[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2512/go-all-in","id",2512,"title","Go all in","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000\nsuccessful.\n\n2\n00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.600\n- Jeez, I was probably 31 years old back then.\n\n3\n00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:04.720\nMy wife was 28.\n\n4\n00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:05.920\nWe had zero debt.\n\n5\n00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:08.840\nYou know, we had our dream house in Charlotte, North Carolina.\n\n6\n00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:10.920\nAnd we found an opportunity to go down to Savannah\n\n7\n00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:12.120\nand buy a team.\n\n8\n00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:15.080\nAnd so we went from zero debt to seven figures in debt.\n\n9\n00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:16.320\nAnd then it got worse.\n\n10\n00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:17.920\nAnd, you know, we sold a handful of tickets.\n\n11\n00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.960\nAnd by January of 2016, we'd overdraft it to our account\n\n12\n00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:22.000\nand we're completely out of money.\n\n13\n00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.480\nAnd that's when we had to sell our house\n\n14\n00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:24.640\nand empty our savings account.\n\n15\n00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:27.200\nAnd we were grocery shopping with only $30 a week.\n\n16\n00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:29.720\nThat's all the money we had to eat for an entire week.\n\n17\n00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:31.520\nAnd it was a tough time.\n\n18\n00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:33.320\nBut at that moment, I remember that Emily and I\n\n19\n00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:37.520\nhad this weird belief that once people saw the show,\n\n20\n00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:39.520\nwe would be okay.\n\n21\n00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:41.240\nWe just had to get to that first night.\n\n22\n00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:43.120\nYou got to get to your first at bat, as we say.\n\n23\n00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:45.520\nGet to your at bat and swing hard in case you hit it.\n\n24\n00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.120\nAnd once we got to that first night and the players,\n\n25\n00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:50.360\nopening night, the players were wearing green uniforms\n\n26\n00:00:50.360 --> 00:00:52.120\nbecause they weren't quite right.\n\n27\n00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:54.960\nAnd we played, you know, terrible, made six errors.\n\n28\n00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:56.960\nBut the fans stayed, the banana nannas danced\n\n29\n00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.800\nand the players delivered roses in the crowd to little girls.\n\n30\n00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:01.280\nAnd we had a great time.\n\n31\n00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:02.960\nAnd in that moment, they told everyone.\n\n32\n00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:04.480\nAnd so we just had to get through it.\n\n33\n00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.160\nAnd I think the all in moment was there were no other options.\n\n34\n00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:09.160\nThe boats were burned.\n\n35\n00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:10.160\nWe bought the team.\n\n36\n00:01:10.160 --> 00:01:11.880\nWe were in a million dollars plus debt.\n\n37\n00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:14.120\nLet's just go all in and see, you know,\n\n38\n00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:15.440\ncan we do it our way?\n\n39\n00:01:15.440 --> 00:01:16.720\nAnd I think David, most people,\n\n40\n00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:17.840\nwhen they get to those situations,\n\n41\n00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:20.200\nthey revert back to doing it the way everyone else did.\n\n42\n00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:21.160\n'Cause it's safer.\n\n43\n00:01:21.160 --> 00:01:22.960\nWe'll just go back and be a baseball team.\n\n44\n00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:24.640\nWe won't do all inclusive tickets.\n\n45\n00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:25.960\nWe won't make it all but entertainment.\n\n46\n00:01:25.960 --> 00:01:27.320\nWe'll be what people know.\n\n47\n00:01:27.320 --> 00:01:28.840\nAnd that switched in my mind.\n\n48\n00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:30.560\nI said, go the exact opposite\n\n49\n00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.360\nbecause I'd rather go out on our terms\n\n50\n00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:33.920\nand do it the way we want to do it\n\n51\n00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.400\nthan try to fit in like everyone else.\n\n52\n00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:37.240\nAnd fortunately, it worked out okay.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",747069,"end_time",842810,"keywords","wife, debt, safety","slug","go-all-in","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","ZxMUnU3HVRHNt7puJh01Jgk4G02eF02YtfsinWNuTX6M01g","mux_asset_id","kqnuc019C01gDe2RYoxAFzpIjalVkMnVgzC43m9D3QFwQ","leader_id",46,"episode_id",193,"updated_at","2025-02-26T19:59:26.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2512/go-all-in","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_100":101,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_25":106,"_107":108,"_61":109,"_58":110,"_111":112,"_68":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_88":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_92":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":-5,"_54":55,"_18":56,"_20":57,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":-5,"_35":36,"_39":74,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_75":76,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":82,"_83":-5,"_84":-5,"_85":86,"_87":-5,"_88":-5,"_46":-5,"_89":90,"_91":-5,"_92":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Attention Beats Marketing","attention-beats-marketing","summary","

You can have the very best product, service, or cause in the world, but in order for it to really succeed, you need to be able to get people’s eyes and ears on it.

You need their attention. But it’s harder than ever to get it.

Fortunately for us, this episode features Jesse Cole, the Owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team. He is an absolute genius at getting attention. And even better, he knows how to turn it into lasting loyalty.

The Bananas are not your everyday baseball team! They are out to make baseball fun – they’re putting pitchers on stilts and lighting bats on fire and doing all kinds of wacky stuff. And it’s working. They sell out every game … they have over 2 million followers on TikTok … and they’re attracting serious attention from MLB teams who want to know how they do it.

Jesse is gonna help you apply his strategies, so your organization can get the attention it really deserves.

You’ll also learn:

What to say to your team when big ideas don’t work
One strategy you can use this week to inject fresh ideas into your organization
Why it’s okay to be misunderstood (and how to cope when it’s hard)
How to shift your focus from getting customers to getting fans

