you're as sweet as she is. -ahh! -good deal. blakely: [ chuckles ] ♪ strud: ♪ are you ready tonighfor a cool relation ♪ ♪ with the brand that's rockin' the nation? ♪ lemonis: polar bear coolers has had tremendous success in the cooler industry. strud: in 2017, we're $3.5 million. lemonis: whoa! strud: we're the pioneers of the soft performance cooler. lemonis: but due to poor inventory management... strud: i do not know how many black 12-packs we have in stock. lemonis: you don't think that's a thing you should know? ...and terrible marketing... cargill: there is no way to purchase anything from this page. lemonis: ...the company has suffered years of continued revenue loss. it's drop, drop, drop, drop. and to make matters worse, the owner doesn't respect his team. hayden: my salary was cut 55% overnight. lemonis: excuse me? geoff: when your house is worth nothing and your pay is cut by 10 grand, it changes your life.

lemonis: my job is to help this owner appreciate his staff... this isn't gonna go anywhere good. hayden: it's not. lemonis: ...and rethink his process. if we don't fix this, this business is gonna go nowhere. i'm marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to help businesses. i love investing in american businesses. woman: these people are here because they care. lemonis: it's not always easy, but i do it to create jobs and i do it to make money. do we have a deal? let's rock and roll. ♪ this is "the profit." ♪ so, i received an application from a company in georgia that has a cooler business. it's called polar bear coolers. the overall cooler business has exploded, and particularly the high-end cooler business 'cause people want to invest in something and hold it forever. and the soft-sided cooler business is a fast-growing category.

now i love tailgating and i love the outdoors, and so it fits nicely into my portfolio. [ rock music plays ] hayden: hello. lemonis: what's that music? hayden: you didn't know what you walked into, did you? lemonis: how you doing? i'm marcus. hayden: i'm hayden. nice to meet you. lemonis: hayden, how are you? geoff: marcus, geoff gold. lemonis: nice to meet you. brett: i'm brett. lemonis: how are you? lemonis: what's... brett: that's strud upstairs, playing. lemonis: in the middle of the workday? okay. all right, let me -- i'll make my way up. hayden: first door on your right. lemonis: sounds like there's somebody playing as if they're in their garage practicing for a gig tonight, while other people are trying to get their job done. not exactly a great environment. [ music continues ] hi. how you doing? [ music stops ] how are you? strud: hey, marcus! lemonis: i'm marcus. strud: i'm so pleased to meet you. lemonis: what is your name? strud: strud. lemonis: okay. stephanie: stephanie. lemonis: stephanie, nice to meet you. stephanie: this is bo-bear.

lemonis: bo-bear? stephanie: yes. lemonis: is this the business, or is this a music studio? strud: this is the music studio where we record some music for the business and social media. lemonis: are you the owner? strud: yes. lemonis: okay. and what is your role here? stephanie: i just own him. lemonis: are you his wife or just... stephanie: he calls me his "love-life-partner." strud: love-life-partner. stephanie: so it's a mouthful. lemonis: do you want to get married? strud: i'm all-in. lemonis: oh. maybe you should formalize that. so, what's the polar bear jingle? is there a jingle? strud: no. there's no particular jingle. lemonis: well, just play me something. [ rock music plays ] strud: ♪ marcus lemonis, we've seen your show ♪ ♪ and it sure is fine lemonis: okay. ♪ strud: ♪ why don't you come on down to georgia ♪ ♪ meet polar bear, we'll have a good time ♪ lemonis: look, i love the fact that strud likes to have fun. if he was upstairs writing jingles or commercials or doing videos -- things that actually drove the business forward -- i wouldn't care. and i'm wondering if that's the reason that i'm actually here -- 'cause he can't focus.

strud: we're the pioneers of the soft performance cooler, okay? 20 years, i've been doing that. right now we are super stressed. i mean, there's been a lot of hard times. lemonis: what are you stressed about? strud: last year was $2.5 million, but within 2017, we were $3.5 million. lemonis: whoa! strud: so we've gone down $1 million in two years, marcus. that's the problem. lemonis: the fact that he lost over 30% in revenue from '17 to '18 is a really big deal. where is the product? why don't we go look at the product? strud: let's go do that. ♪ lemonis: so, is this the full assortment? strud: yeah. this is the h2o, the waterproof line. so, the difference in these two models, marcus, is this is closed-cell foam, like the foam in your life vest. it's squishy. it's waterproof. lemonis: okay. strud: and this is open-cell foam, like the foam in your couch. it sucks water up like a sponge. lemonis: in order for a company to be successful, it needs to be able to tell its story quickly and cleanly. instead, he's starting to go into all these technical terms, like "closed-cell foam" or "open-cell foam." all i essentially want to know is,

