Disrupting an Industry: The Affordable, Tech-Forward Alternative to Hearing Aids with Michael Leung

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how to disrupt an industry, the affordable tech-forward alternative to hearing aids. To drop these value bombs, I brought Michael Leung at EO Fire Studios. Michael is the founder and CEO of The Flow Group in Calgary. He redefined how people experience sound with flow. True Balance 2.0, an innovative, inclusive, and affordable alternative to hearing aids. And today we talk about the origin spark, the product inspiration, the tech deep dive, differentiation, and oh, so much more.

0:36John Lee Dumas:And a big thing for sponsoring today's episode goes to Michael and our sponsors. Cape is a privacy-first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible. Visit cape.co4 slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off Cape for six months today. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more.

1:13John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Michael, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Thanks for having me on the show. Yeah. When people become successful, you know, they sometimes take a little break or they get a little too comfortable with being successful. And I always think that you need to keep building and the momentum is always got to keep going, right? to stay on top, to stay being successful, because when you start releasing the gas pedal, you start becoming too comfortable becoming successful.

1:59You just tend to, you know, kind of start falling off the wagon, I think. And I think people need to keep being creative and just keep having that creative juice flowing, you know, all the time. You know, just, you know, I mean, it's good to take a, you know, take a break here and there, but don't get too comfortable, you know, like just always keep going strong, keep working hard.

2:19John Lee Dumas:Well, I love it. My audience, Michael, knows to keep the pedal to the metal because we're talking about disrupting an industry, not just kind of like, you know, letting an industry know that we're there. We're talking about disruption, the affordable tech forward alternative to hearing aids that doesn't happen by just kind of tapping the gas. We go all the way to the metal. So let's talk, Michael, about the origin spark. How the heck did you get started? And what was the motivation behind creating this company? I didn't know I was going to get into this business, but I've always been obviously an entrepreneur.

2:50I've always been a student of learning real estate, did stocks before that, but always wanted to have my own brand and always wanted to have my own product. But it didn't really kick in until I started getting my sight loss. I actually had a serious retinal detachment about 10 years ago and I almost lost my vision on the left side. I waited a little too long to get surgery and I didn't know what retinal detachment was. They're like, you need to come in right away. You're going to lose your vision. And then I was freaked out, went, got it done, took four months of my life. And then after that, I had cataract surgery, cataract surgery.

3:32And then I finally realized I had something called retinitis pigmosa. So I started losing my peripheral and my night vision on one side. and I would trip, fall, you know, bump into people and walk into walls. I was doing some crazy stuff out there. And my ex was like, oh, I think you should go get checked. And there's no cure for it, right? It just keeps going, going to your central vision. And I could end up being completely blind one day. It hasn't hit my other side yet, so I'm able to drive and still do stuff. It's a little bit hard because one side's obviously way off, right? but you know through my visits at the clinic I always saw a lot of seniors there and a lot of 80, 90 year olds 70 year olds and I'm the only 30 something year old guy there and they're like what are you doing here young man and I was like oh right on detachment they're like oh did you get punched in the eye in the MMA fight and I was like no it just happened and then so yeah it wasn't until the last three years that I was like I think I need to think of something that can help me you know long you know my own like personal uh life you know like if i don't you know i need to have some backup for financials if i go completely blind one day i need to have you know have some kind of business that's growing that's you know and i also want to do something that's socially impactful it's not easy to find something that's um that people haven't done already right so yeah that's kind of where it started i started talking to my cousin she She owns factories in Asia and they kind of like, Hey, how about this bone conduction?

5:09And then I looked into it. I'm like, Oh, so many people are doing it already. So, and then I kind of thought, I was like, Oh, what do people started using this as like a, like a hearing aid, but not a hearing aid. Right. Like, so I, I call it an assistive hearing device and it's nothing like hearing is polar opposite. Right. So yeah, that did lots of testing for them. And I just kind of narrowed it down to one, one product. Um, and the supplier she sent me to just happened to be, had the same idea that I had, but they never actually had it, you know, it never reached out of China. So then I, I obviously took the idea and I ran with it and I pitched it, you know, now this, you know, hopefully it goes global.

5:51Right. So.

