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Sent Ventures with John Cannon
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What happens when a successful career in politics and investment banking leads to a profound spiritual awakening? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of John Cannon, who embraced his faith and founded Sent, a thriving hub for Catholic entrepreneurs. Discover how his transformative experience with the Carmelites shaped his path, allowing him to blend business expertise with spirituality.
Explore the tension between worldly success and spiritual fulfillment as John reflects on his pursuit of a contemplative lifestyle amidst financial duties. Gain insights into the mission of Sent Ventures, where modern-day saint founders find resources for faith-integrated ventures. John emphasizes the importance of harmonizing prayer, community, and work, illustrating how this balance can rejuvenate both personal spirituality and broader society. Learn about the intriguing "monk mindset," inspired by the monastic life, and its potential to transform various facets of existence. This episode promises to inspire with its tale of grace, faith, and personal transformation.
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Welcome to yes Catholic, where real people share their real stories and discover God's grace at work in their lives. I'm your host, David Patterson, and every week we bring you inspiring guests who share how they came to say yes to Jesus and His Church. Let's dive into their journeys of faith and see how grace is transforming lives in our world today. Really excited to welcome John Cannon. Welcome, John. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story.
Speaker 2Hey David, Thanks for having me here. It's a blessing.
Speaker 1Absolutely. I'm looking forward to you sharing your story, man. But for those who don't know you, why don't you share a little bit about yourself before we dive into the rapid fire? Get to know you more.
Speaker 2Yeah, so John, live in Washington DC, run Scent, which is a community of Catholic founders and entrepreneurial leaders. Before that, did a lot of different things worked in politics and investment banking and chasing success stuff and God was just really merciful with me. I had a very intense spiritual experience, conversion experience after I went to business school and then religious life with the carmelites for a number of years and uh, which is a great gift and joy and blessing, and discerned out to start sent about four years ago. Uh, which I can go into more if you want, but that's a quicker review of my journey, trying to go closer to the lord. And, you know, integrate these different worlds. I've, I've been a part of business and spirituality, just with God's grace I love that.
Speaker 1That's a great summary, man. Well, let's get to know you a little more. With the rapid fire, ready to tackle some of these questions, here we go. All right, describe yourself as a kid in three words.
Speaker 2Impulsive, hyperactive and inquisitive maybe.
Speaker 1Are you a morning person or a night owl? I hyperactive and inquisitive. Maybe Are you a morning person or a night owl. I know the answer back in the monastery days.
Speaker 2Yeah right, yeah, I've had different eras. I've been a night owl most of my life, and then you're in the monastery. It's just not part of the game. And then you get old, and it's not part of the game either. So I'm in my morning person era, for sure now.
Speaker 1Okay, go-to order at a coffee shop.
Speaker 2I'm a simple boring guy. Usually I'm like, hey, do y'all have a dark roast? And they're like, do you want room for cream in it? I say no, just go to short prayer, you're going about your day, lord, I need some help.
Speaker 2Usually come Holy spirit, but is that the real prayer? I think I often ask God like hey, just be in this situation, like hey, be with me in this or be here in this. Like I mean, maybe it's yeah, maybe it's not verbatim Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, but, like you know, go into a meeting or just be in this, and or you know, praying in the morning and thinking about my day and different pieces of it, just be in this, be in that conversation, because if he's there in it, then it's going to be good.
Speaker 1All right. If you could have coffee with any saint, who would it be?
Speaker 2See, I think I'd be drinking the coffee and they're like what is that? Most of them? Because they probably didn't drink coffee. Like St Peter would be pretty cool because he knew the Lord, you know, and first Pope, and pre-scripture Anything you'd want to ask St Peter, you sit there with the dark roast. What would I ask St Peter Gosh? I would just be like tell me about him, give me the real stories.
Speaker 1Okay, last one. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Speaker 2I think it's interesting because I don't need to know more than what he's revealing to me or what I'm called to be shown.
Speaker 1I think I'd just ask him.
Speaker 2I mean, I would ask him anyway in my prayer, maybe to increase my faith.
