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Simon SinekSimon Sinek

Why This Baseball Team Has a 4.2 Million Person Waitlist With Jesse Cole | A Bit of Optimism Podcast

We talk a lot about building successful things. But what does it actually take to build something people love? Jesse Cole has built an entirely new genre of entertainment: The Savannah Bananas and the Banana Ball League. They’re a viral sensation, selling out stadiums across the country, and have over 4.2 million fans on their ticket waitlist. On the surface, Banana Ball looks like a wild and entertaining version of baseball. But underneath it all is something much more disciplined: an obsession with the fan experience. Jesse calls his approach _Fans First_ and it’s more than a slogan and the title of his book… It’s a standard. Every minute of the two-hour games are crammed with attention grabbing spectacle. It’s a full-blown live experience designed for every seat in the stadium: players dance, fans are part of the show, trick plays defy the laws of physics, there are multiple sing-alongs… all during an actual baseball game. In this conversation, we talk about building something new for others, from embracing years of failure (including selling just two tickets in the first three months), to creating experiences that make people feel included, joyful, and valued. We also discuss how he took inspiration from Disney and PT Barnum, the importance of affordable in-person experiences, and how his team reviews every single detail after every show to get better the next day. Because what Jesse’s building goes beyond just entertainment. It’s a place where people can feel seen for generations to come. And in a world that often moves too fast to build things with care… Those human details might be what matter most. This… is A Bit of Optimism. + + + To learn more about the Banana Ball League or sign up for the ticket waitlist, check out: https://bananaball.com/ Or if you want all things Savannah Bananas, head to: https://thesavannahbananas.com/ + + + Chapters 00:00 Think of Every Customer's Experience 02:38 Why Jesse Started the Bananas: Putting Yourself in Fan Shoes 05:10 Inspiration from Walt Disney and PT Barnum 06:19 Ten Years of Experimentation and Failure Before the Savannah Bananas 08:01 Fans First: Building for People, Not Baseball Traditionalists 08:57 Competing Against Netflix and Video Games, Not Other Baseball 09:56 The Philosophy of Feeling Alive and Creating Joy 10:41 Building a Team: From 200 to 1000 Staff with 14,000 on the Waitlist 11:15 The Modern-Day Walt Disney: Refreshing Entrepreneurship 13:00 Sleeping on an Air Mattress: The Early Struggles 13:51 The First Night Story: Fans First Isn't Just a Slogan 16:54 Learning from the Harlem Globetrotters 18:36 The Players: Rejected Dreams Become Second Chances 39:11 Winning the Upper Deck: Making Every Seat Special 40:59 Hall of Famer Lee Smith's Philosophy: Seeing the Person 24:18 Walt Disney's Obsession with Details: Garbage Cans and Ride Times 25:42 Building for Human Beings, Not Bottom Lines 26:27 One Financial Meeting a Year: The Long Game 27:21 Fear of Irrelevance: Staying Emotionally Connected 27:59 The Yellow Tuxedo: Permission to Have Fun 33:41 Why Now? Disconnection and the Hunger for Human Connection 45:58 Pricing Philosophy: Keep It Accessible, Find Other Ways 50:24 Calling Every Fan to Say Thank You 51:23 Fan Story: The Father with Seven Kids 53:47 Jesse's Childhood: From Shy Kid to Entertainer 54:55 Swing Hard in Case You Hit It: A Life Philosophy 57:41 The Story of Reggie: Everyone Wants to Feel Part of Something 1:01:35 Becoming Lee Smith: Sitting Next to the Lonely Kid + + + Simon is an unshakable optimist. He believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together. Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon has devoted his professional life to help advance a vision of the world that does not yet exist; a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do. Simon is the author of multiple best-selling books including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and The Infinite Game. + + + Website: http://simonsinek.com/ Live Online Classes: https://simonsinek.com/classes/ Podcast: http://apple.co/simonsinek Instagram: https://instagram.com/simonsinek/ Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/simonsinek/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonsinek Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simonsinek Simon’s books: The Infinite Game: https://simonsinek.com/books/the-infinite-game/ Start With Why: https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/ Find Your Why: https://simonsinek.com/books/find-your-why/ Leaders Eat Last: https://simonsinek.com/books/leaders-eat-last/ Together is Better: https://simonsinek.com/books/together-is-better/ + + + #SimonSinek

Simon SinekhostJesse Coleguest
Apr 14, 20261h 5mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:38

    Think of Every Customer's Experience

    1. SS

      You're going to the nosebleeds-

    2. JC

      Yes

    3. SS

      ... and trying to understand the experience. And you understand there is a front of stadium experience that is different and better.

    4. JC

      Yeah.

    5. SS

      Nobody minds front of the stadium, but not at the expense of the back of the stadium.

    6. JC

      Everyone's on the first-class experience. They focus on that.

    7. SS

      Right. To go to the back and say, "Let's make this experience wonderful at this price range, at this distance. How do we do that for you?" Is, is unheard of.

    8. JC

      A term that you hear our team say every day is win the upper deck. We feel more purpose because it's like these people, these fans have waited two, three years-

    9. SS

      Yeah, yeah

    10. JC

      ... for tickets. It's their-

    11. SS

      That's crazy

    12. JC

      ... bucket. Like, that's what... That's our wait list is that long. They get their chance. If they go out there and they don't get to feel that interaction, you know, we say every night is someone's first show.

    13. SS

      Yeah.

    14. JC

      Every single night. And so if it's their first show, their- how do we make sure it's special?

    15. SS

      If you love sports or if you have children or if you happen to like musical theater, then your algorithm is probably feeding you videos of a baseball team dressed in bright yellow uniforms, doing things, let's call it, differently. That's the Savannah Bananas. And like the Harlem Globetrotters from the 1960s to professional wrestling through the 1980s, what the Bananas founder, Jesse Cole, has done is created an entirely new genre of sports entertainment. Jesse was a great ballplayer, whose dreams of going pro didn't happen because of an injury, but he still loved the game, sort of. He found it boring, and so he changed it. Obsessed with every detail of the experience, he started experimenting, teasing out ways to cram excitement into every minute and tailor the experience to fan enjoyment. The players spend hours with fans. They do trick plays and choreographed dances, and it's all happening during a real baseball game. No matter where they go in the country, they sell out stadiums. In fact, they have a four-year waiting list with over 4.2 million people waiting to get a ticket. For Jesse, Fans First isn't just a slogan or the title of his book, it's a standard. And maybe that's why it's working these days because in a world that's optimized for speed and scale, Jesse is building something with care, and his players and his staff and his fans can feel it. This is A Bit of Optimism. First of all, the fact that you have created an entirely new genre of entertainment-

    16. JC

      [laughs]

    17. SS

      You know, where everybody's looking for apps, everybody's looking for online content-

    18. JC

      Yeah

    19. SS

      ... everyone's trying to sell something to Netflix and Hulu and, you know-

    20. JC

      Yeah

    21. SS

      ... Amazon. You decided to start a thing that's in real life.

  2. 2:38 – 5:10

    Why Jesse Started the Bananas: Putting Yourself in Fan Shoes

    1. SS

      You can sell out a stadium more easily than the local team. What was the birth of the idea?

    2. JC

      Well, we won't s- we wouldn't sell out when we first started.

    3. SS

      Well, yeah.

    4. JC

      I mean, it was, it was a, a real challenge. The birth of the idea, we put ourselves in our fans' shoes. You know, I played baseball my whole life and loved playing, but as soon as I started watching, I realized there were challenges. Too long, too slow, too boring. Parts of the game that were just, "Why is this happening?" You know, batters stepping out of the box for 30 seconds and mound visits that take forever. And I realized that it was just, there was an opportunity to create something fun. And you know this, the greatest creators, they create something that they would love.

    5. SS

      Yeah.

    6. JC

      And so I just, I remember watching a game once and I was like, "I am bored out of my mind." Now, I played the game, Simon. So, like, as someone who played, you should love it.

    7. SS

      Yeah, yeah.

    8. JC

      And I didn't. And so, you know, I just said, "What if it was nonstop entertainment? What if, you know, there was music? What if there was dancing? What if there was celebrations? What if it wasn't, you know, the same rules like everyone else?" And then you just started watching how your fans react.

    9. SS

      Yeah.

