Business Uncensored. A Small Business Chronicles podcast. Linguistics and Pinball with Richard Blank

Business Uncensored. A Small Business Chronicles podcast. Linguistics and Pinball with Richard Blank Business Uncensored is a podcast in which host Ryan Sherrer talks about the less conventional aspects of entrepreneurship and personal growth. With a background that challenges the typical business talk, Ryan brings real stories and practical advice from a mix of guests. Tune in for unfiltered conversations and ideas for succeeding in business your way. Tune in to the latest 'Small Business Chronicles' episode with host Ryan Sherrer. He chats with Richard Blank, the linguistic maestro who risked it all and ventured to Costa Rica to establish a thriving call center. They chat about the quirky role of pinball machines and gamification in his business model, and how Richard's linguistic skills help maneuver the reputation challenges call centers often face. It's a chat that's phonetically fascinating and brimming with unique insights. Don't miss it! https://youtu.be/kaptkAetGHU titandigital.com We like to call ourselves a full-service agency. By that we mean that our website designs and marketing plans are structured to take the burden of building an effective online presence completely off our clients’ shoulders. Our team, located across offices in Murfreesboro, TN, Carbondale, CO and Ozark, MO is made up of experts in each aspect of website design and digital marketing. They are trained to maximize your online presence. Website Design in Murfreesboro, TN WHY WORK WITH US? “Not every business has a team of in-house marketing experts. We can be that team for you. Our Titans are experts in digital marketing, so you don’t have to be. We are creators, innovators, good listeners, and people-persons who will pursue your project with the same passion you have for it. But we don’t just want to see your project succeed – we want to see your business succeed. We are invested in our client relationships and have created long-lasting partnerships with many great companies and entrepreneurs. Why work with us? Because we will truly be your marketing team. WHO WE WORK WITH Over the years we have worked with a vast array of businesses, and still do. There are, however, several industries that we have a strong history of partnership with. Not only are we experienced with these industries, but we’ve also enjoyed a great deal of success with them FOCUSED ON CLIENT GROWTH Experience and creativity are the hallmarks of our team. We’ve helped hundreds of companies over the years establish brands, build websites, rank on search engines and build social followings: so that our clients can improve sales, achieve business growth and accomplish their goals. That’s the point of what we do. ACCOUNT MANAGERS. DESIGNERS. WRITERS. WEB DEVELOPERS. SEO & SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTS. When left alone, each individual is magnificent in their particular area of marketing. With their talents combined, there is no limit to what can be accomplished. No matter what you task our agency with, have confidence knowing an entire team is working to acquire leads for your company. Every service we offer is focused on one thing — your success. MAKING AN IMPACT ON PEOPLE SINCE 2011 Marketing is an amazing thing because of its impact on people. Not just our people, but our clients’ people. Their employees and customers. The families of those employees and customers. It’s all a ripple effect. The better we do our jobs, the more we help our clients, the more people we impact. In the end, it’s why we do what we do. Because we want our work to make a difference. ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH YOUR MARKETING? We Want to Hear About it With the pace of innovation today, it seems like what worked one day in marketing doesn’t the next. It's important to have a team on your side whose job it is to stay on top of things. If you’re struggling to keep up, let us know. Our team of experts is ready to get to work for you! At Titan Web Marketing Solutions, we use a combination of marketing tactics to drive leads to your business — whether in-store or online. Each member of our growing team is specialized in a particular area of online marketing. This allows each client to have an entire team of marketing professionals working on their behalf. Our Services Include: -Website Design -Search Engine Optimization -Local Search Marketing -Pay Per Click Marketing -Social Media Marketing -Graphic Design -Logo Design & Branding -Email Marketing -Video Production Richard Blank: Linguistics, Pinball, and Success in the Call Center Biz Richard’s journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, Richard shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica’s Call Center since 2008. Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level. Costa Rica’s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies. We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America’s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry. https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/ #RichardBlank #CostaRica #CallCenter #Outsourcing #Telemarketing #BPO #Sales #Entrepreneur #B2B #Business #Podcast #Gamification #CEO #smallbusinesschronicles #BusinessUncensored small business chronicles,Business Uncensored , Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing, BPO, Nearshore, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business,Podcast,Gamification,Leadership,Marketing, Radio, Guest, Money, education, trainer, https://youtu.be/kaptkAetGHU ever wonder what lies behind every thriving business well in this show that's what we explore throughout my experience I have found that every entrepreneur's journey is a tell of Dreams sacrifice and Relentless adaptation to make those dreams come true so let's Jump Right In on this episodic