Leadership in Action

On this episode of Leadership In Action, we are joined by a franchising force to be reckoned with. He’s a new EO member who leverages his  experience and knowledge of franchising, real estate, fitness, and business to create game changing businesses. Welcome to the show, CEO of The DRIPBaR Ben Crosbie. Host extraordinaire Mark Stiles sits down with Ben to learn about his experience as an entrepreneur, the future of franchising, and how Ben is taking The DRIPBaR to the next level. 

Takeaways:

• One of the biggest misconceptions about being an entrepreneur is that it is inherently easy, and that you can become an overnight success.
• While success doesn’t happen overnight, franchising is a great way to increase the speed and scale of a business much faster than you normally would. 
• As a franchisor, identifying personal overlap with non competing franchises can provide insight into areas for potential markets. Areas with a high concentration of those franchises likely have a high concentration of your target demographic.
• Dripbar has taken a “semi-absentee” approach rather than a traditional owner operator approach. While you will still need to spend a few hours a week at a drip bar, much of the work is set up to be done remotely for owners. 
• A franchise doesn’t need to be a stand alone physical location. In Dripbar’s case, they have found success inside or adjacent to a health and fitness club, physical therapy office, or multi unit developments.
• One challenge with franchising is the different legislation of different areas. International markets, and even different states can have different legal requirements of your franchise. With multiple locations, it is important to dot your i’s and cross your t’s
• The use of AI and automation has allowed Dripbar to revamp their franchisee lead process. By automating the early touch points they are able to filter through potential clients more easily, and reduce needed person hours. 

Links: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-crosbie-85a59a7/ 
• Website: https://www.thedripbar.com/ 

Quote of the Show

• “Replication is key” - Ben Crosbie

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leadership-in-action/id1585042233
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/2t4Ksk4TwmZ6MSfAHXGkJI
• Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/leadership-in-action
• Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubGVhZGVyc2hpcGluYWN0aW9uLmxpdmUvZmVlZC54bWw
• Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4263fd02-8c9b-495e-bd31-2e5aef21ff6b/leadership-in-action
• YouTube - https://youtu.be/UW7fsOqOOO0

Transcript:

Mark Stiles: folks. Welcome back to another episode of Leadership in Action, your Boston Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization podcast. Today's guest is an entrepreneurial powerhouse, a franchise veteran, an entrepreneur who leverages his experience and knowledge of franchising real estate, fitness, and business to create game changing businesses.

He's a brand new member of EO Boston Chapter. And he is the c e o of Drip bar. Please meet Ben Crosby. Welcome to the show, Ben. 

Ben Crosbie: Perfect. Thank you very much. Mark, 

Mark Stiles: you ready to be here? Here comes question number one. All right. What is the common misconception about leadership running a business and or being an entrepreneur?

Go? 

Ben Crosbie: Sure. That's a great question. Um, really to me, the, biggest misconception is that, you're an overnight success in that. It's easy. very few people can, truly recognize, unless you're an entrepreneur and you've done it, how much time and energy it takes for you to, just make your first dollar and then continue to grow the business until it becomes, what everybody hopes that it becomes profitable and successful.

So the overnight success, the, long hours, the focus, the unrecognition Along the way, the path and the journey. A lot of times it's the best part of it, most stressful part of it, and least recognized I'd say. 

Mark Stiles: Rolling up your sleeves for 10 years and, uh, disappearing from the entire world and then showing up as a success.

That's not overnight. , 

Ben Crosbie: that was the some of the first advice that I got from my first C F O who said, you know, in five years from now, don't be upset. When somebody asks you how you became an overnight success, you'll become the most obnoxious question you'll ever be asked. And, uh, he was right. He was 100%.

Mark Stiles: Well, how do you fast track that success? So, I mean, it's obviously not gonna be overnight, but is there other ways of fast tracking it? 

Ben Crosbie: Uh, once you start getting experience or being part of a group and getting mentors to really, uh, get over the initial hurdles? Um, it's just dedication, really understanding your business, uh, if you're bootstrapping and doing it on your own.

