How Jeff Letendre Uses Animal Therapy to Transform Patient Experiences

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Hey, rockstars. Today we are super excited to have our guest, Jeff Latandre from Virtual Front Desk. He's the CEO and founder of this amazing software that allows us to virtually bring in human beings to check in individuals at our front desk. But that's not the main focus. You are going to learn all about his business, the pros, the cons, all that great stuff. But I really want you to focus on Jeff's story right out of the gate. He has an unusual talent of connection and this is partly where, and you'll see in the podcast episode how he's gone from being this almost savant level connector with animals with an Instagram following. Over hundred thousands of people who watch him as he nurtures animals back to life and helps them live in his home in Canada. But he's also helping people connect virtually so that we can improve efficiency, save money, but actually improve the patient care experience. As we transition to this technological age of virtual front desks, we're going to go through all sorts of leadership concepts. He has unbelievable recommendations at the end of the podcast for books and some other leadership concepts. I'm so excited for you to listen to Jeff. Enjoy the show.

I have like 100,000 Something followers, so it's fun. Yeah. That is so cool.

Okay, so I gotta follow your account. So is it just your name?

Yeah, it's just my name. I don't really talk. It's my personal account. I talk about a lot of stuff like fitness, veganism, but it's mainly animals because that's what really people are into. So it's fun.

You've inspired me. Since we've obviously got such a spiritual connection that I've decided I want to get into much better shape after talking to you a lot more too. So I will definitely follow your. Your Instagram for sure. Just how do I pronounce your last name, by the way?

I mean, like Latandre, probably in English. I have raccoons and a deer right now. So the deer is. The deer is. Man. It's. It's unbelievable. It's. I don't know how lucky I got. But I'm on the phone right there on. On my terrace and I see this phone coming out of the woods alone. So I say, oh, the mother must be near somehow, somewhere. But it's still cute, you know, still rare. So I hang up with my friend and I try to call this thing, I try to get closer and she just ran away in the woods. I see her again the day after and she's still Alone. And then this time I retake my time. My dogs are inside. I get to get a little closer to me. She looks at me and she seems a bit lost. And there's no mom, so. And I, we. I live near a highway and we often kill deer, you know, like road kill by accident.

Sure.

So I was like, shit, she probably lost her mom and she's alone and she doesn't know what to do. I grabbed a bottle of milk with, you know, this was with something to, to suck on it. And I attached it to the deer feeder like about like a meter high. And within, within no time that thing went to. It started sucking the milk and she.

Started drinking because she was starving.

She must have been starving. She must have smelled the milk and said, hey. But it's like. And the day after I did it again. And within no time I took that bottle in my hand and she went straight for it, even though I was there. And she looked at me in the eye and she was like, you're my daddy. That's it, that's all. And she never left me after that. And now she's a full grown adult. I see her every morning, every night. She sometimes walk into the house I take walk with her in the woods. She's completely free. She's always been wild, but she's my best friend from the forest. And it's unbelievable. Like. Like this morning I was brushing her. Like every morning she comes for a brush. So she likes to be brushed. I brush her entire body, like the neck, the face. I go under her belly, the legs. She loves it. So that's how I started, my dear.

So basically you have a pet deer.

I have a pet wild deer. That's the thing. She's wild.

Yeah. You don't have any guardrails keeping her in or anything like that. She can leave whenever she wants. She can go wherever she wants. Is she out? Like is she out? Does she disappear for periods of time or does she come back and like.

Yeah, I didn't see her the entire winter because she actually met a group of deer. She met a mother and two youngs last fall. That was my idea. Said I would try to have her meet other deals so they would bump together and form a family. And that's what happened last fall. And they vanished for most of the winter, funny enough. And in the spring I even saw a carcass of a young deer next to my land here. And it was devoured so only like legs were, were left in bits of skin. So I thought I was sad that must have been Fairy. Her name is Fairy.

You know fairy is the name of the fawn.

