Episode 1: The Beginning

Transcript:

So the big question is this, how do we help family and friends that are developing hearing loss navigate their changing world and guide them to the treatment they won't admit they need? That's the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Russell Broadhead, and welcome to the Heroes of Hearing Podcast.

Hi everybody, this is Russ Broadhead. This is my first Anchor podcast, so please bear with me. I just wanted to, to share my, my story and, and all the things that I've learned up to where, where I am at now. And I long story short, graduated from college. Was told, good luck. Go find a job, scoured the, the papers to find any type of graphic design job, and had the degree but didn't have the three years minimum experience.

And, and just felt like, well, what do I do now? I spent all this time and money in college and, and now I've been thrown to the wolves and. And have no idea what to do. So I had paid off my truck. I then decided I was gonna start my own. I started a video production business and needed some money for a camera.

So I, so I went into my, my credit union and I, and I had them take the title back to my, my truck and gimme a loan. And with that money I had u I used it to pay for my first video camera and started my, my own video production business, Arby Studios. And you can guess what ARBY stands for started that and I moved to St. George. And as I was doing that, we had gone through, Starting out with zero and nothing to rebranding our business after everything started tanking in the real estate market in 2007 and 2008 and rebranded our business to Castle Bridge Films and, and really just took our business to the next level and were able to make so much more money doing these wedding films.

And I, and I really loved being able to connect with. These brides and they're, they're soon to be husbands and just telling their story and, and being able to have an impact on the, the them and their family and be able to, You know, showcase a lot of that at the, at their, at their receptions, at their weddings.

And I, I had loved what I do, I what I did and got up, got to the point where we had just really dried up the market we were in and we didn't really have a whole lot of new stuff coming. And I just changed careers altogether and had an opportunity to go out and get into the hearing field. And I had never thought about getting into hearing, I had no idea that you could even go to school and, and, and get into, be being an audiologist or a doctor to help people here. This company that took me out, trained me. And so I went through this three month intense training. 6, 7, 8 hours a day for three months left my family of three three kids and my wife back in St. George and I was in Chicago all, all by myself and going through this training and. And I got licensed with the state of Illinois and I was placed over an office and they said, Hey, you know, if you do well, you can work your way up to become a partner. So I worked hard at that. And by the end of our time there in Chicago, I become partner. We were doing really well and then I just, things were changing in the company and I was looking more long term and I thought, you know, this is great. I'm making pretty good money, but what, what I'm gonna have to retire on? I don't have any retirement. I don't have a 401k, I don't have a pension.

I don't have any, any of that. And I have a bunch of kids and we're gonna have a bunch more. And what, how am I gonna provide for 'em? And I had kind of reached a roadblock and I knew that this vehicle I was in with this company was not gonna work out. And I put my notice in with them and finished our office on a profitable note and left them and, for eight months was gonna focus on real estate and get rental properties and, and do that and do that for a little bit.

And, and then as we tried to qualify for loans, couldn't qualify for loans cuz we didn't have a job to have income coming in, even though we had rental properties. And long story short that idea didn't pan out. So I thought, well, I, I really like hearing and I want to own my own practice so I can pass it on to my kids and, and really just be able to have an impact. So we had done that we had decided, well, let's see what other opportunities we had. And I had an opportunity to. To go with another business that would help start me out and I would own the practice, and it sounded like a great idea. So we did that. We ended up moving to Tucson, Arizona, which was where we're at currently, and did that for about a year and a half, and got to a point where it felt like it was the same thing just happening over again, and it just wasn't the right vehicle for me and what we wanted to do. So I put in my notice for them and, and kind of ended the month strong with them as well. I didn't wanna leave them in a mess. I just, I wanted to leave them the, you know, it was the best month that we had ever had and, you know, left them and then was trying to figure out what, what I was gonna do.

And I figured I would jump in with both feet. So here I have seven kids, five girls all in a row, love them to death. I have two boys and here I starting my own business from scratch, trying to figure out how to make it work and really just up against a wall, because I don't have the financial backing to advertise like crazy. I don't have a practice that's been around for years and years and years, so I don't have all these patients, and I thought, well, maybe I'll just go and buy a practice. So I went to try to buy a practice. I'm in Phoenix, and that was quite an experience. I'm glad I had the experience. I was, very stressed and depressed and freaking out and trying to figure out how to make that work and just couldn't figure out how to do it. I said that I wouldn't, I wasn't gonna buy their, buy their company and decided just to come back to Tucson and start my own practice. So I started Heroes of Hearing and we, we had started to advertise a little bit and really just hit, hit a bunch of walls.

