Steve Kay Variety show guest Richard Blank Costa Ricas Call Center

Richard Blank

Steve Kay Variety Show Interview with Richard Blank-CEO Costa Ricas Call Center 4-2-25   Conversation, dialogue, entertainment, news, interviews, comedy and music talk, etc.   Steve Kay Variety Show: Hello earthlings, or anyone from the universe. In this podcast, you will find a variety of subjects. We bring the entertainment, right to you in your car. I look forward to connecting with you and hearing what you have to say. Blessings to all of you and others whom you care about.   Originally from Philadelphia, Richard Blank studied Spanish at a young age. While in college, he lived abroad in Spain and immersed himself in the language.  Upon his return to the USA, he interned for Telemundo, and eventually made the bold step of relocating to Costa Rica at age 25 to help out a friend, working in a call center.  There, he met his wife, and built his own call center from the ground up. He now oversees a company with bi-lingual telemarketers doing inbound and outbound calls, in addition to being a CEO, he is a mentor and a trainer to the many people who are a part of his team.  https://youtu.be/hjdQCv8RhZk https://youtu.be/FHQCrdOuShU https://youtu.be/xbgf_llgxmk https://youtu.be/ed7o_T8W2aM https://youtu.be/tXb1KaUfZug

Transcript

00:00:00was languages. I could do it outside of the classroom. I got a lot of positive reinforcement

00:00:06from my teacher. And, you know, sometimes you get the chills and the signs that this

00:00:13could be your destiny. And so I, plus the girls were cute too that spoke Spanish, so

00:00:18I had extra game there, Steve. And, you know, I just, putting everything together, doubled

00:00:23down in college, made it my major. And the next thing you know, when I moved to Costa

00:00:26Rica at 27, I was more than ready. What was that trip to Spain that you made, which kind

00:00:32of changed you? You backpacked around Europe and you read like a 1,200-page book?

00:00:39Best year of my life, without a doubt. I was 21 at the time. I had a Vespa scooter. I lived

00:00:46in Spain for nine months and toured Europe for two. During Christmas break, I didn't

00:00:52go home. Most people go to Europe or study abroad for a semester. I took a full year.

00:00:57I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know that if I was in the deep end, I'd learn

00:01:01how to swim. And, you know what the change was? You're 21 at the time. You could drink

00:01:06in the United States, but in Europe it's a lot younger. And with the youth hostels and

00:01:11the Eurail Pass and no one had cell phones at the time, it was collect calls back home

00:01:15or a postcard. That was awesome. But you know what really did it? You can party all you

00:01:21want and meet people and have fun. But I always wanted to see the church, the museum, the ruins,

00:01:27that adventure. And a lot of people would punk out. They'd sleep in. They would, you know,

00:01:32but sometimes you got to do it alone. And I really went above and beyond to educate myself

00:01:38in humanities. And that 1,234-page book, Anthony Adverse, yeah, that was given to me as a present.

00:01:45And I said, man, I got to finish this thing. And so the best year of my life, period. And

00:01:53I owe a lot of who I am today with that transformative year that I took.

00:02:01Which countries did you visit?

00:02:04Well, once again, I was in Spain. So just count everything there. I was in Portugal. I went to

00:02:09Northern Africa and Tangier. Plus, when you're running around, Andor is on the border of Spain

00:02:15and France. I was there. France, of course. Italy and Greece. Then you go through your Belgium

00:02:20and your Germany. I went up there through Amsterdam as well. That was a lot of fun.

00:02:26And then, you know, Czechoslovakia was beautiful. Prague is one of the most incredible places you

00:02:30can see. And that was pretty much my travels, just running around Europe for those couple months.

00:02:37Yeah, Switzerland was fun too. I had a friend that I studied with in Spain. So I went to

00:02:41his house in Basel, Switzerland. And he lived on a farm. And this guy showed up like two days

00:02:49late. So their family picked me up at the train station and Bennigan brought me to this farm.

00:02:55They couldn't speak English. I couldn't speak whatever language they were speaking. But I

00:02:59tell you what, I could make cookies in the kitchen with the mother. And I could go on the

00:03:03farm and clean out the stalls with the hands. And I earned my keep. And it was just, I'm

00:03:11going to say it again, one of the greatest experiences of my entire life.

00:03:15Wow. And then you were an intern at Telemundo in Arizona?

00:03:20That is correct. A lot of people in college, depending on how many years they want to go,

00:03:24they take a certain amount of classes and credits. And so I did the five-year plan for multiple

00:03:30reasons, Steve. A, I was paying in-state tuition and it was next to nothing. The cost of living in

00:03:35Tucson was not expensive either. And so I think I was being responsible with my parents' money. Now,

00:03:41I also had generous parents. So I didn't have to really work in college. So I had this extra time.

00:03:47And so I volunteered for Casa de los Ninos and raised money. I interned for Telemundo for two years.

00:03:53But here's the deal, since I am a closer and you complimented me earlier. If I'm going to volunteer

00:03:59my time, I'm not just going to go get coffee for Billy and Tommy and Joey. I kind of want some good

00:04:04experience. I don't want to be a clerk. So they said, Richard, what do you want to do? Jay Cohen asked

00:04:09me this. And thank him very much for giving me this opportunity. I said, I'd like to do promotions

00:04:13in public relations. I want to put on a cool Telemundo shirt and run around Tucson and pretend like I'm

00:04:18important. And so, yeah, we used to go to Tucson Toro games and Javelina Cantina chili eating

00:04:24contests and all around U of A for their events. And, you know, you know who I met, which was really

00:04:29cool. I met Miguel Kitana, who was the newscaster out in Los Angeles, which is the largest market.

00:04:37And then there was a gentleman by the name of Pedro Sevcek. And he had a talk show in Miami across

00:04:43from Christine that was from Univision. I tell you what, what did I learn when these guys

00:04:48came to Tucson? They got a hero's welcome. And they were the most generous. Naturally,

00:04:53it's a Latino community. So there are certain things in their culture, which is very affectionate. But

00:04:57I learned about being humble and taking your time and taking photographs and answering questions. And

00:05:03these guys could have brushed everyone off and played hi-hat. But no, these were incredible mentors

00:05:10to me. And they pulled me aside and said, Richie, you got something going. Stick with this.

00:05:14Stick with what? I'm 21 at the time. I had no idea what I was doing. But these are wonderful people

00:05:21along the way, Steve, that will balance your bike and say, go, go, go, and let you know that you are

00:05:29on the right path. And so what a wonderful experience that was in college. Oh, by the way, I also worked for

00:05:35a company called LA Ski and Sun Tours, where I used to sell ski trips to Reno and Mazatlan spring break

00:05:43trips. You have to do that in college. So I didn't have the money so I could go for free. But then again,

00:05:49you get to sell these things. You know how much fun those trips were too? We had good times in the 90s.

00:05:56So you were already, we're doing sales when you work for telemedicine because public relations is

00:06:01sales. You're selling yourself. You have to be presentable. You got to have a right way to deliver

00:06:07a message. And, you know, I tell you what, those that are book smart can only go so far. It's really

00:06:14knowing when to smile and ask that follow-up question or remembering small details about people

00:06:20compared to others. That's how you get the account or the people that remember your name. And so,

00:06:26yes, my friend, these are certain things that would build your self-confidence and self-reliance

00:06:32make you much more well-rounded individual. Well, the hard part is actually at the end,

00:06:38when you're closing, reaching into the customer's pocket, take the money. That's the hard part,

00:06:43closing. Nice, Steve. How many movies have you watched? What are you going to refer to? The Wolf of

00:06:47Wall Street or Boiler Room or Glengarry Glen Ross were coffees for closers? Listen, the greatest

00:06:54philosophy that I ever had that allowed me to be balanced was from an educated point of view.

00:07:03The client makes a decision. Sure, Steve, I could force your hand and twist your arm and

00:07:07sell you something you don't need. But that's a one and a done. That's not a long-term client. You're

00:07:12not going to get referrals from that. And at the end of the day, you're probably not going to feel good

00:07:16about yourself unless you don't have a soul. And let's use my industry for an example.

