Balls, Beards, & Tattoos Feat: Drew Plotkin
We were blessed to have the opportunity to have DREW PLOTKIN, Emmy award-winning producer; author; marketing guru to some of the biggest names in beauty, consumer goods, and entertainment; and heavily tattooed Founder and CDO (Chief Dude Officer) of men’s skincare line Derm Dude. Drew’s new book UNDER MY SKIN: Baring it All, One Tattoo at a Time will be available wherever books are sold on Tuesday, October 25. Please follow link below to head on over to the Derm Dude Website.
Link: https://dermdude.com/
Jadan, guess what?
Jaden Norvell:what's up Dustin?
Dustin Steffey:our boy drew over at DERM dude is fire and you and I both know it. He offers quality product for your balls, your tattoos, and your beard. I think those are three very important things on a gentleman. And if you can look good with all three of those women are flocking. So please head on over guys to DERM do.com to support our boy DREW That's DERM dude.com
Joey Whalen:This is a product made by dudes for dudes I use the beard care as the beginning to the winter my beard gets really dry using derivatives products I have had no problems with dry beard no itching no irritation has been amazing here
Dustin Steffey:I'm using the ballgasmic Sack wash with a happy sack and I'm telling you right now happy balls equals happy bedroom. I'm telling you that right now the girls love it
Jaden Norvell:sure money family and your balls are what gentlemen care about let's do
Dustin Steffey:this head on over to DERM do.com today
Jaden Norvell:welcome back to chopping with fire the number one podcast for entrepreneurship, self development and smart business investments. This podcast has accolades and include a nomination for Best Business Podcast but a 2022 People's Choice Awards, over 25,000 downloads and six months a global support network and over $5,000 raised for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation hosted by yours truly Jaden rush Norville, also hosted and created by the man himself Dr. Dustin Steffey Welcome to chop with fire Let's chop it up
Dustin Steffey:Hello and welcome to an episode of chopping with fire you are joined with your two hosts Dustin Steffey and
Jaden Norvell:Jaden Norvell what is up chop nation?
Dustin Steffey:Jaden. Steff, dude, I'm excited. why? Because we're going to go over housekeeping and have a fun guest on today. Let's Do It
Jaden Norvell:over $5,000 gentleman has been raised for cystic fibrosis on our website, choppinwithfire.com C H O P P I N or the cystic fibrosis website cff.org. And you can do backslash donate to get right to the page. Again, thank you so much for your support. This charity is near and dear to our heart. It is our home charity. And we will be having a special guest at our live event. Talking about this disease the impact so many so much love the chop nation for pulling through as crazy. The stuff?
Dustin Steffey:What else? Yeah, I think I think I love our listeners. I love what we've done so far. Thank you like from the bottom of both Jaden and I and our hearts for donating to the charity. Yeah, if you guys know what cystic fibrosis is, it's a rare lung disease. It doesn't discriminate. And if you have it, it is terrible to live with. It's almost as if you're breathing through a straw, as Jaden would say. And it just makes it hard to breathe. And Jaden has grown up seeing his mom go through it. And you know, without being advancements in medicine and the donations and the research. She wouldn't be where she is today where she has 70% of her capacity to be able to do things.
Jaden Norvell:That's right. So we appreciate all your donations.
Dustin Steffey:Absolutely. And then the next order of business, which is the fun part, who wants to see Dustin and Jaden live? Probably not very many of you, but we're the ones that actually do and I'm just kidding. Like for the ones that want to see us live. We have our live event logistically ready to go with ticket sales live right now. We will be having our event in the beautiful, beautiful Fort Collins area. November 18 at 5pm Doors open at 430. We have tickets on sale right now. We will drop the ticket link in the episode description to be able to book early again. You want to be early for this to save money but if you like giving extra money and you're rich, go ahead and come out the door and we will still take your money
Jaden Norvell:called half Prozis we're having a silent auction as well for cystic fibrosis and the Boys and Girls Club as our home charity too. So make sure you guys show up and I'm here to get some goodies as well.
Dustin Steffey:Yeah, I'm excited for the silent auction we have some cool people that love us and have donated like our in couple other things that are going to be surprises for you guys. So come check it out. Again, as Jaden said, a portion of the proceeds is going to go to cystic fibrosis. Another portion is going to go to the Boys and Girls Club. Lastly, social media ch o
Jaden Norvell:PPI en with fire as it, Google it and it's all there. And then whatever app please
Dustin Steffey:see Jadan takes the boring approach. At least I'm fun about it. Hey, guys, we have a lot of social media. Please join it because we are lonely and like to talk to people. Let's go.
Jaden Norvell:Well, you said you said you usually do is you know how I'm gonna do it. So you guys know I
Dustin Steffey:just wanted to have fun and I thought you know, I give you an opportunity. But in your fashion, we might as well just have one or two words. The videos are sick on our YouTube. The videos are getting even better. They look like they're professionally produced. I just want to let you guys in on the secret. They are not. I am reducing them and it is they are turning out great. And if any of you have suggestions for us, or you guys like doing videos reach out to Jaden or I and maybe we'll we'll have you on our staff now for the fun. You ready? Jaden. Are you sure? Certain? Absolutely. Let's do it. I'm excited to announce our guest speaker today. He's an awesome gentleman. He has tattoos. He has a straighter beard than me. And he is definitely accomplished on our show today we have the pleasure of introducing drew Plotkin he has 15 to 20 years of experience in the celebrity skincare industry. He is the chief dude Officer of his line DERM dude, he has a new book coming out called under my skin which I'm sure we'll definitely get into and he is just an all around well rounded entrepreneur let it let's dive into it. DREW How are you?
Drew Plotkin:I am still in Cuba trying to order the tickets for your live show. It says online here like high demand and already might be sold out the upcoming show November 18. And I'm trying I'm sitting here on my phone trying to get tickets
Dustin Steffey:I think we'll definitely just VIP you
Drew Plotkin:can't you hook me with something like already it's showing up like up in the bleachers that's all it's about. And it's all resell like five times the price Springsteen's a much easier concert to get into. But you guys have just like smoking it, man. You're killing it.
Dustin Steffey:Well I appreciate that.
Drew Plotkin:You got it. You got it. What's happening, guys? How are you?
Dustin Steffey:Good, man.
Drew Plotkin:Thanks for having me with rock'n'roll.
Dustin Steffey:Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's let's, let's talk about Drew. I mean, you have a lot of interests around the new let's let's dive into it. Let's give the listeners some some fun.
Drew Plotkin:I'm the least interesting person. I know. What do you want to know? You take it away?
Dustin Steffey:Well, I mean, this can go a million different ways. I mean, you have tattoos. I have tattoos. I'm just I'm just a man here. Just a man. We can talk about tattoos. What about this Jaden have any? Not? Yeah, I'm gonna take him we maybe when you come into town, you and I are going to make sure that he understands what attached to you is.
Drew Plotkin:I've been part of a bunch of traveling tattoo events, processes, kidnappings, tattoo hijackings, whatever. So we could probably figure something out of Jason's ready or, or if he's not either way.
Dustin Steffey:I didn't happen part sounds great to me. I think that's the way we plan it.
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, tattoos? Definitely. You know, people noticed that for sure, it's, you know, not something that I would try to hide anyway. But yeah, you definitely get a lot of comments looks and what have you. So I'm sure you do the same. You're showing me some of your ink beforehand. And you're showing me some cool hourglass, right that you had going on which,
Dustin Steffey:right? Yep, I have a broken hourglass on my right arm. And the significance of that is I was tired of people not making time for me. And so I was like, Well, I can be a badass and put an hourglass that's broken on my arm and make a statement. And so I did.
Drew Plotkin:That's, that's cool, dude. See, that's the whole thing that I love about tattoos, which I mean, I love a lot of things about tattoos. There's also things I don't like about tattoos. Actually, in my book that you touched on we'll touch on the more I'm sure but the opening part of the book is something along the lines of You know, I love tattoos and I also hate tattoos and then I kind of you know, take it from there so you can realize it's a bit of a bipolar read right out of the gate first. Or like yeah, lock them up. But you know, it's funny that you said the hourglass because I love the hourglass symbolism and I love symbolism in general and all aspects of life. My my own tattoos, and this ring. I just got it like about a week ago. There's actually an hourglass on the ring. And one of the reasons I got it is I liked the hourglass so much. But you know the thing about especially as you have more and more tattoos, you have less and less real estate you have less space to work with. And sometimes it doesn't always fit in certain ways or depending on the artist. And I probably will do an hourglass tattoo at some point. But I haven't found the right space, artists time inspiration, but I wanted some type of representation. So I saw this ring that had the hourglass and I'm like, Alright, for the time being I've got my hourglass on the ring, at least. So we we have something in common with appreciating the symbolism of the hourglass.
Dustin Steffey:Well, Jerry, you're going to have to find some form of real estate because if we're captured, or if we're going to be kidnapped and Jaden, you and I are going to have to get tattoos with him.
Drew Plotkin:Well, both my butt cheeks are still open so I can squeeze perfect names. And if I don't know that that's, you know, okay, okay, I can't commit fully but you know, we will it's tabled for now we'll figure it out. Yeah. And you guys can fight over the right or the left. I mean, honestly, I'm ambidextrous. That was
Dustin Steffey:I'm more of a left person, but you know, I can compromise the right.
Drew Plotkin:I'm all about cooperation. In
Dustin Steffey:your, your tattoos, you did bring up a good point, the meanings behind tattoos and everybody that gets tattoos? Well, not everyone, I should not have used everyone. But most people that get tattoos, usually they kind of go in knowing what they want, because of some form of a meeting or whatever the case may be. You're It looks cool. But for you, your tattoos are more like a roadmap, right?
