High Functioning Podcast

Jason Reposa

High Functioning Podcast is hosted by Jason Reposa, founder and CEO of Good Feels, a Massachusetts-based cannabis-infused beverage company. Join Jason as he dives into candid conversations with industry experts, innovators, and thought leaders from the cannabis world. Each episode explores the stories behind the people shaping the future of cannabis, from business practices to wellness trends. Whether you’re curious about the cannabis industry, looking to learn from the best, or simply want to stay informed, this podcast offers high-level insights with a dose of positivity.

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91 episodes
Updated Monday
Explicit

Episodes91

Newest first

Monday · 1 hr 8 min
The 60 Day Rule That Wipes Out A Third Of Dispensaries
In January 2028 a new Massachusetts rule takes effect. Fall 60 days behind on a payment and you can be cut off from every supplier in the state, unable to buy product, sell your business, or transfer your license. Todd Sullivan thinks about a third of the roughly 400 stores in the state will not survive it. He is not worried about that. He is shopping. Todd runs a debt free, profitable operation that has not raised outside money in years, and he is using that position to buy distressed assets while most operators are panicking. Todd is the President of Cannapreneur Partners, the holding company behind Joint Operations Dispensaries and Pioneer Valley Extracts. He came up as an entrepreneur and hedge fund manager before going all in on cannabis. In this conversation he breaks down how he acquired stores for almost nothing, why most operators fail on capitalization and the price war, why he bets on the bud tender over discounts, and how rescheduling could bring institutional money rushing back into the industry. This is the money side of cannabis, told straight. 21+ where legal. Nothing here is legal, financial, medical, or investment advice. Listen to the full conversation and follow High Functioning.
July 28 · 1 hr 2 min
Massachusetts Wants To Repeal Legal Cannabis. Here's What Question 8 Actually Does.
There is a ballot question in Massachusetts this November that could close every adult-use cannabis store in the state within a year. It is funded largely by out-of-state money, and the panel argues most voters have no idea what it really does. Question 8 would repeal adult use while keeping medical, and because of how the market was built, that would wipe out most operators, tens of thousands of jobs, and billions in tax revenue that currently flows to schools, substance-abuse programs, and city budgets. Jason Reposa sits down with three people fighting it: Ryan Dominguez of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, Tito Jackson of Apex Noir Cannabis and former Boston City Councilor, and Caroline Pineau, owner of Stem in Haverhill. They break down how the initiative was written, how signature gatherers collected names, and why "keeping medical" is a trap for an industry built on vertical integration. They also get into who loses access first, what the fight looks like on the ground, and where the polling stands heading into November. 21+ where legal. This episode is for information only and is not legal, medical, or voting advice. If you build, work, or shop in Massachusetts cannabis, this is the conversation to hear before you vote. Listen now and share it with someone who does not know Question 8 is on the ballot.
July 21 · 1 hr 15 min
Alex Mazin (Bud's Goods): The Grocery Store Theory of Cannabis Retail
Alex Mazin could not raise the $20 million he needed to build a vertical cannabis operation, and he now says that failure protected him from years of headaches. He raised early, pivoted to a single store in Worcester, and has not raised since 2018, funding Bud's Goods' growth from cash flow while much of the industry leaned on investor subsidies to survive. In this conversation he lays out the contrarian playbook behind that: skip cultivation on purpose, curate instead of grow, and treat a dispensary like a grocery store rather than a traditional retail floor. Alex is the President and CEO of Bud's Goods & Provisions, a Massachusetts retailer and manufacturer that recently expanded into New Jersey. He walks through the pre-roll matrix built from monthly customer surveys, the automation win that made party-pack production 21 times faster, why he keeps his wholesale team at two people to go deep on the 70 accounts that make up 80% of the market, and the hard reckoning he sees coming for what cannabis stores are actually worth. He also makes the case that the whole industry needs to stop racing prices to the bottom and start raising them. 21+ only, for adults in legal markets. Nothing in this episode is for sale. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
July 14 · 1 hr 3 min
Seth Yakatan on Cannabis M&A, Profit Over Hype, and the Markets Everyone Wrote Off
Everyone in cannabis is trading the same doom narrative: markets are cooked, exits are dead, small operators are done. Seth Yakatan, who has sold 22 companies and raised over a billion dollars across 30 years, sits down with Jason Reposa to argue the opposite. His frame is simple and uncomfortable. Profit solves everything, sales solves nothing, and the operators quietly winning are the ones nobody wants to talk about. Seth walks through the state-by-state door economics he tracks every week, from Maryland stores clearing $11M each to the Arizona market conventional wisdom keeps calling dead. He explains why Massachusetts is about to become a buyer's market, where the real M&A money will actually come from, and the one question he asks every founder before anything else: why did you do this? Along the way he covers schedule three, Chapter 15 bankruptcies, the unicorn companies defying the odds, and why the exit most founders are waiting for does not exist. 21+ where legal. Nothing in this episode is investment, legal, or financial advice. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
