Second Chances - How Daniel Dart Rewrote His Future

Step into a story of transformation and tenacity with Daniel Dart, whose life has taken turns worthy of a Hollywood script. 


Once a member of a rising punk rock band, Daniel faced his share of dark times, from battling legal issues to confronting personal demons. But rather than let these challenges spell his end, they marked the beginning of an astonishing metamorphosis.

In this captivating episode, we unravel the story of how a troubled youth with a knack for music turned his life around to spearhead Rock Yard Ventures. This venture isn't just a business; it's a symbol of optimism and inspiration, showing that it's possible to rewrite your narrative with the right mix of grit and wisdom.

Listen as Daniel shares insights from his unique path, revealing how critical decisions and hard-learned lessons helped him transition to a leader in a sector ripe for change. From his early days in the tumultuous rock scene to his groundbreaking entry into the venture capital world, his journey is a masterclass in perseverance and vision.

Tune into this episode to discover how Daniel Dart uses his life lessons to forge a new future for himself and aspiring entrepreneurs. His story is more than inspiring—it's a powerful reminder that the past doesn't define us but can propel us into unexpected, fulfilling futures.

00:00 - Introduction
02:22 - Tough Moments Growing Up Psychological Resilience
02:57 - Background and Challenges
05:50 - Believing in Yourself
09:29 - The Journey is the Reward
12:58 - Being Your Own Advocate
16:23 - Facing Fear and Overcoming Challenges
26:44 - Finding Your Audience
28:09 - Defining Moment and Trying 100%
29:21 - Emotional Maturity and Self-Worth
30:18 - Life in Prison and Personal Transformation
33:10 - Rebuilding Life and Changing Networks
34:29 - Getting Involved in Second Chance Social Campaigns
38:02 - Working on Economic Mobility and Entrepreneurship
40:29 - Gaining Knowledge in Economics and Research
43:37 - Making an Impact with Social Campaigns
48:25 - Pursuing Higher Education and Venture Capital
53:20 - Focus on Core Industries and Economic Mobility

Daniel On Socials:
IG: @itsdanieldart
FB: https://www.facebook.com/itsdanieldart/
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-dart/
https://rockyardventures.com/

Jon on Socials:
IG: @streetschultz
FB: Jon Schultz
LinkedIn: jonschultz1
www.jonschultz.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So welcome to the John Schultz Podcast. And I have an amazing guest today.
You know I say that every time, but like this may be Amazing
Squared. It's that good and I'mso excited for this podcast. We have
Daniel Dart. He's the founder ofrock Yard Ventures, which is an unbelievable

(00:23):
new venture fund which he created,and he was involved also in music.
He founded DC Artists. He representedSeal not only on a book but a
film, managed many people and thatsort of went towards a different direction,

(00:46):
and he did social justice programming forclients like the Jeff Bezos actually the Bezos
Family Foundation, which is run byJeff Bezos parents, worked on campaigns for
the Obama White House, and youknow many more which we're gonna hear about.
But just a little preamble. Welcometo the podcast, dude, thank

(01:08):
you for having me. Sure,all right, so we always start way
back, you know. So myfirst question to you is where did you
grow up and how would you describeyourself as a young man? Yeah,
yeah, no, I love that. So I grew up in California.
And I say California just because Istopped living with my parents and kind of

(01:30):
went into placements full time at thirteen, and before then I lived in the
Bay Area, and then after thatI lived in like southern California and around,
so I kind of just say Californiain general. But what I would
say is, like, my dadworks in the building material space. That's
where in lumberyard and construction. That'swhere the name of the Rockyard came from.

(01:53):
Is you know, growing up,he had this place in his business
that he ran called the Rockyard thatsold building materials and stuff like that.
And even though my childhood was supertumultuous and all that stuff, and there
was many years when me and mydad probably weren't the best of friends,
I still love my parents so much, and this is kind of my way
of honoring them and kind of carryingon their legacy and just to kind of

(02:17):
note on that. It's as Igo through and we'll talk about it in
the story of going to prison andbeing homeless and all of these things,
and having to kind of seek outthe opportunity for people to give me second
chances. That's one of the thingswhere now like me and my dad and
mom are best friends, and it'slike, yeah, there's frustration about stuff

(02:37):
that happened thirty years ago, butlike it was thirty years ago, so
sometimes we I think we just gotto get over it. And yeah,
so again it's amazing how we grow, but you know we had to go
through it. So you went throughit, right, so you know,
share what you want, But youknow what was the tough moments growing up?

(02:59):
Like what but enabled you to goin the direction that you did?
And how did that sort of unfold? I think it kind of ties into
the thing you said a minute agoabout just kind of growing. I think
the biggest thing was just myself growingand getting a little more mature and getting
wisdom and then also like realizing thata lot of things aren't They're not life

(03:23):
or death. Someone said to merecently, They're like, oh, you
seem like a risk taper, AndI'm like, I don't think so actually,
And they're like, what do youmean? And I'm like, to
me, like, a risk issomething where I might end up dead.
Like it's like let me throw outa parachute and then you jump out and
try and catch it. Like that'sa risk, you know, But something

(03:44):
where I might fail, or somethingwhere I might kind of eat crap or
something that's not a risk, Likefailure is not bad. And so I
think when I kind of look atthat and just the journey of the failures,
I sometimes I'm just like, Iwas so grateful. Even later when
we talk about being in prison,there was times where I'm like, you
know, prison sucks, but like, you know, it could be worse,

(04:08):
you know, right, well,you know, unfortunately, no matter
what happens to us, we gotto get through it, right. I
mean, if you watch all thesemotivational videos that we all watch, it's,
you know, it's always someone's toughestmoment, right, it's always you
know, you know, you cango through directions you pick it, but
then you have to get through thatmoment that you picked, which which is

(04:30):
difficult. And I guess because youknow, you went through probably more challenging
situations than the normal person would haveto ever deal with, you know,
psychologically, how do you do it? I mean, how do you get
through it? And because you can, you can literally just say and have

(04:53):
no hope. I think the onlyway we live through life is having hope.
You know. I have a afriend that wrote a book called Learn
Hopefulness, and it's a best sellerand it's all about like that moment where
you have that little hope to goforward. How did you how did you
get through it? Why don't youjust give a little background on, you

