- 5 minutes ago
Welcome to 'The Inventive Growth' podcast, where we dive deep into the inspiring journeys of startup and small business owners who've paved their way to success. Join us as we uncover the strategies, challenges, and breakthrough moments that propelled their businesses forward. Get ready to be inspired and learn from the best in the business world!
I'm typically affected most by the actions of third parties, a consequence I willingly accepted when I signed up for this journey. The toll includes stress, late nights, and early mornings, but what truly concerns me is the disappointment from individuals I've invested in or relied upon who don't follow through. While I don't expect lifelong commitment, certain responsibilities are crucial. My current focus is on my own well-being, resilience, and the need to decompress. I make time for myself by working out in the mornings, washing my convertible on Sundays, and indulging in my passion for classic pinball machines. Most importantly, I've learned not to be too hard on myself. "Balancing Commitments and Self-Care" Growth Advice For Entrepreneurs w/ Richard Blank
The Inventive Growth Podcast (often associated with "The Inventive Journey") is a series hosted by Devin Miller, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Miller IP Law. It features interviews with founders and small business owners, focusing on the real stories, challenges, and lessons learned while scaling startups.
Richard Blank, the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, was a guest on The Inventive Growth Podcast (part of the Inventive Journey series hosted by Devin Miller).
During his appearance, he shared strategic advice for entrepreneurs, including:
Resilience Tactics: Blank detailed his "Just Not Take It Personal" technique, which helps leaders maintain professional objectivity when handling the high-pressure environment of telemarketing and business scaling.
The Entrepreneurial Creed: He discussed his philosophy that "Fortune Favors the Brave," emphasizing the need for calculated risks that move a business forward without compromising personal or family stability.
Communication & Culture: Insights were provided on managing bilingual teams and fostering a positive workplace culture within a large-scale BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) operation.
Defining Innovation: He explored innovation as a transition from vision to reality, comparing the process of building a business to the structured repetition of mastering an instrument.
https://youtu.be/Bpd6Yote8nY?si=hNBs-QmqGNxHOdSr
I'm typically affected most by the actions of third parties, a consequence I willingly accepted when I signed up for this journey. The toll includes stress, late nights, and early mornings, but what truly concerns me is the disappointment from individuals I've invested in or relied upon who don't follow through. While I don't expect lifelong commitment, certain responsibilities are crucial. My current focus is on my own well-being, resilience, and the need to decompress. I make time for myself by working out in the mornings, washing my convertible on Sundays, and indulging in my passion for classic pinball machines. Most importantly, I've learned not to be too hard on myself. "Balancing Commitments and Self-Care" Growth Advice For Entrepreneurs w/ Richard Blank
The Inventive Growth Podcast (often associated with "The Inventive Journey") is a series hosted by Devin Miller, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Miller IP Law. It features interviews with founders and small business owners, focusing on the real stories, challenges, and lessons learned while scaling startups.
Richard Blank, the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, was a guest on The Inventive Growth Podcast (part of the Inventive Journey series hosted by Devin Miller).
During his appearance, he shared strategic advice for entrepreneurs, including:
Resilience Tactics: Blank detailed his "Just Not Take It Personal" technique, which helps leaders maintain professional objectivity when handling the high-pressure environment of telemarketing and business scaling.
The Entrepreneurial Creed: He discussed his philosophy that "Fortune Favors the Brave," emphasizing the need for calculated risks that move a business forward without compromising personal or family stability.
Communication & Culture: Insights were provided on managing bilingual teams and fostering a positive workplace culture within a large-scale BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) operation.
Defining Innovation: He explored innovation as a transition from vision to reality, comparing the process of building a business to the structured repetition of mastering an instrument.
https://youtu.be/Bpd6Yote8nY?si=hNBs-QmqGNxHOdSr
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LearningTranscript
00:00It's usually a third person that affects me. I signed up for this. This is the price you pay
00:04of those decisions, the stress, the late nights and early mornings. It's the disappointment.
00:12People that I've invested in or I relied upon that just do not follow through. I don't expect
00:18them to have my company tattooed on their chest for the rest of their lives, but
00:23they have a certain job here. We rely upon them. That's what concerns me. Now, in regards to my
00:35own health and persistence and endurance, I do need to decompress. I do need Richard time,
00:42so I work out in the mornings, wash my convertible on Sundays. I'm an avid classic antique pinball
00:50player, so I do pinball machine marathons when I get a chance. And I'm not so hard on myself. Devin?
