- 5 weeks ago
The Finjan Show hosted by Faris Alami. Shining a light on call center ESL sales with Richard Blank.
Hosted by Faris Alami, The Finjan Show spotlights Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Leadership, Culture and Community. We share insights from the amazing entrepreneurs and leaders that we work with globally, and guests who shedlight on what we call everyday entrepreneurs.
While the world focuses on the millionaire and billionaire, most entrepreneurs and leaders are focused on solving a problem or providing opportunities to the communities in which they work. The Finjan Show shines a light on those that lead an organization that has a positive impact on the community, and those opening a corner store that may serve the community for 5,10, or 20 years. Without feeling it necessary to be RICH with cash, they are RICH in life!
In this episode of The Finjan Show, host Faris Alami interviews Richard Blank, the founder and CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center, to discuss the intersection of entrepreneurship and the bilingual call center industry.
Key highlights from their conversation include:
Entrepreneurial Journey: Richard shares his transition from moving to Costa Rica at age 27 to training over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers and eventually launching his own nearshore operation.
ESL & Soft Skills: The discussion emphasizes the importance of English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency, phonetic training, and soft skills like conflict management and interpersonal communication in high-stakes sales environments.
Company Culture: Blank explains his philosophy of building a positive "human-centric" workplace, which includes unconventional office elements like vintage arcade machines to foster agent engagement.
Strategic Insights: Alami and Blank explore "everyday entrepreneurship," focusing on solving local problems and providing community opportunities rather than just chasing high valuations.
https://youtu.be/Pk53qZqK61w
Hosted by Faris Alami, The Finjan Show spotlights Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Leadership, Culture and Community. We share insights from the amazing entrepreneurs and leaders that we work with globally, and guests who shedlight on what we call everyday entrepreneurs.
While the world focuses on the millionaire and billionaire, most entrepreneurs and leaders are focused on solving a problem or providing opportunities to the communities in which they work. The Finjan Show shines a light on those that lead an organization that has a positive impact on the community, and those opening a corner store that may serve the community for 5,10, or 20 years. Without feeling it necessary to be RICH with cash, they are RICH in life!
In this episode of The Finjan Show, host Faris Alami interviews Richard Blank, the founder and CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center, to discuss the intersection of entrepreneurship and the bilingual call center industry.
Key highlights from their conversation include:
Entrepreneurial Journey: Richard shares his transition from moving to Costa Rica at age 27 to training over 10,000 bilingual telemarketers and eventually launching his own nearshore operation.
ESL & Soft Skills: The discussion emphasizes the importance of English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency, phonetic training, and soft skills like conflict management and interpersonal communication in high-stakes sales environments.
Company Culture: Blank explains his philosophy of building a positive "human-centric" workplace, which includes unconventional office elements like vintage arcade machines to foster agent engagement.
Strategic Insights: Alami and Blank explore "everyday entrepreneurship," focusing on solving local problems and providing community opportunities rather than just chasing high valuations.
https://youtu.be/Pk53qZqK61w
Category
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CreativityTranscript
00:10Welcome to the FinGen Show. I'm your host, Faris Alamey, and today's episode is brought to you by
00:15Connecting Dots Globally, a youth entrepreneurship focusing on global trade, entrepreneurship,
00:21and STEM-related field to the youth in our world. Today's episode, I'm really excited.
00:27Richard, how are you? I'm doing great, Faris. So happy to be here to share ideas with you and
00:33your amazing audience. Well, thank you so much. Same feelings here. It's a pretty impressive
00:37background, and I can't wait to dig deep into it. So as you know, the point of the podcast is
00:44really
00:44try to bust some myths about entrepreneurship and maybe make it easier for someone to start
00:50their business. Not that it's easy, but easier to start and get connected with the right people.
00:55So I thought maybe you could share with us, first of all, who's Richard and what do you do?
