Monday, August 11, 2025
Life's Checkmark Podcast. Growth, Gratitude, and Pinball Machines: CEO R...
Life's Checkmark Podcast. Growth, Gratitude, and Pinball Machines: CEO Richard Blank’s Leadership.
Jon Emery will lead you with captivating conversations designed to inspire you. He explores the guests' most challenging stories to uncover hope and fuel your transformation. Every episode focuses on personal development and the pursuit of success, offering insights that you can apply to your own journey of growth, love, and resilience. You'll explore real stories of physical and mental strength, entrepreneurial struggles and triumphs, and business achievements. With each narrative, you will gain a deeper understanding of mental awareness, spirituality, and faith, helping you along your own path to transformation. This podcast is a powerful guide to becoming the best version of yourself, addressing crucial questions like "How do I change my life?" and "How can I overcome my situation?" Embark on this self-improvement journey and learn how to navigate life's challenges to unlock your true potential.
Episode 154.
In this episode of Life's Checkmark, I chat with Richard Blank, the dynamic CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center. Richard’s story goes from growing up in Philadelphia with a love for Spanish, all the way to building a thriving business in Costa Rica. He talks about breaking the mold, dealing with expectations, and why communication is his secret weapon, plus how he uses everything from neon lights to pinball machines to create a workplace where people truly grow. If you’re ready to hear about betting on yourself and picking up real-world skills you can use anywhere in life, you don't want to miss this!
Key Takeaways:
Bet on yourself and take bold chances
Build real language and communication skills
Stay humble but persistent in your journey
Create a company culture that truly supports growth
Old-school wisdom still works in business today
Chapters:
00:02 Introduction & Richard Blank’s Background
00:34 Early love of Spanish and cultural lessons
01:07 College years and first jobs
01:32 Moving to Costa Rica & starting out
03:05 Breaking free of expectations
04:11 Staying true to yourself and long-term goals
05:17 Daily wins and learning
05:53 Telemarketing industry insights
09:11 How Richard built his business step by step
11:53 Separating from the competition
13:01 The real art of communication
16:04 Handling voicemails & warm leads
18:31 Making speech an art and career builder
19:22 Coaching young talent for real-life growth
20:43 Training with TV & film inspirations
21:41 Celebrating people growth and culture
23:45 The power of fun at work: pinball & team play
27:29 New generations & social shifts
28:17 Building company culture that lasts
28:51 Episode wrap-up & ways to connect with Richard
29:08 Final advice: gratitude, humility, and living fully
32:33 Farewell
https://youtu.be/1pWqCiZCe7I
Richard Blank hired bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGjN5H4xPQ
Jon Emery, Lifes Checkmark podcast, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing Call Centre, BPO, Nearshore Contact Center, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership, Marketing, CX, Guest, Money, B2C education, BPO trainer,call centre, contact centre, contact center
All about Jon Emery
Jon Emery’s journey is a testament to resilience and self-discovery. After losing a 20-year job and navigating a divorce, he embarked on a transformative path. This journey led him to authenticity and a deep desire to connect with others, creating his podcast, "Life's Checkmark." Through this platform, Jon offers comfort and understanding to those feeling alone on their journeys.
This quest for authenticity extended to his role as a father, allowing Jon to forge deeper connections with his children. Alongside family, he enjoys the companionship of an amazing dog and finding peace in nature through hikes and outdoor adventures. Beyond personal pursuits, Jon's passion lies in aiding others, particularly in helping them find their voice through podcasting, fostering empathy and connection among individuals.
In essence, Jon Emery's life narrative embodies resilience, empathy, and the power of forging genuine connections. His journey from adversity to self-discovery reflects the beauty of understanding and empathizing with others, both in personal relationships and within the wider human experience.
The combination of coaching and podcasting has allowed me to connect with so many people. Having a podcast of my own I can take my experience and help others who have struggled to get their podcast started to now Launch and continue to move forward. You will have me as your Podcrastination Accountability Coach to get you from episode 0 to be in the top 1%. Message me or schedule a call with me talk about your podcast idea so you are not waiting any longer.
Escape Podcrastination. Launch Your Podcast Today with Confidence, Guided by the Right Tools and Know-How – Transforming from Episode Zero to Podcast Hero!
By Joining Our Community You Will…
Demystify Technical Challenges
Overcome podcasting tech fears with our course, making equipment, recording, and editing a breeze.
Boost Confidence
Gain skills and strategies to address fears of inadequacy, ensuring you're podcasting with confidence from the start.
Time Management Solutions
Our course provides efficient strategies, ensuring you can fit podcasting into your schedule without overwhelm.
Embrace Imperfection
Break free from perfectionism paralysis. Learn to start imperfectly and improve over time, just like the pros.
Master Consistency
Learn practical tips for maintaining a consistent podcast schedule, and keeping your audience engaged without stress.
Demystify Technical Challenges Overcome podcasting tech fears with our course, making equipment, recording, and editing a breeze.
Boost Confidence Gain skills and strategies to address fears of inadequacy, ensuring you're podcasting with confidence from the start.
Time Management Solutions Our course provides efficient strategies, ensuring you can fit podcasting into your schedule without overwhelm.
Embrace Imperfection Break free from perfectionism paralysis. Learn to start imperfectly and improve over time, just like the pros.
Master Consistency Learn practical tips for maintaining a consistent podcast schedule, and keeping your audience engaged without stress.
What You'll Get
Podcasting Audio and/or Video As the podcasting market continues to grow more are taking on action to do both audio and video. You will know which avenue you'd like to venture that fits for you.
Where to Start No reason to feel like you don't know where to start. You'll have step by step guide to build and launch your podcast giving you the confidence you want.
Find tools and tips for podcasting Everything is always changing in our businesses and so does podcasting. Staying on top of the new tools and tips is crucial. Keep it simple and to the basics is also crucial. You will find that balance between the two.
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, he shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica s Call Center since 2008.
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.
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.
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/
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