Dave Dahl
Benefitting Constructing Hope
You know him best as simply Dave, the baker and brand-visionary behind Dave’s Killer Bread. But Dave Dahl has had many identities in his life: inmate, art dealer, philanthropist, addict, entrepreneur, and criminal. He grew up in a strict Seventh-Day Adventist community, itching to break free, and later found drugs, crime and years of prison time; until one day Dave decided he’d had enough and asked for help. He grabbed hold of every opportunity he could to improve himself through learning, trying, failing and getting back up again, even in the worst of times. Get to know the real Dave in this inspiring conversation that may just kickstart a whole new attitude of passion and possibility.
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In this episode, we talk about:
Dave’s experience growing up in a Seventh Day Adventist family.
His struggle with drugs, addiction, and incarceration.
Asking for help with his mental health while his prison saved his life.
How Dave’s Killer Bread was born.
Wise Words
I didn't get to learn things the way I should have because I was so busy trying to pretend I already knew it all. And I didn't know anything
I was always trying to learn how to be a better criminal at that point because to me there's no way you're going to live without this drug that has transformed your life. The drug was my savior. And when I was selling that drug I always felt like I was selling something I believed in. It was easy to sell, you know, and I kept doing that, trying to get to be a better and better dealer, someone who could actually make a living at it and turn the money into a legal business. But I always got in trouble before that happened.
I was very lonely in prison and when I stopped feeling like I needed other people to make myself feel good, it was a beautiful thing.
The suicidal phase lasted for quite a while before I finally gave in to this idea of asking for help. And that's not something that you would do in prison, people don't ask for help you know
I just said I need to speak to someone in mental health. That's all I said to that degree, but it took me months and years to come to that point where I was able to actually drop this paper in the box. And once I did it was like immediately, I got a sense of relief that I had done it.
They gave me a medication called Paxil, and then Effexor is what I take now. What this medication helped me do is to forget, to not think and, you know, if I had a negative thought in my mind, I didn't have to choose that negative thought anymore. And it opened my mind to be able to put it toward positive things.
I started forgiving people from my dad to the corrections officers.
Within six months or so after I got out of prison, I was already making my own product. I didn't know it was going to do what it did.
It was the falling down, then getting back up, and the more I had success with my comebacks, from, you know, overcoming the fall and getting back up and learning from it. The more I had success with that, the more confidence I had and I started having confidence with everything. If somebody told me that I couldn't do something, I was like, okay, that's what you think and I would do it.
So I wrote a story on the back of the bag and it was accepted just as much as the bread was. I mean it was just as big a deal to people as the bread itself and so I had all this appreciation.
People given a second chance can really be great human resources. And it's very meaningful because that person not only gives their heart to the company, but it changes their relationship to the community.
I learned giving back a long time ago; it's not about making money. It's about doing it because you believe in what you're doing and what you think matters.
Courageous is doing, it’s following through with what you believe in your gut and doing the right thing.
I've learned how to be kind without being, for the most part, a victim.
I realized that happiness had very little to do with money. You got to have what you need in life, right? You gotta work to get what you need and then go from there. But happiness is not something you're going to get by making money and you're not even going to be happy when you make money, unless you're already happy, at least that's my experience.
Links
Charity: Constructing Hope
Facebook: Killer Bread Man
Instagram: @4xloser1 @davedahlcollection
Website: www.davedahl360.com
Youtube: Dave Dahl Killer Bread Man