Original subtitles

This week on Undercover Boss...

The CEO of Postnet,

the world's fastest-growing chain

of neighborhood business centers,

poses as a failed motorcycle shop owner

hoping to win a grand prize on a fake reality show.

I'm looking for Todd.

How you doing? Come on in.

Good. Brad Kelly. Nice to meet you.

By hitting the road

and working side-by-side with employees...

How do you keep typing on a paragraph?

- "Enter." - I... interesting.

He'll discover who makes his company tick.

Can I give you information on Postnet?

Okay.

What about me? I'm a little bit

more handsome, you know.

Pens like this...

this is one of our major failures.

If everybody knew what a Postnet is,

this would be a great thing.

Our Postnet...

they were useless for me.

Obviously I'm concerned. This is my baby.

And how will the boss react

when he finds out what's really going on

in the city where the business began?

Why aren't you hiring people?

I just couldn't really afford to pay someone right now.

It's about time for a part-time job somewhere.

Find out next on Undercover Boss.

Undercover Boss 4x05 - Postnet Original air date December 7, 2012

Sync and corrections by atrn97g for www.addic7ed.com

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado,

with more than 700 locations across the globe,

Postnet is the fastest-growing business services company

in the world.

You're all set. Have a good one.

Overseeing this $200 million empire

is one man...

I'm Steve Greenbaum.

I'm the CEO and co-founder of Postnet.

Postnet is the only business in America

focused specifically on providing resources

to small businesses.

We help with shipping and logistics,

printing and document services,

the marketing support, the web support.

We're here to help small businesses thrive.

I first started Postnet in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And it was as a result of the U.S. post office

not having mailboxes available for rent.

Postnet took off immediately.

So I identified franchising as the way to go

and offered our first franchise in July of 1993

and have developed over 400 independent locations

throughout the United States.

So Postnet is located in 39 states.

We also have a very strong international presence

in nine countries.

Today, Postnet is the fastest-growing company

in our industry in the world.

I'm originally from Chicago, Illinois.

Grew up on the north side. Not a wealthy area.

Growing up, there were four of us.

My brother Lenny was the oldest.

I was the starry-eyed little brother

following him around the park.

My parents divorced when we were young.

My father relocated to Las Vegas

and took my brothers with him when I was 15 years old,

which was very disheartening.

I mean, we did not want to be separated as brothers.

I was angry. I was frustrated.

I dropped out of high school.

I was ashamed about where I came from.

I left Chicago and have never looked back.

You know, often times we're faced with tough challenges.

You have two choices.

One is to cave in and fall apart,

or the other is to create a life.

During that time, Lenny got involved

in drugs and alcohol,

and ultimately, it took his life.

And his strength and his courage

had a lot to do with impacting me

when I was younger.

So, um, I prefer to honor how he lived

than mourn about how he died.

- How was prom? - It was really good.

So what did happen at prom, Alex?

- Really? - Well...

I have two boys and Alexandria, who is 15.

- What time did you get home? - Like, 1:30.

I didn't share the fact that I dropped out of high school

with my kids because I didn't want them

to think it was okay.

Regardless of what I didn't have

or what I missed, my kids weren't gonna miss it.

We never got to stay out till 1:30

because we knew if we came home late,

we'd have to deal with him. That's right.

I have no idea how Steve is gonna manage

to not be the boss while he's undercover.

Even at home he's the boss.

What level are you at?

I'm just doing it by heart rate.

- Turn it up. - Okay.

He just needs to really bite his tongue

because it's gonna be so hard for him.

Ready to take it up a notch?

Go hands-free.

You think it makes such a difference?

I know it makes a difference.

Growing this company and being a part of this business

has given me things I would have never imagined.

And I know that there are some people

that might say, "oh, yeah, look at that guy"

"in his big house."

But you gotta know the person

and the price they paid to be there.

The kid from Chicago has come a long way.

Postnet, to me, is bigger than any one individual.

It's about the organization and the franchise owners.

Holy @#$%.

Postnet has experienced a reduction in domestic centers

as a result of the worst economy in the history of the country.

Some franchisees didn't make it.

I want to go undercover to experience firsthand

the everyday challenges and opportunities

that our franchise owners face

and what we can do to continue to help them

improve their business.