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360\nHey, everybody.\n\n2\n00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:08.400\nWelcome to Howl Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n3\n00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:08.920\ninterview\n\n4\n00:00:08.920 --> 00:00:11.640\nsome of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n5\n00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:15.160\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n6\n00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:15.760\nsomething\n\n7\n00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:19.800\nsimple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n8\n00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.280\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n9\n00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:27.600\nNow look, you can have the very best product or service or cause in the world.\n\n10\n00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.360\nBut in order for it to really succeed, you have got to be able to get people's\n\n11\n00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:32.640\neyes\n\n12\n00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:34.240\nand ears on it.\n\n13\n00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:36.040\nYou need their attention.\n\n14\n00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:40.320\nBut boy, these days it's harder than ever to get it.\n\n15\n00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:44.900\nBut fortunately for us, today's guest is an absolute genius at getting\n\n16\n00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:45.920\nattention.\n\n17\n00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:50.640\nAnd even better, he knows how to turn it into lasting loyalty.\n\n18\n00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:55.560\nI'm talking about Jesse Cole, the owner of the Savannah Bananas.\n\n19\n00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:59.440\nNow listen, this is not your everyday baseball team.\n\n20\n00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:01.480\nThey are out to make baseball fun.\n\n21\n00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:03.700\nI'm talking really fun.\n\n22\n00:01:03.700 --> 00:01:07.740\nThey're putting pitchers on stilts and lighting bats on fire and doing all\n\n23\n00:01:07.740 --> 00:01:09.680\nkinds of wacky stuff.\n\n24\n00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:11.080\nAnd it's working.\n\n25\n00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:13.240\nThey sell out every game.\n\n26\n00:01:13.240 --> 00:01:16.440\nThey have over 2 million followers on TikTok.\n\n27\n00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:20.490\nAnd they're attracting serious attention from major league baseball teams who\n\n28\n00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:21.000\nwant to know\n\n29\n00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:22.920\nhow they do it.\n\n30\n00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:27.040\nJesse's going to help you apply his strategies so your organization can get the\n\n31\n00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:27.600\nattention\n\n32\n00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:29.280\nit really deserves.\n\n33\n00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:39.880\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Jesse Cole.\n\n34\n00:01:39.880 --> 00:01:41.880\nJesse it's great to have you on the show.\n\n35\n00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:44.000\nI'm fired up to be back with you, David.\n\n36\n00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.360\nThis is quite the honor, my friend.\n\n37\n00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:46.360\nAmen.\n\n38\n00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:50.760\nYou have been on a rocket ship lately and you've got this new show coming out.\n\n39\n00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:52.680\nI think it's going to be next week.\n\n40\n00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:54.240\nIt's with ESPN.\n\n41\n00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:59.520\nIt's a four one hour episode show on the Savannah bananas.\n\n42\n00:01:59.520 --> 00:02:02.080\nI mean, tell us about it.\n\n43\n00:02:02.080 --> 00:02:06.630\nWell, I could tell you about the hundred rejections that we had for four years\n\n44\n00:02:06.630 --> 00:02:07.000\nof the\n\n45\n00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.960\nidea of a TV show came in 2018 and we had groups reach out to us and pitched it\n\n46\n00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:11.360\nover\n\n47\n00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:12.360\nand over again.\n\n48\n00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:14.400\nNo interest, no interest, no interest.\n\n49\n00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:18.430\nAnd then finally an ESPN writer wrote a story on us last year and they wanted\n\n50\n00:02:18.430 --> 00:02:19.080\nto do a sports\n\n51\n00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:20.080\ncenter special.\n\n52\n00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.960\nAnd so they did a seven minute sports center special.\n\n53\n00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:24.400\nAnd that took off huge social media.\n\n54\n00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:27.460\nAnd from there, we made one more pitch to ESPN and they said, we've never done\n\n55\n00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:27.800\na show\n\n56\n00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:28.800\nlike this.\n\n57\n00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:29.800\nIt's a long shot.\n\n58\n00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:31.680\nThere's probably very little chance this will happen.\n\n59\n00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:34.880\nTwo months later, we got the call that they were green lighting a show with us\n\n60\n00:02:34.880 --> 00:02:35.480\non our banana\n\n61\n00:02:35.480 --> 00:02:37.040\nball tour and I was blown away.\n\n62\n00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:40.760\nYou know, I remember watching that seven minute special on ESPN is great.\n\n63\n00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:43.280\nAnd if you recall, I texted you and congratulated you on that.\n\n64\n00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:45.480\nI thought that was just fantastic.\n\n65\n00:02:45.480 --> 00:02:48.800\nSince we're such good pals, can you give us any secrets?\n\n66\n00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:52.520\nEven on the show that's coming up that you just can't wait for people to see.\n\n67\n00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:53.600\n>> I haven't seen anything.\n\n68\n00:02:53.600 --> 00:02:57.180\nI know that they started with us on our tryouts for the banana ball world tour\n\n69\n00:02:57.180 --> 00:02:57.840\nin February\n\n70\n00:02:57.840 --> 00:02:59.480\nand covered us all the way through May.\n\n71\n00:02:59.480 --> 00:03:02.000\nSo two straight months, hundreds of hours of footage.\n\n72\n00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.440\nI was miked up at all times.\n\n73\n00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:04.840\nThey had all of our players, our characters.\n\n74\n00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:06.840\nIt was a lot of the behind the scenes.\n\n75\n00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:09.960\nAnd this time, David, is when we went from one million social media followers\n\n76\n00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:11.040\nto four million.\n\n77\n00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:15.000\nSo we did crazy things like guys with their bats on fire and pitchers on stilts\n\n78\n00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:15.540\nand trick\n\n79\n00:03:15.540 --> 00:03:16.540\npitchers.\n\n80\n00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:19.820\nWe tried it all and they covered all the beginning and the end and how it all\n\n81\n00:03:19.820 --> 00:03:20.540\nworked out, which\n\n82\n00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:22.340\nwas I think it's gonna be a great show to watch.\n\n83\n00:03:22.340 --> 00:03:25.300\n>> So you're gonna be as excited as I am to see this show.\n\n84\n00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:29.200\n>> Yeah, I'm gonna be very intrigued to see what they actually show.\n\n85\n00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:31.970\nBut you know, it's just part of the whole experience, you know, momentum leads\n\n86\n00:03:31.970 --> 00:03:32.340\nto more\n\n87\n00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:33.340\nmomentum.\n\n88\n00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:35.820\nAnd it's crazy what's happened over the last few months with the national media\n\n89\n00:03:35.820 --> 00:03:36.020\n.\n\n90\n00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:39.490\nAnd from six years ago, sleeping on an air bed, David and having to sell our\n\n91\n00:03:39.490 --> 00:03:40.060\nhouse and\n\n92\n00:03:40.060 --> 00:03:43.360\nyou know, down to our last dollar to see where it is now is just really, truly,\n\n93\n00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:44.180\ntruly amazing.\n\n94\n00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:47.720\n>> We had you on the podcast a couple of years back when I was just getting\n\n95\n00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:48.420\nstarted doing\n\n96\n00:03:48.420 --> 00:03:49.420\nmy podcasting.\n\n97\n00:03:49.420 --> 00:03:55.060\nAnd I'd say it's pretty safe to say a lot has changed for you.\n\n98\n00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:59.470\nWhat's been the biggest shift you've experienced as a leader since our last\n\n99\n00:03:59.470 --> 00:04:00.540\nconversation?\n\n100\n00:04:00.540 --> 00:04:03.460\n>> For us, it comes back simply to vision and focus.\n\n101\n00:04:03.460 --> 00:04:06.520\nYou know, at first we just came to Savannah trying to survive, trying to sell a\n\n102\n00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:07.220\nfew tickets\n\n103\n00:04:07.220 --> 00:04:08.980\nand make ends meet.\n\n104\n00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:11.580\nAnd after our initial success of selling at every game, we thought there was\n\n105\n00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:12.020\nsomething\n\n106\n00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:13.020\nmuch bigger.\n\n107\n00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:16.720\nDuring 2020 and the COVID year where live entertainment was probably the worst\n\n108\n00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:17.140\nindustry\n\n109\n00:04:17.140 --> 00:04:20.300\nyou could be in, we were struggling, we said, let's just think bigger.\n\n110\n00:04:20.300 --> 00:04:21.460\nLet's not be in the business.\n\n111\n00:04:21.460 --> 00:04:22.860\nLet's work on the business.\n\n112\n00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:23.860\nAnd where are we going?\n\n113\n00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:25.140\nHow do we think exponentially?\n\n114\n00:04:25.140 --> 00:04:28.460\nHow do we focus on where not how and not the little details?\n\n115\n00:04:28.460 --> 00:04:32.980\nAnd we came up with a plan to really think about what isn't in our industry.\n\n116\n00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:34.500\nAnd so how can we play year round?\n\n117\n00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:36.100\nHow can we take the show to more people?\n\n118\n00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:39.620\nHow can we build banana land here to be more than just a baseball park?\n\n119\n00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:42.790\nAnd from there, our team got more purpose, more fulfillment and everything we\n\n120\n00:04:42.790 --> 00:04:43.220\nwere doing\n\n121\n00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:45.460\nand we said, we're going to commit and put the gas on what we're doing.\n\n122\n00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:48.780\nAnd so what we went all in is on making baseball fun.\n\n123\n00:04:48.780 --> 00:04:50.340\nEvery decision doesn't make baseball fun.\n\n124\n00:04:50.340 --> 00:04:51.740\nIs it fans first?\n\n125\n00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:55.030\nAnd that's really guided us with all of our content, everything we do in the\n\n126\n00:04:55.030 --> 00:04:55.540\nfield.\n\n127\n00:04:55.540 --> 00:04:58.980\nAnd now today, David, you know, we do five to 10 new things on the baseball\n\n128\n00:04:58.980 --> 00:04:59.580\nfield every\n\n129\n00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:03.270\nnight that we've never done before in front of a live crowd, which is a lot of\n\n130\n00:05:03.270 --> 00:05:04.380\nexperimentation.\n\n131\n00:05:04.380 --> 00:05:07.860\nBut it's all to make baseball fun and we learn faster by doing that.\n\n132\n00:05:07.860 --> 00:05:12.270\nSo far, listeners, just a sense of what it's like to go to a game at your\n\n133\n00:05:12.270 --> 00:05:13.540\nstadium and watch\n\n134\n00:05:13.540 --> 00:05:14.780\nus savannah bananas.\n\n135\n00:05:14.780 --> 00:05:17.900\nWell, it starts at, you know, five 30, you know, it's at the march.\n\n136\n00:05:17.900 --> 00:05:20.390\nSo when fans are lined up most nights, you know, anywhere a couple thousand\n\n137\n00:05:20.390 --> 00:05:20.740\nfans are\n\n138\n00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:24.610\nlined up two hours before the game, fans come in from anywhere between 20 to 40\n\n139\n00:05:24.610 --> 00:05:25.140\nstates,\n\n140\n00:05:25.140 --> 00:05:28.460\nfive to 10 countries, and they line up and we come out with our full pet band\n\n141\n00:05:28.460 --> 00:05:28.980\ngreeting\n\n142\n00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:29.980\nthe fans.\n\n143\n00:05:29.980 --> 00:05:33.630\nThen comes our male cheerleading team, the man, anas, then comes our banana, an\n\n144\n00:05:33.630 --> 00:05:33.940\nas, our\n\n145\n00:05:33.940 --> 00:05:35.380\nsenior citizen dance team.\n\n146\n00:05:35.380 --> 00:05:38.180\nThen comes our mascot, then comes all the players.\n\n147\n00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:41.380\nAnd we greet the fans by literally doing a full fledged dance.\n\n148\n00:05:41.380 --> 00:05:43.380\nHey, hey, baby.\n\n149\n00:05:43.380 --> 00:05:46.020\nOh, ah, then we throw off confetti.\n\n150\n00:05:46.020 --> 00:05:47.820\nThen we do this big opening celebration.\n\n151\n00:05:47.820 --> 00:05:50.980\nAnd that's how the show starts with that opening act.\n\n152\n00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:55.000\nAnd then from there on, we have parades, we have weigh ins, we throw beads in\n\n153\n00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:55.780\nthe crowd,\n\n154\n00:05:55.780 --> 00:05:59.040\nwe throw Dolce and Banana underwear, we have break dancing coach, we have\n\n155\n00:05:59.040 --> 00:05:59.980\ndancing players,\n\n156\n00:05:59.980 --> 00:06:04.060\nwe have a banana baby, we lift up in the air and say, nah, Savannah, my head.\n\n157\n00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:06.220\nIt is an absolute circus.\n\n158\n00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:07.580\nAnd then a baseball game breaks out.\n\n159\n00:06:07.580 --> 00:06:10.100\nAnd at the end of the night, you know, we plan some really special moments\n\n160\n00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:10.540\nwhere the\n\n161\n00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:14.100\nwhole entire team, the whole staff, everyone and the fans are arms around each\n\n162\n00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:14.780\nother, singing\n\n163\n00:06:14.780 --> 00:06:17.260\nstand by me in a circle in the plaza at the end of the game.\n\n164\n00:06:17.260 --> 00:06:19.140\nAnd that's what we call our kiss good night.\n\n165\n00:06:19.140 --> 00:06:22.170\nAnd it's a choreographed script of the entertainment because we want not one\n\n166\n00:06:22.170 --> 00:06:23.020\nfan to be bored for\n\n167\n00:06:23.020 --> 00:06:24.700\none moment at our show.\n\n168\n00:06:24.700 --> 00:06:25.780\nAnd it's worked up pretty well.\n\n169\n00:06:25.780 --> 00:06:28.940\nNo wonder you have a packed house every night.\n\n170\n00:06:28.940 --> 00:06:30.140\nPeople begging to get in.\n\n171\n00:06:30.140 --> 00:06:33.800\nYou know, the New York Times wrote an article on your team in March titled\n\n172\n00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:34.740\nBaseball Players\n\n173\n00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:39.260\nDon't Dance, the Savannah Bananas Beg to Differ.\n\n174\n00:06:39.260 --> 00:06:44.380\nAnd some of those dances have racked up 40 to 50 million views on TikTok.\n\n175\n00:06:44.380 --> 00:06:48.540\nWhat have you learned, Jesse, about attracting attention over the years?\n\n176\n00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:50.860\nBecause I don't think there's anybody better at it.\n\n177\n00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:54.060\nWe believe attention beats marketing 1,000% of the time.\n\n178\n00:06:54.060 --> 00:06:55.700\nWe don't have a marketing plan, David.\n\n179\n00:06:55.700 --> 00:06:57.380\nWe have an attention plan.\n\n180\n00:06:57.380 --> 00:07:01.180\nSo we get together as our staff every Monday, today in a little bit, we'll have\n\n181\n00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:01.620\nour OTT\n\n182\n00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:05.380\nmeeting, which is over the top ideas and outrageous ideas we can do with the\n\n183\n00:07:05.380 --> 00:07:05.460\nfield to\n\n184\n00:07:05.460 --> 00:07:07.700\ncreate attention and create more fans.\n\n185\n00:07:07.700 --> 00:07:11.130\nAnd so that is our entire plan that we think about what are we doing that's\n\n186\n00:07:11.130 --> 00:07:11.780\ngoing to be\n\n187\n00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:12.980\nunique and different.\n\n188\n00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:15.760\nAnd as you know, David, obviously with all the different brands you had with\n\n189\n00:07:15.760 --> 00:07:16.340\nyoung brands\n\n190\n00:07:16.340 --> 00:07:20.220\nand Taco Bell, especially, you thought dramatically different with everything.\n\n191\n00:07:20.220 --> 00:07:23.570\nIt was what will this product do to create some attention unique and get people\n\n192\n00:07:23.570 --> 00:07:24.180\ntalking.\n\n193\n00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:25.380\nAnd we're so obsessed with that.\n\n194\n00:07:25.380 --> 00:07:29.140\nLearn that from P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney, get people talking.\n\n195\n00:07:29.140 --> 00:07:32.020\nSo that's part of the model that we think about.\n\n196\n00:07:32.020 --> 00:07:35.060\nAnd you mentioned dance, the New York Times wrote a great article on that.\n\n197\n00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:38.940\nIt started with a test, players dancing, could our players dance every game?