July 28, 2025 • 30 mins
Meet Michael Costello, CEO of GNC—a dynamic leader driving innovation in global wellness right here in Pittsburgh! With decades of retail expertise and a bold vision for the future, he’s transforming how the world thinks about health and performance. Don’t miss our conversation on the CEOs You Should Know podcast!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
And welcome in. This is the CEO's Used to Know Podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Heart. Well, let's say hello to
Michael Costello, CEO of gen C. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you very much, Jnny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So tell us everything we need to know about GENC.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You know, G and C. Most of us are on
some type of health journey and we all have questions.
The human body is very complex. What GNC does is, yes,
we have all the products, but we also have a
lot of coaching in store and so if you want that,
you want products are scientifically trusted. I have fifteen people
on staff that actually do all the vetting for the
products you show up in store. You have coaches who
(00:40):
know how to answer your questions. It really simplifies the
whole health and wellness journey that you're on. And we're
here to help.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
You, not tell me about your CEO journey.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. It's one of those
strange things is that when I started my career nineteen
eighty eight with Clorox chemical engineer trained, came into R
and D and I always knew I wanted to do
business at the same time, but I wanted to really
learn a lot of things, and my plan was actually
(01:11):
become a CEO. Seems strange, but even a lot of
my friends were thinking that that's you know. I was
pretty clear about what my career path was and the
reason why is I really like coaching teams and driving
teams to a greater result. And so as I moved up,
I was in roles like that the whole time, with
obviously CEO kind of being the pinnacle of that. But
(01:33):
I moved from a R and D role. Then I
moved into a manufacturing role. Spent time three years in
a plant, working on how to make products all the
way from receiving raw materials to having a finished product
that shows up on your grocery shelf. Then I did
marketing in the US and spent time on a brand
most people know, Clorox, another big brand a lot of
(01:56):
people recognized Glad, and spent time in two thousand actually
recreating the Glad logo and the whole Glad packaging. We
reset that so when you see a yellow package of
Glad with a red logo and a white lettering, that
design was set in two thousand and it's still mostly there,
which I'm still very proud of because if they have
logos last for twenty five, twenty six years in the
(02:18):
c summer products industry is not very common because people
like to change those things all the time. But my
point is I was gathering skills, and then I went
to Brazil. I lived in Brazil for three years, spent
time doing marketing in Brazil, and then eventually took over
acting general manager of the Brazil operation, which you ended
up shutting down. I came back into our marketing center
(02:39):
of expertise, did a marketing director for Latin America, a
VP of marketing for everything outside the US. Came back
to Miami as general manager for Latin America. Then I
got Europe. Then after a little bit, I got Asia,
and then they gave me Canada, and so I was
running about one point three billion sales, you know, and
(03:00):
people around the world, twenty four teams, joint ventures, and
that was really a stage that kind of I think
really set my executive presence, so that as I fast
forward to GENC, I retired for three years and spent
time really advising small companies about how they could step
up their game and what I call accidental CEOs. These
(03:22):
are folks who found a new brand, they've created it.
They started with one or two people and all a
sudden they're at fifty people and how do they change
their mindset from a small time CEO not in a
bad way, but we're in all details, levering them up
and really having more impact on the brand, how they
can lead those teams. And then GENC called And for me,
(03:43):
GNC was a brand that in the nineties I was
a customer in the tens. I sold to them when
I was running middle of stuffing in brands. It's a
brand that I felt had really lost its way with
the consumer. And so excited to come back and really
get the gens brand, which I think is iconic, and
to really turn it and modernize it for a new age.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And what was the state of GNC prior to you
taking over?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, you know, for me, I go a little bit
farther back because people talk about the GenZ problems being
in bankruptcy in twenty twenty, but like anything, problems were
brought were there a lot earlier. Right in ninety four.
What most people don't know is DISHAE, which is a
dietary Sultment Act was passed and it really took dietary
supplements from a wild wild West to more regulated version.
(04:32):
So more bigger companies came into the space because it
really had created gone from wildwall West. We're people competing
on anything, putting lots of stuff in there, and now
there's a very clear set of rules and how you play,
and that creates the bigger companies and the bigger retailers
are more willing to play in those areas. So as
ninety four came out, this a category that is growing
(04:54):
fairly quickly. Still, you saw a lot of folks, big
box retailers as well as as the Nestles, the Procter
and Gambles of the world come in to these categories
and continue to build more professional and structure, but also
more access. Right, so you have a lot of these
(05:14):
brands then showed up in Walmart, show up a Target,
showed up on Amazon GNC during that whole time because
prior to ninety four and in the early two thousands,
was really the only place you could get stuff. When
I bought Creating in the nineties from GenZ, that was
because Creating, you couldn't go buy it anywhere else. Maybe
some random catalog that you got in the mail or
(05:36):
that GNC store you could actually talk to and talk
to somebody, you could have that trust, right, So GenZ
built up a lot of trust there for this kind
of wild wild West area. I bought all my stuff
from GenZ at the time. As you get to twenty twenty,
during the pandemic, everything was good for us afterwards because
of the fact that everyone was looking for anything they
(05:58):
could buy to help their immunity. But then that was
that was a small blip in a long term decline.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Whereas now GENC is really folks back on the consumer
and saying, how do I take like, how do I
help you with your journey? How do I provide something
different that you can't get anywhere else?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well, okay, GNC is a household name, like you mentioned,
So what was some of your ideas to refurbish or
reinvent gen C? Uh and and and and also but
keep keep that uh, you know, the UH staying true
to its roots.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So what's what's really interesting is we really step back
I try to think about strategic versus tactics, right, so
and more of the principles of things. Gen C doesn't
have to change its essence. In fact, while we have
to adapt to modern age. It's going to be the
same essence. What are we here for. We're here about.
We're science based, we do education. We curate the products
(06:59):
on our shelves, so you know you have the best
products are available for what you're looking for. That happened
back in nineties, in twenty tens, and it happens today.
