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Purpose-Driven Prosperity: Building Wealth Through Affordable Housing

• Courtney Twiss • Episode 62

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Don Wenner isn't your typical real estate mogul. Growing up with teenage parents and moving 37 times before age 17, he developed an extraordinary resilience and faith that would become the foundation of his $4 billion investment empire. 

From his unexpected entry into real estate at age 20 to building one of America's fastest-growing private companies for 13 consecutive years, Wenner's story defies conventional business wisdom. What sets him apart isn't just his impressive growth metrics—it's his unwavering commitment to purpose. "Too much is given, much is required" serves as both his guiding verse and business philosophy.

At DLP Capital, affordable housing isn't simply an investment strategy—it's the starting point for community transformation. Wenner's approach tackles both housing affordability and what he calls "the loneliness epidemic" by creating environments where residents truly know their neighbors. With thoughtfully designed apartment communities across 17 states featuring full amenities, onsite ministry resources, and programming from Bible studies to financial literacy classes, DLP builds genuine connections that benefit residents while delivering exceptional returns to 3,500 investor families.

Most revolutionary is Wenner's perspective on business itself. "Business is ministry," he asserts, noting that employees spend 94 times more hours at work than church, giving business leaders unprecedented opportunity for positive impact. His "Lion Chaser Manifesto" challenges entrepreneurs to pursue dreams so ambitious they require divine intervention—not just for personal success but to transform lives through thriving communities.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, real estate professional, or purpose-driven investor, Wenner's insights provide a blueprint for building organizations that generate both profits and meaningful impact. Want to learn more about Don's approach? Visit dlpcapital.com to discover upcoming events and resources for creating your own extraordinary organization.

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Speaker 1:

But I sold the company to Jonathan Campbell. Actually I gave the company to Jonathan Campbell and then he moved the company to Real Brokerage.

Speaker 3:

But move them back, get it back.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can play in the house with them, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to Now Making Moves in Real Estate. This is the General, along with my co-host C Twist, and today we're super fired up about this episode. It's episode number 62. We're sitting down with one of the most strategic minds in real estate and private equity, mr Don Wenner. He is the founder and CEO of DLP Capital, a purpose-driven investment company purpose-driven, I just want to repeat that with over $4 billion in assets under management focused on building wealth and prosperity through real estate. He's also a best-selling author, top-performing entrepreneur and creator of the Elite Execution System, a framework that's helped scale his business and the lives of countless others. So, from leading a nationally ranked real estate team to building one of the fastest growing private investment firms in the country, he brings a rare blend of operational excellence. Firms in the country. He brings a rare blend of operational excellence, leadership, insight and scalable systems All words we love. If you're ready to think bigger, lead better and build with purpose, this is the conversation for you, so let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

Welcome, don. Thank you so much for having me. That was a great introduction. I don't know what else I can add, but I'll try. I guess we're done. No, just go. No, I had the pleasure of meeting you and the organization in St Augustine Florida late last year, and I just am so impressed with your leadership and what you've built. So if you would please tell our listeners a little bit more about your story.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that and thank you for coming and joining us. That was a really awesome event late last year. But, as you said, my name is Don Winter and founded a company called DLP Capital. It's been 19 years now. So quick backstory.

Speaker 1:

Lived and grew up in Lehigh Valley, pennsylvania, so about an hour north of Philadelphia, mainly Bethlehem area. Mom and dad had me, when they were 16 year old, juniors in high school and I'm the oldest of five Mom ran a home daycare most of my childhood and my father was a correction officer most of my childhood and so you know we had the kind of typical limited, you know financial means. You know that you would expect when your parents are 16 years old but was raised you know a lot of people like to hear those kinds of stories and like to kind of follow people who've raised themselves up by their bootstraps and accomplished you know business success or whatever type of success on their own. And that's certainly not my story, although you know I had limited financial means. I figured out about 10 years ago that we had moved 37 times by the time I was 17, mainly for, you know, financially driven reasons. But I was raised in a big family, a lot of love, a lot of support raised in the church, deep faith and relationship with the Lord.

