He turned a broke team into a billion dollars

0:00:06 All right. This episode is a Billy of the Week. Me and Sam are so inspired by this one story,
0:00:11 this one entrepreneur. I’m almost like slightly intimidated, Sam, by this story. It’s like,
0:00:13 oh my God, the bar has been raised of what I need to go do.
0:00:17 The person who we talked about, I pray this makes it to them. And I pray that they come
0:00:20 on the pod. And after listening to this, you’re going to agree that we have to get them on.
0:00:21 Amen.
0:00:27 Also, the last two minutes of this podcast, we need you guys to listen. We left you guys a message.
0:00:27 Yes.
0:00:28 All right. Enjoy.
0:00:41 This is the most inspiring business that I saw when I was looking in the world of sports.
0:00:44 There’s a lot of things that made a lot of money. This one not only makes a lot of money,
0:00:50 I literally, in my notes, wrote down in all caps, this guy deserves a billion dollars.
0:00:52 And I want to be like him.
0:00:55 I don’t even think I’ve ever had that thought before, right? Like, you know,
0:00:59 there’s a lot of people who hate billionaires. There’s, I don’t, I’m not like that at all.
0:01:01 I think it’s great, you know, create a successful business. But I’ve never
0:01:06 heard a story and thought, God damn, we need to give. It’s like, if there was a Nobel Prize for
0:01:07 business, we need to give it to this guy.
0:01:12 This guy we’re going to talk about, it’s one of these stories that I think I know all about it.
0:01:15 And then I go in like deep dive and I’m like, so much better than I thought.
0:01:16 Yeah. So much more to know.
0:01:21 It’s also another one of those stories where I almost didn’t want to talk about it because I thought
0:01:26 that like, oh, everyone has talked about it, but it’s just too good. And there’s more to it than I
0:01:27 even realized.
0:01:29 And I want to have them on. So I was like, should we sell the whole story? But
0:01:33 well, whatever. Got to do it. Okay, here we go. We’re talking about Savannah Bananas. So this is
0:01:39 a business in baseball. This story is pretty incredible. So should we tell it from beginning,
0:01:41 middle to end? Or where should I start here?
0:01:44 Yeah, let’s give a, let’s give an origin story and then where they are now.
0:01:48 Okay. Actually, I’ll start with the where they are now. Then we’ll go to the origin story. So the
0:01:54 where they are now is the most impressive metric. They have a 3 million person waiting list to buy
0:01:58 tickets to their events. You can’t buy it if you want to. You basically have to win the lottery in
0:02:03 order to go to their event now. And that’s kind of a, you know, this is a business that’s probably
0:02:09 worth close to a billion dollars, I would say, based on what I could tell. And it’s about 100 million in
0:02:09 revenue.
0:02:13 I think they do between 70 and 100 million in revenue is my guess. I don’t know what that would
0:02:18 be worth, but it’s definitely plausible that it will be worth a billion dollars soon. If it’s
0:02:23 not already, it’s got more social, they have more followers on TikTok and social media that follow
0:02:30 their, their brand, their team than every single professional baseball team, including the Yankees
0:02:38 and the Red Sox and the Dodgers combined all really combined. These guys have more, more engagement.
0:02:42 So it’s a very, very impressive business. Okay. So what’s the origin story of the Savannah
0:02:49 banana? So starts off with this guy, Jesse, and Jesse’s the founder. He’s himself like a college
0:02:54 baseball player. He wants to go like, you know, wants to make it. And I think he gets onto like a college
0:02:58 summer team or like a minor league team or something like that. It’s called Cape Cod Summer League. It’s like
0:03:04 the premier like summer league for amateur baseball players. Right. And premier is so generous. Like that’s
0:03:10 like saying we’re the premier podcast of the world. Like premier, so there’s major league baseball, then there’s
0:03:14 like triple a double a single a, then there’s like another thing. And then there’s college summer league
0:03:18 Does me filming this from my bedroom, not screen premiere?
0:03:28 Yeah. Sam in like his mother’s bedroom or something. I don’t know what’s going on. So, so he he’s playing
0:03:33 and then basically as he moves up in competition, he’s benched. Basically, he’s like not good enough
0:03:37 to play. There’s like better players. And he realizes, well, he’s sitting on the bench. He’s like, man,
0:03:42 the sport I loved and I’ve built my life around, had so much fun doing like, man, when you’re
0:03:48 watching, it’s pretty boring. Like it’s, it’s really fun for the 10 guys out there, but damn,
0:03:53 baseball is pretty boring to watch. He said one story. He goes, I’m on the team and I’m supposed
0:03:59 to be like in it. And this is so boring. What is going on? Yeah. So he just has this thought,
0:04:06 this realization. And anyways, he gets his first job as a general manager for a college summer league
0:04:11 team. It’s called the Gastonia Grizzlies. Nothing. We’re not even at the Savannah bananas
0:04:15 yet. He’s he gets to manage this team. Now you might think, well, how’s this young kid get to be
0:04:21 the GM of this college summer league team? Well, the team averaged 200 fans per game and had like
0:04:26 $268 in the checking account. So, you know, this team was basically on the brink. It was struggling.
0:04:30 He comes on, he’s not even going to get paid at the beginning and he’s going to be a manager.
0:04:34 And so he immediately starts hustling like any entrepreneur does. He starts thinking, all right,
0:04:37 how are we going to turn this around? We got to get fans to come to the game, buy tickets.
0:04:40 We got to sell some, you know, merch. What are we going to do? How are we going to actually get
0:04:47 this to work? And so he starts doing a bunch of things that, um, you know, he starts getting
0:04:54 innovative. So he, by day he’s working this job and by night he’s reading books about Disney
0:05:01 and, um, PT Barnum and, you know, the WWE and the UFC and Apple. And then, you know, even things like
0:05:05 the Grateful Dead and the Beatles, like how did they build their fan base? And he starts
0:05:09 trying things and he starts trying all kinds of funny, you know, Hey, how about a fan comes
0:05:13 out and throws out the first pitch? Hey, what if we, what if we do this, you know, this, this
0:05:17 promotion where, you know, dollar hot dogs, whatever, little things like that. And it starts
0:05:22 to work. And so I’ll fast forward through this part. He basically starts to turn around the
0:05:26 Gastonia Grizzlies, turns it from a team that’s about to go out of business to like, you know,
0:05:31 a small amount of cashflow. But again, this is a summer league team. They’re basically
0:05:35 like, you know, they play 30 games. It’s only in the summer. There’s only so much they’re
0:05:39 going to be able to do, but he’s, um, you know, he’s doing well. He’s doing well.
0:05:44 But he had like good ideas. There was like a dig to China night. And I read about this or
0:05:48 listened to it on the acquired podcast. And they’re like, so you, what did you do? He was
0:05:52 like, well, I put a ticket to China or like a gift certificate or something like that
0:05:57 to buy a one ticket. Yeah. And they were like, so did anyone take it? He’s like, well, no,
0:06:00 it was a one way ticket and there was no accommodation. And so no one actually went.
0:06:05 But basically after the game, you got to come out of the crowd and dig to China.
