The Power of Connection: Building Business Through Communication and Soft Skilss with Richard Blank

with Richard Blank

Nov 14, 2025 · 00:37:24

Today's guest is someone who embodies entrepreneurial courage and cultural intelligence. Richard Blank is the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, a business he built from the ground up after moving to Costa Rica at the age of 27. Over the past 2 decades, Richard has trained more than 10,000 bilingual telemarketers and built a thriving company culture driven by motivation, communication mastery, and even a little gamification fun. Think vintage pinball and jukeboxes. In this episode, we explore what it takes to lead across cultures, the power of soft skills, and how entrepreneurs can build businesses that are both highly effective and deeply human. Welcome to The Total Entrepreneur Mind Body Spirit, where we turn cutting-edge science into practical strategies for entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Dr. John Torrance, Entrepreneur Inc. 5000 honoree and professor of entrepreneurial practice. At Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management, each episode we dive into mental, physical, and spiritual health with expert guests offering actionable insights to help you thrive and perform at your highest level. Let's get started. Hey Richard, welcome to the podcast. Really great to have you here.

Great to be here with you, John. Pura vida, and I know you know what that means.

Pura vida, baby. Yeah, or if you're a local, pura vida, my. So yeah, yeah, man, really good to have you. And it's, yeah, it's cool that we share this love and passion for Costa Rica. That's where I wanted to start the conversation. So you moved there 27 years ago to build a call center business from scratch. So that's a pretty bold move, especially, you know, almost 3 decades ago. So what inspired that move?

Okay, we'll definitely break that apart. But what got me to Costa Rica is almost the same thing you did, mind, body, and spirit. But, uh, I was building on momentum. You and I, you're New York, I'm Philly.

Yeah.

You know, we're supposed to love and hate each other, but we also respect each other. And, um, before we even got live today, we were mentioning about the cold weather in the winter. And, you know, when you used to stay home from school and watch Gilligan's Island, we all wanted to live there, especially with Ginger and Mary Ann. But, um, and Lovey, can't forget Lovey. But, um, I had this opportunity in August of 2000. Now, I majored in college in Tucson at the University of Arizona in Spanish, and it was my favorite class in high school when I graduated Abington in '91. And so, you know, most of our friends went to law school, medical school. They had a plan, family business. I don't know. They, they seem much more mature than me back then. But this is what I did know. I did dedicated practice, kind of like the gym. But I did it with languages. I went above and beyond school. I watched the movies, read the books, went on dates, learned. And when you live it, you can't lose. You're really prepared for it. And so when I had this one-in-a-million opportunity, it was only supposed to be for 2 months. Really good friend of mine owned a call center here and said, come down, Richie, and teach English for a little bit. But you and I both know the first time we walked off that plane here in this beautiful Central America paradise, we were going to do everything we could to come back or possibly move here one day. And so, it was an interesting thing. I worked in my friend's center for 4 years, learned the business from the inside out, not at C-level. And then at 35 years old, I threw my hat in the ring, started the business, and here we are today, 18 years later. Yeah. Wow.

And are you near San Jose?

I'm in the middle of San Jose. My call center is in Barrio Aranjuez.

Okay.

And I live in the beautiful mountains right outside the city.

Ah, beautiful. Yeah. Up near where that wind farm is?

That's on the second side, but you know, around the Escazú area.

Yeah, sure.

It's nice and cool, the weather, and you get a nice view of the city.

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. So you studied languages, so are you pretty good with Spanish?

I'd like to think so. Also, like your son, I'm married to a Costa Rican, so I have a free tutor. It's like this. There's some people that are extremely book smart and capable.

Yeah.

And I myself, I had to live in Spain my junior year and major in the language. I just couldn't do it as a pastime and pick it up or how some people can just grab it. But, um, I loved it. I tell you what, I got a lot of positive reinforcement from people in the Latino community when I would use my limited Spanish, or they would balance my grammar bike a little bit and add on to my vocabulary and almost like a goodie bag at a party and send you on your way. And so, you keep talking mind, body, and spirit. My mind kept saying, this is a positive. I wasn't getting in trouble for the attention. I was getting positive attention.

