0:00

You lead well when you are leading

0:02

at your best . And to lead at your

0:04

best , you need to be in your sweet

0:06

spot the strengths that you have that

0:08

you can bring to the organization Teaching

0:11

people and getting people to come in and run

0:13

and lead other parts of the business , focusing

0:15

on the priorities and the things that only you

0:18

can do . And today our guest

0:20

, jacob Robinson , is going to talk all about

0:22

how he figured out what his leadership

0:24

sweet spot is and guide us into how

0:26

we can do that . Before we jump

0:28

in , let me tell you a little bit about my friend , jacob

0:31

Robinson . Jacob , in 2023

0:33

, by Houston Business Journal , was

0:35

named one of the most admired CEOs

0:38

in Houston . That's pretty amazing

0:40

, and he is a bit

0:42

of a serial entrepreneur starting

0:44

and growing businesses . What

0:46

I love about what Jacob does is they are

0:48

all in the service space

0:50

, they do things to help

0:52

people and lately

0:55

he started working in all of his

0:57

love of family and bringing people

0:59

together by building amusement

1:01

parks . Yes , that's right . Jacob

1:04

Robinson is my idea of Jesse

1:06

Cole in a cowboy hat building and

1:08

buying and running amusement

1:10

parks . I can't wait for him to tell you all

1:12

about it . Let's dive into our conversation

1:15

with Jacob Robinson and how you can lead

1:17

in your sweet spot right now

1:29

. Jacob

1:32

, I am so glad that you are here today because

1:35

I really want to talk

1:37

about the fact that leaders feel like

1:40

they have to do everything and

1:42

they have to be everything and they have to be able

1:44

to touch everything inside of their business

1:47

, multiple businesses , their organization

1:49

. And you and I were sitting down for breakfast

1:51

one day and you said , hey

1:53

, I am the zero to one guy , and then

1:55

I got to find people to help run

1:57

and manage whatever we build

2:00

and it just blew me away . So

2:02

start telling me about this

2:04

zero to one idea and how you started to

2:06

figure that out .

2:07

Yeah , no , man . Well , first off , thank you for letting me be here today

2:09

. I'm super honored to be here . I'm super

2:12

excited . I've been looking forward to this for a while . So thank

2:14

you all for letting me be a part of it . You

2:16

know , the idea came . I

2:18

would like to say that I had this epiphany in the middle of the night

2:20

one night and I woke up and it was like , oh my

2:22

gosh , there's this perfect leadership

2:24

saying about how I'm wired . But no

2:26

, it was a friend of both of ours , andrew

2:28

Deerhead , and he and I were

2:31

talking together one day and he

2:33

said , man , you know , I look back at , like , what

2:35

you've done and what you're currently doing

2:38

and you're a really good zero to

2:40

one guy . You're not a good

2:42

two to 10 guy . And I

2:44

actually I heard Louis Giglio the other day , a pastor out of

2:46

Atlanta . He was on a podcast

2:48

and he described himself as an

2:50

A to B leader and

2:52

he needs C to Z people

2:54

on his team . And

2:57

so , you know , we can call it zero to one , we call it A to B , whatever

2:59

we want to call it , but the idea really is , you

3:01

know , I'm the idea guy , right , I'm the idea

3:03

guy , I'm the mission guy , I'm the vision guy

3:05

, I am the corraler of

3:07

the team , and then , frankly

3:10

, a couple things start to happen at that point . One

3:12

, the organization or the idea or

3:15

the team starts to quickly become

3:17

too good for me . I don't really have

3:19

a role anymore , because we've either put smarter people

3:21

around me you know go-getters

3:24

around me that are taking it to the next level and I kind of get

3:26

left behind or two , what

3:29

happens is we really start to say , hey , listen

3:31

, that's not my skill set , like

3:33

building out an operating

3:35

manual , for example , like my brain

3:37

doesn't work that way , my eyeballs will fall out

3:39

, all of the above . If you ask me to do an

3:41

operating manual . However , we've got people on our team that

3:44

they just crush it and I love

3:46

looking at it . Like , when it's done , I'm going man , how , how

3:48

in the world did you come up with that ? Like I

3:51

never in a million years would have seen . Uh

3:53

, that if you had asked me to do it . So the

3:55

idea is is really , how

3:58

do we get something going , how do we get people to believe

4:00

in what we're doing ? And then , how do

4:02

I , quickly as possible , get out of their way ? And

4:04

I think a lot of times this adage that we've learned

4:06

, and you may say , hey

4:09

, you're terrible , this is a terrible

4:11

thought process , but I think a lot of people say , hey

4:13

, you need to work on your weaknesses , work on your weaknesses

4:15

, work on your weaknesses . Listen , I

4:17

think it's great to acknowledge your

4:19

weaknesses and then I

4:21

would argue that's

4:24

an interesting viewers can see

4:27

. Did you see that ? Thumbs up

4:29

, wow , all right .