how long do things stay cold, how much does it cost, and does it do what i need it to do? strud: okay. so, you have a rubber base bottom here. and then it's piping all over. you have a daisy chain here. yeah, this tarpaulin material is really nice. lemonis: i-i-i don't know what any of that means, and i don't think the customer does, either. i'll be honest with you. the construction of it and the details -- the quality looks good. so, what size is this? strud: this is the 48-pack. lemonis: cost and retail? strud: this one is around $75 to make. lemonis: and retail? strud: $220. that's the biggest size we have. a 24-pack right here. lemonis: okay. strud: 12-pack here. 6-pack right here. this is our least seller. lemonis: this looks like i'm going to lunch, like a little kid. so why do you still have this, then, if this is the least seller? strud: we sell enough of them. lemonis: how many? strud: 5,000 a year. lemonis: and how many of the other one? strud: roughly 35,000, 40,000. lemonis: okay. as i look at all the coolers, it was a bit overwhelming. and i'm wondering if the 80/20 rule doesn't apply here,

which is that 80% of the revenue comes from 20% of the skus. let's go to the warehouse. wow. so, what are these? strud: 6-packs. lemonis: how do you know? strud: because i can look at this and tell there's too many 6-packs here. lemonis: when i walk around this warehouse, it looks...chaotic, it looks disorganized. there's no rhyme or reason to where things are. what is all this? strud: this is the return bin. lemonis: it doesn't look right. what i thought i would see, to be honest, is i thought it would see some sort of racking. strud: i mean, i can walk in here and get a visual of where everything is. lemonis: so how many 48 blacks are out here right now? strud: um...well, let's go look at them. lemonis: no, no. you said you could do it from here. strud: well, i need to look at them. i need to look. you'll see where they are. lemonis: in order to improve the profitability of the business, understanding your inventory, managing it properly, knowing what you have at the right time at the right price is quintessential to maximizing your margin. what's here?

geoff: 7,000 coolers. lemonis: and how do you know if you have the right amount of a particular sku? geoff: 'cause i track the inventory, and then we do physical counts periodically. lemonis: and how much in total dollars is in inventory here? geoff: right now, i don't know off the top of my head. it's on my sheet. lemonis: what are the top skus you sell? geoff: the 12-pack black. lemonis: how many do you have in stock right now? strud: honestly, i do not know how many black 12-packs we have in stock right now. lemonis: how many do you have? geoff: zero. lemonis: you don't think that's a thing you should know? geoff: we don't have the funding to stock what we need at this moment. strud: what'd you do? you didn't piss him off, did you? yeah, tell him about that. why do we have so many 6-packs? geoff: these will be gone in about a month. strud: that's too long. i agree with you. lemonis: well, don't agree with me, and don't pick on him. here's the funding. here you go. here's some money. essentially, they've piled up a bunch of cash in their warehouse in different areas and don't know what they have. and anytime a company does this, it essentially puts themselves out of business, and they don't even realize it.

this inventory that's sitting around needs to be, first, organized, and second, if there's too much of something, it needs to be liquidated. if there's too little of something, it needs to be ordered. you think your [bleep] looks together? strud: for my knowledge, i know what's here. lemonis: okay. so, i want to hear from your sister. brett: you were doing just fine, just fine. everything was going great. you were making lots of money. but then somebody quit manning the store and quit coming up with fresh ideas. you didn't do any marketing. you didn't do any advertising. you didn't do any social media. the times changed, and polar bear didn't change with the times. strud: i honestly didn't know where else to go, so i diversified. i bought some land in buena vista, colorado, and we got a boxcar and we put it in the town. and we turned that into an airbnb rental. the only thing else you have to do is sell it. one, two, three -- done. i see that vision very well. so it should have already been bringing back money, but it cost too much. lemonis: how much money did you put in the land? strud: $220,000. lemonis: and how much did you pay for the boxcar? strud: 75 grand. lemonis: so now that's almost 300 grand? strud: yes.

lemonis: unfortunately, strud thought it was a good idea to strip the company of all of its working capital and not be prepared for a downturn. i feel like i need to understand more about what really happened here -- not just with strud's lack of focus, but what's the real story about how the people that work here that are part of this business really feel? ♪ so, how long have you worked there? hayden: it'll be five years in september. lemonis: oh, wow. and what's your biggest criticism of how the company's run? hayden: there's zero process for strud, as far as "this is how we do things." and me and strud recently had a blowup. it was kind of a long time coming. and multiple salary cuts. my salary was cut 55% overnight. lemonis: excuse me? hayden: yeah. in the past two years, too, i've been in a tailspin from this because, like, i bought a house. lemonis: how'd you pay your mortgage? hayden: i had to file bankruptcy. it was a whole thing. lemonis: does he know that? hayden: yeah. house gone. i live in my dad's basement right now. lemonis: i understand that businesses go through tough times and pay rates have to be adjusted, but it's the way and the context

that you communicate to that team member why it's happening and how it's gonna happen. i don't know how i'm gonna get strud to see that unless i just put it right in front of his face. strud, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the way you treat people? strud: 7. geoff: in the beginnibeginning, it was much nicer. things got a little more intense as we were growing. 2009, we had a meeting, and he proceeds to go on the board and drew a line, like, "this is what everybody makes. this is how much geoff makes. this is how much," you know... lemonis: in front of everybody? geoff: in front of everybody. and that meeting is where you said, "no. i'm up here. you're down here." lemonis: i can't think back to a time where this quickly, i'm hearing about how distraught people are. there is a definite problem between the owner of this business and everybody else that works here. were you hurt by it? geoff: absolutely. and he cut my pay 'cause he thought i was making too much money. lemonis: how much did he cut your pay by? geoff: 10 grand. lemonis: and how many years did that last? geoff: well, we got to a different arrangement