01:09Hey, everyone. This is Devin Miller here with another episode of The Inventive Growth.
01:13I'm your host, Devin Miller, the serial entrepreneur that's grown several startups in the seven and
01:17eight-figure businesses, as well as the founder and CEO of Miller IP Law, where he helps startups
01:21and small businesses with their patents and trademarks. You ever need help with yours? Just
01:25go to strategymeeting.com, grab some time with us to chat, and we're always here to help.
01:29Now, today we have another great guest on the podcast, Richard Blank. And Richard, we're going
01:34to be talking a little bit about how the businesses continue to evolve and grow over the past several
01:39months and period of time. And that will include how they were financially responsible and
01:44avoided debt and having the resources at hand that are needed. And also talk a little bit about how
01:50they are avoiding the fast track to money and setting up things for the long term and following
01:55up on contracts and meeting your end of the deal and bringing on new people and letting others go and
02:02learning the value of transparency and also a bit maybe of the shift between virtual and remote
02:07workers. So should definitely be a great conversation. And with that much as an introduction,
02:12welcome on the podcast, Richard.
02:15Hey, Devin. So happy to be here. Inventive Growth. Got so much to share. And you really gave a full
02:20plate of information that I'll be sharing with your guests today.
02:24Absolutely. It'll certainly make for a great conversation and good discussion. So diving in just
02:30a bit and kind of unpacking that a bit more. But before we do that, just for those that haven't
02:35caught, and just as a reminder to the audience, Richard has been a guest on several of our sister
02:40podcasts, including the Inventive Journey, the Inventive Expert and Inventive Founder. So if you
02:45haven't had a chance to go check out some of those episodes on the sister podcast, definitely encourage
02:50you to do so. But before we dive in, just take a minute to just quickly introduce yourself to the
02:55audience a little bit about who you are and then what you do.
02:57Once again, I really appreciate being a guest here. My name is Richard Blank. I'm the proud CEO of Costa
03:03Rica's
03:04Call Center. We're a bilingual dedicated near-sure call center located in Costa Rica. We handle outbound
03:11sales, appointment setting, lead generation, inbound customer support, back office support, and non-office.
03:18What we've done is come February 6th, I'll be celebrating my 16th year in business. It's been a
03:25good run, a lot of twists and turns, very interesting industry that I kind of fell into. But I tell
03:32you
03:32what, if you can use some old school coaching in the way that we were raised by our parents and
03:37grandparents, there's no reason why the technology will assist my company culture and enable me to
03:44last so long. Awesome. Well, great introduction. Looking forward to our conversation. And so
03:51as I mentioned in previous episodes, as well as when we talked with you, Richard, is, you know,
03:56the inventive growth is kind of, so you get the business founded, you get it going, you get it up
04:00and
04:00running, you know, you get it beyond the idea stage, and then you kind of hit into the next phase,
04:04which is, okay, now how do I grow the business? And what is that like? And how is that continuing
04:09to go? And kind of focus on that. And one of the areas that you'd mentioned on as you were
04:14kind of
04:14getting into that growth stage, that was beneficial to your business is kind of avoiding debt and also
04:19having the resources in place that allow you to grow. And so walk us through a little bit as to
04:24kind of how you guys had that in place and then how that impacted the growth of the business.
04:29I mean, it's quite interesting, you can easily overextend yourself or be suckered into doing
04:34things where you're paying interest on it, or people can remove it for you. So what I decided
04:40to do initially in my business was to rent a turnkey station from a blended center. So it's almost like
04:45a glorified internet cafe, I could, you know, have the coffee, the backup IT support, the turnkey
04:51station, it just wasn't private. But I was able to scale there and let someone else pay for that
04:57infrastructure, the server room and startup costs. But after a couple of years, I was paying top
05:03dollar. And I had a lot of stable clients. And it was time for me to rent space, not buy
05:08the space
05:09yet, but rent the space to grow to a couple hundred agents. Now in my industry, I'm exceptionally
05:14fortunate. I can grow with used furniture and computers. And so for me, I was able to get stuff for
05:23pennies on the dollar that were pretty much brand new. And so just in that way, I was able to
05:31scale
05:31a company. It's like, you never want to buy a brand new car. I mean, it loses its value. So
05:37I did that
05:37for about six years and I saved enough money, grew even more stable clients to decided, you know,
05:43years ago to purchase this building, throw on a third floor and update it to a standard call center.