4:30

Okay , we're full . Ai

4:33

is just baked into this right here .

4:35

I'll try not to talk with my hands as much

4:37

.

4:37

It's a multidimensional experience .

4:40

That's right , no telling what's about to happen , but

4:43

I think a lot of times we work

4:45

on trying to get better at the things we're not

4:47

good at and are not in the way the Lord wired

4:49

us and , instead of leaning into the way

4:51

you know , we're designed

4:53

, created the way that we can add value

4:56

to an organization . Now , that does not mean

4:58

I need to raise my hand and say , well , hey , listen , I'm not good at that

5:00

, so I'm not going to do those , those five things over

5:02

there . But no , really acknowledging hey

5:04

, I drive value here , you

5:06

drive value here . And so when

5:09

we can go out and we hire against our weaknesses

5:11

and filling the room with smart people

5:13

you know you've heard people say make sure

5:15

you're the dumbest person in the room . If you've done

5:17

that , you'll probably start leading really well

5:19

. Right , and because the ideas that

5:22

these other people are going to come up with are just amazing

5:24

. Right , and because the ideas that these other people are

5:26

going to come up with are just amazing , and so I've really

5:28

tried to focus on who complements my weaknesses , who

5:31

thinks the same way I think about work

5:34

and our drive and our

5:36

goals and our mission and our vision . But

5:39

really , who's who's so much smarter than

5:41

me at these things that I'm terrible at

5:43

, and then , at the same time , acknowledging what

5:45

I can bring to the table Right and saying , hey

5:47

, we don't need two of me , I'd

5:49

rather go hire somebody that can , that can , work

5:52

on my weaknesses . So , you know , I've

5:54

really leaned into that zero to one . Now

5:56

that doesn't mean I need to just , you

5:59

know , chunk the deuce and get out of town and

6:01

leave all responsibilities , but rather trying

6:03

to hand the keys over to the person . I told

6:06

our general manager this other day , one of our , our

6:08

, our , businesses . I said , listen , you're in charge

6:10

. Like , I appreciate you calling me , but

6:12

you're in charge . I trust you explicitly

6:14

to deal with this and I trust

6:17

you that you'll make the right decision . And whatever decision

6:19

you make , I know you've thought about it , I

6:28

know you you've weighed the pros and cons and you're going to make a decision and I'll support

6:30

it . Because I trust her so much that that , that she's good at what I'm not good at , that she's seeing

6:32

things that I'm not seeing , and so , uh , really trying to own that zero to one , um

6:35

, and be the the collaborator

6:37

of teams . I love building teams , I love putting

6:39

people together , I love connecting

6:41

people , and so that's what we tried to do .

6:42

I love connecting people and so

6:45

that's what we try to do . That

6:48

is awesome , and you're going to turn around and you get to coach me

6:50

, because that's one of the places

6:52

where we are is how do we

6:55

move into that next stage for us at

6:57

Leadwell ? But

7:03

also I'm thinking about CEOs that have been in their role for three years

7:05

and they've kind of got it set and now they need to jump into strategy to vision . Somebody

7:08

that just hired somebody six

7:10

months ago and they're getting ready to offload

7:14

, to pass on , to give the

7:16

growth opportunity to

7:18

somebody on their team to pick up some of the work

7:20

. And I'm sitting here listening

7:22

to all of these things and it all makes sense and

7:25

I still am like Jacob

7:27

, but

7:29

they don't know what I know , they

7:32

might not do it the way that I do it and

7:34

like , what do you mean ? You're

7:37

in charge , you , you just run this

7:39

like you're still responsible for this man . So

7:41

how do you start going about getting

7:43

these people ? Cause I'm guessing you

7:45

probably haven't hit a home run every time at least

7:48

nine out of 10 times , for sure , but not every time

7:50

. That's right , that's right .

