Justin Bantuelle & Michael Roberts | COO & CMO, Health Connective | Improving Patient Outcomes & Streamlining Processes

Justin Bantuelle (COO) and Michael Roberts (CMO) of Health Connective discuss the company's role in supporting medtech firms by developing custom web applications for surgical planning, post-operative reviews, and other solutions. Justin and Michael share their personal journeys into medtech, highlighting the rewarding experience of contributing to life-saving technologies. The conversation touches on common challenges in medtech like security and user experience, emphasizing the importance of empathy, active listening, and adaptability in solving complex problems. 

 

Guest links: https://www.healthconnectivetech.com/

Charity supported: Save the Children

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host: Lindsey Dinneen
Editing: Marketing Wise
Producer: Velentium

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Episode 047 - Justin Bantuelle & Michael Roberts

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

 Welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and I'm so excited to introduce you to my guests today. Justin Bantuelle and Michael Roberts. Justin is the Chief Operations Officer and Michael is the Chief Marketing Officer for Health Connective. Both have been working with the company for more than 10 years. Health Connective supports web application development for medtech companies, including online interfaces for pre surgical planning and post operative review, streamlined systems for customer orders, and training portals. They understand that every company's needs are unique, and your solution should be too.

Well, welcome, Justin and Michael. I am so excited to have you guys today. Thanks for joining me.

[00:01:35] Justin Bantuelle: Yeah. Thank you for having us.

[00:01:36] Michael Roberts: Very excited to be here. Thank you.

[00:01:38] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I would love if you wouldn't mind starting off by just sharing a little bit about your background, maybe what led you to medtech and your heart for it. So I'll start with you, Justin.

[00:01:51] Justin Bantuelle: Sure. It was, I kind of fell into it, I guess, initially, which I think on the tech side, probably a lot of people end up doing that. I had a computer science background. I got my bachelor's degree and I started at the company we're at now, Health Connective, out of college. And I've been there for 16, 17 years or something, but we were healthcare focused. And so they needed web development skills. I was a programmer, and that's how I started, but I've learned a tremendous amount since then. So I think coming from that technical angle, this is like where I fell into it. And I've moved up to the company. I manage a lot of people. I manage a lot of client interactions, help build systems that support medical devices, robots, things like that. So I've gathered a tremendous amount of information about this field as a result of that.

And I've stuck with it cause it has been very rewarding. It's something that matters so much to so many people. You see the real Impact that it makes when you help get these products to market. And you see all the research studies that show how much this is transforming these different fields of care. And then just, I think we all have personal experiences with these healthcare systems and the challenges people face, the uncertainties about it. Just talking to like my parents or to friends who know less about the sector and just that I have any kind of insight into it helps assuage fears. And yeah, it just, it matters. And that's very rewarding.

[00:03:18] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

[00:03:20] Michael Roberts: Yeah. I did not set out necessarily to be in medtech as well. Like Justin, long story short, when I got into marketing, I was working more in the hospitality industry, hotels, restaurants, all that kind of stuff. Decided I didn't want to do that anymore and thought, "Where can I get as far away from the hospitality industry as possible?" And so, the funny thing there was some non compete things that I had to deal with from my previous employer. And so I was literally looking for a place that had no overlap with the previous company that I'd worked with as a marketer.

And so I found the company, found Health Connective, and jumped into it and try to bring in the same skill sets. I'll just do some of the SEO and I'll do some digital advertising and some of that kind of stuff. And some of that worked and some of it was just so drastically different, right? Like this is such a different experience for people.

So my first thing that I worked on here at the company was working with orthopedic physicians, helping them out with their marketing. And it was very similar in small business marketing in a lot of ways, but again, drastically different in so many ways. And then one of the first things that I ended up working on within the first few years was working with Olympus on a campaign that they were doing about raising awareness around gastroenterology around going to get your colon checked and all of that fun kind of stuff.

