How To Empower Your Team With Clear Guardrails

Most leaders say they want to “empower the team,” but what they really mean is “please read my mind and don’t mess this up.” We get honest about why empowerment becomes a buzzword, why it often fails, and what it looks like when it actually works in the real world. Along the way, we share a few stories that ground the conversation, from kindness and awareness to the Kentucky Derby reminder that underdogs can win when the work happens behind the scenes.

Our core point is simple: empowerment is not anarchy. If you want people to make smart calls without you hovering, you have to give them guardrails. We talk about building constructs that define what is always acceptable, what is never acceptable, and where there is room for judgment. Then we take it deeper with guiding principles that make decisions easier in the moment, whether you lead a small business, manage a department, or run a growing organization that lives or dies by customer experience.

We also dig into the part leaders forget: recognition and belief. Feedback matters, but people take real initiative when they know we believe in them, not just when they follow a checklist. That includes putting the right people in the right seats and letting strengths drive performance. Nick shares why the Savannah Bananas are a great model: a clear Fans First mission, strong standards, and the freedom for players to bring their unique talents to the experience.

If you want a team that thinks, cares, and acts like owners, this one will give you a clear framework to start using today. Subscribe to the show, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with the guardrail or guiding principle you want to strengthen next.

Transcript

Welcome And The Real Topic

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to the Leader Mentality Show with Rob Clemens in sunny Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I am here with none other than Nick DiStefano. How are you, Nick? Good to see you.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Fantastic. No, it's great to see you too. That was a powerful power slap.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Today is all about power slaps on the Leader Mentality Show. No, I'm just kidding. Well, a little bit about power slaps. Right, exactly. Well, hey, look, you know, um we we do have a great topic for today. I want to go ahead and get that out of the way right now, and then we'll circle back around to it. Today we're talking about empowering your team. And even as we were talking about the title for this show, if you listen at home and you're rolling your eyes and you're going, here, another empowerment video, I want to set the stage for that. We're gonna talk about what is actual empowerment, how it's become a buzzword. We're gonna get through all that stuff. But at the end of the day, don't write us off just yet because empowerment is a big thing. You don't want to have an organization where there's only one person with power and everybody else is just lemmings going to work each day. And he told me to do it. He said to do it. Do this? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I didn't I didn't believe in it, but my boss said to do it, so I did it. It's like, well, that's terrible. That's not empowerment at all. Even close. Yeah,

Autism Awareness And Kind Leadership

SPEAKER_00 1:30

so we're gonna get into that. Before we get into that, as we like to do, Nick, uh, today you're wearing your shirt like the other way.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

The right way, so to speak, right quote unquote the right way.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Right, right, which we don't believe in that here leader mentality show. But but honestly, man, did you get the word out? Like, uh did you feel like you hit the mission with you know we were talking all about autism, awareness, and things so a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

It's it is amazing. Just if I and I tell people this all the time if I were to have one conversation with a person and just plant a seed where they're going to think differently about whether it's autism or something else the next time they see someone or experience someone who might look odd, strange, if they could just think a little differently and think a little more kindly, then I say we we succeeded. I think since we we last recorded, even I actually got the opportunity to go twice and speak to my kids' classes. Those are the most for me empowering moments to see a conversation with second graders and fifth graders where they are in the in the moment literally taking their shirt off and turning it around backwards and just thinking, Oh my god, like how to be little Nick D.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Stefanos?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

How can they oh that's a scary thought. Well, we already have one kid that's like that. We don't need more Nikki Stefano's. That was awesome, man. Yeah, no, it would be wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

See them lifting up others and all the Nick D Stefano things.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, it was it was cool to see them just kind of buy into it and and want to just be kind leaders, which is for me what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Dude, always talk about that anyway. It's like you when we talk about leadership and we talk about kindness, I believe that um look, if you're listening today and you are going through a high mark or you haven't had anything bad going on in your life, my God, enjoy the ride, enjoy the the wave at the top of that crest, because it tends to hit you again later. And if you're at the bottom and you're having what feels like a tough time, just remember that because I I always like to remember when we think we're going through tough things or when we think we have challenges of our own, and you you know that you can be kind and realize somebody else might have something else they're doing with.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, it's it was it was a great month. I loved it. That's awesome. Um, really enjoyed getting the word out there for people. How have things

