Guest Pete Olander - THC Drinks Explained 🍒 Hemp vs CBD vs Delta-9 | Inside the $1B Cannabis Beverage Boom 🚀

This week 📢I talk🎙️with Pete Olander Founder at Drink Happie, and we discuss the differences in Delta 8-10, the timing of why Cannibis was changed from Sechedule 1 to 3 Classification by Trump so research can be done and the odd timing of the FM 4121 Banning Cannibis in various formats in the goverment opening last November! 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁

THC drinks, CBD vs Delta-9, hemp regulation, functional mushroom beverages & cannabis laws explained 🍄🍒 Inside the $1B hemp beverage boom! 

Watch Here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nbPK6S-S7II

🔥 Engaging Summary

In this episode of Thirsty Thursdays, Jessie Ott sits down with Pete Olander, founder of Drink Happy, to break down the fast-growing world of THC beverages, CBD drinks, hemp regulation, and functional mushroom wellness.

From Delta-9 vs Delta-8 confusion to Schedule 3 cannabis shifts and the future of hemp drinks in grocery and liquor stores — this is the real talk the beverage industry needs. 🍹🌿

They also taste test THC microdose drinks and mushroom-infused beverages (Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Reishi) and discuss why low-dose THC could disrupt alcohol.

🚀 Key Takeaways

✅ Delta-9 is naturally occurring — Delta-8 & Delta-10 are synthetic
✅ THC beverages are tested multiple times before reaching consumers
✅ Hemp drinks are a billion-dollar category in 2025
✅ Functional mushrooms are exploding in wellness retail
✅ Schedule 3 cannabis could unlock more medical research
✅ Beverage regulation may follow the alcohol model
✅ Microdose THC = controlled experience vs dispensary high-dose products
✅ AI & real-time sales data are helping emerging beverage brands scale

This episode blends entrepreneurship, wellness, beverage innovation, and policy insight into one powerful conversation.

We cover:
• Hemp beverage compliance & testing standards
• Cannabis beverage distribution models
• Functional mushrooms like Lion’s Mane & Reishi
• Real-time Amazon beverage sales data
• The billion-dollar hemp drink market

If you’re in food & beverage, CPG, wellness, cannabis retail, or alcohol distribution — this conversation is essential. 🚀

NOW ON YOUTUBE!!!  Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

Transcript

Jessie Ott (00:00)
what was the properties or what was about it that drew you to it so much?

Pete Olander (00:05)
It was just a very powerful, it's like, you know, almost like nature's aspirin, right? So your body has an endocannabinoid system. It's meant to take this in. So I think a lot of people, I look at it as almost just like another nutritional supplement, right? Like your body can process this. There are effects that have been well studied. It's non-psychoactive. It doesn't affect you that way. And when you put it in conjunction,

with other nutrients and stuff like that. It just kind of what I saw through my research and my stories that I've heard or people have used these products is it almost kind of loosens those pathways up and it just allows your body to process things. So it kind of makes you more efficient.

Jessie Ott (00:49)
Yeah, that's interesting. I've never heard anybody explain it like that before.

Hello everyone and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. My name is Jessie Ott and I have Pete Olander here, founder of Drink Happie. Welcome Pete.

Pete Olander (01:32)
Hey, glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Jessie Ott (01:35)
No, I'm super, super excited and I'm even more excited about the timing that you're on. So we have a lot of really interesting things to talk about, but let's, let's start with you and where are you calling from?

Pete Olander (01:47)
I'm in Chicago, Illinois right now, Wheaton, Illinois, right outside Chicago.

Jessie Ott (01:52)
okay. Okay. I was born and raised in Iowa, you know, growing up. You're a Hawkeye?

Pete Olander (01:55)
Well, I'm a Hawkeye.

I'm a Hawkeye.

Jessie Ott (02:00)
Go Hawkeyes. That never happens. What's ironic, it should happen more. agree. Yeah, for sure. Just somehow, some way it seems that about 10 % of the people I interview are from Philadelphia. And I still haven't figured that one out yet. It's wild. Yeah, beverages or they're entrepreneurs in the water.

Pete Olander (02:02)
Go on. It should happen more.

They must like beverages there.

Jessie Ott (02:24)
Don't know it's it's interesting. Is that where you from are you from Wheaton?

Pete Olander (02:28)
I'm from Wheaton. went to school at Iowa, University of Iowa. And then after that, I moved to Colorado for about 15 years. We're Denver proper, a little ⁓ neighborhood, Platte Park. So we were kind of in the city there for a bit. Then moved back to my hometown. since then, I've been traveling back and forth to California for just my business.

Jessie Ott (02:37)
wow, where at?

Okay.

Okay. And what got you into this side of the business?

Pete Olander (03:01)
nutrition actually. I, prior to getting this going, I was working at a nutrition company, right? And we were working. It's very fortunate. We were working with a lot of, professional athletes, and working on just different, you know, ways to supplement them. looking at natural methods. And I got into kind of greens powders and understanding kind of, you know, how to.

how to manage nutrition through, you know, just real fruits and vegetables and looking at kind of how they interacted. And, you know, one thing led to another because we're looking at, you know, anti-inflammatory products, right, for recovery and performance. And this is around 2014, 15, I started, you know, hearing more about CBD and, you know, kind of just learn more about the plant and the molecule and went down the rabbit hole that way.

Jessie Ott (03:36)
Yeah.

what was the properties or what was about it that drew you to it so much?

Pete Olander (03:56)
It was just a very powerful, it's like, you know, almost like nature's aspirin, right? So your body has an endocannabinoid system. It's meant to take this in. So I think a lot of people, I look at it as almost just like another nutritional supplement, right? Like your body can process this. There are effects that have been well studied. It's non-psychoactive. It doesn't affect you that way. And when you put it in conjunction,

with other nutrients and stuff like that. It just kind of what I saw through my research and my stories that I've heard or people have used these products is it almost kind of loosens those pathways up and it just allows your body to process things. So it kind of makes you more efficient.

Jessie Ott (04:40)
Yeah, that's interesting. I I've never heard anybody explain it like that before.

Pete Olander (04:45)
It's very interesting. I do think it is, uh, like I said, it's, look at as more as a, as a, as a supplement rather than a drug or whatever, because I your body's made for it, you know, and it's been here forever. So I don't, just, it's a way to look at it the other way. And that's only been looked at that way for what? 130 years, maybe.

Jessie Ott (04:56)
Right.

Right.

if that, yeah, I guess it is cause we're, yeah, I guess it's, know, 2026 now. So it's almost 30 years. It's crazy. Time is flying. Bye.

Pete Olander (05:22)
Yeah it is speeding up.

Jessie Ott (05:23)
⁓

So, I saw a post where you said that you were working in the field. So talk about how that came into to be for you as part of this process.

Pete Olander (05:38)
Yeah, well, we started when we started Happie, you know, I it was a ready to drink as

Jessie Ott (05:43)
And can we go back

just for a second? Sorry to interrupt. But Happie started in 2019, like literally right after The Farm Bill

Pete Olander (05:54)
Yeah, yeah, 2018, I was, I was working on it. And we launched it as a CBD drink because I was on the nutrition side. So it did at that point, it didn't have Delta nine hemp in it. And we did it. yeah, it was probably not the best time to launch because 2019 get in, you you get a beverage on the market. had a lot of interest very early for some.

