We've all experienced life's roadblocks we've all had those moments when the future looked void of anything good Our Guest today reminds us that not only can you persevere through those Seasons but learn to see the good in everyday life again from perceived failure to the fourth fastest growing consumer product in America in that you have look at the experiences that you have what lights you up and then how do you take all of that and then bring God into it and expand the kingdom in some way he's lived it and you can too all right my friends welcome back to another episode of fulfilled it's truly an honor having one of my dear friends on with us today and Zach Wendall in addition to being one of the nicest guys on the planet and I really mean that Zach is an entrepreneur a speaker he's an author really has a heart for just helping others see the good in their everyday lives but more than anything there's a few people that I see really being a light for this generation and Zach is is up there in my books but brother I just want to say thank you so much for being with us today man thank you so much for having me on I swear your introductions I'm G to bring you everywhere from here on out uh just hire you to hang out with me just so that uh you can boost my ego and and uh and tell people about me yeah if that means we can travel together I'm in done deal so I know a lot about your story just one being a brother and just um knowing you reading your books too but um you got quite a story I know that you many years ago kind of went through a season where you were just kind of searching for answers and then you made this this journey to Australia so for people who don't know you don't know your story tell me a little bit about that and then just the transformation that took place like like on your way there and then after you kind of came back totally so I grew up in the church and I grew up seeing Miracle after Miracle uh my mom is a four-time cancer survivor and so just uh witnessing that and seeing God's goodness through it all for 15 18 years um really made an impact on who I am and and the way that I view the world um but then when I hit college and moved away I started falling away from my faith more and making my own uh decisions on things that might not be the best and I just started questioning a lot of things and when I was 24 I I hit a pretty low spot and I was like God I I know you're good and I know you're real but like prove to me that you're real like even more so now because I was struggling just with a lot of other Christians that I was surrounded by and just kind of with with who I was and what I wanted to believe and so I ended up moving out to Australia um to study in this program for nine months where it was like 12 hours a day six days a week so if we were studying Genesis for instance we would read Genesis five times in one week and that's like a 4-Hour read and then we would write our own commentary on it and so by the end of this program I had like 20 30 40 pages of notes and commentary on every single book of the Bible and my life was completely transformed I fell in love with scripture I fell in love with just the word and getting more people into it and I knew that a lot of people's lives would be transformed if they spent time studying the Bible but a lot of people that I knew aren't able to just get up and move across the world and so I started or I wrote this book called The Bible study and it basically holds your hand as you read through the entire Bible and uh it ended up doing really really well and growing into a pretty big product uh from there we created an uh e-commerce business publishing house uh that had a bunch of different products under it different books that I wrote and whatnot and we were just acquired about a year ago you had a transformative experience in Australia like you said you basically wrote your own commentary yeah and then you're like you probably had this idea like wow this could be really impactful for people you mentioned that like not everybody can come to Australia but we can probably create something that helps them in their walk so what was it like taking like having an idea but actually bringing it to life because I know that's a journey of itself totally I think my story has two different ways of approaching my story when people ask so we have the spiritual side of it but then we also have the entrepreneurial side of it so I started my first business when I was nine years old uh making shark tooth necklaces and selling them on the beach in Naples Florida and like crushing it as a nine-year-old and then like moving on I I had developed clothing lines and I co-owned a recording studio and I had written books and so I was doing all of that prior to Australia and so it was kind of just ingrained in me that if I saw a problem or a need for something I would find a solution to fulfill that that need and so uh it was just kind of a natural thing uh when I got back from Australia I was really praying about it figuring out what I should do if I should move back out there if I should teach or or whatnot and I God gave me a full-on vision for this book called The Bible study I like saw the logo the layout and I immediately knew like the plan of attack on how to approach it and so I spent the next nine months taking all my notes distilling them down uh writing them into what became the Bible study then I spent three months designing it and so by January of 2017 it was like ready to go but it was a file on my computer because I never published a book before successfully i' never like printed thousands of copies or anything and so I kind of just sat on it for a little bit and I started telling people about it and then people just started giving me money like here's $5,000 build a website here's 2500 bucks print some promotional copies like here's 200 here's 500 and I was like man I really might be on to something here and so we launched a kick starter campaign in June of 2017 and we ended up doing $24,000 in pre-orders in 30 days and I was like oh man we're going to print for sure and so I ordered