It was a warm California afternoon, the kind that hums with possibility. I was sitting in a circle of extraordinary leaders in Los Angeles — people I had admired from afar for years. The energy in the room was electric yet deeply peaceful, like every heart had been cracked open. I felt like I had finally come home.

As the conversations unfolded, something inside me began to shift. One by one, these incredible souls looked into my eyes with tears streaming down their faces, telling me how much our connection meant to them — how our conversations had changed something within them. I could feel their love and sincerity land in my chest, almost too big to hold.

In that moment surrounded by giants of impact and authenticity, I felt small in the most beautiful way. I realized that leadership isn’t about striving or proving; it’s about remembering who you are and allowing love to move through you.

For years The Backyard Peace Project had been on my heart waiting for the right time. But sitting there, bathed in the warmth of that afternoon light and the truth of those connections, I suddenly couldn’t remember a single valid reason why I hadn’t begun.

Quietly I whispered to God, “If You want me to do this now, please show me.” From that moment forward, miracles began to ripple through my life and my business — doors opening, people appearing, everything aligning. That was the day I stopped waiting and started leading from love.

Before that day I was afraid of being seen — not the polished version of me that had it all together, but the real, raw, imperfect woman who had walked through trauma, heartbreak, and healing.

I told myself I was waiting for the right time, for the right resources, for the right clarity. But beneath those practical excuses was a quiet, persistent fear that if I stepped fully into my vision, people might not understand me, that they might dismiss The Backyard Peace Project as naïve or too ambitious, that my heart, laid bare, would be met with silence.

I had spent years guiding others to dissolve their fears, to rise into their truth — yet I was still holding onto my own limiting belief: that my light was somehow too much or not enough, depending on the day. I thought I needed to earn the right to lead such a movement, to have all the answers before beginning.

That weekend in LA shattered that illusion. As those remarkable leaders spoke love and truth into me, I realized I didn’t need to be ready — I just needed to be willing to let love lead, willing to trust that my story, my scars, my heart were enough.

When I came home I could feel the shift still alive in my body. It was like something inside me had been switched on — a steady hum that wouldn’t quiet down. I didn’t have a business plan or a launch strategy; I had a calling that refused to wait any longer.

The first thing I did was simple but terrifying: I spoke it out loud. I told my husband, my children, and a few trusted friends, “I’m starting The Backyard Peace Project.” Saying it made it real. There was no going back.

Then I did what I always teach my clients — I took the next loving step, even without the full picture. I opened my laptop, created a blank document, and typed: The Backyard Peace Project – Global Peace Begins at Home. My hands were shaking. I didn’t know what would come next, but I knew I had to move.

I began reaching out to people who inspired me — leaders, changemakers, healers, and friends. I shared my vision, my heart, my why. Some said yes immediately. Others simply held space for me. But every conversation felt divinely guided, like invisible threads weaving something far bigger than me.

In the weeks that followed, I started designing what the movement could look like: communities, ambassador programs, online gatherings, even a book that would give others a voice. I built the first version of the website myself at the kitchen table, often late at night with a cup of tea and a heart full of wonder.

There were plenty of messy moments — tech failures, self-doubt, tears of joy and fear. But for the first time, I didn’t try to fix or hide them. I realized that beginning meant giving myself permission to show all the messy parts of me so others could feel safe to do the same.

So often we see polished leaders who, without meaning to, make others feel like they’re falling short. I never wanted to lead that way. I wanted people to see me — all of me — the parts still in progress, the parts still learning, because when we allow our imperfections to be visible, we give others permission to stop pretending, to breathe, and to believe that they too can begin exactly where they are.

That’s how peace begins — in truth, not perfection.

The most surprising thing that’s happened since launching The Backyard Peace Project hasn’t been external success — though the community, the ambassadors, and the global support have been incredible. The real transformation has been internal.

I learned that if you want peace in the world around you, you must first cultivate it within yourself. It sounds simple, but living it is a lifelong practice. Peace isn’t passive — it requires integrity, standards, ethics, and values that you honor even when it’s uncomfortable. It asks for clarity and boundaries that protect what is sacred within you.

There have been moments when this has meant releasing people, projects, and dynamics that I once thought I needed, letting go — with love — so that I could remain aligned with the higher vision of what I’m here to create. That was never easy, but it was necessary because peace can’t thrive where there’s chaos, compromise, or self-abandonment.