Yeah, Fairy. So, but then late April, she shows up out of nowhere, super thin, but alive and well. And I was 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 she has this gold color on her coat. It's beautiful. You have no idea the intelligence, the emotion of these animals. No wonder Disney made them a star. They have those big eyes, but they're so smart and calm and majestic and they're very, very special. Raccoons are special. They're amazing. But they're more like a breed within a cat and a dog. We're more used to it.

But deer, men and I had never idea, I know. Idea that deer were like that. It's so interesting that because I can hear that you actually have a relationship with this deer. Like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it goes both ways and it's non verbal, obviously, but it's one of those where there's a parental connection between you and this fawn.

Yeah.

And man, that is unbelievable. So how long, how long have you been taking care of this ferry?

It's a full year almost and a half now because I found her last spring. I mean, it was late spring when I found her and she's still here today. So it's over a year now.

So this animal passion that you have, which has driven this huge following on social media with a hundred thousand plus followers, where did that begin? Where does that originate from?

Jeff, to be honest with you.

I started with.

I started with raccoons. A friend of mine called me, said, hey, we found those raccoons. I know, Jeff, you love animals. Because I've been vegan forever, so I was in love with animals since 98, so over 25 years now. And she said, jeff, you live in nature, you're good with animals. You have two dogs. Would you take care of these raccoons? I'm sure you could do it. They were tiny, three and a half week old. They're still blind. You have to give them milk and you have to become their parents. 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 so that's how, that's how it started. On the first year, I didn't know what I was doing, but I built Them a big enclosure outside. And I started filming what I was doing. And people like all this. This is so cool. And it's only about six, seven months down the line that all of a sudden the account went viral. So I wasn't expecting this at all. It went really viral because then I had the coons, but then I had the deer coming up into the picture. So now I was mixing videos of a young fawn and who doesn't like a young fang drinking a bottle. I mean, it's very weird. It's very unusual. And all these animals are wild now. Like the raccoons, they don't stay with me very long. They stay with me like three or four months, and I release them, and then they free on the land. And I see them at night. Sometimes they visit. Like, it's all very wild and free. And I think that's what people like. And I always take the chance to talk about the food. You know, like, if you love animals, don't torture them or eat them or murder them. You know, if you love them, you love them all because. And the account shows that wild animal are behaving exactly like a dog or a cat. There's absolutely no difference. And Fairy, even you would say, oh, they're just deer. You know, they're this, they're that, because we put tag on them. But at the end of the day, what I've learned, I mean, I knew this, but now it's firsthand with my experience with them. They are like us. They are like our dog, our cats. It's just us giving them a tag, you know, oh, this is a wild animal. We can shoot them. But if you were close to Fairy, if you get a chance to brush her, to see, to speak to her, how could you ever shoot an animal like that unless you really have to?

You have a spiritual connection, though. I think it's what most people don't have, is that exposure. Recently, I took my family to Africa, and we had this opportunity to get exposed to a completely different culture. And we're big travelers. We've been to 34 countries. But this was a different experience because we were really focusing on poverty, and it was so different. I think just the reason I'm bringing this up, because it parallels what you're saying. When you and Fawn connected, you and Ferry, the font connected, and you understood, 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. It's a. It's a living thing to need to be seen and heard in our own way. Right? And when we're overseas, we were over there to be like, you know, these saviors coming around, giving money and helping them out. But what we. What ended up happening was this organization was really against that. They're like, no, we want to empower them. You go over there to be a student, kind of like how you were with this Fawn, where you were serving them, you were serving her in a very, like.

Here'S the bottle, walk away. She takes it. And then over time, there's a connection there. That's what we did. We were over there, we did bring some money and some things, but we were learning how to sweep their dirt floors with leaves from a tree, and they were teaching us how to make rice from scratch. And they were teaching us just all these things. And it was empowering them because they were the teachers, we were the students. And I'm not kidding you, man, it changed my heart completely in how I see poverty. Because what I realized in that lesson is that there's different degrees of poverty. And like, in my world, we think of them not having materialism as being completely poor, but they have levels of abundance that I'm poor in. Like, emotionally with social media and different levels, they don't have that. So going back to Fawn, I think the reason I say all this is because when we connected to that world, it changed our lens completely. And when you're saying is when you're connected to this deer, you see animals differently, you understand their existence, and it changes just how you operate.