0:06:09 Yeah. So he does things like that. And then he had like a grandma beauty pageant contest.
0:06:13 He did like cute stuff like that. Yeah. And it actually starts to work. And so he turns
0:06:17 around the attendance and he’s like, I’m going to do anything I can to make noise. So he’s
0:06:21 like, how do I hijack existing news stories? So in baseball at the time, there was a big scandal
0:06:26 around HGH. So human growth hormone. And he’s like, okay, we need to get in on the story.
0:06:32 So he’s like, we fired our mascot, the bear, the grizzly bear. He’s like for taking BGA for
0:06:36 BGH, bear growth hormone. And he’s just doing anything he can to drum up any kind of interest
0:06:42 in this stuff. And it starts to work. And he basically spends nearly a decade. This is
0:06:46 one thing I didn’t understand. I didn’t actually know. He spends about 10 years tinkering and
0:06:51 experimenting with these things before he ever, he’s like, I had one media story cover
0:06:55 me in my first 10 years. He’s like, but I got to experiment. You know, I got to, I got
0:07:01 to do things. And along the way, what happens? So he ends up meeting his wife. So he ends up
0:07:07 meeting his future wife. How did he do that? Well, he’s like, I need to, he’s like, I want
0:07:11 to network and I want to get to know people in minor league baseball, the one rung up from
0:07:16 where he was. So he decides to host a free seminar and he gets the minor league baseball
0:07:21 people to come and he’s telling them all about grandma beauty pageants and bear growth hormone
0:07:24 and the dig to China. And they’re like, what the hell is this guy talking about? But he’s
0:07:28 like, Hey, we turned attendance from 200 fans a game to like a few thousand people per game.
0:07:33 Right? Like we 10 X, we, we 10 X plus our, our average game attendance. And they’re like,
0:07:37 okay, well maybe this guy’s not so crazy. And there’s a woman there from Cal Ripken baseball
0:07:42 and she calls, um, one of her employees and she’s like, Hey, um, I think her name’s Emily.
0:07:48 She’s like, Emily, I just met your future husband. And she’s like, what? She’s like,
0:07:55 I just met this guy. He’s as crazy and passionate and like nuts about baseball as you are. Look,
0:07:59 you got to meet this guy. Just call them, talk business idea. And they do. And so he, he ends
0:08:02 up hiring her. And for the first year, they’re just like, you know, like totally whatever.
0:08:06 Um, they just keep it professional or whatever, but eventually they end up dating. He ends up
0:08:11 proposing to her at one of the games on the field. She says, yes. And she’s as like part of the,
0:08:17 like proposal. They’re happy. She’s like, Oh, I’m going to plan a weekend trip to Savannah and
0:08:21 we’re going to go Savannah, Georgia. We’ll just have fun there. And so they go from, or I think
0:08:25 they were in South Carolina, they go from South Carolina to Georgia. And, um, while they’re there,
0:08:29 she’s like, Hey, you know, this is their idea of romance. She’s like, let’s go check out this
0:08:33 minor league baseball stadium. And they check it out. And the, and they’re just blown away. They’re
0:08:38 like, wow, this is, it’s like field of dreams. They walk in and they’re like, this is an incredible
0:08:41 place. I could feel the history. I could feel, feels like Babe Ruth played here.
0:08:44 Like, this is incredible. We got to have a stadium like this. And they approached the stadium
0:08:48 owner and they’re like, Hey, is there any availability? They’re like, no, no, we rented
0:08:53 out to this minor league baseball team. So like, okay, if anything ever changes, if they ever leave,
0:08:58 you call me. And they’re like, all right, sure, buddy. And, um, sure enough, like, I don’t know,
0:09:01 a year later or something like that, the minor league baseball team goes to the city and demands,
0:09:05 like, we want a new stadium. We need like a $35 million stadium. And the mayor was like, dude,
0:09:09 you’re a minor league baseball team. We’re not giving you a $35 million stadium.
0:09:14 And so they pack up and leave and they call this guy and he comes and he basically cuts
0:09:21 a deal to sign a $20,000 a year lease to create a team in Savannah, Georgia.
0:09:27 All right. So a lot of people will talk about how you need a million dollars and three years of
0:09:31 experience to start a business. Nonsense. If you listen to at least one episode on this podcast,
0:09:36 you know, that is completely not true. My last company, The Hustle, we grew it to something like
0:09:43 17 or $18 million in revenue. I started it with like $300. My current company, Hampton does over
0:09:48 10 million in revenue, started it with actually no money, maybe $29 or something like that, nothing.
0:09:53 And so you don’t actually need investors to start a company. You don’t need a fancy business plan.
0:09:59 But what you do need is systems that actually work. And so my old company, The Hustle, they put
0:10:05 together five proven business models that you could start right now today with under $1,000. These are
0:10:10 models that if you do it correctly, it can make money this week. You can get it right now. You can scan
0:10:14 the QR code or click the link in the description. Now back to the show.
0:10:18 Have you been to a minor league game like this?
0:10:20 I’ve never been to a minor league. Have you?
0:10:26 Yeah, I’ve been to the Cape Cod League. The games that I’ve been to, to say that like you’re buying a
0:10:33 team, that’s like a little ambitious. Like it’s very grassroots. It’s bleachers.
0:10:38 You’re missing the things that high school and high school has my kid is playing. That’s a pretty
0:10:43 strong draw. That’s why I’m going to go. Right. That’s why I’m going. And then colleges, I go here.
0:10:48 It’s us. That’s we. Minor league baseball doesn’t have either of those advantages, right?
0:10:54 Yeah, no, it’s like pretty whack. It’s like, I mean, you really have to care about baseball. And
0:10:59 like while all this is going on, we’ve had Dan from Overtime on. And he’s kind of explained that
0:11:04 basically like basketball and football has killed it lately because they understand highlight reels and
0:11:07 they understand action. And they’re doing a really good job of telling some stories.
0:11:12 baseball doesn’t. So over the last like 15 years, the social media has gotten popular. Baseball has
0:11:17 absolutely gotten left behind a bit. And, you know, it’s supposed to be America’s past time. It’s not
0:11:22 really America’s past time at the moment, in my opinion. And like, so as past, it’s definitely the
0:11:29 past. It’s the it’s a past time for sure. Space like five times between those two words. And so yeah,
0:11:33 it’s ambitious to say that he was like buying something. I think he said when he bought the team
0:11:37 that he was like, we bought it, but it’s really just like seller financing, meaning the guy like gave it to
0:11:41 me and I gave him a small percentage of some profits, which there was basically none.
