Maureen Benkovich (00:01.711)
Hey everybody. So today I'm excited about this topic and my guest, Michelle Houston, founder of To Be Honest Beverage Company. Michelle never anticipated starting a non-alcoholic spirit company just as she hadn't expected to give up drinking. A longtime lover of craft cocktails, she spent years navigating social events and business networking where alcohol was always part of the equation. However, after quitting drinking in 2021, she noticed a gap in the market for alternatives
that felt as elevated and as intentional as traditional spirits. This realization led her to create To Be Honest, a bold human-focused spirit line where flavor meets function for those who want to drink differently, like me, without sacrificing taste, ritual, or experience. Now she's refining indulgence, proving that alcohol-free can be just as vibrant, social, and satisfying. So, Michelle, welcome to Sober Fit Life podcast.
Michelle Houston (01:00.918)
Thanks for having me, Maureen. I'm grateful to be here.
Maureen Benkovich (01:04.963)
Yeah, I'm so glad to have you here. As I was sharing with you pre-recording, when I was drinking, I was very much about the elevated cocktail experience. I was a martini drinker. I always wanted the glass, the kind of sophisticated feeling. And that is definitely missing, in my opinion, from the alcohol-free market. It's happening more and more, but certainly in restaurants, there's not a lot of offerings. And many of my clients are like, I guess I'll just drink...
cranberry juice and cocktail and what's it called club soda. So I'm so glad to talk to you and I'm to share with our audience about how you came up with To Be Honest Beverage Company. But first I would love it if you would kind of share a little bit about your story. Like how did this even happen?
Michelle Houston (01:51.148)
Well, our industry really is expanding. So there's a lot of credit that we can give to the founders who kind of come from a similar place as I do. When I transitioned away from alcohol, which again wasn't the intention of being for forever, it was kind of a slow week by week process for me. And the further I got away from alcohol, the better I felt. And I really stopped drinking because I was suffering from anxiety predominantly and other mental health struggles. And I found that alcohol
Maureen Benkovich (02:18.266)
Yes.
Michelle Houston (02:19.82)
Yeah, really contributed to that. So lack of motivation, lethargy, just affecting my fit life. You can, I believe, understand that in such a big way. And at the time, I was actually health coaching. And so I just felt like I wasn't embodying the lifestyle that I was preaching, that I desired to live, that I wanted to represent to close people in my life, as well as my audience, clients, and everything else.
Maureen Benkovich (02:21.829)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (02:46.282)
And so my husband and partner has been in alcohol production for over 10 years, craft beer, mead, hard cider, I know. We were like so integrated into the culture and everything when it came to festivals and drinking dinners and social events, everything centered around alcohol. And so when I started transitioning, like you mentioned, I wanted something that was elevated, sophisticated. I'm an adult woman. I don't just want to be offered lemonade.
Maureen Benkovich (02:51.301)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (02:56.654)
Right?
Maureen Benkovich (03:05.327)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (03:16.318)
at a fundraiser or at a special event or when I go to a bar. And so it really inspired the desire for something that made you feel like the main character of your drinking experience, not just the afterthought. And that's where, be honest, came from.
Maureen Benkovich (03:31.781)
To be honest, I love it. Well, I want to go back to your story for a second because boy, do I relate to that because I was a personal trainer and a fitness competitor and I felt so out of alignment and hypocritical with this, know, I'm helping other people be healthy and yet for me on the weekends was like my time to really to drink and thinking I was detox during the week and you know, re-tox on the weekends. And of course, we know that's not how it works now, but the feeling out of alignment was really such a hard thing. And then for me as well,
I was noticing like after I drink, I'm really low for a few days, the depression. Was there a pivotal moment for you or was it just like a dawning on you kind of realization?
Michelle Houston (04:13.142)
Yeah, I think it was building over time, but I do remember this one instance. So my husband, business owner, brick and mortar, manufacturing, hard worker. And I was at home. It was in the evening by myself after work or after doing what I was doing, which was predominantly at home coaching, online content creation. And winding down my day, I had had pulled out a bottle of rosé.
Maureen Benkovich (04:35.013)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (04:41.612)
And at the time, because I was struggling with anxiety and like low level depression and some other things, I was kind of canceling all of my social events and activities. It was kind of on the end of COVID and I just wasn't feeling comfortable being out in the world, which is so opposite of my personality generally. And so I had that bottle of Rose to myself as I was watching a romantic comedy. And towards the of the movie, know, bottle almost finished, my husband got home from working.