 I have a family member that has a Crohn's disease. And so this was something that very quickly became like, "Oh, this is a part of what we're all experiencing." I was able to go and ask people questions at Olympus. We went to Digestive Disease Week, which I had no idea was a thing, went there and I got to meet with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, just purely as a dad. Being there and just going like, "Can you just tell me how to help my daughter, how to help understand it?"

So that was kind of the thing that really clicked, "This is where I need to be. This is what I need to be doing." Because so many of us are experiencing something like this somewhere in our family, whether it's us as patients, family members, whomever. So that was kind of the big click moment for me.

[00:05:20] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Wow. Yeah, that's powerful. Thank you for sharing that. So could you tell us a little bit about the company and maybe also a little bit about your goals as it continues to grow.?

[00:05:33] Michael Roberts: Yeah, so, you know, we, as a company, we're out there to help MedTech companies with a couple of different kinds of things. So we end up helping the product and sort of R&D side of things. And that may be with robotic devices, if there's different types of data coming off of the device that they want to be able to show back to the different physicians, the different people that are involved with the procedure, that's the type of work that we do.

And I'm super glossing that over and saying that very quickly, but there's a lot of different people that we share this information with that comes off the robot, everybody from physicians to engineers, to field service teams, all those different kinds of folks. And the goal there is just, "Hey, you're obtaining an immense amount of data out of every single procedure. What can you do with that data? How can we help you better utilize that information and improve outcomes and do all those kinds of things?" so that kind of product development and like I said, R&D side of things that's kind of where we fit.

And then on the marketing side I, I kind of refer to it as like the, "Wouldn't it be cool if?" kind of group. It's like, "Wouldn't it be cool if this process that we had didn't suck? That would be awesome. How could we get somebody to help us with that?" So anything from ordering online kinds of processes where, because it's not as simple as just setting up an e commerce solution and just letting it run, you have to have different pricing for every sector and you have to have different contracts with everybody and all of those kinds of things. We can marry a lot of that messy data and make it a seamless experience for people so it doesn't suck.

And so that's what we're hoping for. And then also like, "Wouldn't it be cool if these things could be that much better?" So a lot of efficiencies, a lot of things where again, these systems don't natively talk to one another. How can I get my CRM and all of these other unique data sources that I have to actually cooperate with one another. So, that's the kind of stuff that we set out to do. Again, I'm saying it super simply as opposed to how Justin would be able to define it. But, but those are the things that we're setting out to do for people is improve that customer experience and then get better data coming back from their procedures, that sort of thing.

[00:07:41] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, I would love to dive a little bit more into what does it look like when somebody starts working with you? How do you go from, you know, taking them through lead all the way to your day to day? What does that look like?

[00:07:57] Michael Roberts: Yeah, I'll start the conversation. And then Justin, 'cause Justin takes over at a certain point and I just go, "Hey, let me know if you need anything." But a lot of it is, these kinds of things are very trust driven, right? So we have a lot of messaging out there. We have a podcast, we have advertising that we're doing, we're going to be at a few different trade shows through the rest of 2024, figuring out which ones to be at for next year, but a lot of it does come down to relationships. So somebody has introduced us.

We've started having those kinds of conversations because any of these kinds of things that you're talking about there, there's kind of big, messy problems that aren't easy to fix. They aren't something that you just sign off on quickly that's a 5, 000 a month subscription and off you go. It's a bigger, more thought out process. So a lot of it is that sort of process of, "Hey, let's get to know one another. And then really digging into what problem are you trying to solve?" Everything that we do is a custom solution. So it's not, you don't have to use XYZ systems in order for us to work with you. We can be very flexible on that, but then, so we really get into that kind of problem definition stage, and then Justin, I'll let you kind of take it from there once we get into the problem itself.

[00:09:05] Justin Bantuelle: Sure. Yeah. I mean, the initial touch point with it is really just listening and reassuring that, "I've heard your problem before something similar to it. Okay, you have these different technologies. These are the things that are unique about what you're trying to do in this space. And here's how I can craft a solution for you." So it's a lot of listening, helping them along the process of requirements gathering, usually this part of it, this front end data visualization after the fact for a lot of medical device, I find that's not their core competency. Their core competency is the device itself. They've built the device. The device works very well. It achieves something and it solves a problem in the medical space, but then there's all this stuff you have to do after the fact. And so it's like, "Great, this work, the procedure is amazing. And now there's all these things that we need to take action with," and that's where we kind of step in and provide that end of it.