Jessie Ott (06:02)
Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Pete Olander (06:23)
some distributors because CBD was kind of a hot topic back then. And then, by the time we were about to get in there and go, the COVID shutdown happened and they were distributed to a lot of stores. So, that kind of put the clamps on that, but I had this inventory, we started selling on Amazon and it was doing very well. was a good, people liked their flavor, they liked the taste, they liked the nutritional profile.

Jessie Ott (06:32)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (06:47)
And it worked. And then all of a sudden Amazon got, you know, even though was all compliant hemp, you know, everything was fine. They just shut us down. So.

Jessie Ott (06:58)
No kidding, I

didn't know they did that.

Pete Olander (07:00)
Hey!

Jessie Ott (07:00)
How

many hemp beverages or CBD beverages were around back then?

Pete Olander (07:06)
There was a fair amount, at least five or six, right? And they were selling like recess and things like that. So I was playing by all the rules, but they made some decision and then you're dealing with the 800 pound gorilla. So it's like, okay, well, fine. At that point in time, it gave credibility. People like the brand, they like the product, they like the effect, they like what we're doing here, right?

Jessie Ott (07:09)
Okay. Yeah.

Right.

Pete Olander (07:35)
So it was at that point in time, I was like, okay, well, obviously there's something more to this plant and like, let's maybe try and do it where we can do it. So we went out to California and it gave me a chance to, cause I had connections there from when I worked in nutrition, right? But it also gave me a chance that I felt I was like, Hey, let me get closer to the plant, you know, control my supply chain, you know, make sure it's a clean product that, you know, I can feel good about, you know, giving to the market.

And get in there and, know, the California cannabis market is a, is a beast into itself. and then not only that, drinks are very hard in the dispensary model because, you know, what we try and do at happy was more, Hey, this is a micro dose, a low dose, you know, an easy way to get into it. Whereas, you know, the consumer base for dispensaries, they're looking to get maximum effects, you know? And so, and not only that.

Jessie Ott (08:26)
Right.

Pete Olander (08:29)
it was, they're not set up in like a real distribution network, you know, so, cause moving liquids is a lot heavier than moving the other products. So that presented some challenges. So what we did at that point in time is like, okay, well, until we, know, I wasn't really sure. Cause I knew people were doing Delta eight drinks and nine drinks and selling on the market. But I was like, after my experience with Amazon, I'm like, well, let, let me just like wait and see.

and see where this goes before I, you know, do something else. So went out to California, gave me a chance to get closer to the plant, you know, get really involved in the community and understand. we're NorCal. And at that time, you know, because drinks were hard to move in the Spenceries, we said, okay, well, let's just, you know, really build the brand and just around, you know, cannabis and the plant. we do, you know, distribute products, in throughout California. And we were

it gave me a chance to really understand what it took to grow this plant, what it does in California as far as living soil and how important it is. Because at the end of the day, are, know, year, decades ahead of all these other states that just started to go legal as far as the infrastructure, the knowledge. So it gave us a real good learning experience of, hey, this is, you know.

how it should be used, is why you use it, this is intentional why you use it, and this is how to make it not scary. So then a couple of years ago, I felt comfortable with Delta 9. All right, this is the time to get in again. the rest is, here we are today.

Jessie Ott (10:01)
And so, can you talk a little bit, I'm not as familiar with it, with POT and all the CBD and the hemp and the THC and the process of how it's made and the synthetics, which is the Delta 9 and Delta 10. Can you talk a little bit about each of those different categories and how they fit into what you're doing with your business model?

Pete Olander (10:29)
Yeah. So, I mean, there's naturally occurring cannabinoids and they all can be, but there are ways to turn them into breaking molecular compounds and turning them into something else. what we are, we focus on the CBD and the Delta-9 and those are naturally occurring compounds. So, unadulterated right off the hemp plant. ⁓

Jessie Ott (10:50)
So Delta 9

is not synthetic then.

Pete Olander (10:53)
No, Delta 9 is not synthetic. Delta 8 is synthetic. Delta 10 is synthetic. THC-O is synthetic. And those are the ones that really are getting, that should probably be getting the heat in the farm bills and things like that, because they are intensified cannabinoids. So

Jessie Ott (10:55)
Eight is in Delta 10.

Okay.

Pete Olander (11:20)
how they make Delta-8 is, you know, they use a chemical extraction, then they take CBD and they convert it to Delta-8 by breaking one of the chains in the molecular compound. And that's the same process they would use to do the THCOs or the Delta-10s. do they have different effects? Yeah, they definitely have different effects on you. Some are...

Jessie Ott (11:38)
Is it a chemical

change or is it like by heat? I mean, what's the process? Like, how does it work?

Pete Olander (11:44)
Yeah, it's

by heat and chemical, just depending on what they're converting to. So they would, they would do either or depending on, what they're, what they're extracting.

Jessie Ott (11:49)
Okay.

And that's the part that's not regulated.

Pete Olander (11:56)
well, it's regulated in a fact where you have to get tested, right? And, cause at the end of the day, it's gotta be safe for use and how they regulate it at that point is, okay, send it to this third party labs. So now there are, there are third party labs that are, you know, federally okayed. and you have to test for all the compounds in it, right? All the active compounds.

Jessie Ott (12:06)
Right.

Pete Olander (12:22)
And then you have to test for any pesticides, you know, that would be used in growing it. And this is something, you know, that, you know, all organic, you know, farmers use, and then they would test for heavy metals. So really those are the big three that you're going to look for because that doesn't affect your body. You know, one thing I will say is, you know, a lot of these, you know, labs, these approved labs, you know, they're looking at testing protocols that are, you know, limits that are way lower than you would look in an organic.

fruit or vegetable. Especially in California, the standards we have to meet, it's incredible. It's very hard to do compared to just what you're going and getting at the grocery store. The levels for whatever are typically a lot higher than what we're subjected to because I think of the category of what it is.

Jessie Ott (13:09)
And what do you mean by that exactly? give an example of what standards you're under versus someone else.

Pete Olander (13:16)
Well, I just think it comes down to, you know, people still look at cannabis as a drug, you know, so it's like, okay, it's so because of that, the association is like, okay, this needs to be in their minds as close to pharmaceutical grade as possible. Right. So the standards of, your accessible level is, you know, 0.001 parts per million, you know, and then for anything else would be like 0.1, you know,

Jessie Ott (13:21)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (13:45)
But they have standards in there. very, has to pass all these tests and, you know, testing labs have a hard time keeping up because there are changes here and there that they want us, you know, look for a new, pesticide. I mean, it's just great. You have to, which is why, you know, and that's part of the reason why I went to California say, okay, how can we control our source on one more level? So.

What are my farms using? they using living soil? Do they make their own fertilizers? How clean can we make this? Because if that's what we need to do, let's do that.

Jessie Ott (14:21)
Yeah, and I didn't even realize that there was fertilizer used in growing, but of course it is because it's used on everything to grow. But I didn't even think about that because I mean, it's a plant. It's like anything else. It needs soil and fertilizer, water and sun.

Pete Olander (14:31)
Yeah, phosphates and...

Exactly. Exactly.