My disguise is pretty interesting and unique.

I am going to be so outside of my comfort zone

in terms of my appearance.

The cool thing, though, is... is I like the way I look.

While I'm undercover, I'll be posing as Brad Kelly,

a former motorcycle shop owner

who recently lost his business.

My employees will be tricked into thinking

they're on a hosted reality show

in which they'll work alongside Brad

and then decide whether he deserves

to win the money to start a new business.

Today we are at a Postnet store

in Clifton, New Jersey...

The woman pretending to be the host of the fake show

will keep asking questions about whether Brad deserves the money,

so my employees will have no idea

that this is secretly Undercover Boss.

Oh, my God!

- You look hilarious. - Oh, my God.

I think you're, like... I look different?

A modern-day caveman.

Wait a second.

You remind me a little bit of Lenny.

Is that just me, or...

No, I noticed it too.

Did Lenny have long hair?

From time to time and a beard.

And he was pretty rough and tumble, yeah.

- All right, son. - Have a good trip.

- Good luck. Have fun. - Love you, sweetheart.

Today I'm in Clifton, New Jersey,

and I'm gonna be working with the franchise owner.

This is Todd. How can I help you?

Our centers in New Jersey do extremely well.

20% of our domestic sales are generated in New Jersey.

I'm hoping to find out if this particular franchise owner

is doing something unique or special

that we can implement into our organization

to help improve profitability.

Hi. I'm looking for Todd.

- How you doing? - Good. How are you?

Brad Kelly. Nice to meet you.

My first impression was bad, with having the long hair

and the black boots.

It might have been a little much.

He needs a haircut, you know,

it's just about softening up for your customer.

Welcome to Postnet, and I'm here to show you what we do

- on a daily basis. - Great.

Or what I do on a daily basis.

It is a little bit of everything,

but today we're gonna concentrate

on doing some marketing.

This is a summary sheet that we made up.

So it talks about letterhead, brochures, banners.

So we're gonna actually go out and talk to businesses?

We are gonna talk to businesses face-to-face,

let 'em know what we do,

and hopefully, that results in a sale.

I'm pretty confident that I'm gonna kill it.

I've done this work before.

As early as eight years old,

I was out knocking on doors

and offering to shovel sidewalks,

and I would like to get out there

and show this guy I can sell.

Hi, I'm Brad.

- Hi. Pam. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you, Pam.

- I'm with Postnet... - Okay.

And we do, um, design, print, copy, um, services.

And, um...

Um, so we do business cards, letterhead, promotional cards,

um, brochures, fliers, and, um...

Brad was very timid because it was a lot to learn,

but that's expected.

Brad needs to find the confidence

that's really in there.

We are very competitive with price.

We offer local pickup and delivery.

- We do layouts. - Okay.

We do everything, and everything's custom.

- Okay. - Pleasure meeting you.

I was impressed with Todd's commitment to the community.

I think Todd sees his marketing opportunities

as limitless.

He's out there making introductions,

- talking about Postnet. - Todd Freeman.

- Hey, how you doing? - How are you?

How you doing, Kevin? This is Brad.

- Hello. - Nice to meet you.

Do you do, like, posters and signs, like, for windows?

Yeah. Signs, banners.

I would be very interested in talking to you.

This is really an outreach-based business,

and Todd reaches out really well.

- Give me some love man. - Hey, man.

That's more of an order, and that's what you want.

Okay, so we have to work on newsletters

that need to go out today.

You want to make sure it's a clean half-fold.

Now, this is a very good customer.

And it's just inserted.

They hand 'em out at conferences.

And then it's done.

So all these have to be folded.

As the owner, you know,

you have to do everything from go out and sell to fold.

So that seems to be

the interesting thing about what you do.

Everything seems different

coming at you all the time... different.

Is that good or bad?

Being part of a franchise...

- it's my business, I own it. - Mm-hmm.

You know, that's... one good part.

There's downfalls, there's rules

and what you have to abide by.

And if you look around the store,

there's things that I need to do

- that need to be in compliance. - Okay.

It looks nice, it looks clean.

On a negative note,

there's some things that I just don't like

that I would have done better.

I think it looks pretty cool in here.