Maureen Benkovich (04:52.825)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (05:10.252)
And it just felt like I wasn't living up to not just expectation, but to the person that I wanted to be. And it felt like I was letting him down. I was letting myself down. I was letting other people down. And I didn't feel like I was authentically being the person that I desired to be. And I wanted to demonstrate that. I wanted to walk the walk, talk the talk, like live the life. And that was kind of like a
Maureen Benkovich (05:31.269)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (05:35.498)
a real really pivotal moment for me that hit home that made me feel like something has to change. Like something's got to be different. And even though I work out and like you said, like coming from the fitness realm, you know, I used to teach functional fitness, personal train, health coaching, nutrition, yoga, like, like lived the life from meditation to fitness to outdoors to like sleep schedule. Like if you
Maureen Benkovich (05:46.501)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (05:54.361)
all of it.
Michelle Houston (06:01.004)
looked at all the boxes, I was mostly checking them. But then this alcohol piece was really detracting from that. And so I think in that moment, I really realized like I need to and want to do things differently, not just for myself, but for everyone else around me too.
Maureen Benkovich (06:06.692)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (06:15.939)
Yeah, I really want people to hear that because as you know, we've all been brought up to think unless you are at rock bottom and you can't manage your life and drinking has taken over and you've lost everything, there's no reason for you to reevaluate your relationship with alcohol. But you're exactly the kind of person, that gray area drinker that is doing all the things, but this one little corner, this area of their life, they want to keep it separate. I did too. I call it the elephant in the room. I was doing all the things.
but don't touch my alcohol because that's how I transition or wind down or handle social anxiety. But you start to realize it affects every area of your life. It's just very insidious.
Michelle Houston (06:56.782)
Absolutely. And I don't identify myself as sober. I've had so many amazing conversations with people in the industry about this. And everyone is on a spectrum now. A lot of people ask me, because we use the term sober curious, and a lot of people ask me, well, what does that mean? What does that look like? And it used to be that you either drank or you didn't drink. And if you didn't drink, you either pregnant or sober because you had a problem.
Maureen Benkovich (07:01.401)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (07:08.025)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (07:20.503)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (07:25.058)
And now we have such a spectrum. And Sober Curious is really about mindful consumption, reestablishing your relationship with alcohol. That doesn't necessarily mean cutting it out for everybody. And each of our customers is so different. And each of our society and audience members, and in the world, if you're listening, we're all on a different path and a different journey. And that transforms, it changes, it evolves. But this opportunity to ask, do I want to drink at this moment?
Maureen Benkovich (07:30.393)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (07:55.552)
If we're going to happy hour, do I want a glass of wine or do I want a mocktail? And having that option and the opportunity to be super intentional about your choices and what you're putting into your body is the premise of everything that we've created and ultimately what I try to communicate and how we try to embody the message of our brand.
Maureen Benkovich (07:59.791)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (08:16.537)
Yeah, it sounds like you really are. So you, here you are, you're removing alcohol from your life and you're socializing and going out and you're realizing there's a big gap here, the drink I'm looking for isn't here. So then what did you do? Start making it in your kitchen? Like how did this go or did your husband's experience come into play here?
Michelle Houston (08:34.072)
So I don't think I would have founded a CPG spirit company if I didn't have my husband and his experience. Ultimately, probably... So CPG is an acronym for consumer packaged goods. So it's those things that we use consistently. So it actually can be anything from like toothpaste to your drink alternatives to your food packaged goods. It's kind of a wider...
Maureen Benkovich (08:41.571)
It explains CPG. I'm sorry, explain.
Michelle Houston (09:03.262)
net category, but a lot of times it refers to food and beverage. my category within that is the non-alcoholic beverage space. So when you think of consumer packaged goods, it's anything that you purchase and consume. Not necessarily eat or drink, but anything in that world. so CPG, yes. And so he comes from alcohol, like I mentioned, craft beer.
Maureen Benkovich (09:07.598)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (09:18.031)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (09:21.861)
CPG, got it.
Michelle Houston (09:30.198)
and now he co-owns and manufactures with a cider company, so hard cider. So he takes his cider, he puts it into bottles, he puts it into cans, and distributes it on the market for consumption. And I didn't necessarily have an understanding of the chemistry process to make a beverage, the packaging process, and there are a lot of founders who...
can go this route and they work with a co-packer, what you would call a co-man. It's a co-manufacturer, someone who basically makes and packages the product for you, and you're just hiring them as a service. But we went the route, of course, in-house because he has that experience. He has those resources, and he knows how to manage all of that. And so when I stopped drinking, we started talking about a non-alcoholic alternative. And what would that look like?