And we augment their teams that they already have. They have several very technical people. They've got brilliant engineers, they probably got brilliant developers involved in a lot of the software written around the device itself. And that's where we understand what their needs are, solutions are, their implementations where there's gaps. And then we help shape that for them and make sure it matches what they need. Yeah, like Michael said, never any one size fits all. It's always very customized. And that's where we shine is helping just lead them through that. They don't need to micromanage it. They're not just hiring a handful of developers and needing to tell them what to do. It's like, we take it kind of from, "You articulated the problem. We'll fully craft and implement a solution for you and then work alongside you for assessing how that works, how much it's solving your problems, what emergent needs are there, what maybe needs iteration."

So we also view this as long term engagements typically, and we find that's what works well for our customers as well. Usually you're not just building something and then just abandoning it. Hopefully this goes for years and years as a successful product that you continue to iterate on, improve in the field, and then you necessarily need these other systems to work alongside it. So, I find that a lot of people have a bit of a fear that. We'll build something for you and then kick it over the wall, and then now your team has to manage it. Good luck. And I don't like operating that way. I enjoy continuing to see the success of something I build. I like standing by what we have built. And so that's kind of our outlook on it, I guess, and how we try to assist people a little bit on the side, I guess, maybe, but hopefully that made sense.

[00:11:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. No, that's incredible. Thank you so much. So, you know, I know you said that one of the strengths that your company brings is having this flexibility, being able to, like you said, be very customized with your approach to different companies and really help them because no problem is exactly the same. But I am curious, have you come across some themes that are a little bit common, especially in the medtech industry, that perhaps folks who are in the process of developing something could be aware of. What are some of the things that you commonly see that your company could help or they should be thinking through.

[00:12:15] Justin Bantuelle: I think that security is a big one that tends to get overlooked until the project is finished. And then you're going through some final regulatory steps and the security team comes in and assesses it and goes, "You didn't think about any of this." And now you're re architecting like half of what you built. I think that's probably the biggest pain point I see. There's like a major gap in looking at that. And it's important everywhere, but a lot of fields aren't as highly regulated, so they get away with not sweating it as much until it bites them. Whereas you can't really do that here. You're not launching if you didn't put these considerations in place.

And that's something that I think it's more unique to a handful of sectors where, and medtech is one of them, where you're really hurting yourself if that's not at the forefront of your mind. And so somebody who's not used to those considerations is probably not going to build you the right thing up front. And you're maybe not knowing how to articulate for this part of what's being built as a client that "No, you really need to think about this. We're going to be doing this as part of the process afterwards." Usually it's a completely separate team and it's all part of the documentation, filing it, getting it all in right at the end. And that's a terrible time to find out that you should've thought about something. So that's the biggest one that comes to mind up front.

[00:13:37] Michael Roberts: Yeah, I can jump in as well. I think one of the big things that we don't see a lot of medtech companies do that, that we ended up helping, right? If they had this right, they probably wouldn't need our help as much with it. But one of the things is that I think that, because this is such a complicated industry, everybody kind of gets used to sort of a cruddy experience. You know, it's like, "Well, man, this system is really slow, but you know, it's okay. It's just an internal tool." Or, you know, "Just the physicians are using this one so it's not as bad. We can make it too complex, too messy to whatever." And everybody just seems to say like, "Ah, well, that's good enough."

And I think that, one of the things I've been surprised by that people aren't considering more, is just how much we are all acclimating to an Amazon experience, to all of these kinds of things where we just expect it to work. And then as more and more of these AI systems catch on and we get used to being able to just talk to the systems and they just do what we want them to do, I think that that frustration is going to get more and more apparent even on systems that have nothing to do with AI, even if they never touch it. We're just getting used to faster and faster systems that intuitively work. And there are so, so many in medtech that don't across the board. And it's not just the stuff that we work with, but I think that there's a lot of pain points in that area.