7:51

Well , listen , listen

7:53

, let me be very clear . The way

7:56

that we got to Jacob today

7:58

is through a painful process , right , like

8:00

it's learning my

8:02

terrible leadership traits , starting out when I was young

8:05

and just wanting to just conquer the world

8:07

and was scared of failing

8:09

and wanted just to go

8:11

, go , go , go go . It didn't matter who was in the

8:13

wake of it team member , not team member , it didn't matter

8:15

and then a lot of it changed you

8:18

know part of our story that you know after my

8:20

son got sick and a lot of

8:22

just my philosophy on life changed

8:24

, right Of how I view life . That

8:26

doesn't mean I work any less

8:29

hard . Frankly , I probably work

8:31

harder today than I did before

8:33

. That for a lot of reasons , but

8:35

it helps frame up what's important

8:37

. And so I think when we could start

8:40

to let go of things is when we

8:42

can actually hand keys over , right ? I mean , that's an obvious statement

8:44

. But one thing I've learned is , if

8:48

you don't allow your team members

8:50

to actually lead the organization

8:52

or do the thing you've hired them to do , they

8:55

will leave , and what will happen is you'll

8:57

never get great talent . So what happens

8:59

is this cycle , right ? Well

9:02

, this person left , so now I've got to do this again . See , I

9:04

couldn't trust them with it . Well , did you actually

9:06

give it to them ? Because ? Did you actually

9:08

? Did you actually let them run with it ? Because if you didn't let

9:10

them run with it , yeah , I'd leave too if I were done

9:13

right ? You said , hey , you know , john , you hired me to do

9:15

X , y and Z , but every time I look over , I would have done

9:17

it . I'm just going to go , I'm just going to leave . Right

9:19

, I've

9:25

got one of my best friends . He's working

9:27

for a guy right now who cannot get

9:29

out of his way and you know what's about to happen . He's

9:32

got a small team of seven people and I bet five

9:34

of them are about to leave and the guy cannot

9:36

turn anything over . He hired my

9:38

buddy to be the COO of the company and

9:41

told him you're going to do X , y and

9:43

Z . And I know my buddy and I know he's telling me the truth , and I've

9:45

seen the emails and I've heard the phone calls , the

9:53

amount of things that he's been given to do zero Truly given

9:56

to do zero , because you've got this control on top . And again , yes , it's

9:58

your baby , you get it . You know where all the dead bodies are . You know which clients

10:00

to deal with , which ones not to deal with . But listen , what's

10:02

going to happen is that guy thinks

10:04

he's controlling the business and

10:06

he's about to lose his entire team , and

10:09

so unless we actually give people the

10:11

rope to fail , then they're

10:14

going to leave us and then we're never going to be able to

10:16

build great teams . If we want to build great teams

10:18

, you actually got to let the team go do something

10:20

. Now , does that come with failures

10:22

? Oh yeah . Does it come with mistakes ? Oh yeah

10:24

, you

10:31

know , I , I , I , uh again . I'll reference our general manager . The other day . Uh , at one of our businesses

10:33

, we have this constant debate going on about it , one of our internal issues , and

10:36

and I , I , I say I always

10:38

fall in love with hey , you know where

10:40

I stand on this , but you're in charge . And she

10:42

said you know what you mean when you say that . You

10:44

know you're actually casting a vote right , and I'm like

10:46

, I know that , but I want you to know that

10:48

if you go against me , I promise you

10:50

I'm good with it . Like

10:53

I've written that off in my

10:55

head . Or I've said hey , listen

10:58

, I reserve the right to be right or wrong

11:00

or whatever it may be , and she goes . You know , every time

11:02

you say that though you've actually , I've

11:04

actually changed my opinion to what you want me to do and we've actually ended

11:06

up being right , I'm like , well , listen , that's not actually the goal

11:08

. I've been wrong on plenty of things , but

11:11

but if I really do believe I'm

11:14

giving you the power to do it , knowing

11:17

that we may fail . And here's the deal , man , listen

11:20

, especially when you're dealing with young people and

11:22

I think young people are bad at what I'm saying is is

11:24

um , um , work

11:26

experience , and and

11:28

I'll , I'll follow , like our , our sales team , and

11:31

I'm like I would not have said it that

11:33

way . So let me , let me , let me talk to you about how

11:35

we should say it this way . Did we think about this

11:37

angle ? And listen , people do that to me

11:39

. I was just on a call with a , an executive

11:41

coach , right , like I don't have all the answers

11:43

. I asked , asked him how would you do X , y and Z ? And he was going

11:45

through one of our pitch decks and

11:48

he's like , well , why'd you say it like that ? It's a great question . I actually

11:50

have no idea why I said it like that . Help me figure out a better

11:52

way to say it . You

12:02

know , and so this is not a . It's your baby , right ? It's literally

12:04

. It's your name , you know , and so

12:07

that's tough to let go . But you will

12:09

not build the organization you want to build

12:11

with awesome A-plus

12:13

talent unless you actually let

12:15

them go do what they're supposed to do .