July 7 · 1 hr 7 min
From Theory Wellness to edibles.com: Thomas Winstanley on the Hemp Ban Fight
A cannabis-native operator stopped at a North Georgia gas station, saw 1000mg THC gummies on the shelf, and knew the unregulated hemp market had a real problem. Thomas Winstanley spent six years scaling Theory Wellness from a single Bridgewater store to a seven-state operator. Then he went quiet for nine months to build a national hemp THC marketplace inside the company that owns Edible Arrangements. With a federal ban looming, he's doing the opposite of most operators: doubling down. Thomas is EVP and GM of edibles.com. In this conversation he breaks down how a 25-year-old brand with real infrastructure entered hemp, why the name "edibles" is both the biggest asset and a blacklisted ad term, what legislators actually say when he visits Capitol Hill, and how he reads the November deadline. He and Jason also get into why cannabis and hemp operators keep treating each other like the enemy, and the case that alcohol, cannabis, and hemp can all win at once. 21+ where legal. Nothing here is medical, legal, or investment advice. Listen to the full conversation on High Functioning.
June 30 · 1 hr 16 min
Alex Mendez: A $20K Birth Bill and the Fix Nobody Passes
Alex Mendez is an attorney from Quincy spending his own money to win a Massachusetts State Senate seat that pays less than his current job. In this episode he explains why, and the answer starts with a $20,000 hospital bill for one night to deliver his daughter. Massachusetts spends over $35 billion a year on healthcare, and Mendez argues most of it disappears into insurance middlemen instead of care. Mendez is running as an independent against a 15-year incumbent he calls a career politician. He breaks down how the State Senate actually works, why he wants state-run free health clinics, his case for greater Boston rail to fix car dependency, and where he stands on the November cannabis repeal. Jason and Alex also dig into the Massachusetts cannabis market: why revenue is flat at $1.6 billion despite record volume, how new rules on store caps and 20% equity could open the door to private equity, and why flower prices tripled from $2.50 to $7 a gram. This is a real conversation about what it takes to run for office and what is actually broken in the systems most people never question. 21+ where legal. Cannabis policy discussion is opinion, not legal advice. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
June 23 · 56 min
Oregon Hit $50 A Pound. Massachusetts Is Next. | Samantha Seagaard, The Fresh Connection
Oregon's wholesale flower market fell to $50 a pound, less than it costs to grow. Whole farms sold entire crops for $25 to $50. People who left six-figure jobs at Intel to grow cannabis lost their life savings. Samantha Seagaard watched it happen in real time, and she is telling Jason Reposa why she thinks Massachusetts is walking the same road. Two years ago she stood in front of the Cannabis Control Commission and warned them to cap the canopy. The state just voted to freeze new cultivation licenses. Samantha is the co-founder and CEO of Fresh Connection Boston, a small batch craft cultivator that recently took over two dispensaries in Cambridge and Somerville. She came up in Oregon's medical market, spent 15 years learning to grow, make hash, and hunt genetics, then moved the operation to the East Coast. In this conversation she breaks down the real cost of going recreational, why she runs organic soil over coco, what actually separates craft from a marketing label, and what changes when a grower finally owns the retail shelf. 21+ where legal. This is an industry conversation, not medical or legal advice. Listen to the full episode and follow High Functioning for more real conversations with the people building legal cannabis.
June 16 · 58 min
They Said Lab-Made 🥦 Was Fake. The FDA Disagrees | James Winokur, CitraChem
Everyone hears "synthetic" and thinks fake. James Winokur, CEO of CitraChem, explains why 99.9% of FDA-approved drugs are synthetic, and why a plant-inspired molecule has a 45% shot at approval while a fully novel one sits at 10%. We get into what Schedule III actually changes for operators, why lab-made doesn't mean fake, the FDA botanical route almost nobody clears, and where hemp beverages, the November repeal, and Big Pharma all collide. James spent 12 years in cannabis as the former CEO of Berkshire Roots and a product leader at Mary Med. Now he's building a life sciences platform that synthesizes botanically identical cannabinoids for pharmaceutical research. (00:00) Cold Open (01:35) Synthetic Doesn't Mean Fake (07:54) Schedule III and What CitraChem Does (13:37) The FDA Math: 45% vs 10% (15:23) Why Lab-Made Doesn't Mean Fake (18:31) What You're Actually Inhaling (21:05) The R&D Platform Play (23:34) Building the Molecule Library (30:00) Hemp Beverages and the November Repeal (36:48) Microdosing and the Education Gap (39:55) The Repeal Fight and Race to the Bottom Host: Jason Reposa Guest: James Winokur, CEO of CitraChem New episodes drop Tuesdays at 10 AM ET.
