September 10, 2024 • 45 mins
Ever wondered how a deep connection with animals can translate into exceptional leadership and technological innovation? In this episode, we welcome Jeff Letendre, CEO and founder of Virtual Front Desk, who takes us on a remarkable journey from an animal advocate to a tech entrepreneur revolutionizing patient care. Jeff shares his unforgettable experience rescuing a fawn named Fairy, revealing the profound ties we can form with animals and how these relationships shape our empathy and understanding of the world. His insightful stories provide a unique perspective on leadership, connection, and human interaction.
Key Takeaways:
- The Power of Empathy in Leadership
- Evolution of Virtual Front Desks
- Blending Technology with Human Connection
- Managing Remote Teams for Success
- Inspiration from Industry Giants
- Community Building in Healthcare
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey rock stars.
Today we are super excited tohave our guest, jeff Latondra
from Virtual Front Desk.
He's the CEO and founder ofthis amazing software that
allows us to virtually bring inhuman beings to check in
individuals at our front desk.
But that's not the main focus.
You are going to learn allabout his business, the pros,
the cons, all that great stuff,but I really want you to focus
on Jeff's story.
(00:25):
Right out of the gate, he has anunusual talent of connection
and this is partly where andyou'll see in the podcast
episode how he's gone from beingthis almost savant level
connector with animals, with anInstagram following over a
hundred thousands of people whowatch him as he nurtures animals
back to life and helps themlive in his home in Canada.
(00:46):
But he's also helping peopleconnect virtually so that we can
improve efficiency, save moneybut actually improve the patient
care experience.
As we transition to thistechnological age of virtual
front desks.
We're going to go through allsorts of leadership concepts.
He has unbelievablerecommendations at the end of
the podcast for books and someother leadership concepts.
(01:06):
I'm so excited for you tolisten to Jeff.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I have like a hundred thousand something followers,
so it's fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is so cool.
Okay, so I got to follow youraccount.
So is it just your name?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, it's just my name.
I don't really talk.
It's my personal account.
I talk about a lot of stufflike fitness veganism, but it's
mainly animals because that'swhat really people are into, so
it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You've inspired me, since.
We've obviously got such aspiritual connection that I've
decided I want to get into muchbetter shape after talking to
you a lot more too, so I willdefinitely follow your Instagram
for sure.
Just how do I pronounce yourlast name, by the way?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Le Tendre.
Le Tendre, I mean you said likeLe Tendre, probably in English.
I have raccoons and a deerright now.
So the deer is man.
It's unbelievable.
I don't know how lucky I got,but I'm on the phone right there
on my terrace and I see thisphone coming out of the woods
(02:08):
alone.
So I say, oh, the mother mustbe near somehow somewhere.
But it's still cute.
You know, it's still rare.
So I hang up with my friend andI try to call this thing, I try
to get closer, and she just ranaway in the woods.
I see her again the day afterand she's still alone.
And then this time I retake mytime, my dogs are inside, I get
(02:32):
to get a little closer to me.
She looks at me and she seems abit lost and there's no mom.
So and I, we I live near ahighway and we often kill deer,
you know, like roadkill.
Oh yeah, by accident, sure.
So I was like shit, sheprobably lost her mom and she's
alone and she doesn't know whatto do.
I grabbed a bottle of milk withyou know, this was with
something to suck on it and Iattached it to the deer feeder,
(02:54):
like about like a meter high,and within no time that thing
went to, it started sucking themilk and she started drinking.
She was starving.
She must have been starving.
She must have smelled the milkand she started drinking.
She was starving, she must'vebeen starving.
She must've smelled the milkand said, hey, but it's like.
And the day after I did itagain, and within no times, I
took that bottle in my hand andshe went straight for it, even
(03:15):
though I was there, and shelooked at me in the eye and she
was like you're my daddy, that'sit, that's all.
And she never left me afterthat.
And now she's a full grownadult.
I see her every morning, everynight.
She sometimes walk into thehouse.
I take walk with her in thewoods.
She's completely free, she'salways been wild, but she's my
best friend from the forest andit's unbelievable.
(03:37):
Like this morning I wasbrushing her.
Like every morning she comesfor a brush, so she likes to be
brushed.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I brush her entire body, the neck, the face.
I go under her belly, the legsshe loves it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's how I start my day.
Basically, you have a pet deer,I have a pet wild deer.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's the thing she's wild yeah, you don't have
any guardrails keeping her in oranything like that.
She can leave whenever shewants.
She can go wherever she wants.
Yeah, is she out like she wants?
Does she disappear for periodsof time or does she come back?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, I didn't see her the entire winter because
she actually met a group of deer.
She met a mother and two youngslast fall.
That was my idea.
I said I would try to have hermeet other deer so they would
bump together and form a family,and that's what happened last
fall and they vanished for mostof the winter, funny enough.
And in the spring I even saw acarcass of a young deer next to
(04:30):
my land here and it was devoured, so only like legs were left
and bits of skin.
So I thought I was sad thatmust have been Fairy.
Her name is Fairy.
Fairy is the name of the fawn,yeah, fairy.
But then, late Aprilil, sheshows up out of nowhere, super
(04:50):
thin but alive and well, and Iwas like I cannot believe it and
I started feeding her again,started brushing her and she was
losing like her winter coat,and she turned into a beautiful
adult.
Now it's like she has this goldcolor on her coat.
It's beautiful.
You have no idea theintelligence, the emotion of
(05:12):
these animals.
No wonder Disney made them astar.
They have those big eyes butthey're so smart and calm and
majestic and they're very, veryspecial.
Raccoons are special, they'reamazing, but they're more like a
breed within a cat and a dog.
We're more used to it.
But deer man.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I had no idea that deer were like that.
It's so interesting that,because I can hear that you
actually have a relationshipwith this deer, like it goes
both ways and it's nonverbal,obviously, but it's one of those
where there's a parentalconnection between you and this
fawn.
Yeah and man, that isunbelievable.
So how long have you beentaking care of this?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
fairy.
It's a full year, almost a halfnow, because I found her last
spring.
I mean, it was late spring whenI found her and she's still
here today, so it's over a yearnow.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So this animal passion that you have, which has
driven this huge following onsocial media, with 100,000 plus
followers, like where did thatbegin?
Where does that originate from?
Jeff?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
To be honest with you .
I started with raccoons.
A friend of mine called me saidhey, we found those raccoons.
I know, jeff, you love animalsbecause I've been vegan forever.
So I was in love with animalssince 98.
So over 25 years now.
And she said, jeff, you live innature, you're good with
animals, you have two dogs.
(06:37):
Would you take care of theseraccoons?
I'm sure you could do it.
They were tiny, three and ahalf week old.
They're still blind.
You have to give them milk andyou have to become their parents
.
So I was like give me a day,let me think about it, because I
know it's a big responsibility.
But I couldn't say no.
The day after I said, okay,bring them in.
And uh, so that's how.
That's how it started.
On the first year I didn't knowwhat I was doing, but I built
(06:59):
them a big enclosure outside andI started filming what I was
doing and people would call thatthis is so cool.
And it's only about six, sevenmonths down the line that all of
a sudden the account went viral.
So I wasn't expecting this atall.
It went really viral becausethen I had the coons, but then I
had the deer coming up into thepicture.
(07:21):
So now I was mixing videos of ayoung fawn and who doesn't like
a young fawn drinking a bottle?
I mean it's very weird, it'svery unusual.
And all these animals are wildnow, like the raccoons.
They don't stay with me verylong.
They stay with me like three,four months and I release them
and then they're free on theland.
I see them at night.
Sometimes they visit, like it'sall very wild, wild and free
(07:47):
and I think that's what peoplelike.
And I always take the chance totalk about the food.
You know, like, if you loveanimals, don't torture them or
eat them or murder them.
You know, if you love them, youlove them all, because and the
account shows that wild animalare behaving exactly like a dog
or a cat.
There's absolutely nodifference.
And fairy, even you would say,oh, they're just deer.
You know they're this, they'rethat because we put tag on them.
(08:09):
But at the end of the day, whatI've learned, I mean I knew
this, but now it's firsthandwith my experience with them
they are like us, they are likeour dog, our cats.
It's just us giving them a tag.
You know, oh, this is a wildanimal, we can shoot them.
But if you were close to fairy.
If you get a chance to brushher, to see, to speak to her,
(08:32):
how could you ever shoot ananimal like that, unless you
really have to?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You have a spiritual connection, though I think it's
what most people don't have isthat exposure.
Recently I took my family toAfrica and we had this
opportunity to get exposed to acompletely different culture.
And we're big travelers We'vebeen to 34 countries but this
was a different experiencebecause we were really focusing
on poverty and it was sodifferent I think just the
(08:57):
reason I'm bringing this upbecause it parallels what you're
saying when you and Fawnconnected, you and Ferry the
Fawn connected and youunderstood, really understood
her and you could see her.
Like you talk about the eyes,you see her, which is not just a
human thing, it's a livingthing to need to be seen and
heard in our own way.
(09:18):
Right, and when we wereoverseas, we were over there to
be like you know, these saviorscoming around and giving money
and helping them out, but whatwe, what ended up happening, was
this organization was reallyagainst that.
They're like no, we want toempower them.
You go over there to be astudent kind of like how you
were with with this fawn, whereyou were serving them.
You were serving her in a verylike you're.
(09:42):
You know, very, here's thebottle, walk away, she takes it
and then, over time.
There's a connection there.
That's what we did.
We were over there, we didbring some money and some things
, but we were learning how tosweep their dirt floors with
leaves from a tree and they wereteaching us how to make rice
from scratch, and they wereteaching us just all these
things and it was empoweringthem because they were the
(10:02):
teachers.
We were the students and I'm notkidding you, man.
It changed my heart completelyand how I see poverty, because
what I've realized in thatlesson is that there's different
degrees of poverty and in myworld we think of them not
having materialism as beingcompletely poor, but they have
levels of abundance that I'mpoor in Emotionally, with social
(10:26):
media and different levels.
They don't have that.
So, going back to Fawn, I thinkthe reason I say all this is
because when we connected tothat world, it changed our lens
completely.
