Be cool with yourself. Real People, Real Business Podcast

Real People, Real Business - EP #63 with Richard Blank - Creating Connection & Balance With Games A weekly podcast and show by Stephanie Hayes, Business Strategist. Each week, Stephanie interviews business owners who have real, in-the-trenches stories and experiences to share. Real People, Real Business is my online show featuring business owners and entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, creating and growing their dream businesses, one step at a time. Sometimes we need inspiration and answers from folks who are closer to where we are, and who share the same experiences, constraints, challenges and opportunities that we do. I’m Stephanie, and I work with experienced business owners who are trying to figure out what’s next in their businesses. They have pushed themselves to achieve enough success that they know their business is viable, but feel they have run out of options for growth. I help them create a new vision and strategy for their business so that they can feel completely aligned, excited and energized about their new direction with a clear path for financial and personal growth. Tired of hearing amazing stories that are inspirational but feel out of reach? Craving some real talk with people who are just like you? In Real People, Real Business, Business Strategist Stephanie Hayes interviews business owners that are building their businesses and making progress through grit, determination and action. They are working through the everyday challenges and celebrating incremental wins on their journey to their dream. Every one has a story, and each of these entrepreneurs are telling theirs in funny, vulnerable and heartwarming ways that will make you say "Yes! That's me!" and leave you with creative ideas for breaking through that next roadblock that might just have you stuck. Celebrating all businesses and all business owners, and creating a community of real people. After following his love of Spanish and majoring in Spanish communication in college, Richard Blank landed an internship with Telemundo and the Importers of Corona which prepared him for a once in a lifetime opportunity taking him from Philadelphia to Central America. In this episode, you’ll hear how a friend’s offer to teach English in Costa Rica launched Richard's entrepreneurial journey. By working in his friend’s call center, he learned the ins and outs of the business, gaining the confidence to become an entrepreneur himself, founding his own call center company - Costa Rica’s Call Center. Listen in to Richard’s refreshing, positive, and relationship-centered approach to building a successful business. Learn about the fun business culture he has instilled in his company, born out of a very unique hobby that goes the extra mile in creating a positive experience for both his employees and customers. Richard reveals the complex nature of running a call center business in a foreign country, the differences between offshore centers and near shore centers, and how he combats attrition. He goes on to discuss the type of clients he gets the most joy working with, the criteria he uses to determine if a client is a good fit, how he differentiates his business from his competitors, and the old school approach he follows that has led to his business growth. Running a call center has its challenges and Richard describes how he navigates them, the impact the pandemic has had on the call center industry, what he predicts happening in his industry in the future, and the importance of human interaction in creating a positive customer experience with a company. Finally, Richard shares the 3 things that convinced him he could be an entrepreneur, the number one core value he remains committed to in his business, and the one difference between what is out there in the business world and what is real. Stephanie Hayes Business Strategist & Coach I’m a 25-year business veteran and mentor for experienced, hard-working entrepreneurs like you, who are ready to level up in business and in life. I design personalized, totally aligned business models that suit who you are, how you want to work, and that give you the straight path to success – however you define that. You don’t have time for vague, might-work theories, and I have zero patience for marketing-guru-in-a-Lambroghini nonsense. (We’ll get along just fine) You want to take control of your business and create a deliberate path to your next stage of success. Side-by-side, I help you create a detailed, actionable, and incredibly specific game plan, so you can build quickly and become excited and confident about your next steps. 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 #realpeoplerealbusinesspodcast , Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,real people real business podcast Advantages of Nearshore Call Centers in Costa Rica It's a great question. We work with clients in Canada, the United States, and some of Costa Rica. But there is a huge difference, Stephanie, between the offshore centers in India, the Philippines, and the Middle East, compared to nearshore centers in Costa Rica, for an example. Our proximity to the United States our skill set, our Spanish and English language capacities, our infrastructure. And you yourself, you've been here three times and you love it. We're the only democratic society in Central America, so there's no standing army. We have a 95% literacy rate, an amazing labor pool. So I'm looking for companies that want to scale, that have an overflow, want to compare apples, or just looking for our sort of specific infrastructure, company culture, hands-on, sort of mentality that might be able to produce different types of results for a company. And so as long as they keep an open mind, working with us near shore could be an amazing option for them. Be cool with yourself There's no reason why you and I can't be watching those people on amazing interviews and telling their stories. And so my good friend, I think that's the only advice to somebody. When you look at the mirror, just make sure that you're cool with yourself and you're doing the right thing so you can be proud of yourself. https://youtu.be/EL1L3-QvOzE?si=AwPsgqKPz-DMdRie https://youtu.be/ODQDcDDT-PE https://youtu.be/yCXBcs-88pY

Advantages of Nearshore Call Centers in Costa Rica. Real People, Real Bu...