Kentucky Derby Underdog Leadership Lesson

SPEAKER_01 3:36

been going here?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Well, well, listen Carolina-based. You know, I'm I I'm not sure when this is gonna come out. We we may have this air a little bit later than than we're recording today, but I am just coming off of the Kentucky Derby. You heard the Kentucky Derby yet? Yes, absolutely. You a horse guy? Do you watch this stuff?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

You know what? I don't usually get into it, but that's the one horse event that I feel like everyone watches. I watched it with my kids. They had a blast. It's so inspiring.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Listen, man, I you know, I watched the race. I'm not a real, like, well, I should I'm about to say like I'm not a real horse guy. I'm not a horse guy. I've not watched races in my life, but I I got asked to come and do the um uh I was the auctioneer, the guest auctioneer at the jockeys and julips event for McLeod. Yeah, yeah, you know, do it, do it. Hey, I got five over here, five over here. Anyway, uh but so I came over to do that and and I kind of saw what all the madness is about. I mean it it's it's two minutes or so, they say the greatest like two minutes, but the the to watch the exhilaration and see these people uh and these horses doing what they do, and I'm an animal lover anyway. But um an underdog one, I'm trying to remember the name of it, but it you know, if you watch I'm gonna forget the name of it too.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

I listened I was the first female trainer and it came from last.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

And it was it was so cool because yeah, you you got somebody, you got these ones that are four to one and five to one, and here's this one that's sitting out. I think they were 15 or 20 to 1 when and they came back from behind and won. And there's a lesson in that. I mean, I'm thinking when people are writing you off, you can still come back and show everybody. And sometimes you're doing things behind the scenes that nobody knows. I bet you that trainer and that horse, they knew they had something special, but nobody else knew yet. Didn't matter, Nick.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

I bet I didn't matter. I bet you that jockey and that trainer felt empowered. Somehow, someone empowered them to keep working even though they might have been working in the background and working in the and I don't know that you intended to set me up right like that. But sometimes that's how we do things. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

It's what it's about. Man, you're a real pro to bring the empowerment back into what we're bringing it all together.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

But it's that is that is a great example of how sports is such an amazing metaphor for for leadership and what we do. And it's that's sports. It's you just never know what you're gonna experience, and there's so many pieces of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

I'm taking it from a different angle, and I agree with you, but I'm taking it from a different angle. I'm taking it from the angle of look, there are people who do not believe in you. There are people who will believe in somebody else because they've been told to. There are people who wrote you off because they didn't see what you were doing behind the scenes. And what I want you to know is I want you to look at a race like that and think, I'm that one. I'm that horse. I'm that one. And also I want you to also think if you are the one that everybody believes in. Remember, you could be the one who's looking at that horse from behind later if you're not working your butt off. So but man, well, well, so anyway, I'm off on a little bit of a tangent. No, that's okay. Great racing first leg of the triple crown, you know, and here we've been doing.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Coming to Preakness next in Maryland. I'm that's the one horse race I've been to, but I grew up there, so I've been to the Preakness once when I was in high school.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Do you wear giant hats when you go?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

I know that's more of a ladies' thing, but do you like no, but I I if I were to go to a Kentucky Derby event, I can tell you I would do my best to find the best bow tie possible. Oh, no, I wouldn't do that, but I don't know about a giant hat.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I was told quirky bow ties go over a well. I uh I will, you know, so here's what I learned. I learned that uh it was a lot of energy at those events, it's a lot of fun. Uh I it was the first time I've done auctioning and we raised some money for a good cause, we raised money for cancer awareness. Hey, look, I've anytime I can do something like that, I'm gonna take the opportunity. But we've been off on a tangent, man. Let's

What Empowering A Team Means

SPEAKER_00 7:00

talk a little bit about what we came to talk about today. So here you are, you're a business owner, you're a manager, and we say to you, you should empower your team. What are we talking about, Nick? I mean, it look like let's not get into the you know buzzwords, let's just talk about what do we mean when we say empower our team.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

So I when I ask someone to empower their team, and anyone listening, I need you to think about this. Can you do everything? Are you capable of doing everything? Do you want to do everything? And we obviously know the answer is no, unless you're a solopreneur, and even then, you still should empower the people that you are partnering with because you probably are working with other people that need to have some power behind what they're doing. Some and I think about it a lot of times in terms of the energy someone brings to their job, to their task, to whatever it is they're doing every day. Are you on board with actually wanting to do it? Like you don't want to do everything as the owner of the organization. So, how do I get other people to want to do it as well? That's empowerment.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I think here's the wacko part, but I'm but and and I am gonna speak for a small segment of society. See, here's my problem. I actually do like doing everything. No, you're weird.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

