Fans First: How Jesse Cole Turned Baseball Into An Experience

[00:00] This episode, you already know, is fire. Like, just wrapped it up. Jesse Cole gives a masterclass. Like, I'm not even going to prolong this. A masterclass in business and scaling. [00:09] and experience. So if you're a leader, if you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur, this episode is giving you all the tools that you need [00:16] to create the best experience possible [00:20] or your customers, [00:21] for your fans and for your employees who are often the most forgotten. So get your notebook ready, get your recorder ready, because this is truly a masterclass. Ladies and gentlemen, I present [00:32] the brilliant, the amazing Mr. Jesse Cole. [00:37] You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. [01:01] Jess, how are you doing today, brother? So great to be with you, my friend. [01:05] Man, I'm the honored one. You know, I always start my podcast by asking my guests about their because, right? That thing that's deeper than your why. You know, Simon Sinek wrote the book, Start With Why. And I do believe you start with why. [01:18] but you're actually fueled. [01:20] by your because right so if i were to say what's your why you probably say your family your kids success [01:26] But when I say, but why? [01:28] That sentence usually starts with, well, because, and I care about what happens after, well, because. So if I were to say, Jesse, man.

[01:37] All the things that you do, the way that you give back, the way that you've changed lives, [01:41] industry and marketing and visibility. [01:44] What's your because? [01:46] Yeah. [01:47] Well, it's a deep question and it's what makes you feel alive. You know, what gives you energy? What fires you up? [01:53] And, you know, a lot of that, if you really dig deep, I think it goes to the root of your upbringing. And, you know, for me as an only child, you know, my parents get divorced when I was a kid. My dad helped raise me. And, [02:03] I always wanted to feel loved. I want to feel part of something. I want to feel with people. And what we get to do, [02:11] every day is bring people together. [02:14] from all over the world, from two years old to 82 years old. [02:18] see people [02:19] Have fun. Let loose. Not take themselves too seriously. [02:22] It's being a world of joy. [02:24] And, you know, I get to be in the middle of that every day. [02:28] And, you know, I think the world that has joy, that has fun, [02:32] That isn't so focused on all the things that are going wrong as a better world. [02:37] And so, yes, our platform is banana ball and we get to put on a crazy show every single night. [02:42] But I hope that we get to do something that is truly contagious, that joy, that fun, that togetherness. [02:48] that let loose be the best version of yourself can continue to [02:52] for people when they go home, at work, to their friends, to their colleagues. And so I think because it's bringing the world together filled with joy and just having the time of our life doing it. And that's what I think about daily. [03:04] And you do it better than anyone I know. And now a lot of things make sense, Jesse.

[03:10] It's the only child thing. Right. So like I told you, like Damon, John, my mentor, he's the only child. [03:17] You two are so alike that now I get it. Like it's, it's, it's the only child thing, right? Like you had to be so imaginative and creative and, [03:24] you know, to get people to not not to be around you, but to [03:28] to get people to want [03:30] to to to continue those relationships with you and you get home and it's you and your parents right or yeah your parents were separated or divorced so like it literally is you when you've got to be creative with what do i do or who do i talk to man talk to us about and create attention and and like you know i wanted to you know like hey you know my dad worked so hard he was working constantly it's come home and i wanted you know hey dad let's do this let's do this and create attention and be fun and and you know when i got to be around friends it's like what can i do and [04:00] just to make the most of every moment with people. [04:03] And, you know, I think about that, you know, when I go through a door every day, you know, my mindset says bring the energy. [04:09] Bring the fun. And so it's like a trigger for me whenever I interact with people. I want them to feel more energized after talking with me and being with me and more fired up about what we can do and not what we can't do. [04:18] And that excites me. And so, yeah, I think as an only child, you know, obviously I was spirited to try to make the most of every moment when I had a chance to be around somebody. And I still try to do that to this day. [04:30] There you go. There you go. Man, man. [04:33] You know, you've changed. You've changed my life. You changed my businesses in so many ways because my mindset has completely shifted.

