Latest / Ready To Drink Podcast / NFL Safety & UFC Fighter on Leadership & the Hemp Fight | Micah Hyde & Clifford Starks | Episode 100

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NFL Safety & UFC Fighter on Leadership & the Hemp Fight | Micah Hyde & Clifford Starks | Episode 100 · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited about this, guys.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh having two former pro athletes on the same podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: So get ready, guys.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Testosterone is through the roof already.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: There was so much testosterone.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Protein drinks, brother.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: The Wi-Fi couldn't even handle it.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: So hence the delay trying to get on.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, Clifford, I'll give you some context on Micah.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Mike, I'll give you context on Clifford.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: That way you guys are good to go.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Micah and I have uh I've been following Micah for a while in the hemp space.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, once he retired from the NFL, he started his own uh hemp beverage brand.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we got to meet uh the other week uh over the uh hemp beverage alliance.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing um we're managing a letter to the editor campaign, sending letters to local media and regional media around across the country.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I got to interview Micah for 45 minutes or so, talk about his story, and and very much a lot of it was resonating also with your story, Clifford.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I felt like also from a professional standpoint, but more so also from a personal standpoint, you guys both kind of seemed like you exited the professional space for the same reasons, uh, with you and becoming a father and wanting to be present for your children.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something that I felt was a really powerful story that isn't talked about in the athletics world.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited to have you guys have this conversation.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Mike, a backstory on Clifford.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't get a chance to give you too much other than he was a former UFC and Bellator fighter.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Clifford's also in the uh USA MMA Hall of Fame.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: So Clifford and I have had this show for about two to three years now coming.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we interview leaders in all aspects of different CEOs, community leaders, priests, religious, everything in under the sun, and talk about leadership and what it means.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh last year we kicked off the year with a theme of what it means to be a man in 2025 and 2026.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a big thing that based on what I learned about you, Micah, and my research and interviewing you, you and Clifford and I have a very similar mindset on how we want to carry ourselves as men and leaders in this world.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this I'm excited for this to be a pretty powerful conversation.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Nice to meet you, Clifford.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Micah, pleasure to meet you as well.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent, guys.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: And Clifford, if you want to Google, or Mike, if you want to Google Clifford later with Big Cat was his name in the octagon, all right.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I always get a good smile out of him up about it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely gonna check him out, man.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You you guys look, we're crazy to step on that football field, but you guys are crazy stepping in there, stepping in that octagon, bro.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a whole different mindset.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Respect, respect, yeah, and respect to everything that you do and how you're showing up.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking forward to hearing more about your story and and why you why you went the route that you went, even though like having children.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'll sh I'll share my story with you too if we have the time.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it's an interesting, it's an interesting one.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I'll say.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, cool.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, man.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, real quick, Micah, for the uh for the intro.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: We don't do any cheesy intros or anything like that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of we just go with my name is Micah Hyde, and I'm founder of Hydes Hill Mary, and that's how it's kind of the intro.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you're ready, buddy.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how you doing?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Micah Hyde, uh founder of Hydeshail Mary, former NFL safety, the past 12 seasons, retired in 2025, ready to uh to discuss some some uh the hem space with you guys.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Clifford, I uh I'm excited about this one too because a lot of times I pride myself in being an Eagles fan and an Eagles tailgate being the craziest thing ever.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: But Micah's probably got some better stories because he was in the Bills Mafia.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, my wife has those stories.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was obviously playing, but uh she was a part of the tailgate.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: They got the drinking shots out of bowling balls and catch up and mustard guy.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: They just crazy stuff they got going on there.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Michael, let's go, let's go in the Wayback Machine, man, all the way until you signed up for the NFL.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, was that was going into the NFL?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: What age were you when that was that that posted note and that dream was on the wall?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I I I really can't remember like that ever being like the number one dream.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was I was always, you know, involved in athletics.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: My older brother played every sport under the sun, so I wanted to be like him, right?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I did what he did, and I just wanted to play varsity football.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's really, you know, I'm from a small town in Ohio.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's all I wanted to do was play, be a part of the false story of Redmond, right?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So once I got there and and uh started getting some some college interest, he was like, sure, you know, I'll go play football in college.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a way to get a free education and whatnot.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did that.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was probably about after my freshman year of college, a few guys that were on my team that were my teammates got drafted, and I was like, oh wow, like obviously they were better than me at the time, but I was like, I know, you know, if over the next three years I'm gonna be at that point.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so it kind of just slowly, organically happened, and my mindset was just like, oh, like I'm I'm I'm I'm along for the ride, but like at the same time, like I want to be the best, right?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was always, you know, I wanted to be the best, you know, football player I could be.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I just it just somewhat happened, and then obviously getting drafted in 2013 opened the doors up and you know, for a for a long career that I had.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome, man.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: You did uh you did Green Bay and Buffalo for your time there?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got drafted in Green Bay, paid four there, and then uh Buffalo for eight.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: What was that experience?