And the thing that's nice about hemp, especially that's different than, I guess, hemp farmers and people who grow cannabis for medical use is they're growing this stuff outdoors. So we grow ours in the middle of a vineyard, right? Like 16 acre, biodynamic farm. But it's a lot more, hey, how clean is the water using that? How much sunlight are you getting? this.

Jessie Ott (14:59)
wow.

Pete Olander (15:06)
Whereas in, because we're looking for the quality of the plants, like the entire thing, the entire piece of it. And then, some of the other facilities that would be, growing indoor, for example, the cannabis market is very dependent on, how high of levels can I get THC? And in order to do that, it's like, you're giving something up to get higher THC content, whether that's terpenes,

whether it's CBD, whether it's CBG, because you still got to make up that 100 % somewhere. So you're taking energy and shifting it to what is going to grow in the plant.

Jessie Ott (15:40)
Okay. And so how do you extract THC or how do you create it?

Pete Olander (15:46)
So you, I mean, you derive it from the, you have to bake it down. So it's a, it's a heating process. And then we just, you know, at a certain boiling point or temperature, you're allowed to separate the cannabinoids and we just suck those off. That's how we know, Hey, this is CBD right here. This is CBG. This is THC Delta nine. Right. And then we just, you know, separate that and make sure it's pure. then, you know,

Jessie Ott (15:50)
Okay. Okay.

Pete Olander (16:13)
do our process to make sure it emulsifies correctly in the water so it stabilizes.

Jessie Ott (16:18)
Wow, that seems really complicated.

Pete Olander (16:20)
Yeah, no, it's a multiple set process, but yeah, these guys are good.

Jessie Ott (16:22)
It's a- yeah. Do you-

are you able to sell off all the different parts then? Of it? Or do you use it all? Yeah.

Pete Olander (16:29)
of the hemp plant?

yeah. that well, see that that's an opportunity in itself. If people get more into it, because, you know, they used to make, they used to use hemp to make plastics, they they're using it in building materials now. And that's can be used for all the waste, all the sticks and stems that you don't even want to use. It's a it's a it's a faster growing renewable resource than bamboo, which is amazing. And you can, you can make

Jessie Ott (16:40)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Pete Olander (16:54)
clothing out of it, shoes out of it. can do, there's a lot of uses for it.

Jessie Ott (16:55)
Yep.

heard it was

either Paper was going to either be hemp or timber and it was some guy had invested into the timber industry and so the world went with timber or something. don't know. That's a that's what Jeanne Sullivan was talking about back in the day. And so I'm like, well, hemp makes so much sense to be paper. We don't need to not.

Pete Olander (17:17)
Well, the first dollar bills were hemp. The original

currency was hemp.

Jessie Ott (17:22)
That is so cool. Like, why are we not taking advantage of this resource? Because it obviously grows everywhere. I just read about a farm in Wisconsin that's growing it. it doesn't, you know, it seems to be pretty resilient and can grow in multiple places. mean, maybe this is, there's a future there.

Pete Olander (17:43)
There's a big future. I mean, just got to figure out, have the right equipment and cause it takes a lot of similar processing. I mean, if these guys are doing bamboo, if they're doing this, it's, it's a very similar process and it can have a lot of volume go in there to make a lot of you. read an article, regarding. They're using hemp to make concrete. They're calling it hempcrete. And it has something like it was, you know,

resistant to mold, it had a higher R value than any other building materials we use, and you can extrude it out of these 3D printed houses. So it's it's fireproof. I mean, very interesting stuff. And I'm like, this stuff is it's gold.

Jessie Ott (18:25)
It is gold. That's, that's the new currency. Move over dollar. That would be funny. That would, that would make a lot of other countries pissed because they, have such a horrible view of the, of it, you know, but from an industrial standpoint, it should be fine. mean, they've been putting hemp and protein powders and stuff for a long, long time.

Pete Olander (18:28)
Yeah, right? I hope it hasn't been.

Yeah.

You

It used to be in the food stock for all the animals. They would feed it to the animals. They took it out of the food source. And that's where a lot of people would get their CBD and stuff like that because it would be high in that the animals would eat it and then it would get into their, you know, so we'd eat that. But that's been taken out of the food

Jessie Ott (19:04)
Well, that would help with their inflammation,

and they'd be happier and more efficient.

Pete Olander (19:10)
Yeah. Happy cows, water out, smiles in their face.

Jessie Ott (19:12)
Happy

I think that needs, they deserve that. They deserve to be happy. So, can we step back for just a second? what, at what point or was there a big aha moment where you were like, okay, I'm doing this wellness job and I like it and I'm, you know.

Pete Olander (19:16)
They do.

Yeah.

Jessie Ott (19:38)
learning and researching what what at what point did you go i think i'm gonna create a beverage

Pete Olander (19:43)
Well, we were working on some, some RTDs, energy drinks and stuff like that. And at the same point in time, I was working on these greens powders and it was like, it was like two opposite sides of the spectrum. One's like, Hey, get your, you know, all hyped up and jazzed and the greens like, Hey, let's just calm down and rejuvenate. I was like, I was like, okay, well, and one was more natural, right? Or at least it just seemed that way. It just, you didn't have the

you know, come down from the caffeine and all this stuff. And I was like, okay, well. And I was talking to some guys I work with and like, yeah, you know, everyone wants to get, you know, lean or they want to get this. I'm like, I just think people just really want to be happy. Like that's all people want to be. And I'm like, you know what? That's probably a good thing. How people have it when they feel good, you know, relaxed. I was like, I think that could work, you know? So that was kind of my aha moment. It took me a little bit to figure out how to put it all together because, you know,

Jessie Ott (20:23)
Hahaha! ⁓

Yeah.

Pete Olander (20:37)
Not many people wanted to can CBD drinks. Not many people wanted to do this. So it took some, it took some work to figure that side of it out. But I just thought like, you know, there always has to be two opposite ends of spectrum. People love the Red Bull, but okay, you can't be doing that all the time. so there's gotta be, a market for this. And, I think it's proven right. There's a lot of companies that are doing really well with it.

Jessie Ott (21:02)
Mm-hmm.

Pete Olander (21:04)
And at the end, you know, people are taking a more active role in how they're living their life and in wellness and they're more interested in it. Like it's not just about cutting calories. It's not just about this. like, okay, how can I like actually have a better life when I do this? And, you know, my generation, I got two kids. So it's like, yeah, going out and, you know, having a bunch of drinks at night is fun with the boys, but the next morning is really brutal too. So.

Jessie Ott (21:31)
Very brutal.

Pete Olander (21:32)
you know, maybe I can cut

back half of that and, know, replace with this and still have that good, you know, feeling I want, you know, not feel weird at a party, have a drink in my hand and, you know, get there. ingest way less calories, feel better about it. it's just, makes a lot of sense if you do it the right way.

Jessie Ott (21:49)
Yeah, no, 100%.

And what was the flavor profiles that you were wanting to come up with? Like what was the process of not only the product itself, but the flavors that are in the can?

Pete Olander (22:05)
Yeah, so the idea was is to kind of take you back a little bit. So if you look at our can design, it's kind of got that Peter Maxx little 80s style flair to it. And I'm an 80s child, right? So what I wanted to do is have something in there. It's like a little, like a light soda. I love like sparkling waters and stuff like that. And they're good. But I wanted it to have a little more flavor and remnants of kind of, something that brought me back.

