Valuetainment - How A 15 Year Felon Sold His Company for $275 Million

00:00:00.000 My guest today may be one of the best stories out there for a man who chose to change his

00:00:28.620 life and it dramatically helped him out. He went from, I think, spending 15 years in jail and ex-felon to

00:00:34.480 selling his bread company, which I've never had. I'm going to have it today live. Dave's Killer Bread

00:00:40.500 for $275 million cash. And he hires ex-felons, ex-men who did time. I think a third of their

00:00:50.280 employees are ex-felons. With that being said, my guest today is Dave Dahl. Dave, thank you so much 1.00

00:00:54.660 for being a guest on Value Tainment. My pleasure. So if, first of all, I read this story, I watch

00:01:02.640 all your videos, you know, how open you are about things you've done. It's not like you're even

00:01:07.940 hiding it. You just kind of openly share, here's what I did. Here's what I did there. This is who

00:01:12.100 I was. So if you don't mind taking a minute here and sharing with the audience, you know, your

00:01:17.740 background story or how you went from where you were at to starting the company, I think that'd be

00:01:21.660 great for starters. I had a pretty screwed up childhood, the kind of childhood that nobody,

00:01:27.160 you know, I can't even explain to someone and have them understand. But it is what it is. And,

00:01:35.160 you know, I was a baker. My dad was a baker. That's what we did when we were kids growing up. We didn't

00:01:41.680 have money, but we managed to get by with, you know, producing bread. You know, I didn't want to do

00:01:51.660 that. I had a lot of depression when I was young. And I turned to drugs and eventually crime.

00:02:01.120 It was really the only thing I knew how to do besides bread. And I didn't really know how to do

00:02:05.300 that either. The crime part. So I had to learn the hard way. And that's why I went to prison four

00:02:12.320 times. I was not very good at it. So I did 15 years, all drug related in the sense that everything

00:02:23.120 was in order to get drugs. And so four trips to prison, my fourth time down, I had an epiphany.

00:02:32.860 I got some help for my medication. I got some medication for my depression. And it actually

00:02:42.440 worked for me. And then I went to school for drafting, computer drafting, which is a trade

00:02:50.440 that was exciting to me. I had a lot of fun with it. And I realized I was capable of doing

00:02:55.580 more than I thought. So I excelled at that. And eventually got out of prison and went to

00:03:05.460 work making bread and, you know, with my family and creating my own products. So didn't expect

00:03:13.980 the kind of success that I had. But I mean, nobody could, right? And bread. But I had a lot

00:03:21.320 of fun just trying to make something happen. I used the same principles that I learned in

00:03:27.260 drafting, the same mental principles. I was able to design six varieties of bread, which I took to

00:03:33.940 the farmer's market the same year that I got out of prison. So and how was it received when you took

00:03:39.300 it to the farmer's market? It was like a dream. You know, you could never imagine. You know, I know I

00:03:47.740 went there. I remember people coming up and trying it, walking away, and then coming back with six

00:03:54.860 more people. You know, it was that kind of thing. And it got so, so busy, we were the most popular

00:04:03.360 thing at the market, really, the Portland farmer's market. And so word of mouth immediately began,

00:04:11.300 you know, became our, our marketing tool. The more you got the bread in somebody's mouth, the more,

00:04:18.420 the more you sold.

00:04:20.580 When did the company get started? What was it in 2013 that it got started? Or when did it when did

00:04:25.620 it get started?

00:04:26.140 No, it started in 2005. Now my dad started the company in 1955. But when I got out of prison,

00:04:36.820 it was 2005. And that's when Dave's Killer Bread started.

00:04:41.500 Got it. So 2005 is when that got started. So and Dave, your background in business,

00:04:48.280 you know, I know you and your brother were running together as well. Were you more on the marketing

00:04:52.840 side? Were you on the selling side? Were you on the product development side? What was your

00:04:57.060 strength to go from not having any background to building a company where somebody cuts you a check

00:05:00.740 for 275?

00:05:02.680 That's a good question. Fortunately, you know, I had an infrastructure in a sense to start with,

00:05:09.200 I got out. And there was already a way to make a product to produce a product that a small,

00:05:18.280 we weren't able to produce a lot of product, but we were able to keep keep up with demand for a little

00:05:24.560 while. And so the thing was, it gave me a chance. I got out of work, got out of prison, went to work

00:05:32.260 for 12 bucks an hour. The same time, I was moonlighting as a product developer. So I created

00:05:41.200 these products, like I said, using the same principles I learned in drafting. I was never so

00:05:47.240 much the guy that did finances or, you know, the bean counting and all that kind of stuff. The money

00:05:55.480 was never really that important to me. I just wanted to make a living. And so I just was, I got

00:06:04.240 excited about the development of the product and then the marketing of the product. Essentially, I was a

00:06:10.840 product developer and a marketer, but the marketer, the marketing aspect was, it took over. It took

00:06:17.080 over everything. Dave, in 05, how big was the business? If you were to say like your dad's,

00:06:23.260 was it one shop? Was it one store? How big was the business in 05?

