We’re thrilled to present the latest addition to Afluencer’s content lineup – our podcast series featuring insightful conversations with influential brand owners. In this inaugural article, we have the privilege of introducing Darrie Ichilov, the visionary founder of Baxsi, as our esteemed guest.
Meet Darrie Ichilov: The Mind Behind Baxsi
Darrie Ichilov, the innovative mind driving Baxsi, takes center stage in the Afluencer podcast series. With a wealth of experience in the world of influencer marketing, Darrie shares captivating insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped his brand’s journey.
Podcast Premiere: Delving into the Baxsi Universe
Join us in exploring the enchanting world of Baxsi through the eyes of Darrie Ichilov himself. We’ve embedded the riveting YouTube podcast video below, offering an exclusive glimpse into the transformative power of influencer marketing.
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Key Takeaways
00:30 🎙️ Darrie Ichilov, founder of Baxsi, shares his background as a practicing physical therapist for 32 years, highlighting the demand and challenges in the field.
02:18 💡 Darrie accidentally discovered a technique for relieving lower back pain by manipulating the sacroiliac joint, leading to the development of the Baxsi device over 20 years.
04:39 🔍 The Baxsi device offers instant relief by releasing locked sacroiliac joints, addressing the root cause of lower back pain rather than just providing temporary relief like pain medication.
07:53 🕒 The recommended protocol for using the Baxsi device is 3 to 5 minutes daily, with immediate relief experienced, akin to targeting trigger points for relief.
09:15 💊 Darrie criticizes the overreliance on pain medication for back pain, advocating for solutions like the Baxsi device that address the root cause of the issue.
12:28 💼 Baxsi’s marketing strategy includes partnerships with influencers in health, fitness, and wellness niches, aiming to reach a wide audience suffering from back pain.
14:22 💰 The Baxsi device is priced around $100, making it an affordable self-care tool compared to alternative treatments like massages or physical therapy sessions.
16:28 🌐 Baxsi offers influencer partnerships with commission-based compensation, providing codes for influencers to track sales and earn a percentage of each sale.
18:30 🎯 The Baxsi team is exploring social media marketing avenues to reach a broader audience, recognizing the potential of platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
19:09 🏌️♂️ Baxsi’s effectiveness extends beyond pain relief, with reports of improved athletic performance, such as increased driving distance in golf and enhanced vertical jumps in soccer players.
20:33 🧘♂️ Unlocking the sacroiliac joint with the Baxsi device can improve overall bodily function, even if there’s no perceived lower back pain, highlighting the importance of addressing foundational issues.
21:54 📲 Social media presents an opportunity for Baxsi to educate users about the connection between lower back health and overall well-being, potentially through short-form content like reels or shorts.
23:30 🤝 Brett encourages influencers to apply for partnerships with Baxsi, recognizing the collaborative potential in creating content that promotes natural lower back pain relief solutions.
Transcription Insight: A Peek into the Conversation
Gain an insider’s perspective as we burrow into the transcription of our engaging conversation with Carmen Tripodi. Discover the strategies, anecdotes, and wisdom that have fueled Fast Track To Millionaire’ success, all captured in this in-depth transcription.
In Conversation with Darrie Ichilov, Founder of Baxsi:
Brett:
Welcome to our Afluencer podcast. We’re talking relief for back pain, a popular subject for almost anyone above maybe the age of 15, and some opportunities for influencers to promote a unique new product. So we’ve been invited on our usual obviously founder, inventor, chief back pain reliever, everything our utility man here today. Darren, welcome. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
And before we get to back in particular, your journey to this point?
Darrie:
Absolutely. So we’re practicing physical therapist. I’ve been one for 32 years, still practicing, which is sort of different in the fact that most people don’t last that long in the field of physical therapy just because it’s so physically demanding. Study. New York, NYU, New York University moved to Phenix, Arizona, about 30 plus years ago with my wife and have opened up and been involved in a number of different clinics, which brought me to the point where I’m out right now.
