Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RGW Dunham College of Business at Houston Baptist University. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is the show that helps Christian business leaders integrate biblical values into business. On this episode, we're joined by Zach Wendahl. Zach is an entrepreneur who has built a business on sharing scripture. He's the founder of the brand Sunday, whose Bible study has become hugely popular among millennials wanting to grow in their faith. And um, and you can see that by the reviews. I think there's like eight or nine hundred something reviews on Amazon uh for for this um this Bible study, and it's literally called the Bible study. So good job on your uh you know search term SEO marketing there. Uh he's the author of the new book, Launch with God, How to Build a Business That Matters and Live Out Your God-given purpose. Zach, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01Darren, thank you so much. Really, really excited to be here. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_02Well, Zach, you've got a really interesting, interesting story. Um, tell us what is the brand Sunday and how did that come about?
SPEAKER_01Totally. So the brand Sunday was kind of birthed out of this project that I was working on called the Bible study. Um, I we got to go kind of way back in that story to get to the birth of the Bible study, but uh I grew up in uh Minneapolis, Minnesota. Uh my mom was actually a four-time cancer survivor. So my childhood was very unique compared to a lot of people around me. Um when I was four years old, she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer, was healed from that. Uh then she had a tumor on her static nerve, healed from that. Then she had colon cancer with three-quarters of her colon removed, healed from that. And then when I was 15, she had breast cancer, double mastectomy, the whole deal, healed from that. So my childhood from four to 15 was like was drastically different from most kids my age. Um, and the coolest thing about it was that my mom always said, even when she was on her literal deathbed, she was always saying, Hey, it could be so much worse. Life is a gift. I could not be here right now, but I am. And so that really, really impacted me and made me kind of who I am today. She became a believer when we were about four. And so I grew up in the church, grew up in youth groups, um, and uh just growing in my faith a little bit, but it wasn't super personal. It was just a little bit ahead knowledge. Uh, the Bible was a boring, intimidating book to me that I never spent any time reading. Um, and then when I hit college, I fell away from my faith for years. Um, I was up and down, in and out. I would go to church a little bit, then I would stop for a year. Um, I was just kind of questioning everything, struggling with my faith. In 2014, I hit a really low spot where I was ready to um put up the reins, say, okay, God, I'm I'm done completely. I uh I don't want to be um associated with this anymore. And I was like, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give it two years. I'm gonna go as hard in as I can on the Bible, study as much as I can, really know what the word says about everything, not what what the Christians that I was surrounded by were saying, but what does the Bible actually say? And so I went on this like search for meaning journey um out to Australia where we were studying 12 hours a day, six days a week, super intensive. If it was Genesis week, for instance, we'd really we'd read Genesis five times through during the week and then kind of develop our own commentary. And Genesis is like a four and a half hour read. So it we were really, really uh digging into it. Um, and after that experience out in Australia, my life was forever changed. And I knew that I needed to do something about it, um, especially because a lot of the Christians that were I was surrounded by were also intimidated by the Bible. They were overwhelmed by it, they don't didn't know where to start, where to begin. And so I was really praying, okay, what is my role? What is my purpose here? I just went through this transformational time with God's word. How can I create something to help other people? My ever since I was a kid, ever since I was nine years old, I've been starting businesses and uh trying to always trying to create something uh to sell it. And so I had all this content and uh ended up spending about a year um creating what became the Bible study. And uh so it's been almost four years now. Um we sold over a quarter million copies all independently. Um, we have an incredible team of over 20 people all over the country now working on our products. Um, and so the Bible study started seeing the success, but we uh we wanted to create other products, but the brand was called the Bible study. And so from there, we actually created the umbrella company over the Bible study called the Brand Sunday. And so that allows us to develop other resources and tools to help people understand the Bible better and to grow in their relationship with God. It's really basically hand holding for the new believer to give them tools to build their own holy habits. So we don't go super in depth, but we we help you at least take one step forward at a time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And and the design of it is beautiful. I looked at some of it there on Amazon. Great job on that. Thank you. Um, and and so you're an entrepreneur at heart. What what are some of the biblical principles of entrepreneurship you've learned throughout your journey that you share in this new book, Launch with God?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh man, I think I think so much of it is that God created us to be creative. We are creative beings. And I think it's our role on earth to impact the world for the kingdom, impact it for the greater good. And so I think, I think if you have a passion inside of you, which isn't for everybody, but for people that do have an entrepreneurial spirit, have a passion inside of them for creating a business, like go all in, do it alongside God, co-create something with him. I mean, he's put gifts in you, he's put talents in you. So figure out what he's saying, figure out what those passions are, figure out what you're actually talented with, figure out what your uh what your spiritual gifts are and how all those things kind of come together to create. If you're interested in creating a product, then create create a product around it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, what a lot of people do, Zach, is I've been um kind of working with and and speaking to, having conversations with Christian entrepreneurs, the the default for a lot of people, especially who like us who grew up in church, um it's like when you you want to you want to write something, you've got a message, you got a some sort of a a platform, it's like let me go the nonprofit route because that's what we've seen you know so many uh Christian leaders do. Um like how does it ever feel awkward selling Christian themed products to Christians as a for-profit business? Um, like how do you how do you deal with that that tension there?