00:06:28.080 My dad's business, which was taken over by my brother, Glenn. At the time that I came out of

00:06:37.520 prison, I think there was around 30 employees. And so it was a business. It was a wholesale bakery that

00:06:44.680 was basically mostly producing private label products in order to keep going. They were making,

00:06:50.420 I think the most, the biggest account and the best account at that time was Trader Joe's.

00:06:58.440 So we were producing our products for other people. And we also made, had a brand called

00:07:04.920 Nature Bake that my brother had been keeping alive for a few years.

00:07:09.840 Got it. And, and by the time you guys ended up selling it, can you give us some stats? Like,

00:07:15.580 hey, this is how many breads we sold a day. This is how many we made every day. This is how many

00:07:19.520 employees we had to go from 05 to the point when you guys sold it.

00:07:25.120 Well, okay. Well, we were producing the Nature Bake and the private label products at the same time that I

00:07:32.320 was beginning this Days Killer Bread project. At the time, it was just a project. It was like more,

00:07:40.060 more bread for the company. Didn't realize that it would eventually take over. So at that time,

00:07:46.880 it was like, you know, we made a couple hundred jobs a week to take to the farmer's market. And we were selling out

00:07:54.000 really well. We were, we were, everything was a, was an experiment, everything, you know, marketing experiment,

00:08:00.080 experiment, you know, production experiment, or, you know, testing different things in the product,

00:08:08.800 which was my, my main focus, was making sure the bread was perfect. So, you know, it was like 200 loaves in 2000,

00:08:17.760 early 2000, or like August of 2005. By the next year, by early in the next year, we were like 6,000 a week.

00:08:29.520 And then the year after that, I mean, I couldn't even give you the numbers. It was, it multiplied by,

00:08:38.800 you know, double digits as far as, if you had like, if you sold 20,000 in one year,

00:08:47.440 then the next year was 100,000 and the next year it was 500,000 and, you know, or that kind of thing. And,

00:08:56.320 I mean, it was, it was growing at an incredible rate and kind of rate where it's really hard to keep up with.

00:09:01.440 And the challenges were, were more about like, how are we going to finance this next growth spurt?

00:09:08.960 You know, we got to get, we got to get people that are going to back us up because we don't have that

00:09:13.440 money. You know, you can't, that's one of the biggest challenges you have as a growing businessman

00:09:19.120 who makes stuff, makes stuff, produces stuff from, you know, goods, rather than just a software or

00:09:27.040 something that you sell an idea is one thing, but actually having to produce it, coming up with the

00:09:34.320 ingredients, all the logistics of that, as we were growing. Thankfully, my brother and my nephew,

00:09:41.200 who are my partners were more into the logistical side of getting the ingredients and dealing with

00:09:49.280 all the challenges that we had of producing the product. How many is it selling right now? Do you

00:09:55.520 have any idea? Cause you're saying from 6,000, 20, 100, 500 K, do you have any idea how many

00:09:59.680 it's selling right now for a week? It's impossible to say because I'm not involved anymore, but I can say

00:10:07.920 that when I left, we were in probably seven states, Western states, and a few little outposts away from

00:10:20.000 there. Um, we were selling, we were producing, uh, about a half million rolls a week, a little bit more

00:10:29.440 at that time. And, uh, that was tough, you know, just keeping up. So we had other people, we had, uh,

00:10:36.000 Safeway bakeries and such making our product, trying to, trying to make our product. It was,

00:10:42.400 it was hard to get their culture to keep up with ours, uh, in the way that we look at making the

00:10:48.880 bread. That's more of another, more of the challenges that you have. So we were, what were we at? Uh,

00:10:54.400 like I said, half million loads a week, probably more than that. When I left, I got to be more like

00:11:00.560 10 million now, you know, more than that, even, I don't know. Cause you think the way I see it growing,

00:11:07.200 it's now made in entirely, it's made in Canada. It's made in several places in the U S it's made in

00:11:14.240 Mexico. It's all over the place. That's a, that's amazing to see. Now, uh, for you, I got, I got a few

00:11:21.560 different questions for you. One, I have you and your relationship with your father, because I got

00:11:26.180 two boys. I got a girl and I just had a newborn two or three weeks ago. So I got four kids. I want to

00:11:31.120 know where that conflict was with your pops. Then the business side, then how do you manage

00:11:36.400 ex-cons who don't like to follow the rules? Like there's gotta be a way of leading them.

00:11:41.420 There's gotta be some interesting way of leading them, but let's first go to a father-son relationship.

00:11:47.660 Dave, was it more a, you think, was it more a, he think, was it more an environment thing or was it

00:11:54.340 more a combination of everything that there was a division, like, you know, a bit of a riff between

00:11:58.760 you and your pops? I didn't like the way my, my father was. I, I didn't like the way I was. I didn't

00:12:05.360 grow up with much self-esteem and I don't think my dad had a lot of self-esteem. I think that the

00:12:10.700 things that, the same things that make you laugh can make you cry in the sense that my dad was a

00:12:17.160 hardworking, you know, creative, uh, guy. His focus was on his business and that rubbed off on me,

00:12:27.580 obviously. Uh, but at the time I just looked at him as this, this really rough character without

00:12:35.220 a whole lot of grace, social graces or anything. He wasn't teaching me any things I wanted to learn.

