And you do 1 million a year . You should be proud of that. Man but we dont know how to keep any of it. Lemonis . Fix the process. You see . It is flimsy. Dont ever make these again. You dont sell them. And create a few products. Juli it reduces anxiety and depression. Lemonis i kind of like it. I spent countless days working on these companies. How much money did you burn through . Parker 650,000. Lemonis but we cant always fit everything im thinking into the show. So tonight im giving you an inside look at an episode from season 3. Alexa hey lemonis . 240 sweet. Over the next hour, im gonna take you behind the scenes to find out how a sweet Marshmallow Company in indiana. Alexa good morning have you had our marshmallows before . Lemonis you seem friendly now . With headstrong owners. Sam cindy, do you need a job . Lemonis sam, this is a good example of aggressiveness. My radar was already up on sam. Ended on a very sour note. You said it. Everybody is not perfect. Sam i dont want to dig down deep and find that person inside of me that could rage up and just eat you alive. Lemonis i think i already met that person. My name is Marcus Lemonis, and this is an inside look at the profit. Man 2 a rolling. And then look up at that monitor. Done. Lemonis literally whats interesting about this episode is it normally takes us five days to shoot an episode. Amber i remember that it took so long to shoot this one. Lemonis how long did it take . Amber about eight months. It started off sweet, and you like marshmallows. Lemonis no, it didnt. Amber and you like sweet food. Lemonis i like the idea of the novelty sweet business that is small in size and light in weight. Amber why . Lemonis because its the easiest thing to do Online Business with. I thought it was maybe one of the not sweetest episodes to make. Amber it started out sweet. Lemonis alright. Lets watch. In 2008, awardwinning chef alexa lemley and her wife, samantha aulick, started 240 sweet. How many times did alex change her hair color on the show . Amber oh, a lot. Lemonis well do, like, a marshmallow game. Every time she changes her hair color. Amber youre gonna. Okay. Lemonis . A handcrafted marshmallow business just outside of indianapolis, indiana. Alexa good morning have you had our marshmallows before . Lemonis pause. Okay. Hold on. Ive seen one hair change already. Amber its like. Lemonis but ive seen i said every time. Youve got to eat one. Amber im not playing this game with you. Lemonis their gourmet marshmallows with artisanal flavors soon earned them a loyal following, but a questionable rental agreement has affected all aspects of their business, including profitability. Sam jesus christ. What are we gonna do . We have bills to pay. Lemonis artisan marshmallows are only growing more popular. Alexa awesome. Lemonis as long as 240 sweets product lives up to its reputation, im confident i can get the company back on track and roast the competition. When the girls at 240 reached out, i was intrigued because i already have a bunch of other sweet options. This would be a great addition, so im excited to try the product. Alexa hey look lemonis how are you . Alexa hi, alexa lemley. Lemonis alexa, nice to meet you. Alexa nice to meet you. Sam oh, hi. Im sam, marcus. Its wonderful to meet you. Lemonis you seem friendly now amber they seem really sweet. Lemonis dont worry. Were coming. Alexa so this is dede. Dede hi, im dede. Lemonis hey, how are you . Nice to meet you. What is this up front . Alexa it is our retail area, shipping and order packing. Lemonis so what are the roles . You guys are partners . Alexa with us . Sam were married. Lemonis oh, you are married. Sam yes. Lemonis oh, very cool. Sam thank you. Alexa i do production, and sam does marketing and officey stuff with dede. Lemonis so this is sriracha lime . How many different flavors do you have . Alexa over 200. Amber they sent a bunch of flavors to the office. I do remember that. Before we started shooting with them. There was one weird one. Do you remember what it was . Lemonis there was dill pickle. Amber thats right. Lemonis dill pickle is good. Have you ever had dill pickle chips . Amber stop. No. Lemonis theyre good amber ive never seen this. Lemonis who can go get some . Amber how much more could we talk about dill pickles . Lemonis until you get them. I think when youre over a certain amount of flavors, it becomes unmanageable. I mean, even Baskin Robbins thinks 31 flavors is enough. Alexa have you had our marshmallows before . I hope you like them. Lemonis it tastes good. I like the texture, but they had a funny smell to them. Alexa oh. Sam weve gotten emails. Alexa weve gotten a couple emails about it. Lemonis you can tell that they werent totally oblivious to that idea. Amber right, no. Lemonis that there was a smell because when i said it if i told you, oh, these smell bad, youd be like, what . Amber right. Lemonis what do you mean . They smell fine. Amber right. Lemonis they were like, yeah. Oh, you found out. It smells like spices in here. How come it doesnt smell sweet . Alexa max. Lemonis who is max . Alexa my father. Lemonis your father. Alexa m d marketing. Yes. Lemonis how many different businesses are functioning in this building . Sam the marshmallows, and then theres m d marketing, which is maxs spice company. Lemonis who was here first . Alexa we were. Lemonis the fact that theyre sharing space with a spice distributor seems like a really poor business decision. I mean, think about a marshmallow. Itd sort of absorb everything just like a sponge would. Well, lets take a tour because i have a lot more questions, but i want to see what youre talking about. Amber how did you know that marshmallows would make money . Lemonis well, think about the product itself. What are the ingredients that go into marshmallows . They cost nothing. Amber right. Lemonis and remember that its an easy product to ship. Amber why is it easy . Lemonis because its light, and its small, so the shipping costs arent prohibitive. Amber cheap to make. Cheap to send. Lemonis cheap to make. Cheap to send, and not cheap to buy. Its, like, a 5. 95, 6. 