Outsourcing with Costa Rica's Call Center. Richard Blank telemarketing business sales tips

Richard Blank: Are you an entrepreneur looking for more free time, more money, or just looking for that success blueprint? The Proven Entrepreneur is the podcast for you host Don Williams and his guest Share Real Success stories from proven entrepreneurs. Here's your host, Don Williams. Don Williams: Hey, Don Williams here with today's episode of The Proven Entrepreneur. Man, do I have a treat for you today? I have Richard Blank all the way from Costa Rica. You are in Costa Rica this morning, right? Richard Blank: Right here in Central America. Pura Vida. Don Williams: There we go. So, um, I'm in Dallas Fort Worth. It's about 120 11 today. Uh, that's not really a number, but it's about that hot. Anyway, and so welcome to the show. Richard Blank: So happy to be here on the Proven Entrepreneur Show. Really appreciate it, Don. Thank you very much. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna take you all the way back. Uh, I, I'm gonna use the pun. I'm gonna take you all the way back to Little Richard. Okay. So five years old, um, the home where you were raised, maybe that was mom and dad, or however that worked, doesn't matter. Um, so from five to 18, what I want to know is, was there an adult. That, um, was a role model for entrepreneurship. Was there somebody who's an entrepreneur, um, in your c. Absolutely. It's in my blood from both sides of the family. Oh, Don Williams: awesome. Well, tell me about one and then we'll ask about the other. Richard Blank: Sure. Which side do you want first? My mother or father's side? . Don Williams: Ladies first, let's talk about law ladies first. Richard Blank: Absolutely. Well, my family comes from Europe, so I'm Romanian, Russian, German, and Polish. And at the turn of the century, my great-grandparents came over from Europe. , they all learned English. They both on both sides were entrepreneurs. On my mother's side, they were more tailors. So they started off doing, uh, clothing. And then in the depression, we started a company called Dream Tos, which was night. Where for women. And so we made our money during those years. And on my father's side, they came over from Romania and Russia and they were entrepreneurs in regards to, uh, home furnishings in the sense of kitchenware and furniture. So they used to do things on layaway, like the SEAS Catalog, and the company was called Consolidated Home Furnishings. That was back in New York and Philadelphia and. It's in our blood entrepreneurs that were nomads and that we take large risks. So as a little boy, I used to hear the stories from my grandparents and great grandparents and kind of realized I wanted that sense of adventure as well. I just didn't want to go back to Europe. I just wanted some better weather. Well, I, I get it. And I love that. And so, you know, here's an interesting fact. I've done about 200 of these interviews in the. 14 or 15 months, something like that. And most US born entrepreneurs didn't actually have an entrepreneurial example in their home. No. And so, so they were kind of wired that way a little bit to begin with and then, you know, their nature and nurture kind of took on the rest of the way. But the interesting thing is that, um, first and second generation Americans who came from whose parents or grandparents came from some other country. It's, it's a very high percentage of those entrepreneurs who had an entrepreneurial example in, in their life. And I think, I think that's because if you're born in the US and, and we all got here at some point, but um, if your family's been in the US for a long time, you have a tendency, and I'm included, have a tendency to take things for. For granted that maybe people born, um, in other parts of the world, uh, don't take for granted when they get here to the us. And so maybe that's how that goes. 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. 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. You're 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 be 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. 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 been happier. Don Williams: Well, it's, you know, it's interesting, so many entrepreneurs, um, you know, maybe they're first company or, or they're not first company, they're, they were in it for a profit motive or they were, um, trying to avoid, uh, submitting to authority somewhere. But, um, but almost universally when people begin to follow their heart, or some people might say their gut mm-hmm. . Okay. That's when the magic. Starts to happen and it's interesting as we look back on our paths, how, um, the cards seem to fall. You know, almost magically correctly, at the right time in our journey. And so, um, you know that Spanish studies, um, obviously has been very beneficial, in, in your business. So let's talk about your business. Yes. Okay. And so you're in Costa Rica and I know what your business is, but tell us what is your. Richard Blank: Costa Rica's call center. We're a dedicated bilingual nearshore call center that works with inbound and outbound support, and I work with clients in the United States, Canada, central America, and a little bit of Europe. But once again, when I came down here, I was only supposed to be here for two months. At my friend's call center to teach English, and I was in between jobs at the moment, and so I decided to stay. And when I was with the people, with the Ticos, the proletariat, I learned the business from the inside and out. So after four years of learning this business, I cracked some codes and ways to enhance the experience for the agent. For the