I mean, it could take a little longer, but being able to, to have capital, hiring the right people, getting the staff in place. Um, but one thing that I've found is franchising is a great way to, uh, Increased speed and scale of a business, uh, a lot sooner than you normally would. Sometimes you could franchise businesses when there's just one location, short proof of concept.

It's really developing the, the, the business opportunity to be able to bring it to market. 

Mark Stiles: Well, let's dig into that a little bit, you know, cuz I was hoping that we would go there with this and I was kind of leading you that way with the fast track, right? But, . So one concept that works, why recreate the wheel?

Right? Why go back and try to figure out what that person did? Why not collaborate with that person? Right? Yeah, 

Ben Crosbie: absolutely. If, if the person, the operating partner, typically spent a lot of time in energy really developing the, the standards, uh, the operational manuals, the speed to market. The tech, the technique of franchising, it can bring in a whole level of experience, uh, and, and systems.

That can simply be replicated in order to bring the business to scale that much faster. Replication is key. Replication just through education, finding the right franchisees, uh, giving them the playbook to execute on it, but then having a franchisor that's constantly looking on ways to improve from a wider.

A lot of times franchisees are in the mud, they're in their location. They're really, really hyper-focused on the performance of their one location. The benefit of having a franchisor is somebody that's taken a step back and being able to look ahead at whatever might be coming down the pipe. It might be legal, it might be rules, regulations in an industry.

Uh, it could be, uh, new marketing advertising strategies. Uh, A bunch of new technologies that could create a more efficient process. Uh, so really this, that, that's the best way, in my opinion, to really efficiently grow a business and hit success earlier. . 

Mark Stiles: Well, there you go. Right. So overnight success, a lot of people may never find success because they have these, these, uh, blind spots, right?

Maybe it's marketing. Mm-hmm. , maybe it's process, maybe it's customer service. Help me understand. Alright, so let's talk about Drip bar for an example. So, sure. How does, how does that, 

Ben Crosbie: How does Drip bar work? So, drip Bar is a brick and mortar location. It's a thousand to 1500 square feet. That's our traditional, uh, box.

They're in markets wherever you see a Starbucks Massage Envy, orange Theory. Uh, we do IV supplements, IV nutrition. Uh, people look at it as an emerging brand. An emerging industry. However, the industry has been around for 25 plus years. Just been very highly fragmented, full of mom and pop shops. Overnight success.

Overnight success. Exactly, exactly. So I've been able to take a lot of that, um, historical data that's available to, to, uh, Really learn the industry and identify where it's where it's headed. Um, but yeah, we do IV supplementation to improve cellular health of our clients. We do lifestyle trips for people that are healthy.

We also do, uh, health support drips for those that have preexisting conditions like cancer, heart disease, dementia, and such. . So, uh, yeah, it's, uh, currently a robust business model. We have 43 locations, uh, open, and we're opening one to two a week for the foreseeable future. That's 

Mark Stiles: fantastic. So you mentioned a couple of other brands that you, I wouldn't say you follow them, but is there a, is there a demographic report that, you know, orange Theory, Starbucks Drip Bar are utilizing to say, okay, here's where our customer base, here's where our demographics.

Ben Crosbie: Uh, yeah, and we, we use those as lookalike audiences. Yeah. Uh, our persona client is male, female, 25 plus average household income over 75,000, but really focused on health and wellness. Um, and we see the drip bar as really the first process of somebody wanting to live a long, healthy life. It starts with your cells.

So by giving your body a cellular health environment that's positive, that's that's put together correctly, then you could get better workouts. You eat better. You want to be more proactive in your overall health and wellness. And that's why we really, uh, push it. Drip bar is where you get your 

Mark Stiles: cellular health.

How early in the early adopter curve do you think you are right now 

Ben Crosbie: with this? Yeah, so I think the industry as a whole is probably three to 5% of market penetration. I've been able to, again, like, like I said in the beginning, be able to take a step back, but also from my past experience in the health club.

