I started a sales career when I raised money for East Abington little league back in 1978.The Proven Entrepreneur podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center

Don Williams: Okay, so, alright, so in your household, mom and dad, they're both doing things, grandparents are doing things, and so tell us about your first, I'll say job, but your first job, you might have been an entrepreneur, you may have never had a job. The first thing that you do that did, that resembled work that you got paid for. What was that? Richard Blank: Uh, I could have been the first one that I was earning money or the one where I was most satisfied. The, the time when I, I realized I had the salesmanship was when I was raising money for my little league uniforms. We were supposed to go out and sell $1 candy bars, and this is back in 1978. That's pretty expensive. And so it was interesting. They gave us 50 candy bars. I walked around my neighborhood and I sold 'em all in one Saturday. A lot of people just gave me money and said, thank you, Richard. You're cute here. Keep the candy. My father was pretty cool after when I brought back the $50 and the candy was gone, he said, you can keep the money. I'll pay for the uniform. I go, really? He goes, yeah, you worked your tail off for that. And so I realized that hard work does breed success. But you were mentioning something earlier. We were born in the United States and a lot of times you are given, uh, opinions. They're offered to you. and maybe your career should be predestined. Maybe law medicine, engineering architecture, Ivy League, and it might be difficult sometimes someone like myself that wanted to be a Spanish major in college that sort of dreamer that romantic, it's very difficult to compare notes with people cuz they were off on other journeys. When I myself was doubling down on humanities and languages and as much as it seemed like a long shot, well look at it like this. I'm in Costa Rica and getting a return on investment on a second. When some people spend a hundred thousand dollars and don't follow through on that career, so a lot of it is being true to yourself. It's standing up to the naysayers and great believers doing your due diligence, you know, standing tall, not just jumping in two feet without any sort of investigation. But I was pretty much prepared for this. And at 27 years old, I was given a one in a million opportunity to move here. And obviously the wind has been in my sail. And the stars became aligned on, and I decided to continue on my vision quest, my spiritual journey. So when you see me smiling, I'm living the best life right now. I have never. The Proven Entrepreneur podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica as an expat. Don Williams discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading. Richard joins The Proven Entrepreneur to talk about his inspiring entrepreneurial journey. Learn why he wanted to pursue call centers and his unique cultural approach to this business. Discover how you can become a transformational leader just like him in this informative conversation. Richard Blank flew overseas to teach English at Costa Rica’s Call Center. Little did he know he would become the CEO of that very call center. This position pushed him to take some time to learn the ins and outs of the business. He got to know each and every agent personally. Most importantly, he created a great working culture for everybody. Figure out how he did these things today! 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/8DuZxX9Xnqo https://youtu.be/uhq2j2EpdFk https://youtu.be/GTK4upZfKag https://provenentrepreneurshow.com/episode/s2e27-richard-blank/ https://youtu.be/YvPvFZ2NtNs https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-blank/id1561403604?i=1000590020561 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

Unlike what we've seen in the movies, most call centers do not sell stocks in a boiler room. The Proven Entrepreneur podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center

Richard Blank: All right. Tell us, so you went to Costa Rica? Mm-hmm. , you're teaching English? Mm-hmm. . Okay. Because you're fluent in Spanish. Okay. Yes. Somebody is running, uh, a nearshore call center. Correct. And you're, and you're engaged with them. You help them for four years. So you learn the business, you don't learn the tricks of the trade. You learn the trade. I sat with the people. There you go. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad. Good. Not bad. Bad. You know what I, you know, what I really learned by not being the C level executive from the start on, uh, empathy that the agents felt like they did not have their dignity, and a lot of them felt expendable or like a robot. And so when you hear those sort of things, you do realize that people have lives outside of the office, which may affect their performance. So instead of just writing checks and just saying, you know, good morning. , I'll know your name. And as you can see, I have a gamification culture here. I collect Tim Ball juke boxes in AR arcade machine. So I like to play games with the agents and let them let off steam and make friends. And so unlike what we've seen in the movies and we've all seen the Boiler Room Wolf of Wall Street and Glen Gary, there are some centers like that, but not all call centers sell stock or have that sort of assertive. On the phone, it doesn't match every sort of profile agent that you and I have hired. So, you know, I think Hollywood glamorizes it. But yes, these individuals are very talented in speech. But to me, since English was their second language, I took that delicate sort of position and I really expanded on their vocabulary with a Thesaurus. Understanding the North American culture, their delivery, and you know, with being in the call center space, really focusing on quality assurance so we can listen to their calls, we can grade their calls and really focus on the soft Don Williams: skills. Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's a people business. The soft skills make all the difference, you know, in what happens. So, um, The Proven Entrepreneur podcast has accepted Richard Blank's invitation to join the audience for a solid discussion regarding starting a company from scratch in Costa Rica as an expat. Don Williams discusses with Richard advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading.Richard joins The Proven Entrepreneur to talk about his inspiring entrepreneurial journey. Learn why he wanted to pursue call centers and his unique cultural approach to this business. Discover how you can become a transformational leader just like him in this informative conversation. Richard Blank flew overseas to teach English at Costa Rica’s Call Center. Little did he know he would become the CEO of that very call center. This position pushed him to take some time to learn the ins and outs of the business. He got to know each and every agent personally. Most importantly, he created a great working culture for everybody. Figure out how he did these things today! 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/GTK4upZfKag 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

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