Savannah Bananas Owner Jesse Cole: The $0 Marketing Strategy That Built a 35-Million-Follower Brand

Jesse Cole (00:00)

So when people question us or challenge us or say that we're going to be gone, good luck. Because when you know inside how much we care about this and how much time and effort we put into designing this experience, we're going to fault, we're going to have challenges, we're going to have adversity, but we're just getting started.

Announcer (00:16)

Welcome to THRIVE, a Paychex Business Podcast, your blueprint for navigating everything from people to policies to profits. And now your host, Gene Marks.

Gene Marks (00:26)

Hey, everybody, it's Gene Marks. And welcome to another edition of the Paychex THRIVE Podcast. Very, very happy that you are joining us today. Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment, owner of Savannah Bananas, and author of Fans First, Find Your Yellow Tux, and Banana Ball. He has welcomed millions of fans to ballparks around the country, and his teams have accumulated over 35 million followers across social media platforms. He's the star of the ESPN series Banana Land, and he's been featured on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, HBO Real Sports, and once at his son's show and tell. Jesse is passionate about making baseball fun, standing out, and creating fans. My very first question is, you are amazing at branding. You are amazing at, your energy is fantastic. You showed us a notebook of all the ideas. I mean, clearly you're the motivation and the inspiration behind this team. What are you bad at professionally? And at what point did you realize that you were not good at something and decided to build a team around you? I mean, in other words, how important was it to you and how important is it to anybody who's running a business to recognize what they're really good at and to delegate other things? Talk to me a little bit about that experience for you.

Jesse Cole (01:54)

Sure. The biggest insight I had when I first started with the little, small team in Gastonia, North Carolina, was myself, my wife, there was just a handful of us. And many days I came home burnt out, exhausted, and it was because I was doing so many different things. I was doing... What am I not good at? Ironically, with this group, you know, numbers, financials. It just, I could do it, it doesn't excite me. I have one financial meeting a year for two hours with our team, and for the type of business we're on, that's shocking as an owner and founder, but it doesn't excite me. You know, anything operationally. Putting up signs, doing things, operationally. I'm just not good at it. I have two left hands. And so I would be doing all of this, whether it was concessions, whether it was hiring, was all that. And then when I realized, I said, all right, well, what are my best days? I try to reverse engineer. If you look, you know, at your business or what you're doing, what are your best days? And then, what did you do during those days? And so, I finally realized, and I put it into a bucket, I was like, okay, I'm either creating, sharing, or growing those days. Coming up with new ideas, actually getting in front of a group, sharing what we're doing, leading, getting out there, growing. I'm learning from new people and doing things, trying new things, creating instead of consuming. A lot of people consume all day. I love creating. And so now, when we went into Savannah, I was like, okay, I'm going to help kind of be a creative director of this company. In the sense of anything that we're doing, promotions, ideas, videos, content, all of this, where we're going to play, what we're going to do, our new teams, our new logos, all of that, that's where I'm going to lead. And then luckily we have a president who's tremendous, who loves the operation and the systematic science of putting it all together and figuring out how do we go to 45 states and 75 stadiums and serve 3.4 million fans and figure out, I mean people don't realize we do all of the merchandise ourself, we do all the trucking, we have 16 full time drivers, we do our broadcast ourself, we do, we build our own ticketing system ourself, we do everything ourself to control that fan experience. And Jared, our president and our team has built that because they love doing that. And I focus on how do we create. And so I would challenge everyone in this group. What's on your energy list? If you were to right now, today, write down what gives you energy with what you do and how do you do more of that and have more people in your organization or other people do the things that don't give you energy and do what, give them energy. If you do that, it's game over.

Gene Marks (04:03)

Did you realize it yourself or did you, were people telling you like, you suck at accounting or you're not good at details? How did you come to that realization?