Our role as a responsible franchise is always

to create a consistent brand image

that's carried out throughout the entire organization.

You know, we transitioned a lot through the years,

going from a shipping franchise to a printing franchise.

So in that transition, people don't know our brand.

I can't just walk in a place and say I'm from Postnet.

You know, like, 2% of our gross sales

goes towards a national ad fund.

We get all sorts of little gadgets

that come from them to give away as leave-behinds.

This is one of our major failures.

I got, I think, seven or eight cases of those.

If everybody knew what a Postnet is,

this would be a great thing.

They were useless for me.

- Pens like this... this is my 2%. - Got it.

How do you react? I mean, it's the CEO

that's very close to that fund

and to the administration of that fund.

This is my baby.

This pen is as good as garbage to me.

Steve Greenbaum,

CEO and co-founder of Postnet is a boss undercover

- in his own company. - Looking for Todd.

His employees think

he's a failed motorcycle shop owner

participating in a hosted reality show

where contestants can win funding

for their own small business.

I got seven or eight cases of those.

They were useless for me.

However, right now,

the boss must keep his cool

while this franchise owner unleashes

his list of complaints.

For pens like this...

this pen is as good as garbage to me.

I mean, you get this bag,

it doesn't have my location on it.

That's a good point.

It doesn't even have a website on it.

- That's a good point. - I spent my own money.

I made up mugs with my location, my phone number.

I did these pens.

It has all our information on there.

Todd raised a great point.

If it's not local, that is a challenge for him.

I mean, there's no doubt we don't do everything perfect,

and something I think we need to look at

at Postnet headquarters.

These have to be inserted manually.

So tell me something about your bike business

and why you think it didn't work.

I think people went to look, not to buy.

And, you know, after being with you, I'm kind of wondering,

what would I have done that I learned today?

- Big motorcycle fan myself. - Really?

It's great. I have a Harley tattoo.

I don't have my Harley anymore.

Did you stop riding?

I sold both my motorcycles to open my business.

Do you still love it? Do you...

You know, I love being a business owner.

I've opened up many businesses in my time,

but you know, franchises are hard.

Would I do a Postnet franchise again?

I don't think so

because I'm more of an independent thinker.

I can relate to Todd.

We're both very passionate about our business.

Let's go over here and do the lamination.

All right, let's do it.

Todd is inventive and works really hard

to make this a successful franchise.

He's an asset to the Postnet brand,

and I think it's really important

that I take a look at what could be done

to make him feel more valued.

So it looks good. Customer will be really happy.

I'm in the Bronx right now, and this is one

of the most thriving neighborhoods in New York.

Today I'm gonna be working as a packaging specialist,

and I'm excited today to go in and see

what techniques they're using,

the care that they put into the work that they're doing.

How are you? I'm looking for Belton.

- Belton Jones. - Brad Kelly.

Nice meeting you. You must be the new guy.

You got the nice Postnet shirt on.

Yeah, I'm the new guy.

I would never rock Brad's style ever.

You got...

So this is how you roll, man?

You know, I kinda like the style I got now.

You came in just in time. We gotta ship this TV out.

Can you lift it up a little more?

Yeah, of course.

You don't want the TV to, you know,

get damaged during transit, so...

Aw, you look like a strong guy, man, come on.

So I'm gonna need you to grab that water jug.

Okay.

Pretty much, uh...

- wow. - Yeah, yeah.

Sorry about that, dude. Yeah.

Sorry, man.

I haven't seen that rig before, man.

All right, now I got some cleanup for myself, huh?

Yeah, you definitely did that to yourself.

Brad's definitely gonna clean up the mess he made

'cause he did strike me with the, you know,

the peanut holder... peanuts everywhere.

You want me to tape, or you want to tape?

It's teamwork.

I do this side. You got the next side.

It's good, it's going all right, how 'bout you?

I'm all right. I'm hanging in there.

I just came back from the military.

Oh, really?

I did eight years in the marines.

Wow. Where did you serve?

I went to Fallujah for a little bit,

- and then Okinawa, Singapore. - Wow, man.

- I've been all over. - Wow.

I appreciate you serving for this country.

Yeah, no problem, no problem.