00:12:41.060 And eventually I learned some of the things anyway. And he was very stern and kind of, he's just a

00:12:49.800 hard guy to get along with. And that was kind of the way I saw it growing up. And I just felt

00:12:57.580 like crap. No, that was the conflict. I, it wasn't until way later that I began to realize it. It was

00:13:04.120 after he was, he had passed that I realized he was actually a very, uh, interesting and, uh,

00:13:12.160 interesting guy who deserved a lot of credit, especially when you consider Dave's killer bread,

00:13:16.700 would have never have happened with them.

00:13:18.060 That's interesting. You've been able to give that, uh, credit to him. Did your, did your brother

00:13:22.760 also have conflicts with him as well? Or was it more you than him?

00:13:26.880 I think my brother had even more conflicts because my brother was eight years older than me and he

00:13:32.920 grew up, he was my boss when I was, you know, growing up. My brother was far different from my dad.

00:13:38.900 He wasn't nearly the hard guy, the mean guy, whatever. And they would fight, you know, a lot

00:13:48.100 bump heads because they just had different ways of trying to get the work done and trying to account

00:13:55.780 for things, trying to do accounting, bookkeeping. Um, my dad just had a very rough way about it.

00:14:02.400 And my brother wanted to streamline the process and make it work better.

00:14:06.120 Got it. And did your parents stay married? Were they together?

00:14:10.500 My parents stayed married, uh, until my dad died in 1998.

00:14:16.760 Wow. So props to your mom to, to, to be in that environment. And, you know, uh, was she a loving

00:14:21.760 one? Was she somebody that was more the one that gave you love, gave you a brother-in-law?

00:14:26.260 Yeah. She was a loving person, a kind, very kind person, religious person. Um, and it,

00:14:36.120 she, she had all of her own, um, struggles with, you know, uh, self-esteem and all that. And we all did,

00:14:44.220 but she was very kind about it. She just had a different approach about how she dealt with

00:14:50.440 people. She was very, uh, humble. And I think I learned humility from her eventually.

00:14:56.440 Well, that's, that's the, the great part about how the man upstairs created a mom and a dad for us to

00:15:03.400 kind of get a little bit of balance from both sides. Was your dad ever in the military or no?

00:15:07.880 Did he have a military background?

00:15:09.080 Yeah. My dad was in, uh, uh, in World War II, uh, from right about the time that it started to the

00:15:17.880 time that he was at four years from 41 to 45 as a Navy. He, he was a cook on a ship. My dad always

00:15:26.280 wanted to be a baker. So I think that's what he was, was a baker on the ship.

00:15:30.120 Yeah. You know, they, they say a lot of the, um, uh, folks who come from the great depression era,

00:15:37.400 their level of understanding of the next generation is so much harder for them because

00:15:43.800 they had it so hard. It's like, do you really, and they're so afraid of losing everything because,

00:15:48.600 you know, how it was in the thirties. So it's tough for us to embrace them and understand them

00:15:53.720 sometimes. And it's tough for them to communicate, uh, with us. My dad is one of the toughest guys,

00:15:59.640 man. Like nothing was ever at his standard, but you know, 79 years old today, he still lives with

00:16:05.400 me, but, uh, he was able to see the changes taking place. And I'm sure if he was watching right now,

00:16:11.320 watching over you guys, he's probably blown away by what you and your brother have been able to

00:16:15.320 build as a company. And probably even more than that, how was it for you and your brother working

00:16:19.960 together? Did you guys get along? Did you have conflicts or was it just easy to work together?

00:16:24.360 Yeah, it was, it was, uh, almost either one of us are murderers, right? But if we were,

00:16:31.400 somebody would probably be dead by now. And then there was my, my nephew as well. So

00:16:37.880 I always felt like it was my brother and my nephew against me. So, uh, but I, I knew I had something

00:16:45.080 that I knew I believed in what I was doing. And so a lot of times knowing what I wanted and going to get

00:16:54.040 it sometimes, uh, they didn't agree. And so we had to get through that. It was, and it was tough.

00:17:01.720 Got it. I mean, you know, to think about this, you know, uh, you're saying 10 a week,

00:17:07.480 if they're saying 10 million a week, that's you on it, right? I mean, that's literally you on the,

00:17:11.880 on the back. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a good story about the creation of that logo. I'll try

00:17:19.080 I just real, real quick. I, I didn't have any money, never, you know, I mean, we didn't have

00:17:24.280 a budget for creating Dave's killer bread. It was kind of like, you're going to have to make this,

00:17:29.880 you know, on a shoestring. So I found an artist. I had an idea, you know, from talking to a

00:17:35.640 copyright attorney, I got this idea of making a logo. And so I drew up real quick. I drew a logo

00:17:43.000 idea of this guy. It was way too complicated for a logo, but it was this guy who represented me

00:17:52.760 holding his guitar, standing in front, standing in front of this wall. And on this brick wall was

00:18:00.200 big letters, Dave's bread. And then somebody comes along with a spray can, a red spray paint can,

00:18:08.040 and, and, you know, tags killer on, on that. Yeah. That didn't, that didn't, you can't tell

00:18:14.520 that by looking at the logo, but that was my idea. And then I got a guy, I paid him, uh,

00:18:20.440 I didn't have much money. I don't remember what I ended up paying. It was like two or 300 bucks,

00:18:24.760 I believe. And he tried, he kept, kept trying to, he was a cartoonist and he kept trying to, uh,

00:18:32.920 make me look almost like me. You know, I'm like, no, dude, you gotta, you gotta make me look better.