Jesse Cole (04:11)

I'm a feel person. And so, when I would just get frustrated, or it's, I'm very fortunate now 99% of my days, I wake up looking forward to something. You know, people always ask me, Jesse, what keeps you up at night? I go, that's the wrong question. It's what gets you up in the morning. Because I get up early, 4:30, 5 o'clock, and I'm ready to roll. I start with my ideas, I start jamming, I start creating, I start working on things. And so I just realized that now, like even being with you guys or even virtually, I'm, what am I doing? I'm sharing, I'm growing. Right now, I'm creating with you, all three of them. So I will have energy doing this. And so yeah, I think it's just a self-reflection, and you know, if you wake up in the morning and you're not looking forward to the day, why is it? What's on your calendar that day? And at the end of the day, you want to be your best for your family. And so I know if I'm not, if I'm doing things that I'm not good and don't enjoy, I'm not gonna be best for my family. And so I just really kind of just like I talked about doing a friction audit, you should do an energy audit on what you do on a daily basis and what your firm is doing because it was truly a game changer for us.

Gene Marks (05:14)

You know, you mentioned your family as well, Jesse, and like this, I mean, obviously the past 10 years have been incredibly busy for you. It's great that you've had your wife involved, so that certainly helps. But you know, how do you balance it? What advice do you have for people? I mean, you're not the only entrepreneur, not the only business owner who has a lot of, I'm sure you have a lot of stress that you have to deal with. So how do you balance it? What do you do for yourself?

Jesse Cole (05:36)

Yeah, well, I think you ask an Olympic, a gold medal Olympic performer, ask them what their balance is in their life. And I mean that in the sense, and if you ask them where their life is and their happiness, if you want to be the best in the world at something, you can't have a direct balance. I love what I get to do more than anything. And I love, my days start, I wake up before the kids get up. I will go for a long run. I will listen to a podcast, I will write ideas, I'll do thank yous. I'll win the morning, win the day. I learned that from Hal Elrod, The Miracle Morning. And I've already set the tone for a good day. But yeah, for me, very fortunate. Our kids, we homeschool, they travel around with us. We strategically created our life so we can make sure we can be time with the kids while we're traveling around, you know, in our crazy way and believing that we can change the world. So yeah, I know, I love what I do. But I put my phone, so at the end of five, six o'clock, I actually put my phone, I keep in my office so I can be with the kids, and I stay off that and come back, which is crazy, and the amount of messages I get and by the next morning. But again, that's a way that I can really lock in with my kids and be focused, so. I think it's a myth what people try to say, you know, work-life balance, all that. Find what excites you, what gives you energy. If you truly love what you get to do. I get to do things I never imagined in like and most people never get to do. I love it and I enjoy it and it makes me on top of the world and it gives me, when I come down and see my kids, even after this talk, I'm going to go with a lot of excitement and I think that's great.

Gene Marks (07:06)

You know, you, it's been great, you've been working with your wife for a number of years as well. I'm just, I'm kind of curious as to what her involvement was in the company. And also, if you have any advice, I mean there's a lot of family-owned companies, husbands and wives work together, brothers and sisters, you know, I'm just kind of, you know, if you have any advice for people that are working with their spouse or working with a family member, what have you learned from all of that? Do you have a Chinese wall? Do you...

Jesse Cole (07:30)

Well here let's talk about when we struggled. And so when we started, when we were in Gastonia, and it was me and Emily, Jared who started with us in Gastonia, our president. And what happened was we would get into each other's lanes so much. And everyone wants to feel like what they can do, they can do it at a high level and do it well, without getting help in different areas. And so, what we learned very clearly was, you know, I have a tendency to jump into things and sometimes that when Emily was in something I would surprise, I'd want to get my hands involved and it just wasn't the best way. And so now, like Emily, you know, she leads Bananas Foster, and I'm so proud of what she's done. Now, you know, would I, if I was in it, I would have, again, I'd have so much more content, storytelling, doing all these other things, but it's like she's building that, and I'm so proud of what that's doing. It's at a different speed, so we work at much different speeds. I go very, very fast with things because I believe in learning by doing. And I think Emily is just so confident in building something at her right pace. And so I, We really work well when it's like, Jesse, you're doing all this. I'm doing this. Let's talk about it. Overall, the big vision of the company, but very clear on which lane to be in, and that's when we feel proud of each other. And, you know, she'll say, Jesse, that was an amazing interview. I'm proud of you and great job. And I'll tell her what she did this weekend with so and so. And we can complement each other without actually jumping in and trying to take over what we're doing.