Maureen Benkovich (10:13.698)
Yeah.
Michelle Houston (10:20.354)
We thought about going the what's called RTD. I'm going to drop a ton of acronyms today. The RTD route, is, my gosh, ready to drink. So that's anything in a can or bottle that you would just consume as is. Our product is a 750 milliliter spirit alternative. And so you would mix that with the other things in order to consume it. So a little bit different.
Maureen Benkovich (10:23.683)
Yeah, I'm learning.
Maureen Benkovich (10:33.177)
Ready to drink.
Maureen Benkovich (10:47.215)
Got it. Yeah. It's very elegantly packaged, I noticed. It's very pretty. It makes you feel like you're opening a sophisticated drink. I really like that.
Michelle Houston (10:57.166)
Thank you so much. put so much time and energy into the brand upfront. Again, that goal being that you're the main character. You get to enjoy a luxury, sophisticated alternative that isn't just like a lot of, especially the hemp-infused options, which I know we'll get to, but a lot of the hemp-infused options on the market are targeted more towards like a younger demographic or like, you know, drinking the beach or chill vibes. And we've found, and especially because I transitioned away from alcohol for CBD reasons,
for anxiety reasons, CBD is anxiety relief and support over time. It helps aids in sleep, calms you down, relaxes you, and so it kind of fit a lot of the functional categories for me in the early stages. But we thought, yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (11:32.229)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (11:39.897)
And let's just break that down for a little bit because I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about CBD. That is not the, doesn't have the THC component, the part that gets you high, right?
Michelle Houston (11:44.343)
Okay.
Michelle Houston (11:49.782)
Yes, this is such an educational piece of what we do. And it's definitely there's so much conflation of cannabis and marijuana and hemp and THC and CBD. And what does it all mean? The way that I like to explain it in distinction is that THC is really the psychoactive, the high that someone will experience. CBD is a little bit more the physical relaxation, stress relief and calm that comes along with the hemp infusion or
Maureen Benkovich (11:52.282)
Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (11:57.668)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (12:18.714)
cannabis, marijuana, if you're going that route, but it has no impact on your mental faculties. And that was one of the main goals when we launched, is to not have any mental impairment. There are a lot of options. Yes. And there's, yeah, and from a chemical standpoint or biological standpoint, there's actually a lot of confusion that it's actually a non-intoxicant. So when you think about affecting your brain chemistry and an intoxicant,
Maureen Benkovich (12:27.385)
Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (12:31.909)
So doesn't affect your brain chemistry. It does not affect your brain chemistry. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (12:41.721)
Yes.
Michelle Houston (12:47.64)
Caffeine, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, THC, a lot of those things do. CBD does not. So there's, again, a lot of confusion and I think there's a lot of education to be done in this space, but our main goal is having a product that had non-detectable or zero THC so that someone didn't have to worry about their mental faculties when consuming our product.
Maureen Benkovich (12:55.621)
Mmm.
Maureen Benkovich (13:11.909)
Yeah, I love that because it was funny, I don't know about you, but when I stopped drinking and told my friends and go to restaurants and people who used to see me drinking martinis, they'd be like, you're going to like do something, right? Like you're going to get high, you're going to take gummies. And, you know, I thought about it at first, but then I thought, no, you know, I don't want to replace one thing with another. For me, it would have still been an escape. So it is really important that you're making this differentiation because I don't want to introduce another substance having gotten rid of alcohol.
So I love that you really make that distinction.
Michelle Houston (13:46.124)
Yeah, for myself, avoidance was a really big piece of the drinking puzzle. And so I was using it to numb and avoid. And I'm not saying that everybody does, but that was my experience and my story. And so when we were thinking about an alternative, there are hemp-derived cannabis options on the market that have very small amounts of THC, which give a little bit of a quote unquote buzz. And I know that's something I've seen a lot on social media, like the buzz without the booze.
Maureen Benkovich (13:54.372)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (14:14.682)
Right.
Michelle Houston (14:15.298)
And there's a huge market for it. People are looking for those alternative options. I think that people really do want a type of experience when they're consuming something, the function of whatever it is that's in your can, bottle, glass. And there is nothing to say that we might introduce something like that in the future. But again, with this first product, it was really important to us. I didn't want any mental impairment. I didn't want to feel disconnected. I wanted to feel present.
Maureen Benkovich (14:39.407)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Michelle Houston (14:44.546)
I wanted to feel mindful and I wanted to feel intentional. And we felt like we could do that with the CBD.
