Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240713

Finia oh, 139. I have to relax. Nina okay. Lemonis okay, okay. Nina youre not dizzy, are you . Finia nina, you see how aggravating this is . Lemonis im 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 its not always easy, but i do it to create jobs, and i do it to make money. Do we have a deal . Lets rock and roll. Man yeah lemonis this is the profit. Im in atlanta, georgia, and im on my way to perimeter mall, and im here to see Macaron Queen, which is a very small startup in the dessert space. Its clear to me that Macaron Queen has a Good Business model on a small scale, but this particular product possesses all the qualities needed to actually become a directtoconsumer product and a big wholesale product. They want to grow, but they want to grow profitably. Woman 2 a princess cake, two of those creme brulees. Lemonis i love french macarons. I would almost call myself a macaron snob. Nina hi lemonis im marcus. Nina hi, im nina. Lemonis nina . Nina yes. Finia pleasure to meet you. Finia. Lemonis are you mom . Finia yes lemonis okay this is a really beautiful display nina thank you. Lemonis look how colorful it is. Nina we wanted to make a place where macarons were in the forefront. Lemonis where did the idea come from . Nina well, its a french cookie, and the origin is over 300 years old. Lemonis are you guys french . Nina no. My real father is part european, but mom is iranian. Lemonis okay, cool. Finia i took two classes in paris. Lemonis you went to macaron making . Finia yes. Now im the Macaron Queen. Lemonis okay. I thought you were the Macaron Queen. Nina no, im the princess. Im the daughter. Lemonis is this one of the hardest pastries in the world to make . Nina i would think yes. Finia yes, it is, very. Nina its called the impossible cookie. People always say, i tried it at home. It didnt come out right. So mom knew, from reading these books, why its not coming out right. She condensed and slowly filtered her recipe. Lemonis and whats a busy day here, dollarwise . Nina 1,700. Lemonis whats a slow day . Nina 400. Finia now, these days, everybody sell macaron for 3, but we sell them for 2 apiece. Lemonis im gonna try a box of 25. Im gonna do tastetesting. Red velvet . Nina yes. Champagne. Key lime. French raspberry. Lemonis so im gonna give you my honest opinion of these. Finia okay, please. Lemonis i actually think this is the best macaron ive ever had, by a lot. These had a cakey feel to it without collapsing. The flavors were very pronounced, and then i thought the fillings had their own personality to them. Nina thank you. Lemonis so as a potential investor, i need to get feedback, so im gonna start bringing people in to come try them. Do yall have a tray . Nina yes. Lemonis who would like to try a free macaron . Youve got to give me feedback. Come on down. How are you . Man 2 im wonderful. How are you . Lemonis pick any flavor. Man 2 im gonna get the chocolate. Lemonis have you ever had a macaron before . Man 2 oh, yes. This is out of this world. Lemonis is it too hard, too soft . Man 2 oh, no. Its a winner. Man 3 its not too sweet. Man 4 i might be a tough critic because i dont usually eat sweets. Man, thats good. Woman 3 its yummy, soft, rich. Lemonis too soft . Woman 3 no, no, no. Medium soft and good. Woman 4 i think every macaron is different, depending on who bakes them. Lemonis how much do you think that one would be . Woman 4 3 to 5. Lemonis separate from me loving desserts, i like the idea of entering into a space that isnt widely distributed, and theres Something Different about these desserts because theyre small. Theyre really tasty, and you dont see them everywhere. Nina it does look elegant. Lemonis why doesnt your color scheme here match the. Finia actually, this color, they made a mistake because its supposed to be tiffany blue, and it came out this way. Nina well, what i wanted to mention is part. Lemonis you just grabbed your moms hand, telling her to be quiet. Nina yes, i did. No, i wanted to insert a fact. Lemonis okay, and tell her to be quiet. Is this your only child . Finia yes you can tell . Lemonis yeah. Sure, right. Finia i really like you nina i knew this would happen. Im screwed. Bye lemonis i would almost describe nina and her moms relationship as almost two sisters. They really do respect each other, and you can tell by spending time with them that they both bring something very different to the table. Do you do everything she tells you to do . Nina no, no, no, no, no, no. Finia no, no. Not when it comes to my business, no. Lemonis is it your business . Finia our business. Nina ive taken over since her heart surgery. Finia i had a heart surgery two years ago. I had been sick with heart problem since i was 7. One day in the bakery i fall, and i call her, and she call ambulance, and i go to the hospital. So she was. Lemonis how scary was that . Nina very scary. Weve shifted roles. I, essentially, not in the food industry, opened our commissary kitchen. Im not a chef. Im not a baker. Lemonis but you did it to do your mom the right thing. Nina i did. Lemonis inside of every business, theres a story of why they got in the business, how they got there and the troubles that theyve had, and the fact that finia has had real Health Scares puts a lot of pressure on the business. Finia nina designed the kiosk. Lemonis beautiful. Finia she was in fashion when she was younger. Nina i started as a designer. Lemonis in paris . Nina i was designing for a manufacturer, so he had, like, 12 labels, and thats what i did. Lemonis International Distribution or