Gene Marks (08:53)

All right, that's great. Talk to me about your people in your organization. How do you hire? You know, I mean, what do you ask? What are you looking for in people that, you know, that work for The Savannah Bananas?

Jesse Cole (09:03)

Yeah. I love this. This was very hard for us when we started. No one wanted to work for a team named The Bananas, and no one wanted to work for a team that was failing. Now, as proud as I am of a 4 million-plus, almost at 5 million on our wait list, I'm more proud of the 15,000 people that are on our wait list to work with us. And that's a real number. So we have a wait list to work with us. And so, whenever we have open positions, we just go through our wait list. And so, how do you create that is the question. And so, what we've learned is that most people, if you ask a CPA or a firm, say, hey, what makes them different? What do they stand for? I spend a lot of my time being very vocal on who we are and what we stand for. I spend a lot of time sharing. I learned this from Bob Iger. He said often when you have a big company like Disney, you need to lead by press release. You need to share where the company is going, what we're about to do so people can understand, to be proud of who they work for. And so, we are very adamant, I talk about our company all the time and fans-first as a way to hopefully provide value to people. But it also gets people excited to be a part of us. And so how do we hire? We're also very, very clear. Three things we look for. So, we look for, first a video. Video cover letter. So we want to say immediately our people, you know, again, maybe different in cpa, but our people, we interact with people. And I can tell, are you going to have energy right now? If I see you within 10 seconds, do I want to be around you more? Or are you bringing me down, bringing us up? We want people that are energy givers. Number two, you know, we want a fans-first essay. How do you fit our six core beliefs? Always be caring, different, enthusiastic, fun, growing and hungry. So we want to see an essay and then the final step, we want to see your future resume. Often people, what they want to see is what they've done in the past. Nah, I want to see what you want to do in the future. And what I can really tell, we can look at that and say I want to, you know, if they want to say I want to be in the same position for the next 10 years, that's not showing growing and hungry. Even if someone says they want to leave us in 20 years and start their own non-profit or do this, awesome, we're going to help you accomplish that. So let's be on the same path. And so it's just an exercise that we really can get on the same path of what we're trying to do with our people. And also, we did the love languages test. You know, love languages. You know, how can we actually take care of people if we don't know what their love language is? So you know, words of affirmation, quality time, you know, physical gifts, acts of service, physical touch. That's a little more complicated in this world these days, but if you look at the other ones, it's very clear. A lot of our people, we have a young team, 90% are words of affirmation. All we got to do is come up to them and just tell them we're proud of them, you did a good job, and that goes a long way. And if we know someone is quality time, then we'll say hey, you want to go grab lunch? And so if you know what all your people, what matters to them, then you can actually give them the love that they need. And what I'm so proud of, we have hundreds, probably approaching a thousand people, we've had less than five people leave our company over the last five years. And so, and again, and why they have, it's best for them, family, other things like it's a great situation, we leave on perfect terms. But I'm proud of that because I think we know as hard as what we do, traveling constantly, it's a very hard job. I think people feel cared for and loved. I think that's important.

Gene Marks (11:57)

You know, it's interesting as well, you mentioned about, you know, you look for certain aspects of people, you know, not where they were, but where they want to go to and where they want to move ahead and whether they've got energy and they've got the right attitude. Not once did you mention, like, skills of that person. You know, I mean, and it's funny because I, the people that I know, clients that I have that run really successful businesses like yourself, I remember talking to some guy, it was at a conference, and, you know, the guy, he runs a chain of hardware stores. And he says, you know, I don't look for people that are so knowledgeable about hardware. I look for people when I'm out at restaurants, I'm out at retail, when I'm out service places, people that have energy and attitude, you know, and I say, you know, I can give you an opportunity. I'll teach you everything you need to know about hardware. And I'm assuming that's the same thing with you, right? I mean, like, you can teach anybody anything as long as they've got the desire to learn. And, you know...