June 10 · 1 hr 5 min
Half The Legal Weed Would Fail A Real Mold Test | Chris Hudalla, ProVerde
The founder of Massachusetts' first cannabis testing lab says 50 to 60 percent of the product on retail shelves would fail the state's own mold guidelines. He knows because he tested it, off the shelf, in a free program he eventually had to shut down. The bigger problem is not contaminated weed. It is that the labs catching it are losing business to the labs that pass everything. Chris Hudalla is an analytical chemist with a doctorate in the field and the founder and chief scientific officer of ProVerde Laboratories, the first lab built for cannabis testing in Massachusetts back in 2013. He walks through how testing actually works, why PCR passes more product than culture-based methods, how one suspended lab's failure rate jumped from under 1 percent to 27 percent under oversight, and how he can spot synthetic and CBD-converted THC that the state says is "not prohibited." He also explains, using the thalidomide story, why isomers that look identical can behave very differently in the body. 21+ where legal. This conversation is for information only and is not medical, legal, or safety advice. Listen and follow High Functioning for real conversations with the people shaping legal cannabis.
June 2 · 1 hr 2 min
Vicodin, the DEA, and 20 Years Sober: Dr. Peter Grinspoon on Cannabis, Addiction, and Aging Well
A Harvard-trained primary care doctor got addicted to Vicodin in his thirties, lost his medical license, and got sober. Twenty years later, he is board-certified in addiction medicine, prescribes cannabis at Mass General, and just published Aging Well with Cannabis. Jason Reposa sits down with Dr. Peter Grinspoon to talk about what the cannabis industry still gets wrong about harm, why budtenders should not be giving medical advice, how cannabis is helping seniors come off five and ten medications, and the cost problem that flips patients back to opioids. Educational, 21+, not personal medical advice. Get Good Feels at getgoodfeels.com
May 26 · 1 hr 14 min
The Real Cost of a Social Equity Cannabis License with Michael Marinaro and Tara Hopper of Bada Bloom!
Michael Marinaro and Tara Hopper raised $600,000 in one weekend and then paid $20,000 a month for five years to hold a building before Bada Bloom! could open. Now they are fighting for the rest of the capital while the Massachusetts cannabis industry consolidates around them. In this episode of High Functioning, Mike and Tara walk through the real cost of a social equity license, why investors keep saying no, the helicopter story, the delivery law flip, and Mike's theory on who is going to fund the MSO repeal campaign. For Massachusetts cannabis operators. 21 and older.
May 19 · 1 hr 2 min
The Field Marketing Playbook Nobody Writes Down | Rae Russell
Rae Russell runs customer success for PAX in Massachusetts. She treats field marketing as a sales job, not glorified event staff. In this episode, she and Jason Reposa break down what separates a brand ambassador who moves product from one who just shows up. They cover how she knows which budtenders sell before she walks in, how to measure whether a pop-up worked, when an activation wastes money, and why good people quit the role. Rae came up through ten years of Verizon retail and dispensary floors before taking the brand side. This is the field marketing playbook nobody writes down. Topics: field marketing, brand ambassadors, customer success, pop-up ROI, retail cannabis, budtender training. 21+ where legal. Nothing for sale. Full episodes: https://highfunctioning.show
May 12 · 58 min
Stop Losing Dispensary Sales to Dirty Data | Socrates Rosenfeld, Jane Technologies
Most dispensaries run on broken data and never find the leak. Socrates Rosenfeld, co-founder and CEO of Jane Technologies, built a decade of infrastructure to fix that. In this episode he breaks down the protocol Jane built to unify fragmented SKU data across every POS and CRM in the industry. He explains why online average order value runs nearly double in-store. He reveals how Jane Gold lets brands fund consumer loyalty without touching retailer margin. He makes the case for open ecosystems over walled garden tech stacks. If your store revenue is flat or dropping this episode is required listening. Topics covered: dispensary data strategy, cannabis ecommerce conversion, Jane Gold brand loyalty, Dutchie, Flowhub, Treez, Alpine IQ, cannabis attribution, discount strategy, open ecosystems, AI in cannabis retail. 21+ where legal. Nothing for sale. Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show Subscribe: tr.ee/highfunctioningsubscribe Spotify: tr.ee/highfunctioningspotify Apple Podcasts: tr.ee/highfunctioningapple