And what you're saying is, whenyou're connected to this deer,
you see animals differently, youunderstand their existence, and
it changes just how you operate, I mean it's beautiful, we're
(10:49):
on the same page.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's allowing yourself to take off your filter
when you look at an animal orwhen you look at a poor people,
like you were just saying, andyou just look at them from the
being they are, without whatsociety made you think they are.
You know like you brush all ofthis aside, you take a moment,
(11:12):
you take a few seconds, you justlook at that being and then you
realize, oh my God, they are aspiritual being just like us.
They may not have a religion,but it's a being in a physical
body, experimenting earth theexact way that I do in different
circumstances.
We're not smarter than them, wejust have different physical
(11:33):
tools and they're doing verywell with what they have.
Think that these beings theyraise their kids, they mate,
they find their food, they healthemselves.
They have to understand nowmodern human behavior.
How does that work?
They have to weather, gothrough winter, they have to go
through hunting, they have foes,they have friends, they have
(11:54):
families and it works.
And they don't have insurance,they don't have police to help
them, they don't have hospital.
If they go sick, they have tosurvive by their own.
So they are extremelyintelligent in their own ways.
It's just that we sometimesthink that we're more
intelligent than them because webuild planes.
Okay.
But if I was to ask you, will,can you build a plane?
(12:15):
You can't.
It's just that it's build upinformation from previous humans
put together.
But then I'm going to ask you,can you fly on your own?
Then the bird will say, well,you're stupid, you can't fly,
you need to build a machine.
I can fly.
A bear can smell something twomiles away, a fish can swim on
the water and breathe.
(12:35):
So we all have our own sets oftools.
And if you, if you go, if youput your ego aside and you look
at them, it's you realize howwonderful these little earthy
cousins are and they deserve ourrespect and, if anything, our
protection.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So I experienced you from that place of of being a
guy who's just very aware ofbeing present and connecting.
Like you know, as I've gottento know you, I see you as this
individual who's.
I'm not surprised by this.
I mean it is a little bit cooland unique in the sense that,
like you have this followingbased on this unique skill that
you have, because I think it'salso a skill to connect with
(13:13):
animals.
But I also know from havinginteracted with you that, like
that is what you also bring toyour company as well.
You bring that ability toconnect, which is kind of
interesting because what you doprofessionally is about
connection as well.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know what I mean.
Never seen it this way.
Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, so just kind of like for the audience, tell
people what you do and why thatcomment is so relative.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, basically what I do I'm the CEO of uh, that's
what I do now is the ceo of avirtual friend s, which is a
video reception app.
You could call it a visitormanagement app, but I I like
video reception app sounds,sounds more, more like it
because we are centered aroundthe human experience, like the
human interaction, the videocall.
Uh, basically, this app startedoff if you're curious actually
to know how I started the app,absolutely Back at some point.
(14:05):
My first business was avacation rental business, hotel
business, and I was runningthese Airbnbs in Montreal like a
hotel and that was the name ofthe company, like a hotel
actually.
And at at some point we startedhaving these bad guests, like
street gang that would rent ourapartment.
When I got to 10, 15 apartments,I started getting trashed.
(14:25):
People would rent the apartmentthrough airbnb.
They would come in there, do aparty and they would destroy the
apartment like destroy wheel.
They would break, tear down thefridge door, rip open the sofas
like break all the frames,steal, jump on the sound system.
Don't steal anything, they justdestroy the place.
Oh man, happens like ithappened twice back to back.
(14:50):
So I was like I'm screwed.
How am I ever going to gothrough it.
I only have 15 apartments and Iwas always ambitious to have
like 500 one day, because I wantto scale this business.
And I was looking at theHiltons, the hotels, and I was
like how come they have 500rooms?
They don't get that problem andI do with only 15.
(15:10):
And it clicked that well, theyhave a reception, jeff,
everybody who rents a room atthe Hilton.
They have to provide the ID,they have to provide a credit
card that will match their name,so they cannot just vanish.
You know, if they breaksomething they'll be caught.
So then I said, okay, how can Iimplement a reception in my
(15:30):
Airbnb business?
And that's where the virtualfront desk ID came.
And I believe and that was backin 2015, that I was the first in
the world to use a video callto do check-ins.
So I looked online.
I didn't see anything like thatand I thought about okay, now
you have those touchscreenall-in-one computer a bit like
(15:51):
our iPhone.
What if I was putting this onthe corridor of my buildings?
You would click the check-in,it would call my receptionist
that, working from home, I wouldask for an ID.
Look at their face, make surethe credit card matches what I
have in the system.
And if it didn't, and if theywere telling me, oh, I'm just
coming in to grab the key for myfriend, I'll say no, no, no, no
.
When I will see your friend,with the same name as the
(16:14):
reservation and the ID, I willlet you in.
I will give you the code to theapartment.
Right now, no one's gettinginto the apartment and it
stopped all my problem in one go.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So you did it, you put those videos up.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, I hired a bunch of students and
say, hey, this is the idea thatI have.
So it was internal, it was mylittle trade secret for, like a
hotel, none of my competitorsunderstood how I could grow so
fast and then owners wouldthrowing keys at me and at the
end I was managing like 125doors.
So it was a good business.
(16:46):
And after 25,000 chicken andunfortunately, I told myself I
have to do an app with this andgo public and, like a hotel,
unfortunately the city here,montreal, they changed the law
and even though I had a permitfor all the doors that I was
doing, they taxed me like crazy,like if I was a hotel anyway.
(17:07):
They did everything they couldto close us down and I had to
shut down this company.
But then I say, okay, no problem, it happens.
You, you know everythinghappens for a reason, but you
have to put virtual for desk onthe market.
Then, and then I went with uh,I found another investor to
start this company with.
Then we started catering forhotels and airbnbs, and here we
(17:30):
are today, you know.
And uh, we were hit by thepandemic, lost all of our
revenue in one go, and then Isat down and I said okay, with
whatever little money we haveleft, we have to turn this over.
You know, we have to rebrandand we have to start offering
our services to medical clinics,to lawyers offices, to
government office, becauseeverybody's afraid of touching
(17:50):
anybody and everybody's afraidof someone coughing.
So our video is virus, and youknow.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
COVID.
You're not going to get COVIDfor the TV screen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, our video is virus and you know you're not
gonna get covered for the tvscreen, yeah, so so I think
that's our chance, actually,guys.
So we managed to flip thingover and, uh, that's that's
where we at really today.
So hotels and airbnbs are onlylike five percent of our
businesses now.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
It's it's a very small percentage now yeah, you
know it's interesting becauseyou've gone really big into the
healthcare space and reallyhelping entrepreneurs solve that
problem.
I think for a lot of you know,for me, pt practices in
particular is where I was raisedand where I speak to mostly,
and I think the biggest concernpeople face in doing that goes
(18:33):
back to our initial discussionabout the deer Is that there's
something magical when you seesomeone in the eyes and you can
connect with them, and I thinkthat's what a lot of us.
For me, this concept back whenI had my handful of locations in
Arizona, would have been veryscary because I would have been
worried about losing thatconnection, because that is a
huge part of the patientexperience and, like, obviously,
(18:55):
in the Airbnb space that stillis valuable, as as other spaces.
But why do you think it'sgrowing in the healthcare space
and speak maybe into thatconcern of, like you know,
losing the potential of losingconnection because they're not
physically there?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
There's a bunch of reasons why I think it's
becoming very popular,especially in health clinics,
including, you know,physiotherapy and, let's face it
, you know staffing.
It seems that staffing thoseclinics with front office staff
is not easy, so that's oneconcern for sure, it's costly.
And also I think that you workwith a good percentage of people
(19:31):
that are a bit older, maybe anolder generation, and they're
not so friendly with technologyand pressing button and choosing
like options.
So they like things to besimple and nothing like hey,
hello, how are you With a smile?
How can I help you today?
What's your name?
You know?
Boom, it's done.
I think that's why virtualfriend desk is very I think it's
(19:54):
an efficient tool because itkind of blends the two, where it
allows you to find staffanywhere you want, because you
don't have to staff locally.
You still provide that humanexperience.
And actually, if you havecustomers that are used to the
system, you can use QR codes,you can use options, but you
always have that option.
That's always what I propose.
My clients have an option callreceptionist or call for help.
(20:17):
A big button call for help, abig button calls for help.
So if you go with the buttons,great, but if you want to speak
to someone, call for help.
Someone shows on the screensmiling.
There you go.
So I think it's the blend ofthe two that makes it very
efficient.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I am shocked at how well it works to have a virtual
front desk because I thought,especially with older patients
in rural settings, this would bea problem.
But what I'm finding is thatmany people what they want is
efficiency and they still needthat connection, and it's all
based on connection.
Again, this is a theme that'sin your life, jeff, from how you
connect.
I would say if there's a themefrom the little that I've known
(20:54):
you over the past few weeks, isthat you are a connector in
unpredictable ways.
Like you wouldn't predict thatyou'd connect with animals or
with people, creating atechnology to create a
connection between people overtechnology, the way that you do
but that's what you're about andthat's what happens here is
that when you have the rightperson on the other side of the
screen, it doesn't matter thatit's a screen.
(21:15):
What matters is that they canstill see you in the eyes side
of the screen.
It doesn't matter that it's ascreen.
What matters is that they canstill see you in the eyes and I
would tell you that, like for me, I love the idea that we can
leverage from a business modelbetter people, lower costs,
because you can spread them outdifferently.
There's all different solutionsthat exist out there.
So, yeah, man, I think that'sfantastic that you have built
that model out and seen thatsuccess.
(21:36):
And another thought that I justhad quickly is how you started.
The need for it to begin withwas more about protection, like
the Airbnb concept that youbuilt was more about like
protecting, connecting toprotect.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, and also efficiency and customer service,
because there was no receptionin any Airbnbs back in the days
and you know you go to rent anAirbnb.
Have you rented Airbnbs before?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I have, and I have a couple that I own.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Okay, that you own.
Okay, how often do youphysically meet your guests?
Never, there you go, and.
But Airbnb is all aboutconnecting to communities, you
know, but at the end of the day,the reality is that you never
meet with your host because yourhost is not there.
