March 31, 2025 • 16 mins
Brian Hawk is the owner of FreshAire CPAP & Supplies, LLC, which is based out of Wooster. The company started 9 years ago in 2016 and serves people from Wayne, Medina, Holmes, Ashland and Richland Counties. FreshAire CPAP & Supplies, LLC, is locally owned and operated medical equipment supply company focused on Sleep Apnea. Learn more about Brian and his company on the podcast. You can visit his website at https://www.freshairecpap.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
CEOs you should know here from local leaders in the community.
Made possible by Witcom and hess CPAs and Financial Advisors.
Our guest this morning is we are featuring this week
Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. I
know we've heard that name here locally and we're excited
(00:21):
to shine the spotlight on another great local business. Brian.
Good morning and thank you for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Aaron, thanks for having me in.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, terrific. So I've heard about your company and maybe
people have heard maybe some commercials on the air and
things like that, but this is where we kind of
shine the spotlight. Let you kind of tell the story.
So if somebody is just moved kind of to the area,
they're hearing, Hey, I've heard of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies.
I don't really know what all they do kind of
share with.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Us this month most certainly indeed. So what we do
is we are classified as a Durable Medical Equipment Company DME,
as we say, and most of those companies they are
a full service company, which is great to have around.
But what we do is we focus on just sleep apnea.
We provide the equipment, we provide the training, the teaching,
(01:08):
the ongoing education and encouragement, and also supplies. We like
to keep everything in house so that when you come
in you need something, we have it on hand, and
when you go out the door, you have what you need.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, if somebody is not familiar with sleep apna, could
you explain a little bit there.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure can.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sleep apnea is, as I've heard one doctor explain, it's
sleep choking another word for it. And what happens is
your airway, your upper airway, so up in the top
part of your throat area that gets closed off and
when that's closed you can't bring air in and air
cannot come out. So what we're doing is something non invasive,
and we're providing in air pressure that keeps the airway open.
(01:49):
So that's really all it is in a nutshell, sleep apnea.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And when you talk about supplies, there's different things that
probably you know, just like everything you need, right, certain
things last for so long you got to replace that.
Talk about supplies certainly, So supplies we're talking about you
have to wear a mask to do this to get
the air pressure in and keep it open, keep your
airway open.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So when you have a mask on, you're going to
have a cushion. That's what forms the seal between the
mask and your skin to keep that pressure going. So
you have a cushion on your mask. You have filters
air filters for your machine, just like you'd have on
a car. We have it on the machine. There's also
a tube that comes from your CEPAT machine up to
(02:30):
your mask that brings the therapy up to you. So
there's different components that need to be replaced on a
regular basis. Sometimes it's a thing that wears out, the
filter gets dirty, and then there's also parts that quite frankly,
I'll be honest with everybody, is that there are parts
that mechanically speaking last for.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Quite a while.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
However, they're very difficult to clean, I mean truly keep
them clean. So for hygienic reasons, there are some components
that need to be replaced periodically.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Great to learn this morning about a great local com company.
We are chatting with Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air
SEATPAP and Supplies. So how long have you been in operation?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So with this business, we've been in operation now for
nine years.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Where are you based out of.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We are in Worcester on the North End. We are
actually right on Cleveland Road, which can also be referred
to as State Route three one and the same. A
lot of people in the area, especially in the Wayne
County area, they're very familiar with a restaurant called the
Greenley Restaurant, so we are literally right beside them, just
on the south side of it. There's a brown brick
building there, very nice facility. We just moved in to
(03:36):
that one and it's really a nice facility, great parking.
I'm really happy to be there now.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Share with us. You're based in Worcester, but you help
people all over the local area. Quit do many many counties.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, so we are like you said, we're based in Worcester,
so right in the middle of Wayne County. We also
serve people down in Holmes County up into Madina County,
and also we have quite a few people coming over
from the Ashland and Richmond County areas, so very happy
to serve them. Great people to work with. It just
seems like to be one big community, great people, we
(04:09):
love our patients.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Awesome. Great to hear again from Brian Hawk this morning,
owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. These are a
featured CEO this week. As we shine a spotlight locally.
Now you talked about supplies and things like that. Do
they have to order in advance before they come? I'm
assuming they go online. I mean, how does all of
it work in terms of getting supplies.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, both of those scenarios work just fine. They're able
to call ahead and mention i'd like to come in.