I mean, it's beautiful. We're on the same page. It's. It's allowing yourself to take off your. Your filter when you look at an animal or when you look at a poor people, like you were just saying. And you just look at them from the being they are without what society made you think they are. You know, like, you brush all of this aside, you take a moment, you take a few seconds, you just look at. You just look at that being. And then you realize, oh, my God, they are a spiritual being just like us. They may not have a religion, but it's a being in a physical body, experimenting earth the exact way that I do in different circumstances. We're not smarter than them. We just have different physical tools and they're doing very well with what they have. Think that these beings, they raise their kids, they mate, they find their food, they heal themselves. They have to understand now modern human behavior, how does that work? They have to weather, go through winter they have to go through hunting. They have foes, they have friends, they have 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 to survive by their own. So they are extremely intelligent in their own ways. It's just that we sometimes think that we're more intelligent than them because we build planes. But if I was to ask you, will, can you build a plane? You can't, you know, it's just that it's, it's build up information from previous humans put together. And you said, but then I'm going to ask you, can you fly on your own? Then the bird would say, well, you stupid, you can't fly. You need to build a machine. I can fly. A bear can smell something two miles away. You know, a fish can, can swim underwater and breathe. So we all have our own sets of tools. And if you, if you go, if you put your ego aside and you look at them, you realize how wonderful these little earthy cousins are and they deserve our respect and if anything, our protection.

So I experienced you from that place of being a guy who's just very aware of being present and connecting. Like, you know, as I've gotten to know you, I see you as this individual who's. I'm not surprised by this. I mean, it is a little bit cool and unique in the sense that you have this following based on this unique skill that you have, because I think it's also a skill to connect with animals. But I also know from having interacted with you that that is what you also bring to your company as well. You bring that ability to connect, which is kind of interesting because what you do professionally is about connection as well. You know what I mean?

Never seen it this way. Yeah, interesting.

Yeah, it is. So just kind of like for the audience, tell people what you do and why that comment is so relative.

Yeah, basically what I do, the CEO of that's what I do now, is the CEO of a virtual friend s, which is a video reception app. You could call it a visitor management app, but I like video reception app. Sounds more like it because we are centered around the human experience, like the human interaction, the video call.

Basically. This app started off, if you're curious actually to know how I started the app.

Absolutely.

Back at some point, my first business was a vacation rental business, hotel business. And I was running these Airbnbs in Montreal like a hotel. And that was the name of the company. Like a hotel, actually. And at some point we started having these bad guests, like street gang that would rent our apartment. When I got to 10, 15 apartments, I started getting trashed. People would rent the apartment through Airbnb. They would come in there, do a party, and they would destroy the apartment like the destroy wheel. They would break everything, tear down the fridge door, rip open the the sofas, like break all the frames, steal, jump on the sound system. Don't steal anything. They just destroy the place.

Oh, man.

Happens like it happened twice, back to back. So I was like, I'm screwed. How am I ever going to go through it? I only have 15 apartment. And I was always ambitious to have like 500 one day because I want to scale this business. And I was looking at the Hiltons, the hotels, and I was like, how come they have 500 rooms? They don't get that problem. And I do it only 15. And it clicked that. Well, they have a reception, Jeff. Everybody who rents a room at the Hilton, they have to provide the id. They have to provide a credit card that will match their name so they cannot just vanish. If they break something, they'll be caught. So then I said, okay, how can I implement a reception in my Airbnb business? And that's where the virtual front desk idea came. And I believe, and that was back in 2015, that I was the first in the world to use a video call to do check ins. So I looked online, I didn't see anything like that. And I thought about, okay, now you have those touchscreen all in one computer, a bit like our iPhone. What if I was putting this on the corridor of my buildings? You would click the check in, it would call my receptionist that working from home, I would ask for an id, look at their face, make sure the credit card matches what I have in the system. And if it didn't, and if they were telling me, oh, I'm just coming in to grab the key for my friend, I'll say, no, no, no, no. When I will see your friend with the same name as the reservation and the id, I will let you in, I will give you the call to the apartment. Right now. No one's getting into the apartment. And it stopped all my problem in one go.