[00:15:00] Justin Bantuelle: That's a really good point as well. Yeah. Yeah. I think most people are familiar at this point with Amazon being able to measure exactly how much money they lose per a 10th of a second longer the page loads, right. And you're right, Michael, that this platform isn't the, like what we're building, these visualizations, these like post procedural dashboards, things like that. Those aren't the product. Those are supplementing it. Those are where you're getting augmented value after the product has done a very good job performing a procedure.

And, so yeah, it's much more-- pretty much every system that physicians use in hospitals, like when you're on a computer in there, if you're a physician, if you're working the desk, whatever you're doing in there, those systems are often ancient, very slow, bad interfaces. And so I think Michael's right that a lot of companies sort of overlook that because they sort of assume this is the norm in this space. It's like, "No, we can do a lot better than that." And that's sort of baseline for us. And that's easy for me to forget that a lot of people are trying to cut corners on that front or not prioritizing that aspect of it. And you do see fall off in usage as a result of it. And yeah it's not something to be neglected.

[00:16:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. So just in general user experience and being able to help companies navigate that. And you know, actually, that goes back to what you were saying earlier, Michael, the idea of "wouldn't it be cool if," you know, so "wouldn't it be cool if this worked really well"...

[00:16:37] Michael Roberts: Right.

[00:16:38] Justin Bantuelle: Right.

[00:16:38] Lindsey Dinneen: ...instead of settling for, like you said, a cruddy experience. Maybe there's something else we could do. And I love that sort of "what if" idea, because it just opens you up to all these possibilities.

[00:16:50] Michael Roberts: Absolutely.

[00:16:50] Justin Bantuelle: There's some things that are sort of corollaries to that, where a lot of groups don't consider. A lot of developers, I find as part of the user experience, so much of that is there's accessibility considerations and how severe a look it is if you're borderline non compliant with ADA, when you're in the medical field, like that's embarrassing, right? And potentially outright illegal.

[00:17:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Right.

[00:17:17] Justin Bantuelle: And these things often also can get overlooked if you don't have somebody who's used to doing this in the space with the interfaces that they're building.

[00:17:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So I'm curious as you've worked with all these different companies and you've had very cool experiences, are there any moments that stand out to you as really confirming to you? Yes, I'm in the right place in the right industry at the right time.

[00:17:45] Michael Roberts: This is a big question. You know, it's interesting. We've been involved in a variety of different types of projects. And as we've talked about stuff going into COVID, you know, when we were prepping for that there was work that we were doing with physicians directly, the stuff that I was, that I started off doing at the company, we still do work with physicians directly. And then we do work with some of the companies that were involved at various stages of vaccine creation process and all that kind of stuff. And so as we were sitting home during COVID and everything's going down and everything's happening all around the world, it's like, "Well, hey, we're at least helping some of these groups navigate this process." We're at least helping out some of these institutions continue running, or helping them get their messaging out or helping them in one way or another.

We actually had a podcast previous to the one that we have now, and it was called The Paradigm Shift of Healthcare. And we named it that before COVID hit. We had no idea that was coming. It was just like, hey, consumers are more of a part of the healthcare process. People are making decisions more on their own and then everything changed about healthcare. And so, definitely made for some interesting conversations about, "Yeah, we had no idea that this is what was coming."

But I do think that going through that process, seeing the provider side of it, what they were dealing with, we dealt with a lot of orthopedic surgeons who had to close their practice during the worst of it, right, when everybody had no clue what was happening. So there was that process. It was a lot of getting communication out on their websites, getting information out that way as they were trying to figure out any kind of remote appointments that they might be able to do. Figuring out that for short term, helping them just get some of that information on their sites and everything. And then, yeah, like with working with the companies as they were going through all this mess and trying to figure out how to allocate resources and all that. So that was probably one of the big times I think of like, "Okay, again, we're in the right space, beyond just this is how it's impacting my family, but it's impacting all of our families right now."

[00:19:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Thank you for sharing. Yeah. How about you, Justin?

