Welcome to our latest edition of Tele Health in Hawaii. My name is Vicar Macharia. I'm the host of the show. I'm also the Chief Executive Officer of Cloudwell Health, an all-virtual, physician-founded telemedicine company that is dedicated to serving the residents of the state of Hawaii. We have a great show for you today. On the show is the Director of Operations for Cloudwell Health, Anella Tecter. How are you, Anella? It's good to see you. Hello, Vicar. Good morning. I'm doing good. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. To get things started, tell me a little bit about yourself, Anella. You're from Hawaii. You've born and raised there. Walk me through a little bit about yourself, your background, and we'll go from there. Sure. So, yes, I was born and raised here in Hawaii. I actually grew up on the west side. So, my family is from Nanakuli, but right now I reside out in Waimanalo. Just starting out just a little bit about myself, I guess, in the medical field. It started out... I'm in the early stages, I guess, of the pre-med route. That is the hopeful goals for myself. But, yes, as of right now, I am the Director of Operations for Cloudwell Health. What brought you to healthcare? People have many different things they can choose in terms of what they want to do for a profession. What brought you into the healthcare world, Anella? Well, I guess it started at an early age, growing up. You think Tutu is going to live forever, and then you start to realize, like, oh no, what can I do to help my family? So, I think it really started off at a young age, but fortunately for myself, I think, going through school, I was kind of finding that biology and all the science courses that I was taking on my route interested me more than I thought it would have. So, I continued on that route, and then I started scribing. So, I scribed for one of the groups out here at Castle Medical Center, and even more so, I started to fall in love with medicine. I got to learn the background of it, working side by side with the physician, and now I'm kind of just getting more experience from a different aspect, learning, you know, how to communicate more with the community, and doing things more for the patients as well. For folks who may not know, what is a scribe when you mention you are a scribe? What does a scribe do? So, ascribes, we basically shadow the doctor. We follow them, and we help them with their documentation. That way, doctors can focus on their patient care and their bedside, because nowadays, you find doctors are always in front of a computer, but having a scribe allows them that opportunity, so that the scribe does all the documentation, and the doctor can have more to one-to-one FaceTime with the patient. Yeah. Now, you made the move into the world of telehealth, and what brought you into Cloudwell specifically? What was it about the organization that made you want to be a part of it? So, initially, you know, I was brought in since its inception. I was a friend of Dr. Neil Chauhan. He brought me on, and I just thought it was an amazing opportunity, because Hawaii never really had much as far as advancement with technology. You know, medical clinics, they do everything in person, and telehealth was so new, especially we started pre-COVID, so even more so. It was a very new concept, but I came on, and I was really behind their mission statement, making things more accessible to the community of Hawaii. I know getting in touch with the provider can be really difficult out here, too. Yeah. Now, a lot of people ask about, is telemedicine just as good, so to speak, as seeing somebody in person?  Is it the same? Can somebody expect the same type of experience on a virtual side? Yeah, definitely. If anything, I think it's better, in my opinion, just because of the convenience of it, to be honest. You know, you're getting care with the doctor, and it is that same face-to-face, one-to-one care that you're expecting to receive from your provider. You know, I know there can be some thoughts or ideas around like, you know, well, what about the physical aspect? How do they properly do the physical exam? But for us, I think we can do almost everything that regular providers can do. We can set you up with a specialist if that's needed, and we do that quite quickly, actually. We can send you out for any diagnostic studies that's needed, so in my opinion, we're doing the same thing that would be done in a regular clinic, and then more because it's just a lot more convenient for the people that are using it. Yeah, so you interact with so many patients every day, and so walk me through it. You know, my stomach is hurting. I live in Honolulu. It's going to take months for me to be seen by a primary care doctor, but I find Cloudwa Health, and I register, it's only a couple clicks. So what happens from there? Can you walk me through it? Yeah, definitely. So like you said, the booking process online, it really is straightforward. And then the next piece really is that hands-on, you know, clinical coordinator comes in and they really take care of our patients. They provide a different kind of patient care or customer service that I feel most patients don't really get, unfortunately, when it comes to health care. We really take our time to make sure patients feel comfortable. They know the next steps. And then we make sure everything is on track and on time when connecting with our providers. Yeah. So there's a connection with the patient. So I would get contacted before the visit by you or one of the team members. Right. We are very good at contacting our patients. So it would be before and then right after too, because even that aspect afterwards. So before the visit happens, we will walk our patients through all the steps, you know, how to connect on video, making sure that that connection is successful, answer any questions that they might have. And then immediately after the visit, we would check patients out and make sure that they know step A to Z. What are the next steps and how are we going to make sure you get it in a timely manner? That's pretty unique. I mean, it's not very common for telemedicine companies to contact you before and after the appointment, especially over the phone. That seems like a very nice feature. Yeah, I agree. I think it really helps too because, you know, telemedicine has now been around because of COVID. But I think having our coordinators contact patients before and after really also adds to that local touch that patients can feel trusted or they trust our company that they are talking to local providers, local staff, and they really understand the elements and the uniqueness of Hawaii. Patients probably feel very comforted that when they speak to you or speak to one of the team members, it's somebody who works and lives in Hawaii. They probably like that a lot. I think so. I mean, I would appreciate it if I know I'm talking to someone who is also from Hawaii. They know the struggles. They get it and because of that, they do everything that they can. They know the ins and out of the network. So I think that they would appreciate it. Now, for people, does Cloudwell Service provide services for all the islands across the entire state? Yeah. So that's been an interesting piece. I think since I've started working with Cloudwell Health, I was actually genuinely surprised to see we get patients from all the islands, a lot of patients from Maui, which I can understand because I have family out in Hana side on Maui and it is so hard driving in and out of Hana Road to just see a provider. So I totally get it. We see patients from Big Island, Kaua'i, like I said, Maui. So we do see patients across all the islands. It's a very interesting concept because people may struggle getting access to a doctor in person, but they do have their smartphone. So that's kind of how the process can get started, at least to see a board certified doctor in Hawaii. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, we have the technology. It's there. Why not use it? Why not get connected with patients through technology? Especially like I said, for those that live in rural areas like Hana Maui, if they need to see a specialist, they don't need to go through the hassle of having to go in and out of Hana Road. They can just connect with the doctor one time. We do all the work on the back end and get them connected with the specialist where they can then make their efforts to make that appointment and get connected with who they need to see. So normally, if I were to go in to see my primary care doctor in person, if I need to see a gastroenterologist because of my stomach ache, I might be given a card. I might be given a phone number, but it sounds like there's a specialist network with Cloudwell that already you do a lot of that already for patients. Yeah. We do have a specialist network already on board, which is really convenient. We really take advantage of that specialist network getting patients seen as soon as possible. And even if they're not in network, in my honest opinion, having to experience a specialist referral as a patient, it can take all up to six months. And what we've been seeing on the platform, we get patients connected within probably at least a month, which is its significant difference. Yeah. Now, this month is National Minority Health Month. And we know that Hawaii is one of the most diverse states in the country. And can you talk to me a little bit about how telehealth overall is breaking barriers and providing timely medical access to minority populations in the state of Hawaii? Yeah. That's definitely a good point to make. Hawaii is definitely a melting pot. That's for sure. We have a diverse group of cultures, just people, ethnic backgrounds. I think when it comes to just the topic of minority groups, I did live out in Nanakuli for my whole life and kind of experiencing how healthcare is. It wasn't great. It definitely wasn't accessible. It was really a struggle having to make appointments. Like you said, it would be sometimes weeks or even months out to get that appointment. And unfortunately, also speaking from experience, most people out here have one to three jobs. So they're having to make a living out here. And I think a part of that struggle or breaking barriers as far as the minority community goes, it's filling in that gap for available resources because it is so easy for someone who is having to have multiple jobs and they put their health on the side. They don't have time, but with telehealth, it really provides a solution where they don't have to spend so much time as far as making an appointment, getting things coordinated, taking time off of work to see a provider. Now they can do it from the comfort of their own home and especially with our hours. They're not typical business hours. So we operate from six in the morning all the way till 1 a.m. So patients can see us before or even after work sometimes on their lunch break because it's not convenient. But I think that's really where telehealth comes in is providing an additional resources that wasn't available at that time. Yeah, I know that especially for there's many people across the state who cannot afford the transportation have to spend a lot of time out of their work day to see a provider, which then affects how much compensation they can get on the job. And that can be very tough when you put all those factors together. But with telehealth, it looks like something could be done within 30 minutes to an hour, which would normally take in potentially half a day or an entire day. Yeah, that is true. Patients, when they see their regular doctor, if they were to see another doctor in person, it does. They have to reserve their entire day for commute for just the appointment. And unfortunately, most of the times when patient is ready to go to their appointment, they're stuck in their waiting room for hours waiting for their time to be scheduled or to be seen. But we solve that. That's another solution that we help with that telehealth just provides a gap for fills that gap. No transportation is needed. You do it from the comfort of your own home. And it doesn't even take that long to be honest. You can book your appointment within that hour. And you're seeing on time. So that's another thing too that it's unfortunate. It's understandable. But you know, patients, they they reserve that whole day just to see their provider, which shouldn't be the case. Yeah. We've touched on the subject of a lot of the medical care. But we also know mental health is a significant health challenge, timely access to mental health services, specifically with minority populations. Can you explain to me a little bit about how telemedicine can serve that need as well specifically around mental health?  It's still not something that it's, I guess, done regularly where patients might feel a certain way, reaching out for help with the therapist still. But I think with telehealth, it now provides a sense of privacy, where they don't have to make the effort to go into an office anymore. They don't need to feel ashamed at all. It's definitely not something to be ashamed about. It's totally fine to reach out for help. And I think with telehealth now, with the privacy and being discreet about needing help and reaching out for an appointment for any mental health concerns, whatever it is you're going through, that is probably a big barrier that has been lifted now with telehealth. Yeah. So there are large pockets of the population that would prefer more of a private setting when discussing their mental health with a therapist. And that's what sounds like that's what telehealth can do. Exactly. Yep. That is exactly right. You know, we and not only that, it goes even further because we can offer as simple as a phone call visit with someone to talk to. It doesn't have to be through video either. Yeah. What is the best part of talking to the patients? What's the best part for you? What brings you the most satisfaction? You know, you're interacting with so many patients a day. Many of them telehealth is new. So you're playing a pivotal role in walking them through what to expect and how it functions. So what's the best part for you when you're interacting with the patient?  One of two things like happen. So obviously, the first one is I love seeing that I was able to help someone, especially if they're in a situation where normally it would have been so difficult just to get that first appointment with the provider. I think the example that will always stick with me when we first started, one of our first few patients was actually from Big Island. And she just had the she was an elderly patient, but she had such a hard time getting out of her house and getting family to help her coordinate that when she found our services, you know, it was something that was a significant impact for her where she could come back, continue to use our services if she was ever unable to get an appointment with her regular doctor or it was just too difficult at the time to coordinate care with her family. That is one example that will stick with me. I think the other aspect too is because telehealth is still somewhat of a new concept out here. Being able to see the transition from start to finish, because in the beginning patients are they're a little like, I don't know how to use this. I'm not tech savvy. But after the end of their appointment, they're like, wow, that was easy. I don't know why more people don't use this.  So I think that second piece is probably what I enjoy the most is just seeing how much telehealth has changed and that they're so willing to come back. It was so easy for them. You raise an interesting point. It sounds like when people use it in the beginning, there's some hesitation. But once they go through with the process, then they inevitably come back and want to use it again. Yeah, yes, that is exactly what happens. And I think that's where, you know, when the coordinators touch base with them in the very beginning, it creates that trust between patient and provider or clinic. And then after they speak with the doctor through their mobile device or their laptop, then it's just like, wow, that was so easy. I don't know why more people aren't using the service. Yeah, yeah. Now, in terms of how much it costs, you know, there's always a questions of, is a telehealth visit the same cost as an in person visit? What do you explain to patients when they when they ask about that? So most of our patients, they do ask, but most of them, I'd say, do have health insurance. A lot of them are Medicare or Medicaid, so they would have like HMSA Quest and they are, they love to hear that we are servicing members of the state. We have, you know, HM, all the major Hawaii, Hawaii insurance plans, basically. But on the other spectrum of that, especially when COVID, you know, was hitting a lot of families financially, some of them did lose their benefits. So something that I would explain to them is, you know, we do offer affordable rates. It's still going to cost something, but it is a significantly less amount