Building a Business from Scratch.

Passion on Purpose Podcast. A Call Centre onboarding expert shares tips with guest Richard Blank. https://youtu.be/dq67937sZ4w On Passion on Purpose; Leaders on Center Stage podcast, your host, Steph Hilfer encourages entrepreneurs to share not only their expertise, but their stories and their hearts. We cover a wide range of topics – From how you started your business, your struggles and wins in your company to topics that our guests are thought leaders in. We believe that every person has a unique message which can positively impact the world. We let our guests share on the subjects they’re well-known for. No matter the topic, you’ll be hearing real stories from real people. If you want to create something out of thin air, then I'm your girl! That’s why I founded Viim! I can visualize what doesn’t yet exist and bring it to life... and boy it's alive! With a background in psychology, I am a master at understanding people’s relationships with brands. So while I may sometimes live in the clouds surrounded by creative thoughts, I am grounded in solid business strategy that creates a competitive edge to all brands lucky enough to experience my Midas touch. Also, you can find me geeking out with fellow entrepreneurs, industry leaders and business owners on my podcast: Passion on Purpose; Leaders on Center Stage. Find the show on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube! Viim, CEO and Passion on Purpose; Leaders on Center Stage podcast host Steph Hilfer. She previously hosted, The Weekly Share with CayCare, discussing with her guests their businesses and other industry specific topics of discussion. She's been on more than 20 podcast guest appearances herself. Her company, Viim is your visual, integrated and intentional marketing partner. They help you think bigger and envision new levels of success through strategic planning to enhance your overall business and performance. The Passion on Purpose podcast is a place for personal brands to get inspiration, motivation and learn how leaders have tapped into their inner passion! Yes… my full name is Stephanie. But since I could remember, I’ve preferred Steph! There’s just something about it… like we’re instantly friends – and for what we’re going to do together, that’s the best start! I’m so happy you landed here! Whether we’ve chatted before or you are just getting to know me there are a few things to hit right off the bat: I am intentional When it comes right down to it, I am a strategist. But honestly, that title does little to convey the depth of what we’ll do together. I am a visionary I see what doesn’t yet exist and I bring it to life. Building a Business from Scratch Instead of two months, I spent four years working in my friend's center from 2000 to 2004, learned the business from the inside out, decided to work at the family real estate company, making calls from Costa Rica to a brokerage out of Arizona for my brother. But when the market crashed, this is where I was at. I had a little bit of money saved for at least two years worth of living. And I was in my mid thirties. I had maturity and impulse control and some capital. And I really wanted to throw my hat in the ring. What could I do? Well, I knew this industry. but I could start small. You'll love this. Started working out of my home, put the website up in October, landed my first account February 6th of 2008, but I was renting a turnkey station from a blended center, like an internet cafe. There was no privacy, but it had reliability. So I paid the taxes, made my margin, and I could scale accordingly. And I was there for a couple of years. It wasn't glamorous, but I learned really what to do and had stable clients. From there, I rented space and bought secondhand equipment and furniture. So I was able to scale for a fraction of the cost and was there for about six years until I had enough money to build out this 300 seat center where I'm at right now. And it's been a blessing. I mean, I was building on momentum, stars being aligned, the wind on your back. And why would you? when you keep betting on yourself and as long as i was willing to go 15 rounds and be accountable and feed families in this country knowing that i'm a guest here and by all means the odds were in my favor Richard’s vision quest journey 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. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. 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. https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Leadgeneration #Appointmentsetting #operationalpha Passion on Purpose Podcast, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer, Call Centre onboarding expert shares tips.Passion on Purpose Podcast guest Richard Blank. https://youtu.be/dq67937sZ4w https://youtu.be/FBjWHlyoPE4 Value of Human Touch in Digital Age I love it. Well, I think you're doing amazing things for businesses around the world. I want to clarify. You support businesses in America through Costa Rica's call center. Yes, ma'am. Canada, US, Central America and a little bit of Europe. OK, so if listeners, if you own a business and you have a need for some extra support to get. By the way, I have to take the extra minute here and just say we are as of recording today, we're in 2023 and the world has gone incredibly digital. The world has gone very automation. The world is diving deeper than ever into AI. And never before does the human touch element of a phone call make more of a difference than it does today. So the work that Richard and his team are doing by picking up a phone call on behalf of your business, with quality, dedicated, focused people, it's going to be light years ahead of anything some sort of chat bot automation, AI is going to do. So I just truly believe in what you're doing. The Power of Voice in Customer Service But there are a lot of individuals that make and receive calls, and I prefer that over omnichannel non-voice support. I have a form on my page. You can fill it out. I prefer a phone call. You can retain a client. You can upsell. You can get a referral. You can get an exit interview. The moment that you just stick to filling out forms, the client's going to pop. And if they finally get somebody on the phone, they're