Dr Andrew Greenland: 0:00

So welcome back to Voices in Health and Wellness. This is the podcast where we speak with leaders behind private patient-facing clinics about what it really takes to grow, lead, and scale in modern healthcare. Today I'm joined by Victor Brown, founder and CEO of XCellent Life, a company operating at the intersection of healthcare growth, technology, and intelligent automation. Victor works with medical practices and health-focused businesses to improve how they attract, convert, and retain patients, while also leveraging AI systems to improve operational performance. So with that, Victor, I'd like to welcome you, welcome you to the show. Thank you very much for joining me today.

Victor Brown: 0:35

Thank you so much, Andrew, for allowing me to be on your show. Looking forward to a great conversation.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 0:40

So maybe you could start at the top. Would you mind giving us a little bit of background about where you've kind of come from and how you've ended up in this space?

Victor Brown: 0:49

Sure. And so first of all, I should say that I've not always been a healthcare person. I spent my the better part of my career in the energy sector, uh, where I spent 20 years starting as an engineer, uh, transitioning to a marketing role, sales role. I had worked in a variety of capacities uh in a highly regulated market. So naturally I thought I was going to retire in the energy space. Uh, but about 15 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. So naturally I started to get more involved, and I was very alarmed about uh what I found uh with regards to healthcare. I didn't understand it, it didn't make sense to me. And the reason it didn't make sense is that my subject matter expertise in the energy sector was software applications that protect critical infrastructure. And I knew that we would never say, hey, here's a nuclear reactor, let's let it start to melt down, and then we'll go in and try to correct the issue. Well, of course, that'd be ridiculous, but based on that experience, I felt like that was the standard that we bear in healthcare. Everything is reactionary. Symptoms send us to the medicine cabinet, they send us to the doctor, the hospital, and unfortunately, sometimes the more. And I knew that there was a much better approach, a proactive approach. I also knew that from like an engineering perspective, the human body is very much like a very sophisticated electrical network. So you have the opportunity to understand the human body in a very granular way, monitor it, protect it in the same way. So my vision for XCellent Life was to provide a software platform uh layered with the best technology, the latest technology to protect the greatest asset, which is human vitality and human life.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 2:29

I love your nuclear reactor analogy. I think I'm going to steal that for another occasion. So thank you. By all means, too. So you've obviously excellent life, you're building, it's in development, as it were. How does that fit into the bigger picture of um helping medical practices from your perspective?

Victor Brown: 2:47

Sure. So there's some technology themes that are changing the world that we live in today. Um, I think for a lot of healthcare practitioners, uh, they're being challenged today with maintaining a patient base, uh reaching out, growing a patient base, and just managing kind of the day-to-day activities with a very limited amount of time. Couple that with how AI is reshaping how uh people do things in all aspects of life, being able to leverage that in a way to make uh the lives of healthcare providers easier is happening more and more each and every day. So with XCellent Life, uh, because of the way we can engage users utilizing AI in a very personalized way, when you put that in the hands of a healthcare service provider, their patient base can stay a lot more engaged, spending or taking a lot less time for the medical provider to do that. So you create patients who are more informed, you create patients who are more attached and dedicated to interacting with that particular provider, and you can create avenues to growing your patient base with generating natural referrals from uh the satisfaction level you're getting from that patient base. That doesn't even start to mention the uh information that you can provide is helpful with regards to helping that person be more healthy and well that's automated, you know, using AI. So those are some of the things that uh we're doing and we're working on, and it's providing value throughout healthcare service providers.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 4:29

Thank you. I guess when you're building a new company and you're in that development phase, you probably wear all the hats at the same time. So, what does um a typical week look like for you at the moment? How are you dividing your time in this kind of massive growth phase that you're having?