00:18:40.600 Better, better, better. And I, I finally, you know, the, the last thing I got to do

00:18:46.440 was to make my arms ridiculously big. Yeah. I said, look, I'm, I'm paying you the big bucks,

00:18:52.840 make my arms big. By the way, is this the original, original logo?

00:18:58.360 Yeah. That's never really changed. No. Wow. And I know you play guitar. So now for some

00:19:03.800 people that don't know, when you do 15 years in prison and you name your bread, Dave's killer bread,

00:19:08.600 I mean, you know, immediately people go to a different place when they see Dave's killer bread.

00:19:12.840 Yeah. Can you please clarify that with killer adjective? Yeah. There's sometimes people, uh,

00:19:20.360 they assume, uh, it's some certain people's brains work that way, right? Where it's immediately like

00:19:27.960 they go with, they go straight to, Oh, prison killer. Okay. He's a killer from prison, right? No.

00:19:34.840 And so I never even thought of that. I just was always wanting to make a loaf of bread called killer

00:19:39.400 bread. And it, and eventually I just made this loaf of bread called killer bread. And next thing you know,

00:19:45.080 all my bread's being called Dave's killer bread. So, uh, that's it. It just took off.

00:19:52.680 So it says five grams of protein, five grams of fiber, 260 milligrams of omega-3, 22 grams of whole

00:20:00.280 grain. I've never had this before. Okay. But I'm going to try it right now. And my employees swear

00:20:06.280 by this it's in the fridge every day. They eat this now, what you should be noticing right now is

00:20:20.440 really good mouthfeel and really good flavor. Oh my gosh. And that's, that's 21 whole grains that

00:20:29.080 you're eating right now. 21 whole grains and seeds. My favorite is good seed. I even have it on the back

00:20:34.920 of my, you know, tattoo of it on my back, but, uh, good seed, you know, I always named my breads.

00:20:43.080 I named my breads before I created them. Uh, so I was like, you know, good seed was about my

00:20:51.880 transformation from being a bad seed to a good seed. And so I named, I created a bread named good seed

00:20:58.680 around the name. I love that. By the way, just so everybody knows you're not paying me to do this.

00:21:05.320 There is no sponsorship here. He doesn't, you don't even own the company anymore. So why would

00:21:09.640 you pay me to do this? I'm just, it doesn't even benefit him by me saying this bread is good. What

00:21:13.960 did I say? The bread sucks or it's great. He doesn't make a penny more, a penny less.

00:21:16.840 I think you can tell the truth.

00:21:18.840 Yeah. Well, no, this thing is delicious. So, so we talked about pops. We talked about the business

00:21:25.080 side. Um, I still can't, I mean, even my camera guys right now, Oscar's, uh, amazed by the taste

00:21:31.880 of it, uh, managing former felons, right? Folks who did time. You got a third of your employees at the

00:21:38.600 time when you guys sold the company out of your 300 employees near nearly a hundred had done time

00:21:44.200 before. One, how did you find them? Did they find you or you found them? And two, how did you hold

00:21:48.840 them accountable? Well, that's a, that's a big one right there. Uh, the thing was we started,

00:21:57.960 you know, remember we're, we're growing really fast. So you're hiring really fast, which is,

00:22:03.000 you know, can be challenging trying to get the right people. And myself, uh, the thing that I

00:22:09.880 understood better than a lot of people would understand is that ex-felons can be great assets.

00:22:18.520 You know, anybody who's given a chance when they've, when they've hit a bottom, say, um,

00:22:24.520 can, can, they can be grateful and hardworking employees. And so that was something we instinctively

00:22:32.120 sort of knew because of my own, uh, experience. The thing was we, we were willing to give those guys

00:22:39.080 and ladies challenge chances that a lot of people wouldn't give them. And so they were grateful to

00:22:46.040 that, but we also made a lot of mistakes in the beginning and hired the wrong people. It's really

00:22:51.720 about getting the right people. And of course, like you say, treating them right and holding them

00:22:56.920 accountable to the best of your ability. We had a strong vision for the product that we wanted to make.

00:23:03.640 And by that time we also had my story, you know, so people actually searched, ex-felons would 0.99

00:23:10.680 actually search out our company to come work for us. So, but, but we held people to a certain

00:23:16.440 standard that I would say that I sort of emulated or that I, uh, was the progenitor of, it's like,

00:23:25.480 okay, you gotta, I'm expecting you to follow in my footsteps. And so it, once they get out of that

00:23:33.000 line, they tend to go a different direction and they don't make it. It's like some, a little bit

00:23:40.680 of humility, which is for an ex-felon is not an easy thing. Cause most, you're a person most of you,

00:23:46.760 most of your life, you, uh, you know, and you do crime, you kind of have, I tend to have a bad

00:23:52.440 attitude. And these guys, these were mostly people who were trying to turn over a new leap. So we were

00:23:59.080 just, we just had to hold them to that standard. And, and were you mainly looking for a person that

00:24:04.760 maybe wants a major change and to have a positive attitude because you could build on the attitude?

