Original subtitles

[exciting music]

male announcer: More than 100

of America's biggest bosses...

- I just hope I can keep up with the guys.

announcer: Have gone undercover

in their own companies.

- That wasn't as easy as it looks.

[indistinct shouting]

- Lift me up!

- I'm about to just flip out, here.

- I would almost swear you look like somebody else.

- Right here, right now,

we're gonna shut the restaurant down.

announcer: More than $20 million

has been awarded to employees...

- I'll write up a check for $250,000.

- Oh, my God.

announcer: And millions of lives...

- I'm gonna pay off the mortgage.

announcer: Changed forever.

- For real? - This is real.

The greatest reward is to see people live their dream.

- That's a life changer.

[dramatic music]

announcer: Tonight...

- [gasps] That's a lot.

announcer: A multimillionaire CEO goes deep undercover...

- But we gotta get a little bit more of a pep in your step.

- Owner of the world's leadig smoothie brand,

Smoothie King,

Korean businessman Wan Kim...

- We believe we are gonna be bigger than McDonald's.

announcer: Will be put to the test.

- Whoa! What's happening?

- He'll meet his match on the shop floor...

- Whoa! Oh, my God. - Uh-oh, uh-oh!

announcer: And discover some tough truths

about the radical changes he's made.

- I noticed instantly. Customers weren't happy.

We're operating below standard.

♪ ♪

announcer: How will his coworkers react

when they find out he's really the boss?

- Oh, my God. I can't believe this.

- [crying]

announcer: All this next on "Undercover Boss."

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- My name is Wan Kim, and I'm a CEO of Smoothie King.

♪ ♪

announcer: Headquartered in Dallas, Texas,

Smoothie King is a $500-million-a-year business.

♪ ♪

- Here you go, my man.

- Good morning.

all: Good morning.

announcer: Since buying the company in 2012,

CEO Wan Kim has doubled their stores

to over 1,000 across 32 states...

♪ ♪

And tripled smoothie sales annually to 75 million,

growing Smoothie King into

the world's leading smoothie brand.

♪ ♪

- Smoothie King was founded in 1973 by Steve Kuhnau

in New Orleans.

Steve came up with the name "smoothie,"

and he is the original inventor.

He actually wanted to cure his own allergy,

so he started blending some of the nutrients with fruits,

and then his friends started to talk about,

"Ooh, it's very smoothie."

[laughs]

♪ ♪

I was born in Seoul, Korea.

My father owns a manufacturing business,

and I grew up in a pretty wealthy, uh, environment.

In 2003, I was looking for the opportunity

to bring some unique concepts into Korea.

When I met Steve Kuhnau,

I loved the culture that he embodied in the company.

[tense music]

When we opened our first stoe in Korea,

we literally worked 14 to 16 hours a day

for seven days a week.

And I was able to open about 100 stores over seven years.

That's when I realized I love what I do.

This is the time.

I asked Steve Kuhnau whether he is willing to sell.

- Oh, my God. It looks good.

- When I bought the company, I told my wife,

"We have to move to New Orleans."

She said, "New what?"

[laughs]

When I bought this company,

there are a lot of changes we made.

We changed our store design.

I mean, literally, we changed everything.

We changed our product.

There are a lot of people who believe smoothies

to be very healthy,

so we launched Clean Blends.

We have brought more whole fruits,

organic veggies.

We eliminated artificial color,

flavor, and preservatives.

We also have eliminated added sugar

in over 40 smoothies that we sell.

- Here's a Recharge Pineapple right here.

- And I do really believe what we have done

is the right thing to do.

♪ ♪

In order for us to be part

of your health and fitness journey,

we have to keep changing.

[upbeat music]

We have three kids.

Two girls are in New York

studying at Columbia University,

and my little boy, who's 12, is still with me in Dallas.

- What are you gonna do for the next two weeks?

- Uh, I'm gonna be undercover.

I'm gonna go in, you know,

see the stores, meet my team,

really try to understand how they do.

- What are they gonna transform you into?

- I'm gonna be Song Li,

and I'm gonna be just a lot younger

and hip and trendy.

[laughs]

By 2024,

we wanna double number of stores

as well as our sales.

We wanna make sure that we have good presence in California

as well as New York.

We believe we are gonna be bigger than McDonald's.

♪ ♪

I decide to go undercover

because I really want to know

if there are any issues in my store

because of all the changes I have brought in.

♪ ♪

[gasps]

[laughing] Oh, my God!

Look at me.

