Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Libby Swenson

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Born and raised in Northwest Arkansas, Libby Crafton Swenson brings over 30 years of experience in public speaking, leadership, team building, and organizational strategy. She holds a BA in Health Sciences and Education from the University of Arkansas and is passionate about helping the next generation create a better and more just world. Libby has worked in over 15 countries, leading multiple teams overseas on various projects and collaborating with local organizations.Libby’s passion for innovative fundraising is a driving force in the fight against human trafficking. Her creative initiatives, including fly fishing events, triathlons, and art exhibits, not only raise awareness about modern-day slavery but also generate essential funds to bolster the anti-trafficking movement. Her dedication and ingenuity inspire all who strive to make a difference.*************************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, a SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-libby-swenson

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. You are going to hear from an amazing lady today, one who's. life and experiences have taken her around the world. Libby Swenson, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Judy. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for having me today. You're welcome. So let's kind of get started.

Tell me about your journey. And I know you have quite a journey to tell where you started and how it inspired you to pursue the path you're on. Sure, absolutely. I feel really honored to be here. Excited to share a little bit of my story today. And hopefully other people can just be encouraged and also know that their lives can really make a difference in the world. I serve as executive director, a Freedom 58 project, which I'll be sharing about a little

bit more. But, you know, my journey started in a, I feel like a very. unique way, but one that was absolutely life-changing for me. I should say life-altering. Back in when I was a college student, in the early 90s, I had the opportunity to go overseas for three months and work in an orphanage in a developing nation. And I was so excited about this opportunity. I thought, wow, I'm going to get to play with kids. and I'm going to get to spend time with them and we'll play games and all of these kinds of things. But what I was presented with was something entirely different.

I will never forget the day I landed in this particular location and got off the plane, met a friend, and she said, okay, we're going to go right to the orphanage. And we got on bicycles and rode to this orphanage. And I remember riding our bikes through this alleyway. And, you know, there are people out burning incense or chickens and ducks and everything all around us and children playing in the street. And right in front of us was a giant gate. And that gate, unbeknownst to me, was a door that led to a life that I never knew existed. when we went through the gate, we walked into this orphanage and immediately what overcame my senses was just the smell.

How awful it was. And I looked and saw that there was a latrine going right through the middle of this orphanage. And I looked around and there are children everywhere. There were little girls sitting on little flower. pots. They had cut a hole in their pants, set them on a flower pot, and they were just sitting outside, and they would sit on the flower pot so they'd go to the bathroom and sit there all day. And I looked over and I saw two little blind boys who were both sitting in chairs, wooden chairs, and they had cut a hole in the seat of the chair, and they were both tied to the chairs,

their ankles and their legs and they just sat there all day. And I immediately thought, okay, I don't think we're going to be playing games and doing fun things together this summer. I just, I was shocked. I had no idea. But then my friend just said, well, I want to take you to meet somebody else. And so we stepped across the latrine and we went back to this time. tiny, tiny little building. And we opened the door and it was really cold.

It was dark. It felt wet. And I looked on the left and I saw a crib that had no bed. And I looked at the back wall and there were mops and buckets and brooms. And I just thought, why is my friend bringing me into the janitor closet? But then I looked on the right. and I just saw this mass against the wall. And Judy, I literally did not know what it was until my friend reached down and picked up what was a little girl.

And she was so covered in flies and dirt that I did not know she was there. And my friend picked her up and she turned around and she handed her to me. me and she said, welcome to your summer. And that was my introduction to a young girl who had been brought to this orphanage from a train station. She had been abandoned. Somebody had left her there with the suitcase and they didn't know what to do so they took her to the orphanage. Well, this young girl had some form of cerebral palsy. She crossed her eyes. She drooled out of her mouth. and as a result, nobody wanted to touch her. They thought this was either a result of her karma or she was contagious, so nobody wanted to touch her.

And so what they would do is they would just set her on a little pot all day long, you know, tear her pants, set her on the pot, and she would sit there all day. At night, they would put her in the crib with no mattress and tie her with ropes inside of this bed. So my job every day was to take care of this little girl. And basically to help her realize the dignity that she already possessed and help give her life. And so every day I would go to the orphanage. And it was a little bit of a covert operation because they didn't really know what we were doing. We just really wanted to help.

