Framework
Whatever's normal, do the exact opposite
Jesse Cole's core creative rule: nobody shares or remembers anything normal, so deliberately invert the default of your industry to make the experience remarkable and unforgettable.
“Ideas are more valuable than anything. Whatever's normal, do the exact opposite. No one comes home and said, "Ah, did you hear this thing? It's so normal." You get excited about remarkable, unforgettable.”
Steal thisList every default in your industry, then deliberately do the opposite of each one.
Story
$268 in the bank, 200 fans, $27.5K salary: the Gastonia start
Jesse Cole took over a college summer baseball team at 23 with only 200 fans, $268 in the bank, and couldn't pay himself for three months. He used these obscure years to experiment with making baseball entertaining.
“that team only had 200 fans coming to the games, $268 in the bank account. I couldn't pay myself for literally 3 months. It was December. I think I was able to take my first paycheck, which I was making $27,500.”
Story
Garbage Can Nachos, Dig to China, and a George Bush internship offer
In the early Gastonia years Jesse Cole ran absurd P.T. Barnum-style stunts to grab attention: heart-stopping garbage can nachos, a one-way-flight 'Dig to China' night, and an internship offer to George W. Bush. Most flopped, but they built the attention muscle.
“we did a Dig to China night where we literally had hundreds of people go on the field and dig., in, in the infield dirt to get a trip to China. But when the woman won, she realized it was just a one-way flight to China, no flight back and no accommodations. So, so, so we had a lot of fun. I mean, we fired our mascot, uh, for, uh, bear growth hormone because HGH was big. So we did BGH. We offered George Bush because he just finished his term as president an internship with us with a $1,000 stipend.”
Framework
The Idea Box: save your ideas before anything else
Jesse Cole learned from Bill Veeck (via his son Mike) to keep a physical idea box and generate ideas relentlessly. Most ideas fail, but volume is the engine of remarkable promotions.
“if there's a fire, you got to get the most important thing in the house, and it's our idea box. And so the idea box, he said ideas are more valuable than anything. And so he actually gave us a wooden box. I still have it today. And we started coming up with ideas.”
Steal thisKeep a dedicated idea box or book and add ideas daily; treat ideas as your most valuable asset.
Framework
The Idea Box: save your ideas before anything else
Jesse Cole learned from Bill Veeck (via his son Mike) to keep a physical idea box and generate ideas relentlessly. Most ideas fail, but volume is the engine of remarkable promotions.
“if there's a fire, you got to get the most important thing in the house, and it's our idea box. And so the idea box, he said ideas are more valuable than anything. And so he actually gave us a wooden box. I still have it today. And we started coming up with ideas.”
Steal thisKeep a dedicated idea box or book and add ideas daily; treat ideas as your most valuable asset.
Story
Rock bottom: out of money, sold the house, $30/week groceries
Three months after marrying and getting the Savannah keys, the Coles ran out of money on January 15, 2016. They sold their house, moved into a gross converted garage with a twin airbed, and lived on $30 of groceries a week.
“we got the phone call, it was 4:45 PM, January 15th, 2016, and that was when we were out of money. So we completely ran out of money. Uh, we couldn't cover payroll, we had nothing left.”
Tactic
All-inclusive $15 ticket: no fees, all the food
The Savannah Bananas sold a single $15 all-inclusive ticket covering all burgers, hot dogs, sodas, popcorn and dessert with no ticket or convenience fees, turning pricing into a fan-first marketing weapon.
“every ticket, all your burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, soda, water, popcorn, dessert, all night long. No ticket fees, no convenience fees. $15. People are like, what?”
Steal thisBundle everything into one flat, fee-free price so the customer never feels nickel-and-dimed.
Tactic
All-inclusive $15 ticket: no fees, all the food
The Savannah Bananas sold a single $15 all-inclusive ticket covering all burgers, hot dogs, sodas, popcorn and dessert with no ticket or convenience fees, turning pricing into a fan-first marketing weapon.
“every ticket, all your burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, soda, water, popcorn, dessert, all night long. No ticket fees, no convenience fees. $15. People are like, what?”
Steal thisBundle everything into one flat, fee-free price so the customer never feels nickel-and-dimed.
Framework
Create before you consume: win the morning
Cole structures his day around creating output before consuming inputs: read, journal, then work the day's pre-loaded 'idea bucket' first thing, because most people start the day reactively on other people's news.
