Jeb Terry: Being the Original Beast Mode, The Game-Changing Cosm Experience

This is Jeb Terry. This is Jebby and this is the NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.

I'm Peanut too Mean and this is the NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.

And with me, as always, my choice is Sidekick the Deacon Roman harping us up.

Baby. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Peanut.

That was actually a normal intro to me and I appreciate that you don't ever do that. So with all that being said, I want to thank all of our listeners and the people that watch us all the time.

Appreciate it.

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Peanut. Who we got today? We got a going guys. He was in the two thousd and for.

Draft, drafted by Tampa Bay, played three seasons. He's killing it in the business for it. He's a tech guru. That's why he's the ero CEO of COSM. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show podcast. Jeb Terry.

Hey, I got to be here.

Guys.

You know what I like about Jeb is that the moment he sat down, he said, Okay, who do I gotta beat?

All right, just get it. Petition is the one who we beating. Who I gotta be Who's at the top of the show.

That's that's what we're running for, right.

I love it.

You gotta find competition.

Man, Hey, I like it. I like it. I love it.

Where are you from? I'm here some some that that accident? What what what is that?

Yeah? You know, grew up in Dallas, Texas, and so my god, you know part of Dallas? What part of Dallas?

Just North Dallas in area up there, proper group in Lakewood. Yeah, I'm a Carpers Cove Waco Temple there is. I'm a Central Texas, Yeah, Passes. That place has changed.

Yes, it's a lot booming right, Yeah, Yeah that's me. Yeah, that's a Texas has the best football room. They go sign that for sure. We're killing Alabama high school football.

No chance, Florida, get out of here. In California, get out of here. Yeah.

The only thing Calabama y'all doing right now is like fighting on riverboats.

That's all y'all got right now. That's all y'all doing.

We didn't realize this was what was going to happen. I'm here for We.

Will accept that. We will openly accept that. Now.

I will tell you this, as far as high school football is concerned in Texas, and I listened to all the scouts from ESPN and the people I work with on my SEC nation and network, they say, you know what, Texas football players are great. They're really really good. But they're usually the same player that you get in high school. They're going to kind of be that they're kind of maxed out because they've been getting coached up doing the

This is what's going I didn't play that early, but I wanted to, that's.

For sure, I know I did. I idea.

Yeah, all right, let's just get we'll talk about football. Well, let's get the first one out the way.

We love to know. What was your first welcome to the NFL moment?

Got it? So?

All right?

The Bucks drafted me right coming off that that Super Bowl team and O two and I come in and there's guys like Derek Brooks, you know, Mike Alstott, you know, guys you look up to. And mine was just in practice, right, all of a sudden, I find myself blocking Derek and all start cuts behind me, and You're.

Like, oh wow, this is this is the real deal.

The guys I've been watching, all these guys have been watching for forever, man, you know, And that was one of the things. It's just like dis an appreciation for the skill and the talent that these guys had because it wasn't like I was going into a team that was rebuilding. The team wasn't up and coming. This team was established and that defense at the time was league's best. And we had some guys that you followed for a long time, and that was always something that was incredible

Do they finally have?

And I was at Old One Buck when we were there, and I don't know, you fly in and the airplanes came right over the top of that practice facility. Man, it was. And I had come from Carolina where he had just redone the whole Keenan Football Center and the whole deal. So we had these great facilities at Carolina and I was like, all right, going to the.

NFL, it's better. No.

Old One Buck was not that, But man, a lot the practices were intense because the guys were all pros. Everyone on that team was a pro. Same and Rice, Ron Day, Booger, McFarlane, all stot, I mean, just.

Excuse me.

We had Ron Day and then you had you know, Gruden was the coach, and he had you know, guys like Ron Middleton, tight ends coach Morris, you know those coach that coaching tree.

Yeah, oh my gosh, you're like these guys that coaching trees. Wow.

You looking around the NFL right now and these guys are all still doing it at a big.

Scale, really big scale.

And that that that team, the coaching staff, everybody came to the came to the room and works and it's uh, it was awesome to be part of that organization.

Now, your career ended a little short. Low, Yeah, it isn't a little short, but and I know you probably still wanted to play.