00:07:23I'm a near-shore bilingual call center in Costa Rica. Everyone knows about outsourcing and

00:07:28telemarketing. But I compete against offshore centers in India and Philippines that are half my price.

00:07:37So I can go through 15 rounds of this fight, answer every question. You're going to love me to death.

00:07:43But a lot of it is price sensitive. And so as a consultant, I believe in me today, you tomorrow,

00:07:51I will ask certain questions so I can work backwards. I ask metric questions. How many calls

00:07:58can you do an hour? I can do 10 on a five-minute talk time and some wrap-up. Well, I can't do 20

00:08:04because I'm, you know, double your price. You have to be realistic. But on the flip side,

00:08:09if it's not inbound support, but it's outbound prospecting sales and conversions, sometimes

00:08:14on merit, you can offset those prices. So instead of making a hundred phone calls a day, I'm sitting

00:08:21next to some guy doing 50. But his talk time is eight minutes compared to three. And he's converting

00:08:2710 times the amount from other people. So leave that artist alone. It's not that difficult,

00:08:33my friend. Look at the sort of podcast you have, the guests that come on there. I reached out to

00:08:38you because you seem like a great guy. And so sometimes when you say sales, I just say it is

00:08:44relationship building things. If you want to look at the legalities behind it, sure, you're exchanging

00:08:50money, might be signing a contract and having certain agreements. But at the end of the day,

00:08:56it is that spit handshake. And you're looking at someone in the eye and I'm hoping to God that

00:09:00Steve picks me up at 6 a.m. so I can make my flight. And a lot of it is depending on that

00:09:06individual and having that faith and making yourself vulnerable. And you can almost tell

00:09:11because someone's lack of preparation shouldn't be my emergency. Or let's just say you call me on

00:09:18a Friday and go, Richie, I need 10 people by Monday. Brother, how am I going to get to 10 people

00:09:22by Monday? I mean, the ads got to go out. I got to interview them. I mean, come on. I

00:09:26mean, let's, you know, let's be realistic. Don't make me uncomfortable. And so when you

00:09:31want to talk about sales, let's talk about level playing fields and everybody having something

00:09:36on the table. That's usually when people don't feel funky and things can move forward.

00:09:41I also noticed that you invest in your employees too. You, that coming of age moment you mentioned

00:09:46in one of your interviews. Of course. Listen, you have a lot of people coming in for jobs.

00:09:53They will sing you the world. And when they fill out their information, oh, the adjectives

00:09:59in regards to loyalty, fidelity, commitment, hardworking, da, da, da, da, da, da. When can

00:10:05I be a manager? When can you be a manager? I'm from the eighties and seventies. You got to earn

00:10:10your stripes. You got to, you got to step up to the plate. And so for me, I don't like

00:10:17fast talkers. I like people that are bold and brave and have some moxie, but man, if

00:10:23you're not showing up on time and if you're not coachable and you seem like a cancer or

00:10:28a jumper or disruptor, you're really not the right guy. I'll take a Dennis Rodman. He was

00:10:32the rebound King and he was a great guy on and off the court. You just got to learn how

00:10:36to control the stallion a little bit. See, so it can run a little bit faster. And so

00:10:40I like people that have rebel in them because you and I were rebels. We, we broke a window

00:10:45or two back in the day, but we also learned how to fix them and clean them. So that's about

00:10:48maturity and growing up. But I prefer to have individuals that have never worked at a call

00:10:55center before, but if they're coming into a call center at 18 or 20 years old, bilingual,

00:11:00to me, it bears the mark of higher education, structured discipline and cognitive skills. No bad habits.

00:11:04I can mold them like a squire to a night, but here's the secret. You brought it up.

00:11:09Turn your paper over, Steve. Give me a couple of paragraphs of that coming of age moment.

00:11:14Hmm. Yeah, I can clarify it for you. I'd like to know when you beat up a bully or when you saved

00:11:20a kitten or you did both in one day. Why? Because Steve is going to ask you a zig and zag question.

00:11:28And if you're not loosey goosey, you're going to get target paralysis and he's got 10 people in

00:11:34front of him, very similar contracts and business relationships, but he wants to know who he can

00:11:40get along with the best, who can show character during chaos, no surprises, be able just to work

00:11:48with you in a very authentic way. And so maybe a lot of my style is unorthodox. A lot of people are

00:11:56just very cut and dry and black and white and cold. Not me. This is a one in a million shot. I got very

00:12:03lucky doing this. And so you're dealing with like, do you remember the movie Slapshot? Remember with

00:12:08the Charleston Chiefs? Anyway, I'm like Reggie. I'm like Paul Newman. I'm a coach, but I'm also a

00:12:15player. I'm very hands on. I think the best leaders and the best generals are the ones that earn the

00:12:20respect of their people. Because my leverage is only my people. If they all leave, I go out of

00:12:25business. So I have to do something right to keep that cage open, to have the beautiful bird come

00:12:30back. It's a lot deeper than just money, man. Because some people are looking for that sort of

00:12:36experience to get them to the next level. Or maybe you and I, Steve, have the moment to shatter any

00:12:42sort of misconceptions of what a bad boss or a CEO could be. Yeah, I think it's what you do is you

00:12:48motivate them. And you remind me of all the dead Mickey in the Rocky movies when the ghost comes

00:12:54back and says, get up and fight that son of a bitch. You know, when they're down and they can't make the

00:12:58sales, you motivate them. You lift their spirits up. You're damn right. And you remember that one

00:13:02Rocky movie when Rocky was back there trying to clean up the spit and wipe the floors? Rocky 2.

00:13:08Or whatever one it was. All I know is that Mickey says, you can't be here and be doing this. People lose

00:13:14respect for you on that. And I agreed with him too. There's certain ways to earn money, but you can't

00:13:18lose your dignity, especially at the place that you started. I mean, that place is sacred for you. And you

00:13:23know, Mickey moved in with Rocky. That's part of the family. Adrian loved him. We all loved Mickey. You know

00:13:30why we loved Mickey? Because if you look at the first one and you look on the wall, you see the black and

00:13:36white of Mickey is a lightweight. Mickey was a fighter. All right. So Mickey stepped up. He just

00:13:41wasn't a guy writing checks and balking orders. This was a man that went through his time and did

00:13:46it. And so he's paying it forward. And I love people like that. I love old warriors and gladiators.

00:13:54What are you going to tell me you batted a thousand? No one bats a thousand. But if you're telling me

00:13:58certain stories of when you did get back up, you know, it's so interesting, these Rocky movies. I mean,

00:14:04the first one was the most incredible of anything. It's just the long shot. It was Chuck Wepner,

00:14:09you know, the big teen bleeder, you know, out of Jersey. There's this Marine who actually went the

00:14:15distance against Ali back in the seventies. Oh my man, 15 rounds. Chuck Wepner went. And so, um,

00:14:25do you judge the person on coming out of that fight beautiful or every rib broken bleeding can barely

00:14:33see? That's life. And, and Chuck, as I mentioned before, I mean, he did get knocked down with a

00:14:39couple of seconds left in the 15th. It's not the point. The point is that this man took it all and

00:14:44gave it all. And, um, life's weird like that when you're by yourself, Steve, and you have your moments

00:14:51of clarity. What do you say to yourself? You were mentioning Rocky get back up. I think of my friends

00:14:57back in Philadelphia saying, come on, Richie, come on, keep going. Give me my Abington pride.

00:15:03Each one of us has our spark that we use. And so I agree with you a hundred percent. My brother,

00:15:08I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. I, cause being experienced from telling them and having

00:15:14been fired from several telemarketing. Yeah. Oh, the walk of shame on the floor, right? What

00:15:21allow me to ask, what were you selling? I went several of them in the early nineties before

00:15:28caller ID chemicals over the phone to farmers, dial America marketing or appointments for oil

00:15:34companies, chimney companies, uh, magazine subscriptions. Who's who in America? My, you did

00:15:40your rounds. I definitely would have hired you, but I had to maybe decompress and debrief you.

