Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Judith Wright
Hi Dr. Judith, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
From a chubby girl growing up in a factory town to becoming a speaker, award-winning bestselling author, pioneer in human development, professor, coach, business owner, and co-founder of a graduate university, who was called “one of the most sought after self-help gurus in the country” by The San Francisco Chronicle and “One of America’s Ultimate Experts” by Woman’s World Magazine and has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, ABC’s 20/20 and hundreds of other media—has been quite a journey.
When I look back throughout my life, I see I’ve been on a quest to make a difference in my life and the lives of others, which has led me in many directions—from starting/designing a model program for students with disabilities to be able to successfully attend college, designing and running a demonstration program for little children with developmental disabilities and their families to get a good start in life, starting my own coaching and training company to share what I was learning with the greater population, then building businesses with my husband. We co-founded a foundation and Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential, an accredited graduate university granting masters and doctoral degrees in transformational leadership and coaching, and most recently, started a new business, LiveWright, operating from a vision of a world that works for everyone by empowering one person at a time to operate successfully with integrity and responsibility in their companies, families, communities, and our world.
I conducted seminal research that culminated in a powerful theory of personal transformation leading to a great life. My research informed our curriculum and service delivery in coaching, training, and our graduate program to guide others to become who they can become and contribute positively to their world.
As we saw such powerful results of our coaching and training, we felt compelled to get the skills out to more and more people so they could also benefit from what we were discovering. To this end, I became a speaker, educator, professor, and author of six books—developing curriculum and trainings to share and teach the skills of living a great life, including training professionals in our graduate university so they could spread the work and the skills even further.
But perhaps I am most proud of my journey of intimacy and adventure with my husband and partner, Bob. Our relationship is rich with continually growing intimacy, deep truth, mutual empowerment, full engagement, big fights (and growing closer because of them), no secrets, unleashing the depths of both our light and shadow sides in a revealing, healing, and empowering synergy. Our partnership and our relationship are lifelong experiments in the possibilities of ongoing, deepening intimacy and how a relationship is a vessel for transformation for both of us.
How did I get to where I am today? Deep passion, dedication to my mission of supporting people to become who they can become and make a difference, living consciously, working hard, being willing to do what it takes in the service of my mission. Going into the unknown, being scared but still pushing the envelope, willing to keep evolving, stretching, growing, and transforming. Great support and partnership with my husband and overarching spiritual guidance.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No way has this been a smooth road! More like a road full of meandering detours, full of the frustration of red lights and dead ends.
Challenges and struggles abound.
From doing things that have never done before; stretching into things I’ve never done before; dealing with sexism, ageism, and discrimination; being confronted by my own limiting beliefs and my personal limits/issues (needing to face myself); encountering some of the tender, hardest/most painful aspects of humanity in my work; being attacked and maligned; the pandemic effects on our business…are some of the challenges:
Going into the unknown – Doing things never done before…
I’ve often found myself in situations doing things never done before with no template to guide me. While these situations also became opportunities, they were also overwhelmingly challenging. Going into the unknown, full of self-doubt, and needing to create something from almost nothing…were real tests of my resolve, capacities, determination, character, and ability to transform myself. Things that seemed threatening to my self-esteem helped me turn myself inside out to find new strength and resolve.
At times, this was super scary, Yet, I somehow have kept choosing new situations, stretching myself, and discovering what I’m capable of. It mattered to me to live the best life I could and increasingly help others to do so through my programs, training, coaching, curriculum, businesses, and graduate university.
Without a template, I established a model college program for students with disabilities to successfully attend college when the laws first changed and there weren’t established models—we had to build them.
I also had one of three university demonstration grants in the country to develop an early intervention program for children with severe disabilities and their families. While also serving as a counselor for the parents. I learned to support the parents in this tough situation, like with a mom in tears as she realized, “My dog can do more than my daughter.” I helped parents mourn the loss of the child they thought they were going to have so they could accept and love the child they were given and helped them express and resolve their anger at God/universe. And I had the privilege of seeing the beautiful lives they created for their families as they—parents ˆand children—did this deep and hard work that transformed them.
