fine until something breaks down. Yeah, someone leaves, or you need to let someone go, or your credit card machine stops working, or just one of those one off things, and your patient level is just your patient load stacked and then trying to fit things in, or someone calls out sick, and so you’re kind of plugging up those holes as they come along. And it’s hard to be proactive about things in the beginning, because you don’t know what you don’t know totally
Dave Kemp 21:31
and things just start breaking. Yeah,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 21:35
yeah, those pain points. So it takes as much as you want to be proactive rather than reactive, it takes time to be able to get enough under your belt to get to that place where you’re able to do that. And so yeah, the first couple of years, it was a lot of patient care, a lot of scrambling booze, before we both had kids, so we had a little more bandwidth there.
Dave Kemp 22:01
But I can relate.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 22:06
I find that, yeah, that was definitely an eye opener as well. So yeah, about three years before that happened, I
Dave Kemp 22:12
want to, I want to just touch on the one of the things you just said there, Chelsea, because I think this is so relevant for like, not just business owners, but you know, whenever you’re in your career, and you maybe you get elevated at a point that, you know, I find that to be something where you have your coworkers, that you’re your friends, they’re your peers, and then suddenly you’re in a position of superiority from a business hierarchy standpoint. And that’s got to be, I feel like that’s something that is, you know, pretty universally applicable. Like, a lot of people have experienced that kind of feeling, and for you like, what was that like, where you’re managing that in a way that it’s not coming across as, you know, suddenly I’m the boss, and you’re treating people like, you know, you’re creating division and tension, or that’s just kind of inherently being fostered just because of resentment, or something like that. So how do you do that in a way that it, it’s both, I guess, like, in line with, like, I want these to still be my friends, but I also it’s, I have to abide by, sort of the the, I don’t know, the hierarchy of the company. Yeah,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 23:17
I mean, at the end of the day, like, now we are, like, how the company runs, Matt, and not that it didn’t before, but like, it is everything to us at that point, and so we have to put the philosophy and the values of the company above those friendships. I think at the beginning it’s a learning curve. You know, we started somewhere, and slowly grew grew. And I think at the beginning, we probably leaned more to being friendly, you know, leaning more too friendly, maybe letting too many things pass. I mean, it’s not like we have, like, anything terrible happening, but like now as we’ve built the company, and none of that team is here anymore, and that’s a big in big thanks to the pandemic, but it’s a lot easier to keep the relationship friendly, but professional more than friendly. And so I think it’s just kind of learning and talking to advisors. How do I have this conversation? I mean, we lean into our advisors a lot, and still do. I think, who
Dave Kemp 24:21
are your advisors? The old
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 24:23
owners were definitely our advisors. They still are, like, I just did a presentation in Boulder in May, and they were in the audience. You know, they I didn’t ask them to be there. I just saw them there. And so then, and then Audigy, you know, our regular meetings with Audigy or SOS meetings with Audigy help.
Dave Kemp 24:44
How do we, yes, yeah, I mean, because I think that’s, it’s a really interesting thing, you know, especially as somebody that’s kind of in this age range where you’re kind of getting in that first portion of your life where you’re managing people. And you’re trying to have, you know, a level of, like harmony, where you have, as the kids would say, Good vibes in the office, you know. And so the last thing that you want to do is, like, you want to come across as, you know, this, this like hard ass for lack of better terms. And then, you know, but you want to, you also want to, you know, sort of have there be a level of respect. And so I find that to be one of those things that is totally like you don’t, you can’t learn that through a textbook. You only can really learn it through firsthand experience and and those are the kinds of things that I think are really at the heart of what’s challenging about these you know, like really taking the plunge and becoming a business owner that you can’t, I think, get that type of experience, other than just the first hand experience of doing it. Yeah, you’re
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 25:47
right. And the other layer of that, I suppose, is just, I mean, not that we’re really old now, but we were younger then, and Chelsea in her late 20s. I think I was 33 or something at the time. And you know, you’re managing people that are maybe older than you, or peers in that aspect too, and sometimes that can play a factor in how people view you. So that was interesting as well. And Chelsea did such a great job, and continues to do a great job in managing our team, doing the one on ones, and being empathetic, but also professional and being mindful that everything is fair time out of the office and things that we make concessions for. Whereas in the beginning, it was really easy to have like a knee jerk reaction of being overly empathetic and giving away too much, but then realizing that that is not providing our promise to our patients or our community, or it’s burning our candle at both ends to the point where we can’t perform as well as we can. So really gaining confidence in that, confidence in our message, confidence to say, you know, I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know later today, you’re giving some time picking it through and not just giving an answer to give an answer. I’m
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 27:00
still bad at that, but yes, I’m trying to be more Yeah. I don’t have to react
Dave Kemp 27:04
in the moment. I don’t have to give a finite answer, right here. I can. I didn’t think about it. Yeah?
