April 8, 2024 • 31 mins
Have you ever wondered what it takes to carve out your niche in leadership? Join me as I sit down with Jacob Robinson, the dynamic CEO making waves in the amusement park industry. Together, we unearth the nuances of being a 'zero to one' leader—those rare visionaries who breathe life into ideas and create teams that push boundaries. Jacob's journey from service sector CEO to theme park entrepreneur delves into the importance of playing to your strengths, strategically filling gaps with talented individuals, and the transformative power of stepping back to let others shine.
Leadership isn't just about vision; it's about fostering trust and empowering your team to soar. This episode takes a hard look at the pitfalls of micromanagement and the vital role of autonomy in nurturing talent. Hear firsthand the story of a COO friend who thrived under the weight of an overbearing boss, and how that experience sculpted my own 'learn-do-teach' philosophy. Together, we'll explore how clear communication and the courage to let others lead can turn a struggling team into a high-performing powerhouse.
Alongside my friend Jacob Robinson, host of 'Chasing What Matters' podcast, we discuss how DigWorld is not just an amusement park, but a mission to impact lives through joy and shared values. So tune in and let the spirit of adventure and leadership guide you through this inspiring episode.
Find more about Jacob and Dig World at:
Email
FB
Instagram
Chasing What Matters Podcast
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Order your copy of Jon's book at RedefineYourServantLeadership.com, and don't forget to utilize the additional resources, or purchase access to the Workbook and Coaching Videos.
Send your Leadership and Business questions to Jon at podcast@leadwell.com.
For more information visit https://leadwell.com
The Leadwell Podcast gives mission-driven leaders principled and practical advice to do just that, lead well.
In each episode, your host Jon Kidwell, interviews leaders with great stories, to share strategies that help leaders navigate complex, confusing, and often down-right challenging leadership, personal growth, business, and workplace culture situations.
Jon is a nonprofit executive turned coach, speaker, author, and CEO of a leadership development company. In working with nonprofits and businesses, big and small, he realized the unique challenges leaders face when they are committed to keeping the mission and people the top priority. Those leaders’ commitment to their principles and the people they lead, plus seeing the need for more leaders who strive to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons, is what inspired Jon to start a leadership development company dedicated to the success of mission-driven leaders and their organiza...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You lead well when you are leading at your best.
And to lead at your best, youneed to be in your sweet spot
the strengths that you have thatyou can bring to the
organization Teaching people andgetting people to come in and
run and lead other parts of thebusiness, focusing on the
priorities and the things thatonly you can do.
And today our guest, jacobRobinson, is going to talk all
(00:22):
about how he figured out whathis leadership sweet spot is and
guide us into how we can dothat.
Before we jump in, let me tellyou a little bit about my friend
, jacob Robinson.
Jacob, in 2023, by HoustonBusiness Journal, was named one
of the most admired CEOs inHouston.
That's pretty amazing, and heis a bit of a serial
(00:43):
entrepreneur starting andgrowing businesses.
What I love about what Jacobdoes is they are all in the
service space, they do things tohelp people and lately he
started working in all of hislove of family and bringing
people together by buildingamusement parks.
Yes, that's right.
Jacob Robinson is my idea ofJesse Cole in a cowboy hat
(01:07):
building and buying and runningamusement parks.
I can't wait for him to tellyou all about it.
Let's dive into our conversationwith Jacob Robinson and how you
can lead in your sweet spotright now.
(01:29):
Jacob, I am so glad that youare here today because I really
want to talk about the fact thatleaders feel like they have to
do everything and they have tobe everything and they have to
be able to touch everythinginside of their business,
multiple businesses, theirorganization.
And you and I were sitting downfor breakfast one day and you
(01:52):
said, hey, I am the zero to oneguy, and then I got to find
people to help run and managewhatever we build and it just
blew me away.
So start telling me about thiszero to one idea and how you
started to figure that out.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, no, man.
Well, first off, thank you forletting me be here today.
I'm super honored to be here.
I'm super excited.
I've been looking forward tothis for a while.
So thank you all for letting mebe a part of it.
You know, the idea came.
I would like to say that I hadthis epiphany in the middle of
the night one night and I wokeup and it was like, oh my gosh,
there's this perfect leadershipsaying about how I'm wired.
But no, it was a friend of bothof ours, andrew Deerhead, and
(02:30):
he and I were talking togetherone day and he said, man, you
know, I look back at, like, whatyou've done and what you're
currently doing and you're areally good zero to one guy.
You're not a good two to 10 guy.
And I actually I heard LouisGiglio the other day, a pastor
out of Atlanta.
He was on a podcast and hedescribed himself as an A to B
(02:51):
leader and he needs C to Zpeople on his team.
And so, you know, we can callit zero to one, we call it A to
B, whatever we want to call it,but the idea really is, you know
, I'm the idea guy, right, I'mthe idea guy, I'm the mission
guy, I'm the vision guy, I amthe corraler of the team, and
then, frankly, a couple thingsstart to happen at that point.
(03:12):
One, the organization or theidea or the team starts to
quickly become too good for me.
I don't really have a roleanymore, because we've either
put smarter people around me youknow go-getters around me that
are taking it to the next leveland I kind of get left behind or
two, what happens is we reallystart to say, hey, listen,
that's not my skill set, likebuilding out an operating manual
(03:35):
, for example, like my braindoesn't work that way, my
eyeballs will fall out, all ofthe above.
If you ask me to do anoperating manual.
However, we've got people onour team that they just crush it
and I love looking at it.
Like, when it's done, I'm goingman, how, how in the world did
you come up with that?
Like I never in a million yearswould have seen.
Uh, that if you had asked me todo it.
So the idea is is really, how dowe get something going, how do
(03:59):
we get people to believe in whatwe're doing?
And then, how do I, quickly aspossible, get out of their way?
And I think a lot of times thisadage that we've learned, and
you may say, hey, you'reterrible, this is a terrible
thought process, but I think alot of people say, hey, you need
to work on your weaknesses,work on your weaknesses, work on
your weaknesses.
Listen, I think it's great toacknowledge your weaknesses and
(04:21):
then I would argue that's aninteresting viewers can see.
Did you see that?
Thumbs up, wow, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, we're full.
Ai is just baked into thisright here.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'll try not to talk with my hands as much.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's a multidimensional experience.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's right, no telling what's about to happen,
but I think a lot of times wework on trying to get better at
the things we're not good at andare not in the way the Lord
wired us and, instead of leaninginto the way you know, we're
designed, created the way thatwe can add value to an
organization.
Now, that does not mean I needto raise my hand and say, well,
hey, listen, I'm not good atthat, so I'm not going to do
(05:01):
those, those five things overthere.
But no, really acknowledginghey, I drive value here, you
drive value here.
And so when we can go out andwe hire against our weaknesses
and filling the room with smartpeople you know you've heard
people say make sure you're thedumbest person in the room.
If you've done that, you'llprobably start leading really
well.
Right, and because the ideasthat these other people are
(05:23):
going to come up with are justamazing.
Right, and because the ideasthat these other people are
going to come up with are justamazing, and so I've really
tried to focus on whocomplements my weaknesses, who
thinks the same way I thinkabout work and our drive and our
goals and our mission and ourvision.
But really, who's who's so muchsmarter than me at these things
that I'm terrible at, and then,at the same time, acknowledging
(05:45):
what I can bring to the tableRight and saying, hey, we don't
need two of me, I'd rather gohire somebody that can, that can
, work on my weaknesses.
So, you know, I've reallyleaned into that zero to one.