Sometimes people know the exact day. Some people say sometime
this week, I'd like to come in. That's not a problem.
What we'll do is we'll get everything ready for you.
We put it into a little area that we can
have it ready so that when you stop in, pull
it out, you can sign for things and head out
the door. But what we like to encourage people to
(04:51):
do is come in, whether you call ahead, whether you
just stop in. Like I said, we have supplies on hand,
so you can stop in.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So it takes next a minute or two, no problem
on our end, get everything together and you're good to go.
But we love to have people in. It just gives
us that time, that FaceTime, that literal face time where
we can actually talk with people and just kind of
see how things are going for you. Just that two
minutes of time makes a big difference in helping keeping
that relationship and your health going.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Your health is so so important, as you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And sleep plays a big part.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah part. You know. I've talked with with doctors and things,
and they talk about, you know, just not getting you know,
the proper amount of sleep. Sometimes, you know, a few
days in a row you just don't feel right.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You don't know, that's so true, yes, yes, And you
can have your eyes closed and think you're asleep, But
what happens in the middle of the night and you
don't realize it. You stop breathing. And that's what apnea means.
Apnea is from the Greek language and it's NEA's breath.
A is no so no breath okay, So that's very detrimental.
And when you wake up, you wake up suddenly you
(05:54):
get that breath in you fall back to sleep. Now,
keep in mind, it takes a good fifteen twenty seconds
of consciousness to lay a memory, but you go back
to sleep pretty quick, so you don't remember it. And
so some people they have it don't even know it.
So when the symptoms come up, it's definitely something to
talk to your doctor about.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Learning This morning, we mentioned about a great local company.
But also a very important information this morning is we're chatting.
The voice you hear is Brian Hawk. He is the
owner of Fresh Air seapapp and supplies. All Right, So
as we kind of step away from your work and
find out a bit more about you, we're going to
find out how you kind of got into this line
of work. But you know, where are you from? Where'd
you go to high school? Tell us a little bit
(06:35):
about yourself certainly. So.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I was actually born in Dover. Dover, Ohio, so another
great area of Ohio. I just love this day. There's
so many nice places all around, and Dover is one
of them. When I was about three years old, we
moved up to Worcester. My dad's employment took him up
here and that's where we just stayed. My parents are
still in the same house that we moved into, so
it's really a great home base. And I went to
(07:00):
so I'm a trolley titan.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I've been there before.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay, good good, So K through twelve really good experience
there and from there then I went on to college.
I actually spent two years in California at college, and
I learned pretty quick. I don't care for southern California because.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Of living here.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I grew up around here. I love the country. I
love having all four seasons, and out there you only
have two seasons. You have summer and you have rain,
and so I just didn't enjoy it as much and
in big city. But anyway, I'm back home. And when
I got home, I went to the University of Backround
to finish out a degree there. Yes, yes, twice over
(07:37):
actually because I went there when I got back from California.
And when I got into business, I enjoyed what I
went into. However, the industry started going downhill, so it
was frustrating. But you know, I need to start doing
something else. And I've always been interested in the medical
field and just never really had a great chance to
get into it. So I thought, here's my opportunity. So
(07:57):
I started researching different areas, different specialties, and I kept
coming back to respiratory and I just it really clicked
for me. So I went into the University Vacro and
again got into respiratory school.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
There.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I got a bachelor's degree in science with respiratory. Loved it,
loved the education, love the field. It's fantastic, and I
just I'm so glad I got into it.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So how long have you been in this line of
work now?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So I've been in this since twenty ten, So for
fifteen years I've been as a respiratory therapist. I've been
doing this specifically working with respiratory sleep appena patients since
twenty eleven. Okay, So I got into one place where
we dealt with just ventilator patients. Loved that job, worked
with people for three months at a time to get
them off the ventilator, weaning people off the ventilator. Loved
(08:44):
that job. But for certain reasons, they had to close
the place down, which was it was sad. I didn't
want to see those people go, but they had to
go to another facility. So anyway, I at that time
was able to get a job at a local DMME company,
great place. Enjoyed it and got into some different areas
of respiratory. Had opportunities to go out into nursing homes
(09:05):
as well get to know even more people. But during
my time there, I had opportunity to get to know
that the doctors in the area, the nurses, the sleep labs,
and again it's just a great, great area to be
in with respiratory and in the process developed really good
relationships and as that moved along, that company had to close. So, boy,
(09:27):
there's a lot of people out here that need a
lot of help, and I didn't see that it was
getting filled. So when there's a need, people step in
and that's what I was doing, stepping in to fill
that need, and so I started this company. It's been
going really well.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah. I can tell you you're excited for the work
that you guys do love and you can really tell
as you're talking about it your smile. We're chatting this
morning for a few more minutes. Great conversation. Our featured
CEO this week, as we shine the spotlight on Brian Hawk,
who was the owner of Fresh Air Seapap and suppliespased
in Worcester, but they help people all over the region.
