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Two Competing NC Distributors Unite to Save Hemp Beverages | RegulateDontRuinNC.com · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Ed Johnston.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: I am with Tryon Distributing.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: I am the president.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rick Craig with RH Barringer Distributing, and I'm vice president and also a third generation family owner.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent, excellent.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then context for the audience, you guys are both uh beer as well as hemp beverage distributors located in in North Carolina.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is correct.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Beer, wine, hemp, NA's.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure I got all your categories.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you guys cover all adult beverages.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: The regulated beverage market is your wheelhouse.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's exactly right.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Everything but spirits, which because North Carolina is state controlled, we don't touch, but pretty much everything else.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I know we'll talk about it here in a little bit, but you know, hemp is becoming a bigger and bigger part of that, you know, in our overall strategy as well.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of walk me through, uh, give me your personal story and how did you end up in this business and uh you know go all back as uh as far as you need to.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: We'll we'll all show our age today in this conversation.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go, there you go.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I my back wasn't hurting quite enough.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so yes, let's talk about my history in this industry.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I mean, for me, uh so uh, you know, we are uh I am second generation owner uh or you know uh involved in this business.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um so for me, uh I mean, truly, this started from birth, uh, as it does, I think, for a lot of people in in these family businesses.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's some really good pictures of me.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we used to have these old farm parties.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: The Johnston family had a farm uh just over the border in South Carolina, and uh we used to invite all of our customers and suppliers to come out.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: We were a little smaller then, so we could actually sort of handle that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: But some really good pictures of me at about uh four or five years old, you know, just shagging bottles of wine and doing stuff like that, whatever they needed me to.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: But um but uh officially started uh on payroll when I was 18.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: I had graduated high school.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I actually was going to UNC Charlotte uh was where I was gonna start in college.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's when I actually started second shift in our warehouse in Charlotte, when we had just one warehouse for the entire state because we are a statewide distributor.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and we were bursting at the seams back then.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So every single case and every single keg that we sold all had to get pulled and it had to get loaded out of our Charlotte warehouse.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so those were some very late nights uh and you know, some some backbreaking work.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, but uh that was where my journey with Tryon began.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then from there, it's just sort of a the story of, you know, uh went to uh ended up transferring from UNC Charlotte to go to NC State University.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I did that, I wasn't able to work at our warehouse anymore because we only had the one in Charlotte.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's when I started doing um uh merchandising on the weekends.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was one of the Mabel behind the table, you know, pouring wine and grocery stores on the weekends, doing that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was uh fortunate enough that Tryon sent me to Florida to be micromatic draft line clean certified.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I was cleaning and and maintenance draft lines for us uh during those years and you know, really just trying to earn some money uh so that I could, you know, buy beer uh was for the most part, you know, buy a few books for school.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um but uh yeah, I mean, fast forward from there, uh, you know, came back to Charlotte, uh, did point of sale for us uh in a few other positions, um, managed some beer brands for us for a while, did a few other things, uh, and then finally took over the presidency about five years ago.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we had just come out of COVID.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: It was a really hectic time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, around that time is when Brad, my father, and our CEO and founder, um, you know, sort of we we had that conversation where he had said, man, this is some stressful stuff.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, I had worked with him closely enough at that point to where he felt confident.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: I felt confident with putting me in a position to run more of the day-to-day at that point.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what I've been doing for the past, you know, roughly five years is uh kind of that that president, day-to-day, feet on the street, you know, um, keeping things running.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I did not realize you were you and you Brad was your father.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I I knew Brad uh when I was at uh in the distribution world at with the uh wholesalers' conventions and stuff like that.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I ran a few workshops on social media and authentic storytelling and things like that with the distributors.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I always tell people that um I don't know if they still do it with the uh at those conferences and stuff like that, but those two days when we would come in prior and those breakout sessions, and that was just a fantastic learning experience, and especially for myself.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was new into a senior leadership role, and it was a great way to get best practices really fast and build strategy from.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and that's so great to hear.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, um, the more I go to these conferences, uh, the more I hear stories exactly like that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when Trion gets brought up or when I'm talking to somebody and they realize they make the connection, they go, Oh, I know Brad from.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: And usually a lot of it is those early craft beer days, to your point.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you used to have the wholesalers that would sort of meet a couple of days before, you know, the suppliers would sort of have their part.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I mean, that was again Barlow from Stone, who was running their self-distribution, you know, portion in California, and um a few other key people that were really early on, you know, in the craft beer scene.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, no, this that's uh yeah.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was telling that it was the most authentic plate presentation too, because I'm gonna he'll laugh if you remind him of this story.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I remember when he would sit at the desk and there was a projector screen, and we would literally decide on topics and he would be typing them up on the screen and be like, all right, we got our conference, and then we'd focus on that for the next day or so.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: That actually makes me feel so much better hearing stuff like that.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's always been seat of the pants, you know, we'll figure it out as we go.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: All right, good.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: All right, I think I'm doing okay now.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Rick, tell me uh tell me your story.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you said uh third generation on your end.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think I'm the elder statesman on the uh on the the meet today.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um you you you you two youngsters.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um our company was started by my grandfather, R.H.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Barringer.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ultimately, my mom was a Behringer.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: She married into the Craig, so that's kind of where the Craigs came from.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, third generation, actually, uh, of course, very similar to Ed.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we people say, you know, how long have you been in the business?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of say my whole life.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I took a spacer uh out of college.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I went out to the West Coast and worked in high tech for 10 years.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: My brother went off and did some other things too.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we had one of those, you know, reconverging experiences.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: He came back sort of when my parents, you know, were wanting to pass the baton.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then he called me shortly.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was on the West Coast at that time and said, Hey, what do you think?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I really enjoyed high tech.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed California, but raising a family there, I'm a North Carolina boy.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot different.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that was about a million years ago.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm uh I'm 67, so that'll that'll peg the age of meter for you.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But came back in a in, I think it was 91.