about six months later. but the damage was already done in my life, so... strud: hold on. how was damage done to your life? geoff: personal stuff. strud: okay. personal stuff. geoff: when your house is worth nothing and your pay is cut by 10 grand, it changes your life. lemonis: i don't know how you actually fix this business without totally revamping the way strud thinks. and i'm not sure it's possible. ♪ coming up... from '16 to '17 to '18, it's drop, drop, drop, drop. strud: okay, so -- lemonis: why? it's really -- i'm telling you, this is gonna determine whether i move forward. if you're looking to take your business to the next level, log on to theprofitcasting.com. geoff: when your house is worth nothing black friday week at sprint is speaking of magic,ime. i turned my iphone 6s into the new iphone 11. it's true, trade in an iphone 6s or newer - in any condition - and you'll get the powerful new iphone 11

for just $0 a month when you switch to sprint. yeah, an iphone 6s for an iphone 11. or trade in your beloved iphone 7, trusty iphone 8, amazing iphone x... ...take them all to 11. see, i told you, magic. ♪ [airport pa]"all flights have been delayed." t-mobile makes the holidays easier... ...like this. because right now when you buy one of the latest samsung phones you get one free. on that. so you can post this... ...score this... ...be there like this... ...and share all of this... ...with that. so do this, on that, with us. now, buy a samsung galaxy s10 or note 10 and get one free. and your pay is cut by 10 grand, it changes your life. strud: i wish we had talked about it more. ♪

lemonis: when you own a business, you have to read people's minds, and you have to think about their feelings more than your own. with geoff, i appreciated his level of humility and openness so early on after just meeting me. i feel like i know enough about their product and their process -- kind of their people. and i want to start to dig into the financials to really understand how the inner workings are made up. let's go to last year. 2018, company generated $2.6 million in revenue. the company lost $35,000. strud: well, hold on. lost $35,000? lemonis: did you know that? no, no, don't point at him. geoff: that's because of -- the train car stuff is in there. owner's discretionary spend. lemonis: i can't believe he's surprised that this move that he made to pull all the working capital out of the business really hurt the company. but with strud, i think it's pretty consistent with his lack of focus and his lack of self-awareness.

2017, the company did $3.2 million in revenue and made $16,000. strud: wait. we made only $16,000? geoff: because of lots of owner's discretionary spending. lemonis: 2016. $3.5 million in revenue. made 88 grand. so from '16 to '17 to '18, it's drop, drop, drop, drop. strud: okay, so -- lemonis: why? and you can't blame anybody. strud: okay. um... lemonis: it's really -- i'm telling you, this is gonna determine whether i move forward. if you answer wrong, i'm leaving. ♪ strud: it's 100% bad decisions made on my part, marcus. lemonis: that's it. that's the answer. the fact that strud was able to answer the question correctly showed me that he is aware of his own liability, which gives me a little bit of hope. when you took a disproportionate amount of money

out of the business, you took the company's ability to make the right-size buy at the right price, and so you actually crushed the margin because you made them order in smaller batches. you take the working capital out of a business and they can't buy the right inventory, invest in product innovation, invest in marketing, then there's a reason that the business is down. you took the blood out of the body. can we look at the balance sheet real quick? let's just look at the current one. $422,000 in assets. on the liability side, $124,000 in payables. so the business is relatively clean in terms of its balance sheet, right? is that a fair statement? strud: mm-hmm. lemonis: so, normally, when i'm doing a traditional equity investment, i would write a check. my worry is how he would actually manage the money. i almost need to keep him... on a tight leash. this business only needs, financially, the ability to ramp up its inventory as sales ramp up.

here's what i'm willing to do. i don't have an interest in owning the business. it's your thing. you founded it. am willing to set up a line of credit for the business. if the goal is to get back to $3 million... strud: yes. lemonis: you'll need a $540,000 line of credit. you earn into the line of credit as the sales grow. i'm gonna provide them with a revolving line of credit that allows them to borrow money from the line, build inventory up, and as the inventory sells back down, take the profits from that and pay down the line. over and over again, they'll continue to pull on the line and pay it back, pull on the line and pay it back. and retained earnings over time will replace the need for the revolver. i'll have the interest rate be 5%. strud: that's good. lemonis: but i want 25% equity for doing it. ♪ strud: so, i need a good plan for how it's going to happen. lemonis: what the company really needs -- i think it needs an attention to inventory, a clear digital strategy direct-to-consumer.

