We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bryan Wright a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bryan, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I started off going to college wanting to follow in my fathers footsteps and to be a cop. However it wasn’t until my sophomore year in college where I had a guest speaker come into class and talk about helping with a Restorative Justice program they were starting and wanted to bring into Middle Schools. I just knew it sounded like something I wanted to be a part of so I showed up and started helping and did that for a year and a half.
It was through this internship experience, that I completely shifted my entire perspective and began to question if I even wanted to still be a police officer. I worked with so many struggling families and youth to the point of realizing that these kids would be the ones I was arresting in the future and just knew there needed to be more done before they were locked up and labeled as bad kids. It became crystal clear how kids fall through the cracks and how exhausted, burnt out and overwhelmed everyone involved can become. Everything seemed broken, still is to a vast extent and seeing how long it takes to get anything implemented and running anywhere literally just to help or better the kids is insane.
I took all that knowledge and ended up finding myself working as a Behavior Specialist for Lutheran Social Services and working directly with the families within their homes. This was an experience that honestly I don’t know if any 19-20 year old is equipped or even remotely prepared for. I don’t care how much training they paid for me to attend or certification courses I went through, nothing prepares you for the things you encounter and are tossed into. I had dealt with extreme cases of poverty, abuse, neglect so many things that literally change every part of you and makes you question every and all things in life.
My sophomore and junior year I ended up struggling with alcohol and was drinking excessively trying to drown out the things I witnessed or had to try to deal with feeling like I was failing these kids and couldn’t help. I was put in touch with the UWO Counseling services and was able to talk to several people and if it wasn’t for those services I was very close to being kicked out. I was watching everything begin to slip away from me and if it wasn’t for the programs UWO offered I don’t know if I would’ve successfully graduated or made it to my senior year. I wouldn’t have the chance to continue to make a difference in the lives of the families I’m dedicated to helping and for that I am forever thankful.
I knew that I wanted to start creating my own programs and to help in any way I could to make things better for families and the youth and to just help as there needs to be so much more done. It is never ending and there is certainly not a shortage or slew of issues impacting families and youth. So I keep creating and keep working and overall am very blessed and know that I am where I want to be and doing what I am meant to do.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Dynamic Family Solutions, LLC gets to help serve families and youth in the most difficult times of their lives dealing with abuse, trauma and struggles with the law through the programs and curriculums we develop. We offer educational programs / curriculums that are evidenced based and implemented throughout the country and internationally. I get to train individuals to become Certified Facilitators to run the programs within their areas and we have over 217 Facilitators trained in at the moment. Curriculums and programs offered help to address issues such as Social Media Sexting, Vaping Drugs and Alcohol, Truancy issues and getting kids to want to actually show up. We have a full Life Skills curriculum to teach on financials, healthy life style, elevator pitch, interview skills and so much more. We have built out the Healthy Relationships programs, Realities of Porn program and our Family Dynamics Series that works with families to address abuse and trauma within the home.
We continue to develop, collaborate and creatively create curriculums and programs to help serve families, youth and communities in the best ways possible. We are building out fully holistic approaches with each of the programs and curriculums we offer. This is done by reaching out to not just students but families and the community together to provide consistent messaging on all levels getting everyone to be on the same page. We offer student assemblies within the schools given by some of most sought after Motivational Speakers throughout the country. Tom Coverly and his Destroying Illusions Assembly, Jake White and Vive18 Sober Parties and Beyond Drugs and Alcohol Message and Joe Fingerhut with his How Can I assembly.
From Assemblies we then offer Peer Led Group Trainings with the students where we help to teach how to become the leaders within the school and community and to take ownership of these issues and how to create a culture of change and positivity. We also provide individual presentations and trainings to the Parents and Community members to help teach them the messaging of what we are teaching the youth and ways they can get involved and help out as well. After all this we do one large Community Event where we get everyone together and have an entire evening of fun, learning, growing and working together on different activities and games.
I am now currently working on developing a docuseries on Finding Peace and what does this even look like or entail. As we work with more families, youth and the communities it is seemingly harder to find individuals at peace. As we have higher rates of anxiety and depression than ever before and more families struggling to get by than ever before. We stated to ask ourselves what in the world can we do to help. This questions has sparked the idea to create a curriculum and documentary on helping to answer the questions of Finding Peace and how do we even do that in a world so divided, always at war and seeing more negativity than positivity all around us. We have 8 episodes that we are working to create and I just finished Episode 1 this Month in Nepal at at a Buddhist Monastery. In February I am off to Poland to begin Episode 2 and throughout the year will be traveling the world to explore and discover answers to all the questions of what it entails to find peace.