Real People, Real Business - EP #63 with Richard Blank - Creating Connection & Balance With Games A weekly podcast and show by Stephanie Hayes, Business Strategist. Each week, Stephanie interviews business owners who have real, in-the-trenches stories and experiences to share. Real People, Real Business is my online show featuring business owners and entrepreneurs who are in the trenches, creating and growing their dream businesses, one step at a time. Sometimes we need inspiration and answers from folks who are closer to where we are, and who share the same experiences, constraints, challenges and opportunities that we do. I’m Stephanie, and I work with experienced business owners who are trying to figure out what’s next in their businesses. They have pushed themselves to achieve enough success that they know their business is viable, but feel they have run out of options for growth. I help them create a new vision and strategy for their business so that they can feel completely aligned, excited and energized about their new direction with a clear path for financial and personal growth. Tired of hearing amazing stories that are inspirational but feel out of reach? Craving some real talk with people who are just like you? In Real People, Real Business, Business Strategist Stephanie Hayes interviews business owners that are building their businesses and making progress through grit, determination and action. They are working through the everyday challenges and celebrating incremental wins on their journey to their dream. Every one has a story, and each of these entrepreneurs are telling theirs in funny, vulnerable and heartwarming ways that will make you say "Yes! That's me!" and leave you with creative ideas for breaking through that next roadblock that might just have you stuck. Celebrating all businesses and all business owners, and creating a community of real people. After following his love of Spanish and majoring in Spanish communication in college, Richard Blank landed an internship with Telemundo and the Importers of Corona which prepared him for a once in a lifetime opportunity taking him from Philadelphia to Central America. In this episode, you’ll hear how a friend’s offer to teach English in Costa Rica launched Richard's entrepreneurial journey. By working in his friend’s call center, he learned the ins and outs of the business, gaining the confidence to become an entrepreneur himself, founding his own call center company - Costa Rica’s Call Center. Listen in to Richard’s refreshing, positive, and relationship-centered approach to building a successful business. Learn about the fun business culture he has instilled in his company, born out of a very unique hobby that goes the extra mile in creating a positive experience for both his employees and customers. Richard reveals the complex nature of running a call center business in a foreign country, the differences between offshore centers and near shore centers, and how he combats attrition. He goes on to discuss the type of clients he gets the most joy working with, the criteria he uses to determine if a client is a good fit, how he differentiates his business from his competitors, and the old school approach he follows that has led to his business growth. Running a call center has its challenges and Richard describes how he navigates them, the impact the pandemic has had on the call center industry, what he predicts happening in his industry in the future, and the importance of human interaction in creating a positive customer experience with a company. Finally, Richard shares the 3 things that convinced him he could be an entrepreneur, the number one core value he remains committed to in his business, and the one difference between what is out there in the business world and what is real. Stephanie Hayes Business Strategist & Coach I’m a 25-year business veteran and mentor for experienced, hard-working entrepreneurs like you, who are ready to level up in business and in life. I design personalized, totally aligned business models that suit who you are, how you want to work, and that give you the straight path to success – however you define that. You don’t have time for vague, might-work theories, and I have zero patience for marketing-guru-in-a-Lambroghini nonsense. (We’ll get along just fine) You want to take control of your business and create a deliberate path to your next stage of success. Side-by-side, I help you create a detailed, actionable, and incredibly specific game plan, so you can build quickly and become excited and confident about your next steps. 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 #realpeoplerealbusinesspodcast , Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer,real people real business podcast Advantages of Nearshore Call Centers in Costa Rica It's a great question. We work with clients in Canada, the United States, and some of Costa Rica. But there is a huge difference, Stephanie, between the offshore centers in India, the Philippines, and the Middle East, compared to nearshore centers in Costa Rica, for an example. Our proximity to the United States our skill set, our Spanish and English language capacities, our infrastructure. And you yourself, you've been here three times and you love it. We're the only democratic society in Central America, so there's no standing army. We have a 95% literacy rate, an amazing labor pool. So I'm looking for companies that want to scale, that have an overflow, want to compare apples, or just looking for our sort of specific infrastructure, company culture, hands-on, sort of mentality that might be able to produce different types of results for a company. And so as long as they keep an open mind, working with us near shore could be an amazing option for them. https://youtu.be/EL1L3-QvOzE?si=AwPsgqKPz-DMdRie https://youtu.be/ODQDcDDT-PE

