Saintly CEO: Transform Your Heart, Your Business Will Follow
Saintly CEO: Without Personal Transformation, We Won't Know God, If We Don't Know God, How Can We Know His Will For Us, If We Don't Know That, How Can We Carry It Out?
Happy New Year Everyone!
This is the first issue of Saintly CEO for the year! Saturday, we shared our key lessons from 2025. Yesterday, we published a Sunday Special with Jamie Baxter, founder of Exodus 90. Tomorrow we have a surprise for you. And Thursday, we’ll have another episode as well. Lots of content to get the year started off (don’t expect this much content going forward).
Today, as always, the Saintly CEO newsletter helps you learn how to run your business like a saint. Each week you’ll find…
Tactical Advice & a List of Catholic Biz Owners (Heavenly Hustlers)
[read time: ~8.5 min | word count 1,886]
News / Updates
🍝 In 2026, we aim to host 12 dinners around the country for Catholic Founders. If you’d like to help make this happen in your city, reach out. We only need ~12 Catholic business owners, a space, and some food.
👀 Keep an eye out for a special surprise tomorrow.
Sponsorships: We are looking for 3 anchor sponsors to support the show in 2026 — reach out to learn more admin@catholicfounders.com
Join the Catholic Founders Guild Today
Get access to all CF Guild online events, the recordings, paywalled content, the CF Guild community/group chat, and CF Guild member directory.
Many members have reported doing business with other CF Guild members within months of joining.
With an annual membership fee of $100, it’s a total no-brainer to join. Consider this an association of Catholic business owners, not a high-commitment community that will sap your time.
Join today for $100 a year or $10 a month.
The Foundation of a Saintly CEO: Why Personal Transformation Must Come First
The mission of Catholic Founders is simple: to give you the tools and frameworks to carry out God’s will through your work as business owners (to help you learn how to run your business like a saint).
But here is the hard truth we have to face as we head into 2026: You cannot carry out God’s will in the world if you aren’t consistently choosing His will over your own.
Because of our fallen nature, that choice is a constant battle. In fact, without God’s grace, it’s an impossible one.
The Binary Choice
Life, at its core, is a series of binary decisions: God’s will or my will.
We know how “my will” turned out for Lucifer. We know how it turned out for Adam. And if we’re being honest, we’ve all seen the wreckage in our own lives and businesses when we let our ego take the driver’s seat.
Logically, we know we are better off when we align with Him. So why is it so hard?
It’s hard because we haven’t undergone the personal transformation necessary to make that choice secondary nature.
Hire Talent That Actually Shares Your Mission with Verso Jobs.
Verso Jobs has built a gamified, data-driven job platform to help you hire people who actually share your mission and values.
Their team understands your needs, goes out to qualified candidates, tests them through the gamified application. Then presents you with candidates who truly share your mission.
If you’re a Catholic or conservative organization looking to cut through the fog, reach out to Verso Jobs to help you today.
Whether you’re hiring for your startup, school, parish, or nonprofit — Verso makes it easy to find mission-aligned talent ready to build the Kingdom.
Visit versojobs.com or book a demo to get started — To the heights. ⛰️Knowing the Mind of the Father
You can’t choose God’s will if you don’t actually know what it is.
Think about your closest friends. You know their likes, their dislikes, and how they’d react in a certain situation because you’ve logged the hours with them. You’ve listened to them.
If you think one hour at Mass on Sunday is enough to “know” the Creator of the Universe well enough to let Him direct your cap table, your hiring decisions, and your family life, you’re mistaken.
One hour on Sundays might be enough to know of Him, but it’s not enough to know Him. If you believe God is the one who holds the blueprint for your best possible life, you should be a lot more motivated to build up a strong rapport with Him.
Your 2026 Mandate
As we start this new year, I’m urging you to make a commitment to your own heart first.
None of the grand objectives you have for your business (no matter how noble they are) will reach their full potential unless you allow God to transform you from the inside out.
Sure, you can do some good things on your own strength. But imagine what’s possible when you’re actually operating in total alignment with the Will that created you. Just imagine how much further He will take you.
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 admin@catholicfounders.com with what you’re looking for and we’ll get started. Tactical Steps for Transformation
Transformation doesn’t happen by accident; it happens through discipline. Here are a few ways to start:
Immerse in the Word: Start Bible in a Year or Catechism in a Year on Hallow. A few minutes a day can substantially elevate your understanding of your faith and the scripture.