Speaker 1All right, man. Well, you flew through the rapid fire. Let's ask Our Lady to intercede for us, and then we'll have you share your story In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary. Full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, jesus thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
Speaker 2Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 1Amen, st Teresa of Abloh, please pray for us In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Speaker 2All right, Joan, let's dive right in. Where does your story begin? As I was saying earlier, I grew up in Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, and I was just blessed to have a great, amazing father who loved me and was very present during my childhood and really modeled the faith I mean. I couldn't have asked for a better dad. He's a daily communicant, Spent a lot of time in prayer, he walked the walk, was a medical doctor and he worked in the indigent care hospitals hospitals like the county hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, taking care of poor people basically and just a really good holy gentle man and couldn't ask for anything better. But I honestly didn't have a lot of like catechesis formation growing up. So I was like, was drawn to the faith and aspired to it, seeing a model to my dad and his family too. They they were Lebanese, but I never.
Speaker 2It wasn't like an operating principle for my life. You know it wasn't how I oriented to the world and so I went along. You know as kind of as I alluded to in my adjectives that described me as a kid. I was kind of a troublemaker and like a little bit, you know, a little bit unhinged, but eventually in high school started channeling that energy towards like school and sports and started doing very well in them. And then just kept doing that and went to college and did you know, went to Notre Dame for undergrad and did well there and worked in politics. After that was a political advisor to the governor of my state and then wanted to go into politics, work in politics and so did grad studies in England and went to business school and worked in investment banking. A lot of just amazing doors that opened in this like professional and academic journey. But I was really chasing a lot of success. I was chasing like what looked good on the resume and then also getting more into after. I worked incredibly hard through college and afterwards which allowed some of these stores to open. You know, going to Oxford and Harvard.
Speaker 2But I think as I started having more time on my hands, like in business school, I started like partying more and kind of work hard, play hard lifestyle and that continued for, yeah, until about the year after business school and I was really not in a good emotional or psychological state and place and I think God knew that and just kind of hit me over the head and with 2x4, I had a very intense spiritual experience that just changed everything. And I remember and yeah, it's like I learned more in those few minutes or whatever that I had my entire life combined, like more than all my academic degrees and all my different professional pursuits. It's almost like I saw, I knew that God existed and I kind of saw that I was a sinner and that I was broken inside. And he also put it, I guess, put on my heart and desire to grow closer to him and change. And I, literally, when I went from reading like Wall Street Journal and Economist, just tearing through spiritual books and was reading tremendous amount of spiritual stuff from like Buddhist stuff to Christian, to the Bible, and found within that the Christian mystical tradition which I had no idea about before. So I started reading like Carmelite saints, like Teresa of Avila and John the Cross, and just was very compelled by their spirituality. It spoke to me. It spoke to me what the Lord had implanted within me and then wanted to give everything to God and I started discerning religious life and ended up entering the Carmelites and ended up being with them for about seven years in formation. I love that. I was very happy with them and after I felt that I was a very active guy and eventually felt like God was inviting me to kind of dig up some of those gifts that maybe I'd buried a little bit to like create and build.
Speaker 2I had started companies before and worked in politics and I did this study for my theology thesis, looking at leaders who led new movements of renewal in the church, like Mother Teresa or Nisha Sobole. I looked at about 50 of these leaders, Like what are their common characteristics and just saw in them that they're holy, they're close to God, but they're also very entrepreneurial. Actually, these leaders identify needs in their midst and they work to address them. I'm kind of like you're doing this platform now. Right, there's a kind of need and you're filling it. I saw the renewal of the Catholic faith that was actually very entrepreneurial.