0:11:46 Yeah, exactly. I think that was maybe the first team in this team. They kind of like it was they
0:11:51 didn’t buy an existing team. They created one as part of like the Coastal Plain League, but they owed the
0:11:56 league like a few hundred thousand dollars to to like start this expansion team, basically. But he had a
0:12:00 little reputation from the Grizzlies, right? He had a little he had something, which is why he was able to
0:12:06 convince the stadium to give him the lease and the league to give him a team. But now he’s got to make it
0:12:12 happen. And so he starts and it doesn’t start well. I think in the first few months, he said he sold
0:12:18 literally two tickets. And he’s like, it was awful. Like we couldn’t give away the tickets. And so he
0:12:24 he tried to like hosted a fan event and he like promoted it. He’s knocking on doors. He’s going on
0:12:28 radio and he’s trying to promote this fan event for the new team of Savannah. It was called like the
0:12:34 Savannah minor league baseball team. It was not called the Savannah bananas yet. He’s like, so few people
0:12:40 conference center, they like didn’t even charge me for the food. They felt so bad. Like they felt so
0:12:46 bad how poorly the event went. And basically these guys run out of money. So they’re like, they’re on
0:12:50 the brink. These guys being the husband and wife. Him and his wife, sorry. Him and his wife, they’re
0:12:57 running out of money. And his wife is like, all right, let’s sell the house. And he’s like, what? And
0:13:03 she’s like, yeah, let’s do it. We are all in. And so they sell their house. They move into a garage
0:13:09 that’s kind of turned into a studio apartment. They sleep on a twin air mattress. He’s like, dude,
0:13:13 we were sleeping in socks every night. Like he’s like, you know, nobody sleeps in socks. We had to
0:13:20 sleep in socks. Air mattress and twin. Air mattress and a twin mattress. They use all their savings and
0:13:25 they just try to keep the team alive. And he’s like, I do. I kept going because he’s like, I would read
0:13:29 books and he’s like, Walt Disney went bankrupt with his like, I forgot what it’s called like laugh-o-matic
0:13:33 or whatever his thing was called. He’s like PT Barnum struggled. Like this is just our struggle
0:13:37 era. Like this is our struggle season. Like we will do this. We got to coin that term. This is our
0:13:44 struggle season. Yeah, exactly. The pain cave. He’s in the pain cave and he’s decides, he’s like, okay,
0:13:48 first thing we need to do is we need to come up with a team name. And so they do, he’s like, all right,
0:13:50 we’re going to go to the community because he’s trying to get the community on their side.
0:13:53 Community didn’t really like them. They had lost their minor league baseball team.
0:13:57 And instead they had this like college, like this, like this other team that was like,
0:14:02 you know, the Savannah baseball team. And so he’s trying to get them on board. And so he has like
0:14:09 a naming contest and a 62 year old nurse submits the name. And it was mostly names like the pirates
0:14:13 and like just like standard baseball team names, right? Like nothing out of the ordinary. The 62 year
0:14:20 old nurse submits bananas. And he’s like, Savannah bananas. I like it. And everyone’s like, no,
0:14:27 no, you can’t do that. He’s like, and we have, he’s like, we have the, the, the nanas. That’s
0:14:32 our dance team. It’s a, it’s a bunch of grandmas, the nanas. He’s like, and then we have male chew
0:14:37 eaters, the man nanas. And he starts coming up with all these ideas about like how he’s going to use
0:14:42 this. And he ends up, I think he goes to a design agency. Did you hear this part? Like there’s a lot
0:14:45 of this, by the way, is from the acquired podcast. They did a great job with sitting down with him.
0:14:50 So shout out to our, to our friends at the acquired podcast. But one of the things he
0:14:54 talks about is like, he, they were skimpy on everything, right? Sleeping on the air mattress,
0:14:58 but he’s like, the brand is going to really matter for this. And so he goes to an agency,
0:15:03 they quote him $12,000. He’s like, cool. Me and my wife live off $40 a week right now.
0:15:08 So, um, I don’t have, I don’t have a thousand. I don’t definitely don’t have 12 of those thousands.
0:15:12 Like, I don’t really know what I’m going to do here. And so they’re like, dude, we can’t do that.
0:15:14 Just make a simple logo. We’ll just do it ourselves. He’s like, no, no, no. Like,
0:15:18 this is going to be the logo that we print on everything. Like I got to find a way to do this.
0:15:23 He ends up paying for it. He gets the logo and he’s like, so proud of it, which is kind of amazing
0:15:29 because now, you know, years later, they, they do like tens of millions, like 20, 30 million a year
0:15:33 and just merch sales, right? Like the brand has totally taken off. Is it the same logo?
0:15:38 I don’t know if it’s the exact same or if they like touched it up, but the core of it’s the same.
0:15:42 So anyways, he starts doing, and he starts basically coming up with all these different
0:15:47 ways to make baseball less boring, right? So like, what does he actually do? So he’s like, all right,
0:15:52 he studies the end to end experience of an event. So he’s like, first of all, when you buy the ticket,
0:15:57 you see the ticket price is whatever $80. But then when you check out, it’s like 98.
0:16:01 And it gives all these fees and taxes or whatever. So Savannah Bananas, here’s what we do.
0:16:08 It’s a flat $25 ticket and we pay your taxes. So you will, it’s $25 and you pay $25.
0:16:14 And they pay now millions of dollars a year, just paying the sales tax for their fans,
0:16:18 which is like kind of amazing, but it says something like about what they represent.
0:16:22 And, you know, I think their company name is even called like Fan First, you know, LLC,
0:16:25 Fan First Entertainment or something like that. And that became the North Star.
0:16:30 He’s got this quote where he was like, I read that like, in order to get big muscles,
0:16:34 you got to like, you know, flex your muscle and work out every day. And I needed ideas. And so I
0:16:38 had this thing where I was like, I think he said, starting in 2016, right when the Savannah Bananas
0:16:43 got going, he was like, I’m going to write down 10 new ideas every single day, because it’s easy to do
0:16:48 five or three a day. But once you get to six, seven, eight, nine, 10, you really have to start working
0:16:53 hard. And I needed to flex that muscle every day, because I needed really good ideas all the time to figure
0:16:54 out how to make this great.
0:16:58 And I think around this time when he’s doing the exact quote on that. So he goes,
0:17:04 I started an idea book in 2016, I had 10 ideas a day, a lot of bad ideas, 70, 80% terrible,
0:17:10 but you got to work your idea muscle. And by the way, this is everybody says the same thing.
0:17:15 Go listen to the Mr. Beast podcast we did. He’s like, every day I would wake up and I would come
0:17:20 up with 20, 30, 40 YouTube video ideas. He’s like, I just realized that the idea of what the video is
0:17:23 about is the most important thing. So I’m going to think of more ideas. I’m going to open up a
0:17:28 dictionary, a thesaurus, go to a random page, whatever word I pick, I’m going to brainstorm it.
0:17:33 And on the podcast we did with him, we pulled up a random word generator. And we started pulling up
0:17:37 and putting random words. And he started coming up with video ideas on the spot. He’s like,
0:17:38 I’ve been doing this since I was 12.
0:17:44 Dude, this is awesome. And I think what I didn’t realize was around this time when it got going,
0:17:49 it was a real baseball team. So they’re still playing normal baseball. But then he was like,
0:17:53 okay, what all is boring about this? He’s like, can you believe that this is supposed to be an
0:17:59 athletic sport and you can walk someone like they just get to like walk, like they could walk to base.