Jesse Cole (12:46)

Are you kind? Do you have energy? Do you bring enthusiasm? You know, when someone comes by, do you light them up and wave and acknowledge them, or do you kind of duck away and look away? Again, it's weird saying this, but, like, we thrive on vibes. Like, when I get on the bus, we're going to do 102,000 fans. You better believe I'm playing original music. I'm getting us all fired up. This is seven in the morning and I'm jumping around, and some people think I'm crazy. But everything thrives on vibes. If you bring the vibes up, everyone can perform in a better ability because we're feeling that we're a part of something. There's energy. No one has ever accomplished anything successful in life without energy. And so how do you, how do you foster that energy? How do you grow that energy? How do you create that energy? Is that you have to bring it yourself first. And so you better believe there's a reason we play between 500 and 600 songs at our games. Our first year, our announcer, our first announcer and DJ who joined us, who's as good as it gets, Shark. I told him, I said, no dead air. He goes, what do you mean? What about during games? I go, no. No dead air. And because at our games there is constant music playing and for some people it's too much and that's okay. But there's constant music playing and you watch people are singing and dancing and they're vibing. I love that. And I feel that you'll leave that experience feeling something, feeling that energy and it's contagious and you can bring it back to your family, bring it back to your work. And so again, can you feel when you're interviewing someone and you're talking to someone, is it good vibes? Is there energy or is it just like, hey, this is just another job and I hope I get it. And I understand people are so nervous now interviewing with us. But you know what? We're going to be in front of thousands of fans. You better bring it. I don't care. I'm nervous too when I do a lot of things. But we've got to bring it. And so we look for that right away.

Gene Marks (14:26)

You had mentioned earlier as well, I mean, you know, you quoted Bob Iger, you quoted Jeff Bezos earlier, you mentioned that, you know, you take some time, I forget, you listen to podcasts. I always fascinated by, you know, what type of leaders, business or non-business, that inspires people. Who like inspires you, who do you read, who do you listen to? I'm kind of curious what podcasts you like to follow as well. What gets you going?

Jesse Cole (14:50)

Well, full circle, you know, Simon Sinek, you know, how great leaders inspire action, Start With Why, and full circle, he invited me to spend some time with him and go on his podcast just a couple months ago. But yeah, the first time I listened to his TED Talk, it's funny, the team shared my podcast, and they shared it around, and Jared at present said in our first meeting, Jesse said, you have to watch this. How great leaders inspire action. This was like 14 years ago. And again, you know, I think the why behind what you do, and then with Simon as well, the long game. So many people are focused on short-term profits and short-term gain. We are obsessed with long-term fans. And I'm not focused on the next quarter. I'm focused on the next quarter century. So, Built to Last is a book that I always have in front of me by Jim Collins. Always try to look at the... Every day, every day now, I see comments. This is a fad. It'll be gone. Their 15 minutes are up, and boy, that fires me up. I love it. I'm the kind of guy, yes, I am saving those. I am never going to share it publicly, but I look at the hundreds, maybe now, thousands of people that say that we're going to be gone in the next few years. And I think about all the things that Walt Disney did and what Simon Sinek has shared, and the companies that have really lasted, you know, the test of time, they care about something differently than others. It's not about money, it's not about short-term gain. It's about creating something truly meaningful and a product that is truly wonderful. And they're obsessed with making it better every step of the way. And we talk about this constantly. We're never gonna stop plussing the experience. We've learned this from Disney. You know, Disney said, hey, Disneyland's a living, breathing thing. It'll never be complete. We will always plus the show. He saw his theme park as a show. And so, we look at all of everything that we do is that obsession to grow and to grow in a way that is meaningful to people. Not to grow in a way that is for revenue or grow in a way just for growth's sake. It's to make sure more people in the world get to feel what we want to deliver to them. And that starts one fan at a time. And it is an obsession unlike any other. So when people question us or challenge us or say that we're going to be gone, good luck. Because when you know inside how much we care about this and how much time and effort we put into designing this experience, we're going to fault, we're going to have challenges, we're going to have adversity. But we're just getting started. We're not even close to the experience that we believe we can deliver in the future.

Gene Marks (17:05)

Talk to me a little bit, when you first started up the Savannah Bananas, I mean, you, you talked about your failures very transparently, which is great. I love the question about when people, you know, what would you tell your earlier self? Or what mistakes did you make? I actually think that's really interesting, you know. So clearly, you've been doing this for a decade now. You got to be looking back and thinking about 20 years. So, like, all the things that you could have done differently, and in the end, you are where you are. So no regrets, you know, but what would you have done differently? And what advice would you have for people that are starting up their own businesses regardless of the industry that they're in?

