Meet The Disruptors: Richard Dávila II Of Livingston Hearing Aid Center On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Everyone needs development. Some people need more than others. You must be confident that when you put someone in a teaching role they can do it effectively. If you choose the wrong person it can be damaging to growth.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Dávila II.
Richard and his wife and kids live in Lubbock, TX. He is the President and owner of Livingston Hearing Aid Center and is based at the Gainesville, TX location. He received his education from the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business and Texas Tech University. Received training from Texas Board of Examiners in Fitting & Dispensing of Hearing Instruments, New Mexico Speech, Language Pathology, Audiology and Hearing Aid Dispensers Board. Richard is Board Certified in Hearing Instrument Sciences and Audioprosthologist. He is a member of the IHS, International Hearing Society.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Well, that’s an interesting story. My backstory is a story of commitment and discipline more than a story of entrepreneurial spirit and blazing new trails. When I was 17, my father, who owned Livingston Hearing Aid Center, died of a massive heart attack. Never had a sick day in his life; just woke up one morning, while driving to work, and had a heart attack at the wheel.
That was it. Gone in the blink of an eye.
It was the summer before my college entrance, and to say I was shocked would be an understatement. I had plans to head into pre-med, but what I thought would be my plan turned out to be someone else’s plan, and my plan fizzled into empty aspirations because when my dad passed away, I went to work.
As a teenager responsible for supporting my mother and two sisters, I knew I had to learn about the hearing industry fast. Looking back, I realize that the urgency and pressure were a gift. It accelerated my progress and fueled my curiosity. I poured my love of science and objectivity into hearing science. Instead of believing or thinking that the grass was (or might be) greener on the other side, I believed the grass was greener where I watered it. And that’s what I did.
We had two offices at the time, and working in those offices taught me people would never accept the solution for better hearing (a hearing aid) if they didn’t accept that they had a problem, to begin with. For the first 10 years of my professional career, I focused on influencing patients to experience the gift of better hearing.
Eventually, I realized I could only help so many people by myself — there were only so many hours in the day, so I shifted my focus of influence from patients to other hearing healthcare professionals. I first expanded in my backyard.
We were all in the same locations, and I began to learn how to overcome the challenges of managing other professional team members. Once I learned how to manage/influence others in my own office, I expanded to another city, another city, and another city. I spent the next 10 years opening offices and working with other hearing healthcare professionals as far as I could drive and get home on the same day. My sister eventually joined the family business after she graduated with her Doctorate in Audiology, and we worked together expanding into the Southern United States.
We started in Albuquerque and El Paso then moved into the Dallas market shortly thereafter. We’ve spent more than a decade dedicated to increasing access to hearing healthcare for older adults.
Livingston has grown from two locations in the West Texas panhandle to now, having 93 offices in 4 states and a team of over 300 people, all of whom are living into our mission to serve better than anyone so that we can fulfill our purpose to enrich life through better hearing.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We are committed to valuing the hearing healthcare provider’s role in the success of a patient’s hearing journey. Not only that, we believe in total hearing healthcare. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and testing equipment that you would not find in a traditional hearing clinic.
We are excited to be moving into new territory with cognitive screening as we identify the connections between audition and cognition. We are facilitating conversations with patients and their primary care physicians and other specialists surrounding the patients’ overall health.
Recent studies show hearing impairment is a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia and that early management of hearing loss may delay or slow the onset or advancement of the disease. So, as hearing healthcare providers, we are on the front line when it comes to identifying risks and certain medical conditions that may affect your hearing or cognitive health.
But how do you get people interested in their hearing health? Through our innovative hearing technology and online social media presence, we have been disruptive to our industry, to say the least.
Let’s start with TikTok. Anytime you can generate 70 or 80 million views for one video while in the hearing healthcare and hearing aid business, you are disrupting! It has given us a surprising platform to bring awareness to hearing health, and the value of communication, and hopefully, open the door for future conversations about the connection between audition and cognition to millions of people worldwide.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t know if it was funny but given where I am now, I think looking back I certainly could classify it as funny so I will go with this one: I traveled to Austin to take a licensing exam shortly after my father died. It was right after I turned 18. You had to be 18 to be licensed in Texas. While taking the practical exam I realized I was not prepared. I had no idea what they asked me to do in certain parts of the exam. Rather than fumble through it, I simply said, “Well, I have never heard of that so that is my cue to pack up and head back home.”
And that’s what I did. I just packed my bags and headed home.