(05:14):
know, what happened, and thenwe could talk about how you came out
of it. Yeah. So Ithink it's very nonlinear. It feels nonlinear
even though explaining it it's linear.So growing up there was just a lot
of I would say, volatility,and I think I was super immature.
I was a kid. I thinkmy parents sometimes didn't know how to deal

(05:34):
with it and vice versa, andit led to just tumultuous times a factor
of ten. I stopped living withmy parents around thirteen fourteen and went into
placements, and looking back, itwasn't so bad honestly, Like you know,
I got to be on my own. I got to kind of get
out and run a bit. Ithink the problem was is growing up I

(05:58):
never really had any roos. Andthey say, like, in order for
a flower to blue, I'm withthe must have roots. And so there
was a period of time I thinkfrom really birth all the way to like
my mid twenties where I didn't feellike I really belonged anywhere but there were
certain things that I think we talkedabout finding hopefulness and all of those things.
There were certain qualities and aspects thatI think my parents really instilled in

(06:21):
me that I still carry, whichis why they're kind of my heroes.
And like, one thing my dadreally instilled with me is this work ethic,
where like, hey, if youwant to be an astronaut, if
you work hard enough, like youcould figure it out. So like I
have this kind of innate feeling thateven today, if I wanted to be
an astronaut, like there was away, and there were certain things that

(06:44):
he would say to me about thatthat I kind of carried that later when
I went to London School of Economics, no one had ever been to the
program in grad school without an undergrador any of that, and so like
my first thing was like, okay, well I'll be the first, and
the same thing mit of being thefirst form lainecarcerated guy. It was kind
of all of these things that mydad had stilled with me, that kind

(07:05):
of work ethic, and so evenmore times were really bad, he kind
of built in a sense of grit. And then alongside that, my mom
always and she must have said thisto me literally a million times in my
life, that like this too shallpass, right, like this too shall

(07:26):
pass, and even growing up,and I think when things were really hard,
it wasn't always like hey, it'sreally hard for you. It was
kind of like we're really hard forus, and like this too shall pass,
like we'll find our way through.And so a lot of those different
things. I think like having thatas kind of a core belief system,

(07:47):
I always kind of say, andyou know, I've talked to you a
little bit about my fund Like whatI try to say all the time is
I want to be the tortoise ina world of hairs, right Like where
I'm at right now is not reallyas important as it sounds, because like
this is not the finish line,right Like, I'm still in the game.
So maybe if I'm a little bitfarther behind, maybe if it's taken

(08:09):
me a little bit longer, likelike that's okay. And so I always
try to say that, like,hey, I'm a tortoise in a world
of hers. And I've felt thatway ever since I was a kid,
like I will outlast you. AndI think like type of that resilience it
allows you to kind of push throughthe hard times because you don't think they're
permanent. Well, you had,you know, hard times as an understatement

(08:33):
on what you know you ended uphaving coming through, And I agree,
I feel like, Okay, beinga tortoise is better because when it's all
over, it's over, Like thejourney is the only thing. If we
could just get that in our brainthat all the fun is the journey because
at the end it's over, likewe're all on this planet for a finite

(08:56):
time. Yeah. And then it'sweird because I kind of grew and you
know, in the last few yearsrecently into the feeling I would hear people
growing up saying like I have noregrets and I'm so grateful for this,
and like, up until my midthirties, i'd be like, dar,
that's crazy, Like just because younever had really bad shit happen, Like
I have a ton of regrets,you know, And it's weird. As

(09:18):
I got to a certain age,I kind of started to look at it
differently because you know, when Isay I was homeless, it wasn't like
I slept on a buddy's couch.It was like, yo, like I
literally slept on the street for years. You know, there was like whole
entire calendar years where I slept behinda stairwell and I went to food banks,

(09:39):
and I would go to College AvenueBaptist Church Monday through Friday from six
to nine am and get my coffeein free day all donuts. Like I
went through all of those things.And now it's built in this sense of
kind of radical empathy, you know. And that's the great thing is like
I can kind of tread anywhere,and I think that now it's actually a

(10:03):
superpower, right and along the way, one of the things that I thought
was very interesting is I had afriend named Shaw Jackson that I knew when
I was like eighteen, and Isaw him when I was in my mid
twenties and I was doing much better. And he had known me when I
was homeless, because every once ina while we would cross paths and I
saw him and I'm in my midtwenties. I'm telling him like, yeo,

(10:24):
man, I'm doing so much better. Da da dah, and he
kind of blew it off. Hewas like, oh, yeah, I
knew you would. And I wassurprised. I said, wow, what
You're not surprised? He goes no, Man, I knew you would make
it, so I'm not surprised.And it's weird because at the time I
didn't even know that I would makeit. Right, I saw him like,
how did you know? And hegoes, Man, even when your

(10:46):
life was horrible, I remember yourlife was so jacked, you still had
a smile on your face. AndI knew that one day it was gonna
work out. Like I just knewit. I'm like, there's it's gonna
work out for this guy, andhe's like, man, your life was
so bad. Like if my lifewas your life, i'd run into traffic,
but like you would still be smilingand and I'd do it was just

(11:07):
a matter of time before you caughta break, and you kind of did
that, and I kind of lookat it now and we'll fast forward even
now to building the fund. Ihave this theory that I call my Michelangelo
theory. So like I love toread, I read vociferously, like all
the time. And when I wasreading the history of Michelangelo, one of

(11:28):
the world's greatest, greatest artists,he had three patrons his whole life,
two popes and the di Medici.And now I know they're big patrons,
but I think the thing is especiallybuilding and like, I don't need a
million people to have my back.I just need to find that right cohort
of believers and they can really ridewith me my whole life. And so
now as I'm looking, hey,where am I gonna move, it's like,

(11:52):
don't try to convince the skeptics,just find your believers. And that's
kind of kind of how I doit. So I love that, and
I'll tell you why. I've doneenough of these podcasts now, and there's
all these really cool themes no matterwhere anyone came from, and everyone has
this story of there was, forsome reason, always someone there that made

(12:16):
someone feel strong enough to actually getto the next thing. It could have
been like someone brought them over intoa new job, or someone said they
could do it. You know,you know these motivational quotes and things that
are just on Instagram. Those aregood, but it's not the same when
you have that little circle of peoplethat make you feel that you can do

(12:37):
it right, just like our parentsor whoever that was in our younger lives
that did that. So in thatquestion, knowing that you were homeless,
and you know, this guy saidit after he didn't say it before,
and that you did have your stintsin prison that you had to deal with.
Where did you find it there,because that's not a normal place for