So is this what you saw yourself doing

- when you got out of the service? - Not necessarily.

Pretty much I wanted to be a chef,

- become a chef, you know. - Really?

That's, like, one of my passions.

- That's cool, man. - One of my passions.

I love to cook. I just made some lasagna recently.

Oh, really?

Make sure it's not really

shaking around in there.

Yeah, you did a nice job.

In order for Brad to be on my level,

as far as packing, he'll probably have

to go through a whole nother lifetime

and then come back and then go through that lifetime,

and then he'll probably be close.

Completed the box task, did a wonderful job.

I'd probably give you

about a 10 out of 100.

I'm gonna give you these,

and, as a matter of fact, we'll have a little competition.

First to get rid of their stack,

you know, lunch on the next person.

Okay, man, you're on.

All right, you wanna watch me work first?

How you doing, man? Want some info? No, thanks?

How are you, sir?

Do any shipping or copying or anything like that?

All right.

I'm saying you got it, man.

What's going on? How you doing? How you doing?

See, I'm already outdoing you already.

Brad does not fit in.

Any of your friends or family do any shipping

or printing or anything like that?

Uh, no.

I'm gonna tell you my go-getter line.

- All right, let's see it. - You just gotta be...

Hey, sure, you can have one, man.

I didn't know you didn't want one.

There you go. You have a good day, all right?

Yeah. See?

I don't know if I can pull off that.

You know, I think you got it in you.

All right, man. I know you want one of these.

It's information on Postnet.

We're the best packing, shipping,

and printing company out there.

How you doing, sweetheart?

New business cards? No? My feelings hurt now.

You bombed, man. You bombed.

How you doing, ma'am? Can I give you information

on Postnet?

- Okay. - What about me?

I'm a little bit more handsome, you know.

Love Belton. Great guy.

Great attitude. Really, the kind of guy

we want representing our brand.

Here you go, sir. Information on Postnet.

Thank you.

What you got, one left? The last one's always hard.

Sir, can I please give you some information on Postnet?

Thank you for stopping.

Oh, did you get stuck with one? Huh?

Fine. Lunch is on me.

We could go to one of the pizza spots out here,

or we could go to my house and have lasagna.

Whatever you think is best, man, I'm down either way.

- Lasagna. Come on. - Let's do it.

Yeah, my house right here.

What's that I smell?

Oh, that's that famous lasagna.

I got some left over. I got a whole pan left over.

Ooh, look at that sizzling right there!

- Wow, man, that looks good. - Oh!

- Oh, yeah. - Let me get you a fork.

I wish you were here yesterday when I was cooking.

It'd been a little better, you know?

Mmm, man, this is... this is phenomenal.

I've been cooking since I was young.

You know, I'm definitely trying to get back into school.

You know, I applied for Johnson & Wales.

- I got accepted. - Really?

You know, the only thing is,

you know, money issues.

And, you know, I'm definitely not giving up

on my cooking dreams, you know.

It's only put aside for right now.

I can relate to Belton.

I've had my moments in my life

where I wanted to be more, do more,

and faced my own set of challenges.

I regret dropping out of high school,

but I didn't let that define me

or affect my success.

When you talk about things you faced,

and, really, where you're at

and how good your attitude is and how good your outlook is...

it's really impressive, man.

Coming back from the war,

when I'm actually able to interact with customers...

- Yeah. - It kinda settled me in.

War life...

something you definitely don't want to experience.

I mean, you're always on edge.

And you see one of your brothers,

or your brothers in arms, you know, lose their life...

That's what a I.E.D. do.

They just detonate. A guy would commit suicide.

And all that debris you see is all pretty much shrapnel.

I was right over here when this go...

- this is over in Fallujah. - Mm-hmm.

You know, I done seen it all.

I done seen it all, from dead bodies

to people getting shot

to people needing medical assistance, you know.

And then immediately coming back to society.

You're thinking everyone's out...

you don't know if this guy has a gun.

You don't want to go to sleep because you got PTSD,

and your dreams is crazy.

You're just thinking about everybody

that you was out there with,

and people that didn't come back with you.

You know, it's real tough. You know?

I hear you.

Belton extending himself to me was really humbling.

