First of a three-part series

MARYSVILLE – Having faith in your business is important. Faith that it will succeed sure, but many business leaders say faith in God helps.

That was one of many messages of the nationwide Work as Worship conference Feb. 23. The convention, with 700 attending, was in Dallas but was live-streamed to 1,000 churches and more than 13,000 people, including about 20 at the Marysville Free Methodist Church. Three of the 12 speakers are well-known business leaders who talked about how they use worship at work.

Anne Beiler, founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, talked about how she started at the bottom and worked her way to the top with the help of faith. Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales, told just the opposite story – how his business had great success at the start that was taken away from him. And Joel Manby, president and CEO of Seaworld, talked about how love works in the business world, and it can lead to “world-class results.”

People not pretzels

Anne Beiler grew up Amish. She learned the importance of hard work and teamwork on the farm. She also learned about perseverance.

“You do things you don’t feel like doing,” she said.

In that culture, the girls think about having a family, not a career. She got married and had kids. But when her young daughter was killed in a farm-equipment accident, she and her husband drifted apart. She then had a six-year love affair with one of their leaders. She later found out he had seduced others in the church.

“Every piece of me broken,” she said.

When her husband found out, he said he didn’t want a divorce, that he wanted to make it work.

“I felt so unworthy. But we started anew,” she said. “God put us back together.”

It took a long time, but finally, after 9 1/2 years, when they held hands they knew love had returned.

They decided to help other marriages. Beiler became the bread-winner making pretzels with a recipe that had been a mistake.

The business grew fast. Beiler admitted that with only an eighth-grade education she didn’t know what she was doing.

“God can do anything with anyone,” she said, adding they had no capital and no business plan. “It was miracles plus hard work.”

They started with $6,000 borrowed from her father-in-law in 1988. They expanded, and as a result have been able to provide free marriage counseling to thousands of couples.

“We’re not in the pretzel business, we’re in the people business,” Beiler said.

Tale of VeggieTales

Phil Vischer’s story went the opposite direction.

He started on top, living his dream and making an impact through vegetables telling bible stories.

He sold $65 million worth of videos and was mentioned on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons.

“Lives were being changed,” and he wanted to expand, he said.

There were even plans for a “Christian Disney” so his staff went from three to 200 workers. Not bad for a bible college dropout, he said.

But then came the economic collapse. He cut his employees to 180, then 140, then 100. Each cut hurt him, he said. He hoped to hire them all back when he made a “small, independent vegetable movie,” which was a bust. About that time, he received an email from a fan, who warned, “Keep an eye on your pride.” Vischer then lost a $12 million lawsuit and went bankrupt.

For the next few years he lost all his creativity. He couldn’t figure out why God would give him his dream, and then let it die.

After a lot of praying and scripture reading, Vischer figured out that he had put his ambition over God. Once he let go of his sin, his ideas returned. Now, he doesn’t feel any pressure to worry about the impact he has or that he has to worry about the outcome. “God is good enough,” he said.

Love at Seaworld

Joel Manby said that love is important to have at work – and not the kind that can get you into trouble.

He is talking about love, the No. 1 commandment. He said there are four types of love: fleeting love, brotherly love, mom-kid love and agape, which is loving all people as yourself, including your enemies.

Manby, who has been CEO of four companies, said he used to work in the auto industry, where he saw a lot of “manage by fear” used. Since he didn’t like that style, he switched to the theme park industry.

Manby, who wrote a book called Love Works, gave seven tips on how to have love in the workplace.

•Be patient and kind. Praise in public and admonish in private. The only thing you can control in life is how you react to situations. As an example he said the animal-rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) protests everywhere he goes, even though Seaworld spends $15 million to rescue animals. He said while he thinks they are unfair, his reaction is to have no bitterness toward them. “We both want to save animals,” he said.

•Encourage employees by handing out positive notes.

•Be unselfish. Do for one what you wish you could do for all.

•Trust. When he went to Seaworld, he was told, “We aren’t risk takers,” to which he responded, “We are now.”

•Truth. Leaders should always talk last, he said. “Listen to understand not respond.”

•Dedication. As an example he brought up tasks that people do vs. what they want to be as a person.

•Forgiveness. “You can’t love if you can’t forgive.” Release any grudges. Manby said he has changed Seaworld into a share-it-forward company.

He ended his presentation by asking the audience: “Who do you need to be kind to? Who do you need to be truthful to? And who do you need to forgive?”

Local reaction

Dan Staple, who works for the city of Everett, was one of the attendees locally. He oversees workers who do a “thankless job, pushing brooms.” The best tip he learned that day was to show encouragement, appreciation and compliment his workers.

Mandy Hegr of Marysville is the program director for a company that helps people with disabilities. She manages eight people who oversee 70 workers. She was intrigued by Manby’s idea of “Do vs. Be” and plans to guide workers beyond the tasks they do so they can find their passion. She plans to make a conscious effort to be kind to staff and clients as well. “We’re busy, but we need to carve out time for people because they’re more important” than anything else, she said.