The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 344: Jesse Cole - How To Create 'You Wouldn't Believe' Moments

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk Full show notes can be found at www.LearningLeader.com Text LEARNERS to 44222 #344: Jesse Cole Jesse Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and owner of the Savannah Bananas. His teams have welcomed more than 1 million fans to their ballparks and have been featured on MSNBC, CNN and ESPN. Cole's teams have been awarded Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year and have won three CPL Championships. The Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game for three straight seasons and have a waiting list in the thousands for tickets.  In 2018, Fans First Entertainment made the INC 5000 list as one of the fastest growing companies in America. Jesse wrote Find Your Yellow Tux – How to Be Successful by Standing Out.  The book launched #1 in three categories on Amazon and has been sold in 18 countries.   Staying true to his mantra, " Whatever's Normal, Do the Exact Opposite," Jesse launched the book with a World Book Tour….at Epcot.  Notes: How do we define excellence? Hunger like PT Barnum and Walt Disney Curiosity Sustain energy -- Always "bring the energy." --> "When I'm at work, it's show time." Understand what brings you energy -- Write it down "It was right in front of me.  We sold our house... We needed to create attention.  We couldn't do marketing like everyone else." The daily practice of writing Thank You notes: The "thank you experiment."  One per day, every day.  Look for people you're grateful for... Tell them. Love:  "Love is something not talked about enough."  Jesse learns the love languages of all of his employees. Long term values -- They call all people who buy tickets to his games.   Be intentional about EVERYTHING. "We don't invest in marketing, we invest in experiences." Relate to the normal person: With the hold music Your email signature Business cards Name tags Make everything remarkable Write a letter to the parents of young people who work for you.  How are you recognizing people?   "Be patient in what you want for yourself, but be impatient in how much you give to others." Core beliefs: Always be caring Be different Write your future resume (what do you want to experience) "Red flags never go down."  If you find a red flag in the interview process, it's time to move on. "We want people who 'do and learn.'" "You don't fail, you discover things." Build your idea muscle -- Write 10 ideas a day, every morning. "I believe in learning by doing." Wrote 159 blogs before publishing any of them... "Stop standing still, start standing out." "It's a lot easier to fit in than stand out." Create "You wouldn't believe" moments Write the normal list and then do the opposite -- Do the remarkable (like going on a world book tour at Epcot) Magic Castle -- "Listen carefully, respond creatively." Advice: What makes you different? What makes you stand out?  Be okay with standing for something.  Don't just try to be a little better than someone else. Experiment -- Throw darts until you hit the bulls-eye

Be patient in what you want for yourself, but be impatient in how much you give to others. It wasn't until we took that mindset and named the company Fans First Entertainment. With our mission, Fans First, entertain always. And the one question we always ask ourselves, is it fans first? When we simplified our company and fans first, this sounds on the outside, it's all about the customers. It's about the fans. But we know, in the inside, everyone in our staff knows who are our biggest fans. Our biggest fans are people.

And so inside, everyone knows that our biggest fans are the ones that wear the merchandise every single day. They call their parents when something great happens. They are coming to work every day to be a part of this. They're our biggest fans. So we put them first. You've heard me interview more than 350 of the most thoughtful leaders in the world over the past five years on this podcast, The Learning Leaders Show. I've taken what I've learned from those impressive, thoughtful leaders as well as more than 15 years of my leadership life and put it all into one place.

And that is my book. Welcome to Management. It is now available for pre-order. And we're doing something special only for listeners of the Learning Leaders show. And that is this. If you email me directly, I will share details on how you can get an early copy of the book. Email me, Ryan at Learning Leader.com. In the subject line, write book.

and then tell me that you like an early copy and I will share how. Again, I put everything I've learned up to this point in my book, Welcome to Management. I love for you to take advantage and get an early copy. Email me, Ryan at LearningLeader.com. Welcome to the Learning Leader Show presented by Brixie and Meyer. I am Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here.

Text learners to 44222 in order to join. Tens of thousands of learning leaders from all over the world. Receive Mindful Monday updates when I'm reading, writing, watching, thinking about. Also give you the opportunity to be part of my book launch team coming soon. Text learners to 44222. Now on to tonight's featured leader, my friend Jesse Cole, founder of Fans First Entertainment, owner of the Savannah Bananas. He's been featured on MSNBC and as a keynote speaker all over the world,

promoting his motto if it's normal, do the exact opposite. His teams have welcomed more than 1 million fans to their ballparks and have been featured on CNN and ESPN. His teams have been awarded Organization of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, business of the year, and have won three CPL championships as Savannah Bananas currently have sold out every game for three straight seasons and have a waiting list in the thousands. A few of the topics we discussed. Why you should learn the love language of the people you work with. Then Jesse is an idea machine.

As you'll hear on this conversation we had, he shares how you can become one, two. And then how to create, quote, you wouldn't believe moments. And how you as a leader can foster amazing experiences for the people you lead, which then leads to your customers. There is so much packed in a short conversation. You're going to love this one. It's Jesse Cole. All right, Jesse Cole.

So good to have you here on the Learning Leadership. Man. It's been, uh, been some time in the making since that first handwritten note, which I do want to talk about. But first, I want to say, welcome to Learning Leader Show, man. Good to have you. Oh, man, excited. As I've shared, I've been a big fan of your work for many years now and fired up to be a talk with you. That's really cool. So you know how this goes at the beginning. And people I've found listeners enjoy the consistency of this. And I do too, because you are someone who has lived up to the thought process of sustaining excellence. And whether you share from your own learnings as well as those from others, what have you

found to be the commonalities among leaders who sustain excellence? The million dollar question. You know, I thought about this, Ryan, because as you know, I listened to your show weekly. For me, it comes down to hunger and curiosity. And, you know, I think about my two biggest mentors, P.T. Barnum and Walham. Walt Disney and they were so hungry to be able to do more and they had a vision that they wanted to do more and constant curiosity with trying new things. And I think about any leader, they're, you know, one of their biggest fears is settling. They don't want to be complacent. They want to

continue to push the envelope. So I think anyone that sustains excellent, they're not content with the status quo. They're going to push themselves and challenge new mindsets and keep moving forward. I get exhausted watching all of the things that you do. The videos on stage, what you wear every day, right? For those who, we're on video so I can see him. Jesse is wearing his patented yellow tucks, which I learned he wears every day. How, for, there may be someone listening saying, Jesse maybe was born with just more energy than me. I don't know if I could sustain that part of it. What do you say to that person? You know, I was an only child. I, I was an only child. I grew up obviously trying to create attention throughout my life.