Jesse Cole (17:42)

It's so tough knowing my mind, I'm always on what's next. I'm always moving forward. It's so hard for me to go back. But, yeah, I mean, we've, some of the biggest areas that we have failed on is areas that we've given up control or we've tried to partner with someone else and do things that they have a different expectation of what great customer experience is. This is one of the biggest lessons that Walt Disney learned was, you know, control everything. And he lost Lucky the Oswald Rabbit, you know, Oswald the Rabbit, and he lost him, like, because literally he designed him, he created, but he didn't have the rights to him. And so his first character, he literally lost. And then, his first deal with Alice in Wonderland, he lost that deal. And so, and then at Disneyland, he opened Disneyland. It became a neon jungle, he called it around, because all hotels and everyone else opened up around him, and he lost control. So what did he buy? 27,000 acres in Orlando, so he could have the ultimate control. What did he do? He created the Reedy Creek district so he could actually control the permits and getting the government and all of that. I mean, he went to the ultimate level because every step of the way, he lost control. And now when you look at Disney World, you know, it's a different experience than anywhere else in the world. And so, you know, I look at the, you know, working with different groups, and I try to, that's why when you look at what we do, we do the whole ticket system. We built our own secondary market at face value. We do all of our own merchandise, we do our own broadcast, we do our own show. And it's an obsession because... and still we go to stadiums. We go to, we, you know, went to a stadium recently and all the sound wasn't working in multiple sections, and that, they don't care who that came, that's our fault now. It's our fault because, and so, concession lines over an hour at these stadiums. That's unacceptable. So there's a world in the future where we're going to look to try to control all of that, because that's the best. But again, I wouldn't to tell myself that at 22, 25, 30 years old, because I'm not ready to learn that at that point. I think what I would have told myself is just try more, experiment more. Do things that other people won't do, go where others won't go. And that's what we've started doing more than anything. Never focus on the money. Focus on creating fans. And when I started focusing on selling sponsorship back in the day, selling sales, I was miserable, and it was all about money, and it wasn't about what was best. And so I would have shifted those gears immediately a little earlier. That's probably what I would have done.

Gene Marks (19:56)

Wow, that is, I mean that is great stuff. You know, it's fascinating coming from you because again, as a top level person, as a brand and ideas guy, you know, I don't meet many people like yourself that are also very detail oriented and very control oriented as well, you know, and obviously that's the biggest takeaway that I'm taking from what you're saying is if you're starting up a business, the more you can keep in control of your business, the more that you have control over your fate of your business, which is great.

Jesse Cole (20:20)

Every interaction, every single interaction. I think that's when you look at, say, oh, I'll have this partner do this, all this, do it, then you start losing, you start losing those touch points that really matter. So I think that's the biggest thing. Everyone tries to have all these partners, and now you don't have any direct connection to your actual customer or client.

Gene Marks (20:36)

Just a couple more questions. I'm going to let you go. This is just great. Marketing. You have done marketing in a very organic way. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on marketing your business. Particularly, your business is unique, and maybe it's a baseball thing or not, but you appeal to across generations. You know, I mean, my six-year-old niece went to one of your games in Philadelphia last year and like, couldn't have been more excited about it. And then people, I'm in my 60s, I was like a huge fan of what you guys do. I mean, so what have you found about marketing across generations, and what have you also learned about traditional marketing versus the organic ways that you market?

Jesse Cole (21:16)

