The Saintly CEO: Reconquering Culture: 12 Bold Tactics For Catholic Founders
Plus! A role model for Catholic Founders to imitate.
June is upon us—the Month of the Sacred Heart. In today’s world, that’s not what June is known for. As business owners with cultural and financial resources to exert, we have a responsibility to help restore this. That’s what we’re going to discuss today.
Welcome back to The Saintly CEO. We’re back with another tactical way to run your business like a saint. We’ve also got 5 more heavenly hustlers we think you should know.
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In Today’s Email:
CF Role Model: This Spanish businessman helped his community when they needed it
+ 5 Catholic entrepreneurs (Heavenly Hustlers)
Reconquering Culture: 12 Bold Tactics For Catholic Founders
Miscellaneous Resources
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Heavenly Hustlers
Looking to find more Catholics who share your ambition? Each week, we curate a short list to do just that.
Huge shout-out to Catholic Owned for partnering with us to aid in this curation experience. Catholic Owned is building the Catholic Economy — currently it’s a huge database of Catholic business owners, so we can buy from each other.
Some of those listed each week were discovered through Catholic Owned.
We encourage you to get listed in Catholic Owned today if you’re not already.
CF Role Model:
🏫 Pepe Serret was a Spanish businessman, family man, and member of Opus Dei. Climbing the career ladder, he eventually became a senior executive for Nestlé in Europe. He was tragically killed in a car accident in 1993 while returning from a business trip.
While not an entrepreneur, his life is one to emulate. According to many, he was always kind (even in negotiations), got to know his employees, and opened his home to others generously.
One specific highlight: early in his career, before he attained great financial success, he helped launch two new schools. He helped fund them, rallied others to donate, and found time to help run the steering committee after it was launched. All this while maintaining a rigorous work schedule.
The community was in need, and he answered the call to help. All of us ought to approach life in this way to some extent. We all have a role to play if we are willing to answer the call.
I’d encourage you to learn more about him by reading the book Encounters, which has a chapter on him.
Other Heavenly Hustlers:
🛸 Cody Reed is building Pelican Droneworks. Offering various drone services, including property imaging, environmental pollution detection, and precision chemical application.
📸 Amy Brooks runs Catholics Online, a network of Catholic content creators, to help us discover other creators.
🤝 Matt Smeby is the founder of JMJ Advisory. They partner with businesses to create a more balanced work and life harmony.
👩🎓 Jennifer Nolan is the Co-Founder of the Catholic Polytechnic University in Los Angeles. Helping students, faculty, and researchers complete research without compromising their morals.
👼 Marie Mattos is the founder of Saint Sprouts. An incredible Catholic sticker company in the Detroit area.
🙋♂️ Nominate a Heavenly Hustler (including yourself) - It takes 1 min.
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Reconquering Culture: 12 Bold Tactics For Catholic Founders
For many, June has become a month to stay inside so you can protect your children from the obscenities in the streets. It shouldn’t be this way.
Truthfully, June is the Month of the Sacred Heart, and we need to take it back.
Today we’re going to cover why we have a responsibility to make this happen, AND 12 examples of how we can achieve this through our role as business owners.
We Have a Responsibility to Try
At the most basic level, we owe it to God to glorify him at all times. Be that through our words or example (especially in our example).
After all, He created us, clothed us, gave us skills, and even saved us after we rejected Him. We owe Him everything. That is what the virtue of Religion is: rendering the praise owed to God as the Creator of Everything.
Beyond the basic justice that we owe God, there is what we should find ourselves wanting to do—praise Him and be a witness to what He has done for us through the death of His Son on the Cross.
In the same way, the apostles went out and proclaimed the Gospel, we ought to be doing our version of that.
Doing that as a business owner doesn’t look like what the Apostles did (at least I don’t think it does). It looks like using the resources we’ve been given (by God) to glorify Him and share Him with the world.
Okay. Now that we know we have a responsibility, let’s discuss how to. Here are some examples we’ve come up with.
