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Steve Groff, founder of Cedar Meadow Farm and pioneer of regenerative agriculture, discusses the inevitable shift in global farming practices. In this clip from the Ready To Drink Podcast, Groff compares the transition away from synthetic chemicals in soil to the worlds transition away from fossil fuels. He argues that while change takes time, farmers who refuse to adapt to regenerative methods risk becoming obsolete in the next 20 years.

Watch the full interview for deep insights into soil health, cover crops, and the future of the American food system.

Check out SteveGroff.com

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What does it look like to build a real cannabis beverage company while the rules keep changing?

In this episode, Nate Fochtman sits down with the Appalachian Girls Cannabis co-founders (Joey Ellwood, Amy Garland & Josh Crosier) for a founder-to-founder conversation about what it takes to scale a THC drink brand in Ohio from the ground up.

We talk about the early days selling smokable hemp flower, the pivot into beverages, and how they went from zero drink accounts to 300+ retail doors in a year - largely through self-distribution, hustle, and learning in real time.

This isn’t a hype conversation. It’s the operator reality: compliance pressure, distribution friction, DTC pivots, dose strategy (5mg, 10mg, 25mg, 50mg), and why “Appalachian Girls” is more intentional than people assume.

If you’re building in hemp, cannabis, or adult beverage - this is a masterclass in staying steady when the market refuses to be.

Episode Highlights:

• Why they built a true portfolio (not just flavor extensions)
• How the team formed and what each founder brings to the table
• The pivot from flower to beverages and what changed everything
• Scaling through self-distribution and building retail relationships
• How regulatory uncertainty impacts banks, insurance, and growth plans
• Why dosage variety matters for bars, restaurants, and everyday consumers
• The DTC shift and what it takes to execute fast under pressure
• Why they’re focused on the Appalachian region as a “blue ocean” strategy

Find Appalachian Girls Cannabis: AppGirlsCannabis.com
Social: @AppGirlsCannabis

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What if the future of health starts in the soil?

In this episode of Ready To Drink, Nate Fochtman sits down with Steve Groff, CEO of Cedar Meadow Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a third-generation farmer who started no-till in 1982 and never looked back. Steve breaks down regenerative agriculture in plain language, why “mimic nature” is more than a buzzword and how practices like no-till, cover crops and biodiversity change water infiltration, resilience and nutrient density.

Then we go deeper into hemp: why hemp fiber is a “hand in a glove” fit for regenerative systems, how broken contracts and regulatory uncertainty have put the industry in a holding pattern, and why building the processing + equipment ecosystem is the real bottleneck (not farmer interest). Steve also shares a Penn State / Hershey Medical Center research story on cannabinoid profiles and how growing conditions may influence outcomes.

If you care about food, farming, hemp, health, and what it takes to build long-term in a short-term world, this is the episode.

Topics covered:

 - The 1982 shift: why Steve stopped tilling and what changed over time
 - Soil biology, the “micro herd,” and what it means for food quality
 - Water infiltration, extreme weather, and resilience vs efficiency
 - Hemp fiber economics: processing gaps, equipment reality, and scale
 - Why the industry is stuck in “pause mode” and what unlocks investment
 - Regenerative certification vs greenwashing
 - Thinking generationally in a quarterly culture

Steve Groff: SteveGroff.com
Nate Fochtman: FMGStrategy.com

Ready To Drink Podcast is produced and distributed by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

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In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with Shannon Urban-Denise, Founder & CEO of ROAM THC Beverages, for a raw, unfiltered conversation about sobriety, anxiety, entrepreneurship, and the future of hemp-derived beverages.

Shannon shares her journey from corporate healthcare and “mom wine” culture to rehab, five years of sobriety and eventually discovering hemp-derived THC beverages as a different path forward. What started as personal survival turned into ROAM - a craft-brewed, small-batch THC beverage brand focused on real ingredients, social responsibility, and reasonable regulation.