    10. JC

      After 20 years, you continue to find, you know, a, a method to it on how you can continue to plus it every single night.

    11. SS

      There's so much going on here because my favorite entrepreneurs, you know, the best entrepreneurial ventures are the ones who are solving a problem for themselves or somebody they love.

    12. JC

      100%, yeah.

    13. SS

      Right? 'Cause that's when there's passion behind it.

    14. JC

      Yeah.

    15. SS

      Like, "Why can't I get a good sandwich? I'll make my own" kind of thing, you know?

    16. JC

      Because you put everything into it.

    17. SS

      Well, 'cause you put everything into it.

    18. JC

      You put every ounce of energy. It's, it's George Lucas.

    19. SS

      Yeah.

    20. JC

      He wanted to create a movie he would love. He wanted to create all the sci-fi, all the effects. He wanted to create stuff that didn't exist.

    21. SS

      Yeah.

    22. JC

      And that's why he built one of the greatest film franchises of all time.

    23. SS

      So, so I like baseball. I'm a baseball fan. And one of the things that I actually like about baseball, unlike basketball and things, is that it's a little bit boring-

    24. JC

      Yes

    25. SS

      ... because it's a social game.

    26. JC

      Yes.

    27. SS

      People, people always say, "It's so boring." I'm like, "No, it's a social game."

    28. JC

      [laughs]

    29. SS

      You go with your friends. You talk.

    30. JC

      Yes.

  3. 5:10 – 6:19

    Inspiration from Walt Disney and PT Barnum

    1. JC

      Well, uh, a- again, it comes to the origin. So I, I learned so much from Walt Disney and PT Barnum. So when I first started, I was a 23-year-old GM in a tiny little town and team, Gastonia, North Carolina, and there was $268 in the bank account. You know, they only had a couple hundred fans coming to the games, and we were failing. I was meeting with all these people. I'd go, "Hey, come see our show." You know, and I call it a show 'cause I was trying to make it into... And they're like, "Oh, no, uh, we don't like baseball," you know. "It's too, too long, too slow." And I finally said like, "Well, we're gonna make it all about entertainment." And you started getting interest, and they're like, "Well, what do you mean?" I was like-... players are gonna dance. And I said this before, players dance. I just said it out loud. But I started thinking about all those things, and when you look at Walt Disney and PT Barnum, what they did is they said, "All right. We are gonna bring together some of the best..." Like PT Barnum, he's like, "We're gonna bring together some of the most unique entertainment forms and put them in together and create a show." And that's what he did at his museum first. And then Walt Disney said, "I'm gonna control the experience." What he realized is that literally when people come in, I'm gonna control the music, I'm gonna sound, I'm gonna have custom rides, not like everyone else. It's not gonna be the same amusement park. So you never know. It's a feeling you're gonna get. And so when I started reading about Walt and PT, I was like, "We gotta promote and create something that people haven't seen before."

  4. 6:19 – 8:01

    Ten Years of Experimentation and Failure Before the Savannah Bananas

    1. JC

      And that's when you start experimenting and, and failing, and a lot of failure. Like, almost every promotion that we came up with the first 10 years, to an extent, failed, but that's how you learn from your fans.

    2. SS

      10 years is a long time to keep going.

    3. JC

      That was 10 years of a team that no one even knew about, before we even started the Bananas. And, yeah, but we were having fun doing it. When you have a grandma beauty pageant and you have, you know, women in their, in their 80s, you know, strutting their stuff and dancing and watching the crowd react-

    4. SS

      You were having fun.

    5. JC

      I was having fun, and some fans were starting to have fun.

    6. SS

      Right.

    7. JC

      And when you'd see the players, and now they're doing a choreographed dance during the innings, and fans are like, "That's fun." And players celebrating after they score, not just, like, high-fiving, but doing full-on celebrations. It started to kind of slowly grow, and in that team, we went from a couple hundred fans a game to, you know, 2,000 fans a game, and then I saw there was an inkling of something.

    8. SS

      Right.

    9. JC

      There- And so that's when I was like, "Well, what if we started from scratch?"

    10. SS

      I don't think your origin story is entirely true. The-

    11. JC

      I'm intrigued on this

    12. SS

      ... and I don't doubt the, I don't doubt the veracity of it. When you said, "I wanted the game to go faster and be more entertaining," that, I don't think that's true because, like, professional baseball, as we said before, yes, it's slow, and yes-

    13. JC

      Yeah

    14. SS

      ... for some, it's quite boring. And if you want it to go faster and be more entertaining, you would've put more stuff on the screen, you would've had stuff come in between, and you would've added the pitch clock to make the game go a little faster.

    15. JC

      Yeah.

    16. SS

      So what, yours was slightly different. You were a GM of a tiny rinky-dink-

    17. JC

      Yeah

    18. SS

      ... you know, w- I don't even know if it's triple A. It's like-

    19. JC

      Oh, no. It's college summer baseball.

    20. SS

      Okay. So it's college summer baseball. [laughs] I mean, it's-

    21. JC

      Let's keep going down.

    22. SS

      Right. It's like 7A baseball team. [laughs]

    23. JC

      It's, it's not even professional. You can't even pay the guys.

    24. SS

      You can't even pay the guys.

    25. JC

      It's-

    26. SS

      Okay. You have an unknown league with an unknown team with 200 fans coming, and you are trying to get people to come, as you called it, to the show-

  5. 8:01 – 8:57

    Fans First: Building for People, Not Baseball Traditionalists

    1. JC

      Yes

    2. SS

      ... which is different than trying to make baseball more fun.

    3. JC

      Yeah, that's how it start- You're right, 100%.

    4. SS

      Right?

    5. JC

      It was trying to get them to come.

    6. SS

      'Cause-

    7. JC

      We didn't change the game for-

    8. SS

      You-

    9. JC

      ... 15 years

    10. SS

      ... right. So you're trying to get people to come to the show, and people's first reaction was, "Well, I don't like baseball." So what's going through your head is, "Well, if I make it not baseball-"

    11. JC

      Yes

    12. SS

      ... baseball is just the, the, the canvas, but it's-

    13. JC

      Yeah

    14. SS

      ... not really baseball, then they'll come for the show, not for the baseball. That is really interesting.

    15. JC

      You want- I wanted to create fans of people that weren't baseball fans.

    16. SS

      Right.

    17. JC

      And now what's crazy is that a lot of baseball fans have actually said, "Wow, these guys can play. They do trick plays. They can do it at a high level, and there's entertainment."

    18. SS

      Right.

    19. JC

      S- But, you know, it's, the question more is, is not who are you for, but who are you not for? And I was kind of very clear that we are not for the baseball traditionalists.

    20. SS

      Right.

    21. JC

      We are for the family. We're the people that wanna come out and have fun and see things they've never seen before in a baseball field.

    22. SS

      Right.

    23. JC

      So that made it very crystal clear, like, we wanna be fans first and entertain always, and we're gonna make the game fun.

    24. SS

      Yeah,

  6. 8:57 – 9:56

    Competing Against Netflix and Video Games, Not Other Baseball

    1. SS

      because you're not competing against baseball. You're competing-

    2. JC

      No

    3. SS

      ... against Netflix, and you're competing against video games-

    4. JC

      Yeah

    5. SS

      ... and staying at home or Disneyland.

    6. JC

      100%, and, and, right, but I mean, again, and without being cliche, it's like, uh, every day we compete religiously against ourselves.

    7. SS

      Yeah.

    8. JC

      Like, we do 15 to 20 things every night that we've never done in front of a live crowd, every single night. After every show, our whole team does an LCP, learn, change, plus, two to three-page report on every single promotion, every single detail, every single OTT moment, we call over-the-top moment, every celebration, and we have full notes. And then the next day, it's how are we gonna get better because we wanna make sure the fans never feel like, get stale.

    9. SS

      Well, this is something you and I have in common, the idea that the greatest competition is yourself.

    10. JC

      100%.

    11. SS

      You know, this is the infinite game. And what I l- love about this is, is, and I hope, w- whether people are entrepreneurs or not entrepreneurs, when they're listening to this, which is this has nothing to do with sports. This has nothing to do with baseball. This has nothing to do with live entertainment even. This has to do with a philosophy that you have to make a great product that people want.

  7. 9:56 – 10:41

    The Philosophy of Feeling Alive and Creating Joy

    1. JC

      Mm-hmm. Well, bring people together.