Like what was your what was your best memory was of your I.

Will say on an intro we said three years, I got five. I got five all the way I.

Apologize, Yeah yeah, I apologie.

However you get there? Does that?

I know I had one which I had gotten heard and did the whole injury settlement thing that when I was coming back. So you know, look, my career was one where I got close to being really really good and then some things got in the way, and you know, things happened in the NFL. I got heard I wasn't playing great, and it was pretty obvious to me where I wasn't playing up to the standard that I knew I could play. And so I'd gone to the forty nine ers in my last season and I tore a

To talk to you.

You're like, oh, yeah, I get it right. It's that's actually one of the things I missed about playing football is the transparent nature of feedback, Like you know, when.

You are not plus plus league.

Ye, it's clear, and it was. It was pretty clear to me, and I tried to hang on for a little bit, had a few workouts that last season. Fortunately

Went back to Hill, did I did?

I went back to Chapel. I looked a lot of places, and I had my oldest daughter at the time. It was two thousand and eight, market crashed, I got cut and my first kid was born, and it's like whoa the trip It was real fast, right, you know, And so I was like, all right, get back to get back to business school, regroup, refresh, figure out that next step.

And so you're the CEO of your company, cause them and I want you to be able to share with everybody else. And it's spilled coe s M, s M, and now be able what does it bring to the fans and tell kind of explained what it is. I tried to read up on it and it looks really really cool in the web technical and I was just like, we're not going.

Yeah, I don't even try it.

Okay, good. It's one of those things where you go to like an event or cocktail party and someone asked, what do you do? Yeah, you know, you don't even want to tell them. Sometime that's gonna take a while.

Okay, good, This makes me feel a lot better. Now.

Look what we're what we're setting out to do is the most incredible fan viewing experience I think to ever hit the industry. You know, I was fortunate I had a few seats along the way as a you know, mobile video platform, a company I started got bought by Fox Sports when worked at Fox for a long time, where I met a bunch of the guys in and around this office as well and learned a lot from them, and then moved on, Oh, you're.

Definitely hamming it up with all the guys earlier. This is where you know all of them from.

Yeah, we got some stuffing, you know what I mean. But at the end of the day, it's like combining all the stuff that I was able to learn when I was at those seats and then leaning into some super kind of advanced technology that's happening. That's you know a lot of people aren't going to be seeing for a number of years, but it's combining that to super serve the fan and give them that all access seat that you never had.

Right.

So everyone has heard about virtual reality and how you put on a headset and it's like you're actually at the game, right, And you can do that and it's pretty cool, but you miss the energy, the vibe, the whole scene and the environment. And that's what we're about.

The pandemic hit a lot of people hard a few years back, and a lot of companies went Bailey up and whatnot. How hard was it for COSM to get started during the pandemic, and it was It was interesting. It was We saw a trend in the industry prior

This is what we wanted to do. We want we want the juice energy, right, and so you think about that human connectivity and that's what our business is all about. And so we were able to buy companies up. And one of the companies we bought was a big was a public company. We took a private That was on April sixth, twenty twenty, so week three of the pandemic, right, that was when it was gnarly. But then the pandemic created opportunities to be capital efficient with our acquisition strategy.

A little bit.

If you look through the history of some of the great companies that were founded, they got they got founded in downturns or in crises, things like that. And you know, it's a mix of being opportunistic, finding the right opportunities and people changed their frame of reference and looked for different things, right, whether that's building a team. People had to doferent perspectives like, man, I want to do something fun, right, I want to do something that excites me, something that's

Now you're also you guys are looking to expand in in Dallas. You're going to build their doubt we're at in Dallas and are you are you going to try and base it around like the arena almost like what you're talking about with the buck zone or the what the raptors have outside there, because you know we look at it and you talked great example is the World Cup when those when you see Argentina win, it.

All like going grace, It's like right there, that was like to bring that.

To the fans no matter where it will be, I think it will be a unique, unique experience.

And that's the moment.

And people don't understand, like sports gives us this emotion that you can't get everywhere else. Then last second shot that last second field goal, that games and whatever. It's this emotion that you don't get doing anything else.