So you did it? You put those videos up?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I hired a bunch of students and say, hey, this is the idea that I have. So it was internal. It was my little trade secret for like a hotel. None of my competitors understood how I could grow so fast. And then owners were throwing keys at me, and at the End I was managing, like, 125 doors. So it was a good business. And after 25,000 chicken. And unfortunately, I told myself, I have to do an app with this and go public and like a hotel. Unfortunately, the city here in Montreal, they changed the law. And even though I had a permit for all the doors that I was doing, they taxed me like crazy, like, if I was a hotel. Anyway, they did everything they could to close us down, and I had to shut down this company. But then I say, okay, no problem. It happens. You know, everything happens for a reason. But you have to put virtual Fadesk on the market then. And then I went with. I found another investor to solve this company with. Then we started catering for hotels and Airbnbs. And here we are today, you know, and we were hit by the pandemic, lost all of our revenue in one go. And then I sat down and said, okay, with whatever little money we have left, we have to turn this over. You know, we have to rebrand and we have to start offering our services to medical clinics, to lawyers offices, to government office, because everybody's afraid of touching anybody, and everybody's afraid of someone coughing. So our video is virus. And, you know, Covid, you're not going.

To get Covid for the TV screen.

Yeah. So I think that's our chance, actually, guys. So we managed to flip thing over, and that's. That's where we at really, today. So hotels and Airbnbs are only like, 5% of our businesses now. It's. It's a very small percentage now.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting because you've gone really big into the health care space and really helping entrepreneurs solve that problem. I think for a lot of, you know, for me, PT practices in particular is where I was raised and where I speak to mostly. And I think the biggest concern people face in doing that goes back to our initial discussion about the deer, is that there's something magical when you see someone in the eyes and you can connect with them. And I think that's what a lot of us. For me, this concept back when I had my handful of locations in Arizona, would have been very scary because I would have been worried about losing that connection, because that is a huge part of the patient experience. And they're like, obviously in the Airbnb space, that still is valuable, as is other spaces. But why do you think it's growing in the healthcare space and speak maybe into that concern of, like, you know, losing the potential of losing connection because they're not physically there.

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 those clinics would throw front office staff. It's not easy. So that's one concern for sure. It's costly. And also I think that you work with a good percentage of people that are a bit older, maybe an older generation, and they're not so friendly with technology and pressing button and choosing options. So they like things to be simple 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 Virtual Friend Esque is very. I think it's an efficient tool because it kind of blends the two, where it allows you to find staff anywhere you want because you don't have to staff locally. You still provide that human experience. And actually, if you have customers 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, call receptionist or call for help. A big button call for help. So if you're good with the buttons, great. But if you want to speak to someone, call for help. Someone shows on the screen smiling, there you go. So I think it's the blend of the two that makes it very efficient.

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 be a problem. But what I'm finding is that many people, what they want is efficiency, and they still need that connection. And it's all based on connection. Again, this is a theme that's in your life, Jeff, from how you connect. I would say if there's a theme from the little that I've known you over the past few weeks, is that you are a connector in unpredictable ways. You wouldn't predict that you'd connect with animals or with people creating a technology to create a connection between people over technology the way that you do. But that's what you're about to. And that's what happens here, is that when you have the right person on the other side of the screen, it doesn't matter that it's a screen. What matters is that they can still see you in the eyes. And I would tell you that, for me, I love the idea that we can leverage from a business model, better people, lower cost, because you can spread them out differently. There's all different solutions that exist out there. So, yeah, man, I think that's fantastic that you have built that model out and seen that success. And another thought that I just had quickly is how you started. The need for it to begin with was more about protection. Like the Airbnb concept that you built was more about, like, protecting, connecting to protect.