“I read because your input affects your output. So I want to read something. So I'm reading Rereading Amazon Unbound right now, just the story of how Bezos was continuing to grow them. And then literally I start writing journal, then one of my ideas. Often I have an idea bucket the day before, so I can already start thinking about it a little bit before I go to sleep. And then I start that idea bucket the next day.”
Steal thisPre-load tomorrow's idea prompt tonight, then create on it first thing before touching news or social.
Tactic
Hire on a 'future resume,' not a past one
The Bananas screen candidates on who they want to become, not what they've done. Saying you'd happily stay in the same role for five years is a red flag against being 'growing and hungry.'
“we have show us your future resume because we're not really interested in what you've done in the past. We want to know what you want to do in the future and how do you fit. If you say you want to stay in the same position for the next 5 years, you're probably not growing and hungry.”
Steal thisAsk candidates for a future resume to screen for ambition and growth instead of past credentials.
Take
Keep everything in-house: control is how you keep fans
Cole insists on owning tickets, secondary tickets, merch, logistics, entertainment and broadcast in-house, even though doing broadcast on YouTube leaves millions on the table, because giving up control loses more fans than you realize.
“control is such a big part of this. Most people give up control, and when you give up control, you lose more fans than you realize. We do our own— we built our own ticket system. Now we built our own secondary ticket system. We do all the merchandise in-house, everything from ours. We do our logistics in-house. We do the entertainment in-house. We do our broadcast in-house, which leaves millions of dollars on the table because we're doing it all on YouTube.”
Take
Turning down $50-100M to stay 100% owner with no investors
Cole and his wife own the Bananas outright and reject daily acquisition offers; he estimates charging taxes, shipping fees, more sponsorship and big TV deals would be an easy $50-100M, but it doesn't interest him.
“If, if, if Sheryl would say start charging taxes, start doing shipping fees, start having more sponsorship, take the huge TV partnerships. There'd be easy probably $50 to $100 million just like that. And that'd be a no-brainer for investor. But that doesn't interest me. So yeah, we, my wife and I own it 100% and we don't plan to change that ever.”
Framework
Leave them wanting more: the 2-hour time limit
After an usher photographed the crowd every 30 minutes and proved fans bailed starting at 9pm, Cole imposed a hard 2-hour game limit (vs MLB's 3:12) over internal objections, on the principle that a great show always leaves the audience wanting more.
“no one said they wanted a 2-hour time limit. The games at that point in Major League Baseball were 3 hours and 12 minutes. So even when I shared internally, our team was like, Jesse, 2.5 is probably fair. I mean, that's still dramatic. I go, no, you want people to want more. There's a difference. Yeah. A great comedian, you want more at the end. A great concert, you want the encore.”
Steal thisMeasure where customers actually disengage, then cut the experience short on purpose so they leave wanting more.
Framework
Run creative like Saturday Night Live's weekly cycle
To sustain fresh shows, the Bananas copied SNL's weekly cadence: pitch over-the-top ideas, write, table read, build props, then test in front of a live audience and keep only what hits.
“who's been sustaining creativity at a very high level for a very long time and doing new shows constantly? Saturday Night Live. So you better believe I bought every book on Saturday Night Live.”
Steal thisAdopt a weekly pitch-write-table-read-test-cut cycle so you ship new material every single week.
Framework
Attract over recruit: 12,700 on the jobs waitlist
Cole argues that being loudly clear about who you are and what you stand for attracts talent instead of forcing you to recruit; the Bananas have 4.2M fans on the ticket waitlist and 12,700 people waiting to work there.
“There's 12,700 on our waitlist to work with us. And so we have a waitlist. What I believe is attracting over recruiting. If you're very vocal on who you are and what you stand for, you often attract people.”
Steal thisBe loud and specific about your values so the right talent applies to you instead of you chasing them.
Story
Russell Wilson chose high-fiving every kid over the starting lineup
Cole tells the players a story about 22-year-old Russell Wilson, who played for him in Gastonia and disappeared from the lineup intro because he was out in the left-field grandstand high-fiving every single kid, illustrating what actually matters about the fan experience.
“So I go down onto the grandstand, I see He's way out in the left field grandstand. He was high-fiving every single kid in the stadium. He was 22 years old, and he knew what mattered. It was high-fiving every fan more than getting out on the field.”