a thousand copies I hadn't even thought about like working in shipping costs for all of the books that I just sold and so immediately I was losing money when we first came out with it and it was like you know those are just the things that you run into and figure out as you as you're starting a business and so uh launched that book officially and it didn't do really well right away and I was like man we just had this successful campaign why like what's the disconnect here and I felt like God was saying that my heart was in the wrong place with it and so I had this like come to Jesus moment essentially where I was like all right what do I actually feel called to do um what is my purpose in life and how can I how can I rethink and rework what I'm currently working on and when I made that switch when I made that realization that's when everything began to kind of take off and I ended up building out a team and over the course of four years um we grew substantially and we hit uh 63rd fastest growing business in America and number uh four fastest growing consumer product in America uh like in a non-Christian uh section like bro that blows my mind I can't even believe it like and yes we put in the work but I think God is the one that really uh pours on the water and makes the seed grow so it's it's our job to to sew the seed and it's his job to make it grow yeah that's crazy I had it down the 63rd fastest growing business in America you already mentioned fourth fastest growing consumer product and then third fastest in in Minnesota which just crazy numbers so yeah what tell me a little bit digging a little bit more so you kind of one of my questions was like what are some of the challenges you face and how did you push through but sounds like you like had this great idea you felt like it came from the Lord then you just launched it and like probably like crickets but how did you really dig in to to find out like what's really your calling because I think people whether they realize it or not we're constantly trying to figure out like what's our identity what are we what are we here for for yeah tell me a little bit about how you reach that and then just the fruit that came from yeah like finally stepping into your calling I think it's a combination of things and I think in the Christian space a lot of people get it wrong because they just say oh I'm just waiting on God to tell me what I'm supposed to do and then they sit on the couch and they're lazy and instead of actually going out and pursuing things that they're passionate about or that they feel like they can make an impact with and I think often times God is just saying I've given you the tools like get up and just do it and and so I think there's definitely that so look at uh what you're passionate about look at spiritual gifts that you have look at uh the experiences that you have what lights you up and then how do you take all of that and then bring God into it and expand the kingdom in some way and it doesn't have to mean that you're doing a Christian business or anything you could be selling toothbrush es but you could be selling the toothbrushes with Excellence you could have be having conversations with your co-workers there's ways to work in the Christian aspect of it uh it doesn't have to be you don't have to be a Christian toothbrush salesman you can just be a really good toothbrush salesman and I think that's also where a lot of people get it wrong they're like oh well I'm gonna be a plumber but I'm gonna be a Christian plumber and it's like no no no no just be a really good plumber and like you don't have to like push your faith on people people I think just by the way that you live your life uh they're going to be able to see that something's different with you and then allow them to ask questions about it and so when it comes to figuring out like yeah what your purpose what your calling is is like look at what you what lights you up look at how you can impact the world around you for Jesus and look at look at what God has already placed in your life because that's what's going to really uh build the kingdom but if I just made this whole podcast up just to like get a Consulting session with you that answer is like okay that's you know we talked earlier on a personal level of like you know I'm thinking about the next chapter in my life too but that that that's such a great encouragement for us of just like you know what are the things that you feel like really light you up I love that yeah yeah and if you're doing a toothbrush company I I go back to the first Home Alone where he's asking is this approved by the American Dental Association yeah just make sure that that's that's part of it right I love it yeah so uh a lot of the audience I think that is listening in are you know e-commerce owners so they're probably at various stages there's some that are like maybe not even launched yet some that are like a couple years in and some that are probably season doing really well but what would be your advice to share you know you've had a very God blessed very successful uh company that you built from scratch and and then kind of launched it tell me what some advice would be for those people I think knowing that everything takes much longer than you expect it to like I expected major success right away and that's and we all do because we see people on social media that are like oh they're an overnight success and it's like man if my business doesn't pop off after six months then maybe I'm supposed to be doing something different maybe God isn't behind it and I don't think that's the case at all I think there's like something really special in the um um in one step at a time doing something every single day and growing slow because that's going to have a much stronger Foundation than just a super rise to fame overnight um that's of often not sustainable and so focusing on that compound uh interest really of like okay I'm going to do a little bit every single day and I know that I'm working towards something really special and so sticking with it even through all of the hard times I