Jessie Ott (22:18)
They're fun.

Pete Olander (22:32)
So they kind of mimic like a nice lighter version of a soda, like the grapefruit tastes a little bit like a squirt, right? But it's, you know, 30 calories and it gives you a good feel. The grape, tastes a little bit like a grape crush, a little like it has that profile, but we're putting minerals in there, we're putting agave nectar. It's like the natural version of it. So.

Jessie Ott (22:40)
Okay.

Right.

Pete Olander (22:53)
you know, a little, little more of a candy esque flavor. You know, I wanted to, but that helped me mask the, uh, the cannabinoids in there too, because until we figured that out, there was some bitterness and, know, had to, had to do that the right way. And, um, I wanted to, sweeten it with agave nectar, just because I think that, you know, it's just easy on your, you know, your digestive system and stuff like that, as far as absorption and stuff like that. So.

Jessie Ott (23:20)
Interesting. I didn't know that. Okay. That's super cool. So do you want to transition over into the tasting? All right. Let's do it. Okay. So we've got two types. We've got...

Pete Olander (23:21)
That's kind of where we went.

Yeah, let's do this.

you

Jessie Ott (23:39)
the THC and the fungi. Fungi? I said it wrong again. Fungi fusion. those is so cool. Yeah. I've got watermelon, blue raspberry and mango mimosa. And I'll tell you, I've been buying coffees with mushrooms in it and I can tell a difference. My brain focuses a little bit more and

Pete Olander (23:43)
Fungi Fusion.

Yeah, no, it's

Jessie Ott (24:04)
I get, I'm more efficient.

Pete Olander (24:04)
a nice little clean energy. Yeah, no, it's just a nice little hack, I think. the mushrooms make a lot of sense. it's a good, like it's a clean energy lift, you know? Like a calm. It's like a calm energy, which sounds weird, but it's like, right, I'm focused, I'm dialed in, but I don't get the jitters, you know, but I still got enough juice.

Jessie Ott (24:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's cool. So which one should we start with?

Pete Olander (24:31)
Well, I got both these out too. I can you want to try the the fungi fusion first? I got a blue raspberry here.

Jessie Ott (24:36)
Yeah, let's do that.

Okay.

Pete Olander (24:39)
But you

Jessie Ott (24:39)
They're

cool cans. For those of you on YouTube, you can see it, but... ⁓

Pete Olander (24:44)
you got to,

try the mango mimosa. People love that one. You're going to love it. but I'll do, I'll, I'll do this. I can do this one. They're delicious.

Jessie Ott (24:47)
Okay, do that one. Okay, here's the mango.

The artwork is so fun. It is 80s. And you do have 900 milligrams lion's mane, 700 milligrams cordyceps, 400 milligrams rishi, and then you got the magnesium and the calcium. And so I guess the sugars and carbs just come from the agave.

Pete Olander (24:56)
Thanks.

Thanks.

exactly right. So all natural.

Jessie Ott (25:15)
Yeah.

And this

can is only 40 calories, which is unheard of.

You got the bubbles, you've got... It's pretty clear. Pretty clear color. Smells... It's very fragrant. It smells great. I'm a mango person, though. I love mango.

Pete Olander (25:35)
Yeah.

Jessie Ott (25:43)
Yeah, that's good.

Pete Olander (25:44)
Yeah, can't taste any funky mushrooms on that one, right?

Jessie Ott (25:47)
Uh-uh. Not at all.

I was, I had another podcast with another gentleman that had a different line. He had, he was doing like coffees, matchas, and then afternoon drinks. And I did all six of them and I was a mess. I was having so much fun, but I wanted to do a dry January test and I wanted to do a a blood draw in December.

or the first part of January and drink one of these a day for a month and then redraw my blood and see if there's any changes. Because I think that'd be an interesting experiment.

Pete Olander (26:29)
That would be awesome. think, yeah. I love the idea of getting blood tests and like, you know, waiting up like a quarter, a quarter, a quarter to see how I my diet, changed my diet a little bit, little bit, and see what, how it really affects. Cause everyone's, everyone's different, right?

Jessie Ott (26:38)
Yeah, quarters probably.

Yep. Cause you know, as you get older and if you do drink, which you know, my wife and I will love wine and have occasional drinks and whatnot, whatever, but it increases your blood pressure. And so this would actually have the opposite effect.

Pete Olander (27:03)
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it's about, just your hormone control, like cortisol, people are stressing, their cortisol levels are up and then that, that affects the rest of, the rest of them. So that's why they're like, Oh, get in balance, get in balance. Okay. Well, I mean, that's where that calming, you know, effect or Rishi or, you know, but you can get that from meditation. can get this, this is just a, you know, a nutritional supplement to help you get there.

Jessie Ott (27:27)
Okay, cool. All right, well, which other one should we try?

Pete Olander (27:31)
You want to try one of the THC ones?

Jessie Ott (27:33)
I do have a wellness check-in with my doctor after this. There you go. All right, which flavor should we go for?

Pete Olander (27:37)
Well, you'll be smiling when you walk in. This is perfect.

Well, try the cherry. You'll like the cherry.

Jessie Ott (27:51)
Okay, I love cherries.

Is it clear too?

got a little color to it. ⁓ I poured a little bit too much, but I've got other glasses here. can pour some other ones. yeah, that's definitely cherry.

Pete Olander (27:55)
Yeah.

Jessie Ott (28:00)
Yeah, that's really good. That's a really good flavor of cherry. It's refreshing.

Pete Olander (28:02)
Thank you.

That yeah, we worked on that one for some

of them. Some of them. And we had this problem at first too, is we're mixing up and had like a little cherry mediciney flavor. And I was like, no, no, we got to redo this. Like I want it to be like wild cherry, but like a late one. And I want it to be, and this is the thing with all my drinks. Like I want, if we're going to tell people this is going to be in there, I don't want them drinking half of it and getting like, Oh, I might, I don't, you know, I don't like the taste of it anymore. It stays in funky. Like I want it to taste clean the whole way through.

Jessie Ott (28:19)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (28:35)
so they finish it so they know what they got.

Jessie Ott (28:35)
Right.

Yeah, no, this is definitely clean and it's not malty, you know, or anything like that. It's real fresh. mean, the bubbles obviously help with kind of that feeling, you know, and I mean, the color is great.

Pete Olander (28:47)
Mm.

Jessie Ott (28:50)
You know? I don't think that people normally do this, or maybe they do. I don't know. Do they mix these with alcohol?

Pete Olander (28:59)
Yeah. Cross fading. That's what they call that. it's, it's a real, cross fading is a real thing. mean, people were, people call me and they, they, someone sent me like a huge line of drinks they made with happy or like, they were easy with like the, the grapefruit they'd mix with vodka for like a Greyhound, you know, or they'd make a, they made a margarita with the lime, you know, and it's just the, the flavors are like

Jessie Ott (29:02)
⁓ crossfading, it's a real thing. Okay.

Pete Olander (29:26)
strong enough, but like not too heavy. Like they add a nice, nice flavor to without it being overpowering.