You may do it the first time,like your first official booking
.
You may want to be there, hey,welcome.
You're all excited, but after awhile say, hey, you know what,
(22:30):
here's the key, here's the code,here's the address, thank you,
bye.
But the virtual friend deskwere allowing us to really meet
those guests face to face, eachone of them, and they all loved
it.
And our review online on Airbnbwent up to the roof.
And on Bookingcom and Expediabecause we were the only one
doing that, yeah, and theyreally felt like they knew us.
(22:52):
And just going back to yourpoint about connection, it's
something that we brought to thetable.
Renting Airbnbs.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So the rock stars that are listening.
The thing that I want to pointout here is that it is way more
effective to have the rightperson virtually than an average
or poor person in person, andthat was my experience.
Owning a practice, jeff, isthat I had numerous practices.
I eventually learned anddeveloped this really difficult
way of having find great people.
(23:21):
I found great people, but itwasn't easy.
But up until then, I was hiringpeople who oftentimes made me
feel like they were doing me afavor by showing up.
And so, look, everyone in theworld can relate to the
experience of going into anoutpatient medical clinic,
whether it's PT or a doctor or asurgeon of orthopedics or
whatever.
You walk in and you're going tothis specialist who's going to
(23:42):
charge you maybe tens ofthousands of dollars for a
surgery, but the person at thefront desk acts like they're in
a drive-through at a fast foodchain, which and I'm not
knocking people who work atdrive-throughs, you know because
ultimately, I've had some greatexperiences but the experience,
the customer service, has to beelevated.
What would you say to peoplewho are like, yeah, but virtual
(24:05):
front desk is going to diminishthe customer service experience?
What would you say to that?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
To the contrary, I would say first of all, if you
have bad staff or poor staff,it's probably because you lack
the resources around In thelocal area.
Maybe you don't have enoughpeople available, so you have to
settle down for lesser qualitypeople.
Let's say but virtualfriendless will allow you to
(24:28):
source from anywhere in yourcountry.
Let's say that we stick to theStates, so you will get more CVs
, better quality CVs, and Iwould say that a lot of people
want to work from home becauseit's like a bonus.
You have maybe a single mom.
One week out of two she worksfrom home and then they will
love what they do because it'svery advantageous for them.
(24:50):
You can take the best becauseyour pool is much larger and if
you give them a hand, like, heylisten, I want to work a long
time with you, I want to provideyou with a good computer.
Well, I'm going to send you avery good quality camera, maybe
a second monitor.
So you have two monitors, onefor the EMR, the other one just
for virtual from there.
So when someone shows up at thescreen, it's like if they're
(25:10):
standing at the front of it withyou.
They have a good set ofheadphones, even a chair,
whatever, take care of yourstaff in the comfort of their
home.
They have a digital background.
Maybe you can get in a littlet-shirt representing your brand.
These guys, they will love whatthey do because they're working
from home and so it's great.
(25:33):
No traffic, they can take alittle pause.
There's no call, there'snotification.
They can go in the kitchen,make themselves a coffee or a
sandwich.
Oh, the computer rings, they goback to the computer.
So it's a good job to have, andI think this allows you guys to
create super receptionists thatwill stick to you and provide
an excellent service.
So no to the contrary, I thinkthis virtual friend desk can
(25:56):
definitely improve your customerservice.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Hey there, rock stars .
Are you sick and tired ofhiring expensive front office
staff to spend months trainingthem, only to find out that they
don't meet expectation or,worse, to have them quit on you,
leave you in the lurches, onlyto repeat the cycle?
Then welcome to VirtualRockstar, the only service
created by a private practiceowner for private practice
(26:22):
owners and leaders to help thembuild their dream teams.
Let us hire your next virtualrockstar for you overseas.
These virtual assistants willblow your mind.
Not only are they more talentedand committed, but they're a
lot more affordable and they cando all sorts of tasks, from
phone receptions, medicalbilling, patient scheduling,
insurance verification,marketing, payroll and more.
(26:43):
And the best part is Rockstars.
Not only are you going to savebetween $15,000 and $20,000 of
profit per hire per year, you'regoing to bring a family out of
poverty.
So stop tolerating less thanyou deserve and start building
your dream team with VirtualRockstar.
To learn more, email info atvirtualrockstarcom.
(27:03):
Again, that's info atvirtualrockstarcom.
Yeah, and statistics haveactually backed this up.
I was reading on LinkedIn.
I'm not going to try to quotethem because I'm going to
misrepresent them, but thegeneral message was very clear
that going virtual has actuallyincreased customer service
across the board.
For the very reason you said,it's flipping the script of how
(27:25):
we typically hire as medicalowners.
It's very different compared toother businesses because a
hotel owner doesn't identify asdoing hotel.
Like what do you do?
Oh, I'm a hotel provider.
It's like no, I own a hotelversus a physical therapist.
I am a physical therapist, sothey're so tied to the
(27:46):
production of what they're doing.
It immediately limits theirability to go out and hire
candidates.
And so this flips that script,because every owner I've ever
come across, even if they do itwell, struggles in hiring and
retaining talent.
So when we go virtual and we'reable to create a situation where
more people want it than thereare openings, then we can go
(28:08):
from being the seller to thebuyer and we can buy what we
want, which is like becauseeveryone wants to be a part of
that and we don't have to pay asmuch.
Like, all these problems startto minimize as we start to
improve and then, when thecustomer service improves,
everything else improves.
True statistic Every single oneof my clients who have worked
(28:28):
with a virtual solution and myvirtual assistants, every single
one of their percent of arrivalhas increased.
Oh, yeah, and we measure that,yeah.
So why do you think again maybethis is just beating a dead
horse, but why do you think thatis?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Again, I think it's difficult to find the right
staff to keep yourself, and I doa lot of demos every day with
physicians and they always say,oh my God, it's so difficult to
find people and she just delayedthis one and we have to train
(29:02):
them.
You know, it's a long time andthen they go and it's just.
It seems to be one of thebiggest pain and biggest
challenges in their clinics.
I don't know, because I'm not aphysician, but that's what I
hear from my clients.
So yeah, and the videotechnology has changed the way
we do business in so many ways.
It has improved the way we dobusiness.
Like, look at what we're doingnow.
Normally I would have had todrive, you know, go to you and
(29:23):
maybe film this and put this onanother kind of media, but now
we can use video call.
It's amazing.
I'm having so much fun doingthis.
Think about all the poorsalesmen in the past that have
to drive into their car to thenext meeting with a little
calendar and then meeting thisguy waiting in the waiting room,
meeting the client, going backto their car, the parking, go to
the next address the cost andthe inefficiency Right now, zoom
(29:46):
call.
You want to speak to yourlawyer.
Zoom call, video call it'sawesome.
So I think it's just a matterof time.
But most reception area willstart using these tools.
It's just a matter of time, butmost reception area will start
using these tools.
It's just a matter of time.
A customer service hub you're atthe airport, you need
information about your flight.
You may have someone standingthere, but why don't you have
(30:08):
these little hubs here and there?
You click on the button, youhave a super receptionist
working for your airline ohhello, how can I help you?
Today?
It's gyms is working for yourairline.
Oh hello, how can I help you?
Today it's gyms I mean, I'm notgoing to name, but everywhere
you see a reception.
Eventually we'll use some kindof video reception.
I think it's the present andthe future.
It just makes so much sense.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of grocery stores
when they started doing theself-checkout and people were
like why would I check myselfout and work harder for a
service I don't have to pay forand everyone is in line?
Because we understand thatefficiency and time matter.
So when we can improve customerservice and then improve
efficiency and time, weautomatically win.
(30:48):
So now that we've covered allthat, jeff, I think for me
what's really top of mind isthat I know a lot of people who
haven't ever done this, which isgoing to be the vast majority
of people who are hearing this.
Their next thought is like well,how do I manage people over a
virtual environment?
And your business is virtual?
I know you have a wonderfulteam and great people that work
with you, so maybe you couldjust speak into from a place of
(31:10):
experience of like, what doesthat look like?
Like you know, I guess, theother thing I and I had my front
desk.
I would just physically go upand be like how was your weekend
?
We connect All right, how's itgoing?
What do you need help with?
So, when it comes to oversightof a team that's virtual, could
you have any experiences thatyou could share with that?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
As like virtual front desk specifically.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
No more for like your company, like Like people that
you work with and like how yourun meetings and like how do you
oversee people in that regard?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Same answer Video call a lot.
I mean, we do all our videos,all our meetings, for videos.
We've been users of Slack, thecustomers.
Now we have a live chat in theapp, virtual friends, and also
on the website.
And when people are talking tome or writing to me in the chat,
the first thing I say, oh,you're available right now to
jump on a call.
(31:58):
I click the video button and Istart a video call because they
love it and I like it.
I'm a people guy, you know.
It's true, I live in the foresthere in North of Montreal.
I'm alone, but I connect withpeople all day and that's what
we like.
And they feel like, oh my God,he's taking the time to switch
his camera on, to look at me andlisten to my issue and I say,
(32:20):
hey, you know what?
Just share your screen, I'mgoing to help you.
And then you share a screenwith them.
You see your station there.
Just add the button there,click save it, just refresh,
boom, fixed.
Man, this is as good as it getscustomer service-wise.
Good as it gets customerservice-wise.
So yeah, my answer is that I usea lot of video calls in my day.
It's just I like it personally,and when a client is not
(32:43):
switching the camera on, I askthem oh, I don't see you?
They say, oh, yes, because I'mnot, that, don't worry.
And then they switch it on andhey, jeff, and then you have
that kind of friendlyrelationship and we released a
new interface not long ago andI'm getting many emails.
Hey, jeff, congratulations forthe interface.
I like it like we're a bunch ofI wouldn't say friend, you know
(33:05):
, but yeah, we, we, we take careof each other.
It's fun, you know let's well.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I love that because I think it's really when you, by
the way, when you had thatthought of like hey, I can't see
you turn on your camera, I justwondered if you ever got that.
Oh, you can turn it back off.
No, but, like for me, I have.
Currently, I have over 100employees.
I actually haven't met 90% ofthem.