just. Nina yes, international. Lemonis you should be very proud. Youve done a great job. Finia those are good days. Lemonis every day is a good day. Nina these were good days, too. Finia shes so kind, and she tell me, mom, dont worry about it. Your passion is my passion, but sometime i think this took her life away from what she was doing before. Lemonis i respect nina because shes loyal to her mother, and she truly has put her own dreams and her own wants aside to support her familys business, but i wonder if over time resentment builds up, and then, all of a sudden, shes gonna be gone. So ill meet you guys at the commissary. Nina okay. Lemonis . And well learn more. Nina okay. See you soon. Lemonis see you in a little bit. Nina thats the office. This is the delivery entrance. Lemonis this whole thing is yours . Nina yes. Lemonis i want to see exactly what the process is. If this is the miracle cookie, or the hardest cookie in the world to make, i want to understand exactly how theyre doing it. Finia thats my husband lemonis hi, sir im marcus nice to meet you habib nice meeting you. Lemonis so can you give me a tour . Habib sure. Lemonis so these are the shells. Nina mmhmm. Lemonis youre the shellmaker. Nina so dad knows the recipe for the shell. The shell, no one knows the recipe. Mom has had offers to write books, have classes, but she felt like someone might steal her recipe and go do their own business, so she kept it very close to her heart. Lemonis how are you, maam . Im marcus. Zion im zion. Pleasure to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. So you do not know the recipe . Zion no. Nina weve had a hard time, honestly, keeping employees. Lemonis no, but somebody. The business wont go anywhere. This isnt like a macaron incubator. If this business truly is going to grow, with me or without me, its going to need to be able to scale production, and if the recipe isnt available to anybody, then i guess this thing isnt gonna make more than the two of them could make. Nina part of knowing the recipe is the experience in looking at the batter, and with your eye knowing when its right. Lemonis its a science. Nina would you like to go in the fridge . Lemonis yeah, lets do it. Nina lets go. So this room, i can put macaron shells here without a cover, and it ages faster. This is presold. This isnt dated, but for example. Lemonis presold to who . Nina our wholesale clients. Lemonis okay. Who do you wholesale to . Nina bubble tea clients, coffee shops. Lemonis is there more demand in the marketplace for wholesale . Nina yes, but beyond what we do here, we couldnt handle. Mom wants us to focus on the mall. Lemonis a lot of Business Owners struggle with being able to determine the difference in profitability between retail and wholesale because on the surface, they look at just the actual cost of making the product, and they forget about all the other factors, and so i just needed to lay it out for them. Here is what i want you to think about you know you have strong demand. You know you have capacity room. You know youre underutilizing your facility. Why arent you producing more . Nina can you hold on one second . Are you sweating . Are you okay . Finia yes, its. Im going to. Just want to make sure my heartbeat is okay. Nina well, this is more than usual when youre sweating beads. Lemonis lets check it. Finia 92. Lemonis is that high . Finia is high. Nina her pills put her heartbeat at 50something. Finia thats what macaron does to you lemonis finias heart problem presents an issue to her health, but it also presents a huge issue to the business. My ultimate goal here is to create a Business Model that allows finia to be a member of the team, not the only member of the team. Im not interested in making things worse for her. Were gonna wrap it up. The next time we meet, well sit down and well go over the financials, and well talk about the business. Nice meeting you. Nina nice to meet you lemonis well see you soon. Finia thank you nina bye, thank you finia byebye nina let me move the dessert out of the way. Ive never seen him go to anyones house. [ knock on door ] finia [ gasps ] lemonis hi nina hi lemonis wow this is the first time ive actually ever gone to someones house to look at their financials. Thank you for doing this, by the way. Finia oh, youre welcome. My pleasure. Lemonis that was so nice of you. Finia made me a middle eastern meal like my mother would, so i have to remember as i go in there not to get sucked in by this motherly love and that this is still a business deal. I have a feeling its gonna be hard. The food is wonderful. Finia im glad you like it. Lemonis i love it. So do you have financials that we can look at . Nina mmhmm. Finia yes, sure. Lemonis in 2017, you did 390,000 of revenue, a net profit 77,000. For 2018, last year, 369,000 was the revenue. After all the expenses, 73,000 profit. The business does less than a half a million dollars, but it makes money. What were gonna want to understand is what the true net yield is in wholesale and in retail. Which one is actually more lucrative. Nina yes. Lemonis the cost to fulfill in retail, 1. 39. What is the cost to fulfill the wholesale . Finia probably 10 cents. Nina yeah. Lemonis so 10 cents. Finia mmhmm. Lemonis the cost to manufacture a single macaron is 39 cents. With retail, an additional cost of 1. 39 is added to the product because of the kiosk rental, the delivery, the employees and the insurance. Wholesale, the additional cost of the product is about 10 cents, between easy packaging and the delivery. The retail macaron sells for 2. 08, and the wholesale macaron sells for 1. 