Speaker 2Historically, we don't think of it in those terms. There are support mechanisms and ecosystems that support entrepreneurs in every sector of the economy, but almost nothing in the Catholic space, and I became interested in doing something about that and I ended up discerning how the monastery started Scent, which is what I run now, and it's really a community and a network platform for Catholic founders and investors, and so we've been going for about five years now and worked with over a thousand founders and CEOs around the country, Some great explicitly Catholic companies and organizations like the founders of Halo or Exodus 90. But then also a lot of them. Most of them run secular companies like escape rooms or like construction companies or venture-backed tech companies and give them community and access to kind of faith-aligned business strategies. It's lonely and isolating, building something but also the spiritual support to kind of faith aligned business strategies. It's lonely and isolating, building something but also the spiritual support to kind of sustain the mission. So that's yes, that's my journey.
Speaker 1Well, I guess, since I was born Kind of interested in regards to that powerful encounter that you had with the Lord. Was there anything leading up?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, you know, with all this, you know, with all this, you know kind of unpack your life story, kind of got to get the highlights or highlights, you're all right. But yeah, I mean a little bit of the context or background on it. So I was not in a great spot, I think internally at the time, about a year before this. It's like his car was t-boned, it like flipped over. He was ejected from the past, even driving, he was ejected from the passenger window.
Speaker 2So they found him on the street with his scalp was peeled back, his back was broken. He was airlifted to the hospital. He's in the icu, you know, it's like the tubes in his throat and they did emergency surgery on his back to replace some of the spinal, his vertebral column, which had been shattered. He was in a lot of pain and I would go to visit him and you can imagine like it's hard to imagine actually, but his back was broken and so any movement was just incredibly painful. But people would come in to visit him, like nurses or, you know, just like occupational therapists, and he would just light up. He would be like how's your family, how are you doing? Despite his immense pain and suffering and risk that he may never walk again.
Speaker 2He was very other focused and it made a huge impression on me because I was like man, if it was me in that position, it'd be like fix this, let's make this better, like where's I need this. That was working on me. And this was like a year after, before, a year before this experience happened, and I remember I was actually thinking about that. I was like how did my dad do that? Like, how was he like you know what was going on there? And that's when that I was thinking about this. When that experience actually happened, it was Christ living in him and Christ was like dwelling within him and took like such an extreme position for me to kind of see that Catholic content all for free on Tabela.
Monastic Life and Faith Integration
Speaker 1If you haven't checked it out yet, you can download the Tabela app on the App Store or Google Play. You can use it to listen to all your favorite podcasts, like this one, father Mike Schmitz Abiding Together, and more, as well as other exclusive content. You can also use Tabela as a communication tool for your parish or group. If you're interested in activating Tabela in your diocese, parish or group, just head over to wwwtabelaapp to learn more. All right, let's get back to listening to God's grace at work in our world today. So it was leading up to that powerful encounter with the Lord and you said, like when you had that encounter, you saw your sin. It kind of came. It was almost like a light bulb for you, or?
Speaker 2yeah, it's. I mean, it's kind of hard to explain, but it was almost like. It was almost like I could see this like cancer within me, like I remember I was just like crying. It was the most intense experience I had my entire life. It was like I felt like I don't know smell, like I was allowed to experience this cancer, this sin that was within me, and it was very not pleasant. It it was, but at the same time, like I had this kind of like understanding or sense of like you know maybe what we would say the realities of I don't know, but like of love, of truth, of a different lifestyle, of heaven. Yeah, I just became deeply convicted that God exists. Like where I was was in place far from him. I began to see that gap and wanting, wanted to to be close to him and to place far from him. I began to see that gap and wanting, wanted to to be close to him and to be united with him.
Speaker 1So would you say like in the midst of seeing that pain within you, that you also felt the Lord's presence in that moment, to then catapult you in a way to just want to seek him.
Speaker 2That's probably a way of like articulating what was going on. It's kind of I kind of struggle with some of the language around it, but I think that's probably fair, yeah, and so how soon after this encounter.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was about two years, a little over two years. I wanted to, pretty soon after run off to a cave. It was pretty extreme. I wanted to just leave everything. However, I had a lot of student debt and also in all the monasteries, religious orders were like we can't take you because you got debt. I was like, okay, why? So I just like worked a lot and just paid off everything. And you know, and also they get back to you at varying speeds of heavy response rates and response times, and you know it's a process. So it was God's timing.