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, they really are. And my book really gets into that. And I describe my tattoos not intentionally out of the gate, certainly not deliberately, really wasn't until later in life after a few decades of a shit ton of tattoos. And I often say that shit ton is a actual metric measurement in my vocabulary, so it means something of size and proportion for people like myself. But, you know, I think that, look, there's certainly things have changed dramatically. When I first got my first tattoo in my early 20s. There certainly was no social media, there were no cell phones, no, any of that, you know, I'm 50 years old now. And really tattoos, besides the fact of who was getting them was night and day different than today. But if you were looking for a tattoo, you were going into like some shop, and you really didn't know which was better than the other unless you knew someone you didn't have like the top top artists really getting into tattooing as you do today. And it was night and day different. And you'd walk in and you would see some photos on a wall. And you might see a couple of portfolio books. And it was like whatever price and it would be like pick, you know, and that that is really or if you wanted to do a design, pick a few things and work from there, or you want a custom piece, okay, the artists will do something while you're sitting there. Whereas you know, where it's evolved. And I think one of the things that really propelled me, you know, at some point to go so much deeper, like I did is the art just so took off, not just in one way but in many ways the skill of the artists, the people going into tattooing, you know, some of my favorite tattoo artists were extremely talented, successful graphic designers, sculptors, painters, artists of all different types, who then took that down skill to tattooing, the technology, the equipment, you know, you'll go in now for a tattoo to a lot of places. And I remember this part of my arm, which was bear at the time, and the artists, you know, all of a sudden on his iPad, showing me my arm with the tattoo concept. This is, you know, five or six years ago, that we just come up with all of a sudden living on my actual arm to be able to see what that tattoo is going to look like finished. When you're in the design phase. And, you know, again, it might sound Oh, yeah, I do that all the time. Now, if you're, you know, in the tattoo world today, that world was that didn't exist, you know, it's so changed. So it's really evolved into how tattoos can become so much more of a detailed roadmap hieroglyphics, whatever you want to call it your own, your own, you know, journey that you want to track.
Dustin Steffey:It's funny, you mentioned a few things that may remind me of Jaden, because Jaden does want one and he's been doing research and he found a cool artist that he wants to go to, and you bring up the technology and all of that, and it just reminds me of when I got my first tattoo, he drew it and sketched it, and then showed me and we put it on my leg. And that's it. Now my tattoo artist, I block in that iPad concept is still a concept. He prints it, and goes and that's it.
Drew Plotkin:Yep. Yep. It's just like anything else that evolves. But Jaden, what are you gonna get man? Come on. It sounds like you're like ready to go. Like I think I hear the needle in the background. What's happening?
Jaden Norvell:I was gonna get a deer. That's right, a hunting buddy that passed away last February so I was gonna get like a deer Do with realistic art. But like you said, it's different now. So I have to email him, and you have to email him on the first of the month. And if you don't email him on that day, he's booked all his promotions just through Instagram. So it's like, you have to just, I found out about it through my barber, so I just got to know somebody
Drew Plotkin:asked, well, that's the other thing. That's interesting, too. And it's probably the top thing people ask me too, is, you know, I mean, artists themselves have become like celebrities in their own right, you know, and certainly social media is helped tremendously, you have artists with half a million or a million followers just on one platform alone, but it also helps promote and get that that work out there. And you see this, and you can just, you know, I forgot the word, you know, fascinate gravitate there, all the wrong words, but some over like, you know, be drooling over this and be like, I want this, you know, I need and you just look at it, you're like, you get jealousy, you get envy. And then, you know, when you think of it, how much time in the day does the average artists have, you know, it's one of the things I learned over the years, especially as I would do more detailed pieces, longer pieces, and, you know, my first few pieces were an hour, you know, hour and a half or something, and then all of a sudden doing like back to back, you know, eight 910 hour sessions of pure needle time. And these artists, you know, guys and girls, man, they're like hunched over every which way, and it's not like, it's ergonomically correct, you know, and I remember when I was doing this piece on my neck, and, you know, the dude who was doing it, I mean, he was just so bent and twisted every which way to get in there and down on my trach that, like, he'd have to get up and just stretch and, you know, loosen himself and I would, you know, call to make appointments with artists that I've worked with, you know, in the past, and I would find out, you know, hey, they're off on rehab for two months, you know, slipped disc and carpal tunnel. And I think a lot of people don't realize it, as the design has gotten so much better. And the amount of time that people are putting into each piece yet, it's hard to sit there harder for some than others, but the pain, you know, is a reality. But from the artists perspective, you know, I have a ton of respect for these people who are just, you know, sitting there and he's most awkward positions, and they can't mess up they have to get it so perfect. And you do you see tons of back and neck and shoulder and arm injuries and, you know, it gives a give a lot more respect to the art and what they're doing.
Dustin Steffey:You clued me in on something that I want to do. I just wanted to shout out my artists, Manny at speakeasy tattoo, because, yeah, the amount of time that he puts in and the work he puts in, it is greatly appreciated. I know my hourglass was about eight hours for him. And we took a couple of breaks, because his hand was really starting to, you know, just give out on him. So like, thank you, for all you do, obviously.
Drew Plotkin:So I feel like you just threw that out to get like 25 bucks off your next tattoo. Whereas me and Jaden are pimping ourselves here. We're just being real with the people. Well, it
Dustin Steffey:sounds like Jaden has to book us for November 1. So that way, you me and Jaden can get into this artist before our live event.
Drew Plotkin:You know Jaden, I'm gonna save a Groupon for you did you know like a buy one, get one free, because you're not sitting there, undermining the integrity of this podcast, trying to throw out the speakeasy tattoo artist guy for you know, 25 bucks off like our friend. And it's, it's all good. I got you back, baby. I got you.
Jaden Norvell:There you I don't know where I will cash in this group on but I will keep it in my backpack. But these this is these disfavor artists. So he's tried to book me with this guy three or four times as the
Drew Plotkin:you know what? I will say people say to me a lot, it's probably one of the things we'll look at a certain tattoo. And people really no tattoos might even recognize a certain artist styles to get in with him, or it's, you know, three year waiting list or all these different things. And there are certain things that you can do not to like eliminate the rest of the list, but to look at the people who for the most part at the higher level of tattooing, yes, they're making good money, some of them are making a lot of money. There's other things that these talented people can do to make a lot of money. They're tattooing because they're passionate about it. And one of the things is to really, you know, through appropriate communication, try to make sure that they know a how important the piece is to you. What the piece is, you said in your case, it's a memorial piece to a dear friend of yours. And it sounds like you're looking for something like realism, like a realistic realism style of design, right? And if that's the artist specialty, hopefully, and that's a big deal in itself. Because you have a lot of people who might see an artist that does, you know, amazing Japanese style tattoo work, but they might come to them with a completely different style of tattoo that isn't what this artist is known for specializes in. Oh, he didn't get back to me or she didn't get back to me. Well, that's, you know, that's like, you know, bringing a Porsche to a Ferrari dealer. You know, the most nice cars but it doesn't really work that way. So, you know, on your end, it is important to be persistent. You know, and as long as they're being responsive, the artist or the tattoo shop and being upfront with you, you know, not saying, Oh, we can get you in next month, you know, hold the date, and then all of a sudden, it's a year later, you know, if you're doing that, that's, that's not right. And, you know, I wouldn't continue down. But if they're communicating, and you're being forthright about how important this piece is to you, and sharing examples from this artist and saying, oh, man, I just saw this piece you did, it's so dope. I can't wait to get in with you. You know, whenever your schedule frees up, they're going to remember that for the most part they want. Top Artists want to tattoo people who are passionate about the tattoo they're going to be doing
Dustin Steffey:I agree with that statement. I mean, I like shading. So for, for mine, it's about how he shades and that's what I like. And shading feels good. When you're in the chair. Honestly, I like I like that part of the tattoo. To be honest with you. I don't like the outline.
Drew Plotkin:I mean, I don't like any of it. I mean, I like when they say you're done. But outlining definitely, for most people, myself included is more painful than the shading for most for sure.
Dustin Steffey:The part that I'm looking forward to is when because Jaden makes fun of me because I'm putting in like, I take a little longer to get ready because I'm rubbing like lotion on my tattoos and stuff like that, I can't wait for him to have some, because now it's gonna take him longer. Well,
Drew Plotkin:that's good that you're doing that man, I'm happy to hear that because that's, you know, starting DERM dude, you know, really came from, you know, my own desire after being in the skincare, personal care world, you know, for 1520 years, and then also realizing there was nothing that I felt good about from my own tattoos from a tattoo aftercare perspective, and that, you know, the whole story behind that, that were went down. And you know, how it got started, but that really was the genesis was, you know, me looking around being like, man, I've been in skincare, personal care world for all these years, we've sold, you know, for other brands, you know, a billion 1,000,000,005, you know, roughly, when we run the number, we know, it's over a billion and probably closer to 1,000,000,005, of product sales for all these other brands, which is great, you know, good products and all these things. And then I'm sitting there saying, Hmm, you know, what about, for someone like me, you know, I'm about to turn 50 and 50 now, but at the time, like, I'm still like, going down the supermarket aisle picking up like tubs of petroleum based goo, that's really, you know, made for diaper rash, and knee scrapes and burns. And, you know, using it on tattoos, because I don't know any better, most artists didn't know any better. And that's, you know, when I got really, you know, tunnel vision of man, I got to do this, like, you know, making it for me. And after we went down the path of the tattoo balm, our first product, then I was hooked. I was like, man, we're not stopping there. And we went on to beard and balls. And once you, once you get into balls, man, you're
Dustin Steffey:it's hard to turn back. So you could say your balls deep into it. Now,
Drew Plotkin:you could say that beyond beyond, I like that. That's good.