Speaker 1:

From a young age Born in the United States as a white man and maybe the best time to be alive Kind of the lottery, you could say and the Lord gave me a certain set of blessings and skills that have put me in a position to be successful in the world of business. And so the verse of my life is too much is given, much is required, and I believe I've been given a ton. One of the things I was given was an extreme amount of confidence, even as a young person and moved out of my parents' house when I was a junior in high school. I'd already figured the whole world out. I didn't need to learn anything from them anymore, but knew what I wanted to do. At that time, I'd already figured the whole world out. I didn't need to learn anything from them anymore, but knew what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1:

At that time I thought I was going to go into wealth management and went to Drexel University studying finance and accounting and minor marketing. And then stumbled into real estate when I was 20, going on 21 years old, and I started as a Keller Williams real estate agent. I was selling alarm systems door to door as a college student and that gentleman who owned the company convinced me to get my real estate license, never once thought about it until that moment, took my classes online, flew to a marketing conference, left that marketing conference with a message of your home sold in 68 days, guaranteed, or I'll buy it. And that was October 2006. And that was the peak of the real estate market right then. And there, at least in Pennsylvania, was and and so I did a lot of you know kind of guerrilla marketing. I was the. I was spamming Craigslist that had just come out. I was. I was literally knocking on doors and getting in front of a lot of people, put challenges in the housing market at that time and started doing a lot of radio marketing soon after. And still we still do this this day across our businesses. And just got in front of people who had a housing problem, largely around affordability and, and we'd help people sell their home. We step in and buy their home and sometimes we'd help them negotiate short sales. And we do that all over the country and, and you know, kind of help people, one person at a time, thousands and thousands of times Um and uh, by 2014, um, kind of as Florida you know, whole time to the success of 14, grew the business sort of out of fear right, fear of failure.

Speaker 1:

My dad came to work for me months into my career. My mom came to work for me months into my career. My stepfather came to work for me soon after my stepmother, while working the business till to this day, and after my stepmother while working the business to this day, and just kind of grew the business out of fear initially. Then it took all the way to 2014 really for me to get clear on what I've been called to do, which is to transform lives through the building of thriving communities, which starts with providing affordable housing, and that kind of led us sort of reframing up our business and went from kind of one house at a time to investing in whole communities. So that's really the journey we've been on these last 11 years.

Speaker 1:

So we develop, build, operate large housing communities. We also provide capital to other developers, builders and operators to build housing communities, all of this rooted in housing that's affordable, but where that is just where it begins, and our capital has been from individual investors 3,500 families invested with us now to this day who provide us the capital that we get to go steward and invest into housing that's affordable for working families. And so we've grown the organization consistently now for 19 years you said written a couple of books around scaling. We've grown by about 50% a year for the last 19 years. One of the fastest growing companies in America 13 years in a couple of books around scaling. We've grown by about 50% a year for the last 19 years. One of the fastest growing companies in America 13 years in a row. Last year we did $567 million of revenue. We've over and out five and a half billion dollars of assets under management and it's been a really great journey that, god willing, we're just getting started on.

Speaker 2:

I mean mic drop on that. I mean mic drop on that. So impressive. I think. I mean when we went to St Augustine, obviously we were just impressed with your leadership and your faith and just the environment itself. But all of the communities that you're impacting is substantial. How many communities have you focused on with affordable housing and rejuvenating and bringing those communities back to life?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a great question. As I said a moment ago, our purpose is to transform lives through the building of thriving communities. And the first community most people, when they hear us, say that they think about housing communities or local physical communities, and that's a really big part of it, and I'll answer. But the first community we focus on and we believe where it all begins and and you know the book I'm writing right now, it's called building an extraordinary organization and and um, and the first community is is our employee base and uh, so we now have in total, um, about 800 team members across DLP capital, and then we have a whole banking platform as well, called DLP Bank, and that's the first thriving community that we invest into with a focus on transforming the lives of our colleagues. And those colleagues, those team members, work at the physical communities we own in many cases, or within the local communities we're a part of, such as here in St Augustine, florida, where I'm talking to you from, or Lehigh Valley, pennsylvania, where we have offices, or Asheville, north Carolina, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