\n\n198\n00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:41.020\nThen could we have a break dancing coach?\n\n199\n00:07:41.020 --> 00:07:43.900\nThen could we have a banana, a senior citizen dance team?\n\n200\n00:07:43.900 --> 00:07:46.640\nAnd now we have a dancing umpire when he strikes out someone, he does a full\n\n201\n00:07:46.640 --> 00:07:47.300\nfledged dance\n\n202\n00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:48.860\nwhile he's striking out a guy.\n\n203\n00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:52.980\nSo it's keep taking it to the next level, which then creates more attention.\n\n204\n00:07:52.980 --> 00:07:55.060\nWhat's coming up next that you're really excited about?\n\n205\n00:07:55.060 --> 00:07:57.620\nYeah, one idea that you just can't wait to show off?\n\n206\n00:07:57.620 --> 00:07:58.620\nOh, well, 1,000%.\n\n207\n00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:01.100\nI mean, eventually we're going to have players skydive to their positions.\n\n208\n00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:02.900\nI mean, there's no question in my mind.\n\n209\n00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:03.820\nThey're going to skydive.\n\n210\n00:08:03.820 --> 00:08:06.420\nAnd well, eventually, because we're the bananas, David, we'll have a ball\n\n211\n00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:06.780\nmonkey.\n\n212\n00:08:06.780 --> 00:08:09.900\nSo an actual monkey that delivers baseballs to the umpire, you know, we've got\n\n213\n00:08:09.900 --> 00:08:11.020\na lot of ideas.\n\n214\n00:08:11.020 --> 00:08:12.980\nIt's going to take some time, but we'll eventually get there.\n\n215\n00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:15.880\nWhat I love about you is you're a very creative guy, but you have a lot of\n\n216\n00:08:15.880 --> 00:08:16.860\nprocess and discipline\n\n217\n00:08:16.860 --> 00:08:18.220\naround what you do.\n\n218\n00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:23.500\nAnd you have the habit of writing down new ideas every single day.\n\n219\n00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:27.380\nHow have you been able to take this process and discipline that you have as a\n\n220\n00:08:27.380 --> 00:08:28.020\nleader and\n\n221\n00:08:28.020 --> 00:08:29.940\nscale it beyond yourself?\n\n222\n00:08:29.940 --> 00:08:32.140\nYou know, you texted me a couple of years ago and gave me a great compliment,\n\n223\n00:08:32.140 --> 00:08:32.420\nwhich\n\n224\n00:08:32.420 --> 00:08:33.740\nI don't know if you realized.\n\n225\n00:08:33.740 --> 00:08:35.700\nAnd I've thought about it almost daily.\n\n226\n00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:39.690\nYou said, Jesse, you're a tremendous parallel thinker and how you can see\n\n227\n00:08:39.690 --> 00:08:40.700\nsomething in another\n\n228\n00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:42.980\nindustry and put it into your own.\n\n229\n00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:45.020\nAnd I think that's how we do everything.\n\n230\n00:08:45.020 --> 00:08:46.180\nWalt Disney was great at this.\n\n231\n00:08:46.180 --> 00:08:49.680\nWhen every traveled, he got ideas from different countries, from different\n\n232\n00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:50.900\nmovies, from different\n\n233\n00:08:50.900 --> 00:08:51.900\nrestaurants.\n\n234\n00:08:51.900 --> 00:08:55.020\nAnd so yes, I start with 10 ideas every morning.\n\n235\n00:08:55.020 --> 00:08:57.260\nAnd it's really learning from other industries.\n\n236\n00:08:57.260 --> 00:09:00.510\nAnd, you know, I'm constantly studying now the greatest YouTubers, you know, Mr\n\n237\n00:09:00.510 --> 00:09:01.300\n. Beast,\n\n238\n00:09:01.300 --> 00:09:04.080\nfor instance, he's the greatest YouTuber right now, the 100 million subscribers\n\n239\n00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:04.140\n.\n\n240\n00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:05.380\nSo I study what he's doing.\n\n241\n00:09:05.380 --> 00:09:08.940\nHow does that translate into what we can do with our baseball entertainment?\n\n242\n00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.940\nHow do you scale it is you build a culture of ideas.\n\n243\n00:09:11.940 --> 00:09:15.740\nSo we have idea pluses every Monday with our team.\n\n244\n00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:17.260\nWhat are the things we're going to do that's unique.\n\n245\n00:09:17.260 --> 00:09:19.100\nWe have idea pluses with our broadcast.\n\n246\n00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:22.300\nWhat are the new things we can show on a broadcast that no one's ever seen on\n\n247\n00:09:22.300 --> 00:09:23.260\nour actual digital\n\n248\n00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:24.260\nstreaming?\n\n249\n00:09:24.260 --> 00:09:25.940\nSo everything starts with ideas.\n\n250\n00:09:25.940 --> 00:09:28.540\nIt's not the process of execution.\n\n251\n00:09:28.540 --> 00:09:32.860\nIt's think big with the ideas and then scale down on how can we execute that.\n\n252\n00:09:32.860 --> 00:09:35.490\nAnd I think the team literally comes every day with what can we do differently\n\n253\n00:09:35.490 --> 00:09:35.900\nthan we\n\n254\n00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:36.900\nhaven't done before.\n\n255\n00:09:36.900 --> 00:09:38.740\nYou're a huge thinker, big time thinker.\n\n256\n00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:43.180\nAnd I'm curious about what fuels your swing for the fences approach.\n\n257\n00:09:43.180 --> 00:09:44.180\nFor me, I go back.\n\n258\n00:09:44.180 --> 00:09:45.180\nI was an only child.\n\n259\n00:09:45.180 --> 00:09:46.180\nMy parents were divorced.\n\n260\n00:09:46.180 --> 00:09:47.380\nMy mother had a drug problem.\n\n261\n00:09:47.380 --> 00:09:49.300\nMy dad raised me was constantly working.\n\n262\n00:09:49.300 --> 00:09:52.380\nAnd I think I was constantly the kid trying to make him proud.\n\n263\n00:09:52.380 --> 00:09:55.220\nAnd my dad actually told me I shared this in my book, Fans First.\n\n264\n00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:56.220\nI was a kid coming up to bat.\n\n265\n00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:00.180\nMy dad would go, \"Yes, swing hard in case you hit it.\"\n\n266\n00:10:00.180 --> 00:10:02.980\nWhich is hilarious advice to a little five year old kid.\n\n267\n00:10:02.980 --> 00:10:03.980\nAnd that's been my mentality.\n\n268\n00:10:03.980 --> 00:10:06.860\nYou know, you say, David, everyone says you're the average of the five people\n\n269\n00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:07.460\nyou surround\n\n270\n00:10:07.460 --> 00:10:08.500\nyourself with.\n\n271\n00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:14.620\nI spend my most of my time with Walt Disney, PT Barnum, Jeff Bezos.\n\n272\n00:10:14.620 --> 00:10:18.180\nI've read every book about some of the biggest innovators and inventors of our\n\n273\n00:10:18.180 --> 00:10:18.740\ntime and our\n\n274\n00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:19.900\nprevious time.\n\n275\n00:10:19.900 --> 00:10:23.170\nAnd that's where I'm trying to get this mindset of that we can do anything if\n\n276\n00:10:23.170 --> 00:10:24.260\nyou think big\n\n277\n00:10:24.260 --> 00:10:26.180\nand you're willing to try enough and fail enough.\n\n278\n00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:29.440\nSo that's where it comes with a kid just trying to make his dad proud every\n\n279\n00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:30.100\nsingle day.\n\n280\n00:10:30.100 --> 00:10:32.700\nI want to make my dad proud and I want to make my kids proud.\n\n281\n00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:36.370\nI truly believe that we can change the world and we can change it with baseball\n\n282\n00:10:36.370 --> 00:10:37.100\nand bringing\n\n283\n00:10:37.100 --> 00:10:39.060\nmore joy to more people than anything else.\n\n284\n00:10:39.060 --> 00:10:40.980\nAnd so I want to keep pursuing that.\n\n285\n00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:44.370\nAs someone who takes big chances, which you definitely do, I'd have to imagine\n\n286\n00:10:44.370 --> 00:10:44.820\nyou have\n\n287\n00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:47.580\na particular view about failure.\n\n288\n00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:52.820\nWhat are you saying to your team when things don't go as planned?\n\n289\n00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:54.260\nThat's every night at the ballpark.\n\n290\n00:10:54.260 --> 00:10:58.300\nWhen you do five to ten promotions, like the Living Pinyata does not work well.\n\n291\n00:10:58.300 --> 00:11:01.800\nThe halftime show that was the slowest forming developed halftime show ever,\n\n292\n00:11:01.800 --> 00:11:02.500\nthe Horsehead\n\n293\n00:11:02.500 --> 00:11:05.540\nRace where the kids couldn't see out of the Horseheads and the game got delayed\n\n294\n00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:05.900\nby five\n\n295\n00:11:05.900 --> 00:11:06.900\nminutes.\n\n296\n00:11:06.900 --> 00:11:09.100\nEverything doesn't go as well as planned.\n\n297\n00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:12.140\nBut I think you either have a success or you have a story.\n\n298\n00:11:12.140 --> 00:11:15.540\nAnd stories often lead to the greatest successes.\n\n299\n00:11:15.540 --> 00:11:19.720\nSo for instance, where we did fans giving, I don't talk about this much two\n\n300\n00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:20.580\nyears ago,\n\n301\n00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:24.120\nand it was night where we literally were going to celebrate Thanksgiving, but\n\n302\n00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:24.580\nwe were going\n\n303\n00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:29.060\nto starve our fans for the first hour and a half and then have a big feast.\n\n304\n00:11:29.060 --> 00:11:31.700\nNot feeding your fans for an hour and a half was a terrible decision.\n\n305\n00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:34.780\nWe thought it'd be great, but when it went to feast, people couldn't get food.\n\n306\n00:11:34.780 --> 00:11:35.860\nIt was a disaster.\n\n307\n00:11:35.860 --> 00:11:38.540\nWe thought we were going to make this big Thanksgiving celebration.\n\n308\n00:11:38.540 --> 00:11:39.540\nThat didn't go well.\n\n309\n00:11:39.540 --> 00:11:42.260\nWe even had rations throwing bread in the crowd, but that didn't pay off.\n\n310\n00:11:42.260 --> 00:11:45.220\nBut it became a huge story that we talk about.\n\n311\n00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:47.820\nLike, oh no, don't give us flashbacks of fans giving.\n\n312\n00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:51.470\nWe will never ever sacrifice the food and experience for our fans for a bigger\n\n313\n00:11:51.470 --> 00:11:52.140\npromotion.\n\n314\n00:11:52.140 --> 00:11:53.700\nYou know, that's how we look at everything.\n\n315\n00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:54.940\nWhat do you learn from something?\n\n316\n00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:56.620\nYou either win or you learn.\n\n317\n00:11:56.620 --> 00:11:59.180\nAnd so every night, what do we learn from that promotion?\n\n318\n00:11:59.180 --> 00:12:01.500\nI mean, the other night, David, we had messy baby on the field.\n\n319\n00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:02.860\nI thought it was a great promotion.\n\n320\n00:12:02.860 --> 00:12:04.020\nWe got three high chairs.\n\n321\n00:12:04.020 --> 00:12:08.460\nWe put tons of whipped cream and apple sauce and all this with three babies.\n\n322\n00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:09.540\nThey didn't touch the food.\n\n323\n00:12:09.540 --> 00:12:10.660\nThey just looked at it.\n\n324\n00:12:10.660 --> 00:12:12.980\nIt was the cleanest messy baby contest ever.\n\n325\n00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:13.980\nNothing happened.\n\n326\n00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:14.980\nIt was terrible.\n\n327\n00:12:14.980 --> 00:12:16.860\nAnd we just walked out the field and laughed.\n\n328\n00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:17.860\nBut you learn.\n\n329\n00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:19.700\nYou want to learn if we didn't do it.\n\n330\n00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:23.180\nTell me about the moment when you and your wife, you went all in.\n\n331\n00:12:23.180 --> 00:12:26.540\nIt's a great story on making this team successful.\n\n332\n00:12:26.540 --> 00:12:29.580\nGeez, I was probably 31 years old back then.\n\n333\n00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:30.700\nMy wife was 28.\n\n334\n00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:31.900\nWe had zero debt.\n\n335\n00:12:31.900 --> 00:12:34.980\nYou know, we had our dream house in Charlotte, North Carolina.\n\n336\n00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:38.140\nAnd we found an opportunity to go down to Savannah and buy a team.\n\n337\n00:12:38.140 --> 00:12:41.140\nAnd so we went from zero debt to seven figures in debt.\n\n338\n00:12:41.140 --> 00:12:42.540\nAnd then it got worse.\n\n339\n00:12:42.540 --> 00:12:43.900\nAnd we sold a handful of tickets.\n\n340\n00:12:43.900 --> 00:12:47.410\nAnd by January of 2016, we'd overdrafted our account and we're completely out\n\n341\n00:12:47.410 --> 00:12:48.060\nof money.\n\n342\n00:12:48.060 --> 00:12:50.620\nAnd that's when we had to sell our house and empty out our savings account.\n\n343\n00:12:50.620 --> 00:12:53.220\nAnd we were grocery shopping with only $30 a week.\n\n344\n00:12:53.220 --> 00:12:55.900\nThat's all the money we had to eat for an entire week.\n\n345\n00:12:55.900 --> 00:12:57.580\nAnd it was a tough time.\n\n346\n00:12:57.580 --> 00:13:01.910\nBut at that moment, I remember that Emily and I had this weird belief that once\n\n347\n00:13:01.910 --> 00:13:02.380\npeople\n\n348\n00:13:02.380 --> 00:13:05.500\nsaw the show, we would be okay.\n\n349\n00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:06.860\nWe just had to get to that first night.\n\n350\n00:13:06.860 --> 00:13:09.140\nYou got to get to your first at bat, as we say.\n\n351\n00:13:09.140 --> 00:13:11.580\nGet to your at bat and swing hard in case you hit it.\n\n352\n00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.840\nAnd once we got to that first night and the players opening night, the players\n\n353\n00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:15.060\nwere in\n\n354\n00:13:15.060 --> 00:13:18.180\ngreen uniforms because they weren't quite right.\n\n355\n00:13:18.180 --> 00:13:20.940\nAnd we played terrible, made six errors.\n\n356\n00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:23.990\nBut the fans stayed, the banana nannas danced and the players delivered roses\n\n357\n00:13:23.990 --> 00:13:24.540\nin the crowd\n\n358\n00:13:24.540 --> 00:13:25.940\nto little girls.\n\n359\n00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:26.940\nAnd we had a great time.\n\n360\n00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:28.940\nAnd in that moment, they told everyone.\n\n361\n00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:30.420\nAnd so we just had to get through it.\n\n362\n00:13:30.420 --> 00:13:34.100\nAnd I think the all in moment was there were no other options.\n\n363\n00:13:34.100 --> 00:13:35.100\nThe boats were burned.\n\n364\n00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:36.100\nWe bought the team.\n\n365\n00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.020\nWe were in a million dollars plus debt.\n\n366\n00:13:38.020 --> 00:13:41.460\nLet's just go all in and see, can we do it our way?\n\n367\n00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:44.260\nAnd I think David, most people, when they get to those situations, they revert\n\n368\n00:13:44.260 --> 00:13:44.500\nback to\n\n369\n00:13:44.500 --> 00:13:46.020\ndoing it the way everyone else did it.\n\n370\n00:13:46.020 --> 00:13:47.020\nBecause it's safer.\n\n371\n00:13:47.020 --> 00:13:48.980\nWe'll just go back and be a baseball team.\n\n372\n00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:50.620\nWe won't do all inclusive tickets.\n\n373\n00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:51.860\nWe won't make it all but entertainment.\n\n374\n00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:53.340\nWe'll be what people know.\n\n375\n00:13:53.340 --> 00:13:54.700\nAnd that switched in my mind.\n\n376\n00:13:54.700 --> 00:13:58.290\nI said, go the exact opposite because I'd rather go out on our terms and do it\n\n377\n00:13:58.290 --> 00:13:58.780\nthe way\n\n378\n00:13:58.780 --> 00:14:01.540\nwe want to do it than try to fit in like everyone else.\n\n379\n00:14:01.540 --> 00:14:03.060\nAnd fortunately, it worked out okay.\n\n380\n00:14:03.060 --> 00:14:04.540\nYeah, I would say so.\n\n381\n00:14:04.540 --> 00:14:09.520\nAnd if we were going to sit down in two years for another conversation, what do\n\n382\n00:14:09.520 --> 00:14:10.020\nyou hope\n\n383\n00:14:10.020 --> 00:14:12.340\nis true that isn't true today?\n\n384\n00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:14.140\nWell, what will happen with us?\n\n385\n00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:15.900\nAnd I'm very confident on it.\n\n386\n00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:18.540\nWe would be playing at Major League Stadiums because we've had five Major\n\n387\n00:14:18.540 --> 00:14:19.100\nLeague teams\n\n388\n00:14:19.100 --> 00:14:20.180\nreach out to us.\n\n389\n00:14:20.180 --> 00:14:24.500\nWe will do the first ever Bananas Cruz where we actually have 4,000 fans go on\n\n390\n00:14:24.500 --> 00:14:24.940\na cruise\n\n391\n00:14:24.940 --> 00:14:27.860\nship and then we stop at different islands and play games.\n\n392\n00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:31.740\nI believe we'll play a place that you never imagined playing a baseball game.\n\n393\n00:14:31.740 --> 00:14:33.420\nThat's just kind of where we're going.\n\n394\n00:14:33.420 --> 00:14:37.310\nI think what I see that's happening, David, is the way people take in\n\n395\n00:14:37.310 --> 00:14:38.540\nentertainment.\n\n396\n00:14:38.540 --> 00:14:40.780\nAnd right now you can get entertained on your fingertips.\n\n397\n00:14:40.780 --> 00:14:42.540\nWe're in a TikTok world.\n\n398\n00:14:42.540 --> 00:14:46.100\nPeople are watching entertainment in every five seconds, eight seconds bites.\n\n399\n00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:49.780\nAnd I believe that's where we are trying to focus our show and our experience.\n\n400\n00:14:49.780 --> 00:14:53.890\nAnd I think the companies and the businesses that focus on how do you entertain\n\n401\n00:14:53.890 --> 00:14:54.420\nin short\n\n402\n00:14:54.420 --> 00:14:58.540\nperiods of time and get their attention fast are the ones that are going to win\n\n403\n00:14:58.540 --> 00:14:58.580\n.\n\n404\n00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:02.680\nAnd so we are trying to create a highlight world of everything we do to build\n\n405\n00:15:02.680 --> 00:15:03.180\ninto that\n\n406\n00:15:03.180 --> 00:15:05.300\nattention span that people are used to.