Speaker 1You know, I was, I was, I was more imp, more impetuous, I think. And how did you discern?
Speaker 2the carmelites, I think one just being extremely drawn to the carmelite spirituality and it felt like a kindred spirit, it felt like it was speaking my language, and especially teresa, babel and john on the cross. And at the same time, yeah, I visited other communities too and I didn't have that same kind of resonance, I guess, and I was more drawn to a more contemplative kind of monastic lifestyle at the time. And then I visited the western province of Carmelites, discalced Carmelites, and it just felt like a family. They were like down to earth, they were normal, you know, it felt kind of like a home.
Speaker 1And how did the Lord move in your heart during that time? You said it was seven and a half years, was it?
Speaker 2Yeah, it was a great gift. When you have like four or five hours a day for prayer, it's all good. I mean everything's good, not everything, but you still have challenges and whatever. But especially two hours a day for just quiet time in front of the Blessed Sacrament every day, I mean it's just like it's amazing, it's.
Speaker 2Yeah, I really cherish the gift of that time and space and I don't know it's hard to, I don't know it's kind of hard to summarize like that. It's like going off to war or something. What was it like? You're like well, hard to explain, but it's just a great gift. I mean, it's just so grateful for all that time and prayer and it's just such a beautifully integrated life. You have time for community and work, but also prayer and rest and leisure, and really kind of designed and built around like how God. I mean it's how God has designed us for having these different facets of what it means to be human but integrate together every day and in community, and so so what is the mission of Sand Ventures, if somebody was interested to learn more.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. So we were inspired by saints who were like Mother Teresa or Mother Cabrini or St Ignatius, who were holy but also very entrepreneurial and addressed needs in their time. So kind of inspired by them and wanting to support and build up kind of these saint founders of today. And wanting to support and build up kind of these saint founders of today, and what we did is by offering practical resources and tools to help people take their ventures to the next level and become saints in the journey.
Speaker 2So it's extremely hard starting and running anything. It's very difficult and it's very isolating. It's a painful journey. To be successful in business, the vast majority fail. And it's even harder if you want to really bring your faith into it. There's not much out there. The vast majority fail. And it's even harder if you want to really bring your faith into it. There's not much out there, hardly anything out there now that helps support these founders and builders in a faith-integrated way. We kind of see them as like leverage points for impacting broader culture and society. I mean they're building the companies and the apostolates that are going to impact millions and millions of people. So to be able to serve them well and offer them practical business resources, but also in spirituality, in a way that's integrated, we believe is going to be the highest leverage points for helping renew the faith and broader culture and society.
Speaker 1You also have a monk mindset as well. Want to speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 2Yeah, when I started out in the monastery, I friends from harvard and other places that I was reconnecting with and they were like what have you been up to? And when I shared that I was like, well, they're not going to understand religious life. But you know, I was like I was. I was in seminary, also to be formation, to be a priest.
Speaker 1As I started, I was like well, I was in seminary to be a priest and and usually they'd be like oh yeah, that's, that's great, good, Good for you.
Speaker 2I mean, they weren't as like, but I was like, well, they didn't really connect that well and so I was trying to. Well, I was in a monastery and living a monastic life. Then it was totally different response. They're like whoa, tell me more, what was that like? What did you learn? Do you have advice for me in this situation? And you know you think about society.
Speaker 2I think there's an interest and openness to meditation, mindfulness. Monks are kind of interesting, but people often think of the East when they think of monks and nuns and they don't realize even Catholics don't know that there's an 1800-year history of monasticism within Christianity and it really has shaped the entire Christian formation. And so the idea is really to kind of take the wisdom of the monastery, the practical and the spiritual wisdom of the monastery, make it more accessible to a broader audience, reaching them where they are through media and other means that may be more accessible to them, in order to help people grow and transform their lives and hopefully learn more about the Christian tradition and go deeper into it as well. And so people want to check that out. Monkmindsetcom is the website. The handle is Monk Mindsets.
