#168 How I Built an Organization to Grow and Scale

Hey, everyone.

This week I got the chance to sit down and talk to Don Wenner, the CEO of DLP Capital, about his journey to starting DLP Capital, how he's built an organization to grow and scale, how he's thinking about investments during this period, the recession and why they're built for success, and things that you should ask of people when you're thinking about investing with someone to make sure that your investment is safe during this period and set up to thrive. And at the very end of this interview, of course, came at the very end. We, we talked a little bit about how to create your ideal life. It got squashed at the very end, but you're going to enjoy that. If you stick around, I promise you it'll be worth it. Enjoy. Thanks, everyone. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now, let's get on with the show. Hey, everyone, I've got a great guest with us today. I'm really excited to talk to Don Wenner. Many of you know who he is, but I'm going to go ahead and introduce him again. He is the visionary CEO and founder of a company called DLP Capital, Dynamic, innovative wealth creation firm that specializes in real estate investing. That's probably how you know him well. You probably heard the name before multiple areas. He's a proven leader in the industry. He's somebody I've gotten to know really well over the last couple years. He's really known for really putting together his amazing strategies and he's got this fantastic entrepreneurial spirit. I love hearing about his story. So today we're going to hear a little bit about how he got into all of this. And then since we have him on this, I want to make sure that we talk a little bit about where the future is headed, what he's thinking about during these times right now, because I'm sure it's challenging. It's on top of people's minds right now. Again, just super excited to talk to him today. Don, how you doing?

Thank you, Peter, for having me here. Super excited.

You've talked to us before. We, we've all heard all about DLP and the success you've had with the company. I'd love to know a little bit more about your background before we get into some of the stuff about how we are in today's world and what we can do, take advantage of some of these opportunities. But tell me, how did you actually end up getting into real estate because I heard something about you starting in sales. Is that right?

Yeah. So the, the, the quick, quick backstory before I got into real estate to frame it up a little bit. So I grew up in a place called Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It's an hour north of Philadelphia. Grew up to two parents who had me at 16 year old kids. Parents got divorced when I was young. My mom ran a home daycare. I was the oldest of five with five or six other kids in my home at all the time. And then my dad was a correction officer most of my childhood and nobody in my family had ever gone to college. Nobody in my family had any, you know, business background. No entrepreneurs, very limited kind of, kind of exposure. In eighth grade, a financial advisor came in on career day amongst, you know, a bunch of other professionals. And they showed a chart, they showed financial advisors made more money than doctors, lawyers, accountants, all the jobs your parents tell you to become. And he explained that to be a great financial advisor you had to be really good at math and be entrepreneurial as at least that was my takeaway as an eighth grader. And so I said well that's me. And I'd already been running, literally running small businesses, employing my friends etc. Through middle school and younger and, and I was like, you know, I'm really good at math. And I said this is, this is for me. And so I started shadowing financial advisors in eighth grade, ninth grade. I was convinced not only could I do it when I was adult, I thought I could do it right then and there, you know, better than, than these advisors I was meeting with because I was listening, right. And I go on a client appointment with, with the advisor and hear the lady talk about her sister, just retired and you know, advisor didn't even pay attention, right. And follow up. So I thought that's what I was going to do when finished high school, went to Drexel University, got all my securities insurance licenses, was going to get a degree in finance, worked at Blackrock, worked at McLadry and pulling a big accounting firm. But I knew I was going to be an independent financial advisor. I would wait tables on the weekends as I paid for my way through school. And anyway, a gentleman came in, convinced me to come work for him and his business was selling alarm systems, door to door, ADT security systems. He convinced me if I came to work for him I would make $2,000 a week at 18, 19 years old. That sounded really great. So I took the job. My first paycheck was $5,280. I was making five to eight grand every two weeks selling alarm systems, literally, you know, door to door, walking through neighborhoods. And fortunately, he was a real estate agent as well. And this was 2006. And he said, you know, Don, if you can sell alarm systems, knocking on doors, you can sell real estate. You should get into real estate. And for some reason, I again believed him and took a chance, got my real estate license really quickly and jumped into real estate. And it took off really, really fast. My marketing message from day one, I was a real estate professional, was your home sold, guaranteed or I'll buy it. And I got into Real Estate October 2006. So that month was the peak of the real estate market. So there were a lot of home sellers who were kind of struggling to sell their home as the market was slowing down. So my message grabbed a lot of attention and started getting motivated. Home sellers reaching out to us and contacting me and I'd go and sit down with them and sometimes we, they had the time that we could list their home and we'd guarantee it. Sometimes they just needed to sell quick. And we just started stepping in and buying homes. And there was no master plan behind that. I didn't have any money behind me other than the money I saved up selling alarm systems. And I started buying homes and led to growing a large home flipping business and built a construction company to self perform, continue to grow this real estate brokerage. And then at the bottom of the market, we started building a rental portfolio and started building property management to support that. And that's when we started in about 2011, started taking in investors to invest into our, our funds that could invest in these projects. And it was not easy in 2011. You imagine if I came and talked to you in 2011 and I was in my mid-20s and had no track record, it was the bottom of the market. And I told you I was going to go invest in, you know, distressed housing. There wasn't a line of people waiting to invest with me at that time. And a lot of, you know, hard work and built trust I'd built in my community with doctors, attorneys, with bankers, et cetera, led to people putting some faith in me and, and, and us growing our, our investment platform over the past now, you know, dozen or so years.