than what you would pay at an urgent care or with an in person provider. So our, we offer two rates. So the first one is $59.99 for a phone call visit. And then the second piece, if they are interested in either like a telephysical or they want that video call, it's $119.99. Telephysical. That's a big word. Yeah. What is a telephysical exactly? You can think of it as like your, I guess, annual maintenance check. So patients, like I said, they have multiple jobs, they put their health on standby and a telephysical just gives that opportunity to touch base with the provider. It's a head to toe wellness check where we thoroughly review any medical histories that patient might have also order any screening diagnostics based off their answers or even their family histories that might be, you know, an underlying diagnosis that they might have not known about. So it just gives an opportunity one-on-one touch base with the provider to a wellness check, get any screening labs that you might be due for, and then we can follow up on those results. Now, if I live on in Maui and you see me and the doctor sees me and I need to get my labs done, how does that work in terms of you making sure that the labs were done and then ultimately that you get my lab results? How does that work? That seems kind of complicated, doesn't it? You would think it is, but honestly, knowing what happens on the back end, it really isn't. And I like that we can take that headache away from our patients. We really take care of all of it. So doctor will send in the lab orders or we'll call in the orders for our patients. And then from there, you know, patient can just walk into any nearby diagnostic facility, get their labs drawn, we'll book their follow-up appointment, but we will make sure before that follow-up, we contact the facility, we make sure that we get those final results in before they're seen. That's a very strong customer service that you offer. That's really good. I mean, it makes it so much easier for the patient, which is ultimately what this is all about, right? I mean, making it easy to access, but also easy to navigate. Yeah, exactly. Like I said, taking all that headache away from our patients, just letting them do the bare minimum so that they feel confident, they trust our service, we take care of the rest, especially when it comes to specialist referrals. We will book their appointment for them, we'll communicate with the provider, making sure that they have everything they need. That way, when the patient shows up, their appointment is ready to go. There's nothing outstanding or why the patient can't continue. Yeah. Now, if you were to look into the future, and you're in telemedicine every day, and somebody said, do you think telemedicine is here to stay, or do you think it's going to go away? What are your thoughts on it? You interact with patients every day, so you know if this is something that patients are interested in or not. What are your thoughts on that? No, telemedicine is definitely here to stay. It's been way too convenient for patients, and it's also, like I said, it's lifted a lot of those barriers, especially out here in Hawaii, where patients, they have such a hard time accessing healthcare in a timely manner, but healthcare really, it just provides that service for patients that they need, and when they need it. It really also avoids unnecessary visits to an ER or an urgent care in person, so it saves them that aspect of time, but I definitely think telehealth is here to stay, and if anything it will even go further in the future. It's an interesting point. Further in the future you think that we could potentially be looking at models such as like here in the home, or you know, because there's many multi-generational families in the state, and so there is some opportunity I would think to provide these services in the home, which empowers not only the patient but family members as well to be involved in the trajectory of the care of the patient. Yeah, that is definitely true, so you know having my own family here, we all pitch in and we try to take care of Tutu, and I think having something like this where it becomes like in-person home care, that's another barrier that we can definitely lift for our community, you know, having that ability to help families, not only the patient themselves, but alleviating families of that burden where they're having to take care of elderly, they don't have the resources, it's really difficult, but I think that's, that is another concept for telehealth that that we can work on. Yeah, and because right now, especially with people over the age of 65, not only are they more at risk for medical and mental health challenges, but they also just struggle with mobility issues potentially, they may not be able to see a provider, and I imagine this is going to be a very good vehicle for them to receive care, but also empower, like you mentioned, the people in the home too. Yeah, that's another point too, it's, you know, just like having the average person having to designate a whole day just to get themselves seen even more so for our elderly patients, because transportation is an issue, sometimes they have to rent a particular vehicle or, you know, get grandma in and out of the house, in and out of the car, it's really hard and it's hard on those family members, so if we could bring care to them, I think that would be a big solution. And I'm sure when you get on the phone and you contact patients, people are probably pleasantly surprised, like, wow, I'm speaking to Anela. Anela is from Hawaii, she's just like me, I'm not talking to somebody maybe in Boston or Miami, that must be, that must be really nice. It is, it's definitely nice, and like I said, I would appreciate knowing that the service I'm using, it's homegrown, it's local, everything about it is just, you know, a very trusted service. And some of the patients, they really, they're really a joy to talk to and knowing, you know, going back and forth about either the struggles or how we help them, it's really a rewarding overall. It's like you almost develop a very personal relationship with them over time. Yeah, yeah, especially for our returning patients, it's nice to see them back again. And even though it's virtual, it's still a personal relationship and that's what's most important. Absolutely, yes.  And you're providing great care to all the members and all the residents in the state of Hawaii. And we thank you for that. And thank you for that. And I appreciate everything that you do. And it's great to see from your expert opinion that telehealth is here to stay and that telehealth is just going to thrive in the years to come. Thank you, Vikram. It's been a wonderful experience, you know, working from the company start to finish. And thank you so much for having me on today. Oh, you're most welcome. Mahalo.


Hey Virgo, welcome back to the channel. This is Kelly from House of Virgo. If you're new, welcome, please smash that like button and subscribe if you enjoy the reading. Keep in mind this is going to be a general weekend reading. Some messages may or may not be for you. This is a channel for Virgo, Sun, Moon, Rising, or Venus, but all signs are welcome. And also personal reading links are in the description box below. Do click on the link if you would like to receive a discount for July's personal readings. Okay guys, so what I'm going to do here is you can see I already have six cards out. So we're going to take a look at more predictive energies for the weekend to see what may be coming toward you over this weekend in all areas of life. And the first thing I'm going to do is give you an overall message for the weekend. Okay. Okay, you have the three of pentacles. All right. So this is a card representing work, learning, teamwork, partnership, and commitment. So the overall energy message here for you, Virgo, is to read the fine print, really learn about something before saying anything, before speaking on anything, take your time over this weekend to try to understand what you may be dealing with, reading contracts. This is also about working on skills and collaborating with other people. And if you're working on any kind of crafts or anything this weekend, put your nose to the grindstone and you also have the night of cups. So this is an overall energy of a love offer coming in as well as possibly a proposal or someone taking some action to express themselves to you. Okay. And it can be also receiving love. All right, Virgo. So let's get into this weekend reading. So you're