Yeah. And also efficiency and customer service because there was no reception in any Airbnbs back in the days. And, you know, you go to rent an Airbnb. Have you rented Airbnbs before?

I have, and I have a couple that I own.

Okay. That you own. Okay. How often do you physically meet your guest?

Never.

There you go. And. But Airbnb is all about connecting to communities, you know, but at the end of the day, the reality is that you never meet with your host because your host 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 a while, say, hey, you know what, here's the key, here's the code, here's the address. Thank you. Bye. But the virtual front desk were allowing us to really meet those guests face to face, each one of them, and they all loved it. And our review online on Airbnb went up to the roof and on booking.com and Expedia, because we're the only one doing that. And they really felt like they knew us. And just going back to your point about connection, it's something that we brought to the table renting Airbnbs.

So the rock stars that are listening, the thing that I want to point out here is that.

It is way more effective to have the right person virtually than an average or poor person in person. And that was my experience. Owning a practice, Jeff, is that I had numerous practices. I eventually learned and developed this really difficult way of having find great people. I found great people, but it wasn't easy. But up until then, I was hiring people who oftentimes made me feel like they were doing me a favor by showing up.

Oh.

And so, look, everyone in the world can relate to the experience of going into an outpatient medical clinic, whether it's PT or a doctor or surgeon of. Of orthopedics or whatever. You walk in and you're going to this specialist who's going to charge you maybe tens of thousands of dollars for a surgery, but the person at the front desk acts like they're in a drive through at a fast food chain, which. And I'm not knocking people who work at Drive Thrus, you know, because ultimately I've had some great experiences, but the experience, the customer service has to be elevated. What would you say to people who are like, yeah, but Virtual Front Desk is going to diminish the customer service experience.

What would you say to that, to the country? I would say first of all, if you have bad staff or poor stuff, it's probably because you lack the resources around in the local area. Maybe you don't have enough people available so you have to settle down for lesser quality people, let's say. But Virtual Friend Desk will allow you to source from anywhere in your country. Let's say that we stick to the states so you will get more CVs, better quality CVs. And I would say that a lot of people want to work from home because it's like a bonus. You know, you have maybe a single mom, one week out of two, she works from home and then they will love what they do because it's very advantageous for them. You can take the best because your pool is much larger. And if you give them a hand, hey listen, I want to work a long time with you. I want to provide you with a good computer or I'm going to send you a very good quality camera, maybe a second monitor. So you have two monitors, one for the emr, the other one just for Virtual Front Desk. So when someone shows up at the screen, it's like if they're standing at the front of it with you, they have a good system of headphones, even a chair, whatever. Take care of your staff in the comfort of their home. They have a digital background. Maybe you can get them a little T shirt representing your brand. These guys, they will love what they do because they working from home. And so it's great. No traffic, they can take a little pause, there's no call, there's notification, they can go in the kitchen, make themselves a coffee or sandwich. Oh, the computer rings, they go back to the computer. So it's a good job to have. And I think this allow you guys to create super receptionists that will stick to you and provide an excellent service. So no, to the contrary, I think this will Virtual Friend Desk can definitely improve your customer service.

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Oh, yeah.

And we measure that. Yeah. So why do you think again, maybe this is just beating a dead horse, but why do you think that is?

Again, I think it's difficult to find the right staff to keep yourself. And I suppose I do a lot of demos every day with physicians and they Always say, oh, my God, it's so difficult to find people. And she just the latest one, and we have to train them. You know, it's a long time and then they go and it's just. It seems to be one of the biggest pain and biggest challenges in their clinics. I don't know because I'm not a physician, but that's what I hear from my clients. So. Yeah. And the video technology has changed the way we do business in so many ways. It has improved the way we do business. Like, look at what we're doing now. Normally I would have had to drive, you know, go to you and maybe film this and put this on another kind of media. But now we can use Video Call. It's amazing. I'm having so much fun doing this. Think about all the poor salesmen in the back in the past that have to drive into their car to their next meeting with the little calendar and then meeting this guy waiting in the waiting room, meeting their client, going back to their car at the parking, go to the next address. The cost and the inefficiency right now. Zoom Call. You want to speak to your lawyer. Zoom Call. Video Call. Like, it's awesome. So I think it's just a matter of time, but most reception area will start using these tools. It's just a matter of time. A customer service hub. You at the airport.