I mean, it's, it's amazing story. Obviously you started right before the big, you know, we talked this big recession and a lot of people at that point got out. What kept you in the game and what was the reason for that drive to Kind of build and grow this especially at a young age like you're talking about, you know, I was very.

Very blessed that, you know, so I, you know, and I am a, a father of three boys. And you know, we all want our children to have incredible, you know, we all drive and be gritty and, and have a growth mindset are things that I focus on, right? And there's always that conversation of, you know, nature versus nurture, right? What can we influence and, and, and drive and create opportunities? You know, I focus probably similar to you. You know, my kids aren't growing up in, in the same environment I was. You know, I grew up very limited means and, and went through a lot of, you know, real struggle and challenges as, as a child. And you know, now as an dad, I have to think about how do I, how do I create and, and let opportunities of struggle happen, right. And not rob my kids from the having to create their own success. And, and so you know, what created my high level of drive it, my, my, the level of, of kind of motivation has, you know, really been incredibly high my whole life and don't know exactly where, where it was, where it's great or how it came about. But when I moved out my parents house at 17 years old, I was determined I was never going to ask my parents for help. I was never going to come back with my tail between my legs and need any assistance. Not that they had a lot of help to offer. My, and I say this somebody now, my dad's been working for 15 years, my mom worked for me for 15 years, my stepmother for 10 years, my stepfather now for seven years. So great relationships today. But at the time there wasn't anything really to fall back on. But I was determined. I had to make it. And so the very beginning that drive came from, I had to make it. There was nothing to catch me, right? There was nobody I could call if I needed somebody to back me, right. So at a high level drive, not only to make it, but to save up money, to build up reserves, to, to create my own, you know, independent wealth. And I'm very fortunate and blessed that, you know, I was able to do that in the scheme of things in a relatively short amount of time at a relatively young age. And, and you know, and then as did that and the organization started to grow. We went from 10 people to 50 to 100 team members, you know, to today, you know, six, 700 team members, pretty large organization. It's a day, you know, now knowing that, all right, I have the ability to scale my impact today and understanding that if I can, you know, 10x our organization as we've done, and then every five years, you picked for the last 17 years, we've 10x our size and to think about. All right. And our size today to 10x today, where we are today, the number of people we're going to help, the number of residents we're going to provide housing to, the number of families that are going to be invested with us that we can have in some cases, a very big impact on, on their life and their future and their ability to help their kids and their grandkids in ministries and ability to retire and whatnot is exhilarating. It's very easy to get up out of bed and jump out of bed and be excited and energized knowing, you know, that. That I have the great blessing to be able to lead an organization that I really believe is making an impact. And we're just getting, getting started.