mean there were there's been many many times dozens of times over the last 15 years where I've like wanted to give up or stop working on something and as an entrepreneur it's our tendency to want to jump to the next thing because it's like we're always wanting to be creative and I I think that that's a blessing and a curse because it often sets us back and we we don't continue uh on with something even though we should and so um I would say I would say that's uh one of the biggest things that I've been thinking about lately yeah that's so good I mean you could just right maybe that's your next book of just being a finisher yeah makes well I know that's that's probably one of the biggest struggles I face as a creative and a and a um entrepreneur is have a really great IDE get idea get really fired up and then you know you you deal with the struggle and it's really hard to to be a finish 100% And I think I dealt with that a lot last year where it was like man I just want to be creating new products I don't want to do all of the like day-to-day work and that's where it comes to hiring the right employees and so if you're just starting out in e-commerce hire people that are going to take off like whatever is taking up most of your time that's taking you away from new stuff like hire out those areas we had hired out five people over the years and our uh our last hire was a COO to run the entire organization um on my behalf essentially which allowed me to be creative and focus on the things that I really wanted to focus on but he also put our Reigns on me and pulled me back when I was going too far out too far left too far right and was able to remain focused on the task at hand and that was building the brand Sunday and so uh and then but now like we were acquired so so now it's I'm starting fresh so if you're just thinking through e-commerce ideas I feel you I'm in that mode right now where it's like you have all of these different ideas and quite frankly a lot of them could be really great ideas but until you actually just pick one and focus on it and spend all of your time and attention on one thing for an extended period of time you aren't going to be able to vet it out to see if it's actually going to work and be a success for you and so uh yeah I I get it tell me this really wasn't on my my list of questions but uh I'd like to hear just what the acquisition process was like because I think a lot of people obviously they're really passionate about something but they also like either have other ideas that they're working on and that's I feel like nobody really covers that maybe it's like a taboo conversation but yeah you know there's probably a lot of people listening there that have thought about that have no clue what it's like tell me just what your experience has been with it yeah I think it's so important to pick the right partners and so I had been working with uh Baker publishing as a distributor for the the previous year so uh they had sales channels that I didn't have access to so as an e-commerce business we built direct to Consumer for everything so it literally like pretty much one for one was like 90% of our sales and we didn't even do like any bulk orders and so we we were like man there's so many sales channels that we don't have access to so we need to pick the right team for that and so we chose the baker Bethany House team uh for helping distribute the book A year prior and built a great relationship with them and we really saw that that if we work together we could take this thing to a whole another level and so when it came down to it it was like who uh if if I wanted to jump into something different I wanted to open up uh to some new options and business was running smoothly at that point and so it was like man if if they uh purchased our assets so we did a asset purchase agreement so they uh they purchased um our assets as well as our IP for most of our products and then essentially um they take all of the products into the W their warehouse handle all the Fulfillment and then now I just create new products for them uh once or twice a year that will still be under name the brand Sunday um but I also have the flexibility to go out and do my own thing and uh but still like really great relationship with them there and so some people when you go through an acquisition uh it'll be a full acquisition where it's literally like buying your staplers and everything else like all inclusive and in that case most of the time all your staff will stay on you'll stay on as CEO for a few years um depending on what the contract ends up being uh but in my case it wasn't so you got to keep your stapler yes my stapler was mine it was probably like a special gift that someone bought you too there's pros and cons to to both sides both ways of doing everything I think so much of business is based on like what works best for you um what do you feel like can leave the greatest impact and that's really what it's about when you're an entrepreneur is how can I leave an impact on the world and as a Christian entrepreneur it's how can I leave an impact uh in regards to the kingdom and uh better the people around me yeah well and you definitely do that that's a great segue so I think you're human so I know you have bad days and I know you get frustrated like the rest of us but as I mentioned kind of early on you you're definitely one of those people that really light up the room that you're in the podcast that you're on the stage that you're speaking on the books the pages that you're filling up you cannot turn on any kind of like social media platform TV and just be overwhelmed with the bad news that's that's before us every single day there's Wars sure there's inflation and then for these business owners you know they're dealing with the same not only the external news but also just the things that you would face as running a business so tell tell us and tell uh the audience um how can we continue to see the good in our lives I think the biggest thing is if you focus on the bad the bad is going to grow in your life if you focus on the good the good