I see the IV industry as what the health club industry was 25, 30 years ago. Highly fragmented, no true sophisticated franchise opportunities. And then franchising came in. You had plaintiff fitness that really, uh, grew the big box opportunity. You had curves that did the, you know, very simple studio models and then the fitness industry in.

Total started fragmenting and creating very unique opportunities like orange theory and spinning classes and yoga classes and M M A and all of these verticals by taking that experience. I'm developing the drip bar to be able to go into all of the various verticals in, um, one fell swoop from the beginning.

So we won't have that level of fragmentation. We'll have brand continuity in traditional locations. We can integrate into health clubs, doctor, dentist, chiropractic, physical therapy offices, uh, hotels. We have a very strong mandate to go and get into airports, uh, throughout the us. So we want the drip bar to be the brand of the IV vitamin therapy industry.

So that, and make it very accessible to people. 

Mark Stiles: So what is the initial. from both the folks that are utilizing the services and like the medical community, for example. 

Ben Crosbie: So I'll say positive, uh, you know, we have a very high recurring, uh, amount of. Science, we are membership based. Yeah. Uh, so we do do memberships, uh, but we also do packages, programs, and one-offs.

Uh, a we have a high recurring, uh, revenue because of the membership, but also even before. , we added memberships. We had a very high recurring nature of clients coming to the drip bar at least once or twice a month. Um, the medical community I see as being, uh, acceptable to this. They're, they're, uh, we have lots of doctors.

We have national medical directors, we have local medical directors. We have a whole r and d. That is based on not just functional medicine, but also we have oncologists and p d, uh, consultants that are all participating in this because this is a natural way to stay healthy, but also it is a natural way to create a parallel treatment, uh, a parallel program of care, uh, for clients.

Have cancer, right? Uh, high dose vitamin C has been studied a lot. Uh, it's shown to kill cancer cells, but it's also shown to help clients that are going through chemotherapy and clients that are in remission. So much to the point that we are. Uh, towards probably the end of this year, we're gonna be integrated into a regional cancer center, um, in their chemo section, uh, chemotherapy section of the business because doctors definitely at this specific location, uh, recognize the value of high dose vitamin 

Mark Stiles: C.

Now, the big question, the big elephant, is the insurance industry recognizing you all, yet 

Ben Crosbie: they are not, and that is, interesting opportunity for the cancer centers because the owners of the hospitals don't know how to monetize this. Yeah. Because you can't charge insurance for vitamin C, uh, from what I've been told.

Um, but the owners can monetize it by charging us rent. So we will, uh, you know, happily go inside. Hospitals, we'll happily pay rent in order to help the clients, cuz that's right where the clients are that we would love to help. 

Mark Stiles: That's really interesting. It's, and it's, it's disheartening at the same, uh, time with the insurance.

But I guess like any early adoption, you have to work through these things, right? There's no overnight success, as you mentioned , but it seems to me. Like proactive medical care, right? So yeah. Insurance companies, you know, quit being reactive and spending on, you know, the broken people and let's, let's keep people really healthy along the way.

And you'll probably save a lot more money in the end. 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah. Yeah. We want to be proactive, uh, you know, cellular health, right? So for. However long I've been in the fitness industry, call to action was going to offices and saying, we can reduce your insurance cost. Come and work out. People that work out don't get as sick.

Right. This is just another twist to it by saying people that get drips get sick less, uh, but also they. Can do drips for increasing energy, increasing your immune system, increasing the collagen in your skin. And there, there are so many different opportunities on our menu to, uh, help clients. 

Mark Stiles: Well, me personally, I feel that one of my biggest Achilles heels is my lack of hydration.

I get to two o'clock. Three o'clock in the afternoon, I start to feel dry and, you know, yeah. You start to get this fog or the headache, and I know I didn't drink enough water today. I did not. Mm-hmm. and I've been, you know, utilizing, um, what is it, liquid IV or the drip, which I thought you might have been affiliated with Drip, but yeah.

