Beat Your Competition and Come Closer to God: The Saintly CEO
Competition Often Scares us, But It's an Opportunity to Deepen our Practice of Charity AND Overcome our Competition.
October is flying by. Hopefully you’re still making time for your extra rosaries and not getting totally distracted by how badly your fantasy bracket is performing.
Welcome back to The Saintly CEO. Every Monday, while you sip your coffee, get some tactical advice to run your business fully in union with your Catholic faith.
Each week you’ll find…
CF News/Updates | Tactical Advice to Run Your Biz Like a Saint | Other Catholic Biz Owners For You to Meet (Heavenly Hustlers) | And Some Misc. Resources
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News / Updates
Oct 28th @ 1 pm CT | CF Guild Expert Call — GTM Advice w/ Ellen Twomey (upgraid to join)
Nov 4th Dinner | Catholic Founders Dinner in Chicago (open to non-guild members) | Nov 4th from 6 to 9 pm w/ after party
Nov 20th (time tbd) | Catholic entrepreneurs gathering in SF
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.
How to Create a Competitive Advantage AND Deepen Your Faith
Business is competitive. Our first instinct when faced with rivals is often to lash out, undercut, or focus on their flaws. We fall into a scarcity mindset, seeing their success as a direct threat to our own. But what if I told you that competition is a perfect, even a divine, call to lean deeply into your Catholic faith?
For the Catholic CEO, competition isn’t a signal to lower our standards; it’s a profound opportunity to raise them, transforming our faith from a private matter into our most powerful business differentiator.
Let’s talk about the core advantage, but first, check out our sponsor — Verso Jobs!
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. ⛰️The Core Advantage: Love of Neighbor
When facing competition, we need a competitive advantage. Our faith is the roadmap to that unfair advantage: Charity, or the love of our fellow man.
A true Christian possesses a true love for every individual they encounter. Why? Because they are created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore deserve a certain respect. No longer is your competitor a logo on the internet. They are an individual. Someone we might go to church with or break bread with.
This mentality elevates all transactions between people into interactions with another person. A person with an eternal soul.
When we recognize this truth, it’s impossible to have a transactional exchange. That exchange is transformed into something more. And when that happens, both parties feel it because it’s one of the transcendentals.
If you’re unfamiliar, transcendentals are things that are fundamental to being itself. Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. It’s like you’re pressing the button of truth. And when you do, it resonates in your soul and anyone else involved in the interaction.
To some it may sound ‘woo-woo’, but it’s spiritual because this is how God made us. When we experience truth it touches our soul.
All of this to say, people remember that.
You’ve probably heard it said, people don’t remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel. This is why.
To rewind.
Loving your fellow man (customer, employee, competitor, or supplier) is the TRUE thing to do because they have intrinsic good (being created in God’s image and likeness) and because it’s true, it resonates in their soul, leading them to remember you fondly.
Christian charity —> happy customers —> strong brand loyalty —> more customers from referrals & return customers —> higher profits —> outlasting your competition.
In this lies our core advantage as Catholic business owners.
There are other competitive benefits that come from practicing the other virtues.
When you’re honest, people trust you.
When you have fortitude, people trust you to follow through.
When you are humble, you won’t rub people the wrong way.
All of these things also add to your competitive advantage, but the biggest comes from love of your fellow man — from charity.
This brings me to my final point, when facing competition, instead of a limited mindset, let’s see it as a way to grow in holiness. By leaning into charity, we come closer to God and we help our business succeed.
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. Conclusion: Competition as a Call to Deeper Faith
Competition is a genuine opportunity to lean into our faith, especially into Charity —love for our fellow man, our customers, employees, and suppliers—and Truth—telling the truth in all ways, all the time.
By refusing to cut corners or do things half-heartedly, people will recognize that we are not just doing a good job for them, but that we are motivated by something deeper.
Now, let’s take a moment to reflect:
What competition are you currently facing in your business? How can you lean into this challenge in a way that helps you not only serve your customers better through deeper care, but also deepen your faith and your closeness to God?
God Bless & Happy Building
~Silas Mähner
Launch Your Podcast — Build Trust With Customers
Trying to bring in more leads? Launching a podcast might be the best move you haven’t made yet.
Saint Kolbe Studios helps Catholic entrepreneurs launch professional, mission-aligned podcasts that build trust and increase leads.
Their team walks with you every step of the way, from strategy and recording to branding and editing, so you can launch your podcast in under 90 days.
Get 20% off all services for the rest of 2025 because you listen to Catholic Founders. Just mention Catholic Founders when you reach out.
158 million people listen to podcasts every month, and that’s just in the US! Your ideal customer may already be listening to a competitor’s podcast.
Visit saintkolbestudios.com to get started.Heavenly Hustlers
Looking to meet other ambitious Catholic business owners? You’re in the right place.
Meet today’s Heavenly Hustlers.
💰 Phil Kain is the managing partner at Rush Street Capital and current owner of The Catholic Store.
🚗 Liam Redmond is the Co-Founder of Yelo, Uber for GenZ. Tim Connors is one of their investors and they are on an incredible trajectory.
🛸 Adam Lauth is starting a drone powered pressure washing company. Reach out if you’ve got advice or want to collaborate.
🏠 Pierre Frederick has recently launched Veritas Insulation. An insulation installation company in Ottawa Canada.
🏙️ Edu Foss is the founder of Exodus a real estate tech company building modular housing to make housing more affordable. He’s also heavily involved in AI. Generally a good person to connect with / to know.
🙋♂️ 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 Misc. 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.
Join DOMINUS Lab (tons of resources to help build 1000 Christian Startups)
Events:
Oct 28th @ 1 pm CT | CF Guild Expert Call — GTM Advice w/ Ellen Twomey
Nov 4th Dinner. 6 to 9 pm | Catholic Founders Dinner in Chicago (open to non-guild members)
Nov 20th (time tbd) | Catholic entrepreneurs gathering in SF
Dec 9th, NYC — We’re hosting a Catholic Founders dinner in NYC. Space will be limited, but reach out if you’d like to attend.
Content:
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.
DONE-FOR-YOU PODCAST PRODUCTION: If you want to build trust with future customers, reach out to Saint Kolbe Studios to help you launch a professional podcast. They help from start to finish.
OFFSHORE TALENT: Hire a Catholic Virtual Assistant through ParacleteVA (email us: dearcfpod@gmail.com)
[Become a sponsor today AND support the show while doing]
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