[00:19:47] Justin Bantuelle: Yeah, I think I touched on this a little bit in the intro, but something that really stands out to me is working on supporting this robot. I didn't work on the robot itself, but obviously we're working on these systems that are ancillary and critical to the overall business operation of it. And it wasn't at market yet when we were coming in and assisting, and so seeing that process where it went through to market and seeing all of the studies that are continually coming out as they're performing this to submit to the FDA, and the actual tangible data showing the massive improvement in patient outcome and realizing that like, "Yeah, we're working on things that really are transformative for care."

I had no idea how bad the space was in terms of outcomes before this robot was coming in and how much it was going to make things better for patients. Seeing the actual, tangible impact that it was going to have and that it has have since coming to market was really remarkable and something that it was like really proud to be involved in some capacity. And it just made me that much more excited about continuing to support these groups as they're doing this.

[00:20:55] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.

[00:20:56] Justin Bantuelle: It matters. And seeing the numbers on it really drive it home for me.

[00:21:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Both of you have said at various points, things like "it matters," like "matters" has been like a big theme so far. And I think there is so much to that. But I am curious to dial a little bit more into it because, obviously, work in general matters. There's ways that you can make an impact in any field, but what drives you when it's a particularly difficult problem, or frankly, or a difficult client where it's a little bit challenging to maybe see eye to eye. So what continues to motivate and drive you to this work that you know matters so much?

[00:21:41] Justin Bantuelle: I think, for me, it's wild to see that some of this is actually life and death. I never worked on something where like, and even some of what I'd done within medical device was just quality of life, which matters a lot too. But then some of this is about like diagnostics where a delayed outcome, a delayed assessment of the diagnostic and a misdiagnosis due to challenges with diagnostics, these things could be the difference if somebody survives or not, or like how quickly it gets them into treatment. So that's a weightiness that I never dealt with before prior to this. And so that was different than any jobs I had before where, I mean, I cared about things in like retail, but it's still, hopefully nobody's dying as a result of anything if they don't get the right thing.

So there was a weightiness to that, that I guess carries a commensurate responsibility on the same side, is there anything to talk about what keeps me going with it. For me, I don't find myself necessarily pushing through. I don't find client engagement to be that challenging. I find that everybody does care, but miscommunication can happen, but I try not to center myself in any of that. And I find that giving others the benefit of the doubt as well on that usually leads to a pretty comfortable resolution. I'm there to help solve their problem. I'm not there to win an argument or be right on the direction we take, and I've definitely recommended pathways before from a technical standpoint and they just disagree or overrule and I don't think that's necessarily the best pathway, but I defer to their judgment on what they want in this field. And we're still working towards an end goal. If I ever feel like what we're doing is not helpful, then I don't want to take their money and build something that's they're going to be unhappy with.

So, yeah, that, that part of it, I don't really necessarily personally experienced or feel that much, but it does help me just for from a personal motivation standpoint to see the outcomes on this. I don't think you always necessarily get to see that information. Some of our prior retail jobs, I don't know how happy somebody is with something once they go home with it, like unless they're coming in to return it, right? But here, it's not so much about the customer satisfaction the same way. There's very measurable. Improvements to treatment, diagnostic outcome. These things are very measurable, so you can see the results of it. And it's nice to see that you're achieving something with this, that you can

[00:24:16] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.

[00:24:17] Justin Bantuelle: estimate and keep with you as opposed to just hoping that it it's impacting somebody positively.

[00:24:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yeah. Excellent. Do you have anything to add to that, Michael?

[00:24:26] Michael Roberts: Yeah, I'll just quickly touch on-- so I actually came from a ministry background, from a faith background. And so part of, I guess my heritage in that field is this idea of service and this idea of trying to better people's lives in some way. And the concept of, when I started working with the physicians directly and still kind of applies with medtech companies same way is like, in my mind, I frame it as helping the people who help people. You know, really helping equip them so that they don't have to worry about that. They can go do their job. They can focus on the serving that they're doing.