05:49But I always wanted to have a reserve, at least a couple months worth of payroll, not just for end
05:56of year expenses. We have something called the aguinaldo. It's the 13th month. You got to pay
06:00them that bonus. Plus other sort of insurances. I got to make sure I had that cushion because if you
06:07don't have that, imagine if you don't pay somebody. Secondly, you're making bad decisions in order to pay
06:13your lights. Just wanted to make sure that I could breathe. That's number one. And then also I'm a
06:21guest here. I do not have home court advantage as I would in the United States, Philadelphia,
06:26or Arizona. So I needed an aid team. I needed locals. I needed facemen. And so I had individuals
06:33such as human resources, accountants, attorneys, and people out there looking to get me the best deals,
06:39assisting me to grow. And so it was really about a leap of faith to delegate and to mesh our
06:45Anglo-Saxon
06:46Northern culture with this Central America Latino culture, taking the best of both and seeing what
06:52we could do to make this a company. Because it's almost like an 80s sitcom. There's always these
06:57funny misinterpretations like Three's Company and things that might be taken out of step. And so it's
07:04very important to make sure you have boundaries, you have target dates, you have accountability.
07:09And if you have these things, it's very easy to have checkpoints to reduce any sort of spillage,
07:16a lot of preventative measures. And I'm not a genius, Devin, you're the smart guy that went to
07:21law school, I would have probably cheated off you in school. But the thing is, for me, I realized that
07:27if you treat people with empathy, and you give them benefits of the doubt, sometimes there's wiggle
07:33room in regards to the labor law, nothing severe, but if someone's two minutes late, it shouldn't be
07:37a deal breaker, you shouldn't, shouldn't fire them for that. And so by giving certain second and third
07:43chances that I were given growing up and, and molding, it's enabled me to preserve certain people
07:50so they don't spin out of control. It's, it's very labor intensive, you invest so much in somebody.
07:57And the worst thing to have is someone leave you without any sort of two weeks notice, or just
08:02something that's unexpected. And so besides the technical side of it, if you have nobody showing
08:09up to work, you have no company. And so I wanted to ensure that initially, I created a certain company
08:17culture, where people felt like they belonged, and they weren't expendable, like some of the larger
08:22call centers. And so that's always been my million dollar bit of advice to get out of your ivory tower
08:29offices and walk your roads and know people's names and, you know, acknowledge the work that they're
08:35doing. That's putting wind in your sails. And that's a good, those are ones that are budding people
08:42and paying it forward so they can grow and become future leaders.
08:47No, I think that's all definitely some great piece of advice and insight as to how to go about
08:52growing. Now I'm going to circle back just to where we started originally, or initially, which is so now
08:57if you're taken, you know, you, I assume and help us were wrong. So did you completely avoid debt,
09:03never took out a penny in your name? Did you just minimize it? Did you bootstrap it and take on
09:09the,
09:09you know, the buying all the use and grow or pay as you go? Or was there a point where
09:14you said,
09:14hey, okay, now I have to take out some debt, but I'm going to, you know, take out a loan
09:18and
09:18minimize it. So and what, or what kind of flexibility that give you as you took that approach?
09:24Wouldn't have made any difference at all. If I took out loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars,
09:28I was still pacing in the amount of clients I was getting, I could have advertised more,
09:34what difference would have made? My main thing is to me is natural growth.
09:39And so maybe it was just my old school Eastern European philosophy that was taught to me by my
09:45family. But if you can't pay for it in cash, you just don't do it. And I think it's very
09:51funny when
09:51you see repossessions of cars and people that lose their homes. And I think it's wonderful that they
09:58have dreams and they put money down and pay monthly. But once again, it's not stable. I would
10:05rather own the dirt underneath my feet than a building that could be taken away from me. It's
10:09I'm crazy like that, I guess. I acted my wage. I never overextended myself. I never paid a penny
10:18of interest. Sure. I took credit cards out. I did it for my credit score and for free first class
10:24flights and all those other benefits. But it was really just for proper accounting purposes.