So we've invested in hundreds of housing communities. We've owned about 150 total communities, each one having anywhere from 300 to 1,000 people living in them, in them, but then usually it's the physical community we're investing in, we're pouring into our, into our residents in a lot of unique ways that then makes a ripple effect into the, into the communities they're a part of. And the really cool part is, you know, we now that's what we've done directly as a developer, builder, owner. But a bigger side of our business is finding great companies who want to build extraordinary organizations that build thriving communities other housing developers, builders and operators and we equip them not only with capital but with resources, tools, education, the elite execution system you mentioned, helping empower them to scale and impact the local community. They're a part of their employee base and the communities they're literally physically developing, building and operating. So thousands of communities at this point in total, which has been pretty cool.

Speaker 3:

Wow, is it like primarily planned communities?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the easiest way to think about what the majority of what we've been invested in are apartment communities. That's the simplest way to think about it. But in many cases, the communities today are, you know, build for rent so that's a term for, you know single family rental communities, a lot of for sale single family communities as well, townhome duplexes, manufactured housing communities. So I just say, think about it as a place where you know, hundreds of people live, usually with full community amenities, such as clubhouse, pool, pickleball, walking trails, fitness center, et cetera, and real programming to bring people together. You know, one of the.

Speaker 1:

In addition to the crisis we have around the affordability of housing, there's a number of other crises we're focused on, and one of them is what we call the loneliness crisis, and you may have heard the statement. You know this is the most connected society in human history, but the most disconnected and actually loneliness was deemed a national epidemic in 2023. And the average American today only has one and a half close friends. Very seldom does that one or two friends live in the same place as you live, and for renters that's even worse. We're. Very seldom do they even know the people who live in their community. I've been saying for 19 years we invest in safe, affordable housing. Well, safety isn't the gates or alarm systems or police patrol. It's knowing your neighbor and them knowing you and knowing they're looking out for you. And that's where we invest in people really knowing each other, serving one another, being a part of a community together.

Speaker 3:

Wow, and how many states do you currently have these communities in?

Speaker 1:

right now, we own communities in 17 states, I believe, today, and then we have investments in a total of I believe it's 26 states today. I believe it's 26 states today, so largely across the Sun Belt states, across the country, predominantly up through Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3:

So I imagine there's some criteria around what communities or what areas you would consider.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I mean, housing is in many ways, when you think about it from an investment standpoint which is where it starts is we have to be able to generate what our investors expect from us, which is double digit returns, regular distributions, liquidity and peace of mind, and so to deliver those things, we need to be invested in places that are solid investment opportunities and in real estate. Fundamentals are pretty simple in that it's about supply and demand. If you want to be in places where people are moving to, where jobs are moving to, where there's going to be demand for housing that's affordable, and then within those markets, we have to be in the specific places where the incomes can support the cost of housing, which is a challenge across the country. So, generally speaking, we're in the states where people are moving to.

Speaker 1:

So Florida and Texas are our top two states by far. Those are the two states where 61% of the nation's population growth is today. And then we're investing in places with at least $60,000, $70,000 area median incomes, Because the housing we're investing is not subsidized housing. This isn't for people on vouchers. This is for your proverbial teacher, social worker, police officer, people working struggling to afford the cost of living where they live, and it doesn't matter if you're in California, if you're in Pennsylvania, you're in Florida, you're in Texas, you're in a small market, you're in a large market, no matter where you are in the country, housing affordability is a problem.

Speaker 2:

And what I like. What you've done with your acquisitions is really not redoing them, so they're high end, right.

Speaker 1:

But they're not that low end. Where it's, it doesn't feel like. While it's affordable, it's cheap, well-kept, well-cared for, clean, no littering, no mess, all the units fresh and all the common areas well-maintained, with full set of amenities in almost every property, like I said, of clubhouses and pools and pickleball and walking trails and fitness centers and activity schedules and people there who know you and care about you. We have onsite ministry resources at almost all of our communities today People at welcome committees, people coordinating community events, people running Bible studies, prayer groups, yoga classes, financial literacy programs, after-school kid programming, parenting classes, you name it. And then online social technology that helps create connection points outside of the physical events, creates community within the physical community people live in, but also then creates a community amongst the different communities we own across the country. So somebody has a passion around. You know a specific sport or hobby or whatnot. They can connect with other people across the DLP communities who share that same interest. So so yeah, very, very intentional or no way you'd say these are, these are not well-maintained communities, but we take a different approach.