I don't enjoy being the frontline person. So, when I was working for churches and stuff like that, I did some stuff where, you know, I did a mission trip and we built a house in Mexico and you see that like, "Man, this makes such an impact." But it's exhausting and it's hot and it's really tough to do. And, "Wow, what if I could help equip people that are going to be in those kinds of areas?" I could never work in a hospital. I could never be that person. I don't have that mental fortitude. I don't have that emotional fortitude to do that every day. But if we can help make that process easier, I can deal with a lot of stuff in the meantime to help that part, you know, and let them do their job well. So that's the framework that I kind of bring to it.

[00:25:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Yeah. Thank you both. Well, pivoting the conversation just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want-- could be in your industry, doesn't have to be. What would you choose to teach and why?

[00:26:03] Justin Bantuelle: Yeah, okay. It's kind of similar to what or it's related to what we just talked about those frustrations of the customer. I'd really want probably to teach something along the lines of empathy and listening, like active listening. I feel like so many of the problems that I see in the workspaces and personal exchanges boils down to a form of miscommunication and boils down largely to making bad assumptions about what the other person is thinking or feeling. And I find that you can alleviate a lot of that. And I think it's just being able to really put yourself in their shoes, understand their motivations, understand what their pain points are, what they're trying to achieve. I've seen people butt heads just so many times and often felt it was unnecessary. They're not, neither of them's wrong about anything, but I think they kind of lose sight of the common goal that they share.

And I've often helped my own employees who maybe feel like they're getting antagonized and help them reframe like what's going on and why it's not about them. It's not a personal attack kind of thing. I've seen Issues with clients where two different departments are having an issue. And I have less control over helping ameliorate that, but maybe sometimes helping to talk through it and just bring an outside perspective on it. Just with friends, family that struggle, often I find that advice to try to take a step back and reframe what's going on and think about that. I think there's a lot of techniques that, and it makes your life better, right?

You're not getting the outcome you want if you're in conflict with somebody else and that's something that I think is one of the most unnecessary friction points often in a work environment or in a personal environment that I really try to put at the forefront of my mind when I see something kind of going wrong or when I'm experiencing something where I feel like I'm not getting my point across or somebody is not really understanding. And there's probably something going on their side where I'm not communicating well myself and taking that step back and understanding what's happening. Just, I feel it makes a big difference in the outcomes for everybody.

[00:28:25] Lindsey Dinneen: I, and I really appreciate that perspective. It goes back to something you said earlier too. It's kind of, you know, you're on your client's team. It is you all against the problem. It's not you against each other. And it should never be. So trying to always remember that, or even in a work situation where it's maybe colleague to colleague, again, you're on the same team. So how do we go us against the problem rather than us against each other? So I really appreciate that perspective.

[00:28:54] Justin Bantuelle: Yeah, I think, yeah, I find that it's not that frequent that somebody's actually acting in bad faith. It's not that it doesn't happen, but I think it happens a lot less than we may be assumed. I do think that how much of our communications now are via text instead of verbally where you can hear tone a little bit more, I think it becomes a little easier to misread something and that can help contribute to the miscommunication that can then boil over into something. So yeah, it's a challenge probably we all face. I certainly like for all that I care about this and I'm talking about it, it's a challenge I face as well, but I think that awareness kind of helps to check yourself and reevaluate and maybe change how you're communicating that.

[00:29:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Amen to that. Michael, what would you teach?

[00:29:46] Michael Roberts: I should have gone first. That was, that's like sets the bar so high. I think that the thing that I would try to teach is focusing on learning different types of skillsets that you've had before. I think that the next 10 years, we're just going to consistently see that need for everybody to keep reshaping how we interact with our work world with just the world in general. There's just so much that's changing and happening right now. And so I see this some for just basic literacy of the world that we're going to need this.

But also, you know, I had to transition from one job to another. I started out in ministry and it was not for me and I needed to do something else. And it was hard. It was a good long while before I found the right fit and skilled up enough in that area for it to work. And so bought myself a book on HTML, code your first site in 30 days kind of thing. And did that and figured out how to put together a very crude website. It was just not great, but it worked. And but that kind of stuff, you know, what's possible today for people to keep on learning, to be able to shift from career path to career path.