\n\n407\n00:15:05.300 --> 00:15:07.060\nAnd so that's what I think where we're going.\n\n408\n00:15:07.060 --> 00:15:09.980\nTwo, three hour baseball games are going to be tough for people to watch.\n\n409\n00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:10.980\nThey already are.\n\n410\n00:15:10.980 --> 00:15:12.420\nIt's going to be short bite sized.\n\n411\n00:15:12.420 --> 00:15:15.540\nHow do you deliver that way from every form of entertainment, in my opinion?\n\n412\n00:15:15.540 --> 00:15:19.050\nWell, let me get some advice from you because I do these podcasts with the best\n\n413\n00:15:19.050 --> 00:15:19.500\nleaders\n\n414\n00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:22.460\nin the world and I can barely keep them under an hour.\n\n415\n00:15:22.460 --> 00:15:23.900\nAm I really off track here?\n\n416\n00:15:23.900 --> 00:15:26.340\nSee, there will always be a need for a long form.\n\n417\n00:15:26.340 --> 00:15:28.780\nThe question is how do you grow and how do you scale?\n\n418\n00:15:28.780 --> 00:15:30.820\nYou get their attention with short bites.\n\n419\n00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:32.460\nShort bites, short bites, short bites.\n\n420\n00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:36.540\nSo for instance, now we've developed 2.8 million TikTok followers, which is\n\n421\n00:15:36.540 --> 00:15:37.460\ncrazily 2 million\n\n422\n00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:39.260\nmore than any major league baseball team.\n\n423\n00:15:39.260 --> 00:15:40.500\nThat draws them into our funnel.\n\n424\n00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:41.740\nI hate that word funnel.\n\n425\n00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:45.500\nDraws them into our ecosystem of fandom and they get it.\n\n426\n00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:48.610\nSo it's like, if you want to start attracting drawing, you're going to be able\n\n427\n00:15:48.610 --> 00:15:49.100\nto pop up\n\n428\n00:15:49.100 --> 00:15:50.540\nin lots of different places.\n\n429\n00:15:50.540 --> 00:15:54.120\nAnd I think that's where we're trying to go and maybe thinking of a podcast in\n\n430\n00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:54.820\na different\n\n431\n00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:59.540\nway because there are so many competitive podcasts today.\n\n432\n00:15:59.540 --> 00:16:03.050\nWhat makes it so different that people like you're in a category of your own,\n\n433\n00:16:03.050 --> 00:16:03.300\nyou're\n\n434\n00:16:03.300 --> 00:16:06.020\nthe only because I think most people say, I'm a little better.\n\n435\n00:16:06.020 --> 00:16:07.100\nI'm a little faster.\n\n436\n00:16:07.100 --> 00:16:08.100\nIt's a little bit here.\n\n437\n00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:09.260\nBut how are you the only?\n\n438\n00:16:09.260 --> 00:16:12.060\nAnd that's what I'm constantly focused on and being open with you.\n\n439\n00:16:12.060 --> 00:16:13.700\nI couldn't figure out with my podcast.\n\n440\n00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:15.940\nI interviewed you and I learned so much.\n\n441\n00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:18.460\nIt was a great learning experience for 100 episodes.\n\n442\n00:16:18.460 --> 00:16:19.540\nBut now I'm not the only.\n\n443\n00:16:19.540 --> 00:16:22.940\nSo I got out of that field to do what we can believe we can be the only in\n\n444\n00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:23.780\nbaseball and\n\n445\n00:16:23.780 --> 00:16:24.780\nentertainment.\n\n446\n00:16:24.780 --> 00:16:27.470\nYou mentioned earlier that in a couple of years from now, you expect me playing\n\n447\n00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:27.900\nin major\n\n448\n00:16:27.900 --> 00:16:30.340\nleague baseball fields and major league stadiums.\n\n449\n00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:35.260\nAnd I know one of your dreams is to do a bananas game at Finway Park.\n\n450\n00:16:35.260 --> 00:16:38.020\nWhat would that mean to you when that happens?\n\n451\n00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:42.030\nSo growing up south of Boston, me and my dad, that was the one bond we had\n\n452\n00:16:42.030 --> 00:16:42.820\nbaseball.\n\n453\n00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:45.100\nMy dad would take me to the field and I was so fortunate.\n\n454\n00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:48.020\nHe got me to be an honorary bat boy when I was five years old.\n\n455\n00:16:48.020 --> 00:16:51.780\nAnd I sat next to Roger Clemens and Jody Reed and Wade Boggs and Lee Smith.\n\n456\n00:16:51.780 --> 00:16:53.740\nI was like, this is the best moment of my life.\n\n457\n00:16:53.740 --> 00:16:56.740\n15 years later, I got to pitch at Fenway in an all-star game.\n\n458\n00:16:56.740 --> 00:16:58.820\nMost adrenaline I ever had in the mountain.\n\n459\n00:16:58.820 --> 00:17:03.610\nAnd then for pretty much from seven years old until 22 years old, I dreamed\n\n460\n00:17:03.610 --> 00:17:03.980\nevery day\n\n461\n00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:08.100\nof getting the phone call from the Red Sox, getting drafted by the Red Sox.\n\n462\n00:17:08.100 --> 00:17:10.900\nAnd fortunately for me, that never happened because of what I'm doing now.\n\n463\n00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:13.900\nI had a shoulder surgery and that ended that dream.\n\n464\n00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:18.210\nBut the idea of us going to Fenway Park where I spent hundreds of games and\n\n465\n00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:19.020\ntaking my dad\n\n466\n00:17:19.020 --> 00:17:22.930\nout on the field and looking around and seeing a sold out crowd and say, Dad,\n\n467\n00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:23.340\nlook at what\n\n468\n00:17:23.340 --> 00:17:24.900\nwe did.\n\n469\n00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:28.740\nThis is a real special moment and I get emotional thinking about it because of\n\n470\n00:17:28.740 --> 00:17:29.460\nall the time,\n\n471\n00:17:29.460 --> 00:17:32.010\nall the dreams I had of playing there, I think what we're doing now with the\n\n472\n00:17:32.010 --> 00:17:32.460\nSavannah\n\n473\n00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:36.740\nbananas and doing it at Fenway would be even bigger than that by tenfold.\n\n474\n00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:37.940\nAnd that really excites me.\n\n475\n00:17:37.940 --> 00:17:40.540\nI can't wait for that to happen for you.\n\n476\n00:17:40.540 --> 00:17:44.420\nYou know, I'd have to imagine that you get all kinds of calls from major league\n\n477\n00:17:44.420 --> 00:17:45.020\nteams.\n\n478\n00:17:45.020 --> 00:17:49.780\nOne of the key things that you'd share that you believe would take what they do\n\n479\n00:17:49.780 --> 00:17:50.220\nto the\n\n480\n00:17:50.220 --> 00:17:51.220\nnext level.\n\n481\n00:17:51.220 --> 00:17:53.660\nI think goes back to a little bit what we were talking to.\n\n482\n00:17:53.660 --> 00:17:56.980\nPeople's attention is the number one thing people need to be successful.\n\n483\n00:17:56.980 --> 00:17:59.140\nYou know, everyone talks about the game being too long.\n\n484\n00:17:59.140 --> 00:18:00.140\nIt is.\n\n485\n00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:03.140\nIt's three hours and 12 minutes too long in baseball, which is a challenge.\n\n486\n00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:06.700\nBut I think it starts with the fundamental, why are we doing this?\n\n487\n00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:10.220\nAnd if everyone's competing on the same thing to win and lose, I think it's\n\n488\n00:18:10.220 --> 00:18:10.660\ntaking\n\n489\n00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:14.220\naway the opportunity for guys to just have fun and express themselves.\n\n490\n00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:18.080\nAnd I remember as a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr., and Ozzy Smith doing cartwhe\n\n491\n00:18:18.080 --> 00:18:19.340\nels and backflips\n\n492\n00:18:19.340 --> 00:18:22.020\nand guys coming up to bat just truly having fun.\n\n493\n00:18:22.020 --> 00:18:24.670\nThat's been frowned upon a little bit because you have to act like you've done\n\n494\n00:18:24.670 --> 00:18:25.220\nit before.\n\n495\n00:18:25.220 --> 00:18:29.180\nSo in baseball, I would really encourage guys expressing themselves.\n\n496\n00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:32.950\nDave, when you come to a bananas game, when we score our first run, the entire\n\n497\n00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:33.580\nteam runs\n\n498\n00:18:33.580 --> 00:18:35.980\nthrough the whole crowd high-fiving every fan.\n\n499\n00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:36.980\nIt's ridiculous.\n\n500\n00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:38.690\nYou look in the dugout and there's no one there because the players are out in\n\n501\n00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:39.300\nthe crowd\n\n502\n00:18:39.300 --> 00:18:40.540\nin the middle of the game.\n\n503\n00:18:40.540 --> 00:18:41.540\nAll right.\n\n504\n00:18:41.540 --> 00:18:43.220\nI'm not saying MLB can do that.\n\n505\n00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:46.300\nBut what if MLB broke down the barriers a little bit?\n\n506\n00:18:46.300 --> 00:18:50.060\nIt's hard to relate to a Mike Trout and Otani and some of these players.\n\n507\n00:18:50.060 --> 00:18:53.020\nBut why don't you let where the players can actually connect with the fans?\n\n508\n00:18:53.020 --> 00:18:54.020\nHave fun.\n\n509\n00:18:54.020 --> 00:18:55.780\nShow them joking around, being kids again.\n\n510\n00:18:55.780 --> 00:18:57.500\nThat's why we played the game when we started.\n\n511\n00:18:57.500 --> 00:19:00.220\nSo I would start just with, \"Hey, guys, what do we want to be?\n\n512\n00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:01.660\nWho are we trying to attract?\"\n\n513\n00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:05.180\nAnd how do we create attention by making things more fun, faster paced and more\n\n514\n00:19:05.180 --> 00:19:05.740\nenergized\n\n515\n00:19:05.740 --> 00:19:11.980\nfor the fan base?\n\n516\n00:19:11.980 --> 00:19:16.020\nI'm on a mission to make the world a better place by developing better leaders.\n\n517\n00:19:16.020 --> 00:19:20.060\nAnd every week, I send out an email called the weekly leadership plan where I\n\n518\n00:19:20.060 --> 00:19:20.540\ngive you\n\n519\n00:19:20.540 --> 00:19:24.660\nsome simple tips that you can apply to help you grow in your confidence as a\n\n520\n00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:25.420\nleader.\n\n521\n00:19:25.420 --> 00:19:28.300\nYou can get this weekly leadership plan for free.\n\n522\n00:19:28.300 --> 00:19:33.420\nJust go to howleaderslead.com/plan and sign up today.\n\n523\n00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:44.340\nAgain, that's howleaderslead.com/plan.\n\n524\n00:19:44.340 --> 00:19:47.420\nYou keep talking about attention and you live this every day.\n\n525\n00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:50.860\nYou put on your yellow tuxedo, you have the great top hat on.\n\n526\n00:19:50.860 --> 00:19:53.420\nIn a few years back, you had four.\n\n527\n00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:55.500\nNow you have seven.\n\n528\n00:19:55.500 --> 00:19:57.380\nYou really draw attention to yourself.\n\n529\n00:19:57.380 --> 00:20:03.060\nAnd I bet many times you feel like you're misunderstood in terms of doing that.\n\n530\n00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:04.300\nWhat's that like?\n\n531\n00:20:04.300 --> 00:20:08.340\nWhat's it like to feel misunderstood?\n\n532\n00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:10.460\nNot great, but we've been misunderstood since the beginning.\n\n533\n00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:14.480\nWhen we came up, the team named the Savannah bananas, the comments, the owners\n\n534\n00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:14.860\nshould\n\n535\n00:20:14.860 --> 00:20:15.860\nbe thrown out of town.\n\n536\n00:20:15.860 --> 00:20:17.580\nWhoever came up with his name should be fired.\n\n537\n00:20:17.580 --> 00:20:19.460\nI think Bezos said this best.\n\n538\n00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:21.500\nYou need to be willing to be misunderstood.\n\n539\n00:20:21.500 --> 00:20:25.040\nAnd people didn't understand what the heck an Alexa was or an Echo in the\n\n540\n00:20:25.040 --> 00:20:25.780\nbeginning.\n\n541\n00:20:25.780 --> 00:20:27.700\nPeople are like, \"Kindall, why do we need this?\"\n\n542\n00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:29.700\nSame thing with Steve Jobs and everything they invented.\n\n543\n00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:30.820\nIt was so far ahead of its time.\n\n544\n00:20:30.820 --> 00:20:32.700\nThe first people were, \"This is ridiculous.\n\n545\n00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:33.700\nThis won't work.\"\n\n546\n00:20:33.700 --> 00:20:35.990\nIf you ask people what they wanted back with Henry Ford's time, they would have\n\n547\n00:20:35.990 --> 00:20:36.220\nsaid\n\n548\n00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:37.380\n\"Fast our horses.\"\n\n549\n00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:39.660\nYou're used to the way things have been.\n\n550\n00:20:39.660 --> 00:20:42.100\nSo being misunderstood is tough.\n\n551\n00:20:42.100 --> 00:20:44.540\nWould wear this going through an airport that looks that I would get.\n\n552\n00:20:44.540 --> 00:20:46.620\nPeople would look and be like, \"What is wrong with this guy?\"\n\n553\n00:20:46.620 --> 00:20:48.860\nI still get it from time to time.\n\n554\n00:20:48.860 --> 00:20:53.480\nBut I think, David, if you want to get the hearts of your customers, your fans,\n\n555\n00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:53.860\nyou first\n\n556\n00:20:53.860 --> 00:20:55.100\nhave to get their eyes and ears.\n\n557\n00:20:55.100 --> 00:20:56.900\nYou have to get their attention.\n\n558\n00:20:56.900 --> 00:21:00.180\nIf people can't see you, then how can you actually get their hearts?\n\n559\n00:21:00.180 --> 00:21:03.480\nAnd so for us, I think we get the attention first and then they realize, \"Wow,\n\n560\n00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:03.860\nthis team\n\n561\n00:21:03.860 --> 00:21:05.180\nreally is fans first.\n\n562\n00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:06.180\nThey don't charge ticket fees.\n\n563\n00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:07.180\nThey don't charge convenient fees.\n\n564\n00:21:07.180 --> 00:21:08.660\nEvery ticket's all inclusive.\"\n\n565\n00:21:08.660 --> 00:21:09.660\nThey pay for my shipping.\n\n566\n00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:11.260\nThey give me free giveaways.\n\n567\n00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:12.980\nEverything we do is to try to create fans.\n\n568\n00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:16.500\nAnd once they see that, it often starts with the attention first.\n\n569\n00:21:16.500 --> 00:21:19.940\nHaving worked at KFC, Colonel Sanders was kind of like you, I would say.\n\n570\n00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:21.780\nHe had his white Colonel suit.\n\n571\n00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:25.260\nWhen he'd walk in the airport, he'd get all the attention, but it was to draw\n\n572\n00:21:25.260 --> 00:21:25.820\nattention\n\n573\n00:21:25.820 --> 00:21:28.220\nto the KFC brand.\n\n574\n00:21:28.220 --> 00:21:32.220\nDid you pick that up from him or where did you get the yellow Tuxedo idea?\n\n575\n00:21:32.220 --> 00:21:33.220\nP.T.\n\n576\n00:21:33.220 --> 00:21:34.220\nBarnum, P.T.\n\n577\n00:21:34.220 --> 00:21:35.220\nBarnum, 100%.\n\n578\n00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:36.220\nAnd P.T.\n\n579\n00:21:36.220 --> 00:21:37.220\nBarnum was a showman through and through.\n\n580\n00:21:37.220 --> 00:21:40.720\nEverything he was was about getting attention and he said, \"Without promotion,\n\n581\n00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:41.260\nsomething\n\n582\n00:21:41.260 --> 00:21:42.500\nterrible happens.\n\n583\n00:21:42.500 --> 00:21:43.500\nNothing.\"\n\n584\n00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:44.860\nThat's his quote.\n\n585\n00:21:44.860 --> 00:21:46.060\nAnd so I take that from him.\n\n586\n00:21:46.060 --> 00:21:49.960\nBut I think when you mention Colonel Sanders, he's not doing it because it's\n\n587\n00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:50.980\nabout himself.\n\n588\n00:21:50.980 --> 00:21:54.450\nHe's doing it because he believes so much in what he's doing and the brand and\n\n589\n00:21:54.450 --> 00:21:55.300\nthe product\n\n590\n00:21:55.300 --> 00:21:56.740\nthat he wants to draw attention.\n\n591\n00:21:56.740 --> 00:21:59.060\nI believe so much in the experience.\n\n592\n00:21:59.060 --> 00:22:03.170\nAnd when I watch a family that drives 40 hours from Utah to come to a game and\n\n593\n00:22:03.170 --> 00:22:03.300\nthey\n\n594\n00:22:03.300 --> 00:22:05.940\nthank me at the end of the night and they say they're driving 40 hours back\n\n595\n00:22:05.940 --> 00:22:06.380\ntomorrow\n\n596\n00:22:06.380 --> 00:22:08.420\nand it was everything they hoped it would be.\n\n597\n00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:11.570\nAnd when I have a family that flies in from another country and cries and hugs\n\n598\n00:22:11.570 --> 00:22:11.860\nme after\n\n599\n00:22:11.860 --> 00:22:14.500\nthe night because it was the most fun her family's ever had to get.\n\n600\n00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:17.570\nOf course I want to create attention because I want more people to experience\n\n601\n00:22:17.570 --> 00:22:18.060\nin that.\n\n602\n00:22:18.060 --> 00:22:19.460\nAnd so that's the root of it all.\n\n603\n00:22:19.460 --> 00:22:22.340\nAnd I applaud Colonel Sanders and anyone else who does it because it's not easy\n\n604\n00:22:22.340 --> 00:22:22.740\nbecause\n\n605\n00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:25.420\nyou will be misunderstood and people will think it's all about you.\n\n606\n00:22:25.420 --> 00:22:27.700\nBut it's also really about something much, much bigger.\n\n607\n00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:31.710\nWell, Colonel Sanders had a deep down conviction about customers and quality\n\n608\n00:22:31.710 --> 00:22:32.500\nand you've got\n\n609\n00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:33.860\na deep down conviction.\n\n610\n00:22:33.860 --> 00:22:38.020\nObviously just the passion that you have for what you do is contagious.\n\n611\n00:22:38.020 --> 00:22:42.200\nHow do you spread that conviction that you have to the people that work with\n\n612\n00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:42.700\nyou?\n\n613\n00:22:42.700 --> 00:22:44.700\nScream it from the mountaintops.