Adventure into entrepreneurship small business Chronicles hey everybody uh this is Ryan with small business Chronicles we are back again uh this is an episodic Adventure in entrepreneurship of letting people know how they got where they got and and the story of how they get there entrepreneurship is a different animal uh it takes a lot of different adaptability skills to get uh from a dream to a finished product business and uh that's what the show is all about is hearing those stories and today I have with me Richard blank from the Costa Rican call center uh do you want to introduce yourself sir what's up everybody ran I'm so happy to be on your show today my name is Richard blank I'm the proud CEO of Costa Rica's call center uh yeah Richard when when we booked you as a guest and I started looking out uh one of the things that grabbed my attention was you said at the beginning of the Millennium you just moved to a different country and tried something new can so so fill me in on that because that I I want to go back a little bit more but I think that's the big hook of the story of of how did you end up in Costa Rica with the call center it all adds on momentum so it really started when I was a little boy and I was very fortunate to come from a nice family that took vacations to Mexico so besides just tanning and enjoying myself at fiestas I came home with vocabulary and I did this at a very young age so obviously I had interest in second languages when I graduated the proud Abington High School in Northeast Philadelphia a lot of my friends were going ivy league my grandfather went to Harvard Law my pop went to Columbia business my brother Washington and Lee University I wasn't mature and I didn't have those grades but I had a passion so I doubled down on my favorite class which was Spanish was a Spanish major at the University of Arizona intern for telmundo work for Corona beer postgrad so when I was 27 years old in August of 2000 a very good friend of mine from college gave me a one in a million opportunity wanted me to come to Costa Rica for Just Two months to work at his call center and teach English those two months turned into four years to learn the business from the inside out not from sea level and then in my mid-30s I had enough Capital impulse control and maturity to actually throw my hat in the ring so it was a long time coming but it just really wasn't a spur of the- moment you know how they say when the barn door is open the horse is not coming back listen Ryan I had to get past my parents guilt and there was a lot of pressures in regards to Career expectations I decided to put all the money on me because I knew what I loved and where I could fly the furthest and so when I got here I was almost like a kid in a candy store it that that's that's true because when you say you put the money on you that I found that's a Common Thread in entrepreneurs is that you're betting on yourself and and you sound like you had some uh different paths and directions you could have taken and the thing that you wanted to bet on was you when you do enough dedicated practice I think you're ready to fight Clubber Lang in Rocky 3 and so the more that you give yourself positive reinforcements and you see yourself growing spiritually cognitively maybe even you might take better care of yourself because you're feeling better about yourself so you start hitting the gym having a better sleep pattern eating better treating the others around you better they could see that you're growing and that you're shining because the worst thing ever most my friend is to sell yourself short or sell your soul for a dollar because then you're just hating your days and you're in a box Without Walls and you wonder where the gift of Life came from I mean we all were told that we should leave castles and slave dragons and save princesses I wanted an adventure in life and I was willing to do it and so as I say when you have that opportunity from time to time you got to hold on tight and see where it takes you oh absolutely and that that's the thing about that I respect so much about Journeys like yours is you do have to that that selft talk and that self-realization has to improve you have to do better you have to treat people better and you have to grow into where that that you need to be um so down in Costa Rica uh was there something special about Costa Rica that made you want to stay there instead of the work or was it a culture was it what what was it about Costa Rica that just sucked you in my brother I'm from Philadelphia when you experienced your first winter there where your leg gets wet from slush uh you want to go somewhere else and when I walked off the plane I mean I'm in a tropical Paradise I met the girl of my dreams and married a Costa Rican girl and I I look at it like this I'm a guest in this country and the moment that you become an unwanted guest or you've overextended your St it's time to go and I was thinking that this wasn't going to last this long it was just a dream and I was in a honeymoon stage and it was a wonderful experience in my late 20s and to be honest with you I didn't want it to end so I was going to fight for it so when I worked at my friend's Center it really wasn't the money it's the fact that I was able to learn something new but I tell you what when you see someone that's bilingual it Bears The Mark of higher education and I was an environment amongst thousands of the average age 24 year olds it was very young it was like college and everyone was on the phone and having fun and this was in 2000s so not everyone was on their phones and it was I think the last chapter of that old school stage where people were bonding and I guess it was an excellent bridge for me to be able to integrate myself into Costa Rica in a very nice way it wasn't Jagged I wasn't pushed into this there was a lot of you know cushion and