    2. SS

      Bring people together.

    3. JC

      It's just, that's, it's, it's joy.

    4. SS

      It's joy.

    5. JC

      'Cause if you want it, when, you feel alive. Like, I look for moments where you're not paying attention to anything else. You're not thinking about where you're gonna be. You're not on your phone. You truly feel alive and in a moment, and I think now more than ever, people need that.

    6. SS

      Yeah.

    7. JC

      And when I feel that, and I, when I see our fans feeling that, and everyone's singing "Yellow" in the whole stadium, they're lighting up. They have their flashlights, and everyone's singing "Yellow," 40,000 people. You look around, and you can see goosebump, feel it. It's those moments that I know nowhere else in the world this is happening, and that's that live experience, and every night I'm chasing those moments that people get to feel that, and when you feel a part of something. I think we all wanna feel a part of something. That's the bigger picture.

    8. SS

      So how many team, you have now how many teams now?

    9. JC

      We have six teams.

    10. SS

      And how many people work

  8. 10:41 – 11:15

    Building a Team: From 200 to 1000 Staff with 14,000 on the Waitlist

    1. SS

      for the organization?

    2. JC

      [laughs] We travel with 200, 150 to 200. We have three tours going on at once. Then we have hundreds back at home. I mean, we're probably approaching 1,000. I was told today we have 14,000 on our waitlist to work with us, which makes me even more proud than the waitlist of 4.2 million to get tickets right now.

    3. SS

      Wow.

    4. JC

      'Cause we don't focus on anything else. We, every night we're focusing on how do we create a good experience for our players, our cast, and the fans, and if we can create a remarkable experience, an unforgettable experience-

    5. SS

      Yeah

    6. JC

      ... everything else takes care of itself.

    7. SS

      I mean, you are a modern-day Walt Disney.

    8. JC

      [laughs] That's, uh, one of the highest compliments I could...

  9. 11:15 – 13:00

    The Modern-Day Walt Disney: Refreshing Entrepreneurship

    1. JC

      That means a lot.

    2. SS

      And it's a ref-

    3. JC

      Especially from you

    4. SS

      ... it's, it's refreshing. It's also so refreshing, right? I'm tired of the entrepreneur world.

    5. JC

      Yeah.

    6. SS

      I'm kind of sick of it all, and it's, it's not as pure as it used to be. I sound fuddy-duddy, but there used to be the belief that if you, uh, had a corporate job, for example-

    7. JC

      Yes

    8. SS

      ... there used to be the belief that if you worked for a private company, it was, y- you had more control, right?

    9. JC

      Yeah.

    10. SS

      Like, because you could go to work at a public company, and you can get laid off any day, but, you know, there was stability in, in the private company, right? That's no longer true.Um, because so many small companies, so many startups are venture-backed now-

    11. JC

      Mm

    12. SS

      ... that the pressures from a venture capital or an investor base on these small businesses-

    13. JC

      Yeah

    14. SS

      ... is the same or worse than the public markets.

    15. JC

      It's brutal.

    16. SS

      You see basically private companies operating like public companies, where it's growth for growth's sake, growth, you know-

    17. JC

      Yeah

    18. SS

      ... that's all they're doing is pressure for growth, and I'm kind of sick of entrepreneurs talking to me about their liquidity events and their IPOs. The purity of the reason to start a business, you know, the reason to start a business is because there's something lacking in the market that I thought I needed.

    19. JC

      Yes.

    20. SS

      And I think that other people need this too, or other people have this problem, and you know what? Damn it, I'm gonna be the one to give them. And that's where the passion comes from. I think you make better decisions-

    21. JC

      100%

    22. SS

      ... when you're thinking of a human being on the receiving end-

    23. JC

      Yeah

    24. SS

      ... of your product, not a, a, a shareholder or an investor-

    25. JC

      It's-

    26. SS

      ... on the receiving end of your product

    27. JC

      ... it's everything.

    28. SS

      'Cause you have no desire to go public.

    29. JC

      I've said no to every single-

    30. SS

      Yeah

  10. 13:00 – 13:51

    Sleeping on an Air Mattress: The Early Struggles

    1. JC

      to sell your house, and be down to your last dollar. I mean, when we started the Bananas, we sold two tickets in our first three months, and we got a phone call from our team that we were out of money. We had nothing, so we sold our house, we emptied out our savings account, we were sleeping on an air bed. This is 10 years ago.

    2. SS

      You and your wife?

    3. JC

      My, my wife.

    4. SS

      Sh-

    5. JC

      And we had just got married. We had just got married. Within three months, we're on an air bed and we're grocery shopping with just $30 a week that we'd go to Walmart-

    6. SS

      She never regretted her decision ever? [laughs]

    7. JC

      She, sh- [laughs] she believed in me and, and she believed in us, and she believed in what we're doing.

    8. SS

      Mm.

    9. JC

      And, and it was hard, and we didn't sleep. But when we went through that, and every day we got up excited about, "Get to that first show. We can show fans. Get to that first show," because we were doubted. You know, people, we were called the Bananas and then the city was ripping us apart because, you know, "Why are you calling our city something silly and-

    10. SS

      Right

    11. JC

      ... stupid?" as they would say. But once we got to that first show, we felt it. And what, you know, it was crazy. That first night, I'll never forget

  11. 13:51 – 16:54

    The First Night Story: Fans First Isn't Just a Slogan

    1. JC

      the first night. Players have been there a few days, but we talk fans first. Everything we do, the reason why we do what we do is for the fans. Create moments that truly matter, 'cause nothing matters more than making people feel like they matter. Like, we talked about that over and over again. And so I remember halfway through the night, a young woman comes up to me and she goes, um, "Can I get a signed ball?" And I say, "I'll, I'll do what I can, you know, right after the game." And she goes, "No, it would mean more to me than anything." And I, I go, "Why? What's going on?" She's like, "You know, I'm here. My fiance had come to every single opening night at this stadium since he was a kid, and I'm here with his family. He just tragically died last week, and we're here in tribute to him to be here for the opening night." And she goes, "If you give me a signed ball, it would mean a lot for the family." I said, "Of course. Of course." She goes, "There's one more thing. My fiance's name was Drew Moody. You have a player on your team named Drew Moody." And at that point, Drew wasn't with us yet, but his younger brother, Logan Moody, was with us. And, and Logan's 18 years old. I go tell Logan the story. He goes, "I got this." He went and got the entire team to sign the ball, and he went up and he sat right down next to her. He gave her a hug, and he stayed there for a whole inning just sitting with her, and he came back down afterwards and gave her a big hug, came back down, and I said, "Logan, what was that?" He goes, he goes, "Fans first, right?" He was 18 years old-

    2. SS

      Wow

    3. JC

      ... with us for two days. He understood what mattered most.

    4. SS

      Wow.

    5. JC

      And I watched that, and those stories and moments happened every single night with people saying, "It's not about me being on the field, being on my team. It's I'm gonna create a moment and make sure I'm there for someone that needs it."

    6. SS

      Wow.

    7. JC

      You know, I was 30, 31 years old, this brand-new owner of this team, and I just like, "Wow, all right. It's so much bigger than who wins the game. People need to feel those." And that happens every night at our stadium.

    8. SS

      So we're talking about the fans. Let's talk about the players.

    9. JC

      Yeah.

    10. SS

      'Cause they're good baseball players.

    11. JC

      Tremendous.

    12. SS

      And so, you know, what's happening in their career that, that they decided to go this direction versus-

    13. JC

      Yeah

    14. SS

      ... the pros or as a post-pro?

    15. JC

      We all have something in common. At one point in our life, we've all been cut, we've all been rejected, we've all been told we're not good enough. That's happened to all of us. So they all got to Single A, Double A, Triple A, one step away from the Majors, some of them in college, and they were told they weren't good enough. And then this opportunity came up, and so a few guys take a chance on us in the beginning when we were kind of saying, "Who is this Banana Ball crazy thing?" And they started working on trick plays, dances, celebrations, and it became a part of what they loved. What we realized is when you have fun, you play better, and it's proven. We've actually done study. Like, it's when you have fun, you play better. And so these guys come out, and even if they strike out two or three times, they understand that, "Hey, I'm gonna go make a trick play. I'm gonna go have a celebrate. I'm gonna go with the fans and go, you know, do some pictures and do whatever." That makes a difference, and so these guys now, at first we had no one that wanted to play for us, like, "What is this?" Now, I mean, we have even a Major League All-Star and World Series champion who plays full time with us.