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Mark and I really took over the that third generation transition.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then we were fortunate enough to be able to continue to sort of expand the company over the subsequent years.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: We both have kids now that are in the business.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We jokingly say they're on probation.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I think we one of us screwed up and told them that they were actually our retirement plans.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we're getting blackmailed it to some degree, but you know, distributorships, you know, and Ed knows this really well, and you do too, Nate.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, especially OG distributors, you know, we were we were family businesses, and a lot of us still are.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that just does change as time goes by, as it does with all industries where there's consolidation, there's money that comes into the business, you know, there's there's you know mega distributor platforms that are now out there.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I consider all of us that are OG family distributors family, you know, and that's why Ed and I, even though you know we we work in the in the same state, we overlap in the same territories, on paper, you could, you know, you could label us as competitors.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's never been the case.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I'm sure we'll get into it at some point.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: The the role that different distributors play in bringing adult beverages, including hemp beverages, to market, they all serve really critical roles.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and a lot of times I think the the very biggest distributors get press, sometimes good, sometimes not.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the very smallest ones get some press, but people really miss the layers that that happen in between there that help to bring adult beverages of all types from all suppliers into a market like North Carolina.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's it's very it's very cool to come together like this for me.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and we especially as the world has changed and we've all broadened our portfolios, we now all work with the same supplier bases.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we cover a lot of the same territory, a lot of the same ground, and we share a lot of the same things in common.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: We share product back and forth when necessary.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we all work to to shepherd, develop, and bring these adult beverage brands into the marketplace.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's one thing I think that isn't talked about as much.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I just have having personal experience as well on that side of things, you know, the behind the scenes type of stuff, when there is a lot of multi-stop loads and shared brands and different things like that, you know, there's a cut a lot of calling back and forth and moving product to make sure it's in quote, keeping it as high as quality to be able to serve your customers and serve your brands at the end of the day.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a lot we can we can get into a whole bunch of that.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I I want to connect with both you guys too.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I really am uh being somebody that also was started out at 19 years old and I started out in breakage.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I don't know if that'd be more yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was going to college, I worked breakage, then I went to merchandising, then uh one of the sales reps.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: When I turned 21 years old, by coincidence, she went on maternity leave.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I got to be 21 years old with a brand new sales drop downtown in Philadelphia and an Amex card, and I was off to the races from there.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Celebrity at that point, you were there life, man.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Holy cow.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: The last couple of years of college were phenomenal, yeah.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: But no, but also sitting and then later on going to vice uh being a vice president of business development and craft, the complications that you're talking about, I live through those as well.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something I think I want to talk about a little bit as far as you know, the share of mind and focus.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you guys were building, you're not building, you build brands, but you're also building categories simultaneously while building brands.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that perception of the industry and how you go to market is a lot different than let's say a founder that might be listening and trying to develop their sales team to sell one brand.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are out there teaching your sales rep how to balance a portfolio, how to balance a share of mind, and then from a senior management and middle management area, balancing the share of mind with the brands to keep your suppliers happy throughout the process as well.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I could probably start with some ancient history, you know, because we started out as an Anheuser-Busch only distributor originally back when August the second, Gussie Busch was in charge through all of the years of August the third, the chief.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And really it was our grandfather's relationship with Gussie Bush that got us in business.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And at that time we had a whopping three brands.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: We had Budweiser, we had Michelope, and we had Busch Bavarian.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that was it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, having seen the world change a little bit since then, you know, and and seeing the role that the distributor plays, as well as the role that the retailer plays, um, you know, as as the world has changed radically, I my grandfather certainly could never have envisioned the world looking the way it does today.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: I strongly suspect he's probably spinning in his grave about the whole adult hemp beverage category thing.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we'll get into it, but it's it's it's a it's a natural extension of what we've always done.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh as purveyors of adult beverages, responsible consumption, moderate, um intoxicating beverages.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've watched we we've viewed, and I personally have viewed hemp as just an extension of those things.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll talk about that some more I know, but you know, certainly the complexity has has gone up by orders and orders of magnitude.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we've watched distributors that have successfully adapted to that and flourished, and we've watched distributors that were not able to adapt to that and are no longer in the business, um, you know, struggled and then either sold or just simply got out.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know Ed has seen that as well.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: We've got uh we run it separately, we've got a large wine operation, you know, high complexity, high SKU count, high supplier count.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've filled in all the other categories except probably carbonated soft drink with any degree of success over on the other side, quote unquote, the beer side of the company.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, if you are not willing and able to be flexible and to adapt aggressively, you're not going to survive in in this industry, uh in my opinion.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think that was extremely well said.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, uh to the question, you know, Nate about having that portfolio mindset.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's you know, such a good topic, you know, to talk about because, you know, right now for us, I mean, you know, we're an independent, what you would call an independent wholesaler.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we don't have any one particular giant brand.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're not a Gallo house or an A V house or a Miller Coors house.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um our our largest supplier is an independently owned winery, you know, and we try to focus on a lot of family-owned, you know, where we can.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um really it started out as Brad, you know, basically saying, number one, it's stuff he likes to drink.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that was, you know, self self-serving for sure to begin with.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but the other part was, you know, we we never wanted one supplier to um, you know, to constitute so much of our business that they could start to make demands that you know we would feel like we had to acquiesce to uh in some way.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And and that model has served us very well.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um what we're seeing right now, though, again, in that portfolio mindset, is uh having to come to terms with becoming more of a whole beverage wholesaler.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's a term I've heard a good bit as I've gone to a lot of these, you know, conferences and seminars.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, again, non-alcoholic is a good example.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there was sort of a running joke at Tryon for years where it's like, man, if it doesn't have alcohol in it, apparently we just our sales reps can't sell it and we don't really care about it that much.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because, man, our reps like to have fun, you know, kind of like we do.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've had to really sort of, you know, rethink uh about that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, over the past five years, especially since I've I've been in this role, is really try to say, hey, I know maybe this didn't work for us then because of reasons A, B, C, whatever.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, hey, we need to revisit it now because I mean, we're we all see the same statistics and the same data coming out.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, it is tough out there right now, especially for us on the beer side.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have been craft heavy.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we have a great import, you know, uh selection, but really craft is what we do on the beer side.