Behind DaBella’s expansion across 22 states and growth to 57 locations lies a set of deeply held values that guide founder and CEO Donnie McMillan Jr.’s leadership decisions. These principles—encapsulated in the company’s motto “We lead. We care. We grow.”—transcend business strategies to shape DaBella’s culture, operations, and impact.
The most fundamental value guiding McMillan’s leadership is the importance of people. From naming the company after his twins, David and Isabella, to tracking how many employees reach six-figure incomes, McMillan consistently prioritizes human impact over abstract metrics. “When we started the company, we wanted to make sure we had a family atmosphere,” he explains in the Qualified Remodeler profile, “so I named it after my two twins…so everybody could keep it in the front side of their mind that this is all about family.”
This people-first orientation extends to how McMillan views leadership itself. “Leadership is an awesome responsibility. It’s not about money. You better know that it’s about taking care of other people,” he emphasizes in his interview. This servant leadership philosophy permeates DaBella’s approach to both customers and employees.
The importance of relationships is evident in McMillan’s explanation of DaBella’s core values: “Growth with success through the success of others. That’s a cultural thing. We can’t get anywhere on our own.” This belief in collective achievement guides how the company develops its workforce and serves its customers.
The value of care—for both customers and employees—drives DaBella’s approach to service. McMillan encourages his team to consider, “If that was your grandmother, or was your mother, how would you want to treat that person?” This empathetic frame helps employees deliver high-quality service while treating customers with respect and dignity.
McMillan’s values extend beyond the company to embrace community responsibility. “We offer a full day of PTO for people to do local community volunteerism,” he notes, highlighting DaBella’s commitment to giving back. Initiatives like DaBella Cares, which raised $280,000 for cancer charities in October 2024, demonstrate how the company’s values translate into tangible community impact.
Opportunity for all is another core value evident in McMillan’s leadership. “It doesn’t matter where you start. It matters where you finish,” he states, explaining DaBella’s approach to employee development. This belief in second chances and growth potential shapes the company’s hiring and promotion practices.
According to the Qualified Remodeler profile, McMillan “often promotes from within the organization when filling positions,” creating a culture where advancement is based on performance rather than credentials. This commitment to opportunity extends to individuals who might be overlooked elsewhere: “We’re a second chance company for a lot of people,” McMillan explains.
Financial responsibility and independence also rank among McMillan’s guiding values. “The company is debt free. We don’t owe anybody anything, which is something else that I refuse to allow for the company under my stewardship,” he states firmly. This principle provides stability that benefits both employees and customers while allowing DaBella to make decisions aligned with its other values rather than being driven by external investors’ demands.
Humility marks McMillan’s leadership approach, as evidenced by his candid admission: “I’m actually more of an introvert.” Despite building a successful nationwide company, he redirects attention from himself to his team: “It always cracks me up when people start going to talk about the leadership and the owner or founder…they’re not the ones carrying all the weight of the world on them. It’s the day-to-day people that are actually getting that done.”
The value of continuous improvement guides DaBella’s operations. McMillan describes the company as a “continuous startup, meaning we’re always in a growth pattern, so what we’re doing today won’t be the way we do it six months or a year from now.” This commitment to evolution and improvement ensures DaBella remains innovative while staying true to its core principles.
Personal growth represents another fundamental value in McMillan’s leadership philosophy. The company invests substantially in employee development, with “an average employee getting about two hours a week in some sort of self-growth, teamwork, or leadership deal.” This commitment reflects McMillan’s belief in human potential and the importance of ongoing learning.
Integrity in operations guides DaBella’s approach to service delivery. Rather than taking shortcuts, the company focuses on providing complete solutions. As noted in the Qualified Remodeler profile, when DaBella expanded into roofing, they focused on providing complete roofing systems rather than just “go-overs” that didn’t address ventilation and other crucial components.
These values aren’t merely aspirational for McMillan—they’re operational principles that guide daily decisions and long-term strategy. As DaBella continues its nationwide expansion, these foundational values provide continuity while allowing the company to adapt to new markets and evolving customer needs.
McMillan’s values are also deeply informed by his personal background. “My family had nothing,” he reveals in his interview, explaining how his upbringing shaped his perspective on business and leadership. This experience instilled in him the importance of remembering one’s origins, especially as success grows. “I encourage everyone as they start to do well for themselves, that’s really important to kind of remember where you’re at,” he advises.
This grounded perspective helps McMillan maintain awareness even as DaBella has grown into a major national company. “Never forget,” he emphasizes, explaining that this awareness of struggle helps leaders avoid becoming disconnected from their employees’ and customers’ realities. “Because big companies get in trouble, they forget what their employee goes through. They forget what their customer’s going through. And that’s not a thing here.”
The transformation McMillan has witnessed within his company reinforces his commitment to these values. From a company that started with “12 people, 11 of them are, you know, because of where we’re at times a lot of white guys,” DaBella has evolved to embrace diversity across all dimensions. “To see the diversification, you know, to know that we have to have our contracts in Spanish, and do all the different things that we’re doing now to see the company become…a living, breathing organism of people that are attracted here because they know they can change their lives,” he reflects.
The success of DaBella demonstrates that values-based leadership can drive substantial business growth while creating positive impact for employees, customers, and communities—a testament to Donnie McMillan Jr.’s belief that doing good and doing well can go hand in hand.