That's our essence now like many things. But at the
same time, we're driving on TikTok. We have lots of
influencers that we're marketing through. We're revamping how we train
(07:20):
people because how you train people back in twenty ten
and how you train people today in the stores is different, right,
So we have a lot shorter videos that folks are
watching versus a big book we used to have if
you go back all the way in two thousands, that
people could open up and look at everything. So while
we're changing the tactics of how we do it, the
(07:40):
essence of the brand isn't changing. That's how we're successful
for And I've always found out that if you're really
kind of kind of restating a brand like we're doing GENC,
it's back to the basics, like what made you successful
with the consumer in the first place.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Look to tackle that, talk about tactics. What are some
of the marketing tactics that you have either utilized, what
work before and what are you seeing that are working now?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, so we all know unfortunately it's for radio, but
digital is where we most of us live, right We
sit on our phones for way probably more hours than
any of us should, but we do. And so we're
strong at TikTok. We have influencers there, We have influencers
on Instagram, so a lot more of influencer marketing that's
(08:29):
out there. We're also were really making sure that we
were hitting you where you talk. So if you come
on our website, your head on the app, we're going
to continually remind you maybe about the fact that a
product that you've liked and you bought from us, remind
you again about it. So it's more we're working those
digital journeys that if you go back ten years ago,
(08:50):
five years ago, we weren't doing. Because the consumer is
spending time digital journey.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Digital, how does that affect your retail business?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Well, so that's why I say retail is digital. So
if you walk into the store today and you were
convinced that you bought the right GENC product. Let's say
I sell you Mega Man, one of our better vitamins
out there. You've taken it for one month, you go
back to the store, buy it again, you take it again.
You've not created a habit. You've now done that sixty days.
(09:19):
You have a habit, and you know you're probably gonna
take it every day. You'll miss a few here and there,
but you're gonna take it every day. And so you
can sign up for subscription to bring it to your house.
That's there. We'll talk to you about as in your
subscription journey, but we'll give you emails about how to
take and how to think about it. What are you
going through it? So it's the store, but yet you're
(09:40):
still digital because there I'm interacting with you. Same thing.
We know that consumers come in our stores and search
online on our website or search on Amazon for product finding,
and I want to have and I have some information
and now I need like step it up a mix.
So digital does not just mean phone. Digital means how
I'm interacting with you, and so it could be you know,
(10:02):
through our membership rewards programming, store online. We want to
make it seamless.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Back, and there's so many different ways you can touch
people digitally. Okay, So as you took over, what were
some of the ideas you wanted to implement, how did
that implement, implementation go, and what do you see doing
going forward?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So there's a few things. What I've always found is
the biggest thing is to create a strategy that is
clear and crisp and that folks can understand what we're
doing all the way down to the bottom. There's a
saying from uh, there's a tribe of the Rockefeller and
actually is a Rockefeller that says, I'd rather have one
percent effort of one hundred men than a hundredercent effort
(10:43):
of one man. And you go, the math doesn't math
because one's one hundred percent the other ones' one hundred percent.
Where I think the difference is is one hundred people
looking out for what you can do, so there's a
better chance the one hundred people are going to catch
the right, right, right opportunity. Then if you have one
person just trying to drive. So by creating a clear
strategy that you can share with the whole organization, it's
(11:06):
not one we keep with the executives and hide and
build on it, and build on and build on it.
It gets a point where everybody in the organization is
trying to achieve those You have a better success rate
because you have more shots on goal, because more people
are looking to try and try and achieve those strategies.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We're you able to see your team adopting your ideas.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I think we're definitely that moment. And we have some wins,
we have some losses. You know, I've never had a
I've never had a time where I have all w's.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But the fact is, you got to keep shooting on goal.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You got to keep shooting on goal. And we're getting
the shots on goal. And yes, I'm feeling good about
the progress.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Pittsburgh has been home base for G and C ninety years.
Ninety years. Yeah, and I forget the name. It was
an odd name when it first started, and it almost
got wiped out by a flood.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Get well, the stores got wiped up by the flood, right,
and then we were brought back in again, and so
and it reopened in the depression, I think about it
during a time period. So gen Z started with resilience, right, Yeah,
and that was the lack zoom.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
But the black zoom, that's what it is. Yeah, that's right, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
The but I mean I think importantly, you know, think
about General Nutrition Center at that time, which I find
funny because who knows this General Nutrition Center today? So
there's another route.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I almost said, you know, CEO General Nutrition Center, but
you know that everybody knows g n C.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So I was wearing a General Nutrition Center shirt the
other day and my kids were like, is that what
it stands for? Because like KFC, g n C, like
the brand is kind of become the you know, the
acronyms have now become the brand. Uh. And so that's
what we talked about GENC.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, Pittsburgh is Bennett's home. How how does the city
play play in the brand's identity and how does it
influence company culture or decisions?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
So, you know, I think the beautiful thing about Pittsburgh,
and I heard it on one of the other podcasts,
which is true, is that yensers like to stay in
Pittsburgh and if they leave, they come back, right. So
the idea, which was really good, is that we have
a lot of folks in the headquarters who have been
(13:23):
with GENC for ten, twenty thirty years, so that continuity
of knowledge is really really good. We've also brought in
some outsiders myself included, to kind of mix have that mix.
So the executive team I have now is about half
yensers and half outside and that mix creates the right, well,
(13:46):
I think is a very positive mix because you get
the continuity, you get the Pittsburgh, you get a lot
of stuff of how we've been here and what Genc's
done really well for ninety years, along with a little
bit of infusion of how do we think about things
outside of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Okay, one good thing about Pittsburgh is that we're durable.