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, craft is hurting right now.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in a lot of ways.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's not to say every brewery's down out there.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Of course it's not.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's winners even in a down market.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Try to align ourselves, you know, with the right breweries.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, we're selling less beer now than we did a few years ago.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us, and taking that revenue hit, we've had to really wrap our heads around.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, what's that next thing?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's something that we're always asking ourselves is what is that next thing?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And um, for us right now, I mean, it's hemp beverages.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: That is that next thing.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we consider this sort of the fourth category.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, beer, wine, spirits, hemp beverages, at least in what we do.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's it's really helped us in regards to keeping our entire portfolio moving in the right direction.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it has been interesting.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh, because again, it's a new product category.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so for us, one of the big things that we wrestle with was, you know, number one, how do you even get started on something like this, right?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, that was a whole conversation in and of itself.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that we always knew though was we like to think that, you know, we differentiate ourselves to some degree um, you know, within the market in North Carolina, uh, by trying to be at least the most knowledgeable sales team out there.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, you have great people like R.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: H.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: Berenger and a lot of other uh really great distributors that do value education and being, you know, truly um um consultants, you know, not just a sales rep trying to make a sale, but trying to help, you know, your retail partners, you know, develop their list and you know what their program looks like.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but education has always been key for us, and so that's why we uh worked with actually a company called Aficionado.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um they have a little sort of subcategory seat talent.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they have a cannabis beverage certification, which is really cool.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's the only one that we knew of out there.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: And as soon as we found out about it, uh we said, hey, we we we need to learn more about this.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's a great course.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: We put our all of our sales team through it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, everybody's cannabis beverage certified now, which is a fun post nominal uh to put on Eric for sure.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: But just thinking portfolio-wise, I mean, adding a whole new category has been instrumental for us, and it's really the difference between us sort of being up or down uh in the last two years has been the additional revenue that we've seen from hemp beverages.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe one of the misunderstandings that people have when they look at a at a diversified distributor like like both of our operations is that you know, our suppliers are who drive the bus.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: We kowtow to our suppliers, and especially if you have a a big dog in the hunt like an A B like we do, then the immediate reaction is you know, you're just a satellite of supplier XYZ.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's actually completely backwards, you know.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we serve consumers.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, ultimately our end customer are retailers, but as we get into how our operations ended up as uh uh you know excited and aggressive about hemp beverages as we are, it all goes back to the consumer.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, when you see a distributor uh uh diversifying and especially on the front edge of a brand new category, uh generally the business decision was driven by what we see happening at the consumer level.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I would almost argue we we have as much visibility because you know we're not a single retailer, we have as much visibility into what's going on with consumers as any retailers do, and more so than most of our supplier partners do.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's you know, that is a really a uh uh a sense and a and a radar uh capability that distributors, the good ones really do develop.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you see us, you know, uh punch into a new category, when you see us diversify, when you see us as excited about our product categories as we are, it always, always comes back to the fact that the consumer is driving that bus.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't see that traction, if we don't see that excitement, if we don't see that pull, there's not a damn thing that we can do as a distributor to make that happen.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I think, you know, a lot of times people look at our uh our portfolios and they're like, oh my God, how do you how do either one of your businesses handle that many relationships and that many products?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts out, you know, a consumer at a time and a retailer at a time, and a you know, a supplier relationship at a time.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you you never want to overextend yourself, you never don't want to do a poor job to the best of your ability for anybody.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I have always respected about uh Ed's operation and try on is they have really done an incredible job of sleuthing out emerging trends, emerging producers, and they've done an incredible job of identifying those players and helping to bring them to marketplace.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that just you you don't learn that in school.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that does that doesn't just happen.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there's a million potential partners out there.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Either one of us, I know Ed's probably the same way, you know, it rains product samples, you know, especially when hip beverage came around.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: We were probably getting 20 or 30 shipments from potential partners a day.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and you know, you have to be a grown-up adult and a mature adult and evaluate that.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it comes back again to we live in North Carolina, both of us, we serve consumers in North Carolina.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: People are people are a lot the same, but they're also a lot different.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so the preferences, what's successful in not only in North Carolina, but within micromarkets with North Carolina, wildly different than the Northeast, the West Coast, the Midwest.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's to me one of the challenging and also honestly one of the most fascinating things about being in the consumer products category, which is ultimately what we are.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we serve in general an adult beverage consumer product.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the cons that's why I always go back to if you if you're not listening to your consumer and paying attention, if you're reading what's happening in California, maybe that's gonna translate someday to North Carolina and maybe it's not.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you're reading about what's going on in Florida, maybe that's gonna work up here and maybe it's not.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not actually asking, watching, and listening to what the consumer is tell trying to tell you, um, you know, sometimes we listen well, sometimes we don't, right?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, then then you're gonna miss it or you're gonna misfire.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so, you know, the successful companies have a internal process to do that and do it really, really well from everything I see.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we always that's why I say we always feel like more like partners with other distributors than we feel like competitors with other distributors.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because increasingly with consolidation, the ones that are still standing, and especially the independent and the family owned business distributors, are uber successful at what they do.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm always I'm always personally very fascinated as you are with how they got there, but also how they stay there.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, that's that's the biggest thing.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it's uh I you bring up a great point too, is that you Know picking trends is not an easy thing, and picking patterns is not an easy thing, and knowing what's a trend that's sustainable versus a fad that's gonna go out.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I started this business in 08.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when I started in 08, I worked with the brands and distributors and trying to help them do uh portfolio curation.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my job for seven years in Pennsylvania was uh New Belgium, lagging it's to shoots, getting them into Pennsylvania, setting up the distribution footprint, getting them with the right distributors and getting them set up, and and that also being not always that, you know, just going all Anheuser-Busch across the state or just going all, you know, Miller Cores across the state, or just going all independent, that complication, that you know, that contigu that contiguousness that you need to have in the territories, all those different things.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And not to mention what you just said is a perfect point too.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Not jumping on every single trend as soon as they come through.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: So if something's really hot in LA, you know, not just going fullbore into it.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's a lost art that I think is are not lost art, but it's a um it's an art that's not credited enough.