The economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to wipe out jobs at a record pace. For the week ended April 18, another 4.4 million workers filed for new unemployment benefits, bringing the total number of job losses to about 26 million in the last five weeks. That amounts to about one in six working Americans. While I am not some career coach, recruiter, resume writer, or have much content that usually resembles personal development, I do believe I can help your unemployment situation...
Apr 23, 2020•22 min
On this special "COVID-19 Effect" edition of the Pivotal interview series that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY...we have a candid discussion with Jeremy Smith, President of LaunchPad Group USA, which is the only full service business strategy, branding and representation group intensely focused on emerging food brands highly specialized in Costco Representation and Strategy. In this episode we ...
Apr 22, 2020•44 min
On the latest episode of the special edition "COVID-19 Effect" Pivotal interviews, we have a candid discussion with Chris Walton, Co-Founder/Co-CEO of several businesses including the fast-growing retail blog OmniTalk. He is also a senior contributor to Forbes and admittedly my favorite business writer because we share a commonality in our style and thoughts. Prior to starting his entrepreneurial ventures, Chris worked for Target, where he was the VP of the retailer’s Store of the Future project...
Apr 20, 2020•39 min
On this special "COVID-19 Effect" edition of our Pivotal interview series, we have a candid discussion with Chris Wagner, Founder/CEO of several business including Raze Energy, NutraKey, and G POP Foods. Because of the diversity of the portfolio of businesses, it gives Chris a unique perspective across many different food, beverage, and nutritional supplement CPG product categories that all sell in diverse sales channels. In this episode we talk about: How "COVID-19 Effect" has created changes w...
Apr 16, 2020•31 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we have a candid discussion with Adam Brown, Founder/CEO of Sircle Media, a leading social media strategy and content creation agency that has a deep client roster of "better for you" CPG brands. In this episode we talk about: How "COVID-19 Effect" has created changes at Sircle Media How CPG brands are tur...
Apr 15, 2020•27 min
Simply Good Foods Company, which owns "health and fitness snacking" brands Quest Nutrition, Atkins Nutritionals, and Simply Protein recently reported its earnings on 4/6/2020. If you are interested in the financial performance breakdown, check out the linked YouTube channel that includes presentation slides. Alternatively, this podcast episode will focus on how Quest Nutrition and Atkins Nutritionals are positioned in the COVID-19 retailing environment. Product Mix Fit Channel Strategy Fit Suppl...
Apr 13, 2020•9 min
On this "COVID-19 Effect" special Pivotal interview, we have a candid discussion with my longtime friend and personal high performance coach Colby Knepp. In this episode we talk about: How "COVID-19 Effect" has created changes in his high performance coaching business How no one is coming to save us except ourselves, so it's time to own this situation How to rebuild positive routines Common mindset challenges his successful entrepreneurs have been dealing with and how he has been correcting thos...
Apr 11, 2020•40 min
The struggling supplement retailer GNC recently released its delayed 2019Q4 earnings report. In this podcast, I breakdown the top-level financial data, but more importantly I cover an additional COVID-19 business update press release that GNC submitted on 4/6/2020. I will add commentary to what is happening in the COVID-19 retailing environment and around differing interpretations of the definition of essential or non-essential retail operations. Finally, I share my opinions on several POVs, inc...
Apr 10, 2020•21 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we have a candid talk with Rich White, Founder and CEO of Sportika Export, the leading sports nutrition exporter in the U.S. On this special "COVID-19 Effect" episode, Rich shares about... COVID-19 Effect on Sportika Export (and the adaptations his company is making) Silver Linings at Sportika Export from ...
Apr 09, 2020•34 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we have a candid talk with Aaron Hinde, President & Co-Founder of LifeAid Beverage Co., about how the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic has affected his multiple INC. 5000 List member beverage company. LifeAID products represent a far superior alternative to sodas, energy drinks, sports ...
Apr 07, 2020•27 min
Is COVID-19 affecting a high-growth e-commerce business that serves the college student community? I set out to answer that question. I had a candid conversation with Russell Saks, CEO & Co-Founder of Campus Protein, about how the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic has affected his business, which is located in New York City. We also discuss how the "extended college summer break" constraint has given the Campus Protein team an opportunity to realign and strengthen their busine...
Apr 02, 2020•31 min
On 3/28/2020, I interviewed Aaron Singerman (CEO of Redcon1) about how his sports nutrition company had partnered with on-demand delivery apps, such as Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats to provide another fulfillment option for customers. While their HQ and Redcon1 gym are "pick-up points" as well., the strategy really has legs when you consider that 1000s of Redcon1 retailers can add themselves as additional locations. While this is creative in the face of COVID-19, it's also long-term on-trend...