    16. SS

      Wow.

    17. JC

      And so now it's really become something because every night they're playing in front of a sold-out crowd.

    18. SS

      That's fun.

    19. JC

      And every night they're going out and having fun with the fans and staying. It's just a different purpose.

    20. SS

      Are the teams still playing to win? Like, there's no-

    21. JC

      Yeah

    22. SS

      ... set outcome.

  12. 16:54 – 18:36

    Learning from the Harlem Globetrotters

    1. JC

      No.

    2. SS

      Like-

    3. JC

      So that's the big thing. When people compare us to the Globetrotters, at first I'm like, "Okay." But the Globetrotters, you know, 100 years, you know, that's pretty impressive. How many companies make it 100-plus years?

    4. SS

      Right.

    5. JC

      But the Globetrotters in 1940s, they were the most famous and popular sports team in the world. Th- and it wasn't even close. Th- they played in front of 70,000 people in Berlin. Wilt Chamberlain chose to play for the Globetrotters before playing for the Lakers. They beat the Lakers. They were playing competitive games. But then Abe Saperstein, who was one of the greatest promoters of all time, he said, "Oh, we can really expand this. Let's grow this." And he said, "We're gonna do the same show every night."

    6. SS

      Yeah.

    7. JC

      "We're gonna have three Globetrotter teams-

    8. SS

      Yeah

    9. JC

      ... and we're just gonna spread and go out." I learned from that. If the Globetrotters back in the 1940s, if they'd have said, "You know what? We're gonna create our own league-"

    10. SS

      Yeah

    11. JC

      ... there might not be an NBA, and here's why. Because the NBA used to book the Globetrotters so they could get fans to stay for the NBA games. That's how popular the Globetrotters were. They were doing the flair, the fun, all of this, but they said, "We're just gonna do the same show 'cause it's easier."

    12. SS

      Right.

    13. JC

      I love every night, every week. We spend all week working on brand new ideas

    14. SS

      So it's not, it's not wrestling. Like-

    15. JC

      No

    16. SS

      ... the game, they're still athletes.

    17. JC

      The, so they compete-

    18. SS

      They're still competitive athletes

    19. JC

      ... so the big thing is they still compete every night to see who wins.

    20. SS

      Right.

    21. JC

      But we do a show, celebrations, dances, performances that are brand new every night, so you have a brand new show for the fans, and then you also never know who's gonna win at the end of the game.

    22. SS

      Right.

    23. JC

      And so that's the world we're trying to create, that there's just constant excitement. You have to stay till the end because you never know what's gonna happen.

    24. SS

      I mean, what I love about it as well is, especially for athletes, which is their identities become intertwined with-

    25. JC

      Mm

    26. SS

      ... their, their careers, especially in baseball where you don't have to go to college for baseball.

    27. JC

      Yeah.

    28. SS

      You're a l- kid that's got some aptitude, you go to high school, you're playing great. You th- you, you know, you play triple A, you play double A, you can start to smell it,

  13. 18:36 – 24:18

    The Players: Rejected Dreams Become Second Chances

    1. SS

      and, you know, y- you get rejected.

    2. JC

      Yeah.

    3. SS

      You get turned down from the majors, and your whole life you've been pursuing this one goal, which is to play in the majors.

    4. JC

      Mm.

    5. SS

      And then I have to imagine that a lot of them suffer some sort of identity crisis.

    6. JC

      I suffered it. My whole life was the goal to play professional baseball. That was my dream. That's what me and my dad worked on every day. And I got down, I got a, a scholarship, Division I baseball. I'm starting hearing from the Mets and the Padres and the Braves, and it's gonna happen, and then I tore my shoulder, and just like that, it was gone. And I was filming a documentary at the time for my capstone project, and I turned the camera on me. I was devastated. That was it. My life was baseball.

    7. SS

      Yeah.

    8. JC

      That's what I was going to do.

    9. SS

      So what did your identity become after you tore your shoulder, where you realized your literally your dream is zero?

    10. JC

      Uh, for over a week, I didn't know. Everyone was like, "You'll go into coaching. Your dad was a coach." So I went and I coached in the Cape Cod League for one summer, and that's when I was bored out of my mind. That's when sitting on that bench watching the game, I was like, "I know what's happening, and I'm still bored." Just like Walt Disney sitting at Griffith Park watching his daughters on the carousel, and he said, "I wish there was a place adults and kids could have fun together." For me, I was like, "This is a great game, but it can be so much more fun."

    11. SS

      Right.

    12. JC

      And so to answer your question, I went through that, and then it wasn't until that coaching, I was like, "I don't wanna coach. What if I went in the front office and I could create the experience?"

    13. SS

      Yeah.

    14. JC

      When fans walk in, how they feel when they leave, all those moments in between. And it took years of kind of crafting that to get to here. But I, I think when you mentioned the players, their identity was everything. What people don't realize, in minor league baseball and professional baseball, you are competing against everyone, your teammates even. Who's gonna go to the next level?

    15. SS

      Right, right, right, right.

    16. JC

      So you're competing with your teammates to get to the highest level. Here, you know, at the end of the night, our captain gets on the mic and he says, "You know, I love this team. What people don't realize, we share a locker room together. These are my brothers, and we compete like crazy on the field. We all wanna win, but at the end of the day, we're in this together." And it's a bigger picture. And even after a tough loss, you look around and see a sold-out crowd and understand they came for that. As opposed to if you go watch your favorite team-

    17. SS

      Yeah

    18. JC

      ... and at the end of the night they lose, you watch people leave that stadium, they are upset.

    19. SS

      Yeah.

    20. JC

      They are angry. I don't ever wanna have people leave a stadium or event feeling that, ever.

    21. SS

      Yeah. I mean, look, what you're doing wouldn't work in professional sports. You have the freedom to do these things. We could never s- make sp- professional sports as fun.

    22. JC

      Yeah.

    23. SS

      You know?

    24. JC

      But I think there's pieces that can.

    25. SS

      Go on.

    26. JC

      You can break down the barrier between the fans and the players. Why do you have to have so much of a barrier? You know, people don't realize our players go and meet the fans for hours.

    27. SS

      Yeah.

    28. JC

      When the gates open at 2:00.

    29. SS

      I was blown away by this, that a game started at 7:00 PM, but the gates open at 2:00.

    30. JC

      At 2:00.

  14. 24:18 – 25:42

    Walt Disney's Obsession with Details: Garbage Cans and Ride Times

    1. JC

      I love.

    2. SS

      You know that Walt Disney was so obsessed with it. Do you know why there's the huge berm, you know, in front of the entrance at Disneyland?

    3. JC

      Well, I mean, he was trying to block out the world and make you feel like you were part of-

    4. SS

      Right, which I love.

    5. JC

      Yes.

    6. SS

      Like, once you're in, you can't see out anymore, and there's no newspapers in Disneyland.

    7. JC

      Yes. You feel like you're in a world-

    8. SS

      'Cause you don't want any access to the outside world, which I love.

    9. JC

      Yes.

    10. SS

      He wanted to create this escape. And do you know about the garbage cans at Disneyland? The spacing.

    11. JC

      The spacing.

    12. SS

      So what they did was, in the early days of Disneyland, um, the Imagineers, they would follow guests.

    13. JC

      Yes.

    14. SS

      So if they had garbage in their hands-

    15. JC

      Yes

    16. SS

      ... they would count-

    17. JC

      Yeah

    18. SS

      ... how many steps they would take before they finally got fed up because they couldn't find a garbage can and just threw it on the ground.

    19. JC

      Yes.

    20. SS

      And I don't remember the exact number, but let's say it's 27 steps.

    21. JC

      Yep.

    22. SS

      So they put a garbage can every 23 steps.

    23. JC

      Yeah. Walt said he had a hot dog, and so he walked with a hot dog. And once he was done with the hot dog-

    24. SS

      Yeah

    25. JC

      ... so he worked with them. Yeah. I mean, and he used to time the rides. He would time every ride. You know, he went on the Jungle Cruise once.

    26. SS

      Yeah.