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: The art of that pattern recognition and portfolio curation and finding the right market, the right distributor, and then ultimately the right retailer and the right consumer.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when you really look at the way beverage distribution is, and this is all categories, it's undervalued in this, in this.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I try to work with I work with a lot of startups and founders, and I always correct them right off the bat when they're like, Oh, we just signed with Anhuser Bush.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, you didn't sign with Anheuser Bush.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: You signed with a privately owned family generational legacy business that happens to sell Anhazard Bush and other products.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it'll they always take a step back and they're like, Well, what do you mean?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're the Anhazer Bush distributor.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Do you understand?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's a 175 to 500 other products.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, not to mention it's one of those things that becomes really about your business as a family business.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that uh in defense of all of you, in the sense that you you are not just one brand, you are a portfolio of brands, and you built that revenue stream out of multiple brands.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And while those may be your primary brands that keep the lights on, it's not what is all of you.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the biggest uh redirect from a perspective standpoint.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to always do with with new founders entering the industry.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's um let's talk a little bit about hemp beverages and stuff like that.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Let's um, so we have in um North Carolina, you guys have have a couple little things, and I don't want to I don't want anything to be dated.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be released a couple days from now, but I mean it's it seems like we had a little hiccup there, then we had a little excitement there last week, and now we're kind of back and forth.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, where where do things lie?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I also for context to you guys, for an example, um, you know, in in north New Jersey, I did interviews uh and surveys with about a hundred different retailers, found out about hemp beverages in the liquor store off-premise, was about 25 to 30 percent of their revenue.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I started doing a few interviews with retailers of North Carolina when we're getting ready to launch this regulate don't ruin campaign, and it was finding the same exact numbers.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: And even to some, which was an episode we did uh the other week with uh Tony over at A B Bottle House in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, 35% of his revenue is hemp beverages.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we all know, and and and I've we've all been in this business for decades.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: If this if this disappears, nobody's going back to drinking the way they used to drink.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think we all we've all can accept that we have to figure out the new way to what you guys are both saying, meet the consumer where they are, and we have to realize that the square peg round hole is not gonna work moving forward.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And eliminating hemp beverages is not gonna stop GLP ones, it's not gonna stop them spending money on online gambling, it's not gonna stop the fact that people aren't doing things the traditional ways and on premise and then the bars.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people, you know, I'm I'm one that I'm not anti-alcohol.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: I still represent it and I still love the industry and I'll never leave.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm three and a half years sober myself from alcohol, and I had to because all of us are in the heyday, and some of us uh couldn't hang in the heyday later.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: We had to throw in our towel on that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, I tell people uh when you work in the business, I drank more than many do in their lives, so I'm okay now.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'm a big advocate of the industry because of the people.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the same reason I'm a big adverse advocate of what's going on in the hemp beverage industry, it's because of the people that, you know, these hemp beverage brands, you know, some of them, yeah, we can say there's bad actors, but there's bad actors in everything.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: We admit there's people that cut corners in every industry that exists, and they'll always try to find the shortest way, even if it's unethical or not principled or from a place of passion.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: With these people, though, the majority of them are not that case.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and the ones that get the squeaky wheel are the ones that are getting exposure for what they're doing the bad way.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: But these people are real human beings that live in real houses, that live in real streets and real neighborhoods that mortgage their homes sometimes because they don't have the direct access to capital that other brands and other other industries and categories do.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: They also run the risk of any day, the next morning, a point of sale system can just decide to turn them off and withhold their funds and freeze their funds.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: These these types of things aren't what we're used to because they're a little bit above and beyond what the regulatory parts are for alcohol.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, I get a little extended upon my my empathy and my my my heart for them because of the grit and the determination that they wanted to see this as far as they have, and to see these hurdles as they're as they're facing them.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what are some of the what's what's sort of the temperature going on?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And is it the same that you guys are seeing across the scale where there's some bars that a Tony at A B said if this but band goes through and it all goes out, he's not sure if the bar will even exist past that moment.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's a ripple that I don't think people are talking about because we're all focused on the hemp cans, but we're not focusing on what it has propped up in the past year and two years and three years.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'll I'll I'll jump in real quick.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so yeah, I mean, there's a lot to unpack, you know, uh, you know, in everything you just said, um, you know what we are seeing, you know, definitely mirrors a lot of what you were just saying in terms of what hemp is doing, you know, for a lot of our retail partners across the state.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I ran some numbers before we got on just because I wanted to see what the most updated stuff just internally within our system was saying.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I was actually kind of surprised.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so just year to date, we have sold uh at least you know one case of a hemp product to over 1,000 unique customers.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's technically 1,003, uh according to our data as of this morning.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I mean, that's a thousand retail partners that we have across North Carolina.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: And again, we're only in North Carolina, you know, so that we're talking all just in-state numbers uh whenever I throw something out.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's a thousand retailers that to some degree have said, hey, my customer base, you know, is looking for this.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: They've either asked for it or I find it interesting enough to offer it to them or whatever it may be.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: And in some cases, to your point, Nate, that's starting to represent a large portion of a lot of their sales.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I mean, I I know we have a few uh locations out east, um, you know, not to get too specific, but I know uh, you know, once you start to get to the coast, especially sort of that outer banks, you know, uh kind of area, I mean, it's it's highly seasonal.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And what they found is people just the tourists aren't buying as much alcohol as they used to, but what they are buying a lot of are hemp products.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what they're taking out on the beach or on the fishing pier or whatever, you know, uh outdoor activity they may be doing.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: So no, these beverages have definitely not just for us as a wholesaler, you know.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is propping us up for sure.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's become a very important piece of our business, but also for all of our partners as well.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start to look at a lot of our local brewery partners that we work with.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness, you know, I mean, a few years ago, you know, we're starting to see that slowdown.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Things aren't quite how they used to be.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, they're starting to scratch their head a little bit, going, all right, you know, what are we gonna do?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: What are we gonna do?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: Hemp beverages, so many of them are so good at pivoting quickly, you know, and a lot of these people are entrepreneurs.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: They started this themselves.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and as an entrepreneur, they're sitting there going, well, I gotta figure something out.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: They have the equipment, you know, it's it's they can make really great adult beverages already.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: This is a normal sort of extension of that.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so for a lot of our local brewery partners, even that's how they're filling some of those tanks that they aren't filling these days, you know, with their beer.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it means a lot these days as far as you know uh who it's propping up right now in the state.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, uh North Carolina's got a really thriving, uh, very successful craft brewing community.