[04:41] One of the things that you've said is, [04:44] And it's on my wall. [04:47] Because I need this reminder every day. [04:49] is that normal [04:51] gets normal results. And for me, the serial entrepreneur, the highly competitive person that I am, and I know that there are a lot of people that are listening, that are watching, that are just like us. Explain to us why you're [05:05] Normal just gets normal results in doing the unreasonable. [05:09] Is where your focus should be. [05:12] Well, let's go back to, you know, when I started, I was a 23-year-old GM of a very small college summer baseball team in Gastonia, North Carolina. That was failing for seven years. Lowest in the league, the country in attendance, only a couple hundred fans coming to the games. And, you know, it was just, it was what it was. [05:28] And, uh, [05:30] I realized that they were doing the same things every other team did. [05:33] You have fireworks. You do a bobblehead here and there. You would do the things that everyone else did. Well, if you do what everyone else is going to do, you're going to get the same results as everyone else. And so, you know, you got to do what others won't do. [05:45] And when you do what others won't do, you're going to do things that may fail. And so I've just been... [05:51] You know, I think I learned that first concept from Alan Fadden. He wrote the book Innovation on Demand. Really brilliant man. Very creative. [06:00] And yeah, it's whatever's normal, do the exact opposite. [06:04] And, you know, he shared the story of how he sold his book. [06:07] Most people would have their book in a regular bookstore or with thousands of different books, or you'd have it on Amazon. He's like, I bought an entire retail store in Minneapolis, and I made it a one book bookstore for my own book.

[06:19] And he literally had his book in different sections, business, history, self-help. And he got so much attention. [06:25] And I heard that story. It was very formative for me because he was 23. He went in a different direction. [06:30] And so when I thought about building [06:32] you know, a banana ball and starting with first our team in Gastonia and then the bananas. I was like, we got to do things on the field that people never seen before. And so like the first thing that we said was like, well, everyone expects players to play. What if they actually danced? And so, yeah, it was hard getting the players to dance. They didn't want to dance in the beginning, but players in the middle of a game dancing. [06:49] People are like, that's a little bit different. And I saw the reaction to that. And people started talking about, oh, you guys have the players that dance, right? And oh, yeah, you guys did the grandma beauty pageant, right? Oh, you guys did flatulence fun night. Oh, you guys did. And all these crazy things. That's what they talked about. No one goes home and gets excited. It's like, oh, I had the most normal day today. You want to talk about it? [07:09] No, no one gets excited about normal. No one gets excited about professional. They get excited about memorable. They get excited about remarkable. So every day I'm chasing those moments and trying to create those moments for everyone we interact with. [07:22] And I think that is so important to everyone that's a leader, that's an entrepreneur, that's listening. It doesn't matter your industry. And that's what I learned from Jesse. [07:33] It's creating those moments that people remember, because we've all heard Maya Angelou's quote, right? People don't remember the things that you say. They remember how you make them feel. And I think that is so important. And you've mastered that. So for the person that's watching or listening and they're like, OK, how do I do that within my business that might have a corporate feel or maybe a retail feel? And in my team, can't get up and dance, or at least they think. Everybody can dance. Even if you can't dance, you can dance. I'll tell you that.

[08:03] Yes, I know exactly what you're saying. So I can only go by the framework of what we use. And the framework that we started with was we looked at all the friction points in an experience for every customer that we interact with. I learned this from Walt Disney. I mean, Walt Disney put himself in his guest shoes. He said, whenever I go on a ride, I'm always asking what's wrong with this thing and how can we improve? And so if you look at your industry, you look at what you do and you look at what are all those friction points, what are all those frustration points for the customer? And then you look at what are all the normal ways of doing things. [08:33] You know, even to start a list. [08:34] This is the normal way of doing a podcast. This is the conventional way of selling this. This is the normal way of doing an invoice. This is the normal way of doing voicemail. This is the normal way of doing an email signature. This is the normal way of whatever it is. Those are micro little ones. [08:49] And then say, well, what would be something that would be remarkable? [08:52] So Fans First is the name of our company. That's the spirit of how we do everything. But there's three words that we talk about regularly, and it's you wouldn't believe. [09:01] And it's how do we... [09:02] get our customers, our fans, our team members, everyone we interact with to say you wouldn't believe [09:08] You wouldn't believe what they did today. [09:10] And so whatever you're doing, how do you create some you wouldn't believe moments? The only way you do that is you look at what are the normal moments. [09:17] and say, all right, well, what would be something that would be a little bit crazier, a little bit different, a little bit wilder, a little bit more remarkable, a little bit more fun, whatever that word that fits into your brand. Ours is fun. So we look at fun with everything. How do you make it more fun? [09:29] How do you make baseball fun? How do you make every moment of our social media fun? Those are the things that we look at. So I think it's just a framework. And, you know, every day you got to take time coming up with ideas.