(12:58):
that to be. So that's aninteresting thing. So, you know,
to kind of give a little linearthing. So grow up in California in
the placements at thirteen, homeless,eighteen to twenty one, end up starting
a rock band, and the rockband gets signed. Next thing, you
know, we have a gold recordand we do it. I bring that
up because there was this song,one of our first songs that kind of
took off, was called Me andYou, and it's a story of me

(13:22):
talking to someone kind of in thejourney from Homeless as the band, and
it's weird. Someone a fan said, who's who's the person who's the me
and You? And you know,I said, you got to decide,
it's up to you. But thetruth is that Me and You is me
talking to myself. And so alot of times, like I do talk
to myself, I'll be like,yo, Daniel, you got this bro,

(13:43):
and I say that like we're likeI really really really believe like you
have to be your own best friend. And so growing up. I would
tell myself. I would look inthe mirror and give those affirmations. I
said, bro, you got this, like you got this, Like we're
gonna get through it. You meright, And not like in an inner
voices type of thing, but justkind of that thing where it's like having

(14:07):
that self compassion and doing that.And so a lot of times, like
if I'm going into a big pitchmeeting or something, I'll just say the
same thing. I'll be like,Dan, you got this, bro,
Like you know, like I believein you, man, I love you,
man, and we're gonna do it. And whether we win or lose,
like, I'm still gonna love youand we're gonna try tomorrow. And
it's weird because upon reflection, it'salways been that way. And sometimes to

(14:31):
kind of add to that. Theother day, I'm on a road show
right now. I'm in Philly.I was heading the airport at like four
am, and I was just liketalking to myself and just like thinking,
I'm like, man, I'm justso grateful, and I'm like, bro,
like this journey is amazing, youknow. And I even like yelled
it in my car by myself drivingthe airport at four in the morning,

(14:52):
like, and I think the overarchingthing of that is to how do you
build in those moments of awe whereit's like you're just like, wow,
this is amazing. And and sometimeslike I'll pitch these big organizations like super
Famous, and whether they invest ornot, just the fact that I'm in
the room pitching them like this iscrazy, bro. Like I'm like,

(15:13):
yo, Like we're sitting here ina boardroom I like the one hundred story
in New York, like and andso it's like I kind of remember that
journey of who I am and whereI've come from and and and really try
to live with that. I don'twant to let it go, you know.
And so a lot of times,like I think, like you have
to be your own biggest advocate,not in a negative way where it's like

(15:37):
yo, I deserve this, orlike you owe me, but your biggest
advocate where you're like, yo,I really love the person I am and
I think I'm special, and Ithink I could do this and and just
don't give up. You know,we say, don't leave five minutes before
the miracle happens. I love meand you you know, so everyone says

(16:00):
you have to love yourself first.Everyone says you got to save yourself first
on the plane with the mask beforeyou can save someone else, and it's
all so true, but the keyis actually believing it. And I guess
because of what you went through,you were forced and you had no other
choice, right because you you know, there was no one else there that

(16:21):
actually maybe you felt you could grabonto it, least at the beginning.
Yeah. I mean, I havelike a few different like life ethos things.
One of them is like I willalways show up, like I won't
forfeit, right, So it's likeI think there was certain times in life
and I actually built this when Iwas like eighteen. So I ended up
getting arrested I think at eighteen fora fake ID or something, and I

(16:45):
spent a few nights in jail becauseI never went to court, and it's
weird, so when I went backto court, I would never and you
know, at this time, Iwas getting arrested a lot. So like
when you get arrested, you wantthem to release you on r if you're
a flight risker, you never showup. I never release you. And
it was weird because I really broughtthat on myself, you know, And
I made a conscious decision then atage eighteen, like no matter how afraid

(17:11):
I am or how uncomfortable I am, Like I'm always gonna show up,
Like you may beat me, butlike I'm not gonna beat myself, right,
And so that's a conscious thing,like no matter how scared I am,
no matter how afraid I am.And I'll tell you what, man,
I'm afraid a lot. You know. It's not like I'm like this
big ball of courage. I'll giveit a story in a sect. But

(17:33):
that's like one of my big lifeethos. On that story, I was
in prison. So I'm in prisonnow at thirty. I end up getting
arrested. I almost face life inprison. I end up doing a little
over three years before it gets overturnedon the feel in this time, I've
been in this one prison yard forabout a year and a half and they're
about to move me. And whenyou move prisons, it's really sketchy because

(17:56):
you don't know where you're gonna land. You don't know the dynamics or the
politics or the volatility. I wasa one prison where I got overtaken by
prisoners for like five days of theNational Guard that they can fight it back,
right, So it's like it canget really, really, really volatile.
And I'm there and one of mybuddies at the time, this guy
who's serving life comes up to meand he goes, how you feeling,

(18:19):
man, You're feeling good? AndI'm in prison, right, so yeah,
I'm good. You scared? AndI said none, I'm good and
good. But like in my head, I was like, yeah, you
know, and this dude his nicknamewas Insane, and he was there,
like I said, serving a lifesentence, and he was truly insane,
like he had killed a few people. And I don't try to minimize that,

(18:40):
but like just to tell you,like, this dude was scary and
it was weird. And he goes, it's okay to be afraid, man.
You know, I get afraid alot. It kind of blew my
mind, man, And because thiswas like one of the toughest dudes in
the whole prison. And I rememberthinking, like, what you get afraid?
He goes, oh, yeah,yeah, man. The only people
that don't get afraid are people thatare totally full of shit and they're lying

(19:04):
to you or they're completely psychotic.And in my head, I thought,
insane it was one of the completelypsychotic dudes, right, but he was
like, yeah, man, Iget afraid too. And we had this
conversation and it was it was reallyenlightening, right because like, if you
were to ask me who's the toughestcraziest dude that you've ever met, I

(19:26):
would tell you insane, right,Joseph Bell. And now he's telling me
that he gets scared too, right, And it's kind of one of those
things where it's like, I'm justgonna show up, you know, And
I think that's a big thing inlife. And then on the caveat on
that, which is another song frommy band oddly Enough, is never give
Up, and that kind of goeswith that forfeit thing, right, like

(19:48):
I'm just no matter what, I'malways gonna try. Right, So it's
like I'm gonna show up always andI'm always gonna try. And I say
that now with my fiance often I'msaying, hey, what's our family rule?
Right, Like we always show upand we just we always try,
so like it may not work,but we're gonna try, you know.
And at the end of the day, did we give it all we have?
And I kind of approached that andas I approach that thing and you