So for me, I will tell you thereason I asked that question is
because you're in a tech space.
(33:36):
You know from your originHealthcare providers.
It's a different.
It's kind of going back to thedeer.
It feels like this wholepodcast is about going back to
the deer.
Until you see it and experienceit, you don't understand it.
So it's, on paper, a huge outpoint for a lot of medical
leaders Because, again, where istheir world?
It's right in front of theirhands and they use their hands
in all cases and they're dealingwith what's physically in front
of them.
So the little success they'vehad in management correlates
(33:59):
with that, in the sense thatthey've had to have face-to-face
discussions.
But I will say that it was scaryfor me as well, as I was
building my new company, allvirtual, and I was shocked how
it's like.
I always like equate it to adifferent muscle.
It is a different muscle butit's not hard to develop.
You, I always equate it to adifferent muscle.
It is a different muscle butit's not hard to develop.
This is something that justtakes a little bit of commitment
(34:20):
and practice to, and once we'rein it, I have a hard time going
back.
I reserve physical,face-to-face conversations.
Whenever there's somethingreally big on the line, like a
merger acquisition, I will flyout.
I will fly out if there'sanything that is like super high
, but everything else, theamount of time that was honestly
(34:40):
wasted in oh, they're fiveminutes late and they come in
and then they need water and therestroom and then we sit down
and then it's like, oh my gosh,you know you're sweating and
it's all gone and what's leftisn't a lack of communication or
connection, it's actually ahyper focus of it and I think
when people can see it and theycan look it in the eye, this new
(35:01):
way of being, they'll catch onvery quick.
That's what I really want tocommend you for, jeff, is that
you're a pioneer in that space,the first one to be out in this
space, and what you've done isdevelop a product that works
seamlessly.
I've I've had clients work withyour product.
It just, it just flows, it'sbuilt.
What I also love is that it'svery customizable, like there's
so many things you can do withit, that can customize it for
(35:23):
the need of the clients, and Idon't know if you can speak into
that.
But yeah, I'd love, I'd lovefor people to understand like
what that could look like.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, even more so.
As I mentioned, we justreleased a new update and you
have more customization that youcan do with your station.
The visual Because I think thatyour visual is what you present
on your station is verypersonal and I want those
stations to look as good as theclient's branding.
(35:51):
So now it's almost limitless.
You can have pictures, you canhave that background, you can
have your own logo, you canchange the color, the font.
So this is a new tool.
I have even more customizationcoming down the pipe.
But it's great what you can doright now with this new
interface, you can do whateveryou want, whatever you have in
(36:12):
mind for your station.
We used to only have abackground and a button.
You can even change the colorof the button.
It was very basic, with almostan MVP at first.
So we've gone a long way nowand I'm not going to say what we
have in mind.
But there's even more stuffcoming up and we're always
releasing new features andupdates every quarter, so we
(36:33):
keep ourselves very busy.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Okay, very good.
Well, you got it.
Guys, jeff's a visionary.
He was one of the pioneers ofthis technology.
He's got more coming to helpoffload us as we continue to
scale and grow.
So, jeff, as we wrap things up,I'd love to hear a couple of
things from you.
Let's go with a bookrecommendation.
What's a book that you like torecommend to people who are just
(36:56):
in general?
It could be entertaining, itcould be business, whatever you
want.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I would say one that I would say that's pretty
incredible, it's almost sciencefiction, that, as an
entrepreneur, you have to read.
It's Elon Musk's biography.
Oh yeah, if I believe thatanybody on earth is an alien, it
would be this guy, because,like, he could unzip his face,
(37:22):
you know and like, and I wouldbelieve it's off course you know
we'd all like oh, that makessense.
Finally, yeah, like we'd all be,like that's totally natural
yeah, and it's the only guy thatmotivates me but also makes me
feel like crap all at once,because I look at everything
this guy is doing.
So, oh my God, jeff, go, youcan do it.
(37:43):
But then you look at hiscapacity and everything he's
done and you feel like you'venot achieved anything in your
life.
But it's an unbelievable bookto read, I would say, because
his story is crazy how hestarted with writing down, like
you know, a kind of onlineyellow pages, then sold it, made
like 20 million something, thenattacked the bank, you know,
(38:03):
with paypal, which was calledactually xcom.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
that's why twitter is turning to another.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, and emerge into another company.
And then, basically, the guybeat the bank at their own game.
The banks something verydifficult to do.
Then he beats the carmanufacturer at their own game,
starting from nothing, noexperience.
And then he beats NASA at theirown game, building better
(38:30):
rockets than NASA ever built,all by himself, before he's 50.
I'm telling you, you would seea movie like this guy and say,
oh, that's pure science, himselfbefore he's 50.
I'm telling you, you would seea movie like this guy and say,
oh, that's pure science fiction.
It's impossible in a lifespanthat a guy can achieve so much
and open AI and Jesus Starlinkwill.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I just ordered my Starlink last week.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You have one, I have one too here.
No, I don't.
It's like oh, I'm going to put12,000 satellites in the air
12,000.
And you're going to have thefirst worldwide internet
available.
And oh, by the way, I'm goingto use my own space shuttle to
put them in space that I'vebuilt myself and I have time to
(39:14):
waste, so I'm going to testsending one of my car into space
, into orbits around bloody Marsor whatever.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So the guy's unreal.
I love also like how he's in a$50,000 home called Boxable.
That's right next to his, hisplace of business.
The guy doesn't care aboutthings that maybe most of us do
and, admittedly, maybe myselfbut like you, just you see that
focus and he's got a mission.
So I love the Bookerrecommendation.
(39:42):
Jeff, that was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Second, one book, a Business Again.
I mean, you know the guy,obviously Richard Branson.
I think the one I have isLosing my Virginity or something
and how I built my incrediblebillionaire.
But he starts the book with aline that really stuck to me to
this day and actually that Ihave to apply.
Even better, he starts his bookby saying I might not be the
(40:06):
richest man in the world, he's abillionaire, but he's not the
richest billionaire.
But there's something that I'mnumber one at out of all these
guys, I'm number one at.
Out of all these guys, I'm theone that had the most fun
building my billion dollarbusiness.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Gee, isn't that worth more than money?
Speaker 2 (40:26):
and then he starts.
You know how he started hisrecord company, how he did his
first transatlantic flight, youknow having these bottles of
champagne with everybody andthis and he's.
You know like all the stuntsthat he's done, like, oh yeah,
air balloon across the ocean,and how he launches his company
by doing crazy things like icebottom, exotic island and the
(40:47):
guy the guy is is happiness onlegs to me and uh, it's great
because, at the end of the day,why are we doing what we're
doing?
We're doing it because we wantto have fun.
We think that business willmake us happy.
So it's like, don't forget tohave fun along the way, because
that's the entire game you'replaying.
You're not playing a money game, you're playing a happy game.
(41:10):
Yeah, it's like.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, well, wecan get caught up sometimes,
you know, focusing on the dollaronly in the destination, but
let's not forget that we musthave fun getting there, because
that's 99% of where we're goingto spend.
Our time is getting there, youknow.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, it goes back to the very beginning of our
conversation.
You know I told you that Iexperienced you as someone who's
really present and that's why Ithink you have the instincts to
connect with.
Maybe the unusual or untypicalis probably better stated, like
you know animals and likecreating systems to connect
virtually, because being in thepresent is ultimately where the
(41:51):
joy is Right.
And I love that, becausewherever I've ever been sad is
from two things it's scared,anxious, sad.
It's because either I wantthings to be different now than
they are or I'm too busyfocusing on the future and what
might be.
So if I can just focus on whatI have right now and today and
be grateful, I can find more joyin the journey.
And it always comes down toconnection Because the more like
(42:13):
I will tell you, my boy isgoing back to Africa.
When I went with those, thosefour boys, I was anticipating
they would love the safari andall those fun things and that
they were going to look at thatweek of serving as like this
work and they'd be glad they didit.
But ultimately we're glad itwas over.
The first day, the first day, Iasked my youngest son, who
started crying I'm like we wereleaving and he started crying.
I'm like why are you crying,bud?
And he started crying.
(42:33):
I'm like why are you crying,bud?
You sick?
Do you have malaria?
I mean, we're in Africa andhe's like no, dad, I've just
never been happier in my life.
I think this is what heavenfeels like.
You know, I think we can findheaven in the eyes of a deer or
in a village, but it doesn'tmatter physically as much as
where we are mentally in thatpresent.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
What a great experience and gift to your kids
also to have them go throughsuch an experience.
It's amazing, awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Well, thank you for this amazing experience, Jeff,
being with me now, in thispresent and as people are
listening to us.
Thank you for listening tobeing with us.
You could be anywhere right now, but as you're working out or
in your car or on a walk, thankyou for being with us.
We're so grateful for yourpresence, your time, your
attention and being present.
And, Jeff, where can peoplefind you?
(43:22):
Please tell us your Instagramas well as how to contact you
professionally.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
If you're curious about my personal life and
animals.
I don't talk much about VFDonline, but it's Jeff, it's my
name, jeff Latam, pretty easy,and for virtual finesse, the
website's the best place to go.
So yeah, I'm not super busywith virtual finesse online.
Maybe it will come, you know,but we've not put too much
effort on there.
Like we have a LinkedIn, wegood online, you know, take care
(43:49):
of Google's and the SEO online.
But social media for a SaaS itwill come Like a hotel, you know
, like the Airbnb business wewere much busier, but a SaaS
company will wait.
We are putting our effortssomewhere else right now.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Right now and you're growing and doing a great job.
Jeff, Thank you so much forbeing a part of our show, and
I'll put all that information inthe show notes that people can
easily click and find you thatway as well.
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Thanks to you, will.
Thanks for the interview.
It's a pleasure and well, it'sa pleasure doing the interview
and it's a pleasure working withyou partnering.
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Thank you, my man, thank you, guys, and thanks for
listening, and we'll see younext time.
Guys, thank you for taking timeto listen to today's episode.
If you found today'sinformation to be useful, could
you take a minute and help me?
I would love it if you couldleave a podcast review in your
app so that other people who arelooking for this information
can find it.