[09:40] If you just say, oh, I'm going to change it, like you're going to work your idea muscle. [09:44] Are you working your idea muscle and actually coming up with ideas on things you can do differently in your job, in your industry? If you're not doing it, good luck. You're going to get out of shape. And I mean by you're going to get out of shape, you're not going to be able to come up with a lot of good ideas. And so that's what we think about. [09:57] So, [09:58] A follow-up question to that, because I love that. [10:01] And it takes a team to be able to do those things, right? Because I know how wild and crazy Jesse probably gets in these team meetings where you talk about ideas. And I'm sure now your team has evolved to they're coming up with some of these crazy, cool ideas. How do you get them aligned? [10:17] in that fan-first moment, that fan-first mantra. [10:21] how often you talk about it. You know, I think you can put some things on your wall, [10:25] and say, this is who we are, this is what we stand for. But how often do you actually talk about it? How often do you live by it? [10:32] How often when something goes wrong, [10:34] And it's easy not to do what's best for fans and do what's best for your business. Do you actually live by those values and show your team this is who you are? [10:42] Here's an example. [10:44] Last year. [10:46] We, by mistake, sent an email out to our fans. It was supposed to go out just to 4,000 because there were only a handful of tickets left in Savannah for a chance to buy tickets, the last few tickets in Savannah. [10:56] Instead of 4,000, we send it out to 44,000. [10:59] We offer them all the opportunity to get tickets with time slots. [11:03] So I remember I'm flying. I'm going out to give a speech when this is happening. [11:07] And I land. [11:09] Twitter, Facebook, emails, everyone's messaging me.

[11:12] you [11:13] How dare you? You said you were going to do this. You weren't going to do this. Literally, our time slot was nine o'clock and there were no tickets available. It was Armageddon internally. Like it was Armageddon. Right. So immediately myself and Jared, our president, who's been with us since day one, we get on the phone, we say, what are we going to do? [11:29] and say immediately apologize that's the first step right now and again that's you know that's table stakes some people don't do it but the first thing so we wrote i was like jared i want to do this he's like no i want to do it i'm like okay so jared wrote an amazing apology letter [11:42] And we said, that's not enough. [11:44] Apologies, one thing that's not enough. [11:46] So are you going to really stand by it? So what are we going to do? [11:50] We said, we're going to take care of all these people. [11:53] with tickets. [11:54] for this coming tour. [11:57] What does that equal? [11:58] $6 million loss for the company. [12:02] Over 100,000 plus tickets that we took care of. [12:06] for people. [12:08] And so what we did was, [12:10] is after we offered that to them, they had their opportunity to come to any game they want. Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, anywhere. And we have a demand of over 4.2 million people on our lottery list. So this is just basically throwing away 6 million. But we said, we're going to do it. We got everyone on our team on a Zoom. And we immediately said, turn your cameras on. This is why we're doing this. [12:29] And then what happened, those first few games that people had tickets, they weren't showing up at the high rate that we usually get. We get 95% redemption. [12:36] but because they were free tickets for them, [12:38] It was down to like 75%. [12:40] And I was like, that's unacceptable. We have millions of people that want to code our games. So we start messaging them off. So finally, we said, we will buy back your tickets so we can sell them.