00:15:45Who knows what sort of managers were motivating you. I tell you what, at least, and you'll respect

00:15:52and understand this. I believe in romantic deaths and jumping clouds, forget the body and conclusion

00:15:58that doesn't exist, but you can land an intro regardless of where it goes. Like in your choose

00:16:02your own adventure. You know, I would say Steve K's variety show. How are you today? I'd say that

00:16:08when you picked up the phone, why it's anonymity. It's a company name spike. What I can do is I can

00:16:13get the gatekeeper out of that trance. And then you can also gauge on phonetic reading a positive

00:16:19or a negative reinforcement. Like for an example, if I call, Hey, is Steve there? Is this a salesman?

00:16:26Why are you calling? Take me off your list. F you don't call again. Steve K's variety show. How are

00:16:32you today? I could sound like your best client. So Judy, who's picking up the phone is like, Whoa,

00:16:37okay. Good morning. Who is this? All right. I got past the first Indiana Jones thing.

00:16:43So then I'll say, Oh, Hey Judy, my name is Richard Blank. And then once again, it depends on how I

00:16:49said it. She can say, okay, Mr. Blank. Why are you calling compared to, is this a sale? Once again,

00:16:54sales call, don't call again. How'd you get my name? I got through the first two stages. Company name

00:16:59spiked to snap you out of it. First, my name to see if you like my name. And then when you asked me my

00:17:05name, I use what we call buffer boomerang technique. Richard Blank, what company are you with? Judy,

00:17:10that's an excellent question. The name of my company, Costa Rica's call center. So I can read

00:17:14your stones and then I'll play my odds and then I'll play my odds. So at least anything,

00:17:20poor Lomenos, at least I can jump a hundred to 200 clouds a day of saying the name of your company,

00:17:26name dropping you twice, saying my name and company, gauging reactions and giving myself a real college

00:17:33chance. So it just doesn't go from half court or even three court. Now we're doing foul shot

00:17:39percentages. And at least it's fun enough where you have one speaking line in this call before

00:17:45they kill you. At least I said, Judy, you're the greatest today. It was really nice meeting you.

00:17:49Click. All right. But don't be surprised if I don't get the pass to pitch. So then Judy says,

00:17:56of course, I'll transfer you to Steve. Oh, Judy, before you go, I just want to let you know you

00:18:00were great. So I get transferred to Steve. Hi, this is Steve who no one ever gets through. Hey,

00:18:05Steve, I just got to let you know Judy's great. I didn't do the company name spike. I know it's

00:18:09your company. I did the positive escalation. I spoke about Judy or whoever else transferred me

00:18:15to you. And you have no idea who I am. And then you're going to go, oh yeah, she's the greatest.

00:18:21She's been with us for 10 years. Of course she's been with you for 10 years. Who is this? Come on,

00:18:26you're not hanging up with me. This is Richard Blank. Who is Richard Blank? Steve, that's a great

00:18:30question. Name my company. Goes to Rica's calls. You know, and there we go again. So what's

00:18:36happening? And as I mentioned, the metrics move. My talk time increases. The amount of calls a day

00:18:43decrease. My conversion ratio goes up. And I'm also building a pipeline because Steve might not

00:18:48have time today, but he asked for a call next Thursday. So what happens is if you start prospecting

00:18:53over a period of time, it's not 80% outbound, 20% callback. It actually goes to a reverse depending

00:18:59on how large your list is. So now you're prospecting 20% a day, filling the spaces of all the callbacks

00:19:08that are coming in and conversions that are there. And it's just a beautiful way to build

00:19:14a long-term business. It works. It keeps the morale high for the team.

00:19:19You constantly got to do a job on your head. You got to brainwash yourself because it's easy to get

00:19:27down. Well, listen, if I researched you before the podcast today, you're like the coolest and

00:19:34funniest guy. Can't you get excited for something as an anticipation, one of the greatest drugs?

00:19:39It's a breath of fresh air. So with a little bit of due diligence, nothing crazy, but just a LinkedIn

00:19:46profile, Facebook, I could leave the voicemail, send the custom made email. Or when I get you on

00:19:51the phone, we can talk about two or three things that we can anchor and have in common. So it could

00:19:55reduce that stress that you're saying you keep having with making these calls. My man, who taught you

00:20:00how to make these calls? You need to be a brave warrior when you go out there. It's about the arm of the

00:20:06shield and the sword. And if you are properly disciplined and well-versed, play your odds and

00:20:12play the game. In fact, even by default, if you do not get the business, the people will still thank

00:20:17you for your time. And don't be surprised five months from now, Steve gets a call from my best

00:20:21friend saying, hey, you spoke to Rich Blank the other day. He says, you're the greatest. Even though

00:20:25he doesn't need ice cream, he says, you're the man. And the next thing you know, you're on the 10 yard

00:20:30line, you know, ready to put the ball in the end zone. And so great business through referrals.

00:20:36You never know what seeds you're planting and, and don't underestimate anybody. Iceberg galore.

00:20:43Don't, don't hard sell anybody today. It might, it might not be the right day for them to move

00:20:47forward with you. And so if you have that sort of pressure in the work environment, you might not

00:20:52be in the right environment because it's going to burn out the engine. It's going to put you off.

00:20:56And if you have the pressure to only close on that one time and you can't call Steve for an example,

00:21:01we messed up the times a little bit this morning on the podcast, an hour here, an hour there,

00:21:06but we still communicated, got on and was respectful. No one yelled. I was, I have a roach.

00:21:11I'm so happy to see you today. And so, um, that's what business does. They get second and sometimes

00:21:16even third chances to make it right. If the intentions are good. And so, yeah, Steve, you're

00:21:21the man. It's obviously, and it was only going to make this event better because we both made

00:21:28additional efforts to get here. And so I liked that sort of stuff.

00:21:32We were flexible, you know, but I know I could have been rigid and just snapped, but, um, you

00:21:37know, I was flexed by, all right, let me check my email. Maybe, you know, maybe he's available

00:21:40now.

00:21:41Do you know how many people would have taken it personal saying, yo man, what's wrong with

00:21:45Steve? Or, you know, he disrespects my time or who does this guy think he is? And so why

00:21:50would you even think like that? Things happen. I'm in Costa Rica. Things really happen. And so, um,

00:21:57I've had some people misinterpret things or that's okay. Don't judge me on what happened

00:22:06with somebody else. Things happen. And so, uh, but no, my man, you and I definitely, uh,

00:22:11figured out a way to work like a team and make it happen.

00:22:15Absolutely. And I also like your, your business ethics to it, your cash only principle. You

00:22:20don't extend yourself on credit. Uh, you buy used very, very smart, frugal thinking.

00:22:25That's what grandma and grandpa taught me. They came over to the United States from Eastern

00:22:30Europe, went to New York city in the garment industry, learned English, made our money during

00:22:35the depression. So anyway, when it came to my arguments of moving abroad and starting a

00:22:41business, I just referred to them, but why? I don't know. It's how I was raised. My family

00:22:48was comfortable, but we were never, I didn't say we acted our wage, but we could always afford

00:22:56because we never overextended. I, I, I kind of understood it and we were always proud to

00:23:00have savings for rainy days. And so for me, I kind of liked the, the deal where initially

00:23:07when I started, I could rent a turnkey station at an internet cafe kind of. So I could just,

00:23:13it's like running a seat on an airplane compared to buying an airplane. And so was it glorious?

00:23:17No, but it worked. I could get people there, the lights and I could just scale accordingly.

00:23:22I did that for two years, but that was the grind, you know? And then I rented space. And in my

00:23:29industry, a lot of people will sell Dell computers and servers and switches, certain things I bought

00:23:37brand new. Okay. In the server room that needed to be, but don't kid yourself. I mean, it's very easy

00:23:42to purchase, use Dell's and why? Because in Costa Rica, there's an 80% import tax, something for a

00:23:48dollar is a buck 80. Why would you do that? And when you buy it used, you can get it for like 50 cents.