You need information about your flight. You know, you may have someone standing there, but why don't you have these little hubs here and there? You click on the button, you have a super receptionist working for your airline. Oh, hello. How can I help you today? It's gyms. I mean, I'm not going to name, but everywhere you see a reception. Eventually we'll use some kind of video reception. I think it's the. It's the present and the future. It just makes so much sense.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of grocery stores when they started doing the self checkout. And people are like, why would I check myself out and work harder for a service I don't have to pay for? And everyone, like, is in line because we understand that efficiency and time matter. So when we can improve customer service and then improve efficiency and time, we automatically win. So now that we've covered all that, Jeff, I think for me what's really top of mind is that I know a lot of people who haven't ever done this, which is going 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 wonderful team and great people that work with you, so maybe you could just speak into from a place of experience of, like, what does that look like? Like, you know, I guess the other thing I, when I had my front desk, I would just physically go up and be like, how was your weekend? We connect. All right, how's it going? What do you need help with? So when it comes to oversight of a team that's virtual, could you have any experiences that you could share with.

That as like, virtual friend desk? Specifically, how.

No, more for, like, your company, like, people that you work with and like, how you run meetings and like, how do you oversee people in that regard?

Same, same answer. Video call a lot. I mean, we do all our videos, all our meetings through videos. We're a big user of Slack, the customer now. We have a live chat in the app Virtual Friends and also on the website. And when people are talking to me or writing to me in the chat, the first thing I say, oh, you're available right now to jump on a call, I click the video button and I start 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 forest here in north of Montreal. I'm alone, but I connect with people 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 and listen to my issue. And I say, hey, you know what? Just share your screen. I'm going to help you. And then you share screen with them. You, you see your station there, just add the button there, click, save it, just refresh, boom, fixed. Man, this is as good as it gets, customer service wise. So, yeah, my answer is that I use a lot of video calls in my day. It's just. I like it personally. And when a client is not switching the camera on, I ask them, oh, I don't see you.

They say, oh, yes, because I'm not there, don't worry. And then they switch it on and, hey, Jeff. And then you have that kind of friendly relationship. And we released a new interface not long ago and I'm getting many emails. Hey, Jeff, congratulations for the interface. I like it. Like, we're a bunch of. I wouldn't say friend, you know, but.

We take care of each other. It's fun.

I love that because I think it's really. When you, by the way, when you had that thought of, like, hey, I can't see you turn on your camera. I just wondered if you ever gone, oh, you can turn it back off.

No, but like, for me, I have, currently I have over 100 employees. I actually haven't met 90% of them. So for me, I will tell you the reason I asked that question is because you're in a tech space. You know, from your origin, healthcare providers, it's a different kind of going back to the deer. It feels like this whole podcast is about going back to the deer. Until you see it and experience it, you don't understand it. So it's on paper a huge out point for a lot of medical leaders because again, where is their world? It's right in front of their hands and they use their hands in all cases and they're dealing with what's physically in front of them. So the little success they've had in management correlates with that in the sense that they've had to have face to face discussions. But I will say that it was scary for me as well. As I was building my new company all virtual and I was shocked how it's like, I always like equate it to a different muscle. It is, it is a different muscle, but it's not hard to develop. You know, this is something that like just takes a little bit of commitment and practice to. And once we're in it, I have a hard time going back. I reserve physical face to face conversations whenever there's something really big on the line, like a merger acquisition, I will fly out. If there's anything that is like super high. But everything else, the amount of time that was honestly wasted in, oh, they're five minutes late and they come in and then they, they need water and the restroom and then we sit down and then it's like, oh my gosh, you know, you're sweating and is all gone and what's left isn't a lack of communication or connection, it's actually a hyper focus of it. And I think when people can see it and they can look it in the eye, this new way of being, they'll catch on very quick. That's what I really want to commend 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 is develop a product that works seamlessly. I've, I've had clients work with your product. It just flows. What I also love is that it's very customizable. Like there's so many things you can do with it, that can customize it for the need of the client. And I don't know if you can speak into that, but, yeah, I'd love for people to understand, like, what that could look like.

