- 2 days ago
Big Performance Podcast hosted by Alex Elish. Gamifying the Workplace with CEO Richard Blank.
Big conversations with bold thinkers—where curiosity meets connection. On the Big Performance Podcast, Alex hosts unscripted, thought-provoking conversations with fascinating guests, exploring ideas that challenge, inspire, and entertain.
For Curious Wanderers, Critical Thinkers, and Seekers of Meaning drawn to spirituality, philosophy, and knowledge.
Featuring Authentic Storytellers, Big Thinkers, and Bold Explorers unafraid to tackle life’s biggest questions.
Subscribe and join a community that values exploration, growth, and meaningful dialogue.
Today, we speak with Richard Blank, a remarkable entrepreneur who transformed his dream into a thriving reality. Richard's journey from renting desks to running a 300-seat call center in Costa Rica is nothing short of inspirational.
Guest Introduction:
Richard Blank is the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, a powerhouse in the telemarketing industry. His unique approach, combining old-school values with innovative strategies, has not only helped him grow his business but also fostered a strong, resilient company culture. Richard's story is a testament to the power of relationships and perseverance.
Key Takeaways:
1. Journey of an Entrepreneur: Richard's transition from a communications background to a call center mogul.
2. Building a Company Culture: How Richard's focus on relationships and trust helped him navigate challenges, including the pandemic.
3. Surviving crisis: Strategies Richard employed to maintain business continuity and employee morale during the pandemic.
4. Gamification in the Workplace: The importance of creating a fun, engaging environment for employees.
5. Communication Strategies: Tips and techniques for effective telemarketing and client interaction.
6. The Role of Empathy in Business: Why human interaction will always have an edge over AI in customer service.
7. Richard's Passion for Pinball: How vintage arcade games play a role in his business and personal life.
https://youtu.be/NjYHz2TbKv4
Big conversations with bold thinkers—where curiosity meets connection. On the Big Performance Podcast, Alex hosts unscripted, thought-provoking conversations with fascinating guests, exploring ideas that challenge, inspire, and entertain.
For Curious Wanderers, Critical Thinkers, and Seekers of Meaning drawn to spirituality, philosophy, and knowledge.
Featuring Authentic Storytellers, Big Thinkers, and Bold Explorers unafraid to tackle life’s biggest questions.
Subscribe and join a community that values exploration, growth, and meaningful dialogue.
Today, we speak with Richard Blank, a remarkable entrepreneur who transformed his dream into a thriving reality. Richard's journey from renting desks to running a 300-seat call center in Costa Rica is nothing short of inspirational.
Guest Introduction:
Richard Blank is the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, a powerhouse in the telemarketing industry. His unique approach, combining old-school values with innovative strategies, has not only helped him grow his business but also fostered a strong, resilient company culture. Richard's story is a testament to the power of relationships and perseverance.
Key Takeaways:
1. Journey of an Entrepreneur: Richard's transition from a communications background to a call center mogul.
2. Building a Company Culture: How Richard's focus on relationships and trust helped him navigate challenges, including the pandemic.
3. Surviving crisis: Strategies Richard employed to maintain business continuity and employee morale during the pandemic.
4. Gamification in the Workplace: The importance of creating a fun, engaging environment for employees.
5. Communication Strategies: Tips and techniques for effective telemarketing and client interaction.
6. The Role of Empathy in Business: Why human interaction will always have an edge over AI in customer service.
7. Richard's Passion for Pinball: How vintage arcade games play a role in his business and personal life.
https://youtu.be/NjYHz2TbKv4
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00:00all righty thank you for for joining me it's a pleasure to talk to you i feel like i know
00:00:07you
00:00:08for the viewers that just joined i want to introduce to you richard blank behind this
00:00:17magical smile there is one phenomenally strong entrepreneur you have grown your business from
00:00:25renting desks to a 300 seat call center in costa rica that's right your business is taking care of
00:00:34hundreds of employees and you build a strong company culture that lets you carry on through
00:00:43covid and you're going strong in the face of ai apocalypse with your on the ground business with
00:00:55the people that you hold dear the people who work for you this is this requires admiration
00:01:03on my end because your your story is so unique and different from the overnight success of like i've
00:01:16built a an app that performs an action that users deemed good so i have a company now and you
00:01:26have
00:01:26built the company you've built the connections and you hold a great deal of expertise
00:01:36well alex i can't thank you enough can't believe i'm on the big performance podcast with you and
00:01:42as i say that's an excellent introduction and you hit it on the mark i was a long shy i
00:01:49decided to
00:01:49follow certain passions through second languages and opportunities and and yes my friend it's almost
00:01:55like panning for gold i have to break my back to earn my ounce of gold and i did it
00:02:00the old-fashioned
00:02:01way i did it through relationship building and trust in people promoting individuals and being a guest
00:02:07in another country and learning certain traditions and and hiring the right people so i can expand and
00:02:14so yes we're on our 16th year and it wasn't easy but then again it wasn't difficult it's the kind
00:02:21of
00:02:21thing that i was made to do so as long as you are prepared for what comes and you know
00:02:28what you the prices
00:02:29you have to pay then by all means drink your life and go for it and see where your destiny
00:02:34takes you
00:02:37just before the uh just before the cameras turned on we were uh looking like having a sneak peek into
00:02:47the
00:02:48uh discussion about the the journey of an entrepreneur and i was saying like well there is a way where
00:02:59we
00:02:59try to push a lot of value into a service as a business offering and then if it works it
00:03:08grows quite quite
00:03:09fast and your journey was you started from a communications background you are bilingual and
00:03:21you decided to move to costa rica and start from uh the ground up how how did you decide to
00:03:31go for this
00:03:32journey how did you start looking for that uh gold with with the pen yeah how do you not when
00:03:42the road
00:03:43is there and open in front of you when i was a a young lad i decided that spanish was
00:03:50my favorite thing
00:03:51in the world and so fortunately my parents would take me on vacations sometimes to mexico so i would come