00:23:53So, um, I was smart that way. And I could once again, scale row by row, half a dozen or a dozen at a

00:24:00time. So I could always get that done. And, um, and it worked. And then after six years of having

00:24:07the capital and the steady clients, then I decided to purchase a building, put on a third floor and

00:24:13deck it out. And so it's the tortoise, not the hare. You're talking about a man that's in business for

00:24:2018 years. And as much as I would love to say I did this in 18 months and have that real story

00:24:27and bragging of just holding on tight while the rocket goes off. I wish, but I tell you what,

00:24:35the fact that I was getting a drip at a time and was still filling up my bottles and surviving and

00:24:39growing, you gotta be kidding me. I would have given my left arm for this 19 years ago. So why today

00:24:45am I bitching that I'm not 10 times the size? Listen, you, you choose your own adventure and your

00:24:52own story. And as much as I could have and wanted certain networking and connections,

00:25:00a lot of the times you, you gotta put your own money down. No one was giving me money to start

00:25:05a center here. And, and my family is freaking out cause they didn't understand it. None of my friends

00:25:11could give me advice on it. So, um, imagine doing that, but it's, it really makes life exceptionally

00:25:18thrilling. So yes, my friend, I was extremely conservative in the beginning. And, uh, first

00:25:26you had to learn the business. Your friend had asked you to come and work for him in the call

00:25:29center initially. More of like a timeout. I was 27 at the time in between jobs, sending out my

00:25:35resume via fax machine, hoping to get hired somewhere in Tempe. I'm going to be miserable.

00:25:40No. And so my cousin, Joe came to visit me in Scottsdale and says, Hey, Ricardo, listen,

00:25:47a good friend of ours in college has a call center in Costa Rica. Why don't you come down for two

00:25:50months and teach English and take a timeout? And so I said, okay, I'll do that. So, you know,

00:25:56I saw an apartment in Scottsdale, furniture and everything. And so I went down there for two

00:26:00months and decided to stay. And that was an interesting phone call home to put everything

00:26:05in storage, but I fell in love with my future wife, but I learned the business from the inside

00:26:11out. I did nothing at sea level. I learned every department from retention to sales, customer

00:26:16support, onboarding, human resources. I did an enormous amount of training. And so a lot of people

00:26:23say I might've made more money during those years in the United States selling real estate or

00:26:28something, but the little bit that I was making there, it's almost like intern money. I was having

00:26:32the best time of my life, but that experience from the inside out working with the agents

00:26:37was exactly what I needed when I started the company, but I didn't have the time to go to Cisco

00:26:44school. I didn't have the time to learn the laws or even be human resources director. I had to hire

00:26:51specialists to surround my trunk of the tree, the branches and the roots. Did it cut corners? If you

00:26:57can afford it. Yeah. Hire an expert. It's almost like when they say, if you can afford it, hire

00:27:03someone to help you clean your house. Why? Cause you don't want to spend a Saturday for six hours

00:27:06doing it. And so every time I could afford a specialist in my company, I did it because it

00:27:13freed up the time for me to do what I do best. And, um, but no, my, my wife was carrying the majority

00:27:20of the weight in the beginning. I will give her credit. I was kind of like the front man of the band,

00:27:24but she was playing every other instrument. And so, um, let's be realistic without her. I, I

00:27:30definitely wouldn't be here today either, but, um, I hope that answered that question for you.

00:27:37Absolutely. You're a team. And I also wanted to ask you what, what it means when you at,

00:27:41when you ask an entrepreneur to, to act their wage

00:27:45I've written somewhere about your advice to entrepreneurs, act their wage.

00:27:53Well, I, have you ever watched repo shows? These people with these beautiful cars that get taken

00:28:01away? Oh, I see what you don't, don't bite up more than you could chew. I didn't, listen,

00:28:05I'm not telling you how to spend your own money. I mean, you're going to laugh at the cars I drive

00:28:09here. The car that I love driving is a 92 Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible. Remember that car from the

00:28:1580, you know, I think it was in license to drive with Corey Heyman, Corey Feldman. Yeah. So, um,

00:28:22I love that ride cars worth three grand, big deal. But I tell you what, I could pull up next to any

00:28:28car in Costa Rica. There'll be some dude there with mixed matching side panels, tattoos, arms. He looks

00:28:34at me and goes, that's a great looking car. Let's switch. I go, you can come in. We can go to the beach.

00:28:43Um, where am I going with all of this? If you're, I collect pinball machines. And when you really

00:28:51know your passion, it's beautiful. It really is. Because when I go back home, everyone kind of

00:28:58dresses the same. They wear the same watch and the clothes and cut their hair the same way. And

00:29:02they all look and sound the same. And so I like when people have their own style and you feel an

00:29:10enormous amount of pressure to wear a certain suit, drive a certain car and have that image.

00:29:16It's a sign of success. But then again, the other people realize that another sign of success is

00:29:22weathering the storm. You'll, you'll see one guy on top one year and then down at the bottom the next

00:29:27year. That's it's like someone that doesn't have work force management. They don't have good time

00:29:31management. It's not cool to be busy all the time. You should be able to hang out with Steve and

00:29:35and your, and your friends too. So if you do have discretionary income or if you're comfortable

00:29:44financially, it's almost like when you see the multimillionaires, like Elon Musk, for an example,

00:29:49he dresses casual. He doesn't have to wear a hundred thousand dollar suit and, and diamond cufflinks.

00:29:55He wears what he wants to wear and that's fine. And it's hard to explain. I, I, I believe that it's

00:30:05almost like the, the statue of David in Milan, I think, where it's just a nude body, but you're seeing

00:30:14such strength in, in humanity. You shouldn't need gold or watches or silk to, to have a strong back and

00:30:23chest and have a great idea and be a good friend to somebody. And it's, I, I like when people are raw

00:30:29and they have real depth. I don't want to see somebody cry, but if they have pure emotion,

00:30:35when they're either winning or losing or someone they care about is winning or losing, I,

00:30:40there's, there's nothing better than, than true human emotion. It's not a sign of weakness. If you

00:30:47hug your best friend and congratulate them when they're winning or shed a tear during the day of

00:30:52their wedding, I, what do you want me to say? It's, I'm fortunate that I have been able to be me

00:31:00during these years because I've, I, I see the game when I've seen people bidding for positions at a

00:31:09company with backstabbings or coming to knock on the door and say, Hey, I've got to let you know

00:31:13Steve did this. Yeah, but you don't even know Steve's situation. I gave Steve permission to do this

00:31:18and look at Steve's numbers. He's our number one on the board. Give him 10 minutes to take an extra

00:31:23break. The guy's going through something outside the office. Thank you for letting me know this.

00:31:27I don't like people like that at all. And so I, I got to see the game on a different side as a

00:31:32business owner. Um, I tell you why the most important thing at the end of the day is just look

00:31:39at yourself in the mirror and, and not avert those eyes, make your bed in the morning for your own

00:31:46self-respect. And, um, that's some of the core advice I can give to entrepreneurs. But my man,

00:31:54if you have a really good day and you make some cheese that day, go out and enjoy yourself. You've

00:32:00also worked hard for it too. And I think there's a healthy balance of ordering extra cheese or bringing

00:32:07Steve out to dinner. Cause it's on me, man. Let's go, let's do this. And as I say, me today,

00:32:13you tomorrow, me today, you tomorrow, because I cannot wait for you to have a wonderful day.