(20:11):
kind of build it into your ethos, shit works out. You know,
we haven't matter how one of thethings did. As we become better friends,
you'll hear me talk about a lot. I'm like, you know,
standing humans, right, whether they'reNeanderthals or hoborectus or homosty. It's been
around for a million years, right, for like nine hundred and eighty five

(20:34):
thousand of that we were fighting tigersand shit. You know. It's like
so like me having trouble raising LPcapital, Yo, it's not that big
of a deal, right, Andso it's like, you know, when
I put this into context and it'slike, hey, I'm gonna outlast the
next guy. I think that's there. And I also think that ethos being

(20:56):
an adventure now, like when Iwork with startup founder and stuff like that,
being able to bring that an authenticway is also a super powerful like,
Yo, let's keep things in context. Is this really a crisis where
we need to flip out? No, let's just figure it out, you
know. I My saying has alwaysbeen like it'll happen when it's supposed to,

(21:17):
and just keep flowing through it untilit does, and it's never what
we think, right, Like,it's sort of what we think, but
like it's never really what we think. We're mostly wrong until we're right,
right. So, but you gotto keep showing up. So I love
that. I love how you wereable to use your creative spirit with the
songs to address it all. Andlike, let's get into that. So,

(21:41):
like, you know, myth ofovernight success. You had a band
and it became very successful quickly,right, Like, so that's not a
normal thing, and how did thathappen? And you know, I guess
after that you had some other thingsyou had to get through, you know,
tell us a little bit about thatstory. Yeah, so I you

(22:02):
know, I was, you know, homeless eighteen to twenty one, off
the streets. I end up gettinga little studio apartment, not a student
apartment, just a room where fourpeople were living in it, a big
gang reps. And this is whatmaybe two thousand and one or something.
And at this time in my life, I'm carrying a gun and things are

(22:23):
very very volatile and just really violentand dangerous. I ended up getting arrested
on a gun charge, but becauseI had also not checked it on prol
for another thing, I'm back tojail. So I go back to jail.
I'm there for a few months.I get this judge that instead of
giving me ten years, gives methe opportunity to go into a re entry

(22:48):
program for six months. Says,hey, if you want to do this,
you have to live there and allof that, and so it's like
a stateroom facility, but you know, it's better than prison. So I
ended up going there, and Icall this kind of my good well hunting
moment. I ended up getting thissocial worker named Less Lazarus, right,
who was like one of my firstkind of sherpas or Eskimos. Great movie,
by the way, great great movie. Right. Well, that's one

(23:10):
of the reasons I chose Mit man, you know, because growing up I'm
like, yo, that could havebeen men. And so I meet Less
and I'm in this program and he'slike, yo, what do you want
to do with your life? Andat the time, I had no idea.
I'm like, I have no clue, right, And he goes,
well, if I was a genieand you could be anything, what would
you be? And I was like, yo, man, I would be

(23:33):
a rock star. He said,men, start a band. Like,
find something you're passionate about, havefun. And so I ended up starting
this band, and the band wascalled Time Again. The name I always
joke, if I've known it wasgoing to be successful, I'd pick a
different name. But the name waslike, yo, here we go,
We're starting again, time Again,because like, I'd hold all these false
starts, right. And the firstsong we ever wrote was called never Give

(23:57):
Up, right, And so Iended up writing this song and it ends
up taking off on the radio rightnext thing you know, it's on the
radio or doing this whole thing,but again, just charging into it,
right, I'm like this, youknow, just running and punching and all
this. Our first show was whatthree songs, and they tried to cut

(24:18):
us off after the second one.You know, but what happens. I
would fly, and I fly towork ethic, right, So I would
pass out like five thousand flyers forour second show, five thousand flyers far
at her show. By the fourthshow, people at different venues and promoters
like had seen me out so much, handing them out one by one.
They'd be like, hey, howabout you play at the whiskey. We'll

(24:40):
pay you one thousand dollars we'll printthe flyers for you and it'll be like
ten shows and yours can be oneof them, because we know that the
flyers will get handed out. SoI'm doing that and like kind of doing
And it's been months now. Weplayed all over in LA and I get
a call and to band the CircleJerks, you know, legend punk band

(25:00):
from the guy who Found a BlackFlag, was like, hey, do
you want to come open for uson tour? Right? And at this
time we only had like five originals, right, so we had to play
like eight songs, three of themwere covers, and like we didn't have
a record out or nothing, andit was weird. You know. I'm
talking to Keith and I go KeithMan, Keith Morris, their singer.
I said, how did you pickus? And he goes, oh,

(25:22):
man, it was this girl.Did I know we were talking who should
open? And she goes, well, I've never heard them play, but
I see the singer for a timeagain passing out flyers seven nights a week.
Somebody's got to give that kid abreak. So to this day,
I don't know who that girl was, right, but he went onto our

(25:44):
my space at the time and lookedus up and he noticed that we wrote
back to every comment someone left andhe goes, man, I admire that,
right, and I go, I'mgonna give this kid a break.
So it was kind of all thesedifferent things that happened at the universe chronicity.
It's like doing the right thing.Yeah, you know, believing in
yourself, you said it, lovingyourself enable this thing to open up.

(26:07):
And we never really know how ithappens except it did. Yeah, And
I looked at music it shows.I was like, man, there's twelve
million people in la. If Ipass out enough flyers, I gotta be
able to get a hundred of themto come, you know what I'm saying,
Like even if they come just becausethey like me. And so that
was my thing. It was likea numbers game. And I used to
always tell people of music. Iwould say, man, you look at

(26:30):
Garth Brooks huge, You look atMetallica huge, you look at Beyonce huge,
you look at all these people.Most people who own a Beyonce record
probably don't own a Garth Brooks record, probably don't own a Metallica record.
So it's like the key is youneed to find your audience. Yeah,
and so like as I was buildingmy band, I was like, Yo,
I'm gonna work so hard to findmy audience, to find my niche.