We're also uh, we're resilient, resilient, and we're hard workers. Yes,
but we're also reluctant to change. Have you has that
been your experience or no?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So I'd say yes and no. You know, I think
Pittsburgh insor INSS locals here are reluctant to change because
you know, it's been based on a lot of hard
work and a lot of building of this city and
it's a city that you know, has stood to test
the time, right the that that kind of Midwest value
(14:40):
of like, let me go with what I know. I
think as we've talked to folks about how we're basing
G and C in the history of JANC but also
modernizing it. I think that's actually pe people picked up
on that because we're not trying to We're not shaking
the base, We're just shaking how we do things well.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
The wellness industry is not a billion dollar business. It's
a trillion dollar business. And I think it's smart that
you know that, you know, G and C could have
gone away, could have it could have, but you also
have name recognition and there's a lot of things that
go with it. So you know the to me, G
(15:18):
and C has a bright future.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, I think it does because I keep coming back
down to is effect. So we've gone and don consumer
interviews all on the brand, right, so how are the
strong folks? The folks are out there? And what it
comes down to is that the you know, there are
people who are going to buy on Amazon and they're going
to buy the one with the ten thousand and five
(15:40):
star reviews, whether those are real or fake, and maybe
even for lowest price. And that's a consumer who has
probably buying it more for insurance. They're not really focused
on their health as much as we're trying to avoid
things happening. Our core consumer is knowledge about these categories,
interested in the categories, and has some type of and
(16:02):
and health and wellness is really core to their identity.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And we've been loyal to that brand for a long
long time.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And because of that, because because you know that, yes,
you can know the other guys and you can buy
some of the other products. But GNC has that science
has veted the products right. You know that the products
are working, and we stand behind it and you can
come come there. Well, most folks don't even realize is
that we for example, we have a money back guarantee. Uh,
you come buy something from us, you know it doesn't work, Well,
(16:30):
we'll take it back. We don't get much of beople
returning it. You can't do that in a lot of
the other channels.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Pittsburgh is always give to Pittsburgh. You're a Pittsburgh company.
How does G and C give back?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, I'm going to go start with that, and I'm
going to go I'm going to come back to it,
which is you know, as you talked about the mindset
of Pittsburgh, that give back is kind of in the mindset.
It's been in the mindset of gen C and something
I actually fundamentally believe in that businesses has to look
at stakeholders. Besides it's just so shareholders or their bondholders,
you have look at employees, and you can look at
(17:03):
the community. We're a lot better for strong in the community.
Our big thing that we're focus on right now is
we actually have a GenZ Live Well Foundation that we
raise money for every year and we use that to
give back to various charities. I'll talk about one specifically,
but we also then give back to folks like some
(17:24):
of our employees who hit hard times. So in the
hurricanes that have hit, some of our folks at the
store who are hourly workers have a hard time rebounding
from it. We have employee grants that we give to
those that are hit on hard times to really try
and get them to back up on their feet so
they can so they can take care of their family
and everything else because a lot of times they're still
(17:46):
continue to work. So I love that part of it.
I love the part of the money we give back.
And then our biggest one though is the American Diabetes Association.
So you had Andy on here I think last week
or earlier from Chick on the Sea. He was chairman
for last year for the Step Out Walk, which is
the largest largest Step Out Walk fundraising in the United States,
(18:10):
and I took it over for this year. So that
that is, yes, we are going to beat him last year,
but not even that. The funny story was and the
reason why I took I was offered the role was
last year there's a corporate fundraiser, so a lot of
(18:31):
corporate companies here, Giant Eagle, pitt Ohio, Chick on the
c g n C were in a competition for the
month of July this year to see who raises the
most out of all the corporate teams for the Step
Out Walk. Last year at eleven fifty eight on the
last day, GNC might have put a big contribution in
(18:53):
and become the number one the winner and we won.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So you're the reason why you're going to have a
difficult time beating Andy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
No, we're not gonna have a difficult time beating We're
going to beat Andy. Last year we beat him on
the corporate challenge and that was because I said, at
the last two minutes we put in the uh, put
in the donation, and he was very gracious. He called
me up, texted me and said congratulations on it. Because
this competition is really about us competing with each other
(19:22):
to raise money for folks who are on diabetes. So
the competition is fun between us, but it's also as
a positive outcome, and most of that money actually comes
back to Pittsburgh. So what most folks don't realize is
there's a lot of divites research that happens in Pittsburgh.
So we raise money for the American Died Beat Association. Yes,
it helps the folks out there, it helps preventive education,
(19:46):
but a lot of those dollars then come back into
the Pittsburgh's and gets recycled here.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And the synergy between Chicken of the Sea which is
a healthy product, and of course gen C is you're in.
That's that's your that's your space, and that's that's why
we're both.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Looking at this charity as well. We're both in for
the same charity. Yes, are you competitive a little bit? Yeah?
So so a little bit. So we are going to
wait a little bit. We are going to beat right
out here a little bit. We're going to beat Andy
again this year, and if we lose, we're all raising
a lot more money. Great like pitt Ohio is in
(20:19):
third right now. They they were they were wanted their
neck and neck with all three of us, and Chicken
and CEA and janc just pulled out between one and two.
Yes we're in one. But the the great thing about
this is that no matter who wins, the community wins.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Gotcha. You know, I get the privilege of talking to
a lot of CEOs, and the one thing that sets
you apart from a lot of CEOs is you have
a certain unique focus. And I think focus is maybe
the number one attribute for a successful not only CEO,
(21:00):
for a company. Is that something that you recognize, Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Focus is clearly it and it's you know, it's there
are a lot of good ideas out there. There's more
good ideas than time you can have to execute good ideas,
So you have to you have to be careful to
get really focused on what the good ideas are going
to do, not the bad ideas are easy to reject,
(21:26):
like it's if it's dumb, you don't want to go
do it. The harder problem at a CEO or an
executive level is figure out which good ideas to go
after and which good idea is to not go after.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Was there anything in your career? Well, first of all,
you are very h your resume is resume is very diverse.
I think that will serve you well as CEO. But
was there anything that that you think can you? Is
there a story that that really sets you up for
success as CEO? Was there any one moment, a book,
(22:00):
somebody who influenced you.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So I have a few crucible moments and I think
about them. Crucible moments, right, so you know, when do
I get put in that mortar pestel and kind of
get the fire, you know? And the first one in
my career really was when I was running a manufacturing plant.
I was in my late twenties and I had fifty
(22:22):
people reporting to me and they were all in their
forties and fifties. Mostly there was some younger, but mostly
been in manufacturing, and there were hourly workers have been
working there for a long time. And when I took over,
our productivity is horrible. The teamwork wasn't that good. And
I did do a lot of research from reading on
like what's my leadership style? And looked at what else
(22:44):
was out there, and time and time again, the win
was figuring out how to empower the folks who are
are doing the work. And at that point I really
learned how to do that. That was my biggest learning
out of it. And when I say that is that
(23:05):
because I have a fundamental belief that everybody comes to
work to try and do a good job. If they
don't do a good job, it's because of management screwed up.
