Background
Eric Ollila was born and raised in Loveland, Colorado. His father and grandfather owned an industrial machine shop. His mother worked various secretarial and banking jobs, eventually becoming an insurance agent.
Over the years, Eric has worked over 30 different jobs in about as many industries at almost every level. He has served as a trashman, a rock hauler, painter, maintenance man, and greenhouse worker. Eric worked on assembly lines building heated water bowls for dogs and cats. He made three-ring binders, did silk screening on t-shirts, and ran the machines that made plastic bags of every shape, colour, and size. He has even herded, branded, and vaccinated cattle.
Eric was a member of the first officially recognized class to study nonprofit administration at the University of Northern Colorado and earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Nonprofit Administration. Eric later earned a Masters of Divinity (MDiv.) degree from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
During the last 20 years, Eric has primarily worked in the nonprofit/NGO and religious sector. He served as a door-to-door bible instructor, a colporteur (door-to-door book salesman), a customer service representative (for a media call center), a chaplain, credentialed and ordained minister, an assistant to the president, and a departmental director.
In 2022, Eric founded Eric L. Ollila Consulting, an international business and nonprofit consulting organization specializing in mindset, money mindset, spirituality, leadership, communication, sales, marketing, IT, and media consulting.
Eric also serves as the communication/IT/media director for a large nonprofit organization. The organization has over 12,000 members and between 250 and 400 employees (depending on whether the schools are in session). In his role, Eric oversees the Communication, IT, Media Department and the multiple teams that serve 86 congregations, 11 elementary schools (with 1300 students), a book/health food store, a summer camp/retreat center, and an admin office. Previously, Eric served as the Communication Director and Assistant to the President for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Newfoundland and Labrador. He served for 11 years as a Management Committee member for VOAR Christian Family Radio/Lighthouse FM.
Eric is an ordained minister and served (eight years) in Colorado, Illinois, and California. He served seven years as a pastor in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Eric was the speaker for Sounds of Worship (a weekly radio broadcast aired nationally on VOAR Christian Family Radio Network, an AM/FM station). In 2015, he received the “Making the Difference” award for being named “Clergy of the Year,” voted by VOAR Christian Family Radio listeners. Eric has officiated eight International Peace Officers Memorial Day Church Services in collaboration with the RNC of NL, and two NL Police and Peace Officers Memorial Parades, attended by top governmental dignitaries including the Lt. Governor, the Premier, the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the Chief Superintendent/Commanding Officer of the RCMP.
Eric has served on committees and boards at nearly every corporate organizational level, whether local, state or provincial, national and international in both the United States and Canada. He served for five years as a member of the Board for the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (NAD), located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The North American Division (NAD) is a sub-entity of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and oversees the Church’s work in the United States, Canada, French possessions of St. Pierre and Miquelon, the British overseas territory of Bermuda, the US territories in the Pacific of Guam, Wake Island, Northern Mariana Islands, and three states in free association with the United States – Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. As of June 30, 2020, the NAD’s membership was 1,263,064.[1]. Eric has also served on local, national, and international strategic advisory groups and committees.
In 2017-2018, Eric served as a volunteer co-chair of the Communications Team and a member of the Executive Committee for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada’s Avalon Celebration of Hope in St. John’s, NL. The team was responsible for planning, organizing, and executing The Avalon Celebration of Hope event with Will Graham, Billy Graham’s grandson. The event filled the St. John’s Mile One Stadium with over 6,000 attendees. It was one of NL’s most significant religious events in recent decades.
Eric also served as Producer and Co-producer of the Alberta Conference Virtual Camp Meeting, an online version of the Alberta Conference annual Camp Meeting. The yearly physical camp meeting typically brings out 6,000 attendees to the event. Before the COVID Pandemic and 2020, the event had never been virtual. However, in 2020, with the leadership of Eric and his team, the virtual event attracted 26,700 views. In 2021, the event garnered 25,200 views on YouTube.
In addition to Eric’s professional and institutional career, he has also been the CEO and Founder of several business startups, churches, and ministries. He has experienced and learned how to surmount obstacles, thrive and grow stronger through challenges and difficulties. He has faced and had to lead organizations and teams through failure, partner and business dissolutions, setbacks, threatened lawsuits, sabotage, major international crisis communication events, and more.
He also serves as the publisher and editor for a weekly newsletter and a quarterly news magazine with a reading audience that has members located in 40 different countries.
Over the last 21 years, Eric has been on a quest for personal growth and development in every area of his life, including spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, social, business, economic, adventure, and cultural. He believes that if you want to have more, you have to become more. Success is not something you can pursue. Success is something you attract by the person you become.
Eric firmly believes and teaches that mindset, attitude, character attributes, and spiritual development are the most critical determinants of superior and optimal performance for an individual, family, organization, or team. One must develop the whole person to be substantive and successful. The right mindset, consistency of thought, action, and habit help you become more. They are what build you into the kind of person you want to be.
Eric’s vision is to reach eight billion+ people on this planet and help them develop an abundant life fit for eternity. His purpose is to bless others by creating, communicating, and distributing educational content, products, and services that empower people to improve their whole lives and the communities in which they live.