But I think I've learned the power of energy and how you show up every day. And, you know, I use the door as a trigger for me. And any door that I come through, I say bring energy, bring the fun. And I know when you show up that way, it's contagious. And so from being on stages and being around people and fortunately putting on this show at our ballpark in front of 4,000 people every night, I know if I bring the energy, everyone else brings it as well. And when you have an organization and people around you that bring an energy,

it's amazing the things that I've seen you've been able to accomplish. So for me, and I teach everyone always be on stage, something we've learned from Disney and studying them. You know, when you show up on stage and you show up ready to deliver energy and deliver fun, it's just a fun way to live, Ryan. And I think I feed off it. I feed off it. And so I try to bring that whenever I show up.

Do you, like, you have to get tired at times. Like, how do you manage that? How do you manage bringing the energy with getting exhausted? 100%. And I think my wife would tell you, She wishes that I would stay up a little later at night. The reality is I think when I'm at work, it's showtime. And when I go home, you know, I do crash.

I have a very good ritual. I've learned through failing, you know, my morning ritual is very intense, very intentional. You know, I wake up and I, you know, I read, I write, I journal. You know, I run every single day. That brings energy to me. But one of the best things that I've learned, Ryan, is to create your energy list. You know, so many people out there, they say, oh, well, what do you like to do? What don't you like to do?

I think it's more than that. Write down the things that give you energy. And if you do more of that, you will have more energy and you'll be your best not only for yourself, but your best for others. So as I learned, when I first started in the baseball industry and we were failing and struggling, I was doing everything. I was doing operations. I was doing the accounting. I was doing the finance. I was doing it all.

And I was wiped out every day. But now, fortunately, as we've grown, whether that's writing, whether that's creating videos, sharing. And that's sharing our story, sharing the gospel, sharing what we believe in, and then growing. and that is reading, learning. If I'm creating, sharing, and growing, I will have energy all day. And that's, you know, you know it. When you're doing what you love, you don't feel like you work that hard. You have a time of your life.

It definitely doesn't feel like a job. I know that. Like, we put in hard work, but it's work that is rewarding and significant and definitely brings energy and doesn't feel like having a job. I just had a conversation with my wife, Miranda, this weekend. I just said, you know, it's kind of cool that I haven't had a job in a few years. Isn't that? That's kind of cool. I really, now it doesn't mean I hadn't worked really hard, but it's a pretty neat feeling to not, to not, I would imagine you probably feel the same.

Yeah, well, I feel like I'm making an impact. Yeah. You know, I share with everyone. My favorite moment every day at the end of the Savannah Bann's game is at the end of the night, and we have our pep band playing loud music. We're going to a free s'm free s'mores. Our players are at the gate. And we are just dancing, high fiving, hugging, and having fun with the fans. And I'm like, I get to do this.

Like, this is my job. I'm thanking them, but they're thanking me. And I think about how many people on a given job get recognition every single night, every day on the job. And so for me, I'm like, can I give this to more people? Because I feel on top of the world, it's 11 o'clock at night. I've been at the stadium since 7 in the morning, and I want more of it. It's like a drug. And I think because of that feedback that we're getting like, wow, you're delivering something that makes a difference. And similar to you, Ryan, I mean, you know it. Every day you're getting emails. You're getting reached out to and saying, you made an impact on me. How can that? and not fire us up to do more work. Yeah, that's a good point. But going back to the beginning of this, you decide to do something that I don't think many people would. And I know that's part of your story and your message with what you share. But why invest in, it's not minor league. I don't know the proper name of the league, but why invest in a baseball team?

So long story short, I played baseball my whole life, just like you, college athlete, dreams of playing pro ball. Luckily, I didn't need to compete against Ben Rathosberger at all. But, you know, I had dreams of playing pro ball and I tore my shoulder, my junior year in college. I was at Wofford College. I was getting letters from pro teams. And it was at that moment, I was like, I'm never going to play baseball game. And I had no idea what I was going to do. And so I got an email about an internship with the team. And I took it. And I found it was the worst performing team in the country. But I went out and said, you know what, I'm going to try to sell this. I'm going to try to get people excited to come

to a baseball game. And I had some success. You know, obviously as an athlete like us, we're competitive. So I just found a way to be successful. And then I got offered the job to become a general manager of the worst team in the country. And you mentioned the level of baseball, right? There's major league up here. Then there's triple A. Then there's double A. Then there's high A. Then there's regular A. Then there's low A. Then there's rookie ball. Then there's top level independent baseball. Then there's top level college baseball. And then there's us right at the bottom. I mean, we are college summer baseball. We're one of the lowest levels there is.

And so when I took over this terrible performing team in Gastonia, North Carolina, with only 200 fans coming to the game and $268 in the bank account that first day, I knew we had to do something different. And so for me, it was this great challenge. And so I took it on and I said, we're no longer going to be a baseball team. We're going to be a circus. And I convinced the owner to be about entertainment and started asking the question, what business are we? about business are we really in? We weren't in the baseball business. No one was coming. We're the

worst baseball team in the country. And so that's when we started doing dancing players and grandma beauty pageants and you know, you name it. We tried it. And from that point on, I started as a GM and ended up buying that team and then decided the biggest move was to come down to Savannah, Georgia, where professional baseball had failed for 90 years and said, all right, we're going to buy an expansion franchise and give it a shot. And my wife and I went from zero debt to, between the two teams, almost $1.8 million in debt. And we were in our late 20s, early 30s when we made that move. And that was one of the scariest things we've ever done.

And that's really where the story almost began. You end up sleeping on air mattress on the floor. Why, like you have energy and intelligence, a great background, a resume that you could get really good paying jobs. Your wife could do the same, I'm sure. and instead you decide to be almost $2 million in debt sleeping with an air mattress or something. Like, why do that? Why put yourself through that? That question is always tough for me because at the moment, I wasn't weighing the idea of doing something else.

This was what was right in front of me. And this was it. This was this challenge that we took. And so what we were looking at is what are we going to do to get out of this? And so, yeah, as we came to subject to Georgia, we went on ticket in the first two months. And on January 15th, 2016, we overdrafted our account and we were completely out of money. And it was my wife. And you know the power of a great, amazing wife.

She turned to me and said, we need to sell our house. So we sold our house, empty out our savings account, and we got an airbed. And we were living on $30 a week. We would go to Walmart with $30 to grocery shop, which, Ryan, that's not real food if you're getting $30 for about 30 meals. But we had this belief that what we were doing could be dramatically different if we could create enough attention and get people to actually experience what we were doing. The first six months in Savannah, we were marketing like everyone else.