Yeah, Even more so. As I mentioned, we just released a new update, and you have even more customization that you can do with your station. The visualization, because I think that your visual is what you present on your station, is very personal. And I want those stations to look as good as the client's branding. So now it's almost limitless. You can have pictures, you can have that background, you can have your own logo, you can change the color, the font. So this is a new tool, and I have even more customization coming down the pipe. But it's great what you can do right now with this new interface. You can do whatever you want, whatever you have in mind for your station. We used to only have, like, a background and a button. You can even change the color of the button. You know, it was very basic with almost an MVP at first. So we've gone a long way now, and I'm not going to say what we have in mind, but there's even more stuff coming up, and we always releasing new features and updates every quarter, so we keep ourselves very busy.

Okay, very good. Well, you got it, guys. Jeff's a visionary. He was one of the pioneers of this technology. He's got more coming to help offload 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. What is. Let's go with a book recommendation. What's a book that you like to recommend to people who are just in general. It could be entertaining, it could be business, whatever you want.

I would say one that. I would say that's pretty incredible. It's almost science fiction that as an entrepreneur, you have to read Elon Musk's biography.

Oh, yeah.

If I believe that anybody on earth is an alien, it would be this guy, because he could unzip his face.

And I would believe, as an off.

Course, we'd all like, oh, that makes sense. Finally, we'd all be like, that's totally natural.

Yeah. And it's the only guy that motivates me, but also makes me feel like crap all at once, you know, because I look at everything this guy is doing. So, my God, Jeff, go. You can do it. But then you look at his capacity and everything he's done, and you feel like you've not achieved anything in your Life. But it's. It's an unbelievable book to read, I would say, because his story is crazy. How he started with writing down like, you know, a kind of online yellow pages, then sold it, made like 20 million something, then attacked the bank, you know, with PayPal, which was called actually x dot com. That's why Twitter is turned into.

I didn't know that. Yeah.

And they merged into another company. And then basically the guy.

Beat the bank at their own game, the banks, you know, something very difficult to do. Then he beats the car manufacturer at their own game, starting from nothing new experience. And then he beats NASA at their own game, building better rockets that NASA ever built all by himself before he's 50. I'm telling you, you would see a movie like this guy and say, oh, that's pure science fiction. It's impossible in a lifespan that a guy can achieve so much and. OpenAI and Jesus.

Starlink Will, I just ordered my Starlink last week.

You have one? I have one too here. Now I don't need like, oh, I'm going to put 12,000 satellites in the air. 12,000. And you're going to have the first worldwide Internet available. And oh, by the way, I'm going to use my own space shuttle to. To put them in space that I built myself. And I have time to waste, so I'm going to test sending one of my car into space, into orbits around bloody Mars or whatever. It's unbelievable.

So the guy's unreal. I love also like how he's in a $50,000 home called Boxabl. That's right next to his place of business. The guy doesn't care about things that maybe most of us do and admittedly maybe myself, but like, you just, you see that focus and he's got a mission. So I love the booker recommendation.

Jeff, that was second one. Booker business again. I mean, you know the guy, obviously, Richard Branson, I think. I think the one I have is losing my virginity or something. How I built my Incredible billionaire. But he starts the book with a line that is. That really stuck to me to this day and actually that I have to apply even. Even better. He starts his book by saying, I might not be the richest man in the world, you know, like he's a billionaire, but he's not the richest billionaire. But there's something that I'm number one at. Out of all these guys, I'm the one that had the most fun building my billion dollar business.