Brett:
Yeah, that’s a great run. I’m going through physical therapy now myself with the Achilles, so it’s always a second time going through it. I do notice everyone in the office, they’re always I mean, I’m at the point now, they’re they’re they’re all everyone’s younger than me working there. And I always wonder why. Because they like the level of expertise that they have at a young age is really impressive.
But I could see that just being a physical brain, I mean, they’re kind of working out all day.
Darrie:
What makes me a little bit different is I believe in a lot more hands on approach, I mean a lot and will get into it, but a lot of stretching, physicality, dealing with many body sizes and four eight 9 hours a day of pushing, pulling, prodding, climbing. Yeah, there’s a lot of demands on the physical therapist.
Brett:
I could see it, I could see it. I see it in the 2xa week that I’m in there. So it’s getting into that into backseat. So I see we came up with this idea at work, kind of you’re seeing this recurring. I know. I’m sure you’ve got the playbook then for the for the back pain and what you’re doing.
But I’d love to hear the background on how you came up with that idea for Backseat.
Darrie:
So 20 years ago, I sort of accidentally came up with a technique where I had patients lie down on my hand and I started basically working my fingers into the sacroiliac, and I noticed that I could work my hand in there by pulling it open and releasing all the ligaments along the sacroiliac. I instantly basically relieve lower back pain.
So what ended up happening is over the past 20 years, I honed the skill. I’ve treated thousands of people and noticed that it’s an area that really is underdeveloped in the physical therapy and the medical world as far as lower back pain. Western medicine has sort of become pigeonholed in the fact that everything is so specialized and focused on one specific theory.
So what happens is the layman doesn’t really understand the anatomy and what’s going on, and sort of somebody goes in and they may have a sacroiliac that’s blocked or locked up and they go in and they’re telling the doctor they have lower back pain, classic patient. They go in and they have lower back pain. The doctor does an x ray, shows some degeneration, which everybody has, because let’s face it, we all have wear and tear on our bodies, but nothing that specifically shows why they’re having the lower back pain.
So what ended up happening was I slowly developed that technique and got really, really good results. Fast forward to 20 years later. I’m not getting any younger. I try to develop a teaching method for this technique. What I didn’t realize is the demands on the fingers. So I tried teaching a number of of the clinicians in my office, and what would happen is their fingers would become bruised and they couldn’t practice for two weeks because I developed it over a period of time.
I developed calluses and basically I don’t even know how to put it. Developed a way of doing it that allows me to be able to do it as many times as I need to every day. Two years ago when ended up happening, whereas with COVID and everything else, I realized that, you know what? I need to take this technique to the next level.
And that’s where I met with an engineer here in Phenix, and we started to develop the vaccine prototype, tried it out, tested it out, have been using it in my clinic ever since with remarkable results. February of last year decided, okay, we’re now going to launch it and take it to the next level.
Brett:
It’s awesome. That’s exciting. Yeah. So getting to the root of the back pain again, is it the ligaments in essentially being stuck and needing to be.
Darrie:
So.
Brett:
Released?
Darrie:
How technical you want me to get. Keep it as simple as possible.
Brett:
Keep it simple. A layman layman, technical. Right. Someone with back pain. I know what a muscle is. I know what a ligament. I know what it is, but maybe not too much more detail beyond.
Darrie:
Okay, so to put it in its simplest terms, the sacroiliac is a joint, but it’s not a moving joint. Articulating joint like an elbow, like a shoulder that has cartilage protection. It only moves 2 to 4 millimeters, which is almost negligible. So what ends up happening is because of that lack of motion, not a lot of cartilage, there’s not a lot of protection.
What ends up happening is our body was not intended for walking on concrete, not intended for the abuse we put it through on a daily basis stairs, twisting, turning. So what happens is that area goes through tremendous wear and tear, and every once in a while it’ll catch. What happens is when it locks out the largest muscles in your body or in your legs, your quadriceps, your hamstrings, your glutes.