5:51John Lee Dumas:Well, Fire Nation, I love hearing these origin sparks because they lead to such impact, to such value in this world. And I kind of want to keep the train moving by talking about product inspiration. I mean, what exactly inspired the development of your specific products? We're talking Flow True Balance and True Blue. What was the exact inspiration there? As I started talking to seniors, they told me that they're struggling with not just sight loss, but hearing loss. So for me, I thought hearing and sight is one of their most important senses, right? So when you lose one or the other, it's very difficult to navigate in life.

6:30And it significantly decreases your quality of life. And I didn't understand that until I had my own disability, right? and talking to seniors and they have multiple, uh, they, they don't, they don't only have hearing loss, sight loss, they also have like health issues. Right. So for me, I only have, you know, one thing I'm just like, you know, very blessed, you know, talking to seniors. And I felt that, uh, having something that people can use that's affordable because hearing aids is very expensive. Not everyone can afford it. And I, I actually knew a lot of people that had hearing loss and They just didn't have anything to use.

7:08So I felt like, you know, this was the best opportunity to get into this because people were just fresh out of just being frustrated. They're like, oh, please, you know, yeah, you should come up with something, something new, you know. There's nothing really out there that's even competing with hearing aids. And this is completely opposite. It's open ear, so it's nothing in your ear. So I thought it's just really clever and like an idea that's just no one's doing because anyone I talk to, no one's even heard of it. And when they hear about it, they're so intrigued by it. So, and yeah, I think it's just every, I'm just growing with it.

7:41I just keep coming up with new ideas, new products and, you know, and I think this is going to like be, be huge, be pretty huge one day. So.

7:49John Lee Dumas:Well, I want to jump in here because I think differentiation is such a key factor in people's success. And how are you doing that with your products? What makes your product stand out from the others in the market? Yeah. So my product is open ear bone conduction. So it's, you wear the product on the outside. So it sits in front of your ears on your cheekbone. So using bone conduction, you amplify the sound vibrations and the sound vibrations now traveling through your, your, your bones, your cheekbones directly into your inner ear. So your inner ear is where your cochlea and your auditory nervous.

8:22And if you still have, you know, some hairs left, it can, it's going to be able to transmit these sound vibrations into your, into your inner ear and producing sound. Right. So I think, and it's comfortable. It's easy to use. It's you know, you don't have to worry about losing it. We're hearing it is people lose multiple pairs and it's cost them thousands of dollars. And it's, and it's very, it's very yeah. And obviously they have to, they have to change batteries and it's very tiny. It's very finicky. They pull, they yank out of the wire, it falls out. It's like that over a year, the last 10, 20 years, they've never changed their design.

9:05So ours is just polar opposite everything. Like, you know, inside the ear, it's large enough not to lose it. It's rechargeable. It's hands-free. You can use Bluetooth. You can talk on the phone. You can stream music. And at the same time, this amplification we added into is the, you know, that's the biggest, that's the biggest unique feature, right? that's the one thing that no one else has is that this amplification added to this headphone this hybrid is what people can use to socially and interact now so you can interact with this headphone so now it becomes like a hearing aid but it's an assistive hearing voice uh not medical

9:42John Lee Dumas:right so anyone can buy it i mean fire nation when you can literally point to your product and say this has this feature that none of my competitors have and it's such an important and valuable feature, you're going to win because people will find and they will be the path to the door of the number one solution to a real problem. They will. They absolutely will. And if this is the number one solution because of this added product feature of this uniqueness, you're going to win. So we're going to be talking about market niche, benefits and features, milestones and achievements when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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11:37John Lee Dumas:Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack, a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something execution roadmap, and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Michael, we're back and I want to talk about market niche.

12:16John Lee Dumas:I mean, who is the ideal customer for your products and what problem are you solving for them? I mean, of course it sounds easy at first to say, I'm solving hearing issues. I'm solving X, Y, and Z, but like, let's dive deep. The market is so broad with this product Because it's a universal necessity, right? So basically, I work a lot with seniors. I got my foot in the door. And it's not easy to get into the senior industry. But the last two and a half years, I've managed to flourish because there's such a big need for it. Because so many people either have hearing aids, they don't want to wear them, either because it's too uncomfortable, they're scared of losing them.