Through this journey I’ve realized that leadership rooted in peace is fiercely honest. It’s not about keeping everyone happy or holding everything together; it’s about standing in truth with grace, and in doing so, something extraordinary happens: The world around you begins to reflect the peace you’ve cultivated within.

That’s the greatest miracle of all — discovering that world peace really does begin in our own backyard, in our own hearts.

If every CEO on the planet were in one room, and I had just one minute to speak, I would say this:

Lead with heart. Lead with compassion, empathy, and understanding. The world doesn’t need more control — it needs more connection.

Listen not with the intent to reply but with the intent to truly understand — because every voice, every story, every perspective holds a piece of the puzzle we’re all trying to complete.

Lead with forgiveness — toward yourself and others. Lead with strength that is grounded in grace. Speak the truth, but speak it with the intention to uplift and enrich, not to divide.

Lead by example, not by image. Lead in a way that elevates, expands, and celebrates others. Let your success be measured not only by what you build, but by how many people rise because you believed in them.

Above all, lead with love because when love becomes the foundation of leadership, peace stops being a dream — it becomes the legacy we leave behind. World peace begins with us, and it starts in our own backyards. 

There’s a better way to bring consumers their cocoa fix — and it can be profitable.

Consuming chocolate is an ancient ritual long savored as a delectable treat — but it has a dark side. A majority of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in West Africa due to optimal growing conditions, where there’s a disturbing history of illegal deforestation and child labor that continues today.

Companies like Alter Eco Foods defy these practices, offering a better alternative. Founded in 2004, the public benefit corporation’s core principles are restoring ecosystems, improving livelihoods, and reducing waste. Alter Eco’s name refers to finding an alternative ecosystem for delivering food. Its chocolate, quinoa, and granola are grown in thriving environments by small-scale, fair trade farmers; made with clean, organic ingredients; and packaged using recyclable or compostable materials. 

Not only did Alter Eco become B Corp certified in 2009, but it also became Climate Neutral certified in 2010, offsetting 100% of its carbon emissions by planting and protecting trees in Central and South America in partnership with PUR. In 2013 Alter Eco launched the first commercially compostable candy wrapper in its chocolate truffle product line; and in 2016 it came out with the first commercially compostable pouch for its quinoa line. In 2020 it started the Alter Eco Foundation to further its commitment to combat climate change and inequality through regenerative agriculture. As opposed to industrial farming, regenerative agriculture nourishes soil, secures farmers’ livelihood with a variety of crops, creates shade that improves working conditions, and builds resilience to climate change. 

“We believe helping farmers embrace regenerative agriculture and agroforestry will be one of our biggest successes for years to come, as these changes not only provide the tools for these farmers and their families to be successful but help to restore the planet a little at a time,” Alter Eco CEO Keith Bearden tells Real Leaders.

Some Bitter, Some Sweet

While dark chocolate bars are the company’s mainstay, it has put out some less successful items that it later discontinued, including grass-fed milk chocolate, coffee, and rice products. “It was really finding the products where we could differentiate ourselves,” Bearden says. As for a recent win, in 2022 the company launched a no-sugar-added granola line. “We were looking for something to get into different categories. We found that we could source oats quite readily from regenerative farms. We were able to fit it into our brand DNA.” To differentiate its granola in a somewhat saturated market, Alter Eco identified another issue with consumers today — sugar — so it sweetens its granola with date powder and monk fruit. “The market has been very supportive of us. This category has quickly become almost 20% of our sales.”

The company’s greatest hurdle has been churning a profit. “Staying true to the mission has never been a challenge for the team; however having a sustainable and profitable company has been a challenge. Many companies that try to practice conscious capitalism struggle with how to support those in their supply chain while delivering a quality product and at that same time making money to continue to invest and grow the business. I’m proud to say we have somewhat mastered this formula over the past few years, and this has given us the opportunity to continue to invest and grow the business.”

How did they do it? “It’s a matter of starting out with understanding that no business, no matter how impactful you may be — to the climate, or to fair trade and wages, or to sustainable farming — if you don’t make money at the end of the day, unless you’re a nongovernmental organization, then you only can exist for a finite period of time. So when I got involved with Alter Eco, it was a classic natural product company founded with all the right principles, and everybody wanted to do the best that they could in the world, but they were losing money — and losing a lot of it.”

Bearden joined Alter Eco’s board in 2021 and became CEO in 2023, partnering with Trek One Capital to lead the acquisition of the company from a private equity group. “Unless they found a buyer, the company was on the verge of going away,” Bearden says. “They asked me to step in as CEO and help turn the company around.”

