Intro
[00:00:00] Liam: Okay, so thank you. If you're tuning in on the Boostly podcast, or if you're watching this on the YouTube channel, you are listening in to the podcast that helps give hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly, the confidence on how you can go out there and get more direct bookends.
[00:00:15] My name's Liam Carolan, I'm Mark Simpson's co-host, and this is the Spotlight series that shines. The spotlight, the boost spotlight on services and businesses that you need to know about as a hospitality owner, things which can help you and improve your business and also is at the cutting edge of technology.
[00:00:32] And that's especially what we have on today. So in a moment, I'm going to introduce you to James Hatfield. Um, he's the chief revenue officer at a company called Live. LiveSwitch. And if you haven't heard of a LiveSwitch, I certainly hadn't until, uh, Mark put me and James and Ryan in touch with each other.
[00:00:50] And, um, it's an amazing company. What it does is it builds human connection through technology. It provides critical video infrastructure. That means you can have one click. Live phone call within your hospitality business, and we'll dive into that on today's episode on how you can utilize that within your hospitality business.
[00:01:09] So, uh, James, welcome along. Thank you for joining me this morning.
[00:01:13] James: Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Liam. I'm excited to be here to talk a little about technology and hosting and you know, how we're crossing paths with hosts. And so thank you again for having me today. I appreciate it.
[00:01:25] Liam: I'm excited to get into this and James had a little phone call before we jumped on this podcast and we got talking about all sorts of things like web 3. 0, you know, the future of crypto and all sorts. So I know this is going to be a good one and an exciting one just to, just to listen into.
What is LiveSwitch?
[00:01:42] So first of all, James, would you mind giving yourself an introduction and filling in what is LiveSwitch?
[00:01:49] James: Yeah, I'll start with an introduction. Again, my name is James. I'm the chief revenue officer at LiveSwitch. I've worn plenty of hats in my time with the company. But my focus right now is to get our products into the hands of people all over the world.
[00:02:04] Uh, we're excited about that. Uh, the thing about LiveSwitch and the reason you hadn't heard about us. But I bet you've used us and you never knew it. Like we're kind of the Intel inside type of thing is we're all about web, real-time communication. So that's audio, video, and data at hyper speed. So as an example, something very cool.
[00:02:23] We have two sides of our business. One side of our business is we build boutique custom videos. With all kinds of companies. So you might've watched the television and watched American wrestling, like WWE wrestling. Uh, and we filled the, uh, stands of the Tampa arena with. camera, a video with, uh, excuse me, video screens where the fans could see the wrestler and the wrestler could see the fans during COVID.
[00:02:53] We're still going through COVID, but that way when the wrestler did the body slam, the whole, you know, arena would erupt, uh, with fans that we brought in from all over the world to watch that event while it was live broadcast on television. It was fantastic. We had over a hundred episodes, uh, with them, but we do all kinds of stuff.
[00:03:12] Our stuff is in the metaverse. So if you wear an Oculus headset, you wouldn't know you're using our audio-video communication. These applications come to us. These companies come to us and we help to move that data. We can be in medical devices, prison monitoring all over the place. You didn't know we're a 14-year-old company.
[00:03:28] But how in the world did we get connected with hosting? So that's kind of the story we'll talk about today. And that's one of my big focuses at the organization.
What makes it different?
[00:03:35] Liam: What makes that different from like just a live kind of WhatsApp phone call and that side of things? Um, what, what would you, how would you answer that?
[00:03:43] James: Yeah, well, I would tell a story. So before I was a revenue officer, I was a product officer for the company. Uh, so building products, building our engine, and I get to meet with people and all interesting kinds of jobs. So I was meeting with the chief of police and commanders up in the Washington DC area to reinvent.
[00:04:02] The 9 1 1 phone call here in America. So, 9 1 1, what's your emergency? It's all done over the phone, right? So, in the future, if things just take a while to get there in the future, what'll happen is when you make the call, you'll also get a text to your phone. And so, you'll be able to click that text and then click allow the camera and point that camera at the emergency.
[00:04:24] And that video feed can go right into the police car, right into the fire truck, right into the medical, and they can see. What they're getting ready to drive to. And there's no delay because of a second's matter. So it's, there's no, there's literally, it's no delay with that body slam eruption I was talking about earlier.