Gee, isn't that worth more than money?

And then he starts, you Know how he started his record company, how he did his first transatlantic flight, you know, having these bottles of champagne with everybody and this. And he's, you know, like, all the stunts that he's done, like, oh, yeah. Air balloon across the ocean. And how he launches company by doing crazy things like ice bought an exotic island. And the guy.

The guy is happiness on legs to me. And it's great because at the end of the day, why are we doing what we're doing? We're doing it because we want to have fun. You know, we think that business will make us happy. So it's like, don't forget to have fun along the way, because that's the entire game you're playing. You're not playing a money game, you're playing a happy game.

Yeah.

Well, we can get caught up sometimes focusing on the dollar only in the destination. But let's not forget that we must have fun getting there, because that's 99% of where we're going to spend our time is getting there.

Yeah. It goes back to the very beginning of our conversation. I told you that I experience you as someone who's really present. And that's why I think you have the instincts to connect with. Maybe the unusual or untypical is probably better stated, like, you know, animals and like, creating systems to connect virtually. Because being in the present is ultimately where the joy is. Right? And I love that, because wherever I've ever been, sad is from two things. It's scared, anxious, sad. It's because either I want things to be different now than they are, or I'm too busy focusing on the future and what might be. So if I can just focus on what I have right now and today and be grateful, I can find more joy in the journey. And it always comes down to connection, because the more, like I will tell you, my boy is going back to Africa. When I went with those. Those four boys, I was anticipating they would love the safari and all those fun things and that they were going to look at that week of serving as, like, this work, and they'd be glad they did it. But ultimately, we're glad it was over. The first day, the first day, I asked my youngest son, who started crying. I'm like, we were leaving. He started crying. I'm like, why are you crying, bud? You sick? Do you have malaria? I mean, we're in Africa. And he's like, no, dad, I've just never been happier in my life. I think this is what heaven feels like. I think we can find heaven in the Eyes of a deer or in a village, but it doesn't matter physically as much as where we are mentally in that present.

What a great experience and gift to your kids on also to have them go through such an experience, it's. It's amazing. Awesome.

Well, thank you for this amazing experience, Jeff, being with me now in this present and as people are listening to us. Thank you for listening, to being with us. You could be anywhere right now, but as you're working out or in your car on a walk, thank you for being with us. We're so grateful for your presence, your time, your attention, and being present. And Jeff, what. What can. Where can people find you? Please tell us your. Your Instagram, as well as how to contact you professionally.

If you're curious about my personal life and animals. I don't talk much about VFD online, but it's Jeff. It's my name, Jeff Latan. Pretty easy. And for virtual fines, the website's the best place to go. So, yeah, I'm not super busy with virtual finesque online. Maybe it will come, you know, but we've not put too much effort on there. Like, we have a LinkedIn. We go online, you know, take care of Google and the SEO online. But social media, for a SaaS, it will come like a hotel, you know, like the Airbnb business, we were much busier, but a SaaS company. We'll wait. We are putting our efforts somewhere else right now.

Right now. And you're growing and doing a great job, Jeff. Thank you so much for being a part of our show. And we'll put all that information in the show. Notes that people can easily click and find you that way as well.

Awesome. Thanks to you. Will, thanks for the interview. It's a pleasure and. Well, it's a pleasure doing the interview and it's a pleasure working with you, partnering. It's awesome.

Thank you, my man. Thank you guys and thanks for listening and we'll see you next time. Guys, thank you for taking time to listen to today's episode. If you found today's information to be useful, could you take a minute and help me? I would love it if you could leave a podcast review in your app so that other people who are looking for this information can find it. Plus, my dream is to have the largest network of medical entrepreneurs and leaders in the world so that together we can change healthcare to make it better for for all. So, in addition, if you can think of anyone that you can send this to, not only would that mean a lot to me personally, but it would build this network so that we can make healthcare the way that we want it.