Building an Online Community in Hearing Healthcare

Join us on a unique journey as we chat with Derek Johnson, the man behind the Insta-famous duck, Ben Afquack. Derek's not your typical IT professional - he's leveraged his creative flair and duck-loving passion to make serious waves on social media. If you've ever wondered how to cut through the noise and stand out in the crowded digital landscape, Derek's story is sure to inspire. The secret sauce? Authenticity, a consistent theme, and quality content. We discuss how these elements can help you build a strong following on social media, whether you're promoting a business or a pet. But it's not just about numbers - Derek stresses the importance of resonating with your audience. Learn how to avoid filler content and make every post impactful and engaging.But let's not forget about the star of the show - Ben Afquack. Learn how Derek balances internet fun with social good, using his platform to support mental health resources and grow a small business. So, whether you're a social media newbie or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with insights that are sure to ruffle your feathers (in the best possible way).

Link to full transcript

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Starkey Soundbites. I'm Dave Fabry, Starkey's chief innovation officer and host of the podcast. I'm really excited and have long anticipated this podcast today. Derek Johnson is on the information technology team, part of the team at Starkey. And actually, my first encounter with him was through a problem that I was having on my computer. We got to talking after that, and I learned that in addition to his expertise in solving my problem with my computer that day, he's also the creative force and uh behind his duck, who is insta famous with over 100,000 followers on Instagram. And that duck's name is uh Ben Afquack. Uh, we'll talk a little bit more about that a little later. Um, but how does this apply then to hearing healthcare professionals who are our predominant listeners on the podcast or viewers if you're watching on our YouTube channel? Uh we know that our customers often wear multiple hats, including the one of hearing care professional as well as small business owner. I've had many conversations with small business owners and audiologists who say they don't understand uh how to promote themselves, how to even get started on social media to promote their business. And that's where Derek is going to share some of his wisdom uh as he began with Ben Afquack and talk a little bit about and provide some tips that people can use as to raise their expertise on social media and perhaps shed some light on what they can do in social media. So, Derek, with that by way of intro, thank you for joining us on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's it like I said, I've been uh waiting for this a long time. And as I said, you're an IT professional. I'll endorse you. Two thumbs up at Starkey. Um, let's talk a little bit about how long you've been here um and uh and what a typical day is like for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah, uh I started with Starkey year and a half ago. I was a contractor and then came on full time. Um you know it's a lot, it's a lot of um running around like a chicken with my head cut off, to be honest. A duck or chicken? Yeah, let's keep it to chicken with chicken so as not to get uh Mr.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Afquack uh upset with you. Yeah, we don't want to scare him. Indeed. Well, and and to that end, how have you seen? I mean, IT used to be sort of the help desk. Uh information technology has really evolved and at a rapid pace. How have you seen, since you've been a consultant and now a team member at Starkey, how has information technology changed in in the past five years?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

It's it's a lot like a constant game of whack-a-mole, right? When you get caught up with one thing, then the next thing comes out and you have to figure out how to make things work with whatever it is that just changed everything that you thought you knew.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Well, um, so now let's transition to the star of the show, really, and the vehicle really for uh uh the beginning of today's podcast, anyway. How and when did Ben Afquack come about?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

So I got Ben a little over four years ago. I got him when he was a day old. He was just a tiny little fluff ball. Um no intention of him becoming an internet star. Um I just got a pet duck because they're cute and it was eight dollars at a farm store. Um the whole Instagram thing kind of happened on accident, to be perfectly honest. Um, we were out at a park, and when you have a pet duck, your friends come with you to the park and take pictures. And there was one picture where the duck was walking away, and he kind of turned around and looked back at the camera right when my friend took a picture, and it looked like he was posing like a model.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

And so he just on the spot at the park whipped up this Instagram account, called the duck a fitness model, and then hashtagged all of the funny, trendy fitness model hashtags, and we all thought we were hilarious. And for the next month or so, we were just coming up with different ideas of of um, you know, different ways that we could poke fun at that sort of thing. You were doing it on a lark. Yeah, we were absolutely trying to make fun of Instagram, just between you know, four or five of us. Like we never thought anyone else in the world would see it. And right, um, and it just kind of blew up.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

