When I tell people that we’re going to Transform Culture and make it more Catholic, some look at me like I’m crazy or just assume it’s hubris. They only think that because they don’t realize how easy it is to change culture. Even they could do it.
Welcome back to Saintly CEO: the Tuesday morning newsletter for business owners whose first objective is to become a saint.
IN TODAY’S ISSUE
News/Updates/Events
Feature Content: We All Have Agency
Heavenly Hustlers x 8
Highlights
[read time: ~8.5 min | word count 1,865]
News, Updates, & Events:
🙏 Pray with us: the Novena to St. Homobonus, patron saint of entrepreneurs, starts tomorrow (Nov 4) and runs to Nov 12, the eve of his feast. His name literally means “good man.” Let us seek his intercession.
🆕 The Steward Tier ($500/yr): To continue funding CF (and paying Oscar better) we are adding a higher tier membership that comes with one core perk. Placement in a curated mastermind of 5–8 Catholic founders at your stage.
Guild calls: Nov 10 we’re talking about reclaiming culture through the holidays, and on Nov 24 Leo Linbeck III will make the case for the family business. Not in the Guild yet? Join here
🎙️ #96 They’ve Given $900k of Interest Free Loans. Only $5k Has Defaulted | P. Terry’s. Patrick & Kathy Terry told me how P. Terry’s grew past $150M while treating employees like family, including $900k in interest-free loans to staff with only $5k ever defaulted, among many other things.
Get updates on our upcoming in-person events through our Luma page. We have several lined up events before Thanksgiving: Nashville, New York, and Dallas.
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You Can Change The Culture
One person. That’s all it takes to change the culture.
‘The Culture’ is the entire way of life of a group of people, encompassing their shared beliefs, values, behaviors, customs, language, and the physical objects they create. In short it’s the people who make up that culture.
It’s how we treat each other. It’s how we take care of ourselves and our homes. It’s how we walk. What we do with our time.
It’s a reflection of us.
Hopefully you’re already starting to see my point.
If we change, culture changes.
If we raise good kids culture changes.
If we are neighborly culture changes.
If we keep our houses well kept culture changes.
If we sing songs, culture sings songs.
Each one of us IS the culture, and therefore each one (emphasis on one) can change culture — starting right here. You!
How do WE change?
The secret lies in the connection between the intellect and the will: in pursuing our pre-fallen state.
God created us with two crowing gifts: the intellect and the will. Before the fall of Adam, these two things operated in perfect harmony and order. The intellect would come first and then the will would come into play. In this way, nothing ill was willed out of us. It is said like this: God governed the soul, and the soul governed the body, and the body governed the appetites (referred to as original justice).
There was harmony.
After the fall, this order was shattered. Without turning this into a huge Catechism lesson I’ll try to summarize quickly.
The fall delivered 4 wounds to 4 faculties.
The Intellect was wounded with ignorance. Now we could no longer see truth clearly. It now became possible to call evil good.
The Will was wounded with malice. It is now inclined towards evil. Not only accidentally but sometimes deliberately.
The Concupiscible appetite was wounded with Concupiscence, an inordinate craving for pleasure, comfort, ease (that’s why you hit snooze in the morning).
The Irascible appetite was wounded with weakness, a failure to pursue the difficult good (gives way to fear, despair, or disordered anger instead of courage).
Hopefully that’s clear.
The fix to culture is fixing our vices (as stated earlier). The fix to our vices is pursuit of a properly ordered soul and thus a properly ordered life.
To achieve that, we first must recognize that God’s grace is necessary. Thankfully, He gives us that grace and makes it available to all men (so we can’t say it’s not possible).
After recognizing that it’s not some act we do, we must choose to cooperate with that grace. This comes first in the act of properly forming our intellect. In order to will right and good things, we must first have the instruction manual or the directions.
This comes through understanding our faith and the great wisdom that we have inherited through that faith.
Then, we must practice willing what is good. This is like a muscle. If you’ve not used it often, it will be really hard at first, but fear not — it will grow (again, emphasis here on the fact that is possible through God’s grace, and our participation. You’re not going to achieve this on your own).
Now we have the blueprint, it’s just a matter of time.