12:56um you know they can't wear them because it's uh they're allergic to the material or they're just you know simply want to try something new right so um i felt that um you know not not only does it pertain to seniors it pertains to war veterans i work with labor workers i work with children with special needs uh when i say labor workers it ranges from mechanics firefighters factory workers you know and anyone that has any noise damage to the ears from work or, or sounds, uh, you know, hard ears, like, so 1.6 billion people in the world will have hearing loss or has hearing loss. So if I can help a fraction of the people in the world, it's, it's pretty, it's a pretty big, uh, you know, it's going to help a lot of people.

13:46Right. So, um, and I've also have clients that have dementia, they have, um, Parkinson's, they have men ears so a lot of like different conditions have hearing loss and because of these conditions there's certain conditions that are very sensitive they can't wear hearing aids so they they would radiate towards something like this because it's open ear so it sits on the outside it doesn't bother them it doesn't um you know if there's there's it's very senior friendly it's only a couple buttons there's a there's actually noise reduction chip we planted in so there's minimum background sounds and helps people with tinnitus, minimize tinnitus.

14:23John Lee Dumas:That's exactly what I was going to ask you right there is it does help people with tinnitus. How does it help people with tinnitus? Yeah. So because it's an open ear bone conduction headphone. So when you wear it, there's natural ambience sounds that are coming in, right? There's, there's, it's not like the traditional, like, you know, the, the, the beats where it covers your, your, your ear, your ear canal. So nothing, no sounds are, uh, you know, coming in, uh, coming in, right? So when you have an open ear design, just the natural ambient sounds and the design of the product, it neutralizes the tinnitus in your head.

14:56Yeah. So many people, the moment they wear it, it already cancels out when they actually start listening to music.

15:02John Lee Dumas:That's insane. That's a huge suicide cause. You type in tinnitus and people literally commit suicide because it drives them crazy. I mean, it's insane when you create a product that can just save people's lives. I mean, oh, wow. I'm getting goosebumps right now. Yeah. It honestly stresses out your brain, right? It's never resting. So it's always continuously buzzing or does different types of sound pertaining to that person, but only they can hear. Right. So imagine that, right? Yeah. So crazy. Let's talk about benefits and features. I mean, what are some benefits and features that like are unique that make your product special?

15:39John Lee Dumas:I mean, that's one thing that like a lot of people can, can really figure out as a way to market and sell their products? I mean, I know we talked about amplification, but what's something else that's really meaningful to you? The benefits is there's, there's, there's lots of, yeah, there's tons of benefits. When I started working with seniors, the participation was down. A lot of senior brands, um, welcome, welcome me in. So I do presentations, I do testing. Uh, we're doing a lot of testing with seniors right now, but, um, we noticed participation was down. The confidence was down. Morale was down.

16:10Um, and because morale is down because people are just yelling at each other workers uh people at home so now when they wear this they're they're comfortable they're happy they're engaging with people their confidence is up the they're less isolated they feel more engaged with uh conversations with family or even workers so now everyone is just more you know happening you know everyone's happy you know in harmony and uh and it's because it's so easy and it's such an affordable product it's such a it's a fraction of the cost of hearing aids, right? So when people hear that, there's something out there that's that, you know, that cost effective, they're willing to try it.

16:50And when they try it, they're like, wow, this is, you know, equally as good. And it's healthy. It's a healthy way of hearing because you're using natural ambient sounds, you're using sound vibrations. So you're not actually direct pressure or damaging your hearing, like hearing aids or other things that are in your ear, right? So it's, oh yeah. So it helps people feeling less isolated, feel more engaged, feel confidence goes up. Participation goes up. And then of course features, there's a, it's water, it's semi water resistance. You can, you know, splash the water and you can just kind of emerge, submerge into it.

17:29Oh, huge. But, you know, there's an environmental mode, there's an indoor, outdoor vocal mode. So you can, it actually changes when you're in different environments, it'll adapt to environments. Um, the, the battery change, uh, charges one hour and you use a regular universal charger, like charging a cell phone, one hour charge, eight to 10 hour usage, very, a lot of time to use it. Um, and obviously yeah, the, the noise reduction chip and that there's a dual volume control on both sides. So you can actually change the volume to your desired setting on both sides. So you can have one side of deafness, right?

