Film Room - James Mims

Brian Johnson (00:48.248)
Hey, listener, welcome back. Good to have you here again. Just a reminder, here we are talent chasing where we bring real world stories from the fields, courts and pitches of major league sports. And we combine them and talk about them along with the offices of corporate talent. It's our job to amplify these hidden stories in finding, retaining and motivating the best talent in the world. Because we know no team exists anywhere without great talent. I'm Brian Johnson.

and I'm a former Major League Baseball player and scout.

Chad (01:19.862)
I'm Chad Sowash, recruitment industry veteran, startup advisor, and one of those angel investors as well. This episode is part of our film room series where we break down our favorite parts of big interviews, kind of like breaking down big plays in the film room after a game.

Brian Johnson (01:40.142)
Yeah, and this is with James Mims, one of our guests, a really unique story. Went to University of Southern California a long, long time ago. As a kid, he had an idea for something different that he wanted to market. And it was a wristband that was like a baseball card. So it's a wristband with the player that you want their picture on there with a little slogan and their signature, right? So just like a baseball card.

Chad (01:44.14)
Love this guy. Love him.

Brian Johnson (02:06.628)
And so this is 40 years ago and this Mims bands are still alive today. So here's one of our favorite clips from that interview.

Chad (02:14.243)
Here we go.

Brian Johnson (04:46.808)
Yeah, so many good things. mean, this is our entrepreneurial show, right? This is the one where, hey, who hasn't had a great idea, thought about it, got excited about it for five minutes. Like, I won't work. I'm not going to do it. People think I'm crazy. And here we are as a college kid. James Mims has that idea. His mentor, his idol, his bus, Dusty Baker, who is an entrepreneurial to the extent degree right now. Nowadays, he has.

Chad (04:50.05)
of Gaudia.

Chad (04:54.413)
Mm -hmm.

Chad (05:09.763)
Yeah.

Chad (05:13.957)
yeah.

Brian Johnson (05:15.044)
An energy company's got a wine company's got a restaurant so dusty Baker and then his early days as a player the the back end of his playing days He has this young kid that has this idea friend of his and his mentors So dust is mentee has an idea dusty who has no business sense at that point. He's still just a player, right? He has a player. He hasn't done anything else So he even he says he laughs the first the first encounter with this new idea. He laughs

Chad (05:34.36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chad (05:43.15)
Yeah, yeah.

Brian Johnson (05:43.372)
And then says, I don't know, let's see. He didn't like completely disparage it, but he's like, hey, let's see. And then boom, it takes off from there. I thought that was just so cool. The very early stages of being an entrepreneur where that's tough. It's a tough stage in the early going.

Chad (06:00.28)
Yeah. And as an angel investor, which his sister was giving the seed money at this point, you, really got it. You got to see the vision. You got to see the vision and for everybody who's out there. Okay.

Brian Johnson (06:03.876)
Mm -hmm. Sure.

Chad (06:15.308)
James saw this as a Tops baseball card on a wristband, right? So for everybody who doesn't understand what a Tops baseball card is, tell them what it is, Brian, and tell them what it meant to you to be on it for the first time. I see you smiling big on that one, go ahead.

Brian Johnson (06:27.768)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great call. No. So when I grew up before the Internet, right, I would follow my favorite team. I lived in Oakland, California. So the Oakland A's were my favorite team. Ricky Henderson, Raleigh Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Bert Campanaris, know, all these those olden kind of guys. That's I followed the.

the box score in the newspaper. So every morning I get the newspaper, I look, see how they did and say, he went one for three of the doubles. So I'd imagine my head like my favorite guy hitting a double or Reggie Jackson hitting a home run. So that was what it was like for kids my age of 56. Right. And every kid before that. Right. For the 100 years before that, that's how that world was. And then there along the line, somewhere along the lines.

Chad (07:16.515)
Mm

Brian Johnson (07:20.322)
That was developed into now a baseball card with a card, literally a card, it's a piece of card board and it's a square. It's like three by five or not even that. But that has the players picture on the front name team on the back. On the back it has all their stats, where they're from, how old they are, how many years they played in the big leagues or something, cool little saying from there or whatever it was. Baseball cards were gigantic when I was growing up.

Chad (07:39.995)
-huh.

