The Backstory - DrCliffAuD VLOG 001

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Cliff Olson. I am a doctor of audiology and I'm an audiologist at Applied Hearing Solutions and I'm also a YouTuber known as Doctor Cliff AuD on my YouTube channel. So this is gonna be a little bit different. This is basically vlog number one, and you can see that I'm here in this really open space, and I'm gonna get to that and why I'm here.

But let me just kind of rewind and give you an understanding of kind of where I'm from and what I'm actually doing here. When I was younger, I grew up in a small town called Morris, Illinois, and I actually grew up on a farm outside of that town. The town was about 12,000 people, but I grew up on that farm and when I got done with high school, I really didn't know what I was gonna do. I didn't really know what my calling was, and so I ended up going to a community college for about a year. I decided that school is not really for me and at that point I decided to go into the Marine Corps, which is kind of really where this whole story begins.

In my first week of bootcamp, I had to go through a hearing test, and I failed that hearing test several different times in one ear. In my right ear in fact, and I actually had to go to Balboa Medical Hospital to get an MRI to determine why I had this difference in hearing between my right and left ear. Long story short, it was just some kind of a fluke hearing loss. It wasn't related to a tumor growth or anything like that, but that was my first introduction into audiology and I never really thought about it much at that point.

I went through my four years in the Marine Corps,

served overseas in Iraq, got a chance to be scout sniper,

and ultimately when I got out of the military,

I still really didn't know what I wanted to do,

and so I ended up going back to school

and doing massage therapy as well kind of along

the same timeline of that, but once I kind of got

into junior year or so, I really made this decision

of like do I want to be a personal trainer?

Do I want to remain a massage therapist?

'Cause I was going through school to be an exercise science

major, and neither one of those things really were something

that I was extremely passionate about, and so I kind

of started looking around like what could I actually do

profession-wise something thatI would be passionate about?

Something that I, you know would be happy to do

for the rest of my career?

And I ended up finding this profession called audiology,

and it just kind of brought up all these old emotions

that I had back in my first week of bootcamp

to where I was like, you know what, I think that

that's something that I'd like to do.

It's a medical focus, whichI really enjoy that side

of things, it's tech-focused and I'm really into tech,

and then I also get to have this, you know,

patient interaction which is something that I really enjoy

because if I had to sit behind a computer all day just

by myself, it's not something that I would ultimately

end up enjoying.

I really like to be social and interacting

with other individuals.

So I ended up making this decision to apply to universities

to get into a graduate school program for audiology

to get my doctorate, and fortunately University of Illinois

in Champaign-Urbana accepted me, and that kind of started

that next chapter in my life.

Ultimately, when I got through that program,

I ended up moving to Phoenix,Arizona to do my externship,

and once I was done with my externship I ended up graduating

and ultimately starting my own audiology clinic,

Applied Hearing Solutions, which is actually

in Anthem, Arizona.

At least currently it's in Anthem, Arizona,

and kind of around the same time that I started that clinic,

I ended up starting a YouTube channel, and that's actually

where you're watching this video at most likely,

and I started the channel because I really wanted

to empower individuals with information

if you have hearing loss or you know someone

who has hearing loss so you can know the right questions

to ask when you're going into have your hearing tested

and to ultimately receivetreatment for that hearing loss.

My industry isn't necessarilyone of the best industries

from the perspective offollowing best practices.

So there are certain fundamental things

that hearing care professionalsshould be doing in order

to receive maximum resultsfor their patients,

and that's just not somethingthat's done a whole lot,

and we do have someindustry data that suggests

that only 20 to 30% ofhearing care professionals

actually follow best practices.

So that right there was the impetus

to start the YouTubechannel so I could educate

and inform individualsand so they could find

a hearing care professionalwho followed these practices,

and that kind of took on alife of its own to the point

where now there's a ton ofindividuals out there, you know,

asking about where canthey go in their area

to find a hearing careprofessional which kind of led

to the next thing that I started which was

the Doctor Cliff AuDapproved provider network,

and so I have a completelyseparate, you know, website

for that from my client andfrom the YouTube channel.

