Jesse Cole became the General Manager of the Gastonia Grizzlies baseball team and took it from losing $100,000 a year and $268 in the bank account to selling out games. After selling the team he bought the Savannah Bananas baseball team and went on from selling a single ticket in the first 2 months to sell a million tickets. He's turned baseball games into a circus, with grandma beauty pageants, choreographed dance routines by players, male cheerleading squads, and many more crazy, awesome ideas. In the process, he's made his company, Fans First Entertainment, one of the fastest-growing companies in America and has transformed many lives along the way. Here's his story, and how he did it.
SHOW NOTES
01:40 - Introduction
02:02 - Owning 2 baseball teams at a young age
03:50 - My dad loved baseball and taught me to follow my passion
05:35 - Sometimes you gotta try lots of things to find your passion
07:50 - One of the most dangerous things you can have is success
10:08 - It took 10 years of hard work to make Gastonia Grizzlies successful
11:10 - The toughest times in people's lives are short term
13:00 - COVID - What an amazing time to test new ideas
15:24 - Removing all ads from Savannah Bananas stadium
17:20 - Livestreaming baseball matches - Bananas Insider
18:16 - You have to be willing to be misunderstood at first
21:29- Offering an internship to Barack Obama
23:28 - Validating ideas
25:56 - Hiring employees looking at their FUTURE resumes
27:48 - Three-year vision for Savannah Bananas
31:06 - Mentors - Walt Disney, Bill Veeck, and P.T. Barnum
34:28 - Learning from brands outside the industry
38:35 - Books that have inspired me
40:12 - Paying employees to read books and learning together
43:00 - How a Thank You letter led to writing "Find Your Yellow Tux"
45:45 - The Thank You Experiment
48:31 - Miracle Morning and daily routine
51:39 - Favorite podcasts
53:22 - Why I started my podcast
54:20 - Connecting with Jesse
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Jesse's Website (https://findyouryellowtux.com/)
Jesse's Twitter (https://twitter.com/YellowTuxJesse)
Jesse's Book (https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Yellow-Tux-Successful/dp/161961846X)
Jesse's Podcast (https://findyouryellowtux.com/category/podcasts/)
The Savannah Bananas (https://thesavannahbananas.com/)