going to go guns a blazing. And don't be surprised if you lose them. And I stress to my clients that even though they might have a slight accent, they're still able to extend empathy and show active listening and make suggestions. Embracing Fear and Building Trust Well, I put fear into perspective. If my great grandfather did it at the turn of the 20th century, coming from Romania and Russia, going to New York in the garment industry, learning English and making their money, I can do the same thing. That's how I convinced my parents to let me live south. But I guess a lot of it is good faith in the beginning. Once again, I'm a guest here. I learned your culture. I learned the language. Right off the bat, I'm speaking your language. I know the subjunctive tense. My grammar is great. My vocabulary is expansive. So if anything and nothing, you might give me five minutes to know me. And when you hear me and realize I don't compromise ethics, values, or morals by doing certain campaigns that are gray area or something you wouldn't do, maybe you might like me a little more. In fact, I don't use an alias. My name is out there. I contribute. I put things out there. People want to work at a smaller center. They don't want to get lost amongst thousands at Amazon. They want me to delegate. They want to grow from a squire to an eye. And I don't need to hire thousands. I have 150. Choosing Passion Over Conformity So that's an excellent question. In fact, I don't mind disclosing this with you. It goes way back where when your family is giving you certain opinions or has expectations in regards to your career, My friend, I didn't go Ivy League. My grandpa went to Harvard Law. My pops went to Columbia Business School. My brother went to Washington League. I didn't have the structured discipline or maturity to handle those sort of studies. So I decided to follow through on my passion. I love Spanish. And I know that if I were the only one out of my friends that could speak Spanish, I might be marketable. I was encouraged by my Spanish teacher and my high school initially that wrote me a college recommendation letter. because they believed in me and they knew that this was my sort of passion. And so it's very difficult to compare notes with people because I was a linguist. And I know that that was going to open doors and make me versatile. Who knows where it's going to take me? And so I interned for Telemundo in college just to work on those skills. And I worked for Corona Beer Postgrad. But at 27 years old, Steph, I was given a one in a million opportunity to move to Costa Rica. And if you can get past your parents' guilt, if that barn door stays open, you take it. And so I've been here for 23 years, celebrated my 15th year in business, owning a call center. And as I mentioned before, it's really just about having a true life, leaving that castle, slaying the dragon, saving a princess and becoming a prince. That's what life's all about. Proactive Communication Strategies Oh, you're so smart. that's why we ask clarification questions i'll say for my edification was it abc or one two three steph of course i'm going to use military alphabet to ensure emails don't bounce back We show active listening. We have checkpoints. There's ways to readjust tones where I can say, Steph, that's the next one question. These are the three things that we do. And then you mention it back. And so we have certain techniques to readjust, to show active listening, to repeat, to calm everybody down. yeah yeah so you just take it upon yourself to say you know i know that this happens i know that people get up in arms when they hear this beauty mark on the other side but let's i do too i seriously do uh let's just get ahead of it let's not wait for that moment for them to get impatient for them to get frustrated let's get ahead of it on every call and let's just make that the norm That is so, like there's so much foresight in that. That is beautiful. Worldly Adventures and Language Passion Well, I grew up with a very comfortable family. And so during spring breaks, we would go to Mexico. So I've been to Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. And as a little boy, besides enjoying the beach and the Mexican flair, I probably brought back about 30 vocabulary words. And it was either food or the stores that I saw or just anything. And so there was a positive reinforcement step. it just wasn't passe. It wasn't a past time. It was something that I knew that I could build upon and all the world's a stage. And so anytime I found a person that was bilingual, I would speak Spanish and it was cute. I could do it for five minutes, maybe ten. I wanted more. And the only way to do it was to dive into that deep end and live it. And so my junior year, I spent the entire year, 10 months in Europe, two months traveling over Christmas break. I didn't come home. And that was the best time of my life, Steve. You want to talk about shedding skin? You're 21 years old. You're in Europe in the winter of 93 and 94 with a two-month Eurorail and some Pashto Seen youth hospitals. And I traveled as far east as Prague, as far south as Corfu, the Pink Palace in Greece. Went to Amsterdam, of course, and I went to Tangier. And imagine going to all those museums, seeing the ruins, reading those books and 105-minute conversations a day with people from all over the world. And so where I grew up in Philadelphia and then going to Europe and becoming something new, I was born again. The essence of where I grew up really didn't matter. It was really about the pure Richard Blank. And that's what I was trying to develop at that stage. And that's when my Spanish really went through the roof. Overcoming Fear and Embracing Culture Well, I put fear into perspective. If my great grandfather did it at the turn of the 20th century, coming from Romania and Russia, going to New York in the garment industry, learning English and making their money, I can do the same thing. That's how I convinced my parents to let me live south. But I guess a lot of it is good faith in the beginning. Once again, I'm a guest here. I learned your culture. I learned the language. Right off the bat, I'm speaking your language. I know the subjunctive tense. My grammar is great.