Thriving Through Positive Reinforcement. We thrive podcast

HRIVE Podcast. A Philadelphia entrepreneur living in Costa Rica has what it takes. Episode 45. Every day, entrepreneurs around the world wonder if they have what it takes. What it takes to put food on the table, keep clothes on their back, keep a roof over their head, build a successful business, and even if they have what it takes to create and be a part of something bigger than themselves. During each episode, Casey Clark, founder of C Clark Consulting, interviews other entrepreneurs to learn more about what it means to them to thrive, how they’re using their business in creating an impactful legacy, and what has tried to get in their way. These stories will resonate with your soul as they inspire you to manifest your vision! Casey Clark interviews Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center in episode 45 of the weTHRIVE podcast. We Thrive 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. Topics discussed with Richard: advanced telemarketing strategy, conflict management, interpersonal soft skills, customer support, rhetoric, gamification, pinball machines, employee motivation, phonetic micro expression reading. 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 Favorite Pinball Games and Arcade Adventures Ooh, the one that I own or the one that I have played? The one that I own is a 1996 NBA Fast Break from Williams. It's a wonderful machine. I enjoy that the most. But when I was in Arizona, they have this amazing arcade that's in Mesa that's got like over 50 pinball machines. And I was able to play some stuff from the old 70s and the 80s and 90s. Influential Book and Life Lessons It's a wonderful question. There's so much out there. For me personally, I've dabbled in your self-helps and motivational books, but I'm more into biographies or certain sort of stories of a coming of age. My favorite book of all time was a gift that was given to me. It's from Harvey Allen. It's called Anthony Adverse. It was written in the 1930s. It's a very big, fat, long book. Anthony Adverse. And they made a movie about it as well from Harvey Allen. And so it was something that I never expected to read. But when I was in Spain, a very good friend of mine gave it to me. So when I was on the trains, I would pull out a few pages here and there. But it was it was really about a wonderful story about a dreamer that lived in since it's very long, a full life. I mean, you really go through the whole book. But it changed me a little bit. It was the discipline of reading a book that was so many pages, but also I resonate towards this main character that was finding himself and needed others where, Casey, success is built on a million thank yous, and I'd be very foolish to think I did this on my own. Show less growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry. Marriage and Video Game Battle Lines I got Hook. I got a World Cup machine, Street Fighter 2, Jokers, Lethal Weapon 3, Mousing Around, Judge Dredd, State Shuttle. Listen, when you're married to somebody, you got to choose your battles wisely. My wife can have 99% of battles when the one thing I am going to die on that hill are my video games. And Casey, thank God I got enough room at my office that I can fit them all. Positive Employee Management That's just one of so many examples. And also another one I'm going to throw back into the game room. So instead of having a meeting, Casey, where I bring you in and make you feel bad, why don't we take a recess downstairs? Let's get on the Pac-Man machine. Let's play some pinball. Five minutes later, you've let off some steam. You've recharged some batteries. You're saying, thank you, jefe. Thank you. You don't need to thank me. Thank you for allowing me to get you off the floor for a minute away from everybody. So you could calm down and reset yourself. Yeah. That's all. And then let's go back up champ. Let's do what we gotta do. Strategic Communication and Respect And the second thing is I'm going to know your name, so I'll give you the dignity. And a lot of the agents will tell me, Richard, you're the first boss that ever knew my name. And I said, unfortunately, that's true. And I might be the last, but at least while you're with me, I will know your name. And also, and also since English is their second language and it's okay that they have a slight accent to me, Casey, it bears the mark of higher education. I really insist on the thesaurus because I want them to properly express themselves. And so there are certain words that can produce a negative trigger, a rabbit hole or an ego defense. And so by using strategic words like guiding, assist and lending a hand versus helping and instead of saying, excuse me, can you repeat that? It's more, Casey, for my clarification. These are some strategic, diplomatic, and very choice structured conversations where we can really prolong conversations, increase conversion ratios. And not only that, increase the fulfillment of the agent's job. Casey, this is a very strict Catholic country. And as much as I want to fulfill the need of the agent, it's really more for the client. Thriving Through Positive Reinforcement It's really not about me, my friend. It's really about the others. It's the positive reinforcement that I get. So I could think that I'm the greatest and I'm the one man party and show and I'm the king of the castle. But if nobody shows up for my birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, I have no friends. And so for me, being in business for 14 years, it's not about how smart I am. how clever I am. It's about the foundation of the people that come back here every day to work with me. And so thriving for me is when people say, good morning, jefe, or they become supervisors, or they've been with me for a year, five, 10 years, or I get a written letter from a client telling me how amazing my organization is. And so I feed off of the responses of others. Show less https://youtu.be/VRbCVWZKILw https://youtu.be/nJyrY8dD91A https://youtu.be/O8O-r3Y3SF8 https://youtu.be/H0gnT5P4JK4 https://youtu.be/GAKngbhRvtE