I mean, I love hearing that story. I think for people, obviously hearing this, they understand that there's a big mission behind this. Can you tell a little bit people about, like, what do the DLP stands for? I think it's important for people to know that. First time I heard DLP for so many, so for so long, I never even knew what it stood for. Do you mind telling people what it is?

Yeah. And it's common. People don't realize it. So our purpose statement at DLP is. Is. Starts with what DLP initials stand for, which is Dream Live Prosper. That's been what it stood for since I started the organization, you know, many years ago now. And so our, our purpose, Dream Live Prosper passionately creating thriving communities, transforming lives. I started going into our big hair, audacious goal, which is to become a Forbes 100 private company through positively impacting a million lives and 10 million lives and providing housing to a million people. That's the big goal we're focused on today. Today we're providing housing to 85,000 people. We've now positively impacted over 700,000 lives. We track that and focus on the impact we're making across a lot of different metrics. But that's. That's at the center of the purpose. Dreaml Prosper passionately. You know, building thriving communities and transforming lives is what we're all about. And doing so starts with investing in housing or investing in housing that's attainable and affordable for working families. But the housing itself is the starting point, you know, I think of a thriving community as you need housing, you need education, you need jobs, you need investments, you need banking. These are all elements of a thriving community, that the physical place the person lives is the starting point. And we do a lot of things to bring enrichment to the lives of the people who live in our properties and to the investors whose families invest with us and, and the operators who we lend to and partner with to to help build thriving communities.

Everyone, thanks for tuning in to the P and D podcast where we try to educate and we connect you to the best resources possible to help you get where you want to be. Today's episode is sponsored by DLP Capital. Now, if you didn't already, DLP stands for Dream, Live and Prosper. I love it. I mean, these are the keywords that really describe this wealth creation company. They're dynamic, they focus on passive real estate investing and they specialize in direct lending, property management and construction. So there are a ton of unique investment opportunities for all investors. You don't need to worry about the day to day, which, you know, absolutely, I love, love because it's passive. They will handle all the property management. They've got it all covered now. They're committed to delivering attractive returns, providing unmatched transparency, which is absolutely important, and then placing your success at the forefront of their business. This is an investment company that not only understands real estate, they absolutely know that, but they understand the value of your trust. I know this for being an investor for years now. The best part, they're not just for real estate moguls. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started started DLP Capital. They've got a range of options tailored to suit your financial goals. Now, dream big, live fully and get ready to prosper with DLP Capital. Just visit dlp capital.com today if you want more info. Again, that's dlpcapital.com so let's get back to the program. Thanks so much. It's amazing to hear the background and the company you talked about when you first started. You started kind of at the beginning of the last recession. The cool thing is that you guys have been through a period and you've personally at least been through a period where you've seen the economy change quite a bit. So obviously we're now at a place where most people feel like we're, we're in that ninth inning, definitely, if not already there, into kind of this whole reset. What have you learned throughout the last, I'd say like 12, 14 years of whatever being in this business that really has shaped the direction of DLP and where you guys are planning to go in the next year or two, especially as we're going through all this volatility.