[12:50] Buy back tickets, they never even paid for. So now we're offering free money to these people. Literally, you know... [12:57] $200, $300 to get back their tickets so we can give them to people that are going to come to the game. [13:02] Do you stand by your values? $6 million loss, pretty big hit. You go back three, four or five years ago, that's more revenue than the total company brought in. [13:10] right but it's fans first and that's what we're going to do and that's how we're going to make those decisions [13:15] So give examples, give stories, share how you do it. And you've got to do it every single day. [13:19] And that makes the impact. [13:21] Love it, brother. Love it. And you just said something about stories. And I tell people all the time, like there's there's. [13:27] Three storytellers I know that are great, like Nick Nanton, Damon John's an amazing storyteller, and Jesse Cole, right? Yeah. [13:35] How... [13:36] What role does storytelling play in the way that you connect with your fans, your employees, and sometimes even your critics? [13:45] Yeah, so I think we think more about storytelling first. [13:48] um interestingly with our biggest fans which are our team members [13:52] And so we talked about how do we keep fans first in front of people? So when we go on the tour, now we have six teams. We have three tours going all over the country. [14:00] The first day we show up and we do the unscalable to do the scalable, it doesn't make sense to travel with 150 to 200 people to every city. That is... [14:07] millions of dollars but again we want to have that high touch even at a football stand with 100 000 fans we want to have high touch when we get there the first thing we do is we have a fans first talk [14:16] And that myself, Jared, some of our leaders, we share stories.

[14:20] examples of some fans first moment that happened whether you know we had uh to a young fan whether it was a proposal whether it was a moment fan their first bucket list trip in four years what we did and we share that what we did in the upper deck you know the mananas or our cast what we did there we share those examples and those stories and then [14:40] The next night after our final game, we actually have another fans first chat where we recognize our team and we give shout outs about those moments. Then a couple of days later, we get back in the office on Tuesday. We start. We talk about the fans first principles and more fans first stories. [14:53] We're getting three touch points and then more because of our other teams and other tour of these examples, these stories, who we are. And that's what we talk about. [15:01] We never talk about revenue. In fact, I have one financial meeting a year. It's less than two hours. [15:06] Like, that's it. I don't go into I don't go into our account. I don't have any. It's it's a mandatory thing for me. I was like, Jesse, here's where I'm great. All right. We go create fans now and have fun. But like that's I spend all our time talking fans first, talking ideas and talking creating. So we share stories with our team on those fans moments. And then, yeah, obviously, we share stories with our fans in social media. But our goal is just to entertain them. It's to bring joy. It's to bring fun. And yes, we do some storytelling, but mostly it's who we are, what we stand for internally. [15:32] with our team first. [15:33] Absolutely. Absolutely. I would say as a, as a fan of you, [15:39] personally, [15:41] One of the things that I appreciate is, [15:44] is the fact that you're always reinventing [15:47] concepts, thoughts, ideas. And I tell leaders and entrepreneurs this all the time. Like a lot of people think reinvention means a complete 180 or a complete change. Like sometimes reinvention is like

[15:59] I don't like the way this one thing is doing. Let me reinvent how that one thing is going. And when I watch all the things that you've done over the last several years, I see that that's also your mindset too. Like you don't have to change everything. [16:13] but you do reinvent in different ways. Talk to us about the importance of being able to [16:19] what this is the term of make and make only to micro reinvent so that you're not changing scale of everything that you're doing. [16:27] Yeah, so it's a clear direction. What can you be the best in the world at? [16:31] Todd Graves, the founder of Raising Canes, said, "Do one thing and do it better than anyone else." [16:36] yeah so for us we believe we can create the greatest show in sports [16:41] We believe no one will put the energy and effort into combining show elements and music and characters and dance and fun with the competitiveness of Banana Ball in one world. [16:50] and make it all happen together. [16:51] And so we spend a lot of our time thinking about our shows in every moment. [16:56] What people don't realize is that, hey, the game may start, the show may start at 7 o'clock, or the game may start at 7 o'clock. The show actually starts at 7 o'clock. [17:05] at two o'clock. [17:06] Or now with the Texas tailgaters, the greatest pregame in sports, they're actually in the parking lot on their home games. So the whole team is actually out in the parking lot greeting fans, interacting, playing games. They're grilling. We grill tons of hot dogs and burgers just for fans for free out in the tailgate. So when fans are first pulling up in the parking lot, [17:21] The tailgaters send the town. And then literally at two o'clock, we do a rope drop and we have a big opening where everyone gets in. Then the players are signing autographs at Major League Stades right when we open. Then we have a full show out there from literally 3 to 4.30 with a big March opening. Then from 4.30 till 7, we have about 72 different promotions, skits, dances, songs that happened before the game. Then we go from 7 to 9, we have a full show. Then from 9 to 10, we have a post-game quasi party with the cast. And then we sign autographs to the last panelist.

