The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Wisdom For Catholic Entrepreneurs (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Are you a Catholic entrepreneur seeking to make a difference in the world? In this first part of a two-part series, Jeff shares practical and spiritual guidance to help Catholic entrepreneurs avoid common pitfalls, grow in holiness, and live out their unique mission. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://media.ascensionpress.com/?s=&page=2&category%5B0%5D=Ascension%20Podcasts&category%5B1%5D=The%20Jeff%20Cavins%20Show for full shownotes!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 456. Wisdom for Catholic entrepreneurs are one. And welcome to the show this week.

I'm Jeff Kavins. Thank you for taking a few minutes to join me to talk about all things, discipleship in Scripture, following Jesus, the beauty of the Catholic Church, and the list goes on and on. Well, you know, there's so much happening in the news with the government shut down the last few weeks and other things going on. Everybody is talking, and everybody has an opinion. about everything. And as you know, if you've been with me for a while, that I'm not real big on

following all of the stories all of the time, but maybe trying to find out what's happening in the world and then pray about it or do something in my own life that might answer some of those problems that we're hearing about in the country. And one of the things that I have noticed, and I've noticed this for a number of years, is there is a greater number of young Catholic entrepreneurs joining the conversation on the internet, social media, and other avenues. And there's just a lot going on. And as I've listened to some of the Catholic entrepreneurs, particularly young ones, there's been a number of things that I've heard, observed, that I thought, wow, I wish I could sit down. I wish I could sit down and talk to my younger brothers and

sisters and offer them not a know-at-all opinion, but just some of the expectations. experience that I've had and some of the things to do and some of the things to avoid as we go on. You know what I'm talking about. We're talking about pitfalls in ministry and in doing things on the internet, whether it's a podcast or it's a YouTube channel or a series that you're putting together, whatever it might be. I think that there are a number of pitfalls that entrepreneurs, particularly Catholic entrepreneurs, can get into. And I've made a lot of mistakes and why not take some time to share it with you. Now, of all of the shows that I've done in the, and this is show 456, so that's a lot of shows, but as I look back, I kind of,

I kind of tag various shows that got a lot of response and they, a lot of people were, I guess, challenged you could say, or they said, I needed that. And this topic was one that I did years ago, and it was about addressing young entrepreneurs. Now, times have changed. I've switched it up a little bit, but I thought it would be a good time to revisit that theme and talk to you. And it might be the type of, it might be the type of show that maybe you would pass on to somebody else, that you know they're involved in Catholic entrepreneurship, you know, and whatever it might be, men's ministry, women's ministry, topical ministry, Bible studies, it might be. And so this might be that show that you could pass on. And I do appreciate

you doing that. If you do want the show notes for today, all you've got to do is type my name, one word, Jeff Kavins, and you can text it to the number 33777. Quite biblical, 3377. And we'll get you on board with that. Now, this is going to be a two-part series because I have 10 points that I want to go over. I'm going to go over five of them today. And then next week, I'm going to go over five more. I think, you know, when you're dealing with this type of information, it's better to keep the show a little bit more precise, to take it in. And so that's why I'm dividing it up into two shows. By the way, I got to tell you, I think about you all week long. And last week, we were talking about shame, and I got a lot of response with people saying, wow, was that

timely. I needed to hear that. And that's what I was hoping because, as I said last week, that I really felt the Lord wanted me to talk about shame last week because of people who are listening. That show 455 if you didn't listen to it. All right. So I've been watching and listening to young entrepreneurs who would like to sit down. I'd like to talk to you today. And I came in, I came into this whole thing of lay ministry, if you can call it that, apostolets, to speak Catholic. I came in at a very interesting time back over 30 years ago. I was a Protestant pastor before that. Back 30 years ago, there were no so-called, air quotes, rock stars, right? There was no such thing as a Catholic rock star. All of them were dead and gone, like Archbishop Fulton Sheen

and the like. So it was 30 years ago, 35 years ago, it was very hard. There were many, many barriers to change. We didn't have the internet like we do today, social media like today, apps like today. We didn't have the audience like today. Things have grown over the last 30 years, and that came out of an awful lot of hard work. A lot of travel, a lot of churches, a lot of being in person with people around the country. And that came at a cost, to be honest with you. And I think that's one of the things I'm going to talk about that young entrepreneurs can avoid, and that is being away from their family too much. Now, I got to tell you at the very beginning here, over 30 years ago, if you're familiar with the Great Adventure and what Ascension Press has done

with it and the latest iteration of it with the Great Adventure Bible and Bible in a year, wow, I got to tell you, several publishers rejected that great adventure 30 years ago. They said it's too big, it's too long, and Catholics will never pay for a Bible study. Wrong, wrong, but it was difficult. Now, let me just make some basic observations, positive observations for young entrepreneurs today. And consider me a big brother. If you're young enough, dad or even grandpa, I suppose. You are needed more than ever.

