 Search  Calendar  Gallery |  Auctions  Global  Top |  Members  Stats |
 | Admin |
 Chat (0) new User-Map |  send Password  Register |
|---|
| Forum Overview |
Pages: (1) [1] » |
  |
| The Proven Entrepreneur podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center |
| richardblank |   
| |
|---|---|---|
| Group: Administrator Level:  Posts: 180 Joined: 3/6/2019 IP-Address: saved  | The Proven Entrepreneur podcast guest Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center 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 cou
| |
| 4/27/2023 7:45:13 PM |     | |
|
| Thread-Info | |
|---|---|
| Access | Moderators |
| Reading: all Writing: all Group: general | none |
| Forum Overview |
.: Script-Time: 0.031 || SQL-Queries: 7 || Active-Users: 6,785 :.
Powered by ASP-FastBoard HE v0.8, hosted by cyberlord.at