It was it was pretty wild. So one day, did it was it literally you said that one post where he he's looking back, striking a pose. Did that one really hit a lot, or was it just sort of a slow boil? Um, when you how often were you posting, and was there a trigger that caused one to go viral that caused your number of followers uh to explode?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah. So the the first one, I don't think anyone other than us saw it. Um, but it kind of sparked the idea of the the concept of what we were doing, what the purpose of that Instagram account was. Um, and so from there, then you know, because it was the the fitness model thing that he was making fun of, we would sneak him into gyms and make fitness tutorials with him and sneak him. They're hilarious. Yeah. So funny side note on that one. Um, we posted that before the duck got famous. Okay. Um, so we snuck him into this anytime fitness. And um, fast forward a month later, all of a sudden, you know, 20,000 people were following him, and I got a call from the owner of the gym. Like, hey, I just saw my gym on uh a video that my friend shared with me. Um please don't bring ducks into my gym.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

And then did he ask to sort of uh have you thrown a bone in terms of an endorsement by Ben Afquack that he was able to buff up his his wings a little bit more?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Or uh I was I was hoping that could be the first endorsement, but no, he made it very clear like you are welcome to come back here, but no no feathered friends with you.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

So yeah, so tip, uh pro tip for those looking to start out. Um in your case, it was better to ask forgiveness than permission, but it probably um uh walks a fine line or you know, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. You got to be careful in terms of the permissions. And and I've noticed more and more places now, actually. Um I belong to a different gym, and and there's lots of postings about um, you know, not not having your camera in the locker room areas. Um I I've noticed recently on the airline that I fly Delta, they now make announcements that you know you need to get permission from flight attendants or passengers before snapping photos and loading them up to social media. So it is the world we live in now that um there there are sometimes permissions that need to be um uh uh received before proceeding. But but like you said, you you kind of kind of early on discovered that you had 20,000 followers after some of those initial posts. And where the uh 100,000 is that is it over 100,000 these days? Yeah, I think it's 102, 103, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

The most followed duck still, right? On Instagram? You know, there's there's a bunch out there now. I'm not sure. Yeah, I I think you know, the the record, the Guinness World Record, which you are the holder. Yeah, we still hold that, but I also think that um what really happened there was Guinness got the bit, right? They bought in and they were like, okay, I see what you're doing. Yeah, we'll play. And uh I don't think that it'll ever be in another Guinness World Record book or like you know, that you can look it up anywhere anymore. Um, but uh I think they just played along with the the the rising famous duck joke that we were kind of in. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Yeah. But but a joke with a point, and this is now, again, I want to segue a little bit into private practice owners who are looking to increase their visibility in their community. Uh, you can use traditional marketing, you know, in newspapers and things like that. We're seeing a lot of that go the by and by. Um, still some effective for the local market if they're looking to attract patients, but to increase their visibility, uh, many people are turning to social media. You chose Instagram rather than Twitter early on because you were using a video format. Right. And so what advice might you have for in people saying, you know, I don't know even how to start? You you had a you had sort of this special combo of you had this duck who turned out to be photogenic and not shying away from some of the poses you were asking them to do, and then you had this sort of you were ahead of the curve. Now now you said there are lots of imitators in terms of ducks and and and different foul on uh on Instagram, different foul of different kinds. But um, you know, how what advice might you have for a practice owner as to how to get started on social media?