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Hello. This is Arianna Porto Latin with the

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Becker's Dental and DSO review podcast. I'm thrilled

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to be joined today by Christopher Bland, the

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chief operating officer and integrator at Positive Impact

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Dental. Christopher, thank you so much for being

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here today. Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm excited

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to have a quick conversation.

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Yes. We're excited to have you here. To

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start us off, can you introduce yourself for

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our listeners and tell us a little bit

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about your background?

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Sure. My name is Christopher. Like you said,

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chief operating officer at Positive Impact Dental Alliance.

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We've dropped the Alliance in the last year.

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Let's see. A little bit about my history

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is I spent about thirty years in the,

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in the medical space, in particular,

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optometry.

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Grew two of the largest optical chains in

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the country

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and,

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did some, few years of of growing, or

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starting a, men's primary health care.

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Unfortunately,

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that

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was COVID affected and and didn't quite get

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off the ground as as quick as we

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hoped.

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And then,

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here I am in the in the dental

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space, very similar to the optical, but very

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unique and

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super excited to be here.

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Great. Thank you so much for that. First

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question here. What are some of the biggest

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issues that you're following in the dental industry

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this year? Oh, you know, I think two

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of the biggest things we're really following right

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now

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is is and I think you always follow

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is is RCM and and and the AI

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that's

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associated with it. You know, can we collect

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quicker, better, more, faster? You know, obviously, that's,

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everybody's thing. And and then AI in general,

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just how we can leverage,

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you know, from large language models to,

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specific AI that helps with diagnosing and and

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just

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phone answering. It's just the whole gamut is

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is probably one of the things we're we're

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we're we're early adopters here

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and like to just we're trying to stay

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on the forefront of what's happening in that

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AI space.

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Great.

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And next question here. I'm curious to know

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what are you most excited about when it

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comes to dentistry right now, and what makes

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you nervous?

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You know, I'm I'm really excited about the

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white space and the opportunity for us to

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grow. You know? And and, you know, very

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similar to the optical industry about ten years

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ago,

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I'm really excited about having

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being in a place to help

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doctors, dentists,

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have an exit,

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and that that's a that's a lucrative exit

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for themselves. So, you know, I'm really excited

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about that growth and and helping people towards

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the end of their career ready to sunset

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and do what they work their whole life

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to be able to go do, go play.

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And,

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and just having that you know, being the

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place and the opportunity for them to do

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that, that's that's really exciting for us,

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this year. And then,

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and then, you know, continuing our mission.

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What worries me about the dental space

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is,

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not much. Not much really. You know, we've

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got obviously,

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you know, some macro and economic things that

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that you always worry about,

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but it's it's it's kind of a an

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evergreen industry.

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You know, peep there's always gonna be people

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that need, you know, a positive impact in

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their life through through good dental dental health.

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And,

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but there is a worry there. It's like,

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how how how much do we have to

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modify to

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to keep up with, inflation

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and costs and,

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you know, and still be able to provide

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wonderful care.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. That's something I hear a

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lot from executives is just this

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economic environment that we're currently in, a lot

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of back and forth, a lot of changes

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happening,

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you know, day to day, week to week.

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Are there any,

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changes or things that positive impact has sort

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of modified and adjusted

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to just

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remain

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sustainable, in this environment with all the changes

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going on?

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You know, I've I've been here since February,

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and one of the first things we really

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did was to sit down,

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with the executive team,

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and we spent

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two and a half days

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just

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fine tooth comb on expenses. You know? There's

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always

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especially in a DSO where we where we've

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got, you know,

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a bunch of offices,

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you know, trying to lean into what works

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best for them. But it was that it

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was it was that really deep dive on

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on, is this an expense that we need?

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Does it move the company forward? Does it

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meet our mission statement? Does it, you know,

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ultimately

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improve patient care? And so that was an

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exciting few days

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to just go through and and and and

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just strip away,

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you know, a lot of unnecessary expense.

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Yeah. Yeah. Super interesting there. Thank you for

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sharing that.

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Last question here. What will the most effective

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health care leaders need to be successful within

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the next two to three years?

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Even more so on a macro level, but

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let's just talk health care.

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It's going to be embracing

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AI. I know that's an easy catchphrase. It's

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what everybody says,

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but, it it touches so many pieces of,

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of of business now,

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much more effectively than just a year ago.

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So it's really maybe not being an early

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adopter, but being aware

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and and getting up to speed on it,

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that is

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it's just got so much possibility out there

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that that if we not if we don't

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embrace AI, figure out how it works for

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our our companies,

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we're gonna get passed up.

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Right. Right. Definitely.

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And semi related question here. I know in

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the beginning, you talked about your background,

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working in health care, but maybe in some

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different fields, with primary care and optometry, I

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think it was.

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Are there any lessons or tips and tricks

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that you take from those past experiences into

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your work now in dentistry?

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Yeah. You know, there's it's amazing how similar

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they are

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and

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how

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dentistry and this is just my take care.

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And may and and I have a very

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small skill, small data set, but,

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tend to make it very complicated

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when it's when when some of the business

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things and some of the patient care,

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protocols and all that can be very simple.

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And and,

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you know, we went through that in the

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optical industry and the optometric industry

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ten, fifteen years ago, and then the dental

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industry is, you know, it's,

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the business side of it,

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we tend to make very complicated.

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And and, you know, the old KISS principle

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really will help this industry. And that that's

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kinda one of the things I'm I'm bringing

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here

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is, you know, we we can make this

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complicated

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or we can

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make it really simple and fun. You know?

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To me, simple is fun. So how do

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we make it fun? How do we keep

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it simple?

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And,

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that's that's, you know, blocking and tackling and

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the fundamentals will always

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will always give us a lift.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you for sharing that.

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Well, that is all I have for you

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today, Christopher. Thank you so much for joining

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us today. It's been a pleasure speaking with

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you, and I look forward to connecting with

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you again in the future.

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Hi. Thanks for having me. This has been

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enjoyable from my side too. Thank you so

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much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye

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bye. Thanks.