I can go to the club tonight.

[laughs]

Okay. Holy cow.

All right.

[both laughing]

Uh, please meet Song Li.

- Oh. Oh, no.

- All right, honey, give me a hug.

- Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

- Honey? Aww, this is me.

While I'm undercover,

I'll be posing as a failed fashion retailer.

My coworkers will be told I'm taking part

in a documentary,

and I'm looking for a second career

as a Smoothie King franchisee.

They have no idea that it's "Undercover Boss."

[dramatic music]

all: Bye.

- Miss you.

- Bye.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[train wheels clacking]

[cars passing]

♪ ♪

- Having this look makes me totally different person.

I mean, I feel like I'm in "007"--a movie.

I've been to this store before--

actually, a few times.

I am a little nervous.

I hope I'm not gonna be discovered today.

This store is run by a very experienced manager, Skyler.

While I'm undercover,

I wanna really find out how Skyler has been embracing

all the changes that we made,

but also furthermore,

I'd like to know how our guests are engaged with those.

- Hey. How's it going? - Hello.

- Nice to meet you. So what's your name?

- Song. - Song?

My name's Skyler. - Skyler?

- So I heard you were trying to learn just the ropes

of running the Smoothie King, right?

- Uh-huh, uh-huh. - Okay, okay.

So, I'm definitely the guy. - Okay.

- Okay, so let me--let me get you a shirt.

It's right back here. - All right.

- All right, so now you are officially part

of the Smoothie King team. - Awesome.

- [chuckles] - Okay.

[upbeat music]

- So this'll actually be perfect

'cause we just had a customer come by.

They've actually bought a very popular smoothie,

which is our, um, high protein,

and they got the banana version.

And so as you see,

it pretty much gives you all the simple steps here.

So as you see, it says "water,"

so we'll do seven pumps.

- As soon as I got in there,

I tried to pretend that I'm really new, new, new on this,

but he did a awesome job.

- So next is banana.

So you see how it says "green disher"?

There you are.

See, I think that's a little bit too much.

Portion control is everything

because at the end of the day,

it's a penny type of business.

- Portion's good? - That's perfect.

- I really appreciate him saying that,

because I was franchisee.

I understand how important portioning can be

when you try to get to the right profitability.

- Do a little bit less. There you go.

That--that'll work.

Okay, and the last thing is the ice.

It should be approximately 33 cubes.

Uh, we need a little bit more than that.

That should do.

All right, so next is the blender, okay?

[blender grinding]

Perfect.

- Okay, my first smoothie.

- Your first smoothie.

But--this is the key, though--

at Smoothie King, we have to get it done

in three minutes and 30 seconds.

[tense music]

We have customers that are on the go.

We have customers that are on lunch.

So you always have to be fast.

Order for Krista. - Thank you much.

- Thank you. You have a great day.

♪ ♪

And it looks like we have another ticket,

so we can give this a try again.

- All right.

- I'm gonna time you to make sure

that we have this three minutes and 30 seconds.

Starting now.

- Was really concentrating, uh, on portioning

as well as making sure the smoothies are right.

- So let's try to do this a little bit faster.

But again, portion control is the key.

- I was very overwhelmed.

- So that was a little bit over-portioned.

- Whoa! - Uh-oh, uh-oh!

I think he is moving a little too slow for me.

We had to get that three minutes

and 30 second time frame going.

We're at two minutes.

We gotta go a li-- just a little bit faster.

- I'm like, "Whoa, Skyler, stop it.

This is my first day."

- He needs to get faster, quicker.

This is Smoothie King.

We gotta have a lotta, lotta energy.

- "Song, Song, Song,

you gotta go faster, faster, faster."

- 28 more seconds.

We gotta pour this smoothie

and we have to get this smoothie out.

- With the pressure, I kind of had my meltdown,

and I started to make some mistakes.

Think I'm a little bit short.

- Yeah, that came up a little short,

so we're gonna have to remake that.

- Got it.

I felt really bad because, you know,

our guests had to wait

and they had to be really patient.

Sorry about that. - Thank you.

No, you're good, man. You're good.

- And thank you so much for your patience.

- No, you're great, man.

- Since buying this company,

I have brought in Clean Blends.

We eliminated artificial flavor, color.

We do not put added sugar.

I want to find out

if the teams working in the stores

are behind our new vision.

When I actually looked at this business,

like, the difference between, uh, Smoothie King and Jamba

was I thought that, uh, clean--

clean--cleaning blends, or Clean Blends--

- Cleaner blends, yeah.