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah, that's uh the funny thing is I was I wasn't even on Instagram before this. I didn't have an Instagram, and the only reason I have a personal Instagram was to figure out what my friends were posting about my duck and laugh with it. Um, so some of this was all like I kind of only know this side of things. Like I didn't really use social media other than you know, Facebook, you know, to keep up with friends from you know back in the day or whatever. But um, I think the big thing that really made it happen was having that initial theme. There was consistency to it.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Consistency. Know what your vision is, and you knew that right from the start. And I think that's so important is figure out what do you want to stand for? How would you describe it in 10 words as to what the vision is for what you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, and and for us, it's it's actually kind of evolved um over time. Um, I think you can only poke fun at one specific demographic for so long before it becomes mean rather than funny. You know? Understood. Um, and so it started as just yeah, making fun of the trendy trends, being trendy. You know, it was like some of it's just so ridiculous anyway, that it's like they handed me the content to to make fun of. Um and then it has sort of just it was a very gradual change. So I don't think that it really caught people off guard. It wasn't this hard turn. Um it kind of just turned into the duck goes with me to do the things that I enjoy doing. So it's become this kind of adventure page, this travel page, uh, a motorcycle page, um, a music page. Um and it just sort of worked out um because I brought him with me to do things anyway, the same way that I bring my dogs with me to certain places. Um and it just sort of worked out that the duck comes with me to do the things I'm doing anyway. So sometimes I just whip out my camera and it's an easy post. But um I think adventure has really been the the main theme over time. Started as just making fun of a specific trend thing, um, but has really evolved into just adventure and fun and just good vibes. I think there's so much negative stuff out there.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, and there's also an authenticity, as you just said, you know, you bring you bring uh Afquac with you to do the things that you like to do the same way that you bring your dogs to to do things, and and there's an authenticity there that you can tell as a follower of the page that isn't phony and it isn't and it's part of really understanding what it is that you want to use this vehicle for. In your case, it started one way, but then it sort of is now uh an online uh diary of of your life and the adventures that uh you enjoy together, like you said, motorcycles and everything else. So it's it's it's fun to watch and watch as it continues to build. How often um do you post? Has that increased or decreased or remained the same over time? What advice might you have again? We all know that with social media content is king or queen and and you you can lose followers or lose interest at least with your followers if you don't post frequently enough, but then there's also sometimes fatigue.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, and it's a fine line for sure. Um I've definitely noticed that um if I have consistent good content, the following grows. If if I'm trying to, there's a period of time, because I've experimented a little bit to kind of see what happens and try to trick the algorithms and just see what you can do, you know. Um, and I've found that if I'm consistently posting things that are really creative, it grows like crazy. But then if it starts being, well, I said I was gonna post four times this week and I've only done three, um, snap a picture of him in the backyard and don't put any effort into acute caption or anything like that. Um when I start getting lazier with it, um, it actually might be better to just not have posted that fourth one that week or not post um anything for that. So I think quality of content is is very important. Um and if you're able to maintain that quality content or you have enough stuff in the chamber, you know, you have enough things lined up, um, then posting frequently, I think, can be a really good thing. And I've seen really good um results from from doing that as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah. But it is essential, again, for thinking of developing that long-term vision, having content, updating it with meaningful contact that's gonna have uh have your audience be impacted and not feel like, oh, uh, yeah, they said that they're gonna do four posts, and and uh it feels like two of them are are authentic and two are filler. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

