Diamond Miners Podcast

In our ninth episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Samantha Robinson, the Chief Operating Officer of Santa Fe, NM-based vertically-integrated cannabis operator Best Daze.

Samantha, an accountant by trade, joined this family-run operation earlier this year as the head of operations, after having provided them with accounting services as a client of her firm. During her tenure with the company, she has leveraged her financi...

In our eighth episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Nathan Russell and Ben Richards, the owners of the cannabis packaging company formerly known as CUSTOMPACKCO (now a subsidiary of AE Global), as well as the Michigan-based cannabis processor The Lab, and innovative pre-roll brand Road Trip.

In addition to running their production facility like a well-oiled, lean manufacturing machine, Nate and Ben are vocal proponents of ...

In our seventh episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Lex Corwin and Sabrina Wheeler—CEO and COO of Stone Road, respectively—a quickly-growing, multi-state cannabis brand from Los Angeles, CA that has been rapidly gaining fans from across the country.

Sabrina and Lex have a particularly unique approach to building their cannabis brand—most notably, being the only two full-time employees of their company! This hasn't sto...

In our sixth episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Michael "Mikey" Towey, VP of Cultivation at Good Day Farm—a vertically-integrated, Southeastern US-based multi-state operator headquartered in Little Rock, AR.

Mikey has a rich background of experience in cannabis cultivation, starting with his time in the WA legacy market, followed by several roles overseeing progressively larger facilities, including the openin...

In our fifth episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Kevin Forde, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Fireball Cannabis, which first launched in Las Vegas, NV. Most people know the brand Fireball as the hot cinnamon-flavored whiskey loved by college kids. Kevin and his team built an edibles brand through a licensing deal with Fireball and brought that same iconic flavor over to the cannabis world.

In 4 short years, Fireba...

In our fourth episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Jonathan Kane, PhD, co-founder, and Chief Scientific Officer of Lion Labs out of Lansing, MI. Lion Labs is one of the state's most prominent processing and manufacturing operations, with a portfolio of retail brands, including their flagship brand Element Extractions—one of the best-selling concentrate brands in the state.

Rooted in Michigan's caregiver market, Li...

In our third episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with John Lafata, Chief Executive Officer of Big Oil Co—a Type-7 cannabis contract manufacturing operation out of Los Angeles, CA—and the cofounder of BEAR Labs—a long-standing concentrate brand from the legacy market days.

John's cannabis journey started as a consumer when he was a motocross racer, and quickly morphed into a series of entrepreneurial ventures in the medica...

In our second episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Dean St. Peter, Director of Production at Machine Grow and Processing and Arcanna—a vertically-integrated cannabis operation out of Michigan, with a portfolio of in-house brands, including the well-respected brands 3Lefts and Trap House Company.

Originally a professionally-trained chef and legacy-market operator, Dean transitioned to the regulated cannabis market when he ...

In our first ever episode, host Benjamin Ballinger sat down with Manish Patel, JD, MBA—a seasoned cannabis operator and legal professional. Manish has had his hands deep in the transformative soil of the cannabis sector, from the wild-west days of the legacy market to the regulated markets we see today.

Manish shares valuable insights and hard-learned lessons from his time as the VP of Business Development for Ganja Gold, a promine...