12:18

Yeah , Amen . So I think you

12:20

said a really interesting thing in that sometimes

12:23

the tighter we grab on and

12:25

the more we try to control , the

12:28

less control we actually have . That's

12:30

right , Because now all of a sudden , everything around

12:32

it is going to change and it's going to become uncontrollable

12:34

because they leave and you've kind of squeezed

12:36

the life out of this thing . The other thing is there

12:39

. You you referenced in there so

12:41

much communication . It was just evident

12:44

in how you're talking with your GM . This

12:46

you know what we're going to do and

12:48

learn , almost like a learn do

12:50

teach type of thing , where you're just out there

12:52

and it's like go do the sales call , let's coach

12:55

on it , let's talk about these things . So

12:57

, communication , coaching , what

12:59

are the things that you are trying to do

13:01

in that chief leader role

13:03

, owner role , executive role

13:05

and as one that says I'm

13:08

going to focus on the things that only I can do , but

13:10

I also need to help . What

13:12

would you call it ? Lead , teach , coach

13:15

? For the other things , Like , what are the things that

13:17

you are focusing on to

13:19

make sure it keeps moving on the tracks the way

13:21

you are envisioning it moving ?

13:24

Yeah , I mean , that's I'm , I'm . I'm

13:26

struggling with that right now , trying to figure out , like , my

13:28

exact role and what that looks like . What does that look

13:30

like on on reporting structure ? What does it look like

13:32

on meeting structure ? Uh , what does it look like

13:35

on what reports I actually want to see or which ones I actually

13:37

could care less to see . You know , and

13:39

I actually making just somebody have a meeting

13:41

for the sake of a meeting , I don't subscribe to that . You

13:44

know , I have tried my best

13:46

, I'll say it this way . I've tried my best to constantly

13:48

communicate to my team what I'm

13:50

doing , and not

13:52

that I owe it to anybody to explain what

13:54

I'm doing , but if you know what I'm doing , then

13:57

, one , it shows you that I'm not doing your job

13:59

behind your back . Two , it

14:02

lets everybody know hey , this is what Jacob does . Jacob

14:04

goes and does X , y and Z and

14:06

I need the rest of the team to do their job . And

14:09

so if I'm communicating with you what I'm doing

14:11

and what I am not going

14:13

to do , then that helps pick

14:15

up the slack of what your expectation is right . And

14:18

I'm very upfront from the beginning . Hey , listen , I'm going over here . I'm

14:23

very upfront from the beginning . Hey , listen , I'm going over here , I'm doing this , I'm doing this , I'm doing this . So therefore you've

14:25

got to do X , y and Z . So I think that's part

14:27

of it . The

14:29

other thing is , I want

14:31

to create an environment where I

14:33

want every team member to know I'm good with you failing

14:35

, I'm good with it , I genuinely mean

14:37

I'm good with it , mean I'm good with it . And I think once

14:39

we like , if we actually give that away

14:42

, that's

14:48

when we can actually see growth in them . But also we can have the opportunities to coach or we can

14:50

question hey , why did we do it this way ? What were we thinking ? Walk me through why you

14:52

did that . And a lot of times you'll get an idea go , yeah

14:55

, that's a fantastic idea . Never would have thought

14:57

about that . And and

14:59

what it does is it creates the freedom for them to push

15:01

back as well . And

15:03

I'm trying not to jump in and be a parachute leader

15:06

where I actually I say you can go , do it , but

15:08

then at the last second I'm going to jump in and I'm just going to fix it

15:10

. And so

15:12

I think a lot of it is creating that environment to fail and

15:14

knowing that when you pick up the phone , you call me and

15:17

you tell me you just made a colossal mistake . I'm not

15:19

going to shoot you out , I'm going to go . Okay , how

15:21

are we going to fix it ? And let's , let's go on

15:23

from there . But but that's an evolution , right , like , like

15:25

that was not Jacob . Like

15:28

in in in 2017 or earlier

15:30

, right 2017 , like , I

15:32

keep saying , is when my son got sick . That changes how I view

15:34

everything . Right , like there are bigger fish

15:36

in this world to fry and there are bigger

15:38

problems in this world than did we just

15:40

lose in an account . Now , does

15:42

that mean your business might go under ? Maybe , but

15:45

do we still have a family ? Do we still have our faith ? Do

15:47

we still have those important things ? Yeah , if we have

15:49

those things and , man , it's just a work problem . It's

15:52

just a work problem , and , and so

15:54

I think that , but that's an evolution . That's an evolution

15:56

that has come over the last few years in the hard

15:58

way .