Speaker 1:

So in apartment communities today and rental communities today, this surprises a lot of people, but the average renter moves about every 15 to 16 months. So they're moving almost every year and that's one of the biggest costs the average families have is the cost of constantly moving. That's new security, new deposits with the electric company and cable companies, that's moving costs, that's new security deposits with the new landlord, you know, et cetera, very close to that in the residence we put into our property. So we'd rather have residents stay in our properties, treat them like they're cared for and love them, so that they then in turn treat the property like a home. They take care of their apartment or their rental home as if it's their own.

Speaker 1:

So we have lower maintenance costs. We have lower turnover costs because people are moving all the time. We have lower marketing costs. We have lower vacancy costs. We have lower delinquency costs because our people can afford the rent. So guess what they do? They pay the rent. All those things lead us to be able to provide better returns for investors. But also, generally speaking, our renter may fall but four, six, eight percent below market rent if they stay in the unit and renew versus them moving to another apartment. So we're able to give a little bit of savings to our renters who stay year after year in our units, but ultimately generate a better outcome for them, for our investors and for the community as a whole.

Speaker 2:

Wow, there's so many things I want to ask. I'm like I talked to my husband. I'm like I get to see Don today. I get to talk to Don. So I don't want to like overstep, Courtney, but I was curious about Asheville. I know that you have events there. I know you're very committed to that community. What has that community been going through? What does it look like now? How are you helping? I'd love to hear more about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so Asheville, north Carolina, is my second home of the day. Actually was just there this morning, just got back here in Florida a few hours ago and we are doing a big event there in late June called our Extraordinary Family Event. We'll have hundreds of our investors and their kids and grandkids in some cases there, some of the best speakers, entertainers in the world. It's an event all about family, nothing about real estate investing. That's just one of the ways we think of our platform, which we think our organization is a ministry platform, and one of our communities we're focused on pouring into is our investor community. We have 3,500 families that we want to pour into and this is a big part of how we do that by pouring into their families, and this is a big part of how we do that by pouring into their families. But the last event we did in Asheville was September of last year. It was actually the day before Helene hit Asheville, so I was there, my family was there, a lot of our team members and such families were there.

Speaker 1:

Four days before the storm hit, we bought a 312 unit apartment community in Asheville with 800 or so residents and four days later the storm hits and we were fortunate at that property and all the rest of our properties, including my home. We didn't have a huge amount of damage, but we lost power and Internet and so forth for a few days. That was quite interesting having no Internet, no phone service, no power. But the biggest challenge that a lot of residents faced, including ours, was no water for weeks. I think we went three and a half weeks with our residents having no water, and so a lot of things we did are bringing you know tons of porta potties on site, cooking for every day, having on site showers, you know portable showers, keeping the pool filled with water so that people could use it to you know put down their toilets and such, having tons of drinking water on site and just being there to serve our residents around the clock. And then we partnered with a number of great ministries residents around the clock. And then we partnered with a number of great ministries One that we're actively partnering with right now. Actually, who all the proceeds we raised during this event we're doing in a few weeks is called 828 Strong, which is the area code there in Asheville, which is through a big church called Biltmore Church in the Asheville area Worked with a number of great organizations that were delivering really needed relief in the moment directly to people, and there were thousands of people who lost their homes.