The rental properties we had in. Chicago needed all this work to be done because they were in the historic district and we're trying to pay for that and get things taken care of. And it just was a huge, huge mess. And we're trying to refinance, but we can't refinance cause we don't have a job. We don't have any income. Even though I have my own business and even though we have cashflow coming from the properties we couldn't get a refinance. We couldn't refinance, so, so then we said, okay, we need to sell the properties. We're trying to sell the properties, and, and all of this time I'm trying to keep up with the bills and it's not adding up, and there's no way that we're gonna be able to pay everything and are we even gonna be able to stay in our house?

So I went through a good month or two of just being very anxious and very frustrated. I felt worthless. I felt like I was a failure as a husband and a father because I attached that to being able to provide, and here I am. Trying to start a business and run a business and provide for my family and keep a roof over their head. And, and, and I wasn't doing it. And I was ubering and lifting and doing all the, doing all that to kind of help make a little bit extra money. Just it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough each month. To keep up with that. And then all the bills we had at the office and I stopped believing in myself and I started doubting and I started to feel like I was trapped and I was very frustrated.

I was angry. I, I've always. Tried to put my faith in, in God. And, and I know that he's there and I know that he knows what I'm going through, but I just felt like he had left me alone, like all by myself. And, and it was very crushing. I had that doubt. I felt like God didn't care and I was going through all this mental and emotional suffering, all this anguish felt like I wasn't worthy to even be here on earth. What I'm just taking up space. I felt like I was broken unloved that I didn't really matter and I was going down this really, really dark path and these thoughts just kept going over and over in my head. And I would wake up in the morning and be like, I don't want to get outta bed. I just wanna lay here and. Think about how my life could be so much better and just in my mind, visually, just, just love being there and not be here in reality. And, and it got to the point where I would be driving just down the road. And why you here? Why are you even around? And you know, your family could do so much better without you. They could use their, that insurance money and be provided so much better than if you were here cuz you're not doing it. And I had to stop myself from just wanting to crank that wheel and, and killing myself. And I, I, I don't wish that upon anybody. I don't wish any type of depression. I don't wish. People to feel like they're so worthless that they just want to end their life and feel like that's the only way out. But that's how I felt. I felt scared. I felt like I pretty much was gonna lose everything, and it always gonna happen when I couldn't pay my bills.

And this was the internal turmoil that I was, that I was having cuz it was totally opposite of what I wanted. I wanted to build this business and I wanted to be able to step away from it at some point and, and hand it over to my kids and build a legacy and be able to help and serve others. And just be able to leave my mark on the world to make a difference, to make an impact in other people's lives. That's what I wanted to create, and I felt like I wasn't doing it. I was just stuck and I wasn't changing, and I wasn't building this million dollar practice that I wanted to build, and everything was just kind of going against me and I, and it really, really, really, really hurt. So I was trying to figure out what to do. I knew that if I kept doing the same thing, I would keep, I wouldn't get any different results. I would get the same results. And, and I knew I had to change something. And I remember reading what a Tony, Tony Robbins book awakened the Giant within which I is a really great book. I love it. I knew I needed to change my, my, my movement and just needed to get out of this funk.

So I decided to go on a run and I started to run and I started to get up and do pushups and sit ups and just physically get myself out of that state and, Had to figure out how to, how to move forward we couldn't afford anything and the business was getting ready to tank and it's the lowest of the low. Reached out to family to see if they could help out at all. And, they a lot of them just were in tight situations where they couldn't really help us out. Like we needed and we really had to re humble ourselves and go to our church, which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints, and ask our Leaders for financial help, and it was very hard for me to do because I wanted to provide, I wanted to be the one that people could come to me for help, not me going to them for help. And it was really hard for me to ask for help because I would much rather just, Me personally just not eat and let everybody else eat and take that cross that I had created and just bear it.