95 retail, and i think were probably making, net of shipping, 60 margins. Amber wow. Lemonis so where is your area . Alexa this is our production area. From here over is all max. Lemonis youre basically taking up 10 of the building . Alexa yes. Sam yeah. Lemonis and so he pays more than half the rent . Alexa no. Lemonis what is this . Alexa mustard. Lemonis mustard seed . Alexa yes. Lemonis i mean, honestly, the smell is really strong in here of spices. Max is this marcus . Lemonis how are you doing, sir . Max i feel like i know you lemonis i liked him. Are you max . Max im max. Lemonis what do you make here besides mustard . Max barbecue sauces. Lemonis okay. Max hot sauces. Lemonis when i walked in the building, i smelled the spices. Max yep. Lemonis how much business will you do a year . Max 30,000 cases. Lemonis so youre bigger than your daughters business . Max yeah. Yeah. Lemonis the problem was that i dont think max understood that a marshmallow is very porous, and so if i just pour a bunch of cayenne in the air, its gonna get in there. Amber i get it. Lemonis no, smell it. Amber oh, god. Lemonis [ sneezes ] amber bless you. Lemonis excuse me. Play. Max is strangling this business from several different angles. Hes taken over most of their space, which ultimately slows down production. Also, hes using more lights, more water, and hes also affected their sales with his spices and his sauces seeping into the porous marshmallow. When you have quality problems, you get more returns, and you get less repeat sales, which is a recipe for disaster. Max i told alexa right up front we would split the rent. The girls got a little aggressive, especially sam, about that i was trying to hustle them, and i thought, theyre trying to hustle me. Lemonis i have a feeling, and im just guessing, that nobody is hustling you. Your business is growing. Youve got your stuff everywhere. Max its a nice problem to have. Sam i think its a frustrating problem to have. You decide how much room you have. You decide how much rent you pay. Its not an even relationship. Lemonis this tension between this whole family is a bit of a surprise for me. I thought they would have worked that out before i came. Sam please help us. Lemonis how much does this frustrate you . Sam alexa and i, we dont even want to come to work a lot. Lemonis has it created stress between you two . Alexa oh, yeah. It creates friction, of course. Amber and that must be frustrating to you, too, when you come in there for business and it ends up being the wife doesnt get along with the father, and then the father and the daughter have issues. Lemonis what makes it frustrating is, please help us. Its like, please kick him out, and let me have you, not me, run him out of dodge so that my wife doesnt get upset with me. Its like, im not doing that. Amber well, they should tell him that if they want. Lemonis she should tell him. Watch what happens. The reality of it is, is that someones got to go. Sam i think that if i were the enforcer in the issue, it would ruin my marriage. Lemonis so you called me so that i could come be the bad guy . Sam no, but to have someone who is an expert. Lemonis in what . Sam in business. Lemonis telling her father that hes wrong . While i want to be helpful, sam and alexa, theyre really the ones that have to deal with this situation with max. They should see me as a potential partner, not some freelance family mediator. Walk me through how a marshmallow is made. So sugar, corn syrup and water. Alexa bring it to 240 degrees. Lemonis thats where you got the name 240 sweet from . Alexa yes. Lemonis just spread it around . Alexa we are going to coat the top. Man 3 then go very slowly. Make sure youre cutting through the nuts on the other side of the marshmallows. Lemonis this is kind of a ridiculously slow process. As production cranked up, you would have a bottleneck right here. Alexa yes. Lemonis now, theres a machine that you can buy that will do it . Alexa 60 seconds. Lemonis how much does the machine cost . Alexa it would be right around 40,000. Lemonis what does it cost to make a sheet like that . Alexa 80. Lemonis how many does that sheet break down into . Alexa roughly 70 bags. Sam it comes to, on average, 1. 43 a bag, including packaging with labor. Lemonis okay. What will you sell that bag for . Sam it comes to 6 a bag. Lemonis so the margins are good. Sam yes. We cant keep up with demands for the market. Lemonis and so where is the bulk of the. All these marshmallows that are getting made, where are they being sold . Alexa the internet. Lemonis the internet. Amber so how should people think about Capital Investment . Lemonis so Capital Investments are basically taking money out of your bank account and spending it on an asset. So for example, in the case of 240, they would buy a piece of equipment that would help them improve the efficiency of cutting marshmallows. So they spend 40,000. It lowers my production cost per bag by 43 cents. Id have to do 86 bags a day over 3 years to get my money back. Amber thats doable. Lemonis yeah. Anytime you buy a piece of equipment, you have to really be realistic about what my return on capital is. So if it takes me 3 years, the return on capital is 33 a year. Amber mmhmm. Lemonis if it takes me 4 years, its 25 a year. If it takes me 5 years, its 20 a year, which is fine, but that return on capital really matters. Well, this is a fun place. Dede isnt it, though . Lemonis how much time do you spend here . Dede 70, 80 hours a week. Lemonis whoa. And do you do a lot of things outside of here, as well . Dede i raise money for the american cancer society. Lemonis oh, wow. Dede i was diagnosed with cancer when i turned 30, and i lost my eye. Thats why i wear my hair like this. Lemonis and are you cleared of cancer . Are you a survivor . Dede i am a survivor. Its been 16 years. Lemonis awesome dede i know. Lemonis do you have financials for this business that i can look at . Dede i do. This is our Business Plan. Lemonis you wrote it . Dede mmhmm. Lemonis this company did 439,000, and it made 80 grand. This loan, 60,000 to saps. What is that . Dede saps buffeteria is owned by