starting off with the home card, gifts, career, long distance, travel, and fun times. Okay. So I'm going to read this a little bit in a Lenormand way. If you're not familiar with that, well, maybe you'll learn here. So starting with home, something to do with property or real estate. Okay. You might be selling your house or having an open house. Maybe you are buying a house as well. You could be looking at residences over the weekend. You may also be getting involved in real estate as a career or looking into that over the weekend. You may actually be a real estate agent. You could be sending gifts to people, maybe former clients. You could be also receiving gifts from clients or former clients as well. Okay. So I feel like there's definitely a surprise gift that will be coming to you over the weekend. Receiving something as far as for your home and it could have something to do with the job. You may also receive an advancement. There's success in business here. So I do feel like you might be traveling for work this weekend as well, like long distance or going to some type of conference or something along those lines that have to do with your career. Some of you might be traveling to your initial home base, like where you originated from as well for your career. Some of you might be thinking of buying a house or looking at properties that are at a distance to you. So there's a lot of travel connected to this weekend. For some of you might be taking a vacation or starting your vacation this weekend and also a honeymoon energy as well.  I also see a lot of fun times happening here for you. So there may be some parties or events that you're attending and really just getting out there, kicking up your heels, having a good time, doing whatever it is that you like to do or creating some type of party or hosting a party as well. So you may also receive a gift for travel as well. So someone might present you with tickets to go somewhere, to go on a vacation or to mostly maybe a concert. You might get some concert tickets or purchase some concert tickets and give them as a gift to someone also over this weekend. Let's see. Some of you might be traveling to a foreign place as well. Well, it could be a foreign country as well or thinking about that going on a vacation to a foreign place also. Let me see. I also am hearing somebody could be purchasing an RV and living out of an RV or kind of remodeling like a bus or a home, a bus or like a van or something and living out of the van. Kind of like how they do that stuff on YouTube that people remodel their homes and equip them with kitchens and showers and kind of live out of them. You might be thinking about that. Maybe you're watching something like that over this weekend. You might be thinking about doing that or wanting to just sell your house and get into one of those RVs and just travel. And man, that sounds amazing. That just sounds amazing. If you're doing that, that's awesome. Someone also might be gifting you a home as well. So, yeah, I mean, it could be an inheritance or something that you receive from family members that have passed. Somebody might be buying you out as well. If you're kind of splitting a home that was left to you as well over the weekend. Let me see what else is coming up here for you over this weekend. Some of you getting the key to a new place as well over this weekend or you're selling a home if you work in real estate or commercial real estate, residential, whichever it might be. Let's see. It might be also a home party as well. Okay, so you have ice queen, gossip, children, destiny. Wow. Spiritual growth and work. Work always shows up in the Virgo readings, doesn't it? Okay, so let me take a look here and see what's going on here. Okay. All right, I'm also seeing a single parent. Very discerning. There may be some people that you are connected to through children. And these other, there's some gossip. Definitely some small talk, grapevine stuff. There's some neighbors. So if you have kids or grandkids or you're connected to children in some way, I feel like over this weekend, you might hear about some gossip that's being said about you. These people could also be just very childlike in talking about your separation or your divorce or talking about your, your parenting skills or something like that. You know, tell those people to take a hike Virgo. Some of you also might be working with children over this weekend, too. There's also gossip at work as well. I feel like you're going to hear something on the grapevine. Now it may not be about you. You just may decide to ice those people out and not involve yourself in any kind of work, gossip or things that you hear. Okay. There may be some people at work who are saying like, you know, Virgo is kind of icy cold. And it's probably because you don't want to involve yourself in any small talk or BS. And so good for you. People are going to talk, let them talk. What can you do about it? Right? You also have spiritual growth here. So there may be something that you are learning over this weekend in regard, in regards to your spiritual growth. Okay. So connecting with higher power, with spirit, whoever you choose to call the light in your life. I do feel like that's a really important aspect of your life that you are trying to fulfill. So you, you may be doing some yoga. Maybe you're sitting outside over this weekend and really like connecting to spirit, having that spiritual growth. You might be meditating and getting into some spiritual practices. Some of you might work as spiritualists as well. So there may be something here in regards to your spiritual work. If you're a teacher of some sort, maybe you're a tower reader, you may be thinking about going into some type of spirituality, business or alternative type of business, starting a business to over the weekend, putting stuff together in that way. And I'm also hearing some children saying their teacher is like not nice. So you may hear something about that over the weekend also. You also have destiny, luck, chance and a meant to be situation happening here over this weekend. Some of you might be getting your palm read. Maybe you go to a festival or a fair. You might be studying or reading about. Maybe you want to become a palm reader. That's pretty cool. But also hear like somebody's name might be destiny also. And I'm also hearing, well, there's an element of chance that's happening here and good luck for you. So yeah, I'm not really, I'm not too sure. It does sit next to the night cup. So there could be a meant to be situation with a love offer that comes in over this weekend. And it just blows your mind. It really does. And it could be someone that you are involved in some type of university or school or someone that you work with as well. If you are on a team or you collaborate with others, somebody definitely comes forward over this weekend to make a love proposal or a love offer. Okay, let us see what else is going on here for the weekend for you. There we go. Okay. Wow. Beautiful. You've got freedom and you have obstacles. You've got wallflower, brunette, female, true love and money, money, money, money, money. All right, Virgo. So you're single, being single, having your freedom and also freeing yourself from some obstacles. So I do feel like whatever challenges you might have experienced over this weekend, you're going to feel free from those especially. And also if you've been someone who's been withholding yourself back from others, maybe going into hermit mode or feeling a bit shy, or if feeling like you've only got limited potential, I don't know. I feel like those obstacles get smashed over this weekend and somehow you're free from that. Like I don't see you sitting against the wall, looking at everybody else, enjoying themselves. Some of you have been looking on social media and kind of looking at other people at how they have been propagandizing their lives to make it seem as if they've got everything perfectly together. And some of you are like, you know, like you're not looking at that anymore. I feel like some of you are just not comparing as well. You're freeing yourself and creating your own life here as well.  And this brunette female, she's very intense, very focused. She does not speak as much as she watches. She's an observer. She keeps to herself in a lot of ways. When she speaks though, it's choice words and she doesn't skimp on the way she communicates. She's not a small talk kind of person. She's very focused on what she says and she makes sure that her message gets across and hits the target right on point. There's a true love situation here with a brunette female. Okay. I also feel like some of you have a true love of money and that's the relationship that you're in right now. Not you're being single, casual, getting yourself out there, smashing obstacles.  