Ready To Drink Podcast

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Jon Arrivo built OG Sodas out of a coffee shop in South Florida. Three years of retail testing later, he's bringing a craft hemp soda, CBD beverage and kava drink lineup to the mass market.

In this episode we cover:

• How a fourth wave coffee shop called Willy's turned into a full alternative beverage company
• The SKU breakdown: Delta 9 hemp THC soda, CBD CBG, CBD CBN, kava nano extract, non-alc ginger beer, and mineral water
• Why hemp beverages belong on the shelf next to coffee, not against it
• The bootstrap, no investor approach to building a craft beverage brand
• Moving from DTC and retail into wholesale, and why patience beats hustle
• The farming background behind the "quality over speed" philosophy at OG

Timestamps:
 0:00 Intro, inside the OG Sodas facility
 0:31 South Florida roots and Lantana production
 1:07 Retail now, mass market rollout next
 2:12 Full SKU breakdown across THC, CBD, kava, and more
 6:01 Willie's coffee shop and where the sodas came from
 8:44 Why hemp THC belongs in a coffee shop
 13:16 Bootstrapped, no outside investors
 16:00 The COVID layoff that started it all
 23:12 Growing up on a farming family
 26:02 Retail versus wholesale, and why patience wins
 31:01 The toilet story and what real retail relationships look like
 33:25 Where to find OG Sodas

Check out OG Sodas: OGSodas.com

This is the Ready To Drink Podcast. No script, no agenda, just real conversations with the people building the beverage alcohol, hemp, and functional drink categories.

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

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Mary Bernuth co-founded Pharos Brands with her husband Rhyno Stenchfield, a company built as much on personal loss as on business strategy. Mary's first husband relied on cannabis through a rare blood cancer diagnosis and years later a twenty minute dating profile led her to Rhyno and to Montana, where the two of them bootstrapped Pharos into the only hemp derived THC beverage brand operating out of that state.

In this episode we get into why on premise accounts, not dispensaries, are the real proving ground for a new THC drinker, and why the dispensary model is built for legacy users rather than someone trying a cannabis product for the first time at 60 or 65. Mary also lays out the financial reality of scaling a beverage brand: cap table mistakes, retailer discount bills that quietly eat your margin, the cash flow stacking problem that catches underfunded founders off guard, and the real cost of shipping liquid nationwide.

We also cover Pharos's work with Montana legislators including Senator Tim Sheehy, their senior and veteran focused education program launching in Florida, and why Mary believes accessibility outside the dispensary model is the path to mainstreaming the category. If you care about drink entrepreneurship, functional drinks marketing, or mindful drinking as an alternative to alcohol, this one is for you.

Guest: Mary Bernuth, Executive Chair and Co-Founder, Pharos Premium Beverages - PharosBrands.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.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Wesley Noyd is a field sales rep for Monster Energy in San Antonio and the founder of BEV edu, a training platform built to onboard new beverage sales reps and coach veterans who are stuck. No script, no pre-call questions, just two 20-year beverage industry guys talking about what actually works on the street.

We get into why hand selling isn't going away no matter how much AI hype gets thrown around, why "insights over relationship" wins the seat at the table long term, and why so many companies are scared to let their reps talk publicly about what they do. Wesley walks through his path from order selector at Coca-Cola to forklift operator to Red Bull district sales manager to Monster field rep, and how that path led him to build BEV edu as a side business that's turning into a second career.

We also talk about independent retailer sell-through data, why nobody is really tracking it, treating yourself like a brand inside a company that will never market you the way you can market yourself, and why the beverage industry got too serious somewhere along the way and needs to have fun again.

What we cover:

• Why hand selling still beats tell selling for emerging and mid-size beverage brands
• The difference between a relationship seller and an insights seller
• How to build a sell-through story at store level without paid data
• Why so many leaders operate from a scarcity mindset instead of teaching what they know
• Wesley's 20-year path from Coca-Cola warehouse to Monster Energy field sales
• Building BEV edu: foundational sales training, a sales system, and a brand builder program
• Why beverage sales reps need to have fun on the job again, not just hit numbers

Connect with Wesley Noyd and BEV edu: BevEdu.co

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.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Wesley Noyd built BEV edu, a training platform for small to mid-size distributors and emerging brands - BEVedu.co

He built it because most companies talk about career paths and mentorship, but few actually deliver it and when they do, it doesn't last long.  Wesley wanted to be the coach that sticks around for the people who've tried the free content, tried to figure it out alone and still aren't getting anywhere.