15. Gross profit for retail, 30 cents. Gross profit for wholesale is 66 cents. The real profitability is in wholesale. Lemonis alright. Heres sort of where im at. I want to make an offer. What i would like to do is invest in 100,000 increments. The 100,000 increments would be based on achieving certain production levels without compromising any quality, and the total amount of money that would be out there would be a half a million dollars. For each 100,000, i would want 10 of the business. No less than 10 . Finia so you want. At the end, you want 50 partnership . Finia thats not macaron. I get insulted. I go, and they say french macaron. No. That should be illegal. Nina it makes her want to change the name. Oh, come on. Flo dont worry. Youre covered. dramatic music and youre saving money, because you bundled home and auto. Sarah, get in the house. Were all here for you. All all day, all night. dramatic music great job speaking calmly and clearly everyone. Thats how you put a customer at ease. Hey, did anyone else hear weird voices while they were in the corn . No. No. Me either. Whispering voice jamie. What . In getting key nutrients peopfrom food alone. One a day, covers all of them. In just one serving. One a day, and done. The way that im setting this up is that, for every 100,000, i would want 10 . You dont have to take the 100,000. You have the right to take the 100,000. Essentially, what i want them to do is to prove out their thesis stepbystep along the way, and actually earn the investment, and prove to me that, number one, they know what theyre gonna do with the money and, number two, they dont end up taking more money than they need. I dont believe the Business Needs 500,000, but if goes from making 1 million macarons a year to 10, ill be glad to invest the balance of the money. If the business can make its own money. Nina it might not need money. Lemonis . It wont need my money. That is my offer, and when it comes to the finances, im in charge of them. So what do you want to do . Finia i take your offer. Lemonis you do . Finia yes. Lemonis okay. Nina yes lemonis the Macaron Queen. Okay. Nina thank you. Yay finia i make this the best 100,000 you have ever invested. Lemonis good morning nina good morning lemonis hey finia good morning. Lemonis how are you . Finia good nina hi, partner. Lemonis high five. I just want to recap what were doing, where were going. You know, as all of you know, we all agreed to do a deal together. Finia yay nina yes lemonis but ultimately, at the end of the day, the company has to define who it wants to be when it grows up. If it wants to be a small city of atlanta kiosk. Finia thats not what we are shooting for. Lemonis what are we shooting for . Why dont you tell me . Finia we are shooting for the moon lemonis okay. This business could be super profitable, but in order for that to happen, changes have to happen. First of all, we need to pivot away from retail and focus more on wholesale and directtoconsumer, where the margins are way higher, and in order to grow the revenue, were gonna have to find a copacker someone that can actually accomplish the larger production runs. And lastly, were gonna have to figure out ways for finia to monetize her expertise and her knowledge, either through a book or selling her recipes. But the most important thing that will come out of this it will allow finia to find the balance between work and preserving her health. How much is your rent at the mall . Finia 5,408 per month. Lemonis and how much time is left on it . Finia end of november next year. Lemonis ultimately, i think the mall is a deadweight. Theyre spending a lot of time thinking about how to deliver to the kiosk, and who is going to staff the kiosk, and if they took all that time and energy and just allocated it all to wholesale with double the gross profit, then it was obvious to me, the kiosk is a giant waste of time. If youre gonna be directtoconsumer and wholesale, then be that. Dont also be running a mall stand. Its a distraction right now. Finia yes, it is. Nina okay. Lemonis hi, guys finia hi finia good to see you. Nina how are you . Lemonis im taking nina and finia to silverland bakery in chicago. Its a commercial copacker that specializes in stateoftheart equipment with stateoftheart production. In order for this business to grow to the wholesale level that im expecting it to, i need to find somebody that can help me with volume. Finia hello athena hello lemonis nice to see you. Athena nice to see you, too. Lemonis so am i gonna be in trouble with three persian women . Finia yes athena come on in. Very hot. So say you want a truckload shipped to california. A truckload is 22 pallets, up to 24 pallets. Lemonis so the way to think about this is, she produces. She stores it, and then we have to provide the logistics and the storage on the other side. So it just becomes a logistics game. Why dont you guys take her through the process . Finia okay. Athena so are these french or italian . Nina well, actually its a mix. Finia its a secret recipe. I had to work on it and adjust it so many times to get the right texture and all that. It has to process. Athena so by processing, you mean you mix the almond flour with the powdered sugar and mix that together, and. Finia you have to run them first and then add to each other. You know, get it to the point that we want. Athena well, thats something well have to Work Together because i dont believe in doing anything extra because that adds labor cost. Finia with macaron, the batter is very, very sensitive. Nina processing our flour and sugar is