    27. JC

      And this is crazy. The Jungle Cruise, and it was supposed to be seven minutes. It was four and a half minutes. Boy, he was upset after that. He went to Dick Nunis and he said, "What's going on? It needs to be seven minutes." And so they made it seven minutes because they were trying to rush and get more people in. He goes, "No, I want them to feel the full experience of it."

    28. SS

      Yeah.

    29. JC

      And he always said, "Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always asking what's wrong with this thing and how can it be improved?" People might say, "Oh, that's a pessimist." Nah. Nah, that's the way of looking how do you make something truly great. And so that's the way we look at everything with our shows.

    30. SS

      I love the obsession that you have. And again, you know, it's for people. It's

  15. 25:42 – 26:27

    Building for Human Beings, Not Bottom Lines

    1. SS

      not for a bottom line. You built a business for a human being, and the irony is, is every business is for a human being.

    2. JC

      100%.

    3. SS

      You know? Whether you're helping people be, uh, entertained-

    4. JC

      Yeah

    5. SS

      ... or you're helping people solve a problem, or you're helping people enjoy something or make their lives a little simpler, like whatever it is, there's a human being at the end of every single-

    6. JC

      Yeah

    7. SS

      ... every single business.

    8. JC

      And how do you make them feel?

    9. SS

      And how do you make them feel?

    10. JC

      Yeah.

    11. SS

      And it is amazing to me, in this day and age of engineers and AI, and, and everybody forgets... And this is my big complaint about AI as well-

    12. JC

      Yeah

    13. SS

      ... which is everybody forgets there's still a human being interacting with it.

    14. JC

      Yes. Yeah. Well, it, it, and again, that goes back to the, the, the mindset of you're feeling alive. Like, it's human-human connection. As we get in the future, I think as AI gets more, people are gonna be more hungry-

    15. SS

      Yeah

    16. JC

      ... for the human-human connection, the real connection, where you can just have something, you walk away, and you feel

  16. 26:27 – 27:21

    One Financial Meeting a Year: The Long Game

    1. JC

      alive. I'm in one financial meeting a year. It's less than two hours. It's in November. Our CFO shares where we are. I look at it and say, "Good." I have no interest in that.

    2. SS

      Yeah.

    3. JC

      And, and again, we were on an airbed with nothing. And so when you learn, you go, you go through it, you experience it, like, "No, I wanna create a billion fans." I, I'm so focused on the next... You know, it's like, you know, public next quarter. I'm focused on the next quarter century. What can we build? What can we grow? Where can we bring joy to places that people don't expect? And the youth and the kids, I have a seven-year-old son who, you know, every day he picks up a yellow banana ball, which is our banana ball, and he's doing tricks. He's out in front doing tricks, and they call him Mavtrick. His name's Maverick. And it's just so fun to watch that joy, and I think kids used to have that even more. They'd play more outside. Like, there's a whole big future world where I believe we can bring this, where people think it's just a show-

    4. SS

      Mm

    5. JC

      ... to a game, to joy. And so I think people think of the next chess move we're gonna make. I'm, I'm trying to see the whole chess board.

  17. 27:21 – 27:59

    Fear of Irrelevance: Staying Emotionally Connected

    1. SS

      Do you, do you have fear?

    2. JC

      Yeah.

    3. SS

      What are you afraid of?

    4. JC

      I'm at my worst when, probably the gap and the gain mindset, when I, we work so hard to nail something, and it can go wrong, and I have this expectation of this amazing performance, this amazing show. That's when I'm at a tough point.

    5. SS

      I have to believe that the yellow tuxedo is in part branding, but also in part a reminder to you that-

    6. JC

      Yeah

    7. SS

      ... you have to be this persona.

    8. JC

      100%.

    9. SS

      'Cause if you just show up in a-

    10. JC

      Yeah

    11. SS

      ... in a jersey and jeans-

    12. JC

      Or, or, or, or a, a, a buttoned-up suit trying to be professional

    13. SS

      ... or a buttoned suit-

    14. JC

      So, so, yes

    15. SS

      ... I mean, th- this is as much a reminder to you. When you see this ridiculous color

  18. 27:59 – 33:41

    The Yellow Tuxedo: Permission to Have Fun

    1. SS

      that you're wearing, you're like, "I gotta be-"

    2. JC

      It's-

    3. SS

      "... yellow all the time."

    4. JC

      The origin of this came from PT Barnum. He was putting on a show.

    5. SS

      Yeah.

    6. JC

      He wore the tails, he wore the hat. He's putting on a show. But for me, it is permission for our team to have fun and not take themselves too seriously.

    7. SS

      Yeah.

    8. JC

      If your owner is in a yellow tux top hat when it's 100 degrees, and he's throwing out-

    9. SS

      Technically it's a bowler.

    10. JC

      Yeah. [laughs] And he... You're right. And he's, and he's, and he's-

    11. SS

      [laughs]

    12. JC

      I mean, I throw Dolce & Banana underwear into the crowd. Like, literally, everyone thinks they're getting a T-shirt, and it's actually our banana logo on the crotch, and I throw it to, like, a grown man that's getting way too excited for a T-shirt. I get it to him, and then he's putting on the Dolce & Banana underwear. It's on the video board. Like, if I'm throwing out Dolce & Banana in a yellow tux and I'm the owner, everyone else can have fun-

    13. SS

      I mean, yeah

    14. JC

      ... and not take themselves too seriously.

    15. SS

      Yeah.

    16. JC

      So it, yes, there is a method, and that's why we all dress up and have fun. It's just, it, it's play. It's joy.

    17. SS

      It's joy.

    18. JC

      It's just... Yeah. I think, I fear, if you go deeper than that, I go to fear, it, it's... Sounds trite, but irrelevance, feeling like we don't matter. I feel what we've done, we've put so much effort into, and something happens where it doesn't matter to people anymore. It doesn't have that same emotional connection. It doesn't have that same love and passion behind it. I fear losing that. Losing that.

    19. SS

      But not money?

    20. JC

      Oh, no. I mean, it... No. Money's not, it's, it's never been a thing for me. When we... I didn't pay myself my first three months when I was 23 years old at the gym 'cause there was no money in the account. My dad taught me to try to save, so I saved some money. I lived through that. We grocery shopped with $30 a week. I did a 2026, uh, Fans First report, like a, quote-unquote, like a shareholder letter, but I did to the fans, and I shared everything, you know, even where we're investing money, where we're going. And it's like I just wanna put accountability and responsibility to we work for you.

    21. SS

      Mm.

    22. JC

      Even though I don't have to share that publicly.

    23. SS

      Mm.

    24. JC

      There's no reason to share any of that. I guess I have a fear in five, 10, 15 years that where we are right now, I hope we're at this level of emotional connection, joy-... people feeling a part of it, pride. We are at a such a unique level we're playing. We did the Superdome two weeks ago. We found out that we were the only sporting event in history, in history of the Superdome, to sell out back-to-back nights with 140,000 fans. Only like Taylor Swift, Rolling Stone, like only a few concerts have done it. We're at a very unique spot right now. I don't wanna look in 10, 15, 20 years and feel like we can't make that same type of impact.

    25. SS

      So how, where, what's the vision for 10, 15 years from now? Like-

    26. JC

      Y-

    27. SS

      ... you're not do- you're definitely not doing the same thing.

    28. JC

      You have to re- yeah, you have to continue to reinvent. So I think a lot of people think about where their current customers are. I think about where our future fans are. You know, I've been inspired by Disney, so what, you know, they created Disneyland. Where's our world? Is there any sports and entertainment world? We're building all these characters, singers, performers. We did a cruise ship. We sold out a cruise ship, which makes no sense for a Banana Ball, but we did it 'cause constraints foster creativity. What if we have to now entertain for five straight days with no Banana Ball? What could we figure out then?

    29. SS

      Mm.

    30. JC

      And so we did it for five days, and actually the last day, which was crazy, we couldn't get into port, Simon, because the fog. So we had programmed four or five days perfectly. We had everything, and then they couldn't get to port. So we have a sold-out cruise ship, 3,000 people, all of our cast, and Emily, who's championing this project, she goes, "All right. Let's go, 8:00 AM." So we get together, everyone. We planned 17 hours of programming, from new shows, new musical numbers, new Q&As, new sessions on, of Banana Ball on the court, and people left at around 1:00 AM. We were the last ones off the ship at 1:00 AM. And the feeling of pride, and fans said, "We are so glad that we didn't..." They missed their flights. They missed everything because they were all leaving that day in the morning.