[00:04:41] That's what's important. And I can put that video anywhere. So what's different than WhatsApp is that there's no software. Like it's frictionless. So we talked about hosting today, talking a little bit about what LiveSwitch can do for hosts. This is where it gets really interesting. What we can do with the video?
[00:04:57] And we've only scratched the surface of what video can do. People think about, you know, all of the different meeting, you know, platforms that there are. You know, out there, uh, LiveSwitch has one as well. There's just so many of them, excuse me, I'm losing my voice today, but, uh, there's so many of them, but we haven't thought of all the amazing ways that video can transform our daily lives as well as your business.
[00:05:19] So I'm excited to talk about that part of it too.
How is this technology helping hosts?
[00:05:22] Liam: How is this technology helping hosts?
[00:05:24] James: First of all, right. Okay. Well, that's where it comes in, right? So we were trying to reinvent the 911 call and sometimes Eureka moments happen. So then I'll get right to your question, but again, I'll, I'll further their story.
[00:05:36] So after, and I'm still working with the chief police and commander up in DC, I started talking, think of big arenas and arenas, they want to keep them safe. So all these arenas have folks that were in, you know, you know, police or FBI to protect that arena. So I started talking to those security folks. So like, could you use this in security?
[00:05:55] And they were like, Oh. And then this one guy, AD at the Memphis arena was like, Hey James, but I have a stupid question of like, Go for it. He's like, I'm in a huge arena and sometimes my guy is across the arena and I have to hop in my golf cart and drive over there. Can I just send him a text?
[00:06:11] And then he clicks the link and shows me where the trash cans fell over. So I don't have to drive over if I'm at home and I don't have to go through traffic. And I was like, Yes, you can. So then we started talking to moving companies, people, I think they're called removal companies in the UK if I'm correct.
[00:06:26] So, um, they, they start using it like, oh, well, we can just give a bid without having to drive through traffic and then property managers, and then vacation rentals. And now hosts, right, uh, are, are seeing the value in this because they want to help with guest resolution quickly. So now not everybody has an iPhone, right?
[00:06:47] And not every, or an Android or a Mac or a PC. And so all of these ecosystems were like, forget that we're agnostic. I don't care if my PC is talking to the Android or the Android is talking to the iPhone or the iPad, or it doesn't matter. Right? There's a phone, as long as there's a camera and a…
[00:07:04] microphone and a browser, we're good to go. So you can send a text to any phone in the world and click that link, allow the camera and then point the camera. And there are a couple of subtle things that are going to happen that make it very specific to hosts. As an example, it's called remote assistance, right?
[00:07:24] So if, let's say the toilet won't stop running, you know, it's just running. It's just, the toilet just keeps running like, ah, this is frustrating. So the host or the guest calls the host or texts them. Hey, the toilet will stop running. Well, now instead of just explaining it, texting it, say, Hey, do you mind if I send you a text link so you can show it to me?
[00:07:44] So here comes the text link comes right to the guest, and now maybe use FaceTime before where the, the camera, the little video is super small, you know, and the view of the person's large we flipped it for remote assistance because we need that guest. To see the camera. They're your eyes. So we made that video large and you small, so you can still give that warm experience.
[00:08:07] You know, like, Hey, can you walk me over? Can you lift it? Oh, a little flapper, a little chain in there. Boom. Instead of having to send, send a plumber over, which usually costs the host an extra. A lot of money to send over that can be fixed and it's recorded. If you say, can I allow the recording, allow the recording?
[00:08:27] Cause maybe we hear from hosts all the time, just getting into the building or getting into the home or the flat, whatever, just punching the keypad. Well, because you've recorded it, it's like, Hey, I'm having a hard time. You can just send a video. And if, Hey, if you still can't figure it out, let me know and I'll send you a text and we can live to do it.
[00:08:44] So we're trying to save that time and get that quick connect rather than having to drive, you know, through town or to get to the, to the, where the host just takes time. Like the guest wants that immediate help.
[00:08:57] Liam: Having a blast. Can I get it on the Boostly podcast? Bruce Lee is like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard on the T is loosely making up those rhymes.
[00:09:05] Don't write it. Just do it loosely.