i think it needs the people that are in the business today to see a financial path for them to make more money as the company grows. strud: yeah. marcus, i am so appreciative that you've come here, and i would be honored to be a partner with you. lemonis: okay. let's rock and roll. hayden: yeah! strud: all right, buddy. ♪ lemonis: polar bear had a giant drop in sales, and their business is largely direct-to-consumer, which means it's through the website. and the fact that strud hasn't addressed this before is not only concerning, but i'm not gonna wait any longer. strud: hey. what's your name? keran: keran. strud: i'm strud. lemonis: and so i set up a meeting with a solid marketing company in atlanta because i want to get objective third-party feedback on what they think about the website. and i'm curious to see how strud reacts to it. cargill: so, as you can see,

there is no way to purchase anything from this page. you're telling them about this bullet-proof liner, but you're not really telling them why they should buy this. lemonis: what's that angry dog doing? strud: hold on. that's not an angry dog. that's brett's dog. he said he can't bite through the liner. cargill: what is the benefit? does it keep the drinks colder longer? what does it do? strud: it doesn't leak. cargill: okay. strud: it says "leak proof." lemonis: where does it say that? strud: the stamp that's on there -- "leak proof." "polar bear leak proof." keran: that stamp that says "leak proof." cargill: [ laughing ] you can't read that! strud: i mean, if you read through it, it'll tell you more. cargill: no one reads through here. lemonis: who put this website together? hayden: no one reads it. keran: you're doing the customer a disservice by not leading them to a sale that could help them. strud: but my point that i'm trying to make is, we have a tough liner. lemonis: the website that strud has for his business is almost representative of him -- no focus, no self-awareness of what the consumers or anybody else that has any expertise is saying.

and he's justifying it because he's, like, justifying his behavior. who is the profile customer? strud: okay. lemonis: not "i think" and "i hope" and "i want." what is it exactly? strud: for which product? because we have nylons and then we have the ec-line and then we have mossy oak coolers. obviously, the mossy oak coolers would be targeted and marketed towards hunting people. groomsmen were one of the demographics we were after. lemonis: wait, wait. what? strud: for groomsmen, yeah. keran: does the data tell you that that's who your customer is? strud: this is the data that just gathered -- just -- we don't have, um... lemonis: did strud just say that groomsmen is the right target for this business? let's start to identify, who are the most likely people to buy these products? i'm looking for things like outdoor enthusiasts, tailgaters, soccer moms -- people that actually need the product. brett: i tend to think that there should be something for a female in here. lemonis: like, "how could this work for your family?" "what about taking this with the kids?" keran: okay. cool.

geoff: a lot of people are uploading collegiate logos. i think there's a market there for the cold collegiate world. lemonis: and so understanding, what are the top colors and what are the top teams? and so there's a lot of research that can be done with color combinations. so, you have my permission to start over and make a new site. keran: okay. lemonis: when lyfe rebuilds the site, hayden, i want you to take the lyfe marketing relationship. i felt like the meeting was great. lyfe marketing's gonna work with hayden on building something that speaks to the features and the benefits, and then it's ready to go in a couple of weeks. thank you. cargill: thank you. brett: nice to meet you. keran: yeah. ♪ geoff: how are you? lemonis: what's happening? geoff: just living it. lemonis: what's up, my man? strud: hey! lemonis: so, what is all this? strud: this is direct sales to consumer online, okay? lemonis: look, we've commissioned to start a new website, but the one thing that we need more than anything is the historical data from the old website -- who bought what and when and why -- so we understand exactly how and when it dropped off.

in 2016, the online business was 60% of your business. 18% amazon, 42% website. then it went to 38% website, down 4%. and the amazon went down 3%. hayden: you know what happened that year? that's the year that i no longer started handling the website. strud: if that was the case, you should have come to me, go, "hold on, man. we're losing our asses here because you guys don't have me at the helm." hayden: we've had that conversion. strud: i don't think we have enough. you should have been fighting for that with me. hayden: i did. lemonis: as far as i'm concerned, strud either stops the blame game or i'm out of here. strud: if i saw hayden turn sales around ever once... hayden: ever once? strud: no, i mean -- yeah, no. we don't know. hayden: why do you pay me? ♪ lemonis: coming up... strud: we need to know the details to have this conversation. hayden: cut my pay 40% overnight. strud: then you blew up. hold on. hold on, hold on, hold on! now we have an issue.

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hayden: why do you pay me? strud: huh? hayden: why are you paying me if i never made you money? strud: well, because i've had a lot of belief that you would. but you also have to show me how that's happening. you need to put it on paper for me and go, "here's what i did." hayden: we did that. that's why my pay went up. strud: either i made a huge mistake or you made a huge mistake by not making that clear to me. lemonis: in communicating with a very creative eccentric-type person, you have to curate your message in a way that they could understand it. if you don't feel like you're getting it across one way, you got to try a different way. it does take two sides of the table

