Using Business to Fight Poverty - Erik Olson

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with his friend and hero Erik Olson — entrepreneur, CEO of Dignity Made, and former humanitarian worker who spent a decade serving the poor in Iraq, Yemen, Greece, and the Philippines. Erik shares how a painting business in college led to a fork-in-the-road moment in 2003 Iraq, how nine years of humanitarian work revealed that economics — not just charity — is the root solution to poverty and trafficking, and how a question he asked a coconut farmer in a bamboo hut in the Philippines became the catalyst for building a business that is transforming an entire rural community. It is a story about faith, sacrifice, proximity to the problem, and what it looks like to build something that serves people made in the image of God.