Why the Savannah Bananas founder is coming back to KC (with a tip of his hat to winning leadership styles)

Jesse Cole isn’t afraid to reimagine the way things are done in business, he shared, and his brand of Banana Ball is paying off.

Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas baseball team greet fans at a March 31 sell-out game at Truist Park in Atlanta; courtesy photo

In the past nine years, the ringleader of the Savannah Bananas — baseball’s answer to the trick ball-handling and exhibition athleticism of the Harlem Globetrotters — has gone from selling his home and emptying his savings account to finance the team — sleeping on a air mattress, and only selling a handful of tickets — to selling out MLB and NFL stadiums, amassing a ticket waitlist of 3 million fans, and gaining 25 million followers online.

All while putting the fans — not profits — first, Cole noted.

ICYMI: How KC helped baseball’s bright yellow ringmaster bring the Savannah Bananas to TikTok fame

“It’s been a wild journey,” he explained. “It’s been an obsession with the fan experience. From Day 1, we named our company Fans First Entertainment and we put ourselves in our fans’ shoes. We said we’re not gonna have ticket fees, we’re not gonna have convenience fees, not gonna have service fees.”

“And we’re going to look at all the boring parts of a baseball game and try to make them fun.”

Cole soon will be back in Kansas City to share his home run-hitting story April 8 during the Leadercast Conference at the Midland Theatre.

For 25 years, Leadercast has been the world’s largest one-day leadership conference, equipping individuals and organizations with dynamic insights, actionable strategies, and inspiration to become leaders worth following, according to organizers. Other speakers include Dominque Dawes, Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast, and Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Click here for more details about the event and its full lineup of speakers.

Cole — who will likely be wearing his signature yellow suit and hat — said his keynote address will be anything but boring, just like a Savannah Bananas game. While there will probably not be a pitcher on stilts or a twerking umpire, he said to expect singing, dancing, and giveaways.

Jesse Cole, Savannah Bananas, speaks with Startland News before his keynote speaking slot at the KCADC annual luncheon in November 2023; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News

“I’m going to share — not only the story of the Bananas — but how to create fans, a different way of looking at marketing and creating experience and customer experience and employee experience, and how to reimagine the way things can be done in business,” he continued. “I’ve been very fortunate to learn from Walt Disney and so many of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time, and we’ve been experimenting and trying things and learned a lot over the years and we’re still learning.”

For example, he shared, the Bananas — “TikTok’s favorite team” with 9.4 million followers — don’t spend any money on marketing. While TikTok has played a role gaining exposure, he said they were selling out games in 2016 before they started their TikTok account in 2020.

“We invest everything on the experience and the ideas and the creativity,” he explained. “We focus on creating things that people have never seen before on a baseball field, and then we capture it and share it.”

For Cole, leadership starts with focus, he noted.

“We have a very clear vision of who we are, what we stand for, and what makes this difference,” he explained. “As a great leader, you’ve got to have vision, but you also have to have the ability to execute and you need to be a great role model.”

Jesse Cole and a lookalike pose with fans at a March 31 Savannah Bananas game at Truist Park in Atlanta; courtesy photo

“Leadership starts at the top,” Cole added. “I’m very proud that my wife and I don’t have any other shareholders, investors, or partners. It’s us, and we are leading and we try to lead with our heart. You’ll see us at every game that we can attend. I’ll be in the upper deck. I’ll be out on the field. We’re not sitting down as spectators. We’re out there delivering experience.”

A good leader also has to own up to and learn from their mistakes, he said.

Earlier this year, the Savannah Bananas made headlines because of a ticketing snafu that left many fans upset that they weren’t able to immediately buy tickets when they thought they’d scored in the Bananas’ ticketing lottery. The president of the Bananas issued an apology and the team took care of tickets for those who mistakenly thought they had a chance.

“Most companies, when they do something wrong, they just try to move on,” Cole said. “Sometimes you get an apology. But we offered to take care of them, which is a multi-million dollar loss to our company to do the right thing for fans. And while it hurt and was painful, we’re interested in long-term fans over short-term profits. We will always put the fans first.”

“Our team will learn from it, and we’ll continue to get better,” he added.

Jesse Cole rallies fans at a March 31 sell-out Savannah Bananas game at Truist Park in Atlanta; courtesy photo

Kansas City — site of one of the MLB stadium tour stops for the Savannah Bananas this year (May 23-24 at Kauffman Stadium) — will always be a special place for Cole, he shared. The Monarchs hosted the Bananas on their last stop of their first extended tour.

“It was a really special moment to show that Banana Ball could be played against other professional teams and really make an impact with fans,” he explained. “So that was a tremendous experience. It’s a special, special place, and the reception for us has been tremendous.”