Jessie Ott (29:34)
Yeah. Well, I'm wondering if it, with the minerals that you have in there, if it's, almost hydrating and you, you're, it eases the effect of, being hung over or having, being tired the next day.

Pete Olander (29:49)
Yeah, that's kind of an ode to my nutrition days. you know, adding minerals like magnesium is a big one. A lot of people are deficient in that. But that helps. Yeah. So, hey, if I can add it in here, give someone a little extra bump. It does help with hydration and like, you know, muscle recovery is what magnesium is really known for.

Jessie Ott (29:56)
Yes, most people, think. Yeah.

Isn't it, doesn't it help you sleep at night too?

Pete Olander (30:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Jessie Ott (30:12)
I,

knowing that I'm probably deficient somewhat in magnesium, I have a friend, one of our good friends in Dallas, he went keto and he's been studying his body ever since. And he's the one that told us about every three months he got his blood tested because he was eating a different diet to see what would help and turn things for him.

and then his workouts and all the things. He's pretty dialed in. It's pretty cool. I know he takes the magnesium supplements at night, which would probably be a good idea.

Pete Olander (30:44)
Yeah, that's, that's one I actually do magnesium and zinc together at night. Yeah. ZMA you can just buy it's like a $8 bottle on Amazon. It's a highly. ⁓ okay.

Jessie Ott (30:48)
⁓ together at night. Okay, that's good to know.

okay. Well, I have them both here. Well, I don't

have magnesium, but I do have zinc. Yeah. There you go. I'm looking forward to that tonight. It's exciting. Do we want to try another one?

Pete Olander (31:04)
Well, just drink a couple of Happy's, throw some zinc in and you'll sleep awesome.

Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Try. I mean, they're they're delicious.

Jessie Ott (31:25)
Grapefruit?

Pete Olander (31:26)
Do it. That was, that's the OG original grapefruit. That's the first flavor I worked on.

Jessie Ott (31:30)
The original.

I love grapefruit. I don't eat enough of them. I don't think about it. I eat a lot of oranges.

Pete Olander (31:37)
of vitamin C.

Jessie Ott (31:38)
I just took it from the can this time, I forgot.

Pete Olander (31:41)
That's all right. What do you think? What do you think? Initial can can sip. How does that compare to glass sip? I guess we'll know.

Jessie Ott (31:47)
Well, no, we'll do a comparison. This was pretty clear.

Exactly the same. It's not overpowering. It's really light. Grapefruit.

Pete Olander (31:55)
What

do you think of that grapefruit flavor? Does it remind you of those squirts?

Jessie Ott (31:57)
Yeah.

Yes. Yes, but not not with the sugar, because when you think of squirt, you're like, ugh.

Pete Olander (32:01)
It's good, Yeah. Now with like, what do

they have in their sucralose or something back there? Like they put that in Fresca, right? So like, there's that weird sweet at the very end. was like, smooth that baby out. This thing, it'd be perfect.

Jessie Ott (32:12)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, that is really good. It's refreshing. You could easily add vodka or something to that. That is cool. Well, this has been so much fun. Thank you for sending the samples. Do you want to talk about price? I know I got one box that looks like you got a four pack here.

Pete Olander (32:21)
Yeah, you could.

Yeah. Yeah. We, uh, we got the four. It's a great, we're doing a special on our website right now on drinkhappie Um, so 20, 20 % off it's, uh, $18.99, but 20 % off that. And, um, you know, we, we will get a code out, um, for everybody, but I think it's, it'll be drink happie 20. And if any of your listeners want to go in and check us out, we can offer that discount on the other lines as well.

And in addition, the, fungi fusion we're on Amazon too. So all three flavors are on Amazon. So you can check our reviews out there. We're getting great reviews and, um, excited about that one too.

Jessie Ott (33:18)
Yeah. No, that's cool. mean, you know, my previous podcast, Jeanne she's an investor. so I don't know if she's an investor in your company, but I know she's invested in a lot of different ones. And she's so fun and so nervous about this bill. And I couldn't believe what had transpired and who

Who would thought that somebody would have just slipped something so random in from, and I think this was filed like last year. It's the FM, no HR 4121, but it's part of a bigger study, like a committee, right? And that's kind of where I actually took the PDF.

And I downloaded it from the congressional website and I put it in Chat GPT and I go, tell me what this means. And I think to some degree there's some, regulation in there that like to your point probably needs to happen. I mean, we've been asking for this to be regulated at a federal level level so we can move on. Right. In some ways. But

There's also a lot of concern and I would like to have you kind of tell me what your thoughts are and how is it going to affect you.

Pete Olander (34:32)
Yeah, well, I think it's becoming clear because when they threw it in in November, it was just very interesting timing. was right after Trump had signed cannabis into schedule three instead of one. And then they had the shutdown and then this got thrown in there. So I thought the timing was really weird as are they going to nationalize cannabis everywhere and just, know, hemp.

The hemp beverages in general, they're a different category. And, you know, they have distributors, they have stores that are, you know, actively selling this in stores. And I think it's been pretty successful up until this point. And when this went in, it was crazy because all the distributors were like, well, I don't know what's going to happen. We're going to have to send this back. We don't know. And now state by state, Illinois just released one that's saying, okay, we're carving out beverages.

There's another state that says, okay, we're going to carve out beverages. We're going to leave that because beverages in general, there's three different checkpoints before this gets in the consumer's hands. You got to test the multiplication liquid before it goes in the can, right? Then you got to test the can after it comes off the line, right? Then it's got to, then you have to do stability testing on it, right? So it's like, it's tested so many ways, whereas some of these other products like gummies and

Jessie Ott (35:27)
Okay.

Pete Olander (35:52)
some of the other products they're tested once, right? And then there it is. But, these are, these are, yeah, no, it's just, and I think at the end of the day, that's where, these big alcohol companies and distributors are like, okay, cause it has to be done in a big facility. can't do this in your kitchen, you know? So it has been a facility that does this, all the time. So it's clean. So the,

Jessie Ott (35:57)
Okay, that's a good point of differentiation.

Right.

Pete Olander (36:15)
You know, think beverages, we had to wade through this like everybody else because we're in the category, but we are a completely separate kind of line. Like we should be looked at differently. And I think, you know, the powers of VR are realizing that, right. And it's, and in addition, you know, the beverages that are getting to, you know, the consumers that are in liquor stores and grocery stores, you know, they're looking for a lower dose product anyway. They're not looking for that maxless, you're at a wall.

Jessie Ott (36:40)
Right.

Pete Olander (36:42)
You know, they're, doing it to enjoy their life. You don't have to have a couple drinks with their friends, feel like they're, you know, still in control and can go, but had a good time, right? Totally different customer base than the people who are going into a dispensary. And, you know, some are, so I shouldn't say that, that some are going in just to that, but like, it just, it's the difference between drinking like a whiskey and a beer.

Jessie Ott (37:05)
Yeah. Okay.

can you just explain what Trump signed from, you said it went from ⁓ like a schedule one?

Pete Olander (37:15)
Schedule one, yeah.

Schedule one, like narcotic, is what cannabis has listed for since the 30s, right? And then he reduced it to a schedule three. And what that did for the industry, cannabis in general, is it allowed more medical studies to be done. That's 100 % what we want.

Jessie Ott (37:35)
Right, okay. And that's what we want, especially for our troops

and all the PTSD and all the things that they're having, because we know it works. So that's exactly what we want.

Pete Olander (37:47)
Yeah, cause it's been anecdotal, anecdotal or whatever to this point. but we need like the real studies that, Hey, put it through, guess, all your tests, the FDA wants to do and like, just get the word out there. Cause because it is not causing damage to people's, you know, internals, right? So is it really doing what they say it is? And everyone, you know, there's a lot of stories out there. Let's give us the parameters and let's see if it does. So I think at the end of the day, it's good now. And what that does though,

is it brings in the pharmaceutical companies, right? So there's going to be another level of kind of oversight or maybe there's some useful things that the pharmaceutical industry can help to push along because I think it does maybe threaten some of their lines of business, but we're trying to have people be very healthy in every way they can. it's either you.

You know, your diet affects your health long-term. So this is just a small little step, almost like a nutritional supplement. Like I said, if you use the right way, you know, then you're not getting to this point where it's like, I gotta be on all this medication.

Jessie Ott (38:57)
Right. Okay, that's interesting. I haven't thought about it from a pharmaceutical standpoint. You always kind of worry that they're just going to shelve it, you know, and not do anything with it because it could threaten some of the drugs that they have. But maybe that's that's part of the evolution of it.

Pete Olander (39:12)
Yeah, well, maybe they get in,

maybe it, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them start getting into it or have a division and, as long as, know, they can benefit, I'm sure they're going to be interested in it.

Jessie Ott (39:23)
Yeah. So how did you find out about this slip-in bill in November for the shutdown?

Pete Olander (39:30)
My attorney called me like, did you see this? And I was like, what? ⁓ and then, and then, you know, you go on LinkedIn and it's all over. People are all over the place. Right. And it was, you know, people thought the sky was falling, you know, I'd be getting calls from other owners and saying, can you believe this?

Jessie Ott (39:35)
Ugh.

All over, yeah.

I don't blame them because November,

it's a billion dollar industry in 2025. How are you going to wipe that out? Because I still don't even understand who's affected. I don't understand the 0.4 to the 0.3 and HIP versus THC. What products are being affected and...

Pete Olander (39:53)
I mean, there's a lot of jobs.

Jessie Ott (40:06)
What chat GPT told me was it was really more of the synthetics like the Delta nines and Delta tens and then parts per container had to be lowered. And so I don't know how that affects anything that you guys create or who who's affected by that. mean, how many people do you think this is going to affect?

Pete Olander (40:26)
A lot. You got packaging people, you got processors, you have farmers, have, you know, retail salespeople going outside. mean, there's an industry built around this. And, you know, I think it's just easier for them to just to say all cannabinoids, right? Because unless you're a nerd about it and really get into it and understand the differences of it, it's just like, well, who's going to understand? So we'll throw them all in and then, you know, we'll pull the pieces out.

Jessie Ott (40:35)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (40:52)
depending on who's yelling at us the loudest, think. I mean, yeah, I think any synthetic should have some additional eyes on it. I mean, if you're growing it, it's coming, it's a natural compound. It's in the right levels where, I mean, at the end of the day, the liquor company, so going back to beverages and the distributors, they finally got comfortable with the five and 10 milligrams because like, okay, that's the equivalent of about a beer.

So it was real easy for them to say, okay, that's, that's how it's going to affect this person. Right. but it's just, the synthetics can be very different on how your body processes them. And that can be, you just don't want to, there's, there's a lot more real life evidence of CBD and THC than Delta eight, Delta 10.

Jessie Ott (41:39)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (41:39)
Delta, whatever, you know,

Jessie Ott (41:41)
Right.

Pete Olander (41:41)
so it's just, it adds a layer of complexity and it's just easier for him to say, okay, well, let's just throw it all in there and then we'll see what happens.

Jessie Ott (41:49)
Okay. So do you feel, does your lawyer feel that the industry is going to kind of, you already mentioned some states are peeling back the beverages, but do you feel like there's going to be a path forward that they can move fast enough? Cause I was watching this video of these, these farmers, the farmers in Wisconsin, and it's like we're in winter and they're going to be planting fields in the next few months. Like they got to know what's going on before they.

put in a crop. what are, what is the, does anybody know what this process looks like?

Pete Olander (42:19)
Yeah.

I stopped trying to figure out what the government was going to do. I don't think there's any use in doing that. ⁓

Jessie Ott (42:30)
It doesn't make

sense to me from the point of view of Trump because he is a pro-business guy, he's a pro-money guy. And I can't imagine that he'd want to get rid of a billion dollars in tax revenues.

Pete Olander (42:45)
Exactly. So if you follow the money, has to, so is it just to kind of get everyone excited and up in arms? then I, you know, part of me thinks that it's a game, you know, like, okay, where they're, cause a lot of the bigger beverage companies, they're expanding. So they know something they're taking a risk.

Jessie Ott (42:48)
It just-

Well, I just

saw a post about how Sprouts just took in what 10 or 12 different brands across the country. So there, nobody's stopping.

Pete Olander (43:12)
Nobody's stopping. And if these, if these retailers are on board and they're paying taxes and, and everybody, and they're doing it the right way, they're, you know, selling it to the right people. They're making sure their, you know, vendors are supplied and, and at the end of the day, like, I'm, I'm not against regulator. I'm sure a lot of these companies that are doing it the right way, they would welcome it. Right. It's only the people who aren't doing it the right way. Like, no, that's not like work. None of us are saying no, regulations. No, just tell us what they are.

Jessie Ott (43:32)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (43:40)
because there are customers out there who are really like these drinks, know, they're worth, you know, so what do we have to do and just let's work together and figure that out.

Jessie Ott (43:40)
Right.

Right.

Yeah, because what ChatGPT kind of basically said was they're going to change the regulation, but we don't know what that means. Right? It's going to change, but OK, well, how do we do that? How does that get done?

Pete Olander (44:09)
Yeah, it'll probably be, but you know, they called it the 2018 farm bill and then it just got kicked and kicked. I mean, maybe doing nothing is probably the most likely scenario where they just keep everyone in limbo for a bit while they do carve outs. I have no idea.

Jessie Ott (44:14)
Yeah.

Yeah. I just, can't... Well, what's the worst that could happen? they find, they start fining people? Like, what's the penalty?

Pete Olander (44:37)
Yeah, well, I think that's start of it. The worst that can happen is they kill the industry, right? So they start fining a retailer for having it on their shelves and then boom, they don't do any more orders and then boom, you know, these manufacturers lose out on money. These brands lose, they just, I mean, I don't like to think about it, but I mean, if you're thinking worst case scenario, they could do whatever they want. know, it just doesn't make sense to me.

Jessie Ott (44:38)
So there's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do think that, sure, right, it should be regulated to some degree anyway. but, be, yeah, be clear about it. Just come the pro I guess the problem is, and I think Jeanne mentioned this is there's not enough research for them to to hand over for the to the, you know, to Congress to make laws around it.

Pete Olander (45:13)
It should be regulated just like alcohol.