Dustin Steffey:I'm just trying to I'm trying to earn my net worth, right. I'm trying to practice to be your new poster child for gym, dude,
Drew Plotkin:you got it, man, we've got a bunch of sayings like that, you know, we say, show your socks and love or no one else? Well, you know, great smelling balls is a win win. You know, there's no shortage of ways that we like to, you know, promote the brand. And, you know, beard, one of our winner and part of it, you know, as we started to do this, you know, this is the cool part, having been in the, the weird professional skincare world. You know, and I don't think I ever came across as necessarily looking like your typical professional person. But we were very serious my agency that, that I found and ran for all those years. We took it very serious. And we we were known for our detail, our success rate, our passion, the brands that we worked on, you know, we produced and directed commercials for T Mobile and tons of public companies and celebrities and you know, Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Lopez, and, you know, the very first commercial ever directed, was repaired. So when, a million years ago, and I always I mentioned in the book I to this day, I think that was a mistake. I think they probably called and hired the wrong Drew. And I kept just waiting for them to say, oh, no, we got the wrong guy, you're out of here and then driving home from the shoot like that. I guess they didn't figure that out. I must have been the right guy. And then, you know, that was, you know, one of the, you know, fortuitous moments in my career. But, you know, it's it's one of those things that as you dive into, you know, the world of all these products and brands and different things. You can't help but soak it up. And you also are working with very big groups at that level who are putting tons of money in, they have boards of directors, they have VPS VPs of VPs and brand managers, Junior brand managers and junior Junior brand managers and the interns, I've interns and, you know, and for a while that was you know, fun and cool and it was the Hollywood thing, and we were doing all this stuff and you know, building a career, a business a brand, you know, building a family and making money to do it. But you also are working within the guidelines of, you know, someone else's brand. And for me, most of the skincare and personal care, whether it was hair, skincare, makeup 99.9% were geared towards women, most of them were, you know, wrinkle products, or crepey skin or, you know, or, you know, women to get more volumizing hair or makeup. And that became our expertise and specialty. And, you know, I used to joke and say you don't expect most people who look like me to be able to say duck latte, you know, instead of neck area, you know? And when we're looking into, like, how do you know what a duck the day is, you know, we're in French deputise, you know, and I used to joke and call it like, you know, Beauty and the Beast, like the beast was in the beauty world. But I was obsessive. And we took it so passionately and seriously. But once I started DERM dude, and this was what was burning from the inside, there were no rules, there were the gloves were off, I could say whatever the fry can do what I wanted. And it wasn't like a big fu to the world, it was more like, to anyone who was like me, a guy, a dude, who didn't want to be handcuffed or restricted, who wanted to be free to, you know, speak his mind, you know, and if I eff up and do something stupid, which I do, I'm gonna say sorry, I say sorry, a lot. And I have no issue with that. But I don't want to say sorry for things that I'm not really sorry for, I don't want to apologize for being made. And there's a big part of the world that wants people you know, who may be covered in tattoos and a beard and six foot four and 245 pounds, and they look at you, like you showed up to like, you know, rob the place? You know, it's and I talked about that in the book about not judging judging a book by its cover. And it's a very funny thing. And so with them, dude, what was cool was that, you know, the first five or 10 things that I threw out that we were going to do, my whole group had been we fears like your job, you can't say that you can, why can't you? Well, you just can't why? And nobody had an answer why you can't, you know, what they say? Who's they? And we just started to say, you know, what, there's, we make the rules, you know, as long as we're putting out something that is great, a great product and being real and honest and authentic. And we're not hurting people, but bringing them together and being inclusive instead of exclusive. And I remember one of our first you know, we have a three one body wash, which is still one of our more successful products and has a great scent to it. And I sent a note to our web team, you know, the new tagline, which was above the website, and I'm pretty sure it's still on there unless they took it off without telling me and it said, you know, life is full of assholes don't smell like one. And that was the tagline for her scented body wash. And, you know, it's like, we're not selling this at church on Sundays. But I can tell you there's no shortage of people who go to church who buy our products and are not afraid to laugh at themselves laugh at life. And that's my whole thing is I will be the first person to laugh at myself laugh at my life laugh with my buddies, my friends, laugh with my girlfriend. And you know laughter is important in life. And being a little irreverent is important in life. And when you look at what we're doing, I say all the time, you know, our primary, main or men's grooming brand. I mean, we do everything from deodorant, body washes and everything inside out. But our main focus has been balls, beard and tattoos. And when you're talking about ball care, you need to destigmatize that you need to do it in a way that makes people laugh a little bit that makes them step back and first have a laugh so they're going to watch and pay attention and then it's the first thing like the names of our ball products you know people look at it like our our ball cream that kind of blew up tick tock we were talking about that before we were rolling on my six year old twins taught me how to use tick tock and then I think a month or two later I came to the office and did this like 32nd sitting right here talking to someone about why we developed our ball cream and our ball cream is called Happy sack not love all of a sudden you know we have like 5 million views on Tiktok and orders are blowing up and I'm flying all across the country getting more inventory and you know, it's just going crazy since then. But the main part is there's a reason that our names to our products are not Walgreen whitewash, ball spray. I mean, you know, it's not our ball wash, it's called ball gasm and we want to get your attention and we're pretty cool pumping it up, you know, we think you're gonna have a pretty damn bog Asmik experience you know, and we stand behind it and you know, happy sack not love cooling cream and our spray to deodorize your balls we call amaze balls and you know, I don't know which hat I'm wearing today. I don't know what it says if it's Durham dude or if it says amazeballs but if I'm wearing our amazeballs hat, I can't walk down the street without being People men women's, what do I get that, and we weren't trying to sell hats or merchandise, we're just proud of our brand and having fun with it, and proud of our products. So, you know, it's it's an interesting thing. But with the upside was we had 1520 years of experience developing products marketing building, making sure, first and foremost that the product was number one that the products were great. And, and once we did that, I never had any doubt that we wouldn't figure out how to market it to people. So I just decided I don't want to mark it. I don't want to mark it, I just want to be me. And I believed in at the very beginning, and more so now than ever that, you know, we're not for everyone. You know, I say in the book that I learned a long time ago that I'm an acquired taste. You know, some people take me some people leave me most people do both. I'm good with that, you know. And we're just trying to be honest with people about what we're doing what we're selling, and we stand behind it.
Dustin Steffey:First, I wanted to tell you that I don't care who you are, like, I think that you would be the best promoter for anyone and everyone because I just know we're in the day and age now where it's not 1960 anymore, where if you're a talented guy or girl, you're not accepted. So first and foremost, I just after your story wanted to say that. Secondly, I wanted to say in trolling your site, you have so many options, to be able to smell not like an asshole and be able to work on your beard and be able to work on certain things. I, I think that the product variety that you offer is amazing. They're like, I don't know, I want to try all of them. But I'm not rich, so I can't buy them all.
Drew Plotkin:But I know a guy I know a guy who can hook you up,
Dustin Steffey:I hear I hear you know, guys, so that's awesome. I just I just want to say like for people that are listening, like if you're looking for quality product from someone that's been in the industry, and knows what you need, this site has it all it is not like these other sites where you actually go on and they only have like, one body wash and it's one cent and that's it. There's variety. There's flavor, there's taste, there's everything. So like, if you haven't checked it out, you should check it out. And you'll probably be overwhelmed like me, like I put a fake cart together. And I was about $400. And so I mean, this guy that you know, would be like super stoked having me as a customer because it's like, oh, $400 a month I got to spend Let's go.
Drew Plotkin:Let's see, I yelled at my tea guy. I was like, Look, there's a $400 order that didn't convert and I was like so mad at him. And that was you and I gotta call him and offer him his job back now I feel badly it was just something that you were doing for research. I'm kidding.
Dustin Steffey:Now you can just tell him that you hired me instead because I'm going to be the poster child straighten my beard up grow a little more make it look as good as yours and then keep going.