We were doing the same social media, the same thing. Everyone was like, what's the big deal? And if you do things like everyone else, you're going to get results like everyone else. It wasn't until we said we're going to dramatically get different, create attention, and create an experience unlike any other at a baseball event. And we believed we could do it. You know, I think you probably heard the business of belief. If you believe in what you're doing, and we had a little bit back up. In Gastonia, we had some success.

We took the small bets and we tried it. So we went all out. Name the team after a fruit. Came up with the senior sits and dance team called the banana nanas. Came up with a bright dancing first base coach. Name the mascot split. I mean, literally just came up with everything that made the experience different. And then made every single ticket all inclusive.

Every ticket include all your food for $15. And we said, we're going to roll the dice. And fortunately, people started experiencing and they became on marketers. Why did you make that hand motion? Because at this point, we spend $0 on marketers. Can you explain what the hand motion was just so for audio? So the hand motion is the word that they're doing. It's the melt motion of basically talking.

Word of mouth marketing is the hand motion. And our whole philosophy is if you create a great experience, your customers become fans and do all the marketing for you. And now, so fortunately, four years later, and we've sold out every game and have a wait list in the thousands, we spend $0 on marketing. And our customers do all the marketing for us. Wow. I became aware of you. one, I've heard of you, but hadn't had direct communication with you yet. But all of a sudden I get a yellow note in the mail, which I love getting handwritten, thank you cards.

It's great. And yours was a bright yellow one, not surprising and a very thoughtful handwritten long note to me saying how you and the team listened to this show on Monday mornings and your meetings and how it's impacted you. And I immediately wanted to call you and talk to you about it. Like I said, I had heard about you. I know we have some common friends. You've gone to Mastermind Talks I have as well. Can you share maybe some examples in the power of one, why you started doing that and then what has happened because of it?

Well, I started doing the thank you letters. Yeah. Yeah. And just to reiterate, you know, we were self-made in the sense that, you know, we didn't have direct mentors, direct leaders. Everything that we learned was from books, podcasts, authors, speakers. And I'm not just front of myself. I'm front of our whole team who's really made this happen. And so I realized in 2016, I said, there are so many people that help lead us to

this direction of where we are and what we've accomplished. We need to let people know that. And I think there's nothing more powerful than letting people know the impact they've made on your life. And so I said, you know what? I'm going to try the thank you experiment. So in 2016, I wrote down, I think I said, like 60 names. And I was like, geez, how can I do 365 days? I only have 60 people right now. I said, well, let's just start. Just start. And I started writing thank you letters to, you know, old teachers and coaches and authors. And I remember Simon Sinek, I wrote, because when I watched his video, how great leaders inspire action start with why, it changed my whole mindset on why we're doing it. And funny story about that, about three weeks after I wrote him a thank you

letter back in 2016, I got an unknown phone number. And this was back Ryan when you answered unknown phone numbers. And I answer. I said, I go, hello, this is Jesse. Jesse, it's Simon. cynic here. I go, shut up, who is it? And literally I told Simon to shut up. But he called me, said, you have no idea how much your letter inspired me. The reason I do why I do is to help people live inspired lives. That is my why and you inspire me. And I was blown away. I didn't want him to get off the phone. I talked to him as long as I could. And I was like, someone like that that's inspired millions reached out to me. And I was like, this made a profound impact. I had an English teacher right back and said, I've never received a thank you letter my 30 letters, 30 years of

teaching. And I was like, it's a simple thank you letter. So I started looking at this is like every day, look for the gratitude, look for people that you're grateful for and write a thank you letter. And now it didn't just last one year. Now it's over a thousand thank you letters. I've done it now for going on almost finishing my fourth year. And it's something that we've built an organization and we call it one fan a day. And everyone in our organization, whether sends a video or a thank you letter to someone one fan a day. And it's taught this gratitude that really, but it's because of other people helping make an impact on us.

And you, my friend, have made a huge impact on us because I'll tell you, myself, our president, our fans first director. I'm right now in our studio underneath our stadium. But they all know I'm here with you right now. And they are so, like, proud and happy because of the impact that you've made because you've shown up every week to teach and to give without trying to extract value. And so we will always look for ways to get that back. I love it. I think thank you for doing that, by the way, and for making this connection and by putting in writing.

I listened to a story about the leaders, I believe it was from Airbnb, and they said to scale, you have to do things that don't scale. You're shaking your heads or nodding like, so I'm guessing you've heard the same thing. And that's what that makes me think of because one of the things I like to do is if somebody sends a nice thoughtful email is to call them if their phone number is in the email address and not respond, say, hey, let's set up a time for a call, but literally to just call them or thank them for doing that. And it doesn't happen all the time, but is it random? And if I have a little extra time, I'll do it. And at minimum, we're going to write them back for the nice, thoughtful note. But those are things that people have told me don't scale. And thanking one fan a day or one, you know, taking time to thank somebody one per day, some would say doesn't scale.

And I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Love is something that's not talked about in business. And we talk about love all the time. and we say love your customers more than you love your product, but love your team, love your employees even more than you love your customers. We even know each other's love language is right. We've done tests and we know everyone's love language on our staff. And it's unbelievable knowing whether it's words of affirmation or acts of service or quality time

because we know how to respond to them and how to give them the love that they deserve. And because we talk about it and it's part of our culture, we look, how can we love on our fans? How can we love on our vendors? How can we love on anybody that touches our organization? And it's that mindset of don't let's not worry about money. Let's not worry about short-term profits. Let's worry about our long-term values and our long-term values of giving love and sharing love. So, you know, to give me an example, every single person that buys a ticket online gets a thank-you call from us.