Yeah. Spin it around, get it 10 times and, and, and it, it, it, it's such a different feeling to dehydrated versus dehydrated. You would. that this would be, uh, this would be on the radar with the insurance companies a little bit more. 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's. Not insurance based medicine. Yeah. Uh, you know, we're, we're, we're proactively, we'd like to stay far away from insurance.

Yeah. We don't want to get into the whole political landscape of insurance and, and, um, you know, I, is it covered? Is it not? Uh, it's the easiest for our client just to be a member of the drip. , 

Mark Stiles: right. And pay out of pocket and be part of the f I mean, is this the beginning of a fountain of youth kind of, uh, transition as well for 

Ben Crosbie: them?

Yeah. Yeah. There, there's definitely longevity aspects to it. You feel so much better. I know I, whenever I do it, I feel so much better. Even when I'm coming down with the cold, I'll go and get either a shield or a flu fighter and. My cold will miraculously disappear. . So is that a menu and living in New England?

It's, is that 

Mark Stiles: a menu? It's important. Are those, are those, um, menu type items that you're talking about? The shield you could go in and say, okay, I'm ready for a shield. How does it work? How does it, how does the consumer facing it?

I, I assume it's appointment. 

Ben Crosbie: Uh, well, yeah, no, it's appointment, but it's also walk-in. Okay. So you can walk in. We have a, uh, full menu. We have 16 lifestyle drips like the jet set are for those to travel a lot pre and postop for those dealing with surgery. , um, our number one drip to date has been, uh, the power pack for energy, mental clarity and focus.

Uh, but over the past year two with Covid, it's been the shield to boost your immune system to fight off the common cold and viruses. Uh, but we also have a flu fighter, so if you're actively, you know, cold, your nose is running, your head is clogged, it's a. Cocktail, uh, that you could do. Uh, we have, um, time machines.

We do n A d, which is a big, uh, drip that is gaining more and more popularity in order to increase, uh, mitochondrial function. I mean, I've had people that, uh, you know, drive with their reading glasses. Right, and then they did an n a D drip and they didn't use their reading glasses anymore for at least, you know, the next week or so.

So it's just the, the, the ways that people notice it. Sometimes you notice it right away. Sometimes it's more of a progressive thing that after you do, uh, you know, on a weekly basis or monthly basis, then you notice a significant change. And then, as I said, we have the health support drips, like high dose vitamin C for clients with cancer.

Mark Stiles: Well, it makes so much sense. I mean, the science is, we are made up primarily of water. And when we start to lose our water, we're probably not going to be at our. Potential. 

Ben Crosbie: Right? Correct. And when you're eating all the foods that we currently have, uh, you know, processed lots of, uh, preservatives, even if you're vegan, you know, and vegetarian or you know, you, you only meat, you know, you're on, on those diets.

Uh, are always opportunities in order to balance your, uh, nutrient profile, your vitamin profile in finding that right mix is what provides someone with the appropriate cellular health to function at a high level. 

Mark Stiles: Huh? So who are most of your franchisees owner operator? No, 

Ben Crosbie: some are. Uh, but we've built the business model to be semi-absentee.

Cool. Uh, you don't need to be a doctor or nurse to own it. Uh, I own one, uh, in Foxboro, Massachusetts. I'm there. Two or three hours a week. Um, honestly, at least an hour of it is me getting a drip just hanging out. But, uh, so there are benefits , but yeah, it's, it's, uh, semi absentee. We've built all of the, uh, tools for you to be able to manage it remotely, uh, as needed to toggle, you know, marketing, advertising, spend appropriate.

Mark Stiles: So who actually operates Do you need, do you need a nurse to do the 

Ben Crosbie: injection? Yep. Yeah. On an hourly basis, we only have two, uh, full-time equivalents, one being a front desk, one being a nurse. An RN is our corporate standard 

Mark Stiles: rn. It doesn't have to be a a nurse practitioner. That's really 

Ben Crosbie: interesting. So in some states you need an np, 

Mark Stiles: So Ben, that's really interesting. I would've thought the barrier to entry would've been higher where you needed to have some sort of medical ownership or some sort of licensure.