Remarkably he says it only took him three months to do just that. He shares his key moves: “I’ve done a number of turnarounds, and being on the board for a few years, I knew what levers to pull. I had this formula already laid out. You’ve got to find that balance of how can I make money but still stay true to the things that are our core principles as a company? The changes I made were really focused on looking at operational efficiencies to make the company profitable. So we made changes in logistics, staffing, and supply chain. We moved our warehouse. It was risky, but it saved over a million dollars. We discontinued products that weren’t performing well. We focused on products that were performing well. We went to market and managed our trade spend. We did a number of different things, but we’ve had a significant change in the position of the company financially to the point that now we are profitable and sustainable for the long haul. We’re up 16% in sales in 2024 from 2023, and 2023 was flat to the year before that.”

With those major changes behind him, Bearden sees his biggest risk today as ingredients’ price fluctuations — mainly cocoa beans. The cost of organic, fair trade cocoa beans tripled from January to April 2024. “The only advantage there is that the entire world is playing by the same rules,” Bearden notes. “So we went to the market and explained the situation of why we had to increase our price. For the last three years in Western Africa, there’s been an El Nino, and 60% of the world’s crop comes out of Western Africa. So it’s a matter of educating the market on the value associated with your products and finding the market that will understand it, embrace it, and pay for it.”

Alter Eco markets its products in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Shoppers can find Alter Eco products primarily in organic/natural grocers such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, and The Fresh Market, but it has started to expand into more mainstream retailers as well like Albertsons, Publix, and Harris Teeter. “That’s where we really see the growth opportunities,” Bearden notes.

His best advice for other impact CEOs goes back to profit. “If you aren’t profitable and can’t see a path to profitability, you have to rethink your mission,” Bearden says. “I admire everyone who is trying to have a positive impact on the world around us, but if you cannot achieve a level of profitability that allows you to sustain your being and grow, your impact will be significantly minimized. Don’t underestimate what the consumer will pay or do to support your mission if indeed the mission is one that has true measurable impact.” 

At the 2025 Real Leaders UNITE gathering in San Diego, Hugh & Grace was awarded the Most Transformative Company Award, a recognition that highlights organizations achieving extraordinary growth while creating a lasting, positive impact on people’s lives.

Hosted at the Lodge at Torrey Pines, the event brought together 150 top CEOs and purpose-driven executives to celebrate companies reshaping industries with integrity and innovation. Hugh & Grace earned this year’s honor by posting the fastest three-year growth rate among nominees and by reaching more people with its wellness solutions and education than any other contender.

“Hugh & Grace exemplifies what it means to grow with purpose,” said Kevin Edwards, President of Real Leaders. “Their work in advancing health and well-being proves that business success and positive impact go hand-in-hand.”

Founded with a clear mission—to help people elevate their health and well-being—Hugh & Grace has become a leader in making wellness accessible, effective, and empowering. Their philosophy centers on the belief that what goes on, in, and around the body matters. By offering science-backed products that support hormone health and reduce harmful chemical exposure, coupled with expert-led education, the company enables individuals to take control of their health and lead more balanced lives.

The recognition at Real Leaders UNITE 2025 reinforces Hugh & Grace’s position as a transformative force in the wellness industry, proving that growth and purpose can—and should—coexist. As the company continues to expand, its commitment remains rooted in empowering people to feel their best while shaping a healthier, more sustainable future.

With this milestone, Hugh & Grace not only sets a standard for transformative business success but also inspires other organizations to align their growth strategies with meaningful impact.

Every time I was asked to retouch a photo of a woman beyond human capacity, something inside me fractured. I blurred out scars that tell stories, smoothed skin that didn’t get society’s permission to age, cinched waists, erased bellies, polished people into fiction. At a certain point I stopped seeing the work as creative and started seeing it as complicit.

I told myself it was just a job, that I’m a designer, not a decision-maker. Other people told me how lucky I was to do what I love, but deep down I knew better. My talent had been hijacked to sell a version of the world I didn’t believe in — and that’s when my soul started to crumble. It didn’t happen overnight. There was no dramatic event, just a quiet ache that built. I dreaded Mondays. I woke up exhausted from a job that was supposed to look glamorous. I was burning out not from the hours but from the pit in my stomach.

So I walked away. Not because I had a plan but because I finally had the guts to set a boundary. That’s when I decided to reclaim my creative power, to start building the world I actually wanted to work and live in.