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 27:10
Think about it exactly, and it’s still a work in progress. You’re always learning, yeah, it’s very humbling being a business owner, managing a team, managing everyone’s duties. It you know, you really have to examine who you are as a person and what your morals are, and your direction as a company, and how to kind of marry that all together and not lose your heart. I
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 27:30
think team is such a big thing in our lives, because it’s not like we started a business and we were the solo solo practitioner and maybe had an admin person like we bought we Jen and I have been calling it our dragon. We bought a dragon. We had to learn how to train. And there’s like, all of these people in it, and how do we manage them all effectively and be empathetic and help them grow? And we have an amazing team. I think we’ve always had an amazing team, but right now, we definitely have a team that we’re really proud to work alongside, and sometimes we’ve been too nice, and sometimes we’ve probably been too hard. And I think, you know, it’s nice to come into seven years owning this and feel really confident in how we talk with them and give ourselves time and space so we can help them grow and be the best they can be. In addition to helping the practice, women,
Dave Kemp 28:20
you’re so much more refined that you’ve gone through this now where, you know, it’s like you’re a well, you know, you’re a well oiled machine at this point. So yes,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 28:32
a lot of times. But yeah,
Dave Kemp 28:35
I So, alright, let’s talk about, you know, kind of one of those first major, like, oh shit, moments when you’re a business owner and, you know, so maybe I don’t know. Are were things kind of chugging along nicely before the pandemic hit? And then what was that like? Was that kind of one of the first major existential crisises of like, Oh God, what are we going to do? Walk walk me through that? Or is it completely memorable that you don’t even remember 2020 like, half the half the country, a blur. I
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 29:03
know before 2020 I can’t remember, like, I mean, I think we were doing fine,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 29:07
yeah, before before 2020 Yeah, you’re right that it’s kind of a blur. Like, you know, what was life like before then? I mean, we were just so in it. We were in the day to day, the day. You know, we were every patient, stacked. I got married. Chelsea had a kid. I
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 29:28
had a kid. Yeah, 2019 I had my first baby. Yeah, you
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 29:31
had your baby. So then I we had to cross train. I had to learn all Chelsea’s stuff and do that while she was out with her baby. Yeah, you had your kid in February. No, March
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 29:41
2, yeah, go through all of them once,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 29:44
and I’ll get one of them right. Another kid in March. I got married that June of the same year. So like big life transitions, yeah, while trying to, you know, keep the business stable, and then I. When 2020 happened, I had just found out I was pregnant right around lockdown time, so that was also stressful time to be pregnant and be a business owner, and Chelsea and I talked andor texted probably nonstop through the day and night trying to figure out what we’re going to do. Are we essential workers? Can we stay open? If we do stay open, how can we keep people safe? And then I was worried about my own health with that. But as you’re pregnant, yeah, except pregnant, and then our team, and our team’s health, and you know, what’s their home life like? It just got really personal, really fast. Yeah, good way to put it, yeah, people’s comfort levels navigating that. Some people didn’t want to come to work, and I don’t blame them at all, because we’re working in person at the public so that was a very stressful time, and we never closed. We have three locations, so I made one location. Chelsea was in another location. We had one provider that was very grateful and comfortable to be working. She was in another location, and during that time, Chelsea made some smart decisions that one of the things about our partnership is I’m very rooted in the ground. I can change, but it takes me time, and Chelsea will just change in a heartbeat. She knows she keeps her core, but she’s just always ready to go get it. And one of the things she wanted to do was change our office management system. And thank goodness we did January of 2020, so we took that time to really learn it and hone our skills. And yeah, just really figure how to do database cultivation, but then pivoting to curbside service, how can we get creative? And Chelsea came up with a lot of brilliant ideas during that time. And another time that we’re really grateful for our partnership. I mean, we just Yeah, talked it all out,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 31:53