Speaker 1:

There were many people in places throughout the mountains there that they couldn't get in or out of, didn't have access to food, water, et cetera. So there's a lot of life-saving activities that were going on. The good news, I think, is Asheville is coming back strong and it's a beautiful place and it'll only, I think, come back even stronger. Back strong and it's a beautiful place and it'll only come back even stronger. But there's certainly a lot of the smaller towns and areas that were hit really, really hard and it's going to be years for some of those families, for some of the neighborhoods, to be rebuilt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I want to also ask you, like you speak about doing this for 19 years. I mean, for people that are listening, it seems almost a little bit of a pipe dream to think that you could create something that you've created. I mean, it is pretty legendary and it's a legacy, for sure. And what would you say to those people that want to be able to dream big and have such an incredible impact on people's lives like you have? You've done and you're going to continue to do?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, I'd say you know, people often say wow, you know, it's amazing, how, how fast you've grown is a common comment we get, and and people you know don't realize maybe it's been 19 years, so it's not like it happened overnight, right, that it's been 19 years. So it's not like it happened overnight, right, it's been 19 years of discipline. You know, relevance what we call 20 mile march to our journey. And so internally it's almost been so consistent. So, to give an example, inc 5000 measures the growth of an organization over a three-year period of time. We've never been in the top 500. We've never been below, I think, 3,500. We've been like 800 to 3,500 every year for 13 years in a row because we've just been very methodical about consistent growth. So now the numbers are getting bigger. We're just growing at the same pace we did 15 years ago, but we stayed at it, we stayed consistent, we stayed diligent, we stayed obedient to what what I believe have been been called to do. And so if you want to dream big, one of the things I'd recommend you do is one read a book called Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson. It's my favorite book of all time. I read it every year when I do our goal setting. I read Thanksgiving week every year. You read in there that what's called the Lion's Chaser Manifesto is kind of the theme of the book, and and he challenged us to think. Think of dreams that are so big that they can only be accomplished with divine intervention. And your dreams are aren't don't scare you, they're not big enough. And uh, you know, I believe God's called each of us to, to, to do big things, to not be mediocre, to not accept being average. Um, we've all been called uniquely to be, uh, to make a big impact, and it doesn't always mean big dollars or or revenues or whatnot, but making a big impact can be on a small number of people that you impact in a really significant way. And, and so whatever that that calling is for you get clear on it, and Chase Lyon's a great book to help you do that.

Speaker 1:

And then, if you want to, when you get clear on what you've been called to do, what you want to accomplish, then I just encourage you is to put in the you know, discipline systems to grow. So our the books I've written in our system we call the elite execution system, is a, is a is a system for disciplined thought, disciplined action, disciplined people. And when people hear the word discipline, I think they often think of it as like a four letter word, especially, you know, entrepreneurs. They think well, I didn't become an entrepreneur because I wanted a lot of structure. They think of structure and discipline and rigor and process as the things that will take away their freedom, and that's the exact opposite truth. So discipline and rigor and process is what will give you freedom, right?

Speaker 1:

Because, you know, I believe what's equally as important as being successful and packing your dreams from a business standpoint is, at the same time, accomplishing your goals in the other areas of your life, and so we call it the eight F's of life, which are faith, family, friends, freedom, fun, fulfillment, fitness and finance. You know, the start of my statement of what I want to be remembered most for is I want to, first and foremost, be a hero in my own home, right? And if I'm not a hero in my own home, I'm not present with my three boys. If my family thinks I'm a fraud and you know, people bring me on a podcast and think, wow, how impressive my family is, so that's not really who he is or he's never present or not home. What does that mean? So you need the discipline and rigor so that as you grow and you go from doing everything yourself to being able to enable and empower other people to take on key priorities, initiatives, you need the rigor in place. And the longer you wait to do that, the longer you fight it and you try to just be, you know, an incredible individual producer with a bunch of people supporting you, the harder it will be to make that change later.

Speaker 1:

So, putting in discipline, the most common sort of system out there today is called EOS, the book Traction, which is kind of the stepping stone to the systems that we use stone to the systems that we use. But that's a great place to start. And having a system or a process in place like EOS or traction, committing to that rigor and not being afraid then to hire and to invest in people, to pour into them and empower them to be a part of going out and achieving the goals you have set, is really big. You know, if I didn't take those steps I'd still be out on. You know, listing appointments all day, every day, right, I mean that's for a few years I was on, you know, three, four or five listing appointments every day, six days a week, right. And then I hired a full-time driver to drive me so I could be more effective on appointments, but then I brought him into every appointment. So so I could be more effective on appointments, but then I brought him into every appointment. So then he learned how to do it himself, right? Then we video. We created a video process so that other people could go out there and deliver the same presentation and train them up over a couple years.