I didn't serve. I don't understand that bond,

and I don't have a right to suggest I do.

But at the same time, I understand what it means

to know the loss of a brother.

It's like a big void right there

- in my heart, you know, but... - Yeah.

This is a person that is willing

to almost give anything he has to someone he cares about.

It makes you want to do something special for this guy,

put him in a position to improve his life,

pursue his dreams.

I think he deserves an opportunity.

Spending that time with Belton was just really uplifting.

And he talked about the brotherhood and the service,

and it reminded me

of my relationship with my brothers,

reminded me of what's important to me.

So I decided to go someplace

I haven't been in a long time.

When Lenny passed away, my brothers and I

had a memorial placed in a cemetery in Las Vegas.

My brother was the most loving,

hardest-working person I have ever met

in my entire life.

He taught me how to harness some of the frustration I felt

into achieving things.

I miss my brother, and I realize

how much I've gained from him in character and strength,

especially going on this journey.

He and my family have made me who I am today.

Coming up, the boss gets a lesson in fashion.

First thing I'm gonna ask you to do, though,

is to please button your shirt.

And later, his computer skills

are put to the test.

Whoops. Did I lock it up?

- Oh. - You have killed my machine.

Las Vegas has been a very important part of my life.

This is the birthplace of the brand.

The centers in this area were really hit hard

with the recession.

But at the same time,

I think the Las Vegas economy's improving.

Today, I'm hoping to learn

how these particular franchise owners

have weathered the economy

and make sure our brand is not only intact,

but is gonna grow and thrive again.

- I'm looking for Jim and Tina. - Yes.

- Hi. Brad Kelly. - Hi, Brad. I'm Tina.

Nice to meet you both.

Tina and I are the franchise owners here.

Our son William works on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

- Hey, William. - Nice to meet you.

- How you doing? - Good. How are you?

- We're gonna work on some mail. - Okay.

First thing I'm gonna ask you to do, though,

is to please button your shirt

because our appearance is very important here.

Brad looks like he might have been from the '70s.

So we have three banks of mail,

so what we do is sort the mail on the counter here

by each bank.

See the suite number right here?

- Number 158. - Uh-huh.

So 158 is gonna go in pile number two.

We have the list printed out,

and it'll say the box number right here.

And then, when we've got the pile sorted,

we'll go over to the banks, open 'em up,

and start putting them in the boxes.

Okay.

Oh, thanks.

We need to get these out, so the customers aren't waiting

- for their mail for today. - Okay.

Sorting the mail, for Jim or I,

we probably would have gotten done

in a little more than half the time it took him.

So the boxes are numbered.

Let me know if you have any more questions with that.

- Okay. - All right.

You doing okay over there?

Uh, I could use some help.

So...102.

This is actually box number 50.

I was struggling with mail sorting.

When you haven't done something in a long time,

you gotta take it slow and, you know...

Rome wasn't built in a day.

All right, we have a client who needs some keys made.

So Jim's gonna take you over here and show you

how to use the key machine and get some keys going.

Once it stops, we've got our button here.

Once it moves, you can let go of the button.

When I look at this particular center,

I see Postnet of ten years ago.

They're doing some things I don't think

we've supported for years,

like greeting cards, key duplication.

We stopped doing those things

because they weren't extremely profitable.

So what's it like running one of these?

- It's a lot of work. - Yeah.

You put a lot of hours in.

This is the old, classic store.

We're the very last classic store built for Postnet.

Oh, wow.

There's a new gennext design for the stores.

- What is that? - It's a newer,

more up-to-date kind of look.

Several years ago, we made the decision

to upgrade our store design from the old classic design,

like Jim and Tina's store to a more modern,

professional-looking center.

Eventually, we'll have to make the conversion.

That's gonna cost us some money, which,

obviously, with this economy, we haven't been able

to put any aside for that.

Yeah, it's about time for a part-time job somewhere.

You know, at some point,

when we can get back into things,

where we can start hiring people again,

we'll be able to sit back and relax,

take a little breather once in a while.

What happened?

Why aren't you hiring people?

It's hard. We just couldn't really afford

to pay someone right now.

And it's really cool that you have your son.

That's something I would have loved...

We're very fortunate about Will, yeah.

