Earmark Podcast | Earn Free Accounting CPE | The Savannah Bananas' Playbook for Unconventional Business Growth

Blake Oliver interviews Savannah Bananas CFO Tim Naddy to learn unconventional strategies for explosive business growth. Discover how this innovative sports entertainment team achieved a million-fan waitlist and sold out over 200 consecutive games. Tim will share insights on creating innovative revenue streams, developing fan-centric KPIs to drive profitability, and managing financial risks in rapidly scaling businesses. Whether you're in sports, entertainment, or another industry, discover how to apply these creative accounting practices to transform your financial approach. Walk away with actionable strategies to enhance customer engagement, boost growth, and reimagine your business's financial success.

(Originally recorded on August 7, 2024, on Earmark Webinars+)

Chapters

(00:00) - How to Earn CPE
(00:59) - Behind the Scenes with the Savannah Bananas
(02:48) - The Role of a CPA in Sports Entertainment
(04:22) - Educating the Next Generation of Creatives
(07:19) - The Savannah Bananas Phenomenon
(12:41) - Fan-Centric Business Model
(18:27) - Challenges and Innovations in Finance
(27:24) - Touring and Merchandise Strategy
(32:52) - Partnering for Regional Warehousing
(33:34) - Forecasting Inventory Needs
(34:09) - Managing Merchandise Logistics
(35:10) - Understanding Fan Data
(37:07) - Finance Tech Stack Overview
(47:16) - Challenges of Rapid Expansion
(53:59) - Creative Accounting Practices
(57:18) - Advice for Aspiring Accountants
(01:00:14) - Conclusion and CPE Information

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Connect with Our Guest, Tim Naddy
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/drtimnaddy221b

Learn more about The Savannah Bananas
https://thesavannahbananas.com/

Connect with Blake Oliver, CPA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaketoliver
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blaketoliver/

Creators & Guests

Host

Blake Oliver, CPA

Founder and CEO of Earmark CPE

Guest

Dr. Tim Naddy

CFO of the Savannah Bananas

What is Earmark Podcast | Earn Free Accounting CPE?

This show is brought to you by Earmark, your source for podcast-based continuing education for accounting and tax professionals. You can earn CPE by listening to the episodes on this podcast and more! Sign up for our mobile app to earn free CPE whenever you want, wherever you go. Learn more at https://earmarkcpe.com.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Blake Oliver: If you'd like to earn CPE credit for listening to this episode, visit earmark Cpcomm. Download the app. Take a short quiz and get your CPE certificate. Continuing education has never been so easy. And now on to the episode. Welcome to earmark. I'm Blake Oliver, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with a financial leader who's rewriting the rule book on sports entertainment accounting. Please join me in welcoming Tim Nardi, [00:00:30] the CFO of the Savannah Bananas. Tim Blake, welcome for having me.

Tim Naddy: Yeah. You know, we just got to start this off, right? Because I always tell my students that whenever it gets a little too nerdy in the room, I just have to push the glasses back up the bridge of my nose. Because we're about to get nerdy, my friend.

Blake Oliver: Well, and for our live stream viewers or our YouTube viewers, they can see that you are in what looks to be like an IT room. There's a server to your left. There's are those rolls of toilet paper behind you on a shelf somewhere. Like, where are you in the world?

Tim Naddy: I'll tell you what. So. [00:01:00] So we are actually we're currently in Cleveland and it's a couple days out from our Cleveland Guardians game. We are super excited. It's going to be our fourth Major League Baseball park that we're playing at. And um, but but what makes this one truly special is we are doing our very first inaugural Banana Ball Youth tournament. So there are there are 8800 kids here from around the United States, I think as far as far south as Mexico, Hawaii, um, Alaska, all descending upon Cleveland [00:01:30] to have this, this very first of many, um, hopefully tournaments where we can actually give this fans first experience to them at their level, where they where they are, they're competing not only for athleticism, but they're also competing for performance and just just smiles. It's, um, it's a youth tournament of youth tournaments, um, that will hopefully turn the world on its ear and bring the fun back to to the little leagues of [00:02:00] the world where travel baseball can get. Oh my gosh, it's so stressful. Um, so we've seen a lot of smiles already. We're having a camp today. Um, the first first camp session is done. Second camp session starts in about an hour and I have literally 15 minutes ago I was I was selling merchandise over there to all these all these moms and dads who are just super happy about being at this bananas event. So very, very excited.

Blake Oliver: Yeah, that is so awesome. And one of our live stream viewers, Lisa, is going to that game and says, I am so excited.

Tim Naddy: Well, hello, [00:02:30] if you are going to be there. My goodness. Um, so look for the cowboy. I go by Timmy two guns and you'll see me. I've got these brand new chaps. Um, the gentleman out of Oklahoma City. Um, they are fantastic. My holster. I got a banana, my holster. I've got Sharpies around the back. I mean, we we just go all out, man. Uh, and, Blake, to kind of get down to it, one of the things that we have, one of our core principles is that ideas are everything, right? And and everything speaks. And from our perspective, um, yeah, I get it. [00:03:00] I'm a CPA. I'm supposed to be that boring guy that looks at your shoes in the elevator, you know? Um, but so, so many times I've had people tell me it's like, I don't get it. So you're a CPA, and and it kind of comes across like, wait, wait a second, did I, did I, did I miss something? Am I not supposed to be in this? Should I, should I be selling cars? What's going on? Well, come to find out. You know, CPAs are. We run the gamut when it comes from personalities. Yes. We have some introverts. We have some extroverts, we [00:03:30] have some extra extroverts. Um, but the idea is that we're all professionals in our own right. We all know the technical side. Some of us have challenges in delivering that technical to people who, maybe to the layman that maybe not understands those things. Um, I have been fortunate enough to have, um, a myriad of experiences to, to help learn how to deliver that technical and, and so that's where I live. I absolutely love helping. In my case, young professionals make [00:04:00] better decisions by understanding what they're what they're reading, what they're getting into. And that's not just an accounting professional that could be a creative, that could be a sculptor, it could be a video game designer. It doesn't matter. It's just really it really fills me with, um, a lot of joy to be able to not only have that knowledge, but transfer that knowledge into that next generation.

Blake Oliver: And in addition to being the finance leader at the Savannah Bananas, you are an educator. Uh, what do you teach? Where do you teach? [00:04:30]

Tim Naddy: Um, I actually teach at the the Savannah College of Art and design, and I teach a class called Strategic Financial Management. And that's a lot of big words to basically say, um, if I had to boil it down. Um, Scad in particular has so many creative kids, and I try that's a that's a patronizing name. It's I'm older than everybody. So they're all kids to me now. Um, but these students, they have so much going on for them, their intellectual property that they are developing not [00:05:00] only before they get there, but then they're really honing it while they're there. Um, by the time they're leaving that school, they have portfolios that are second to none. Industrial design, luxury brand management. You're talking about all of these incredible fields video game design, film production, um, music production, things like that. Um, where I fit into the process is that I'm part of the, the soul school of of of business innovation. And what's [00:05:30] different about it is that we have creatives that come to us with such great ideas, but when they enter the business world, they, um, they kind of forget that in order to do what they do, they need a business wrapped around it. And so, so they don't know the lawyers, they don't know the accountants, they don't know the insurance people that can protect that very valuable intellectual property. And so in this large strategic financial management class that I actually helped write, um, it's basically [00:06:00] how not to get screwed in business. And it's if you're sitting in a room with a bunch of MBAs and they all, you know, they're all in their suits.

