Listen on: Fio (Catholic Spotify) | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube News / Updates: * Shout out to Fio for sponsoring this recording at the recently held YCP Conference 🙌🏼 * We have events happening in Houston, San Francisco, Dallas, Nashville, Wausau, and Columbus. Register to attend. * Luca at Fides is hosting an awards night on May 15th in NYC. We’re a sponsor. Sign up here. * I recently went on the BeatiDudes podcast. Check it out here. * We just launched a bot to help you learn from ALL the content we’ve produced. Join the Guild today to gain access. * Want to invest in other Catholic projects/companies/ventures? Subscribe (for free) to the Faithful Steward newsletter. 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. In Today’s Issue: * Intro to the Guest and Topic: Edmund Mitchell * Core Takeaway: AI is the Great Equalizer * Episode References * Select Quotes * Key Moments First time here? Learn more about our mission. And don’t forget to subscribe. Today’s Topic & Guest: Edmund Mitchell. Creator of Digital Continent, The Faith & AI Project, Real+True, Zealous Parish Ministers Welcome back to the pod! Today, we’re sharing an episode we recorded in person at the YCP conference in Dallas a few weeks back. I was joined by Edmund Mitchell. He and I had a lot of fun, probably because in so many ways we are very similar personalities, both just loaded with ADHD, ideas, and energy. You kind of get the picture. I learned about Edmund because he recently hosted a debate between Mark Barnes and Matthew Harvey Sanders about AI on his podcast called The Faith and AI Project. Edmund is dedicated to helping Catholics turn their obsessions into intellectual property, authority, and income by applying Catholic anthropology to modern marketing. Our conversation dives straight into the biggest world-changing shift of our time—Artificial Intelligence—which Edmund argues is uniquely geared towards entrepreneurs who are intrinsically motivated. For Catholic Founders, this is an immense opportunity to escape the corporate monkey life by leaning into our unique calling and putting our personality into our work. Invest in Other Catholic-Run Businesses Sign up today (for free) for the Faithful Steward. Our free, private, deal-flow newsletter for Catholic investors to discover Catholic-run business ventures to invest in. —> CatholicDealFlow.com We gotta help each other out! Doing our part to connect the ecosystem. (Raising? Submit your deck here) Core Lesson: AI is the Great Equalizer, and Will Enable 100x More Catholic Entrepreneurship With AI, the barriers to starting a business are much lower. You can get started with very little pre-existing knowledge. Turning those ideas you dreamt up, or the ones you saw on Instagram, into a real business has a minimal barrier now. On top of this, more people will need to build out some sort of side hustle. Either they will be laid off because of AI, or they will need additional income because the rising cost of living makes it impossible for them to pay for their 10 kids. The ingredients are there for some spicy soup. As Catholics, who have true knowledge of our purpose, we must seize this moment to build business. To gain influence and prestige, to create a future that puts human flourishing at the center of society. (There are many other things I could have put from this episode, but this one stands out to me the most) 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: * Digital Continent (Edmundo Reyes) * Zealous Parish Ministers * Real and True (digital content based on the catechism of Catholic Church) * Scott Hahn * Tim Ferriss * Richard Feynman * Working Genius * Murray Davis * Matthew Harvey Sanders vs Mark Barnes debate podcast * Magisterium AI * A Thousand True Fans - Kevin Kelly * Lucas Wall, Catholic University of America * Leviticus 3:16 * The Righteous Mind - Jonathan Haidt * Dietrich Von Hildebrand * FIO * YCP Conference * The Faith and AI Project * Delete Magisterium AI - Mark Barnes article Select Quotes: * “If you’re in the old model of the industrial revolution, the public school system, it was there to train people to be good employees. But the AI world is much more geared towards entrepreneurs. And these are people that are intrinsically motivated, who can come up a direction to go on their own. So instead of what’s the correct answer to the question, an entrepreneur is saying, is the question?” —Edmund Mitchell * “As Catholic entrepreneurs, we are not just created to achieve some sort of earthly fame or glory or monetary pile. We are called to be instruments of God’s will in the world and to bring glory to Him. So that’s what we’re here and that’s what we’re all about.” —Silas Mähner * “The litmus test of have you found your one thing is does it work for you?”—Edmund Mitchell * “There’s a lot of people that aren’t saying something new because they’re scared. They’re scared to put their unique personality into their message.” —Edmund Mitchell * “As long as I just keep coming up with ideas, just keep pursuing things. At some point you’ll find it.” —Edmund Mitchell * “AI is one of the most, I mean, it is the most groundbreaking thing. I thought the internet and social media was going to be the most revolutionary thing, but AI really is.” * —Edmund Mitchell * “There’s a difference between automated and automatic. Something that’s automatic, I automatically send a text, or I automatically get a reminder to send a text to my sister when it’s her birthday. That’s automatic. Automated is a robot sends and crafts a text and sends it to my sister. So we want to avoid automated things. But we want to avoid automating things that should be a human touch and are built built on trust and connection. We want to make other things automatic.” —Edmund Mitchell * “Of all of the disruption and confusion, we [Catholics] should be thinking, we should be so thankful that we have truth and morality to lean on. And we have these anchors because the number of people who are going to have lost all sense of stability and understanding of who they are. is going to be really hard for a lot of people.” — Silas Mähner Key Moments: (outline) * [02:55] - Edmund Mitchell’s Work and Mission: Mitchell introduces himself as a freelance content creator and brand strategist whose mission is to help Catholics turn their “obsessions into intellectual property, authority and income” by applying Catholic anthropology to modern marketing. * [04:24] - Entrepreneurial Origin: Mitchell shares that his entrepreneurial journey began in college when he secretly read business books while serving in parish ministry, noting how business and Catholic theology helped each other. * [08:24] - Finding Your Unique Calling: Mitchell advises defining your life’s work by picking “one question” for the next five years, stating the “litmus test” for finding your one thing is “does it work for you?”. * [11:27] - Ideas Spreading: Mitchell quotes sociologist Davis Murray: “Ideas don’t spread because they’re true Ideas spread because they’re interesting,” and notes that many Catholic content creators are scared to put their unique personality into their message. * [18:38] - The Creator Economy: Mitchell discusses the massive growth of the creator economy and how AI is increasing the effectiveness of solopreneurs, making freelancers look “much more like just business owners”. * [25:27] - The Mindset of Persistence: Mitchell shares his long-term mindset on failure: “I’ll never fail because I’ll come up with another idea” and just keep pursuing things until you find it. * [32:02] - AI as a Groundbreaking Shift: Mitchell calls AI “the most groundbreaking thing” since electricity, noting its exponential growth and current security challenges with models like Mythos. * [36:36] - Leveraging AI Agents: Mitchell explains advanced AI use as having a “Jarvis companion AI” that routes tasks to an entire “team of agents” (research, content creation, SEO), allowing him to operate as an advisor to his company of agents. * [38:21] - Automated vs. Automatic: Mitchell clarifies the need to avoid “automated” tasks (robot crafting a text) and instead make other things “automatic” (a reminder), especially to preserve the “human touch” built on trust and connection. * [49:50] - The Insight Economy: Mitchell says the world is moving from the “information economy” into the “insight economy,” where unique connections between ideas and ultimately wisdom become the most valuable assets. * [52:34] - Gratitude for Truth: Silas Mähner encourages Catholic listeners