(26:52):
And that's kind of how I've movedright, like find those believers.
And so I was just like,Hey, if I outwork these people,
I hand out a million flyers andI shake a million hands, I'm gonna
get one hundred to come to theshow. And that lark. Next thing,
you know, we got the recorddeal. It took off and then
things started to change, all right. So do you had this like defining
moment where you were at some placefor long enough to have whatever meant,

(27:18):
whatever, hopefulness, mentoring you got, got something clicked right, and then
you know, unbeknownst to no oneeven you, you get this sort of
opportunity like synchronicity opportunity, which isterrific. It's going. What happened,
So then it's going. And oneof the reasons it went too is that

(27:41):
talking about it is around that time, around twenty when I started to build
that ethos I've always tried, alwaysworked hard. I was in that program
and I was ended up talking tomy dad and my dad said something to
me that I'll always remember and hegoes, man, for once in your
life, why don't you try?He's like, you always do just enough
to give, and he goes,You're so smart. He's like, if

(28:02):
you ever tried something one hundred percent, I wonder what would happen. And
it kind of goes into that formativeyears of maturing because it was true,
right, And so it hit meso profoundly, and so as I kind
of went to lunchtime again, that'swhen I really was like, yo,
man, I'm gonna put everything intothis and let the chips fall where they
may. And things really changed,right. So I did the band that

(28:26):
was great. Still a lot ofproblems, tumultuous life, right because I
didn't have what I would say isthe emotional maturity to manage different things or
manage relationships. I hadn't done Likethe quote unquote was why because you didn't
feel work? Like I know we'vejust discussed before, you gotta you gotta

(28:47):
love yourself? Like what what waswhat was stopping? I was dating this
girl for a long time and Ijust don't know. I think it's like
I had never really understood what agood relationship would look like or what those
things and it's not, you know, again a judgment on people I was
around, right, it's all sortsof different things, the confluence of right.

(29:10):
But I just didn't know how todo it right. And the thing
about it at that time, Idon't even know if I was mature enough
to ask people or to take guidanceor like even if you were to help
me at that time, I don'tknow if I was mature enough to hear,
here, your wisdom got right,and maybe things go Next thing,

(29:30):
they go south, end up breakingup with that girl, kind of end
up start drinking again, so Ihad stopped drinking. Next thing, you
know, I'm back in the oldneighborhood with the fellas hanging out and boom,
end up getting arrested right with abunch of my people. I kind
of grown up with them buddies.Next thing, you know, I get

(29:51):
arrested for like what and it waslike twenty five different felony charges and they're
like, yo, you're going toprison for life, Like you're done,
bro, And I remember at thetime it didn't feel real, Like I
remember being like, what, thiscan't happen because I am very hopeful.
I think just by genetics, right, so like you can't wrap your head

(30:12):
around it. And you know,at first I thought, there's no way
I'm going to go to prison,Right, this is gonna work out,
you know, I trust the systemall these things. Then that wasn't the
case. I ended up getting.You know, initially one hundred and eighty
years they offered me, and theyoffered me eighteen. Then they offered me
eleven and finally sentenced me to sevenyears. So I was gonna do probably

(30:33):
about five and a half. Iend up going to prison, file my
appeal, and oddly enough, Isay this a lot, go into prison,
I can make a strong argument thatit's the best thing that ever happened
to me. I think like itput things in a perspective in a sense
where it was like, hey,in many aspects, right, I already

(30:56):
knew this, but now it's fortunatelyI am on my own. Whether I
sink or swim, it's up tome. And like what we say in
prison, like these dudes are givingout football numbers and what I mean by
that, like you know a jerseylike eighty, you know eighty two?
Right, Like this is real serious, and once you kind of get sucked
into the system, I'm like yo, man, Like, yeah, maybe

(31:17):
I'm only going to do five yearsseven years here, but like I mess
up again, that's a wrap.I was super blessed and fortunately got overturned.
In around three little over three years, I got out, And once
I got out again, I wasjust like yo, no matter what,
Like I don't care if I sleepin the closet or I don't care if
I'm homeless again, like I'm neverever ever, you know, put myself

(31:40):
back in a position where I prison, and in that same thought process,
it kind of changed everything because likewho you are is who you are,
right, like who you with right, So like all of those things.
If I'm spending my time with thesepeople, even if I'm not real close
with them, guilty by association andso like it really kind of reinforced that,

(32:02):
like your network is who you are, and so what's hard about that
is I didn't have any built inpositive networks, right. But my goal
then was like, hey, wheredo positive people that I admire and respect?
Where do they hang out? Andhow can I just really just be

(32:22):
their friend? Right? Like Ieven say now today life's gotten much better,
But like a great life for meis like hey, me and my
fiance have a nice little apartment andwe enjoy living in. We have cars.
We like driving, and I canget anything I want at the grocery
store at anytime, like I don'thave to worry about like you know,

(32:43):
oh, this is a sixteen dollarsstak. I got to save this for
a special occasion. And I thinkbecause like all of the other stuff,
I just have so much fun inthe process. And so as I got
a a president, I went torebuild my life. It really radically changed
everything and how the world I sawit right where I was just like hey,

(33:04):
And so even some of my friendsnow that I grew up to hit
me up. Hey, man,we want to catch up, and I'll
let them know. I'll be like, oh, I'm going to be at
this nonprofit volunteer day, like comedown and serve food or something. And
rarely do they ever show up.They'll be like, you know, it's
like if you want to hang out, I'll tell them, if you want
to hang out on the block,that's a pass, bro, I can't
do that. Those those years areover for me, you know, for

(33:28):
you, it's so interesting because youknow, I don't know if you're sabotaging
yourself because you just like you stilldidn't get to that belief moment where where
where it could just keep going.And and now you're you're out again.
And when did you start getting intothis second chance social these campaigns? Like

(33:52):
because I was reading about you,and I feel like once you got there
and you were giving to the worldin a way everyone can experience and learn,
and and you were giving, nottaking right, you were giving.
It was like you had a bandand you were and even when you're doing
the Flyers, you were giving it. It's like, notice that right,
every time you give something good happened. So how did that happen? With

(34:16):
the DC? So interesting? Sothe thing about the band that was was
interesting is even though I had alot of success, I never really loved
it right, it was something thatI knew how to do. And then
like the analogy I would say islike I think if you would ask Michael
Jordan, he would have much ratherbeen a baseball player or a golfer,
but he was just so great atbasketball. And so the reason I think

(34:38):
I fell off and the band thingis it was never my purpose. It
was never my thing, Like itwas always like it it felt like,
you know, this is not unnatural. I'm putting all this work for something
I really don't want to be.I don't like the community and all this.
What I ended up getting out.The thing that really blew my mind
is when I was in prison.And sometimes you'll hear the term, I