00:03:57back with some vocabulary and i had an interest a base of it and whenever i'd meet someone from the
00:04:04latin community they give such reinforcement it just wasn't a parlor trick or something cute they realized
00:04:10that i really was into it and then i understood something my friend when someone does above and beyond
00:04:16there's dedicated practice so besides what i had to do in school to get my grades i loved watching movies
00:04:23and reading books and my favorite was just having coffee and hanging out and speaking spanish and so
00:04:29anybody that has that sort of commitment and passion you can't put that spark hell and so when it came
00:04:34time for me to graduate from the proud abington high school in northeast philly i had to make a decision
00:04:40i could either follow in my family's footsteps of law finance and go to certain ivy league or since i
00:04:48didn't have the grades i chose to go to the university of arizona and be a spanish major
00:04:53and when i graduated i had this opportunity a one in a million opportunity hours and i was 27 years
00:05:01old in august of 2000 a friend of mine from college said hey richie come down and hang out in
00:05:06my call
00:05:06center for a couple months teach some english just give yourself a time out to what's going on postgrad
00:05:12but those two months turned into four years i left the united states i put all my furniture and stuff
00:05:21in storage and i decided to make costa rica my home and so by working in my friend's center alex
00:05:27i did
00:05:27not learn the business from sea level i learned it from the inside out so imagine mastering retention
00:05:34customer support onboarding qa you know you could do search engine optimization affiliate management
00:05:42and so it really was my graduate school but i learned the greatest lesson when you're sitting
00:05:48amongst the people the proletariat and you are in their respect that's number one and secondly you
00:05:56hear the gripes you hear what they love and what they hate and any sort of real leader needs to
00:06:01extend
00:06:01that sort of empathy those with whom work with you and so i learned the greatest lesson ever you bend
00:06:09them you just don't break them and you make sure that you extend to them their dignity so they come
00:06:13back and so when i started my business my friend i i did start from the ground up i was
00:06:19renting individual
00:06:20space from a blended center where i could rent a station for a month after two years of having capital
00:06:26and
00:06:27stable clients i rented space for about six years i could put 150 seats in it and slowly and surely
00:06:35i was
00:06:35buying used equipment and furniture things you can get for pennies on the dollar for the rotation of the
00:06:41call centers that are here and why pay full price and import tax when you don't have to and then
00:06:48six years ago we purchased some space put on a third floor we have the capacity for 300 but you
00:06:55brought up a good
00:06:55point covid i was very fortunate to survive but then again it destroyed the synergy of this industry
00:07:04yes i understand the expense and time and inconvenience of traveling to work but then
00:07:10again you're eliminating the side-by-side buddy energy playing the pinball and pac-man in the game
00:07:16room pizza parties and you know your best friend and people used to fall in love at my center and
00:07:22get
00:07:22married and stuff and so uh you eliminated all of that there's no more big top there's no more tent
00:07:28there's no more show that's just all virtual now and it almost feels like bricks in the wall and
00:07:35they're just grinding it away and they do their metrics and they're great and they're marketable
00:07:39and they can get a job any day anywhere and just plug in one day and plug out the next
00:07:43or be hired
00:07:45how do you keep them when you never see them sometimes you don't even get to meet them
00:07:50just hire them and so for me my friend it's it's not like i grew to 50 000 people or
00:07:57have a empire like
00:07:58jeff bezos where it's almost impossible to know everyone i'm only 150 and i used to walk my rows
00:08:05every day high fives aplenty playing pinball downstairs that was my crew you took away my old
00:08:11school philly spice it's not right that was the one thing that separated me between the amazon hp intel
00:08:19oracle and teleperformance where people felt like a number i knew your name and you hung out with me
00:08:26so in the call center olympics alex if i can teach any lesson to your amazing audience is to be
00:08:33grounded
00:08:33is to be with your people so they respect you and they will shake your hand or tap you on
00:08:40the arm and
00:08:41say good morning jefe that's when you know you've earned their respect and the market speaks because if
00:08:47you have no friends no one shows up to your chuck e cheese party and you're by yourself but if
00:08:52i'm
00:08:53able to last 16 years and have people with me over a decade alex i must be doing something right
00:09:00how did you how did you make it how did you did you survive covid with this like outside of
00:09:07your
00:09:08natural expertise outside of your zone where you had been high-fiving people through the row and celebrate
00:09:17having the opportunity to celebrate their small wins together with them on the floor
00:09:25and then you you go go go go for a covid lockdown or whatever so how do you make it
00:09:31alex my man look
00:09:34at it like this close your eyes and think of a painting and a print still the same image but
00:09:40which
00:09:40one is 10 times better there's electromagnetic energy that's sent between people even haptics
00:09:47when you touch somebody or you have the proxemics when you're close to someone you can just feed off
00:09:51of it and don't tell me if you're at the gym and you have a guy that's spotting you you're
00:09:55probably
00:09:55going to do another rep or two or you might even go to the gym you might even stay dedicated
00:10:01and
00:10:01consistent with structure in regards to your diet and sleep habits and so we're a social creature
00:10:07and we're talking about a linguistic environment where it's a luxury trade especially those that
00:10:13are bilingual which to me bears the mark of higher education and so you really are eliminating that
00:10:19circle and what did i do i was very thankful for the stars and the gods to allow me to
00:10:27stay in business
00:10:28and the fact that a vpn and internet connections and giving them a turnkey computer that's programmed for
00:10:35them to go home put on their headset and make phone calls in their underwear with coffee and
00:10:40dogs barking and neighbors and no backup generator redundancy for internet or even electricity
00:10:47so what does that do it makes that sort of workload in unstable and so they can come here for
00:10:56the brick
00:10:56and mortar if they need to and a turnkey station in case something happens which thankfully rarely has but
00:11:03what do you do i became a print people are not in the office anymore i mean they come in
00:11:09from time to