- Yeah, what do you think of it?

- I noticed instantly

when we brought out the cleaner blending...

- Right. - The customers weren't happy.

- When Skyler told me, uh, about Clean Blends,

I will be honest--

really, you know, it hurts.

♪ ♪

[tense music]

- Since buying this company,

I have brought in clean blends.

What do you think of them?

Cleani--cleaning blends or clean blends?

- Cleaner blends, yeah.

I noticed instantly,

when we brought out the cleaner blending...

- Right. - The customers weren't happy.

Literally, we had customers that's been at Smoothie King

for over ten years... - Right.

- And their complaint was,

"I've been getting the same smoothie.

You can't tell me..." - Got it.

"To be healthier.

"If I want a smoothie with sugar in it,

I want my smoothie with sugar in it."

- Got it. - Us, as managers,

we took the blame for it. - Oh.

- Not only did they think that we were making the changes,

just even on the corporate level...

- Right, right, right. - You know, our bosses,

they were saying that we weren't meeting these numbers.

It affected my bonus a lot.

I would say by at least 75%.

Higher management was upset with us.

They were blaming us for basically lower sales

that we had no control over.

Picture if you were a franchisee...

- Right.

- And you've been making all of this money...

- Right. - And then

the owner of it just switches it up.

- Right, right, right.

- And then your money starts to trickle down

to a whole different level. - Oh, that'd be bad.

I'm not gonna be happy with it. - Exactly.

♪ ♪

- When Skyler told me, uh, about the impact at the stor,

it just hurts my feeling that he had to go through

all this difficult time because of, uh, my decision.

We need to do a better job of communicating to our team.

♪ ♪

- Number 32, blueberry banana.

[quirky music]

You wanna put a little bit, uh--

put a little bit of muscle into it.

- Okay. I can do that.

- I actually saved this job just for you.

[both laugh] - Oh, all right.

- You wanna at least keep an eye on it.

- When I was thinking about, you know, franchising business,

I also thought about, you know,

whether my kids can have these products every day.

- Exactly. And it's funny you say that,

'cause my daughter, she is--

she is trying to be vegan like her father.

You know what I mean? She's making little steps.

- How did you become a vegan?

- So I definitely chose to become vegan, um,

between my health-- and even in my family,

you know, we've had health issues.

Uh, my mother, she passed away from cancer.

- Oh. [stirring music]

- I had a older brother a few years older than me.

About two years ago he... - [gasps]

He died of a heart attack.

- Oh, my goodness. - And so--

- He was young. - Yeah.

- You know, and he was only 32.

So you know what I mean?

It's all of the more for me to live this healthy lifestyle.

And, you know, that's another reason why

it's fun to work at Smoothie King.

- Skyler told me about his mother and brother.

That was very touching.

I felt, "Oh, my God. What a tragedy."

[dramatic music]

If you were me,

why would I choose Smoothie King?

- 'Cause this is a great brand.

- So you wanna be a franchise too.

- Yeah, definitely, definitely.

I--I've made this a goal since high school.

Coming from where I come from... [chuckles]

It's not many of us that can franchise.

You know what I mean? So, uh--

- Are you close or--

[laughs] - I thought--

I thought I was close, but...

you have to have that money, you know?

To--to do it. - Yeah, yeah.

- You know, that's not gonna keep me down.

I'm gonna keep trying and I'm gonna get it.

- Okay. Wow.

[tense music]

I really want to tell him that I started owning one store

as a franchisee, and here I am,

so why can't he do that?

He should be able to do it.

[acoustic music]

Seriously, I am very happy to find out

that our team members have amazing passion

about what we do.

I learned a lot that, uh, next time,

when we roll out the changes,

we really have to do a better job

so that they understand why we are making those decisions

and work more closely with our managers

so they are prepared for the future.

[tense music]

announcer: Coming up,

the boss gets a shock.

- We're operating below standard.

- Below standard? - Yes.

- Frankly, I was very frustrated.

announcer: And he's put to the ultimate test.

- Whoa! That was my fault.

What's happening?

I screwed up so many times!

[country music]

♪ ♪

- Today I'm gonna be working my first $5 Friday,

when our smoothies are discounted

to only $5.

- 32-ounce Caribbean Way, right?

- And I have come to this store

because it is owned by our third-biggest franchisee.

Out of 1,100 stores,

a little less than 50 stores are company-owned,

and the rest are franchises.

- What can I get for you today?

- Franchising business is very difficult

because we want to make sure that those stores

maintain our operational standard.