yeah. And I think the pandemic was Jen and I it’d be like a patient would come in. And at that time, you were only seeing patients. You knew, really, it wasn’t like you had new business, but if I did, I’d be like, Jen, I have a new person here. I’m the only one in this complex. I’m just texting you so, you know, the appointment started and all that good after, yeah, you know, like, because it was, it was like a ghost town. It was
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 32:14
a ghost town. Yeah, he had, I was the only car in the parking lot. I was the only business open in the location that I was in, there were like, grocery store carts just blowing like tumbleweeds through our parking lot, and the grocery store is like a mile away. Like, why are those carts over here? And then, you know, transient population got real comfortable and was wandering around. So I’d lock the door if I needed to, and hold Chelsea, I’m alive. Yeah, we
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 32:41
figured it out. Yeah. And I think the interesting thing about the pandemic is, like, once we could call back people to work, I think we had one person come back or maybe two, I can’t remember exactly. So then we had all this business. We had to hire, and we had to hire, and we were the primary providers. And it was a lot. It was a lot, a lot of churning and burning employees at that time, not because, just because of the state of the world, everybody, what do I want to do with my life? You know? So they might work with us three months and then leave. And, yeah, it was crazy. And
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 33:15
then I had a baby and was gone for a little bit. Yes. And Chelsea managed it at all for a few months sounds
Dave Kemp 33:20
chaotic? Yeah, we survived. You survived. You survived. Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s kind of crazy to think that that was, like, a good four years ago at this point, like it feels like it was a decade ago, but at the same time, not that long ago, like it’s just been a very I’m glad that we’re kind of now, like full blown back to just normal this, because that was a really weird few years. But I do think that, like, you know, just specifically speaking about, like, businesses and stuff, it was, it was an incredibly, like, sort of like a, I don’t know, obviously, a galvanizing period for a lot of people. A lot of businesses, like, really rallied together, came and got closer, and it really like bonded them and vice versa, some kind of completely broke businesses. And, you know, people in businesses kind of parted ways and and then I think that it like really brought to bear a lot of these, like, more macro trends about like, to your point, think a lot of people that were probably already planning to retire accelerated that timeline, retired before they were planning on it. Yet, people have these sort of, like existential like, you know, I guess realizations of, is this what I want to do? And had career changes. You had that whole like, ushering in of remote work and the more pervasiveness of that. So it really did, I think, like fundamentally change the work, the workforce, the workforce expectations, and as a result, like, here we are in 2024 and I would say that at least in this industry, probably aside from managed care, the other thing I hear all the time is like, one of the biggest challenges is hiring. Is how do you how do you like properly staff and hire and and what I find really interesting about. You two is that, you know, it’s like you’ve, it seems like you’ve figured out, you know, really good processes in terms of identifying talent, and then, you know, having different, you know, like being able to utilize the front office staff effectively and stuff like that. So do you want to maybe talk a little bit about like that sort of coming then out of the pandemic, and then, like you said, you almost, kind of the business was, like, cleansed in a sense, where you now wants to, you had to, like, you know, kind of start from scratch again. So you you were then really, truly rebuilding it in your own image. And do you want to talk about, like, what that looked like? I’m sure that was both daunting and overwhelming, but probably also really exciting in some ways.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 35:42
