Ready To Drink Podcast

Send us Fan Mail

Kevin Gill is a 78-year-old Vietnam veteran, a six-time cancer survivor and a retired 33-year Treasury Department law enforcement officer. After a 2012 diagnosis of head, neck, throat and spine cancer, Kevin developed severe anxiety, depression and PTSD. Antidepressants did little for him, and he refused to depend on addictive benzodiazepines. Hemp-derived THC seltzers from Delta Beverages changed that. In his own words, hemp beverages gave him his life back.

On December 11th, these products are set to become illegal without a federal regulatory framework in place. Kevin turns 79 in January. He worries that if lawmakers ban hemp beverages now, he will not live long enough to see them return.

This is the first episode of What Hemp Beverages Mean To Me, a new series on the Ready To Drink Podcast. We sit down with everyday hemp beverage consumers to hear how these products changed their lives and what the pending federal hemp ban would take from them. These stories are going straight to lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and state capitals across the country.

In this episode, Kevin shares:
 - His service in Vietnam and 33-year career with the U.S. Treasury Department
 - How cancer and combat led to PTSD, anxiety and depression
 - Why antidepressants and benzodiazepines were not the answer for him
 - How he discovered Delta’s hemp THC seltzers
 - Why he quit alcohol in 2010
 - What the December 11 hemp ban would mean for veterans and seniors
 - His message to lawmakers and to the founders fighting for this industry

If hemp beverages have changed your life, we want to hear your story. Contact us at [email protected].

To everyone who enjoys these drinks, or who simply believes adults deserve the choice: lawmakers listen when they hear from enough people. Visit the Hemp Beverage Alliance action center and tell Congress, even in a single sentence, that you support safe, regulated sales - it only takes a few minutes, and December 11th is close.

This series is sponsored by Delta Beverages.

Hosted by Nate Fochtman of The FreeMind Group.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Veterans can press 1.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Omari Anderson made his first infused lemonade for his mother. She had early-onset Alzheimer’s and had stopped eating and sleeping, and he remembered the drinks she used to make him as a kid. He thought the lemonade might last one summer, but five years later, The Best Dirty Lemonade sells seven flavors across multiple states, recently won Best in Grass in Massachusetts and is racing to sell 35,000 cans before the federal hemp ban takes effect.

Omari is a lawyer who never practiced law and has always been an eat-what-you-kill entrepreneur. He talks with Nate Fochtman about moving from a 21-day shelf life to a scalable product with food scientists from Snapple and Coca-Cola. He explains why hemp beats dispensaries for beverages and the moment it felt like a real business. He also shares the customers he never expected: people in recovery who just want to hold a drink and feel social.

They cover SOPs, why silent expectations are killers and the three-tier system. Nate explains why perpetuity franchise contracts are a trap hemp brands do not have to sign. Nate also shares his own sobriety story and his hard-won lesson for new parents who run a business.

Chapters
00:00 Meet Omari Anderson
01:31 Why the hemp ban is “doom”
03:57 A lemonade made for Mom
05:37 From a 21-day shelf life to scale
06:40 Where to find The Best Dirty Lemonade
07:39 Eat what you kill
08:38 Don’t let the business take those moments
09:55 When it became a real business
11:35 The customer he never planned for
18:47 SOPs and silent expectations
20:00 Run your business like you could get hit by a bus
23:39 Going wider and the three-tier question
25:13 Franchise laws and perpetuity contracts
29:48 Monthly distributor meetings and the dust test
32:45 Chargebacks
34:22 Where to find Omari and the candles
35:28 The five-minute challenge

Try the lemonade: TheBestDirtyLemonade.com
Read the story: ReadyToDrink.Substack.com
Watch and listen to every episode: ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

No script, no agenda, no prep.

Host: Nate Fochtman, Founder, The FreeMind Group
Guest: Omari Anderson, CEO and Founder, The Best Dirty Lemonade

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Many founders who win online lose at the shelf, and packaging is often the reason. A website gives you unlimited space to tell your story. A package gets about three seconds next to every competitor in the category.