Victor Brown: 4:43

Yes, and so that is a the correct assumption. You do wear all the hats. And uh every day can be a little bit different. And and my my day is always a very long day. Uh, it usually starts around 5 a.m. Um, and I may have meetings um in the middle of the night because I'm working with individuals and organizations that are outside of the US. Uh, so it never really stops. Fortunately for me, um, the work that I do is something I'm very passionate about, and I believe it's a bigger part of my purpose, which is to uh somehow lead this world in a better place when I'm no longer here. Um, so that means like on a day-to-day basis, whether it's marketing, whether it's sales, whether it's actually development, it can be you know quite different. But most aspects of my day I thoroughly enjoy, no matter how much time I'm spending doing those uh particular roles, because I know that in some small way I'm doing that and it's servicing my purpose to make the world a better place. Um, uh as an example, uh I haven't done any hardcore coding for about 15 years. That's where I started my career. But because of vibe coding, which is something that you can do using AI now, I've cut part of our development costs as a company and I've been able to dive back into coding using vibe coding. So our latest software platform is a platform that has my fingertips all over it uh because I developed it. Uh, we had a soft launch back in December of last year, and we'll have a more formal lunch in March of this year. So I'm really excited about that. Uh a little bit of a long story, but I just wanted to give context to like how my day can be different from day to day, but also how my role can change uh as kind of technology opens up opportunities. Like I would never do the development work uh myself two years ago, but today I can't see myself really having a full-fledged development team uh given the uses of AI and how I'm leveraging AI today.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 6:57

Thank you. Really interesting. I'm very, very interested in the whole vibe coding thing and it's making coding and generating software so much more accessible to so many people. So that's really, really interesting. But in terms of you, you know, you obviously moved from a different sector into the health sector. Are you seeing any major shifts right now in how medical practices are acquiring patients? You talked a little bit about AI, but um, I just wonder what you're seeing.

Victor Brown: 7:20

Yeah, I mean, I think there's more of an openness to uh leveraging third-party providers to actually go out and get patients. I think uh more healthcare service providers are feeling uh the pressure, especially smaller practices or clinics. And so they understand that in order to really uh stay in the game and maintain any level of sanity, given all the pressures, that they have to bring in solutions that help them grow their patient base. And so uh I'm seeing more of an openness for doing that. And the technology that's available today is incredible, like it's it's push-button technology where you push a button and you know you're sending out this outreach that's highly intelligent, uh, people are receiving highly personalized messages. So uh, long story short, there's an increasing trend of more practices leveraging that type of technology.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 8:14

Interesting. So, in terms of traditional channels, which are the sort of traditional challenges, the channels that you think are declining, and what's behind that, do you think?

Victor Brown: 8:24

Yeah, that's a good question. Um I think it's really becoming a very competitive space. So, like if you go back maybe years in the past and you had more kind of these regional clinics um that had history in the community, and you know, just because of their proximity, um, they were having consistent clientele. They knew on my first name basis, and you had that, you know, real personalized um kind of relationship between the doctor and the people in the community visiting the practice. That is becoming more difficult to maintain in a sustainable business because there's so much competition today, um, so much red tape that people who got in the profession to take care of others and cure others and uh provide them with the highest quality of life are feeling more pressure from the administrative pieces of what's part of healthcare. And to combat that, uh, I think rather than those kind of traditional, you know, face-to-face, you know, growth through uh referral type of um, you know, growth engines or mechanisms, the channel today is becoming more digital. And so um you look at telehealth telemedicine, um, that's a new avenue. And through technology, using that individual engagement you may have with that telehealth patient to also generate um additional referral points. So practices are being very uh savvy about how they grow their patient base, uh leveraging technology. And I think the ones that are really thriving are tapping into technology and um just finding more efficient ways to do some of the things that uh was not even available without the technology that we have today. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 10:25

This is really insightful. So you talked a lot about what practices are doing or should be doing in this in this world. Are patients behaving differently in this equation?