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'll go one more in Clifford O'Connor, we'll go every other's on there.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: But like for you, what was what was the biggest lesson when you transitioned from from into the pr into the professional realm?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like what was a surprise and then what were some key lessons right off the bat?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think from college, obviously you're still going to school, you're still doing all that type of stuff.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's, you know, it's different from nowadays because it's like NIL money, you know, those guys getting paid to, they're getting paid to play, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting paid to go to college and play football.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: But back, I feel like back then it was still like, you know, you got to get a good education, you got to go to class, you know, you're still getting your study hours and all that type of stuff.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that was one thing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then transitioning into the NFL, it was just just football, right?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and so it it probably took me a couple years to really like adapt to like you in order to be one of the elite players in the league, you have to have a mindset of it just being football all day, every day.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not just when you're at the facility watching film and practicing stuff like that, but when you get done, you have to constantly be thinking football.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was kind of the not the hardest transition, but something I needed to learn over the years to get to where I needed to be.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and even speaking on that, like the discipline that you develop as you go through that process and then transitioning with that discipline, I want to ask you what what really developed your discipline?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I I would say Iowa.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I say the University of Iowa did.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: When we when I was when I uh got recruited there, you know, they told me it was gonna be hard.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, college they told me, you know, college football is gonna be hard.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, your early morning workouts, you're you're practicing uh for a couple hours, you got to get your study hours in, like I just mentioned, and stuff like that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, but it was it was extremely hard.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, you know, we're not stepping over what you know, to start a sprint.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're not stepping on the line, you're behind the line.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like in every detail.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't do that, you run it again.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You run it again, you know.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of one of those things that like at 18, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like kind of think about like guys that go into military, go into the military, right?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's very, it's very disciplined and they align, they, they, they get your mindset aligned so that you're doing the right thing always, right, when nobody's paying attention.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of what I was able to develop in college.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, Coach Ference and and uh you know the the coaches that I had at the time were very detailed.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so every team meeting was about discipline, discipline, discipline.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and obviously football translate translates into, you know, the real world and how you can have discipline in your your everyday life, right?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say it was definitely the University of Iowa got me to that mindset of just discipline and each and every day.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: Is that pretty prevalent across the athletic department at Iowa?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know even when I was in high school wrestling and stuff like that, Iowa's always on the on the conversations for wrestling schools too.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's definitely that's just you know, it's it's kind of like the Iowa way, right?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's the the farmland, it's hardworking, it's blue-collar people.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and I feel like, you know, that's kind of how it was when I was growing up too in my hometown, Ohio.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, like I said, a small town.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But once you go to to Iowa and you experience that university year-round, just the great people and the hardworking people, you have no choice but to kind of mold into that even more.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, it's it's um whether if it's wrestling, football, even you know, some the the women's sports and all that, like it just seems like that's just the Iowa way.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Jeffrey, real quick before you question.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go ahead.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, you're good.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say respect to the Iowa way because you want to talk about walking into a stadium with pressure.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was an ASU wrestler.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when you walk in that stadium, you know who they're rooting for.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so you you're saying you wrestled at Iowa.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, I wrestled at ASU.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Got you, got you.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when I like because there's something about team and community and iron sharpening iron, yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I love you, Iowa guys.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, Micah, you guys are beast because whatever you're around, you're just going to act like what you're around.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and going back to us all three being fathers, loving fathers, like I want people to know, like, I'm a fighter and I got heart.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: I got heart for people, and I can fight when I got a fight.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And all of all of us have that.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And respect to the Iowa, because the culture, like it was literally in the culture.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the culture, man.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I actually spoke to, I went back to the Ohio State game, which wasn't a good game for us.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But um I went back to that game and I was able to speak to the recruits.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And really the entire time I wasn't speaking to the recruits.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was speaking to their parents.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, look, like if you go to this university, you may not go to the NFL.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You may not play 12 years like I did.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: You may not, you know, be the greatest athlete of all time.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I guarantee if you make it four years here, you're going to be the best husband, the best father, you're the best son, the best, because you understand it's it's about the culture.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You surround yourself with people that are doing things right.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and, you know, that's that's uh that was my message to them.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like, you know, afterwards, some of the parents came up to me and I was like, damn, like I could have listened to you talk for the lot for the next 20 minutes.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, because like that's that's my message to the parents, is that like, you know, it's just all about the Iowa win.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about the culture.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: I want to I want to give you context as well.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times we interview different people and you guys have all interacted with athletes that take on brands and they might just be a spokesman or licensing out their name.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Micah knows his shit in and out.