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I would go so far as to you know paint it with a very broad brush.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not aware of very few today, if any today, that have not chosen to engage with adult hip hemp beverages as an extension of what they're already doing in their tap rooms.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's the point that I try to make to a lot of people.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to get um uh let's say preachy about the hemp beverage category because I am so passionate about it.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and full disclosure, I'm an enormous consumer.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I I fessed up, I'm an older guy, which means I've had a like most uh older adults, I've I've had a lifelong relationship with cannabis.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um but hemp beverage completely turned things around for us as a business and for me as an individual and for me as a consumer.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, at some point we may want to get into it.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's just so much misunderstanding and bad information out there.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we're talking about retailers that are selling a lot of hemp beverages, we're not talking about dispensaries, we're not talking about opium dens, we're not talking about sketchy vape shops.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, and bars, the exact same places that sell beer, that sell wine, that sell spirits, um, and other adult beverages.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes this category so, so different.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: These products look, walk, talk, and act just like other low dosage adult beverages.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, canned cocktail, beer, um, you know, wines.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what these products look like.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's how consumers interact with them.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what gets me so um frustrated slash furious when I hear some of the rhetoric that tries to link this category with high dosage cannabis, with uh uh let's just say quality uh questionable quality, uncontrolled cannabis products.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: North Carolina will probably be one of the last states in the in the country that to ever legalize actual weed.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, that's just what we are.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're a transitional state where you know we're Bible belt adjacent, I guess, these days, probably not so much as we used to be back um you know back when I was growing up.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, so I understand that and I get that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: We also, by the way, happen to be an enormous agricultural hemp state, you know, and it's always been that way.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um but this category is getting you know stapled to people's perceptions of other cannabis categories, and it's just simply not that case.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: These are high quality, highly tested, at least with the supplier partners that our businesses work with.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know Ed Ed I know his I know his supplier partners are the same way.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the absolute knockout criteria for us when we engage when we've engaged with producer partners on the hemp beverage side.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, moderate dose, uh very curated, interactive experience with consumers.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I feel like I spend a lot of my time as maybe a prophet's a better word than a preacher, just trying to help people understand what these products are and what they aren't.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and it but it all comes back to the fact that this is a category of products that can do something for consumers that no other adult beverages can do.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, as an individual consumer, can't drink and and you know, again, pardon me for getting up on the soapbox.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: But as a consumer and as a distributor, there is not another you know, moderately intoxicating adult beverage that I can sell that can potentially have zero calories, potentially have zero carbs, that has the cleanest bill of ingredients of any adult beverage product that I'm aware of, um, and that has significantly different product attributes from beer or wine or spirits.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases instead of, but in most cases, what we find with consumers it's in addition to their adult beverage drinking set.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: You guys both know, you know, as as younger than me guys, but as people that have been in this industry also for a while, the consumer now is drinking um very differently than the way they used to.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're interacting with adult beverage products differently than they ever did before.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's you know, and it's all about variety.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's about drinking occasions and they're matching the product to the drinking occasion.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a bad thing.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, as a as a you know, distributor who who came number one in the old days exclusive from beer roots, we shouldn't be threatened by that.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're not.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we embrace that because again, not not our job as a distributor is to tell the consumer what to drink or not drink.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our job as a as a distributor is to try to match producers and products through retailers to consumers.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this category has been like nothing I've ever seen, I know nothing Ed's ever seen in our storied lives as adult beverage distributors.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it's you know, a story, a story in that aspect of uh one of the other pieces is also the transparency.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the clean part you're talking, but it's also the most transparent adult beverage.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can't, I mean, I sell RTDs, but we don't have the nutrition facts, we don't have the COAs, we don't have, you know, we're trying to, we're trusting a lot, you know, we're trusting craft brewers a lot, we're trusting a lot of these guys uh when we when a consumer grabs that off the the shelf.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's that's a piece also that I think as we are as a society trying to look more into what we're putting into our bodies, what we're drinking, what we're eating, things like that.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: The irony is, yeah, this is something that's about to it has a ban pending and scariness, but it's the cleanest, most versatile thing out there.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to read a testimonial because on the regulate don't ruin NC on the website, we have an option for uh everyday consumers to submit their testimonials.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I have one here that I want to read.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is John, and I want to edit this part out.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is it Buford or Beaufort?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: I want to make sure I say this correctly.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: South Carolina, it's Beauford.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Buford through me.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's what threw me.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so Beaufort.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: You got it, Beaufort.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: So this is uh I want to read a testimonial from uh regulate don't ruin nc.com.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is John from Beaufort.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's this is his direct words.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: As a U.S.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Navy veteran, I often defer to hemp beverages in lieu of the VA prescribed pills.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not only does it keep me from becoming addicted to these highly addictive pain pills, but it's also cheaper.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: If this option for me goes away in North Carolina, I will likely I will likely move my family to a neighboring state that has already approved legislation.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that right there is one of the most powerful things, and I've read it multiple times, and I get chills every time reading it, and uh that that came in last week.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, once once once you know, once we change the narrative from you know questionable statistics to actual people and individuals, you know, you know, and and you know, every consumer that's interacted with with you know adult hemp beverages has has got stories like that, you know.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh you know, I share my story widely, I share it with my company.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: They all know, you know, what they they know why I'm such a huge cheerleader for these products.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, part of it is absolutely as a business boy, but part of it is also as a senior citizen who is fortunate to have not a lot of aches and pains, but I've got them.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunate to sleep pretty well, but not great.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And a you know, a light regimen for me of hemp adult hemp beverage products leading into Rick's bedtime has completely transformed my sleep.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if they go away, I'm afraid of what I'll have to do.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we understand regulated products, all we all on this on the you know, on this conversation understand regulated products very, very well.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we we're huge fans of of appropriate regulation.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's worked incredibly well ever since prohibition for alcohol.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know it's a learning curve, we figured it out, you know.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is the you know, I think it's the most intelligently regulated marketplace in the world for adult hemp beverages.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're looking at with adult hemp beverage is that model that program, those guardrails are in exactly appropriate for this category, the same way they have been for the other adult beverage categories.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, those kinds of personal testimonies we hear over and over and over again.