This episode goes beyond product talk. It dives into:

• Alcohol culture and recovery
• Anxiety and presence vs. escape
• Building a THC beverage brand from scratch
• Distribution challenges in Pennsylvania & New Jersey
• The fight for hemp beverage legislation
• Why social responsibility matters in emerging categories

No scripts. No talking points. Just two Drexel grads who accidentally discovered they overlapped in college - now building in a category reshaping the adult beverage industry.

If you’re a founder, operator, distributor, policymaker, or someone questioning your relationship with alcohol - this conversation is for you.

Learn more about Roam: ROAMDrink.com

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The episode is brought to you by The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

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In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with Brandon and Dylan, co-founders of Goodmellow, to break down what it actually takes to build a hemp-derived THC beverage company in today’s fragmented regulatory and distribution environment.

This is not a conversation about chasing trends. It is a grounded discussion on operational reality, disciplined growth, retailer relationships, and why the next phase of the hemp beverage category will be decided by execution, not excitement.

Brandon and Dylan share how they approached formulation, positioning, and route-to-market with a long-term lens, why brand credibility is earned at the store level, and how founders must think differently when building in a federally undefined but rapidly commercializing space.

We discuss:

- Why THC beverages must behave like a real beverage business, not a novelty product
- The importance of retailer trust and repeat purchase behavior
- Building a brand without relying on inflated category narratives
- Distribution sequencing and market-by-market discipline
- Regulatory uncertainty and what operators should be doing right now to prepare
- How Goodmellow is navigating growth while protecting brand integrity

The hemp beverage sector is entering a phase where fundamentals matter more than headlines. The founders who understand supply chain, velocity, and accountability will shape what this category becomes.

If you are a beverage operator, distributor, retailer, or investor trying to understand where this space is going, this is a conversation worth paying attention to.

Subscribe for more founder-level conversations with the people actually building the modern beverage landscape across alcohol, functional, and hemp-derived categories.

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In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with Chris Fontes, Founder & CEO of High Spirits, for an unfiltered conversation about what it really takes to build a hemp-derived THC beverage company in today’s uncertain regulatory landscape.

Chris shares how High Spirits bootstrapped its way to profitability, why staying lean beats chasing venture capital in this category, and what operators must do right now to protect the future of the industry.

This is not a marketing conversation. It is a founder-level discussion about grit, advocacy, distribution realities, and the short window the hemp beverage sector has to legitimize itself through responsible regulation and industry alignment.

Topics Covered:

- Why THC beverages are reshaping adult beverage consumption
- Bootstrapping vs. raising capital in emerging categories
- Retail-first strategy and scaling without heavy overhead
- The fight for clear legislation and why operators must engage now
- Trade associations, certification, and self-regulation as survival tools
- Lessons from alcohol industry evolution applied to hemp beverages
- Parenting, stigma, and normalization of cannabis in modern culture
- What separates brands that will survive from those that will disappear

Chris also discusses his leadership roles across major hemp and cannabis trade organizations and explains why certification, compliance, and collaboration are essential to the industry's credibility.

If you are a beverage founder, distributor, regulator, or investor watching the convergence of alcohol alternatives and cannabis normalization, this episode delivers real-world insight from operators doing the work on the ground.

Learn more about Chris & High Spirits: DrinkHighSpirits.com
Learn more about U.S. Hemp Authority: https://www.ushempauthority.org
Learn more Nate & The FreeMind Group: FMGStrategy.com

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In this episode of Ready To Drink Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with Jared Langston, founder of Good Liar Non-Alcoholic Beer and parent company DRY Dept, for a no-script, no-agenda conversation about what it really takes to build a brand in the modern beverage market.

Jared breaks down how Good Liar went from concept to real traction - launching in January 2024, proving viability in 2025 and becoming one of the highest-velocity NA six-packs in Ohio. We get into why liquid quality is the entire game in non-alcoholic beer, how Jared tested multiple brewing technologies before landing with a world-class brewing partner and why staying focused on one SKU + one state can beat “go wide” growth.