Plus, my dream is to have thelargest network of medical
(44:41):
entrepreneurs and leaders in theworld so that together, we can
change healthcare to make itbetter for all.
So, in addition, if you canthink of anyone that you can
send this to, not only wouldthat mean a lot to me personally
, but it would build thisnetwork so that we can make
healthcare the way that we wantit.
Hey rock stars.
Today we are super excited tohave our guest, jeff Latondra
from Virtual Front Desk.
He's the CEO and founder ofthis amazing software that
allows us to virtually bring inhuman beings to check in
individuals at our front desk.
But that's not the main focus.
You are going to learn allabout his business, the pros,
the cons, all that great stuff,but I really want you to focus
on Jeff's story.
(00:25):
Right out of the gate, he has anunusual talent of connection
and this is partly where andyou'll see in the podcast
episode how he's gone from beingthis almost savant level
connector with animals, with anInstagram following over a
hundred thousands of people whowatch him as he nurtures animals
back to life and helps themlive in his home in Canada.
(00:46):
But he's also helping peopleconnect virtually so that we can
improve efficiency, save moneybut actually improve the patient
care experience.
As we transition to thistechnological age of virtual
front desks.
We're going to go through allsorts of leadership concepts.
He has unbelievablerecommendations at the end of
the podcast for books and someother leadership concepts.
(01:06):
I'm so excited for you tolisten to Jeff.
Enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I have like a hundred thousand something followers,
so it's fun yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
That is so cool.
Okay, so I got to follow youraccount.
So is it just your name?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, it's just my name.
I don't really talk.
It's my personal account.
I talk about a lot of stufflike fitness veganism, but it's
mainly animals because that'swhat really people are into, so
it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You've inspired me, since.
We've obviously got such aspiritual connection that I've
decided I want to get into muchbetter shape after talking to
you a lot more too, so I willdefinitely follow your Instagram
for sure.
Just how do I pronounce yourlast name, by the way?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Le Tendre.
Le Tendre, I mean you said likeLe Tendre, probably in English.
I have raccoons and a deerright now.
So the deer is man.
It's unbelievable.
I don't know how lucky I got,but I'm on the phone right there
on my terrace and I see thisphone coming out of the woods
(02:08):
alone.
So I say, oh, the mother mustbe near somehow somewhere.
But it's still cute.
You know, it's still rare.
So I hang up with my friend andI try to call this thing, I try
to get closer, and she just ranaway in the woods.
I see her again the day afterand she's still alone.
And then this time I retake mytime, my dogs are inside, I get
(02:32):
to get a little closer to me.
She looks at me and she seems abit lost and there's no mom.
So and I, we I live near ahighway and we often kill deer,
you know, like roadkill.
Oh yeah, by accident, sure.
So I was like shit, sheprobably lost her mom and she's
alone and she doesn't know whatto do.
I grabbed a bottle of milk withyou know, this was with
something to suck on it and Iattached it to the deer feeder,
(02:54):
like about like a meter high,and within no time that thing
went to, it started sucking themilk and she started drinking.
She was starving.
She must have been starving.
She must have smelled the milkand she started drinking.
She was starving, she must'vebeen starving.
She must've smelled the milkand said, hey, but it's like.
And the day after I did itagain, and within no times, I
took that bottle in my hand andshe went straight for it, even
(03:15):
though I was there, and shelooked at me in the eye and she
was like you're my daddy, that'sit, that's all.
And she never left me afterthat.
And now she's a full grownadult.
I see her every morning, everynight.
She sometimes walk into thehouse.
I take walk with her in thewoods.
She's completely free, she'salways been wild, but she's my
best friend from the forest andit's unbelievable.
(03:37):
Like this morning I wasbrushing her.
Like every morning she comesfor a brush, so she likes to be
brushed.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I brush her entire body, the neck, the face.
I go under her belly, the legsshe loves it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's how I start my day.
Basically, you have a pet deer,I have a pet wild deer.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's the thing she's wild yeah, you don't have
any guardrails keeping her in oranything like that.
She can leave whenever shewants.
She can go wherever she wants.
Yeah, is she out like she wants?
Does she disappear for periodsof time or does she come back?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, I didn't see her the entire winter because
she actually met a group of deer.
She met a mother and two youngslast fall.
That was my idea.
I said I would try to have hermeet other deer so they would
bump together and form a family,and that's what happened last
fall and they vanished for mostof the winter, funny enough.
And in the spring I even saw acarcass of a young deer next to
(04:30):
my land here and it was devoured, so only like legs were left
and bits of skin.
So I thought I was sad thatmust have been Fairy.
Her name is Fairy.
Fairy is the name of the fawn,yeah, fairy.
But then, late Aprilil, sheshows up out of nowhere, super
(04:50):
thin but alive and well, and Iwas like I cannot believe it and
I started feeding her again,started brushing her and she was
losing like her winter coat,and she turned into a beautiful
adult.
Now it's like she has this goldcolor on her coat.
It's beautiful.
You have no idea theintelligence, the emotion of
(05:12):
these animals.
No wonder Disney made them astar.
They have those big eyes butthey're so smart and calm and
majestic and they're very, veryspecial.
Raccoons are special, they'reamazing, but they're more like a
breed within a cat and a dog.
We're more used to it.
But deer man.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I had no idea that deer were like that.
It's so interesting that,because I can hear that you
actually have a relationshipwith this deer, like it goes
both ways and it's nonverbal,obviously, but it's one of those
where there's a parentalconnection between you and this
fawn.
Yeah and man, that isunbelievable.
So how long have you beentaking care of this?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
fairy.
It's a full year, almost a halfnow, because I found her last
spring.
I mean, it was late spring whenI found her and she's still
here today, so it's over a yearnow.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So this animal passion that you have, which has
driven this huge following onsocial media, with 100,000 plus
followers, like where did thatbegin?
Where does that originate from?
Jeff?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
To be honest with you .
I started with raccoons.
A friend of mine called me saidhey, we found those raccoons.
I know, jeff, you love animalsbecause I've been vegan forever.
So I was in love with animalssince 98.
So over 25 years now.
And she said, jeff, you live innature, you're good with
animals, you have two dogs.
(06:37):
Would you take care of theseraccoons?
I'm sure you could do it.
They were tiny, three and ahalf week old.
They're still blind.
You have to give them milk andyou have to become their parents
.
So I was like give me a day,let me think about it, because I
know it's a big responsibility.
But I couldn't say no.
The day after I said, okay,bring them in.
And uh, so that's how.
That's how it started.
On the first year I didn't knowwhat I was doing, but I built
(06:59):
them a big enclosure outside andI started filming what I was
doing and people would call thatthis is so cool.
And it's only about six, sevenmonths down the line that all of
a sudden the account went viral.
So I wasn't expecting this atall.
It went really viral becausethen I had the coons, but then I
had the deer coming up into thepicture.
(07:21):
So now I was mixing videos of ayoung fawn and who doesn't like
a young fawn drinking a bottle?
I mean it's very weird, it'svery unusual.
And all these animals are wildnow, like the raccoons.
They don't stay with me verylong.
They stay with me like three,four months and I release them
and then they're free on theland.
I see them at night.
Sometimes they visit, like it'sall very wild, wild and free
(07:47):
and I think that's what peoplelike.
And I always take the chance totalk about the food.
You know, like, if you loveanimals, don't torture them or
eat them or murder them.
You know, if you love them, youlove them all, because and the
account shows that wild animalare behaving exactly like a dog
or a cat.
There's absolutely nodifference.
And fairy, even you would say,oh, they're just deer.
You know they're this, they'rethat because we put tag on them.
(08:09):
But at the end of the day, whatI've learned, I mean I knew
this, but now it's firsthandwith my experience with them
they are like us, they are likeour dog, our cats.
It's just us giving them a tag.
You know, oh, this is a wildanimal, we can shoot them.
But if you were close to fairy.
If you get a chance to brushher, to see, to speak to her,
(08:32):
how could you ever shoot ananimal like that, unless you
really have to?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You have a spiritual connection, though I think it's
what most people don't have isthat exposure.
Recently I took my family toAfrica and we had this
opportunity to get exposed to acompletely different culture.
And we're big travelers We'vebeen to 34 countries but this
was a different experiencebecause we were really focusing
on poverty and it was sodifferent I think just the
(08:57):
reason I'm bringing this upbecause it parallels what you're
saying when you and Fawnconnected, you and Ferry the
Fawn connected and youunderstood, really understood
her and you could see her.
Like you talk about the eyes,you see her, which is not just a
human thing, it's a livingthing to need to be seen and
heard in our own way.
(09:18):
Right, and when we wereoverseas, we were over there to
be like you know, these saviorscoming around and giving money
and helping them out, but whatwe, what ended up happening, was
this organization was reallyagainst that.
They're like no, we want toempower them.
You go over there to be astudent kind of like how you
were with with this fawn, whereyou were serving them.
You were serving her in a verylike you're.
(09:42):
You know, very, here's thebottle, walk away, she takes it
and then, over time.
There's a connection there.
That's what we did.
We were over there, we didbring some money and some things
, but we were learning how tosweep their dirt floors with
leaves from a tree and they wereteaching us how to make rice
from scratch, and they wereteaching us just all these
things and it was empoweringthem because they were the
(10:02):
teachers.
We were the students and I'm notkidding you, man.
It changed my heart completelyand how I see poverty, because
what I've realized in thatlesson is that there's different
degrees of poverty and in myworld we think of them not
having materialism as beingcompletely poor, but they have
levels of abundance that I'mpoor in Emotionally, with social
(10:26):
media and different levels.
They don't have that.
So, going back to Fawn, I thinkthe reason I say all this is
because when we connected tothat world, it changed our lens
completely.
And what you're saying is, whenyou're connected to this deer,
you see animals differently, youunderstand their existence, and
it changes just how you operate, I mean it's beautiful, we're
(10:49):
on the same page.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It's allowing yourself to take off your filter
when you look at an animal orwhen you look at a poor people,
like you were just saying, andyou just look at them from the
being they are, without whatsociety made you think they are.