Now that doesn't mean I need tojust, you know, chunk the deuce
and get out of town and leaveall responsibilities, but rather
trying to hand the keys over tothe person.
(06:05):
I told our general manager thisother day, one of our, our, our,
businesses.
I said, listen, you're incharge.
Like, I appreciate you callingme, but you're in charge.
I trust you explicitly to dealwith this and I trust you that
you'll make the right decision.
And whatever decision you make,I know you've thought about it,
I know you you've weighed thepros and cons and you're going
(06:30):
to make a decision and I'llsupport it.
Because I trust her so muchthat that, that she's good at
what I'm not good at, that she'sseeing things that I'm not
seeing, and so, uh, reallytrying to own that zero to one,
um, and be the the collaboratorof teams.
I love building teams, I loveputting people together, I love
connecting people, and so that'swhat we tried to do.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I love connecting people and so that's what we try
to do.
That is awesome, and you'regoing to turn around and you get
to coach me, because that's oneof the places where we are is
how do we move into that nextstage for us at Leadwell?
But also I'm thinking aboutCEOs that have been in their
(07:04):
role for three years and they'vekind of got it set and now they
need to jump into strategy tovision.
Somebody that just hiredsomebody six months ago and
they're getting ready to offload, to pass on, to give the growth
opportunity to somebody ontheir team to pick up some of
the work.
And I'm sitting here listeningto all of these things and it
all makes sense and I still amlike Jacob, but they don't know
(07:30):
what I know, they might not doit the way that I do it and like
, what do you mean?
You're in charge, you, you justrun this like you're still
responsible for this man.
So how do you start going aboutgetting these people?
Cause I'm guessing you probablyhaven't hit a home run every
time at least nine out of 10times, for sure, but not every
time.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, listen, listen, let me be very clear.
The way that we got to Jacobtoday is through a painful
process, right, like it'slearning my terrible leadership
traits, starting out when I wasyoung and just wanting to just
conquer the world and was scaredof failing and wanted just to
go, go, go, go go.
(08:12):
It didn't matter who was in thewake of it team member, not
team member, it didn't matterand then a lot of it changed you
know part of our story that youknow after my son got sick and
a lot of just my philosophy onlife changed, right Of how I
view life.
That doesn't mean I work anyless hard.
Frankly, I probably work hardertoday than I did before.
(08:33):
That for a lot of reasons, butit helps frame up what's
important.
And so I think when we couldstart to let go of things is
when we can actually hand keysover, right?
I mean, that's an obviousstatement.
But one thing I've learned is,if you don't allow your team
members to actually lead theorganization or do the thing
you've hired them to do, theywill leave, and what will happen
(08:57):
is you'll never get greattalent.
So what happens is this cycle,right?
Well, this person left, so nowI've got to do this again.
See, I couldn't trust them withit.
Well, did you actually give itto them?
Because?
Did you actually?
Did you actually let them runwith it?
Because if you didn't let themrun with it, yeah, I'd leave too
if I were done right?
You said, hey, you know, john,you hired me to do X, y and Z,
but every time I look over, Iwould have done it.
(09:17):
I'm just going to go, I'm justgoing to leave.
Right, I've got one of my bestfriends.
He's working for a guy rightnow who cannot get out of his
way and you know what's about tohappen.
He's got a small team of sevenpeople and I bet five of them
are about to leave and the guycannot turn anything over.
He hired my buddy to be the COOof the company and told him
(09:41):
you're going to do X, y and Z.
And I know my buddy and I knowhe's telling me the truth, and
I've seen the emails and I'veheard the phone calls, the
amount of things that he's beengiven to do zero Truly given to
do zero, because you've got thiscontrol on top.
And again, yes, it's your baby,you get it.
You know where all the deadbodies are.
You know which clients to dealwith, which ones not to deal
with.
(10:01):
But listen, what's going tohappen is that guy thinks he's
controlling the business andhe's about to lose his entire
team, and so unless we actuallygive people the rope to fail,
then they're going to leave usand then we're never going to be
able to build great teams.
If we want to build great teams, you actually got to let the
team go do something.
Now, does that come withfailures?
(10:22):
Oh yeah.
Does it come with mistakes?
Oh yeah, you know, I, I, I, uhagain.
I'll reference our generalmanager.
The other day.
Uh, at one of our businesses, wehave this constant debate going
on about it, one of ourinternal issues, and and I, I, I
say I always fall in love withhey, you know where I stand on
this, but you're in charge.
And she said you know what youmean when you say that.
(10:44):
You know you're actuallycasting a vote right, and I'm
like, I know that, but I wantyou to know that if you go
against me, I promise you I'mgood with it.
Like I've written that off inmy head.
Or I've said hey, listen, Ireserve the right to be right or
wrong or whatever it may be,and she goes.
You know, every time you saythat though you've actually,
(11:04):
I've actually changed my opinionto what you want me to do and
we've actually ended up beingright, I'm like, well, listen,
that's not actually the goal.
I've been wrong on plenty ofthings, but but if I really do
believe I'm giving you the powerto do it, knowing that we may
fail.
And here's the deal, man, listen, especially when you're dealing
with young people and I thinkyoung people are bad at what I'm
saying is is um, um, workexperience, and and I'll, I'll
(11:29):
follow, like our, our sales team, and I'm like I would not have
said it that way.
So let me, let me, let me talkto you about how we should say
it this way.
Did we think about this angle?
And listen, people do that tome.
I was just on a call with a, anexecutive coach, right, like I
don't have all the answers.
I asked, asked him how would youdo X, y and Z?
And he was going through one ofour pitch decks and he's like,
well, why'd you say it like that?
(11:49):
It's a great question.
I actually have no idea why Isaid it like that.
Help me figure out a better wayto say it.
You know, and so this is not a.
It's your baby, right?
It's literally.
It's your name, you know, andso that's tough to let go.
But you will not build theorganization you want to build
(12:12):
with awesome A-plus talentunless you actually let them go
do what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, Amen.
So I think you said a reallyinteresting thing in that
sometimes the tighter we grab onand the more we try to control,
the less control we actuallyhave.
That's right, Because now allof a sudden, everything around
it is going to change and it'sgoing to become uncontrollable
because they leave and you'vekind of squeezed the life out of
this thing.
The other thing is there.
(12:39):
You you referenced in there somuch communication.
It was just evident in howyou're talking with your GM.
This you know what we're goingto do and learn, almost like a
learn do teach type of thing,where you're just out there and
it's like go do the sales call,let's coach on it, let's talk
about these things.
So, communication, coaching,what are the things that you are
(13:00):
trying to do in that chiefleader role, owner role,
executive role and as one thatsays I'm going to focus on the
things that only I can do, but Ialso need to help.
What would you call it?
Lead, teach, coach?
For the other things, Like,what are the things that you are
focusing on to make sure itkeeps moving on the tracks the
(13:21):
way you are envisioning itmoving?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's I'm, I'm.
I'm struggling with that rightnow, trying to figure out, like,
my exact role and what thatlooks like.
What does that look like on onreporting structure?
What does it look like onmeeting structure?
Uh, what does it look like onwhat reports I actually want to
see or which ones I actuallycould care less to see.
You know, and I actually makingjust somebody have a meeting
for the sake of a meeting, Idon't subscribe to that.
You know, I have tried my best,I'll say it this way.
(13:46):
I've tried my best toconstantly communicate to my
team what I'm doing, and notthat I owe it to anybody to
explain what I'm doing, but ifyou know what I'm doing, then,
one, it shows you that I'm notdoing your job behind your back.