Once we had staff, it was,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 35:43
yeah, first you got us to stop drowning. Yes.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 35:49
I mean, I think it was, that’s a really great way to put it, that it was a cleanse, and we kind of had started trying to put our imprint on the business. Prior to the pandemic, we kind of planned a design for the office with our brand identity, and we talked through it, picked our colors and kind of the design strategy, talked with the designer, and we had already remodeled the Boulder office pre pandemic, and then we just budgeted that we would do it every year, like because we have three locations, so you can’t do it all at once. And I think after the pandemic, we kind of really leaned into that brand identity that we had created, and really were focused on replicating that across the locations, not just with the remodel, but with our company philosophy and how we wanted things to work, and made manuals so that the team kind of knew what our vision was and how things should be. Now I’m blanking on what the question is, how do we how do we re cleanse, what else, rebuild,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 36:50
rehire, start, scratch. But that’s actually a good point. Kind of how we did that is, before the pandemic, we had started on budgeting for the things that we wanted to change. So we had started a gradual change in the sense of what’s the first thing that we can do that can make the patient experience better? Well, we need new typinometers. We need new real ear equipment. We want the same manufacturer, same equipment across all three locations, our audiometers to be the same. So we really streamlined our equipment space, our diagnostic equipment, like that, and then interior design, rebranding, all of that. So coming out of the pandemic, we were looking at a facelift, also for our marketing and our imagery, like Chelsea said, picking our colors and all of that kind of goes hand in hand with attracting the right type of talent, right? So if you set the stage for best practice, care, elevated experience, a premium, sort of, yeah, experience, I guess, is the best word, patient care, and then attracting people that are also going to have those same values and wanting to provide that level of care. So then, how do you identify those people? And so we’re looking at also, do they have the heart for it? Do they enjoy it is, are the vibes in the office what we want? So we really, we read a great book, the ideal team player. I always ruin the guy’s name, but it’s a great, humble, hungry and smart and emotional intelligence is just really important. Being people smart, being humble, giving credit where it’s due, and then hungry for drive to be better, perfect things, what’s next, and so identifying that we got better in that just because we had more experience. And you there’s really no substitute for experience, and then trusting your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s not that’s not the person and not being in a hurry to just fill a seat. You need to be able to you need to get the right person on the bus, not just a body on the bus.
Dave Kemp 38:51
I keep, I keep hearing this, this notion of like, hire, slow, fire, fast, 100%
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 39:00
I think the pandemic, the hiring after the pandemic, the two years after the pandemic, I think were the hardest years we’ve ever had, finding the right people. Yeah, and we learned a lot through that process, just about, how do we how do we fire fast, or maybe not, fire fast, but help. You know, is this right for both of us? Is this a good fit. And, you know, I think we, we do do a good job at that now, because we know who we are, yeah, and well, and that’s
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 39:27
actually what came out of the pandemic too. Is more touch points. We now have a weekly, weekly zoom, yeah, togethers. We had in person meetings as a team once a month, but the weekly touch base as a team is so crucial to then be able to identify more quickly, maybe if something is off with someone, or if maybe someone is not quite the right fit, or maybe we need more training. Does it feel right? Is there a cohesive team having a better. Pulse on our team, yeah, and then quarterly team bonding stuff. I mean, we’ve done all kinds of things, go karts and escape rooms and painting and building stuff and working together, and everyone doing something for the first time together, and being bad at it and laughing at each other, and just, you know, level that playing field a bit. And, you know, we genuinely enjoy everyone we work with. And we also want to hire for that. You know, if someone, a patient, walks in the office and there’s tension, they’ll feel it. So we want to have good, a good feeling when people come in, yeah,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 40:31