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it it it it gets me, you know, pretty emotional.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, some something anecdotally, um, so uh our executive vice president Angie Packer, um, she uh has this group called Women on Wine.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so wow.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: And uh uh they meet uh on a, I think it's a monthly basis, but really regularly.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's uh just women getting together, you know, enjoying wine, learning more about it, and that sort of thing.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um I happened to be in our conference room one time when one of the ladies that's part of that group was actually, I think, dropping off some wine glasses or something uh after the fact.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we just started talking.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: She saw some hip beverages that we had sort of behind the bar on display.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we we just started talking and uh just you know, kind of right to your point, Rick.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, she said, Yeah, I love those, you know, and it was unsolicited.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, that's really great.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: She said, Yeah, it's so much better for me to drink one of those before I go to bed because it helps me sleep and it does help with some of my discomfort and all that stuff, versus the two glasses of Chardonnay and a sleeping pill that I've had to, you know, have it so I mean it's one of those things where it's like, I I to your point again, Rick, I think you said this this is not some, you know, seedy back alley kind of product that we're talking about.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't just, you know, oh, these stoners, you know, want to have these products.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is literally in family-friendly grocery stores.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is in Total Wine, it is in, you know, all these retailers that um truly are well-lit, you know, knowledgeable people.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: They have a good assortment, you know.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, again, they'll talk to you about the product, what's different about this one versus that one, what this milligram cap means versus that, you know, start low and slow and everything.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: They'll do it the right way.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, what we see is, I mean, one of the main demographics here, uh, women, 40 to 65, you know, is what we've seen a lot.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's a lot too.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Sort of the second largest is really 65 and up, you know, as well.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's again, it's all those people that you go, these aren't, again, these bad people, these, you know, these ne'er do wells, you know, these are people like you and me.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I and Rick, I'm right there with you too, as far as my personal consumption.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, honestly, the only reason, yeah, we're about a 300-person company, the only reason it wasn't 1,303 customers is because I took out employee purchases uh when I ran that number, else it would have been higher.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, so many of us have found, you know, here that yeah, you know, it has a place.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: And exactly like you said, Rick, usually it's in addition to, you know, it's that, hey, everything, every adult beverage, in my opinion, and I think what we see a lot is every adult beverage has a has a time and a place.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and look, depending on where you are, who you are, what you're going through, what what experiences you're having in life, this or that, it it can all work well together at the end of the day.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: And and again, it should be regulated in largely the same way.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's hard for me to draw a line of difference, you know, as a consumer and as somebody who sells this stuff, between being able to buy a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine at your grocery store versus a five milligram or maybe 10 milligram or something like that, you know, uh hemp beverage at that same location.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, the and again, one of those, hey, you might have a little bit of a hangover the next day if you overindulge.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: The other one, you're not.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's and you do know exactly what's in it, and you know it's been through rigorous testing because that's what that industry is having to do and should be doing is to say, hey, look, this is all on the up and up.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: All of our cards are on the table.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: We are as transparent as we can be.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Here's everything you could potentially want to know about what went in this can.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and those are the ones who, in lieu of regulation, you know, just common sense regulation, which I know we'll talk more about that, but in lieu of that, that's why Rick, you know, y'all at RH Behringer and us at Trion and all of our compatriots across the state, we have a duty, you know, right now.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we will, even if we get some regulation that does pass this common sense.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I mean, we have a duty right now to make sure that we're only bringing on the suppliers that can show us, you know, those lab tests and, you know, uh have all the right uh processes in place and they're the right people, and we vet them.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're probably like us.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we vet our wine and beer partners intensely, but in this category, it is even more intense uh when we vet them because we cannot allow bad actors into this space.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: It will ruin it for everybody.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: It will make it'll be that one instance that makes somebody's crazy.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Claim feel a little bit more valid, and you know that we can't let that happen.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: We've covered state regulatory issues, we've covered the need for regulation, we've covered the similarities of how similar these products can be treated through the three-tier distribution system, through the same certified, you know, bartenders and serve safes and all those training programs, aficionado.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: We just listed off so many things in a in an industry that has only been around for really two to three years in the subsector of HEM, and then to already have an education platform, a regulatory guardrails, you know, things like that that are self-imposed.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's the other credit I think we're all we lose, we don't lose this, those of us on this call, but the public at large and sometimes these law, the lawmakers have trouble understanding how much has been gone in, gone into this when really there's no enforcement of all the effort they've put in in practice, not just on paper.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, these aren't just things where they're saying we promise we'll do better.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: We promise this, that's not this conversation.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't a we promise we'll do better.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's literally saying, just you know, make a law out of what we're doing right now and enhance anything you need to from there.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: But the framework is here, the foundation is here, the passion for safety is here, and just continue to let the access to Americans be able to choose what they want to put in their bodies and allow them to make those decisions on their own within a regulatory framework, as which we've kind of talked about today.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to thank you guys.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you guys also for coming on, and not just because of all that, but because there's no questions in advance.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I do do this as a humoristic thing, but uh you most times people get uncomfortable and they don't want to come on without any questions.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know what's going to happen.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate you guys trusting me with your story and participating in this part of the series of regulate, don't ruin, and see.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's super important that new North Carolina residents have access to these products, especially because it's a state where it already is on the shelf.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about a state that we're looking to get it on the shelf and fight that battle.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fighting that battle up in Pennsylvania and some other areas as well.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: But in North Carolina, it is on the shelf.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: So if you live in North Carolina as a business owner, as a resident, and you care about what's on the shelf and you care about access and you care about your neighbor, because even if you're not a consumer, just like Rick was talking about and just like Edward talking about, your neighbor probably consumes this for the same exact reasons, whether it's recreational or it's a medicinal self-medication that they're doing because it works better than what they were doing prior, that's progress in some in the health and well-being and mental stability of somebody's life.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I think everybody, even if you're not a consumer, hop on the website, support your neighbor, because I guarantee in your development, there's multiple people that are using these and it's accelerating the progress of their life in a positive way.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you guys so much for coming on.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Nate, we really appreciate you, brother.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and what you're doing, because you know, helping people understand, you know, and it goes beyond getting the word out.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is much more than that.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I hopefully people have gotten a touch of that on this conversation.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's highly personal.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're highly personal conversations.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're fun conversations to have one-on-one with individuals.