How can we do this
Hold Parades in His Honor.
This could be legit full-on parades or, at the bare minimum, Eucharistic processions through our cities (and neighborhoods).
You could also take out a float in the local parade—if hosting an entire parade is a little too much for you to bite off initially.
Commission Public Art
You could have a mural painted on the side of your building. My friend Dan Egan organized an effort to fund and paint a mural of St. Joseph in Detroit’s Eastern Market.
Doing a project like this is not without its challenges, but it’s a simple statement and one we should be making thousands of times over and over in the coming years.
Buy Billboard Space
Here in Wausau, WI, a local parishioner rallied the local Catholics to fund 3 billboards in key places throughout the area as well as an ad on one of the buses. The billboards say, “JUNE is the Month of the Sacred Heart; Christ is King.”
This one is a relatively inexpensive but effective method, and easy to organize.
I’d love to see a version of this where it’s a plane in the sky pulling this message across the sky.
Give Out Holy Cards on Special Occasions
Regardless of the business you run, if you have any foot traffic, consider handing out special cards on Holy days.
I’d suggest a holy image on the front (ideally not some modern crap) and put a brief explanation on the back. Or, put a QR code that says something like “Learn what the Feast of the Visitation is”—directing them to a landing page tailored for non-Catholics.
Things like this can be huge, especially for calling lapsed Catholics back to The Faith.
Close on Holy Days of Obligation
Similar to the last, to mark the importance of special feast days or holy days of obligation, close down your business.
This is a statement, especially if you run a traditional brick-and-mortar, because you’re sacrificing an entire day’s worth of revenue. But you can still make an impact with an out-of-office email if you’re more of an internet business.
Host Viewings of Edifying Films
For some, inviting them to Church might be a big barrier. But hosting a private screening of an impactful film is a good reason to invite them.
This could be done for clients and employees alike. It gives a reason to discuss the Faith with them.
Fly the Vatican Flag 🇻🇦
Flags signify belonging. There is a reason people planted flags when conquering new lands. If we belong to the Catholic Church, a Vatican Flag is not a bad place to start (it’s also really cool).
Wear Catholic Merch
Nothing starts a conversation like a shirt that says “Call Your Mother,” bearing an image of Mary surrounded by the Rosary. (This site is run by Catholic Founder Guild Member, Thomas Knapp - check it out)
Build Statues / Monuments
Okay, this one is quite aggressive and challenging, but if you’re feeling called, have no fear and get started.
Fund Schools
Many people leave The Faith because they are not catechized well, because they don’t understand their Faith. Let’s take back the hearts of the youth through holy Catholic Schools that teach truth and virtue.
Fund Churches
What is a testament to God more than a great big building that imposes the reality that God is worshiped here? Just think about the feeling you get when you see St. Patrick’s looming large on 5th Avenue.
Adoration
Last but not least, if we want to make Jesus known to the world, we first need to enthrone Him in our own hearts. One of the best ways to do that is through spending time with Him in adoration.
The first place we are called to do battle is in our own hearts.
These are just some suggestions. The possibilities are endless—get creative. But at the end of the day, our goal should be to help restore respect and honor to Jesus as the King of the Universe. Any way we can inch closer and closer to that goal is good.
Join the Discussion: Which of these is your favorite? Any other ideas you’d add to this list? Comment below so we can learn from each other.
If you know someone who should take on one of these projects, chat with them and get the wheelse turning.
God Bless & Happy Building
~Silas Mähner
Misc. Resources:
Groups:
Join the Catholic Founders Guild (peer group) $10/month or $100/year
Fides Entrepreneurship Group (NYC primarily)
Events:
Sign up for the SENT Summit (Sep 8-11, 2025, in Notre Dame, Indiana)
A summer course for Catholic high schoolers to learn entrepreneurship (actually launch a business) taught by the Catholic University of America
Content:
Services:
Hire a Catholic Virtual Assistant through ParacleteVA (email us: dearcfpod@gmail.com)
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Which of these are you committed to doing?