0:18:04 That’s ridiculous. Or he was like, he said, I brought my stopwatch and I timed how long it took
0:18:09 a pitch to like get to, you know, have the pitcher to like get going and then for a strike or hit to
0:18:15 happen. And I noticed that the, the, the batters can step out of the box. Ridiculous. That took 27 seconds
0:18:20 every time. And he like starts like nailing the experience down perfectly because it’s sort of
0:18:24 like when you own a baseball team, you’re like, Oh no, it ain’t broke. We’re not going to fix it.
0:18:27 Like, just don’t worry about any of that nonsense. And he was like, no, no, no, it’s all broken.
0:18:29 Everything is broken. We have to figure this out.
0:18:33 Actually, the more accurate thing is it’s broke, but that’s always the, that’s the way we’ve always
0:18:34 done it. Exactly.
0:18:39 It’s very, which is like 90% of the world right now. It’s the way we’ve always done things.
0:18:43 And so he comes up with all these crazy ideas and I didn’t realize all of the rules,
0:18:48 but it was something like a foul balls caught by fans count as being out. Walks are, are,
0:18:52 are, are the fourth ball is you still have to sprint. And I think you can get called out
0:18:57 games and the defense has to, they throw the ball amongst all the, all the defenders have
0:19:02 to basically touch the ball in order in between a walk. You know what I mean?
0:19:03 That’s crazy.
0:19:06 If you bunt, you’re ejected because there’s nothing wimpier than a bunt.
0:19:12 And then he also says games have to be capped at two hours. And on that podcast, he was like,
0:19:16 everyone said it had to be two and a half hours. It had to be this. And he’s like, no, but children
0:19:20 need to be home at bed by this time. And this is going to be a family event. Therefore it has to
0:19:25 be a strict two hours. And he called the whole thing. I didn’t realize it had a name. It’s called
0:19:29 banana ball. And so at first he was like, now they have that kind of their own format of a game
0:19:34 basically. And now they’re have their own league and all this. So it definitely elevated, uh, over
0:19:39 time. But yeah, he did, he did all those six. He also would do things like they, he has a team,
0:19:44 his team would basically, it started off with, he would watch security footage after the game.
0:19:49 So he’s like, Oh, I could use the cameras in the stadium and I can see when people leave. I could
0:19:53 see when they get bored. I could see when they go to the seat, I could see how long the concessions
0:19:58 take. And so he started furiously watching security footage to understand the fan experience.
0:20:03 And now today he has a team that basically they take a snapshot of every, all the bleachers,
0:20:08 every like, uh, I forgot like what interval, like every 10 minutes, 15 minutes or something like that
0:20:13 in orders. So he could see when people get bored, when they get disengaged, when they leave. And he
0:20:18 uses that. Then he reverse engineers. Okay. What’s going on in the game right now? And how do I like
0:20:22 do that better? Not to use Mr. Beast again, but he did remember when we were sitting there, he was
0:20:26 showing us the same thing about his videos, right? He’s like, here’s the retention curve and like,
0:20:32 see this dip. And we’re like, yeah, so what? It’s a little wiggle. He’s like, no, no, no. That dip is
0:20:39 like 3 million people stopped watching the video. He’s like that dip, this dip, this is horror.
0:20:44 He’s like, this is the worst thing in the world is this dip. It was like, what is that? That’s the ad
0:20:47 read. He’s like, so we need to make our ad read as entertaining as the content.
0:20:52 And the takeaway that I had with Mr. Beast then, as well as what I have with this guy is, uh,
0:20:58 you say to yourself, when I get big, I’ll worry about that stuff. It’s the other way. It’s the
0:21:03 other way around you or you worry about that stuff and then you get big. Yeah. There there’s a,
0:21:10 you remember like the Steve jobs quote about like what his, his product strategy basically. And he used
0:21:15 to say, uh, everything had to be insanely great. If you’ve talked to people who worked with Steve jobs,
0:21:20 they say, he used to always say this phrase insanely great. And normally when people hear
0:21:25 insanely great, Oh yeah, I’m going to do that because they’re focused on the word great and
0:21:29 nobody can disagree with great. Yeah. Who doesn’t want great. I want great. You want great. We all
0:21:34 want great. Fantastic. It’s the insane part. That’s the part nobody wants to do. That’s the price tag.
0:21:38 When you go look at the thing, it’s like, Oh, are you willing to be like kind of insane about the
0:21:43 level of details, right? Steve jobs, basically saying we’re not shipping the Macintosh because the inside
0:21:47 casing of the machine is not finished. And they’re like, Steve, nobody’s ever going to see the inside.
0:21:51 He’s like, but we saw it, you know, like, so we’re not shipping this until that’s finished. It’s like,
0:21:55 it’s a little insane, right? You’re going to try to do insane things. You know, when, when they were doing
0:22:00 the iPhone, I remember there’s like all these stories about the touch keyboard. So they were like, Steve,
0:22:03 like we’ll put a little keyboard on there, like the Blackberry. And he’s like, no, we’re not doing the
0:22:07 keyboard. They’re like, well, but Steve, you know, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, we could do this
0:22:11 digital keyboard, but it’s not so great. And he’s like, no, we need to make it. And it needs to be insanely great.
0:22:15 And they thought like, we don’t even know if this is technically possible. We’re not just,
0:22:19 we’re not trying to be lazy here. Uh, but he’s like, that’s what we’re doing. So you’ve got to
0:22:23 figure it out. That’s the job. And, uh, you know, so it’s the insane part of insanely great that
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0:23:09 Well, I had two takeaways from reading about this guy, but that’s the first one, which is,
0:23:16 so I mean, I run a business, you run businesses and the hard part is whether to be a dictator or like
0:23:21 an elected official. Like, do you just tell people, this is what we are doing, get on board? Or do you
0:23:25 delegate and say, let’s surface some of the best ideas and, uh, we’ll kind of figure out what to do.
0:23:31 And this guy does not seem like he takes the first route. He seems like he has a vision and he says,
0:23:35 this is what we’re doing. How wonderful is this? Let’s do it. And oftentimes when you have a company,
0:23:39 I will say ideas and people shit on it and they’ll say, here’s all of the reasons why we can’t do it.
0:23:43 And you know, the phrase like, look, do you just want a yes, man or what? And I’m like,
0:23:47 yeah, I do. I want a yes, man. I just, that’s all I want. I want a yes, man.
0:23:53 And that’s what this guy kind of did. Like, dude, have you heard some of his other stories? Like
0:23:58 there’s, there’s this guy, Jesse, he’s got so many like layers and layers of little stories.
0:24:01 Like for example, I think at the game, I’ve actually never been to a game.
0:24:05 But I think at the game they have like the 11 rules. And he’s like, we did. He’s like,
0:24:10 what? He said we picked 11 because K, which is stands for strikeout and potassium, which is what
0:24:16 is in a banana. That’s the 11th letter in the alphabet. Like there’s like all these like weird
0:24:20 symbolism where if I told an employee that they’d be like, dude, can you just like leave my office
0:24:22 and let me like design this logo?