Two, it lets everybody know hey, this is what Jacob does.
Jacob goes and does X, y and Zand I need the rest of the team
(14:07):
to do their job.
And so if I'm communicatingwith you what I'm doing and what
I am not going to do, then thathelps pick up the slack of what
your expectation is right.
And I'm very upfront from thebeginning.
Hey, listen, I'm going overhere.
I'm very upfront from thebeginning.
Hey, listen, I'm going overhere, I'm doing this, I'm doing
this, I'm doing this.
So therefore you've got to do X, y and Z.
So I think that's part of it.
(14:29):
The other thing is, I want tocreate an environment where I
want every team member to knowI'm good with you failing, I'm
good with it, I genuinely meanI'm good with it, mean I'm good
with it.
And I think once we like, if weactually give that away, that's
when we can actually see growthin them.
But also we can have theopportunities to coach or we can
(14:50):
question hey, why did we do itthis way?
What were we thinking?
Walk me through why you didthat.
And a lot of times you'll getan idea go, yeah, that's a
fantastic idea.
Never would have thought aboutthat.
And and what it does is itcreates the freedom for them to
push back as well.
And I'm trying not to jump inand be a parachute leader where
I actually I say you can go, doit, but then at the last second
I'm going to jump in and I'mjust going to fix it.
And so I think a lot of it iscreating that environment to
(15:14):
fail and knowing that when youpick up the phone, you call me
and you tell me you just made acolossal mistake.
I'm not going to shoot you out,I'm going to go.
Okay, how are we going to fixit?
And let's, let's go on fromthere.
But but that's an evolution,right, like, like that was not
Jacob.
Like in in in 2017 or earlier,right 2017, like, I keep saying,
is when my son got sick.
That changes how I vieweverything.
(15:35):
Right, like there are biggerfish in this world to fry and
there are bigger problems inthis world than did we just lose
in an account.
Now, does that mean yourbusiness might go under?
Maybe, but do we still have afamily?
Do we still have our faith?
Do we still have thoseimportant things?
Yeah, if we have those thingsand, man, it's just a work
problem.
It's just a work problem, and,and so I think that, but that's
(15:55):
an evolution.
That's an evolution that hascome over the last few years in
the hard way.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, I mean all of those right.
It's like I think, everybodythat we talked to that has a
significantly differentperspective, has a massive
crisis, kind of a wildernesswhere I'm lost, or just
something that has completelyblindsided them, that forces
them to change.
And you referenced that yourson kind of life-changing
perspective.
You referenced a coach and agood friend speaking in and
(16:31):
saying man, this is where I seeyou winning.
Talk through some of the othercomponents that kind of pulled
you through there.
Because, like we said, there'sthe idea that if I'm the leader,
I got to do everything.
I got to do everything, I gotto touch everything.
If I don't even have the answer, the moment that my board, my
investor, this team member, saysX, like well, then I'm a fraud,
(16:54):
or I'm not good enough, or I'mnot supposed to be there, like
that's a.
It's a very long process to getto the place where you can say
here are my priorities, here'swhat I'm good at and here's all
of the things that I need helpwith.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, man, you know it's funny.
I battle the imposter syndromedaily, and it's not even really
daily, it's probably hour byhour.
Right, I'm going no, no, no, Ibelong here, I belong in this
room.
You and I were saying that thedinner we were at you and I were
saying that the dinner we wereat, you know, a couple of weeks
ago.
How on God's grand earth are wesitting in this room?
Right Like, but it's theyactually knew right, you know
kind of kind of deal and and solet's be real, we did not belong
(17:28):
in that room it was grace andgenerosity that got us in that
room.
That's exactly right, and itwas wonderful, that's exactly
right, no-transcript.
(18:12):
And so then I struggle with well, am I ever going to be there?
And I think you and I talkedabout this.
I think we've got to get clearon what we're even defining.
What's the scoreboard?
Sometimes I get lost.
I'm not even sure what thescoreboard is.
If I don't know what thescoreboard is, I don't know what
game I'm playing.
Do you want a high score or alow score?
(18:33):
I'm not sure if I don't knowwhat game I'm playing.
I think that's what I strugglewith.
I say that from a point ofstruggling to go.
The good days, the days that Ifeel like I'm I'm doing well, is
when I'm living in exactly howI'm wired to be, and there, and
there's some books I've readthere's, there's people I've
talked to allow people to to, togive me good, honest, loving
(18:56):
feedback of saying, hey, you arenot.
I don't need you to go do X, yand Z, I need you to do exactly
what you're doing right now.
Now, yes, there's times whereyou need to jump in and you need
to sit through doing a you knowan operating manual or
something like that, where, like, that's not your skill set but,
but overall, no, it's betterfor the organization if you're
not doing those things and andbeing confident in that and not
(19:19):
that I have to have all theanswers.
And I had one of my businesspartners he told me one time.
He said, man, we got to getreally good at going.
Yeah, I don't know the answerto that question.
It's a great question.
I'll figure it out, I'll getback to you.
And I think you know whetherit's being young or it's
probably actually, it's probablyanybody, but especially when
you're raising money or you'recasting a vision of business and
they and they got thosequestions.
(19:40):
Not that it's like even a gotchaquestion, it's a question.
You're like I never thoughtabout that or actually I don't
know the answer.
That's a unique question.
We're so prone to try to figureout the answer on the fly,
right, because we don't want tobe, we don't want to be caught
or we don't want to.
You know somebody go.
Oh my gosh, this kid doesn'tknow what he's talking about.
I've gotten more positivefeedback from people when I go
you, you know, actually I don'tknow.
It's a great question.
(20:00):
Let me get back to you tonighton that.
They go, okay, sounds good.
I've yet to encounter theperson that goes.
You don't know the answer tothat question.
If you don't know the answer tothat question, get out of my
office, right, I've yet to findthat person out there.
And so I think it's this, thisevolution of of, of figuring out
how you're wired, how God'swired you, and being super
(20:20):
confident that now I say allthat to say I've got to get
better at being super confidentthat on a daily basis.
I don't sit here mastering thatyet, but I know what I need to
be.
I know what I need to do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, I think that is so powerful that the lie that
we tell ourselves is that wehave to give an answer for
people to think we know whatwe're talking about when really,
if we say I don't know, let meget back to you.
We gained so much trust andrespect because everybody can
(20:52):
tell when it's a BS answeranyways.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yep, yeah, and I think I think not only like to
like investors or board, but manto people that that quote
unquote report to us or our teammembers.
I think if we can say it tothose people, I think that that
shows them, oh okay, it's greatthey were modeling right, like
we're mine, cause I don't wantthem to BS an answer to me.
I don't want to turn around andsay, hey, is the number of this
or this?
And they go.
Well, this one hold on, I'drather you go.
(21:16):
I actually have no idea.
Let me do some research, I'llget back to you.
I don't want you to make itenough and so, if I can show the
humility of going, 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, butwe've got this mentality that we
have to have it all buttoned up, and that transcends outside of
work too, I think in life, Ithink raising kids, I think
(21:39):
being friends with people, Ithink you know, managing your
finances, all of these things.
I think we'd be better off togo.
I actually have no clue and I'mall ears, so I'm trying to
learn that in every facet of mylife.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, fio, figuring it out is a good place to be,
and I know that you have a lotof things that you do extremely
well that you can and need to beconfident in, and one of them
is the thing that I justabsolutely love and I picture in
my brain you as Jesse Cole fromSavannah Bananas, as a cowboy
(22:15):
going and doing amusement parks.