Right.

And my body, physiologically, you kind of feel good about yourself if you, I don't know, if you learn how to do something like the first time you can surf or dance or play the violin. And I would have these breakthroughs. So physiologically, I'd get mariposas, I'd get butterflies, I'd feel elated, I'd have more energy, I'd feel much better about myself. And then spiritually, look at it like this. You can impress people 1,001 ways, but when you meet somebody that learns a second language, you do understand the structure, the discipline, the time. And so regardless of your intentions or the outcome, there is that spiritual connection because you're, you're putting a bridge there. You are almost like the, the late master communicator Helen Keller.

Mm-hmm.

That needed to create languages to connect to the outside world. And was a genius. And so spiritually, people see that you put time and effort in, in order to make a connection with them. So I'm not saying you're going to marry this person or they'll be your best friend, but it's a wonderful first impression when you're meeting.

It really is. I mean, and my Spanish is still pretty bad, but I do make an effort. And it is, it's very satisfying when you can get your point across in somebody's native language and understand a little bit about what they're saying. So it is, it is a really great thing. Yeah, I love it. So, so tell us a little bit about your business now, like the size and the scope and the types of things you do, customers you have, that sort of thing, just to kind of put it in context.

Sure. We're a business process outsourcing call center. I'm a dedicated center. So the agents that work on the campaign only work for you. Blended or mixed centers sometimes have multiple accounts. Hollywood has glamorized telemarketing and sometimes gave it a bad taste. We do not do sportsbooks, casinos, stocks, pharmacies, or sweepstakes.

Okay.

So, I work— it's true. I mean, I work with— you know, we're in a strict Catholic country.

Yeah.

It's very important for these young Ticos to be able to go home and tell their parents what they do for a living. Also, you're only as good as your reputation. It's a small country. If you do something shady, they're gonna run you outta town. And so, you just don't wanna do things like that. But no, I deal with sales, appointment setting, lead generation, customer support, retention, back office support. But I'll tell you what, my man, AI is definitely gonna make a difference. I see it very efficient with gathering, but it will never replace the empathy. But it definitely will replace the slow worker, the one that's fatigued, making errors, and just is in a bad attitude or just doesn't come to work. If there's a way to fill out that form and take you to the 10-yard line, then the Eagles will be able to put that ball into the end zone. Just got to press the arrow.

Even the Eagles. No, hey, even— that's great. That's amazing. Yeah. So, so you've trained over 10,000 bilingual telemedicine marketers. Is that right?

I mean, it is, right?

Yeah. So, so what have you learned about just effective human communication along the way?

Now, you can't take credit for what they're bringing to the table. These young men and women have been studying English for decades. But yeah, what we're doing, it's almost like a top coach of a college basketball team. They're teaching you structure and they're giving you tradition and routine. And they can also compare it to other mediums and other players. And so I was able to use my own experience, my wheelhouse, English is my first language, really balancing the vocabulary for more strategy and diplomacy. So it wasn't like the kind of ABC always be closing sort of stuff. What I was doing was, was working on their vocabulary because they were overusing the word help. So I would adjust it and use assist, guide, and lend a hand. I would insist on studying the thesaurus so you can give depth to your conversations. One of the most important things that people don't do is readjustments of their tone. They either speak monotone or they don't show interest. But these are ways to keep the conversation high and good because most people are calling in frustrated. They don't know you yet, so you need to break that ice. And so a lot of it is just balance. A lot of it is that center. So you can gain 30-second checkpoints of time. So in a 10-minute call, I do 20 30-second checkpoints. It's smaller bags, smaller piles, and much more controllable. So, once again, I'm not painting an entire painting here, but I was taking it as an introduction, body, and a conclusion and teaching them how to manage this art of speech and this beautiful dance to speak longer and convert more calls. And is it being clever? No, it's being practiced like anything else.

Yes. Yeah.