Mar 31, 2020•22 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we talk to Michael Noe, the owner of 406 Nutrition and Invictus Marketing, about what he is doing to help give value to brick and mortar supplement stores during this time of uncertainty with the coronavirus pandemic. If you are interested in checking out his content on COVID-19, check out his... Facebook ...
Mar 30, 2020•34 min
Is COVID-19 affecting even the fastest growing businesses in the world? I set out to answer that question. I had a candid conversation with Aaron Singerman, CEO of Redcon1, about how his company was performing against the challenging business environment of COVID-19. Being that Redcon1 will likely be at the top 1% of INC Magazine's fastest growing private company list for 2020, I thought Aaron would have a great perspective to share with my community. Aaron and I talked about... March 2020 Sales...
Mar 29, 2020•14 min
Formula For, is a podcast that unpacks the early stories of CPG entrepreneurs, to reveal the list of ingredients that ultimately led them to the revered products they built. On this never before launched episode that was taped on 7/18/2018, we talk to Brendan Ahern, which is currently CEO and Co-Founder of Ronnie Coleman Signature Series (RCSS). RCSS is a privately held, born global, premium sports nutrition company. The company was founded in 2011 and initial capital was generated through prepa...
Mar 27, 2020•55 min
On 3/16/2020, the nutrition supplement retailer GNC submitted a "Notice of Late Filing" to the SEC. For those that aren't aware of what these notices mean, they are requested by publicly-traded to have the SEC grant them longer to submit audited financial statements. When they are filed, it is rarely for a good reason. In this podcast, I breakdown how certain clauses in the debt load of GNC might create issues for them in 2020. The most important clause being that they cannot have a "going conce...
Mar 23, 2020•22 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we talk to Tyler Parsons, Director of Sales at Defyned Brands, about what he is doing to help give value directly to brick and mortar supplement retail stores during this time of uncertainty with the coronavirus pandemic. If you are interested in checking out his content on supplement retail preparedness s...
Mar 20, 2020•27 min
Formula For, is a podcast that unpacks the early stories of CPG entrepreneurs, to reveal the list of ingredients that ultimately led them to the revered products they built. On this never before launched episode, that was taped on 6/25/2018, we talk to Marc Lobliner, which is currently Chief Marketing Officer of TigerFitness.com, a multiple INC. 500/5000 company, as well as Owner/CEO of one of the fastest growing supplement companies, MTS Nutrition and protein bar companies, Outright Bar. Additi...
Mar 18, 2020•56 min
Is the grass really greener on the other side? Mandatory in-office workers are about to find out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Be honest, you’ve had a tinge of jealously towards the estimated under 5% of us “work from home” professionals, right? I mean we get to work from the pool, coffee shops, and even travel the world without the constraints of micro-managers wanting us to use those big brother time tracking programs and be present every Monday to Friday from 9-5 sitting in our office or cubi...
Mar 17, 2020•15 min
Can you imagine spending almost $4 billion to gain access to the hottest beverage club in the U.S.? That is what essentially PepsiCo did when they acquired Rockstar Energy. One of the lead PepsiCo strategy executives said on Linkedin, “This is one of the largest and most transformational deals PepsiCo ever made and it will dramatically accelerate our growth trajectory for years to come.” Why are they making such a big deal about this purchase? I dig into those reasons and more in this episode of...
Mar 16, 2020•17 min
"A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats..." When I started making consistent business content about four and a half years ago, I wanted to give "legs" to the valuable insights that were being shared between myself and others in conference rooms. I felt that non-NDA information was being held too close to the chest, especially in functional CPG categories like sports nutrition. Because of that, I have made it my mission to bring positive light to the space... While working on some projects in Denver, I de...
Mar 02, 2020•55 min
Coldstone Creamery ice cream flavored whey protein, Warheads flavored pre-workout, Swedish Fish flavored BCAAs, and the list continues to grow with sports nutrition brands using authentically licensed flavors in their products, but is that differentiation strategy about to get tougher soon?Recently, Post Holdings and Dymatize Nutrition (which Post Holdings owns through BellRing Brands) launched a Pebbles Cereal flavored protein that I believe changed the market dynamics of sports nutrition brand...
Mar 01, 2020•13 min
I would like to welcome you to the Joshua Schall Audio Experience. The first official upload will focus around what this podcast is about, why I decided to launch it, and when will I launch new episodes of this podcast. Additionally, I will share a bit about myself at the end for those that aren't familiar with me or my story. Truth is, this podcast has been hyped up since I started creating YouTube videos in July 2018, but now it feels amazing to finally move this project from "boy who cried wo...
Feb 25, 2020•12 min
