She Almost Lost Her Marriage. Then Built a Movement That Helps Families Reconnect.

Her husband was flying Air Force One. She was drowning.

From the outside, Brittany Anderson's life looked like something worth celebrating. Accomplished husband. Growing career. Kids. A life most people would envy.

But behind closed doors, she and her husband were barely speaking. They were going through the motions as parents and living as strangers as partners. In 2019, they were weeks away from ending their marriage.

What saved them was not what anyone expected. It was not a weekend retreat or a heart-to-heart on the couch. It was play. Specifically, building things with their hands, disrupting the stories they had been telling themselves, and choosing to build a shared vision for their family instead of walking away from it.

That decision did not just save their marriage. It became a movement.

Today Brittany is the founder of Renala Families and the author of Living Room Leadership. She joined Dali on the DaliTalks Podcast for one of the most honest and hopeful conversations the show has ever had. And if you are a parent who has ever felt like your family is just running on autopilot, this one is going to hit home.

Who Is Brittany Anderson?

Brittany Anderson is the founder of Renala Families and the author of Living Room Leadership. Based in Orlando, Florida, she works with military families, couples, and parents through play-based retreats, strengths coaching programs, and one-on-one intensives.

Renala is named after the baobab trees of Africa, because Brittany's philosophy is built around a powerful question: what if your family tree became less about the past and more about the future?

Brittany is certified in LEGO Serious Play, CliftonStrengths, and experiential narrative practice. Her book Living Room Leadership outlines the nine-part Be-Do-Have Blueprint she uses with families around the world.

Why Military Marriages Are Harder Than Most People Realize

Military life asks a lot of families. Frequent moves, long separations, career sacrifices, and constant uncertainty create a pressure that most civilians never fully understand.

For Brittany, that pressure came to a head when her husband was assigned to fly the President. The schedule was demanding. She was rebuilding her identity for what felt like the hundredth time after yet another move. And without realizing it, they had stopped growing together.

"We were there for the kids, but in terms of each other, it was just really hard." — Brittany Anderson

Rather than continue down that road, Brittany made a decision that changed everything. She started working with a coach.

Why Coaching Worked When Therapy Did Not

Traditional therapy did not fit their lifestyle. Inconsistent scheduling, missed sessions, and a format that did not match where they were made it hard to gain traction. Brittany is quick to clarify that therapy is valuable and finding the right therapist matters. But for their family, coaching was the better fit.

Working with a coach helped Brittany disrupt the stories she was telling herself about her husband, her career, and their military life. From there, they built a shared vision, a set of family values, and a sense of purpose they could both commit to.

That transformation inspired Brittany to get certified as a coach herself in 2021 and eventually build Renala Families.

What Is LEGO Serious Play and Why Does It Work?

One of the most fascinating parts of this conversation is Brittany's use of LEGO Serious Play, a methodology originally developed by LEGO in the 1990s to help organizations think more creatively and collaboratively.

Brittany believes she is one of the only practitioners using it with families rather than organizations, and the results speak for themselves.

When you use both hands, you activate up to 80% of your brain. Talking alone only activates about 15%.

In a play shop session, families build physical models using specially designed LEGO kits. Those models become metaphors for their values, challenges, and hopes. What looks like a pile of colorful bricks becomes a powerful conversation starter that gets even the most guarded family members opening up within minutes.

Brittany describes watching a father who his wife warned would never talk suddenly pouring his heart out. His 14-year-old son gave Brittany a hug at the end and simply said thank you.

That is the power of play.

How Parents Undermine Their Own Leadership at Home

One of the most thought-provoking moments in the episode comes when Dali asks Brittany where parents are quietly sabotaging their own leadership at home.

For Brittany, it came down to guardedness. She had been presenting a version of herself to her family that was polished, in control, and invulnerable. It felt like protection. But what it actually did was create distance.

The moment that cracked it open happened during her coaching certification in 2021. A trainer stopped the session and asked Brittany a simple but piercing question: how is your guardedness affecting your daughter?