And we're not compromising ethics, values, or morals. All we're doing is showing much more composure Confidence, being in the now, and really having an incredible conversation when people leave and saying, wow, this is a lot different than all the other call centers that I had experienced.

Yeah, I mean, there's a difference between having it be contrived and just ineffective, right? I mean, it's, you know, and listening, right? And I think, I mean, in my experience, young entrepreneurs especially, they're really good at so many things. But one thing that I've noticed they struggle with is, is talking on the phone. Like, it's one of those things that maybe it's a skill that they don't practice that often. But I think the things you just talked about are really helpful lessons.

I can make that equivalent to walking across the dance floor in 8th grade and asking your crush to dance. If you have the guts to do it, and if you do it in a certain way that's non-threatening, bold, and brave, then you have the best story for the rest of your life, and you're the king of the class. And so a lot of people either hate their job because that's why telemarketers, you look down on it because they hate what they do or they feel that it's shady or just not good. But your people today, these brilliant entrepreneurs, John, they're dealing with omnichannel non-voice. It's chat, email, and text, or they're using AI, which I saw so many people do to do their homework and write their papers for them, which is fine.

Mm-hmm.

But then, then they're put into that situation, my man, where they're in a general manager's office or a boardroom, or it's the $50,000 account, and they're just not used to listening and to transitional sentences and asking tie-down sentences. Things make sense or sounds good.

Yeah.

They're, they're just assuming and they're talking, talking, talking, and then they wonder why there's a follow-up call or send me an email and You know what I learned to do? As I say, it's almost like when the Wizard of Oz, it goes from black and white to color. You got to make things more lucido. And so before even beginning to pitch you on the Total Entrepreneur Mind, Body, and Spirit podcast, that's the first thing I would say if somebody picked up the phone at your company. I'm not going to ask to speak to John or say, hey, good morning or something, because you'd get a negative reinforcement. It's like microexpression reading, but this is done phonetically. The people would say to you, "Is this a sales call? How'd you get my name? Take me off your list." And my favorite, "F you." Click. Yeah, crank. That's that's a beauty, right? Like a Babe Ruth pointing home run. But um, there's ways to jump clouds and have romantic deaths on phone calls. So instead of focusing on ten minutes, focus on thirty seconds. You need to anchor. First thing I did was the total entrepreneur. I I company name Spike Joe. And then what usually would happen is you would ask, who is this? With the tone of Mr. Sunshine. And I would use something called a buffer boomerang technique. I would say, John—

I wanted to ask you about that. Yeah, yeah.

I'm on it right now, my brother. I would say, John, name drop ya. That's an excellent question. ABC is 123. And then you would say, Richard, what's 123? John, I knew you would bring that up. 123 is ABC. It's— these are half moons. It usually happens 2 or 3 times in the beginning after the company name spike. Said the name of your company. You're going to ask who I am, and then I'm going to say it, but I'm not going to say my company. You got to double dip. You got to at least be interested enough to know who I am. And so I got you, and I can, I can listen to your tone on a first-time read. Is it negative or positive? It can be inquisitive, but not with a distance. I'm getting closer. You're taking your ego defense from a 10 to a 6, and I'm taking that 4 and moving it forward. Do you understand that physics? It's a beautiful move. And then finally, after you name spike my name, company name, you like me, then I go, hey, may I speak to Billy, you know, your boss? And you go, absolutely, I'm going to transfer you. And I go, hey, John, before you transfer me, I just got to let you know you were amazing. And I'm going to let Billy know. I get transferred because I got your pass to pitch. That's called a positive escalation, what I'm doing. Billy, your owner, picks up the phone. Hi, this is Billy. I go, Billy, I just got to let you know John's great. He doesn't even know who I am yet. And you know, immediately the defense goes from a 10 to a 2. I get the 8. And then he goes, who is this? Who's Richard Blank? And then we can begin. And so if you really— these are giving me some really good odds. I'm reducing the defense from a 10 to about a 4. So I'll take a 40% default rate by anything that can go, but I'm getting a 60% play. And that's really good odds. That makes you a wise guy in gambling. So I mean, I can At least I'm going from half-court, my brother, to foul shot percentages. And if I properly introduce myself, talk about you, say the name of your company to snap you out of it because you get calls all day, maybe your audience can just focus on the 30, the 4 steps, the name spike, 2 buffer boomerangs, and the positive escalation. And if you can do that 200 times a day and have romantic deaths where you at least you got a speaking part in the role. Before they hung up on you, then your audience will be able to pitch the rest of the call.

