{VIDEO} Building an Empire by Changing Lives…
In this week’s episode of LeadersCreateLeaders I sit down with Bridget Hilton (Forbes 30 Under 30) and Joe Huff. Together these two have started a revolution by disrupting the headphone industry with their company LSTN. By combining a social mission with a top notch product, they’ve successfully built a for-purpose empire.
They met each other at a poignant time when Bridget was ready to leave the music industry and launch something of her own. Through their combined love for music and desire for social change, the dream was born. LSTN Sound Co. partners with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to provide hearing devices to people in need all over the world. For each pair of LSTN headphones sold, a person gets to hear for the first time.
Since launching LSTN, they’ve embarked on travel missions to Peru, Kenya, Uganda, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mexico, and The Dominican Republic. In short, their hustle doesn’t sleep. They’ve hit a $2 million profit mark in three short years, have tons of exciting partnerships and collaborations (including Delta Airlines) and don’t have plans for stopping anytime soon.
They’ve obviously been inspired by the one-to-one model that Tom’s Shoes has made famous, but by translating it into a new realm where they are actually transforming the way some people get to experience the world — offering them the gift of hearing — their impact is unparalleled. Bridget was inspired by a video she saw of a woman her age getting to hear for the first time, there’s a clip of that in this episode, and man does it hit hard.
On top of that — they have never compromised style and performance. After much consideration, and putting their charitable work first, they knew they couldn’t release a product that wasn’t cool to look at and amazing to use. After all, with something like headphones, the market is so saturated that even a social mission differentiator won’t build a sustainable following in itself. The product has to absolutely kill it on all levels. So they have created a product that absolutely kills it.
These two are amazing young leaders — and their personal stories are even more incredible.
Give the video a watch to learn about their backgrounds, how they built this company, and what it means to them to have an impact.
Stay hungry, stay inspired.
’Til next week,
Gerard