You don't get it. And it's the ability to high five and be around fans that are sharing in that joy, you know, in high five and someone you've never met or never know, test bumping, you know, fist bump, whatever it is. It's that energy, and so we want to deploy that at a massive scale. So we've announced our one here. We've announced our one in North Texas. So there's are called Frisco, which I.

Said that, I said, I bet it's in Frisco.

So where we are I would say we are in the colony, which is Frisco adjacent if you want to say anything. But it's all in North Texas here at a entertainment district called Grandscape, so it's a mixed use entertainment district. But that strategy is further away from the venues in Arlington, from the stadiums, and so here we are stadium adjacent right in the mix, always shoulder programming, organic when the team's on the road, come watch it.

I know you partnered with UFC in July, and I know fans got to experience like something one of a con experience.

Can you can you talk about that? Yeah?

So every time we announce a big deal, we have a media day where we bring up you know, the league, the federation, whoever we partner with, and then we bring up all their media. Uh So we did a did one big, a dead one, did a big one. Yeah, I was, where is he going?

Is he digging work? Now?

So we went we did we did one one the NBA around their All Star game in Salt Lake. That's where we have a big demo facility and then we hosted the UFCS as well after we announced that, And it's just about bringing the people in and seeing what we're talking about. This is us see it to believe it, right, which is right. It's inherently hard to market and promote, but once they're in, it's just going to give them

How many people can you fit in your in the facility. Yeah, son, five thousand square feet? How many people?

So right here the total capacity is two thousand people in this and so you get a good energy and just bring on my phone because I got to show you the video. There's no other way to do it than to show you what we're looking at right here. So this is what we built up in Salt Lake City.

So can you describe it what we're looking at.

Yes, we're walking into our office here. We call it the Experience Center and this is where we preping onboard you and then all of a sudden you go into the dome and it is that transformative experience. So this is an eight k twenty meter diameter led dome that is crystal clear and puts you there. We have a spatial audio system so when the pin drops, it's in the upper ninety. When the ball hits the net, you

Yeah.

Right, So it's really the best of at home and the best of in stadium experience, and it is. We think it's truly one of the kind in a category defining thing.

Oh my gosh. So when do we get one in Chicago? I like that thing right there?

Hey, we're looking, we're looking. I got when do we get one in Chicago? Let me do some looking when I get on my plane to night.

So, Jeff tell me this, How would this go along

Yeah. So the promise of what we're bringing is it is a complimentary experience to being in the stadium. We are never going to take that place, correct, That is a sacred environment. I appreciate you saying, you know, there's no way we can ever replace that. What we want to do is offer fans who might not be in that city, who might not be able to get there, who who wanted to try to experience something as close to it as possible. That's the offering we're trying to

Right right again, you said it, I mean, I mean it's.

It's are insane. Look it's it's it's definitely an intricate puzzle and it takes a lot of patience to go through it and navigate with leagues, federations, broadcasters, all the partners, all the rights holders, and our whole approach is you have to be additive. You got to be you got to make the pie bigger. We aren't cannibalizing any existing distribution outlet. And that's our approach.

That's that's so smart.

And have a partnership minded approach the entire time. And you know, hopefully pulling some heart strings, is you know, being on the field in certain situations too.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. You got this experience growing pretty

Just Yeah, we're we're excited about it. So we're opening to next year. We have big ambitions. We're going to be announcing a few more sites later this year, a few more league partners, some broadcast partners, and and so the momentum is real. And one of the things I like to talk about with our company is, you know, when you deal in the in the in the business or the tech world, you know there's not everyone's been on a team, and not everyone knows how important momentum

Right now, Do you have any plans to do anything international?

One hundred percent. We look at the international markets, especially with the distribution from US based sports internationally a lot of interest. Right. We've got the NFL over in London and the rest of Europe and all the interests there. You've got the NBA going globally as well, and then in Germany too. In Germany it's a it's a it's

Crazy.