01:00I am the proud CEO of Costa Rica's call center. We just celebrated our 15th year in business,
01:06February 6th. We're a nearshore bilingual dedicated call center, and we handle customer support,
01:15lead generation, appointment setting. And I couldn't be more proud of the agents here because once again,
01:20bringing to the table being bilingual bears the mark of higher education. And most people today
01:26would love to speak with somebody. So as long as we cradle this art of speech and give individuals a
01:32positive experience on the phone, I think we can continue to shine in the best light, this
01:40offshore telemarketing call center industry.
01:44That's great. You know, I thank you so much for that. I'd love to hear a little bit about why
01:49did
01:49you start this? What can you walk me through? What was Richard doing before this call center? And by
01:53the way, congratulations, 15 years, not an easy task to tackle. So you've gone through a bunch of,
02:00I call it speed bumps.
02:02Of course. But it was, it was natural speed bumps. I learned from my grandparents that if you can't
02:08pay for something in cash, you shouldn't do it. So initially when I first started off in this
02:12business, I didn't overextend myself. I was renting turnkey stations at a blended center,
02:17almost like an internet cafe. And then after time, I was able to build out 150 seat center with
02:22used equipment and used furniture. And then just six years ago, I built out a 300 seat center.
02:27But let's go back. Where did this story begin? Back when I graduated the proud Abington High School
02:34in Northeast Philadelphia in 91, I decided to continue my favorite class, which was Spanish.
02:40So I went to the University of Arizona. I was a Spanish communication major and you and I are
02:45Wildcats. So there we go, bear down. But I took a risk. You know, a lot of the times families
02:51will
02:51pressure you into going into medical school, being a lawyer, architecture, engineer, and
02:56you have these sort of opinions where you should be going to Ivy League or following other footsteps.
03:01Well, it was very difficult for me if I was to compare notes with people when I was a Spanish
03:06major.
03:07And also when people were looking at communication, they saw that more as a party major,
03:11which it was, but it also prepared me and gave me my self-reliance and self-confidence for public
03:17speaking, for rhetoric. And I even dabbled in micro expression reading, nonverbal communication.
03:24And I expanded it at the call center where we were cracking some codes phonetically as well.
03:28And we can get to that later. But my friend, there is no blueprint to be a CEO of a
03:33call center.
03:34I was given a one a million opportunity when I was 27. I decided to get past my parents' guilt,
03:40not listen to the naysayers and gray believers, fall back on the Spanish that I've been using my whole
03:45life and decided to drink life. So I took it. And the next thing you know, I worked at my
03:51friend's
03:51center for four years and I learned the business from the inside out. I was teaching English and
03:55learning the industry. But we'd mentioned prior to the podcast, if you extend empathy and you give
04:01people dignity and you show them job stability, it doesn't matter what vertical you're in,
04:06your employees and the people that work with you will come back and add wind in your sails.
04:11And you will have friends at your Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.
04:16Yeah, very interesting. So I love thank you so much for sharing that, because a lot of times
04:19you will think, you know, 15 years call center, you have all these people and, you know, must have
04:25happened overnight. And I appreciate you sharing the whole side hustle of you teaching ESL, because
04:31I remember reading that somewhere on your profile and then doing this on the side, learning the
04:36industry for years. You know, from my perspective, you kind of like got another PhD in the field before
04:41you even jumped in, in a way. So you learn human nature. Let's be realistic here, my friend. I am
04:47a guest in this country. Okay. So I'm the trunk of the tree. I needed branches and roots. I had
04:53to hire
04:54chief technical officers, human resources directors, attorneys, accountants. I couldn't do it all on my
05:01own. And I needed to have the faith to delegate and bring in people to grow this company. And I
05:05would
05:05much prefer to have somebody with skills that are new that I can mold them and bringing in some 10
05:13year hotshot that might be a cancer and jump from the call center. So it's very delicate, this sort
05:17of company culture that we have here in this sort of synergy. So we're extremely selective, not only of
05:22the clients, but also of the agents that enter the center.
05:26Yeah. That's great. That's great. Yeah. So to tell me, you know, clearly we could dig so much
05:32because I mean, one of the things I also noticed that you also were real, did I get that right?
05:36Real estate, real estate. Did you do some of that as well during your journey or was that before?