And my friends were trying to build relationships with the people that were the dream. directors of the orphanage, we were trying to show respect, but also trying to give children dignity and life. And so we were just trying to be very careful and very non-judgmental at the same time because they were living in a location where every worker there was forced to do this work. Nobody had an option of working at this orphanage, and nobody wanted to do it. And so they're overwhelmed with all of these children to take care of 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They never got to leave. The workers never got to leave. And so it was all around, it was really hard. And so I took care of this little girl all summer. I would bring food to her.

I would give her a bath. I came to learn that she was actually 15 years old and she weighed about 35 pounds. and I think that summer was probably the hardest thing I have ever been through in my life. One, we didn't speak the same language and she didn't know what I was saying to her. I didn't know what she was saying partially because she really couldn't talk. But what I did realize is that she responded to love. And she responded to being treated with. dignity as she deserved just like

anybody else in the world. And so it was really a life altering summer for me because I remember one day I was giving her a bath and I was trying to wash her hands. She had such a lack of

cholesterol in her body that all of her joints just stayed locked. Like you couldn't move her shoulders You couldn't move her elbows. Her knees, they were locked into place. Well, she would constantly clench her left hand. And I was trying to wash it. And as I did, I unfolded all of her fingers.

And as I did, a swarm of maggots fell out of her hand. Somehow a fly had landed in her hand. And I just stopped everything. And I just said, God, where are you? How is this happening in the world today? How? How? And, you know, here I am.

I'm in my early 20s, and I'm just so blown away by this horrific injustice. But what I came to realize is that this young girl was in that situation because there were people in positions of power who did not. think that she deserved the right to life, liberty, and dignity. Right. It was because of those positions of power that she was in this place of starvation, malnourishment, pain, and suffering. And so that's where my life was altered. You know, a part of it also just thinking, wow, I was so.

arrogant coming into this whole summer thinking, oh, these kids, they're so lucky. Here I am, this college student from America. And I'm sacrificing my summer to help these kids. I'm kind of amazing. Well, that was all turned upside down, realizing, oh, my gosh. Who am I? Wow. This is the one.

This young girl is the one who is going to change the world because her life has so much meaning. And so it just completely changed because I thought I was coming in as the teacher. When in reality, these young malnourished children and in particular this young girl, they became my teachers. Well, I did have to leave that summer and come back. And unfortunately, the director of the orphanage put a lock on this little girl's door so that nobody could go in and she could never go out. My friends found a hole in the window and they began feeding her throughout the year. They had to go back to the United States a year later and nobody stepped into help. And so she actually passed away in her room at the age of the age of the year.

16, Wayne, who knows how much, and was just there in her little room. And so I think what I learned from that, one of the small things that I learned was that, you know, it's actually people that are in positions of power that abuse that power to take away the dignity that people deserve. But then I understood, well, you know, if people are in a position of power, to take away, I'm in a position of power to give. I can do that. I can give life. I can help people realize their dignity that's already innate within them. I can help bring liberty. And that is a very powerful thing, no matter what that looks like. And so that experience just has been so critical for me

in my whole life's journey because I realized after that summer I thought I have got to be a steward of this experience because I cannot keep this to myself. People need to know and people need to know that there are millions and millions of other people like this little girl who needs someone to step in for them. And so I had the opportunity to speak to college students, to speak to different groups of people over the years, you know, thousands of people just getting to share this story of this young girl who has helped to change the world. But she helped change the world through her suffering, you know. And so we don't want anybody to suffer like that. That's why I feel like involvement is just so, so important.

So that's really how my journey started. And I know it's a pretty intense story. But maybe that's what I needed to see in my life to realize what else am I going to give myself to. Right. But helping others, you know, find their own experience. And so remarkable, the amazing transformation that took place in your life from power to take away to power to give. And you're only in your 20s, Libby. Oh, my gosh.

I was so dumb. Try to figure it all out, you know. Oh, man. Well, you're not in your 20s anymore, but you've had quite a journey since then. tell us a little bit more about that. Yes, absolutely. Yes. Well, so, you know, I kind of continued further on and I decided I wanted to just share my story.

