Mark Schulman has toured as a professional drummer with some of the biggest artists on the planet. “Consequently, I’ve been surrounded by loud music and high ambient noise nearly all my life,” he says.
This ongoing exposure to loud audio would eventually lead Mark on another path: hearing loss. By the time he hit his mid-40s, Mark was battling more than ringing in his ears; he was struggling to hear bits and pieces of conversations. This led him both to a career change to a motivational speaker – and to Pacific Hearing Audiology to fit him with hearing aids.
“Widex has become an integral part of my acclaimed national motivational speaking tours,” he says. “I speak a lot about the power of change during my presentations, and this notion really stems from my personal experience of finally accepting and embracing hearing aids as a vital part of my life.”
The Toll of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Having picked up his first set of drumsticks at the age of five, performing professionally by 12, and performing on worldwide tours with Pink, Foreigner, Billy Idol, Cher and other musical megastars, Mark never dreamed hearing aids would be in his future.
From the beginning of his musical career and at every performance, Mark always wore protective hearing devices. “My mother was very conscientious about it when I was a boy and it simply became standard practice,” he says. Despite taking all the right precautions, rock-and-roll eventually took its toll. “I developed mild tinnitus in my teens and just 10 minutes at the drums would make it go nuts,” Mark says.
After 32 years of touring, it was time to evolve his career. The switch from drummer to motivational speaker may have given his ears a rest, but it also made his hearing issues even more noticeable. Communicating with people on a more personal level was now the crux of his career—and this was becoming increasingly harder to do. “I was missing key parts of the conversation which was impacting my ability to connect with my audience,” he says. “My family was also bearing the burden of having to repeat sentences and crank the volume of the television.”
Hearing loss was now affecting both Mark’s professional and personal life. There was also his family history of dementia to consider. After learning that data suggests that hearing loss is one of the main causes of dementia, he made a long-overdue decision to have a hearing test.
The results were shocking yet unsurprising. “I am essentially deaf in the mid-range frequency,” Mark says. “This is the same frequency range of a snare drum, so no mystery there.” His first set of hearing aids boosted the mid-range but almost too much for Mark’s musically trained ear. “I noticed a phase differentiation and slight alteration of pitch that made everything sound like a chorus. It was uncomfortable and made me feel anxious,” he explains. And so, Mark took a different route.
“In my keynote presentations I speak about the power of attitude. We can’t control so much of what happens to us, but we have the power to change the outcome based on our ability to adopt the right attitude.”
Mark Doesn’t Miss a Beat
Mark practiced what he preached and gave hearing aids another chance—this time with Widex. He was relieved to discover a totally different hearing experience. Dr. Gregory Frazer and Dr. Sheila Shalom of Pacific Hearing. “Musicians in particular have unique hearing profiles, given their often decades-long exposure to loud noises and music. However, hearing loss impacts musicians more than just professionally, but also personally – their ability to socialize in loud environments; their ability to connect with family and friends; and, more broadly, their ability to participate most fully in their lives.
Indeed, it takes a special hearing aid to match Mark’s cadence. On the move and evolving his performances to include a unique blend of entertainment (yes, drums are involved) and motivation, Mark has discovered a perfect on- and off-stage accompaniment in the Widex SmartRIC hearing aids.
He certainly never envisioned something as “small” as a hearing aid would become such a big part of his life. Mark is a living testament to the life-changing impact of better hearing.
For more on Widex, click here. For more on Mark’s story, click here.