16:02

Yeah , I mean all of those right . It's like I think , everybody that we talked to that has

16:05

a significantly different perspective , has

16:07

a massive crisis , kind

16:09

of a wilderness where I'm lost , or

16:11

just something that has completely

16:14

blindsided them , that forces them to

16:16

change . And you

16:18

referenced that your son kind of life-changing

16:21

perspective . You

16:29

referenced a coach and a good friend speaking in and saying man , this is where I see you

16:31

winning . Talk through some of the other components

16:34

that kind of pulled you through

16:36

there . Because , like we said , there's the idea

16:38

that if I'm the leader , I got to do everything . I got to do everything , I got to

16:40

touch everything . If I don't even have the answer

16:42

, the moment that my board , my investor

16:45

, this team member , says X , like

16:53

well , then I'm a fraud , or I'm not good enough , or I'm not supposed

16:55

to be there , like that's a . It's a very long process to get to the place where you

16:58

can say here are my priorities

17:00

, here's

17:03

what I'm good at and here's all of the things that I need

17:05

help with .

17:06

Yeah , yeah , man , you know it's funny

17:08

. I battle the imposter syndrome

17:10

daily , and it's not even

17:12

really daily , it's probably hour by hour . Right , I'm going

17:14

no , no , no , I belong here , I belong in

17:16

this room . You and I were saying that the

17:18

dinner we were at you and I were saying that the dinner we were at , you know

17:20

, a couple of weeks ago . How on God's grand earth are we sitting in this room

17:22

? Right Like , but it's they actually knew

17:24

right , you know kind of kind of deal and and so

17:26

let's be real , we did not belong in that room

17:28

it was grace and generosity

17:31

that got us in that room . That's exactly right , and it was wonderful

17:34

, that's exactly right , no-transcript

18:11

. And so then I struggle with well , am

18:13

I ever going to be there ? And

18:15

I think you and I talked about

18:18

this . I think we've got to get clear on what we're even

18:20

defining . What's the scoreboard

18:22

? Sometimes I get lost

18:24

. I'm not even sure what the scoreboard is . If

18:28

I don't know what the scoreboard is , I don't know what

18:30

game I'm playing . Do

18:32

you want a high score or a low score ? I'm not sure if I don't

18:34

know what game I'm playing . I

18:37

think that's what I struggle with . I

18:40

say that from a point of struggling to go . The

18:43

good days , the days that I feel like I'm I'm doing

18:45

well , is when I'm living in exactly how

18:47

I'm wired to be , and there , and there's some

18:50

books I've read there's , there's people I've talked to allow

18:52

people to to , to give me

18:54

good , honest , loving feedback

18:57

of saying , hey , you are not . I

18:59

don't need you to go do X , y and Z , I

19:01

need you to do exactly what you're doing right now . Now

19:03

, yes , there's times where you need to jump in and you

19:06

need to sit through doing a you know an operating

19:08

manual or something like that , where , like , that's not your

19:10

skill set but , but overall

19:12

, no , it's better for the organization if you're not doing

19:15

those things and and being

19:18

confident in that and not that I have to have all

19:20

the answers . And I

19:22

had one of my business partners he told me one time

19:24

. He said , man , we got to get really good

19:26

at going . Yeah , I don't know the answer to that

19:28

question . It's a great question . I'll figure

19:30

it out , I'll get back to you . And

19:35

I think you know whether it's being young or it's probably actually , it's probably anybody , but especially

19:37

when you're raising money or you're casting a vision of business and they and they got

19:39

those questions . Not that it's like even a gotcha question , it's a

19:41

question . You're like I never thought about that or actually I

19:43

don't know the answer . That's a unique question . We're

19:45

so prone to try to figure out the answer

19:48

on the fly , right , because we don't want to be

19:50

, we don't want to be caught or we don't want to . You

19:52

know somebody go . Oh my gosh , this kid doesn't know what he's talking

19:54

about . I've gotten more

19:56

positive feedback from people when I go

19:58

you , you know , actually I don't know . It's a great question

20:00

. Let me get back to you tonight on that . They

20:02

go , okay , sounds good . I've yet

20:04

to encounter the person that goes . You don't know the answer to that question . If you