max. We pay for a line of credit that he took out. Lemonis and so why do you pay its bills . Dede i dont know. Lemonis and max owes you guys money for rent . Dede right. Lemonis so almost 70,000 has left this business, and the company owes 18,000 for taxes. That 80,000 profit is deceiving because it doesnt take into account the fact that theyre paying maxs bills. Theyre servicing maxs debt. That 80,000 is really more like zero. That seems crazy. Dede was so awesome. Ive stayed in contact with her, and in fact, when we started doing these inside looks, she was one of the first people that reached out to me and said, please, please do one on 240. Amber youre welcome. Lemonis youre welcome, dede. Amber her hairs different. Lemonis . And shes got great ideas and fantastic recipes. But on the other hand, her father, well, hes screwing it all up. You have a nice business. The challenge is, is that youre being taken advantage of by a family member, and so thats not an easy solution. Alexa right. Lemonis and so i think the challenge that im having is why are you spending your money to pay for debt that belongs to somebody else . Sam its frustrating. Alexa it is frustrating. Lemonis its ridiculous. How do i deal with this situation with max . I do believe that you guys kind of called me hoping that i would do your dirty work. I just dont know. Sam perhaps we could consider giving 1 to dede. She is an asset to us. Lemonis i totally agree. That was such a bull[bleep] move, and she knew that i liked to give equity to people that work there. I was already starting to be a little suspect of her. Its a thirteenhour flight, . Tfifteen minutes until we board. Oh yeah, we gotta take off. You downloaded the Td Ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets . Yeah, actually im taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. Excellent. And you have thinkorswim mobile so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. You two are all set. Have a great flight. Thanks. Well see ya. Ah, theyre getting so smart. Choose the app that fits your investing style. Trust us. Us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. Dont think so . Hold my pouch. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. Somewhere youll never find. Sike we put them everywhere. Grocery stores and supermarkets, gas stations, and chiropractors offices, bowling alleys, and grocery stores, which we already mentioned. Not sorry, reeses. Theyre in the building. Amber oh, come on. If theyre in the building, they would be up here. Lemonis im telling you, theyre here. See . I knew they were here. Amber the dillpickle chips. It smells tangy. Here you go. Try it together. Thats so gross. These are pretty good. Lemonis whats the business lesson . Amber be more openminded. Lemonis dont knock it till you try it. Amber youll turn anything into a business lesson. Lemonis thats what i do. Sam what if we do sit down with max and tell him to move out . Lemonis it does have to be resolved, and you guys need to take care of it because i do not want to be in between you and your father. Alexa thats understandable. Lemonis i came here because i think that the marshmallow idea is a great one, and so my offer is 100,000 for 51 of the business. And that 100,000 would go towards the right equipment and improve this building. Sam yes. Lemonis do we have a deal . Sam perhaps we could consider giving 1 to dede. She works like shes an owner. She is an asset to us. Lemonis i totally agree. That was such a bull[bleep] move in reflection. Shes seen a lot of episodes, and she knew that i liked to give equity to people that work there, and she went to the playbook. Amber yeah. At this point, you didnt know that. At this point, you thought. Lemonis i was already starting to be a little suspect of her watching how she talked to max. My radar was already up on sam at this point, but when she pulled this, oh, i want to really help somebody out. Play. Im willing to throw 5 in, if youre willing to throw 5 in for her. Sam i can live with that. Lemonis do we have a deal . Sam we have a deal. Thank you. Amber why did you do that . Lemonis it seemed, im sure to most people, a little harsh that my offer was 100,000 for 51 of a business that did a half a Million Dollars in business and made 80 grand. Amber right. Lemonis but i didnt have a lot of confidence in what was gonna happen from this day forward. Whether max was gonna leave or not. Whether the thing was gonna spin out of control, and so sometimes when my offers are big, like in the case of, like, an automatch, where its 3. 5 million, theres all this inventory. I know that i have some sort of liquidation method where i can get my money back. So i needed to make sure that if i was gonna have a big risk, i was gonna have a big reward to go with it. Amber right. Lemonis the other night, sam and alexa and i made a deal for me to invest 100,000 into the business. Look how many people work there dede awesome. Lemonis and the purpose of that money is to innovate the product, and then we need to overhaul the process. The offer that i made to them was for 51 of the business. They didnt agree with my number. They said we really feel like dede has to be a part of our organization. And so, dede, you will be a 10 partner with all of us. Dede oh, my god. Amber how do you determine when and who you give equity to in a business . Lemonis i usually want to think about how viable i think they are to the company. In the case of dede, who put the Business Plan together. Amber right, so impressive. Lemonis the fact that i felt like she had a level of integrity, that mattered. And im giving them a reward for their efforts. Amber right. Lemonis youll see. So what id like to do is get our recipe book, and i want to look through all 200, and i want to figure out how were gonna narrow some of them down, and then i want to try some new ideas. Clear this area so that we have production here. We lost our table . How does this work . Sam it changes a little bit every day, but generally, we only have this amount. Lemonis max, is there a way to reconfigure, shortterm, that that machine can somehow get out