Tim Naddy: I call them the suits, right? They're all in their suits, and they're they're passing judgment across the table. It's like, you know, oh, you know, this person doesn't know that much. They only sculpt, look at their nails. I can't believe they have motor oil under their nails. Things like that. Right. And you've been there. You've seen that. Um, but the idea is what I tell these kids is that. Listen, you need to understand. They are all the same people in that room. You [00:06:30] are the one person in that room that everybody wants to be a part of. They all want to be next to you because you're so cool. And so what I'm going to teach you to do in this, in this class over the next ten weeks, is I'm going to teach you how to earn a seat at that table and keep it so that, so that when they throw big words at you or kind of try to throw a concept at you or some legalese. You can you can at least know what they're talking about and maybe parry the blow or shoot something out across and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This [00:07:00] person knows a little bit more than I think. Maybe I should dial it back, right? Um, so I love it. These these kids are great, and they're so. They're so creative. Um, kind of kind of, you know, put one foot in scad, one foot in the bananas, and you just got creativity all around. So very, very excited.

Blake Oliver: That's amazing. I want to take that class. Uh, but I also want to get back to your role in finance at the Savannah Bananas. And for those who are not familiar with the Savannah Bananas, I think the best place to go [00:07:30] discover them is to follow them on TikTok or Instagram, where I believe there are over 3 million people following the bananas. Um, they have sold out 200 consecutive games, a million fan waitlist, And they've done it all while throwing out the traditional sports business playbook. Let's talk about that. The Savannah bananas have been called the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. [00:08:00] How would you describe the Savannah bananas to somebody who's never seen a banana game? What is what is Banana Land like? And. How would you describe the Savannah bananas to somebody who has never experienced it before? Tim, is that possible or do they need to just go to a game?

Tim Naddy: Oh my goodness. Well, you certainly could experience it on any one of the many social platforms. In fact, that's usually how people get get introduced to us is through a crazy TikTok video [00:08:30] or an Instagram post. That's super funny. That's been, oh my gosh, you got to see this. This guy just did a backflip. This guy's caught a ball between his legs. Um, the it's it's the way I would describe it is say you have P.T. Barnum and all the crazy antics of the circus, and you have Major League Baseball and and all the all the tradition and athleticism, and you merge those two and all of a sudden you have banana ball, you have the Savannah bananas. And what they've done is they've taken two amazing institutions, traditional institutions, and said, how can we one, [00:09:00] take the fun of the elephants and the fire and all of this three ring circus type stuff and merge it into all of this? Amazing. I mean, you're talking about Americana when it comes to Major League Baseball. If you can merge those two and inject a lot of the fun of baseball back into baseball, my goodness, what could happen? Well, what happened was the Savannah bananas. Jesse Cole took that idea and said, there's got to be a way. And he's he's found that that that, that that secret sauce, [00:09:30] if you will, that people say, I love the baseball. I love the athletes. But I'll tell you what, what makes it more fun is that it's there's there seems to be less stress. There's my kids are having fun. They've actually forgotten about all the stressors that they're wearing for for the next 3 to 4 hours. And, and they're just really enjoying themselves. You can still have that that family outing for actually a very, very reasonable price. And and people walk away and with big smiles on their faces and a [00:10:00] nostalgic event that hopefully ten, 15, 20 years from now when they're coming on back to the to the new Disney World, if you will. Um, then maybe, maybe, um, maybe we can we can they can share that with their children.

Blake Oliver: Chris in the live stream says, how about a little respect for the party animals?

Tim Naddy: Oh, my. Party animals. Really? Yet? Where are you at? Um, yeah. Actually, I was thinking, should I wear my banana shirt today or should I wear my party animals polo? The party animals polo is black. It's a little more slimming. Um, but, you know, when you're rocking the bananas podcast, you got to put bananas [00:10:30] on, and.

Blake Oliver: And the party animals are also part of the bananas enterprise. They are. The other team that the Savannah Bananas plays. Is that how it works?

Tim Naddy: Okay, so so what we have is, um, our legal entity, if you will, is fans first entertainment and fans first. Entertainment owns Savannah Bananas, the Party Animals, and our recent team, the firefighters. Um, and we had we had a play in team. I wouldn't I wouldn't call them a team for but more of like a, um, kind of like a [00:11:00] tryout team, I'll call it like a G League, if you will. We had the visitors this year as well. Um, the firefighters and the visitors are finished for this for this season. And the bananas and the party animals are going forth. In fact, the bananas and the party animals will be here in Cleveland. Um, so the way it works, a lot of people say Harlem Globetrotter is a baseball. Well, you had the Harlem Globetrotters, you had the Washington, Washington Generals, right? Um, the only difference is and it's kind of one of those things where it's like when you hear it, you're like, yeah, I guess you could say it's kind of like that, but it's not really, because [00:11:30] the Harlem Globetrotters always won. The game was always fixed, right? It was very entertaining, but you always knew what the outcome was going to be.

Tim Naddy: Um, I will tell you this, the athleticism of the young men and women who play this sport. Um, they are amazing at what they do. And I gotta, I gotta say, you know, when I see a major leaguer, um, kind of kind of drift back and throw up the hand and pop pop that one handed catch and just kind of, you know, lackadaisically throw it back into second. We got a guy in the back, but he [00:12:00] sees that and he goes, you know what? I'm going to. Plus that I'm going to do a backflip. I just saw that video. Yeah. Doctor Meadows, he call him the doc, right. Um, he said those are the ways we we always plus the experience because we because our fans, we are so fanatical about our fans and the fan experience that why not why not try it? Um, so the the Savannah Bananas is the flagship entity, and your party animals are kind of like your the alter ego, if you will, the after dark, edgy team, right? So, um, and then the firefighters, [00:12:30] um, more of a more Americana type brand.

Blake Oliver: Got it. So here's what I'm hearing throughout all of this is this obsession with fans. There is. I mean, it's in the name of the entity that you are as a company, obsessed with making the fans have a great time helping them have a great time, and it goes through into the business model. You have an all inclusive pricing model, which is extremely different than [00:13:00] a traditional baseball team would do. Like I, I've been to Dodgers games when I lived in LA, I'd go to Dodgers games and I would pay a lot of money to get into the stadium, and then I'd pay to eat the food, you know, and buy drinks and it you know, there's a lot. It's all a cart. But that's not how the bananas do it.