  19. 33:41 – 39:11

    Why Now? Disconnection and the Hunger for Human Connection

    1. SS

      I think that we are living in disconnected times.

    2. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    3. SS

      I think that families struggle to come up with things to do that make them feel like a family. You know, there's a TV in every room. At least when we were younger, there was like the TV in the TV room, and that was it.

    4. JC

      You do it together, like it's communal.

    5. SS

      And you like, you either watch the same show or you don't watch TV, you know?

    6. JC

      Yeah.

    7. SS

      And maybe only mom and dad had a small TV-

    8. JC

      Yeah

    9. SS

      ... in, in, in their bedroom. And then we all have personal screens.

    10. JC

      Yep.

    11. SS

      And so I think it's a time of extreme disconnection.

    12. JC

      Yeah.

    13. SS

      I also think what we were talking about before, which is the hypercompetitiveness of business-

    14. JC

      Mm

    15. SS

      ... which is growth for growth's sake, and I'm better than you.

    16. JC

      Yeah.

    17. SS

      And the idea of doing something for the sheer joy of doing it and the sheer passion of doing it, that there is no necessarily a finish line or a goal that-

    18. JC

      Yes

    19. SS

      ... you know you've won when you've hit this dollar or this number of followers, hit your metric. I mean, I, it's sort of corny, but it's the joy of the game, right? Um, so I think the time is right now for what you do.

    20. JC

      But what the question is, it's like what Bezos used to always say is, uh, you know, everyone asks what's gonna change in the next 10 years, but he said, "Well, what's not gonna change?" You know, people are gonna want things faster, a wider selection, and better prices. What's not gonna change?

    21. SS

      Yeah.

    22. JC

      So what you just brought up right there, the question is will that change in the next 10, 20, 30 years, or will it even grow even stronger?

    23. SS

      I think it, I think it, it's to your favor-

    24. JC

      Yes

    25. SS

      ... because I think it's getting worse.

    26. JC

      Yeah.

    27. SS

      I mean, not to get dramatic, but if things continue as they are with AI and social media, and there's no significant restraints or constraints or interventions or re-understandings how these things imp-

    28. JC

      Mm

    29. SS

      ... uh, impact our lives, my prediction as AI grows, you'll watch the suicide numbers go up.

    30. JC

      Yeah.

  20. 39:11 – 40:59

    Winning the Upper Deck: Making Every Seat Special

    1. SS

      going to the nosebleeds-

    2. JC

      Yes

    3. SS

      ... and trying to understand the experience. And you understand there is a front of stadium experience that is different and better-

    4. JC

      Understand

    5. SS

      ... and you're closer, and you don't take that for granted, and you get more-

    6. JC

      Yeah

    7. SS

      ... by being in front, of course, 'cause you paid for it.

    8. JC

      Understand.

    9. SS

      Nobody minds the front of the plane-

    10. JC

      Yeah

    11. SS

      ... but not at the expense of the back of the plane.

    12. JC

      Yeah.

    13. SS

      Nobody minds front of the stadium, but not at the expense of the back of the stadium

    14. JC

      Everyone's on the first class experience. They focus on that.

    15. SS

      Right. And, and I think to, sure, you have a, a focus on the front-

    16. JC

      Yeah

    17. SS

      ... but again, not at the expense of the back. To go to the back and say, "Let's make this experience wonderful at this price range, at this distance. How do we do that for you?"

    18. JC

      It-

    19. SS

      Is, is unheard of.

    20. JC

      Well, thank you. It's, it's-

    21. SS

      Or rarely heard, I should say

    22. JC

      ... a, a term that you hear our team often say every day is, "Win the upper deck. Win the upper deck." But it starts at the top, Simon. I think this is really important. Like, if we just talk about it, every night I'll spend two to three innings in the upper deck. We all pass out roses to little girls. So imagine you're sitting up in section 562-

    23. SS

      Yeah

    24. JC

      ... and a three-year-old girl's getting a rose from a player, myself, our cast. And then we do, I do the sing-off there. So instead of just be easy to just do, have the whole stadium sing and be on the field, I get in the section 527 and up with them. And it's so amazing because they feel, as soon as we walk up there, they're blown away.

    25. SS

      Yeah.

    26. JC

      And but for us, again, we feel more purpose because it's like these people, these fans have waited two, three years-

    27. SS

      Yeah, yeah

    28. JC

      ... for tickets. It's their-

    29. SS

      That's crazy

    30. JC

      ... bucket list. That's what, that's, our waitlist is that long. They wait two, three, four years. They get their chance. If they go up there and they don't get to feel that interaction, you know, we say every night is someone's first show.

  21. 40:59 – 45:58

    Hall of Famer Lee Smith's Philosophy: Seeing the Person

    1. SS

      Uh, Tim would go to the, to the nosebleeds in the arena.

    2. JC

      Yeah.

    3. SS

      And he would always look for a father and son

    4. JC

      Mm.

    5. SS

      Right? He wants that bond.

    6. JC

      Yeah.

    7. SS

      'Cause he knows that somebody worked hard, they wanted to take their kid out-

    8. JC

      Yeah

    9. SS

      ... and for the most part, that's what they can afford is the back of the arena. And he'd look for that relationship, and he'd sit down, and he'd see a couple, and he would talk to them. And, you know, it's just a dad who wants to take his son out. He's like, "Come with me." And he would just slip them two tickets.

    10. JC

      Got it.

    11. SS

      And he would put them courtside.

    12. JC

      I love it.

    13. SS

      He would give them an experience that only sort of money and celebrity gets.

    14. JC

      I love it.

    15. SS

      By the way, he never sat courtside. He could every night if he wants.

    16. JC

      Yeah.

    17. SS

      He doesn't.

    18. JC

      Yeah.

    19. SS

      He sits up a little bit 'cause he wants other people to have those seats. What he's doing, and he, he's very open about it, is he, there's no financial interest to the team.

    20. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    21. SS

      There's no ripple effect whatsoever. It's that he wants to use his bully pulpit and his influence to create a magical experience for a father and a son.

    22. JC

      Yeah.

    23. SS

      I'm gonna tell you one more Disney story.

    24. JC

      Oh, I love this, man. I love the love of Disney. This is nice.

    25. SS

      This is one, this is, this is one you don't know.

    26. JC

      Okay.

    27. SS

      [chuckles] Um, I had the opportunity to give a talk to the ImagineersWhich is the greatest fun-

    28. JC

      Yes

    29. SS

      ... right? To meet the people who make the rides, design the-

    30. JC

      Yeah

  22. 45:58 – 50:24

    Pricing Philosophy: Keep It Accessible, Find Other Ways

    1. JC

      sending messages today to all of our team about this. How do we stop this?

    2. SS

      Yeah.

    3. JC

      What do we do? How do we take control? Because just like what you shared, it's like, it's controlling the entire experience. So when a parent... We could... If we charged what our tickets could go for and what they are in the secondary market, two, $300, it's another 100 million. It's, it's dramatic. The numbers are staggering.

    4. SS

      Right.

    5. JC

      It doesn't matter.

    6. SS

      It doesn't matter.

    7. JC

      Doesn't matter. We're serving 3.4 million fans this year. I wanna continue to serve more fans. How do we do it without raising prices?

    8. SS

      Yeah, yeah.

    9. JC

      Our president always like, "Jesse, we gotta," you know. But I'm like, "Find a way. Let's find a way. Let's keep it there and find a way." And what people don't realize is our fans support us with merchandise more than anyone would ever imagine-

    10. SS

      Yeah

    11. JC

      ... because they wanna wear the logos 'cause they feel pride-

    12. SS

      Yeah

    13. JC

      ... in who they represent. We don't have sponsorships like everyone else. We don't do TV rights like everyone else. We keep every game free on YouTube. It is an obsession, and it's hard.

    14. SS

      And there's other places to make money. As you said, merchandising.

    15. JC

      It takes-

    16. SS

      If you do a good job, people will, the fans will pay, buy the merchandise.

    17. JC

      The business is extremely healthy.

    18. SS

      Yeah.