\n\n614\n00:22:44.700 --> 00:22:47.960\nYou know, even just me doing this with you and doing this, I try to share as\n\n615\n00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:48.420\nmuch as\n\n616\n00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:49.420\nI can.\n\n617\n00:22:49.420 --> 00:22:52.980\nBob Iger talked about this and his great book Ride of a Lifetime.\n\n618\n00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:56.230\nHe's another one who I would absolutely love to meet, really blown away by his\n\n619\n00:22:56.230 --> 00:22:56.660\nvision and\n\n620\n00:22:56.660 --> 00:22:58.180\nwhat he was able to do.\n\n621\n00:22:58.180 --> 00:23:01.900\nBut what Iger said is often we lead by press release.\n\n622\n00:23:01.900 --> 00:23:05.120\nAnd so I share the big things that we're doing, the vision of what we're doing\n\n623\n00:23:05.120 --> 00:23:05.700\nto try to get\n\n624\n00:23:05.700 --> 00:23:08.180\npeople inspired by what's next.\n\n625\n00:23:08.180 --> 00:23:11.120\nAnd so he'd share an oppressor release and all the thousands and thousands of\n\n626\n00:23:11.120 --> 00:23:11.660\nemployees\n\n627\n00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:13.740\nand Disney say, \"Oh, look what we're doing next.\"\n\n628\n00:23:13.740 --> 00:23:15.060\nAnd that'd get people excited.\n\n629\n00:23:15.060 --> 00:23:17.380\nYou have to believe in where the company is going.\n\n630\n00:23:17.380 --> 00:23:19.260\nSo I share over and over again.\n\n631\n00:23:19.260 --> 00:23:21.860\nAnd here's one thing David that not many people know.\n\n632\n00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:26.500\nNot one player on our team gets a uniform until they go through a one-on-one,\n\n633\n00:23:26.500 --> 00:23:26.980\nfans-first\n\n634\n00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.300\norientation with me as the owner.\n\n635\n00:23:29.300 --> 00:23:30.980\nSo it starts with beginning the whole team.\n\n636\n00:23:30.980 --> 00:23:33.620\nAnd now as guys come in throughout the year, I'll sit down one-on-one with them\n\n637\n00:23:33.620 --> 00:23:34.020\nand I'll\n\n638\n00:23:34.020 --> 00:23:35.380\nsay, \"This is who we are.\n\n639\n00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:37.020\nThis is where we started the traditions.\n\n640\n00:23:37.020 --> 00:23:38.940\nThis is why we do what we do.\"\n\n641\n00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:42.610\nAnd I think sharing that vision with every player, every staff member really\n\n642\n00:23:42.610 --> 00:23:43.220\ngoes a long\n\n643\n00:23:43.220 --> 00:23:44.220\nway.\n\n644\n00:23:44.220 --> 00:23:47.830\nWell, you've got this great vision to make baseball fun and CBS Sunday morning,\n\n645\n00:23:47.830 --> 00:23:48.300\nanother\n\n646\n00:23:48.300 --> 00:23:53.780\nfairly prominent media vehicle, did a feature on you and the bananas in June.\n\n647\n00:23:53.780 --> 00:23:57.100\nAnd when they ask you how to do that, you said, \"Celebrate everything.\"\n\n648\n00:23:57.100 --> 00:24:00.540\nI'd love to hear a story about how you lead in this approach.\n\n649\n00:24:00.540 --> 00:24:05.460\nFirst of all, 1% of our budget goes solely to surprise and delight our team.\n\n650\n00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:06.460\n1%.\n\n651\n00:24:06.460 --> 00:24:10.090\nSo, give you an example, Marie, our fans-first director, her bucket list trip\n\n652\n00:24:10.090 --> 00:24:10.780\nwas to go to\n\n653\n00:24:10.780 --> 00:24:11.780\nIreland.\n\n654\n00:24:11.780 --> 00:24:14.500\nWe surprised her with a trip to go to Ireland with her dad.\n\n655\n00:24:14.500 --> 00:24:18.980\nWe've sent Danny to go to the Cleveland Indians World Series game back in 2016\n\n656\n00:24:18.980 --> 00:24:20.020\nwith his dad.\n\n657\n00:24:20.020 --> 00:24:23.210\nWe try to create memories and moments for our team and celebrate them and\n\n658\n00:24:23.210 --> 00:24:24.420\nrecognize them.\n\n659\n00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:27.210\nWe've sent people, you name it, anything on their bucket list because we\n\n660\n00:24:27.210 --> 00:24:27.980\nbelieve a memory\n\n661\n00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:31.850\nand experience is so much greater than just giving people cash, which we do,\n\n662\n00:24:31.850 --> 00:24:32.260\nbut that's\n\n663\n00:24:32.260 --> 00:24:33.260\nbig for us.\n\n664\n00:24:33.260 --> 00:24:34.540\nI'll give you an example.\n\n665\n00:24:34.540 --> 00:24:35.540\nTwo weeks ago, finished.\n\n666\n00:24:35.540 --> 00:24:38.220\nIt was a long night, 1 o'clock in the morning, David.\n\n667\n00:24:38.220 --> 00:24:39.420\nWe're having our fans-first moments.\n\n668\n00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:41.930\nAfter every game, we talk about the fans-first moments and we have someone that\n\n669\n00:24:41.930 --> 00:24:42.620\ngoes undercover\n\n670\n00:24:42.620 --> 00:24:44.940\nand talks about what they saw.\n\n671\n00:24:44.940 --> 00:24:49.540\nAnd the team wanted to play kickball under the lights at 1 in the morning.\n\n672\n00:24:49.540 --> 00:24:52.750\nAnd I looked at this and all of a sudden, we've got 50 people on our team\n\n673\n00:24:52.750 --> 00:24:53.860\nplaying kickball.\n\n674\n00:24:53.860 --> 00:24:55.060\nI played the DJ.\n\n675\n00:24:55.060 --> 00:24:56.860\nI was going around music.\n\n676\n00:24:56.860 --> 00:24:58.180\nI put everyone up.\n\n677\n00:24:58.180 --> 00:25:01.710\nWe were just celebrating each other by just having fun, getting to do what our\n\n678\n00:25:01.710 --> 00:25:02.140\nplayers\n\n679\n00:25:02.140 --> 00:25:03.340\nget to do.\n\n680\n00:25:03.340 --> 00:25:06.190\nAnd a night when no one else was there after a sold out crowd, that's a\n\n681\n00:25:06.190 --> 00:25:06.900\ndifferent level\n\n682\n00:25:06.900 --> 00:25:08.060\nof celebrating.\n\n683\n00:25:08.060 --> 00:25:11.090\nBut I think celebrating is just having fun together, being able to enjoy what\n\n684\n00:25:11.090 --> 00:25:11.420\nwe get\n\n685\n00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:13.140\nto do and actually be a part of it.\n\n686\n00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:17.800\nSpeaking of celebration, congratulations on the launch of your new book, fans-\n\n687\n00:25:17.800 --> 00:25:18.460\nfirst.\n\n688\n00:25:18.460 --> 00:25:20.300\nIt's absolutely terrific.\n\n689\n00:25:20.300 --> 00:25:25.420\nWhat's the main lesson that you're wanting your readers to walk away with?\n\n690\n00:25:25.420 --> 00:25:28.500\nWhile chasing customers, start creating fans.\n\n691\n00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:32.390\nIf I could simplify it in that, from a business standpoint, everything changed\n\n692\n00:25:32.390 --> 00:25:33.260\nwhen we stopped\n\n693\n00:25:33.260 --> 00:25:38.460\nfocusing on short-term profits and started focusing on creating long-term fans.\n\n694\n00:25:38.460 --> 00:25:41.540\nWhen you get together, most companies talk about how do we drive revenue?\n\n695\n00:25:41.540 --> 00:25:42.940\nHow do we drive sales?\n\n696\n00:25:42.940 --> 00:25:45.260\nHow do we drive the next quarterly results?\n\n697\n00:25:45.260 --> 00:25:46.820\nWe're focused on the next quarter century.\n\n698\n00:25:46.820 --> 00:25:49.180\nI beat David, this is up to nobody people though.\n\n699\n00:25:49.180 --> 00:25:50.380\nWe pay your taxes.\n\n700\n00:25:50.380 --> 00:25:51.380\nSo give an example.\n\n701\n00:25:51.380 --> 00:25:54.810\nIf you go to a sporting event and you buy food or drink or tickets, you pay\n\n702\n00:25:54.810 --> 00:25:55.400\ntaxes on\n\n703\n00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:56.400\nthose.\n\n704\n00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:57.240\nIt's just normal.\n\n705\n00:25:57.240 --> 00:25:58.420\nWe pay your taxes for you.\n\n706\n00:25:58.420 --> 00:26:01.500\nA $20 tickets, $20, a $6 beer, $6.\n\n707\n00:26:01.500 --> 00:26:03.100\nAll your food is free.\n\n708\n00:26:03.100 --> 00:26:04.700\nThat's part of it.\n\n709\n00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:05.940\nIs it dumb in a business sense?\n\n710\n00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:07.500\nIn the short term, you better believe it.\n\n711\n00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:10.890\nBut in the long term, I think people want to trust us and are loyal to us and\n\n712\n00:26:10.890 --> 00:26:11.180\nwill buy\n\n713\n00:26:11.180 --> 00:26:14.420\nmerchandise and wear us proudly all over the world.\n\n714\n00:26:14.420 --> 00:26:19.240\nI believe everybody, whatever you do, whatever business, focus on creating fans\n\n715\n00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:19.420\n.\n\n716\n00:26:19.420 --> 00:26:20.620\nHere's the little key.\n\n717\n00:26:20.620 --> 00:26:22.620\nThe biggest fan has to be yourself.\n\n718\n00:26:22.620 --> 00:26:25.960\nThe biggest fan has to be yourself and whatever you do.\n\n719\n00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:29.110\nAnd if you're not a huge fan of what you do, you need to reflect back and think\n\n720\n00:26:29.110 --> 00:26:29.520\n, is this\n\n721\n00:26:29.520 --> 00:26:31.240\nthe best thing for me to be doing?\n\n722\n00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:32.240\nGreat point.\n\n723\n00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:37.080\nI think people need to find their joy and you obviously have a lot of it.\n\n724\n00:26:37.080 --> 00:26:40.600\nIn your book, you talk about this concept called \"plussing.\"\n\n725\n00:26:40.600 --> 00:26:41.600\nWhat do you mean by that?\n\n726\n00:26:41.600 --> 00:26:44.480\nAnd what's an example of how you're living out this principle?\n\n727\n00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:47.880\nThe fun thing about that too is that chapter is after the book is over.\n\n728\n00:26:47.880 --> 00:26:51.110\nSo literally the book ends with the acknowledgments, the gratitude, everything\n\n729\n00:26:51.110 --> 00:26:51.480\nelse.\n\n730\n00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:52.860\nAnd then \"plussing\" is the end.\n\n731\n00:26:52.860 --> 00:26:55.460\n\"Plussing\" is a term learned from Walt Disney.\n\n732\n00:26:55.460 --> 00:26:58.250\nAnd I know I'm like a broken record with him, but I have researched and studied\n\n733\n00:26:58.250 --> 00:26:58.660\nhim more\n\n734\n00:26:58.660 --> 00:27:00.020\nthan anybody.\n\n735\n00:27:00.020 --> 00:27:01.420\nAnd he said it back.\n\n736\n00:27:01.420 --> 00:27:04.060\nHe said, \"Disneyland is a living breathing thing.\n\n737\n00:27:04.060 --> 00:27:05.300\nIt'll never be complete.\n\n738\n00:27:05.300 --> 00:27:08.500\nWe'll continue to pluss the show and pluss the experience.\"\n\n739\n00:27:08.500 --> 00:27:12.470\nAnd he was so obsessed that he would literally, when they were selling out\n\n740\n00:27:12.470 --> 00:27:13.500\ncrowds in Disneyland\n\n741\n00:27:13.500 --> 00:27:16.810\nand Christmastime, he would convince the managers and accountants to spend\n\n742\n00:27:16.810 --> 00:27:19.180\nanother $350,000\n\n743\n00:27:19.180 --> 00:27:21.540\nand having a special Christmas parade.\n\n744\n00:27:21.540 --> 00:27:23.220\nAnd they said, \"Well, we don't need to do this.\n\n745\n00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:24.220\nIt's already at capacity.\"\n\n746\n00:27:24.220 --> 00:27:28.270\nHe goes, \"No, we have to continue to do this so people want to continue to come\n\n747\n00:27:28.270 --> 00:27:28.860\nback.\"\n\n748\n00:27:28.860 --> 00:27:30.940\nAnd that is the method of plussing.\n\n749\n00:27:30.940 --> 00:27:34.900\nSo to give you an example, every night after the game, myself and our director\n\n750\n00:27:34.900 --> 00:27:35.900\nin entertainment,\n\n751\n00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:39.130\nwe go through our script and we do laps around the field looking at every\n\n752\n00:27:39.130 --> 00:27:39.980\nsingle moment and\n\n753\n00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:43.700\nsaying, \"How do we make it a little bit better, a little bit better?\"\n\n754\n00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:46.100\nLike we used to have a seventh inning stretch like everyone does.\n\n755\n00:27:46.100 --> 00:27:49.840\nNow we sing the song \"Yellow\" by Coldplay and we actually, everyone puts flash\n\n756\n00:27:49.840 --> 00:27:50.380\nlights in\n\n757\n00:27:50.380 --> 00:27:53.980\nthe air and the whole stadium is lit up and it says, \"Look at the stars.\n\n758\n00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:55.620\nLook how they shine for you.\"\n\n759\n00:27:55.620 --> 00:27:57.020\nAnd it was all yellow.\n\n760\n00:27:57.020 --> 00:27:58.300\nAnd that's a little plus moment.\n\n761\n00:27:58.300 --> 00:27:59.660\nSay the seventh inning stretch could be better.\n\n762\n00:27:59.660 --> 00:28:01.300\nHow do we make it our own moment?\n\n763\n00:28:01.300 --> 00:28:04.850\nEvery single thing that we look at, the player dances, the banana nana dances,\n\n764\n00:28:04.850 --> 00:28:05.620\nthe break,\n\n765\n00:28:05.620 --> 00:28:07.380\nit's like, \"Ooh, what if we add this level?\n\n766\n00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:08.380\nAdd this.\"\n\n767\n00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:10.910\nAnd that's the tinkering that I think when you start doing that, it makes a\n\n768\n00:28:10.910 --> 00:28:11.500\nhuge adjustment.\n\n769\n00:28:11.500 --> 00:28:21.440\nWe'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Jesse Cole in just a moment\n\n770\n00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:21.500\n.\n\n771\n00:28:21.500 --> 00:28:25.350\nIn my conversation with Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball,\n\n772\n00:28:25.350 --> 00:28:25.740\nhe talks\n\n773\n00:28:25.740 --> 00:28:28.580\nabout his vision for the future of the sport.\n\n774\n00:28:28.580 --> 00:28:35.340\nMy goal is I want to make sure that baseball stays the national pastime.\n\n775\n00:28:35.340 --> 00:28:38.870\nYou know, we're probably not going to be football in terms of popularity, but I\n\n776\n00:28:38.870 --> 00:28:39.580\nthink baseball\n\n777\n00:28:39.580 --> 00:28:44.300\nhas a cultural significance that football is never going to have.\n\n778\n00:28:44.300 --> 00:28:47.600\nAnd I want to make sure that sports stays popular enough that we keep that\n\n779\n00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:48.060\ntitle.\n\n780\n00:28:48.060 --> 00:28:52.050\nSo if you're a baseball fan or simply want to hear how someone like Rob leads\n\n781\n00:28:52.050 --> 00:28:52.460\nat the\n\n782\n00:28:52.460 --> 00:28:57.030\nhighest level of this profession, you're going to love my conversation with Rob\n\n783\n00:28:57.030 --> 00:28:58.060\nManfred.\n\n784\n00:28:58.060 --> 00:29:08.300\nEpisode 91 here on How Leaders Lead.\n\n785\n00:29:08.300 --> 00:29:12.510\nYou know, you keep evolving, keep learning, keep pushing yourself, keep pushing\n\n786\n00:29:12.510 --> 00:29:13.020\nyour team\n\n787\n00:29:13.020 --> 00:29:15.340\nto take it to the next level.\n\n788\n00:29:15.340 --> 00:29:18.090\nWhat do you know today, Jesse, when you look back that you wish you would have\n\n789\n00:29:18.090 --> 00:29:18.620\nknown when\n\n790\n00:29:18.620 --> 00:29:23.820\nyou started the team in 2016 because you have certainly come a long way?\n\n791\n00:29:23.820 --> 00:29:24.820\nFocus.\n\n792\n00:29:24.820 --> 00:29:25.820\nFocus, my friend.\n\n793\n00:29:25.820 --> 00:29:27.900\nWe had three teams back in the day.\n\n794\n00:29:27.900 --> 00:29:30.660\nWe were selling sponsorship, doing events.\n\n795\n00:29:30.660 --> 00:29:31.660\nPeople don't know this, David.\n\n796\n00:29:31.660 --> 00:29:33.260\nWe have zero sponsorship at our stadium.\n\n797\n00:29:33.260 --> 00:29:34.500\nWe eliminated all the ads.\n\n798\n00:29:34.500 --> 00:29:38.200\nOne of the dumbest baseball teams to throw away millions of dollars of\n\n799\n00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:39.300\nadvertising money\n\n800\n00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:40.780\nright before COVID.\n\n801\n00:29:40.780 --> 00:29:42.940\nBut we were selling all this and we weren't that good at it.\n\n802\n00:29:42.940 --> 00:29:44.820\nWe didn't believe in it as much.\n\n803\n00:29:44.820 --> 00:29:46.740\nWe had tons of events at our ballpark.\n\n804\n00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:50.160\nWe had food truck festivals and haunted stadiums and the running of the bananas\n\n805\n00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:50.940\n, the 5K with\n\n806\n00:29:50.940 --> 00:29:52.900\nlike a thousand people and banana costumes.\n\n807\n00:29:52.900 --> 00:29:57.580\nThey all did okay, but it spread our focus on what we could be the best at.\n\n808\n00:29:57.580 --> 00:29:59.580\nAnd so now everyone's like, are you going to get more teams?\n\n809\n00:29:59.580 --> 00:30:00.580\nAre you going to go to the bigs?\n\n810\n00:30:00.580 --> 00:30:01.580\nAre you going to do this?\n\n811\n00:30:01.580 --> 00:30:04.890\nWe're singularly focused on the Savannah bananas and making baseball fun and\n\n812\n00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:05.940\ncreating the greatest\n\n813\n00:30:05.940 --> 00:30:08.500\nshow in sports every night at our ballpark.\n\n814\n00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:10.860\nWe don't focus on all that other auxiliary.\n\n815\n00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:12.580\nAnd so we can become the best at that.\n\n816\n00:30:12.580 --> 00:30:15.220\nAnd so I think at the beginning, we tried so many other things.\n\n817\n00:30:15.220 --> 00:30:18.640\nIt was like, oh, the shiny object syndrome, this squirrel, squirrel, squirrel,\n\n818\n00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:19.100\njust going\n\n819\n00:30:19.100 --> 00:30:22.140\nfrom thing to thing to thing, which a lot of creators do.\n\n820\n00:30:22.140 --> 00:30:23.940\nBut now I'm really focused on this one thing.\n\n821\n00:30:23.940 --> 00:30:27.020\nAnd because of that, the momentum has been better than I could ever imagine.\n\n822\n00:30:27.020 --> 00:30:29.220\nJesse, this has been so much fun catching up.\n\n823\n00:30:29.220 --> 00:30:32.770\nAnd now I want to have a little more with some rapid fire questions and what I\n\n824\n00:30:32.770 --> 00:30:33.860\ncall my lightning\n\n825\n00:30:33.860 --> 00:30:34.860\nround here.\n\n826\n00:30:34.860 --> 00:30:35.860\nAre you ready for this?\n\n827\n00:30:35.860 --> 00:30:36.860\nLet's do it.\n\n828\n00:30:36.860 --> 00:30:39.620\nThe three words that best describe you.\n\n829\n00:30:39.620 --> 00:30:41.620\nOh, geez.\n\n830\n00:30:41.620 --> 00:30:44.420\nPeople would say probably crazy, fun, outgoing.\n\n831\n00:30:44.420 --> 00:30:48.980\nIf you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be and why?\n\n832\n00:30:48.980 --> 00:30:51.620\nI have to go back to 1960 and be Walt Disney.\n\n833\n00:30:51.620 --> 00:30:52.620\nI'm sorry.\n\n834\n00:30:52.620 --> 00:30:53.620\nI got to go back, man.\n\n835\n00:30:53.620 --> 00:30:55.940\nI got to go put myself in his shoes.\n\n836\n00:30:55.940 --> 00:30:57.780\nWhat's your biggest pet peeve?\n\n837\n00:30:57.780 --> 00:31:00.660\nIt's always been done that way.\n\n838\n00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:04.020\nIf I were to get in your car right now, what would be coming out of the\n\n839\n00:31:04.020 --> 00:31:04.740\nspeakers?\n\n840\n00:31:04.740 --> 00:31:07.020\nOh, I like this one.\n\n841\n00:31:07.020 --> 00:31:08.020\nI like this one.