My uncle, who was in the same business, was also my mentor. He told me after my father died if I ever needed anything to call him and he would help me. Well, I had not done that during my preparation. I had elected to do it all on my own.
And the result? I fell short. I called my uncle and he told me, “Come to my office and spend some time with me and I will prepare you for your next exam.”
Well, the experience changed my life. You see, my uncle was a teacher. He explained things most simply. When he spoke, knowledge transferred. It was unbelievable. He was the very definition of a teacher. He taught me all that I needed to know to pass the exam.
I learned two lessons: One, that I needed to be comfortable asking for help. I needed to be less prideful. Two, I learned that the cure for the fear of failure is a failure. After I failed the exam I learned that I survived and when I arrived more prepared the second time. I gave it another try and succeeded. Lessons learned.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I didn’t make many mistakes early on in my professional career. In fact, for the first 12 years, I would claim that I did not make any mistakes–not one. Zero.
I don’t say that with arrogance. I say that because I had a true mentor in my uncle, who was willing to share his knowledge with me. He told me, “Call me if you ever need anything” after my father passed away and every time I called him, he would take the time to teach me. It began with patient management. Every time I ran into a patient management problem, I would call him. I would provide him with the testing information and he would tell me what to do.
It was incredible. He had 25 years of experience at the time and every time I called him he would say, “Oh this is what you need to do. This is what you need to say.” And it worked. It worked every time. Needless to say, I called him every day. Yes, every day for 10 years. The questions changed over the years. I became proficient at understanding and practicing hearing sciences and managing patients. Soon I was calling him about business decisions. For example, when people would come to my office and try to sell me a certain type of advertising campaign and I would call my uncle and he would say, “Don’t do that. I tried that in 1989 and it doesn’t work.” I would immediately call the representative back and say, “Sorry, can’t do it.”
As my team grew, I would call my uncle and ask him about each obstacle I encountered when managing people. He would say, “Oh yes, that happened to me also and this is what you need to do.” What he told me to do was work every time. You see, while I was learning hearing sciences, my uncle was opening new offices.
He had more than 20 offices by the year 2000 when I started my expansion. So, leaning on my uncle’s expansion experience, I spent the next 10 years expanding all over west Texas and eastern New Mexico. My uncle was right by my side the whole time.
It is why I can say that for the first 10–12 years, I didn’t make any mistakes with confidence because my uncle was always there for me. My uncle retired in 2013. I talked to him almost every day up to his retirement.
I miss talking to him. He never stopped sharing his knowledge. He is the reason I am where I am today. He gave me the blueprint for success. All I had to do was follow the blueprint. I will, and do, take credit for the execution and there is something to be said about that.
Over the last 10 years, as I have become a mentor to others, I have realized that there is a big difference between knowing what to do, and doing it! Doing it is the hard part — so again, I’ll take credit for the execution, but without his influence, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Let’s look at the positive. I discussed our social media impact earlier. Using TikTok to highlight hearing healthcare to tens of millions of people is about as positive an impact as you could ever imagine. I mean, let’s be honest, hearing aids have had a negative stigma for years. It has been a very common obstacle that we have had to overcome. So getting a conversation started about ears and hearing with these wax videos and then providing patient testimonial content that reveals the life-transforming benefits that occur with hearing aids is a needed tipping point to highlight our most “social” of the five senses; our sense of hearing.
The added attention to the industry and real people talking about their experiences with hearing aids in real-time is about as positive as it gets.
This new method of sharing content is pretty disruptive and I think very positive.
It turns out that for a disruptor to be “positive” for any industry, at a minimum, it must be positive for one segment of those within the industry itself. It is most effective and most positive when the segment benefiting is the patient/consumer.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1. You will never learn anything more thoroughly than you will if you teach it:
Have you ever taught a Sunday School class? I know I’m supposed to be answering the questions but follow along with me on this one. When you read the Bible it is usually broken down into chapters in each book. In each chapter, there are stories told. These stories are usually made up of several verses. When you read the verses the first or even second time they can be very confusing. The passage may be talking about a vine and how it grows. As you begin to dive deeper and gather information from commentators you come to realize that the vine is not a tree at all–it is talking about Jesus; he is the vine.
It isn’t until you teach it that you obtain the deepest knowledge of the subject. I believe that if you can’t explain something in simple terms, in a manner that almost anyone would understand, then you do not truly know the material.