(34:58):
don't know if you've heard of schoolor prison pipeline, right, I didn't
really know what that was. I'dheard it, I didn't, you know,
and I heard the concept. Butevery prison I was at, I
think there was like four or fiveof the time. I would get somewhere
and I'd know twenty or thirty dudeson the yard. And that's surprising in
California, a state of thirty millionpeople, to go to a prison of
three thousand people and you know thirtyof them, right, And so what

(35:22):
I kind of realized was like,hey, in many aspects, like the
deck is rigged against us, man. The weird thing is because the band,
I kind of broke that. Thatthing, like it launched me into
a different direction where it's like,yo, if I had not had that
band, I would have been oneof these dudes the whole time, right

(35:44):
right. And I think the thingabout it is now, all of a
sudden, I have this knowledge andI have this insight, so I kind
of feel like I have a moralobligation to try and change it, you
know. And the thing about itbecause the band have big network. So
I ended up getting into management myfirst job out of prison for the first

(36:04):
few then, so I was changingsheets at airbnbs. Had to make some
money, so I was a maid, right second job is I ended up
working on the management team for Weezer, you know, the band for I
handled Brian and the long Hair playedguitar and something popped up and I just
asked Brian. I said, Brian, man, this is important to me.
Would you do a PSA on thisbr It's like, absolutely, I'd

(36:25):
love to. And so I askedother people And what I have found is
kind of this like God or universeor synchronicity moment. Is hey, now
in a position where I have thisnetwork for my band days and the entertainment
days. I could call these guysup and say, hey, guys,
I want to work on this.Can you do it? And all of

(36:47):
a sudden, man like, itfelt like I really found my footing,
you know what I mean. WhereI was like yo, like like you
had said that flows thing right,where all of a sudden like yo,
man like this is like it andso as I kind of moved into that,
and so I started managing and Iworked with all these big artists.
Deck artists became deck projects because Iwent from managing artists to managing these social

(37:10):
campaigns, usually on behalf of artists. So like Tom Klikia from top Cheft,
I did like his anti hunger stuff, and Mark Duplaus from like the
League in the Morning Show, Idid wounded veteran stuff. But like I
was like, how do we mergeculture and corporate and all of these different
things, And so it's like Iwas really in it. So next thing,

(37:31):
you know, I kind of shiftand I'm loving it. It's awesome.
I'm working with Obama, you know, I'm working with the Basis Family
Foundation. I'm working with ACLU WarriorProjects, Save the Children. I ended
up meeting another one of my shirtas, this dude, na Guta Sholinger,
right, and I think you mayhave read about him a little bit,
but he was the executive director atthe Board of the World Bank.

(37:52):
Again synchronicity. I ended up meetinghim at someone's going away like birthday party
thing again, while doing good,while doing good well, while giving ye
like it's a string, it's astrength. And so I end up as

(38:13):
I'm kind of working on these things, I'm like, yo, man,
what's big? Like what can Ireally sink my teeth into? What can
I really do? What are someglobal issues? And what I would say
is along the way, I foundwhat my life kind of purpose is,
right, Like, so my lifeissue when you ask me, like,
what matters most to me from anissue perspective is economic and upward mobility,

(38:34):
the ability to go up in life, meaning like where you're born does not
dictate where you end. And soalong this path, I end up starting
working in North Africa, the MiddleEast, Sub Saharan Africa, primarily all
campaigns that had to do with economichealth. Right, That's when I learned
about entrepreneurship and like startup culture.Up until then, I really I didn't

(39:00):
know. If you would ask me, hey, what's the startup? I
kind of knew, but not reallyAnd this is like twenty sixteen, twenty
seventeen now, right, So I'mover in the Middle East, I'm working
on these campaigns and I realized like, Okay, I gotta figure out,
Like I'm working with these campaigns onawesome stuff, and I touched on like

(39:21):
a goat breeding project for to producemore milk for women who are child bearing
for better nutrition than the Sahara desert, an anti child marriage campaign, a
small and micro enterprise loan thing.And what I found out is like,
no matter how much I do withbringing together culture and bringing together campaigns,

(39:44):
if there's not a capital allocation perspectivein this, there's no sustainability. So
at this point, I'm like,I need to figure out how to move
capital. And so I initially startedwatching like YouTube videos on economics and all
this stuff. And you know,they have like the free classes at Harvard

(40:05):
Am. I I would just signup and take the free classes. And
it's great because with the classes youcan even get credit if you submit your
tax return. It's like lower thanis you give credit. So I would
submit it and do this stuff,and you could do it from anywhere in
the world, so you could bein Malaysia and get these classes for free.
And so I did that. ThenI found out about Google Scholar,

(40:27):
which is like the Google website typeof Google Scholar for free academic papers.
So like now I'm learning about microeconomics, I'm reading these academic papers.
I'm like, yo, man,I'm going to do my own academic paper,
right, So, like I teachmyself how to do like these Baysian
methods and research methods and all thisstuff online, and I start to write

(40:50):
this paper and do interviews and datacollection and like pitch it to different academic
conferences. The thing about academic conferences, a lot of times they say just
no, but sometimes I'd say thirtypercent. If they say no, they'll
give you notes. So like Iwould send it and you write a factor
like hey, this isn't a fitbecause of X, Y and Z right
the critique which is good. Yeah, So then I would go through those

(41:13):
critiques and I would upload it andthen sometimes i'd email back the professor all
that. One of the professors Istarted going back and forth with, which
funny was a guy named Josh Angristwho I watched his free videos from MIT.
He won the Nobel Prize in economics, and I emailed him and he
end up writing back and I said, what about this? And so we
built a rapport and it's great becauselater on when I got accepted. MIT

(41:37):
is the first formula cars rat likeMBA, I guess he messages the d
and like, oh, man,I loved Daniel. He's great and he
was like, oh you know Joshright, And so I end up pitching
these papers. Eventually it starts gettingpicked up, right, So my working
papers that I'm writing get picked up, like the Trinity College in Dublin,
then in Japan, then in Singapore, then in the Romania. And I

(42:00):
would go to these conferences and likethey would accept me because you submit minute
blind. Then it gets approved andonce it's approved, they'd be like,
Okay, what university you represent?What do you teach? And I'd be
like I don't I don't teach.They're like, well, where'd you go
to school? I didn't go toschool, and they were like blown away.
The time. I didn't realize thatthat was not normal because I just

(42:22):
didn't know. I was like,oh, these are all these people who
find this interesting. Isn't that interesting? Like like when you take social norms
where you feel it is normal,it sometimes make you not want to do
it when you don't think about it. Yeah, like you put our own
boundaries on ourselves unfortunately, right,yes, yes, one hundred percent.