0:24:28 Yeah. Dude, I feel you when you’re like, you have an idea that’s like a little, either it’s just,
0:24:34 I can’t prove that this is right. Like nobody can prove it. It’s an unprovable thing. Or it seems like
0:24:38 a little much, right? And you know, maybe it’s even something that’s unserious. Like maybe we should
0:24:44 be focusing on the serious things. And this is like, this is extra in some way, but you’re convinced
0:24:48 that, you know, you feel like this will be cool. If we do it, this will be special. If we do it,
0:24:54 this will be unique. If we do it. And the amount of energy that it takes to kind of like bring people
0:24:59 on board is so hard that you know what I did, I basically changed my criteria of who I hire.
0:25:07 I realized I could not change myself to turn that switch off. And I can’t change like the process
0:25:13 where I’m like, no, I will just like magically change people’s minds. Like I, so I basically changed
0:25:16 my criteria for hiring where I, you know, I used to have the Buffett thing, which is like
0:25:21 energy, intelligence, integrity. Like those are the three things you want. And I just added the fourth
0:25:26 one, which is like, are you down? And I’m basically like, are you just down where if we just have an
0:25:30 idea, you’re down to do it. That doesn’t mean you say yes to every idea. That’s not what that means.
0:25:35 It just means like, look, sometimes there’s no evidence. Sometimes this is extra. Sometimes this is
0:25:38 unproven. Sometimes this sounds bad, but like, we got to try and have some faith that like,
0:25:42 we’re going to figure it out as we go. Like sometimes this sounds way
0:25:48 out of our league and we’re punching way above our weight, but like, why not? Why not try this?
0:25:54 And so like, and which is you’ve met Ben, Ben is like the most down guy in the world. I don’t know
0:25:58 if you’ve met Diego, but Diego is the same way where it’s like, there’s probably more skilled
0:26:04 people than them about like certain tasks. Sure. But I know they’re down, which means I can bring a
0:26:09 fragile new idea, like a newborn around them. And they know how to raise that baby. They’re not going
0:26:13 to be like, Oh, what is this? Right? Like, because those ideas are so fragile that if you know,
0:26:19 the other people on your team are not down, what happens is it’s not that they even shoot your ideas
0:26:23 down. It’s that you censor yourself. You’re like, I’m not even going to bring it up. Right? Like
0:26:27 there’s a part of you subconsciously, that just doesn’t even bring the ideas to the table,
0:26:31 doesn’t have the conviction to say it. Cause you kind of know where they’re at. Right? It’s like a
0:26:34 friend who’s easily offended. You’re like, I’m just not even going to bring up, bring this up.
0:26:38 Cause I kind of know where this goes. It’s hard to convince people to do stuff just cause
0:26:42 so at a company, like particularly, I mean, obviously in tech where you’re like, show me
0:26:47 the data. And I’m like, there is no data brother. It’s just soul. Like, like it just feels like the
0:26:51 right thing to do. And it’s hard to convince people to do that. And in fact, uh, we should
0:26:55 have this guy Cole come on the pod and really just talk about management. That would be actually
0:26:59 quite interesting. How do you, I was going to ask you, you did a pod with the guy from,
0:27:02 um, uh, the, um, what’s it called? Unreasonable hospitality. What is it called?
0:27:07 Yeah. So his name is Will Guderra. It’s going to be such a good podcast. So this guy, Will,
0:27:12 he, um, started, um, he was a chef, but he was most famous for owning 11 Madison Avenue,
0:27:15 which is 11 Madison Avenue. Yeah. That’s what it’s called. So it was awarded the best restaurant
0:27:19 in the world, but then he was famous because of two things. One, he wrote the book on reasonable
0:27:23 hospitality. And two, that book inspired one of the best episodes from the TV show,
0:27:28 the bear where the kind of dummy cousin goes to this restaurant to learn how to be a good
0:27:33 restauranteur. And he starts by like polishing the forks. And the next step is like doing the,
0:27:37 the second lowest, uh, job. And then the one up, one up. And they just sweat the details
0:27:41 on everything. And Will was amazing. And we had this whole podcast is going to be out,
0:27:45 I think in two weeks or so. And this whole podcast was about how can tech companies do that?
0:27:51 And so his story was, he started by, uh, overhearing a tourist at his restaurant say,
0:27:56 uh, you know, this, this trip was amazing. I got all this famous food, but I didn’t get to do one
0:28:00 thing. I just wanted to get a New York street hot dog. And Will, the owner overheard that. And he ran
0:28:05 outside and he bought a $3 hot dog and he chopped it up in a really pretty way and put a pretty garnish
0:28:10 and he served it to the tourists. And they were like, mind blown. And he was like, up that emotion.
0:28:14 That is what we are doing from now on. And so he gave, uh, he had a budget at his company,
0:28:19 at his restaurant to do crazy stuff. And so instead of coming in and giving children’s,
0:28:25 uh, crayons, he would give them an Etch-a-Sketch or, uh, uh, and he would have like the Etch-a-Sketch
0:28:28 waiting at the table for them. Just all these little small details that people normally forget
0:28:33 to do. And he would just sweat the details on them. And that’s the idea of unreasonable hospitality,
0:28:36 which is good to go above and beyond for your customers, which is exactly what Savannah Bananas
0:28:41 is all about. Our friend George Mack has this great phrase, which is, um, they only remember
0:28:47 you’re weird. And I, I love that because he basically what he was, what he means by that
0:28:53 is, look, if you just do the expected norms, you don’t, it’s like table stakes things. You
0:28:58 get literally zero credit for that. If you don’t do them, you get docked. But if you do them,
0:29:02 you didn’t get any points on the board yet. It’s still love, love, right? Like you have not
0:29:09 actually done anything until you’ve done something weird. Now weird can be really good. It could be
0:29:13 just, it has to be out of the ordinary. And that’s all people will remember about you. So whether you’re
0:29:19 building a personal brand or a product, or you’re the Savannah Bananas and you say, we pay your sales
0:29:23 tax. That’s weird. That’s rememberable. That’s something I’m talking about. It was a decision he
0:29:28 made 10 years ago to do that. And it’s a decision that cost him money, but how much did it build in
0:29:33 goodwill and brand? How much did it show, not tell that, Hey, we actually give a shit about our
0:29:37 fans. Cause every single sports team will say fans are the most important thing. We really care about
0:29:42 our fans as they gouge the shit out of them, right? Like the actions of the words go in two different
0:29:47 directions. And just by doing something weird, like a statement that was made by, let’s say like
0:29:54 paying the sales tax for the fan or, you know, being like, Hey, this, you pay this one ticket price.
0:29:57 And then it’s all you can eat concessions when you come in, right? Like doing things that were
0:30:03 remarkable, worthy of remark, um, is, is what gets you the credit. It’s you’re got it. You only
0:30:07 remembered for doing what’s weird. Did you pick anything else up from that guy? Will of it? Like,
0:30:09 did it give you an idea of something to do in your business?
0:30:13 Well, he did a couple of, he said, let me tell you two things. He said one thing that was amazing.
