VeggieTales saga…

I just finished reading the biography of the creator of VeggieTales (direct to video animated kids series starring vegetables) and the founder of Big Idea – Phil Vischer. It was fascinating to me to read from several standpoints.

First of all, Phil is a Christian and while the videos are not overtly, down your throat Christian, they definitely have a Christian base to them. My history is professional ministry – I was a children’s pastor for 10 years before making the jump into business and specifically the photography industry. So I was very aware of the VeggieTales product and the huge hype around it. Which there was a tremendous amount of buzz for several years.

Second, Phil told a very open and honest story of creating a business that took off with huge success and then failed just as (if not more) spectacularly. This I was not really aware of. I knew that things didn’t seem to be the same just looking at the product from the outside, but didn’t really put much thought into it since that really wasn’t “my world” anymore.

So, I was able to read all about a business I was very well aware of from my past, and got to see it from a business perspective from my present. He doesn’t really write a business book, but definitely talks about his successes, failures, things he learned and things he already knew (from a gut level). It seems to really resonate with me at this point in our business.

spa to this point, has been an incredible success – more than we really ever dreamed (at least much faster). So now the deal is how do we manage that success? How do we continue to be successful? How do we deal with aspects of spa that aren’t so successful or outright failures? How do we manage growth while still staying fiscally sound (which is a big, huge part of the downfall of Big Idea)?

Anyway, highly recommend the book. It’s about an amazingly talented and visionary guy and some basic lessons he learned about business, life, himself and God. I liked it. It spoke to me…

Phil’s Book

Phil’s new project