10:30Um, I tell you what, when you move certain areas of the world, if it's second or third world,
10:38sometimes you don't need to keep up with certain Joneses or you don't have certain pressures.
10:44And so for me here, you know, it really wasn't about having the fanciest showroom. And I understand
10:51that some of these large call centers, Amazon, for an example, has the best real estate in town,
10:56but it's like Rocky three in the best gym, but not focused. You get beat up by clubber.
11:05You go with Apollo Creed to like, let's say a blue horizon or some Philly place that you work out
11:11in
11:11with leaking pipes. You have the best workout of your life and you find the eye of the tiger.
11:15You don't throw money at those sort of shiny objects and bells and whistles. You really need to
11:19pay the people or pay them in experience for their own growth. Cause having gold, you know,
11:27door handles doesn't help the employee at all. It doesn't pay it forward to them at all.
11:32And so for me, it was more about education. And I believed that if I really invested in this second
11:39language and gave them more stability and strategy and diplomacy, I can make them more marketable.
11:45But in regards to finances, sure, there's a lot of pressure there to rent the top places,
11:50but those places are super empty right now. But here's something that's quite interesting,
11:54Devin, you're going to love this. I was thinking of growth, right? Pre COVID. So I almost packed my
11:59300 seat center and I was literally looking at another location that would have probably run me
12:04tens of thousands of dollars a month in rent. But when COVID hit, it completely changed the market
12:10for hybrid to purely virtual. We could handle it through the technology, remove this energy and
12:16this sort of, you know, camaraderie that you have. But I mean, that's just the change of the business.
12:21So one thing which was enormous for me was that additional commercial real estate costs,
12:29which I'm never going to have to do again. I can put 300 people in my center. I got about
12:3450.
12:34And I mean, the rest of the space, the 250 seats is, you know, for onboarding in case someone's got
12:40a
12:40problem at home or people just want to be here. But it's a beautiful cushion for me right now and
12:46a
12:46huge expense that would have been. But, you know, things change in this industry. The leverage is with
12:54the agent right now. They want to work from home. They have the metrics to back it up.
12:59Well, I'll just never get to know you. And so I believe there's that extra 10% you get when
13:05you
13:05work out with someone in the gym, you get them to do something, you know, you get the best out
13:10of them.
13:11So we're removing that essential element, which made this brick and mortar such an advantage. But
13:20that's the kind of way I see it. You could literally do this business on a monthly basis,
13:25as long as you're paying your expenses and you make your margin. It's not glamorous, but it's
13:31controllable. And you can do things like that. And also, mind you, my company's inscribed out in the
13:37United States. So I'm earning in the States while living here. There's something called bona fide
13:42residency, where you're tax exempt for your first $110,000 that you earn outside of the country.
13:48And so imagine me and my wife, that's a quarter of a million dollars right there that we're not even
13:52paying taxes on, combining that with 401ks, Roth IRAs, and any sort of business expenses. Besides the
14:00sacrifice of being far from your family in certain luxuries of the United States, you can make a
14:05killing here offshore. And just what you save and what you're able to pay. And so those are the sort
14:11of
14:12investments that you have to make as well, thinking about it. So there's so many different areas in which
14:17you can offset certain costs, earn more money, have less costs, and be able to expand. And I could have
14:25never done something like this in the United States at the pace and the size that I was thinking of
14:29doing. And also, my man, Devin, most people do not like telemarketers in the United States.
14:36They see it as a transitional job. And a lot of my clients, if not most, have made that comment
14:42that
14:42it's very difficult for them to find a dedicated long-term player in the United States. I just don't
14:50want to do it. And so I've heard that a lot more lately. Because in Costa Rica, it pays more
14:55than most
14:56jobs. So I can get people with amazing college degrees that are here that have amazing skill sets.