You know like you brush all ofthis aside, you take a moment,
(11:12):
you take a few seconds, you justlook at that being and then you
realize, oh my God, they are aspiritual being just like us.
They may not have a religion,but it's a being in a physical
body, experimenting earth theexact way that I do in different
circumstances.
We're not smarter than them, wejust have different physical
(11:33):
tools and they're doing verywell with what they have.
Think that these beings theyraise their kids, they mate,
they find their food, they healthemselves.
They have to understand nowmodern human behavior.
How does that work?
They have to weather, gothrough winter, they have to go
through hunting, they have foes,they have friends, they have
(11:54):
families and it works.
And they don't have insurance,they don't have police to help
them, they don't have hospital.
If they go sick, they have tosurvive by their own.
So they are extremelyintelligent in their own ways.
It's just that we sometimesthink that we're more
intelligent than them because webuild planes.
Okay.
But if I was to ask you, will,can you build a plane?
(12:15):
You can't.
It's just that it's build upinformation from previous humans
put together.
But then I'm going to ask you,can you fly on your own?
Then the bird will say, well,you're stupid, you can't fly,
you need to build a machine.
I can fly.
A bear can smell something twomiles away, a fish can swim on
the water and breathe.
(12:35):
So we all have our own sets oftools.
And if you, if you go, if youput your ego aside and you look
at them, it's you realize howwonderful these little earthy
cousins are and they deserve ourrespect and, if anything, our
protection.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
So I experienced you from that place of of being a
guy who's just very aware ofbeing present and connecting.
Like you know, as I've gottento know you, I see you as this
individual who's.
I'm not surprised by this.
I mean it is a little bit cooland unique in the sense that,
like you have this followingbased on this unique skill that
you have, because I think it'salso a skill to connect with
(13:13):
animals.
But I also know from havinginteracted with you that, like
that is what you also bring toyour company as well.
You bring that ability toconnect, which is kind of
interesting because what you doprofessionally is about
connection as well.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know what I mean.
Never seen it this way.
Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, so just kind of like for the audience, tell
people what you do and why thatcomment is so relative.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, basically what I do I'm the CEO of uh, that's
what I do now is the ceo of avirtual friend s, which is a
video reception app.
You could call it a visitormanagement app, but I I like
video reception app sounds,sounds more, more like it
because we are centered aroundthe human experience, like the
human interaction, the videocall.
Uh, basically, this app startedoff if you're curious actually
to know how I started the app,absolutely Back at some point.
(14:05):
My first business was avacation rental business, hotel
business, and I was runningthese Airbnbs in Montreal like a
hotel and that was the name ofthe company, like a hotel
actually.
And at at some point we startedhaving these bad guests, like
street gang that would rent ourapartment.
When I got to 10, 15 apartments,I started getting trashed.
(14:25):
People would rent the apartmentthrough airbnb.
They would come in there, do aparty and they would destroy the
apartment like destroy wheel.
They would break, tear down thefridge door, rip open the sofas
like break all the frames,steal, jump on the sound system.
Don't steal anything, they justdestroy the place.
Oh man, happens like ithappened twice back to back.
(14:50):
So I was like I'm screwed.
How am I ever going to gothrough it.
I only have 15 apartments and Iwas always ambitious to have
like 500 one day, because I wantto scale this business.
And I was looking at theHiltons, the hotels, and I was
like how come they have 500rooms?
They don't get that problem andI do with only 15.
(15:10):
And it clicked that well, theyhave a reception, jeff,
everybody who rents a room atthe Hilton.
They have to provide the ID,they have to provide a credit
card that will match their name,so they cannot just vanish.
You know, if they breaksomething they'll be caught.
So then I said, okay, how can Iimplement a reception in my
(15:30):
Airbnb business?
And that's where the virtualfront desk ID came.
And I believe and that was backin 2015, that I was the first in
the world to use a video callto do check-ins.
So I looked online.
I didn't see anything like thatand I thought about okay, now
you have those touchscreenall-in-one computer a bit like
(15:51):
our iPhone.
What if I was putting this onthe corridor of my buildings?
You would click the check-in,it would call my receptionist
that, working from home, I wouldask for an ID.
Look at their face, make surethe credit card matches what I
have in the system.
And if it didn't, and if theywere telling me, oh, I'm just
coming in to grab the key for myfriend, I'll say no, no, no, no
.
When I will see your friend,with the same name as the
(16:14):
reservation and the ID, I willlet you in.
I will give you the code to theapartment.
Right now, no one's gettinginto the apartment and it
stopped all my problem in one go.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
So you did it, you put those videos up.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, I hired a bunch of students and
say, hey, this is the idea thatI have.
So it was internal, it was mylittle trade secret for, like a
hotel, none of my competitorsunderstood how I could grow so
fast and then owners wouldthrowing keys at me and at the
end I was managing like 125doors.
So it was a good business.
(16:46):
And after 25,000 chicken andunfortunately, I told myself I
have to do an app with this andgo public and, like a hotel,
unfortunately the city here,montreal, they changed the law
and even though I had a permitfor all the doors that I was
doing, they taxed me like crazy,like if I was a hotel anyway.
(17:07):
They did everything they couldto close us down and I had to
shut down this company.
But then I say, okay, no problem, it happens.
You, you know everythinghappens for a reason, but you
have to put virtual for desk onthe market.
Then, and then I went with uh,I found another investor to
start this company with.
Then we started catering forhotels and airbnbs, and here we
(17:30):
are today, you know.
And uh, we were hit by thepandemic, lost all of our
revenue in one go, and then Isat down and I said okay, with
whatever little money we haveleft, we have to turn this over.
You know, we have to rebrandand we have to start offering
our services to medical clinics,to lawyers offices, to
government office, becauseeverybody's afraid of touching
(17:50):
anybody and everybody's afraidof someone coughing.
So our video is virus, and youknow.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
COVID.
You're not going to get COVIDfor the TV screen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, our video is virus and you know you're not
gonna get covered for the tvscreen, yeah, so so I think
that's our chance, actually,guys.
So we managed to flip thingover and, uh, that's that's
where we at really today.
So hotels and airbnbs are onlylike five percent of our
businesses now.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
It's it's a very small percentage now yeah, you
know it's interesting becauseyou've gone really big into the
healthcare space and reallyhelping entrepreneurs solve that
problem.
I think for a lot of you know,for me, pt practices in
particular is where I was raisedand where I speak to mostly,
and I think the biggest concernpeople face in doing that goes
(18:33):
back to our initial discussionabout the deer Is that there's
something magical when you seesomeone in the eyes and you can
connect with them, and I thinkthat's what a lot of us.
For me, this concept back whenI had my handful of locations in
Arizona, would have been veryscary because I would have been
worried about losing thatconnection, because that is a
huge part of the patientexperience and, like, obviously,
(18:55):
in the Airbnb space that stillis valuable, as as other spaces.
But why do you think it'sgrowing in the healthcare space
and speak maybe into thatconcern of, like you know,
losing the potential of losingconnection because they're not
physically there?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
There's a bunch of reasons why I think it's
becoming very popular,especially in health clinics,
including, you know,physiotherapy and, let's face it
, you know staffing.
It seems that staffing thoseclinics with front office staff
is not easy, so that's oneconcern for sure, it's costly.
And also I think that you workwith a good percentage of people
(19:31):
that are a bit older, maybe anolder generation, and they're
not so friendly with technologyand pressing button and choosing
like options.
So they like things to besimple and nothing like hey,
hello, how are you With a smile?
How can I help you today?
What's your name?
You know?
Boom, it's done.
I think that's why virtualfriend desk is very I think it's
(19:54):
an efficient tool because itkind of blends the two, where it
allows you to find staffanywhere you want, because you
don't have to staff locally.
You still provide that humanexperience.
And actually, if you havecustomers that are used to the
system, you can use QR codes,you can use options, but you
always have that option.
That's always what I propose.
My clients have an option callreceptionist or call for help.
(20:17):
A big button call for help, abig button calls for help.
So if you go with the buttons,great, but if you want to speak
to someone, call for help.
Someone shows on the screensmiling.
There you go.
So I think it's the blend ofthe two that makes it very
efficient.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I am shocked at how well it works to have a virtual
front desk because I thought,especially with older patients
in rural settings, this would bea problem.
But what I'm finding is thatmany people what they want is
efficiency and they still needthat connection, and it's all
based on connection.
Again, this is a theme that'sin your life, jeff, from how you
connect.
I would say if there's a themefrom the little that I've known
(20:54):
you over the past few weeks, isthat you are a connector in
unpredictable ways.
Like you wouldn't predict thatyou'd connect with animals or
with people, creating atechnology to create a
connection between people overtechnology, the way that you do
but that's what you're about andthat's what happens here is
that when you have the rightperson on the other side of the
screen, it doesn't matter thatit's a screen.
(21:15):
What matters is that they canstill see you in the eyes side
of the screen.
It doesn't matter that it's ascreen.
What matters is that they canstill see you in the eyes and I
would tell you that, like for me, I love the idea that we can
leverage from a business modelbetter people, lower costs,
because you can spread them outdifferently.
There's all different solutionsthat exist out there.
So, yeah, man, I think that'sfantastic that you have built
that model out and seen thatsuccess.
(21:36):
And another thought that I justhad quickly is how you started.
The need for it to begin withwas more about protection, like
the Airbnb concept that youbuilt was more about like
protecting, connecting toprotect.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, and also efficiency and customer service,
because there was no receptionin any Airbnbs back in the days
and you know you go to rent anAirbnb.
Have you rented Airbnbs before?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I have, and I have a couple that I own.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Okay, that you own.
Okay, how often do youphysically meet your guests?
Never, there you go, and.
But Airbnb is all aboutconnecting to communities, you
know, but at the end of the day,the reality is that you never
meet with your host because yourhost is not there.
You may do it the first time,like your first official booking
.
You may want to be there, hey,welcome.
You're all excited, but after awhile say, hey, you know what,
(22:30):
here's the key, here's the code,here's the address, thank you,
bye.
But the virtual friend deskwere allowing us to really meet
those guests face to face, eachone of them, and they all loved
it.
And our review online on Airbnbwent up to the roof.