Uh, 

Ben Crosbie: yeah. So in some states, uh, the corporate practice of medicine mandates that a doctor owns it. Got it. But there is, uh, paperwork and legal documentation in the corporate practice of medicine states for the doctors to own it, in the franchisees to manage. . Um, so we are approved and registered in all 50 states.

Uh, we're opening in, I'd say 38 to 40 of those states, uh, by the end of next year, um, if not more. We're even opening, uh, Alaska. We're opening in Hawaii. Uh, , you know, so, so outside of the continental US we're, we're building, um, we have some stuff going throughout New England all the way through the coast out to, uh, California.

So really excited. 

Mark Stiles: Is there a minimum requirement for amount of commitment? You know, uh, or could someone simply say, I want to do one shop or 

Ben Crosbie: one? Yeah, so we do a lot of single unit franchise. Owners now, um, to date, we have recently started getting quite a bit of multi-unit developers that are doing 2, 3, 5, even 10 units, uh, at a time.

So this is turning into a fast growing, uh, business franchise opportunity. Uh, so, you know, just grabbing the bull by the horns and letting 

Mark Stiles: it happen. Let it ride so that, so that thousand to 1500 square foot ideal scenario, you're actually evolving into. Okay? Maybe that we're not gonna be stuck with that.

We're gonna actually give opportunities for other creative sites. 

Ben Crosbie: Definitely, yeah. Uh, we're doing really well inside a health club. Yeah, we're doing really well inside, uh, a physical therapy and a chiropractic, uh, separate business, separate, uh, locations. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's going quite well. . 

Mark Stiles: That's awesome.

I love hearing that. What about exclusivity for area? Do you have, uh, a, a diameter that you circle around the location? Yeah, we, 

Ben Crosbie: we do a three mile protected radius or 150,000 people with no overlap. Um, such as, You know, in, in, outside of Massachusetts, in the, in the suburbs, we're doing three miles all day.

Uh, once we go to Manhattan, we actually have one being opened on, uh, I think it's 44th and Madison, they're not gonna have a protected radius. Uh, we'll have one on, you know, every other corner in, in Manhattan. So you think. . 

Mark Stiles: Yes. So you could see that you could visualize the future. Help me under, help me see that.

Ben Crosbie: Hey, if you're an entrepreneur, you better be able to visualize that. I especially, 

Mark Stiles: even if it doesn't make sense at the time, well that's even, that's even the key to it. So share, share with me the vision. Share with me 3, 5, 10 years. 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah. So to me this is a global franchise opportunity that's following the footsteps of Starbucks, massage nv, orange Theory.

Uh, in the US we'll cross a thousand units. Um, we're already, as I said, going to Canada. We're looking into Europe right now, specifically the uk we're looking into the G C C as well. We have partners there. . Um, so this is a global opportunity and we're taking a very diligent, uh, diligent steps in how we're growing it.

Uh, we're growing it from the foundation out, so we have a robust research and development team that's focused on safety. And I've hired more attorneys than I've ever hired in my life, by, uh, by doing the drip bar. It has been. Very uncomfortable at times, but, uh, 

Mark Stiles: all good though. I can, I can appreciate that.

I can appreciate that. But so you see a thousand in continental US or, or the 50 states in a very short period of time? 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah, because we'll be at, we're at 43 now. We'll be at a hundred locations in Q3 this year. Without doing any more development, no more unique deals, uh, scaling through health clubs, airport spas, hotels will give us, you know, three to four other verticals that are gonna be able to grow in parallel with their own section departments.

Um, so how are you getting the 

Mark Stiles: word 

Ben Crosbie: out? I just talked to everybody. And, 

Mark Stiles: and, and people are starting to come to you and saying, I've heard about this. I need to understand more about this. Definitely, but 

Ben Crosbie: also, Franchising. Franchising is definitely the vehicle for speed to market and scale. I work with, uh, consultants, broker groups.