Well, I think that's why they pushed the schedule three forward. That's why I said the timing was interesting, right? It's like, schedule three, the exact schedule, or maybe they were like schedule three, then we're gonna put this in and get everyone excited, but we're gonna have a clinical studies being done right now. And then we'll have a better idea of what cannabinoids we can or can't include. But that's just me, that's a way out there guess. But the timing was just very,

Jessie Ott (45:34)
Yeah. Yeah, they weren't on the same page.

Okay, that's

Fishy.

Pete Olander (45:58)
Interesting.

Yeah.

Jessie Ott (46:00)
Now, did Trump do that before the shutdown or during the shutdown?

Pete Olander (46:04)
I think he did it before the shutdown. happened. He did that before the bill went in with the hemp because the, and it's interesting because I'm on both sides of it. So, because we do, we do run a compliant cannabis operation in California. Right. So, I mean, this would be very beneficial if they did do, you know, schedule three gives them, gives those guys access to banking. and it does a couple other things like it gets rid of the 2 80 taxes, which helps the business.

But if that happened and they could do with that, they could do interstate commerce, right? So basically you can do that if it's schedule three and the states get on board. That would be a boon to the California economy and actually help the rest of the country as far as costs for cannabis in general, because you could send fresh product. It's a bigger infrastructure rather than building a building here, heating it with

they're not very energy efficient, right? you know, put the parameters on of, cause it's very stringent to have a safer humans, human consumption. But, that's just that, that could be a way to, open it up to the rest of the country too, instead of having capital investments in all these States and having all States have their own regulatory agency and all this. Okay. Plug it in that way.

Jessie Ott (46:59)
Right.

Yeah.

Pete Olander (47:25)
let's build it on the framework of how we do alcohol in the country. It's worked for years and we have the infrastructure to do it. So it would be a logical step.

Jessie Ott (47:36)
Interesting. And so if the bill stays as it is, does that affect you currently?

Pete Olander (47:44)
It would affect me in the markets that they don't carve out beverages. Cause then you couldn't sell it in those markets. But like I said, you know, there, there, there's several States that have already carved it out and said, beverages are okay because you know, we can, we can manage the dose so well. know exactly what's in it. So it just gives them an extra like risk mitigation.

Jessie Ott (48:01)
Yep. Okay.

Yeah. I think that is a fantastic, that's fantastic news. And I'm sure if word gets around most or many states, I would say would both do the same thing because it's just too much money. I mean, that seems like a more workable solution because I trust the state to pass something faster than Congress, you know?

Pete Olander (48:23)
Thanks

Yeah.

Yeah. And if Congress passes it, or if they say, okay, this is good, it just, that sets the precedent, right? And then you don't have to fight it. Then you don't have to have a state regulatory body. And then you don't have to do, it's just like, how many layers of government do we need to sell a tomato? I mean, it's basically like, THC or CBD. like, I mean, I can't, you're outlawed for selling, you know, green tomatoes. You know, okay.

you

Jessie Ott (48:53)
Oh, that would be funny. Yeah, I mean, that's the that's the laughable part of it, right? It's just ridiculous. mean. Well, you think about the 80s, you remember, I mean, you were born in the 80s, so you may not remember. OK, so I'm a 70s girl, too. I'm a bicentennial baby. So, yeah.

Pete Olander (49:00)
Crazy world we live in.

70s.

Ooh, 78.

Jessie Ott (49:16)
Okay, so you're little bit younger than I am. do you remember the 80s? This is what happens when you do drugs. This is, you put an egg in a frying pan.

Pete Olander (49:24)
I remember the frying pan

with the egg and dare and I was like, yeah, okay. I mean, that makes sense. It's hilarious because my kids are going through DARE right now in school. And I'm sitting these kids I'm like, okay, DARE's just talking about drugs and just I'm like, this stuff could be totally outdated. Like I kind of like understand a little bit. But I'm like, why don't they just talk about addiction? Because these kids are staring at screens all day.

Jessie Ott (49:28)
Yeah.

Pete Olander (49:48)
I'm like, that is like the mental state these kids get in. I would rather have them do something else.

Jessie Ott (49:52)
Right.

Yeah, no, that's a good point. I was thinking, and I don't know how young your kids are, but I was thinking in college maybe and in high school, think junior high is too little, but teaching emotional intelligence, which goes into being adult. That would just make too much sense.

Pete Olander (50:11)
They need to listen to their parents first. You know, I don't know if they're going to listen. They don't listen to me anyway. You're going to take my advice.

Jessie Ott (50:18)
I'm trying to think of where that, where does that switch happen? Is it high school? Is it college? Cause you know, growing up, you're, I was an athlete. I was from a small town, kind of had, not blinders on, but kind of blinders, you know, and, you go to your first psychology, class in college and you're, they're talking about your parents and how they're in the sandwich years of

being an empty nester and losing your parents and they're falling ill and as a kid you sympathize with them at that moment but you don't think about them as a human being going through all of these emotions. And it was like such a daunting thing on me which I guess that had a huge impact on my emotional capacity to think about what my parents were going through. And that to me is kind of along the lines of that emotional

intelligence. Anyway, I didn't mean to go down that rabbit hole, but...

Pete Olander (51:08)
You know, it's an

interesting, I had this thought I was watching. I watched the Breakfast Club like about a year ago, and it's the first time I saw it in 20 years. And I watched and I remembered watching it. I was like, I don't remember this movie being anything like this when I watched it 20 years ago. Yeah, you know, like a watch a movie like in your frame of mind, like your teenagers, like, now you see me like what? Yeah, it's I think that's yeah.

Jessie Ott (51:33)
I'll have to watch it.

Yeah, I'll ping you. Let you know my reaction. Yeah, good times. That was good movie.

Pete Olander (51:41)
Yes.

Jessie Ott (51:42)
So switching back over to you, do you wanna talk anything else about the brand before we... I just have a few questions to ask you and we'll wrap up.

Pete Olander (51:52)
well, ask me the questions first. I'll see if you cover them in your questions.

Jessie Ott (51:57)
Okay. So, do you have any mentors or resources that you'd like to share with others? Share your stories of a mentor or any resources that were beneficial for you as you were learning this industry?

Pete Olander (52:11)
Yeah, well, learning this industry, I mean, it came from a lot of different things. you know, prior to in the nutrition world, I was in banking and I had a lot of good ventures there. So I was very fortunate to be exposed to business owners and I became, close with a couple of them. And, they really gave me the confidence to go out and be like,

You got to think different. You got to take chances. You got to do that. You got to like go through it a little bit. Right. So, as far as, mindset or mentoring me on that, that was great. I was also, you know, worked with a lot of Navy SEALs. I had a boss who was a Navy SEAL and, know, was introduced to a bunch of them. what they go through on a physical and mental and whatever, like.

mentorship on just the mindset of kind of what you have to bring every single day if you want to be successful, right? And just like ingraining it in, hard work and cause that's, that's any business or just any person in general, everyone's going through something, right? So it's just like how you look at it, how you flip the script. So I think that that's Now, nutrition and beverages, I worked with a lot of

high level people and they were always very focused on product quality, knowing where it came from, caring about your customers. But it comes to a point where too, you gotta learn some of that yourself, right? So.

