Venture with Virtue

Doran's an accomplished executive that's led teams and businesses from startup to Fortune 50. Currently he's the COO of West Edge Energy and the CEO for one of their portfolio companies called Colorado Asphalt Services. Doran is a past president for Legatus' Denver Chapter. He lives in Colorado with his wife Christa and is the father of 6 children.

Question for you… Are you living an authentic life? A whole life? A completely integrated life?

If we're honest with ourselves, I think we could all find there's room for improvement. Many of us, myself included struggle with integrating our faith into business.

Our guest today has struggled with this as well. He takes us on his journey that started with discontent as a rising star at the top consumer product companies to a major mid-career pivot that's proven successful over time, but we also discuss the most difficult moment in his professional career.

Towards the end of this episode he shares a practical prayer formula, I want to make sure you don't miss. It's a simple prayer that only takes 10 seconds to incorporate into your day, but it can have remarkable power in transforming a meeting, an encounter or even an entire day or a life.

It is a prayer formula he actually discovered from St Francis de Sales and it follows the acronym

AOA – Ask Offer Accept – Ask Offer Accept

I don't want to give away too much, but wanted to make sure you caught this great piece of advice. So stay tuned…

Steve Ray is an intrepid traveler that's led well over 100 (if not 200) pilgrimages to the Holy Land. He's a Popular Catholic apologist and documentary film producer of the Footprints of God DVD series. As well as a best-selling author and captivating speaker that's been dubbed "Jerusalem Jones" by the National Catholic Register.

Steve takes us back to his entrepreneurial childhood, how he started a janitorial business out of high school for only $5 and how he became a leading Catholic apologist today.

Like all life journeys it wasn't a straight ride up. He had his share of failures, challenges, and difficult decisions along the way. We get a look behind the scenes into his decision making process and how he integrates his faith into all areas of his life.

Jon is a seasoned executive and investor. He's successfully started, built and sold two companies that generated a 50x return to his investors. Currently he's an investor in and COO of Freeze Sleeve, a cold therapy compression sleeve that provides relief and recovery for muscles and joints.

What's your why? Why do you get up every day? Why do you go to work? Why do you treat your family, friends and colleagues the way you do? Why do you spend your time on the things you do?

Knowing your why, gives you purpose and clarity in life. Knowing your why enables you to plow through walls that seem unbreakable and keep on going when the world says you should quit.

Jon shares how he found his Why though Surrender. If your why isn't crystal clear already, then I hope it is by the end of today's show.

Today's conversation takes you inside a journey that started with the pursuit of wealth on Wall Street to a fast flip with a startup that ended in bankruptcy to the seminary to the discovery of what a personal vocation really is and how you can cultivate your own personal vocation as well.

Luke Burgis is a serial entrepreneur that's started 4 different companies and he's currently the CEO for 2 of those. He's an entrepreneur in residence at the Center for Entrepreneurship at Catholic University of America, Executive Director of Inscape and author of the forthcoming book Unrepeatable.

Larry Kudlow takes us on his life journey, which is a true roller coaster of a ride. He starts out on the fast track to professional success, but hits bottom with an addiction to drugs and alcohol. By the grace of God he recovered, converted to Catholicism and returned to prominence in the financial world.

While he's always been an optimist, he lost it under the addictions. However when he found the Catholic faith, his optimism returned with an even greater force. The secret…Gratitude, Humility and Hope.

Gratitude. He's extremely grateful for his "wonderful journey", even the addictions and hitting bottom.

Humility. He's humble and takes no credit for himself and recognizes he owes it all to God.

Hope. He is hopeful, because God has provided and will continue to provide in the future.

A real life saga of courage, inner strength, overcoming adversity and a return to the Catholic Church. Phil started his business over 40 years ago with less than $200. He should have been driven out of business several times, but he's just about as tenacious as they come and yet humble as well.

Despite the financial success of his business, he lost his motivation until he had as he calls it…a Revelation of a Higher Purpose. We discuss all of this as well as how he went from being agnostic to a true believer who is clearly on fire for his faith today.

Richard is the CEO of DMPO Marketing which runs CatholicDentalPlans.com and DentistSavings.com. He's also an attorney and author of Catholic Capitalism, Applying Scripture and Catholic Social Doctrine in Everyday Life, Work And Business.

Today's conversation is a great example of someone intentionally seeking to integrate their Catholic faith into business. We get into the details of this integrated journey, which is full of ups and downs, gut punches, perseverance and trust.

I'd like to take a step back and review my conversations with our past 10 guests. As you know I try to bring you amazing guests every week to share their inspirational stories to help you do better in business and live your faith.

I spend a lot of time researching the guests, interviewing them, editing the audio and typing the show notes. So I get to revisit each conversation several times. I have to admit, it can be tedious at times, but when I look back it offers me the opportunity to dive deeper and in a strange way get to know them even better and find hidden gems in our conversation I missed the first time around.

When I take the time to review each conversation I'm amazed at what I continue to learn. There are definitely common themes running through the answers of our guests. At the same time I am always struck by the personal journey each one of us takes through life.

As you know all of our guests are quite accomplished in business, but they're all at different points in their faith journey. They all have different practices, habits and ways they strive to grow in their faith.

A lot of times the quote unquote "Successful" business people get put on a pedestal. We assume they have it all figured out. And they DO have a lot figured out about business, but they're pilgrims just like the rest of us on their faith journey. They have to work and strive every day just like you and me to respond to their call to holiness.

I don't know about you but I've really enjoyed getting to look inside the personal faith journey of our guests. I've got a busy life. You have a busy life and they have busy lives.

Hearing these real life stories of how they manage their busy work and home lives while striving to grow in their faith has been inspiring. If they can do it, then I can do it. You can do it. We can do it.

Hopefully you've been able to take something from these real life examples and incorporate it into your day to day life.

Christine Rich is the co-owner and CEO of My Saint My Hero, a Catholic jewelry company whose mission is to bring faith, hope and purpose into everyday life. The company started as a web and wholesale business and experienced exponential growth in home shopping with QVC. Previously Christine worked in the news and entertainment industries. She is also a wife and mother of 4.

Mike shares not only how he grew a business to over $40 million in sales, but how his decision to convert to Catholicism led to the darkest time in his life, how he worked through it and the blessings he's received since then.

Mike is a founder of SBI a management consulting firm specializing in sales and marketing. He's held a variety of sales and leadership roles for over 25 years at companies like TradEx and EMC. Mike's also served active duty for 8 years in the US Navy and is the father of 8 children.