Common Threads- Ep. 1 Dave Dahl by Alando Ballantyne
The soft, yellow ceiling light just inside the doorway is the only one in the room. A few feet away is an orange drum set. Beyond the drummer, the shadows stretch. Going clockwise is the bass player, the rhythm guitarist and finally, farthest away from the door is the lead guitarist and singer, Dave Dahl.@@name checked@@
The shadows on both guitarists are longest. They’re playing “Nothing Else Matters,” a song originally composed by Metallica@@checked@@. It’s a popular song, but listening to a band play it where three of the members have served time — two of whom have put in more than 35 combined years behind bars — it seems to take on a new meeting.
“Trust I seek and I find in you / Every day for us something new / Open mind for a different view / And nothing else matters.”
Members of the band jump as the music raises them, the second floor of Dahl’s house bouncing beneath their feet. They’re smiling, leaning back as fingers dance between guitar frets, the electric bass exchanging beats with the kick drum.
In this moment — a past life of crime and prison, of hundreds of thousands of loaves of bread, of meetings, speeches and quarterly earnings — these things are all left behind.
Does one’s past dictate who they can become in the future?
The moment is simple.
“Sometimes people just have to suffer enough. That’s my case,” said Dahl, ex-con and president of wildly successful Dave’s Killer Bread.
The moment, the life of Dave Dahl, is tough, determined, exciting, sad, reborn, incredible and grinding on and on.
On and on.
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After years spent as a drug addict and meth dealer, it was during Dahl’s fourth stint in prison that things changed for him. He says he finally learned the concept of humility and sought help for his depression.
“Humility is a huge, huge thing — finally realizing that I was this guy who didn’t have to stack up to anybody’s standards,” Dahl said.
“I’m no more or no less than who I am. When I got to be OK with people seeing who I really am, that was such a freeing moment, and then I became teachable.”
And it was at this point that everything changed for Dahl.
“Since 2001, I haven’t really had a bad day. I have bad moments — my leg hurts, et cetera — but never a bad day.”
After Dahl got out of prison in 2004, Glenn Dahl@@http://www.seattledining.com/ARCHIVE/Food%20Products/killer_bread.htm@@, then CEO of NatureBake (a family bakery his and Dave’s father started half a century earlier), offered Dave a job. Shobi Dahl,@@http://naturebake.com/history.shtml@@ son of Glenn, current CEO of NatureBake and Dave’s Killer Bread, recalled Dave’s re-entry into their lives.
“When Dave got out of prison, he had a lot of pent-up drive to make something of himself that he had been missing for the last couple decades of his life,” Shobi said.
After Dave proved himself working a few years in NatureBake’s bakery, Glenn decided to give him the chance to come up with a new product. In 2005, Dave, recent college graduate, Shobi and ever-constant Glenn launched a new product line called “Dave’s Killer Bread.”
From the moment they began selling the bread at a Portland Farmers Market, they found huge success. But the success of Dave’s brainchild also created tension which escalated to a self-described feud between the Dahls.
“He hit the ground running, and in a lot of ways, it was kind of difficult to keep up with, because he was single-minded in his determination to make up in a positive way for all the years wasted,” Shobi said.
When the clashing was at its height, the Dahls sought help with Eugene Wallace, president of Family Business Advisers@@http://www.familybusinessadvisers.com/archives/290@@. Wallace explained the challenges of their situation.
“Candidly, they had to simultaneously work on family relationships, their roles in the business and transition of ownership while beginning a period of rapid growth. Really, they had the ‘perfect storm’ situation,” he said.
The three eventually worked through their differences and although they don’t hang out much outside of work, they are in constant contact regarding the business — emailing, meeting and calling each other about topics as varied as bakery expansion, new marketing ideas, evaluation of better health care plans for the employees and how to get local farmers more involved in current and future products.
“All of us here are very committed to each aspect of the vision. It’s just that all of us have our different strengths,” Shobi said, regarding the way the three of them work together.
“Things definitely work better now than originally — (we) had a lot to learn about how the others operate.”
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Today, the explosive growth of Dave’s business continues. Recently, the companies began selling breads in about 300 Safeways in northern California. They estimate that their annual revenue in 2011 was $39 million. Additionally, Dave’s Killer Bread donates 325,000 loaves annually to various organizations including the Oregon Food Bank@@http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/?c=129708989638291471@@ and the Portland Rescue Mission@@http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/@@.
Despite all of the company meetings, promotional appearances, community lectures and a seven-days-a-week packed schedule, Dave retains a sense of humor.
During a presentation and lecture he made to the University Entrepreneurial Club@@http://www.lcb.uoregon.edu/App_Aspx/LceCurrent.aspx?lceCurrent.2.txt/Default.aspx@@ in Lillis Business Complex on Wednesday night, someone asked Dave what the most unexpected thing he’d come across in transformation from convicted felon to successful business leader.
“Well, the fact that people like me,” Dave said, laughing.
It is with heavy hearts and strained words that friends and family discuss some of the more somber parts of Dave’s past. One of the lowest points was many years ago when a methamphetamine-fueled Dave had a dispute with Glenn that eventually led to Dave burglarizing his brother’s home.
Is the kind of person that somebody was in the past the same kind of person they are bound to be in the future?
“I think that the kind of person that you are in the core of you is the kind of person that you are always going to be,” said Ladd Justesen@@http://www.facebook.com/DavesKillerBread?sk=info@@, a longtime close friend of Dave’s and also his personal assistant at the company. “I think there are circumstances that can change your direction, but the type of person you are is the kind of person you’ll always be.”
After they finished playing, the four friends put down their guitars and headed downstairs to have a drink. They all joked with each other and laughed.
A good seed will eventually grow to become a great thing — all that’s needed is the right soil.