The History of “The Hearing Guy”
Dr. Steele has spent his entire life in the medical field….literally. His father was a family physician in a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia and his mother, a local pharmacist. His family assumed he would follow in their footsteps, but the younger Dr. Steele took a slightly different path.
While attending the University of Georgia, he gravitated towards economics, always interested in the business side of things. His initial plan was to run his father’s locally owned practice not as a doctor but on the business side. His father encouraged him to pursue both. He graduated with a medical degree in 2010.
Because of the 2008 financial crisis, he deviated from the original plan and decided to choose his own path. Dr. Steele, knowing he wanted in to stay in medicine but wanted to spend more time with his patients, looked into opening up his own practice. Dr. Steele opened a franchise of Zounds Hearing Aids in Asheville, NC and became a licensed hearing instrument specialist.
A few years in he wanted the ability to offer multiple brands from different manufacturers. His wife, a CPA whom he met in Atlanta, was ready to leave the long hours of public accounting. By merging their backgrounds, they created an independent practice called “The Hearing Guy”.
The Hearing Guy takes a different approach than most clinics. The patient experience is very important and is evident by their family feel environment. Brent likes to teach people about their hearing and works hard in each situation to help that person. He has taken people across the street to a pizza restaurant to test out the hearing aids in a noisy environment. Or if it is trouble with the phone or TV, he will go to that person’s house to fix the situation.
Hearing loss affects more than just the individual, it affects their entire family. It’s hard to see someone who has shut down emotionally because they can’t participate in conversations anymore. One thing we would like people to know is to not put off getting a hearing test. We want to help you hear better but we also want to preserve your understanding. We can’t do that as well if you have waited too long to come see us. It’s also important to develop a relationship with the person fitting them so you can receive the greatest benefit from the device. We enjoy the relationships we build with our patients and want you to feel comfortable enough to reach out to us at any time.
Dr. Steele and his wife have two small children. A daughter Abigail, born in 2016 and a son named Jack, born in 2018. They have been living in Asheville since 2015. When they are not running the business they enjoy traveling, college football and spending time with their families.