And that's what we've done. We've survived.

Personally, the family is what I think has hurt a little bit.

They're great kids.

And I want to give them more

than what I had.

Sorry.

And I don't think they're suffering,

but there's so much more that... sorry...

that you wish you could do for them.

Yes.

You know, the kids even know that

there's not much we feel we can do.

This location is slow.

To see owners survive and not thrive,

it's a little disheartening.

We're hoping, again,

that this is all gonna turn around.

To know that we have franchise owners

that have made the investment in time

to be a part of our brand is a huge honor.

All right, Brad, I think it's time to get back to work.

I'm ready.

And as an organization,

we want to do everything in our power

to help them succeed.

I'm here in Alpharetta, Georgia,

and I'm gonna be working with a graphic designer today.

One of the unique things about Postnet

is that it's not about just getting your printing done,

it's the creative side of the equation.

Postnet graphic designers help create fliers,

brochures, signs.

Postnet is really one of the only firms

in our particular space

that offers this unique graphic design service.

- You're my trainee today? - I'm your trainee.

Hi, how are you? My name's Shannon.

Today we're gonna be

basically showing you how to do graphic arts.

Over here is our graphics computer.

Okay.

This is a typically standard design program

that we use for graphic arts,

creating posters, fliers.

This is actually a pretty easy program to work with.

Well, I'm taking notes.

- Okay. - Yeah.

Are we scaring you yet?

It looks like you know that this is gonna be hard for me.

Okay.

In the project that you're gonna be doing,

you're gonna be creating a poster,

and they want it to be 24 inches tall.

- Does that make sense so far? - I'm... I'm okay. I'm doing it.

So Shannon has me doing

some pretty basic graphic design.

Whoops.

- Oh. - You have killed my machine.

- Did I lock it up? - You did lock it up.

I'm not sure what Brad clicked on.

All of a sudden, the computer just stopped working.

You might have screwed it up. Okay.

This is a project that a customer sent in

that we have to finish. This is what they wrote.

"Create a fun poster for our upcoming spring carnival."

All right?

I'm gonna go ahead and leave you to your stuff.

Okay. Thank you. You're a good teacher.

All right, I'm glad I was able to help.

Okay, I need help.

How do you keep typing on a paragraph...

If you want to list things?

"Enter."

I... interesting.

I'm really struggling in there in terms of time and speed.

I was so into trying to make things look good

that I really didn't pay that much attention to the content.

Yeah, I had a typo in the beginning...

"sping," not spring.

I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, but...

You know, let's go ahead and just wrap it up

because now we've gotta finish the rest of the order.

Brad and computers do not mix.

So what we're gonna do today is go ahead

and finish this banner, cut it out.

Um, I'm gonna go get my son to help me.

Tyler, can you go ahead and pass us a pen, please?

- Sure. - Thank you.

Did you want one or two pens?

One pen will do good. Thanks, Tyler.

- Thanks, Tyler. - Thank you.

This is Brad. Brad, Tyler. Tyler, Brad.

- Nice to meet you. Hi. - Hello.

- How are you? - Good.

Okay, what you want to do is just kind of cut around it.

All you want to leave is the lettering.

Let me go and start this for you.

Okay.

You do it all at once like that?

- No. - No?

You know what? I cut this too much.

Okay, yours is better than mine, I have to tell you.

And yet they say the adult is smarter than the kid.

No, that's not true.

That is not true.

Shannon, I'm stopping because I am

right on the edge of destroying this.

Here, why don't you do this one then?

I really enjoyed the opportunity

to stand side-by-side with Shannon and with Tyler.

You know, you don't do small mess-ups, do you?

No, I don't.

Yes, you can go back to the computer.

I think he's abandoned us to play video games.

He's a little shy around people.

I mean, despite, you know, some of the problems he does have...

like, he does have Asperger's.

You know, and it makes him really smart,

but when you have a child with autism,

he needs a different kind of education

than just throwing him into a regular public school.

- Sure. - You know, being a single mom

is kind of hard.

You know, so we've decided to put him in a private school,

where he can get the help that he needs.

That's the hardest part.

You know, okay, I'm buying a house this coming...

you know, I close in a couple months,

but I still have to come up with money for his tuition.