Tim Naddy: No. And so one of our other principles and we have 11 of them, is whatever is normal, do the exact opposite when we're trying to [00:13:30] get out there and see, hey, what what are really what are the pain points when someone comes to be entertained? Right. And when we understand baseball is entertainment, right? Sure, there's the athleticism part of it and the the the triumph of sport, if you will. But at the end of the day, it really is an entertainment experience, an escape from what's happening around us. And and we want to make sure that when people enter banana land, wherever that may be, that that they come in with not only an expectation of they're going to be taken to this, to this mystical world [00:14:00] of zany, crazy antics, but also that they're going to they're going to really enjoy themselves in the sense of not getting just, just boat raced in the wallet. And so what what it means is that what we've done in Savannah and unfortunately, we only we can only do it in Savannah, because when we go to these other venues, that's how they make their money. They make their money off food and beverage and parking and whatever, whatever type of club seating arrangements that are there. But when you come to Savannah, when you come to our home, [00:14:30] um, your ticket price is, is all inclusive with all the food.

Tim Naddy: Now, obviously alcohol and specialty items and things like that. Those are over and above. But if you didn't, if you didn't spend another dollar from that ticket price a family of four, you're talking about 140 bucks. A family of four can come and be entertained for anywhere between four and a half to five hours, because our show doesn't start when the first pitch starts. Our show starts 2.5 hours before and people [00:15:00] are there getting there early. So when they're coming in, um, what we found and we were told that we were crazy when we did it, people were like, it's never going to work. Consultants, other, other baseball people. I mean, it's not like we just went into this willy nilly. We asked around and said, what do you think? And it's like, no, you're crazy. That's the that's one of the main revenue streams. Well, what we found very, very interesting is, um, when you give away the food for free and people aren't worried about whether or not their, their six year old is [00:15:30] fed, you know, you've been there, right? Oh, yeah. Once. Once the kid takes that turn, it's very difficult to pull them back. So get them fed its hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, chips, Coke products and water. Uh, it's all you can eat pretty much all night.

Tim Naddy: And so, um, so you don't have to worry about feeding the family. Um, what we found, which is really interesting, is that, um, with the money that someone would have spent on, say, for hot dogs [00:16:00] or three hamburgers, a few Cokes, that could have been any way over 40, 50, 60 bucks at a at a ballpark. They are happily taking that money and saying, well, shoot, I had such a great time. I think I want to buy a hat. I think I want to buy a shirt, I'd like to buy one of those balls, because I know at the end of the game there's going to be there's going to be 40 players out there that are all going to be signing that ball. So. Or signing my shirt. Right. So what you've done is you've taken something that was a Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and you've given [00:16:30] them that piece so that they turn around and go, well, I was planning on spending this money anyway. I want to go buy a shirt and shoes. They become walking billboards for a great time. So it's been it's been fascinating to see the way that the industry has kind of looked at us a little, little slanted before, but now they're looking at it going, well, wait, if they can do it, I wonder if we can get away with it.

Blake Oliver: Yeah, it's totally turning the business model on its head where previously you [00:17:00] make the money on the concession sales. You're saying, nope, we're going to give that away for free as part of the ticket price. But you also don't make money on tickets. It's a loss leader. And the real profits are driven by merchandise sales. And that's totally counterintuitive.

Tim Naddy: Well, the tickets. So there's there's something to be said about the offering, the tickets that we do at the prices that we do. We know that in the secondary market, our tickets go for a lot of money. And that actually pains [00:17:30] us. It physically pains us that we have people that come to these, these events and they say we paid. We paid $200, $300, $600 for these tickets. And we look at them and go, because we know that that ticket cost costs $35. And so from our perspective, it's it really. Man, I'll tell you what. Um, scalpers just really get under my skin. Um, but, um, but so so there is the ticket revenue side of it and of course, merchandise revenue. Um, but the food and beverage revenue, we looked at it and [00:18:00] we said, you know what? This is something that we can we can probably break even here. Um, but really, the loss leader in the food and beverage gives them that, that ability to, to look at, look at merchandise and say, I really I've really enjoyed myself. I want to remember this night. And so I'm going to go buy this, this flag I'm going to put outside my house or fly in the back of my truck. Right. Um, so it's it's it's been a really neat, um, a neat, neat phenomenon.

Blake Oliver: It's amazing. But it creates some challenges for you, I imagine, [00:18:30] because you can't just take the traditional sports enterprise accounting playbook and run that with the bananas. You have to you have to do it differently. So does this create challenges for you when you are doing accounting, forecasting, finance, budgeting? When you know you, you break even on ticket sales, you give away the food and the beverage for free, and you got to make it up on the merchandise sales like that. Must that must be a little difficult.

Tim Naddy: Well, so, uh, one of the one of the, the mantras [00:19:00] that we talk about in finance is that we have to be relentlessly resourceful. And and what that means is that that doesn't mean to be. That doesn't mean be cheap. It just means that when you're when you're given the first offer in negotiations, um, why why is that the best offer? Why can't we continue to have this discussion and see if we can get a little better deal. Right. And, and everybody at the, at the organization understands this and what that helps us do. It actually helps us control cost. And [00:19:30] so if we're if we're really rabid about controlling costs, really the only thing we can control, if you will, um, then it allows me to actually forecast a little bit easier, um, because I'm pretty good at, um, I mean, I know what it's going to look like if I have 5000 people in the stands, if I have 12,000 people in the stands, if I have 38,000 people in the stands, I know pretty good idea of what the merchandise and what the tickets are going to come out to be. Um, and when I, when I see that forecasting, that's actually it's [00:20:00] actually not that hard. Um, the, the things that make it a little bit bumpy is really the logistics of getting all of that merchandise because we travel with everything. We are literally Taylor Swift, right? Um, we take our stuff on the road everywhere we go. Now, you tell me another team in any sport that takes their own merchandise on the road, right? They don't do it. They all. They sell all their stuff at home. Right. So from our perspective, we're looking at it's like, okay, if we're doing this, if we're doing something that nobody else is doing.

Tim Naddy: We're very similar to like [00:20:30] a Feld entertainment, a monster jam, or like a WWE. These people that are traveling from city to city to city and they're bringing trucks, they're bringing roadies, they're bringing merchandise. Right. And, um, and so what we've done, what the challenges that we've overcome from just 2023 to 2024 is identifying third party partners who help us with, like our networking. We have our networking partner, um, is a partner that, um, that does those those giant festivals out in the desert. Right. And somehow can, [00:21:00] can, can suck a cell signal out of, out of mid-air and create Wi-Fi for everybody. Um, they, we, the people that help us ship our stuff around, they've done traveling Broadway shows. I mean, these guys are the professionals in their own right. And we've decided that, hey, if we're going to do this right, we need to get with the partners that really know what they're doing, know what you know, know what you don't know, and stick and stay in those lanes. It really comes down to fewer things done better if you understand. Make it. Keep it simple. [00:21:30] We know what we're good at. We're good at. We're good at running an amazing show. We have great athletes. We have great front office. We have great support staff. Let's stay in lane, make sure we we nail that and let all of our our peripheral services, our ancillary services put the right professionals in place, the right teams in place. And as long as we can continue to move that show, then our flywheel stays, stays intact.