And so I had a lot of speaking engages, engagements was very involved in that, wrote some papers on it, different things like that. So it wasn't until 2006. So this summer for me was in 1993. But in 2006, I heard a man speak about this problem of human trafficking, modern day slavery. And his name was Gary Hogan. He had found an organization called International Justice Mission, which some of your listeners may be familiar with or an incredible organization that has been fighting human trafficking all around the world. And working on helping to make certain that laws are protecting the poor. when Gary Haldon spoke about human trafficking, I was dumbfounded.

You know, obviously, I knew about poverty. I knew about injustice. I knew that people were lacking food around the world. I knew that there was a lack of clean water. But when he said that there were around 50 million people in the world living as slaves, I was so shocked. I had no idea this was going on in the world today. So I immediately contacted IJN and said, look, I want to get involved.

I was working with a student organization. We had tens of thousands of students involved on campuses all across the world. And I said, I think we should partner together and work together because students will want to get involved in raising awareness and in raising money for this very critical. work. And so that began a 12-year journey of partnering with international justice mission. And I'm so, so grateful for that time with them. And, you know, I also will say during that time, when I went home and shared with my husband Bob about what was happening in the world with modern day slavery, his response was no way. He said, there's no way that's happened. I said, why don't you believe that? And he said, there is no way that a man could do something like that to a little girl.

I think the egregiousness of it all felt impossible for him to wrap his head around it because it's so ugly, so awful. You know, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world today with annual net profits. of $150 billion, which is more than the net profits of Nike, Google, Starbucks, Disney, and the NFL combined. Oh, wow. This is a massive criminal industry, and it links arms with drug trafficking and the illegal arms industry. They're all part of the same, they're all in the same wheelhouse.

But human trafficking is the fastest growing. You know, when you think about it, what happens if somebody sells a bag of cocaine? It's gone, right? You use it one time the product is gone. You have to find more. Well, a human is not that way. A human can be sold over and over and over and over again until they expire, which could be decades later.

And so it's such a horrible, awful crime. So my husband started reading books, watching documentaries, and he just said, okay, what do I need to do? I've got to get involved. He was involved in real estate, land development. So he said, what am I going to do? Well, one summer, we were in Beaver Creek, Colorado, walking through an art fair. and we saw this woman painting this portrait of a woman and it was incredible. And so we just approached her and said, what is this that you're doing?

This painting is beautiful. And she said, well, my husband and I, we do nonprofit work in Rwanda and he offers counseling and we help provide job training for women. And I will paint a portrait of some of the women to tell their story. And for my husband, it's as if a light came on in his head. And he said, what if we had paintings created of people who have been rescued or intercepted from human trafficking to tell their story in a dignified way? And she said, I'll do your first painting. Oh, wow.

And so we were able to get a story with permission about a girl who had been trafficked and sold to a brothel. and she has this incredible story of a rescue and life change for her. And so we were able to have her portrait painted. And so this artist whose name is Judy Dickinson, she's incredible. She painted a portrait of this young girl. And we were able then to take a picture of that and send it out to artists all across the country with a vision of here's what we want to do. We want to help fight human trafficking in a very dignified way through art. We want to collaborate with organizations who are rescuing, you are intercepting,

who are helping women, who are helping restore women and girls who have been rescued. And we want to tell the story. And the response was immediate. Overnight, artists just started getting back with my husband, Bob, and saying, I want to get involved. This is so significant. I want my art to have meaning. And so what started with one painting has now turned into over 250 pieces that we have of just paintings from all over the world.

Artists all over the country, all over the world, working with organizations internationally and locally to tell very powerful stories through beauty. And so that's what we are doing now. And we get so excited about it. And Judy, I know you came to one of our events last February where we're giving some art tours and had the opportunity to share the story. And I think the way it reaches people is very, very powerful. Right. And Judy was there sharing a piece of her artwork? Yes.

Well, actually, that was Jamie. We had an artist, Jamie Nix, Ron, who lives in Bail, and she was sharing two of her pieces, which are incredible. I don't know if you remember seeing those, but wow. Yeah. They're amazing. It's so beautiful, and we've got them on display here, too. What strikes me is the connection to such an ugly, horrible criminal industry to the beauty of the art industry. Yeah.

I mean, yes. I know. Who would have thought? Who would have thought in that moment? That's what your husband, all of a sudden the light bulb went on. And that's a connection that he made. Yes. And where it's taking you guys since then.