I think it's the kindest thing, you know, when people say, oh, you guys are great marketers. But I kind of chuckle, and I laugh. I'm like, we don't do any marketing. The difference is marketing is, most people think marketing is what you say. The reality, I believe, is marketing is what you do. We spend $0 on marketing and I don't believe anybody in the world wakes up, says I can't wait to see some ads today. I can't wait to go... I can't wait to get marketed to. I can't wait to get promoted to. Oh, you know what? I am fired up, other than The Super Bowl, there's one. Other than the Super Bowl, it's like, let's get set up, I can't wait to watch what ads are going to happen tonight. So, yeah, that's what most companies do. They throw ads at you. And the reason it does work, it's getting in front of you. But no one's truly excited about that. What the greatest marketing is, is to create an experience that is remarkable. And when you do that and you capture that and you share that or you even better, you make it so great that your customers share it, you never have to market again in your life. And so when we go into every single week and we're playing now, we have six teams playing all over the country. We meet every Tuesday, creative team, and we come up, what are the things that we can do that no one's ever seen before on a baseball field? What are the things that we actually would think would be fun? What are the things that make us laugh? What are the things that we think could bring joy to fans? And we just plan those and we do them. We don't announce what we're going to do when we have celebrity guests or people join us, we never announce who's going to be with us. It's a surprise and then we create a moment with it. And so what does that look like in business? Well, again, what happens in your experience that people can't stop talking about? What is it that is like, a wow. What are those moments that again, in the journey and the storytelling of who you are, what you stand for, get people truly excited. And so, again, it's very easy, you got to get business, but we've put all our effort, remember, people could care less about us when we started. We sold two tickets. Our first few months, we were failing. We were getting ridiculed because of the name. But then after those first few nights, they saw what the players did and they saw the nonstop music and the entertainment and they started telling everyone, saying, this is different than any baseball game I've ever been to. And so I think that's the starting point. Ask any company what makes you different. It's the simplest, yet the hardest question anyone can ask. Because what most people will say is, I'm a little bit better, I'm a little bit faster, you know, I'm a little smarter at this, whatever it is, er, is not different. What can you be the only in your industry doing? And when you can answer that question, you'll never have to spend money on marketing because people will be marketing for you.

Gene Marks (23:50)

Final question and this is, it's great stuff, but it does have to do with building value and succession of your business. I mean, you know, if you, you know, you are part of the brand and people associate your name and your face and that yellow suit that you wear with the Savannah Bananas. But if you were taken out of action, you know, tomorrow, do you feel confident that your organization can continue, and what more is on your mind to make sure that it does sustain itself? What do you plan on doing to making sure it's a real, sustainable business? I mean, you're a big fan of Built to Last, right? So, you know, what are you doing and what are your thoughts on building that kind of built-to-last company?

Jesse Cole (24:31)

Yeah, well, you know, we are very intentional: who we are, what we stand for, and what makes us different. And who we are is our core values. Always be caring, different, enthusiastic, fun, growing, hungry. Most companies have core beliefs. That's no difference there. However, we hire based on it, as I shared with you earlier. Number two, what do you stand for? We have the fans-first principles. And so we talk about these every single week. And so to give you an example, it is, you know, we're fanatical about the fan. We entertain always. Whatever is normal, do the exact opposite. Fewer things done better. Relentlessly resourceful. Ideas are everything. We uphold the highest standard. But then the last one is we will always plus the experience. That last one is very intentional, the first one, fanatical about the fan. If we, if I'm gone, long gone, but everyone is fanatical about the fan every step of the way, and then at the end, we're always plussing the experience, always making it just a little bit better. Fine is the F-bomb in our organization. If something is just fine, we don't talk about like it is. No, it needs to be better. We need to plus it. And then finally, what makes us different is the experience. And we reimagined, we wrote, and Jared, our president, helped with this and did this tremendous job, wrote a whole description of when a fan first shows up in the parking lot, what happens to when they leave. And it is this very detailed over the top experience. And we're not completely there yet, but if we're building towards that, we're always plusing experience. We're fanatical about the fan and we hire the right people. Who we are, what we stand for. I'm pretty confident that the values and the virtues of fans first will live on long, long beyond me.

Gene Marks (26:02)

Jesse Cole, you're fantastic. Thank you so much for the time that you have taken. For all of you guys who are watching this or listening to this conversation on our podcast eventually, go and see a Savannah Bananas game. It is a lot of fun. Best rule ever as a baseball fan is when the fan catches the ball, the batter is out. Whoever came up with that idea absolutely genius. It is absolutely hilarious thing to do. A huge thank you once again to Jesse Cole for joining. That was just really a lot of fun and well worth the time. So Jesse, thank you. Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on THRIVE? Please let us know. Visit payx.me/ThriveTopics and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR, payroll, benefits, or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub paychex.com/WORX. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host, Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Till next time, take care.

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