yeah. Prior to that, we met once a month in person, but during the pandemic, and even, you know, a little bit after, we were afraid to get everybody together. So we did a lot virtually that we’ve kept
Dave Kemp 40:42
so, all right, where you are now, and kind of 2024, and it’s totally, you know, this is now yours. You guys have fully, sort of, you know, ushered in the new era. So what does that look like? I mean, what does family hearing look like today, and where are you taking it into the future that you’re you know, just talk about, like, what you’re excited about right now, about being a business owner in the position that you are, where you’ve spent seven years. You’ve gone through some of these challenges and these challenging periods, but here you are, and you’ve got all this experience under your belt, and you kind of feel like, you know, you can seize the seize the day here.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 41:23
I think that we are, you know, going through all of this, I think we’ve had a common core of ideals that we’ve been working on that we couldn’t have articulated it when we were in the mess of it as this has been going on, but we’ve been trying to create consistency across all three locations, working smarter and not harder, which takes hit your head against the wall a few times to learn how to do that, and focusing on excellence. And so now we’re kind of in the era where we’re fine tuning that, because we’ve got the foundation laid well for most of those things. In terms of excellence, we follow clinical best practices, which our whole team loves, our patients are getting better care. So we got a test box a couple of years ago, and just a year ago, a couple of years ago, and love, that was the one piece that we were missing, and love being able to provide that quality control, to give a better end product for the user, to make sure that it’s working well for them and be able to test it. And also, in terms of working smarter, not harder, we no longer take third parties, which was amazing. It was amazing change for our business. I was really scared. Jen was really ready. We listened to Jen that time, because she was right in her wisdom.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 42:47
And if it weren’t for Chelsea, we wouldn’t be paperless.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 42:54
So I think that I’m not saying it as well as I would like to, but I think we are at a point where we are providing a very premium experience that we’re all really, really proud to stand behind, not just Jen and I, but the whole team, yeah,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 43:08
and I think that’s kind of the theme for moving into our next phase of ownership. So last month or so, we’ve really been focused on what’s next for us, I think for such a long time, you know, our personal journeys were to become a provider, and then to become the best provider we possibly can, and then we buy a practice. And now where we are is it’s not about us being the best possible provider. It’s about helping our team realize their personal, professional financial goals, to make sure that they are realizing their dreams within their own roles, and they’re the best that they can be at what they do. And it’s about fostering an environment and helping them grow. And that brings us a lot of joy, and it also helps us help more people hear better. If it’s not just us seeing patients or one other provider, we have a whole provider team, audiologists and hearing instrument specialists that help our patients. And so Chelsea and I are scaling back patient care and spending a lot more time on working on the practice instead of in the practice. And part of being on this podcast is we have time to do things like this now, and it we’re just entering a new stage of practice maturity, which is extremely exciting. And it’s really cool to be able to be in this industry almost, I guess, two decades, no just about and still feel excitement when you get up and what’s next in that drive and figuring it out with someone that I trust and is also just as excited as I am, and we’re just building this empire, and we’re ready to just keep going up. We’re excited.
