Judge someone's true character during chaos. The Proven Entrepreneur podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center

Don Williams: Thinking back across your career, I'm gonna ask you about a hard lesson. Something that happened that at the moment was like, man, did not like that. But maybe today, maybe in retrospect, it turns out that it was actually, you know, a positive for you on your journey. Do you have a hard lesson like that you could share with us? Of Richard Blank: course. I started my business in 2008. In 2010, I put the majority of my eggs in one basket. So I went from 90 seats down to four seats. So I lost a very, very large account. And so a couple things happened. A, you know, reality hits you in the face. It makes you very humble, makes you very grateful that you had a run. But then again, you also judge someone's character during chaos. And instead of breaking windows, kicking puppies and screaming at everybody, I really became a lot more appreciative of the four agents that were with me to help build up the company again. And also, you know, you, you learn a, a life's lesson as well about being a one-trick pony. Could lightning strike twice was I just lucky? And so I'm not happy for the fact that I got knocked down. It didn't mean I got knocked out. What I had to do was just readjust myself for the remaining rounds of the fight, and obviously, you know, building a business to 90 seats, to four seats, to now 150. Obviously, I have that sort of ability to pick myself back up and to continue because you could always quit. You could always give up. You could say, well, we did. . But for me, I almost take the John Wayne philosophy of dying with my boots on. I came this far, there's still a little bit more to go, and I wasn't gonna let one account ruin my entire career. And so as much as I'm not happy about that setback, I learned many lessons. But the main lesson was about myself. I, I didn't do something to disappoint myself, to burn bridges or to look back and be very embarra. By how I handled myself. Um, you don't really want to talk about things that are negative, but sometimes, for an example, if you have a situation at a call center where there's an attrition, And a client might lose an agent and they don't give you a two weeks notice and just leave. I don't like surprises. I will call my client immediately, Don and I will make suggestions, let them know what's happening and always be ahead of it, because if a client can work with me through certain situations, it only solidifies a foundation so we can easily get through the good times. And so I guess that's putting on the big boy pants and having that sort of maturity and not hiding and making those sort of phone calls. It's really about being account. And there's some things that are outside of my control. I can't go home with these people and control everything that they do, but I can control myself and being here. And so that's a lot of the reasons why my clients move forward with me, because I call the balls and the strikes, and I'm a straight shooter. Just like you. Yeah. I, I think brutal honesty is in short supply, and when you deal with customers from that standpoint, you'll share the good, the bad, and the ugly as it happens. And then, you know, we have a plan to overcome it, you know? The Proven Entrepreneur podcast is to help others, help others. Most of the time Don fulfills that mission in a business environment. He helps people grow sales, improve customer experience and company culture and lead like rock stars.Don Williams hosts the Proven Entrepreneur Show. Don’s guests are Proven Entrepreneurs who share their real-life success stories. Their stories will inspire you. And their experiences will help you and your business be more successful.Don has helped 100’s of Companies with Marketing, Sales, Customer Experience, Culture and Leadership. The simple formula for success is:Ask for Help,Learn Something New,Act on What You Learned. Don can help you and your business too! Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008. Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies. We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry. https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #Appointmentsetting #Theprovenentrepreneur https://youtu.be/uhq2j2EpdFk https://youtu.be/YvPvFZ2NtNs https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-blank/id1561403604?i=1000590020561 https://provenentrepreneurshow.com/episode/s2e27-richard-blank/ https://www.ivoox.com/en/richard-blank-audios-mp3_rf_99562818_1.html https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-blank/id1561403604?i=1000590020561 https://player.fm/series/the-proven-entrepreneur/richard-blank