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he is hands-on.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: He is.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: I try to.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: I try to.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I try, man.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's I I I I as much as I can figure it out, you know, I try to get hands-on with.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, big respect to that, because what I learned when I transferred or made my transition from athletics to entrepreneurship, I had no idea how much I had to learn.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like I had no idea.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but the discipline, it it keeps keeps me in the game.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And going back to what your coaches say, hey, it's gonna be hard.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what did that do when you heard that?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be hard.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think yeah, I grew up single parent.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: My mom, I think she heard that and she was like, good, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like at me at the time, I'm 18.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, whatever.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Football's hard already, right?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how how much harder can it be?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, like they they definitely turned it up a notch.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: They were shaking my hand and smiling to corrupt to recruit me and doing all that type of stuff.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then why when I f when I finally signed to go there my first day, oh my gosh, like it just it it switched, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there was no more smiles, it was no more.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yo, where's this guy I was talking to for the last year?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you were all now you now you don't even want to talk to me because I'm just some little, some little, you know, scryny little freshman on campus, and now you I mean nothing because you got me now, right?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think my mom wanted to hear that, and at the time I just wasn't sure.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I always said that I the three best decisions I've ever made in my life, you know, and going to Iowa was was one of them, obviously.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Marrying my wife and and doing all types of stuff and deciding to have kids and all that type of stuff.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: But going to Iowa was was right up there with with that respect.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: I want to add one thing too, because uh it's such a it's so important that it's gonna be hard in building a business, in building a family, in building yourself as an athlete.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I always remind others, but what are you gonna get for that heart?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like those hard things, what are you gonna get?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I want to ask you, like, what did you get from that?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, dude.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really passionate about it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Good, you're good.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: I know this.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: I planned I planned on it.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're fine, you're fine.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: What did I get from it?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just think that I I have a very positive mindset when it comes to just just life each and every day, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can wake up every single day and and and want to conquer the day.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think when certain situations when ad and when adversity hits in real in like the real world, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like say, you know, kids are sick or something, and we you know, we might have to go to the ER, right?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, dang, do we go or are they that bad?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do we gotta go?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like that type of stuff.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously there's way bigger things than than that.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I just think I'm I'm trained just to continue to just fight through it, right?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like a in a very kind of in a sickening way, right?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because my wife is like, you're always just, you know, it'll be okay.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be okay, it'll be okay.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind, it's like, yeah, it'll be okay.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we're gonna, you know, you're gonna make it okay, and I'm gonna make it okay.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, at the end of the day, like I can always see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I just think that's something I developed just from all that adversity of playing football and and doing hard shit.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know you do hard shit every day, you know, it it kind of trains your mind into, you know, you can conquer anything throughout the day.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of my mindset, and you know, I've I feel like I've developed that over the years.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: It definitely shows too.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: And Clifford, I'll uh I talked to you a little bit about this pending hemp band that we have coming on December 11th.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that is something that completely guts Micah's industry.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And this is one of those situations where he could have easily put his head down and not said anything, but he chose to speak up and and participate in this letter to the editor.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: And he also does a lot of advocacy work online.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's very indicative of taking that athletic mindset right into the reality of entrepreneurship when I don't want to say it's us against them or anything like that, but we don't have a lot of basis of evidence for what we the reasoning in which this ban's happening, and there's not a lot of conversations happening.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we've had to go in a very grassroots angle where we're not getting the time with the lawmakers or we're not getting enough of their attention.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: So we're going the other way as well to directly to the constituents because we have a of our responsibility to educate the constituents that don't realize what's going on.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so we have this impending ban, but the communication outbound is not really getting to the constituents.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: So they're still buying their stuff and they're still buying their product, but they don't necessarily at scale realize that it's about to go away on December 11th, unless something happens where these lawmakers put in regulation with just proper regulation instead of just banning it like they did with alcohol however many years ago.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's uh, you know, just tried and true that it's not just on the field and off the field.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Micah stands up and and fights for what's needed.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not a it's it's not an easy thing to do that.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, to to put yourself out there and and go beyond just being a leader in the business, but to start leading the category.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I hats off to you and everybody else that's participating in that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: You just happen to be somebody that it's uh it's one of those things where you do come from this.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times people do it because they're scared and they're in survival mode.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: But everything you just said, I just want to validate is in real time the way I've experienced my conversations with you over the past few weeks and and what I've done in the research with it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's nice to have somebody like you side by side on this fight because Clifford here is another end.