18:01So you can control one side higher and the other lower. So yeah, lots of great stuff. We continue to build on a third product in a couple of years, but yeah.

18:11John Lee Dumas:Talk about some milestones and achievements, the key accomplishments that you've hit so far. Yeah. I think your, your podcast probably up there. I've done both 30 something. And, you know, I've always said that this one's obviously my, my, my top, my top one. I want to be, you know, I'm always prepared, but I was a little nervous. Oh yeah. You know, so you're, you know, You sound like a very chill, very nice guy. Thank you. But I've done multiple podcasts. I've done some magazine features, did Legacy Makers. It just came out. So 500 entrepreneurs in the world that talk about their legacy and their journey of struggles and tribulations to finally get to where they're at today.

18:59And it's like a mini 25-minute documentary. entry is done very very very professionally and it's on um you know all the major streamers um right now and uh yeah it's actually it's a great it was a great experience and actually great exposure um and i'm actually uh applied to her obviously the the dragon's dead and uh very very confident i'll i'll get on there so um plus you know because it's it's such a universally a needed product. I feel like any, any, uh, show would be very like kind of intrigued by, by this, right. Because of, uh, my story, my, my, my background, my, my struggles, my, my eye conditions to, you know, trying to help other people and low income families be, be able to have affordable hearing.

19:47Um, you know, it's, it's great, right. Try to change the world.

19:50John Lee Dumas:Change the world. I love it. So let's end by talking about your future goals. I mean, your plans for growth and impact. What do you have to say about that? Growth for impact, I feel you have to constantly keep thinking of new ideas to improve your product, right? That's why we have 3.0 coming out probably in a year and a half, two years, just to tweak out some of the old, you know, some feedback we get back from people. I always take feedback very willingly, and I don't get upset by it. I actually take it very well. I want to know what people want to improve my product, and I try to improve it.

20:32So that's how I ended up improving to the 2.0, right? The first version was a little bit complicated for seniors, so we just revamped it all into just very senior-friendly couple buttons where they could just put it on and wear it, you know? So when you have a market that's so broad and so wide that anyone can really use it with hearing loss. It helps so many different types of conditions. You need to keep the gas pedal going, keep revamping, because you want to stay relevant in the market. You don't want to just fade away, right? There's always going to be competition trying to jump in. But at the end of the day, I feel like I put the work into it, put the blood, sweat, and tears into it.

21:11And they recognize me as this guy that's put the work in, and he's gone through the trenches. And that's why I have, in the senior industry, I have that respect and they welcome me, welcome me, welcome me in the doors. Seniors are not very trusting. They actually don't trust me people. They don't let many people through the door. So when you're accepted, you, it's, it's a big deal, right? So not everyone can do it. Not everyone can just have a pride and throw it out there and just think they can sell it, right? You have to really go test people in thousands and thousands. I'm trying, I'm flying to Ontario, Toronto, and I'm doing 21 events in nine days.

21:48Wow. Just driving around. And then I go to Miami and do the Legacy Maker's red carpet and meet all the other cast members and do a little course there with Rudy Maher. So, you know, it's pretty cool.

22:01John Lee Dumas:That's pretty darn cool. Now, listen, Michael, if people are listening right now and they want to learn more about you, because, I mean, everybody has a family member, a loved one, a friend who's dealing, you know, with some of these issues. I mean, I have multiple friends with tinnitus that I really want to, you know, expose them to this. what is the best way to connect with you to learn more about your business? The best way is my website. It's.can.com. So www.theinnerflow.com. So T-H-E-I-N-N-E-R-F-L-O.com. So no W. A lot of people make the mistake with flow, but F-L-O. And.ca.com. Our Instagram is at the flow group.

22:42And the, yeah, same with the Facebook. So you can find us on there. You can check out the blogs, testimonies. There's updates. There's product description and benefits features, online e-commerce store. So it pertains to 100 countries. We're trying to grow it, obviously, nationally. I'm doing everything I can to promote it. And anyone that's heard of it, tried it, loves it. Love it. Yeah, it's great.