Shows / Ready To Drink Podcast
Ready To Drink Podcast
The Ready To Drink Podcast is built for founders, operators and leaders navigating the next era of beverage. These are honest conversations with the people doing the work, building brands that last in a crowded and regulated marketplace.
Hosted by twenty-two year adult beverage industry veteran Nate Fochtman, the show pulls back the curtain on what actually drives growth - distribution strategy, regulatory navigation, sales velocity, and consumer trust.
Episodes
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Sober From Alcohol, Still Part of the Party | Moni Monk | What Hemp Beverages Mean To Me
Send us Fan Mail Moni Monk gave up alcohol around Mother’s Day 2025, but she didn’t want to give up the social side of life. A few months later, on the way to…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Why Breweries Should Treat Customers Like Family | Marty Nachel
Send us Fan Mail What makes a brewery thrive? Marty Nachel, beer author and founder of the Craft Beer Hall of Fame, says the answer goes beyond the beer and…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Vietnam Veteran and Six-Time Cancer Survivor: How Hemp Beverages Gave Me My Life Back | What Hemp Beverages Mean To Me
Send us Fan Mail Kevin Gill is a 78-year-old Vietnam veteran, a six-time cancer survivor and a retired 33-year Treasury Department law enforcement officer…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
A Lemonade Made for Mom: Omari Anderson on Building The Best Dirty Lemonade | Ready To Drink Podcast
Send us Fan Mail Omari Anderson made his first infused lemonade for his mother. She had early-onset Alzheimer’s and had stopped eating and sleeping, and he…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Why DTC Brands Disappear on the Retail Shelf | Megan Coffey, SmashBrand | Ready To Drink Podcast
Send us Fan Mail Many founders who win online lose at the shelf, and packaging is often the reason. A website gives you unlimited space to tell your story. A…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
NFL Safety & UFC Fighter on Leadership & the Hemp Fight | Micah Hyde & Clifford Starks | Episode 100
Send us Fan Mail For the 100th episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, two former pro athletes sit down with no script and no agenda. Micah Hyde spent 12…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Same Family, Different Drink: Rick Duchin of HopXL on Hops, Cannabis and the Future of Beer
Send us Fan Mail Hops and cannabis come from the same plant family, Rick Duchin has spent 35 years proving the science behind one can rewrite the other. He…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Solo Founders Wear Every Hat: Burnout, Boundaries and Building Alone | Steph Vrona, HighDef Studio
Send us Fan Mail Nobody warns you how many jobs you take on when you go solo. One day you are the strategist. The next day you are accounts receivable, sales…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Craft Beer Needs Its Story Back | Marty Nachel, Beer Author & Founder of the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame
Send us Fan Mail Marty Nachel has spent 40 years in craft beer as a homebrewer, beer judge, writer and author of Beer For Dummies and Homebrewing For Dummies…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Hemp Beverages Are the Trojan Horse for Normalization | Dan Serard, Cannabis Creative Group
Send us Fan Mail Dan Serard is Chief Revenue Officer at Cannabis Creative Group, a full-service cannabis marketing agency near Boston that has worked with more…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Why This Founder Calls His Customers Back
Send us Fan Mail Adam Borson of Highlandia says one of his favorite parts of the job is reaching back out to customers who leave reviews or send emails. In…
Ready To Drink PodcastQuick Sips: What would a veteran tell a lawmaker about the impending hemp beverage ban?