SPEAKER_01Personally, it's not a conviction of mine at all. For some people, they obviously um see things differently. But if if somebody that wasn't a believer wrote a book and you were interested in it, you're gonna pay for it, you're gonna buy it. So I just don't think there's really a difference between the two. If somebody's creating a tool to help you grow just personally, then it's it it makes sense to pay for it. Like if you were to hire a therapist, you're going to pay for their time. And so even from like a pastor perspective, a pastor is is pastoring many people at once. So they should be paid um a fair amount based on um how many people that they're helping. So when it comes to business, when it comes to writing, personally, I don't have I don't see an issue with that, but I know that some people do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Do you think that sometimes um and just just between me you and me, Zach here? Um yeah, do you think that sometimes maybe it's like let me let me make it a nonprofit because I'm not really confident that people will that I have something of quality here that I've really I mean, like because I looked at the design of what you did. I mean, it's it's really, really a beautiful product. Like, do you do you think that that plays a role into people feel like maybe if I make it a nonprofit, I can I can at least um just you know ask for money people to donate because they they might not be confident enough in the product that I'm delivering.
SPEAKER_01Totally. I haven't thought of it that way, but I I definitely see that being the case. I think, I think when it comes to being an entrepreneur and knowing that like this is what you're supposed to do, this is what you're called to do, you approach it from a level of excellence and you approach it from, okay, this needs to be the best of my ability because I'm I believe that that work is a form of worship. And so if I'm creating something that I know is going to impact the world and I'm partnering with God on it, I want to give it my all. I want to go all in and make it beautiful, make it make it the best possible. And I think a lot of the times um people that are just starting out that may not have experience in the business world, that may not have experience selling something before, they'll just put something out quickly and and not spend as much time as necessary on it. And then also from there, like they uh they may just not know um how to release a product or release a business. So they they take all expectations off the table and don't have set goals in mind because it's better to to not hit or to not have a goal and have it be successful than to set high goals and and not hit them. And that's just a like a personal um pride thing for a lot of people, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I in my publishing company, I've got some authors that need to need to hear this because you know that that's often the the deep, it's like I gotta start a nonprofit and get a board. Like you do not want to have to deal with all of that. No, that's so much work, but yeah, just make something and sell something, you know, and do it for the glory of God. And you know, don't don't let just because it has the name Jesus in it or on it that you know you feel like you can't say, and and and Paul does say for we're not like so many others who peddle the word of God for profit, like that's that's a different kind of thing. It's like I will um I will minister to you, I'll encourage you, but only if you pay me. Well, no, like there's there's time that you've invested into this. There's there's materials, there's a team of people that have to get paid. And um and and don't just go the route of nonprofit just because it seems like a holier uh option for some reason.
SPEAKER_01No, not at all. And and even in my book, I talk a lot about that, like it doesn't even have to be necessarily a Christian business or a Christian product that you're chasing after. Um, Luther said, like, you don't have to put crosses on your shoes. And and that's the same for everybody listening. Like, you don't have to, you don't, if you own a plumbing company, you don't have to put that you're a Christian plumber. You can just be a really good plumber. And I think a lot of people uh miss that fact because there is uh a lot, a lot of people struggle with this divide between, okay, if I'm if I'm gonna be a Christian, I need to be working in the church. It's not necessarily true. You can be, you can be running a coffee shop and doing incredible things and impacting your community and loving others through the coffee that you make and through the the means uh that you take to get that coffee. So I think there's there's definitely different ways, um, ways around it and different ways to think about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And if there's any pastors listening, I'm sure this is encouraging to them because, you know, especially through the pandemic, you know, what what churches have been seeing is a lot of the the offerings have kind of been um kind of drying up. Um, you know, God, God still provides, um, but he might be providing through a for-profit venture that you're supposed to initiate. Right.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, when it comes to like when we when I was uh saying spiritual gifts, like a lot of a lot of business leaders have the spiritual gift of giving, which means that they are making money in order to fund the church. So that's incredible. Pastors and and anybody in the Christian sphere should be uh encouraging those people to to be chasing after their dreams even more because in the in the long run, that's how they're impacting the body of Christ. And the the body of Christ needs to, in order for it to grow, in order for churches to grow, in order for them to survive, they need to be making money. And so that's that's a great place um to have money coming from.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So what are what's another um principle or takeaway, actionable takeaway from your book of biblically speaking, um to help our listeners today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, one of the big things is to grab onto failure and know that it's okay. I think in our culture today, we we chase after something. And if it doesn't, um, if it doesn't work or become a success within the first month or six months or even the first year, we end up giving up and moving on to the next thing because we're such a fast-paced culture today. But for me personally, I spent, I spent decades, I spent 10, 15 years trying out different businesses until we really saw a success with any of them. And I mean, even on uh for me, I was I had a full-time job, but I was paying 17 people from the brand Sunday before I paid myself a dollar from it, because I knew that if I wanted to turn it into what it is today, it was gonna take a lot of dedication and and paying other people to move it forward on my behalf. And so when it comes to that failure, is like every single time that you fail, get up, continue on, keep trying and persevere because from those you're gonna learn so much in the long run.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's so good. Keep it keep them coming. What else you got for us?
