Jesse Cole

Rod met Jesse Cole without knowing much about his baseball. He actually wondered why he was meeting him at all. A guy in a yellow tuxedo, talking about a baseball team, in a room full of business owners.

By the end of the speech he understood. Rod left amazed at how Cole took a tried-and-trusted game and brought new life into it, to the point that stadiums fill up for it. He also left with a page of takeaways that apply straight to his own business.

What Cole built

Cole and his wife, Emily, came to Savannah, Georgia in the fall of 2015 to rebuild baseball around fun. Before that, Cole had taken part ownership of a Coastal Plain League team in Gastonia, North Carolina that was more than $100,000 in debt. The Savannah Bananas launched in 2016 at historic Grayson Stadium and played in that league through 2022.

Banana Ball came next. The first official game was in June 2020. It is a faster version of the sport: a two-hour time limit, no walks, no bunting, no mound visits, and a foul ball caught by a fan is an out. Players dance, and the show runs between pitches as well as during them.

The result is hard to argue with. The Bananas now sell out ballparks across the country, including major league stadiums. They drew more than 37,000 fans to Fenway Park in 2024 and sold out Coors Field, the biggest MLB park on their tour, on back-to-back days in 2025. Games air on ESPN, and the team keeps a long ticket waitlist. Cole wrote about it in Find Your Yellow Tux and Fans First, the latter published in 2022.

What stuck with Rod

Cole is publicly known for the Fans First idea: treat everyone who walks in as a guest, remove friction, and then add something they did not expect. The sport stayed the same at its core. What changed was how it feels to be there.

Rod heard it as a business lesson, not a baseball one. Cole did not need a new product. He needed to look at the same product the way a customer sees it.

How Rod applies it

• Look through the customer's eyes. What is it like to be a Coulee Tech client, from the first call to the hundredth ticket? Rod asks that question and looks for the slow, confusing or dull parts.
• Make boring topics worth attending. Cybersecurity and AI can be dry. Rod builds his talks and workshops around real examples and hands-on practice so the room stays awake.
• Question the rules everyone accepts. Cole asked why baseball games had to be so long. In AIBMM coaching, Rod asks leaders which of their processes exist only because they always have.
• Be easy to remember. Cole is the guy in the yellow tux. A company that serves healthcare and manufacturing needs a clear, memorable way to stand out too.

Rod met each of these people at business growth events where they were the featured speaker. The lessons are his own takeaways and do not imply an endorsement by anyone pictured.