Hey y'all! I wanted to share what I’ve been learning at the SENT Summit.
What is SENT?
SENT Summit is an event organized by SENT Ventures, a community of Catholic CEOs and founders who have achieved some traction in their ventures. They focus heavily on venture-scalable companies. The conference is open to non-members as well, and I’m attending as a non-member this year.
The Schedule
The summit kicked off on Tuesday evening with a cocktail reception and runs until Friday midday. Today (Wednesday) was the official start of the main conference.
We began with Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, and Adoration—though I was late for Mass because I grabbed coffee with a friend beforehand.
Building Like the Saints
The first talk of the day was by John Canon, who shared his journey and the vision behind SENT.
His biggest point to us was; Many saints were founders in their own right, often starting religious orders. We can still learn from their example.
John studied this in his thesis and developed a six-part framework on how saints "build." The first principle? Seek God First. Probably not surprising to y’all, but a critical foundation.
Talk by Tom Monaghan, Founder of Domino's Pizza
Next, we heard from Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza. He shared his story and the lessons learned along the way, including his founding of Ave Maria University and Legatus Institute.
I’ll probably write a separate post about his talk later because it was incredibly inspiring.
My main takeaway for now: his deep commitment to aligning his success with his faith.
Panel: Building a Saintly Culture
After that, we had a panel on building a saintly culture in organizations. The panelists had experience running organizations with anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 employees.
Biggest takeaway: Leadership sets the tone for culture. If you want to change the culture, you must first change yourself and ensure other leaders are also committed to that transformation.
Breakout Sessions
Following lunch, I joined a breakout session on the future of evangelization through media. The panel was moderated by a deacon who formerly worked at Disney, and the panelists included:
* Michael Warsaw, CEO of EWTN
* Lorenzo James Henrie, Partner at Novo Media Group (and actor in Fear the Walking Dead, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and Agents of SHIELD)
* Bill Abbott, CEO of Great American Media and former CEO of Crown Media (parent company of Hallmark)
My key takeaways were:
* To help faith-based media thrive, the Christian community must unite and promote these films more effectively. Successful viewership leads to more funding and, ultimately, greater influence.
* Catholic and Christian media must improve their production quality to appeal to broader audiences, including those outside the “faith-based” genre, if we want to positively influence the moral compass of future generations.
Small Group Sessions
Later, we broke into small group discussions. Our group had about 10 people, and the main themes were:
* Developing trust in God’s will for our businesses. It was interesting that many people, as they explained their challenges, seemed to find the answers within themselves by simply articulating their situation.
* The importance of asking for help. It’s something we all struggle with, yet when people ask for help, they gained clarity. The challenge here seems to be recognizing that asking for help more often is a strength, not a weakness.
We wrapped up with small group dinners, which led to more lively discussions.
Meeting Legends
Overall, it’s been a great experience so far. I’ve met some incredible people, like Jamie Baxter (founder of Exodus 90), Jeff Schiefelbein (co-host of The Beatidudes podcast), Michael Warsaw (CEO of EWTN), Alessandro Disanto from Hallow, and John Heinen from Catholic Gentlemen.
I’m excited about the rest of the conference and will continue to keep you posted!
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