Blake Oliver: Got it. So focus on the entertainment [00:22:00] and outsource the logistics.

Tim Naddy: Certainly. And we're always trying to learn because even when we bring in professionals we're we're constantly learning. Right. We need we need to be curious. But we also when we come through it, we we always need to uphold the highest standard. And so what that means is that, um, that if we were to see something that just wasn't the wasn't good. Um, I should say this. We don't use the word fine around the bananas, because if something's just fine, [00:22:30] is it really worth doing? And so we kind of check ourselves and say, well, is there something that we can do better? Do we need to just. Is it too complex? Do we need to? Do we need to start knocking it down a little bit and find find the avenue that that makes the most sense for us and go for it. Um, one of the things that we do. So. So we, we are big fans of the flywheel and and our flywheel, our flywheel starts with live shows. So without our live shows or we put on a live show, we grab great creative content. Right. And that's what I'm talking about. The TikTok, [00:23:00] the Instagram, the YouTubes.

Tim Naddy: Right. And, um, and this stuff is electric, right? That creative content actually rolls us right into how much traffic is we're seeing not only on the socials but also in the stands. Right. People want to come and see this in person. And so what that does is that creates demand. Well that demand then what is the demand for more TikTok more social? No. It's demand for more live shows. So if we can have more live events, then we can service more fans, which is which is part [00:23:30] of the vision of of our. And when you when you talk about key performance indicators, our key performance indicator is fans. We want to we want fans because fans to us can grow in a way that in a way that money just doesn't. If you are taking care of the business, if you are taking care of what we do best, we do fans first. We entertain always. If we are rock solid on those, the fans will come and then and then making money, it comes, it comes along with it just because, hey, [00:24:00] it's we're having fun doing it too, right?

Blake Oliver: Fans want to buy the hats. Yes, sir. Fans. Fans want to support the team. They want to show that show their fandom. Um, what other fan centric KPIs do you track beyond? You know, the number of fans you have? And actually, I'd be interested to know how do you even how do you even count as a fan? Is a TikTok follower a fan? Is it? Is it somebody who went to a game like. Or do you have different kinds of fans? I'm just I'm so curious to know what are the fan [00:24:30] centric KPIs.

Tim Naddy: So, so a fan centric KPI that is actually industry industry wide is is the per capita. All right. So how many people are in the building. So let's say let's say food and beverage. Well so let's say you have you made $500,000. Um, we're at a major League Baseball stadium. You made $500,000 on on food and beverage. Right. Well, if there were if there's 10,000 people in that building, well, that would be at a major League Baseball park. That would be a little, um, but you basically [00:25:00] take the number of people that were there, or you take, take the amount of food and beverage, and you divide it by the number of people and you get a per cap, and that per cap is very similar to. And here's where we go. Nerdy, right. Um, for for all the nerds in the audience. Um, it's very it's like a comparative balance. Balance sheet. Right. Um, if when you have comparative statements, you can take a large fortune 500 company and a small midsize company, and you can actually measure them on their, on their, on their own, on their own percentages. Right. And you could start, start balancing [00:25:30] those percentages off each other and say, okay, well they're at 62%. They're at 61%. Okay. I think we're kind of industry standard. Well, the per cap is very similar to and it's and it's almost a universal KPI. It's something that, um, you need you absolutely need to watch. Because once you start seeing a flip in the per cap, whether that be in merchandise or food and beverage, um, it's it's one of those things. Like what? That's a lead indicator for you. That's something that something is amiss. Now let's say in merchandise if, um, if the per cap were to fall, let's say it's $0.50 [00:26:00] a dollar, right.

Tim Naddy: Um, well, you might look at that and say, well, is it because that was their rain this evening? Um, was it because we weren't offering the right products? Um, was is there a certain product that just isn't selling? Um, what is it that what what do we have to do to kind of investigate why we had that slippage? Because when we're averaging it out, we should be right around this area. Right. Mhm. Um, and and also on the flip side, when we see a bump in the per cap, we can go. [00:26:30] Whoa. What just happened. Was there, did someone, did someone just drop a really cool video. Um was that online sales. Is that something that people just came in and said I need like for now, tournament shirts. Tournament shirts are going like crazy. But that's how youth tournaments are. Everybody wants the shirt. Why? So when they put up their shirt and they can look and go, yep, there I am. Okay, I'll take three of these. Right. Um, so there's certain certain pieces of merchandise that fly faster because they're more sentimental. Um, but there's some other ones that are probably more higher [00:27:00] priced that, that when you look at them it's like, well, are they, are they priced accurately? Um, it's a it's a great bellwether for us to look at and say, um, ah, do we know our inventory? Do we know our, our offerings? And do we really know our fans? Because ultimately, what it comes down to is if we don't know our fan, then we're going to miss on all of those and it will show in the cap. It will absolutely show.

Blake Oliver: We've got a question from Chris who asks, curious to know the percentage of merchandise sales that is [00:27:30] on site versus online.

Tim Naddy: The so percentage of we actually do a majority of our merchandise sales in person and and so online even though online is is a nice a nice business for us. In fact, we have a giant warehouse in Savannah that handles all of our online fulfillment. Um, most of the stuff that we do throughout the season is actually done in person. And, and I would say it's it's definitely, um, up in the 85, [00:28:00] 90% range of, of in-person transactions, which is actually exactly where we want it, because that's one of the things that we're always trying to do is we're always trying to be in front of our be in front of our fans and really plus that experience. So us being face to face with somebody and actually letting them try on a shirt or actually hold that banana bowl. Um, that's a lot more fun. It's tiring, don't get me wrong, but it's but it's a lot more fun to see the smile on their faces, um, when they when they get it and they thank us and they put it on, um, [00:28:30] as opposed to, you know, when someone, we send it off in the yellow box and it's gone.

Blake Oliver: Well and that that makes me understand a lot more why you've expanded to doing this tour, because you've maxed out capacity in your stadium at home, you've sold out all the tickets. And if most of the merchandise sales, the vast majority of it is done on site, which makes sense because that's how concerts work, too. Sure. Then, um, then you got to go on tour. So you are Taylor Swift.