is going to grow and so maybe that means you you do an audit on what you're consuming I'm a huge advocate for that is like man if every time that I log on social media I'm I leave feeling worse because of either the people's posts that I saw the news that I saw well you have the ability to unfollow people that's like the cool thing about us having choices you know and I feel like it's such a weird thing that most people just don't and they're like oh if I'm like I follow them so I'm going to just continue following them even if it makes me feel bad after looking at their posts why like set yourself up for Success from the beginning of the day to the end if there's things in your life that pull you away from God or make you upset or ruin your day then it should be your job or your goal to get rid of those and replace them with something that is more positive in your life and I understand that that's easier said than done for a lot of people's situations but I think if we start with the small stuff it really compounds into the bigger stuff as well and so if if in the morning uh you you get upset about one small thing I think it just grows and your mindset is going to be focused on the the small stuff throughout the day but if you start yourself out with uh in a very successful way then you're going to be good the rest of the day and so yeah realizing that a lot of bad things do happen in the world and not like neglecting that by any means but just coming to the understanding that yeah a lot of things in life are tough but what am I doing and how how is God using me to make things better and if you focus on that and and know that that's where your purpose is I think that's where you're going to feel really fulfilled in life perfect I was just about to talk about fulfillment so a big part of this podcast is is really you we do talk about e-commerce and fulfillment and all those things but it's really this this Mission and this heartbeat to help others um gravitate towards a life that is truly fulfilled so big big question but what is being fulfilled look like for you personally I feel like being used by God and knowing that you're leaving a positive Legacy behind so I've been thinking a lot about Legacy lately I never had before but I think it's really cool that you can leave something behind to your kids or or to the Next Generation and if you leave a positive impact on the world I think you can sleep better at night than uh than somebody that's just trying to take from the world and I think that God blesses us substantially in order to give more to others so if we if we're blessed we should be a blessing to others so if we can make the world a better place I think there's so much fulfillment in that and uh yeah I'm I'm a big advocate of figuring out what your purpose is how you can impact the world positively for uh for Jesus and from there your life is going to feel great so good so good love it man all right so if you we're kind of getting close to wrapping it up so a couple of fun questions I think so you've launched a wildly successful company you've authored some of the most life-giving books we've kind of been talking about around that message but see the good it's such a good book I love just how like I think you did a great job of just like I know Zach uh your personality in real life but I feel like it translates really well to the book so if people don't have that they should definitely pick that up but you're helping people grow in their Walk With Jesus um but I also know you can't help with coming up with new ideas so what is what's at this point what's the next chapter looking like for you personally 100% so I'm I'm pushing this course right now that I think would be an absolute Game Changer as I was starting out it's called learn the Bible in five weeks and it basically goes through the entire Bible from a big picture perspective over the course of five weeks like an hour a week uh split into like three to four videos so it's really easy uh to consume and if you have that your foundation is set up for any in the future so um uh really believeing that's going to impact a lot of lives right now and then in 2024 we're doing actually this might come out in 2024 but uh I'm I'm going to be walking people through reading the entire Bible um on like through social media so we're starting uh in January and February so we're starting January 6th we're going through I have a new Bible study coming out called New Testament Made Easy and it's a 60-day study through the New Testament so we're starting with that and then we're going to read the entire Old Testament over the course of the next uh nine months and then we're finishing December we're going to recap uh reading through Matthew for the whole month because I think if you really want to understand who Jesus is and what he said you have to um you have to understand the Old Testament and what he uh grew up uh being taught and so um that's that's my plan right now is is the course and then read through the entire Bible next year in a in a big uh hopefully with a with a big group of people yeah I love that yeah I'm just going to believe that the the people come the right ones come yes so thank you uh another fun question so U I know that I own a lot of domains I can't help it yeah yeah how many how many domains do you think that you own that's a man I think I only own like three right now but last night last night I was like oh I need to buy this domain really quick and so I need to do that this morning yeah it's funny because maybe I'm just the one with the problem I'll tell my wife about something and she's just like babe like you're never gonna use [Music] [Laughter] that that's so funny a $10 a $10 purchase is is not too bad yeah yeah and then you're set up you you locked it in it's security that's right at at least own it for a year yeah so all right another thing is social media I think is is still very intimidating for most business business owners one they probably don't have the time but I think you you've done a really good job of just managing it but I think where where I think