Yeah, so, so thank you for that. It's a great question. And what I would say, you know, is, is I'm going to frame this up as investments first. But you know, people think about, you know, making an investment in anything. Right. Whether we're talking about a real estate investment or in our world, investment into, you know, workforce housing, you know, rental housing, or making investment into private equity or public stock. Right. You know, way I think about it is there's two things that really, really matter. You know, one is you need to be invested in a strategy that makes sense for the, you know, the time horizon of your investment. We chose to invest in an asset class of providing housing that is, and remain affordable for our residents. That's an incredible asset class. You know, of course, biased that feels the best asset class there is, not only because it does well in good environments like the past 10 years, but it does really, really well in recessionary environments because people still need a place to live. And our average rent, to give you an idea, is twelve hundred dollars a month. And they're not making twelve hundred a month apartments almost anywhere in the, in the country. The demand goes up actually when there's more unemployment, when there's more in a different environment. So, so we're in a strategy that 10 years ago, you know, I would tell people, hey, we're going to go invest in rental communities in the Southeast. And I was in Pennsylvania and people say, why don't you buy an office building in New Jersey that's much safer. Right. People most part understand that multifamily housing workforce housing is a really good asset class that does really well. And there's lots of data and insights I could talk about on that. But the thing that, that is equally or in my opinion much more important for an investment to be successful is the management or leadership team that you're invested with. And in any organization, in any business, in any industry, you know, the management or leadership team is the most important factor in success. And it's where I've spent the largest amount of my time in the past 10, 12 years in my career has been in building a world class leadership team, building our culture, building our organization, the hard stuff. Right. There's a terrible saying that says business would be so easy if it wasn't for the people. Right. You know, people call, you know, one of our core businesses property management. It's called property management. But it's people management, not property management. Right. Managing 85,000 residents in our properties. Right. Is, is managing the residents and managing the 500 plus employees we have out across the country in our communities. That's the hard work. Managing a physical real estate is easy, is managing the people. And so, you know, I've put tremendous amount of my time around developing leadership, around developing our organization, developing not only very capable, smart, talented, experienced people, but equally important, building an organization centered around people who, who do what's right even when no one's looking. Right. You know, we put a lot of time and build bringing people that match our culture, that match our values, putting them in an environment where they're empowered, where we set really high standards for people, but also give them tons of love and encouragement and, and building an organization like that is what's allowed us to now grow, you know, 60 plus percent a year, every year for 17 straight years. We built this really disciplined way we go about operating. We call it our elite execution system, which I wrote a book on building an elite organization. And we put a lot, a lot of focus on building a strong foundation so people think about, oh, we got all this volatility going in the market and what, what risks are. The real risks we have in our organizations are internal risks, not the external risks of interest rates or, or economic, you know, climate changes or, or political changes. It's the foundation you built. So what have we done? Well, we built a portfolio of strong cash flowing assets. We've locked in most of our portfolio into fixed debts. Our cash flow is continuing to grow. Right. We have strong cash flow, we have strong cash and on hand and we have thanks to our investors who entrust us, we have strong access to capital. Right. Companies only go out of business for one reason, they run out of oxygen, which is cash. Right. So we've really focused on building a strong team, being very disciplined, having great cash flow and great access to cash to reserves. And when you do those things in an asset class that's, that's going, that does and is going to do really well in volatile times. It puts you in a position to not only weather these kind of environments and volatility and change and interest rates, but capitalize on them. So I've hired four of my top 10 leaders in my organization, the top 10 most important seats in the organization in the last 120 days. And we're hiring incredible talent right now because we look at this environment when companies are letting people go and companies are, are struggling, you know, best people are Looking like, hey, where am I going to go? Because my company might not be here in a year. Right. So we're, we're finding this never been an easier time to bring the best, most talented people into our organization. That's what we're doing. We're investing now to build out these departments, build out asset management, build out our investor relations team. Even better when other companies are cutting back to save money because they're struggling. We've built that foundation that's going to allow us not only to weather and continue to support our investors and do what we've always done, achieve our targets, but to grow through this environment and pick up market share and pick up outsized returns by being able to step in when others are in distress. And that's what our business models built around. That's what our investment strategies are built around.

I mean, I think it's really helpful for our community to hear that because again, I think that when a lot of us are just get wrapped up in what's going on in the news and all that stuff, you probably just hear the downside. But something that I've heard you say and again, I've heard other people say that again throughout this, the whole theme is that during this period it's when probably the most opportunity is there for a lot of people, especially if you built the right base and the right foundation. I guess the question that I have for you is that as people are looking at different types of investments out there, including yours, including different opportunities, is there a question or two that people should be asking so that they can make sure that they're partnering with the right people, that they're partnering with the right situation so that especially through this period, they're going to do well and they're going to thrive. Because ultimately all these doctors, they just want to make sure that their hard earned capital is safe during this time and they find this opportunity. So what kind of questions should people be asking?