But this is the guy who should be wearing his shirt backwards.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I I know I am weird. No, but but I want to speak to people like me too, because the truth is, is whether you like doing everything or not, you will come to a realization that if you ever want to grow, you can't do everything. There's 24 hours. Absolutely. And uh that's where I came to the conclusion.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

But I think also, too, the people that like doing everything, there's probably a reason behind that. And I think it's important for leaders and managers to think about what's my goal here? If my goal is to grow this organization so we can have a larger impact, I need to set my own ego aside of I want to do everything and I like doing everything because I trust myself maybe more than anyone else. Not saying that that's you know, they just don't be blask everybody. Rob trust Rob only trusts me. I do, I see where your goal in this. No, but I think I do think that we have to set there's a massive piece of empowerment where we're setting our own ego aside. There's a whole nother show in it around delegation, but if we're delegating to people, you can delegate in a way that empowers them, or you can delegate in a way where you say, you need to do all of these things and follow this exact list. Well, I don't have any power in this at all. I'm just gonna be a robot and go do what Rob said.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I think I think bad things happen when that happens.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

That's not what we want. I don't want that.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

I I feel like it's the equivalent of if you're if you're making something with a lot of salt in it, and then you just say, Well, let's throw more salt in it. That it's only your opinion, it's only your viewpoint. When you get other people out there and they're and they're throwing in different perspectives, even if you don't completely agree with them, if you're the decision maker, it's a perspective that it enlarges your mind. It widens the scope for you.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, it create it creates growth and innovation. I think some of the best ideas, the innovation comes from someone that was empowered to think outside the box. They weren't told sit here in this seat and do this thing and this steps. Because if I'm empowered to think creatively and I'm if I'm empowered, I'm allowed. I'm allowed to fail. I'm allowed to try something new. And some people don't want to do that because what if it goes

Guardrails That Make Decisions Easier

SPEAKER_01 10:25

wrong? So then what do I do?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you how I do it. And and we don't usually talk like this on the show, but I do want to have a real discussion about it. Um because you do you deal with a lot of this, and you know, as a business leader who I do, you know, like I said, actually giving away stuff is kind of hard for me because to your point, the trust factor is I know that I will do it with the spirit of the business as I want it done, right? Like so if I know if I'm doing it myself, I know it's gonna meet the spirit and the whatever that I want. So it becomes a little hard. But the way I've generally done it, you tell me if you think this is right or wrong. I mean, and I'm being dead serious. You can tell. Um, I create constructs with which people can make their decisions, they're empowered to make decisions within the constructs of what I do. Absolutely. So for example, I might say, like, we're never yeah, I'm using an extreme example here, but if a customer comes in is complaining, I would never allow you to slam the door in their face. So construct one is be nice, be reasonable. But at the end of the day, if you do this, this, and this, I will be okay with any of those kinds of answers. I create constructs with which you can make a decision within that construct. Would you say this is good or bad? I think that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

I think that what you're doing is setting constructs are no different than setting guardrails or standards around what is acceptable and what's unacceptable. You've given someone something to base their decision off of. So I'm not gonna feel empowered if you just say, just go out there and do your best, Nick. I'm gonna be like, Well, what does that look like? Like, what is it because sometimes it's you know, I don't feel empowered also if I have no idea, like I might not have the skills to do this thing. And you've given me this really challenging thing to do and no idea of what's acceptable, I'm not gonna feel empowered to try something new. I'm gonna just do the safest, easiest thing, and then I might not be within the constructs of what you wanted because I haven't, you know, served the customer the way that we've set as appropriate.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