Megan Coffey, Head of Strategy at SmashBrand, joins Nate Fochtman to explain how data-driven packaging design helps beverage and CPG brands move from DTC to retail. She walks through how SmashBrand tests on-pack claims, product names and designs head to head with real consumers before any creative is locked. She also explains why logo size, claim hierarchy and brand architecture matter more than most founders realize.

Nate and Megan talk about what store walks reveal about shelf placement. Planogram resets can bury your end cap overnight. Offering to help a retailer reset shelves can earn you a better spot, in states where that’s legal. Megan also shares her path from competitive art director to creative director to strategist. A tagline she wrote in college for The Salt Lick barbecue is still printed on shirts in the Austin airport.

This episode is for beverage founders, brand managers and anyone preparing a product for retail.

00:00 Meet Megan Coffey
 00:55 How SmashBrand tests packaging with consumer data
 03:22 Telling your story online vs. on the shelf
 07:07 Custom consumer testing panels
 09:21 From art director to head of strategy
 11:44 Building the pack hierarchy before creative starts
 15:26 What’s invisible on the shelf
 18:31 Why retail is high maintenance
 20:52 Offer to help reset the shelf
 21:45 The Salt Lick tagline story
 26:20 Logos, brand equity and iterative identity
 28:17 Where to find SmashBrand
 28:55 The five minutes of kindness challenge

Connect with SmashBrand: SmashBrand.com
Connect with Megan Coffey on LinkedIn

More from Ready To Drink: ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com
Read the Substack: ReadyToDrink.substack.com

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

For the 100th episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, two former pro athletes sit down with no script and no agenda. Micah Hyde spent 12 seasons as an NFL safety with the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills before founding Hyde’s Hail Mary, a hemp beverage brand. Clifford “Big Cat” Starks is a former UFC and Bellator fighter, a USA MMA Hall of Famer and Nate Fochtman’s co-host on The Leaders’ Arena. This is an intentional crossover between the two shows.

Micah traces his discipline back to the University of Iowa, where sprints started behind the line and every detail mattered. He explains why he hesitated to put THC in a can and why staying quiet would have made him a hypocrite. He also talks about learning the business by asking the same questions his customers ask. Clifford brings the fighter’s view of leadership, from being a reluctant leader to his advice for hard moments: say thank you and walk to it.

The conversation also takes on the federal hemp ban set to take effect December 11. Micah walks through the domino effect on founders. Nate shares what North Carolina bars and bottle shops are facing and his own story of hemp beverages as the bridge to sobriety. All three explain what anyone can do in under 10 minutes to be heard.

Chapters
00:00 Two former pros in one room
02:46 Meet Micah Hyde
03:35 From small-town Ohio to the NFL
06:08 Iowa and the discipline behind the line
08:05 A Sun Devil wrestler on the Iowa culture
09:00 Micah’s message to recruits’ parents
10:43 “Good”: Mom’s answer to hard
11:46 What hard things give you
13:29 The December 11 hemp ban
15:37 Putting THC in a can as a former NFL player
17:57 Asking the same questions as customers
19:11 The domino effect of the ban
20:07 The hemp fight is a Main Street fight
23:03 “Just give us some guidelines”
24:21 Follow the money trail
25:25 How anyone can help
28:37 Clifford on caring for others
29:33 Bootstrapped founders and real stories
31:07 Leading a business vs. leading a locker room
33:04 The reluctant leader
36:20 Micah’s one lesson: be yourself
39:19 Two months to throw haymakers
39:46 The five-minute challenge

Take action: HempBeverageAlliance.org/action-center

Read the story: ReadyToDrink.Substack.com
More episodes: ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

Watch and listen. Micah Hyde, former NFL safety and founder of Hyde’s Hail Mary, joins Clifford Starks and myself on the 100th episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, a crossover with The Leaders’ Arena Podcast. There is no script, no agenda and no prep on either show. Find them on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts or at ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com. 