We started a transformational graduate university where students didn’t graduate unless they could demonstrate that they had transformed and contributed to the transformation of others while in the program. A totally different, pioneering model, our university blended personal transformation, leadership development, and academic rigor with life assignments to build skills in their lives, (not just doing regular ‘homework’).
Going into the unknown is often frightening, yet, I see the continual creative output, innovation, great new solutions—and my personal and professional growth and the growth of our business and our clients that accompany it.
Dealing with the pain of humanity…
In my career/work, coaching, and services, I have often dealt with the very tough and often tender aspects of humanity of deep pain, terrific real-life struggles, and deep emotions of despair, rage, fear, and hurt. I realized the importance of my own emotional journey, to be able to be with my own feelings so I can be with and facilitate theirs, to touch deep empathy, be with people in their pain, develop even more understanding and acceptance, and self-care needed to be available to others.
Dealing with sexism and ageism and discrimination…
Being a young woman dealing with powerful older men on a national level and #metoo moments were really challenging. And, throughout my life, dealing with being discriminated against because I was a woman. And, for my age—being dismissed for being both ‘too young’ and ‘too old’ in my life. Early in my career I was discriminated against for being a young woman. And at this stage of my career, now I’m experiencing ageism on the other side of the continuum.
Doing things I’d never done before…
I’ve had to turn myself inside out in a sometimes excruciating process of learning how to write for popular audiences in my journey of becoming a published author. I’ve stretched myself in a painful process of learning how to become a successful public speaker and media presence. From getting my doctorate later in life; to co-founding, designing, running, and teaching in a graduate university unlike any other, to starting a foundation… the list goes on.
Going into the unknown has been scary and gratifying. There haven’t been plateaus of comfortable familiarity for long periods of time. I’m always stepping into the next stretch. I face all my feelings of inadequacy and fear that arise each time I step into the unknown—yet, I know that I’m becoming more with each stretch and living a greater life with greater service and contribution.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about LiveWright?
Live Wright is a pioneering cutting-edge coaching, training, and consulting company dedicated to helping individuals discover and achieve their true potential, live beautiful lives, enhance their leadership, and make a difference.
We are known for our client success – with predictable transformation and amazing results: 94% report feeling happier or more fulfilled in life, 82% were promoted or got a better job, 92% report less stress in their lives, 92% have a greater sense of belonging, 98% are more genuine and real, 97% have higher self-esteem, and our clients have thriving relationships with less than 9% divorce rate (as opposed to the national norm of over 50%).
Whether people are looking for more fulfilling relationships, pathways to advance their careers, enhance their leadership, tools to become their most authentic self, and/or to live with more purpose and meaning, our Innovative methods, research-based proven methodologies, curriculum, and programs deliver results.
We’re known for our social-emotional intelligence training–experts in the field come to us for our powerful experiential training.
LiveMore is our signature program that results in a stronger sense of self, greater emotional intelligence, more satisfying relationships, and a deeper connection to purpose and leadership. It combines coaching and training with social-emotional intelligence, leadership, personal, and professional development skills in a comprehensive program that uses a week-by-week lesson plan to break down barriers to change, fulfill inner yearnings, bust limiting beliefs, and build skills in all areas of life,
This proven program Includes coaching, instruction, and practical application, with life assignments that build upon one another in a comprehensive way, ensuring immediate and lasting impact.
We also are known for our executive support, women’s leadership coaching and training, corporate training, public speaking, media appearances, and more.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Hmmm…some personal things about me that people don’t know: I’ve spent the night in the Great Pyramid in Egypt, I’ve been on Oprah who said to me, “You were good!”, which led to interviews on the Today show, Good Morning America and abc’s 20/20 (who followed me working with three different people over time) and the honor of being featured in over 1,000 other media appearances. I have a wicked sense of humor and love to laugh, dance full out, bask in nature, and explore the woods in winter while cross-country skiing. I read like crazy. I range from being a neuroscience nerd, researcher, goofball, caring listener, to an intuitive and mystic.