00:11:10time and then as i say i'll give them the shout out i'll listen to their calls i'll be proud
00:11:15of them but
00:11:16maybe the trade-off they don't care they'd rather stay at home save the money eat from their fridge
00:11:23have the luxury of a tv on with mute on the side roll out of bed get to work
00:11:30i mean that's awesome you could have never thought of that 30 years ago it was impossible 100 years
00:11:37ago in this sort of medium and vertical and so the fact that people can do this it's it's wonderful
00:11:43but i had to make that trade i i decided to stay in business to be in business the one
00:11:51thing that i love
00:11:52the most the passion of it was taken away so what are you gonna do there's no more cheese on
00:11:56my burger
00:11:58so what are you gonna do i mean uh but alex you adapt you do the best you can and
00:12:04how about this
00:12:05when they ever come into the office they get the greatest heroes welcome we're eating together high
00:12:10five and if they spend the day at the center it's it's so welcomed and maybe that sort of water
00:12:17is
00:12:17enough to carry you through a desert maybe seeing me once every month or two is more than enough for
00:12:23you to stay working with me and hitting your metrics and i'm proud of you i just miss you and
00:12:29that's just the only uh challenge i have as a boss in this industry
00:12:35you know that there are fun parallels between you and me we both have a linguistics degree and we're we
00:12:44both uh were introduced to this uh tele tele networking uh coco took a call center environment so how it
00:12:57was
00:12:57for me i was like newly graduated and i had some time on my hands and i needed money i
00:13:07google to who will
00:13:08hire me with my new education degree this week i was not looking for the opportunities down the road i'm
00:13:18like i got a free week at least so this was the like short time spent decision making who will
00:13:28hire me
00:13:29in three days how fast can i go go to work and there would there was a call center uh
00:13:36that that
00:13:38needed english speaking people i'm like all right let's let's go for it i know nothing about this i am
00:13:45not
00:13:45sure i am comfortable with talking to people in in this environment where they are not sure who i am
00:13:56and i have an agenda of either selling them the thing or selling
00:14:03them on the information that that i have so crazy but they did hire me and the pay was good
00:14:13based on
00:14:14the location i was in i'm like all right i did not stay there long but i did perform quite
00:14:26well
00:14:27so i came there i learned what what what it is the project that that they meet me for
00:14:35i tried the thing i was calling uh london businesses and telling them hey you know there is a google
00:14:46map
00:14:46and google map has your location kind of so you can log in and put your information there and
00:14:54people know what you are in this time google map was not the the tool that you use every day
00:15:04to
00:15:05pick a coffee shop it was somewhere there it's like a business directory but there is like also
00:15:13ease of finding the location so not every business cycle was aligned on on my
00:15:20highly technical proposition of going to google and claiming your pin on the map right yeah and
00:15:31this is where i learned that oh i i i can't speak to people all right the linguistics degree paid
00:15:39off
00:15:40maybe you made your money back you're so funny you know everyone hates telemarketers
00:15:47it's amazing you did it no so some people really like like me sorry but but i got got got
00:15:57the ropes of
00:15:59hey i sometimes find people in the time where they are not comfortable talking to me
00:16:07and that is not really my fault but still there is this level of uh
00:16:17of negativity in there but here is your job you need to go through it
00:16:24somehow what i really enjoyed on my on my job and how i first
00:16:30saw the gamification in the work environment we had a team that that worked on the project
00:16:39and there was a whiteboard and there was a whiteboard on the wall and every time you close the
00:16:48to the the the location every time a person successfully signed up this is our goal metric
00:16:57and you get to stand up from your desk go to the whiteboard and put a star in front of
00:17:04your name
00:17:05so it gave you a obama face from your colleagues everyone like all right you made it you you put
00:17:17one more
00:17:18more star cool and so we got got at the same time the competition going yeah
00:17:25so gamification in the workplace what did you do to make this
00:17:37to get this benefit of more engaged people with their goal and enjoying what they do a little bit better
00:17:48in your work it's a great question quite simple the agents have break times
00:17:55in the lunch time plus before and after shift and so i i see a lot of people smoking a
00:18:02cigarette
00:18:03maybe isolating themselves on their phone looking at instagram or facebook or just
00:18:08not engaging and so this happy medium like recess when we were children in lower school it allows them
00:18:17to let off steam to maybe recharge some of their batteries possibly meet some people from other
00:18:22departments hang out with me and also to play classic vintage pinball machines from the 1970s and
00:18:3280s and 90s in my office especially the ones from the 70s they'll never get to see that anywhere
00:18:37and don't tell me virtual pinball is the same plus i also have an air hockey table it's all free
00:18:43play
00:18:43i don't charge you don't do that but um why not even though you're an adult you can still smile
00:18:49and
00:18:50and laugh and play and it gives you a great chance to work that hand-eye coordination so you're you're
00:18:57fresh it's almost like a runner that runs in place at a stoplight you don't want to cool an ice
00:19:02a kicker
00:19:02and so if this is a medium that keeps them at a high that gives them their momentum allows them
00:19:09to
00:19:10refocus their energy with lights and sounds and fun for a little while then by all means it it could
00:19:18be
00:19:18the perfect recharge that they need to get upstairs and do a really solid second half push and i've seen
00:19:25it you know someone yells at you on the phone call or you say people are stressed and we're experts
00:19:30in
00:19:31adjusting the tone but you also receive that energy you got to put it somewhere and rather have you
00:19:37do it downstairs playing a fighting game or pac-man or something then keeping it in because you should
00:19:44just be a professional and just let it flow through you and so there's only so much you can do
00:19:49upstairs
00:19:51i prefer swaying in the wind i don't want to punch or receive the hit i'd rather have them gas
00:19:55themselves
00:19:56out and i'd rather preserve certain energy that i have and just not let it spill
00:20:01and so i i preserve the the corner compared to the you know the middle of the ring for the
00:20:08box or if
00:20:08you're going to give me a minute to rest i'm going to talk to you in a certain environment that
00:20:14is not
