Impossible is Nothing with Drew Davis

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down the fact that impossible is nothing. To drop these value bonds, I brought to Drew Davis in the EO Fire studios. Drew has cerebral palsy. He turned his passion for hot sauce into crippling hot sauce at just 16. What started as a school project became a thriving business, selling over 500 ,000 bottles in its first year. A portion of the sales support cerebral palsy research, proving that impossible is nothing.

0:38And we will talk about the power of hustle and humor. We'll talk about entrepreneurship with a purpose, building a brand with no excuses, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Drew and our sponsors. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Visit franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to book a free consultation and start your franchising journey with expert guidance. Drew, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:20Becoming successful, for me, one thing you have to do is no matter how well things might be going for you, if you have a dream yeah you go for it uh not it doesn't matter if you don't have it planned out if if there's something you want to do and you feel in your heart that it's the right it's the right thing to do then then just um drop everything you're doing and go right for it i mean um um growing up i uh never knew what i was going to be able to do i thought um i wasn't going to be able to do much, but I remember when I launched Crippling, I built it my senior year of high school to that year we were doing 81 ,000.

2:12My family wanted me to go to college. I was like, I was like, no, let me take three years off. First year full-time in the business, we did $10 million in revenue just that year alone. So I think it's really, you know, you're doing the right thing when you're uncomfortable. Fire Nation gets uncomfortable. And as I mentioned in the introduction, Drew has cerebral palsy and turned his passion for hot sauce into crippling hot sauce at just 16 years old. And today we'll be talking about how impossible is nothing. And You went from unrealistic, Drew, to unstoppable. Tell us that story. My whole life I was told my goals were unrealistic.

3:04At age 14, I remember my mindset changed towards this nothing is impossible mindset when I weighed 300 pounds and my doctors said I would never be able to lose that weight and I'd be bedridden by age 18. over COVID year, I decided to make that change and I lost 150 pounds. I kind of got into, to, uh, hot sauce through that. That's how I got a love for it. So the next year I had a, I had a, um, project that I had to present for school. It was a business project. I had to present the business and it was doing two days. I'm like, man, what am I going to do? So at that moment I look down, I look at myself, I'm like, I like making hot, I like hot sauce, and I like making fun of myself.

3:56Let's do crippling hot sauce with the goal to rewrite people's perspective on the disabled community and donate 5 % to cerebral palsy research. I present it. Two weeks later, I get the grade back, and I was, I was kind of mad when I received it. I got an 82. I'm like, huh, I wonder why. I went up to my teacher at the time and he said, I thought this idea was okay, but the reason I docked once is because I thought it was unrealistic and I don't think you could do it. So I used that as motivation. Just last year alone, we sold 200 ,000 bottles. Fire Nation, 200 ,000 bottles on what somebody said was unrealistic.

4:45And you mentioned that you like humor. So let's talk about the power of both humor and hustle. Humor, growing up with cerebral palsy, that's just something you have to have, in my opinion, when life faces your challenges, because I knew life was going to be tough. And I knew one thing that makes it better is when you're able to joke around about your situation and kind of make it through life that way and not take everything serious and I realized when I was growing up many people in the disabled community have a sense of humor and many people that go through challenges in life have a sense of humor because it's a kind of a way to cope with things and hustle is important with me.

5:37Starting crippling, I started it with$3 ,000 that I saved up for birthday money. When I started saving when I was very young, I didn't know what I was going to use it for, but I knew eventually, no matter what that was, I wanted to bet on myself and take a chance on myself and put this money into something that can make me money. I had no idea that was going to be crippling because my mindset is I knew that being born with cerebral palsy I'm the only one that knows what I'm truly capable of so I didn't want to put my destiny in a in a in a higher rank manager's hand and like and like take the corporate route because I knew I could provide just as much value in the world as anybody else.

6:34I just knew I had to do it a different route in order to reach my full potential. Now, you believe in entrepreneurship with a purpose. Tell us more about that. For me, one of my favorite things we do is we give back. 5 % goes to cerebral palsy research, and that is such an important kind of mission to me because there's over a million people in the world that are diagnosed with cerebral palsy. It's the most common physical disability but they haven't found a way yet to really cure it. So my goal for crippling hot sauce is even if we don't find it here figure out ways to better help people live with cerebral palsy.

7:30And going forward, what we are doing, what Crippling is expanding that impact past cerebral palsy. For example, we're doing collabs with different disabled organizations that support different things. So cerebral palsy was just the base. But I really want to make a dent and an impact on the disabled community because it affects 1.8 billion people globally. 1.8 billion people in the world have a physical disability. And I just think it's important. And I think the disabled community has been overlooked for many years. So I'm trying to be that role model that I wish I had growing up. So Drew, what do you think was the differentiator for you specifically with the hot sauce?

8:28Because listen, there's a lot of hot sauces out there. I mean, I have a couple of friends who are making hot sauces right now. They have been for a couple of years. You know, something that a lot of people do have passions for. And there's just so many options that are out there. I mean, I remember I was in Maine earlier this year and I was actually walking through a hot sauce store and it was just unbelievable amounts of it in here. So what do you think was one of the things that allowed you to step apart from the crowd to sell over 200 ,000 bottles? Can you point to a couple of things? For us at Crippling, it's a few things.