We also talk brand-building from the inside out: naming, trademarking, packaging decisions, retail clarity, and why you can’t be precious early - fail fast, learn faster and keep moving.

If you’re building in non-alc, adult beverage or any consumer brand where the shelf is brutal and attention is expensive, this episode is a masterclass in staying grounded, reading data and creating super fans.

Guest: Jared Langston - Founder, Good Liar NA Beer / DRY Dept - GoodLiar.com
Host: Nate Fochtman - The FreeMind Group - FMGStrategy.com

Subscribe for more founder stories across beer, NA, RTD, and emerging beverage categories and check out ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

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No script. No prompts. Just a real conversation with Josh Furbish, President and Founder of Ground Game Inc., about what actually moves product in retail and why most brands confuse distribution with success.

Josh rebuilt his network after an eight-year digital detox, turned years of bottle shop notes into a playbook, and launched Ground Game in 2025. We get into the unglamorous truth founders need to hear: doors don’t matter if you don’t earn reorders. Shelf space isn’t a win if you can’t drive sell-through. And the frontline staff you ignore is the sales force you’re missing.

We also talk candidly about operating through uncertainty in Minneapolis, how disruption hits mom-and-pop retailers first, and why empathy isn’t a “nice to have” in CPG - it’s survival.

Then we pivot into why Minnesota became the case study state for hemp-derived THC beverages, what other states (including Pennsylvania) can learn about regulation, dosage, and on-premise viability, and why transparency in this category is miles ahead of what most consumers realize.

If you’re a founder, operator, distributor, or service provider trying to build something real in beverage, this episode is a masterclass in how the game actually works.

Guest: Josh Furbish, Ground Game Inc.
Website: groundgameinc.com

Host: Nate Fochtman, The FreeMind Group

Website: FMGStrategy.com

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Most supplements don’t work the way people think they do.

In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, I sit down with Dan Margenau, founder of Lix Brands, to unpack one of the most overlooked problems in health, wellness, and functional beverages: bioavailability.

Dan built Lix to solve a simple but massive issue - our bodies can’t absorb most of what traditional supplements deliver. Through a patented encapsulation process, Lix transforms hard-to-absorb ingredients into water-soluble, highly bioavailable compounds that integrate cleanly into beverages, supplements, cosmetics, and hemp-derived products.

We cover:

What bioavailability actually means (and why most products waste nutrients)

How Lix’s encapsulation technology works

Why water solubility changes everything for manufacturers and consumers

Clean label formulation and production efficiency

The impact on CBD and THC beverage onset times

Dan’s journey from operations consulting to building a deep-tech ingredient company

This conversation is part science, part entrepreneurship, and part real-world manufacturing insight - for anyone building in supplements, functional beverages, hemp, or wellness.

Check out LixIngredients.com

Listen on all podcast platforms.

Watch on ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com

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In this episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, Nate Fochtman sits down with Gordon Whelpley, Co-Founder of Float House CAN-NA-BREWS, to break down what it actually takes to build a compliant, scalable THC-infused beverage that doesn’t fit neatly into existing categories.

CAN-NA-BREWS was designed to drink like beer without being classified as a malt beverage, creating a new lane inside the hemp beverage market that requires precise formulation, intentional process design, and a deep understanding of regulatory structure.

This conversation focuses on:

• how CAN-NA-BREWS avoids the malt beverage definition while maintaining flavor and structure
• the manufacturing and formulation challenges of non-alcoholic, cannabinoid-infused beverages
• why low-dose THC beverages align with alcohol-style regulation models
• the operational reality of building production infrastructure while co-packing for other brands
• why enforcement and smart regulation matter more than reactionary bans
• what category creation actually looks like when there’s no existing playbook

This episode is a clear, technical, and practical look at how hemp THC beverages are built, regulated, and scaled - without hype and without shortcuts.

Available now on: ReadyToDrinkPodcast.com, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you podcast.

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