Drew Plotkin:But you know what, it's here's the honest truth and I couldn't grow a beard before we launched her and dude, I mean, we have pictures. We show it on the website. I mean, I can you know, like patchy like a lot of guys struggle with and, and are there some dudes that genetically can grow an amazing frickin beard? Absolutely, some can. There's also people that you know, are gonna be 612 610 and playing the NBA genetically. I mean, it doesn't work that way for most of us. So if you're blessed with the most amazing genetic beard and well there's also dudes who you know, to this day can like eat drink a six pack and eat a pizza and have six pack abs 99.9% of us were not made that way you know, we're gonna have a gut and we have to get the workout watch what we eat or, or deal with the gut. So there is the reality of it. And it was after our tattoo balm we really started out with the tattoo balm which hopefully we'll get into since that was like the real firing off point for the whole brand. But with beard it was one of those things where you know, I got so frustrated myself of I'd been in the skincare industry think you know, enough about skin and basic things drink a lot of water and skin cell turnover and I worked with some of the top dermatologists in the world over the years of working on other people's skincare brands and manufacturers and labs and again, I knew so much about ingredients and skincare itself that it kind of freaked people out because it didn't fit like the package like you know, I would sit there and you know I was not the guy who wants to sit next to on the plane and get into a conversation with because they'd be like this guy's frickin weird especially if someone was like taking out there they're they're lotion or something and I would you know talk to Oh, you're saying you know your alpha hydroxy acids I mean that's really you know, super fascinating stuff and you know if you have you found that you know as as your supplements returns and you know so but as I was like always doing research, you know, I was the guy who like you know almost got banned from Sephora because I would just go there on weekends and hang out and as soon as I saw you know customer like after sampling and looking to go buy something to kind of ask where are you buying that? You know, is it that you liked the smell and the call Security, you know, I only got tasered there like four or five times, but I was just genuinely like wanting like research. I didn't care what the NBA said I'd never Well, I didn't care what the marketing, you know, BS that you might pull up on Google or somewhere else said, I wanted to always know and hear from the real people. That was always my tribe, my crew, that's how I always saw myself see myself, I don't equate human beings and people to data and statistics and reports, I think, you know, it's about a heart, a brain, a soul spirit. And what you do, I'm not trying to be too philosophical, but, you know, having worked in corporate skincare, for 1520 years, I met, I was in a lot of those meetings, you know, pretty high up meetings on the sea level of these massive, massive campaigns. And, you know, I'm not trying to brag on it, but it was about data and statistics, and, you know, some new genius MBA coming in, you know, explaining in a big report, you know, what women really want or what a woman's husband wants them to use and the skin. And, you know, sometimes they got it right, sometimes they got it wrong, not often any better than tossing the coin, to be totally honest. I mean, it wasn't. And part of it was that a lot of people are just not trained in the simple, simple skill of ask and listen, ask people what they want, and hear them. And you don't always have to be right. In fact, be prepared to be wrong, more than you're right. You know, that's always been my thing. I knew, by the nature of me that I'm just going to be wrong, more than I was right, I knew I was going to, you know, fall down more and more and more and more than most people, I was just always gonna get back up. I wasn't gonna stop getting back up. And I wasn't gonna stop listening and learning and getting better and applying it. So you know, one of my favorite tattoos, you're asking me before we roll, there's a tiny little one on my finger right here, but probably can't see it. But it says lower the bar. No, and it's actually not a self defeatist thing. It's kind of been my mentality of what's worked for me my life is, you know, what people underestimate. Let people assume that you're a lot dumber than you are. People judge a book by its cover, and you'll have the last laugh. And for the most part, I have and, you know, lower the bar, it's okay. And then surprise, you no surprises, always fun.
Dustin Steffey:You and I have so many similarities, I have a tattoo that says prove them wrong, because my whole life has been about just setting the expectation differently, because nobody expected very much out of me. So my my mantra is prove them wrong every single time.
Drew Plotkin:That's right. That's right. I love that. It's, you know, their little reminders, you know, I always say everyone's got their own thing. I mean, some people probably think of their Picasso as a work of art. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, tattoos are a work of art. And, and so I don't, you know, I really try so hard to to never judge someone's tattoo, I really look at them as personal decisions. I like to think of them as lifelong decisions, you know, unless there's a bad situation behind something, you know, or someone needs to, you know, remove it for various reasons. But, you know, for me, I always refer to my own tattoos as my therapist as my, as myself being a giant post it note. And they're my reminders and they're, you know, messages and symbolism to myself about my kids about the Father, I want to be the things I want to improve on the things that I love. There's tattoos that commemorate celebrations and friendships and happiness, there's tattoos that Mark very painful, painful loss, brutal loss that you know, you know, took years to you know, be able to commit to commemorating that loss in a certain tattoo on my body but but therapeutically, you know that there's that part of it for me and I know there's you know, someone who have a couple of beers tonight and some college town and go out and you know, maybe get Yosemite Sam tattooed on their left not and you know, I mean, I'm not judging Well, I yeah, I'm gonna judge you if you do that, actually, I'm I reserve the right to judge on that case, but I'm not saying that everyone takes it as deep and that's the thing about the book, you know, with under my skin, it is a deep topic, but it also you know, I'm from New Jersey, we bust balls, I mean, it's a lot of gallows humor, there's a lot of you know, sarcasm and dry wit. That is all real all my own life story. And sometimes oftentimes in my life the most brutal hard, challenging moments to get past moments that maybe I even thought I might not get past some of the things that got me past them and way beyond and backup from the valley to the peak had been humor and finding ways to laugh at myself or, or just laugh again at anything. You know, humor is the best medicine in the world. I really believe that so it's an interesting book in that when people say, you know, describe it I, I do, I'm like, you know, the people who've read it, and some of our people who've endorsed it, and our testimonials have commented that they just were laughing their ass off one minute and crying their eyes out the next and I'm like, then, you know, I'm happy because that's kind of been the journey of my life. You know, I was just trying to, if anything, mark it down for me, you know, I was trying to figure myself
Dustin Steffey:out. Yeah, I love reading so we're gonna have to read that book for sure. I know Jaden, and I challenge each other all the time to read. So that might be something Jaden and I read together and have some fun with for sure. About that. Someone getting drunk tonight, and probably tattooing that tattoo on their left ball. That might be Jaden, so we may need to watch out for him.
Drew Plotkin:Yosemite, Sam, I think was specifically what we were throwing out there. So that
Dustin Steffey:was specific. Yeah, we do have to be specific. I know. I mean, Jaden is one liners. We got to be very specific.
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, I think Jaden is going to renew his deal where he doesn't get paid by the word. He's like, I we just got to split this 5050 going forward. He's like on the phone with his agent right now. Right? Yeah.
Dustin Steffey:Still with the one liner? Yeah. No, Jaden has been patiently like I see him his wheels turning and stuff. I know he has some fun things to add. I think he's going to add him right now.
Drew Plotkin:Oh, man, the hard questions. I've already used up everything I got, man. This is tough. All right. Jaden fire
Jaden Norvell:away, brother. Dustin said earlier usually has a bunch of tastes or whatever. Have you ever tasted any of your your oils or anything?
Drew Plotkin:tasted them? So like, are you referring to the ball product specifically? Sure. Yeah. It's funny that you said that. Let me answer it this way. Because the simplest one is, well, I've not personally tasted them. I've smelled them. Because like, for instance, this is our amazeballs MVP. So when we demo it, and we'll go out and film people, and sometimes we'll spray it on apples or lemons. If I went up to people and had them drop their pants in public and sprayed this, again, I'd be tasered and probably do in 20 years and be El Chapo is roommate right now over at supermax. So but we'll spray it on someone's arm. So they can, you know, get the scent and the feel of it. And usually imagine and, you know, dude, first of all the guys love it. But it's the women that are with them, whether it's a girlfriend or wife, or it could be a you know, a guy who's you know, partner, significant other boyfriend, whatever it is, I mean, we always say, you know, it's your visitors, everyone's welcome. You know, we don't care everyone is welcomed, and we want them as long as they're of age and consent to use our products and enjoy them as intended. But so I've not licked them like that. There just hasn't been a reason to having said that. Hands down, which I still laugh at that our tic tock is what became our big social media platform, because I think it was like six months ago, where I bowed out louder a year. Like, if we need to use tick tock to be successful effort. I'll never launch a brand again. It's stupid. And now like, walk down the street and people are like, tick tock, dude, show you're ordering something online the other day, the guy's like, I know your voice. I just watched you talking about your balls on tick tock. I liked that. You said you're the guinea pig for your products I ordered. And I'm like, Thank you, customer service man. About my cell phone bill. Is that accurate? So it's kind of cool. To hear what resonates with people. That does mean a lot. But back to the taste. If you go on our Tic Toc, and I would say hands down, the most common repeat question we always get is about the taste of the ball products. Because again, you know, if they're happy sack not love cream, you're putting it on your package, if it's our bog Asmik, chocolate activated washer, washing with it on your sack and cracking all over your body and you're obviously spraying or amazeballs on your balls. So it becomes first of all, some people say alright, if my girl or my dude or my partner or someone goes down there, are they going to be okay. Nobody's asked a blunt question. The way it's almost phrased nine out of 10 times is hey, I'm asking for a friend. Is it edible? And it's, I'm asking for a friend and right back and we'll say, you know, look, you have no issues. Here's the thing. I would not say to take like a large heaping scoop of any cream or topical and put it on my pancakes or take a big ol scoop and put it on my steak and eggs of anything. I just I just you know, that's not really the concept. I mean, products are developed for external use in this case, but having said that, our products absorbed very quickly into the skin. They're pH balanced for the skin. If you think of it like if someone was to use a cologne and you spray it right on your neck and then If your significant other comes up and gives you a kiss on the neck, they're not going to get sick, they're not going to have an issue with that. If you're talking about like using a body wash, anybody washing the shower, you know, you jump in the shower, a lot of times before you get down with someone, right? Oh, let's jump in the shower, let's get clean. And then you know, unless you're really boring, you're kind of kissing each other all over the place, right? So that body wash was just on you. So as human beings, it is very normal and typical for the for the topicals that we use on our body that absorbed into our skin, to come into contact with our significant others. Now, if someone said, Should I take amazeballs and spray it as breath spray? I'd say probably not because we didn't test it for that just use toothbrush and toothpaste for you know, use it on your balls. That's what we made it for. But these products are specifically pH balanced for your balls. And you know, we've had doctors on our on our podcast and speaking on behalf of the brand who try the products and the first thing that they'll say is dermatologist is the sack the ball sack is one of most sensitive areas of the body. And it is it's some of the thinnest skin. It's protecting some pretty important, you know, rocks down there, right? So it was a reason you don't want to get kicked down there. So I when people say things like, oh, I'll just use you know, whatever cologne I got, or I'll just use anything I find in sprayed. That's like the stupidest thing. You know, people I'll just use baby powder and like, you know what, dude, do whatever you want. Man. I personally as a grown man don't like to use anything that's made for babies on my junk number one. And number two, you know, I just say all the time Google baby powder lawsuit right now, and I'm not making any