\n\n842\n00:31:08.020 --> 00:31:09.020\nThis one's fun.\n\n843\n00:31:09.020 --> 00:31:11.500\nIf it's not a podcast, a business podcast, which I hate, I'll go.\n\n844\n00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:12.940\nI always say this.\n\n845\n00:31:12.940 --> 00:31:13.940\nAll right.\n\n846\n00:31:13.940 --> 00:31:16.500\nTropical house radio, country music or big booty mix.\n\n847\n00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:18.990\nI can't believe I just said that on there, but it's a very fun mix and we have\n\n848\n00:31:18.990 --> 00:31:19.260\na lot\n\n849\n00:31:19.260 --> 00:31:21.100\nof fun with my team.\n\n850\n00:31:21.100 --> 00:31:24.980\nWhat's something about you that few people would know?\n\n851\n00:31:24.980 --> 00:31:29.480\nMost people don't know that my wife and I are foster parents to two beautiful\n\n852\n00:31:29.480 --> 00:31:30.500\nand amazing\n\n853\n00:31:30.500 --> 00:31:33.820\nyoung girls, one three year old and one baby.\n\n854\n00:31:33.820 --> 00:31:38.740\nIt's been a dream of my wife and I to help with the problem of the fact that\n\n855\n00:31:38.740 --> 00:31:39.300\nthere's\n\n856\n00:31:39.300 --> 00:31:45.020\nso many kids in this country that don't have a home, over 500,000 right now.\n\n857\n00:31:45.020 --> 00:31:49.010\nIt's a dream that we've thought about for many years, but not many people talk\n\n858\n00:31:49.010 --> 00:31:50.420\nabout.\n\n859\n00:31:50.420 --> 00:31:54.200\nAs we think about where we're going with this, we have a bigger dream that as\n\n860\n00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:54.820\nwe travel all\n\n861\n00:31:54.820 --> 00:31:59.110\nover the country, we want to start a nonprofit to build awareness and help the\n\n862\n00:31:59.110 --> 00:31:59.660\nkids in a\n\n863\n00:31:59.660 --> 00:32:02.780\nnonprofit will be called Bananas Foster.\n\n864\n00:32:02.780 --> 00:32:07.660\nAs we grow that, we hope that we can really, really help every single kid find\n\n865\n00:32:07.660 --> 00:32:08.180\na home that\n\n866\n00:32:08.180 --> 00:32:09.180\ndeserves one.\n\n867\n00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:10.180\nGod bless you.\n\n868\n00:32:10.180 --> 00:32:11.180\nI love that.\n\n869\n00:32:11.180 --> 00:32:13.820\nIf there's anybody that could do it, you can.\n\n870\n00:32:13.820 --> 00:32:19.580\nWhat's your favorite thing you've done to entertain fans during a game?\n\n871\n00:32:19.580 --> 00:32:23.500\nYou're talking to a guy that has done way too many things that have not worked.\n\n872\n00:32:23.500 --> 00:32:26.630\nObviously, there's moments that say the first time the break, dance and coach,\n\n873\n00:32:26.630 --> 00:32:27.020\ndance and\n\n874\n00:32:27.020 --> 00:32:30.020\nthe crowd when Nia, the dancing on fire, all those different moments, the\n\n875\n00:32:30.020 --> 00:32:30.780\nplayers, the\n\n876\n00:32:30.780 --> 00:32:33.300\nplayer coming up and doing a split in the batter's box and being the smallest\n\n877\n00:32:33.300 --> 00:32:33.620\nstrike\n\n878\n00:32:33.620 --> 00:32:37.370\nzone ever, the guy pitching instills the world's tallest pitcher, all those\n\n879\n00:32:37.370 --> 00:32:38.060\nstand out.\n\n880\n00:32:38.060 --> 00:32:42.090\nBut for me, it's in the top of the fourth inning, every single game where the\n\n881\n00:32:42.090 --> 00:32:42.860\nwhole sold out\n\n882\n00:32:42.860 --> 00:32:48.770\ncrowd or in Savannah or another stadium gets up and dances, \"Hey, baby, oh, ah\n\n883\n00:32:48.770 --> 00:32:48.900\n.\"\n\n884\n00:32:48.900 --> 00:32:53.400\nAnd 4,000 plus people are doing this dance in unison and you look around and\n\n885\n00:32:53.400 --> 00:32:54.460\nsay, \"Wow,\n\n886\n00:32:54.460 --> 00:32:56.620\nthere's nowhere else in the world this is happening.\n\n887\n00:32:56.620 --> 00:33:00.060\nWe are just having fun together, whether you're two years old or 82 years old.\n\n888\n00:33:00.060 --> 00:33:02.180\nThat's an every night thing that I'll never get old of.\"\n\n889\n00:33:02.180 --> 00:33:06.020\nWhen did the light bulb go off for you when you said, \"Hey, you know what?\n\n890\n00:33:06.020 --> 00:33:07.740\nI'm not in the baseball business.\n\n891\n00:33:07.740 --> 00:33:09.900\nI'm in the entertainment business.\"\n\n892\n00:33:09.900 --> 00:33:12.500\nWhen did you have that monumental moment?\n\n893\n00:33:12.500 --> 00:33:15.740\nVery similar to Walt when he was on an suspension Griffith Park with Diane and\n\n894\n00:33:15.740 --> 00:33:16.540\nSharon on the\n\n895\n00:33:16.540 --> 00:33:20.350\ncarousel and he said, \"I wish there was a place adults and kids could have fun\n\n896\n00:33:20.350 --> 00:33:20.460\n.\"\n\n897\n00:33:20.460 --> 00:33:25.220\nMine happened on a bench up in Cape Cod, coutuit, Massachusetts.\n\n898\n00:33:25.220 --> 00:33:26.940\nI was coaching in the Cape Cod League.\n\n899\n00:33:26.940 --> 00:33:30.550\nI was a volunteer assistant coach and I was sitting in the dugout, David, with\n\n900\n00:33:30.550 --> 00:33:31.060\nthe best\n\n901\n00:33:31.060 --> 00:33:32.060\nplayers in the country.\n\n902\n00:33:32.060 --> 00:33:35.550\nI mean, all these guys would go on and play professional baseball in the MLB,\n\n903\n00:33:35.550 --> 00:33:35.860\nbest seat\n\n904\n00:33:35.860 --> 00:33:37.860\nin the house, third inning.\n\n905\n00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:41.340\nAnd I sat there and I said, \"I'm bored out of my mind.\"\n\n906\n00:33:41.340 --> 00:33:44.740\nAnd I remember this because I remember loving playing the game.\n\n907\n00:33:44.740 --> 00:33:45.740\nThere's a difference.\n\n908\n00:33:45.740 --> 00:33:47.700\nI'm pitching and you're hitting your playing game.\n\n909\n00:33:47.700 --> 00:33:50.980\nBut sitting in the best seat in the house, I was bored.\n\n910\n00:33:50.980 --> 00:33:54.650\nAnd I said, \"If I'm going to run a team, I want to make it so every moment is\n\n911\n00:33:54.650 --> 00:33:55.300\nexciting,\n\n912\n00:33:55.300 --> 00:33:56.300\nis entertaining.\n\n913\n00:33:56.300 --> 00:33:59.240\nSo everyone, whether you played baseball or didn't, you can have fun at a\n\n914\n00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:00.580\nbaseball game.\"\n\n915\n00:34:00.580 --> 00:34:01.580\nAnd that was that moment.\n\n916\n00:34:01.580 --> 00:34:03.460\nI recall it vividly to this day.\n\n917\n00:34:03.460 --> 00:34:04.460\nThat's great.\n\n918\n00:34:04.460 --> 00:34:08.890\nWhat's one piece of advice, Jesse, you give to anyone who wants to improve as a\n\n919\n00:34:08.890 --> 00:34:09.660\nleader?\n\n920\n00:34:09.660 --> 00:34:14.010\nBe patient in what you want for yourself, but be impatient in how much you give\n\n921\n00:34:14.010 --> 00:34:14.940\nto others.\n\n922\n00:34:14.940 --> 00:34:17.980\nAnd this has been on our fans' first playbook since day one.\n\n923\n00:34:17.980 --> 00:34:19.780\nI preach it in fans first.\n\n924\n00:34:19.780 --> 00:34:23.070\nAnd I think the reality is we want things so quick about how often we focus on\n\n925\n00:34:23.070 --> 00:34:23.500\nhow much\n\n926\n00:34:23.500 --> 00:34:26.760\nvalue, how much you can give to others, whether you're a leader and it's your\n\n927\n00:34:26.760 --> 00:34:27.340\nteam or your\n\n928\n00:34:27.340 --> 00:34:28.860\ncustomers or your fans.\n\n929\n00:34:28.860 --> 00:34:31.750\nSo every day, playing the long game, my friend, you play the long game, things\n\n930\n00:34:31.750 --> 00:34:32.380\nusually work\n\n931\n00:34:32.380 --> 00:34:33.460\nout pretty well in the end.\n\n932\n00:34:33.460 --> 00:34:37.550\nI know why you're so happy because the happiest people in the world are other\n\n933\n00:34:37.550 --> 00:34:38.380\ndirected.\n\n934\n00:34:38.380 --> 00:34:42.020\nAnd that's why you've got that beaming smile on your face.\n\n935\n00:34:42.020 --> 00:34:45.900\nYou know, I want you to leave us with one final story that speaks to the\n\n936\n00:34:45.900 --> 00:34:47.020\nheartbeat of why\n\n937\n00:34:47.020 --> 00:34:49.820\nyou and your team do all that you do.\n\n938\n00:34:49.820 --> 00:34:53.390\nIt goes to our team, a gentleman named Reginald Horton, Reggie, as he's called\n\n939\n00:34:53.390 --> 00:34:55.140\nby all the guys.\n\n940\n00:34:55.140 --> 00:34:57.740\nAnd the first year Reginald reached out to us wanting a job.\n\n941\n00:34:57.740 --> 00:34:59.020\nWe didn't have a team name.\n\n942\n00:34:59.020 --> 00:35:00.020\nWe were on the Airbed David.\n\n943\n00:35:00.020 --> 00:35:03.440\nLike, we weren't thinking about game day staff, but he called every single week\n\n944\n00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:03.660\n.\n\n945\n00:35:03.660 --> 00:35:07.500\nReginald has a mental disability, but the biggest heart you'd ever imagined.\n\n946\n00:35:07.500 --> 00:35:09.860\nAnd so finally we said, \"Yes, come join our team.\"\n\n947\n00:35:09.860 --> 00:35:12.910\nAnd so he joined our staff, joined our team, became a part of it, and just did\n\n948\n00:35:12.910 --> 00:35:13.260\neverything\n\n949\n00:35:13.260 --> 00:35:14.260\nin the ballpark.\n\n950\n00:35:14.260 --> 00:35:16.340\nConcessions, trash, maybe did it all.\n\n951\n00:35:16.340 --> 00:35:21.340\nAnd so a couple of years ago, he said, \"Jessia, my birthday's on a game day.\n\n952\n00:35:21.340 --> 00:35:22.340\nIt's a big birthday.\n\n953\n00:35:22.340 --> 00:35:24.020\nIt's turning 40 years old, big birthday.\n\n954\n00:35:24.020 --> 00:35:25.620\nIt's my birthday's on a game day.\"\n\n955\n00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:27.260\nI go, \"Okay, great Reginald, that's awesome.\n\n956\n00:35:27.260 --> 00:35:29.260\nIt goes just want to let you know.\"\n\n957\n00:35:29.260 --> 00:35:33.100\nAnd he proceeded to tell every single person on the staff his birthday was on a\n\n958\n00:35:33.100 --> 00:35:33.740\ngame day.\n\n959\n00:35:33.740 --> 00:35:38.450\nFor two weeks, up until his day, his game came, his birthday came, and we're\n\n960\n00:35:38.450 --> 00:35:38.740\nhaving\n\n961\n00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:41.780\nour pep rally with the whole staff, getting ready for the night, fired up.\n\n962\n00:35:41.780 --> 00:35:44.470\nAnd all of a sudden I took Reginald around, and everyone started singing Happy\n\n963\n00:35:44.470 --> 00:35:45.020\nBirthday.\n\n964\n00:35:45.020 --> 00:35:48.540\nAnd he goes, \"For me, of course Reginald, it's for you.\n\n965\n00:35:48.540 --> 00:35:50.300\nYou told everyone on the staff.\"\n\n966\n00:35:50.300 --> 00:35:51.940\nAnd so we gave him, obviously a cake.\n\n967\n00:35:51.940 --> 00:35:52.940\nWe sang Happy Birthday.\n\n968\n00:35:52.940 --> 00:35:53.940\nWe gave him balloons.\n\n969\n00:35:53.940 --> 00:35:56.220\nAnd I said, \"Reginald, hey, one more thing.\"\n\n970\n00:35:56.220 --> 00:35:57.540\nAnd I learned this from Steve Jobs.\n\n971\n00:35:57.540 --> 00:35:58.540\nAlways have one more thing.\n\n972\n00:35:58.540 --> 00:35:59.540\nI said, \"One more thing.\n\n973\n00:35:59.540 --> 00:36:01.460\nCan you come down to the dugout before the game?\"\n\n974\n00:36:01.460 --> 00:36:03.780\nHe goes, \"Sure, Jesse, whatever you need, whatever you need, sure.\"\n\n975\n00:36:03.780 --> 00:36:05.220\nComes down the dugout right before the game.\n\n976\n00:36:05.220 --> 00:36:09.380\nGot 4,000 people standing for the player introductions, the pep pans on the dug\n\n977\n00:36:09.380 --> 00:36:10.540\nout, everyone's fired\n\n978\n00:36:10.540 --> 00:36:14.140\nup, batting first, batting second, batting third, all the starters come out.\n\n979\n00:36:14.140 --> 00:36:16.740\nWe say, \"Last but not least, fans, you know him, you love him.\n\n980\n00:36:16.740 --> 00:36:18.340\nLet's hear it for Reginald.\"\n\n981\n00:36:18.340 --> 00:36:20.380\nHe throws his arm straight up in the air.\n\n982\n00:36:20.380 --> 00:36:22.460\nHe runs through the line high-fiving every player.\n\n983\n00:36:22.460 --> 00:36:26.640\nAnd at the end, our coaches, they are waiting for him with a jersey with his\n\n984\n00:36:26.640 --> 00:36:27.460\nname on it.\n\n985\n00:36:27.460 --> 00:36:28.820\nAnd he gave Reginald the jersey.\n\n986\n00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:32.060\nReginald put the jersey on, lined up for the National Anthem with the team.\n\n987\n00:36:32.060 --> 00:36:35.660\nAnd I watched as a tear came down the side of his face.\n\n988\n00:36:35.660 --> 00:36:39.710\nAnd at the end of the night, Reginald said that was one of the best days of his\n\n989\n00:36:39.710 --> 00:36:40.300\nlife.\n\n990\n00:36:40.300 --> 00:36:43.920\nSo fast forward, the next year, the player said, \"Can Reginald be a coach with\n\n991\n00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:44.300\nus?\"\n\n992\n00:36:44.300 --> 00:36:46.420\nSo Reginald became a coach for the team.\n\n993\n00:36:46.420 --> 00:36:49.980\nState and the dugout made the Reginald, which was really just power-aid.\n\n994\n00:36:49.980 --> 00:36:51.220\nAnd he gave pep talks to the guys.\n\n995\n00:36:51.220 --> 00:36:57.260\nAnd he'd say, \"Guys, hitters, tonight, don't swing at anything unnecessary.\"\n\n996\n00:36:57.260 --> 00:36:58.980\nI mean, it was hilarious.\n\n997\n00:36:58.980 --> 00:37:00.060\nAmazing pep talks.\n\n998\n00:37:00.060 --> 00:37:02.260\nThe team won the championship last year.\n\n999\n00:37:02.260 --> 00:37:05.020\nAnd when they won the championship, they handed the trophy to Regie.\n\n1000\n00:37:05.020 --> 00:37:09.140\nAnd at home plate, the entire stadium and the players were chanting, \"Regie,\n\n1001\n00:37:09.140 --> 00:37:11.540\nRegie, Regie.\"\n\n1002\n00:37:11.540 --> 00:37:13.020\nAnd now he's a coach on the team.\n\n1003\n00:37:13.020 --> 00:37:14.020\nHe's a part of it.\n\n1004\n00:37:14.020 --> 00:37:15.740\nAnd it all started with just a birthday a few years ago.\n\n1005\n00:37:15.740 --> 00:37:16.740\nPretty special.\n\n1006\n00:37:16.740 --> 00:37:21.280\nWell, the great story that is, I've had the opportunity to talk to you, I mean,\n\n1007\n00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:21.780\nmaybe\n\n1008\n00:37:21.780 --> 00:37:23.820\nfour or five times, Jesse.\n\n1009\n00:37:23.820 --> 00:37:26.340\nI feel like I've known you forever.\n\n1010\n00:37:26.340 --> 00:37:32.260\nAnd I want to just thank you by just recognizing you for reaching out to me.\n\n1011\n00:37:32.260 --> 00:37:37.030\nYou know, I'll never forget the yellow no card you sent me, recognizing me for,\n\n1012\n00:37:37.030 --> 00:37:37.540\nI think,\n\n1013\n00:37:37.540 --> 00:37:41.380\na book or two that you'd read of mine and had an impact on your life.\n\n1014\n00:37:41.380 --> 00:37:45.900\nAnd then you put your yellow business card along with the letter.\n\n1015\n00:37:45.900 --> 00:37:47.620\nAnd I had to call you.\n\n1016\n00:37:47.620 --> 00:37:48.860\nAnd I did.\n\n1017\n00:37:48.860 --> 00:37:50.020\nAnd you know what?\n\n1018\n00:37:50.020 --> 00:37:53.060\nWe've developed into friends from far away.\n\n1019\n00:37:53.060 --> 00:37:56.480\nAnd I want to thank you so much for taking the time to be on this podcast and\n\n1020\n00:37:56.480 --> 00:37:56.980\nkeep up\n\n1021\n00:37:56.980 --> 00:37:57.980\nthe great work.\n\n1022\n00:37:57.980 --> 00:38:00.340\nI hope to see you at Fenway Park.\n\n1023\n00:38:00.340 --> 00:38:04.100\nAnd I hope all your dreams come true because you are doing such good in the\n\n1024\n00:38:04.100 --> 00:38:04.660\nworld.\n\n1025\n00:38:04.660 --> 00:38:05.660\nWow.\n\n1026\n00:38:05.660 --> 00:38:06.660\nYou've inspired me more than you know.\n\n1027\n00:38:06.660 --> 00:38:07.660\nAnd I've shared that since the beginning.\n\n1028\n00:38:07.660 --> 00:38:10.220\nI've told you, I always think, what would David do in this situation?\n\n1029\n00:38:10.220 --> 00:38:12.980\nAnd I still think about that from time to time because of the leader you were.\n\n1030\n00:38:12.980 --> 00:38:15.180\nAnd I will hold you to something right now, David.\n\n1031\n00:38:15.180 --> 00:38:17.660\nWhen we play at Fenway, I want you at that game.\n\n1032\n00:38:17.660 --> 00:38:18.740\nI will be there.\n\n1033\n00:38:18.740 --> 00:38:19.740\nI will be there.\n\n1034\n00:38:19.740 --> 00:38:20.740\nOkay?\n\n1035\n00:38:20.740 --> 00:38:21.740\nThanks, buddy.\n\n1036\n00:38:21.740 --> 00:38:22.740\nI appreciate it.\n\n1037\n00:38:22.740 --> 00:38:33.060\nWell, that was just way too much fun.\n\n1038\n00:38:33.060 --> 00:38:37.360\nI have no doubt we're going to see the Savannah Bananas play at Fenway Park\n\n1039\n00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:38.180\nsomeday.\n\n1040\n00:38:38.180 --> 00:38:39.020\nAnd you know what?\n\n1041\n00:38:39.020 --> 00:38:41.260\nI told Jesse, I'm going to be there.\n\n1042\n00:38:41.260 --> 00:38:46.450\nSo I'm going to be there and I'll be there singing, Hey, baby, in that sing\n\n1043\n00:38:46.450 --> 00:38:47.260\nalong.\n\n1044\n00:38:47.260 --> 00:38:51.820\nI got to say, better than anybody else I know, Jesse understands the power of\n\n1045\n00:38:51.820 --> 00:38:52.540\nattention.\n\n1046\n00:38:52.540 --> 00:38:55.140\nAnd he brings his team along too.\n\n1047\n00:38:55.140 --> 00:39:00.700\nI love his OTT meetings where anyone can bring their over the top ideas to get\n\n1048\n00:39:00.700 --> 00:39:01.580\npeople talking\n\n1049\n00:39:01.580 --> 00:39:05.300\nand fulfill their mission of making baseball fun.\n\n1050\n00:39:05.300 --> 00:39:07.820\nFor Jesse, it's not just about marketing.\n\n1051\n00:39:07.820 --> 00:39:09.340\nIt's about attention.\n\n1052\n00:39:09.340 --> 00:39:13.620\nAnd this week, I want you to focus on attention too.\n\n1053\n00:39:13.620 --> 00:39:18.620\nWhat outside the box ideas could you try that would get people talking?\n\n1054\n00:39:18.620 --> 00:39:19.940\nThink about it.\n\n1055\n00:39:19.940 --> 00:39:24.070\nHow can you look beyond successful marketing and make sure you're also\n\n1056\n00:39:24.070 --> 00:39:25.260\nsuccessful at getting\n\n1057\n00:39:25.260 --> 00:39:26.460\nattention?\n\n1058\n00:39:26.460 --> 00:39:32.440\nAnd hey, if you need some ideas, tune in on August 19th to watch Banana Land on\n\n1059\n00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:33.540\nESPN plus\n\n1060\n00:39:33.540 --> 00:39:38.140\nand you'll see Jesse in action in his yellow tuxedo and all.\n\n1061\n00:39:38.140 --> 00:39:40.060\nSo do you want to know how leaders lead?\n\n1062\n00:39:40.060 --> 00:39:44.390\nWhat we learned today is that great leaders know that attention beats marketing\n\n1063\n00:39:44.390 --> 00:39:44.580\n.\n\n1064\n00:39:44.580 --> 00:39:48.080\nComing up next on how leaders lead is Cyrus Freetime, one of the best\n\n1065\n00:39:48.080 --> 00:39:49.500\nmanagement consultants\n\n1066\n00:39:49.500 --> 00:39:54.540\nof all time and former CEO of Chiquita and Chicago Sun Times.\n\n1067\n00:39:54.540 --> 00:39:58.540\nSo be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation.\n\n1068\n00:39:58.540 --> 00:40:02.520\nThanks again for tuning in to another episode of How leaders lead where every\n\n1069\n00:40:02.520 --> 00:40:03.340\nThursday you\n\n1070\n00:40:03.340 --> 00:40:07.780\nget to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n1071\n00:40:07.780 --> 00:40:12.020\nI may get a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can\n\n1072\n00:40:12.020 --> 00:40:12.900\napply to your\n\n1073\n00:40:12.900 --> 00:40:16.220\nbusiness so that you will become the best leader you can be.\n\n1074\n00:40:16.220 --> 00:40:26.220\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n\n1075\n00:40:26.220 --> 00:40:36.220\n[BLANK_AUDIO]","

