Transcript of Interview with Steve Abdalla about Wee Believers My Mass Kit. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
Wee Believers My Mass Kit at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/3037005/My-Mass-Kit/
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Chris Cash: Welcome to Catholic Spotlight. This is the Catholic Spotlight, the show where we talk about what’s new, cool and exciting in the Catholic marketplace. I’m your host Chris Cash, director of E-Commerce for catholiccompany.com, your source for all your Catholic needs.
Today in the Spotlight we have Steve Abdalla. Did I say that right Steve?
Steve Abdalla: Absolutely. Thanks, Chris.
Chris Cash: I always forget to ask people how to pronounce their names before we get started, but you know I somehow still seem to muddle through. Steve is the President and Founder of Wee Believers, which has an incredible set of children’s toys that are just very, very unique. Its really – your stuff is like nothing I had ever seen in any Catholic store before, so you know it’s very exciting to me. So, Steve welcome.
Steve Abdalla: Thanks Chris. I appreciate your comments about our products.
Chris Cash: Well, I don’t say anything I don’t believe, so. So, tell me first off, what’s the background of why you started Wee Believers? What gave you the idea? Where did it all come from?
Steve Abdalla: Well, my wife Joni and I have three daughters and we – as both parents, specially catholic parents look for quality and meaningful products for our children, and specially toys that have relation to our building our faith. Much what we found in our search has been either or not relevant regarding content in growing their faith, but they’ve so low quality or plastic and you know Barbie and other things that just don’t offer any spiritual value to our family. So, there are a lot of contributing factors to I think why this is and you know consumerism, secularization, deeper personalization in society. But we decided that we are going to *** [02:08] our lives that we can maybe do something to change and we need to start trying to create those products on our own. So, that was a genesis for the idea as we’ve been moving through this process, we’ve learned a lot and you know obviously our initial idea has kind of changed a little but its always been – has opened up by gods grace. So, we know we’re headed along the right path here.
Chris Cash: Now, you started this company and very quickly quit your day job, right to be able to make this happen?
Steve Abdalla: Well, actually it was fortunate again with the timing I, Chris graduated from the University Of Notre Dames Business School. And my wife and I were considering a couple of business ideas, we knew we wanted to – we had the entrepreneurial bug and wanted to live that sort of lifestyle where we were sort of masters of our own destiny as far as – you know as far as our daily routine went. And we knew that god will open up the path for us, if it was the right thing. So, over the course for about a year in trying a few different things here and there this clearly came to the forefront as the right thing and the right path for us to take. So, I transitioned really right from business school right into being an entrepreneur so.
Chris Cash: And you know what you have done is just so unique. I want to talk a little about the – My Mass Kit here. And I first saw this a little over a year ago at a tradeshow and my initial impression was just wow. The first time I saw I was just amazed and said you know there is nothing else anywhere even close to this in terms of just the brilliance of color, the playability of it, but also the educational factor in it. So, why don’t you tell us about the My Mass Kit, where the idea for that specifically came from? And or just what you’re going to find when you get one?
Steve Abdalla: Well, the product Chris is talking about is called My Mass Kit. And it’s a 12 piece a replica Mass Kit. Each of the items of Mass Kit are child friendly replicas of the real items used by the priest during the holy sacrifice, the Mass. That includes 12 cleanable pieces, they’re cloths, so they’re cotton stuffed with polyester stuffing, but they are formed in the right shape for each thing. So, they’re actually usable items, it’s a Crucifix, Chalice, a Thurible, a Finger Bowl, 2 Cruets, 2 Candles, the Paten was somehow a corporal, Purificator. And a key I think for us to the use of the kit is each of our products comes with an illustrated, ecclesiastically approved instructional booklet. And in the case of the Mass Kit, the instructional booklet has one item on each page. It describes a little bit what the item is and what it’s used for. So, we get that educational value along with the play value, which would help to be in for us not only for the children but to the parents as well. The names of the items the priest is using during mass and what their significance is.
