The On The Rise Podcast

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Nick Stromwall talks with Robert Szewczyk, co-founder and designated broker of Rise 48 Equity, for the Faith Driven Leaders series. Robert shares his journey from growing up in communist Poland — where scarcity bred a lifelong hustle — to earning architecture degrees and building a billion-dollar multifamily portfolio. He explains how he met his par...

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy sits down with Tom Suvansri, founder of Perennial Pride, who helps high-income earners and business owners deploy capital into tax-efficient real estate and private investments. Tom shares how he became a "corporate refugee," why mainstream financial advice leaves most people boxed into deferral-only strategies, and how changing your facts ca...

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Nick Stromwall talks with Matt Johns, managing partner of Honey Hive Capital, where he helps Christian investors put their capital to work in ways that line up with their faith. Matt traces his path from a soup kitchen and Catholic Charities into private-market finance, and explains why ESG left him searching for real, measurable outcomes. He breaks...

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy sits down with Jon Ostenson — founder and CEO of FranBridge Consulting, top 1% franchise consultant, and author of the bestseller Non-Food Franchising . Drawing on his own corporate exit and years leading the Shelf Genie franchise system, Jon dispels the myth that franchising means food and fitness, and unpacks the booming world of home and p...

On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Nick Stromwall sits down with Bill Haley — Phoenix real estate professional, former headmaster, and father of ten — for the Faith Driven Leaders series. Bill shares how a sudden demotion forced him to anchor his identity in God rather than his job, why he pivoted from education into real estate, and how he and his wife Maureen lead a thriving househ...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, the tables are turned as Maria Zondervon — a seasoned passive real estate investor who has worked with multiple operators and asset classes — sits down with Rise48 Equity VP of Capital Formation Jeremy Dyer to ask him the question investors really want answered: why did you stop investing across dozens of operators and go all in with one? Jeremy shares t...

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...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Kelsey Dineen, Director at Equity Trust Company, to walk through one of the most powerful and least understood tools available to real estate investors — the self-directed IRA. Kelsey unpacks exactly how investors can move old 401k and IRA dollars out of Wall Street and into passive real estate investments like those offer...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Adam Link, founder of Fireweed Capital — a comprehensive wealth management firm based in Northern Minnesota that takes a deliberately active approach to navigating market cycles. Adam breaks down why he disagrees with the "set it and forget it" investing philosophy, how active risk management protects investors from the be...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall reconnects with one of his most significant mentors — Paul Poteat, Midwest Network Director for Campus Outreach, 27-year campus ministry veteran, and the person Nick has called when navigating his toughest decisions. Paul unpacks a practical triangle framework for making wise decisions, shares how a tripl...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Tom St. John — a real estate investor who spent nearly two decades grinding from single family homes to multifamily, made a major exit at the peak of the COVID-era market, and then lost a significant amount of money on his very first LP investment by failing to vet the operator properly. That painful experience became the...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with John Laine — a real estate syndicator with nearly 40 years of investing experience and over $175 million in closed transactions. John shares a remarkable journey marked by a golf ball-sized brain tumor in his early 30s, the loss of $77 million in assets during the 2009 crisis, and the devel...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Wayne Courreges III, founder and managing partner of CREI Partners, recording live from his family's nine-month RV road trip across the country. Wayne shares how discipline, fixed-rate debt, and an unwavering buy box have allowed CREI Partners to grow to over $60 million in assets under management — even while many operato...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with Dan Rosenblatt — commercial insurance franchise owner, founder of 72 Ministries, men's ministry leader, and faith-driven entrepreneur coach. Dan shares how a 70% pay cut and 80-hour work weeks eventually gave way to one of the most integrated, purpose-driven lives he has ever lived. He talk...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Michael Uadiale, a CPA who helps entrepreneurs and families build lasting financial freedom that can be passed on for generations. Michael shares his own painful introduction to the US tax system after immigrating from Nigeria — and how that experience shaped his conviction that too many business owners are giving away mon...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with Elzie Flenard III — known as Elzie the Entrepreneur — a faith-driven business coach, speaker, and host of the Journey to Mastery podcast. Elzie shares the journey of how God spent years nudging him toward a more explicitly faith-forward business identity, why he resisted it, and what finall...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Ben Reinberg, a prominent commercial real estate investor and founder of Alliance CGC, to talk about why hard assets remain the most reliable path to generational wealth — especially in a market cycle defined by trillions of dollars in maturing loans and ongoing economic uncertainty. Ben breaks down why hoarding cash is th...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall sits down with his friend Cameron Clark — a former digital marketing entrepreneur and agency director who, after losing his job due to debilitating chronic migraines in 2019, found himself in an unexpected and transformative season as a stay-at-home dad. Cameron shares with remarkable honesty what it felt...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Brett Swarts, founder and CEO of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, to unpack one of the most powerful and least understood wealth preservation strategies available to entrepreneurs, investors, and high net worth individuals — the Deferred Sales Trust. Brett breaks down the critical differences between the traditional 1031 excha...

In this solo episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall introduces the Triple Win Framework — a simple but powerful way of thinking about what it actually means to win as a faith-driven leader. Most high-performers are great at one of three things: their work, their home, or their community. Rarely all three. Nick makes the case that these are not separat...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Wayne Seminoff, a 50-year real estate veteran who has built a career doing something almost nobody else does — buying overlooked, problematic pieces of raw land for pennies on the dollar and converting them into highly valuable buildable lots. Wayne breaks down his seven techniques for transforming junk land into gold, fro...

In this solo episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall gets personal about fatherhood. Nick shares a vulnerable realization — that his kids were getting his leftovers at the end of the day, not his best. Inspired by John Tyson's book The Intentional Father, he and a small group of dads built a framework for raising their sons with intention — culminating...

  In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer sits down with Eric Runge, a registered investment advisor with 20 years of experience who now specializes in helping family offices integrate Bitcoin into their long-term wealth preservation strategies. Eric breaks down why inflation is far more destructive than most people realize, how government money printing silently transfers wea...

In this solo episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith-Driven Leaders Series, host Nick Stromwall shares a framework that changed the way he approaches his life, his marriage, his parenting, and his business. Inspired by Michael Hyatt's book Living Forward, Nick walks through the practice of designing your life backwards — starting with the end in mind, writing your own eulogy, and then building...

In this episode of the On The Rise Podcast, host Jeremy Dyer welcomes a very special guest — his own son, Jack Dyer. At just 19 years old, Jack has already launched and operated multiple business ventures, from a drop shipping company and a coffee roasting brand to a six-figure outdoor services company. He and Jeremy have an honest, energetic conversation about what it really looks like to scratch...