[17:47] So, [17:49] That's what we believe we can be the best in the world at. [17:51] So we spend all of our time, so much of our time thinking about reinventing there, creating, how do we make the show a little better? There's a boring moment here. It's why we changed the rules of banana ball and eliminated mound visits because no one in the world gets excited about a mound visit. [18:03] No one's like, I can't wait. Hopefully I have three or four mound visits today. I love when the coach slowly walks out to the mound. Boy, that's my favorite moment. So again, you got to look at those friction points. You got to eliminate them. And then you got to listen to your fans, not what they tell you, but how they act. [18:18] The way we developed Banana Ball is we watched fans literally with a camera set up. [18:23] Every 30 minutes we were watching when our fans got up and left in our team for a whole season. And we realized they were leaving early at nine o'clock. We realized they were getting other seats. That's why we made it a two-hour game. [18:32] And now we watch our fans getting scammed. [18:34] constantly on Facebook with these [18:36] fake people acting like us and trying to sell fake tickets. And we watch it and it fires us up more than you ever know. And so yes, we developed our own secondary ticket market. We're face value tickets, which is going to cost us [18:48] More money than we even know to try to figure it out. [18:51] But you reinvent by watching your fans and figure out what is best, what can you be the best in the world at, and what do you stand for? We stand for fans first, and we entertain always. And that's what we do. [19:01] Freaking love it, brother. [19:02] Like that just got me energized right there. Like I almost got out of my seat and gave you an amen. Like that's how strong that was. But that's the truth. [19:09] And, you know, you talk about [19:12] The early stages of Banana Ball and where it has come to today. What were some of those initial challenges that you had to overcome when you when you started The Greatest Show on Earth?

[19:24] And that's the right word, challenges. [19:26] I've heard more people say problems. No, it's a challenge. We overcome challenges. The greatest people, you know, to appreciate someone's success, you got to understand their setbacks. Everyone that's successful has had setbacks. And so, yeah, we had... [19:38] We start two tickets in our first few months. People didn't understand. So we have the lowest level college summer baseball when we started. [19:43] Yeah, I got the phone call on January 15, 2016, about ready to celebrate the 10th anniversary. I don't know what I'll do then. But on that day, 10 years ago, almost, I got the call that we overdrafted our account and we were out of money. And we had to sell our house, we emptied our savings account, we were sleeping on our bed. We failed because we were just talking. [20:00] We are talking about who we are. People hadn't felt it yet. [20:03] They need to experience it. Now, we hadn't had a game yet, but we should have found a way. We should have found a way to bring a show to someone's office or bring a show to someone to show them what it could be like. We didn't do that. So we failed. [20:14] You know, first night, all you can eat. We did something no stadium's ever done. Every single ticket, all inclusive. That's crazy. [20:20] But again, you start with fans first. [20:22] We made every ticket, all your burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwich, soda, water, popcorn, dessert all night. [20:27] Free, the food free, $15 total for the tickets. [20:31] Crazy. [20:32] Three-hour wait the first night. They went through 10,000 pieces of meat. We didn't expect that. All right? It was crazy. And so, you know, we first came on ESPN. The transmission went out. [20:40] Literally for 10 minutes, the anchors are like, yep, the bananas can't handle us. [20:44] Embarrassing. [20:45] The next night we figured it out. [20:47] Our ticket system shut down. Our first major league stadium literally shut down. [20:51] Next day, we figure it out. [20:53] And so we have failed every step of the way.

