Elite Impact Education Platform
Don's Thoughts
July 16, 2025 | Volume 29
There’s no other way to start this edition than with immense gratitude. At the end of last month, our Extraordinary Impact Family Event made DLP history as our largest event to date. Thanks to incredible sessions from Nick Vujicic, John C. Maxwell, Rebekah & Gabe Lyons and more, it was also one of our most impactful.
Our incredible team set the bar high for future events, seamlessly balancing carefully curated educational sessions for adults and children alike with engaging family activities that we’ve heard from many of you will be remembered for years to come, including the family field day.
But what made this event truly extraordinary was the families that we shared it with. It was incredible to see the connection at every turn, from parents sharing their challenges, triumphs, and hacks for parenthood with one another, to children forging new friendships in the effortless way only children can, it was an inspiring reminder of the power of community.
The power of community is the core of DLP’s mission of building Thriving Communities, which we had the opportunity to spotlight for event attendees on a personalized tour of Dream Asheville Exchange, a Dream Live Prosper Community. In 2026, when we bring the event back to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN, we look forward to again showcasing our investors’ impact in action at Living Fully Seiverville.
If you haven’t already reserved your family’s spot for the 2026 Extraordinary Impact Family Event at Dollywood, I highly encourage you to take the time today. In just a little under two weeks since announcing next year’s event we’ve already had over 100 registrations. Don’t let yourself regret missing this opportunity to start or continue building your extraordinary family sooner.
Some of you might be thinking, that event sounds great and all, but what exactly is an extraordinary family?
In one sentence, extraordinary families are thriving families. |
Let me elaborate.
Extraordinary families are aligned in vision and values, and have a deep understanding of each other.
These families prioritize Living Fully in all facets of life, (the 8 F’s), all while marching towards clearly defined individual and family goals of success and significance.
They share a commitment to and a passion for a mission that can transform lives and create a legacy-defining, extraordinary impact.
Extraordinary families create extraordinary legacies.
I believe that every parent wants their family to be a family that thrives, to be an extraordinary family. So why as parents, as the leaders of our own families, do we so often fail to build extraordinary families? I believe it starts with the trapping of a very specific perspective: the idea that life’s choices are either or decisions.
Think about it. How many of these have you been guilty of choosing between:
Focusing on your career or your family.
Having high standards or providing encouragement.
Living in the moment or for the future.
This bifurcated view of the world can not only limit you as an individual, but as a parent, it can limit the potential of your family. The solution is a shift in perspective: drop the “but” and begin living a life of combination. This is the power of “and”.
What does a life of combination look like?
Being a world-class parent and a world-class professional.
Pursuing success and significance.
Achieving goals and finding peace.
Of course, just believing you can live a life of combination isn’t enough—nothing truly worthwhile is that easy. This mindset has to be supported by action. I’ll take that a step further: it has to be supported by true discipline.
I go deeper into the discipline of building an extraordinary family and why I believe an extraordinary family is the key to an extraordinary legacy, one that avoids the dreaded shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves curse, in this recording of my session at the Extraordinary Impact Family Event.
Earning a Return on Failure: Lessons from John C. Maxwell
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
Bill Gates
I am extremely blessed to say that June’s event was the third time that John C. Maxwell graced a DLP event stage. When he shared with me what his session would be about at this event, I knew it would be one that people would be talking about for a while—including me.
As an entrepreneur and even as a father, I’m no stranger to failure; are any of us? Maxwell humbly shared with us that he certainly isn’t, even today as a best-selling author and renowned leadership expert who leads one of the world’s largest leadership organizations. One of his first lessons on the stage? You don’t bypass failure at any stage in your life. Why then do so many of us feel so frozen by failure, this universal experience? Where does the fear of failure get so much power, stopping us dead in our tracks from starting new ventures, taking chances, or making decisions?
As a culture, success and failure have been placed on such extreme ends of one another that we’ve been trained to only accept (and moreover to only benefit from) one: success. We are taught from a young age that we must succeed, we can not fail, at any cost. It’s only when we recognize how failure and success compliment each other that we can begin to, in Maxwell’s words, earn a return on failure—which is exactly what he taught attendees to do in his insightful session at the Extraordinary Impact Family event.
It’s another powerful example of the power of shifting from an “or” mindset to embracing the power of “and,” just as in building an extraordinary family. You can fail and you can find success in how you learn from that failure. Failure is always a possibility; in fact, some of the greatest successes are born from failures which can stop us in our tracks, forcing us to reevaluate and iterate, coming out stronger the next go around.
It is only when we embrace failure, then, that we unlock its potential. Learn the eight keys to earning a return on failure directly from John C. Maxwell in this recording from the event.
CLOSING SOON: Banking and Financial Sectors Investment Opportunities
Back in 2019, I had a vision for expanding on DLP’s mission of thriving communities beyond rental housing. While it sounded out of left field to some, for me, the answer was clear: serving communities through a business that has been synonymous with community for decades: banking.
That decision led to the forming of DLP Bancshares, the bank holding company that went on to acquire a Florida bank and rebrand it to what is now one of the Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies in America, DLP Bank. Today, that bank holding company is poised to merge with the holding company of Regent Bank. Headquartered in Tulsa, OK, Regent operates branches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, all serving the mission of showing God’s love to [Regent’s] employees, clients, and communities. For a limited time, this merger presents investment opportunities for qualified investors.
Alongside this merger of the holding companies of DLP Bank and Regent Bank, we have also put together another unique investment opportunity, to invest in a holding company along with me, Chief Financial Officer Bob Peterson, Chief Legal Officer Pam Linden, and other senior employees to invest in banking and financial services opportunities. This company currently owns a large stake in another $1 billion + bank, will be an owner of DLP Bank and Regent Bank, and is about to acquire and own a Trust Company.
Join me for a webinar where I’ll share more about these two investment opportunities. Both opportunities are first-come, first-served, and we expect will be closed for investment in the next few weeks
NOTE: A NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT (NDA) IS REQUIRED FOR ALL ATTENDEES.
DLP Named to the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 2025 Fast 50!
I’m honored to share that for the fifth year in a row, DLP Capital has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies on the First Coast by Jacksonville Business Journal! This honor reflects DLP’s exceptional revenue growth over the past three years and highlights the incredible impact our team continues to make in the region. Congratulations and thank you to the entire DLP team that puts forth consistent effort day in and day out, living the 20-Mile March.
Join Me in November: Extraordinary Legacy Event in Ponte Vedra Beach
Our Extraordinary Legacy Event is just months away and I can’t wait for you to experience everything we have planned for you. We’ll be hosting a once-in-a-lifetime book launch with David Green, the Founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby, with attendees receiving a copy of the book before it's available to the public.
If you’re familiar with Hobby Lobby but not its story, it’s truly inspirational. In 1970, David and his wife took out a $600 loan to make and sell miniature picture frames out of their home. In just two years, their business model had gained enough interest that they opened a 300-square-foot storefront in Oklahoma City, the original Hobby Lobby. Today, it is the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world, and David is possibly the most generous man in America, and has built an extraordinary family that is his true legacy.
In addition, my friend and mentor, and possibly the greatest communicator and speaker in the world, the forefather of leadership, John C. Maxwell will be a keynote speaker at the event as well.
The full lineup of speakers will be announced shortly, but you can expect the same insightful and actionable sessions we always bring you, in addition to our Annual Investor Day and a friendly (but competitive) pickleball tournament.
Get 50% off your tickets for this incredible event when you register before July 31st using the code Legacy50.
Where I've Been
Where I'm Going