one day. Lemonis are you doing some sort of magic voodoo to the flour . Finia no, no. We run it to our eye and perfection. Lemonis she doesnt like to tell anybody about the recipe. I need her to understand that the reason to share the recipe with more than one person is that she does have a health issue. God forbid something happened to her, without the documentation of the process and knowing the exact ingredients, what are we left with . A name and a kiosk . Athena you know what . In manufacturing, that stuff has got to go out the door. Lemonis this is an important thing, though. Athena does millions and millions of products a year. All shes suggesting is, youre doing all these things over in the corner so nobody sees it, but there is a written process that could be installed that would accomplish the same thing that doesnt have to be like columbo is trying to figure it out. Athena costco sells macarons. I dont know what kind they sell, but ive. Finia thats not macaron. I get insulted. I go, and they said, french macaron. No. That should be illegal. Nina it makes me want to change the name. They misunderstand the product. Finia to call Something Like that french macaron, no, never. I get insulted. Lemonis i dont think you should give up your dreams for anybody, and i dont think your mother wants you to give up your dreams. Do you . If youre looking to take your business to the next level, log on to. In getting key nutrients peopfrom food alone. One a day, covers all of them. In just one serving. One a day, and done. Uh, fifteen minutes could save you 15 ain . Or more on car insurance. I think were gonna swap over to over seventyfive years of savings and service. What, were just gonna swap over . Yep. Pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. Pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over . Thats right. Instead of all this that ive already . Yeah. What are we gonna do with these . Keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. Geico. Over 75 years of savings and service. Actions speak louder than words. She was a school teacher. My dad joined the navy and helped prosecute the nazis in nuremberg. Their values are why i walked away from my business, took the giving pledge to give my money to good causes, and why i spent the last ten years fighting corporate insiders who put profits over people. Im tom steyer, and i approve this message. Because, right now, America Needs more than words. We need action. Most people think as a reliable phone company. But to businesses, were a reliable partner. We Keep Companies ready for whats next. man we weave security into their business. second man virtualize their operations. woman and build ai customer experiences. second woman we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. Like 5g. Almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. woman when it comes to digital transformation. Verizon keeps business ready. We run it to our eye and perfection. Athena any manufacturing plant in the united states, when your crew is making a recipe, as they go through the recipe, they check it off and put their initials on it. Lemonis all shes suggesting is, as you go bigger, the requirements to process in a certain manner becomes more regulated. You disagree. Finia yes, completely. Nina we have a proprietary recipe, and thats our process we created in our kitchen. Finia your product is gonna be different. The macaron shell is not gonna be the same. Lemonis its not completely different, actually. Its just documented. Athena so that there is no possibility. Otherwise, you know, your Quality Control is out the window. Nina yes. Lemonis in order to grow the business and get a return on my money and make money for her, finia is gonna have to open her mind to the fact that there are different ways to skin the cat. Athena has lots of expertise of taking homegrown businesses and giving them the resources and the tools to be nationwide. How many do you think this facility could crank out . Athena oh, we can crank out millions of them. Lemonis did you hear that answer . Finia yes, millions. You know, i am learning. You want me to learn. Lemonis i want you to be happy. Finia i think there is a possibility there, and we have to try it. Lemonis okay. Unless you dont want to make more money. Finia no, i want to make more money. Lemonis okay. Nina i cant wait to see your store finia i love it its so pretty lemonis okay, so well set this down. Finia wow gorgeous lemonis i asked finia and nina to do an event at my store in downtown chicago, and i had a couple of objectives number one, i wanted outsiders to give me some feedback about the product as we look to expand into other markets and find new wholesale clients. There are potentially different wholesale buyers that are here tonight. I want to get feedback on the product. What do they think of the flavors . What do they think of the taste . Nina mmhmm. Lemonis and really engage with them. So i want to give you guys the chance to set up. Nina okay, yes. Lemonis mom, pile them all in here. Nina would you like to try a macaron . So we have the sugar candy on top to give you that little crunch. Woman 5 this is fantastic. Nina thank you. Man 5 delicious. Not too sweet. I can taste a little of the berry in there. Nina a brownie might be four times the calorie of a macaron, and its glutenfree. Woman 6 ooh its even better finia and its glutenfree lemonis have you had a macaron like this before . Woman 7 no theyve always been a little harder. Lemonis what do you think of the texture . Woman 7 i love it. Its nice and soft and creamy. Woman 8 i