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: We're on our weekly roundup.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, dude, I don't know what the fuck's going on, man.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're like I'm bugging out some days and I'm on the phone with them.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, it's good to get more people that are willing to stand up and say, no, this isn't fucking right.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we need to have a conversation.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a right or wrong.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's that there's not enough conversations that are being had to get to a middle ground where everybody wins.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Man, you hit it on the head.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So no, I just appreciate everything you just said.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That means a lot.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, I got into this space a couple years ago.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not, you know, I I knew what could come, right?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody was talking about a possible hint ban and 2018 Farm Bill and all that type of stuff.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna still pursue it because it's you know, it's something I thoroughly enjoy, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I I it and it it it makes me a better husband, a better father, um, helps me recover and all that type of stuff, right?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I I was like, yeah, yeah, let's let's let's continue to pursue this.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, I've learned a lot over the last couple of years, but it it is very frustrating to see that, you know, when stuff gets political, it just dampers the the success that you could put in there's a bunch of small businesses out there that that are fighting for their lives right now and and really that are going under, let's be honest.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because they're a couple months out from being banned, distributors aren't bringing them on.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: They probably made a bunch of product and they're just sitting in the warehouse right now with the expiration date of, you know, it's that's slowly approaching.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's money that they spent that they're not gonna be able to to get out the doors or sell in front of, you know, I guess the American people, right?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's very frustrating.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I think for me going out on a limb already, like having a THC product regularly, I do a lot of things with kids.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: I do a lot, you know, played 12 years in the NFL and all these type of like accolades that you could say.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, I when I first started doing a THC beverage, I I was very hesitant.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I don't want people to think this, I don't want people to think that, you know, blah, blah, blah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I think at the end of the day, it's like, man, like uh I am who I am.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: If if I feel like I'd be, you know, a hypocrite by by not you know releasing this and having people enjoy uh this product.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a very it's been a very difficult time, but I'm just you know, like you said, Nate, trying to push forward each and every day and trying to see what we can do to help.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, r respect to that.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I also the the fight, like the tobacco industry industry, for instance, they had that in cartoons, they had like, and it just it causes cancer and li and all sorts of other stuff.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I go, okay, like the fight is like what question do I ask to get this moving properly?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to like your beverage, what questions do you ask yourself to to get it in the hands of your people so they can actually see it clearly and go, oh, that's what that's for.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and this is something that like I didn't this is a this is all new to me, right?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like trying to market this product and you know, all the all the stages that we had to get to this point, right?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is all new to me.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm learning from you know people on my team that are, you know, this like part-time, right?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're not we're not like a a huge beverage business to be able to hire these people full time, stuff like that, right?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm trying to ask them questions and their experience and stuff like that.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the the really the same questions that customers are asking, I've been asking, right?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's it's it's very new to me as well.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's still stuff that I just you know, I continue to have our attorney, which attorney fees add up, man.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's that is the you know, you you need somebody like that in your back pocket, but but you you know, you you don't want to be paying that much in your back pocket.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So once you know, once those questions come up, I try to either you know ask the team or hit up the attorney and see if we can get a a very detailed and legal answer coming there.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, man, it's just uh I'm asking the same questions that customers are asking for if I'm being honest.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what's a question that you've asked that's been answered that had you see something in a different way, even your own product?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think when this ban or if this ban does happen, right?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: If this ban does happen, what does that look like federally?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously federally we won't be able to ship direct to consumer.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there goes our there goes our a D2C market, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: When we're or we're talking about, you know, people buying online, all that type of stuff.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gone, right?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then now from there, you're trying to work with individual states, right?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and what states are gonna allow it.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of like, okay, so if we have these states gonna allow it, do you have to manufacture in that state?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Most likely, yes, because now since it's banned, you won't be able to ship, you know, state, state to state, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So then you're gonna have to manufacture it in that state.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more costs that go there, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just is a lot of things that that is kind of a domino effect, right?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: If this were to happen in in December, then there's gonna be a lot of you know changing, a lot of changes that are gonna that are gonna follow after that.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And there's other stuff, Blifford, where like from a trickle down as well.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like I just put published an article this past weekend on the Substack with uh interviews in North Carolina with multiple bars and restaurants, like regular everyday bars, beach bars and things like that, because in North Carolina you can sell hemp beverages on premise at regular restaurants and liquor stores and stuff.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: These guys, these guys and ladies, I mean, they're telling me 25, 35% of their revenue is hemp beverages.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: If this ban goes through and then the state done reflects it, because that's the other trickle effect is multiple states that may right now have framework could rescind their framework if the federal ban comes through because their framework is built on the farm bill uh understanding from 2018.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then if the ban comes through, they may pull back in reverse.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we may have a multi-state pullback.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: These bars and restaurants, like one of the guys, uh A B Bottle Shop down in Atlantic Beach, it's 35% of his revenue.