00:24:09.560 Because you said, even if you're hiring former inmates, you could still hire the wrong

00:24:14.040 former inmates, right? Former. So, so how did you differentiate when you're hiring fast?

00:24:19.240 That's right. How do you differentiate between the two?

00:24:22.840 Uh, well, for me, okay. That's a good question. Like I wonder, like your interview process,

00:24:29.640 did you ask me three questions or two questions that was, gave you an idea to say, this is a person

00:24:34.920 we ought to give an opportunity to. Absolutely. Uh, that was my approach. It was not easy to always

00:24:43.080 get that approach used when interviewing folks because they weren't, uh, I wasn't always the

00:24:50.600 one doing the interviewing in those early days. Uh, but my intention for those was always like,

00:24:58.440 okay, what have you been doing the last few years? You've been in prison, right? Okay.

00:25:04.280 You want to just say, if somebody just goes, well, yeah, I've been in prison for last few years.

00:25:08.200 So, you know, well, there's an opportunity wherever you're at to work on yourself.

00:25:14.520 So what have you been doing during that time to help yourself and to maybe help your family,

00:25:20.200 you know, just to be a better person. And that, just that question alone,

00:25:26.520 that question and follow-up questions on that can get people, uh, you can find out what a person's

00:25:32.600 about. You may not be right every time. Yeah, that's true. You're not going to be right every

00:25:37.640 time. Yeah, that is true. How did you work on yourself? I know there's a part of it where

00:25:43.480 in many interviews, you talk about the fact that the, you know, uh, proper medication helped and,

00:25:48.840 you know, proper sitting down with the doctor helped, but, but it's gotta be even more than that.

00:25:52.680 Like, what else was it for you that you said, did you read books? Did you have affirmations? Did you

00:25:58.520 have an inspiration from a movie, from an article, from a star, from somebody we know? Where did you

00:26:05.080 grab your source of inspiration from? I was always searching, even in the first three times I did my,

00:26:12.680 I went to prison. The fourth time I, I had really thought, well, my life is over. I was like,

00:26:18.840 it's over. There's nothing I'm going to be able to do to get out. You know, this, this is the person

00:26:24.360 that I've, I have chosen to be. And now I'm, I'm a wreck. And, you know, and so I had this really

00:26:29.800 negative attitude, but I also was trying because I didn't have any choice, but to try to figure

00:26:35.320 something out. But every night was, was a struggle for me. And every day to get up and even go to chow or

00:26:42.840 go, go out to the yard and do whatever I was doing, uh, I didn't want to face the day. You know,

00:26:49.560 that's how bad I felt. And so it, I had to put on an air of, of strength, even though I felt like

00:26:59.240 inside, I felt like a massive jelly, you know, I felt terrible. And so, um, that was a terrible

00:27:07.240 thing to not really be able to be myself because I, I didn't like myself. So what happened was in 2001,

00:27:17.240 I let down my guard, if you will, I dropped a piece of paper and we call it a kite, but it's just a piece

00:27:23.640 of, a piece of paper where you ask for whatever, you know, from, from the, uh, from the authorities.

00:27:31.880 And I had decided after a few years in prison that time that I needed some help and that I would ask

00:27:40.120 for help. And that was a big deal for me. Nobody wants to ask for help in prison. You know, they

00:27:45.880 want to be tough. They want to be cool. They want to be hard, but it was the best thing that I ever did.

00:27:51.960 I asked for help. I put the kite in, I got meds, which I didn't think would help me, but they really

00:28:00.040 made a big difference to me because I was all of a sudden able to focus because I wasn't thinking

00:28:06.680 depressed, negative thoughts all the time. And you know, this all went the same time I was studying

00:28:15.400 things like Buddha's Buddhist principles, you know, other, like you say, affirmations. I was reading

00:28:21.240 books to try to help me be a better person, but it never worked until I took that medication and I

00:28:27.160 asked for help. And then I went to school for drafting about, it was in the next few months,

00:28:33.720 I started going to school and, uh, the combination of all those things made me realize I wasn't the

00:28:41.000 guy that I had always thought it was. I didn't have to be that guy. And so that was a pretty amazing

00:28:47.880 moment in my life. And, and from that point on, no matter how many times I still screwed up,

00:28:53.240 I always knew I was going to be okay. And I knew I could work hard, work hard and make something

00:29:00.200 happen. Very, very, uh, uh, great story to hear. Now, uh, let me ask you for yourself,

00:29:07.400 is it a challenge till today? Cause I do know, I think in 2014, something happened with an Escalade

00:29:11.880 driving into the car. Is it a challenge that you struggle with till today? Is it still constant working

00:29:16.760 on it? Yeah. You got to work on, for me, it's the substance abuse, just to, you know, I've always,

00:29:25.400 you're always that far away from, you know, getting gobbled up by the monster, which is to me,

00:29:32.200 it could be depression, or if that happened again, that, you know, any kind of thing where that took me

00:29:39.320 off course mentally would be bad. Uh, but I don't feel that that is a problem anymore because of all

00:29:45.640 the time I've got of doing, doing good, good stuff. Uh, but I did until, you know, 2013, I had, uh,