Brian Johnson (07:49.624)
Fast forward now, James has this idea to take this to another level to say, how can I be unique? This idea of having your baseball card on the wrist. I was honored when he first asked me to do that, to be on Mims Bams and have my own. I turned mine underneath at first because I didn't feel like I was worthy. was my first couple of years, I was a rookie and I was like, I haven't earned the right to have it facing up yet. So I waited another season before I faced it up.

Chad (07:53.315)
Mm -hmm.

Brian Johnson (08:19.076)
Here's the uniqueness of that idea. That was what 19 let's say it's 1980. So we're 2024. So that's 42 years ago. Do you know to this day no one has tried to duplicate the same idea that James has had. They've tried to buy him out a couple of times. No one has come up with a similar idea. Now you see wristbands with players numbers on there. You'll see Nike's logo on there. But nobody

Chad (08:39.703)
Amazing.

Chad (08:45.336)
Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Brian Johnson (08:48.504)
has made it personal to the player except James Mintz.

Chad (08:51.97)
Yeah, I tell you what, for me again, you know, being a startup advisor, an angel investor, I get product pitches all the time. All the time, right?

Brian Johnson (09:02.466)
And what are you looking for? A unique idea? What else are you looking for?

Chad (09:05.324)
Yeah, you know what we're gonna look for? We're gonna play this next clip because this is gonna tell you.

Chad (09:53.358)
Okay, so what I'm always looking for is a founder who is relentless. James Mims, if you have not listened to this interview listener, go back, listen to the James Mims interview because that man was relentless. He had so many obstacles, right? Not just the product, not just being first to market, not just that, but he had so many obstacles. You've got to go and check this out. But as

Brian Johnson (09:59.074)
Mmm, good cop.

Chad (10:23.59)
an advisor, a founder, you know, I only have so much time. I only have so much bandwidth, so I have to have a limited portfolio. I'm turning down startups all the time. The thing that gets me first, the very first thing is that founder. The product is secondary. We can change the product, but you know what you can't change? You can't change the character and the behavior of that founder. So for me, this is a business standpoint. I was like, wow, I mean,

But my brain just exploded because he is the prototype of every, mean, every single startup founder that I want to be, I want to be associated with.

Brian Johnson (11:03.332)
It makes so much sense. And yeah, I love that the person first, right? Anybody watch Shark Tank, right? They're evaluating the people. I look back on that now. But it's so cool that Tops then comes back so much later on. He had the early idea, send in five, you know, rappers of the cards and get a wristband, right? They turned him down. They call him 30 years later, however many years later, ask him to design these, I mean, these cards that he designed.

Chad (11:28.654)
30 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Johnson (11:33.156)
are amazing. And then the next piece, which we don't have a clip of, so then not only that, but 42 years in the game, the only black vendor in baseball. At the beginning when he started and 42 years later, the only black vendor in baseball, still to this day, in Major League Baseball. And then he gets invited and asked to be in the Hall of Fame because of that stick -to -it -iveness, because of that...

know, desire to make this thing happen. It's just a great American story. Well, any story, not just America, but a great story.

Chad (12:06.69)
Yeah. And I love, yeah. And I love that we got a chance to talk a little bit about tops and what that actually meant to you. And then think of what it meant to him. He got the dear John letter, but he still worked his ass off. Right? He went at it. He knew he had a great product. He had, he had guys like Dusty Baker. Yeah. Dusty was, I mean, he was pretty much a father figure to him.

Brian Johnson (12:20.493)
Chad (12:31.746)
but he had Dusty Baker and he had some Eric Davis. Eric Davis, you know, would stood up for him. You know, he had all these big, big players. Hell, he had you there too, right? So was one of those things where listening to this myself, it just, makes me happy every time I do it because a guy like that who believes in himself, believes in this product, he made his product better, you know, took some feedback from Dusty.

And just to this very day, gets a chance to be in the Hall of Fame and work directly with TOPS. To me, I can't but smile, man. I can't but smile.

Brian Johnson (13:13.57)
Hats off to James Mim. Great job, great effort. And still to this day, MimsBams .org or .com. His history is out there, his products out there. Check him out.

Chad (13:23.042)
Yeah. Just go to Google, type in Mims bands, buy you a whole lot of them. Buy you a whole lot of them. Well, listener, thanks again for joining us for this film room series where we talk about Mr. Mims. Again, look for more amazing interviews. If you haven't listened to interviews, get back into the catalog, enjoy it. But Brian, again, another great episode. Thanks so much, man. And I can't wait to see you next time.

Brian Johnson (13:51.758)
Looking forward to it.

Chad (13:52.888)
Take care, man.