0:30:18 He said, uh, I forget the exact quote, but it was something like every mistake is an amazing
0:30:22 opportunity to blow someone away because he was like, people will remember the stake mistake that you
0:30:26 make, and then they will remember you going above and beyond to fix it. But then when he talked
0:30:31 about the customer experience, uh, I had this idea and we’re implementing at this at Hampton.
0:30:36 So at Hampton, the way it works is you apply to join and three days later, we’ll review your
0:30:42 application and invite you. If you, uh, are on paper, if you are in one of our cities and you have the
0:30:47 revenue threshold, we will send you an email and say, you can sign up to interview with one of our
0:30:52 folks to see if you’re any good or, or a good fit. And so we had this idea. What if everyone who
0:30:58 applied on Hampton, which is dozens and hundreds of people a day sometimes, what if within 10 minutes
0:31:02 we phone call them and say, I just saw your application come through. Here’s the process.
0:31:06 I just want to let you know, we see you. And this isn’t just some form that no one pays attention
0:31:11 to. I see you. I’m going to take great care to like handle. You may not get in, but like I’m here
0:31:17 and I pay attention. And so that’s an example of what it inspired me to do. But the idea that
0:31:22 will had that really inspired me was how you train your staff. He was like, I just have to train my
0:31:26 staff like crazy to care about this stuff. And he’s like, basically I’m like a propagandist where
0:31:31 like I have to repeat the same phrases over and over and over and over again to get them to bind to
0:31:35 these ideas. And so this is where the idea, it’s so funny. You said insanely great. That’s the exact same
0:31:40 thing with unreasonable hospitality. He was like, everyone likes hospitality, right? But the unreasonable part
0:31:43 is the hard part. And so that was actually really cool. That was actually really wise of you to
0:31:49 catch that insane part. That’s actually the brilliance with him. It was unreasonable. And so
0:31:53 this is like the part that we’re actually describing here with Cole, which is like, it’s easy to say
0:31:58 these crazy ideas. It’s actually hard to be wacky enough to like follow through on all of them.
0:32:04 Yeah. Dan Porter, who’s probably our closest friend who does this, who’s like actually done this and
0:32:07 he did it with Overtime when he was on the pod last time. I don’t think you were there, but he said
0:32:12 a very simple thing. He goes, if your strategy is something that everybody agrees with, it’s not a
0:32:16 strategy. So he’s like, you know, anybody’s like, you know, we’re going to have great customer service.
0:32:21 He’s like, cool. You and a hundred other companies in your space would all agree. That’s a good strategy.
0:32:26 So he’s like, it’s therefore not a strategy at all. He’s like, you have to have something that
0:32:32 people would disagree with. So he’s like, for example, for Overtime, in the first year, we replied,
0:32:38 I think to a million comments on social. He’s like, that’s a strategy that people would disagree
0:32:42 with. Some people would say that’s a waste of time, right? Like people would say like, that’s not worth.
0:32:47 And he’s like, I was doing it myself, the founder, the CEO, like that is a strategy you could disagree
0:32:52 with. You could say that’s stupid. That’s foolish. And he’s like, it doesn’t have to be that it is
0:32:57 stupid or foolish. It just has to be not something that everybody already agrees is, is the thing to do.
0:33:01 And so, you know, same thing unreasonable, which is like, yeah, we all agree that we should have
0:33:06 great hospitality. How many people would agree that we should be listening for when the guy says,
0:33:11 oh man, my flight’s out tonight and I haven’t tried the New York hot dogs. I really wanted one
0:33:14 to then be like, leave the kitchen, go get a hot dog from a street vendor, come in,
0:33:19 break the food code, cut it up, you know, serve it on a dish. That’s the part that others wouldn’t
0:33:24 even think of, let alone, uh, and, and, you know, definitely wouldn’t institutionalize as like part of
0:33:28 their core strategy to do things like that. And we’ll, we’ll give a really tactical bit that I
0:33:33 would be curious to hear Cole’s opinion. Uh, the founder of Savannah bananas. I was like, okay,
0:33:37 so walk me through the profitable, the profitability of this. Like it sounds like Cole, is that his
0:33:45 name? Jesse, Jesse, Jesse. Oh, you’re doing the last name thing. Got it. Uh, not on purpose. I
0:33:49 wasn’t trying to be that cool. Jesse, his name’s Jesse, Jesse Cole. He had two last names or two first
0:33:53 names. Um, Will said something. I was like, well, how much of your money do you spend on this? He was
0:34:00 like, well, I basically allocate, uh, 5%. So if I’m a 20 margin business, I’m willing to go down to a
0:34:06 15% margin business. I’m gonna use that 5% to do wacky stuff. And I anticipate that it will take most
0:34:13 companies six to 12 months to make that money back and for it to prove to be profitable. And so I’d be
0:34:20 curious what this guy says. Uh, did it take 12 months to become like some of these, uh, weird norms that he
0:34:24 was trying to create within his organization. Did it take 12 months for the customers to catch on and
0:34:28 for that story to get out to people and then to start coming back via more tickets? I mean, how do you
0:34:32 measure showmanship? Cause this guy, this guy’s pure showmanship. And if anyone listens to this podcast,
0:34:38 you know, me and Sam, we are, we appreciate good showmanship and that’s what literally this guy is.
0:34:43 He’s like a modern day PT Barnum. So where are they now? So they’re at like what a hundred million in
0:34:48 revenue. And they’re like, I, I live in Manhattan and they’re, one of their buses drove by yesterday.
0:34:54 Give you a sense of what’s going on. So yeah, the revenues, let’s call it like our estimate somewhere
0:34:59 between 70 and a hundred million. I believe that the company is probably worth 500 million to a
0:35:05 billion. They own 100% of it. If you just take their low. So last year, 2 million people came to their
0:35:11 games, 2 million fans. So it’s basically doubled. It went 500 K 1 million, 2 million this year should
0:35:17 be over 3 million. If you just take the lowest possible ticket price they could have $25, which
0:35:23 their normal tickets are 35 to 40, you know, but, but if you just take the lowest ticket price, 25 bucks,
0:35:27 2 million, that’s 50 million in just ticket sales. Then you have tens of millions in merch.
0:35:34 They have a 3 million person waiting list. They are now doing a world tour. So it’s been up till now,
0:35:38 just like kind of a North America thing, but they’ve been, you know, they went from like
0:35:43 these minor league stadiums to doing the biggest ballparks in the country. I mean, in a two day
0:35:49 span, they did 150,000 people watching their games. Like it’s insane. What’s going on? Like we talked
0:35:54 about Savannah bananas two years ago, three years ago. It wasn’t this. And, and, you know, he started
0:35:59 this thing. I think, I think he started with the Gastonia Grizzlies or whatever, like in 2008 or
0:36:03 something like that. Like it’s been a long time that this guy’s been doing this, which is why I
0:36:07 had in all caps, this guy deserves a billion dollars. You do the, you do, you do what he did. You deserve
0:36:08 a billion dollars.
0:36:13 It’s very inspirational. Cause he definitely has like that everyday guy type of vibe. I kind of get
0:36:18 emotional, like reading about his story. I’m like, I like, I’m, I’m on your team. I don’t care what
0:36:24 you do. I’m, I’m bought into you. Yeah. And then the husband and wife bit is really great. Like I’m
0:36:27 all in on this guy. Yeah. He’s amazing.