00:29:55.640 I had, I had become very successful and I started kind of patting myself on the back a lot, even though

00:30:02.920 I didn't, I didn't want to do that. I didn't, I didn't believe that. I didn't want to think of

00:30:08.360 myself as a rock star. I just wanted to be this guy, to continue to be this guy, but I had started

00:30:16.200 drinking, you know, celebrating. I was going to Mexico. I discovered tequila, you know, and I

00:30:22.280 started having a great time. And, uh, you know, for me, I don't really do anything a little bit. I do,

00:30:28.760 I do it a lot. You can look at my, you can look at the mask behind me. That's like, that's like a,

00:30:35.000 that's like a needle in the haystack of, of the stuff that I have. But anyway,

00:30:42.200 You're one of the biggest collectors in the world, apparently. I mean, it's, uh, you, you got,

00:30:46.360 I gotta be, yeah, I gotta be one of, one of the most prolific, uh, African art collectors that there

00:30:55.400 is. But anyway, that's, that's either cool or that's kind of insane. One or the other, I go to both.

00:31:02.440 So, uh, but I, that's another thing. I mean, this, this art was one of the things that brought me

00:31:08.920 out of what happened in 2013 with the Escalade and the three cop cars. Uh, and, and, but the reason

00:31:15.640 that that happened, uh, there's not a simple reason, but, uh, was because of that getting away

00:31:23.400 from who I was, you know, becoming, I always was afraid of becoming a parody of myself. You know,

00:31:30.440 I used to speak, I'd go, I'd speak to hundreds of people a day, you know, get up and just tell my

00:31:37.400 story. And, uh, I might have a drink before I go in there just because I wanted to relax,

00:31:44.040 you know, a little bit. And then afterwards I go drink a bunch and I have a driver, you know,

00:31:50.120 I didn't, I had my own driver and stuff. So I didn't need to, I wasn't drinking and driving. So,

00:31:57.160 uh, that became a little bit worse and a little bit worse. And it was always tequila. That was my

00:32:02.840 thing. And after a couple of years of that, things, things started happening that weren't cool.

00:32:10.760 Um, it wasn't any kind of crime or any kind of

00:32:16.120 anything really bad. It was just like my behavior wasn't what it should have been.

00:32:21.560 And then the incident happened in 2013 to the cops, which was actually a bipolar meltdown.

00:32:28.600 Do you know, it took place after about a month of not drinking, but the drinking is what led to it,

00:32:35.400 led up to this whole thing. I quit drinking, but then I started having all this resentment in my mind.

00:32:41.640 Another terrible thing to have in your life is resentment, right? So, uh, I was having some bad

00:32:48.120 thoughts and I didn't get depressed, but instead I started discovering this other part of myself,

00:32:54.680 this manic side and I was going up this hill of mania and I didn't realize it. Uh, I just thought

00:33:04.200 I was thinking really good, but I wasn't. So that led to the moment with the cops that

00:33:12.600 was very unfortunate in some ways, but the way I look at it is everything that happens happens

00:33:18.920 because you did that. You made it happen one way or the other. Yeah. It shouldn't have happened the

00:33:24.600 way that it happened, but you know, I'm the one who creates my life. So now I'm still on, uh,

00:33:32.600 restrictions from that. But I had this, you know, the art was of the African art was I realized a way

00:33:43.560 for me to forget about all that. And that's, it's been a good thing in that sense. Hey, Dave, I lost

00:33:48.840 a friend of mine years ago. I never forget the day when it happened. Uh, it was an 05 when I got

00:33:53.960 the phone call. I was on my way to an event at diamond bar, California. And it was a buddy of mine

00:33:59.240 who had a hard time with the drugs. He started off with weed and then it led to a lot of different

00:34:03.400 things. And then eventually the hardest one he couldn't get off of was a Vicodin. It was 25 to 50 a day.

00:34:08.920 And I would take him to the rehab center. And eventually at the very young age, he passed away.

00:34:14.200 What, which, I mean, I don't know how much you, uh, uh, uh, you, uh, you know, messed around with

00:34:20.520 drugs and how much you tried for yourself. Which one of them was the one that was the toughest to

00:34:25.000 get off of where it got ahold of you? Was there any one that got you the worst? Well, it's different.

00:34:31.960 It was different areas of my life. So, uh, the, the first drug that appealed to me and made me

00:34:38.760 go, Oh wow. Life is worth living. You know, cause I tried all kinds of drugs, but it wasn't until

00:34:45.480 I did methamphetamine and I put it in my arm, uh, the very first time.