00:32:18And I'll be the first one there to congratulate you because that's when the cameras aren't there

00:32:23and I'm not keeping score. It's not tit for tat. I'm your boy. Damn it. And I'm going to let you

00:32:31know when you're messing up, I'll call the balls and the strikes, but if you're killing it,

00:32:34I will be the, there's no envy there. Of course I want some of that success, but I will be the

00:32:40first one to call you and say, Steve, I am so proud of you. You are my main man. And sometimes

00:32:46that's what you need to hear. You need positive reinforcement, definitely. Invest in your line

00:32:51of business. It's got to be sincere though. I can't call you a champ when you're not doing well,

00:32:56but I can give you some Philly guilt, Steve. I can let you know you're better than this and

00:33:00you're out of character. And why don't you say good morning to me? What's wrong with you?

00:33:04And so I'll call you out. Straighten your tie, comb your hair, you know, be your best.

00:33:10You do it for yourself. You know, you can't do it for other people. You got to take care

00:33:14of yourself first.

00:33:15I agree with that. But water does seek its own level. Like in the gym, you don't want

00:33:20someone punking out or just sitting on a machine for an hour. You, if you're surrounding yourself

00:33:24with your hockey team, like my broad street bullies, everyone was putting in to win those

00:33:29Stanley cops. And so I like individual effort like Rocky's, but I love team efforts like

00:33:34the flyers. And so I think it goes a lot of ways. There's nothing better than that band

00:33:39of brothers. I mean, those people willing to die for those individuals and do anything

00:33:44for them because they were there during a moment when they just shared that. So, um, it's not

00:33:50that intense, like in war, like it's foolish for me to compare the two, but I tell you what,

00:33:55you and I could be at a certain moment where we could make or break somebody. People sometimes

00:34:00remember what a teacher or friend or a bully said to them 50 years ago, or I could be the

00:34:05person to balance that bike, get you refocused. And just like certain teachers did for me back

00:34:11in the day, they got my act together. And so, you know, I have to pay homage to those people

00:34:18and thank them very much for that.

00:34:20And sometimes we need people to give us tough love to put us in our place because they're not

00:34:25helping us. They're not doing us a service by sugarcoating things.

00:34:29I agree with that. You may get that from a perfect stranger, which sometimes makes sense.

00:34:36Like on a train, sometimes people pour their hearts out to bartenders, or it could be that

00:34:42person who's been with you forever and they're going to cash in for you saying, listen, you

00:34:49got to listen to me. You, you know that I love you, but I have to say ABC. It's not one,

00:34:54two, three. And that holds weight too. It's interesting. But then if you just have the

00:35:01jerk, the person that's the hammer looking for nails or someone that likes to break your

00:35:05back and all of a sudden he's like, Steve, I don't know if I want to listen to him that

00:35:10day. It's just another day of you kicking me. So I might not pay attention to the warning

00:35:15signs compared to your buddy pulling you to the side saying, yo man, you got to pull your

00:35:18fly up or something. Um, but yeah, I, I'm okay with that. A lot of ego is in, in play

00:35:27too. You might even lose friends over it. So you have to be, you will lose friends over

00:35:35it. Sorry. You will lose friends. And so you have to be exceptionally careful if you're willing

00:35:42to have a heavy heart or knowing that you said what needed to be said at that moment.

00:35:47And hopefully in time that might come back. But, um, yeah.

00:35:55And you were talking earlier about, you know, you don't always have to wear gold or be flashy.

00:35:59Take a Richard Branson, for example. I didn't even know he was like a wealthy owner of urgent

00:36:03air. He looks like a regular, uh, regular guy.

00:36:07Right. But if, if he wants to wear it and it makes him happy, yes. But you know what they

00:36:13talk about with diamonds supply and the costs and, you know, tulips were big back in a couple

00:36:20centuries ago. I mean, things have its market that they come and they go. It's almost impossible

00:36:27to be, I guess, uh, de moda, you know, in, in mode and, and to be in the fashion. And, um,

00:36:38it's funny though. Look how people dress, you know, what's coming back is like the seventies

00:36:45fashion, which I love the bell bottoms, certain styles. Come on, man, give another five years

00:36:51we'll start popping our collars up again, wearing vans and jams. And as I said before,

00:36:57and especially with people with self-expression where you can't change it every day, like a

00:37:02tattoo or something permanent, these people believe in that image, that energy, that expression.

00:37:10And so as long as it's not offensive to somebody, I think it's unbelievable that people love themselves

00:37:17enough to express themselves in a certain way. So yeah, my friend, no Rolex is on me. I don't,

00:37:25and I don't drive, um, Ferraris or Porsches or things like that. But, um, I tell you what,

00:37:34I'll never have to worry about eating a dinner the rest of my life. I feel like a, a squirrel

00:37:39that has acorns, which makes easy living, right?

00:37:47Simple. And also, uh, you know, when you walk around flashing gold and coins, you're looking

00:37:52to get robbed and mugged.

00:37:57Yes and no. If you go to the Four Seasons, you fit in. If you go downtown minus the mugging,

00:38:06what you're doing is you're really rubbing in the face of people. Because that watch that you have

00:38:15could feed their family for an entire year. Now, there's arguments for and against that.

00:38:22But I, I really don't enjoy sometimes when people are not at the right place at the right time to

00:38:30show their wealth. Because, uh, as I say, they can work hard and everything's great. But a lot of

00:38:37people work just as hard and they're struggling. And so, um, you have to be very careful with that.

00:38:45If, if that's what you decide to do. But then again, it, it might inspire somebody to work harder

00:38:50if they see something beautiful. And, um, do you remember the movie, The Warriors back in the day?

00:38:56Stay tuned, Boppers. Stay tuned.

00:38:59Oh, I love that. Come out and play Warriors with Cyrus. Do you remember that one scene where

00:39:04they were on the subway and you got Swan and, God, I forgot her name. Um, and they were-

00:39:11The prostitute?

00:39:12Yeah. And, and they were sitting across from the people that came from their prom and they

00:39:18were in tuxedos and dresses.

00:39:20And then-

00:39:21Where they're all burnt out and they're heading back to Corny Island.

00:39:23Yeah, damn right. And then when they got up and left, all of a sudden you saw the flower

00:39:27that was still there. Tuxedo to ripped dress, flower the same. And in fact, it was almost

00:39:37more beautiful giving it to this woman that stood by Swan and the boys and got past the

00:39:43orphans than the woman that's just going to forget about that night and move on and marry

00:39:48somebody else. It's just, I, I read the book. I mean, there's so much symbolism in it.

00:39:52And so, as I say before, I love the Warriors. I want one of those. Do you want to hear something

00:39:58really cool? Ajax gave us a cameo. I love cameo, right? So I was getting all my, Reggie

00:40:05Jackson gave us one, Samantha Fox, right? But I got Ajax from the Warriors. And I, you're

00:40:12allowed to write what you want. I go, please call me a war chief. You know, he did. And,

00:40:17um, you want to talk about electromagnetic energy transfer, man. I got the, I got some

00:40:22Ajax there. Yeah, man. That's my point being, as I say before, what was more important, the

00:40:28tuxedo or, or, or swine hanging out and, and doing what they're doing. And so, yeah, you

00:40:34boppers. I, what an amazing movie that was, if anyone hasn't watched it.