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, Ed and I can only get out and see and touch so many people each day.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So your platform, the voice that you're giving to this, you know, is so, so critical right now because there is a lack of information.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, there's a lot of bad information.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a lot of rhetoric out there that just simply is not true.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm being, I guess, more gracious, maybe I I'll just say it does not apply to the hemp beverage category.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of it is just simply not true.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I'm a big fact boy.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a big science boy and I'm a big fact boy.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, anybody that believes that the only reason that Ed and I are in this category, in the hemp beverage category, is because you know, we're mercenary business bastards.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can guarantee you that is not the case.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Both of us You wouldn't have come on this episode if you were.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know those guys.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, and I and I and I do too.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, but I you know, I would say that you know, all the people that I know that have that have chosen to engage with this category did extensive due diligence on the very front end.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: We did, I know, I know that Ed's company did the same way.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were not going to do something that was going to be bad for our businesses, our families, our states, our consumers.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's suicidal.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the you know, one of the distinctions with multi-generational family businesses is we've been around a long time, we plan to be around a long time, we plan much longer term than publicly held companies do.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I sometimes jokingly say the most important thing that we do as owners is just make sure that we don't do anything that screws it up.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so we did our due diligence.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: We we came, I you know, we came, we we came very, very peaceful with this decision.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the biggest, single biggest challenge we have, the products are there, the suppliers are there.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: These are some of the best people, some of the best suppliers we've ever dealt with.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most highly intelligent individuals.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, again, if the perception is these are just a bunch of old stoners, you know, you know, you know, working out of their their uh their van, these are some of the smartest, most highly educated people that that I've ever done business with.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's getting that message out, it's helping people, it's demystifying it, it's trying to take the some of the scary out of it, it's just taking some of the misunderstanding out of it.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: So again, thanks for what you do.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, I will get choked up if I think about what might happen if this goes away.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: As just as an individual.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you know, it does it doesn't kill our business.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, both of our companies are much more diversified than that.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is very, very important to us.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's on a runway like nothing we've ever seen.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I can just simply say as an individual, you know, it it you know, it would grieve me greatly to to to to see you know something happen, and not to happen for a good reason, but to happen for bad reasons.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I think again, uh extremely well said, Rick.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I do want to say thank you very much, Nate.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, of course, thank you, Rick, for for being on here um and and for allowing me uh to be on here with y'all.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: Rick, I'll um just say uh I will never forget uh being at the keynote uh speech.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh this was not this year's hemp beverage uh uh expo, but the previous year's 2025's hemp beverage expo in in Atlanta, um, and seeing you get up there and hearing your passion.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you weren't talking about the business of it, you know, you were talking about why it mattered in a personal, real way to you and the opportunity that everybody in that room had to make this thing work.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: And hey, for it to work, we've all got to be doing the right thing.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: We can't let the bad people, you know, come in and ruin this amazing thing that we have going here.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: So um that for me was eye-opening.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, we we had not connected about it prior to that.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, as soon as you you came off the stage, I wanted to go over and just shake your hand and say, oh my gosh, you know, it was so so amazing to hear how how uh impassioned you were up there.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you're exactly right.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: If we were in this, if you and I and our companies were in this just to make money, I mean, hell, there's plenty of other ways, you know, if we just wanted to turn a buck that we could, um, that would be a lot easier and a lot less risky, uh, you know, um, but that's not why we're in it.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're in it because going full circle back to what you were leading off with, Rick, which is because there are consumers out there, and I am one of them, and I know you're one of them as well.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: There are consumers out there in this state that say they really want this product to exist, to be available.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: And all we're trying to say is, yeah, we agree.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_02: And hey, lawmakers, why don't we, to your point, Nate, we're doing it already.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: Let's codify this thing, let's put some guardrails on it, let's do some common sense stuff and just say it's working as it is.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it really is.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: The problem is, and again, meeting people where they are, a lot of people don't know this is potentially going away.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: And with HP 328, recently, I mean, not just in November potentially, but for North Carolina, potentially sooner.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the kind of stuff where we need to be on this podcast.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's not my favorite thing to get up and, you know, sort of talk in front of groups.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully a lot of people listen to this.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: It terrifies me a little bit.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_02: But this is important enough where I wanted to be on here and basically just say, hey, look, I I believe in this, we believe in this, we believe in doing it the right way.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: And we just need people to make some noise because if we don't make noise, our lawmakers will not pay attention.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_02: The way we make noise is we get out there, we talk to them, we have petitions, we have regulate don't ruin NC.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully everybody goes to regulate you know don't ruin NC.com.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they sign the petition, they get it out there because that will go to the lawmakers.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: That tells them, oh, hey, there might be something to this, and at least brings them to the table to listen, uh, which is the first step in this whole process.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for the platform.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you again so much, Rick.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's been such a pleasure being on here with you.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Ed.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: You as well.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: And again, thank you for the leadership that your company has shown in this area.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys have really gone way, you've punched way over your weight in terms of advocating for this category and for trying to get the message out.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's humbling to me.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit, you know, a little bit embarrassing and shaming, you know, when I realize that we may not have have made as much of an effort as you guys have.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's it is a hundred percent my pleasure.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's also my honor uh to be able to talk about this with you guys because it it's number one, it's it's it's that fun to talk about, but it's also that important to talk about.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and as much as I would love to take credit for any amount of this, I do, I would be remiss if I didn't shout out uh uh so our VP of strategic development, Melissa.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_02: Truly, this was her and I talking about it.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, I mean, literally, there was a phone call where she said, Well, damn it, what's stopping us from doing something about it?
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, outside of time, energy, and all of those things, you know, really nothing.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that's when she said, Well, I'm gonna be the change, as her dad has always told her, be the change you want to see in the world.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: And she said, Damn it, I'm gonna do it.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: And uh here we are.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I did want to make sure I gave her uh you know definitely that that recognition because uh she's she's been driving it and we're just kind of behind her and doing what we can to help.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: So hey, but again, together we're stronger, right?