And what happens is they’re primarily focused on motion and movement. When the sacroiliac what’s what ends up happening is the force that they generate for motion starts to bleed up into the back and it creates conflict. Their back is about stabilization. So you’re creating a tug of war in your spine. That’s why so many people use the term.
They feel so much pressure in my back. So what the backside does is it basically goes in and unlocks the sacroiliac. There’s no muscles that go over the sex area. You can basically feel there are only ligaments and faster to go over it. But all these muscles insert and attached to that fashion over the sack roll.
Brett:
Interesting. So is that instant type of relief then after you release or is it one of those that you release it and there’s released and then the ligaments might bunch up. So you’re doing it over a period of time, but it feels like the type of thing where you’re getting pretty early relief. Is that fair to say? Immediate Yeah.
Darrie:
You notice a difference right away. Now you say you’re in physical therapy, so you know what P.T. stands for? Physical torture. A lot of physical therapists have to do two is is we have to push patients through a pain threshold. If we didn’t need to, you could do everything at home. You wouldn’t require a physical therapist. So what happens is the vaccine initially has to work through a tender area.
It’s locked up, so it’s a little uncomfortable. There’s a burning involved, but as you keep using it, it sort of gets used to that. It’s almost like when you have that shoulder pain that everybody knows about and everybody talks about a tennis ball or the corner of a chair or something and pushes into that spot because it feels good.
It’s that kind of pain.
Brett:
Yeah. Gotcha. Right. You know, it’s it’s effective, right? It’s right. It hurts so good kind of where you, you know, it’s it’s releasing. But you got to do that trigger point. I don’t know if that’s the right term.
Darrie:
You know that’s that’s a good way to describe it.
Brett:
Okay. Okay. Gotcha. What are we talking about in terms of usage? Is it like a five, ten minute thing every day? What’s the backseat protocol?
Darrie:
3 to 5 minutes.
Brett:
Yep. 3 to 5 minutes only. Yeah. Okay.
Darrie:
3 to 5 minutes. Basically, there are four positions. The website explains everything. There’s four positions. The first three positions are about basically pushing your pelvis onto the device position. Four is where you roll your legs slowly out, and that gives it the pulling action, which actually pries open the sacroiliac, but 3 to 5 minutes every day. Eventually you can use it 30 seconds a minute.
But for protocol standards to start off with, to acclimate your body through that, we say 3 to 5 minutes every day.
Brett:
Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Like you’re saying, I’m friends with back pain. And they went to the usual doctors, and that’s usually not much of a help. I’m sure you know, the usual prescriptions. You get the muscle relaxers, you get this stuff that will give you short term relief, but it doesn’t, I don’t think, get to the core problem, which is what the alley seems to address, is that you need these ligaments release ready to break stuff up with the fact that all.
Darrie:
Opening up the sacroiliac. Exactly.
Brett:
Yeah. Gotcha.
Darrie:
Going back to what you asked me earlier, one of the main issues is we’re so focused on instant relief, instant gratification, and that focus is on, as you mentioned, the pain. And we wonder why we have such a large epidemic of pain pills. Well, if you’re just treating the symptoms or not getting to the root cause of the problem, what happens when you come down off of that first, the pain still there.
So you pop a second pill and then the third pill. And before you know it, you’re addicted to it. So things like the back seat devices that get to the root cause, the problem, the future of fixing this epidemic, that that’s going on.
Brett:
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, a pain pills, that’s what it’s going to do. An opioid is going to take away the pain. It gives you a little bit of a buzz. I never cared for him too much after my wrist. Most recent surgery, I kind of got off them in a day, just didn’t want to go there with the addiction, like you said.
And there’s a time and a place maybe for the acute pain, but if you’re not solving the problem or know it just from a motivational standpoint, I’d rather just fix rather just fix the back. Right. Well, right. You’re doing so I’m the you have the product. I remember you.
Darrie:
Yes.
Brett:
Yeah. Can we see it? Let’s take a look.
Darrie:
So this is the back seat.
Brett:
Yeah. Yeah.