20:06

don't know the answer to that question , get out of my office

20:09

, right , I've yet to

20:11

find that person out there . And so I

20:14

think it's this , this evolution of

20:16

of , of figuring out how you're wired , how

20:18

God's wired you , and being super

20:20

confident that now I

20:22

say all that to say I've got to get better at being super confident

20:24

that on a daily basis . I don't sit here mastering

20:28

that yet , but I know what I need to

20:30

be . I know what I need to do .

20:31

Yeah , I

20:33

think that is so powerful that

20:35

the lie that we tell ourselves is

20:38

that we have to give an answer for

20:40

people to think we know what we're talking about

20:42

when really , if we say I

20:44

don't know , let me get back to you . We

20:47

gained so much trust and

20:49

respect because everybody can

20:51

tell when it's a BS answer anyways .

20:53

Yep , yeah , and I think I think not only like to

20:56

like investors or board , but man to people

20:58

that that quote unquote report to us or our team

21:00

members . I think if we can say it to those people

21:02

, I think that that shows them , oh

21:05

okay , it's great they were modeling

21:07

right , like we're mine , cause I don't want them to BS an answer to

21:09

me . I don't want to turn around and say , hey , is the

21:11

number of this or this ? And they go . Well

21:13

, this one hold on , I'd

21:15

rather you go . I

21:26

actually have no idea . Let me do some research , I'll get back to you . I don't want you to make it enough and so , if I can show the humility of going

21:28

, I don't know , it's a great question . Let's figure that out . I think I think we've gotten , and probably we've always dealt with this as a society

21:31

, but we've got this mentality

21:33

that we have to have it all buttoned up , and that transcends

21:35

outside of work too , I think in life , I think

21:37

raising kids , I think being

21:39

friends with people , I think you know , managing

21:43

your finances , all

21:45

of these things . I think we'd be better off to go . I actually have

21:47

no clue and I'm

21:49

all ears , so I'm trying

21:51

to learn that in every facet of my life .

21:54

Yeah , fio , figuring it

21:56

out is a good place to be , and I

21:59

know that you have a lot of things that you

22:01

do extremely well that you can

22:03

and need to be confident in , and

22:05

one of them is the thing that

22:07

I just absolutely love and I picture

22:09

in my brain you as

22:11

Jesse Cole from Savannah Bananas

22:14

, as a cowboy going and doing amusement

22:16

parks . So I hope that you live into

22:18

my vision of the

22:21

cowboy amusement park Jesse

22:23

Cole personification . This

22:25

is what I'm hoping for , but please can you tell

22:27

us about amusement parks

22:30

and Dig World and the fact that you

22:33

have a company that is going to

22:36

purchase and run and make

22:38

amusement parks and entertainment a part

22:40

of your business portfolio ? So tell

22:42

us all that you want to tell us , because this is

22:44

so much fun .

