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Built for This podcast Episode 29. Leaving the Expected Life: How Richard Blank Built a Company by Choosing Authenticity

"Built for This" is a business and leadership podcast hosted by business growth strategist and human behavior specialist Carly Pepin. The show focuses on the intersection of strategic business execution and personal development, exploring what it takes to scale a company without losing oneself in the process. Overview and Themes The podcast serves as an analytical yet candid space tailored for founders, CEOs, and C-Suite executives who view their companies as an extension of their personal identity. Human Behavior in Business: Leveraging her background as a ⁠Demartini Facilitator and behavior expert, Pepin unpacks the internal psychological shifts, unseen pressures, and emotional insights driving high-performing business leaders. Real Operational Stories: Episodes move away from generic advice to dissect raw, behind-the-scenes realities including navigating burnout, managing team alignment, overcoming strategic hurdles, and managing corporate pivots. Sustainable Growth: The conversations frequently emphasize how to build organizational structures, repeatable systems, and accountability without sacrificing core company culture.

In this episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with entrepreneur Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica’s Call Center, to explore the unconventional journey that led him from Philadelphia to building a thriving business abroad.
Richard shares how stepping away from family expectations and societal pressure allowed him to pursue a life aligned with his own values. Moving to Costa Rica at 27, he started a company from scratch in an unfamiliar environment, proving that courage and authenticity can create opportunities where others see risk.


https://youtu.be/t_JF592PiRc
Transcript
00:00I love it. I feel like it's that dynamic of even on the receiving end of being on a call,
00:05right?
00:05Being on a call with someone I know is from a call center. And I can't tell you when I
00:09get on
00:09the call and they're reading from a script, I literally say, can we pause? I know that you're
00:14trying to read off a script and I appreciate that you're trying, but I'm like, we're not getting
00:18anywhere. And I don't want to be on the phone for another 30 minutes. And I asked them to actually
00:23transition. And if they can't transition, I say, can I talk to your supervisor? Because I know that
00:27they don't have to talk on a script. And I don't think people realize how important it is
00:30to have that connection and that collaboration that you're discussing. Because I just, I can't sit
00:36there for 30 minutes, an hour, and just, I can't go through it. It's like torture. So I love, I
00:42love
00:42what you're doing. I'm curious, how do you actually train that with your employees to ensure that they're
00:48able to deliver that as well? So simple, Carly. First and foremost, I'm going to blame the supervisor
00:56or if that agent's just reading script because they're not a good mentor.
00:59Yeah.
01:00What do I like to do? Let's use football as an analogy here. I'd rather have you make first
01:06downs for me, Carly, and then eventually a touchdown. But give me some first downs. Give me some yardage.
01:11We're not doing Deion Sanders or Devin Hester runbacks, you know? It's the kind of thing where
01:18I like checkpoints. Because if you and I need distance, it's better to focus on the rock that's
01:26over there 100 meters away compared to the mountain that's five miles away. And so I've learned that
01:34it's not just survival, it's just to give little wins. And so if you can, in the beginning of a
01:41phone
01:41call, anchor with somebody, how do you do that? I don't know. Maybe give a company name, Spike.
01:49Talk about built for this podcast. How you doing today? You know, say better than Carly does. And
01:55if somebody transfers me to you, do a positive escalation, let you know how great Judy is,
02:01how important she is. And I'll do it verbally and I'll do it in writing. Why do I do these
02:05things?
02:06Because it's showing excellent faith prior to any sort of presentation of my company.
02:11And if you can do that, forget the 10 minute calls, you're doing 150, 30 second amazing intros
02:19where you're jumping clouds. The toughest part is that intro, kiddo. That's it.
02:24Yeah. If you can walk across the dance floor and ask someone to dance, you might have the best
02:28night of your life. It's just the, everyone's always afraid of that introduction. Well,
02:33why don't you show sincerity? Why aren't you excited to be on Carly's podcast to get you on
02:41the phone? Judy's the nicest person. And, and I've seen that people that usually have a defense at a 10
02:50will drop it to a six to a four because once again, you're, you're, you're showing non-threatening
02:57behavior. And so this poor young man or woman reading a script, they are so
03:03under the pressure to produce, they're going to get fired. And so they figure that if they do the
03:08maximum of minimum Carly and get at least 12 scripts read, they might not get fired for the day.
03:14That's not good odds. Those are terrible odds. I call that carpet bombing. You don't want a carpet
03:19bomb. You want to be selective like a sniper. And that's all because if you, if you put that sort
03:26of
03:26pressure on somebody, they're not authentic anymore. They, they, they, they, they got that weight on
03:32them. A supervisor named Billy yelling at you. That's not funny. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
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