you've done a phenomenal job is you just it always feels like it's you and it's your personality and it's very authentic and real which we know the the landscape of social media can often feel the opposite of that yeah so for for business owners that are just like that's another Another World all together what would be just some like advice on on the social media front man I think it's the most important thing that you could focus on we built our entire business through social media and today my entire business is built off of social media it's uh free access to the people that actually want your content which is like incredible you can't get free anywhere and so I think uh being able to provide value to your audience in a real and authentic way and not try to sell that's what makes people succeed quickly on social media uh but as an e-commerce business or or or any any business for that matter we're always focused on how can I promote a product how can I show people my product but like yo I'm not going to follow a toothbrush company and and like a picture of their new toothbrush but if a dentist was on saying how uh a certain toothbrush actually uh was better for your teeth or like here's three ways to take better care of your mouth that I might be interested in versus like I don't care if this toothbrush is taken in front of like a green screen like it's not that cool and and often as businesses we're always just trying to share what we're doing instead of really looking at the needs of the consumer and providing them value uh without asking for anything in return and I think we can definitely go through like Sprints of posts where we're posting uh and trying to sell but it shouldn't be our all the time thing it needs to be value value value at least every four post uh before you ever talk about your actual product that's such good wisdom too and I've I've I've been a business owner for about eight eight or nine years now and that was always my thing too like I don't I'm not I don't want to sell I think it's the best way to sell is not to sell at all yeah 100% totally and uh I remember there were some times too like I would I'm naturally I'm like a non-confrontational person and so I I'm always just trying to give people like the way a way out so I would have this like great pitch and then at the end was like but hey like if I'm not the right fit I'll introduce you to a team that like it would be the right fit and yeah yeah and I was like people used to give me a hard time but I was like I think that more often than not that was the reason why I got the job 100% they were just they were just like he's just he's not trying to sell me's just trying to help me out so totally and like we're all here for the same purpose to like make the world better for Jesus and so if we can focus on that it doesn't matter like that your product is doing better than others um I think it's so cool when like churches will will be like hey we have a Christmas service but here are 10 other churches in the city that we think are doing really great things as well so if we aren't right for you go check one of them out and it's really having that perspective of like man I just want you to grow I don't I don't care if necessarily if you're take if you're buying from me but you're actually growing yourself yeah man that's awesome that's some great great wisdom all right just two more um we haven't talked about this but I know that you're also a foodie yeah um and we are in the midst of the holiday season so what what's your go-to meal or dessert oh man my go-to meal or dessert so I make this I'm I'm cooking it on Wednesday so we have a small group coming over to our house on Wednesday at this new church that I'm part of and I'm cooking my favorite meal right now to cook I feel like it changes frequently but this is what I'm doing Tuesday night I'm beginning to make a cheesecake based off of uh of a cheesecake from New York that I think is incredible with this sponge crust and then I'm doing a French pureed potato with a flank steak uh asparagus wrapped in Pudo with a cowboy butter on top and I think it's gonna I think it's GNA be a a crowd pleaser but I'll I'll let you know on Thursday dang I hope people aren't listening to this around lunchtime kill them it's not even lunchtime and I could eat that right now I know man it sounds so good well you can tell you're passionate about that for sure I love it it's yeah I feel like food experiences really light me up so whether that's me cooking for friends and family or uh bringing somebody to a new restaurant and just watching their face light up when when they try something that I think is incredible that makes me happier than uh almost anything else yeah well it's so I honestly wasn't planning on talking about this but I uh there's an old you know old saying it's like a way to a man's heart as his stomach but yeah I I was always just so um you know observing of how many times like before Jesus or the disciples like shared the gospel that there was a a mill involved you know it's like always it's just yeah it's just so cool how that is and I think that's in and of itself an opportunity for Ministry and relationship too 100 per. yes I couldn't agree more so I uh I love I love you so much as a brother as a friend um and I I have no doubt that people like listening to this podcast are going to feel a connection feel that you really care so have I have no doubt that people are going to want to buy the book or just stay in touch with you in general so what's the best way for people to to stay in touch with Zack Wendall uh mainly Instagram and Tik Tok uh otherwise Zack wall.com got everything there uh if you DM me the word book on Instagram you'll get access to everything you'll uh find out where to buy it and I threw in some bonuses as well so start with that well brother man thank you so much for being on with us today and and for everybody listening thank for being a part of another episode on fulfilled and we just hope you have a blessed day thank you man it's an honor.

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