15:03No, that definitely sounds like a lot of great advantages. Now, kind of going along with some of what
15:09you said, one of the other things that we talked about, kind of as you're going through the growth
15:13phase and continue to go through the growth phases, you know, there's opportunities to kind of take the
15:19quick money or the fast track. And then there's setting things up for the long term. And, you know,
15:24there's trade-offs and quick money is, you know, is it just that it's quick and sometimes it's easier,
15:29but doesn't always mean that it sets you up for the long term. So walk us through a little bit
15:33as
15:33the business was growing and expanding and evolving, you know, how did or what kind of were
15:39those opportunities or I don't know, opportunity in a good way, but to take the fast track or the
15:44quick money and also, you know, how did you deal with those? It's like the apple in the garden of
15:50Eden, do you bite it or do you not? And as much as I wanted to grow my business, I'll
15:55tell you what, the
15:56majority of the prospecting inbound calls that I got, I rejected. It's for multiple reasons. One is I think
16:05they had unrealistic expectations. B, it was very gray area and I was not going to be their phone guy
16:11or it just wasn't a good fit. And as much as I want to impress you and my family of
16:16the new business
16:17you get, I think Devin, you'd be, you know, happier with me for the business. I turn away and it's
16:24a
16:25small country. It's a Catholic country. And I just want to make sure that I preserve my reputation.
16:30I have nothing against these five industries, but I will mention to you, they have centers here. It's
16:37sports books, casinos, stocks, pharmacies, and sweepstakes. We don't do those. And so to ask about
16:47fast money, sure. I can get someone whose lack of preparation is now my emergency. They have a sense
16:53of urgency. They have problems that the 10 other call centers that they use prior to me. And what's the
16:58difference in me? All you're going to do is have some supervisors screaming at us, cursing at us
17:03and causing attrition. And so really it's about the reverse, almost like you counsel, when you're
17:08speaking with your clients, you want to make sure they're being forthright with you and you're going
17:12to win the case. I got to make sure you're giving me the proper resources to present it to the
17:16labor
17:17pool. And also that I can fulfill your needs. It's not that I don't want your account. I love the
17:21money,
17:22but ethically. I got to make sure you got enough gas to get to the beach. And, you know, I
17:28sometimes
17:28have to be forthright and a straight shooter with people. And they'll tell me about someone in their
17:33office named Jasmine that can do 50 an hour. But in my mind, when I break down the metrics and
17:39ask them
17:39certain things, I realized that they're over exaggerating the play. And I can't take that.
17:47I have to make sure that the soldier has their pace. It's realistic, that we're specific,
17:53measurable, agreed upon, realistic and timeframe oriented. If something is out of that, then I
17:58won't be able to sell it to the market. They'd rather choose another center and I can't hire staff
18:02for you. And so it's very interesting, the calls I get. It's very interesting, the sort of tone that
18:09people have in their scripts, or they're thinking that if they just borrow some lines from the Wolf of
18:14Wall Street, Glen Gary, Glen Ross or Boiler Room, that that can transcribe into real life and trying
18:21to cold call close people like Vin Diesel, you know, telling I should send the check to your house
18:26to your mansion. That's cute, but it's also not realistic. And so I try to not compromise ethics,
18:33values, and morals, and readjust tones with clients to ensure that we can prolong conversations
18:39and hopefully have conversion ratios. And so for me, it's very, very fun to see what people are
18:47bringing to me and what their thoughts are. And as much as I'd love to collect them all and be
18:54at
18:54thousands, personally, I don't feel like I would be able to fulfill their needs. I wouldn't be able
19:01to take those accounts. So it sounds like part of maybe kind of summarize that or condense it a lot
19:08of where it comes is, you know, you could take the quick money, the accounts where they think you
19:13know that they are going to do whether it's less ethical, not not even ethical, but just less
19:18effective, or maybe you're take advantage of them because there's a sense of urgency, or, you know,
19:23you can give them a an unrealistic expectation as to what can be accomplished. And yet, you know,
19:28short term, you might be able to land the client or get the money, but long term, then it sets
19:33you up
19:33to bad reputation, bad experience, and, and isn't going to be rewarding or help out the client in
19:39the long term. Is that kind of a fair summary? Of course, do you have 4000 unique numbers for us
19:44to
19:45call on a monthly basis on a five minute talk time so I can flip the list legally three times?