00:40:39Oh, it was a great movie. In fact, I wrote a short story in junior high school based upon

00:40:43that movie, putting like all the kids in junior high school, making characters out

00:40:47of them. I called it Harlem Wars. What name did you give yourself? I don't think

00:40:52I put myself in the book. I don't remember. I have to, I have it in somewhere, in the closet

00:40:57somewhere from, uh, you know, junior high school. There you go. That's a, that's good

00:41:02stuff though. Yeah. Um, so you're into pinballs. Have you ever been to the pinball

00:41:09museum in Las Vegas? No, but I've heard about it and I'm definitely going to go

00:41:14visit. Currently I have 15 machines. My oldest is 1970 Bally's Camelot. The

00:41:20newest is a 94 data East Lex Action Hero and machines in between. My favorite decade

00:41:26though, Steve, I love the seventies. It's the last of the electrical mechanical years

00:41:32where it's just contacts to clean, not CPUs. The marquee art, the play field was, it had,

00:41:41it was further back, a lot of the bumpers and the targets. So you had a lot more of an

00:41:46open play field and it was the last generation where they would paint the wood compared to

00:41:52now where it's laminates and stickers. So sometimes you see cracks and stuff and, oh, the sound

00:41:57of the bells or the xylophone to me, gorgeous. And, um, I love them. And my suggestion, I mean,

00:42:07if someone wants a pinball machine, you're thinking they're very expensive. They can be,

00:42:10if you're looking for a named brand or like a kiss machine, or let's just say, you know, the,

00:42:16the Captain America. But if you get a no name like myself, like a Camelot or like a space shuttle

00:42:22and be a fast break mousing around, you're not looking at 10 to 15 or 20,000. I was getting them

00:42:28here for, let's say about 500 bucks, putting another 500 to a grand into it just to fix all

00:42:33the CPUs behind the marquee, because those things are 40 years old. The majority of the problem is

00:42:38electrical. And if you can replace certain computer parts behind, it controls the lights,

00:42:44the sound, the energy. 95% of these machines work. It's just corroded in old, you know,

00:42:51tablets. And so it's just fixing lights and cables. But what a beautiful pastime. The pinball

00:43:01machines, it's an incredible experience. So it's completely different from virtual pinball. And

00:43:06so if you want to grab a few and bring them to your house, you'd be the most popular guy in the

00:43:10neighborhood. Oh, definitely. And there was a trick I used to do. I believed in it that when I twist my

00:43:16body to the right, I don't know why it would make the ball go in the hole and I would win the game.

00:43:21Were you tilting the machine? No, no, the whole thing, a superstitious thing. After I pulled it, I

00:43:26would whip my body. I don't know. I would do it when I was bowling too. I like that too. That's

00:43:33funny. A lot of arcades here are going out of business. And so I'm not looking for generic

00:43:41cabinet machines that have Pandora in it, which is like a thousand games and you can choose. No,

00:43:46I was looking for originals. So I was able to get like a killer instinct machine and ultimate fighter,

00:43:52mortal combat. I got a ski machine here, Alpine racer to pull that out of an arcade, had a couple

00:43:59shooting machines and like a police trainer or maximum force and area 51 had those and an air

00:44:06hockey table. And so they're just giving them away. And I had the space. A couple of my buddies with the

00:44:11truck would go and grab them and bring them back. I got the electricians that could fix them. And so

00:44:16it was a childhood dream. I had a full arcade at the call center for the agents to hang out. So

00:44:21Steve, they would smoke less cigarettes. It's a great way for these introverted people to meet

00:44:27people from other departments and play and hang out like at recess. They're not looking at Instagram

00:44:32or Facebook. And so I really created a happy medium for individuals. And I saw the difference

00:44:39because it's like a runner in place at a light. You're not cooling or icing a kicker. So if you're

00:44:45going downstairs for a lunch or a coffee break, eat something, drink something. But that time you

00:44:51could really be increasing that stimulation. So when you go back upstairs, you're still ready to go.

00:44:57Yeah. Back in the days, the cigarettes and telemarketing went hand in hand. I remember

00:45:02the 100 cigarettes were the best because they were the longest. They would burn the longest while

00:45:05you were on the phone. What was your brand? Merit? Or Virginia Slims? I would bum them off to my

00:45:15co-workers. Usually Marlboro Lights or Merits or Camel Lights. Wow. The smoking of the cigarettes.

00:45:21I remember, I think I had a cigarette on an airplane once back in the day. So yeah, that does go hand

00:45:29in hand. In fact, the calling floor can be disgusting if you let people eat up there and get messy. That's

00:45:36how you get sick too. I mean, a lot of the stomach problems is just from the bacteria. So we are

00:45:42constantly, or we were until people were working from home now, cleaning those keyboards. It's weird.

00:45:49We were very brick and mortar pre-COVID. I mean, the images of the call center. Thankfully, my business

00:45:56is virtual now. Everyone's working from home. Larger labor pool. Everything's in the cloud.

00:46:02But it's different. It's like if you work out at home compared to going to a gym, there's

00:46:08conveniences, but it's nice to be around people. And you work out harder. More machines, more going on.

00:46:15But yeah, it's kind of the difference I see now with this new generation. They completely

00:46:19want to be virtual. And they'll work for a company, but it's not the same sort of connections.

00:46:24No, it's not. With ride sharing and working from home, there's no human connections anymore.

00:46:30They feel isolated sometimes. Yeah.

00:46:33Their numbers are good though, my friend. They know what they need to do in order to keep their

00:46:38job. The only thing is that when they're with me and you, you get an extra 10 to 15% out of them.

00:46:43But what are you going to do? They're, they're lonely. People aren't going on dates and making

00:46:48best friends. And it's kind of sad. Like I'll speak to my friends and their kids are always

00:46:53on the computer. They're not outside playing capture the flag or Nerf football or riding

00:46:57their bikes. They're on those computers. And so it's kind of fun. I mean, we used to do

00:47:03Intellivision and Atari and Coleco, but then again, you're outside, you know, there's a good

00:47:08mixture of it. You still have that building now that the three story building most certainly

00:47:13do. That's my retirement. I knew that if I had something like that, you're good to go.

00:47:19And so, yeah, we're cleaning her up, have a lot of interest in the building and, uh, we'll

00:47:25see if I become virtual. Oh, so you, you and your wife work out of the building and your,

00:47:30your employees work from home.

00:47:3199% of the people are working from home right now. What do I have in the office? I got my

00:47:36server room as a plan B compared to the cloud. When we're onboarding brand new agents, I'm

00:47:41just not handing you a computer. You got to at least come in for training one to two weeks

00:47:45or maybe a month. Then we'll send you home. And just in case something happens to your internet,

00:47:51we have redundancy. There might be an electricity issue. I have a generator and immediate IT support

00:47:57a multiple ready to go turnkey computer. So I don't want you to be down. So I still need to have

00:48:03something there to keep the business running. But I tell you within the next one or two years,

00:48:09I think it's going to be 100% virtual besides someone coming to pick up a computer to work from home.

00:48:15I see it like that.

00:48:17Well, then they should come at least once a month for meetings, some kind of connection. So they stay

00:48:22motivated.

00:48:22Money moots of these. I mean, I can do a pizza party or something. Christmas parties. It's once

00:48:31a month. Me and you see that. A lot of people now see it as an inconvenience.

00:48:39Young people do it. Is it straight commission or they make a salary versus commission?

00:48:43Great question. I do not work straight commission. The attrition rate would be incredibly large and

00:48:49it would be an accounting nightmare. No, we pay good salary. At least it matches Amazon's entry

00:48:57level. Plus, I have a corporation here. So I follow all business and labor laws in Costa Rica.

00:49:04So we make sure they get their full benefits. And that's how we compete. Sometimes it's

00:49:12closer to their home, better schedule because of school. Maybe the girlfriend works at my call

00:49:17center. Sometimes it's more lucrative. But my attrition doesn't happen naturally. I rarely

00:49:24fire somebody. It's usually if they're not coming to work, not doing their job, we just

00:49:28have a terrible attitude. Legally, we give certain warnings and then, I hate to say it,

00:49:34we've got to let you go.

00:49:37But they've got to meet. That's how I used to get fired. I wasn't able to meet the quota.

00:49:41They've got to meet a quota.

00:49:42Yeah, but you're so good. They've got to blame the coach. Stevie boy, if you were with

00:49:48me for a week, you'd be the top producer. And you know it. We'd be going back and forth

00:49:53and role playing and practicing those rebuttals and doing all that good stuff and playing pinball.

00:49:58And you'd go, Richie, you're the best boss I ever had. And you're, damn right. You're

00:50:03right. I am the best boss you ever had. And so I'm going to, because look at your podcast,

00:50:09look at your career, look at your personality. The fact that you're saying that you weren't

00:50:13successful on these things, I'm completely putting the blame on your golfer, batting

00:50:17coach. They did not teach you how to swing. That's all.