Understand the Gospel: Listen to the Logical Bible Study Podcast. It breaks down the daily Gospel reading so you actually understand the literal meaning of the text.
Practice Silence: Set aside 15 minutes every morning in total silence. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t run through your to-do list. Just sit with your mind fixed on God and listen.
Seek Guidance: Start monthly spiritual direction. You hire coaches and experts in your business; why not have a spiritual coach? (find a spiritual director)
Go to the Source: Attend Daily Mass when possible. Don’t just show up — really focus on the mystery of the Eucharist and ask Him to teach you His ways.
Daily Bread: Read from the My Daily Bread book. It takes about five minutes, but you can read slowly, to soak it in.
Study the Pros: Read the lives of the saints. We know they figured out personal transformation; their lives are great examples for us.
The Power of Prayer: Pray the Rosary daily and meditate on the mysteries (learn how here).
The Angelus: Pray it at 6 AM, Noon, and 6 PM religiously. It’s a physical and mental reset that reminds you why you’re doing what you’re doing (try this Chrome extension to remind you).
God Bless & Happy Building
~Silas Mähner
Join the Catholic Founders Guild Today
We have a peer group of around 70 Catholic business owners who are truly dedicated to being instruments of God's will in the world -- through their businesses.
If you want to journey with us, to figure out the unique way that God is calling each of us to be His instrument, join today by upgrading to a paid subscription of this Substack (click "upgrade to paid"). It's affordable so that anyone can join.
Once you sign up, check your email for next steps and the screening process to make sure you're a good fit. Heavenly Hustlers
Each week, we highlight a few other Catholic business owners (Heavenly Hustlers) so you can discover and make new friends in the Catholic entrepreneurship world. Check back every week for more.
Adeline Rodriguez is the founder of Holy Trinity Home Care Agency based out of New Jersey, bringing faith and prayer into the home health care industry.
James Reichert and some colleagues are building Cana.Wedding — a Catholic alternative to wedding planning sites like The Knot where the sacrament is front and center.
Joe Roberts runs Frassati Designs — a web design and design-driven marketing company. Aside from this, Joe has a good number of other ideas and side hustles. Good person to bounce ideas off of.
John Paul Makilya is the Founder and CEO of BaRIZI (Insta). They’re bringing color to your home at an affordable rate. I got to see his shop in the Westfield World Trade Center last month, and it’s amazing. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re in NYC. Second location coming soon.
JP Gschwind is the CEO of SKUsafe. An AI-powered formulation tool that helps the food and bev space manage R&D properly.
Brian Schardt is the co-founder of twitter famous Autopilot (the company behind the Nancy Pelosi stock tracker account). They’re tech hooks up to your brokerage account so you can trade like a politician.
🙋♂️ Nominate a Heavenly Hustler (including yourself) - It takes 1 min.
Big thanks to Catholic Owned for helping us identify some of these Heavenly Hustlers each week. Support other Catholic Owned businesses today! — Get listed today!
Become a Sponsor! Get your message in front of hundreds of Catholic business owners! Reach out today —> Admin@CatholicFounders.com Resources:
Groups:
Join the Catholic Founders Guild (peer group) $10/month or $100/year
Join We Are Catholic on Vinly — It’s free, and there are a ton of great folks there.
Apply to become a member of SENT (monthly small groups of highly successful Catholic CEOs and Founders guided by a professional facilitator)
Join DOMINUS Lab (tons of resources to help build 1000 Christian Startups)
Events:
Fides Entrepreneurship’s future events (NYC) (hosting in-person dinners and talk series in NYC for Catholic business owners)
Content:
Planning to launch a business in 2026? Check out these 9 principles to consider.
PLEASE read this book Leaving a Legacy: Inheritance, Charity, & Thousand-Year Families by Johann Kurtz — It is one of the most impactful books I have read in a long time. (PS: we’ll have an interview with him coming out soon).
Services:
HIRING: Looking to hire top talent that is also bought into your mission and values? Give the guys at Verso Jobs a shout. Joe and his team are incredible at filling jobs accurately and fast. And they won’t break the bank.
OFFSHORE TALENT: Hire a Catholic Virtual Assistant through ParacleteVA (email us: dearcfpod@gmail.com)
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