Yeah. And that, that, that right there is a, it's, uh, it's accessible. It's tangible. You know, instead of just saying, hey, you gotta be better on the phone, this gives them something real to work with. So, so I'd like to break that down even more if you could, like maybe, maybe you could use like a, like a real example, right? Like you're calling some company trying to pitch them or something. Well, like I'd love to kind of do a play-by-play of this again, just so people could really absorb orbit? Is that okay with you?

Absolutely. Now, as I'm going to mention again, you have a wonderful name of a podcast, The Total Entrepreneur, and then there would be a pause, Mind Body Spirit. And so—

Like, if you were just to call me, right? If this were like my actual business and I picked up the phone, you would, you would actually lead with the name of the company. Is that how that works?

Let me ask you a question. How many Richards do you know in your life?

Dozens, probably.

Do you have, do you have any that are in your top 10? That's like your boy named Richard?

No, not necessarily. No.

Well, I got a John that's in my top 3. And so even though you're my main man, I'm closing my eyes and I'm thinking about, that's how I'm going to say the name because I've said it, John, so many times.

Yeah.

And so the worst thing you could ever do, and it's like a mystery shopper, And also, by the way, come on, Richard, step it up with John. Be his better friend. But anyway, when you, when you say the total entrepreneur, I don't know, do you feel that you're a total entrepreneur? Do I feel like it? Do you believe in that concept? So, if you do, and this man, John Torrance, who's put his time and life into this podcast, why don't you give him the praise? Where are his trumpets and, and his red carpet? Where's his moment? Because I tell you what, most people don't know the 18 years of Costa Rica's call center. But if some guy calls me and says, Richard Blank, I just checked you out real quick on LinkedIn. 18 years in the business, you collect pinball machines, you move to Costa Rica. Oh my God, my heart. And I would say, listen, I got a credit card at the ready in 5 minutes. It's yours to lose. Why? You broke down the barrier, the fourth wall in Hollywood. You're real, you're raw. And so, and you will know, you want to talk about spirituality? You can tell through electromagnetic energy that I'm transferring to you, if you pick up that phone, that I say, The Total Entrepreneur, mind, body, and spirit. First, it sounds like I've called before, been a guest. Second, it sounds like I am one of your top 10. And third, whoever is answering that call will snap out of that trance of rejecting people as the fire-breathing gatekeeper.

Wow.

And will stop for a second and give me my odds of saying, Who is this? compared to don't call anymore. I could break down any sort of phone call in any industry for 20 minutes. But my brother, unless they can get through the intro, they're never gonna get a pass to pitch.

Right.

So, it's almost worthless for you and I to go through the rest of the call. But I will. There's certain techniques.

Yeah.

But if they can't anchor that John Torrens or the total entrepreneur, they missed it. You miss, you miss the trapeze. Yeah.

So say I'm a, I don't know, a new food item or something and I'm calling a supermarket and I'm trying to get their, their category buyer because I want my food item on the shelf. Right. Um, say it's, you know, Wegmans is a big store in upstate New York.

Right.

So somebody picks up and I would, I would just actually say Wegmans, hey, you know, something I like about them or I shop there all the time. Is that how that would work in practice?

My favorite supermarket, by the way. Do you go to Wegmans?

Oh, all the time. Yeah.

Is there one thing specific that's different than $4.99 or something? Do they have a special hot wing section or do they have a cool section here? Something that's memorable about them?

Yeah. Well, their produce and their prepared foods. Yeah.