And that matters

because consistency in this business is the key.

Today, Alvin thinks I'm here

to learn about $5 Friday

because I'm thinking of becoming a franchisee.

But really,

I want to see if our franchisees meet our standar.

Good morning. - How's it going?

- How are you? - I'm Alvin.

- Song Li. - Song Li?

both: Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Smoothie King. - All right.

- It's $5 Friday.

It's our busiest day of the week,

so we'll get you a shirt and we'll get you started.

- All right. Thank you so much.

- Yeah, no problem. - I'm not gonna let you down.

- Yeah. - I promise.

- Sweet, man. - All right.

[upbeat music]

- All right.

What do you know about $5 Friday already?

- Uh, it's a busy day.

- It's a good day of business, but it's kinda hard on us,

where we're--we're working. We're hungry.

- It's like that. - Your pineapple spinach.

Y'all have a great day.

- You guys come a lot? - Mm-mm.

- This is the first time.

- First time ever?

- Yeah. - We got a first-timer!

- Whoo!

[peppy music]

- So Monday through Thursday, like,

how busy are you?

- At our store, we're doing about 1,200 gross.

Friday we're doing, like, about 3,400.

- [stutters] Oh, okay. So there's a big jump.

- [laughs] Yeah.

My store makes a lot of money on Friday.

So my bosses are happy,

and our-- and our owner is happy,

but it's a little bit more stress than it's worth.

Staffing it is, I try to staff as much as I can,

but it's usually me and a couple other people

getting hammered. - Wow.

- It's hard on us.

I've been here by myself on a Friday before.

One time particularly, I--I did--

I had to close the lobby.

- What? - You know, basically,

there's no way one man can take all these drive-through orders

and the customers coming inside.

- Wow.

I don't know whether Alvin is getting the support he needs.

We need to really have a word why we are understaffed

on $5 Friday.

And we need to really dig in,

whether it's a problem with our franchisee

or it's the problem with our store manager.

♪ ♪

Wow, you guys work really hard on $5 Friday.

- Like, I work, you know, hard, like you said.

- Mm-hmm. - And then I go home

and start my most important job of all,

which is being a father and a husband.

I got, uh, like, four little children at home.

- Oh, my God. You have four kids?

You've been working really hard, dude.

[both laughing]

Alvin is a hard-working manager.

He runs a busy, understaffed store,

and he supports four kids.

Oh, my God.

That's a tough, tough, tough life.

- We are gonna prep mangos now. - Got it.

- Okay.

- As soon as he finishes.

Yeah, we got one shovel here.

- Ooh, we only have one. - Yeah.

- Oh.

So have you asked, uh, your franchisee

whether he can provide more equipment?

Because very frankly, when I was working at the bar...

- Yeah.

- I also thought that we don't have enough blender bowls.

- Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

We only have four here. - Really?

- It's just, the reality of my job is that,

you know, I'm--in my position, I have to wait

on my franchisee to move. - Oh, yeah, yeah.

I totally understand,

but I'm assuming there gotta be a--

like, a operational standard where, like,

you have to have minimum this or whatever.

- Yes. - So it seems like--

- We're operating below standard.

- Below standard. - Yeah.

- By only having four bowls... - Right. Yeah.

- It definitely slows down the whole process.

- Right, right, right, right.

- We--we definitely have a lot of room for improvement.

- Okay.

I am very disappointed.

Clearly, that store needs to address a lot of things.

Cleanness, maintenance,

and staffing problems.

I am not proud of this facility.

They are also lagging with some of the equipment

that they should have,

and franchisees should be able

to provide all those necessary tools.

♪ ♪

- You did--you did fantastic. - Thank you.

- $5 Friday, too, man. - All right, man.

All right. Thank you.

[tense music]

We need to really step in,

and we need to have a tough talk with franchisee

because my responsibility

is protecting the entire brand.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

Today, I'm actually going to visit

one of our manufacturing supply partners.

They manufacture most of our key nutrition powders

that goes into our smoothies.

Going undercover,

I'd like to find out

what kind of team is working behind the scene

and making sure that the team will be able to keep up

with Smoothie King's expansion.

♪ ♪

- Hi. - Hello.

- Hi. Nice to meet you. - How do you do?

- Good. How are you?

My name is Itzia

and I will be showing you what we do.

- Nice to meet you. - Come along.

♪ ♪

- So right in here's gonna be our production line.

- Okay.

- So what we're doing right now

are Smoothie King Gladiator Strawberry.

