the Joshua Schall Audio Experience Joshua Schall

In this episode, we cover the breaking news that Bodybuilding.com was just sold by Expedia Group, after the travel company had the supplement internet retailer for less than a year. The new owner of Bodybuilding.com is The Najafi Companies, a Phoenix-based Private Equity Firm, with the owner having ties to Phoenix Suns ownership. I will share an update on where Bodybuilding.com is today, what The Najafi Companies focuses on with their investments and their assumed plan of action. Additionally, I give details on why I believe this could end up to be a strong investment.

Can you pick a game that is more fun than guessing Amazon’s next acquisitions? I’ll wait…

With recent news of Amazon looking to buy several what I like to call “splashy” companies during and after this Great Lockdown recessionary period, it got me thinking about what exactly the internet retailer could potentially be up too.

This podcast will focus on 5 (non-technology) categories of likely interest to Amazon and the name(s) I believe would be the best fit for them.


Fashion Heavy General Merchandise Retailer
Grocery Distributor
Athletic Apparel Manufacturer 
Pharmacy Benefit Manager
Industrial Distributor

Is it just me or does the momentum around Celsius Energy Drinks remind you of what happened 3-4 years ago with Bang Energy?

How does the saying go? Longtime listener, first time caller? If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know I have been sharing quarterly updates on Celsius Holdings for the last several years. That being said, this is my first standalone video with Celsius being the focal point. I think it will be interesting for my community to take a deeper dive into how this emerging energy beverage company is attacking the competitive energy drinks market.

Since this is the first one, I need to establish a bit of a rubric. I will borrow my flow from other publicly-traded companies and will use the recent quarterly earnings as the backdrop to talk about bigger categorical and strategic insights. Additionally, since we are still in the midst of COVID-19, I will be providing some additional thoughts on how that uncertainty is causing retailing environment.

On this podcast episode, I use the BellRing Brands 2020 FYQ2 earnings report as the backdrop to explain is Premier Protein is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the uncertain COVID-19 retailing environment. BellRing Brands is a portfolio that owns a collection of convenient nutrition businesses, such as Premier Protein, Powerbar, Joint Juice, Supreme Protein, and Dymatize Nutrition and was previously wholly-owned by Post Holdings.

I will further update you on the growth of Premier Protein RTD beverages in the face of the COVID-19 retailing environment. Alternatively, I cover how this reliance of protein RTD beverages could be a huge risk for BellRing Brands. I provide details on different sales metrics that and how new products are performing in the market. Additionally, I comment on their surge in digital sales. Finally, I chat about the Premier Protein positioning and if I think that growth will continue into the back-half of the fiscal year.

On this episode, we will use the recent 2020Q1 GNC earnings report, that was released on 5/11/2020, as the backdrop to discuss its upcoming bankruptcy "This is Sparta Kick" moment. I will breakdown the key quarterly financial data, but more importantly cover what is happening with GNC and the COVID-19 retailing environment. I also cover some details around human capital cost reduction, store optimization plans, COVID-19 store closures, and cost cutting or delaying measures with rent and vendors. Finally, I share the updated financial picture that GNC is looking at and the judgement day of 5/16/20.

This podcast episode will introduce six consumer trends that were caused or accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, as it continues to reshape every part of our lives. There has likely never been a more volatile period for consumer behavior shifts in our lifetime and that creates massive winners and losers.  As an entrepreneur (or aspiring one), you should LOVE this time period. 

In this video, I am going to highlight a collection of accelerated trends that are happening right now, explain the underlying drivers, give some examples of impacted categories, and what the viability of their future is within the consumer market.   

Trends include;


DIY FMCG
At-Home Medical
Burnout Syndrome
Virtual Experiences
Work From Home
At-Home Fitness