Maureen Benkovich (14:44.739)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (14:50.393)
I love that. So I have to take a step back because I'm sure people are wondering. So when you went to your husband who's in the alcohol industry and you said, listen, I'm not going to drink for a while. And I'd also like to create something. Where is he in all of this? Is he supporting you? Does he drink much? Did he step back from alcohol? How did that all work? Because so many people are like, if I stopped drinking, what's that going to do to my marriage? Right? You hear that question a lot.
Michelle Houston (15:10.648)
So...
Michelle Houston (15:15.474)
This is such an excellent topic of discussion for anyone because alcohol, drinks, beverage culture is relationship building a lot of times. Yes, we have our rituals. Yes, this can be done in a solo environment, but so often it's a dinner party, it's happy hour, it's drinks catching up with a friend, it's your partnership.
Maureen Benkovich (15:18.521)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Michelle Houston (15:39.392)
And so thinking about the human relationships and connection around our beverages is really important. And so with him, there's been a couple of things. So I'll talk from the personal perspective first, is that I stopped drinking, he continued to drink, but over time, he kind of felt the same thing. And a little bit of background on where to be honest comes from.
Maureen Benkovich (15:45.221)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (16:02.206)
is that idea of really getting honest with yourself. You usually use that phrase. It's an idiom to say, well, to be honest, here's what I think. Here's what I feel about it. And you're really getting honest with yourself. How does alcohol make you feel? Do you do it because you want it or just because it's a habit or something that you've always done? Does it trigger something for you? Like in what context, in what environment, what type? And so
Maureen Benkovich (16:04.869)
Mmm.
Maureen Benkovich (16:20.047)
Yes.
Michelle Houston (16:27.692)
The to be honest and in our communication with myself and my husband was really like, what is it doing to our lives? Do we need to? We have so much access to it. It's so easy to slip into that. But is it cultivating the lifestyle that we want? Does it help our relationship? Does it build our future? And so on a personal level, it allowed him to really ask those questions as well. And so he actually
doesn't drink a lot at home. He mostly gets zero proof options now, like zero proof beers, because for him it's a taste thing, it's an end of the day thing, but he's realized he doesn't need to get buzzed. He doesn't need the alcohol impact. And it's the ritual, which it is for so much of us, right? And it's that habit. It's that transition from your work day to your end of the day. And it feels good.
Maureen Benkovich (17:00.367)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Yeah. It's more the ritual. Yeah. So many. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (17:16.965)
But I'd love to interject here because what you were willing to do, both of you, was to be curious. And it all starts with that asking the question, know, what is this doing? Is this enhancing our relationship or not? Is this enhancing my productivity or not? My sleep, my gut health, how I feel about myself, but the willingness to be honest and ask yourself the question. So the name of your drink company is so apropos. Really good choice. Love it.
Michelle Houston (17:46.648)
Thank you, yeah, and it's not easy to do. I'd rather dig my head in the sand and not address the things that are coming up in my life. It'd be great just to avoid and neglect and push everything away. It is easy and it is comfortable to sit in that place and I want to acknowledge that because a lot of people who, sort of, in the long term, how does it really affect you? But for a lot of us, it's comfortable, it's what we know.
Maureen Benkovich (17:52.589)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (18:05.807)
Sort of.
Maureen Benkovich (18:10.489)
Right.
Michelle Houston (18:16.312)
turning off emotions, it's not dealing with past trauma. Like I'm not an expert in any of these categories, but for me it was a tool to neglect the things that were getting myself outside of my comfort zone.
Maureen Benkovich (18:26.735)
Yes.
Of course, the problem is it's a temporary turn off and so you either have to keep doing it and then your body builds tolerance because it's trying to establish homeostasis for your brain chemistry and then you get a tolerance and you have to drink more and change your brain chemistry. So short-term relief, yes, this is what, you know, we always talk about with clients, but long-term it's going to have a negative impact. So that back to your curiosity and willing to be honest is the key. So you did that.
Michelle Houston (18:31.981)
Yes.
Michelle Houston (18:58.284)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (18:58.947)
And then you say your husband started to do it. This is what happened with my husband and I too. We met drinking and we drank all the time together. And then when I decided to do this, he was very supportive, but he's like, well, I'm not really going to change. But over time, he did end up drinking so much less. And we would talk about how we feel and our health and longevity. So yeah, I think that's a nice progression that happened to you. And then you went into business together.