May 5 · 1 hr 8 min
How to Get CBD Into 34 Dispensaries Without Paid Ads | Michael Mulkern, MAVZ Naturals
Michael Mulkern built and sold a CBD company, lost his investment in a bad acquisition, got laid off with a newborn at home, and launched MAVZ Naturals the same week. He now runs 34 dispensary accounts across Massachusetts with zero ad spend. In this episode he breaks down the sample jar tactic that wins retail floor space, why he bought his own product back off dispensary shelves during his rebrand, how he keeps manufacturing lean enough to survive market swings, and what independent hemp operators need to do now as the 2026 federal hemp deadline approaches. If you sell into dispensaries or manufacture hemp products, this is the operational playbook. Topics covered: How he rebuilt from a failed acquisition with no outside investment The sample jar strategy that converts buyers without paid media Why he targets 10 to 20 core accounts instead of chasing volume Skincare and New York distribution as hedges against the hemp cliff Writing a children's book named after his son as a legacy project 21+ where legal. Nothing for sale.Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show
April 28 · 1 hr 8 min
This Artist Walked Away From a Cannabis Contract Over AI. Here's Why.
A cannabis label company asked Adam O'Day to design their packaging. He said yes — until he saw the rest of their branding was AI-generated. He walked.That decision is the center of gravity for this episode. Adam O'Day (muralist, fine artist, 13 years full-time) and Allan "Alz" Sousa (fine artist, gallery director at Black Walls Gallery) sit down with Jason to talk about what authentic creative work costs, what AI is actually doing to both the art world and cannabis branding, and why the intersection of cannabis and the arts in New England is an opportunity nobody is moving on yet.Alz lays out a direct argument: if a cannabis company has enough capital to bring a product to market, it has enough to pay a local artist a few thousand dollars instead of prompting a model. He's already building he framework to connect cannabis operators in Massachusetts with real artists — and explains exactly why that matters for brand equity, not just optics.They also get into the pay-to-play reality behind Art Basel ($80K to get in the door), why Alz deliberately makes certain pieces unsellable, how Adam's daughters outsell him at a Provincetown gallery, and what it actually takes to run a community art program inside a dispensary without the drama. No theory. Two working artists, one B2B cannabis host, zero filters.Chapters below.Adam O'Day: @adam_oday | SCAPES solo show at Black Walls GalleryAlz (Allan Sousa): @alz_next | Gallery Director, Black Walls Gallery | alzandkitty.com1:49 What Makes Someone an Artist6:25 The Real Artist's Day16:15 The Business of Art: 13 Years Full-Time Without Selling Out29:01 Social Media Is a Trap If You Need the Validation41:49 AI Art in Cannabis: Where the Line Is and Why Adam Walked Away47:15 The Cannabis–Arts Pipeline Nobody Has Built Yet56:34 Don't Make Painting Your Only Income1:04:00 What's Next: Shows, Books, and Art Basel21+ where legal. Nothing for sale.🎧 Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show🔔 Subscribe: tr.ee/highfunctioningsubscribe🎙️ Listen on Spotify: tr.ee/highfunctioningspotify🍎 Apple Podcasts: tr.ee/highfunctioningapple
April 28 · 59 min
Stop Selling THC Percentage: What Your Dispensary Menu Gets Wrong
Dispensary menus train customers to buy the highest THC percentage. That is not a product strategy. That is a race to the bottom. Dr. Riley Kirk is a PhD pharmaceutical scientist, co-founder of the Network of Applied Pharmacognosy, and author of Reefer Wellness, distributed by Penguin Random House. She built 425 thousand followers on TikTok making cannabis science readable for anyone. She joins Jason to break down what operators and budtenders are still getting wrong every day on the floor. In this episode: why indica and sativa are marketing categories and not scientific ones, how THCV drives daytime consumer demand and kills the munchies, why high THC produces a shorter and hollower experience than full-spectrum products, how cannabis beverages sit between edibles and smokables in the body, what the hemp beverage ban actually does to consumer spending, and how Penguin Random House published a cannabis book without knowing the cover photography was weed. If you run a dispensary, train a sales floor, or formulate products, this one is worth your full attention. Find Riley at cannabichem on TikTok and Instagram. Reefer Wellness is available at dispensaries nationwide and on Amazon. The Network of Applied Pharmacognosy is at networkofappliedpharmacognosy.com. 21+ where legal. Nothing for sale. Full episodes at highfunctioning.show