9:01My story, story is super compelling. Everybody loves an underdog. So sharing that story has been super helpful. Number two, it's the mission, right? donating to cerebral palsy or the disabled community in general is something no other brand in the CPG industry has really done. So that's a differentiator. And then the branding, the name Crippling Hot Sauce is really a conversation starter. And it gets families talking about, you know, how people from different walks of life can really achieve the same thing. And that's the beauty of the world we live in today. And so that word of mouth has really been helpful.

9:54And besides, you know, the authenticity behind the brand, many kind of founder like struggle with like brand positioning, but everything I've done between the flavor names, the branding, we just released Halsey points on the website, which is like a points back incentive. It comes from the heart and that's what's most important. Nothing I do is forced. It just is genuinely me and I love doing it. And I always say, if you love doing something, you never work a day in your life. Wow. Love all of this and Fire Nation. We have a lot more to talk about, specifically around building a brand with no excuses.

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11:44Hey, Drew, we're back. And I want to talk about building a brand with no excuses. Talk to us about that. Growing up, no excuses was a huge part of my foundation as a as a family because i grew up in a southern misery town of less than a thousand people and a blue collar family so we kind of just rolled up our sleeves and and didn't and did what we needed to do didn't look at other people and compare ourselves so when when when i was building the brand I never thought about you know people and still to this day I don't think about like I don't think about you know like I throw myself in the fire and I don't worry about like like what I like failing because I know that I'm gonna I'm gonna learn more from my failures than my successes and that's kind of the model I have it's it's ownership mentality if I did something wrong okay how can I fix it and move forward because um excuses even though they sound good in the moment they don't they don't get you very far um so even no matter what I say I I did this with no money no resources no anything just compound interest and I think that's an important point.

13:19You don't have to start on a huge scale. I started with 120 bottles that I sold to family and friends. And just three years later, we sold 200 ,000 bottles in one year. So it's going to take time. It's going to take patience. It won't happen overnight. But I mean, And this is the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur is the building process. The end goal of potentially making a lot of money is fun. But this is what I like the most is the roller coaster journey. The good, the bad, the ugly. Well, I'm glad that you like the roller coaster because Fire Nation, there's nothing you can do to avoid the roller coaster when you're an entrepreneur.

14:02It's just the reality of what we're signing up for. The good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. And Drew, you are shaking up the food world with these super bold flavors, with edgy branding, and with this fearless approach to marketing. You've given us one or two examples, but give us a couple of your very favorites, you know, especially around a fearless approach to marketing. Take it away. For me, I come up with the names and the funniness before even the flavor. and then I shaped the flavor around the name I gave it. I remember sitting in class and like, oh, what's the funniest thing I can name my old sauce?

14:47Oh, just for the parking because everybody disabled or not likes being able to park closer to things. So that's really the mindset I have behind it. And like I said, it's great hot sauce, but we're really, we're really, the brand speaks volumes, not only about, you know, what the disabled community can do, but how just relatable it is with turning something that's not so optimal, bringing a disability into something that's able to shed a positive light because everybody, no matter if you're rich, poor, no matter your race, has bad circumstances. Just being able to know that no matter where you are at, No matter if you're at rock bottom or at a very high level, you can turn everything that's a negative into a positive.

15:52It's like what you learn in high school math class. Fire Nation, that is one skill an entrepreneur has to have. You have to be able to take a negative and turn it into a positive because there's going to be negatives. And you're going to have to drive through. You're going to have to learn, adjust, pivot, and make things happen despite the fact that not everything is going to go your way. So Drew, what the heck is next for Crippling? Let's talk about the future of the brand, new flavors, collaborations. And let's be honest, you're just getting started. For me, what's next for Crippling? We are, I'm lucky to say, I'm building the dream team of underdogs.

16:31So I brought on my cousin to help me bring this brand from a$1 million brand to a$10 million brand. I did it with, I have done the past, you know, two and a half years of work with me and my friend who hacks all the orders and does all the manual labors. But going forward, I really wanted to build a team of people that are not only experienced, but believe in the mission and hard workers and underdogs as well. So I brought in my cousin and I brought in some great strategic, he's brought in some great strategic advisors and the, you know, first investor in Bakken's is Bakken's Japanese barbecue sauce.

17:25He's an advisor. He has a disability as well. So it's just building out that team of people that believe strongly in the mission and people that are hustlers that want to work every day to make the world a better place. Because that's what we're here for. Profits are great, but a purpose is even better. Drew, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you and wants to learn more about what you have going on, what is your call to action for our listeners today? find us on all social media uh the the crippling company uh or crippling hot sauce on instagram but even like it's even like no matter the the the walk of life no matter if you like hot sauce or not um just you know if you can take anything away just treat every uh body um with uh how you want to be treated and and just you know even if you don't like hot sauce follow along for the journey because you know liking on social media stuff as I'm sure you know John it's oh yeah that's more important than anything so no matter your walk of life just let's work together to to bring the world and to a positive light because I really believe that positivity is something we need more of.

18:49Well, Fire Nation, positivity does make the world go round in a lot more merry and happily of a way. And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with DD and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Drew, D-R-E-W, in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And remember, his company, Crippling Hot Sauce, is on Instagram and other social media, so check it out for sure. And Drew, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

19:26Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Drew for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is a step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com.

20:00I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Visit Franocity.com that's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to book a free consultation and start your franchising journey with expert guidance.