client. Also, I was mature enough in my mid thirties, had my impulse control and some capital that I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and begin and, and don't kid yourself. A lot of entrepreneurs think that I started off with the bells and the whistles and running the building and no, I actually started quite slow. I was renting turnkey stations at a blended. And after a couple years, I rented space and built out 150 seats in a server room. Six years after that, I had enough money to build a 300 seat center. And continue my business. So it's more of the tortoise instead of the hair. And just like grandma told me, if you can't pay for it in cash, you don't do it. And the reason I saved that money was for job stability for my agents and also to weather a couple storms that happened during Covid and a couple other years. So, I'm really a long-term player that can go at the distance. Don Williams: Well, storms will happen no matter how good the weather looks today. There's a storm out there somewhere. I don't know where, but there is one coming and so, I don't know if you know this about me, but one of the businesses that I own is in the contact center business and, and we've, we've been in the contact center. 30 years, um, in that business, which that makes us a real old timer. This is not a business for the faint awards. Were Richard Blank: you using rotary phones back in the day? What were you doing? ? Well, Don Williams: we were using, um, not rotary, but black, um, You know, push button phones. Richard Blank: Chris, the Cisco phone is just manually dialing Don Williams: away. Of course. Manually dialing. I, I had several communicators. Two in all the years who could dial, they would flash hook. Okay. So they would never hang up the phone all day long. And, um, they could run. the phone the way a really good bookkeeper accountant could run a 10 key machine and it's backwards and upside down. You know, it's not the same keypad, but, but they were the same way. And so literally it was unbelievable how many calls those two could make. Um, and then of course, as technology became available way back in the day when. You know, dialers were new and cost $15,000 station . You know, I, we, I see we went to automation and of course technology has evolved and that stuff now, nobody even buys. It's just, you know, paid by the drink and, uh, Richard Blank: and goes Besides the technology, didn't you love the art of speech, how these people were so engaged on the phone and were able to convert these. Don Williams: Well, it's really not a technology business, it's a people business, of course. And, um, as in my humble opinion, most businesses are people, businesses, and, um, so, but technology, uh, can be your friend and, um, and certainly, you know, the advances that have happened in that business with automation and voiceover ip, you know, have made the world very, very small. Um, you know, Richard Blank: you see a lot of people going more towards chat and non-voice support, which I think is fine. It saves some time filling out forms, but you're also eliminating any sort of chance for retention, referrals, upsells in any sort of exit. So I think you'll get much more of a quality relationship and experience when you do have the ability to speak with your clients on the phone. Don Williams: I wholeheartedly agree. So I wrote a book about five years ago called Romancing Your Customer, and it is all about. Providing exceptional experiences to your prospects, customers, teammates, um, subordinates to where they love doing business with you. They love working with you. And, um, it, one of the concepts in that book that we discuss is that the, um, more complex or more valuable of a communication, we want to climb that communication pyramid. So today everybody wants, Text and email and you know, it's textual communication, but it, but there's a lot of different forms and the reason salespeople today want to use emails cuz it's easy, it's not effective, but it is easy. . Okay. And then above that we have video con. You know, what we're doing. Um, and or audio I guess would be the next layer. And then video con and then face-to-face. And obviously the more complex, the more valuable, the higher up that pyramid we want to go. And so think about proposing marriage, be best to do that face-to-face. And, um, but uh, and if you're doing podcasts, you wanna do video conference, Richard Blank: we try to reduce as much misinterpretation as possible, even though someone could be writing you so, The tone could be off the vocabulary. It's just there's sometimes they're lacking some sort of strategy or diplomacy. And so a lot of the times I will call up to follow up with a client just to make sure that I am understanding their message. And I'll be honest you, a lot of the times it's more bark than. They might write something or do it in bold cap and so be it. I can take it, but you know, let me just see if you can back it up with how you say it, because a lot of the times they'll realize that they may have overextended themselves and they'll try to readjust that tone. And so as you say, if you don't know the client very well, it could be a very strange first impression that you wanna, you wanna get a second opinion on that? Don Williams: No, no doubt. And I, I'll, I'll sh I'll share a story and then we'll go back to you. 25 years ago, I, I have an office in another state. They're very busy. We had fax machines. Okay, so this is like way back, you know, when dirt was new and I knew they were busy. Um, and so I just took a piece of paper and wrote, called Don and faxed it to the Little Rock office. Yes. About an hour later, the manager calls and he's like, I know you're mad, and I'm so sorry, and I. , why would I be mad? And he said, you sent me a fax and I. What did it say? And he said, it said, called on. I was like, oh, it didn't actually say, called on, it said, called on . And so, you know, the thing that we forget about written communication is you don't get, um, Richard Blank: emphasis, you forgot to say. Please . Don Williams: Well, yeah, but, but I, I am known for, um, at times being very short worded, very direct , and so it was just called on. So, you know, you never know. Okay. All right. Tell us, so you went to Costa Rica, you're teaching. English. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Because you're fluent in Spanish, okay? Yes. Somebody is running, uh, a nearshore call center 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. Richard Blank: I sat with the people. There you go. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad good. The bad, the 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 assertiveness. 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. Yeah, but to me, since English was their second language, I took that delicate sort of position and I really expanded on their vocabulary with 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: Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's a people business. The soft skills make all the difference, you know, in what happens. So, um, thinking back across your career, I'm gonna ask you about a hard lesson. Something that happened that at the moment was like, uh, 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 Richard Blank: could share with us? Of 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. . And so a couple things happen. 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 embarrassed. 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, Donna 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 on the strikes and I'm a straight shooter. Just like you. Don Williams: 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, I'm, it's not like I'm calling and telling you, oh no, the wheels are off the bus and we don't know what to do. Okay. But just sharing that, um, just, just the brutality of the honesty. In my opinion, shocks people cuz they don't get much of that in their life. And it's a positive shock, you know, it actually builds and deepens trust and, and that's how you, um, build and deepen that relationship, you know, for years to come. And, um, in this business, you know, every client probably leaves someday. Don't know what day. Okay. But even if at and t is your biggest client, at one time they were the biggest buyer of telemarketing services, call center services in the world. But one day they leave and um, so it's inherent to have. Verizon two as a client, you know, that way you don't have all your eggs in one basket. And it's not that, um, it's not traumatic, but thank you for sharing that. We've all been there. Mm-hmm. , and to, to me, the, the seed of success in that was the fact that I won't quit. I'll keep playing. Okay. And, um, because many of you know, the success stories shared on the pro proven entrepreneur include. I won't say failures, but failings and, and counterintuitively failings are actually a part of success. They're not the opposite of success, which kind of common sense as it is, but it's really not. You know, Michael Jordan, the basketball player, he, he listed all these things he failed at and he said, and the reason I'm successful is because I failed at all those things. Richard Blank: And so I love dedicated. I like when that people are working, when the cameras are off and the office is closed because they're, they're training for it. They're preparing for the heavyweight fight, and so I believe that you're increasing your odds in your composure. You're letting off steam. I mean, they, it's not just sitting around reading business books and, and reviewing emails. Maybe it's, it's working out in the gym or washing your convertible or for me, playing pinball or spending time with my wife. There are certain times when you could walk away decompress and you can prioritize. Because in the moment being from Philadelphia, I might have a short fuse and say something and, and get all rocky excited. But sometimes it's better just to walk away and to calm your head so then you can come back to that conversation in a different mindset. Don Williams: Absolutely. Take that deep breath. Richard Blank: On very large decisions, I think someone should be given the opportunity to think about it, to sleep on it. And if they wake up the next day feeling the same, then it is the right decision. I, I don't like forcing a hand. I know their sense of urgency sometimes, but your lack of preparation should not be my emergency. And in addition to that, I need to be able to explain the Costa Rican labor laws cuz there might be some expectations you have in the United States with your company culture or just what you want to do. That just won't work here. And so a lot of it is prevention instead of a cure. So I might be calling you with that non surprise phone call with a solution. But prior to that phone call I had laid out that this could potentially. Be happening. And so it's not like it's the first time hearing this. And so it's almost not a takeaway and I'm not really trying to not sell my company, but when someone is on the phone with me as an expert, as you are in your field, we must go through everything with them. And so from an educated decision, point of view, they can make that sort of decision. Yeah, no, Don Williams: no doubt. I, I totally agree. So much better to prevent issues than it is