And just recently, I had to sit there and go,

"okay, do I walk away from this house,"

"or do I pay for his tuition for the next year?"

Sure.

I'm humbled beyond words

by her commitment for her son.

I think Shannon is a really strong person.

So right now, we're gonna do the banner.

- Okay. - So we're gonna lower the bar

of the cutter.

Shannon is providing a valuable,

creative service to Postnet with great graphic design.

There you go.

At the same time, she's a dedicated single mother.

I don't think it's been easy for her.

So, Tyler, if you can hold this for me.

How do you nurture and give that special child

everything that he needs, and at the same time

try to earn a living,

try to purchase a home or have a home?

It's gotta be much more challenging

than anything I ever faced.

Why don't you go ahead and go finish your homework?

That would help me a lot. Okay?

- Okay. - Okay, thank you.

As I've gone through this journey,

I've found that I can relate to just about everybody I met.

It's given me an opportunity to really understand

sort of how my own personal journey relates so much.

I mean, I came from some pretty humble beginnings

and faced a lot of challenges.

I wasn't always the CEO of Postnet,

and you don't ever want to forget where you came from.

Coming up, the employees think

they're coming to meet with an investor

to rate Brad's performance.

How will they react when they find out that Brad

is actually the boss?

Belton, I'm actually Steve Greenbaum,

CEO of Postnet.

So long, Brad.

I've had an incredible undercover experience,

but it's time for me to get back to work as CEO.

My employees think they're coming to meet with an investor

to rate Brad's performance and decide if he deserves

to win money to start a new business.

- Do I remind you of anybody? - Yeah, a little.

Hi, Brad. How are you?

You know me?

Of course I know you. You got cleaned up real well.

You look like the president or something.

A senator. Senator Brad over here.

Belton, I'm Steve Greenbaum. I'm the CEO of Postnet.

- Oh! - How you doing?

- Wow. - Cleaned up.

Oh, no.

Well, how are you doing?

Now I'm really starting to sweat.

You know, Todd, I was disappointed to hear

that you had regrets about buying a franchise with us.

Would I do a Postnet franchise again?

I don't think so.

I kind of afterthought those issues.

And you know, I'm not running away from the franchise.

I would love the opportunity to bring you

into the organization.

You know, you brought up the national ad fund.

And I know you get frustrated

- with some of the... - You think?

The advertising specialties.

Let's call 'em tchotchkes, right?

One of the things I wanted to ask you was

if you would be willing to serve

on Postnet's marketing committee?

It'd be my pleasure.

And you are gonna have a lot of influence

over how our marketing dollars are spent.

That'd be just terrific.

On a more personal level, you told me that,

you know, your store was debt-free.

You were very proud of that,

but it sounded to me like you had to make

some sacrifices to get there.

I definitely did.

We both have a passion for motorcycles.

I love 'em.

So I want to give you

a Harley 883 Iron.

Brand-new.

In fact, these are yours.

That's yours.

You can't see it, but, like, I'm shaking.

Like, I'm like, I just want to hear the rumble, you know?

Guess what.

- What? - It's here right now.

- Could we see it? - Absolutely.

Wow.

I got a Harley!

Let's see if I remember how to do it.

My favorite things in life are Harleys,

my business, and being a part of something.

I love it.

Pretty incredible.

I mean, it just... it's been a good day.

Jim, Tina, I did some tasks in the center,

and I want you to take this in the most thoughtful way...

we're a little behind the curve.

- Would you agree with that? - Yeah.

I think that's what's holding us back a little bit.

I'm really proud to have you guys in our system,

and I'm sorry to see you struggle.

So I want to do something for you.

I'd like to provide you with a week in Colorado,

all expenses paid.

Sorry.

I'd like to have one half of that time spent

at Postnet headquarters

looking at your store and your numbers

and where you are to where you want to be

and then make sure we provide you

with that specific training to help get on

to achieving all the things you want to achieve.

- That's great. - Yeah.

- Thank you. - Okay.

But I don't want to stop there.

I also want you to take the second half of that week...

I want you to bring the boys,

and I want you to take a vacation

because you deserve it.

That's so great.

You can't go on a vacation without a little spending money,

so I want to give you $5,000.