(09:58):
He mentioned Wayne County, but Dinah, Ashlynn, Richland Holmes County.
I think you mentioned as well, So a lot of
people across the region. Let's get back a little more
to your business. Roughly, how many people do you guys
have on staff right now?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Well, including me, there's five of.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Us and probably a busy place then.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right, Yeah, it's definitely busy.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
All right, great, well, you know, I forgot one more
thing I want to bring up. We didn't ask about family.
I know you mentioned mom and dad and things like that.
Don't know if you have kids anything like that. So
tell us a little more about Brian and the family.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay, certainly. So my wife and I we've been married
for over thirty years. Been great, love it and again
we've always lived in the Worcester area and we do
have one son. We adopted him from China. That was
a great experience and really love having him around. He's
actually deaf, but when we brought him home we were
able to get cochlear implants bilaterals both sides, so he
(10:47):
hears just fine. Normal twelve year old son. Listens when
he wants to, so he has a lot of energy,
loves to learn. It's just great having him. A very
active guy. So it's just the three of us as family.
We love to travel, we love doing things together and
really enjoy being out here in the country.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
All right, terrific Brian Hawk before we let them go,
owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. This is where
you know, on this program, I always bring this up.
What are you proud about? What kind of makes your
your company special as people hear about fresh air, seapap
and supplies, and we hear what you do, what you offer,
But what makes you unique, you know, share with us
(11:26):
a little bit certainly.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So one of the things that really is a big
part of me is I love to learn.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So I'm one of those people will as a family
go to a museum of any sort and we'll go
through the museum. We go in together, and my wife
and my son, they're all the way through it already,
and where's Dad.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Where's Dad?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, I'm back here reading all the plaques. I'm trying
to learn all these things, look at the displays because
I just love to learn. And that's one of the
things that I've incorporated into this business is my love
to learn. Others with us, we all love to learn things.
So learning is really important, which means I love to teach. Okay.
So to encourage people to keep them on board to
(12:09):
help them keep good health is really important to me.
So encouragement education huge huge with us. Whether you've been
at this for two weeks or we've been at it
for twenty years. And we do have people that have
been on sleep Appiam machines for twenty years. Love to
keep working with them and keep them going because we
see the results. We see the effects for people improved health,
(12:32):
reduced stress on the heart, which goes a long way,
reducing strokes and heart attacks. Who needs either one of those.
And it goes a lot further too, hypertension, all kinds
of coronary diseases, congest of, heart failure, even high cholesterol,
sleep avenue, it plays into that. And it's not just
things with the heart either. Studies have shown over the
years it plays into asthma issues, type two diabetes, our weight,
(12:56):
our mood disorders, cognitive impairment. All these things play into
and it's just amazing what poor sleep will do to
a person. So to help someone have better sleep goes
a long way to helping people.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, you talk about how important your health is, taking
care of yourself. You mentioned all the great thing you
guys do. The other thing you brought up too. I
find it interesting and I've heard this, you know, chatting
with so many people. You think about it as a kid,
you're going to school and you learn, but as you
become an adult, you want to continue to learn. You
mention how important that is. That that that's a very
important thing whatever line of work you're in, you know,
in your life, but continuing to learn right.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yes, and it's not just books or reading something in
a museum. It's listening to other people. And that's a
big thing as well. As I always like to encourage
the staff listen to people. They might you know, talk
and talk and talk about things, but listen to them
because there's there's always little nuggets in what they say
that we can take and understand them better because that
way we can help him better, Brian.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Before I let you go, one final thing Brian Hawk again.
He is the owner of Fresh Air seepap and Supplies
are featured CEO this week. If somebody wants to get
in contact with your company, that they want to learn more,
that they want to make an order, that they want
to chat with somebody and they're hearing you this morning, boy,
I want to talk to Brian. How do they reach out?
What's the best way to do that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, certainly the easiest way to get a hold of
us directly is just to give us a call. Always
encourage a phone call. And our phone number is three
three zero six oh one nineteen ninety one through three
OHO six oh one nineteen ninety one. You can also
get ahold of us through our website at fresh aircpap
dot com. And on that website you can scroll down
(14:33):
and there's a contact part that you can just type
in your name, phone number, email address and I'll come
right into us and we can get a hold of
you that way.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And you mentioned fresh aircpap dot com. It is an
air with an E. Correct, Yes, sir correct. I want
to make sure people where that you google that they'll
be able to find your website. And in terms of
hours for the store.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Sure, So we are closed on the weekends. However, knowing
that most people work eight to five, I get it.
We are open eight to five, but on Tuesdays we're
open until seven, and that's been a great plus for
a lot of people. They can just stop in after work,
know that we're there and come right in.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Did I miss anything that you want to share this morning?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I may have missed mentioning that we like to work
with people one on one. So when you come in,
you come in with one of us and we sit
down with you and we work with you and when
we get someone established. It's not uncommon the fact is
typical that we take an hour or more to go
over just equipment, fit you with a mask, make sure
you understand what's going on and how you can really
(15:34):
get into this and not just fumble around and end
up giving up. Because that's again that's not good. That's
not good.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So we stick with you.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We don't just send you home with it and say ye,
good luck, cabin, nice life. We follow up, We call
you and we want to see how are you doing,
what kind of complications are you having? Do you need
a different mask, because there's We have a thirty day
comfort guarantee with all of our masks too, so no
cost to anyone. Come in, get switched out if we
need to.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, you can tell well that you guys care, you
love your customers. So terrific this morning and again we
are chatting with Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air CEAPAP
and Supplies, again our featured CEO this week. Great to
learn your story. Thank you for coming in. We wish
you guys continued success.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Well, thank you so much for having me in.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
The CEO you should know shares the background and vision
of area leaders. Hi.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm Aaron Bates, CEO of Wickhaman Hess CPAs and financial advisors,
helping you plan, grow and thrive in your business and
in life.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
We are excited to highlight dynamic CEOs from midd Ohio.
Visit us at whitcomb dot com
CEOs you should know here from local leaders in the community.
Made possible by Witcom and hess CPAs and Financial Advisors.
Our guest this morning is we are featuring this week
Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. I
know we've heard that name here locally and we're excited
(00:21):
to shine the spotlight on another great local business. Brian.
Good morning and thank you for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Aaron, thanks for having me in.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, terrific. So I've heard about your company and maybe
people have heard maybe some commercials on the air and
things like that, but this is where we kind of
shine the spotlight. Let you kind of tell the story.
So if somebody is just moved kind of to the area,
they're hearing, Hey, I've heard of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies.
I don't really know what all they do kind of
share with.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Us this month most certainly indeed. So what we do
is we are classified as a Durable Medical Equipment Company DME,
as we say, and most of those companies they are
a full service company, which is great to have around.
But what we do is we focus on just sleep apnea.
We provide the equipment, we provide the training, the teaching,
(01:08):
the ongoing education and encouragement, and also supplies. We like
to keep everything in house so that when you come
in you need something, we have it on hand, and
when you go out the door, you have what you need.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Now, if somebody is not familiar with sleep apna, could
you explain a little bit there.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure can.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sleep apnea is, as I've heard one doctor explain, it's
sleep choking another word for it. And what happens is
your airway, your upper airway, so up in the top
part of your throat area that gets closed off and
when that's closed you can't bring air in and air
cannot come out. So what we're doing is something non invasive,
and we're providing in air pressure that keeps the airway open.
(01:49):
So that's really all it is in a nutshell, sleep apnea.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And when you talk about supplies, there's different things that
probably you know, just like everything you need, right, certain
things last for so long you got to replace that.
