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Fourth Inning – Be the ONLY

Leaders who own their industry's biggest problems create the space to become irreplaceably different

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Leaders who own their industry's biggest problems create the space to become irreplaceably different

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In a compelling dialogue centered on brand differentiation, Jesse Cole of the Savannah Bananas underscored the pivotal shift from being merely better to becoming distinctly unique in one's industry. He introduced an insightful framework called "ONLY," which stands for Owning the industry's problems, creating Noise, cultivating Love, and understanding your Why.

Owning the Problems: Cole challenges businesses to embrace and address the inherent issues within their industries instead of merely boosting sales. For the Savannah Bananas, acknowledging that many find baseball "boring" became a catalyst for transformative change, thereby redefining the spectator experience.

Acknowledging that many find baseball "boring" became a catalyst for transformative change, thereby redefining the spectator experience.

Creating Noise: In a world cluttered with marketing messages, Cole stresses the importance of garnering attention rather than just advertising. His innovative approach included a notable book launch at EPCOT instead of a traditional event, which significantly heightened visibility and engagement.

Loving Beyond the Product: Cole advocates for a profound love for customers and even deeper affection for team members. This philosophy is about putting people first, ensuring that employees feel valued from their first interaction to their daily engagements at work.

Understanding Your Why: Drawing inspiration from Simon Sinek, Cole believes that the true essence of a company's purpose transcends what or how they do things—it's about why they do it. For the Savannah Bananas, their purpose crystallized into bringing people together, enhancing relationships and creating memorable experiences through the joy and communal spirit of their games.

The Savannah Bananas exemplify how businesses can thrive by not just being the best in the game but by being the only one playing their unique game.

Video TranscriptExpand ↓

What we've realized is so many companies are focused on being just a little better, being a little faster, being a little cheaper, a little quicker. Well, better isn't necessarily different. Only is different. What can you be the only in your industry? Only is something that everyone talks about. And it sounds like it's, oh, this is so tough to get to this only aspect. Well, no. If you just look at a few aspects of only and we created an acronym for this and an O is own the problems in your industry. So many times we'll look past what the problems are in industry. We'll just start focusing on, oh, we'll just keep increasing sales. Own the problems. We realize we're in a business that a lot of people think is boring. You may be in a similar business. My business is boring. And you say, baseball isn't boring. Well, ask how many people are going to baseball games these days. It's smaller than you think. Own the problems. Baseball's boring. Baseball's long. Baseball's slow. You get nickel and dimed. There's so many of these different problems. We own them. What's the problems in your industry? Start owning those and say, We're gonna fix them. The next is noise. You know, everyone talks about marketing. There's thousands of books about marketing out there. There's no books on attention. Everyone has a marketing plan. Do you have an attention plan? What are you doing to create noise? And we look at every aspect of our company. If we're gonna make an announcement, make it special, make it different. Don't just say we have this for sale. Even when my book went for sale, Find Your Yellow Tux, I could have easily just done a regular book launch, but I said, no. I'm going to do a world book tour at EPCOT. Not all over the world. I went to EPCOT and I went from every little country. I went from, you know, China, Germany, and I even got kicked out in Morocco. I had a security guard following me and he said, you're confusing our guest as one of our characters. So he asked me to leave. But did it create attention? You better believe it. We filmed the whole thing and my book launch created attention. It wasn't like everyone else. So what are you doing to create noise in your industry? It's why we eliminated all ads in our ballpark. It's a friction point. We don't believe in it, and you better believe it created noise. It's why we've offered presidents internships with our team. Have they accepted? No. We're still waiting to hear from former President Obama. We'll see what happens. But you create noise. What is those things that you're creating attention in in a given day? Next is the l. And I think this may be one of the most important but least talked about things in business. It's love. Sounds soft. I don't want to talk about lobbed. I'm here, hard business owner. No. Start with love. For us, it's simple. Love your customers more than you love your product. Love your employees, love your team members even more than you love your customers. And you need to start with loving yourself. If you can't love yourself and give yourself oxygenated first, you can't be your best for others. And so when we build our fans first experience for our customers, we also build it for our people. We reimagine what that experience looks like when they first get hired, to their first date, to even when they leave on a given day. And then loving yourself, what are you doing to put yourself first and give yourself great energy and give yourself opportunities to do things that you love? And so for us, love is very important. We map how we make people feel. Finally, why. It's not what you do. It's not how you do it. It's why you do it. From Simon Sinek, was a game changer for me and I know for many business owners. I always thought, hey. We're just putting on a circus. We're just putting having fun here at the stadium. But we realized we bring people together. And that hit home a few different experiences at our ballpark. One, just recently, I'll never forget, after one of our games, a grown man, big mustache comes over. And after the game, gives me a big bear hug. And I go, woah. Woah. Thanks, man. What was that for? He goes, no. Thank you, Jesse. And I go, what do you mean? He goes, I started coming to your games many years ago, and your my mom came to our first game this year. And my mother and I haven't talked for years. But she came to the game, watched the players dance. She watched the break dancing first base coach. She had so much fun that now my mother and I sit together at every single game. Your games helped bring my mother and I together. And that built so much purpose that we kept hearing stories like this over and over again. We bring people together through the fun, through the experience. What's your why? So, yeah, if you wanna break it down, be the only in your industry. Own the problems. Create some noise. Focus on love, loving your customers more in your product, your employees more in your customers, and loving yourself, and know why you do it. When you become the only, no one can stop you.

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