to make sure that there's clear communication. i blame it on both parties. he's never going to adjust his digesting information for you. you're gonna have to adjust your communicating to fit him. strud: thank you. lemonis: don't be all cocky about it. strud: i'm not. lemonis: my bigger concern in this moment is that i don't like the fact that he's blaming all the issues on other people. what strud doesn't understand about appreciating his employees is listening to them. ♪ let's get everybody together. come on over, guys. ultimately, we want to organize our assets. we want to know what our top sellers are. we want to get rid of all the skus that you have way too much of and get our cash out of them. polar bear is in real need of working capital, and the only way to really do that is to take this dead inventory -- all of it -- and turn it into cash. what i would like you to do is work with me on coming up with a plan for the warehouse. hayden: i like it. lemonis: all right. geoff, if you could start thinking about daily reporting so that everybody that's here knows what we have coming in,

what we have going out, what we have in stock, so we can have some sort of dashboard to understand where our capital is. i'd like to have an inventory grid on that wall. geoff: i could put it up, yeah. lemonis: all right. let's go get it done. where we're gonna start with is, we're gonna create a giant pile in the middle of everything that we don't want to carry anymore. hayden: okay. strud: oh, man. lemonis: let's just get to work. strud: that backpack is you, my friend. lemonis: here we go. strud: we got marcus. what do we need with a pallet jack? lemonis: all right. so this has to go. the goal is for this business to reboot itself by going back to the core products -- the best sizes and the best colors. and anything that looks like it's been sitting awhile or it's the wrong size or the wrong color, i want them to shed themselves of that, get that cash, and reinvest in the core product. hayden: what you're looking at right here is 6-pack navy blue. lemonis: how many do we have? how many have we sold? hayden: right now, we have 289. this time period last year, we sold 95. lemonis: the amount of inventory that a company should have

should be based on historical sales factored in with how long it takes to replenish that inventory. so if i can get product in 30 days, then i only need a 30-day supply. if it takes me four months to get the product from china, then i need a 120-day supply. who can take the lead on finding a company that can come in and put a racking system in? they're not expensive. hayden: i can do them. lemonis: okay. that's on you. you're gonna get your job board up and get the daily dashboard done. you guys got seven days just to try to get more than cost for everything. all right? let's go. ♪ hayden: two levels, and then you can also stack on top. lemonis: while hayden works on the two tasks that i gave him, which is setting up the shelves for the warehouse and working on the new website with the marketing company, strud and the rest of the team have been tasked with selling off the excess inventory. strud: all right, so, i'm gonna chip away at that stuff. i'll go sell that. let me do that. lemonis: and with the cash they generate from selling that inventory, they'll have the working capital to order the right inventory for the next 90 days.

♪ [ guitar music plays ] ♪ strud: there you go. brett: uh-oh. [ laughs ] strud: ♪ oh-la-la-la-la-la lemonis: okay, i need some cooler stuff. today, we're on ocean drive in south beach. so, i want to take the products and get some feedback from people. strud: great idea. lemonis: want to do that? i wanted to bring the polar bear team somewhere different -- out of atlanta because i think one of the reasons that sales are down is that strud struggles with the ability to tell his story, why people should even have the product. the best way to perfect that skill is to do it one-on-one face-to-face with somebody. strud: this is closed-cell foam. that's open-cell foam. this is the foam like in your life vest. this is like the foam in your couch. lemonis: he's drawing a parallel between foam in a couch or in a bed or -- i -- strud: the difference in this and this is this is a closed-cell foam, this is open-cell foam. lemonis: keep it simple. here's the cooler. what's it gonna do for me? so, a couple things. strud: yeah.

lemonis: we want to think about this road to the sale with reasons that people will say "yes." don't you love coolers? strud: yes. lemonis: and when you go to the beach, isn't it totally frustrating when, like, two hours in, your drinks are warm? strud: yes. i got to learn this. lemonis: "yes," "yes," "yes." strud: all right, hang on. let me just get my mind with you here. lemonis: "yes." just get me to "yes." strud: isn't it great to have cold drinks on the beach? lemonis: yes. strud: wouldn't you like to have a way to keep your drinks cold on the beach every time you go? lemonis: yes. strud: i want to show you this cooler. lemonis: okay, great. strud: okay. so, it's got closed-cell foam. lemonis: i don't know what that means. so, what i would consider doing is dropping words that people don't know. strud: closed-cell foam. lemonis: people don't know what that is, and then you have to explain it, and then they're not saying "yes" or anything. people know "insulation." strud: yeah. lemonis: what is the most popular thing here? hayden: that 12-pack silver sells more skus that anything else. lemonis: so would you say that this is an insulation sensation? hayden: ooh! strud: yes. yes, i would. i like that!

lemonis: if you keep saying that, "insulation sensation," you'll never say the word "foam" again. strud: you're so right. lemonis: say "foam sensation." strud: i can't do it. lemonis: just try it. strud: [ speaks gibberish ] you just can't even do it. it's got to be "insulation." lemonis: so, let's go test the insulation sensation. strud: i love it! lemonis: okay. ♪ strud: ohh! the water's calling, marcus. ♪ brett: you lost him. you had him. you lost him. lemonis: what i actually want to do now is see how the product does in or on the water. so, guys, what's a feature of this cooler that we just -- hayden: floats fully loaded. lemonis: floats fully loaded. so insulation... strud: flotation device. lemonis: what are the other things that people are gonna want to see to check the box? strud: keeps cold for very long periods of time. lemonis: duration. strud: duration! god dang it! that's good. lemonis: how about we just change our whole marketing campaign to just three basic things that a customer actually cares about when buying a cooler? insulation's important.