So, I have always believed in teaching at all levels of business. Teaching hearing sciences. Teaching patient management. Teaching sales. Teaching Marketing. Teaching, teaching, teaching.
2. Just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you know how to teach it:
Not everyone is a teacher. Like most things, teaching requires skill, and not everyone is cut out to be a teacher so be very cautious about whom you allow to teach others on your team.
Everyone needs development. Some people need more than others. You must be confident that when you put someone in a teaching role they can do it effectively. If you choose the wrong person it can be damaging to growth.
3. A positive attitude is a choice:
Look, life comes at us sideways sometimes and we get to choose what our attitude is when we encounter difficulties. A positive attitude matters when dealing with problems and the circumstances of life. I always feel like I’m going to be parking in the front row. I always feel like the dice are going to come up 7 or 11.
Having a positive attitude is half of the battle in life.
4. Luck favors the well-prepared:
My uncle taught me to never let the other guy work with me. He was the hardest working guy I ever met. He always got up at the crack of dawn. So guess what? So did I. Every morning I felt like it was a race to see who would contact the other guy first. I knew that if I mimicked his work ethic I could be successful like him. There were times when I would hear my phone go off at 5 a.m. and I would jump up out of bed and get to my computer to respond (as if I was already at the office). I remember one time he emailed me at 5 a.m. with a simple question: “You up?”
I leaped out of bed and responded. “Yes sir, I’ve been here for about 15 min.” And the day began. I have never asked him but I felt like he might have been doing the same thing at times. If my memory serves me correctly, I feel like if I ever messaged him super early he always responded the same way, “Yep, I’ve been here just a few minutes longer than you.” Hahaha!
5. If you are sleeping like a baby each night, you don’t have enough on the line:
I spoke about being well prepared and sometimes preparation comes to you in the middle of the night in the form of sheer terror.
I think my uncle and I both experienced it; your body would just wake you up and you’d immediately think, “What if there is a median at that location in Albuquerque? What if customers can’t get into the parking lot from both directions? Did I check that? That could be a deal breaker.” It’s 4:30 a.m. and I’m up now. I have to go to the office and check that out.
When you are growing a business everything is on the line.
The more you grow, the more there is on the line. When the Christmas party was a single 5-top table at Outback Steakhouse, I could count on one hand the number of people who were depending on me. As you grow, the people depending on you multiply exponentially. Subsequently, that leads to many nights when you wake up in a panic because of something racing through your mind. At that point, there is no chance of going back to sleep unless you act.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I am going to stay focused and do what we do best.
We are going to deliver experiences for patients that can’t be replicated online or through the mail. We are going to continue to create unsubstitutable experiences and great relationships with our patients, and we are going to do it in more places.
We have no plans to stop our expansion.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
The best book, or rather the book that has had the most impact on me over the last two years, was Tools for Titans, by Tim Ferris.
This book has had a big impact on me. The book is a compilation of the tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers. It turns out the routines of people who perform at the highest levels have certain similarities. Much like with my uncle, I feel like mimicking the actions of high-performing individuals can lead to similar outcomes; successful ones.
I can’t recommend a book right now any more.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Hang a lantern on your problems.
I believe in talking about shortcomings. You see, I dislike strongly (hate) falling short. I do not like when we fail as a company. When we do, though, there is an opportunity to get better and I love getting better.
I can look at shortcomings or failures positively, which is in my nature. You will very rarely hear me talking about our successes. I talk mainly about where we are struggling, and where there is room for improvement.
It is this focus on failures and shortcomings that keep improvement right in my line of sight at all times. So when I find a problem, I shine a big light on it until we improve, and then work to ensure we have processes in place to protect against it from happening again.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement I would like to inspire is one where we all believe that people, at their core, want to do their very best and they want to succeed, they just need to be empowered to do so.
The best feeling in the world is waking up and realizing that you have reached higher than you ever thought you could reach. It is waking up and feeling like you have accomplished more than you ever dreamed you could have accomplished.
I know it is the best feeling in the world because I feel it daily. I’d love to start a movement where people are focused on empowering others to feel this same way. All people are capable, they just need to be empowered, they just need to be inspired.
Someone just needs to believe in them.
How can our readers follow you online?
@livingstonhac on Facebook
@livingstonhac on Twitter
@livingstonhac on Instagram
@livingstonhac on TikTok
@richarddavilaii on Twitter
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Richard Dávila II Of Livingston Hearing Aid Center On The Five Things You Need… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