of this area . Max i could possibly move this whole thing and take that one back some. Lemonis oh, great. Thanks. Its already packed. Max well, it could be rearranged. Lemonis you guys need to get this cleaned up. This needs to be our table. This is ridiculous. Amber and your issue here was what . That theres just, daytoday, theres inconsistencies . Like, sometimes theres a table to work. Sometimes theres not. Like, things are moving around all the time . Lemonis no. My issue was the crosscontamination of products. Amber right. Lemonis i want to go through all of your library. Amber the birthday cake was good. Lemonis birthday cake, whiskey, bourbon. And i want to get down to a library that we excel at. Tomorrow were gonna go to a Farmers Market. Youre having consumers give you feedback, right . Alexa right. Sam yes. Lemonis when they give you feedback, then thats what gives it a chance to get into the library. Were only gonna have the top 20. Were not gonna end up with 300 different flavors. Let me show you what else i want to do. These marshmallows, we know, are great. But theyre boring. And so i want to have. Amber look at sams face lemonis . The exact same marshmallow different ways. Ive always been a fan of cake pops. I want to have a marshmallow pop. I want to see three to four variations, but i want to see them today. Alexa okay. Lemonis okay . Alexa good. Good. Lemonis i didnt do a good job explaining it to them. What was in my mind was how i think about taffy apples. Amber with like, what, caramel . Caramel apples . Lemonis yeah, caramel apples. So lets say i took a basic marshmallow, and all of a sudden, i now dipped it in chocolate. It may cost me 11 cents to dip it in chocolate. Amber right. Lemonis . But im getting at least 30 cents more for it. So im looking at ways to grow the average order, grow the price point and grow the margin by making a base product feel different. Amber right. And not doing too much work to make it different. Lemonis right. Just dip and move on. Woman so this is our salted caramel, which is our best seller. Alexa you dont like that one . Lemonis im waiting for the salted caramel. It tastes like a plain marshmallow. I thought the salted caramel marshmallow, while it may be your best seller, was unimpressive. Alexa its pretty tasty. Amber why would it be their best seller . Lemonis because its probably a product that online probably has the lowest resistance to trying. So just like your reaction to dill pickle, salted caramel is like, oh, i know that flavor. Amber okay. Lemonis but i still want every individual product to be perfect. Amber right. Lemonis and so the fact that salted caramel was their highestselling product doesnt mean that it cant get better. Amber and this was the first time i actually thought i saw alexa with an opinion. She was like. Lemonis because i was going after her. Amber . Youre challenging my. Lemonis . I was going after her product. Amber right. Lemonis today were at the Farmers Market in downtown indianapolis, and were gonna get feedback from real consumers. Good morning as opposed to fake consumers. How are you . The purpose of me bringing you here is part of the exercise to pare our flavors down. But rather than us just kind of making it up in our own mind, well let the customers tell us. Now people will vote with colors. Well go with girls are good and boys are bad. Alexa these are handmade marshmallows. Weve got snickerlicious, turtle. Dede blue if you dont like it. Pink if you do. Lemonis this is sriracha lime. Woman 2 oh, whoa. Lemonis dont like it . Girl not necessarily. Lemonis id like you to try the salted caramel. Do you taste the salt and the caramel . Man 4 not so much the salt. Woman 3 i would blue. Lemonis you would blueball it. Okay. Whoa. Inappropriate thing to say. Amber did you mean blackball . Woman 4 it just tastes like marshmallow. Lemonis we had some feedback on the salted caramel. It either wasnt salty enough, or it didnt have enough caramel. Sam i wonder if the salted caramel trend is dead. Lemonis no. Its not. Thats like saying chocolate is dead. Its not. Yours just isnt good. But if its our numberone seller, we have to get it right. I feel like your energy is a little off because your energy level changed when he came in. Amber shes just pissed. Lemonis her attitude sucks. Lemonis the salted caramel is a huge disappointment. I wrote this a long time ago. I dont know how old i was. I hope someday i will be on a real football team. Im katie sowers, offensive assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Im not just here to be the token female, im here to help us win. The surface pro helps me get whats in my head and get it out on to the field. I would want to tell this little girl to keep pushing herself, your dreams coming. Its a day filled with promise and new beginnings, challenges and opportunities. At Ameriprise Financial we cant predict what tomorrow will bring. But our comprehensive approach to Financial Planning can help make sure youre prepared for whats expected and even whats not. And that kind of Financial Confidence can help you sleep better at night. With the right Financial Advisor life can be brilliant. I need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Trust us. Us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. Dont think so . Hold my pouch. Do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun all we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on if its our numberone seller, we have to get it right. Alright. So lets clean this stuff up, and then well bring out these new ideas. Sam come on up and have a sample alexa smore, toasted coconut and just, like, the dry coconut. Woman 5 okay. Man 5 its really good. Woman 6 oh, its really good. Lemonis whats your favorite part about it . Man 5 it just seems easier to. Woman 6 eat. Yeah. Man 5 . Like, handle. Woman 7 i would perceive them as higher value just because of the sticks. Lemonis i feel like we understand that we have to pare down our flavors, which were gonna do. The ones on the stick, youre gonna get more money for it. This stick costs 2 cents. We can get at least 50 cents