comforting and so my checkpoints were very easy for me along the way but I tell you what there's nothing wrong with moving abroad because it shows depth and Essence the things that you hold to such high esteem wherever you're from or what they consider important might not have any value somewhere else so the question is are you one trick pony are you able to expand can you relate and so these are the sort of things you can tap into just to really see the sort of person that you are oh of course I I've I I took an extender trip to Mexico and Puerto Rico both in my lifetime uh Puerto Rico is probably where I'm going to retire I'm not going to lie I love it there um so yeah when you go to a different culture and you go to a different set of rules because as Americans we we kind of think here's the rules for everybody else but as soon as you get to a culture you see what poverty really is or you see what struggle is that maybe we don't see on this side and to go into that culture and to help and to be a part of that culture and to be an entrepreneur there how many employees do you guys have at the call center well postco we're at 150 right now we took a little bit of at 150 and we had to I think everybody did of course but instead of being on site now it's virtual I was capable of surviving during this time I'm very fortunate but it also eliminated the sort of synergy that we had so it's virtual now it's like working out at home compared to the gym there is advantages to it but a major disadvantages but uh you know as I mentioned before it's a very skilled labor force Amazon HP Intel Oracle is here so people are walking in with certain skill sets I'm hoping they don't walk in with bad habits and sometimes I prefer someone that's bilingual and has the Vigor but just doesn't have the experience so I can mold them like a squire to a night so I've oned boarded and molded so many amazing telemarketers that just didn't start off with bad habits and so um you know learning the rules here the number one rule I have is patience because it seems like there's long lines they're not staffed accordingly there might be potholes there's a funny joke down here the cops will pull you over if you drive in a straight line because if you're sober you're avoiding the potholes and so you need to take a deep breath I mean there might not be the conveniences you have back home but then again there's some beauty that is here that you would not experience and so you're mentioning poverty I puty this way when I've been in certain areas of the rainforest or even in Nicaragua Guatemala in parts of Central America sure i' I've seen people that have lived in a very humble way but I've seen exceptionally clean children and washed clothes and always their porches are as shiny and nice as possible full bellies warm beds kids going to school on time and family units that are combined do you want to be a three-time divorced millionaire or be someone that might be second or third world but has the most loving husband and wife and and children and God-fearing and extended families I've never seen such large Barbecues in my entire life and so they don't need a Rolex to be happy they have hugs and love and I'm sure a millionaire would trade 10 of them to have that sort of relationship and so it it opened my eyes that finances and and money and material can be replaced with things that are free which is spirituality respect for the animals in the environment and even if they do have a a nice log cabin or a simple home it could be a Cozy home and a nice home next to a river and it's just the kind of things that I I've seen people smiling and not frowning and and so you expect them to be in a certain state of mind but no that's why I was mentioning there's certain literacy rates that we have here in Costa Rica it's 95% literacy rate and so they put their money and their ideas into education and so for me I I I think it's wonderful in fact when I met my wife one of the greatest things she ever did Ryan is on one of our first dates was when we were walking in the rainforest in the gardens this young lady knew every plant and every flower and there were certain things that were edible off the trees and she's just explaining to me it was like it was a beautiful National Geographic episode and so I was swept I thought that was probably one of the coolest things because I'm talking Pac-Man in excess and ice hockey doesn't matter she's talking about the most gorgeous environment that we were in and it really put me in place and so I had to change that day and I realized it was time for me to begin again well and it looks like you've been successful at that beginning again that pivotal moment in your life um which leads me to one of the other questions I always ask people on my show there seems to be a a a personal cost to entrepreneurship there always seems because you you had said uh what do you want to be a three-time divor millionaire divorced millionaire but or do you want to have a happy family with entrepreneurship sometimes s it almost feels like you got to pick one like you can be you can marry your dream and your vision or you can have a family so what sort of personal struggles and personal cost has just being an entrepreneur uh resonated with you and and what have you done to overcome those you feel like you're missing out on certain things there were other events I just I couldn't go to because of ethical professional responsibil it's those are tough conversations you need to have for yourself but listen Ryan at the end of the day I mean as much as you want to compare the two sort of Lives having finances and security and savings that can eliminate problems it can also assist you in health and Comforts and so I I didn't want to be a starving artist but then again I I didn't want to isolate myself and just dedic my entire life to a widget I I I think there's a healthy