David Novak 0:04

Hey, everybody, welcome to how leaders lead where every week you get to listen. And while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learnings of the by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Now, look, you can have the very best product or service or cause in the world. But in order for it to really succeed, you have got to be able to get people's eyes and ears on it. You need their attention. But boy, these days, it's harder than ever to get it. But fortunately for us, today's guest is an absolute genius at getting attention. And even better II knows how to turn it into lasting loyalty. I'm talking about Jessie Cole, the owner of the savannah bananas. Now listen, this is not your everyday baseball team. They're out to make baseball fun. I'm talking really fun. They're putting pitchers on stilts and lighting bats on fire and doing all kinds of wacky stuff. And it's working. They sell out every game. They have over 2 million followers on Tiktok. And they're attracting serious attention from Major League Baseball teams who want to know how they do it. Jesse's going to help you apply his strategies so your organization can get the attention it really deserves. So here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours. Jesse Cole. Jesse, it's great to have you on the show.

Jesse Cole 1:42

Fired up to be back with you, David, this is quite the honor my friend.

David Novak 1:45

Amen. You have been on a rocket ship lately. And you got this new show coming out. I think it's gonna be next week. It's with ESPN. It's a four, one hour episodes show on the savannah bananas. I mean, tell us about it.

Jesse Cole 2:02

Well, I can tell you about the 100 rejections that we had for four years of the idea of a TV show came in 2018. And we had groups reached out to us and pitched it over and over again, no interest, no interest, no interest. And then finally, an ESPN writer wrote a story on us last year, and they want to do a sports center special. And so they did a seven minute Sports Center special and that took off huge social media. And from there, we made one more pitch to ESPN. And they said we've never done a show like this. It's a long shot, there's probably very little chance this will happen. Two months later, we got the call that they were greenlighting a show with us on our banana ball tour. And I was blown away. You know, I

David Novak 2:37

remember watching that seven minute special on ESPN is great. And if you recall, I texted you and congratulated you on that. I thought that was just fantastic. Since we're such good pals, can you give us any secret something on the show that's coming up that you just can't wait for people to see, you know,

Jesse Cole 2:52

I haven't seen anything. I know that they started with us on our tryouts for the banana ball World Tour in February and covered us all the way through May. So two straight months, hundreds of hours of footage I was miked up at all times, they had all of our players our characters owes a lot of the behind the scenes. And you know this time, David is when we went from 1 million social media followers to 4 million. So we did crazy things like guys with their bats on fire and pitchers on stilts, and trick pitchers. And we tried it all and they covered all the beginning and the end and how it all worked out, which was I think it's gonna be a great show to watch.

David Novak 3:22

So you're going to be as excited as I am to see this show.

Jesse Cole 3:26

I'm very intrigued to see what they actually show. But you know, it's just part of the whole experience, you know, momentum leads to more momentum. And it's crazy what's happened over the last few months with the national media. And from six years ago, sleeping on an air bed, David and having to sell our house and you know, down to our last dollar to see where it is now is just really truly, truly amazing.

David Novak 3:44

We had you on the podcast a couple of years back when I was just getting started doing my podcast needed to, I'd say it's pretty safe to say a lot has changed for you. What's been the biggest shift you've experienced as a leader since our last conversation.

Jesse Cole 4:00

For us, it comes back simply to vision and focus. You know, at first we just came in Savannah trying to survive trying to sell a few tickets and make ends meet. And after our initial success of selling every game, we thought there was something much bigger. So during 2020 and the COVID year where live entertainment was probably the worst industry you could be in, we were struggling. We said let's just think bigger, let's not be in the business. Let's work on the business. And where are we going? How do we think exponentially? How do we focus on where not how and not the little details. And we came up with a plan to really think about what isn't in our industry. And so how can we play year round? How can we take the show to more people? How can we build Banana Land here to be more than just a baseball park. And from there our team got more purpose, more fulfillment and everything we were doing and we said we're going to commit and put the gas and what we're doing and so what we went all in is on making baseball fun. Every decision doesn't make baseball fun. Is it fans first and that's really guided us with all of our content, everything we do on the field. And now today David you know we do five to 10 new things on the baseball field every night. We've never done before in front of a live crowd, which is a lot of experimentation. But it's all to make baseball fun and we learned faster by doing that.

David Novak 5:07

Give our listeners just a sense of what it's like to go to a game at your stadium and watch the savannah bananas.

Jesse Cole 5:15

Well, it starts at you know, 530 You know, it's at the March. So when fans are lined up most nights, you know, anywhere a couple 1000 fans are lined up two hours before the game fans come in from anywhere between 20 to 40 states, five to 10 countries, and they line up and we come out with our full pep band greeting the fans. Then comes our mail cheerleading team, the mandanas then comes our banana bananas, our senior citizen dance team, then comes our mascot, then comes all the players and we greet the fans by literally doing a full fledged dance. Hey, Baby, ooh, ah, then we throw off confetti, then we do this big opening celebration. And that's how the show starts with that opening act. And then from there on, we have parades. We have weigh ins, we throw beads in the crowd. We throw Dolce and banana underwear. We have breakdancing coach, we have dancing players, we have a banana baby, we lift up in the air and say Nah, man, yeah. We it is an absolute circus. And then a baseball game breaks out. And then at the end of the night, you know, we planned some really special moments where the whole entire team the whole staff everyone in the fans are arms around each other singing stand by me in a circle and applause at the end of the game. And that's what we call our kiss goodnight. And it's a choreographed script of the entertainment because we want not one fan to be bored for one moment at our show. And it's worked out pretty well.

David Novak 6:25

No wonder you have a packed house every night. People begging to get in. You know, the New York Times wrote an article on your team in March, titled baseball players don't dance. The Savannah bananas beg to differ in some of those dances have racked up 40 to 50 million views on Tik Tok. What have you learned Jesse about attracting attention over the years because I don't think there's anybody better at it.

Jesse Cole 6:50

We believe attention beats marketing 1,000% of the time. We don't have a marketing plan, David, we have an attention plan. So we get together as our staff every Monday, today and a little bit, we'll have our OTT meeting, which is over the top ideas and outrageous ideas we can do with the field to create attention and create more fans. And so that is our entire plan that we think about what are we doing that's going to be unique and different. And as you know, David, obviously with all the different brands you had with yum brands and Taco Bell, especially you thought dramatically different with everything it was what will this product do to create some attention unique and get people talking? And we're so obsessed with that we learned that from PT Barnum, Walt Disney get people talking. So that's part of the model that we think about and you mentioned dance. The New York Times wrote a great article on that. You know, it started with a test players dancing, could our players dance every game? Then could we have a breakdancing coach? Then can we have a banana at Nana's senior citizen dance team. And now we have a dancing umpire when he strikes out someone he does a full fledged dance while he's striking out a guy. So it's keep taking it to the next level, which then creates more attention.

David Novak 7:52

What's coming up next that you're really excited about you have one idea that you just can't wait to show off?

Jesse Cole 7:57

Oh, 1,000% I mean, eventually we're going to have players skydive to their positions. There's no question in my mind, they're gonna skydive and will eventually because we're the bananas, David will have a ball monkey. So an actual monkey that delivers baseballs to the umpire, you know, we've got a lot of ideas, it's gonna take some time, but we'll eventually get there.

David Novak 8:12

What I love about you is you're very creative guy, but you have a lot of process and discipline around what you do. And you have the habit of writing down new ideas every single day. How have you been able to take this process in discipline that you have as a leader and scale it beyond yourself?

Jesse Cole 8:29

You know, you texted me a couple years ago and gave me a great compliment, which I don't know, if you realized and I've thought about it almost daily, you said, Jesse, you're a tremendous parallel thinker, and how you can see something and another industry and put it into your own. And I think that's how we do everything. Walt Disney was great at this whenever he traveled, he got ideas from different countries, from different movies from different restaurants. And so yes, I start with 10 ideas every morning. And it's really learning from other industries. And you know, I'm constantly studying now the greatest YouTubers, you know, Mr. Beast, for instance, he's the greatest YouTuber right now the 100 million subscribers. So I study what he's doing. How does that translate into what we can do with our baseball in entertainment? How do you scale it is you build a culture of ideas. So we have idea Palooza is every Monday with our team, what are the things we're gonna do that's unique? We have it poses with our broadcast, what are the new things we can show in a broadcast that no one's ever seen on our actual digital streaming? So everything starts with ideas. It's not the process of execution, it's think big with the ideas and then scaled down on how can we execute that? And I think the team literally comes every day with what can we do differently that we haven't done before?

David Novak 9:36

You're a huge thinker, big time thinker, and I'm curious about what fuels your swing for the fences approach.

Jesse Cole 9:43

For me, I go back I was an only child. My parents were divorced. My mother had a drug problem my dad raised me was constantly working and I think I was constantly kid trying to make him proud. And my dad actually told me I shared this in my book fans first, you know, I was a kid coming up to bat my dad would go Jess swing hard, in case you hit it. You which is hilarious advice to a little five year old kid. And that's been my mentality. You know, you say, David, everyone says you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with. I spend my most of my time with Walt Disney, PT Barnum, Jeff Bezos, I've read every book about some of the biggest innovators and inventors of our time in our previous time. And that's where I'm trying to get this mindset of that we can do anything, if you think big, and you're willing to try enough and fail enough. So that's where it comes with a kid just trying to make his dad proud. Every single day, I want to make my dad proud. And I want to make my kids proud. I truly believe it's that we can change the world. And we can change it with baseball and bringing more joy to more people than anything else. And so I want to keep pursuing that,

David Novak 10:40

as someone who takes big chances would you definitely do, I'd have to imagine you have a particular view about failure. What are you saying to your team, when things don't go as planned?

Jesse Cole 10:52

That's every night at the ballpark when you do five to 10 promotions, like the living pin Yatta does not work? Well. The halftime show with that was a slowest forming developed halftime show ever the horse had race where the kids couldn't see out of the horse heads and the game got delayed by five minutes. Everything doesn't go as well as planned. But I think you either have a success or you have a story. And stories often lead to the greatest successes. So for instance, when we did fans giving night I don't talk about as much two years ago, and it was night where we literally were going to celebrate Thanksgiving, but we were going to starve our fans for the first hour and a half and then have a big feast. Not feeding your fans for an hour and a half was a terrible decision. We thought it'd be great. But when I went to feast, people couldn't get food. It was a disaster. We thought we were going to make this big Thanksgiving celebration that didn't go well. We even had rations throwing bread in the crowd. But that didn't pay off. But it became a huge story that we talked about, like, no, don't give us flashbacks of fans giving, we will never ever sacrifice a food experience for our fans for a bigger promotion. You know, that's how we look at everything. What do you learn from something, you know, you either win or you learn? And so every night, what do we learn from that promotion. I mean, the other night, David, we had Messi baby on the field, I thought was a great promotion, we got three high chairs, we put tons of whipped cream and applesauce. And all these were three babies. They didn't touch the food. They just looked at it. It was the cleanest, messy baby contest ever. Nothing happened. It was terrible. And we just walked out the field and laughed. But you know, you learn you want to learn if we didn't do it.

David Novak 12:19

Tell me about the moment when you and your wife, you went all in. It's a great story and unmaking this team successful. She's I

Jesse Cole 12:27

was probably 31 years old back then my wife was 28, we had zero debt. You know, we had our dream house in Charlotte, North Carolina. And we found that opportunity to go down to Savannah and buy a team. And so we went from zero debt to seven figures in debt. And then it got worse. And you know, we sold a handful of tickets. And by January of 2016, we'd overdrafted our account or completely out of money. And that's when we had to sell our house and empty our savings account. And we were grocery shopping with only $30 a week. That's all the money we had to eat for an entire week. And it was a tough time. But at that moment, I remember that Emily and I had this weird belief that once people saw the show, we will be okay. We just had to get to that first night, you got to get to your first at bat, as we say get to your bat and swing hard Acacia headed. And once we got to that first night, and the players opening night, the players wearing green uniforms, because they weren't quite right. And we played you know, terrible made six errors. But the fans stayed the banana bananas danced, and the players delivered roses in the crowd to little girls. And we had a great time. And in that moment, they told everyone and so we just had to get through it. And I think the all in moment it was there were no other options. The boats were burned, we bought the team, we were in a million dollars plus debt. Let's just go all in and say, you know, can we do it our way? And I think Dave and most people, when they get to those situations, they revert back to doing it the way everyone else does. Because it's safer. We'll just go back and be a baseball team. We won't do all inclusive tickets, we won't make it all about entertainment will be what people know. And that switched in my mind. I said go the exact opposite. Because I'd rather go out on our terms and do it the way we want to do it than try to fit in like everyone else. And fortunately it worked out. Okay. I would say so.

David Novak 14:03

And if we were going to sit down in two years for another conversation, what do you hope is true, that isn't true today?

Jesse Cole 14:12

Well, what will happen with us and I'm very confident on it. We were playing at major league stadiums, because we've had five major league teams reach out to us, we will do the first ever bananas cruise, where we actually have 4000 fans go on a cruise ship. And then we stop at different islands and play games, I believe will play at places that you never imagined playing a baseball game. That's just kind of where we're going. I think what I see that's happening, David is the way people take in entertainment. And right now you can get entertained on your fingertips. We're in a tick tock world people are watching entertainment every five seconds, eight seconds bites. And I believe that's where we are trying to focus our show and our experience and I think the companies and the businesses that focus on how do you entertain in short periods of time and get their attention fast are the ones that are going to win. And so we are trying to create a high I like a world of everything we do to build into that attention span that people are used to. And so that's what I think where we're going to three hour baseball games are going to be tough for people to watch they already are. It's going to be short, bite sized. How do you deliver that way from every form of entertainment? In my opinion?

David Novak 15:15

Well, let me get some advice from you. Because you know, I do these podcasts with the best leaders in the world and I can barely keep them under an hour. Am I really off track here?

Jesse Cole 15:24

See, there always be a need for long form? The question is, how do you grow? And how do you scale you get their attention with short bites, short bites, short bites, short bites. So for instance, is now we've developed 2.8 million Tik Tok followers, which is crazily 2 million more than a Major League Baseball team that draws them into our funnel. I hate that word funnel draws them into our ecosystem of fandom. And they get it. So it's like, if you want to start attracting drawn, you're gonna be able to pop up in lots of different places. And I think that's where we're trying to go, and maybe thinking of a podcast in a different way. Because there are so many competitive podcasts today. What is what makes it so different that people like you're in, you're in a category of your own? You're the only because I think most people say I'm a little better. I'm a little faster. It's a little bit here. But how are you the only and that's what I'm constantly focused on and being open with you. I couldn't figure out what my podcast I interviewed you and I learned so much. It was a great learning experience for 100 episodes. But now I'm not the only so I got out of that field to do what we can believe we can be the only end in baseball and entertainment.

David Novak 16:24

You mentioned earlier that in a couple years from now, you expect to be playing in major league baseball fields and major league stadiums. And I know one of your dreams is to do a bananas game at Fenway Park. What would that mean to you when that happens?

Jesse Cole 16:37

So growing up south of Boston, me and my dad, that was the one bond, we had baseball, my dad would take me to the field and I was so fortunate he got me to be an honorary Bat Boy, when I was five years old, and I sat next to Roger Clemens and Jody Reed and Wade Boggs and Lee Smith, I was like, it's the best moment of my life. 15 years later, I got to pitch at Fenway and an all star game, most adrenaline I ever had an amount. And then for pretty much from seven years old until 22 years old, I dreamed everyday of getting the phone call from the Red Sox getting drafted by the Red Sox. And fortunately for me, that never happened. Because of what I'm doing. Now I had a shoulder surgery. And that ended that dream. But the idea of us going to Fenway Park where I spent hundreds of games, and taking my dad out on the field, and looking around and seeing a sold out crowd and say, Dad, look at what we did is a real special moment, I get emotional thinking about it. Because of all the time all the dreams I had of playing there. I think what we're doing now with the savannah bananas and doing it at Fenway would be even bigger than that by tenfold. And that really excites me.

David Novak 17:37

I can't wait for that to happen for it. And you don't have to imagine that you get all kinds of calls from major league teams. What are the key things that you'd share that you believe would take what they do to the next level?

Jesse Cole 17:51

I think goes back to a little bit what we were talking to people's attention is the number one thing people need to be successful. You know, everyone talks about the game being too long. It is it's three hours and 12 minutes too long in baseball, which is a challenge. But I think it starts with the fundamental, why are we doing this. And if everyone's competing on the same thing to win and lose. I think it's taking away the opportunity for guys to just have fun and express themselves. And I remember as a kid watching Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith doing cartwheels and backflips, and guys coming up to bat just truly having fun. That's been frowned upon a little bit because you have to act like you've done it before. So in baseball, I would really encourage guys expressing themselves. David, when you come to a bananas game, when we score our first run, the entire team runs through the whole crowd, high fiving every fan, it's ridiculous. You look in the dugout, and there's no one there because the players are out in the crowd in the middle of the game. All right. I'm not saying MLB can do that. But what if MLB broke down the barriers a little bit? It's hard to relate to a Mike Trout and Otani and some of these players but why don't you let where the players can actually connect with the fans have fun, show them joking around beating kids again. That's why we played the game when we started. So I would start just with Hey, guys, what do we want to be who we trying to attract? And how do we create a tension by making things more fun, faster paced and more energized for the fan base.

David Novak 19:11

I'm on a mission to make the world a better place by developing better leaders. And every week I send out an email called the weekly leadership plan where I give you some simple tips that you can apply to help you grow in your confidence as a leader. You can get this weekly leadership plan for free. Just go to how leaders lead.com/plan and sign up today. Again, that's how leaders lead.com/plan

You keep talking about attention and you live this every day you put on your yellow tuxedo, get the grade top hat on it a few years back, you had four now you have seven. You really draw attention to yourself and I bet many times you feel Like you're misunderstood in terms of doing that, I mean, what's that? Like? What's it like to feel misunderstood?