more. If the stick costs 2 cents, and youve raised the price of the product by 50 cents, the incremental gross profit is 48 cents. Over the course of the year, if we sold 25,000 of them, we would make close to 12,000 in additional profit. Amber why does the stick make such a difference . Lemonis its taking a basic marshmallow and finding different ways to deliver the product. In a box, in cellophane, on a stick, enrobed in something, flavored with something. If either of your kids were taking a valentine to their teacher, theyre not gonna take a dozen roses, but they may take a really cute bouquet of marshmallows. Amber thats true. Lemonis based on the feedback that we got at the Farmers Market about the salted caramel, i want to sort of take it to the next step. Unfortunately sam and alexa havent dealt with the max situation yet, so i have to rent a commercial kitchen, and i have a surprise for them. I wanted to bring someone here that i thought can kind of help us. Someone that i thought would be able to help us think about creative ways to make food and who has a lot of chef experience, as well. Alexa what . Sam [ gasps ] pete hi, everybody. Sam what . Its pete lemonis Pete Behringer is a gentleman that i partnered with a couple of years ago. He owns sweet petes candy, and so i wanted to bring him in so he could lend a helping hand. Her marshmallow recipe i actually think is better than yours. Pete okay. Lemonis but i didnt love their caramel base. Pete i know a thing or two about caramel. Amber he looks so disgusted. Pete i dont love it. Id like to take you through our recipe. Lemonis dont be annoyed pete were gonna use sweetened condensed milk. Alexa i dont know. You know, you just get kind of used to doing it a certain way. Pete do you want to try it and see what it does . Lemonis alexa, can we talk . Sam for alexa . Pete yeah. Heres what you do. Lemonis i feel like your energy is a little off. Alexa i usually just have to assess new situations. Lemonis because your energy level changed when he came in. The goal in our relationship is for me to not only help you guys financially, but its also to provide you resources that you can pull from. Alexa okay. Lemonis yeah, were not interested in those. Pete now, i noticed on your. That you use beet sugar. Alexa we do. Pete is there a reason why . Alexa well, that was the sugar that we started with. Lemonis what do you use . Pete i use cane sugar. Ive heard a lot of bakers complain of having used beet sugar. That it doesnt have the same level of performance. Lemonis her attitude sucks where is the collaboration . Where are the ideas . Where is the, lets make it better, everybody . Amber because it is hard when people are coming in even if youre helping. Lemonis its hard. I get it. Im sympathetic to it. Amber i know you like these exercises for business, but we like them, too, as producers because this is where we start to see their character emerge, and we get the real person. Lemonis the real real. Amber yeah. The real real. Pete and so were gonna cook all of this together. Alexa okay. Pete do you do that currently . Alexa no. Pete i think you might get better results. Lemonis im watching alexa continue to scowl at pete, and now i notice that im getting the evil eye from sam. Why are you looking at me like that . Sam please dont think we didnt think this was coming. We did. Lemonis are you upset . Sam no, not at all. I know that i am awesome, and i know that alexa is awesome. I think sometimes people think im angry, but im not an angry person. Im determined, and im aggressive. Lemonis i know im awesome. Its like, nobody said you werent awesome. I know were the best. Nobody said you werent the best. I knew this was coming. What was coming . I wanted to bring him in to make. Amber to help lemonis . It better amber right. Alexa we handswirl the caramel. Pete what would happen if you streamed it . I mean, if its a disaster, all were out is a little bit of sugar. Marshmallow, unfortunately, takes about six hours to set up. Lemonis uhhuh. Pete but youre gonna get an idea of how that would taste. Dede i really like it. Pete yes lemonis i love your marshmallow, but i love his caramel. Alexa mmhmm. Lemonis how about say thank you to him . Alright, my man. Thank you for coming, pete. Pete thank you. Lemonis i came in today to finalize the 20 flavors were going to offer. And what i walked into was a [bleep] storm. Alexa there was a little bit of a water explosion. Lemonis what happened . Alexa max. The faucet outside, i had it capped off because the line had broken. Lemonis holy christopher and mary. Max i thought it was coming up from the ground water. Lemonis what is this, max . Max oh, that was my dust catcher for the machine. Lemonis oh, that was your. Okay. Well, lets get that out of our area. And so this mixer belongs to who . Sam thats maxs mustard grinder. Lemonis okay, but it cant be over here next to our sugar. Man 6 its 8 [bleep] pounds. Its not a gallon. Lemonis what just happened . Sam youre coming off like youre saying [bleep] to alexa, to your daughter, and im gonna lay it out. Max im not saying that. Go to hell. Lemonis i wasnt going to pick a side here, but i felt like i needed to bring the two parties together because this thing was unraveling fast. If youre looking to take your business to the next level, log on to. That Liberty Mutual customizes your insurance, i just love hitting the open road and telling people lemonis what just happened . So you only pay for what you need [squawks] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. woman no matter what business you are in, Digital Transformation never stops. Verizon keeps business ready for whats next. man we weave security into their business. second man virtualize their operations. third man and could even build ai into their customer experiences. We also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. Like 5g. woman where machines could talk to each other and expertise could go anywhere. woman when it comes to Digital Transformation, verizon keeps business ready. He spent his life bringing people together. I know hed be happy that we are all