you are blessed with a plethora of tools, resources that you can use. But I want you to know something. You are needed more than ever. But even before that, I want you to know, as a young Catholic entrepreneur, you are deeply loved by God. You are loved by God, and God has a plan for your life, a plan of goodness and joy and purpose. And that is the number one thing, is that God loves you and wants a relationship. with you. But you are needed more than ever these days. You are gifted in many ways that previous generations were not gifted. Well, as I said, with all the resources and the tools that

you have. And you know what I mean because your parents or your grandparents are constantly putting that phone in your lap and saying, how do you do this? And by the way, I love your enthusiasm for the faith. I love your enthusiasm for the faith. But as we're going to talk about, sometimes enthusiasm for the faith, sort of morphs into enthusiasm for self. And we want to make sure that we don't get into that territory. So you are gifted technically. Sources for formation are available like never before. And you are used to being filmed and recorded.

You know, when we started, people like Scott Hahn and myself and Steve Wood and others, we never, most of us had never been recorded before. or anything like that. I was in radio and TV before, so I had some experience there, but most people had never stood before a camera. Now they stand before their phone. So here is my advice to you. And these points are said, I want you to know, with love, and with a lot of experience. I'm not your pastor. I'm not your bishop. I'm your brother. And I have 48 years of ministry experience. And I've made a lot of mistakes. but I have also learned a lot, and I wish I had this list that I'm going to share with you over this show and next week.

I wish I had that list 48 years ago. So let's go over some of these things, of course, in love, shall we? Number one, and these are not particularly in any order. I want you to know that, but this is sure at the top, near the top. Number one, I want you to know with all my heart that you, number one, you Catholic entrepreneur, my brother, my sister, you are created for love. Don't settle for likes, okay? You are created for love.

Do not settle for likes. There's a huge effort these days to become a so-called influencer, right? We'll talk about that in a moment. But in the attempt to become an influencer, sometimes it morphs over into being liked. I want to be liked. I want to be liked. And that has been the downfall of many people that they have wanted to be liked by their peers and other people and they were willing to say anything or do anything or change their format simply to get more likes because more likes means you are more

right, maybe, or that you're more significant or you're more important or you have value. That is not true at all. You see, God created you for love. And love should be the goal of everything you're doing is a young Catholic entrepreneur. You want the love of God and you want to love other people. Don't settle for likes. I can't emphasize this enough. You know, in the earlier days, like with Facebook and Twitter and the like, there were many people that wanted to be liked so much because they thought that it represented something that they actually purchased likes. They went online and they paid, I don't know how much they paid, but they paid money to gain likes. And it turned out to be a lot of bots, robots, you know, giving them

likes. Yay, that was satisfying, right? But to some degree, it was for people, which is something that we have to look at in our own hearts. So again, number one, the goal is not to be liked. In fact, here's what's interesting. Jesus said that if they did this to him, that is to beat him, to crucify him, to reject him, they will do it to you. Why do we as Catholic entrepreneurs not gauge our rejections? We settle for likes, we want likes. Well, what if you had more rejections than likes? Well, the odds are you might be doing more for the Lord in some cases.

Now, I'm not saying purposely go for rejections. some do in some ways but don't settle for likes you're you're created for love so that's the first thing that i would say and take that to prayer really take it to prayer ask the lord to lead you and guide you and ask the lord to show you where is your heart at are you going after love not a selfish kind of love. But agape, the type of love that God loves you with, or are you settling for likes? Number two, find what God wants you to do. Find out what God wants you to say. Find out what he wants you to write or sing. You know, the most common question that I get over the years, after being at Franciscan University, teaching their EWTN, relevant radio.

all these different things that I've been involved in. The most common question that I get is people say, I want to do what you're doing. What should I do? What should I do? To do what you're doing? Well, what am I doing? And while you're writing books,

you have a podcast, you have, you know, you're on daily reflection, whatever it might be, pilgrimages. That's what I want to do. Oh, okay.

So my question is usually the first thing is, well, what do you want? what do you want to do what do you feel the lord has called you to what do you want to communicate what is on your heart what keeps you what keeps you up you know at night thinking about you know maybe solving a problem and here's what the answer is so often when i say what do you want to communicate in if you're going to do what what i'm doing or what scott hon is doing or what Matt Frad's doing, or whoever it might be, or Father Johnson, if you want to be like someone, you have to ask what your message is.