Talk about supplies certainly, So supplies we're talking about you
have to wear a mask to do this to get
the air pressure in and keep it open, keep your
airway open.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So when you have a mask on, you're going to
have a cushion. That's what forms the seal between the
mask and your skin to keep that pressure going. So
you have a cushion on your mask. You have filters
air filters for your machine, just like you'd have on
a car. We have it on the machine. There's also
a tube that comes from your CEPAT machine up to
(02:30):
your mask that brings the therapy up to you. So
there's different components that need to be replaced on a
regular basis. Sometimes it's a thing that wears out, the
filter gets dirty, and then there's also parts that quite frankly,
I'll be honest with everybody, is that there are parts
that mechanically speaking last for.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Quite a while.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
However, they're very difficult to clean, I mean truly keep
them clean. So for hygienic reasons, there are some components
that need to be replaced periodically.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Great to learn this morning about a great local com company.
We are chatting with Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air
SEATPAP and Supplies. So how long have you been in operation?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So with this business, we've been in operation now for
nine years.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Where are you based out of.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We are in Worcester on the North End. We are
actually right on Cleveland Road, which can also be referred
to as State Route three one and the same. A
lot of people in the area, especially in the Wayne
County area, they're very familiar with a restaurant called the
Greenley Restaurant, so we are literally right beside them, just
on the south side of it. There's a brown brick
building there, very nice facility. We just moved in to
(03:36):
that one and it's really a nice facility, great parking.
I'm really happy to be there now.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Share with us. You're based in Worcester, but you help
people all over the local area. Quit do many many counties.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yes, so we are like you said, we're based in Worcester,
so right in the middle of Wayne County. We also
serve people down in Holmes County up into Madina County,
and also we have quite a few people coming over
from the Ashland and Richmond County areas, so very happy
to serve them. Great people to work with. It just
seems like to be one big community, great people, we
(04:09):
love our patients.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Awesome. Great to hear again from Brian Hawk this morning,
owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. These are a
featured CEO this week. As we shine a spotlight locally.
Now you talked about supplies and things like that. Do
they have to order in advance before they come? I'm
assuming they go online. I mean, how does all of
it work in terms of getting supplies.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Well, both of those scenarios work just fine. They're able
to call ahead and mention i'd like to come in.
Sometimes people know the exact day. Some people say sometime
this week, I'd like to come in. That's not a problem.
What we'll do is we'll get everything ready for you.
We put it into a little area that we can
have it ready so that when you stop in, pull
it out, you can sign for things and head out
the door. But what we like to encourage people to
(04:51):
do is come in, whether you call ahead, whether you
just stop in. Like I said, we have supplies on hand,
so you can stop in.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So it takes next a minute or two, no problem
on our end, get everything together and you're good to go.
But we love to have people in. It just gives
us that time, that FaceTime, that literal face time where
we can actually talk with people and just kind of
see how things are going for you. Just that two
minutes of time makes a big difference in helping keeping
that relationship and your health going.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Your health is so so important, as you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And sleep plays a big part.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah part. You know. I've talked with with doctors and things,
and they talk about, you know, just not getting you know,
the proper amount of sleep. Sometimes, you know, a few
days in a row you just don't feel right.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You don't know, that's so true, yes, yes, And you
can have your eyes closed and think you're asleep, But
what happens in the middle of the night and you
don't realize it. You stop breathing. And that's what apnea means.
Apnea is from the Greek language and it's NEA's breath.
A is no so no breath okay, So that's very detrimental.
And when you wake up, you wake up suddenly you
(05:54):
get that breath in you fall back to sleep. Now,
keep in mind, it takes a good fifteen twenty seconds
of consciousness to lay a memory, but you go back
to sleep pretty quick, so you don't remember it. And
so some people they have it don't even know it.
So when the symptoms come up, it's definitely something to
talk to your doctor about.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Learning This morning, we mentioned about a great local company.
But also a very important information this morning is we're chatting.
The voice you hear is Brian Hawk. He is the
owner of Fresh Air seapapp and supplies. All Right, So
as we kind of step away from your work and
find out a bit more about you, we're going to
find out how you kind of got into this line
of work. But you know, where are you from? Where'd
you go to high school? Tell us a little bit
(06:35):
about yourself certainly. So.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I was actually born in Dover. Dover, Ohio, so another
great area of Ohio. I just love this day. There's
so many nice places all around, and Dover is one
of them. When I was about three years old, we
moved up to Worcester. My dad's employment took him up
here and that's where we just stayed. My parents are
still in the same house that we moved into, so
it's really a great home base. And I went to
(07:00):
so I'm a trolley titan.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I've been there before.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay, good good, So K through twelve really good experience
there and from there then I went on to college.