Tim Naddy: Well, we're Taylor Swift. [00:29:00] It's funny. Um, I it was it was one of those things where my bar. So by the way. Yeah, it looks like I'm sitting in, like a control room. Um, so, you know, CPAs, CFOs, we were about. We were a lot of hats. Right. Um, and so I wear the it hat also at this organization. And and one of the things that the bar that was set for me is that natty. I want to be I want to have Taylor Swift's operation and I go, oh my gosh, Taylor Swift has all this, all these resources that when she goes to a stadium, [00:29:30] she plugs she hard lines into this stadium. Right. Um, and they, they, they lift up, they have these travel, travel things where they lift up the gate and people are just standing there and they're like, okay, let's take your orders. Right. It is a it is a machine. She is the best at it. But I'll tell you this, if there's someone that's second there, it's got to be us. Because what we are doing on on the road, we definitely don't have all the technology that she has, and certainly not all the money that she's spending on it. Um, [00:30:00] but but what we have put together, I mean, it's it's quite an operation and it came from 2023. We were using these tiny little jet packs, these Verizon jet packs to this year, having an actual telecommunications company who has actually given us, we call them snowmen. And there's these there are these these boxes that you drive up, these omnidirectional antenna. And, you know, if you stand close to it too long, you might feel your face get hot. It's not a good idea. [00:30:30] Um, but, I mean, we've come so far, but we're not spending Taylor Swift prices, so it's. Right. And we're still. And we're upping our game less downtime. Fans are happy, lines are moving. And, um, it again, it makes it makes it for a better fan experience.

Blake Oliver: Well, I hope I get to see you in Phoenix at some point. We got a lot of baseball stadiums around here, so. That's what I hear. That's what I hear. I look forward to trying to get a ticket in 2025. Jackson asked. Wow. I just checked and everything is pretty much sold out. Any tickets [00:31:00] for listeners?

Tim Naddy: The yeah, the tickets are very difficult to get. Um, in fact, one of the one of the things that I thought was really interesting in the way to answer your question, Angie, is Andrew Jackson. Jackson. I'm sorry. Um, the. It's very difficult to get tickets now. Um, we've we've actually sold out all of our locations. Um, some every once in a while, there'll be some openings in the, um, standing room only or some of the berm areas. Um, because when we get to those smaller Triple-A parks, um, they have some room, but maybe they didn't sell the whole [00:31:30] thing because they just didn't know if they'd sell out those tickets. And so every once in a while, when we when we get to those areas, we're like, oh, there's another 200, 200 tickets. There are we can do another 300 out here. And so when we do that, we release those, um, uh, just like we would inside the inside the lottery, inside the inside the list that people are already in. Um, but, um. Yeah. So, so so tickets what I found as fascinating from a CFO perspective, um, our budget season actually runs from [00:32:00] September to really next August. Right? That's that's truly the budget year. Um, because we sell our tickets, all of our tickets start going on sale around October. November. And and there's a large rush. Right. So, so all of a sudden, we have this spike in spike in sales. Um, now what does that create? It creates a whole lot of unearned revenue. And so what do I have to do with that? Unearned revenue. I have to make sure, because we're accrual based, that we don't actually take that into revenue until those events actually [00:32:30] occur throughout the year. Right. But the cash is already there. And so what do I have to do with this cash to make sure that by the time we get down to the end of the year, is the cash still going to be there to pay the bills? Right. Right. So that's the that's the ticket. That's the ticket roller coaster if you will.

Blake Oliver: Well, and you are a heavy inventory business. So that also creates cash flow issues. Right. You've got to order this stuff in massive quantities.

Tim Naddy: Yes. So so and that's another thing with having great partners. Right. So um so yes you're right. And so some of our partners have actually asked if we would need [00:33:00] some assistance in regional warehousing. Um, so they can reduce some of the prices that we have to ship things. Um, so that that helps us out, but also depending on where we're ordering from. So, you know, such, such. As business. If we have a t shirt that we need within two weeks, that t shirt is coming from the United States. If we have a t shirt that we need in three months, that's probably coming from Latin America. And if it's if it's a t shirt we need for six months, it's probably coming somewhere from, from the Far East. [00:33:30] And there is a significant price break as you move further away from the United States. Um, now the question is, is that how much like, how big are the volumes that you have to preorder? And, and that's where the our inventory buyer, I mean, he's got his work cut out for him because that stuff I mean trying to forecast out whether the yellow primary logo T with that is that is that one going to sell or is it going to be the pink one. Um, it's a it's so they have they do a very good job.

Tim Naddy: That's where those pur caps come into play. That's where all of our game day [00:34:00] reports come into play. We look at all of this data across the board and we say okay there's a spike there. What happened. Oh that's what happened okay. We need to fix that. Oh, there's a dip there. What's happening? And we all kind of modulates out so that when we look at our buying, um, if you want a hat, hats, you have to you have to order those anywhere between 4 to 5 months out. Because for some reason, we don't make hats in the United States. I don't know, somebody needs to make hats in the United States. Um, so, um, anyway, we we get those hats on order early. Um, they [00:34:30] come over as blanks, and then they start putting all the stuff on when they get here on stateside. So, um, certainly there's a cost for shipping it on a boat versus shipping it on a plane. Um, and, you know, it can be exorbitant, the amount. So, um, yeah, a lot of prior planning when it comes to merchandise. Um, very, very, very important because those margins are they can get pretty thin if you mess up there.

Blake Oliver: Andrea has a question about customers fans. I'll rephrase it a bit. [00:35:00] Since you call them fans, do you track what it costs to acquire, to get and retain a fan. Is that something that you are able to quantify?

Tim Naddy: Interesting. You say that, Andrea. So one of the one of the projects that I have currently, we have a data infrastructure guy that we actually who actually used to work at Google. Um, he's based out of Denver. Fantastic mind, fantastic computer of a man. And um, what we are actually building right now is really a data warehouse. Um, so because right now our tickets operation [00:35:30] is is in one is in one software system, our merchandise is in another software system. And our food and beverage, again, not not too big of a deal but is in another operation. And so they're all being serviced on different platforms. And where that frustrates me is that again, go back to the fan if we know more about our fans and not in a creepy way. I want you guys to understand this is not a creepy thing where we're just going to we're going to pitch you. We don't pitch people ever. Um, like you were saying earlier, like there's no advertisements in our in our in Grayson [00:36:00] Stadium for a reason. When you're in Bananaland, we don't want you to get pitched by.

Tim Naddy: Other people want you to be here and here. So, um, so when you start seeing all of these, um, all of these movements by certain people, um, it would be nice to actually know, hey, so-and-so's birthday is coming up the last time. Last time around this year, they got this kind of shirt and this kind of hat. Um, what can we do for that individual that would help them know that? Hey, we're thinking about you on your birthday. And perhaps, perhaps, [00:36:30] maybe here's, here's a slate of of merchandise, things that that you might you might like or wink, wink anniversary dudes out there. Um, if you're if your wife wants a certain thing off the online, maybe we can help you guys find it. Um, so it would be it would be lovely to have that kind of synergy. Um, right now we don't we don't have that level of, um, of data, um, interaction. But we're, we're hoping to get there. And if anything, it's because we'd like [00:37:00] to know know our fan better so we can provide them a much better and curtailed experience. Mhm.

Blake Oliver: You mentioned a system for ticket sales. I am always fascinated to hear about the finance tech stack. If I could put on my glasses for a moment and push them up to the bridge of my nose. Would you mind sharing your finance tech stack with us? What do you use for your general ledger? Do you use an FNA app, point of sale, accounts payable, that sort of thing?