05:40I have. Prior to working at this call center, I worked with my brother's real estate company in
05:45Arizona. Okay. I got a chance to do FSBOs and cancels and expires. And that was literally the last boss
05:51I
05:51had and the last job I had before starting my own company. But I realized this, that when you're
05:58competing with people on a Sunday morning to try to get their listing, you can compare percentages,
06:03you can compare contracts. My friend, I was looking to buy time. What I wanted to do was at least
06:10be
06:10humble and sincere, to be excited for their house and to do my due diligence on the MLS. So at
06:15least I can
06:16talk about their curb appeal in their sport court. But then finally, I always like using self-wraps.
06:23Unlike other people that are sleeping in on Sundays or watching the Eagles game.
06:27Paris, I'm on the phone with you right now. Isn't that the sort of individual that you would
06:32like to be working with you to represent your property? So prior to any sort of contracts,
06:37I showed good faith three or four times by following up with an email, taking copious notes.
06:42And when I sent an email, I used meeting minutes to pay attention. And even doing the greatest thing,
06:48a positive escalation. Because if I was passed to the decision maker from a wife or a child,
06:53I would definitely say, hey, this individual really assisted me and thank you very much. And so
06:58you're not compromising ethics, values, or mores of being extremely consistent
07:04on being a professional. And from an educated point of view, Faris, that's how the majority of my
07:09clients have made very good decisions. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. Let's take a break.
07:14I want to dig a little bit deeper on some of these things you're talking about. So we'll take a
07:17break
07:17and we'll be right back after this short message.
07:26Welcome back, everyone. Thank you so much for being with us. And this is Faris Alamy. I'm your host
07:30of The FinGen Show. And today we have Richard Blank. And I'm excited to hear more about his story.
07:35Richard, when you started talking about your whole concept of follow-up and, you know, calls and
07:42thanking the people that passed you through, it sounded like you took a page out of my Power of
07:48Seven book, which is, I'm always humbled to hear that. Because whenever people say, you know,
07:54these are all new ideas, I don't really have any new ideas in the book. It's all the proven,
07:59you know, techniques that really great people were able to do over and over and over and just
08:06simplifying it. And you just did a great job simplifying, saying these three or four steps
08:10that you did, calling them, creating a report with them, and building, you know, a relationship.
08:16Let me give you some more special stuff.
08:18Please, please, go ahead.
08:19Prior to even that sort of charming conversation that I was just sharing, you need to at least set
08:24the pace and set the tone. My suggestion, if you're making any sort of prospect outbound phone
08:29calls, you should use your anonymity, not for the whole call that shady. But I think in the beginning,
08:34you should do a company named Spike. Hey, how's the Fijon Show doing today? I'm not asking how you're
08:40doing. I'm asking how your company's doing. Plus, Faris, I said it better than the person who answered
08:45your call. So it reduces an ego defense. It makes me sound like a mystery shopper, someone that's been
08:51there before. And then they're going to ask me a question as, hey, you sound like a nice guy. Who
08:55are you? And then I use the buffer boomerang technique. I can buffer a negative tone. I can
09:01say your name, Faris, and say, that's an excellent question. Repeat the question for active listening
09:06and boomerang it back at you, answering it as a plus two. And so these are the sort of techniques
09:12that
09:12give you balance and structure, where you can concentrate on 30-second segments of communication
09:18to reset tones. And then there's also ways in which you can see the tell sounds to interject
09:23and ask for clarification and tie-down questions. Plus, we really focus on personal pronouns like
09:28your and our for quarter-second slides to reset conversations mid-sentence. And we also believe
09:34in name-dropping for transitional sentences or when you're using the tie-downs and pin-downs.
09:40And finally, you always pause before a name and a number for emphasis.
09:46Wow. So, so many gems. I don't know.
09:49And I know you know what I'm talking about.
09:51Of course I do. I'm hoping the listeners do. And if they don't, they need to talk to you more
09:55often, right? That's the key. When is the book coming out with some of these awesome secrets?
