We were lucky to catch up with Dennis Wilson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dennis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I hope to build a legacy of consistency and honor for my family and future generations. When my time is up I hope people share the positive experiences I created for them through my events, businesses, teaching, and networking. I hope to be remembered as someone who cared about others, and created opportunities for others to be successful and enjoy life.

Dennis, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Dennis Wilson Jr. is an entrepreneur, event promoter, restauranteur, teacher, and graphic designer born and raised in Buffalo, NY. I was introduced to the computer program Adobe Pagemaker during my senior year of high school. We used the program to design the school yearbook. That introduction started my path as a graphic designer.

In college I took Communications (with a focus on radio/tv broadcast), but I used the college’s computer labs and equipment to teach myself Adobe Photoshop. Every Sunday for four years, you could catch me in the basement of the library, scanning and manipulating photos as I designed graphics for me and my family’s rap music group. Those years of trial and error allowed me to develop my skills and begin my freelancing career as a graphic designer.

While in college, I quickly understood that much of the Communications field required a heavy journalism background; and that was something I did not want to do. In my sophomore year of college I took a history course and I absolutely loved the professor. His style of teaching and humor made his classes fun, therefore I continued to take history classes that he taught. I ended up receiving a minor in history and his influence on me led to me pursuing a teaching career.

My teaching career started as a substitute teacher for several years before becoming a full time History Teacher. As a substitute teacher, I was able to develop a style of classroom management that would become critical for my success throughout my educational career. Urban schools have a tough time dealing with and reaching African American students; my presence as a strong, young, respected, and influential African American male teacher has helped and influenced thousands of students to pursue their dreams and goals. Currently I’m a Printing/Graphic/Web Design Teacher in the Buffalo Public Schools.

My career as a graphic designer led to opportunities in the entertainment field. I was able to become the go to designer for a host of nightclubs, promoters, and business owners. This all led to me eventually promoting and creating my own events, trips, and restaurant. I was able to create upscale events and lifetime experiences for urban professionals. I’m proud that my events and trips have stood the test of time and continue to this day. My two biggest events are in their 13th year of existence. I have brought together thousands of people from all over the U.S. One of the things that I’m most proud of is the success that I have obtained has created opportunities for others to be successful in various realms of life and business. I stand by my work and my word, and people respect and love me for my efforts. I’m an open book and I can always be found on social media or by my website (www.mrdwilson.com). I’m here for the people and always have been.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My first signature event (2010) I created was an All White Party that I titled “Diddy Style” after Sean P.Diddy Combs. I partnered with a two friends and we did tremendous. The event was well attended and talked about.

When the next year came the partnership had dissolved and I was doing the event on my own. I created a marketing plan and put it to work. I had a photo shoot on a farm with a real white horse and white dogs. I leased a billboard in town to post the event. I went all out at a time when I really couldn’t afford it; but I was shooting my shot. I marketed the events for several months. About 2-3 weeks before the event, one of the guys that I had partnered with the year prior announced that he was doing an event at the same time as mines, and literally 5 minutes away from my event. This was someone I considered a friend and his event basically cut my attendance in half.

The easy thing to do was quit and chalk up the loss but I stayed true to myself and my desires and goals. The next year my attendance returned back to the first years numbers; and every year since has seen a growth. Now we average over 2000+ guest annually for the Miami Nights Weekend Events held every July in Buffalo, NY. The journey will be filled with ups and downs but consistency is always the key for me.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I built my reputation on consistency, trust, reliability, and creating opportunities for others. People come to me because they trust that I will give them the correct information or put them in contact with those that can assist them. Through teaching, events, and trips I’ve built trust by doing what I say I’m going to do. I also try to be available and fair with everyone. When it comes to my services, I’m always reliable and efficient. Lastly, all of my events create opportunities for others. Whether it’s stylists, make up artists, boutique owners, they all can mark their calendars for when I have events. They all know they will make as much as they want during that time period. Artist, Fashion Models, and Business owners are often featured in my event promotions. For me success is creating a network of success and growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mrdwilson.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mrdwilson
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrdwilson
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/mrdwilson
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/dwil90
• Other: www.theoakkroom.com www.theewstudios.com www.mrdprinting.com

Image Credits
dw1-45.jpg- William Charls Photography dw1.jpg- William Charls Photography All others- Mayfield Media