[20:56] But we don't give up and we keep playing the game and we show up and get better every single day. And the only way you can be great is if you're willing to get through the messy to get to the great. And we go through messy every single day. When you do things people have never done before, it is going to be hard. It's going to be extremely hard. And that's what we do when we try to overcome it every single step of the way. And so, yeah, we're fortunate. It's been messy. It's been hard. And it's getting harder every day because we're doing bigger challenges. But I love that challenge because it's fun for our team to figure out how to do it. [21:25] When did you know that? [21:27] Early on in life, or maybe it was later, that this was you. [21:32] Not maybe the bananas, but... [21:35] doing the uncommon, doing the unreasonable. When did you realize that that was Jesse Cole? [21:41] You're the average of, they say, the five people you surround yourself with. [21:45] I surround myself with Walt Disney, [21:47] P.T. Barnum. [21:48] Bezos, Jobs, [21:50] WWE, Grateful Dead, Cirque du Soleil, Saturday Night Live. I'm looking around because there's hundreds of books I have here. [21:56] And so I... [21:58] When I read about Walt Disney and what he did and what he accomplished and the challenge and the adversity and how he was doubted every step of the way, from animation to long-form animation to the theme park to Epcot, all of it. And he said, no, I believe. [22:10] I believe in it. It's kind of fun to do the impossible. [22:12] So when I get inspired by that and I see there is a way, there is a path, it's hard. [22:17] That's, I got so inspired by that, that that's who I want to be every day. Do someone that does the hard things. [22:23] And so, yeah, it's and, you know, chase your energy, chase your moments. And so for me, the energy, you know, I have an energy list. I'm creating, sharing and growing.

[22:32] I'm full of energy, man. [22:33] If I'm doing operations and other financial numbers or spreadsheets, I'm depleted. [22:39] So do what gives you energy. And if you're surrounding yourself with people to inspire you and you can learn from them, then follow in those footsteps and find your own thing. And that that's what I look for every day. I love it. I love it. For the for the business leader that's listening right now. [22:55] What's one small but radical shift? [22:59] that they can make right now to start creating superfans. [23:03] in the back of our fans first playbook you know we first had a fans first playbook said be patient in what you want for yourself but be impatient in how much you give to others what people don't know about our first six seven eight nine years [23:16] We called every single fan that bought a ticket and thanked them. [23:22] every person that bought merchandise we called and thanked them. [23:26] It's unscalable now as we serve millions of fans. [23:29] We went out of our way just to thank people. [23:32] I started the thank you experiment in 2018, started writing thank you letters every single day. [23:35] Now I do videos, very simple thing. I pull out here. [23:38] and do a video and just do a send a video instead of an email or a text. Yep. [23:43] How can you thank [23:44] people how can you spread gratitude [23:47] It's unbelievably contagious. When you spread gratitude, amazing things come back your way. So a lot of times we think about how hard it is. Well, think about the people that have helped you along the way or just people who have been there. [23:56] And so today, do you want to create fans? Spread some gratitude. Do a video to someone, one of your biggest clients, one of your team members. Someone's been there and do it every day. And so I think gratitude has been something that we don't talk about.

[24:07] But even now, we just had our whole team, our players, our cast, everyone. We did thank you calls again to people buying merch. And we keep it part of our system. And this crazy thing about it, it's almost the most selfish thing in the world. [24:20] Because at the end, we feel amazing for doing it. But really, it's actually giving out to people. So if you're a business leader, you know, I would spread gratitude. Find a way to put it into your schedule every day. Thank people for what they do. And you'll be amazed at what comes back to you. [24:36] Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. You know, I'm going to give you the floor to talk about some of the things that you have going on, because I don't think everyone... [24:44] understands all that Jesse Cole does. And I think it's amazing. And I know one of the things, again, following you for as long as I have reading your books, I'm, [24:53] the power of mentorship and coaching. [24:57] especially from a leadership perspective. I say it all the time. We don't always get it right. [25:02] Um, [25:03] A lot of times we're lonely when you're at the top. And so having that circle that you talked about, having mentors, having coaches, it's [25:10] I think is critically important. Talk about how one that's influenced your life. And I know that you do a little bit of that, too, for other people. [25:19] Well, great leaders are great teachers. [25:21] And when you think about the people that have really made an impact, they're sharing. [25:26] They're not afraid to share what they've learned along the way. [25:29] I remember I was 23 years old, first year in Gastonia. And I read one of Mark Cuban's first small little books. I read it in a day. [25:37] And he had his email at the end of the book, I think. And I immediately emailed him.