would definitely buy this. Lemonis you would . Woman 8 yeah. Lemonis so i want to give you guys some feedback. Finia okay. Nina mmhmm. Lemonis i dont feel like you guys ask questions. Nina okay, so we can learn. Lemonis what did you think of the flavor . What would you change . No, not so you can learn, so you can learn and engage with them. The numberone thing that a good salesperson has to do is ask a lot of questions. Determine what their feedback is, understand what their likes and dislikes are and sell something to them. So the more they tell you that they like something, the more they fall in love with it. Nina i get it. Lemonis okay . Finia okay. Nina would you guys like to try our macarons . Man 6 i love it. Its delicious. Nina what do you love about it . Man 6 i like that the strawberry is not too much. Nina okay. Man 6 its just kind of like a hint of it, the vanilla really brings it out. Nina okay. Man 6 yeah, its really good. Lemonis they seem to just want to deliver a beautiful cookie and move on to the next customer, and if theyre gonna grow their wholesale business, theyre going to need to continue to gather data and to dialogue with people. Manny we have five restaurants. Finia oh, wonderful manny so i think your macarons would be a great fit. Finia thank you i appreciate it. Nina yeah, thats super cool. Woman 9 do you think this would look good on me, or, like. Nina absolutely. Woman 9 what do you think i should style it with . Nina well, what do you want to wear it with . Like, for what . Lemonis nina went into that fashion environment, and it was almost like she lights up. Nina i think heels for sure. Woman 9 okay. Nina and then jeans. Lemonis you can see the true passion and happiness in her, and its a concern for me. Shes back there selling people clothes. No joke. Finia i know. I know nina i really think this would look good on you. With your body and heels, this would look super hot. Lemonis that is what she loves to do. Nina you could do just, like, a tank, or you could wear it open. Lemonis what are you doing, lady . Nina oh, i was just helping someone out. Lemonis dressing somebody . Nina yeah. Lemonis what id like to do is go take a walk with the two of you. Nina okay. Lemonis were gonna go sit down, have a drink, and just. Well chat about something. Nina yeah. Lemonis were gonna go right in here. Nina alright. After you, mom. Finia its a complete city, chicago. Lemonis yeah. So let me tell you what i wanted to talk to the two of you about. Finia okay. Lemonis i feel like you both love each other so much. I think thats part of why i like doing business with you guys, but ultimately i feel like the two of you are trying to make each other happy, and i dont think you should give up your dreams for anybody, and i dont think your mother wants you to give up your dreams. Do you . Finia no, i dont want her to give up her dreams. I want her to be happy, of course. Lemonis is she happy today . Finia no. Lemonis are you happy . Nina i mean. [laughs] finia you have to be truthful. Lemonis nina, i need you to cut the [bleep] nina no, i know, i just dont want. Lemonis are you happy or not . Nina i dont. Finia no, nini, dont cry. Dont cry. Nina i love you, mom. Finia i know you love me, baby. Lemonis ninas undying loyalty to her mother is definitely one of her strongest character attributes, but deep down i really believe that ninas true love and true passion is the fashion industry. Finia you dont have to work with me to love me. Nina lets sit. Lemonis lets get a chair. Nina lets go sit. Finia nina, you see how aggravating this is . Nina youre not dizzy, are you . In getting key nutrients peopfrom food alone. One a day, covers all of them. In just one serving. One a day, and done. Hour 36 in the stakeout. As soon as the homeowners arrive, well inform them that Liberty Mutual customizes home insurance, so theyll only pay for what they need. Your turn to keep watch, limu. Wake me up if you see anything. [ snoring ] [ loud squawking and siren blaring ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Through the at t network, edgetoedge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. From managing inventory. To detecting and preventing threats. To scaling up your production. Giving you a nice big edge over your competition. Thats the power of edgetoedge intelligence. But when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. Lavender baths always calmed him. So we turned bath time into a business. And building it with my son has been my dream job. At Northwestern Mutual, our version of Financial Planning helps you live your dreams today. Find a Northwestern Mutual advisor at nm dot com. Helps you live your dreams today. Are you happy . Nina you know, i want her to realize her dreams. Thats all. Lemonis are you happy, yes or no . Nina if you asked my husband, hed say no. Lemonis nina. Youre not. Nina i just want you to know that im proud of you, and i would do anything for you. And im also sorry that i couldnt take it to the level it deserved on my own. Finia thats okay. Nina thats part of my unhappiness. Lemonis i think theres a way for you to do both. Nina yeah, and thats nothing for me. Ive done way more. Lemonis i want finia and nina to understand that, while i want them to work their tails off and be totally committed to this business, i also want them to have a balance. And if nina has some interests outside of this business, im totally fine with her pursuing those, as long as it doesnt compromise this. You have some thinking to do because i want to know how were gonna move you forward. Ill see you guys tomorrow. Nina