We have also just finished our new curriculum as well on, “Taking Control” The Powers of The Mind” That will be coming out this year as well. Along with new online trainings and deals so lots to be on the look out for.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I started Dynamic Family Solutions, LLC literally months prior to COVID I took the leap and jumped out completely on my own taking the risk of a life time. I had presentations and trainings booked solid for the entire year things were looking very promising and then BOOM. I started to get one email and call after another with things being canceled or not able to happen all rescheduled till next year.
I invested my money into the development of so many different things to get the business started, the website, logos, branding everything added up so quick but I had everything lined up already so was worth the investment. One year turned into two and in-person trainings now pushed out to 2023. This made for quite the exciting time to start a business. I am still very blessed and fortunate though as this time has continued to teach me to pivot a few hundred more times than I would have anticipated or liked but I have been able to get my trainings all online, doubled down and invested more money into developing online self-paced courses and training tools.
I have been now doing a lot of eight hour Zoom trainings for counties which yes I know firsthand Zoom Fatigue is real not getting to be live in front of an audience it does take that moment and energy away. I developed the student platform and have the Journey.Do app to help with drugs, alcohol and the vaping issues amongst youth. I have been able to endure and stay afloat and continue to keep doing what I love even amongst all the craziness and continue to get to bring what I’ve created to individuals and agencies around the country and internationally.
I feel through all of this you learn that if you believe in something so much so more than anything else and it is something you feel to your core so passionate about, that is not driven by profit but instead purpose it allows you take the hits and to look past the short term pain and to keep moving forward regardless of the pits and downfalls you encounter and endure. I have always said as a company we will never put money before mission, profits before purpose and money and possessions over our own morals and values.
When you have a strong enough conviction and belief system that you grow into from all the experience we go through it allows you to see what is truly important and how to help add more value into a world that feels so broken. You find ways to better serve and put yourself out there and use your talents for the benefit of those around you. When you begin to do that you find that everything else will continue to fall into place and work itself out the way it is meant to.
You have to be able to pivot, adapted and be as flexible as possible as this world will throw every curve ball possible at you and try to detour and knock you off path or course with the vision you are trying to create. You have to be able to take the hits and to not give up and to become so persistent and determined that nothing can stop you. You just don’t quit no matter what you continue to see the vision and what you are doing more than anything else and allow that to be the light to continue to guide you. Seeing, knowing and believing in what you are creating really is what keeps you going but if you can’t or don’t have a clear vision, passion or purpose for what you are doing of course it’ll be easier to become unmotivated to give up more and more little by little and to inevitably just quit. It is one of the easiest things in the world to do that most people succumb to as they don’t see or have a clear enough purpose or vision for WHY.
My best advice is that you need to be crystal clear with what you feel the most conviction towards. What is it that you feel is calling or pulling you more towards than anything else what makes you the most upset or things that if you could change right now that you feel as though this would help to make the world a better place. Ask yourself right now if you were to change these few things about the world what would they be? How do you yourself contribute or help towards improving or making these things better? Are you yourself adding more positivity or negativity into the world? We all have different things and areas in our lives that pulls or calls out to us more than others and learning to follow those feelings and callings and to develop those areas in ways that no one else has or could and then bring those talents and skills into the world and helping to add more value in those areas. So many things to help with or improve upon and it does take everyone of us to be involved all of us not just a few or some EVERYONE.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
As an agency we are indeed always looking to creatively collaborate with other Counties, Agencies and Individuals to provide the best services and programs possible. The issues we work on effect everyone and everyone has a story to share an experience they have gone through or a way that they have learned to overcome or get through a certain challenge, obstacle, trauma or pain in their life. We always are looking to partner with anyone that has a new solutions or way of helping, a curriculum or activity they developed they feel as though works better than anything else they’ve used or tried. I work with individuals to create and develop their own curriculums or programs that they feel as though can be valuable or help others. Any issues or problem that you feel as though needs to be addressed or more needs to be done to help let me know and we can creatively try to come up with a solution or program/curriculum for it.
Everyone has the ability to help, teach and share our own experiences of what we have gone through and every person has the ability to connect and relate in differently with others and one person’s story may resonate with one person but not the other. I am always looking to work with partner or help others to spread and share what they have learned or to help bring their activities or message to life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dynamicfamilysolutions.net/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dynamicfamilysolutionsllc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-wright-0a74a07b/