We have a very robust, uh, organic, uh, pipe. Uh, through our marketing and advertising, we've created a, uh, Artificial, uh, like an AI bots that have gone out and, uh, brought us a lot of clients just to go to the website, learn about it, and we have a whole automated sequence, uh, you know, like a, an educational funnel, uh, with various call actions along the way in order to really educate clients before I, uh, get on a phone call with.

Mark Stiles: Right. I love that. Right. So you're almost like vetting them out and determining their commitment before you even waste vocals. I love 

Ben Crosbie: that. Yeah. It's, it's, it's really the only way, uh, with the volume that we're seeing. I bet, uh, we have to do a lot of pre-screening. In franchising, it typically takes one, uh, it takes a hundred leads in order to close one deal.

Um, we're a drip bar right now. We're about instead of a hundred to one, we're around 15 to 20 to one. Wow. Um, so, you know, I think it speaks to how the franchise development has created the educational path, but also I think Drip Bar is in a unique. Position right now where there's so many people that are, uh, interested in franchising, but they want a unique value proposition that, uh, that is new current people say on trend.

But I don't like thinking that this is trendy. I think this is what Botox was five years ago, when. , nobody wanted to say, oh, I don't, I don't know what Botox is. Yeah. You know, it was hidden under the veil a lot like, you know, lash lounges and these other franchises that have become mainstays in any plaza where you see a Whole Foods.

Right. Right. Are is the next evolution of that scale? So help me, 

Mark Stiles: help me visualize the process for somebody who, who signs the contract and says, let's do this. Like, what does day one look like? Is there a, is there a boot camp? Uh, it, 

Ben Crosbie: there are various boot camps at the development stages, uh, because it is a brick and mortar.

Most people, well, a lot of times, first, Franchisees sometimes come in with the, uh, the misconception that as soon as they sign a franchise agreement, they're gonna start opening a location right where they have to find real estate first. So we start with a welcome call. We introduce them to our real estate team.

The real estate team will then, uh, help them find. Locations, negotiate locations, secure the sites. We do a lot of, uh, work in the pre-lease phase of things to make sure that clients are signing the right lease and signing a lease that we as a franchisor would be comfortable signing. Um, but then once they're there, then we have, uh, our onsite, our onboarding, uh, coordinators that.

Bring them through the whole architectural phase. The whole, uh, construction phase, uh, when they're about 90 days away from opening, they're assigned a launch coordinator, which is their drip bar concierge, to bring them through every facet, signing up for the website, signing up for the p o s, signing up for the app, getting everything turned on, making sure that they have their medical director, their hr, their payroll.

Um, in bringing them all the way through the sequence concurrently, they're also introduced to the sales and development side, which are gonna start the pre-sale campaigns, marketing, advertising, and development, so that when they open. They already have memberships. They already have revenue. They have all of their staff.

All of their staff is trained also before they open, we go to every location with our nurses to train their nurses and them as owners on site. So everyone's very comfortable in their own environment. We have continuing education. We have a whole, our university, which, uh, franchisees can go to in order to build, uh, their fund of knowledge, but also we use it as a depository of all, uh, articles and, uh, content, copy collateral for their marketing, advertising and such.

That's really cool. 

Mark Stiles: That's really cool. So how did you, let's, let's go back in time. You said that you were in the fitness industry. Is, was that the natural progression into this? 

Ben Crosbie: Uh, yes. So, um,

I graduated college as an athletic trainer and a sports nutritionist. Okay. Um, I was a personal trainer for a little while in Boston, uh, and then I opened up my own line of health clubs, and then back in 2016, uh, 1516, I secured the global rights to the brand tapout and created Tapout Fitness. Um, it's a, it was a, well it currently is an m m A fitness center.

Yes. Uh, I sold over 500 locations, 11 international countries, and I exited that in January of 2019.