And then knowing how much you actually do bring with you because you very much feel out of your depth in so many ways. And I felt out of my depth at Health Connected for a good long while. But finding these experiences, these things that I'm bringing to the table, helped shape me and helped me deserve to be here in a way. And I think that everybody has that. It's just unpacking all that stuff, you know, and so getting the skills we need and then being able to figure out how like to actually like match up with where we're trying to go.

[00:31:22] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. Well, and you know, that's such a good point too, because sometimes I think it can feel, especially when you do transition jobs or even broader industries and you do feel a little bit out of your element. And I think the thing that you can also remember is, though, it is a strength to draw from all of these different sources of information and experiences that you've had over the years and maybe actually it is a really positive thing for you because you can go, " I don't know if MedTech has ever considered X, Y, and Z, but we did this in hospitality and let's just try it, you know?" And so I love that idea of bringing all the things together and allowing it to help shape you.

[00:32:04] Michael Roberts: Yeah. Watching customer experiences be bad in healthcare just kills me. It just, 'cause you'd automatically lose in hospitality. You're automatically out if you don't have your customer experiences solid. That's the benchmark you have to start there. So

[00:32:19] Lindsey Dinneen: Excellent. Yeah. Well, how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?

[00:32:25] Justin Bantuelle: I, I think more than anything, I would just want to be thought of as somebody who was kind. It really matters a lot to me. I care about how people feel. I care about helping people. I'd like people to think that I always did right by them and helped where I could. So, that's at the forefront a lot of what I try to make decisions on in my personal life. So hopefully I live up to that.

[00:32:56] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that.

[00:32:57] Michael Roberts: I would add something similar to that, I guess, would be willing to invest in the people that I cared about, that I was willing to disrupt my day, ' cause I can get so focused on a thing. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist of some sort, and that you think about the artists that have kind of stood through time and it's like, "Oh, well that's the pinnacle of what it means to be a person is you're remembered through time for some major achievement." And it's like, well, yes, there are a handful of people that do that, but I think being able to be remembered that you valued other people as being more valuable, as being more worthy than whatever project you had at the moment, 'cause so many projects come and go. It's something that we all need to do, is something we all need to work on, but yeah, investing in those relationships

[00:33:45] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. And I think that's a good reminder. Both of your points are very good reminders, especially for entrepreneurs who, I'm sure that most of them feel that everything kind of weighs on them. And so it is easy to get deep into project mode and maybe forget sometimes that they are human. So being kind and investing and willing to disrupt your day. But yeah that's really powerful. Thank you both. And then final question. What is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?

[00:34:16] Justin Bantuelle: Sure. I think for me it's, I like animals a lot. I have my pets that I'm very fond of. I spent a lot of time looking at animal photos and videos online as I'm sure everybody does. I'm particularly fond of ones where it's two completely different species of animal that seem to be best friends. That is what really helped shape a positive day for me in the morning, if I come across some of those and that is just the cutest thing in the world.

[00:34:40] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely. How about you, Michael?

[00:34:44] Michael Roberts: For me, it's just being out, out somewhere where I'm just surrounded by nature and just getting that moment. And it's not, it doesn't make me smile in the same way, I guess, Justin, but it does kind of bring that peace every time I'm there of, no matter what else is going on, it's like, "Okay." Grounded, in a way and it's like, "Okay I'm here. I'm ready. And I can go face the day."

[00:35:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much, both of you, for sharing your stories, your insights, your experiences, and even some advice. I really appreciate you taking the time today. This has been such a great conversation. And we are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf as a thank you for your time today to Save the Children, which works to end the cycle of poverty by ensuring communities have the resources to provide children with a healthy, educational, and safe environment. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support, and I just wish you both the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world.

[00:35:46] Justin Bantuelle: Thank you so much.

[00:35:48] Lindsey Dinneen: All right. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am at the moment, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two and we'll catch you next time.

[00:36:01] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.