Darrie:
And if you take a look. Yep. The shape it mimics basically the technique that I use with my head. That’s the whole design. It comes with two heads. There’s a blue head, which is four, and then the green head, which is a little bit softer. I recommend using the green head first. And the reason is your body’s getting used to it.
I personally use the blue head. It just gets down more action deeper, get it over with.
Brett:
More intent, higher intensity on the blue it.
Darrie:
Yeah, people have different pain threshold. So what ends up happening is it’s whichever one works for you.
Brett:
Yeah, that’s great. I mean let’s talk self-diagnosis and let’s say I got a back tweak or I got some back pain or I got some back tightness. What sort of steps would I go through to self-diagnosed and see of, hey, this is might be the ligaments are tied back, so might be able to benefit me. What are the steps that that I guess I would take as an individual to say I don’t actually want to go to my regular doctor.
I’d rather, you know, get it back, see, I’d rather I rather see if I can work this out.
Darrie:
So I always recommend, you know, I mean, if you’re not sure, just because the layman doesn’t know, always seek our medical attention and that that’s, you know. But as far as using the back seat, try the backswing first. It’s not going to hurt. You can always use it first. As far as whether it’ll help or not help, it pretty much will alleviate a lot of the pressure.
Regardless, it doesn’t make a difference for any pain that lasts severe over three days. Yeah, I suggest at that point seek medical you know, seek medical attention, but there’s no reason why you can’t use it right away and see if it will at least release the pressure and take that pain that you’re having, that intense pain away.
Brett:
Right. With that is the release element. And I think we’ve all or many of us have had that, like you describe with a knot in the shoulder. Right. It’s a matter of finding that. And just if you can release the sometimes it’s a muscle, right? If it’s in the shoulder, could be a leg on it. Right. But you got to break it up.
And if feels it hurts by itself, they break the stuff up. But there is that tremendous relief afterwards. So let’s talk about the marketing of the product. I saw. Where is it at today in terms of your go to market strategy? Are you working with other teams to get this out there? What are you found to be most effect lives in terms of getting the back seat in front of the people potentially need it?
Darrie:
So primarily I’ve been marketing it to my clinic with patients.
Brett:
And that’s great because you got us there, right? So you can show them and they know, right? They can take it home almost, right? Yeah.
Darrie:
We’ve used the local influencer here who’s had some success getting the word out there. We’ve gone to expos, we’ve gone to a number of, you know, a number of different shows. The problem is we’re a small business, local business, so we don’t have the manpower, the capability. The thing with this is the market is huge. To give you an example, at the beginning of the year 2024, 2023, a study came out from Sydney University.
They’re predicting by 2050 there are going to be 850 million worldwide sufferers of lower back pain that they know of. That’s what they know. And the World Health Organization has already said it’s one of the biggest epidemics out there and that they’ve got to come up with different treatment techniques, medications not working. Obviously, because the numbers keep increasing.
So the key is getting this out, but getting this out there, letting people know that this that there is this product out, that’s that’s the goal here.
Brett:
So it makes sense from a from a cost standpoint, I assume where you think about the alternative methods, right. Even if you’re going to get a deep tissue massage. I mean, these days I’m in California. I mean that I run $90 just to get broken up. I know the sessions. It depends on your insurance where I am. I mean, I think the list price are about $200 per session with sure, it’s a good investment if that’s what it takes to take away the pain.
But having the back seat that you can go to any time, that’s kind of a no brainer self-care tool, right, if you will. Right.
Darrie:
You know, so my so my goal when I developed it was I felt that $100 was the breakpoint. I wanted to get it into as many people’s hands as possible. And I figured $100 keeping that $100 would make it monetary really acceptable to anyone who needed it. I know myself, I’m a back pain sufferer. I know the few times when I’ve had that severe back pain I would have spent a fortune if somebody would have been able to remove that back pain at that point.
So I figure $100 is a pretty good price point that somebody would spend in order to get rid of back pain.