I founded Creative Chi as an act of rebellion and restoration. I was done building brands that broke people. I wanted to build brands that set people free. I built Creative Chi on the belief that business can be done on purpose, and creativity should be used to create the world we want to live in.

I didn’t want to create more noise in the market. I wanted to help people tune in to their truth. So we flipped the process: purpose before positioning, soul before strategy, identity before design.

We asked our clients to go deeper, to get clear on who they were before they ever touched a color palette, to stop outsourcing their voice, to own what they stood for loudly and unapologetically.

It wasn’t always easy. Some clients pushed back. Others walked away. Because this kind of branding isn’t cosmetic, it’s catalytic. It asks hard questions. It exposes the fluff. It forces the real stuff to come forward. But the ones who stayed? They built brands that didn’t just convert, they connected; they didn’t just grow, they aligned; and they didn’t just look good, they felt like truth.

Creative Chi earned certified B Corp status and became a 1% for the Planet partner. We’ve helped sustainable startups, mission-driven CEOs, and community-rooted businesses not just look good, but be aligned. 

We’ve said no to misaligned projects, walked away from big budgets, and never once regretted it — because I know what it feels like to be the talent behind the curtain silencing your values, editing the truth, and designing for a world you wouldn’t want your kid to grow up in. I know what it feels like to come home to your work again, to harness your real power.

If you’re dreading Monday, this is your sign: You don’t have to leave your soul at the door to build something meaningful, but you might have to burn some things down first.

Armanino ranked No. 8 on the 2025 Real Leaders Top Impact Companies list for balancing the planet’s lefts and rights. 

Armanino is a B-Corp certified, top 20 accounting and consulting firm dedicated to empowering businesses through innovative solutions in audit, tax, consulting, and technology. Armanino’s purpose is to be the most innovative and entrepreneurial firm that makes a positive impact on the lives of its clients, its people, and its communities. Here Armanino CEO Matt Armanino shares his knowledge and experience with Real Leaders.

Real Leaders: How do you thrive in the impact space?

Matt Armanino: Thriving in creating and sustaining impact requires — in every part of an organization — a relentless commitment to purpose-driven leadership and a culture that encourages continuous innovation. Every day we think about how we can better embrace a mindset of continuous evolution and focus on helping clients solve their most challenging problems.

We leverage technology and data to uncover new ways to drive efficiencies, but we also recognize that impact starts with human connection. Building a culture that empowers teams to think boldly, take ownership, and pursue initiatives that align with our broader mission allows us to stay ahead of the curve and deliver impactful results. Success in this space is about balancing growth and purpose and being unwavering in your commitment to both.

RL: What milestones have you achieved this year?

Armanino: Armanino celebrated its 16th annual Great Give day of service in May 2024. A firmwide day of community service, we had record-breaking participation with 20,512 volunteer hours in support of 158 unique organizations across the globe. Our team members took a day off to participate with service projects of their choice to make an impact in their communities and beyond. Over 16 years Armanino team members have contributed over 92,320 hours in support of various nonprofit organizations and community projects — the equivalent of more than 44 years of full-time work. In 2024, 2,155 Armanino team members participated in activities ranging from environmental cleanups and food packing to educational programs and social support service.

Armanino also completed its second annual Treedom Canopy Challenge, a firm-wide fundraising effort to plant as many trees as possible by Earth Day. This partnership was in collaboration with Treedom, a certified B Corp that engages in tree-planting projects worldwide. Thanks to the generosity of Armanino employees, friends, and the Armanino Foundation’s matching contributions, the initiative surpassed its goal, supporting the planting of 2,794 trees, which removes nearly 700 tons of carbon dioxide this year alone.

RL: What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

Armanino: One of the most significant challenges we faced was adapting to rapid technological disruptions while maintaining a human-centric approach. The pressure to innovate can overshadow the importance of staying connected to the needs of your people. We tackled this by integrating robust feedback loops and educational processes within our teams, ensuring that our adoption of tech advancements, specifically AI, was directly informed by those on the front lines — our in-house experts of AI leaders. 

RL: What is your best strategy for finding investors?

Armanino: We also reimagined our talent development strategies, recognizing that to keep pace with industry change, our people need more than just technical skills; they need to think critically and lead confidently in dynamic environments.

RL: What is your long-term, mission-oriented dream?

Armanino: Armanino’s long-term mission is to lead the accounting and consulting industry into a new era where impact and innovation go hand-in-hand. We envision a future where our firm isn’t just a service provider but a strategic, trusted advisor that empowers businesses to achieve their highest potential. This includes being mindful of the impact we have on our environment and local communities.

Our goal is to expand our influence beyond traditional services, leveraging our expertise to create differentiated platforms, tools, and partnerships that drive systemic change in how businesses operate when tackling their biggest challenges. 

RL: What is your best advice for fellow impact CEOs?

Armanino: Stay anchored to your purpose and be fearless in your pursuit of it. Lead with empathy, and empower your people to think like owners. Cultivate a team that’s skilled and deeply invested in the mission; their passion will drive innovation and resilience in ways that no strategy document ever could. And remember, impact doesn’t happen in isolation — engage with your community, listen to your stakeholders, and build partnerships that amplify your efforts. Never hesitate to seek out others who can help turn your vision into reality.

Priority Power ranked No. 7 on the 2025 Real Leaders Top Impact Companies list in recognition of lighting the way to a clean energy world.

Priority Power is a leading independent energy solutions provider focused on lowering energy costs, meeting sustainability goals, and removing growth impediments for large corporate and industrial customers. Priority serves over 10,000 clients, totaling approximately $1 billion in energy spend across 40 states. Its team of subject matter experts has a long history of successfully working together, along with deeply embedded relationships with its broad base of customers. To date the company has reduced over 10 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Here Priority Power CEO Brandon Schwertner shares his knowledge and experience with Real Leaders.

Real Leaders: How do you thrive in the impact space?

Brandon Schwertner: To thrive in the impact space, a business must achieve profitability and scale. The two are interrelated and co-dependent. To truly set an example of a lasting impact platform, scale must be achieved in order to be noticed, inspired, and replicated.

RL: What milestones have you achieved this year?  

Schwertner: Priority Power builds electrical infrastructure that covers over $1 billion of energy spend a year — and that is the OPEX portion. Violent weather impacts our customers directly. During winter storm Uri, over 80% of the natural gas processing plants in Texas were Priority Power clients. As the ice fell over north and west Texas, these facilities began to fail, and the power plants failed due to lack of fuel. Our teams worked 24-hour shifts that week — hand in hand with customers, the public utility commission, and the governor’s office — to restore power in the field and get fuel to the plants. The grid was within minutes of a complete failure where the entire state would have lost power for multiple weeks. Without our impact during this and other storms, things would be much worse.

Also, in July 2024 I Squared Capital (“I Squared”), a leading independent global infrastructure investment manager, entered into an agreement to acquire Priority Power.

RL: What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?

Schwertner: Our biggest challenges have been a six-year, 45% compound annual growth rate during the pandemic, inflation, and rising interest rates. Energy prices are more volatile — and the grid is less reliable — but the demand for power has risen significantly, driven by the growth in data centers and manufacturing. Priority Power helps businesses and institutions manage their energy costs and accelerate their expansion plans by delivering innovative solutions that marry data, market expertise, infrastructure, and sustainability while reducing emissions.

RL: What is your best strategy for finding investors?

Schwertner: Profitability at scale while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

RL: What is your long-term, mission-oriented dream?

Schwertner: To automate the economic consumption of power across the planet, including bringing electricity to every human on the planet.

RL: What is your best advice for fellow impact CEOs?

Schwertner: Put yourself in uncomfortable situations, and outwork everyone around you. 

I made the leap from a draining career to a purpose-led life. Here’s how you can too.

I was fortunate to have had plenty of coveted career opportunities — from a young marketing trainee with a fast-tracked curriculum to becoming a business unit head in a C-suite position in a prime A-list market. I had a track record of being sent on special assignments abroad that stretched my bandwidth of business, brand, leadership, and cultural experiences. If there was something to fix, I was sent and expected to deliver results. 

The Dark Night of My Soul

Despite having the money, the penthouse, and the car, my last two career assignments catapulted my life into the dark night of my soul. I experienced an emptiness within that was beyond any comprehension. I thought I was losing my mind. I thought nobody could possibly relate to what I was going through. I pleaded with the heavens to give me a fresh perspective so that I wouldn’t take life for granted. 

Soon after, I had a near-death experience through a car accident on a seven-lane highway. Two years later, I had a blacking-out experience during a meeting, which I attributed to feeling exhausted and depleted after traveling five countries in two weeks for work. In between these frightening experiences, I remember flashing my bold slide in the boardroom that declared an objective of becoming No. 1 in the market and suddenly thinking, “Is this what my life is all about?” It no longer satisfied me. I wanted to throw up at this sudden realization. It was surreal. I didn’t know where to go, whom to talk to, or why I suddenly felt this way. 

