Meet Michelle & Steve

Our story begins with two different paths to one truth: hearing shapes everything.

Michelle was born with hearing loss but was not tested until high school. She received her first hearing aid at nineteen. Steve lived for years without realizing he had hearing loss. His brain worked hard to fill in missing sounds, which turned listening into quiet effort.

Together, we have seen how good hearing care restores energy, connection, and ease.

Hearing Empowered™ exists because independence matters. Every person’s needs are unique.

Independent audiologists have the freedom to choose the technology that fits your hearing, your life, and your priorities.

Michelle’s Hearing Loss Story

I was born with hearing loss, but no one knew for years. I grew up missing things—words, jokes, directions—and people thought I just wasn’t paying attention, or worse, that I wasn’t smart enough to catch on.

In high school, I finally got tested, but I thought I was too cool for hearing aids. By nineteen, I couldn’t function anymore and had to get help. My hearing loss is moderate to profound sensorineural in both ears, which means I miss most speech sounds without hearing aids. Voices blur. High-pitched sounds disappear. Music and laughter lose their shape. Without hearing aids, I am functionally deaf.

When I finally went for help, I could only afford one hearing aid, even though I needed two. No one explained what that would mean. They accepted my budget and sent me on my way. No one said how it would feel to hear from only one side, or how much harder my brain would have to work to make sense of sound.

That first fitting wasn’t personal. I was handed a device and sent out the door. No care. No curiosity. No one asking what it felt like to hear again after so many quiet years. For a long time, I thought that was normal.

It wasn’t until almost ten years later, when I finally got two hearing aids, that I understood what I had been missing. I could follow conversations again. I stopped zoning out. Life felt closer. But even then, no one told me that hearing aids needed professional cleaning, or that tiny vacuums existed to keep them working well. When they died, I thought it was my fault.

It wasn’t until I met Dr. Nichole Sorensen from Lakeside Hearing in Kelowna that I learned what true hearing care looks like. Someone finally slowed down. Someone explained. Someone cared enough to make sure everything actually fit, both technically and personally.

That experience changed everything. It showed me that hearing care, when done right, isn’t just about sound. It’s about being seen, supported, and fully part of the world again.

It’s also what drives me now. I want everyone to experience the same gold standard of care I found at Lakeside Hearing, the kind of care that treats hearing not as a transaction, but as a return to life.

Oticon Features Section

Explore how hearing technology supports Michelle’s daily life.

This section will feature Michelle’s hearing aids in more detail, with supporting imagery and video that show how the technology works in real life.

Steve’s Hearing Loss Story

Steve had no idea he had hearing loss. It wasn’t until Michelle, his wife, started noticing the patterns. He would check out when conversations became harder to follow or turn the TV up louder than everyone else. That was when they decided he should get his hearing tested.

He was genuinely surprised by the results. Dr. Claire Beldi at Lakeside Hearing explained that his audiogram showed a cookie bite hearing loss, a pattern that can sometimes be present from birth. Over the years, his brain had learned to fill in the missing sounds, working harder than he ever realized just to stay connected.

What’s ironic is that Steve was part of the group of friends who made Michelle feel safe enough to get her first hearing aid at nineteen. He helped her see that hearing loss wasn’t something to hide. Yet, when it came to himself, he still fell into the same mindset that many people do. He thought he was too young for hearing aids.

Now, after seeing the difference they make in his own life, Steve feels a deep conviction that no one is ever too young to hear well.

For Steve, this is all new. He is still adjusting to hearing aids and learning what it feels like to hear more easily again.

His active life means his hearing support needs to be comfortable and reliable, with technology that can handle rain, sweat, wind, and long trail runs through Kelowna with their dog, Brandy.

Steve’s story is a reminder that hearing loss is not always obvious. It can go unnoticed for years, hidden in small moments of extra effort, until one day the difference becomes clear.

Starkey Features Section

Explore how hearing technology supports Steve’s daily life.

This section will feature Steve’s hearing aids in more detail, with supporting imagery and video that show how the technology works in real life.