thank you so much, marcus. Finia thank you, marcus. Lemonis ill see you tomorrow. Im glad that you opened up about stuff. Nina thank you. Lemonis so what i want to do here today is prove that we have the process in place to hit the volume that we need to, whether its inside or with a copacker, and that were not putting too much stress on you. I set up a meeting in atlanta with the intercontinental hotel. Now, theyre one of the Worlds Largest chains. In fact, they have 68,000 rooms worldwide, and i thought it would be a good idea to start in atlanta, right in a market that they understand. The question is, do they actually understand how to sell wholesale, and do they understand that this is going to more than double, triple, quadruple whatever anything that a kiosk could do . Nice to see you, im marcus. Joseph chef joseph. Lemonis chef joseph, nice to meet you. Joseph nice to meet you. Lemonis these are my partners. So do you make a french macaron today inhouse . Joseph no, we dont. We dont have a pastry chef. We outsource, you know, macarons. We outsource some dessert items, so our pastry expense is large. Nina we can vary size, and we can also make custom flavors. Finia yeah, i think you should try the grand marnier. Joseph okay. Finia its a dark chocolate. Joseph i think the orange peel is nice and adds a different texture to it. Finia yes. Joseph the shells are soft. Still have that crisp of the meringue on the outside, which is great. Lemonis what do you not like about it . Joseph i would have wanted maybe more on the grand marnier. Lemonis do you have a favorite flavor . Joseph i prefer some of the lighter flavors, so i love a great vanilla macaron. Nina our vanilla is right here, if you want to try. Joseph its strong. Its aromatic. Thats a perfect example of what i would be looking for. Lemonis how do we have to think about being pricecompetitive to earn the business . Joseph were a large convention hotel, so we always appreciate deals. You know, the more we purchase, maybe the better price . Nina we would love to get your business. Joseph what if the agreement is more in terms of bulk purchasing . Finia it brings your price down. Joseph okay. Nina mmhmm. Joseph we have two local vendors that we currently use. Right now were paying anywhere between 89 cents and 1. 15ish per piece. Nina mmhmm. Joseph so we would want to stay competitive, but, for a great product, you know. Lemonis can we do that . Nina yes. That would work fine. Joseph i think thats really what we would be more looking at, is. Finia if we can talk about the minimum purchase. Joseph keep it to these specific days. Finia thats what we do locally. Joseph fantastic. Lemonis its become clear to me that there is a ton of demand for Macaron Queens product. Finding a qualified, largescale copacker to produce these macarons is more important than ever. The demand is there. Now we have to fulfill it. Awesome. Thank you. Finia thank you so much. Joseph thank you. Lemonis thank you very much. Lemonis this is huge how many square feet is this . Joe its 45,000, and our ovens and gluten facility is 55,000. Lemonis and what do you guys specialize in here . Joe cookies, sweets, baked goods. Lemonis i cant believe how big this operation is. This is a legitimate copacker thats gonna be able to produce millions of millions of macarons a year, taking all the pressure off finia. Hi, guys finia hello lemonis how are you . So what are we doing . Finia we are making french macaron. Lemonis are we using a recipe book, or what are we doing . Finia no, the recipe is here. Nina waiting for our mixer. Finia yeah, i know. We are going to share with them. Lemonis is it the real recipe . Nina he knows you way too well finia should i have two recipe . Lemonis well, you havent been willing to share your recipe since i met you. Finia well, you never asked for it. Nina i mean, he didnt ask you to write it down, but he did tell you. Lemonis i did ask you to write it down. Finia, i love you, but you havent written anything down. I thought it was funny initially, but were now standing in a 100,000squarefoot factory with a legitimate copacker, and shes still pushing back on her recipe. Finia you see, my heartbeat went to 105. Lemonis is 105 high . Finia 105 for me is high. I have to be 50. Lemonis so you dont have the recipe. I dont have the recipe, but its in your head, and your heart rate is high. Do you have it written down . Finia yeah. Nina this is the recipe. Lemonis a recipe isnt just ingredients. Nina technique. Lemonis we need to write it down. Not just for me, for mankind. Lemonis while i dont want to get upset with her, a recipe isnt just rattling things off. Its the ingredients and the process that goes with it. You know that, and i know that. Now write this [bleep] down. That was one of the conditions of our deal. Nina yes. Lemonis you remember that . Nina yes. Lemonis next ingredient. Finia this is the coloring. Lemonis how much coloring . Finia full tablespoon. Lemonis okay. Whats next . Finia 400 gram of granulated sugar. Lemonis with a little bit of a nudge, finia is now starting to understand that with this professional chef there whos gonna be in charge of the copacking facility, that she has to start sharing things, and nina is taking notes, and were starting to make some progress. How much almond and powdered sugar combination . Are you checking your heart rate . Finia yeah, i have to. I dont feel good. Nina its hot in here. Finia my heart, it does not stop. Nina can we just. Can we pause one second . Let him do that. Youre good. Keep going. Finia oh, 139. I have to relax. Nina