What do you want to communicate? And the answer typically is this. I don't know, but I know I'm supposed to speak and write. To which then I would ask write about what. speak about what and the answer comes back i don't know but i just think i'm supposed to in some ways and don't get me wrong here but in some ways that that seems to point to wanting to be part of a lifestyle without a message in other words it's doing those things that is attractive but there isn't any content there there's no passion there as to what you would do back in the day

in the, clear back in the 80s for me, I felt so passionate about learning how to read the Bible in chronological order and sharing it with other people. That's what hooked me. And I knew of no no one at the time that was doing it. And I did it. And I haven't veered from it. I'm still doing it. That's what caught my heart. That's what caught my heart. You know, if it catches your heart, whatever it is the Lord's put on your life, then grab a hold of it, nurture it, pray about it, practice it, get involved in groups that are doing those things.

So if you want to be involved as a Catholic entrepreneur in some kind of outreach or apostolate, you've got to narrow it down to what is it? And I've got to tell you, we need less generalists and we need more people trying to solve problems, I think, specific problems.

I got a list of five things that if I had the time, man, I'd go after them. You know, there's such a need out there in the church. Number three, let's take a break here, and I'll come back with three, four, and five. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz, and I'm excited to announce my latest project, a new Advent series coming out in the ascension app called Waiting Well. Here's the thing. The stats show that we spend up to several years of our lives waiting.

Waiting in line, waiting at red light, waiting while friends and family get ready, we're just constantly waiting. And instead of embracing those times of waiting, what do we do? We worry, we get anxious, and maybe most of all, we check out, and we just get lost in scrolling on our phones. But there is a spiritual importance to waiting that we cannot miss. In fact, waiting is so important that God gives us entire seasons of waiting, Lent and Advent, as a way to help shape us and help us realize where in our lives we're still waiting.

to let Jesus in. In order to be truly open to God in this way, we have to learn to embrace times of waiting. Most of all, we have to acknowledge, accept, and then live out the deep truth that this moment and every moment of our lives actually matters. If this resonates with you,

if you feel something stirring deep down in your soul, then join me this Advent for Waiting Well, exclusively in the Ascension app. You can download the free prayer plan by signing up for the wait list in the Ascension app ascension app on your mobile device or by visiting ascensionpress.com slash father mike advent what are you waiting for see what i did there god bless welcome back talking today about wisdom for catholic entrepreneurs today and we've we've been talking about two of them already you're created for love

don't settle for likes and then the second find out what god wants you to do you to say you to write you to sing and go after it and marinate it in prayer, in humility, right? Number three, do not believe that the numbers of likes or publishing a book or being so-called influencer results in success. Don't believe it. That does not mean that you're successful if you have gazillions of likes or followers that doesn't mean anything in terms of. success, okay, or positive influencer for the Lord doesn't mean it. There are a lot of people out

there that all they do is talk about controversy. They badmouth people, they put people down, they lift themselves up, they are loud, boisterous, and they got a lot of followers. But they are not when it comes to biblical success, successful. They are not the influence. They are not the influence. that the Lord has called us to be. The influencer that the Lord has called us to be is a disciple. And that's a whole other show. And we've done several of those over the last 10 years. We've talked about that a lot.

The disciple is the true influencer, not someone who is provocative and just wants to draw attention to themselves by being contrary to what people normally would consider good. I feel strongly about that one. Maybe you even picked that up. Now, you have to change your relationship with the concept of success, to align with Jesus' view of success. And what did he do? What did he say?

In the gospel of John, Jesus said, in the high priestly prayer, he said, Father, I did all that you asked me to do. That is an influencer. That is success. Father, I did all that you asked me to do. not father through some gimmicks and in a few little you know other surprises i gained a million followers that's not success that's not an influencer that's a self-centered person who wants everyone to look at them and there's no room for that in the kingdom of god now i'm going to i'm going to tell you something that is very important to remember and and can change your outlook the vast majority of people in

the church today who are really changing the world are not on social media. It's your parents, priests, religious, great bishops, and hardworking parish employees who don't even have an Instagram account. They're working. They're doing a good job. They're counseling. They've got counselors. We have teachers in Catholic schools. These are influencers. And I don't know whether their students like them or love them, but they're faithful. And they don't get paid a lot. It's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing how much we want to draw attention to ourselves. And teachers in our Catholic schools, CCD teachers, OCIA directors and instructors, deacons, they do this for the love, the love of the kingdom, the love of Jesus, the love of the church. Number four,

this is such so key if you want to be a young or old Catholic entrepreneur. This is wisdom. Remember wisdom for Catholic entrepreneurs. Number four, have a deep, deep, deep prayer life. I cannot overstate this. Spend more time with Jesus than following your followers. I want to give you an equation here to think about as you as you pray about what I'm saying here today. And by the way, this is all for me too. I'm not lecturing. I'm sharing with you. I've 48 years of doing this.