Michelle Houston (19:25.024)
Yes. so he's really, so I'm the founder of the brand and the vision for the company, what we're creating and business marketing sales, like leading all of that. He's ultimately head of manufacturing product design. And then he also helps and support me with the financial and like some of the more technical aspects of the company. He's had a lot of experience with permitting, licensing, and more like, you know, regulations and government stuff.
Maureen Benkovich (19:26.041)
haha
Maureen Benkovich (19:38.607)
Nice.
Maureen Benkovich (19:46.49)
Yeah.
Michelle Houston (19:50.698)
And so I feel very grateful. He's been able to support me on that front, but he's still full time partner and head of manufacturing for the cider company. So he only works with me a small amount of hours during the week and just supporting me in moving the brand forward and the vision forward of what we're accomplishing.
Maureen Benkovich (20:08.325)
It was so nice. It added a whole other element to your relationship too, a whole other aspect of your partnership. I wanted to move on to you called the drink Focus. What was behind the name Focus and what did you encounter while developing it and how did you pick hemp infused? You talked a little bit about it, but let's go to that. Hemp, what does that mean?
Michelle Houston (20:29.07)
So the broad spectrum hemp, so I'll go back to a little bit of the distinction in the conflation of CBD and THC. So you can have both of those things, CBD and THC, which are chemical compounds from plants, either from marijuana or from hemp. So it's in the same plant family, but there's very clear distinctions in what chemical compounds you can pull out of them. So when you think about marijuana, that's kind of your cannabis, your high, that route of consumption.
Maureen Benkovich (20:32.805)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Michelle Houston (20:58.808)
When you think of hemp, you're thinking more of an industrial plant that's used for different things. So when you think of hemp seeds, when you think of, there's actually a product called HempCrete. When you think of hemp for clothing, that's the plant from an industrial agricultural perspective that we pull from. So we source our hemp, we do not process it ourselves. We work with a provider who takes the plant and extracts the chemical compounds from that plant.
Maureen Benkovich (21:05.797)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (21:27.98)
and then you can pull off THC and CBD from the hemp plant. So if you see cannabis infused options on the market that are more widely available and not just available in dispensaries, they're still under the federal regulation for anything considered CBD and available in the market. It has to be under 0.3 % THC by volume. So if you have a hemp derived cannabis option,
Maureen Benkovich (21:51.576)
Okay.
Michelle Houston (21:56.128)
It's still under those parameters, but it does have a small amount of THC, which is going to have that psychoactive or high component to it. But ours does not. So ours focuses on the CBD. And it's this whole kind of extraction process from the hemp stock that causes whatever chemical compounds, terpenes, CBD. There's different versions of CBD. That's the broad spectrum category. And then the THC.
Maureen Benkovich (22:04.271)
But yours does not have that. Okay.
Michelle Houston (22:25.838)
route in terms of what you're gonna, again, be able to pull out of it. And it's all based on different temperatures and the process. I won't go into the whole chemical process because I'm not an expert. Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (22:33.625)
You really had to get educated on all of this, right? You really had to, you went to school. And then how did you decide on the flavor? I know it has hints of juniper and lavender, like a gin sort of substitute or flavor. Okay.
Michelle Houston (22:46.2)
So I was a gin drinker. I loved a bee's knees. Honestly, any egg white cocktail, pisco sour, I know that's not gin, but those types of options, cucumber, refreshing, anything that had floral elderflower. So I was a big gin drinker when I was consuming alcohol. And so as I founded the company, this was a selfish choice from the beginning is to launch with.
Maureen Benkovich (22:50.553)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (23:14.627)
Why not? Yeah.
Michelle Houston (23:15.828)
A gin, why not? So our first product is inspired by a London Dry Gin. It's ginifer forward, it's botanical, herbaceous, a little citrusy on its own. And then the idea is when you mix it up with other things, it just blends really well. It's a really prolific spirit option. So everything from berry to floral to citrus to the botanical spectrum of rosemary, sage, basil. We wanted something that was very
complex in its own right, and that stood up in a cocktail so that it didn't just disappear or water it down. But that complemented the other flavors very well, and again, was really prolific. So it went with a lot of different things. So that's what inspired the gin alternative as our first and initial skew.
Maureen Benkovich (23:49.562)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (23:53.797)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (24:03.481)
Yeah, it makes me want to have some of the way you talk about it. Sounds really, really refreshing. And what would you recommend? Like what's your favorite, you know, mixture with focus?
Michelle Houston (24:06.126)
It's delicious.