So I hope that you live into myvision of the cowboy amusement
park Jesse Cole personification.
This is what I'm hoping for,but please can you tell us about
amusement parks and Dig Worldand the fact that you have a
company that is going topurchase and run and make
(22:38):
amusement parks andentertainment a part of your
business portfolio?
So tell us all that you want totell us, because this is so
much fun.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, man, listen, you just probably gave me one of
the highest compliments I'veever been given.
So if I can, you know I'llstart telling people I'm the
zero to one guy and I'm JesseCole with a cowboy hat.
I am good with that comparisonby a lot.
Jesse Cole, like John said, theowner of Savannah Bananas, his
book Fans First, highlyrecommend.
Everybody needs to read it.
Just really how he'srevolutionized the game of
(23:09):
baseball and how he's createdthis fans first experience and
loves on people.
So highly, highly recommendthat book.
But you know I've referenced acouple times now my son got sick
.
My son got sick in 2017.
He contracted bacterialmeningitis.
They left him with permanentdisabilities and he's got a
whole host of issues now.
But he is a happy, joyfullittle dude.
(23:31):
But you know he's permanentlydisabled and he's in a
wheelchair, nonverbal andepileptic and, you know, deaf in
both ears and you know the listgoes on and on.
But one of the things that healways has loved pre getting
sick in post, is constructionequipment garbage trucks, dump
trucks, the whole nine yards.
And so we we stumbled acrossthis opportunity of a theme park
(23:54):
.
It's up in New Jersey wherethey let kids operate real
construction equipment, and sowe said, man, if that's a real
thing, we need to do that inTexas.
And we need to do it becausePierce loves construction
equipment and you know, what Atthe end of the day, let's figure
out a way to bring familiestogether and family can mean a
lot of things right?
Let's bring friends together.
Let's bring cousins together.
(24:14):
Let's bring college roommatestogether.
Let's bring just peopletogether and have a good time
and really show them what we youknow, I'm a believer in Jesus
and we want to show them thegospel without hitting them over
the head with a Bible, and wewant to meet people right where
Jesus would meet people and lovethem.
That's the name of the game.
And oh, by the way, we get todo it at a theme park.
(24:36):
And so we set out to build atheme park where we let kids
operate real constructionequipment, and so it's based
here in Katy, Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Can you describe real construction equipment, Because
I am thinking of oh yeah, wehad those little sandboxes where
it was like three feet tall andI got to pull my little arms on
the crane and do this thing.
And my friends, that's not whatJacob is talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's right.
We are talking about real miniexcavators that you see on the
side of the road every singleday digging ditches, and we're
talking about real skid steersthat you see on the side of the
road moving dirt around.
These are full blown machines.
We've obviously re-engineeredthem to where they're safe, but
we let kids as young as threeyears old operate them by
themselves and they can dig dirt, they can play games and try to
move objects around.
They can drive the skid steeraround the windy track.
(25:24):
We've got some other things outthere at the park, but we opened
it in March of 2022.
And we knew nothing.
We knew nothing about themeparks and that showed in the
first few months.
We've been paying the priceever since.
But what In the first fewmonths?
(25:55):
We've been paying the priceever since, but?
But what we did find is that manI'll talk about in a second.
We get to be in a space thattruly ingrains memories into a
family's memory bank.
There's a lot of great thingsin the world, and there's a lot
of great businesses in the world, and there's a lot of great
people in the world, but if youthink back about your family and
your life, there's things thatyou reference right.
(26:18):
A lot of times they're tripsand a lot of vacations or or
theme parks you went to and weget to be the holder of those
memories for people and that'slike that's a huge honor and a
huge blessing.
And so we, we felt like therewas an opportunity in the theme
park space across the country.
So think middle market themeparks, so think your regional
roller coasters, your biggerrides not Six Flags, not the big
(26:38):
, big, big, big stuff but kindof middle.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You're not going to purchase Disney at any time soon
.
Not any time soon.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Now, if Bob Iger wants to call next week, we can
talk prices, but that $10million to $100 million revenue
range.
And so we're out there pursuingtheme parks, water parks, other
attractions, kind of like a digworld resorts, and what we're
really doing is we're trying to.
We want to show people Jesus,but we're going to do it through
the theme parks and it's areally unique asset class.
(27:09):
I was not, I'm not, a themepark guy.
I didn't grow up going to themeparks.
I'm actually scared of heights.
But what I've found is thisawesome opportunity and where we
get to really invest in thecommunity, invest in the
employees and and we, we get toinvest in those assets.
And so these are a lot of timesthey're family owned.
They've been owned for a reallylong time, Like one of the one
(27:30):
of the parks we're looking athas been owned in the same
family since 1924.
And so we get to help shepherdthat to the next, the next.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know era um, and one's been owned since the, I
think, 1890 it's a long time,long time, oh my goodness,
before theme parks even existedthat's exactly right, exactly
right, uh.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And so we, we that's what we're building, uh, and we
want to kind of operate thatmiddle market space, uh, of
owning theme parks and waterparks across the country.
And you know, and we get toit's really unique on who we get
to hire, too right, like we getto hire kids starting at like
15, 16 years old, all the way upto, you know, people that will
be career people at our companyand that's really awesome.
(28:12):
Like, if you think about, likethere might be a kid out there
that works for us when they're16.
And the way that we set ourculture, our standards, our
leadership, whatever we want tocall it, and that shapes the
trajectory of their life, that'sawesome.
Like that's if we get to be acatapult into their story man,
that's super awesome, superhumbling.
So, anyways, I am turning intoyour theme park guy.
(28:33):
So Jesse Cole is the SavannahBanana guy.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I am.
I am getting you a very largeuh cowboy hat.
This is not even normal sizeLike.
It's just everything's biggerin Texas and I want you to be
ridiculously awesome uh and wearit to uh any, any event that
you go to that has to do withthe theme parks, Absolutely Now
I may I may have to take it offin the airport.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Uh, he, I think he wears his yellow tuxedo all the
way through the airport, but uh,but, so he may be tougher than
I am, uh so you know actuallylike it's interesting, right,
like going back to what we justtalked about.
What's interesting about him ishe talks about his book man.
That's who he was like, that'swho he wanted to be and and he
said he got.
He had to even get comfortablewearing his yellow tuxedo
through the airport because hethought people were going to
look at him.
So I say I say I sayencouragement is man, people
(29:20):
that we idolize and we look upto and we aspire to be, they're
struggling with the same thingsand if we're all just honest
with ourselves, right, we canall can encourage each other a
little bit better.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, well, I hope that everybody's encouraged by
Jacob's story and really to leadin your sweet spot and that you
get there by getting reallyclear and really to lead in your
sweet spot and that you getthere by getting really clear
and really comfortable with thevalue that you bring, with what
you need from other people, withthe priorities that you have in
life and in work and theninviting people in and just like
(29:52):
y'all say, in Dig World, hey,we are all always under
construction and so, to anybodythat's listening, you have to
come to Dig World, you have toconnect with Jacob and I.
We will do dinner and we willplay around on machines that we
have no business playing aroundon.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
That's exactly right and it would be awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So, jacob, before I let you go, we are on the
Leadwell podcast and I have toask you what does it mean to you
to lead?
Well, it's a good question.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know, I thought about that question.
I would say, to love people.
And I think if we truly set outto love people, like Jesus did,
I listened to a book one timeand this guy said you know, he
was sitting with a local pastorof a homeless ministry and this
person came in and was talkingto him and he said I looked at
(30:42):
that person, I looked at thatpastor, look at that person and
he saw a soul that Jesus createdand it was worth dying for.