I think you've just thank you for saying that, and and that's why I'm actually kind of talking like this, whether I was doing it right or wrong. Here's my point. I'm like, sometimes we say, Well, I empower my employees to do things. It's like, well, what does that mean? Well, they they can do whatever they want to make the decision they want to make. Well, it's like that's actually not empowering them because you you're giving so little guidance. Like, let's not conflate empowering with freedom to do anything. I think there has to be like we have to still guide people, and I think it's the equivalent of going, if you're a basketball coach, going to your team and saying, you know, player says, What do you want me to do, coach? Go out there and just play good. Just play good today. It's like, well, that's okay, but now how do we win with that, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah, and I I think the guardrails and what you're giving to people is truly the almost the that you're giving them trust in that as long as you stay with it, like you're staying within this, you're living out what we say is our mission, what's acceptable in our organization, this is how we do things, but yet you have your own unique ideas, and if you can show me, for me, this is what I if I would want, if if you can show me how what you decided, what your choice was, whatever you did, fits within why we're doing this. If you can show me that this is, I think a lot about the um the Savannah Bananas, and they say it is fans first, that's their like guardrail, their mantra, their mission. If you can show me how what you're doing is putting a fan first, great. I'm a I'm in full support of it. Maybe I might question and say, well, we lost a million dollars on this, and that wasn't we can't be fans first moving forward if we're making decisions like that, but I see where your head was, and it's a it's a learning and an uh opportunity every single time we empower someone, but you have to trust them to try. And if you don't trust them, even with guardrails, they'll they'll they won't try exactly. They'll just be like, Okay, well, I don't have to try because Rob's just gonna try. And then that's what other people do too. Sometimes we, if we like to do everything, and do you I don't know if you ever find yourself doing it, but we give them the guardrails and they still might not feel comfortable. And so sometimes we jump in as leaders and we're like, Oh, I'm gonna let me do this for you. Like, I'm gonna I'll I got this, and we're doing it because we know what the right thing is, but it doesn't empower them with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

If if I had to say I have an Achilles Hills leader, that's my tendency. I'll I'll say, well, look, I'll just do it because I I have I know what the spirit is. And and it's when I'm finding myself doing that, I have to pull it back because I realize that while I'm doing it for the temporary win, I'm I'm actually gonna have the the eventual loss because I'm teaching people. You teach people how you want them to behave in a sense, and I don't mean like in an instructional way. I mean, you know, if I say to you great job when you do something, I'm teaching you that was something that I'm rewarding. And if I say bad job, or if I take it away, I'm teaching you a different thing. I have something that I think is very important, and and the the title of the show is The Secret to Empowering Your

Guiding Principles Plus Recognition

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Team. If I had a secret, I would tell you this. And look, I'm I'm not, you know, Warren Buffett or something. I'm just a guy who runs a company that I that cares about culture. Uh this is something that I tell people when it comes down to empowerment. Uh, it doesn't mean you can do anything you want to, because as we said, you could say, well, I'm gonna go steal all the company money. That's what is empowerment to me. It's not allowed. But we have to have something, and I talked to my staff about guiding principles. And you kind of mention it there. And I and a lot of times I'll talk about here's a general rule that we have, and here is the guiding principle with which you can make a decision. So a guiding a guiding principle would be something like at the end of the day, we want our customer to enjoy their experience with us. Now, you could say everybody says that, but I'm I'm telling you, a lot of people don't actually, they're saying make the most money you can make, um, you know, have the most customers you can have, whatever they take to do.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Whatever it takes to get there.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Exactly. So I'm saying a guiding principle is at the end of the day, this supersedes all decisions. Right. If you understand this, and I would challenge people, because I've done it here at Carolina Bay, so I could tell you that right now. But if at your company you say, what are our guiding principles? Write them down right now. If you listen to the show, write down what is a guiding principle, what is something that is true of everything, and and make it as specific as you can make it. Don't don't say like, well, we want to do a great job. That's not specific. But what is a great job for you? Make that a guiding principle, right? And so I think that's an important thing that we should we should talk about as in what is the secret? Well, I think that's one of the big secrets.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

