Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Ahlman.
Michele, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am the CEO and next generation of our family business. I was involved in the business from the beginning. My mom started our first business when I was in Jr. High School. I worked after school, helping in the warehouse, typing letters (yes, I am that old) and observing. I became an active part of the team in 1990 performing every role in the company as I continued to learn the business, develop relationships and build hands-on experience as a leader. I am proud to share with you my family’s story and the legacy we are building. To effectively tell our story, I want to start by addressing the fundamentals of what we do. We help people hear, connect and engage. We actually have 3 businesses. HITEC Group is a distribution company offering assistive products for people with hearing loss. ClearSounds is our manufacturing company, designing & developing solutions for people with hearing loss and ClearDigital Media is our media agency that develops & deploys content that engages people with hearing loss.
Why hearing loss matters so much to our family….
The EMOTIONAL aspects of hearing loss are as impactful as the PHYSICAL part of losing your hearing. Just watching my parents’ age, I see how the rising difficulty in hearing frustrates and impacts the normal communication in family life. It can drive couples apart, and distance children from their parents; what seemed like little inconveniences can soon become large irritants. What makes this even more difficult is that for so many people, it wasn’t always this way. Many things can cause hearing loss: for my dad it was noise exposure in the military, for my grandparents, it was both age & noise exposure working in factories and for my aunt it was age & genetics.
The History…
My Dad is a military vet and like many others, he lost much of his hearing serving our country. My parents met in 1962 as freshman in college and married young. My Dad joined the army while my mom finished college at the University of Wisconsin. My Dad rose to officer and tank commander and was stationed in Germany for two years where I was born. Commanding a group of tanks is hard on your hearing and the constant practice rounds even with ear protection took its toll.
Like many in the Builder Generation, my parents are both entrepreneurs and survivors of some very tough times. Upon their return to the US, our family struggled financially, surviving on food stamps, coupons and lots of creativity while my dad, still in the Special Forces Reserves, maintained his commitments as an Officer and held down several part-time jobs to complete his college degree at University of Illinois. My mom stayed home to fill an important role: raising me and my siblings! After we moved to Chicago my mom worked for a short stint as a teacher and then began distributing a new TTY (device that allows people who are deaf to use the telephone) product for a family friend. Family is everything to my mom and she found a true sense of fulfillment helping families stay connected. This is how HITEC (Hearing Impaired Technologies) was born. My mom built a network by working with nonprofit groups and community advocates. My mom wanted to make an impact in the community and worked hard to grow the business, from our living room to ultimately a real office. We all helped. As I mentioned, my start in the business involved coming into the office after school to help type up marketing documents and take inventory. My dad went on to get his MBA at University of Chicago and as the business grew, he left his other job to help my Mom with sales in 1989. He did not realize at that time that his own personal hearing loss would become a source of innovation, insight and ultimately lead to the development of our own brand of products.
What my family realized is that the spoken word is a large part of the human experience. When you hear, you connect and can feel part of something.
My dad, grandparents, aunt, father-in-law and now my husband who is a firefighter, all experience hearing loss, and I’m determined to continue to build on my parent’s legacy, improving the lives of people with hearing loss.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do… but it’s rarely the easiest thing to do. There are patches that are smooth and patches that are rough. The magic is in navigation. As a privately funded company, we take no outside investment money. This offers control. It also creates greater risk to us personally. We’ve survived the bottoming out of the economy, increased competition, changes in the funding from government programs we supply, ideas that flop and staffing challenges. We’ve also celebrated winning contracts, risky ideas that worked and the hard work of some remarkably people that make up our staff and who we consider family.
Please tell us about ClearSounds Communications.
ClearSounds is more than just a company name. It is our mission; to deliver clear sounds to every person young, old or in-between. To move, inspire, connect and protect adults, teens & children through products & technology, that regardless of their ability to hear, delivers remarkable, clear and safe sounds – whether it be music or speech, live or recorded, ClearSounds products motivate people to move — Moving Beyond the Sound Barrier™. It’s our passion. It’s our calling. It’s what drives us to keep pushing the envelope, raising the bar and resisting even the slightest compromise when it comes to offering our customers a world free from communication barriers.
ClearSounds is more than just a company name. It is our mission; to deliver clear sounds to every person young, old or in-between. To move, inspire, connect and protect adults, teens & children through products & technology, that regardless of their ability to hear, delivers remarkable, clear and safe sounds – whether it be music or speech, live or recorded, ClearSounds products motivate people to move — Moving Beyond the Sound Barrier™. It’s our passion. It’s our calling. It’s what drives us to keep pushing the envelope, raising the bar and resisting even the slightest compromise when it comes to offering our customers a world free from communication barriers.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hmmmm, that’s a great question. I would say, I would have gone with my gut more often. I’ve learned my gut is 99.9% right when it comes to decisions on people and character. I made the mistake of not listening to my gut when it came to a couple of employees and business associates.
I am pretty good at seeing patterns and predicting change. I saw some changes coming and did not act on them. That s is also something I would do differently- I would have acted on those gut feelings.
Pricing:
- Affordable over-the-counter hearing solutions ranging from $35 – $400
Contact Info:
- Address: 1743 Quincy Avenue, Unit 143 Naperville, IL 60540
200 Benney Lane, Suite B Dripping Springs, TX 78620 - Website: www.clearsounds.com
- Phone: 800-965-9043
- Email: info@clearsounds.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearsounds/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearSounds
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClearSounds
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/clearsounds/
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