flotation's important. duration's important. so, here's what i want you guys to do -- short videos. but i want to see the product in action. i want to see the insulation. i want to see the flotation. i want to see the duration. be yourself. strud: okay. hayden: filming right now. strud: come on! bring it! 48-hour duration insulation. polar bear coolers -- keep it cool. [bleep] do it again. hayden: that was perfect, actually. strud: no, it's not right. i could pay the same amount for someone to do it for the first time right. lemonis: suddenly, things take a bizarre turn. strud: when the pay gets cut for business reasons, we can talk about that, but if you bring that on me, i'm going to respond to that. lemonis: this little discussion around a social media post starts dredging up all the things from the past. now the train's off the tracks big-time. hayden: cut my pay 40% overnight. strud: hold on. we need to know the details to have this conversion. hayden: i know the details. strud: you chose to not continue to work with me every day to grow it.

hold on. hold on, hold on, hold on! we had a serious conflict on things that i needed you to work with me on to grow the company. lemonis: i have to tell you, i'm now starting to get hot, because i've stressed to strud the importance of learning how to appreciate his people, how to speak to them with respect, and how to listen to them. if he doesn't change, this business won't grow. strud: now we have an issue... ♪ lemonis: coming up... should we all just go home? strud: no. lemonis: why not? you're doing it all. strud: i'm doing it all now. lemonis: but, see, that's the problem. you have full control of it. and so everybody that works here feels underappreciated.

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struto work with me ons conflict on thto grow the company.ed you now we have an issue of something we have to figure out still. okay? then you blew up. hayden: do you want to understand why i made that decision? strud: not yet. lemonis: just 'cause i feel like this isn't gonna go anywhere good... hayden: it's not. lemonis: ...maybe you and i can go talk. strud: let me grab a shirt, if you don't mind. lemonis: i don't know who started it with who or how it all exploded, but all of a sudden, we're dredging up all these things from the past in the middle of south beach. what gets you so amped up? strud: there's so much that has to be done in such little time. i don't really have time to explain every part. lemonis: once and for all, let's close that loop. how about if you don't ever bring up the past again and you say to him, "you know what? do you think it would be a good idea if we figured out how to kick ass going forward?"

strud: absolutely! he's gonna say yes. i can ask him. lemonis: go ask him. strud: come here, hayden. hayden: what's up, buddy? strud: get in here, man! hayden: let me on in. strud: [ laughs ] hey. do you think it would be a good idea if you and i just bury the hatchet and move forward and make this company rock? hayden: absolutely. you know it. strud: let's do it, man. hayden: i'm on it. lemonis: i'm cautiously optimistic that this conversation has a small chance of them actually burying the hatchet. i'll reserve some judgement for later. "appreciation" -- that's the word that you need to learn more than anything. strud: okay. [ laughs ] lemonis: okay? strud: thanks, buddy. lemonis: i'll see you later. strud: all right. thanks, marcus. ♪ ♪ lemonis: the warehouse looks exactly the same. to say that i'm pissed would be an understatement. now it feels like you're just waiting for me to do the work,

and i've been down that road too many times. it kind of all looks that same. strud: are you frustrated? lemonis: i'm more disappointed. strud: are you? that the shelves wouldn't already been in here? lemonis: no. it just doesn't feel any different in here. the job board's not up. strud: no, it is. it's around the corner. geoff thought it would be better because that's where it's all read from, over there. lemonis: yeah. i'm starting to get annoyed by the fact that he's not listening to me. and we can have this debate all day long and all night long, and no matter how many excuses you give me, you're not gonna change my mind. what has everybody here been doing? just hanging out? strud: no. geoff handles the things he handles. hayden handles the things he -- lemonis: describe those for me. strud: hayden answers the phones and does customer service, oversees amazon and the facebook and social media. lemonis: so the advertising? strud: no. social media. hayden: every bit of advertising has to be generathere. lemonis: i'm frustrated right now because i specifically asked hayden to work on this. if you don't allow your team members to do their job, they're gonna resign themselves

to the fact that they're just there. they're gonna let you do it. and guess what's gonna get done. nothing. should we all just go home? strud: no. we don't want everyone to go home. lemonis: why not? you're doing it all. strud: i'm doing it all now. lemonis: but, see, that's the problem. you have full control of it. and so everybody that works here feels underappreciated. and it isn't just about their pay. my journey with strud has been confusing, to say the least. hey, strud, maybe you and stephanie and i can chat? strud: yeah. lemonis: i thought it would be a good idea to sit with his girlfriend/ love-life-partner, stephanie, to see if could get a little bit of insight into how strud is wired. that was a lot, so i'm gonna act like it didn't happen. strud: no, no. i want to fix things, marcus. i don't know what it is when i'm doing it. and, like, i don't know -- if someone would say, "there. you just did it." lemonis: i'll do it right now. strud: okay. lemonis: you don't appreciate people. strud: i do appreciate people -- big-time. i do. lemonis: i'll say it differently. people don't think you appreciate them. strud: there you go. but i do. stephanie: that's the one thing he needs to change about himself --