The whispers of my discontented soul grew louder over time. The black-out experience reduced me to nothingness — my mind felt completely blank like it had rebooted to zero. I didn’t know what to think, what to question, and where to go next. For a person who was highly paid to make decisions, I realized that without my mental and physical health, I would have no work. I surrendered and declared to someone up there, “You win. I’m listening.” 

My Search for Meaning

This catapulted me to a deeper search for the meaning of my life journey — to get answers and find a way out of this seemingly bottomless pit. I tried many transformational courses, workshops, and detox programs. I frequented these places so often that even the alternative medicine practitioner determined that he couldn’t help me and that ultimately, I had to change my own life. 

Eventually I quit work to force myself to find what was next — to isolate myself from the part of my life that didn’t fulfill me anymore. I traveled to different countries listening to spiritual teachers and authors and even staying in a monastery for weeks to find some peace. 

Finding My Purpose

During my sabbatical, I reconnected with one of my spiritual mentors, Master Del Pe. He told me about the organization he founded — the Wisdom Institute for Leadership and Global Advancement (WILGA) — and its mission to awaken wisdom in leadership and conscience in entrepreneurship. 

He challenged me to study energy medicine, universal philosophies, and esoteric psychologies at WILGA, which led me to their practical application as wisdom in leadership. I felt an inner calmness realizing that this is what is needed for today’s business leadership. I knew I had stepped into a higher meaning and purpose in life — the reason for the dark night of my soul.

I learned a few things through this journey. First, we need to heal our past to step forward into a re-defined, more meaningful future. We need to change the lens through which we see things to plan our lives around a new future. This process of illumination requires us to step out of the darkness by facing it and then healing it. Secondly, we need new scaffoldings of consciousness within which to define our North Star and create the new. If not, we will just return to old habits by default with little awareness of who we really are. 

I took a big leap from the corporate world into the field of mentoring, which helped me know myself more deeply and transform how I would conduct business in the future. I thoroughly researched what it means to be the best leader possible. Learning to fill in the crevices of this lack of higher consciousness in business was my anecdote and my mission.

To make a lasting change in the business world, there must be a step-change in consciousness that dictates the choices, values, virtues, and philosophies with which we run our lives. I hope more business leaders explore how to develop their higher consciousness so we can change the face of business. As Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Let’s change the narrative together. 

---

Steps to Develop a Higher Consciousness

1. Create a sustainable transformation. Get a high-value mentor to raise your awareness to any unperceived limitations and be willing to rise above them. Have an action plan for it and the humility to tackle 360-degree awareness with your mentor.
   
   

2. Leave your negative baggage behind. Health concerns and blockages limit your highest potential. Address them on all five levels — physical, vitality, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Consider working with a reputable energy medicine practitioner to assess your health with precision. Self-care is the foundation of a robust self-development strategy. 
   
   

3. Study new concepts about life. Study universal philosophies, esoteric science, and psychology to gain higher truths about how the world works. This expansion of consciousness will equip your next steps in business and in handling people. With this continuous refinement and polishing of your character, you can evolve to the best leader of leaders that you can be. As you evolve, you will contribute to the development of those you lead. This is why you have to be the change you wish to see.
   
   

4. Accept that it’s an ongoing process. You will constantly peel off the layers and perceive new levels of truth. Truth is important to human development and determining life purpose — which may be entirely different from your work purpose. Keep evolving because life is a moving target. 
   
   
   
   
5. Repeat these steps over and over again. Self-mastery takes time, but it is one of the best legacies you can leave behind.
   

DLP Capital ranked No. 6 on the 2025 Real Leaders Top Impact Companies list for building dreams and thriving communities one home at a time.

DLP Capital is a private real estate investment firm focused on transforming lives by building thriving communities. Through its sponsored funds comprised of accredited investors, DLP finances, develops, constructs, and operates safe, attainable rental housing communities for those priced out of homeownership. Here DLP Capital Founder and CEO Don Wenner shares his knowledge and experience with Real Leaders.

Real Leaders: How do you thrive in the impact space?

Don Wenner: It takes grit, dedication, drive, and discipline to make meaningful change in anything — especially the world. It’s not enough just to want to make an impact, no matter how strong that drive is. Grit is the passion and perseverance to wake up each day and continue progressing toward the big picture, even when it feels out of reach or when you must pivot in an unexpected direction. Grit is born from clarity and fueled by authenticity. Before you can make an impact, you need to know the what, why, and how — that’s the clarity. These elements of clarity are something you can turn to again and again when you feel off course. Authenticity and truly believing and caring about the work you do are crucial to thriving in the impact space. It keeps you going. True authenticity and passion can be felt by others, drawing them in to join you and magnify your impact.