10:00You don't unsee it. It's common sense. Yeah. As long as you're in the now, in the now, you can
10:07catch
10:07these tell signs to anchor, to meet to them, to put them back on a straight line.
10:12Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I used to say that this is what I do is anyone common sense.
10:17And what
10:17I learned throughout the years being humble now is that what I think common sense and you think
10:23common sense, some other people might just not be aware of it to even make it common sense.
10:29And bringing it up to their attention can really bridge. This is one of the reasons why we started
10:34the show is really because people saying, well, you keep telling me I should know this. And the
10:39truth first is I don't know. And, you know, and I'm like, whoa, really? And I'm like, well, you
10:43should know. And they're like, well, I knew parts of it, but the way it's structured, the way you laid
10:48it out, the way you followed up with it, that's really somewhat simplifying the message. And I think
10:53there's so much powerful to that. Let's go back to one question I wanted to ask you, because, you know,
10:57as you know, we have a little bit of time and with the show, I mean, through your journey,
11:03you know, 15 years, I'm sure you've had ups and downs and I appreciate you sharing that up
11:07front with the whole idea of you wanting to be a doctor or, or, you know, or an attorney
11:12or a lawyer. And I feel like, you know, I came from a similar family background. That's
11:16the only path that you could become successful. If you were one of those two categories, if not,
11:22then I'm sorry to hear whatever path you take. I hope that to lead you back there again.
11:26I would love to hear from your ups and downs. What were maybe one moment that you felt you
11:32touched the sky and you feeling so good, or a moment that you felt you're in the bottom
11:37of earth and you don't even know if you could see the sky at all, or if you can see
11:41the light
11:41at the end of the tunnel. Would you share maybe one of those darker moments that you felt the
11:45world is ending? What am I going to do next?
11:47Well, let's start with dessert first. Let me go happy and then I'll go sad.
11:52Happy is me sitting with you today, 15 years later of this million dollar shot that should
11:56have never happened. Northeast Philly kid moving to Central America at 27, marrying the girl of his
12:01dreams and starting a company. Sure. So look at me now. I'm a happy boy living my dream and was
12:08very true
12:09to myself. Let's talk negativity. I was very hard on myself. It's only because of immaturity and impulse
12:17control. Because I guess the reality of attrition really didn't hit me until I started working with
12:24people. How about this? I'll lose people for natural attrition, Ferris. I'll lose them because
12:29of a scheduling conflict. A best friend or boyfriend or girlfriend works somewhere closer to their home.
12:34Even financially could be more lucrative. But people will not leave my call center for forced
12:40attrition. I will not. I will not give them the walk of shame. We won't deface you on the floor
12:45and I
12:46won't make you cry. I'll give you some Philly guilt. I'll let you know Ferris, man. You know
12:51you're better than that. Come on. Look what you did last week. That's why you do that. And so at
12:55least I'm going to bend you. I'm just not going to break you. And I'm going to also try to
12:58pay it
12:59forward because people do deserve second chances or maybe potentially something's happening outside
13:04of the office which could be affecting your performance. So I'm giving people benefits of the
13:09doubt. As long as they're following the labor laws and I'm able to do things accordingly, I do have a
13:14little bit of wiggle room. And also my good friend. This industry is where people burn out. They look
13:21at it as transitional and they kind of look down upon it. I survived and I thrived. Not only that,
13:28I'm the head of my own coliseum. I'm a gladiator on this. Reason being, I always love the art of
13:34speech.
13:35And when somebody focuses on a thesaurus to expand their similes and take out words like help and use
13:40words like guide, assist, lend a hand. Be more diplomatic and strategic instead of saying,
13:45excuse me, it's more for my clarification. I'll fall on the sword if your dog is barking
13:50or if you have a bad cell connection. That's my issue. And I'll always find ways to use the
13:55military alphabet just to confirm how you spell your name. And it's wonderful to pronounce exotic
14:03names perfectly. And a lot of the times, especially in the Middle East and Asia, they'll go, you know,
14:06Richard, they're the first person to actually pronounce it correctly or took the time. That's
14:11our pleasure. And as long as we can once again create that circle where they're not compromising
14:17ethics and they have a wonderful relationship with me playing pinball machines and breaking bread and I
14:22can walk the roads and assist them in their career, then guess what? I've done my job.
