The Beautiful Spirit of Entrepreneurship
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10
God encourages us to use our talents to serve others and be faithful stewards of His grace. Many women are using entrepreneurship as a way to make a difference in the world through their work.
This week on See Hear Love, we meet entrepreneur Christal Earle. In addition to being a speaker, coach, and communications consultant, Christal has started Brave Soles, a company that makes beautiful shoes made with leather, love, and tires. Made in the Dominican Republic, the goal is to use recycled materials and generate local employment.
Christal spends a lot of time in the Dominican Republic to be with her 12-year old adopted daughter Widlene. Widlene has not been allowed to leave the Dominican Republic for her home in Canada for the past eight years, since – Haitian-born – she is considered to be stateless. As Christal spent time in the Dominican Republic with her daughter, she wanted to find a way to bring meaningful employment to the local people who worked and lived in the landfills like Widlene had as a four-year old.
Christal also wanted to find a way to reduce the number of tires in the landfills. Tires are very toxic and pose a big risk to the people who scavenge the landfills to find things they might sell to support their families. Christal began to see if there was a way to recycle the tires and use them for something useful.
She came up with the idea to use the tires for shoe soles and worked with her team to create a leather and recycled tire shoe that the local people could manufacture. And Brave Soles was born.
Today, Brave Soles makes an array of beautiful bags and shoes, all made from recycled tires and leather. The shoes and bags are made by people in the Dominican Republic; providing much-needed jobs. 15% of Brave Soles profits are donated to the Brave Soles foundation that provides education, healthcare, and help with citizenship for the Dominican Republic’s most vulnerable people.
Christal follows a long tradition of Christian women entrepreneurs, like the Proverbs 31 woman, who sells beautiful items, while helping others and living out her faith. Christal has transformed her ongoing struggle to bring her daughter home into something that has helped so many other people.
Christal is not only the founder of Brave Soles, she’s a beautiful soul as well.