And on Bookingcom and Expediabecause we were the only one
doing that, yeah, and theyreally felt like they knew us.
(22:52):
And just going back to yourpoint about connection, it's
something that we brought to thetable.
Renting Airbnbs.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So the rock stars that are listening.
The thing that I want to pointout here is that it is way more
effective to have the rightperson virtually than an average
or poor person in person, andthat was my experience.
Owning a practice, jeff, isthat I had numerous practices.
I eventually learned anddeveloped this really difficult
way of having find great people.
(23:21):
I found great people, but itwasn't easy.
But up until then, I was hiringpeople who oftentimes made me
feel like they were doing me afavor by showing up.
And so, look, everyone in theworld can relate to the
experience of going into anoutpatient medical clinic,
whether it's PT or a doctor or asurgeon of orthopedics or
whatever.
You walk in and you're going tothis specialist who's going to
(23:42):
charge you maybe tens ofthousands of dollars for a
surgery, but the person at thefront desk acts like they're in
a drive-through at a fast foodchain, which and I'm not
knocking people who work atdrive-throughs, you know because
ultimately, I've had some greatexperiences but the experience,
the customer service, has to beelevated.
What would you say to peoplewho are like, yeah, but virtual
(24:05):
front desk is going to diminishthe customer service experience?
What would you say to that?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
To the contrary, I would say first of all, if you
have bad staff or poor staff,it's probably because you lack
the resources around In thelocal area.
Maybe you don't have enoughpeople available, so you have to
settle down for lesser qualitypeople.
Let's say but virtualfriendless will allow you to
(24:28):
source from anywhere in yourcountry.
Let's say that we stick to theStates, so you will get more CVs
, better quality CVs, and Iwould say that a lot of people
want to work from home becauseit's like a bonus.
You have maybe a single mom.
One week out of two she worksfrom home and then they will
love what they do because it'svery advantageous for them.
(24:50):
You can take the best becauseyour pool is much larger and if
you give them a hand, like, heylisten, I want to work a long
time with you, I want to provideyou with a good computer.
Well, I'm going to send you avery good quality camera, maybe
a second monitor.
So you have two monitors, onefor the EMR, the other one just
for virtual from there.
So when someone shows up at thescreen, it's like if they're
(25:10):
standing at the front of it withyou.
They have a good set ofheadphones, even a chair,
whatever, take care of yourstaff in the comfort of their
home.
They have a digital background.
Maybe you can get in a littlet-shirt representing your brand.
These guys, they will love whatthey do because they're working
from home and so it's great.
(25:33):
No traffic, they can take alittle pause.
There's no call, there'snotification.
They can go in the kitchen,make themselves a coffee or a
sandwich.
Oh, the computer rings, they goback to the computer.
So it's a good job to have, andI think this allows you guys to
create super receptionists thatwill stick to you and provide
an excellent service.
So no to the contrary, I thinkthis virtual friend desk can
(25:56):
definitely improve your customerservice.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Hey there, rock stars .
Are you sick and tired ofhiring expensive front office
staff to spend months trainingthem, only to find out that they
don't meet expectation or,worse, to have them quit on you,
leave you in the lurches, onlyto repeat the cycle?
Then welcome to VirtualRockstar, the only service
created by a private practiceowner for private practice
(26:22):
owners and leaders to help thembuild their dream teams.
Let us hire your next virtualrockstar for you overseas.
These virtual assistants willblow your mind.
Not only are they more talentedand committed, but they're a
lot more affordable and they cando all sorts of tasks, from
phone receptions, medicalbilling, patient scheduling,
insurance verification,marketing, payroll and more.
(26:43):
And the best part is Rockstars.
Not only are you going to savebetween $15,000 and $20,000 of
profit per hire per year, you'regoing to bring a family out of
poverty.
So stop tolerating less thanyou deserve and start building
your dream team with VirtualRockstar.
To learn more, email info atvirtualrockstarcom.
(27:03):
Again, that's info atvirtualrockstarcom.
Yeah, and statistics haveactually backed this up.
I was reading on LinkedIn.
I'm not going to try to quotethem because I'm going to
misrepresent them, but thegeneral message was very clear
that going virtual has actuallyincreased customer service
across the board.
For the very reason you said,it's flipping the script of how
(27:25):
we typically hire as medicalowners.
It's very different compared toother businesses because a
hotel owner doesn't identify asdoing hotel.
Like what do you do?
Oh, I'm a hotel provider.
It's like no, I own a hotelversus a physical therapist.
I am a physical therapist, sothey're so tied to the
(27:46):
production of what they're doing.
It immediately limits theirability to go out and hire
candidates.
And so this flips that script,because every owner I've ever
come across, even if they do itwell, struggles in hiring and
retaining talent.
So when we go virtual and we'reable to create a situation where
more people want it than thereare openings, then we can go
(28:08):
from being the seller to thebuyer and we can buy what we
want, which is like becauseeveryone wants to be a part of
that and we don't have to pay asmuch.
Like, all these problems startto minimize as we start to
improve and then, when thecustomer service improves,
everything else improves.
True statistic Every single oneof my clients who have worked
(28:28):
with a virtual solution and myvirtual assistants, every single
one of their percent of arrivalhas increased.
Oh, yeah, and we measure that,yeah.
So why do you think again maybethis is just beating a dead
horse, but why do you think thatis?
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Again, I think it's difficult to find the right
staff to keep yourself, and I doa lot of demos every day with
physicians and they always say,oh my God, it's so difficult to
find people and she just delayedthis one and we have to train
(29:02):
them.
You know, it's a long time andthen they go and it's just.
It seems to be one of thebiggest pain and biggest
challenges in their clinics.
I don't know, because I'm not aphysician, but that's what I
hear from my clients.
So yeah, and the videotechnology has changed the way
we do business in so many ways.
It has improved the way we dobusiness.
Like, look at what we're doingnow.
Normally I would have had todrive, you know, go to you and
(29:23):
maybe film this and put this onanother kind of media, but now
we can use video call.
It's amazing.
I'm having so much fun doingthis.
Think about all the poorsalesmen in the past that have
to drive into their car to thenext meeting with a little
calendar and then meeting thisguy waiting in the waiting room,
meeting the client, going backto their car, the parking, go to
the next address the cost andthe inefficiency Right now, zoom
(29:46):
call.
You want to speak to yourlawyer.
Zoom call, video call it'sawesome.
So I think it's just a matterof time.
But most reception area willstart using these tools.
It's just a matter of time, butmost reception area will start
using these tools.
It's just a matter of time.
A customer service hub you're atthe airport, you need
information about your flight.
You may have someone standingthere, but why don't you have
(30:08):
these little hubs here and there?
You click on the button, youhave a super receptionist
working for your airline ohhello, how can I help you?
Today?
It's gyms is working for yourairline.
Oh hello, how can I help you?
Today it's gyms I mean, I'm notgoing to name, but everywhere
you see a reception.
Eventually we'll use some kindof video reception.
I think it's the present andthe future.
It just makes so much sense.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, it kind of reminds me of grocery stores
when they started doing theself-checkout and people were
like why would I check myselfout and work harder for a
service I don't have to pay forand everyone is in line?
Because we understand thatefficiency and time matter.
So when we can improve customerservice and then improve
efficiency and time, weautomatically win.
(30:48):
So now that we've covered allthat, jeff, I think for me
what's really top of mind isthat I know a lot of people who
haven't ever done this, which isgoing to be the vast majority
of people who are hearing this.
Their next thought is like well,how do I manage people over a
virtual environment?
And your business is virtual?
I know you have a wonderfulteam and great people that work
with you, so maybe you couldjust speak into from a place of
(31:10):
experience of like, what doesthat look like?
Like you know, I guess, theother thing I and I had my front
desk.
I would just physically go upand be like how was your weekend
?
We connect All right, how's itgoing?
What do you need help with?
So, when it comes to oversightof a team that's virtual, could
you have any experiences thatyou could share with that?
Speaker 2 (31:27):
As like virtual front desk specifically.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
No more for like your company, like Like people that
you work with and like how yourun meetings and like how do you
oversee people in that regard?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Same answer Video call a lot.
I mean, we do all our videos,all our meetings, for videos.
We've been users of Slack, thecustomers.
Now we have a live chat in theapp, virtual friends, and also
on the website.
And when people are talking tome or writing to me in the chat,
the first thing I say, oh,you're available right now to
jump on a call.
(31:58):
I click the video button and Istart a video call because they
love it and I like it.
I'm a people guy, you know.
It's true, I live in the foresthere in North of Montreal.
I'm alone, but I connect withpeople all day and that's what
we like.
And they feel like, oh my God,he's taking the time to switch
his camera on, to look at me andlisten to my issue and I say,
(32:20):
hey, you know what?
Just share your screen, I'mgoing to help you.
And then you share a screenwith them.
You see your station there.
Just add the button there,click save it, just refresh,
boom, fixed.
Man, this is as good as it getscustomer service-wise.
Good as it gets customerservice-wise.
So yeah, my answer is that I usea lot of video calls in my day.
It's just I like it personally,and when a client is not
(32:43):
switching the camera on, I askthem oh, I don't see you?
They say, oh, yes, because I'mnot, that, don't worry.
And then they switch it on andhey, jeff, and then you have
that kind of friendlyrelationship and we released a
new interface not long ago andI'm getting many emails.
Hey, jeff, congratulations forthe interface.
I like it like we're a bunch ofI wouldn't say friend, you know
(33:05):
, but yeah, we, we, we take careof each other.
It's fun, you know let's well.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I love that because I think it's really when you, by
the way, when you had thatthought of like hey, I can't see
you turn on your camera, I justwondered if you ever got that.
Oh, you can turn it back off.
No, but, like for me, I have.
Currently, I have over 100employees.
I actually haven't met 90% ofthem.
So for me, I will tell you thereason I asked that question is
because you're in a tech space.
(33:36):
You know from your originHealthcare providers.
It's a different.
It's kind of going back to thedeer.
It feels like this wholepodcast is about going back to
the deer.
Until you see it and experienceit, you don't understand it.
So it's, on paper, a huge outpoint for a lot of medical
leaders Because, again, where istheir world?