00:20:15high stressed that allows you to rest that we recuperate you get the water the the ice you know
00:20:21you cool down the box or rub them down a bit and give the advice to get back out there
00:20:26again and
00:20:26continue on this journey these checkpoints are exceptionally important that they are making
00:20:32progress so they can see where they've come from and so maybe as i say i am one of the
00:20:38few
00:20:39that just doesn't have a foosball table or pinball or ping pong or possible xbox or playstation games
00:20:47and i'm cool with all that my stuff's a little different it's like from the old school arcades
00:20:52from the 70s and 80s i i wanted to hang that way and so when i'm there i can feel
00:20:57that fun you see the
00:20:59lights it's it's a place to relax a bit and service you you have to walk through this area when
00:21:04you're
00:21:04going upstairs and downstairs so regardless of if you're coming or going to the floor you're walking
00:21:10through my arcade my clients see this and they realize this is how i treat the agents myself and
00:21:17then i look at them and i go hey billy how come you're not doing this at corporate why don't
00:21:20you
00:21:20have a fun game room and when people have to make that decision that is one of the decisions that
00:21:26these agents make in the labor pool they they realize that it's not so stiff there is a balance
00:21:34and if you're going to come here and spend more time with me than you do with your own family
00:21:38why
00:21:38don't we have a little bit of dessert as well and make it fun and it's not it's not enjoyable
00:21:45to be
00:21:46a boss where people are afraid of you and you scream and yell and make people stress there is that
00:21:52responsibility they have a job to do but you can almost do it by doing the apex by being the
00:22:00the leader
00:22:01and the one that can fly the highest and the furthest and the fastest
00:22:05this thankfully this is my wheelhouse so at any time i can jump on this call
00:22:13and i can not only resolve the issue but share a lesson to the agent that was looking for that
00:22:19guidance so in essence i just don't write checks this is something that as you say you quit after a
00:22:26little bit but got the skills i sold my soul i decided to be in this industry for 24 years
00:22:34because i saw the art of the speech i didn't want it to be ruined and muddied by the bad
00:22:40reputations
00:22:41that stocks and sweet steaks and other call centers do that take advantage of people there
00:22:46you know alex there's a ton of people out there that earn a wonderful living by retaining a client for
00:22:53a company setting appointments making business getting a referral possibly if a client is upset and
00:23:00giving you an exit interview or feedback that you're responsible take the suggestions and
00:23:05implement and so as long as you're engaged and proactive that individual is priceless for a
00:23:12corporation and so um but this generation with ai you mentioned it earlier i got a really good argument for
00:23:23you alex i'll let them carry 95 percent of the weight they can gather they can filter they can
00:23:29present it to me but the one area they will never win is the empathy machine can't hug you and
00:23:37they
00:23:37can't say they know how you feel if your puppy runs away or you get fired from your job or
00:23:43you get a
00:23:43divorce or you break your arm how's the computer going to say hey alex i i see how you feel
00:23:49i broke my
00:23:49arm you don't even have arms and so um there will always be that luxury of the human interpersonal
00:23:55interaction the extension of empathy the true listening and so the i guess it might be expensive
00:24:05or that's what people are looking for as a luxury but there will be individuals that want to speak to
00:24:11a doctor and an attorney a consultant a counselor i'd rather call my best friend who wants to speak
00:24:20with me for hours until i'm ready compared to somebody that looks at my clock and goes mr blank
00:24:25your time is up could be right in the middle of a breakthrough how do you stop yourself from peeing
00:24:31sometimes you can't stop and so um it's not right and i i think if someone's having a moment you
00:24:37need
00:24:38to let them run through first you got to let them finish because they might be holding it in or
00:24:45you
00:24:45might be the right person or just might be the right moment for a good cry a good scream a
00:24:50good thought
00:24:50a good meditation a good center i don't know but there's a certain thing that happens to people in
00:24:58the right environment when everything is is aligned and i've become very respectful of that sort of time
00:25:05for people here when i've noticed breakthroughs and shedding of skins and also in a very long
00:25:11and roundabout way alex even in my own personal growth and development i knew there were certain
00:25:17times where i had koski as the the sixth sense and the butterflies were something else was telling
00:25:23me that i were making the right decisions you know you voiced one of the questions that that was
00:25:31hypothetical but i do have an answer for that and how would ai how would the machine
00:25:41react and feel empathy when i break my arm i know exactly the thing and how it will say my
00:25:49gaming
00:25:50experience taught me there would be a robotic voice that would say fracture detected
00:26:03so it it will not feel empathy but it will notify me of the fact that apart from me feeling
00:26:13the pain being
00:26:14miserable there is a certain physical condition that that uh got me into worse state what i wanted to
00:26:28uh get by you i have had an idea so this is a concept that kind of tackles the challenges
00:26:38that
00:26:39in your industry your people might be having and i got a marvelous solution for it so that there is
00:26:47a
00:26:47an issue in today's world with people being less active people with sitting jobs
00:26:56and i thought all right if i have a lot of people if a portion of my company is working
00:27:06in a call center
00:27:08environment where people behind the desks like open space loft more than office environment i thought
00:27:20how do i take care of those people in light of people not getting enough exercise i was like
00:27:29do i do i take that that thing that i had in a call center environment where when i succeed
00:27:39i get to stand up
00:27:41walk a little bit and do the action i thought maybe i set up those kind of challenges but in
00:27:50a more physical
00:27:52scale so when you move the card that represents a client down the sales funnel from prospecting to offer send
00:28:05you do 10 push-ups
00:28:09when you move a client from offer send to call scheduled you do 10 squats so i will see that
00:28:23the sales people who perform well
00:28:27they also get the better physique they they move a lot of stuff in the virtual world
00:28:38they move clients down the funnel and they need to perform this physical action physical exercise
00:28:45in the real world and that is beneficial for their paycheck at the same time as it gives benefit to
00:28:53their health
00:28:56and for your position i'm thinking about the
00:29:02the the the the negativity that people need to be processing
00:29:09casually and how is our our brain wired to process negativity
00:29:18where you are either run or you fight and you don't get to do anything because you you sit with
00:29:26with a handset not yeah maybe when when you face a negatively charged person on the phone after the call
00:29:37you hang up you get to do something physical you you do some jumping jacks for example your body your
00:29:45brain will
00:29:46count it as you count it as you did something about the negativity something physical you either
00:29:53running away with jumping jacks or you you are scaring away the danger that you experienced over the phone
00:30:01and that kind of alleviates some of the stress from from the work
00:30:11alex if they can't take a 101 rebuttal call they shouldn't be in the industry no offense and i'm not
00:30:19saying that in a personal way but how about this my friend there are certain conversations where you
00:30:25fall on a sword you don't need to fight or flight you can fall on a sword there's a middle
00:30:30there you
00:30:31can choose to accept accountability or just clean the spill and pay for the bill so you can come back
00:30:38the next week at the bar there's certain times you got to step up and show the example it's true
00:30:45and so for me if you're at that stage now and and i think it's an excellent thing but you
00:30:50know
00:30:50the dedication to athletics a lot of people they'll go for a week at the end of the you know
00:30:55new years
00:30:56and then never go the rest of the year for that gym but i will never press somebody on those
00:31:01personal
00:31:01things it's it's a thing that i do every every day for two hours and i realize how tough it
00:31:05is
00:31:06about this first things first make your bed i mean you're talking jumping jacks man if you aren't
00:31:12making your bed then why are you even doing jumping jacks you have to start and end in that
00:31:16circle where you show that respect to yourself there's certain things you need to do internally
00:31:21before you start expanding and if as i say you can readjust tones fall on certain swords you signed up
00:31:28for this industry people may be cursing not at you but out loud and so as long as they're not
00:31:34attacking
00:31:34you let them vent if you use that strategy though usually they'll apologize to you and then i can
00:31:41throw in the philly guilt and go alex are you done would you like to curse a little more say
00:31:45some
00:31:45more no no richard we're fine are you ready to move forward now yes i am and so you can
00:31:53anchor in that
00:31:53sort of way and even if you don't get the result that you want regardless of the outcome you make
00:32:00these phone calls with good faith and good intentions and you practice your rhetoric you practice
00:32:07positive escalations or even if a secretary does not transfer you you could let them know that they
00:32:14did a wonderful job and when you do get transferred you let the owner know or just even letting them
00:32:19know
00:32:19that they made a difference it's just hedging bets and increasing odds because you're not lying
00:32:26you're not angling or forcing a sale all i'm doing is repeating a name drop i'm introducing myself i'm
00:32:33expecting you to ask me two or three clarification questions where i just use a buffer boomerang
00:32:39i'll name drop you to adjust the tone let you know it's a great question repeat the question alex so
00:32:45you don't have to repeat it right and then i'll send it back to you in a positive way to
00:32:49just keep
00:32:49readjusting that negative positive tone and shutting doors and checkpoints so we don't have to repeat
00:32:54rabbit holes and get you upset and so what does that do it just shaves and whittles and get you
00:33:00there
00:33:01you said about selling for information or time or well yeah buddy instead of doing half courts or even
00:33:08three-pointers now you're doing foul shots or just like some nba players start dunking those calls because
00:33:13you you eliminated any sort of fear and doubt you addressed any sort of concerns that they had
00:33:20and you and you showed bedside manner the soft skills that floats a feather and so if you're making
00:33:31these phone calls maybe you'll be the one out of the thousand that really extended themselves and
00:33:37listened and asked follow-up questions so not just saying i hear your dog in the background but ask its
00:33:44name its breed and how old is your puppy because it's loud and i can't hear you so maybe inadvertently
00:33:51that child that music that bad cell connection or dog can be adjusted if you do things in a passive
00:33:58aggressive manner instead of just interrupting and squeezing there are there are certain techniques
00:34:04that can add finesse to a call so you just do not miss a beat and if you practice these
00:34:11sort of soft
00:34:11skills and transitional sentences and really paying attention to when to anchor and pass along don't be
00:34:18surprised if 10 minute calls turn into six minute calls and your conversion ratios get higher because
00:34:24you're shaving a repeat time in rabbit holes so and another thing alex use the military alphabet
00:34:30so emails don't bounce back a lot of people have served and it gives you consistency so you're not
00:34:37just thinking on the fly and these are the sort of things where you might close one additional deal
00:34:43a month because an email didn't bounce back just because of that and so i think that the military likes
00:34:49it
00:34:49people will relate to it and in my professional opinion it's been able to end calls in a great way
00:34:57where you almost get an encore song or two where it should have been ending but now you're talking
00:35:01the military and memorial day weekend and veterans day and you show your pride and respect and
00:35:10those are the stories so you might call that you are kind of solving communication challenges with
00:35:17communication tools that show that is cool yeah with the uh with the military alphabet i did have a call
00:35:29with a person who caught me using the wrong name for for for one of the letters and he's like
00:35:37nah
00:35:38there's like there's another word for it dude i'm like come on it's whiskey
00:35:47gotcha that's funny yeah those are the little things i wanted to to ask your professional opinion
00:35:56on this thing when you said that sometimes you need to fall on the sword and sometimes the
00:36:03the passive aggressive things fixed the conversation down the
00:36:13productive line i would say of course when thinking about this kind of situation i thought about the
00:36:22the trick of balancing out when in communication a person is frustrated
00:36:34with you you can kind of shift your positioning and be frustrated together with that person
00:36:43and then you you kind of find that you don't need to be frustrated at all neither one of you
00:36:51this uh what i mean is
00:36:54that when a customer is calling you with with the complaint our default mode is to say oh