Michelle Houston (24:13.646)
So we have some go-to syrups that we create and will actually be launching this year. they'll, yes. So we have some agave-based syrups. So a lot of syrups on the market are usually cane sugar-based. And part of our goal is to have a more health-oriented option. Now, obviously, there are some things about the product that, depending on who you are, there are preservatives for freshness. Sometimes that doesn't fit certain people's nutrition profile. We do our best.
Maureen Benkovich (24:19.077)
Smart.
Michelle Houston (24:43.554)
We use a monk fruit sweetener for flavor profile balancing, so there's no actual sugar content in our product. And then when we mix it with things, we also try to be a little bit conscious about what goes into it. So we're launching an agave-based syrup line. And we're starting with a few different profiles, one of which is an agave key lime mixture. And so for a lot of people at home, yes. Honestly, when I talk about this stuff, my mouth just starts to water.
Maureen Benkovich (25:04.773)
That sounds yummy.
Maureen Benkovich (25:10.935)
you
Michelle Houston (25:12.466)
So delicious. And so for a lot of people at home, that can just be agave, lime, soda water, and our product. And that's a really simple, delicious way I love to consume it. We also do a blackcurrant syrup. That is agave and blackcurrant concentrate. And that with our product and a little fresh basil is like to die for.
Maureen Benkovich (25:30.703)
Yeah.
Michelle Houston (25:32.214)
And then when I'm feeling really fancy, like I mentioned, I love an egg white cocktail. anything from like strawberry syrup to blueberry syrup to lemon and ginger with an egg white. And our product, it foams so nicely and really creates that like velvety textured drinking experience that it's delicious. Without the hangover or any after effects, like I actually had
Maureen Benkovich (25:53.743)
without the hangover.
Yeah.
Michelle Houston (25:58.926)
I won't name the competitor, but we had a competitor tasting recently of a cannabis infused. So it is still under, again, the 0.3 % THC. It's hemp derived, but it does have a little bit of that THC factor. And so when I woke up the next morning, I just felt like groggy, just a little like.
dragged, didn't really want to focus or feel motivated. When I consume our product, not only do I feel good the evening of, especially in social environments, but at home relaxing. But I wake up the next day right as rain, and I can just move forward with my day as a business owner, as someone who works out all the time. It's incredibly important. I want to feel good.
Maureen Benkovich (26:42.277)
important.
Maureen Benkovich (26:46.725)
agree with you. I just was saying, I ordered something from Amazon and I didn't realize it had THC in it. And I drank some at a restaurant with friends and I felt buzzed I didn't like it because I don't want that feeling anymore. And I felt sluggish the next day too, but I felt like I wasn't like as able to put my words together. Yeah, I really didn't like it. And I was surprised that I could just order it online.
Michelle Houston (27:14.83)
Yes, I think there's still so much education to do around it. Again, because it's under 0.3 % THC, it is federally legal as a hemp option. And so that's the distinction. Hemp derived can be either CBD or THC. And so we use the term hemp infusion. It's a little bit more acceptable, I think, from a languaging perspective.
Maureen Benkovich (27:21.925)
Mmm.
Maureen Benkovich (27:33.305)
Yeah.
Michelle Houston (27:42.954)
is that CBD tends to throw people off, even though it is hemp and it is CBD, it's the same thing, is that because people don't really fully understand CBD and what it is, and there's still the conflation with THC, and I get asked all the time, like, you know, okay, I do my spiel, it's only CBD, no THC, and their next question is, will it get me high? So again, just with the lack of understanding, that's a lot of where that comes from, and...
It is surprising. We had a whole recall. I won't go into the details, but in California, we had a whole recall from Gavin Newsom because there were THC marketed products on the market. They were still under the 0.3%. But because they had trace amounts of THC and you could buy them in a grocery store or just like a side market that people were having negative reactions because they didn't understand that it still had a psychoactive component to it. So it's really tough being in this industry.
Maureen Benkovich (28:19.458)
boy.
Maureen Benkovich (28:36.005)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (28:41.356)
just trying to figure out where we fit, how to get people to understand who we are and what we do. And when you want to bring something that has so many positive science-backed, researched data points about the benefits and the experience and the efficacy of it, but you're dealing with everything else on the market that then confuses and conflates, it can really be a struggle. So it's tough. It's tough.