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: He's been in the beer business, owned a brewery in Arizona for 30 years, like, and he's like, I'm gonna have to close because the alcohol sales are declining so dramatically that this was propping up a lot of on-premise restaurants and bars and even breweries, because a lot of craft breweries across the country are co-packing producers of these hemp products.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: And this has been a supplemental piece of their revenue from the loss of beer sales.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: So the trickle down is, and this weekend's article went really nicely and outside of the realm of views, and not from a vantage standpoint, but from a place of the fact that I think that was the topic that needed to also be said was we're all thinking about brands and we're thinking about all the all the cans and everything like that, but we're not thinking about the everyday institutions we enjoy, could go under because it's not just like hemp beverages are gone, I'm gonna continue going drinking my cores late.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: You might not have that bar there because that bar was relying on hemp beverages to prop up revenue.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think that main street story, and the title of it is what I'll reiterate on the year is that the hemp fight is a main street fight.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is one of those things where if Americans, if American citizens, no matter what state you are in the country, if you are against corporations and you're against oligarchy and all this stuff and you want something to get behind.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: For the next couple of months.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: The next 60 days is a really great entrepreneurial American dream story from hundreds of hemp beverage founders and retailers that did the right thing in 2018 when the farm bill was passed and this was legalized.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: They chose the path of entrepreneurship and took that risk for the last 10, 12, you know, 11 years.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: And now to have the carpet pulled out from underneath of them in the rug pull is really the most disappointing piece from my perspective on the outside of it.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I manage all beverage categories, but that's the one that irks me the most is you have people that are regulating themselves.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: They have QR codes.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Clifford, these are the most transparent products of adult beverages on the shelf.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: You the ones that properly follow regulations, you look in, there's a QR code on there.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: You click the QR code, goes right to a COA.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: That COA shows bacteria, heavy metals, dust, every molecule that's in that liquid.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me, and I sell alcohol, tell me the last time you grabbed a tequila bottle and you knew how what the heavy metals were, the calorie content of that bottle in your hand.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's really like you you mentioned the you know, everyone that's done done it right over the past decade.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But really, it's like people that are gonna, they want to continue to do it right.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Just give us give us some guidelines, right?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like don't just don't just eliminate it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just throw it in the trash.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like let's let's talk about it and figure out, okay, what what are what's the the dosage, uh, the max dosage we can have?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: What like just give us some guidelines and we're willing to abide by them, so therefore we can pr we can continue to grow our business.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they're like, no, we're gonna we're gonna get rid of it all completely and just throw it away.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just that's that's the most ridiculous thing.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, Nate, I talked to you the other day about this.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, dude, we're all we're adults, right?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how are you gonna tell me, you know, that I can't enjoy this product?
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's that's that's so bizarre to me.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like that the politics in this in this world are so bizarre to me that you can just come to that conclusion just to be like, let's throw it out, you know, because there's money behind there's money behind that, right?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, so if you throw this, if you throw out the hemp space, then who's gaining, who's gaining, you know, whose pockets are being padded because of that.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where you got to follow the money trail.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the most difficult thing because it's like, man, this there is a space for this, but and there's people going about the right way, and they're willing to continue to do that, but you know, people are willing to shut it down.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's definitely gotten dirty, Clifford.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: The those with the deep pockets are are succeeding with controlling the narrative and getting the attention, that's for sure.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's documentful happy.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, just off of what you guys are saying, like I could I'll say I could only imagine.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say that much.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll leave it at sense.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've published some of it, so it is public information, and some of my stuff is now in Newsweek.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: Not my stuff particularly, but I posted it ahead of time when it was risky.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's in Newsweek magazine, it's in all these things now.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: It is very public outside of just the conspiratorial realms of the money trail being used in ways that are not even for the mission.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so these people are putting money in during an election to control a narrative, but then the money's not being used for that narrative.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's just being used for those politicians to pad their pockets and have enough money to get through the midterms.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to name anybody because I don't want any of us to get sued, but that's just the concept that's going on.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you can easily Google it and see Newsweek and ABC and different people that have covered it in the last week or two.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I just have a question, and maybe you guys don't have the answer, but what could someone like?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not really in the hemp hemp industry, but I am actually, I'm passionate for you.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Micah I'm becoming passionate for you, like just hearing your story, what you what you're about, what your journey is.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, how could someone who is passionate about supporting their people actually do to help in a situation like this?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Nate, you want to take that away?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we can give a plug for the hemp beverage alliance on this one here.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'll put inside a description of this episode on the audio as well as the video platforms.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be hempbeverage alliance.org backslash action action center.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: You'll see it right now uh below inside the copy in the description.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's the easiest way to go through.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: The Hemp Beverage Alliance is the National Federal Trade Association representing Micah as well as myself.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: There are other trade associations out there.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: So anybody to think this is the only one that's not the answer.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if you find the mission that aligns with yours.