[25:41] Within an hour, he will be back. [25:43] And this is Mark Cuban. He, at that point he owned, you know, the Mavericks, he was doing everything. Right. I was like, wow. All right. You know, he shared everything. [25:50] He shared about his journey. [25:52] And he was still also reachable because he saw something, whether and when I shared my journey, that he wanted to help in some way. [25:59] And so, you know, I think it's so important to, um, [26:04] You learn by getting your reps in. [26:06] People say, you don't learn just by reading. You learn by doing. [26:09] And if you really want to be a great leader, great entrepreneur, you need to teach. You need to get your reps in. So the things that you go through, do you share them out loud? Do you share them with people? Do you see how they respond to it? [26:20] Are you repeatable? A great leader is repeatable. [26:23] Because they say the same things over and over and over again. Great leaders are repeaters. And great leaders are teachers. And so if you look at the greatest leaders, greatest entrepreneurs, they do that regularly. And I've been inspired by them. And I try to share every day, get my reps in. I've done over 1,000 plus podcasts. My first few years, anybody that took me was like, we have six listeners. I'm like, I'm in. Let's do it. I was fired up because I was like, I'm going to get my reps in on how to communicate about what we do. And I'm going to learn. I'm going to learn how to answer questions and go different directions and see how people respond to it. [26:53] That helped me. [26:54] And so how often are you getting your reps in? It's not about me getting on a podcast. It's about me learning and growing. And that's what we all need to do. [27:01] Yeah. [27:02] I love it. So let's tell the people all the things you have going on, man. Keynote speaker, obviously author. You know, what are some of the things that Jesse Cole is doing in the world today?

[27:14] I'm still chasing moments, man. I'm still chasing the things that make me feel alive every single day. So, [27:21] you know this morning i spent three hours on ideas for the party animal show and our firefighter show and doing things that people have never seen before in a baseball field [27:31] And I get to work with our team now. And how do we create that? [27:33] And we've got the new team, the Indianapolis Clowns and local beach coconuts. It's bringing the beach to the world. And... [27:40] And that's what lifts me up. [27:43] I'm fortunate I get the opportunity to speak all over the world and to amazing companies and I get to learn from them. [27:48] Um, [27:49] But it's the everyday creating something brand new. It's inventing something brand new that people have never seen, never felt before. That's what I love doing. And I'm fortunate I get a platform now to share it, to share what I learned, to share the journey, and hopefully inspire more people to take some chances, to not be afraid of getting uncomfortable and doing things others won't do. [28:07] Um, that's, uh, that's what excites me every day. You do a great job of it, man. And I'm going to tell everybody to, um, just, just some shout outs to you and some, some pub for you. Find your yellow tux.com. You've got a, you've got a really cool quiz out there that I think. Oh, geez. We're way back. Yeah. Yeah, man. I think, I think. [28:28] It gets people thinking. [28:29] Right. Like, who who am I? [28:33] Like, I almost tell people, because I've seen a few people there, that it's like, hey... [28:39] it's just going to get you thinking you're going to realize the misses, right? Like, like the quiz, the assessment is, is a setup almost, right? Like it's just to get you thinking of how do you show up? What do you value? Do you really put fans first? Do you put experience first? Like, so I love the setup of that, but yeah,