Brittany went home and had a two-hour conversation with her husband in the kitchen. The kids were loud upstairs the whole time. The moment the conversation ended, the house went silent. Their daughter came downstairs in tears and opened up about a nightmare she had been too afraid to share.

"It was as if me letting go enabled her to let go as well. And we were not even in the same room." — Brittany Anderson

Children are always reading us. Even when we think we are holding it together, they feel what is underneath. Brittany's story is a reminder that the most powerful parenting move is often the most vulnerable one.

The Be-Do-Have Blueprint: A Framework for Family Culture

Renala Families operates around a nine-part framework called the Be-Do-Have Blueprint. It is also the foundation of Brittany's book Living Room Leadership.

The framework is organized into three spheres:

• Be Sphere: Understanding each family member's identity, strengths, and needs as individuals
• Have Sphere: Building shared purpose, vision, and values as a family unit
• Do Sphere: Creating commitments, daily systems, and a culture of play that keeps everything alive

Each chapter of the book walks through one of the nine elements and shows how leading well at home translates directly into leading better at work. Brittany's husband credited this work for transforming how he led his team in his final years of military service.

Strengths-Based Parenting: Seeds, Needs, and Weeds

Brittany is one of the only coaches using CliftonStrengths in a family context rather than a corporate one. She has developed a framework called seeds, needs, and weeds to make the strengths work feel personal and applicable at home.

• Seeds are your unique contributions, what you naturally bring to your family
• Needs are what your strengths require to be cultivated and cared for
• Weeds are the overuse patterns where a strength pushed too far becomes a source of conflict

This matters more than most parents realize. Gallup research shows that 77% of parents believe it is more important to correct their child's weaknesses than to activate their strengths. Brittany connects that directly to the imposter syndrome, burnout, and comparison that so many adults struggle with today.

What if we raised children who knew what they were great at instead of spending their whole childhood being corrected?

Where to Start When Your Family Feels Like Chaos

Brittany's answer for overwhelmed families is simple: start with data.

Renala recently launched a free Family Score Assessment that evaluates your family across all three spheres of the Be-Do-Have Blueprint. It gives you an overall score plus scores in each area so you know exactly where to focus first.

You can take it for free at leadwithfamily.com.

What Is Coming Next for Renala Families

Brittany and her team have a lot in the pipeline for 2026, including:

• A five-day family Caribbean cruise combining connection, play, and coaching at sea
• Couples retreats at Disney World in April and November for partners who need to do the work before the whole family is ready
• A six-week strengths cohort for families running four times throughout the year
• A newsletter with monthly play exercises families can do at home
• Living Room Leadership for Organizations, bringing the framework into workplaces as a leadership development and employee wellness benefit

Key Takeaways From This Episode

• Military families face unique pressures that quietly erode marriages from the inside
• Coaching can be more effective than therapy for families with demanding schedules and non-traditional needs
• Physical play activates far more of the brain than talking alone, making it a powerful tool for family healing
• Parents' unresolved emotions silently affect their children even without a word being spoken
• A shared family vision, purpose, and values create the foundation for both home and professional leadership
• Focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses sets children up for confidence instead of comparison
• The free Family Score Assessment at leadwithfamily.com is a free starting point for any family ready to grow

Listen to the Full Episode

This conversation is one you will want to come back to. Whether you are navigating the chaos of everyday parenting, feeling disconnected from your partner, or simply ready for more intentional family life, Brittany's story and framework will stay with you.

Press play and give yourself this gift today.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4T1R5GFmU4gXWyC9eqKEGS?si=3b59804a244f4c62 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dalitalks-podcast/id1613524529 YouTube: https://buff.ly/3aEUNYj

Connect With Brittany Anderson

Renala Families Website: https://leadwithfamily.com Living Room Leadership Book: https://livingroomleadershipbook.com Instagram and LinkedIn: @RenalaFamilies Free Family Score Assessment: leadwithfamily.com

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DaliTalks is a podcast for parents and caregivers who want to raise critically thinking, kind, and confident children. Every episode is a conversation designed to help you show up more consciously for the kids in your life.

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