And I think it it's a hundred percent the secret, but a piece of what you're saying is that it is it's action-oriented too. A lot of times we as organizations will say we have this principle or this value, right? We're committed to, you know, I think about McLeod. We say we're committed to the whole person, right? The whole the person is the value, but the principle is we are always committed to the whole person, which means I'm thinking about you not just as a patient, but as an overall person. Who are you aside from the medical number, the case that's in the bed, and what are we doing to make sure that we're taking care of the entire person? So when we say, hey, we know this person has a dog and we've got therapy dogs, can we arrange a dog to come in here? Even if it means we get someone to come in on half hour off after hours, like that's commitment to that whole person. And if an employee were to do that, I wouldn't say you shouldn't have brought them in after hours, that's not acceptable. It's in line with that commitment, that principle. But what the follow-up to that, I think, is, and this is where the secret sauce kind of becomes something that people remember if they're the employee, is when they're then recognized for that, and they are told that not just that they stuck to the guiding principle, but that they were the their strengths, what their creativity, their decisions, their actions are the reason that that we've made progress as a group. Because a lot of times we'll tell someone, like, great job on this project, or this was a um, that was a great outcome for our patients. That was a great thing that you did. But it if we say to them, Hey, if it wasn't for your creativity, we wouldn't have been able to live out this principle. Okay, that is about the person less than the outcome. Yeah, that's where I think true empowerment comes. Someone goes, Wow, I they recognize that not just that I did a good job, but like, but that I'm I am good at my job. Like I personally am good, and that makes someone go, Wow, like they believe in me. Okay, and I think that's what people want. Like, people want to be believed in that you know, no one wants to come to work and and make their their you know the place worse.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah, yeah. So you so you're saying you have to recognize it when it's happened, and I think that's important. So so this is the thing. I mean, we're we talked about three very good guiding ways to find how to empower people, the secret to empowering. I'd say that you know, we talked about the idea of creating constructs with which to make decisions. Let them make their own decision, but within constructs, we have to have some sort of rules. You can't just have anarchy. Guiding principles, you have to have a guiding principle. Like, what at the end of the day is our is our major goal here? What would we think is a victory within our company that would say that you know, if you make a decision with this in regard, we're never gonna have a problem with that. We talked about a little bit of feedback basis, like, hey, look, you did this. Um, maybe next time you could do this, but I like the decision because of this. Yes, you made me think of something uh early in my career. I learned this very early because I had a pretty hard man for my first, like, you know, real big boy job. Sure. And he would look at you so seriously and be like, Why did you do that? And I realized from a from a young age, I was like, if I don't have a good answer for why I did that, I'm gonna be filling the heat. And but but you know what I did, Nick? Yeah, here's what I started realizing. If I could walk him through my thought process and why I made it, not just go, well, I did it because it was right there, you know, but literally say I considered X, Y, and Z, and I went with Z because of this, I think that's huge. So, guiding principle number three, feedback and and where you could have gone. So I feel like there's something else that that you and I talked about before. Uh, and I feel like we maybe want to like throw like one more tip for people. What's

Belief Builds Courage And Ownership

SPEAKER_00 20:30

the fourth thing that we're missing?

SPEAKER_01 20:32

I would say the fourth thing is your people need to know you believe in them. And I say that because we've talked a lot about empowering, which is like kind of building people up. If we're doing this, we're giving people the ability to to you know crush what they're good at. There's feedback, there's guiding principles, but if they don't know you believe in them, they're not going to take risks. And I guarantee everyone listening has had a coach, a parent, a past boss, someone that you know believes in you, and they've told you, I know you're good at this, go out there and crush it. Go give it a shot. Try this. It's like you know, you watch motivational speeches from coaches, and it's like someone wants to like run through a wall for this person, and it's that's empowerment. Those people, there's no guarantee that when the team leaves it, they're gonna go out there and win, but they're willing to give it their damn best, they're gonna try everything they can. That's how your people should feel, and the words we choose as leaders, and that's what I love about like the idea of empowerment, is the constructs, right? The things that we're talking about have the ability to either make someone feel powerful or powerless. And empowerment is making your people feel powerful, they don't have to have all the power in the organization to feel like I can go out there and give this my best. And you know what? It's okay if I fail because I'm able to walk through. There's gonna be Feedback. I can talk through why I did this, but I guarantee people have also had people that have made them feel powerless. Why did you do that? Yeah. And you're like, wow, I don't we need to even tell you why I did that because I feel this small just by what you said to me. Right. And so your people need to know you believe in them. And if they don't know that, I don't know that they're gonna feel empowered, even with some of the constructs, they might, but for them to have all those other things and then and have the belief in them, they're gonna feel making this.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

So basically, like even in the you know, the the question could be why did you do this? And you presented it in a different way. We talk about tonality, it's like why would you do this? But but it starts well before the tonality. I don't think that's what you're you're you know we're not talking about the famous body language and tonality. We're actually saying you're setting the stage early on for that you do believe in the people and that they're not gonna be reprimanded when they have to make a decision that wasn't with you necessarily so so here's a thing that I think, and it

Put Strengths In The Right Seats

SPEAKER_00 23:00

and it's underneath that, I'd love to hear your your thoughts on it. You know, I believe that part of this whole game that we're talking about of empowering people and giving them the ability to make decisions is the best person to make the best decision, right? Like so ultimately, if I have a very analytical person, maybe they'd be great at making financial decisions and things like that. If I have a person who's a great um uh sensory person, they can sense things that maybe they're the person that can make the best decisions with a customer service move. So there's a part of this of putting the right people in the right seat, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