Jesse Cole 20:08

Not great. But we've been misunderstood since the beginning. You know what we came up with the team name the Savannah, bananas. I mean, the comments, the owner should be thrown out of town, whoever came up with his name should be fired. I think, Bezos said this best. You need to be willing to be misunderstood. And people didn't understand what the heck an Alexa was, or an echo in the beginning. You know, people aren't a Kindle. Why do we need this same thing with Steve Jobs and everything they invented? It was so far ahead of its time the first people were this is ridiculous. This won't work. If you ask people what they wanted back with Henry Ford's time, they would have said faster horses, you're used to the way things have been. So being misunderstood is tough. I would wear this going through an airport that looks that I would get people would look at me like what is wrong with this guy? I still get it from time to time. But I think David, if you want to get the hearts of your customers, your fans, you first have to get their eyes and ears. You have to get their attention. If people can't see you, then how can you actually get their hearts and so for us, I think we get the attention first and then they realize wow, these this team really is fans first. They don't charge ticket fees. They don't charge convenient fees, every tickets all inclusive. You know, they pay for my shipping. They give me free giveaways. Everything we do is to try to create fans and once they see that, it often starts with the attention first

David Novak 21:16

having worked at KFC, Colonel Sanders was kind of like you I would say he had his white Colonel suit. When he walked in the airports he get all the attention but it was draw attention to the to the KFC brand. Did you pick that up from him? Or where did you get the yellow tuxedo idea?

Jesse Cole 21:32

PT Barnum PT, Barnum 100%, and PT Barnum was a showman through and through and everything he was was about getting attention. And he said that, you know, without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing like that says quote and, and so I take that from him. But you know, I think you mentioned Colonel Sanders. He's not doing it because it's about himself. He's doing it because he believes so much in what he's doing and the brand and the product that he wants to draw attention. I believe so much in the experience. And when I watch a family that drives 40 hours from Utah to come to a game, and they thanked me at the end of the night, and they said they're driving 40 hours back tomorrow, and it was everything they hoped it would be. And when I have a family that flies in from another country and cries and hugs me every night, because it's the most fun for families that were had together. Of course, I want to create a tension because I want more people to experience in that. And so that's the root of it all. And I applaud Colonel Sanders and anyone else who does it because it's not easy, because you will be misunderstood. And people think it's all about you. But it's also really about something much, much bigger.

David Novak 22:27

Well, Colonel Sanders had a deep down conviction about customers and quality and you've got a deep down conviction, obviously, just the passion that you have for what you do is contagious. How do you spread that conviction that you have to the people that work with you

Jesse Cole 22:42

screaming from the mountaintops, you know, even just me doing this with you and doing this? I tried to share as much as I can. Bob Iger talked about this, and it's great book ride of a lifetime. He's another one who I would absolutely love to meet really blown away by his vision and what he was able to do. But what Iger said is often we lead by press release. And so I share the big things that we're doing the vision of what we're doing to try to get people inspired by what's next. And so he chair in a press release and all the 1000s and 1000s of employees in Disney say oh, look at what we're doing next. And that to get people excited, you have to believe in where the company is going. So I share over and over again. And here's one thing, David that not many people know, not one player on our team gets a uniform until they go through a one on one. Fans first orientation with me as the owner. So it starts with beginning the whole team. And now as guys come in throughout the year all sit down one on one with them. And I'll say this is who we are. This is where we started the traditions. This is why we do what we do. And I think sharing that vision with every player, every staff member really goes a long way

David Novak 23:43

when you've got this great vision to make baseball fun. And CBS Sunday Morning, another fairly prominent media vehicle did a feature on you in the bananas in June. And when they asked you how to do that you said celebrate everything. I'd love to hear your story about how you lead in this approach.

Jesse Cole 24:00

First of all, 1% of our budget goes solely to surprise and delight our team 1%. So give you an example. Marie, our fans first director her bucket list trip was to go to Ireland. We surprised her with a trip to go to Ireland with her dad. You know, we've sent Danny to go to the Cleveland Indians World Series game back in 2016. With his dad, we try to create memories and moments for our team and celebrate them and recognize them. You know, we've sent people you name it anything on their bucket list because we believe a memory and experience is so much greater than just giving people cash, which we do, but that's big for us. Give me an example two weeks ago, finished was a long night. One o'clock in the morning, David we're having our fans first moments after every game. We talked about the fans first moments and we have someone that goes undercover and talks about what they saw. And the team wanted to play kickball under the lights at one in the morning. And I looked at this and all of a sudden we've got 50 people on our team playing kickball, I played the DJ, I was going around music. I beat everyone up. We were just celebrating each other by just Having fun getting to do what our players get to do. And a night when no one else was there after a sold out crowd. That's a different level of celebrating. But I think celebrating is just having fun together, being able to enjoy what we get to do and actually be a part of it.

David Novak 25:12

Speaking of celebration, congratulations on the launch of your new book fans first, it's absolutely terrific. What's the main lesson that you're wanting your readers to walk away with?

Jesse Cole 25:24

Stop chasing customers start creating fans, you know, if I could simplify it, and that from a business standpoint, everything changed when we stopped focusing on short term profits and started focusing on creating long term fans. When you get together, most companies talk about how do we drive revenue? How do we drive sales? How do we drive the next quarterly results? You know, we're focused on the next quarter century, I'd be David This isn't that nobody people though, we pay your taxes. So give an example. If you go to a sporting event, and you buy food or drink or tickets, you pay taxes on those, it's just normal. We pay your taxes for you and $20 tickets $20 A $6 Beer $6 all your food is free. Like that's part of it. And is it dumb in a business sense. In the short term, you better believe it. But in the long term, I think people want to trust us and are loyal to us. And we'll buy merchandise and whereas proudly all over the world. And so I believe everybody, whatever you do whatever business focus on creating fans, and here's the little key, the biggest fan has to be yourself. The biggest fan has to be yourself, and whatever you do, and if you're not a huge fan of what you do, you need to reflect back and think Is this the best thing for me to be doing?

David Novak 26:31

Great point. You know, I think people need to find their joy. And you obviously have a lot of it. In your book. You talk about this concept called plussing. What do you mean by that? And what's an example of how you're living out this principle.

Jesse Cole 26:44

The funny thing about that too is that chapter is after the book is over. So literally the book ends with like the acknowledgments, the gratitude everything else and then plussing is the end. Last thing is a term learned from Walt Disney. And I know I'm like a broken record with him. But I have researched and studied him more than anybody. And he said it back. He said, Disneyland is a living breathing thing. It'll never be complete, we'll continue to plus the show and plus the experience. And he was so obsessed that he would literally when they were selling out crowds in Disneyland and Christmas time, he would convince the managers and COUNTIF to spend another $350,000 on having a special Christmas parade. And they said, well, we don't need to do this. It's already at capacity. He goes, No, we have to continue to do this. So people want to continue to come back. And that is that method of plussing. So to give you an example, every night after the game, myself and our director entertainment, we go through our script, and we do laps around the field looking at every single moment and saying, how do we make it a little bit better? A little bit better. Like we used to have a seventh inning stretch like everyone does. Now we sing the song yellow by Coldplay, and we actually everyone puts flashlights in the air, and the whole stadium is lit up and it says look at the stars. Look how they shine for you. And it was all yellow. And that's a little plus moments at the seven day stretch could be better. How do we make it our own moment? Every single thing that we look at the player dances, the banana, banana dance is the break. It's like, Oh, what if we add this level add this. And that's the tinkering that I think when you start doing that, it makes a huge adjustment.

David Novak 28:16

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Jesse Cole. And just a moment. In my conversation with Rob Manfred, the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, he talks about his vision for the future of the sport. My goal

Rob Manfred 28:28

is I want to make sure that baseball stays the national pastime. You know, we're probably not going to be football in terms of popularity. But I think baseball has a cultural significance that football is never going to have and I want to make sure that sports stays popular enough that we keep that title.

David Novak 28:48

So if you're a baseball fan, or simply want to hear how someone like Rob Leeds at the highest level of this profession, you're going to love my conversation with Rob Manfred episode 91 here on how leaders lead

you know, you keep evolving, keep learning and keep pushing yourself. Keep pushing your team to take it to the next level. What do you know today, Jesse, when you look back that you wish you would have known when you started the team in 2016? Because you've certainly come a long way.

Jesse Cole 29:23

Focus, focus, my friend. We had three teams back in the day. We were selling sponsorship doing events. People don't know this, David, we have zero sponsorship at our stadium. We eliminated all the ads were the one of the dumbest baseball teams to throw away you know, millions of dollars of advertising money right before COVID. But we were selling all this and we weren't that good at it. We didn't believe in it as much. We had tons of events at our ballpark. We had food truck festivals and haunted stadiums and the running of the banana as a 5k with like 1000 people in banana costumes. They all did. Okay. But it's spread are focused on what we could be the best app. And so now everyone's like are you gonna get more teams? I get it. One of the big so you got to do this. I'm like, No, we're singularly focused on the savannah bananas and making baseball fun and creating the greatest show in sports every night at our ballpark. We don't focus on all that other auxilary. And so we can become the best at that. And so I think at the beginning, we tried so many other things. It was like, Oh, the shiny object syndrome, this squirrel, squirrel squirrel, just going from thing to thing to thing, which a lot of creators do. But now I'm really focused on this one thing. And because of that, the momentum has been better than I could ever imagine.

David Novak 30:26

Jesse, this has been so much fun catching up. And now I want to have a little more with some rapid fire questions in what I call my lightning round here. Are you ready for this? So let's do it. The three words that best describe you.

Jesse Cole 30:41

People would say probably crazy, fun, outgoing.

David Novak 30:44

If you could be one person for a day besides yourself, who would it be and why?

Jesse Cole 30:48

I have to go back to 1960 and be Walt Disney. I'm sorry. I gotta go back, man. I gotta go put myself in his shoes.

David Novak 30:55

And watch. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Jesse Cole 30:57

It's always been done that way.

David Novak 31:00

If I were to get in your car right now, what would be coming out of the speakers?

Jesse Cole 31:05

Oh, I liked this one. I liked this one. This one's fun. If it's not a podcast, a business podcast, which I hate, I'll go. I always say it's alright. Tropical House Radio, country music or big booty mix. I can't believe I just said that on there. But it's a very fun mix. And we have a lot of fun with my team.

David Novak 31:21

What's something about you that few people would know?

Jesse Cole 31:24

Most people don't know that my wife and I are foster parents to two beautiful and amazing young girls went through your all in one baby. And it's been a dream of my wife and I to help with the problem of the fact that there's so many kids in this country that don't have a home over 500,000 right now. And it's a dream that we've thought about for many years, but not many people talk about. And so as we think about where we're going with this, we have a bigger dream that as we travel all over the country, we want to start a nonprofit to build awareness and help the kids and the nonprofit will be called Bananas Foster. And so as we grow that we hope that we can really, really help every single kid find a home that deserves one.

David Novak 32:08

God bless you. I love that if there's anybody that could do it, you can you know, what's your favorite thing you've done to entertain fans during the game, who

Jesse Cole 32:19

you're talking to a guy that has done way too many things that have not worked. So I mean, obviously, there's moments that's the first time that breakdancing coach dance, and the crowd went to the dancing empire, all those different moments, the players player coming up and doing a split in the batter's box and being the smallest strike zone ever, the guy pitching and still it's the world's tallest pitcher, all those standout. But for me, it's in the top of the fourth inning, every single game where the whole sold out crowd or in Savannah and other stadium gets up and dances Hey, baby, hey, they they Ooh. And 4000 plus people are doing this dance in unison. And you look around and say, wow, there's nowhere else in the world. This is happening. We're just having fun together. Whether you're two years old, or 82 years old. That's an every night thing that I'll never get off of.

David Novak 33:01

When did the light bulb go off for you when you said, hey, you know what? I'm not in the baseball business. I'm in the entertainment business. When did you have that monumental moment

Jesse Cole 33:12

very similar to Walt when he was on his bench at Griffith Park with Diane and Sharon on the carousel. And he said I wish there was a place adults and kids can have fun. Mine happened on a bench up in Cape Cod, Cotuit, Massachusetts, I was coaching in the Cape Cod league. I was a volunteer assistant coach. And I was sitting in the dugout David with the best players in the country. I mean, all these guys would go on and play professional baseball in MLB. best seat in the house, third inning, and I sat there and I said, I'm bored out of my mind. And I remember this, because I remember love loving playing the game. There's a difference. When you're on the mound pitching, you're hitting your playing game. But sitting in the best in the house. I was bored. And I said if I'm going to run a team, I want to make it so every moment is exciting is entertaining. So everyone whether you play baseball or didn't, you can have fun at a baseball game. And that was that moment I recall it vividly to this day.

David Novak 34:03

That's great. What's one piece of advice Jesse, you give to anyone who wants to improve as a leader,

Jesse Cole 34:09

be patient and what you want for yourself, but be impatient and how much you give to others. And this has been on our fans first playbook since day one, I preach in advance first. And I think the reality is we want things so quick. But how often we focus on how much value how much you can give to others. Whether you're a leader, it's your team, or your customers or your fans. So every day playing the long game, my friend, we play the long game things usually work out pretty well. In the end.

David Novak 34:33

I know why you're so happy because the happiest people in the world are other directed. And that's why you've got that beaming smile on your face. And, you know, I want you to leave us with one final story that speaks to the heartbeat of why you and your team do all that you do.

Jesse Cole 34:49

It goes to our team, a gentleman named Reginald Horton. Reggie, as he's called by all the guys, and the first year reginal reached out to us wanting a job. We didn't have a team name. We're on the air bed, David like we weren't thinking about Game Day staff, but he called every single week. reginal has a mental disability, but the biggest heart you ever imagine? And so finally we said yes, come join our team. And so he joined our staff joined our team became a part of it and just did everything in the ballpark concessions trash, but he did it all. And so a couple years ago, he said, Jessica, my birthdays on a game day. It's a big birthday. It's turned 40 years old, big birthday. It's my birthday is on a game day. I go okay, great, Reginald, that's awesome. It's because I just want to let you know. And he proceeded to tell every single person on the staff His birthday was on a game day for two weeks. Up until his day, his game came his birthday came and we're having our pep rally with the whole staff getting ready for the night fired up. And all of a sudden took Reginald around and everyone started saying happy birthday and he goes for me. Of course Reginald it's for you. You told everyone on the staff and so we gave them obviously a cake we sang happy birthday we gave them balloons, and I said original paper one more thing. And I learned this from Steve Jobs always have one more thing said one more thing. Can you come down to the dugout before the game you'll sure Jesse whatever you need, whatever you need Sure. Comes down the dugout right before the game. Got 4000 People standing it's for the player introductions, the pep pans on the dugout everyone's fired up batting first Batting second betting third all the starters come out. We say last but not least, fans you know you love them. Let's hear it for Reginald he throws his arm straight up in the air. He runs through the line high fiving every player and at the end our coaches there waiting for him with the jersey with his name on it. And he gave Reginald the jersey Reggie put the jersey on lined up for the national anthem with the team and I watched the tear came down the side of his face. And at the end of the night, Reginald said that was one of the best days of his life. So fast forward the next year the player said Ken Reggie to be a coach with us. So Reggie came a coach for the team stayed in the dugout made the red Junaid which was really just Powerade. And he gave pep talks to the guys and you'd say guys hitters tonight. Don't swing at anything unnecessary. I mean, it was hilarious, amazing pep talks, the team won the championship last year. And when they won the championship, they handed the trophy to Reggie. And at home plate the entire stadium and the players are chanting Reggie, Reggie, Reggie. And now he's a coach on the team. He's a part of it. And it all started with just a birthday a few years ago, pretty special.

David Novak 37:16

Well, a great story that is I've had the opportunity to talk to you, maybe four or five times, Jesse, I feel like I've known you forever. And I want to just thank you by just recognizing you for, for reaching out to me, you know, I'll never forget the yellow no cards you sent me recognize the bee for I think a book or two that you'd read in mind and had a impact on your life. And then you put your yellow business card along with the letter. And I had to call you. And I did. And you know what we've developed into friends from far away. And I want to thank you so much for taking the time to be on this podcast and keep up the great work. I hope to see it Fenway Park and I hope all your dreams come true because you are doing such good in the world.

Jesse Cole 38:04

Well, you've inspired me more than you know. And I've shared that since the beginning. I've told you I always think what would David do in this situation. And I still think about that from time to time because of the leader you were and I will hold you to something right now, David, when we play at Fenway, I want you at that game.

David Novak 38:17

I will be there. I will be there. Okay. All right. Thanks, buddy. Good, appreciate it. Thank you

Well, that was just way too much fun. I have no doubt we're going to see this Savannah bananas play at Fenway Park someday. And you know what? I told Jesse I'm gonna be there. So I'm gonna be there. And I'll be there singing Hey, maybe in that sing along? I gotta say better than anybody else. I know. Jesse understands the power of attention. And he brings his team along to I love is OTT meetings, where anyone can bring their over the top ideas to get people talking and fulfill their mission of making baseball fun. For Jesse, it's not just about marketing. It's about attention. And this week, I want you to focus on attention to what outside the box ideas could you try? That would get people talking? Think about it. How can you look beyond successful marketing and make sure you're also successful at getting attention. And hey, if you need some ideas, tune in on August 19 to watch Banana Land on ESPN plus, and you'll see Jesse in action in his yellow tuxedo and all. So do you want to know how leaders lead? Well, we learned today is that great leaders know that attention beats marketing. Coming up next on how leaders lead is Cyrus freetime, one of the best management consultants of all time, and former CEO of Chiquita and Chicago Sun Times. So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to an Another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I'm making a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be

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