- Oh, God, thank you. - Thank you. Wow.

That's amazing.

- I can't wait to tell the boys. - Yeah.

I wanted also to help you address

some of the personal challenges you've faced.

I'd like to give you $40,000...

God.

To help upgrade your center to gennext.

- That's awesome. - Yeah.

I really think this will help you

to turn your business around.

- Oh, boy. - Uh, thank you.

- That's big. - Yeah.

Words can't even describe how much it means.

We're not gonna have to worry

about the cost of the gennext remodel

and to give the boys a vacation...

they're gonna be ecstatic.

They're gonna be so excited too.

I can't wait. I can't wait.

Shannon, I really enjoyed working with you

in the role of graphic designer.

I thought your work was absolutely amazing.

Thank you.

You know, I also really appreciated meeting Tyler.

Obviously, he did a better job than I did.

Yes.

He's just such a bright, thoughtful guy.

We try to make a point not to make him feel different,

that he's the same as everybody else.

You know, if he feels as normal as possible,

he's gonna succeed.

Yeah. And you mentioned to me

that you were worried about school experience.

One of the things I'd like to do is

I'd like to make a $10,000 donation

to the Asperger's organization of your choice...

Mm-hmm.

- In Tyler's name. - Wow.

That's awesome.

I don't know what to say. I really don't.

Thank you.

You also told me you had a tough decision,

weighing between paying for Tyler's education...

- Mm-hmm. - And buying a house.

You know, he's more important than a house.

Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.

But I don't want you to have to sacrifice like that.

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

to help you with your home purchase.

Sorry. Thank you.

The last thing I want to do for you...

I want to give you $20,000 towards Tyler's education.

That's amazing.

I'm just overwhelmed. Thank you.

Tyler's gonna be in a place

where he's gonna get the nurturing,

the education that he needs.

It was just incredible.

And just... it's a huge relief to see that

he'll be able to keep doing that.

He'll be able to keep growing.

Belton, you are fun, you're charismatic...

Here you go. You have a good day, all right?

Yeah.

I mean, you made me feel at home.

You made the trip for me.

I'm glad I could help.

I respect you so much

for what you've given to this country,

for protecting my freedom, our freedom, my family's freedom.

You talked about losing some buddies.

I don't have a right to try to understand

what you felt or what you went through,

but I know what it feels like to lose someone you love.

So I want to donate $10,000 in your name

to the Wounded Warriors.

Definitely honored.

You told me you were having a hard time

adjusting to civilian life... that concerned me.

Still to this day, you know?

But I'm gonna overcome it.

I want to help, Belton.

I want to give you $20,000

for you to go out and find the best care that you can

for PTSD.

You know, it's definitely a boost.

Definitely a boost, and I... I appreciate it.

Well, it's well deserved

because you're a wonderful person,

and I want to see you get beyond that.

You also shared your love of cooking with me,

and you shared some lasagna with me.

- Yeah. - And you told me about

being accepted to Johnson & Wales.

Belton, I would like to give you $20,000

towards your tuition.

I appreciate that, and I'm definitely...

oh...

I could get up and hug you right now.

- You can hug me, man. - I definitely...

all right.

Never say no to that.

Oh, I feel like a million bucks right now.

Like, oh, man, best thing in the world right now.

You know, especially what I've been through.

Ahh!

Oh, man.

You know, and being given this opportunity,

it's a blessing.

It's definitely a blessing.

This week, I experienced people

that tried to help Brad be a better person.

I found answers that were unexpected

and that helped me to realize

that it's important to be proud of who you are

and where you come from.

- So you want to go check it out? - Sure.

You know, it feels really bittersweet

to be here at the high school I left

well over 30 years ago.

- Does it look the same? - Yeah.

I wanted to bring my daughter here

because I hadn't shared with her

that I didn't finish high school.

Do you ever wish you finished?

I don't like to start things I don't finish,

but I'm still pretty happy about how our life turned out...

- Yeah. - And how our family turned out.

You know, I hope in some small way,

when someone might see who I am

and where I come from,

I hope that they look and they say, "you know what?"

"If he can do it, I can do it."

And you know what? They'll be right.

Sync and corrections by atrn97g for www.addic7ed.com