00:37:04no we would have sent you the information it should be in writing your inbox you should have got it
00:37:13a week ago
00:37:14and like defend protect your truth and when the uh customer is calling and say hey this
00:37:26documents never arrived you uh breaking the the deal you are a bad provider and you even knowing that you
00:37:38are
00:37:39right and this the documents have been sent you take a position of the customer and saying yeah this is
00:37:46awful
00:37:48i will probably lose my job and i will not work for for the company that failed to send you
00:37:56the the the document in time anyway i will speak to my manager i will speak to the ceo
00:38:03right now and when you kind of shift your position to the same position the client is having
00:38:11the client would say oh oh oh maybe maybe maybe don't do that maybe you don't don't don't speak to
00:38:18the ceo
00:38:19you will get fired because of of me and maybe documents did arrive i don't know i will check again
00:38:26and
00:38:26we'll call you back later this kind of conflict resolution is it is it a real tactic did you see
00:38:37some something like that in your experience any professional would know how much money is invested
00:38:43in somebody to get them to that stage in business unless they're throwing f-bombs and just giving the
00:38:48company away i don't know if i i don't think i would buy that blush you're not firing somebody because
00:38:56random customers calling up because they got 13 extra dollars charged on the bill for a month but
00:39:01that's nor here nor there i have some techniques for you my friend when you're thinking of this stuff
00:39:07i like to adjust my vocabulary to make it more strategic and diplomatic so i i wouldn't say excuse
00:39:14me on the phone i would replace that for my clarification is it abc or one two three for my
00:39:23clarification
00:39:24and then there's also tie downs you could say sounds good right makes sense right because if you just
00:39:31keep talking i don't know if it does sound good or makes sense you need underwater scuba diving
00:39:36checkpoints and then finally my my biggest my biggest gripe it's like a gnat or fly that bothers you
00:39:46whenever somebody uses the word help i understand the intention behind it but it can provoke a sort
00:39:51of emotion and so i suggest using assist guide and lend a hand i just know that it's like a
00:39:59longbow
00:39:59you'll get better distance out of that compared to using help i we're accustomed to it but it's a very
00:40:05uncomfortable metal chair in a waiting room with bad magazines it just doesn't work and so i i like
00:40:11to as i mentioned before use these soft skills with people i like to guide i like to assist and
00:40:18especially and i give it double points because you're utilizing image streaming by saying lend a hand
00:40:25they can picture it and so you get double score anytime you can use those descriptive adjectives in
00:40:32your speech to make it more colorful so you can get their 30 second attention span so you can get
00:40:38them to continue with you it's look at this like in this theory alex instead of a 10 minute call
00:40:44i see
00:40:45it as 20 30 second conversations because you could make or break it in 30 seconds and so i think
00:40:53you should
00:40:53really land your introduction strong you should work the body and then in the conclusion it should be
00:41:01solidified but that intro you should really use all your hours on that one get in there make sure that
00:41:07you start that call or receive that call with a bang where you really do a solid beam spike where
00:41:12you
00:41:12really let them know that you say their name or their company's name better than they do once again
00:41:18expecting two or three clarification questions that you readjusting tone why because they had bad
00:41:23experiences before you you can readjust the tone everyone can be filtered and calmed down and then my
00:41:29final suggestion is that positive escalation when you get transferred somebody assists you you do
00:41:34it verbally and in writing so if you happen to call the company back you go to hero's welcome from
00:41:38the
00:41:39gatekeeper again who never gets complimented and when you get transferred to a decision maker
00:41:45before alex even says anything i go by the way catherine's amazing and instead of saying is this
00:41:50a sales call i'm not interested we're good thanks he'd say who's this all right buddy i'm so glad that
00:41:57you asked i'm mr compliment i got to pass the pitch from catherine you know i'm not even mentioning
00:42:04myself yet and i went from half court to slamming duncan because i separated myself from the salesman
00:42:10i'm showing really good faith and i'm being very nice prior to contracts i'm willing to put it out there
00:42:15my friend and it seems that that has been received well when we're prospecting new business
00:42:23i really liked your example with the help versus assistance lending a help because uh lending a hand
00:42:33because help avoiding this term you are putting the person that you have in a conversation with
00:42:42in a better position you are allowing them better agency over this situation if you need help
00:42:51it's like uh i my my it means low agency i need someone who is stronger to with more experience
00:43:03to come and fix my problem but like lending a hand meaning we are in a uh equal partnership position
00:43:13i lend you a hand and you go with me hand in hand yeah i like the the visual it
00:43:20transfers as well
00:43:22before even going with me you have to decide to take my hand there is that there is that physics
00:43:29that
00:43:29then connects and then we go together once again business is very interesting the market speaks
00:43:37and people are slick and they have certain ways that they can make their case and deliver their message
00:43:44and and it does get certain results but i believe in purity i i i think that if somebody has
00:43:51to make
00:43:51a very long march they should do it in comfortable shoes and they should also be able to go home
00:43:57until
00:43:57their family what they do for a living alex if you're that talented there's a hundred ways to make a
00:44:03dollar you don't need to choose certain ways that might be compromised or your ethics values or morals or
00:44:09you're just caught up in the moment think of the long play think of how you will feel about yourself
00:44:15when you earn that money and you have that reputation and so for me at this stage i kind of
00:44:22see it more
00:44:23of course paying it forward i always knew that i would do well i i felt comfortable in my own
00:44:29skills
00:44:29but there is a certain stage in life where the golden jewels it loses its luster and people are
00:44:35looking for something else and so if i'm able to give these advanced telemarketing classes to reinforce
00:44:41their english to make it fun and to be a boss that knows their name and and lets them know
00:44:46that people
00:44:46believe in them for confidence and self-reliance then i'm that old guy with the white beard by the