Brett:
Yeah, that’s a great that’s a great price point. And I mean, the back pain is just debilitating because it’s not only the back, it’s like you can’t can’t walk and you can’t just your toes strap it right when it locks up. You’re in a world of hurt. 100, though, is still enough for it to be attractive from an influencer partnership standpoint.
So let’s talk about that. And if we’ve got I assume we’re looking at health fitness, wellness type influencers.
Darrie:
So actually you bring up a really good point from this standpoint as far as back pain goes, if you think of the numerous people who suffer from back pain, there’s a lot of different markets that you can go to. One of the areas that I’ve been looking at lately and it’s been very effective in is for Jack, for example, pregnant women.
Pregnant women can’t take medications for obvious reasons. And the back see has been really successful with relieving alleviating lower back pain. There’s very few devices, so there’s that. But there is obviously, you know, the market of the average person who sedentary, sitting at a desk job. All that 8 hours doesn’t get out, doesn’t do anything. So there’s that market.
There’s the athlete who goes and plays bass, there’s no limit to the different markets.
Brett:
Yeah, that’s why it makes perfect sense. Yeah. I mean, I would assume on back pain, on pregnancy, I mean that would be almost was 100% of the time where I know in my experience that just second hand to my wife. But I mean that’s certainly through both pregnancies. I mean that’s you have a human being here. So that’s ideal for your lower back to measures of the parenting influencers.
Makes sense. Anyone who gets to be my age and still tries to play sport like basketball and then we get hurt and backs lock up and that type of thing. So from a compensation standpoint, then, Dani, are we doing a commission on the back seat sold or the influencer? Okay.
Darrie:
Yeah, no, that’s exactly right. What we’re going to do is create codes for any influencer that wants to work with us. And that way then when the the products purchase, we’ll know exactly who the influencer was who sold the device and they’ll get a percentage of the sale.
Brett:
That’s great. It’s a great opportunity and we’ll get the link to your collab below the video. So influencers can I and keep it obviously nice and why. I mean, we all I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had back pain at some point, right? And then like you said, to get relief potentially relief, something you can do that as no downside right.
Is just going to have nothing else kind of free up your ligaments in your lower back for $100 and then you have it on hand. You can stash in your basement. You’ve got it ready. It’s kind of a no brainer from the self-care standpoint. But of course, people usually only buy when they need something, but that’s pretty compelling.
Then there’s always someone who’s having a back pain at any given moment. I know if I survey a room of friends, what hands are going to go?
Darrie:
Yes, absolutely. Anyone who knows somebody who’s got a lower back pain at any point in time.
Brett:
Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. Well, thank you for grading the product diary. It seems very timely, helpful, must have. And to be able to scale your, you know, the closet. You’ve developed the magic floors over all the years. This is great. You know, have to have as a again, as a self-care. I’ve got to what is this thing back now?
Were there occasion. Yeah that there is my kids like this. But yeah, I would love to have the back seat right next to that. They’re carrying all that self-care myself.
Darrie:
Love that.
Brett:
Thanks so much for joining us. Is there any can you let us know where people can find you on social media online? All that good stuff. Find more about the backseat.
Darrie:
So it’s w w w dot back CPR aside dot com. That’s the website. As far as social media goes, really, we haven’t made a big push yet into social media. It’s an area we’re looking to get into from a marketing standpoint that’s basically, you know, as far as getting in touch with us. But the focus has been lower back pain.
Allow me to change the the the site for sort of sidebar for a second in the marketing and in everything that’s happened over the past year, it actually has become and I know this sounds a little bit a performance enhancer now performance enhancing, it’s got a negative connotation. But for example, I went to a large golf store where they test out products and golf clubs and what ended up happening was I was using it there on a number of the golf golfers who were practicing and what ended up happening was after they use the back seat, for example, one person had shot 57 drives and was averaging 260 to 270 yards after they use the vaccine, they were able to drive over 300 yards.
Brett:
Wow. Just more, more, more, more torque. Being able to get back well or more range of.