0:36:33 My last company, The Hustle, the year we sold, I was 31 years old and we were going to do about
0:36:38 $18 million in revenue. I frankly didn’t have a lot of peers. I didn’t know a lot of people who
0:36:43 were ambitious like me. And this meant that I was making decisions that could cost me maybe
0:36:48 five, 10, even more millions of dollars worth of money. I was making them all by myself.
0:36:53 This all changed. However, when I got a group of peers, and that’s by the way,
0:36:58 how this podcast sort of started, Sean was in my group and we met every month. It sort of became
0:37:05 a personal board of directors and it frankly changed my life. And that’s why I started my company Hampton,
0:37:12 joinhampton.com. The entire idea is that we make core groups just like this, just like the one that I had
0:37:17 of other entrepreneurs who have been there, done that. And we give you guys a time and a place
0:37:22 to sit down and have these very honest, confidential conversations where you can share business ideas.
0:37:27 You could talk about hiring. You could talk about all these decisions that you typically have to make
0:37:32 all by yourself. The biggest risk, in my opinion, is not failing. You’re going to be fine. Your business
0:37:37 is probably going to work. It’s that in 10 years, you look back and you think, damn, I blew it. I blew
0:37:41 this opportunity because I was making decisions by myself. I was making decisions out of fear.
0:37:46 And I did not grow. I did not maximize the opportunity. I’m telling you, it can save you
0:37:51 10 years of headache and of heartache and you can make better decisions so much faster.
0:37:56 And the best part is that with Hampton, these core groups that we make, we make them in real life,
0:38:02 in your city. We’re in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, London, LA, Miami,
0:38:07 New York, SF, Toronto, and Vancouver. And so if you’re running an internet company that does at least
0:38:12 $3 million a year in revenue, or you’ve raised at least $3 million in funding, or you’ve sold the
0:38:19 company for at least $10 million, go to joinhampton.com. This is my company, Sam from MFM.
0:38:24 I review every single person who applies. So again, joinhampton.com.
0:38:30 I have a question though. Do you think that this is going to be like WWE, WWF, where it becomes like a
0:38:35 sustained thing where it lasts forever? Or is this going to be like a Harlem Globetrotters where like
0:38:37 the schtick gets tired?
0:38:43 I think both. I think it is Harlem Globetrotters, not WWE, but I don’t think it needs to end.
0:38:49 So, you know, because like I take my kids to all kinds of like entertainment. We took my kids to
0:38:50 Monster Jam last weekend.
0:38:53 Can you explain Monster Jam to all of our foreign listeners, please?
0:38:58 This is, by the way, this is amazing because this is normally the type of thing you’re explaining to me.
0:39:00 Oh yeah, please do it.
0:39:08 All right. So what is Monster Jam? Monster Jam is basically the best day ever for any little boy
0:39:14 that loves like Hot Wheels and trucks, which is from my count in my son’s school, like 50% of all young
0:39:20 boys love cars and trucks. And so what, you know, you’re normally at home playing with these like
0:39:26 little like two inch Hot Wheels cars, right? Or maybe a remote control car. And then suddenly your
0:39:33 parents take you to the Oakland Coliseum and you walk in and it’s literally a circle of like, it’s a
0:39:38 dirt, like it’s like a pitcher’s mound. It’s just a dirt mound in the middle of the arena. There’s
0:39:45 nothing else there. There’s not like this. It’s just one dirt mound. And then they have like these
0:39:50 characters like the WWE, they have these like eight or 10 trucks that will kind of like come out and
0:39:55 there’s Megalodon. He’s the shark one. And all the kids are doing the shark shark. Yeah.
0:40:01 I was grave digger for Halloween once. Yeah. Mike. So that’s like a grave digger thing. And I mean,
0:40:06 grave diggers like their undertaker. So he’s like, they’re like star, you know, star, star thing.
0:40:13 And they basically, the trucks come out and they’re, you know, like, um, like two times the size of a
0:40:16 Hummer, I would say like maybe three times. I don’t know. It’s not, it’s not that big. It’s like,
0:40:20 you know, big, but not that big. And they basically do tricks and trucks like that can only do so many
0:40:23 tricks. It’s like, they went on their back wheels. They went on their front wheels.
0:40:29 They got some air now. Yeah. Like they try to do like a flip and then half the time they crashed
0:40:33 out. And then the, they’re like a crew comes out like with fire extinguishers and like toes the
0:40:38 truck away. And now you’re not going to see grave digger for the rest of the show, but they have
0:40:42 like, then they have like guys come out on like dirt bikes and do tricks, which are way coolers as
0:40:47 well. So it’s this two hour family event. You get your kids, you know, like a, what’s it called?
0:40:51 Like a snow cone popcorn and they get to see crazy trucks and they’re sitting there with
0:40:55 the earmuffs on cause it’s too loud. And then they leave and you buy the merch or you buy them a car
0:41:01 and they’re like super happy and you’re out $400. Okay. So that’s, that’s what monster jam is.
0:41:07 Dude, a grave, grave digger. When he goes, it rattles your soul. That’s how loud it is. Like it’s not
0:41:15 just a loudness. It’s a, it’s a feeling. Dude, I had headphones on too. It’s so loud. You feel it.
0:41:20 You, it’s like a train when it goes by you, like you feel the rattle. It’s amazing. And I’m just
0:41:26 Googling it. So I’m just, you know, it’s grain of salt, but I think it says it sells 4 million tickets
0:41:31 a year. There’s no way. Is that true? Yeah, I believe that. I believe that. I mean, there was
0:41:35 probably 10,000 people at the event I was at and you know, they’re doing that. They were there for
0:41:39 three days and then they go to the next city and it’s just a traveling circus of monster jet monster
0:41:46 truck. So I don’t see any reason why the traveling circus of, um, a banana ball can’t be a sustained
0:41:52 thing. So I do think what it is, the category is more like Harlem Globetrotters. It’s a family show.
0:41:56 You’re going to come, you’re going to have a great two or three hours. You’re going to be entertained.
0:41:59 You’re going to laugh. You’re going to have the dances. It’s going to be some catchy things in your
0:42:02 head. You’re going to remember a few of the characters and then you’re going to go home and like,
0:42:06 you’re not going to, you’re not, it’s not something you’re going to tune into, you know,
0:42:11 three nights a week, like the NBA. Uh, that’s fine. It doesn’t need to be that. It’s an amazing
0:42:19 live touring show, man. So the guy who owns, um, monster jam, he also owns the Barnabin and Bailey
0:42:27 circus and he’s on Forbes as being worth three or $4 billion. Who is he? His name it’s called
0:42:35 Feld entertainment. So Feld owns, um, wrangling brothers and Barnabin Bailey circus. They own the
0:42:42 monster jam. They own monster energy super cross and they own Sesame street live. And, uh, the owner’s
0:42:47 name kind of felt, uh, and it’s just a huge 3000 person company according to Wikipedia.