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, the easiest thing you can do is aside from joining any association or any action center, you can just pick up your phone, call your local lawmakers, and tell them that you need these bills to get through.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Find who you are in your district, your federal lawmaker in Congress.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: You everybody has one to two within their district at home.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: You pick up the phone and you call them.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: The reason you call them, number one, is because the volume of phone calls forces the staff to record the voicemails and phone calls in a log.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: An email is good and great and it makes an impact, but not as much as an actual phone call because those legally have to be logged.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something that you make the phone call.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: You can send an email to the same people.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: Once you Google that lawmaker, you're gonna see their phone number, you're gonna see their email.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Google them, email them, send them a DM on Facebook.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: The voice needs to be heard.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody's looking for donations in this conversation.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody's looking for money.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're looking for your time.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: And out of your time, maybe we're gonna look for five to seven minutes of your time.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's probably what all this Googling and finding out who your stuff is.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Less than 10 minutes of time is what we are asking from everybody.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing financial by any means, nor are we advocating any donations to any causes.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: We're just telling you this is the grassroots aspect of where we are right now in the last 60 days, because at the end of it, what Micah just said and I'm alluding to, none of us are, we're entrepreneurs.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: We're not corporations.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: We do not have the money to fund and compete.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we need to rely on the American people to speak their voices, clog up these voicemails, clog up these inboxes, constantly let people know that you give a shit about what's going on.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: And even if you do not consume, like I know Clifford, he has never shared stories about consuming.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna make an assumption Clifford is not a consumer.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: But just like Clifford, every other American citizen can give a shit about their next door neighbor because guaranteed in your neighborhood, in your cul-de-sac, in your neighborhood, there are people that are relying on this.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: It is not just, yes, it is recreationally something that's fun.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: But there is a medicinal aspect to this that I don't want to get into health claims.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna say that guaranteed in your neighborhood, somebody is relying on this on a daily basis to kick opians.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody like me, which is my personal story, I can say on the air.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sober today.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm coming up on four years of alcohol because hemp beverages were the bridge that got me through this.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: This is real stories and real shit that people are telling me every day, Mike every day.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And whether it affects you directly in your fridge, it doesn't matter.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's your neighbor.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I love it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my mom was a hospice nurse, and there's nothing better than doing something, truly doing something for someone else.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like every as the I've been on this journey 45 years and I've seen hundreds of people go through and pass to the other side.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately I say there's nothing better than doing something for someone else and actually caring about another human being.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Nate, that's that's what you've showed through and through as you go through this journey.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Micah, you told me about the benefits you've had on it.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: I've actually started learning about him because yeah, I'm I'm not a consumer of it.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: But when I started learning about it, I'm like, oh my goodness, this stuff's amazing.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's helping a lot of people.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's the thing.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, if you can support someone in getting what they need or want or will serve them, why not?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: There's a there's a lot of narratives out there that are aren't aren't very great on this.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the reasons I want to, I want these real stories out there from from Micah, from retailers, from distributors.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody needs to be telling the real stories.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I even have some that we're getting ready to release that are interviews like this that uh with Delta Beverages, where we're actually, we have an eight-episode series we're doing where we're interviewing directly consumers.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so they're not in the industry or anything like that.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: And they're telling their story as to what and I last week, for example, one was so powerful and resonated with me so much, I broke down crying in the middle of it and probably not gonna cut it out because it's important that we really make people everybody needs to understand the emotional part of this.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't just another business going away.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: This isn't big banks getting closed down.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is real shit.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: These are real people that the other piece, Clifford, that I don't talk about a lot, that I want everybody to know, and Mike is probably a part of this.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: There's not banks or or businesses that are loaning money out to these people.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: These businesses that are starting these hemp beverage brands, it's family, friends, they're mortgaging their homes.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like not everybody is sitting well on duffel bags full of cash.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's why this battle has become so much of a David and Goliath, because the businesses that are funding this can go get loans and loan against them and all this stuff.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: These guys don't, because of the irregularities and the framework that doesn't exist on the federal level, the S SBA, all these different loans are not as uh as forward thinking to start partnering up with hemp beverage brands.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: So these guys are literally bootstrapping everything from the ground up.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is it's it's so raw and real.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's it just gets me excited, and that's why I want it to continue.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Michael, let's kind of talk a little bit about transitioning from a leadership.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is gonna kind of be a crossover episode where it's about ready to drink podcasts, but also we're gonna use this on leaders arena.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Talk about being getting into the beverage space, but more importantly, now having part-time people working with you, beginning to scale out an infrastructure and an organizational aspect.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: What was it like leading the business as opposed to necessarily leading the locker room in the field and things like that and all the different nuances with that?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think, you know, from the very beginning that once you step into a new locker room or a new team, right?