statements. I'm not making any claims. I'm just saying, if you think baby powder is the way to go, just Google that before you put it on your junk and see what pops up and, you know, see what Google says about it and read about some of these things. So you know, we're using you know, Cameo, we're using aloe vera. We're using cucumber. You know, there's a reason why when you put on our happy sack not love you feel your balls getting cool. I mean, I don't know if you guys have been our Instagram. But we have a NASCAR truck and Spencer boys, our driver coolest dude in the world badass. Then we had one of our races recently. And it was in Indy, and I realized I got knocked out of the race quickly. I was at a work event I hadn't been able to watch it. And I'm watching the replay on NASCAR and like very early on our dermed NASCAR truck got rear ended and the whole thing went up in flames. Our truck you see in the dirt NASCAR announcer on NASCAR dot coms like doo doo doo DERM man cars a flaming you know frickin trucks on fire. Our driver you see him your nascar.com you can go to our Instagram and see Spencer then God gets gets out of the truck. It's an inferno the derby truck in flames. And I'm like, dude, dude, Yo, can you and he literally text me back and said he writes thank thank the Lord I was wearing my happy sack ball crane kept his balls cool liquid his truck was on fire. Now, you know, we have to say we don't recommend lighting yourself on fire and, and suggesting that our ball cream is gonna save you. But my point is, is that the reason that a NASCAR driver like Spencer endorses and loves our ball crane is because on average, when you're not in a truck on fire, it gets down to 140 degrees inside those NASCAR trucks in the suit, the racing suit, the heat, everything, 140 degrees. And these guys have to stay cool, it's a matter of if they can compete and not even pass out. And you know, our cooling cream, you know, go ahead and put a thermometer in our cooling cream, then put a thermometer and throw some baby powder on it, we've done it look at the difference and see which one gets cooler. And what's happened. And so, you know, for us, it's not like we're trying to compete with anyone, I always say there's a lot of options. There's a lot of products. If I could say anything to dudes out there, take care of yourself, you know, just don't, don't fall into the trap of here's how it's always been done. Here's, here's all I know. And that's all I need to know, you know, move forward, you know, like, why would you think that you don't need something just just for your sack area? You know, why do you use toothpaste and a toothbrush for your mouth? When you brush your teeth? Won't you just take a bite of a bar soap if, if it's all the same, but you don't use toothbrush and toothpaste because your mouth is different. You know, it's a different temperature as different germs as different genetic makeup different DNA, well, your ball sack is the same way. So you want to use something that is made and formulated for your ball sack and, you know, tattoos was the same way. I know we haven't really touched on that. But how that whole line came about but you know, obviously, someone covered in tattoos I I didn't want to buy a tattoo product from some, you know, MBA marketing whiz, you know, maybe Mickey Mouse tattooed on his ass from the drunk night in Vegas 20 years ago, and that was it. That's not who I really, you know, wanted to tell me about you know, tattoos or you know, maybe Someone who, you know, went on Shark Tank, and it will. You know, I wanted something that, to me was authentic and real, and, you know, was made by a tattoo collector for tattoo collectors after, you know, a ton of research and, you know, not one, not two, not three, but probably 4050 rounds of different samples and trying to get it right, you know, every single product we put out is, in addition to being tested with our labs and manufacturers, it's tested on me. And if it doesn't get past me, if it's not something that I love, and we feel great about, it doesn't go on to the next round, which is friends, family testimonials. So there's a whole process and I often say that I'm the Lead guinea pig, and I'm 50 years old, I'm a dude got a beard that two's last time I checked, the balls are still there. So that's a good thing. So if it's a product that I love that I want, that I would want to share with my friends and other guys out there, that's when it gets the stamp of saying, all right, we got it right. And if it's 99%, we're not moving on it. I mean, we've killed product launches, with a ton of money invested, which is not easy for a startup to do. You know, we have a product here we have boxes and box about 3540 grand of inventory that we will not sell because something went wrong along the way. And the final final formulation, we miss something and it's like 98% As great as we wanted it to be and you can't go back in and reformulate once something is, is packaged and bottled and done. And it's it works. There's there's no issue, there's no health risk, there's no problem with it. Most people would actually love it, but that's not okay for us. 98% isn't okay. Most people isn't okay, you know, we are putting out a product, we want to feel good that every dude should feel great about it. And every, you know, person who experiences that product on that dude should feel great about and look at half of our tattoo buyers are women for their own tattoos, and probably about half the people who buy our bulk product or women who are buying it for, you know, a pair of balls that they enjoy visiting, and we'd like to be cleaner and
Dustin Steffey:more refreshed. In your conversation. I just was thinking over in my head that Jaden is going to try to one up that NASCAR dude. And while he's trying your product, he's going to come up with something he may not light himself on fire, but something's going to happen. And then he's going to be your new poster child.
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, my lawyers make me disclaim that we're not encouraging you to light yourself on fire. And that was an accidental car accident that caused it but you can google it Spencer Boyd, truck fire and you will see the Durham dude, truck up in flames. And then you'll see where he texts me thank thank the Lord, I was wearing my hat beside bulk is not school. So
Dustin Steffey:we're at a point where I want to recap a couple things. So that way, it doesn't get lost in translation, because you brought up some really good points that I just want to hit home with. One being that research is important, and especially in the sense of how you conduct the research. So you brought up the good point that you would just go around, ask questions and get that personal, like feel on the research to be able to find something that'll work for everyone. So I want to reinforce to our entrepreneurs out there that are trying to do something, whether it be a service or a product, research is important. And the manner in how you conduct it is equally as important. So you can hire someone to do the market research. Or you can take the jury approach and actually use your words and ask someone and really start tying it together to come up with something great. That's one thing. The second thing is the marketing portion of it. Marketing has many avenues to go down. And the way you mark it really is a testament to how you're going to do like for you. I really enjoy how you market the products because it's it's not boring, like it's not boring, right? I go on your website, and it doesn't say ball cream, it has something that is catchy. That really just makes you want to buy it just because it's gonna look freakin cool in my shower, because it says something cool to me, or whatever the case may be. Right. So marketing is what you make of it. And then the last thing that I did take away so far, is the pride piece. And I don't mean pride in a negative but taking pride in what you're putting out for your consumer to buy. So you just made that statement where you have 40 grand plus in product that's finished. But you x need it because it's not it's not where you want it. And you did that on purpose because yes, it would be great like, Oh, it'll work for most people, but that's not who you are. You want it to work for everyone and be a solution for everyone and that's where pride comes into it really take pride in your product.
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, I think of it you know, you hit three great points and on the last one if I go in reverse I I think of a product almost like all I can relate it to, again, I don't have any graduate degrees, I was just lucky to graduate, you know, a six, four year program and six and a half years. So, you know, with a journalism degree, all things. But for me, I look at products like a restaurant, in the sense that if I go into a restaurant, I'm going to come back, if I have an incredible experience on a scale from one to 10, I generally I'm not talking fast food, but like a nice restaurant, I don't go back, if I had a seven or an eight, or even a nine, because you know, you're spending the money you're taking the time, time is our biggest commodity in the world, we realize that as we get older, I only have so much time, I only have so many people that I want to share a meal with and that experience, and I'm looking for a 10. And that's what's gonna bring me back over and over and over again. And I think of the products the same exact way, I don't want someone to have an eight or a nine, or certainly not a seven expense, I want them to have a 10 out of 10. And if for some reason, something happened along the way, you know, sometimes a package can break in the mail, maybe the UPS guy did a dance on it, because I don't know, my blended ups, they're great. Now my packages are gonna get destroyed. But whatever it is, you know, we're not going to sit there and say, oh, you know, well, the bottle was perfectly intact, when we sent it, we don't know what you did with it, you kid must have dropped it. You know, we're saying, Hey, man, I have no idea what happened, but we're gonna fix it, we're gonna get you, you know, not just that, but here's what we're gonna do, you know, to make up where we want you to have an amazing experience. And I would say some of our you know, I mean, we have so many five star reviews that just blow me away. And I email them back as often as I can I call them and surprise them. And that's really cool. We record them. Sometimes we ask them for permission and say, hey, you know, this is Drew from dermed. You know, it's not, you know, and it's so cool. Because this is our tribe. This is our people. This is our, who we exist for. And it's such a joy in my life. And my day, and probably the thing that I enjoyed most out of this whole process of launching this brand is getting to hear from the real users who use and love and have great feedback and will say things like, Hey, I love this product. If you do another version, what about this and telling you that is where a huge percentage of our product development pipeline comes from is ideation from our actual consumers? First and foremost, and then the other points that you mentioned is like market research. And here's the thing I'll say on that, at least that I've experienced, which is, look, data is great. I would be an idiot to say data isn't helpful. It's not important. It is, but it's directional. And here's one of the problems with data. If all it took was data or formulas to do something successful, every single person will be successful, because 90% Of all people can read data 90% Of all people can understand a formula that a successful brand did, okay. There's nothing that Apple did that isn't written down from, you know, their first you know, iMac and everything else and go do it. It's the execution, and it's not being cookie cutter, they already did it that way. What are you going to do, that's going to be different, that's going to add that's, you know, innovation. You know, someone said, I don't remember who, but someone a lot smarter than me said true innovation isn't always creating something new. It's taking what exists and making it better. And that is a big part of innovation. So you know, for me, the downside of data only you get these data junkies. And if it's not on a report and an Excel spreadsheet, and a box being checked, they don't want anything to do with it. I'm the opposite. Because my belief is it's not always what someone says, but how they say it. You can ask me questions all day long. You can ask 50 people the same question. And how they answered they may say the same thing. You know, they may say, Oh, yes, I agree. Oh, yes. You know, I agree. Oh, are you kidding me? 100% man, for sure. I would have three very different answers. But on a box. They're all going to check. Yes. And you know, so it's night and day different. You're reading someone's body language, you're looking at them, you're you're watching you're listening to their tone. And the book I get into it that you know, I spent, you know, some time as a telemarketer and what was a, a valley in my life a really hard time and ended up doing, doing very well. And what I learned from that of just listening to people over the phone and having to hear them, no visuals, nothing else, but the tone, the pitch of their voice. There's so many life lessons that you can pick up if you just look at any situation you're in and say, this may not be the situation that I want to be in right now. It sure should not the situation I want to be in long term or permanently. But while I'm here because I'm going to be here, what can I take away from this that is going to really, you know, make my journey instead of this be like this. And you know, for me, I've had you know a lot of Uh, you know, things over time, I was like, Man, I don't want to be doing this right now who doesn't you know, Man, I hate this or I wish I wasn't doing this. But once I get past that pretty quickly and smack myself and say, you know, get back into it, what can you take away from this? Those are the things that that led to my my biggest successes in life, it really did. So I like sharing that with people.