Yeah, no, you're you're spot on. And it it you have to be aware of what your people's talents are and what their strengths are, and you have to make sure that they know those as well. There's lots of ways to figure that out, whether it's you know, personality assessments or even just having conversations with your people to know I need to maybe move this person, you know. What I asked often ask myself, like, what excites me about coming to work today? But if you were to ask your employees that, are they gonna just say oh paycheck? Or is there something different for each one of them? Like, what excites you about coming to work? Well, maybe I should put you over. Oh, cool, that's great. We actually have a need for that. Let's put you in this spot to do it, but I had no idea. Um, and it goes to some of what we talked about in past shows about being curious and empathetic and listening, and um man, I yeah, I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

And and and I believe that the biggest thing that we could do that would be a mistake would be to get too many of people with the same exact things. Absolutely. It's like, okay, I've got a bunch of rah-rah people. Well, maybe I need a couple of people who are really analytical and can make and and I think that you know that's a part of it. So putting the right people in the right seats, I like it. That's cool. Have you uh have you got a good example of that anywhere where you've seen somebody who's really doing this right? And I know you know tons of companies, so I'm gonna put you on the spot, but yeah, is there a gold standard in this?

Savannah Bananas As Empowerment Model

SPEAKER_01 24:50

I honestly I think of the Savannah Bananas and the fact that they literally let when their players try out, they're letting them show, like they have a guy now on their team who used to be on Broadway. You would never think I'm going to a baseball game, and but like they've put someone in this and they let him sing, and it's and people love it. Like, they didn't just say you need to be a baseball player. It's like, okay, well, you're a baseball player, but you're good at gymnastics, so you can be doing flips and stuff in the outfield before you catch the ball. Like, yeah, they're a fantastic example, I think, of we've seen, and you can go and watch anything from their their owner, Jesse, and he'll talk about the times when he saw players like just staying in the beginning and just signing autograph after autograph, but then he also tells a story about how there was a time when he was having a player was having kids sign his jersey. And they thought we need to create a way to make this possible for our fans, and they've changed up some of how they do things because of things that players have seen and done, and they've put people where they need to be. They're they're for me a fantastic study in service and how you can be innovative and change the way you do things, and I think every one of their players is empowered to do that 100%.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Interesting. Where how long have they been around? I feel like you know a little bit about them.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Yeah, so uh the Savannah Bananas, I want to say stuff, they're about 10 years old now. That Jesse Cole, uh, he's he's written two different books now. One's called Fans First, one is about his yellow tuxedo. But it's they've grown from what was initially just a minor league baseball team. They didn't even do banana ball, which is like their own way of doing baseball now, and they slowly evolved that. Jesse actually tells stories about how he was, you know, at the point where he and his wife basically sold everything they had so they could keep the team going until they finally started to be innovative and change different things based on some of the stuff that they saw. There, they said they've always been fans first, but they saw some things that players were doing and they thought we've got an opportunity to change here.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

It's cool, man. I mean, yeah, yeah, I see the clips of them on social media, they're doing a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah, they're they're funny, but it's a fantastic study in all things leadership and

Trust Your Team And Close

SPEAKER_01 26:55

innovation.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

You know, that's a great place for us to kind of like as we land the plane here, as the show's going out. I think that's a great one. I'm I'm appreciate you mention them. I know I put you on the spot there, but the reason I like that example is this is a team that they're like, we need each person to be be entertaining and fun, but they still have a guiding principle. Be entertaining to the fans, you know, be respectful to the fans. They have constructs, you know. One of the things you couldn't do is, you know, come out here and you know run out of the stadium and go, you know, like play in the in the parking lot. There are still things, but these people are allowed to do what they do, be entertaining, be smart, be funny. Uh very cool stuff. Well, look, if you guys are out there, you're running a business of your own or you're doing anything, you just want to maximize your team. Remember that. You know, look at your team not as a bunch of little tools that you pull out of a bag when you want to, but look at them as cohesive parts of a bigger thing and and trust your team. So love this empowerment talk. Um, Nick, I guess we'll we'll see you next time. Right? Yeah, I hopefully if I I feel empowered to come back and record again.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

And I hope everyone is empowered to go out there and and make sure your teams are.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

This guy's the best at pulling the topic back up. All right. Well, hey, Nick, we appreciate it. We appreciate you all for listening. Go out and empower your team and yourself, actually, sometimes. And uh we do want to thank all of our fans who listen. Make sure to like and share us on the social media of your choice. Uh, thank you to our sponsors, Carolina Bayes Holmes. And uh hey, we'll see you next time on the Leader Mentality Show with Rob Clemens and Nick D.Stefano.