to try and solve them and so, so much easier. Okay, so now I'm gonna ask you for a nugget, okay? Yeah. So, something that's 24 Kara solid gold, a nugget of advice that you know, that you should share with us today. Richard Blank: I got so many, but let me just give you my first one is gamification culture. I told you before I collect pinball machines and stuff, and so I believe that somebody should be in a neutral environment to meet other people. And to be able to recharge batteries and it keeps me young. I mean, it used to be a passion. Now it's an obsession cuz I grew up in the seventies and eighties and I have the room for it. So any boss that creates an environment for people to enjoy themselves, that's number one. . And secondly, it's about delegating because in order for me to scale and to grow, I needed to have faith in individuals and to promote them. And I only believe in promoting from within what we'll bring in specialists for the IT department, but there is absolutely no way I will bring in an outside supervisor. They haven't earned the respect, they haven't raised the ranks, gotten their stripes, or even own my company culture. And so that's very important for me as well. And then another that I am a guest in this country. And I'm trying to break any sort of stereotypes that they might have of a, of an extron harrow as a guest in the country, as a c e O of a company, a telemarketer or call center. And so a lot of the agents say, you're the first boss that ever knew my name. I go, that's a shame, because the other ones did have the chance, and unfortunately, I might be the last one to ever know your name, but while you're with. What I'm going to do is to make you better. I reduce any sort of fear to let them know that learning a second language is 10 times tougher than what they can do. I'll give them all their resources to reduce any sort of fear that way, and once again, I'm gonna be their biggest fan of, I'm gonna find every single way that I can. To promote them and to give them long-term job stability. Don Williams: Sound like a transformational leader, which, you know, transactional leadership, uh, you have the mm, the president at the top, and then you have the, who's the commander in chief. Then you have general officers and officers, and then the troops. But in transformational leadership, that's actually turned upside down to where the leader sets the vision. And then enables the people to go manifest that vision. Love the gamification. I can't recall his name right now, but one of the original heads of hr, he's a PhD at Texas Instruments, which is right down the road. He now has a company where that's all they do and they do it in the call center business. Um, because people will, uh, people like to play games and they like to, Um, chances to do something. And so the great story he told, and I'll think of his name here in a minute, he said, you know, so if I could pay you $20 an hour to go sit on a stool and push a button on a machine, and then 10 seconds later push a button on the machine and 10 seconds later, push a button on the machine, and you're gonna do that for eight hours a day. How many of you want that? And of course nobody's hand went up. They were like, oh, that would be a horrible job. Sit on a stool, push a button. Wait 10 seconds, push a button. He said, lemme tell you another story. There's a group of seniors leaving Los Angeles, and as they cross into Nevada, they stop for a bio break and instead of running to the bathrooms, they run to the slot machines that are inside the facility. And they sit on a stool and they push a button and they wait 10 seconds. And they push a button and they wait 10 seconds and they push a button. And not only are they not getting paid to do that, they're paying to do that activity. And he said, so what's different? You wouldn't take the job where I was going to pay you. These people do it voluntarily without being paid. And in fact, Will pay. And he said the magic between the two is gamification. There is a chance that they might win something bigger and just, that's kind of how the human mind works. And so fascinating. Um, when I learned that, okay, I'm gonna put you in a time machine. Okay. All right. So just like Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise, we're gonna take you all the way back. It's not that far for you. We're gonna take you back to 20 year old Richard. Okay? And you're gonna get about 60 or 90 seconds to share one piece of advice that would've helped you along your. Okay, so something you know now you didn't know then, but looking back, you wish you knew then. So into the time machine, you go all the way back, here's 20 year old you. What would you tell you? Richard Blank: I would've told myself to be concentrating on commission based professions only because when you're limiting yourself to an hourly rate, which is. And you can get your insurance and everything, but if you do something where your potential is limitless, you can be cu over of a call center. And so I'm not saying that the naysayers and great believers were not encouraging me to follow my dreams, but a lot of it had to do with security. and what they knew true. And so a lot of that influence post-grad were those sort of jobs until I came to Costa Rica, where that's where my mindset was, where I was thinking, you know, if you make a hundred grand a year, you hit it, but little did you know you can make a million dollars a year. I mean, it's just another zero on a paycheck. And so I would be telling myself at 20 years old, Hey, listen man, in about, uh, you know, 30 years, you're gonna have a bunch of pinball machines. Be living in Central America. Marry