So it's like when you get an album and you can tell that only four of the songs were were actually good, and the rest was like, oh, but we said we told the record label we would release it by this date, and you can tell that those in-between tracks aren't very good. Like we all skip those tracks, yeah. You know, and and on social media, that means you're a skipped account now. If people get too familiar with some of the the lazy posts, they're they don't they don't want to follow that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

I don't so the other thing I think of is is you know the authenticity and really in a way it's finding your passion, the things that you can do that come natural. You said adventure, and then and then when when the duck comes along with you, for practice owners thinking about within the hearing space. I've seen um uh Instagram accounts uh and and and other social media platforms as well that are solely devoted to cleaning ears. Um something you can think about in the most unlikeliest of spaces where doing something that you do all the time and with regularity and frequency that suddenly people take an interest in. People are fascinated with with uh wax and ears. So it again, it isn't having this big vision to be serious sometimes. Sometimes it may start out of something that you enjoy doing, whether it's uh recording different loud sounds or the levels of sounds in everyday environments, cleaning ears, ear mold impressions. I haven't really seen one light up yet on that, but I think there are people that are fascinated by scanning ears using digital scanning or ear mold impressions. And I think it's really figuring out what it is that you can get consistent content, that you're not gonna jump the shark or jump the duck, I guess, um, in in the in the Hollywood sense that really in the history of that was with Happy Days back in the 70s. Um, they had a plot line that worked for the first several seasons, but then they started going on location away from Milwaukee where the show had been originally set. They went to Hawaii and and Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis. And it really became the definition then of when a show jumps the shark, it's run out of plot. Yeah. So think of that runway as you're thinking about your Instagram or your social media posts. Keep the focus, allow for evolution, but maintain that authenticity and passion that you started with while you're evolving into the different areas. And that's what you've been so successful at.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah. And if you think about it, like I think about the things that I follow personally, right? There's some things that I would have never thought to Google or thought to, you know, look up. Like there's this account that I follow where it literally is just it, it made me think of this when you said the earwax thing. Um it's this person who heats up a metal ball to like as hot as it can be without melting. And then he just drops the ball on random things. Like you can see what the ball looks like on jello or on a snowball or like, and if you describe that to me, I'd be like, that's weird. Like, why would you watch that? But I do. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Absolutely. Well, I remember the old one from a number of years ago. Will it blend? Oh, they would put stuff in blenders and see whether it would blend or just be a chunk, a ball of material, or it would destroy the blender. I think it's all about whether it's new technology, whether it's within the information technology space or the hearing aid space. How do you differentiate yourself? And that's, I think, where you were on the leading edge of that by differentiating yourself from the sea of sameness out there. And I think that's what practice owners who are thinking about how do they differentiate themselves in the sea of sameness, whether it's traditional uh newspaper or or TV, for those who are fortunate to live in a small enough market that can afford to do TV commercials. Social media is such a great way. Uh Gary V is someone that I follow just because he's so authentic in terms of allowing for imperfection, allowing for himself to come through. And I think you've done that so so well with Ben Afquack.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, and there's there's definitely been some mistakes and learning opportunities along the way.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Can you can you list a mistake or two that that that you learned from?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah. Um, not getting I think the the biggest mistake that I've found um is trying to do the same thing that works, but not getting creative enough with changing the way that you do it. Um so like uh you've have you seen the drumming video, the duck drumming video? Yes, yes, so that blew up like crazy, and people were making all of these remixes with it, and each one's getting 20 million, 50 million views, and it was just going nuts, and like the following was increasing, which meant you know, places were calling and wanting to, you know, do these deals with us and stuff. Well, and then I was like, oh, well, that's all people want to see, so that's all I posted. Yeah, and now it's kind of run its course and now it it kind of lost it, like everyone's seen it, and and I didn't um I was able to find all these different ways to do it at first, and then I kind of ran out of of ways to become creative and new with it. And now people just started seeing the same thing with a different background, and and uh I kind of played that into the ground because I got lazy with it. Yeah, I was like, oh, all I do is post this, 10 million views, then I get a call and someone wants to send me a scooter, you know. Like let's keep doing that. This is great. And um I I think if keeping the theme, but without it getting boring, I I think is really the the line you have to to find.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Completely. And then going back again to the roots of keeping your authentic self. You're not doing it to to get things or money. Right. I mean, it it's turned out to be, you know, you you've had some great visibility. Talk a little bit about um yeah, I know you've been on some local shows, you've been on some national shows. Uh uh, talk a little bit, just a handful of the appearances you've made with uh uh with the duck um during the time that he's become insta famous. Yeah. Well, I got to be on a podcast at Starkey once.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

That was pretty wild. Yes. Well, that's gotta be the pinnacle. Yes. Um, so we've done Good Morning America. Um, the the coolest one was when um I actually can't say what show it was now that I think about it. Okay, I'll tell you later. Yeah, but we got to be on a show uh and they flew us out to Hollywood and paid for us to go hang out in California when it was February and snowing and terrible here. Um, so that was probably the coolest one because we got to get out of Minnesota in February.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Um and there was a post on that one, I believe, yeah, where he's walking down the aisle on a plane.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah. And they apparently they have really strict duck policies on planes. Yeah. Um, and um normally you can't fly with a duck at all, but because uh some agency in Hollywood called and got permission and said he was a celebrity, then we got to. Um, I was really worried about that because I don't know how he's going to react to that. And we went to the vet to make sure that it was safe for him and all of that. But I was like, what if he just quacks the whole, what is it, three-hour flight to California, four hours, something like that? What if he's just quacking the whole time and I'm the guy sitting there with a duck on my lap? Like this is I was serious of every other passenger. But he did well, he slept the whole time. Yeah, just immediately. Like something about the plane. He was like a baby in a car, like he just went to sleep immediately. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Well, and so let's um I I you know, did you come up with the name when you first got him? Uh as a you said you got him just a couple days. Did you come up with Ben Afquack right off the bat, or did it become after you started considering names when he became uh and you were looking for the tagline on Instagram?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

So um it came before the Instagram. Okay. Um, and like I said, when you when you get a baby pet duck, like all of your friends show up. People that you haven't seen, like everyone was over at my house meeting this cute little fluffy duck, and we were just throwing out names. Like if you're going to ride a moped with a duck or and walk a duck on a leash, like you have to do something weird with the name. Oh, you can't have a name. Yeah, you can't be normal with the name, it's gotta be strange. Um, so we were coming up with dad joke, pun names, and oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

