P34: How Jesse Cole turned the Struggling Savannah Bananas into a Highly Profitable Circus

Video & Audio of Our Call:

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Background:

We’ve got a very entertaining Patreon episode for all of you featuring our special guest, Jesse Cole, the owner of Savannah Bananas. Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment, which owns and operates the Savannah Bananas. His teams have welcomed more than 1 million fans to their ballparks and have been featured on MSNBC, CNN, and ESPN. Jesse is an in-demand speaker and author of “Find Your Yellow Tux – How to Be Successful by Standing Out and he is also the host of the Business Done Differently Podcast. He is passionate about creating attention, loving your customers more than your product and loving your employees more than your customers. Jesse’s mantra is “Whatever's normal, do the exact opposite.”

The Bananas have been awarded Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year and won the CPL Championship in their first year. Fans First Entertainment has been featured on the INC 5000 lists as one of the fastest growing companies in America. The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game since their first season and have a waiting list in the thousands for tickets.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[3:43] Jesse wears a yellow tuxedo during the interview. He proposed to his wife wearing this yellow tuxedo.
[5:30] When Jesse took over as a GM of a struggling North Carolina baseball team, he shifted its focus to the entertainment business.
[10:39] Introducing an all-inclusive ballpark ticket for every single food and soda turned out to be a disastrous experience on their first game night.
[14:27] Jesse remembers vividly when they were down to their last dollar and he had to take a big risk and make a difference.
[16:53] Because of Covid, Jesse tried some ideas that made watching their games more entertaining for the fans.
[21:11] Growing up in Massachusetts, Jesse fell in love with baseball when he was still a kid.
[23:20] During his senior year in college, he injured his shoulder and he would never be able to play again.
[26:34] After having his shoulder surgery, he decided to get a coaching job in the Cape Cod league. However, Jesse found out that coaching top players bored him.
[30:29] He got a new job as an intern and this experience paved the way for him to become a GM.
[33:11] Jesse rants about baseball teams leaving and going to another place or city.
[36:32] There were a lot of rejections when he became the new GM of the Gastonia Grizzlies, which gave him the idea that they should not be doing the baseball business anymore.
[45:55] Thinking out of the box and doing something different worked for Jesse and created a lot of attention.
[51:04] Their first underwear night promotion was a complete disaster. They had other gimmicks such as the flatulence night and bean burrito eating contest.
[53:10] Reading a lot of books and absorbing knowledge like a sponge has given Jesse a lot of great inspiration and unique ideas.
[1:03:16] In 2014, in the last game of the Gastonia Grizzlies, Jesse proposed to his wife in the middle of the baseball field. The next morning, they planned to go to Savannah, Georgia for a quick vacation.
[1:06:37] In 2016, Jesse introduced Savannah Bananas, which became the number trending topic on Twitter.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖📚 Favorite Books? The Carpenter by Jon Gordon, Humanocracy by Gary Hamel
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Books
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Basecamp has been great for our team
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Capacity

Key Point from the Interview:

“You have to try more, you have to come to bat, you have to take your swings. People won’t remember your failures, they won’t remember the fact that Pete Rose got out 10,000 times. They’re gonna remember the hits, and I think we’re not taking as many swings in the bat as we need to, to be successful.”

Resources Mentioned:

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