Ryan, we're so fortunate we sell over 100,000 tickets, but it's part of the way we map our experience. And we are so intentional. Make 100,000 calls, really? No, so it's not 100,000 calls because of the groups buy tickets. as well. So group may 400, 500, but every person that buys a ticket online, and that's including myself, we get a spreadsheet, and we call and thank them. And a lot of times people like, did my credit card not work? We're like, no, we're calling you to thank you. And it's because we want to tell them how much we appreciate. And this isn't like you're going to your typical

sporting event where you get a silly payment confirmation, and then you show up and you're just like a number like everyone else. We want everyone to know that they are special and they matter. And they're coming out to a college summer baseball team in these numbers and to be part of us and spend their time with us, we're going to let them know it. And so it's intentional. So they get a video first, and it's a video of us celebrating, and it's over the top video. I'll send you a copy of it. And then they get the thank you call. And then our ticket experience coordinator will send them a playlist of music to listen to on their way to the ballpark to pump them up for the game. This is how intentional we think. We want them be primed and ready, not just show up to a game and

I hope I find parking. And then when they show up, they're greeted by parking penguins. We literally have our parking tents and penguin costumes parking them. Does it make any sense? Of course not. But we think it's funny. And then they will give them freezy pops and say, stay cool tonight. That's part of how they enter the stadium. And then they'll have the players there greeting them with autographs. And then we'll have the pep band playing music. And then our ticket takers in banana shapes, banana costumes ripping their banana shaped tickets that are scratch and sniff and smell like bananas. Like, it's all a part of this. And I think that is doing things that aren't completely scalable, but it's about showing do we care enough for you as a human, not just as a customer who's

making a transaction with our team. And when you do that, the purpose that our team has, Ryan, we get letters and emails every day and people come in and bring us gifts. The gifts that we've received blow us, blow us away, but it's because we look at people as humans and not as just another number. Wow. Experiential design. You're thoughtful about every second leading up to before they buy a ticket to after they buy a ticket to the drive to the ball. I mean, I just love the thought of how intentional you are you about not just, okay, once they're in the stadium, let's make sure it's this great, which you do, but it's all of the moments leading up to that.

And everybody can do that. See, the thing is, look, what you realize is we don't invest in marketing. We invest in the experience. Ryan, we hired a six-year-old last year to be our professional high-fiver. His sole job was to high five every fan in the stadium. And when people come in, he just goes and high fives them. That's his sole role. We paid him a couple thousand dollars to high five our fans.

But like we know getting a high five from a six year old while you're in line is like, wow, they really have a high fiver? You better believe it. I mean, our rival is the making bacon. So of course, the urinal cakes in the men's bathroom are making bacon urinal cakes. So our fans are peeing on our rival. Like, we're all about these intentional steps to make it fun and to make it like, well, we're thinking about each of these pieces.

And I think we've learned this over 15 years. But our big goal is we want people to leave the ballpark and say, you wouldn't believe what happened at the stadium tonight. And when they start telling people that, there's nothing more powerful. And I think everyone needs more. You wouldn't believe moments in their life. It needs more fun. And we're hopefully trying to create that every day.

Let's pause for a second and try to make this relatable to somebody who doesn't own a baseball team. So you've probably heard the usual email I receive. And so I've created this avatar for the listener. And it's not all the listeners, but it's, you know, a lot that I've received is they are working as a leader within a bigger company. And they're ambitious and they're smart and they invest in themselves to learn to grow to get better. So they're not the CEO. They're not the owner. So they don't make all of the big decisions.

but they are trying to lead their team to exceed goals, to be excellent within a bigger organization. How would you relate some of what you talk about and find your yellow tucks, your book, or just your thought process around experiential design, for that person specifically to be better in their role on a day-to-day basis? Well, I think you look at tiny little touchpoints. So, for instance, what's their voicemail? Is it like everyone else's voicemail? Or is it something fun? You know, for us, it's a, you've reached the Savannah, nah, no, no, no. You've reached the

Savannah bananas, no, no, that ridiculous song. And then even our hold music. What's your hold music for your company? Is it something generic like elevator music? Or for us, it's ring, ring, ring, ring, banana phone. People call us and ask to be put on hold. Like every week, someone says, can you put on hold? It's a ridiculous. What's your email signature? What is your, what is your business card? We have baseball card business cards, which have all of our stats on it, it's a little baseball card, all right? What's your name tag? Is it the same as everyone else? Look at all those little tiny pieces that you have. Is it remarkable? Turn the required to remarkable and turn the boring to fun and turn the normal to opposite. That's what we always say. Whatever's normal. Can you repeat that whole

part again? Sure. You know, turn the required to remarkable. Turn the boring to fun. Turn the normal to whatever's opposite. And we say whatever's normal, do the exact opposite. Because normal, normal gets normal results. And you think that can apply to any business anywhere, anywhere. Anybody. So does your email signature, does your voicemail, does how you sign out, does any, how you call people, what you say, is it the same as everyone else? How are you remember? How are you memorable? And you know, there's obviously lots of touches for a leader from recognition. Something our president started doing. Again, he started as a 24 year old. When people start with us, he writes a letter to the parents of the young person that just started with us and says,

hey, we are so excited to have Marie with us. We're going to take care of her. We're going to put her first. We're going to do this and tell the parents that we're caring for their child. A little touch like that. How are you recognizing people? How do you recognize the spouses and the significant others? You know, we're very intentional now. When we do trips, we invite the spouses. You know, what are those things that you're doing to make your people feel cared for? And, you know, for instance, I'll give me an example during the summer. If you're a mid-level manager, we decided, halfway through the season, we decided to have a pampering day at the office. And so they're getting ready Monday morning, like a typical day, middle of the season, we're grinding. My wife said,

let's do this. So if you walk into the left, you see 20 pairs of pink slippers. And staff starts walking like, what are these pink slippers? They turn to the left. They see my wife with a mimosa bar and all these snacks, fruit snacks, and then all of a sudden I say, guys, before the staff chat starts, we'd like to introduce you to a few people. In walks four masseuses, a facialist, and a hairstylist. And we set up the entire office to do us as a spa for our people, which were 22, 25 years old. They've never got massages in their lives. Their mouths open, they're like, you can't, what is happening?

This is unbelievable. And then we had a food truck come in and give them, we had steaks and seafood. And then the last said one more thing, and I've learned this from Steve Jobs, always have one more thing. And we said, all right, guys, one more thing, guys, we have a mobile car wash coming in and we're going to be washing your cars and cleaning all your cars today. And they were like, my car has never been washed or clean. I mean, again, these are losers kids. And again, that was a couple thousand dollars for 20 people.

But everyone in them went home and told someone you wouldn't believe what happened today at the stadium. Watching get massages and facials and haircuts, it was special. That's a bigger investment. But it can be a simple thank you card or something else. What are you doing to recognize people and show that they care? And I think that's a way you can stand out that you don't have to own a baseball team to do. One of your mantras is love your employees more than you love your customers. And I don't know why I immediately thought of Jeff Bezos because he's like, we're always obsessed with the customer.