You got to jump off, go back, have some questions. in, the cannabis industry, I've met a lot of people, some of them I've learned a lot of lessons, right? Some good ones and some bad ones. but that's just, you know, every industry's got, got that as well. But you find some really good people who care about the plant. and in California, I'll tell you from, I've been all over the country and

There's a lot of people who really understand, what's going on with the plant, how it can be used better. and it's just ahead of the rest of the country on some of the stuff, but, it's still been bottled up for so long, right. Just because of the negative connotations with it. but no, my, my journey has been filled with a lot of, a lot of good mentors, lot of lessons, good and bad, but, ⁓ you know,

Jessie Ott (54:07)
Nice.

Pete Olander (54:20)
It makes it worth it.

Jessie Ott (54:23)
Yeah, no, absolutely. Do you have a pain point that you've experienced starting a new company that you've overcome that you'd like to share on how to handle a certain situation?

Pete Olander (54:36)
Yeah, I mean, just finding,

I mean.

When you have a company or you start a company, right? It's typically your vision and know where it's going. You have a good idea, but you very soon, if you're going to turn into something, realize you can't do it yourself. Right? So a pain point, you know, is like, you need to find other people who share your vision, who, you know, maybe you can't find them to share your passion on it, but you can get them, you know, motivated if you can show them how they can

benefit and have it become their passion, right? But in order to do that too, like especially in a growing industry like hemp, where it is volatile all over the place, finding the right partner who's stable, finding someone who can, fulfill or stay good on their word, that's a pain point. And then once you get, once you figure that out, cause that's achievable, it's then now I got to scale this with some, employees and staff and

How do we get them? You need people. You need the right people. And it's an interesting time in the workforce now because a lot of people shifted this gig economy and then AI is coming in, which has been, I think, a blessing and a curse because it has helped Happie do a lot more things internally as far as administrative or processing or just like, you

the communication has gotten a lot better. Now, you can't use AI to automate. And I think that's a shortfall in a lot of people like, we can get AI to do this and that. Like, you can't replace all humans. that's not possible. If you are, have a sloppy work product, right? Because it's spitting stuff out. But it can speed things up. It could improve your quality work if you're, if you got the right people, you know, making the edits they need and doing.

Jessie Ott (56:10)
Right. It's not possible.

Yeah.

Pete Olander (56:25)
you know, whatever else. And then, you know, being a small business owner, the communication, you know, because I got people in California, I people in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, like, okay, how do we keep everyone on the same page? Because we don't have the big budgets of, some of these other beverage companies that have a CRM and have all this stuff. So, but AI has allowed us to really kind of tighten that up a little bit. So we at least can compete.

Jessie Ott (56:51)
Gotcha. Okay. One thing I meant to ask you is I know I understand the data and reporting through distributors and whatnot and the beverage side, but I don't understand it from your side of the business. Is it similar? Do you think? do you get like depletion sales from the distributor on what accounts are buying?

Pete Olander (57:20)
Yeah. So yeah, it just depends on your distribution. Some do, some don't. And then there is some software that we're testing that will actually go in and link into point of sale systems and give us kind of data velocity. And once we know that, know, then we know, okay, it's about time for a reorder or let's run a promo on this. So, but those are some of the things that, you know, these new systems and AI are giving us access to because

You know, once again, everyone's short on staff, good staff. So to add one more thing to your distributor or, hey, store, give me a report. It's just like, we have to make it as easy as possible on them and just help them move drinks. That's, that's my main focus.

Jessie Ott (58:04)
Yeah, no, absolutely. It's 100%. It's interesting to see how AI is really playing into this. From a data perspective, yeah.

Pete Olander (58:15)
Yeah. And it's getting better every day.

So it's real time. So it's like, okay, I know what our AOC is on Amazon. I understand that like real time. it allows me to not be like, okay, a month later, okay, that was a bad decision. Like we can change gears real quick. We're nimble enough to do it. that, you know, cause cash flows is the lifeblood of a company.

So we gotta know real quick what's going on because all, know, companies with these tools that I didn't have access to before, they're doing it on a daily basis. Like for us to be playing with them, we have to find a way to do that.

Jessie Ott (58:55)
Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. So what's your outlook for 2026 minus all the politics stuff?

Pete Olander (59:04)
I think

for Happie, I'm excited about it. It's going to be a good year. we've got some new markets. going into feedbacks been great. We just launched our 10 milligram Happies, the Happyiers, so higher dose. We've got five milligram and 10. we're speaking with some retailers on the mushroom drink too.

There's, there's been a couple of brands that have, have focused on, on this mushroom things and the market is exploding on functional mushrooms. So I think we got a, we got a great product and I think as long as we get it in people's hands and they can try it, I think they're gonna, they're gonna want to try it again and again.

Jessie Ott (59:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, I do too.

Yeah. 100%. No, they're good quality, clean, fresh, good flavor cocktails. So congratulations to you and your team. You're crushing it. And yeah, if there's anything I can do to help whenever, if you want to go overseas, I can't sell it to the military, but I can sell it in other markets, other countries. What's that?

Pete Olander (59:53)
Thank you.

There you can see the mushrooms grow.

The fungi fusion?

Jessie Ott (1:00:14)
Yeah, I guess that's, that's, could, we could sell that in the military. All right. Well, you know, I can help you there. All right. Let's figure that out. That sounds fun. That's cool. That's really fun. So, do you want to play a quick little game? It's just like a rapid fire game. And I just asked you a couple of questions and you just, whatever comes. Okay. So if you were a cocktail.

Pete Olander (1:00:18)
Yeah!

Let's do it. I'm in let's figure that out.

Yeah.

Let's go.

Jessie Ott (1:00:44)
What would you be?

Pete Olander (1:00:45)
I like the Greyhound.

Jessie Ott (1:00:47)
The Greyhound, okay, good one. I like it. What's your favorite type of food?

Pete Olander (1:00:53)
Mexican.

Jessie Ott (1:00:55)
Where's your favorite place to travel?

Pete Olander (1:00:56)
Wow, that's a good one. I like Costa Rica.

Jessie Ott (1:01:02)
That's a good place. Do you have a one-liner or favorite one-liner you'd like to share from a movie or a song or something?

Pete Olander (1:01:12)
that that one caught me off guard.

Jessie Ott (1:01:15)
Yeah, it's hard one. I've only had one person really be able to do it. And I asked that question because it does get a lot of views. I mean, people do like it.

Pete Olander (1:01:24)
I do like the what I see now I don't know where it came from because if you give me with my friends we're all zoom one liners you know just like what's the one where it's like "Always be Closing" or something is that from Boiler Room or something "Always be Closing" so

Jessie Ott (1:01:31)
I know, it'll just roll off your tongue.

I don't know. ⁓

Like closing a deal. Yeah, that's a good one.

Pete Olander (1:01:44)
Yeah, Coffee's for

Closers. Always be closin'.

Jessie Ott (1:01:49)
That's awesome. Well, Pete, thank you so much for sending product and jumping on a call with me and taking time out of your day to talk about the product and learn a little bit about you.

Pete Olander (1:02:00)
No, I really enjoyed it, Jessie. Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the drinks and yeah, let's circle back on that military thing.

Jessie Ott (1:02:09)
Yeah, that sounds, sounds like fun. Let's do it. Okay. Alrighty. Take care. Bye.

Pete Olander (1:02:11)
Thank you.

Take care.