19:50Because
19:50if you only have 500 numbers, even if I slow walk it manual dial it marinated due diligence, it's not
19:57going to last a month. So am I going to have you for a year? And how am I going
20:01to keep this person
20:02busy? How am I going to not keep them from being frustrated, lowering the morale, ruining your
20:07expectations? And so you have to give us the ammunition. And it's not expensive. I mean, there are
20:15suggestions, but there is a lead flow. And there is coaching, there's quality assurance when we listen
20:21to your recordings to see what people's reactions are. Hopefully, when we do a hotly transfer set
20:27up an appointment, you're following through on it. Because if you're dropping the ball, we're all
20:32losing. And it's just maybe they're not used to it. It's like muscle memory or going back to the gym,
20:39you have the motivation, but you know, it burns. It takes a lot to hundreds of calls on a daily
20:46basis
20:46on a predictive dialer month after month as well. And so you have to let them know of our resources
20:54and our capabilities. Are you capable of feeding the machine? Are you capable of growing? Don't throw
21:03back on me. I mean, sometimes the list is so old, people have been dead for eight years. So when
21:10I
21:10call Billy back and go, yo, man, you told me this list is two weeks old. Mr. Jones has been
21:14dead for
21:14eight years. And most of the numbers are disconnected. And so those are the sort of
21:21things that come out in the wash. But I tell you what, if people follow a certain procedure,
21:27and they get good leads, and they have nice email templates and voicemail templates,
21:33nice email addresses, do the proper phone calls, it's very easy to build a business. And so these are
21:40the sort of, I guess, you almost have to debrief somebody, because they're coming from either
21:49a bad environment, a bad supervisor, or someone just is a terrible boss with unrealistic expectations.
21:58And that's kind of where we have to begin with people just to have that sort of transparency,
22:05just to make sure that I have enough to work for 160 hours in a month.
22:11No, I think that definitely is a lot of great piece of advice and a lot of good insights. So
22:17we
22:18could go on for a while, and it would be a great conversation. And but to keep it at a
22:22manageable
22:23bite, and we'll have to have you back on to a future episode. But for this one, we're already
22:28reaching that point of towards the end of the episode. Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Come
22:32on. I can't throw me off so fast. It's not like a half an hour CBS show.
22:40Oh, you know, I could talk for hours. And I always think I'm like, you know, everybody,
22:46I would probably find it interesting, I'd have an enjoyable time. And everybody was starting to
22:50tune out and say, Oh, they're just going on and on and on. So we'll have to have you back
22:53on so that
22:54we can dive into some of the other areas that we didn't even get to touch on. But for as
22:59we do wrap
22:59up this episode, I always do like to wrap it up with one question. So we'll jump to that now,
23:05which is, you know, as you're in a business, don't care what it is, how or what the industry is,
23:10or what you're doing, there are always points in time within the business that you get worn out that
23:14can be from working too many hours, it can be from doing things or having to deal with a lot
23:19of
23:19problems and putting out a lot of fires, it can be from, you know, taking on too many
23:24responsibilities, a lot of different things can cause to be worn out or burned out a little bit
23:29with the business. And so when you hit those periods in time with the business, what do you do?
23:36It's usually a third person that affects me, I signed up for this, this is the price you pay of
23:41those decisions, the stress, the late nights and early mornings, it's, it's the disappointment.
23:46Hmm. People that I've invested in, or I relied upon that just do not follow through, I don't expect
23:54them to have my company tattooed on their chest for the rest of their lives, but they have a certain
24:01job here, we rely upon them. And so that's what concerns me. Now, in regards to my own health,
24:13and persistence and endurance, I do need to decompress, I do need Richard time. So I work
24:20out in the mornings, wash my convertible on Sundays. I'm an avid classic antique pinball player. So I
24:27do pinball machine marathons when I get a chance. And I'm not so hard on myself, Devin, because I have
24:35good intentions and good faith. And it's almost like playing a perfect hand of blackjack. Sometimes
24:41just the odds are not in your favor. And, and so for me, I don't double down on bad. If
24:48I have a hard
24:49time looking in someone's eyes, we're kind of ruined. I mean, I understand that life happens, but
24:55deliberately hurt me, or you had a moment to really think about the consequences of your decisions,
25:00and realize that a relationship isn't worth it. We're good. I'm never going to beg. And, and so
25:08for me, some of my setbacks have been my investment individuals that I thought had fidelity and were
25:16going to be with me. But then again, it's also maturity. You know, that's, that's part of growing
25:23up is accepting those sort of hits. And it's not what happens to you, my good friend, it's how you
25:28react
25:28to them. And, and I like to judge good character during chaos, because being from Philadelphia,
25:35I really did not have impulse control. I'd be the first person to throw snowballs at Santa and tell
25:41you to have yourself. But since I've grown up, moved abroad, and seen something, it's readjusted
25:50myself to a little bit more of a center and a balance. And I guess I take more breaths. And
25:55I listen more.