And I think if we can lovepeople, no matter the
backgrounds, no matter thebaggage they bring to the table,
no matter their flaws as anemployee or a co-worker or a
guest or whoever it may be, butif we can love people.
Well then, I think we've becomea better leader.
(31:03):
So that's what I aspire to do.
I'm trying to get better andbetter at it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Love people well to lead people well.
Jacob Robinson, thank you somuch for being a guest on here.
Everybody, you can find outmore about DigWorld at
digworldtxcom and we will putthat and some ways to connect
with Jacob as including hispodcast, that he's a co-host
chasing what matters.
We will put all of that in theshow notes.
(31:29):
My friend, thank you for doingthis, for your generosity and
being here.
You are an absolute pleasureand a joy and and I can't wait
to follow my own Jesse Colecowboy wherever he's going.
So thank you, jacob, I love it.
Thanks for letting me be here,brother, appreciate it
Absolutely.
Everybody else, be well, leadon, and God bless.
You lead well when you are leading at your best.
And to lead at your best, youneed to be in your sweet spot
the strengths that you have thatyou can bring to the
organization Teaching people andgetting people to come in and
run and lead other parts of thebusiness, focusing on the
priorities and the things thatonly you can do.
And today our guest, jacobRobinson, is going to talk all
(00:22):
about how he figured out whathis leadership sweet spot is and
guide us into how we can dothat.
Before we jump in, let me tellyou a little bit about my friend
, jacob Robinson.
Jacob, in 2023, by HoustonBusiness Journal, was named one
of the most admired CEOs inHouston.
That's pretty amazing, and heis a bit of a serial
(00:43):
entrepreneur starting andgrowing businesses.
What I love about what Jacobdoes is they are all in the
service space, they do things tohelp people and lately he
started working in all of hislove of family and bringing
people together by buildingamusement parks.
Yes, that's right.
Jacob Robinson is my idea ofJesse Cole in a cowboy hat
(01:07):
building and buying and runningamusement parks.
I can't wait for him to tellyou all about it.
Let's dive into our conversationwith Jacob Robinson and how you
can lead in your sweet spotright now.
(01:29):
Jacob, I am so glad that youare here today because I really
want to talk about the fact thatleaders feel like they have to
do everything and they have tobe everything and they have to
be able to touch everythinginside of their business,
multiple businesses, theirorganization.
And you and I were sitting downfor breakfast one day and you
(01:52):
said, hey, I am the zero to oneguy, and then I got to find
people to help run and managewhatever we build and it just
blew me away.
So start telling me about thiszero to one idea and how you
started to figure that out.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, no, man.
Well, first off, thank you forletting me be here today.
I'm super honored to be here.
I'm super excited.
I've been looking forward tothis for a while.
So thank you all for letting mebe a part of it.
You know, the idea came.
I would like to say that I hadthis epiphany in the middle of
the night one night and I wokeup and it was like, oh my gosh,
there's this perfect leadershipsaying about how I'm wired.
But no, it was a friend of bothof ours, andrew Deerhead, and
(02:30):
he and I were talking togetherone day and he said, man, you
know, I look back at, like, whatyou've done and what you're
currently doing and you're areally good zero to one guy.
You're not a good two to 10 guy.
And I actually I heard LouisGiglio the other day, a pastor
out of Atlanta.
He was on a podcast and hedescribed himself as an A to B
(02:51):
leader and he needs C to Zpeople on his team.
And so, you know, we can callit zero to one, we call it A to
B, whatever we want to call it,but the idea really is, you know
, I'm the idea guy, right, I'mthe idea guy, I'm the mission
guy, I'm the vision guy, I amthe corraler of the team, and
then, frankly, a couple thingsstart to happen at that point.
(03:12):
One, the organization or theidea or the team starts to
quickly become too good for me.
I don't really have a roleanymore, because we've either
put smarter people around me youknow go-getters around me that
are taking it to the next leveland I kind of get left behind or
two, what happens is we reallystart to say, hey, listen,
that's not my skill set, likebuilding out an operating manual
(03:35):
, for example, like my braindoesn't work that way, my
eyeballs will fall out, all ofthe above.
If you ask me to do anoperating manual.
However, we've got people onour team that they just crush it
and I love looking at it.
Like, when it's done, I'm goingman, how, how in the world did
you come up with that?
Like I never in a million yearswould have seen.
Uh, that if you had asked me todo it.
So the idea is is really, how dowe get something going, how do
(03:59):
we get people to believe in whatwe're doing?
And then, how do I, quickly aspossible, get out of their way?
And I think a lot of times thisadage that we've learned, and
you may say, hey, you'reterrible, this is a terrible
thought process, but I think alot of people say, hey, you need
to work on your weaknesses,work on your weaknesses, work on
your weaknesses.
Listen, I think it's great toacknowledge your weaknesses and
(04:21):
then I would argue that's aninteresting viewers can see.
Did you see that?
Thumbs up, wow, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Okay, we're full.
Ai is just baked into thisright here.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'll try not to talk with my hands as much.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
It's a multidimensional experience.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
That's right, no telling what's about to happen,
but I think a lot of times wework on trying to get better at
the things we're not good at andare not in the way the Lord
wired us and, instead of leaninginto the way you know, we're
designed, created the way thatwe can add value to an
organization.
Now, that does not mean I needto raise my hand and say, well,
hey, listen, I'm not good atthat, so I'm not going to do
(05:01):
those, those five things overthere.
But no, really acknowledginghey, I drive value here, you
drive value here.
And so when we can go out andwe hire against our weaknesses
and filling the room with smartpeople you know you've heard
people say make sure you're thedumbest person in the room.
If you've done that, you'llprobably start leading really
well.
Right, and because the ideasthat these other people are
(05:23):
going to come up with are justamazing.
Right, and because the ideasthat these other people are
going to come up with are justamazing, and so I've really
tried to focus on whocomplements my weaknesses, who
thinks the same way I thinkabout work and our drive and our
goals and our mission and ourvision.
But really, who's who's so muchsmarter than me at these things
that I'm terrible at, and then,at the same time, acknowledging
(05:45):
what I can bring to the tableRight and saying, hey, we don't
need two of me, I'd rather gohire somebody that can, that can
, work on my weaknesses.
So, you know, I've reallyleaned into that zero to one.
Now that doesn't mean I need tojust, you know, chunk the deuce
and get out of town and leaveall responsibilities, but rather
trying to hand the keys over tothe person.
(06:05):
I told our general manager thisother day, one of our, our, our,
businesses.
I said, listen, you're incharge.
Like, I appreciate you callingme, but you're in charge.
I trust you explicitly to dealwith this and I trust you that
you'll make the right decision.
And whatever decision you make,I know you've thought about it,
I know you you've weighed thepros and cons and you're going
(06:30):
to make a decision and I'llsupport it.
Because I trust her so muchthat that, that she's good at
what I'm not good at, that she'sseeing things that I'm not
seeing, and so, uh, reallytrying to own that zero to one,
um, and be the the collaboratorof teams.
I love building teams, I loveputting people together, I love
connecting people, and so that'swhat we tried to do.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I love connecting people and so that's what we try
to do.
That is awesome, and you'regoing to turn around and you get
to coach me, because that's oneof the places where we are is
how do we move into that nextstage for us at Leadwell?
But also I'm thinking aboutCEOs that have been in their
(07:04):
role for three years and they'vekind of got it set and now they
need to jump into strategy tovision.