I actually spent two years in California at college, and
I learned pretty quick. I don't care for southern California because.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Of living here.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I grew up around here. I love the country. I
love having all four seasons, and out there you only
have two seasons. You have summer and you have rain,
and so I just didn't enjoy it as much and
in big city. But anyway, I'm back home. And when
I got home, I went to the University of Backround
to finish out a degree there. Yes, yes, twice over
(07:37):
actually because I went there when I got back from California.
And when I got into business, I enjoyed what I
went into. However, the industry started going downhill, so it
was frustrating. But you know, I need to start doing
something else. And I've always been interested in the medical
field and just never really had a great chance to
get into it. So I thought, here's my opportunity. So
(07:57):
I started researching different areas, different specialties, and I kept
coming back to respiratory and I just it really clicked
for me. So I went into the University Vacro and
again got into respiratory school.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
There.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I got a bachelor's degree in science with respiratory. Loved it,
loved the education, love the field. It's fantastic, and I
just I'm so glad I got into it.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So how long have you been in this line of
work now?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So I've been in this since twenty ten, So for
fifteen years I've been as a respiratory therapist. I've been
doing this specifically working with respiratory sleep appena patients since
twenty eleven. Okay, So I got into one place where
we dealt with just ventilator patients. Loved that job, worked
with people for three months at a time to get
them off the ventilator, weaning people off the ventilator. Loved
(08:44):
that job. But for certain reasons, they had to close
the place down, which was it was sad. I didn't
want to see those people go, but they had to
go to another facility. So anyway, I at that time
was able to get a job at a local DMME company,
great place. Enjoyed it and got into some different areas
of respiratory. Had opportunities to go out into nursing homes
(09:05):
as well get to know even more people. But during
my time there, I had opportunity to get to know
that the doctors in the area, the nurses, the sleep labs,
and again it's just a great, great area to be
in with respiratory and in the process developed really good
relationships and as that moved along, that company had to close. So, boy,
(09:27):
there's a lot of people out here that need a
lot of help, and I didn't see that it was
getting filled. So when there's a need, people step in
and that's what I was doing, stepping in to fill
that need, and so I started this company. It's been
going really well.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah. I can tell you you're excited for the work
that you guys do love and you can really tell
as you're talking about it your smile. We're chatting this
morning for a few more minutes. Great conversation. Our featured
CEO this week, as we shine the spotlight on Brian Hawk,
who was the owner of Fresh Air Seapap and suppliespased
in Worcester, but they help people all over the region.
(09:58):
He mentioned Wayne County, but Dinah, Ashlynn, Richland Holmes County.
I think you mentioned as well, So a lot of
people across the region. Let's get back a little more
to your business. Roughly, how many people do you guys
have on staff right now?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Well, including me, there's five of.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Us and probably a busy place then.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right, Yeah, it's definitely busy.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
All right, great, well, you know, I forgot one more
thing I want to bring up. We didn't ask about family.
I know you mentioned mom and dad and things like that.
Don't know if you have kids anything like that. So
tell us a little more about Brian and the family.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Okay, certainly. So my wife and I we've been married
for over thirty years. Been great, love it and again
we've always lived in the Worcester area and we do
have one son. We adopted him from China. That was
a great experience and really love having him around. He's
actually deaf, but when we brought him home we were
able to get cochlear implants bilaterals both sides, so he
(10:47):
hears just fine. Normal twelve year old son. Listens when
he wants to, so he has a lot of energy,
loves to learn. It's just great having him. A very
active guy. So it's just the three of us as family.
We love to travel, we love doing things together and
really enjoy being out here in the country.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
All right, terrific Brian Hawk before we let them go,
owner of Fresh Air, seapap and Supplies. This is where
you know, on this program, I always bring this up.
What are you proud about? What kind of makes your
your company special as people hear about fresh air, seapap
and supplies, and we hear what you do, what you offer,
But what makes you unique, you know, share with us
(11:26):
a little bit certainly.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So one of the things that really is a big
part of me is I love to learn.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
So I'm one of those people will as a family
go to a museum of any sort and we'll go
through the museum. We go in together, and my wife
and my son, they're all the way through it already,
and where's Dad.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Where's Dad?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, I'm back here reading all the plaques. I'm trying
to learn all these things, look at the displays because
I just love to learn. And that's one of the
things that I've incorporated into this business is my love
to learn. Others with us, we all love to learn things.