It's rarely because they screwed up. Now, over time people
might get jaded and everything else, But really, why did
somebody kind of not show up and want to do
a good job? As humans, we typically want to. I
(23:27):
want to contribute, to contribute to the community we're in,
the things that we're doing, and our community, the people
we work with. So that was that big learning for me,
and then learning how to unlock it, which was really
I took budgets and times and focus, and I created
teams and I had each team with a set of responsibilities,
(23:49):
and I gave them full control over the budget, full
control over how they were going to execute things. And
I had somebody come to me one time, and this
was part of the even that really unlocked it. There
was he said, Hey, we're going to buy five thousand
dollars for a belt for this machine, and I said,
is it in your budget? He said yeah. He I said, okay,
go do it. I said, why you're asking me? He's like,
(24:10):
but don't you have to prove it? Don't you want
the reasons? Why did the whole team sit down and
figure out this is the right way to spend money?
He said, yes, the whole team. I said, how am
I going to add value? So they walked out. What
was a big win there was that they all owned
it from here there on out, they knew that they
really had ownership of it, so that if the numbers
were good, it was because they did it. The numbers
(24:32):
were bad, it was also because they hadn't done what
they should do. And that accountability drove a real teamwork
among those teams to make sure the numbers are there.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And what have you unlocked at G and C that
you think is going to unlock their potential.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
We're doing very similar, but it's a different level from
running a team that's operating on a plant to running
a company. But he is really kind of creating those objectives.
We cascaded this year, I think with the best time
yet objectives from me. So I write my objectives first,
my direct reports right their next ones. We write them
all the way down to the lowest level, and the
(25:12):
lowest level objectives should tie all the way back up
to the company objectives. And if we have that connectivity,
then what you're doing is you're giving freedom in a box.
So the folks who are on digital team, they don't
have to come ask me to say should I run
this AD or this AD? They know the objectives are
what we're doing, here's what going on. Do The questions
they have to ask is is the work I'm doing
(25:33):
here support my objectives? Because the objectives I have tie
back up to my boss objectives, who tile all the
way back up. I'm not out of I'm not running
out of my lane because it's already we've already given
that freedom inside the box.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Can you give me something something that would surprise me
about you, something that a guilty pleasure, maybe a talent,
maybe an unexpected HOLI hobby.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So I used to be a sous chef and at
one point point my biggest career decision that I made
was in nineteen eighty eight, was whether I should go
work on cruise ships in the Caribbean or whether I
should go to Clorox and work as a chemical engineer.
I chose the Clorox one. We never know what the
other version would have been, but that was I had.
(26:19):
My executive chef at the time was told me I
was making a huge mistake going to become an engineer.
That my true pat my true calling was. I was
in restaurants. We'll never know.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Do you still cook at home?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I cook every day. Yeah, I'd rather cook than go home.
I gott to cook them go out unless it's Bar Marco,
which is one of my favorite restaurants.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
But the you can always go to the Caribbean, and.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I could be on the cruise ship, which I would
rather if I wanted to. I'll tell you the thing
about those. So yes, I cook now and I use
all the skills because it was also that's my that
is typically my zen time. I might have put on
some music, might listen to podcast, but I'm cooking and
I'm in my zone. But only takes me at thirty
minutes of cook because it was a nice thing I
(27:09):
got from cooking for a long time. My knife skills
are really good. So I'm cooking and cooking clean. Actually
I'm clean cook prepping, cooking, and cleaning at the same time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
But that's just that's your style.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That's just the style. When you're your restaurant. You have
to do that. You don't have a chance to you know,
you got to prep as you're as you're cooking, you
got to be cleaning up at the same time because
the next orders coming in, the next order is coming in.
So you can't just let us sit there till the
morning and clean up all your dishes. So that rhythm.
But for me, it's I've done for so long. It
really is that zen moment of my day.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What's your go to meal?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
You know? I make a different meal every time I
open up for the way. So when I was in college,
I used to have friends, come on, Michael, come on, no, no,
I'm going to tell you because when I my most
my favorite thing how to cook is to open up
the refrigerator and make something.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So in college, I said, friends, stop buying with a
bag of groceries. They've come into back groceries and they
put a bag groceries in front of me and say
make something. And so they'd buy the groceries and I'd
make the food and whatever it was. You turn into something.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So not only is a zen moment, but it's also
a creative a creative moment.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, I think. I think cook. I don't bake because
I can't follow instructions. So and and the nice thing
about cooking is cooking is a creative moment where spice
flavors change over time, it's tasting, it's it's in that moment.
It's really kind of and and my meals are never
the same from one of the other. When I was
(28:44):
in restaurants, I had to because you you kind of
followed it. But from home, I'm cooking for myself. That's great.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Is there anything else about G and C you want
people to know?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know, I'm coming back to one of my biggest frustrations,
and I'm glad we could talk about it here. Is
I talked lots of people. I'm in Pittsburgh, so I
came here to start for jen C. I had never
been to Pittsburgh before. The first day I was in
Pittsburgh was was for the start of the job. And
we've been here ninety years and I can't tell you
(29:17):
how few people are running to actually know. Gen C
was founded and the worldwide headquarters for GENC are here
in Pittsburgh. Uh, you know, because users have such a
strong affiliation for brands that are from here. You know,
still drinking Iron City, right, the.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Sports culture, you know, the you know, the devotion to
uh yeah, he's wearing Steelers socks. Good man, good move
good especially in this building.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Right, So because you know, the Steelers have a fall
a following for a championship team, whether or not they're
championship team. Right. So that passionate love for the local
brands I wish came out for GENC here.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
It makes a lot of sense. But that I've always
known GNC was a Pittsburgh company, and so I automatically
assume most people knew that. But I'm surprised that that's
your experience.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I would tell you probably less than ten percent. I've
go either from business leaders. I've been in events and
they're like, oh, GNC, where you guys from, right. But
the fact is we have worldwide headquarters here in Pittsburgh,
so we're serving not just the United States, but fifty
countries outside of US.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Well ninety years. You've got to be here two hundred
years before your Michael, this has been you. You're an
absolutely fascinating guy. I really appreciate your time. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Now, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is the CEO's Used to Know Podcast.