Somebody that just hiredsomebody six months ago and
they're getting ready to offload, to pass on, to give the growth
opportunity to somebody ontheir team to pick up some of
the work.
And I'm sitting here listeningto all of these things and it
all makes sense and I still amlike Jacob, but they don't know
(07:30):
what I know, they might not doit the way that I do it and like
, what do you mean?
You're in charge, you, you justrun this like you're still
responsible for this man.
So how do you start going aboutgetting these people?
Cause I'm guessing you probablyhaven't hit a home run every
time at least nine out of 10times, for sure, but not every
time.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, listen, listen, let me be very clear.
The way that we got to Jacobtoday is through a painful
process, right, like it'slearning my terrible leadership
traits, starting out when I wasyoung and just wanting to just
conquer the world and was scaredof failing and wanted just to
go, go, go, go go.
(08:12):
It didn't matter who was in thewake of it team member, not
team member, it didn't matterand then a lot of it changed you
know part of our story that youknow after my son got sick and
a lot of just my philosophy onlife changed, right Of how I
view life.
That doesn't mean I work anyless hard.
Frankly, I probably work hardertoday than I did before.
(08:33):
That for a lot of reasons, butit helps frame up what's
important.
And so I think when we couldstart to let go of things is
when we can actually hand keysover, right?
I mean, that's an obviousstatement.
But one thing I've learned is,if you don't allow your team
members to actually lead theorganization or do the thing
you've hired them to do, theywill leave, and what will happen
(08:57):
is you'll never get greattalent.
So what happens is this cycle,right?
Well, this person left, so nowI've got to do this again.
See, I couldn't trust them withit.
Well, did you actually give itto them?
Because?
Did you actually?
Did you actually let them runwith it?
Because if you didn't let themrun with it, yeah, I'd leave too
if I were done right?
You said, hey, you know, john,you hired me to do X, y and Z,
but every time I look over, Iwould have done it.
(09:17):
I'm just going to go, I'm justgoing to leave.
Right, I've got one of my bestfriends.
He's working for a guy rightnow who cannot get out of his
way and you know what's about tohappen.
He's got a small team of sevenpeople and I bet five of them
are about to leave and the guycannot turn anything over.
He hired my buddy to be the COOof the company and told him
(09:41):
you're going to do X, y and Z.
And I know my buddy and I knowhe's telling me the truth, and
I've seen the emails and I'veheard the phone calls, the
amount of things that he's beengiven to do zero Truly given to
do zero, because you've got thiscontrol on top.
And again, yes, it's your baby,you get it.
You know where all the deadbodies are.
You know which clients to dealwith, which ones not to deal
with.
(10:01):
But listen, what's going tohappen is that guy thinks he's
controlling the business andhe's about to lose his entire
team, and so unless we actuallygive people the rope to fail,
then they're going to leave usand then we're never going to be
able to build great teams.
If we want to build great teams, you actually got to let the
team go do something.
Now, does that come withfailures?
(10:22):
Oh yeah.
Does it come with mistakes?
Oh yeah, you know, I, I, I, uhagain.
I'll reference our generalmanager.
The other day.
Uh, at one of our businesses, wehave this constant debate going
on about it, one of ourinternal issues, and and I, I, I
say I always fall in love withhey, you know where I stand on
this, but you're in charge.
And she said you know what youmean when you say that.
(10:44):
You know you're actuallycasting a vote right, and I'm
like, I know that, but I wantyou to know that if you go
against me, I promise you I'mgood with it.
Like I've written that off inmy head.
Or I've said hey, listen, Ireserve the right to be right or
wrong or whatever it may be,and she goes.
You know, every time you saythat though you've actually,
(11:04):
I've actually changed my opinionto what you want me to do and
we've actually ended up beingright, I'm like, well, listen,
that's not actually the goal.
I've been wrong on plenty ofthings, but but if I really do
believe I'm giving you the powerto do it, knowing that we may
fail.
And here's the deal, man, listen, especially when you're dealing
with young people and I thinkyoung people are bad at what I'm
saying is is um, um, workexperience, and and I'll, I'll
(11:29):
follow, like our, our sales team, and I'm like I would not have
said it that way.
So let me, let me, let me talkto you about how we should say
it this way.
Did we think about this angle?
And listen, people do that tome.
I was just on a call with a, anexecutive coach, right, like I
don't have all the answers.
I asked, asked him how would youdo X, y and Z?
And he was going through one ofour pitch decks and he's like,
well, why'd you say it like that?
(11:49):
It's a great question.
I actually have no idea why Isaid it like that.
Help me figure out a better wayto say it.
You know, and so this is not a.
It's your baby, right?
It's literally.
It's your name, you know, andso that's tough to let go.
But you will not build theorganization you want to build
(12:12):
with awesome A-plus talentunless you actually let them go
do what they're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, Amen.
So I think you said a reallyinteresting thing in that
sometimes the tighter we grab onand the more we try to control,
the less control we actuallyhave.
That's right, Because now allof a sudden, everything around
it is going to change and it'sgoing to become uncontrollable
because they leave and you'vekind of squeezed the life out of
this thing.
The other thing is there.
(12:39):
You you referenced in there somuch communication.
It was just evident in howyou're talking with your GM.
This you know what we're goingto do and learn, almost like a
learn do teach type of thing,where you're just out there and
it's like go do the sales call,let's coach on it, let's talk
about these things.
So, communication, coaching,what are the things that you are
(13:00):
trying to do in that chiefleader role, owner role,
executive role and as one thatsays I'm going to focus on the
things that only I can do, but Ialso need to help.
What would you call it?
Lead, teach, coach?
For the other things, Like,what are the things that you are
focusing on to make sure itkeeps moving on the tracks the
(13:21):
way you are envisioning itmoving?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, I mean, that's I'm, I'm.
I'm struggling with that rightnow, trying to figure out, like,
my exact role and what thatlooks like.
What does that look like on onreporting structure?
What does it look like onmeeting structure?
Uh, what does it look like onwhat reports I actually want to
see or which ones I actuallycould care less to see.
You know, and I actually makingjust somebody have a meeting
for the sake of a meeting, Idon't subscribe to that.
You know, I have tried my best,I'll say it this way.
(13:46):
I've tried my best toconstantly communicate to my
team what I'm doing, and notthat I owe it to anybody to
explain what I'm doing, but ifyou know what I'm doing, then,
one, it shows you that I'm notdoing your job behind your back.
Two, it lets everybody know hey, this is what Jacob does.
Jacob goes and does X, y and Zand I need the rest of the team
(14:07):
to do their job.
And so if I'm communicatingwith you what I'm doing and what
I am not going to do, then thathelps pick up the slack of what
your expectation is right.
And I'm very upfront from thebeginning.
Hey, listen, I'm going overhere.
I'm very upfront from thebeginning.
Hey, listen, I'm going overhere, I'm doing this, I'm doing
this, I'm doing this.
So therefore you've got to do X, y and Z.
So I think that's part of it.
(14:29):
The other thing is, I want tocreate an environment where I
want every team member to knowI'm good with you failing, I'm
good with it, I genuinely meanI'm good with it, mean I'm good
with it.
And I think once we like, if weactually give that away, that's
when we can actually see growthin them.
But also we can have theopportunities to coach or we can
(14:50):
question hey, why did we do itthis way?
What were we thinking?
Walk me through why you didthat.
And a lot of times you'll getan idea go, yeah, that's a
fantastic idea.
