Meet Kara Heater

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kara Heater and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kara, what do you attribute your success to?
The success of Banana Ball is all due to our mission statement – Fans First. Entertain Always. We put the fans first in everything that we do. Fans don’t want to feel sold, they want to feel valued! Our goal is to make baseball fun and do things on a baseball field that no one has ever seen before. On our social media and at our games, we don’t try and sell things constantly to fans. What we do is put on a show and put out fun content simply to try and make people smile! If we can bring positivity to our fans, then we’re doing it right!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As the Marketing Director for the Savannah Bananas, we do things a lot differently. Like I mentioned before, we put fans first and our goal is to make baseball fun.

I think what’s different from our company is the creative freedom we have. We have little to no red tape which allows us to input things into our games that are so different and that most sports teams or companies can’t do. This allows us to create content and put on a show that is unlike any other.

Because we have no red tape, it does bring challenges. As we grow, we want to make sure that we’re constantly keeping our content and show fresh. Sometimes we can get into a rut of doing what’s worked in the past because it’s easy, but we realize that won’t help us grow. We have to constantly be raising the bar on our personal skills as well as raising the bar on the content that’s going out on a daily basis.

I began with the Bananas in 2018 as the Marketing Intern, did two years of remote part time work for the team before coming on full time in 2020. I actually had a full time job elsewhere and did Bananas as my side gig, but realized very quickly that you can’t find the culture of the Bananas office or the creative freedom anywhere else. That’s when it really hit me that the Bananas organization was where I wanted to be!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Savannah is an incredible city! You have a historic downtown, a groovy mid town area, and the beach all twenty minutes away! You can get a taste of anything in the city.

A beach day at Tybee Island is a must and you have to end the day eating at North Beach Bar & Grill, Hucapoos, or Stingrays!

In the midtown area, you’ll definitely want to check out Starland Yard – a shipping container outdoor area with the best food, drinks, and vibes. Just outside of it, you can get the best smash burger in town with a locally brewed sour or beer from the best brewery in town – Two Tides Brewery.

If I’m taking people downtown, we’re definitely exploring River Street and going to one of the famous candy kitchens, followed by a rooftop bar tour, and capping off the night with a hearse ghost tour around the city!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

My parents deserve a massive shoutout! They always pushed me to do whatever made me happiest. Working in a creative field, sometimes you can get lash back because it’s not as stable as a position, so on and so forth. My parents constantly pushed me to do what I loved and encouraged me to move on when something didn’t make me happy anymore without question. They were encouraging always and taught me a great work ethic.

I also think the people I’m surrounded with at the office each day are a huge part to not only the success of the teams and sport of Banana Ball, but also to my own professional and personal growth. Each day, we’re able to have fun in the office but we also constantly push each other to better our craft which in term helps better the content we’re putting out on a daily basis.

Website: bananaball.com

Instagram: bananaball

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karaheater/

Twitter: thesavbananas

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialbananaball/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@officialbananaball 

Image Credits
You can credit “Banana Ball” for use of any photos!