Speaker 1:

And then, you know, let me get out of my real estate brokerage, which I hadn't haven't sold a home in. I don't know how many years 12 or 13 years and you've done that. Our business, um. So, yeah, if your dreams, uh, uh, doesn't scare you, it's not big enough and challenge yourself, right, just living the American dream. If you're on this podcast, um, I'm sure you have enough uh, uh, opportunity and skills and abilities and relationships, um, that you can do more than just achieve the American dream yourself. That you can just, you know, uh, have a nice home and live comfortably. And that's not enough. If you're able to get to that point, then coasting isn't enough. We've all been called to use the gifts we've been provided, the opportunity we've been provided to do more.

Speaker 2:

So true, one of the things that I'm speaking on this panel tomorrow and one of the things that I think I'm going to just really touch on is just addressing the fear of you know, all the things that you're talking about right, because we can adopt systems, we can utilize tips, we can make the investments, we can sell the real estate. But if we're not, like, addressing the fear of what's holding us back so that we can get to the next thing, you're just going to keep, you know, stalling out, stalling out. So it's just. It's just your words just made just reaffirm what I want to touch on tomorrow. So, thank you, because it's true, as, as entrepreneurs and leaders, right, like the fear of hiring somebody, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a big, big fear for a lot of people. I'm going to if you don't mind, I'm just going to cause you made me think I'm going to read this lion's chaser manifesto. I just pulled it up and so many of my employees have this as their screensaver, um and, and they're um, uh on their computer desk. Many people have it around their offices. Mark Batterson, the author of the book Become a Good Friend. He was one of our speakers at our event in November. So this is what the lion's chaser manifesto is.

Speaker 1:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Run to the roar. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-given passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Stop pointing out problems. Become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past. Start creating the future. Face your fears, fight for your dreams. Grab opportunity by the mane and don't let go.

Speaker 1:

Live like today is the first day and the last day of your life. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Live for the applause of nail-scarred hands. Don't let what's wrong with you Keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Dare to fail. Dare to be different. Quit holding out, quit holding back, quit running away. Chase the line and most people are held back over fear, as you said, and reading that book. I read it at least once every year and there's another great one. Another great one is Purpose Driven Life. If you've never read that book number one bestselling book of all time behind the Bible and you have a calling on your life that's bigger than you having a more comfortable life, having a bigger TV, a nicer car, better vacation You've been called to do more amazing.

Speaker 3:

Well, I think I'm one. That's gonna be my next book. Yeah, to read what is? I have a whole stack of books. I just got back from summit, so I have all these books I thought I was gonna read, but that one's next. Yeah, and two, I'm gonna print that out. Put it in my office.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so good. I just video of it so I'm gonna share it on social media, so that's gonna go up today. Um, I feel like there was so much more I wanted to ask you. I just want to let you know I'm incredibly impressed with your organization. I mean, kelly, she's been amazing single-handedly. She is what kept us interested in your company. And then going to the event hands down was such an amazing event. I was like John Maxwell. I told Courtney I'm like John Maxwell and I don't know if you know this, but we brought our daughter with us. She was up there with John Maxwell. I think she was like one of only the only child in that front row. I'm like we. She loved it. She loved John Maxwell. I thought it was going to like fall a little flat. Everyone loves John Maxwell. She loved him, so it just I just well done. We met with multiple companies and there was zero question that you, your company, was the one we wanted to invest with.

Speaker 1:

So great job, thank you One thing you know in your mind I'd love to just add. So the book I'm writing right now. It says called Building an Extraordinary Organization. So the first book I wrote which is written to business owners, called Building an Elite Organization. The first person who ever read that book was Gino Wickman, the author of EOS Traction, and he called it. Eos on steroids is what he called it, and I want him to write me write the forward. He's become a friend and and and. So the book. You know I wrote that book now six years ago.

Speaker 1:

So we've more than 10 X the size of our organization. But then we've also helped a few hundred companies implement at least parts, if not all, of the elite execution system. We have many companies that run our technology and such. We've learned a lot over the last six years. But most important thing I'm doing is I'm reframing and I sort of missed the mark in doing this well on the first book reframing the purpose of business.