Right here is gonna be our jugs.

- Uh-huh. - They go down the filler,

down to the scoop, into our capper.

It's gonna get sealed, and it's gonna get packed.

What I'm gonna show you how to do is gonna be scoop.

When you put the scoop inside,

make sure it goes all the way in.

You don't want it sticking up,

because then, the capper won't put the cap on it.

So if you do mess up,

we have to stop the whole line.

- Oh, my goodness.

- You have to be focused... - Okay.

- That each jar will have a scoop.

So you grab that-- - Oh, my God.

It's moving fast. - You gotta put it facing down.

- Whoa, whoa. Whoo!

When she told me what I need to do,

oh, I was thinking, "That's a really easy job."

Wow. It's moving really fast!

[quirky music]

Okay.

Ah, I missed it!

And I'm like, "Dude, it's hard!"

It's a lot harder than I thought.

Oh! I made a mistake.

Sorry, sorry. Oh, my God.

I made a few mistakes.

Holy cow!

I screwed up so many times.

I was thinking, "This is not happening.

"You can do this.

Put the damn scoop into the top!"

Oh, my God!

It's really hard.

- Hey, that was only five minutes. [laughs]

You have two hours. - Wow!

Okay.

Whoa!

That was my fault. What happened?

What's happening?

Oh, hold on. Hold on.

Yeah, I couldn't keep it up.

I was sweating, and I was thinking,

"Song, you cannot panic."

I'm not panicking!

Oh, my God.

- Stop the line. [bell rings]

- Oh, I missed some!

I'm thinking, "Open the top and there is no scoop in it?

I will never complain about it."

- Hold on, hold on!

I'm undercover

at one of Smoothie King's suppliers,

and it's not going well.

Ah!

Putting the scoop into the top,

I really thought that it was very easy task...

Ah, I missed it!

But I screwed up.

- Stop the line. - Oh, I missed some.

[production bell ringing] - Can we just stop?

- I had to stop the whole line.

I felt like I'm letting the whole team down

because of the easy task that I couldn't perform.

Oh, my God! [laughs]

[crying comically]

All right.

But you've been making this for a long time, then?

- Yes, and I started as a regular employee...

- Okay. - And became a lead.

And now I'm a line support.

- What time do you normally come in?

- Um, I come in at 6:00.

- So what time do you wake up, then?

- I wake up at 4:00. - Okay.

- I gotta drop off my baby and stuff.

- How many kids do you have? - I have two kids.

- Oh, my God! - Yeah.

Itzia works really hard.

She wakes up at 4:00,

taking care of two kids,

and also at the same time,

she is great line leader.

So what motivates you? Driving you?

- I would love to grow in the company I'm in now.

- Okay. - It's a great company.

- So you do like this company a lot.

- Yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah.

Yeah, I do see myself being a supervisor or a manager

one day in this company.

- So where are you from?

- I'm from Mexico. - Okay.

- Originally born in Mexico.

- Okay. - I'm a Dreamer.

- Okay.

- Do you know what a Dreamer is?

- Uh, not--yes and no. - Not really?

- Yes. - A little bit? Okay.

So when Barak Obama became President...

- Okay.

- Um, he did a law to kids that were not born here

but been raised here since they were really young

to have the opportunity to work...

- Oh, that's what it means. - Legally.

Yes. And I'm Mexican. - Oh. And when did you come in?

- I came here when I was five years old.

- So how often do you go back?

- I can't go back because-- - Oh, you can't?

- Yeah, because I'm just on a work permit, yes.

- Oh! - Yeah. So it's been hard.

So it doesn't allow you to go back?

- Mm-mm. - Oh, I didn't know that.

- Yeah, it's been--yeah, yeah.

- When I moved here,

I always had option to go back to my country at any time.

If I couldn't go back, you know,

not seeing my family, not seeing my friends,

that's really tough.

- [voice breaking] Not being able to go back to my country

and, you know,

my daughter always wants me to take her,

you know, like, to-- back to Mexico.

And it's really tough

to be, you know, an immigrant.

It's just different.

People look at you different sometimes,

and it's hard.

- What about your husband, then?

- Um, my husband, he's a U.S. citizen.

- Okay. - And we actually--

when we got married... - Uh-huh.

- A year after that, we filed for, uh, wife status.

- Oh, so you are waiting for it?

- Yes, yes. - Oh, okay.

That'd be really exciting, if you can get that.

- And--yeah, definitely.

