Cake On Tuesday Podcast. Host Elizabeth Bieniek interview with a pinball collector CEO Richard Blank
Cake On Tuesday celebrates innovative leadership that balances growth, grit, and the power of play! We share disruptive innovation tactics sourced from Elizabeth Bieniek's book, "Cake On Tuesday: 25 Lessons to Unlock Corporate Innovation", and elevate the untold stories of everyday disruptors across the business world through the "Cake On Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint" podcast.
Cake on Tuesday explores leadership, innovation, and personal growth through Bieniek’s journey leading a stealth startup inside big tech. An inspiring narrative beyond technology, it weaves practical tips with real-world experiences to reveal the heart and stories behind groundbreaking advancements.
In Cake on Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint, we explore the journeys of ambitious entrepreneurs and C-suite executives balancing growth, innovation, and resilience. As leaders in medium-sized, tech-forward organizations (50-500 employees), they are navigating the complexities of scaling without losing sight of their core vision. If you're someone who works hard, plays hard, and is hungry for actionable wisdom on driving innovation through disruption, join us for Cake on Tuesday.
From Pinball to Productivity: Revolutionizing Communication in Business
The "Cake on Tuesday" podcast featuring Richard Blank is titled "Cake on Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint". In this episode, Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, discusses how he leveraged his passion for vintage arcade games into a thriving business. He emphasizes that restoring old games is similar to bringing new energy to a business by making the right adjustments. The podcast also explores themes of team empowerment, communication, and building a strong culture.
In this episode of Cake on Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint, Elizabeth Bieniek interviews the President and Bilingual Telemarketing Trainer of Costa Rica's Call Center, Richard Blank. Richard shares his innovative approach to telemarketing, emphasizing authentic communication, phonetic microexpressions, and the power of workplace gamification. He discusses building a positive company culture through play, his passion for vintage pinball machines, and the importance of personal connections. Richard also offers practical advice on self-reflection, leadership, and patience in communication, drawing from his experiences in Costa Rica.
Turning Passion into Business:
Richard Blank transformed his love for vintage arcade games into a successful business venture.
Leadership through Empowerment:
The podcast highlights how Richard empowers his team to overcome fears and achieve success by focusing on confidence-building and positive communication.
Importance of Culture:
The episode also touches upon the significance of a strong and performance-driven culture in business, as exemplified by Jon Morris, CEO of Fiscal Advocate.
In this episode of Cake on Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint, Elizabeth Bieniek interviews the CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, Richard Blank. Richard shares his innovative approach to telemarketing, emphasizing authentic communication, phonetic microexpressions, and the power of workplace gamification.
He discusses building a positive company culture through play, his passion for vintage pinball machines, and the importance of personal connections. Richard also offers practical advice on self-reflection, leadership, and patience in communication, drawing from his experiences in Costa Rica.
In the latest episode of Cake on Tuesday: The Leadership Blueprint, Richard Blank, CEO of Costa Rica's Call Center, shares how promoting from within is a strategy that not only fosters trust but also keeps attrition lowCEO Richard Blank talks about overcoming fear in the call center environment. By shifting language and fostering confidence, Richard shows how leaders can create a fresh start and transform their team’s mindset.
Richard shared a truly unique perspective on business and leadership—how restoring 40-year-old arcade machines teaches valuable lessons in innovation and adaptation.
"You open up these dusty, old machines, and with the right parts, you can bring them back to life. It's the same as what we do in business—injecting new energy into old systems." – Richard Blank
By establishing a fresh approach and guiding his team through positive escalations, Richard shows how any leader can inspire and motivate their team to success.
Pro tip: "Fear is just morbid anticipation." Learn how Richard's unique leadership style is changing the game in call center management.
How Pinball Machines Power Workplace Joy
Of course, the first rule that I know is you never ask a lady their age. And so I'm going to refer to myself. I'm a Generation X. And I grew up in the 70s and 80s. And one of the coolest places in the world was the arcade, especially Flynn's in the movie Tron. But when you're a little kid, five bucks has to last you a full day. And those pinball machines were 50 cents and expensive and fast. And they were beautiful. So what happens? Fast forward, and here I am in Costa Rica. I got the space. I got the cash. And a lot of these places were going out of business. So I'd say, yo, Elizabeth, let's get Tommy, Joey, and Billy, and let's grab some money, get the truck, and drive the Perez Zeledon about three hours away. We'll meet with Don Jose, open up the bodega, and he's got these beautiful machines that are sitting there that are just dusty. These machines are 40 years old. What happens? There's corrosion because of the Central America humidity. It's not finished. All you do is replace certain parts behind the marquee, order it from Markle Specialties for $500. All of a sudden your machine's working again. And so I knew the value and I started collecting and one turned into three to five and now it's 11 machines. But I tell you what, the air hockey table, the Pac-Man, the pinball, It's a beautiful, happy medium for people to let off steam, recharge batteries. It's running in place at the light compared to icing a kicker at a football game. It's momentum. You're not stopping. And so instead of in the lunchroom, you're on your phone looking at Japanese anime or having that fifth cigarette. Come hang out in the game room with me and Elizabeth. Let's go play some air hockey.