Victor Brown: 10:36

They uh maybe somewhat differently, and I say that because um I think patients in general need a lot of behavior change. Uh, one of the biggest challenges that you see, and this has been pervasive throughout time, is that the greatest opportunity for creating a difference in terms of outcome is behavior change. So when the doctor is providing this amazing advice, this amazing treatment that would absolutely make a difference, it's still required that the patient take the advice of the doctor, take their medication, uh, make the dietary changes they need to make, uh, make the lifestyle changes they need to make in order for that treatment to be effective. And so uh that is still a major problem. That's been a historical problem. I will say that because of technology, uh I am seeing some trends where it's becoming a lot easier to adapt behavior change by driving behavior change with more personalized engagement that's more consistent, uh, more touch points. So that is a that is a change that's happening uh due to technology, but it's a change that's needed.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 11:56

Thank you. And because there's so much noise in there's so much digital noise around, is trust harder to build these days than before?

Victor Brown: 12:05

Um that's a really good question as well. I don't know that trust is harder to build. I think that you have to go about it in a different way. Uh, I think um, and it also really depends on kind of the age bracket that you're working with. You know, there are a group of people who grew up with technology, and their expectation and their understanding of technology makes them very comfortable with engaging uh with technology. So you don't have the same kind of distrust barriers that you might have from someone who is a from a different generation, even uh my generation. Um, I grew up in technology, but a lot of my friends and family, uh my same age, did not. And so the idea of engaging with a chatbot versus an in-person is a little bit alarming to them. Um, I think there are ways to navigate that change uh through education. So any type of uh engagement, I recommend this uh where you're utilizing kind of a digital approach, that there's also kind of an educational component that you're introducing to uh your targeted audience and your patient base as well, explaining to them um, let's say if it is a chat bot, what that chat bot is doing, how it's helping in the process, um, making them feel more comfortable as you start getting into kind of the more normal things you might say about encouragement of uh behavioral practices that would aid them in their journey to being healthier. So uh uh educational component is really required now and helpful in building trust. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 13:49

I guess there are a lot of practices that might have their heads in the sand even in 2026 and still think AI is this big scary thing. But if there's anybody out there in a practice who's thinking about seeing how AI might be able to help them, what do you think of the things that AI is particularly good at in terms of acquiring new patients? If you had to kind of pin down a couple of things that people could focus on so they don't get scared about this big amorphous thing of AI, what would you think those would be?

Victor Brown: 14:15

I think just uh one is really easy. Like patient satisfaction will lead to more referrals, it'll lead to that patient uh outside of that doctor's presence, talking to their family and friends and talking about the amazing experience they had and how they feel good about that. So anytime you can create uh uh satisfaction at a certain level, that will automatically grow your opportunities as a provider. And so um the way that happens is that if you're engaging in a consistent way and in an intelligent way, so as a doctor, uh I'm sure it'd be very difficult for you to do all the things you like to do to all the patients that you have on a consistent basis if you're doing that in person, live, or even picking up the phone. That's not scalable. But what is scalable is generating um an AI representation of yourself, maybe your same voice, and providing like a daily recommendation to your patient, pushing a button and having every single one of your patients receiving a good morning that's from your voice, uh, but a health recommendation could be generalized or could be very personalized for that specific patient. What impact would that have on your patient base? And so, you know, problem well, solutions like that are really, really changing the game. And technology-wise, they're not hard to implement.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 15:46

I love that. That's a really, really practical suggestion. I really like that. I think that's really cool. And it's the whole personalization thing and having you in their living room when you're not really there, but giving them that kind of extra input or advice or tip. I think that's really, really good advice. So you're obviously working in the world of trying to help practices improve their patient acquisition. Do you think that practices on the whole really understand their acquisition numbers when you're having conversations with them about you know what this might achieve? Or were they operating on assumptions?