It's an amazing day part for us too, right because those usually on different hours where you don't have prime time US sports, and so internationally is part of our footprint. One of the companies we acquired, actually it's going to be weird, is the biggest planetarium company in the world. So we power over seven hundred planetariums globally. We have forty two in China, and so part of our core

Now, now that you're saying all those things takes me to where I'm in North Carolina, man Charlotte, and I'll go to the Vincent van Go experience and it's kind of like you're in this whole room. They're going through all these different things and they're pulling it all up in And when I looked at you guys video, you guys are like inside the ring octagon for M and a fighter. And so give me that because the music I think you guys is. Of course the texts way better,

Well, what I want to say is what the immersive van go industry, it's called industry. It's location based entertainment in the experience economy as a whole, right, it's booming. I mean that is something that is done incredibly well, whether it's Van Go or Monet or.

They just pick it up in movies, yeah.

Or any of these different entertainment experiences. And it's about this this convergence of art and science and all these other genres with immersive technology. And we think it's a great baseline and it's and it's proven, there is a demand, and what we focus on is how do we we look at that consumer habit and then apply it to live sports and merge that with fandom. And we treat every patron like a fan and that could be a fan of sport, but it calls me a phantom, music, science, art,

That's the goal.

If someone shares their time at COSM, then we're winning. And then you know, that's what we try to do. And again, the biggest differentiator is the live format and the fact that we own all the tech stack and there's a lot of stuff around it, but it's an exciting time.

We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back. All right. So you've been a CEO for what twelve fifteen years now?

Yeah? Oh yeah, from small companies to bigger ones. Yeah, highs and lows and everything.

But I want to ask another question about that. But how would you rate yourself? You talked about getting critiqued and all these other things. How do you critique yourself? And how do you stay hungry? I mean, number one, you got to feed everybody at your company too. But tell me how do you what do you see yourself? How do you grade yourself? I'll put it in there, give me the critique. Fifteen do you do? You have it figured out? Are you a vet?

What like? Are you still like?

Man?

I'm still in the rookie Grind's great question? Man.

So look, in my first act as an AL player, I wanted to be a Hall of Famer.

Yeah, just put it out there.

That's my goal. I clearly missed, you know. And I tell people on my team, I go, I got fired for my dream job twice. Like they didn't casually let

I was a pretty good football player at my university. You were, you were okay at Alabama?

So I was, I was. I was pretty decent at my team. And I never had an award named after me. So can you tell can you can you tell the people what the Jeb Terry Beast Mode Award is?

Wow?

You know that that there's there's a lot of ways you can get an award named after. I like to think it was all from my skill on the football field, you know, but look, it's it's I don't know if I had a reputation or not as an old linement there, but I was an energetic, high energy guy. And you know, I was one of those guys that like to get fired up before the game. And you know, I'm a I'm a helmet beater. I'm one of those guys. I'm not a quiet guy in the corner salt and I'm

You know.

Uh, some people like it, some dope, but that's probably where it came from. I was pretty good in college, you know. I was able to do some good things. And I love Carolina. I love the tar Heels. And by the way, expecting the big year from my guys, they should. They got to win the first may sling it. We got to win the first one.

You've got to win the first one. I think that's going to really talk about everything. The first game is North Carolina versus South Carolina and Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium. It's going to be a big one and those teams, those two teams are not rivalries.

But they don't like you. Come on, they don't like you. You know, you know.

Look, we've got Sam Howe slinging it for the commanders now, QB one, yes, right, Just gotta know that guy's a stud. Drake may now coming through. They're saying he's the best in the nation. By the way. I don't know if you all ever met him yet, but impressive, impressive young man.

I watched him in high school at Myers Park. I live in park right there in Charlotte. So yeah, y all the way around. So we feel good about it as tarhell fans excited about where it goes. You just, guys, guys gonna get a couple of stops on defense.

Tell me we looked a part. I'm going to tell you we've got some. We've got some four and five stars out there.

You're halfway there, halfway there, were there looking the part.

I don't know.

Carolina blue is the best best color in the country. So if you guys can get behind me on that, we can get along.

I like the blue.

I'm not gonna allow the blue is nice because they

I agree. I mean, let's just be honest.

Look, Michael Jordan's related, Michael Jordan really helped you guys outsell it all.

Let's just be honest.

Man.

However he worked, Tell me all right, which one was harder?

Being an all academic acc player football player his senior year or putting up twenty seven reps at two twenty five combin. I got nineteen. How did you get thirteen? Thirteen? I got nineteen.