Never would have thought aboutthat.
And and what it does is itcreates the freedom for them to
push back as well.
And I'm trying not to jump inand be a parachute leader where
I actually I say you can go, doit, but then at the last second
I'm going to jump in and I'mjust going to fix it.
And so I think a lot of it iscreating that environment to
(15:14):
fail and knowing that when youpick up the phone, you call me
and you tell me you just made acolossal mistake.
I'm not going to shoot you out,I'm going to go.
Okay, how are we going to fixit?
And let's, let's go on fromthere.
But but that's an evolution,right, like, like that was not
Jacob.
Like in in in 2017 or earlier,right 2017, like, I keep saying,
is when my son got sick.
That changes how I vieweverything.
(15:35):
Right, like there are biggerfish in this world to fry and
there are bigger problems inthis world than did we just lose
in an account.
Now, does that mean yourbusiness might go under?
Maybe, but do we still have afamily?
Do we still have our faith?
Do we still have thoseimportant things?
Yeah, if we have those thingsand, man, it's just a work
problem.
It's just a work problem, and,and so I think that, but that's
(15:55):
an evolution.
That's an evolution that hascome over the last few years in
the hard way.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, I mean all of those right.
It's like I think, everybodythat we talked to that has a
significantly differentperspective, has a massive
crisis, kind of a wildernesswhere I'm lost, or just
something that has completelyblindsided them, that forces
them to change.
And you referenced that yourson kind of life-changing
perspective.
You referenced a coach and agood friend speaking in and
(16:31):
saying man, this is where I seeyou winning.
Talk through some of the othercomponents that kind of pulled
you through there.
Because, like we said, there'sthe idea that if I'm the leader,
I got to do everything.
I got to do everything, I gotto touch everything.
If I don't even have the answer, the moment that my board, my
investor, this team member, saysX, like well, then I'm a fraud,
(16:54):
or I'm not good enough, or I'mnot supposed to be there, like
that's a.
It's a very long process to getto the place where you can say
here are my priorities, here'swhat I'm good at and here's all
of the things that I need helpwith.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, man, you know it's funny.
I battle the imposter syndromedaily, and it's not even really
daily, it's probably hour byhour.
Right, I'm going no, no, no, Ibelong here, I belong in this
room.
You and I were saying that thedinner we were at you and I were
saying that the dinner we wereat, you know, a couple of weeks
ago.
How on God's grand earth are wesitting in this room?
Right Like, but it's theyactually knew right, you know
kind of kind of deal and and solet's be real, we did not belong
(17:28):
in that room it was grace andgenerosity that got us in that
room.
That's exactly right, and itwas wonderful, that's exactly
right, no-transcript.
(18:12):
And so then I struggle with well, am I ever going to be there?
And I think you and I talkedabout this.
I think we've got to get clearon what we're even defining.
What's the scoreboard?
Sometimes I get lost.
I'm not even sure what thescoreboard is.
If I don't know what thescoreboard is, I don't know what
game I'm playing.
Do you want a high score or alow score?
(18:33):
I'm not sure if I don't knowwhat game I'm playing.
I think that's what I strugglewith.
I say that from a point ofstruggling to go.
The good days, the days that Ifeel like I'm I'm doing well, is
when I'm living in exactly howI'm wired to be, and there, and
there's some books I've readthere's, there's people I've
talked to allow people to to, togive me good, honest, loving
(18:56):
feedback of saying, hey, you arenot.
I don't need you to go do X, yand Z, I need you to do exactly
what you're doing right now.
Now, yes, there's times whereyou need to jump in and you need
to sit through doing a you knowan operating manual or
something like that, where, like, that's not your skill set but,
but overall, no, it's betterfor the organization if you're
not doing those things and andbeing confident in that and not
(19:19):
that I have to have all theanswers.
And I had one of my businesspartners he told me one time.
He said, man, we got to getreally good at going.
Yeah, I don't know the answerto that question.
It's a great question.
I'll figure it out, I'll getback to you.
And I think you know whetherit's being young or it's
probably actually, it's probablyanybody, but especially when
you're raising money or you'recasting a vision of business and
they and they got thosequestions.
(19:40):
Not that it's like even a gotchaquestion, it's a question.
You're like I never thoughtabout that or actually I don't
know the answer.
That's a unique question.
We're so prone to try to figureout the answer on the fly,
right, because we don't want tobe, we don't want to be caught
or we don't want to.
You know somebody go.
Oh my gosh, this kid doesn'tknow what he's talking about.
I've gotten more positivefeedback from people when I go
you, you know, actually I don'tknow.
It's a great question.
(20:00):
Let me get back to you tonighton that.
They go, okay, sounds good.
I've yet to encounter theperson that goes.
You don't know the answer tothat question.
If you don't know the answer tothat question, get out of my
office, right, I've yet to findthat person out there.
And so I think it's this, thisevolution of of, of figuring out
how you're wired, how God'swired you, and being super
(20:20):
confident that now I say allthat to say I've got to get
better at being super confidentthat on a daily basis.
I don't sit here mastering thatyet, but I know what I need to
be.
I know what I need to do.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah, I think that is so powerful that the lie that
we tell ourselves is that wehave to give an answer for
people to think we know whatwe're talking about when really,
if we say I don't know, let meget back to you.
We gained so much trust andrespect because everybody can
(20:52):
tell when it's a BS answeranyways.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yep, yeah, and I think I think not only like to
like investors or board, but manto people that that quote
unquote report to us or our teammembers.
I think if we can say it tothose people, I think that that
shows them, oh okay, it's greatthey were modeling right, like
we're mine, cause I don't wantthem to BS an answer to me.
I don't want to turn around andsay, hey, is the number of this
or this?
And they go.
Well, this one hold on, I'drather you go.
(21:16):
I actually have no idea.
Let me do some research, I'llget back to you.
I don't want you to make itenough and so, if I can show the
humility of going, 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, butwe've got this mentality that we
have to have it all buttoned up, and that transcends outside of
work too, I think in life, Ithink raising kids, I think
(21:39):
being friends with people, Ithink you know, managing your
finances, all of these things.
I think we'd be better off togo.
I actually have no clue and I'mall ears, so I'm trying to
learn that in every facet of mylife.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, fio, figuring it out is a good place to be,
and I know that you have a lotof things that you do extremely
well that you can and need to beconfident in, and one of them
is the thing that I justabsolutely love and I picture in
my brain you as Jesse Cole fromSavannah Bananas, as a cowboy
(22:15):
going and doing amusement parks.
So I hope that you live into myvision of the cowboy amusement
park Jesse Cole personification.
This is what I'm hoping for,but please can you tell us about
amusement parks and Dig Worldand the fact that you have a
company that is going topurchase and run and make
(22:38):
amusement parks andentertainment a part of your
business portfolio?
So tell us all that you want totell us, because this is so
much fun.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, man, listen, you just probably gave me one of
the highest compliments I'veever been given.
So if I can, you know I'llstart telling people I'm the
zero to one guy and I'm JesseCole with a cowboy hat.
I am good with that comparisonby a lot.
Jesse Cole, like John said, theowner of Savannah Bananas, his
book Fans First, highlyrecommend.
Everybody needs to read it.
Just really how he'srevolutionized the game of
(23:09):
baseball and how he's createdthis fans first experience and
loves on people.
So highly, highly recommendthat book.
But you know I've referenced acouple times now my son got sick
.
My son got sick in 2017.
He contracted bacterialmeningitis.
They left him with permanentdisabilities and he's got a
whole host of issues now.