Follow Micah at @micah_hyde and the brand at @hydeshailmary

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Hops and cannabis come from the same plant family, Rick Duchin has spent 35 years proving the science behind one can rewrite the other. He built his water-soluble technology to put cannabis into drinks, then ran a forgotten box of hops through the same process. The result puts real hop flavor and aroma into the water in beer instead of fighting the alcohol.

Rick is the President and Founder of HopXL in San Diego, California and the Founder and CEO of HabitCure Inc in Napa, California. He joins Nate Fochtman for an unscripted conversation between two non-drinkers working in the beer business. Rick shares his path from a 1986 indoor grow arrest to a hemp beverage company that Safeway wanted but could not risk carrying. He also tells the story of a San Diego brewer who added a few drops to a finished beer and could not believe what he tasted.

They cover why oil and water never mix in a pint and how water-soluble hops can change a finished beer overnight. Rick explains why dry hopping can soak up 20% or more of a batch, why pellets are not tradition and why cash flow is not profit for craft breweries.

No script, no agenda, no prep. Ready To Drink is a podcast about drink entrepreneurship, beverage founders, hemp infusion and the people building the future of adult beverages.

Read the story: ReadyToDrink.Substack.com
More episodes: ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com
Host: Nate Fochtman, The FreeMind Group
Guest: Rick Duchin, HopXL and HabitCure Inc

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Nobody warns you how many jobs you take on when you go solo. One day you are the strategist. The next day you are accounts receivable, sales, marketing and the CFO arguing with yourself about all of it.

Steph Vrona is about to hit year three as founder of HighDef Studio, a one-woman retention marketing firm she started after getting fired for telling a CEO his ideas were bad. Host Nate Fochtman has been a solopreneur for 18 years and together they get honest about what running a business alone actually looks like.

They talk about turning down referral fees to protect your integrity when money is tight. Steph explains why she refuses to scale with employees and how she builds a six-month program that teaches clients to run it themselves. Nate shares how burnout at year eight took him out for months, and why boundaries are the only thing that kept him going since. They also trade the tools that keep a scattered solopreneur brain on track, from asset inventory lists to morning pages to using AI as an editor instead of a writer.

The marketing lessons are here too. Steph breaks down why sales and marketing silos sink campaigns and why independent retailers remain the most underserved operators in CPG. The heart of this episode is the person behind the business.

00:00 What HighDef Studio does
 01:15 Starting a company after getting fired for honesty
 02:29 Why sales and marketing silos fail
 07:02 Loyalty programs and segmentation
 15:52 Don't outsource your strategy
 18:46 Integrity and turning down referral fees
 21:00 The hardest year yet
 22:58 Thin margins in taprooms and on-premise
 29:07 Wearing every hat as a solopreneur
 31:54 Burnout and boundaries
 33:36 Asset inventory and morning pages
 37:25 When a job starts to look easier
 39:43 Why Steph won't scale with employees
 40:55 Using AI to find the right SEO vocabulary
 43:09 The five-minute kindness challenge

Connect with Steph Vrona and HighDef Studio on LinkedIn

This is the Ready To Drink Podcast. New episodes drop weekdays covering the alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories from the operator's seat, not the press release.

ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Marty Nachel has spent 40 years in craft beer as a homebrewer, beer judge, writer and author of Beer For Dummies and Homebrewing For Dummies along with the NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON - International Beer Judge Stories.

In 1986 he became one of the first 70 people in North America certified by the Beer Judge Certification Program, and he has since judged at the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup and competitions around the world. Today his focus is the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame, a volunteer-run nonprofit he started in 2024 to preserve the history of craft beer and honor the people who built it.

In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Marty and host Nate Fochtman talk about why craft beer is struggling after COVID and what could bring it back. Marty explains why breweries need to get back to telling their story, why the local tavern has been a gathering place since the first American towns were built, and why he believes the next generation will rediscover craft beer through its history. He also shares the advice from his recent "lean into legacy" talk to brewers in Chicago, including events, education nights and the simple ideas that turn a taproom into a community.

The conversation also covers the founding of the Hall of Fame, its first two induction classes, the new Hall Monitors program for small donors and the Beer Story Project, a book of more than 100 stories from people across the industry.