That's at drcliffaud.com,but the whole purpose

of that website is for me toessentially vet hearing care

professionals to ensurethat, at least to the best

of my ability, that they'refollowing best practices

and then those providersessentially pay a membership fee

to be listed on the website,and then I use that money

in order to make sure thatI'm continuously vetting

those providers and topromote to consumers,

potentially like yourself, theimportance of best practices

and how to find ahearing care professional

that follows those best practices.

So with that, those providersget put onto that website,

and so depending on where youlive, you might have access

to one or more of those providers.

So you don't have to come all the way out

to see me in Phoenix,Arizona which is actually

where we're at right now.

So kind of the big news forthis video is that I ended up

just purchasing this emptygray shell space here

in Phoenix, Arizona.

It's along two major freewayintersections so it's the

101 highway and then the 51 freeway.

So really easy access pointsessentially here in Phoenix,

and the reason I'm moving out of Anthem,

and it's a little bitof a mixed emotion here,

is that Anthem is kind of tucked away

in its own little communityon the extreme north side

of Phoenix, and the problemis is that I don't really

do marketing to any degree.

A lot of individuals, a lotof my patients just find me

by going on and searching forhearing-related information,

and they end up stumblingacross my YouTube channel,

they become informed, and thenthey feel compelled to come

and actually receive treatment from me,

and I get a lot of patientswho are from outside

of the Anthem area, and thenext logical progression

for me was to move into anarea that's a little bit more

easily accessible to my patients,and that is why I decided

to instead of stayingup in Anthem and staying

in the location I was in, I wanted to kind

of get my home forever so Icould actually have my clinic

here and retire fromhere in Phoenix, Arizona.

I have no desire to expandand have multiple clinics

in a bunch of different locations.

I just like seeing mypatients and having, you know,

the full control of makingsure I have the highest quality

of care possible.

So we just closed on thisspace about a week ago.

Just got our keys about a week ago.

We've been working with an architect,

with a general contractor,and just met with actually

a designer today to getthis space built out,

and hopefully in three tofour months, I'll actually

be functioning here, but Iwant to actually take you guys

through this journey with meof building out this space,

and not just that, but givingyou a more behind the scenes

look into who I am, why I dowhat I do so you can, it's kind

of a different model that Ihave for my YouTube channel.

So my current YouTubechannel is very structured.

I want to make sure that I'mgiving accurate information,

very research-based.

It's highly edited by me.

I do all of it myself, butthis is gonna be a little bit

more free flowing and me justkind of sharing my thoughts

with you, and you'll probablyhear a lot more um's out

of my mouth in this processbecause I'm just not gonna edit

this very much, and I know this video,

I don't know if it soundslike I'm rambling on this.

That's probably gonna besomething where I'm just kind

of giving you my thoughts,and you know it's gonna jump

from one thing to another 'causeI just want to keep you up

to speed with what's kindof going on a little bit

behind the scenes.

That being said, I think thatthis potentially is a way

for you to have a windowinto not just the industry,

but me individually, andyou're gonna get to see kind

of an exciting processwith me building this out

and then sharing, you know,different patient journeys

about hearing loss and hearing treatment,

and I'm really looking forwardto kind of sharing this type

of information with you guys.

So if you're interested inthat, make sure that you hit

that subscribe button.

Make sure you check out myDoctor Cliff AuD website.

Make sure you check outappliedhearingaz.com

so you don't miss out onanything 'cause I don't know

essentially exactly where all these videos

are gonna be posted.

I presume they'll be on myYouTube channel as well,

so make sure yousubscribe there of course,

and we'll see how it goes, and feel free

to share your comments.

If there's other things thatyou want more insight on

or more behind the scenes accessto, feel free to ask that,

and then I'll probablyeventually end up turning this

into more of a, you know,a vlog, you know, aspect

of even inside of the clinicwhere I can maybe bring

in other outside, you know,patients to kind of talk

about their journeys, outside, you know,

industry individuals to havethem come in and share their

knowledge with you, and thenother hearing care providers,

both here in the samearea that I'm at locally

and providers from, youknow, different states.

Have them come in and kindof share their visions on,

you know, the future ofhearing treatment and what not.

So hopefully this will besomething that you guys find

is valuable, and it's justgonna be completely different

than things that I've done before.

So make sure that you tune in.

If you have any questionsfor me at this point,

please feel free to leave themin the comments section below

and you'll see a lot moreof me here really soon.

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