0:42:53 Yeah. Unbelievable. And this is also stuff that’s like super AI proof, right? Like live out of home
0:42:58 entertainment. It’s only going to go like up, you know, you know what I mean? Like, because people are
0:43:03 always crave something that’s different than what they have in abundance, which is like digital online
0:43:07 entertainment. And so, uh, and then these are, these things are scarce. Like there’s not that
0:43:11 many. And especially if you could do the, what WWE has done or what, you know, monster, monster
0:43:16 jam has done where you start to like become fans of certain, whether it’s players, teams, characters
0:43:21 in the show, that’s, you know, that’s always going to be, um, you know, an entertaining thing.
0:43:29 By the way, his father started ringling brothers, uh, circus and his son, Kenneth eventually took it
0:43:33 over. And that’s now they’re the ones who own monster. Just imagine like, it’s like the family
0:43:38 business. The family business is like, we run monster jam. We, we, we started the ringling
0:43:44 brothers. It’s like the dinner table. Like what’s going on? It’s so much better than what we do.
0:43:50 Can you like, or the baseball, like I, so I, I wonder the Cole family, the owners of, um, Savannah
0:43:56 banana. I imagine they have children now. I wonder how awesome that is to see your parents do a job
0:44:02 like that. Yeah. It’s also tough. I mean, you’re on the road, like all the time it’s live. It’s
0:44:06 messy, right? You don’t get to just like push a button and like, Oh, we send the, we sent the
0:44:10 newsletter to 3 million people. Like, Oh, I pushed the button and like the ads are running all night.
0:44:16 And then when I ran the hustle, we called the send button on like sail through or whatever.
0:44:19 We said, we’re going to click the money button. You guys ready? We’re going to click the money,
0:44:23 but click the money button. And we would just call it the money button. Cause I know every time I hit
0:44:27 send, there was that one point we were making like 30 or 40 grand a day. I was like, all right,
0:44:32 click the money button. Boom. Right. And, uh, this guy does not have a money button. He has a money
0:44:36 bus where he has to get on the bus for two weeks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It’s a little different,
0:44:41 a lot more money probably than what I made, but, uh, yeah, it’s a money bus.
0:44:46 All right. We, um, we ended up spending the whole episode on the Savannah bad ass, but that’s cool.
0:44:52 I think we should just call it that. All right. Um, is that it? Is that the pod then?
0:44:58 Yeah. I think we should all go and just brainstorm ideas for the craziest marketing things we could do
0:45:04 in our business. Now I think we should all go write down 20 totally out of the box ideas and do that
0:45:10 every day for the next 60 days until you have like, you know, three, three ideas that are going to be
0:45:17 like, you know, attention getting and, uh, unreasonable in some way. And I here’s, um, all right. So we did
0:45:22 this thing called the gentleman’s agreement, by the way, where people would, uh, click like on our YouTube
0:45:27 page if they’ve ever watched more than one video of ours. And, uh, that was, that was the way of paying
0:45:31 it forward. I have a, I have a request, Sean, for our listeners, you and I have, well, this,
0:45:38 we’ll do it. We’ll do a two-part one. The first is, uh, if you have a connection to Jesse Cole,
0:45:42 I want him on the pod. We want him on the pod. I don’t have any connections to him. Do you?
0:45:43 No.
0:45:48 Yeah. So I would love to get him on the pod. If you get, if you can help us get him on the pod,
0:45:52 uh, we will, that’s, that’s you fulfilling the gentleman’s agreement and we will, uh, thank you.
0:45:55 But I think we got to do a second one now with Spotify, right?
0:45:59 Yeah. So people don’t know this because you know, you’re busy and you have lives and you
0:46:06 eat food and you sleep, but we doubled on Spotify last month. Spotify is growing like crazy as a
0:46:12 podcasting platform. And it used to be like 5% of our streams. Then it became 10% of our streams,
0:46:18 15%. It’s like 25, 30% of our streams. Now it is growing. It is exploding. We added our video
0:46:23 to Spotify. So if you have Spotify, you can watch the podcast there. There’s comments there. We’re
0:46:27 replying to comments and we’re really investing in Spotify. We think Spotify is kind of amazing for this
0:46:32 and we would love to grow more on Spotify. And so if you like to listen to Spotify, um,
0:46:34 if you listen to music on Spotify, if you’ve got a Spotify account,
0:46:38 get on there and just type my first million and click follow. It’s just a follow button.
0:46:45 It’s totally free, nothing else, but you will have reserved your space in the gentleman’s
0:46:50 hall of fame, which we are creating. And here’s what we’ll do. The gentleman’s hall of fame.
0:46:53 I didn’t know where that sentence was going. And I just let it run.
0:46:56 A gentleman’s hall of fame. It’s going to, uh, in my head, when I think of a gentleman’s hall
0:47:00 of fame, it’s a little bit different than a bunch of nerds clicking a button on their Spotify.
0:47:02 We’re creating a gentleman’s club, you might say.
0:47:10 I thought it was going to look a little different than just a bunch of, uh,
0:47:15 neckbeards clicking like on Spotify, but also, uh, leave a comment on Spotify for this episode.
0:47:19 And we’ll actually reply to all of them. So long as it’s not like 5,000. So as long as it’s less
0:47:23 than 5,000, we’ll reply to every single comment, even if it’s just like, what’s up?
0:47:28 Just say, hold on. Would Jesse Cole say, as long as it’s less than 5,000,
0:47:34 were you listening to the podcast, sir? What kind of, what kind of not, not Savannah worthy
0:47:38 comment was it? It’s not called reasonable hospitality, Sam.
0:47:41 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We’re going to tiptoe our way in.
0:47:50 This is me getting in the pool, uh, the pool party this weekend and half an hour in, I’m still
0:47:55 under the nipple line. And I’m just like, Hey, I just take my time. Okay. I just need my time to get
0:47:56 in. I will get in.
0:48:02 Okay. Every comment, seriously, make a comment on Spotify. Cause that actually signals we’re
0:48:07 testing something that signals past 5,000, just so Sam gets to taste this.
0:48:11 That signals that you’re listening on Spotify. And I think it’s going to go make us go up in
0:48:15 the rankings. I think last week or two weeks ago, I think we were the 35th or something
0:48:21 most popular podcast in the world on Spotify. Um, all categories, not just business. And so we’re
0:48:24 going to, we’re going to game the system in front of everyone. So just comment on Spotify
0:48:28 and we’ll reply. Um, all right, that’s it. That’s the pod.
0:48:41 All right. Let’s take a quick break because as you know, we are on the HubSpot podcast network,
0:48:45 but we’re not the only ones. There’s other podcasts on this network too. And maybe you liked it. Maybe
0:48:48 you should check them out. One of them that I want to draw your attention to is called Nudge by Phil
0:48:53 Agnew. And whether you’re a marketer or a salesperson, and you’re looking for the small changes you can
0:48:57 make, the new habits you could do, the small decisions you could make that will make a big
0:49:01 difference. That’s what that podcast is all about. Check it out. It’s called Nudge and you can get it
0:49:02 wherever you get your podcasts.