And, and we had great leaders that understood our situation. They understood what we were trying to do with selling our houses and they were able to help provide food for us and we were able to, Get help with paying for our home and some of our bills and, and that was a great, a great source of hope for me, knowing that people would really help out and. But I, I didn't want to go through this. I wanted to be on the other side, helping others that were down on their luck, not be the one down on his luck and complete contemplating taking his own life. We were able to finally get a, the houses under contract and we were able to sell our, our houses and we were able to find a family member that would give us a loan for the business so we could get it going and then pay them back. And as I started to get through this, I, I started to see that, you know, life was so much better for my kids with me here in their life. And that if I would've ended my life that money could never have made up for me.

It never could have, even though I thought that that was more important than myself. We had decided that we were gonna downsize our office, that we were gonna really just cut everything back, cut back all this advertising that wasn't working and figure out what to do. That's kind of where we're at now. We've been able, I've been able to come across some really great stuff. Russell Brunson stuff and ClickFunnels and. Starting to figure out how I can market my business and really take it to that, that million dollar level that I, I want it to be at that's where I'm at now. And I know that I can get there, but I know that I can't do it alone. And the thing that I. Like most is helping others. And when I was in those other jobs where it just turned into. More of a focus on money cuz they were selling the company or whatever it was. It just was not, it was not fun for me cuz I would just have patients come in and out and that's, I, I wanna be able to connect with the people that are coming in, that I'm helping, that they, they are, they're, they have worth, they're a person.

They're just not, they're not a number and I want to be able to invest the time into them so they can invest the time into us and really help grow heroes of hearing this last year we've been able to help. Someone with hearing aids that wasn't able to afford hearing devices. And I, I wanna be able to do more of that, and I'm just, I, I'm not at a point where I can do that, but I know that if I keep waiting and waiting, then I, I'll never get there.

So I decided, Hey, I'll just jump into it and I'll just, I'll just. I guess give my weight, give myself poor, which that didn't seem to work too well. In the meantime, we've just, we've had a lot of great experiences and, and I'm still on this journey. I'm on this journey to not only transform my own life, but be able to transform the lives of others.

Because I've, I've seen how hearing loss affects people firsthand in my own family with my father, my father-in-law, which will be stories I'll share later but, you know, when you have hearing loss, it, it's hard. You, you disconnect from people because you can't hear, you can't understand them, and you want to, and it gets frustrated and they're yelling at you and you have to keep asking them to repeat. And, and it's this cycle that just, it just sneaks up on you. You don't realize it. And. And I want to be able to give people their life back. And, and I do that through providing better hearing. And as we test their hearing and counsel them and go over why they have hearing loss, why they're struggling to get clarity and, and what the solution is.

I'm, I'm, I'm. It makes me happy when I can provide a solution and I can, and I can provide help, and they come back and they say, Hey, I can hear my daughter again. She's not yelling at me anymore. And I can, I can understand the TV and my grandson, I can hear him and he doesn't feel like I hate him anymore. He feels like I love him and lots of, lots of stories I can share there, but, but that's what I want to do. That's what Heroes of Hearing is all about. We want to be the hero in providing that better care. It's not about a hearing aid, it's not about getting a product that you just stick in your ears. It's about better hearing healthcare. And that's where, that's where our focus is, is focusing on the care of others and helping them get what they've been lacking in their life back through better hearing. Yes, so that's a little bit about Heroes of Hearing Us, a little bit about me, Russ Broadhead. I appreciate you spending the time to listen to my very first podcast.

I invite you back to hear other stories and other things that I, we have in store to share with you guys. I would love to hear from you. I'm not sure if this platform allows you to email or text me or message me or comment or whatever it is. I would love to hear your own stories. Your own story with how you're a loved one that has hearing loss or maybe it's you that has some type of hearing loss, or maybe you don't have hearing loss at all if you don't like, what's, what's your favorite sound? What do you love to listen to? For me, one of my favorite sounds is hearing my, my baby coup when he's just, when I'm holding him and he is quiet and I can just hear him breathing. That's one of the sounds that I, I love the most. And, uh, I, I'm interested to find out, what you love, what's your favorite sound. Reach out to me, let me know. And again, thank you so much for listening to my, this first podcast for Heroes of Hearing and Russ Broadhead. And hey, make it a great day.