I'm married to my money right now because that seems to be the only thing that's not letting me down. There's a great potential with that, right? So some of you have just kind of closed yourself off in some ways from relationships. You're staying single, living a casual life and focusing on your wealth and your finances, which is great. I do feel like an obstacle will be overcome. That involves a brunette female. So if that's you, I've already said that. If that's not you and you're connecting with another female who is brunette, I do feel like there's a true love, honest communication and connection that evolves with this person and or for you as far as love goes. Okay. Let me see here. You're coming, like, I feel like you're coming out of some darkness here for sure and really getting yourself out there, freeing yourself. Maybe you're, like I said, traveling, you're up in the plane, looking at the blue skies, looking up to the sky. There's so much freedom in the clouds, looking up there and seeing all that open space as well. Let me say your obstacles for money and your obstacles involving money will be crushed over this weekend as well. Some of you might be meeting a brunette female over this weekend as well, that there's like an instant connection, an intense love connection. Okay, let's see what else you have. Okay. So you've got past life. You've got young female. You have mature man. There's passion. There's friendship. And karma. What? Okay. First message off the bat. There is a young female who may be connected to a mature male. This is only a friendship. Okay. This is only a friendship. You do have a past life connection with someone that is very passionate and has amazing chemistry. Okay. Some of you have made a decision and going forward will make a decision that a past life connection that you do have at best will just be a friendship going forward. Okay. There might have been some toxicity connected to a mature male as well. There is a mature male who has a daughter as well that you have a past life connection with this mature male. This young female, very youthful, musically inclined and involved in some type of fashion as well. The mature male is or older and mature or mature in age, but there's some karmic karma turning around. The toxic situation is creating a new opportunity. Okay. For you in your life. So you could be connecting with somebody new who is either of your age or who is just mature in age. Okay.  If you feel that there is someone that you have a connection with that is kind of goofing around with somebody else, I can tell you that that is only a friendship and nothing more. Say he's just a friend. I mean, that's how I feel that it's more, not even a friendship. It's more or less just an acquaintance that's connected to networking. Okay. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Now isn't this crazy? It says blonde female, but I'm pretty sure that person has orange hair or red hair, but it does say blonde female. So lighter hair laid back. Okay. Let's see. You also have dating queen and dating. Wow. Pass love again. My goodness. Control and mature woman. Wow. A lot of stuff happened in here. So you could be a mature woman that has light hair who's very laid back. Some of you are going to start dating that past lover. That energy comes up over this weekend as well. I see you, I guess you're coming out of your hermit mode, but I see you maybe taking some dates as well, whining, dining, romance, connecting, having a few drinks with someone over the weekend, preferably a dating partner. But I also feel like there's a past lover who, this is interesting. And there's a past lover here who was very controlling as well and very kinky in the bedroom. And I don't know if I'm allowed to say that here on YouTube, but, you know, hopefully that's not too, hopefully that's PG, maybe PG 13. So yeah, this is interesting. So you might be connecting or dating or there's a light female and a mature woman as well. If you are someone who's interested in women, you might have a couple of choices as well. You might be out there dating and you could very much be connecting with two people who are so completely different. One is tremendously laid back and one is like high society is like a connector, socialite, very flirty, very extroverted. Okay. So you've got a couple of options here as well over this weekend, male or female, that you may have to be making a decision. You might be dating both of them at the same time as well, trying to make a decision. I feel like some of you are also putting a past lover in the past because of controlling behavior. Some of you are taking your power back over this weekend and releasing this energy. All right, we're going to go through a couple of more. Okay. You've also got a soulmate connection next to a twin flame. Open relationship. Geez. You've got a triangle. Wow. See, here comes the drama. Kick out your can. Here comes the drama, man. Union. Beauty queen. Holy moly. Virgo. Okay. You're kind of like, I don't know if this is my soulmate or my twin flame and I feel like over this weekend you're going to be pondering this or pondering whether or not because I do see some type of marriage partnership, serious relationship offer being made to you also over this weekend by one or two people. And the question is, do I accept this offer? And if so, is it from a soulmate or is it from a twin flame? Yeah, there's a little bit of confusion going on here. Virgo, you're looking fine over this weekend and I feel like some of you may have been in an open relationship or someone may be offering that, but it looks like you might be saying, you know, I don't know if I want this casual thing. I really want something more committed or more serious. Okay. But I see here with this triangle, it looks like you have a couple of choices. And I said that in the previous part here. There may be a crowded relationship or you are trying to make a decision if you want to let somebody go. Okay.  You could work with makeup. You could be someone who's just in entertainment in some way and something to do with beauty. You could be behind a counter, selling cosmetics as well and doing some makeup artistry, something along those lines. You also might be doing something with hair over this weekend as well. Anything that's under the umbrella of beauty. Okay. And that's, you know, that could be for the males as well. I definitely feel like there is a twin flame that could be coming in to offer marriage or long-term commitment, a serious relationship. And I feel like also you might give consideration to the twin flame, your twin flame. You might have, like it's like a decision here. It's like, okay, do I stay with my soulmate or do I accept the offer from the twin flame? You know, it's kind of confusing because you're not sure what to do because, you know, I don't know. I feel like you're following your heart is what's happening here because a soulmate is kind of like someone who's just a great connection. We have a good relationship. It could be friends. I feel like you're going to come ultimately to the decision that one of them is just going to be a friend for you. And the other, like I said, you will accept an offer from a twin flame that does come in for sure. Okay. Now, others of you might not and you might decide to keep the twin flame a friend and go with the soulmate. Okay. So you, you have some questions here as well. Okay. Definitely.    You got your wig. You're doing your, you're doing what you're doing here. All right. One last one, one last one. Okay. So you've got young male communication family. You've got short term. You've got true gem and you also have new love. Okay. So for others of you, I do see communication with the young male. Okay. Texting phone calls some online communication. This young male is a sporty or into sports or is athletic into cars or has a nice car, very youthful. Doesn't have to be young and age could also just be youthful looking. But this might be a short term kind of connection where I don't really feel like it gets off the ground and I feel like like it's either a quick fling or it's coming to an end. Like it's time, this thing. I do feel like you kind of look at this person where, you know, hey, they're a true gem. They're a great person, but just not going to work out. Maybe it's just someone you've been talking to or you will be talking to that really doesn't last all that long. And it just turns into, you know, nothing, nothing much. I do feel like this is with the new love. There is someone who is youthful or young who does have an interest in you. But there seems to be some type of difference. They may be connected to your family. Okay.  