his tone and the way he comes across to people. strud has neanderthal dna. it's always just -- whatever strud needs to happen is the goal. and it's almost like he'll either push you out of the way or push you to get what he needs out of you to get to the next point. that's how it feels all the time. strud: you can say i'm not considerate, but i wouldn't give up on anyone -- nobody, okay? that's appreciation because i appreciate the people in my life. lemonis: they may not see it that way. strud: they don't, but some of the angles that you're going on -- i'm telling you, they're just not right on. stephanie: we're here trying to help you. lemonis: if we don't fix this, this business is gonna go nowhere. strud: wow. lemonis: for exclusives, extras, and business advice, visit theprofit.cnbc.com.

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lemonis: if we don't fix this, this business is gonna go nowhere. strud: wow. mm. i mean, it's just do-or-die. that's how i feel every day. and i don't know how to fix that. stephanie: you can be really pushy about things, and nobody wants to be pushed around when they're trying to help somebody. strud: let me say something. i do appreciate you. you are on my side no matter what,

and every time i step on that ice in a vulnerable state, you're there. lemonis: well, i would encourage you to look at every single person, whether it's me or them or whoever, with that level of sincerity and earnestness that you have with your soon-to-be bride. strud: yeah. lemonis: you like that -- how i got that in there? strud: i'm in training. stephanie: it's got a ring to it. strud: it's got a what to it? stephanie: no pun intended. lemonis: it's got a ring... strud: [bleep] you guys -- dangerous. lemonis: i think going forward, if the rest of the team knew sincerely that you appreciate them, it builds tolerance. appreciation goes up. tolerance goes up. noise stops. his self-awareness meter is broken. strud just needs to start to realize how much he needs everybody. strud: let me say something. hayden, you're important to me. i mean, in the beginning, we had so much fun, man. i just hit it off with you, and i was like, man,

there was something there, you know? it felt like you were my brother, you know? brett -- she understands me in ways that no one else ever will. it's just nice to have... [ voice breaking ] in my life. ♪ brett: [ chuckles ] strud: geoff has been there, man. it's important to me that you've stuck through. i'm so proud of you and us. geoff: mm-hmm. thank you. ♪ lemonis: ta-da! you know what, bud? it's these kind of discussions that reinforce for people why they stick with you -- appreciation. strud: [ sighing ] yeah. you're the profit, but you know what? you may be the savior, marcus. brett: [ chuckles ] strud: you're a special guy, man. ♪ lemonis: where's the racking?

hayden: racking is being installed on wednesday. we're doing 4-feet-deep racks, but in the middle, you double them up so we can put our biggest skus so we can access from both sides and push through. lemonis: it's only 11 grand. hayden: isn't that amazing? lemonis: okay, great. brett: yay! strud: yay! brett: progress! lemonis: now that strud is finally appreciating his staff, things are falling in place. strud: we've sold all the coolers, marcus. lemonis: come on. strud: yeah, no. we're not [bleep] around, my friend. we sold them all in nine days. lemonis: all of them? strud: all of them. hayden and geoff killed it. lemonis: i am totally blown away by what they were able to accomplish. they ended up getting rid of 1,500 of them -- all the coolers that were on the truck -- and generated $67,000 of cash that was locked up in inventory that couldn't be redeployed into the right inventory. the warehouse racking's being put in. [ indistinct talking ] the inventory is finally being organized. ♪ and with the laser-focus on improving the website and expanding the social media footprint,

well, that's gonna bring a whole new set of customers. hayden: we're gonna have big shopping options right here. so this is the deluxe 3-day insulation sensation. strud: that's a great graphic. i like the image, i like the size, i like the flow. i think it's killer. excellent. good job, man. ♪ geoff: okay. ready? lemonis: a few weeks ago, strud and i were down in miami and i tried to just give him a chance to see how his sales ability would be. he didn't do well in miami, so i'm gonna give him one more shot to prove that he understands how to work with his teammates and how to properly promote the product and the company. strud: so, let's open her up, let's get some coolers out. get in here now! come on! team polar bear. one, two, three. go, team polar bear! ♪ hey, hey, hey, man! you guys got the tailgate going. got some food, got some cooking. man: that's right.

strud: do you ever want to keep your drinks cold all day long? man #2: yes! strud: do you ever want to be hands-free with your cooler on your back? [ cheering ] lemonis: what's up, guys? how are you? strud: will you guys check us out? polar bear coolers? man: yeah, absolutely. strud: all right, keep it cool. [ laughter ] lemonis: how's it going? strud: how you doing, buddy? lemonis: you having fun? strud: i'm having a great time. lemonis: how you doing, dear? stephanie: hi, marcus. lemonis: good to see you. stephanie: great to see you. lemonis: how about with the team? how's that working? everybody's loving you today? strud: everybody's loving it. lemonis: nobody's frustrated? strud: no such thing at a football game, man. doesn't happen. [ people cheering ] lemonis: you think these people want to hear you sing? strud: ♪ are you ready for a cool relation ♪ ♪ with the brand that's rockin' the nation? ♪ ♪ guaranteed to make you smile ♪ gonna help you keep it cool for a while ♪ [ cheering ] ♪ do you want to keep things cold? geoff: who'd like to test out a cooler? stephanie: this is a bad-ass cooler. lemonis: they were working as a team. everybody was pitching in. everybody was out there hustling, talking to customers.

