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If you’ve ever watched a HearingTracker video hosted by charismatic YouTuber, Matthew Allsop, then you've undoubtedly experienced his contagious enthusiasm for all things hearing aids; it’s a force that cannot be escaped. In his videos, Allsop condenses even the most technologically complex hearing aid advancements into easily digestible nuggets of wisdom—all infused with a touch of his dashing British humor and flair. In early June 2023, Allsop’s YouTube videos celebrated the impressive milestone of 2 million views.
Not only does Allsop provide audiological information and support through his video content, but he also runs Harley Street in London's West End, a renowned hub for private healthcare. Audiologist by day, YouTuber by night.
In this article, we discover Allsop’s journey into Audiology, learn about the trials and triumphs of being an internet personality, and highlight his passion for not just ears, but creativity too.
Allsop, 38, is recently married and lives in London. Outside of work, he has an enthusiasm for skydiving and has 550 skydives under his belt! He is learning to speak Spanish so he can communicate with his wife's family, who live in Barcelona.
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As a child, Allsop had some problems with his ears, including several grommet operations treating chronic ear infections. Although he doesn’t feel this experience necessarily led him to become an audiologist, he describes his entrance into the field of Audiology as, “A story of being introduced to an emerging field that would tick all the boxes for me.”
Some of Allsop’s family members were medics, so he was exposed to the world of healthcare from an early age. At the time when Allsop was exploring university opportunities, the Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Audiology was a new degree option, and a teacher at his school suggested he check it out. He looked into it, and sure enough, his curiosity was piqued.
He decided to study Audiology, with the plan to see if he “grew the stomach” for performing surgery and then potentially go on to study medicine. However, he fell in love with Audiology and never looked back.
“You're rarely giving people bad news that they don't already know. People normally come to you, and 9 times out of 10 they know they’ve got a hearing loss. And there's a solution that you can give to people, which isn't the perfect solution because we're dealing with hearing loss—we're not replacing an ear—but you can shape and have such a positive impact on people's lives,” explains Allsop.
Once Allsop had decided to stay in Audiology, he next had to determine what worked best for him to keep his work-life exciting and creative, which, over the years, led to him working in some varied roles.
His first job was working as a pediatric audiologist in a school for deaf children in Bolton, Manchester, UK, a role interwoven with the National Health Service (NHS). In the school, many of the pupils communicated in sign language, and Allsop was able to practice the signs he was learning at the time. He remembers it being a fun job and looks back with fond memories of his role there.
He later began working in the private sector with international hearing aid retailer Amplifon for 5 years, where he worked his way up to manage the UK's Flagship Amplifon clinic in central London.
Allsop's current role is as a Partner and the Operations Director at Harley Street Hearing and Musicians’ Hearing Services, the largest independent Audiology practice in London (located at 2 Harley Street).
Allsop has been working in the practice, which has just under 40 staff members, for ten years now, seeing patients three days a week while the other two days are spent managing his team and making sure that they are “stimulated and happy.”
“I'm all ears. Everything I do all day every day is about ears,” he told HearingTracker. “When I joined it was a tiny little practice with four audiologists, and so it's grown significantly over the decade I’ve been here. It's going from strength to strength, addressing all aspects of Audiology. So we cover hearing therapy, tinnitus, vestibular assessments and rehabilitation, auditory processing disorder, and obviously hearing aids—diagnosis and fitting of hearing aids—and management of hearing loss,” explains Allsop.
Building rapport and relationships with his patients is paramount to Allsop, and he has provided care for some patients for over 15 years. “I think in Jack Katz’s book, which is one of the most popular textbooks in Audiology, he says that 50% of our jobs are technical, and 50% are communication-based. And I would actually say that it's skewed even more towards the communication side of things than the technical side of things,” comments Allsop.
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“I don't know of many other jobs where you get to sit down and talk to people all day, learn about the world, learn about them, learn about their lives and family, and at the same time have a significant impact in terms of all the areas that they bring up in their appointment,” says Allsop.
Harley Street Hearing has recently opened a new practice to expand its services, located at 127 Harley Street. The new practice provides all aspects of audiological care offered in the original practice.
Allsop’s time is now split equally between the two practices. “I’m really proud of what our team has been able to create over the years—it’s been incredibly exciting, and I'm grateful to work so closely with my team,” he says.
Allsop enjoys challenges and has a zest for life—and high adventure. So why would a smart and accomplished audiologist jump out of a perfectly good airplane 550 times?
The answer, he says, is it’s fun and a complete rush: “I got into skydiving in 2016 after a conversation on a night out with friends. Initially there were ten of us keen on jumping, but as the date to jump grew closer that number gradually dwindled down to three of us. We headed over to Skydive Spain for a week of intensive training to achieve our accelerated free fall (AFF) qualification.”
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It has since become one of his passions and played heavily into many of his vacation plans, resulting in some breathtakingly cool videos shared on Vimeo. “Skydiving is about more than jumping; there aren't many sports that you can turn up to a new place and instantly rub shoulders with national champions who have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of jumps, and who are happy to share their knowledge and jump with you.
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“There are way more disciplines within skydiving than I initially anticipated, and there is so much to learn,” Allsop continues. “I know 500 jumps sounds like a lot, and I'm sure it is to someone who has never jumped before; however it's nothing compared to those who eat, breathe, and sleep the sport. Most importantly, jumping in the UK of course means that there is a lot of time on the ground due to weather holds, and so the community is incredibly important. Some of my closest friends are those who I jump with regularly.”