So learning is really important, which means I love to teach. Okay.
So to encourage people to keep them on board to
(12:09):
help them keep good health is really important to me.
So encouragement education huge huge with us. Whether you've been
at this for two weeks or we've been at it
for twenty years. And we do have people that have
been on sleep Appiam machines for twenty years. Love to
keep working with them and keep them going because we
see the results. We see the effects for people improved health,
(12:32):
reduced stress on the heart, which goes a long way,
reducing strokes and heart attacks. Who needs either one of those.
And it goes a lot further too, hypertension, all kinds
of coronary diseases, congest of, heart failure, even high cholesterol,
sleep avenue, it plays into that. And it's not just
things with the heart either. Studies have shown over the
years it plays into asthma issues, type two diabetes, our weight,
(12:56):
our mood disorders, cognitive impairment. All these things play into
and it's just amazing what poor sleep will do to
a person. So to help someone have better sleep goes
a long way to helping people.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, you talk about how important your health is, taking
care of yourself. You mentioned all the great thing you
guys do. The other thing you brought up too. I
find it interesting and I've heard this, you know, chatting
with so many people. You think about it as a kid,
you're going to school and you learn, but as you
become an adult, you want to continue to learn. You
mention how important that is. That that that's a very
important thing whatever line of work you're in, you know,
in your life, but continuing to learn right.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yes, and it's not just books or reading something in
a museum. It's listening to other people. And that's a
big thing as well. As I always like to encourage
the staff listen to people. They might you know, talk
and talk and talk about things, but listen to them
because there's there's always little nuggets in what they say
that we can take and understand them better because that
way we can help him better, Brian.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Before I let you go, one final thing Brian Hawk again.
He is the owner of Fresh Air seepap and Supplies
are featured CEO this week. If somebody wants to get
in contact with your company, that they want to learn more,
that they want to make an order, that they want
to chat with somebody and they're hearing you this morning, boy,
I want to talk to Brian. How do they reach out?
What's the best way to do that?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, certainly the easiest way to get a hold of
us directly is just to give us a call. Always
encourage a phone call. And our phone number is three
three zero six oh one nineteen ninety one through three
OHO six oh one nineteen ninety one. You can also
get ahold of us through our website at fresh aircpap
dot com. And on that website you can scroll down
(14:33):
and there's a contact part that you can just type
in your name, phone number, email address and I'll come
right into us and we can get a hold of
you that way.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And you mentioned fresh aircpap dot com. It is an
air with an E. Correct, Yes, sir correct. I want
to make sure people where that you google that they'll
be able to find your website. And in terms of
hours for the store.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Sure, So we are closed on the weekends. However, knowing
that most people work eight to five, I get it.
We are open eight to five, but on Tuesdays we're
open until seven, and that's been a great plus for
a lot of people. They can just stop in after work,
know that we're there and come right in.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Did I miss anything that you want to share this morning?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I may have missed mentioning that we like to work
with people one on one. So when you come in,
you come in with one of us and we sit
down with you and we work with you and when
we get someone established. It's not uncommon the fact is
typical that we take an hour or more to go
over just equipment, fit you with a mask, make sure
you understand what's going on and how you can really
(15:34):
get into this and not just fumble around and end
up giving up. Because that's again that's not good. That's
not good.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So we stick with you.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We don't just send you home with it and say ye,
good luck, cabin, nice life. We follow up, We call
you and we want to see how are you doing,
what kind of complications are you having? Do you need
a different mask, because there's We have a thirty day
comfort guarantee with all of our masks too, so no
cost to anyone. Come in, get switched out if we
need to.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, you can tell well that you guys care, you
love your customers. So terrific this morning and again we
are chatting with Brian Hawk, owner of Fresh Air CEAPAP
and Supplies, again our featured CEO this week. Great to
learn your story. Thank you for coming in. We wish
you guys continued success.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Well, thank you so much for having me in.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
The CEO you should know shares the background and vision
of area leaders. Hi.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm Aaron Bates, CEO of Wickhaman Hess CPAs and financial advisors,
helping you plan, grow and thrive in your business and
in life.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
We are excited to highlight dynamic CEOs from midd Ohio.
Visit us at whitcomb dot com
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