    19. JC

      But what? Could it be dramatically more? Yeah, but then every day you'll lose a fan, every single day. Every day I wanna create a fan. It's a different game.

    20. SS

      You pl- And it's a long game, right? Because you're not there yet. It's not old enough yet. But when I was your age, my dad took me to Bananas games, and I'm gonna take you to a Bananas game.

    21. JC

      Yes. And it's, it's, it's interesting-

    22. SS

      And it's boy- and it's boys and girls, and it's a family thing. It's not just a, it's not just a sports thing. It's an entertainment thing.

    23. JC

      What's amazing, the other day, so we have, before our game, we did this the first game in 2016, our first year. We have a Banana Baby. So we have a baby go into a banana costume and lift it up, and all the players and the whole stadium's going, "Na Savannah Na." And it's kind of a ridiculous ritual to start the game.

    24. SS

      Right.

    25. JC

      And we've kept it every year. It's been a tradition. One of the first original Banana Babies now just went to our Banana Ball youth camp. They're going to all the games.

    26. SS

      [laughs]

    27. JC

      Literally a baby. And so for the last 10, 11 years, they've been a part, and their family travels around the country to come see shows. And to see going from Banana Baby to now part of it, it's just, it's, it's, it's on the way, and that's what I hope. It's a nostalgia in 30, 40, 50 years back remembered.

    28. SS

      And this, this is what I appreciate about you as an entrepreneur more than most businesses, which is most businesses, th- there's a fear that, uh, if, if we don't cash in now, we're gonna lose the customer, right? So let's max out the number, am- amount we can get because you never know, dot, dot, dot.

    29. JC

      Yeah.

    30. SS

      Where what you're saying is, what's the lifelong value of a family-It's generational wealth. It's generational-

  23. 50:24 – 51:23

    Calling Every Fan to Say Thank You

    1. JC

      our first seven years, Simon, we called every single fan that buys a ticket and thanked them. We did this up until about 150,000 fans. Now we do it sporadically 'cause we're serving 3.4 million.

    2. SS

      Sure.

    3. JC

      But we call every single fan just to thank them.

    4. SS

      Wow.

    5. JC

      And got a lot of voicemails, but they'd get a voicemail from us. And now we do it during Christmas time. We thank people that buy merchandise, and we... Like, our players, our team, our cast. It's part of what we did. So I said first year, because we were fighting for fans, remember, we only sold two tickets at the beginning. I go, "Guys, anybody who wants to even buy a ticket from us-

    6. SS

      Right. You're genuinely grateful

    7. JC

      ... we are genuinely appreciative 'cause they're giving us a chance."

    8. SS

      Right.

    9. JC

      All right? And so we're calling fans, and we're into the season. You know, the first show happened, a lot of craziness, but we start selling out games. We're doing well. We're still calling our fans. So even our interns, first day, they're, we're calling fans to thank them. And an intern was with us, Barry, and he sees, like, nine tickets. Like, that's a, that was a lot of tickets back then, Simon. Someone bought nine tickets, like a family bought nine tickets, and he called and they didn't answer, and he came in. I was like, "Hey, just try again later. We wanna really make sure that they're appreciated." So he

  24. 51:23 – 53:47

    Fan Story: The Father with Seven Kids

    1. JC

      tried the next day. They were coming to a game this coming week, and the dad answered the phone, and he goes, "Uh, uh, I'm so sorry. You know, we, we have seven kids. We're not gonna be able to go to the game. My wife just tragically passed away." Seven kids, dad. And so I remember Barry this, I remember vividly, he goes, Barry goes, "I'm so sorry," you know. He's a 23-year-old intern. He goes, "I'm so sorry, you know. Is there anything we can do?" He's like, "No, no, but appreciate it. Thanks." Quick phone call. Barry walks into my office. He goes, "Jesse, this is what happened." He goes, "What can we do?" One of the best leadership advice I learned from the first owner that I worked for when I was 23 years old, I'd ask him crazy ideas like, "Hey, what about a midnight madness game? What if we did this? What if this?" And he'd always come back to me and say, "Well, what do you think, Jesse?" And he empowered me as a 23-year-old. So in that moment, I just turned to that on, and I said, "Barry, what do you think?" He goes, "Jesse, we gotta do something." And I go, "All right. Well, what can we do?" He goes, "Well, how can we get him out and really do something for the kids?" And I go, "Well, what else do you think? Keep going." He starts writing all these ideas. I go, "Call him, call him back, and when give him a second, say, 'We'd love to take care of your kids and create a special moment.'" So he called the dad back, and the dad answered, and he said, "You know what? It would probably be good to get the kids out of the house." So Barry gave him his number. He said, "As soon as you show up, just give me a call." Showed up, brought him in. He had the front row seats, and Barry had, uh, merchandise and all these things for the kids, but then as soon as they sat down, all the players came, and they just spent time with them. This was before the gates opened, just 20, 30 minutes. Players just... These are all college players at this point, just spending time. And throughout the game, the players would come up and sit with them and celebrate with them, and they stayed till the end of the game, which back when we played traditional baseball, didn't happen at all.

    2. SS

      Yeah.

    3. JC

      No one stayed till the end of a baseball game.

    4. SS

      Right.

    5. JC

      They stayed till the end of the game. They stayed till the end of the night. The players had moments. We gave them some things. And, um, the father, the dad said to Barry, "That was the last gift my wife gave our kids. I could never imagine a better gift." And the kids walked out, and now they, they've become a part of our family.

    6. SS

      Wow.

    7. JC

      They come to the games. And we do a lot more now and a lot more details, but when I think back to a 23-year-old intern-

    8. SS

      Mm

    9. JC

      ... fulfilling a whole night, going the extra level, and having the seven kids there, and seeing that impact, and now that they've become lifelong Bananas fans, Banana Ball fans, I just think about that. He put it together. The players were involved. The cast was involved. They stayed till the end. We created a moment, and it was, it was pretty special.

    10. SS

      What was your childhood

  25. 53:47 – 54:55

    Jesse's Childhood: From Shy Kid to Entertainer

    1. SS

      like?

    2. JC

      I was an only child. My dad was an only child. My dad's dad was an only child. My dad's dad's dad was an only child. So, uh, many generations of boy only child. I was a kid trying to make my dad proud, and I'm still that kid trying to make my dad proud. Um, my parents got divorced, um-

    3. SS

      How old were you?

    4. JC

      Eight years old. And, uh, yeah, baseball was everything, me and my dad playing catch and being a part of the game. And so now he travels around the country and, um, is able to, to see what we do and-So there's a lot of stories of my dad that, that mean a lot. And, you know, I grew up outside of Fenway, and I had a dream to play at Fenway Park, play for the Red Sox. And I was a shy, introverted kid when I grew up. Crazily now.

    5. SS

      I mean, it doesn't... Yeah.

    6. JC

      Doesn't fit me at all.

    7. SS

      Doesn't-

    8. JC

      But I was shy and introverted. I was scared of everything. But my dad won an opportunity for me to be honorary bat boy for the Red Sox, and I was sitting in the dugout by myself alone, and one player came up and sat down next to me, and it was a Hall of Famer, Lee Smith. And he spent 20 minutes with me, and just talking to me. You know, he could've been warming up, doing... He, he saw me alone, and he spent 20 minutes with me. And at that point, I told my dad, I said, "Dad, I, I wanna play baseball. I wanna play for the

  26. 54:55 – 57:41

    Swing Hard in Case You Hit It: A Life Philosophy

    1. JC

      Red Sox." And I didn't realize at that point, but Lee Smith gave me my first fans first moment as a five-year-old kid. And what's crazy, so after that I started playing baseball, and my dad always tells the story. He said, "Jess, you know, whenever you came up, I used to yell," 'cause I was so nervous again. He'd say, "Jess, swing hard in case you hit it."

    2. SS

      [laughs]

    3. JC

      And every time I came up to bat, my dad would say, "Swing hard in case you hit it." And that's been a mindset that's stayed with me. And three years ago, we got a call from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and they said, "We can't ignore the Savannah Bananas anymore." Not exactly how I expected to get that call, but they said, "We wanna honor you guys and have an exhibit for you, and invite your fans, your players, everyone." And so we show up at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. There's hundreds of people.

    4. SS

      Cooperstown.

    5. JC

      Cooperstown.