Dustin Steffey:And I know we've talked a lot about balls, and I'm sure Jaden and I will talk more about it when we are trying the product and actually selling it because we will probably love it too. But I do want to get into the tattoo portion because I know I can sense the love and the passion that you have with it, because that's where you started. So let's dive into it.
Drew Plotkin:Well, so for tattoo, you know, I my book goes into it, I probably won't go into at this point, you guys are reading the book, I had gone through a personal life experience that was I mean, there's no other way to put it, it was pretty shitty, I lost someone very close to me. very tragically due to a suicide. And it was pretty crushing as those things certainly are. And I had ultimately, as one of the means to try to find some level of healing or, you know, not like a one thing fixes all but I an artist that tattoo artists I know, he's been a huge fan of had kind of known, met a couple of times when he was doing a tattoo workshop in Bali of all places. And the fact that this specific artist reached out was available, he remembered me and I had sent him a note you know about that I really want to come up with a piece that will you know, not just mark this difficult, but that that helped me move to the next side of it, you know, have a therapeutic side to it. You know, not wipe away the hurt and the sadness but but let it not be bitter and anger. And I thought enough time had passed. And so he agreed, which was really cool. I flew out to Bali, which you know, the journey the experience itself became pretty, pretty rad and just magical in itself. And you know, the first day we were together, we did nothing I talked about this in the book other than I thought I was gonna come in and start tattooing. And all he wanted to do was like talk about the philosophy of tattooing and my other tattoos and the story of my life. And they had a personal healer there as well and the movement expert. And so it was like, Oh, I had no idea that I signed up for like, you know, the Tony Robbins tattoo wellness retreat minus Tony Robbins. But it was, but it was different. It was like people I could relate to, you know, people who looked like me and could talk on my level and weren't talking over my head. And it wasn't like psychobabble. And it was just very real and honest and raw. And I instantly felt like I can be open with this small group I can I can share I can be me. And up until then, you know, I shared what had happened with anyone in my life about about that event about suicide of a close person to me. And so we spoke for the first day about philosophy of tattooing, type of tattoo and he designed and redesigned to design, I'd fall asleep on the couch. And I get up a couple hours later. And he'd still be redesigning and redesigning. And then finally, like day two, he's like I got it. And I'm like, Can I see it and he's like, doesn't matter, I got it, like, okay, and landed it on my chest. And he looked at it, and I maybe glanced at it for a second, you're kind of looking upside down and mirrors like, this is it he's like, we got it. And, you know, he tattooed on and off for about two days. And when it was done, it was really pretty. It was it was a bit of an out of body experience seeing it made a connection that bridged a lot of things. And, you know, again, I'm not gonna say that all of a sudden, I looked in the mirror saw a tattoo and all this weight and painted lifted. But it was a significant a significant step forward, and probably not just the tattoo, but the days being there and the process of speaking through it and helping with the design and talking through what it means to me and then reliving all of that. So what had happened is the tattoo itself has like a silhouette of a of a human being and grown man that is like standing on top of a tree of life. The tree is the shape of a heart. The waterfall is the tears of the heart, but the silhouette is climbing back up the tree of life because it's persistence and resilience and won't stop and that was symbolic of myself in my mind still climbing to the top of the silhouette. So the next day, I had to leave the next morning pretty early so I only have like a day left in Bali and I wanted to explore and everything else so got one of those books that said like things to do. And in Bali if you only have 36 hours in Iran, I googled it on the internet. And one of the things was go to the town of Abood Ubu D and do all these different things. And I didn't realize the time that Abood means actually medicine which was kind of cool the way it worked out. You'd be a day and one of the things was climbed Mount but tour which is a active volcano actually. And a lot of people will hike Get at sunrise first thing in the morning you'll start out freezing your ass off at like 2:33am. When it's pitch black, you'll be with a guide, you'll have a headlamp. And if it's a nice day, a nice sunrise by the time you get to the top, the sun in theory should just peak right over the top of this volcano. at just the right moment, you see the most spectacular sunrise. So we started out, it's freezing cold wearing multiple layers. I'm like 12 hours removed from two days of tattooing on my chest. You know, raw, no, not doing any tattoo aftercare with any common sense, even though I knew better, and I'm wearing multiple layers, and it's hot, but freezing. So as we're huffing and puffing and going up and up the volcano, you're sweating, and you're sweating more and more and more. And I finally get to the top and realize that as I peel off the layers, I'm wearing this white under T shirt, and you can actually see the tattoo like as a stencil on was coming through the white t shirt but covered in ash volcanic ash in the brand new tattoo, like I was covered in volcanic ash from hiking up this active volcano. So I'm like, this ain't good to the point where the shirt wouldn't even peel off. I'm like, I'm just gonna have to at some point stand in the shower or whatever. But just then what was crazy is it ends up being a very cloudy, foggy day. And everyone's bummed out like 500 people a pop by then everyone's like, Oh, we're not gonna see the sunrise. We sweated our balls off to get up here. It's been you know, people kinda. And all of a sudden my guy doesn't speak English grabs him by the arms, calm, calm, calm. And he's like pulling me around the corner at the top of you know, the volcanic. And he's taking me around the corner where nobody else is and obviously has a Go Go Go. And he's like pointing out to the cliff and he's like, take my Give me your phone. Give me your phone. So I'm standing out on this little ledge. I'm scared shitless of heights to begin with. So I'm like now out there and like, I'm really on the ledge like of this volcano. And this dude's like, in front of me my guide, and he's got my phone. I'm like, Yeah, I just fell for stupid American 101 This dude's got my new iPhone. And I just see. And like, what is he looking at? It's like, wait, wait. And he's like, super passionate, but doesn't speak English. And he just starts and all of a sudden, I could feel like, like this heat on the back of my neck and the world just lights up. And for like five seconds, the sun just comes up right over my shoulder, like this guide knew had the foresight within the fog in the haze to know that this one spot was going to peak for this short little window. And he started snapping these pictures. And as quick as it came up, it was gone. I mean, like 500 Other people started running towards this area, and the sun was already gone. And all of a sudden, he hands me my phone back and I look and it was me on top of this volcano holding like a walking stick or staff and the sun is coming out behind me. And it was pretty miraculous. And I text a picture to a good friend of mine back and I'm like, Hey, look at this. And they send me back like oh my god, have you seen the comparison? Like what do you mean? And I sent them a picture of the new tattoo 12 hours earlier, and they zoomed in on the new tattoo. And then they zoomed in on the photo of me just now like that moment on top of the volcano and the little silhouette on the tattoo that we had just done and me on the volcano was like almost an exact replica like randomly it was the freakiest thing like it was almost like a premonition of a tattoo of me getting back on top you know healing cleansing whatever you want to call it that's what it was to me and I sent it to the artist guy named Belaz is you know it recently tattooed Aaron Rodgers the quarterback is absolutely insane insane I refer to him as you know moody crazy talented gifted mofo in the book is is a good friend and just one of the most talented artists you can imagine. And I texted him that and and I didn't know if he was gonna be cynical or and he just texted me back he's like, dude, I'm bawling my eyes out looking like this and bawling my eyes out because this is what it's all about is like you know, the tattoo comes to life. This is the meaning the story. So that was the good part. The bad part was now my tattoo brand new tattoo. 12 hours old is covered in volcanic ash. supposed to go back down to the bottom and volcano have a driver waiting for me that is supposed to take me right to the airport to fly back to the US because I only had you know 3036 hours in the mood or in Bali. And I'm like man, this is this is gonna in fact this is gonna I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot. I came all this way ruin this tattoo. Like I'm definitely gonna get infections and like a 20 hour plane ride back with a layover in Hong Kong. And I mentioned before that Abood means medicine and it is very known in Bali for a lot of different lotions, creams, aloes, a lot of different skincare and natural ingredients. And I literally asked him to stop in the middle of a mood and I was like grabbing If anything I could have like soothing calming, and I was like loading up my my bag. And as I got on the airplane, I went into the bathroom, like peeled off my shirt and it was like the hot towel that they give you. And then pressed it on, and I'm sure that they tossed that hot towel afterwards, I gave it back to the flight attendant and that hot towel they give you if your hands are now covered in plasma and, and blood and, and volcanic ash from my chest is like dropping it like that. And I just started using all these these aloes and creams and lotions and became like my own guinea pig on this flight. And the tattoo didn't get infected, it stayed calm, I kept it clean. And it wasn't that I magically grabbed, you know, seven magical ingredients out of a hat, that would be total BS. But what it did is it just ignited this thing in me, like on that flight toward when I got back to, you know, Los Angeles and our agents in our office. I was like, That's it, you know, my, my, my focus is, you know, I'm going to develop a tattoo balm, a tattoo line tattoo products, this is, this is what I want to do, I can't have been in skincare this long. And you know, done this for so many brands, but not not for something that means so much to me personally, and that that really kicked it off, that was the genesis of it. And really, really, you know, lit the fire. So to say that,
Jaden Norvell:that's awesome. That's that's a really cool story. It's really nice. And we have people come on here, and they tell us the story behind their company, because he really makes impacts me that that was a really powerful story. And I'm glad you shared it. Because,
Drew Plotkin:look, there's investors, and then there's developers, I mean, you know, sometimes they're one in the same, you know, like, I've obviously invested in my own brand out of the gate, getting it off the ground, and you should put your own money and skin in the game. But that's far different than like a straight on investor who just comes in and is chasing a profit or, or a spreadsheet or a p&l. When you're the developer. I mean, if you're not passionate about it, you know, then walk away. And that's why for me, I couldn't get passionate about something else. I mean, I was in this world in this industry, working on brands for other people that I was helping to do to $300 million a year in sales. And for years, you know, why don't you do your own? Why don't you do your own thing? Like I will, I need to? I'll know it when I see it. I'll know it when I feel it. You know, and I think a lot of it also had to do with the evolution of my own tattoo experience adding more tattoos becoming so much more passionate about tattooing, getting closer to the age of 50, where your skin does start to change, where all of a sudden, you're going up to your friends who are females, like, Hey, do you have any skincare cream? You know, like, why? Like, no reason there isn't asking for a friend, you know, and then you're kind of like, you know, I don't want to be like on amazon.com or target like, you know, flipping through these, you know, sometimes BS reviews are, you know, bottom of the barrel, you know, a snake oil product sometimes that people sell, I'm not knocking either of those companies. But, you know, you can't tell when you see 5000 versions of something and what's real and what's not. So I'm like, so the only way I can really know what's real, is if I if I do it myself. And then, you know, the best I can do is that
Dustin Steffey:you have some other value that probably have a full 24 hour podcast without stopping. But another thing that came up that, you know, interested me was kind of your story about Britney Spears, that story and kind of how you got started there. I mean, you've been around a lot of celebrity people. And it was just amazing.