22:46

Well , man , listen , you just probably gave me one of the highest

22:48

compliments I've ever been given . So if I can , you

22:50

know I'll start telling people I'm the zero to one guy and

22:52

I'm Jesse Cole with a cowboy hat . I

22:54

am good with that comparison

22:57

by a lot . Jesse

23:00

Cole , like John said , the owner of Savannah Bananas

23:02

, his book Fans First , highly recommend

23:04

. Everybody needs to read it . Just

23:07

really how he's revolutionized

23:09

the game of baseball and how

23:11

he's created this fans first experience

23:13

and loves on people . So highly , highly recommend

23:15

that book . But

23:19

you know I've referenced a couple times now my son got sick

23:21

. My son got sick in 2017 . He contracted bacterial

23:23

meningitis . They left him with permanent

23:25

disabilities and he's got a whole host

23:27

of issues now . But

23:29

he is a happy , joyful little dude . But you

23:32

know he's permanently disabled and he's in a wheelchair

23:34

, nonverbal and epileptic and

23:36

, you know , deaf in both ears and you

23:38

know the list goes on and on . But

23:41

one of the things that he always has

23:43

loved pre getting sick in

23:45

post , is construction equipment garbage trucks , dump

23:47

trucks , the whole nine yards . And

23:50

so we we stumbled across this

23:52

opportunity of a theme park . It's

23:54

up in New Jersey where they let kids operate

23:56

real construction equipment , and

23:58

so we said , man , if that's a real thing , we

24:01

need to do that in Texas . And we need to do it because Pierce

24:03

loves construction equipment and you know , what

24:05

At the end of the day , let's figure

24:07

out a way to bring families together and family

24:10

can mean a lot of things right ? Let's bring friends

24:12

together . Let's bring cousins together

24:14

. Let's bring college roommates together . Let's

24:19

bring just people together and have a good time and really show them

24:21

what we you know , I'm

24:23

a believer in Jesus

24:25

and we want to show them the gospel without

24:28

hitting them over the head with a Bible , and

24:30

we want to meet people right where Jesus would meet people and

24:32

love them . That's the name of the game . And oh , by the

24:34

way , we get to do it at a theme park . And

24:36

so we set out to build a

24:40

theme park where we let kids operate real construction

24:42

equipment , and so it's based here in Katy , Texas

24:44

.

24:44

Can you describe real construction

24:47

equipment , Because I am thinking

24:49

of oh yeah , we had those little sandboxes

24:51

where it was like three feet tall and I got to pull my little

24:53

arms on the crane and do this thing . And my

24:56

friends , that's not what Jacob is talking about

24:58

.

25:03

That's right . We are talking about real mini excavators that you see on the side of the road every single

25:05

day digging ditches , and we're talking about real skid steers that you

25:07

see on the side of the road moving dirt around . These

25:10

are full blown machines . We've

25:12

obviously re-engineered them to

25:14

where they're safe , but we let kids as young as three

25:16

years old operate them by themselves and they can

25:19

dig dirt , they can play games and try to move objects

25:21

around . They can drive the skid steer around the windy

25:23

track . We've got some other things out there at the park

25:25

, but we opened it in

25:27

March of 2022 . And

25:30

we knew nothing . We knew nothing about theme parks

25:32

and that showed in the first few

25:34

months . We've been paying the price ever since . But

25:55

what In the first few months ? We've been paying the price ever since , but ? But what

25:57

we did find is that man I'll talk about in a second . We get

25:59

to be in a space that

26:01

truly ingrains

26:03

memories into a family's

26:05

memory bank . There's

26:07

a lot of great things in the world , and there's a lot of great

26:09

businesses in the world , and there's a lot of great people in

26:11

the world , but if you think back about your

26:13

family and your life , there's

26:16

things that you reference right . A lot of times they're trips

26:18

and a lot of vacations or or theme parks

26:20

you went to and we get to be the holder of those

26:23

memories for people and that's like that's a huge

26:25

honor and a huge blessing . And so we

26:27

, we felt like there was an opportunity in the

26:29

theme park space across

26:31

the country . So think middle market theme parks , so

26:33

think your regional roller coasters

26:36

, your bigger rides not Six Flags

26:38

, not the big , big , big , big stuff but

26:40

kind of middle .

26:40

You're not going to purchase Disney at any

26:42

time soon . Not any time soon .

26:44

Now , if Bob Iger wants to call next week , we can talk

26:47

prices , but that

26:49

$10 million to $100 million revenue

26:51

range . And so we're out there pursuing

26:53

theme parks , water parks , other

26:56

attractions , kind of like a dig world resorts

26:59

, and what we're really doing is we're trying to . We

27:01

want to show people Jesus , but

27:03

we're going to do it through the theme parks

27:05

and it's a really unique asset

27:08

class . I was not , I'm not , a theme

27:10

park guy . I didn't grow up going to theme parks . I'm

27:12

actually scared of heights . But

27:15

what I've found is this awesome opportunity

27:17

and where we get

27:19

to really invest in the community , invest in the

27:21

employees and and we , we get

27:24

to invest in those assets . And

27:26

so these are a lot of times they're family owned . They've

27:28

been owned for a really long time , Like one

27:30

of the one of the parks we're looking at has been owned in the same family

27:32

since 1924 . And

27:35

so we get to help shepherd that to

27:37

the next , the next .

27:38

You know era um , and one's

27:40

been owned since the , I think , 1890

27:43

it's a long time , long time , oh my

27:45

goodness , before theme parks even existed that's

27:47

exactly right , exactly right , uh .