You know, hopefully,

maybe next year I can save up

and we can take a family vacation to my country.

- That'd be really great. - Yeah.

- Where are your parents? - My parents, they live here.

- They live here? - Yeah.

Would you like to come meet my family?

- Yeah. Ooh, your son and daughter?

- If you wanna come--yeah. - Okay.

Going undercover and doing this job,

it really gives me different perspective.

♪ ♪

It makes me realize how important everyone is

on the product line, and at the same time,

you just don't think that way

when you are sitting at the desk in Dallas.

- Here's the baby. - This is Diani.

- Diani. - The baby.

Hi. High five.

- Yeah! - Good boy.

- Which part of the Mexico are you from?

- I'm from Michoacán. - Okay, I--

I'm not really familiar with-- - Yeah.

I do have an aunt out there.

- Do you wanna go and see them? Meet them?

- Mm-hmm. - Okay.

[stirring music]

How long have you guys lived here?

- Five years. - Six.

- Five years. - Yes.

- Almost six years. - Almost six, yes.

- Oh, six years. - Yeah.

But we do plan on buying a house.

Maybe looking into it next year.

- Oh! That's nice. - I just have to,

you know, get my situation settled

with my petition. - Right, right.

- And thank God, it's been approved

so now we can move on and get in a house.

You always wanna work for something better.

- Uh-huh.

Itzia, thank you so much for everything today.

And, really, meeting your lovely family,

Everything was wonderful.

- Thank you. - Thank you so much.

Let me just tell you one thing.

Uh, you know, people's lives are, at the end, all same.

I could see these people are trying

to make their lives better

because they care about their family.

They love each other.

I was just fortunate to be at their home,

and we are lucky to have Itzia

on the Smoothie King team.

[dramatic music]

[cell phone chiming]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

This is very early start,

and we are gonna get to the store before the store opens.

Today I'm gonna meet Jessica, store manager,

who runs one of the top five stores in our entire company.

And much of its success is de to local store marketing,

such as giving away free smoothies.

By going undercover,

I want to find out how it works.

♪ ♪

- Hi. - Hello.

- I'm Jessica.

both: Nice to meet you. - Song Li.

- So I hear you wanna come and see what I do all day

in the day shift. - Yes, exactly.

- And, uh, we're gonna make some smoothies

so you can get started, but first,

we have to put you in uniform. - All right.

- So let me get you a shirt. - Awesome.

- Awesome. - All right.

- When Song walked in, uh,

he had a little mustache

with the long hair.

He looked like a little rock star. [laughs]

- So what are we doing today?

- So today we're gonna be preparing

a small portion of smoothies,

which would be about 100

for a promotion that we're doing later.

- Ooh, that's a lot of smoothies.

- We normally do, like, 500 to 600.

So it's pretty small. - Whoa!

- So we gonna try to get that started

and get that out the way. - Okay.

- Do you have any questions so far?

- No! Make me work!

I'm ready. - All right. Ready to work.

both: All right.

So the Caribbean Way is pretty much

strawberry, banana, with a little papaya juice.

So we gonna do four blue ladles of strawberries.

- Okay.

Ooh, you're fast.

- Kinda quick with it.

[machines whirring]

Grab you a lid that's right in front of you.

- Okay.

- You're gonna press setting three.

Close your lid and press setting three.

- Three. [machine churning]

So how long have you been with Smoothie King?

- Six years. - Six years!

- Yeah. - That's awesome!

- I don't even consider it as a job.

- Wow.

- Like, it's like my second home.

- That's great.

How often do you get this kind of catering?

Like, do you get this often? - We do it--

yeah, throughout the week. - Throughout the week?

- Yes. - Wow.

- So that sounds like a really good business

- Yes.

- But what time do you have to come in?

- Sometimes we have to come in at 5:00 a.m.

- Oh, my goodness! - Yeah.

Now we can go to the back and finish topping off

the ones we have.

- Ooh. [beeping]

Sometimes you have to come in really early?

- Yes. - 5:00 a.m.?

- Yes. - Why do we have to do that?

- So we can be ready for when we open the store

for regular hours for our regular customers.

- Do you mind wake up-- waking up early?

- I don't mind. Sometimes.

But, like, now with me having my one-year-old son--

- You have a son? - Yes, I have a son.

- Oh, you look like a baby. - And--but I--

[both laughing]

- How do you manage your life

when sometimes you have to come in early?

- Okay, so his dad, my fiancé,

he works overnight.

He work, like, sometimes 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. in the morning...