(42:45):
And so next thing you know,it starts taking off. And then eventually
I get hit up by someone atthe World Economic Forum. Hey man,
we read your research, this isawesome. Would you like to do something
the Forum? And I'm like yeah, And then literally like a week later,
I get hit up my Harvard BusinessReview. Right, so it's like
and as that's happening, one ofmy friends and mentors is like, yo,

(43:08):
man, have you ever thought oflike going back to school to like
get some formal education? And Isaid, yeah, man, but I'm
a little too old to do anundergrad. He'll skip undergrad just go straight
through a master's. I'm like,is that possible? And I'm like,
oh, who knows, you know, like you should try. And this

(43:30):
was Gutha from the World Bank.Yeah, he had gone to London School
of Economics. And at this point, so now it's like twenty nineteen,
right, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, as I start exploring it. In
like twenty seventeen, I built myfirst VC deck. So you know how
they have like a vision board.So I built my first deck my dream

(43:51):
fund of what I'm gonna be,And so I knew for sure, like,
Hey, one day I'm gonna runa venture fund and I'm going to
invest across core, you know,infrastructure. And so when I was looking
at school field of Masters, Goulerhad gone to London School of Economics and
also the highest percentage of employees atGoldman Sachs was from London School of Economics.

(44:13):
So again I'm like, yo,man, I want to put myself
in the middle of the pack.And I walked those so that's why I
chose that. So I end upI'm like, yo, I'm gonna apply.
I actually couldn't apply, Like therewas a process with the form.
If you didn't have the material,you couldn't go to the next thing.
So I ended up sending an email. They're like, yo, man,

(44:34):
it's against school policy, and howdo I change it. They're like,
the only thing we can think ofis you got to get an apartment had
or somebody a chair to like vouchand like kind of pitch on the behalf.
So I hit up like every singledepartment chair and like econ International Relations,
and every single one of them saidget lost. They were like no,
And I was super nice because Iwas like, I'm like, I

(44:57):
know I'm gonna find one. SoI got to make sure I'm really nice
to these people throughout the process becausewe're going to be colleagues. And so
they all said no. But nowI figured out that I had to get
the Board of Regions approval, right, and so I hit up the like
the dean of admissions and you know, the provost or whatever, and I
read a really long thing. Isaid, Hey, my name's Daniel.
This is my story. Here's mypublished links, here's my background. I'm

(45:22):
trying to do a master's. Now. I know it's against policy, and
I don't want to cause any problems. I want to figure out how do
I how do what's the process topetition the board and get five minutes with
them to plead my case? Likenowadays you can work at Google or Goldman
as a software developer. You don'tneed an underground thing, right like,

(45:43):
And so I did this, andI say, hey, you know the
world's changing. When I got myfirst felony, there was no criminal justice
movement that that word didn't even exist, right, There was no second chance
hiring. And so I said,like, hey, I think I worked
hard. How do I feed thisout? And I have to say.
She wrote me back the next dayand say, hey, thank you for

(46:06):
the very thoughtful letter. I havethe ability to override that and I would
be honored for you to apply andyou could be our first. It was
your ruty moment, right, Yeah, he didn't give up. He kept
going good. I kept going.And it's weird because, like even now,

(46:29):
I always joke man, I'm like, someday, you know, I
hope to be very, very wealthy, and I expect I'll do a lot
more giving and stuff to LLC becausethey really opened the door for me.
And so I end up applying thenext day and what did twenty four hours?
I get an unconditional offer. Nowthis is where it gets fun too
write. So that was a twoyear program. So I'm going through it

(46:50):
and I love it, right,and there are some one year masters programs.
So my second year I'm like,yo, I'm gonna do a second
master's. So I asked l S. I said, can I do a
second master? At the same time, They're like, absolutely not, we
already met the rules for you.No, So I said, okay,
no worries. So I end upapplying to University College London to do a
second Master's there and I get accepted, but I didn't realize that your visa

(47:15):
is connected through the school and thehome office, so it's set off flags
to both of them. LC hitsme up, they said, what are
you doing. You're going to theUCL. I said, well, yeah,
I wanted to a second and youwouldn't let me. They're like,
well, it's against policy, wecan't. I'm like, so if I'm
here at LC on Monday and Tuesdayand I'm at UCLA on Thursday and Friday,

(47:37):
Like, who cares? Right,as long as I'm getting good grades
and so LS He says, well, if we give you dispensation to do
the second one here, will youdo it here rather than UCL? So
I said sure. So I endedup doing two masters at LC, and
they actually never figured out how tomerge my student numbers, so I had
two separate student numbers. Wow,two different things. And I'm in the

(48:00):
alumni mission forging new grammar. Man. Yeah, that's that's what you do.
Yeah, And so I did that, and then as I'm doing it
now now, I started working atdifferent VC firms along the way, and
I had actually talked to this guynamed Sir Julian Lagrond, a real famous
economist at at LC. You know, he got knighted right, and I'm

(48:22):
like, what do you think,man? Like this is awesome, Like
I want to stay in and hegoes. I was like, should I
do a PhD or something? Andhe goes, Man, as much as
I'd love to do a PhD withyou because I'd supervise you here, like
you know, like you're a practitioner, you don't want to do this.
Like he's like, if you wantmore schooling, I would say, like
an executive MBA or something like that. And he's like, you should look

(48:46):
into that. And so I lookedin that and ended up you know,
speaking to a few different ones,and it came down to decision between Booth
and Mi I t and I choseMit and so got a Dean's fellowship there
and I finish up there now inMay. Unbelievable. I'm like, I

(49:07):
got chills. I I just lovethis. Uh. We were chatting before
and I say this in my pocketa lot, you know, and I
had him on the show, Rudylike the comeback story is just the most
exciting fun Uh. And I stillfeel I always say, I still feel
like I'm an underdog today every day. I just can't help it. I

(49:29):
I want to feel that because itkeeps me going and I and I what
what a what a cool thing?So all right, so now you're going
to graduate, Now you're in VCworld and you have this adventure firm.
What's your focus? Like, likeyou had so much experience in other things,