As far as the colors and everything go, my wife Joni has had some visions on how she wanted to do things, but it took us a nearly a year to find the right artist who shared our vision and can take the concept that we created and make into something that was real. Now, we went through some prototypes made my sowing contractors you know, people who worked out at our house and made prototypes. And we had different artist, we hired artist for brief periods of time, and nobody really seemed to click until our current artist, her name is *Dianne* [05:43], she is a stay-at-home mom in Columbus. And she is a freelance artist, and she and Joni just really clicked and shared a vision. And Dianne just really hammered home some really beautiful ideas to take Joni’s vision and to bring it to life.
Chris Cash: Now, I have extremely found memories personally of growing up, and I can remember putting a tablecloth across my shoulders. And my sister and I, we’d go into the laundry room and we used Ritz Crackers and we had a little my mass book of some sort that we used when we were playing mass at home. And you know I think that there is probably a lot of young folks, especially around first communion age that have similar memories or experiences. What kind of reception are you getting from people about just the improvement of that process and the additional learning here?
Steve Abdalla: We’re getting an outstanding response, not only from the parents of children using it a home, but the teachers who are using it in the classroom, the catechism programs in the Catholic schools, because to be able to have something that guides people. There are people who are creative enough to you know grab things up the shelf and do their own thing, and that’s a great kind of play. A lot of people that doesn’t work or they – the parents need some help in getting their kids introduced to these ideas and these styles of play. Our ecclesiastical advisor is the most Reverend Archbishop Burke. He is formally the bishop of Saint Louis and is now prefect of the Supreme Tribunal at the Vatican. And he in his letter to us after he reviewed the kit and reviewed My Mass Kit and made sure that it could conform to an enthusiastically approved format. He commented that he is one of his contributing factors to his vocation was playing with a similar type of, he said it was plastic and it got lost along the way and the family moves, since he was a little boy, but he remembers playing with that as boy. And credit to that with a large piece of his vocation. So, this type of play has been going on for a long time, we’re just trying to make it more available to parents who might now otherwise thing of it.
Chris Cash: So, in a sense this is also a great way to help foster vocations?
Steve Abdalla: Absolutely. That’s been a wonderful I should say side effect, but you know our primary goal – my wife and my goal when we started as – was to give parents tools to help raise their kids, but it just so quickly just jumped up the page at us that building vocations was such a huge piece of it. That that’s contributed to us deciding what our second product is going to be which is vocation dolls. I’ll probably talk about in a few minutes. But again those vocation development is key not only to the educational aspect but also to their parenting aspect.
Chris Cash: Now, I want to talk a minute about the quality control that you’ve done in putting this product together. Obviously everything in this product is safe for use, correct?
Steve Abdalla: Yes.
Chris Cash: And I also see you got a certified quiet guarantee here.
Steve Abdalla: Well, there’s a couple of things going on here. First is you know making sure the content was relevant and so not only did Archbishop Reverend Burke review the product, but our Vicar General here in Indianapolis, Monsignor Joseph Schaedel have reviewed the product and gave his ecclesiastical approval. Similar to the – along the lines of a *** [09:23] were imprimatured what happens for a published work, for a book that somebody wrote and they wanted to get an imprimatur on it. So, archbishop – I’m sorry, Monsignor Schaedel offer his ecclesiastical approval after reviewing it. In referencing the certified Quiet, that’s something that we created that’s just our little badge to help parents to know that when they buy this product, its quire. It isn’t going to have electronic bells and whistles and you know sometimes maybe toys have that crinkly paper inside that keep the kids occupied, but that doesn’t really make the product very useful in a reverend environment, whether its quiet play at home or mum’s from the schooling or its in the classroom or you know even if the child wants to bring the Mass Kit into church, after those parents who have a three year old who is unruly and having trouble paying attention in Mass. Instead of bringing the child to the playroom where they’re only taught to play, instead of mass time being a time to focus on the holy. The Mass Kit could be something that a three or four year old that can appropriately bring into church than it used to follow along to help bring the mass to life for them.