Victor Brown: 16:17

I think a lot of times assumptions. I think um, you know, for some of the individuals that I know and I talk to, like just the day-to-day administrative stuff has got them so bogged down, they're looking at like uh cost and revenue, like top line, bottom line type of stuff. And the things are in the middle that affect top line, bottom line, somehow can easily be lost because the pressure of performance, uh keeping the doors open, um, getting through all of the administrative hurdles, and somehow feeling like they have a quality of life that's that can be sustainable doing what they do, uh, those are real challenges. And I think the technology kind of black box, uh AI being one of them, can be layered into that equation to make life so much easier for those providers.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 17:13

Thank you. I guess you're working with a range of different size of practices. Are these sort of smaller independent clinics more vulnerable than the larger groups for some of the problems that we've been talking about?

Victor Brown: 17:23

I would I would say they are. Uh, some of the smaller uh clinics are definitely more vulnerable. Uh matter of fact, um at least in the US, we're seeing like uh larger hospital systems go in and acquire uh some of the rural regional hospitals, um, you know, clinics, you know, of finding uh small clinic practices of finding ways to exit uh uh to relieve some of the pressure. And I think just naturally, when you have a larger operation, you can more easily navigate some of the challenges that everyone's dealing with right now. It's a little more difficult to do that when you have fewer resources, um just in general.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 18:13

So if you were to go into a practice and they say we need more patients, what's typically happening behind the scenes? You know, when you're thinking about you making a diagnosis of the practice and what's going wrong, what's going on behind the scenes when they come to you with that kind of request?

Victor Brown: 18:28

Yeah, you know, it can really be uh different things depending on the situation. Like sometimes it's just a function of proximity and what is possible. Uh some practices are like really in a tough scenario. You're looking at some of these rural practices where many times uh the first line of defense happens to be the emergency room. So the problem that they're seeing is a systematic regional problem that it would be very difficult for them to solve. Um, they can improve that using technology, but still to transition a community base that has historically leveraged the first line of defense being the emergency room over to that practice, that is a slow, gradual kind of process that requires a broad approach. But then there's some scenarios where a practice may be in a perfect sweet spot with plenty of patients around them, and they're just really not engaging them correctly. So the application of technology in that regard can have a very quick effect. And so I draw those two uh contrasts because it really does depend on the actual scenario, which is why it's important when you're applying a solution, you truly understand kind of the nature of the practice, their environment, uh, and the ins and out of how they're operating, so you can apply a solution that's most effective.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 19:57

Thank you. And I think the other extreme, if you have amazing success in the clinic, would have a large number of influx of patients because of the work that you've done with the clinic. What's likely to break first? Because it's always well having all these patients coming in, but obviously they've got to have the systems and mechanisms to cope. What do you think would break in some of these more fragile clinics?

Victor Brown: 20:17

Sure, I'd say probably some of the administrative stuff where they're not using automations. Uh anytime you have administrative and you're taking data and you're entering into another system, you have the possibility of human error. And so if you throw more at them uh without automation, you're gonna have more human error. And uh that can lead to uh discomfort, you know, uh lack of satisfaction, uh slowing down, receiving revenue, missing revenue, uh due to you know mismatches in the way they're filing, uh not fouling, all these things can be part of the equation. So I say that anytime you want to ramp up uh kind of growing your patient base, it's also important to ramp up uh how you're automating your systems so that you can keep pace with the increased uh kind of patient base. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 21:10

So it's a similar question, it may have the same answer, but what's what's the biggest time drain you see for clinic owners? And is it the clinical work, the operations side, the admin, the marketing oversight, a bit of everything, or some other things I've not mentioned?

Victor Brown: 21:24

Uh I'd probably say the admin side uh and operations are like neck and neck. Uh, and it's the side that they all hate. Uh so um therein lies a real problem uh where you can create a lot of satisfaction for the practitioner and the clinic owner by solving those problems because I think by and large, most of the ones that I talk to, they care about helping the patient. They care about making a difference in the patient's lives. That's what they signed up for. Uh, but to spend time Doing the administrative stuff and the operational stuff is not something that they really enjoy. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 22:06

And if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in most medical practices tomorrow, what do you think that would be?

