Jesse Cole: Normal Gets Normal Results | The Fans First Playbook

Mick Unplugged

Host Mick Hunt sits down with Jesse Cole to discuss the 'Fans First' philosophy that drives the success of Banana Ball. The conversation exp

Key takeaways

• Jesse Cole utilizes a framework to identify and eliminate friction points in the customer experience.
• The principle 'normal gets normal results' serves as a guide to doing what competitors are unwilling to do.

Main topics

• The Fans First philosophy
• Overcoming business failure and setbacks

Notable quotes

Normal gets normal results.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a high-energy blueprint for entrepreneurs lookin

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) 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 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 to create the best experience possible for your customers, 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 the brilliant, the amazing Mr. Jesse Cole. Speaker 3 (0:37) 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. Speaker 2 (1:01) Jess, how are you doing today, brother? Speaker 1 (1:03) So great to be with you, my friend. Speaker 2 (1:05) 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, but you're actually fueled by your because, right? So if I were to say, what's your why? You'd probably say your family, your kids, success. But when I say, but why? That sentence usually starts with, well, because, and I care about what happens after, well, because. So if I were to say, Jesse, man, all the things that you do, the way that you give back, the way that you've changed industry and marketing and visibility, what's your because? Speaker 1 (1:47) Well, it's a deep question. And it's what makes you feel alive. You know, what gives you energy, what fires you up. 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 got divorced when I was a kid. My dad helped raise me. And, you know, I always wanted to feel loved. I want to feel part of something. I want to feel with people. And, you know, what we get to do every day is bring people together from all over the world. from two years old to 82 years old, see people have fun, let loose, not take themselves too seriously, to be in a world of joy. And, you know, I get to be in the middle of that every day. And, you know, I think the world that has joy, that has fun, that isn't so focused on all the things that are going wrong is a better world. And so, yes, our platform is banana ball and we get to put on a crazy show every single night. But I hope that we get. to do something that is truly contagious, that joy, that fun, that togetherness, that let loose, be the best version of yourself can continue for people when they go home, at work, to their friends, to their colleagues. And so I think my 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. Speaker 2 (3:04) And you do it better than anyone I know. And now a lot of things make sense, Jesse. It's the only child thing, right? So like. I told you, like, Damon John, my mentor, he's the only child. You two are so alike that now I get it. Like, it's the only child thing, right? Like, you had to be so imaginative and creative and, you know, to get people to, not to be around you, but to get people to want to continue those relationships with you. And you get home and it's you and your parents, right? Or your parents were separated or divorced. So, like, it literally is you and you've got to. be creative with what do i do or who do i talk to man talk to Speaker 1 (3:45) 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 it was um you know just to build make the most of every moment with people and you know i think about that and you know when i i go through a door every every day you know my mindset is bring the energy Bring the fun. And so it's like a trigger for me whenever I interact with people. Like, you know, 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. 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. Speaker 2 (4:30) There you go. Speaker 1 (4:31) There you go, Speaker 2 (4:32) man. You know, you've changed you've changed my life. You changed my businesses in so many ways because my mindset has completely shifted. One of the things that you've said and it's on my wall because I need this reminder every day is that normal 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 normal just gets normal results and doing the unreasonable is where your focus should be. Speaker 1 (5:11) Yeah. 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. And. I realized that they were doing the same things every other team did. 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. And when you do what others won't do, you're going to do things that may fail. And so I've just been, you know, I think I learned that first concept from Alan Fadden. He wrote the book Innovation on Demand. Really brilliant man. Very creative. And yeah, it's whatever's normal, do the exact opposite. And he shared the story of how he sold his book. 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. And he literally had his book in different sections, business, history, self-help. And he got so much attention. And I heard that story. It was very formative for me because he was 23. He went in a different direction. And so when I thought about building, 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, people were 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? 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. Speaker 2 (7:22) 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. 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. 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 my team can't get up and dance, or at least they think. Everybody Speaker 1 (7:59) can dance. Even if you can't dance, you can dance. I'll tell you that. I've seen that with hundreds of players. But yes, I know exactly what you're saying. So I can only go by the framework of what we use. And, you know, the framework that we started with was we looked at all the friction points and 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, you know, 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. And so, you know, even to start a list, this is the normal way of doing a podcast. This