Now, we suggest that after a first communion, the child should need something of that nature, and a lot of parents don’t need that for the kids and that’s great, but some parents do. The most important thing I think you mentioned is the actual safety as far as health and safety, we’re fortunate before the legislation was passed back in August improving after that whole led pain incident with *metal** [10:57]. We had already gone along the lines with a professional global third party testing company. So, after our product is prototyped, it goes to this company called Intertek and guess what they do, they have all kinds of poll test to make sure that this zipper, any kind of string length, the *** [11:15] are pulled by machines to make sure they won’t tear. It can be screen printing, the ink used in the screen printing is tested for all kinds of chemical compounds, so we go through that whole third party process that’s totally *** [11:29] to our factory to make sure that the quality control is satisfactory. And then, we create a certification which is on our Website for retailers who require by law to have made available. So, Weebelievers.com/safety, now we specify exactly what our standard is – we’ve tested to. And as the process goes along, we introduce new products, we continue expanding that program and testing for more and more things that – for that type of product that might be programmed.
Chris Cash: Now, I want to talk also about just the manufacturing process. What you guys went through to make sure that the manufacturing was done with quality but also in just work environments?
Steve Abdalla: That’s another good question and there was two pieces that I think, one is the how do we make sure things are done in an environment that safe and its overseen. And to do that, we partnered – again impossible to do them by yourself as what you have to do is you have to have people who are there on the ground, and it doesn’t make sense for me to be getting on a plane from Indiana and flying to Thailand where we’re seeing the factory. So, what I did was I hired a third party company out in Minnesota, and that’s what they do. They do medical devices and they do plush toys. And they have certain factories that they have relationships with, and they have an *** [12:53] American on the ground in Thailand, he was there on a daily basis. And he can get in there in the factories and he sees the environment in which the people are working. And you know we’re all contractually bound to which we’re not only for the safety conditions met in regarding how the products are made, but also are we providing a just environment for the workers that we’re contracting. I was thinking they’re not my employees, but I have to make sure that those contractors we use meet the same standards that we would as Catholics specially would find just in a social environment, an economic environment. So, we seek that manufacturing partner has strong records of safety and respect for workers. And we have satisfactory labor cost and you know we’re not – and we particularly don’t manufacture in China, because there things – one thing I think many of our customers have directly asked us, are these made in China. We do manufacture in China because simply for that reason that we feel we need a political environment that we can make sure that our workers are living in a safest – are working in a safest environment.
Chris Cash: That is always very good to know. We’re going to take a short break here to hear from our sponsor, but we’ll be back in just a minute with Steve Abdalla to talk more about the Wee Believers product-line. This is the Catholic Spotlight.
[Break]
Chris Cash: And we’re back on the Catholic Spotlight with Steve Abdalla from Wee Believers, makers of the my Mass Kit as well as several other products that are coming out very soon here. Why don’t we talk a little bit about the vocation dolls that are next up on your list, and probably many of our listeners will be listening to this after they have come out? So what’s the approximate release date and tell us little bit about the products?
Steve Abdalla: That’s great Chris. We’re expecting the vocation dolls to hit the marketplace in September or early October of 2009. And the actual physical prototypes are done; we’re still finishing up the material selections making sure that all those things are colors and everything are to our liking and also working on the final touches on the instructional booklet that will go along with it. And then they have to go through safety testing. So, once that process is finished then we have a solid timeline for production and the arrival here in the States.
Our vocation dolls are two dolls that are 16 inch plush huggable dolls and they’re based on our priest and nun character. Within the Wee Believers product-line, we choose to create some characters that help bring the products to like for the children. When you’re talking early, we’re talking about My Mass Kit, that instructional booklet is sort of a “narrated by a priest character Father Juan Pablo.” He is an animated priest and he in his voice that he used inside instructional booklet. For the vocational dolls, we’re going to have a 16 inch plush version of Father Juan Pablo and a 16 inch plush version of our nun. And they will both be companied by an instructional booklet that will detail five vocation stories by the priest, by the nuns, and explain how the different priest and nuns of different religious orders come to their vocation. Its really compelling to *like* [17:24] to give kids a chance to see into the lives of priest and nuns and how did the lord call them to their vocation. I’m really excited about these dolls, so not only are they physically plush and attractive, but that the stories give parents an opportunity to interact with their children and to read them stories of how these priest and nuns came to their vocation.