okay. Lemonis okay, okay. Nina lets just take a quick break. Lemonis lets just take a break. I can appreciate that finia, shes being asked to do a lot of things meet with different copackers, meet new wholesale clients, write your recipe down. Its a lot for any person. Finia br 139. I have to be 56. Nina you keep breathing. Lemonis i dont know if shes not getting enough sleep, or shes just excited, but shes starting to get worked up, and it freaked everybody out. For sure, it freaked me out. Finia 164. Nina its 160. Lemonis okay. Nina marcus, lets sit. Lemonis lets get a chair. Nina lets go sit. Finia nina, you see how aggravating this is . Nina youre not dizzy, are you . So josh, you going for our drive safe and save discount . Yup, using the app. Driving safe. Heh. You wanna go . Wanna go bro . Hey, uh, do not mess with my discount. Woooo you could save up to 30 . Lets go nice to meet you, go get em tiger woooo sounds like youve got this . Yeah. Definitely. Get a discount up to 30 with drive safe and save™ from state farm. The wait is over. Tmobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. And this is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. Finia, can you do me a favor . Can you just look at me and just not look at your watch just for a minute . Finia thank you. Lemonis lets get the pill. Lets get the water. There we go. Everybody is relaxed. Her heart rate got up to 166. Its supposed to be, like, 56. Nina take deep breaths. Lemonis we got done what we needed to get done at the copacker. The recipe is documented, and i dont want to push her. Right now, lets just take a beat and just slow down. Nina keep breathing, mom. Lemonis i think we break down and get the crew. Lets get out of here. Now that Macaron Queen has nailed down a relationship with the copacker, nina is able to go out and find other wholesale clients. Nina hi are you tony . Tony yes. Nina im nina. Tony nina, nice to meet you. Nina nice to meet you. Lemonis . Like mr. Green tea and snow days, who specialize in specialty desserts. Tony very cool. Its a perfect fit. Nina see, thats fantastic. Tony thank you so much. Nina thank you. Tony i appreciate it. It was a pleasure meeting you, nina. Nina yes, a pleasure meeting you, too. Lemonis and we also need to continue to find ways for finia to monetize her knowledge of the macaron space, and a good way to do that is for her to publish a macaron cookbook. Douglas we are a 17yearold independent publisher. We do a wide variety of different kinds of books. Finia everybody ask me, do you have a book . Douglas wow, that is amazing. That could be a successful book. Nina alright, guys. What were gonna do is alex torres, who has been doing our gelato for a very long time, he is gonna be taking over the lease of the kiosk. Lemonis and theyve even signed over the lease of their kiosk at the mall, which allows them to focus exclusively on wholesale and keep the customer of the kiosk as a wholesale customer. Nina mom and i will take a back seat, and then hopefully, the goal is that if any of you guys want to have a kiosk like this, or you want to elevate into other positions in the company, these positions are being created. Lemonis look, i have to admit that the progress were making at Macaron Queen has been unbelievable, but theres one more thing. Nina alright. Group hug, guys. Group hug zion im crying nina no, its okay lemonis you excited . Nina yes. Lemonis i reached out to the c. E. O. Of Weight Watchers, now ww, mindy grossman, who is, like, a pioneer and badass in the world of business. She agreed to take a meeting with her staff and nina and i in new york. Oh, wow. Nina okay. Lemonis look at how cool this is. Nina i know. Look at all this food. Lemonis to tell you that im excited would be a giant understatement. Nina its colorful, like our macarons. Lemonis do you want to get set up . Nina yes. Lemonis im kind of bummed that your mom is not here. Nina oh, im very bummed, too. Lemonis with all of the Health Scares and all of the travel required and the excitement, i thought it would be a good idea if finia stayed back in atlanta. Mindy hi nina hi, patsy. Patsy nice to meet you, marcus. Lemonis nice to meet you. So this is ninas meeting. Nina okay. Well, i want to start off by first saying thank you very much for letting me represent my Family Business on behalf of my mother. Weight watchers has actually been a part of our family for over a decade. I found it to help me have a healthy relationship with food. I dont know if you have inhouse production, or do you outsource . Mindy we have a core group of suppliers that we work very closely with. Nina okay. Mindy within our ecosystem, we have 4. 6 million subscribers, and in each country, were looking at food partners. Nina mmhmm. Mindy could i taste one these . Nina yes, please start please start eating. We tried to make the color coordinate. This is caramel chocolate. Mindy oh, my god, thats so good. Nina this has cocoa in it. That one is double dark chocolate. So. Lemonis do you notice the lack of air in them . Patsy thats what i was looking for. Mindy i think the first thing is really to get the nutrition side, to understand the point values for the different ones. Nina calculated, its, like, on the edge of 1. 