    6. SS

      Wow.

    7. JC

      And we show up there, and the first person there greeting me was Hall of Famer Lee Smith.

    8. SS

      Yeah, that's amazing.

    9. JC

      And he had the picture from when I was five years old there. And the reason why we were in the Hall of Fame is because we were fans first, and I learned that from Lee Smith as a five-year-old, and it's changed everything. So it's full circle from that shy, introverted kid to now realizing it's a much bigger purpose.

    10. SS

      You know, we've been talking now for, what, the better half of an hour, I guess. And the thing that is consistent in the specific stories you tell, I mean, you told to- two stories of loss.

    11. JC

      Yeah.

    12. SS

      You tell the story of being a shy, introverted kid.

    13. JC

      Yeah.

    14. SS

      You tell a story of sitting on a bench by yourself.

    15. JC

      Yeah.

    16. SS

      You tell stories of going up into the nosebleeds.

    17. JC

      Yeah.

    18. SS

      Um, you tell stories of players who were rejected and had their dreams dashed. And it's, it's... They're all the same story. They're the story of how the world makes us feel.

    19. JC

      Mm-hmm.

    20. SS

      They're the story of having something taken away from us.

    21. JC

      Yeah.

    22. SS

      The story of not being able to participate because of cost or, or a- a- ability, the stories of being sidelined or put on the side.

    23. JC

      Yeah.

    24. SS

      It's... And w- you're telling the story of self-worth, and it's not enough simply to say, "You're worth more."

    25. JC

      Yeah.

    26. SS

      It's what inside that counts. Sure. Sounds great.

    27. JC

      Yeah.

    28. SS

      Totally true.

    29. JC

      Yeah.

    30. SS

      But the reality is we're social animals, and s- we do need external reinforcements. And you can have all the confidence of the world, and if the world rejects you, it's gonna hurt.

  27. 57:41 – 1:01:35

    The Story of Reggie: Everyone Wants to Feel Part of Something

    1. JC

      one more?

    2. SS

      Yeah.

    3. JC

      Because that I, I think epitomizes what we do, is we want everyone to feel a part of something, and especially when maybe at a point in their life they weren't. And I don't know if that was a root of me or something in there, but that we all feel that way. And so we had a young man our first year who wanted to get a job with us. His name's Reggie. And he called every week. "Hey, it's Reggie here. Just want a job." And they go, "Reggie, the job fair's in April." He goes, "Okay, I just really, really want this job." He called every week, spoke to someone. So finally he shows up, the job fair, and he's got a big smile, and we're like, "All right, Reggie, we're gonna find something for you." And so, you know, we had him help out and greet fans and, you know, help with trash and do all different things. And so every day he showed up to the ballpark with a big smile, every day. He was more noticeable than me in the yellow tux 'cause he was walking around. He'd say, "It's a great day for a ballgame," even if it's about to rain. Like every day Reggie said it was a great day for a ballgame. Best spirit. And then so after three years, he said, "Uh, Jess, uh, just wanna... For the first time, uh, just wanna let you know that my birthday's on a game day. Just wanna let you know."

    4. SS

      [laughs]

    5. JC

      And he tells... Then he proceeds to tell everyone [laughs] on our staff that his birthday's on a game day. So finally his birthday comes. We have our big pep rally with all our team, getting ready for the night, and we bring him over, and we start singing "Happy Birthday," and he goes, " [gasps] For me?"

    6. SS

      [laughs]

    7. JC

      "Of course, Reggie, it's for you." And so we, we had, we had cake, and we have b- had balloons for him, and then I said, uh, "Hey, Reggie, one more thing." And I learned this from Steve Jobs, always have one more thing. I said, "Reggie, come down to the, uh, dugout right before the game." He's like, "Sure, whatever you need. I'll be there. I'll be there." Comes down to the dugout before the game. This is in Savannah, so sold-out crowd, 4,000 fans. Everyone's standing, the band on the dugout. The players are lined up, you know, running to the starting lineup, so the tunnel. Everyone runs through the tunnel. Batting first for the Bananas. Batting second for the Bananas. Everyone's running through the tunnel, going to the line. And then we say, uh, "Last but not least, fans, you know him, you love him. Let's hear it for Reggie." He throws his arms up like this, runs through the tunnel high-fiving everyone. And at the end, our coach is there waiting for him with a jersey with his name on it. Puts the jersey on him, and he goes to the line for the national anthem with all the players. And you can see a tear coming down his face. At the end of the night, he stayed in the dugout the whole game. So he's in the dugout the whole game. He's having the time of his life with the guys. At the end of the night, he said it was one of the best days of his life. So I thought, "All right, this is great. The story's over." But it wasn't. So the next day, the players come to me, said, "JesseUh, we loved having Reggie in the dugout. He was bringing energy. We felt like we were playing for him. We were giving everything we had for him. "So we'd like him to be a coach for us." I go, "A coach? Reggie?"

    8. SS

      [laughs]

    9. JC

      And they said, "Yeah, we want him to be a coach for us, and he really wants to make his special drink for us." I go, "What is his special drink?" He goes, "He won't tell anybody what's in it." I go, "What is he giving you guys?" And he goes, "I gotta, I gotta find out." So I go over to Reggie. I go, I go, "What's this special drink?" He goes, "You mean Reginate?" I go, "Whatever. Whatever it is."

    10. SS

      [laughs]

    11. JC

      He goes, "I can't tell you what it is." I go, "Reggie, you're serving our players. I need to know what it is." He goes, "Promise not to tell anybody?" I go, "Yes." He goes, "It's, uh, water, ice, and Gatorade mix." I go, "Keep going, Reggie. You're good. Keep serving."

    12. SS

      [laughs]

    13. JC

      "You're good to go." So what happens is, so what, what's crazy is now Reggie, after, after the games, he's signing more autographs than everyone. He's out there meeting people. He's signing autographs. Now he travels around the country with us as our motivational coach. He gives pep talks to the guys. Every couple weekends, he breaks it down at the end of the night. He goes, "Stay tapped in. Stay locked in. Stay accountable." He gives a pep talk, and everyone starts chanting. And Reggie, people might say, "Oh, you empowered him." Nah. He empowered us, and every day we see Reggie and his smile and his joy. Before every game, I'm out there dancing on the field with him, and it, it's a moment, and what we've been able to do that happened 10 years ago that now is continuing, I feel so much pride in the Reggie, in the Reggies in the world.

  28. 1:01:35 – 1:05:51

    Becoming Lee Smith: Sitting Next to the Lonely Kid

    1. SS

      What was the name of the Red Sox player you sat next to?

    2. JC

      Lee Smith.

    3. SS

      I mean, y- your whole being is Lee Smith. You are become-

    4. JC

      Yeah

    5. SS

      ... Lee Smith.

    6. JC

      Yeah.

    7. SS

      I mean, you are seeing the lonely kid-

    8. JC

      Yeah

    9. SS

      ... or the kid who wants or the kid who's trying.

    10. JC

      Yeah.

    11. SS

      And you're going and sit- and you're sitting next to them. I mean, that's-

    12. JC

      Yeah

    13. SS

      ... basically what Savannah Bananas is, and it's who you are.

    14. JC

      Yeah, and that's why I, and our cast, we stay till the last fan leaves and signs autographs. Even with security kinda pushing us out, we stay till the last fan because we don't want everyone to feel not included.

    15. SS

      Where's that picture of you and Lee Smith?

    16. JC

      Oh, just, I have it. I mean, it's, it's at, oh, my parents', at my parents' house right now, but it's obviously social. I have it on everywhere.

    17. SS

      I mean, that, 'cause that to me is, like, that's-

    18. JC

      It's-

    19. SS

      That's, that's, that-

    20. JC

      Little five-year-old kid with a hat pulled up like this

    21. SS

      ... but, but that's the story, right?

    22. JC

      Yeah. It's everything.

    23. SS

      I mean, the, the five-year-old you is in the, in, is in the nosebleeds.

    24. JC

      Yeah.

    25. SS

      And five-year-old you is calling every day, and five-year-old you just lost a parent, you know?

    26. JC

      Yeah.

    27. SS

      And s- somebody's willing to just take time-

    28. JC

      Yeah

    29. SS

      ... out of their moment when they don't have to.

    30. JC

      100%. We-

Episode duration: 1:05:51

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