I'm your host, Johnny Heart. Well, let's say hello to
Michael Costello, CEO of gen C. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you very much, Jnny.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So tell us everything we need to know about GENC.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You know, G and C. Most of us are on
some type of health journey and we all have questions.
The human body is very complex. What GNC does is, yes,
we have all the products, but we also have a
lot of coaching in store and so if you want that,
you want products are scientifically trusted. I have fifteen people
on staff that actually do all the vetting for the
products you show up in store. You have coaches who
(00:40):
know how to answer your questions. It really simplifies the
whole health and wellness journey that you're on. And we're
here to help.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
You, not tell me about your CEO journey.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. It's one of those
strange things is that when I started my career nineteen
eighty eight with Clorox chemical engineer trained, came into R
and D and I always knew I wanted to do
business at the same time, but I wanted to really
learn a lot of things, and my plan was actually
(01:11):
become a CEO. Seems strange, but even a lot of
my friends were thinking that that's you know. I was
pretty clear about what my career path was and the
reason why is I really like coaching teams and driving
teams to a greater result. And so as I moved up,
I was in roles like that the whole time, with
obviously CEO kind of being the pinnacle of that. But
(01:33):
I moved from a R and D role. Then I
moved into a manufacturing role. Spent time three years in
a plant, working on how to make products all the
way from receiving raw materials to having a finished product
that shows up on your grocery shelf. Then I did
marketing in the US and spent time on a brand
most people know, Clorox, another big brand a lot of
(01:56):
people recognized Glad, and spent time in two thousand actually
recreating the Glad logo and the whole Glad packaging. We
reset that so when you see a yellow package of
Glad with a red logo and a white lettering, that
design was set in two thousand and it's still mostly there,
which I'm still very proud of because if they have
logos last for twenty five, twenty six years in the
(02:18):
c summer products industry is not very common because people
like to change those things all the time. But my
point is I was gathering skills, and then I went
to Brazil. I lived in Brazil for three years, spent
time doing marketing in Brazil, and then eventually took over
acting general manager of the Brazil operation, which you ended
up shutting down. I came back into our marketing center
(02:39):
of expertise, did a marketing director for Latin America, a
VP of marketing for everything outside the US. Came back
to Miami as general manager for Latin America. Then I
got Europe. Then after a little bit, I got Asia,
and then they gave me Canada, and so I was
running about one point three billion sales, you know, and
(03:00):
people around the world, twenty four teams, joint ventures, and
that was really a stage that kind of I think
really set my executive presence, so that as I fast
forward to GENC, I retired for three years and spent
time really advising small companies about how they could step
up their game and what I call accidental CEOs. These
(03:22):
are folks who found a new brand, they've created it.
They started with one or two people and all a
sudden they're at fifty people and how do they change
their mindset from a small time CEO not in a
bad way, but we're in all details, levering them up
and really having more impact on the brand, how they
can lead those teams. And then GENC called And for me,
(03:43):
GNC was a brand that in the nineties I was
a customer in the tens. I sold to them when
I was running middle of stuffing in brands. It's a
brand that I felt had really lost its way with
the consumer. And so excited to come back and really
get the gens brand, which I think is iconic, and
to really turn it and modernize it for a new age.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And what was the state of GNC prior to you
taking over?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, you know, for me, I go a little bit
farther back because people talk about the GenZ problems being
in bankruptcy in twenty twenty, but like anything, problems were
brought were there a lot earlier. Right in ninety four.
What most people don't know is DISHAE, which is a
dietary Sultment Act was passed and it really took dietary
supplements from a wild wild West to more regulated version.
(04:32):
So more bigger companies came into the space because it
really had created gone from wildwall West. We're people competing
on anything, putting lots of stuff in there, and now
there's a very clear set of rules and how you play,
and that creates the bigger companies and the bigger retailers
are more willing to play in those areas. So as
ninety four came out, this a category that is growing
(04:54):
fairly quickly. Still, you saw a lot of folks, big
box retailers as well as as the Nestles, the Procter
and Gambles of the world come in to these categories
and continue to build more professional and structure, but also
more access. Right, so you have a lot of these
(05:14):
brands then showed up in Walmart, show up a Target,
showed up on Amazon GNC during that whole time because
prior to ninety four and in the early two thousands,
was really the only place you could get stuff. When
I bought Creating in the nineties from GenZ, that was
because Creating, you couldn't go buy it anywhere else. Maybe
some random catalog that you got in the mail or
(05:36):
that GNC store you could actually talk to and talk
to somebody, you could have that trust, right, So GenZ
built up a lot of trust there for this kind
of wild wild West area. I bought all my stuff
from GenZ at the time. As you get to twenty twenty,
during the pandemic, everything was good for us afterwards because
of the fact that everyone was looking for anything they
(05:58):
could buy to help their immunity. But then that was
that was a small blip in a long term decline.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Whereas now GENC is really folks back on the consumer
and saying, how do I take like, how do I
help you with your journey? How do I provide something
different that you can't get anywhere else?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Well, okay, GNC is a household name, like you mentioned,
So what was some of your ideas to refurbish or
reinvent gen C? Uh and and and and also but
keep keep that uh, you know, the UH staying true
to its roots.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So what's what's really interesting is we really step back
I try to think about strategic versus tactics, right, so
and more of the principles of things. Gen C doesn't
have to change its essence. In fact, while we have
to adapt to modern age. It's going to be the
same essence. What are we here for. We're here about.
We're science based, we do education. We curate the products
(06:59):
on our shelves, so you know you have the best
products are available for what you're looking for. That happened
back in nineties, in twenty tens, and it happens today.