Tim Naddy: Yeah. [00:37:30] So all of our merchandise is done through Shopify and we have the Shopify POS units has been a wonderful platform. There were a few hiccups early on, but we were able to work with them and kind of push through those. What we found it was actually it was actually a networking issue. We were trying to push too much through these tiny little jet packs. And once we fixed the networking side, the Shopify side actually started really cranking. So so Shopify has been a wonderful partner in that. In that case, on the merchandise side, um, we have for food and beverage, we have toast. [00:38:00] If you're familiar, it's a restaurant platform and and that does a great job. What we did in 2000. And so in 2022, we were doing all of our stuff on toast, which was a nightmare because toast is designed for restaurant style sales. Right. And and so we were trying to trying to push the merchant there. It just wasn't working. So once we bifurcated those and let toast just be food and beverage and Shopify be be our merch. It's definitely opened up the world where we can not only do we understand [00:38:30] the platforms better and using them in the way that they're supposed to be used, but also we've learned new tools that can that can help us be a lot more efficient in the reporting on these on these two platforms. Is is fantastic. Um, from a accounting perspective, we actually just made the made the move to to NetSuite. And we were originally using QuickBooks. And we knew that at some point we were starting to get a little too big.

Tim Naddy: And QuickBooks is a wonderful platform for the smaller business that doesn't really need a lot of the extras. [00:39:00] And what I've what I've noticed is that as we started, as we started moving a little bit too much volume through QuickBooks, it started getting a little slow. And and to their credit, it wasn't because as their platform, what couldn't take it. It was just that they're not built for that kind of transaction volume. And so we we actually ended up moving over to NetSuite. That was my that was my holiday project last year. Um, and we've all been through one of those, um, those migrations, wonderful experience. And now we're up and running inside NetSuite and we're starting to learn all the bells [00:39:30] and whistles there. Um, it's been it's actually been a really nice transition. Um, certainly in the, in credit card allocations, cash allocations, all of those daily grind type things that that really do make, make finance horrible. Um, it's really smoothed out those processes. So that's, that's, that's a fantastic. And as far as our ticketing platform, um, that's actually a proprietary software. So, so we have our own we work with a third party entity who has built our our ticketing platform [00:40:00] and, um, we've I mean, it's it's very stout now it's, um, I could put it up against, um, a couple of the, of the big boys and say that we, we know what we're doing on that one. So very, very impressed with that team and, and our leaders who have been leading that team.

Blake Oliver: How about planning. Is it good old Excel or do you use a special tool for that.

Tim Naddy: You know okay. So um, interesting you say that. So there are some people that use Monday.com. Um, and for a lot of times we just, we use, we use teams and um, and [00:40:30] use that for not only communication but also for some just, just calendaring and things like that. But as far as, um, any type of planning software. No, I mean, a lot of us walk around with, with iPads and, and jot down notes and, you know, change them over to text. Um, that's that seems to be a thing you see a lot around the office. Um, we also have, believe it or not, really huge, um, uh, calendars on the wall where we still use white, you know, white markers, um, and, [00:41:00] and actually put things in and like, scratch them out and get the blue on and you talk about.

Blake Oliver: Like, deadlines for your financial close and stuff like that.

Tim Naddy: Oh, those are all up here, bro. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. So we. Yeah.

Blake Oliver: Well, so the team, the accounting team, finance team must still be pretty small and agile if you're able to do that. Like, what's it look like? What's the what's the headcount?

Tim Naddy: Uh, we actually have four on our team right now. Um, and including including our data infrastructure guy in Denver. And so [00:41:30] we're it's really interesting because we're at a point right now where in our, in our growth, where as we start growing teams, if you will, um, there's there's parts of our organization that actually actually have to grow faster, human resource wise than what we than we do, because everything kind of comes back to a central point for us in finance. And while it's true everything passes through finance, um, as long as we're coordinated in what's who's doing payables, who's doing receivables. What team are we talking about? Is this is this headquarters. [00:42:00] This is the stadium. Is this the warehouse? Um, as long as we stay coordinated in that effort, it's really not that much additional work. It's just a matter of, um, once we find that we're starting to grind a little bit more on something, then we say there's got to be a way to automate this. There's got to be a way to be more efficient. And and so we I call up call up our data infrastructure guy and say, hey, all right, this is my this is my goal. Um, are you ready? Set, go. And he's like, whew. He just he loves this stuff. So he takes it, takes the project. [00:42:30] And usually within about three hours, I told him every once in a while, make it five. So. So, you know, put some sweat on your brow. But no, he cranks this stuff out for us. And all of a sudden we have a new process in place that helps us really move through this information.

Blake Oliver: When you and I were talking and planning out this event, you were in your office back in Savannah and you showed me what I think is called. Is it called the hot seat? It and this is a picture of it for those of us, for those of you [00:43:00] who are watching live. Um, we've got Tim. Will you describe this for for our podcast listeners?

Tim Naddy: Okay. So everybody in the audience should understand that, especially if you've been in finance for any length of time. Um, that's the quick question, chair. So, um, it's kind of a kind of tongue in cheek. Um, it's you don't really get the feel because the lights are on. Um, but but that, that so everywhere else, um, my office is the only office that actually has dimmable lighting. And so, um, so when someone has a quick question. Right, [00:43:30] because it's usually just got a quick question and then 20 minutes later you're like, oh my gosh, like, where did my day go? Um, so I decided I'm going to put a hue bulb in this lamp and it's going to be like dark red, right. And um, and if you and by the way, on the, on the front door, I think I showed you that there's a, there's a picture of, um, of the Game of Thrones and if you and if you would like to come and answer a question, the Red throne awaits. And. And so it's kind of a joke now, but people will come in and they'll sit in there and it'll be one of two things I say, are you here [00:44:00] for advice or are you here for wisdom? And, you know, sometimes they're the same.

Tim Naddy: Um, and of course, if they if they say they're here, they're here for, like, some type of judgment, if you will. I've got a peruke behind me at the office, and I throw on the English peruke as if I'm like an English lawyer or, I guess, a solicitor. And, um, and we, we talk in British tones because that's fun. Um, no, it's that that is the chair that when people want to come in, they want to ask a quick question. It's uncomfortable on purpose because I really want a quick [00:44:30] question to be really quick. But if you don't, but if we need to take it to another level, we can always make an appointment. We can always, you know, take this offline. Right. So I love that. Yeah. So so it's a very subtle reminder that your quick question is as quick as, as the comfortability of that chair.

Blake Oliver: So, so for all of our leaders of teams in the listening. You know, just all you got to do is take a lamp, put a red bulb in it and put it over a chair, and you will make that the hot seat. The the Game of Thrones style interrogation [00:45:00] chair. And if you want.

Tim Naddy: To make it really fun, make that a heat lamp. Then they won't stay there.

Blake Oliver: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. That's that's the next level. If you really want to keep these meetings short, I like it's a twist on the stand up meeting.

Tim Naddy: That's right, that's right.