Chris Cash: And – pardon me – and then, you’re having some other products, the My Church coming out very soon as well, correct?
Steve Abdalla: Right. By the end of 2009, probably December, January so we expected to have it on the shelves in times for the – you know the sacrament season and spring 2010. It’s called My Quiet Church. And it’s a Plush church and can think along the lines of a doll house, but it has carrying handle on it and its clock. And so, that they you can unzip or we haven’t finalized the glass that we’re going to use and close it. But the roof and wall will fold down, and so the kids can see inside the church and the artwork inside and use the instructional booklet to understand the construction of the Catholic Church. So, where’s the confession, where is the sacristy lamp and where are the stations of the cross and what do they mean, where is the alter, where is the presider’s chair. Each of the things that a lot of kids you know they sometimes learn but a lot of the parents learn so long, but they don’t really remember those important things and why the church has been constructed the way it is. We use that instructional booklet to bring that to life. For the kids to interact and play, we’re going to have our characters, we have a priest, a nun as well as mother father in a family, their characters, the figures small class figures inside the church, they’ll be able to go to mass and have – reenact baptisms and Weddings and go to confessions, and those kinds of actions that happen inside the church. So, each of our products is meant to educate, to entertain into enrich faith. And so, they can educate from the instructional booklet, they can entertain by playing with it and that faith building aspect as a parent to the children while they are playing with the item.
Chris Cash: Now, you talked about things being in the priests and the nun’s voices. Do they actually have their physical voice and any of the – their incarnations?
Steve Abdalla: They don’t yet, Chris and that’s why I sort of do on a podcast their quotation marks. In the written form it’s just the priest talking, but we’re in some exploratory phases now of how to bring along some animators and to animate our Website, so that’s coming up in the next – probably well you know its about a two year process I think to not only animate our Website and make our Website, a place where kids can come and play and interact with our characters. But also, we’re very interested in bringing our characters to life in DVD’s again that help entertain kids, but and educate them about the faith and at the same time, keep them entertained. So, there’s a lot that can be done here that’s – that helps build – give parents tools to raise their kids and not stressing Barbie or G.I. Joe, and that’s our goal.
Chris Cash: You as a podcaster myself, I think you might even have an opportunity for promotion of this through doing a podcast with your characters specifically for kids?
Steve Abdalla: Absolutely. And those are the kinds of things we want to put on our Website and have an interaction with the kids through the Website, because that’s really become a median which kids are doing a lot of interaction on the *** [21:15]. And we want to create a safe environment for parents to know that you can send their kids and have them interact in all those levels you’re saying, whether its video or whether its podcasting or its music or its coloring pages or downloading curriculum materials for teachers. There’s all kinds of wonderful ways that home schooling parents and catechist teachers and Catholic school teachers can interact with kids to bring value to their lives.
Chris Cash: Now, is there anything else that you wanted to share with our audience while we’re here on the phone? I think I’m about exhausted my questions for you.
Steve Abdalla: Well, we – again, the feedback from people who have had the kids has been wonderful and you’re always going to get people who have some reservations and a primary reservation I think for people has been our price about the Mass Kit. But one thing we like to share with people is our economic price and that’s something you can find on our Website at Weebelievers.com. You know we are pledging our customers that we’re going to deliver value, so the first thing you’re going to get when you purchase our product is you’re going to know that you’re going to get a high quality product, a high quality content. And the value that you’ll get from that product is commensurate with our price, however, we also pledge to our customers that we intend on creating all of these things we’re talking about, whether it be multiple products, a safe Website, a DVD’s, all these kinds of ways kids and parents can interact and teachers can interact and learn and build their faith. But in order to do that in the long term, we have to be financially successful and again, it’s not about making you know millions dollars, it’s about being able to grow and create the products. We have to have…
Chris Cash: Well, it’s also about being able to feed your family on what you make.
Steve Abdalla: Absolutely.
Chris Cash: As just employers, we have to be able ensure that we feed our family as well as the families of anybody whose working on this, so…
Steve Abdalla: That’s absolutely right Chris. And being able to not only live from that, but also be able to have enough profit from what products that you sell to be able to take that and reinvest that into two products. And then you take the products, the profit from the two and you reinvest that into four and that’s how you grow. You know I like to relate back to amazon.com. A lot of people are familiar how amazon.com grew. They didn’t really make money for five or six years, took them a long time to make money, but they were always reinvesting what they had to grow the business to make it to the point that it was going to be a long term success, and they’ve done that. And that’s that same *motto* [23:58] of understanding that we hope our customers share that this isn’t just a little enough profit thing, this is something it has to grow in order to effect not just a 100 children, but a million children around the globe. We really want to have that kind of impact on children lives, because having those we need that in our country and our world right now.
Chris Cash: Well, and especially just like the shortage of priests that we have, anything that fosters locations is going to be good for the church in the long run.
Steve Abdalla: That’s absolutely right, Chris. I don’t think we can undervalue anything that contributes to locations, so we’re really excited about that aspect of what we are doing.
Chris Cash: Well, Steve it has been a real pleasure getting to have you on and chat. Steve and I have known each other for a while, because our kids used to go to school together, so.
Steve Abdalla: Well, the other thing I wanted to touch on Chris was working in Bio products and you know Catholic Company carries our products, so please go to their Website and purchase our products.
Chris Cash: Absolutely. And of course, as I always mention, please support your local Catholic stores as well. And I would imagine that there most local catholic book stores are going to have this available also you know.
Steve Abdalla: That’s a really good point, Chris. And you can go to our Website at Weebelievers.com, and that’s W-E-E Believers with an s.com and there is an home page there, there is a button called Locations and you can click – I’m sorry stores, and you can click that button and type in zip code and then we’ll tell you stores in your area that carry my Mass Kit. And we’re still really – we’re in a phase we’re really trying to get more products out and get them to more stores, so if your local store does not carry our products, please share our Website with them and ask them to contact us. So, we’re very excited to get all the Catholic retail outlets in the country to carry our products.
Chris Cash: Absolutely and with a product like this, I think they will be excited to carry it once they see it, so. All you listeners out there, also please go on over to podcast Alley vote for us this month. It helps us to get in front of more listeners, you find links over in the show notes to our podcast Alley voting space, as well as link over to other podcasts and where you can vote for them to help flood podcast Alley with good stuff and get some of this not so great stuff off their top 50 list. It really does make a huge difference in terms of getting the Catholic Spotlight another Catholic shows up, where people can find them and listen to. Oh, man, evangelize more people.
Steve, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to come on over to talk with us. And we wish you all the best with your products, especially the future ones.
Steve Abdalla: You to Chris. I appreciate all that you do when you are in a Catholic Company, but also your Spotlight show in getting these podcasts out there and getting the new media out there for people who are ready for it. So, you know our pod reference as well.
Chris Cash: Thank you, Steve, we appreciate the complement. All right, have a great day, god bless.
Steve Abdalla: God bless.
Speaker: Thank you for listening Catholic Spotlight. Introduction of the Catholic Company, your store for over 10,000 Catholic books and gifts that make a difference. Find us online at Catholiccompany.com. You can find more podcast on the Catholic Spotlight at catholicspotlight.com. And if you have a question comment or would like to be featured in our intro, call our voicemail at 206 312 0069. We would love to hear from you. You can find more intro on being seated in our intro at Catholicspotlight.com, as well as announcements about future interviews. Have a great day and god bless.
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Transcript of Interview with Steve Abdalla about Wee Believers My Mass Kit. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com
Listen Now to the audio version of the show.
Wee Believers My Mass Kit at The Catholic Company.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-gifts/3037005/My-Mass-Kit/