SPEAKER_01Man, uh, what else? Let's let's flip through. Uh from the beginning, um, I think a big thing is is building a team. So um, so getting the right people surrounding you that are better than you in certain tasks. So if I'm not that good at social media marketing, for instance, so I'm gonna hire out people that are really good at social media marketing because and and giving them the reins to run with it, because who am I to say how to do their job when they're the experts? And it's the same with design. Okay, I designed the first version of the Bible study, but we did a full redesign. So I hired a designer that's way more talented than me because I knew that that was necessary in order to make a product that is shareable, to make it um go a little viral, I guess. And that's that's just the business today is things need to look great, they need to perform well, and they need to be all over on social media in order for um people to actually grab onto it because we're being hit with so many different uh advertising messages every single day that you need to stand out in some way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I love when John the Baptist said he must increase, I must decrease. And you know, for an entrepreneur, the the temptation is to just want to do everything yourself. And and yet the the principle is to to decrease so Jesus can increase. And how does he increase? He increases through other people and and and through the the gifts that we don't have, uh or or even the ones that we do have, we just our time is finite. And so yeah, just um just delegating and empowering and which puts us, guess what, in a position to make disciples through those relationships that we have with um with other people. Absolutely. Zach, aside from buying the book, um, what what action do you want people to take um as a result of listening to this interview?
SPEAKER_01I think what would make me so excited is just seeing people start businesses that are actually changing the world through this book. So if it's emailing me or sending me a DM, sharing about how it's it's helping you release something, that that is that brings me the greatest joy because I know that that the kingdom's being impacted, it's growing, uh, people around you are being impacted. And I mean, that's what that's what we do business for. Um, we don't we don't do it to make a whole bunch of money necessarily, but we do it to to impact those around us and to and to love others well. So seeing seeing how uh how it's how other people are being impacted is would be awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I I know people can reach out through the brandsunday.com. Um any other specific ways you want them to do that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Zachwendall.com, you can sign up for uh the first chapter for free, as well as um you can sign up for my book club. Uh big thing is Instagram. We're on Instagram um most of the time. So um at Zachwindahl and then at the brand Sunday.
SPEAKER_02What's something else they can go and take and apply in their business right now uh that you teach, the biblical principle that you teach in your book?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think some of the biggest things are taking it one step at a time and learning how to reverse engineer. So it may seem like such a daunting task to start a business, to you have you may have these dreams that um that are very unattainable right now, but breaking that down to what does it mean to do something every single day to hit that goal later on? So say you may want to have uh the business ready to go or a business plan ready in the next six months. Okay, so what do you need to do have done in three months? Now, what do you need to have done in one month? And then break that down into weeks. And I think by doing that, breaking it into small chunks is it helps so many people see something huge, daunting, and scary. And it makes it a lot more palatable, knowing that really you might only have to draw one logo today or send one email to somebody. And over time, that's going to stack up so much and grow into what the end result is of launching your business, or even if it's just uh getting a product off the ground.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well said. I mean, God did that when He created the universe, you know, one one one day at a time. You didn't do everything all in one day. One day it was the you know, the day and night, and another day it was the the plants and then the animals. And so yeah, don't don't feel like you have to do everything all at once. That's encouraging. Um, the brand Sunday.com is the website Zach Wendahl. Um, that's uh W-I-N-D-A-H-L and uh Zach with a Zach with a H. Yes and the book is Launch with God, How to Build a Business That Matters and Live Out Your God-given purpose. Um, Zach, thanks for coming on to help us grow today. Um we're better for it.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much. I'm honored.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HBU Center for Christianity and Business at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.