00:34:52.440 And I, I just, my, it was, it was my first epiphany. You know, I told you about the epiphany

00:34:58.120 that changed my life later. Well, this was like a, this was a drug induced epiphany. And I looked

00:35:04.920 around and I started, I became a different person, you know, not a good person, not a good person,

00:35:11.000 but, uh, I was enjoying my life for the first time. And, uh, so I was, I was doing the dope. So

00:35:20.440 it was hard to get off of that. And this is a psychological thing. You know, I, I didn't want

00:35:26.280 to live without it because without it, I wasn't happy, but drugs physically, physically like

00:35:33.720 Vicodin is horrible. If you gotta, if you do a lot of Vicodin, I did get, uh, hooked on Oxycontin

00:35:42.040 at one point. And the physical withdrawal from that is something you do not want to live, you know,

00:35:48.840 live with if you're doing a lot of it. Oxycontin. Yeah. I think it's similar to, I mean,

00:35:56.280 bargaining could be the same thing, you know? Yeah. It's, it's, uh, it's, uh, you know, it's,

00:36:02.840 it's funny when he gets ahold of you, it's like, you can't even recognize that. I remember one time

00:36:06.280 I'm at a restaurant with this guy and he says, I gotta go to my car to get something. I'm like,

00:36:09.480 no, you're not, you don't need, you're not going to your car to get something. I follow him. I

00:36:12.600 didn't trust what he was saying. I follow him to the car. He goes to his trunk. He opens it up,

00:36:18.120 opens up the thing, picks up like six, seven to throw it in. I grabbed his hand, grabbed the bottle,

00:36:22.680 walked off. He's crying, begging me to allow him to take six pills, begging me, begging me,

00:36:30.200 say, please let me, I said, I'm not going to give it to you. I'm begging you. I'm in so much pain.

00:36:35.080 I've never seen any grown man in that kind of pain. I said, I gotta take this guy to somewhere.

00:36:41.080 And even after the 14 days of rehab, the guy that was selling the Vicodin was a former dentist who was

00:36:46.360 selling it to a guy that a dentist was getting the Vicodin off to this kid who was a, anyways,

00:36:51.960 it's a whole different story, but man, it's, it's great to see what you've done with yourself.

00:36:55.640 By the way, since, since you have the experience, Dave, any, any opinions you have, because you know,

00:37:00.760 the prison reform conversation comes up all the time, right? So you have those who

00:37:09.240 say, Hey, you know, why are you sending people to jail? Like, I think you went to jail for

00:37:14.360 stealing a $12.99 cell phone accessory. And I think you did a year for that. Is that true? Or is that

00:37:19.240 fake story? I did two, I did two years for that one. They turned it into a robbery. It was really

00:37:25.720 just a shoplifting, but I resisted arrest on the way out. And, uh, they, because of my records, see,

00:37:33.880 that's just, that's a lesson itself. I had already done time. I'd been in prison twice at that point.

00:37:41.400 And, uh, one of them was in Massachusetts for armed robbery. So I came back and this happened.

00:37:48.840 And because of my record, they charged me with robbery. They would have otherwise not done that.

00:37:54.200 And then I couldn't, I even went to trial on it and did time over it. So

00:37:58.280 no, no, no, no. I guess where I was going with, I just asked you if it's true. And I think you said

00:38:03.080 something very interesting at the time. You said, I really suck at crime. My heart's not in it.

00:38:07.240 Yeah. But, but the point was, but the question I was going to ask you was the following.

00:38:11.720 Do you agree with the consensus or when people say, why do you let people go into jail for petty crime?

00:38:18.120 Because it's a training ground for doing the bigger crimes. When you went to jail,

00:38:23.240 were you around other people that taught you? Was it a training type of a ground to

00:38:28.040 teach someone to come out and do the bigger crime or no, you don't agree with that?

00:38:32.600 For me, it was, uh, I guess maybe some people hit a bottom when they first go to prison and they

00:38:39.720 don't go back. They don't, they don't keep doing it. And that's great when that happens. For me, um,

00:38:46.200 because of all my issues where the, where dope was the only way, you know, methamphetamine was the

00:38:51.480 only way I could feel good. I had to keep doing it and try to figure out ways to continue this

00:38:58.120 lifestyle. And, and, and so for, to me, it was a training ground. It was, uh, but what I was

00:39:04.440 getting trained to do was something stupider the next time, you know, that's, that's the way I look

00:39:09.880 at that. Some guys are just really good criminals. And some guys like me, I never really wanted to be

00:39:15.880 a criminal. I just didn't have much of a choice, I guess. Did you, did you, uh, uh, see the challenges

00:39:25.000 with a lot of your either peers when you were in, or when you started hiring folks that there was

00:39:31.320 help that was needed through a doctor medication, because you know, some people you'll have different

00:39:37.800 opinions on that. Some will say it's just an excuse. Some will say, no, they need help. Like there's a

00:39:42.680 debate that goes back and forth from your experiences, from where you were at, have you seen

00:39:47.160 some that use an excuse or have you seen it where a lot of them do have something that they're

00:39:51.480 struggling with from childhood, maybe for you was your father, maybe for somebody else abused, you know,

00:39:56.120 somebody died. Did you see some mental link to the, the treachery or the mistakes they made him when

00:40:03.160 he come down to committing a crime? Was there a link between the two? Yeah. I think everything has,

00:40:09.960 has a, you know, a cause and effect. So, uh, I think a lot of things can be scientific or not,

00:40:18.760 they can be brought down to accountability. Like you were saying, if, um, in my case,

00:40:24.600 learning to be self accountable was a huge part of my, of my growth. So when I look at say the homeless

00:40:32.440 problem, uh, important, for example, I, I'm like, okay, the reason this is happening is because it's

00:40:41.640 too easy to be homeless. You make it, you make it easy. You make it, if, if life, if I've been homeless

00:40:49.640 before back in the day, right. I'm the streets of Detroit, Michigan, and they weren't, it wasn't

00:40:56.280 good. It was wintertime and I did not want to be homeless. I did everything I could because I was

00:41:02.120 trying to survive out there. These guys, it's, they're like, okay, well, you've got a problem.