balance the fact that I work with my wife and built the business gave us a chance to work together different floors different departments that's just how it has to be but that's not the point the point is we built something together besides the marriage and a life but um paying it forward is nice sometimes you can get satisfaction out of seeing other people grow and getting promoted it's not just a selfish thing and one day your your golden Jews will lose their luster and there's only so many meals you can eat and what sort of additional satisfaction are you looking for and so if you have that sort of finances you might be able to have the mediums to do that and so it's such a nice balance where you don't want to overextend in one area but I I needed that sort of Challenge and fortunately for me it's very lucrative because I didn't want to put in a lot of work to make minimum wage either because that would hurt you mentally but listen there's a calling that these entrepreneurs have it's a six sense it's a tingle it's a butterfly and there are things that draw you to it like wind and water currents even gravity and so for me as a little boy looking back at it obviously this was part of my adventure learning Spanish to get me here and so you you you can't really hold somebody back from their Destinies especially if it's good faith if they can feed families if they can assist others along the way you're you're supposed to be part of that top percentage not saying you're better or worse than anybody your employee could be just as valuable as the owner because they're the ones that keeping the ship going look at Scotty on the Enterprise you needed that cat so I mean if you didn't have that guy you ain't coming home yeah no it's right bus right seat you always need your perfect sidekick you always need someone your Confidant you you need circles and that's the most important thing it it's kind of how they launch satellites a lot of times is they catch that orbit of that planet and they pair together and then when it's time they shoot it off and then you catch another orbit and they shoot it off I've noticed in times in my travels and Journeys when I'm flying alone I do okay it's not it's not it's not uh it's not detrimental I wouldn't say that but when you you're you're right when you find that right partner that right Mentor that right y your yang you you seem to find that bigger growth you can cultivated there are people that are 3ars of the way there or just never had the right mentor and so it's really just about unlocking and so people don't feel reserved and they can contribute and so as long as you can give them a certain environment where they feel comfortable enough to make themselves vulnerable then you may get the best out of people Ryan absolutely I would when I was researching I also noticed um and I wrote it down here um that you have in your office building one of the largest collections of American pinball machines oh yeah that you allow for your employees and you had a word for it and I lost it here uh gameur what what was that word gamification gamification that was it you want to tell us a little more about that because the company that I work for Titan digital uh we in our main office we got a ceg and we got sodas and we got games and puzzles and and and all that so when you take your lunch break you're checking out when you're when you're um when when you move away from your desk you move away from work and have that so and you mentioned recess so tell tell us uh one how you got so many pinball machines that interests me and and why is it important to have it there in your business I grew up in the 70s and 80s and everybody wanted Ricky schroer Silver Spoons game room you gotta be kidding me $5 out the last year whole Saturday games were expensive especially pinbo if you didn't have the skills so I look at it like this I got a business all of a sudden it became very successful I was expected to go out and purchase certain things but just like Tom Hanks in the movie Big I bought trampolines and video games and so one man's trash is another man's treasure and here in Costa Rica they have such incredible goodies all over the country and so I know the value and so I can find a machine for let's say $3 $400 get the parts in the United States from certain specialty stores had the perfect electricians that I know from the arcades down here Moonlight and come to my house and fix it up so for a Last Action Hero mid 90s Arnold Schwarz and Egger machine I bought for 350 put another 200 bucks in it she's worth close to $5,000 she's not meant because some dude own her before me and it was in a garage so but I tell you my friend the artwork the mares the Playfield especially the ones before the laminant where they painted the wood and you could see the cracks so each one has its own unique moves these machines are gorgeous and I fall in love with them and it's very difficult for me to hold back my emotion and it's usually me being disappointed on how they were treated and so I collect and I find and I'm easily the first one there with a trailer two of my assistants in a wat full cash ready to go and so every day I'm looking for these things and why do I collect it a I have the space b it's my passion you know it's funny a happy marriage is when you can make things work and this is the one Hill I'm willing to die on and she knows it so my wife realizes that these machines bring me such pleasure so I get to be a kid I got a game room at home and I got plenty of space here and so I don't allow the agents to play I encourage them because none of them have played real pinball before it's virtual pinball but Ryan there are so many things that are better alive than doing it on the internet and we can Dimension three right now but the most important thing is that they're experiencing something new it's a medium to meet other