Dave Kemp 44:41
I love it. I mean, it’s what I talk about on this podcast all the time, is like, how do you basically get to where you two are? And I think that you’re at a really exciting part, which is now you have the the luxury, I guess, or the ability to start to, you know, I guess, kind. Of really impart your philosophy by cultivating a really strong team and having that team really embody this whole spirit of, like, what you guys see as being that optimal patient experience. One aspect of that, that I guess I’m a little curious on is, you know, professional development. So, you know, obviously this would go part and parcel with, if you’re, you know, kind of helping to upskill people. What? What does this kind of look like for you to where you’ve got this piece of raw talent that is this new employee? How do you make them their best version in your world. Like, what kinds of things are you guys doing to really help to, kind of, like, foster that professional development, in terms of, if it’s a front office staff, like, are you trying to graduate them into becoming audiology assistants, or something of that nature, where you’re giving them some sense of upward mobility and a career path, if you will. Rather than I’m hiring you to do this one job for the next until you decide to leave
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 46:06
Absolutely. I mean, I think that we have learned through all of our time just how to train somebody so that they feel really confident in their role here. So we have a month long training for any team member, be it a PCC, an odd tech, or a audiologist or a provider, where they’re sitting with somebody who does the job and going through a handbook that we have made. So we’ve got a lot of manuals to make sure that they know how to onboard. And then we have regular one on ones with every team member, where we talk about, you know, what are they noticing, what’s working, where they’re in their location or with their role, what’s not working, what’s a good idea that they have. And from those, we really learn people’s goals. So we get at semi annually, we do talk about their personal, professional and financial goals in a bigger way, as much as they want to share. But in those one on ones, we also learn them too, and if we can find a path for them to elevate themselves in the practice we want to, we just have a hearing instrument specialist who just got licensed, who started off as a PCC and then became an Autec, and now she’s a hearing instrument specialist. So that’s definitely a path. But office manager is another track that we’re trying to create from somebody who’s hired within as as we continue to grow, I think that our team can continue to grow with us. Most commonly, it’s been the h i s track, but there’s definitely more options with marketing and office manager and probably some things we haven’t thought of yet.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 47:40
Well, that’s part of the personal, professional, financial goals, is if we can find a way that our practice can be a vehicle for those things for someone, then they’ll want to be here long term, if they can be realized through our practice. So regular open dialog is important, yep,
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 47:57
and being able to hear that and then go back and collaborate, either just between us or with our mentors, and say, Okay, so this is their dream. We want them to stay here a long time. So how do we make that a reality? What are the things that we can do? We have a lot of career pathing kind of built for certain things, and we continue to tinker with them. But you know, there were times where we didn’t have those things, and that’s why we now have the right sources
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 48:22
with with that, though, it’s really easy if you’re not careful to change your practice to make it work for what somebody else wants. So being really mindful that we’re very strong in who we are, we know where we’re going, and does this fit into that mold? Because if you just kind of want to, oh, well, they’re into this. I could see how this could fit, then you’re just going to go all over the place and not be laser focused on who you are and where you’re going, yeah. So absolutely,
Dave Kemp 48:48
totally, I guess, like, you know if you’re zooming out and again, like I said earlier, I don’t know how much you felt this with basically, like, call it the labor shortage or the difficulty of hiring. It seems like you really are limited to two options. Either you can, you can really emphasize recruiting the talent that’s already sort of in that, like final form that you need, right? So you you already know, I need a hearing instrument specialist, and so you’re going to go and you’re going to actually seek that person out. And because that’s a maybe kind of a scarce commodity, because there’s a lot of demand for it, it’s harder, and you might have to, you know, you basically are going to have to pay more to do that. And so then the alternative is cultivating your own talent. And I feel like I’d be you two would know better than anyone. Like, what is i The question I’m ultimately trying to get at is, like, is, is that kind of going to be where, where you think things end up is, basically, you know, aside from the graduate degrees that you’re going to go and you’re going to, like, actually seek the academic track to to obtain for some of these, call it like the, I don’t want. Be disparaging, but like lower middle tier rungs of the patient experience, or, you know what, what kinds of things they can facilitate legally, is that something that you think will is the, I guess, like the more viable path to that, to do what you’re doing, where you’ve got, you know, and you’ve been able to identify the types of people that have at least the potential to move up in these separate tracks, and you can identify early on, okay, I’m not necessarily hiring an instrument specialist as much as I’m hiring somebody that might have the potential to get there one day. Is kind of what I’m getting at is like, almost that’s what you’re limited to, is, is having to kind of do what you’re doing, which is help shepherd these people along.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 50:43