And certainly Amazon's done, done well. However, I wonder, I would love to be able to talk to him about this and challenge him. But I agree with you. I've seen the difference when somebody is first obsessed with. with empowering and loving on their people that work with them because if you do if you take care of that then it then it goes outward right so what's what's your thought process on loving your employees more than you love your customers so our mindset is simple and I think one of the biggest things that we did that we learned and again I want to share this I mean we struggled for

many years Ryan I think as a leader beginning I was all focused on myself and growing myself and growing my title it was me over we instead of we over me it wasn't until we change the name of our company and we took the mindset of be patient in what you want for yourself, but be impatient in how much you give to others. It wasn't until we took that mindset and named the company Fans First Entertainment with our mission, fans first, entertain always. And the one question we always ask ourselves, is it fans first? When we simplified our company and a fans first, this sounds on the outside, it's all about the customers. It's about the fans. But we know in the inside, everyone in our staff knows who are our biggest fans. Our biggest fans are our biggest fans.

people. And so inside, everyone knows that our biggest fans, the ones that wear the merchandise every single day. They call their parents when something great happens. They are coming to work every day to be a part of this. They're our biggest fans. So we put them first. And we realize that if we put them first, they're going to put the customers first. And we say very simple, you know, if you care for your people, care for your team, they'll care for your customers and your customers will care for your bottom line and they'll take care of it. So it's like, you know, it's that mindset. So the onboarding, the hiring. Every step of the way, we want to know everything about our people to make sure we take care of them.

And we're still learning this. We have a fans first director. We have an employee experience coordinator. We have people that are designated to make this part of the process. They get interviewed by everybody on our staff. We have a future resume. We want to know not what you've been in the past. What are you going to do in the future?

I mean, we're very intentional. We even have, we have everyone on our staff do videos of who should not work for our company. Wow. That leads me to a great point, Jesse. How many people are on your team now? Currently? Not the baseball team, the people that work with you. Yeah.

So we have about 15 year-round full-time and about 200 part-time during the summer. Okay. So you're making hiring decisions, and there are a lot of people listening who are doing the same. Not the same job necessarily, but they're a leader. And as I learned early on, my dad told me, you know, the people you choose to hire can make you rich and famous within this company or they'll make you poor and unemployed. And it's your choice. And if you get that right, it'll solve pretty much everything. else. So what are you looking for as well as what are you not? We're on those list of the videos

that they say don't hire these people. What are you looking for when making hiring decisions? As far as they obviously have to do the job of the specific role. But outside of that, what are you looking for as a person, the qualities? I would say 90% we're looking for as cultural fit. And so we are very clear with our fans first way. And that is our core beliefs. And we even simplified this. Ryan, I challenge anyone that has core beliefs. Does everyone in your staff know it. And they don't a lot of times because it's just integrity, discipline. It doesn't have meaning to them. And so ours follows the alphabet. It's always be caring, different, enthusiastic, fun, growing, and hungry. And it follows the alphabet. And we have stories that back up each one of

those. But what we do in the hiring process, we have them do an essay on how do they fit each one of our core beliefs. Then we have them do a video cover letter on how do they fit this culture. And then we have them do the future resume. And the future resume, what it's looking for is not necessarily all these things that they want to do. It's do they want to stay in the same place for many years? Or are they actually growing and hungry in fitting our core beliefs? If they say they want to be a receptionist for the next five or 10 years, they're not fitting our core beliefs. So we will test that in the beginning. And then everyone on our staff interviews them and really gets to know who they are. So as far as how are they not a fit? We know if they can't handle change, if they're stuck with the way it's been,

if they talk, this is the way we used to do it because we're changing constantly. Every single day we're changing here. So we, our whole staff will interview and ask those questions. But we've made some challenges. We made some mistakes. The biggest thing we've done is our intern program. Every single person that's on our full-time staff started as an intern. So a three-month intern program, we were able to go through and learn, are we a real cultural fit? The challenge is on the outside, as I learned this in MMT the other day, red flag never go down. Explain that further.

So we've learned if you see a red flag, whether it's in the hiring process, whether it's the beginning, those never go down. And that was talked about at length at MMT. And I've never seen someone that, hey, oh, I don't really like this. This isn't good. That all of a sudden, that doesn't come up again. It doesn't come up again. And so we're on the lookout for red flags now.

And if we see something like, oh, I don't think that'll fit or they're challenging here or this doesn't fit with our culture, make a move. What are some red flags like in your business or maybe you have some that are top of mind right now or ones that you're like, oh, but they would be so good. So you push it aside and try to overlook it. And we've all done this as people who have hired. I know I certainly have. Sometimes like I've fallen in love with people who are a part of our military. They had other red flags though.

But they were, but they were, you know, he's a special forces guy. So like I'm hiring them. And then, you know, it wasn't necessarily a fit for other reasons, despite my love. for a certain part and you kind of push the red flags away because you love a certain you know what I'm saying sure combative yeah so for us it's uh you know we are constantly going to be doing new things at the ballpark that hopefully have never been done before and if all of a sudden oh that won't work here or that won't work or that won't work and just no we believe in doing them learning do and then learn and we don't believe in failure we believe in discovery so you don't fail you discover things

and so when we brought in some very talented performers or talented people and and immediately their first response is to skunk an idea or say that won't work. We need people say, okay, that could work. What if we do this as well? We need that philosophy. So that's the biggest red flag for us is fighting the change and the things that we're trying to do differently. A natural question, you listed nine different parts of the experiential design.

I know there's a lot more to it from the what you listen to and the penguins and the popsicles or whatever it may be. How do you come up with all these ideas? we get that question asked a lot and it's so intentional. So, for instance, just like you see gratitude, if you start writing a thank you letter every day, you will look every day how to write how to find gratitude. I don't have I told you this, but I know you and your wife, this is something me and my wife do every single night is we do rose, rose and bud.

And I think it's from Neil, happiness equation, Pashiko, who you had on the show recently, and rose, rose bud, to roses, things that happen good during the day, and a bud is something you're looking forward to. So every day, we are looking for great things that happened during the name, great things to look forward to. So we have a lens that we're looking at that. When you build an idea lens, so to give me an example, I think you need to build your idea muscle. Everyone says, how do you come up with ideas? Well, you're not working your idea muscle. If you're in great shape and you work out every day, you're working your idea muscle. All right? If you're a thought

leader and you're constantly thinking about new things to build a business, you're working, you're reading, you're learning. Same thing with nutrition, all right? With ideas, it's the same way. So three years ago, I started running down 10 ideas every morning. And I would theme it out. And this is from James Altucher. He gave me this idea. You write down 10 ideas every morning. You theme it out and I figure out what I'm going to do with those ideas.

Most of them, Ryan, are terrible. I would say out of the 3,650 ideas a year, 3,500 of them are really bad ideas. But we do that. And then we built this culture of ideas. And what does that mean? We have an idea box at our stadium. And every day, every month, people put ideas in the idea box. And every month, we have an idea paloza.

