Easton Bryant opened North Century Pharmacy in 2014 as the seventh pharmacy on the outskirts of a small Kentucky town that obviously didn’t need another one. He had no guaranteed patient base, no corporate safety net, and no roadmap for what independent pharmacy could become. What he had was a clear conviction that the independent model, done right, could outperform anything a chain could offer.

He was right. But it took years of building in public, making expensive mistakes, and figuring out that the hardest part of running an independent pharmacy isn't clinical. It's everything else.

North Century grew into a nationally recognized independent practice spanning compounding, e-commerce supplements, digital wellness, and a direct-to-patient membership model. Along the way, Easton became known as a straight-talking voice on what independent pharmacy can actually look like when owners stop playing defense and start building intentionally.

The Rx Grid didn't start as a mastermind. It started as a referral network, a way to connect patients seeking independent pharmacy care with owners who could deliver it. What Easton didn't expect was that the owners themselves needed the connection more than the patients did. The mastermind built itself from there.

Today The Grid is a deliberately small mastermind of independent owners across the country, built on the belief that the room you're in shapes the decisions you make.

Easton leads the group not as a consultant with a curriculum, but as an owner who is still in it, still building, and still willing to say what most people in this industry won't.