Fans First: How the Savannah Bananas Stopped Chasing Customers and Started Creating Raving Fans Featuring Jesse Cole

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Fans First: How the Savannah Bananas Stopped Chasing Customers and Started Creating Raving Fans Featuring Jesse Cole

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From an overdrawn bank account and $1 million in debt to a touring phenomenon with a ticket waitlist in the millions, Jesse Cole completely rewrote the rules of business. In this classic talk from the Genius Network archives, the Founder of the Savannah Bananas breaks down his legendary "Fans First" framework. Tune in to learn the four E's you can use to stop chasing transactions and start building a fanbase that never leaves. Here's what you're about to discover in this conversation: The Friday at 4:45 p.m. phone call that forced Jesse and Emily to sell their dream house, empty their savings, and sleep on a twin air bed.The three words that are the most powerful form of word-of-mouth marketing you can get (and how to engineer them into every touch point).How a 22-year-old intern turned a tragic phone call into a moment a father called "the last gift the mother ever gave the kids."What Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson reveal about failure, and the simple advice from Jesse's dad that drives every big swing the Bananas take. If you'd like to join world-renowned Entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network® Event, apply today for your invitation to attend at geniusnetworkevent.com. Show Notes From Zero Debt to Over a Million in Debt Jesse and Emily take on more than a million dollars in debt to bring a team to Savannah after the previous minor league club leaves a 4,000-seat stadium drawing 200 fans. On day one, the former team has cut the phones and internet, so the crew of five works from a picnic table in an abandoned storage building. They sell just two tickets in three months, overdraft the account, sell their house, and start over on a twin air bed. Naming the Team After a Fruit Out of desperation, they decide to get different and name the team the Savannah Bananas, complete with the Banana Nanas, the Mananas, and banana babies. The local reaction is brutal ("Whoever came up with this name should be fired."), but it gets attention. Jesse's takeaway: once you have people's eyes and ears, you can go after their hearts. Customers Are Transactional. Fans Never Leave. The Bananas stopped chasing customers and started designing every touch point to create fans. The goal is for people to leave the ballpark saying three words ("You wouldn't believe") about what they just saw. One family drives 40 hours from Utah for a single game, and some fans get more than one Bananas tattoo. E #1: Eliminate Friction Jesse's mirror moment comes in a Cape Cod League dugout: even with the best seat in the house, baseball is long, slow, and boring. Asking "What business are we really in?" reframes everything. The Bananas aren't in the baseball business. They're in the entertainment business. All-inclusive tickets (food included, no fees) remove the nickel-and-dime feeling of a typical ballpark. Throwing Away the Sponsorship Money On February 25, 2020, the Bananas eliminate stadium advertising and walk away from hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships. Jesse calls it a terrible business move, yet merchandise sales more than made up for it. Banana Ball rules (a two-hour time limit, no bunting, no walks, and fans catching foul balls for outs) attack the friction of fans leaving early. Go Undercover: The Friction Audit Every game, someone on staff parks, walks in, sits, and eats with the fans, then reports back on what went wrong. Jesse's own audit: a pothole and two parking penguins eating burgers with their backs to him. Blockbuster vs. Netflix, phone trees, and voicemail menus show how friction quietly loses fans every day. E #2: Experiment Constantly Borrowing from Jeff Bezos, Jesse believes success is a direct function of how many experiments you run. Allen Fahden's rule, "Whatever's normal, do the exact opposite," inspired a one-book bookstore that landed in People and USA Today. The first Bananas experiment, choreographed player dances, starts with groans and ends with a fan telling her husband, "Shut up, honey, they're about to dance." Failure Is Part of the Process Mic'd-up players you can't hear, a drone that flies into the net, and a fan-picked pitcher who gives up six runs in the ninth. Flatulence Fun Night, Salute to Underwear Night, and a 9 a.m. beer festival that draws 90 people. Jesse cuts nearly a million dollars in events because they bring people to the ballpark without creating Bananas fans. Building a Culture of Ideas Inspired by James Altucher, Jesse writes ten ideas a day around a theme. Weekly team "idea-paloozas" give everyone ownership, so ideas don't only come from the entrepreneur. The Bananas define IP as "ideas and promotion," and favor long-term fans over short-term profits. E #3: Entertain Always Inspired by Derek Sivers and CD Baby, ticket buyers get a silly confirmation video about a silk pillow and a stadium vault instead of a receipt. Taking a cue from Brian Chesky, staff personally call ticket buyers to say thank you. Parking penguins, ...

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