00:44:53fireside that literally is as i imagined as a child and now that i'm in that stage literally paying
00:45:01forward information not cash my food i'm paying along that life experience that took me 51 years to get
00:45:11and it's nice because it's not only received well but it seems to be appropriate in this environment i
00:45:19actually found an area the soil where my specific skill set can grow if not i just would have been
00:45:26running in circles in some cubicle in tempe arizona wondering where my life is and so my friend i have
00:45:33a luxury trade and um that's why you see me smiling on your podcast today
00:45:42richard i wanted to ask you what does it mean to you your your arcade games what kind of feeling
00:45:53that
00:45:54you have that associates with their those arcades maybe from your childhood when you came to an arcade
00:46:03game what kind of feeling you would really love your employees to get when they interact with your
00:46:13vintage machines in your office
00:46:17how else you're talking my favorite subject
00:46:22i grew up in the 70s and 80s and ricky schroeder had silver spoons where he had a home arcade
00:46:27that
00:46:27everyone was envious of and five dollars had to last you on weekend so you had to be very selective
00:46:33but the games that you chose dragon's lair was 75 cents pinball was expensive last a minute
00:46:40man i could play asteroids for 35 minutes i chose that game but it's not the point um
00:46:47for me it just seemed not attainable it was just a luxury it was an adult thing i had to
00:46:54ask permission for money to play
00:46:56and they just seem so high maintenance especially the pinball machines with the marquees and the play
00:47:01field and um so so when i started my business and i had discretionary income there were certain things
00:47:12i purchased as an adult in my life but i had the chance to indulge my passion and one man's
00:47:20trash is
00:47:20another man's treasure alex and so unfortunately and it's very sad that arcades are becoming
00:47:27few and far between and if they are it's it's different like a dave and busters or some of these
00:47:31extremely expensive beautiful machines but the old school row of you know pac-man asteroids defender
00:47:39those days are gone and
00:47:44people were selling them and i would get and i listen i know the price of some of these things
00:47:49people just
00:47:50wanted to get rid of them and so i'd get my buddies and we'd take a truck and we'd drive
00:47:54five hours
00:47:55the perez zelodon up in some weird place where there was a boat they got i'd open it up and
00:48:00there they
00:48:01are and i would just start grabbing them one guy bought nine pinball machines off of for like a thousand
00:48:07bucks nine machines really what's that like buck buck 12 a machine yeah are you kidding and then there's
00:48:17some places in the states where you can order the parts next thing you know they have electrician
00:48:2230 hours worth of work later these things are working and um like this one here that's in 1961
00:48:29recall of regis either people don't know the prices they don't care or there's not a market for it but
00:48:34i'm just scooping them up like crazy and as you remember i mentioned earlier about hills dion i'm a
00:48:41happily married man but this is the one percent where my wife knows if we have the room i get
00:48:46the
00:48:46machines and it just brings such joy and uh that's where we're at my brother i got myself a beautiful
00:48:53collection of at least 13 pinball machines and half a dozen other arcade machines
00:49:00that's great oh yeah are you kidding do you know how beautiful these machines are from the 1970s
00:49:08anything before the 80s is when they used to paint the wood on the play field they weren't putting
00:49:13stickers or laminates on it plus you're talking about the electromechanical machines where you have
00:49:19the bells and you have the wheels going and in my opinion much easier to fix because you just got
00:49:24to
00:49:24clean the contacts and the wires last better than the ones today and you know the machines today it's
00:49:31a computer you have so many cpus and different placas where for the sound and for the lights and
00:49:37i did learn some good advice though let's say you pick up an old machine the best bit of advice
00:49:43is not
00:49:43to try to fix what's behind the marquee why don't you just buy all brand new you know dabless for
00:49:49them
00:49:49and so the machine just works it's just a matter of working the play field and some of the connectors
00:49:55and lights but i tell you what you put a pinball machine in your house you'll be the most popular
00:50:01cat in
00:50:02town it's almost like the 1950s when people used to hang around the piano and sing the pinball machines
00:50:08everyone definitely hanging around it and having a great time and getting excited and and you feel
00:50:13the machine virtual pinball is nothing compared to a real machine where you can feel it and see it
00:50:20and you really can time it it's an experience and so for me my friend has it brought me dividends
00:50:27in
00:50:27regards to business absolutely i am known as the number one collector of pinball in costa rica
00:50:34and we use that heavily in regards to our seo and our hiring why because we're cool
00:50:40i just want to make sure that when people hang out with me they're having a great time and so
00:50:46maybe alex that's just the difference between me playing against the big boys
00:50:53i i i had a look into some of your marketing and one thing that got me excited i will
00:51:03share my screen
00:51:04super fast yeah what you got so i went into your pinterest account and i saw those graphics
00:51:13but i wanted to understand what kind of style it is and how did you came up with it but
00:51:26hold on
00:51:27for a second i am not super visual guy so i i wanted to understand it better before i talk
00:51:36to you
00:51:37so i could talk to my co-founder and
00:51:45creative director anastasia about it but she was not available i was like all right it's a creative
00:51:52challenge i can solve it right i can do it so there is a meat journey tool the ai that
00:52:00generates images
00:52:02you give it a text prompt saying what i want on the image and it makes the image but it
00:52:10has the reverse
00:52:11feature when i can give it an image and it will tell me what kind of prompt will create this
00:52:21image
00:52:22so i took some of your images got it to me johnny it described the images
00:52:32but this is just data it's not a definitive answer
00:52:36so then i took the results that me johnny got me and i did it to chat gpt saying here
00:52:45are the results
00:52:47please analyze find where we have patterns matching and then explain me in detail the style i know it works
00:52:59better with with this model when i ask it to explain me stuff rather than give me the answer because
00:53:08if i just
00:53:08ask to give me an answer it will just like fantasize something plausible and saying yeah yeah here it is
00:53:16so i asked it to deliberate and in the result i got this this situation vibrant urban pop art