Do you spend more time viewing your followers and their comments and what other people are doing that you might want to emulate? Or are you spending more time with Jesus? Which is it? is it more time with Jesus or more time with your followers in trying to find out what they think of you and what I mean by this is is not just thinking about Jesus but spending time with him in prayer and the sacramental life if Jesus is there be there if Jesus isn't there don't be there so incredibly important really important you know when you look at your

your week and where you spend your time and they've got these apps now where you can go like i think in youtube they have it don't they where you can actually spend you can actually gauge how many hours a week you've been spending staring at that thing ask yourself you want to be successful in the kingdom of god then why in the world why in the world are you up to 20 25 hours a week watching videos and how much time did you spend in the word of god how much time do you spend with jesus how much time did you spend actually purposely doing what he called you to do? How many hours a week did you spend praying about the apostolate that you are trying to develop? Or did you spend more time looking at what other people were doing, people you thought, air quote, were successful based on likes?

Number five, get to know salvation history. if I could give you, you know, a bit of advice going forward, listen, I have run into more young Catholic entrepreneurs, air quote, influencers, air quote, that know very, very little about salvation history. Now, that's serious because salvation history, the Bible, in knowing how to read the Bible and how to read it as a complete story, is the foundation. and the basis of all of our lives, and if you don't have that, and you're out there peddling the faith in some way, what are you peddling? Are you just copying people or just repeating what you heard? Or does it come from deep in your heart and a foundation of salvation history

and prayer and the sacramental life, participation in the Trinity? Get to know salvation history. What do I mean by that? Well, that's what my life has been about for the last, oh, what is it, 48 years now? And that is teaching people how to read the Bible in chronological order, starting to understand the entire story of salvation history so that your life will spring from that story. You'll know who God is and who you are and what your relationship is with him. If you don't know salvation history, I'm asking you today, young or old entrepreneur, get a hold of the great adventure. get a hold of the great adventure. The brand new one is out. We went to Egypt. We went to Israel, Greece, Rome. We went to Turkey. We have a team of people that are helping and teaching this

amazing story of salvation history. If you don't know salvation history, stop what you're doing right now and get to know it. Get to know it. You'll find your story in his story. And this will be your currency in communicating with others. If you're a singer, this will be your currency in your communicating with other people. You're a teacher, you're a writer, you're a pastor, whatever it might be. This is where we live. It's where we live. And it's the one thing I can say about the list that I'm giving you that I can say, well, I did that. I did that. You know, I started, that was my whole life to know the story. I wanted to, I wanted to know salvation. history the way Phil Keggie plays the guitar, Nashville guitarist for the year years ago.

He played that guitar and his hand was on that fretboard, eyes closed. He knew it and he can make music and I thought, that's what I want to do. I want to know the Bible like that where it just flows from me. And I can start in the first fret, sixth fret, all the way to the 12th. And I can communicate. That's what my heart was. That's where it was. And I got to so many other areas, you know, that I need to improve on. And even when it comes to studying the Bible, there's so much room for improvement in my life. But I can tell you this, building that foundation has been so important in all these other areas. Young entrepreneur, old entrepreneur, wisdom, get wisdom, no salvation history. Wow, that's only five. I got five more next week.

and knowing the way this show goes sometimes, I might even have five more after that. Who knows? But I got five more next week. And can I give you a hint? Well, next week, I'll give you a hint. I'm going to share with you one of the deadly sins that will absolutely destroy your ministry.

Absolutely will tear down everything you're attempting to build. But I'll share it with you next week. I've got that, and I'm going to be talking about, I'm going to be talking about, let's see, I'm going to talk about the churigma, too, the proclamation of the gospel as a young entrepreneur. Well, my friend, it's been good to talk to you. I know it's a little bit more forceful, a little bit more direct than most of the time we're together, but I felt very strong about this. And if you know of somebody who needs to listen to something like this, whether it's churchwork or whether it's an apostolate that they're beginning, whatever it might be, please know again, I'm not a lecturer.

I'm telling you what I have learned in 48 years and what I wish I would have known 48 years ago. So let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we love you so much and we thank you for calling us to yourself. we thank you Lord for helping us to to develop the priority in our life to follow you and do what every everything you say lord we submit to you our lives and ask you to help us and in becoming more refined in our walk with you deeper in our understanding of you more effective in our living out your will we pray this and we ask for the intercession of our beautiful mother the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with the blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. That's 6 through 10 coming up next week. God bless.

Thank you.