people hang out with me hand ey coordination so they don't ice a kicker they can stay hot and warm you know during break before they jump back on the phone again and it's just through play I've been doing the best coaching and through these machines people have given me the best feedback it's a eliminated spirals out of control and people that are losing their cool that day and plus I'm the coolest boss in town you walk through my game room it shows my potential clients that they don't have one how I treat my people especially how I treat myself but I love it and I got the room for it and I'm going to continue collecting my oldest machine is a bal's 1976 freedom I mean it's just each one has its thing so I encourage your audience if they are capable of purchasing a pinball machine especially one of the older ones with the wheels please do and take very good care of them everyone's going to want to play them and so um it's separated from me because people do see that I don't bite that I really am a person that likes balance of work and play uh and and you you talk about how you treat your employees which I think is always has been important but as we move forward it seems like culturally is becoming more and more important and I think it should it it absolutely should be that and it's a weird segue because I wanted to ask you because you're in the telemarketing business right so sometimes that business is not looked on as great I I think any sitcom that you watch any any movie you watch it's going to be a butt of a joke it's going to be it it's going to be not shown in a light listen they like used car salesmen better than telemarketers true true right I'm glad I didn't offend you with the question I I think you're a realistic guy Ripple myself all day long on that yes right so so I think it's a really good thing one an observation I think it's a really good thing that you you allow some blowoff steam because I'm sure not every conversation with your employees goes Pleasant so I I I can understand having to let them blow off some steam um but how do you how do you how do I want to phrase this question how do you have that business and deal with that criticism of your industry as an overall and a whole I think that would be a really interesting thing to hear well I love the fact that Hollywood glamorizes The Wolf of Wall Street Glen Gary Glenn Ross Boiler Room cold call closing like Blake ABC I love it but let me put you this way one of the greatest things a company can do is retain a client get an upsell and get a referral and have a relationship with a client where they give you an exit interview to let you know what you're doing right or wrong and so a lot of companies such as a law firm or an Hospital your local library people take calls it just doesn't mean that they're on there pitching stock I mean don't don't you have a certain company that you call to assist you where you have an account you may know the account manager and they know your your business and and they work with you and it's it's a nice thing so a lot of people with these sort of skills sets can make a very very good living working at Amazon for an example and HP Intel and Oracle they're here and so these are important things but I tell you what a lot of it has to do with ethics we don't not do Sports books casinos stocks pharmacies or sweet steaks and so really it's like a Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party if nobody shows up you have no friends people decide to work at these accounts that compromise ethics and steal lie the accounts that we do here are not even close to that it's a very strict Catholic country I have to make sure these agents can go home and tell their parents what they do for a living so I work with companies that deal with movies and music travel transport portation work with a few law firms and Industrial real estate do a lot of different things here it's the thing where the agent feels comfortable doing it now in regards to the people that are here we can be highly selective because there's an exceptionally large labor pool I know who's a jumper or who's a mercenary or who's not going to last long that's why when they fill out their resume Ryan and they give me all their bells and whistles and tell me about how they're going to be the most loyal punctual I expect them to turn their paper over and please write me a couple paragraphs of a Coming of Age moment so I can gauge your English grammar and vocabulary but you have depth why am I doing this hey so I can give you a cool nickname figure out what to pump you up on or rainy Wednesday what happens if you're on the phone with your largest client ever Ryan and he gets off script and ask you a Richard question are you capable of actually anchoring and bonding with this man can you can you talk about life or do you just have to ask question number nine and start hedging so I don't like things like that I I I want people to be more in the now and there's other soft skills that we do that can enhance our art of speech to make sure that we confirm things and that we are able to get somebody on the same page but it's a beautiful way to earn a living if somebody practices it and if they expand their vocabulary and do active listening and forget the call center these are the sort of skills that can save a marriage at Thanksgiving dinner and relationships this is pure diplomacy and it's sight unseen so imagine when you have your five senses and you're in front of somebody then you're superpowered with us what we try to do is expand on your listing and also use more descriptive vocabulary more adjectives so you can paint a visual picture with the clients on the phone so it's more activated you keep their attention because the attention span is so small and so by jumping clouds and keeping them in conversations I've had agents do some of the most amazing things before