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Rick.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's again, it's not just try-on, it's not just our H behringer, it's it's all of us, you know, they're in this together.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, everybody I know in our association, you know, feels the same way.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, we want this thing to work and we want to make it happen.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, we'll we'll duke it out on the streets with our brands, but at the end of the day, we're all drinking a hemp beverage together around the table, going, hey, we need this to work and we want it to work.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hey, I'm gonna close out and remind everybody this is a ready to drink podcast.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about ROIs, we talk about investment, we talk about brands, we talk about business, we talk about fun, we talk about medicinal, but it's also about human connection because at the end of the day, these other guys on this call as well, we got into this business because of the social aspect of the alcohol business and the regulated beverage business.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Beverages, whether it's beer, spirits, hemp, it doesn't matter.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: Beverages are the social bridge for everything in human connection, always has been since the dawn of time.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can go back and see the archaeological digs and find the honey in the pot and the marijuana over here.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been around because it always will be around in some fashion, in some form.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: When I say that to everybody, this is about human connection.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: We do not know each other.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: We've actually never met in person.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've actually never sat around and had a beer together.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is human connection.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is meeting strangers.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: It is 2026.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: This world is a dangerously, beautifully destructive place, and you have to reach out to your neighbors.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so five minutes the challenge, five minutes a week to challenge a kindness to a stranger, 20 minutes a month, the best ROI you're gonna give.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Walking down the street, put your phone in your pocket, look at the strangers while you're walking down the street.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: Smile, nod, say hi to somebody.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: If so, read the body language, don't be creepy and weird.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're at the gas station filling up that cup of coffee, nudge the person next to you or just say, Hey, how you doing?
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: And shut your mouth, listen to their story.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: Give five minutes of your life a week to a stranger, 20 minutes a month.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: I promise you, if your life is full and you have the husband, the wife, the dog, the picket fence, I don't care.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: You would you have an obligation as a human being on this earth to put positivity out there and it costs you nothing.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: So please understand everybody that's out here.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying any of this to be scary.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying this to inspire you to take the time, slow down every once in a while, and put some good things out there.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Nate.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of some of those powerful words I've heard in a long, long time, brother.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: I really I appreciate it, guys.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: I I come here from a place of principle and uh and and passion for everything that we do.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I have a very polarizing uh personality sometimes and a very duality of being a sober guy and uh running a show called Ready to Drink.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that was the irony because I own my sobriety in a humoristic way.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I call it Ready to Drink, because I always was.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but I also want this to be something good for people because there's times, and I talk about this on many episodes, where I was not in a great place in my life.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there was people that reached out and helped me and saved my life, literally, not in a figurative, not in a metaphorical.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: And for you, uh Rick as well, uh hemp beverages helped.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_01: I tried to quit drinking four or five times before it actually worked.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I I'm gonna give credit to everybody, it wasn't until hemp beverages came out in 2022 and non-alcoholic beers started to stop tasting like shit and started tasting as good as actually, and I finally got the bridge I needed in the crutch.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_02: So honestly, if I can leave this podcast uh and everybody listening to it with one thing, uh it will be we have to make noise.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we want our lawmakers in North Carolina to understand that this category is real and it's important to a lot of people.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: And again, not just on the business side, but truly in their daily lives.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and and that's what motivates me so much about this category.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the problem is we all know how politics work, right?
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, unless you have the the the deepest coffers or you know, the biggest checkbook or whatever it may be, it can be hard to get the attention of lawmakers.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: So the way that we do that without having those resources at our disposal is we sign petitions, we make calls, we write letters, we knock on their doors until they're tired of hearing from us or until they understand, hey, this is real.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I cannot, cannot ask enough.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_02: Please go to regulate don't ruin nc.com.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's super quick, it's super easy.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_02: You fill out some very basic information, and what that website will then do uh is it takes where you are as far as your address, and it says, okay, you're in these, you know, this jurisdiction, these counties, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_02: Sends it to all the right people for you.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't even have to know exactly who it is necessarily that's representing you.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: All you need to know is you sign the petition and it goes to the right people, and that's how we make noise.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we can take to them to say, hey, look, in our first month of regulate don't ruin, we have over a thousand signatures already, which is phenomenal.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: And we're getting retailers signing on every single day that are putting up these QR codes that we have in the aisle where everybody is shopping, where there is the built-in audience, you know, buying these products.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: Again, meeting people where they are.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: We want to meet you in the aisle as you're reaching for that hemp beverage.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, what's that?
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, what do you know?
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: This stuff's going away in November.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna make my voice heard.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_02: I want it to stay.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I would like to leave people with.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's basic human nature, I think that we we always tend to look to someone else to take action.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can call it laziness, you can call it inertia, whatever.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I put myself in the same category.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: Here are the bottom line facts.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: The adult hemp beverage category can go away completely in November or before, as Ed said.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's actively being um shut down at both the state and the federal level by certain groups of individuals.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you people that you know and people that you love look at adult hemp beverage as something that they want to keep around in a safe, controlled, regulated way, then every single one of us needs to take action.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Ed Company has stood up a website, regulate don't ruin nc.com that makes it absolutely easy.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: It'll show you exactly what you need to do to get your voice in front of our legislators and simply to let them know that there's a lot more of us than they realize.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't, if you don't choose to participate, if you don't choose to stand up, whatever you phrase you want to use and it goes away, then pardon the language, but then it's your own damn fault.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so please take the few minutes, just a handful of minutes that it takes.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: If this is something that is important to you, as it is to me, as it is to all of us, you know, then please take that single simple action, go to the website, regulate don't ruin nc.com and just simply register your voice because it makes a huge difference.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't need to know how the sausage gets made either in Raleigh, if you're if you're a North Carolinian or in DC.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I tell you, they pay attention to numbers.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we know they pay attention to money, but but they also pay attention to voices.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they have staff that count every single voice on every single issue.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think your one voice doesn't matter, you're wrong.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: So please, please, please join us in keeping something moving and going forward that has come to mean so much to all of us.