That's our essence now like many things. But at the
same time, we're driving on TikTok. We have lots of
influencers that we're marketing through. We're revamping how we train
(07:20):
people because how you train people back in twenty ten
and how you train people today in the stores is different, right,
So we have a lot shorter videos that folks are
watching versus a big book we used to have if
you go back all the way in two thousands, that
people could open up and look at everything. So while
we're changing the tactics of how we do it, the
(07:40):
essence of the brand isn't changing. That's how we're successful
for And I've always found out that if you're really
kind of kind of restating a brand like we're doing GENC,
it's back to the basics, like what made you successful
with the consumer in the first place.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Look to tackle that, talk about tactics. What are some
of the marketing tactics that you have either utilized, what
work before and what are you seeing that are working now?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, so we all know unfortunately it's for radio, but
digital is where we most of us live, right We
sit on our phones for way probably more hours than
any of us should, but we do. And so we're
strong at TikTok. We have influencers there, We have influencers
on Instagram, so a lot more of influencer marketing that's
(08:29):
out there. We're also were really making sure that we
were hitting you where you talk. So if you come
on our website, your head on the app, we're going
to continually remind you maybe about the fact that a
product that you've liked and you bought from us, remind
you again about it. So it's more we're working those
digital journeys that if you go back ten years ago,
(08:50):
five years ago, we weren't doing. Because the consumer is
spending time digital journey.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Digital, how does that affect your retail business?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Well, so that's why I say retail is digital. So
if you walk into the store today and you were
convinced that you bought the right GENC product. Let's say
I sell you Mega Man, one of our better vitamins
out there. You've taken it for one month, you go
back to the store, buy it again, you take it again.
You've not created a habit. You've now done that sixty days.
(09:19):
You have a habit, and you know you're probably gonna
take it every day. You'll miss a few here and there,
but you're gonna take it every day. And so you
can sign up for subscription to bring it to your house.
That's there. We'll talk to you about as in your
subscription journey, but we'll give you emails about how to
take and how to think about it. What are you
going through it? So it's the store, but yet you're
(09:40):
still digital because there I'm interacting with you. Same thing.
We know that consumers come in our stores and search
online on our website or search on Amazon for product finding,
and I want to have and I have some information
and now I need like step it up a mix.
So digital does not just mean phone. Digital means how
I'm interacting with you, and so it could be you know,
(10:02):
through our membership rewards programming, store online. We want to
make it seamless.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Back, and there's so many different ways you can touch
people digitally. Okay, So as you took over, what were
some of the ideas you wanted to implement, how did
that implement, implementation go, and what do you see doing
going forward?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
So there's a few things. What I've always found is
the biggest thing is to create a strategy that is
clear and crisp and that folks can understand what we're
doing all the way down to the bottom. There's a
saying from uh, there's a tribe of the Rockefeller and
actually is a Rockefeller that says, I'd rather have one
percent effort of one hundred men than a hundredercent effort
(10:43):
of one man. And you go, the math doesn't math
because one's one hundred percent the other ones' one hundred percent.
Where I think the difference is is one hundred people
looking out for what you can do, so there's a
better chance the one hundred people are going to catch
the right, right, right opportunity. Then if you have one
person just trying to drive. So by creating a clear
strategy that you can share with the whole organization, it's
(11:06):
not one we keep with the executives and hide and
build on it, and build on and build on it.
It gets a point where everybody in the organization is
trying to achieve those You have a better success rate
because you have more shots on goal, because more people
are looking to try and try and achieve those strategies.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We're you able to see your team adopting your ideas.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I think we're definitely that moment. And we have some wins,
we have some losses. You know, I've never had a
I've never had a time where I have all w's.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But the fact is, you got to keep shooting on goal.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You got to keep shooting on goal. And we're getting
the shots on goal. And yes, I'm feeling good about
the progress.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Pittsburgh has been home base for G and C ninety years.
Ninety years. Yeah, and I forget the name. It was
an odd name when it first started, and it almost
got wiped out by a flood.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Get well, the stores got wiped up by the flood, right,
and then we were brought back in again, and so
and it reopened in the depression, I think about it
during a time period. So gen Z started with resilience, right, Yeah,
and that was the lack zoom.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
But the black zoom, that's what it is. Yeah, that's right, Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
The but I mean I think importantly, you know, think
about General Nutrition Center at that time, which I find
funny because who knows this General Nutrition Center today? So
there's another route.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I almost said, you know, CEO General Nutrition Center, but
you know that everybody knows g n C.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So I was wearing a General Nutrition Center shirt the
other day and my kids were like, is that what
it stands for? Because like KFC, g n C, like
the brand is kind of become the you know, the
acronyms have now become the brand. Uh. And so that's
what we talked about GENC.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, Pittsburgh is Bennett's home. How how does the city
play play in the brand's identity and how does it
influence company culture or decisions?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
So, you know, I think the beautiful thing about Pittsburgh,
and I heard it on one of the other podcasts,
which is true, is that yensers like to stay in
Pittsburgh and if they leave, they come back, right. So
the idea, which was really good, is that we have
a lot of folks in the headquarters who have been
(13:23):
with GENC for ten, twenty thirty years, so that continuity
of knowledge is really really good. We've also brought in
some outsiders myself included, to kind of mix have that mix.
So the executive team I have now is about half
yensers and half outside and that mix creates the right, well,
(13:46):
I think is a very positive mix because you get
the continuity, you get the Pittsburgh, you get a lot
of stuff of how we've been here and what Genc's
done really well for ninety years, along with a little
bit of infusion of how do we think about things
outside of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Okay, one good thing about Pittsburgh is that we're durable.
