At 38, Dave Was in Prison. Then He Baked Some Bread

In a remote, sad, Eastern Oregon prison a few hours from where I live, Dave Dahl was 38 years old and trying to figure out how to kill himself.

He had spent about 15 years in and out of prison, and was deep into his fourth sentence. Then he did something that led to something that sounds small, but changed the entire direction of his life.

(And isn’t that how it often works? I often mention little changes can create big results. Dave is the latest proof that you do not have to reinvent your whole life, sometimes it’s simply a step onto a new path.)

What did Dave do? He filled out a simple, little prison request slip asking for help.

A medical provider met with Dave, listened, and prescribed him an antidepressant.

Dave later said that soon afterward, “Everything started working better.”

He picked up his guitar again, learned faster, and found that he could make progress in a computer-aided drafting program. He had not become a different person overnight. But, for the first time, he could think clearly again and imagine a future that was not just more prison, more drugs, and more despair.

He had hope. He gave hope a chance.

Brother, Can Your Spare a Dime?

That change gave Dave the nerve to reach out to his brother Glenn, who ran the family bakery in Portland.

Dave would be getting out of prison again soon and wanted to come home and work there. Glenn had heard that promise before, but this time he heard something different in his brother.

So yes, on December 27, 2004, Glenn picked Dave up at the bus station and offered him a job for $12 an hour.

There was one small complication: Dave had not baked bread in more than a decade. He hardly remembered how to work with dough. But he was ready to make dough, and make some dough (groan, I know! 😬)

He was paid for 40 hours a week but spent closer to 80 hours at the bakery, trying recipes and testing ideas.

Then one weird loaf came out of the oven and he knew he might have something.

He called it “Blues Bread”: a hearty whole-wheat loaf with seeds and blue cornmeal.

Dave and his nephew brought four varieties to the Portland Farmers Market in August 2005. One, called Killer Bread, was so covered with sunflower, flax, pumpkin, and sesame seeds that a local reporter said it looked as if it had been rolled in a bird feeder.

They sold the loaves for $4 and $4.50. Not exactly a bargain loaf, but people wanted them. A lot of people wanted them.

Brandtastic!

The real brand breakthrough came when the family decided to put Dave’s story and face on the package. The marketing firm they consulted thought “ex-con” and “Killer Bread” together sounded too risky. Dave and his family went ahead with the idea anyway . . .

And “Dave’s Killer Bread” was born.

When the farmers market ended, customers asked where else they could buy the bread. Dave told them to ask their stores. They did, and the product moved into co-ops and grocery stores.

Dave’s bread, and the branding - with a buff, smiling ex-con on the cover - well, killed it. (What did you expect?)

By 2015, the Dahl family bakery generally, and Dave’s Killer Bread specifically, had become so successful that they were able to sell Dave’s Killer Bread to Flowers Foods for approximately $275 million.

But the business Dave helped create began with that request for help, a brother willing to take a chance, and a loaf of bread Portland customers wanted to take home.

The Takeaway

“Dave’s Killer Bread” is a hell of a brand name.

It’s funny, audacious, and impossible to confuse with another seeded loaf. Add Dave’s story and that muscle-bound cartoon on the bag, and the name gave customers something to remember and tell their friends.

The lesson is to find the tension only your business can own. Dave’s was a former inmate making a loaf so good he called it “Killer Bread.” The name connected the product, the founder, and the story in two words. That’s a brand choice that kicks ass.

How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

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Learn more.

Steal This Strategy

🎙️ Listen: How I Built This: Dave’s Killer Bread. Dave tells the story of learning to bake again and building the brand with his family.

 📰 Read: The Small Business Bible: Ready to start your own killer business? Steve’s best-seller shows you “everything you need to know.”

💡 Put a second chance con to work: Dave’s Killer Bread’s Second Chance Employment program. The company turned its founder’s experience into a hiring practice that creates opportunities for people with criminal backgrounds.

📰 Read: Willamette Week: “Breaking Bread”. The Portland reporting behind the local market launch and the complicated story behind the label.

About Steve

Steve Strauss is often called “The Voice of Small Business.” A best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!