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because every every year the the team is different, especially in NFL, the turnover, new guys coming in, guys leaving, that type of thing.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of got to redevelop, you know, or I guess redefine your leadership, right?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to get guys to really know you and you got to know other guys, you got to trust them, they got to trust you, and that type of thing.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how this whole hemp space and high tail marriage has been.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like the people that we have brought on, I need to get to know them.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I need to trust them.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: They need to get to know me, they need to trust me, right?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so from the very beginning, it was never like, hey, you're working for me.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, we're working on this thing together.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm learning a lot from you.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: You guys actually have more experience than I do in this space.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: So just continue, I'm just continuing to ask them questions and stuff like that.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that, you know, I think that leaders are born.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that you, you know, you don't just fall into a certain situation and just all of a sudden become a leader, right?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I know that I am a leader and I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible and steer this this brand and this business.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Really the only way I know, and that's just through organic hard work.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that my team members can see that and and you know, know that we're we're all in this together, and just like you know, how it was in football, right?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm playing safety, but I need the other 10 guys with me around me to know what the hell they're doing.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we can go so we can go out, we can shut down an offense, right?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: So like that's that's really uh that's really how my mindset is with this brand and with this business.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: Clifford, do you have any other ones?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll kind of I'll I'll start talking about it.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go two and two because I notice I get really passionate.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think I went like three or four of the chamber right out the gate.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Micah, I'll give I'll give you context as well as everybody else.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot to say this in the beginning, but we have no script and we have no agenda and we have no questions in front of us.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what agenda.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: What agenda?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because it drives me crazy when he says that.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: One agenda.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're here to make the world better.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: When you said leaders are born, I was what you call a reluctant leader.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to do it.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want any part of it.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to live my best life and I wanted everybody else to live their best life.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: And as I went through my journey, I learned lessons, lesson after lesson after lesson.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the people started pointing to me and telling me that I needed to lead.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want any part of it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, don't sign me up for that.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then I realized they need someone to remind them of who the fuck they are.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: They need that to say, hey, you're special and you and stand up for what you want.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Stand up for what you want and where you want to be and what you want to do and how you want to and how you want to go.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when you do hear a question like, hey, it's gonna be hard, say thank you and walk to it because of who you'll become for going in it and being and going through it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: Looks uh a lot of times in here we get we get different things where people will be telling their story, and sometimes we get stories where we can tell immediately somebody's, whether it's their confidence or their self-esteem, might not be telling the story the right way.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: And they're through this organic piece where nobody is scripted ahead of time.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't send anybody questions.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: That allows us to get the real part of it.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: We can tell if they're nervous and we we kind of we gotten to the point in a couple years in where we can visually see the cues and we can communicate, him and I can communicate with our eyes and our gestures of our face and know when to come in and when to pull back.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's the most powerful thing about you know the past couple years of doing these shows is is the rawness of it is the advantage of it.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the rawness of it is people are coming in raw, but number one, they signed up to do it, and that's a courageous thing that we both respect.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: The fun part is when we get to pull stories out that they might not have shared because it wasn't too scripted, they didn't sit down with their PR agent, and they don't, you know, they're not just spewing back the the regurgitated stuff to us.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that's always obvious when people do that, and we kind of we we have a really good way of like we didn't have to do it with you at all, but usually we'll send a jarring question to kind of throw them off, and then that really breaks the flow of the screen and it becomes really obvious.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, Micah, I want to thank you for coming on, man.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: We keep these things uh, you know, under 45 minutes because that that way that as a podcast, we deal with CEOs, we deal with senior leaders.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: 60% of our following is all founders, senior leaders, and and everything like that.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody wants it quick, they want it fast, they don't want a three-hour Rogan.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: No offense, Rogan.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_02: I know you and you and Clifford go way back, but they they want something dense and and short and sweet, and that's kind of what we try to deliver with these fast questions.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for coming on.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: But we expected the courage and we expected the confidence out of you, but you really you, you know, the vulnerability of sharing why you do this, the vulnerability of telling us, you know, why you do it, and even the places you're struggling with and the challenges you see and how you overcome those challenges.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure we could spend six hours on and talking through all those different things, but I really appreciate you coming on to do that.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Clifford, if you have anything else as we're kind of closing out for them real quick.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I really just had a question for Micah because you've gone through like the gridiron and you've gone through the gridiron of business as well.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: I want to ask you if you had one lesson that you could share with everybody, what what's that one lesson and why?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think the one lesson that I have learned over the past couple years with growing Hightail Mary would be to just be myself, right?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want, I want the brand.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I think when you guys are looking at the website or looking at the social media or hearing about Hytale Mary, I want you to think of not only me, but the hard like a hardworking company, an organic company and willing to help.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that we just talked about over the last 45 minutes, right?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like just about hemp being better for for its customers and stuff like that.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I just want to, I want to give back.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to help.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to do that, right?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the lesson that I, you know, I I for a while there, I think we got caught up in, you know, this hemp space and what other people are doing.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, what's gonna bring in more attention?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna uh what's gonna sell more?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, even as far as like the formulation, right?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do we want it to taste?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do we want it to be like this trending seltzer vibe that you know people, or do we want to actually just do something that we all thoroughly enjoy?