Allsop also has a special love for music and Harley Street Hearing continues to develop its specialty, Musicians’ Hearing Services. Working closely with the Musicians’ Union, The Independent Society of Musicians, Help Musicians UK, and the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, Harley Street Hearing provides a range of services, including advice on hearing protection and very specific ways of utilizing hearing aid technology for musicians with hearing loss.
Additionally, the practice partners with the UK charity Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union to run a program called Musicians’ Hearing Health Scheme, which gives all professional musicians in the UK affordable access to specialist hearing assessments and custom-made hearing protection.
“It's just bringing that awareness to light and making sure that people look after their ears so that they don't have to use the next part of our business, which is fitting hearing aids,” explains Allsop.
He says there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to fitting hearing aids, and there is a “real specialist art” to fitting hearing aids to musicians. Allsop and his team use their expertise to ensure clients get the best out of their hearing aids. It can take time, effort, energy, and patience from both the audiologist and the patient.
“Listening to music is one of the things I miss the most in my journey to deafness; it’s not that you can’t hear it, it just doesn’t sound the same,” wrote Mark Wilson, a Mental Health and Wellbeing Manager, on a Linkedin post when traveling to London to consult with Allsop for the first time.
During the appointment, Allsop reprogrammed Wilson’s hearing aids, added custom tips, took real ear measurements (REM)—measurements taken in a patient's ear in real-time to assess hearing aid function in the ear canal—and set up a music setting. Wilson returned home and took his new ears for a spin by listening to hours of music from different stages of his life. He shared the outcome in a follow-up Linkedin post, in which he tagged Allsop:
“Thank you, you have made me beam again today; I’ve heard instruments I didn’t even know were on the songs…and the words, I can hear the words, it’s truly wonderful,”
Allsop points to this as an example of why he loves audiology. “It just brought tears to my eyes in terms of the way he articulated it and the difference it had made and, you know, that's why we do the job that we do at the end of the day.”
Allsop is a “creative soul,” and it has always been important for him to ensure he is ticking his creativity box in each of his roles. In 2021, Allsop set up his own YouTube channel called The Hearing Guy. He comments, “The videos are awful in comparison [to his current ones]!”
He refers to the channel as being his “baby.” It features How-To guides and reviews to assist his patients and others with things they were struggling with, such as Bluetooth pairing.
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When his channel hit around 800 subscribers, HearingTracker reached out and said they liked what he was doing. They were looking to grow their YouTube channel and asked Allsop to join the team.
“It was a really, really hard decision because I put so much love into this channel,” recalls Allsop. “I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain both of them because I'd want to do content that was the same for both of them.”
But, at the same time, one of the reasons for joining the online spaces was to reach more people, and based on HearingTracker’s global reputation, he decided to accept their offer.
Since then, Allsop has worked hard to create engaging videos with optimal visual and audio quality, which has been quite a journey. “I think in making the videos for somebody else, that I maybe then realized that the quality of them had to improve, so I started experimenting more.” He researched ways to create better audio quality and lighting and has even turned a spare room in his house into a studio—much to his wife’s dismay!
Through the HearingTracker channel, Allsop helps people around the globe to choose their hearing aids and speak to their families and audiologists. Sharing his knowledge of hearing aids with the world on YouTube means that Allsop feels he is really clued into the pros and cons of each hearing aid and who they’re most suitable for. “I know hearing aids from a technology perspective far more than I've ever known it. Presenting the various technologies on YouTube forces you to dive deeper into the products and specific features. I'd like to think that I'm far better as an audiologist because of my understanding of the tech that's out there now,” comments Allsop.
“The YouTube journey is hard. It’s difficult just to figure out so many layers, whether it's designing a thumbnail, writing a script, or getting the lighting right,” continues Allsop. “It has been a fascinating and fun journey, and I'd like to think that it's evolved nicely—you’ll hopefully see that in the quality of the videos.”
So, what tips does a guy with 30.7K subscribers on YouTube have to share?
“Your first videos are never going to be good,” confides Allsop. “The lighting won’t be good, the background won't be good, the editing won’t be good, and the audio won’t be good—but you have to start somewhere.”
His advice is to start with what you’ve got: “The key is persistence.” He stresses the importance of constantly looking to improve the audio, the storytelling, and the lighting, one by one. “If you're able to make interesting content, there'll always be somebody out there who's interested in it,” he assures.
Allsop feels he’s currently in a fortunate position. “I’m really happy with the place I’m in right now.” He would like to continue growing the business and keep working closely with all the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) consultants and GPs they work with in the area. “We’re always looking at growing those relationships and forming new ones as well, as well as providing ongoing support,” he told HearingTracker.
Above all, his aim is to keep helping people hear better. “Our team’s goal is to continue to build our reputation and make sure that more and more people receive the quality of audiological care that is available and that they deserve,” says Allsop.
Regarding his career aspirations as a YouTuber, he would like to continue growing the channel and reaching more people. He would love to hit 40K subscribers by the end of the year, although he says, “It’s going to be tight!” To help Allsop achieve his goal, visit the HearingTracker channel and click “subscribe!”
Harley Street Hearing is currently accepting new patients. If you would like to arrange an appointment with Allsop or a member of his team, contact the practice for the next available appointment.
Carly Sygrove ist eine Hörverlust-Coach und eine Schriftstellerin im Bereich Gehörgesundheit, die an einseitiger Taubheit lebt. Sie schreibt über das Leben mit Hörverlust auf My Hearing Loss Story und leitet eine Online-Unterstützungsgruppe für Menschen mit Hörverlust. Sie ist auch die Gründerin der Website Sudden Hearing Loss Support, eine Informations- und Unterstützungsquelle für Menschen, die von plötzlichem Hörverlust betroffen sind.