together now. crying what is happening . [what is that . ] baby noises is that a baby nut . baby noises dolphin noises just kidding, im back. Wheres my monocle . But after roman was born, i started transitioning out to spend more time with the family. I found this job as an Operations Manager on linkedin. I applied, and i ended up getting the job. You met on an app. Why . Delete it. Applied, hes the one. Gesundheit. [sneezes] i see something else. A star. With three points. Youre in a. Mercedes. Yeah, we wish. Wish granted. With four models starting under 37 thousand, there could be a mercedesbenz in your very near future at the spring event. Lease the a 220 sedan for just 349 a month with credit toward your first months payment at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun all we needed somebody to lean on lease the volvo xc40 for 329 per month. At your local volvo retailer. Alexa so thats one of maxs main customers, and it sounds like something did not go well. Lemonis im beyond frustrated right now. Max is still there. His stuff is all over the place, and now theres a flood in the building. This needs to be resolved, and the girls need to deal with this right now. Money is leaving their business to take care of a business that is yours. Theyre paying more than half the rent, and they have 10 of the space. Alexa thats sort of where were at, and. Lemonis no, thats not sort of where youre at. Guys, stop sugarcoating it. Hes a big man. Hes a smart man. He knows. Tell him. Sam max, i need to ask you to move out. Max yeah. Ive been through this two or three times, and have apprehensions about the problems and the costs. Sam max, youve got to help me here. Youre not coming off well. Youre coming off like youre saying [bleep] to alexa, to your daughter, and im gonna lay it out. Max im not saying that. You can say whatever you want to. Sam thats the way it sounded. Max go to hell. Amber youre doing exactly what you didnt want to be doing. Lemonis i know. I wasnt gonna pick a side here, but i felt like i needed to bring the two parties together because this thing was unraveling fast. And i was getting to the point where i was wondering why i was even still here. Amber right. Sam were not calling a spade a spade. Alexa he understands. Sam and you are exhibiting some more magical thinking of thinking that max is gonna come out somehow and say, oh, the right thing. But hes not gonna say it unless hes made to. Hes gonna be max. Alexa alright. Lemonis that frustration that she just had is either gonna come out now, or its gonna come out on you. Amber seems so condescending, too. Lemonis they were rude to pete. It was, like, come on, ladies. Do you know that their relationship is fractured because of you . Max no. Lemonis is that a fair statement . Sam yes. Alexa its affecting my marriage. Sam i know you would never want to hurt either of us because you love us, too. Max no, i dont. Sam so what we need to hear from you, max, will you move out . Alexa its kind of the fair thing. Max i dont want to particularly move, but i would. Lemonis okay. Alright. Good news. Sam alright. Amber it is difficult a lot of times in business to, like, deliver hard information to somebody. Lemonis yeah. Amber so how do you do Something Like that with tact and get the point across and be stern . Lemonis you dont do it in the middle of a room with a bunch of people standing around listening. Maybe write down some thoughts before you have a conversation of the points that you want to make. You go in with a levelheaded understanding of what you want to deliver, and you have empathy to the person whos going to receive the message to make sure that youre not meanspirited or hurtful or unnecessary. I had to leave town for a while to deal with some other stuff, and while i was gone, a lot happened. Max moved out, and he found a new warehouse. Sam and alexa reorganized the entire space. Also equipment was delivered, including a marshmallow cutter, which helps them ramp up production. Amber did you buy that . Lemonis mmhmm. I did because i felt like if it was gonna improve the efficiency and we were going to save 40, 30, whatever the amount of cents are per package, i felt like the return on capital was there. And while all the drama is happening, i still have to grow the business. Amber right. Yeah. Do you remember the other part of their business that we didnt focus on . Lemonis catering. Amber yeah. Lemonis yeah, i didnt care. Amber okay. Lemonis hey, buddy. Max Marcus Lemonis how are you doing, my friend . Is this your new place . Max this is it. Lemonis feels bigger than what you used to have in terms of, like, how much space you had. Max i feel better here. Lemonis when i go into maxs place, it looks like a totally different business. Its organized. Things are on the shelf, and he seems happy. Max let sam stay over there. Its a little loud. Lemonis shes what . Max loud. Lemonis youve seen her yell at other people, too . Max yeah. Yep. She likes authority. Lemonis max is telling me that sam can be aggressive, and she has trouble working with others. Normally i would sort of dismiss it and chalk it up to him just being bitter that he had to move out, but ive seen traces of that behavior with my own eyes. Well, im happy for you. Im happy that youre in a better place. Max yep. Lemonis alright, my man. Thank you, sir. Be good. Max be good. Lemonis see you soon. Max thank you lemonis byebye. He gave me some spices. He was like, Merry Christmas he was a good dude. [cellphone ringing] hey, dede, its marcus. I was just returning your call. Today i got a missed call from dede. Im sorry i missed your call. Dede something happened. Sam yelled at me. She sent me ugly messages on my phone, so i told sam i wasnt coming back. Lemonis youre not working there anymore . You applied to the show for max to solve maxs problem. Sam i did, didnt i . Lemonis and you took my money. Sam and i wanted it to be good. Lemonis and you took my money. Sam i am the type of person that makes the world a better place. Amber [ laughs ] one marshmallow at a time. And platelet donations and asks healthy donors to schedule an appointment to give. During this corona virus outbreak, patients are counting on lifesaving transfusions. Visit redcrossblood. Org mom a[thunder]e counting onwere you planning on mowing the lawn today . son no. burke seen it. Covered it. At farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. So call 1800 farmers to get a quote. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum so i started looking for a job on linkedin. And i found this one at specialized bikes. When they offered me the position, i said, of course, yes. Its not just a job, its a purpose. What do we wburger. Inner . I want a sugar cookie. Wait. I want a bucket of chicken. I want. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. And sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. But at fidelity, well help you work through the unexpected. With Financial Planning and advice for what you need today. And tomorrow. Because when youre with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. A partner who makes sure every step is clear, this is my body of proof. Proof i can fight moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Proof i can fight psoriatic arthritis. With humira. Proof of less joint pain. And clearer skin in psa. Humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Humira is proven to help stop further joint damage,. And its the 1prescribed biologic for psa. Want more proof . Ask your rheumatologist about humira citratefree. Wherever we want to go, autosave your way there with chase. Chase. Make more of whats yours. Dede life is too short, so i just decided to move on. Lemonis im really sorry to hear about this. Would you be open to meeting with me just to sort of help me understand what happened so i can at least deal with it and talk to the girls about it . Dede told me that she wanted to meet somewhere private, so ive arranged to meet her right outside of indianapolis. At her new job i wanted to sort of hear from you whats kind of been happening. Dede i had already put in, like, 80 hours, and so i told sam that i needed to go home, and she told me to get back now, or she was firing me for job abandonment. I said, its not job abandonment when ive already put in my time. Ive completed my work. I need to go home. Im just done. Well, then they came in and said that they talked and since i couldnt make a financial commitment that they didnt want me to be an owner. Amber ugh. I totally forgot about that. Lemonis what do you think they ultimately wanted from me . Dede money and publicity. Lemonis thats about it. Dede and to get max out. They also said it would be a great angle, you know, with my cancer and everything, and it would make you sympathetic to it, so that would even make it more of a good angle. Amber thats so ugly. Lemonis yeah. If you really think about it, right . There are different ways that weve been manipulated over the years. Weve seen. Amber right. Lemonis . All of it. I dont think, in my entire business career, that ive ever seen somebody use someone elses illness to try to lure you in. Amber sick. Lemonis sick. Although i believe dede, it would only be fair of me to get sam and alexas side of the story, so im heading there today so see what they have to say for themselves. How are you . Sam im fabulous, marcus. Lemonis whats new . Sam oh, lots of good stuff. Lemonis are you doing alright . Sam wonderful. Lemonis i thought it was strange that sam was acting pretty perky, as if nothing had changed or nothing at all had happened. It smells like a marshmallow factory now. I dont smell all the spices. Whats happening . Alexa the smell lemonis your hair is different. Oh, no hold on. Amber her hair is different. Oh, god. No, im not eating that. Im not playing this game. Lemonis i would have thought that they would have said Something Like, hey, do you remember your favorite employee, the one you decided to give equity to that we all loved . Well, shes gone. I saw dede. She quit . Sam she quit. Lemonis okay. Why did she quit . Sam not everyone is set out to be an entrepreneur. Lemonis i thought she was a great employee. Alexa she was a good employee. Sam she was a good employee. Alexa and then we were discussing going to take a loan. Sam it was our understanding that she wasnt comfortable with that. Lemonis did you ask her to sign the paperwork and she wouldnt . Sam no, we did not. We actually still offered dede a percentage without signing. Alexa when were willing to go sign the paper at the bank, if youre not willing to go to the bank and sign the paper. Lemonis shes an employee youre gonna make her sign for a loan . Just because she was offered equity, she now has to sign up to not get paid . Sam its a risk, is being an owner. An entrepreneur, in my opinion, likes risk. Lemonis jesus, lady you wouldnt all of a sudden void out her sort of being an employee and getting paid. What pisses me off about this situation is that there were never any conditions to dede having equity. There was no discussion about her signing documents or giving up her paycheck. They knew that she would cave under that sort of pressure. You knew she was keeping me posted on the companys finances. Sam okay. Well, i was not aware of that. Lemonis yes, you were amber of course you were. Lemonis you were on the emails. I find that very hard to believe because you and i even talked about it. She was communicating with me on what my money was spent on and what the current needs still were. Sam okay. So. Lemonis were you aware of that . Sam at that point, yes. Lemonis okay. You just said no a minute ago. Sam really . Lemonis yeah. Sam well, i was confused about the question. I know that we see things through our own lens. Youll have to excuse me. Lemonis i dont have a lens. I just see things through what actually happened. Sam now, no one is perfect, but i try really hard to make sure that when i get up in the morning, i am the type of person that makes the world a better place with every decision i make. Now, that doesnt make me perfect. Lemonis i totally get it. Amber one marshmallow at a time. Sam i have been honest, and i have tried. Lemonis you havent been honest at all. Alright. Im