And we bring the whole staff together, and it's a brainstorm on certain ideas. Last one we had was on stadium design. What new things can we build the stadium? The one before was on our Thanksgiving party. What are we going to do? The one before that was on merchandise. And we theme it out. And everyone throws in ideas and we build up each other.

If you want to have a culture of ideas, you need to start fostering it. You need to actually have meetings that are solely based on ideas and get everyone involved. And that's what we built over the last three years, that ideas are everything. And I believe ideas are currency, but it's the implementation that will make you rich. And so that's the next step for us is how do we implement? There's a lot of science out there that there aren't really any people who have better ideas and others. There are just people who have more ideas. And it becomes a quantity game to get to the quality.

And it's funny, I was speaking with a hire my first team member recently, Lizzie, and we talk a lot. And we were talking this morning. and I said, listen, like, in order for us to get to the good stuff, especially with me, Lizzie, we've got to get through a lot of bad stuff. So it's just part of the deal. Like, it's just part of the process where I'm going to throw out things. And some of you are going to be like, what are you talking about? But that's just part of the process is to get to the good stuff.

You've got to get through a lot of bad and know that that's, it's okay. It's part of the deal. Yes. Yes. It's doing and then learning. And you can't learn until you're doing. And I think Henry Ford was most famous. I watched Henry Ford Museum last year and on the plaque and site said, Henry believed in learning by doing.

And for us, I mean, Ryan, same thing. You talk all the time about your first few podcasts on how you can't even listen to them. All right. The key is to just start. You know, I don't tell me people this, but I wrote 159 blogs before I posted my first one. Really? I was scared out of my mind. I'm in a yellow tuxedo, but believe me, I was scared the first time I went to a conference in this.

I was scared the first time I went through the airport and people were looking at me like, what is wrong with this guy. Do you travel that way? Oh, everywhere. If I'm going to give a keynote, you better believe I'm wearing this. This is me. In the airport, I love it. Oh, yeah.

How many of you own? How many yellow taxes? I don't have seven of these. I don't seven of these. But you've got to get over your fear. And, you know, I always say stop standing still, start standing out. You got to get over that fear. And so I wrote 159 blogs.

And finally, on September 18th, you know, 2017, I was like, I'm just going to put it out there. And I put it out there. And I didn't die. Nothing bad happened. Like, I didn't get any comments. I didn't get any likes. But you know what? Get to your next at bat.

So I don't know if you know this, but since September 18, I have decided to put something out on LinkedIn or social every single day. And I'm two years later now. A lot of things haven't been great, but some of them have added value. And you just keep doing it. And, you know, you're a sports guy. Do you know who has the most hits in Major League Baseball history? Pete Rose. Pete Rose, over 4,000 hits.

Do you know who has the most at bats in Major League history? Pete Rose. 2,000 more bats than the next hit. Hitter, who was Hank Aaron, who had the most home runs until Barry Bonds passed him. You have to keep coming up to bat. And I think it's so fascinating, you know, the point of, do you know who has the most strikeouts? Which hitter who has the most strikeouts in Major League Baseball? Is it Babe Ruth?

No, it's Reggie Jackson. But no one would know that. You know what they know about Reggie Jackson? His home runs. His three home runs, he hit in game six of the World Series to win. And he became Mr. October. People don't remember the failure stirring the bat's. They remember the hits.

They remember the home runs. And so when I post every day, when I write a thank you letter every day, when I write 10 ideas every day, it's just to get to that next at that, get to that next hit. And it's something that I've had to force myself to learn even when it's hard. Why P.T. Barnum. You're the P.T. Barnum of baseball. That's a nickname that's been given to you. And I know you look up to him in Walt Disney. And it's top of mind for me because I watched the greatest showman with her five-year-old recently and she loves it.

What is it about P.T. Barnum. Showmanship. Yeah. You know, I have a custom-made poster of PT in my office, and it says showmanship. And it says something terrible happens without promotion. Nothing. And, you know, his whole mindset is you got to put on a show. And I think now more than ever, people need a show.

They need to be entertained. Every business is in the entertainment business. And PT Barnum knew this in the 1800s. It wasn't necessarily about what was real, what was true, what wasn't true. Can he create fun? Can he give fun? and he did some things that were just absolutely outrageous. And people asked me, Jesse, I know you've read every book on P.T. Barnum, what did you think in the movie?

Was it all true? I go, of course not. But it's exactly how P.T. Barnum would have done it. It's not about what's the facts. It's about how do you make people feel? And P.T. Barnum made people feel entertained. And I look up to him because of that. He wasn't about money.

He wasn't about trying to steal from people and greed. He was about putting on a show on making people feel good and making people feel escape and making people feel special. And I hope like him we can do that at a ballpark every night. What about those? Do you feel like what's your natural personality? Meaning are you, I feel like you're extroverted. Is that true? Or is this part of the show?

Now I'm extroverted. I'm 100% extroverted. Okay. So for the person who's listening who is naturally introverted, which are a lot of podcast listeners because they like to be by themselves to gain energy from time to time in their car, working out, whatever it may be. they what if that person's listening to you saying man you know i don't want to put on a show or i'm not comfortable doing that and this this may have been me a few years ago listening

before i had to really challenge that that that that type of defeating talk but what do you say to that person i first challenge them and saying what scares you what scares you the most about getting out there and putting yourself out there and to find what the root of that is as we both known and we learn from some great leaders is that if you want to grow, you need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And yes, I am naturally extroverted, but I'm still insecure. I still feel like imposter syndrome. I still feel all that when I'm on stage in front of thousands of people, just like, you know, like, wow, look at where I am right now. But every time that I do that, I get over that fear and I take that first step and I take a chance and the feeling that I get, just like you, I know,

when you get on stage and make an impact, it's so powerful that the people that are holding back, even the introverts out there. I think they all need to experience it first, experience it for the first time. And then I would say, if still you're holding back, think about those little touch points that you can do to make people feel special.

Thank you notes, videos, different pieces of recognition. I think everyone has something that makes them stand out. It's the best version of themselves. But people often hold themselves back. They have a mask because they're afraid of doing it.

Why? Because we're so, it's a lot easier to fit in than it is to stand out. It's a lot more comfortable. If you go to any networking reception, look how everyone's dressed. All right. Everyone's dressed the same.