Yeah, that's, that's a wonderful question. Better. And I'll start with saying, you know, and I'm not doing a, a great job of it in the respect that I'm sitting here in he should. I am wearing my, the bank I own new logo. That's why I'm wearing this T shirt. But, but I'm in a vacation rental here that my, with my family and we're leaving as soon as we wrap up here. And so I'm not in the best lighting in the best environment here at the moment. But my first note is I think Is most important is the ability to look across the, the table or the zoom meeting and say, do I genuinely trust this person? Do I believe this person's going to make the right decision, the hard decision, be open, honest and transparent even in difficult times? Right. And I think that confidence. Am I confident this person has the knowledge, the skills, the ability and the values be able to navigate through, you know, tough decisions? And to me, that's the first thing. I think that partly that's intuition. Right? And, and as successful, you know, professionals, you have built those intuitions, ability to judge people. And, and I think that's the first thing I think of personally. That's really, really important. Values, number one, but confidence too, right? There's a lot of people right now who are hiding under their table because they don't know what to do. So that's, that's number one. And then second I say is, is trusting that the operator, the head, the CEO, the founder, the fund manager, whatever you want to call it, they've built a really strong organization. So understanding who that leadership team is, who makes the decision, who's involved, what happens if that leader gets hit by the proverbial bus? Is there a strong team in place? What operational disciplines are in place? How are decisions made? How are our priorities made? You mean simple questions like, well, how do you run? How do you communicate New York in a growing organization? How do you run your, your meetings? How do you, how do you make decisions? How do you make sure everybody's aligned with, with strategy? How do you, you know, deal with when something isn't going? Right, right. Kind of think of it as maybe interview questions.

Right.

You know, understanding that they've built a strong foundation that's going to allow them to execute through times. And the unique thing for us for, for our investors and for our prospective, say, employees or operators is I wrote a book on how we run and how we make decisions and, and it's exactly what we do and it's what we teach to those that we lend to and we partner with and help them run a really disciplined organization. But those are things I would tell you to ask, right. If they don't have clear answers and they to how they run, if you're not confident that there's depth behind that person, that they built the organization. Right. We all, like I'm sitting in a vacation rental. I think you're at home right now. It's great to have people be able to work from home and have flexibility and whatnot. Right. But is there, is there a team behind them. Are you investing with somebody that's two people working from home and a part time assistant, you know, managing your money right, and depending on what the strategy is, maybe that's fine. But in real estate it's not because there's a lot of manpower. It's about managing people. We have, I have 700 people, you know, supporting us and what we do every day and rapidly, rapidly growing, all rolling in the same direction, all with clear vision and direction, all sharing the same values, all with a set of operating tools and principles that allow them to execute and know what success is for them and their job. And, and that's how you get, you know, it's kind of outsized, consistent returns that we've been able to, to generate over many years.

I mean all this has been amazing. Getting to know you, hearing more about what your vision is. And I think that's really important for, for people. That's why I felt this interview is really important anyways for us to get to know a little bit more about you, where you feel like your company's headed, where the recession's headed, how you guys are positioned for the future. I think that's something that we can all learn from and educate so we know the right questions to answer. Where, where can people find out more about you and kind of the, the different opportunities that people have to, to interact with dlp. Get to know the different products you have and offerings.

Yeah, thanks, Peter. You can go to dlpcapital.com and a couple cool things there. There's an event tab where you can see all of our. We do lots of virtual content webinars, live events. We can't wait to join you at your event in a couple months. And then there's lots of insights and overview, past webinars, past recordings, our seasonal reports that we put out every quarter. So you go on that website, you click the little subscribe button, you'll get tons of content from us, tons of insights. We'll give you access to our investor portal where you can see all of our historical audits, financial performance, asset tapes, everything we own, everything we invest in, you know, tons of depth and insights and. But the best thing, that's a great way if you want to get familiar in your, you know, from the comfort of your home or late at night or whatever the case is, learn about us. And then of course we'd love the opportunity chat with you. An entire team of we call investor success managers are focused on, on just that, helping make sure you know, you're achieving your goals and in whatever context we can help you do doing so both through the investment as well as through again a lot of the education things we do for for our investors and but DLP capital.com you can also if you'd like, you can email me don lp capital.com and happy to help.