Speaker 1:

And so an extraordinary organization is an organization committed to extraordinary execution, doing the hard work to build an organization that can endure market cycles, volatility and senior leadership succession. An extraordinary organization understands that business is ministry and for a lot of people. They get confused right there and they never thought of that right. The more typical story is people build their business, their career, then they retire or sell their company and then they think, all right, well, now I'll go make a difference, now I'll go make an impact, now I'll go from success to significance. But you can do that right here, right now, while you have a platform, while you have an organization, while you have influence. Our businesses are ministry platforms. If we treat them that way, if we invite the Lord into our business and treat our business as an opportunity of worship, and if we accept the great responsibility and opportunity to positively impact and transform lives through your business, an extraordinary organization recognizes that they have to build a thriving community with their employees. First, we own a bank and we're merging that bank with another bank right now called Regent Bank, and my soon-to-be partner, sean Copeland, wrote a book called Regent Bank. And my soon to be partner, sean Copeland, wrote a book called 94X. And 94X is the math that if one of your employees or somebody you work closely with goes to church, they spend 94 times as many hours in their job as they do in the church, which means we as business leaders have such a greater opportunity to pour into and impact the lives of our team members than the greatest pastor in the world can, because we spend so much time with them. And recognizing that opportunity and that responsibility is why Billy Graham said the Great Commission will be one in the business community. So we reframe and realize the opportunity to use our platforms for ministry. It changes the whole meaning and can raise up the energy level to go out there and do bigger things.

Speaker 1:

Another great speaker was at our November event has become a really good friend. Tim Tebow says that a calling is both urgent and divine and so for a lot of people, especially Christians, who feel they know what they're called to do, they think that their calling is enough, that because they're doing it for Jesus, then they don't have to really push that hard right. It's in his hands. No, once you figure out what you're called to do, there's urgency to go out and do it and make a difference. And and that having urgent and divine both of those together is is empowering. And a lot of us have, don't do, don't recognize that we get. We allow fear to keep us comfortable, to not go out there and challenge ourselves to do more.

Speaker 2:

So when's that book going to be released?

Speaker 1:

Early next year.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

Okay, great, we'll look, we'll make sure to get a copy. Well, I've read the other ones by then. Yeah, I definitely want. Oh, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, you know, we ran EOS because we had independent brokerage before coming to XP, and then I restructured when we came over and have that's kind kind of we've gotten out of our habits with our rocks, and so it's just such great timing because Michelle and I are growing an organization together and we're, you know, ok, it's time to get back on the wagon, get that discipline that we had Been an awesome system.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3:

But just the fact of bringing in the ministry to it One. A lot of leaders are very lonely and I feel like that itself is a good reminder. You're not alone, you're not doing this by yourself, and there's just so much more purpose when you connect the dots that way. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Well said. Well, thank you so much for your time, Dawn. There's still so much I want to talk to you. Maybe another podcast Sounds good.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to get Courtney and her husband and my husband and we're going to go to another event because it's just they're so informative for one when it comes to all of the options with investing and DLP capital. It's not just the multifamily housing, there's many that we didn't even touch on. But, yeah, at some point I want to get my girl and her husband to meet you and if you can tell our listeners where they can tap into you, because you do a lot of webinars, events too, so talk about where people can reach you and access all the things that you have to offer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so dlpcapitalcom is our website. On there there's an event tab where you can see all of our live and virtual events. As you said, I also have a podcast called Impact with Don Wenner. You can find us in any of the social media places as well. That you look. And then our next big event after this one in June will be in November, back in Ponte Vigia, st Augustine. David Green, ceo, founder of Hobby Lobby, will be one of our keynote speakers and he's launching a book on family and legacy at our event, and some other really great speakers will be doing legacy and a leadership event kind of back to back. So we'll make sure those will be on our website, if not already, in the next few days, and we invite certainly both of you to come join us and encourage your listeners to check it out and look and come join us live or virtual.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, all right, thank you, don.

Speaker 2:

Appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

You too and your family, and continued success.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, same to you both.

Speaker 3:

Bye.