5 to 2, and so theyre not fattening. Patsy points are very important to our members. Have you ever done a mini version of this . Nina yes. We have the ability to do anything. You have low calorie. You have gluten free. Mindy no artificial ingredients. No artificial sweeteners. No preservatives. Nina no. Lemonis while im sitting there watching nina with these two executives, and hit it and answer the questions and put a beautiful presentation together, i was very proud. Mindy what is the shelf life . Nina thats what i was gonna say next i would sell these in the frozenfood section because that way, you have a year. Patsy what if its not frozen, whats the shelf life . Nina if its not frozen in the refrigerator, on display in a store, its 5 to 7 days. Patsy we have challenges in that regard. We dont have freezers or refrigerators in our studios, and our products do need a decent shelf life. Nina mmhmm. Mindy we recommend, like, different alternatives. Lemonis weve had a lot of dialogue about ninas dreams. I guess your mom and i wanted to hear from you what you want to do. [fa mers bell] burke a rock and wreck. Seen it. Covered it. At farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum in getting key nutrients peopfrom food alone. One a day, covers all of them. In just one serving. One a day, and done. [fa mers bell] burke a rock and wreck. Seen it. Covered it. At farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum and with the sXfinity Stream app, screen is your big screen. Which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows, or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Whether youre travelling around the country or around the house, keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app and watch all the shows you love. So that would be a challenge for us, but you do ship directtoconsumer. Nina yes. Lemonis its gonna largely be a directtoconsumer business. Patsy okay. Mindy i mean, we do have elevated studios. You could, at some point, see a minifreezer that actually is branded that you can take the product. Nina sure. I would like to get Weight Watchers certified. Lemonis are there any products out there that get a stamp or a certification of some kind . Mindy our idea is that ww becomes the mark of this is a healthier option for you. Lemonis like a Good Housekeeping seal. Mindy . But still being delicious. Lemonis ive learned that its about the science, facts and knowledge. Mindy i think thats really important. If you can take the science and then apply deliciousness. Patsy and taste. Mindy . That is the way. Lemonis and presentation. Mindy absolutely. It would be great to have you connect with the nutritionists and the science team, and then at the same time, we could partner. Nina that would be a dream come true. Lemonis should we facetime mom so she can say hi . Mindy yeah, can we do that . Nina yeah sure. Mindy i would love that. Nina hi, mom mindy hi, mom patsy hi, mom finia how are you . Mindy beautiful product. Wonderful story. Thinking of ways how we can help support each others efforts to help people lead healthier lives. Finia that would be wonderful. Thats my dream. Mindy thank you. Lemonis yeah, we love you. Well call you later, okay . Mindy feel good lemonis this is the kind of relationship that is a big game changer. Huge. Thank you so much patsy oh, youre more than welcome. Lemonis it is definitely one of the biggest wins in smallbusiness history for me. It was that big of a deal for me. You know what i thought we could do, we could just sit here and chat real quick. Nina i would love to. Finia sure. Lemonis well put you in the queen chair. So i had a specific thing that i wanted to talk about. Weve had a lot of dialogue about ninas dreams. Weve talked about fashion. And so with the Weight Watchers opportunity, and with all the wholesale and the copackers and all these great things happening, i guess your mom and i wanted to hear from you what you want to do. Nina well, in all honesty, im not a quitter, so because of all the great things that are happening and the possibilities, i want to see them through. I dont want to leave my mom here and then it all fall apart. You cant replace me that easily. So. Lemonis did you hear that . Nina . Im just saying. Lemonis it sounds like shes negotiating. Finia just like my daughter. Lemonis shes just like you. The fact that nina committed to the business longterm gives me comfort as a businessperson, and it also gives me a lot of respect for her as a individual. She knew it was important to her mom. With nina fully engaged and taking over the development side, finia can focus on her health and still own the business. What we have to acknowledge is that your heart condition is real. We need to make sure that we protect your health because this business will be much better with you 100 . Finia yes. Lemonis you proved to other people that theres no excuses. You could have heart surgery on tuesday and making macarons on wednesday nina yes, thats true. Finia im gonna shoot for that. Lemonis i thought you were shooting for the moon . Finia i am shooting for the moon lemonis can we sell some more macarons first . Finia yes. Lemonis okay. Lemonis tonihow are you . Profit. An actress comes home to ohio to build a health and homegoods brand. Monica i would make all of my own essentialoil products with my dad, with my sisters. Lemonis youve seen real results from this product, and other people have, too. But several years in, theres no happy ending in sight. Monica i am crying more today than i have on seven seasons of parenthood. Lemonis she wont let her team make decisions, even though she lives and works thousands of miles away. Caity you think im going behind your back. I dont know how long i can do it for. Lemonis she is resistant to every change. Monica i hate it. Lemonis . Even though the business loses almost 100,000 a year. Youre throwing money into the trash right now. And now the stress is pulling her family apart