There may be an age difference for some of you or just you guys aren't kind of in alignment. But I feel like this young person or this youthful person really values you. And I do feel like they may, like they kind of get like, I don't know, really wild over you while you guys are talking. And they, I do feel like it's someone that you might actually start talking to over this weekend where they're, there's, I don't know, this is like a Cougar situation or a DILF situation.  They do all this crazy stuff. And so, okay, whatever, it's cool. But I don't, you know, I don't, you might accept the offer, you might not, I'm not really sure, but I definitely see this energy coming forward for you. And, but it looks short term. So I just have to put that out there. Okay, have to put that out there. Now, some of you could be connecting also or communicating a lot with a young child, right? But it's, they are spending a lot of time with a young child. So, so it could be a very young brother, or it could be your youngest son or your young son or grandson, it's a family thing. So it's connected to your family. I do pick up someone who is younger than you texting you over this weekend saying, you know what, I bought a piece of jewelry for this, this, this girl, this guy that I met. And we haven't been dating that long. But what do you think? And they could be asking your advice about that. Do you think I should give it? Is it too soon? We've just really started dating, that kind of thing. So I do feel like there's some communication about that over the weekend. And it could just be a young male friend, or it could be a young female friend, that's just kind of talking to you about that. They may even say that someone offered jewelry to them or proposed or something. And there's, there's advice seeking. So I feel like you'll be in a position, I see you texting, like trying to give some solid good guidance to someone who is connected to your family about another person and a love offer and that kind of energy. So I mean, the weekend looks crazy. It's a lot of different messages. So I want to give the caveat that because these messages are kind of across the board, I want you to understand that some of these may or may not evolve for you. It may be the entire thing that happens for you over the weekend, or it may just be one message. Okay. So just kind of go with the flow with that and see how that goes. I'm hoping that YouTube will offer chapters under this video so that you'll be able to click on the different chapters. I'm not sure if it's doing that or not, but we'll see how that goes. And one final message of love for you before we close out this weekend reading. And I hope you are all staying cool in the heat wave if you are, if you are being bombarded by this crazy heat wave. All right. You've got soulmate. Your soulmate loves, accepts and respects you unconditionally. Now that is key. Something about a soulmate over this weekend, something. Okay. I just want to get one more because I just need to clarify. I just need to, I just need to clarify. Why is the soulmate showing up here? Why is this one of the biggest messages here for Virgo? Okay. Boundaries, firm boundaries are needed now. So it looks like you're, you're going to have to put firm boundaries up with a soulmate. Not really sure why, but it looks like, yeah, that's something you're going to have to do. Now soulmate can be a friend. It can be a lover as well, but it looks, I don't know exactly why for you Virgo, usually soulmate relationships, you know, we already have boundaries set and they're not really confrontational, but something showing up here for your weekend that seems pretty significant that you're going to have to either put boundaries up or say no. And there could involve an addiction. Okay. And that might be what the boundaries are. Soulmates can also be family members and friends. They don't always have to be romantic. So you may have to put up some kind of boundary over this weekend about an addiction that is affecting your relationship with this person. Okay. That's going to be it for your messages. I know it was kind of short and sweet, but it is the weekend and we're ready to party. So I hope you guys have an awesome weekend. Make good choices. Love yourselves. Love others. And I will see you all back here Sunday.


So, I've been involved with ICANN for, depending on how you look at it, prehistoric times would be 18 years, and I've been waiting all this time to get a chance to interview you, Chuck Combs. So, here are my ICANN dreams come true. I'm not really interviewing you, we're just talking, but what's the earliest mention you remember of this concept? The concept of ICANN? Yeah. Or the concept of, you know, domain name system. So, concept of ICANN, of course, came about after several years of discussions about the domain name system, because I was with Network Solutions, and we of course were the only registry and registrar at the time, you know that very well, and so I had gotten involved with the domain policy list, which Network Solutions hosted, and we were on it. Was on that list for a couple years probably, and that's how I was introduced to people, and I was the only one at the time from Network Solutions that participated in that list. Yes, we used to refer to you as a sacrificial lamb. Yeah, well, and I participated, I tried to avoid the emotional stuff, there was a lot of it as you know, and if I saw something that was inaccurate I tried to set it straight, but I was able to get to know people on the list, and then came about the green paper that you're familiar with, the beginning of 1998. The Ira Magazine and the Clinton Administration green paper. And that was followed with the white paper in mid that year, and so then the community came up with the internet forum for the white paper, and so I attended all those meetings. Were you at those meetings? No, those meetings were, you know, in those days we were still, you know, two cows in the middle of the dot-com boom, and I was busy with our shareware site and Ross, you know, Ross Rader who you know so well. I know well. You know, he was going to all of those meetings.  One started in, the first one was in Reston, Virginia, and then in Geneva, and then in Singapore, and then they added one after the fact because Latin America wanted to have one. Oh, so you're now, so you were all before Santiago and Yokohama then when you were talking. Oh, this is before ICANN was formed. So this is, so then what's happening in parallel, you know, we were at the time, two cows lived inside of the largest independent ISP in Canada, and we were the largest web hosting company at the time, and therefore the largest seller of domain names, you know, network solutions, largest reseller. Ironically, our rep at the time was Richard Tindall, who's still around. Yes. You'd remember when Richard was. I know Richard what? Yeah, Richard's at Donuts, and you know, we were very involved in the early core stuff, if you remember that. I do.  