Maureen Benkovich (29:05.093)
Yeah, but you know what? You're very eloquent and articulate at explaining this. You have a passion for it. You can see that. So you have a battle, not a battle, but you have a learning curve for other people to get them to understand. But you are very good at explaining it, which I really appreciate. It reminds me, it's very similar of what I do, trying to explain to people, you know, the clientele I work with, what is gray area drinking, which is like 95 % of the population who are drinking more than two drinks a week.
but are nowhere near rock bottom, but they are personally feeling like you and I did, that it was affecting us mentally, physically, our potential. There's a learning curve there trying to help people understand. Because inevitably, like even after I all do like a public speaking on gray area drinking, someone will come up to me go, yeah, my uncle, he's an alcoholic. And that label kind of thing is still stuck there for people. I have that educational uphill battle as well.
the more we keep putting it out there, it's important to share.
Michelle Houston (30:05.164)
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you. I try to do my best and try to be just upfront and really transparent. That's a value of our company is transparency and honesty and helping educate around the topics that we address and that we offer. And I think it's important to have these discussions because I know being in my space, and I'm sure you feel this all the time, is that we're so inundated with content and conversations. And we talk about it constantly.
Maureen Benkovich (30:31.311)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (30:34.392)
But then you get out into the world and you meet strangers and you realize just how little they're exposed to this type of thing. And so, you know, being kind and compassionate about the approach and just kind of trying to understand where they're at and meet them where they're at is part of definitely what drives us and our content creation. When we do in-person activations and events and speaking with people and just helping them encourage to be curious, like you mentioned, like...
Maureen Benkovich (30:46.341)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (31:02.617)
Be curious. Try it.
Michelle Houston (31:03.608)
Curious, ask questions, do the research, like look it up, talk to your doctor, like, you know, get yourself out there because like if you were to ask me point blank, you know, between alcohol and CBD, there are so many people who have like hesitations about CBD, which blows my mind because if you look at the impact of alcohol on your body, that is proven through and through on
Maureen Benkovich (31:21.871)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (31:30.413)
and your brain.
Michelle Houston (31:33.354)
every part of your life, alcohol induced issues, alcohol poisoning, it's marketing. mean, it's-
Maureen Benkovich (31:38.757)
Well, it's the marketing. It's the marketing, right? We're inundated with marketing about it. You need it to have fun, to be successful, you all that kind of stuff.
Michelle Houston (31:44.31)
Yeah, it's the industry. Yeah, in the culture, it's sexy. Like, yes, 100%. And alcohol just has this impact on your brain, on your emotions, on your physical health, on your future potential, on your relationships, know, driving, having consumed alcohol.
Maureen Benkovich (32:00.441)
relationships.
Michelle Houston (32:07.156)
accidents, incidences, abuse. There's so much surrounding it. And when you look at the impact of CBD and what it does for people, again, it's one of those things that just kind of blows my mind that I understand that it hasn't been around for as long in our culture, in our mainstream society. So I get that, and I get the education that needs to happen around it. But I'm like, if you drink alcohol, just give it a try because
what you'll experience is so benign compared to the intoxicating impact of alcohol.
Maureen Benkovich (32:41.529)
Well, you know, there's so much behind that. It's like, I didn't really want to give up my alcohol if someone had told me about a CBD hemp infusion drink. It's so much more about, I don't want to give up my drinking, right? So until you're at that point where you're thinking about it yourself, then you're more willing to try. But with you out there educating people, that's going to help more and more people try. I have a big question. I'm wondering, are you trying to get into restaurants and bars? And is that an uphill battle? Like, what does that look like in your future?
plans.
Michelle Houston (33:12.052)
It definitely is part of our plan in a big way. One of the things that was a big thing for me was going out to a bar, getting a drink in a social environment, and having it be something that was flavorful and functional. That, know, OK, alcohol, that's an option. Great. If I'm not drinking right now, or say I have to drive the people that I brought here.
Maureen Benkovich (33:20.591)
Yes.
Michelle Houston (33:35.916)
I wanted a mocktail and so many of those mocktails, alcohol-free cocktails, zero proof options are either so sugary, watered down, or are returnable because they just don't taste good. Yeah, a Shirley Temple is not an adult drink and it's called equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages, ENAB as an acronym.
Maureen Benkovich (33:47.545)
Yeah. Don't give me a Shirley Temple with a straw in it, please. An adult drink. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (34:03.673)
my gosh, ego.