Drew Plotkin:That was an unusual one specifically because, you know, I ended up appearing in that documentary. I think they called it framing Britney Spears and I didn't even know about it. I was on my patio one day with my kids and some people riding around the bicycle like you're the guy from that documentary framing Britney Spears. And the truth of the matter is after I had done an interview with one of her family members on my podcast, and this was during COVID. So we weren't allowed to shoot production had been shot down. You know, we had 27 employees, no money coming in just money going out. So we ripped out all of the seats that were right here when people used to sit and we built the podcast booth and I started you know, reaching out to anyone and everyone I thought was interesting to speak to and got a podcast and you know, former Navy SEALs, former mafia Hitman on the show like anyone that I thought had an interesting topic where we could speak about with no rules and just, you know, make it you know, raw and the way I like to interact with people. So we ended up doing an interview with one of her family members, her brother, Brian and I had no idea I wasn't familiar with the thing I'm anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit of a diehard Springsteen junkie and there's a lot of jokes and stories. That's a 24 hour podcast, my Springsteen addiction. But what had happened is, after we did the interview with her brother, the media took over, we were getting blitzed by media outlets around the world and asking questions and, and I didn't really engage it, really because I wasn't really the questions that were being asked. And still once in a while, I still get phone calls from tabloids, or different media outlets, you know, when, you know, what do you think is happening with the family and so I kind of have to I know, I mean, you know, it was a tragic thing, it was obviously a very traumatic experience for a young woman who was treated very poorly, certainly, but also by the media, the same media that all of a sudden set out to, to try to, you know, claim the hero and ride to rescue after the same media was was very big on pouncing as this young woman at a young age and, and just being mean, and vicious at every turn to her. And obviously, some some very dysfunctional, problematic family issues that, you know, you know, I mean, people have read, and they've seen like, you know, and other things that she says, you know, from being held against her will and drugged and all those different things. That's not something where, you know, I wasn't there. And the last thing I wanted to do was, was make someone's brutal heart experience worse. And that was the one thing that was clear with though I'd never met her or spoken with her. The podcast that we did with her brother had blown up and gotten so much attention in so much passion, passionate responses, vitriol, in many ways towards the family towards him. That the one thing I wanted to steer clear of is, I didn't want anything that that we did on our end, to make this young woman's life harder than it clearly already was. So, you know, that's, that's one of the things that all of a sudden, I was being asked to take part in various documentaries and films on the topic and do interviews on it. And I said no to all of them, including turning down money. Because for exactly that reason, I mean, I didn't have the direct insights that they would have wanted, other than me seeing what the rest of the world saw, which was that this was a young woman in distress, and severe distress, and needed help and support. And thankfully, through the court system she has, it seems like she's since gotten it. But I didn't want to add misinformation to a media frenzy that was already spinning out of control. So the fact that I said no to all these things came as the biggest surprise to me, when the documentary still ended up just using it. And, and I don't know if legally they could or not, I mean, I had a brief conversation with a few of my attorneys. And at the end of the day, the feedback I received from a lot of the people in the free Brittany movement that they would reach out to was that we they thought it was helpful to help her by letting that interview that I had done be seen. So I certainly I was never out for money. I never wanted to get paid for it to begin with. We never did. So I certainly wasn't going to, you know, limit the usage of it. And, and I ultimately, you know, it's a weird thing. It's not the world I'm in, it's not the world I had worked in or been in. I was not in a tabloid world per se. I worked with tons of celebrities. And, you know, Serena Williams, who was lovely and amazing, and Drew Brees and athletes and, you know, we're with a bunch of UFC champs over the years, I've been very lucky to work with a lot of, you know, great, fascinating, interesting people in all walks of life, but this was like, different. This wasn't, you know, about launching a brand. This was about someone's life, and their and their well being. And, you know, I didn't want to, you know, be involved in any way that that could that could be hurtful to that or it could, you know, throw fuel on the fire rather than, you know, being supportive of whatever she needed to be happy and healthy. And hopefully, that's what's happening.
Dustin Steffey:Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. So I mean, I know I grew up, I think I had a couple posters of her on my wall, like I grew up in that era of like, what she was and how she became famous. So
Drew Plotkin:yeah, but like I said, I mean, I think for me to the hypocrisy that surrounded the entire thing. On top of it, like, you know, there's the family matter, obviously, which again, I wasn't at the dinner table and involved in those level of things. You know, I will say, you can watch my interview that I did with their brother, you can form your own opinions. I feel very good about the questions that I asked the opportunities I gave him and I think by and large people have assessed it very accurately from what I've seen in the comments. But to me, the failure of the mainstream media to apologize to Britney Spears on in a more collective giant way is pretty disgusting. Frankly. When you look at It's how the media pounced on this young woman at a time where she needed, you know, support and guidance and help and protection and understanding and the way that she was mocked. And I do believe to be totally honest, I think a lot of things go the other way these days. And, you know, I think one of the reasons that, you know, I think one of the reasons Joe Rogan's so popular and why I enjoy watching him and listening to him is he's very honest, and he tells it like it is. And, you know, in many ways, we've gotten to a point where if you say anything, you're gonna be condemned. And I think that's stupid. And that's, you know, one of the things that I really like about darn dude, and having a brand is I can say what I want, how I feel. And if I say something that I feel was wrong, I'll say, I'm sorry. But I'm not gonna apologize for being me, I'm not gonna apologize if I don't think I'm wrong, or if I believe in what I'm saying. But in the case, a lot of people brought up and said, you know, you know, how was she, you know, put into this situation where, you know, at the same time, Justin Bieber was, you know, driving Ferraris at 180 miles an hour through residential neighborhoods, and, you know, smoking so much weed that the pilots had to land the plane and wear gas masks, allegedly, I mean, again, I wasn't there, all these different things, you know, and you look at, you know, some of the other people and some of the, you know, issues with other male musicians that are so extreme. And yet none of them were, if any of them were locked up and put away in the conservatorship by their family, or anyone with the public have sat by and tolerated it, versus the fact that it happened to a young woman. And I think there's merit to that I really do. I don't have proof, I don't have any statistics or anything to that matter. But I just and I give a lot of credit to Bieber, by the way, the fact of how he's, he's turned his life around, and I read a statement or something he'd said, in an interview of, I was a kid, I had no guidance, I had no, no oversight, no discipline, you know, 10s of millions of dollars. And, you know, man, I was, like, the biggest eff up in the world or something. I'm paraphrasing him. And the fact that, you know, he has his life together, and seems to have a nice marriage and is, you know, very into his fans, I think that gives a lot of credit. But I think we have to look at this and say, look at the pressure that these kids are under, with endless amounts of money, no restrictions, no guidelines. I mean, you know, I can't imagine I want to survive at myself if I was 15 or 16 years old, and had a bank account with $50 million, and can do whatever I wanted, and was surrounded by, you know, yes, people. And, you know, again, I've been in the world of Hollywood for 20 plus years now, where, you know, I've worked in that world with a list celebrities, where they say something, and the first person who blinks or doesn't do it is gone, and you're voted off the island, you know, even as, as grownups, you know, that's how some of these people not all, genuinely are, it's not pretty, it's not great. It's kind of one of the things that made me super excited to also evolve from that world. So I didn't have to deal with it anymore. It gets old real quick. But I give a give a lot of credit to people who survived that as a young person and can, you know, hopefully turn their life around and, you know, move on,
Dustin Steffey:I liked the fact that in this conversation, you brought up one thing that we resonate with, which is we have our own brand, and chopping wood fires our own brand new of Durham, dude. And we like being real, we like providing very real like responses. And we like to be able to say whatever we want, and we can, because we own it, and if we do something wrong, we'll own up to it. But we're like you, we're not going to apologize for something that we feel we didn't do wrong, unless it was something that really wrongly wronged someone.