Blake Oliver: Uh, uh, hey, we got a question from Danielle. Going back to this whole Shopify thing, um, Danielle is curious, do you use stock within Shopify for your merchandise inventory or a different program?

Tim Naddy: Um, we do not use stock. I am familiar with the program. I do not think [00:45:30] we use that one. We have Shopify. We also use a component of Shipstation that helps us push that along. One of the things that we're trying to deal with right now is how to how to really manage our inventory. We never before we got into NetSuite. In fact, the reason why we went to NetSuite in the in the first place was because our merchandise was growing so fast that we went from being in the in the small stadium office. We called it the Blue Room, which was like an office, not much bigger than say this [00:46:00] with all of our shirts and hats and what have you. We moved across the street from the stadium and we had a warehouse that was, oh my gosh, this is this is massive. How are we ever going to fill this up? And in three, four months later, we're moving across town to a 40 000 square foot warehouse. And now we've got a real inventory issue, right? I mean, we got to know when this stuff comes in. We have to have receiving.

Tim Naddy: We have to we have to know where it sits. We have to have good counts. And so one of the things we're trying to do right now is really get a handle on, um, on inventory management. [00:46:30] Um, where, where, where are our products and is this the online section? Is this what's going on the road? Is this, is this staying over here for the banana stand, which is our local, um, and and so as things come in, if that, if the inventory for the banana stand goes down, the next shipment that comes in. Is it a priority to get it to the banana stand, or do we need to put it back on the road? Because, again, a lot of our a lot of our sales are done in person on the road. So, um, so a lot of times we're constantly trying [00:47:00] to figure that piece out. And we've hired some really, really qualified individuals to help us, um, troubleshoot these challenges. And I think we're I think we're getting much better. Um, but I don't believe stocky is the, the, the platform that we're using with that. Yeah.

Blake Oliver: So we talked about we touched on some of the cash flow challenges of a fast growing operation, one that depends a lot on merchandise, one that is expanding rapidly. I've seen numbers out [00:47:30] there that, uh, the bananas have grown 500%, uh, in recent years. And, I mean, that makes sense because it's only been since 2016 that they existed as a team. Um, and the bananas are no stranger to cash crunches. I read that the founder, your founder Jesse Cole, sold his house to to survive during the most difficult part of launching the bananas. So from your experience as the CFO, what [00:48:00] is the what is the biggest challenge that you have experienced from a cash flow perspective during this rapid expansion? You're going on the road now. You've got all these new vendors, all these new costs. You're doing a cruise experience. Yes, we are right. So like, how do you deal like tell me about that.

Tim Naddy: I think one of the difficult, most difficult things that I've had to overcome is and I think that we've addressed it adequately, but it's not going to go away because we're still growing. Um, is, is really it's logistics. [00:48:30] Um, so, for example, one of the things that's new this year is that, um, last year everywhere we played it was it was the bananas and the party animals, and it was either at home or it was on the road. Um, and both teams were there. Um, our entire creative team was there. I mean, when we travel. Guys, this is not a this is not a small operation we usually have. We average about 155 people moving from from place to place to place. And and for the Major League Baseball, it's it's an upwards of 220 people. I mean, this is a massive logistics [00:49:00] operation of if just people alone. Um, so when you think about all the other things, all the show equipment, I mean, we have live band, so you have tuba, you have trombones, you have drums, you have, um, you have all the speakers to make sure the Plaza party is engaged. Um, you have all of the shoot. You have you have stilts. Stilts? The picture that you see. It's I mean, you have all these things for the show.

Tim Naddy: Um, but then you have all the merchandise as well. And so what we what we did this year, that was that was [00:49:30] different. And it certainly was a challenge. Um, we decided we were going to do two games at the same time. And now we always test things. That's one of the things that, um, that our founders believe in is that it's let's test test something and make sure that that we we get it right on the test. Because if it doesn't feel right, maybe it's not what we want to do. Um, so it's like the kind of like the the cannonball and the bullet, um, metaphor, if you will see, um, from, from from our standpoint, this test that we did this year was we are going to do a show at home [00:50:00] and a show on the road at the same time. Well, now what does that do? Well, merchandise is operating in two different places at the same time okay. So that means our Shopify. By the way, Shopify doesn't let you it just gives you one one location map right now. You can you can you can definitely have locations out in out here and in locations at home. You can do that and you can split them up.

Tim Naddy: But if you're looking at Shopify as a whole, just what you're doing, what you're doing on that day, it'll give you everything that you're doing. So you think like, oh my gosh, this is this thing's going [00:50:30] gangbusters. And you go, oh, wait, let's go back to let's go back to Savannah and see this, okay. There's Savannah, there's there's Cleveland. Right. Um, so understanding how the platform, um, operates when you're in two different places at the same time. That was certainly interesting. Um, easily overcome more of more difficult, I think, though, is when you have two shows, we've we pride ourselves in really putting a lot of energy into that show. And why why would you why would you do that? Because again, going back to we are fanatical [00:51:00] about the fans and we entertain always. Every show is somebody's very first show. And so it's our job to make sure that we are we are pushing that envelope we are giving them. We are rising to the to the occasion because the expectations that they've seen on, on, on TikTok and heard from their friends and seen on YouTube, they are nothing in comparison to when you're there live. And so what we do is you get there and now we want you to have a fantastic time.

Tim Naddy: Well, what's interesting is that when to put on two [00:51:30] wonderful shows at the same time, now we need two entertainment teams. We need two producers. We need two directors. We need, you know, how are we going to do this? We had to work with a local studio to to lend us one of their, one of their trucks or their satellite trucks, if you will, so that we could actually broadcast one show through through the truck and then the other show through our normal broadcast. I mean, it was all the stuff like, oh my gosh, we again, in finance, I may have to hire another intern. Whereas [00:52:00] when we go on the road that's another 100 and that's 150 people out here, but it's still 80 people back home. So it's like, oh my gosh, how are we going to do this? Um, so yeah, it was uh, there's been a few pucker moments, but, uh, but we've worked through them and I think that it's, uh, it's made us all the wiser. The simulcasts are done for the year. Um, so so that that's nice, but it definitely we've definitely learned a lot for next year and how we're going to tackle that going going forward.

Blake Oliver: How do you manage the inventory risk? You can't be in two places at once.

Tim Naddy: True. [00:52:30] So again we have we have very good people who are working with our merchandise. Um, so the people at home that are running our warehouse, um, when we're on the road, we have some of those. Some of those individuals and professionals will come over and actually help lead the merchandise effort. Um, the retail side of the effort is actually not too difficult. We set up the tents. We we put out the displays. Um, we make sure the Pos are working at home. It's all done on our on our super, super jacked up Wi-Fi. Right? We got got a couple couple fiber [00:53:00] pipes running into that place. Um, so. So no worries at home when we get out on the road. Um, it's really just the same old thing, because people on the road, they're. They're road warriors, man. I mean, these guys, it's funny when you when you come in, I was I was kind of joking with you earlier about people say, well, what's your typical day in finance look like? And I just kind of I just kind of laugh like, dude, have you seen the room I'm sitting in? Because there's a youth tournament right over there, and I was just selling merch. So, um, but when we're on the road, um, we are [00:53:30] so good at this. Our load in, um, our setup, our getting out there. Engaging. When it when it's over. Tear it down. Load out. And we left that place looking better than we found it. It's it's one of those things, one of the, one of the biggest compliments that I think that I could, I could receive is when a general manager or an executive from the front office comes and says, I didn't believe it. And now that I've seen it, I'm going to tell all my friends about it.