I think it just depends on what the business needs at the time, because sometimes we do need an audiologist, and as far as cultivating people to become hearing instrument specialists, we are absolutely game for that, but it’s not ever something that we are 100% committed to right at the very beginning of meeting them, because we’ve done we’ve met people like that before. They know what they want. They want to be a hearing instrument specialist. They want to be a patient care coordinator for us in hopes that they will become licensed. And I think the stage that we’re at now, we really do know ourselves, and when we make decisions, it’s always from the vantage point of is this the right thing for who family hearing is right now? And we would never we are always open to somebody like a patient care coordinator or an Autec that we hire being able to develop beyond that role, but it’s never something that we are 100% committed to until we’ve known them for a decent amount of time, because to take on an apprentice should be a big job. It’s we take it seriously. Take it really seriously. You know, whatever the minimum requirement is for them to get a license, we say straight away, it’s about competence, not about your time commitment. When you’re competent, you can take the test. And so it’s a big undertaking for not only us, but the other mentors in our practice, like we have wonderful audiologists on our team who also love to pour themselves into whoever becomes an apprentice. And so before we make a commitment like that, we want to know who we’re we’re going into that project with
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 52:15
totally but as far as hiring goes, the other thing that’s changed for us is we now have a mentality of, we’re always hiring in the sense of, like, we’re always in the community meeting people. Yeah, we may not like our team is, is fully staffed now. We don’t need anybody else right now, but if you look at our earlier years of business ownership, we weren’t looking until we needed. You know, ever want to be at a place of great need when you’re trying to add to your team. So we’re now always meeting audiologists, meeting board certified hearing instrument specialists, meeting other people in our industry, and even if it’s not the right time when the time we as we need someone, they might be looking for a place, or they might know someone who who’s looking for a place, and they know who we are. So that has been a mindset shift, absolutely that we’ve put a lot of effort into just networking and meeting people and getting out there.
Dave Kemp 53:07
Yeah, that’s really cool. I I just find this whole thing to be so interesting about how you know you’re at this point in your owner, owner’s journey, where you you’ve kind of crossed a number of thresholds, and you’ve gotten to the point now where really the onus is on, like, you know, kind of really imparting a lot of what you’re learning, and building this really strong team so that you can see more people, you can make a bigger impact, kind of thing. So as we come to the close here, you know, kind of closing thoughts, anything that you would want to say to somebody else that’s maybe considering a similar venture where they’re not, they’ve not yet taken the plunge, terms of like, you know what, what really stands out to you in terms of, like, the realities of business ownership, good, bad, and just, you know, any kind of words of wisdom.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 54:00
Oh, good question. I think, right out the gates, the first thing to say is that you need to really take your time building your strong foundation. Whether you’re a solopreneur or you’re going to have a business partner, if you have a business partner, take a long time making an operating agreement, a Buy Sell agreement. What if, you know sometimes people get burnt out. What happens if someone wants to exit before the other person is ready? Spend a lot of time on that prenup, if you will, and build your network, get a lawyer, get an accountant, find value people that you trust and know really well. You don’t need to know everything, but know your resources and build that foundation and start from there. I really, strongly recommend building that foundation, yeah, first, and then really, really ask yourself, is this? Is this really what I want to do?
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 54:56
Yeah, I would just also add i. To make sure that you have some type of mentor in your life, multiple mentors. Because there have been so many times as a business, as business owners, where it’s like, what do we do? It feels like the biggest question, whether it’s, you know, hiring, firing, building a process. Do we drop third parties, you know, and really being able to openly ask questions and get feedback from multiple sources to help with giving you a perspective that you just don’t have in your little universe, at family hearing or wherever you’re going to be. I don’t think that we would be where we are today if we didn’t always ask questions to our mentors,
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 55:43
totally, I agree with that. And always work on yourself too, because you don’t know it all and you never will. And you have to keep working on yourself so that you can grow, so your team can grow, because if you stay here, your team will never get above you know where you are, so you have to keep raising your own belief lid, your own leadership lid, because no one will ever rise above your own lid. It will leave your team. So you have to be okay with constantly developing yourself too, absolutely.