- Wow. - And once I have, like--

he'll be coming home,

and I'll be just leaving out the door.

It--it do get hard sometimes 'cause he can't sleep.

- Wow. - Yeah.

- That sounds like a really hard life.

So do you have a plan to get married or--

- Yeah, I plan after school.

We're not financially stable to have a wedding

like I w--like I would love to 'cause I'm a full-time student.

- Oh, you are? - Yeah.

I'm going for business 'cause I wanna own my own business.

- That's awesome. - And I also wanna go far

in the brand, so...

- So you are studying full time...

- Yes.

- And this is your full-time job.

- Full-time job, yes. - And you have one-year-old.

- Yes, yes. - [gasps]

That's a lot. - Yeah.

But I make it happen, you know?

- Wow. - [laughs]

♪ ♪

- So, uh, when you hand out these smoothies,

what should be my expectation?

- It brings more people to the brand.

Like, some--like, if someone doesn't know anything

about Smoothie King... - Okay.

- Once they have a good taste of a fresh smoothie,

they--we can maybe draw some new customers in.

- How do you know that, uh, people are really, uh,

coming to the store after the sampling?

- Because they'll tell us. Like, "Hey, you guys"--

- Oh!

- "You guys came out to the event that we had."

- Right, right.

- All right. So we done.

So let's get this all loaded up in the van.

You ready to go? - Awesome.

Yes, let's go. - All right.

All right. - Pretty simple, this.

Here we go.

[upbeat music]

Okay.

Jessica has brought me to a local flag football gam.

[indistinct shouting]

[whistle blows]

both: Hey, guys.

- Hey, would you all like a free smoothie today?

- Would you like to try a free smoothie?

- Appreciate it. Appreciate it. - All right.

- Hey, would you all like a free smoothie today?

- What do you think? - They're good.

I like them. - It's good?

- It's awesome. We love it. - It's awesome?

- Is there anybody who's coming and visiting Smoothie King?

- Like-- - He come often.

- Every Friday? - That's the Hulk Man.

- We get a Hulk every Friday. - Oh!

- Yeah, the Hulk. No joke. - Oh, that's a good one.

- Yeah, that's a good one. - All right, awesome.

- But come and see us more often.

- Yes, come and see more often. - Definitely. Definitely.

- All right, now you guys-- you guys are going to fly here,

you know, because you guys had the fuel.

- Yeah. - All right, thank you.

- All right, thank you, guys.

- All right, thank you.

[indistinct shouting]

[whistle blows]

Jessica? - Yes.

- Thank you so much. I learned a lot.

- Thank you so much. - And it's all because of you.

- Thank you. - All right.

- All right, thank you.

- I think these promotions work.

I'm going to look into

a company-wide promotions program.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning.

I probably worked about 16 hours,

and I can't believe I forgot

how hard people work at the store.

Jessica is so passionate about the brand.

I am really fortunate CEO to have these team members.

[warm music]

[dramatic music]

Going undercover,

it's really a humbling experience.

You really do discover a lot of things

that you don't really see as CEO.

I really wanna get back to work

because that's how I can improve things.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

I am so excited to see

the people I have worked with undercover.

- What do you think is gonna happen today?

- I have no idea what's gonna happen today.

- The team members I have met will be told

they are meeting here to help us

with some research for my second career.

They have no idea that it's "Undercover Boss."

♪ ♪

[quirky music]

- Hi. - Do you recognize me?

- [laughs] I do recognize you.

- Skyler. - Wan Kim.

- I am the CEO of Smoothie King.

- No way!

- You're on "Undercover Boss." - [crying]

- [laughing]

announcer: Coming up,

the boss delivers life-changing news.

- I mean, you just are amazing.

- [crying] Thank you.

- Avery. - Yes?

- First of all,

I don't think I was very happy at your store.

- Okay.

- Uh, your store have a lot of, uh, maintenance issues,

and it really need to, uh, be upgraded.

- Okay.

I can't spend, uh, the money to fix, like,

the stuff in my store.

- I don't believe it's your fault.

[stirring music]

Our vice president of operations

actually met your franchisee yesterday.

- Okay.

- Uh, we actually gave him 30 days

to address all the issues

because the store is not meeting our brand standard.

- I appreciate that.

Appreciate you putting the fire to him.

- [laughing]

All right. So let's talk about you.

I really think you're awesome manager,

so I wanna help you.

We all do want our children, our kids,

to have better lives than ours.

- Yeah, that's what it's all about.