And the information that's out there and shared across the world as a result of it. Yeah. something you said was people are rescued or intercepted. Those are two very different sides of human trafficking. Can you share a little bit about that? Yes, yes, absolutely, because it's important. You know, in the whole spectrum of fighting human trafficking, there are so many ways people can get involved.

You know, I would say kind of on the left end of the spectrum, you've got education. You know, people need to be made, aware, they need to understand what it is, they need to know what can I do. On the far right, I would say people need to be restored, you know, after they have been rescued, let's say, from a brothel or some type of domestic labor type of condition. And rescue, of course, is so important. You know, if somebody is not rescued out of that situation, how are they going to get out. What I like about interception is that it prevents the exploitation from happening in the

first place. So intersection means as somebody is being trafficked, they are intercepted. Meaning the organization I used to work for, Love Justice International, they work all over the world at places called transit monitoring booths. And so they work on international borders, in train stations, bus stations, airports, and their staff are looking for any type of sign of human trafficking. You know, like, why is this girl look afraid, and she's with this older man who looks very confident? Why are they going from Nepal into India together? You know, or maybe it's a guy. Why are three young girls with him that look like they don't know him? So they begin a questionnaire of asking them like, where are you going?

What are you doing? Do you have a phone number? Where are you going to be? What's the address of this company you're working for? How are you getting paid? You know, all of the things. And they will do a questionnaire. And if they determine that this person is at high risk of trafficking,

they will contact local law enforcement and aid in the arrest of that trafficker and then help get the young victims. safely home. And so that is such an important element in this fight against human trafficking is to prevent it from happening in the first place, you know. Totally. Yeah. And there are also other wonderful organizations. A lot of my friends are involved with. There's a lot of companies that help employ women, you know, or educate young girls so that they can be more safeguarded from human trafficking. If young girls can be educated and if they can be provided a way to work

to sell some kind of good or product that will sell in the market, you know, or anything like that, that also helps to prevent trafficking. So there are, that's why I said people can get involved in so many different ways, You don't have to be a lawyer. You don't have to be a police officer to fight human trafficking. I'm neither of those things. But I feel like, you know, find your piece of the pie. Exactly.

What's something that you can do? You know, what's your skill? What's your ability, you know? And jump in. Jump in at that. Yeah. Do you have a specific experience of someone that you would be willing to share of someone who was either rescued or intercepted in human trafficking?

Yeah, yeah. Wow. I feel like there are so many. You know, one of our paintings is very, very powerful. It's of a young woman named Mina. And she was very poor. Had a daughter, was married. And she, her husband left her.

She lived in Nepal. Her husband left her, which left her. which left her destitute. So for many women around the world, they have to, not really by their choice, but they have to rely on their husband for support because they're not provided job opportunities. They're not provided education.

They lack medical care. And so if their husband leaves them, then they are left destitute. So this young, mom decided to move in with her daughter, with her parents in Nepal. And her parents were also very poor. And she just thought, well, I'm going to have to somehow provide for my family. So she found out about a local job agency that was sending people overseas. You know, and in very poor countries, it is not uncommon at all for people to move to another country

so that they can find work and send it back home to their families because their home country just doesn't have opportunities for them. So she found this so-called job agency that said, oh, we can find a great job for you in Lebanon. So here she is. You know, she's desperate. She is vulnerable. Her family is vulnerable because of their poverty, because of her lack of education, because of her lack of opportunities.

So what is she going to do? She's been provided an opportunity that she thinks could help her family. So she takes the job. They fly her to Lebanon. But what was waiting for her was anything but a good job that would provide for her family. It was a family that hired her, so-called,

and she became their domestic servant. They were bringing in men every day to exploit her. So she became a sex slave. And this was happening every day for this young mom. And she became so depressed about her situation that one day she got a scarf and she tied it on the ceiling van and she said, I'm going to take my life because I cannot live this way anymore.