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: A beer that, you know, something similar to a beer that has THC in it, that gives you a little bit of buzz, but also the recovery for the CBD and C BG, right?
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's stuff that we all thought about and and and uh that's just a lesson I had to learn.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we pulled back on like, hey, what's trendy, what's cool right now, right?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's not me, that's not us, that's not what we're trying to do.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's you know, if you're if you're starting a brand or starting a company, just be yourself, man.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just let it let it kind of uh work through you and and how you want to operate, and you know, hopefully from there be successful.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: Excellent.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we'll close out too with uh your uh social media handles and website and everything like that for everybody reaching, and I'll put in the description as well.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, yeah.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can go to hightailmary.com, our website, uh, you know, for the next couple months, you can get some orders in, you know, hopefully beyond, hopefully beyond that.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: But you can also visit at High Tail Mary on on Instagram, Facebook, uh other you know, other platforms.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my handle is uh Micah underscore hide.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to, you know, shoot me a DM, have start up the conversation, that'd be cool.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: But no, man, I appreciate you guys' time.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Clifford, I could tell, man, you uh just the way you're speaking, I could tell you got that competitor in you.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh kind of kind of got the the the goosebumps flowing.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I know me and you can have conversations beyond that just as far as like the the mindset and stuff.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: 100% of an advanced.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, one thing you because you did something when I asked you about a question and you said, you know, I honestly don't know the answer, but this is what I do know.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Best kind of leadership you can do.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I was shocked because I didn't know that.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I go, when you can stand for what you stand for, that's all you need to do.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else follows.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: So respect, brother.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nate, uh, I see your passion, man, when you're talking about this stuff.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: So even last week we had a we had a call, you know, keep fighting the good fight, bro, because obviously you're doing you're doing a lot as well.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that you're very passionate about because it hits, you know, it's personal for you and it and you know how you know you just want to help other people.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: So keep up the good work, man.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: You guys need me on this fight.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: We got two months to kind of throw some haymakers because that's really all we can do.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's where we are.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Today was the 12th, and that was my shot clock was beginning on the uh the two-month mark.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: So now we're within the two months of of the deadline.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to remind everybody in the audience and everything like that, just the same thing that we said to Micah and Clifford and I.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: We have never met.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Micah and I spent about an hour together last week uh doing an interview for some journalistic editorial stuff.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Other than that, we've never shared a beer together, we never had a coffee together, we never hit the wave room together, even though I would be watching from the outside while you guys did that.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: But but I want to remind everybody with no script, no agenda, or anything like that.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: This is the one of the realest things on the internet.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: This is something that we want to remind everybody as well.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Everything we're talking about with leading people is also the five-minute challenge.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: Five minutes a week to kindness to a stranger, everybody.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: When you're walking down the street, you put your phone in your pocket.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: 20 minutes a month is what we're asking from you.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: We don't need your money.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want anything.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: We want your time.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: We want 20 minutes of your time dedicated to strangers.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: Walking down the street at the gas station, fumbling around with your creamer and your cup of coffee, ask the person next to you how they're doing.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: Look at the people while you're walking in the street.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hold the door for somebody, even if you got your hands full.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't give a shit.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: We need to shock the world with positivity.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: There is a beautifully destructive world that is fighting against positivity and reaching out and connecting with a human.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: This is all about human connection.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing a crossover right now with the leaders' arena.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: That means you need to be leading.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you're listening to this because it's on the Ready to Drink podcast, you've heard me say this before.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Drinks are the vessel and the platform to human connection.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's all relevant.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same challenge on both shows.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_02: So get out there and shock the world with positivity.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: Micah, thank you for your time today.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Clifford, thank you for your time today, gentlemen.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate your open minds in this conversation.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, man.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: You guys have a good rest of your day.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: Take care.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: See you.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Have a great day.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.