If you look at, you follow the instincts because we have this feeling that we want to belong. It's the most powerful feeling in the world. You referenced Brian Chesky earlier about Airbnb. And, you know, his whole concept, everything, is make people feel like they belong. We all want that. You know, you have your listeners that feel like they belong. Every single Monday, they're a part of a group. And so when you step out of your comfort zone and you get different, immediately you're saying,

oh, I don't belong like everyone else. Every time I get on stage, I have to immediately say, I'm not as relatable to you right now, but I'm going to show you what's inside, not just one on the outside. And so I think it's a challenge. I think we are so comfortable. We learned it in school, right? And you have your girls. They go to school.

It's uncomfortable to stand out. You want to be, you want to feel like you can be a part of something. And if you start coming out completely different, you're treated differently, which does not feel good. But I'll tell you, once you get over that and start, if that's who you are, the success and feeling of just being yourself goes a long way. And I think a lot of people, we hide who we are because we want to fit in. Has that taken time and life reps and maturity and success to help you figure that out? Yes.

So I used to wear just the yellow tucks. I've been wearing the yellow tucks for seven years. I wore it back with our former team in Gastonia. But I used to wear it just at our games because that was my house. That was my ballpark. And then people started calling, can the yellow tucks guy give a speech? He's got to wear the tucks. And I started getting over that fear.

And then I started going to conferences and started wearing it all the time. It was baby steps. You can't just jump right in the deep end sometimes. You've got to take those small steps. Neil talked about it in his recent show with you. You've got to learn how to win. Be the big fish of the small pond for a little bit. What do people, I'm curious, when you are going out to lunch today or you did,

Like, do you, is everyone just now aware where you live? Like, oh, yeah, that's Jesse. He owns the banana. Or do you still get weird looks all the time? Oh, I get weird looks all the time. It's obviously different in Savannah. Savannah people come over and, you know, they'll buy us banana pudding or they'll buy us or they're not either.

But, yeah, I mean, I was just in Canada. I was speaking in Saskatchewan last week. And I'm walking through the airport in Canada. And people act like they got their cameras up here taking pictures of videos. Like, there's a circus clown or something. Yeah, like, who is this? You know, I was in Mexico, obviously, at MMT. And people are like, oh, can we get a picture?

But you know what I noticed most? It brings a smile. It brings joy. It brings happiness. And a lot of people say, oh, my daughter loves your outfit. Can we get a picture? And, you know, hey, that's good enough for me. One of the quotes you've hinted at a few times throughout the course of this conversation I've picked up on is you wouldn't believe.

You wouldn't believe. You want people to say that leaving your park, leaving your perhaps one of your sports. speaking events or any experience with you and your team. You wouldn't believe. What does that phrase mean to you? I didn't know how much it meant to me until recently. And it was something that I realized I was saying on interviews even back 10, 15 years ago. And I used to always say, I want someone to come to our ballpark and say, you won't believe

what happened at the stadium tonight. You wouldn't believe it. And so we started creating those moments. You wouldn't believe the players danced to Britney Spears during the game. You wouldn't believe they gave away a colon cleansing and a port-a-on in the middle of the game. You wouldn't believe they had a sexy saxophone player serenade a woman in the crowd in the middle of the game. You wouldn't believe the players delivered roses to little girls during the game. You wouldn't believe the players went on a date.

Our players actually go on dates with fans during the game. We started creating these moments because it's proven now that, you know, retail stores, they're closing by the thousands. It's amazing what's happening right now. I mean, UBS Investment predicts over 75,000 stores are going to be closed by 2026. And yet what people are saying, the key influence over all decisions is word of mouth marketing. You know, 92% of consumers trust word of mouth from a family or friend over any advertising. And I believe that the most powerful form of word of mouth marketing is someone saying you wouldn't believe. You wouldn't believe when I went out to dinner.

This is what they did. You wouldn't believe the car wash. They did this for me. You wouldn't believe the letter I received. You wouldn't believe. You wouldn't believe. You wouldn't believe. And so on stages recently, I've been sharing how do you create these you want to believe moments.

So you never have to spend a dime marketing again. And you create raving fans who do marketing. Seeing companies put this into play has been really, really fun. What are some ways a, again, relating it back to the person who's listening who does not fully relate to what you do because they'll never work for or own a baseball team. How can that person create you wouldn't believe moments within their business? So we start with a normal opposite list. So write down the different normal pieces of your business and then write down what would be the exact opposite. Or as I worked with a car dealership, and this was funny because we do stop the hate.

So look at what do your customers hate about your experience? For us in the baseball industry, it's long, slow, it's boring. You get nickel and dined. So write down what your customers hate. Write down what's the normal experience from the first touch point on the contact form on the email to when you respond to what the payment confirmation is, that normal. And then what would be the opposite? What would be remarkable? I think that is a huge starting point. And then, Ryan, some of the best advice I've ever received was from the CEO of Magic Castle Hotel, which they're a great story. And I know

people have heard of them, but listen carefully, respond creatively. Listen to what your customers are saying and how can you respond in a different, unique way. And if you have a second, give it a quick story. I'll get it to them. So we started working with a home builder called Shoreline Construction. And they heard a talk and they mapped the whole experience. And they said, all right, let's wow them from the beginning. When they buy a house, they first get an iPad sent with their team. They get a Yeti cooler. They get a music video. We know their favorite snacks. We send all this. They did all that. But then one of their team members heard that one of their clients was coming into town for their anniversary. And they want to know a place to eat in the area.

So they said, hey, we'll just pick you up. And so responding. creatively, they picked them up with a limo, and their house at that point was barely framed. It just had the wooden frame, no roof, nothing. And they took them in a limo to the house. They had a private seating area set up, and they ended up serving them dinner. They had lights. They had their favorite music. They served some of the best meal. And they had their anniversary dinner and not even their framed house. The wife was crying her eyes out. She goes, I've never imagined anything like this. She got on social media. She went to the news.

She told everyone you wouldn't believe what our home builder did for us. And because of that one employee who listened and said, you know what, let's create a special moment. Let's create a wow moment. And they made this dinner. They don't have to market much anymore. Now they have everyone. I want Shoreline to build my home because they're not like your typical home builder just

because of listen carefully and responding creatively. And this could happen anywhere at any business for any possible. I remember one of the things I like. to do, I wrote about this, so people rereading it soon. But at the beginning, when I have a new person who would work on my team, did I get to know you exercise where I try to get to know them and there'd be 20, 30 questions. And initially people like, oh my God, this is too much. But then I would get, one, I would really gather some valuable intel and I would learn about them and we would always have a follow-up meeting where we talk about some of the fun things. It's nothing to do with work, right?