But then she remembered her daughter. And she said, I'm not going to die in Lebanon. This is not where my life is going to end. I have to get back to my daughter. So while this family was gone, she found six or seven scarves and made a rope and threw it out the six-story window of her apartment. And she climbed out of this apartment. And she hit the ground and she started renting on the road. And believe it or not, she came across them.

man who was from Nepal. And he helped her locate her father in Nepal. And so they contacted Love Justice, who was working in Nepal, and they helped her get back to Nepal. And they helped her process this whole situation. She then became a staff member. She herself became a border guard for love justice and began intercepting other people from human trafficking because it's so radically transatlantic.

transformed her life. And so, you know, there, literally there are thousands of stories like this. Right. There are just all over the world. Right. People's lives who have been transformed. Yes. You know, there are also stories of women that I have talked to multiple women

that nobody intervened in their life. And now they are living as slaves. You know, I've been to South Asia. I've been in the brothels multiple times. I've heard women's stories who have. just said, I wish somebody would have been there for me because now I am stuck in a brothel and I can never leave. Please tell my story to other people so that they will look out for others who could be in potential danger. You know, I love, I love William Wilberforce. He was

a part of British Parliament many, many minutes ago. And he was a huge, huge abolitionists that really helped to stop the transatlantic slave trade of the slave ships, you know, that were bringing people to England, to the Caribbean and all of that. And he worked for over 30 years fighting against the slave trade. And it wasn't until a couple of months after he died that that was finally passed. But he said something that always, I think, just has such a profound. impact on me and he said you may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know oh wow goosebumps yeah yeah yeah you can never say again yeah say that again

you did not know you may you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know. And boy, if that's not something I just need to keep in front of me every day, I don't know what is. I know. I know. Well, bless you, my friend. Wow, you are making a difference in so many lives.

And it's not just you, but it's the teams of people that, you know, that you put out there and that can do the things. And what strikes me, too, is that your life was transformed in 19, would you say 1993 in your 20s? 93, yes. Yeah, look at you today all these years later.

And then that woman who went to Lebanon on knowing what she was getting into and now she's back and her life is transformed and now she's helping other people and what better person to do that than someone who was trapped by it.

And the season knows all the signs. That's what's remarkable to me. I just... Right. Wow. Yeah, remarkable. Yeah. Well, Libby, tell our listeners, it sounds like there's so many different avenues, facets, fingers, ways to get involved, how they connect with you, how they can get involved even in a small way to start, to start making a difference if this seems like a passion of theirs.

Yes, right. Yes, absolutely. Well, again, everybody can play a role, whether it's small, whether it's, whether it's a lot. big. I think small ways are just as important as a big way. You know, it's like throwing a pebble into the ocean. It may make a tiny drop in the ocean, but that pebble will make ripples. You will. And those ripples continue to go. And so small pebbles will make ripples. And so I think it's so important for people to know that. You know, whether it's volunteering with us with Freedom 58, we are always needing help. whether it's making a monthly donation, even if it starts with $10 a month, that makes a significant

difference in people's lives. You know, if it's just even like saying, hey, I want to be more educated so that I can talk to people about this. I want to learn. How do I talk to my kids about human trafficking? What do I do? You know, we're going to have a high school that's coming through our exhibit in October, and we're bringing in law enforcement to. talk to these young high school girls about here is what you need to do to stay safe. On social media, when you're making choices, when you're walking down the streets, whatever you're doing, here are the things you need to be aware of. And those things are so important.

And so there are so many ways people can get involved. We've got an event coming up September 18th next Wednesday. And it's going to be so much fun. We're calling it SIP, Saver, and Support. We're doing a gourmet popcorn slash wine pairing, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Never heard of that before, but we're so excited about it. We're going to have a live jazz band.

We are going to be giving tours of our art. I will be speaking about our work. We are working with Matt Cumpfries, who is a broker here at the Village Workspace as well. And we are doing this event together. It's sponsored by the. Denver Bronco Alumni Association. So we're going to have several former Denver Broncos here. If anybody's into that, you want to meet some former players, then we would love, love, love for you to come and learn more ways that you can get involved. Wow. And you're having these events regularly.

And just to come and from my perspective, you can't possibly take in every story for every piece of artwork, but on an ongoing basis to stop in and start where you left off and read the next story and ponder the next piece of artwork. And they're very emotional stories. So they really, you know, really evict that emotion that, you know, that we can have for these, for these women and men to our traffic. So, wow. Well, thank you. I'm excited to attend the event next week. Oh, thank you, June. I'm so glad you're able to come. Yeah. And so this will be really, really great. So thank you so much for your time today for sharing your story and impacting even more women through what you shared with us today. Oh, Judy, thank you for this opportunity. I'm so grateful for it. I just feel very honored to be on your podcast. So thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks, Libby. Thanks so much for joining us for the inspired impact. Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit the inspired impactpodcast.com.