Speaker 1It's funny you say that, because Instagram I totally was able to get yes, catholic, but on Facebook it wasn't open. So it's yes, catholics, oh, okay.
Speaker 2So Monkmindsetcom, and then send ventures and uh, if you're interested, there's a on monk mindsetcom. I made a kind of a based on my experience in the monastery, a guide for how you can adapt the monastic life to your own schedule. So it just goes step by step of how you take the basically the building blocks of the monastic schedule and then kind of apply it or build it into your own life. So this guide is totally free, so you can check it out there.
Speaker 1Well, I always love to ask this question to every guest what is your hope for the future of our church?
Speaker 2I mean the Catholic faith is just so rich and so much of my life I was like, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 2But I mean I remember when I think it was cool I was like, yeah, that's nice, but. But I mean I mean I think it was cool, I was like, yeah, that's, you know, that's nice, but I didn't know how much it's like a, it's like going into like a mine, you know, and there's just like these veins of gold and they're diamonds and jewels. It's just so rich on every level. And so I guess my hope is that the people if people are hurting, it's so hungry out there and thirsty spiritually and emotionally and on a human level and my hope is that they discover the Catholic faith. You know they discover it and let the Lord work on them through it. And then ultimately, you know, and then for the church itself, like my capacity to impact and make a difference in the broader church is highly dependent upon my participation, with God's grace and response to him, and you know, so I just pray that I stay close to him and grow closer to him so that he can work through me in some way.
Speaker 1And you have a number of events that happen throughout the year as well through SendVenture.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you go to our website. We have regular free digital events that are available on our website. So they call it Holy Collisions, because you just get on and we'll just connect you with different Catholic entrepreneurs and founders and you know, five minutes with one person, five minutes with the next. It's very people love it. You meet a lot of great founders from around the world pretty quickly and that's a free event that we offer, so you can register it on our website for it. So you can register it on our website for it.
Speaker 2And then annually we have a summit gathering of hundreds of Catholic founders and investors. We've already had one in 2024. We'll have one in 2025, coming up here next year, so you can sign up for our email and get updates on when that is and details of it. And then we're also we have a membership community, so if you're interested in just getting ongoing support as a Catholic entrepreneur, you can join our community. We have a lot of things like help connect you with mentors and strategic guidance and have local events in a lot of different cities, and we're growing that out. So, yeah, just check out our site and we have a lot of different types of events and kind of ways of serving Catholic entrepreneurs. So I'd love to support you if that's something you're into.
Speaker 1On that note, John, I just want to thank you so much for your yes to Jesus and his church. It's been a blessing to be able to hear you just share how the Lord has moved throughout your yes, and I love the mission of Send Ventures. Not gonna lie, when I see your events going on, I've got serious FOMO fear of missing out it. I've got serious FOMO fear of missing out it. Looks like it's an amazing time, so I'm really hoping that I can make it out. Yeah, hopefully play hockey or something. Well, on that note, do you want to close this in prayer tonight?
Speaker 2Yeah, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen, amen. We give you thanks for this time together, david, in this ministry, in this work. Just ask for the grace of your Holy Spirit to guide us and nourish us, which may be in His work and our work and in our respective lives, and, for all those that hear this, that there may be some particular insight or grace that may be bestowed. I ask all this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, amen. Thanks, john Great.
Speaker 1Thanks, john. Great Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and want to support our ministry, please share it with others, post about it on social media and leave a rating and review. To stay updated with the latest stories, follow us on Instagram at yescatholic and visit our website at yescatholiccom. If yes Catholic has made a difference in your life, consider joining our Patreon community at patreoncom. Slash yescatholic A big shout out and thank you to our current patrons for all the prayers, support and contributions that help us reach thousands of souls around the world every week. Let's remember the words of Saint Peter always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. You have a story. Don't be afraid to share the good news of how Jesus has moved in your life with a family member, friend or colleague. Give Jesus your yes every single day and witness the ripple effect of the gospel. Join us next week as we continue the journey right here at yes Catholic.