People know me and LiveWright as a coaching, training, and consulting company, but there are many aspects of me and our work that people may not know:
I have a deep dedication to empowering women, up-leveling feminine power and women’s leadership, and have spent over 30 years exploring and discovering feminine power, the unique gifts of women, the continuum of yin/yang, feminine/masculine traits and skills (regardless of gender). This has been a journey of intuitive wisdom and discovery, working with women through all stages of life, developing cutting-edge women’s leadership training and unleashing feminine power. I founded SOFIA, the Society of Femininity in Action, which provides training and programs for recognizing, developing, valuing, and expressing feminine power and values, living a beautiful life, expanding feminine leadership, and bringing more harmony to our world. I am currently writing a book on these discoveries and skills– Answering the Call of Sofia: 10 Gifts of the Feminine (& How to Reclaim Them for a Joyful Life).
I coined the term “soft addictions”– those seemingly harmless habits we all have (overdoing social media, shopping, eating, screen time, etc.) that rob our time, mute our consciousness, and numb our feelings. I realized that we have deeper hungers that we are trying to meet that can never be met by these compulsions. Yet, when we can discover what we deeply yearn for underneath our soft addictions, we can follow those yearnings to deep satisfaction and fulfillment and our habits fall away. I developed a successful, proven program to fulfill our yearnings, and by doing so, overcoming our soft addictions and leading a beautiful, satisfying life. This became the basis for my first bestseller, There Must Be More Than This, later adapted into The Soft Addiction Solution.
I later discovered through my research that following those deeper yearnings was key to people who lead deep, meaningful, satisfying lives. My research on people who live great lives revealed a process of transformation and becoming—that became my third book, co-authored with my husband and partner, Bob, Transformed!: The Neuroscience of Changing Your Life for the Better Forever. Based on our experience and research and social science, psychology, and neuroscience research, we developed curricula and proven programs to teach people the skills of living great lives, impacting all areas of their lives—career/leadership, relationships, self, spirituality, and more.
Making my One Decision turned my life around and guides my life in big and small ways, and this became the title of my second book. Prior to that point, I had been focused on goals, and ‘being perfect’ and striving, but I was empty inside and felt that I was sleepwalking through my life. I turned that around with My One Decision of: I am awake, alive, and conscious! This decision guides my work, my daily decisions (everything from what breakfast, people, activities, actions…will I do)–choosing what will make me the most alive and conscious.
I’m dedicated to learning to increasingly live life as a sacred journey and helping others to do the same. A student of world religions, I have led pilgrimages for over 20 years to sacred sites, spiritual teachers, and spiritual communities all over the world–India, Egypt, Myanmar, Tibet, China, Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, France, Spain, England/Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Morocco, Mexico, Nepal, Vienna, Prague and more. My primary underlying interest/guide is spirituality—aligning to that which is greater than myself and living accordingly to become who I can become and support others to live heaven on earth.
Building intimate, satisfying, transformative relationships both for ourselves and others has been a lifelong passion of mine and my husband’s. Our own journey, combined with 30 years of experience and research in serving couples throughout the lifespan, is captured in our book, The Heart of the Fight: A Couples Guide to 15 Common Fights, What They Really Mean, and How They Can Bring You Closer.
We have a bigger mission to contribute to a world that works for everyone. In our work, we see that as each person becomes more conscious, develops more social-emotional intelligence, increases their capacity to speak the truth, and broadens their influence, they make a difference in the lives of all they touch. There is a powerful ripple effect. They stand up for what is right, make changes, develop innovations that make a difference, become thought leaders, and contribute to the world around them. We know change doesn’t happen quickly, so we hold a 200-year vision of the world awakening and transforming, where healthcare, education, food, distribution of wealth, and resources are available for everyone in a sustainable, flourishing world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://livewright.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjudithwright/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJudithWright
- Twitter: https://x.com/DrJudithWright
- Other: Other: My books can be ordered here: o Soft Addictions > https://a.co/d/8tZ3fOu o Heart of the Fight > https://a.co/d/fZ2XHlB o Transformed > https://a.co/d/agkMEdr o One Decision > https://a.co/d/agkMEdr