- So I'm gonna actually set up a college fund

for each of your four kids.

$10,000 each.

That's $40,000.

- For my kids? - Mm-hmm.

I want your kids to really have a better life.

- [sniffling]

[dramatic music]

Oh, man.

Oh, man.

[sniffles] Yeah, I appreciate it, man.

Oh, I love my kids so much.

♪ ♪

And it's like, all I do is try to secure--

secure their future, you know?

- Right. - [sniffles] Yeah.

Man.

[indistinct]

My kids are everything to me.

Their future is secure.

I'm just so overwhelmed.

Um, it's a great thing.

♪ ♪

- Hi, Jessica. - [laughing]

[sniffles]

- So I will just tell you... - Mm-hmm.

- I mean, you just are amazing.

- Thank you.

- I mean, the day that I started,

we made a lot of smoothies. - Yes.

- When I really worked with you on that day,

I learned a lot about you,

how busy your day can be,

with having one-year-old boy.

- Yes.

Full-time student and full-time--

- And the full-time student.

- And I also work full time as well.

It gets hard sometimes. - Mm-hmm, it gets hard.

♪ ♪

So right now you are studying business.

- Yes.

- So I wanna pay $15,000 towards your tuition

so that you can finish your college.

- [sniffles]

Thank you. - And one more thing.

- Uh-huh?

- Uh, you told me that you are actually saving money

so that you can get married.

- Yes.

- I wanna pay $25,000

for your dream wedding, Jessica.

- [crying]

No one ever helped me. [laughs, cries]

- But you deserve it.

- This has been a life-changing day for me.

Like, I never had someone

that just helped me in this huge way.

[laughing]

This is awesome. Oh, my God.

- So, Itzia,

I really didn't really recognize how important,

uh, your company are doing

so that you can deliver the best-tasting smoothie.

So I really wanna say thank you.

- Uh, thank you.

- I wanna really talk about, you know, your story.

You actually told me you're from Mexico.

- Yeah.

Yesterday I got my green card in the mail.

- Ooh! - So, yeah.

That was pretty cool. - That's nice.

- Yeah, it's been a-- - Very nice.

So I'd like to help you.

I'd like to actually give you $10,000

so that you can go back to Mexico.

- Oh, my God. Are you serious?

- Mm-hmm. - Oh, thank you so much.

It means the world to me.

I really appreciate it. Thank you.

- I know you guys are also saving money

to buy your own home.

- We are.

- I'd like to give you $20,000

so that you can use it as your down payment.

- Are you serious? - Mm-hmm.

- Oh, my God.

It's like a dream.

A dream of a dream come true.

I've never imagined something this amazing happening to me.

Um, thank you so much. Thank you.

Can I give you a hug? - Yes.

- Sorry. - [laughs]

- I'm so excited, surprised.

I'm very happy.

- Skyler, first of all,

I really wanna say thank you.

You were really awesome.

- Appreciate it. - Very inspirational trainer.

So we kind of talked about, uh, the changes that,

you know, we made.

- Right.

It definitely--

the changes were a lot for us

because, you know, customers were upset at us

like we're the ones that make the changes,

and, you know, at the end of the day,

it--it starts from the top.

- I am so sorry to make your life harder,

but we all believe the changes were necessary.

- Definitely.

- You talked about, you know,

you really wanna be a franchisee at Smoothie King.

- Right. - So I, like--

as soon as I came up from the store,

I actually talked to the team,

and the team actually discovered

your application was denied by us.

- Right.

- I know you were short.

- Right.

- So I'd love to pay $75,000

to help for you to buy the store.

- Wow. [laughs]

- 'Cause we'd love to have you as our franchisee.

- For real? - Yes, of course for real!

- I don't--I don't even think you understand, man.

This is-- this is a game-changer.

It'll change my life forever.

This is--this is all I ever wanted.

This is all I ever needed, was a start.

To tell my wife-- you know,

I mean, she--she knows how hard I've worked so--

- Yup. She knows.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- [sniffs]

- Skyler, you deserve it.

- Thank you. [sniffs]

- All right. Come on, man.

- For sure. - All right.

All right.

- It's weird that in, you know,

a couple minutes your whole life can change.

It still doesn't feel real. [chuckles]

♪ ♪

- Since I bought this company,

I made a lot of changes.

Going undercover,

I can see that we made a few mistakes.

Some of the implementation,

we could have done a better job.

Moving forward,

I believe I'm gonna be a better leader

as this experience really made me appreciate

my team members as well as franchisees.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