It's just about their life, their family and everything. But a few of the questions that are on there by design, are learning their kids' names and their spouse's name right away and getting their address, so I never have to ask for it again. And when their mom or dad would do something incredible at work, whether it was help somebody else or, you know, just perform at a level that was commendable, I would send the gifts to kids, to their kids. Because think about, like, anyone who's a parent, like, I know for me now with kids understanding what I do, like, I'm not going to lie.

like I want them to think that I'm cool. I want them to think that I do a good job. I want them to think that I help people. And so if my boss, and this is what I tried to do with the people that work for me, my boss was wrote a handwritten note that said, you know, dear Ben and Alex, your dad absolutely crushed it. He did this, this and this. He helped this person because of that. I bought you this video game that I know you want.

And here's some cookies to eat while you play the video game. Wow. This guy, you know, we're friends for life. I remember, and, you know, done this for a few people where he, he, I remember we talked recently and we haven't worked together in more than five years because of little things like that. So I think it's just little. And I learned that from people like you that have been in my life fortunately early on to say, just find a way to creatively show that you actually care, that you're listening, that they're heard, that you know them, you call them by their name, you understand some of the things they like. It could have a lasting effect on them forever. Yeah, 100%.

And what holds people back, Ryan, is that they think they have to do it for everybody. Right. You don't have to do it for every client, every customer. You know, the famous Nordstrom stories, the famous Southwest airline stories, it happened to one customer, yet it lives on in the company. And it could just be one person creating that. And we challenge our team every day, what are those fans' first moments you're creating? And after every game, we talk about the fans' first moments.

We even go undercover. And I take off the yellow tuxedo at certain games to go undercover and see how. how we're delivering fans first moments. And anybody can do it. And I'm glad that you've had it come two ways as well because you've seen that impact. It's incredible, man. Jesse, I do want to close with one more question. You, now that you've established like a really remarkable business.

And it's so cool to see somebody who is doing it the right way and the success has followed for you. And I know it's only going to continue. So I would imagine you're getting a barrage of emails from people who want to do the same thing. Not necessarily own a baseball team, but they want to run or lead a business or lead a team that sustains excellence. And so they're saying, hey, man, what are some things I could do or what's some general pieces of advice? And so that's what I ask you, if you could take us into that room and you're sitting one-on-one with perhaps somebody a little bit earlier in their career and they want to make a positive contribution in the world. But they're not fully sure how. What are a few pieces of parting advice you would give to that person?

It's a loaded question. I think, obviously, over 15 years in the industry, I've learned different things. But I think the starting point I'd ask is what makes you different? What makes you stand out? And I think that's a difficult question for a lot of people to answer. And we're often so focused on our competitors. Well, you want to compete against yourself to be different and to be special and stand out. Be okay with standing for something.

Be okay with being a little polarizing. Don't just try to be a little bit better than everyone else. We are so adamant that we are not like a typical baseball team. We are focused. We're not playing that game. We want to be the best entertainment, the best show in sports, not the best baseball team. And I think if you really want to expedite your growth, you've got to be clear on what you stand for, what makes you different and what makes you stand out. And the only way you can find that is if you just start trying new things.

You just start experimenting. The brilliant philosopher, Will Farrell, once said, keep throwing darts at the dartboard. You'll eventually hit the bullseye. I think so many of us aren't thrown enough darts. And we're just thinking. Stop thinking, start doing. And for us, we realized we wanted to be different,

but we didn't know until we started trying. We started doing the grandma beauty pageants and flatulence fun nights and salute to underwear nights and playing games and kilts. You name it, Dulce and Banana underwear, we started trying. And because of that, we've been. built our brand to who we are. So don't be afraid to stand now. Don't be afraid to be different. Just start doing. Love it, man. Well, we have some mutual fans in Savannah. I know that I've reached out.

So I'm very hopeful to perhaps do a cool event with you at some point in Savannah. Obviously come to a game. I had a colleague of mine. He saw the shirt that you'd sent me. And he goes, where did you get that shirt? And I said, I got it from Jesse. He goes, what? I took my kids in those games. It was incredible, man. He just had this glowing look on his face, kind of a, you know, you wouldn't believe moment, which was neat. It was just pure real. I didn't even tell him that we were talking or anything, but he saw the shirt, and it was

pretty neat. Let's see, the impact you had on this guy who lives in Ohio who happened to be vacationing down there and took his kids and your experience has made an impact on his life. That means a lot. Well, at least I didn't send you the underwear. That would have really thrown him for a little. I'll hang that up next. No, Jesse, thanks so much, man, for being here.

I'm excited and grateful for your friendship and look forward to many more conversations in the future, man. I appreciate you more than you know, my man. All right, man. See you. Wow. Jesse brings amazing energy to the one-on-one conversations he has. When we initially connected via Skype before we hit record, he was giving me a standing ovation. I've never had that happen before when I connect with someone on Skype.

But it was a great way to start to talk and brought energy to me and created some. excitement in it. A few of the parts that really stood out to me. First, be patient in what you want for yourself, but be impatient and how much you give to others, right? Be others focused. Think of how you can serve them. And then love your employees more than you love your customers. Right, you take care of your employees first. They will take care of your customers and that will take care of the bottom line. And then create, you wouldn't believe moments, right? You want people walking away from the experience that you provide for them saying you wouldn't believe. And this can happen anywhere.

It doesn't just have to be with the baseball team. This could happen in corporate America with a team that you leave. Create you wouldn't believe moments. Think of how to do that. And then be okay with standing for something. This is really challenging for all of us. But understand what you believe and be okay with standing for something. Jesse has proven that that can be helpful.

I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did. If so, I would love it if you would tell a friend or two. As we discussed, word of mouth, is the best form of marketing, one person at a time. Perhaps someone that has never listened to the Learning Leaders Show before they could benefit from this one with the great Jesse Cole. Thank you so much for continuing to giving me the opportunity to do what I love on a daily basis for that. I will forever be grateful. All right. Thanks so much. Talk with you next week. Can't wait.

You've heard me interview more than 350 of the most thoughtful leaders in the world over the past five years on this podcast, The Learning. Leader Show. I've taken what I've learned from those impressive, thoughtful leaders, as well as more than 15 years of my leadership life and put it all into one place. And that is my book. Welcome to Management. It is now available for pre-order. And we're doing something special only for listeners of the Learning Leaders Show. And that is this. If you email me directly, I will share details on how you can get an early copy of the book. Email me, Ryan at learning leader.com. In the subject line, write book and then tell me that you'd like an early copy and I will share how.

Again, I put everything I've learned up to this point in my book. Welcome to Management. I love for you to take advantage and get an early copy. Email me, Ryan at learningleader.com.