14:29That's great. So I'm curious with those moments that you might have felt the world is ending,
14:34at least at your company, because I mean, it sounded like you had, you know, you had to start
14:38from wherever you had. And as you were building it up, what motivated you to keep going? Oh, I'm
14:46sorry. Sorry about that. That's very easy. Yeah, go ahead. Leaving a castle to slay a dragon,
14:52to save a princess and be a prince. I always wanted a fantasy life. And even living this for one
14:58day,
14:58I could look in the mirror and still respect myself for the fact that I was true to myself.
15:02And the fact that I had this run, why do you think that I jumped clouds every day? Even if
15:08somebody
15:08hangs up on me after 30 seconds by doing a company name spike, saying your name in a positive
15:13escalation before being transferred, we consider those romantic deaths. At least I said your name
15:18three times before you hung up on me. So as long as I can see the beauty in what we
15:23do, as long as I can
15:25smile every day, I can feel comfortable enough that I've invested my time in my life, in my career
15:33correctly. And I can live with that. And so that's a beautiful thing. If you can make your bed in
15:39the
15:40morning and look at yourself in the mirror and put your shoulders back at the end of the dates,
15:44you know, golden jewels, they lose their luster, Faris. It's really not about the money. Do you want
15:49to count money? Fine. Let's do it. But why don't we talk about all the families we fed? Why don't
15:54we
15:54talk about all the mothers and grandmothers we made proud? And when we look back at ourselves in
16:00our lives, we really did have that special vision quest, that spiritual life journey. We believed in
16:07our intuition. That to me is the greatest gift you could give yourself. Thank you, Richard. Clearly,
16:13we could keep here all day. But I want to be respectful of you and your time. Maybe if you
16:19were to go back and in time and see the young Richard himself to 15 years ago, or 20 years,
16:26whatever, whatever we want to go, what would be one thing that you may feel like this could be a
16:31great
16:31insights for someone today who's thinking about starting a business, or thinking about growing their
16:36business? What would you tell your young you or your young them today? Not necessarily by age,
16:41but I'm talking about, you know, starting of the company. I believe in positive reinforcement
16:47and dedicated practice. If you're not getting any better at something, you shouldn't invest your life
16:51in it. But when I was a little boy, I was gravitated towards Spanish. And in high school,
16:56it really hit where I got a college recommendation letter from this teacher. And in college, I kept
17:01getting better and people loved me speaking special. Obviously, this was growing. And I didn't jump
17:07into it 100%. I was dipping my toe in the pool of life and trying jobs where I could use
17:12my bilingual
17:13skills. And once again, the momentum was there. So I believed in physics. And I was being responsible
17:20with my family. I was being responsible with myself. But after so many times when you're hitting the ball
17:27over the over the fence, it's time to go pro. And I had to do it. And it was probably
17:34one of the
17:35greatest decisions I made in my entire life. As I say, I could have lived with myself if I failed
17:39after one day, compared to never trying. But once again, my friend, it built up to that over so many
17:45years, it just wasn't a one thing where I decided to pack my bags and move to California. I mean,
17:50obviously, this was an interest from an early age.
17:53Yeah, sure. No, thank you so much for sharing that. I appreciate you sharing the insights of your
17:58journey. Because, you know, those hopefully those, you know, insights could inspire others to
18:04look inside and see what they could do with what you know, one of the things I always talk about,
18:08start where you are with what you have. And, you know, then you as you did looking around,
18:14this is something a gift to you with the language that you're able to take it and run. And as
18:19you
18:19stated, you could have run any different way you wanted to, you could have been a teacher,
18:22you could have been a professor, you could have been a translator. I mean, there's so many ways,
18:27but you find your calling through the call center, right?
18:31And it is the most lucrative. Let's be realistic here.
18:35I don't know. So thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for making the time, Richard.
18:41Until the next show, I'm your host, Ferris Alamee. Thank you for being with us at The FinGen Show.
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