Bottom line on ‘how do we change’ is, we pray for God’s grace to change, we welcome His grace, we avail ourself of the wisdom of The Church so that we can properly form our intellects, and then we practice flexing the muscle of our will (again, through God’s grace).
Focus on allowing God to transform your life first.
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Thank you to Aaron for sponsoring this work.
How do we change Culture?
The properly ordered life is the key. Living a life of virtue. Treating your neighbor with respect and love. Loving your employees. Receiving the sacraments frequently. Getting married and raising faithful children. Living an exemplary life to those children making it easier for them to continue in The Faith.
This is all paramount. This is the real key. Because, it is through this that others will be assimilated to your way of living.
You cannot expect to make other people more Catholic if you yourself are not walking the talk.
Now, once this is in place, you can start to get creative.
Not explicitly religious:
Get to know your neighbors (go introduce yourself)
Invite neighbors over for dinner (your home will be a witness)
Dress well and modestly (respecting your dignity)
Listen only to edifying music
Host parties/bbqs at your house or in your neighborhood
Learn an instrument or to sing
Go to other people’s events to be a community member
Ask your neighbor for help
Offer your neighbor help when they ask (and even when they don’t)
Explicitly religious:
Host Rosary walks in your neighborhood
Pick some groups at your parish to be involved in
Do public prayer when you host neighborhood parties or have the neighbors over for dinner
Celebrate the holy feast days publicly (with decorations or parties)
Create prayer campaigns for friends in need
Invite friends to mass, especially when there is a big party afterwards
I’ll leave it there because we’ve covered this topic in the past (read more here).
It’s simple: just BE Catholic
It all boils down to just actually being Catholic. If you truly live out your faith, as fully as you’re able, your life will change, and by extension, the lives of those around you will change too.
As you personally develop, you’ll eventually be motivated to share the truth of our faith with others. That will lead to many of the actions I’ve mentioned today and in other writings.
This whole culture change thing is really quite simple — it’s just hard because it requires commitment to pursue the difficult good. Something our fallen nature struggles with.
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Where are you in this journey today?
Do you need to form your intellect further?
Do you need to strengthen your will through aesthetic practices?
Do you need the courage to start hosting events and taking action?
Wherever you are, recognize it, and choose one action to take. Think about it for a moment — this moment. And decide — what are you going to do today to transform culture?
If you’re serious, you’ll commit this action to someone in a public setting so they can hold you accountable. Simply stating it publicly drastically increases the likelihood that you do that thing. It’s even higher if you’ve got someone who is going to check on you and ask if you did it.
If you want this dynamic, and you’re a business owner, consider joining the Catholic Founders Guild. There are 280+ of us in counting. And it’s our goal to transform the culture, to make it Catholic.
God Bless & Happy Building
~Silas Mähner
Reach Over 1,400 Catholic Business Owners
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Heavenly Hustlers
These are other Catholic business owners. Nominate one (including yourself).
🧯 Raul Muñiz is building Speedy Fire Protection. Fire sprinkler installation, inspection and repair for properties across South Florida. Miami, Florida.
🌱 Clare Anne Ath is building Vita et Terra. A Catholic conservation nonprofit equipping the faithful to care for creation in line with Church teaching. Leesburg, Virginia.
📊 Timothy Mayer is building PrimeauMayer Financial. Wealth management and financial planning for Catholic families and business owners. Manassas, Virginia.
🤝 Zach Scardino is building Scardino Strategic Partners. Cash flow, operations and acquisition advisory that helps owners scale, buy or exit their businesses. Houston, Texas.
🧾 Enrique Hernandez is building Concierge Business Consulting. Payroll, HR, benefits and PEO brokerage that helps small businesses cut employment costs and risk. Weston, Florida.
💰 Ben Krapu is building QP Financial. Faith-consistent financial planning for Catholic and middle-class families. Lee’s Summit, Missouri
🚀 Jesse Sullivan and Javier Cantu are building Altar Ventures. A Catholic venture capital firm backing Catholic founders who build scalable companies.
🙋♂️ Nominate a Heavenly Hustler (including yourself) - It takes 1 min.
Here is a huge list of various resources that we have compiled over time: The Ultimate Catholic Founders Resource Guide.
Feel free to bookmark it as we’ll continue to update it. And if you have suggestions on what to add, ping us (even if you want to promote your own stuff).