Scale Tales From the Ground Up. The Business Infrastructure show Podcast Episode #213 Richard Blank
Curing back office blues. Growth is not a bad thing. But too much growth, too fast presents a set of challenges often overlooked when discussing small businesses. The emphasis tends to center on the marketing and promotion necessary to grow your business, and not on the operations and business infrastructure needed to scale your business in a sustainable manner. These back office operations can make or break your business. The Business Infrastructure show provides solutions and real life stories to owners and operators of fast growing small businesses seeking practical tips for dealing with growth spurts.
A few years after graduating from university, he accepted an offer to conduct training at a call center in Costa Rica. At 27 years old he decided to call Costa Rica home. That was over 20 years ago. And he never looked back. In this episode, Richard takes us on his journey as he leverages his advanced Spanish-speaking skills, business prowess, and emotional intelligence to build and scale Costa Rica s Call Center from a one-seat to a 300-seat operation.
While his friends pursued careers in fields like law, medicine, and technology, Richard Blank went in a completely different direction language. In fact, his love of language and communications led him to study abroad for one semester in Spain. That experience changed the trajectory of his life.
00:00Richard, surely there's more to your story than this.
00:04Let's try that again.
00:06That's why you do the best interviews, Alicia.
00:08Thank you so much.
00:10How about this?
00:11When I was in high school and I graduated, most of my friends were going to Ivy League
00:14and studying law, medicine, engineering, and architecture.
00:17I myself decided to double down on languages.
00:19It was my favorite class.
00:22And at the University of Arizona, once again, being a communication major, I was able to
00:26focus on public speaking rhetoric and nonverbal communication.
00:30And so that was very important for me.
00:32Sometimes I kind of felt like a dreamer and I was almost doing this alone.
00:36But since my great grandparents came from Europe, from Romania, Russia, Germany, and Poland,
00:42they came at the turn of the century.
00:44And so when they came to the United States in the early 20th century, and they learned
00:49English and were entrepreneurs, it was pretty much my strongest argument to my parents on
00:55what I was trying to do.
00:56Our family were nomads.
00:57We were risk-takers.
01:00And for me, all I know is that I wanted some sort of adventure.
01:04And I know that by learning a second language, it would open many doors for me.
01:09And so my natural progression pretty much got me to where I am today.
01:14I know that by learning a second language, I know that by learning a second language, I know that by learning a second language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning a third language, I know that by learning