I got more in the in my pro day. But what's the official number? Yeah, thirty?

It has got to be at least thirty.

Yeah, I did better in my pro day, but twas seven at the combine. Hey, look, I y'all are gonna laugh at this. I got a lot of sports fans on our team, right, one of my my business vel shut out Peter Murphy, head of our media group, now killing it at the organization on an all hands, pulls up my combine stats and presents it to the entireization, and I was good across the board, have really short arms, right for an old lineman. And that that was the knock. And he gets on. He says, man, our CEO is

Your mind's in a different place. It's in a different place.

When yeah, when you go back, you're in a totally different place. You got to go back. I'm trying to get him to go back and get his masks. So I'm trying to tell him he don't want to do I have a normal degree, Like, you don't want another one. I don't want you need to get one. You know everybody experience you're going to do. We're going to continue to keep this podcast movement and we're not gonna get stuck in the US.

Like, yes, you're right, I'll get on one shoulder.

You don't want to fight, you don't want to do amazing race, you don't want to get your masters.

We want you to keep growing. I want.

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, to take all this like into consideration. Okay, keep your grades up, my man. And uh, but I would say this, what made you choose you know you're from Texas? Yeah, what made you

It was the only ride I got, you know, unknown guy coming out of high school. I showed up, you know mech then's the summer camp matter? Yeah, you didn't have all the recruiting stuff that's going on now. It's hard to get known. I went to a military school in Indiana for high school, and I always like Carolina I mean, shout out Jordan for I'm telling you this being a Texas kid knowing nout to Carolina Blue, and I was like, let's go check it out near They had a good bus in school and went to camp

And the DC the Yeah, of course he coached me in college.

Yeah, coach coach forbus is the man.

I love how you can yell get all angry and never cursed, never cursed, never never.

Yeah. Yeah, you guys got them all call you meet yeah, meet hey. Yeah, you know coach Horbus was there and you know, a lot to love about Carolina.

Yeah, I agree. Fortunate for the opportunity.

So tell me this before you ask your last question or I know you're going to come off the dome with something hot, So think about it for a second.

All right, I want to know this.

How many acquisitions have you had and how many exits have you had? And what do I mean by that is like how many businesses have you bought up and acquired? Always think this is an incredible stat This is like looking on the back of your baseball car Yeah.

So, Jeff Terry, how.

About fired twice from his dream job? Yeah, let's get that. That's the start fired twice dream job for the first startup that we did. And you know my guy Ryan Nice, you know, yes, he's one best friend and co founder of the first business we did. Oh wow, so we we we had we sold that business, went to Fox Sports and did it there started another business that was a failure, flat out learned a lot from it, you know what I mean. Yeah, the partnership dynamic wasn't wasn't

Since South Dakota, Oh, okay, South Dakota, I said, Dakota's well, South Dakota. Now I'm just there. Will you let me Why?

Why?

Why is it cool? Thomas can I fire HNDS cool. It's like, hey, bigger than partnership.

Is not working.

Partnership is not working. This partnership is not working. You keep cutting me off. Everything I pitched to you, you you shoot it down. Oh my god, I need a new partner. Look you come on, I need a new partner. Oh my god.

Anyway, the Dakotas South Dakota. I've had people in my life.

They've they've critiqued me, They've molded me, they've they've they've shaped me.

Who's on your personal mount rushmore?

Oh?

Man? Four people? That's a good question.

Four people.

Thanks.

I mean, that's off the cuffs of I don't even any prep work for that either. That's that's one. You gotta get a lot of.

Thought about freestyle. Man, That's what I did.

Do you have yours?

I do, but I'm not on the hot seat. Yes I do.

Look, uh one was my dad hundred percent, you know, shape me. Influenced me a lot. And the other one's my mom. Yeah, I mean, there's it's they were the yin and the yang and and helped for me. Who I am? The good, the bad. The in between all of it, you know, really really drove me to pursuit of of where I am now. Oh man, goodness, I'm just gonna throw my wife on there too. It is she's the leader of

You haven't lot lowed down yet since you've been old the States, and all of a sudden said, it's a big one between those between the three I named.