But he is a happy, joyfullittle dude.
(23:31):
But you know he's permanentlydisabled and he's in a
wheelchair, nonverbal andepileptic and, you know, deaf in
both ears and you know the listgoes on and on.
But one of the things that healways has loved pre getting
sick in post, is constructionequipment garbage trucks, dump
trucks, the whole nine yards.
And so we we stumbled acrossthis opportunity of a theme park
(23:54):
.
It's up in New Jersey wherethey let kids operate real
construction equipment, and sowe said, man, if that's a real
thing, we need to do that inTexas.
And we need to do it becausePierce loves construction
equipment and you know, what Atthe end of the day, let's figure
out a way to bring familiestogether and family can mean a
lot of things right?
Let's bring friends together.
Let's bring cousins together.
(24:14):
Let's bring college roommatestogether.
Let's bring just peopletogether and have a good time
and really show them what we youknow, I'm a believer in Jesus
and we want to show them thegospel without hitting them over
the head with a Bible, and wewant to meet people right where
Jesus would meet people and lovethem.
That's the name of the game.
And oh, by the way, we get todo it at a theme park.
(24:36):
And so we set out to build atheme park where we let kids
operate real constructionequipment, and so it's based
here in Katy, Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Can you describe real construction equipment, Because
I am thinking of oh yeah, wehad those little sandboxes where
it was like three feet tall andI got to pull my little arms on
the crane and do this thing.
And my friends, that's not whatJacob is talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's right.
We are talking about real miniexcavators that you see on the
side of the road every singleday digging ditches, and we're
talking about real skid steersthat you see on the side of the
road moving dirt around.
These are full blown machines.
We've obviously re-engineeredthem to where they're safe, but
we let kids as young as threeyears old operate them by
themselves and they can dig dirt, they can play games and try to
move objects around.
They can drive the skid steeraround the windy track.
(25:24):
We've got some other things outthere at the park, but we opened
it in March of 2022.
And we knew nothing.
We knew nothing about themeparks and that showed in the
first few months.
We've been paying the priceever since.
But what In the first fewmonths?
(25:55):
We've been paying the priceever since, but?
But what we did find is that manI'll talk about in a second.
We get to be in a space thattruly ingrains memories into a
family's memory bank.
There's a lot of great thingsin the world, and there's a lot
of great businesses in the world, and there's a lot of great
people in the world, but if youthink back about your family and
your life, there's things thatyou reference right.
(26:18):
A lot of times they're tripsand a lot of vacations or or
theme parks you went to and weget to be the holder of those
memories for people and that'slike that's a huge honor and a
huge blessing.
And so we, we felt like therewas an opportunity in the theme
park space across the country.
So think middle market themeparks, so think your regional
roller coasters, your biggerrides not Six Flags, not the big
(26:38):
, big, big, big stuff but kindof middle.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You're not going to purchase Disney at any time soon
.
Not any time soon.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Now, if Bob Iger wants to call next week, we can
talk prices, but that $10million to $100 million revenue
range.
And so we're out there pursuingtheme parks, water parks, other
attractions, kind of like a digworld resorts, and what we're
really doing is we're trying to.
We want to show people Jesus,but we're going to do it through
the theme parks and it's areally unique asset class.
(27:09):
I was not, I'm not, a themepark guy.
I didn't grow up going to themeparks.
I'm actually scared of heights.
But what I've found is thisawesome opportunity and where we
get to really invest in thecommunity, invest in the
employees and and we, we get toinvest in those assets.
And so these are a lot of timesthey're family owned.
They've been owned for a reallylong time, Like one of the one
(27:30):
of the parks we're looking athas been owned in the same
family since 1924.
And so we get to help shepherdthat to the next, the next.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know era um, and one's been owned since the, I
think, 1890 it's a long time,long time, oh my goodness,
before theme parks even existedthat's exactly right, exactly
right, uh.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And so we, we that's what we're building, uh, and we
want to kind of operate thatmiddle market space, uh, of
owning theme parks and waterparks across the country.
And you know, and we get toit's really unique on who we get
to hire, too right, like we getto hire kids starting at like
15, 16 years old, all the way upto, you know, people that will
be career people at our companyand that's really awesome.
(28:12):
Like, if you think about, likethere might be a kid out there
that works for us when they're16.
And the way that we set ourculture, our standards, our
leadership, whatever we want tocall it, and that shapes the
trajectory of their life, that'sawesome.
Like that's if we get to be acatapult into their story man,
that's super awesome, superhumbling.
So, anyways, I am turning intoyour theme park guy.
(28:33):
So Jesse Cole is the SavannahBanana guy.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I am.
I am getting you a very largeuh cowboy hat.
This is not even normal sizeLike.
It's just everything's biggerin Texas and I want you to be
ridiculously awesome uh and wearit to uh any, any event that
you go to that has to do withthe theme parks, Absolutely Now
I may I may have to take it offin the airport.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Uh, he, I think he wears his yellow tuxedo all the
way through the airport, but uh,but, so he may be tougher than
I am, uh so you know actuallylike it's interesting, right,
like going back to what we justtalked about.
What's interesting about him ishe talks about his book man.
That's who he was like, that'swho he wanted to be and and he
said he got.
He had to even get comfortablewearing his yellow tuxedo
through the airport because hethought people were going to
look at him.
So I say I say I sayencouragement is man, people
(29:20):
that we idolize and we look upto and we aspire to be, they're
struggling with the same thingsand if we're all just honest
with ourselves, right, we canall can encourage each other a
little bit better.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, well, I hope that everybody's encouraged by
Jacob's story and really to leadin your sweet spot and that you
get there by getting reallyclear and really to lead in your
sweet spot and that you getthere by getting really clear
and really comfortable with thevalue that you bring, with what
you need from other people, withthe priorities that you have in
life and in work and theninviting people in and just like
(29:52):
y'all say, in Dig World, hey,we are all always under
construction and so, to anybodythat's listening, you have to
come to Dig World, you have toconnect with Jacob and I.
We will do dinner and we willplay around on machines that we
have no business playing aroundon.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
That's exactly right and it would be awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So, jacob, before I let you go, we are on the
Leadwell podcast and I have toask you what does it mean to you
to lead?
Well, it's a good question.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know, I thought about that question.
I would say, to love people.
And I think if we truly set outto love people, like Jesus did,
I listened to a book one timeand this guy said you know, he
was sitting with a local pastorof a homeless ministry and this
person came in and was talkingto him and he said I looked at
(30:42):
that person, I looked at thatpastor, look at that person and
he saw a soul that Jesus createdand it was worth dying for.
And I think if we can lovepeople, no matter the
backgrounds, no matter thebaggage they bring to the table,
no matter their flaws as anemployee or a co-worker or a
guest or whoever it may be, butif we can love people.
Well then, I think we've becomea better leader.
(31:03):
So that's what I aspire to do.
I'm trying to get better andbetter at it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Love people well to lead people well.
Jacob Robinson, thank you somuch for being a guest on here.
Everybody, you can find outmore about DigWorld at
digworldtxcom and we will putthat and some ways to connect
with Jacob as including hispodcast, that he's a co-host
chasing what matters.
We will put all of that in theshow notes.
(31:29):
My friend, thank you for doingthis, for your generosity and
being here.
You are an absolute pleasureand a joy and and I can't wait
to follow my own Jesse Colecowboy wherever he's going.
So thank you, jacob, I love it.
Thanks for letting me be here,brother, appreciate it
Absolutely.
Everybody else, be well, leadon, and God bless.
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