and not only make the company's money save them money and get tons of positive escalations where they want to speak to a supervisor and they'll go hey Ryan was the greatest on the phone I go I know Mr Jones he's the best and then when I hang up with Mr Jones you're getting a pizza party and acclimates with the entire floor and so that sort of cergy is cool it's unless you've been in it my man unless youve walked the roads and sat in the cubicles and had your best day next to mine you may not understand why some people still believe that call centers and telemarketing is a means to an end um that's a very good description uh I I'm enjoy how passionate you are about things and can tell by just I know um uh what was that pakowski quote it's uh I don't have any time if it doesn't have passion it doesn't have soul something like that um but uh so we're running we're about on our time I've really enjoyed talking to you so a couple last followup things here um what's next what's next for Richard blank and the call center and Costa Rican call center uh what's next in your life or Stratosphere or whatever we want to do toot promote as many people as possible internally so I can take some more time off I'm going to start writing some children's books traveling the world just having some fun come visit you you know hey if you come visit me I live in uh Missouri and I live by Springfield Missouri there is a place called 1984 which is it's downtown Springfield Missouri it is three or four floor of retro pinball and arcade games you pay $20 to get in they do they do you pay $20 to get in and you can play all day or as much as you want and and it it totally encapsulated from the 70s to there so yes oh I love it and let me ask you a question are these refurb machines are the original cabinets with the motherboards and the Marquees and all the artwork original Mach so I know the cabinets are of course I've never taken one apart um and I'm not an expert so I probably couldn't tell but I do know that the cabinets are original uh the mares are original uh or at least whoever's designing them are are crazy good if they're doing it um but yes it's a vector machine right and then you have the volcano start buttons I mean just to be able to look at the mares the artwork and everything you're you're seeing a Lisa and so as I'm saying if you have the chance to actually play on a real berserk or a Tron or Robotron machine I can name them all what a treat oh and hopefully I have one of my better games if not I'd be embarrassed because I've been practicing so much on M then you actually get to play the machine itself it's um it's an experience but especially the pinball my friend and those older machines where it had more open Play fields I mean today they're beautiful but they really reduce a lot of the Playfield and so um oh yeah we're there my main man my treat we're definitely there fair enough uh and uh and I guess is there anything that uh you want to what's the one piece of advice you would give somebody that is an entrepreneur and struggling at the moment what is the the piece of advice that you would give them that's why you have the best podcast Ryan I think it's that people should not be hard on themselves you're doing what you need to do let me give you a great example there's certain stages of life you might be 5 years old and taking the candy from the store I'm 50 years old now I would love to go back to that store put $5 do on the counter and tell the owner we're good and walk out listen these are stages of life you're doing what you have to do and if you can't handle this stage in your entrepreneur Journey how are you going to handle that half a million dollar contract or that one client that is loyal but demanding or what happens if your health gets affected so these are sort of checkpoint tests in the earlier stages to see if you are able to carry the weight or as um they said in the color of money to fast Eddie should he shed some weight and that's the most important thing what are you carrying and what are you shedding and so you have to depend on what you want to bring with you farce would have just remembered his name what an amazing scene when fast Daddy got hustled and then at the end he goes hey should I should I lose some weight and I had to research that because I didn't realize that in a in a gambling or or pool or Sports term it's it's really about leverage and hedging and betting and advant ages and some weight will kill you and drown you and others you need to leave behind because you're not going to use it anymore and so my good friend these are the sort of things that people need to decide on them on their own what they need to bring with them and um that would be my best advice for you and your amazing audience today well um Richard it has been my absolute pleasure having you on the show uh I hope we can do it again you know I'm I'm planning on doing more of these and we're going to be going for a long time so I'd love to have you back um and if anybody needs to get a hold of you or wants to reach out how do they make contact with you sir my man they need to buy a first class plane ticket and fly down here and come visit me but uh if they're not doing that today where they're enjoying their summer they can go to my Facebook fan page Costa Rica call center we have 17 1,000 local Costa Ricans there and when this goes live Ryan I can't wait to share your podcast and introduce you to a bunch of new fans and they'll give your audience a chance to understand the BP business process Outsourcing industry in Central America how Costa Rica is an amazing place and I've really enjoyed my life living well once again Richard thank you so much for being on small business Chronicles I'm Ryan shear and until next episode uh you guys have a good day

#Podcast guest appearances. Richard Blank Costa Rica's Call Center

richard blank