No, I I I will say I made a uh a list, you know, like quack. Or Jack was that a possibility? Or um Duck Norris? Duck Norris. That one would have been good.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Quack Nicholson was one. Quack Nicholson is great. I had to be a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Bill McEfron as another. Or Quacky Chan. Quacky Chan would be good too. But uh but I think Ben Afquack is the winner. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I love it. We thought about getting um a pet chicken and naming it naming it Hennifer Lopez. Nice. Um to the point where like I was so set on the matching pun names that I started researching chickens and then uh after researching decided I didn't want a chicken.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Well, and and that begs the question then. So um you said you have dogs. I do, yeah. And uh a duck isn't a typical, unless you're a farm kid, uh uh it isn't a typical kind of pet. So um how is it that you came to get them?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So yeah, and it's definitely not typical to have them in the way that we have them. You know, usually meant for eggs or for, you know, whatever. Um, but I actually, when I was a little bit younger, um I had a duck um and some life things happened. Um, you know, it was a little bit darker of a time in my life, and uh I ended up going to treatment to get help for that. And when I went to treatment, I had to find a new home for this duck that I had he had been kind of my only buddy for a couple of years. Um and so that kind of broke my heart. That was one of my like one of the hardest things um was like I can't just go get this duck, but like there's no uh you can bring your dog to a kennel or something. Like, there's nowhere like that for a duck. No. Um, so I was like, okay, someday when I get my life together a little bit, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this again. I'm going to do it right. Um, and that's how the the adventure duck thing sort of started because I didn't want to just get a duck and then make a mistake with it again. I wanted to really give it the a good life and and really have it be the king of all ducks, you know, like just live like royalty. And that's how that all started. So um when we got our first house, literally before we even moved into the house, I had a duck. It was just it was on the vision board.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

I don't know why. It was kind of a no, I can understand. I mean, especially if it would it represented a period where you had to give up something that at that time was exceedingly important to you, and then wanting to put that on the vision board to say, I want to get back to a point we can't rewind things that happened to us, but to to get to a point where I can do that again and but do it the right way. And it was very metaphorical in a way. I get it. Yeah. I get it. That's um that's impressive in terms of then your commitment. And how long do duck what's the life expectancy of a duck? So I didn't look this up before I got a duck. Yeah. Um, eight to twelve years. Okay. And how old is is Ben? He's only four, so we have a lot of adventures left. Because that's always the thing I say about pets in general. They uh the thing that's so wonderful, but also the thing that's heartbreaking is they just don't live long enough. Right. And they become such an integral part of your life, no matter what. I guess unless you get a parrot or a tortoise, um uh it it's likely that you're gonna outlive pets. And and so have you contemplated that that's I mean, as I would imagine now that you really have bonded uh and and that does set up a point in time in the future where it's you know there will be a loss. Yeah. People may not understand it if they're not pet people, but I get it 100%.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

And I think that, you know, I'm the sort of person I will always have a dog, I will always have, you know, the normal, easier pets. Um, but I I'm pretty decided, I think that that uh this will be the last duck that I've one and done. Yeah, I think if you win the lottery, stop playing, man. You know, like I think that I I'm too afraid that after having a duck that's this cool, I've I've never seen another pet duck that acts like him and wants to be around its people the way that he is. Um and I think that it would just set it up to like be disappointed and you know, then you have eight to twelve years of a duck that you're like, well, you're not the other one, you know, and that just doesn't seem right.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Well, no, and I I just think it's so admirable that you had that goal and and and and now you've now you've put that on your vision board, vision accomplished, yeah, and um, and then see what is next. And that's really my final question that I have is you know, what's next then for you and for uh the duck in the short term? And what do you what do you see in the future?

SPEAKER_01 26:33

So yeah, we we get to do all these cool opportunities, right? And a lot of them are just for fun. They're things that, you know, uh going out to California in February, it's a lot of fun. But we've also gotten to use that following for things that are really important to us, right? Um, and so I've really used it a lot to um promote things like resources for people who have addiction issues to find recovery or you know, overdose prevention and awareness and things like that, mental health resources. Um, and I own a uh small business um outside of my day job here, and and I've been able to use the following to kind of help build that business, which is an addiction um, you know, recovery business, and get to use it for to help people as well. Like laughs and and being goofy and riding a moped with a duck is awesome, and that's mainly what we do still. But also it's like, okay, can we do some good with this?