If you, if you really want to, if you really want to call Wegmans on that thing, I would have done due diligence. Go into the store before, beforehand, speak to 3 or 4 people, the cashier, stocking shelves, and the manager. So what I'm calling corporate, I go, hey, Wegmans, how you doing? By the way, in upstate New York, Kathy, your supervisor, is the greatest. Johnny in the stockroom. My main man. And Joanne, do you know how patient she is at the front? And they go, you know what? No one ever gives us positive escalations. All they do is call and complain and want money back. And so you don't think you're gonna get the connection. By the way, I'm just telling you this. Is there any chance I can speak to the purchasing director of this? Yeah, I'll put you right through. By the way, Kathy, I thank you so much. And I'm gonna let John know when you transfer me to the purchasing manager. That's John picks up. Hi, John, purchasing manager. John, Kathy's the greatest. And by the way, we were talking about upstate New York with those people. And the guy's looking at his watch and it's great because he's been getting yelled at before and after you. And so he's like, my God, I have a moment. I have, unless I catch them at a bad time, I've nailed that about 9 out of 10 times where they go, thank you, Mr. Blank. You know, I always get these calls. And not only that with your company, but when I've just mentioned people, I've gotten upgrades on airlines, hotels, crème brûlée, better tables, you know, or the most, the beautiful, the— best compliment of all is when I come back and they remember my name. It's not the large tip that I left. They're like, Richard Black, my man. I'm like, Emmanuel, how you doing, buddy? And, and, and that is what gives your mind a recharge. And so you're, you're hitting— you're, you're an excellent student and a wonderful teacher. You're doing both today, my main man. You're hitting it. You asked the right question. You're damn right you love that place. Or if I've never been there before, I do love ice cream. You have an ice cream place in Iowa. Never been to Iowa, but I love ice cream. But you have to think of John and and that night that he thought of his business, convincing his friends, put his own money down, the long days. And so when you say that name of someone's work with the pride that he would say it, I'm telling you, you will get yourself thirty seconds of time. And in that thirty, you need to calm down. It's more than enough to spark it, to make the incendio. You just— people are just so jumping ahead in time. They're not in the now. You might ask me 3 questions. You might laugh at a joke. I might hear your dog in the background. You need to capture that moment. And if you do that, you take your pitching from horizontal to vertical, John. And that's where you stack it, my brother. So maybe we spend 3 minutes in the beginning just talking about—

Yeah.

The supermarket before my product even comes up.

Yeah. So yeah, establishing a rapport, a little connection, some common experience, right? And I almost wonder how much of the problem talking on the phone comes with just the preponderance of texting, right? Because texting is very transactional by nature. Like you're not going to have those kind of, you know, you're not going to do that type of thing in a text. You're just going to get right to the point. And maybe that's translating into phone calls.

I don't know. You're yes or no. There's good structure to it. I'm going to use things that we did prior to this podcast. You go, Richard, I got a list of all these questions that I want to make sure I ask you, but I also want it to be loosey-goosey. And I go, you got it, John. And so that's the thing. Most people are programmed like that, where they're either thinking of that next question or they are, they're just trying to get through the list. So, it's almost like carpet bombing. And it's just, that's the thing because sometimes these conversations could be completely off of your 10 questions where you almost have to put it away and let it go where it needs to be. But I tell you what, my man, the thing that I've seen is most people don't ask second or third questions. You could ask me the question, I answer it, we move on. That's— I'll give you the greatest example and it's actually helped me a lot.

Yeah.

when dogs are barking in the background. Because what happens is I can't hear you, and I don't want to say excuse me. I would say, for my clarification, is it ABC or 1, 2, 3? But I will do this. I'll go, hey John, I love dogs. You go, yeah, me too. I go, what's the name of your dog? His name is Champ. What kind of dog is he? He's a German Shepherd. And my favorite, how old's your puppy? Haha, he's 10. I'm like, all right. And then you go, okay Richie, I'll put him outside. And then you put him outside, you come back, And what happens is I put those notes in. So when I call you back, I ask how Champ's doing, but that's not the point. It's a perfect anchor. And a lot of the times calls can get killed by bad cell connection, kids crying. I mean, if you watch The Wolf of Wall Street, people are always busy and they gotta go. That's why you gotta sidestep and glance over that stuff and keep moving. And so that's why you gotta move quick. And just by asking those 3 questions, it's 10 seconds. It's not gonna kill a call.