25:56And, and just hopefully by allowing somebody to refocus and get into the now, they might snap out
26:05of it, and realize that an apology is needed. Someone needs to take a timeout, or possibly the
26:12following day. And I've seen this multiple times where people will knock on my office door, ask to
26:18speak with me, apologize. And, and the kind of thing where they just want to start again, and they
26:24realize they shed some skin and capable, they can learn from that. And I guess we could do a podcast
26:31on all the times you and I got in trouble and broke windows and got sent to the principal's office.
26:36But
26:37I also see myself and other people that have that sort of thing in their eye, they realized they made
26:42a mistake. It wasn't intentional. And they just want to know how to get better. And that's been good
26:50for me. It's put a lot of my past to rest, where you don't have a heavy heart, where you
26:56could almost
26:57forgive yourself for your discretions in the past by fixing things in the present. And that's how I've been
27:05able to do this, my friend. That's my psychology, philosophy, and balance to preserve. Because you're talking
27:15about a call center, large attrition. And I could have quit a long time ago. But
27:24I do this still, because of the art of speech. I think it's funny how people are loving to text
27:31and
27:32to chat and prefer not to speak with people. While I believe that the best relationships are
27:39interpersonal, when people are really are anchoring and communicating. So maybe it's a buggy whip, or
27:45passe, or just a fading flower, but damn it, I will try to continue this song and dance as long
27:52as
27:52possible. Because I believe that these are the sort of soft skills that can enhance somebody's life
27:58outside of the office to help grow. And so that's my mission. That's my that's my vision quest. It's not
28:08about money. I've made enough money. Golden jewels lose its luster. What am I looking for right now? I'm
28:14looking to pay it forward and to, I guess, recenter myself at a second stage of life now, Devin.
28:22Awesome. And I hope that makes sense.
28:26Oh, it definitely does. It was a great insight as to how to continue to stay excited within the
28:33business and last it out and enjoy it along the way. So definitely great piece of advice, great
28:39takeaway. Well, now, as we do wrap up the episode, if people want to reach out to you, they want
28:44to be
28:44a customer, they want to be a client, they want to be an employee, they want to be an investor,
28:48they want to be your next best friend, any or all of the above. What's the best way to reach
28:52out to
28:52you, contact you, find out more? You should buy a first class plane ticket and fly down and come
28:57visit me in Costa Rica. That's number one. I also have an extremely large Facebook fan page about 120,000
29:04local Costa Rican Ticos. So it'll give your audience a chance to understand the business process
29:09outsourcing industry in Central America. But the beauty of this is I have no seminar or book. Most
29:16people don't even need to tell them. I'm your buddy, Devin. You know, I put one in your sales and
29:20I love your show. And so I'm here to support a very good friend of mine. And also just to
29:24let your
29:25audience know not to be hard on yourself, to hang in there. And just like Rocky, you got to go
29:31the
29:31distance. And so if you follow through, don't be surprised if good things happen to you.
29:39Awesome. Well, I definitely encourage people to go out, get that plane ticket and go see Richard
29:43in person. But if nothing else, check him out on Facebook is a great, great ways to connect. So
29:48thank you again for coming on the podcast. It's been a fun. It's been a pleasure. Now for all of
29:53you,
29:53their listeners that are out there, if you can help us to share these, this expertise and this
29:57information with even more startups and small businesses to help them along their journey to
30:01success, make sure to click share, subscribe, and leave a review for the podcast as well as along
30:06your journey. If you ever need help with patents or trademarks or anything else, your startup,
30:10your small business, just go to strategymeeting.com, grab some time with us to chat. And we're always
30:14here to help. Thank you again, Richard, for coming on the podcast and wish the next leg of your journey
30:19even better than the last. My man.
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