It's right in front of theirhands and they use their hands
in all cases and they're dealingwith what's physically in front
of them.
So the little success they'vehad in management correlates
(33:59):
with that, in the sense thatthey've had to have face-to-face
discussions.
But I will say that it was scaryfor me as well, as I was
building my new company, allvirtual, and I was shocked how
it's like.
I always like equate it to adifferent muscle.
It is a different muscle butit's not hard to develop.
You, I always equate it to adifferent muscle.
It is a different muscle butit's not hard to develop.
This is something that justtakes a little bit of commitment
(34:20):
and practice to, and once we'rein it, I have a hard time going
back.
I reserve physical,face-to-face conversations.
Whenever there's somethingreally big on the line, like a
merger acquisition, I will flyout.
I will fly out if there'sanything that is like super high
, but everything else, theamount of time that was honestly
(34:40):
wasted in oh, they're fiveminutes late and they come in
and then they need water and therestroom and then we sit down
and then it's like, oh my gosh,you know you're sweating and
it's all gone and what's leftisn't a lack of communication or
connection, it's actually ahyper focus of it and I think
when people can see it and theycan look it in the eye, this new
(35:01):
way of being, they'll catch onvery quick.
That's what I really want tocommend you for, jeff, is that
you're a pioneer in that space,the first one to be out in this
space, and what you've done isdevelop a product that works
seamlessly.
I've I've had clients work withyour product.
It just, it just flows, it'sbuilt.
What I also love is that it'svery customizable, like there's
so many things you can do withit, that can customize it for
(35:23):
the need of the clients, and Idon't know if you can speak into
that.
But yeah, I'd love, I'd lovefor people to understand like
what that could look like.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, even more so.
As I mentioned, we justreleased a new update and you
have more customization that youcan do with your station.
The visual Because I think thatyour visual is what you present
on your station is verypersonal and I want those
stations to look as good as theclient's branding.
(35:51):
So now it's almost limitless.
You can have pictures, you canhave that background, you can
have your own logo, you canchange the color, the font.
So this is a new tool.
I have even more customizationcoming down the pipe.
But it's great what you can doright now with this new
interface, you can do whateveryou want, whatever you have in
(36:12):
mind for your station.
We used to only have abackground and a button.
You can even change the colorof the button.
It was very basic, with almostan MVP at first.
So we've gone a long way nowand I'm not going to say what we
have in mind.
But there's even more stuffcoming up and we're always
releasing new features andupdates every quarter, so we
(36:33):
keep ourselves very busy.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Okay, very good.
Well, you got it.
Guys, jeff's a visionary.
He was one of the pioneers ofthis technology.
He's got more coming to helpoffload us as we continue to
scale and grow.
So, jeff, as we wrap things up,I'd love to hear a couple of
things from you.
Let's go with a bookrecommendation.
What's a book that you like torecommend to people who are just
(36:56):
in general?
It could be entertaining, itcould be business, whatever you
want.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I would say one that I would say that's pretty
incredible, it's almost sciencefiction, that, as an
entrepreneur, you have to read.
It's Elon Musk's biography.
Oh yeah, if I believe thatanybody on earth is an alien, it
would be this guy, because,like, he could unzip his face,
(37:22):
you know and like, and I wouldbelieve it's off course you know
we'd all like oh, that makessense.
Finally, yeah, like we'd all be,like that's totally natural
yeah, and it's the only guy thatmotivates me but also makes me
feel like crap all at once,because I look at everything
this guy is doing.
So, oh my God, jeff, go, youcan do it.
(37:43):
But then you look at hiscapacity and everything he's
done and you feel like you'venot achieved anything in your
life.
But it's an unbelievable bookto read, I would say, because
his story is crazy how hestarted with writing down, like
you know, a kind of onlineyellow pages, then sold it, made
like 20 million something, thenattacked the bank, you know,
(38:03):
with paypal, which was calledactually xcom.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
that's why twitter is turning to another.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, and emerge into another company.
And then, basically, the guybeat the bank at their own game.
The banks something verydifficult to do.
Then he beats the carmanufacturer at their own game,
starting from nothing, noexperience.
And then he beats NASA at theirown game, building better
(38:30):
rockets than NASA ever built,all by himself, before he's 50.
I'm telling you, you would seea movie like this guy and say,
oh, that's pure science, himselfbefore he's 50.
I'm telling you, you would seea movie like this guy and say,
oh, that's pure science fiction.
It's impossible in a lifespanthat a guy can achieve so much
and open AI and Jesus Starlinkwill.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I just ordered my Starlink last week.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
You have one, I have one too here.
No, I don't.
It's like oh, I'm going to put12,000 satellites in the air
12,000.
And you're going to have thefirst worldwide internet
available.
And oh, by the way, I'm goingto use my own space shuttle to
put them in space that I'vebuilt myself and I have time to
(39:14):
waste, so I'm going to testsending one of my car into space
, into orbits around bloody Marsor whatever.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
So the guy's unreal.
I love also like how he's in a$50,000 home called Boxable.
That's right next to his, hisplace of business.
The guy doesn't care aboutthings that maybe most of us do
and, admittedly, maybe myselfbut like you, just you see that
focus and he's got a mission.
So I love the Bookerrecommendation.
(39:42):
Jeff, that was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Second, one book, a Business Again.
I mean, you know the guy,obviously Richard Branson.
I think the one I have isLosing my Virginity or something
and how I built my incrediblebillionaire.
But he starts the book with aline that really stuck to me to
this day and actually that Ihave to apply.
Even better, he starts his bookby saying I might not be the
(40:06):
richest man in the world, he's abillionaire, but he's not the
richest billionaire.
But there's something that I'mnumber one at out of all these
guys, I'm number one at.
Out of all these guys, I'm theone that had the most fun
building my billion dollarbusiness.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Gee, isn't that worth more than money?
Speaker 2 (40:26):
and then he starts.
You know how he started hisrecord company, how he did his
first transatlantic flight, youknow having these bottles of
champagne with everybody andthis and he's.
You know like all the stuntsthat he's done, like, oh yeah,
air balloon across the ocean,and how he launches his company
by doing crazy things like icebottom, exotic island and the
(40:47):
guy the guy is is happiness onlegs to me and uh, it's great
because, at the end of the day,why are we doing what we're
doing?
We're doing it because we wantto have fun.
We think that business willmake us happy.
So it's like, don't forget tohave fun along the way, because
that's the entire game you'replaying.
You're not playing a money game, you're playing a happy game.
(41:10):
Yeah, it's like.
Yeah, it's like, yeah, well, wecan get caught up sometimes,
you know, focusing on the dollaronly in the destination, but
let's not forget that we musthave fun getting there, because
that's 99% of where we're goingto spend.
Our time is getting there, youknow.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, it goes back to the very beginning of our
conversation.
You know I told you that Iexperienced you as someone who's
really present and that's why Ithink you have the instincts to
connect with.
Maybe the unusual or untypicalis probably better stated, like
you know animals and likecreating systems to connect
virtually, because being in thepresent is ultimately where the
(41:51):
joy is Right.
And I love that, becausewherever I've ever been sad is
from two things it's scared,anxious, sad.
It's because either I wantthings to be different now than
they are or I'm too busyfocusing on the future and what
might be.
So if I can just focus on whatI have right now and today and
be grateful, I can find more joyin the journey.
And it always comes down toconnection Because the more like
(42:13):
I will tell you, my boy isgoing back to Africa.
When I went with those, thosefour boys, I was anticipating
they would love the safari andall those fun things and that
they were going to look at thatweek of serving as like this
work and they'd be glad they didit.
But ultimately we're glad itwas over.
The first day, the first day, Iasked my youngest son, who
started crying I'm like we wereleaving and he started crying.
I'm like why are you crying,bud?
And he started crying.
(42:33):
I'm like why are you crying,bud?
You sick?
Do you have malaria?
I mean, we're in Africa andhe's like no, dad, I've just
never been happier in my life.
I think this is what heavenfeels like.
You know, I think we can findheaven in the eyes of a deer or
in a village, but it doesn'tmatter physically as much as
where we are mentally in thatpresent.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
What a great experience and gift to your kids
also to have them go throughsuch an experience.
It's amazing, awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Well, thank you for this amazing experience, Jeff,
being with me now, in thispresent and as people are
listening to us.
Thank you for listening tobeing with us.
You could be anywhere right now, but as you're working out or
in your car or on a walk, thankyou for being with us.
We're so grateful for yourpresence, your time, your
attention and being present.
And, Jeff, where can peoplefind you?
(43:22):
Please tell us your Instagramas well as how to contact you
professionally.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
If you're curious about my personal life and
animals.
I don't talk much about VFDonline, but it's Jeff, it's my
name, jeff Latam, pretty easy,and for virtual finesse, the
website's the best place to go.
So yeah, I'm not super busywith virtual finesse online.
Maybe it will come, you know,but we've not put too much
effort on there.
Like we have a LinkedIn, wegood online, you know, take care
(43:49):
of Google's and the SEO online.
But social media for a SaaS itwill come Like a hotel, you know
, like the Airbnb business wewere much busier, but a SaaS
company will wait.
We are putting our effortssomewhere else right now.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Right now and you're growing and doing a great job.
Jeff, Thank you so much forbeing a part of our show, and
I'll put all that information inthe show notes that people can
easily click and find you thatway as well.
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Thanks to you, will.
Thanks for the interview.
It's a pleasure and well, it'sa pleasure doing the interview
and it's a pleasure working withyou partnering.
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Thank you, my man, thank you, guys, and thanks for
listening, and we'll see younext time.
Guys, thank you for taking timeto listen to today's episode.
If you found today'sinformation to be useful, could
you take a minute and help me?
I would love it if you couldleave a podcast review in your
app so that other people who arelooking for this information
can find it.
Plus, my dream is to have thelargest network of medical
(44:41):
entrepreneurs and leaders in theworld so that together, we can
change healthcare to make itbetter for all.
So, in addition, if you canthink of anyone that you can
send this to, not only wouldthat mean a lot to me personally
, but it would build thisnetwork so that we can make
healthcare the way that we wantit.
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