Yeah.

But what it will do is once again readjust the tone because I keep saying, for my clarification, for my edification, not I'm sorry, excuse me, 'cause I can't. hear you, man. And so there are ways inadvertently and passive-aggressively to bring it back as well. And your audience just needs to breathe, concentrate on the core, listen. If they hang up on you, they're doing you a pleasure. But if they don't, then hold out instead of take. And it's, it's easier said than done, but we have the resources to record ourselves, and you'll see that you're speaking too fast or too loud and you need to pause before names and numbers. Emphasize personal pronouns, the your and the our. This is ways to get people's attention spans back.

Yeah, it almost feels like, you know, if you're not asking a follow-up question or on the one, so, you know, you ask you a question, you answer it, and then I go to my next one. You know, maybe I wasn't present enough to listen to what you actually said because I didn't have a follow-up, right? So I don't know, maybe you experience that too when you're on phone calls.

But you could say, do you have an email address? Sure. And I go, how long have you had it? Did you ever change it? Are you creative with it? There's sometimes you don't ask second or third questions. Right, you don't. But when your dog is barking, and I do love dogs and I love Costa Rica, and I'm going to try to find an upstate New York, so I'm going to tease you. I need that. Why? Because when you have your pyramid, you have the apex. And the only way for me to capture that 1% of magic dust is to have a connection with somebody and to be able to show them my sincere interest. in something. Because you can tell I do love dogs, love being on this podcast, you know? And so, Yeah. it's okay if they by default can't do business with you, but they can't reject the fact that you're interested in them and excited. I mean, I've had people go, man, I wish I could do business with you because you sound like the greatest person to work with. And then you get phone calls 6 months later and you're like, hi, this is Joey. I'm like, hey, what's up, Joey? You know, John Torrance? I'm like, my main man. He goes, yeah, he talked about you. He said he didn't need call center services, but he said he had one of the greatest conversations and you mentioned a person that worked with him and you were excited over his dog and said you were just a great guy and I should give you a call. And so, I get those things organically, my brother. I get it the natural way because I'm consistent.

Yeah.

I'm not just the guy that knows 5 minutes and has to remember it every day. Oh, no. You could ask me the same thing. The only thing changing is my hair. But I'm the same guy that you could have met 18 years ago.

Yeah. Now, so, I mean, I believe this is a lost art or something that we should be teaching young people, especially entrepreneurs. So is this like, did you take a course in this or is this just the way you're wired and you're naturally good at it? Or, I mean, I'm sure you practiced it, but how do you develop these skills?

I studied it in college, you know, it was my minor. communication, which was a lot of fun. Communication. Yeah. But, um, isn't it nice to make a friend?

Sure.

Isn't it fun to learn something about somebody and vice versa? And when I was here, it stripped away all the benefits I had from being from the United States and Philadelphia. All that stuff didn't matter here. So I had to start from scratch. And it really was essence. Is Richard interesting? Is he capable of you know, being open-minded. And so, it really depends on how you feel about yourself, if you want to make yourself vulnerable and open up to people, or you can memorize the top 10 cool things in GQ and buy it and act it and be it, and then in 5 years, change it. Or you can be really who you are.

Yeah.

And through natural filtration, your best friends will want to still be with you. And so, for me, I didn't have the education structure to go to law school like my grandpa. He went to Harvard Law. My dad went to Columbia Business and my brother went to Washington and Lee University. I didn't have the grades. John, I couldn't do it, man.

I'm with you on that.