Stump, I've had some great coaches, some great mentors, some great capital partners. There's been a you know, it's I've been blessed to have a ton of people in my life.

You're not gonna put it one up don't.

I think. I don't think that's fair to the others.

You know, yeah, you might. You might have to be make them out.

You might make it, but then his sisters are going to come out.

You know what did we go to?

Man? I'n't be thinking about this all night, you guys. You guys have got me give me yours?

Oh mine?

It was it was my mom, my dad, my wife, and then it was my my Actually my high school coach, my high school coach, Bill Clark, because he really changed me. He really taught me a lot of things early. Uh, and everybody else. I mean I could pick a couple professional coaches, but my high school coach really instilled in me a lot and uh for the like, I was not even going to play football.

I was like going to quit. Wow.

Yeah, and they just played basketball and he was like you need to come back either.

Like play. He came in and changed everything.

So for me, I was like not even about to be the own basketball basketball Wow.

So basketball with the Carolina Blue Hey, rest a shirt rest.

I am terrible at hoops. That guy though, He'll be all right, all right, what about you, peanut?

Mom dad, I'd say, mom, dad, wife And then a good friend of mine. His name is John Wright. He uh played played in the played football in the sixties, turned business kind of like you, and he just really helped me grow mentally, you know, mind control, not mind control, just controlling my mind and just mental toughness and things like that. So yeah, he great mentor for me. Helped me, you know, motivational speaker and all that. So yeah, those are those are my four.

Yeah, you know, one of the things I missed the most. Now on the other side of the uh, in the business world, you don't have coaches like you have in football. You don't have Sometimes coaches are tough, right, but they're telling you the plus minus yeah, and then how to get better. And then you've got a team of people that are here to help you get better.

Yeah, you know what I mean versus like you're just out there.

You're just out there, Like man, this sale cycle is along. It's like do I send another email?

Close this deal? Yeah?

You know, how do you react? And you know it's it's you. You You miss it when you're out of it, right when you're in it. Like, man, this dude is on me, Like the step six inches that way is not going to matter, but I would kill to have someone telling them.

But that's the beauty of us, though, Like we run toward criticism and that's what makes us who we are. And that's why you're killing it right now. That's why you're so successful in your second act right now, because you're always looking to get better, You're always looking for that criticism. But when you fail, it's like, Yo, what list is that I learned? Because without failure, I can't have success, right.

Right, every every everyone I've ever had is like it's a cliche, right, Like, there's a failure in everyone I talk about. You know the Instagram line for every like, Hi, there's a you know what's the opposite of Instagram? You know, it's it's there's a there's a low point there every time. Yeah, a lot of people miss that. And anyway, it's true in football, and it's true in the business world, and it's true in all all walks.

Yeah, you know, Jeff Terry, you are the freaking man. Dog appreciate.

I can't wait to see COSM continue to blow up. I can't wait to see the arenas as you continue to put them up all these places. I'm really really looking forward to and I definite you in there. I don't know if i'd be front row, but I'll be standing in there.

Ready, we'll get you there.

Want to go?

I want to go.

I want to see ready to go?

Well, anyways, man, thank you guys so much as always tuning in right here on this one.

Thank you Peanut. Good job. You know how to listen and pay attention all.

Right anywhere you pick up your podcast, whether it's Apple podcast, iHeartRadio podcast.

Thanks as always for tuning in.

Give us a rating five stars only five star rating. Give us a review. Hit that button, follow man, tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. Jeff Taylor, you're off the hot seat, Peanut, get us out of here on the dog.

I'm peanuts.

Willman.

There's someone waving at the window there. It is my god, right, I can't hear it. You can't hear yeah, hey, but yeah we just saw coach and yeah, I'm Peanut. Jeff Room, my uncle were little Jebbie, Oh and little Jeff.

You want to get a cameo and a jump little cameo.

Come on the cary, come on here, turn around right here. You getting right there, right there, right there, right there, we're looking at decade.

There he is, I'm looking at camera.

Sorry, getting right over there. Oh yeah yeah.

See boom, there we go. Five stars, say give him five star.

Five stars, five stars. We'll see all later. Hey taking players act? What up? How are us