Victor Brown: 22:15

Um, if I think about that, I'd say I'd want for those practices them to have the ability to maximize the outcome that they're getting for their patient base. So I would layer on top of what they're doing, uh leveraging AI. Um, and I know that there's still some distrust in how AI can affect you know outcomes, especially within the medical uh industry. Uh there's a lot of pushback in some cases. But being in technology for 30 years, I've watched a lot of trends. Uh, and I honestly have not seen anything like AI. Uh, it is a difference maker. Uh the opportunities are tremendous. They're, you know, you have to be careful in how you apply it, uh, but it's a very, very powerful tool. So I would I would like to see practices using that more in smart ways to really uh affect the outcome that they're they're giving to their patient base.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 23:14

Well, with that, I mean, are you do you think clinics are typically underestimating the complexity of getting new patients in or are they overcomplicating it because they don't understand how it could be simplified using AI?

Victor Brown: 23:26

Um I think that they are uh underestimating the impact that AI can have on their business. I think that yeah, I think they have no idea of the impact AI can have on a bit in a positive way most of the time. Uh even, I mean, I'll give this analogy. If like if a doctor is a brain surgeon, and he's very he's been a brain surgeon for, I don't know, 30 years, there's only a few people in the world that that doctor can talk to in detail and it be understood in a very you know granular way, and that's another brain surgeon. And so even in the field of engineering, uh, you can think about AI also being kind of a practice that is, even though it's it's changing the world, there are probably only a few people, small percentage of people who truly understand how it's impacting in the power of AI. And so then you go to a medical practitioner who has not spent any time usually in technology, uh, even the expectation that they understand uh the ramifications of AI and how it could impact them in a positive way or negative way is a frivolous request. So uh I just think that it would not even be natural for them to understand how significant it could change their operations in a positive way. Very helpful.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 24:58

Um, have you seen practices invest heavily in marketing before fixing their internal systems? And what happens when they do?

Victor Brown: 25:06

Yeah, uh I've seen that happen. Um I think it's like uh just kind of a shotgun approach, and and I I commend them for recognizing number one, that their numbers need to look different and applying some solution. I think most of the time when they have done that, uh that over the course of time they refine it to where they start getting some outcome because they quickly recognize when they've just taken the shotgun approach that they're throwing dollars at something and the outcome's not changing. Um so I think just about every doctor that I've talked to has been highly intelligent. Uh obviously, they're you know, has spent a lot of time in school and and really smart. So the attempt to make a difference in their business, uh again, I commend them. Um if it's a shotgun approach, probably not gonna be effective, but they're gonna figure that out pretty quickly and start kind of diving into or getting uh a vendor or a solution provider to dive into why it's not working. But when they find the problem, eventually it can get solved. Um, you know, in order it has to get solved in order for them to maintain, you know, their business.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 26:22

So you've obviously come from a different sector. You talk about coming from the energy sector into the health space. What's one belief about growth in healthcare that you've changed your mind about recently, having you know moved from a completely different um thing?

Victor Brown: 26:35

Uh I I came into healthcare thinking that it was very equivalent to what was happening in the energy space, both of them highly regulated, uh, both of them move very slow. Um, but I I can say with a high degree of certainty that in terms of like um kind of at the operational level, the touch point level, where the patients are touching the technology that's being provided to them by healthcare service providers, uh it's behind uh in some regards what has happened in the energy world. And I think the energy world uh is in front technology-wise. I think healthcare is gaining ground rapidly, especially with the utilization of AI. But I was very I was very shocked that um at least in in the way that I was used to using technology in the way that it was being applied or lack thereof in healthcare. Um thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 27:42

So thinking ahead, next six to twelve months, what do you think is gonna separate um a thriving practice from a struggling one from your perspective? You having seen and worked with a number of different clinics.