00:53:29energetic and bold characteristics of pop art with contemporary aesthetics sure
00:53:37and it clearly defined that this is perfect for advertising and promotional purposes and you are using those images to
00:53:49promote uh some podcasts that you were participating in
00:53:55yeah that they are promotional and they are catchy they are bright
00:54:01uh how did you come up with the style who in your team is doing that
00:54:06the style had to be art deco originally so my building on the outside fortunately i was allowed to
00:54:16design it so i i chose old school neon marquees broadway font and complete art deco style now
00:54:26the image that you see of the telemarketer that's a josefina that's like the the lady of san jose you
00:54:33know the highest of class and so i chose an image from the golden age the 1920s from some of
00:54:41those old
00:54:42posters through a headset on this individual and then cleaned it up a little bit for more of an art
00:54:48deco
00:54:49flair and there you go and the rest my friend how do i explain that just a
00:54:54topping of some zig and zag i tell you what that's why certain
00:54:59restaurants have large menus and 32 flavors of ice cream it's
00:55:04my one taste of the color red might turn off somebody but they prefer mint or yellow and so
00:55:12fortunately for me i've opened it enough where let's just say i do a podcast for somebody and i'm
00:55:18going to market that individual my marketing team will take i don't know maybe 10 to 15 images
00:55:25combine the two and just you know it's almost like an album from back in the day i'll do four
00:55:32or five really guaranteed commercial hits that as you say are colorful people are going to like yeah
00:55:36of course they'll pop the in there or something then i go guys come on show me really something crazy
00:55:41let me just see if you can produce something wicked or completely unexpected it's almost like
00:55:49the albums were you know for in excess my favorite band need you tonight was written in 15 minutes
00:55:56and these are certain things where if it just comes into you and comes out of you
00:56:02that's it and then you have other bands that just labor over albums for years and it doesn't gain any
00:56:08traction
00:56:09and so there are things that when you see something feel something just go for it it's
00:56:14thankfully for us today like a digital camera you can take a thousand pictures when back in the 70s and
00:56:2080s
00:56:20that was expensive and took time and so you have the luxury of shedding and testing and no one needs
00:56:28to
00:56:28see it behind the closed doors like an old cop sheet for models give yourself 50 images then go
00:56:34around the room and ask everybody what they think and then the wild card in the corner tells you this
00:56:39one image is really going to hit and then all of a sudden you see it differently and so leaders
00:56:43eat
00:56:44last you should be the one to let everybody speak first before you describe what your art is and why
00:56:49you
00:56:49did it and then i got another thing for you alex and this is very important if you're a commissioned
00:56:54artist fine get paid for it and produce but the greatest artists are the ones that do it for their
00:57:01own free will and their desire for some odd reason it might unlock that extra layer and chamber that can
00:57:08produce because there's not that sort of pressure it's just from love and from energy and how you're
00:57:14feeling you're grooving that day no time constraints or things like that and so if you do five paintings
00:57:20on your own time and five paintings where a boss is grilling you with coffee breath let's see the
00:57:26difference you might produce one or two on the right side but on the left side of love you might
00:57:30produce
00:57:31four and so for me i really need to have that sort of natural because if you force it it
00:57:36just won't taste right
00:57:39i love how you think about the emotion first and how you approach the emotion on both sides your
00:57:52your side as a creator how you feel what kind of mood you are in and what what you are
00:58:02what motivates you
00:58:04as your cultural background your your your things that are unique to you in excess i will listen to
00:58:14that i'll find it on spotify and i will have a look and then you're not going to believe this
00:58:21i hired the bassist gary gary beers to play on a song i produced here with the band igny ferroki
00:58:28it's
00:58:29called shine like the sun there's also a performance video on youtube but that was one of the coolest
00:58:33surreal experiences of my life i heard this guy you're you're uh basically the the the star the the
00:58:44the creator of out there to to producing music with you awesome are you kidding
00:58:54crazy i tell you what you can really see that not like igny ferroki and and you know harold salas
00:59:01he's
00:59:01an excellent bass guitarist here but when i hired gary gary beers to play the bass it is a different
00:59:07style he put a little bit of funk and wah to it added some synthesizer and a little bit of
00:59:13extra
00:59:13beats for the percussion it was a plug-and-play sort of thing which overlapped the original track
00:59:19and then i also hired him the extra because you gotta get everything to play a performance video
00:59:24all i played along with it are you kidding and so uh yeah it was um it was i also
00:59:32tell you something
00:59:33else don't ever try to produce a rock video they're all prima donnas and they're all pain i had people
00:59:39here for like eight hours it felt like you know third grade i'm gonna be able to go places what
00:59:45they're
00:59:45doing is drinking and smoking and wasting time and they should be on the set and so i completely
00:59:51understand what it's like behind the scenes when you're trying to organize some sort of
00:59:56film shoot man but uh at the end of the day my friend we definitely produced a work of art
01:00:05i i get it so so with rock artists work ethics is not the first thing on the resume all
01:00:12right
01:00:14if i if i gary beers made his recording in los angeles we just had the band and the models
01:00:19do it
01:00:20here and then combine the two but uh yeah man it was a it was interesting i hear it i
01:00:29can imagine
01:00:31all righty this is a great place to uh finish our conversation i enjoyed uh talking to you i think
01:00:41it was a super fun insightful conversation and it was great to see
01:00:46the the spirit this strong entrepreneur spirit that holds your business afloat and how you are
01:00:59how you are sharing the strength inside your organization and some of your uh expertise
01:01:08in communication and like those moments uh that you handle the clients on the phone and how you teach that
01:01:20uh to the people who come to you this is awesome thank you well thank you alex i love being
01:01:28a guest on
01:01:29the big performance podcast i'm a huge fan and i look forward to seeing your future work my man
01:01:37i will be pleased to have you
01:01:41for follow our curriculum sounds good all right thank you so much ciao
01:01:51you
01:01:51you
01:01:51you