Leading With Intention: Empowering People, Transforming Workplaces and Strengthening Sioux Falls

For someone who describes himself as having once been “kind of directionless,” Tamien Dysart has built a life and a business portfolio that centers on purpose.

A lifelong resident of Sioux Falls, Dysart is the CEO and Co-Founder of Think 3D Solutions and Elevate You and a co-creator of an entire network of ventures designed to uplift people, organizations and communities. Through Think 3D Solutions alone, he and his team have worked with more than 100 clients and businesses to help reshape workplace culture and develop intentional leaders.

He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, where he is the incoming Chair, and on the advisory board for Sioux Falls Neighborhood Soccer. Through all of it, his commitment is clear: to continue evolving and elevating his community, especially for underserved populations.

But the path here was anything but obvious.

From Drift to Direction

“I really kind of stumbled into life,” Dysart recalls. “I had no real ambitions or goals or dreams or anything like that.”

Growing up in a community that wasn’t very diverse, he struggled to find belonging. He describes feeling aimless going into adulthood even as his mother’s relentless work ethic shaped his outlook. He didn’t see many examples of success in his own family and says he had little inspiration to strive for more.

That began to change when he became a father at 17. The birth of his eldest daughter stirred something in him and gave him a sense of responsibility that pushed him to try to build something more. “If you had told me at 17, this is where I’d be at, I wouldn’t believe you,” he says.

Even so, he still felt uncertain about his path. At 19, while searching for direction, he found himself discouraged as nothing seemed to be going right. Then a friend invited him to church. Those first few sermons felt like they were spoken directly to him. “It was like I was the only one in the audience, like God was speaking right to me.”

Finding faith became the turning point. “Getting connected to God through church truly became the elevation of my life,” he says. “It gave me a foundation of moral principles to live by.” That foundation continues to guide him today in his drive to serve others, his belief in loving his neighbor, and his passion for supporting underserved communities, which he sees as central to the message of Jesus.

Discovering Strengths and Expanding Horizons

The first step came in an unlikely place. Despite showing no early signs of being a future speaker or leader — he once earned a D- in speech class — Dysart found his first professional success in credit card collections. “For the first time, I found something in life that I was good at,” he says. He quickly rose through the ranks, earning rewards and recognition, including seven incentive trips in a short span of time.

Those early trips cracked something open. They gave him a glimpse of lives lived with freedom and possibility and left him wondering what paths others had taken to get there. That exposure planted the first seeds of ambition, sparking a desire to dream bigger than he ever had before.

To keep growing, he turned inward. Reading, once something he hated, became his superpower. “I never had a mentor, but books became my mentors. That expanded my mindset,” he says. He devoured the works of authors like John Maxwell, Napoleon Hill, Tony Robbins and Robin Sharma, with Maxwell proving the most influential. In 2021, he even shared a stage with Maxwell, where conference feedback informed him afterward he had rated as good or better than his idol.

Determined to chart a new course, he steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder while earning his MBA from the University of Sioux Falls. Along the way, he discovered a passion for building high-performing teams and healthy workplace cultures, realizing that the ripple effects of his leadership could reach far beyond his own success.

Betting on Himself

Eventually, Dysart and longtime best friend and collaborator Vaney Hariri began to dream about building something of their own. Before founding Think
3D Solutions, they asked themselves three questions: Was there a need in the world for what they wanted to do? Were they good at it? And would it be fulfilling?

“Work is the number one place where we spend our most time, energy and effort,” Dysart says. “We believe we can better the world by improving the way people live through improving the way people work.”

Leaving behind a stable corporate career to launch his own company was daunting, but Dysart chose to embrace the uncertainty. He saw it as a chance to bet on himself and to create something that would help others grow alongside him. That mindset still drives his decisions today. When he and Hariri invested in Culture Cove, a retreat space designed for restoration and personal growth, it wasn’t because it fit a traditional business model. It was because they saw a need for people to step away, reflect and return to their lives renewed.

Vaney describes Dysart as “one of the most dedicated and disciplined people that I have ever known. He is the definition of self-made. I have witnessed him working to improve himself for over two decades.”

He adds that their shared vision has always centered on community: “From the beginning we wanted the community to be at the center of what we do, because it makes sense and because Tamien has felt the power of influence in his life from those he has met and many he hasn’t.”

Building Leaders, Building Community

Early on, Dysart and Hariri found themselves sitting on about 11 boards between them because there were so few leaders of color in local leadership roles. They recognized a gap and decided to fill it.

They launched Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT), a 12-week accredited program designed to build pipelines of leaders through exposure, mentorship and accountability. It has since graduated nearly 1,000 participants, including public figures and community leaders, across cohorts for justice-impacted individuals, educators, youth, emerging professionals and even those currently incarcerated.

Vaney has seen the results firsthand: “Tamien’s impact of focus, consistency, and discipline can be seen and felt in the growth of the many graduates of Leaders of Tomorrow and Author of My Life programs — from CEOs to those incarcerated in our state penitentiary.”

The Power of Presence

Dawn Marie Johnson, his partner, is herself an active community leader and a Sioux Falls School District board member. She often works alongside Dysart on initiatives aimed at lifting the community, and says the secret to his effectiveness is simple: he lives by the principle that
“nothing of significance happens without intention.”

Johnson describes how he creates ripple effects through consistent daily investment in himself and others. Every morning at 4 a.m., he’s up practicing gratitude and mindfulness, then maximizing his calendar to show up as the business owner, community member, father, partner, mentor and leader he’s committed to being.

She notes that much of his impact happens quietly. He was instrumental in launching Sioux Falls Neighborhood Soccer, which now reaches thousands of families each year. Beyond his visible leadership roles, he pours countless volunteer hours into helping others bring their visions to life, whether that means supporting emerging community leaders or mentoring the next generation.

Championing Chamber Values

Dysart’s deep community focus eventually drew him to the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, where he now serves on the Board of Directors and is preparing to step into the role of Chair. On Oct. 14, he will serve as the keynote speaker for the Chamber’s Annual Meeting, where he plans to explore the deeper meaning behind the Chamber’s core values and how they can shape Sioux Falls’ future.

He believes the Chamber’s five core values — community, connection, collaboration, vision and service — are not just organizational ideals but principles Sioux Falls must embrace to thrive. To him, community means actively preparing for the city’s changing demographics and
evolving identity. “If our city is going to continue to thrive, we need to find out what community means when you have 50% diversity coming out of our school system,” he says.

Connection, meanwhile, is rooted in empathy. “It’s hard to hate others we understand. When you make connections, you may disagree, but you disagree respectively.” He sees collaboration as one of Sioux Falls’ greatest strengths, pointing to initiatives like Forward Sioux Falls as proof. “What we’ve always been able to do is collaborate,” he says. “We need that now more than ever, to work together and handle some of the harder issues that are at this level,” referencing the challenges of a rapidly growing city.

Vision, to him, is about looking boldly ahead. “We have to think about who will lead us through the next 25 years,” he says. “What kind of city do we want to be when we hit half a million people? Are we developing the leaders now who can take us there?” And underlying it all is service, which he frames as measuring success by how well the community supports its most underserved populations.

Fulfillment, Not Balance

For Dysart, work and life are inseparable. “I fight against the idea of work life balance. It’s just life. It’s my life’s work. What matters to me isn’t dollars, it’s fulfillment. It comes through impact. Are you living a life that your kids would want?”

He often poses that question to his three daughters (and Johnson’s bonus daughter). “They’d like to work a little less than I do,” he laughs, “but they see the impact and the happiness.”

For him, legacy isn’t about titles or accolades. It’s about modeling growth. He believes the greatest gift anyone can give the world is becoming “the next best measured version” of themselves, leaving behind a blueprint others can follow through the clarity of their example.

That belief fuels his energy. Dysart sees his work as a calling, not a career. For him, it’s more about uplifting people than making money. To him, every person is meant to serve others in whatever way their skills allow, and he structures his life around answering that call.

Asked how he avoids burnout, he says: “I’ve learned to shrink my focus down to what I can control and what I can influence. I use my energy very wisely. I give up a lot, I sacrifice a lot. I don’t watch TV. I don’t scroll social media. I work hard, give back to the community, spend time with family and travel.”

“That’s my heart,” he says. “Game nights at home…we’re simple in that way. We love food. We live intentionally.”

It’s a fitting counterbalance to his relentless drive, a reminder that everything he builds is rooted in love for his family and community. That same intention guides how he approaches his work, his relationships and the city he calls home.

As he prepares to take on the role of Chair of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce, Dysart hopes to spark that same mindset in others. “It’s not about what you leave behind,” he says. “It’s about leaving a blueprint for others to follow. You teach through the clarity of your example.”

And for him, that blueprint begins here: empowering people, transforming workplaces and strengthening Sioux Falls for the future.

Hometown
Sioux Falls, SD

Business & Title
CEO and Co-Founder, Think 3D Solutions and Elevate You

Family
Partner: Dawn Marie Johnson; Daughters: Destiny, Saniya, Amira and Rhayn

Education
Master’s degree in Business Management, University of Sioux Falls

Community Roles
Board of Directors, Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce; Advisory Board, Sioux Falls Neighborhood Soccer

Building Blocks of Impact

The reach of Tamien Dysart’s work is hard to sum up in one story. He calls it an ecosystem of business — a network of ventures, each designed to spark growth and strengthen the others. This snapshot highlights the breadth of his impact.

Think 3D Solutions
A leadership and culture development company that helps organizations create healthier, more engaged workplaces through training, consulting and intentional culture-building. Dysart and his team have worked with more than 100 clients and businesses.

Culture Cove
A retreat and immersive development space built for restoration, reflection and growth, providing individuals and teams with an environment to reset and recharge.

Leaders of Tomorrow
A 12-week accredited leadership program with nearly 1,000 graduates, building pipelines of leaders through mentorship, exposure and accountability across diverse communities.

Young Kings Collective
A brotherhood and leadership pipeline for young men of color, focused on building confidence, character and community through mentorship and intentional development.

CultureCon
A regional leadership conference uniting leaders, organizations and community builders around one core belief: culture is currency.

Elevate You
A personal and professional development app using a “Buy One, Give One” model to help organizations invest in their people while extending access to underserved populations.

Sioux Falls Neighborhood Soccer
A community-based initiative offering free soccer programming to youth and families in underserved neighborhoods, reaching nearly 800 kids each year while fostering connection and life skills.