Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
Hosting 3,400 hearing professionals from around the globe for a four-day expo to talk about everything from revolutionary new technology to the future of hearing healthcare is no small task.
At Starkey, we started planning for the 2020 Starkey Expo as soon as we wrapped up our previous expo in 2018. While each one reminds me how amazing our #StarkeyFamily is at pulling off events like this, it’s also a reminder that we must continually get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Being pushed outside your comfort zone isn’t just a good thing; it’s necessary.
Our theme at the expo was ‘Go Beyond.’ That means going beyond the horizon. Our team unveiled groundbreaking features for our new Livio Edge AI -- Edge Mode for boosted listening power in noisy environments, OrCam compatibility to help the visually impaired and a Thrive Care App to give caregivers added peace of mind. We also looked to the future. Imagine a hearing aid that can detect your mood and alert you to changes and a hearing aid that can help recognize faces and tell you in your ear who you are seeing.
When Starkey’s visionary, Bill Austin, or its development team comes to me with these dreams, there’s a question I always go back to and one I asked several times to the expo audience -- What is your why? For Starkey, our why is simple. It’s about people helping people. So when Mr. Austin or Starkey’s Chief Technology Officer, Achin Bhowmik, walk into my office asking, “What if?” I turn around and ask, “Why not?”
Whether it’s the disruption of technology or the disruption so many are worried could happen with over-the-counter hearing aids, you must always go back to your why. As I wrote in my recent opinion piece for Morning Consult, more than 25 years at Starkey has taught me that people are the bottom line. If you put people first, everything else will fall into place.
If there was one lesson I hope people took home from the expo, it’s that the hearing industry, at its core, is about connecting people to people. Innovation and disruption are good things if they improve patients’ lives.
This will be the greatest decade of hearing healthcare. The choice is yours: Will you lead, adapt and thrive? Or will you get left behind?
The Monday after the expo, I posted a question on social media that got a lot of great responses: What is one step you are going to take to transform yourself and your business? And so now, I pose that question again. Because we don’t need just one Monday reminder. What are you doing the following Monday and the Monday after that? When you get comfortable with being uncomfortable, change happens.
The future doesn’t sit around and wait for you. You must go and find it and define it. Just let us at Starkey know what we can do to help.