This has been awesome. I'm going to leave people with one question that I have for you. You know, we talk a lot about on our site. You talk a lot about creating your ideal life, kind of figuring that all out and what's, what's one tip, maybe one piece of advice you have for somebody who is really trying to pursue that, trying to push for that, especially this year. What's what piece of advice you can give somebody who wants to maybe follow, I would say in your footsteps.

Exactly.

But trying to really create and really shape that ideal life.

Now you're talking talking the stuff I really want to talk about here. So just, just joking but yeah, so so you know, I spent a lot of my time and a lot of work we do with the families invested with us is helping them beyond the investments and helping from a personal development, a family development, a legacy standpoint. So we run an entire membership we call our prosperity, family wealth and legacy membership, which we charge nothing for and built a a ton of incredible tools such as the Family Compass and the Personal Compass, which help you put the different tools and rhythms into into place to help you achieve everything you want, you know, out of your life and all those resources. If you go to dlp elite.com which you can also find on our main website, you can click Free Tools. You can download all the tools, my examples of all these tools that we use from a personal development standpoint. My next book comes out and you didn't even know this, Pierce. You didn't set me up for this. My next book comes out in a few weeks called Building an Elite Career. And it's really the version of kind of the first book written for an organization written to an individual who wants to maximize their life. But to answer your specific question about the one thing I'd recommend is to be intentional in all areas of your life. I think of life as there's eight Fs of life, faith, family, friends, freedom, fun, fulfillment, fitness and finance. And and I believe, I don't believe. I know that you can achieve what you want. Fulfillment, success, significance, and all of those areas of your life at the exact same time. This isn't the 1970s where you know, you had to choose one or the other, right? That thinking that everything had to be in conflict, right? You can integrate all the areas of your life and achieve everything you want. You know, it doesn't mean you don't have to work really hard, doesn't mean you're not gonna have to sacrifice and, and whatnot. But, but, but putting intentionality to how we spend our time with who we spend our time with and then putting some basic rhythms and tools in place. It is amazing what you can accomplish in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year, in a lifetime. And I'm going to throw one more last thing to wrap up with. So one of my mentors, his name's Lloyd Reeb, he's one of the co founder of an organization called Halftime, wrote a great book called Halftime or a second book called Success to Significance, really incredible one. And Lloyd taught me, and this is something that's part of tools we use today, something I do regularly. He taught me about perfect life numbers. And the way he describes it is, Peter, if you and I were sitting on a park bench in 30 years and I said to you, Peter, how did the last 30 years of your life go? What would be the things that would have had to have happened that you'd be able to say to me? Don, the last 30 years of my life were perfect, right? And it's, it's seldom, you know, I achieved this net worth or you know, the things that we spend a lot of time focused on, right? It's, it's the more important thing, right? You know, you're nine and seven year old now are, you know, successful adults living lives of significance, right? Maybe you now had 40 or 50 years of marriage with your wife and, and you know, you've traveled the world together and you, you know, whatever these things are that are most important in your, in your life that you've got to look back now doesn't mean you're going to have trials and challenges and difficulties. People say, you know, this life was, was, was everything I wanted, right? It's kind of living your life, you know, by, by design and taking that framework of thinking about that. How would I describe what will have happened in 30 years? It helps frame up then the smaller goals, right? What am I going to get done this year? What do I need to do this quarter? What I need to change in my habits today by being intentional about what we want out of our lives.

Don, I think our next interview has to be about this stuff explicitly. I think that's a short period of time to get all stuff. But I can tell you get fired up by this stuff. So hey Don, I want to thank you for spending this time with us. I've learned a ton from this short interview. I really appreciate you obviously all the great you work do you do a DLP and everything you do with everyone outside of that as well too. So appreciate your time, Best of luck, enjoy the rest of the summer and let's talk again soon. Sounds good.

Thanks, Peter. All right.

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Sa.