00:41:09.640 You're homeless. So, you know, after a while they just become, it becomes another, uh, part of the

00:41:16.840 city, another place to live. It's all over the streets. Um, and I'm like, this is being enabled.

00:41:25.240 So it's enablement of, uh, in this case, homelessness, homelessness, which is, it also

00:41:30.440 enables drug addiction. Uh, you can say, well, I can give treatment to that person, you know,

00:41:38.200 and that's going to say, well, not really it on its own. It's not going to do it because

00:41:43.720 they can just go right back really easy and start that, that cycle right all over again.

00:41:49.960 And they will. So to me, the first thing that has to be done with, uh, to stop crime and violence and

00:42:00.120 you know, drug addiction and homelessness is you gotta have tough love. And, uh,

00:42:06.360 uh, because I would have never changed if I had a life, an easy life and to move forward. So

00:42:14.280 that I don't like excuses. I don't, I don't put up with excuses, not from myself or anyone else.

00:42:20.760 What a way of explaining it. And do you have any other thoughts on prison reform? Like I'm sure

00:42:26.280 what the conversation comes up, you say, you know, if let's just say they hired you and you got a call

00:42:31.320 from the white house saying, Hey, you know, we have a handful of people that want to bring in

00:42:34.360 to give us their perspective of how they changed their lives. Like you're one of the best stories

00:42:37.800 in America. You change your life. What other feedback would you give for us to both minimize

00:42:44.120 crime as well as not to create a good training ground? Would you have any other feedback on

00:42:48.520 prison reform? Well, uh, I, what I just said kind of, uh, encompasses the whole, the whole thing. So

00:42:57.720 that's my, my deal. I do believe that you can't, you can't have, it doesn't help to hate on people. It

00:43:06.280 doesn't help to any kind of negativity is bad. Encouraging positive behavior is good. Uh, but also holding

00:43:18.120 having a carrot and stick, you know, kind of worse than everything in life. So you're, if I can, if I can

00:43:26.920 help you, you got to help yourself. If you can help yourself, I can help you. But if you're not going

00:43:33.240 to do your part, then what am I doing? You know? So I, I don't have like specifics. I, uh, you know,

00:43:41.400 like one specific principle or, uh, this is just my experience. And I look around and I see the things

00:43:49.000 that I disagree with. And, uh, and I just go to, to me, it's common sense. You just can't make it that easy.

00:43:56.920 But a story, by the way, uh, uh, just out of curiosity, who, who do people say you'll look

00:44:01.320 like? I have three people. I'm curious to know if I have any one of them, right? Who do people say

00:44:05.320 you'll look like? I'm looking at myself right now and I'm going, I have no idea.

00:44:14.920 So, but you don't have one person. By the way, they look like me. They look like me.

00:44:19.480 I don't know. So I'm going to give you a couple of names. Well, first of all,

00:44:22.440 you look like a Hollywood star. I mean, if people see your pictures, you, you look like you belong

00:44:26.120 in Hollywood. You don't look like you belong in, uh, you know, selling a bread. You look like a

00:44:30.040 Hollywood star yourself, but I see a couple of your younger pictures. You look like a Patrick Swayze

00:44:36.440 meets Kurt Russell meets a Bob Robin Williams. That's kind of how I see.

00:44:41.880 Oh, wow. That's good. I've, I've heard of Robin Williams things growing up when he was

00:44:47.320 Mork and I was about, uh, 14 or something. And ladies, women would always say, oh, you're

00:44:54.520 a cute little Robin Williams. You know, I didn't really like that. But I, I'm happy with who I am.

00:45:01.720 So listen, I, I, uh, applaud you. I have so much respect for you, Dave. And I hope this message is

00:45:09.480 shared with the right people where you could help inspire millions of people out there. Once again,

00:45:15.080 appreciate you for being a guest on value attainment. Thank you. I, I, I do appreciate

00:45:20.840 your questions, your line of questions. I think they were really good questions. Uh,

00:45:25.640 I've done a lot of interviews and this has really been one of the, one of the best ones.

00:45:29.720 Thank you, Dave. Appreciate you. What a comeback story, huh? Can you imagine like

00:45:32.840 you go from doing jail time for 15 years and then you have an epiphany moment. You come out,

00:45:36.760 you come out with this bread called Dave's killer bread and you go from selling 200 loaves a week

00:45:45.640 to now they're selling nearly 10 million a week. Can you imagine that? Sells it for $275 million.

00:45:50.280 Biggest takeaway, I'm curious, comment below. And if you enjoyed this interview, got another interview

00:45:54.120 I think you'll enjoy with Freeway Rick Ross, the original Freeway Rick Ross. If you've never watched it,

00:45:59.000 click over here to watch. Take care everybody. Bye bye.

00:46:01.400 Bye bye.

Valuetainment - July 23, 2021

How A 15 Year Felon Sold His Company for $275 Million

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