Darrie:
Motion, which the torrent, the mobility, the flexibility to generate more force. I had a young athlete, soccer players who, for example, I had this one gentleman who was five foot seven. We had eight foot ceilings in the clinic and we did a standing jump. He wasn’t able to reach the ceiling. He was about five, six inches too short.
We use the back. Said he was able to increase his vertical by six inches, but that’s a whole nother side that we really haven’t gotten into or delved into where imagine if an athlete he thinks he’s performing at 100%. Just because he’s now having lower back pain doesn’t mean a sacroiliac isn’t locked up and he can benefit from using this device by increasing his output.
So that’s another whole area that we’re looking into as well.
Brett:
Yeah, that’s really interesting. That’s a good point. I heard that sort of reminds me of something I heard about your vow to everyone thinks, Oh, you got to train harder. But if your lungs or your diaphragms locked up an easy way to get more video to unlock the diaphragm. Right. So that’s kind of like what you’re talking about, where.
Darrie:
You’re exactly right.
Brett:
Right. If you’re like you said, even if it’s no pain. But it could be stopping you on a.
Darrie:
Oh, absolutely. Because you’re you you’re still working on stairs, you’re still working on concrete every day. You’re doing all those things. Just because you don’t have the lower back pain doesn’t mean that your sacroiliac isn’t having an effect. And a quick way to tell is just stand in front of the mirror. Take a look. Basically, close your eyes, close your eyes, Shake yourself, get comfortable and take a look at your shoulder heads.
What ends up happening is you’ll notice you favor one side more than the other side. What that could potentially mean is that the side that you’re leaning towards is a your body accommodating the fact that the opposite side is locked up. People don’t even realize it’s one of the first things I do when I see patients in the clinic is I watch them walking and I notice right away that their shoulders are uneven.
Another one is when you walk, do you notice that once in a while you lose your balance to one side over the other side. What it implies is you’re putting a little more weight on one side more than the other side. There’s a lot of little nuances that you can you can really use to to help yourself. So the market is is huge.
Brett:
See, this is a social media goldmine, which you just showed me here. This is we’ve got to get you do on the shorts on the back seat social media handle. That’s great. It’s amazing how it can go all the way up the chain to your shoulders from your well, lower back if you got to. This is the foundation, right?
Darrie:
If you’re and that’s exact that’s exactly it. Think about it this way. If the foundation of a house is a level isn’t straight, your house isn’t going to be straight. It’s going to have an effect on it. So what ends up happening is I’m a big believer the way I learn physical therapy, the way I practice physical therapy, ground force up, because everything is going to change Y because your eyes are going to always remain parallel to the horizon.
It’s about survival. It’s about tracking. It’s about hunting, it’s about all these things. So in order to do that, if one thing is off, everything else is going to adapt itself in order to achieve that, because that’s the ultimate goal. It’s about survival.
Brett:
That’s interesting. Yeah, that’s that’s what we were adapted, I guess, to do, right?
Darrie:
This is doing it right. It’s the body modifier. I was right. And the problem today is instead of listening, pain is your body’s voice telling you there’s a problem and all we’re trying to do is shut it out, right?
Brett:
That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. Knock it down. Yeah. Instead of addressing. Right, like you said.
Darrie:
Right. That’s exactly it. Why? Because insurance companies and everything without digressing too far. They’re in the business of eliminate doing things as quickly as possible. Fixing takes time. You’ve got to figure out what the problem is.
Brett:
This is great. I could keep you all day. Dorian talking. We’ll give you the backseat to the final plug here and encourage all of our influencer listeners especially to apply. Check out the products, apply to be a partner of yours. This is great for a collab and this is a gold mine of potential content. Also between what a creator could create and perhaps catch up with you to promote the back.
This is awesome. It’s like a petty office in your in your living room here.
Darrie:
Thank you.
Brett:
All right. There is a long way back, actually. Derek, thanks again for joining us. Really interesting conversation products, way to relieve back pain. Appreciate it.
Darrie:
Thank you.
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