This industry runs on people who started in a warehouse or on a route and worked their way up, but not everyone gets a mentor along the way. Wesley is trying to fix that.

Full episode drops tomorrow | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

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Henry Mashburn, CSO and Co-Founder of AHG Pay, explains how payments data reveals 14 to 15 signals about a beverage business and why trust, not transaction volume, is what actually scales a payments company. He shares how AHG Pay connects beverage founders with the right growth partners and even helps with lobbying in DC.

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

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Aaron Gervais is the CEO and co-founder of Otherwise Brewing, one of the only true gluten free breweries in the country. On this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast we get into what it actually takes to build a gluten free beer brand that competes on taste first, not just dietary need.

Aaron walks through the two years of test brewing it took to land on a gluten free lager that could stand next to any craft beer on the market. He breaks down why "gluten reduced" brands lost consumer trust and why true gluten free production won out. We also cover the Breakthru Beverage distribution deal that grew Otherwise Brewing's sales nearly 3x, the planogram strategy for deciding when to lean into the gluten free label versus letting the beer speak for itself and why wholesale velocity now matters more than shelf placement alone.

If you're building a beverage brand, launching into wholesale, or just trying to figure out how a challenger brand earns retail trust, this conversation has real answers.

What we cover:

• Why "delicious first, gluten free second" was the founding principle at Otherwise Brewing
• The two year R&D process behind their gluten free brewing method
• Why gluten reduced beer brands failed and true gluten free won
• Scaling through Breakthrough Beverage across 16 states plus Canada
• Planogram strategy: when to market as gluten free and when not to
• The real cost of beer sales: why it's still a shoes on the street business
• Aaron's advice for anyone starting a brewery or beverage brand in 2026

Connect with Otherwise Brewing:
Website: otherwisebrewing.com
Instagram/TikTok: @otherwisebrewing

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.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Most dispensaries have no idea what their own store feels like to a first time customer.

Tammy Puyear runs TPP Services, a secret shopping company for cannabis dispensaries and brands in Missouri. She built a business around a blind spot the entire industry ignores: nobody inside the four walls of a dispensary experiences it the way a real customer does.

In this episode we get into why cannabis retail keeps replicating the same sterile, transaction-first experience that killed craft beer's soul for a decade, why loyalty programs built on discounts miss the entire point of loyalty and why an $8 price hike from a dispensary group protecting its own house brand can kill a new brand's momentum overnight.

We also go deep on the stuff nobody wants to say out loud: vertical integration and 70% margin demands squeezing producers in Missouri, the entrapment feel of federal rescheduling paperwork and why hemp beverages are quietly becoming the on-ramp into the cannabis consumer journey whether the industry admits it or not.

I share my own story too. Four years sober from alcohol and opiates and still working in the beverage industry every day and why I think hemp beverages and dispensaries need each other more than either side wants to admit.

What we cover:

• Why secret shopping cannabis dispensaries surfaces problems leadership never sees
• The retail vs. brand side of dispensary secret shopping in Missouri
• Why merchandising in dispensaries still lags a decade behind craft beer and CPG
• The underutilization of loyalty data and what real retention looks like
• How a dispensary group jacked an $8 price and killed a competing brand's sales
• Vertical integration, 70% margins and the cartel lawsuit reshaping Missouri cannabis
• Rescheduling vs. descheduling and why the paperwork feels like entrapment
• Why hemp beverages are the beginning of the cannabis consumer journey
• Pennsylvania HB 2309 and building a bill that lets everyone compete
• GLP-1s, sobriety and what a shrinking drinking population means for this industry

Connect with Tammy Puyear and TPP Services:
Website: Tammy-P.com
YouTube: The Real Run THC

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.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Alex Kllanxhja spent 14 years in beverage sales, cutting his teeth as one of the first reps at Oskar Blues before moving into chain accounts and national sales at Breakthru Beverage. Then his employer doubled his workload with zero extra pay, handed him a small trophy for it and that was the moment he decided to bet on himself.