the girl your dreams. I would be like pinball machines, , you know, but. I also would've told my 20 year old self, you have beautiful hair And to maintain it, maybe to start studying the violin a little bit sooner so you can impress your wife. Oh, and um, but I also would've said, you are on the right path, young man. And to continue studying that Spanish, which you love so much, and to once again, be true to yourself. So there's no regrets. And so I think for the most part, that would've, the only difference is those three jobs I had post-grad. But you know, besides that, the rest of it was just, you know, Doubling and tripling down on myself and hitting, you Don Williams: know? Yeah. I, I love that. I have a really good friend. He shares with people that, look, as a young man, I wish I had known only work on huge opportunities. Mm-hmm. , the, the amount of effort isn't that much different, but the payoff is, Uh, in invest, you know, working on huge opportunities as opposed to small opportunities and, uh, a hundred percent, yeah, absolutely. So, Richard, how can we support you? Yeah, what can we do for you? , Richard Blank: huh? Once again, just sharing ideas on your show today has been fantastic, and just following your works there. But if anybody wants to come visit me in Costa Rica, that'd be great. I have a lot of suggestions for you. Don Williams: I'm coming. , I'm coming. Yeah. I, I don't speak oddly. I'm coming. So, and the main Richard Blank: thing on your platform is just to let people know, not to be footloose and fancy free, but if you do have a. If you do have these intuitions and you have something that is pulling you towards something, I think you should follow through on it. Maybe not 100%. Maybe dip your toe and test it to see if there's a positive reinforcement there. And then also, maybe not just to chase money, because as well as I am doing, I'm also feeding 150 families a month and I get to meet their parents and their kids and they come to me and say, thank you so much and, and, and don't kid yourself when I meet one of my agent's. You don't think I'm gonna tell 'em how great Don is? Like for 10 minutes, embarrassing the daylights out of 'em because it's just paying it forward. And even at my high school, which was the ones that really encouraged me to study these languages, I, I set up a second language scholarship. I've been doing this for the last six years, so a senior that graduates, I'll pay for their books there freshman year. And so for me, I, I, I love giving back to those that gave me momentum. I really believe in. So as much as people work at this company, they're working with me, they're not working for me because check it out. If nobody comes back the next day, I don't have a company. It's like that kid at Chuck E. Cheese with no friends on his birthday. So, you know, the, the market speaks and the fact that I've been in a very competitive industry for my own business 14 years, and I've grown to this extent. Really, I have a luxury of a track. And so I don't really need to prove anything I, I've done more than enough to reassure myself that I made the right decisions, but besides missing my family and living 3000 miles away from my parents, maybe I did some selfish decisions. But I also know about having a life that could be fulfilled. I probably would've been successful in any sort of vocation that I took, but the fact that I have a wonderful story to tell at cocktail parties. And none of my friends. And you know what's funny? When I go back to Philadelphia for my reunions and all of my friends are so extremely successful, but each one of them has said to me, I, I wish I tried that one thing at least for a little bit when I was younger or I had the time or I had the finances and. I don't wanna lecture them, but once again, all of us get a hundred years on this planet. How do you want to do this? Yeah. And my young Richard used to read stories about leaving castles and slang dragons and saving princesses. I, I wanted my adventure. I wanted to conquer mountains in seas and deserts, but what can you really do in the 21st century? There's really not much you can really explore, and so just like great grandma and great grandpa decided to be a nomad and to try something just where I couldn't use my family's connection or my friends couldn't give me the introduction, I literally started from scratch. And as much as I might have started from home play compared to second or third base, , that's fine because it was a 100. Richard's story. Don Williams: There you go. Love that. Okay, well I think we're at the finish line, young man. I have so enjoyed having you on the show and I reserve the right to recall the witness. I want you to come back and we'll do it again and we'll talk about something else. Richard, thank you so Richard Blank: much. Had the best time, Don. Thank. Don Williams: That's today's episode of The Proven Entrepreneur Show. See you next time. Thank you. Bye. That's today's Richard Blank: episode of The Proven Entrepreneur. Go to proven entrepreneur show.com. Subscribe to the show, leave an iTunes review, and you could win a $25,000 v i P day in Dallas with Don himself and get Don's easier and faster selling with video course free. Please join Don on the next episode of The Proven Entrepreneur. 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/DlUGD5cjdZM https://youtu.be/uhq2j2EpdFk https://youtu.be/GTK4upZfKag https://youtu.be/8DuZxX9Xnqo https://youtu.be/QFMpmYd-h4M https://youtu.be/JQJBV7YIoO4 https://youtu.be/NALFZ9fAnYM https://youtu.be/L0PzFbW5QB4 https://youtu.be/5sRkaY0bVf8 https://youtu.be/JGdIqYZhZ5Q 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