(49:50):
where now were you going to takethis this adventure? Yeah, so
now my focus is and I kindof mentioned the rock adventures, and so
it's really kind of carried on whatmy dad did you know? And I
say my dad, but really mydad and my mom, right, because
it's like my mom ran the books. She was down there every day and

(50:12):
just doing things where it's like heran a lumberyard and a building here.
So I grew up in those sectors, right, Like I worked for contractors
growing up. I've worked three differentnumber yards, and so I think sometimes
we solve for what we know,right, And so I have a huge
admiration for those sectors. I thinkreal estate, construction, supply chain,

(50:34):
legit six manufacturing, core industries,blue collar sectors, however you want to
call it. And so as Ikind of got into the investment thesis.
The place that I always wanted togo was that. And I think with
my life and my experience and myrelationships, being able to kind of like
walk a job site and like havethe workers look at me and they're like,

(50:57):
yo, that's one of us.Or walk a port or a waist
yard or a cycling pane like yo, darts with us, right, and
then also be able to walk atmit and they're like, yo, he's
one of us, and like,but you're also But in my mind,
you're also going into what's necessary,like we need to rebuild our infrastructure,
we need to rebuild and and youknow, with technology and innovation, it's

(51:20):
it's just it's it's sort of asmart place to be in. Thank god
you have it as roots, right, because you still want to be involved
in things that you know you like, right and that you identify with it.
I think for VC, the wayI always say it, it's like
I think to be an amazing longterm venture capitalist, you have to absolutely
love the space you're investing in,yes, because so much it's really like

(51:43):
a research job. Like if you'renot obsessed with it to some point,
it's just there's a lot of rejectionproblems, issues, making wrong decisions,
pivoting. But guess what if there'sanyone that I know that is going to
be prepared for those trials and tribulationsand actually have a good frame of mind

(52:06):
for the founders, you're gonna workwith the people that will be involved in
that ecosystem, the newer, youngerpeople that want need a mentor and need
that person. We discussed at thebeginning, saying you can do this.
You know you got this. It'sgonna be you. Yeah, no,
I agree, man. I loveit. And I think it's weird because

(52:28):
I built that first deck what seventeight years ago now, But I finally
feel like it's like most of mylife has been working to kind of get
to this point, and I feellike now I'm like right where I need
to be. That's amazing, youknow. I just love it. I

(52:49):
say it all the time. Ijust love it. Talking to founders working
in the space is it's just amazing. There's nothing in the world and you've
raised ten million dollars to day,so we we raised. I did my
first clothes, so I haven't raisedall of it, but I did my
first clothes. I started deploying,and yeah, we're backed by Gary Cone

(53:10):
is one of our backers, whichis so good and it's crazy, bro,
you know, I'm like sometimes likeit's it's weird because like for him
it may not even register, likeif he was the writer of memoir,
I don't know if this was registered. But for me, it's like again,
it's like this huge crucible moment rightlike here I am and like growing

(53:34):
up like Gulden Sachs was like thebeacon on the hill. It was like
the most prestigious thing in the world. It was like and it still is.
It's like, yo, man,that's like the Promised Land, and
now a president of that and likesomeone who's a cabinet member of the White
House is like doing that. Notonly to do that, but he like
went and did press for me.He like gave a quote you. I
mean, like I've gotten to knowyou're, like he believes in you and

(53:58):
good good for and why not youknow you're you're you're gonna you're gonna do
really well. You know it's hardto get here. Yeah, I just
it's just like sometimes I'm just likeand then I I you know, so
I'm still involved in a lot oflike what i'd say, is like mission
driven, purpose driven stuff. Thething I work right now again the most

(54:20):
honest economic mobility. But I havea conference that I put on the MIT
on second Chance Hiring. I gotthe CEO of Kroger to come speak.
I got the CEO of Kelly Services, the president of Union Pacific president and
Union Pacific right one hundred and fiftybillion dollars company. I sent a cold
email to their general contact form.Right two days later, I get a

(54:44):
message from like their PR team like, Hey, this looks interesting. What
is it? And that's what Ialways say, Like, what I think
you're gonna make people aware of,hopefully, is that there's so many good
people out there that really want tohelp as much as they can. And
when when you're presenting them with agood opportunity, the second chance hiring,

(55:07):
they run to it. Right.It just shows how people are good.
People are innately good, and theywant to help and you're giving them a
beautiful vehicle A right, Yeah,people are innately good. And another thing
that I say on the people areinnately good is on the on the counterside
of that, I always tell peoplewho are rebuilding their lives, like think

(55:29):
about it, like in different terms. And what I say is like,
if you want to be an amazingdoctor, it's gonna take ten to fifteen
years. It doesn't happen overnight.You want to be an amazing lawyer ten
to fifteen years. If you wantto rebuild your life and do something amazing,
don't be bummed if it takes tento fifteen years. Right, So
it's like I got out, I'llbe out. I will have been out

(55:51):
ten years this September. And solike the way I see it is like,
hey man, when I first gotin a prison, I was changing
sheets Airbnbs. You're looking at meten years later. And so I tell
the younger guys and the younger women, hey man, it takes a minute.
But that's normal, right, Thisimmediate gratification isn't how it works.
And so think about it in termsof like, hey, if I want

(56:14):
to be a heart surgeon specialist,that takes me fifteen years. And so
I always try to say that setthe expectations, like yo, but I'll
tell you what if you do itright? The journey Man is so much
fun. Well that's just the bestcommercial for the theme of my podcast,
The Myth of Overnight success, Like, all I have to do is play

(56:35):
that now before I before I askanybody to come on. It's amazing.
Well, how can people learn moreabout rock Yard Adventures, right, because
that's what you're doing now, andhow can they do that for the audience
to learn more about it? Yeah? So you know, I'd love to
meet anybody interested in the space andthe easiest way to get a hold of

(56:58):
me is you can. There's acontact for them on the website Rockyard Adventures
or linked in. Just hit meup, Daniel Dark. But yeah,
I mean, let's change the world. Yeah, and even with your campaigns,
right, you never know someone might. I mean you're not You've become
an expert at launching those and otherpeople may have other things they want to

(57:19):
get messaging out, so at leastyou can guide them, right absolutely.
All right, Well, thank youso much. I'm smiling. I'm gonna
probably be smiling all day. I'mso happy we were able to do this
and I really appreciate it. Dude, Thank you so much for the time.
Have a wonderful day, and Iwill talk to you soon.