Michelle Houston (34:04.91)
I dropped the acronyms. But it's actually being pushed on a lot of college campuses to have an equally attractive non-alcoholic beverage, ENAB, as an option. Because there are people who go out without the decision to drink or not drink. They look at a menu, but if all you have is Coke or Sprite, they don't want the sugar or lemonade, Arnold Palmer, those aren't adult beverages. So, yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (34:06.798)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (34:30.445)
No. And especially if you have someone who's considering taking a break or they're in the middle of taking a break and they go to a restaurant with all their friends, it makes it so much harder for them to stick to their decision when there isn't a nice, lovely adult option. So I think what you're doing is just going to explode. And I'm excited to get my bottle and try it. I actually have a local bar down the street where I used to frequent and we still eat dinner there. And I bring them my
Michelle Houston (34:49.143)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (34:57.453)
non-alcoholic drinks and they make me cocktails. They're very nice to do that. So I'm going to bring them my focus when I get it. I so enjoyed all of this. You're incredibly educated and as I said, really good explaining this. So I wish you the best and I'm going to spread the word about focus. But I always like to ask my guests for coming on this podcast. What do you do to be sober fit in your life now that you have removed alcohol from your life?
Michelle Houston (35:01.667)
No.
Yeah, absolutely.
Michelle Houston (35:25.694)
The beautiful thing about removing alcohol and the further I got away from alcohol, it's always hard to explain. You stop drinking for a month or a short period of time and you're like, yeah, OK, maybe I see some benefits here and there. But being three years out from having had alcohol every single day feels like it's a new opportunity, like literally a new gift.
Maureen Benkovich (35:39.043)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (35:46.522)
Yes.
It is.
Michelle Houston (35:52.83)
Anytime that I feel a slight exposure to the impact of alcohol, whether that's the impairment or slight hangover, it literally makes me feel so grateful and just kind of repulsed by the whole thing at this point. Again, not knocking alcohol for anyone who's still on that journey because it's just different for everyone. It's a journey. It's a process. It's an evolution. But the further I got away from alcohol, the better
Maureen Benkovich (36:08.441)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (36:12.121)
Yeah, it's a journey.
Michelle Houston (36:20.052)
I was able to feel more consistently all the time. It didn't derail me. And so many people like, so I work out five to six times a week in a functional fitness gym. And that's one of the major ways I'm able to stay sober fit is through physical activity. I'm a very kinesthetic person. I love that outlet of energy. It's connection-based. It's social-based for me. I have a great community there.
Maureen Benkovich (36:25.498)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (36:46.799)
Mm-hmm.
Michelle Houston (36:48.206)
but I'll have friends who show up on Saturday morning to the gym and they drank the night beforehand and they're there, but they're punishing themselves. They don't feel good. Yeah, they don't feel good. They feel like they have to work it off. It's like they're not moving through the motions as well as they possibly could be. And I'm over there just like jumping around, having a good old time. So.
Maureen Benkovich (36:57.733)
They're punishing themselves. Yeah. And I used to do it.
Michelle Houston (37:14.752)
Really, like the fitness, the exercise is huge for me. Making those really intentional choices around what I'm putting in my body also allowed me to be a lot more intentional about what I put into my body when I was in that a cultural environment, right? So when you're drinking, a lot of times it lowers the inhibitions. so fast food, fatty food, fried food, like comfort food. Yeah. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (37:27.631)
Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (37:31.72)
yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (37:35.951)
bad texts, say things you don't want to, all kinds of things we can get into.
Michelle Houston (37:41.176)
So it just, it kind of kept me away from that. So it became this positive domino effect that allowed me to make better choices in every other area and allowed me to wake up and not have any problems tackling the day or getting outside for a hike or moving about my life. And so it's just really opened up so much opportunity that I never even realized was possible.
Maureen Benkovich (38:06.799)
Yeah, you can't realize till you're on the other side of it and you're experiencing this continually, like you said, opening up of opportunities. And I'm always amazed too. I'm just about, you know, six months ahead of you, like three and a half years now, not drinking or almost, you know, over that. And I'm always surprised too, what I keep learning. So I love that. How do people reach out to you at To Be Honest and how do they purchase Focus? Do you have any offers or anything? Where would you like to send people?
Michelle Houston (38:34.924)
Yeah, you can find us online at ToBeHonestBev. That's T-O-B-E Honest. And Bev is in beverage, so bev.com.
We have a loyalty program that you can opt into right away and it'll give you about 10 % off your first bottle for purchase online. We spend most of our time on Instagram, but we're also launching TikTok soon. So you can find us on those social channels with more education, more information, more customer stories and non-alcoholic beverages to make at home. And that's to be honest, Bev on both channels.
Maureen Benkovich (39:07.821)
Okay, well we will have that in the show notes too. And I thank you so much, Michelle, for coming on. I really enjoyed learning so much from you. Thank you so much.
Michelle Houston (39:15.8)
Thanks, Maureen.