RL: What milestones have you achieved this year?

Wenner: For the 12th consecutive year, DLP was recognized by the Inc. 5000 annual list of America’s fastest-growing companies. The funds that DLP sponsors had a range of successes, including surpassing $1 billion in assets under management in the DLP Lending Fund as of June 2024.

RL: What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome?  

Wenner: Amid the interest rate hikes and other market distress, it was challenging over the last year to source and find deals that the firm was confident would make sense for investors, which is paramount in the decision to invest or not invest in an asset. Despite these challenges, the firm has continued its track record of exceeding return targets in all funds since inception.

RL: What is your best strategy for finding investors? 

Wenner: When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, when you do what you say you are going to do, when you believe in how powerful the work you are doing is, people are going to be drawn to that. The world is full of people who want to do good; they just don’t always know where to start. People lose sight of just how valuable — actually, let me go stronger with that — essential it is to create relationships. We don’t just talk to investors from behind a computer or a phone. We talk to them over dinner, in workshops, and live on webinars. The reason investors stay with DLP isn’t just about returns; it’s about the team support they feel on everything from investments to building extraordinary families and financial legacies.

RL: What is your long-term, mission-oriented dream?

Wenner: It is to make an impact on 10 million lives through the funding and building of 5,000 thriving communities.

RL: What is your best advice for fellow impact CEOs?

Wenner: Don’t lose sight of why you started. There will be pivots, challenges, and people who don’t believe in what you’re doing. Keep going. Stay true to your mission with an open mind about new opportunities that could potentially magnify your impact.

I learned fear is the real signpost showing if I’m building something meaningful.

I was genuinely upset the day my first book became a bestseller. The book, based on an idea I’d been passionate about for a full year, was now flying off shelves — but someone else had written it.

About a year earlier, while working in marketing, I had developed a client acquisition strategy that worked exceptionally well. Fueled by inspiration and results, I did what so many do in a flash of clarity and ambition: I opened a blank Word document and began writing what I believed would be my first book. I typed pages of notes and frameworks, mapping out a book that I felt could truly help others in the same field. It felt urgent and important at the time. I promised myself I would write a little every day.

That promise lasted a week. Deadlines at work mounted. Life intruded. The project — like so many ambitious starts — was paused, then ignored. I returned to it months later only to find I didn’t like what I’d written. So I rewrote it and then forgot about it again. The momentum vanished.

Eventually someone else published a book built around the same idea. It had the same core thesis, the same approach, and even the same general framework. The only difference was they had actually finished it — and I had not. I wasn’t bitter because the truth was obvious. The reason my name wasn’t on the cover wasn’t theft or bad luck. It was delay. It was indecision. It was inaction.

Fear Is a Signal, Not a Stop Sign

In the moments that followed, my disappointment quickly gave way to something far more intense: fear. It was fear that I had missed my opportunity, that I had sabotaged my own potential, that by waiting for the perfect draft or the perfect moment, I had handed off the future I wanted to someone else who simply acted faster.

That experience redefined how I viewed fear. I began to realize that fear is one of the most accurate indicators of meaningful opportunity. While most of us are taught to interpret fear as a signal to slow down or reassess, I’ve learned to interpret it as a green light. When I feel fear — the kind that stems from possibility, not danger — I now take it as a KPI. It means I’m moving in the right direction, toward work that actually matters.

In business we obsess over data. We track every metric from conversion rates to churn to cost per click. We measure everything we can quantify. But in doing so, we often ignore one of the most powerful internal metrics we all carry with us. Fear may not be as easy to graph on a dashboard, but it’s just as measurable if you pay attention.

Track Fear Through Action

After the book that wasn’t mine, I made a promise to myself: The next time I had an idea worth pursuing, I wouldn’t wait. When inspiration to write struck again, I didn’t overthink it. I gave myself a tight deadline and published the book — even though it wasn’t perfect. What mattered was that it was out in the world, and once it was, real feedback came in, allowing me to revise it and re-release a stronger version.

When I had the idea for a conference, I didn’t spend a year planning it. I launched it within months. The first event was messy in parts, but I learned from the experience, made adjustments, and tripled attendance the next year. Not everything worked. I launched a workshop series prematurely, and it failed — but even that gave me the data I needed to understand my market and relaunch it more effectively later on.