Shattering Fear with Empowerment on Day One
The first time is I got to let them know that fear is that morbid anticipation. So I initially established myself by saying, hey, have you ever met a CEO of a call center? Maybe two out of 10 raised their hand. I'm like, okay, maybe you see that I'm giving you a clean slate like myself. Let's start strong. Don't blame me on what happened on your last job. So they start looking at me. And secondly, we talk about, you know, since English is my first language, let me give them a gift. Let's remove words like help and put in assist guide and lend a hand. Instead of saying, excuse me, I'm sorry, why don't we change it with for my clarification? I'll teach them the military alphabet that day. I will share with them how to do positive escalations.
Solving Problems with Communication Mastery
I think a lot of the world's problems can be solved by communication. I wasn't going to go here first, but now I'm curious, this phonetic micro-expression reading, can we go into this a little bit? What is this and how did this become a topic that you are an expert on? I appreciate this. Expert is time, 10,000 hours, as they say. And so for me, I didn't walk into this being an expert. I've never written a book like yourself, which are amazing. And there are people that have been published or their words are quoted. And so for me, I'm just looking at a controlled environment, almost like a focus group. And after 10,000 phone calls, you may see a pattern. And so I believe, in fact, I Cherish, the genius communicator Helen Keller that was able to create a language and was able to connect with people through multiple mediums.
Why Zig and Zag: Be Uniquely Yourself
The greatest thing to do is to zig and zag, loosey-goosey. And remember that there's 10% wildcard in this world. A lot of people write you to get on your podcast. but there must have been one or two or hopefully three anchors that I shared with you about myself that separated me from others, that got your interest and enabled me to be here today. And so if you think you're gonna be somebody else, fine, wear your suit, drive your fancy car and be in your penthouse place. But just like in Rocky, he had a better training in Rocky III when he was in that old gym with Apollo
https://youtu.be/J-pknDhO-xk
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https://youtu.be/-MDYmaPAb9k
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Richard Blank hired bassist Garry Gary Beers of INXS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGjN5H4xPQ
Elizabeth Bieniek, Cake On Tuesday, Richard Blank,Costa Rica's Call Center, Outsourcing, Telemarketing Call Centre, BPO, Nearshore Contact Center, Sales, Entrepreneur, B2B, Business, Podcast, Gamification,Leadership, Marketing, CX, Guest, Money, B2C education, BPO trainer,call centre, contact centre, contact center
Who This Podcast is For:
Leaders in Action: Entrepreneurs and executives from mid-sized organizations, especially in the tech space, seeking to branch out and innovate without jeopardizing their existing base.
Growth-Oriented Professionals: Mid-career leaders tackling the challenges of scaling while managing high-stakes disagreements, hiring innovators, and avoiding burnout.
Strivers for Sustainable Success: Those seeking practical strategies and frameworks to recharge, protect their teams, and foster joy in leadership while navigating chaos.
Each episode of Cake on Tuesday is designed to equip you with the tools, strategies, and mindsets needed for lifelong growth. From building resilient teams, to embracing constructive disagreement, to protecting your people and yourself, this podcast delivers battle-tested lessons on how to lead with grit, creativity, and the ability to find joy in it all.
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bieniek is an author, speaker, and consultant focused on “good peopling” as the secret to exceptional execution. As a founder and Fortune 100 innovation and engineering leadership veteran, her expertise lies in challenging assumptions, embracing diverse perspectives, and leading through ambiguity to build empowered, resilient teams that last.
Named Toptal’s 10 most influential “Female Pioneers in Technology,” she has spoken on bridging the gap between human connection and innovation at EmTech NEXT, Chatham House, ITEXPO, AWE, and the Global AI Community. Her leadership and innovation philosophy have been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, Inc., International Business Times, Tech Times and Women in Business.
Richard's journey in the call center space is filled with twists and turns. When he was 27 years old, he relocated to Costa Rica to train employees for one of the larger call centers in San Jose. With a mix of motivational public speaking style backed by tactful and appropriate rhetoric, he shared his knowledge and trained over 10 000 bilingual telemarketers. Richard Blank is the Chief Executive Officer for Costa Rica s Call Center since 2008.
Richard Blank has the largest collection of restored American Pinball machines and antique Rockola Jukeboxes in Central America making gamification a strong part of CCC culture.
Mr. Richard Blank holds a bachelors degree in Communication and Spanish from the University of Arizona and a certificate of language proficiency from the University of Sevilla, Spain. A Keynote speaker for Philadelphia's Abington High School 68th National Honors Society induction ceremony. In addition, inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame for Business. Giving back to Abington Senior High School is very important to Mr. Blank. As such, he endows a scholarship each year for students that plan on majoring in a world language at the university level.
Costa Rica s Call Center (CCC) is a state of the art BPO telemarketing outsource company located in the capital city of San Jose, Costa Rica. Our main focus has been, and will always be to personally train each and every Central America call center agent so that we may offer the highest quality of outbound and inbound telemarketing solutions and bilingual customer service to small and medium sized international companies, entrepreneurs as well as fortune 500 companies.
We encourage you to visit one of our call centers on your next personal vacation or business trip to Central America s paradise, Costa Rica. While you are here, we would recommend taking an extra day of your trip to visit breathtaking virgin beaches, play golf next to the ocean, try your luck at deep sea fishing, explore tropical jungles, climb volcanos or just relax in natural hot springs. Come and see for yourself why call center outsourcing in Costa Rica is a perfect solution for your growing company and a powerhouse in the BPO industry.
https://costaricascallcenter.com/en/outbound-bpo-campaigns/
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