When you hear Drew speak, there’s a grounded confidence in his voice. Not the kind that comes from reading too many self-help books or cashing out on tech startups. It’s the kind that can only come from burning everything down and rebuilding from scratch.
In Episode 95 of The Elite League Podcast, Drew shares the raw, unfiltered truth about his life: from being raised in a high-control religious cult to reinventing himself as a creative entrepreneur building a brand rooted in love, freedom, and expression.
Drew was born into a non-denominational Christian cult — though at the time, he didn’t recognize it as that. With about 100,000 members worldwide, the group believed they were the only real Christians on Earth. Other churches were heretical, other Christians were “doing it wrong,” and anyone outside their belief system was on a one-way ticket to hell.
“I was expected to become a minister,” Drew says. “To save souls. That was the most noble thing I could do.”
By 15 or 16, he was leading, teaching, and fully immersed in the culture. He even earned an apologetics certificate — learning to defend Christianity through archaeology, doctrine, and debate.
But the more he studied, the more things cracked.
“I started realizing the leaders who acted like they had all the answers… actually didn’t,” he said. “And behind closed doors, they’d admit it.”
The Fear That Controlled Everything
What made the church a cult wasn’t some dark, money-hungry leader at the top — it was fear. Fear of hell. Fear of leaving. Fear of disappointing God. And fear of losing your entire world.
“They didn’t pay the leaders much. There was no private jet,” Drew explains. “It was fear-driven. These people were terrified of being wrong.”
And that fear bled into every part of life. At 23, Drew wanted to date a woman he met on Tinder — a Christian who didn’t belong to their specific church. He told his closest friends. He told his dad, who was a church elder. He didn’t hide it.
But when a peer betrayed him and told leadership, everything exploded.
He was ghosted by the very people he had served. His family’s reputation — his dad and mom were known and loved throughout the church — was questioned. After seven weeks of tense meetings, silence, and manipulation, Drew was told:
