Radha Joy’s PepPlugs makes her a leader in hearing health
Hearing conservation is the goal of Radha Joy’s PepPlugs business. Jackie’s encouragement and ideas help bring her product to her target market.
Radha Joy’s PepPlugs makes her a leader in hearing health with Jackie’s help.
Name of business: Pepp Now LLC, PepPlugs TM is my product (earplugs)
Years in business: 1 year
What the business does: Occupational Hearing Conservation and PepPlugs (Personal Ear Protection Plugs)
Better, Smarter, Richer: Your journey of re-invention, re-imagining: what led you to start your venture?
Radha Joy: I became interested in deafness and hearing loss many years ago in college at The Evergreen State College when, as a resident assistant, I had a deaf neighbor who became a dear friend. Although he was deaf from birth and didn’t have any hearing to protect, it was because of him that I went on to learn sign language and began later work in hearing and speech sciences. After college, I worked at the Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center in Seattle then went back to Graduate School at Portland State University where I obtained my master’s degree in speech and hearing sciences in 2005. This education trained me in the importance of hearing health.
What were you doing prior to what you are doing now?
I have been practicing as a Speech-Language Pathologist in public schools for over 16 years. After grad school, I worked for the Columbia Regional Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program. (CRPDHH). Now I’m a Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist (OHC) from CAOHC – Council for accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation which has stemmed from many years of being witness to hearing loss and its damaging effect on individuals losing their hearing.
I have a vision to help protect people from the harmful effects of noise pollution which can result in hearing loss. My mission is to serve industries and people with products that I’m buying, marketing, developing, and trademarking called Personal Ear Protection Plugs (PEPP), PepPlugs.
What are your successes? What is working now?
I am working on a Hearing Conservation Program Training to deliver to business as part of a hearing loss prevention program. I have an hour presentation that I can use to train employees and workers about hearing health.
Additionally, I am working on getting some custom-made PepPlugs for some clients and have had to remake a set of plugs. I work as a vendor for Microsonic and Westone- they are the manufacturers of the PepPlugs that I sell. I also have many over-the-counter universal plugs that I sell at my Office location off of Macadam in the South Waterfront area.
How did you work with Jackie?
Jackie has been consulting with me over the past couple of months. She was referred to me by a dear friend David Kohl. Dave and I have been so pleased that she helped steer me and give ideas and confidence.
Take away/lessons learned/advice:
Jackie told me that I am a Leader in Hearing Conservation, which really I am a champion for hearing health. No one is more passionate about earplugs than I am. She helped me to target specific clients, refined some of my messaging. She’s also given great encouragement for my services and products. She has also given feedback about the pricing and marketing of the products as well.
Check out Radha’s blog about tinnitus:
Want to read how Jackie has helped others with their businesses? Check out the blog roll.