Send us Fan Mail What would a veteran tell a lawmaker about the impending hemp beverage ban? Jimmy Plunkett didn't hesitate. His biggest fear is what happens…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: There Are No Stupid Questions When Building a Beverage Brand | SailWell Founders
Send us Fan Mail There Are No Stupid Questions When Building a Beverage Brand | SailWell Founders SailWell co-founders Justine Charmley and Taylor Ondrejca…
Ready To Drink PodcastArmy Vet Takes On NC Hemp Ban: CBG, the VA and Small Business | Jimmy Plunkett of Pressure Goat
Send us Fan Mail Jimmy Plunkett is an Army combat engineer, a construction tradesman and a co-founder of Pressure Goat, a hemp dispensary in Charlotte, North…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Knowing Your Consumer's Story | Jared Langston of Good Liar NA Beer
Send us Fan Mail "It's not churn and burn. It's understanding your customer because you're there talking to them." Jared Langston of Good Liar NA Beer on why…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
A Women's Functional Beverage Brand Made By Women | Justine & Taylor, SailWell Co-Founders
Send us Fan Mail Justine Charmley and Taylor Ondrejca are the co-founders of SailWell, a functional wellness ready-to-drink brand made by women, for women…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Building 30+ SKUs of Unsweetened Hemp, CBD & Functional Beverages | Josh Grigaitis, Founder of Mighty Kind Co
Send us Fan Mail Josh Grigaitis is founder of Mighty Kind Co, a functional beverage brand and manufacturer out of St Louis, MO built around one idea. He was…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
You Can't Stop The Will Of The Consumer | Paulo Sobral, General Manager at Chuck It! Beverages
Send us Fan Mail Paulo Sobral is General Manager of Chuck It! Beverages, the LLC behind hemp THC beverage brands Nine Loco and Mamitas, currently in market…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Right Product, Right Account: Sales Strategies and Brand Building With Joanna Manzo-Davis, Co-Founder of Top Dog Cocktails
Send us Fan Mail Joanna Manzo-Davis is CEO and co-founder of Top Dog Spirits, the company behind Top Dog Cocktails. She went to market in 2022 with full…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Why Staying Small Is the Growth Strategy | Dean Yaukey, Founder of Whiskers Brewing
Send us Fan Mail Dean Yaukey is the founder, brewer, accountant, and janitor of Whiskers Brewing in Newville, Pennsylvania. Ten days before his planned…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Relationships Over Budget: How Highlandia Built a Hemp Beverage Community | Adam Borson, CMO at Highlandia
Send us Fan Mail Adam Borson is the CMO for Highlandia, a premium hemp beverage built by Lift & Made, a company that's been in the hemp industry for over a…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Brand Building Over Founder Story: Growth Strategies | Carly Osman Holme, Founder of Sprowt
Send us Fan Mail Carly Osman Holme founded Sprowt, a brand building firm for founders moving from niche to mainstream and legacy brands trying to find their…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Why Patience Beats Hustle | Jon Arrivo, OG Sodas Co-Founder
Send us Fan Mail Jon Arrivo built OG Sodas out of a coffee shop in South Florida. Three years of retail testing later, he's bringing a craft hemp soda, CBD…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Building a Hemp Beverage Brand at 70 | Mary Bernuth, Pharos Premium Beverages
Send us Fan Mail Mary Bernuth co-founded Pharos Brands with her husband Rhyno Stenchfield, a company built as much on personal loss as on business strategy…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Wesley Noyd on Building BEV edu and Selling Beverages With Insights, Not Ego
Send us Fan Mail Wesley Noyd is a field sales rep for Monster Energy in San Antonio and the founder of BEV edu, a training platform built to onboard new…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Coaching The Next Generation of Beverage Sales Reps | Wesley Noyd, Founder of BEV edu
Send us Fan Mail Wesley Noyd built BEV edu, a training platform for small to mid-size distributors and emerging brands - BEVedu.co He built it because most…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Why Trust Beats Transactions For Beverage Founders | Henry Mashburn, CSO & Co-Founder of AHG Pay
Send us Fan Mail Henry Mashburn, CSO and Co-Founder of AHG Pay, explains how payments data reveals 14 to 15 signals about a beverage business and why trust…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Beer First. Gluten Free Second. | Otherwise Brewing's Aaron Gervais
Send us Fan Mail Aaron Gervais is the CEO and co-founder of Otherwise Brewing, one of the only true gluten free breweries in the country. On this episode of…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Cannabis Secret Shopping Exposes Why Dispensaries Are Losing Customers | Tammy Puyear, TPP Services
Send us Fan Mail Most dispensaries have no idea what their own store feels like to a first time customer. Tammy Puyear runs TPP Services, a secret shopping…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Alex Kllanxhja on Drink Entrepreneurship: Leaving Corporate Beverage Sales to Build Pipeline Autopsy
Send us Fan Mail Alex Kllanxhja spent 14 years in beverage sales, cutting his teeth as one of the first reps at Oskar Blues before moving into chain accounts…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
From Gym Buddies to Brewery Owners: The Battle River Brewing Story | Toms River, NJ
Send us Fan Mail Gary Morrison, co-founder of Battle River Brewing in Toms River, New Jersey, joins the Ready To Drink Podcast to tell the story of how three…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
High Risk Payment Processing for Hemp & CBD Brands with Henry Mashburn | Ready To Drink Podcast
Send us Fan Mail Henry Mashburn is Co-Founder of Alternative Horizons Group (AHG), a payment processing firm built for high risk industries like hemp and CBD…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Non-Alcoholic Beverage Marketing with Renee Adams: Shelf Placement, Branding and Building the Category
Send us Fan Mail Renee Adams, founder of Renee Adams Consulting and marketing lead for The Little Sober Bar in Woodstock, Georgia, joins the Ready To Drink…
Ready To Drink PodcastTorch Drinks' Lucas Dyer on Scaling Hemp Beverages the Right Way in North Carolina | RegulateDontRuinNC.com
Send us Fan Mail Lucas Dyer runs sales and brand development for Torch Drinks in North Carolina. Torch started ten years ago in California in the vape and…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Marine Veteran to Hemp Beverage VP of Sales: Brian Hyatt, Oasis
Send us Fan Mail Brian Hyatt is Vice President of Sales at Herbal Oasis, a hemp beverage and functional beverage brand under the cbdMD umbrella. Before hemp…
Ready To Drink PodcastTwo Competing NC Distributors Unite to Save Hemp Beverages | RegulateDontRuinNC.com
Send us Fan Mail Two North Carolina distributors who go head to head for shelf space every single day just sat down together to fight for the same category. Ed…
Ready To Drink PodcastDogwood Hops & Crops Owner Kate Hansen on Hemp Beverages, NC Regulation & Funding Schools | RegulateDontRuinNC.com
Send us Fan Mail Kate Hansen owns Dogwood Hops & Crops and Trophy Room Bourbon Bar in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She's also PTO president at her kids'…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: They Hear You On Hemp, Call & Email Your Lawmakers
Send us Fan Mail Dwayne Carson spent years working Capitol Hill and on a recent episode of the Ready To Drink Podcast, he told a story about postal closures…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Five Minutes of Kindness Challenge
Send us Fan Mail Five minutes of kindness to a stranger, that's the challenge I give every single week on the podcasts. Put your phone in your pocket and look…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Perfect Hydration's Jared Smith: Building a National Alkaline Water Brand
Send us Fan Mail Jared Smith is President of Perfect Hydration Alkaline Water and Star City Beverage, backed by parent company Golden West Food Group. He sits…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Geoff Whaling: The Goodness of Hemp Act and the Fight to Save the Hemp Industry
Send us Fan Mail National Hemp Association Chairman Geoff Whaling joins the Ready To Drink Podcast to break down the Goodness of Hemp Act, the White House…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Four Loko, Convenience Channel & Distributor Trust: Eric Rogers on Building Beverage Brands That Last
Send us Fan Mail Eric Rogers is a National Account Manager for the convenience channel at Phusion Projects, home of Four Loko, and spent years before that with…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Laid Off, But Still Fighting: Matt Compton on Cannabis Dispensary Merchandising, Career Reinvention & Sobriety
Send us Fan Mail Matt Compton spent years building out cannabis retail and dispensary merchandising strategy, most recently as Commercial Operations Director…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Shy Bear Brewing & Rich Coast Coffee: Jason Ufema on Building a 100-Mile Radius Beverage Empire
Send us Fan Mail Jason Ufema, owner of Shy Bear Brewing and co-owner of Rich Coast Coffee in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, joins Ready To Drink Podcast to talk…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
MATE! Vodka Protein Water: Christopher Wolstenholme on Building America's First Protein Alcohol Brand
Send us Fan Mail Christopher Wolstenholme, founder of MATE! Vodka Protein Water, joins Ready To Drink to break down how a failed liquor store idea turned into…
Ready To Drink PodcastAB Bottle Co owner Tony Piccini on why hemp THC beverages are the American dream, not a loophole.
Send us Fan Mail Tony Piccini has run AB Bottle Co in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina for six years. THC beverages now make up 35 percent of his sales. That is…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
The Post Pandemic Wine Market: Jim Silver on Succession Planning and the Bifurcation of Wine
Send us Fan Mail Wine is bifurcating. Massive scale on one end, tiny profitable producers on the other. The middle is getting pressed out. Jim Silver, author…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: "I wake up every day and I don't know what to say." | Joe Gerrity, Founder & CEO - Crescent Canna
Send us Fan Mail "I wake up every day and I don't know what to say." That's Joe Gerrity, Founder & CEO of Crescent Canna - talking about a hemp beverage…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Trade Spends, Deductions and Drink Entrepreneurship with Komal Devjani, Co-Founder of Revya AI
Send us Fan Mail Komal Devjani, Co-Founder at Revya AI, joins the show to break down the back office problem most CPG and beverage founders never look at until…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: She sold out her first trade show in two days. Signed a distributor in twenty. This is how Brewt's started, in a garage in Grand Rapids.
Send us Fan Mail Emily Griffen, Co-Founder and CEO of Brewt's, on how the brand actually started: Bloody Mary mix made at pool parties in LA, a hundred cases…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Building Accord Stone Irish Whiskey From Scratch: Jason Neri on Slow Proofing, Transparency and Surviving the Beverage Alcohol Grind
Send us Fan Mail Jason Neri is the founder of Northern Courage and Accord Stone Irish Whiskey. He spent two decades moving through wine, beer and spirits…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
From Bloody Marys in a Garage to 2,400 Stores: Brewt's Mixers on Building a Beverage Brand Without Outside Capital
Send us Fan Mail Emily Griffen, Co-Founder and CEO of Brewt's, and Courtney Clark, VP of Sales at Brewt's, join Nate Fochtman on the Ready To Drink Podcast for…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
The Real Hemp Story from DC | Dwayne Carson, Founder & Principal of Carson Consulting
Send us Fan Mail Dwayne Carson is the Founder & Principal at Carson Consulting and one of the few people working the hemp beverage issue from inside Washington…
Ready To Drink PodcastHemp THC Beverages & Saving Asheville, North Carolina | Regulate Don't Ruin NC
Send us Fan Mail Three craft beer veterans explain why hemp derived THC beverages are the most important shift hospitality has seen since the craft beer boom…
Ready To Drink PodcastCrescent 9 Built Something From Nothing, Now The Government Wants To Take It Away
Send us Fan Mail Nate Fochtman sits down with Joe Garrity, Co-Founder and CEO, and Joshua Katzenstein, Chief Revenue Officer of Crescent Canna and Crescent 9…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
How Hemp Beverage Emulsions Work and Why Regulation Is the Real Product | Alexander Choi, Perfectly Dosed
Send us Fan Mail Alexander Choi, Co-Founder and CEO of Perfectly Dosed, joins Nate Fochtman on the Ready To Drink Podcast to break down the ingredient…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
The Beverage Lawyer Who Won't Sugarcoat It | Shauna Barnes of Barnes Beverage Group
Send us Fan Mail Shauna Barnes is the founding partner of Barnes Beverage Group, a full-service national law firm built exclusively for the beverage industry…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Building Disco Fizz for the LGBTQ+ & Beyond with Ben Zumsteg
Send us Fan Mail Ben Zumsteg is the founder and CEO of Disco Fizz, a sparkling functional non-alcoholic beverage built for the dance floor. A first-time CPG…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Cannabis Disinformation, Hemp Advertising Suppression and the Fight to Normalize the Plant | Madicyn Marinaro, CCAT
Send us Fan Mail Nate Fochtman sits down with Madicyn Marinaro, Executive Director and Principal Researcher of the Cannabis Council for Advertising…
- Ready To Drink Podcast
Quick Sips: Cannabis Research Is Rigged - 75% of $1 Billion Studies Risk, Not Benefits
Send us Fan Mail Madicyn Marinaro, Executive Director and Principal Researcher at the Cannabis Council for Advertising Transparency (CCAT), breaks down one of…