Dave Kemp 56:15
I mean, just to close on that note, I mean, what? Where where you are now in your own individual professional journeys. What are the types of things that you’re doing to challenge yourself, to increase those you know what I mean, like, what? What types of things are you doing now that maybe are pushing yourself, knowing that if you can get to that next level, that you can bring your team along with you. What? What do those look like here? That’s what we’re asking our story right
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 56:40
now, yeah, that’s a great question. Reading we read we have a whole reading list. We read books together. We challenge each other just by asking each other questions, having different viewpoints, networking more, meeting with other business owners, different types of business owners, picking their brains, talking to our mentors, talking to our mentors, and asking who their mentor is? What are they reading? What questions are they asking, asking people to be critical of us? What? Where’s our blind spot? What? What is it that we don’t know, that we don’t even know about, you know, being okay with getting feedback?
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 57:15
Yeah, I would agree with all of that. That’s interesting. I think right now, we’re in a phase where we’re trying to figure out, what is the next thing. How do we get uncomfortable so that we can grow so we’re just dipping a toe in the water for all of those things right now, we’re excited about a potential kind of business owner group that we might be invited to where we can share ideas with people who are in this stage of ownership, like we are, because we don’t know what to do right now. I mean, we do. We’ve got lots of projects, but how do we we’re in our stretching phase, yeah, how do we find the right project? Yeah,
Dave Kemp 57:50
I do. I find that to be something that is it, because it’s like, easy to kind of have that whole like mindset, notion of like, never stop learning, you know, and always keep challenging yourself, and at a certain point, you kind of reach all the different goals that you had previously set forth, and then say, really, you have to just kind of identify new goals. And that actually can kind of be challenging in and of itself, of like, okay, what? What is that next milestone for me to really aspire to? And, it Yeah, I think that that’s a good healthy exercise to kind of be always on the lookout for is like, Where can I challenge myself next? Because I do. I completely agree with you both that That, to me, is like, at the heart of being a business owner and an entrepreneur, is like, that whole notion of like, you got to just never stop. You just have to keep pushing and figure out wherever you can continue to grow. And so I think that having a partner that you can always confine in, and you can push each other, and you can, you know, I have to just imagine that’s been the best part of this for you, too, is basically this relationship that you have. You’ve obviously built an incredible partnership, and to be able to share it with somebody, I think is really special. You know, obviously it’s it’s cool for anyone to build any kind of business that they want, but to really have a partner that can go through all of it and share the ups and the downs is probably a pretty vital part of this that you wouldn’t do otherwise. I
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 59:21
mean, absolutely, to the point where, like, we wouldn’t want to do this without the other person. I There’s, I can’t imagine doing it without her.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 59:29
I mean, we have and each other’s maternity leaves, and we both know
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 59:32
we do not want that.
Chelsea Walters BC-HIS 59:35
Yeah, we don’t want that. Also, we meet other business owners who are, who are solo business owners. And, you know, I think sometimes they wish they had somebody that they could text in the middle of the night and be like, did I say the right thing? How do you think we handled that and we’re and sometimes the answer is no, I think you could have done better. I mean, we’ve definitely done that, yeah, but to be able to have somebody just give you that perspective. Of it. So you know where you’re at, that
Dave Kemp 1:00:01
brutal honesty. Yeah, you’re pretty brutal with one another.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 1:00:07
We deliver our feedback in a more palatable way these days. I did in the beginning. We’ve grown
Dave Kemp 1:00:13
Yeah, there you go. That’s a testament to your own growth. Well, this has been a lot of fun. I really I’ve enjoyed getting to know you two a little bit, and hearing about your business, it sounds like you’re just really, you know, making it your own and pushing the envelope and trying to figure out how to just grow it and grow it and grow it. So kudos to you, and all the more power to you. I wish you both all the success into the future. I think it’s really cool what you’re building and what you got going on.
Jen La Borde BC-HIS 1:00:40
Thanks for having us. That was a lot of fun. Lot of fun. Yes, thank you absolutely
Dave Kemp 1:00:44
Thanks for everybody who tuned in here to the end. We will chat with you next time. Cheers.