Drew Plotkin:That's right. That's right. And sometimes you do something that you think is right, and then you look back down the line, and you realize that I was certain that I was right. I was passionate, but I was wrong. And you know, my saying those things, you know, I was wrong, or I don't know, I always say with every business I've owned or run or people who work with me, our team, I always say, you know, someone new comes in, I'll say what are my favorite three words? And everybody will answer for me, like, I don't know, that I want to hear that. I don't want to hear fluff or some BS, and I don't expect people to know the answer to everything I say, or ask. But all I want is for someone to be honest about it not BS and if you don't know, which is okay, go get the answer the real answer and tell me that and that's, you know, and sometimes, you know, I've made mistakes too, you know, I don't know, maybe I said something where my answer should have been, I don't know. And I got away from myself or whatever the case may be look back and say, Man, you know, I used to feel this way. But looking back now, a lot of that changes as a parent, you know, I mean, like I said, I have four kids, three daughters, man that changes your perspective on things. You know, you know, for the better. But there's there's things right now that you know, I used to think might be funny or I might laugh at her now, you know someone else said it I'd probably crashed her head across the table and sounds like that's funny.
Dustin Steffey:Jaden, and I have Peyton my daughter, and it's definitely changed me and I see a change in Jaden when he's around her to like having girls is definitely a lot different.
Drew Plotkin:It's an amazing gift beyond belief. And it also, you know, kind of puts you in touch with your true core values, I think in a lot of ways and makes you be certainly appreciative for the role that you get to play in their lives and responsibility. You know, certainly is for me,
Dustin Steffey:it's for same thing and then sometimes it can be frustrating Jaden would say this first frustrating at times, I know, when she starts throwing a tantrum because she wants to spend all her time with Jaden. And Jaden, can't he? He gets overwhelmed with her sometimes.
Drew Plotkin:Jaden, you have a one word response to that.
Jaden Norvell:of pain, pain. Pain is the best way. Yeah, just it's a lot until I got roommates. And I had to work. And so Peyton was at the house. And he was like, she attacked me, like my legs. Say, oh, man, I'm sorry. It's awesome.
Dustin Steffey:We have a football game on Friday, that will be fun. She'll be on a sideline and how to actually sit in one spot and not be able to, you know, be crazy. That's how old she She's nine. So she's capable of doing this, but she likes to her energy. She's high energy. And sometimes for Jaden and I when we're, we're on the football field. We're working. We're doing the podcast and all of that, like, we don't have that high energy after the end of the day.
Drew Plotkin:Yep. Yeah. I couldn't relate. You know, it's all after this. I'm going to Disneyland, man, I'm gonna ride a roller coaster at the nighttime session.
Dustin Steffey:Oh, I wish we were close to you. Because we just go with you. We'll take the teapot first. So we can just be crazy and puke. And then we'll go the roller coaster.
Drew Plotkin:Nice. Nice. We'll hit it. Well, we got Colorado, right. So we'll have to look at the dates and see what's Oh,
Dustin Steffey:Colorado is gonna be so much fun for us. Which speaking of rounding off to the end, I do want to give you the opportunity our listeners, which is going to be a lot who listen to this, I want them to be able to get a hold of you get some value. Maybe take a look at the website, whatever the case may be, what do you recommend for medians for them to get a hold of you? Obviously, we have your website, we'll put in the episode description, kind of what are your thoughts?
Drew Plotkin:Yeah, I mean, the most simple way is DERM dude.com, the RM DERM. And then do d U d e.com. And you can go you can reach all of our social media platforms from there. You know, we're on YouTube, we're on tik, Tok, Instagram, Facebook, and expanding out more into others. And then if anyone wants to email me directly, you're always welcome to. I'm the chief data officer as my title. So CDO Chief Data Officer CDO at DERM do.com. And people are always pretty surprised that you know, they get a response back from me. You know, so no one answered my emails for me. I still try to spend as much time as possible every week, I respond to you know, customer reviews and, and comments and questions. And you know, I'd say at least 60 70% of the responses on social media come from it, obviously can't do all of them. And it's 24/7 you can usually tell when it's me responding because there'll be either a typo or an F bomb dropped in. And that's a pretty good way and someone will reply and say, you know, if that's the type of company, you know, blah, blah, you know, someone was being a hater the other day and made some, you know, comments that were, you know, not not very inclusive or welcoming towards people who had different preferences in life than they did. And, you know, I responded my way to it, and then that's not how you run a business. If someone's so emotional and can't manage your things, then, you know, then I wouldn't want to buy from them said something to the effect of, you know, go after yourself. I don't need to sell from you. We have enough people who aren't haters who are buying, you know, from us. So, you know, it's it's, you know, everyone is welcomed with our brand, the only people who are not welcomed as if you are the type of person that you don't welcome others. So, we're not political, we're not making a statement. It's just, it's 2022 you know, almost 2023 So you know, leadership behind and just, you know, let's let's have some fun together. Great smelling balls is a win win. Everybody wins.
Dustin Steffey:Your girlfriend, your significant other whatever you everybody's winning.
Drew Plotkin:Anyone who visits is going to be a happier visitor.
Dustin Steffey:It's a good tagline right there.
Drew Plotkin:That's right, man. That's right.
Dustin Steffey:Well, we we appreciate one the interview too. We appreciate this. This has been an amazing experience because the wealth of knowledge that you have on top of the line Now that you are behind is amazing. So we we appreciate the interview we thank you for being on with us. I mean, I feel like if anything next time we got to like pay you because I mean, it was just that great. Wait, this was unpaid? Yeah, I heard I heard you gave us the homie hook up. This was
Drew Plotkin:the first hearing I did. On the phone. This is I thought you guys were advanced ordering 10,000 copies of my book under under my skin. When it comes out in a few weeks,
Dustin Steffey:I thought that was what the giveaway was at our live events. So that way people can read and get educated,
Drew Plotkin:we would definitely be happy to contribute some, some sign books for that. And if the dates can figure it out, and scheduling and all that I'd love to be able to come out and not only hang with you guys, but take a trip to grill us and get some Yellowstone cowboy hats, do some book signings and, you know, we've got a big media toward wind up starting, you know, just the other day through through January. I mean tomorrow starting at 8am We have other podcasts of three different podcasts that we're on tomorrow, so we're kind of full steam and we're rocking and rolling so we can come out to Colorado hang with you and Jaden and, and do some book stuff. That would be fun too. So send us some info. We'll see we can figure out
Dustin Steffey:absolutely and then we gotta get we got to kidnap and I'm using that term very, very well. Jaden to get a tattoo you.
Drew Plotkin:We do. We do. Well, first of all, give them a little spritz to make sure that he's refreshed. He can spritz himself but will will trust them. And then you know, we'll work on that too for him. You ready Jaden? You can do the deer tattoo, man.
Jaden Norvell:I'm ready. I'll be asleep when I open around the stove. There you go.
Dustin Steffey:Yeah, he's scaring me I'll just pop in and I'll put them over my shoulder. I don't care we're doing it.
Drew Plotkin:We're doing it and I appreciate you guys having been on my own man chopping wood fire. I mean, I thought it was like a meal type of show. I didn't even eat like all day. I was like waiting for him like bring out all the entrees and the courses and I'm like texting him like chopping wood fire like nothing so far. Been there like an hour and a half brick and starving but all right. That was shame on me. I missed. I should have read the profile better. This is not a food show.
Dustin Steffey:Well, you just wait when you come out to Fort Collins. We'll have some good food for you some steaks and some good things.
Drew Plotkin:Nice. Nice. Alright guys, thank you for having me. Congratulations on your show. You guys are a great tag team together. And Jaden, hopefully next time one of us can get a word in edgewise. Man You're tough to. You're tough to try to squeeze that in on.
Dustin Steffey:Thanks for joining us again Drew and we look forward to having you in Fort Collins because it's going to be an adventure
Drew Plotkin
CDO/Author
DREW PLOTKIN is an Emmy award-winning producer and founder of the Launch DRTV agency, where he has created and directed award-winning TV broadcast commercials for major celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Serena Williams, Cindy Crawford, Ellen Pompeo, Dwayne Wade, Kristin Davis, Jane Seymour, Paris Hilton, Drew Brees and more. In addition, he is the founder and CDO (Chief Dude Officer) of the skincare line Derm Dude which produces products specifically for men’s beards, balls, and tattoos. They are the primary 2022 sponsor for NASCAR driver Spencer Boyd. Drew has also co-founded Global Mobility USA, a non-profit that delivers wheelchairs to people in need.
Drew has an engaged audience of more than 56.9K TikTok followers, 20.2K followers on Instagram, and just over 5K loyal email subscribers. He lives in Southern California with his four magical kids and his dog, Rufus.
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