and strud wasn't doing anything other than what i wanted him to be doing, which is letting his big, bright personality shine. strud: insulation sensation. how'd you like to be hands-free? yeah! get in there. one, two, three -- cha! man: the insulation sensation! man #2: it's an insulation sensation! [ cheering ] stephanie: all right. thanks, y'all. keep it cool! strud: hut! lemonis: so, when all the stuff went up on the shelves, what did you notice you were out of? strud: we're gonna need a lot of orange and blue coolers. [ laughter ] lemonis: now that i've seen them with customers and their pitch a lot more refined, i want to understand how much inventory they have, what day supply that they have, what they want to order, and how much it's gonna be. and if i like what i hear, then i'm going to give them the necessary additional working capital to buy new inventory to grow their business even more. stephanie: [ chanting ] let's go, polar bear!

put your beer inside of there! [ cheering ] lemonis: coming up... strud: i'm feeling lucky, man. you know what happens when i feel lucky? lemonis: i don't want to ask. strud: crazy things happen, marcus.

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strud: have a seat. you really stepped it up, man. hayden: thank you. strud: okay. you're a great person to lean on, someone who can get things done. and i'm having fun again. hayden: i am, too. strud: you know, like we were in the beginning. all right, bud. hayden: thank you for changing. totally different person since this whole thing happened. happy to work for you. strud: thanks, bud. oh, oh, listen. you're gonna need some more money. okay? i'm gonna hook you up with some more money, okay? hayden: thank you so much. strud: $50,000 for now. hayden: thank you. strud: thank you. hayden: i love ya. strud: all right. love you, bud. hayden: give me a hug. strud: [ laughs ] all right. hayden: love ya. lemonis: i'm 100% confident that with the new infrastructure and the new disciplines that they have, with him recognizing hayden with a larger salary, his respecting geoff and brett, they'll have no problem climbing their way back to $3.5 million. how much total inventory do we have right now? geoff: about 5,000 coolers. strud: lowest we've ever had. lemonis: cleanest you've ever been. strud: cleanewe've ever been. yes.

lemonis: how much dollar inventory do you have right now? geoff: about $140,000. lemonis: and where should it be, in your mind? geoff: i think it should be about twice that -- almost $300,000. lemonis: okay. so, then, what would you need? geoff: $75,000. lemonis: do you buy off on that? strud: yeah, i do. lemonis: do you trust him? strud: i do. absolutely. yep. lemonis: okay. ♪ [ camera clicks ] [ paper rips ] strud: [ chuckles ] thank you, marcus. lemonis: now i want to just tell you this. normally, i give this check much earlier, but i wasn't initially confident that you would get out of your own way. and the thing that was scaring me the most was your... previous lack of appreciation for people. strud: yeah. lemonis: and i think that you've demonstrated to all of them you care about them, you care about the business, and that you understand that having everything be right makes the business move much better. strud: yeah. thanks again, bud. lemonis: there you go, brother.

strud: appreciate your help. thank you. lemonis: we can refine the products and we can fix the process, but what ultimately determines the success of a business going forward is if the people have a different perspective than the day i met them. the most important change that was made here was not by me. it was by strud. strud: i'm feeling lucky, man. you know what happens when i feel lucky? lemonis: i don't want to ask. strud: crazy things happen, marcus. lemonis: okay. stephanie: oh, my god. strud: steph, i love you. you're the most important person in my life. you're the greatest mother there's ever been. will you marry me? ♪ stephanie: i would love to marry you. i love you so much. hayden: [ laughing ] yeah! [ laughter, applause ] ♪ lemonis: congrats. brett: come on!

lemonis: i'm trusting you here, bud. the check that i just gave you, that's for inventory, not for your engagement ring. strud: [ chuckles ] stephanie: i love you. strud: i love you, too. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ lemonis: i meet a spicy former lawyer... ana: i got called to do "real housewives of miami." don't hold that against me. lemonis: ...with dreams of a marinade empire. ana: it's not only a marinade. it's a flavor-enhancer so you can use it on everything. lemonis: despite having a product people love... woman: mmm, it's finger-licking good. lemonis: it actually is pretty good. ...her business has been struggling to grow. ana: [ voice breaking ] it's hard for me that this isn't further along given that i've given up so much for it. lemonis: to grow this company, she's going to need to change her branding... john: you have an illustration that is almost exactly like skinnygirl. lemonis: ...learn how to take some criticism... kathleen: what did you write? aaron: skanky. her, she takes over the whole image. ana: do you really, like -- what else do you want me to put on the label, you know?