[28:56] Just an amazing follow. I think everybody knows that about Jesse, but like the insights that he gives, especially if you're a business leader or if you're an entrepreneur, you know, [29:07] trying to scale. [29:08] You are the blueprint for that, bro. You are the blueprint. So I have to give you your flowers while you're here. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. [29:15] Yes, sir. So speaking of following, how can people follow and find you? Just Google me. That should be your answer. I'm pretty, pretty easy these days, but yeah, I try to share the journey constantly, uh, you know, whether it's Instagram or LinkedIn, everywhere I'm trying to share it. So, um, but yeah, uh, yeah, we're, we're, we're easy to find, easier to find the people now my, my emails out there, my phone numbers out there. Uh, I've always tried to be accessible and, uh, [29:42] It's been a fun journey. [29:43] Cool. Well, I'm going to get you out of here on my quick five rapid fire. You ready? [29:47] Let's do it. [29:49] Is it the same yellow tux over and over again, or do you have like a million? [29:53] I have nine yellow Texas. [29:54] Love it. Love it. What's been your favorite moment of banana balls that you like? [30:00] go back to like that sticks in your memory. Like what's one cool moment that you're first ever first ever [30:07] clemson football stadium uh 80 000 plus people that was um [30:12] A moment because it was a big challenge playing in front of 80,000 people, 190 feet down the left field line, putting on a huge halftime show. That was with the whole Clemson band, all of our people, 200 plus performers. It was an extreme hard challenge and we overcame it. An hour and 43 minute game.

[30:28] Not 11 home runs. The fans stayed till the end. It was the biggest crowd they had there. It was really, really, really special. So I look for those moments that are very, very hard. And that was very hard putting that on and tailgating out. And that was a special moment. And what if I told you that's my hometown and I remember that moment, too? Did you go to Death Valley? Did you actually go? [30:46] I just remember that. Yeah, I live there. I live in Greenville, South Carolina. So amazing. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, that was that was a show and a night we'll never forget. [30:55] There you go. What's the biggest lesson that failure taught you? [31:01] It's not like that question. I, my mind doesn't even go like, we don't look at it as failure. So I think, um, the biggest lesson you've learned. [31:10] it's not the failure, it's how you respond to it. [31:13] And so if you treat failure as discovery, if you treat failure as a lesson, [31:18] it will make you much stronger in the end. [31:20] Yes, sir. Yes, sir. [31:22] What's one thing that Jesse Cole does every day that sets your creativity juices on fire? [31:29] All right. [31:30] every morning. So every single morning, you know, your input affects your output. Every single morning I run. [31:36] And I listen to podcasts. [31:38] And founders acquired just about some of the greatest leaders, greatest business minds, greatest stories. When I'm done with a run, sometimes I can run for 8, 10, 12 miles and I only feel it because my mind is so fired up and excited. So every morning I run and then I start writing ideas and I start journaling. And I don't miss a day. I do not miss a day.

[31:58] Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Last question. [32:02] The story of Jesse Cole's been told. [32:06] What's... [32:07] What's the message you want to be told in that story? [32:10] that's a that's a that's a deep question my friend that's a deep question and uh [32:16] I think the root of it is how will you be remembered? What's the impact of that story? The simple thought process is... [32:26] just to have fun in life and not take yourself too seriously. But I think I would go find what it is that makes you stand out and amplify it. [32:33] Be the best version of yourself. Show up the best way you can every day. And don't be afraid of what people say. Don't be afraid of criticism. We're all going to be misunderstood. [32:41] every day every week every month but if you're doing what lights you up what fires you up [32:46] you can change the world. And I believe we're getting the opportunity to do that. [32:49] You are... [32:51] You are the GOAT, as these young people say. You are the greatest to ever do it, man. You are someone that's impacting lives. [33:00] You're changing how we view entertainment. And I can't thank you enough just for being a blueprint for me, like selfishly. [33:07] I just want to thank you for me, man. Like, [33:09] I owe a lot to you and I'm going to continue to owe a lot to you. And so just thank you for being an instrumental piece of my life, man. [33:16] I appreciate that. It's a lot of fun. Thank you for the really kind words. That means more than you know. [33:21] You got it. To all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. [33:26] Go Unleasing. [33:28] That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find their because. I'm Rudy Rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused and stay unplugged.

[33:51] Thank you.