We're also uh, we're resilient, resilient, and we're hard workers. Yes,
but we're also reluctant to change. Have you has that
been your experience or no?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So I'd say yes and no. You know, I think
Pittsburgh insor INSS locals here are reluctant to change because
you know, it's been based on a lot of hard
work and a lot of building of this city and
it's a city that you know, has stood to test
the time, right the that that kind of Midwest value
(14:40):
of like, let me go with what I know. I
think as we've talked to folks about how we're basing
G and C in the history of JANC but also
modernizing it. I think that's actually pe people picked up
on that because we're not trying to We're not shaking
the base, We're just shaking how we do things well.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
The wellness industry is not a billion dollar business. It's
a trillion dollar business. And I think it's smart that
you know that, you know, G and C could have
gone away, could have it could have, but you also
have name recognition and there's a lot of things that
go with it. So you know the to me, G
(15:18):
and C has a bright future.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, I think it does because I keep coming back
down to is effect. So we've gone and don consumer
interviews all on the brand, right, so how are the
strong folks? The folks are out there? And what it
comes down to is that the you know, there are
people who are going to buy on Amazon and they're going
to buy the one with the ten thousand and five
(15:40):
star reviews, whether those are real or fake, and maybe
even for lowest price. And that's a consumer who has
probably buying it more for insurance. They're not really focused
on their health as much as we're trying to avoid
things happening. Our core consumer is knowledge about these categories,
interested in the categories, and has some type of and
(16:02):
and health and wellness is really core to their identity.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And we've been loyal to that brand for a long
long time.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
And because of that, because because you know that, yes,
you can know the other guys and you can buy
some of the other products. But GNC has that science
has veted the products right. You know that the products
are working, and we stand behind it and you can
come come there. Well, most folks don't even realize is
that we for example, we have a money back guarantee. Uh,
you come buy something from us, you know it doesn't work, Well,
(16:30):
we'll take it back. We don't get much of beople
returning it. You can't do that in a lot of
the other channels.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Pittsburgh is always give to Pittsburgh. You're a Pittsburgh company.
How does G and C give back?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Well, I'm going to go start with that, and I'm
going to go I'm going to come back to it,
which is you know, as you talked about the mindset
of Pittsburgh, that give back is kind of in the mindset.
It's been in the mindset of gen C and something
I actually fundamentally believe in that businesses has to look
at stakeholders. Besides it's just so shareholders or their bondholders,
you have look at employees, and you can look at
(17:03):
the community. We're a lot better for strong in the community.
Our big thing that we're focus on right now is
we actually have a GenZ Live Well Foundation that we
raise money for every year and we use that to
give back to various charities. I'll talk about one specifically,
but we also then give back to folks like some
(17:24):
of our employees who hit hard times. So in the
hurricanes that have hit, some of our folks at the
store who are hourly workers have a hard time rebounding
from it. We have employee grants that we give to
those that are hit on hard times to really try
and get them to back up on their feet so
they can so they can take care of their family
and everything else because a lot of times they're still
(17:46):
continue to work. So I love that part of it.
I love the part of the money we give back.
And then our biggest one though is the American Diabetes Association.
So you had Andy on here I think last week
or earlier from Chick on the Sea. He was chairman
for last year for the Step Out Walk, which is
the largest largest Step Out Walk fundraising in the United States,
(18:10):
and I took it over for this year. So that
that is, yes, we are going to beat him last year,
but not even that. The funny story was and the
reason why I took I was offered the role was
last year there's a corporate fundraiser, so a lot of
(18:31):
corporate companies here, Giant Eagle, pitt Ohio, Chick on the
c g n C were in a competition for the
month of July this year to see who raises the
most out of all the corporate teams for the Step
Out Walk. Last year at eleven fifty eight on the
last day, GNC might have put a big contribution in
(18:53):
and become the number one the winner and we won.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So you're the reason why you're going to have a
difficult time beating Andy.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
No, we're not gonna have a difficult time beating We're
going to beat Andy. Last year we beat him on
the corporate challenge and that was because I said, at
the last two minutes we put in the uh, put
in the donation, and he was very gracious. He called
me up, texted me and said congratulations on it. Because
this competition is really about us competing with each other
(19:22):
to raise money for folks who are on diabetes. So
the competition is fun between us, but it's also as
a positive outcome, and most of that money actually comes
back to Pittsburgh. So what most folks don't realize is
there's a lot of divites research that happens in Pittsburgh.
So we raise money for the American Died Beat Association. Yes,
it helps the folks out there, it helps preventive education,
(19:46):
but a lot of those dollars then come back into
the Pittsburgh's and gets recycled here.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And the synergy between Chicken of the Sea which is
a healthy product, and of course gen C is you're in.
That's that's your that's your space, and that's that's why
we're both.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Looking at this charity as well. We're both in for
the same charity. Yes, are you competitive a little bit? Yeah?
So so a little bit. So we are going to
wait a little bit. We are going to beat right
out here a little bit. We're going to beat Andy
again this year, and if we lose, we're all raising
a lot more money. Great like pitt Ohio is in
(20:19):
third right now. They they were they were wanted their
neck and neck with all three of us, and Chicken
and CEA and janc just pulled out between one and two.
Yes we're in one. But the the great thing about
this is that no matter who wins, the community wins.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Gotcha. You know, I get the privilege of talking to
a lot of CEOs, and the one thing that sets
you apart from a lot of CEOs is you have
a certain unique focus. And I think focus is maybe
the number one attribute for a successful not only CEO,
(21:00):
for a company. Is that something that you recognize, Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Focus is clearly it and it's you know, it's there
are a lot of good ideas out there. There's more
good ideas than time you can have to execute good ideas,
So you have to you have to be careful to
get really focused on what the good ideas are going
to do, not the bad ideas are easy to reject,
(21:26):
like it's if it's dumb, you don't want to go
do it. The harder problem at a CEO or an
executive level is figure out which good ideas to go
after and which good idea is to not go after.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Was there anything in your career? Well, first of all,
you are very h your resume is resume is very diverse.
I think that will serve you well as CEO. But
was there anything that that you think can you? Is
there a story that that really sets you up for
success as CEO? Was there any one moment, a book,
(22:00):
somebody who influenced you.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So I have a few crucible moments and I think
about them. Crucible moments, right, so you know, when do
I get put in that mortar pestel and kind of
get the fire, you know? And the first one in
my career really was when I was running a manufacturing plant.
I was in my late twenties and I had fifty
(22:22):
people reporting to me and they were all in their
forties and fifties. Mostly there was some younger, but mostly
been in manufacturing, and there were hourly workers have been
working there for a long time. And when I took over,
our productivity is horrible. The teamwork wasn't that good. And
I did do a lot of research from reading on
like what's my leadership style? And looked at what else
(22:44):
was out there, and time and time again, the win
was figuring out how to empower the folks who are
are doing the work. And at that point I really
learned how to do that. That was my biggest learning
out of it. And when I say that is that
(23:05):
because I have a fundamental belief that everybody comes to
work to try and do a good job. If they
don't do a good job, it's because of management screwed up.
