Balancing the Grind with David Fossas, Chief Marketing Officer at Restore Hyper Wellness

David Fossas is the Chief Marketing Officer at Restore Hyper Wellness, which provides expert guidance and an extensive array of health modalities, such as IV drips and cryotherapy.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I’m Chief Marketing Officer for Restore Hyper Wellness—the fastest growing network of wellness studios in the country. Restore offers services such as biomarker assessments, IV drip therapy, cryotherapy, mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy and more. Restore’s aims to make these services, which were traditionally only available to professional athletes and the affluent, affordable and accessible for everyone to help people feel their best and do more of what they love.

I joined Restore on March 2, 2020 just as COVID-19 hit. My first few months were spent helping the business navigate the pandemic and communicating with local regulators to keep our locations open and available to our clients—particularly the immuno-comprimised who were more at risk.

In June 2020, we hit a record month, and we have been on an incredible growth trajectory ever since, having opened over 100 locations since that time. We have grown from about 45 locations two years ago to 150+ today, and we plan to have over 200 locations open by the end of the year.

2020 and 2021 were really foundational years, as we built up Restore’s marketing function. In 2022, that work is coming to life through our new website, restore.com, our first master brand campaign “Restore. Do More.”, and our first ambassador campaign with Tim and Demi Tebow. It’s fun to see the hard, foundational work start to pay off. And, we’re just getting started.

Prior to Restore, I led the global brand for WP Engine, a platform for building websites and digital experiences. One of the highlights of my time there was producing make|SHIFT, a documentary about how creative technology and makers transformed the advertising industry.

Rather than producing another ad, we decided to produce a film about the people that use technology and creativity to build breakthrough experiences for brands and their audiences. The film is available on most streaming platforms, and recently won a Bronze CLIO award. 

Before WP Engine, I held various roles at agencies, Real Chemistry and Big Fuel. I started my career in the entertainment business, representing feature film talent. If you ever watched Entourage, I was essentially Lloyd.

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

My responsibilities are split up primarily into three complementary areas: (1) brand marketing, (2) user experience and (3) franchise marketing. 

My days at the office are filled with meetings virtually from 9-5. So, a lot of my concentrated work needs to happen before or after being at the office. Any given day, I spend part of my time working on brand campaigns like the ones I mentioned earlier, as well as PR activities, and developing our influencer and content plans to raise brand awareness and ultimately drive Revenue to our locations. 

I spend part of my time on Restore’s user experience. For example, last year, we launched a redesign of our retail locations. More recently, in March, we launched our new website, which improved consumers’ ability to navigate the site, educate themselves and book appointments for services they’re interested in trying out.

But, your website is never really done. It must continuously be improved and optimized. We are also now working on designing and developing our consumer app, which will launch later this year. We aim to integrate our physical retail experiences with our digital experiences as seamlessly as possible.

Finally, we are nothing without our franchisees who own and operate Restore locations across 38 states and growing. A good part of my time is speaking with franchisees about their local marketing and opportunities to improve awareness, demand and leads for our locations.

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

It does. We are primarily an in-office culture. There is something special about being able to hop into a room with your co-workers and collaborate face-to-face. And, it’s great for serendipitous collaboration as well. But, we recognize that it’s not always conducive to productivity if you’re producing and making things. So, we allow for some flexibility to work from home when you just need to be meeting free and get things done.

We have parents with infants or younger children who work from home two days a week, so they can care for their kids when they’re not in daycare. And, we have some parents with some older kids (me included) who juggle office time with school drop offs, pickups and after school activities.

Summer is particularly tough to navigate because the kids aren’t in school. So, I may work from home more frequently over the summer, and bring my kids to the office some days. We try to create space for parents and all employees to balance their professional and personal commitments.  

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

Earlier in my career, I asked a CEO and mentor of mine a similar question, and his response always stuck with me: there are no balancing acts to get to the top levels of an organization. It’s more like a seesaw.

When business is good and you have teams to support you, you can spend more time on activities outside of work. If you have a family, take advantage of that season and spend more time with your family. Because when business is tough or particularly busy, you’re going to be spending more time on work. 

For example, my wife and I started new jobs around the same time in 2016. It was my first brand-side role, and her first full-time job after 5 years being a full-time mom to our three kids. It was important to me to invest in her career and reciprocate the investment she put into my career while we were having kids.

I had a good bit of flexibility with my job, and so I took on a lot of drop offs, pickups and after school activities, so she could focus more on her career. Now, that pendulum has swung back the other way. She has more flexibility with her job, and I’ve been very focused on building Restore and the marketing team. We partner with each other and support each other through these busy seasons.

As another example, I’ve been coaching my fifth grader in lacrosse for 5 years. That season goes from February through April. So, I just know that the beginning of the year, every year, is going to be intense. Not only is the company off to a fast start to the new year, but also, I’m managing additional commitments to coach my son and these kids.

But, it’s worth it because I love the game and love helping to develop these boys into young men through sports. Summer is a welcome reprieve and a lot more relaxed. And, then fall gets busy again with back to school activities, annual planning at the company and finishing out a strong year.

All that to say (and this might be more of a contrarian view in today’s world), I don’t expect that I will have balance in my life. In fact, I believe that having too much to do and too little time is just a fact of life as a husband, father and professional. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. So, I do the best I can to prioritize, set expectations and be effective and productive with my time. And, sometimes the most productive thing you can do is catch a couple hours of downtime on a Sunday.

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

A few. Up until a year or two ago, I didn’t prioritize sleep. In fact, I wore 4 hour nights of sleep like a badge of honor. Not anymore. I really try to average 7 hours of sleep a night. I’m not perfect, but I’ve made great strides. Not only is getting 7+ hours of sleep important for your long-term health, but I also experience that I’m more alert, focused and productive throughout the day when I prioritize that sleep time.

I also stopped pressuring myself to get to the gym in the mornings. I stretch. Then, I do 10 pullups, and 30-50 pushups, situps and squats every morning before getting ready for work. It takes less than 10 minutes. It starts my day with some movement and activity and boosts my energy and focus.

Then, I try to get a longer run in on weekends, 7-10 miles, ideally on Saturdays. Running is more for mental health than anything else. It’s virtually the only quiet, alone time I get during the week. It’s a great way to organize and store my thoughts from the week and work through any challenges I might be facing.

Lastly, I am trying to make more time for listening to music. I realized that I had become so addicted to listening to podcasts and audiobooks while driving, walking, doing chores, etc. that I was constantly digesting information and not leaving space to absorb and think and just check out a little bit. So, I’ve been more purposeful of closing down my podcast and Audible apps and opening up Spotify instead.

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

So many that it’s hard to pair down. But, I’ll try:

• Recent fiction book: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Just a wonderful story with an eclectic group of characters and a little bit of history)
• Recent non-fiction book: And There Was Light : The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II by Jacques Lusseyran (An amazing story that put my life and the challenges I face into perspective)
• Recent book on health science: Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love by Tony Robbins (Many of the modalities that are covered are offered by my company, Restore)
• News Podcasts: WSJ What’s News (15 minute summaries to listen to in the mornings and evenings) and The Journal (More in-depth coverage on topics)
• Marketing Podcasts: The CMO Podcast and CMO Moves

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

Google Podcasts (I’m an Android / Google Pixel user), Audible and Spotify.

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?  

Elon Musk (kidding). But, maybe Peter Diamandis.

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

There is no perfect recipe. Don’t expect perfect balance. Give yourself a break. And, find joy in the work!

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