Victor Brown: 27:54

Yeah, I think thriving practices are gonna tap into technology, they're gonna dive in, uh, they're gonna recognize uh just the basic stuff, like okay, if I'm using a tool on day one, uh that tool might not be used in the most effective way, but I got the tool for a reason. And they're gonna become more efficient at using that tool. So they're not gonna be fearful about uh bringing on board you know technology and AI. They're gonna experiment, they're gonna learn, they're gonna have some failure and have some success, but ultimately they are going to thrive because they are uh incorporating something that you know, quite frankly, is you know, I think you bring it in and you thrive, or either you don't and you end up dying. Uh and so I just think that with AI and technology the way it is today, you're not going to be able to compete uh with a practice that's leveraging technology and AI. So yeah, you know, two different worlds.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 28:52

Um we've been talking a lot about AI in this conversation, but are there any areas that you see that it's being overhyped that we need to be wary of?

Victor Brown: 29:03

Um I don't I don't know about overhyped, but I think you you should be very aware of the dangers of AI as well. Um this could be a whole separate conversation, so I'm trying to think how to where to take this. So um AI, and let me generalize garbage in, garbage out. Is you know, so if you put in bad information and somehow your AI perceived that bad information to be good information, it can propagate that and send that out and grow that bad information. And that's always something that you have to be careful of. So you have to put the proper mechanisms in place and systems in place to protect from that type of thing, because in a healthcare provider environment, it could be life or death. Um, and and so uh just uh, you know, uh some caution in terms of how you deploy and apply technology. Uh that probably holds true in in any area within healthcare, it's always kind of could be life or death, but but certainly with a really, really powerful tool like AI, uh you can get powerful outcomes one way or the other. Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 30:22

Yeah, I didn't want to go down a rabbit hole either, because it's like you said, it could be huge, but that was a really helpful perspective. So we're talking a lot about patient acquisition and growth and everything. From a clinic perspective, which metrics do you think clinic owners should be obsessing over? If you had to drill down a few kind of takeaways that people listening can kind of go and map in their own clinics, what do you think those things should be?

Victor Brown: 30:44

Yeah, I would say um uh patient growth, uh revenue per patient. Um, I would start looking at um if there's a way they can capture um kind of their, I call it acceleration, like they're looking at their patient growth uh and just analyzing that it may be, you know, the month over month and comparing two years, but looking for trends. It's a deeper analysis, but uh what you can find from that is extract information that may lead that provider to uh recognizing a strategic approach to growing their patient base. Maybe they see something that's more seasonal uh across the year that's happening on a repeated basis, but they can come to a conclusion that if I do this in this time, I get a greater outcome. So ultimately, uh when they do that, their revenue per patient numbers will increase. Um you know, just uh I think data is really powerful. Uh, and I'm a very analytical person, so I like to slice and dice the data in different ways. Uh, I kind of be like a kid in a candy store when uh I get access to data.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 32:04

Lovely. And finally, what's what's next for you? An excellent life over the next year or so. Where are we going with all this?

Victor Brown: 32:11

Yeah, like uh like I said, I'm really excited that uh we are now uh right before our more formal launch of the next generation of our software platform, which we'll do in March. And and so uh we're very, very growth focused. Uh we're actively raising around the capital. Um, we have some avenues to create um some opportunities outside of the US. Uh, I spent some time in Japan in December. Um we have some targets in uh Brazil as well, uh, and some key partners that are ready to kind of come on board, provided we have the capital resources to take advantage of that. So, yeah, I think uh 2026 is going to be a really exciting year for us. Uh, again, very growth focused and uh just looking to provide more value to our client base and continue to make the world a better place.

Dr Andrew Greenland: 33:07

Amazing. Well, I wish you all the best with that. And I'd like to thank you so much for joining me today, Victor. It's been such an insightful conversation, very educational. You've given us lots of information to work with and some really granular detail about how we can think about patient acquisition strategies and our practices. So thank you very much for joining me.

Victor Brown: 33:24

Well, I really appreciate it, Andrew. I've enjoyed the conversation as well, and uh, look forward to staying in contact.