Now Alex runs Pipeline Autopsy, a fractional VP and CRM consultancy working across craft beer, wine, spirits, and hemp-derived THC beverages. In this conversation we get into what actually breaks inside a beverage sales pipeline, why landing a chain account is far harder than people think, the hidden costs nobody warns new brand founders about, and why he'll turn down a good product if the brand's values don't line up.

We also talk about running lean as a solopreneur, why limiting your own expectations makes you better at sales and why cold outreach volume still beats cleverness every time.

Topics covered:

• Building a CRM culture inside a growing craft beer supplier
• What chain accounts actually demand versus what founders think they demand
• The hidden costs behind every new point of distribution
• Walking away from a corporate sales role after burnout
• Running a fractional VP practice as a solopreneur
• Why cold outreach volume still wins

Connect with Alex Kllanxhja:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alex-kllanxhja
Website: pipelineautopsy.com
Email: [email protected]

The Ready To Drink Podcast covers the people, brands and policy shaping the beverage alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Gary Morrison, co-founder of Battle River Brewing in Toms River, New Jersey, joins the Ready To Drink Podcast to tell the story of how three business partners with zero homebrewing experience built a 25-tap craft brewery in the heart of a revitalizing downtown.

Gary breaks down why Battle River went wide instead of picking a defined beer style, how a late night text about a beer that would never be brewed again turned into a business plan, and what it actually takes to navigate New Jersey's fragmented brewery license laws. We get into the state's restrictions on food service and events, the lobbying fight behind those rules, and why New Jersey brewers have to build differently than brewers in states like Pennsylvania.

We also dig into Battle River's self-distribution model, the mistakes they made scaling too fast across every county before pulling back to their core market, and why Gary believes every craft brand should understand franchise law and treat itself as an asset before signing with a distributor.

Topics covered:

• Battle River Brewing's 25-tap, wide-portfolio approach and the "seat for every ass" philosophy
• How three non-homebrewers and gym buddies built a brewery from scratch
• New Jersey brewery license restrictions and the on premise liquor lobby
• Choosing downtown Toms River to help revitalize a historic Revolutionary War era town
• Self-distribution strategy, early scaling mistakes, and pulling back to the core market
• Franchise law and why a brand is an asset the moment it signs with a distributor

Battle River Brewing | BattleRiverBrewing.com

The Ready To Drink Podcast covers the people, brands and policy shaping the beverage alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Send us Fan Mail

Henry Mashburn is Co-Founder of Alternative Horizons Group (AHG), a payment processing firm built for high risk industries like hemp and CBD. He co-founded AHG two years ago after cutting his teeth in the CBD and hemp payments world for the past seven years.

On this episode we break down what payment processing actually does behind the scenes and why it matters so much to hemp beverage and CBD brands trying to scale online and in retail. Henry explains card not present transactions, the corporate ladder of agent groups, processors and sponsor banks, and why your merchant category code can make or break an audit. He shares the questions every brand owner should ask before signing with a payment processor and why so many established hemp businesses have no idea who their agent is or what their fees actually look like.

We also get into age verification technology like Blue Check Verified, why D2C sales matter for brands that cannot compete in retail yet, and how the industry is showing up in DC and state capitols across the country to fight for hemp beverage regulation. Henry shares his own story growing up in Peru, Honduras and Suriname, playing goalie for Honduras in back to back World Cups, and walking on at Michigan before landing in payment processing by accident.

This conversation is proof that the people building the infrastructure behind hemp and CBD brands are just as important as the brands themselves. Real relationships, real risk and real human connection.

Connect with Henry Mashburn on Linkedin
AHG Pay: AHGPay.com

The Ready To Drink Podcast covers the people, brands and policy shaping the beverage alcohol, hemp derived and functional non-alc categories.

Ready To Drink Podcast: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

The FreeMind Group
Owner-operator market development and PR, built on the street for the last 18 years.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Presented by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com