In each of these instances, I felt fear before acting, and in each case, fear pointed to a threshold I needed to cross. It didn’t always predict success, but it always signaled significance. I started to pay attention to that sensation: where it showed up, how it felt, and what kinds of ideas triggered it. I treated fear like a performance indicator — not always comfortable, but consistently useful.

Fear Is Feedback

Fear is not the enemy — it’s feedback. It tells you something matters. It shows up at the edge of comfort, right where growth begins. If you’re not feeling any fear in your work, there’s a good chance you’re not stretching yourself. Fear often lives next to opportunity, yet most of us treat it as a warning to stop. We should be treating it like a signal to dig deeper.

Entrepreneurs especially should pay close attention to fear. We operate within rapid iteration, constant learning, and imperfect action. Fear is part of the territory. If you’re not afraid at some point during your product launch, pitch, or business decision, it might be a sign you’re playing it too safe.

I’ve learned that fear often accompanies ideas with real potential. It’s not a guarantee of success, but it’s a reliable compass for direction. If you let it, fear can become your most honest KPI because it only shows up when the work really matters.

---

How I Use Fear to My Advantage

Fear gets a bad rap, but it can actually be one of your most powerful tools for growth. Whether you’re chasing a big goal, launching something new, or simply stepping outside your comfort zone, fear shows up for a reason. Here are three practical ways to harness fear and make it work for you.

1. Follow the fear. Fear often points to what matters most. Learn to distinguish protective fear from the kind that signals you’re stretching your limits. When it’s tied to visibility, growth, or risk, lean in.

2. Move through the messy middle. Fear loves to stall progress. Break it down, name what you’re scared of, and act anyway, even if it’s imperfect. Clarity comes through motion, not hesitation.

3. Mine the lessons. After every bold move, pause to reflect. What were you afraid of? What actually happened? Use those insights to build emotional resilience and make smarter, braver decisions next time.

When I was preparing to raise my first fund, the accelerator I joined pushed hard for me to follow the playbook: Move fast, create momentum, close early. I was operating on fear of missing out, and I’ve never liked that energy. If something is aligned, the decision should feel clear; if it’s not, you wait — but I didn’t wait.

I ignored the tension building inside me. I brushed past the local conversations — the ones where angels shared their limited time, their desire to mentor, their need for something different. One had sold his company to Microsoft and founded two angel groups; another explained how local angels weren’t retirees with time to spare — they were builders themselves, craving connection and impact with limited hours.

Then came the moment that stopped everything: my wife’s high-risk pregnancy. Suddenly none of it mattered. The fund could wait.

Out of the fundraising race, I finally listened to the angels, the founders, and the reality of our region. The answer was obvious: We needed to build something for our own context, not someone else’s.

This wasn’t my first pivot. Years earlier at 26 I walked away from a successful mergers and acquisitions career in Spain. On paper I had everything, but I couldn’t stomach a career of moving money without purpose. I traveled, sat in silence, and reconnected with what mattered. That’s when I made a decision: I would only build what felt aligned.

That brought me to Puerto Rico, my mother’s island, during one of its worst economic crises. I ran the first seed fund in Puerto Rico but quickly realized founders didn’t just need capital — they needed partners who understood the grind. I couldn’t help unless I lived it.

So I did. I joined a university spinout developing a molecule to block cancer metastasis. I knew nothing about pharma, but I knew how to build. Today that company holds the first-ever pharma license from the University of Puerto Rico — still alive, still promising.

When I returned to fund-building, I rejected the playbook. I was tired of signaling to limited partners that I was a low-risk, first-time fund manager. I wasn’t here to conform. I was here to unlock capital for founders who shared our values — and to give angels a way to back entrepreneurs in their own communities.

At Carbono3 we’re doing just that: building founder-centered infrastructure to unlock capital where good opportunities are being lost. We combine company-building tools, investment readiness programs, education, and access to capital — all grounded in the realities we’ve seen firsthand. Every piece is designed to reflect our region’s context and make the capital journey more accessible for founders and angels.

We launched our own investment readiness platform with workshops, templates, and tools that founders could access at their own pace. We built programs with universities, won a Small Business Administration award to boost STEM entrepreneurship, and launched a software that automates compliance and due diligence — solving pain points on both sides of the capital table.

I tell founders to challenge everything including me because real impact doesn’t come from chasing external fit. It comes from internal alignment. Like Gandhi said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

That’s the only formula I trust — and trust is where impact begins.