SPEAKER_00 27:35

You know, you buried you buried the lead in the sense, really, from my perspective, is that you know, yes, it's funny. Um, he became insta famous, but you're using it for an impact. And that's really, I think, where it blends so well. And I hope that's one of the reasons that attracted you to Starkey a year and a half ago, is we're so much more than a company that just makes devices that you stick in your ears that help you hear better. We're really connecting people to each other. We know there's strong comorbidity between untreated hearing loss, loneliness, social isolation, depression. Um, you know, there there's links, at least correlations with untreated hearing loss and cognitive decline in humans. I don't know the links on ducks and whether ducks uh indeed suffer hearing loss as they get older in life, but we'll talk about that professionally later. I'll see if I can return the favor that you uh capably serve me in terms of my IT needs. But, you know, the fact that you found that way to get to something even more personal with the the vehicle that you were provided is perhaps the best tip really to offer clinicians, uh practice owners who are looking to navigate through this morass of social media and say, what you know, uh find a platform that works for you. If you're doing video, Instagram's kind of the preferred choice in in many cases. And if you want to just do one-liners, Twitter, uh now threads is another one. You are are you on threads now?

SPEAKER_01 29:10

I don't I don't even know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

That's a new one with uh off of Facebook. Um and um so there's it's finding your vehicle. As you said, I think, um thinking about your vision for what you want to do with this. And and really, I don't know whether your vision included at the start this uh this pivot that going into issues with uh mental health and and those issues, was that a part of it uh when you began, or did this sort of become the byproduct of what happened when you had success?

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Um, I mean, I think it was a part of my my own mental health and journey um with recovery. And so um it was never I never thought we would have enough people to to have any sort of impact in, but it was very impactful to those things for me. Um and um so then it was it was kind of just an easy, like, well, I have all these followers, fun videos are cute, but you know, can we help someone with this? And you should see some of the the posts whenever we do like a recovery or mental health post. It is so many people that are like, my son, this, my dad that, you know, and it's literally just hundreds of comments that are like, Thank you for sharing this. Like, I this I needed to hear this today because so-and-so in my life is is struggling with this. And um, I think it's just so important. And it a lot of these things don't get talked about enough. Um, and so I think it's for whatever reason, as human beings, like it's really nice to know that you're not alone with something.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

And and humor is the vehicle to get to that more difficult conversation in many cases. And I think that's where mental health, number one, it's inextricably intertwined with hearing loss, but also it's something that people are often uncomfortable talking about. So again, what you've done so successfully, like I said, I think you bury the lead on this in the sense that you've used it as a vehicle to now enable you to have a conversation. And people just come out of the woodwork by the humor that then goes to a serious place, a serious topic. And that's not that different than addressing hearing loss and use of hearing aids. And so that's where I think people may have wondered, why in the heck were we talking about Ben Afquack on the um on the podcast today? But I think there's so many parallels, and I really, really sincerely appreciate your coming on to talk about this topic and it and especially knowing that it is such a personal one for you. And um I I love watching your journey that you're on now. I love how it's pivoting into these other areas where you can really make an impact, and you're making an impact on people's lives. Uh in your day job and uh with Ben Afquack. Life is crazy sometimes, isn't it? Crazy, but it's good, right? Yeah, yeah. It's a good ride. It's a good ride. So thank you very much, Derek. Thanks for having me. This was fun. It's our pleasure. And um to our listeners, uh, we hope you enjoyed uh this episode of Soundbites as much as I did. Uh, if you liked it, please like, rate, review on your favorite podcast, and um share it with your friends, with anyone who you might think that would benefit from this episode. We also want to hear from you if you have ideas for other podcasts in the future. Uh send us an email at soundbites at starkey.com. And Derek, before we go, I want to ask again, what's what's Ben Afquack's handle on Instagram? We didn't discuss it yet. I think they can find it pretty easily, but go ahead and spell it out.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah, it's Minnesota Duck and Minnesota spelled out.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Excellent. Okay. And so for those who didn't go to the University of Minnesota, M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota. So um, you know, please again um let us know what your thoughts are about this episode and in the future your ideas. Thank you very much for listening or watching if you're watching on our YouTube channel. And we hope to hear and see you again very soon.