Blake Oliver: Can you share an example [00:54:00] of a creative accounting practice you've implemented that you wouldn't find in a typical business?

Tim Naddy: Okay. Um, well, I will tell you this. So, so got to put my, my, my certified fraud examiner hat on creative accounting. Don't do it. That's not good. Right. Um, uh, creative accounting, I mean, in the sense of, gosh, um. Throw me an example because it's it's about as boring as it gets when it comes to the accounting side. Um, so, [00:54:30] I mean, from the creativity, there's it's not like we're going to take a penny here and put a penny there. I will tell you this. One of the things we do, um, kind of to save. Save for a rainy day. Um, when I, when we first have our large ticket sales, um, I am constantly monitoring bank accounts. Um, in fact, every single day I'm monitoring our bank accounts. We have we've we've, um, put treasury management in place. We have the positive pay. We have the, um, we have the the sweep accounts. Um, in those in those sweep accounts go into accounts [00:55:00] that at night get distributed across, um, a multitude of banks so that we hit the FDIC limits at each one of them. Right. Um, because I'm always very nervous about another bank. Just saying. Yeah. We're out. Um, yeah.

Blake Oliver: You don't want to be the victim of a Silicon Valley bank.

Tim Naddy: No no no no, no. But I do own a hat, by the way, just to let you know. Um. It's one. I have a t shirt. Yeah, I got a Lehman Brothers hat, too. Um, so the. But. Yeah, so so I would say, um, creatively, I'm not sure if it's more creative or if it's just, um, it's [00:55:30] just being a good steward of the resources and being and I'm constantly, constantly thinking 6 to 9 months out. Um, and and almost like so we, we play the long game. And so when, when you come to our, when you come to our show, I want you to have the best time of your life. But it's not just for tonight. I want you to be a believer and become a fan. I want your family to be fans. I want your friends to be fans because in the long run, I want to. I want you to enjoy the bananas as as the [00:56:00] for the nostalgia that you had that night. Right? And I want to repeat that over and over again, playing that long game in my mind from a from a finance perspective, I'm constantly three, six, nine months out looking at looking at what kind of interest rates are we? Are we getting? When are those? When the rate drops. Where can I put that money? Am I going to play with T-bills? I mean, I'm all over the place with these kind of, um, these these kind of, you know, how much cash do we need to have liquid. How much do we need to put in investments? Because we have goals. And our goals are [00:56:30] to, again to, to to create a place that people can come and have that great experience. So creatively. Yeah. Um, probably just about as boring as it gets. And just keeping my finger on the pulse of those bank accounts.

Blake Oliver: I would say, you know, that is a that's a creative approach, right? You're you're being creative in how you reduce that enormous risk because you get all those ticket sales up front. It's a lot of money, and the team needs that money the whole year to operate. So the the automatic sweep is [00:57:00] such a great feature. You know, every bank should offer that. Yes. Um, you got to watch those FDIC limits, man.

Tim Naddy: You really do. Um, some people think that's a joke, but no, you really do. Yeah. Um, because they only give you $0.80 on the dollar if that. If they come back. So. Yeah. Tell you what, man. You got to be careful.

Blake Oliver: So to take us out here, I was wondering if you had any advice for accountants who want to work in nontraditional, fast growing businesses like the bananas? I believe you [00:57:30] got this job from an online job board. Is that right?

Tim Naddy: I can't believe you brought that up. Yes. Of course. I used to tell all my students, so they're like, how do I get a job? It's like, okay, you got to go to the Chambers of Commerce. You got you have to network, you have to do this, that and other, you know, all this in-person stuff. You got to build out and talk to your friends, talk to your parents. You know, you got to know somebody. And then, um, and so I was, um, I actually, uh, applied on a platform called Teamwork Online. And it's all sports [00:58:00] all the time. There's PGA, there's the Tampa Bay lightning, there's, um, there's collegiate stuff. There's, um, so it's any sport job you want. They go from from legal, um, to janitorial services to food and beverage to finance, um, data analysis. All of them are out there and and so, yes, I got the job through an application and I guess, I don't know, maybe maybe I had a bigger smile than the second guy. I don't know. Um, but I would say advice for people who want to get in this in this world [00:58:30] of, I would say, nontraditional accounting. Um, first of all, don't doubt what you've what you're what you've already done because your book, your book of business, your your credibility comes from everything that you've already experienced. And and what I found is that people at our level. Um, the 20 years in, it's actually very difficult to make a transition. Um, at this, at this level in your career, because a lot of times we come in and it's almost like we want to we want to water down our resumes because we're almost too qualified [00:59:00] for the job.

Tim Naddy: Well, okay. So then the question is, are you kind of hiding from who you're from? Uh, it gets into that kind of, kind of squishy personal stuff. My, my my take is, is, um, just be who you are. Um, definitely. You know, you don't have to. You don't have to Lord your all of your all of those things in front of people. Um, a lot of people don't like to see you have the alphabet soup at the end of your name. You could probably drop that for the interview. Um, but the the thought is, is that bring your expertise to the table because there are there are entities out there that are looking for [00:59:30] people like you with your specific expertise. And believe me, they want people that have not been in this industry because you bring a fresh perspective. You bring you bring a certain pair of eyes that have never looked at their books or their industry or their organization in that way before, other than maybe someone they paid for, like a consultant perspective. And, and, and it's kind of one of those things where, um, you, you bring to the table something that, that they, they don't have yet. And, and so [01:00:00] I would just encourage you be who you are, definitely lean on that expertise and then go to these nontraditional places like the teamwork online and go get a job in sports. This this is super fun, man. I'm having a great time.

Blake Oliver: It sounds like a lot of fun. Doctor Tim, Nati, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and our listeners today. We really appreciate it.

Tim Naddy: You got it. Thank you, Blake, and thank you to the Accounting Podcast.

Blake Oliver: Hey everyone. Here is a quick message about how to earn CPE and if you want to join me live on [01:00:30] future earmark podcast interviews, go to Earmark app, create a free account and check out the events section. We've got so many great upcoming live streams for you, and you will be able to earn on demand CPE for those. I'll see you around. Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode and that you learned something new. And if you did, wouldn't it be nice to get some CPE credit for it? Well, I've got great news. My new app, earmark CPE, offers free Naspa [01:01:00] approved CPE credits for listening to podcasts, including this one. Visit earmark Cpcomm to download the app, take a short quiz, and get your CPE certificate. That's earmark Cpcomm.