So I said, maybe if I smile and I'm kind, I might be able to connect. And if I can connect, maybe I can represent a company with another company and make some money. And so I would do sales and I'd get out there and I'd do the say habla español, which was fun for me. But I didn't realize that when you do study rhetoric and certain arguments, you are sharper. And you can take it from the most eloquent Queen's English to Eminem's 8 Mile, where he stumps the guy at the end of the movie, and his rhetoric was ripping on himself in his own way. And once again, both geniuses in different mediums. And so I will give your audience some homework. Okay, I'm not gonna take full credit for this. I had to study the masters. And my master, the number one I loved was, uh, the Face Man from The A-Team. Templeton Peck, played by the actor Dirk Benedict, who was also Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica. Phenomenal actor. Listen, Mr. T was great beating up people and Hannibal Smith with the plant, but my favorite part of the show is the Face Man getting something, you know, for free.

Yeah.

And, and being a character. And, um, another interesting subject for me was Pierce Brosnan as Remington Steele.

Ah.

I took my English to Anglo-Saxon, to British, or he's, you know, the Irish or Scottish. And so I learned even more advanced vocabulary and grammar. I had to look up half the words on that show. And then I took it to the final level. There was an actor named Basil Rathbone that in the '30s and '40s—

Phenomenal.

Oh, he was phenomenal. He did Sherlock Holmes with Nigel Bruce. He did it like 100 old-time radios, but he did 17 movies. Now, imitation is the best form of flattery. And if I came on your show acting like him, you're like, dude, what's wrong with you? So there's nothing wrong with admiring the art, taking what you can, which is applicable to today's audience. But I was studying the most phenomenal speech delivery, composure that I ever saw. And I got to give Basil Rathbone the most credit. So if you want fun homework, watch that stuff, take the notes. You'll love all 3 of those characters. And that's the fact that I'm even mentioning them and putting them involved with me is amazing because they were an influence on how I speak today.

Yeah, no, that's important. I appreciate that. So let's talk about you for a minute. I mean, you're, you know, you're a successful CEO, you're a busy guy, you got a lot going on. What are some of the things that work for you just, you know, to keep yourself grounded and mentally, physically, spiritually healthy?

I'm fulfilled. Yeah. I feel okay. I have a good structure with the gym. I work out every day, so I have richer time to decompress. I like to wash my convertible and play pinball on Sundays. So I have that time too in my hobbies, but I've paid it forward and I, and I know that Looking at 52 years old now, I see things not differently, but with the patterns. And I— and you were mentioning 10,000 people. That was a gift to be able to spend time with 10,000 people and to share ideas. Now, I'm not saying that I'm the greatest speaker ever. And, you know, Zig Ziglar and these guys that write these sales books and Tony Robbins and stuff, they're incredible people. I was just my own prince. I decided to have a hero's journey and leave the United States and go against parents' guilt. I decided to double down on my favorite class, which was Spanish, which none of my friends, none of my parents' friends ever did. So there was no rate on return on that. There was no blueprint. And so my mind, my body, and my soul felt very complete. And I took this upon myself. Now, with you, my good friend, and I know that people study it on the computer and do their things. But how I learned it, I sat down and I pounded out that grammar for 6 months. That was it. That's all I needed. The rest was vocabulary, but it just takes 6 months of just the grammar, and it's not that difficult. It starts repeating itself. And if you don't make it a chore and you, and you punish yourself— like, I would study something for a little while, and then I'd go watch a movie like Die Hard, but I'd watch it in Spanish. Make it fun. And then I would watch it Spanish letters underneath. Why? Because, because there's explosions, screaming, and noise in the background. And in real life, I may be in a restaurant, I can barely hear you. But little by little, you're adjusting your phonetic ear. So I was trying to make it as fun as possible, as possible, so I wouldn't hate it or be bored from it. And little by little, I'd see more patterns, and then I would start borrowing that. It's free, it's not illegal, and I'm not lying. I'm allowed to use that grammar structure. And I would take an expression and use it and just change one word out, like me gustaría, you know, me gustaría tomar café, me gustaría dormir. I would like to. And so I used me gustaría in the conditional tense, and I could use that a million times. It saved, it saved the day. I'd like to get out of here. I'd like to pay the bill. I'd like some money. And so I took the top 10, then it turned into the top 100, and now it's just, it's a part of me. And so, um, Yeah. But I tell you what's very interesting as well. I've used Spanish as a defense. Look at me, I look like gringo. And so a lot of the times, um, I might be in a situation, let's say I'm out in Boys Town and all of a sudden there's some shady people on the corner. I'm not going to let them know that I speak Spanish. I'm just going to see what would happen, um, if they're being, you know, with good intentions or bad intentions. Sometimes you can use that to your advantage.