It's rarely because they screwed up. Now, over time people
might get jaded and everything else, But really, why did
somebody kind of not show up and want to do
a good job? As humans, we typically want to. I
(23:27):
want to contribute, to contribute to the community we're in,
the things that we're doing, and our community, the people
we work with. So that was that big learning for me,
and then learning how to unlock it, which was really
I took budgets and times and focus, and I created
teams and I had each team with a set of responsibilities,
(23:49):
and I gave them full control over the budget, full
control over how they were going to execute things. And
I had somebody come to me one time, and this
was part of the even that really unlocked it. There
was he said, Hey, we're going to buy five thousand
dollars for a belt for this machine, and I said,
is it in your budget? He said yeah. He I said, okay,
go do it. I said, why you're asking me? He's like,
(24:10):
but don't you have to prove it? Don't you want
the reasons? Why did the whole team sit down and
figure out this is the right way to spend money?
He said, yes, the whole team. I said, how am
I going to add value? So they walked out. What
was a big win there was that they all owned
it from here there on out, they knew that they
really had ownership of it, so that if the numbers
were good, it was because they did it. The numbers
(24:32):
were bad, it was also because they hadn't done what
they should do. And that accountability drove a real teamwork
among those teams to make sure the numbers are there.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And what have you unlocked at G and C that
you think is going to unlock their potential.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
We're doing very similar, but it's a different level from
running a team that's operating on a plant to running
a company. But he is really kind of creating those objectives.
We cascaded this year, I think with the best time
yet objectives from me. So I write my objectives first,
my direct reports right their next ones. We write them
all the way down to the lowest level, and the
(25:12):
lowest level objectives should tie all the way back up
to the company objectives. And if we have that connectivity,
then what you're doing is you're giving freedom in a box.
So the folks who are on digital team, they don't
have to come ask me to say should I run
this AD or this AD? They know the objectives are
what we're doing, here's what going on. Do The questions
they have to ask is is the work I'm doing
(25:33):
here support my objectives? Because the objectives I have tie
back up to my boss objectives, who tile all the
way back up. I'm not out of I'm not running
out of my lane because it's already we've already given
that freedom inside the box.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Can you give me something something that would surprise me
about you, something that a guilty pleasure, maybe a talent,
maybe an unexpected HOLI hobby.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So I used to be a sous chef and at
one point point my biggest career decision that I made
was in nineteen eighty eight, was whether I should go
work on cruise ships in the Caribbean or whether I
should go to Clorox and work as a chemical engineer.
I chose the Clorox one. We never know what the
other version would have been, but that was I had.
(26:19):
My executive chef at the time was told me I
was making a huge mistake going to become an engineer.
That my true pat my true calling was. I was
in restaurants. We'll never know.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Do you still cook at home?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I cook every day. Yeah, I'd rather cook than go home.
I gott to cook them go out unless it's Bar Marco,
which is one of my favorite restaurants.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
But the you can always go to the Caribbean, and.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I could be on the cruise ship, which I would
rather if I wanted to. I'll tell you the thing
about those. So yes, I cook now and I use
all the skills because it was also that's my that
is typically my zen time. I might have put on
some music, might listen to podcast, but I'm cooking and
I'm in my zone. But only takes me at thirty
minutes of cook because it was a nice thing I
(27:09):
got from cooking for a long time. My knife skills
are really good. So I'm cooking and cooking clean. Actually
I'm clean cook prepping, cooking, and cleaning at the same time.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
But that's just that's your style.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That's just the style. When you're your restaurant. You have
to do that. You don't have a chance to you know,
you got to prep as you're as you're cooking, you
got to be cleaning up at the same time because
the next orders coming in, the next order is coming in.
So you can't just let us sit there till the
morning and clean up all your dishes. So that rhythm.
But for me, it's I've done for so long. It
really is that zen moment of my day.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
What's your go to meal?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
You know? I make a different meal every time I
open up for the way. So when I was in college,
I used to have friends, come on, Michael, come on, no, no,
I'm going to tell you because when I my most
my favorite thing how to cook is to open up
the refrigerator and make something.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
So in college, I said, friends, stop buying with a
bag of groceries. They've come into back groceries and they
put a bag groceries in front of me and say
make something. And so they'd buy the groceries and I'd
make the food and whatever it was. You turn into something.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So not only is a zen moment, but it's also
a creative a creative moment.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, I think. I think cook. I don't bake because
I can't follow instructions. So and and the nice thing
about cooking is cooking is a creative moment where spice
flavors change over time, it's tasting, it's it's in that moment.
It's really kind of and and my meals are never
the same from one of the other. When I was
(28:44):
in restaurants, I had to because you you kind of
followed it. But from home, I'm cooking for myself. That's great.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Is there anything else about G and C you want
people to know?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know, I'm coming back to one of my biggest frustrations,
and I'm glad we could talk about it here. Is
I talked lots of people. I'm in Pittsburgh, so I
came here to start for jen C. I had never
been to Pittsburgh before. The first day I was in
Pittsburgh was was for the start of the job. And
we've been here ninety years and I can't tell you
(29:17):
how few people are running to actually know. Gen C
was founded and the worldwide headquarters for GENC are here
in Pittsburgh. Uh, you know, because users have such a
strong affiliation for brands that are from here. You know,
still drinking Iron City, right, the.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Sports culture, you know, the you know, the devotion to
uh yeah, he's wearing Steelers socks. Good man, good move
good especially in this building.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Right, So because you know, the Steelers have a fall
a following for a championship team, whether or not they're
championship team. Right. So that passionate love for the local
brands I wish came out for GENC here.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
It makes a lot of sense. But that I've always
known GNC was a Pittsburgh company, and so I automatically
assume most people knew that. But I'm surprised that that's
your experience.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I would tell you probably less than ten percent. I've
go either from business leaders. I've been in events and
they're like, oh, GNC, where you guys from, right. But
the fact is we have worldwide headquarters here in Pittsburgh,
so we're serving not just the United States, but fifty
countries outside of US.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Well ninety years. You've got to be here two hundred
years before your Michael, this has been you. You're an
absolutely fascinating guy. I really appreciate your time. Thank you
so much.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Now, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
This has been the CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's
commitment to the communities we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank
you so much for listening.
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