In this episode:

• Marty's path from homebrewer in 1985 to international beer judge
• Writing Beer Across America, Beer For Dummies and Homebrewing For Dummies
• Why there was no craft beer hall of fame until 2024
• How the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame selects and honors inductees
• Why breweries need to return to their founding stories
• The tavern as America's original gathering place
• Taproom events that bring people back through the door
• Why craft beer's downturn is a cycle, not the end
• The Beer Story Project and what comes next

Connect with Marty Nachel on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram or 
 AmericanCraftBeerHallOfFame.com

This is the Ready To Drink Podcast. New episodes drop weekdays covering the alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories from the operator's seat, not the press release.

ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Dan Serard is Chief Revenue Officer at Cannabis Creative Group, a full-service cannabis marketing agency near Boston that has worked with more than 600 brands. In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Dan and host, Nate Fochtman, break down what hemp beverage marketing takes when the shot clock on federal hemp policy is still running.

Dan explains why "a hemp beverage for everybody" is dead in the water. He walks through how his team builds a full brand toolkit before anyone designs a logo: messaging, buyer personas, content pillars and positioning. He also shares why people buy from people, why Meta punishes product promotion in cannabis and how one wine-replacement hemp brand went from a 0.8x to a 4x return on ad spend by letting Meta learn who its customers are. Spending $500 a month on Meta ads as an alcohol replacement brand is a budget mistake, and Dan explains why.

Nate and Dan also cover email marketing that builds trust instead of customer fatigue, and why beverages are the most approachable format for the canna-curious consumer. They make the case that hemp beverages are the Trojan horse for cannabis normalization. Nate shares a story from the Pennsylvania Capitol during the HB 2309 hemp beverage bill hearings, and both explain why the hemp and cannabis industries need to stop working in silos.

In this episode:

• Building a hemp beverage brand from intake to toolkit
• Why storytelling and lifestyle content beat product promotion on Meta
• Programmatic and CTV advertising for cannabis brands
• Email marketing without discount fatigue
• Realistic ad budgets for alcohol replacement brands
• The 30 to 90 day Meta learning curve
• Hemp beverages as the gateway to cannabis normalization
• Why unity across hemp and cannabis matters right now

Connect with Dan Serard on LinkedIn or at CannabisCreativeGroup.com

This is the Ready To Drink Podcast. New episodes drop weekdays covering the alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories from the operator's seat, not the press release.

ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Subscribe for more founder stories from the drinks industry.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Adam Borson of Highlandia says one of his favorite parts of the job is reaching back out to customers who leave reviews or send emails. In this clip he shares a message from a breast cancer survivor who struggled to sleep during chemo and found Highlandia's sleep-focused gummies. It is a reminder that hemp brands are built one customer relationship at a time.

Learn more about Highlandia: Highlandia.com

 Subscribe for more founder stories from the drinks industry.

This is the Ready To Drink Podcast. New episodes drop weekdays covering the alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories from the operator's seat, not the press release.

ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

What would a veteran tell a lawmaker about the impending hemp beverage ban?

Jimmy Plunkett didn't hesitate. His biggest fear is what happens when we overtax, overregulate or outright prohibit a product people already buy. Demand doesn't disappear, it moves to the black market, and the money goes to organizations that don't check IDs, don't test products and don't pay taxes. Jimmy says his military background is why he thinks so hard about who gains when that money changes hands.

He also brought the numbers for North Carolina when the state's hemp industry supports 16,000 jobs and is worth $4.4 billion, with $3.2 billion coming from sales alone. A ban would wipe out $87.8 million in state tax revenue, and that figure is still growing.

Regulation keeps those jobs, that revenue and that oversight in North Carolina, but prohibition hands all three to the black market.

This episode is part of the Regulate Don't Ruin NC series. North Carolina is deciding right now whether hemp beverages get a real regulated framework or get pushed back to the gray market. That choice affects retailers, manufacturers, and consumers across the state.

Learn more and share your own story at RegulateDontRuinNC.com

This series is proudly sponsored by Tryon Distributing Co, Crescent Canna & Torch Drinks.

ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com