That's actually a great technique.

Yeah.

Yeah. I usually the other way around. I try to use Spanish just so they know that, hey, all right, this guy's at least got, you know, something on par with me. But that's actually a good technique too, just flipping it around and waiting to see, right?

Yeah. I usually only do that not in social situations, but let's say I'm walking downtown and there are people behind me or I'm standing at a stoplight across the street. I want to make sure someone's saying, yo, man, check out this gringo. You know, I just want to make sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah, his iPhone's in his right pocket.

Exactly, mentor. Yeah.

Great, man. Well, yeah, so we've been going for about 35 minutes. This has been really, really great. I especially like just the really practical, I guess, tips for conducting a phone call. And like I said earlier, I think it's just such a long-lost art or just something that people aren't used to. So I really appreciate that. And I think people will get a lot from that.

May I share a couple more soft skills before we go?

Absolutely. That'd be— I would love that.

So you got 10 things, you got your 10 products you're trying to sell this supermarket, right? What you got to do is almost like The Price Is Right, like a Barker Beauty. Kathleen Bradley, of course, Mrs. Barker from Friday. Anyway, when you go out and you mention your first item, item A, just don't go item A, B, C, D, and E. Item A, and you wait to see the reaction. But if you don't get a reaction, go through all 10. And if they don't do anything, you got to rake it and go, John, I'm sure you like at least one. Don't say you like them all. And then you can start from there because I don't know you yet. I don't know how you react. You could be thinking, you could be writing. So if you don't get a reaction per one, and if you do get a reaction, stop and build it, rake it at the end. Just, it's an insurance policy. I also like to use the military alphabet with people because A lot of the times you'll have an exotic name or people have served in the military and it sounds exceptionally professional. And so instead of ending a call, you might get an encore. People want to talk about their service and you're so proud of them. And it's exceptionally important to take meeting minutes because most of the time they're not. I know AI is doing it for you now, so I'm just using old school stuff. But yeah, I would take very good copious notes and so it would, it would show accountability. And so when I would write them back or call them back, I would remember what we discussed and where we delegated and what the plan is. So it frustrates people when they need to repeat things. So there's nothing wrong for us to say, so, John, you said ABC, is that correct? Yes, thank you. And then you move on. So I like catching tails, and it's nice to do because if you're talking so much about something, just make sure I say, okay, upstate New York, awesome. And then we go to the next one. So you know that I know. that, you know, that I was listening. But my final thought for your entrepreneurs, for a beautiful center, is just don't be hard on yourself regardless of the outcome. Be able to look at yourself in the mirror, give yourself 5, and just know that it's your pace, it's your rhythm.

Okay.

And, and you can't really compare it to anybody else. As long as you're making forward motion, it's just fine. Because there have been so many times in the past we felt no hope, or it was too far away. And the next thing you know, you're able to go the distance like Chuck Wepner did against Ali. Just take it round by round and minute by minute and, and just enjoy what you're doing. The moment that you hate the business and you only do it for money, come on, man, if you're that talented, you can make money a thousand ways. So, so just don't force the fit. That would be a terrible thing to, to do with your time.

That is beautiful. Yeah, that's, that's great advice. Thank you, Richard.

You're welcome, my man.

Thank you so much for listening to the Total Entrepreneur Mind Body Spirit Podcast. If you liked what you heard or heard something interesting today, please give us a like, share a comment, or better yet, subscribe to the podcast. Thank you.