Uh, I started going to the drip bar in 2017, just naturally. Well, because of Tapout, I traveled to Vegas a lot, but naturally because of health clubs and fitness and nutrition, I just had a sense that IV vitamin therapy was logical. So whenever I'd travel to Vegas or wherever, I'd go and get a drip. Wasn't getting sick, I was traveling easier, I had more energy.

When you're growing, going cross country, you know, you get the jet lag, you get the parties in Vegas, you get all that stuff right. And the drips just made, made it feel better. Right? Uh, after I sold tap out, I went to the original, uh, founders of the, of the first location. And I said, Hey, I wanna franchise this business.

Let me see the numbers. Uh, so looked at the numbers, really, uh, it made strong financial sense, but also the mission that I felt was there. I thought I could leverage my franchise experience, bring it to market, and then just help. Lots of people a lot quicker than, you know, doing another fitness center or another franchise or whatnot.

I felt that it was a very smart opportunity to be able to scale and it needed to meet the masses. So franchise that business, brought it to market. Um, I bought a a hundred percent of it, um, back in 2021. Just exited all the partners and now we're. . Um, and I was just able through a relationship, but I met, um, Kevin Harrington, uh, one of the, well, One of the first people in eo, um, and met him, he was in and around the IV industry, uh, for about the past five years.

Met him, talked to him through the vision and, and where we were, and he chose to take a, uh, an investment and join the drip bar team. So Kevin Harrington's, now my. . 

Mark Stiles: I love it. And, and you know, it's so, uh, refreshing because you know, you practice what you preach, right? You're talking about, you know, you're doing the weekly drip, which I think is, is amazing and I, I can't wait to dig into that a little bit.

But the, um, sure. The fact that you didn't create this and then franchise it out, you actually. Thought like an A franchisee went to an established idea and said, let's franchise this idea as opposed to. Let's figure this out and copy it and do a better job. Let's take what we have and let's accelerate.

That's, uh, that's pretty cool. I, I wouldn't have guessed that. I would've said, yeah, you know, this person was through the health and fitness saw and opportunity created what he knows for processes and mm-hmm. . And, uh, all the strategies associated with what he is done before. And then he creates, and he, he does it.

But you, you were, you were accelerated already by some other partners. Yeah. How was the, um, how was that exit? Were they very pleased? 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah, they should be, but you never know, right? You ne you never know, you know? Um, yeah. And I, I was somebody, well, I am somebody which is kind of funny. I personally hate needle.

Okay. Don't like needles. Never want one. But I do at IV every week. I own the drip bar, obviously, and I open up my own drip bar. Um, and it's just because it works. Um, so yeah, just really excited to bring this, uh, to the, to the mass market, which we're doing right now. 

Mark Stiles: I love it. So you don't like needles, but yet you're gonna stick a needle every week because of how Wonderful.

Because it. Yeah. What's in the, what's in the power pack? , 

Ben Crosbie: uh, power pack's. Got a bunch of different ingredients. Uh, God, I could look it up for you if you'd like, but I try being non-medical. Yeah. I try not to, uh, get too into the weeds on the medical side of things, but, you know, in this, um, we proactively market all the ingredients in every I.

um, none of it is proprietary, right? Uh, it's vitamins, right? You, you can't, uh, copyright vitamin C and B12 and carnitine and, uh, a l a and all of those things. So, you know, all of the ingredients are, uh, accessible. Uh, we proactively educate clients into every ingredient that's in the bag, and also why we put those ingredients in the bag to create the therapeutic effect that we market as that various strip.

Mark Stiles: So you mentioned hiring a bunch of attorneys. What is, um, what, what's your big, what's your, what's your big fear? What are you, what are you hedging against? Like what's, what's, what keeps you up at night with this, this model? 

Ben Crosbie: Um, Uh, now nothing. Uh, which is, which is kind of strange, right? So I have, uh, business attorneys, real estate attorneys, franchise attorneys, um, You always need litigation and so on.

Attorneys, medical attorneys, because every state has its own corporate practice, a medicine state and regulations. Um, so we are very proactive but also, , anybody in the IV industry, that's like the no-brainer. You know, this is medical. You break the skin with a needle. What is the, you know, medical rules and regulations, right?