00:50:21I blame myself. I blame myself for being too sensitive to the customer's needs by feeling

00:50:28like I was bothering them, by not wanting to get them angry, by getting them off the

00:50:32phone before they would get it. I blame myself. I don't blame anybody else.

00:50:35Well, you were definitely bothering them. You called them during dinner. Let me ask you a

00:50:38question. How many years ago was this? 10, 15 years ago you did this?

00:50:42I made a living doing this from 1990 to 1995. I always keep getting fired from these jobs

00:50:48and go to another one and do it for the $7 an hour.

00:50:51Look how many years? That's 30 years ago. And so you don't think besides losing the hair

00:50:56like me, you don't think that you've matured in the past 30 years?

00:51:02Probably. Probably. We'll just have to reevaluate it. That's all here.

00:51:05Do you have any old recordings of yourself? Because when I worked at Telemundo, I still

00:51:10have certain recordings or first certain jobs I had. And when I listen, I cringe. It's almost

00:51:15like a terrible middle school picture when you're wearing Cavaricis and gerbos and giving

00:51:20yourself a really bad haircut with a fade in lines. And, um, but that's what it's all about,

00:51:25my man. It's all about growing and evolving. And, um, but I, I'm going to say it again.

00:51:31And I think your audience will agree with me if I not saying you have to do this, but

00:51:35if I put you on a phone selling chemicals and the other stuff that you were doing, I'm

00:51:42not saying that you'd be the top producer, but I guarantee that your numbers would be

00:51:48increased in a lot of different areas, which would show size, strength, and strategy from

00:51:53your part, Steve. Um, but don't sell your soul and be a telemarketer. That's what I did

00:52:00for a golden fiddle, but no, go ahead. You could easily ended up in the peace court

00:52:06the rate you were going when you were in college. That's a good point. But I, I, I, I knew

00:52:11that Spanish was going to give me some leverage and it was going to allow me to at least get

00:52:15a job where I could put say up last minute, just for your audience's edification. I don't

00:52:20do sports books, casino stocks, pharmacies, or sweepstakes. A lot of call centers do that.

00:52:25I just try to keep it clean and legal and work with small to medium sized companies in the

00:52:29United States and Canada, but, um, it's an extremely lucrative industry, but it's very

00:52:35labor intensive and it's, it's a lot for the, for the troops. And so besides the games and

00:52:43since English is their second language, I can focus on vocabulary and grammar and, and things

00:52:49like that. Um, it's still a large burnout. You said it yourself, you get that one person

00:52:55on the wrong day to say the wrong thing. That F you could have you spin out of control.

00:53:00And I've seen it. I've seen some people just quit that same day because they just can't

00:53:05take it anymore. And it's, it's not the phone call. You find out that they have things going

00:53:11on outside of the office that you and I had no idea was going on. And it's just, it just

00:53:15triggered it. But on the flip side, if you can develop these soft skills, you can save a

00:53:21marriage, a Thanksgiving dinner, you can network like crazy and be the most popular guy in town.

00:53:25And it's a luxury trade. AI will be replacing the majority of my industry, but the one section

00:53:31they will not be able to replace is that human interaction that extends empathy, empathy. So

00:53:37they'll gather the majority, but my industry will just be more specialists or doing counseling

00:53:45for people so they can extend empathy. But AI will be making this industry more proficient,

00:53:53you know? So there's no burnout. There's no errors, missed work. It'll be extremely consistent.

00:54:01But there's something called the uncanny valley where once it gets too much like humans, it drops

00:54:07into a valley. People freak out a little bit. It's, you know, it's like when you see things

00:54:12weird in nature, it looks almost too human like. And so we have that fear of either being

00:54:18replaced, feeling inferior, or just being manipulated. And so have I embraced it? What do you want me

00:54:28to do? I'm not Nero. I'm not fiddling. But I'm also more like Zorba the Greek, put me on

00:54:33the beach, my arms out and I'll dance while my shift goes. It's not me. The industry is going

00:54:38to be doing it. And so at least look at it as a romantic. It's just, I was fortunate to have

00:54:44loved and lost to have not loved it all. And I think with the advance of AI, I believe that

00:54:50people might welcome calls of human beings now. People are tired of robots.

00:54:55What an interesting, interesting thing you just brought up. You press zero to speak to someone

00:55:01when you're frustrated. Okay. I also believe there's nothing more beautiful than a painting

00:55:07when you see the brush strokes compared to a thousand prints. And so in the near future,

00:55:16when we go to the center square and you see the artist that will draw your silhouette and chalk

00:55:22or the performer playing their violin or guitar, it's going to mesmerize people because they're going

00:55:29to realize someone put so much effort into increasing the beauty of humanity that I'm

00:55:36hoping that these individuals become a more elevated status and people gravitate towards

00:55:44them just so at least we can feel alive. It's Rube Goldberg made these experiments with non-electrical

00:55:50machines. And, you know, 99% of the time that things don't hit the right way, but that one

00:55:56time it does. You get that feeling, that magic dust, Steve, that you and I would have never

00:56:01gotten before if we let these things do it. Yeah, but it took you 99 times. Yeah, but that's

00:56:06what humans do. That's what makes us persevere. You're going to take that out of us, which is,

00:56:14I guess, okay for a little bit, but then, damn it, you get bored. You know, you start wondering

00:56:20if you've relived your life a million times, what do you want to start doing eventually? You want

00:56:25to start making it harder because you've lived like a king a thousand times. So this lifetime

00:56:29I'm living right now, I'm not a billionaire, but I'm also not destitute. I think that whatever

00:56:35rotation of my reincarnated life, I'm having the sweet and the sour. And, damn it, that's

00:56:42what got me onto your podcast today to talk about the highs and the lows of life. But the low

00:56:48really isn't too much of a low. It's just reminding you that you're living.

00:56:54And you've always been a nomad. Before you were a physical nomad. Now you're somewhat of a digital

00:56:59nomad, reaching out to podcasts throughout the world, talking to people digitally.

00:57:04I was bored when my mom took me to Woolworths in the 70s. I would walk around by myself. Of course,

00:57:10I'd always be getting lost in hearing my name over the speaker to go find my mother at the

00:57:14one zone. Yes, I was always a nomad. I wanted to explore. Absolutely. It's just, but you want

00:57:22to know something interesting? A smile goes a long way. You learn certain customs. You ask

00:57:28certain clarification questions. And if you can take yourself out of an environment where

00:57:32all the advantages you have don't mean anything, they're just you, then you really get to see

00:57:38your value. And if people like animals and children, they can tell when something's bad.

00:57:44They have that spidey sense. And so if people smile around you or laugh around you or animals

00:57:50approach you, then you must be doing something right. And so I like a beautiful glow. And I like

00:57:57a nice wave of transfer of that energy. And I know it's kind of philosophical, but what else do you want

00:58:09me to say? I'm still surprised. And I look left and right. How the hell did I even get here? And so

00:58:13I don't think it's textbook. I think it's more metaphysical. I think that the stars became aligned

00:58:19for certain people that not deserve it, but saw it and captured it and didn't let go.

00:58:29It's also part of the tragic tour of your life. You were on a tragic tour of slowly ascending to the

00:58:34stars. I was also getting past an enormous amount of parents' guilt. I had a different plan. I was

00:58:42supposed to be in a family business in the United States. And when I was even younger, all of my

00:58:47friends had their plans. And they say, Richie, you're going to be a Spanish major. That's cool.

00:58:53Okay, hablo, espanol, ricardo. And yeah, that's what you do. You break your back in Philly and you

00:58:58tease. And could you imagine if I listened to all the naysayers and gray believers? It's not that they

00:59:03hated me. It's just people love you so much they want to protect you. It's a mother that won't let

00:59:07you ride a roller coaster. You never get to puke, but you also never get to experience a loop-de-loop.

00:59:15What would you rather do? And so I think a lot of people are afraid of living or taking

00:59:23a chance. I'm not saying anyone's better than another person, but I tell you what, when

00:59:29I go back to Philly and I see a lot of my friends from childhood, they're all exceptionally

00:59:34successful. But they always say on the side, hey, I wish I did this or I wish I did that.

00:59:41It doesn't have to be Costa Rica learning Spanish, but each one of them wanted to leave that castle

00:59:47and slay that dragon and have that hero's journey. And they just get caught up.

00:59:55We're up in the Matrix.

00:59:57Yes. Yes, they do. Where they just never leave that small town. And that's okay. But when I

01:00:05come home, I miss it so much. But then I'm also, after a period of time, ready to go.

01:00:13Have you ever read a book called On the Road by Jack Kerouac?

01:00:17I vaguely remember it. I had to read it in high school. Don't give me a quiz. It was good.

01:00:22The guy who just travels around. He was an alcoholic, Jack Kerouac. And he wrote about his

01:00:27adventures. Like the Basketball Diaries. Remember the whole movie? Leonardo DiCaprio was clutching

01:00:32that notebook, writing about, you know, he's high, he's straight. You know, chronicling

01:00:37his adventures.

01:00:39You know, what's interesting, maybe I should reread it as an adult compared to when I was

01:00:4317 years old and I couldn't really relate to drinking.

01:00:46And let's see if I see, if I feel the same way.

01:01:07Right. Well, I mean, it sounds like you have some holistic hobbies now. The pinball, the

01:01:12cars, you know, the games, the arcade. It sounds like you have a healthy way of kind

01:01:18of decompressing.

01:01:20Larger than that, my friend. I've been hitting the gym since I was 16 years old. And I'm religious

01:01:26with it. So it's at least six days a week. I have a bodega here. So I bought a universal

01:01:34flat bench, free weights and a couple other machines. Is it a complete workout? No, it's

01:01:39not like World's Gym or something. But I have the extreme convenience of waking up, grabbing

01:01:46some coffee, going out right there and just start working out right in the pure morning.

01:01:51But I love it. I wish I took creatine and protein powder earlier. If I did it in college, I'd be

01:01:59extra ripped. But I'm glad I'm taking it now. I feel great at 52. I look good for 52. I'm

01:02:07holding my own. I'm still not benching what I used to, but I don't want to hurt myself.

01:02:12But I've learned through the years, proper exercises, routines, and things that allow me

01:02:21to enjoy. But this is the workout. It's at least, you know, 20 minutes to a half an hour

01:02:26of cardio in the morning. Then you do about an hour's worth of weight. Then I focus on my

01:02:32core for about 15 minutes. And then I got a bag and some 10-ouncers and I, and I hit

01:02:38a bag and that's the best exercise ever. Boxing. I don't want to get hit. I'm not into that

01:02:45kind of thing, but your timing, your stance, your breathing, your sweating. That's a workout.

01:02:52That's a workout, workout, workout. You feel really good hitting a bag. And, um, I love it.

01:02:59A majority of my friends are sporadic with the gym or they do yogas or they'll pick a ball

01:03:06or I don't like weights. I'll just do this or that. And then that's fine. They come and

01:03:10go, but it's, it's, it's not motivation. It's the discipline. It's, it's, it's the times

01:03:16you just do not want to do it. You just don't want to do it, but you go in there anyway and

01:03:22you do it. And, um, and you feel good about yourself. But yes, my good friend, that, that

01:03:29gym, I can't live without it. I, I, I swear by it. It's, it's a beautiful part of my life.

01:03:35It takes discipline to continue at that since you were 16 years old.

01:03:41Oh man, if you got good guns and traps and stuff, you want to keep it. You, you should

01:03:47love yourself. You don't have to be an Adonis, but as I say before, it's a body. It's a temple

01:03:53and we still have youth and you should do something with it. And, um, you were talking about decompression.

01:04:01Yeah. There's only so many times I can wash my car and play a game of pinball. This is the

01:04:05sort of thing of releasing the negative, bringing in the positive and making my body good enough

01:04:10so I can walk in 10 years, play golf, ski, lift things. I, I, I see, I don't know their

01:04:18circumstances, but people that are my age or older and they can't get around. And I want

01:04:24to have a very good quality of life, Steve. That's the most important thing for me.

01:04:30Do you ever see yourself retiring? You're going to work until you drop dead.

01:04:34Oh, hell no. You gotta be kidding me. Uh, when you say retire, I'm probably going to write

01:04:39children's books, do some consulting for your way to keep busy. I don't, I don't want the Sunday

01:04:45night jitters still. I know I should have gotten over that, but I think if there's a certain stage

01:04:52where I don't have that sort of pressure anymore or worrying that Joey gets hit by a bus and won't

01:04:58come to work. And, um, enough of that already. That's a young man's game. Do I see myself retiring

01:05:06if, if I have the luxury of having more free time? Oh, I'm definitely going to embrace it. Absolutely.

01:05:16Do you want to travel more?

01:05:19Definitely. I'd love to do Airbnb experiences, forget hotels. I want to, and I don't like major

01:05:25cities either. I'll be close to them, but I kind of want to be like some nice suburbs somewhere in a

01:05:30cute little house next to something river. So I can see what it's like to walk down main street and

01:05:35hang out and, um, and just enjoy the four seasons in the United States and spend more time with family.

01:05:43But yeah, it's, and it's not looking to do the sort of tourist attractions that you're thinking. I,

01:05:49my wife and I, we, we love being out in nature. So if we can go to national parks and things like

01:05:55that, those are our best days in Costa Rica. And in fact, Steve, I'm going to share something with

01:05:59you and your audience. When I first started dating, or let's say even courting my wife,

01:06:06unlike the people I knew in the United States that know what Pac-Man is, snow, you know, and,

01:06:13and the Green Bay Packers, I'm dealing with someone that doesn't know any of that. And so I was in her

01:06:18world. And so our dates would just go out into the rainforest or these national parks. And when we would

01:06:24walk, she would point out flowers and plants and, and the coolest thing were edible. She would grab

01:06:31things off the tree like a guanabana, open it up and start eating it. I'm like, I got to marry this

01:06:36woman. And, um, that's what I fell in love with. I fell in love with long walks in nature where we

01:06:43would just, that's when, you know, when there's comfortable silence, Steve, that it's all good.

01:06:51You don't need to fill it with sound. And so, um, once again, my friend, it's, it's an adjustment

01:06:57into a new way of life.

01:07:00Do you two converse in Spanish with each other or in English or both?

01:07:04No, after 25 years, it's both. And when she grills me in Spanish, it's like double grill,

01:07:09kind of like Lucy and Desi. So, but, um, yeah, we do both, which I guess is very, uh, you know,

01:07:18cultured. It's, it's fun. Sometimes I pretend like I don't understand what she says, vice versa.

01:07:23So you get to use that too. But, um, it's very nice. It keeps things extremely exciting.

01:07:31I love it when Spanish women, they do that thing with the tongue.

01:07:34You like that, huh?

01:07:37I love that.

01:07:38Me too.

01:07:43You're so funny.

01:07:45So in conclusion, uh, where can our listeners find you guys and be, and be aware of you?

01:07:50Well, they can buy a ticket and fly to Central America and visit me in Costa Rica. We are north

01:07:55of Panama, south of Nicaragua, but my website, CostaRicaScallCenter.com. Send me an email,

01:08:01CEO at CostaRicaScallCenter.com. And if they mention you, Steve, and your show,

01:08:05be more than happy to review scripts with them, give some advice. It's my pleasure to pay it forward

01:08:11for you and your amazing audience.

01:08:14Well, thank you. I really, your time is very valuable to me, Richard. I really appreciated meeting you.

01:08:19So I had a great time. I knew this was going to be a lot of fun today. Steve,

01:08:23I can't thank you enough for having me as a guest on your podcast.

01:08:27My pleasure. Enjoy, uh, the rest of your day.

01:08:30You got it, buddy. Poor Vida.

01:08:33Yes. Para la vida. Si. Muy bien.

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