Think of how archaic we were. Oh. It's like, you know, it's like we were all communicating in Morse code or something. And we were at the time looking to introduce those new names into the root, those seven new names, some of which came up, but what's most amazing about that period is how many people that are still here today, you know, I first met them, you know, it's Paul Stahura, and it's Hal Lobson, and it's Ken Stubbs, and it's Verner Straub, and on and on, there's a bunch that Anthony Vancouver-ing, there's a bunch I'm leaving out there that, you know, we would first meet at those core meetings. Do you, in any way, you guys would have stayed away from those, I would. We weren't involved in any of the core meetings. We were aware of what was going on. But we weren't involved in the core meetings themselves. Where I started meeting some of the people was at the Internet Forum for the White Paper meetings that led to the formation of ICANN at the end of 1998. So I met quite a few people, first of all, on that list, and then at those meetings in person, which was great, because we'd been interacting for a couple years, and to meet them in person was very useful. Yeah, you know, I think that highlights one of the unique elements of this process, where there are a lot of contentious issues, but because we are, you know, sort of all kind of in this little bubble for, you know, a week or so, three or four times a year, I think it really did facilitate a lot of things getting done. It did, and it was kind of interesting in those four meetings how it evolved. The country code, top of all the main representatives, were also very involved. Now at the time, very few country codes were much active. I mean, DE was, UK was kind of just starting out.ca in Canada, where I'm from, I mean, was irrelevant. It was incredibly hard to register names, as it was in most of the country codes at that time. And of course, .US wasn't. Didn't exist. Well, it existed, but it wasn't very much activity. So, the first meeting in Reston was kind of an introductory. Yeah, and you guys were hosting that meeting in Reston? No, we didn't host it. Yeah, obviously it was close to where network solutions was located, because we were in Herndon, which is right next door. And we didn't host it, but we participated. And then the Geneva meeting got a little more lively. And the CCs really wanted to have an active role, and so forth. When we got to Singapore, and all three of those meetings occurred in July of 98, when we got to Singapore. All three meetings were within the same month. Yeah, and we got to Singapore, and there was, started to be some gelling in terms of talking together and working together. Some of the early stages of people that have different interests coming together and talking. Well, I want to tease out of that. I mean, it's very interesting that right there, you had this very, very early attempt at globalization. And there's this neat, I don't want to date the filming too much, but here we are just at the end of the IANA transition. And there, at the very beginning, you had in Ira Magazine's green paper and white paper, this delicate balance between US birth and control and the recognition that it needed to be light touch and eventually global. So there you had, nothing's going to happen. We're going to have three meetings. They'll be in three different places around the world within a month. That's quite remarkable. It is. And then the Latin Americans just requested a meeting. And so one was then scheduled for Buenos Aires and Cabase, ISP in Argentina, hosted it. And then you're talking about globalization. That's the first meeting I attended where we had simultaneous translations. So in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. And that was my first experience at that. Of course, it's common at ICANN meetings and has been for years. But that was the first occurrence of that. Yeah. And again, just to sort of pull trivia out in the first meetings in the US, which I think were in 2000, that was the first ICANN meeting that. There was actually one in November of 1998 in Cambridge. A one-day meeting. They don't count that as one of the ICANN meetings. But this is after. No, you don't get the badge for that one. That's correct. It doesn't count. OK. But that was a one-day meeting in Cambridge that I attended. And that was after the first ICANN board was formed and Esther Dyson. Yeah. And Esther was the chair. And so that's probably where in those early US meetings and then globally, it was the Berkman Center that was doing the translation. And we had a young translator, Wendy Seltzer, who I remember. I mean, that's where I first met Wendy. And when they're still involved. No, exactly. That's why it's sort of fun to tease that stuff out. So now those things were happening in parallel. And it always felt like they were parallel processes. We were doing this stuff with core and trying to introduce new TLDs. And we would see that parallel process in some way. We would keep touch with it. But as a way to kind of stop us from doing what we were doing. And of course, it's never quite as nefarious as it feels in those days. So then now it formed. And what do you remember of those very, very early meetings? Well, the Singapore meeting was for the first official meeting for ICANN. And one of the things that was unique about Singapore was all the people from that part of the world were much more cautious about antagonistic conversations. Those of us in the West, we could debate and so forth. That was not as comfortable for them. When we got to Berlin, which was the second meeting, that was quite a contentious meeting. Well, I mean, you started, if I recall, that was the first meeting where you saw very early kind of what I would call US-EU tensions. And they'd really manifest through the CCs. It did. One of the things that we don't remember, much like with the history of the GAC and government's role with ICANN, the CCs in the very early days were completely resistant. You remember that they would come, but they wouldn't. It was a big thing when any country code would enter into even a light touch agreement with ICANN. Now that's pretty du regur for there to be some contractual relationship or a much deeper touch. And CCs are obviously deeply integrated, but back then, boy, that was... Deeply integrated, but not in a contractual sense. Well, there are some contractual touches. A few, pretty light compared to GTLDs. It's a different... And it comes down to their strong position and their sovereign entities and representing their government and their region and so forth. Which was really this manifestation of the balance between national and global, where you have the GTLDs and they truly are global in nature. And that leads to all of the difficulties in the IANA transition, because people really have a hard time with that concept of global. Whose law do you follow? Because it is global and the CCs, it's quite different in that regard. But it wasn't free of tension because you had a lot of country codes, especially in those days, that really operated almost outside of their national governments. I remember there were some very early battles inside of ICANN, where you had a guy who'd been doing it for years and country, which wanted something very, very different. There were quite a few of those. And in those early meetings as well, one of the things that I remember very clearly was how outside of the process governments were. Other than the ITU, which would shake their fists at us all the time. And they really became more visible a few years down the road. But yeah, there was very little government involvement. And then of course the concept of the government advisory committee came in, and that got started. And I think was Paul Toomey the first head of the GAC? He may have been. I'm trying to remember. I feel like there's one other name that's bouncing around my head, but Paul was obviously involved back then. And you see somebody like Christopher Wilkinson. He was very active from the EU at that time. And Christopher is still working with us on the transition and accountability issues that are going on. Yeah, so I mean one of the things that I remember really clearly from those early meetings was how outside the process the GAC was, there would be these meetings in a separate wing of the building and they'd be closed. And if you happen to walk into those meetings, you know, boy, it was like you'd walked into like a private board session or something. And be chased out. And be chased out very quickly, yes, exactly. But and do you recall really the ICANN board, the first board, had some strong discussions about how open they should be. There were many that were very uncomfortable doing business in front of an audience. And I mean think about where we are now. And they've just announced that they're even going to be more transparent as a board. And of course, that's evolved over time. They become much more transparent with at least the public meetings and the in-person meetings. Yeah, you mentioned transparency and that's been one of the things inside this process that has always bothered me in that, you know, I think it's right that people call for more transparency, of course, and more accountability. But I've always felt that ICANN was really held to a standard that's different, you know, you and I both work for public companies. And, you know, could you imagine if as public companies we had to be anywhere near as transparent as, you know, ICANN and its processes? Oh, it's very different world. And of course, we're dealing with laws in the U.S. and you in Canada with regard to securities and exchange commission and so forth that restrict it for public companies. But yeah, what a contrast with what ICANN has to do. It's very different than in the corporate world. Yeah, my takeaway from that is, you know, I don't think that there's enough appreciation for, you know, people will talk about more transparency. You know, I think we should and we should always keep raising the bar. But I think, you know, this really does in many ways serve as a model for other organizations. You know, it's something that I've always thought was very positive.  And, you know, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't call out that, you know, we're really, really just now, today, 18 years later, 16 maybe if you think about the first formal government presence at those meetings, where we're seeing both governments and law enforcement formally, actively involved in policy development, which is a really cool development. In fact, just this week, the GAC involvement in the working group that I'm chairing has been just really pleasing to see. Oh, that's RDS? Yes. Well, I would say the same thing around privacy and proxy.  And what people forget really is how young multi-stakeholders a process is.  But I've always been of a view, Chuck. You know, I wonder if you've thought much about this, that, you know, this is unique in that it's not monoculture.  But when you kind of mix those very, very different cultures and you layer on top of that completely different dimension people from all over the world in each of those different cultures. And all coming from different jurisdictions with different laws. You mentioned culture, the variances in culture, the differences in language. Oh, yeah. And people get frustrated with why things are kind of slow in the multi-stakeholder model, and yet you're combining all of these different elements. And it's important to recognize the complexity there and to deal with that in our process. Well, I think that there's something there that will be part of refinement over the next five or 10 years. And I think that we've been, you know, we're towards the end of an 18-year process in figuring out how to take all the inputs and, you know, turn them into a cake at the end. And it does take a long time. And you know, now I think we're going to have to figure out how to do that more efficiently and effectively. We do. And we're still going to deal with very complex issues that will be challenging. The RDS is one of those, you know, the history with who is. And I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll make some progress there.  You were this really nice guy who was putting a face on an organization and a lot of us struggled with. Do you remember the first time you had to deal with registrars like that? You know, now we come up with, you know, we split the baby and we take the registry and we create registrars out of whole cloth. I was right in the forefront of that because I was tasked with developing the firewall between the network solutions registry and the network solutions registrar. And I think we did a very good job of that. But of course, as would be expected, there was huge mistrust that we were favoring network solutions over the testbed registrars and then other registrars you came in shortly after that as two cows. And but, you know, that's another thing that we've come a long ways. I mean, we highly respect the registrar model and it's been very effective. And so there's a couple of interesting pieces there because I've always described the registrar model as being kind of artificial. So what I mean by that is that the natural place for competition was at the top level. And I do believe that if we would have had a world where in 98, 99, 2000, we would have had a competition at the top level. We'd have, you know, we'd have a very different picture today. My guess, you know, yours would be better than mine, that at the time of the split, Com was probably about 7 million names, 10 million names. Well, you know, I can't remember. I can remember back when we started charging for domain names back in, and that was September 1995. There were only 135,000 names in Com, Net, and Orr. Now, we didn't hit a million names in all three of those TLDs until the end of 96, I think. So probably somewhere in that 6, 7, 10. Because it did accelerate. And so, you know, I say registrars as regulatory arbitrage because it was kind of an artificial distinction. And what's interesting is what fell out of that. You know, we kind of invented the wholesale model of domain registration.  And we did that for a very simple reason. You know, we were an ISP. We were selling by far the most domain names in Canada. And, you know, we just felt that ISPs were the ones that sold domain names. And so all we tried to do was create a platform that made it easy for... Let me ask you a question. Were you the first, was Toukels the first? It kind of seems like they were in my mind, but you would know at first hand to actually do the reseller model. Yeah, oh yeah.  We actually launched in org because what we were doing at the beginning was we believed that, you know, registrars didn't sell domain names, that ISPs did for registries at the time where there were no registrars.  We had mirrors all over the world. So we just wanted to make it easy for our mirrors who were all ISPs to register domain names and make a couple bucks along the way.  So, you know, we jumped from one iceberg to another safely. But there's another bit in that that still has resonance into the GNSO today, which is in those days, we were in the, still in the early days of internet access, you know, at the time that ICANN started, overwhelmingly most people had dial-up access, not broadband. And the implication there is there was no web hosting industry. It was only ISPs. It was only with the advent of broadband where kind of cable companies and phone companies pushed all the independence out that a lot of those independent ISPs just jumped over to the other side of the pipe and became web hosting companies. And then you sell the web hosting industry, you know, so in the early days it was, you know, we used to say ISPs. Then we would say ISPs and web hosting companies. Then it was really web hosting companies.  Because that was the reason those guys were in the room. You know, that kind of, that reason evolved to, well, they run networks. But, you know, that could be, you know, you could look at that in a few other places in the organization. And the other kind of early irony in the GNSO is the IPC. You know, it was a single-purpose organization to get the UDRP in, which was hugely successful. I mean, you'd remember Working Group C and all of that stuff. Yeah, and of course the UDRP way. I think it was the first policy that was adopted after ICANN was formed. And of course, you know, we're just now getting ready to review it for the first time. Yeah, you know, I mean, there's so much, I mean, what I take away from that, there's anachronisms in the GNSO process and structure that resonate today, just like you have something like the Electoral College in the United States, which exists because, you know, people had to ride on horse to carry results from place to place.  You know, I don't know that we ever will, but you have today, you know, that world has evolved so much that you have people today that simultaneously sit in four and five different constituencies. Yes. Legitimately. Yeah, you know. They do. And of course, that expanded with the introduction of new GTLDs. Oh, yeah. Greatly changed the landscape. The registry stakeholder group that I'm a part of is now made up of a lot of registries that are also registrars. And of course, that was prevented going back to network solutions because of the conflict of interest there. So we started one place and have come back to that place. Well, and I think you also are very happy that you're not a registrar today and are just. We are. But at the same time, we have great respect for our registrar customers. Oh, I know. You've always treated us with respect. Do you have a closing thought for us? Well, you know, I'm really happy where we're at.  For more, when you look at where we've come from, there's been tremendous progress. Now, we have a long ways to go, but I'm really happy that where we're at and how we got here and to see how, with all of our differences, when we've been able to make this progress, that's quite a statement. Well, I think I'd close with the fact that I really spent my whole I can time just wishing my hair was as good as yours. Thanks a lot, Chuck. Thank you.