The industry as a whole, however, is somewhat ignoring the pharmacological side of things. So I also have a pharma. That is constantly looking at the ever-changing, uh, you know, landscape of the, uh, compounding pharmacy industry. So we've taken a new approach where we mix every ingredient and every. Drip fresh for every client.

We don't get these pre-mixed from a compounding pharmacy. We don't store 'em in a freezer or refrigerator or, you know, they're not pre-mixed outside of a hood on a, on a countertop. That's where the competition does it. Uh, we do it all in a sterile hood. It's like an incubator that you put your hands in.

Uh, and we source all of the raw materials directly from the various 5 0 3 A and b pharmac. Huh. 

Mark Stiles: That's really interesting. So you, so, so there is a secondary market for this. There is a competition you say that is, it's not really following protocols. Yeah, 

Ben Crosbie: there's. There's, as I said in the beginning, it's highly fragmented, full of mom and pop shops.

There have been IV places that are incorporated into nail studios. Nail salons, right? It just not the clean environment that this type of offering should be within. Huh? There was one closed in a barber shop. people try it anywhere. , 

Mark Stiles: right. So how do you separate yourself from that? How does Trip Bar get up on that pedestal and, and scream out loud?

Yeah. Or different. 

Ben Crosbie: Well, marketing, advertising and scale. You know, continually, uh, beating the drum as to who drip bar is. Um, uh, we're focused on IV vitamin therapy. That's our primary focus, that's our driver of what we wake up with every day. Um, just to continually, uh, give the safest, uh, IV therapy that the industry can als, can offer, uh, in a very nice, modern medical environment.

Um, and just market, advertise brand scale, and give the client a really good experience every time that they come in for a drip. . 

Mark Stiles: Hmm. This has been truly, uh, eye-opening and, and fascinating. I've, I've done a little bit of research and spoke to some people on regenerative medicine. This kind of sounds like that not quite, uh, to the extent when you start entering stem cells into the conversation.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. But yeah, it's that progress, it's that journey going towards like, why let's. intelligently about our bodies, right? Let's talk about this processed food. Let's talk about how we're exercising or not exercising, but most importantly, which has been ignored, at least for me personally, is the hydration component.

I, I think it's brilliant and I, I, I wish you the best of luck. I think you're gonna have tremendous success, and I thank you for coming in here and sharing all of the information and knowledge that you have around. . 

Ben Crosbie: My pleasure. Anytime, mark. Thank you for your time. Well, 

Mark Stiles: let me ask you this, the most important question, folks, pay attention, get your pen out.

How do people get in touch with you if they wanna either, uh, be a member or, uh, better yet a 

Ben Crosbie: franchisee? Sure, yeah. Yeah. I mean, Ben Crosby, uh, The drip bar.com and my email is ben the drip bar.com. Um, if you need anything, please reach out. 

Mark Stiles: The drip bar.com. I love it. Very simple, very clean, easy to remember.

I will be logging on right after we finish this to really get, uh, to go in a little bit deeper. But hey, thank you again. Absolutely. Come on down to Foxboro. I'm, I'm coming. We'll figure that out too. And, uh, definitely. You know, again, thank you. And folks, you know, especially the members of EO Boston, uh, check him out.

Ben. Ben's gonna be at some of the events going forward. He's a new member of eo. Really excited to have you, Ben. But most importantly, thank you for, for joining me on this. 

Ben Crosbie: Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you for your time, folks. 

Mark Stiles: Thank you very much for listening today or watching if you're watching this on YouTube and if you learn something, which I.

Share it with somebody. If you think of somebody who might actually be a good candidate for a franchise, send this to them. Let them know about this, that this is an opportunity that is here now today. Thank you again, Ben. 

Ben Crosbie: Perfect. My pleasure. 

Thank 

Mark Stiles: you, folks. This has been another exciting episode of Leadership and Action, our Boston chapter of EOS podcast.

See you next time.