about to lay into you. Here we go. Come on. Sam were gonna be honest. Lemonis okay. Its about time. Amber lets start. Sam i didnt think we were a good fit for you. I wanted you to come here and help max. Thank you for helping with that. Lemonis you applied to the show for max to solve maxs problem. Sam i did, didnt i . Lemonis and you took my money. Sam and i wanted it to be good. Lemonis and you took my money sam that is moot in this instance. Lemonis yes or no . Youre saying everybody is not perfect. Sam i dont want to dig down deep and find that person inside of me that could rage up and just eat you alive. Lemonis actually in this moment, having everybody in the world see the real person that she was, i wasnt regretting going back. Yeah, im married. Ambeyoud do that for me . Great. Really . Yeah, id like that. Who are you talking to . Uh, its jake from state farm. Sounds like a really good deal. Jake from state farm at 3 in the morning . Who is this . Its jake from state farm. What are you wearing, jake from state farm . Uh. Khakis. Hey, do they ever ask you what youre wearing . Uh. Yeah. Red sweater, button down shirt. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. No. Uh uh, no way. Come on. No. No. N. Ni ni, no no only discover has no annual fee on any card. Fine, no one leaves the tablefine, well sleep here. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. Yes. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Ok. Yep. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity makes moving easy with twohour appointment windows, even on nights and weekends. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. You telegraph everything. You have, like, zero poker face. Lemonis sometimes i have zero control over my facial expression, and other times, i make the expression so that other people in the room can understand without me having to Say Something out loud. Think about how our mothers used to talk to us without talking. They would do this. Amber right. Lemonis you applied to the show for max to solve maxs problem. Sam i did, didnt i . Lemonis and you took my money. Sam and i wanted it to be good. Lemonis and you took my money sam that is moot in this instance. Lemonis yes or no . Sam that is not what im explaining. Lemonis whats the answer . The answer is yes. Youre saying everybody is not perfect. Sam i dont want to dig down deep and find that person inside of me that could rage up and just eat you alive. Lemonis is there somebody like that . Because i think i already met that person. Sam i can act like an ass, yeah. Lemonis yeah. And so my question. Sam its manifesting itself right now, so. Lemonis theres just got to be a less. Less sort of toxic way to deal with it. Sam i dont attempt to be toxic. Do you think im toxic when i deal with things, alexa . Alexa i dont believe youre toxic. Sam cindy, do you think im toxic when i try to deal with things . Cindy, do you need a job . Lemonis sam, this is a good example of aggressiveness. Just chill out. Amber what is going through your mind when shes looking like that, acting like that, talking like that . Lemonis what was going through my mind in that moment was how bad i felt for dede. And at end of the day, i was calling them on the carpet for how they treated her. I was just thinking about dede. Amber and regretting that you came back, probably. Lemonis no. Actually in this moment, watching sam show herself the way she did and having everybody in the world see the real person that she was, i wasnt regretting going back. Today i feel like i got the real you. We should probably not be in business together. Sam i agree. Lemonis it was nice meeting you. I cant do business here. They were unwilling to make any changes. They were just using me to get rid of max. Ultimately, i think sam wanted publicity. She wanted whatever cash i would bring to the table. She wanted whatever promotion i would bring to the table. She wanted whatever resources i would bring to the table, and she didnt want anything that went along with it. Amber someone is getting yelled at tonight. Lemonis thats the reality of it. 240 sweets is out of business. Ambethe episode . Ened . S dh amber [ laughing ] i did, but. I wonder if they are still together. Lemonis they are. Amber how do you know . Lemonis because i know. Amber twitter went crazy during this. Do you want me to read some . I have to. Watching that psychotic episode at 240 sweets. Cant believe people like that exist. Getting steamed up all over again over 240 sweets. 240 sour. I just watched 240 sweets episode. Do they get to keep the money and new machines after the deal went bad . Lemonis yep. Amber the money is already spent. Equipment is bought. Lemonis gone. Amber wherever you spent money, gone. Just gone. Lemonis yep. But theres also plenty of stories where its gone right. For every one that goes bad, theres also one that goes very, very well. Amber right. Lemonis and it doesnt necessarily get the same credit. One of the things that i really want to do going into the future is to really make sure that were highlighting the people that also do it right, that have the right level of ethics, that are honorable, that ill tell them they can cash the check, and they still dont. Amber yeah. Lemonis and thats what keeps me going because if i had to live my whole life with 240 sweets. Amber well, you wouldnt do it. Lemonis . I wouldnt do it anymore. Man where is it . Man 2 go grab it. Go. Amber here i am speaker were rolling. Man rolling. Speed. Lemonis tonight, were gonna give you an inside look at an episode from season 3 . Amber yeah. Lemonis season 3. Its grafton furniture, in my hometown of miami. Now its in miami. Amber your hometown of hialeah. Lemonis its on the border of hialeah and miami. But part of the reason why i wanted to come back to miami is that i wanted to really invest in a Small Business here, in south florida, because of what this community had done for me and what i felt like i could give back to it. And, when the grafton family applied as a multigenerational business, and we know that, more often than not, these multigenerational businesses fail