April 16 · 1 hr
How to Buy Back Your Cannabis Brand From an MSO (The Levia Playbook)
Kristin Rogers co-founded Levia and built the Massachusetts cannabis beverage category from scratch. She sold to a multi-state operator, watched the innovation stall, and spent three years getting the brand back. The change of control finalized this month. She breaks down the acquisition mechanics, why nobody got rich, and how she is now building hemp DTC while fighting for multi-serving cannabis drinks in Massachusetts.🛒 Good Feels THC beverages: getgoodfeels.com00:01:04 Introduction: Kristin Rogers and Levia00:01:59 The Origin of Levia Tinctures00:07:05 From Substance Abuse Therapy to Cannabis CEO00:16:21 Pitching the Kowloon Partnership00:23:14 Selling Levia to an MSO00:29:03 The Reality of Corporate Overhead00:31:45 Starting the Buyback Conversation00:40:17 Hemp Direct to Consumer Strategy00:47:23 Petitioning for Multi-Serving Drinks00:54:10 The Future of Cannabis Beverage RegulationGuest: Kristin RogersLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kristin-rogersLevia: https://levia.buzz🎧 Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show🔔 Subscribe: tr.ee/highfunctioningsubscribe🎙 Spotify: tr.ee/highfunctioningspotify🍎 Apple Podcasts: tr.ee/highfunctioningapple#CannabisIndustry #CannabisBusinessStrategy #HempBeverages #CannabisPodcast #MSOAcquisition21+ where legal. Nothing for sale.
April 16 · 58 min
Where Dispensaries Burn Money (And What Drives Revenue)
Emily Tuttle, Director of Business Development at Cannabis Creative Group, joins Jason Reposa to break down the "3-Funnel System" driving revenue for top dispensaries. In this tactical episode, we cover: - SEO Strategy: Why you must optimize before your website goes live. - Paid Media: Real benchmarks for Google Ads ROAS and programmatic spend. - CRM Retention: Using Alpine IQ and Springbig to segment customers and stop wasting text credits. - Compliance: How to get unbanned on Meta and build a social media playbook. - The Influencer Trap: Why trackable ROI beats "clout" every time. Whether you are a dispensary owner or a brand founder, this episode provides a roadmap for where your next marketing dollar should go. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 3:20 Marketing Plans 10:48 Stealing Competitor Traffic 15:13 Media Budgets 22:26 The 3-Funnel System 26:33 Meta Compliance 39:05 Influencer Traps 55:51 Website IP Ownership
March 31 · 1 hr
How Bud's Goods Rewired Retail Cannabis
Hennessy Shaw has spent 12 years in retail cannabis. She started as an executive assistant at Rhode Island's first medical dispensary and now runs sales and marketing at Bud's Goods & Provisions. In this episode she explains how Bud's built concept stores that move product, why a simple terpene ranking card changed how customers shop, and what wholesale looks like when you spent your whole career as a buyer. Jason and Hennessy talk reciprocals, pre-roll party packs, compliance stories, and what keeps good retail employees on the floor.21+ where legal. Nothing for sale.🎧 Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show🔔 Subscribe: tr.ee/highfunctioningsubscribe🎙️ Spotify: tr.ee/highfunctioningspotify🍎 Apple: tr.ee/highfunctioningapple
March 24 · 41 min
Why Hemp Drinks Could Be Banned by November with Christopher Lackner
A hidden clause in a federal funding bill could shut down hemp drinks by November, and most operators still do not fully understand how serious the threat is. In this episode of High Functioning, Christopher Lackner, founder and president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, breaks down how the ban threat emerged, why the alcohol system may be the clearest regulatory path, and what happens if the category gets forced into a federal wall. Learn more: Hemp Beverage Expo: https://hempbeverageexpo.com/ Hemp Beverage Alliance: https://www.hempbeveragealliance.org/ Framingham Summit: http://www.bit.ly/framinghamsummit 21+ where legal. Nothing for sale. 🎧 Full Episodes: highfunctioning.show 🔔 Subscribe: tr.ee/highfunctioningsubscribe 🎙️ Listen on Spotify: tr.ee/highfunctioningspotify 🍎 Apple Podcasts: tr.ee/highfunctioningapple