27:49

And so we , we that's what we're building

27:51

, uh , and we want to kind of operate that

27:54

middle market space , uh , of owning theme parks

27:56

and water parks across the country . And you know

27:58

, and we get to it's really unique

28:00

on who we get to hire , too right , like we

28:02

get to hire kids starting at like 15 , 16

28:05

years old , all the way up to

28:07

, you know , people that will be career people

28:10

at our company and that's really awesome

28:12

. Like , if you think about , like there

28:14

might be a kid out there that works for us when they're 16

28:16

. And the way that we set our culture , our

28:19

standards , our leadership , whatever

28:21

we want to call it , and that shapes the trajectory of their

28:23

life , that's awesome . Like that's

28:26

if we get to be a catapult into their story

28:28

man , that's super awesome , super humbling

28:30

. So , anyways , I am turning into your theme

28:32

park guy . So Jesse Cole is the Savannah Banana guy

28:34

.

28:36

I am . I am getting you a very

28:39

large uh cowboy

28:41

hat . This is not even normal size

28:43

Like . It's just everything's bigger in Texas

28:46

and I want you to be ridiculously

28:48

awesome uh and wear it to uh

28:50

any , any event that you go to that

28:53

has to do with the theme parks , Absolutely

28:55

Now I may I may have to take it off in the airport

28:57

.

28:57

Uh , he , I think he wears his yellow tuxedo all the way through

28:59

the airport , but uh , but , so

29:01

he may be tougher than I am , uh

29:03

so you know actually like it's interesting

29:06

, right , like going back to what we just talked about . What's interesting about

29:08

him is he talks about his book man . That's

29:10

who he was like , that's who he wanted to be and

29:12

and he said he got . He had to even get comfortable wearing

29:15

his yellow tuxedo through the airport because he thought people were

29:17

going to look at him . So I say I say I say encouragement

29:19

is man , people that we idolize and we look

29:21

up to and we aspire to be , they're struggling

29:24

with the same things and if we're all just honest with ourselves

29:26

, right , we can all can encourage each other a little

29:28

bit better .

29:30

Yeah , well , I hope that everybody's

29:32

encouraged by Jacob's story and really to lead

29:34

in your sweet spot and that you get there by getting really clear and really to lead in your

29:36

sweet spot and that you

29:38

get there by getting

29:40

really clear and really comfortable with the

29:43

value that you bring , with what you need from other

29:45

people , with the priorities

29:47

that you have in life and in work

29:49

and then inviting people in

29:51

and just like y'all say , in Dig World , hey

29:54

, we are all always under construction

29:56

and so

29:58

, to anybody that's listening , you have to

30:00

come to Dig World , you have to connect with Jacob

30:02

and I . We will do dinner and

30:05

we will play around on machines that we have

30:07

no business playing around on .

30:08

That's exactly right and it would be awesome .

30:11

So , jacob , before I let you go , we

30:13

are on the Leadwell podcast and I

30:15

have to ask you what does it mean

30:18

to you to lead ? Well , it's

30:20

a good question .

30:22

You know , I thought about that question

30:24

. I would say , to love people . And

30:27

I think if we truly

30:30

set out to love people , like Jesus did , I

30:32

listened to a book one time and

30:35

this guy said you know , he was sitting

30:37

with a local pastor of

30:39

a homeless ministry and this person came in

30:41

and was talking to him and he said I looked at that person , I

30:43

looked at that pastor , look at that person and he saw

30:45

a soul that Jesus created and

30:47

it was worth dying for . And

30:50

I think if we can love people

30:52

, no matter the backgrounds , no matter the baggage

30:54

they bring to the table , no matter their flaws as an employee

30:56

or a co-worker or a guest or whoever

30:58

it may be , but if we can love people . Well

31:01

then , I think we've become a better leader . So

31:03

that's what I aspire to do . I'm

31:06

trying to get better and better at it .

31:09

Love people well to lead people well

31:11

. Jacob Robinson , thank you so much

31:14

for being a guest on here . Everybody , you can find

31:16

out more about DigWorld at digworldtxcom

31:19

and we will put that and

31:21

some ways to connect with Jacob as including

31:24

his podcast , that he's a co-host

31:26

chasing what matters . We will put all

31:28

of that in the show notes . My friend

31:30

, thank you for doing this , for your generosity

31:33

and being here . You are an absolute pleasure and

31:35

a joy and and I can't wait

31:37

to follow my own Jesse

31:39

Cole cowboy wherever he's going . So thank

31:41

you , jacob , I love it . Thanks for letting me be here , brother

31:43

, appreciate it Absolutely

31:45

. Everybody else , be well

31:47

, lead on , and God bless .