From Farm Kid to $300M: How Bucked Up’s CEO Built a Supplement Empire Without Big Beverage

In this episode of Finally Ready To Grow, Alex Davis sits down with Ryan Gardner, the self-made CEO of Bucked Up—one of the fastest-growing supplement and energy drink companies in America.

Raised on a farm in Utah, Ryan went from selling eggs door-to-door to launching deer antler spray that exploded after being linked to Ray Lewis before the Super Bowl. From there, he built Bucked Up into a $300M/year powerhouse—without ever raising VC funding and without selling to Pepsi, Coke, or Dr. Pepper.

We unpack:

• The wild story behind deerantlerspray.com

• Why he refused to sell the company to Big Beverage

• His exact mindset around trend-spotting, execution, and not falling for "shiny object syndrome"

• What young founders must understand about building momentum without capital

If you’re a scrappy entrepreneur, brand builder, or fitness creator, this episode will change the way you think about launching and scaling a business in 2025.

Make sure to follow Ryan and his journey:

https://www.buckedup.com/

I love you all

A.