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In Today’s Issue:
Intro to the Guest and Topic
Core Takeaway
Episode References
Select Quotes
Key Moments
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Today’s Topic & Guest:
In today’s episode we discuss, how to build a workplace where moms can thrive — the Catholic way.
To do this, we enlisted Regina Bethencourt, founder of Tenuto Consulting, a creative marketing agency for mission-driven organizations.
Regina started out in a traditional 9-to-5 PR firm. She watched a pregnant colleague get treated like her baby was a problem to hide, and she knew she could not raise her own children that way. So she left, started freelancing, and built the kind of work she wished existed.
Today Tenuto is a team of eight offering 10, 20, and 30-hour-a-week roles alongside full-time work. Clients still get an attentive, proactive agency. Inside, moms get to be present at home in the season when their children need them most — and still be ready as professionals when that season changes.
From there we go deeper: why women work differently than men, why matriarchs will be the ones to rebuild our neighborhoods, how a husband and wife run a family like a joint venture, and how to build a family brand and legacy your grandchildren will inherit.
Core Lesson:
“Build the work around the vocation, not the other way around.”
Most companies try to fix motherhood by forcing moms to work exactly like men — 40 hours, in an office, pretending nothing at home ever interrupts the day. That does not work, and it is breaking our communities.
Regina’s answer is not lower standards. It is better systems: shift coverage across the week, backups who stay up to speed on every client, and a team culture where everyone knows each other’s children and steps in with charity when life happens. Do that, and flexibility stops being a weakness. It becomes your unfair advantage.
And this is bigger than one agency. If women get work that leaves room for family, they get time back for the neighborhood — for other moms, for the parish, for the human connection we have all lost.
God Bless & Happy Building!
~Silas Mähner
Hire Catholic Overseas Talent
In LatAm and the Philippines, there are millions of Catholic remote workers (across all domains) who want to work for ethical bosses.
Often, they’re treated as second-class citizens or work for organizations that ask them to do questionable things. They reach out to us in search of a Catholic boss.
So, we started ParacleteVA (website coming soon).
With ParacleteVA, we’ll find you vetted, Catholic overseas talent who will help you move your business forward.
How it works: Pay a $500 finders fee when the candidate starts and $500 if you’re still happy with them after 30 days.
To get started, reach out to catholicfounders@gmail.com with what you’re looking for, and we’ll get started.
Key Episode References:
2 Timothy 1:7
Select Quotes:
We need to honor the fact that a parent is bringing up children who are the next generation. ” — Regina Bethencourt
“We want to redefine how you show up professionally. And it is perfectly professional, for example, to bring a bring an infant into a call who needs to just feel their their mother's body. That is normal, that is professional.”
— Regina Bethencourt
“Women can work and have their hands in many different things if we had ways to embrace that part of who a woman is. There would be more time for community, more time for doing things in the neighborhood, building more human connection.” — Regina Bethencourt
“If the husband and wife see what they are doing in raising their family as a joint venture, as like real business partners, and they say, Okay, this is your salary... That allows me to take risks.” — Regina Bethencourt
“Creating a family brand... saying, the Bethencourts right? That’s us. We are hardwork. We never say no to a challenge. We... have these value statements that help children even from a very long age, know who they are. They belong to something and there are values there...” — Regina Bethencourt
Key Moments: (outline)
(00:53) - The Origins of Tenuto
(03:20) - What Tenuto Is: A creative agency for mission-driven organizations on the outside, flexible work on the inside.
(04:53) - Vocation, Not Just a Choice: Raising children as a calling from God, not a personal lifestyle preference.
(05:38) - Parenting as a Public Service: Making the common-good case for honoring mothers and fathers.
(09:49) - Tenuto Today: In business since 2018, grown since 2022 to a team of eight, full-time and part-time.
(10:34) - The Unfair Advantage: No recruitment problem and great retention when you offer what moms actually want.
(11:45) - Running a Part-Time Team: Shift coverage, backups for every client, and planning for maternity leave on a small team.
(15:28) - Using AI Without Outsourcing Your Thinking: Client knowledge in Claude Projects so anyone can step in.
(20:18) - Redefining Professional: Why bringing an infant to a call can be normal and professional.
(21:25) - Matriarchs and Community: Women as the glue of the family, the neighborhood, and the parish.
(24:15) - Can Community Replace Daycare? Sharing childcare and support so moms do not have to do it all alone.
(25:09) - The Nanny Share: Five Northern Virginia moms building community-based childcare together.
(26:42) - The Hard Sacrifices: Losing status and accolades as a mom, and the loneliness of the early years.
(29:56) - Geography Matters: Why your actual neighborhood, not just your parish or friend group, needs rebuilding.
(31:32) - Where to Start: Well-Read Mom, mom groups, and older moms inviting younger moms out of the trenches.
(34:01) - Marriage as a Joint Venture: Husband as the stable foundation in one season, wife in another.
(36:36) - Legacy After Loss: What her husband’s family learned fleeing Venezuela and losing their social capital.
(40:17) - Branding Your Family: Giving your children an identity and values to carry into adulthood.
(41:49) - School as a Second Front: Choosing classical, Catholic, screen-free schools that back up what you teach at home.
(46:55) - Against Hiding Away: Why we need strong Catholic families in places of power and influence.
(50:24) - Stay or Go? Discerning where God is calling your family, without choosing complacency or comfort.
(52:26) - Transform Where You Are: Invite the neighbor over and live the faith visibly.
(53:08) - Rapid Fire: 2 Timothy 1:7, Patrick Lencioni, St. Edith Stein, and the daily Rosary.
Hire Catholic Overseas Talent
In LatAm and the Philippines, there are millions of Catholic remote workers (across all domains) who want to work for ethical bosses.
Often, they’re treated as second-class citizens or work for organizations that ask them to do questionable things. They reach out to us in search of a Catholic boss.
So, we started ParacleteVA (website coming soon).
With ParacleteVA, we’ll find you vetted, Catholic overseas talent who will help you move your business forward.
How it works: Pay a $500 finders fee when the candidate starts, and $500 if you’re still happy with them after 30 days.
To get started, reach out to catholicfounders@gmail.com with what you’re looking for, and we’ll get started.
